A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
by Edgar Allan Poe
1841
The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models
that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness
of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus.
Joseph Glanville.
WE had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. For some minutes the old man
seemed too much exhausted to speak.
"Not long ago," said he at length, "and I could have guided you on this route as well as
the youngest of my sons; but, about three years past, there happened to me an event such
as never happened before to mortal man --or at least such as no man ever survived to tell
of --and the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and
soul. You suppose me a very old man --but I am not. It took less than a single day to
change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my
nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. Do you
know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy?"
The "little cliff," upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to rest that
the weightier portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling by the
tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge --this "little cliff" arose, a sheer
unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from
the world of crags beneath us. Nothing would have tempted me to within half a dozen
yards of its brink. In truth so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my
companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and
dared not even glance upward at the sky --while I struggled in vain to divest myself of the
idea that the very foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds.
It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into
the distance.
"You must get over these fancies," said the guide, "for I have brought you here that you
might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned --and to tell you
the whole story with the spot just under your eye."
"We are now," he continued, in that particularizing manner which distinguished him -"we are now close upon the Norwegian coast --in the sixty-eighth degree of latitude --in
the great province of Nordland --and in the dreary district of Lofoden. The mountain
upon whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. Now raise yourself up a little higher --
hold on to the grass if you feel giddy --so --and look out beyond the belt of vapor beneath
us, into the sea."
I looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of ocean, whose waters wore so inky a hue as
to bring at once to my mind the Nubian geographer's account of the Mare Tenebrarum. A
panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. To the right and
left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines
of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly
illustrated by the surf which reared high up against it its white and ghastly crest, howling
and shrieking for ever. Just opposite the promontory upon whose apex we were placed,
and at a distance of some five or six miles out at sea, there was visible a small, bleaklooking island; or, more properly, its position was discernible through the wilderness of
surge in which it was enveloped. About two miles nearer the land, arose another of
smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed at various intervals by a
cluster of dark rocks.
The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore,
had something very unusual about it. Although, at the time, so strong a gale was blowing
landward that a brig in the remote offing lay to under a double-reefed trysail, and
constantly plunged her whole hull out of sight, still there was here nothing like a regular
swell, but only a short, quick, angry cross dashing of water in every direction --as well in
the teeth of the wind as otherwise. Of foam there was little except in the immediate
vicinity of the rocks.
"The island in the distance," resumed the old man, "is called by the Norwegians Vurrgh.
The one midway is Moskoe. That a mile to the northward is Ambaaren. Yonder are
Iflesen, Hoeyholm, Kieldholm, Suarven, and Buckholm. Farther off --between Moskoe
and Vurrgh --are Otterholm, Flimen, Sandflesen, and Skarholm. These are the true names
of the places --but why it has been thought necessary to name them at all, is more than
either you or I can understand. Do you hear any thing? Do you see any change in the
water?"
We had now been about ten minutes upon the top of Helseggen, to which we had
ascended from the interior of Lofoden, so that we had caught no glimpse of the sea until
it had burst upon us from the summit. As the old man spoke, I became aware of a loud
and gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an
American prairie; and at the same moment I perceived that what seamen term the
chopping character of the ocean beneath us, was rapidly changing into a current which set
to the eastward. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. Each
moment added to its speed --to its headlong impetuosity. In five minutes the whole sea,
as far as Vurrgh, was lashed into ungovernable fury; but it was between Moskoe and the
coast that the main uproar held its sway. Here the vast bed of the waters, seamed and
scarred into a thousand conflicting channels, burst suddenly into phrensied convulsion -heaving, boiling, hissing --gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all whirling
and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never elsewhere assumes
except in precipitous descents.
In a few minutes more, there came over the scene another radical alteration. The general
surface grew somewhat more smooth, and the whirlpools, one by one, disappeared, while
prodigious streaks of foam became apparent where none had been seen before. These
streaks, at length, spreading out to a great distance, and entering into combination, took
unto themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided vortices, and seemed to form the
germ of another more vast. Suddenly --very suddenly --this assumed a distinct and
definite existence, in a circle of more than half a mile in diameter. The edge of the whirl
was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no particle of this slipped into the
mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a
smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some
forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering
motion, and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as
not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven.
The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. I threw myself upon my
face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation.
"This," said I at length, to the old man --"this can be nothing else than the great whirlpool
of the Maelstrom."
"So it is sometimes termed," said he. "We Norwegians call it the Moskoe-strom, from the
island of Moskoe in the midway."
The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. That
of Jonas Ramus, which is perhaps the most circumstantial of any, cannot impart the
faintest conception either of the magnificence, or of the horror of the scene --or of the
wild bewildering sense of the novel which confounds the beholder. I am not sure from
what point of view the writer in question surveyed it, nor at what time; but it could
neither have been from the summit of Helseggen, nor during a storm. There are some
passages of his description, nevertheless, which may be quoted for their details, although
their effect is exceedingly feeble in conveying an impression of the spectacle.
"Between Lofoden and Moskoe," he says, "the depth of the water is between thirty-six
and forty fathoms; but on the other side, toward Ver (Vurrgh) this depth decreases so as
not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on the rocks,
which happens even in the calmest weather. When it is flood, the stream runs up the
country between Lofoden and Moskoe with a boisterous rapidity; but the roar of its
impetuous ebb to the sea is scarce equalled by the loudest and most dreadful cataracts;
the noise being heard several leagues off, and the vortices or pits are of such an extent
and depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried
down to the bottom, and there beat to pieces against the rocks; and when the water
relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up again. But these intervals of tranquillity are
only at the turn of the ebb and flood, and in calm weather, and last but a quarter of an
hour, its violence gradually returning. When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury
heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it. Boats, yachts,
and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its
reach. It likewise happens frequently, that whales come too near the stream, and are
overpowered by its violence; and then it is impossible to describe their howlings and
bellowings in their fruitless struggles to disengage themselves. A bear once, attempting to
swim from Lofoden to Moskoe, was caught by the stream and borne down, while he
roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore. Large stocks of firs and pine trees, after being
absorbed by the current, rise again broken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew
upon them. This plainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among which they
are whirled to and fro. This stream is regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea --it being
constantly high and low water every six hours. In the year 1645, early in the morning of
Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones of the
houses on the coast fell to the ground."
In regard to the depth of the water, I could not see how this could have been ascertained
at all in the immediate vicinity of the vortex. The "forty fathoms" must have reference
only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. The
depth in the centre of the Moskoe-strom must be immeasurably greater; and no better
proof of this fact is necessary than can be obtained from even the sidelong glance into the
abyss of the whirl which may be had from the highest crag of Helseggen. Looking down
from this pinnacle upon the howling Phlegethon below, I could not help smiling at the
simplicity with which the honest Jonas Ramus records, as a matter difficult of belief, the
anecdotes of the whales and the bears; for it appeared to me, in fact, a self-evident thing,
that the largest ships of the line in existence, coming within the influence of that deadly
attraction, could resist it as little as a feather the hurricane, and must disappear bodily and
at once.
The attempts to account for the phenomenon --some of which, I remember, seemed to me
sufficiently plausible in perusal --now wore a very different and unsatisfactory aspect.
The idea generally received is that this, as well as three smaller vortices among the Feroe
islands, "have no other cause than the collision of waves rising and falling, at flux and
reflux, against a ridge of rocks and shelves, which confines the water so that it
precipitates itself like a cataract; and thus the higher the flood rises, the deeper must the
fall be, and the natural result of all is a whirlpool or vortex, the prodigious suction of
which is sufficiently known by lesser experiments." --These are the words of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Kircher and others imagine that in the centre of the channel of
the Maelstrom is an abyss penetrating the globe, and issuing in some very remote part -the Gulf of Bothnia being somewhat decidedly named in one instance. This opinion, idle
in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my imagination most readily assented; and,
mentioning it to the guide, I was rather surprised to hear him say that, although it was the
view almost universally entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was
not his own. As to the former notion he confessed his inability to comprehend it; and here
I agreed with him --for, however conclusive on paper, it becomes altogether
unintelligible, and even absurd, amid the thunder of the abyss.
"You have had a good look at the whirl now," said the old man, "and if you will creep
round this crag, so as to get in its lee, and deaden the roar of the water, I will tell you a
story that will convince you I ought to know something of the Moskoe-strom."
I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded.
"Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner-rigged smack of about seventy tons
burthen, with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moskoe,
nearly to Vurrgh. In all violent eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper opportunities,
if one has only the courage to attempt it; but among the whole of the Lofoden coastmen,
we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands, as I
tell you. The usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward. There fish can
be got at all hours, without much risk, and therefore these places are preferred. The
choice spots over here among the rocks, however, not only yield the finest variety, but in
far greater abundance; so that we often got in a single day, what the more timid of the
craft could not scrape together in a week. In fact, we made it a matter of desperate
speculation --the risk of life standing instead of labor, and courage answering for capital.
"We kept the smack in a cove about five miles higher up the coast than this; and it was
our practice, in fine weather, to take advantage of the fifteen minutes' slack to push across
the main channel of the Moskoe-strom, far above the pool, and then drop down upon
anchorage somewhere near Otterholm, or Sandflesen, where the eddies are not so violent
as elsewhere. Here we used to remain until nearly time for slackwater again, when we
weighed and made for home. We never set out upon this expedition without a steady side
wind for going and coming --one that we felt sure would not fall us before our return -and we seldom made a mis-calculation upon this point. Twice, during six years, we were
forced to stay all night at anchor on account of a dead calm, which is a rare thing indeed
just about here; and once we had to remain on the grounds nearly a week, starving to
death, owing to a gale which blew up shortly after our arrival, and made the channel too
boisterous to be thought of. Upon this occasion we should have been driven out to sea in
spite of everything, (for the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently that, at
length, we fouled our anchor and dragged it) if it had not been that we drifted into one of
the innumerable cross currents-here to-day and gone to-morrow --which drove us under
the lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up.
"I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we encountered 'on the ground' -it is a bad spot to be in, even in good weather --but we made shift always to run the
gauntlet of the Moskoe-strom itself without accident; although at times my heart has been
in my mouth when we happened to be a minute or so behind or before the slack. The
wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at starting, and then we made rather
less way than we could wish, while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. My
eldest brother had a son eighteen years old, and I had two stout boys of my own. These
would have been of great assistance at such times, in using the sweeps, as well as
afterward in fishing --but, somehow, although we ran the risk ourselves, we had not the
heart to let the young ones get into the danger --for, after all said and done, it was a
horrible danger, and that is the truth.
"It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. It
was on the tenth of July, 18--, a day which the people of this part of the world will never
forget --for it was one in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the
heavens. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a
gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun shone brightly, so that the
oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow.
"The three of us --my two brothers and myself --had crossed over to the islands about two
o'clock P. M., and soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish, which, we all remarked,
were more plenty that day than we had ever known them. It was just seven, by my watch,
when we weighed and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Strom at slack
water, which we knew would be at eight.
"We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard quarter, and for some time spanked along
at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed we saw not the slightest reason to
apprehend it. All at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. This
was most unusual --something that had never happened to us before --and I began to feel
a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the boat on the wind, but could
make no headway at all for the eddies, and I was upon the point of proposing to return to
the anchorage, when, looking astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular
copper-colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity.
"In the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and we were dead
becalmed, drifting about in every direction. This state of things, however, did not last
long enough to give us time to think about it. In less than a minute the storm was upon us
--in less than two the sky was entirely overcast --and what with this and the driving spray,
it became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack.
"Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. The oldest seaman in
Norway never experienced any thing like it. We had let our sails go by the run before it
cleverly took us; but, at the first puff, both our masts went by the board if they had been
sawed off --the mainmast taking with it my as I youngest brother, who had lashed himself
to it for safety.
"Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. It had a complete
flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow, and this hatch it had always been our
custom to batten down when about to cross the Strom, by way of precaution against the
chopping seas. But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once --for we lay
entirely buried for some moments. How my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot
say, for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining. For my part, as soon as I had let the
foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the
bow, and with my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot of the foremast. It was mere
instinct that prompted me to do this --which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could
have done --for I was too much flurried to think.
"For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this time I held my
breath, and clung to the bolt. When I could stand it no longer I raised myself upon my
knees, still keeping hold with my hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little
boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid
herself, in some measure, of the seas. I was now trying to get the better of the stupor that
had come over me, and to collect my senses so as to see what was to be done, when I felt
somebody grasp my arm. It was my elder brother, and my heart leaped for joy, for I had
made sure that he was overboard --but the next moment all this joy was turned into horror
--for he put his mouth close to my ear, and screamed out the word 'Moskoe-strom!'
"No one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook from head to foot
as if I had had the most violent fit of the ague. I knew what he meant by that one word
well enough --I knew what he wished to make me understand. With the wind that now
drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strom, and nothing could save us!
"You perceive that in crossing the Strom channel, we always went a long way up above
the whirl, even in the calmest weather, and then had to wait and watch carefully for the
slack --but now we were driving right upon the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as this!
'To be sure,' I thought, 'we shall get there just about the slack --there is some little hope in
that' --but in the next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of
hope at all. I knew very well that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun
ship.
"By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or perhaps we did not feel it so
much, as we scudded before it, but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept
down by the wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. A
singular change, too, had come over the heavens. Around in every direction it was still as
black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular rift of clear sky -as clear as I ever saw --and of a deep bright blue --and through it there blazed forth the
full moon with a lustre that I never before knew her to wear. She lit up every thing about
us with the greatest distinctness --but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up!
"I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother --but in some manner which I
could not understand, the din had so increased that I could not make him hear a single
word, although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head,
looking as pale as death, and held up one of his fingers, as to say 'listen!'
"At first I could not make out what he meant --but soon a hideous thought flashed upon
me. I dragged my watch from its fob. It was not going. I glanced as its face by the
moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. It had run down
at seven o'clock! We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Strom was in
full fury!
"When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and not deep laden, the waves in a strong
gale, when she is going large, seem always to slip from beneath her --which appears very
strange to a landsman --and this is what is called riding, in sea phrase.
"Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly; but presently a gigantic sea
happened to take us right under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose --up --up --as if
into the sky. I would not have believed that any wave could rise so high. And then down
we came with a sweep, a slide, and a plunge, that made me feel sick and dizzy, as if I was
falling from some lofty mountain-top in a dream. But while we were up I had thrown a
quick glance around --and that one glance was all sufficient. I saw our exact position in
an instant. The Moskoe-strom whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead --but
no more like the every-day Moskoe-strom, than the whirl as you now see it, is like a millrace. If I had not known where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have
recognised the place at all. As it was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. The lids
clenched themselves together as if in a spasm.
"It could not have been more than two minutes afterwards until we suddenly felt the
waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. The boat made a sharp half turn to larboard,
and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt. At the same moment the roaring
noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek --such a sound as
you might imagine given out by the water-pipes of many thousand steam-vessels, letting
off their steam all together. We were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the
whirl; and I thought, of course, that another moment would plunge us into the abyss -down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing velocity with
which we were borne along. The boat did not seem to sink into the water at all, but to
skim like an air-bubble upon the surface of the surge. Her starboard side was next the
whirl, and on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left. It stood like a huge
writhing wall between us and the horizon.
"It may appear strange, but now, when we were in the very jaws of the gulf, I felt more
composed than when we were only approaching it. Having made up my mind to hope no
more, I got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first. I suppose it was
despair that strung my nerves.
"It may look like boasting --but what I tell you is truth --I began to reflect how
magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in me to think
of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life, in view of so wonderful a
manifestation of God's power. I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea
crossed my mind. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about
the whirl itself. I positively felt a wish to explore its depths, even at the sacrifice I was
going to make; and my principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old
companions on shore about the mysteries I should see. These, no doubt, were singular
fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity --and I have often thought since, that
the revolutions of the boat around the pool might have rendered me a little light-headed.
"There was another circumstance which tended to restore my self-possession; and this
was the cessation of the wind, which could not reach us in our present situation --for, as
you saw yourself, the belt of surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean,
and this latter now towered above us, a high, black, mountainous ridge. If you have never
been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by
the wind and the spray together. They blind, deafen and strangle you, and take away all
power of action or reflection. But we were now, in a great measure, rid of these
annoyances --just as death-condemned felons in prison are allowed petty indulgences,
forbidden them while their doom is yet uncertain.
"How often we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to say. We careered round and
round for perhaps an hour, flying rather than floating, getting gradually more and more
into the middle of the surge, and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge. All this
time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. My brother was at the stern, holding on to a large
empty water-cask which had been securely lashed under the coop of the counter, and was
the only thing on deck that had not been swept overboard when the gale first took us. As
we approached the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this, and made for the ring,
from which, in the agony of his terror, he endeavored to force my hands, as it was not
large enough to afford us both a secure grasp. I never felt deeper grief than when I saw
him attempt this act --although I knew he was a madman when he did it --a raving maniac
through sheer fright. I did not care, however, to contest the point with him. I thought it
could make no difference whether either of us held on at all; so I let him have the bolt,
and went astern to the cask. This there was no great difficulty in doing; for the smack
flew round steadily enough, and upon an even keel --only swaying to and fro, with the
immense sweeps and swelters of the whirl. Scarcely had I secured myself in my new
position, when we gave a wild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. I
muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over.
"As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon
the barrel, and closed my eyes. For some seconds I dared not open them --while I
expected instant destruction, and wondered that I was not already in my death-struggles
with the water. But moment after moment elapsed. I still lived. The sense of falling had
ceased; and the motion of the vessel seemed much as it had been before while in the belt
of foam, with the exception that she now lay more along. I took courage and looked once
again upon the scene.
"Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with which I gazed
about me. The boat appeared to be hanging, as if by magic, midway down, upon the
interior surface of a funnel vast in circumference, prodigious in depth, and whose
perfectly smooth sides might have been mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering
rapidity with which they spun around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance they
shot forth, as the rays of the full moon, from that circular rift amid the clouds which I
have already described, streamed in a flood of golden glory along the black walls, and far
away down into the inmost recesses of the abyss.
"At first I was too much confused to observe anything accurately. The general burst of
terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. When I recovered myself a little, however, my
gaze fell instinctively downward. In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed
view, from the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the pool. She
was quite upon an even keel --that is to say, her deck lay in a plane parallel with that of
the water --but this latter sloped at an angle of more than forty-five degrees, so that we
seemed to be lying upon our beam-ends. I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I
had scarcely more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation, than if
we had been upon a dead level; and this, I suppose, was owing to the speed at which we
revolved.
"The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf; but still I
could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a thick mist in which everything there
was enveloped, and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and
tottering bridge which Mussulmen say is the only pathway between Time and Eternity.
This mist, or spray, was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls of the
funnel, as they all met together at the bottom --but the yell that went up to the Heavens
from out of that mist, I dare not attempt to describe.
"Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had carried us to a great
distance down the slope; but our farther descent was by no means proportionate. Round
and round we swept --not with any uniform movement --but in dizzying swings and jerks,
that sent us sometimes only a few hundred feet --sometimes nearly the complete circuit of
the whirl. Our progress downward, at each revolution, was slow, but very perceptible.
"Looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid ebony on which we were thus borne, I
perceived that our boat was not the only object in the embrace of the whirl. Both above
and below us were visible fragments of vessels, large masses of building timber and
trunks of trees, with many smaller articles, such as pieces of house furniture, broken
boxes, barrels and staves. I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had
taken the place of my original terrors. It appeared to grow upon me as I drew nearer and
nearer to my dreadful doom. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous
things that floated in our company. I must have been delirious --for I even sought
amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the
foam below. 'This fir tree,' I found myself at one time saying, 'will certainly be the next
thing that takes the awful plunge and disappears,' --and then I was disappointed to find
that the wreck of a Dutch merchant ship overtook it and went down before. At length,
after making several guesses of this nature, and being deceived in all --this fact --the fact
of my invariable miscalculation, set me upon a train of reflection that made my limbs
again tremble, and my heart beat heavily once more.
"It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more exciting hope. This
hope arose partly from memory, and partly from present observation. I called to mind the
great variety of buoyant matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been absorbed
and then thrown forth by the Moskoe-strom. By far the greater number of the articles
were shattered in the most extraordinary way --so chafed and roughened as to have the
appearance of being stuck full of splinters --but then I distinctly recollected that there
were some of them which were not disfigured at all. Now I could not account for this
difference except by supposing that the roughened fragments were the only ones which
had been completely absorbed --that the others had entered the whirl at so late a period of
the tide, or, from some reason, had descended so slowly after entering, that they did not
reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came, or of the ebb, as the case might be. I
conceived it possible, in either instance, that they might thus be whirled up again to the
level of the ocean, without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more
early or absorbed more rapidly. I made, also, three important observations. The first was,
that as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descent; --the
second, that, between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical, and the other of any
other shape, the superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere; --the third, that,
between two masses of equal size, the one cylindrical, and the other of any other shape,
the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly.
Since my escape, I have had several conversations on this subject with an old schoolmaster of the district; and it was from him that I learned the use of the words 'cylinder'
and 'sphere.' He explained to me --although I have forgotten the explanation --how what I
observed was, in fact, the natural consequence of the forms of the floating fragments -and showed me how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in a vortex, offered more
resistance to its suction, and was drawn in with greater difficulty than an equally bulky
body, of any form whatever.*
*See Archimedes, "De Incidentibus in Fluido." --lib.2.
"There was one startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcing these
observations, and rendering me anxious to turn them to account, and this was that, at
every revolution, we passed something like a barrel, or else the broken yard or the mast
of a vessel, while many of these things, which had been on our level when I first opened
my eyes upon the wonders of the whirlpool, were now high up above us, and seemed to
have moved but little from their original station.
"I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash myself securely to the water cask
upon which I now held, to cut it loose from the counter, and to throw myself with it into
the water. I attracted my brother's attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that
came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about
to do. I thought at length that he comprehended my design --but, whether this was the
case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the
ring-bolt. It was impossible to force him; the emergency admitted no delay; and so, with
a bitter struggle, I resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of the
lashings which secured it to the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea,
without another moment's hesitation.
"The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. As it is myself who now tell you
this tale --as you see that I did escape --and as you are already in possession of the mode
in which this escape was effected, and must therefore anticipate all that I have farther to
say --I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might have been an hour, or
thereabout, after my quitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast distance
beneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid succession, and, bearing my
loved brother with it, plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam
below. The barrel to which I was attached sunk very little farther than half the distance
between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a great
change took place in the character of the whirlpool. The slope of the sides of the vast
funnel became momently less and less steep. The gyrations of the whirl grew, gradually,
less and less violent. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom
of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the
full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the
ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of the
Moskoe-strom had been. It was the hour of the slack --but the sea still heaved in
mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. I was borne violently into the
channel of the Strom and in a few minutes, was hurried down the coast into the 'grounds'
of the fishermen. A boat picked me up --exhausted from fatigue --and (now that the
danger was removed) speechless from the memory of its horror. Those who drew me on
board were my old mates and dally companions --but they knew me no more than they
would have known a traveller from the spirit-land. My hair, which had been raven-black
the day before, was as white as you see it now. They say too that the whole expression of
my countenance had changed. I told them my story --they did not believe it. I now tell it
to you --and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen
of Lofoden.
THE END
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
by Edgar Allan Poe
1827
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avowYou are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sandHow few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
THE END
A DREAM
by Edgar Allan Poe
1827
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departedBut a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream–that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afarWhat could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
THE END
A PREDICAMENT
by Edgar Allan Poe
1838
What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus?
COMUS.
IT was a quiet and still afternoon when I strolled forth in the goodly city of Edina. The
confusion and bustle in the streets were terrible. Men were talking. Women were
screaming. Children were choking. Pigs were whistling. Carts they rattled. Bulls they
bellowed. Cows they lowed. Horses they neighed. Cats they caterwauled. Dogs they
danced. Danced! Could it then be possible? Danced! Alas, thought I, my dancing days are
over! Thus it is ever. What a host of gloomy recollections will ever and anon be
awakened in the mind of genius and imaginative contemplation, especially of a genius
doomed to the everlasting and eternal, and continual, and, as one might say, thecontinued–yes, the continued and continuous, bitter, harassing, disturbing, and, if I may
be allowed the expression, the very disturbing influence of the serene, and godlike, and
heavenly, and exalted, and elevated, and purifying effect of what may be rightly termed
the most enviable, the most truly enviable–nay! the most benignly beautiful, the most
deliciously ethereal, and, as it were, the most pretty (if I may use so bold an expression)
thing (pardon me, gentle reader!) in the world–but I am always led away by my feelings.
In such a mind, I repeat, what a host of recollections are stirred up by a trifle! The dogs
danced! I–I could not! They frisked–I wept. They capered–I sobbed aloud. Touching
circumstances! which cannot fail to bring to the recollection of the classical reader that
exquisite passage in relation to the fitness of things, which is to be found in the
commencement of the third volume of that admirable and venerable Chinese novel the
Jo-Go-Slow.
In my solitary walk through, the city I had two humble but faithful companions. Diana,
my poodle! sweetest of creatures! She had a quantity of hair over her one eye, and a blue
ribband tied fashionably around her neck. Diana was not more than five inches in height,
but her head was somewhat bigger than her body, and her tail being cut off exceedingly
close, gave an air of injured innocence to the interesting animal which rendered her a
favorite with all.
And Pompey, my negro!–sweet Pompey! how shall I ever forget thee? I had taken
Pompey's arm. He was three feet in height (I like to be particular) and about seventy, or
perhaps eighty, years of age. He had bow-legs and was corpulent. His mouth should not
be called small, nor his ears short. His teeth, however, were like pearl, and his large full
eyes were deliciously white. Nature had endowed him with no neck, and had placed his
ankles (as usual with that race) in the middle of the upper portion of the feet. He was clad
with a striking simplicity. His sole garments were a stock of nine inches in height, and a
nearly- new drab overcoat which had formerly been in the service of the tall, stately, and
illustrious Dr. Moneypenny. It was a good overcoat. It was well cut. It was well made.
The coat was nearly new. Pompey held it up out of the dirt with both hands.
There were three persons in our party, and two of them have already been the subject of
remark. There was a third–that person was myself. I am the Signora Psyche Zenobia. I
am not Suky Snobbs. My appearance is commanding. On the memorable occasion of
which I speak I was habited in a crimson satin dress, with a sky-blue Arabian mantelet.
And the dress had trimmings of green agraffas, and seven graceful flounces of the
orange-colored auricula. I thus formed the third of the party. There was the poodle. There
was Pompey. There was myself. We were three. Thus it is said there were originally but
three Furies–Melty, Nimmy, and Hetty–Meditation, Memory, and Fiddling.
Leaning upon the arm of the gallant Pompey, and attended at a respectable distance by
Diana, I proceeded down one of the populous and very pleasant streets of the now
deserted Edina. On a sudden, there presented itself to view a church–a Gothic cathedral–
vast, venerable, and with a tall steeple, which towered into the sky. What madness now
possessed me? Why did I rush upon my fate? I was seized with an uncontrollable desire
to ascend the giddy pinnacle, and then survey the immense extent of the city. The door of
the cathedral stood invitingly open. My destiny prevailed. I entered the ominous archway.
Where then was my guardian angel?–if indeed such angels there be. If! Distressing
monosyllable! what world of mystery, and meaning, and doubt, and uncertainty is there
involved in thy two letters! I entered the ominous archway! I entered; and, without injury
to my orange-colored auriculas, I passed beneath the portal, and emerged within the
vestibule. Thus it is said the immense river Alfred passed, unscathed, and unwetted,
beneath the sea.
I thought the staircase would never have an end. Round! Yes, they went round and up,
and round and up and round and up, until I could not help surmising, with the sagacious
Pompey, upon whose supporting arm I leaned in all the confidence of early affection–I
could not help surmising that the upper end of the continuous spiral ladder had been
accidentally, or perhaps designedly, removed. I paused for breath; and, in the meantime,
an accident occurred of too momentous a nature in a moral, and also in a metaphysical
point of view, to be passed over without notice. It appeared to me–indeed I was quite
confident of the fact–I could not be mistaken–no! I had, for some moments, carefully and
anxiously observed the motions of my Diana–I say that I could not be mistaken–Diana
smelt a rat! At once I called Pompey's attention to the subject, and he–he agreed with me.
There was then no longer any reasonable room for doubt. The rat had been smelled–and
by Diana. Heavens! shall I ever forget the intense excitement of the moment? Alas! what
is the boasted intellect of man? The rat!–it was there–that is to say, it was somewhere.
Diana smelled the rat. I–I could not! Thus it is said the Prussian Isis has, for some
persons, a sweet and very powerful perfume, while to others it is perfectly scentless.
The staircase had been surmounted, and there were now only three or four more upward
steps intervening between us and the summit. We still ascended, and now only one step
remained. One step! One little, little step! Upon one such little step in the great staircase
of human life how vast a sum of human happiness or misery depends! I thought of
myself, then of Pompey, and then of the mysterious and inexplicable destiny which
surrounded us. I thought of Pompey!–alas, I thought of love! I thought of my many false
steps which have been taken, and may be taken again. I resolved to be more cautious,
more reserved. I abandoned the arm of Pompey, and, without his assistance, surmounted
the one remaining step, and gained the chamber of the belfry. I was followed immediately
afterward by my poodle. Pompey alone remained behind. I stood at the head of the
staircase, and encouraged him to ascend. He stretched forth to me his hand, and
unfortunately in so doing was forced to abandon his firm hold upon the overcoat. Will the
gods never cease their persecution? The overcoat is dropped, and, with one of his feet,
Pompey stepped upon the long and trailing skirt of the overcoat. He stumbled and fell–
this consequence was inevitable. He fell forward, and, with his accursed head, striking
me full in the–in the breast, precipitated me headlong, together with himself, upon the
hard, filthy, and detestable floor of the belfry. But my revenge was sure, sudden, and
complete. Seizing him furiously by the wool with both hands, I tore out a vast quantity of
black, and crisp, and curling material, and tossed it from me with every manifestation of
disdain. It fell among the ropes of the belfry and remained. Pompey arose, and said no
word. But he regarded me piteously with his large eyes and–sighed. Ye Gods–that sigh! It
sunk into my heart. And the hair–the wool! Could I have reached that wool I would have
bathed it with my tears, in testimony of regret. But alas! it was now far beyond my grasp.
As it dangled among the cordage of the bell, I fancied it alive. I fancied that it stood on
end with indignation. Thus the happy-dandy Flos Aeris of Java bears, it is said, a
beautiful flower, which will live when pulled up by the roots. The natives suspend it by a
cord from the ceiling and enjoy its fragrance for years.
Our quarrel was now made up, and we looked about the room for an aperture through
which to survey the city of Edina. Windows there were none. The sole light admitted into
the gloomy chamber proceeded from a square opening, about a foot in diameter, at a
height of about seven feet from the floor. Yet what will the energy of true genius not
effect? I resolved to clamber up to this hole. A vast quantity of wheels, pinions, and other
cabalistic–looking machinery stood opposite the hole, close to it; and through the hole
there passed an iron rod from the machinery. Between the wheels and the wall where the
hole lay there was barely room for my body–yet I was desperate, and determined to
persevere. I called Pompey to my side.
"You perceive that aperture, Pompey. I wish to look through it. You will stand here just
beneath the hole–so. Now, hold out one of your hands, Pompey, and let me step upon it–
thus. Now, the other hand, Pompey, and with its aid I will get upon your shoulders."
He did every thing I wished, and I found, upon getting up, that I could easily pass my
head and neck through the aperture. The prospect was sublime. Nothing could be more
magnificent. I merely paused a moment to bid Diana behave herself, and assure Pompey
that I would be considerate and bear as lightly as possible upon his shoulders. I told him I
would be tender of his feelings–ossi tender que beefsteak. Having done this justice to my
faithful friend, I gave myself up with great zest and enthusiasm to the enjoyment of the
scene which so obligingly spread itself out before my eyes.
Upon this subject, however, I shall forbear to dilate. I will not describe the city of
Edinburgh. Every one has been to the city of Edinburgh. Every one has been to
Edinburgh–the classic Edina. I will confine myself to the momentous details of my own
lamentable adventure. Having, in some measure, satisfied my curiosity in regard to the
extent, situation, and general appearance of the city, I had leisure to survey the church in
which I was, and the delicate architecture of the steeple. I observed that the aperture
through which I had thrust my head was an opening in the dial-plate of a gigantic clock,
and must have appeared, from the street, as a large key-hole, such as we see in the face of
the French watches. No doubt the true object was to admit the arm of an attendant, to
adjust, when necessary, the hands of the clock from within. I observed also, with surprise,
the immense size of these hands, the longest of which could not have been less than ten
feet in length, and, where broadest, eight or nine inches in breadth. They were of solid
steel apparently, and their edges appeared to be sharp. Having noticed these particulars,
and some others, I again turned my eyes upon the glorious prospect below, and soon
became absorbed in contemplation.
From this, after some minutes, I was aroused by the voice of Pompey, who declared that
he could stand it no longer, and requested that I would be so kind as to come down. This
was unreasonable, and I told him so in a speech of some length. He replied, but with an
evident misunderstanding of my ideas upon the subject. I accordingly grew angry, and
told him in plain words, that he was a fool, that he had committed an ignoramus e-clencheye, that his notions were mere insommary Bovis, and his words little better than an
ennemywerrybor'em. With this he appeared satisfied, and I resumed my contemplations.
It might have been half an hour after this altercation when, as I was deeply absorbed in
the heavenly scenery beneath me, I was startled by something very cold which pressed
with a gentle pressure on the back of my neck. It is needless to say that I felt
inexpressibly alarmed. I knew that Pompey was beneath my feet, and that Diana was
sitting, according to my explicit directions, upon her hind legs, in the farthest corner of
the room. What could it be? Alas! I but too soon discovered. Turning my head gently to
one side, I perceived, to my extreme horror, that the huge, glittering, scimetar-like
minute-hand of the clock had, in the course of its hourly revolution, descended upon my
neck. There was, I knew, not a second to be lost. I pulled back at once–but it was too late.
There was no chance of forcing my head through the mouth of that terrible trap in which
it was so fairly caught, and which grew narrower and narrower with a rapidity too
horrible to be conceived. The agony of that moment is not to be imagined. I threw up my
hands and endeavored, with all my strength, to force upward the ponderous iron bar. I
might as well have tried to lift the cathedral itself. Down, down, down it came, closer and
yet closer. I screamed to Pompey for aid; but he said that I had hurt his feelings by calling
him 'an ignorant old squint-eye:' I yelled to Diana; but she only said 'bow-wow-wow,' and
that I had told her 'on no account to stir from the corner.' Thus I had no relief to expect
from my associates.
Meantime the ponderous and terrific Scythe of Time (for I now discovered the literal
import of that classical phrase) had not stopped, nor was it likely to stop, in its career.
Down and still down, it came. It had already buried its sharp edge a full inch in my flesh,
and my sensations grew indistinct and confused. At one time I fancied myself in
Philadelphia with the stately Dr. Moneypenny, at another in the back parlor of Mr.
Blackwood receiving his invaluable instructions. And then again the sweet recollection of
better and earlier times came over me, and I thought of that happy period when the world
was not all a desert, and Pompey not altogether cruel.
The ticking of the machinery amused me. Amused me, I say, for my sensations now
bordered upon perfect happiness, and the most trifling circumstances afforded me
pleasure. The eternal click-clak, click-clak, click-clak of the clock was the most
melodious of music in my ears, and occasionally even put me in mind of the graceful
sermonic harangues of Dr. Ollapod. Then there were the great figures upon the dialplate–how intelligent how intellectual, they all looked! And presently they took to
dancing the Mazurka, and I think it was the figure V. who performed the most to my
satisfaction. She was evidently a lady of breeding. None of your swaggerers, and nothing
at all indelicate in her motions. She did the pirouette to admiration- whirling round upon
her apex. I made an endeavor to hand her a chair, for I saw that she appeared fatigued
with her exertions–and it was not until then that I fully perceived my lamentable
situation. Lamentable indeed! The bar had buried itself two inches in my neck. I was
aroused to a sense of exquisite pain. I prayed for death, and, in the agony of the moment,
could not help repeating those exquisite verses of the poet Miguel De Cervantes:
Vanny Buren, tan escondida
Query no te senty venny
Pork and pleasure, delly morry
Nommy, torny, darry, widdy!
But now a new horror presented itself, and one indeed sufficient to startle the strongest
nerves. My eyes, from the cruel pressure of the machine, were absolutely starting from
their sockets. While I was thinking how I should possibly manage without them, one
actually tumbled out of my head, and, rolling down the steep side of the steeple, lodged
in the rain gutter which ran along the eaves of the main building. The loss of the eye was
not so much as the insolent air of independence and contempt with which it regarded me
after it was out. There it lay in the gutter just under my nose, and the airs it gave itself
would have been ridiculous had they not been disgusting. Such a winking and blinking
were never before seen. This behavior on the part of my eye in the gutter was not only
irritating on account of its manifest insolence and shameful ingratitude, but was also
exceedingly inconvenient on account of the sympathy which always exists between two
eyes of the same head, however far apart. I was forced, in a manner, to wink and to blink,
whether I would or not, in exact concert with the scoundrelly thing that lay just under my
nose. I was presently relieved, however, by the dropping out of the other eye. In falling it
took the same direction (possibly a concerted plot) as its fellow. Both rolled out of the
gutter together, and in truth I was very glad to get rid of them.
The bar was now four inches and a half deep in my neck, and there was only a little bit of
skin to cut through. My sensations were those of entire happiness, for I felt that in a few
minutes, at farthest, I should be relieved from my disagreeable situation. And in this
expectation I was not at all deceived. At twenty-five minutes past five in the afternoon,
precisely, the huge minute-hand had proceeded sufficiently far on its terrible revolution
to sever the small remainder of my neck. I was not sorry to see the head which had
occasioned me so much embarrassment at length make a final separation from my body.
It first rolled down the side of the steeple, then lodge, for a few seconds, in the gutter, and
then made its way, with a plunge, into the middle of the street.
I will candidly confess that my feelings were now of the most singular–nay, of the most
mysterious, the most perplexing and incomprehensible character. My senses were here
and there at one and the same moment. With my head I imagined, at one time, that I, the
head, was the real Signora Psyche Zenobia–at another I felt convinced that myself, the
body, was the proper identity. To clear my ideas on this topic I felt in my pocket for my
snuff-box, but, upon getting it, and endeavoring to apply a pinch of its grateful contents
in the ordinary manner, I became immediately aware of my peculiar deficiency, and
threw the box at once down to my head. It took a pinch with great satisfaction, and
smiled me an acknowledgement in return. Shortly afterward it made me a speech, which I
could hear but indistinctly without ears. I gathered enough, however, to know that it was
astonished at my wishing to remain alive under such circumstances. In the concluding
sentences it quoted the noble words of AriostoIl pover hommy che non sera corty
And have a combat tenty erry morty;
thus comparing me to the hero who, in the heat of the combat, not perceiving that he was
dead, continued to contest the battle with inextinguishable valor. There was nothing now
to prevent my getting down from my elevation, and I did so. What it was that Pompey
saw so very peculiar in my appearance I have never yet been able to find out. The fellow
opened his mouth from ear to ear, and shut his two eyes as if he were endeavoring to
crack nuts between the lids. Finally, throwing off his overcoat, he made one spring for the
staircase and disappeared. I hurled after the scoundrel these vehement words of
DemosthenesAndrew O'Phlegethon, you really make haste to fly,
and then turned to the darling of my heart, to the one-eyed! the shaggy-haired Diana.
Alas! what a horrible vision affronted my eyes? Was that a rat I saw skulking into his
hole? Are these the picked bones of the little angel who has been cruelly devoured by the
monster? Ye gods! and what do I behold–is that the departed spirit, the shade, the ghost,
of my beloved puppy, which I perceive sitting with a grace so melancholy, in the corner?
Hearken! for she speaks, and, heavens! it is in the German of Schiller"Unt stubby duk, so stubby dun
Duk she! duk she!"
Alas! and are not her words too true?
"And if I died, at least I died
For thee–for thee."
Sweet creature! she too has sacrificed herself in my behalf. Dogless, niggerless, headless,
what now remains for the unhappy Signora Psyche Zenobia? Alas–nothing! I have done.
THE END
A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
DURING the fall of the year 1827, while residing near Charlottesville, Virginia, I
casually made the acquaintance of Mr. Augustus Bedloe. This young gentleman was
remarkable in every respect, and excited in me a profound interest and curiosity. I found
it impossible to comprehend him either in his moral or his physical relations. Of his
family I could obtain no satisfactory account. Whence he came, I never ascertained. Even
about his age–although I call him a young gentleman–there was something which
perplexed me in no little degree. He certainly seemed young–and he made a point of
speaking about his youth–yet there were moments when I should have had little trouble in
imagining him a hundred years of age. But in no regard was he more peculiar than in his
personal appearance. He was singularly tall and thin. He stooped much. His limbs were
exceedingly long and emaciated. His forehead was broad and low. His complexion was
absolutely bloodless. His mouth was large and flexible, and his teeth were more wildly
uneven, although sound, than I had ever before seen teeth in a human head. The
expression of his smile, however, was by no means unpleasing, as might be supposed; but
it had no variation whatever. It was one of profound melancholy–of a phaseless and
unceasing gloom. His eyes were abnormally large, and round like those of a cat. The
pupils, too, upon any accession or diminution of light, underwent contraction or dilation,
just such as is observed in the feline tribe. In moments of excitement the orbs grew bright
to a degree almost inconceivable; seeming to emit luminous rays, not of a reflected but of
an intrinsic lustre, as does a candle or the sun; yet their ordinary condition was so totally
vapid, filmy, and dull as to convey the idea of the eyes of a long-interred corpse.
These peculiarities of person appeared to cause him much annoyance, and he was
continually alluding to them in a sort of half explanatory, half apologetic strain, which,
when I first heard it, impressed me very painfully. I soon, however, grew accustomed to
it, and my uneasiness wore off. It seemed to be his design rather to insinuate than directly
to assert that, physically, he had not always been what he was–that a long series of
neuralgic attacks had reduced him from a condition of more than usual personal beauty,
to that which I saw. For many years past he had been attended by a physician, named
Templeton–an old gentleman, perhaps seventy years of age–whom he had first
encountered at Saratoga, and from whose attention, while there, he either received, or
fancied that he received, great benefit. The result was that Bedloe, who was wealthy, had
made an arrangement with Dr. Templeton, by which the latter, in consideration of a
liberal annual allowance, had consented to devote his time and medical experience
exclusively to the care of the invalid.
Doctor Templeton had been a traveller in his younger days, and at Paris had become a
convert, in great measure, to the doctrines of Mesmer. It was altogether by means of
magnetic remedies that he had succeeded in alleviating the acute pains of his patient; and
this success had very naturally inspired the latter with a certain degree of confidence in
the opinions from which the remedies had been educed. The Doctor, however, like all
enthusiasts, had struggled hard to make a thorough convert of his pupil, and finally so far
gained his point as to induce the sufferer to submit to numerous experiments. By a
frequent repetition of these, a result had arisen, which of late days has become so
common as to attract little or no attention, but which, at the period of which I write, had
very rarely been known in America. I mean to say, that between Doctor Templeton and
Bedloe there had grown up, little by little, a very distinct and strongly marked rapport, or
magnetic relation. I am not prepared to assert, however, that this rapport extended beyond
the limits of the simple sleep-producing power, but this power itself had attained great
intensity. At the first attempt to induce the magnetic somnolency, the mesmerist entirely
failed. In the fifth or sixth he succeeded very partially, and after long continued effort.
Only at the twelfth was the triumph complete. After this the will of the patient succumbed
rapidly to that of the physician, so that, when I first became acquainted with the two,
sleep was brought about almost instantaneously by the mere volition of the operator, even
when the invalid was unaware of his presence. It is only now, in the year 1845, when
similar miracles are witnessed daily by thousands, that I dare venture to record this
apparent impossibility as a matter of serious fact.
The temperature of Bedloe was, in the highest degree sensitive, excitable, enthusiastic.
His imagination was singularly vigorous and creative; and no doubt it derived additional
force from the habitual use of morphine, which he swallowed in great quantity, and
without which he would have found it impossible to exist. It was his practice to take a
very large dose of it immediately after breakfast each morning–or, rather, immediately
after a cup of strong coffee, for he ate nothing in the forenoon–and then set forth alone, or
attended only by a dog, upon a long ramble among the chain of wild and dreary hills that
lie westward and southward of Charlottesville, and are there dignified by the title of the
Ragged Mountains.
Upon a dim, warm, misty day, toward the close of November, and during the strange
interregnum of the seasons which in America is termed the Indian Summer, Mr. Bedloe
departed as usual for the hills. The day passed, and still he did not return.
About eight o'clock at night, having become seriously alarmed at his protracted absence,
we were about setting out in search of him, when he unexpectedly made his appearance,
in health no worse than usual, and in rather more than ordinary spirits. The account which
he gave of his expedition, and of the events which had detained him, was a singular one
indeed.
"You will remember," said he, "that it was about nine in the morning when I left
Charlottesville. I bent my steps immediately to the mountains, and, about ten, entered a
gorge which was entirely new to me. I followed the windings of this pass with much
interest. The scenery which presented itself on all sides, although scarcely entitled to be
called grand, had about it an indescribable and to me a delicious aspect of dreary
desolation. The solitude seemed absolutely virgin. I could not help believing that the
green sods and the gray rocks upon which I trod had been trodden never before by the
foot of a human being. So entirely secluded, and in fact inaccessible, except through a
series of accidents, is the entrance of the ravine, that it is by no means impossible that I
was indeed the first adventurer–the very first and sole adventurer who had ever
penetrated its recesses.
"The thick and peculiar mist, or smoke, which distinguishes the Indian Summer, and
which now hung heavily over all objects, served, no doubt, to deepen the vague
impressions which these objects created. So dense was this pleasant fog that I could at no
time see more than a dozen yards of the path before me. This path was excessively
sinuous, and as the sun could not be seen, I soon lost all idea of the direction in which I
journeyed. In the meantime the morphine had its customary effect–that of enduing all the
external world with an intensity of interest. In the quivering of a leaf–in the hue of a
blade of grass–in the shape of a trefoil–in the humming of a bee–in the gleaming of a
dew-drop–in the breathing of the wind–in the faint odors that came from the forest–there
came a whole universe of suggestion–a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and
immethodical thought.
"Busied in this, I walked on for several hours, during which the mist deepened around me
to so great an extent that at length I was reduced to an absolute groping of the way. And
now an indescribable uneasiness possessed me–a species of nervous hesitation and
tremor. I feared to tread, lest I should be precipitated into some abyss. I remembered, too,
strange stories told about these Ragged Hills, and of the uncouth and fierce races of men
who tenanted their groves and caverns. A thousand vague fancies oppressed and
disconcerted me- fancies the more distressing because vague. Very suddenly my attention
was arrested by the loud beating of a drum.
"My amazement was, of course, extreme. A drum in these hills was a thing unknown. I
could not have been more surprised at the sound of the trump of the Archangel. But a
new and still more astounding source of interest and perplexity arose. There came a wild
rattling or jingling sound, as if of a bunch of large keys, and upon the instant a duskyvisaged and half-naked man rushed past me with a shriek. He came so close to my person
that I felt his hot breath upon my face. He bore in one hand an instrument composed of an
assemblage of steel rings, and shook them vigorously as he ran. Scarcely had he
disappeared in the mist before, panting after him, with open mouth and glaring eyes,
there darted a huge beast. I could not be mistaken in its character. It was a hyena.
"The sight of this monster rather relieved than heightened my terrors–for I now made
sure that I dreamed, and endeavored to arouse myself to waking consciousness. I stepped
boldly and briskly forward. I rubbed my eyes. I called aloud. I pinched my limbs. A small
spring of water presented itself to my view, and here, stooping, I bathed my hands and
my head and neck. This seemed to dissipate the equivocal sensations which had hitherto
annoyed me. I arose, as I thought, a new man, and proceeded steadily and complacently
on my unknown way.
"At length, quite overcome by exertion, and by a certain oppressive closeness of the
atmosphere, I seated myself beneath a tree. Presently there came a feeble gleam of
sunshine, and the shadow of the leaves of the tree fell faintly but definitely upon the
grass. At this shadow I gazed wonderingly for many minutes. Its character stupefied me
with astonishment. I looked upward. The tree was a palm.
"I now arose hurriedly, and in a state of fearful agitation–for the fancy that I dreamed
would serve me no longer. I saw–I felt that I had perfect command of my senses–and
these senses now brought to my soul a world of novel and singular sensation. The heat
became all at once intolerable. A strange odor loaded the breeze. A low, continuous
murmur, like that arising from a full, but gently flowing river, came to my ears,
intermingled with the peculiar hum of multitudinous human voices.
"While I listened in an extremity of astonishment which I need not attempt to describe, a
strong and brief gust of wind bore off the incumbent fog as if by the wand of an
enchanter.
"I found myself at the foot of a high mountain, and looking down into a vast plain,
through which wound a majestic river. On the margin of this river stood an Easternlooking city, such as we read of in the Arabian Tales, but of a character even more
singular than any there described. From my position, which was far above the level of the
town, I could perceive its every nook and corner, as if delineated on a map. The streets
seemed innumerable, and crossed each other irregularly in all directions, but were rather
long winding alleys than streets, and absolutely swarmed with inhabitants. The houses
were wildly picturesque. On every hand was a wilderness of balconies, of verandas, of
minarets, of shrines, and fantastically carved oriels. Bazaars abounded; and in these were
displayed rich wares in infinite variety and profusion–silks, muslins, the most dazzling
cutlery, the most magnificent jewels and gems. Besides these things, were seen, on all
sides, banners and palanquins, litters with stately dames close veiled, elephants
gorgeously caparisoned, idols grotesquely hewn, drums, banners, and gongs, spears,
silver and gilded maces. And amid the crowd, and the clamor, and the general intricacy
and confusion- amid the million of black and yellow men, turbaned and robed, and of
flowing beard, there roamed a countless multitude of holy filleted bulls, while vast
legions of the filthy but sacred ape clambered, chattering and shrieking, about the
cornices of the mosques, or clung to the minarets and oriels. From the swarming streets to
the banks of the river, there descended innumerable flights of steps leading to bathing
places, while the river itself seemed to force a passage with difficulty through the vast
fleets of deeply–burthened ships that far and wide encountered its surface. Beyond the
limits of the city arose, in frequent majestic groups, the palm and the cocoa, with other
gigantic and weird trees of vast age, and here and there might be seen a field of rice, the
thatched hut of a peasant, a tank, a stray temple, a gypsy camp, or a solitary graceful
maiden taking her way, with a pitcher upon her head, to the banks of the magnificent
river.
"You will say now, of course, that I dreamed; but not so. What I saw–what I heard–what
I felt–what I thought–had about it nothing of the unmistakable idiosyncrasy of the dream.
All was rigorously self-consistent. At first, doubting that I was really awake, I entered
into a series of tests, which soon convinced me that I really was. Now, when one dreams,
and, in the dream, suspects that he dreams, the suspicion never fails to confirm itself, and
the sleeper is almost immediately aroused. Thus Novalis errs not in saying that 'we are
near waking when we dream that we dream.' Had the vision occurred to me as I describe
it, without my suspecting it as a dream, then a dream it might absolutely have been, but,
occurring as it did, and suspected and tested as it was, I am forced to class it among other
phenomena."
"In this I am not sure that you are wrong," observed Dr. Templeton, "but proceed. You
arose and descended into the city."
"I arose," continued Bedloe, regarding the Doctor with an air of profound astonishment "I
arose, as you say, and descended into the city. On my way I fell in with an immense
populace, crowding through every avenue, all in the same direction, and exhibiting in
every action the wildest excitement. Very suddenly, and by some inconceivable impulse,
I became intensely imbued with personal interest in what was going on. I seemed to feel
that I had an important part to play, without exactly understanding what it was. Against
the crowd which environed me, however, I experienced a deep sentiment of animosity. I
shrank from amid them, and, swiftly, by a circuitous path, reached and entered the city.
Here all was the wildest tumult and contention. A small party of men, clad in garments
half-Indian, half-European, and officered by gentlemen in a uniform partly British, were
engaged, at great odds, with the swarming rabble of the alleys. I joined the weaker party,
arming myself with the weapons of a fAllan officer, and fighting I knew not whom with
the nervous ferocity of despair. We were soon overpowered by numbers, and driven to
seek refuge in a species of kiosk. Here we barricaded ourselves, and, for the present were
secure. From a loop-hole near the summit of the kiosk, I perceived a vast crowd, in
furious agitation, surrounding and assaulting a gay palace that overhung the river.
Presently, from an upper window of this place, there descended an effeminate-looking
person, by means of a string made of the turbans of his attendants. A boat was at hand, in
which he escaped to the opposite bank of the river.
"And now a new object took possession of my soul. I spoke a few hurried but energetic
words to my companions, and, having succeeded in gaining over a few of them to my
purpose made a frantic sally from the kiosk. We rushed amid the crowd that surrounded
it. They retreated, at first, before us. They rallied, fought madly, and retreated again. In
the mean time we were borne far from the kiosk, and became bewildered and entangled
among the narrow streets of tall, overhanging houses, into the recesses of which the sun
had never been able to shine. The rabble pressed impetuously upon us, harrassing us with
their spears, and overwhelming us with flights of arrows. These latter were very
remarkable, and resembled in some respects the writhing creese of the Malay. They were
made to imitate the body of a creeping serpent, and were long and black, with a poisoned
barb. One of them struck me upon the right temple. I reeled and fell. An instantaneous
and dreadful sickness seized me. I struggled–I gasped–I died."
"You will hardly persist now," said I smiling, "that the whole of your adventure was not a
dream. You are not prepared to maintain that you are dead?"
When I said these words, I of course expected some lively sally from Bedloe in reply,
but, to my astonishment, he hesitated, trembled, became fearfully pallid, and remained
silent. I looked toward Templeton. He sat erect and rigid in his chair–his teeth chattered,
and his eyes were starting from their sockets. "Proceed!" he at length said hoarsely to
Bedloe.
"For many minutes," continued the latter, "my sole sentiment–my sole feeling–was that
of darkness and nonentity, with the consciousness of death. At length there seemed to
pass a violent and sudden shock through my soul, as if of electricity. With it came the
sense of elasticity and of light. This latter I felt–not saw. In an instant I seemed to rise
from the ground. But I had no bodily, no visible, audible, or palpable presence. The
crowd had departed. The tumult had ceased. The city was in comparative repose. Beneath
me lay my corpse, with the arrow in my temple, the whole head greatly swollen and
disfigured. But all these things I felt–not saw. I took interest in nothing. Even the corpse
seemed a matter in which I had no concern. Volition I had none, but appeared to be
impelled into motion, and flitted buoyantly out of the city, retracing the circuitous path by
which I had entered it. When I had attained that point of the ravine in the mountains at
which I had encountered the hyena, I again experienced a shock as of a galvanic battery,
the sense of weight, of volition, of substance, returned. I became my original self, and
bent my steps eagerly homeward–but the past had not lost the vividness of the real–and
not now, even for an instant, can I compel my understanding to regard it as a dream."
"Nor was it," said Templeton, with an air of deep solemnity, "yet it would be difficult to
say how otherwise it should be termed. Let us suppose only, that the soul of the man of
to-day is upon the verge of some stupendous psychal discoveries. Let us content
ourselves with this supposition. For the rest I have some explanation to make. Here is a
watercolor drawing, which I should have shown you before, but which an unaccountable
sentiment of horror has hitherto prevented me from showing."
We looked at the picture which he presented. I saw nothing in it of an extraordinary
character, but its effect upon Bedloe was prodigious. He nearly fainted as he gazed. And
yet it was but a miniature portrait–a miraculously accurate one, to be sure–of his own
very remarkable features. At least this was my thought as I regarded it.
"You will perceive," said Templeton, "the date of this picture–it is here, scarcely visible,
in this corner–1780. In this year was the portrait taken. It is the likeness of a dead friend–
a Mr. Oldeb–to whom I became much attached at Calcutta, during the administration of
Warren Hastings. I was then only twenty years old. When I first saw you, Mr. Bedloe, at
Saratoga, it was the miraculous similarity which existed between yourself and the
painting which induced me to accost you, to seek your friendship, and to bring about
those arrangements which resulted in my becoming your constant companion. In
accomplishing this point, I was urged partly, and perhaps principally, by a regretful
memory of the deceased, but also, in part, by an uneasy, and not altogether horrorless
curiosity respecting yourself.
"In your detail of the vision which presented itself to you amid the hills, you have
described, with the minutest accuracy, the Indian city of Benares, upon the Holy River.
The riots, the combat, the massacre, were the actual events of the insurrection of Cheyte
Sing, which took place in 1780, when Hastings was put in imminent peril of his life. The
man escaping by the string of turbans was Cheyte Sing himself. The party in the kiosk
were sepoys and British officers, headed by Hastings. Of this party I was one, and did all
I could to prevent the rash and fatal sally of the officer who fell, in the crowded alleys, by
the poisoned arrow of a Bengalee. That officer was my dearest friend. It was Oldeb. You
will perceive by these manuscripts," (here the speaker produced a note-book in which
several pages appeared to have been freshly written,) "that at the very period in which
you fancied these things amid the hills, I was engaged in detailing them upon paper here
at home."
In about a week after this conversation, the following paragraphs appeared in a
Charlottesville paper:
"We have the painful duty of announcing the death of Mr. Augustus Bedlo, a gentleman
whose amiable manners and many virtues have long endeared him to the citizens of
Charlottesville.
"Mr. B., for some years past, has been subject to neuralgia, which has often threatened to
terminate fatally; but this can be regarded only as the mediate cause of his decease. The
proximate cause was one of especial singularity. In an excursion to the Ragged
Mountains, a few days since, a slight cold and fever were contracted, attended with great
determination of blood to the head. To relieve this, Dr. Templeton resorted to topical
bleeding. Leeches were applied to the temples. In a fearfully brief period the patient died,
when it appeared that in the jar containing the leeches, had been introduced, by accident,
one of the venomous vermicular sangsues which are now and then found in the
neighboring ponds. This creature fastened itself upon a small artery in the right temple.
Its close resemblance to the medicinal leech caused the mistake to be overlooked until too
late.
"N. B. The poisonous sangsue of Charlottesville may always be distinguished from the
medicinal leech by its blackness, and especially by its writhing or vermicular motions,
which very nearly resemble those of a snake."
I was speaking with the editor of the paper in question, upon the topic of this remarkable
accident, when it occurred to me to ask how it happened that the name of the deceased
had been given as Bedlo.
"I presume," I said, "you have authority for this spelling, but I have always supposed the
name to be written with an e at the end."
"Authority?–no," he replied. "It is a mere typographical error. The name is Bedlo with an
e, all the world over, and I never knew it to be spelt otherwise in my life."
"Then," said I mutteringly, as I turned upon my heel, "then indeed has it come to pass that
one truth is stranger than any fiction–for Bedloe, without the e, what is it but Oldeb
conversed! And this man tells me that it is a typographical error."
THE END
A VALENTINE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1846
For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines!–they hold a treasure
Divine–a talisman–an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measureThe words–the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets–as the name is a poet's, too,
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto–Mendez FerdinandoStill form a synonym for Truth–Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.
THE END
AL AARAAF
by Edgar Allan Poe
1829
PART I
O! nothing earthly save the ray
(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,
As in those gardens where the day
Springs from the gems of CircassyO! nothing earthly save the thrill
Of melody in woodland rillOr (music of the passion-hearted)
Joy's voice so peacefully departed
That like the murmur in the shell,
Its echo dwelleth and will dwellOh, nothing of the dross of oursYet all the beauty–all the flowers
That list our Love, and deck our bowersAdorn yon world afar, afarThe wandering star.
'Twas a sweet time for Nesace–for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air,
Near four bright suns–a temporary restAn oasis in desert of the blest.
Away–away–'mid seas of rays that roll
Empyrean splendor o'er th' unchained soulThe soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin'd eminence,To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode
And late to ours, the favor'd one of GodBut, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,
She throws aside the sceptre–leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.
Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,
Whence sprang the "Idea of Beauty" into birth,
(Falling in wreaths thro' many a startled star,
Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,
It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt)
She looked into Infinity–and knelt.
Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curledFit emblems of the model of her worldSeen but in beauty–not impeding sight
Of other beauty glittering thro' the lightA wreath that twined each starry form around,
And all the opal'd air in color bound.
All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear'd the head
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of–deep prideOf her who lov'd a mortal–and so died.
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Upreared its purple stem around her knees:And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'dInmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd
All other loveliness:–its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)
Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond–and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant in grief
Disconsolate linger–grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have Red,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten'd and more fair:
Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:
And Clytia, pondering between many a sun,
While pettish tears adown her petals run:
And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth,
And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,
Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing
Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:
And Valisnerian lotus, thither flown"
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d'oro!–Fior di Levante!
And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river-
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:
"Spirit! that dwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair,
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blueThe boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier and thy barOf the barrier overgone
By the comets who were cast
From their pride and from their throne
To be drudges till the lastTo be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
And with pain that shall not partWho livest–that we knowIn Eternity–we feelBut the shadow of whose brow
What spirit shall reveal?
Tho' the beings whom thy Nesace,
Thy messenger hath known
Have dream'd for thy Infinity
A model of their ownThy will is done, O God!
The star hath ridden high
Thro' many a tempest, but she rode
Beneath thy burning eye;
And here, in thought, to theeIn thought that can alone
Ascend thy empire and so be
A partner of thy throneBy winged Fantasy,
My embassy is given,
Till secrecy shall knowledge be
In the environs of Heaven."
She ceas'd–and buried then her burning cheek
Abash'd, amid the lilies there, to seek
A shelter from the fervor of His eye;
For the stars trembled at the Deity.
She stirr'd not–breath'd not–for a voice was there
How solemnly pervading the calm air!
A sound of silence on the startled ear
Which dreamy poets name "the music of the sphere."
Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call
"Silence"–which is the merest word of all.
All Nature speaks, and ev'n ideal things
Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wingsBut ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high
The eternal voice of God is passing by,
And the red winds are withering in the sky:"What tho 'in worlds which sightless cycles run,
Linked to a little system, and one sunWhere all my love is folly and the crowd
Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,
The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)
What tho' in worlds which own a single sun
The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,
Yet thine is my resplendency, so given
To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven!
Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,
With all thy train, athwart the moony skyApart–like fire-flies in Sicilian night,
And wing to other worlds another light!
Divulge the secrets of thy embassy
To the proud orbs that twinkle–and so be
To ev'ry heart a barrier and a ban
Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"
Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,
The single-mooned eve!–on Earth we plight
Our faith to one love–and one moon adoreThe birth-place of young Beauty had no more.
As sprang that yellow star from downy hours
Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,
And bent o'er sheeny mountains and dim plain
Her way, but left not yet her Therasaean reign.
PART II
High on a mountain of enamell'd headSuch as the drowsy shepherd on his bed
Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,
Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees
With many a mutter'd "hope to be forgiven"
What time the moon is quadrated in HeavenOf rosy head that, towering far away
Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray
Of sunken suns at eve–at noon of night,
While the moon danc'd with the fair stranger lightUprear'd upon such height arose a pile
Of gorgeous columns on th' unburthen'd air,
Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile
Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,
And nursled the young mountain in its lair.
Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall
Thro' the ebon air, besilvering the pall
Of their own dissolution, while they dieAdorning then the dwellings of the sky.
A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,
Sat gently on these columns as a crownA window of one circular diamond, there,
Look'd out above into the purple air,
And rays from God shot down that meteor chain
And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,
Save, when, between th' empyrean and that ring,
Some eager spirit Flapp'd his dusky wing.
But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen
The dimness of this world: that greyish green
That Nature loves the best Beauty's grave
Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architraveAnd every sculptur'd cherub thereabout
That from his marble dwelling peered out,
Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his nicheAchaian statues in a world so rich!
Friezes from Tadmor and PersepolisFrom Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss
Of beautiful Gomorrah! O, the wave
Is now upon thee–but too late to save!
Sound loves to revel in a summer night:
Witness the murmur of the grey twilight
That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,
Of many a wild star-gazer long agoThat stealeth ever on the ear of him
Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim,
And sees the darkness coming as a cloudIs not its form–its voice–most palpable and loud?
But what is this?–it cometh, and it brings
A music with it–'tis the rush of wingsA pause–and then a sweeping, falling strain
And Nesace is in her halls again.
From the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
And zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe,
She paused and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,
The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair
And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there.
Young flowers were whispering in melody
To happy flowers that night–and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;
Yet silence came upon material thingsFair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wingsAnd sound alone that from the spirit sprang
Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang:
"'Neath the blue-bell or streamerOr tufted wild spray
That keeps, from the dreamer,
The moonbeam awayBright beings! that ponder,
With half closing eyes,
On the stars which your wonder
Hath drawn from the skies,
Till they glance thro' the shade, and
Come down to your brow
Like–eyes of the maiden
Who calls on you nowArise! from your dreaming
In violet bowers,
To duty beseeming
These star-litten hoursAnd shake from your tresses
Encumber'd with dew
The breath of those kisses
That cumber them too(O! how, without you, Love!
Could angels be blest?)
Those kisses of true Love
That lull'd ye to rest!
Up!–shake from your wing
Each hindering thing:
The dew of the nightIt would weigh down your flight
And true love caressesO, leave them apart!
They are light on the tresses,
But lead on the heart.
Ligeia! Ligeia!
My beautiful one!
Whose harshest idea
Will to melody run,
O! is it thy will
On the breezes to toss?
Or, capriciously still,
Like the lone Albatros,
Incumbent on night
(As she on the air)
To keep watch with delight
On the harmony there?
Ligeia! wherever
Thy image may be,
No magic shall sever
Thy music from thee.
Thou hast bound many eyes
In a dreamy sleepBut the strains still arise
Which thy vigilance keepThe sound of the rain,
Which leaps down to the flowerAnd dances again
In the rhythm of the showerThe murmur that springs
From the growing of grass
Are the music of thingsBut are modell'd, alas!Away, then, my dearest,
Oh! hie thee away
To the springs that lie clearest
Beneath the moon-rayTo lone lake that smiles,
In its dream of deep rest,
At the many star-isles
That enjewel its breastWhere wild flowers, creeping,
Have mingled their shade,
On its margin is sleeping
Full many a maid-
Some have left the cool glade, and
Have slept with the beeArouse them, my maiden,
On moorland and leaGo! breathe on their slumber,
All softly in ear,
Thy musical number
They slumbered to hearFor what can awaken
An angel so soon,
Whose sleep hath been taken
Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no slumber
Of witchery may test,
The rhythmical number
Which lull'd him to rest?"
Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,
A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro',
Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flightSeraphs in all but "Knowledge," the keen light
That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar,
O Death! from eye of God upon that star:
Sweet was that error–sweeter still that deathSweet was that error–even with us the breath
Of Science dims the mirror of our joyTo them 'twere the Simoom, and would destroyFor what (to them) availeth it to know
That Truth is Falsehood–or that Bliss is Woe?
Sweet was their death–with them to die was rife
With the last ecstasy of satiate lifeBeyond that death no immortalityBut sleep that pondereth and is not "to be'!And there–oh! may my weary spirit dwellApart from Heaven's Eternity–and yet how far from Hell!
What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,
Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?
But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts
To those who hear not for their beating hearts.
A maiden-angel and her seraph-loverO! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)
Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?
Unguided Love hath fAllan–'mid "tears of perfect moan."
He was a goodly spirit–he who fell:
A wanderer by moss-y-mantled wellA gazer on the lights that shine above-
A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love:
What wonder? for each star is eye-like there,
And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hairAnd they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy
To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.
The night had found (to him a night of woe)
Upon a mountain crag, young AngeloBeetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,
And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.
Here sat he with his love–his dark eye bent
With eagle gaze along the firmament:
Now turn'd it upon her–but ever then
It trembled to the orb of EARTH again.
"Ianthe, dearest, see–how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls–nor mourn'd to leave.
That eve–that eve–I should remember wellThe sun-ray dropp'd in Lemnos, with a spell
On th' arabesque carving of a gilded hall
Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wallAnd on my eyelids–O the heavy light!
How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!
On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran
With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:
But O that light!–I slumber'd–Death, the while,
Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
So softly that no single silken hair
Awoke that slept–or knew that he was there.
"The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon
Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon;
More beauty clung around her column'd wall
Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,
And when old Time my wing did disenthral
Thence sprang I–as the eagle from his tower,
And years I left behind me in an hour.
What time upon her airy bounds I hung,
One half the garden of her globe was flung
Unrolling as a chart unto my viewTenantless cities of the desert too!
Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then,
And half I wish'd to be again of men."
"My Angelo! and why of them to be?
A brighter dwelling-place is here for theeAnd greener fields than in yon world above,
And woman's loveliness–and passionate love."
"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft
Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,
Perhaps my brain grew dizzy–but the world
I left so late was into chaos hurl'dSprang from her station, on the winds apart.
And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.
Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar
And fell–not swiftly as I rose before,
But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to oursDread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Daedalion on the timid Earth."
"We came–and to thy Earth–but not to us
Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
She grants to us, as granted by her GodBut, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd
Never his fairy wing O'er fairier world!
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headlong thitherward o'er the starry seaBut when its glory swell'd upon the sky,
As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
We paused before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled–as doth Beauty then!"
Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.
THE END
ALONE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1830
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then–in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life–was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
THE END
AN ENIGMA
by Edgar Allan Poe
1848
"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,
"Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.
Through all the flimsy things we see at once
As easily as through a Naples bonnetTrash of all trash!–how can a lady don it?
Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuffOwl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff
Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it."
And, veritably, Sol is right enough.
The general tuckermanities are arrant
Bubbles–ephemeral and so transparentBut this is, now–you may depend upon itStable, opaque, immortal–all by dint
Of the dear names that he concealed within 't.
THE END
ANNABEL LEE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1849
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than loveI and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and meYes!–that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than weOf many far wiser than weAnd neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling–my darling–my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
THE END
BERENICE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1835
Dicebant mihi sodales, si sepulchrum amicae visitarem,
curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas.
--Ebn Zaiat.
MISERY is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide
horizon as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch, --as distinct too,
yet as intimately blended. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow! How is it that
from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness? --from the covenant of peace a simile
of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow
born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are
have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.
My baptismal name is Egaeus; that of my family I will not mention. Yet there are no
towers in the land more time-honored than my gloomy, gray, hereditary halls. Our line
has been called a race of visionaries; and in many striking particulars --in the character of
the family mansion --in the frescos of the chief saloon --in the tapestries of the
dormitories --in the chiselling of some buttresses in the armory --but more especially in
the gallery of antique paintings --in the fashion of the library chamber --and, lastly, in the
very peculiar nature of the library's contents, there is more than sufficient evidence to
warrant the belief.
The recollections of my earliest years are connected with that chamber, and with its
volumes --of which latter I will say no more. Here died my mother. Herein was I born.
But it is mere idleness to say that I had not lived before --that the soul has no previous
existence. You deny it? --let us not argue the matter. Convinced myself, I seek not to
convince. There is, however, a remembrance of aerial forms --of spiritual and meaning
eyes --of sounds, musical yet sad --a remembrance which will not be excluded; a memory
like a shadow, vague, variable, indefinite, unsteady; and like a shadow, too, in the
impossibility of my getting rid of it while the sunlight of my reason shall exist.
In that chamber was I born. Thus awaking from the long night of what seemed, but was
not, nonentity, at once into the very regions of fairy-land --into a palace of imagination -into the wild dominions of monastic thought and erudition --it is not singular that I gazed
around me with a startled and ardent eye --that I loitered away my boyhood in books, and
dissipated my youth in reverie; but it is singular that as years rolled away, and the noon of
manhood found me still in the mansion of my fathers --it is wonderful what stagnation
there fell upon the springs of my life --wonderful how total an inversion took place in the
character of my commonest thought. The realities of the world affected me as visions,
and as visions only, while the wild ideas of the land of dreams became, in turn, --not the
material of my every-day existence-but in very deed that existence utterly and solely in
itself.
Berenice and I were cousins, and we grew up together in my paternal halls. Yet
differently we grew --I ill of health, and buried in gloom --she agile, graceful, and
overflowing with energy; hers the ramble on the hill-side --mine the studies of the cloister
--I living within my own heart, and addicted body and soul to the most intense and
painful meditation --she roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows
in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours. Berenice! --I call upon her
name --Berenice! --and from the gray ruins of memory a thousand tumultuous
recollections are startled at the sound! Ah! vividly is her image before me now, as in the
early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh! gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh! sylph
amid the shrubberies of Arnheim! --Oh! Naiad among its fountains! --and then --then all
is mystery and terror, and a tale which should not be told. Disease --a fatal disease --fell
like the simoom upon her frame, and, even while I gazed upon her, the spirit of change
swept, over her, pervading her mind, her habits, and her character, and, in a manner the
most subtle and terrible, disturbing even the identity of her person! Alas! the destroyer
came and went, and the victim --where was she, I knew her not --or knew her no longer
as Berenice.
Among the numerous train of maladies superinduced by that fatal and primary one which
effected a revolution of so horrible a kind in the moral and physical being of my cousin,
may be mentioned as the most distressing and obstinate in its nature, a species of epilepsy
not unfrequently terminating in trance itself --trance very nearly resembling positive
dissolution, and from which her manner of recovery was in most instances, startlingly
abrupt. In the mean time my own disease --for I have been told that I should call it by no
other appelation --my own disease, then, grew rapidly upon me, and assumed finally a
monomaniac character of a novel and extraordinary form --hourly and momently gaining
vigor --and at length obtaining over me the most incomprehensible ascendancy. This
monomania, if I must so term it, consisted in a morbid irritability of those properties of
the mind in metaphysical science termed the attentive. It is more than probable that I am
not understood; but I fear, indeed, that it is in no manner possible to convey to the mind
of the merely general reader, an adequate idea of that nervous intensity of interest with
which, in my case, the powers of meditation (not to speak technically) busied and buried
themselves, in the contemplation of even the most ordinary objects of the universe.
To muse for long unwearied hours with my attention riveted to some frivolous device on
the margin, or in the topography of a book; to become absorbed for the better part of a
summer's day, in a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry, or upon the door; to
lose myself for an entire night in watching the steady flame of a lamp, or the embers of a
fire; to dream away whole days over the perfume of a flower; to repeat monotonously
some common word, until the sound, by dint of frequent repetition, ceased to convey any
idea whatever to the mind; to lose all sense of motion or physical existence, by means of
absolute bodily quiescence long and obstinately persevered in; --such were a few of the
most common and least pernicious vagaries induced by a condition of the mental
faculties, not, indeed, altogether unparalleled, but certainly bidding defiance to anything
like analysis or explanation.
Yet let me not be misapprehended. --The undue, earnest, and morbid attention thus
excited by objects in their own nature frivolous, must not be confounded in character
with that ruminating propensity common to all mankind, and more especially indulged in
by persons of ardent imagination. It was not even, as might be at first supposed, an
extreme condition or exaggeration of such propensity, but primarily and essentially
distinct and different. In the one instance, the dreamer, or enthusiast, being interested by
an object usually not frivolous, imperceptibly loses sight of this object in a wilderness of
deductions and suggestions issuing therefrom, until, at the conclusion of a day dream
often replete with luxury, he finds the incitamentum or first cause of his musings entirely
vanished and forgotten. In my case the primary object was invariably frivolous, although
assuming, through the medium of my distempered vision, a refracted and unreal
importance. Few deductions, if any, were made; and those few pertinaciously returning in
upon the original object as a centre. The meditations were never pleasurable; and, at the
termination of the reverie, the first cause, so far from being out of sight, had attained that
supernaturally exaggerated interest which was the prevailing feature of the disease. In a
word, the powers of mind more particularly exercised were, with me, as I have said
before, the attentive, and are, with the day-dreamer, the speculative.
My books, at this epoch, if they did not actually serve to irritate the disorder, partook, it
will be perceived, largely, in their imaginative and inconsequential nature, of the
characteristic qualities of the disorder itself. I well remember, among others, the treatise
of the noble Italian Coelius Secundus Curio "de Amplitudine Beati Regni dei"; St.
Austin's great work, the "City of God"; and Tertullian "de Carne Christi," in which the
paradoxical sentence "Mortuus est Dei filius; credible est quia ineptum est: et sepultus
resurrexit; certum est quia impossibile est" occupied my undivided time, for many weeks
of laborious and fruitless investigation.
Thus it will appear that, shaken from its balance only by trivial things, my reason bore
resemblance to that ocean-crag spoken of by Ptolemy Hephestion, which steadily
resisting the attacks of human violence, and the fiercer fury of the waters and the winds,
trembled only to the touch of the flower called Asphodel. And although, to a careless
thinker, it might appear a matter beyond doubt, that the alteration produced by her
unhappy malady, in the moral condition of Berenice, would afford me many objects for
the exercise of that intense and abnormal meditation whose nature I have been at some
trouble in explaining, yet such was not in any degree the case. In the lucid intervals of my
infirmity, her calamity, indeed, gave me pain, and, taking deeply to heart that total wreck
of her fair and gentle life, I did not fall to ponder frequently and bitterly upon the wonderworking means by which so strange a revolution had been so suddenly brought to pass.
But these reflections partook not of the idiosyncrasy of my disease, and were such as
would have occurred, under similar circumstances, to the ordinary mass of mankind. True
to its own character, my disorder revelled in the less important but more startling changes
wrought in the physical frame of Berenice --in the singular and most appalling distortion
of her personal identity.
During the brightest days of her unparalleled beauty, most surely I had never loved her.
In the strange anomaly of my existence, feelings with me, had never been of the heart,
and my passions always were of the mind. Through the gray of the early morning -among the trellissed shadows of the forest at noonday --and in the silence of my library at
night, she had flitted by my eyes, and I had seen her --not as the living and breathing
Berenice, but as the Berenice of a dream --not as a being of the earth, earthy, but as the
abstraction of such a being-not as a thing to admire, but to analyze --not as an object of
love, but as the theme of the most abstruse although desultory speculation. And now -now I shuddered in her presence, and grew pale at her approach; yet bitterly lamenting
her fAllan and desolate condition, I called to mind that she had loved me long, and, in an
evil moment, I spoke to her of marriage.
And at length the period of our nuptials was approaching, when, upon an afternoon in the
winter of the year, --one of those unseasonably warm, calm, and misty days which are the
nurse of the beautiful Halcyon*, --I sat, (and sat, as I thought, alone,) in the inner
apartment of the library. But uplifting my eyes I saw that Berenice stood before me.
*For as Jove, during the winter season, gives twice seven days of warmth, men have
called this clement and temperate time the nurse of the beautiful Halcyon --Simonides.
Was it my own excited imagination --or the misty influence of the atmosphere --or the
uncertain twilight of the chamber --or the gray draperies which fell around her figure -that caused in it so vacillating and indistinct an outline? I could not tell. She spoke no
word, I --not for worlds could I have uttered a syllable. An icy chill ran through my
frame; a sense of insufferable anxiety oppressed me; a consuming curiosity pervaded my
soul; and sinking back upon the chair, I remained for some time breathless and
motionless, with my eyes riveted upon her person. Alas! its emaciation was excessive,
and not one vestige of the former being, lurked in any single line of the contour. My
burning glances at length fell upon the face.
The forehead was high, and very pale, and singularly placid; and the once jetty hair fell
partially over it, and overshadowed the hollow temples with innumerable ringlets now of
a vivid yellow, and Jarring discordantly, in their fantastic character, with the reigning
melancholy of the countenance. The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and seemingly
pupil-less, and I shrank involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the
thin and shrunken lips. They parted; and in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth of the
changed Berenice disclosed themselves slowly to my view. Would to God that I had
never beheld them, or that, having done so, I had died!
The shutting of a door disturbed me, and, looking up, I found that my cousin had
departed from the chamber. But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas!
departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not
a speck on their surface --not a shade on their enamel --not an indenture in their edges -but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them
now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth! --the teeth! --they were
here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and
excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their
first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania, and I struggled in
vain against its strange and irresistible influence. In the multiplied objects of the external
world I had no thoughts but for the teeth. For these I longed with a phrenzied desire. All
other matters and all different interests became absorbed in their single contemplation.
They --they alone were present to the mental eye, and they, in their sole individuality,
became the essence of my mental life. I held them in every light. I turned them in every
attitude. I surveyed their characteristics. I dwelt upon their peculiarities. I pondered upon
their conformation. I mused upon the alteration in their nature. I shuddered as I assigned
to them in imagination a sensitive and sentient power, and even when unassisted by the
lips, a capability of moral expression. Of Mad'selle Salle it has been well said, "que tous
ses pas etaient des sentiments," and of Berenice I more seriously believed que toutes ses
dents etaient des idees. Des idees! --ah here was the idiotic thought that destroyed me!
Des idees! --ah therefore it was that I coveted them so madly! I felt that their possession
could alone ever restore me to peace, in giving me back to reason.
And the evening closed in upon me thus-and then the darkness came, and tarried, and
went --and the day again dawned --and the mists of a second night were now gathering
around --and still I sat motionless in that solitary room; and still I sat buried in
meditation, and still the phantasma of the teeth maintained its terrible ascendancy as, with
the most vivid hideous distinctness, it floated about amid the changing lights and
shadows of the chamber. At length there broke in upon my dreams a cry as of horror and
dismay; and thereunto, after a pause, succeeded the sound of troubled voices,
intermingled with many low moanings of sorrow, or of pain. I arose from my seat and,
throwing open one of the doors of the library, saw standing out in the antechamber a
servant maiden, all in tears, who told me that Berenice was --no more. She had been
seized with epilepsy in the early morning, and now, at the closing in of the night, the
grave was ready for its tenant, and all the preparations for the burial were completed.
I found myself sitting in the library, and again sitting there alone. It seemed that I had
newly awakened from a confused and exciting dream. I knew that it was now midnight,
and I was well aware that since the setting of the sun Berenice had been interred. But of
that dreary period which intervened I had no positive --at least no definite
comprehension. Yet its memory was replete with horror --horror more horrible from
being vague, and terror more terrible from ambiguity. It was a fearful page in the record
my existence, written all over with dim, and hideous, and unintelligible recollections. I
strived to decypher them, but in vain; while ever and anon, like the spirit of a departed
sound, the shrill and piercing shriek of a female voice seemed to be ringing in my ears. I
had done a deed --what was it? I asked myself the question aloud, and the whispering
echoes of the chamber answered me, "what was it?"
On the table beside me burned a lamp, and near it lay a little box. It was of no remarkable
character, and I had seen it frequently before, for it was the property of the family
physician; but how came it there, upon my table, and why did I shudder in regarding it?
These things were in no manner to be accounted for, and my eyes at length dropped to the
open pages of a book, and to a sentence underscored therein. The words were the singular
but simple ones of the poet Ebn Zaiat, "Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicae
visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas." Why then, as I perused them, did the
hairs of my head erect themselves on end, and the blood of my body become congealed
within my veins?
There came a light tap at the library door, and pale as the tenant of a tomb, a menial
entered upon tiptoe. His looks were wild with terror, and he spoke to me in a voice
tremulous, husky, and very low. What said he? --some broken sentences I heard. He told
of a wild cry disturbing the silence of the night --of the gathering together of the
household-of a search in the direction of the sound; --and then his tones grew thrillingly
distinct as he whispered me of a violated grave --of a disfigured body enshrouded, yet
still breathing, still palpitating, still alive!
He pointed to garments;-they were muddy and clotted with gore. I spoke not, and he took
me gently by the hand; --it was indented with the impress of human nails. He directed my
attention to some object against the wall; --I looked at it for some minutes; --it was a
spade. With a shriek I bounded to the table, and grasped the box that lay upon it. But I
could not force it open; and in my tremor it slipped from my hands, and fell heavily, and
burst into pieces; and from it, with a rattling sound, there rolled out some instruments of
dental surgery, intermingled with thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances
that were scattered to and fro about the floor.
THE END
BON-BON
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
Quand un bon vin meuble mon estomac
Je suis plus savant que BalzacPlus sage que Pibrac;
Mon brass seul faisant l'attaque
De la nation Coseaque,
La mettroit au sac;
De Charon je passerois le lac
En dormant dans son bac,
J'irois au fier Eac,
Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac,
Premmer du tabac.
--French Vaudeville
THAT Pierre Bon-Bon was a restaurateur of uncommon qualifications, the cul-de-sac Le
Febvre at Rouen, will, I imagine, feel himself at liberty to dispute. That Pierre Bon-Bon
was, in an equal degree, skilled in the philosophy of that period is, I presume still more
especially undeniable. His pates a la fois were beyond doubt immaculate; but what pen
can do justice to his essays sur la Nature–his thoughts sur l'Ame–his observations sur
l'Esprit? If his omelettes–if his fricandeaux were inestimable, what litterateur of that day
would not have given twice as much for an "Idee de Bon-Bon" as for all the trash of
"Idees" of all the rest of the savants? Bon-Bon had ransacked libraries which no other
man had ransacked–had more than any other would have entertained a notion of reading–
had understood more than any other would have conceived the possibility of
understanding; and although, while he flourished, there were not wanting some authors at
Rouen to assert "that his dicta evinced neither the purity of the Academy, nor the depth of
the Lyceum"–although, mark me, his doctrines were by no means very generally
comprehended, still it did not follow that they were difficult of comprehension. It was, I
think, on account of their self-evidency that many persons were led to consider them
abstruse. It is to Bon-Bon–but let this go no farther–it is to Bon-Bon that Kant himself is
mainly indebted for his metaphysics. The former was indeed not a Platonist, nor strictly
speaking an Aristotelian–nor did he, like the modern Leibnitz, waste those precious hours
which might be employed in the invention of a fricasee or, facili gradu, the analysis of a
sensation, in frivolous attempts at reconciling the obstinate oils and waters of ethical
discussion. Not at all. Bon-Bon was Ionic–Bon-Bon was equally Italic. He reasoned a
priori–He reasoned also a posteriori. His ideas were innate–or otherwise. He believed in
George of Trebizonde–He believed in Bossarion. Bon-Bon was emphatically a–BonBonist.
I have spoken of the philosopher in his capacity of restaurateur. I would not, however,
have any friend of mine imagine that, in fulfilling his hereditary duties in that line, our
hero wanted a proper estimation of their dignity and importance. Far from it. It was
impossible to say in which branch of his profession he took the greater pride. In his
opinion the powers of the intellect held intimate connection with the capabilities of the
stomach. I am not sure, indeed, that he greatly disagreed with the Chinese, who held that
the soul lies in the abdomen. The Greeks at all events were right, he thought, who
employed the same words for the mind and the diaphragm. By this I do not mean to
insinuate a charge of gluttony, or indeed any other serious charge to the prejudice of the
metaphysician. If Pierre Bon-Bon had his failings–and what great man has not a
thousand?–if Pierre Bon-Bon, I say, had his failings, they were failings of very little
importance–faults indeed which, in other tempers, have often been looked upon rather in
the light of virtues. As regards one of these foibles, I should not even have mentioned it
in this history but for the remarkable prominency–the extreme alto relievo–in which it
jutted out from the plane of his general disposition. He could never let slip an opportunity
of making a bargain.
Not that he was avaricious–no. It was by no means necessary to the satisfaction of the
philosopher, that the bargain should be to his own proper advantage. Provided a trade
could be effected–a trade of any kind, upon any terms, or under any circumstances–a
triumphant smile was seen for many days thereafter to enlighten his countenance, and a
knowing wink of the eye to give evidence of his sagacity.
At any epoch it would not be very wonderful if a humor so peculiar as the one I have just
mentioned, should elicit attention and remark. At the epoch of our narrative, had this
peculiarity not attracted observation, there would have been room for wonder indeed. It
was soon reported that, upon all occasions of the kind, the smile of Bon-Bon was wont to
differ widely from the downright grin with which he would laugh at his own jokes, or
welcome an acquaintance. Hints were thrown out of an exciting nature; stories were told
of perilous bargains made in a hurry and repented of at leisure; and instances were
adduced of unaccountable capacities, vague longings, and unnatural inclinations
implanted by the author of all evil for wise purposes of his own.
The philosopher had other weaknesses–but they are scarcely worthy our serious
examination. For example, there are few men of extraordinary profundity who are found
wanting in an inclination for the bottle. Whether this inclination be an exciting cause, or
rather a valid proof of such profundity, it is a nice thing to say. Bon-Bon, as far as I can
learn, did not think the subject adapted to minute investigation;–nor do I. Yet in the
indulgence of a propensity so truly classical, it is not to be supposed that the restaurateur
would lose sight of that intuitive discrimination which was wont to characterize, at one
and the same time, his essais and his omelettes. In his seclusions the Vin de Bourgogne
had its allotted hour, and there were appropriate moments for the Cotes du Rhone. With
him Sauterne was to Medoc what Catullus was to Homer. He would sport with a
syllogism in sipping St. Peray, but unravel an argument over Clos de Vougeot, and upset
a theory in a torrent of Chambertin. Well had it been if the same quick sense of propriety
had attended him in the peddling propensity to which I have formerly alluded–but this
was by no means the case. Indeed to say the truth, that trait of mind in the philosophic
Bon-Bon did begin at length to assume a character of strange intensity and mysticism,
and appeared deeply tinctured with the diablerie of his favorite German studies.
To enter the little Cafe in the cul-de-sac Le Febvre was, at the period of our tale, to enter
the sanctum of a man of genius. Bon-Bon was a man of genius. There was not a souscusinier in Rouen, who could not have told you that Bon-Bon was a man of genius. His
very cat knew it, and forebore to whisk her tail in the presence of the man of genius. His
large water-dog was acquainted with the fact, and upon the approach of his master,
betrayed his sense of inferiority by a sanctity of deportment, a debasement of the ears,
and a dropping of the lower jaw not altogether unworthy of a dog. It is, however, true that
much of this habitual respect might have been attributed to the personal appearance of the
metaphysician. A distinguished exterior will, I am constrained to say, have its way even
with a beast; and I am willing to allow much in the outward man of the restaurateur
calculated to impress the imagination of the quadruped. There is a peculiar majesty about
the atmosphere of the little great–if I may be permitted so equivocal an expression–which
mere physical bulk alone will be found at all times inefficient in creating. If, however,
Bon-Bon was barely three feet in height, and if his head was diminutively small, still it
was impossible to behold the rotundity of his stomach without a sense of magnificence
nearly bordering upon the sublime. In its size both dogs and men must have seen a type
of his acquirements–in its immensity a fitting habitation for his immortal soul.
I might here–if it so pleased me–dilate upon the matter of habiliment, and other mere
circumstances of the external metaphysician. I might hint that the hair of our hero was
worn short, combed smoothly over his forehead, and surmounted by a conical-shaped
white flannel cap and tassels–that his pea-green jerkin was not after the fashion of those
worn by the common class of restaurateurs at that day–that the sleeves were something
fuller than the reigning costume permitted–that the cuffs were turned up, not as usual in
that barbarous period, with cloth of the same quality and color as the garment, but faced
in a more fanciful manner with the particolored velvet of Genoa–that his slippers were of
a bright purple, curiously filigreed, and might have been manufactured in Japan, but for
the exquisite pointing of the toes, and the brilliant tints of the binding and embroidery–
that his breeches were of the yellow satin-like material called aimable–that his sky-blue
cloak, resembling in form a dressing-wrapper, and richly bestudded all over with crimson
devices, floated cavalierly upon his shoulders like a mist of the morning–and that his tout
ensemble gave rise to the remarkable words of Benevenuta, the Improvisatrice of
Florence, "that it was difficult to say whether Pierre Bon-Bon was indeed a bird of
Paradise, or rather a very Paradise of perfection." I might, I say, expatiate upon all these
points if I pleased,–but I forbear, merely personal details may be left to historical
novelists,–they are beneath the moral dignity of matter-of-fact.
I have said that "to enter the Cafe in the cul-de-sac Le Febvre was to enter the sanctum of
a man of genius"–but then it was only the man of genius who could duly estimate the
merits of the sanctum. A sign, consisting of a vast folio, swung before the entrance. On
one side of the volume was painted a bottle; on the reverse a pate. On the back were
visible in large letters Oeuvres de Bon-Bon. Thus was delicately shadowed forth the twofold occupation of the proprietor.
Upon stepping over the threshold, the whole interior of the building presented itself to
view. A long, low-pitched room, of antique construction, was indeed all the
accommodation afforded by the Cafe. In a corner of the apartment stood the bed of the
metaphysician. An army of curtains, together with a canopy a la Grecque, gave it an air at
once classic and comfortable. In the corner diagonary opposite, appeared, in direct family
communion, the properties of the kitchen and the bibliotheque. A dish of polemics stood
peacefully upon the dresser. Here lay an ovenful of the latest ethics–there a kettle of
dudecimo melanges. Volumes of German morality were hand and glove with the
gridiron–a toasting-fork might be discovered by the side of Eusebius–Plato reclined at his
ease in the frying-pan–and contemporary manuscripts were filed away upon the spit.
In other respects the Cafe de Bon-Bon might be said to differ little from the usual
restaurants of the period. A fireplace yawned opposite the door. On the right of the
fireplace an open cupboard displayed a formidable array of labelled bottles.
It was here, about twelve o'clock one night during the severe winter the comments of his
neighbours upon his singular propensity–that Pierre Bon-Bon, I say, having turned them
all out of his house, locked the door upon them with an oath, and betook himself in no
very pacific mood to the comforts of a leather-bottomed arm-chair, and a fire of blazing
fagots.
It was one of those terrific nights which are only met with once or twice during a century.
It snowed fiercely, and the house tottered to its centre with the floods of wind that,
rushing through the crannies in the wall, and pouring impetuously down the chimney,
shook awfully the curtains of the philosopher's bed, and disorganized the economy of his
pate-pans and papers. The huge folio sign that swung without, exposed to the fury of the
tempest, creaked ominously, and gave out a moaning sound from its stanchions of solid
oak.
It was in no placid temper, I say, that the metaphysician drew up his chair to its
customary station by the hearth. Many circumstances of a perplexing nature had occurred
during the day, to disturb the serenity of his meditations. In attempting des oeufs a la
Princesse, he had unfortunately perpetrated an omelette a la Reine; the discovery of a
principle in ethics had been frustrated by the overturning of a stew; and last, not least, he
had been thwarted in one of those admirable bargains which he at all times took such
especial delight in bringing to a successful termination. But in the chafing of his mind at
these unaccountable vicissitudes, there did not fail to be mingled some degree of that
nervous anxiety which the fury of a boisterous night is so well calculated to produce.
Whistling to his more immediate vicinity the large black water-dog we have spoken of
before, and settling himself uneasily in his chair, he could not help casting a wary and
unquiet eye toward those distant recesses of the apartment whose inexorable shadows not
even the red firelight itself could more than partially succeed in overcoming. Having
completed a scrutiny whose exact purpose was perhaps unintelligible to himself, he drew
close to his seat a small table covered with books and papers, and soon became absorbed
in the task of retouching a voluminous manuscript, intended for publication on the
morrow.
He had been thus occupied for some minutes when "I am in no hurry, Monsieur BonBon," suddenly whispered a whining voice in the apartment.
"The devil!" ejaculated our hero, starting to his feet, overturning the table at his side, and
staring around him in astonishment.
"Very true," calmly replied the voice.
"Very true!–what is very true?–how came you here?" vociferated the metaphysician, as
his eye fell upon something which lay stretched at full length upon the bed.
"I was saying," said the intruder, without attending to the interrogatives,–"I was saying
that I am not at all pushed for time- that the business upon which I took the liberty of
calling, is of no pressing importance–in short, that I can very well wait until you have
finished your Exposition."
"My Exposition!–there now!–how do you know?–how came you to understand that I was
writing an Exposition?–good God!"
"Hush!" replied the figure, in a shrill undertone; and, arising quickly from the bed, he
made a single step toward our hero, while an iron lamp that depended over-head swung
convulsively back from his approach.
The philosopher's amazement did not prevent a narrow scrutiny of the stranger's dress
and appearance. The outlines of his figure, exceedingly lean, but much above the
common height, were rendered minutely distinct, by means of a faded suit of black cloth
which fitted tight to the skin, but was otherwise cut very much in the style of a century
ago. These garments had evidently been intended for a much shorter person than their
present owner. His ankles and wrists were left naked for several inches. In his shoes,
however, a pair of very brilliant buckles gave the lie to the extreme poverty implied by
the other portions of his dress. His head was bare, and entirely bald, with the exception of
a hinder part, from which depended a queue of considerable length. A pair of green
spectacles, with side glasses, protected his eyes from the influence of the light, and at the
same time prevented our hero from ascertaining either their color or their conformation.
About the entire person there was no evidence of a shirt, but a white cravat, of filthy
appearance, was tied with extreme precision around the throat and the ends hanging down
formally side by side gave (although I dare say unintentionally) the idea of an
ecclesiastic. Indeed, many other points both in his appearance and demeanor might have
very well sustained a conception of that nature. Over his left ear, he carried, after the
fashion of a modern clerk, an instrument resembling the stylus of the ancients. In a
breast-pocket of his coat appeared conspicuously a small black volume fastened with
clasps of steel. This book, whether accidentally or not, was so turned outwardly from the
person as to discover the words "Rituel Catholique" in white letters upon the back. His
entire physiognomy was interestingly saturnine–even cadaverously pale. The forehead
was lofty, and deeply furrowed with the ridges of contemplation. The corners of the
mouth were drawn down into an expression of the most submissive humility. There was
also a clasping of the hands, as he stepped toward our hero–a deep sigh–and altogether a
look of such utter sanctity as could not have failed to be unequivocally preposessing.
Every shadow of anger faded from the countenance of the metaphysician, as, having
completed a satisfactory survey of his visiter's person, he shook him cordially by the
hand, and conducted him to a seat.
There would however be a radical error in attributing this instantaneous transition of
feeling in the philosopher, to any one of those causes which might naturally be supposed
to have had an influence. Indeed, Pierre Bon-Bon, from what I have been able to
understand of his disposition, was of all men the least likely to be imposed upon by any
speciousness of exterior deportment. It was impossible that so accurate an observer of
men and things should have failed to discover, upon the moment, the real character of the
personage who had thus intruded upon his hospitality. To say no more, the conformation
of his visiter's feet was sufficiently remarkable–he maintained lightly upon his head an
inordinately tall hat–there was a tremulous swelling about the hinder part of his
breeches–and the vibration of his coat tail was a palpable fact. Judge, then, with what
feelings of satisfaction our hero found himself thrown thus at once into the society of a
person for whom he had at all times entertained the most unqualified respect. He was,
however, too much of the diplomatist to let escape him any intimation of his suspicions in
regard to the true state of affairs. It was not his cue to appear at all conscious of the high
honor he thus unexpectedly enjoyed; but, by leading his guest into the conversation, to
elicit some important ethical ideas, which might, in obtaining a place in his contemplated
publication, enlighten the human race, and at the same time immortalize himself–ideas
which, I should have added, his visitor's great age, and well-known proficiency in the
science of morals, might very well have enabled him to afford.
Actuated by these enlightened views, our hero bade the gentleman sit down, while he
himself took occasion to throw some fagots upon the fire, and place upon the now reestablished table some bottles of Mousseux. Having quickly completed these operations,
he drew his chair vis-a-vis to his companion's, and waited until the latter should open the
conversation. But plans even the most skilfully matured are often thwarted in the outset
of their application–and the restaurateur found himself nonplussed by the very first words
of his visiter's speech.
"I see you know me, Bon-Bon," said he; "ha! ha! ha!–he! he! he!- hi! hi! hi!–ho! ho! ho!–
hu! hu! hu!"–and the devil, dropping at once the sanctity of his demeanor, opened to its
fullest extent a mouth from ear to ear, so as to display a set of jagged and fang-like teeth,
and, throwing back his head, laughed long, loudly, wickedly, and uproariously, while the
black dog, crouching down upon his haunches, joined lustily in the chorus, and the tabby
cat, flying off at a tangent, stood up on end, and shrieked in the farthest corner of the
apartment.
Not so the philosopher; he was too much a man of the world either to laugh like the dog,
or by shrieks to betray the indecorous trepidation of the cat. It must be confessed, he felt
a little astonishment to see the white letters which formed the words "Rituel Catholique"
on the book in his guest's pocket, momently changing both their color and their import,
and in a few seconds, in place of the original title the words Regitre des Condamnes
blazed forth in characters of red. This startling circumstance, when Bon-Bon replied to
his visiter's remark, imparted to his manner an air of embarrassment which probably
might, not otherwise have been observed.
"Why sir," said the philosopher, "why sir, to speak sincerely–I I imagine–I have some
faint–some very faint idea–of the remarkable honor-"
"Oh!–ah!–yes!–very well!" interrupted his Majesty; "say no more- I see how it is." And
hereupon, taking off his green spectacles, he wiped the glasses carefully with the sleeve
of his coat, and deposited them in his pocket.
If Bon-Bon had been astonished at the incident of the book, his amazement was now
much increased by the spectacle which here presented itself to view. In raising his eyes,
with a strong feeling of curiosity to ascertain the color of his guest's, he found them by no
means black, as he had anticipated–nor gray, as might have been imagined–nor yet hazel
nor blue–nor indeed yellow nor red–nor purple–nor white–nor green–nor any other color
in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. In short,
Pierre Bon-Bon not only saw plainly that his Majesty had no eyes whatsoever, but could
discover no indications of their having existed at any previous period–for the space where
eyes should naturally have been was, I am constrained to say, simply a dead level of
flesh.
It was not in the nature of the metaphysician to forbear making some inquiry into the
sources of so strange a phenomenon, and the reply of his Majesty was at once prompt,
dignified, and satisfactory.
"Eyes! my dear Bon-Bon–eyes! did you say?–oh!–ah!–I perceive! The ridiculous prints,
eh, which are in, circulation, have given you a false idea of my personal appearance?
Eyes!–true. Eyes, Pierre Bon-Bon, are very well in their proper place–that, you would
say, is the head?–right–the head of a worm. To you, likewise, these optics are
indispensable–yet I will convince you that my vision is more penetrating than your own.
There is a cat I see in the corner–a pretty cat–look at her–observe her well. Now, BonBon, do you behold the thoughts–the thoughts, I say,–the ideas–the reflections–which are
being engendered in her pericranium? There it is, now–you do not! She is thinking we
admire the length of her tail and the profundity of her mind. She has just concluded that I
am the most distinguished of ecclesiastics, and that you are the most superficial of
metaphysicians. Thus you see I am not altogether blind; but to one of my profession, the
eyes you speak of would be merely an incumbrance, liable at any time to be put out by a
toasting-iron, or a pitchfork. To you, I allow, these optical affairs are indispensable.
Endeavor, Bon-Bon, to use them well;–my vision is the soul."
Hereupon the guest helped himself to the wine upon the table, and pouring out a bumper
for Bon-Bon, requested him to drink it without scruple, and make himself perfectly at
home.
"A clever book that of yours, Pierre," resumed his Majesty, tapping our friend knowingly
upon the shoulder, as the latter put down his glass after a thorough compliance with his
visiter's injunction. "A clever book that of yours, upon my honor. It's a work after my
own heart. Your arrangement of the matter, I think, however, might be improved, and
many of your notions remind me of Aristotle. That philosopher was one of my most
intimate acquaintances. I liked him as much for his terrible ill temper, as for his happy
knack at making a blunder. There is only one solid truth in all that he has written, and for
that I gave him the hint out of pure compassion for his absurdity. I suppose, Pierre BonBon, you very well know to what divine moral truth I am alluding?"
"Cannot say that I-"
"Indeed!–why it was I who told Aristotle that by sneezing, men expelled superfluous
ideas through the proboscis."
"Which is–hiccup!–undoubtedly the case," said the metaphysician, while he poured out
for himself another bumper of Mousseux, and offered his snuff-box to the fingers of his
visiter.
"There was Plato, too," continued his Majesty, modestly declining the snuff-box and the
compliment it implied–"there was Plato, too, for whom I, at one time, felt all the affection
of a friend. You knew Plato, Bon-Bon?–ah, no, I beg a thousand pardons. He met me at
Athens, one day, in the Parthenon, and told me he was distressed for an idea. I bade him
write, down that o nous estin aulos. He said that he would do so, and went home, while I
stepped over to the pyramids. But my conscience smote me for having uttered a truth,
even to aid a friend, and hastening back to Athens, I arrived behind the philosopher's
chair as he was inditing the 'aulos.'"
"Giving the lambda a fillip with my finger, I turned it upside down. So the sentence now
read 'o nous estin augos', and is, you perceive, the fundamental doctrines in his
metaphysics."
"Were you ever at Rome?" asked the restaurateur, as he finished his second bottle of
Mousseux, and drew from the closet a larger supply of Chambertin.
But once, Monsieur Bon-Bon, but once. There was a time," said the devil, as if reciting
some passage from a book–"there was a time when occurred an anarchy of five years,
during which the republic, bereft of all its officers, had no magistracy besides the tribunes
of the people, and these were not legally vested with any degree of executive power–at
that time, Monsieur Bon-Bon–at that time only I was in Rome, and I have no earthly
acquaintance, consequently, with any of its philosophy."*
*Ils ecrivaient sur la Philosophie (Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca) mais c'etait la Philosophie
Grecque.–Condorcet.
"What do you think of–what do you think of–hiccup!–Epicurus?"
"What do I think of whom?" said the devil, in astonishment, "you cannot surely mean to
find any fault with Epicurus! What do I think of Epicurus! Do you mean me, sir?–I am
Epicurus! I am the same philosopher who wrote each of the three hundred treatises
commemorated by Diogenes Laertes."
"That's a lie!" said the metaphysician, for the wine had gotten a little into his head.
"Very well!–very well, sir!–very well, indeed, sir!" said his Majesty, apparently much
flattered.
"That's a lie!" repeated the restaurateur, dogmatically; "that's a–hiccup!–a lie!"
"Well, well, have it your own way!" said the devil, pacifically, and Bon-Bon, having
beaten his Majesty at argument, thought it his duty to conclude a second bottle of
Chambertin.
"As I was saying," resumed the visiter–"as I was observing a little while ago, there are
some very outre notions in that book of yours Monsieur Bon-Bon. What, for instance, do
you mean by all that humbug about the soul? Pray, sir, what is the soul?"
"The–hiccup!–soul," replied the metaphysician, referring to his MS., "is undoubtedly-"
"No, sir!"
"Indubitably-"
"No, sir!"
"Indisputably-"
"No, sir!"
"Evidently-"
"No, sir!"
"Incontrovertibly-"
"No, sir!"
"Hiccup!-"
"No, sir!"
"And beyond all question, a-"
"No sir, the soul is no such thing!" (Here the philosopher, looking daggers, took occasion
to make an end, upon the spot, of his third bottle of Chambertin.)
"Then–hic-cup!–pray, sir–what–what is it?"
"That is neither here nor there, Monsieur Bon-Bon," replied his Majesty, musingly. "I
have tasted–that is to say, I have known some very bad souls, and some too–pretty good
ones." Here he smacked his lips, and, having unconsciously let fall his hand upon the
volume in his pocket, was seized with a violent fit of sneezing.
He continued.
"There was the soul of Cratinus–passable: Aristophanes–racy: Plato–exquisite–not your
Plato, but Plato the comic poet; your Plato would have turned the stomach of Cerberus–
faugh! Then let me see! there were Naevius, and Andronicus, and Plautus, and Terentius.
Then there were Lucilius, and Catullus, and Naso, and Quintus Flaccus,- dear Quinty! as
I called him when he sung a seculare for my amusement, while I toasted him, in pure
good humor, on a fork. But they want flavor, these Romans. One fat Greek is worth a
dozen of them, and besides will keep, which cannot be said of a Quirite.–Let us taste your
Sauterne."
Bon-Bon had by this time made up his mind to nil admirari and endeavored to hand down
the bottles in question. He was, however, conscious of a strange sound in the room like
the wagging of a tail. Of this, although extremely indecent in his Majesty, the philosopher
took no notice:–simply kicking the dog, and requesting him to be quiet. The visiter
continued:
"I found that Horace tasted very much like Aristotle;–you know I am fond of variety.
Terentius I could not have told from Menander. Naso, to my astonishment, was Nicander
in disguise. Virgilius had a strong twang of Theocritus. Martial put me much in mind of
Archilochus–and Titus Livius was positively Polybius and none other."
"Hic-cup!" here replied Bon-Bon, and his majesty proceeded:
"But if I have a penchant, Monsieur Bon-Bon–if I have a penchant, it is for a philosopher.
Yet, let me tell you, sir, it is not every dev–I mean it is not every gentleman who knows
how to choose a philosopher. Long ones are not good; and the best, if not carefully
shelled, are apt to be a little rancid on account of the gall!"
"Shelled!"
"I mean taken out of the carcass."
"What do you think of a–hic-cup!–physician?"
"Don't mention them!–ugh! ugh! ugh!" (Here his Majesty retched violently.) "I never
tasted but one–that rascal Hippocrates!–smelt of asafoetida–ugh! ugh! ugh!–caught a
wretched cold washing him in the Styx–and after all he gave me the cholera morbus."
"The–hiccup–wretch!" ejaculated Bon-Bon, "the–hic-cup!- absorption of a pill-box!"–and
the philosopher dropped a tear.
"After all," continued the visiter, "after all, if a dev–if a gentleman wishes to live, he must
have more talents than one or two; and with us a fat face is an evidence of diplomacy."
"How so?"
"Why, we are sometimes exceedingly pushed for provisions. You must know that, in a
climate so sultry as mine, it is frequently impossible to keep a spirit alive for more than
two or three hours; and after death, unless pickled immediately (and a pickled spirit is not
good), they will–smell–you understand, eh? Putrefaction is always to be apprehended
when the souls are consigned to us in the usual way."
"Hiccup!–hiccup!–good God! how do you manage?"
Here the iron lamp commenced swinging with redoubled violence, and the devil half
started from his seat;–however, with a slight sigh, he recovered his composure, merely
saying to our hero in a low tone: "I tell you what, Pierre Bon-Bon, we must have no more
swearing."
The host swallowed another bumper, by way of denoting thorough comprehension and
acquiescence, and the visiter continued.
"Why, there are several ways of managing. The most of us starve: some put up with the
pickle: for my part I purchase my spirits vivente corpore, in which case I find they keep
very well."
"But the body!–hiccup!–the body!"
"The body, the body–well, what of the body?–oh! ah! I perceive. Why, sir, the body is
not at all affected by the transaction. I have made innumerable purchases of the kind in
my day, and the parties never experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain and
Nimrod, and Nero, and Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and–and a thousand
others, who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter part of their lives; yet,
sir, these men adorned society. Why possession of his faculties, mental and corporeal?
Who writes a keener epigram? Who reasons more wittily? Who–but stay! I have his
agreement in my pocket-book."
Thus saying, he produced a red leather wallet, and took from it a number of papers. Upon
some of these Bon-Bon caught a glimpse of the letters Machi–Maza–Robesp–with the
words Caligula, George, Elizabeth. His Majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and
from it read aloud the following words:
"In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary to specify, and in
further consideration of one thousand louis d'or, I being aged one year and one month, do
hereby make over to the bearer of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in
the shadow called my soul. (Signed) A...."* (Here His Majesty repeated a name which I
did not feel justified in indicating more unequivocally.)
*Quere-Arouet?
"A clever fellow that," resumed he; "but like you, Monsieur Bon-Bon, he was mistaken
about the soul. The soul a shadow, truly! The soul a shadow; Ha! ha! ha!–he! he! he!–hu!
hu! hu! Only think of a fricasseed shadow!"
"Only think–hiccup!–of a fricasseed shadow!" exclaimed our hero, whose faculties were
becoming much illuminated by the profundity of his Majesty's discourse.
"Only think of a hiccup!–fricasseed shadow!! Now, damme!–hiccup!- humph! If I would
have been such a–hiccup!–nincompoop! My soul, Mr.–humph!"
"Your soul, Monsieur Bon-Bon?"
"Yes, sir–hiccup!–my soul is-"
"What, sir?"
"No shadow, damme!"
"Did you mean to say-"
"Yes, sir, my soul is–hiccup!–humph!–yes, sir."
"Did you not intend to assert-"
"My soul is–hiccup!–peculiarly qualified for–hiccup!–a-"
"What, sir?"
"Stew."
"Ha!"
"Soufflee."
"Eh!"
"Fricassee."
"Indeed!"
"Ragout and fricandeau–and see here, my good fellow! I'll let you have it–hiccup!–a
bargain." Here the philosopher slapped his Majesty upon the back.
"Couldn't think of such a thing," said the latter calmly, at the same time rising from his
seat. The metaphysician stared.
"Am supplied at present," said his Majesty.
"Hiccup–e-h?" said the philosopher.
"Have no funds on hand."
"What?"
"Besides, very unhandsome in me-"
"Sir!"
"To take advantage of-"
"Hiccup!"
"Your present disgusting and ungentlemanly situation."
Here the visiter bowed and withdrew–in what manner could not precisely be ascertained–
but in a well-concerted effort to discharge a bottle at "the villain," the slender chain was
severed that depended from the ceiling, and the metaphysician prostrated by the downfall
of the lamp.
THE END
BRIDAL BALLAD
by Edgar Allan Poe
1837
The ring is on my hand,
And the wreath is on my brow;
Satin and jewels grand
Are all at my command,
And I am happy now.
And my lord he loves me well;
But, when first he breathed his vow,
I felt my bosom swellFor the words rang as a knell,
And the voice seemed his who fell
In the battle down the dell,
And who is happy now.
But he spoke to re-assure me,
And he kissed my pallid brow,
While a reverie came o'er me,
And to the church-yard bore me,
And I sighed to him before me,
Thinking him dead D'Elormie,
"Oh, I am happy now!"
And thus the words were spoken,
And this the plighted vow,
And, though my faith be broken,
And, though my heart be broken,
Here is a ring, as token
That I am happy now!
Would God I could awaken!
For I dream I know not how!
And my soul is sorely shaken
Lest an evil step be taken,Lest the dead who is forsaken
May not be happy now.
THE END
CRITICISM
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
IT HAS been said that a good critique on a poem may be written by one who is no poet
himself. This, according to your idea and mine of poetry, I feel to be false–the less
poetical the critic, the less just the critique, and the converse. On this account, and
because the world's good opinion as proud of your own. Another than yourself might here
observe, "Shakespeare is in possession of the world's good opinion, and yet Shakespeare
is the greatest of poets. It appears then that as the world judges correctly, why should you
be ashamed of their favourable judgment?" The difficulty lies in the interpretation of the
word "judgment" or "opinion." The opinion is the world's, truly, but it may be called
theirs as a man would call a book his, having bought it; he did not write the book, but it is
his; they did not originate the opinion, but it is theirs. A fool, for example, thinks
Shakespeare a great poet–yet the fool has never read Shakespeare. But the fool's
neighbor, who is a step higher on the Andes of the mind, whose head (that is to say, his
more exalted thought) is too far above the fool to be seen or understood, but whose feet
(by which I mean his every-day actions) are sufficiently near to be discerned, and by
means of which that superiority is ascertained, which but for them would never have been
discovered–this neighbor asserts that Shakespeare is a great poet–the fool believes him,
and it is henceforward his opinion. This neighbor's own opinion has, in like manner, been
adopted from one above him, and so, ascendingly, to a few gifted individuals who kneel
around the summit, beholding, face to face, the master spirit who stands upon the
pinnacle....
You are aware of the great barrier in the path of an American writer. He is read, if at all,
in preference to the combined and established wit of the world. I say established; for it is
with literature as with law or empire–an established name is an estate in tenure, or a
throne in possession. Besides, one might suppose that books, like their authors, improve
by travel–their having crossed the sea is, with us, so great a distinction. Our antiquaries
abandon time for distance; our very fops glance from the binding to the bottom of the
title-page, where the mystic characters which spell London, Paris, or Genoa, are precisely
so many letters of recommendation.
I mentioned just now a vulgar error as regards criticism. I think the notion that no poet
can form a correct estimate of his own writings is another. I remarked before that in
proportion to the poetical talent would be the justice of a critique upon poetry. Therefore
a bad poet would, I grant, make a false critique, and his self-love would infallibly bias his
little judgment in his favour; but a poet, who is indeed a poet, could not, I think, fail of
making a just critique; whatever should be deducted on the score of self-love might be
replaced on account of his intimate acquaintance with the subject; in short, we have more
instances of false criticism than of just where one's own writings are the test, simply
because we have more bad poets than good. There are, of course, many objections to
what I say: Milton is a great example of the contrary, but his opinion with respect to the
Paradise Regained is by no means fairly ascertained. By what trivial circumstances men
are often led to assert what they do not really believe! Perhaps an inadvertent world has
descended to posterity. But, in fact, the Paradise Regained is little, if at all inferior to the
Paradise Lost and is only supposed so to be because men do not like epics, whatever they
may say to the contrary, and reading those of Milton in their natural order, are too much
wearied with the first to derive any pleasure from the second.
I dare say Milton preferred Comos to either–if so–justly....
As I am speaking of poetry, it will not be amiss to touch slightly upon the most singular
heresy in its modern history–the heresy of what is called, very foolishly, the Lake School.
Some years ago I might have been induced, by an occasion like the present, to attempt a
formal refutation of their doctrine; at present it would be a work of supererogation. The
wise must bow to the wisdom of such men as Coleridge and Southey, but being wise,
have laughed at poetical theories so prosaically exemplified.
Aristotle, with singular assurance, has declared poetry the most philosophical of all
writings–but it required a Wordsworth to pronounce it the most metaphysical. He seems
to think that the end of poetry is, or should be, instruction; yet it is a truism that the end of
our existence is happiness; if so, the end of every separate part of our existence,
everything connected with our existence, should be happiness. Therefore the end of
instruction should be happiness; and happiness is another name for pleasure,–therefore
the end of instruction should be pleasure; yet we see the above-mentioned opinion
implies precisely the reverse.
To proceed: ceteris paribus, he who pleases is of more importance to his fellow-men than
he who instructs, since utility is happiness, and pleasure is the end already obtained while
instruction is merely the means of obtaining.
I see no reason, then, why our metaphysical poets should plume themselves so much on
the utility of their works, unless indeed they refer to instruction with eternity in view; in
which case, sincere respect for their piety would not allow me to express my contempt for
their judgement; contempt which it would be difficult to conceal, since their writings are
professedly to be understood by the few, and it is the many who stand in need of
salvation. In such case I should no doubt be tempted to think of the devil in "Melmoth,"
who labours indefatigably, through three octavo volumes, to accomplish the destruction
of one or two souls, while any common devil would have demolished one or two
thousand.
Against the subtleties which would make poetry a study–not a passion–it becomes the
metaphysician to reason–but the poet to protest. Yet Wordsworth and Coleridge are men
in years; the one imbued in contemplating from his childhood, the other a giant in
intellect and learning. The diffidence, then, with which I venture to dispute their authority
would be overwhelming did I not feel, from the bottom of my heart, that learning has
little to do with the imagination–intellect with the passions–or age with poetry.
Trifles, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below,
are lines which have done much mischief. As regards the greater truths, men oftener err
by seeking them at the bottom than at the top; Truth lies in the huge abysses where
wisdom is sought–not in the palpable palaces where she is found. The ancients were not
always right in hiding the goddess in a well; witness the light which Bacon has thrown
upon philosophy; witness the principles of our divine faith–that moral mechanism by
which the simplicity of a child may overbalance the wisdom of a man.
We see an instance of Coleridge's liability to err, in his Biographia Literaria–professedly
his literary life and opinions, but, in fact, a treatise de omni scibili et quibusdam aliis. He
goes wrong by reason of his very profundity, and of his error we have a natural type in
the contemplation of a star. He who regards it directly and intensely sees, it is true, the
star, but it is the star without a ray–while he who surveys it less inquisitively is conscious
of all for which the star is useful to us below–its brilliancy and its beauty.
As to Wordsworth, I have no faith in him. That he had in youth the feelings of a poet I
believe–for there are glimpses of extreme delicacy in his writings–(and delicacy is the
poet's own kingdom–his El Dorado)–but they have the appearance of a better day
recollected; and glimpses, at best, are little evidence of present poetic fire–we know that a
few straggling flowers spring up daily in the crevices of the glacier.
He was to blame in wearing away his youth in contemplation with the end of poetizing in
his manhood. With the increase of his judgment the light which should make it apparent
has faded away. His judgment consequently is too correct. This may not be understood,–
but the old Goths of Germany would have understood it, who used to debate matters of
importance to their State twice, once when drunk, and once when sober–sober that they
might not be deficient in formality–drunk lest they should be destitute of vigour.
The long wordy discussions by which he tries to reason us into admiration of his poetry,
speak very little in his favour: they are full of such assertions as this (I have opened one
of his volumes at random)–"Of genius the only proof is the act of doing well what is
worthy to be done, and what was never done before";–indeed? then it follows that in
doing what is unworthy to be done, or what has been done before, no genius can be
evinced; yet the picking of pockets is an unworthy act, pockets have been picked time
immemorial and Barrington, the pickpocket, in point of genius, would have thought hard
of a comparison with William Wordsworth, the poet.
Again–in estimating the merit of certain poems, whether they be Ossian's or M'Pherson's,
can surely be of little consequence, yet, in order to prove their worthlessness, Mr. W. has
expended many pages in the controversy. Tantaene animis? Can great minds descend to
such absurdity? But worse still: that he may bear down every argument in favour of these
poems, he triumphantly drags forward a passage in his abomination with which he
expects the reader to sympathise. It is the beginning of the epic poem "Temora." "The
blue waves of Ullin roll in light; the green hills are covered with day, trees shake their
dusty heads in the breeze." And this–this gorgeous, yet simple imagery, where all is alive
and panting with immortality- this, William Wordsworth, the author of "Peter Bell," has
selected for his contempt. We shall see what better he, in his own person, has to offer.
Imprimis:
And now she's at the pony's tail,
And now she's at the pony's head,
On that side now, and now on this;
And, almost stified with her bliss,
A few sad tears does Betty shed....
She pats the pony, where or when
She knows not... happy Betty Foy!
Oh, Johnny, never mind the doctor!
Secondly:
The dew was falling fast, the–stars began to blink;
I heard a voice: it said–"Drink, pretty creature, drink!"
And, looking o'er the hedge, be–fore me I espied
A snow-white mountain lamb, with a–maiden at its side.
No other sheep was near,–the lamb was all alone,
And by a slender cord was–tether'd to a stone.
Now, we have no doubt this is all true; we will believe it, indeed we will, Mr. W. Is it
sympathy for the sheep you wish to excite? I love a sheep from the bottom of my heart.
Wordsworth is reasonable. Even Stamboul, it is said, shall have an end, and the most
unlucky blunders must come to a conclusion. Here is an extract from his preface:"Those who have been accustomed to the phraseology of modern writers, if they persist
in reading this book to a conclusion (impossible!) will, no doubt, have to struggle with
feelings of awkwardness; (ha! ha! ha!) they will look round for poetry (ha! ha! ha! ha!),
and will be induced to inquire by what species of courtesy these attempts have been
permitted to assume that title." Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
Yet, let not Mr. W. despair; he has given immortality to a wagon, and the bee Sophocles
has transmitted to eternity a sore toe, and dignified a tragedy with a chorus of turkeys.
Of Coleridge, I cannot speak but with reverence. His towering intellect! his gigantic
power! He is one more evidence of the fact "que la plupart des sectes ont raison dans une
bonne partie de ce qu'elles avancent, mais non pas en ce qu'elles nient." He has
imprisoned his own conceptions by the barrier he has erected against those of others. It is
lamentable to think that such a mind should be buried in metaphysics, and, like the
Nyctanthes, waste its perfume upon the night alone. In reading that man's poetry, I
tremble like one who stands upon a volcano, conscious from the very darkness bursting
from the crater, of the fire and the light that are weltering below.
What is Poetry?–Poetry! that Proteus–like idea, with as many appellations as the nine–
titled Corcyra! Give me, I demanded of a scholar some time ago, give me a definition of
poetry. "Tres-volontiers"; and he proceeded to his library, brought me a Dr. Johnson, and
overwhelmed me with a definition. Shade of the immortal Shakespeare! I imagine to
myself the scowl of your spiritual eye upon the profanity of the scurrilous Ursa Major.
Think of poetry, dear of all that is airy and fairy-like, and then of all that is hideous and
unwieldy, think of his huge bulk, the Elephant! and then–and then think of the Tempest–
the Midsummer Night's Dream–Prospero–Oberon- and Titania!
A poem, in my opinion, is opposed to a work of science by having, for its immediate
object, pleasure, not truth; to romance, by having for its object, an indefinite instead of a
definite pleasure, being a poem only so far as this object is attained; romance presenting
perceptible images with definite poetry with indefinite sensations, to which end music is
an essential, since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefinite conception.
Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry–music, without the idea, is
simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.
What was meant by the invective against him who had no music in his soul?
doubt, perceive, for the metaphysical poets as poets, the most sovereign contempt. That
they have followers proves nothingNo Indian prince has to his palace
More followers than a thief to the gallows.
THE CULPRIT FAY, AND OTHER POEMS
Joseph Rodman Drake
ALNWICK CASTLE, AND OTHER POEMS
Fitz-Greene Halleck
BEFORE entering upon the detailed notice which we propose of the volumes before us,
we wish to speak a few words in regard to the present state of American criticism.
It must be visible to all who meddle with literary matters, that of late years a thorough
revolution has been effected in the censorship of our press. That this revolution is
infinitely for the worse we believe. There was a time, it is true, when we cringed to
foreign opinion–let us even say when we paid most servile deference to British critical
dicta. That an American book could, by any possibility, be worthy perusal, was an idea
by no means extensively prevalent in the land; and if we were induced to read at all the
productions of our native writers, it was only after repeated assurances from England that
such productions were not altogether contemptible. But there was, at all events, a shadow
of excuse, and a slight basis of reason for a subserviency so grotesque. Even now,
perhaps, it would not be far wrong to assert that such basis of reason may still exist. Let
us grant that in many of the abstract sciences- that even in Theology, in Medicine, in
Law, in Oratory, in the Mechanical Arts, we have no competitors whatever, still nothing
but the most egregious national vanity would assign us a place, in the matter of Polite
Literature, upon a level with the elder and riper climes of Europe, the earliest steps of
whose children are among the groves of magnificently endowed Academies, and whose
innumerable men of leisure, and of consequent learning, drink daily from those august
fountains of inspiration which burst around them everywhere from out the tombs of their
immortal dead, and from out their hoary and trophied monuments of chivalry and song.
In paying then, as a nation, a respectful and not undue deference to a supremacy rarely
questioned but by prejudice or ignorance, we should, of course, be doing nothing more
than acting in a rational manner. The excess of our subserviency was blamable–but, as we
have before said, this very excess might have found a shadow of excuse in the strict
justice, if properly regulated, of the principle from which it issued. Not so, however, with
our present follies. We are becoming boisterous and arrogant in the pride of a too
speedily assumed literary freedom. We throw off, with the most presumptuous and
unmeaning hauteur, all deference whatever to foreign opinion–we forget, in the puerile
inflation of vanity, that the world is the true theatre of the biblical histrio–we get up a hue
and cry about the necessity of encouraging native writers of merit–we blindly fancy that
we can accomplish this by indiscriminate puffing of good, bad, and indifferent, without
taking the trouble to consider that what we choose to denominate encouragement is thus,
by its general application, rendered precisely the reverse. In a word, so far from being
ashamed of the many disgraceful literary failures to which our own inordinate vanities
and misapplied patriotism have lately given birth, and so far from deeply lamenting that
these daily puerilities are of home manufacture, we adhere pertinaciously to our original
blindly conceived idea, and thus often find ourselves involved in the gross paradox of
liking a stupid book the better, because, sure enough, its stupidity is American.*
* This charge of indiscriminant puffing will, of course, only apply to the general
character of our criticism–there are some noble exceptions. We wish also especially to
discriminate between those notices of new works which are intended merely to call
public attention to them, and deliberate criticism on the works themselves.
Deeply lamenting this unjustifiable state of public feeling, it has been our constant
endeavor, since assuming the Editorial duties of this Journal, to stem, with what little
abilities we possess, a current so disastrously undermining the health and prosperity of
our literature.
We have seen our efforts applauded by men whose applauses we value. From all quarters
we have received abundant private as well as public testimonials in favor of our Critical
Notices, and, until very lately, have heard from no respectable source one word
impugning their integrity or candor. In looking over, however, a number of the New York
Commercial Advertiser, we meet with the following paragraph.
"'The last number of the Southern Literary Messenger is very readable and respectable.
The contributions to the Messenger are much better than the original matter. The critical
department of this work–much as it would seem to boast itself of impartiality and
discernment,–is in our opinion decidedly quacky. There is in it a great assumption of
acumen, which is completely unsustained. Many a work has been slashingly condemned
therein, of which the critic himself could not write a page, were he to die for it. This
affectation of eccentric sternness in criticism, without the power to back one's suit withal,
so far from deserving praise, as some suppose, merits the strongest reprehension.
Philadelphia Gazette.'
"We are entirely of opinion with the Philadelphia Gazette in relation to the Southern
Literary Messenger, and take this occasion to express our total dissent from the numerous
and lavish encomiums we have seen bestowed upon its critical notices. Some few of them
have been judicious, fair and candid; bestowing praise and censure with judgement and
impartiality; but by far the greater number of those we have read, have been flippant,
unjust, untenable and uncritical. The duty of the critic is to act as judge, not as enemy, of
the writer whom he reviews; a distinction of which the Zoilus of the Messenger seems
not to be aware. It is possible to review a book sincerely, without bestowing opprobrious
epithets upon the writer, to condemn with courtesy, if not with kindness. The critic of the
Messenger has been eulogized for his scorching and scarifying abilities, and he thinks it
incumbent upon him to keep up his reputation in that line, by sneers, sarcasm and
downright abuse; by straining his vision with microscopic intensity in search of faults,
and shutting his eyes, with all his might to beauties. Moreover, we have detected him,
more than once, in blunders quite as gross as those on which it was his pleasure to
descant."*
* In addition to these things we observe, in the New York Mirror, what follows: "Those
who have read the Notices of American books in a certain Southern Monthly, which is
striving to gain notoriety by the loudness of its abuse, may find amusement in the sketch
on another page, entitled "The Successful Novel." The Southern Literary Messenger
knows by experience what it is to write a successless novel." We have, in this case, only
to deny, flatly, the assertion of the Mirror. The Editor of the Messenger never in his life
wrote or published, or attempted to publish, a novel either successful or successless.
In the paragraph from the Philadelphia Gazette, (which is edited by Mr. Willis Gaylord
Clark, one of the editors of the Knickerbocker) we find nothing at which we have any
desire to take exception. Mr. C. has a right to think us quacky if he pleases, and we do not
remember having assumed for a moment that we could write a single line of the works
we have reviewed. But there is something equivocal, to say the least, in the remarks of
Col. Stone. He acknowledges that "some of our notices have been judicious, fair, and
candid bestowing praise and censure with judgment and impartiality." This being the
case, how can he reconcile his total dissent from the public verdict in our favor, with the
dictates of justice? We are accused too of bestowing "opprobrious epithets" upon writers
whom we review and in the paragraphs so accusing us are called nothing less than
"flippant, unjust and uncritical."
But there is another point of which we disapprove. While in our reviews we have at all
times been particularly careful not to deal in generalities, and have never, if we remember
aright, advanced in any single instance an unsupported assertion, our accuser has
forgotten to give us any better evidence of our flippancy, injustice, personality, and gross
blundering, than the solitary dictum of Col. Stone. We call upon the Colonel for
assistance in this dilemma. We wish to be shown our blunders that we may correct them–
to be made aware of our flippancy that we may avoid it hereafter–and above all to have
our personalities pointed out that we may proceed forthwith with a repentant spirit, to
make the amende honorable. In default of this aid from the Editor of the Commercial we
shall take it for granted that we are neither blunderers, flippant, personal, nor unjust.
Who will deny that in regard to individual poems no definitive opinions can exist, so long
as to Poetry in the abstract we attach no definitive idea? Yet it is a common thing to hear
our critics, day after day, pronounce, with a positive air, laudatory or condemnatory
sentences, en masse, upon material works of whose merits or demerits they have, in the
first place, virtually confessed an utter ignorance, in confessing it ignorance of all
determinate principles by which to regulate a decision. Poetry has never been defined to
the satisfaction of all parties. Perhaps, in the present condition of language it never will
be. Words cannot hem it in. Its intangible and purely spiritual nature refuses to be bound
down within the widest horizon of mere sounds. But it is not, therefore, misunderstood–at
least, not by all men is it misunderstood. Very far from it, if indeed, there be any one
circle of thought distinctly and palpably marked out from amid the jarring and
tumultuous chaos of human intelligence, it is that evergreen and radiant Paradise which
the true poet knows, and knows alone, as the limited realm of his authority–as the
circumscribed Eden of his dreams. But a definition is a thing of words–a conception of
ideas. And thus while we readily believe that Poesy, the term, it will be troublesome, if
not impossible to define–still, with its image vividly existing in the world, we apprehend
no difficulty in so describing Poesy, the Sentiment, as to imbue even the most obtuse
intellect with a comprehension of it sufficiently distinct for all the purposes of practical
analysis.
To look upwards from any existence, material or immaterial to its design, is, perhaps, the
most direct, and the most unerring method of attaining a just notion of the nature of the
existence itself. Nor is the principle at fault when we turn our eyes from Nature even to
Natures God. We find certain faculties, implanted within us, and arrive at a more
plausible conception of the character and attributes of those faculties, by considering,
with what finite judgment we possess, the intention of the Deity in so implanting them
within us, than by any actual investigation of their powers, or any speculative deductions
from their visible and material effects. Thus, for example, we discover in all men a
disposition to look with reverence upon superiority, whether real or supposititious. In
some, this disposition is to be recognized with difficulty, and, in very peculiar cases, we
are occasionally even led to doubt its existence altogether, until circumstances beyond the
common routine bring it accidentally into development. In others again it forms a
prominent and distinctive feature of character, and is rendered palpably evident in its
excesses. But in all human beings it is, in a greater or less degree, finally perceptible. It
has been, therefore, justly considered a primitive sentiment. Phrenologists call it
Veneration. It is, indeed, the instinct given to man by God as security for his own
worship. And although, preserving its nature, it becomes perverted from its principal
purpose, and although swerving from that purpose, it serves to modify the relations of
human society–the relations of father and child, of master and slave, of the ruler and the
ruled–its primitive essence is nevertheless the same, and by a reference to primal causes,
may at any moment be determined.
Very nearly akin to this feeling, and liable to the same analysis, is the Faculty of Ideality–
which is the sentiment of Poesy. This sentiment is the sense of the beautiful, of the
sublime, and of the mystical.* Thence spring immediately admiration of the fair flowers,
the fairer forests, the bright valleys and rivers and mountains of the Earth–and love of the
gleaming stars and other burning glories of Heaven–and, mingled up inextricably with
this love and this admiration of Heaven and of Earth, the unconquerable desire–to know.
Poesy is the sentiment of Intellectual Happiness here, and the Hope of a higher
Intellectual Happiness hereafter.*(2)
* We separate the sublime and the mystical–for, despite of high authorities, we are firmly
convinced that the latter may exist, in the most vivid degree, without giving rise to the
sense of the former.
*(2) The consciousness of this truth was by no mortal more fully than by Shelley,
although he has only once especially alluded to it. In his Hymn to intellectual Beauty we
find these lines.
While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead:
I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed:
I was not heard: I saw them not.
When musing deeply on the lot
Of life at that sweet time when birds are wooing
All vital things that wake to bring
News of buds and blossoming,
Sudden thy shadow fell on meI shrieked and clasped my hands in ecstasy!
I vow'd that I would dedicate my powers
To thee and thine: have I not kept the vow?
With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now
I call the phantoms of a thousand hours
Each from his voiceless grave: they have in vision'd bowers
Of studious zeal or love's delight
Outwatch'd with me the envious night:
They know that never joy illum'd my brow,
Unlink'd with hope that thou wouldst free,
This world from its dark slavery,
That thou, O awful Loveliness,
Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express.
Imagination is its soul.* With the passions of mankind–although it may modify them
greatly–although it may exalt, or inflame, or purify, or control them–it would require
little ingenuity to prove that it has no inevitable, and indeed no necessary co-existence.
We have hitherto spoken of poetry in the abstract: we come now to speak of it in its
everyday acceptation–that is to say, of the practical result arising from the sentiment we
have considered.
* Imagination is, possibly in man, a lesser degree of the creative power in God. What the
Deity imagines, is, but was not before. What man imagines, is, but was also. The mind of
man cannot imagine what is not. This latter point may be demonstrated.–See Les
Premiers Traits de L'Erudition Universelle, par M. Le Baron de Biefield, 1767.
And now it appears evident, that since Poetry, in this new sense, is the practical result,
expressed in language, of this Poetic Sentiment in certain individuals, the only proper
method of testing the merits of a poem is by measuring its capabilities of exciting the
Poetic Sentiments in others. And to this end we have many aids–in observation, in
experience, in ethical analysis, and in the dictates of common sense. Hence the Poeta
nascitur, which is indisputably true if we consider the Poetic Sentiment, becomes the
merest of absurdities when we regard it in reference to the practical result. We do not
hesitate to say that a man highly endowed with the powers of Causality–that is to say, a
man of metaphysical acumen–will, even with a very deficient share of Ideality, compose
a finer poem (if we test it, as we should, by its measure of exciting the Poetic Sentiment)
than one who, without such metaphysical acumen, shall be gifted, in the most
extraordinary degree, with the faculty of Ideality. For a poem is not the Poetic faculty, but
the means of exciting it in mankind. Now these means the metaphysician may discover
by analysis of their effects in other cases than his own, without even conceiving the
nature of these effects–thus arriving at a result which the unaided Ideality of his
competitor would be utterly unable, except by accident, to attain. It is more than possible
that the man who, of all writers, living or dead, has been most successful in writing the
purest of all poems–that is to say, poems which excite more purely, most exclusively, and
most powerfully the imaginative faculties in men–owed his extraordinary and almost
magical preeminence rather to metaphysical than poetical powers. We allude to the
author of Christabel, of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and of Love–to Coleridge–
whose head, if we mistake not its character, gave no great phrenological tokens of
Ideality, while the organs of Causality and Comparison were most singularly developed.
Perhaps at this particular moment there are no American poems held in so high
estimation by our countrymen, as the poems of Drake, and of Halleck. The exertions of
Mr. George Dearborn have no doubt a far greater share in creating this feeling than the
lovers of literature for its own sake and spiritual uses would be willing to admit. We have
indeed seldom seen more beautiful volumes than the volumes now before us. But an
adventitious interest of a loftier nature–the interest of the living in the memory of the
beloved dead–attaches itself to the few literary remains of Drake. The poems which are
now given to us with his name are nineteen in number; and whether all, or whether even
the best of his writings, it is our present purpose to speak of these alone, since upon this
edition his poetical reputation to all time will most probably depend.
It is only lately that we have read The Culprit Fay. This is a poem of six hundred and
forty irregular lines, generally iambic, and divided into thirty-six stanzas, of unequal
length. The scene of the narrative, as we ascertain from the single line,
The moon looks down on old Cronest,
is principally in the vicinity of West Point on the Hudson. The plot is as follows. An
Ouphe, one of the race of Fairies, has "broken his vestal vow,"
He has loved an earthly maid
And left for her his woodland shade;
He has lain upon her lip of dew,
And sunned him in her eye of blue,
Fann'd her cheek with his wing of air,
Play'd with the ringlets of her hair,
And, nestling on her snowy breast,
Forgot the lily-kings behestin short, he has broken Fairy-law in becoming enamored of a mortal. The result of this
misdemeanor we could not express so well as the poet, and will therefore make use of the
language put into the mouth of the Fairy-King who reprimands the criminal.
Fairy! Fairy! list and mark,
Thou hast broke thine elfin chain,
Thy flame-wood lamp is quench'd and dark
And thy wings are dyed with a deadly stain.
The Ouphe being in this predicament, it has become necessary that his case and crime
should be investigated by a jury of his fellows, and to this end the "shadowy tribes of air"
are summoned by the "sentry elve" who has been awakened by the "wood-tick"–are
summoned we say to the "elfin-court" at midnight to hear the doom of the Culprit Fay.
"Had a stain been found on the earthly fair," whose blandishments so bewildered the little
Ouphe, his punishment would have been severe indeed. In such case he would have been
(as we learn from the Fairy judge's exposition of the criminal code,)
Tied to the hornet's shardy wings;
Tossed on the pricks of nettles' stings;
Or seven long ages doomed to dwell
With the lazy worm in the walnut shell;
Or every night to writhe and bleed
Beneath the tread of the centipede,
Or bound in a cobweb dungeon dim
His jailer a spider huge and grim,
Amid the carrion bodies to lie
Of the worm and the bug and the murdered flyFortunately, however, for the Culprit, his mistress is proved to be of "sinless mind" and
under such redeeming circumstances the sentence is, mildly, as followsThou shalt seek the beach of sand
Where the water bounds the elfin land,
Thou shalt watch the oozy brine
Till the sturgeon leaps in the bright moonshine,
Then dart the glistening arch below,
And catch a drop from his silver bow.
If the spray-bead be won
The stain of thy wing is washed away,
But another errand must be done
Ere thy crime be lost for aye;
Thy flame-wood lamp is quenched and dark,
Thou must re-illume its spark.
Mount thy steed and spur him high
To the heaven's blue canopy,
And when thou seest a shooting star
Follow it fast and follow it far
The last faint spark of its burning train
Shall light the elfin lamp again.
Upon this sin, and upon this sentence, depends the web of the narrative, which is now
occupied with the elfin difficulties overcome by the Ouphe in washing away the stain of
his wing, and re-illuming his flame-wood lamp. His soiled pinion having lost its power,
he is under the necessity of wending his way on foot from the Elfin court upon Cronest to
the river beach at its base. His path is encumbered at every step with "bog and briar,"
with "brook and mire," with "beds of tangled fern," with "groves of night-shade," and
with the minor evils of ant and snake. Happily, however, a spotted toad coming in sight,
our adventurer jumps upon her back, and "bridling her mouth with a silk-weed twist"
bounds merrily along
Till the mountain's magic verge is past
And the beach of sand is reached at last.
Alighting now from his "courser-toad" the Ouphe folds his wings around his bosom,
springs on a rock, breathes a prayer, throws his arms above his head,
Then tosses a tiny curve in air
And plunges in the waters blue.
Here, however, a host of difficulties await him by far too multitudinous to enumerate. We
will content ourselves with simply stating the names of his most respectable assailants.
These are the "spirits of the wave" dressed in "snail-plate armor" and aided by the
"mailed shrimp," the "prickly prong," the "blood-red leech," the "stony star-fish," the
"jellied quarl," the "soldier-crab," and the "lancing squab." But the hopes of our hero are
high, and his limbs are strong, so
He spreads his arms like the swallow's wing,
And throws his feet with a frog-like fling.
All however, is to no purpose.
On his thigh the leech has fixed his hold,
The quarl's long arms are round him roll'd,
The prickly prong has pierced his skin,
And the squab has thrown his javelin,
The gritty star has rubb'd him raw,
And the crab has struck with his giant claw;
He bawls with rage, and he shrieks with pain
He strikes around but his blows are vainSo then,
He turns him round and flies amain
With hurry and dash to the beach again.
Arrived safely on land our Fairy friend now gathers the dew from the "sorrel-leaf and
henbane-bud" and bathing therewith his wounds, finally ties them up with cobweb. Thus
recruited, he
-treads the fatal shore
As fresh and vigorous as before.
At length espying a "purple-muscle shell" upon the beach, he determines to use it as a
boat and thus evade the animosity of the water spirits whose powers extend not above the
wave. Making a "sculler's notch" in the stern, and providing himself with an oar of the
bootle-blade, the Ouphe a second time ventures upon the deep. His perils are now
diminished, but still great. The imps of the river heave the billows up before the prow of
the boat, dash the surges against her side, and strike against her keel. The quarl uprears
"his island-back" in her path, and the scallop, floating in the rear of the vessel, spatters it
all over with water. Our adventurer, however, bails it out with the colen bell (which he
has luckily provided for the purpose of catching the drop from the silver bow of the
sturgeon,) and keeping his little bark warily trimmed, holds on his course undiscomfited.
The object of his first adventure is at length discovered in a "brownbacked sturgeon,"
who
Like the heaven-shot javelin
Springs above the waters blue,
And, instant as the star-fall light
Plunges him in the deep again,
But leaves an arch of silver bright,
The rainbow of the moony main.
From this rainbow our Ouphe succeeds in catching, by means of his colen bell cup, a
"droplet of the sparkling dew." One half of his task is accordingly doneHis wings are pure, for the gem is won.
On his return to land, the ripples divide before him, while the water-spirits, so rancorous
before, are obsequiously attentive to his comfort. Having tarried a moment on the beach
to breathe a prayer, he "spreads his wings of gilded blue" and takes his way to the elfin
court–there resting until the cricket, at two in the morning, rouses him up for the second
portion of his penance.
His equipments are now an "acorn-helmet," a "thistle-down plume," a corslet of the
"wild-bee's" skin, a cloak of the "wings of butterflies," a shield of the "shell of the ladybug," for lance "the sting of a wasp," for sword a "blade of grass," for horse "a fire-fly,"
and for spurs a couple of "cockle seed." Thus accoutred,
Away like a glance of thought he flies
To skim the heavens and follow far
The fiery trail of the rocket-star.
In the Heavens he has new dangers to encounter. The "shapes of air" have begun their
work–a "drizzly mist" is cast around him- "storm, darkness, sleet and shade" assail him–
"shadowy hands" twitch at his bridle-rein–"flame-shot tongues" play around him"fiendish eyes" glare upon him–and
Yells of rage and shrieks of fear
Come screaming on his startled ear.
Still our adventurer is nothing daunted.
He thrusts before, and he strikes behind,
Till he pierces the cloudy bodies through
And gashes the shadowy limbs of mind.
and the Elfin makes no stop, until he reaches the "bank of the milky way." He there
checks his courser, and watches "for the glimpse of the planet shoot." While thus
engaged, however, an unexpected adventure befalls him. He is approached by a company
of the "sylphs of Heaven attired in sunset's crimson pall." They dance around him, and
"skip before him on the plain." One receiving his "wasp-sting lance," and another taking
his bridle-rein,
With warblings wild they lead him on,
To where, through clouds of amber seen,
Studded with stars resplendent shone
The palace of the sylphid queen.
A glowing description of the queen's beauty follows: and as the form of an earthly Fay
had never been seen before in the bowers of light, she is represented as falling
desperately in love at first sight with our adventurous Ouphe. He returns the compliment
in some measure, of course; but, although "his heart bent fitfully," the "earthly form
imprinted there" was a security against a too vivid impression. He declines, consequently,
the invitation of the queen to remain with her and amuse himself by "lying within the
fleecy drift," "hanging upon the rainbow's rim," having his "brow adorned with all the
jewels of the sky," "sitting within the Pleiad ring," "resting upon Orion's belt" "riding
upon the lightning's gleam," "dancing upon the orbed moon," and "swimming within the
milky way."
Lady, he cries, I have sworn to-night
On the word of a fairy knight
To do my sentence task aright
The queen, therefore, contents herself with bidding the Fay an affectionate farewell–
having first directed him carefully to that particular portion of the sky where a star is
about to fall. He reaches this point in safety, and in despite of the "fiends of the cloud,"
who "bellow very loud," succeeds finally in catching a "glimmering spark" with which he
returns triumphantly to Fairy-land. The poem closes with an Io Paean chaunted by the
elves in honor of these glorious adventures.
It is more than probable that from ten readers of the Culprit Fay, nine would immediately
pronounce it a poem betokening the most extraordinary powers of imagination, and of
these nine, perhaps five or six, poets themselves, and fully impressed with the truth of
what we have already assumed, that Ideality is indeed the soul of the Poetic Sentiment,
would feel embarrassed between a half-consciousness that they ought to admire the
production, and a wonder that they do not. This embarrassment would then arise from an
indistinct conception of the results in which Ideality is rendered manifest. Of these results
some few are seen in the Culprit Fay, but the greater part of it is utterly destitute of any
evidence of imagination whatever. The general character of the poem will, we think, be
sufficiently understood by any one who may have taken the trouble to read our foregoing
compendium of the narrative. It will be there seen that what is so frequently termed the
imaginative power of this story, lies especially–we should have rather said is thought to
lie–in the passages we have quoted, or in others of a precisely similar nature. These
passages embody, principally, mere specifications of qualities, of habiliments, of
punishments, of occupations, of circumstances, &c., which the poet has believed in
unison with the size, firstly, and secondly with the nature of his Fairies. To all which may
be added specifications of other animal existences (such as the toad, the beetle, the lancefly, the fire-fly and the like) supposed also to be in accordance. An example will best
illustrate our meaning upon this point-
He put his acorn helmet on;
It was plumed of the silk of the thistle down:
The corslet plate that guarded his breast
Was once the wild bee's golden vest;
His cloak of a thousand mingled dyes,
Was formed of the wings of butterflies;
His shield was the shell of a lady-bug queen,
Studs of gold on a ground of green;*
And the quivering lance which he brandished bright
Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight.
* Chestnut color, or more slack,
Gold upon a ground of black.
Ben Jonson.
We shall now be understood. Were any of the admirers of the Culprit Fay asked their
opinion of these lines, they would most probably speak in high terms of the imagination
they display. Yet let the most stolid and the most confessedly unpoetical of these
admirers only try the experiment, and he will find, possibly to his extreme surprise, that
he himself will have no difficulty whatever in substituting for the equipments of the
Fairy, as assigned by the poet, other equipments equally comfortable, no doubt, and
equally in unison with the preconceived size, character, and other qualities of the
equipped. Why we could accoutre him as well ourselves–let us see.
His blue-bell helmet, we have heard
Was plumed with the down of the hummingbird,
The corslet on his bosom bold
Was once the locust's coat of gold,
His cloak, of a thousand mingled hues,
Was the velvet violet, wet with dews,
His target was, the crescent shell
Of the small sea Sidrophel,
And a glittering beam from a maiden's eye
Was the lance which he proudly wav'd on high.
The truth is, that the only requisite for writing verses of this nature, ad libitum is a
tolerable acquaintance with the qualities of the objects to be detailed, and a very
moderate endowment of the faculty of Comparison–which is the chief constituent of
Fancy or the powers of combination. A thousand such lines may be composed without
exercising in the least degree the Poetic Sentiment, which is Ideality, Imagination, or the
creative ability. And, as we have before said, the greater portion of the Culprit Fay is
occupied with these, or similiar things, and upon such, depends very nearly, if not
altogether, its reputation. We select another exampleBut oh! how fair the shape that lay
Beneath a rainbow bending bright,
She seem'd to the entranced Fay
The loveliest of the forms of light,
Her mantle was the purple rolled
At twilight in the west afar;
T'was tied with threads of dawning gold,
And button'd with a sparkling star.
Her face was like the lily roon
That veils the vestal planet's hue,
Her eyes, two beamlets from the moon
Set floating in the welkin blue.
Her hair is like the sunny beam,
And the diamond gems which round it gleam
Are the pure drops of dewy even,
That neer have left their native heaven.
Here again the faculty of Comparison is alone exercised, and no mind possessing the
faculty in any ordinary degree would find a difficulty in substituting for the materials
employed by the poet other materials equally as good. But viewed as mere efforts of the
Fancy and without reference to Ideality, the lines just quoted are much worse than those
which were taken earlier. A congruity was observable in the accoutrements of the Ouphe,
and we had no trouble in forming a distinct conception of his appearance when so
accoutred. But the most vivid powers of Comparison can attach no definitive idea to even
"the loveliest form of light," when habited in a mantle of "rolled purple tied with threads
of dawn and buttoned with a star," and sitting at the same time under a rainbow with
"beamlet" eyes and a visage of "lily roon."
But if these things evince no Ideality in their author, do they not excite it in others?–if so,
we must conclude, that without being himself imbued with the Poetic Sentiment, he has
still succeeded in writing a fine poem–a supposition as we have before endeavored to
show, not altogether paradoxical. Most assuredly we think not. In the case of a great
majority of readers the only sentiment aroused by compositions of this order is a species
of vague wonder at the writer's ingenuity, and it is this indeterminate sense of wonder
which passes but too frequently current for the proper influence of the Poetic power. For
our own part we plead guilty to a predominant sense of the ludicrous while occupied in
the perusal of the poem before us–a sense whose promptings we sincerely and honestly
endeavored to quell, perhaps not altogether successfully, while penning our compend of
the narrative. That a feeling of this nature is utterly at war with the Poetic Sentiment will
not be disputed by those who comprehend the character of the sentiment itself. This
character is finely shadowed out in that popular although vague idea so prevalent
throughout all time, that a species of melancholy is inseparably connected with the higher
manifestations of the beautiful. But with the numerous and seriously–adduced
incongruities of the Culprit Fay, we find it generally impossible to connect other ideas
than those of the ridiculous. We are bidden, in the first place, and in a tone of sentiment
and language adapted to the loftiest breathings of the Muse, to imagine a race of Fairies
in the vicinity of West Point. We are told, with a grave air, of their camp, of their king,
and especially of their sentry, who is a wood-tick. We are informed that an Ouphe of
about an inch in height has committed a deadly sin in falling in love with a mortal
maiden, who may, very possibly, be six feet in her stockings. The consequence to the
Ouphe is–what? Why, that he has "dyed his wings," "broken his elfin chain," and
"quenched his flame-wood lamp." And he is therefore sentenced to what? To catch a
spark from the tail of a falling star, and a drop of water from the belly of a sturgeon.
What are his equipments for the first adventure? An acorn-helmet, a thistle-down plume,
a butterfly cloak, a lady-bug shield, cockle-seed spurs, and a fire-fly horse. How does he
ride to the second? On the back of a bullfrog. What are his opponents in the one?
"Drizzle-mists," "sulphur and smoke," "shadowy hands and flame-shot tongues." What in
the other? "Mailed shrimps," "prickly prongs," "blood-red leeches," "jellied quarls,"
"stony star fishes," "lancing squabs" and "soldier crabs." Is that all? No- Although only
an inch high he is in imminent danger of seduction from a "sylphid queen," dressed in a
mantle of "rolled purple," "tied with threads of dawning gold," "buttoned with a sparkling
star," and sitting under a rainbow with "beamlet eyes" and a countenance of "lily roon."
In our account of all this matter we have had reference to the book–and to the book alone.
It will be difficult to prove us guilty in any degree of distortion or exaggeration. Yet such
are the puerilities we daily find ourselves called upon to admire, as among the loftiest
efforts of the human mind, and which not to assign a rank with the proud trophies of the
matured and vigorous genius of England, is to prove ourselves at once a fool; a maligner,
and no patriot.*
* A review of Drake's poems, emanating from one of our proudest Universities, does not
scruple to make use of the following language in relation to the Culprit Fay. "It is, to say
the least, an elegant production, the purest specimen of Ideality we have ever met with,
sustaining in each incident a most bewitching interest. Its very title is enough," &c. &c.
We quote these expressions as a fair specimen of the general unphilosophical and
adulatory tenor of our criticism.
As an instance of what may be termed the sublimely ridiculous we quote the following
linesWith sweeping tail and quivering fin,
Through the wave the sturgeon flew,
And like the heaven-shot javelin,
He sprung above the waters blue.
Instant as the star-fall light,
He plunged into the deep again,
But left an arch of silver bright
The rainbow of the moony main.
It was a strange and lovely sight
To see the puny goblin there,
He seemed an angel form of light
With azure wing and sunny hair,
Throned on a cloud of purple fair
Circled with blue and edged with white
And sitting at the fall of even
Beneath the bow of summer heaven.
The [lines of the last verse], if considered without their context, have a certain air of
dignity, elegance, and chastity of thought. If however we apply the context, we are
immediately overwhelmed with the grotesque. It is impossible to read without laughing,
such expressions as "It was a strange and lovely sight"–"He seemed an angel form of
light"–"And sitting at the fall of even, beneath the bow of summer heaven" to a Fairy–a
goblin–an Ouphe–half an inch high, dressed in an acorn helmet and butterfly-cloak, and
sitting on the water in a muscleshell, with a "brown-backed sturgeon" turning somersets
over his head.
In a world where evil is a mere consequence of good, and good a mere consequence of
evil–in short where all of which we have any conception is good or bad only by
comparison–we have never yet been fully able to appreciate the validity of that decision
which would debar the critic from enforcing upon his readers the merits or demerits of a
work with another. It seems to us that an adage has had more to do with this popular
feeling than any just reason founded upon common sense. Thinking thus, we shall have
no scruple in illustrating our opinion in regard to what is not Ideality or the Poetic Power,
by an example of what is.*
* As examples of entire poems of the purest ideality, we would cite the Prometheus
Vinctus of Aeschylus, the Inferno of Dante, Cervantes' Destruction of Numantia, the
Comus of Milton, Pope's Rape of the Lock, Burns' Tam O'Shanter, the Auncient Mariner,
the Christabel, and the Kubla Khan of Coleridge, and most especially the Sensitive Plant
of Shelley, and the Nightingale of Keats. We have seen American poems evincing the
faculty in the highest degree.
We have already given the description of the Sylphid Queen in the Culprit Fay. In the
Queen Mab of Shelley a Fairy is thus introducedThose who had looked upon the sight
Passing all human glory,
Saw not the yellow moon,
Saw not the mortal scene,
Heard not the night wind's rush,
Heard not an earthly sound,
Saw but the fairy pageant,
Heard but the heavenly strains
That filled the lonely dwellingand thus describedThe Fairy's frame was slight, yon fibrous cloud
That catches but the faintest tinge of even,
And which the straining eye can hardly seize
When melting into eastern twilight's shadow,
Were scarce so thin, so slight; but the fair star
That gems the glittering coronet of morn,
Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful,
As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form,
Spread a purpureal halo round the scene,
Yet with an undulating motion,
Swayed to her outline gracefully.
In these exquisite lines the Faculty of mere Comparison is but little exercised–that of
Ideality in a wonderful degree. It is probable that in a similar case the poet we are now
reviewing would have formed the face of the Fairy of the "fibrous cloud," her arms of the
"pale tinge of even," her eyes of the "fair stars," and her body of the "twilight shadow."
Having so done, his admirers would have congratulated him upon his imagination, not,
taking the trouble to think that they themselves could at any moment imagine a Fairy of
materials equally as good, and conveying an equally distinct idea. Their mistake would
be precisely analogous to that of many a schoolboy who admires the imagination
displayed in Jack the Giant-Killer, and is finally rejoiced at; discovering his own
imagination to surpass that of the author, since the monsters destroyed by Jack are only
about forty feet in height, and he himself has no trouble in imagining some of one
hundred and forty. It will, be seen that the Fairy of Shelley is not a mere compound of
incongruous natural objects, inartificially put together, and unaccompanied by any moral
sentiment- but a being, in the illustration of whose nature some physical elements are
used collaterally as adjuncts, while the main conception springs immediately or thus
apparently springs, from the brain of the poet, enveloped in the moral sentiments of
grace, of color, of motion–of the beautiful, of the mystical, of the august–in short of the
ideal.*
* Among things, which not only in our opinion, but in the opinion of far wiser and better
men, are to be ranked with the mere prettinesses of the Muse, are the positive similes so
abundant in the writing of antiquity, and so much insisted upon by the critics of the reign
of Queen Anne.
It is by no means our intention to deny that in the Culprit Fay are passages of a different
order from those to which we have objected–passages evincing a degree of imagination
not to be discovered in the plot, conception, or general execution of the poem. The
opening stanza will afford us a tolerable example.
Tis the middle watch of a summer's nightThe earth is dark but the heavens are bright
Naught is seen in the vault on high
But the moon, and the stars, and the cloudless sky,
And the flood which rolls its milky hue
A river of light on the welkin blue.
The moon looks down on old Cronest,
She mellows the shades of his shaggy breast,
And seems his huge gray form to throw
In a silver cone on the wave below,
His sides are broken by spots of shade,
By the walnut bow and the cedar made,
And through their clustering branches dark
Glimmers and dies the fire-fly's sparkLike starry twinkles that momently break
Through the rifts of the gathering tempest rack.
There is Ideality in these lines–but except in the case of the [second and the fourteenth
lines]–it is Ideality not of a high order. We have, it is true, a collection of natural objects,
each individually of great beauty, and, if actually seen as in nature, capable of exciting in
any mind, through the means of the Poetic Sentiment more or less inherent in all, a
certain sense of the beautiful. But to view such natural objects as they exist, and to behold
them through the medium of words, are different things. Let us pursue the idea that such
a collection as we have here will produce, of necessity, the Poetic Sentiment, and we may
as well make up our minds to believe that a catalogue of such expressions as moon, sky,
trees, rivers, mountains, &c., shall be capable of exciting it,–it is merely an extension of
the principle. But in the line "the earth is dark, but the heavens are bright" besides the
simple mention of the "dark earth" "and the bright heaven," we have, directly, the moral
sentiment of the brightness of the sky compensating for the darkness of the earth–and
thus, indirectly, of the happiness of a future state compensating for the miseries of the
present. All this is effected by the simple introduction of the word but between the "dark
earth" and the "bright heaven"–this introduction, however, was prompted by the Poetic
Sentiment, and by the Poetic Sentiment alone. The case is analogous in the expression
"glimmers and dies," where the imagination is exalted by the moral sentiment of beauty
heightened in dissolution.
In one or two shorter passages of the Culprit Fay the poet will recognize the purely ideal,
and be able at a glance to distinguish it from that baser alloy upon which we have
descanted. We give them without farther comment.
The winds are whist, and the owl is still,
The bat in the shelvy rock is hid
And naught is heard on the lonely hill
But the cricket's chirp and the answer shrill
Of the gauze-winged katydid;
And the plaint of the wailing whippoorwill
Who mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings
Ever a note of wail and woUp to the vaulted firmament
His path the fire-fly courser bent,
And at every gallop on the wind
He flung a glittering spark behind.
He blessed the force of the charmed line
And he banned the water-goblins' spite,
For he saw around in the sweet moonshine,
Their little wee faces above the brine,
Grinning and laughing with all their might
At the piteous hap of the Fairy wight.
The poem "To a Friend" consists of fourteen Spenserian stanzas. They are fine spirited
verses, and probably were not supposed by their author to be more. Stanza the fourth,
although beginning nobly, concludes with that very common exemplification of the
bathos, the illustrating natural objects of beauty or grandeur by references to the tinsel of
artificiality.
Oh! for a seat on Appalachia's brow,
That I might scan the glorious prospects round,
Wild waving woods, and rolling floods below,
Smooth level glades and fields with grain embrowned,
High heaving hills, with tufted forests crowned,
Rearing their tall tops to the heaven's blue dome,
And emerald isles, like banners green un-wound,
Floating along the take, while round them roam
Bright helms of billowy blue, and plumes of dancing foam.
In the Extracts from Leon are passages not often surpassed in vigor of passionate thought
and expression–and which induce us to believe not only that their author would have
succeeded better in prose romance than in poetry, but that his attention would have
naturally fAllan into the former direction, had the Destroyer only spared him a little
longer.
This poem contains also lines of far greater poetic power than any to be found in the
Culprit Fay. For exampleThe stars have lit in heaven their lamps of gold,
The viewless dew falls lightly on the world;
The gentle air that softly sweeps the leaves
A strain of faint unearthly music weaves:
As when the harp of heaven remotely plays,
Or sygnets wail–or song of sorrowing fays
That float amid the moonshine glimmerings pale,
On wings of woven air in some enchanted vale.*
* The expression "woven air," much insisted upon by the friends of Drake, seems to be
accredited to him as original. It is to be found in many English writers–and can be traced
back to Apuleius, who calls fine drapery ventum textilem.
Niagara is objectionable in many respects, and in none more so than in its frequent
inversions of language, and the artificial character of its versification. The invocation,
Roar, raging torrent! and thou, mighty river,
Pour thy white foam on the valley below!
Frown ye dark mountains, &c.
is ludicrous–and nothing more. In general, all such invocations have an air of the
burlesque. In the present instance we may fancy the majestic Niagara replying, "Most
assuredly I will roar, whether, worm! thou tellest me or not."
The American Flag commences with a collection of those bald conceits, which we have
already shown to have no dependence whatever upon the Poetic Power–springing
altogether from Comparison.
When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestrial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.
Let us reduce all this to plain English, and we have–what? Why, a flag, consisting of the
"azure robe of night," "set with stars of glory," interspersed with "streaks of morning
light," relieved with a few pieces of "milky way," and the whole carried by an "eagle
bearer," that is to say, an eagle ensign, who bears aloft this "symbol of our chosen land"
in his "mighty hand," by which we are to understand his claw. In the second stanza, "the
thunder-drum of Heaven" is bathetic and grotesque in the highest degree–a commingling
of the most sublime music of Heaven with the most utterly contemptible and commonplace of Earth. The two concluding verses are in a better spirit, and might almost be
supposed to be from a different hand. The images contained in the lines
When Death careering on the gale
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back,
Before the broadsides reeling rack,
are of the highest order of Ideality. The deficiencies of the whole poem may be best
estimated by reading it in connection with "Scots wha hae," with the "Mariners of
England," or with "Hohenlinden." It is indebted for its high and most undeserved
reputation to our patriotism–not to our judgment.
The remaining poems in Mr. Dearborn's edition of Drake, are three Songs; Lines in an
Album; Lines to a Lady; Lines on leaving New Rochelle; Hope; A Fragment; To-; To
Eva; To a Lady; To Sarah; and Bronx. These are all poems of little compass, and with the
exception of Bronx and a portion of the Fragment, they have no character distinctive
from the mass of our current poetical literature. Bronx, however, is in our opinion, not
only the best of the writings of Drake, but altogether a lofty and beautiful poem, upon
which his admirers would do better to found a hope of the writer's ultimate reputation
than upon the niaiseries of the Culprit Fay. In the Fragment is to be found the finest
individual passage in the volume before us, and we quote it as a proper finale to our
review.
Yes! thou art lovelier now than ever,
How sweet't would be when all the air
In moonlight swims, along thy river
To couch upon the grass, and hear
Niagra's everlasting voice
Far in the deep blue west away,
That dreamy and poetic noise
We mark not in the glare of day,
Oh! how unlike its torrent-cry,
When o'er the brink the tide is driven,
As if the vast and sheeted sky
In thunder fell from Heaven.
Halleck's poetical powers appear to us essentially inferior, upon the whole, to those of his
friend Drake. He has written nothing at all comparable to Bronx. By the hackneyed
phrase, sportive elegance, we might possibly designate at once the general character of
his writings and the very loftiest praise to which he is justly entitled.
Alnwick Castle is an irregular poem of one hundred and twenty-eight lines–was written,
as we are informed, in October 1822–and is descriptive of a seat of the Duke of
Northumberland, in Northumberlandshire, England. The effect of the first stanza is
materially impaired by a defect in its grammatical arrangement. The fine lines,
Home of the Percy's high-born race,
Home of their beautiful and brave,
Alike their birth and burial place,
Their cradle and their grave!
are of the nature of an invocation, and thus require a continuation of the address to the
"Home, &c." We are consequently disappointed when the stanza proceeds withStill sternly o'er the castle gate
Their house's Lion stands in state
As in his proud departed hours;
And warriors frown in stone on high,
And feudal banners "flout the sky"
Above his princely towers.
The objects of allusion here vary, in an awkward manner, from the castle to the lion, and
from the Lion to the towers. By writing the verses thus the difficulty would be remedied.
Still sternly o'er the castle gate
Thy house's Lion stands in state,
As in his proud departed hours;
And warriors frown in stone on high,
And feudal banners "flout the sky"
Above thy princely towers.
The second stanza, without evincing in any measure the loftier powers of a poet, has that
quiet air of grace, both in thought and expression, which seems to be the prevailing
feature of the Muse of Halleck.
A gentle hill its side inclines,
Lovely in England's fadeless green,
To meet the quiet stream which winds
Through this romantic scene
As silently and sweetly still,
As when, at evening, on that hill,
While summer's wind blew soft and low,
Seated by gallant Hotspur's side
His Katherine was a happy bride
A thousand years ago.
There are one or two brief passages in the poem evincing a degree of rich imagination not
elsewhere perceptible throughout the book. For exampleGaze on the Abbey's ruined pile:
Does not the succoring Ivy keeping,
Her watch around it seem to smile
As o'er a lov'd one sleeping?
and,
One solitary turret gray
Still tells in melancholy glory
The legend of the Cheviot day.
The commencement of the fourth stanza is of the highest order of Poetry, and partakes, in
a happy manner, of that quaintness of expression so effective an adjunct to Ideality, when
employed by the Shelleys, the Coleridges and the Tennysons, but so frequently debased,
and rendered ridiculous, by the herd of brainless imitators.
Wild roses by the abbey towers
Are gay in their young bud and bloom:
They were born of a race of funeral flowers,
That garlanded in long-gone hours,
A Templar's knightly tomb.
The tone employed in the concluding portions of Alnwick Castle, is, we sincerely think,
reprehensible, and unworthy of Halleck. No true poet can unite in any manner the low
burlesque with the ideal, and not be conscious of incongruity and of a profanation. Such
verses as
Men in the coal and cattle line
From Tevoit's bard and hero land,
From royal Berwick's beach of sand,
From Wooler, Morpeth, Hexham, and
Newcastle upon Tyne.
may lay claim to oddity–but no more. These things are the defects and not the beauties of
Don Juan. They are totally out of keeping with the graceful and delicate manner of the
initial portions of Alnwick Castle, and serve no better purpose than to deprive the entire
poem of all unity of effect. If a poet must be farcical, let him be just that, and nothing
else. To be drolly sentimental is bad enough, as we have just seen in certain passages of
the Culprit Fay, but to be sentimentally droll is a thing intolerable to men, and Gods, and
columns.
Marco Bozzaris appears to have much lyrical without any high order of ideal beauty.
Force is its prevailing character–a force, however, consisting more in a well ordered and
sonorous arrangement of this metre, and a judicious disposal of what may be called the
circumstances of the poem, than in the true material of lyric vigor. We are introduced,
first, to the Turk who dreams, at midnight, in his guarded tent,
of the hour
When Greece her knee in suppliance bent,
Should tremble at his powerHe is represented as revelling in the visions of ambition.
In dreams through camp and court he bore
The trophies of a conqueror;
In dreams his song of triumph heard;
Then wore his monarch's signet ring;
Then pressed that monarch's throne–a king;
As wild his thoughts and gay of wing
As Eden's garden bird.
In direct contrast to this we have Bozzaris watchful in the forest, and ranging his band of
Suliotes on the ground, and amid the memories of Plataea. An hour elapses, and the Turk
awakes from his visions of false glory–to die. But Bozzaris dies–to awake. He dies in the
flush of victory to awake, in death, to an ultimate certainty of Freedom. Then follows an
invocation to death. His terrors under ordinary circumstances are contrasted with the
glories of the dissolution of Bozzaris, in which the approach of the Destroyer is
welcome as the cry
That told the Indian isles were nigh
To the world-seeking Genoese,
When the land-wind from woods of palm,
And orange groves and fields of balm,
Blew o'er the Haytian seas.
The poem closes with the poetical apotheosis of Marco Bozzaris as
One of the few, the immortal names
That are not born to die.
It will be seen that these arrangements of the subject are skillfully contrived–perhaps they
are a little too evident, and we are enabled too readily by the perusal of one passage, to
anticipate the succeeding. The rhythm is highly artificial. The stanzas are well adapted
for vigorous expression–the fifth will afford a just specimen of the versification of the
whole poem.
Come to the bridal Chamber, Death!
Come to the mother's when she feels
For the first time her first born's breath;
Come when the blessed seals
That close the pestilence are broke,
And crowded cities wail its stroke,
Come in consumption's ghastly form,
The earthquake shock, the ocean storm;
Come when the heart beats high and warm,
With banquet song and dance, and wine;
And thou art terrible–the tear,
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know, or dream, or fear
Of agony, are thine.
Granting, however, to Marco Bozzaris, the minor excellences we have pointed out we
should be doing our conscience great wrong in calling it, upon the whole, any more than
a very ordinary matter. It is surpassed, even as a lyric, by a multitude of foreign and by
many American compositions of a similar character. To Ideality it has few pretensions,
and the finest portion of the poem is probably to be found in the verses we have quoted
elsewhereThy grasp is welcome as the hand
Of brother in a foreign land,
Thy summons welcome as the cry
That told the Indian isles were nigh
To the world-seeking Genoese,
When the land-wind from woods of palm
And orange groves, and fields of balm
Blew o'er the Haytian seas.
The verses entitled Burns consist of thirty-eight quatrains–the three first lines of each
quatrain being of four feet, the fourth of three. This poem has many of the traits of
Alnwick Castle, and bears also a strong resemblance to some of the writings of
Wordsworth. Its chief merits, and indeed the chief merit, so we think, of all the poems of
Halleck is the merit of expression. In the brief extracts from Burns which follow, our
readers will recognize the peculiar character of which we speak.
Wild Rose of Alloway! my thanks:
Thou mind'st me of that autumn noon
When first we met upon "the banks
And braes o'bonny Doon"Like thine, beneath the thorn-tree's bough,
My sunny hour was glad and briefWe've crossed the winter sea, and thou
Art withered-flower and leaf,
There have been loftier themes than his,
And longer scrolls and louder lyres
And lays lit up with Poesy's
Purer and holier fires.
And when he breathes his master-lay
Of Alloways witch-haunted wall
All passions in our frames of clay
Come thronging at his call.
Such graves as his are pilgrim-shrines,
Shrines to no code or creed confinedThe Delphian vales, the Palastines,
The Meccas of the mind.
They linger by the Doon's low trees,
And pastoral Nith, and wooded Ayr,
And round thy Sepulchres, Dumfries!
The Poet's tomb is there.
Wyoming is composed of nine Spenserian stanzas. With some unusual excellences, it has
some of the worst faults of Halleck. The lines which follow are of great beauty.
I then but dreamed: thou art before me now,
In life–a vision of the brain no more,
I've stood upon the wooded mountain's brow,
That beetles high thy love! valley o'er;
And now, where winds thy river's greenest shore,
Within a bower of sycamores am laid;
And winds as soft and sweet as ever bore
The fragrance of wild flowers through sun and shade
Are singing in the trees, whose low boughs press my head.
The poem, however, is disfigured with the mere burlesque of some portions of Alnwick
Castle–with such things as
he would look particularly droll
In his Iberian boot and Spanish plume;
and
A girl of sweet sixteen
Love-darting eyes and tresses like the morn
Without a shoe or stocking–hoeing corn,
mingled up in a pitiable manner with images of real beauty.
The Field of the Grounded Arms contains twenty-four quatrains, without rhyme, and, we
think, of a disagreeable versification. In this poem are to be observed some of the finest
passages of Halleck. For exampleStrangers! your eyes are on that valley fixed
Intently, as we gaze on vacancy,
When the mind's wings o'erspread
The spirit world of dreams.
and againO'er sleepless seas of grass whose waves are flowers.
Red-jacket has much power of expression with little evidence of poetical ability. Its
humor is very fine, and does not interfere, in any great degree, with the general tone of
the poem.
A Sketch should have been omitted from the edition as altogether unworthy of its author.
The remaining pieces in the volume are Twilight, Psalm cxxxvii; To...; Love; Domestic
Happiness; Magdalen, From the Italian; Woman; Connecticut; Music; On the Death of
Lieut. William Howard Allan; A Poet's Daughter; and On the Death of Joseph Rodman
Drake. Of the majority of these we deem it unnecessary to say more than that they
partake, in a more or less degree, of the general character observable in the poems of
Halleck. The Poet's Daughter appears to us a particularly happy specimen of that general
character, and we doubt whether it be not the favorite of its author. We are glad to see the
vulgarity of
I'm busy in the cotton trade
And sugar line,
omitted in the present edition. The eleventh stanza is certainly not English as it stands–
and besides it is altogether unintelligible. What is the meaning of this?
But her who asks, though first among
The good, the beautiful, the young
The birthright of a spell more strong
Than these have brought her.
The Lines on the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake, we prefer to any of the writings of
Halleck. It has that rare merit in composition of this kind–the union of tender sentiment
and simplicity. This poem consists merely of six quatrains, and we quote them in full.
Green be the turf above thee,
Friend of my better days!
None knew thee but to love thee,
Nor named thee but to praise.
Tears fell when thou wert dying
From eyes unused to weep,
And long, where thou art lying,
Will tears the cold turf steep.
When hearts whose truth was proven,
Like thine are laid in earth,
There should a wreath be woven
To tell the world their worth.
And I, who woke each morrow
To clasp thy hand in mine,
Who shared thy joy and sorrow,
Whose weal and woe were thineIt should be mine to braid it
Around thy faded brow,
But I've in vain essayed it,
And feel I cannot now.
While memory bids me weep thee,
Nor thoughts nor words are free,
The grief is fixed too deeply,
That mourns a man like thee.
If we are to judge from the subject of these verses, they are a work of some care and
reflection. Yet they abound in faults. In the line,
Tears fell when thou wert dying;
wert is not English.
Will tears the cold turf steep,
is an exceedingly rough verse. The metonymy involved in
There should a wreath be woven
To tell the world their worth,
is unjust. The quatrain beginning,
And I who woke each morrow,
is ungrammatical in its construction when viewed in connection with the quatrain which
immediately follows. "Weep thee" and "deeply" are inaccurate rhymes–and the whole of
the first quatrain,
Green be the turf, &c.
although beautiful, bears too close a resemblance to the still more beautiful lines of
William Wordsworth,
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.
As a versifier Halleck is by no means equal to his friend, all of whose poems evince an
ear finely attuned to the delicacies of melody. We seldom meet with more inharmonious
lines than those, generally, of the author of Alnwick Castle. At every step such verses
occur as,
And the monk's hymn and minstrel's songTrue as the steel of their tried bladesFor him the joy of her young yearsWhere the Bard-peasant first drew breathAnd withered my life's leaf like thinein which the proper course of the rhythm would demand an accent upon syllables too
unimportant to sustain it. Not infrequently, too, we meet with lines such as this,
Like torn branch from death's leafless tree,
in which the multiplicity of consonants renders the pronunciation of the words at all, a
matter of no inconsiderable difficulty.
But we must bring our notice to a close. It will be seen that while we are willing to
admire in many respects the poems before us, we feel obliged to dissent materially from
that public opinion (perhaps not fairly ascertained) which would assign them a very
brilliant rank in the empire of Poesy. That we have among us poets of the loftiest order
we believe–but we do not believe that these poets are Drake and Halleck.
BRYANT'S POEMS
MR. BRYANT'S poetical reputation, both at home and abroad, is greater, we presume,
than that of any other American. British critics have frequently awarded him high praise,
and here, the public press have been unanimous in approbation. We can call to mind no
dissenting voice. Yet the nature, and, most especially the manner, of the expressed
opinions in this case, should be considered as somewhat equivocal, and but too frequently
must have borne to the mind of the poet doubts and dissatisfaction. The edition now
before us may be supposed to embrace all such of his poems as he deems not unworthy
his name. These (amounting to about one hundred) have been "carefully revised." With
the exception of some few, about which nothing could well be said, we will speak briefly
of them one by one, but in such order as we may find convenient.
The Ages, a didactic piece of thirty-five Spenserian stanzas, is the first and longest in the
volume. It was originally printed in 1821, With about half a dozen others now included in
this collection. The design of the author in this poem is "from a survey of the past ages of
the world, and of the successive advances of mankind in knowledge and virtue, to justify
and confirm the hopes of the philanthropist for the future destinies of the human race." It
is, indeed, an essay on the perfectability of man, wherein, among other better arguments
some in the very teeth of analogy, are deduced from the eternal cycle of physical nature,
to sustain a hope of progression in happiness. But it is only as a poem that we wish to
examine The Ages. Its commencement is impressive. The four initial lines arrest the
attention at once by a quiet dignity of manner, an air of placid contemplation, and a
versification combining the extremes of melody and forceWhen to the common rest that crowns our days,
Called in the noon of life, the good man goes,
Or full of years, and ripe in wisdom, lays
His silver temples in their last reposeThe five concluding lines of the stanza, however, are not equally effectiveWhen, o'er the buds of youth, the death-wind blows,
And brights the fairest; when our bitterest tears
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
We think on what they were, with many fears
Lest goodness die with them, and leave the coming years.
The defects, here, are all of a metrical and of course minor nature, but are still defects.
The line
When o'er the buds of youth the death-wind blows,
is impeded in its flow by the final th in youth, and especially in death where w follows.
The word tears cannot readily be pronounced after the final st in bitterest; and its own
final consonants, rs, in like manner render an effort necessary in the utterance of stream
which commences the next line. In the verse
We think on what they were, with many fears
the word many is, from its nature, too rapidly pronounced for the fulfilment of the time
necessary to give weight to the foot of two syllables. All words of two syllables do not
necessarily constitute a foot (we speak now of the Pentameter here employed) even
although the syllables be entirely distinct, as in many, very, often, and the like. Such as,
without effort, cannot employ in their pronunciation the time demanded by each of the
preceding and succeeding feet of the verse, and occasionally of a preceding verse, will
never fail to offend. It is the perception of this fact which so frequently forces the
versifier of delicate ear to employ feet exceeding what are unjustly called legitimate
dimensions. For example. We have the following linesLo! to the smiling Arno's classic side,
The emulous nations of the West repair!
These verses are exceedingly forcible, yet, upon scanning the latter we find a syllable too
many. We shall be told possibly that there should be an elision of the e in the at the
commencement. But no–this was not intended. Both the and emulous demand a perfect
accentuation. The verse commencing Lo!
Lo! to the smiling Arno's classic side,
has, it will be observed, a Trochee in its first foot. As is usually the case, the whole line
partakes, in consequence, of a stately and emphatic enunciation, and to equalize the time
in the verse succeeding, something more is necessary than the succession of Iambuses
which constitute the ordinary English Pentameter. The equalization is therefore
judiciously effected by the introduction of an additional syllable. But in the lines
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
We think on what they were with many fears,
lines to which the preceding observations will equally apply, this additional syllable is
wanting. Did the rhyme admit of the alteration, everything necessary could be
accomplished by writing
We think on what they were with many a fear,
Lest goodness die with them and leave the coming year.
These remarks may be considered hypercritical–yet it is undeniable that upon a rigid
attention to minutiae such as we have pointed out, any great degree of metrical success
must altogether depend. We are more disposed, too, to dwell upon the particular point
mentioned above, since, with regard to it, the American Monthly, in a late critique upon
the poems of Mr. Willis, has evidently done that gentleman injustice. The reviewer has
fAllan into what we conceive the error of citing, by themselves, (that is to say insulated
from the context) such verses as
The night-wind with a desolate moan swept by.
With difficult energy and when the rod.
Fell through, and with the tremulous hand of age.
With supernatural whiteness loosely fell.
for the purpose of animadversion. "The license" he says "of turning such words as
'passionate' and 'desolate' into two syllables could only have been taken by a pupil of the
Fantastic School." We are quite sure that Mr. Willis had no purpose of turning them into
words of two syllables–nor even, as may be supposed upon a careless examination, of
pronouncing them in the same time which would be required for two ordinary, syllables.
The excesses of measure are here employed (perhaps without any definite design on the
part of the writer, who may have been guided solely by ear) with reference to the proper
equalization, of balancing, if we may so term it, of time, throughout an entire sentence.
This, we confess, is a novel idea, but, we think, perfectly tenable. Any musician will
understand us. Efforts for the relief of monotone will necessarily produce fluctuations in
the time of any metre, which fluctuations, if not subsequently counterbalanced, affect the
ear like unresolved discords in music. The deviations then of which we have been
speaking, from the strict rules of prosodial art, are but improvements upon the rigor of
those rules, and are a merit, not a fault. It is the nicety of this species of equalization more
than any other metrical merit which elevates Pope as a versifier above the mere coupletmaker of his day, and, on the other hand, it is the extension of the principle to sentences
of greater length which elevates Milton above Pope. Knowing this, it was, of course, with
some surprise that we found the American Monthly (for whose opinions we still have the
highest respect,) citing Pope in opposition to Mr. Willis upon the very point to which we
allude. A few examples will be sufficient to show that Pope not only made free use of the
license referred to, but that he used it for the reasons, and under the circumstances which
we have suggested.
Oh thou! whatever title please thine ear,
Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais easy chair.
Any person will here readily perceive that the third line
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
differs in time from the usual course of the rhythm, and requires some counterbalance in
the line which succeeds. It is indeed precisely such a verse as that of Mr. Bryant's upon
which we have commented,
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
and commences in the same manner with a Trochee. But again, from Pope we haveHence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines
Hence Journals, Medleys, Mercuries, Magazines.
Else all my prose and verse were much the same,
This prose on stilts, that poetry fAllan lame.
And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand
And thrice he dropped it from his quivering hand.
Here stood her opium, here she nursed her owls,
And here she planned the imperial seat of fools.
Here to her chosen all her works she shows;
Prose swell'd to verse, verse loitering into prose.
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit
Throned on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit.
And his this drum whose hoarse heroic bass
Drowns the loud clarion of the braying ass.
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise
Twelve starveling bards of these degenerate days.
These are all taken at random from the first book of the Dunciad. In the last example it
will be seen that the two additional syllables are employed with a view of equalizing the
time with that of the verse,
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
a verse which will be perceived to labor in its progress–and which Pope, in accordance
with his favorite theory of making sound accord with sense, evidently intended so to
labor. It is useless to say that the words should be written with elision-starv'ling and
degen'rate. Their pronunciation is not thereby materially affected- and, besides, granting
it to be so, it may be as well to make the elision also in the case of Mr. Willis. But Pope
had no such intention, nor, we presume, had Mr. W. It is somewhat singular, we may
remark, en passant, that the American Monthly, in a subsequent portion of the critique
alluded to, quotes from Pope as a line of "sonorous grandeur" and one beyond the ability
of our American poet, the well known
Luke's iron crown and Damien's bed of steel.
Now this is indeed a line of "sonorous grandeur"–but it is rendered so principally if not
altogether by that very excess of metre (in the word Damien) which the reviewer has
condemned in Mr. Willis. The lines which we quote below from Mr. Bryant's poem of
The Ages will suffice to show that the author we are now reviewing fully appreciates the
force of such occasional excess, and that he has only neglected it through oversight in the
verse which suggested these observations.
Peace to the just man's memory–let it grow
Greener with years, and blossom through the flight
Of ages–let the mimic canvass show
His calm benevolent features.
Does prodigal Autumn to our age deny
The plenty that once swelled beneath his sober eye?
Look on this beautiful world and read the truth
In her fair page.
Will then the merciful One who stamped our race
With his own image, and who gave them sway
O'er Earth and the glad dwellers on her face,
Now that our flourishing nations far away
Are spread, where'er the moist earth drinks the day,
Forget the ancient care that taught and nursed
His latest offspring?
He who has tamed the elements shall not live
The slave of his own passions.
When liberty awoke
New-born, amid those beautiful vales.
Oh Greece, thy flourishing cities were a spoil
Unto each other.
And thou didst drive from thy unnatural breast
Thy just and brave.
Yet her degenerate children sold the crown.
Instead of the pure heart and innocent handsAmong thy gallant sons that guard thee well
Thou laugh'st at enemies. Who shall then declareFar like the comet's way thro' infinite space.
The full region leads
New colonies forth.
Full many a horrible worship that, of old,
Held o'er the shuddering realms unquestioned sway.
All these instances, and some others, occur in a poem of but thirty-five stanzas–yet in
only a very few cases is the license improperly used. Before quitting this subject it may
be as well to cite a striking example from WordsworthThere was a youth whom I had loved so long,
That when I loved him not I cannot say.
Mid the green mountains many and many a song
We two had sung like gladsome birds in May.
Another specimen, and one still more to the purpose may be given from Milton whose
accurate ear (although he cannot justly be called the best of versifiers) included and
balanced without difficulty the rhythm of the longest passages.
But say, if our Deliverer up to heaven
Must re-ascend, what will betide the few
His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd,
The enemies of truth? who then shall guide
His people, who defend? Will they not deal
More with his fo than with him they dealt?
Be sure they will, said the Angel.
The other metrical faults in The Ages are few. Mr. Bryant is not always successful in his
Alexandrines. Too great care cannot be taken, we think, in so regulating this species of
verse as to admit of the necessary pause at the end of the third foot–or at least as not to
render a pause necessary elsewhere. We object, therefore, to such lines as
A palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame.
The truth of heaven, and kneel to Gods that heard them not.
That which concludes Stanza X, although correctly cadenced in the above respect,
requires an accent on the monosyllable the, which is too unimportant to sustain it. The
defect is rendered the more perceptible by the introduction of a Trochee in the first foot.
The sick untended then
Languished in the damp shade, and died afar from men.
We are not sure that such lines as
A boundless sea of blood and the wild air.
The smile of heaven, till a new age expands.
are in any case justifiable, and they can be easily avoided. As in the Alexandrine
mentioned above, the course of the rhythm demands an accent on monosyllables too
unimportant to sustain it. For this prevalent heresy in metre we are mainly indebted to
Byron, who introduced it freely, with the view of imparting an abrupt energy to his verse.
There are, however, many better ways of relieving a monotone.
Stanza VI is, throughout, an exquisite specimen of versification, besides embracing many
beauties both of thought and expression.
Look on this beautiful world and read the truth
In her fair page; see every season brings
New change, to her, of everlasting youth;
Still the green soil with joyous living things
Swarms; the wide air is full of joyous wings;
And myriads, still, are happy in the sleep
Of ocean's azure gulfs, and where he flings
The restless surge. Eternal love doth keep
In his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep.
The cadences, here, at the words page, swarms, and surge respectively, cannot be
surpassed. We shall find, upon examination, comparatively few consonants in the stanza,
and by their arrangement no impediment is offered to the flow of the verse. Liquids and
the most melodious vowels abound. World, eternal, season, wide, change, full, air,
everlasting, wings, flings, complacent, surge, gulfs, myriads, azure, ocean, sail, and
joyous, are among the softest and most sonorous sounds in the language, and the partial
line after the pause at surge, together with the stately march of the Alexandrine which
succeeds, is one of the finest imaginable of finalesEternal love doth keep
In his complacent arms, the earth, the air, the deep.
The higher beauties of the poem are not, we think, of the highest. It has unity,
completeness,–a beginning, middle and end. The tone, too, of calm, hopeful, and elevated
reflection, is well sustained throughout. There is an occasional quaint grace of
expression, as in
Nurse of full streams, and lifter up of proud
Sky-mingling mountains that o'erlook the cloudor of antithetical and rhythmical force combined, as in
The shock that burled
To dust in many fragments dashed and strewn
The throne whose roots were in another world
And whose far-stretching shadow awed our own.
But we look in vain for something more worthy commendation. At the same time the
piece is especially free from errors. Once only we meet with an unjust metonymy, where
a sheet of water is said to
Cradle, in his soft embrace, a gay
Young group of grassy islands.
We find little originality of thought, and less imagination. But in a poem essentially
didactic, of course we cannot hope for the loftiest breathings of the Muse.
To the Past is a poem of fourteen quatrains–three feet and four alternately. In the second
quatrain, the lines
And glorious ages gone
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb.
are, to us, disagreeable. Such things are common, but at best, repulsive. In the present
case there is not even the merit of illustration. The womb, in any just imagery, should be
spoken of with a view to things future; here it is employed, in the sense of the tomb, and
with a view to things past. In Stanza XI the idea is even worse. The allegorical meaning
throughout the poem, although generally well sustained, is not always so. In the quatrain
Thine for a space are they
Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last;
Thy gates shall yet give way
Thy bolts shall fall inexorable Past!
it seems that The Past, as an allegorical personification, is confounded with Death.
The Old Man's Funeral is of seven stanzas, each of six lines–four Pentameters and
Alexandrine rhyming. At the funeral of an old man who has lived out his full quota of
years, another, as aged, reproves the company for weeping. The poem is nearly perfect in
its way–the thoughts striking and natural–the versification singularly sweet. The third
stanza embodies a fine idea, beautifully expressed.
Ye sigh not when the sun, his course fulfilled,
His glorious course rejoicing earth and sky,
In the soft evening when the winds are stilled,
Sings where his islands of refreshment lie,
And leaves the smile of his departure spread
O'er the warm-colored heaven, and ruddy mountain head.
The technical word chronic should have been avoided in the fifth line of Stanza VINo chronic tortures racked his aged limb.
The Rivulet has about ninety octo-syllabic verses. They contrast the changing and
perishable nature of our human frame, with the greater durability of the Rivulet. The
chief merit is simplicity. We should imagine the poem to be one of the earliest pieces of
Mr. Bryant, and to have undergone much correction. In the first paragraph are, however,
some awkward constructions. In the verses, for example
This little rill that from the springs
Of yonder grove its current brings,
Plays on the slope awhile, and then
Goes prattling into groves again.
the reader is apt to suppose that rill is the nominative to plays, whereas it is the
nominative only to drew in the subsequent lines,
Oft to its warbling waters drew
My little feet when life was new.
The proper verb is, of course, immediately seen upon reading these latter lines–but the
ambiguity has occurred.
The Praries. This is a poem, in blank Pentameter, of about one hundred and twenty-five
lines, and possesses features which do not appear in any of the pieces above mentioned.
Its descriptive beauty is of a high order. The peculiar points of interest in the Prairie are
vividly shown forth, and as a local painting, the work is, altogether, excellent. Here are
moreover, evidences of fine imagination. For exampleThe great heavens
Seem to stoop down upon the scene in loveA nearer vault and of a tenderer blue
Than that which bends above the eastern hills.
Till twilight blushed, and lovers walked and wooed
In a forgotten language, and old tunes
From instruments of unremembered form
Gave the soft winds a voice.
The bee
Within the hollow oak. I listen long
To his domestic hum and think I hear
The sound of the advancing multitude
Which soon shall fill these deserts.
Breezes of the south!
Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers,
And pass the prairie-hawk that poised on high,
Flaps his broad wing yet moves not!
There is an objectionable ellipsis in the expression "I behold them from the first,"
meaning "first time;" and either a grammatical or typographical error of moment in the
fine sentence commencing
Fitting floor
For this magnificent temple of the skyWith flowers whose glory and whose multitude
Rival the constellations!
Earth, a poem of similar length and construction to The Prairies, embodies a noble
conception. The poet represents himself as lying on the earth in a "midnight black with
clouds," and giving ideal voices to the varied sounds of the coming tempest. The
following passages remind us of some of the more beautiful portions of Young.
On the breast of Earth
I lie and listen to her mighty voice;
A voice of many tones-sent up from streams
That wander through the gloom, from woods unseen
Swayed by the sweeping of the tides of air,
From rocky chasm where darkness dwells all day,
And hollows of the great invisible hills,
And sands that edge the ocean stretching far
Into the night–a melancholy sound!
Ha! how the murmur deepens! I perceive
And tremble at its dreadful import. Earth
Uplifts a general cry for guilt and wrong
And Heaven is listening. The forgotten graves
Of the heart broken utter forth their plaint.
The dust of her who loved and was betrayed,
And him who died neglected in his age,
The sepulchres of those who for mankind
Labored, and earned the recompense of scorn,
Ashes of martyrs for the truth, and bones
Of those who in the strife for liberty
Were beaten down, their corses given to dogs,
Their names to infamy, all find a voice!
In this poem and elsewhere occasionally throughout the volume, we meet with a species
of grammatical construction, which, although it is to be found in writing of high merit, is
a mere affectation, and, of course, objectionable. We mean the abrupt employment of a
direct pronoun in place of the customary relative. For exampleOr haply dost thou grieve for those that dieFor living things that trod awhile thy face,
The love of thee and heaven, and how they sleep,
Mixed with the shapeless dust on which thy herds
Trample and graze?
The note of interrogation here, renders the affectation more perceptible.
The poem To the Apenines resembles, in meter, that entitled The Old Man's Funeral,
except that the former has a Pentameter in place of the Alexandrine. This piece is chiefly
remarkable for the force, metrical and moral, of its concluding stanza.
In you the heart that sighs for Freedom seeks
Her image; there the winds no barrier know,
Clouds come and rest and leave your fairy peaks;
While even the immaterial Mind, below,
And Thought, her winged offspring, chained by power,
Pine silently for the redeeming hour.
The Knight's Epitaph consists of about fifty lines of blank Pentameter. This poem is well
conceived and executed. Entering the Church of St. Catherine at Pisa, the poet is arrested
by the image of an armed knight graven upon the lid of a sepulchre. The epitaph consists
of an imaginative portraiture of the knight, in which he is made the impersonation of the
ancient Italian chivalry.
Seventy-six has seven stanzas of a common, but musical versification, of which these
lines will afford an excellent specimen.
That death-stain on the vernal sword,
Hallowed to freedom all the shoreIn fragments fell the yoke abhorredThe footsteps of a foreign lord
Profaned the soil no more.
The Living Lost has four stanzas of somewhat peculiar construction, but admirably
adapted to the tone of contemplative melancholy which pervades the poem. We can call
to mind few things more singularly impressive than the eight concluding verses. They
combine ease with severity, and have antithetical force without effort or flippancy. The
final thought has also a high ideal beauty.
But ye who for the living lost
That agony in secret bear
Who shall with soothing words accost
The strength of your despair?
Grief for your sake is scorn for them
Whom ye lament, and all condemn,
And o'er the world of spirit lies
A gloom from which ye turn your eyes.
The first stanza commences with one of those affectations which we noticed in the poem
"Earth."
Matron, the children of whose love,
Each to his grave in youth have passed,
And now the mould is heaped above
The dearest and the last.
The Strange Lady is of the fourteen syllable metre, answering to two lines, one of eight
syllables, the other six. This rhythm is unmanageable, and requires great care in the
rejection of harsh consonants. Little, however, has been taken, apparently, in the
construction of the verses
As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool
clear sky.
And thou shoudst chase the nobler game, and I bring
down the bird.
Or that strange dame so gay and fair were some mysterious foe, which are not to be
pronounced without labor. The story is old–of a young gentleman who going out to hunt,
is inveigled into the woods and destroyed by a fiend in the guise of a fair lady. The ballad
character is nevertheless well preserved, and this, we presume, is nearly every thing
intended.
The Hunter's Vision is skilfully and sweetly told. It is a tale of a young hunter who,
overcome with toil, dozes on the brink of a precipice. In this state between waking and
sleeping, he fancies a spirit-land in the fogs of the valley beneath him, and sees
approaching him the deceased lady of his love. Arising to meet her, he falls, with the
effort, from the crag, and perishes. The state of reverie is admirably pictured in the
following stanzas. The poem consists of nine such.
All dim in haze the mountains lay
With dimmer vales between;
And rivers glimmered on their way
By forests faintly seen;
While ever rose a murmuring sound
From brooks below and bees around.
He listened till he seemed to hear
A strain so soft and low
That whether in the mind or ear
The listener scarce might know.
With such a tone, so sweet and mild
The watching mother lulls her child.
Catterskill Falls is a narrative somewhat similar. Here the hero is also a hunter–but of
delicate frame. He is overcome with the cold at the foot of the falls, sleeps, and is near
perishing–but being found by some woodmen, is taken care of, and recovers. As in the
Hunters Vision, the dream of the youth is the main subject of the poem. He fancies a
goblin palace in the icy network of the cascade, and peoples it in his vision with ghosts.
His entry into this palace is, with rich imagination on the part of the poet, made to
correspond with the time of the transition from the state of reverie to that of nearly total
insensibility.
They eye him not as they pass along,
But his hair stands up with dread,
When he feels that he moves with that phantom throng
Till those icy turrets are over his head,
And the torrent's roar as they enter seems
Like a drowsy murmur heard in dreams.
The glittering threshold is scarcely passed
When there gathers and wraps him round
A thick white twilight sullen and vast
In which there is neither form nor sound;
The phantoms, the glory, vanish all
Within the dying voice of the waterfall.
There are nineteen similar stanzas. The metre is formed of Iambuses and Anapests.
The Hunter of the Prairies (fifty-six octosyllabic verses with alternate rhymes) is a vivid
picture of the life of a hunter in the desert. The poet, however, is here greatly indebted to
his subject.
The Damsel of Peru is in the fourteen syllable metre, and has a most spirited, imaginative
and musical commencement
Where olive leaves were twinkling in every wind that blew,
There sat beneath the pleasant shade a damsel of Peru.
This is also a ballad, and a very fine one-full of action, chivalry, energy and rhythm.
Some passages have even a loftier merit-that of a glowing ideality. For exampleFor the noon is coming on, and the sunbeams fiercely beat,
And the silent hills and forest-tops seem reeling in the heat.
The Song of Pitcairn's Island is a sweet, quiet and simple poem, of a versification
differing from that of any preceding piece. We subjoin a specimen. The Tahetian maiden
addresses her lover.
Come talk of Europe's maids with me
Whose necks and cheeks they tell
Outshine the beauty of the sea,
White foam and crimson shell.
I'll shape like theirs my simple dress
And bind like them each jetty tress,
A sight to please thee well
And for my dusky brow will braid
A bonnet like an English maid.
There are seven similar stanzas.
Rispah is a scriptural theme from 2 Samuel, and we like it less than any poem yet
mentioned. The subject, we think, derives no additional interest from its poetical dress.
The metre resembling, except in the matter of rhyme, that of "Catterskill Falls," and
consisting of mingled Iambuses and Anapaests, is the most positively disagreeable of any
which our language admits, and, having a frisky or fidgetty rhythm, is singularly illadapted to the lamentations of the bereaved mother. We cannot conceive how the fine ear
of Mr. Bryant could admit such verses as,
And Rispah once the loveliest of all
That bloomed and smiled in the court of Saul, &c.
The Indian Girl's Lament and The Arctic Lover have nearly all the peculiarities of the
"Song of Pitcairn's Island."
The Massacre at Scio is only remarkable for inaccuracy of expression in the two
concluding linesTill the last link of slavery's chain
Is shivered to be worn no more.
What shall be worn no more? The chain–but the link is implied.
Monument Mountain is a poem of about a hundred and forty blank Pentameters and
relates the tale of an Indian maiden who loved her cousin. Such a love being deemed
incestuous by the morality of her tribe, she threw herself from a precipice and perished.
There is little peculiar in the story or its narration. We quote a rough verseThe mighty columns with which earth props heaven.
The use of the epithet old preceded by some other adjective, is found so frequently in this
poem and elsewhere in the writings of Mr. Bryant, as to excite a smile upon each
recurrence of the expression.
In all that proud old world beyond the deepThere is a tale about these gray old rocksThe wide old woods resounded with her songAnd the gray old men that passedAnd from the gray old trunks that high in heaven.
We dislike too the antique use of the word affect in such sentences as
They deemed
Like worshippers of the elder time that
God Doth walk in the high places and affect
The earth–o'erlooking mountains.
Milton, it is true, uses it–we remember it especially in Comus'T is most true
That musing meditation most affects
The pensive secrecy of desert cellbut then Milton would not use it were he writing Comus today.
In the Summer Wind, our author has several successful attempts at making "the sound an
echo to the sense." For exampleFor me, I lie
Languidly in the shade, where the thick turf
Yet virgin from the kisses of the sun
Retains some freshness.
All is silent, save the faint
And interrupted murmur of the bee
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again
Instantly on the wing.
All the green herbs
Are stirring in his breath; a thousand flowers
By the road side, and the borders of the brook
Nod, gaily to each other.
Autumn Woods. This is a poem of much sweetness and simplicity of expression, and
including one or two fine thoughts, viz:
the sweet South-west at play
Flies, rustling where the painted leaves are strown
Along the winding way.
But 'neath yon crimson tree
Lover to listening maid might breathe his flame,
Nor mark within its roseate canopy
Her flush of maiden shame.
The mountains that unfold
In their wide sweep the colored landscape round,
Seem groups of giant kings in purple and gold
That guard the enchanted ground.
All this is beautiful–Happily to endow inanimate nature with sentience and a capability of
moral action is one of the severest tests of the poet. Even the most unmusical ear will not
fail to appreciate the rare beauty and strength of the extra syllable in the line
Seem groups of giant kings in purple and gold.
The Distinterred Warrior has a passage we do not clearly understand. Speaking of the
Indian our author saysFor he was fresher from the hand
That formed of earth the human face,
And to the elements did stand
In nearer kindred than our race.
There are ten similar quatrains in the poem.
The Greek Boy consists of four spirited stanzas, nearly resembling, in metre, The Living
Lost. The two concluding lines are highly ideal.
A shoot of that old vine that made
The nations silent in its shade.
When the Firmament Quivers with Daylight's Young Beam, belongs to a species of
poetry which we cannot be brought to admire. Some natural phenomenon is observed,
and the poet taxes his ingenuity to find a parallel in the moral world. In general, we may
assume, that the more successful he is in sustaining a parallel, the farther he departs from
the true province of the Muse. The title, here, is a specimen of the metre. This is a kind
which we have before designated as exceedingly difficult to manage.
To a Musquito, is droll, and has at least the merit of making, at the same time, no efforts
at being sentimental. We are not inclined, however, to rank as poems, either this
production or the article on New England Coal.
The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus has ninety Pentameters. One of them
Kind influence. Lo! their orbs burn more bright,
can only be read, metrically, by drawing out influence into three marked syllables,
shortening the long monosyllable, Lo! and lengthening the short one, their.
June is sweet and soft in its rhythm, and inexpressibly pathetic. There is an illy subdued
sorrow and intense awe coming up, per force as it were to the surface of the poet's gay
sayings about his grave, which we find thrilling us to the soul.
And what if cheerful shouts, at noon,
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids, beneath the moon
With fairy laughter blent?
And what if, in the evening light,
Betrothed lovers walk in sight
Of my low monument?
I would the lovely scene around
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
I know, I know I should not see
The season's glorious show,
Nor would its brightness shine for me
Nor its wild music flow,
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
Innocent Child and Snow-White Flower, is remarkable only for the deficiency of a foot in
one of its verses.
White as those leaves just blown apart
Are the folds of thy own young heart.
and for the graceful repetition in its concluding quatrain
Throw it aside in thy weary hour,
Throw to the ground the fair white flower,
Yet as thy tender years depart
Keep that white and innocent heart.
Of the seven original sonnets in the volume before us, it is somewhat difficult to speak.
The sonnet demands, in a great degree, point, strength, unity, compression, and a species
of completeness. Generally, Mr. Bryant has evinced more of the first and the last, than of
the three mediate qualities. William Tell is feeble. No forcible line ever ended with
liberty, and the best of the rhymes–thee, he, free, and the like, are destitute of the
necessary vigor. But for this rhythmical defect the thought in the concluding coupletThe bitter cup they mingled strengthened thee
For the great work to set thy country free
would have well ended the sonnet. Midsummer is objectionable for the variety of its
objects of allusion. Its final lines embrace a fine thoughtAs if the day of fire had dawned and sent
Its deadly breath into the firmamentbut the vigor of the whole is impaired by the necessity of placing an unwonted accent on
the last syllable of firmament. October has little to recommend it, but the slight
epigrammatism of its conclusionAnd when my last sand twinkled in the glass,
Pass silently from men–as thou dost pass.
The Sonnet To Cole, is feeble in its final lines, and is worthy of praise only in the versesPaths, homes, graves, ruins, from the lowest glen
To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air.
Mutation, a didactic sonnet, has few either of faults or beauties. November is far better.
The lines
And the blue Gentian flower that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last,
are very happy. A single thought pervades and gives unity to the piece. We are glad, too,
to see an Alexandrine in the close. In the whole metrical construction of his sonnets,
however, Mr. Bryant has very wisely declined confining himself to the laws of the Italian
poem, or even to the dicta of Capel Lofft. The Alexandrine is beyond comparison the
most effective finale, and we are astonished that the common Pentameter should ever be
employed. The best sonnet of the seven is, we think, that To-. With the exception of a
harshness in the last line but one it is perfect. The finale is inimitable.
Ay, thou art for the grave; thy glances shine
Too brightly to shine long; another Spring
Shall deck her for men's eyes, but not for thine
Sealed in a sleep which knows no wakening.
The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf,
And the vexed ore no mineral of power;
And they who love thee wait in anxious grief
Till the slow plague shall bring the fatal hour.
Glide softly to thy rest, then; Death should come
Gently to one of gentle mould like thee,
As light winds wandering through groves of bloom
Detach the delicate blossom from the tree.
Close thy sweet eyes, calmly, and without pain,
And we will trust in God to see thee yet again.
To a Cloud, has another instance of the affectation to which we alluded in our notice of
Earth, and The Living Lost.
Whose sons at length have heard the call that comes
From the old battle fields and tombs,
And risen, and drawn the sword, and on the foe
Have dealt the swift and desperate blow,
And the Othman power is cloven, and the stroke
Has touched its chains, and they are broke.
Of the Translations in the volume it is not our intention to speak in detail. Mary
Magdelen, from the Spanish of Bartoleme Leonardo De Argensola, is the finest specimen
of versification in the book. Alexis, from the Spanish of Iglesias, is delightful in its
exceeding delicacy, and general beauty. We cannot refrain from quoting it entire.
Alexis calls me cruelThe rifted crags that hold
The gathered ice of winter,
He says, are not more cold.
When even the very blossoms
Around the fountain's brim,
And forest walks, can witness
The love I bear to him.
I would that I could utter
My feelings without shame
And tell him how I love him
Nor wrong my virgin fame.
Alas! to seize the moment
When heart inclines to heart,
And press a suit with passion
Is not a woman's part.
If man come not to gather
The roses where they stand,
They fade among their foliage,
They cannot seek his hand.
The Waterfowl is very beautiful, but still not entitled to the admiration which it has
occasionally elicited. There is a fidelity and force in the picture of the fowl as brought
before the eve of the mind, and a fine sense of effect in throwing its figure on the
background of the "crimson sky," amid "falling dew," "while glow the heavens with the
last steps of day." But the merits which possibly have had most weight in the public
estimation of the poem, are the melody and strength of its versification, (which is indeed
excellent) and more particularly its completeness. Its rounded and didactic termination
has done wonders:
on my heart,
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given
And shall not soon depart.
He, who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight
In the long way that I must tread alone
Will lead my steps aright.
There are, however, points of more sterling merit. We fully recognize the poet in
Thou art gone–the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form.
There is a power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coastThe desert, and illimitable airLone, wandering, but not lost.
The Forest Hymn consists of about a hundred and twenty blank Pentameters of whose
great rhythmical beauty it is scarcely possible to speak too highly. With the exception of
the line
The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds,
no fault, in this respect, can be found, while excellencies are frequent of a rare order, and
evincing the greatest delicacy of ear. We might, perhaps, suggest, that the two concluding
verses, beautiful as they stand, would be slightly improved by transferring to the last the
metrical excess of the one immediately preceding. For the appreciation of this, it is
necessary to quote six or seven lines in succession
Oh, from these sterner aspects of thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the warmth
Of the mad unchained elements, to teach
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of thy works
Learn to conform the order of our lives.
There is an excess of one syllable in the [sixth line]. If we discard this syllable here, and
adopt it in the final line, the close will acquire strength, we think, in acquiring a fuller
volume.
Be it ours to meditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the perfect order of thy works
Conform, if we can, the order of our lives.
Directness, boldness, and simplicity of expression, are main features in the poem.
Oh God! when thou
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill
With all the waters of the firmament
The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods,
And drowns the villages.
Here an ordinary writer would have preferred the word fright to scare, and omitted the
definite article before woods and villages.
To the Evening Wind has been justly admired. It is the best specimen of that
completeness which we have before spoken of as a characteristic feature in the poems of
Mr. Bryant. It has a beginning, middle, and end, each depending upon the other, and each
beautiful. Here are three lines breathing all the spirit of Shelley.
Pleasant shall be thy way, where meekly bows
The shutting flower, and darkling waters pass,
And 'twixt the o'ershadowing branches and the grass.
The conclusion is admirableGo–but the circle of eternal change,
Which is the life of Nature, shall restore,
With sounds and scents from all thy mighty range,
Thee to thy birth-place of the deep once more;
Sweet odors in the sea air, sweet and strange,
Shall tell the home-sick mariner of the shore,
And, listening to thy murmur, he shall deem
He hears the rustling leaf and running stream.
Thanatopsis is somewhat more than half the length of The Forest Hymn, and of a
character precisely similar. It is, however, the finer poem. Like The Waterfowl, it owes
much to the point, force, and general beauty of its didactic conclusion. In the
commencement, the lines
To him who, in the love of nature, holds
Communion with her visible forms, &c.
belong to a class of vague phrases, which, since the days of Byron, have obtained too
universal a currency. The verse
Go forth under the open sky and listis sadly out of place amid the forcible and even Miltonic rhythm of such lines asTake the wings
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon
But these are trivial faults indeed and the poem embodies a great degree of the most
elevated beauty. Two of its passages, passages of the purest ideality, would alone render
it worthy of the general commendation it has received.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dream.
The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun–the vales
Stretching in pensive quietude betweenThe venerable woods–rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green–and, pured round all,
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy wasteAre but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man.
Oh, fairest of the Rural Maids! is a gem, of which we cannot sufficiently express our
admiration. We quote in full.
Oh, fairest of the rural maids!
Thy birth was in the forest shades;
Green boughs and glimpses of the sky
Were all that met thine infant eye.
Thy sports, thy wanderings when a child
Were ever in the sylvan wild;
And all the beauty of the place
Is in thy heart and on thy face.
The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of thy locks,
Thy step is as the wind that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves.
Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene
And silent waters Heaven is seen;
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook.
The forest depths by foot impressed
Are not more sinless than thy breast;
The holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.
A rich simplicity is a main feature in this poem–simplicity of design and execution. This
is strikingly perceptible in the opening and concluding lines, and in expression
throughout. But there is a far higher and more strictly ideal beauty, which it is less easy to
analyze. The original conception is of the very loftiest order of true Poesy. A maiden is
born in the forestGreen boughs and glimpses of the sky
Are all which meet her infant eyeShe is not merely modelled in character by the associations of her childhood–this were
the thought of an ordinary poet–an idea that we meet with every day in rhyme–but she
imbibes, in her physical as well as moral being, the traits, the very features of the
delicious scenery around her–its loveliness becomes a portion of her ownThe twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of her locks,
And all the beauty of the place
Is in her heart and on her face.
It would have been a highly poetical idea to imagine the tints in the locks of the maiden
deducing a resemblance to the "twilight of the trees and rocks," from the constancy of her
associations–but the spirit of Ideality is immeasurably more apparent when the "twilight"
is represented as becoming identified with the shadows of her hair.
The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of her locks,
And all the beauty of the place
Is in her heart and on her face.
Feeling thus, we did not, in copying the poem, [comment on] the lines, although
beautiful,
Thy step is as the wind that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves,
nor those which immediately follow. The two concluding verses however, are again of
the most elevated species of poetical merit.
The forest depths by foot impressed
Are not more sinless than thy breastThe holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.
The image contained in the lines
Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters Heaven is seenis one which, we think, for appropriateness, completeness, and every perfect beauty of
which imagery is susceptible, has never been surpassed–but imagery is susceptible of no
beauty like that we have designated in the sentences above. The latter idea, moreover, is
not original with our poet.
In all the rhapsodies of Mr. Bryant, which have reference to the beauty or the majesty of
nature, is a most audible and thrilling tone of love and exultation. As far as he appreciates
her loveliness or her augustness, no appreciation can be more ardent, more full of heart,
more replete with the glowing soul of adoration. Nor, either in the moral or physical
universe coming within the periphery of his vision, does he at any time fail to perceive
and designate, at once, the legitimate items of the beautiful. Therefore, could we consider
(as some have considered) the mere enjoyment of the beautiful when perceived, or even
this enjoyment when combined with the readiest and truest perception and discrimination
in regard to beauty presented, as a sufficient test of the poetical sentiment we could have
no hesitation in according to Mr. Bryant the very highest poetical rank. But something
more, we have elsewhere presumed to say, is demanded. Just above, we spoke of "objects
in the moral or physical universe coming within the periphery of his vision." We now
mean to say, that the relative extent of these peripheries of poetical vision must ever be a
primary consideration in our classification of poets. Judging Mr. B. in this manner, and
by a general estimate of the volume before us, we should, of course, pause long before
assigning him a place with the spiritual Shelleys, or Coleridges, or Wordsworths, or with
Keats, or even Tennyson, or Wilson, or with some other burning lights of our own day, to
be valued in a day to come. Yet if his poems, as a whole, will not warrant us in assigning
him this grade, one such poem as the last upon which we have commented, is enough to
assure us that he may attain it.
The writings of our author, as we find them here, are characterized by an air of calm and
elevated contemplation more than by any other individual feature. In their mere didactics,
however, they err essentially and primitively, inasmuch as such things are the province
rather of Minerva than of the Camenae. Of imagination, we discover much–but more of
its rich and certain evidences, than of its ripened fruit. In all the minor merits Mr. Bryant
is pre-eminent. His ars celare artem is most efficient. Of his "completeness," unity, and
finish of style we have already spoken. As a versifier, we know of no writer, living or
dead, who can be said greatly to surpass him. A Frenchman would assuredly call him "un
poete des plus correctes."
Between Cowper and Young, perhaps, (with both of whom he has many points of
analogy,) would be the post assigned him by an examination at once general and
superficial. Even in this view, however, he has a juster appreciation of the beautiful than
the one, of the sublime than the other–a finer taste than Cowper–an equally vigorous, and
far more delicate imagination than Young. In regard to his proper rank among American
poets there should be no question whatever. Few–at least few who are fairly before the
public, have more than very shallow claims to a rivalry with the author of Thanatopsis.
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, AND OTHER TALES
By Charles Dickens, With Numerous Illustrations by Cattermole
and Browne. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard.
MASTER HUMPHEREY'S CLOCK
By Charles Dickens. (Boz.) With Ninty-one Illustrations by
George Cattermole and Hablot Browne. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard.
WHAT WE here give [the above titles] is the duplicate title, on two separate title-pages,
of an octavo volume of three hundred and sixty-two pages. Why this method of
nomenclature should have been adopted is more than we can understand–although it
arises, perhaps, from a certain confusion and hesitation observable in the whole structure
of the book itself. Publishers have an idea, however, (and no doubt they are the best
judges in such matters) that a complete work obtains a readier sale than one "to be
continued;" and we see plainly that it is with the design of intimating the entireness of the
volume now before us, that "The Old Curiosity Shop and other Tales," has been made not
only the primary and main title, but the name of the whole publication as indicated by the
back. This may be quite fair in trade, but is morally wrong not the less. The volume is
only one of a series–only part of a whole; and the title has no right to insinuate otherwise.
So obvious is this intention to misguide, that it has led to the absurdity of putting the
inclusive, or general, title of the series, as a secondary instead of a primary one. Anybody
may see that if the wish had been fairly to represent the plan and extent of the volume,
something like this would have been given on a single pageMASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK
By Charles Dickens. Part I. Containing The Old Curiosity Shop,
and other tales, with numerous illustrations, &c. &c.
This would have been better for all parties, a good deal more honest, and a vast deal more
easily understood. In fact, there is sufficient uncertainty of purpose in the book itself,
without resort to mystification in the matter of title. We do not think it altogether
impossible that the rumors in respect to the sanity of Mr. Dickens which were so
prevalent during the publication of the first numbers of the work, had some slight–some
very slight foundation in truth. By this, we mean merely to say that the mind of the
author, at the time, might possibly have been struggling with some of those manifold and
multiform aberrations by which the nobler order of genius is so frequently beset–but
which are still so very far removed from disease.
There are some facts in the physical world which have a really wonderful analogy with
others in the world of thought, and seem thus to give some color of truth to the (false)
rhetorical dogma, that metaphor or simile may be made to strengthen an argument, as
well as to embellish a description. The principle of the vis inertiae, for example, with the
amount of momentum proportionate with it and consequent upon it, seems to be identical
in physics and metaphysics. It is not more true, in the former, that a large body is with
more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, and that its subsequent impetus is
commensurate with this difficulty, than it is, in the latter, that intellects of the vaster
capacity, while more forcible, more constant, and more extensive in their movements
than those of inferior grade, are yet the less readily moved, and are more embarrassed and
more full of hesitation in the first few steps of their progress. While, therefore, it is not
impossible, as we have just said, that some slight mental aberration might have given rise
to the hesitancy and indefinitiveness of purpose which are so very perceptible in the first
pages of the volume before us, we are still the more willing to believe these defects the
result of the moral fact just stated, since we find the work itself of an unusual order of
excellence, even when regarded as the production of the author of "Nicholas Nickleby."
That the evils we complain of are not, and were not, fully perceived by Mr. Dickens
himself, cannot be supposed for a moment. Had his book been published in the old way,
we should have seen no traces of them whatever.
The design of the general work, "Humphrey's Clock," is simply the common-place one of
putting various tales into the mouths of a social party. The meetings are held at the house
of Master Humphrey- an antique building in London, where an old-fashioned clock case
is the place of deposit for the M.S.S. Why such designs have become common is obvious.
One half the pleasure experienced at a theatre arises from the spectator's sympathy with
the rest of the audience, and, especially, from his belief in their sympathy with him. The
eccentric gentleman who not long ago, at the Park, found himself the solitary occupant of
box, pit, and gallery, would have derived but little enjoyment from his visit, had he been
suffered to remain. It was an act of mercy to turn him out. The present absurd rage for
lecturing is founded in the feeling in question. Essays which we would not be hired to
read–so trite is their subject–so feeble is their execution–so much easier is it to get better
information on similar themes out of any Encyclopaedia in Christendom–we are brought
to tolerate, and alas, even to applaud in their tenth and twentieth repetition, through the
sole force of our sympathy with the throng. In the same way we listen to a story with
greater zest when there are others present at its narration besides ourselves. Aware of this,
authors without due reflection have repeatedly attempted, by supposing a circle of
listeners, to imbue their narratives with the interest of sympathy. At a cursory glance the
idea seems plausible enough. But, in the one case, there is an actual, personal, and
palpable sympathy, conveyed in looks, gestures and brief comments–a sympathy of real
individuals, all with the matters discussed to be sure, but then especially, each with each.
In the other instance, we, alone in our closet, are required to sympathise with the
sympathy of fictitious listeners, who, so far from being present in body, are often
studiously kept out of sight and out of mind for two or three hundred pages at a time.
This is sympathy double-diluted–the shadow of a shade. It is unnecesary to say that the
design invariably fails of its effect.
In his preface to the present volume, Mr. Dickens seems to feel the necessity for an
apology in regard to certain portions of his commencement, without seeing clearly what
apology he should make, or for what precise thing he should apologize. He makes an
effort to get over the difficulty, by saying something about its never being "his intention
to have the members of 'Master Humphrey's Clock' active agents in the stories they
relate," and about his "picturing to himself the various sensations of his hearers-thinking
how Jack Redburn might incline to poor Kit–how the deaf gentleman would have his
favorite and Mr. Miles his," &c. &c.–but we are quite sure that all this is as pure a fiction
as "The Curiosity Shop?" itself. Our author is deceived. Occupied with little Nell and her
grandfather, he had forgotten the very existence of his interlocutors until he found
himself, at the end of his book, under the disagreeable necessity of saying a word or two
concerning them, by way of winding them up. The simple truth is that, either for one of
the two reasons at which we have already hinted, or else because the work was begun in a
hurry, Mr. Dickens did not precisely know his own plans when he penned the five or six
first chapters of the "Clock."
The wish to preserve a certain degree of unity between various narratives naturally
unconnected, is a more obvious and a better reason for employing interlocutors. But such
unity as may be thus had is scarcely worth having. It may, in some feeble measure,
satisfy the judgment by a sense of completeness; but it seldom produces a pleasant effect;
and if the speakers are made to take part in their own stories (as has been the Case here)
they become injurious by creating confusion. Thus, in "The Curiosity Shop," we feel
displeased to find Master Humphrey commencing the tale in the first person, dropping
this for the third, and concluding by introducing himself as the "single gentleman" who
figures in the story. In spite of all the subsequent explanation we are forced to look upon
him as two. All is confusion, and what makes it worse, is that Master Humphrey is
painted as a lean and sober personage, while his second self is a fat, bluff and boisterous
old bachelor.
Yet the species of connexion in question, besides preserving the unity desired, may be
made, if well managed, a source of consistent and agreeable interest. It has been so made
by Thomas Moore–the most skilful literary artist of his day–perhaps of any day–a man
who stands in the singular and really wonderful predicament of being undervalued on
account of the profusion with which he has scattered about him his good things. The
brilliancies on any one page of Lalla Roohk would have sufficed to establish that very
reputation which has been in a great measure self-dimmed by the galazied lustre of the
entire book. It seems that the horrid laws of political economy cannot be evaded even by
the inspired, and that a perfect versification, a vigorous style, and a never-tiring fancy,
may, like the water we drink and die without, yet despise, be so plentifully set forth as to
be absolutely of no value at all.
By far the greater portion of the volume now published, is occupied with the tale of "The
Old Curiosity Shop," narrated by Master Humphrey himself. The other stories are brief.
The "Giant Chronicles" is the title of what appears to be meant for a series within a
series, and we think this design doubly objectionable. The narrative of "The Bowyer," as
well as of "John Podgers," is not altogether worthy of Mr. Dickens. They were probably
sent to press to supply a demand for copy, while he was occupied with the "Curiosity
Shop." But the "Confession Found in a Prison in the Time of Charles the Second" is a
paper of remarkable power, truly original in conception, and worked out with great
ability.
The story of "The Curiosity Shop" is very simple. Two brothers of England, warmly
attached to each other, love the same lady, without each other's knowledge. The younger
at length discovers the elder's secret, and, sacrificing himself to fraternal affection, quits
the country and resides for many years in a foreign land, where he amasses great wealth.
Meantime his brother marries the lady, who soon dies, leaving an infant daughter–her
perfect resemblance. In the widower's heart the mother lives again through the child. This
latter grows up, marries unhappily, has a son and a daughter, loses her husband, and dies
herself shortly afterward. The grandfather takes the orphans to his home. The boy spurns
his protection, falls into bad courses, and becomes an outcast. The girl–in whom a third
time lives the object of the old man's early choice–dwells with him alone, and is loved by
him with a most doting affection. He has now become poor, and at length is reduced to
keeping a shop for antiquities and curiosities. Finally, through his dread of involving the
child in want, his mind becomes weakened. He thinks to redeem his fortune by gambling,
borrows money for this purpose of a dwarf, who, at length, discovering the true state of
the old man's affairs, seizes his furniture and turns him out of doors. The girl and himself
set out, without farther object than to relieve themselves of the sight of the hated city,
upon a weary pilgrimage, whose events form the basis or body of the tale. In fine, just as
a peaceful retirement is secured for them, the child, wasted with fatigue and anxiety, dies.
The grandfather, through grief, immediately follows her to the tomb. The younger
brother, meantime, has received information of the old man's poverty, hastens to
England, and arrives only in time to be at the closing scene of the tragedy.
This plot is the best which could have been constructed for the main object of the
narrative. This object is the depicting of a fervent and dreamy love for the child on the
part of the grandfather–such a love as would induce devotion to himself on the part of the
orphan. We have thus the conception of a childhood, educated in utter ignorance of the
world, filled with an affection which has been, through its brief existence, the sole source
of its pleasures, and which has no part in the passion of a more mature youth for an object
of its own age–we have the idea of this childhood, full of ardent hopes, leading by the
hand, forth from the heated and wearying city, into the green fields, to seek for bread, the
decrepid imbecility of a doting and confiding old age, whose stern knowledge of man,
and of the world it leaves behind, is now merged in the sole consciousness of receiving
love and protection from that weakness it has loved and protected.
This conception is indeed most beautiful. It is simply and severely grand. The more fully
we survey it the more thoroughly we are convinced of the lofty character of that genius
which gave it birth. That in its present simplicity of form, however, it was first
entertained by Mr. Dickens, may well be doubted. That it was not, we are assured by the
title which the tale bears. When in its commencement he called it "The Old Curiosity
Shop," his design was far different from what we see it in its completion. It is evident that
had he now to name the story he would not so term it; for the shop itself is a thing of an
altogether collateral interest, and is spoken of merely in the beginning. This is only one
among a hundred instances of the disadvantage under which the periodical novelist
labors. When his work is done, he never fails to observe a thousand defects which he
might have remedied, and a thousand alterations, in regard to the book as a whole, which
might be made to its manifest improvement.
But of the conception of this story deserves praise, its execution is beyond all–and here
the subject naturally leads us from the generalization which is the proper province of the
critic, into details among which it is scarcely fitting that he should venture.
The Art of Mr. Dickens, although elaborate and great, seems only a happy modification
of Nature. In this respect he differs remarkably from the author of "Night and Morning."
The latter, by excessive care and by patient reflection, aided by much rhetorical
knowledge, and general information, has arrived at the capability of producing books
which be mistaken by ninety-nine readers out of a hundred for the genuine inspirations of
genius. The former, by the promptings of the truest genius itself, has been brought to
compose, and evidently without effort, works which have effected a long-sought
consummation–which have rendered him the idol of the people, while defying and
enchanting the critics. Mr. Bulwer, through art, has almost created a genius. Mr. Dickens,
through genius, has perfected a standard from which Art itself will derive its essence, in
rules.
When we speak in this manner of the "Old Curiosity Shop," we speak with entire
deliberation, and know quite well what it is we assert. We do not mean to say that it is
perfect, as a whole–this could not well have been the case under the circumstances of its
composition. But we know that, in all the higher elements which go to make up literary
greatness, it is supremely excellent. We think, for instance, that the introduction of
Nelly's brother (and here we address those who have read the work) is supererogatory–
that the character of Quilp would have been more in keeping had he been confined to
petty and grotesque acts of malice–that his death should have been made the immediate
consequence of his attempt at revenge upon Kit; and that after matters had been put fairly
in train for this poetical justice, he should not have perished by an accident
inconsequential upon his villany. We think, too, that there is an air of ultra-accident in the
finally discovered relationship between Kit's master and the bachelor of the old church–
that the sneering politeness put into the mouth of Quilp, with his manner of commencing
a question which he wishes answered in the affirmative, with an affirmative
interrogatory, instead of the ordinary negative one–are fashions borrowed from the
authors own Fagin–that he has repeated himself in many other instances–that the practical
tricks and love of mischief of the dwarf's boy are too nearly consonant with the traits of
the master–that so much of the propensities of Swiveller as relate to his inapposite
appropriation of odds and ends of verse, is stolen from the generic loafer of our fellowtownsman, Neal–and that the writer has suffered the overflowing kindness of his own
bosom to mislead him in a very important point of art, when he endows so many of his
dramatis personae with a warmth of feeling so very rare in reality. Above all, we
acknowledge that the death of Nelly is excessively painful–that it leaves a most
distressing oppression of spirit upon the reader–and should, therefore, have been avoided.
But when we come to speak of the excellences of the tale these defects appear really
insignificant. It embodies more originality in every point, but in character especially, than
any single work within our knowledge. There is the grandfather–a truly profound
conception; the gentle and lovely Nelly–we have discoursed of her before; Quilp, with
mouth like that of the panting dog–(a bold idea which the engraver has neglected to
embody) with his hilarious antics, his cowardice, and his very petty and spoilt-child–like
malevolence, Dick Swiveller, that prince of goodhearted, good-for-nothing, lazy,
luxurious, poetical, brave, romantically generous, gallant, affectionate, and not over-andabove honest, "glorious Apollos;" the marchioness, his bride; Tom Codlin and his
partner; Miss Sally Brass, that "fine fellow;" the pony that had an opinion of its own; the
boy that stood upon his head; the sexton; the man at the forge; not forgetting the dancing
dogs and baby Nubbles. There are other admirably drawn characters–but we note these
for their remarkable originality, as well as for their wonderful keeping, and the glowing
colors in which they are painted. We have heard some of them called caricatures–but the
charge is grossly ill-founded. No critical principle is more firmly based in reason than
that a certain amount of exaggeration is essential to the proper depicting of truth itself.
We do not paint an object to be true, but to appear true to the beholder. Were we to copy
nature with accuracy the object copied would seem unnatural. The columns of the Greek
temples, which convey the idea of absolute proportion, are very considerably thicker just
beneath the capital than at the base. We regret that we have not left ourselves space in
which to examine this whole question as it deserves. We must content ourselves with
saying that caricature seldom exists (unless in so gross a form as to disgust at once)
where the component parts are in keeping; and that the laugh excited by it, in any case, is
radically distinct from that induced by a properly artistical incongruity–the source of all
mirth. Were these creations of Mr. Dickens' really caricatures they would not live in
public estimation beyond the hour of their first survey. We regard them as creations–(that
is to say as original combinations of character) only not all of the highest order, because
the elements employed are not always of the highest. In the instances of Nelly, the
grandfather, the Sexton, and the man of the furnace, the force of the creative intellect
could scarcely have been engaged with nobler material, and the result is that these
personages belong to the most august regions of the Ideal.
In truth, the great feature of the "Curiosity Shop" is its chaste, vigorous, and glorious
imagination. This is the one charm, all potent, which alone would suffice to compensate
for a world more of error than Mr. Dickens ever committed. It is not only seen in the
conception, and general handling of the story, or in the invention of character; but it
pervades every sentence of the book. We recognise its prodigious influence in every
inspired word. It is this which induces the reader who is at all ideal, to pause frequently,
to reread the occasionally quaint phrases, to muse in uncontrollable delight over thoughts
which, while he wonders he has never hit upon them before, he yet admits that he never
has encountered. In fact it is the wand of the enchanter.
Had we room to particularize, we would mention as points evincing most distinctly the
ideality of the "Curiosity Shop"–the picture of the shop itself–the newly-born desire of
the worldly old man for the peace of green fields–his whole character and conduct, in
short–the schoolmaster, with his desolate fortunes, seeking affection in little children–the
haunts of Quilp among the wharf-rats–the tinkering of the Punchmen among the tombs–
the glorious scene where the man of the forge sits poring, at deep midnight, into that
dread fire–again the whole conception of this character, and, last and greatest, the stealthy
approach of Nell to her death–her gradual sinking away on the journey to the village, so
skilfully indicated rather than described–her pensive and prescient meditation–the fit of
strange musing which came over her when the house in which she was to die first broke
upon her sight–the description of this house, of the old church, and of the churchyard–
everything in rigid consonance with the one impression to be conveyed–that deep
meaningless well–the comments of the Sexton upon death, and upon his own secure life–
this whole world of mournful yet peaceful idea merging, at length, into the decease of the
child Nelly, and the uncomprehending despair of the grandfather. These concluding
scenes are so drawn that human language, urged by human thought, could go no farther
in the excitement of human feelings. And the pathos is of that best order which is
relieved, in great measure, by ideality. Here the book has never been equalled,–never
approached except in one instance, and that is in the case of the "Undine" by De La Motte
Fouque. The imagination is perhaps as great in this latter work, but the pathos, although
truly beautiful and deep, fails of much of its effect through the material from which it is
wrought. The chief character, being endowed with purely fanciful attributes, cannot
command our full sympathies, as can a simple denizen of earth. In saying above, that the
death of the child left too painful an impression, and should therefore have been avoided,
we must, of course, be understood as referring to the work as a whole, and in respect to
its general appreciation and popularity. The death, as recorded, is, we repeat, of the
highest order of literary excellence–yet while none can deny this fact, there are few who
will be willing to read the concluding passages a second time.
Upon the whole we think the "Curiosity Shop" very much the best of the works of Mr.
Dickens. It is scarcely possible to speak of it too well. It is in all respects a tale which will
secure for its author the enthusiastic admiration of every man of genius.
The edition before us is handsomely printed, on excellent paper. The designs by
Cattermole and Browne are many of them excellent–some of them outrageously bad. Of
course, it is difficult for us to say how far the American engraver is in fault. In
conclusion, we must enter our solemn protest against the final page full of little angels in
smock frocks, or dimity chemises.
THE QUACKS OF HELICON
A Satire. By L. A. Wilmer
A SATIRE, professedly such, at the present day, and especially by an American writer, is
a welcome novelty indeed. We have really done very little in the line upon this side of the
Atlantic–nothing certainly of importance–Trumbull's clumsy poem and Halleck's
"Croakers" to the contrary notwithstanding. Some things we have produced, to be sure,
which were excellent in the way of burlesque, without intending a syllable that was not
utterly solemn and serious. Odes, ballads, songs, sonnets, epics, and epigrams, possessed
of this unintentional excellence, we could have no difficulty in designating by the dozen;
but in the matter of directly meant and genuine satire, it cannot be denied that we are
sadly deficient. Although, as a literary people, however, we are not exactly
Archilochuses- although we have no pretensions to the echeenpes iamboi–although in
short, we are no satirists ourselves, there can be no question that we answer sufficiently
well as subjects for satire.
We repeat that we are glad to see this book of Mr. Wilmer's; first, because it is something
new under the sun; secondly, because, in many respects, it is well executed; and thirdly,
because, in the universal corruption and rigmarole, amid which we gasp for breath, it is
really a pleasant thing to get even one accidental whiff of the unadulterated air of truth.
"The Quacks of Helicon," as a poem and otherwise, has many defects, and these we shall
have no scruple in pointing out- although Mr. Wilmer is a personal friend of our own, and
we are happy and proud to say so–but it has also many remarkable merits- merits which it
will be quite useless for those aggrieved by the satire–quite useless for any clique, or set
of cliques, to attempt to frown down, or to affect not to see, or to feel, or to understand.
Its prevalent blemishes are referable chiefly to the leading sin of imitation. Had the work
been composed professedly in paraphrase of the whole manner of the sarcastic epistles of
the times of Dryden and Pope, we should have pronounced it the most ingenious and
truthful thing of the kind upon record. So close is the copy that it extends to the most
trivial points–for example, to the old forms of punctuation. The turns of phraseology, the
tricks of rhythm, the arrangement of the paragraphs, the general conduct of the satire–
everything–all–are Dryden's. We cannot deny, it is true, that the satiric model of the days
in question is insusceptible of improvement, and that the modern author who deviates
therefrom must necessarily sacrifice something of merit at the shrine of originality.
Neither can we shut our eyes to the fact that the imitation in the present case has
conveyed, in full spirit, the high qualities, as well as in rigid letter, the minor elegancies
and general peculiarities of the author of "Absalom and Achitophel." We have here the
bold, vigorous, and sonorous verse, the biting sarcasm, the pungent epigrammatism, the
unscrupulous directness, as of old. Yet it will not do to forget that Mr. Wilmer has been
shown how to accomplish these things. He is thus only entitled to the praise of a close
observer, and of a thoughtful and skilful copyist. The images are, to be sure, his own.
They are neither Popes, nor Dryden's, nor Rochester's, nor Churchill's–but they are
moulded in the identical mould used by these satirists.
This servility of imitation has seduced our author into errors, which his better sense
should have avoided. He sometimes mistakes intentions; at other times, he copies faults,
confounding them with beauties. In the opening of the poem, for example, we find the
linesAgainst usurpers, Olney, I declare
A righteous, just and patriotic war.
The rhymes war and declare are here adopted from Pope, who employs them frequently;
but it should have been remembered that the modern relative pronunciation of the two
words differs materially from the relative pronunciation of the era of the "Dunciad."
We are also sure that the gross obscenity, the filth–we can use no gentler name–which
disgraces "The Quacks of Helicon," cannot be the result of innate impurity in the mind of
the writer. It is but a part of the slavish and indiscriminating imitation of the Swift and
Rochester school. It has done the book an irreparable injury, both in a moral and
pecuniary view, without affecting anything whatever on the score of sarcasm, vigour or
wit. "Let what is to be said, he said plainly." True, but let nothing vulgar be ever said or
conceived.
In asserting that this satire, even in its mannerism, has imbued itself with the full spirit of
the polish and of the pungency of Dryden, we have already awarded it high praise. But
there remains to be mentioned the far loftier merit of speaking fearlessly the truth, at an
epoch when truth is out of fashion, and under circumstances of social position which
would have deterred almost any man in our community from a similar Quixotism. For the
publication of "The Quacks of Helicon"–a poem which brings under review, by name,
most of our prominent literati and treats them, generally, as they deserve (what treatment
could be more bitter?)–for the publication of this attack, Mr. Wilmer, whose subsistence
lies in his pen, has little to look for–apart from the silent respect of those at once honest
and timid–but the most malignant open or covert persecution. For this reason, and
because it is the truth which he has spoken, do we say to him, from the bottom of our
hearts, "God speed!"
We repeat it: it is the truth which he has spoken; and who shall contradict us? He has said
unscrupulously what every reasonable man among us has long known to be "as true as
the Pentateuch"–that, as a literary people, we are one vast perambulating humbug. He has
asserted that we are clique-ridden; and who does not smile at the obvious truism of that
assertion? He maintains that chicanery is, with us, a far surer road than talent to
distinction in letters. Who gainsays this? The corrupt nature of our ordinary criticism has
become notorious. Its powers have been prostrated by its own arm. The intercourse
between critic and publisher, as it now almost universally stands, is comprised either in
the paying and pocketing of blackmail, as the price of a simple forebearance, or in a
direct system of petty and contemptible bribery, properly so-called–a system even more
injurious than the former to the true interests of the public, and more degrading to the
buyers and sellers of good opinion, on account of the more positive character of the
service here rendered for the consideration received. We laugh at the idea of any denial of
our assertions upon this topic; they are infamously true. In the charge of general
corruption, there are undoubtedly many noble exceptions to be made. There are, indeed,
some very few editors, who, maintaining an entire independence, will receive no books
from publishers at all, or who receive them with a perfect understanding, on the part of
these latter, that an unbiassed critique will be given. But these cases are insufficient to
have much effect on the popular mistrust; a mistrust heightened by late exposure of the
machinations of coteries in New York-coteries which, at the bidding of leading
booksellers, manufacture, as required from time to time, a pseudo-public opinion by
wholesale, for the benefit of any little hanger-on of the party, or pettifogging protector of
the firm.
We speak of these things in the bitterness of scorn. It is unnecessary to cite instances,
where one is found in almost every issue of a book. It is needless to call to mind the
desperate case of Fay–a case where the pertinacity of the effort to gull–where the
obviousness of the attempt at forestalling a judgment–where the wofully overdone
bemirrorment of that man-of-straw, together with the pitiable platitude of his production,
proved a dose somewhat too potent for even the well-prepared stomach of the mob. We
say it is supererogatory to dwell upon "Norman Leslie," or other by-gone follies, when
we have before our eyes hourly instances of the machinations in question. To so great an
extent of methodical assurance has the system of puffery arrived, that publishers, of late,
have made no scruple of keeping on hand an assortment of commendatory notices,
prepared by their men of all work, and of sending these notices around to the
multitudinous papers within their influence, done up within the fly leaves of the book.
The grossness of these base attempts, however, has not escaped indignant rebuke from
the more honourable portion of the press; and we hail these symptoms of restiveness
under the yoke of unprincipled ignorance and quackery (strong only in combination) as
the harbinger of a better era for the interests of real merit, and of the national literature as
a whole.
It has become, indeed, the plain duty of each individual connected with our periodicals
heartily to give whatever influence he possesses to the good cause of integrity and the
truth. The results thus attainable will be found worthy his closest attention and best
efforts. We shall thus frown down all conspiracies to foist inanity upon the public
consideration at the obvious expense of every man of talent who is not a member of a
clique in power. We may even arrive in time at that desirable point from which a distinct
view of our men of letters may be obtained, and their respective pretensions adjusted by
the standard of a rigorous and self-sustaining criticism alone. That their several positions
are as yet properly settled; that the posts which a vast number of them now hold are
maintained by any better tenure than that of the chicanery upon which we have
commented, will be asserted by none but the ignorant, or the parties who have best right
to feel an interest in the "good old condition of things." No two matters can be more
radically different than the reputation of some of our prominent litterateurs as gathered
from the mouths of the people (who glean it from the paragraphs of the papers), and the
same reputation as deduced from the private estimate of intelligent and educated men.
We do not advance this fact as a new discovery. Its truth, on the contrary, is the subject,
and has long been so, of every-day witticism and mirth.
Why not? Surely there can be few things more ridiculous than the general character and
assumptions of the ordinary critical notices of new books! An editor, sometimes without
the shadow of the commonest attainment–often without brains, always without time–does
not scruple to give the world to understand that he is in the daily habit of critically
reading and deciding upon a flood of publications, one-tenth of whose title pages he may
possibly have turned over, three-fourths of whose contents would be Hebrew to his most
desperate efforts at comprehension, and whose entire mass and amount, as might be
mathematically demonstrated, would be sufficient to occupy, in the most cursory perusal,
the attention of some ten or twenty readers for a month! What he wants in plausibility,
however, he makes up in obsequiousness; what he lacks in time he supplies in temper. He
is the most easily pleased man in the world. He admires everything, from the big
Dictionary of Noah Webster to the last diamond edition of Tom Thumb. Indeed, his sole
difficulty is in finding tongue to express his delight. Every pamphlet is a miracle- every
book in boards is an epoch in letters. His phrases, therefore, get bigger and bigger every
day, and, if it were not for talking Cockney, we might call him a "regular swell."
Yet, in the attempt at getting definite information in regard to any one portion of our
literature, the merely general reader, or the foreigner, will turn in vain from the lighter to
the heavier journals. But it is not our intention here to dwell upon the radical, antique,
and systematized rigmarole of our Quarterlies. The articles here are anonymous. Who
writes?–who causes to be written? Who but an ass will put faith in tirades which may be
the result of personal hostility, or in panegyrics which nine times out of ten may be laid,
directly or indirectly, to the charge of the author himself? It is in the favour of these
saturnine pamphlets that they contain, now and then, a good essay de omnibus rebus et
quibusdam aliis, which may be looked into, without decided somnolent consequences, at
any period, not immediately subsequent to dinner. But it is useless to expect criticism
from periodicals called "Reviews" from never reviewing. Besides, all men know, or
should know, that these books are sadly given to verbiage. It is a part of their nature, a
condition of their being, a point of their faith. A veteran reviewer loves the safety of
generalities and is therefore rarely particular. "Words, words, words," are the secret of his
strength. He has one or two ideas of his own and is both wary and fussy in giving them
out. His wit lies, with his truth, in a well, and there is always a world of trouble in getting
it up. He is a sworn enemy to all things simple and direct. He gives no ear to the advice of
the giant Moulineau-"Belier, mon ami commencez au commencement." He either jumps
at once into the middle of his subject, or breaks in at a back door, or sidles up to it with
the gait of a crab. No other mode of approach has an air of sufficient profundity. When
fairly into it, however, he becomes dazzled with the scintillations of his own wisdom, and
is seldom able to see his way out. Tired of laughing at his antics, or frightened at seeing
him flounder, the reader, at length, shuts him up, with the book. "What song the Syrens
sang," says Sir Thomas Browne, "or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself
among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture";–but it would
puzzle Sir Thomas, backed by Achilles and all the Syrens in Heathendom, to say, in nine
cases out of ten, what is the object of a thoroughgoing Quarterly Reviewer.
Should the opinions promulgated by our press at large be taken, in their wonderful
aggregate, as an evidence of what American literature absolutely is (and it may be said
that, in general, they are really so taken), we shall find ourselves the most enviable set of
people upon the face of the earth. Our fine writers are legion. Our very atmosphere is
redolent of genius; and we, the nation, are a huge, well-contented chameleon, grown
pursy by inhaling it. We are teretes et rotundi–enwrapped in excellence. All our poets are
Milton neither mute nor inglorious; all our poetesses are "American Hemanses"; nor will
it do to deny that all our novelists are Great Knowns or Great Unknowns, and that
everybody who writes, in every possible and impossible department, is the Admirable
Crichton, or, at least, the Admirable Crichton's ghost. We are thus in a glorious condition,
and will remain so until forced to disgorge our ethereal honours. In truth there is some
danger that the jealousy of the Old World will interfere. It cannot long submit to that
outrageous monopoly of "all the decency and all the talent," of which the gentlemen of
the press give such undoubted assurance of our being the possessors.
But we feel angry with ourselves for the jesting tone of our observations upon this topic.
The prevalence of the spirit of puffery is a subject far less for merriment than for disgust.
Its truckling, yet dogmatical character–its bold, unsustained, yet self-sufficient and
wholesale laudation–is becoming, more and more, an insult to the common sense of the
community. Trivial as it essentially is, it has yet been made the instrument of the grossest
abuse in the elevation of imbecility, to the manifest injury, to the utter ruin, of true merit.
Is there any man of good feeling and of ordinary understanding–is there one single
individual among all our readers–who does not feel a thrill of bitter indignation, apart
from any sentiment of mirth, as he calls to mind instance after instance of the purest, of
the most unadulterated quackery in letters, which has risen to a high post in the apparent
popular estimation, and which still maintains it, by the sole means of a blustering
arrogance, or of a busy wriggling conceit, or of the most barefaced plagiarism, or even
through the simple immensity of its assumptions–assumptions not only unopposed by the
press at large, but absolutely supported in proportion to the vociferous clamour with
which they are made–in exact accordance with their utter baselessness and untenability?
We should have no trouble in pointing out to-day some twenty or thirty so-called literary
personages, who, if not idiots, as we half think them, or if not hardened to all sense of
shame by a long course of disingenuousness, will now blush in the perusal of these
words, through consciousness of the shadowy nature of that purchased pedestal upon
which they stand-will now tremble in thinking of the feebleness of the breath which will
be adequate to the blowing it from beneath their feet. With the help of a hearty good will,
even we may yet tumble them down.
So firm, through a long endurance, has been the hold taken upon the popular mind (at
least so far as we may consider the popular mind reflected in ephemeral letters) by the
laudatory system which we have deprecated, that what is, in its own essence, a vice, has
become endowed with the appearance, and met with the reception of a virtue. Antiquity,
as usual, has lent a certain degree of speciousness even to the absurd. So continuously
have we puffed, that we have, at length, come to think puffing the duty, and plain
speaking the dereliction. What we began in gross error, we persist in through habit.
Having adopted, in the earlier days of our literature, the untenable idea that this literature,
as a whole, could be advanced by an indiscriminate approbation bestowed on its every
effort- having adopted this idea, we say, without attention to the obvious fact that praise
of all was bitter although negative censure to the few alone deserving, and that the only
result of the system, in the fostering way, would be the fostering of folly–we now
continue our vile practice through the supineness of custom, even while, in our national
self-conceit, we repudiate that necessity for patronage and protection in which originated
our conduct. In a word, the press throughout the country has not been ashamed to make
head against the very few bold attempts at independence which have from time to time
been made in the face of the reigning order of things. And if in one, or perhaps two,
insulated cases, the spirit of severe truth, sustained by an unconquerable will, was not to
be so put down, then, forthwith, were private chicaneries set in motion; then was had
resort, on the part of those who considered themselves injured by the severity of criticism
(and who were so, if the just contempt of every ingenuous man is injury), resort to arts of
the most virulent indignity, to untraceable slanders, to ruthless assassination in the dark.
We say these things were done while the press in general looked on, and, with a full
understanding of the wrong perpetrated, spoke not against the wrong. The idea had
absolutely gone abroad- had grown up little by little into toleration–that attacks, however
just, upon a literary reputation, however obtained, however untenable, were well
retaliated by the basest and most unfounded traduction of personal fame. But is this an
age–is this a day–in which it can be necessary even to advert to such considerations as
that the book of the author is the property of the public, and that the issue of the book is
the throwing down of the gauntlet to the reviewer–to the reviewer whose duty is the
plainest; the duty not even of approbation, or of censure, or of silence, at his own, will
but at the sway of those sentiments and of those opinions which are derived from the
author himself, through the medium of his written and published words? True criticism is
the reflection of the thing criticized upon the spirit of the critic.
But a nos moutons–to "The Quacks of Helicon." This satire has many faults besides those
upon which we have commented. The title, for example, is not sufficiently distinctive,
although otherwise good. It does not confine the subject to American quacks, while the
work does. The two concluding lines enfeeble instead of strengthening the finale, which
would have been exceedingly pungent without them. The individual portions of the thesis
are strung together too much at random–a natural sequence is not always preserved–so
that, although the lights of the picture are often forcible, the whole has what, in artistical
parlance, is termed an accidental and spotty appearance. In truth, the parts of the poem
have evidently been composed each by each, as separate themes, and afterwards fitted
into the general satire in the best manner possible.
But a more reprehensible sin than an or than all of these is yet to be mentioned–the sin of
indiscriminate censure. Even here Mr. Wilmer has erred through imitation. He has held in
view the sweeping denunciations of the Dunciad, and of the later (abortive) satire of
Byron. No one in his senses can deny the justice of the general charges of corruption in
regard to which we have just spoken from the text of our author. But are there no
exceptions? We should, indeed, blush if there were not. And is there no hope? Time will
show. We cannot do everything in a day–Non se gano Zonora en un ora. Again, it cannot
be gainsaid that the greater number of those who hold high places in our poetical
literature are absolute nincompoops–fellows alike innocent of reason and of rhyme. But
neither are we all brainless, nor is the devil himself so black as he is painted. Mr. Wilmer
must read the chapter in Rabelais's "Gargantua," "de ce qu'est signifie par les couleurs
blanc et bleu,"–for there is some difference after all. It will not do in a civilized land to
run a-muck like a Malay. Mr. Morris has written good songs. Mr. Bryant is not all a fool.
Mr. Willis is not quite an ass. Mr. Longfellow will steal, but, perhaps, he cannot help it
(for we have heard of such things), and then it must not be denied that nil tetigit quod non
ornavit.
The fact is that our author, in the rank exuberance of his zeal, seems to think as little of
discrimination as the Bishop of Autun* did of the Bible. Poetical "things in general" are
the windmills at which he spurs his Rozinante. He as often tilts at what is true as at what
is false; and thus his lines are like the mirrors of the temples of Smyrna, which represent
the fairest images as deformed. But the talent, the fearlessness, and especially the design
of this book, will suffice to preserve it from that dreadful damnation of "silent contempt,"
to which editors throughout the country, if we are not much mistaken, will endeavour,
one and all to consign it.
* Talleyrand.
EXORDIUM
EXORDIUM
[Graham's Magazine, January, 1842]
IN Commencing, with the New Year, a New Volume, we shall be permitted to say a very
few words by way of exordium to our usual chapter of Reviews, or, as we should prefer
calling them, of Critical Notices. Yet we speak not for the sake of the exordium, but
because we have really something to say, and know not when or where better to say it.
That the public attention, in America, has, of late days, been more than usually directed
to the matter of literary criticism, is plainly apparent. Our periodicals are beginning to
acknowledge the importance of the science (shall we so term it?) and to disdain the
flippant opinion which so long has been made its substitute.
Time was when we imported our critical decisions from the mother country. For many
years we enacted a perfect farce of subserviency to the dicta of Great Britain. At last a
revulsion of feeling, with self-disgust, necessarily ensued. Urged by these, we plunged
into the opposite extreme. In throwing totally off that "authority," whose voice had so
long been so sacred, we even surpassed, and by much, our original folly. But the
watchword now was, "a national literature!"–as, if any true literature could be "national"–
as if the world at large were not the only proper stage for the literary histrio. We became,
suddenly, the merest and maddest partizans in letters. Our papers spoke of "tariffs" and
"protection." Our Magazines had habitual passages about that "truly native novelist, Mr.
Cooper," or that "staunch American genius, Mr. Paulding." Unmindful of the spirit of the
axioms that "a prophet has no honor in his own land" and that "a hero is never a hero to
his valet-de-chambre"–axioms founded in reason and in truth–our reviews urged the
propriety–our booksellers the necessity, of strictly "American" themes. A foreign subject,
at this epoch, was a weight more than enough to drag down into the very depths of
critical damnation the finest writer owning nativity in the States; while, on the reverse,
we found ourselves daily in the paradoxical dilemma of liking, or pretending to like, a
stupid book the better because (sure enough) its stupidity was of our own growth, and
discussed our own affairs.
It is, in fact, but very lately that this anomalous state of feeling has shown any signs of
subsidence. Still it is subsiding. Our views of literature in general having expanded, we
begin to demand the use- to inquire into the offices and provinces of criticism–to regard it
more as an art based immovably in nature, less as a mere system of fluctuating and
conventional dogmas. And, with the prevalence of these ideas, has arrived a distaste even
to the home-dictation of the bookseller-coteries. If our editors are not as yet all
independent of the will of a publisher, a majority of them scruple, at least, to confess a
subservience, and enter into no positive combinations against the minority who despise
and discard it. And this is a very great improvement of exceedingly late date.
Escaping these quicksands, our criticism is nevertheless in some danger–some very little
danger–of falling into the pit of a most detestable species of cant–the cant of generality.
This tendency has been given it, in the first instance, by the onward and tumultuous spirit
of the age. With the increase of the thinking-material comes the desire, if not the
necessity, of abandoning particulars for masses. Yet in our individual case, as a nation,
we seem merely to have adopted this bias from the British Quarterly Reviews, upon
which our own Quarterlies have been slavishly and pertinaciously modelled. In the
foreign journal, the review or criticism properly so termed, has gradually yet steadily
degenerated into what we see it at present–that is to say, into anything but criticism.
Originally a "review" was not so called as lucus a non lucendo. Its name conveyed a just
idea of its design. It reviewed, or surveyed the book whose title formed its text, and,
giving an analysis of its contents, passed judgment upon its merits or defects. But,
through the system of anonymous contribution, this natural process lost ground from day
to day. The name of a writer being known only to a few, it became to him an object not
so much to write well, as to write fluently, at so many guineas per sheet. The analysis of a
book is a matter of time and of mental exertion. For many classes of composition there is
required a deliberate perusal, with notes, and subsequent generalization. An easy
substitute for this labor was found in a digest or compendium of the work noticed, with
copious extracts–or a still easier, in random comments upon such passages as
accidentally met the eye of the critic, with the passages themselves copied at full length.
The mode of reviewing most in favor, however, because carrying with it the greatest
semblance of care, was that of diffuse essay upon the subject matter of the publication,
the reviewer(?) using the facts alone which the publication supplied, and using them as
material for some theory, the sole concern, bearing, and intention of which, was mere
difference of opinion with the author. These came at length to be understood and
habitually practised as the customary or conventional fashions of review; and although
the nobler order of intellects did not fall into the full heresy of these fashions–we may
still assert that even Macaulay's nearest approach to criticism in its legitimate sense, is to
be found in his article upon Ranke's "History of the Popes"–an article in which the whole
strength of the reviewer is put forth to account for a single fact–the progress of
Romanism–which the book under discussion has established.
Now, while we do not mean to deny that a good essay is a good thing, we yet assert that
these papers on general topics have nothing whatever to do with that criticism which their
evil example has nevertheless infected in se. Because these dogmatizing pamphlets,
which were once "Reviews," have lapsed from their original faith, it does not follow that
the faith itself is extinct–that "there shall be no more cakes and ale"–that criticism, in its
old acceptation, does not exist. But we complain of a growing inclination on the part of
our lighter journals to believe, on such grounds, that such is the fact- that because the
British Quarterlies, through supineness, and our own, through a degrading imitation, have
come to merge all varieties of vague generalization in the one title of "Review," it
therefore results that criticism, being everything in the universe, is, consequently, nothing
whatever in fact. For to this end, and to none other conceivable, is the tendency of such
propositions, for example, as we find in a late number of that very clever monthly
magazine, Arcturus.
"But now" (the emphasis on the now is our own)–"but now," says Mr. Mathews, in the
preface to the first volume of his journal, "criticism has a wider scope and a universal
interest. It dismisses errors of grammer, and hands over an imperfect rhyme or a false
quantity to the proofreader; it looks now to the heart of the subject and the author's
design. It is a test of opinion. Its acuteness is not pedantic, but philosophical; it unravels
the web of the author's mystery to interpret his meaning to others; it detects his sophistry,
because sophistry is injurious to the heart and life; it promulgates his beauties with
liberal, generous praise, because this is his true duty as the servant of truth. Good
criticism may be well asked for, since it is the type of the literature of the day. It gives
method to the universal inquisitiveness on every topic relating to life or action. A
criticism, now, includes every form of literature, except perhaps the imaginative and the
strictly dramatic. It is an essay, a sermon, an oration, a chapter in history, a philosophical
speculation, a prose-poem, an art-novel, a dialogue, it admits of humor, pathos, the
personal feelings of autobiography, the broadest views of statesmanship. As the ballad
and the epic were the productions of the days of Homer, the review is the native
characteristic growth of the nineteenth century."
We respect the talents of Mr. Mathews, but must dissent from nearly all that he here says.
The species of "review" which he designates as the "characteristic growth of the
nineteenth century" is only the growth of the last twenty or thirty years in Great Britain.
The French Reviews, for example, which are not anonymous, are very different things,
and preserve the unique spirit of true criticism. And what need we say of the Germans?–
what of Winckelmann, of Novalis, of Schelling, of Goethe, of Augustus William, and of
Frederick Schlegel?–that their magnificent critiques raisonnees differ from those of
Kames, of Johnson, and of Blair, in principle not at all, (for the principles of these artists
will not fail until Nature herself expires,) but solely in their more careful elaboration,
their greater thoroughness, their more profound analysis and application of the principles
themselves. That a criticism "now" should be different in spirit, as Mr. Mathews
supposes, from a criticism at any previous period, is to insinuate a charge of variability in
laws that cannot vary–the laws of man's heart and intellect–for these are the sole basis,
upon which the true critical art is established. And this art "now" no more than in the
days of the "Dunciad," can, without neglect of its duty, "dismiss errors of grammar," or
"hand over an imperfect rhyme or a false quantity to the proof-reader." What is meant by
a "test of opinion" in the connection here given the words by Mr. M., we do not
comprehend as clearly as we could desire. By this phrase we are as completely enveloped
in doubt as was Mirabeau in the castle of If. To our imperfect appreciation it seems to
form a portion of that general vagueness which is the tone of the whole philosophy at this
point:- but all that which our journalist describes a criticism to be, is all that which we
sturdily maintain it is not. Criticism is not, we think, an essay, nor a sermon, nor an
oration, nor a chapter in history, nor a philosophical speculation, nor a prose-poem, nor
an art-novel, nor a dialogue. In fact, it can be nothing in the world but–a criticism. But if
it were all that Arcturus imagines, it is not very clear why it might not be equally
"imaginative, or "dramatic"- a romance or a melodrama, or both. That it would be a farce
cannot be doubted.
It is against this frantic spirit of generalization that we protest. We have a word,
"criticism," whose import is sufficiently distinct, through long usage, at least, and we
have an art of high importance and clearly ascertained limit, which this word is quite well
enough understood to represent. Of that conglomerate science to which Mr. Mathews so
eloquently alludes, and of which we are instructed that it is anything and everything at
once–of this science we know nothing, and really wish to know less; but we object to our
contemporary's appropriation in its behalf, of a term to which we, in common with a large
majority of mankind, have been accustomed to attach a certain and very definitive idea. Is
there no word but "criticism" which may be made to serve the purposes of "Arcturus"?
Has it any objection to Orphicism, or Dialism, or Emersonism, or any other pregnant
compound indicative of confusion worse confounded?
Still, we must not pretend a total misapprehension of the idea of Mr. Mathews, and we
should be sorry that he misunderstood us. It may be granted that we differ only in terms–
although the difference will yet be found not unimportant in effect. Following the highest
authority, we would wish, in a word, to limit literary criticism to comment upon Art. A
book is written–and it is only as the book that we subject it to review. With the opinions
of the work, considered otherwise than in their relation to the work itself, the critic has
really nothing to do. It is his part simply to decide upon the mode in which these opinions
are brought to bear. Criticism is thus no "test of opinion." For this test, the work, divested
of its pretensions as an art-product, is turned over for discussion to the world at large- and
first, to that class which it especially addresses–if a history, to the historian–if a
metaphysical treatise, to the moralist. In this, the only true and intelligible sense, it will
be seen that criticism, the test or analysis of Art, (not of opinion,) is only properly
employed upon productions which have their basis in art itself, and although the
journalist (whose duties and objects are multiform) may turn aside, at pleasure, from the
mode or vehicle of opinion to discussion of the opinion conveyed–it is still clear that he is
"critical" only in so much as he deviates from his true province not at all.
And of the critic himself what shall we say?–for as yet we have spoken only the proem to
the true epopea. What can we better say of him than, with Bulwer, that "he must have
courage to blame boldly, magnanimity to eschew envy, genius to appreciate, learning to
compare, an eye for beauty, an ear for music, and a heart for feeling." Let us add, a talent
for analysis and a solemn indifference to abuse.
BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of "Voices of the Night,"
"Hyperion," &c. Second edition. John Owen, Cambridge.
"IL Y A A PARIER," says Chamfort, "que toute idee publique, toute convention recue,
est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand notore."–One would be safe in wagering
that any given public idea is erroneous, for it has been yielded to the clamor of the
majority,–and this strictly philosophical, although somewhat French assertion has
especial bearing upon the whole race of what are termed maxims and popular proverbs;
nine-tenths of which are the quintessence of folly. One of the most deplorably false of
them is the antique adage, De gustibus non est disputandum–there should be no disputing
about taste. Here the idea designed to be conveyed is that any one person has as just right
to consider his own taste the true, as has any one other–that taste itself, in short, is an
arbitrary something, amenable to no law, and measurable by no definite rules. It must be
confessed, however, that the exceedingly vague and impotent treatises which are alone
extant, have much to answer for as regards confirming the general error. Not the least
important service which, hereafter, mankind will owe to Phrenology, may, perhaps, be
recognized in an analysis of the real principles, and a digest of the resulting laws of taste.
These principles, in fact, are as clearly traceable, and these laws as really susceptible of
system as are any whatever.
In the meantime, the inane adage above mentioned is in no respect more generally, more
stupidly, and more pertinaciously quoted than by the admirers of what is termed the
"good old Pope," or the "good old Goldsmith school" of poetry, in reference to the
bolder, more natural and more ideal compositions of such authors as Coetlogon and
Lamartine* in France; Herder, Korner, and Uhland, in Germany; Brun and Baggesen in
Denmark; Bellman, Tegner, Nyberg*(2) in Sweden; Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, and
Tennyson in England; Lowell and Longfellow in America. "De gustibus non," say these
"good-old school" fellows; and we have no doubt that their mental translation of the
phrase is- "We pity your taste–we pity every body's taste but our own."
* We allude here chiefly to the "David" of Coetlogon and only to the "Chute d'un Ange"
of Lamartine.
*(2) Julia Nyberg, author of the "Dikter von Euphrosyne."
It is our purpose hereafter, when occasion shall be afforded us, to controvert in an article
of some length, the popular idea that the poets, just mentioned owe to novelty, to
trickeries of expression, and to other meretricious effects, their appreciation by certain
readers:–to demonstrate (for the matter is susceptible of demonstration) that such poetry
and such alone has fulfilled the legitimate office of the muse; has thoroughly satisfied an
earnest and unquenchable desire existing in the heart of man. In the present number of
our Magazine we have left ourselves barely room to say a few random words of welcome
to these "Ballads," by Longfellow, and to tender him, and all such as he, the homage of
our most earnest love and admiration.
The volume before us (in whose outward appearance the keen "taste" of genius is evinced
with nearly as much precision as in its internal soul) includes, with several brief original
pieces, a translation from the Swedish of Tegner. In attempting (what never should be
attempted) a literal version of both the words and the metre of this poem, Professor
Longfellow has failed to do justice either to his author or himself. He has striven to do
what no man ever did well and what, from the nature of the language itself, never can be
well done. Unless, for example, we shall come to have an influx of spondees in our
English tongue, it will always be impossible to construct an English hexameter. Our
spondees, or, we should say, our spondiac words, are rare. In the Swedish they are nearly
as abundant as in the Latin and Greek. We have only "compound," "context," "footfall,"
and a few other similar ones. This is the difficulty; and that it is so will become evident
upon reading "The Children of the Lord's Supper," where the sole readable verses are
those in which we meet with the rare spondaic dissyllables. We mean to say readable as
Hexameters; for many of them will read very well as mere English Dactylics, with certain
irregularities.
But within the narrow compass now left us we must not indulge in anything like critical
comment. Our readers will be better satisfied perhaps with a few brief extracts from the
original poems of the volume–which we give for their rare excellence, without pausing
now to say in what particulars this excellence exists.
And, like the water's flow
Under December's snow
Came a dull voice of woe,
From the heart's chamber.
So the loud laugh of scorn,
Out of those lips unshorn
From the deep drinking-horn
Blew the foam lightly.
As with his wings aslant
Sails the fierce cormorant
Seeking some rocky haunt,
With his prey laden,
So toward the open main,
Beating to sea again,
Through the wild hurricane,
Bore I the maiden.
Down came the storm and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused like a frighted steed
Then leaped her cable's length.
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.
He hears the parson pray and preach
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice;
It sounds to him like her mother's voice
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Thus the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.
The rising moon has hid the stars
Her level rays like golden bars
Lie on the landscape green
With shadows brown between.
Love lifts the boughs whose shadows deep
Are life's oblivion, the soul's sleep,
And kisses the closed eyes
Of him who slumbering lies.
Friends my soul with joy remembers!
How like quivering flames they start,
When I fan the living embers
On the hearth-stone of my heart.
Hearest thou voices on the shore,
That our ears perceive no more
Deafened by the cataract's roar?
And from the sky, serene and far
A voice fell like a falling star.
Some of these passages cannot be fully appreciated apart from the context–but we
address those who have read the book. Of the translations we have not spoken. It is but
right to say, however, that "The Luck of Edenhall" is a far finer poem, in every respect
than any of the original pieces. Nor would we have our previous observations
misunderstood. Much as we admire the genius of Mr. Longfellow, we are fully sensible
of his many errors of affectation and imitation. His artistical skill is great and his ideality
high. But his conception of the aims of poesy is all wrong, and this we shall prove at
some future day–to our own satisfaction, at least. His didactics are all out of place. He
has written brilliant poems–by accident; that is to say when permitting his genius to get
the better of his conventional habit of thinking–a habit deduced from German study. We
do not mean to say that a didactic moral may not be well made the under-current of a
poetical thesis; but that it can never be well put so obtrusively forth, as in the majority of
his compositions. There is a young American who, with ideality not richer than that of
Longfellow, and with less artistical knowledge, has yet composed far truer poems, merely
through the greater propriety of his themes. We allude to James Russell Lowell; and in
the number of this Magazine for last month, will be found a ballad entitled "Rosaline,"
affording an excellent exemplification of our meaning. This composition has
unquestionably its defects, and the very defects which are not perceptible in Mr.
Longfellow–but we sincerely think that no American poem equals it in the higher
elements of song.
In our last number we had some hasty observations on these "Ballads"–observations
which we propose, in some measure, to amplify and explain.
It may be remembered that, among other points, we demurred to Mr. Longfellow's
themes, or rather to their general character. We found fault with the too obtrusive nature
of their didacticism. Some years ago, we urged a similar objection to one or two of the
longer pieces of Bryant, and neither time nor reflection has sufficed to modify, in the
slightest particular, our conviction upon this topic.
We have said that Mr. Longfellow's conception of the aims of poesy is erroneous; and
that thus, labouring at a disadvantage, he does violent wrong to his own high powers; and
now the question is, What are his ideas of the aims of the Muse, as we gather these ideas
from the general tendency of his poems? It will be at once evident that, imbued with the
peculiar spirit of German song (a pure conventionality), he regards the inculcation of a
moral as essential. Here we find it necessary to repeat that we have reference only to the
general tendency of his compositions; for there are some magnificent exceptions, where,
as if by accident, he has permitted his genius to get the better of his conventional
prejudice. But didacticism is the prevalent tone of his song. His invention, his imagery,
his all, is made subservient to the elucidation of some one or more points (but rarely of
more than one) which he looks upon as truth. And that this mode of procedure will find
stern defenders should never excite surprise, so long as the world is full to overflowing
with cant and conventicles. There are men who will scramble on all fours through the
muddiest sloughs of vice to pick up a single apple of virtue. There are things called men
who, so long as the sun rolls, will greet with snuffling huzzas every figure that takes upon
itself the semblance of truth, even although the figure, in itself only a "stuffed Paddy," be
as much out of place as a toga on the statue of Washington, or out of season as rabbits in
the days of the dog-star.
Now, with as deep a reverence for "the true" as ever inspired the bosom of mortal man,
we would limit, in many respects, its modes of inculcation. We would limit, to enforce
them. We would not render them impotent by dissipation. The demands of truth are
severe. She has no sympathy with the myrtles. All that is indispensable in song is all with
which she has nothing to do. To deck her in gay robes is to render her a harlot. It is but
making her a flaunting paradox to wreathe her in gems and flowers. Even in stating this
our present proposition, we verify our own words–we feel the necessity, in enforcing this
truth, of descending from metaphor. Let us then be simple and distinct. To convey "the
true" we are required to dismiss from the attention all inessentials. We must be
perspicuous, precise, terse. We need concentration rather than expansion of mind. We
must be calm, unimpassioned, unexcited–in a word, we must be in that peculiar mood
which, as nearly as possible, is the exact converse of the poetical. He must be blind
indeed who cannot perceive the radical and chasmal difference between the truthful and
the poetical modes of inculcation. He must be grossly wedded to conventionalisms who,
in spite of this difference, shall still attempt to reconcile the obstinate oils and waters of
Poetry and Truth.
Dividing the world of mind into its most obvious and immediately recognisable
distinctions, we have the pure intellect, taste and the moral sense. We place taste between
the intellect and the moral sense, because it is just this intermediate space which, in the
mind, it occupies. It is the connecting link in the triple chain.
It serves to sustain a mutual intelligence between the extremes. It appertains, in strict
appreciation, to the former, but is distinguished from the latter by so faint a difference
that Aristotle has not hesitated to class some of its operations among the Virtues
themselves. But the offices of the trio are broadly marked. Just as conscience, or the
moral sense, recognises duty; just as the intellect deals with truth; so is it the part of taste
alone to inform us BEAUTY. And Poesy is the handmaiden but of Taste. Yet we would
not be misunderstood. This handmaiden is not forbidden to moralise–in her own fashion.
She is not forbidden to depict–but to reason and preach of virtue. As of this latter.
conscience recognises the obligation, so intellect teaches the expediency, while taste
contents herself with displaying the beauty; waging war with vice merely on the ground
of its inconsistency with fitness, harmony, proportion–in a word with–'to kalon.'
An important condition of man's immortal nature is thus, plainly, the sense of the
Beautiful. This it is which ministers to his delight in the manifold forms and colours and
sounds and sentiments amid which he exists. And, just as the eyes of Amaryllis are
repeated in the mirror, or the living lily in the lake, so is the mere record of these forms
and colours and sounds and sentiments–so is their mere oral or written repetition a
duplicate source of delight. But this repetition is not Poesy. He who shall merely sing
with whatever rapture, in however harmonious strains, or with however vivid a truth of
imitation, of the sights and sounds which greet him in common with all mankind–he, we
say, has yet failed to prove his divine title. There is still a longing unsatisfied, which he
has been impotent to fulfil. There is still a thirst unquenchable, which to allay he has
shown us no crystal springs. This burning thirst belongs to the immortal essence of man's
nature. It is equally a consequence and an indication of his perennial life. It is the desire
of the moth for the star. It is not the mere appreciation of the beauty before us. It is a wild
effort to reach the beauty above. It is a forethought of the loveliness to come. It is a
passion to be satiated by no sublunary sights, or sounds, or sentiments, and the soul thus
athirst strives to allay its fever in futile efforts at creation. Inspired with a prescient
ecstasy of the beauty beyond the grave, it struggles by multiform novelty of combination
among the things and thoughts of Time, to anticipate some portion of that loveliness
whose very elements, perhaps, appertain solely to Eternity, and the result of such effort,
on the part of souls fittingly constituted, is alone what mankind have agreed to
denominate Poetry.
We say this with little fear of contradiction. Yet the spirit of our assertion must be more
heeded than the letter. Mankind have seemed to define Poesy in a thousand, and in a
thousand conflicting, definitions. But the war is one only of words. Induction is as well
applicable to this subject as to the most palpable and utilitarian; and by its sober
processes we find that, in respect to compositions which have been really received as
poems, the imaginative, or, more popularly, the creative portions alone have ensured
them to be so received. Yet these works, on account of these portions, having once been
so received and so named, it has happened naturally and inevitably, that other portions
totally unpoetic have not only come to be regarded by the popular voice as poetic, but
have been made to serve as false standards of perfection in the adjustment of other
poetical claims. Whatever has been found in whatever has been received as a poem, has
been blindly regarded as ex statu poetic. And this is a species of gross error which
scarcely could have made its way into any less intangible topic. In fact that license which
appertains to the Muse herself, it has been thought decorous, if not sagacious, to indulge
in all examination of her character.
Poesy is thus seen to be a response–unsatisfactory it is true- but still in some measure a
response, to a natural and irrepressible demand. Man being what he is, the time could
never have been in which poesy was not. Its first element is the thirst for supernal
BEAUTY–a beauty which is not afforded the soul by any existing collocation of earth's
forms–a beauty which, perhaps, no possible combination of these forms would fully
produce. Its second element is the attempt to satisfy this thirst by novel combinations
among those forms of beauty which already exist–or by novel combinations of those
combinations which our predecessors, toiling in chase of the same phantom have already
set in order. We thus clearly deduce the novelty, the originality, the invention, the
imagination, or lastly the creation of BEAUTY (for the terms as here employed are
synonymous), as the essence of all Poesy. Nor is this idea so much at variance with
ordinary opinion as, at first sight, it may appear. A multitude of antique dogmas on this
topic will be found when divested of extrinsic speculation, to be easily resoluble into the
definition now proposed. We do nothing more than present tangibly the vague clouds of
the world's idea. We recognize the idea itself floating, unsettled, indefinite, in every
attempt which has yet been made to circumscribe the conception of "Poesy" in words. A
striking instance of this is observable in the fact that no definition exists in which either
the "beautiful," or some one of those qualities which we have mentioned above
designated synonymously with "creation," has not been pointed out as the chief attribute
of the Muse. "Invention," however, or "imagination," is by far more commonly insisted
upon. The word poiesis itself (creation) speaks volumes upon this point. Neither will it be
amiss here to mention Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry as "L'art d'exprimer les
pensees par la fiction." With this definition (of which the philosophy is profound to a
certain extent) the German terms Dichtkunst, the art of fiction, and Dichten, to feign,
which are used for "poetry" and "to make verses," are in full and remarkable accordance.
It is, nevertheless, in the combination of the two omniprevalent ideas that the novelty
and, we believe, the force of our own proposition is to be found.
So far we have spoken of Poesy as of an abstraction alone. As such, it is obvious that it
may be applicable in various moods. The sentiment may develop itself in Sculpture, in
Painting, in Music, or otherwise. But our present business is with its development in
words–that development to which, in practical acceptation, the world has agreed to limit
the term. And at this point there is one consideration which induces us to pause. We
cannot make up our minds to admit (as some have admitted) the inessentiality of rhythm.
On the contrary, the universality of its use in the earliest poetical efforts of all mankind
would be sufficient to assure us, not merely of its congeniality with the Muse, or of its
adaptation to her purposes, but of its elementary and indispensable importance. But here
we must, perforce, content ourselves with mere suggestion; for this topic is of a character
which would lead us too far. We have already spoken of Music as one of the moods of
poetical development. It is in Music, perhaps, that the soul most nearly attains that end
upon which we have commented–the creation of supernal beauty. It may be, indeed, that
this august aim is here even partially or imperfectly attained, in fact. The elements of that
beauty which is felt in sound, may be the mutual or common heritage of Earth and
Heaven. In the soul's struggles at combination it is thus not impossible that a harp may
strike notes not unfamiliar to the angels. And in this view the wonder may well be less
that all attempts at defining the character or sentiment of the deeper musical impressions
have been found absolutely futile. Contenting ourselves, therefore, with the firm
conviction that music (in its modifications of rhythm and rhyme) is of so vast a moment
in Poesy as never to be neglected by him who is truly poetical–is of so mighty a force in
furthering the great aim intended that he is mad who rejects its assistance–content with
this idea we shall not pause to maintain its absolute essentiality, for the mere sake of
rounding a definition. We will but add, at this point, that the highest possible
development of the Poetical Sentiment is to be found in the union of song with music, in
its popular sense. The old Bards and Minnesingers possessed, in the fullest perfection, the
finest and truest elements of Poesy; and Thomas Moore, singing his own ballads, is but
putting the final touch to their completion as poems.
To recapitulate, then, we would define in brief the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical
Creation of Beauty. Beyond the limits of Beauty its province does not extend. Its sole
arbiter is Taste. With the Intellect or with the Conscience it has only collateral relations.
It has no dependence, unless incidentally, upon either Duty or Truth. That our definition
will necessarily exclude much of what, through a supine toleration, has been hitherto
ranked as poetical, is a matter which affords us not even momentary concern. We address
but the thoughtful, and heed only their approval–with our own. If our suggestions are
truthful, then "after many days" shall they be understood as truth, even though found in
contradiction of all that has been hitherto so understood. If false, shall we not be the first
to bid them die?
We would reject, of course, all such matters as "Armstrong on Health," a revolting
production; Pope's "Essay on Man," which may well be content with the title of an
"Essay in Rhyme"; "Hudibras," and other merely humorous pieces. We do not gainsay
the peculiar merits of either of these latter compositions–but deny them the position they
have held. In a notice of Brainard's Poems, we took occasion to show that the common
use of a certain instrument (rhythm) had tended, more than aught else, to confound
humorous verse with poetry. The observation is now recalled to corroborate what we
have just said in respect to the vast effect or force of melody in itself–an effect which
could elevate into even momentary confusion with the highest efforts of mind,
compositions such as are the greater number of satires or burlesques.
Of the poets who have appeared most fully instinct with the principles now developed,
we may mention Keats as the most remarkable. He is the sole British poet who has never
erred in his themes. Beauty is always his aim.
We have thus shown our ground of objection to the general themes of Professor
Longfellow. In common with all who claim the sacred title of poet, he should limit his
endeavours to the creation of novel moods of beauty, in form, in colour, in sound, in
sentiment; for over all this wide range has the poetry of words dominion. To what the
world terms prose may be safely and properly left all else. The artist who doubts of his
thesis, may always resolve his doubt by the single question–"might not this matter be as
well or better handled in prose?" If it may, then is it no subject for the Muse. In the
general acceptation of the term Beauty we are content to rest, being careful only to
suggest that, in our peculiar views, it must be understood as inclusive of the sublime.
Of the pieces which constitute the present volume there are not more than one or two
thoroughly fulfilling the idea above proposed; although the volume as a whole is by no
means so chargeable with didacticism as Mr. Longfellow's previous book. We would
mention as poems nearly true, "The Village Blacksmith," "The Wreck of the Hesperus,"
and especially "The Skeleton in Armor." In the first- mentioned we have the beauty of
simple-mindedness as a genuine thesis; and this thesis is inimitably handled until the
concluding stanza, where the spirit of legitimate poesy is aggrieved in the pointed
antithetical deduction of a moral from what has gone before. In "The Wreck of the
Hesperus" we have the beauty of child–like confidence and innocence, with that of the
father's courage and affection. But, with slight exception, those particulars of the storm
here detailed are not poetic subjects. Their thrilling horror belongs to prose, in which it
could be far more effectively discussed, as Professor Longfellow may assure himself at
any moment by experiment. There are points of a tempest which afford the loftiest and
truest poetical themes–points in which pure beauty is found, or, better still, beauty
heightened into the sublime, by terror. But when we read, among other similar things,
that
The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes.
we feel, if not positive disgust, at least a chilling sense of the inappropriate. In "The
Skeleton in Armor" we find a pure and perfect thesis artistically treated. We find the
beauty of bold courage and self-confidence, of love and maiden devotion, of reckless
adventure, and finally the life-contemning grief. Combined with all this, we have
numerous points of beauty apparently insulated, but all aiding the main effect or
impression. The heart is stirred, and the mind does not lament its malinstruction. The
metre is simple, sonorous, well-balanced, and fully adapted to the subject. Upon the
whole, there are few truer poems than this. It has not one defect–an important one. The
prose remarks prefacing the narrative are really necessary. But every work of art should
contain within itself all that is requisite for its own comprehension. And this remark is
especially true of the ballad. In poems of magnitude the mind of the reader is not, at all
times, enabled to include, in one comprehensive survey, the proportions and proper
adjustment of the whole. He is pleased, if at all with particular passages; and the sum of
his pleasure is compounded of the sums of the pleasurable sentiments inspired by these
individual passages in the progress of perusal. But, in pieces of less extent, the pleasure is
unique, in the proper acceptation of this term–the understanding is employed, without
difficulty, in the contemplation of the picture as a whole; and thus its effect will depend,
in great measure, upon the perfection of its finish, upon the nice adaptation of its
constituent parts, and especially, upon what is rightly termed by Schlegel the unity or
totality of interest. But the practice of prefixing explanatory passages is utterly at
variance with such unity. By the prefix, we are either put in possession of the subject of
the poem, or some hint, historic fact, or suggestion, is thereby afforded, not included in
the body of the piece, which, without the hint, is incomprehensible. In the latter case,
while perusing the poem, the reader must revert, in mind at, least, to the prefix, for the
necessary explanation. In the former, the poem being a mere paraphrase of the prefix, the
interest is divided between the prefix and the paraphrase. In either instance the totality of
effect is destroyed.
Of the other original poems in the volume before us there is none in which the aim of
instruction, or truth, has not been too obviously substituted for the legitimate aim, beauty.
We have heretofore taken occasion to say that a didactic moral might be happily made
the under-current of a poetical theme, and we have treated this point at length in a review
of Moore's "Alciphron"; but the moral thus conveyed is invariably an ill effect when
obtruding beyond the upper-current of the thesis itself. Perhaps the worst specimen of this
obtrusion is given us by our poet in "Blind Bartimeus" and the "Goblet of Life," where it
will be observed that the sole interest of the upper-current of meaning depends upon its
relation or reference to the under. What we read upon the surface would be vox et
praeterea nihil in default of the moral beneath. The Greek finales of "Blind Bartimeus"
are an affectation altogether inexcusable. What the small, second-hand, Gibbonish
pedantry of Byron introduced, is unworthy the imitation of Longfellow.
Of the translations we scarcely think it necessary to speak at all. We regret that our poet
will persist in busying himself about such matters. His time might be better employed in
original conception. Most of these versions are marked with the error upon which we
have commented. This error is, in fact, essentially Germanic. "The Luck of Edenhall,"
however, is a truly beautiful poem; and we say this with all that deference which the
opinion of the "Democratic Review" demands. This composition appears to us one of the
very finest. It has all the free, hearty, obvious movement of the true ballad-legend. The
greatest force of language is combined in it with the richest imagination, acting in its
most legitimate province. Upon the whole, we prefer it even to the "Sword-Song" of
Korner. The pointed moral with which it terminates is so exceedingly natural–so
perfectly fluent from the incidents–that we have hardly heart to pronounce it in ill-taste.
We may observe of this ballad, in conclusion, that its subject is more physical than is
usual in Germany. Its images are rich rather in physical than in moral beauty. And this
tendency in Song is the true one. It is chiefly, if we are not mistaken–it is chiefly amid
forms of physical loveliness (we use the word forms in its widest sense as embracing
modifications of sound and colour) that the soul seeks the realisation of its dreams of
BEAUTY. It is to her demand in this sense especially, that the poet, who is wise, will
most frequently and most earnestly respond.
"The Children of the Lord's Supper" is, beyond doubt, a true and most beautiful poem in
great part, while, in some particulars, it is too metaphysical to have any pretension to the
name. We have already objected, briefly, to its metre–the ordinary Latin or Greek
Hexameter-dactyls and spondees at random, with a spondee in conclusion. We maintain
that the hexameter can never be introduced into our language, from the nature of that
language itself. This rhythm demands, for English ears, a preponderance of natural
spondees. Our tongue has few. Not only does the Latin and Greek, with the Swedish, and
some others, abound in them; but the Greek and Roman ear had become reconciled (why
or how is unknown) to the reception of artificial spondees–that is to say, spondaic words
formed partly of one word and partly of another, or from an excised part of one word. In
short, the ancients were content to read as they scanned, or nearly so. It may be safely
prophesied that we shall never do this; and thus we shall never admit English hexameters.
The attempt to introduce them, after the repeated failures of Sir Philip Sidney and others,
is perhaps somewhat discreditable to the scholarship of Professor Longfellow. The
"Democratic Review," in saying that he has triumphed over difficulties in this rhythm,
has been deceived, it is evident, by the facility with which some of these verses may be
read. In glancing over the poem, we do not observe a single verse which can be read, to
English ears, as a Greek hexameter. There are many, however, which can be well read as
mere English dactylic verses; such, for example, as the well-known lines of Byron,
commencing
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and / myrtle.
These lines (although full of irregularities) are, in their perfection, formed of three dactyls
and a caesura–just as if we should cut short the initial verse of the Bucolics thusTityre / tu patu / lae recu / bansThe "myrtal," at the close of Byron's line, is a double rhyme, and must be understood as
one syllable.
Now a great number, of Professor Longfellow's hexameters are merely these dactylic
lines, continued for two feet. For exampleWhispered the / race of the / flowers and / merry on / balancing / branches.
In this example, also, "branches," which is a double ending, must be regarded as the
caesura, or one syllable, of which alone it has the force.
As we have already alluded, in one or two regards, to a notice of these poems which
appeared in the "Democratic Review," we may as well here proceed with some few
further comments upon the article in question–with whose general tenor we are happy to
agree.
The Review speaks of "Maidenhood" as a poem, "not to be understood but at the expense
of more time and trouble than a song can justly claim." We are scarcely less surprised at
this opinion from Mr. Langtree than we were at the condemnation of "The Luck of
Edenhall."
"Maidenhood" is faulty, it appears to us, only on the score of its theme, which is
somewhat didactic. Its meaning seems simplicity itself. A maiden on the verge of
womanhood hesitating to enjoy life (for which she has a strong appetite) through a false
idea of duty, is bidden to fear nothing, having purity of heart as her lion of Una.
What Mr. Langtree styles "an unfortunate peculiarity" in Mr. Longfellow, resulting from
"adherence to a false system," has really been always regarded by us as one of his
idiosyncratic merits. "In each poem," says the critic, "he has but one idea, which, in the
progress of his song, is gradually unfolded, and at last reaches its full development in the
concluding lines: this singleness of thought might lead a harsh critic to suspect
intellectual barrenness." It leads us, individually, only to a full sense of the artistical
power and knowledge of the poet. We confess that now, for the first time, we hear unity
of conception objected to as a defect. But Mr. Langtree seems to have fAllan into the
singular error of supposing the poet to have absolutely but one idea in each of his ballads.
Yet how "one idea" can be "gradually unfolded" without other ideas is, to us, a mystery
of mysteries. Mr. Longfellow, very properly, has but one leading idea which forms the
basis of his poem; but to the aid and development of this one there are innumerable
others, of which the rare excellence is that all are in keeping, that none could be well
omitted, that each tends to the one general effect. It is unnecessary to say another word
upon this topic.
In speaking of "Excelsior," Mr. Langtree (are we wrong in attributing the notice to his
very forcible pen?) seems to labour under some similar misconception. "It carries along
with it," says he, "a false moral which greatly diminishes its merit in our eyes. The great
merit of a picture, whether made with the pencil or pen, is its truth; and this merit does
not belong to Mr. Longfellow's sketch. Men of genius may, and probably do, meet with
greater difficulties in their struggles with the world than their fellow men who are less
highly gifted; but their power of overcoming obstacles is proportionately greater, and the
result of their laborious suffering is not death but immortality."
That the chief merit of a picture is its truth, is an assertion deplorably erroneous. Even in
Painting, which is, more essentially than Poetry, a mimetic art, the proposition cannot be
sustained. Truth is not even the aim. Indeed it is curious to observe how very slight a
degree of truth is sufficient to satisfy the mind, which acquiesces in the absence of
numerous essentials in the thing depicted. An outline frequently stirs the spirit more
pleasantly than the most elaborate picture. We need only refer to the compositions of
Flaxman and of Retzsch. Here all details are omitted–nothing can be farther from truth.
Without even colour the most thrilling effects are produced. In statues we are rather
pleased than disgusted with the want of the eyeball. The hair of the Venus de Medicis
was gilded. Truth indeed! The grapes of Zeuxis as well as the curtain of Parrhasius were
received as indisputable evidence of the truthful ability of these artists–but they were not
even classed among their pictures. If truth is the highest aim of either Painting or Poesy,
then Jan Steen was a greater artist than Angelo, and Crabbe is a nobler poet than Milton.
But we have not quoted the observation of Mr. Langtree to deny its philosophy; our
design was simply to show that he has misunderstood the poet. "Excelsior" has not even a
remote tendency to the interpretation assigned it by the critic. It depicts the earnest
upward impulse of the soul–an impulse not to be subdued even in Death. Despising
danger, resisting pleasure, the youth, bearing the banner inscribed "Excelsior!" (higher
stilll) struggles through all difficulties to an Alpine summit. Warned to be content with
the elevation attained, his cry is still "Excelsior!" and even in falling dead on the highest
pinnacle, his cry is still "Excelsior!" There is yet an immortal height to be surmounted–an
ascent in Eternity. The poet holds in view the idea of never-ending progress. That he is
misunderstood is rather the misfortune of Mr. Langtree tree the fault of Mr. Longfellow.
There is an old adage about the difficulty of one's furnishing an auditor both with matter
to be comprehended and brains for its comprehension.
HAWTHORNE'S TWICE-TOLD TALES
By Nathaniel Hawthorne. James Munroe & Co.: Boston
WE HAVE always regarded the Tale (using this word in its popular acceptation) as
affording the best prose opportunity for display of the highest talent. It has peculiar
advantages which the novel does not admit. It is, of course, a far finer field than the
essay. It has even points of superiority over the poem. An accident has deprived us, this
month, of our customary space for review, and thus nipped in the bud a design long
cherished of treating this subject in detail; taking Mr. Hawthorne's volumes as a text. In
May we shall endeavor to carry out our intention. At present we are forced to be brief.
With rare exception–in the case of Mr. Irving's "Tales of a Traveller" and a few other
works of a like cast–we have had no American tales of high merit. We have had no
skilful compositions- nothing which could bear examination as works of art. Of twaddle
called tale–writing we have had, perhaps more than enough. We have had a
superabundance of the Rosa-Matilda effusions–gilt-edged paper all couleur de rose: a full
allowance of cut-and-thrust blue-blazing melodramaticisms; a nauseating surfeit of low
miniature copying of low life, much in the manner, and with about half the merit, of the
Dutch herrings and decayed cheeses of Van Tuyssel–of all this, eheu jam satis!
Mr. Hawthorne's volumes appear misnamed to us in two respects. In the first place they
should not have been called "Twice-Told Tales"- for this is a title which will not bear
repetition. If in the first collected edition they were twice-told, of course now they are
thrice-told.–May we live to hear them told a hundred times. In the second place, these
compositions are by no means all "Tales." The most of them are essays properly so
called. It would have been wise in their author to have modified his title, so as to have
had reference to all included. This point could have been easily arranged.
But under whatever titular blunders we receive this book, it is most cordially welcome.
We have seen no prose composition by any American which can compare with some of
these articles in the higher merits, or indeed in the lower; while there is not single piece
which would do dishonor to the best of the British essayists.
"The Rill from the Town Pump" which, through the ad captandum nature of its title, has
attracted more of the public notice than any other of Mr. Hawthorne's compositions, is
perhaps, the least meritorious. Among his best we may briefly mention "The Hollow of
the Three Hills" "The Minister's Black Veil"; "Wakefield"; "Mr. Higginbotham's
Catastrophe"; "Fancy's Show-Box"; "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"; "David Swan"; "The
Wedding Knell"; and "The White Old Maid." It is remarkable that all of these, with one
exception, are from the first volume.
The style of Mr. Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effective–wild,
plaintive, thoughtful, and in full accordance with his themes. We have only to object that
there is insufficient diversity in these themes themselves, or rather in their character. His
originality both of incident and reflection is very remarkable; and this trait alone would
insure him at least our warmest regard and commendation. We speak here chiefly of the
tales; the essays are not so markedly novel. Upon the whole we look upon him as one of
the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth. As such,
it will be our delight to do him honor; and lest, in these undigested and cursory remarks,
without proof and without explanation, we should appear to do him more honor than is
his due, we postpone all farther comment until a more favorable opportunity.
We said a few hurried words about Mr. Hawthorne in our last number, with the design of
speaking more fully in the present. We are still, however, pressed for room, and must
necessarily discuss his volumes more briefly and more at random than their high merits
deserve.
The book professes to be a collection of tales, yet is, in two respects, misnamed. These
pieces are now in their third republication, and, of course, are thrice-told. Moreover, they
are by no means all tales, either in the ordinary or in the legitimate understanding of the
term. Many of them are pure essays; for example, "Sights from a Steeple," "Sunday at
Home," "Little Annies Ramble," "A Rill from the Town Pump," "The Toll-Gatherer's
Day," "The Haunted Mind," "The Sister Sister Years," "Snow-Flakes," "Night Sketches,"
and "Foot-Prints on the Sea-Shore." We mention these matters chiefly on account of their
discrepancy with that marked precision and finish by which the body of the work is
distinguished.
Of the Essays just named, we must be content to speak in brief. They are each and all
beautiful, without being characterized by the polish and adaptation so visible in the tales
proper. A painter would at once note their leading or predominant feature, and style it
repose. There is no attempt at effect. All is quiet, thoughtful, subdued. Yet this respose
may exist simultaneously with high originality of thought; and Mr. Hawthorne has
demonstrated the fact. At every turn we meet with novel combinations; yet these
combinations never surpass the limits of the quiet. We are soothed as we read; and withal
is a calm astonishment that ideas so apparently obvious have never occurred or been
presented to us before. Herein our author differs materially from Lamb or Hunt or
Hazlitt–who, with vivid originality of manner and expression, have less of the true
novelty of thought than is generally supposed, and whose originality, at best, has an
uneasy and meretricious quaintness, replete with startling effects unfounded in nature,
and inducing trains of reflection which lead to no satisfactory result. The Essays of
Hawthorne have much of the character of Irving, with more of originality, and less of
finish; while, compared with the Spectator, they have a vast superiority at all points. The
Spectator, Mr. Irving, and Mr. Hawthorne have in common that tranquil and subdued
manner which we have chosen to denominate repose; but in the case of the two former,
this repose is attained rather by the absence of novel combination, or of originality, than
otherwise, and consists chiefly in the calm, quiet, unostentatious expression of
commonplace thoughts, in an unambitious unadulterated Saxon. In them, by strong effort,
we are made to conceive the absence of all. In the essays before us the absence of effort
is too obvious to be mistaken, and a strong under-current of suggestion runs continuously
beneath the upper stream of the tranquil thesis. In short, these effusions of Mr.
Hawthorne are the product of a truly imaginative intellect, restrained, and in some
measure repressed, by fastidiousness of taste, by constitutional melancholy and by
indolence.
But it is of his tales that we desire principally to speak. The tale proper, in our opinion,
affords unquestionably the fairest field for the exercise of the loftiest talent, which can be
afforded by the wide domains of mere prose. Were we bidden to say how the highest
genius could be most advantageously employed for the best display of its own powers,
we should answer, without hesitation–in the composition of a rhymed poem, not to
exceed in length what might be perused in an hour. Within this limit alone can the highest
order of true poetry exist. We need only here say, upon this topic, that, in almost all
classes of composition, the unity of effect or impression is a point of the greatest
importance. It is clear, moreover, that this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in
productions whose perusal cannot be completed at one sitting. We may continue the
reading of a prose composition, from the very nature of prose itself, much longer than we
can persevere, to any good purpose, in the perusal of a poem. This latter, if truly fulfilling
the demands of the poetic sentiment, induces an exaltation of the soul which cannot be
long sustained. All high excitements are necessarily transient. Thus a long poem is a
paradox And, without unity of impression, the deepest effects cannot be brought about.
Epics were the offspring of an imperfect sense of Art, and their reign is no more. A poem
too brief may produce a vivid, but never an intense or enduring impression. Without a
certain continuity of effort–without a certain duration or repetition of purpose–the soul is
never deeply moved. There must be the dropping of the water upon the rock. De
Beranger has wrought brilliant things–pungent and spirit-stirring–but, like all immassive
bodies, they lack momentum, and thus fail to satisfy the Poetic Sentiment. They sparkle
and excite, but, from want of continuity, fail deeply to impress. Extreme brevity will
degenerate into epigrammatism; but the sin of extreme length is even more unpardonable.
In medio tutissimus ibis.
Were we called upon, however, to designate that class of composition which, next to such
a poem as we have suggested, should best fulfil the demands of high genius–should offer
it the most advantageous field of exertion–we should unhesitatingly speak of the prose
tale, as Mr. Hawthorne has here exemplified it. We allude to the short prose narrative,
requiring from a half-hour to one or two hours in its perusal. The ordinary novel is
objectionable, from its length, for reasons already stated in substance. As it cannot be
read at one sitting, it deprives itself, of course, of the immense force derivable from
totality. Worldly interests intervening during the pauses of perusal, modify, annul, or
counteract, in a greater or less degree, the impressions of the book. But simple cessation
in reading, would, of itself, be sufficient to destroy the true unity. In the brief tale,
however, the author is enabled to carry out the fulness of his intention, be it what it may.
During the hour of perusal the soul of the reader is at the writer's control. There are no
external or extrinsic influences–resulting from weariness or interruption.
A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to
accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique
or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents–he then combines such
events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial
sentence tend not to the out-bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In
the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or
indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. And by such means, with such care and
skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it
with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been
presented unblemished, because undisturbed; and this is an end unattainable by the novel.
Undue brevity is just as exceptionable here as in the poem; but undue length is yet more
to be avoided.
We have said that the tale has a point of superiority even over the poem. In fact, while the
rhythm of this latter is an essential aid in the development of the poem's highest idea–the
idea of the Beautiful–the artificialities of this rhythm are an inseparable bar to the
development of all points of thought or expression which have their basis in Truth. But
Truth is often, and in very great degree, the aim of the tale. Some of the finest tales are
tales of ratiocination. Thus the field of this species of composition, if not in so elevated a
region on the mountain of Mind, is a table–land of far vaster extent than the domain of
the mere poem. Its products are never so rich, but infinitely more numerous, and more
appreciable by the mass of mankind. The writer of the prose tale, in short, may bring to
his theme a vast variety of modes or inflections of thought and expression–(the
ratiocinative, for example, the sarcastic or the humorous) which are not only
antagonistical to the nature of the poem, but absolutely forbidden by one of its most
peculiar and indispensable adjuncts; we allude, of course, to rhythm. It may be added,
here, par parenthese, that the author who aims at the purely beautiful in a prose tale is
laboring at great disadvantage. For Beauty can be better treated in the poem. Not so with
terror, or passion, or horror, or a multitude of such other points. And here it will be seen
how full of prejudice are the usual animadversions against those tales of effect, many fine
examples of which were found in the earlier numbers of Blackwood. The impressions
produced were wrought in a legitimate sphere of action, and constituted a legitimate
although sometimes an exaggerated interest. They were relished by every man of genius:
although there were found many men of genius who condemned them without just
ground. The true critic will but demand that that the design intended be accomplished, to
the fullest extent, by the means most advantageously applicable.
We have very few American tales of real merit–we may say, indeed, none, with the
exception of "The Tales of a Traveller" of Washington Irving, and these "Twice-Told
Tales" of Mr. Hawthorne. Some of the pieces of Mr. John Neal abound in vigor and
originality; but in general his compositions of this class are excessively diffuse,
extravagant, and indicative of an imperfect sentiment of Art. Articles at random are, now
and then, met with in our periodicals which might be advantageously compared with the
best effusions of the British Magazines; but, upon the whole, we are far behind our
progenitors in this department of literature.
Of Mr. Hawthorne's Tales we would say, emphatically, that they belong to the highest
region of Art–and Art subservient to genius of a very lofty order. We had supposed, with
good reason for so supposing, that he had been thrust into his present position by one of
the impudent cliques which beset our literature, and whose pretensions it is our full
purpose to expose at the earliest opportunity, but we have been most agreeably mistaken.
We know of few compositions which the critic can more honestly commend than these
"Twice-Told Tales." As Americans, we feel proud of the book.
Mr. Hawthornes distinctive trait is invention, creation, imagination, originality–a trait
which, in the literature of fiction, is positively worth all the rest. But the nature of
originality, so far as regards its manifestation in letters, is but imperfectly understood.
The inventive or original mind as frequently displays itself in novelty of tone as in
novelty of matter. Mr. Hawthorne is original at all points.
It would be a matter of some difficulty to designate the best of these tales; we repeat that,
without exception, they are beautiful. "Wakefield" is remarkable for the skill with which
an old idea–a well-known incident–is worked up or discussed. A man of whims
conceives the purpose of quitting his wife and residing incognito, for twenty years, in her
immediate neighborhood. Something of this kind actually happened in London. The force
of Mr. Hawthornes tale lies in the analysis of the motives which must or might have
impelled the husband to such folly, in the first instance, with the possible causes of his
perseverance. Upon this thesis a sketch of singular power has been constructed.
"The Wedding Knell" is full of the boldest imagination–an imagination fully controlled
by taste. The most captious critic could find no flaw in this production.
"The Minister's Black Veil" is a masterly composition of which the sole defect is that to
the rabble its exquisite skill will be caviare. The obvious meaning of this article will be
found to smother its insinuated one. The moral put into the mouth of the dying minister
will be supposed to convey the true import of the narrative, and that a crime of dark dye,
(having reference to the "young lady") has been committed, is a point which only minds
congenial with that of the author will perceive.
"Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe" is vividly original and managed most dexterously.
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is exceedingly well imagined, and executed, with
surpassing ability. The artist breathes in every line of it.
"The White Old Maid" is objectionable, even more than the "Minister's Black Veil," on
the score of its mysticism. Even with the thoughtful and analytic, there will be much
trouble in penetrating its entire import.
"The Hollow of the Three Hills" we would quote in full, had we space;–not as evincing
higher talent than any of the other pieces, but as affording an excellent example of the
author's peculiar ability. The subject is commonplace. A witch, subjects the Distant and
the Past to the view of a mourner. It has been the fashion to describe, in such cases, a
mirror in which the images of the absent appear, or a cloud of smoke is made to arise, and
thence the figures are gradually unfolded. Mr. Hawthorne has wonderfully heightened his
effect by making the ear, in place of the eye, the medium by which the fantasy is
conveyed. The head of the mourner is enveloped in the cloak of the witch, and within its
magic, folds there arise sounds which have an all-sufficient intelligence. Throughout this
article also, the artist is conspicuous–not more in positive than in negative merits. Not
only is all done that should be done, but (what perhaps is an end with more difficulty
attained) there is nothing done which should not be. Every word tells, and there is not a
word which does not tell.
In "Howes Masquerade" we observe something which resembles a plagiarism–but which
may be a very flattering coincidence of thought. We quote the passage in question.
"With a dark flush of wrath upon his brow they saw the general draw his sword and
advance to meet the figure in the cloak before the latter had stepped one pace upon the
floor.
"'Villain, unmuffle yourself,' cried he, 'you pass no further!"
"The figure without blanching a hair's breadth from the sword which was pointed at his
breast, made a solemn pause, and lowered the cape of the cloak from his face, yet not
sufficiently for the spectators to catch a glimpse of it. But Sir William Howe had
evidently seen enough. The sternness of his countenance gave place to a look of wild
amazement, if not horror, while he recoiled several steps from the figure, and let fall his
sword upon the floor."
The idea here is, that the figure in the cloak is the phantom or reduplication of Sir
William Howe, but in an article called "William Wilson," one of the "Tales of the
Grotesque and Arabesque," we have not only the same idea, but the same idea similarly
presented in several respects. We quote two paragraphs, which our readers may compare
with what has been already given.
"The brief moment in which I averted my eyes had been sufficient to produce,
apparently, a material change in the arrangement at the upper or farther end of the room.
A large mirror, it appeared to me, now stood where none had been perceptible before:
and as I stepped up to it in extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale
and dabbled in blood, advanced with a feeble and tottering gait to meet me.
"Thus it appeared I say, but was not. It was Wilson, who then stood before me in the
agonies of dissolution. Not a line in all the marked and singular lineaments of that face
which was not even identically mine own. His mask and cloak lay where he had thrown
them, upon the floor."
Here it will be observed, not only are the two general conceptions identical but there are
various points of similarity. In each case the figure seen is the wraith or duplication of the
beholder. In each case the scene is a masquerade. In each case the figure is cloaked. In
each, there is a quarrel–that is to say, angry words pass between the parties. In each the
beholder is enraged. In each the cloak and sword fall upon the floor. The "villain,
unmuffle yourself," of Mr. H. is precisely paralleled by a passage of "William Wilson."
In the way of objection we have scarcely a word to say of these tales. There is, perhaps, a
somewhat too general or prevalent tone- a tone of melancholy and mysticism. The
subjects are insufficiently varied. There is not so much of versatility evinced as we might
well be warranted in expecting from the high powers of Mr. Hawthorne. But beyond
these trivial exceptions we have really none to make. The style is purity itself. Force
abounds. High imagination gleams from every page. Mr. Hawthorne is a man of the
truest genius. We only regret that the limits of our Magazine will not permit us to pay
him that full tribute of commendation, which, under other circumstances, we should be so
eager to pay.
THE AMERICAN DRAMA
A BIOGRAPHIST of Berryer calls him "l'homme qui, dans ses description, demande le
plus grande quantite possible d' antithese,"–but that ever-recurring topic, the decline of
the drama, seems to have consumed of late more of the material in question than would
have sufficed for a dozen prime ministers–even admitting them to be French. Every trick
of thought and every harlequinade of phrase have been put in operation for the purpose
"de nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas."
Ce qui n'est pas:–for the drama has not declined. The facts and the philosophy of the case
seem to be these. The great opponent to Progress is Conservatism. In other words–the
great adversary of Invention is Imitation: the propositions are in spirit identical. Just as an
art is imitative, is it stationary. The most imitative arts are the most prone to repose and
the converse. Upon the utilitarian- upon the business arts, where Necessity impels,
Invention, Necessity's well-understood offspring, is ever in attendance. And the less we
see of the mother the less we behold of the child. No one complains of the decline of the
art of Engineering. Here the Reason, which never retrogrades or reposes, is called into
play. But let us glance at Sculpture. We are not worse here, than the ancients, let pedantry
say what it may (the Venus of Canova is worth, at any time, two of that of Cleomenes),
but it is equally certain that we have made, in general, no advances; and Sculpture,
properly considered, is perhaps the most imitative of all arts which have a right to the title
of Art at all. Looking next at Painting, we find that we have to boast of progress only in
the ratio of the inferior imitativeness of Painting, when compared with Sculpture. As far
indeed as we have any means of judging, our improvement has been exceedingly little,
and did we know anything of ancient Art in this department, we might be astonished at
discovering that we had advanced even far less than we suppose. As regards Architecture,
whatever progress we have made has been precisely in those particulars which have no
reference to imitation:–that is to say, we have improved the utilitarian and not the
ornamental provinces of the art. Where Reason predominated, we advanced; where mere
Feeling or Taste was the guide, we remained as we were.
Coming to the Drama, we shall see that in its mechanisms we have made progress, while
in its spirituality we have done little or nothing for centuries certainly–and, perhaps, little
or nothing for thousands of years. And this is because what we term the spirituality of the
drama is precisely its imitative portion–is exactly that portion which distinguishes it as
one of the principal of the imitative arts.
Sculptors, painters, dramatists, are, from the very nature of their material–their spiritual
material-imitators-conservatists-prone to repose in old Feeling and in antique Taste. For
this reason–and for this reason only–the arts of Sculpture, Painting, and the Drama have
not advanced–or have advanced feebly, and inversely in the ratio of their imitativeness.
But it by no means follows that either has declined. All seem to have declined, because
they have remained stationary while the multitudinous other arts (of reason) have flitted
so rapidly by them. In the same manner the traveller by railroad can imagine that the trees
by the wayside are retrograding. The trees in this case are absolutely stationary but the
Drama has not been altogether so, although its progress has been so slight as not to
interfere with the general effect–that of seeming retrogradation or decline.
This seeming retrogradation, however, is to all practical intents an absolute one. Whether
the Drama has declined, or whether it has merely remained stationary, is a point of no
importance, so far as concerns the public encouragement of the Drama. It is unsupported,
in either case, because it does not deserve support.
But if this stagnation, or deterioration, grows out of the very idiosyncracy of the drama
itself, as one of the principal of the imitative arts, how is it possible that a remedy shall be
applied- since it is clearly impossible to alter the nature of the art, and yet leave it the art
which it now is?
We have already spoken of the improvements effected in Architecture, in all its utilitarian
departments, and in the Drama, at all the points of its mechanism. "Wherever Reason
predominates, we advance; where mere Feeling or Taste is the guide, we remain as we
are." We wish now to suggest that, by the engrafting of Reason upon Feeling and Taste,
we shall be able, and thus alone shall be able, to force the modern drama into the
production of any profitable fruit.
At present, what is it we do? We are content if, with Feeling and Taste, a dramatist does
as other dramatists have done. The most successful of the more immediately modern
playwrights has been Sheridan Knowles, and to play Sheridan Knowles seems to be the
highest ambition of our writers for the stage. Now the author of "The Hunchback"
possesses what we are weak enough to term the true "dramatic feeling," and this true
dramatic feeling he has manifested in the most preposterous series of imitations of the
Elizabethan drama by which ever mankind were insulted and begulled. Not only did he
adhere to the old plots, the old characters, the old stage conventionalities throughout; but
he went even so far as to persist in the obsolete phraseologies of the Elizabethan period–
and, just in proportion to his obstinacy and absurdity at all points, did we pretend to like
him the better, and pretend to consider him a great dramatist.
Pretend–for every particle of it was pretence. Never was enthusiasm more utterly false
than that which so many "respectable audiences" endeavoured to get up for these plays–
endeavoured to get up, first, because there was a general desire to see the drama revive,
and secondly, because we had been all along entertaining the fancy that "the decline of
the drama" meant little, if anything, else than its deviation from the Elizabethan routine–
and that, consequently, the return to the Elizabethan routine was, and of necessity must
be, the revival of the drama.
But if the principles we have been at some trouble in explaining are true–and most
profoundly do we feel them to be so–if the spirit of imitation is, in fact, the real source, of
the drama's stagnation–and if it is so because of the tendency in in all imitation to render
Reason subservient to Feeling and to Taste it is clear that only by deliberate counteracting
of the spirit, and of the tendency of the spirit, we can hope to succeed in the drama's
revival.
The first thing necessary is to burn or bury the "old models," and to forget, as quickly as
possible, that ever a play has been penned. The second thing is to consider de novo what
are the capabilities of the drama–not merely what hitherto have been its conventional
purposes. The third and last point has reference to the composition of a play (showing to
the fullest extent these capabilities) conceived and constructed with Feeling and with
Taste, but with Feeling and Taste guided and controlled in every particular by the details
of Reason–of Common Sense–in a word, of a Natural Art.
It is obvious, in the meantime, that towards the good end in view much may be effected
by discriminative criticism on what has already been done. The field, thus stated, is, of
course, practically illimitable–and to Americans the American drama is the special point
of interest. We propose, therefore, in a series of papers, to take a somewhat deliberate
survey of some few of the most noticeable American plays. We shall do this without
reference either to the date of the composition or its adaptation for the closet or the stage.
We shall speak with absolute frankness both of merits and defects–our principal object
being understood not as that of mere commentary on the individual play–but on the
drama in general, and on the American drama in especial, of which each individual play
is a constituent part. We will commence at once with
TORTESA, THE USURER
This is the third dramatic attempt of Mr. Willis, and may be regarded as particularly
successful, since it has received, both on the stage and in the closet, no stinted measure of
commendation. This success, as well as the high reputation of the author, will justify us
in a more extended notice of the play than might, under other circumstances, be desirable.
The story runs thus:–Tortesa, a usurer of Florence, and whose character is a mingled web
of good and evil feelings, gets into his possession the palace and lands of a certain Count
Falcone. The usurer would wed the daughter (Isabella) of Valcone, not through love, but
in his own words,
"To please a devil that inhabits him-"
in fact, to mortify the pride of the nobility, and avenge himself of their scorn. He
therefore bargains with Falcone [a narrow-souled villain] for the hand of Isabella. The
deed of the Falcone property is restored to the Count upon an agreement that the lady
shall marry the usurer–this contract being invalid should Falcone change his mind in
regard to the marriage, or should the maiden demur–but valid should the wedding be
prevented through any fault of Tortesa, or through any accident not springing from the
will of the father or child. The first Scene makes us aware of this bargain, and introduces
us to Zippa, a glover's daughter, who resolves, with a view of befriending Isabella, to
feign a love for Tortesa [which, in fact she partially feels], hoping thus to break off the
match.
The second Scene makes us acquainted with a young painter (Angelo), poor, but of high
talents and ambition, and with his servant (Tomaso), an old bottle-loving rascal,
entertaining no very exalted opinion of his master's abilities. Tomaso does some injury to
a picture, and Angelo is about to run him through the body when he is interrupted by a
sudden visit from the Duke of Florence, attended by Falcone. The Duke is enraged at the
murderous attempt, but admires the paintings in the studio. Finding that the rage of the
great man will prevent his patronage if he knows the aggressor as the artist, Angelo
passes off Tomaso as himself (Angelo), making an exchange of names. This is a point of
some importance, as it introduces the true Angelo to a job which he has long coveted–the
painting of the portrait of Isabella, of whose beauty he had become enamoured through
report. The Duke wishes the portrait painted. Falcone, however, on account of a promise
to Tortesa, would have objected to admit to his daughter's presence the handsome
Angelo, but in regard to Tomaso has no scruple. Supposing Tomaso to be Angelo and the
artist, the Count writes a note to Isabella, requiring her "to admit the painter Angelo." The
real Angelo is thus admitted. He and the lady love at first sight (much in the manner of
Romeo and Juliet), each ignorant of the other's attachment.
The third Scene of the second Act is occupied with a conversation between Falcone and
Tortesa, during which a letter arrives from the Duke, who, having heard of the intended
sacrifice of Isabella, offers to redeem the Count's lands and palace, and desires him to
preserve his daughter for a certain Count Julian. But Isabella,- who, before seeing
Angelo, had been willing to sacrifice herself for her father's sake, and who, since seeing
him, had entertained hopes of escaping the hateful match through means of a plot entered
into by herself and Zippa-Isabella, we say, is now in despair. To gain time, she at once
feigns a love for the usurer, and indignantly rejects the proposal of the Duke. The hour
for the wedding draws near. The lady has prepared a sleeping potion, whose effects
resemble those of death. (Romeo and Juliet.) She swallows it–knowing that her supposed
corpse would lie at night, pursuant to an old custom, in the sanctuary of the cathedral; and
believing that Angelo–whose love for herself she has elicited, by a stratagem, from his
own lips–will watch by the body, in the strength of his devotion. Her ultimate design (we
may suppose, for it is not told) is to confess all to her lover on her revival, and throw
herself upon his protection- their marriage being concealed, and herself regarded as dead
by the world. Zippa, who really loves Angelo–(her love for Tortesa, it must be
understood, is a very equivocal feeling, for the fact cannot be denied that Mr. Willis
makes her love both at the same time)- Zippa, who really loves Angelo–who has
discovered his passion for Isabella–and who, as well as that lady, believes that the painter
will watch the corpse in the cathedral,–determines, through jealousy, to prevent his so
doing, and with this view informs Tortesa that she has learned it to be Angelo's design to
steal the body for purposes,–in short, as a model to be used in his studio. The usurer, in
consequence, sets a guard at the doors of the cathedral. This guard does, in fact, prevent
the lover from watching the corpse, but, it appears, does not prevent the lady, on her
revival and disappointment in not seeing the one she sought, from passing unperceived
from the church. Weakened by her long sleep, she wanders aimlessly through the streets,
and at length finds herself, when just sinking with exhaustion, at the door of her father.
She has no resource but to knock. The Count, who here, we must say, acts very much as
Thimble of old–the knight, we mean, of the "scolding wife"- maintains that she is dead,
and shuts the door in her face. In other words, he supposes it to be the ghost of his
daughter who speaks; and so the lady is left to perish on the steps. Meantime Angelo is
absent from home, attempting to get access to the cathedral; and his servant Tomaso
takes the opportunity of absenting himself also, and of indulging his bibulous
propensities while perambulating the town. He finds Isabella as we left her, and through
motives which we will leave Mr. Willis to explain, conducts her unresistingly to Angelo's
residence, and–deposits her in Angelo's bed. The artist now returns–Tomaso is kicked out
of doors–and we are not told, but left to presume, that a fun explanation and perfect
understanding are brought about between the lady and her lover.
We find them, next morning, in the studio, where stands, leaning against an easel the
portrait (a full length) of Isabella, with curtains adjusted before it. The stage-directions,
moreover, inform us that "the black wall of the room is such as to form a natural ground
for the picture." While Angelo is occupied in retouching it, he is interrupted by the arrival
of Tortesa with a guard, and is accused of having stolen the corpse from the sanctuary–
the lady, meanwhile, having stepped behind the curtain. The usurer insists upon seeing
the painting, with a view of ascertaining whether any new touches had been put upon it,
which would argue an examination, post mortem, of those charms of neck and bosom
which the living Isabella would not have unveiled. Resistance in vain–the curtain is torn
down; but, to the surprise of Angelo, the lady herself is discovered, "with her hands
crossed on her breast, and her eyes fixed on the ground, standing motionless in the frame
which had contained the picture." The tableau we are to believe, deceives Tortesa, who
steps back to contemplate what he supposes to be the portrait of his betrothed. In the
meantime, the guards, having searched the house, find the veil which had been thrown
over the imagined corpse in the sanctuary, and upon this evidence the artist is carried
before the Duke. Here he is accused, not only of sacrilege, but of the murder of Isabella,
and is about to be condemned to death, when his mistress comes forward in person; thus
resigning herself to the usurer to save the life of her lover. But the noble nature of Tortesa
now breaks forth; and, smitten with admiration of the lady's conduct, as well as
convinced that her love for himself was feigned, he resigns her to Angelo–although now
feeling and acknowledging for the first time that a fervent love has, in his own bosom,
assumed the place of the misanthropic ambition which, hitherto, had alone actuated him
in seeking her hand. Moreover, he endows Isabella with the lands of her father Falcone.
The lovers are thus made happy. The usurer weds Zippa; and the curtain drops upon the
promise of the Duke to honour the double nuptials with his presence.
This story, as we have given it, hangs better together (Mr. Willis will pardon our
modesty), and is altogether more easily comprehended, than in the words of the play
itself. We have really put the best face upon the matter, and presented the whole in the
simplest and clearest light in our power. We mean to say that "Tortesa" (partaking
largely, in this respect, of the drama of Cervantes and Calderon) is over-clouded–
rendered misty–by a world of unnecessary and impertinent intrigue. This folly was
adopted by the Spanish comedy, and is imitated by us, with the idea of imparting
"action," "business," "vivacity." But vivacity, however desirable, can be attained in many
other ways, and is dearly purchased, indeed, when the price is intelligibility.
The truth is that cant has never attained a more owl–like dignity than in the discussion of
dramatic principle. A modern stage critic is nothing, if not a lofty contemner of all things
simple and direct. He delights in mystery–revels in mystification–has transcendental
notions concerning P. S. and O. P, and talks about "stage business and stage effect" as if
he were discussing the differential calculus. For much of all this we are indebted to the
somewhat overprofound criticisms of Augustus William Schlegel.
But the dicta of common sense are of universal application, and, touching this matter of
intrigue, if, from its superabundance, we are compelled, even in the quiet and critical
perusal of a play, to pause frequently and reflect long–to re-read passages over and over
again, for the purpose of gathering their bearing upon the whole–of maintaining in our
mind a general connection–what but fatigue can result from the exertion? How, then,
when we come to the representation?–when these passages–trifling, perhaps, in
themselves, but important when considered in relation to the plot–are hurried and blurred
over in the stuttering enunciation of some miserable rantipole, or omitted altogether
through the constitutional lapse of memory so peculiar to those lights of the age and
stage, bedight (from being of no conceivable use) supernumeraries? For it must be borne
in mind that these bits of intrigue (we use the term in the sense of the German critics)
appertain generally, indeed altogether, to the after thoughts of the drama–to the
underplots–are met with consequently, in the mouth of the lackeys and chambermaids–
and are thus consigned to the tender mercies of the stellae minores. Of course we get but
an imperfect idea of what is going on before our eyes. Action after action ensues whose
mystery we can not unlock without the little key which these barbarians have thrown
away and lost. Our weariness increases in proportion to the number of these
embarrassments, and if the play escape damnation at all it escapes in spite of that intrigue
to which, in nine cases out of ten, the author attributes his success, and which he will
persist in valuing exactly in proportion to the misapplied labour it has cost him.
But dramas of this kind are said, in our customary parlance, to "abound in plot." We have
never yet met any one, however, who could tell us what precise ideas he connected with
the phrase. A mere succession of incidents, even the most spirited, will no more
constitute a plot than a multiplication of zeros, even the most infinite, will result in the
production of a unit. This all will admit–but few trouble themselves to think further. The
common notion seems be in favour of mere complexity; but a plot, properly understood,
is perfect only inasmuch as we shall find ourselves unable to detach from it or disarrange
any single incident involved, without destruction to the mass.
This we say is the point of perfection–a point never yet attained, but not on that account
unattainable. Practically, we may consider a plot as of high excellence, when no one of its
component parts shall be susceptible of removal without detriment to the whole. Here,
indeed, is a vast lowering of the demand–and with less than this no writer of refined taste
should content himself.
As this subject is not only in itself of great importance, but will have at all points a
bearing upon what we shall say hereafter, in the examination of various plays, we shall be
pardoned for quoting from the "Democratic Review" some passages (of our own which
enter more particularly into the rationale of the subject:"All the Bridgewater treatises have failed in noticing the great idiosyncrasy in the Divine
system of adaptation:–that idiosyncrasy which stamps the adaptation as divine, in
distinction from that which is the work of merely human constructiveness. I speak of the
complete mutuality of adaptation. For example:–in human constructions, a particular
cause has a particular effect–a particular purpose brings about a particular object; but we
see no reciprocity. The effect does not react upon the cause–the object does not change
relations with the purpose. In Divine constructions, the object is either object or purpose
as we choose to regard it, while the purpose is either purpose or object; so that we can
never (abstractly–without concretion–without reference to facts of the moment) decide
which is which.
"For secondary example:–In polar climates, the human frame, to maintain its animal heat,
requires, for combustion in the capillary system, an abundant supply of highly azotized
food, such as train oil. Again:–in polar climates nearly the sole food afforded man is the
oil of abundant seals and whales. Now whether is oil at hand because imperatively
demanded? or whether is it the only thing demanded because the only thing fo be
obtained? It is impossible to say:–there is an absolute reciprocity of adaptation for which
we seek in vain among the works of man.
"The Bridgewater tractists may have avoided this point, on account of its apparent
tendency to overthrow the idea of cause in general- consequently of a First Cause-of God.
But it is more probable that they have failed to perceive what no one preceding them has,
to my knowledge, perceived.
"The pleasure which we derive from any exertion of human ingenuity, is in the direct
ratio of the approach to this species of reciprocity between cause and effect. In the
construction of plot, for example, in fictitious literature, we should aim at so arranging
the points, or incidents, that we cannot distinctly see, in respect to any one of them,
whether that one depends from any one other or upholds it. In this sense, of course,
perfection of plot is unattainable in fact–because Man is the constructor. The plots of God
are perfect. The Universe is a plot of God."
The pleasure derived from the contemplation of the unity resulting from plot is far more
intense than is ordinarily supposed, and, as in Nature we meet with no such combination
of incident, appertains to a very lofty region of the ideal. In speaking thus we have not
said that plot is more than an adjunct to the drama–more than a perfectly distinct and
separable source of pleasure. It is not an essential. In its intense artificiality it may even
be conceived injurious in a certain degree (unless constructed with consummate skill) to
that real lifelikeness which is the soul of the drama of character. Good dramas have been
written with very little plot- capital dramas might be written with none at all. Some plays
of high merit, having plot, abound in irrelevant incident–in incident, we mean, which
could be displaced or removed altogether without effect upon the plot itself, and yet are
by no means objectionable as dramas; and for this reason–that the incidents are evidently
irrelevant- obviously episodical. Of their disgressive nature the spectator is so
immediately aware that he views them, as they arise, in the simple light of interlude, and
does not fatigue his attention by attempting to establish for them a connection, or more
than an illustrative connection, with the great interests of the subject. Such are the plays
of Shakespeare. But all this is very different from that irrelevancy of intrigue which
disfigures and very usually damns the work of the unskilful artist. With him the great
error lies in inconsequence. Underplot is piled upon underplot (the very word is a
paradox), and all to no purpose–to no end. The interposed incidents have no ultimate
effect upon the main ones. They may hang upon the mass–they may even coalesce with
it, or, as in some intricate cases, they may be so intimately blended as to be lost amid the
chaos which they have been instrumental in bringing about–but still they have no portion
in the plot, which exists, if at all, independently of their influence. Yet the attempt is
made by the author to establish and demonstrate a dependence–an identity, and it is the
obviousness of this attempt which is the cause of weariness in the spectator, who, of
course, cannot at once see that his attention is chAllanged to no purpose–that intrigues so
obtrusively forced upon it are to be found, in the end, without effect upon the leading
interests of the day.
"Tortesa" will afford us plentiful examples of this irrelevancy of intrigue–of this
misconception of the nature and of the capacities of plot. We have said that our digest of
the story is more easy of comprehension than the detail of Mr. Willis. If so, it is because
we have forborne to give such portions as had no influence upon the whole. These served
but to embarrass the narrative and fatigue the attention. How much was irrelevant is
shown by the brevity of the space in which we have recorded, somewhat at length, all the
influential incidents of a drama of five acts. There is scarcely a scene in which is not to
be found the germ of an underplot–a germ, however, which seldom proceeds beyond the
condition of a bud, or, if so fortunate as to swell into a flower, arrives, in no single
instance, at the dignity of fruit. Zippa, a lady altogether without character (dramatic), is
the most pertinacious of all conceivable concoctors of plans never to be matured–of vast
designs that terminate in nothing–of cul-de-sac machinations. She plots in one page and
counter-plots in the next. She schemes her way from P. S. to O. P., and intrigues
perseveringly from the footlights to the slips. A very singular instance of the
inconsequence of her manoeuvres is found towards the conclusion of the play. The whole
of the second scene (occupying five pages), in the fifth act, is obviously introduced for
the purpose of giving her information, through Tomaso's means, of Angelo's arrest for the
murder of Isabella. Upon learning his danger she rushes from the stage, to be present at
the trial, exclaiming that her evidence can save his life. We, the audience, of course
applaud, and now look with interest to her movements in the scene of the judgment-hall.
She, Zippa, we think, is somebody after all; she will be the means of Angelo's salvation;
she will thus be the chief unraveller of the plot. All eyes are bent, therefore, upon Zippa–
but alas! upon the point at issue, Zippa does not so much as open her mouth. It is scarcely
too much to say that not a single action of this impertinent little busybody has any real
influence upon the play;–yet she appears upon every occasion–appearing only to perplex.
Similar things abound; we should not have space even to allude to them all. The whole
conclusion of the play is supererogatory. The immensity of pure fuss with which it is
overloaded forces us to the reflection that all of it might have been avoided by one word
of explanation to the Duke an amiable man who admires the talents of Angelo, and who,
to prevent Isabella's marrying against her will, had previously offered to free Falcone of
his bonds to the usurer. That he would free him now, and thus set all matters straight, the
spectator cannot doubt for an instant, and he can conceive no better reason why
explanations are not made than that Mr. Willis does not think proper they should be. In
fact, the whole drama is exceedingly ill motivirt.
We have already mentioned an inadvertence, in the fourth Act, where Isabella is made to
escape from the sanctuary through the midst of guards who prevented the ingress of
Angelo. Another occurs where Falcone's conscience is made to reprove him, upon the
appearance of his daughter's supposed ghost, for having occasioned her death by forcing
her to marry against her will. The author had forgotten that Falcone submitted to the
wedding, after the Dukes interposition, only upon Isabella's assurance that she really
loved the usurer. In the third Scene, too, of the first Act, the imagination of the spectator
is no doubt a little taxed when he finds Angelo, in the first moment of his introduction to
the palace of Isabella, commencing her portrait by laying on colour after colour, before
he has made any attempt at an outline. In the last Act, moreover, Tortesa gives to Isabella
a deed
"Of the Falcone palaces and lands,
And all the money forfeit by Falcone."
This is a terrible blunder, and the more important as upon this act of the usurer depends
the development of his newborn sentiments of honour and virtue–depends, in fact, the
most salient point of the play. Tortesa, we say, gives to Isabella the lands forfeited by
Falcone; but Tortesa was surely not very generous in giving what, clearly, was not his
own to give. Falcone had not forfeited the deed, which had been restored to him by the
usurer, and which was then in his (Falcone's) possession. Here Tortesa:He put it in the bond,
That if, by any humour of my own,
Or accident that came not from himself,
Or from his daughter's will, the match were marred,
His tenure stood intact."
Now Falcone is still resolute for the match; but this new generous "humour" of Tortesa
induces him (Tortesa) to decline it. Falcone's tenure is then intact; he retains the deed, the
usurer is giving away property not his own.
As a drama of character, "Tortesa" is by no means open to so many objections as when
we view it in the light of its plot; but it is still faulty. The merits are so exceedingly
negative, that it is difficult to say anything about them. The Duke is nobody, Falcone,
nothing; Zippa, less than nothing. Angelo may be regarded simply as the medium through
which Mr. Willis conveys to the reader his own glowing feelings–his own refined and
delicate fancy–(delicate, yet bold)–his own rich voluptuousness of sentiment–a
voluptuousness which would offend in almost any other language than that in which it is
so skilfully apparelled. Isabella is–the heroine of the Hunchback. The revolution in the
character of Tortesa–or rather the final triumph of his innate virtue–is a dramatic point far
older than the hills. It may be observed, too, that although the representation of no human
character should be quarrelled with for its inconsistency, we yet require that the
inconsistencies be not absolute antagonisms to the extent of neutralization: they may be
permitted to be oils and waters, but they must not be alkalis and acids. When, in the
course of the denouement, the usurer bursts forth into an eloquence virtue- inspired, we
cannot sympathize very heartily in his fine speeches, since they proceed from the mouth
of the self-same egotist who, urged by a disgusting vanity, uttered so many sotticisms
(about his fine legs, etc.) in the earlier passages of the play. Tomaso is, upon the whole,
the best personage. We recognize some originality in his conception, and conception was
seldom more admirably carried out.
One or two observations at random. In the third Scene of the fifth Act, Tomaso, the
buffoon, is made to assume paternal authority over Isabella (as usual, without sufficient
purpose), by virtue of a law which Tortesa thus expounds:"My gracious liege, there is a law in Florence
That if a father, for no guilt or shame,
Disown and shut his door upon his daughter,
She is the child of him who succours her,
Who by the shelter of a single night,
Becomes endowed with the authority
Lost by the other."
No one, of course, can be made to believe that any such stupid law as this ever existed
either in Florence or Timbuctoo; but, on the ground que le vrai n'est pas toujours le
vraisemblable, we say that even its real existence would be no justification of Mr. Willis.
It has an air of the far-fetched–of the desperate–which a fine taste will avoid as a
pestilence. Very much of the same nature is the attempt of Tortesa to extort a second
bond from Falcone. The evidence which convicts Angelo of murder is ridiculously frail.
The idea of Isabella's assuming the place of the portrait, and so deceiving the usurer, is
not only glaringly improbable, but seems adopted from the "Winter's Tale." But in this
latter-play, the deception is at least possible, for the human figure but imitates a statue.
What, however, are we to make of Mr. W.'s stage direction about the back wall's being
"so arranged as to form a natural ground for the picture"? Of course, the very slightest
movement of Tortesa (and he makes many) would have annihilated the illusion by
disarranging the perspective, and in no manner could this latter have been arranged at all
for more than one particular point of view–in other words, for more than one particular
person in the whole audience. The "asides," moreover, are unjustifiably frequent. The
prevalence of this folly (of speaking aside) detracts as much from the acting merit of our
drama generally as any other inartisticality. It utterly destroys verisimilitude. People are
not in the habit of soliloquising aloud–at least, not to any positive extent; and why should
an author have to be told, what the slightest reflection would teach him, that an audience,
by dint of no imagination, can or will conceive that what is sonorous in their own ears at
the distance of fifty feet cannot be heard by an actor at the distance of one or two?
Having spoken thus of "Tortesa" in terms of nearly unmitigated censure–our readers may
be surprised to hear us say that we think highly of the drama as a whole–and have little
hesitation in ranking it before most of the dramas of Sheridan Knowles. Its leading faults
are those of the modern drama generally–they are not peculiar to itself–while its great
merits are. If in support of our opinion we do not cite points of commendation, it is
because those form the mass of the work. And were we to speak of fine passages, we
should speak of the entire play. Nor by "fine passages" do we mean passages of merely
fine language, embodying fine sentiment, but such as are replete with truthfulness, and
teem with the loftiest qualities of the dramatic art. Points–capital points abound; and
these have far more to do with the general excellence of a play than a too speculative
criticism has been willing to admit. Upon the whole, we are proud of "Tortesa"–and her
again, for the fiftieth time at least, record our warm admiration of the abilities of Mr.
Willis.
We proceed now to Mr. Longfellow's
SPANISH STUDENT
The reputation of its author as a poet, and as a graceful writer of prose, is, of course, long
and deservedly established–but as a dramatist he was unknown before the publication of
this play. Upon its original appearance, in Graham's Magazine, the general opinion was
greatly in favour–if not exactly of "The Spanish Student"–at all events of the writer of
"Outre-Mer." But this general opinion is the most equivocal thing in the world. It is never
self-formed. It has very seldom indeed an original development. In regard to the work of
an already famous or infamous author it decides, to be sure, with a laudable promptitude;
making up all the mind that it has, by reference to the reception of the author's
immediately previous publication- making up thus the ghost of a mind pro tem.–a species
of critical shadow that fully answers, nevertheless, all the purposes of a substance itself
until the substance itself shall be forthcoming. But beyond this point the general opinion
can only be considered that of the public, as a man may call a book his, having bought it.
When a new writer arises, the shop of the true, thoughtful or critical opinion is not
simultaneously thrown away–is not immediately set up. Some weeks elapse; and, during
this interval, the public, at a loss where to procure an opinion of the debutante, have
necessarily no opinion of him at all for the nonce.
The popular voice, then, which ran so much in favour of "The Spanish Student," upon its
original issue, should be looked upon as merely the ghost pro tem.–as based upon critical
decisions respecting the previous works of the author–as having reference in no manner
to "The Spanish Student" itself–and thus as utterly meaningless and valueless per se.
The few, by which we mean those who think, in contradistinction from the many who
think they think–the few who think at first hand, and thus twice before speaking at all–
these received the play with a commendation somewhat less pronounced–somewhat more
guardedly qualified–than Professor Longfellow might have desired, or may have been
taught to expect. Still the composition was approved upon the whole. The few words of
censure were very far indeed from amounting to condemnation. The chief defect insisted
upon was the feebleness of the denouement, and, generally, of the concluding scenes, as
compared with the opening passages. We are not sure, however, that anything like
detailed criticism has been attempted in the case–nor do we propose now to attempt it.
Nevertheless, the work has interest, not only within itself, but as the first dramatic effort
of an author who has remarkably succeeded in almost every other department of light
literature than that of the drama. It may be as well, therefore, to speak of it, if not
analytically, at least somewhat in detail; and we cannot, perhaps, more suitably
commence than by a quotation, without comment of some of the finer passages:
"And, though she is a virgin outwardly,
Within she is a sinner, like those panels
Of doors and altar-pieces the old monks
Painted in convents, with the Virgin Mary
On the outside, and on the inside Venus."
"I believe
That woman, in her deepest degradation,
Holds something sacred, something undefiled,
Some pledge and keepsake of her higher nature,
And, like the diamond in the dark, retains
Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light."
"And we shall sit together unmolested,
And words of true love pass from tongue to tongue
As singing birds from one bough to another."
"Our feelings and our thoughts
Tend ever on and rest not in the Present,
As drops of rain fall into some dark well,
And from below comes a scarce audible sound,
So fall our thoughts into the dark
Hereafter, And their mysterious echo reaches us."
"Her tender limbs are still, and, on her breast,
The cross she prayed to, ere she fell asleep,
Rises or falls with the soft tide of dreams,
Like a light barge safe moored."
"Hark! how the large and ponderous mace of Time
Knocks at the golden portals of the day!"
"The lady Violante bathed in tears
Of love and anger, like the maid of Colchis,
Whom thou, another faithless Argonaut,
Having won that golden fleece, a woman's love,
Desertest for this Glauce."
"I read, or sit in reverie and watch
The changing colour of the waves that break
Upon the idle sea-shore of the mind."
"I will forget her. All dear recollections
Pressed in my heart, like flowers within a book,
Shall be tom out and scattered to the winds."
"Oh yes! I see it nowYet rather with my heart than with mine eyes,
So faint it is. And all my thoughts sail thither,
Freighted with prayers and hopes, and forward urged,
Against all stress of accident, as, in
The Eastern Tale, against the wind and tide
Great ships were drawn to the Magnetic Mountains."
"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 woodland fount a spirit rises
And sinks again into its silent deeps,
Ere the enamoured knight can touch her robe!
'Tis this ideal that the soul of Man,
Like the enamoured knight beside the fountain,
Waits for upon the margin of Life's stream;
Waits to behold her rise from the dark waters,
Clad in a mortal shape! Alas, how many
Must wait in vain! The stream flows evermore,
But from its silent deeps no spirit rises!
Yet I, born under a propitious star,
Have found the bright ideal of my dreams."
"Yes; by the Darro's side
My childhood passed. I can remember still
The river, and the mountains capped with snow;
The villages where, yet a little child,
I told the traveller's fortune in the street;
The smugglers horse; the brigand and the shepherd;
The march across the moor; the halt at noon;
The red fire of the evening camp, that lighted
The forest where we slept; and, farther back,
As in a dream, or in some former life,
Gardens and palace walls."
"This path will lead us to it,
Over the wheatfields, where the shadows sail
Across the running sea, now green, now blue,
And, like an idle mariner on the ocean,
Whistles the quail."
These extracts will be universally admired. They are graceful, well expressed,
imaginative, and altogether replete with the true poetic feeling. We quote them now, at
the beginning of our review, by way of justice to the poet, and because, in what follows,
we are not sure that we have more than a very few words of what may be termed
commendation to bestow.
"The Spanish Student" has an unfortunate beginning, in a most unpardonable, and yet to
render the matter worse, in a most indispensable "Preface:"The subject of the following play," says Mr. L., "is taken in part from the beautiful play
of Cervantes, La Gitanilla. To this source, however, I am indebted for the main incident
only, the love of a Spanish student for a Gipsy girl, and the name of the heroine, Preciosa.
I have not followed the story in any of its details. In Spain this subject has been twice
handled dramatically, first by Juan Perez de Montalvan in La Gitanilla, and afterwards by
Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneira in La Gitanilla de Madrid. The same subject has also
been made use of by Thomas Middleton, an English dramatist of the seventeenth century.
His play is called The Spanish Gipsy. The main plot is the same as in the Spanish pieces;
but there runs through it a tragic underplot of the loves of Rodrigo and Dona Clara, which
is taken from another tale of Cervantes, La Fuerza de la Sangre. The reader who is
acquainted with La Gitanilla of Cervantes, and the plays of Montalvan, Solis, and
Middleton, will perceive that my treatment of the subject differs entirely from theirs."
Now the autorial originality, properly considered, is threefold. There is, first, the
originality of the general thesis, secondly, that of the several incidents or thoughts by
which the thesis is developed, and thirdly, that of manner or tone, by which means alone
an old subject, even when developed through hackneyed incidents or thoughts, may be
made to produce a fully original effect–which, after all, is the end truly in view.
But originality, as it is one of the highest, is also one of the rarest of merits. In America it
is especially and very remarkably rare:–this through causes sufficiently well understood.
We are content perforce, therefore, as a general thing, with either of the lower branches
of originality mentioned above, and would regard with high favour indeed any author
who should supply the great desideratum in combining the three. Still the three should be
combined; and from whom, if not from such men as Professor Longfellow- if not from
those who occupy the chief niches in our Literary Temple–shall we expect the
combination? But in the present instance, what has Professor Longfellow accomplished?
Is he original at any one point? Is he original in respect to the first and most important of
our three divisions? "The [subject] of the following play," he says himself, "is taken [in
part] from the beautiful play of Cervantes, 'La Gitanilla.' To this source, however, I am
indebted for [the main incident only,] the love of the Spanish student for a Gipsy girl, and
the name of the heroine, Preciosa."
The [brackets] are our own, and the [bracketed words] involve an obvious contradiction.
We cannot understand how "the love of the Spanish student for the Gipsy girl" can be
called an "incident," or even a "main incident," at all. In fact, this love–this discordant
and therefore eventful or incidental love is the true thesis of the drama of Cervantes. It is
this anomalous "love," which originates the incidents by means of which itself, this
"love," the thesis, is developed. Having based his play, then, upon this "love," we cannot
admit his claim to originality upon our first count; nor has he any right to say that he has
adopted his "subject" "in part." It is clear that he has adopted it altogether. Nor would he
have been entitled to claim originality of subject, even had he based his story upon any
variety of love arising between parties naturally separated by prejudices of caste–such,
for example, as those which divide the Brahmin from the Pariah, the Ammonite from the
African, or even the Christian from the Jew. For here in its ultimate analysis, is the real
thesis of the Spaniard. But when the drama is founded, not merely upon this general
thesis, but upon this general thesis in the identical application given it by Cervantes–that
is to say, upon the prejudice of caste exemplified in the case of a Catholic, and this
Catholic a Spaniard, and this Spaniard a student, and this student loving a Gipsy, and this
Gipsy a dancing-girl, and this dancing-girl bearing the name Preciosa–we are not
altogether prepared to be informed by Professor Longfellow that he is indebted for an
"incident only" to the "beautiful 'Gitanilla' of Cervantes."
Whether our author is original upon our second and third points- in the true incidents of
his story, or in the manner and tone of their handling–will be more distinctly seen as we
proceed.
It is to be regretted that "The Spanish Student" was not subentitled "A Dramatic Poem,"
rather than "A Play." The former title would have more fully conveyed the intention of
the poet; for, of course, we shall not do Mr. Longfellow the injustice to suppose that his
design has been, in any respect, a play, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Whatever
may be its merits in a merely poetical view, "The Spanish Student" could not be endured
upon the stage.
Its plot runs thus:–Preciosa, the daughter of a Spanish gentleman, is stolen, while an
infant, by Gipsies, brought up as his own daughter, and as a dancing-girl, by a Gipsy
leader, Cruzado; and by him betrothed to a young Gipsy, Bartolome. At Madrid, Preciosa
loves and is beloved by Victorian, a student of Alcala, who resolves to marry her,
notwithstanding her caste, rumours involving her purity, the dissuasions of his friends,
and his betrothal to an heiress of Madrid. Preciosa is also sought by the Count of Lara, a
roue. She rejects him. He forces his way into her chamber, and is there seen by Victorian,
who, misinterpreting some words overheard, doubts the fidelity of his mistress, and
leaves her in anger, after chAllanging the Count of Lara. In the duel, the Count receives
his life at the hands of Victorian: declares his ignorance of the understanding between
Victorian and Preciosa; boasts of favours received from the latter, and, to make good his
words, produces a ring which she gave him, he asserts, as a pledge of her love. This ring
is a duplicate of one previously given the girl by Victorian, and known to have been so
given by the Count. Victorian mistakes it for his own, believes all that has been said, and
abandons the field to his rival, who, immediately afterwards, while attempting to procure
access to the Gipsy, is assassinated by Bartolome. Meantime, Victorian, wandering
through the country, reaches Guadarrama. Here he receives a letter from Madrid,
disclosing the treachery practiced by Lara, and telling that Preciosa, rejecting his
addresses, had been through his instrumentality hissed from the stage, and now again
roamed with the Gipsies. He goes in search of her, finds her in a wood near Guadarrama;
approaches her, disguising his voice; she recognizes him, pretending she does not, and
unaware that he knows her innocence; a conversation of equivoque ensues; he sees his
ring upon her finger; offers to purchase it; she refuses to part with it, a full eclairissement
takes place; at this juncture a servant of Victorian's arrives with "news from court,"
giving the first intimation of the true parentage of Preciosa. The lovers set out, forthwith,
for Madrid, to see the newly discovered father. On the route, Bartolome dogs their steps;
fires at Preciosa; misses her; the shot is returned; he falls; and "The Spanish Student" is
concluded.
This plot, however, like that of "Tortesa," looks better in our naked digest than amidst the
details which develop only to disfigure it. The reader of the play itself will be astonished,
when he remembers the name of the author, at the inconsequence of the incidents–at the
utter want of skill–of art-manifested in their conception and introduction. In dramatic
writing, no principle is more clear than that nothing should be said or done which has not
a tendency to develop the catastrophe, or the characters. But Mr. Longfellow's play
abounds in events and conversations that have no ostensible purpose, and certainly
answer no end. In what light, for example, since we cannot suppose this drama intended
for the stage, are we to regard the second scene of the second act, where a long dialogue
between an Archbishop and a Cardinal is wound up by a dance from Preciosa? The Pope
thinks of abolishing public dances in Spain, and the priests in question have been
delegated to examine, personally, the proprieties or improprieties of such exhibitions.
With this view, Preciosa is summoned and required to give a specimen of her skill. Now
this, in a mere spectacle, would do very well; for here all that is demanded is an occasion
or an excuse for a dance; but what business has it in a pure drama? or in what regard does
it further the end of a dramatic poem, intended only to be read? In the same manner, the
whole of Scene the eighth, in the same act, is occupied with six lines of stage directions,
as follows:The Theatre: the orchestra plays the Cachuca. Sound of castinets behind the scenes. The
curtain rises and discovers Preciosa in the attitude of commencing the dance. The
Cachuca. Tumult. Hisses. Cries of Brava! and Aguera! She falters and pauses. The music
stops. General confusion. Preciosa faints.
But the inconsequence of which we complain will be best exemplified by an entire scene.
We take Scene the Fourth, Act the First:"An inn on the road to Alcala. BALTASAR asleep on a bench. Enter CHISPA."
CHISPA. And here we are, half way to Alcala, between cocks and midnight. Body o' me!
what an inn this is! The light out and the landlord asleep! Hola! ancient Baltasar!
BALTASAR. [waking]. Here I am.
CHISPA. Yes, there you are, like a one-eyed alcalde in a town without inhabitants. Bring
a light, and let me have supper.
BALTASAR. Where is your master?
CHISPA. Do not trouble yourself about him. We have stopped a moment to breathe our
horses; and if he chooses to walk up and down in the open air, looking into the sky as one
who hears it rain, that does not satisfy my hunger, you know. But be quick, for I am in a
hurry, and every one stretches his legs according to the length of his coverlet. What have
we here?
BALTASAR. [setting a light on the table]. Stewed rabbit.
CHISPA. [eating]. Conscience of Portalegre! stewed kitten you mean!
BALTASAR. And a pitcher of Pedro Ximenes, with a roasted pear in it.
CHISPA [drinking]. Ancient Baltasar, amigo! You know how to cry wine and sell
vinegar. I tell you this is nothing but Vino Tinto of La Mancha, with a tang of the swineskin.
BALTASAR. I swear to you by Saint Simon and Judas, it is all as I say.
CHISPA. And I swear to you by Saint Peter and Saint Paul that it is no such thing.
Moreover, your supper is like the hidalgo's dinner–very little meat and a great deal of
tablecloth.
BALTASAR. Ha! ha! ha!
CHISPA. And more noise than nuts.
BALTASAR. Ha! ha! ha! You must have your joke, Master Chispa. But
shall I not ask Don Victorian in to take a draught of the Pedro Ximenes?
CHISPA. No; you might as well say, "Don't you want some?" to a dead man.
BALTASAR. Why does he go so often to Madrid?
CHISPA. For the same reason that he eats no supper. He is in love. Were you ever in
love, Baltasar?
BALTASAR. I was never out of it, good Chispa. It has been the torment of my life.
CHISPA. What! are you on fire, too, old hay-stack? Why, we shall never be able to put
you out.
VICTORIAN [without] Chispa!
CHISPA. Go to bed, Pero Grullo, for the cocks are crowing.
VICTORIAN. Ea! Chispa! Chispa!
CHISPA. Ea! Senor. Come with me, ancient Baltasar, and bring water for the horses. I
will pay for the supper tomorrow. [Exeunt.]
Now here the question occurs–what is accomplished? How has the subject been
forwarded? We did not need to learn that Victorian was in love–that was known before;
and all that we glean is that a stupid imitation of Sancho Panza drinks in the course of
two minutes (the time occupied in the perusal of the scene) a bottle of vino tinto, by way
of Pedro Ximenes, and devours a stewed kitten in place of a rabbit.
In the beginning of the play this Chispa is the valet of Victorian; subsequently we find
him the servant of another; and near the denouement he returns to his original master. No
cause is assigned, and not even the shadow of an object is attained; the whole
tergiversation being but another instance of the gross inconsequence which abounds in
the play.
The authors deficiency of skill is especially evinced in the scene of the eclaircissement
between Victorian and Preciosa. The former having been enlightened respecting the true
character of the latter by means of a letter received at Guadarrama, from a friend at
Madrid (how wofully inartistical is this!), resolves to go in search of her forthwith, and
forthwith, also, discovers her in a wood close at hand. Whereupon he approaches,
disguising his voice:–yes, we are required to believe that a lover may so disguise his
voice from his mistress as even to render his person in full view irrecognizable! He
approaches, and each knowing the other, a conversation ensues under the hypothesis that
each to the other is unknown–a very unoriginal, and, of course, a very silly source of
equivoque, fit only for the gum–elastic imagination of an infant. But what we especially
complain of here is that our poet should have taken so many and so obvious pains to
bring about this position of equivoque, when it was impossible that it could have served
any other purpose than that of injuring his intended effect! Read, for example, this
passage:VICTORIAN. I never loved a maid;
For she I loved was then a maid no more.
PRECIOSA. How know you that?
VICTORIA. A little bird in the air
Whispered the secret.
PRECIOSA. There, take back your gold!
Your hand is cold like a deceiver's hand!
There is no blessing in its charity!
Make her your wife, for you have been abused;
And you shall mend your fortunes mending hers.
VICTORIAN. How like an angel's speaks the tongue of woman,
When pleading in another's cause her own!
Now here it is clear that if we understood Preciosa to be really ignorant of Victorian's
identity, the "pleading in another's cause her own" would create a favourable impression
upon the reader or spectator. But the advice–"Make her your wife, etc.," takes an
interested and selfish turn when we remember that she knows to whom she speaks.
Again, when Victorian says:
That is a pretty ring upon your finger,
Pray give it me!
and when she replies:
No, never from my hand
Shall that be taken,
we are inclined to think her only an artful coquette, knowing, as we do, the extent of her
knowledge, on the hand we should have applauded her constancy (as the author intended)
had she been represented ignorant of Victorian's presence. The effect upon the audience,
in a word, would be pleasant in place of disagreeable were the case altered as we suggest,
while the effect upon Victorian would remain altogether untouched.
A still more remarkable instance of deficiency in the dramatic tact is to be found in the
mode of bringing about the discovery of Preciosa's parentage. In the very moment of the
eclaircissement between the lovers, Chispa arrives almost as a matter of course, and
settles the point in a sentence:-
Good news from the Court; Good news! Beltran Cruzado,
The Count of the Cales, is not your father,
But your true father has returned to Spain
Laden with wealth. You are no more a Gipsy.
Now here are three points:–first, the extreme baldness, platitude, and independence of the
incident narrated by Chispa. The opportune return of the father (we are tempted to say the
excessively opportune) stands by itself–has no relation to any other event in the play–
does not appear to arise, in the way of result, from any incident or incidents that have
arisen before. It has the air of a happy chance, of a God-send, of an ultra-accident,
invented by the play-wright by way of compromise for his lack of invention. Nec Deus
intersit, etc.–but here the God has interposed, and the knot is laughably unworthy of the
God.
The second point concerns the return of the father "laden with wealth." The lover has
abandoned his mistress in her poverty, and, while yet the words of his proffered
reconciliation hang upon his lips, comes his own servant with the news that the mistress'
father has returned "laden with wealth." Now, so far as regards the audience, who are
behind the scenes and know the fidelity of the lover–so far as regards the audience, all is
right; but the poet had no business to place his heroine in the sad predicament of being
forced, provided she is not a fool, to suspect both the ignorance and the disinterestedness
of the hero.
The third point has reference to the words–"You are now no more a Gipsy." The thesis of
this drama, as we have already said, is love disregarding the prejudices of caste, and in
the development of this thesis, the powers of the dramatist have been engaged, or should
have been engaged, during the whole of the three acts of the play. The interest excited
lies in our admiration of the sacrifice, and of the love that could make it; but this interest
immediately and disagreeably subsides when we find that the sacrifice has been made to
no purpose. "You are no more a Gipsy" dissolves the charm, and obliterates the whole
impression which the author has been at so much labour to convey. Our romantic sense of
the hero's chivalry declines into a complacent satisfaction with his fate. We drop our
enthusiasm, with the enthusiast, and jovially shake by the hand the mere man of good
luck. But is not the latter feeling the more comfortable of the two? Perhaps so; but
"comfortable" is not exactly the word Mr. Longfellow might wish applied to the end of
his drama, and then why be at the trouble of building up an effect through a hundred and
eighty pages, merely to knock it down at the end of the hundred and eighty-first?
We have already given, at some length, our conceptions of the nature of plot–and of that
of "The Spanish Student", it seems almost superfluous to speak at all. It has nothing of
construction about it. Indeed there is scarcely a single incident which has any necessary
dependence upon any one other. Not only might we take away two-thirds of the whole
without ruin–but without detriment–indeed with a positive benefit to the mass. And, even
as regards the mere order of arrangement, we might with a very decided chance of
improvement, put the scenes in a bag, give them a shake or two by way of shuffle, and
tumble them out. The whole mode of collocation- not to speak of the feebleness of the
incidents in themselves- evinces, on the part of the author, an utter and radical want of the
adapting or constructive power which the drama so imperatively demands.
Of the unoriginality of the thesis we have already spoken; and now, to the unoriginality
of the events by which the thesis is developed, we need do little more than alude. What,
indeed, could we say of such incidents as the child stolen by Gipsies–as her education as
a danseuse–as her betrothal to a Gipsy–as her preference for a gentleman–as the rumours
against her purity–as her persecution by a roue–as the irruption of the roue into her
chamber–as the consequent misunderstanding between her and her lover–as the duel–as
the defeat of the roue–as the receipt of his life from the hero–as his boasts of success with
the girl–as the ruse of the duplicate ring–as the field, in consequence, abandoned by the
lover–as the assassination of Lara while scaling the girl's bed-chamber–as the
disconsolate peregrination of Victorian–as the equivoque scene with Preciosa–as the
offering to purchase the ring and the refusal to part with it–as the "news from court,"
telling of the Gipsy's true parentage–what could we say of all these ridiculous things,
except that we have met them, each and all, some two or three hundred times before, and
that they have formed, in a great or less degree, the staple material of every Hop-O'MyThumb tragedy since the flood? There is not an incident, from the first page of "The
Spanish Student" to the last and most satisfactory, which we would not undertake to find
bodily, at ten minutes' notice, in some one of the thousand and one comedies of intrigue
attributed to Calderon and Lope de Vega.
But if our poet is grossly unoriginal in his subject, and in the events which evolve it, may
he not be original in his handling or tone? We really grieve to say that he is not, unless,
indeed, we grant him the need of originality for the peculiar manner in which he has
jumbled together the quaint and stilted tone of the old English dramatists with the
degagee air of Cervantes. But this is a point upon which, through want of space, we must
necessarily permit the reader to judge altogether for himself. We quote, however, a
passage from the second scene of the first act, by way of showing how very easy a matter
it is to make a man discourse Sancho Panza:Chispa. Abernuncio Satanas! and a plague upon all lovers who ramble about at night,
drinking the elements, instead of sleeping quietly in their beds. Every dead man to his
cemetery, say I; and every friar to his monastery. Now, here's my master Victorian,
yesterday a cow-keeper and to-day a gentleman; yesterday a student and to-day a lover;
and I must be up later than the nightingale, for as the abbot sings so must the sacristan
respond. God grant he may soon be married, for then shall all this serenading cease. Ay,
marry, marry, marry! Mother, what does marry mean? It means to spin, to bear children,
and to weep, my daughter! and, of a truth, there is something more in matrimony than the
wedding-ring. And now, gentlemen, Pax vobiscum! as the ass said to the cabbages!
And we might add, as an ass only should say.
In fact, throughout "The Spanish Student," as well as throughout other compositions of
its author, there runs a very obvious vein of imitation. We are perpetually reminded of
something we have seen before–some old acquaintance in manner or matter, and even
where the similarity cannot be said to amount to plagiarism, it is still injurious to the poet
in the good opinion of him who reads.
Among the minor defects of the play, we may mention the frequent allusion to book
incidents not generally known, and requiring each a Note by way of explanation. The
drama demands that everything be so instantaneously evident that he who runs may read;
and the only impression effected by these Notes to a play is, that the author is desirous of
showing his reading.
We may mention, also, occasional tautologies, such as:Never did I behold thee so attired
And garmented in beauty as to-night!
OrWhat we need
Is the celestial fire to change the fruit
Into transparent crystal, bright and clear!
We may speak, too, of more than occasional errors of grammar. For example:"Did no one see thee? None, my love, but thou."
Here "but" is not a conjunction, but a preposition, and governs thee in the objective.
"None but thee" would be right; meaning none except thee, saving thee. Earlier, "mayest"
is somewhat incorrectly written "may'st." And we have:I have no other saint than thou to pray to.
Here authority and analogy are both against Mr. Longfellow. "Than" also is here a
preposition governing the objective, and meaning save or except. "I have none other God
than thee, etc" See Horne Tooke. The Latin "quam te" is exactly equivalent. [Later] we
read:Like thee I am a captive, and, like thee,
I have a gentle gaoler.
Here "like thee" (although grammatical of course) does not convey the idea. Mr. L. does
not mean that the speaker is like the bird itself, but that his condition resembles it. The
true reading would thus be:As thou I am a captive, and, as thou,
I have a gentle poler.
That is to say, as thou art and as thou hast.
Upon the whole, we regret that Professor Longfellow has written this work, and feel
especially vexed that he has committed himself by its republication. Only when regarded
as a mere poem can it be said to have merit of any kind. For in fact it is only when we
separate the poem from the drama that the passages we have commended as beautiful can
be understood to have beauty. We are not too sure, indeed, that a "dramatic poem" is not
a flat contradiction in terms. At all events a man of true genius (and such Mr. L.
unquestionably is) has no business with these hybrid and paradoxical compositions. Let a
poem be a poem only, let a play be a play and nothing more. As for "The Spanish
Student," its thesis is unoriginal; its incidents are antique; its plot is no plot; its characters
have no character, in short, it is a little better than a play upon words to style it "A Play"
at all.
PREFACE TO THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS
THESE TRIFLES are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption
from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while "going the rounds
of the press." I am naturally anxious that if what I have written is to circulate at all, it
should circulate as I wrote it. In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent on
me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very
creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any
time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances would have been the field
of my choice. With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion; and the passions
should be held in reverence; they must not–they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to
the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind
E. A. P.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION
CHARLES DICKENS, in a note now lying before me, alluding to an examination I once
made of the mechanism of "Barnaby Rudge," says–"By the way, are you aware that
Godwin wrote his 'Caleb Williams' backwards? He first involved his hero in a web of
difficulties, forming the second volume, and then, for the first, cast about him for some
mode of accounting for what had been done."
I cannot think this the precise mode of procedure on the part of Godwin–and indeed what
he himself acknowledges, is not altogether in accordance with Mr. Dickens' idea–but the
author of "Caleb Williams" was too good an artist not to perceive the advantage derivable
from at least a somewhat similar process. Nothing is more clear than that every plot,
worth the name, must be elaborated to its denouement before anything be attempted with
the pen. It is only with the denouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its
indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially
the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention.
There is a radical error, I think, in the usual mode of constructing a story. Either history
affords a thesis–or one is suggested by an incident of the day–or, at best, the author sets
himself to work in the combination of striking events to form merely the basis of his
narrative-designing, generally, to fill in with description, dialogue, or autorial comment,
whatever crevices of fact, or action, may, from page to page, render themselves apparent.
I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. Keeping originality always in
view–for he is false to himself who ventures to dispense with so obvious and so easily
attainable a source of interest–I say to myself, in the first place, "Of the innumerable
effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is
susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?" Having chosen a novel,
first, and secondly a vivid effect, I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or
tone–whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or the converse, or by peculiarity
both of incident and tone–afterward looking about me (or rather within) for such
combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.
I have often thought how interesting a magazine paper might be written by any author
who would–that is to say, who could–detail, step by step, the processes by which any one
of his compositions attained its ultimate point of completion. Why such a paper has never
been given to the world, I am much at a loss to say–but, perhaps, the autorial vanity has
had more to do with the omission than any one other cause. Most writers–poets in
especial–prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy–an
ecstatic intuition–and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind
the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought–at the true purposes seized
only at the last moment–at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the
maturity of full view–at the fully-matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable–
at the cautious selections and rejections–at the painful erasures and interpolations–in a
word, at the wheels and pinions–the tackle for scene-shifting–the step-ladders, and
demon-traps–the cock's feathers, the red paint and the black patches, which, in ninetynine cases out of a hundred, constitute the properties of the literary histrio.
I am aware, on the other hand, that the case is by no means common, in which an author
is at all in condition to retrace the steps by which his conclusions have been attained. In
general, suggestions, having arisen pell-mell are pursued and forgotten in a similar
manner.
For my own part, I have neither sympathy with the repugnance alluded to, nor, at any
time, the least difficulty in recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my
compositions, and, since the interest of an analysis or reconstruction, such as I have
considered a desideratum, is quite independent of any real or fancied interest in the thing
analysed, it will not be regarded as a breach of decorum on my part to show the modus
operandi by which some one of my own works was put together. I select 'The Raven' as
most generally known. It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its
composition is referable either to accident or intuition–that the work proceeded step by
step, to its completion, with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical
problem.
Let us dismiss, as irrelevant to the poem, per se, the circumstance- or say the necessity–
which, in the first place, gave rise to the intention of composing a poem that should suit
at once the popular and the critical taste.
We commence, then, with this intention.
The initial consideration was that of extent. If any literary work is too long to be read at
one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable
from unity of impression–for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere,
and everything like totality is at once destroyed. But since, ceteris paribus, no poet can
afford to dispense with anything that may advance his design, it but remains to be seen
whether there is, in extent, any advantage to counterbalance the loss of unity which
attends it. Here I say no, at once. What we term a long poem is, in fact, merely a
succession of brief ones–that is to say, of brief poetical effects. It is needless to
demonstrate that a poem is such only inasmuch as it intensely excites, by elevating the
soul; and all intense excitements are, through a psychal necessity, brief. For this reason,
at least, one-half of the "Paradise Lost" is essentially prose–a succession of poetical
excitements interspersed, inevitably, with corresponding depressions–the whole being
deprived, through the extremeness of its length, of the vastly important artistic element,
totality, or unity of effect.
It appears evident, then, that there is a distinct limit, as regards length, to all works of
literary art–the limit of a single sitting- and that, although in certain classes of prose
composition, such as "Robinson Crusoe" (demanding no unity), this limit may be
advantageously overpassed, it can never properly be overpassed in a poem. Within this
limit, the extent of a poem may be made to bear mathematical relation to its merit–in
other words, to the excitement or elevation-again, in other words, to the degree of the true
poetical effect which it is capable of inducing; for it is clear that the brevity must be in
direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect–this, with one proviso–that a certain
degree of duration is absolutely requisite for the production of any effect at all.
Holding in view these considerations, as well as that degree of excitement which I
deemed not above the popular, while not below the critical taste, I reached at once what I
conceived the proper length for my intended poem–a length of about one hundred lines. It
is, in fact, a hundred and eight.
My next thought concerned the choice of an impression, or effect, to be conveyed: and
here I may as well observe that throughout the construction, I kept steadily in view the
design of rendering the work universally appreciable. I should be carried too far out of
my immediate topic were I to demonstrate a point upon which I have repeatedly insisted,
and which, with the poetical, stands not in the slightest need of demonstration–the point, I
mean, that Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem. A few words, however, in
elucidation of my real meaning, which some of my friends have evinced a disposition to
misrepresent. That pleasure which is at once the most intense, the most elevating, and the
most pure is, I believe, found in the contemplation of the beautiful. When, indeed, men
speak of Beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed, but an effect–they
refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation of soul–not of intellect, or of heart–
upon which I have commented, and which is experienced in consequence of
contemplating the "beautiful." Now I designate Beauty as the province of the poem,
merely because it is an obvious rule of Art that effects should be made to spring from
direct causes–that objects should be attained through means best adapted for their
attainment–no one as yet having been weak enough to deny that the peculiar elevation
alluded to is most readily attained in the poem. Now the object Truth, or the satisfaction
of the intellect, and the object Passion, or the excitement of the heart, are, although
attainable to a certain extent in poetry, far more readily attainable in prose. Truth, in fact,
demands a precision, and Passion, a homeliness (the truly passionate will comprehend
me), which are absolutely antagonistic to that Beauty which, I maintain, is the excitement
or pleasurable elevation of the soul. It by no means follows, from anything here said, that
passion, or even truth, may not be introduced, and even profitably introduced, into a
poem for they may serve in elucidation, or aid the general effect, as do discords in music,
by contrast–but the true artist will always contrive, first, to tone them into proper
subservience to the predominant aim, and, secondly, to enveil them, as far as possible, in
that Beauty which is the atmosphere and the essence of the poem.
Regarding, then, Beauty as my province, my next question referred to the tone of its
highest manifestation–and all experience has shown that this tone is one of sadness.
Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul
to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.
The length, the province, and the tone, being thus determined, I betook myself to ordinary
induction, with the view of obtaining some artistic piquancy which might serve me as a
key-note in the construction of the poem–some pivot upon which the whole structure
might turn. In carefully thinking over all the usual artistic effects- or more properly
points, in the theatrical sense–I did not fail to perceive immediately that no one had been
so universally employed as that of the refrain. The universality of its employment
sufficed to assure me of its intrinsic value, and spared me the necessity of submitting it to
analysis. I considered it, however, with regard to its susceptibility of improvement, and
soon saw it to be in a primitive condition. As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not
only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone–
both in sound and thought. The pleasure is deduced solely from the sense of identity–of
repetition. I resolved to diversify, and so heighten the effect, by adhering in general to the
monotone of sound, while I continually varied that of thought: that is to say, I determined
to produce continuously novel effects, by the variation of the application of the refrain–
the refrain itself remaining for the most part, unvaried.
These points being settled, I next bethought me of the nature of my refrain. Since its
application was to be repeatedly varied it was clear that the refrain itself must be brief,
for there would have been an insurmountable difficulty in frequent variations of
application in any sentence of length. In proportion to the brevity of the sentence would,
of course, be the facility of the variation. This led me at once to a single word as the best
refrain.
The question now arose as to the character of the word. Having made up my mind to a
refrain, the division of the poem into stanzas was of course a corollary, the refrain
forming the close to each stanza. That such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and
susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt, and these considerations
inevitably led me to the long o as the most sonorous vowel in connection with r as the
most producible consonant.
The sound of the refrain being thus determined, it became necessary to select a word
embodying this sound, and at the same time in the fullest possible keeping with that
melancholy which I had pre-determined as the tone of the poem. In such a search it
would have been absolutely impossible to overlook the word "Nevermore." In fact it was
the very first which presented itself.
The next desideratum was a pretext for the continuous use of the one word "nevermore."
In observing the difficulty which I had at once found in inventing a sufficiently plausible
reason for its continuous repetition, I did not fail to perceive that this difficulty arose
solely from the preassumption that the word was to be so continuously or monotonously
spoken by a human being–I did not fail to perceive, in short, that the difficulty lay in the
reconciliation of this monotony with the exercise of reason on the part of the creature
repeating the word. Here, then, immediately arose the idea of a non-reasoning creature
capable of speech, and very naturally, a parrot, in the first instance, suggested itself, but
was superseded forthwith by a Raven as equally capable of speech, and infinitely more in
keeping with the intended tone.
I had now gone so far as the conception of a Raven, the bird of ill-omen, monotonously
repeating the one word "Nevermore" at the conclusion of each stanza in a poem of
melancholy tone, and in length about one hundred lines. Now, never losing sight of the
object- supremeness or perfection at all points, I asked myself–"Of all melancholy topics
what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?"
Death, was the obvious reply. "And when," I said, "is this most melancholy of topics
most poetical?" From what I have already explained at some length the answer here also
is obvious–"When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death then of a beautiful
woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond
doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover."
I had now to combine the two ideas of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress and a
Raven continuously repeating the word "Nevermore." I had to combine these, bearing in
mind my design of varying at every turn the application of the word repeated, but the
only intelligible mode of such combination is that of imagining the Raven employing the
word in answer to the queries of the lover. And here it was that I saw at once the
opportunity afforded for the effect on which I had been depending, that is to say, the
effect of the variation of application. I saw that I could make the first query propounded
by the lover–the first query to which the Raven should reply "Nevermore"- that I could
make this first query a commonplace one, the second less so, the third still less, and so
on, until at length the lover, startled from his original nonchalance by the melancholy
character of the word itself, by its frequent repetition, and by a consideration of the
ominous reputation of the fowl that uttered it, is at length excited to superstition, and
wildly propounds queries of a far different character–queries whose solution he has
passionately at heart–propounds them half in superstition and half in that species of
despair which delights in self-torture–propounds them not altogether because he believes
in the prophetic or demoniac character of the bird (which reason assures him is merely
repeating a lesson learned by rote), but because he experiences a frenzied pleasure in so
modelling his questions as to receive from the expected "Nevermore" the most delicious
because the most intolerable of sorrows. Perceiving the opportunity thus afforded me, or,
more strictly, thus forced upon me in the progress of the construction, I first established
in my mind the climax or concluding query–that query to which "Nevermore" should be
in the last place an answer–that query in reply to which this word "Nevermore" should
involve the utmost conceivable amount of sorrow and despair.
Here then the poem may be said to have had its beginning–at the end where all works of
art should begin–for it was here at this point of my preconsiderations that I first put pen
to paper in the composition of the stanza:
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us–by that God we both adore,
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name LenoreClasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven–"Nevermore."
I composed this stanza, at this point, first that, by establishing the climax, I might the
better vary and graduate, as regards seriousness and importance, the preceding queries of
the lover, and secondly, that I might definitely settle the rhythm, the metre, and the length
and general arrangement of the stanza, as well as graduate the stanzas which were to
precede, so that none of them might surpass this in rhythmical effect. Had I been able in
the subsequent composition to construct more vigorous stanzas I should without scruple
have purposely enfeebled them so as not to interfere with the climacteric effect.
And here I may as well say a few words of the versification. My first object (as usual)
was originality. The extent to which this has been neglected in versification is one of the
most unaccountable things in the world. Admitting that there is little possibility of variety
in mere rhythm, it is still clear that the possible varieties of metre and stanza are
absolutely infinite, and yet, for centuries, no man, in verse, has ever done, or ever seemed
to think of doing, an original thing. The fact is that originality (unless in minds of very
unusual force) is by no means a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition. In
general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought, and although a positive merit of the
highest class, demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.
Of course I pretend to no originality in either the rhythm or metre of the "Raven." The
former is trochaic–the latter is octametre acatalectic, alternating with heptametre
catalectic repeated in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrametre
catalectic. Less pedantically the feet employed throughout (trochees) consist of a long
syllable followed by a short, the first line of the stanza consists of eight of these feet, the
second of seven and a half (in effect two-thirds), the third of eight, the fourth of seven
and a half, the fifth the same, the sixth three and a half. Now, each of these lines taken
individually has been employed before, and what originality the "Raven" has, is in their
combination into stanza; nothing even remotely approaching this has ever been
attempted. The effect of this originality of combination is aided by other unusual and
some altogether novel effects, arising from an extension of the application of the
principles of rhyme and alliteration.
The next point to be considered was the mode of bringing together the lover and the
Raven–and the first branch of this consideration was the locale. For this the most natural
suggestion might seem to be a forest, or the fields–but it has always appeared to me that a
close circumscription of space is absolutely necessary to the effect of insulated incident–
it has the force of a frame to a picture. It has an indisputable moral power in keeping
concentrated the attention, and, of course, must not be confounded with mere unity of
place.
I determined, then, to place the lover in his chamber–in a chamber rendered sacred to him
by memories of her who had frequented it. The room is represented as richly furnished–
this in mere pursuance of the ideas I have already explained on the subject of Beauty, as
the sole true poetical thesis.
The locale being thus determined, I had now to introduce the bird- and the thought of
introducing him through the window was inevitable. The idea of making the lover
suppose, in the first instance, that the flapping of the wings of the bird against the shutter,
is a "tapping" at the door, originated in a wish to increase, by prolonging, the reader's
curiosity, and in a desire to admit the incidental effect arising from the lover's throwing
open the door, finding all dark, and thence adopting the half-fancy that it was the spirit of
his mistress that knocked.
I made the night tempestuous, first to account for the Raven's seeking admission, and
secondly, for the effect of contrast with the (physical) serenity within the chamber.
I made the bird alight on the bust of Pallas, also for the effect of contrast between the
marble and the plumage–it being understood that the bust was absolutely suggested by
the bird–the bust of Pallas being chosen, first, as most in keeping with the scholarship of
the lover, and secondly, for the sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself.
About the middle of the poem, also, I have availed myself of the force of contrast, with a
view of deepening the ultimate impression. For example, an air of the fantastic–
approaching as nearly to the ludicrous as was admissible–is given to the Raven's
entrance. He comes in "with many a flirt and flutter."
Not the least obeisance made he–not a moment stopped or stayed he,
But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
In the two stanzas which follow, the design is more obviously carried out:Then this ebony bird, beguiling my sad fancy into smiling
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no
craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shoreTell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore?"
Quoth the Raven–"Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning–little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber doorBird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
The effect of the denouement being thus provided for, I immediately drop the fantastic
for a tone of the most profound seriousness–this tone commencing in the stanza directly
following the one last quoted, with the line,
But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only, etc.
From this epoch the lover no longer jests–no longer sees anything even of the fantastic in
the Raven's demeanour. He speaks of him as a "grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and
ominous bird of yore," and feels the "fiery eyes" burning into his "bosom's core." This
revolution of thought, or fancy, on the lover's part, is intended to induce a similar one on
the part of the reader–to bring the mind into a proper frame for the denouement–which is
now brought about as rapidly and as directly as possible.
With the denouement proper–with the Raven's reply, "Nevermore," to the lover's final
demand if he shall meet his mistress in another world–the poem, in its obvious phase, that
of a simple narrative, may be said to have its completion. So far, everything is within the
limits of the accountable–of the real. A raven, having learned by rote the single word
"Nevermore," and having escaped from the custody of its owner, is driven at midnight,
through the violence of a storm, to seek admission at a window from which a light still
gleams–the chamber-window of a student, occupied half in poring over a volume, half in
dreaming of a beloved mistress deceased. The casement being thrown open at the
fluttering of the bird's wings, the bird itself perches on the most convenient seat out of the
immediate reach of the student, who amused by the incident and the oddity of the visitor's
demeanour, demands of it, in jest and without looking for a reply, its name. The raven
addressed, answers with its customary word, "Nevermore"–a word which finds
immediate echo in the melancholy heart of the student, who, giving utterance aloud to
certain thoughts suggested by the occasion, is again startled by the fowl's repetition of
"Nevermore." The student now guesses the state of the case, but is impelled, as I have
before explained, by the human thirst for self-torture, and in part by superstition, to
propound such queries to the bird as will bring him, the lover, the most of the luxury of
sorrow, through the anticipated answer, "Nevermore." With the indulgence, to the
extreme, of this self-torture, the narration, in what I have termed its first or obvious
phase, has a natural termination, and so far there has been no overstepping of the limits of
the real.
But in subjects so handled, however skillfully, or with however vivid an array of incident,
there is always a certain hardness or nakedness which repels the artistical eye. Two things
are invariably required–first, some amount of complexity, or more properly, adaptation;
and, secondly, some amount of suggestiveness–some under-current, however indefinite,
of meaning. It is this latter, in especial, which imparts to a work of art so much of that
richness (to borrow from colloquy a forcible term), which we are too fond of
confounding with the ideal. It is the excess of the suggested meaning- it is the rendering
this the upper instead of the under-current of the theme–which turns into prose (and that
of the very flattest kind), the so-called poetry of the so-called transcendentalists.
Holding these opinions, I added the two concluding stanzas of the poem–their
suggestiveness being thus made to pervade all the narrative which has preceded them.
The under-current of meaning is rendered first apparent in the line"Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore!"
It will be observed that the words, "from out my heart," involve the first metaphorical
expression in the poem. They, with the answer, "Nevermore," dispose the mind to seek a
moral in all that has been previously narrated. The reader begins now to regard the Raven
as emblematical–but it is not until the very last line of the very last stanza that the
intention of making him emblematical of Mournful and never ending Remembrance is
permitted distinctly to be seen:
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting,
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted–nevermore.
THE RATIONALE OF VERSE
THE WORD "Verse" is here used not in its strict or primitive sense, but as the term most
convenient for expressing generally and without pedantry all that is involved in the
consideration of rhythm, rhyme, metre, and versification.
There is, perhaps, no topic in polite literature which has been more pertinaciously
discussed, and there is certainly not one about which so much inaccuracy, confusion,
misconception, misrepresentation, mystification, and downright ignorance on all sides,
can be fairly said to exist. Were the topic really difficult, or did it lie, even, in the
cloudland of metaphysics, where the doubt–vapors may be made to assume any and every
shape at the will or at the fancy of the gazer, we should have less reason to wonder at all
this contradiction and perplexity; but in fact the subject is exceedingly simple; one-tenth
of it, possibly, may be called ethical; nine-tenths, however, appertain to mathematics; and
the whole is included within the limits of the commonest common sense.
"But, if this is the case, how," it will be asked, "can so much misunderstanding have
arisen? Is it conceivable that a thousand profound scholars, investigating so very simple a
matter for centuries, have not been able to place it in the fullest light, at least, of which it
is susceptible?" These queries, I confess, are not easily answered: at all events, a
satisfactory reply to them might cost more trouble than would, if properly considered, the
whole vexata quaestio to which they have reference. Nevertheless, there is little difficulty
or danger in suggesting that the "thousand profound scholars" may have failed first,
because they were scholars; secondly, because they were profound; and thirdly, because
they were a thousand-the impotency of the scholarship and profundity having been thus
multiplied a thousand fold. I am serious in these suggestions; for, first again, there is
something in "scholarship" which seduces us into blind worship of Bacon's Idol of the
Theatre–into irrational deference to antiquity, secondly, the proper "profundity" is rarely
profound–it is the nature of Truth in general, as of some ores in particular, to be richest
when most superficial; thirdly, the clearest subject may be over-clouded by mere
superabundance of talk. In chemistry, the best way of separating two bodies is to add a
third; in speculation, fact often agrees with fact and argument with argument until an
additional well-meaning fact or argument sets everything by the ears. In one case out of a
hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine
remaining it is obscure because excessively discussed. When a topic is thus
circumstanced, the readiest mode of investigating it is to forget that any previous
investigation has been attempted.
But, in fact, while much has been written on the Greek and Latin rhythms, and even on
the Hebrew, little effort has been made at examining that of any of the modern tongues.
As regards the English, comparatively nothing has been done. It may be said, indeed, that
we are without a treatise on our own verse. In our ordinary grammars and in our works on
rhetoric or prosody in general, may be found occasional chapters, it is true, which have
the heading, "Versification," but these are, in all instances, exceedingly meagre. They
pretend to no analysis; they propose nothing like system; they make no attempts at even
rule; everything depends upon "authority." They are confined, in fact, to mere
exemplification of the supposed varieties of English feet and English lines–although in no
work with which I am acquainted are these feet correctly given or these lines detailed in
anything like their full extent. Yet what has been mentioned is all–if we except the
occasional introduction of some pedagogue-ism, such as this borrowed from the Greek
Prosodies: "When a syllable is wanting the verse is said to be catalectic; when the
measure is exact, the line is acatalectic; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms
hypermeter." Now, whether a line be termed catalectic or acatalectic is, perhaps, a point
of no vital importance–it is even possible that the student may be able to decide,
promptly, when the a should be employed and when omitted, yet be incognizant, at the
same time, of all that is worth knowing in regard to the structure of verse.
A leading defect in each of our treatises (if treatises they can be called) is the confining
the subject to mere Versification, while Verse in general, with the understanding given to
the term in the heading of this paper, is the real question at issue. Nor am I aware of even
one of our Grammars which so much as properly defines the word versification itself.
"Versification," says a work now before me, of which the accuracy is far more than
usual–the "English Grammar" of Goold Brown–"Versification is the art of arranging
words into lines of correspondent length, so as to produce harmony by the regular
alternation of syllables differing in quantity." The commencement of this definition might
apply, indeed, to the art of versification, but not to versification itself. Versification is not
the art of arranging, etc, but the actual arranging–a distinction too obvious to need
comment. The error here is identical with one which has been too long permitted to
disgrace the initial page of every one of our school grammars. I allude to the definitions
of English Grammar itself. "English Grammar," it is said, "is the art of speaking and
writing the English language correctly." This phraseology, or something essentially
similar, is employed, I believe, by Bacon, Miller, Fisk, Greenleaf, Ingersoll, Kirkland,
Cooper, Flint, Pue, Comly, and many others. These gentlemen, it is presumed, adopted it
without examination from Murray, who derived it from Lily (whose work was "quam
solam Regia Majestas in omnibus scholis docendam praecipit"), and who appropriated it
without acknowledgment, but with some unimportant modification, from the Latin
Grammar of Leonicenus. It may be shown, however, that this definition, so complacently
received, is not, and cannot be, a proper definition of English Grammar. A definition is
that which so describes its object as to distinguish it from all others–it is no definition of
any one thing if its terms are applicable to any one other. But if it be asked–"What is the
design–the end–the aim of English Grammar?" our obvious answer is, "The art of
speaking and writing the English language correctly"–that is to say, we must use the
precise words employed as the definition of English Grammar itself. But the object to be
obtained by any means is, assuredly, not the means. English Grammar and the end
contemplated by English Grammar are two matters sufficiently distinct; nor can the one
be more reasonably regarded as the other than a fishing–hook as a fish. The definition,
therefore, which is applicable in the latter instance, cannot, in the former, be true.
Grammar in general is the analysis of language; English Grammar of the English.
But to return to Versification as defined in our extract above. "It is the art," says the
extract "of arranging words into lines of correspondent length." Not so:–a correspondence
in the length of lines is by no means essential. Pindaric odes are, surely, instances of
versification, yet these compositions are noted for extreme diversity in the length of their
lines.
The arrangement is moreover said to be for the purpose of producing "harmony by the
regular alternation," etc. But harmony is not the sole aim–not even the principal one. In
the construction of verse, melody should never be left out of view; yet this is a point
which all our Prosodies have most unaccountably forborne to touch. Reasoned rules on
this topic should form a portion of all systems of rhythm.
"So as to produce harmony," says the definition, "by the regular alternation," etc. A
regular alternation, as described, forms no part of any principle of versification. The
arrangement of spondees and dactyls, for example, in the Greek hexameter, is an
arrangement which may be termed at random. At least it is arbitrary. Without interference
with the line as a whole, a dactyl may be substituted for a spondee, or the converse, at
any point other than the ultimate and penultimate feet, of which the former is always a
spondee, the latter nearly always a dactyl. Here, it is clear, we have no "regular
alternation of syllables differing in quantity."
"So as to produce harmony," proceeds the definition "by the regular alternation of
syllables differing in quantity,"–in other words by the alternation of long and short
syllables; for in rhythm all syllables are necessarily either short or long. But not only do I
deny the necessity of any regularity in the succession of feet and, by consequence, of
syllables, but dispute the essentiality of any alternation regular or irregular, of syllables
long and short. Our author, observe, is now engaged in a definition of versification in
general, not of English versification in particular. But the Greek and Latin metres abound
in the spondee and pyrrhic–the former consisting of two long syllables, the latter of two
short; and there are innumerable instances of the immediate succession of many spondees
and many pyrrhics.
Here is a passage from Silius Italicus:
Fallit te mensas inter quod credis inermem
Tot bellis quaesita viro, tot caedibus armat
Majestas aeterna ducem: si admoveris ora
Cannas et Trebium ante oculos Trasymenaque busta
Et Pauli stare ingentem miraberis umbram.
Making the elisions demanded by the classic Prosodies, we should scan these Hexameters
thus:
Fallit / te men / sas in / ter quod / credis in / ermem /
Tot bel / lis quae / sita tot / caedibus / armat /
Majes / tas ae / terna du / cem s'ad / moveris / ora /
Cannas / et Trebi / ant ocu / los Trasy / menaque / busta /
Et Pau / li sta / r' ingen / tem mi / raberis / umbram /
It will be seen that, in the first and last of these lines, we have only two short syllables in
thirteen, with an uninterrupted succession of no less than nine long syllables. But how are
we to reconcile all this with a definition of versification which describes it as "the art of
arranging words into lines of correspondent length so as to produce harmony by the
regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity"?
It may be urged, however, that our prosodist's intention was to speak of the English
metres alone, and that, by omitting all mention of the spondee and pyrrhic, he has
virtually avowed their exclusion from our rhythms. A grammarian is never excusable on
the ground of good intentions. We demand from him, if from any one, rigorous precision
of style. But grant the design. Let us admit that our author, following the example of all
authors on English Prosody, has, in defining versification at large, intended a definition
merely of the English. All these prosodists, we will say, reject the spondee and pyrrhic.
Still all admit the iambus, which consists of a short syllable followed by a long; the
trochee, which is the converse of the iambus; the dactyl, formed of one long syllable
followed by two short; and the anapaest–two short succeeded by a long. The spondee is
improperly rejected, as I shall presently show. The pyrrhic is rightfully dismissed. Its
existence in either ancient or modern rhythm is purely chimerical, and the insisting on so
perplexing a nonentity as a foot of two short syllables, affords, perhaps, the best evidence
of the gross irrationality and subservience to authority which characterise our Prosody. In
the meantime the acknowledged dactyl and anapaest are enough to sustain my
proposition about the "alternation," etc, without reference to feet which are assumed to
exist in the Greek and Latin metres alone–for an anapaest and a dactyl may meet in the
same line, when, of course, we shall have an uninterrupted succession of four short
syllables. The meeting of these two feet, to be sure, is an accident not contemplated in the
definition now discussed; for this definition, in demanding a "regular alternation of
syllables differing in quantity," insists on a regular succession of similar feet. But here is
an example:
Sing to me / Isabelle.
This is the opening line of a little ballad now before me which proceeds in the same
rhythm–a peculiarly beautiful one. More than all this:–English lines are often well
composed, entirely, of a regular succession of syllables all of the same quantity:–the first
line, for instance, of the following quatrain by Arthur C. Coxe:
March! march! march!
Making sounds as they tread,
Ho! ho! how they step,
Going down to the dead!
The [first line] is formed of three caesuras. The caesura, of which I have much to say
hereafter, is rejected by the English Prosodies, and grossly misrepresented in the classic.
It is a perfect foot–the most important in all verse–and consists of a single long syllable;
but the length of this syllable varies.
It has thus been made evident that there is not one point of the definition in question
which does not involve an error, and for anything more satisfactory or more intelligible
we shall look in vain to any published treatise on the topic.
So general and so total a failure can be referred only to radical misconception. In fact the
English Prosodists have blindly followed the pedants. These latter, like les moutons de
Panurge, have been occupied in incessant tumbling into ditches, for the excellent reason
that their leaders have so tumbled before. The Iliad, being taken as a starting point, was
made to stand instead of Nature and common sense. Upon this poem, in place of facts and
deduction from fact, or from natural law, were built systems of feet, metres, rhythms,
rules,–rules that contradict each other every five minutes, and for nearly all of which
there may be found twice as many exceptions as examples. If any one has a fancy to be
thoroughly confounded–to see how far the infatuation of what is termed "classical
scholarship," can lead a bookworm in the manufacture of darkness out of sunshine, let
him turn over for a few moments any of the German Greek Prosodies. The only thing
clearly made out in them is a very magnificent contempt for Leibnitzs principle of "a
sufficient reason."
To divert attention from the real matter in hand by any further reference to these works is
unnecessary, and would be weak. I cannot call to mind at this moment one essential
particular of information that is to be gleaned from them, and I will drop them here with
merely this one observation,–that employing from among the numerous "ancient" feet the
spondee, the trochee, the iambus, the anapaest, the dactyl, and the caesura alone, I will
engage to scan correctly any of the Horatian rhythms, or any true rhythm that human
ingenuity can conceive. And this excess of chimerical feet is perhaps the very least of the
scholastic supererogations. Ex uno disce omnia. The fact is that quantity is a point in
whose investigation the lumber of mere learning may be dispensed with, if ever in any.
Its appreciation is universal. It appertains to no region, nor race, nor era in special. To
melody and to harmony the Greeks hearkened with ears precisely similar to those which
we employ for similar purposes at present, and I should not be condemned for heresy in
asserting that a pendulum at Athens would have vibrated much after the same fashion as
does a pendulum in the city of Penn.
Verse originates in the human enjoyment of equality, fitness. To this enjoyment, also, all
the moods of verse, rhythm, metre, stanza, rhyme, alliteration, the refrain, and other
analagous effects, are to be referred. As there are some readers who habitually confound
rhythm and metre, it may be as well here to say that the former concerns the character of
feet (that is arrangements of syllables) while the latter has to do with the number of these
feet. Thus by "a dactylic rhythm" we express a sequence of dactyls. By "a dactylic
hexameter" we imply a line or measure consisting of six of these dactyls.
To return to equality. Its idea embraces those of similarity, proportion, identity,
repetition, and adaptation or fitness. It might not be very difficult to go even behind the
idea of equality, and show both how and why it is that the human nature takes pleasure in
it, but such an investigation would, for any purpose now in view, be supererogatory. It is
sufficient that the fact is undeniable–the fact that man derives enjoyment from his
perception of equality. Let us examine a crystal. We are at once interested by the equality
between the sides and between the angles of one of its faces; the equality of the sides
pleases us, that of the angles doubles the pleasure. On bringing to view a second face in
all respects similar to the first, this pleasure seems to be squared; on bringing to view a
third it appears to be cubed, and so on. I have no doubt, indeed, that the delight
experienced, if measurable, would be found to have exact mathematical relation such as I
suggest, that is to say, as far as a certain point, beyond which there would be a decrease
in similar relations.
The perception of pleasure in the equality of sounds is the principle of Music.
Unpractised ears can appreciate only simple equalities, such as are found in ballad airs.
While comparing one simple sound with another they are too much occupied to be
capable of comparing the equality subsisting between these two simple sounds taken
conjointly, and two other similar simple sounds taken conjointly. Practised ears, on the
other hand, appreciate both equalities at the same instant, although it is absurd to suppose
that both are heard at the same instant. One is heard and appreciated from itself, the other
is heard by the memory, and the instant glides into and is confounded with the secondary
appreciation. Highly cultivated musical taste in this manner enjoys not only these double
equalities, all appreciated at once, but takes pleasurable cognizance, through memory, of
equalities the members of which occur at intervals so great that the uncultivated taste
loses them altogether. That this latter can properly estimate or decide on the merits of
what is called scientific music is of course impossible. But scientific music has no claim
to intrinsic excellence; it is fit for scientific ears alone. In its excess it is the triumph of
the physique over the morale of music. The sentiment is overwhelmed by the sense. On
the whole, the advocates of the simpler melody and harmony have infinitely the best of
the argument, although there has been very little of real argument on the subject.
In verse, which cannot be better designated than as an inferior or less capable Music,
there is, happily, little chance for complexity. Its rigidly simple character not even
Science–not even Pedantry can greatly pervert.
The rudiment of verse may possibly be found in the spondee. The very germ of a thought
seeking satisfaction in equality of sound would result in the construction of words of two
syllables, equally accented. In corroboration of this idea we find that spondees most
abound in the most ancient tongues. The second step we can easily suppose to be the
comparison, that is to say, the collocation of two spondees–or two words composed each
of a spondee. The third step would be the juxtaposition of three of these words. By this
time the perception of monotone would induce further consideration; and thus arises what
Leigh Hunt so flounders in discussing under the title of "The Principle of Variety in
Uniformity." Of course there is no principle in the case–nor in maintaining it. The
"Uniformity" is the principle–the "Variety" is but the principle's natural safeguard from
self-destruction by excess of self. "Uniformity," besides, is the very worst word that
could have been chosen for the expression of the general idea at which it aims.
The perception of monotone having given rise to an attempt at its relief, the first thought
in this new direction would be that of collating two or more words formed each of two
syllables differently accented (that is to say, short and long) but having the same order in
each word–in other terms, of collating two or more iambuses, or two or more trochees.
And here let me pause to assert that more pitiable nonsense has been written on the topic
of long and short syllables than on any other subject under the sun. In general, a syllable
is long or short, just as it is difficult or easy of enunciation. The natural long syllables are
those encumbered–the natural short syllables are those unencumbered with consonants;
all the rest is mere artificiality and jargon. The Latin Prosodies have a rule that a "vowel
before two consonants is long." This rule is deduced from "authority"–that is, from the
observation that vowels so circumstanced, in the ancient poems, are always in syllables
long by the laws of scansion. The philosophy of the rule is untouched, and lies simply in
the physical difficulty of giving voice to such syllables–of performing the lingual
evolutions necessary for their utterance. Of course, it is not the vowel that is long
(although the rule says so), but the syllable of which the vowel is a part. It will be seen
that the length of a syllable, depending on the facility or difficulty of its enunciation,
must have great variation in various syllables; but for the purposes of verse we suppose a
long syllable equal to two short ones, and the natural deviation from this relativeness we
correct in perusal. The more closely our long syllables approach this relation with our
short ones, the better, ceteris paribus, will be our verse: but if the relation does not exist
of itself we force it by emphasis, which can, of course, make any syllable as long as
desired;–or, by an effort we can pronounce with unnatural brevity a syllable that is
naturally too long. Accented syllables are, of course, always long, but where
unencumbered with consonants, must be classed among the unnaturally long. Mere
custom has declared that we shall accent them–that is to say, dwell upon them; but no
inevitable lingual difficulty forces us to do so. In fine, every long syllable must of its own
accord occupy in its utterance, or must be made to occupy, precisely the time demanded
for two short ones. The only exception to this rule is found in the caesura–of which more
anon.
The success of the experiment with the trochees or iambuses (the one would have
suggested the other) must have led to a trial of dactyls or anapaests–natural dactyls or
anapaests–dactylic or anapaestic words. And now some degree of complexity has been
attained. There is an appreciation, first, of the equality between the several dactyls or
anapaests, and secondly, of that between the long syllable and the two short conjointly.
But here it may be said, that step after step would have been taken, in continuation of this
routine, until all the feet of the Greek Prosodies became exhausted. Not so; these
remaining feet have no existence except in the brains of the scholiasts. It is needless to
imagine men inventing these things, and folly to explain how and why they invented
them, until it shall be first shown that they are actually invented. All other "feet" than
those which I have specified are, if not impossible at first view, merely combinations of
the specified; and, although this assertion is rigidly true, I will, to avoid
misunderstanding, put it in a somewhat different shape. I will say, then, that at present I
am aware of no rhythm–nor do I believe that any one can be constructed–which, in its
last analysis, will not be found to consist altogether of the feet I have mentioned, either
existing in their individual and obvious condition, or interwoven with each other in
accordance with simple natural laws which I will endeavour to point out hereafter.
We have now gone so far as to suppose men constructing indefinite sequences of
spondaic, iambic, trochaic, dactylic, or anapaestic words. In extending these sequences,
they would be again arrested by the sense of monotone. A succession of spondees would
immediately have displeased; one of iambuses or of trochees, on account of the variety
included within the foot itself, would have taken longer to displease, one of dactyls or
anapaests, still longer; but even the last, if extended very far, must have become
wearisome. The idea first of curtailing, and secondly of defining, the length of a sequence
would thus at once have arisen. Here then is the line of verse proper.* The principle of
equality being constantly at the bottom of the whole process, lines would naturally be
made, in the first instance, equal in the number of their feet; in the second instance, there
would be variation in the mere number; one line would be twice as long as another, then
one would be some less obvious multiple of another; then still less obvious proportions
would be adopted- nevertheless there would be proportion, that is to say, a phase of
equality, still.
* Verse, from the Latin vertere, to turn, is so called on account of the turning or recommencement of the series of feet. Thus a verse strictly speaking is a line. In this sense,
however, I have preferred using the latter word alone; employing the former in the
general acceptation given it in the heading of this paper.
Lines being once introduced, the necessity of distinctly defining these lines to the ear (as
yet written verse does not exist), would lead to a scrutiny of their capabilities at their
terminations–and now would spring up the idea of equality in sound between the final
syllables–in other words, of rhyme. First, it would be used only in the iambic, anapaestic,
and spondaic rhythms (granting that the latter had not been thrown aside long since, on
account of its tameness), because in these rhythms the concluding syllable being long,
could best sustain the necessary protraction of the voice. No great while could elapse,
however, before the effect, found pleasant as well as useful, would be applied to the two
remaining rhythms. But as the chief force of rhyme must lie in the accented syllable, the
attempt to create rhyme at all in these two remaining rhythms, the trochaic and dactylic,
would necessarily result in double and triple rhymes, such as beauty with duty (trochaic),
and beautiful with dutiful (dactylic).
It must be observed that in suggesting these processes I assign them no date; nor do I
even insist upon their order. Rhyme is supposed to be of modern origin, and were this
proved my positions remain untouched. I may say, however, in passing, that several
instances of rhyme occur in the "Clouds" of Aristophanes, and that the Roman poets
occasionally employed it. There is an effective species of ancient rhyming which has
never descended to the moderns: that in which the ultimate and penultimate syllables
rhyme with each other. For example:
Parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus mus.
And again:
Litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus.
The terminations of Hebrew verse (as far as understood) show no signs of rhyme; but
what thinking person can doubt that it did actually exist? That men have so obstinately
and blindly insisted, in general, even up to the present day, in confining rhyme to the
ends of lines, when its effect is even better applicable elsewhere, intimates in my opinion
the sense of some necessity in the connection of the ends with the rhyme–hints that the
origin of rhyme lay in a necessity which connected it with the end–shows that neither
mere accident nor mere fancy gave rise to the connection-points, in a word, at the very
necessity which I have suggested (that of some mode of defining lines to the ear), as the
true origin of rhyme. Admit this and we throw the origin far back in the night of Time–
beyond the origin of written verse.
But to resume. The amount of complexity I have now supposed to be attained is very
considerable. Various systems of equalization are appreciated at once (or nearly so) in
their respective values and in the value of each system with reference to all the others. As
our present ultimatum of complexity, we have arrived at triple-rhymed, natural-dactylic
lines, existing proportionally as well as equally with regard to other triple-rhymed,
natural-dactylic lines. For example:
Virginal Lilian, rigidly, humblily dutiful;
Saintlily, lowlily,
Thrillingly, holily
Beautiful!
Here we appreciate, first, the absolute equality between the long syllable of each dactyl
and the two short conjointly; secondly, the absolute equality between each dactyl and any
other dactyl, in other words, among all the dactyls; thirdly, the absolute equality between
the two middle lines; fourthly, the absolute equality between the first line and the three
others taken conjointly, fifthly, the absolute equality between the last two syllables of the
respective words "dutiful" and "beautiful"; sixthly, the absolute equality between the two
last syllables of the respective words "lowlily" and "holily"; seventhly, the proximate
equality between the first syllable of "dutiful" and the first syllable of "beautiful";
eighthly, the proximate equality between the first syllable of "lowlily" and that of
"holily"; ninthly, the proportional equality (that of five to one) between the first line and
each of its members, the dactyls; tenthly, the proportional equality (that of two to one)
between each of the middle lines and its members, the dactyls, eleventhly, the
proportional equality between the first line and each of the two middle, that of five to
two; twelfthly, the proportional equality between the first line and the last, that of five to
one; thirteenthly, the proportional equality between each of the middle lines and the last,
that of two to one, lastly, the proportional equality, as concerns number, between all the
lines taken collectively, and any individual line, that of four to one.
The consideration of this last equality would give birth immediately to the idea of
stanza,* that is to say, the insulation of lines into equal or obviously proportional masses.
In its primitive (which was also its best) form the stanza would most probably have had
absolute unity. In other words, the removal of any one of its lines would have rendered it
imperfect, as in the case above, where if the last line, for example, be taken away there is
left no rhyme to the "dutiful" of the first. Modern stanza is excessively loose, and where
so, ineffective as a matter of course.
* A stanza is often vulgarly, and with gross impropriety, called a verse.
Now, although in the deliberate written statement which I have here given of these
various systems of equalities, there seems to be an infinity of complexity so much that it
is hard to conceive the mind taking cognisance of them all in the brief period occupied by
the perusal or recital of the stanza, yet the difficulty is in fact apparent only when we will
it to become so. Any one fond of mental experiment may satisfy himself, by trial, that in
listening to the lines he does actually (although with a seeming unconsciousness, on
account of the rapid evolutions of sensation) recognise and instantaneously appreciate
(more or less intensely as his is cultivated) each and all of the equalizations detailed. The
pleasure received or receivable has very much such progressive increase, and in very
nearly such mathematical relations as those which I have suggested in the case of the
crystal.
It will be observed that I speak of merely a proximate equality between the first syllable
of "dutiful" and that of "beautiful," and it may be asked why we cannot imagine the
earliest rhymes to have had absolute instead of proximate equality of sound. But absolute
equality would have involved the use of identical words, and it is the duplicate sameness
or monotony, that of sense as well as that of sound, which would have caused these
rhymes to be rejected in the very first instance.
The narrowness of the limits within which verse composed of natural feet alone must
necessarily have been confined would have led, after a very brief interval, to the trial and
immediate adoption of artificial feet, that is to say, of feet not constituted each of a single
word but two, or even three words, or of parts of words. These feet would be
intermingled with natural ones. For example:
A breath / can make / them as / a breath / his made.
This is an iambic line in which each iambus is formed of two words. Again:
The un / ima / gina / ble might / of Jove.
This is an iambic line in which the first foot is formed of a word and a part of a word; the
second and third of parts taken from the body or interior of a word; the fourth of a part
and a whole; the fifth of two complete words. There are no natural feet in either line.
Again:
Can it be / fancied that / Deity / ever vin / dictively
Made in his / image a / mannikin / merely to / madden it?
These are two dactylic lines in which we find natural feet ("Deity," "mannikin"); feet
composed of two words ("fancied that," "image a," "merely to," "madden it"); feet
composed of three words, ("can it be," "made in his"); a foot composed of a part of a
word ("dictively"); and a foot composed of a word and a part of a word ("ever vin").
And now, in our suppositional progress, we have gone so far as to exhaust all the
essentialities of verse. What follows may, strictly speaking, be regarded as embellishment
merely, but even in this embellishment the rudimental sense of equality would have been
the never-ceasing impulse. It would, for example, be simply in seeking further
administration to this sense that men would come in time to think of the refrain or
burden, where, at the closes of the several stanzas of a poem, one word or phrase is
repeated; and of alliteration, in whose simplest form a consonant is repeated in the
commencements of various words. This effect would be extended so as to embrace
repetitions both of vowels and of consonants in the bodies as well as in the beginnings of
words, and at a later period would be made to infringe on the province of rhyme by the
introduction of general similarity of sound between whole feet occurring in the body of a
line–all of which modifications I have exemplified in the line above.
Made in his image a mannikin merely to madden it.
Further cultivation would improve also the refrain by relieving its monotone in slightly
varying the phrase at each repetition, or (as I have attempted to do in "The Raven") in
retaining the phrase and varying its application, although this latter point is not strictly a
rhythmical effect alone. Finally, poets when fairly wearied with following precedent,
following it the more closely the less they perceived it in company with Reason, would
adventure so far as to indulge in positive rhyme at other points than the ends of lines.
First, they would put it in the middle of the line, then at some point where the multiple
would be less obvious, then, alarmed at their own audacity, they would undo all their
work by cutting these lines in two. And here is the fruitful source of the infinity of "short
metre" by which modern poetry, if not distinguished, is at least disgraced. It would
require a high degree, indeed, both of cultivation and of courage on the part of any
versifier to enable him to place his rhymes, and let them remain at unquestionably their
best position, that of unusual and unanticipated intervals.
On account of the stupidity of some people, or (if talent be a more respectable word), on
account of their talent for misconception–I think it necessary to add here, first, that I
believe the "processes" above detailed to be nearly, if not accurately, those which did
occur in the gradual creation of what we now can verse; secondly, that, although I so
believe, I yet urge neither the assumed fact nor my belief in it as a part of the true
propositions of this paper, thirdly, that in regard to the aim of this paper, it is of no
consequence whether these processes did occur either in the order I have assigned them,
or at all; my design being simply, in presenting a general type of what such processes
might have been and must have resembled, to help them, the "some people," to an easy
understanding of what I have further to say on the topic of Verse.
There is one point, which, in my summary of the processes, I have purposely forborne to
touch; because this point, being the most important of all on account of the immensity of
error usually involved in its consideration, would have led me into a series of detail
inconsistent with the object of a summary.
Every reader of verse must have observed how seldom it happens that even any one line
proceeds uniformly with a succession, such as I have supposed, of absolutely equal feet;
that is to say, with a succession of iambuses only, or of trochees only, or of dactyls only,
or of anapaests only, or of spondees only. Even in the most musical lines we find the
succession interrupted. The iambic pentameters of Pope, for example, will be found on
examination, frequently varied by trochees in the beginning, or by (what seem to be)
anapaests in the body of the line.
oh thou / whate / ver ti / tle please / thine ear /
Dean Dra / pier Bick / erstaff / or Gull / iver /
Whether / thou choose / Cervan / tes' / se / rious air /
or laugh / and shake / in Rab / elais' ea / sy chair /
Were any one weak enough to refer to the Prosodies for the solution of the difficulty
here, he would find it solved as usual by a rule, stating the fact (or what it, the rule,
supposes to be the fact), but without the slightest attempt at the rationale. "By a
synaeresis of the two short syllables," say the books, "an anapaest may sometimes be
employed for an iambus, or dactyl for a trochee.... In the beginning of a line a trochee is
often used for an iambus."
Blending is the plain English for synaeresis–but there should be no blending; neither is an
anapaest ever employed for an iambus, or a dactyl for a trochee. These feet differ in time,
and no feet so differing can ever be legitimately used in the same line. An anapaest is
equal to four short syllables–an iambus only to three. Dactyls and trochees hold the same
relation. The principle of equality, in verse, admits, it is true, of variation at certain
points, for the relief of monotone, as I have already shown, but the point of time is that
point which, being the rudimental one, must never be tampered with at all.
To explain:–In further efforts for the relief of monotone than those to which I have
alluded in the summary, men soon came to see that there was no absolute necessity for
adhering to the precise number of syllables, provided the time required for the whole foot
was preserved inviolate. They saw, for instance, that in such a line as
or laugh / and shake / in Rab / elais ea / sy chair /
the equalisation of the three syllables elais ea with the two syllables composing any of the
other feet could be readily effected by pronouncing the two syllables elais in double
quick time. By pronouncing each of the syllables e and lais twice as rapidly as the
syllable sy, or the syllable in, or any other short syllable, they could bring the two of
them, taken together, to the length, that is to say to the time, of any one short syllable.
This consideration enabled them to effect the agreeable variation of three syllables in
place of the uniform two. And variation was the object-variation to the ear. What sense is
there, then, in supposing this object rendered null by the blending of the two syllables so
as to render them, in absolute effect, one? Of course, there must be no blending. Each
syllable must be pronounced as distinctly as possible (or the variation is lost), but with
twice the rapidity in which the ordinary short syllable is enunciated. That the syllables
elais ea do not compose an anapaest is evident, and the signs of their accentuation are
erroneous. The foot might be written with inverted crescents expressing double quick
time; and might be called a bastard iambus.
Here is a trochaic line:
See the / delicate-footed / rain-deer.
The prosodies–that is to say the most considerate of them–would here decide that
"delicate" is a dactyl used in place of a trochee, and would refer to what they call their
"rule, for justification. Others, varying the stupidity, would insist upon a Procrustean
adjustment thus (del'cate) an adjustment recommended to all such words as silvery,
murmuring. etc., which, it is said, should be not only pronounced but written silv'ry,
murm'ring, and so on, whenever they find themselves in trochaic predicament. I have
only to say that "delicate," when circumstanced as above, is neither a dactyl nor a dactyl's
equivalent; that I think it as well to call it a bastard trochee; and that all words, at all
events, should be written and pronounced in full, and as nearly as possible as nature
intended them.
About eleven years ago, there appeared in "The American Monthly Magazine" (then
edited, I believe, by Messrs Hoffman and Benjamin,) a review of Mr. Willis's Poems; the
critic putting forth his strength, or his weakness, in an endeavor to show that the poet was
either absurdly affected, or grossly ignorant of the laws of verse; the accusation being
based altogether on the fact that Mr. W. made occasional use of this very word "delicate,"
and other similar words, in "the Heroic measure, which every one knew consisted of feet
of two syllables." Mr. W. has often, for example, such lines as
That binds him to a woman's delicate loveIn the gay sunshine, reverent in the storm
With its invisible fingers my loose hair.
Here of course, the feet licate love, verent in and sible fin, are bastard iambuses; are not
anapaests and are not improperly used. Their employment, on the contrary, by Mr. Willis,
is but one of the innumerable instances he has given of keen sensibility in all those
matters of taste which may be classed under the general head of fanciful embellishment.
It is also about eleven years ago, if I am not mistaken, since Mr. Horne (of England,) the
author of "Orion," one of the noblest epics in any language, thought it necessary to
preface his "Chaucer Modernized" by a very long and evidently a very elaborate essay, of
which the greater portion was occupied in a discussion of the seemingly anomalous foot
of which we have been speaking. Mr. Horne upholds Chaucer in its frequent use;
maintains his superiority, on account of his so frequently using it, over all English
versifiers; and indignantly repelling the common idea of those who make verse on their
fingers–that the superfluous syllable is a roughness and an error- very chivalrously makes
battle for it as a "grace." That a grace it is, there can be no doubt; and what I complain of
is, that the author of the most happily versified long poem in existence, should have been
under the necessity of discussing this grace merely as a grace, through forty or fifty vague
pages, solely because of his inability to show how and why it is a grace–by which
showing the question would have been settled in an instant.
About the trochee used for an iambus, as we see in the beginning of the line,
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
there is little that need be said. It brings me to the general proposition that, in all rhythms,
the prevalent or distinctive feet may be varied at will and nearly at random, by the
occasional introduction of feet–that is to say, feet the sum of whose syllabic times is
equal to the sum of the syllabic times of the distinctive feet. Thus, the trochee, whether is
equal, in the sum of the times of its syllables, to the iambus, thou choose, in the sum of
the times of its syllables; each foot being in time equal to three short syllables. Good
versifiers who happen to be also good poets, contrive to relieve the monotony of a series
of feet by the use of equivalent feet only at rare intervals, and at such points of their
subject as seem in accordance with the startling character of the variation. Nothing of this
care is seen in the line quoted above- although Pope has some fine instances of the
duplicate effect. Where vehemence is to be strongly expressed, I am not sure that we
should be wrong in venturing on two consecutive equivalent feet–although I cannot say
that I have ever known the adventure made, except in the following passage, which
occurs in "Al Aaraaf," a boyish poem written by myself when a boy. I am referring to the
sudden and rapid advent of a star:
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first the phantoms course was found to be
Headlong hithirward o'er the starry sea.
In the "general proposition" above, I speak of the occasional introduction of equivalent
feet. It sometimes happens that unskilful versifiers, without knowing what they do, or
why they do it, introduce so many "variations" as to exceed in number the "distinctive"
feet, when the ear becomes at once balked by the bouleversement of the rhythm. Too
many trochees, for example, inserted in an iambic rhythm would convert the latter to a
trochaic. I may note here that in all cases the rhythm designed should be commenced and
continued, without variation, until the ear has had full time to comprehend what is the
rhythm. In violation of a rule so obviously founded in common sense, many even of our
best poets do not scruple to begin an iambic rhythm with a trochee, or the converse; or a
dactylic with an anapaest or the converse; and so on.
A somewhat less objectionable error, although still a decided one, is that of commencing
a rhythm not with a different equivalent foot but with a "bastard" foot of the rhythm
intended. For example:
Many a / thought will / come to / memory. /
Here 'many a' is what I have explained to be a bastard trochee, and to be understood
should be accented with inverted crescents. It is objectionable solely on account of its
position as the opening foot of a trochaic rhythm. Memory, similarly accented is also a
bastard trochee, but unobjectionable, although by no means demanded.
The further illustration of this point will enable me to take an important step.
One of our finest poets, Mr. Christopher Pearse Cranch, begins a very beautiful poem
thus:
Many are the thoughts that come to me
In my lonely musing;
And they drift so strange and swift
There's no time for choosing
Which to follow; for to leave
Any, seems a losing.
"A losing" to Mr. Cranch, of course–but this en passant. It will be seen here that the
intention is trochaic;–although we do not see this intention by the opening foot as we
should do, or even by the opening line. Reading the whole stanza, however, we perceive
the trochaic rhythm as the general design, and so after some reflection, we divide the first
line thus:
Many are the / thoughts that / come to / me.
Thus scanned, the line will seem musical. It is highly so. And it is because there is no end
to instances of just such lines of apparently incomprehensible music, that Coleridge
thought proper to invent his nonsensical system of what he calls "scanning by accents"–
as if "scanning by accents" were anything more than a phrase. Whenever "Christabel" is
really not rough, it can be as readily scanned by the true I laws (not the supposititious
rules) of verse, as can the simplest pentameter of Pope; and where it is rough (passim)
these same laws will enable any one of common sense to show why it is rough and to
point out instantaneously the remedy for the roughness.
A reads and re-reads a certain line, and pronounces it false in rhythm-unmusical. B,
however, reads it to A, and A is at once struck with the perfection of the rhythm, and
wonders at his dulness in not "catching" it before. Henceforward he admits the line to be
musical. B, triumphant, asserts that, to be sure the line is musical–for it is the work of
Coleridge–and that it is A who is not; the fault being in A's false reading. Now here A is
right and B wrong. That rhythm is erroneous (at some point or other more or less
obvious), which any ordinary reader can, without design, read improperly. It is the
business of the poet so to construct his line that the intention must be caught at once.
Even when these men have precisely the same understanding of a sentence, they differ,
and often widely, in their modes of enunciating it. Any one who has taken the trouble to
examine the topic of emphasis (by which I here mean not accent of particular syllables,
but the dwelling on entire words), must have seen that men emphasize in the most
singularly arbitrary manner. There are certain large classes of people, for example, who
persist in emphasizing their monosyllables. Little uniformity of emphasis prevails;
because the thing itself–the idea, emphasis–is referabie to no natural–at least to no well
comprehended and therefore uniform-law. Beyond a very narrow and vague limit, the
whole matter is conventionality. And if we differ in emphasis even when we agree in
comprehension, how much more so in the former when in the latter too! Apart, however,
from the consideration of natural disagreement, is it not clear that, by tripping here and
mouthing there, any sequence of words may be twisted into any species of rhythm? But
are we thence to deduce that all sequences of words are rhythmical in a rational
understanding of the term?–for this is the deduction precisely to which the reductio ad
absurdum will, in the end, bring all the propositions of Coleridge. Out of a hundred
readers of "Christabel," fifty will be able to make nothing of its rhythm, while forty-nine
of the remaining fifty with some ado, fancy they comprehend it, after the fourth or fifth
perusal. The one out of the whole hundred who shall both comprehend and admire it at
first sight–must be an unaccountably clever person–and I am by far too modest to
assume, for a moment, that that very clever person is myself.
In illustration of what is here advanced I cannot do better than quote a poem:
Pease porridge hot pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot–nine days old.
Now those of my readers who have never heard this poem pronounced according to the
nursery conventionality, will find its rhythm as obscure as an explanatory note; while
those who have heard it will divide it thus, declare it musical, and wonder how there can
be any doubt about it.
Pease / porridge / hot / pease / porridge / cold /
Pease / porridge / in the / pot / nine / days / old. /
The chief thing in the way of this species of rhythm, is the necessity which it imposes
upon the poet of travelling in constant company with his compositions, so as to be ready
at a moment's notice, to avail himself of a well-understood poetical license–that of
reading aloud one's own doggerel.
In Mr. Cranch's line,
Many are the / thoughts that / come to / me,
the general error of which I speak is, of course, very partially exemplified, and the
purpose for which, chiefly, I cite it, lies yet further on in our topic.
The two divisions (thoughts that) and (come to) are ordinary trochees. The first division
(many are the) would be thus accented by the Greek Prosodies (many are the), and would
be called by them astrologos. The Latin books would style the foot Paeon Primus, and
both Greek and Latin would swear that it was compoded of a trochee and what they term
a pyrrhic–that is to say, a foot of two short syllables–a thing that cannot be, as I shall
presently show large
But now, there is an obvious difficulty. The astrologos, according to the Prosodies' own
showing, is equal to five short syllables, and the trochee to three–yet, in the line quoted,
these two feet are equal. They occupy, precisely, the same time. In fact, the whole music
of the line depends upon their being made to occupy the same time. The Prosodies then,
have demonstrated what all mathematicians have stupidly failed in demonstrating–that
three and five are one and the same thing. After what I have already said, however, about
the bastard trochee and the bastard iambus, no one can have any trouble in understanding
that many are the is of similar character. It is merely a bolder variation than usual from
the routine of trochees, and introduces to the bastard trochee one additional syllable. But
this syllable is not short. That is, it is not short in the sense of "short" as applied to the
final syllable of the ordinary trochee, where the word means merely the half of long.
In this case (that of the additional syllable) "short," if used at all, must be used in the
sense of the sixth of long. And all the three final syllables can be called short only with
the same understanding of the term. The three together are equal only to the one short
syllable (whose place they supply) of the ordinary trochee. It follows that there is no
sense in accenting these syllables with [a crescent placed with the curve to the bottom].
We must devise for them some new character which shall denote the sixth of long. Let it
be the crescent placed with the curve to the left. The whole foot (many are the) might be
called a quick trochee.
We now come to the final division (me) of Mr. Cranch's line. It is clear that this foot,
short as it appears, is fully equal in time to each of the preceding. It is, in fact, the
caesura–the foot which, in the beginning of this paper, I called the most important in all
verse. Its chief office is that of pause or termination; and here–at the end of a line–its use
is easy, because there is no danger of misapprehending its value. We pause on it, by a
seeming necessity, just so long as it has taken us to pronounce the preceding feet,
whether iambuses, trochees, dactyls, or anapaests. It is thus a variable foot, and, with
some care, may be well introduced into the body of a line, as in a little poem of great
beauty by Mrs. Welby:
I have / a lit / tle step / son / of on / ly three / years old. /
Here we dwell on the caesura, son just as long as it requires us to pronounce either of the
preceding or succeeding iambuses. Its value, therefore, in this line, is that of three short
syllables. In the following dactylic line its value is that of four short syllables.
Pale as a / lily was / Emily / [Gray]. /
I have accented the caesura with brackets by way of expressing this variability of value.
I observed just now that there could be no such foot as one of two short syllables. What
we start from in the very beginning of all idea on the topic of verse, is quantity, length.
Thus when we enunciate an independent syllable it is long, as a matter of course. If we
enunciate two, dwelling on both we express equality in the enunciation, or length, and
have a right to call them two long syllables. If we dwell on one more than the other, we
have also a right to call one short, because it is short in relation to the other. But if we
dwell on both equally, and with a tripping voice, saying to ourselves here are two short
syllables, the query might well be asked of us–"in relation to what are they short?"
Shortness is but the negation of length. To say, then, that two syllables, placed
independently of any other syllable, are short, is merely to say that they have no positive
length, or enunciation–in other words, that they are no syllables–that they do not exist at
all. And if, persisting, we add anything about their equality, we are merely floundering in
the idea of an identical equation, where, x being equal to x, nothing is shown to be equal
to zero. In a word, we can form no conception of a pyrrhic as of an independent foot. It is
a mere chimera bred in the mad fancy of a pedant.
From what I have said about the equalization of the several feet of a line, it must not be
deduced that any necessity for equality in time exists between the rhythm of several lines.
A poem, or even a stanza, may begin with iambuses in the first line, and proceed with
anapaests in the second, or even with the less accordant dactyls, as in the opening of quite
a pretty specimen of verse by Miss Mary A. S. Aldrich:
The wa / ter li / ly sleeps / in pride /
Down in the / depths of the / Azure / [lake.] /
Here azure is a spondee, equivalent to a dactyl; lake a caesura.
I shall now best proceed in quoting the initial lines of Byron's "Bride of Abydos":
Know ye the land where, the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime,
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle
Now melt into softness, now madden to crime?
Know ye the land of the cedar and vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine,
And the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume.
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in their bloom?
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit
And the voice of the nightingale never is muteWhere the virgins are soft as the roses they twine,
And all save the spirit of man is divine?
'Tis the land of the East–'tis the clime of the SunCan he smile on such deeds as his children have done?
Oh, wild as the accents of lovers' farewell
Are the hearts that they bear and the tales that they tell.
Now the flow of these lines (as times go) is very sweet and musical. They have been
often admired, and justly–as times go–that is to say, it is a rare thing to find better
versification of its kind. And where verse is pleasant to the ear, it is silly to find fault with
it because it refuses to be scanned. Yet I have heard men, professing to be scholars, who
made no scruple of abusing these lines of Byron's on the ground that they were musical in
spite of all law. Other gentlemen, not scholars, abused "all law" for the same reason- and
it occurred neither to the one party nor to the other that the law about which they were
disputing might possibly be no law at all–an ass of a law in the skin of a lion.
The Grammars said nothing about dactylic lines, and it was easily seen that these lines
were at least meant for dactylic. The first one was, therefore, thus divided:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and / myrtle. /
The concluding foot was a mystery; but the Prosodies said something about the dactylic
"measure" calling now and then for a double rhyme; and the court of inquiry were content
to rest in the double rhyme, without exactly perceiving what a double rhyme had to do
with the question of an irregular foot. Quitting the first line, the second was thus scanned:
are emblems / of deeds that / are done in / their clime. /
It was immediately seen, however, that this would not do–it was at war with the whole
emphasis of the reading. It could not be supposed that Byron, or any one in his senses,
intended to place stress upon such monosyllables as "are," "of," and "their," nor could
"their clime," collated with "to crime," in the corresponding line below, be fairly twisted
into anything like a "double rhyme," so as to bring everything within the category of the
Grammars. But farther these Grammars spoke not. The inquirers, therefore, in spite of
their sense of harmony in the lines, when considered without reference to scansion, fell
upon the idea that the "Are" was a blunder–an excess for which the poet should be sent to
Coventry–and, striking it out, they scanned the remainder of the line as follows:
-emblems of / deeds that are / done in their / clime.
This answered pretty well; but the Grammars admitted no such foot as a foot of one
syllable; and besides the rhythm was dactylic. In despair, the books are well searched,
however, and at last the investigators are gratified by a full solution of the riddle in the
profound "Observation" quoted in the beginning of this article:–"When a syllable is
wanting, the verse is said to be catalectic, when the measure is exact, the line is
acatalectic; when there is a redundant syllable it forms hypermeter" This is enough. The
anomalous line is pronounced to be catalectic at the head and to form hypermeter at the
tail–and so on, and so on; it being soon discovered that nearly all the remaining lines are
in a similar predicament, and that what flows so smoothly to the ear, although so roughly
to the eye, is, after all, a mere jumble of catalecticism, acatalecticism, and hypermeter–
not to say worse.
Now, had this court of inquiry been in possession of even the shadow of the philosophy
of Verse, they would have had no trouble in reconciling this oil and water of the eye and
ear, by merely scanning the passage without reference to lines, and, continuously, thus:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and myrtle Are / emblems of deeds that are / done
in their / clime Where the rage of the / vulture the / love of the / turtle Now / melt into /
softness now / madden to / Know ye the / land of the / cedar and / vine Where the flowers
ever / blossom the / beams ever / shine And the / light wings of / Zephyr op / pressed by
per / fume Wax / faint o'er the / gardens of / Gul in their / bloom where the / citron and /
olive are / fairest of / fruit And the / voice of the / nightingale / never is / mute Where the
/ virgins are / soft as the / roses they / twine And / all save the / spirit of / man is di / vine.
'Tis the / land of the / East 'tis the / clime of the / sum Can he / smile on such / deeds as
his / children have / done Oh / wild as the / accents of / lovers' fare / well Are the / hearts
that they / bear and the / tales that they / tell.
Here "crime" and "tell" are caesuras, each having the value of a dactyl, four short
syllables, while "fume Wax," "twine And," and "done Oh," are spondees which, of
course, being composed of two long syllables are also equal to four short, and are the
dactyl's natural equivalent. The nicety of Byron's ear has led him into a succession of feet
which, with two trivial exceptions as regards melody, are absolutely accurate, a very rare
occurrence this in dactylic or anapaestic rhythms. The exceptions are found in the
spondee "twine And," and the dactyl "smile on such." Both feet are false in point of
melody. In "twine And" to make out the rhyme we must force "And" into a length which
it will not naturally bear. We are called on to sacrifice either the proper length of the
syllable as demanded by its position as a member of a spondee, or the customary
accentuation of the word in conversation. There is no hesitation, and should be none. We
at once give up the sound for the sense, and the rhythm is imperfect. In this instance it is
very slightly so, not one person in ten thousand could by ear detect the inaccuracy. But
the perfection of verse as regards melody, consists in its never demanding any such
sacrifice as is here demanded. The rhythmical must agree thoroughly with the reading
flow. This perfection has in no instance been attained, but is unquestionably attainable.
"Smile on such," a dactyl, is incorrect, because "such," from the character of the two
consonants ch cannot easily be enunciated in the ordinary time of a short syllable, which
its position declares that it is. Almost every reader will be able to appreciate the slight
difficulty here, and yet the error is by no means so important as that of the "And" in the
spondee. By dexterity we may pronounce "such" in the true time, but the attempt to
remedy the rhythmical deficiency of the And by drawing it out, merely aggrevates the
offence against natural enunciation by directing attention to the offence.
My main object, however, in quoting these lines is to show that in spite of the Prosodies,
the length of a line is entirely an arbitrary matter. We might divide the commencement of
Byron's poem thus:Know ye the / land where the /
or thus:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and /
or thus:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and / myrtle are /
or thus:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and / myrtle are / emblems of
In short, we may give it any division we please, and the lines will be good, provided we
have at least two feet in a line. As in mathematics two units are required to form number,
so rhythm (from the Greek arithmos, number) demands for its formation at least two feet.
Beyond doubt, we often see such lines as
Know ye theLand where thelines of one foot, and our Prosodies admit such, but with impropriety, for common sense
would dictate that every so obvious division of a poem as is made by a line, should
include within itself all that is necessary for its own comprehension, but in a line of one
foot we can have no appreciation of rhythm, which depends upon the equality between
two or more pulsations. The false lines, consisting sometimes of a single caesura, which
are seen in mock Pindaric odes, are, of course, "rhythmical" only in connection with
some other line, and it is this want of independent rhythm, which adapts them to the
purposes of burlesque alone. Their effect is that of incongruity (the principle of mirth),
for they include the blankness of prose amid the harmony of verse.
My second object in quoting Byron's lines was that of showing how absurd it often is to
cite a single line from amid the body of a poem for the purpose of instancing the
perfection or imperfection of the lines rhythm. Were we to see by itself
Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle,
we might justly condemn it as defective in the final foot, which is equal to only three,
instead of being equal to four short syllables.
In the foot "flowers ever" we shall find a further exemplification of the principle of the
bastard iambus, bastard trochee, and quick trochee, as I have been at some pains in
describing these feet above. All the Prosodies on English verse would insist upon making
elision in "flowers," thus (flow'rs), but this is nonsense. In the quick trochee (many Are
the) occurring in Mr. Cranch's trochaic line, we had to equalize the time of the three
syllables (ny, are, the) to that of the one short syllable whose position they usurp.
Accordingly each of these syllables is equal to the third of a short syllable, that is to say,
the sixth of a long. But in Byron's dactylic rhythm, we have to equalize the time of the
three syllables (ers, ev, er) to that of the one long syllable whose position they usurp, or
(which is the same thing) of the two short. Therefore the value of each of the syllables
(ers, ev, and er) is the third of a long. We enunciate them with only half the rapidity we
employ in enunciating the three final syllables of the quick trochee–which latter is a rare
foot. The "flowers ever," on the contrary, is as common in the dactylic rhythm as is the
bastard trochee in the trochaic, or the bastard iambus in the iambic. We may as well
accent it with the curve of the crescent to the right and call it a bastard dactyl. A bastard
anapaest, whose nature I now need be at no trouble in explaining, will of course occur
now and then in an anapaestic rhythm.
[A brief discussion of diacritical marks has been eliminated. Ed.]
I began the "processes" by a suggestion of the spondee as the first step towards verse. But
the innate monotony of the spondee has caused its disappearance as the basis of rhythm
from all modern poetry. We may say, indeed, that the French heroic–the most wretchedly
monotonous verse in existence–is to all intents and purposes spondaic. But it is not
designedly spondaic, and if the French were ever to examine it at all, they would no
doubt pronounce it iambic. It must be observed that the French language is strangely
peculiar in this point–that it is without accentuation and consequently without verse. The
genius of the people, rather than the structure of the tongue, declares that their words are
for the most part enunciated with a uniform dwelling on each syllable. For example we
say "syllabification." A Frenchman would say syl-la-bi-fi-ca-ti-on, dwelling on no one of
the syllables with any noticeable particularity. Here again I put an extreme case in order
to be well understood, but the general fact is as I give it–that, comparatively, the French
have no accentuation; and there can be nothing worth the name of verse without.
Therefore, the French have no verse worth the name–which is the fact put in sufficiently
plain terms. Their iambic rhythm so superabounds in absolute spondees as to warrant me
in calling its basis spondaic; but French is the only modern tongue which has any rhythm
with such basis, and even in the French it is, as I have said, unintentional.
Admitting, however, the validity of my suggestion, that the spondee was the first
approach to verse, we should expect to find, first, natural spondees (words each forming
just a spondee) most abundant in the most ancient languages; and, secondly, we should
expect to find spondees forming the basis of the most ancient rhythms. These
expectations are in both cases confirmed.
Of the Greek hexameter the intentional basis is spondaic. The dactyls are the variation of
the theme. It will be observed that there is no absolute certainty about their points of
interposition. The penultimate foot, it is true, is usually a dactyl but not uniformly so,
while the ultimate, on which the ear lingers, is always a spondee. Even that the
penultimate is usually a dactyl may be clearly referred to the necessity of winding up
with the distinctive spondee. In corroboration of this idea, again, we should look to find
the penultimate spondee most usual in the most ancient verse, and, accordingly, we find it
more frequent in the Greek than in the Latin hexameter.
But besides all this, spondees are not only more prevalent in the heroic hexameter than
dactyls, but occur to such an extent as is even unpleasant to modern ears, on account of
monotony. What the modern chiefly appreciates and admires in the Greek hexameter is
the melody of the abundant vowel sounds. The Latin hexameters really please very few
moderns–although so many pretend to fall into ecstasies about them. In the hexameters
quoted several pages ago, from Silius Italicus, the preponderance of the spondee is
strikingly manifest. Besides the natural spondees of the Greek and Latin, numerous
artificial ones arise in the verse of these tongues, on account of the tendency which
inflection has to throw full accentuation on terminal syllables, and the preponderance of
the spondee is further ensured by the comparative infrequency of the small prepositions
which we have to serve us instead of case, and also the absence of the diminutive
auxiliary verbs with which we have to eke out the expression of our primary ones. These
are the monosyllables whose abundance serves to stamp the poetic genius of a language
as tripping or dactylic.
Now paying no attention to these facts, Sir Philip Sidney, Professor Longfellow, and
innumerable other persons, more or less modern, have busied themselves in constructing
what they supposed to be "English hexameters on the model of the Greek." The only
difficulty was that (even leaving out of question the melodious masses of vowel) these
gentlemen never could get their English hexameters to sound Greek. Did they look
Greek?–that should have been the query, and the reply might have led to a solution of the
riddle. In placing a copy of ancient hexameters side by side with a copy (in similar type)
of such hexameters as Professor Longfellow, or Professor Felton or the Frogpondian
Professors collectively, are in the shameful practice of composing "on the model of the
Greek," it will be seen that the latter (hexameters, not professors) are about one-third
longer to the eye, on an average, than the former. The more abundant dactyls make the
difference. And it is the greater number of spondees in the Greek than in the English, in
the ancient than in the modern tongue, which has caused it to fall out that while these
eminent scholars were groping about in the dark for a Greek hexameter, which is a
spondaic rhythm varied now and then by dactyls, they merely stumbled, to the lasting
scandal of scholarship, over something which, on account of its long-leggedness, we may
as well term a Feltonian hexameter, and which is a dactylic rhythm interrupted rarely by
artificial spondees which are no spondees at all, and which are curiously thrown in by the
heels at all kinds of improper and impertinent points.
Here is a specimen of the Longfellow hexameter:
Also the / church with / in was a / dorned for / this was the /
season /
In which the / young their / parent's / hope and the / loved ones of
/ Heaven /
Should at the / foot of the / altar re / new the / vows of their /
baptism /
Therefore each / nook and / corner was / swept and / cleaned and the
/ dust was /
Blown from the / walls and / ceiling and / from the / oil-painted /
benches. /
Mr. Longfellow is a man of imagination, but can he imagine that any individual, with a
proper understanding of the danger of lockjaw, would make the attempt of twisting his
mouth into the shape necessary for the emission of such spondees as "parents," and "from
the," or such dactyls as "cleaned and the," and "loved ones of"? "Baptism" is by no means
a bad spondee–perhaps because it happens to be a dactyl–of all the rest, however, I am
dreadfully ashamed.
But these feet, dactyls and spondees, all together, should thus be put at once into their
proper position:
"Also the church within was adorned; for this was the season in which the young, their
parents' hope, and the loved ones of Heaven, should, at the foot of the altar, renew the
vows of their baptism. Therefore, each nook and corner was swept and cleaned; and the
dust was blown from the walls and ceiling, and from the oil-painted benches?
There!–That is respectable prose, and it will incur no danger of ever getting its character
ruined by anybody's mistaking it for verse.
But even when we let these modern hexameters go as Greek, and merely hold them fast
in their proper character of Longfellowine, or Feltonian, or Frogpondian, we must still
condemn them as having been committed in a radical misconception of the philosophy of
verse. The spondee, as I observed, is the theme of the Greek line. Most of the ancient
hexameters begin with spondees, for the reason that the spondee is the theme, and the ear
is filled with it as with a burden. Now the Feltonian dactylics have, in the same way,
dactyl for the theme, and most of them begin with dactyls–which is all very proper if not
very Greek–but unhappily, the one point at which they are very Greek is that point,
precisely, at which they should be nothing but Feltonian. They always close with what is
meant for a spondee. To be consistently silly they should die off in a dactyl.
That a truly Greek hexameter cannot, however, be readily composed in English, is a
proposition which I am by no means inclined to admit. I think I could manage the point
myself. For example:
Do tell! / when may we / hope to make / men of sense / out of the
Pundits
Born and brought / up with their / snouts deep / down in the / mud
of the / Frog-pond?
Why ask? / who ever / yet saw / money made / out of a / fat old
Jew, or / downright / upright / nutmegs / out of a / pine-knot?
The proper spondee predominance is here preserved. Some of the dactyls are not so good
as I could wish, but, upon the whole the rhythm is very decent–to say nothing of its
excellent sense.
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE
IN SPEAKING of the Poetic Principle, I have no design to be either thorough or
profound. While discussing, very much at random, the essentiality of what we call
Poetry, my principal purpose will be to cite for consideration, some few of those minor
English or American poems which best suit my own taste, or which, upon my own fancy,
have left the most definite impression. By "minor poems" I mean, of course, poems of
little length. And here, in the beginning, permit me to say a few words in regard to a
somewhat peculiar principle, which, whether rightfully or wrongfully, has always had its
influence in my own critical estimate of the poem. I hold that a long poem does not exist.
I maintain that the phrase, "a long poem," is simply a flat contradiction in terms.
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by
elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But
all excitements are, through a psychal necessity, transient. That degree of excitement
which would entitle a poem to be so called at all, cannot be sustained throughout a
composition of any great length. After the lapse of half an hour, at the very utmost, it
flags–fails–a revulsion ensues- and then the poem is, in effect and in fact, no longer such.
There are, no doubt, many who have found difficulty in reconciling the critical dictum
that the "Paradise Lost" is to be devoutly admired throughout, with the absolute
impossibility of maintaining for it, during perusal, the amount of enthusiasm which that
critical dictum would demand. This great work, in fact, is to be regarded as poetical, only
when, losing sight of that vital requisite in all works of Art, Unity, we view it merely as a
series of minor poems. If, to preserve its Unity–its totality of effect or impression–we
read it (as would be necessary) at a single sitting, the result is but a constant alteration of
excitement and depression. After a passage of what we feel to be true poetry, there
follows, inevitably, a passage of platitude which no critical prejudgment can force us to
admire; but if, upon completing the work, we read it again, omitting the first book–that is
to say, commencing with the second–we shall be surprised at now finding that admirable
which we before condemned- that damnable which we had previously so much admired.
It follows from all this that the ultimate, aggregate, or absolute effect of even the best
epic under the sun, is a nullity:–and this is precisely the fact.
In regard to the Iliad, we have, if not positive proof, at least very good reason for
believing it intended as a series of lyrics; but, granting the epic intention, I can say only
that the work is based in an imperfect sense of art. The modern epic is, of the
supposititious ancient model, but an inconsiderate and blindfold imitation. But the day of
these artistic anomalies is over. If, at any time, any very long poem were popular in
reality, which I doubt, it is at least clear that no very long poem will ever be popular
again.
That the extent of a poetical work is, ceteris paribus, the measure of its merit, seems
undoubtedly, when we thus state it a proposition sufficiently absurd–yet we are indebted
for it to the Quarterly Reviews. Surely there can be nothing in mere size, abstractly
considered–there can be nothing in mere bulk, so far as a volume is concerned, which has
so continuously elicited admiration from these saturnine pamphlets! A mountain, to be
sure, by the mere sentiment of physical magnitude which it conveys, does impress us
with a sense of the sublime–but no man is impressed after this fashion by the material
grandeur of even "The Columbiad." Even the Quarterlies have not instructed us to be so
impressed by it. As yet, they have not insisted on our estimating Lamartine by the cubic
foot, or Pollock by the pound–but what else are we to infer from their continual prating
about "sustained effort"? If, by "sustained effort," any little gentleman has accomplished
an epic, let us frankly commend him for the effort–if this indeed be a thing
commendable–but let us forbear praising the epic on the effort's account. It is to be hoped
that common sense, in the time to come, will prefer deciding upon a work of Art rather
by the impression it makes–by the effect it produces–than by the time it took to impress
the effect, or by the amount of "sustained effort" which had been found necessary in
effecting the impression. The fact is, that perseverance is one thing and genius quite
another–nor can all the Quarterlies in Christendom confound them. By and by, this
proposition, with many which I have been just urging, will be received as self-evident. In
the meantime, by being generally condemned as falsities, they will not be essentially
damaged as truths.
On the other hand, it is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue brevity
degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and then producing
a brilliant or vivid, never produces a profound or enduring effect. There must be the
steady pressing down of the stamp upon the wax. De Beranger has wrought innumerable
things, pungent and spirit-stirring, but in general they have been too imponderous to
stamp themselves deeply into the public attention, and thus, as so many feathers of fancy,
have been blown aloft only to be whistled down the wind.
A remarkable instance of the effect of undue brevity in depressing a poem, in keeping it
out of the popular view, is afforded by the following exquisite little SerenadeI arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright.
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me–who knows how?To thy chamber-window, sweet!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark the silent streamThe champak odors fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must die on thine,
O, beloved as thou art!
O, lift me from the grass!
I die, I faint, I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast:
O, press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last.
Very few perhaps are familiar with these lines–yet no less a poet than Shelley is their
author. Their warm, yet delicate and ethereal imagination will be appreciated by all, but
by none so thoroughly as by him who has himself arisen from sweet dreams of one
beloved to bathe in the aromatic air of a southern midsummer night.
One of the finest poems by Willis–the very best in my opinion which he has ever written–
has no doubt, through this same defect of undue brevity, been kept back from its proper
position, not less in the critical than in the popular view:The shadows lay along Broadway,
'Twas near the twilight-tideAnd slowly there a lady fair
Was walking in her pride.
Alone walk'd she; but, viewlessly,
Walk'd spirits at her side.
Peace charm'd the street beneath her feet,
And Honour charm'd the air,
And all astir looked kind on her,
And called her good as fairFor all God ever gave to her
She kept with chary care.
She kept with care her beauties rare
From lovers warm and trueFor heart was cold to all but gold,
And the rich came not to wooBut honour'd well her charms to sell
If priests the selling do.
Now walking there was one more fairA slight girl lily-pale;
And she had unseen company
To make the spirit quail'Twixt Want and Scorn she walk'd forlorn,
And nothing could avail.
No mercy now can clear her brow
From this world's peace to pray,
For as loves wild prayer dissolved in air,
Her woman's heart gave way!But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven,
By man is cursed alway!
In this composition we find it difficult to recognise the Willis who has written so many
mere "verses of society." The lines are not only richly ideal, but full of energy, while they
breathe an earnestness, an evident sincerity of sentiment, for which we look in vain
throughout all the other works of this author.
While the epic mania, while the idea that to merit in poetry prolixity is indispensable, has
for some years past been gradually dying out of the public mind, by mere dint of its own
absurdity, we find it succeeded by a heresy too palpably false to be long tolerated, but
one which, in the brief period it has already endured, may be said to have accomplished
more in the corruption of our Poetical Literature than all its other enemies combined. I
allude to the heresies of The Didactic. It has been assumed, tacitly and avowedly, directly
and indirectly, that the ultimate object of all Poetry is Truth. Every poem, it is said,
should inculcate a moral, and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be
adjudged. We Americans especially have patronized this happy idea, and we Bostonians
very especially have developed it in full. We have taken it into our heads that to write a
poem simply for the poem's sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design,
would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force:–but
the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we
should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist
any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this
poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for
the poem's sake.
With as deep a reverence for the True as ever inspired the bosom of man, I would
nevertheless limit, in some measure, its modes of inculcation. I would limit to enforce
them. I would not enfeeble them by dissipation. The demands of Truth are severe. She
has no sympathy with the myrtles. All that which is so indispensable in Song is precisely
all that with which she has nothing whatever to do. It is but making her a flaunting
paradox to wreathe her in gems and flowers. In enforcing a truth we need severity rather
than efflorescence of language. We must be simple, precise, terse. We must be cool,
calm, unimpassioned. In a word, we must be in that mood which, as nearly as possible, is
the exact converse of the poetical. He must be blind indeed who does not perceive the
radical and chasmal difference between the truthful and the poetical modes of
inculcation. He must be theory-mad beyond redemption who, in spite of these
differences, shall still persist in attempting to reconcile the obstinate oils and waters of
Poetry and Truth.
Dividing the world of mind into its three most immediately obvious distinctions, we have
the Pure Intellect, Taste, and the Moral Sense. I place Taste in the middle, because it is
just this position which in the mind it occupies. It holds intimate relations with either
extreme; but from the Moral Sense is separated by so faint a difference that Aristotle has
not hesitated to place some of its operations among the virtues themselves. Nevertheless
we find the offices of the trio marked with a sufficient distinction. Just as the Intellect
concerns itself with Truth, so Taste informs us of the Beautiful, while the Moral Sense is
regardful of Duty. Of this latter, while Conscience teaches the obligation, and Reason the
expediency, Taste contents herself with displaying the charms:–waging war upon Vice
solely on the ground of her deformity–her disproportion–her animosity to the fitting, to
the appropriate, to the harmonious–in a word, to Beauty.
An immortal instinct deep within the spirit of man is thus plainly a sense of the Beautiful.
This it is which administers to his delight in the manifold forms, and sounds, and odors
and sentiments amid which he exists. And just as the lily is repeated in the lake, or the
eyes of Amaryllis in the mirror, so is the mere oral or written repetition of these forms,
and sounds, and colors, and odors, and sentiments a duplicate source of delight. But this
mere repetition is not poetry. He who shall simply sing, with however glowing
enthusiasm, or with however vivid a truth of description, of the sights, and sounds, and
odors, and colors, and sentiments which greet him in common with all mankind–he, I say,
has yet faded to prove his divine title. There is still a something in the distance which he
has been unable to attain. We have still a thirst unquenchable, to allay which he has not
shown us the crystal springs. This thirst belongs to the immortality of Man. It is at once a
consequence and an indication of his perennial existence. It is the desire of the moth for
the star. It is no mere appreciation of the Beauty before us, but a wild effort to reach the
Beauty above. Inspired by an ecstatic prescience of the glories beyond the grave, we
struggle by multiform combinations among the things and thoughts of Time to attain a
portion of that Loveliness whose very elements perhaps appertain to eternity alone. And
thus when by Poetry, or when by Music, the most entrancing of the poetic moods, we
find ourselves melted into tears, we weep then, not as the Abbate Gravina supposes,
through excess of pleasure, but through a certain petulant, impatient sorrow at our
inability to grasp now, wholly, here on earth, at once and for ever, those divine and
rapturous joys of which through the poem, or through the music, we attain to but brief
and indeterminate glimpses.
The struggle to apprehend the supernal Loveliness–this struggle, on the part of souls
fittingly constituted–has given to the world all that which it (the world) has ever been
enabled at once to understand and to feel as poetic.
The Poetic Sentiment, of course, may develop itself in various modes–in Painting, in
Sculpture, in Architecture, in the Dance- very especially in Music–and very peculiarly,
and with a wide field, in the composition of the Landscape Garden. Our present theme,
however, has regard only to its manifestation in words. And here let me speak briefly on
the topic of rhythm. Contenting myself with the certainty that Music, in its various modes
of metre, rhythm, and rhyme, is of so vast a moment in Poetry as never to be wisely
rejected–is so vitally important an adjunct that he is simply silly who declines its
assistance, I will not now pause to maintain its absolute essentiality. It is in Music
perhaps that the soul most nearly attains the great end for which, when inspired by the
Poetic Sentiment it struggles–the creation of supernal Beauty. It may be, indeed, that here
this sublime end is, now and then, attained in fact. We are often made to feel, with a
shivering delight, that from an earthly harp are stricken notes which cannot have been
unfamiliar to the angels. And thus there can be little doubt that in the union of Poetry
with Music in its popular sense, we shall find the widest field for the Poetic development.
The old Bards and Minnesingers had advantages which we do not possess–and Thomas
Moore, singing his own songs, was, in the most legitimate manner, perfecting them as
poems.
To recapitulate then:–I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as The Rhythmical
Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is Taste. With the Intellect or with the Conscience it
has only collateral relations. Unless incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with
Duty or with Truth.
A few words, however, in explanation. That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the
most elevating, and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the
Beautiful. In the contemplation of Beauty we alone find it possible to attain that
pleasurable elevation, or excitement of the soul, which we recognise as the Poetic
Sentiment, and which is so easily distinguished from Truth, which is the satisfaction of
the Reason, or from Passion, which is the excitement of the heart. I make Beauty,
therefore–using the word as inclusive of the sublime–I make Beauty the province of the
poem, simply because it is an obvious rule of Art that effects should be made to spring as
directly as possible from their causes:- no one as yet having been weak enough to deny
that the peculiar elevation in question is at least most readily attainable in the poem. It by
no means follows, however, that the incitements of Passion, or the precepts of Duty, or
even the lessons of Truth, may not be introduced into a poem, and with advantage, for
they may subserve incidentally, in various ways, the general purposes of the work: but
the true artist will always contrive to tone them down in proper subjection to that Beauty
which is the atmosphere and the real essence of the poem.
I cannot better introduce the few poems which I shall present for your consideration, than
by the citation of the Proem to Longfellow's "Waif":The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an Eagle in his flight.
I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me,
That my soul cannot resist;
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.
Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.
For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavour;
And to-night I long for rest.
Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
Who through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.
Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.
Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
With no great range of imagination, these lines have been justly admired for their
delicacy of expression. Some of the images are very effective. Nothing can be better
than-the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Down the corridors of Time.
The idea of the last quatrain is also very effective. The poem on the whole, however, is
chiefly to be admired for the graceful insouciance of its metre, so well in accordance with
the character of the sentiments, and especially for the ease of the general manner. This
"ease" or naturalness, in a literary style, it has long been the fashion to regard as ease in
appearance alone–as a point of really difficult attainment. But not so:–a natural manner is
difficult only to him who should never meddle with it–to the unnatural. It is but the result
of writing with the understanding, or with the instinct, that the tone, in composition,
should always be that which the mass of mankind would adopt–and must perpetually
vary, of course, with the occasion. The author who, after the fashion of "The North
American Review," should be upon all occasions merely "quiet," must necessarily upon
many occasions be simply silly, or stupid; and has no more right to be considered "easy"
or "natural" than a Cockney exquisite, or than the sleeping Beauty in the waxworks.
Among the minor poems of Bryant, none has so much impressed me as the one which he
entitles "June." I quote only a portion of it:There, through the long, long summer hours,
The golden light should lie,
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
Stand in their beauty by.
The oriole should build and tell
His love-tale, close beside my cell;
The idle butterfly
Should rest him there, and there be heard
The housewife-bee and humming bird.
And what if cheerful shouts at noon,
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids, beneath the moon,
With fairy laughter blent?
And what if, in the evening light,
Betrothed lovers walk in sight
Of my low monument?
I would the lovely scene around
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
I know, I know I should not see
The season's glorious show,
Nor would its brightness shine for me;
Nor its wild music flow;
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs and song, and the light and bloom,
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
These to their soften'd hearts should bear
The thoughts of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
The gladness of the scene;
Whose part in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills,
Is–that his grave is green;
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice.
The rhythmical flow here is even voluptuous–nothing could be more melodious. The
poem has always affected me in a remarkable manner. The intense melancholy which
seems to well up, perforce, to the surface of all the poet's cheerful sayings about his
grave, we find thrilling us to the soul–while there is the truest poetic elevation in the
thrill. The impression left is one of a pleasurable sadness. And if, in the remaining
compositions which I shall introduce to you, there be more or less of a similar tone
always apparent, let me remind you that (how or why we know not) this certain taint of
sadness is inseparably connected with all the higher manifestations of true Beauty. It is,
nevertheless,
A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
The taint of which I speak is clearly perceptible even in a poem so full of brilliancy and
spirit as "The Health" of Edward Coate Pinckney:-
I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements
And kindly stars have given
A form so fair that, like the air,
'Tis less of earth than heaven.
Her every tone is musies own,
Like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody
Dwells ever in her words;
The coinage of her heart are they,
And from her lips each flows
As one may see the burden'd be
Forth issue from the rose.
Affections are as thoughts to her,
The measures of her hours;
Her feelings have the fragrancy,
The freshness of young flowers;
And lovely passions, changing oft,
So fill her, she appears
The image of themselves by turns,
The idol of past years!
Of her bright face one glance will trace
A picture on the brain,
And of her voice in echoing hearts
A sound must long remain;
But memory, such as mine of her,
So very much endears
When death is nigh my latest sigh
Will not be life's, but hers.
I fill'd this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragonHer health! and would on earth there stood,
Some more of such a frame,
That life might be all poetry,
And weariness a name.
It was the misfortune of Mr. Pinckney to have been born too far south. Had he been a
New Englander, it is probable that he would have been ranked as the first of American
lyrists by that magnanimous cabal which has so long controlled the destinies of American
Letters, in conducting the thing called "The North American Review." The poem just
cited is especially beautiful; but the poetic elevation which it induces we must refer
chiefly to our sympathy in the poet's enthusiasm. We pardon his hyperboles for the
evident earnestness with which they are uttered.
It was by no means my design, however, to expatiate upon the merits of what I should
read you. These will necessarily speak for themselves. Boccalini, in his "Advertisements
from Parnassus," tells us that Zoilus once presented Apollo a very caustic criticism upon
a very admirable book:–whereupon the god asked him for the beauties of the work. He
replied that he only busied himself about the errors. On hearing this, Apollo, handing him
a sack of unwinnowed wheat, bade him pick out all the chaff for his reward.
Now this fable answers very well as a hit at the critics–but I am by no means sure that the
god was in the right. I am by no means certain that the true limits of the critical duty are
not grossly misunderstood. Excellence, in a poem especially, may be considered in the
light of an axiom, which need only be properly put, to become self-evident. It is not
excellence if it require to be demonstrated as such:–and thus to point out too particularly
the merits of a work of Art, is to admit that they are not merits altogether.
Among the "Melodies" of Thomas Moore is one whose distinguished character as a poem
proper seems to have been singularly left out of view. I allude to his lines beginning–
"Come, rest in this bosom." The intense energy of their expression is not surpassed by
anything in Byron. There are two of the lines in which a sentiment is conveyed that
embodies the all in all of the divine passion of Love–a sentiment which, perhaps, has
found its echo in more, and in more passionate, human hearts than any other single
sentiment ever embodied in words:Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer
Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;
Here still is the smile, that no cloud can o'ercast,
And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.
Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same
Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame?
I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,
I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.
Thou hast call'd me thy Angel in moments of bliss,
And thy Angel I'll be, 'mid the horrors of this,Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
And shield thee, and save thee,–or perish there tool
It has been the fashion of late days to deny Moore Imagination, while granting him
Fancy–a distinction originating with Coleridge- than whom no man more fully
comprehended the great powers of Moore. The fact is, that the fancy of this poet so far
predominates over all his other faculties, and over the fancy of all other men, as to have
induced, very naturally, the idea that he is fanciful only. But never was there a greater
mistake. Never was a grosser wrong done the fame of a true poet. In the compass of the
English language I can call to mind no poem more profoundly–more weirdly imaginative,
in the best sense, than the lines commencing–"I would I were by that dim lake"–which
are the composition of Thomas Moore. I regret that I am unable to remember them.
One of the noblest–and, speaking of Fancy–one of the most singularly fanciful of modern
poets, was Thomas Hood. His "Fair Ines" had always for me an inexpressible charm:O saw ye not fair Ines?
She's gone into the West,
To dazzle when the sun is down,
And rob the world of rest;
She took our daylight with her,
The smiles that we love best,
With morning blushes on her cheek,
And pearls upon her breast.
O turn again, fair Ines,
Before the fall of night,
For fear the moon should shine alone,
And stars unrivall'd bright;
And blessed will the lover be
That walks beneath their light,
And breathes the love against thy cheek
I dare not even write!
Would I had been, fair Ines,
That gallant cavalier,
Who rode so gaily by thy side,
And whisper'd thee so near!
Were there no bonny dames at home
Or no true lovers here,
That he should cross the seas to win
The dearest of the dear?
I saw thee, lovely Ines,
Descend along the shore,
With bands of noble gentlemen,
And banners waved before,
And gentle youth and maidens gay,
And snowy plumes they wore;
It would have been a beauteous dream,
If it had been no more!
Alas, alas, fair Ines,
She went away with song,
With music waiting on her steps,
And shoutings of the throng;
But some were sad and felt no mirth,
But only Music's wrong,
In sounds that sang Farewell, Farewell,
To her you've loved so long.
Farewell, farewell, fair Ines,
That vessel never bore
So fair a lady on its deck,
Nor danced so light before,Alas for pleasure on the sea,
And sorrow on the shore!
The smile that blest one lover's heart
Has broken many more!
"The Haunted House," by the same author, is one of the truest poems ever written,–one of
the truest, one of the most unexceptionable, one of the most thoroughly artistic, both in its
theme and in its execution. It is, moreover, powerfully ideal- imaginative. I regret that its
length renders it unsuitable for the purposes of this lecture. In place of it permit me to
offer the universally appreciated "Bridge of Sighs":One more Unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care,Fashion'd so slenderly,
Young and so fair!
Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing.
Touch her not scornfully,
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly,
Not of the stains of her,
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.
Make no deep scrutiny
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful;
Past all dishonor,
Death has left on her
Only the beautiful.
Where the lamps quiver
So far in the river,
With many a light
From window and casement
From garret to basement,
She stood, with amazement,
Houseless by night
The bleak wind of March
Made her tremble and shiver,
But not the dark arch,
Or the black flowing river:
Mad from life's history,
Glad to death's mystery,
Swift to be hurl'dAnywhere, anywhere
Out of the world!
In she plunged boldly,
No matter how coldly
The rough river ran,Over the brink of it,
Picture it,–think of it,
Dissolute Man!
Lave in it, drink of it
Then, if you can!
Still, for all slips of her
One of Eves familyWipe those poor lips of hers
Oozing so clammily,
Loop up her tresses
Escaped from the comb,
Her fair auburn tresses;
Whilst wonderment guesses
Where was her home?
Who was her father?
Who was her mother?
Had she a sister?
Had she a brother?
Or was there a dearer one
Still, and a nearer one
Yet, than all other?
Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!
Oh! it was pitiful
Near a whole city full,
Home she had none.
Sisterly, brotherly,
Fatherly, motherly,
Feelings had changed:
Love, by harsh evidence,
Thrown from its eminence,
Seeming estranged.
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
Ere her limbs frigidly
Stiffen too rigidly,
Decently,–kindly,Smooth and compose them;
And her eyes, close them,
Staring so blindly!
Dreadfully staring
Through muddy impurity,
As when with the daring
Last look of despairing
Fixed on futurity.
Perishing gloomily,
Spurred by contumely,
Cold inhumanity,
Burning insanity,
Into her rest,Cross her hands humbly,
As if praying dumbly,
Over her breast!
Owning her weakness,
Her evil behaviour,
And leaving, with meekness,
Her sins to her Saviour!
The vigour of this poem is no less remarkable than its pathos. The versification although
carrying the fanciful to the very verge of the fantastic, is nevertheless admirably adapted
to the wild insanity which is the thesis of the poem.
Among the minor poems of Lord Byron is one which has never received from the critics
the praise which it undoubtedly deserves:Though the day of my destiny's over,
And the star of my fate hath declined
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find;
Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,
It shrunk not to share it with me,
And the love which my spirit hath painted
It never hath found but in thee.
Then when nature around me is smiling,
The last smile which answers to mine,
I do not believe it beguiling,
Because it reminds me of thine,
And when winds are at war with the ocean,
As the breasts I believed in with me,
If their billows excite an emotion,
It is that they bear me from thee.
Though the rock of my last hope is shivered,
And its fragments are sunk in the wave,
Though I feel that my soul is delivered
To pain–it shall not be its slave.
There is many a pang to pursue me:
They may crush, but they shall not contemnThey may torture, but shall not subdue me'Tis of thee that I think–not of them.
Though human, thou didst not deceive me,
Though woman, thou didst not forsake,
Though loved, thou forborest to grieve me,
Though slandered, thou never couldst shake,Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me,
Though parted, it was not to fly,
Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me,
Nor mute, that the world might belie.
Yet I blame not the world, nor despise it,
Nor the war of the many with oneIf my soul was not fitted to prize it,
'Twas folly not sooner to shun:
And if dearly that error hath cost me,
And more than I once could foresee,
I have found that whatever it lost me,
It could not deprive me of thee.
From the wreck of the past, which hath perished,
Thus much I at least may recall,
It hath taught me that which I most cherished
Deserved to be dearest of all:
In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.
Although the rhythm here is one of the most difficult, the versification could scarcely be
improved. No nobler theme ever engaged the pen of poet. It is the soul-elevating idea that
no man can consider himself entitled to complain of Fate while in his adversity he still
retains the unwavering love of woman.
From Alfred Tennyson, although in perfect sincerity I regard him as the noblest poet that
ever lived, I have left myself time to cite only a very brief specimen. I call him, and think
him the noblest of poets, not because the impressions he produces are at all times the
most profound–not because the poetical excitement which be induces is at all times the
most intense–but because it is at all times the most ethereal–in other words, the most
elevating and most pure. No poet is so little of the earth, earthy. What I am about to read
is from his last long poem, "The Princess":Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret,
O Death in Life, the days that are no more.
Thus, although in a very cursory and imperfect manner, I have endeavoured to convey to
you my conception of the Poetic Principle. It has been my purpose to suggest that, while
this principle itself is strictly and simply the Human Aspiration for Supernal Beauty, the
manifestation of the Principle is always found in an elevating excitement of the soul,
quite independent of that passion which is the intoxication of the Heart, or of that truth
which is the satisfaction of the Reason. For in regard to passion, alas! its tendency is to
degrade rather than to elevate the Soul. Love, on the contrary–Love–the true, the divine
Eros–the Uranian as distinguished from the Dionnan Venus–is unquestionably the purest
and truest of all poetical themes. And in regard to Truth, if, to be sure, through the
attainment of a truth we are led to perceive a harmony where none was apparent before,
we experience at once the true poetical effect; but this effect is referable to the harmony
alone, and not in the least degree to the truth which merely served to render the harmony
manifest.
We shall reach, however, more immediately a distinct conception of what the true Poetry
is, by mere reference to a few of the simple elements which induce in the Poet himself the
true poetical effect. He recognises the ambrosia which nourishes his soul in the bright
orbs that shine in Heaven–in the volutes of the flower–in the clustering of low
shrubberies–in the waving of the grain-fields–in the slanting of tall eastern trees–in the
blue distance of mountains- in the grouping of clouds–in the twinkling of half-hidden
brooks- in the gleaming of silver rivers–in the repose of sequestered lakes–in the starmirroring depths of lonely wells. He perceives it in the songs of birds–in the harp of
Aeolus–in the sighing of the night-wind–in the repining voice of the forest–in the surf
that complains to the shore–in the fresh breath of the woods–in the scent of the violet–in
the voluptuous perfume of the hyacinth–in the suggestive odour that comes to him at
eventide from far-distant undiscovered islands, over dim oceans, illimitable and
unexplored. He owns it in all noble thoughts–in all unworldly motives–in all holy
impulses–in all chivalrous, generous, and self-sacrificing deeds. He feels it in the beauty
of woman–in the grace of her step- in the lustre of her eye–in the melody of her voice–in
her soft laughter, in her sigh–in the harmony of the rustling of her robes. He deeply feels
it in her winning endearments–in her burning enthusiasms–in her gentle charities–in her
meek and devotional endurances–but above all–ah, far above all he kneels to it–he
worships it in the faith, in the purity, in the strength, in the altogether divine majesty–of
her love.
Let me conclude by–the recitation of yet another brief poem–one very different in
character from any that I have before quoted. It is by Motherwell, and is called "The
Song of the Cavalier." With our modern and altogether rational ideas of the absurdity and
impiety of warfare, we are not precisely in that frame of mind best adapted to sympathize
with the sentiments, and thus to appreciate the real excellence of the poem. To do this
fully we must identify ourselves in fancy with the soul of the old cavalier:Then mounte! then mounte, brave gallants all,
And don your helmes amaine:
Deathe's couriers, Fame and Honour call
Us to the field againe.
No shrewish teares shall fill your eye
When the sword-hilt's in our hand,Heart-whole we'll part, and no whit sighe
For the fayrest of the land;
Let piping swaine, and craven wight,
Thus weepe and puling crye,
Our business is like men to fight,
And hero-like to die!
THE END
DIDDLING
Considered as One of the Exact Sciences
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
Hey, diddle diddle
The cat and the fiddle
SINCE the world began there have been two Jeremys. The one wrote a Jeremiad about
usury, and was called Jeremy Bentham. He has been much admired by Mr. John Neal,
and was a great man in a small way. The other gave name to the most important of the
Exact Sciences, and was a great man in a great way–I may say, indeed, in the very
greatest of ways.
Diddling–or the abstract idea conveyed by the verb to diddle–is sufficiently well
understood. Yet the fact, the deed, the thing diddling, is somewhat difficult to define. We
may get, however, at a tolerably distinct conception of the matter in hand, by definingnot the thing, diddling, in itself–but man, as an animal that diddles. Had Plato but hit
upon this, he would have been spared the affront of the picked chicken.
Very pertinently it was demanded of Plato, why a picked chicken, which was clearly "a
biped without feathers," was not, according to his own definition, a man? But I am not to
be bothered by any similar query. Man is an animal that diddles, and there is no animal
that diddles but man. It will take an entire hen-coop of picked chickens to get over that.
What constitutes the essence, the nare, the principle of diddling is, in fact, peculiar to the
class of creatures that wear coats and pantaloons. A crow thieves; a fox cheats; a weasel
outwits; a man diddles. To diddle is his destiny. "Man was made to mourn," says the
poet. But not so:–he was made to diddle. This is his aim–his object- his end. And for this
reason when a man's diddled we say he's "done."
Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are minuteness,
interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence, and
grin.
Minuteness:–Your diddler is minute. His operations are upon a small scale. His business
is retail, for cash, or approved paper at sight. Should he ever be tempted into magnificent
speculation, he then, at once, loses his distinctive features, and becomes what we term
"financier." This latter word conveys the diddling idea in every respect except that of
magnitude. A diddler may thus be regarded as a banker in petto–a "financial operation,"
as a diddle at Brobdignag. The one is to the other, as Homer to "Flaccus"–as a Mastodon
to a mouse–as the tail of a comet to that of a pig.
Interest:–Your diddler is guided by self-interest. He scorns to diddle for the mere sake of
the diddle. He has an object in view- his pocket–and yours. He regards always the main
chance. He looks to Number One. You are Number Two, and must look to yourself.
Perseverance:–Your diddler perseveres. He is not readily discouraged. Should even the
banks break, he cares nothing about it. He steadily pursues his end, and
Ut canis a corio nunquam absterrebitur uncto.
so he never lets go of his game.
Ingenuity:–Your diddler is ingenious. He has constructiveness large. He understands plot.
He invents and circumvents. Were he not Alexander he would be Diogenes. Were he not
a diddler, he would be a maker of patent rat-traps or an angler for trout.
Audacity:–Your diddler is audacious.–He is a bold man. He carries the war into Africa.
He conquers all by assault. He would not fear the daggers of Frey Herren. With a little
more prudence Dick Turpin would have made a good diddler; with a trifle less blarney,
Daniel O'Connell; with a pound or two more brains Charles the Twelfth.
Nonchalance:–Your diddler is nonchalant. He is not at all nervous. He never had any
nerves. He is never seduced into a flurry. He is never put out–unless put out of doors. He
is cool–cool as a cucumber. He is calm–"calm as a smile from Lady Bury." He is easyeasy as an old glove, or the damsels of ancient Baiae.
Originality:–Your diddler is original–conscientiously so. His thoughts are his own. He
would scorn to employ those of another. A stale trick is his aversion. He would return a
purse, I am sure, upon discovering that he had obtained it by an unoriginal diddle.
Impertinence.–Your diddler is impertinent. He swaggers. He sets his arms a-kimbo. He
thrusts. his hands in his trowsers' pockets. He sneers in your face. He treads on your
corns. He eats your dinner, he drinks your wine, he borrows your money, he pulls your
nose, he kicks your poodle, and he kisses your wife.
Grin:–Your true diddler winds up all with a grin. But this nobody sees but himself. He
grins when his daily work is done–when his allotted labors are accomplished–at night in
his own closet, and altogether for his own private entertainment. He goes home. He locks
his door. He divests himself of his clothes. He puts out his candle. He gets into bed. He
places his head upon the pillow. All this done, and your diddler grins. This is no
hypothesis. It is a matter of course. I reason a priori, and a diddle would be no diddle
without a grin.
The origin of the diddle is referrable to the infancy of the Human Race. Perhaps the first
diddler was Adam. At all events, we can trace the science back to a very remote period of
antiquity. The moderns, however, have brought it to a perfection never dreamed of by our
thick-headed progenitors. Without pausing to speak of the "old saws," therefore, I shall
content myself with a compendious account of some of the more "modern instances."
A very good diddle is this. A housekeeper in want of a sofa, for instance, is seen to go in
and out of several cabinet warehouses. At length she arrives at one offering an excellent
variety. She is accosted, and invited to enter, by a polite and voluble individual at the
door. She finds a sofa well adapted to her views, and upon inquiring the price, is
surprised and delighted to hear a sum named at least twenty per cent. lower than her
expectations. She hastens to make the purchase, gets a bill and receipt, leaves her address,
with a request that the article be sent home as speedily as possible, and retires amid a
profusion of bows from the shopkeeper. The night arrives and no sofa. A servant is sent
to make inquiry about the delay. The whole transaction is denied. No sofa has been sold–
no money received–except by the diddler, who played shop-keeper for the nonce.
Our cabinet warehouses are left entirely unattended, and thus afford every facility for a
trick of this kind. Visiters enter, look at furniture, and depart unheeded and unseen.
Should any one wish to purchase, or to inquire the price of an article, a bell is at hand,
and this is considered amply sufficient.
Again, quite a respectable diddle is this. A well-dressed individual enters a shop, makes a
purchase to the value of a dollar; finds, much to his vexation, that he has left his pocketbook in another coat pocket; and so says to the shopkeeper"My dear sir, never mind; just oblige me, will you, by sending the bundle home? But
stay! I really believe that I have nothing less than a five dollar bill, even there. However,
you can send four dollars in change with the bundle, you know."
"Very good, sir," replies the shop-keeper, who entertains, at once, a lofty opinion of the
high-mindedness of his customer. "I know fellows," he says to himself, "who would just
have put the goods under their arm, and walked off with a promise to call and pay the
dollar as they came by in the afternoon."
A boy is sent with the parcel and change. On the route, quite accidentally, he is met by
the purchaser, who exclaims:
"Ah! This is my bundle, I see–I thought you had been home with it, long ago. Well, go
on! My wife, Mrs. Trotter, will give you the five dollars–I left instructions with her to
that effect. The change you might as well give to me–I shall want some silver for the Post
Office. Very good! One, two, is this a good quarter?- three, four–quite right! Say to Mrs.
Trotter that you met me, and be sure now and do not loiter on the way."
The boy doesn't loiter at all–but he is a very long time in getting back from his errand–for
no lady of the precise name of Mrs. Trotter is to be discovered. He consoles himself,
however, that he has not been such a fool as to leave the goods without the money, and
re-entering his shop with a self-satisfied air, feels sensibly hurt and indignant when his
master asks him what has become of the change.
A very simple diddle, indeed, is this. The captain of a ship, which is about to sail, is
presented by an official looking person with an unusually moderate bill of city charges.
Glad to get off so easily, and confused by a hundred duties pressing upon him all at once,
he discharges the claim forthwith. In about fifteen minutes, another and less reasonable
bill is handed him by one who soon makes it evident that the first collector was a diddler,
and the original collection a diddle.
And here, too, is a somewhat similar thing. A steamboat is casting loose from the wharf.
A traveller, portmanteau in hand, is discovered running toward the wharf, at full speed.
Suddenly, he makes a dead halt, stoops, and picks up something from the ground in a
very agitated manner. It is a pocket-book, and–"Has any gentleman lost a pocketbook?"
he cries. No one can say that he has exactly lost a pocket-book; but a great excitement
ensues, when the treasure trove is found to be of value. The boat, however, must not be
detained.
"Time and tide wait for no man," says the captain.
"For God's sake, stay only a few minutes," says the finder of the book–"the true claimant
will presently appear."
"Can't wait!" replies the man in authority; "cast off there, d'ye hear?"
"What am I to do?" asks the finder, in great tribulation. "I am about to leave the country
for some years, and I cannot conscientiously retain this large amount in my possession. I
beg your pardon, sir," [here he addresses a gentleman on shore,] "but you have the air of
an honest man. Will you confer upon me the favor of taking charge of this pocket-book–I
know I can trust you–and of advertising it? The notes, you see, amount to a very
considerable sum. The owner will, no doubt, insist upon rewarding you for your trouble"Me!–no, you!–it was you who found the book."
"Well, if you must have it so–I will take a small reward–just to satisfy your scruples. Let
me see–why these notes are all hundreds- bless my soul! a hundred is too much to take–
fifty would be quite enough, I am sure"Cast off there!" says the captain.
"But then I have no change for a hundred, and upon the whole, you had better"Cast off there!" says the captain.
"Never mind!" cries the gentleman on shore, who has been examining his own pocketbook for the last minute or so–"never mind! I can fix it–here is a fifty on the Bank of
North America–throw the book."
And the over-conscientious finder takes the fifty with marked reluctance, and throws the
gentleman the book, as desired, while the steamboat fumes and fizzes on her way. In
about half an hour after her departure, the "large amount" is seen to be a "counterfeit
presentment," and the whole thing a capital diddle.
A bold diddle is this. A camp-meeting, or something similar, is to be held at a certain spot
which is accessible only by means of a free bridge. A diddler stations himself upon this
bridge, respectfully informs all passers by of the new county law, which establishes a toll
of one cent for foot passengers, two for horses and donkeys, and so forth, and so forth.
Some grumble but all submit, and the diddler goes home a wealthier man by some fifty or
sixty dollars well earned. This taking a toll from a great crowd of people is an excessively
troublesome thing.
A neat diddle is this. A friend holds one of the diddler's promises to pay, filled up and
signed in due form, upon the ordinary blanks printed in red ink. The diddler purchases
one or two dozen of these blanks, and every day dips one of them in his soup, makes his
dog jump for it, and finally gives it to him as a bonne bouche. The note arriving at
maturity, the diddler, with the diddler's dog, calls upon the friend, and the promise to pay
is made the topic of discussion. The friend produces it from his escritoire, and is in the
act of reaching it to the diddler, when up jumps the diddler's dog and devours it forthwith.
The diddler is not only surprised but vexed and incensed at the absurd behavior of his
dog, and expresses his entire readiness to cancel the obligation at any moment when the
evidence of the obligation shall be forthcoming.
A very mean diddle is this. A lady is insulted in the street by a diddler's accomplice. The
diddler himself flies to her assistance, and, giving his friend a comfortable thrashing,
insists upon attending the lady to her own door. He bows, with his hand upon his heart,
and most respectfully bids her adieu. She entreats him, as her deliverer, to walk in and be
introduced to her big brother and her papa. With a sigh, he declines to do so. "Is there no
way, then, sir," she murmurs, "in which I may be permitted to testify my gratitude?"
"Why, yes, madam, there is. Will you be kind enough to lend me a couple of shillings?"
In the first excitement of the moment the lady decides upon fainting outright. Upon
second thought, however, she opens her purse-strings and delivers the specie. Now this, I
say, is a diddle minute–for one entire moiety of the sum borrowed has to be paid to the
gentleman who had the trouble of performing the insult, and who had then to stand still
and be thrashed for performing it.
Rather a small but still a scientific diddle is this. The diddler approaches the bar of a
tavern, and demands a couple of twists of tobacco. These are handed to him, when,
having slightly examined them, he says:
"I don't much like this tobacco. Here, take it back, and give me a glass of brandy and
water in its place." The brandy and water is furnished and imbibed, and the diddler makes
his way to the door. But the voice of the tavern-keeper arrests him.
"I believe, sir, you have forgotten to pay for your brandy and water."
"Pay for my brandy and water!–didn't I give you the tobacco for the brandy and water?
What more would you have?"
"But, sir, if you please, I don't remember that you paid me for the tobacco."
"What do you mean by that, you scoundrel?–Didn't I give you back your tobacco? Isn't
that your tobacco lying there? Do you expect me to pay for what I did not take?"
"But, sir," says the publican, now rather at a loss what to say, "but sir-"
"But me no buts, sir," interrupts the diddler, apparently in very high dudgeon, and
slamming the door after him, as he makes his escape.–"But me no buts, sir, and none of
your tricks upon travellers."
Here again is a very clever diddle, of which the simplicity is not its least
recommendation. A purse, or pocket-book, being really lost, the loser inserts in one of the
daily papers of a large city a fully descriptive advertisement.
Whereupon our diddler copies the facts of this advertisement, with a change of heading,
of general phraseology and address. The original, for instance, is long, and verbose, is
headed "A Pocket-Book Lost!" and requires the treasure, when found, to be left at No. 1
Tom Street. The copy is brief, and being headed with "Lost" only, indicates No. 2 Dick,
or No. 3 Harry Street, as the locality at which the owner may be seen. Moreover, it is
inserted in at least five or six of the daily papers of the day, while in point of time, it
makes its appearance only a few hours after the original. Should it be read by the loser of
the purse, he would hardly suspect it to have any reference to his own misfortune. But, of
course, the chances are five or six to one, that the finder will repair to the address given
by the diddler, rather than to that pointed out by the rightful proprietor. The former pays
the reward, pockets the treasure and decamps.
Quite an analogous diddle is this. A lady of ton has dropped, some where in the street, a
diamond ring of very unusual value. For its recovery, she offers some forty or fifty
dollars reward–giving, in her advertisement, a very minute description of the gem, and of
its settings, and declaring that, on its restoration at No. so and so, in such and such
Avenue, the reward would be paid instanter, without a single question being asked.
During the lady's absence from home, a day or two afterwards, a ring is heard at the door
of No. so and so, in such and such Avenue; a servant appears; the lady of the house is
asked for and is declared to be out, at which astounding information, the visitor expresses
the most poignant regret. His business is of importance and concerns the lady herself. In
fact, he had the good fortune to find her diamond ring. But perhaps it would be as well
that he should call again. "By no means!" says the servant; and "By no means!" says the
lady's sister and the lady's sister-in-law, who are summoned forthwith. The ring is
clamorously identified, the reward is paid, and the finder nearly thrust out of doors. The
lady returns and expresses some little dissatisfaction with her sister and sister-in-law,
because they happen to have paid forty or fifty dollars for a fac-simile of her diamond
ring–a fac-simile made out of real pinch-beck and unquestionable paste.
But as there is really no end to diddling, so there would be none to this essay, were I even
to hint at half the variations, or inflections, of which this science is susceptible. I must
bring this paper, perforce, to a conclusion, and this I cannot do better than by a summary
notice of a very decent, but rather elaborate diddle, of which our own city was made the
theatre, not very long ago, and which was subsequently repeated with success, in other
still more verdant localities of the Union. A middle-aged gentleman arrives in town from
parts unknown. He is remarkably precise, cautious, staid, and deliberate in his demeanor.
His dress is scrupulously neat, but plain, unostentatious. He wears a white cravat, an
ample waistcoat, made with an eye to comfort alone; thick-soled cosy-looking shoes, and
pantaloons without straps. He has the whole air, in fact, of your well-to-do, sober-sided,
exact, and respectable "man of business," Par excellence–one of the stern and outwardly
hard, internally soft, sort of people that we see in the crack high comedies–fellows whose
words are so many bonds, and who are noted for giving away guineas, in charity, with the
one hand, while, in the way of mere bargain, they exact the uttermost fraction of a
farthing with the other.
He makes much ado before he can get suited with a boarding house. He dislikes children.
He has been accustomed to quiet. His habits are methodical–and then he would prefer
getting into a private and respectable small family, piously inclined. Terms, however, are
no object–only he must insist upon settling his bill on the first of every month, (it is now
the second) and begs his landlady, when he finally obtains one to his mind, not on any
account to forget his instructions upon this point–but to send in a bill, and receipt,
precisely at ten o'clock, on the first day of every month, and under no circumstances to
put it off to the second.
These arrangements made, our man of business rents an office in a reputable rather than a
fashionable quarter of the town. There is nothing he more despises than pretense. "Where
there is much show," he says, "there is seldom any thing very solid behind"–an
observation which so profoundly impresses his landlady's fancy, that she makes a pencil
memorandum of it forthwith, in her great family Bible, on the broad margin of the
Proverbs of Solomon.
The next step is to advertise, after some such fashion as this, in the principal business sixpennies of the city–the pennies are eschewed as not "respectable"–and as demanding
payment for all advertisements in advance. Our man of business holds it as a point of his
faith that work should never be paid for until done.
"WANTED–The advertisers, being about to commence extensive business operations in
this city, will require the services of three or four intelligent and competent clerks, to
whom a liberal salary will be paid. The very best recommendations, not so much for
capacity, as for integrity, will be expected. Indeed, as the duties to be performed involve
high responsibilities, and large amounts of money must necessarily pass through the
hands of those engaged, it is deemed advisable to demand a deposit of fifty dollars from
each clerk employed. No person need apply, therefore, who is not prepared to leave this
sum in the possession of the advertisers, and who cannot furnish the most satisfactory
testimonials of morality. Young gentlemen piously inclined will be preferred. Application
should be made between the hours of ten and eleven A. M., and four and five P. M., of
Messrs.
"Bogs, Hogs Logs, Frogs & Co.,
"No. 110 Dog Street"
By the thirty-first day of the month, this advertisement has brought to the office of
Messrs. Bogs, Hogs, Logs, Frogs, and Company, some fifteen or twenty young
gentlemen piously inclined. But our man of business is in no hurry to conclude a contract
with any–no man of business is ever precipitate–and it is not until the most rigid
catechism in respect to the piety of each young gentleman's inclination, that his services
are engaged and his fifty dollars receipted for, just by way of proper precaution, on the
part of the respectable firm of Bogs, Hogs, Logs, Frogs, and Company. On the morning
of the first day of the next month, the landlady does not present her bill, according to
promise–a piece of neglect for which the comfortable head of the house ending in ogs
would no doubt have chided her severely, could he have been prevailed upon to remain in
town a day or two for that purpose.
As it is, the constables have had a sad time of it, running hither and thither, and all they
can do is to declare the man of business most emphatically, a "hen knee high"–by which
some persons imagine them to imply that, in fact, he is n. e. i.–by which again the very
classical phrase non est inventus, is supposed to be understood. In the meantime the
young gentlemen, one and all, are somewhat less piously inclined than before, while the
landlady purchases a shilling's worth of the Indian rubber, and very carefully obliterates
the pencil memorandum that some fool has made in her great family Bible, on the broad
margin of the Proverbs of Solomon.
THE END
DREAMLAND
by Edgar Allan Poe
1844
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim ThuleFrom a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE–out of TIME.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters–lone and dead,Their still waters–still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.
By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,By the mountains–near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,By the grey woods,–by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encampBy the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,By each spot the most unholyIn each nook most melancholyThere the traveller meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the PastShrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth–and Heaven.
For the heart whose woes are legion
'Tis a peaceful, soothing regionFor the spirit that walks in shadow
'Tis–oh, 'tis an Eldorado!
But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not–dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
THE END
DREAMS
by Edgar Allan Poe
1827
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,
And hath been still, upon the lovely earth,
A chaos of deep passion, from his birth.
But should it be–that dream eternally
Continuing–as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood–should it thus be given,
'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven.
For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
I' the summer sky, in dreams of living light
And loveliness,–have left my very heart
In climes of my imagining, apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought–what more could I have seen?
'Twas once–and only once–and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass–some power
Or spell had bound me–'twas the chilly wind
Came o'er me in the night, and left behind
Its image on my spirit–or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly–or the stars–howe'er it was
That dream was as that night-wind–let it pass.
I have been happy, tho' in a dream.
I have been happy–and I love the theme:
Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life,
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality, which brings
To the delirious eye, more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love–and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
THE END
ELDORADO
by Edgar Allan Poe
1849
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew oldThis knight so boldAnd o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it beThis land of Eldorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied"If you seek for Eldorado!"
THE END
ELEONORA
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
Sub conservatione formae specificae salva anima.
RAYMOND LULLY.
I AM come of a race noted for vigor of fancy and ardor of passion. Men have called me
mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest
intelligence–whether much that is glorious–whether all that is profound–does not spring
from disease of thought–from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general
intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who
dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in
awakening, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches,
they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge
which is of evil. They penetrate, however, rudderless or compassless into the vast ocean
of the "light ineffable," and again, like the adventures of the Nubian geographer, "agressi
sunt mare tenebrarum, quid in eo esset exploraturi."
We will say, then, that I am mad. I grant, at least, that there are two distinct conditions of
my mental existence–the condition of a lucid reason, not to be disputed, and belonging to
the memory of events forming the first epoch of my life–and a condition of shadow and
doubt, appertaining to the present, and to the recollection of what constitutes the second
great era of my being. Therefore, what I shall tell of the earlier period, believe; and to
what I may relate of the later time, give only such credit as may seem due, or doubt it
altogether, or, if doubt it ye cannot, then play unto its riddle the Oedipus.
She whom I loved in youth, and of whom I now pen calmly and distinctly these
remembrances, was the sole daughter of the only sister of my mother long departed.
Eleonora was the name of my cousin. We had always dwelled together, beneath a tropical
sun, in the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass. No unguided footstep ever came upon that
vale; for it lay away up among a range of giant hills that hung beetling around about it,
shutting out the sunlight from its sweetest recesses. No path was trodden in its vicinity;
and, to reach our happy home, there was need of putting back, with force, the foliage of
many thousands of forest trees, and of crushing to death the glories of many millions of
fragrant flowers. Thus it was that we lived all alone, knowing nothing of the world
without the valley–I, and my cousin, and her mother.
From the dim regions beyond the mountains at the upper end of our encircled domain,
there crept out a narrow and deep river, brighter than all save the eyes of Eleonora; and,
winding stealthily about in mazy courses, it passed away, at length, through a shadowy
gorge, among hills still dimmer than those whence it had issued. We called it the "River
of Silence"; for there seemed to be a hushing influence in its flow. No murmur arose from
its bed, and so gently it wandered along, that the pearly pebbles upon which we loved to
gaze, far down within its bosom, stirred not at all, but lay in a motionless content, each in
its own old station, shining on gloriously forever.
The margin of the river, and of the many dazzling rivulets that glided through devious
ways into its channel, as well as the spaces that extended from the margins away down
into the depths of the streams until they reached the bed of pebbles at the bottom,–these
spots, not less than the whole surface of the valley, from the river to the mountains that
girdled it in, were carpeted all by a soft green grass, thick, short, perfectly even, and
vanilla-perfumed, but so besprinkled throughout with the yellow buttercup, the white
daisy, the purple violet, and the ruby-red asphodel, that its exceeding beauty spoke to our
hearts in loud tones, of the love and of the glory of God.
And, here and there, in groves about this grass, like wildernesses of dreams, sprang up
fantastic trees, whose tall slender stems stood not upright, but slanted gracefully toward
the light that peered at noon-day into the centre of the valley. Their mark was speckled
with the vivid alternate splendor of ebony and silver, and was smoother than all save the
cheeks of Eleonora; so that, but for the brilliant green of the huge leaves that spread from
their summits in long, tremulous lines, dallying with the Zephyrs, one might have fancied
them giant serpents of Syria doing homage to their sovereign the Sun.
Hand in hand about this valley, for fifteen years, roamed I with Eleonora before Love
entered within our hearts. It was one evening at the close of the third lustrum of her life,
and of the fourth of my own, that we sat, locked in each other's embrace, beneath the
serpent-like trees, and looked down within the water of the River of Silence at our images
therein. We spoke no words during the rest of that sweet day, and our words even upon
the morrow were tremulous and few. We had drawn the God Eros from that wave, and
now we felt that he had enkindled within us the fiery souls of our forefathers. The
passions which had for centuries distinguished our race, came thronging with the fancies
for which they had been equally noted, and together breathed a delirious bliss over the
Valley of the Many-Colored Grass. A change fell upon all things. Strange, brilliant
flowers, star-shaped, burn out upon the trees where no flowers had been known before.
The tints of the green carpet deepened; and when, one by one, the white daisies shrank
away, there sprang up in place of them, ten by ten of the ruby-red asphodel. And life
arose in our paths; for the tall flamingo, hitherto unseen, with all gay glowing birds,
flaunted his scarlet plumage before us. The golden and silver fish haunted the river, out
of the bosom of which issued, little by little, a murmur that swelled, at length, into a
lulling melody more divine than that of the harp of Aeolus-sweeter than all save the voice
of Eleonora. And now, too, a voluminous cloud, which we had long watched in the
regions of Hesper, floated out thence, all gorgeous in crimson and gold, and settling in
peace above us, sank, day by day, lower and lower, until its edges rested upon the tops of
the mountains, turning all their dimness into magnificence, and shutting us up, as if
forever, within a magic prison-house of grandeur and of glory.
The loveliness of Eleonora was that of the Seraphim; but she was a maiden artless and
innocent as the brief life she had led among the flowers. No guile disguised the fervor of
love which animated her heart, and she examined with me its inmost recesses as we
walked together in the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass, and discoursed of the mighty
changes which had lately taken place therein.
At length, having spoken one day, in tears, of the last sad change which must befall
Humanity, she thenceforward dwelt only upon this one sorrowful theme, interweaving it
into all our converse, as, in the songs of the bard of Schiraz, the same images are found
occurring, again and again, in every impressive variation of phrase.
She had seen that the finger of Death was upon her bosom–that, like the ephemeron, she
had been made perfect in loveliness only to die; but the terrors of the grave to her lay
solely in a consideration which she revealed to me, one evening at twilight, by the banks
of the River of Silence. She grieved to think that, having entombed her in the Valley of
the Many-Colored Grass, I would quit forever its happy recesses, transferring the love
which now was so passionately her own to some maiden of the outer and everyday world.
And, then and there, I threw myself hurriedly at the feet of Eleonora, and offered up a
vow, to herself and to Heaven, that I would never bind myself in marriage to any
daughter of Earth–that I would in no manner prove recreant to her dear memory, or to the
memory of the devout affection with which she had blessed me. And I called the Mighty
Ruler of the Universe to witness the pious solemnity of my vow. And the curse which I
invoked of Him and of her, a saint in Helusion should I prove traitorous to that promise,
involved a penalty the exceeding great horror of which will not permit me to make record
of it here. And the bright eyes of Eleonora grew brighter at my words; and she sighed as
if a deadly burthen had been taken from her breast; and she trembled and very bitterly
wept; but she made acceptance of the vow, (for what was she but a child?) and it made
easy to her the bed of her death. And she said to me, not many days afterward, tranquilly
dying, that, because of what I had done for the comfort of her spirit she would watch over
me in that spirit when departed, and, if so it were permitted her return to me visibly in the
watches of the night; but, if this thing were, indeed, beyond the power of the souls in
Paradise, that she would, at least, give me frequent indications of her presence, sighing
upon me in the evening winds, or filling the air which I breathed with perfume from the
censers of the angels. And, with these words upon her lips, she yielded up her innocent
life, putting an end to the first epoch of my own.
Thus far I have faithfully said. But as I pass the barrier in Times path, formed by the
death of my beloved, and proceed with the second era of my existence, I feel that a
shadow gathers over my brain, and I mistrust the perfect sanity of the record. But let me
on.–Years dragged themselves along heavily, and still I dwelled within the Valley of the
Many-Colored Grass; but a second change had come upon all things. The star-shaped
flowers shrank into the stems of the trees, and appeared no more. The tints of the green
carpet faded; and, one by one, the ruby-red asphodels withered away; and there sprang
up, in place of them, ten by ten, dark, eye-like violets, that writhed uneasily and were
ever encumbered with dew. And Life departed from our paths; for the tall flamingo
flaunted no longer his scarlet plumage before us, but flew sadly from the vale into the
hills, with all the gay glowing birds that had arrived in his company. And the golden and
silver fish swam down through the gorge at the lower end of our domain and bedecked
the sweet river never again. And the lulling melody that had been softer than the windharp of Aeolus, and more divine than all save the voice of Eleonora, it died little by little
away, in murmurs growing lower and lower, until the stream returned, at length, utterly,
into the solemnity of its original silence. And then, lastly, the voluminous cloud uprose,
and, abandoning the tops of the mountains to the dimness of old, fell back into the
regions of Hesper, and took away all its manifold golden and gorgeous glories from the
Valley of the Many-Colored Grass.
Yet the promises of Eleonora were not forgotten; for I heard the sounds of the swinging
of the censers of the angels; and streams of a holy perfume floated ever and ever about
the valley; and at lone hours, when my heart beat heavily, the winds that bathed my brow
came unto me laden with soft sighs; and indistinct murmurs filled often the night air, and
once–oh, but once only! I was awakened from a slumber, like the slumber of death, by
the pressing of spiritual lips upon my own.
But the void within my heart refused, even thus, to be filled. I longed for the love which
had before filled it to overflowing. At length the valley pained me through its memories
of Eleonora, and I left it for ever for the vanities and the turbulent triumphs of the world.
I found myself within a strange city, where all things might have served to blot from
recollection the sweet dreams I had dreamed so long in the Valley of the Many-Colored
Grass. The pomps and pageantries of a stately court, and the mad clangor of arms, and
the radiant loveliness of women, bewildered and intoxicated my brain. But as yet my soul
had proved true to its vows, and the indications of the presence of Eleonora were still
given me in the silent hours of the night. Suddenly these manifestations they ceased, and
the world grew dark before mine eyes, and I stood aghast at the burning thoughts which
possessed, at the terrible temptations which beset me; for there came from some far, far
distant and unknown land, into the gay court of the king I served, a maiden to whose
beauty my whole recreant heart yielded at once–at whose footstool I bowed down
without a struggle, in the most ardent, in the most abject worship of love. What, indeed,
was my passion for the young girl of the valley in comparison with the fervor, and the
delirium, and the spirit-lifting ecstasy of adoration with which I poured out my whole
soul in tears at the feet of the ethereal Ermengarde?–Oh, bright was the seraph
Ermengarde! and in that knowledge I had room for none other.–Oh, divine was the angel
Ermengarde! and as I looked down into the depths of her memorial eyes, I thought only
of them–and of her.
I wedded;–nor dreaded the curse I had invoked; and its bitterness was not visited upon
me. And once–but once again in the silence of the night; there came through my lattice
the soft sighs which had forsaken me; and they modelled themselves into familiar and
sweet voice, saying:
"Sleep in peace!–for the Spirit of Love reigneth and ruleth, and, in taking to thy
passionate heart her who is Ermengarde, thou art absolved, for reasons which shall be
made known to thee in Heaven, of thy vows unto Eleonora."
THE END
ELIZABETH
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
Elizabeth, it surely is most fit
[Logic and common usage so commanding]
In thy own book that first thy name be writ,
Zeno and other sages notwithstanding;
And I have other reasons for so doing
Besides my innate love of contradiction;
Each poet–if a poet–in pursuing
The muses thro' their bowers of Truth or Fiction,
Has studied very little of his part,
Read nothing, written less–in short's a fool
Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art,
Being ignorant of one important rule,
Employed in even the theses of the schoolCalled–I forget the heathenish Greek name
[Called anything, its meaning is the same]
"Always write first things uppermost in the heart."
THE END
EULALIE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1845
I dwelt alone
In a world of moan,
And my soul was a stagnant tide,
Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing brideTill the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.
Ah, less–less bright
The stars of the night
Than the eyes of the radiant girl!
That the vapor can make
With the moon-tints of purple and pearl,
Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curlCan compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and careless
curl.
Now Doubt–now Pain
Come never again,
For her soul gives me sigh for sigh,
And all day long
Shines, bright and strong,
Astarte within the sky,
While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eyeWhile ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye.
THE END
EUREKA–A PROSE POEM
by Edgar Allan Poe
1848
WITH VERY PROFOUND RESPECT,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
TO
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
PREFACE
To the few who love me and whom I love -–to those who feel rather than to those who
think -–to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities -–I offer
this Book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds
in its Truth; constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product
alone:–let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a Poem.
What I here propound is true:–* therefore it cannot die:–or if by any means it be now
trodden down so that it die, it will "rise again to the Life Everlasting."
Nevertheless it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead.
E. A. P.
EUREKA:
AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE
IT is with humility really unassumed -–it is with a sentiment even of awe -–that I pen the
opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable subjects I approach the reader with
the most solemn -–the most comprehensive -–the most difficult -–the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in
their simplicity -–for the mere enunciation of my theme?
I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical -- of the Material and
Spiritual Universe:–of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition and its
Destiny. I shall be so rash, moreover, as to chAllange the conclusions, and thus, in effect,
to question the sagacity, of many of the greatest and most justly reverenced of men.
In the beginning, let me as distinctly as possible announce -–not the theorem which I
hope to demonstrate -–for, whatever the mathematicians may assert, there is, in this world
at least, no such thing as demonstration -–but the ruling idea which, throughout this
volume, I shall be continually endeavoring to suggest.
My general proposition, then, is this: -–In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the
Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation.
In illustration of this idea, I propose to take such a survey of the Universe that the mind
may be able really to receive and to perceive an individual impression.
He who from the top of AEtna casts his eyes leisurely around, is affected chiefly by the
extent and diversity of the scene. Only by a rapid whirling on his heel could he hope to
comprehend the panorama in the sublimity of its oneness. But as, on the summit of
AEtna, no man has thought of whirling on his heel, so no man has ever taken into his
brain the full uniqueness of the prospect; and so, again, whatever considerations lie
involved in this uniqueness, have as yet no practical existence for mankind.
I do not know a treatise in which a survey of the Universe -- using the word in its most
comprehensive and only legitimate acceptation -–is taken at all: -–and it may be as well
here to mention that by the term "Universe," wherever employed without qualification in
this essay, I mean to designate the utmost conceivable expanse of space, with all things,
spiritual and material, that can he imagined to exist within the compass of that expanse.
In speaking of what is ordinarily implied by the expression, "Universe," I shall take a
phrase of limitation -–"the Universe of stars." Why this distinction is considered
necessary, will be seen in the sequel.
But even of treatises on the really limited, although always assumed as the un limited,
Universe of stars, I know none in which a survey, even of this limited Universe, is so
taken as to warrant deductions from its individuality. The nearest approach to such a
work is made in the "Cosmos" of Alexander Von Humboldt. He presents the subject,
however, not in its individuality but in its generality. His theme, in its last result, is the
law of each portion of the merely physical Universe, as this law is related to the laws of
every other portion of this merely physical Universe. His design is simply synoeretical. In
a word, he discusses the universality of material relation, and discloses to the eye of
Philosophy whatever inferences have hitherto lain hidden behind this universality. But
however admirable be the succinctness with which he has treated each particular point of
his topic, the mere multiplicity of these points occasions, necessarily, an amount of detail,
and thus an involution of idea, which preclude all individuality of impression.
It seems to me that, in aiming at this latter effect, and, through it, at the consequences -–
the conclusions -–the suggestions -–the speculations -–or, if nothing better offer itself, the
mere guesses which may result from it -–we require something like a mental gyration on
the heel. We need so rapid a revolution of all things about the central point of sight that,
while the minutiae vanish altogether, even the more conspicuous objects become blended
into one. Among the vanishing minutiae, in a survey of this kind, would be all
exclusively terrestrial matters. The Earth would be considered in its planetary relations
alone. A man, in this view, becomes mankind; mankind a member of the cosmical family
of Intelligences.
And now, before proceeding to our subject proper, let me beg the reader's attention to an
extract or two from a somewhat remarkable letter, which appears to have been found
corked in a bottle and floating on the Mare Tenebrarum–an ocean well described by the
Nubian geographer, Ptolemy Hephestion, but little frequented in modern days unless by
the Transcendentalists and some other divers for crotchets. The date of this letter, I
confess, surprises me even more particularly than its contents; for it seems to have been
written in the year Two thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. As for the passages I am
about to transcribe, they, I fancy, will speak for themselves.
"Do you know, my dear friend," says the writer, addressing, no doubt, a contemporary -–
"Do you know that it is scarcely more than eight or nine hundred years ago since the
metaphysicians first consented to relieve the people of the singular fancy that there exist
but two practicable roads to Truth? Believe it if you can! It appears, however, that long,
long ago, in the night of Time, there lived a Turkish philosopher called Aries and
surnamed Tottle." [Here, possibly, the letter-writer means Aristotle; the best names are
wretchedly corrupted in two or three thousand years.] "The fame of this great man
depended mainly upon his demonstration that sneezing is a natural provision, by means
of which over-profound thinkers are enabled to expel superfluous ideas through the nose;
but he obtained a scarcely less valuable celebrity as the founder, or at all events as the
principal propagator, of what was termed the de ductive or a priori philosophy. He started
with what he maintained to be axioms, or self-evident truths: -–and the now wellunderstood fact that no truths are self -evident, really does not make in the slightest
degree against his speculations: -–it was sufficient for his purpose that the truths in
question were evident at all. From axioms he proceeded, logically, to results. His most
illustrious disciples were one Tuclid, a geometrician," [meaning Euclid] "and one Kant, a
Dutchman, the originator of that species of Transcendentalism which, with the change
merely of a C for a K, now bears his peculiar name.
"Well, Aries Tottle flourished supreme, until the advent of one Hog, surnamed 'the
Ettrick shepherd,' who preached an entirely different system, which he called the a
posteriori or in ductive. His plan referred altogether to sensation. He proceeded by
observing, analyzing, and classifying facts -–instantiae Naturae, as they were somewhat
affectedly called -–and arranging them into general laws. In a word, while the mode of
Aries rested on noumena, that of Hog depended on phenomena; and so great was the
admiration excited by this latter system that, at its first introduction, Aries fell into
general disrepute. Finally, however, he recovered ground, and was permitted to divide the
empire of Philosophy with his more modern rival: -–the savans contenting themselves
with proscribing all other competitors, past, present, and to come; putting an end to all
controversy on the topic by the promulgation of a Median law, to the effect that the
Aristotelian and Baconian roads are, and of right ought to be, the sole possible avenues to
knowledge: -–'Baconian,' you must know, my dear friend," adds the letter-writer at this
point, "was an adjective invented as equivalent to Hog-ian, and at the same time more
dignified and euphonious.
"Now I do assure you most positively" -–proceeds the epistle -–"that I represent these
matters fairly; and you can easily understand how restrictions so absurd on their very face
must have operated, in those days, to retard the progress of true Science, which makes its
most important advances -–as all History will show -–by seemingly intuitive leaps. These
ancient ideas confined investigation to crawling; and I need not suggest to you that
crawling, among varieties of locomotion, is a very capital thing of its kind; -–but because
the tortoise is sure of foot, for this reason must we clip the wings of the eagles? For many
centuries, so great was the infatuation, about Hog especially, that a virtual stop was put to
all thinking, properly so called. No man dared utter a truth for which he felt himself
indebted to his soul alone. It mattered not whether the truth was even demonstrably such;
for the dogmatizing philosophers of that epoch regarded only the road by which it
professed to have been attained. The end, with them, was a point of no moment,
whatever: -–'the means!' they vociferated -–'let us look at the means!' -- and if, on
scrutiny of the means, it was found to come neither under the category Hog, nor under the
category Aries (which means ram), why then the savans went no farther, but, calling the
thinker a fool and branding him a 'theorist,' would never, thenceforward, have any thing
to do either with him or with his truths.
"Now, my dear friend," continues the letter-writer, "it cannot be maintained that by the
crawling system, exclusively adopted, men would arrive at the maximum amount of
truth, even in any long series of ages; for the repression of imagination was an evil not to
be counterbalanced even by absolute certainty in the snail processes. But their certainty
was very far from absolute. The error of our progenitors was quite analogous with that of
the wiseacre who fancies he must necessarily see an object the more distinctly, the more
closely he holds it to his eyes. They blinded themselves, too, with the impalpable,
titillating Scotch snuff of detail; and thus the boasted facts of the Hog-ites were by no
means always facts -–a point of little importance but for the assumption that they always
were. The vital taint, however, in Baconianism -–its most lamentable fount of error -–lay
in its tendency to throw power and consideration into the hands of merely perceptive men
-–of those inter-Tritonic minnows, the microscopical savans -–the diggers and pedlers of
minute facts, for the most part in physical science -- facts all of which they retailed at the
same price upon the highway; their value depending, it was supposed, simply upon the
fact of their fact, without reference to their applicability or inapplicability in the
development of those ultimate and only legitimate facts, called Law.
"Than the persons" -–the letter goes on to say -–"than the persons thus suddenly elevated
by the Hog-ian philosophy into a station for which they were unfitted -–thus transferred
from the sculleries into the parlors of Science -–from its pantries into its pulpits -–than
these individuals a more intolerant -–a more intolerable set of bigots and tyrants never
existed on the face of the earth. Their creed, their text and their sermon were, alike, the
one word 'fact' -–but, for the most part, even of this one word, they knew not even the
meaning. On those who ventured to disturb their facts with the view of putting them in
order and to use, the disciples of Hog had no mercy whatever. All attempts at
generalization were met at once by the words 'theoretical,' 'theory,' 'theorist' -–all thought,
to be brief, was very properly resented as a personal affront to themselves. Cultivating the
natural sciences to the exclusion of Metaphysics, the Mathematics, and Logic, many of
these Bacon-engendered philosophers -–one-idead, one-sided and lame of a leg -–were
more wretchedly helpless -–more miserably ignorant, in view of all the comprehensible
objects of knowledge, than the veriest unlettered hind who proves that he knows
something at least, in admitting that he knows absolutely nothing.
"Nor had our forefathers any better right to talk about certainty, when pursuing, in blind
confidence, the a priori path of axioms, or of the Ram. At innumerable points this path
was scarcely as straight as a ram's-horn. The simple truth is, that the Aristotelians erected
their castles upon a basis far less reliable than air; for no such things as axioms ever
existed or can possibly exist at all. This they must have been very blind, indeed, not to
see, or at least to suspect; for, even in their own day, many of their long-admitted 'axioms'
had been abandoned: -–'ex nihilo nihil fit,' for example, and a 'thing cannot act where it is
not,' and 'there cannot be antipodes,' and 'darkness cannot proceed from light.' These and
numerous similar propositions formerly accepted, without hesitation, as axioms, or
undeniable truths, were, even at the period of which I speak, seen to be altogether
untenable: -–how absurd in these people, then, to persist in relying upon a basis, as
immutable, whose mutability had become so repeatedly manifest!
"But, even through evidence afforded by themselves against themselves, it is easy to
convict these a priori reasoners of the grossest unreason -–it is easy to show the futility -–
the impalpability of their axioms in general. I have now lying before me" -- it will be
observed that we still proceed with the letter -–"I have now lying before me a book
printed about a thousand years ago. Pundit assures me that it is decidedly the cleverest
ancient work on its topic, which is 'Logic.' The author, who was much esteemed in his
day, was one Miller or Mill; and we find it recorded of him, as a point of some
importance, that he rode a mill-horse whom he called Jeremy Bentham: -–but let us
glance at the volume itself!
"Ah! -–'Ability or inability to conceive,' says Mr. Mill very properly, 'is in no case to be
received as a criterion of axiomatic truth.' Now, that this is a palpable truism no one in his
senses will deny. Not to admit the proposition, is to insinuate a charge of variability in
Truth itself, whose very title is a synonym of the Steadfast. If ability to conceive be taken
as a criterion of Truth, then a truth to David Hume would very seldom be a truth to Joe;
and ninety-nine hundredths of what is undeniable in Heaven would be demonstrable
falsity upon Earth. The proposition of Mr. Mill, then, is sustained. I will not grant it to be
an axiom; and this merely because I am showing that no axioms exist; but, with a
distinction which could not have been cavilled at even by Mr. Mill himself, I am ready to
grant that, if an axiom there be, then the proposition of which we speak has the fullest
right to be considered an axiom -–that no more absolute axiom is -–and, consequently,
that any subsequent proposition which shall conflict with this one primarily advanced,
must be either a falsity in itself -–that is to say no axiom -–or, if admitted axiomatic, must
at once neutralize both itself and its predecessor.
"And now, by the logic of their own propounder, let us proceed to test any one of the
axioms propounded. Let us give Mr. Mill the fairest of play. We will bring the point to no
ordinary issue. We will select for investigation no common-place axiom -–no axiom of
what, not the less preposterously because only impliedly, he terms his secondary class -–
as if a positive truth by definition could be either more or less positively a truth: -–we
will select, I say, no axiom of an unquestionability so questionable as is to be found in
Euclid. We will not talk, for example, about such propositions as that two straight lines
cannot enclose a space, or that the whole is greater than any one of its parts. We will
afford the logician every advantage. We will come at once to a proposition which he
regards as the acme of the unquestionable -–as the quintessence of axiomatic
undeniability. Here it is: -–'Contradictions cannot both be true -- that is, cannot coexist in
nature.' Here Mr. Mill means, for instance, -–and I give the most forcible instance
conceivable -–that a tree must be either a tree or not a tree -–that it cannot be at the same
time a tree and not a tree: -–all which is quite reasonable of itself and will answer
remarkably well as an axiom, until we bring it into collation with an axiom insisted upon
a few pages before -–in other words -–words which I have previously employed -–until
we test it by the logic of its own propounder. 'A tree,' Mr. Mill asserts, 'must be either a
tree or not a tree.' Very well: -–and now let me ask him, why. To this little query there is
but one response: -–I defy any man living to invent a second. The sole answer is this: -'Because we find it impossible to conceive that a tree can be anything else than a tree or
not a tree.' This, I repeat, is Mr. Mill's sole answer: -–he will not pretend to suggest
another: -–and yet, by his own showing, his answer is clearly no answer at all; for has he
not already required us to admit, as an axiom, that ability or inability to conceive is in no
case to be taken as a criterion of axiomatic truth? Thus all -–absolutely his argumentation
is at sea without a rudder. Let it not be urged that an exception from the general rule is to
be made, in cases where the 'impossibility to conceive' is so peculiarly great as when we
are called upon to conceive a tree both a tree and not a tree. Let no attempt, I say, be
made at urging this sotticism; for, in the first place, there are no degrees of 'impossibility,'
and thus no one impossible conception can be more peculiarly impossible than another
impossible conception: -–in the second place, Mr. Mill himself, no doubt after thorough
deliberation, has most distinctly, and most rationally, excluded all opportunity for
exception, by the emphasis of his proposition, that, in no case, is ability or inability to
conceive, to be taken as a criterion of axiomatic truth: -–in the third place, even were
exceptions admissible at all, it remains to be shown how any exception is admissible
here. That a tree can be both a tree and not a tree, is an idea which the angels, or the
devils, may entertain, and which no doubt many an earthly Bedlamite, or
Transcendentalist, does.
"Now I do not quarrel with these ancients," continues the letter-writer, "so much on
account of the transparent frivolity of their logic -–which, to be plain, was baseless,
worthless and fantastic altogether -–as on account of their pompous and infatuate
proscription of all other roads to Truth than the two narrow and crooked paths -–the one
of creeping and the other of crawling -–to which, in their ignorant perversity, they have
dared to confine the Soul -–the Soul which loves nothing so well as to soar in those
regions of illimitable intuition which are utterly incognizant of 'path.'
"By the bye, my dear friend, is it not an evidence of the mental slavery entailed upon
those bigoted people by their Hogs and Rams, that in spite of the eternal prating of their
savans about roads to Truth, none of them fell, even by accident, into what we now so
distinctly perceive to be the broadest, the straightest and most available of all mere roads
-–the great thoroughfare -–the majestic highway of the Consistent? Is it not wonderful
that they should have failed to deduce from the works of God the vitally momentous
consideration that a perfect consistency can be nothing but an absolute truth? How plain –how rapid our progress since the late announcement of this proposition! By its means,
investigation has been taken out of the hands of the ground-moles, and given as a duty,
rather than as a task, to the true -–to the only true thinkers -–to the generally-educated
men of ardent imagination. These latter -–our Keplers -–our Laplaces -–'speculate' -–
'theorize' -–these are the terms -- can you not fancy the shout of scorn with which they
would be received by our progenitors, were it possible for them to be looking over my
shoulders as I write? The Keplers, I repeat, speculate -–theorize -- and their theories are
merely corrected -–reduced -–sifted -–cleared, little by little, of their chaff of
inconsistency -–until at length there stands apparent an unencumbered Consistency -–a
consistency which the most stolid admit -–because it is a consistency -–to be an absolute
and unquestionable TRuth.
"I have often thought, my friend, that it must have puzzled these dogmaticians of a
thousand years ago, to determine, even, by which of their two boasted roads it is that the
cryptographist attains the solution of the more complicated cyphers -–or by which of
them Champollion guided mankind to those important and innumerable truths which, for
so many centuries, have lain entombed amid the phonetical hieroglyphics of Egypt. In
especial, would it not have given these bigots some trouble to determine by which of their
two roads was reached the most momentous and sublime of their truths -–the truth -–the
fact of gravitation? Newton deduced it from the laws of Kepler. Kepler admitted that
these laws he guessed -–these laws whose investigation disclosed to the greatest of
British astronomers that principle, the basis of all (existing) physical principle, in going
behind which we enter at once the nebulous kingdom of Metaphysics. Yes! -–these vital
laws Kepler guessed -–that it is to say, he imagined them. Had he been asked to point out
either the de ductive or in ductive route by which he attained them, his reply might have
been -–'I know nothing about routes -–but I do know the machinery of the Universe. Here
it is. I grasped it with my soul -–I reached it through mere dint of intuition.' Alas, poor
ignorant old man! Could not any metaphysician have told him that what he called
'intuition' was but the conviction resulting from de ductions or in ductions of which the
processes were so shadowy as to have escaped his consciousness, eluded his reason, or
bidden defiance to his capacity of expression? How great a pity it is that some 'moral
philosopher' had not enlightened him about all this! How it would have comforted him on
his death-bed to know that, instead of having gone intuitively and thus unbecomingly, he
had, in fact, proceeded decorously and legitimately -–that is to say Hog-ishly, or at least
Ram-ishly -–into the vast halls where lay gleaming, untended, and hitherto untouched by
mortal hand -–unseen by mortal eye -–the imperishable and priceless secrets of the
Universe!
"Yes, Kepler was essentially a theorist; but this title, now of so much sanctity, was, in
those ancient days, a designation of supreme contempt. It is only now that men begin to
appreciate that divine old man -–to sympathize with the prophetical and poetical
rhapsody of his ever-memorable words. For my part," continues the unknown
correspondent, "I glow with a sacred fire when I even think of them, and feel that I shall
never grow weary of their repetition: -- in concluding this letter, let me have the real
pleasure of transcribing them once again: -–'I care not whether my work be read now or
by posterity. I can afford to wait a century for readers when God himself has waited six
thousand years for an observer. I triumph. I have stolen the golden secret of the
Egyptians. I will indulge my sacred fury.'"
Here end my quotations from this very unaccountable and, perhaps, somewhat
impertinent epistle; and perhaps it would be folly to comment, in any respect, upon the
chimerical, not to say revolutionary, fancies of the writer -–whoever he is -–fancies so
radically at war with the well-considered and well-settled opinions of this age. Let us
proceed, then, to our legitimate thesis, The Universe.
This thesis admits a choice between two modes of discussion: -–We may as cend or des
cend. Beginning at our own point of view -–at the Earth on which we stand -–we may
pass to the other planets of our system -–thence to the Sun -–thence to our system
considered collectively -–and thence, through other systems, indefinitely outwards; or,
commencing on high at some point as definite as we can make it or conceive it, we may
come down to the habitation of Man. Usually -–that is to say, in ordinary essays on
Astronomy -–the first of these two modes is, with certain reservation, adopted: -–this for
the obvious reason that astronomical facts, merely, and principles, being the object, that
object is best fulfilled in stepping from the known because proximate, gradually onward
to the point where all certitude becomes lost in the remote. For my present purpose,
however, -–that of enabling the mind to take in, as if from afar and at one glance, a
distant conception of the individual Universe -–it is clear that a descent to small from
great -–to the outskirts from the centre (if we could establish a centre) -–to the end from
the beginning (if we could fancy a beginning) would be the preferable course, but for the
difficulty, if not impossibility, of presenting, in this course, to the unastronomical, a
picture at all comprehensible in regard to such considerations as are involved in quantity –that is to say, in number, magnitude and distance.
Now, distinctness -–intelligibility, at all points, is a primary feature in my general design.
On important topics it is better to be a good deal prolix than even a very little obscure.
But abstruseness is a quality appertaining to no subject per se. All are alike, in facility of
comprehension, to him who approaches them by properly graduated steps. It is merely
because a stepping-stone, here and there, is heedlessly left unsupplied in our road to the
Differential Calculus, that this latter is not altogether as simple a thing as a sonnet by Mr.
Solomon Seesaw.
By way of admitting, then, no chance for misapprehension, I think it advisable to proceed
as if even the more obvious facts of Astronomy were unknown to the reader. In
combining the two modes of discussion to which I have referred, I propose to avail
myself of the advantages peculiar to each -–and very especially of the iteration in detail
which will be unavoidable as a consequence of the plan. Commencing with a descent, I
shall reserve for the return upwards those indispensable considerations of quantity to
which allusion has already been made.
Let us begin, then, at once, with that merest of words, "Infinity." This, like "God,"
"spirit," and some other expressions of which the equivalents exist in all languages, is by
no means the expression of an idea -–but of an effort at one. It stands for the possible
attempt at an impossible conception. Man needed a term by which to point out the
direction of this effort -–the cloud behind which lay, forever invisible, the object of this
attempt. A word, in fine, was demanded, by means of which one human being might put
himself in relation at once with another human being and with a certain tendency of the
human intellect. Out of this demand arose the word, "Infinity;" which is thus the
representative but of the thought of a thought.
As regards that infinity now considered -–the infinity of space -–we often hear it said that
"its idea is admitted by the mind -–is acquiesced in -–is entertained -–on account of the
greater difficulty which attends the conception of a limit." But this is merely one of those
phrases by which even profound thinkers, time out of mind, have occasionally taken
pleasure in deceiving themselves. The quibble lies concealed in the word "difficulty."
"The mind," we are told, "entertains the idea of limitless, through the greater difficulty
which it finds in entertaining that of limited, space." Now, were the proposition but fairly
put, its absurdity would become transparent at once. Clearly, there is no mere difficulty in
the case. The assertion intended, if presented according to its intention and without
sophistry, would run thus: -–"The mind admits the idea of limitless, through the greater
impossibility of entertaining that of limited, space."
It must be immediately seen that this is not a question of two statements between whose
respective credibilities -–or of two arguments between whose respective validities -–the
reason is called upon to decide: -–it is a matter of two conceptions, directly conflicting,
and each avowedly impossible, one of which the intellect is supposed to be capable of
entertaining, on account of the greater impossibility of entertaining the other. The choice
is not made between two difficulties; -–it is merely fancied to be made between two
impossibilities. Now of the former, there are degrees, -–but of the latter, none: -–just as
our impertinent letter-writer has already suggested. A task may be more or less difficult;
but it is either possible or not possible: -–there are no gradations. It might be more
difficult to overthrow the Andes than an ant-hill; but it can be no more impossible to
annihilate the matter of the one than the matter of the other. A man may jump ten feet
with less difficulty than he can jump twenty, but the impossibility of his leaping to the
moon is not a whit less than that of his leaping to the dog-star.
Since all this is undeniable: since the choice of the mind is to be made between
impossibilities of conception: since one impossibility cannot be greater than another: and
since, thus, one cannot be preferred to another: the philosophers who not only maintain,
on the grounds mentioned, man's idea of infinity but, on account of such supposititious
idea, infinity itself -–are plainly engaged in demonstrating one impossible thing to be
possible by showing how it is that some one other thing -–is impossible too. This, it will
be said, is nonsense; and perhaps it is: -–indeed I think it very capital nonsense -–but
forego all claim to it as nonsense of mine.
The readiest mode, however, of displaying the fallacy of the philosophical argument on
this question, is by simply adverting to a fact respecting it which has been hitherto quite
overlooked -–the fact that the argument alluded to both proves and disproves its own
proposition. "The mind is impelled," say the theologians and others, "to admit a First
Cause, by the superior difficulty it experiences in conceiving cause beyond cause without
end." The quibble, as before, lies in the word "difficulty" -–but here what is it employed
to sustain? A First Cause. And what is a First Cause? An ultimate termination of causes.
And what is an ultimate termination of causes? Finity -–the Finite. Thus the one quibble,
in two processes, by God knows how many philosophers, is made to support now Finity
and now Infinity -–could it not be brought to support something besides? As for the
quibblers -–they, at least, are insupportable. But -–to dismiss them: -–what they prove in
the one case is the identical nothing which they demonstrate in the other.
Of course, no one will suppose that I here contend for the absolute impossibility of that
which we attempt to convey in the word "Infinity." My purpose is but to show the folly of
endeavoring to prove Infinity itself, or even our conception of it, by any such blundering
ratiocination as that which is ordinarily employed.
Nevertheless, as an individual, I may be permitted to say that I cannot conceive Infinity,
and am convinced that no human being can. A mind not thoroughly self-conscious -–not
accustomed to the introspective analysis of its own operations -–will, it is true, often
deceive itself by supposing that it has entertained the conception of which we speak. In
the effort to entertain it, we proceed step beyond step -–we fancy point still beyond point;
and so long as we Continue the effort, it may be said, in fact, that we are tending to the
formation of the idea designed; while the strength of the impression that we actually form
or have formed it, is in the ratio of the period during which we keep up the mental
endeavor. But it is in the act of discontinuing the endeavor -–of fulfilling (as we think)
the idea -–of putting the finishing stroke (as we suppose) to the conception -–that we
overthrow at once the whole fabric of our fancy by resting upon some one ultimate and
therefore definite point. This fact, however, we fail to perceive, on account of the
absolute coincidence, in time, between the settling down upon the ultimate point and the
act of cessation in thinking. -–In attempting, on the other hand, to frame the idea of a
limited space, we merely converse the processes which involve the impossibility.
We believe in a God. We may or may not believe in finite or in infinite space; but our
belief, in such cases, is more properly designated as faith, and is a matter quite distinct
from that belief proper -–from that intellectual belief -–which presupposes the mental
conception.
The fact is, that, upon the enunciation of any one of that class of terms to which "Infinity"
belongs -–the class representing thoughts of thought -–he who has a right to say that he
thinks at all, feels himself called upon, not to entertain a conception, but simply to direct
his mental vision toward some given point, in the intellectual firmament, where lies a
nebula never to be resolved. To solve it, indeed, he makes no effort; for with a rapid
instinct he comprehends, not only the impossibility, but, as regards all human purposes,
the inessentiality, of its solution. He perceives that the Deity has not designed it to be
solved. He sees, at once, that it lies out of the brain of man, and even how, if not exactly
why, it lies out of it. There are people, I am aware, who, busying themselves in attempts
at the unattainable, acquire very easily, by dint of the jargon they emit, among those
thinkers-that-they-think with whom darkness and depth are synonymous, a kind of cuttlefish reputation for profundity; but the finest quality of Thought is its self-cognizance;
and, with some little equivocation, it may be said that no fog of the mind can well be
greater than that which, extending to the very boundaries of the mental domain, shuts out
even these boundaries themselves from comprehension.
It will now be understood that, in using the phrase, "Infinity of Space," I make no call
upon the reader to entertain the impossible conception of an absolute infinity. I refer
simply to the "utmost conceivable expanse" of space -–a shadowy and fluctuating
domain, now shrinking, now swelling, in accordance with the vacillating energies of the
imagination.
Hitherto, the Universe of stars has always been considered as coincident with the
Universe proper, as I have defined it in the commencement of this Discourse. It has been
always either directly or indirectly assumed -–at least since the dawn of intelligible
Astronomy -–that, were it possible for us to attain any given point in space, we should
still find, on all sides of us, an interminable succession of stars. This was the untenable
idea of Pascal when making perhaps the most successful attempt ever made, at
periphrasing the conception for which we struggle in the word "Universe." "It is a
sphere," he says, "of which the centre is everywhere, the circumference, nowhere." But
although this intended definition is, in fact, no definition of the Universe of stars, we may
accept it, with some mental reservation, as a definition (rigorous enough for all practical
purposes) of the Universe proper -–that is to say, of the Universe of space. This latter,
then, let us regard as "a sphere of which the centre is everywhere, the circumference
nowhere." In fact, while we find it impossible to fancy an end to space, we have no
difficulty in picturing to ourselves any one of an infinity of beginnings.
As our starting point, then, let us adopt the Godhead. Of this Godhead, in itself, he alone
is not imbecile -–he alone is not impious who propounds -–nothing. "Nous ne
connaissons rien," says the Baron de Bielfeld -–"Nous ne connaissons rien de la nature ou
de l'essence de Dieu: -–pour savoir ce qu'il est, il faut etre Dieu meme." -–"We know
absolutely nothing of the nature or essence of God: -- in order to comprehend what he is,
we should have to be God ourselves."
"We should have to be God ourselves!" -–With a phrase so startling as this yet ringing in
my ears, I nevertheless venture to demand if this our present ignorance of the Deity is an
ignorance to which the soul is everlastingly condemned.
By Him, however -–now, at least, the Incomprehensible -–by Him -- assuming him as
Spirit -–that is to say, as not Matter -–a distinction which, for all intelligible purposes,
will stand well instead of a definition -–by Him, then, existing as Spirit, let us content
ourselves, to-night, with supposing to have been created, or made out of Nothing, by dint
of his Volition -–at some point of Space which we will take as a centre -–at some period
into which we do not pretend to inquire, but at all events immensely remote -–by Him,
then again, let us suppose to have been created -–what? This is a vitally momentous
epoch in our considerations. What is it that we are justified -–that alone we are justified
in supposing to have been, primarily and solely, created?
We have attained a point where only Intuition can aid us: -–but now let me recur to the
idea which I have already suggested as that alone which we can properly entertain of
intuition. It is but the conviction arising from those inductions or deductions of which the
processes are so shadowy as to escape our consciousness, elude our reason, or defy our
capacity of expression. With this understanding, I now assert -–that an intuition
altogether irresistible, although inexpressible, forces me to the conclusion that what God
originally created -–that that Matter which, by dint of his Volition, he first made from his
Spirit, or from Nihility, Could have been nothing but Matter in its utmost conceivable
state of -- what? -–of Simplicity?
This will be found the sole absolute assumption of my Discourse. I use the word
"assumption" in its ordinary sense; yet I maintain that even this my primary proposition,
is very, very far indeed, from being really a mere assumption. Nothing was ever more
certainly -–no human conclusion was ever, in fact, more regularly -–more rigorously de
duced: -–but, alas! the processes lie out of the human analysis -–at all events are beyond
the utterance of the human tongue.
Let us now endeavor to conceive what Matter must be, when, or if, in its absolute
extreme of Simplicity. Here the Reason flies at once to Imparticularity -–to a particle -–to
one particle -–a particle of one kind -–of one character -–of one nature -–of one size -–of
one form -- a particle, therefore, "without form and void" -–a particle positively a particle
at all points -–a particle absolutely unique, individual, undivided, and not indivisible only
because He who created it, by dint of his Will, can by an infinitely less energetic exercise
of the same Will, as a matter of course, divide it.
Oneness, then, is all that I predicate of the originally created Matter; but I propose to
show that this Oneness is a principle abundantly sufficient to account for the constitution,
the existing phaenomena and the plainly inevitable annihilation of at least the material
Universe.
The willing into being the primordial particle, has completed the act, or more properly the
Conception, of Creation. We now proceed to the ultimate purpose for which we are to
suppose the Particle created -- that is to say, the ultimate purpose so far as our
considerations yet enable us to see it -–the constitution of the Universe from it, the
Particle.
This constitution has been effected by forcing the originally and therefore normally One
into the abnormal condition of Many. An action of this character implies reaction. A
diffusion from Unity, under the conditions, involves a tendency to return into Unity -–a
tendency ineradicable until satisfied. But on these points I will speak more fully
hereafter.
The assumption of absolute Unity in the primordial Particle includes that of infinite
divisibility. Let us conceive the Particle, then, to be only not totally exhausted by
diffusion into Space. From the one Particle, as a centre, let us suppose to be irradiated
spherically -–in all directions -–to immeasurable but still to definite distances in the
previously vacant space -–a certain inexpressibly great yet limited number of
unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms.
Now, of these atoms, thus diffused, or upon diffusion, what conditions are we permitted –not to assume, but to infer, from consideration as well of their source as of the character
of the design apparent in their diffusion? Unity being their source, and difference from
Unity the character of the design manifested in their diffusion, we are warranted in
supposing this character to be at least generally preserved throughout the design, and to
form a portion of the design itself: -–that is to say, we shall be warranted in conceiving
continual differences at all points from the uniquity and simplicity of the origin. But, for
these reasons, shall we be justified in imagining the atoms heterogeneous, dissimilar,
unequal, and inequidistant? More explicitly -–are we to consider no two atoms as, at their
diffusion, of the same nature, or of the same form, or of the same size? -–and, after
fulfilment of their diffusion into Space, is absolute inequidistance, each from each, to be
understood of all of them? In such arrangement, under such conditions, we most easily
and immediately comprehend the subsequent most feasible carrying out to completion of
any such design as that which I have suggested -–the design of variety out of unity -–
diversity out of sameness -- heterogeneity out of homogeneity -–complexity out of
simplicity -–in a word, the utmost possible multiplicity of relation out of the emphatically
irrelative One. Undoubtedly, therefore, we should be warranted in assuming all that has
been mentioned, but for the reflection, first, that supererogation is not presumable of any
Divine Act; and, secondly, that the object supposed in view, appears as feasible when
some of the conditions in question are dispensed with, in the beginning, as when all are
understood immediately to exist. I mean to say that some are involved in the rest, or so
instantaneous a consequence of them as to make the distinction inappreciable. Difference
of size, for example, will at once be brought about through the tendency of one atom to a
second, in preference to a third, on account of particular inequidistance; which is to be
comprehended as particular inequidistances between centres of quantity, in neighboring
atoms of different form -–a matter not at all interfering with the generally-equable
distribution of the atoms. Difference of kind, too, is easily conceived to be merely a result
of differences in size and form, taken more or less conjointly: -–in fact, since the Unity of
the Particle Proper implies absolute homogeneity, we cannot imagine the atoms, at their
diffusion, differing in kind, without imagining, at the same time, a special exercise of the
Divine Will, at the emission of each atom, for the purpose of effecting, in each, a change
of its essential nature: -–so fantastic an idea is the less to be indulged, as the object
proposed is seen to be thoroughly attainable without such minute and elaborate
interposition. We perceive, therefore, upon the whole, that it would be supererogatory,
and consequently unphilosophical, to predicate of the atoms, in view of their purposes,
any thing more than difference of form at their dispersion, with particular inequidistance
after it -–all other differences arising at once out of these, in the very first processes of
mass-constitution: -–We thus establish the Universe on a purely geometrical basis. Of
course, it is by no means necessary to assume absolute difference, even of form, among
the atoms irradiated -–any more than absolute particular inequidistance of each from
each. We are required to conceive merely that no neighboring atoms are of similar form –no atoms which can ever approximate, until their inevitable reunition at the end.
Although the immediate and perpetual tendency of the disunited atoms to return into their
normal Unity, is implied, as I have said, in their abnormal diffusion; still it is clear that
this tendency will be without consequence -–a tendency and no more -–until the diffusive
energy, in ceasing to be exerted, shall leave it, the tendency, free to seek its satisfaction.
The Divine Act, however, being considered as determinate, and discontinued on
fulfilment of the diffusion, we understand, at once, a reaction -–in other words, a
satisfiable tendency of the disunited atoms to return into One.
But the diffusive energy being withdrawn, and the reaction having commenced in
furtherance of the ultimate design -–that of the utmost possible Relation -–this design is
now in danger of being frustrated, in detail, by reason of that very tendency to return
which is to effect its accomplishment in general. Multiplicity is the object; but there is
nothing to prevent proximate atoms, from lapsing at once, through the now satisfiable
tendency -–before the fulfilment of any ends proposed in multiplicity -–into absolute
oneness among themselves: -–there is nothing to impede the aggregation of various
unique masses, at various points of space: -- in other words, nothing to interfere with the
accumulation of various masses, each absolutely One.
For the effectual and thorough completion of the general design, we thus see the
necessity for a repulsion of limited capacity -–a separate something which, on withdrawal
of the diffusive Volition, shall at the same time allow the approach, and forbid the
junction, of the atoms; suffering them infinitely to approximate, while denying them
positive contact; in a word, having the power -–up to a certain epoch -–of preventing their
Coalition, but no ability to interfere with their Coalescence in any respect or degree. The
repulsion, already considered as so peculiarly limited in other regards, must be
understood, let me repeat, as having power to prevent absolute coalition, only up to a
certain epoch. Unless we are to conceive that the appetite for Unity among the atoms is
doomed to be satisfied never; -–unless we are to conceive that what had a beginning is to
have no end -–a conception which cannot really be entertained, however much we may
talk or dream of entertaining it -- we are forced to conclude that the repulsive influence
imagined, will, finally -–under pressure of the Uni-tendency collectively applied, but,
never and in no degree until, on fulfilment of the Divine purposes, such collective
application shall be naturally made -–yield to a force which, at that ultimate epoch, shall
be the superior force precisely to the extent required, and thus permit the universal
subsidence into the inevitable, because original and therefore normal, One. -–The
conditions here to be reconciled are difficult indeed: -–we cannot even comprehend the
possibility of their conciliation; -–nevertheless, the apparent impossibility is brilliantly
suggestive.
That the repulsive something actually exists, we see. Man neither employs, nor knows, a
force sufficient to bring two atoms into contact. This is but the well-established
proposition of the impenetrability of matter. All Experiment proves -–all Philosophy
admits it. The design of the repulsion -–the necessity for its existence -–I have
endeavored to show; but from all attempt at investigating its nature have religiously
abstained; this on account of an intuitive conviction that the principle at issue is strictly
spiritual -–lies in a recess impervious to our present understanding -- lies involved in a
consideration of what now -–in our human state -–is not to be considered -–in a
consideration of Spirit in itself. I feel, in a word, that here the God has interposed, and
here only, because here and here only the knot demanded the interposition of the God.
In fact, while the tendency of the diffused atoms to return into Unity, will be recognized,
at once, as the principle of the Newtonian Gravity, what I have spoken of as a repulsive
influence prescribing limits to the (immediate) satisfaction of the tendency, will be
understood as that which we have been in the practice of designating now as heat, now as
magnetism, now as electricity; displaying our ignorance of its awful character in the
vacillation of the phraseology with which we endeavor to circumscribe it.
Calling it, merely for the moment, electricity, we know that all experimental analysis of
electricity has given, as an ultimate result, the principle, or seeming principle,
heterogeneity. Only where things differ is electricity apparent; and it is presumable that
they never differ where it is not developed at least, if not apparent. Now, this result is in
the fullest keeping with that which I have reached unempirically. The design of the
repulsive influence I have maintained to be that of preventing immediate Unity among
the diffused atoms; and these atoms are represented as different each from each.
Difference is their character -–their essentiality -–just as no-difference was the
essentiality of their course. When we say, then, that an attempt to bring any two of these
atoms together would induce an effort, on the part of the repulsive influence, to prevent
the contact we may as well use the strictly convertible sentence that an attempt to bring
together any two differences will result in a development of electricity. All existing
bodies, of course, are composed of these atoms in proximate contact, and are therefore to
be considered as mere assemblages of more or fewer differences; and the resistance made
by the repulsive spirit, on bringing together any two such assemblages, would be in the
ratio of the two sums of the differences in each: -–an expression which, when reduced, is
equivalent to this: -–The amount of electricity developed on the approximation of two
bodies, is proportional to the difference between the respective sums of the atoms of
which the bodies are composed. That no two bodies are absolutely alike, is a simple
corollary from all that has been here said. Electricity, therefore, existing always, is
developed whenever any bodies, but manifested only when bodies of appreciable
difference, are brought into approximation.
To electricity -–so, for the present, continuing to call it -–we may not be wrong in
referring the various physical appearances of light, heat and magnetism; but far less shall
we be liable to err in attributing to this strictly spiritual principle the more important
phaenomena of vitality, consciousness and Thought. On this topic, however, I need pause
here merely to suggest that these phaenomena, whether observed generally or in detail,
seem to proceed at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous.
Discarding now the two equivocal terms, "gravitation" and "electricity," let us adopt the
more definite expressions, "attraction" and "repulsion." The former is the body; the latter
the soul: the one is the material; the other the spiritual, principle of the Universe. No
other principles exist. All phaenomena are referable to one, or to the other, or to both
combined. So rigorously is this the case -–so thoroughly demonstrable is it that attraction
and repulsion are the sole properties through which we perceive the Universe -–in other
words, by which Matter is manifested to Mind -–that, for all merely argumentative
purposes, we are fully justified in assuming that matter exists only as attraction and
repulsion -–that attraction and repulsion are matter: -–there being no conceivable case in
which we may not employ the term "matter" and the terms "attraction" and "repulsion,"
taken together, as equivalent, and therefore convertible, expressions in Logic.
I said, just now, that what I have described as the tendency of the diffused atoms to return
into their original unity, would be understood as the principle of the Newtonian law of
gravity: and, in fact, there can be but little difficulty in such an understanding, if we look
at the Newtonian gravity in a merely general view, as a force impelling matter to seek
matter; that is to say, when we pay no attention to the known modus operandi of the
Newtonian force. The general coincidence satisfies us; but, upon looking closely, we see,
in detail, much that appears in coincident, and much in regard to which no coincidence, at
least, is established. For example; the Newtonian gravity, when we think of it in certain
moods, does not seem to be a tendency to oneness at all, but rather a tendency of all
bodies in all directions -–a phrase apparently expressive of a tendency to diffusion. Here,
then, is an in coincidence. Again; when we reflect on the mathematical LA0 governing
the Newtonian tendency, we see clearly that no coincidence has been made good, in
respect of the modus operandi, at least, between gravitation as known to exist and that
seemingly simple and direct tendency which I have assumed.
In fact, I have attained a point at which it will be advisable to strengthen my position by
reversing my processes. So far, we have gone on a priori, from an abstract consideration
of Simplicity, as that quality most likely to have characterized the original action of God.
Let us now see whether the established facts of the Newtonian Gravitation may not afford
us, a posteriori, some legitimate inductions.
What does the Newtonian law declare? -–That all bodies attract each other with forces
proportional to their quantities of matter and inversely proportional to the squares of their
distances. Purposely, I have here given, in the first place, the vulgar version of the law;
and I confess that in this, as in most other vulgar versions of great truths, we find little of
a suggestive character. Let us now adopt a more philosophical phraseology: -–Every
atom, of every body, attracts every other atom, both of its own and of every other body,
with a force which varies inversely as the squares of the distances between the attracting
and attracted atom. -–Here, indeed, a flood of suggestion bursts upon the mind.
But let us see distinctly what it was that Newton proved -- according to the grossly
irrational definitions of proof prescribed by the metaphysical schools. He was forced to
content himself with showing how thoroughly the motions of an imaginary Universe,
composed of attracting and attracted atoms obedient to the law he announced, coincide
with those of the actually existing Universe so far as it comes under our observation. This
was the amount of his demonstration -–that is to say, this was the amount of it, according
to the conventional cant of the "philosophies." His successes added proof multiplied by
proof -–such proof as a sound intellect admits -–but the demonstration of the law itself,
persist the metaphysicians, had not been strengthened in any degree. "Ocular, physical
proof," however, of attraction, here upon Earth, in accordance with the Newtonian theory,
was, at length, much to the satisfaction of some intellectual grovellers, afforded. This
proof arose collaterally and incidentally (as nearly all important truths have arisen) out of
an attempt to ascertain the mean density of the Earth. In the famous Maskelyne,
Cavendish and Bailly experiments for this purpose, the attraction of the mass of a
mountain was seen, felt, measured, and found to be mathematically consistent with the
immortal theory of the British astronomer.
But in spite of this confirmation of that which needed none -–in spite of the so-called
corroboration of the "theory" by the so-called "ocular and physical proof" -–in spite of
the character of this corroboration -–the ideas which even really philosophical men
cannot help imbibing of gravity -–and, especially, the ideas of it which ordinary men get
and contentedly maintain, are seen to have been derived, for the most part, from a
consideration of the principle as they find it developed -–merely in the planet upon which
they stand.
Now, to what does so partial a consideration tend -–to what species of error does it give
rise? On the Earth we see and feel, only that gravity impels all bodies towards the centre
of the Earth. No man in the common walks of life could be made to see or feel anything
else -–could be made to perceive that anything, anywhere, has a perpetual, gravitating
tendency in any other direction than to the centre of the Earth; yet (with an exception
hereafter to be specified) it is a fact that every earthly thing (not to speak now of every
heavenly thing) has a tendency not only to the Earth's centre but in every conceivable
direction besides.
Now, although the philosophic cannot be said to err with the vulgar in this matter, they
nevertheless permit themselves to be influenced, without knowing it, by the sentiment of
the vulgar idea. "Although the Pagan fables are not believed," says Bryant, in his very
erudite "Mythology," "yet we forget ourselves continually and make inferences from
them as from existing realities." I mean to assert that the merely sensitive perception of
gravity as we experience it on Earth, beguiles mankind into the fancy of
Concentralization or especiality respecting it -–has been continually biasing towards this
fancy even the mightiest intellects -–perpetually, although imperceptibly, leading them
away from the real characteristics of the principle; thus preventing them, up to this date,
from ever getting a glimpse of that vital truth which lies in a diametrically opposite
direction -–behind the principle's essential characteristics -–those, not of
concentralization or especiality -–but of universality and diffusion. This "vital truth" is
Unity as the source of the phaenomenon.
Let me now repeat the definition of gravity: -–Every atom, of every body, attracts every
other atom, both of its own and of every other body, with a force which varies inversely
as the squares of the distances of the attracting and attracted atom.
Here let the reader pause with me, for a moment, in contemplation of the miraculous -–of
the ineffable -–of the altogether unimaginable complexity of relation involved in the fact
that each atom attracts every other atom -–involved merely in this fact of the attraction,
without reference to the law or mode in which the attraction is manifested -–involved
merely in the fact that each atom attracts every other atom at all, in a wilderness of atoms
so numerous that those which go to the composition of a cannon-ball, exceed, probably,
in mere point of number, all the stars which go to the constitution of the Universe.
Had we discovered, simply, that each atom tended to some one favorite point -–to some
especially attractive atom -–we should still have fAllan upon a discovery which, in itself,
would have sufficed to overwhelm the mind: -–but what is it that we are actually called
upon to comprehend? That each atom attracts -–sympathizes with the most delicate
movements of every other atom, and with each and with all at the same time, and forever,
and according to a determinate law of which the complexity, even considered by itself
solely, is utterly beyond the grasp of the imagination of man. If I propose to ascertain the
influence of one mote in a sunbeam upon its neighboring mote, I cannot accomplish my
purpose without first counting and weighing all the atoms in the Universe and defining
the precise positions of all at one particular moment. If I venture to displace, by even the
billionth part of an inch, the microscopical speck of dust which lies now upon the point of
my finger, what is the character of that act upon which I have adventured? I have done a
deed which shakes the Moon in her path, which causes the Sun to be no longer the Sun,
and which alters forever the destiny of the multitudinous myriads of stars that roll and
glow in the majestic presence of their Creator.
These ideas -–conceptions such as these -–unthought-like thoughts -- soul-reveries rather
than conclusions or even considerations of the intellect: -–ideas, I repeat, such as these,
are such as we can alone hope profitably to entertain in any effort at grasping the great
principle, Attraction.
But now, -–with such ideas -–with such a vision of the marvellous complexity of
Attraction fairly in his mind -–let any person competent of thought on such topics as
these, set himself to the task of imagining a principle for the phaenomena observed -–a
condition from which they sprang.
Does not so evident a brotherhood among the atoms point to a common parentage? Does
not a sympathy so omniprevalent, so ineradicable, and so thoroughly irrespective, suggest
a common paternity as its source? Does not one extreme impel the reason to the other?
Does not the infinitude of division refer to the utterness of individuality? Does not the
entireness of the complex hint at the perfection of the simple? It is not that the atoms, as
we see them, are divided or that they are complex in their relations -–but that they are
inconceivably divided and unutterably complex: -–it is the extremeness of the conditions
to which I now allude, rather than to the conditions themselves. In a word, not because
the atoms were, at some remote epoch of time, even more than together -–is it not
because originally, and therefore normally, they were One -–that now, in all
circumstances -–at all points -–in all directions -–by all modes of approach -–in all
relations and through all conditions -–they struggle back to this absolutely, this
irrelatively, this unconditionally one?
Some person may here demand: -–"Why -–since it is to the One that the atoms struggle
back -–do we not find and define Attraction 'a merely general tendency to a centre?' -–
why, in especial, do not your atoms -–the atoms which you describe as having been
irradiated from a centre -–proceed at once, rectilinearly, back to the central point of their
origin?"
I reply that they do; as will be distinctly shown; but that the cause of their so doing is
quite irrespective of the centre as such. They all tend rectilinearly towards a centre,
because of the sphereicity with which they have been irradiated into space. Each atom,
forming one of a generally uniform globe of atoms, finds more atoms in the direction of
the centre, of course, than in any other, and in that direction, therefore, is impelled -–but
is not thus impelled because the centre is the point of its origin. It is not to any point that
the atoms are allied. It is not any locality, either in the concrete or in the abstract, to
which I suppose them bound. Nothing like location was conceived as their origin. Their
source lies in the principle, Unity. This is their lost parent. This they seek always -–
immediately -–in all directions -–wherever it is even partially to be found; thus
appeasing, in some measure, the ineradicable tendency, while on the way to its absolute
satisfaction in the end. It follows from all this, that any principle which shall be adequate
to account for the LA0 or modus operandi, of the attractive force in general, will account
for this law in particular: -- that is to say, any principle which will show why the atoms
should tend to their general centre of irradiation with forces inversely proportional to the
squares of the distances, will be admitted as satisfactorily accounting, at the same time,
for the tendency, according to the same law, of these atoms each to each: -–for the
tendency to the centre is merely the tendency each to each, and not any tendency to a
centre as such. -–Thus it will be seen, also, that the establishment of my propositions
would involve no necessity of modification in the terms of the Newtonian definition of
Gravity, which declares that each atom attracts each other atom and so forth, and declares
this merely; but (always under the supposition that what I propose be, in the end,
admitted) it seems clear that some error might occasionally be avoided, in the future
processes of Science, were a more ample phraseology adopted: -–for instance: -- "Each
atom tends to every other atom &c. with a force &c.: the general result being a tendency
of all, with a similar force, to a general centre."
The reversal of our processes has thus brought us to an identical result; but, while in the
one process intuition was the starting-point, in the other it was the goal. In commencing
the former journey I could only say that, with an irresistable intuition, I felt Simplicity to
have been the characteristic of the original action of God: -–in ending the latter I can only
declare that, with an irresistible intuition, I perceive Unity to have been the source of the
observed phaenomena of the Newtonian gravitation. Thus, according to the schools, I
prove nothing. So be it: -–I design but to suggest-and to Convince through the suggestion.
I am proudly aware that there exist many of the most profound and cautiously
discriminative human intellects which cannot help being abundantly content with my -–
suggestions. To these intellects -–as to my own -–there is no mathematical demonstration
which Could bring the least additional TRue proof of the great TRuth which I have
advanced -- the truth of Original Unity as the source -–as the principle of the Universal
Phaenomena. For my part, I am not sure that I speak and see -–I am not so sure that my
heart beats and that my soul lives: -- of the rising of to-morrow's sun -–a probability that
as yet lies in the Future -–I do not pretend to be one thousandth part as sure -–as I am of
the irretrievably by-gone Fact that All Things and All Thoughts of Things, with all their
ineffable Multiplicity of Relation, sprang at once into being from the primordial and
irrelative One.
Referring to the Newtonian Gravity, Dr. Nichol, the eloquent author of "The Architecture
of the Heavens," says: -–"In truth we have no reason to suppose this great Law, as now
revealed, to be the ultimate or simplest, and therefore the universal and allcomprehensive, form of a great Ordinance. The mode in which its intensity diminishes
with the element of distance, has not the aspect of an ultimate principle; which always
assumes the simplicity and self-evidence of those axioms which constitute the basis of
Geometry."
Now, it is quite true that "ultimate principles," in the common understanding of the
words, always assume the simplicity of geometrical axioms -–(as for "self-evidence,"
there is no such thing) -–but these principles are clearly not "ultimate;" in other terms
what we are in the habit of calling principles are no principles, properly speaking -–since
there can be but one principle, the Volition of God. We have no right to assume, then,
from what we observe in rules that we choose foolishly to name "principles," anything at
all in respect to the characteristics of a principle proper. The "ultimate principles" of
which Dr. Nichol speaks as having geometrical simplicity, may and do have this
geometrical turn, as being part and parcel of a vast geometrical system, and thus a system
of simplicity itself -–in which, nevertheless, the TRuly ultimate principle is, as we know,
the consummation of the complex -–that is to say, of the unintelligible -–for is it not the
Spiritual Capacity of God?
I quoted Dr. Nichol's remark, however, not so much to question its philosophy, as by way
of calling attention to the fact that, while all men have admitted some principle as
existing behind the Law of Gravity, no attempt has been yet made to point out what this
principle in particular is: -–if we except, perhaps, occasional fantastic efforts at referring
it to Magnetism, or Mesmerism, or Swedenborgianism, or Transcendentalism, or some
other equally delicious ism of the same species, and invariably patronized by one and the
same species of people. The great mind of Newton, while boldly grasping the Law itself,
shrank from the principle of the Law. The more fluent and comprehensive at least, if not
the more patient and profound, sagacity of Laplace, had not the courage to attack it. But
hesitation on the part of these two astronomers it is, perhaps, not so very difficult to
understand. They, as well as all the first class of mathematicians, were mathematicians
solely: -- their intellect, at least, had a firmly-pronounced mathematico-physical tone.
What lay not distinctly within the domain of Physics, or of Mathematics, seemed to them
either Non-Entity or Shadow. Nevertheless, we may well wonder that Leibnitz, who was
a marked exception to the general rule in these respects, and whose mental temperament
was a singular admixture of the mathematical with the physico-metaphysical, did not at
once investigate and establish the point at issue. Either Newton or Laplace, seeking a
principle and discovering none physical, would have rested contentedly in the conclusion
that there was absolutely none; but it is almost impossible to fancy, of Leibnitz, that,
having exhausted in his search the physical dominions, he would not have stepped at
once, boldly and hopefully, amid his old familiar haunts in the kingdom of Metaphysics.
Here, indeed, it is clear that he must have adventured in search of the treasure: -–that he
did not find it after all, was, perhaps, because his fairy guide, Imagination, was not
sufficiently well-grown, or well-educated, to direct him aright.
I observed, just now, that, in fact, there had been certain vague attempts at referring
Gravity to some very uncertain isms. These attempts, however, although considered bold
and justly so considered, looked no farther than to the generality -–the merest generality –of the Newtonian Law. Its modus operandi has never, to my knowledge, been
approached in the way of an effort at explanation. It is, therefore, with no unwarranted
fear of being taken for a madman at the outset, and before I can bring my propositions
fairly to the eye of those who alone are competent to decide upon them, that I here
declare the modus operandi of the Law of Gravity to be an exceedingly simple and
perfectly explicable thing -–that is to say, when we make our advances towards it in just
gradations and in the true direction -–when we regard it from the proper point of view.
Whether we reach the idea of absolute Unity as the source of All Things, from a
consideration of Simplicity as the most probable characteristic of the original action of
God; -–whether we arrive at it from an inspection of the universality of relation in the
gravitating phaenomena; -–or whether we attain it as a result of the mutual corroboration
afforded by both processes; -–still, the idea itself, if entertained at all, is entertained in
inseparable connection with another idea -–that of the condition of the Universe of stars
as we now perceive it -–that is to say, a condition of immeasurable diffusion through
space. Now a connection between these two ideas -–unity and diffusion -–cannot be
established unless through the entertainment of a third idea -–that of irradiation. Absolute
Unity being taken as a centre, then the existing Universe of stars is the result of
irradiation from that centre.
Now, the laws of irradiation are known. They are part and parcel of the sphere. They
belong to the class of indisputable geometrical properties. We say of them, "they are true
-–they are evident." To demand why they are true, would be to demand why the axioms
are true upon which their demonstration is based. Nothing is demonstrable, strictly
speaking; but if anything be, then the properties -–the laws in question are demonstrated.
But these laws -–what do they declare? Irradiation -–how -–by what steps does it proceed
outwardly from a centre?
From a luminous centre, Light issues by irradiation; and the quantities of light received
upon any given plane, supposed to be shifting its position so as to be now nearer the
centre and now farther from it, will be diminished in the same proportion as the squares
of the distances of the plane from the lumimous body, are increased; and will be
increased in the same proportion as these squares are diminished.
The expression of the law may be thus generalized: -–the number of light-particles (or, if
the phrase be preferred, the number of light-impressions) received upon the shifting
plane, will be inversely proportional with the squares of the distances of the plane.
Generalizing yet again, we may say that the diffusion -–the scattering -–the irradiation, in
a word -–is directly proportional with the squares of the distances.
For example: at the distance B, from the luminous centre A, a certain number of particles
are so diffused as to occupy the surface B (see illustration). Then at double the distance –that is to say at C -–they will be so much farther diffused as to occupy four such
surfaces: -–at treble the distance, or at D, they will be so much farther separated as to
occupy nine such surfaces: -–while, at quadruple the distance, or at E, they will have
become so scattered as to spread themselves over sixteen such surfaces -–and so on
forever.
In saying, generally, that the irradiation proceeds in direct proportion with the squares of
the distances, we use the term irradiation to express the degree of the diffusion as we
proceed outwardly from the centre. Conversing the idea, and employing the word
"concentralization" to express the degree of the drawing together as we come back
toward the centre from an outward position, we may say that concentralization proceeds
inversely as the squares of the distances. In other words, we have reached the conclusion
that, on the hypothesis that matter was originally irradiated from a centre and is now
returning to it, the concentralization, in the return, proceeds exactly as we know the force
of gravitation to proceed.
Now here, if we could be permitted to assume that concentralization exactly represented
the force of the tendency to the centre -–that the one was exactly proportional to the
other, and that the two proceeded together -–we should have shown all that is required.
The sole difficulty existing, then, is to establish a direct proportion between
"concentralization" and the force of concentralization; and this is done, of course, if we
establish such proportion between "irradiation" and the force of irradiation.
A very slight inspection of the Heavens assures us that the stars have a certain general
uniformity, equability, or equidistance, of distribution through that region of space in
which, collectively, and in a roughly globular form, they are situated: -–this species of
very general, rather than absolute, equability, being in full keeping with my deduction of
inequidistance, within certain limits, among the originally diffused atoms, as a corollary
from the evident design of infinite complexity of relation out of irrelation. I started, it will
be remembered, with the idea of a generally uniform but particularly un uniform
distribution of the atoms; -–an idea, I repeat, which an inspection of the stars, as they
exist, confirms.
But even in the merely general equability of distribution, as regards the atoms, there
appears a difficulty which, no doubt, has already suggested itself to those among my
readers who have borne in mind that I suppose this equability of distribution effected
through irradiation from a centre. The very first glance at the idea, irradiation, forces us
to the entertainment of the hitherto unseparated and seemingly inseparable idea of
agglomeration about a centre, with dispersion as we recede from it -–the idea, in a word,
of in equability of distribution in respect to the matter irradiated.
Now, I have elsewhere * observed that it is by just such difficulties as the one now in
question -–such roughnesses -–such peculiarities -–such protuberances above the plane of
the ordinary -- that Reason feels her way, if at all, in her search for the True. By the
difficulty -–the "peculiarity" -–now presented, I leap at once to the secret -–a secret which
I might never have attained but for the peculiarity and the inferences which, in its mere
character of peculiarity, it affords me.
* "Murders in the Rue Morgue."
The process of thought, at this point, may be thus roughly sketched: -–I say to myself -–
"Unity, as I have explained it, is a truth -–I feel it. Diffusion is a truth -–I see it.
Irradiation, by which alone these two truths are reconciled, is a consequent truth -- I
perceive it. Equability of diffusion, first deduced a priori and then corroborated by the
inspection of phaenomena, is also a truth -- I fully admit it. So far all is clear around me: –there are no clouds behind which the secret -–the great secret of the gravitating modus
operandi -–can possibly lie hidden; -–but this secret lies hereabouts, most assuredly; and
were there but a cloud in view, I should be driven to suspicion of that cloud." And now,
just as I say this, there actually comes a cloud into view. This cloud is the seeming
impossibility of reconciling my truth, irradiation, with my truth, equability of diffusion. I
say now: -–"Behind this seeming impossibility is to be found what I desire." I do not say
"real impossibility;" for invincible faith in my truths assures me that it is a mere difficulty
after all -–but I go on to say, with unflinching confidence, that, when this difficulty shall
be solved, we shall find, wrapped up in the recess of solution, the key to the secret at
which we aim. Moreover -–I feel that we shall discover but one possible solution of the
difficulty; this for the reason that, were there two, one would be supererogatory -–would
be fruitless -–would be empty -–would contain no key -–since no duplicate key can be
needed to any secret of Nature.
And now, let us see: -–Our usual notions of irradiation -–in fact our distinct notions of it –are caught merely from the process as we see it exemplified in Light. Here there is a
Continuous outpouring of ray-streams, and with a force which we have at least no right to
suppose varies at all. Now, in any such irradiation as this -–continuous and of unvarying
force -–the regions nearer the centre must inevitably be always more crowded with the
irradiated matter than the regions more remote. But I have assumed no such irradiation as
this. I assumed no Continuous irradiation; and for the simple reason that such an
assumption would have involved, first, the necessity of entertaining a conception which I
have shown no man can entertain, and which (as I will more fully explain hereafter) all
observation of the firmament refutes -–the conception of the absolute infinity of the
Universe of stars -–and would have involved, secondly, the impossibility of
understanding a reaction -- that is, gravitation -–as existing now -–since, while an act is
continued, no reaction, of course, can take place. My assumption, then, or rather my
inevitable deduction from just premises -–was that of a determinate irradiation -–one
finally dis continued.
Let me now describe the sole possible mode in which it is conceivable that matter could
have been diffused through space, so as to fulfil the conditions at once of irradiation and
of generally equable distribution.
For convenience of illustration, let us imagine, in the first place, a hollow sphere of glass,
or of anything else, occupying the space throughout which the universal matter is to be
thus equally diffused, by means of irradiation, from the absolute, irrelative, unconditional
particle, placed in the centre of the sphere.
Now, a certain exertion of the diffusive power (presumed to be the Divine Volition) -–in
other words, a certain force -–whose measure is the quantity of matter -–that is to say, the
number of atoms -- emitted; emits, by irradiation, this certain number of atoms; forcing
them in all directions outwardly from the centre -–their proximity to each other
diminishing as they proceed -–until, finally, they are distributed, loosely, over the interior
surface of the sphere.
When these atoms have attained this position, or while proceeding to attain it, a second
and inferior exercise of the same force -–or a second and inferior force of the same
character -–emits, in the same manner -–that is to say, by irradiation as before -–a second
stratum of atoms which proceeds to deposit itself upon the first; the number of atoms, in
this case as in the former, being of course the measure of the force which emitted them;
in other words the force being precisely adapted to the purpose it effects -–the force and
the number of atoms sent out by the force, being directly proportional.
When this second stratum has reached its destined position -–or while approaching it -–a
third still inferior exertion of the force, or a third inferior force of a similar character -–
the number of atoms emitted being in cases the measure of the force -–proceeds to
deposit a third stratum upon the second: -–and so on, until these concentric strata,
growing gradually less and less, come down at length to the central point; and the
diffusive matter, simultaneously with the diffusive force, is exhausted.
We have now the sphere filled, through means of irradiation, with atoms equably
diffused. The two necessary conditions -–those of irradiation and of equable diffusion -–
are satisfied; and by the sole process in which the possibility of their simultaneous
satisfaction is conceivable. For this reason, I confidently expect to find, lurking in the
present condition of the atoms as distributed throughout the sphere, the secret of which I
am in search -–the all-important principle of the modus operandi of the Newtonian law.
Let us examine, then, the actual condition of the atoms.
They lie in a series of concentric strata. They are equably diffused throughout the sphere.
They have been irradiated into these states.
The atoms being equably distributed, the greater the superficial extent of any of these
concentric strata, or spheres, the more atoms will lie upon it. In other words, the number
of atoms lying upon the surface of any one of the concentric spheres, is directly
proportional with the extent of that surface.
But, in any series of concentric spheres, the surfaces are directly proportional with the
squares of the distances from the centre. *
* Succinctly -–The surfaces of spheres are as the squares of their radii.
Therefore the number of atoms in any stratum is directly proportional with the square of
that stratum's distance from the centre.
But the number of atoms in any stratum is the measure of the force which emitted that
stratum -–that is to say, is directly proportional with the force.
Therefore the force which irradiated any stratum is directly proportional with the square
of that stratum's distance from the centre: -–or, generally,
The force of the irradiation has been directly proportional with the squares of the
distances.
Now, Reaction, as far as we know any thing of it, is Action conversed. The general
principle of Gravity being, in the first place, understood as the reaction of an act -–as the
expression of a desire on the part of Matter, while existing in a state of diffusion, to
return into the Unity whence it was diffused; and, in the second place, the mind being
called upon to determine the character of the desire -–the manner in which it would,
naturally, be manifested; in other words, being called upon to conceive a probable law, or
modus operandi, for the return; could not well help arriving at the conclusion that this law
of return would be precisely the converse of the law of departure. That such would be the
case, any one, at least, would be abundantly justified in taking for granted, until such time
as some person should suggest something like a plausible reason why it should not be the
case -–until such a period as a law of return shall be imagined which the intellect can
consider as preferable.
Matter, then, irradiated into space with a force varying as the squares of the distances,
might, a priori, be supposed to return towards its centre of irradiation with a force varying
inversely as the squares of the distances: and I have already shown * that any principle
which will explain why the atoms should tend, according to any law, to the general
centre, must be admitted as satisfactorily explaining, at the same time, why, according to
the same law, they should tend each to each. For, in fact, the tendency to the general
centre is not to a centre as such, but because of its being a point in tending towards which
each atom tends most directly to its real and essential centre, Unity -–the absolute and
final Union of all.
* See previous paragraph, "I reply that they do; as will be distinctly..."
The consideration here involved presents to my own mind no embarrassment whatever -–
but this fact does not blind me to the possibility of its being obscure to those who may
have been less in the habit of dealing with abstractions: -–and, upon the whole, it may be
as well to look at the matter from one or two other points of view.
The absolute, irrelative particle primarily created by the Volition of God, must have been
in a condition of positive normality, or rightfulness -–for wrongfulness implies relation.
Right is positive; wrong is negative -–is merely the negation of right; as cold is the
negation of heat -–darkness of light. That a thing may be wrong, it is necessary that there
be some other thing in relation to which it is wrong -–some condition which it fails to
satisfy; some law which it violates; some being whom it aggrieves. If there be no such
being, law, or condition, in respect to which the thing is wrong -- and, still more
especially, if no beings, laws, or conditions exist at all -–then the thing cannot be wrong
and consequently must be right. Any deviation from normality involves a tendency to
return to it. A difference from the normal -–from the right -–from the just -–can be
understood as effected only by the overcoming a difficulty; and if the force which
overcomes the difficulty be not infinitely continued, the ineradicable tendency to return
will at length be permitted to act for its own satisfaction. Upon withdrawal of the force,
the tendency acts. This is the principle of reaction as the inevitable consequence of finite
action. Employing a phraseology of which the seeming affectation will be pardoned for
its expressiveness, we may say that Reaction is the return from the condition of as it is
and ought not to be into the condition of as it was, originally, and therefore ought to be: –and let me add here that the absolute force of Reaction would no doubt be always found
in direct proportion with the reality -–the truth -–the absoluteness -–of the originality -–if
ever it were possible to measure this latter: -–and, consequently, the greatest of all
conceivable reactions must be that produced by the tendency which we now discuss -–the
tendency to return into the absolutely original -–into the supremely primitive. Gravity,
then, must be the strongest of forces -–an idea reached a priori and abundantly confirmed
by induction. What use I make of the idea, will be seen in the sequel.
The atoms, now, having been diffused from their normal condition of Unity, seek to
return to -–what? Not to any particular point, certainly; for it is clear that if, upon the
diffusion, the whole Universe of matter had been projected, collectively, to a distance
from the point of irradiation, the atomic tendency to the general centre of the sphere
would not have been disturbed in the least: -- the atoms would not have sought the point
in absolute space from which they were originally impelled. It is merely the Condition,
and not the point or locality at which this condition took its rise, that these atoms seek to
re-establish; -–it is merely that condition which is their normality, that they desire. "But
they seek a centre," it will be said, "and a centre is a point." True; but they seek this point
not in its character of point -–(for, were the whole sphere moved from its position, they
would seek, equally, the centre; and the centre then would be a new point) -–but because
it so happens, on account of the form in which they collectively exist -–(that of the
sphere) -–that only through the point in question -–the sphere's centre -–they can attain
their true object, Unity. In the direction of the centre each atom perceives more atoms
than in any other direction. Each atom is impelled towards the centre because along the
straight line joining it and the centre and passing on to the circumference beyond, there
lie a greater number of atoms than along any other straight line -–a greater number of
objects that seek it, the individual atom -–a greater number of tendencies to Unity -–a
greater number of satisfactions for its own tendency to Unity -–in a word, because in the
direction of the centre lies the utmost possibility of satisfaction, generally, for its own
individual appetite. To be brief, the Condition, Unity, is all that is really sought; and if the
atoms seem to seek the centre of the sphere, it is only impliedly, through implication -–
because such centre happens to imply, to include, or to involve, the only essential centre,
Unity. But on account of this implication or involution, there is no possibility of
practically separating the tendency to Unity in the abstract, from the tendency to the
concrete centre. Thus the tendency of the atoms to the general centre is, to all practical
intents and for all logical purposes, the tendency each to each; and the tendency each to
each is the tendency to the centre; and the one tendency may be assumed as the other;
whatever will apply to the one must be thoroughly applicable to the other; and, in
conclusion, whatever principle will satisfactorily explain the one, cannot be questioned as
an explanation of the other.
In looking carefully around me for rational objection to what I have advanced, I am able
to discover nothing; -–but of that class of objections usually urged by the doubters for
Doubt's sake, I very readily perceive three; and proceed to dispose of them in order.
It may be said, first: "The proof that the force of irradiation (in the case described) is
directly proportional to the squares of the distances, depends upon an unwarranted
assumption -–that of the number of atoms in each stratum being the measure of the force
with which they are emitted."
I reply, not only that I am warranted in such assumption, but that I should be utterly un
warranted in any other. What I assume is, simply, that an effect is the measure of its
cause -–that every exercise of the Divine Will will be proportional to that which demands
the exertion -–that the means of Omnipotence, or of Omniscience, will be exactly adapted
to its purposes. Neither can a deficiency nor an excess of cause bring to pass any effect.
Had the force which irradiated any stratum to its position, been either more or less than
was needed for the purpose -–that is to say, not directly proportional to the purpose -–
then to its position that stratum could not have been irradiated. Had the force which, with
a view to general equability of distribution, emitted the proper number of atoms for each
stratum, been not directly proportional to the number, then the number would not have
been the number demanded for the equable distribution.
The second supposable objection is somewhat better entitled to an answer.
It is an admitted principle in Dynamics that every body, on receiving an impulse, or
disposition to move, will move onward in a straight line, in the direction imparted by the
impelling force, until deflected, or stopped, by some other force. How then, it may be
asked, is my first or external stratum of atoms to be understood as discontinuing their
movement at the circumference of the imaginary glass sphere, when no second force, of
more than an imaginary character, appears, to account for the discontinuance?
I reply that the objection, in this case, actually does arise out of "an unwarranted
assumption" -–on the part of the objector -–the assumption of a principle, in Dynamics, at
an epoch when no "principles," in anything, exist: -–I use the word "principle," of course,
in the objector's understanding of the word.
"In the beginning" we can admit -–indeed we can comprehend -–but one First Cause -–
the truly ultimate Principle -–the Volition of God. The primary act -–that of Irradiation
from Unity -–must have been independent of all that which the world now calls
"principle" -–because all that we so designate is but a consequence of the reaction of that
primary act: -–I say "primary" act; for the creation of the absolute material particle is
more properly to be regarded as a Conception than as an "act" in the ordinary meaning of
the term. Thus, we must regard the primary act as an act for the establishment of what we
now call "principles". But this primary act itself is to be considered as Continuous
Volition. The Thought of God is to be understood as originating the Diffusion -–as
proceeding with it -–as regulating it -–and, finally, as being withdrawn from it upon its
completion. Then commences Reaction, and through Reaction, "Principle," as we employ
the word. It will be advisable, however, to limit the application of this word to the two
immediate results of the discontinuance of the Divine Volition -–that is, to the two
agents, Attraction and Repulsion. Every other Natural agent depends, either more or less
immediately, upon these two, and therefore would be more conveniently designated as
sub -principle.
It may be objected, thirdly, that, in general, the peculiar mode of distribution which I
have suggested for the atoms, is "an hypothesis and nothing more."
Now, I am aware that the word hypothesis is a ponderous sledge-hammer, grasped
immediately, if not lifted, by all very diminutive thinkers, upon the first appearance of
any proposition wearing, in any particular, the garb of a theory. But "hypothesis" cannot
be wielded here to any good purpose, even by those who succeed in lifting it -–little men
or great.
I maintain, first, that only in the mode described is it conceivable that Matter could have
been diffused so as to fulfil at once the conditions of irradiation and of generally equable
distribution. I maintain, secondly, that these conditions themselves have been imposed
upon me, as necessities, in a train of ratiocination as rigorously logical as that which
establishes any demonstration in Euclid; and I maintain, thirdly, that even if the charge of
"hypothesis" were as fully sustained as it is, in fact, unsustained and untenable, still the
validity and indisputability of my result would not, even in the slightest particular, be
disturbed.
To explain: The Newtonian Gravity -–a law of Nature -–a law whose existence as such
no one out of Bedlam questions -–a law whose admission as such enables us to account
for nine-tenths of the Universal phaenomena -–a law which, merely because it does so
enable us to account for these phaenomena, we are perfectly willing, without reference to
any other considerations, to admit, and cannot help admitting, as a law -–a law,
nevertheless, of which neither the principle nor the modus operandi of the principle, has
ever yet been traced by the human analysis -–a law, in short, which, neither in its detail
nor in its generality, has been found susceptible of explanation at all -–is at length seen to
be at every point thoroughly explicable, provided we only yield our assent to -–what? To
an hypothesis? Why if an hypothesis -–if the merest hypothesis -–if an hypothesis for
whose assumption -–as in the case of that pure hypothesis the Newtonian law itself -–no
shadow of a priori reason could be assigned -–if an hypothesis, even so absolute as all
this implies, would enable us to perceive a principle for the Newtonian law -–would
enable us to understand as satisfied, conditions so miraculously -–so ineffably complex
and seemingly irreconcileable as those involved in the relations of which Gravity tells us,
-–what rational being Could so expose his fatuity as to call even this absolute hypothesis
an hypothesis any longer -–unless, indeed, he were to persist in so calling it, with the
understanding that he did so, simply for the sake of consistency in words?
But what is the true state of our present case? What is the fact? Not only that it is not an
hypothesis which we are required to adopt, in order to admit the principle at issue
explained, but that it is a logical conclusion which we are requested not to adopt if we can
avoid it -–which we are simply invited to deny if we can: -–a conclusion of so accurate a
logicality that to dispute it would be the effort -–to doubt its validity beyond our power: –a conclusion from which we see no mode of escape, turn as we will; a result which
confronts us either at the end of an in ductive journey from the phaenomena of the very
Law discussed, or at the close of a de ductive career from the most rigorously simple of
all conceivable assumptions -–the assumption, in a word, of Simplicity itself.
And if here, for the mere sake of cavilling, it be urged, that although my starting-point is,
as I assert, the assumption of absolute Simplicity, yet Simplicity, considered merely in
itself, is no axiom; and that only deductions from axioms are indisputable -–it is thus that
I reply: -Every other science than Logic is the science of certain concrete relations. Arithmetic, for
example, is the science of the relations of number -–Geometry, of the relations of form -–
Mathematics in general, of the relations of quantity in general -–of whatever can be
increased or diminished. Logic, however, is the science of Relation in the abstract -–of
absolute Relation -–of Relation considered solely in itself. An axiom in any particular
science other than Logic is, thus, merely a proposition announcing certain concrete
relations which seem to be too obvious for dispute -–as when we say, for instance, that
the whole is greater than its part: -–and, thus again, the principle of the Logical axiom -–
in other words, of an axiom in the abstract -- is, simply, obviousness of relation. Now, it
is clear, not only that what is obvious to one mind may not be obvious to another, but that
what is obvious to one mind at one epoch, may be anything but obvious, at another
epoch, to the same mind. It is clear, moreover, that what, to-day, is obvious even to the
majority of mankind, or to the majority of the best intellects of mankind, may to-morrow
be, to either majority, more or less obvious, or in no respect obvious at all. It is seen,
then, that the axiomatic principle itself is susceptible of variation, and of course that
axioms are susceptible of similar change. Being mutable, the "truths" which grow out of
them are necessarily mutable too; or, in other words, are never to be positively depended
upon as truths at all -–since Truth and Immutability are one.
It will now be readily understood that no axiomatic idea -–no idea founded in the
fluctuating principle, obviousness of relation -–can possibly be so secure -–so reliable a
basis for any structure erected by the Reason, as that idea -–(whatever it is, wherever we
can find it, or if it be practicable to find it anywhere) -–which is ir relative altogether -–
which not only presents to the understanding no obviousness of relation, either greater or
less, to be considered, but subjects the intellect, not in the slightest degree, to the
necessity of even looking at any relation at all. If such an idea be not what we too
heedlessly term "an axiom," it is at least preferable, as a Logical basis, to any axiom ever
propounded, or to all imaginable axioms combined: -–and such, precisely, is the idea with
which my deductive process, so thoroughly corroborated by induction, commences. My
particle proper is but absolute Irrelation. To sum up what has been advanced: -–As a
starting point I have taken it for granted, simply, that the Beginning had nothing behind it
or before it -–that it was a Beginning in fact -–that it was a beginning and nothing
different from a beginning -–in short, that this Beginning was -–that which it was. If this
be a "mere assumption" then a "mere assumption" let it be.
To conclude this branch of the subject: -–I am fully warranted in announcing that the
Law which we have been in the habit of calling Gravity exists on account of Matter's
having been irradiated, at its origin, atomically, into a limited * sphere of Space, from
one, individual, unconditional, irrelative, and absolute Particle Proper, by the sole process
in which it was possible to satisfy, at the same time, the two conditions, irradiation, and
generally-equable distribution throughout the sphere -–that is to say, by a force varying in
direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the irradiated atoms,
respectively, and the Particular centre of Irradiation.
* "Limited sphere" -–A sphere is necessarily limited. I prefer tautology to a chance of
misconception.
I have already given my reasons for presuming Matter to have been diffused by a
determinate rather than by a continuous or infinitely continued force. Supposing a
continuous force, we should be unable, in the first place, to comprehend a reaction at all;
and we should be required, in the second place, to entertain the impossible conception of
an infinite extension of Matter. Not to dwell upon the impossibility of the conception, the
infinite extension of Matter is an idea which, if not positively disproved, is at least not in
any respect warranted by telescopic observation of the stars -–a point to be explained
more fully hereafter; and this empirical reason for believing in the original finity of
Matter is unempirically confirmed. For example: -–Admitting, for the moment, the
possibility of understanding Space filled with the irradiated atoms -–that is to say,
admitting, as well as we can, for argument's sake, that the succession of the irradiated
atoms had absolutely no end -–then it is abundantly clear that, even when the Volition of
God had been withdrawn from them, and thus the tendency to return into Unity permitted
(abstractly) to be satisfied, this permission would have been nugatory and invalid -–
practically valueless and of no effect whatever. No Reaction could have taken place; no
movement toward Unity could have been made; no Law of Gravity could have obtained.
To explain: -–Grant the abstract tendency of any one atom to any one other as the
inevitable result of diffusion from the normal Unity: -–or, what is the same thing, admit
any given atom as proposing to move in any given direction -–it is clear that, since there
is an infinity of atoms on all sides of the atom proposing to move, it never can actually
move toward the satisfaction of its tendency in the direction given, on account of a
precisely equal and counter-balancing tendency in the direction diametrically opposite. In
other words, exactly as many tendencies to Unity are behind the hesitating atom as before
it; for it is a mere sotticism to say that one infinite line is longer or shorter than another
infinite line, or that one infinite number is greater or less than another number that is
infinite. Thus the atom in question must remain stationary forever. Under the impossible
circumstances which we have been merely endeavoring to conceive for argument's sake,
there could have been no aggregation of Matter -–no stars -–no worlds -–nothing but a
perpetually atomic and inconsequential Universe. In fact, view it as we will, the whole
idea of unlimited Matter is not only untenable, but impossible and preposterous.
With the understanding of a sphere of atoms, however, we perceive, at once, a satisfiable
tendency to union. The general result of the tendency each to each, being a tendency of
all to the centre, the general process of condensation, or approximation, commences
immediately, by a common and simultaneous movement, on withdrawal of the Divine
Volition; the individual approximations, or coalescences-not coalitions -–of atom with
atom, being subject to almost infinite variations of time, degree, and condition, on
account of the excessive multiplicity of relation, arising from the differences of form
assumed as characterizing the atoms at the moment of their quitting the Particle Proper;
as well as from the subsequent particular inequidistance, each from each.
What I wish to impress upon the reader is the certainty of there arising, at once, (on
withdrawal of the diffusive force, or Divine Volition,) out of the condition of the atoms
as described, at innumerable points throughout the Universal sphere, innumerable
agglomerations, characterized by innumerable specific differences of form, size, essential
nature, and distance each from each. The development of Repulsion (Electricity) must
have commenced, of course, with the very earliest particular efforts at Unity, and must
have proceeded constantly in the ratio of Coalescence -–that is to say, in that of
Condensation, or, again, of Heterogeneity.
Thus the two Principles Proper, Attraction and Repulsion -–the Material and the Spiritual
-–accompany each other, in the strictest fellowship, forever. Thus The Body and The
Soul walk hand in hand.
If now, in fancy, we select any one of the agglomerations considered as in their primary
stages throughout the Universal sphere, and suppose this incipient agglomeration to be
taking place at that point where the centre of our Sun exists -–or rather where it did exist
originally; for the Sun is perpetually shifting his position -–we shall find ourselves met,
and borne onward for a time at least, by the most magnificent of theories -–by the
Nebular Cosmogony of Laplace: -- although "Cosmogony" is far too comprehensive a
term for what he really discusses -–which is the constitution of our solar system alone -of one among the myriad of similar systems which make up the Universe Proper -–that
Universal sphere -–that all-inclusive and absolute Kosmos which forms the subject of my
present Discourse.
Confining himself to an obviously limited region -–that of our solar system with its
comparatively immediate vicinity -–and merely assuming -–that is to say, assuming
without any basis whatever, either deductive or inductive -–much of what I have been
just endeavoring to place upon a more stable basis than assumption; assuming, for
example, matter as diffused (without pretending to account for the diffusion) throughout,
and somewhat beyond, the space occupied by our system -–diffused in a state of
heterogeneous nebulosity and obedient to that omniprevalent law of Gravity at whose
principle he ventured to make no guess; -–assuming all this (which is quite true, although
he had no logical right to its assumption) Laplace has shown, dynamically and
mathematically, that the results in such case necessarily ensuing, are those and those
alone which we find manifested in the actually existing condition of the system itself.
To explain: -–Let us conceive that particular agglomeration of which we have just spoken
-–the one at the point designated by our Sun's centre -–to have so far proceeded that a
vast quantity of nebulous matter has here assumed a roughly globular form; its centre
being, of course, coincident with what is now, or rather was originally, the centre of our
Sun; and its periphery extending out beyond the orbit of Neptune, the most remote of our
planets: -–in other words, let us suppose the diameter of this rough sphere to be some
6000 millions of miles. For ages, this mass of matter has been undergoing condensation,
until at length it has become reduced into the bulk we imagine; having proceeded
gradually, of course, from its atomic and imperceptible state, into what we understand of
visible, palpable, or otherwise appreciable nebulosity.
Now, the condition of this mass implies a rotation about an imaginary axis -–a rotation
which, commencing with the absolute incipiency of the aggregation, has been ever since
acquiring velocity. The very first two atoms which met, approaching each other from
points not diametrically opposite, would, in rushing partially past each other, form a
nucleus for the rotary movement described. How this would increase in velocity, is
readily seen. The two atoms are joined by others: -–an aggregation is formed. The mass
continues to rotate while condensing. But any atom at the circumference has, of course, a
more rapid motion than one nearer the centre. The outer atom, however, with its superior
velocity, approaches the centre; carrying this superior velocity with it as it goes. Thus
every atom, proceeding inwardly, and finally attaching itself to the condensed centre,
adds something to the original velocity of that centre -–that is to say, increases the rotary
movement of the mass.
Let us now suppose this mass so far condensed that it occupies precisely the space
circumscribed by the orbit of Neptune, and that the velocity with which the surface of the
mass moves, in the general rotation, is precisely that velocity with which Neptune now
revolves about the Sun. At this epoch, then, we are to understand that the constantly
increasing centrifugal force, having gotten the better of the non-increasing centripetal,
loosened and separated the exterior and least condensed stratum, or a few of the exterior
and least condensed strata, at the equator of the sphere, where the tangential velocity
predominated; so that these strata formed about the main body an independent ring
encircling the equatorial regions: -–just as the exterior portion thrown off, by excessive
velocity of rotation, from a grindstone, would form a ring about the grindstone, but for
the solidity of the superficial material: were this caoutchouc, or anything similar in
consistency, precisely the phaenomenon I describe would be presented.
The ring thus whirled from the nebulous mass, revolved, of course, as a separate ring,
with just that velocity with which, while the surface of the mass, it rotated. In the
meantime, condensation still proceeding, the interval between the discharged ring and the
main body continued to increase, until the former was left at a vast distance from the
latter.
Now, admitting the ring to have possessed, by some seemingly accidental arrangement of
its heterogeneous materials, a constitution nearly uniform, then this ring, as such, would
never have ceased revolving about its primary; but, as might have been anticipated, there
appears to have been enough irregularity in the disposition of the materials, to make them
cluster about centres of superior solidity; and thus the annular form was destroyed. * No
doubt, the band was soon broken up into several portions, and one of these portions,
predominating in mass, absorbed the others into itself; the whole settling, spherically,
into a planet. That this latter, as a planet, continued the revolutionary movement which
characterized it while a ring, is sufficiently clear; and that it took upon itself, also, an
additional movement in its new condition of sphere, is readily explained. The ring being
understood as yet unbroken, we see that its exterior, while the whole revolves about the
parent body, moves more rapidly than its interior. When the rupture occurred, then, some
portion in each fragment must have been moving with greater velocity than the others.
The superior movement prevailing, must have whirled each fragment round -–that is to
say, have caused it to rotate; and the direction of the rotation must, of course, have been
the direction of the revolution whence it arose. the fragments having become subject to
the rotation described, must, in coalescing, have imparted it to the one planet constituted
by their coalescence. -–This planet was Neptune. Its material continuing to undergo
condensation, and the centrifugal force generated in its rotation getting, at length, the
better of the centripetal, as before in the case of the parent orb, a ring was whirled also
from the equatorial surface of this planet: this ring, having been ununiform in its
constitution, was broken up, and its several fragments, being absorbed by the most
massive, were collectively spherified into a moon. Subsequently, the operation was
repeated, and a second moon was the result. We thus account for the planet Neptune, with
the two satellites which accompany him.
* Laplace assumed his nebulosity heterogeneous, merely that he might be thus enabled to
account for the breaking up of the rings; for had the nebulosity been homogeneous, they
would not have broken. I reach the same result -–heterogeneity of the secondary masses
immediately resulting from the atoms -–purely from an a priori consideration of their
general design -–Relation.
In throwing of a ring from its equator, the Sun re-established that equilibrium between its
centripetal and centrifugal forces which had been disturbed in the process of
condensation; but, as this condensation still proceeded, the equilibrium was again
immediately disturbed, through the increase of rotation. By the time the mass had so far
shrunk that it occupied a spherical space just that circumscribed by the orbit of Uranus,
we are to understand that the centrifugal force had so far obtained the ascendency that
new relief was needed: a second equatorial band was, consequently, thrown off, which,
proving ununiform, was broken up, as before in the case of Neptune; the fragments
settling into the planet Uranus; the velocity of whose actual revolution about the Sun
indicates, of course, the rotary speed of that Sun's equatorial surface at the moment of the
separation. Uranus, adopting a rotation from the collective rotations of the fragments
composing it, as previously explained, now threw off ring after ring; each of which,
becoming broken up, settled into a moon: -–three moons, at different epochs, having been
formed, in this manner, by the rupture and general spherification of as many distinct
ununiform rings.
By the time the Sun had shrunk until it occupied a space just that circumscribed by the
orbit of Saturn, the balance, we are to suppose, between its centripetal and centrifugal
forces had again become so far disturbed, through increase of rotary velocity, the result of
condensation, that a third effort at equilibrium became necessary; and an annular band
was therefore whirled off, as twice before; which, on rupture through ununiformity,
became consolidated into the planet Saturn. This latter threw off, in the first place, seven
uniform bands, which, on rupture, were spherified respectively into as many moons; but,
subsequently, it appears to have discharged, at three distinct but not very distant epochs,
three rings whose equability of constitution was, by apparent accident, so considerable as
to present no occasion for their rupture; thus they continue to revolve as rings. I use the
phrase "apparent accident;" for of accident in the ordinary sense there was, of course,
nothing: -–the term is properly applied only to the result of indistinguishable or not
immediately traceable LA0
Shrinking still farther, until it occupied just the space circumscribed by the orbit of
Jupiter, the Sun now found need of farther effort to restore the counterbalance of its two
forces, continually disarranged in the still continued increase of rotation. Jupiter,
accordingly, was now thrown off; passing from the annular to the planetary condition;
and, on attaining this latter, threw off in its turn, at four different epochs, four rings,
which finally resolved themselves into so many moons.
Still shrinking, until its sphere occupied just the space defined by the orbit of the
Asteroids, the Sun now discarded a ring which appears to have had eight centres of
superior solidity, and, on breaking up, to have separated into eight fragments no one of
which so far predominated in mass as to absorb the others. All therefore, as distinct
although comparatively small planets, proceeded to revolve in orbits whose distances,
each from each, may be considered as in some degree the measure of the force which
drove them asunder: -–all the orbits, nevertheless, being so closely coincident as to admit
of our calling them one, in view of the other planetary orbits.
Continuing to shrink, the Sun, on becoming so small as just to fill the orbit of Mars, now
discharged this planet -–of course by the process repeatedly described. Having no moon,
however, Mars could have thrown off no ring. In fact, an epoch had now arrived in the
career of the parent body, the centre of the system. The de crease of its nebulosity, which
is the in crease of its density, and which again is the de crease of its condensation, out of
which latter arose the constant disturbance of equilibrium -–must, by this period, have
attained a point at which the efforts for restoration would have been more and more
ineffectual just in proportion as they were less frequently needed. Thus the processes of
which we have been speaking would everywhere show signs of exhaustion -–in the
planets, first, and secondly, in the original mass. We must not fall into the error of
supposing the decrease of interval observed among the planets as we approach the Sun, to
be in any respect indicative of an increase of frequency in the periods at which they were
discarded. Exactly the converse is to be understood. The longest interval of time must
have occurred between the discharges of the two interior; the shortest, between those of
the two exterior, planets. The decrease of the interval of space is, nevertheless, the
measure of the density, and thus inversely of the condensation, of the Sun, throughout the
processes detailed.
Having shrunk, however, so far as to fill only the orbit of our Earth, the parent sphere
whirled from itself still one other body -–the Earth -–in a condition ~~~~so nebulous as
to admit of this body's discarding, in its turn, yet another, which is our Moon; -–but here
terminated the lunar formations.
Finally, subsiding to the orbits first of Venus and then of Mercury, the Sun discarded
these two interior planets; neither of which has given birth to any moon.
Thus from his original bulk -–or, to speak more accurately, from the condition in which
we first considered him -–from a partially spherified nebular mass, certainly much more
than 5,600 millions of miles in diameter -–the great central orb and origin of our solarplanetary-lunar system, has gradually descended, by condensation, in obedience to the
law of Gravity, to a globe only 882,000 miles in diameter; but it by no means follows,
either that its condensation is yet complete, or that it may not still possess the capacity of
whirling from itself another planet.
I have here given -–in outline of course, but still with all the detail necessary for
distinctness -–a view of the Nebular Theory as its author himself conceived it. From
whatever point we regard it, we shall find it beautifully true. It is by far too beautiful,
indeed, not to possess Truth as its essentiality -–and here I am very profoundly serious in
what I say. In the revolution of the satellites of Uranus, there does appear something
seemingly inconsistent with the assumptions of Laplace; but that one inconsistency can
invalidate a theory constructed from a million of intricate consistencies, is a fancy fit only
for the fantastic. In prophecying, confidently, that the apparent anomaly to which I refer,
will, sooner or later, be found one of the strongest possible corroborations of the general
hypothesis, I pretend to no especial spirit of divination. It is a matter which the only
difficulty seems not to foresee. *
* I am prepared to show that the anomalous revolution of the satellites of Uranus is a
simply perspective anomaly arising from the inclination of the axis of the planet.
The bodies whirled off in the processes described, would exchange, it has been seen, the
superficial rotation of the orbs whence they originated, for a revolution of equal velocity
about these orbs as distant centres; and the revolution thus engendered must proceed, so
long as the centripetal force, or that with which the discarded body gravitates toward its
parent, is neither greater nor less than that by which it was discarded; that is, than the
centrifugal, or, far more properly, than the tangential, velocity. From the unity, however,
of the origin of these two forces, we might have expected to find them as they are found –the one accurately counterbalancing the other. It has been shown, indeed, that the act of
whirling-off is, in every case, merely an act for the preservation of the counterbalance.
After referring, however, the centripetal force to the omniprevalent law of Gravity, it has
been the fashion with astronomical treatises, to seek beyond the limits of mere Nature -–
that is to say, of Secondary Cause -–a solution of the phaenomenon of tangential velocity.
This latter they attribute directly to a First Cause -–to God. The force which carries a
stellar body around its primary they assert to have originated in an impulse given
immediately by the finger -–this is the childish phraseology employed -–by the finger of
Deity itself. In this view, the planets, fully formed, are conceived to have been hurled
from the Divine hand, to a position in the vicinity of the suns, with an impetus
mathematically adapted to the masses, or attractive capacities, of the suns themselves. An
idea so grossly unphilosophical, although so supinely adopted, could have arisen only
from the difficulty of otherwise accounting for the absolutely accurate adaptation, each to
each, of two forces so seemingly independent, one of the other, as are the gravitating and
tangential. But it should be remembered that, for a long time, the coincidence between
the moon's rotation and her sidereal revolution -- two matters seemingly far more
independent than those now considered -–was looked upon as positively miraculous; and
there was a strong disposition, even among astronomers, to attribute the marvel to the
direct and continual agency of God -–who, in this case, it was said, had found it
necessary to interpose, specially, among his general laws, a set of subsidiary regulations,
for the purpose of forever concealing from mortal eyes the glories, or perhaps the horrors,
of the other side of the Moon -–of that mysterious hemisphere which has always avoided,
and must perpetually avoid, the telescopic scrutiny of mankind. The advance of Science,
however, soon demonstrated -–what to the philosophical instinct needed no
demonstration -–that the one movement is but a portion -–something more, even, than a
consequence -–of the other.
For my part, I have no patience with fantasies at once so timorous, so idle, and so
awkward. They belong to the veriest Cowardice of thought. That Nature and the God of
Nature are distinct, no thinking being can long doubt. By the former we imply merely the
laws of the latter. But with the very idea of God, omnipotent, omniscient, we entertain,
also, the idea of the infallibility of his laws. With Him there being neither Past nor Future
-–with Him all being Now -–do we not insult him in supposing his laws so contrived as
not to provide for every possible contingency? -–or, rather, what idea can we have of any
possible contingency, except that it is at once a result and a manifestation of his laws? He
who, divesting himself of prejudice, shall have the rare courage to think absolutely for
himself, cannot fail to arrive, in the end, at the condensation of LA0 into LA0 -cannot fail
of reaching the conclusion that each law of Nature is dependent at all points upon all
other laws, and that all are but consequences of one primary exercise of the Divine
Volition. Such is the principle of the Cosmogony which, with all necessary deference, I
here venture to suggest and to maintain.
In this view, it will be seen that, dismissing as frivolous, and even impious, the fancy of
the tangential force having been imparted to the planets immediately, by "the finger of
God," I consider this force as originating in the rotation of the stars: -–this rotation as
brought about by the in-rushing of the primary atoms, towards their respective centres of
aggregation: -–this in-rushing as the consequence of the law of Gravity: -–this law as but
the mode in which is necessarily manifested the tendency of the atoms to return into
imparticularity: -–this tendency to return as but the inevitable reaction of the first and
most sublime of Acts -–that act by which a God, self-existing and alone existing, became
all things at once, through dint of his volition, while all things were thus constituted a
portion of God.
The radical assumptions of this Discourse suggest to me, and in fact imply, certain
important modifications of the Nebular Theory as given by Laplace. The efforts of the
repulsive power I have considered as made for the purpose of preventing contact among
the atoms, and thus as made in the ratio of the approach to contact -–that is to say, in the
ratio of condensation. * In other words, Electricity, with its involute phaenomena, heat,
light and magnetism, is to be understood as proceeding as condensation proceeds, and, of
course, inversely as density proceeds, or the cessation to condense. Thus the Sun, in the
process of its aggregation, must soon, in developing repulsion, have become excessively
heated -–perhaps incandescent: and we can perceive how the operation of discarding its
rings must have been materially assisted by the slight incrustation of its surface
consequent on cooling. Any common experiment shows us how readily a crust of the
character suggested, is separated, through heterogeneity, from the interior mass. But, on
every successive rejection of the crust, the new surface would appear incandescent as
before; and the period at which it would again become so far encrusted as to be readily
loosened and discharged, may well be imagined as exactly coincident with that at which a
new effort would be needed, by the whole mass, to restore the equilibrium of its two
forces, disarranged through condensation. In other words: -–by the time the electric
influence (Repulsion) has prepared the surface for rejection, we are to understand that the
gravitating influence (Attraction) is precisely ready to reject it. Here, then, as everywhere,
the Body and the Soul walk hand in hand.
* See previous paragraph, "With the understanding of a sphere of atoms..."
These ideas are empirically confirmed at all points. Since condensation can never, in any
body, be considered as absolutely at an end, we are warranted in anticipating that,
whenever we have an opportunity of testing the matter, we shall find indications of
resident luminosity in the stellar bodies -–moons and planets as well as suns. That our
Moon is strongly self-luminous, we see at her every total eclipse, when, if not so, she
would disappear. On the dark part of the satellite, too, during her phases, we often
observe flashes like our own Auroras; and that these latter, with our various other socalled electrical phaenomena, without reference to any more steady radiance, must give
our Earth a certain appearance of luminosity to an inhabitant of the Moon, is quite
evident. In fact, we should regard all the phaenomena referred to, as mere manifestations,
in different moods and degrees, of the Earth's feebly-continued condensation.
If my views are tenable, we should be prepared to find the newer planets -–that is to say,
those nearer the Sun -–more luminous than those older and more remote: -–and the
extreme brilliancy of Venus (on whose dark portions, during her phases, the Auroras are
frequently visible) does not seem to be altogether accounted for by her mere proximity to
the central orb. She is no doubt vividly self-luminous, although less so than Mercury:
while the luminosity of Neptune may be comparatively nothing.
Admitting what I have urged, it is clear that, from the moment of the Sun's discarding a
ring, there must be a continuous diminution both of his heat and light, on account of the
continuous encrustation of his surface; and that a period would arrive -–the period
immediately previous to a new discharge -–when a very material decrease of both light
and heat, must become apparent. Now, we know that tokens of such changes are
distinctly recognizable. On the Melville islands -–to adduce merely one out of a hundred
examples -–we find traces of UL0 vegetation -–of plants that never could have flourished
without immensely more light and heat than are at present afforded by our Sun to any
portion of the surface of the Earth. Is such vegetation referable to an epoch immediately
subsequent to the whirling-off of Venus? At this epoch must have occurred to us our
greatest access of solar influence; and, in fact, this influence must then have attained its
maximum: -–leaving out of view, of course, the period when the Earth itself was
discarded -–the period of its mere organization.
Again: -–we know that there exist non-luminous suns -–that is to say, suns whose
existence we determine through the movements of others, but whose luminosity is not
sufficient to impress us. Are these suns invisible merely on account of the length of time
elapsed since their discharge of a planet? And yet again: -–may we not -–at least in
certain cases -–account for the sudden appearances of suns where none had been
previously suspected, by the hypothesis that, having rolled with encrusted surfaces
throughout the few thousand years of our astronomical history, each of these suns, in
whirling off a new secondary, has at length been enabled to display the glories of its still
incandescent interior? -–To the well-ascertained fact of the proportional increase of heat
as we descend into the Earth, I need of course, do nothing more than refer: -–it comes in
the strongest possible corroboration of all that I have said on the topic now at issue.
In speaking, not long ago, of the repulsive or electrical influence, I remarked that "the
important phaenomena of vitality, consciousness, and thought, whether we observe them
generally or in detail, seem to proceed at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous. " * I
mentioned, too, that I would recur to the suggestion: -–and this is the proper point at
which to do so. Looking at the matter, first, in detail, we perceive that not merely the
manifestation of vitality, but its importance, consequences, and elevation of character,
keep pace, very closely, with the heterogeneity, or complexity, of the animal structure.
Looking at the question, now, in its generality, and referring to the first movements of the
atoms towards mass-constitution, we find that heterogeneousness, brought about directly
through condensation, is proportional with it forever. We thus reach the proposition that
the importance of the development of the terrestrial vitality proceeds equably with the
terrestrial condensation.
* See previous paragraph, "To electricity -–so, for the present, continuing to call it..."
Now this is in precise accordance with what we know of the succession of animals on the
Earth. As it has proceeded in its condensation, superior and still superior races have
appeared. Is it impossible that the successive geological revolutions which have attended,
at least, if not immediately caused, these successive elevations of vitalic character -–is it
improbable that these revolutions have themselves been produced by the successive
planetary discharges from the Sun -–in other words, by the successive variations in the
solar influence on the Earth? Were this idea tenable, we should not be unwarranted in the
fancy that the discharge of yet a new planet, interior to Mercury, may give rise to yet a
new modification of the terrestrial surface -–a modification from which may spring a race
both materially and spiritually superior to Man. These thoughts impress me with all the
force of truth -–but I throw them out, of course, merely in their obvious character of
suggestion.
The Nebular Theory of Laplace has lately received far more confirmation than it needed,
at the hands of the philosopher, Compte. These two have thus together shown -–not, to be
sure, that Matter at any period actually existed as described, in a state of nebular
diffusion, but that, admitting it so to have existed throughout the space and much beyond
the space now occupied by our solar system, and to have commenced a movement
towards a centre -- it must gradually have assumed the various forms and motions which
are now seen, in that system, to obtain. A demonstration such as this -–a dynamical and
mathematical demonstration, as far as demonstration can be -–unquestionable and
unquestioned -–unless, indeed, by that unprofitable and disreputable tribe, the
professional questioners -–the mere madmen who deny the Newtonian law of Gravity on
which the results of the French mathematicians are based -–a demonstration, I say, such
as this, would to most intellects be conclusive -–and I confess that it is so to mine -–of the
validity of the nebular hypothesis upon which the demonstration depends.
That the demonstration does not prove the hypothesis, according to the common
understanding of the word "proof," I admit, of course. To show that certain existing
results -–that certain established facts -- may be, even mathematically, accounted for by
the assumption of a certain hypothesis, is by no means to establish the hypothesis itself.
In other words: -–to show that, certain data being given, a certain existing result might, or
even must, have ensued, will fail to prove that this result did ensue, FR until such time as
it shall be also shown that there are, and can be, no other data from which the result in
question might equally have ensued. But, in the case now discussed, although all must
admit the deficiency of what we are in the habit of terming "proof," still there are many
intellects, and those of the loftiest order to which no proof could bring one iota of
additional Conviction. Without going into details which might impinge upon the CloudLand of Metaphysics, I may as well here observe that the force of conviction, in cases
such as this, will always, with the right-thinking, be proportional to the amount of
Complexity intervening between the hypothesis and the result. To be less abstract: -–The
greatness of the complexity found existing among cosmical conditions, by rendering
great in the same proportion the difficulty of accounting for all these conditions at once,
strengthens, also in the same proportion, our faith in that hypothesis which does, in such
manner, satisfactorily account for them: -–and as no complexity can well be conceived
greater than that of the astronomical conditions, so no conviction can be stronger -–to my
mind at least -–than that with which I am impressed by an hypothesis that not only
reconciles these conditions, with mathematical accuracy, and reduces them into a
consistent and intelligible whole, but is, at the same time, the sole hypothesis by means of
which the human intellect has been ever enabled to account for them at all.
A most unfounded opinion has been latterly current and even in scientific circles -–the
opinion that the so-called Nebular Cosmogony has been overthrown. This fancy has
arisen from the report of late observations made, among what hitherto have been termed
the "nebulae," through the large telescope of Cincinnati, and the world-renowned
instrument of Lord Rosse. Certain spots in the firmament which presented, even to the
most powerful of the old telescopes, the appearance of nebulosity, or haze, had been
regarded for a long time as confirming the theory of Laplace. They were looked upon as
stars in that very process of condensation which I have been attempting to describe. Thus
it was supposed that we "had ocular evidence" -–an evidence, by the way, which has
always been found very questionable -- of the truth of the hypothesis; and, although
certain telescopic improvements, every now and then, enabled us to perceive that a spot,
here and there, which we had been classing among the nebulae, was, in fact, but a cluster
of stars deriving its nebular character only from its immensity of distance -–still it was
thought that no doubt could exist as to the actual nebulosity of numerous other masses,
the strong-holds of the nebulists, bidding defiance to every effort at segregation. Of these
latter the most interesting was the great "nebulae" in the constellation Orion: -–but this,
with innumerable other miscalled "nebulae," when viewed through the magnificent
modern telescopes, has become resolved into a simple collection of stars. Now this fact
has been very generally understood as conclusive against the Nebular Hypothesis of
Laplace; and, on announcement of the discoveries in question, the most enthusiastic
defender and most eloquent popularizer of the theory, Dr. Nichol, went so far as to
"admit the necessity of abandoning" an idea which had formed the material of his most
praiseworthy book. *
* "Views of the Architecture of the Heavens." A letter, purporting to be from Dr. Nichol
to a friend in America, went the rounds of our newspapers, about two years ago, I think,
admitting "the necessity" to which I refer. In a subsequent Lecture, however, Dr. N.
appears in some manner to have gotten the better of the necessity, and does not quite
renounce the theory, although he seems to wish that he could sneer at it as "a purely
hypothetical one." What else was the Law of Gravity before the Maskelyne experiments?
and who questioned the Law of Gravity, even then?
Many of my readers will no doubt be inclined to say that the result of these new
investigations has at least a strong tendency to overthrow the hypothesis; while some of
them, more thoughtful, will suggest that, although the theory is by no means disproved
through the segregation of the particular "nebulae" alluded to, still a failure to segregate
them, with such telescopes, might well have been understood as a triumphant
Corroboration of the theory: -–and this latter class will be surprised, perhaps, to hear me
say that even with them I disagree. If the propositions of this Discourse have been
comprehended, it will be seen that, in my view, a failure to segregate the "nebulae" would
have tended to the refutation, rather than to the confirmation, of the Nebular Hypothesis.
Let me explain: -–The Newtonian Law of Gravity we may, of course, assume as
demonstrated. This law, it will be remembered, I have referred to the reaction of the first
Divine Act -–to the reaction of an exercise of the Divine Volition temporarily
overcoming a difficulty. This difficulty is that of forcing the normal into the abnormal -–
of impelling that whose originality, and therefore whose rightful condition, was One, to
take upon itself the wrongful condition of Many. It is only by conceiving this difficulty as
temporarily overcome, that we can comprehend a reaction. There could have been no
reaction had the act been infinitely continued. So long as the act LA0 no reaction, of
course, could commence; in other words, no gravitation could take place -–for we have
considered the one as but the manifestation of the other. But gravitation has taken place;
therefore the act of Creation has ceased: and gravitation has long ago taken place;
therefore the act of Creation has long ago ceased. We can no more expect, then, to
observe the primary processes of Creation; and to these primary processes the condition
of nebulosity has already been explained to belong.
Through what we know of the propagation of light, we have direct proof that the more
remote of the stars have existed, under the forms in which we now see them, for an
inconceivable number of years. So far back at least, then, as the period when these stars
underwent condensation, must have been the epoch at which the mass-constitutive
processes began. That we may conceive these processes, then, as still going on in the case
of certain "nebulae," while in all other cases we find them thoroughly at an end, we are
forced into assumptions for which we have really no basis whatever -–we have to thrust
in, again, upon the revolting Reason, the blasphemous idea of special interposition -–we
have to suppose that, in the particular instances of these "nebulae," an unerring God
found it necessary to introduce certain supplementary regulations -- certain improvements
of the general law -–certain retouchings and emendations, in a word, which had the effect
of deferring the completion of these individual stars for centuries of centuries beyond the
aera during which all the other stellar bodies had time, not only to be fully constituted,
but to grow hoary with an unspeakable old age.
Of course, it will be immediately objected that since the light by which we recognize the
nebulae now, must be merely that which left their surfaces a vast number of years ago,
the processes at present observed, or supposed to be observed, are, in fact, not processes
now actually going on, but the phantoms of processes completed long in the Past -–just as
I maintain all these mass-constitutive processes must have been.
To this I reply that neither is the now-observed condition of the condensed stars their
actual condition, but a condition completed long in the Past; so that my argument drawn
from the relative condition of the stars and the "nebulae," is in no manner disturbed.
Moreover, those who maintain the existence of nebulae, do not refer the nebulosity to
extreme distance; they declare it a real and not merely a perspective nebulosity. That we
may conceive, indeed, a nebular mass as visible at all, we must conceive it as very near
us in comparison with the condensed stars brought into view by the modern telescopes. In
maintaining the appearances in question, then, to be really nebulous, we maintain their
comparative vicinity to our point of view. Thus, their condition, as we see them now,
must be referred to an epoch far less remote than that to which we may refer the nowobserved condition of at least the majority of the stars. -- In a word, should Astronomy
ever demonstrate a "nebula," in the sense at present intended, I should consider the
Nebular Cosmogony -- not, indeed, as corroborated by the demonstration -–but as thereby
irretrievably overthrown.
By way, however, of rendering unto Caesar no more than the things that are Caesar's, let
me here remark that the assumption of the hypothesis which led him to so glorious a
result, seems to have been suggested to Laplace in great measure by a misconception -–
by the very misconception of which we have just been speaking -–by the generally
prevalent misunderstanding of the character of the nebulae, so mis-named. These he
supposed to be, in reality, what their designation implies. The fact is, this great man had,
very properly, an inferior faith in his own merely perceptive powers. In respect, therefore,
to the actual existence of nebulae -–an existence so confidently maintained by his
telescopic contemporaries -–he depended less upon what he saw than upon what he
heard.
It will be seen that the only valid objections to his theory, are those made to its hypothesis
as such -–to what suggested it -–not to what it suggests; to its propositions rather than to
its results. His most unwarranted assumption was that of giving the atoms a movement
towards a centre, in the very face of his evident understanding that these atoms, in
unlimited succession, extended throughout the Universal space. I have already shown
that, under such circumstances, there could have occurred no movement at all; and
Laplace, consequently, assumed one on no more philosophical ground than that
something of the kind was necessary for the establishment of what he intended to
establish.
His original idea seems to have been a compound of the true Epicurean atoms with the
false nebulae of his contemporaries; and thus his theory presents us with the singular
anomaly of absolute truth deduced, as a mathematical result, from a hybrid datum of
ancient imagination intertangled with modern inacumen. Laplace's real strength lay, in
fact, in an almost miraculous mathematical instinct: -–on this he relied; and in no instance
did it fail or deceive him: -–in the case of the Nebular Cosmogony, it led him,
blindfolded, through a labyrinth of Error, into one of the most luminous and stupendous
temples of Truth.
Let us now fancy, for the moment, that the ring first thrown off by the Sun -–that is to
say, the ring whose breaking-up constituted Neptune -–did not, in fact, break up until the
throwing-off of the ring out of which Uranus arose; that this latter ring, again, remained
perfect until the discharge of that out of which sprang Saturn; that this latter, again,
remained entire until the discharge of that from which originated Jupiter -–and so on. Let
us imagine, in a word, that no dissolution occurred among the rings until the final
rejection of that which gave birth to Mercury. We thus paint to the eye of the mind a
series of coexistent concentric circles; and looking as well at them as at the processes by
which, according to Laplace's hypothesis, they were constructed, we perceive at once a
very singular analogy with the atomic strata and the process of the original irradiation as I
have described it. Is it impossible that, on measuring the forces, respectively, by which
each successive planetary circle was thrown off -–that is to say, on measuring the
successive excesses of rotation over gravitation which occasioned the successive
discharges -–we should find the analogy in question more decidedly confirmed? Is it
improbable that we should discover these forces to have varied -–as in the original
radiation -–proportional to the squares of the distances?
Our solar system, consisting, in chief, of one sun, with sixteen planets certainly, and
possibly a few more, revolving about it at various distances, and attended by seventeen
moons assuredly, but very probably by several others -–is now to be considered as an
example of the innumerable agglomerations which proceeded to take place throughout
the Universal Sphere of atoms on withdrawal of the Divine Volition. I mean to say that
our solar system is to be understood as affording a generic instance of these
agglomerations, or, more correctly, of the ulterior conditions at which they arrived. If we
keep our attention fixed on the idea of the utmost possible Relation as the Omnipotent
design, and on the precautions taken to accomplish it through difference of form, among
the original atoms, and particular inequidistance, we shall find it impossible to suppose
for a moment that even any two of the incipient agglomerations reached precisely the
same result in the end. We shall rather be inclined to think that no two stellar bodies in
the Universe -–whether suns, planets or moons -–are particularly, while are generally,
similar. Still less, then, can we imagine any two assemblages of such bodies -–any two
"systems" -–as having more than a general resemblance. * Our telescopes, at this point,
thoroughly confirm our deductions. Taking our own solar system, then, as merely a loose
or general type of all, we have so far proceeded in our subject as to survey the Universe
under the aspect of a spherical space, throughout which, dispersed with merely general
equability, exist a number of but generally similar systems.
* It is not impossible that some unlooked-for optical improvement may disclose to us,
among innumerable varieties of systems, a luminous sun, encircled by luminous and nonluminous rings, within and without and between which, revolve luminous and non-
luminous planets, attended by moons having moons -–and even these latter again having
moons.
Let us now, expanding our conceptions, look upon each of these system as in itself an
atom; which in fact it is, when we consider it as but one of the countless myriads of
systems which constitute the Universe. Regarding all, then, as but colossal atoms, each
with the same ineradicable tendency to Unity which characterizes the actual atoms of
which it consists -–we enter at once upon a new order of aggregations. The smaller
systems, in the vicinity of a larger one, would, inevitably, be drawn into still closer
vicinity. A thousand would assemble here; a million there -–perhaps here, again, even a
billion -–leaving, thus, immeasurable vacancies in space. And if, now, it be demanded
why, in the case of these systems -–of these merely Titanic atoms -–I speak, simply, of an
"assemblage," and not, as in the case of the actual atoms, of a more or less consolidated
agglomeration: -–if it be asked, for instance, why I do not carry what I suggest to its
legitimate conclusion, and describe, at once, these assemblages of system-atoms as
rushing to consolidation in spheres -–as each becoming condensed into one magnificent
sun -–my reply is that mellonta tauta -–I am but pausing, for a moment, on the awful
threshold of the Future. For the present, calling these assemblages "clusters," we see them
in the incipient stages of their consolidation. Their absolute consolidation is to come.
We have now reached a point from which we behold the Universe as a spherical space,
interspersed, unequably, with clusters. It will be noticed that I here prefer the adverb
"unequably" to the phrase "with a merely general equability," employed before. It is
evident, in fact, that the equability of distribution will diminish in the ratio of the
agglomerative processes -–that is to say, as the things distributed diminish in number.
Thus the increase of in equability -- an increase which must continue until, sooner or later
an epoch will arrive at which the largest agglomeration will absorb all the others -–should
be viewed as, simply, a corroborative indication of the tendency to One.
And here, at length, it seems proper to inquire whether the ascertained facts of
Astronomy confirm the general arrangement which I have thus, deductively, assigned to
the Heavens. Thoroughly, they do. Telescopic observation, guided by the laws of
perspective, enables us to understand that the perceptible Universe exists as a cluster of
clusters, irregularly disposed.
The "clusters" of which this Universal "cluster of clusters" consists, are merely what we
have been in the practice of designating "nebulae" -–and, of these "nebulae," one is of
paramount interest to mankind. I allude to the Galaxy, or Milky Way. This interests us,
first and most obviously, on account of its great superiority in apparent size, not only to
any one other cluster in the firmament, but to all the other clusters taken together. The
largest of these latter occupies a mere point, comparatively, and is distinctly seen only
with the aid of a telescope. The Galaxy sweeps throughout the Heaven and is brilliantly
visible to the naked eye. But it interests man chiefly, although less immediately, on
account of its being his home; the home of the Earth on which he exists; the home of the
Sun about which this Earth revolves; the home of that "system" of orbs of which the Sun
is the centre and primary -–the Earth one of sixteen secondaries, or planets -–the Moon
one of seventeen tertiaries, or satellites. The Galaxy, let me repeat, is but one of the
clusters which I have been describing -–but one of the mis-called "nebulae" revealed to
us -–by the telescope alone, sometimes -–as faint hazy spots in various quarters of the
sky. We have no reason to suppose the Milky Way really more extensive than the least of
these "nebulae". Its vast superiority in size is but an apparent superiority arising from our
position in regard to it -–that is to say, from our position in its midst. However strange the
assertion may at first appear to those unversed in Astronomy, still the astronomer himself
has no hesitation in asserting that we are in the midst of that inconceivable host of stars -–
of suns -–of systems -–which constitute the Galaxy. Moreover, not only have we -–not
only has our Sun a right to claim the Galaxy as its own especial cluster, but, with slight
reservation, it may be said that all the distinctly visible stars of the firmament -–all the
stars visible to the naked eye -–have equally a right to claim it as their own.
There has been a great deal of misconception in respect to the shape of the Galaxy;
which, in nearly all our astronomical treatises, is said to resemble that of a capital Y. The
cluster in question has, in reality, a certain general -–very general resemblance to the
planet Saturn, with its encompassing triple ring. Instead of the solid orb of that planet,
however, we must picture to ourselves a lenticular star-island, or collection of stars; our
Sun lying excentrically -–near the shore of the island -–on that side of it which is nearest
the constellation of the Cross and farthest from that of Cassiopeia. The surrounding ring,
where it approaches our position, has in it a longitudinal gash, which does in fact, cause
the ring, in our vicinity, to assume, loosely, the appearance of a capital Y.
We must not fall into the error, however, of conceiving the somewhat indefinite girdle as
at all remote, comparatively speaking, from the also indefinite lenticular cluster which it
surrounds; and thus, for mere purpose of explanation, we may speak of our Sun as
actually situated at that point of the Y where its three component lines unite; and,
conceiving this letter to be of a certain solidity -–of a certain thickness, very trivial in
comparison with its length -–we may even speak of our position as in the middle of this
thickness. Fancying ourselves thus placed, we shall no longer find difficulty in
accounting for the phaenomena presented -–which are perspective altogether. When we
look upward or downward -–that is to say, when we cast our eyes in the direction of the
letter's thickness -–we look through fewer stars than when we cast them in the direction
of its length, or either of the three component lines. Of course, in the former case, the
stars appear scattered -–in the latter, crowded. -–To reverse this explanation: -–An
inhabitant of the Earth, when looking, as we commonly express ourselves, at the Galaxy,
is then beholding it in some of the directions of its length -–is looking the lines of the Y –but when, looking out into the general Heaven, he turns his eyes FR the Galaxy, he is
then surveying it in the direction of the letter's thickness; and on this account the stars
seem to him scattered; while, in fact, they are as close together, on an average, as in the
mass of the cluster. No consideration could be better adapted to convey an idea of this
cluster's stupendous extent.
If, with a telescope of high space-penetrating power, we carefully inspect the firmament,
we shall become aware of a belt of clusters -–of what we have hitherto called "nebulae" –a band, of varying breadth, stretching from horizon to horizon, at right angles to the
general course of the Milky Way. This band is the ultimate cluster of clusters. This belt is
The Universe. Our Galaxy is but one, and perhaps one of the most inconsiderable, of the
clusters which go to the constitution of this ultimate, Universal belt or band. The
appearance of this cluster of clusters, to our eyes, as a belt or band, is altogether a
perspective phaenomenon of the same character as that which causes us to behold our
own individual and roughly-spherical cluster, the Galaxy, under guise also of a belt,
traversing the Heavens at right angles to the Universal one. The shape of the all-inclusive
cluster is, of course generally, that of each individual cluster which it includes. Just as the
scattered stars which, on looking FR the Galaxy, we see in the general sky, are, in fact,
but a portion of that Galaxy itself, and as closely intermingled with it as any of the
telescopic points in what seems the densest portion of its mass -–so are the scattered
"nebulae" which, on casting our eyes FR the Universal belt, we perceive at all points of
the firmament -–so, I say, are these scattered "nebulae" to be understood as only
perspectively scattered, and as part and parcel of the one supreme and Universal sphere.
No astronomical fallacy is more untenable, and none has been more pertinaciously
adhered to, than that of the absolute illimitation of the Universe of Stars. The reasons for
limitation, as I have already assigned them, a priori, seem to me unanswerable; but, not to
speak of these, observation assures us that there is, in numerous directions around us,
certainly, if not in all, a positive limit -- or, at the very least, affords us no basis whatever
for thinking otherwise. Were the succession of stars endless, then the background of the
sky would present us an uniform luminosity, like that displayed by the Galaxy -–since
there could be absolutely no point, in all that background, at which would not exist a star.
The only mode, therefore, in which, under such a state of affairs, we could comprehend
the voids which our telescopes find in innumerable directions, would be by supposing the
distance of the invisible background so immense that no ray from it has yet been able to
reach us at all. That this may be so, who shall venture to deny? I maintain, simply, that
we have not even the shadow of a reason for believing that it is so.
When speaking of the vulgar propensity to regard all bodies on the Earth as tending
merely to the Earth's centre, I observed that, "with certain exceptions to be specified
hereafter, every body on the Earth tended not only to the Earth's centre, but in every
conceivable direction besides." * The "exceptions" refer to those frequent gaps in the
Heavens, where our utmost scrutiny can detect not only no stellar bodies, but no
indications of their existence: -- where yawning chasms, blacker than Erebus, seem to
afford us glimpses, through the boundary walls of the Universe of Stars, into the
illimitable Universe of Vacancy, beyond. Now as any body, existing on the Earth,
chances to pass, either through its own movement or the Earth's, into a line with any one
of these voids, or cosmical abysses, it clearly is no longer attracted in the direction of that
void, and for the moment, consequently, is "heavier" than at any period, either after or
before. Independently of the consideration of these voids however, and looking only at
the generally unequable distribution of the stars, we see that the absolute tendency of
bodies on the Earth to the Earth's centre, is in a state of perpetual variation.
* See prevous paragraph, "Now, to what does so partial a consideration tend..."
We comprehend, then, the insulation of our Universe. We perceive the isolation of that -–
of that which we grasp with the senses. We know that there exists one cluster of clusters –a collection around which, on all sides, extend the immeasurable wildernesses of a
Space to all human perception untenanted. But because upon the confines of this
Universe of Stars we are compelled to pause, through want of farther evidence from the
senses, is it right to conclude that, in fact, there is no material point beyond that which we
have thus been permitted to attain? Have we, or have we not, an analogical right to the
inference that this perceptible Universe -–that this cluster of clusters -–is but one of a
series of clusters of clusters, the rest of which are invisible through distance -–through the
diffusion of their light being so excessive, ere it reaches us, as not to produce upon our
retinas a light-impression -–or from there being no such emanation as light at all, in these
unspeakably distant worlds -–or, lastly, from the mere interval being so vast, that the
electric tidings of their presence in Space, have not yet -–through the lapsing myriads of
years -–been enabled to traverse that interval?
Have we any right to inferences -–have we any ground whatever for visions such as
these? If we have a right to them in any degree, we have a right to their infinite extension.
The human brain has obviously a leaning to the "Infinite," and fondles the phantom of the
idea. It seems to long with a passionate fervor for this impossible conception, with the
hope of intellectually believing it when conceived. What is general among the whole race
of Man, of course no individual of that race can be warranted in considering abnormal;
nevertheless, there may be a class of superior intelligences, to whom the human bias
alluded to may wear all the character of monomania.
My question, however, remains unanswered: -–Have we any right to infer -–let us say,
rather, to imagine -–an interminable succession of the "clusters of clusters," or of
"Universes" more or less similar?
I reply that the "right," in a case such as this, depends absolutely upon the hardihood of
that imagination which ventures to claim the right. Let me declare, only, that, as an
individual, I myself feel impelled to the fancy -–without daring to call it more -–that there
does exist a limitless succession of Universes, more or less similar to that of which we
have cognizance -–to that of which we shall ever have cognizance -–at the very least until
the return of our own particular Universe into Unity. If such clusters of clusters exist,
however -–and they do -–it is abundantly clear that, having had no part in our origin, they
have no portion in our laws. They neither attract us, nor we them. Their material -–their
spirit is not ours -–is not that which obtains in any part of our Universe. They could not
impress our senses or our souls. Among them and us -–considering all, for the moment,
collectively -–there are no influences in common. Each exists, apart and independently,
in the bosom of its proper and particular God.
In the conduct of this Discourse, I am aiming less at physical than at metaphysical order.
The clearness with which even material phaenomena are presented to the understanding,
depends very little, I have long since learned to perceive, upon a merely natural, and
almost altogether upon a moral, arrangement. If then I seem to step somewhat too
discursively from point to point of my topic, let me suggest that I do so in the hope of
thus the better keeping unbroken that chain of graduated impression by which alone the
intellect of Man can expect to encompass the grandeurs of which I speak, and, in their
majestic totality, to comprehend them.
So far, our attention has been directed, almost exclusively, to a general and relative
grouping of the stellar bodies in space. Of specification there has been little and whatever
ideas of quantity have been conveyed -–that is to say, of number, magnitude, and distance
-–have been conveyed incidentally and by way of preparation for more definitive
conceptions. These latter let us now attempt to entertain.
Our solar system, as has been already mentioned, consists, in chief, of one sun and
sixteen planets certainly, but in all probability a few others, revolving around it as a
centre, and attended by seventeen moons of which we know, with possibly several more
of which as yet we know nothing. These various bodies are not true spheres, but oblate
spheroids -–spheres flattened at the poles of the imaginary axes about which they rotate: –the flattening being a consequence of the rotation. Neither is the Sun absolutely the
centre of the system; for this Sun itself, with all the planets, revolves about a perpetually
shifting point of space, which is the system's general centre of gravity. Neither are we to
consider the paths through which these different spheroids move -–the moons about the
planets, the planets about the Sun, or the Sun about the common centre -–as circles in an
accurate sense. They are, in fact, ellipses -–one of the foci being the point about which
the revolution is made. An ellipse is a curve, returning into itself, one of whose diameters
is longer than the other. In the longer diameter are two points, equidistant from the
middle of the line, and so situated otherwise that if, from each of them a straight line be
drawn to any one point of the curve, the two lines, taken together, will, be equal to the
longer diameter itself. Now let us conceive such an ellipse. At one of the points
mentioned, which are the foci, let us fasten an orange. By an elastic thread let us connect
this orange with a pea; and let us place this latter on the circumference of the ellipse. Let
us now move the pea continuously around the orange -–keeping always on the
circumference of the ellipse. The elastic thread, which, of course, varies in length as we
move the pea, will form what in geometry is called a radius vector. Now, if the orange be
understood as the Sun, and the pea as a planet revolving about it, then the revolution
should be made at such a rate -–with a velocity so varying -–that the radius vector may
pass over equal areas of space in equal times. The progress of the pea should be -–in
other words, the progress of the planet is, of course, -–slow in proportion to its distance
from the Sun -–swift in proportion to its proximity. Those planets, moreover, move the
more slowly which are the farther from the Sun; the squares of their periods of revolution
having the same proportion to each other, as have to each other the cubes of their mean
distances from the Sun.
The wonderfully complex laws of revolution here described, however, are not to be
understood as obtaining in our system alone. They everywhere prevail where Attraction
prevails. They control the Universe. Every shining speck in the firmament is, no doubt, a
luminous sun, resembling our own, at least in its general features, and having in
attendance upon it a greater or less number of planets, greater or less, whose still
lingering luminosity is not sufficient to render them visible to us at so vast a distance, but
which, nevertheless, revolve, moon-attended, about their starry centres, in obedience to
the principles just detailed -–in obedience to the three omniprevalent laws of revolution
the three immortal laws guessed by the imaginative Kepler, and but subsequently
demonstrated and accounted for by the patient and mathematical Newton. Among a tribe
of philosophers who pride themselves excessively upon matter-of-fact, it is far too
fashionable to sneer at all speculation under the comprehensive sobriquet, "guess-work."
The point to be considered is, who guesses. In guessing with Plato, we spend our time to
better purpose, now and then, than in hearkening to a demonstration by Alcmaeon.
In many works on Astronomy I find it distinctly stated that the laws of Kepler are the
basis of the great principle, Gravitation. This idea must have arisen from the fact that the
suggestion of these laws by Kepler, and his proving them a posteriori to have an actual
existence, led Newton to account for them by the hypothesis of Gravitation, and, finally,
to demonstrate them a priori, as necessary consequences of the hypothetical principle.
Thus so far from the laws of Kepler being the basis of Gravity, Gravity is the basis of
these laws -–as it is, indeed, of all the laws of the material Universe which are not
referable to Repulsion alone.
The mean distance of the Earth from the Moon -–that is to say, from the heavenly body in
our closest vicinity -–is 237,000 miles. Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun, is distant
from him 37 millions of miles. Venus, the next, revolves at a distance of 68 millions: -–
the Earth, which comes next, at a distance of 95 millions: -–Mars, then, at a distance of
144 millions. Now come the eight Asteroids (Ceres, Juno, Vesta, Pallas, Astraea, Flora,
Iris, and Hebe) at an average distance of about 250 millions. Then we have Jupiter,
distant 490 millions; then Saturn, 900 millions; then Uranus, 19 hundred millions; finally
Neptune, lately discovered, and revolving at a distance, say of 28 hundred millions.
Leaving Neptune out of the account -–of which as yet we know little accurately and
which is, possibly, one of a system of Asteroids -–it will be seen that, within certain
limits, there exists an order of interval among the planets. Speaking loosely, we may say
that each outer planet is twice as far from the Sun as is the next inner one. May not the
order here mentioned -–may not the law of Bode -–be deduced from consideration of the
analogy suggested by me as having place between the solar discharge of rings and the
mode of the atomic irradiation?
The numbers hurriedly mentioned in this summary of distance, it is folly to attempt
comprehending, unless in the light of abstract arithmetical facts. They are not practically
tangible ones. They convey no precise ideas. I have stated that Neptune, the planet
farthest from the Sun, revolves about him at a distance of 28 hundred millions of miles.
So far good: -–I have stated a mathematical fact; and, without comprehending it in the
least, we may put it to use -–mathematically. But in mentioning, even, that the Moon
revolves about the Earth at the comparatively trifling distance of 237,000 miles, I
entertained no expectation of giving any one to understand -–to know -–to feel -–how far
from the Earth the Moon actually is. 237,000 miles! There are, perhaps, few of my
readers who have not crossed the Atlantic ocean; yet how many of them have a distinct
idea of even the 3,000 miles intervening between shore and shore? I doubt, indeed,
whether the man lives who can force into his brain the most remote conception of the
interval between one milestone and its next neighbor upon the turnpike. We are in some
measure aided, however, in our consideration of distance, by combining this
consideration with the kindred one of velocity. Sound passes through 1100 feet of space
in a second of time. Now were it possible for an inhabitant of the Earth to see the flash of
a cannon discharged in the Moon, and to hear the report, he would have to wait, after
perceiving the former, more than 13 entire days and nights before getting any intimation
of the latter.
However feeble be the impression, even thus conveyed, of the Moon's real distance from
the Earth, it will, nevertheless, effect a good object in enabling us more clearly to see the
futility of attempting to grasp such intervals as that of the 28 hundred millions of miles
between our Sun and Neptune; or even that of the 95 millions between the Sun and the
Earth we inhabit. A cannon-ball, flying at the greatest velocity with which a ball has ever
been known to fly, could not traverse the latter interval in less than 20 years; while for the
former it would require 590.
Our Moon's real diameter is 2160 miles; yet she is comparatively so trifling an object that
it would take nearly 50 such orbs to compose one as great as the Earth.
The diameter of our own globe is 7912 miles -–but from the enunciation of these
numbers what positive idea do we derive?
If we ascend an ordinary mountain and look around us from its summit, we behold a
landscape stretching, say 40 miles, in every direction; forming a circle 250 miles in
circumference; and including an area of 5000 square miles. The extent of such a prospect,
on account of the successiveness with which its portions necessarily present themselves
to view, can be only very feebly and very partially appreciated: -–yet the entire panorama
would comprehend no more than one 40,000th part of the mere surface of our globe.
Were this panorama, then, to be succeeded, after the lapse of an hour, by another of equal
extent; this again by a third, after the lapse of another hour; this again by a fourth after
lapse of another hour -- and so on, until the scenery of the whole Earth were exhausted;
and were we to be engaged in examining these various panoramas for twelve hours of
every day; we should nevertheless, be 9 years and 48 days in completing the general
survey.
But if the mere surface of the Earth eludes the grasp of the imagination, what are we to
think of its cubical contents? It embraces a mass of matter equal in weight to at least 2
sextillions, 200 quintillions of tons. Let us suppose it in a state of quiescence; and now let
us endeavor to conceive a mechanical force sufficient to set it in motion! Not the strength
of all the myriads of beings whom we may conclude to inhabit the planetary worlds of
our system -–not the combined physical strength of these beings -–even admitting all to
be more powerful than man -–would avail to stir the ponderous mass a single inch from
its position.
What are we to understand, then, of the force, which under similar circumstances, would
be required to move the LA0 of our planets, Jupiter? This is 86,000 miles in diameter,
and would include within its periphery more than a thousand orbs of the magnitude of our
own. Yet this stupendous body is actually flying around the Sun at the rate of 29,000
miles an hour -–that is to say, with a velocity 40 times greater than that of a cannon-ball!
The thought of such a phaenomenon cannot well be said to startle the mind: -–it palsies
and appals it. Not unfrequently we task our imagination in picturing the capacities of an
angel. Let us fancy such a being at a distance of some hundred miles from Jupiter -–a
close eye-witness of this planet as it speeds on its annual revolution. Now can we, I
demand, fashion for ourselves any conception so distinct of this ideal being's spiritual
exaltation, as that involved in the supposition that, even by this immeasurable mass of
matter, whirled immediately before his eyes, with a velocity so unutterable, he -–an angel
-–angelic though he be -–is not at once struck into nothingness and overwhelmed?
At this point, however, it seems proper to suggest that, in fact, we have been speaking of
comparative trifles. Our Sun -–the central and controlling orb of the system to which
Jupiter belongs, is not only greater than Jupiter, but greater by far than all the planets of
the system taken together. This fact is an essential condition, indeed, of the stability of
the system itself. The diameter of Jupiter has been mentioned: -–it is 86,000 miles: -–that
of the Sun is 882,000 miles. An inhabitant of the latter, traveling 90 miles a day, would
be more than 80 years in going round a great circle of its circumference. It occupies a
cubical space of 681 quadrillions, 472 trillions of miles. The Moon, as has been stated,
revolves about the Earth at a distance of 237,000 miles -–in an orbit, consequently, of
nearly a million and a half. Now, were the Sun placed upon the Earth, centre over centre,
the body of the former would extend, in every direction, not only to the line of the
Moon's orbit, but beyond it, a distance of 200,000 miles.
And here, once again, let me suggest that, in fact, we have still been speaking of
comparative trifles. The distance of the planet Neptune from the Sun has been stated: -–it
is 28 hundred millions of miles; the circumference of its orbit, therefore, is about 17
billions. Let this be borne in mind while we glance at some one of the brightest stars.
Between this and the star of our system, (the Sun,) there is a gulf of space, to convey any
idea of which we should need the tongue of an archangel. From our system, then, and
from our Sun, or star, the star at which we suppose ourselves glancing is a thing
altogether apart: -–still, for the moment, let us imagine it placed upon our Sun, centre
over centre, as we just now imagined this Sun itself placed upon the Earth. Let us now
conceive the particular star we have in mind, extending, in every direction, beyond the
orbit of Mercury -–of Venus -–of the Earth: -–still on, beyond the orbit of Mars -–of
Jupiter -–of Uranus -–until, finally, we fancy it filling the circle -–17 billions of miles in
circumference -–which is described by the revolution of Leverrier's planet. When we
have conceived all this, we shall have entertained no extravagant conception. There is the
very best reason for believing that many of the stars are even far larger than the one we
have imagined. I mean to say that we have the very best empirical basis for such belief: –and, in looking back at the original, atomic arrangements for diversity, which have been
assumed as a part of the Divine plan in the constitution of the Universe, we shall be
enabled easily to understand, and to credit, the existence of even far vaster disproportions
in stellar size than any to which I have hitherto alluded. The largest orbs, of course, we
must expect to find rolling through the widest vacancies of Space.
I remarked, just now, that to convey an idea of the interval between our Sun and any one
of the other stars, we should require the eloquence of an archangel. In so saying, I should
not be accused of exaggeration; for, in simple truth, these are topics on which it is
scarcely possible to exaggerate. But let us bring the matter more distinctly before the eye
of the mind.
In the first place, we may get a general, relative conception of the interval referred to, by
comparing it with the inter-planetary spaces. If, for example, we suppose the Earth,
which is, in reality, 95 millions of miles from the Sun, to be only one foot from that
luminary; then Neptune would be 40 feet distant; and the star Alpha Lyrae, at the very
least, 159.
Now I presume that, in the termination of my last sentence, few of my readers have
noticed anything especially objectionable -- particularly wrong. I said that the distance of
the Earth from the Sun being taken at one foot, the distance of Neptune would be 40 feet,
and that of Alpha Lyrae, 159. The proportion between one foot and 159, has appeared,
perhaps, to convey a sufficiently definite impression of the proportion between the two
intervals -–that of the Earth from the Sun and that of Alpha Lyrae from the same
luminary. But my account of the matter should, in reality, have run thus: -–The distance
of the Earth from the Sun being taken at one foot, the distance of Neptune would be 40
feet, and that of Alpha Lyrae, 159 -–miles: -–that is to say, I had assigned to Alpha Lyrae,
in my first statement of the case, only the 5280th part of that distance which is the least
distance possible at which it can actually lie.
To proceed: However distant a mere PL0,0, is, yet when we look at it through a
telescope, we see it under a certain form -–of a certain appreciable size. Now I have
already hinted at the probable bulk of many of the stars; nevertheless, when we view any
one of them, even through the most powerful telescope, it is found to present us with no
form, and consequently with no magnitude whatever. We see it as a point and nothing
more.
Again; -–Let us suppose ourselves walking, at night, on a highway. In a field on one side
of the road, is a line of tall objects, say trees, the figures of which are distinctly defined
against the background of the sky. This line of objects extends at right angles to the road,
and from the road to the horizon. Now, as we proceed along the road, we see these
objects changing their positions, respectively, in relation to a certain fixed point in that
portion of the firmament which forms the background of the view. Let us suppose this
fixed point -–sufficiently fixed for our purpose -–to be the rising moon. We become
aware, at once, that while the tree nearest us so far alters its position in respect to the
moon, as to seem flying behind us, the tree in the extreme distance has scarcely changed
at all its relative position with the satellite. We then go on to perceive that the farther the
objects are from us, the less they alter their positions; and the converse. Then we begin,
unwittingly, to estimate the distances of individual trees by the degrees in which they
evince the relative alteration. Finally, we come to understand how it might be possible to
ascertain the actual distance of any given tree in the line, by using the amount of relative
alteration as a basis in a simple geometrical problem. Now this relative alteration is what
we call "parallax;" and by parallax we calculate the distances of the heavenly bodies.
Applying the principle to the trees in question, we should, of course, be very much at a
loss to comprehend the distance of that tree, which, however far we proceeded along the
road, should evince no parallax at all. This, in the case described, is a thing impossible;
but impossible only because all distances on our Earth are trivial indeed: -–in comparison
with the vast cosmical quantities, we may speak of them as absolutely nothing.
Now, let us suppose the star Alpha Lyrae directly overhead; and let us imagine that,
instead of standing on the Earth, we stand at one end of a straight road stretching through
Space to a distance equalling the diameter of the Earth's orbit -–that is to say, to a
distance of 190 millions of miles. Having observed, by means of the most delicate
micrometrical instruments, the exact position of the star, let us now pass along this
inconceivable road, until we reach its other extremity. Now, once again, let us look at the
star. It is precisely where we left it. Our instruments, however delicate, assure us that its
relative position is absolutely -–is identically the same as at the commencement of our
unutterable journey. No parallax -- none whatever -–has been found.
The fact is, that, in regard to the distance of the fixed stars -- of any one of the myriads of
suns glistening on the farther side of that awful chasm which separates our system from
its brothers in the cluster to which it belongs -–astronomical science, until very lately,
could speak only with a negative certainty. Assuming the brightest as the nearest, we
could say, even of them, only that there is a certain incomprehensible distance on the
hither side of which they cannot be: -–how far they are beyond it we had in no case been
able to ascertain. We perceived, for example, that Alpha Lyrae cannot be nearer to us
than 19 trillions, 200 billions of miles; but, for all we knew, and indeed for all we now
know, it may be distant from us the square, or the cube, or any other power of the number
mentioned. By dint, however, of wonderfully minute and cautious observations,
continued, with novel instruments, for many laborious years, Bessel, not long ago
deceased, has lately succeeded in determining the distance of six or seven stars; among
others, that of the star numbered 61 in the constellation of the Swan. The distance in this
latter instance ascertained, is 670,000 times that of the Sun; which last it will be
remembered, is 95 millions of miles. The star 61 Cygni, then, is nearly 64 trillions of
miles from us -–or more than three times the distance assigned, as the least possible, for
Alpha Lyrae.
In attempting to appreciate this interval by the aid of any considerations of velocity, as
we did in endeavoring to estimate the distance of the moon, we must leave out of sight,
altogether, such nothings as the speed of a cannon ball, or of sound. Light, however,
according to the latest calculations of Struve, proceeds at the rate of 167,000 miles in a
second. Thought itself cannot pass through this interval more speedily -–if, indeed,
thought can traverse it at all. Yet, in coming from 61 Cygni to us, even at this
inconceivable rate, light occupies more than ten years; and, consequently, were the star
this moment blotted out from the Universe, still, for ten years, would it continue to
sparkle on, undimmed in its paradoxical glory.
Keeping now in mind whatever feeble conception we may have attained of the interval
between our Sun and 61 Cygni, let us remember that this interval, however unutterably
vast, we are permitted to consider as but the average interval among the countless host of
stars composing that cluster, or "nebula," to which our system, as well as that of 61
Cygni, belongs. I have, in fact, stated the case with great moderation we have excellent
reason for believing 61 Cygni to be one of the nearest stars, and thus for concluding, at
least for the present, that its distance from us is less than the average distance between
star and star in the magnificent cluster of the Milky Way.
And here, once again and finally, it seems proper to suggest that even as yet we have
been speaking of trifles. Ceasing to wonder at the space between star and star in our own
or in any particular cluster, let us rather turn our thoughts to the intervals between cluster
and cluster, in the all comprehensive cluster of the Universe.
I have already said that light proceeds at the rate of 167,000 miles in a second -–that is,
about 10 millions of miles in a minute, or about 600 millions of miles in an hour: -–yet so
far removed from us are some of the "nebulae" that even light, speeding with this
velocity, could not and does not reach us, from those mysterious regions, in less than 3
millions of years. This calculation, moreover, is made by the elder Herschel, and in
reference merely to those comparatively proximate clusters within the scope of his own
telescope. There are "nebulae," however, which, through the magical tube of Lord Rosse,
are this instant whispering in our ears the secrets of a million of ages by-gone. In a word,
the events which we behold now -–at this moment -–in those worlds -–are the identical
events which interested their inhabitants ten hundred thousand centuries ago. In intervals
-–in distances such as this suggestion forces upon the soul -–rather than upon the mind -–
we find, at length, a fitting climax to all hitherto frivolous considerations of quantity.
Our fancies thus occupied with the cosmical distances, let us take the opportunity of
referring to the difficulty which we have so often experienced, while pursuing the beaten
path of astronomical reflection, in accounting for the immeasurable voids alluded to -- in
comprehending why chasms so totally unoccupied and therefore apparently so needless,
have been made to intervene between star and star -–between cluster and cluster -–in
understanding, to be brief, a sufficient reason for the Titanic scale, in respect of mere
Space, on which the Universe is seen to be constructed. A rational cause for the
phaenomenon, I maintain that Astronomy has palpably failed to assign: -–but the
considerations through which, in this Essay, we have proceeded step by step, enable us
clearly and immediately to perceive that Space and Duration are one. That the Universe
might endure throughout an aera at all commensurate with the grandeur of its component
material portions and with the high majesty of its spiritual purposes, it was necessary that
the original atomic diffusion be made to so inconceivable an extent as to be only not
infinite. It was required, in a word, that the stars should be gathered into visibility from
invisible nebulosity -–proceed from nebulosity to consolidation -–and so grow grey in
giving birth and death to unspeakably numerous and complex variations of vitalic
development it was required that the stars should do all this -- should have time
thoroughly to accomplish all these Divine purposes -- during the period in which all
things were effecting their return into Unity with a velocity accumulating in the inverse
proportion of the squares of the distances at which lay the inevitable End.
Throughout all this we have no difficulty in understanding the absolute accuracy of the
Divine adaptation. The density of the stars, respectively, proceeds, of course, as their
condensation diminishes; condensation and heterogeneity keep pace with each other;
through the latter, which is the index of the former, we estimate the vitalic and spiritual
development. Thus, in the density of the globes, we have the measure in which their
purposes are fulfilled. As density proceeds -–as the divine intentions are accomplished -–
as less and still less remains to be accomplished -- so -–in the same ratio -–should we
expect to find an acceleration of the End: -–and thus the philosophical mind will easily
comprehend that the Divine designs in constituting the stars, advance mathematically to
their fulfilment: -–and more; it will readily give the advance a mathematical expression;
it will decide that this advance is inversely proportional with the squares of the distances
of all created things from the starting-point and goal of their creation.
Not only is this Divine adaptation, however, mathematically accurate, but there is that
about it which stamps it as divine, in distinction from that which is merely the work of
human constructiveness. I allude to the complete mutuality of adaptation. For example; in
human constructions a particular cause has a particular effect; a particular intention
brings to pass a particular object; but this is all; we see no reciprocity. The effect does not
re-act upon the cause; the intention does not change relations with the object. In Divine
constructions the object is either design or object as we choose to regard it -–and we may
take at any time a cause for an effect, or the converse -–so that we can never absolutely
decide which is which.
To give an instance: -–In polar climates the human frame, to maintain its animal heat,
requires, for combustion in the capillary system, an abundant supply of highly azotized
food, such as train-oil. But again: -–in polar climates nearly the sole food afforded man is
the oil of abundant seals and whales. Now, whether is oil at hand because imperatively
demanded, or the only thing demanded because the only thing to be obtained? It is
impossible to decide. There is an absolute reciprocity of adaptation.
The pleasure which we derive from any display of human ingenuity is in the ratio of the
approach to this species of reciprocity. In the construction of plot, for example, in
fictitious literature, we should aim at so arranging the incidents that we shall not be able
to determine, of any one of them, whether it depends from any one other or upholds it. In
this sense, of course, perfection of PL0, is really, or practically, unattainable -–but only
because it is a finite intelligence that constructs. The plots of God are perfect. The
Universe is a plot of God.
And now we have reached a point at which the intellect is forced, again, to struggle
against its propensity for analogical inference -- against its monomaniac grasping at the
infinite. Moons have been seen revolving about planets; planets about stars; and the
poetical instinct of humanity -–its instinct of the symmetrical, if the symmetry be but a
symmetry of surface: -–this instinct, which the Soul, not only of Man but of all created
beings, took up, in the beginning, from the geometrical basis of the Universal irradiation –impels us to the fancy of an endless extension of this system of cycles. Closing our eyes
equally to de duction and in duction, we insist upon imagining a revolution of all the orbs
of the Galaxy about some gigantic globe which we take to be the central pivot of the
whole. Each cluster in the great cluster of clusters is imagined, of course, to be similarly
supplied and constructed; while, that the "analogy" may be wanting at no point, we go on
to conceive these clusters themselves, again, as revolving about some still more august
sphere; -–this latter, still again, with its encircling clusters, as but one of a yet more
magnificent series of agglomerations, gyrating about yet another orb central to them -–
some orb still more unspeakably sublime -–some orb, let us rather say, of infinite
sublimity endlessly multiplied by the infinitely sublime. Such are the conditions,
continued in perpetuity, which the voice of what some people term "analogy" calls upon
the Fancy to depict and the Reason to contemplate, if possible, without becoming
dissatisfied with the picture. Such, in general, are the interminable gyrations beyond
gyration which we have been instructed by Philosophy to comprehend and to account for,
at least in the best manner we can. Now and then, however, a philosopher proper -- one
whose frenzy takes a very determinate turn -–whose genius, to speak more reverentially,
has a strongly-pronounced washer-womanish bias, doing every thing up by the dozen -–
enables us to see precisely that point out of sight, at which the revolutionary processes in
question do, and of right ought to, come to an end.
It is hardly worth while, perhaps, even to sneer at the reveries of Fourrier -–but much has
been said, latterly, of the hypothesis of Madler -–that there exists, in the centre of the
Galaxy, a stupendous globe about which all the systems of the cluster revolve. The period
of our own, indeed, has been stated -–117 millions of years.
That our Sun has a motion in space, independently of its rotation, and revolution about
the system's centre of gravity, has long been suspected. This motion, granting it to exist,
would be manifested perspectively. The stars in that firmamental region which we were
leaving behind us, would, in a very long series of years, become crowded; those in the
opposite quarter, scattered. Now, by means of astronomical History, we ascertain,
cloudily, that some such phaenomena have occurred. On this ground it has been declared
that our system is moving to a point in the heavens diametrically opposite the star Zeta
Herculis: -–but this inference is, perhaps, the maximum to which we have any logical
right. Madler, however, has gone so far as to designate a particular star, Alcyone in the
Pleiades, as being at or about the very spot around which a general revolution is
performed.
Now, since by "analogy" we are led, in the first instance, to these dreams, it is no more
than proper that we should abide by analogy, at least in some measure, during their
development; and that analogy which suggests the revolution, suggests at the same time a
central orb about which it should be performed -–so far the astronomer was consistent.
This central orb, however, should, dynamically, be greater than all the orbs, taken
together, which surround it. Of these there are about 100 millions. "Why, then," it was of
course demanded, "do we not see this vast central sun -–at least equal in mass to 100
millions of such suns as ours -–why do we not see it -–we, especially, who occupy the
mid region of the cluster -–the very locality near which, at all events, must be situated
this incomparable star?" The reply was ready -–"It must be non-luminous, as are our
planets." Here, then, to suit a purpose, analogy is suddenly let fall. "Not so," it may be
said -–"we know that non-luminous suns actually exist." It is true that we have reason at
least for supposing so; but we have certainly no reason whatever for supposing that the
non-luminous suns in question are encircled by luminous suns, while these again are
surrounded by non-luminous planets and it is precisely all this with which Madler is
called upon to find any thing analogous in the heavens -–for it is precisely all this which
he imagines in the case of the Galaxy. Admitting the thing to be so, we cannot help here
picturing to ourselves how sad a puzzle the why is it so must prove to all a priori
philosophers.
But granting, in the very teeth of analogy and of every thing else, the non-luminosity of
the vast central orb, we may still inquire how this orb, so enormous, could fail of being
rendered visible by the flood of light thrown upon it from the 100 millions of glorious
suns glaring in all directions about it. Upon the urging of this question, the idea of an
actually solid central sun appears, in some measure, to have been abandoned; and
speculation proceeded to assert that the systems of the cluster perform their revolutions
merely about an immaterial centre of gravity common to all. Here again then, to suit a
purpose, analogy is let fall. The planets of our system revolve, it is true, about a common
centre of gravity; but they do this in connexion with, and in consequence of, a material
sun whose mass more than counterbalances the rest of the system.
The mathematical circle is a curve composed of an infinity of straight lines. But this idea
of the circle -–an idea which in view of all ordinary geometry, is merely the
mathematical, as contradistinguished from the practical, idea -–is, in sober fact, the
practical conception which alone we have any right to entertain in regard to the majestic
circle with which we have to deal, at least in fancy, when we suppose our system
revolving about a point in the centre of the Galaxy. Let the most vigorous of human
imaginations attempt but to take a single step towards the comprehension of a sweep so
ineffable! It would scarcely be paradoxical to say that a flash of lightning itself, travelling
forever upon the circumference of this unutterable circle, would still, forever, be
travelling in a straight line. That the path of our Sun in such an orbit would, to any human
perception, deviate in the slightest degree from a straight line, even in a million of years,
is a proposition not to be entertained: -–yet we are required to believe that a curvature has
become apparent during the brief period of our astronomical history -- during a mere
point -–during the utter nothingness of two or three thousand years.
It may be said that Madler has really ascertained a curvature in the direction of our
system's now well-established progress through Space. Admitting, if necessary, this fact
to be in reality such, I maintain that nothing is thereby shown except the reality of this
fact the fact of a curvature. For its thorough determination, ages will be required; and,
when determined, it will be found indicative of some binary or other multiple relation
between our Sun and some one or more of the proximate stars. I hazard nothing however,
in predicting, that, after the lapse of many centuries, all efforts at determining the path of
our sun through Space, will be abandoned as fruitless. This is easily conceivable when we
look at the infinity of perturbation it must experience, from its perpetually-shifting
relations with other orbs, in the common approach of all to the nucleus of the Galaxy.
But in examining other "nebulae" than that of the Milky Way -–in surveying, generally,
the clusters which overspread the heavens -–do we or do we not find confirmation of
Madler's hypothesis? We do not. The forms of the clusters are exceedingly diverse when
casually viewed; but on close inspection, through powerful telescopes, we recognize the
sphere, very distinctly, as at least the proximate form of all: -–their constitution, in
general, being at variance with the idea of revolution about a common centre.
"It is difficult," says Sir John Herschel, "to form any conception of the dynamical state of
such systems. On one hand, without a rotary motion and a centrifugal force, it is hardly
possible not to regard them as in a state of progressive collapse. On the other, granting
such a motion and such a force, we find it no less difficult to reconcile their forms with
the rotation of the whole system [meaning cluster] around any single axis, without which
internal collision would appear to be inevitable."
Some remarks lately made about the "nebulae" by Dr. Nichol, in taking quite a different
view of the cosmical conditions from any taken in this Discourse -–have a very peculiar
applicability to the point now at issue. He says:
"When our greatest telescopes are brought to bear upon them, we find that those which
were thought to be irregular, are not so; they approach nearer to a globe. Here is one that
looked oval; but Lord Rosse's telescope brought it into a circle.... Now there occurs a
very remarkable circumstance in reference to these comparatively sweeping circular
masses of nebulae. We find they are not entirely circular, but the reverse; and that all
around them, on every side, there are volumes of stars, stretching out apparently as if they
were rushing towards a great central mass in consequence of the action of some great
power." *
* I must be understood as denying, especially, only the revolutionary portion of Madler's
hypothesis. Of course, if no great central orb exists now in our cluster, such will exist
hereafter. Whenever existing, it will be merely the nucleus of the consolidation.
Were I to describe, in my own words, what must necessarily be the existing condition of
each nebula on the hypothesis that all matter is, as I suggest, now returning to its original
Unity, I should simply be going over, nearly verbatim, the language here employed by
Dr. Nichol, without the faintest suspicion of that stupendous truth which is the key to
these nebular phaenomena.
And here let me fortify my position still farther, by the voice of a greater than Madler -–
of one, moreover, to whom all the data of Madler have long been familiar things,
carefully and thoroughly considered. Referring to the elaborate calculations of
Argelander -–the very researches which form Madler's basis -–Humboldt, whose
generalizing powers have never, perhaps been equalled, has the following observation:
"When we regard the real, proper, or non-perspective motions of the stars, we find many
groups of them moving in opposite directions; and the data as yet in hand render it not
necessary, at least, to conceive that the systems composing the Milky Way, or the
clusters, generally, composing the Universe, are revolving about any particular centre
unknown, whether luminous or non-luminous. It is but Man's longing for a fundamental
First Cause, that impels both his intellect and fancy to the adoption of such an
hypothesis." *
* Betrachtet man die nicht perspectivischen eigenen Bewegungen der Sterne, so scheinen
viele gruppenweise in ihrer Richtung entgegengesetzt; und die bisher gesammelten
Thatsachen machen es auf's wenigste nicht nothwendig, anzunehmen, dass alle Theile
unserer Sternenschicht oder gar der gesammten Sterneninseln, welche den Weltraum
fullen, sich um einen grossen, unbekannten, leuchtenden oder dunkeln Centralkorper
bewegen. Das Streben nach den letzten und hochsten Grundursachen macht freilich die
reflectirende Thatigkeit des Menschen, wie seine Phantasie, zu einer solchen Annahme
geneigt.
The phaenomenon here alluded to -–that of "many groups moving in opposite directions"
-–is quite inexplicable by Madler's idea; but arises, as a necessary consequence, from that
which forms the basis of this Discourse. While the merely general direction of each atom
-- of each moon, planet, star, or cluster -–would, on my hypothesis, be, of course,
absolutely rectilinear; while the general path of all bodies would be a right line leading to
the centre of all; it is clear, nevertheless, that this general rectilinearity would be
compounded of what, with scarcely any exaggeration, we may term an infinity of
particular curves -–an infinity of local deviations from rectilinearity -–the result of
continuous differences of relative position among the multudinous masses as each
proceeded on its own proper journey to the End.
I quoted, just now, from Sir John Herschel, the following words, used in reference to the
clusters: -–"On one hand, without a rotary motion and a centrifugal force, it is hardly
possible not to regard them as in a state of progressive collapse." The fact is, that, in
surveying the "nebulae" with a telescope of high power, we shall find it quite impossible,
having once conceived this idea of "collapse," not to gather, at all points, corroboration of
the idea. A nucleus is always apparent, in the direction of which the stars seem to be
precipitating themselves; nor can these nuclei be mistaken for merely perspective
phaenomena: -–the clusters are really denser near the centre -–sparser in the regions more
remote from it. In a word, we see every thing as we should see it were a collapse taking
place; but, in general, it may be said of these clusters, that we can fairly entertain, while
looking at them, the idea of orbitual movement about a centre, only by admitting the
possible existence, in the distant domains of space, of dynamical laws with which we are
unacquainted.
On the part of Herschel, however, there is evidently a reluctance to regard the nebulae as
in "a state of progressive collapse." But if facts -–if even appearances justify the
supposition of their being in this state, why, it may well be demanded, is he disinclined to
admit it? Simply on account of a prejudice; -–merely because the supposition is at war
with a preconceived and utterly baseless notion -–that of the endlessness -–that of the
eternal stability of the Universe.
If the propositions of this Discourse are tenable, the "state of progressive collapse" is
precisely that state in which alone we are warranted in considering All Things; and, with
due humility, let me here confess that, for my part, I am at a loss to conceive how any
other understanding of the existing condition of affairs, could ever have made its way
into the human brain. "The tendency to collapse" and "the attraction of gravitation" are
convertible phrases. In using either, we speak of the reaction of the First Act. Never was
necessity less obvious than that of supposing Matter imbued with an ineradicable quality
forming part of its material nature -–a quality, or instinct, forever inseparable from it, and
by dint of which inalienable principle every atom is perpetually impelled to seek its
fellow-atom. Never was necessity less obvious than that of entertaining this
unphilosophical idea. Going boldly behind the vulgar thought, we have to conceive,
metaphysically, that the gravitating principle appertains to Matter temporarily -–only
while diffused -- only while existing as Many instead of as One -–appertains to it by
virtue of its state of irradiation alone -–appertains, in a word, altogether to its Condition,
and not in the slightest degree to itself. In this view, when the irradiation shall have
returned into its source -–when the reaction shall be completed -–the gravitating principle
will no longer exist. And, in fact, astronomers, without at any time reaching the idea here
suggested, seem to have been approximating it, in the assertion that "if there were but one
body in the Universe, it would be impossible to understand how the principle, Gravity,
could obtain": -–that is to say, from a consideration of Matter as they find it, they reach a
conclusion at which I deductively arrive. That so pregnant a suggestion as the one quoted
should have been permitted to remain so long unfruitful, is, nevertheless, a mystery
which I find it difficult to fathom.
It is, perhaps, in no little degree, however, our propensity for the continuous -–for the
analogical -–in the present case more particularly for the symmetrical which has been
leading us astray. And, in fact, the sense of the symmetrical is an instinct which may be
depended upon with an almost blindfold reliance. It is the poetical essence of the
Universe -–OF0,0 which, in the supremeness of its symmetry, is but the most sublime of
poems. Now symmetry and consistency are convertible terms: -–thus Poetry and Truth
are one. A thing is consistent in the ratio of its truth -–true in the ratio of its consistency.
A Perfect consistency, I repeat, can be nothing but a absolute truth. We may take it for
granted, then, that Man cannot long or widely err, if he suffer himself to be guided by his
poetical, which I have maintained to be his truthful, in being his symmetrical, instinct. He
must have a care, however, lest, in pursuing too heedlessly the superficial symmetry of
forms and motions, he leave out of sight the really essential symmetry of the principles
which determine and control them.
That the stellar bodies would finally be merged in one -–that, at last, all would be drawn
into the substance of one stupendous central orb already existing -–is an idea which, for
some time past, seems, vaguely and indeterminately, to have held possession of the fancy
of mankind. It is an idea, in fact, which belongs to the class of the excessively obvious. It
springs, instantly, from a superficial observation of the cyclic and seemingly gyrating, or
vorticial movements of those individual portions of the Universe which come most
immediately and most closely under our observation. There is not, perhaps, a human
being, of ordinary education and of average reflective capacity, to whom, at some period,
the fancy inquestion has not occurred, as if spontaneously, or intuitively, and wearing all
the character of a very profound and very original conception. This conception, however,
so commonly entertained, has never, within my knowledge, arisen out of any abstract
considerations. Being, on the contrary, always suggested, as I say, by the vorticial
movements about centres, a reason for it, also, -–a cause for the ingathering of all the
orbs into one, imagined to be already existing, was naturally sought in the same direction
-–among these cyclic movements themselves.
Thus it happened that, on announcement of the gradual and perfectly regular decrease
observed in the orbit of Enck's comet, at every successive revolution about our Sun,
astronomers were nearly unanimous in the opinion that the cause in question was found –that a principle was discovered sufficient to account, physically, for that final, universal
agglomeration which, I repeat, the analogical, symmetrical or poetical instinct of Man
had predetermined to understand as something more than a simple hypothesis.
This cause -–this sufficient reason for the final ingathering -–was declared to exist in an
exceedingly rare but still material medium pervading space; which medium, by retarding,
in some degree, the progress of the comet, perpetually weakened its tangential force; thus
giving a predominance to the centripetal; which, of course, drew the comet nearer and
nearer at each revolution, and would eventually precipitate it upon the Sun.
All this was strictly logical -–admitting the medium or ether; but this ether was assumed,
most illogically, on the ground that no other mode than the one spoken of could be
discovered, of accounting for the observed decrease in the orbit of the comet: -–as if from
the fact that we could discover no other mode of accounting for it, it followed, in any
respect, that no other mode of accounting for it existed. It is clear that innumerable causes
might operate, in combination, to diminish the orbit, without even a possibility of our
ever becoming acquainted with one of them. In the meantime, it has never been fairly
shown, perhaps, why the retardation occasioned by the skirts of the Sun's atmosphere,
through which the comet passes at perihelion, is not enough to account for the
phaenomenon. That Enck's comet will be absorbed into the Sun, is probable; that all the
comets of the system will be absorbed, is more than merely possible; but, in such case,
the principle of absorption must be referred to eccentricity of orbit -–to the close
approximation to the Sun, of the comets at their perihelia; and is a principle not affecting,
in any degree, the ponderous spheres, which are to be regarded as the true material
constituents of the Universe. -- Touching comets, in general, let me here suggest, in
passing, that we cannot be far wrong in looking upon them as the lightning-flashes of the
cosmical Heaven.
The idea of a retarding ether and, through it, of a final agglomeration of all things,
seemed at one time, however, to be confirmed by the observation of a positive decrease
in the orbit of the solid moon. By reference to eclipses recorded 2500 years ago, it was
found that the velocity of the satellite's revolution then was considerably less than it is
now; that on the hypothesis that its motions in its orbit is uniformly in accordance with
Kepler's law, and was accurately determined then -–2500 years ago -–it is now in
advance of the position it should occupy, by nearly 9000 miles. The increase of velocity
proved, of course, a diminution of orbit; and astronomers were fast yielding to a belief in
an ether, as the sole mode of accounting for the phaenomenon, when Lagrange came to
the rescue. He showed that, owing to the configurations of the spheroids, the shorter axes
of their ellipses are subject to variation in length; the longer axes being permanent; and
that this variation is continuous and vibratory -–so that every orbit is in a state of
transition, either from circle to ellipse, or from ellipse to circle. In the case of the moon,
where the shorter axis is de creasing, the orbit is passing from circle to ellipse, and,
consequently, is de creasing too; but, after a long series of ages, the ultimate eccentricity
will be attained; then the shorter axis will proceed to in crease, until the orbit becomes a
circle; when the process of shortening will again take place; -–and so on forever. In the
case of the Earth, the orbit is passing from ellipse to circle. The facts thus demonstrated
do away, of course, with all necessity for supposing an ether, and with all apprehension
of the system's instability -–on the ether's account.
It will be remembered that I have myself assumed what we may term an ether. I have
spoken of a subtle influence which we know to be ever in attendance upon matter,
although becoming manifest only through matter's heterogeneity. To this influence -–
without daring to touch it at all in any effort at explaining its awful nature -–I have
referred the various phaenomena of electricity, heat, light, magnetism; and more -–of
vitality, consciousness, and thought -–in a word, of spirituality. It will be seen, at once,
then, that the ether thus conceived is radically distinct from the ether of the astronomers;
inasmuch as theirs is matter and mine not.
With the idea of material ether, seems, thus, to have departed altogether the thought of
that universal agglomeration so long predetermined by the poetical fancy of mankind: -–
an agglomeration in which a sound Philosophy might have been warranted in putting
faith, at least to a certain extent, if for no other reason than that by this poetical fancy it
had been so predetermined. But so far as Astronomy -–so far as mere Physics have yet
spoken, the cycles of the Universe are perpetual -–the Universe has no conceivable end.
Had an end been demonstrated, however, from so purely collateral a cause as an ether,
Man's instinct of the Divine capacity to adapt, would have rebelled against the
demonstration. We should have been forced to regard the Universe with some such sense
of dissatisfaction as we experience in contemplating an unnecessarily complex work of
human art. Creation would have affected us as an imperfect PL0, in a romance, where the
denoument is awkwardly brought about by interposed incidents external and foreign to
the main subject; instead of springing out of the bosom of the thesis -–out of the heart of
the ruling idea -–instead of arising as a result of the primary proposition -–as inseparable
and inevitable part and parcel of the fundamental conception of the book.
What I mean by the symmetry of mere surface -–will now be more clearly understood. It
is simply by the blandishment of this symmetry that we have been beguiled into the
general idea of which Madler's hypothesis is but a part -–the idea of the vorticial
indrawing of the orbs. Dismissing this nakedly physical conception, the symmetry of
principle sees the end of all things metaphysically involved in the thought of a beginning;
seeks and finds in this origin of all things the rudiment of this end; and perceives the
impiety of supposing this end likely to be brought about less simply -–less directly -–less
obviously -–less artistically -–than through the reaction of the originating Act.
Recurring, then, to a previous suggestion, let us understand the systems -–let us
understand each star, with its attendant planets -–as but a Titanic atom existing in space
with precisely the same inclination for Unity which characterized, in the beginning, the
actual atoms after their irradiation throughout the Universal sphere. As these original
atoms rushed towards each other in generally straight lines, so let us conceive as at least
generally rectilinear, the paths of the system-atoms towards their respective centres of
aggregation: -–and in this direct drawing together of the systems into clusters, with a
similar and simultaneous drawing together of the clusters themselves while undergoing
consolidation, we have at length attained the great Now -–the awful Present -–the
Existing Condition of the Universe.
Of the still more awful Future a not irrational analogy may guide us in framing an
hypothesis. The equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal forces of each
system, being necessarily destroyed upon attainment of a certain proximity to the nucleus
of the cluster to which it belongs, there must occur, at once, a chaotic or seemingly
chaotic precipitation, of the moons upon the planets, of the planets upon the suns, and of
the suns upon the nuclei; and the general result of this precipitation must be the gathering
of the myriad now-existing stars of the firmament into an almost infinitely less number of
almost infinitely superior spheres. In being immeasurably fewer, the worlds of that day
will be immeasurably greater than our own. Then, indeed, amid unfathomable abysses,
will be glaring unimaginable suns. But all this will be merely a climacic magnificence
foreboding the great End. Of this End the new genesis described, can be but a very partial
postponement. While undergoing consolidation, the clusters themselves, with a speed
prodigiously accumulative, have been rushing towards their own general centre -–and
now, with a thousandfold electric velocity, commensurate only with their material
grandeur and with the spiritual passion of their appetite for oneness, the majestic
remnants of the tribe of Stars flash, at length, into a common embrace. The inevitable
catastrophe is at hand.
But this catastrophe -–what is it? We have seen accomplished the ingathering of the orbs.
Henceforward, are we not to understand one material globe of globes as constituting and
comprehending the Universe? Such a fancy would be altogether at war with every
assumption and consideration of this Discourse.
I have already alluded to that absolute reciprocity of adaptation which is the idiosyncrasy
of the divine Art -–stamping it divine. Up to this point of our reflections, we have been
regarding the electrical influence as a something by dint of whose repulsion alone Matter
is enabled to exist in that state of diffusion demanded for the fulfilment of its purposes: -–
so far, in a word, we have been considering the influence in question as ordained for
Matter's sake -- to subserve the objects of matter. With a perfectly legitimate reciprocity,
we are now permitted to look at Matter, as created solely for the sake of this influence -–
solely to serve the objects of this spiritual Ether. Through the aid -–by the means -–
through the agency of Matter, and by dint of its heterogeneity -–is this Ether manifested –is Spirit individualized. It is merely in the development of this Ether, through
heterogeneity, that particular masses of Matter become animate -–sensitive -–and in the
ratio of their heterogeneity; -–some reaching a degree of sensitiveness involving what we
call Thought and thus attaining Conscious Intelligence.
In this view, we are enabled to perceive Matter as a Means -–not as an End. Its purposes
are thus seen to have been comprehended in its diffusion; and with the return into Unity
these purposes cease. The absolutely consolidated globe of globes would be objectless: -therefore not for a moment could it continue to exist. Matter, created for an end, would
unquestionably, on fulfilment of that end, be Matter no longer. Let us endeavor to
understand that it would disappear, and that God would remain all in all.
That every work of Divine conception must coexist and coexpire with its particular
design, seems to me especially obvious; and I make no doubt that, on perceiving the final
globe of globes to be objectless, the majority of my readers will be satisfied with my
"therefore it cannot continue to exist." Nevertheless, as the startling thought of its
instantaneous disappearance is one which the most powerful intellect cannot be expected
readily to entertain on grounds so decidedly abstract, let us endeavor to look at the idea
from some other and more ordinary point of view: -–let us see how thoroughly and
beautifully it is corroborated in an a posteriori consideration of Matter as we actually find
it.
I have before said that "Attraction and Repulsion being undeniably the sole properties by
which Matter is manifested to Mind, we are justified in assuming that Matter exists only
as Attraction and Repulsion -–in other words that Attraction and Repulsion are Matter;
there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the term Matter and the
terms 'Attraction' and 'Repulsion' taken together, as equivalent, and therefore convertible,
expressions of Logic." *
* See previous paragraph, "Discarding now the two equivocal terms..."
Now the very definition of Attraction implies particularity -–the existence of parts,
particles, or atoms; for we define it as the tendency of "each atom &c. to every other
atom," &c. according to a certain law. Of course where there are no parts -–where there is
absolute Unity -–where the tendency to oneness is satisfied -–there can be no Attraction: –this has been fully shown, and all Philosophy admits it. When, on fulfilment of its
purposes, then, Matter shall have returned into its original condition of One -–a condition
which presupposes the expulsion of the separative ether, whose province and whose
capacity are limited to keeping the atoms apart until that great day when, this ether being
no longer needed, the overwhelming pressure of the finally collective Attraction shall at
length just sufficiently predominate * and expel it: -–when, I say, Matter, finally,
expelling the Ether, shall have returned into absolute Unity, -–it will then (to speak
paradoxically for the moment) be Matter without Attraction and without Repulsion -–in
other words, Matter without Matter -–in other words, again, Matter no more. In sinking
into Unity, it will sink at once into that Nothingness which, to all Finite Perception, Unity
must be -–into that Material Nihility from which alone we can conceive it to have been
evoked -–to have been created by the Volition of God.
* "Gravity, therefore, must be the strongest of forces." See previous section, "Now,
although the philosophic cannot be said to..."
I repeat then -–Let us endeavor to comprehend that the final globe of globes will
instantaneously disappear, and that God will remain all in all.
But are we here to pause? Not so. On the Universal agglomeration and dissolution, we
can readily conceive that a new and perhaps totally different series of conditions may
ensue -–another creation and irradiation, returning into itself -–another action and
reaction of the Divine Will. Guiding our imaginations by that omniprevalent law of laws,
the law of periodicity, are we not, indeed, more than justified in entertaining a belief -–let
us say, rather, in indulging a hope -–that the processes we have here ventured to
contemplate will be renewed forever, and forever, and forever; a novel Universe swelling
into existence, and then subsiding into nothingness, at every throb of the Heart Divine?
And now -–this Heart Divine -–what is it? It is our own.
Let not the merely seeming irreverence of this idea frighten our souls from that cool
exercise of consciousness -–from that deep tranquillity of self-inspection -–through which
alone we can hope to attain the presence of this, the most sublime of truths, and look it
leisurely in the face.
The phaenomena on which our conclusions must at this point depend, are merely spiritual
shadows, but not the less thoroughly substantial.
We walk about, amid the destinies of our world-existence, encompassed by dim but ever
present Memories of a Destiny more vast -- very distant in the bygone time, and infinitely
awful.
We live out a Youth peculiarly haunted by such dreams; yet never mistaking them for
dreams. As Memories we know them. During our Youth the distinction is too clear to
deceive us even for a moment.
So long as this Youth endures, the feeling that we exist, is the most natural of all feelings.
We understand it thoroughly. That there was a period at which we did not exist -–or, that
it might so have happened that we never had existed at all -–are the considerations,
indeed, which during this youth, we find difficulty in understanding. Why we should not
exist, is, up to the epoch of Manhood, of all queries the most unanswerable. Existence --
self-existence -–existence from all Time and to all Eternity -–seems, up to the epoch of
Manhood, a normal and unquestionable condition: -- seems, because it is.
But now comes the period at which a conventional World-Reason awakens us from the
truth of our dream. Doubt, Surprise and Incomprehensibility arrive at the same moment.
They say: -–"You live and the time was when you lived not. You have been created. An
Intelligence exists greater than your own; and it is only through this Intelligence you live
at all." These things we struggle to comprehend and cannot: -–cannot, because these
things, being untrue, are thus, of necessity, incomprehensible.
No thinking being lives who, at some luminous point of his life of thought, has not felt
himself lost amid the surges of futile efforts at understanding, or believing, that anything
exists greater than his own soul. The utter impossibility of any one's soul feeling itself
inferior to another; the intense, overwhelming dissatisfaction and rebellion at the thought;
-–these, with the omniprevalent aspirations at perfection, are but the spiritual, coincident
with the material, struggles towards the original Unity -–are, to my mind at least, a
species of proof far surpassing what Man terms demonstration, that no one soul is inferior
to another -–that nothing is, or can be, superior to any one soul -–that each soul is, in part,
its own God -–its own Creator: -–in a word, that God -–the material and spiritual God -now exists solely in the diffused Matter and Spirit of the Universe; and that the
regathering of this diffused Matter and Spirit will be but the re-constitution of the purely
Spiritual and Individual God.
In this view, and in this view alone, we comprehend the riddles of Divine Injustice -–of
Inexorable Fate. In this view alone the existence of Evil becomes intelligible; but in this
view it becomes more -–it becomes endurable. Our souls no longer rebel at a Sorrow
which we ourselves have imposed upon ourselves, in furtherance of our own purposes -–
with a view -–if even with a futile view -–to the extension of our own Joy.
I have spoken of Memories that haunt us during our youth. They sometimes pursue us
even in our Manhood: -–assume gradually less and less indefinite shapes: -–now and then
speak to us with low voices, saying:
"There was an epoch in the Night of Time, when a still-existent Being existed -–one of an
absolutely infinite number of similar Beings that people the absolutely infinite domains
of the absolutely infinite space. *
* See previous paragraph, 'I reply that the "right," in a case such as this...'
It was not and is not in the power of this Being -–any more than it is in your own -–to
extend, by actual increase, the joy of his Existence; but just as it is in your power to
expand or to concentrate your pleasures (the absolute amount of happiness remaining
always the same) so did and does a similar capability appertain to this Divine Being, who
thus passes his Eternity in perpetual variation of Concentrated Self and almost Infinite
Self-Diffusion. What you call The Universe is but his present expansive existence. He
now feels his life through an infinity of imperfect pleasures -–the partial and pain-
intertangled pleasures of those inconceivably numerous things which you designate as his
creatures, but which are really but infinite individualizations of Himself. All these
creatures -- those which you term animate, as well as those to whom you deny life for no
better reason than that you do not behold it in operation -- these creatures have, in a
greater or less degree, a capacity for pleasure and for pain: -–but the general sum of their
sensations is precisely that amount of Happiness which appertains by right to the Divine
Being when concentrated within Himself. These creatures are all too, more or less
conscious Intelligences; conscious, first, of a proper identity; conscious, secondly and by
faint indeterminate glimpses, of an identity with the Divine Being of whom we speak -–
of an identity with God. Of the two classes of consciousness, fancy that the former will
grow weaker, the latter stronger, during the long succession of ages which must elapse
before these myriads of individual Intelligences become blended -–when the bright stars
become blended -–into One. Think that the sense of individual identity will be gradually
merged in the general consciousness -–that Man, for example, ceasing imperceptibly to
feel himself Man, will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shall
recognize his existence as that of Jehovah. In the meantime bear in mind that all is Life -–
Life -–Life within Life -–the less within the greater, and all within the Spirit Divine.
THE END
EVENING STAR
by Edgar Allan Poe
1827
'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold–too cold for meThere pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.
THE END
FAIRY-LAND
by Edgar Allan Poe
1829
Dim vales–and shadowy floodsAnd cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can't discover
For the tears that drip all over!
Huge moons there wax and waneAgain–again–againEvery moment of the nightForever changing placesAnd they put out the star-light
With the breath from their pale faces.
About twelve by the moon-dial,
One more filmy than the rest
(A kind which, upon trial,
They have found to be the best)
Comes down–still down–and down,
With its centre on the crown
Of a mountain's eminence,
While its wide circumference
In easy drapery falls
Over hamlets, over halls,
Wherever they may beO'er the strange woods–o'er the seaOver spirits on the wingOver every drowsy thingAnd buries them up quite
In a labyrinth of lightAnd then, how deep!–O, deep!
Is the passion of their sleep.
In the morning they arise,
And their moony covering
Is soaring in the skies,
With the tempests as they toss,
Like–almost anythingOr a yellow Albatross.
They use that moon no more
For the same end as beforeVidelicet, a tentWhich I think extravagant:
Its atomies, however,
Into a shower dissever,
Of which those butterflies
Of Earth, who seek the skies,
And so come down again,
(Never-contented things!)
Have brought a specimen
Upon their quivering wings.
THE END
FOR ANNIE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1849
Thank Heaven! the crisisThe danger is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at lastAnd the fever called "Living"
Is conquered at last.
Sadly, I know
I am shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move
As I lie at full lengthBut no matter!-I feel
I am better at length.
And I rest so composedly,
Now, in my bed
That any beholder
Might fancy me deadMight start at beholding me,
Thinking me dead.
The moaning and groaning,
The sighing and sobbing,
Are quieted now,
With that horrible throbbing
At heart:–ah, that horrible,
Horrible throbbing!
The sickness–the nauseaThe pitiless painHave ceased, with the fever
That maddened my brainWith the fever called "Living"
That burned in my brain.
And oh! of all tortures
That torture the worst
Has abated–the terrible
Torture of thirst
For the naphthaline river
Of Passion accurst:I have drunk of a water
That quenches all thirst:Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet under groundFrom a cavern not very far
Down under ground.
And ah! let it never
Be foolishly said
That my room it is gloomy
And narrow my bed;
For man never slept
In a different bedAnd, to sleep, you must slumber
In just such a bed.
My tantalized spirit
Here blandly reposes,
Forgetting, or never
Regretting its rosesIts old agitations
Of myrtles and roses:
For now, while so quietly
Lying, it fancies
A holier odor
About it, of pansiesA rosemary odor,
Commingled with pansiesWith rue and the beautiful
Puritan pansies.
And so it lies happily,
Bathing in many
A dream of the truth
And the beauty of AnnieDrowned in a bath
Of the tresses of Annie.
She tenderly kissed me,
She fondly caressed,
And then I fell gently
To sleep on her breastDeeply to sleep
From the heaven of her breast.
When the light was extinguished,
She covered me warm,
And she prayed to the angels
To keep me from harmTo the queen of the angels
To shield me from harm.
And I lie so composedly,
Now, in my bed,
(Knowing her love)
That you fancy me deadAnd I rest so contentedly,
Now, in my bed,
(With her love at my breast)
That you fancy me deadThat you shudder to look at me,
Thinking me dead.
But my heart it is brighter
Than all of the many
Stars in the sky,
For it sparkles with AnnieIt glows with the light
Of the love of my AnnieWith the thought of the light
Of the eyes of my Annie.
THE END
FOUR BEASTS IN ONE–THE HOMOCAMELEOPARD
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
Chacun a ses vertus.
CREBILLON'S Xerxes.
ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES is very generally looked upon as the Gog of the prophet
Ezekiel. This honor is, however, more properly attributable to Cambyses, the son of
Cyrus. And, indeed, the character of the Syrian monarch does by no means stand in need
of any adventitious embellishment. His accession to the throne, or rather his usurpation of
the sovereignty, a hundred and seventy-one years before the coming of Christ; his attempt
to plunder the temple of Diana at Ephesus; his implacable hostility to the Jews; his
pollution of the Holy of Holies; and his miserable death at Taba, after a tumultuous reign
of eleven years, are circumstances of a prominent kind, and therefore more generally
noticed by the historians of his time than the impious, dastardly, cruel, silly, and
whimsical achievements which make up the sum total of his private life and reputation.
Let us suppose, gentle reader, that it is now the year of the world three thousand eight
hundred and thirty, and let us, for a few minutes, imagine ourselves at that most
grotesque habitation of man, the remarkable city of Antioch. To be sure there were, in
Syria and other countries, sixteen cities of that appellation, besides the one to which I
more particularly allude. But ours is that which went by the name of Antiochia
Epidaphne, from its vicinity to the little village of Daphne, where stood a temple to that
divinity. It was built (although about this matter there is some dispute) by Seleucus
Nicanor, the first king of the country after Alexander the Great, in memory of his father
Antiochus, and became immediately the residence of the Syrian monarchy. In the
flourishing times of the Roman Empire, it was the ordinary station of the prefect of the
eastern provinces; and many of the emperors of the queen city (among whom may be
mentioned, especially, Verus and Valens) spent here the greater part of their time. But I
perceive we have arrived at the city itself. Let us ascend this battlement, and throw our
eyes upon the town and neighboring country.
"What broad and rapid river is that which forces its way, with innumerable falls, through
the mountainous wilderness, and finally through the wilderness of buildings?"
That is the Orontes, and it is the only water in sight, with the exception of the
Mediterranean, which stretches, like a broad mirror, about twelve miles off to the
southward. Every one has seen the Mediterranean; but let me tell you, there are few who
have had a peep at Antioch. By few, I mean, few who, like you and me, have had, at the
same time, the advantages of a modern education. Therefore cease to regard that sea, and
give your whole attention to the mass of houses that lie beneath us. You will remember
that it is now the year of the world three thousand eight hundred and thirty. Were it later–
for example, were it the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-five, we should be
deprived of this extraordinary spectacle. In the nineteenth century Antioch is–that is to
say, Antioch will be- in a lamentable state of decay. It will have been, by that time,
totally destroyed, at three different periods, by three successive earthquakes. Indeed, to
say the truth, what little of its former self may then remain, will be found in so desolate
and ruinous a state that the patriarch shall have removed his residence to Damascus. This
is well. I see you profit by my advice, and are making the most of your time in inspecting
the premises–in
-satisfying your eyes
With the memorials and the things of fame
That most renown this city.I beg pardon; I had forgotten that Shakespeare will not flourish for seventeen hundred
and fifty years to come. But does not the appearance of Epidaphne justify me in calling it
grotesque?
"It is well fortified; and in this respect is as much indebted to nature as to art."
Very true.
"There are a prodigious number of stately palaces."
There are.
"And the numerous temples, sumptuous and magnificent, may bear comparison with the
most lauded of antiquity."
All this I must acknowledge. Still there is an infinity of mud huts, and abominable hovels.
We cannot help perceiving abundance of filth in every kennel, and, were it not for the
over-powering fumes of idolatrous incense, I have no doubt we should find a most
intolerable stench. Did you ever behold streets so insufferably narrow, or houses so
miraculously tall? What gloom their shadows cast upon the ground! It is well the
swinging lamps in those endless colonnades are kept burning throughout the day; we
should otherwise have the darkness of Egypt in the time of her desolation.
"It is certainly a strange place! What is the meaning of yonder singular building? See! it
towers above all others, and lies to the eastward of what I take to be the royal palace."
That is the new Temple of the Sun, who is adored in Syria under the title of Elah
Gabalah. Hereafter a very notorious Roman Emperor will institute this worship in Rome,
and thence derive a cognomen, Heliogabalus. I dare say you would like to take a peep at
the divinity of the temple. You need not look up at the heavens; his Sunship is not there–
at least not the Sunship adored by the Syrians. That deity will be found in the interior of
yonder building. He is worshipped under the figure of a large stone pillar terminating at
the summit in a cone or pyramid, whereby is denoted Fire.
"Hark–behold!–who can those ridiculous beings be, half naked, with their faces painted,
shouting and gesticulating to the rabble?"
Some few are mountebanks. Others more particularly belong to the race of philosophers.
The greatest portion, however–those especially who belabor the populace with clubs–are
the principal courtiers of the palace, executing as in duty bound, some laudable
comicality of the king's.
"But what have we here? Heavens! the town is swarming with wild beasts! How terrible a
spectacle!–how dangerous a peculiarity!"
Terrible, if you please; but not in the least degree dangerous. Each animal if you will take
the pains to observe, is following, very quietly, in the wake of its master. Some few, to be
sure, are led with a rope about the neck, but these are chiefly the lesser or timid species.
The lion, the tiger, and the leopard are entirely without restraint. They have been trained
without difficulty to their present profession, and attend upon their respective owners in
the capacity of valets-de-chambre. It is true, there are occasions when Nature asserts her
violated dominions;–but then the devouring of a man-at-arms, or the throttling of a
consecrated bull, is a circumstance of too little moment to be more than hinted at in
Epidaphne.
"But what extraordinary tumult do I hear? Surely this is a loud noise even for Antioch! It
argues some commotion of unusual interest."
Yes–undoubtedly. The king has ordered some novel spectacle–some gladiatorial
exhibition at the hippodrome–or perhaps the massacre of the Scythian prisoners–or the
conflagration of his new palace- or the tearing down of a handsome temple–or, indeed, a
bonfire of a few Jews. The uproar increases. Shouts of laughter ascend the skies. The air
becomes dissonant with wind instruments, and horrible with clamor of a million throats.
Let us descend, for the love of fun, and see what is going on! This way–be careful! Here
we are in the principal street, which is called the street of Timarchus. The sea of people is
coming this way, and we shall find a difficulty in stemming the tide. They are pouring
through the alley of Heraclides, which leads directly from the palace;–therefore the king
is most probably among the rioters. Yes;–I hear the shouts of the herald proclaiming his
approach in the pompous phraseology of the East. We shall have a glimpse of his person
as he passes by the temple of Ashimah. Let us ensconce ourselves in the vestibule of the
sanctuary; he will be here anon. In the meantime let us survey this image. What is it? Oh!
it is the god Ashimah in proper person. You perceive, however, that he is neither a lamb,
nor a goat, nor a satyr, neither has he much resemblance to the Pan of the Arcadians. Yet
all these appearances have been given–I beg pardon–will be given–by the learned of
future ages, to the Ashimah of the Syrians. Put on your spectacles, and tell me what it is.
What is it?
"Bless me! it is an ape!"
True–a baboon; but by no means the less a deity. His name is a derivation of the Greek
Simia–what great fools are antiquarians! But see!–see!–yonder scampers a ragged little
urchin. Where is he going? What is he bawling about? What does he say? Oh! he says the
king is coming in triumph; that he is dressed in state; that he has just finished putting to
death, with his own hand, a thousand chained Israelitish prisoners! For this exploit the
ragamuffin is lauding him to the skies. Hark! here comes a troop of a similar description.
They have made a Latin hymn upon the valor of the king, and are singing it as they go:
Mille, mille, mille,
Mille, mille, mille,
Decollavimus, unus homo!
Mille, mille, mille, mille, decollavimus!
Mille, mille, mille,
Vivat qui mille mille occidit!
Tantum vini habet nemo
Quantum sanguinis effudit!*
Which may be thus paraphrased:
A thousand, a thousand, a thousand,
A thousand, a thousand, a thousand,
We, with one warrior, have slain!
A thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand.
Sing a thousand over again!
Soho!–let us sing
Long life to our king,
Who knocked over a thousand so fine!
Soho!–let us roar,
He has given us more
Red gallons of gore
Than all Syria can furnish of wine!
* Flavius Vospicus says, that the hymn here introduced was sung by the rabble upon the
occasion of Aurelian, in the Sarmatic war, having slain, with his own hand, nine hundred
and fifty of the enemy.
"Do you hear that flourish of trumpets?"
Yes: the king is coming! See! the people are aghast with admiration, and lift up their eyes
to the heavens in reverence. He comes;–he is coming;–there he is!
"Who?–where?–the king?–do not behold him–cannot say that I perceive him."
Then you must be blind.
"Very possible. Still I see nothing but a tumultuous mob of idiots and madmen, who are
busy in prostrating themselves before a gigantic cameleopard, and endeavoring to obtain
a kiss of the animal's hoofs. See! the beast has very justly kicked one of the rabble over–
and another–and another–and another. Indeed, I cannot help admiring the animal for the
excellent use he is making of his feet."
Rabble, indeed!–why these are the noble and free citizens of Epidaphne! Beasts, did you
say?–take care that you are not overheard. Do you not perceive that the animal has the
visage of a man? Why, my dear sir, that cameleopard is no other than Antiochus
Epiphanes, Antiochus the Illustrious, King of Syria, and the most potent of all the
autocrats of the East! It is true, that he is entitled, at times, Antiochus Epimanes–
Antiochus the madman–but that is because all people have not the capacity to appreciate
his merits. It is also certain that he is at present ensconced in the hide of a beast, and is
doing his best to play the part of a cameleopard; but this is done for the better sustaining
his dignity as king. Besides, the monarch is of gigantic stature, and the dress is therefore
neither unbecoming nor over large. We may, however, presume he would not have
adopted it but for some occasion of especial state. Such, you will allow, is the massacre
of a thousand Jews. With how superior a dignity the monarch perambulates on all fours!
His tail, you perceive, is held aloft by his two principal concubines, Elline and Argelais;
and his whole appearance would be infinitely prepossessing, were it not for the
protuberance of his eyes, which will certainly start out of his head, and the queer color of
his face, which has become nondescript from the quantity of wine he has swallowed. Let
us follow him to the hippodrome, whither he is proceeding, and listen to the song of
triumph which he is commencing:
Who is king but Epiphanes?
Say–do you know?
Who is king but Epiphanes?
Bravo!–bravo!
There is none but Epiphanes,
No–there is none:
So tear down the temples,
And put out the sun!
Well and strenuously sung! The populace are hailing him 'Prince of Poets,' as well as
'Glory of the East,' 'Delight of the Universe,' and 'Most Remarkable of Cameleopards.'
They have encored his effusion, and do you hear?–he is singing it over again. When he
arrives at the hippodrome, he will be crowned with the poetic wreath, in anticipation of
his victory at the approaching Olympics.
"But, good Jupiter! what is the matter in the crowd behind us?"
Behind us, did you say?–oh! ah!–I perceive. My friend, it is well that you spoke in time.
Let us get into a place of safety as soon as possible. Here!–let us conceal ourselves in the
arch of this aqueduct, and I will inform you presently of the origin of the commotion. It
has turned out as I have been anticipating. The singular appearance of the cameleopard
and the head of a man, has, it seems, given offence to the notions of propriety entertained,
in general, by the wild animals domesticated in the city. A mutiny has been the result;
and, as is usual upon such occasions, all human efforts will be of no avail in quelling the
mob. Several of the Syrians have already been devoured; but the general voice of the
four-footed patriots seems to be for eating up the cameleopard. 'The Prince of Poets,'
therefore, is upon his hinder legs, running for his life. His courtiers have left him in the
lurch, and his concubines have followed so excellent an example. 'Delight of the
Universe,' thou art in a sad predicament! 'Glory of the East,' thou art in danger of
mastication! Therefore never regard so piteously thy tail; it will undoubtedly be draggled
in the mud, and for this there is no help. Look not behind thee, then, at its unavoidable
degradation; but take courage, ply thy legs with vigor, and scud for the hippodrome!
Remember that thou art Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus the Illustrious!–also 'Prince of
Poets,' 'Glory of the East,' 'Delight of the Universe,' and 'Most Remarkable of
Cameleopards!' Heavens! what a power of speed thou art displaying! What a capacity for
leg-bail thou art developing! Run, Prince!–Bravo, Epiphanes! Well done, Cameleopard!–
Glorious Antiochus!–He runs!–he leaps!–he flies! Like an arrow from a catapult he
approaches the hippodrome! He leaps!–he shrieks!–he is there! This is well; for hadst
thou, 'Glory of the East,' been half a second longer in reaching the gates of the
Amphitheatre, there is not a bear's cub in Epidaphne that would not have had a nibble at
thy carcase. Let us be off–let us take our departure!–for we shall find our delicate modern
ears unable to endure the vast uproar which is about to commence in celebration of the
king's escape! Listen! it has already commenced. See!–the whole town is topsy-turvy.
"Surely this is the most populous city of the East! What a wilderness of people! what a
jumble of all ranks and ages! what a multiplicity of sects and nations! what a variety of
costumes! what a Babel of languages! what a screaming of beasts! what a tinkling of
instruments! what a parcel of philosophers!"
Come let us be off.
"Stay a moment! I see a vast hubbub in the hippodrome; what is the meaning of it, I
beseech you?"
That?–oh, nothing! The noble and free citizens of Epidaphne being, as they declare, well
satisfied of the faith, valor, wisdom, and divinity of their king, and having, moreover,
been eye-witnesses of his late superhuman agility, do think it no more than their duty to
invest his brows (in addition to the poetic crown) with the wreath of victory in the
footrace–a wreath which it is evident he must obtain at the celebration of the next
Olympiad, and which, therefore, they now give him in advance.
THE END
HANS PHAALL
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
There is, strictly speaking, but little similarity between this sketchy trifle and the very
celebrated and very beautiful "Moon-story" of Mr. Locke–but as both have the character
of hoaxes, (although one is in the tone of banter, the other of downright earnest) and as
both hoaxes are on the same subject, the moon–the author of "Hans Phaall" thinks it
necessary to say, in self-defence, that his own jeu-d'esprit was published, in the Southern
Literary Messenger, about three weeks previously to the appearance of Mr. L's in the
New York "Sun." Fancying a similarity which does not really exist, some of the New
York papers copied "Hans Phaall," and collated it with the Hoax–with the view of
detecting the writer of the one in the writer of the other.
By late accounts from Rotterdam, that city seems to be in a high state of philosophical
excitement. Indeed, phenomena have there occurred of a nature so completely
unexpected–so entirely novel–so utterly at variance with preconceived opinions–as to
leave no doubt on my mind that long ere this all Europe is in an uproar, all physics in a
ferment, all reason and astronomy together by the ears. date), a vast crowd of people, for
purposes not specifically mentioned, were assembled in the great square of the Exchange
in the well-conditioned city of Rotterdam. The day was warm–unusually so for the
season–there was hardly a breath of air stirring; and the multitude were in no bad humor
at being now and then besprinkled with friendly showers of momentary duration, that fell
from large white masses of cloud which chequered in a fitful manner the blue vault of the
firmament. Nevertheless, about noon, a slight but remarkable agitation became apparent
in the assembly: the clattering of ten thousand tongues succeeded; and, in an instant
afterward, ten thousand faces were upturned toward the heavens, ten thousand pipes
descended simultaneously from the corners of ten thousand mouths, and a shout, which
could be compared to nothing but the roaring of Niagara, resounded long, loudly, and
furiously, through all the environs of Rotterdam.
The origin of this hubbub soon became sufficiently evident. From behind the huge bulk
of one of those sharply-defined masses of cloud already mentioned, was seen slowly to
emerge into an open area of blue space, a queer, heterogeneous, but apparently solid
substance, so oddly shaped, so whimsically put together, as not to be in any manner
comprehended, and never to be sufficiently admired, by the host of sturdy burghers who
stood open-mouthed below. What could it be? In the name of all the vrows and devils in
Rotterdam, what could it possibly portend? No one knew, no one could imagine; no one–
not even the burgomaster Mynheer Superbus Von Underduk–had the slightest clew by
which to unravel the mystery; so, as nothing more reasonable could be done, every one to
a man replaced his pipe carefully in the corner of his mouth, and cocking up his right eye
towards the phenomenon, puffed, paused, waddled about, and grunted significantly- then
waddled back, grunted, paused, and finally–puffed again.
In the meantime, however, lower and still lower toward the goodly city, came the object
of so much curiosity, and the cause of so much smoke. In a very few minutes it arrived
near enough to be accurately discerned. It appeared to be–yes! it was undoubtedly a
species of balloon; but surely no such balloon had ever been seen in Rotterdam before.
For who, let me ask, ever heard of a balloon manufactured entirely of dirty newspapers?
No man in Holland certainly; yet here, under the very noses of the people, or rather at
some distance above their noses was the identical thing in question, and composed, I have
it on the best authority, of the precise material which no one had ever before known to be
used for a similar purpose. It was an egregious insult to the good sense of the burghers of
Rotterdam. As to the shape of the phenomenon, it was even still more reprehensible.
Being little or nothing better than a huge foolscap turned upside down. And this
similitude was regarded as by no means lessened when, upon nearer inspection, there was
perceived a large tassel depending from its apex, and, around the upper rim or base of the
cone, a circle of little instruments, resembling sheep-bells, which kept up a continual
tinkling to the tune of Betty Martin. But still worse. Suspended by blue ribbons to the end
of this fantastic machine, there hung, by way of car, an enormous drab beaver bat, with a
brim superlatively broad, and a hemispherical crown with a black band and a silver
buckle. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that many citizens of Rotterdam swore to
having seen the same hat repeatedly before; and indeed the whole assembly seemed to
regard it with eyes of familiarity; while the vrow Grettel Phaall, upon sight of it, uttered
an exclamation of joyful surprise, and declared it to be the identical hat of her good man
himself. Now this was a circumstance the more to be observed, as Phaall, with three
companions, had actually disappeared from Rotterdam about five years before, in a very
sudden and unaccountable manner, and up to the date of this narrative all attempts had
failed of obtaining any intelligence concerning them whatsoever. To be sure, some bones
which were thought to be human, mixed up with a quantity of odd-looking rubbish, had
been lately discovered in a retired situation to the east of Rotterdam, and some people
went so far as to imagine that in this spot a foul murder had been committed, and that the
sufferers were in all probability Hans Phaall and his associates. But to return.
The balloon (for such no doubt it was) had now descended to within a hundred feet of the
earth, allowing the crowd below a sufficiently distinct view of the person of its occupant.
This was in truth a very droll little somebody. He could not have been more than two feet
in height; but this altitude, little as it was, would have been sufficient to destroy his
equilibrium, and tilt him over the edge of his tiny car, but for the intervention of a
circular rim reaching as high as the breast, and rigged on to the cords of the balloon. The
body of the little man was more than proportionately broad, giving to his entire figure a
rotundity highly absurd. His feet, of course, could not be seen at all, although a horny
substance of suspicious nature was occasionally protruded through a rent in the bottom of
the car, or to speak more properly, in the top of the hat. His hands were enormously large.
His hair was extremely gray, and collected in a cue behind. His nose was prodigiously
long, crooked, and inflammatory; his eyes full, brilliant, and acute; his chin and cheeks,
although wrinkled with age, were broad, puffy, and double; but of ears of any kind or
character there was not a semblance to be discovered upon any portion of his head. This
odd little gentleman was dressed in a loose surtout of sky-blue satin, with tight breeches
to match, fastened with silver buckles at the knees. His vest was of some bright yellow
material; a white taffety cap was set jauntily on one side of his head; and, to complete his
equipment, a blood-red silk handkerchief enveloped his throat, and fell down, in a dainty
manner, upon his bosom, in a fantastic bow-knot of super-eminent dimensions.
Having descended, as I said before, to about one hundred feet from the surface of the
earth, the little old gentleman was suddenly seized with a fit of trepidation, and appeared
disinclined to make any nearer approach to terra firma. Throwing out, therefore, a
quantity of sand from a canvas bag, which, he lifted with great difficulty, he became
stationary in an instant. He then proceeded, in a hurried and agitated manner, to extract
from a side-pocket in his surtout a large morocco pocket-book. This he poised
suspiciously in his hand, then eyed it with an air of extreme surprise, and was evidently
astonished at its weight. He at length opened it, and drawing there from a huge letter
sealed with red sealing-wax and tied carefully with red tape, let it fall precisely at the feet
of the burgomaster, Superbus Von Underduk. His Excellency stooped to take it up. But
the aeronaut, still greatly discomposed, and having apparently no farther business to
detain him in Rotterdam, began at this moment to make busy preparations for departure;
and it being necessary to discharge a portion of ballast to enable him to reascend, the half
dozen bags which he threw out, one after another, without taking the trouble to empty
their contents, tumbled, every one of them, most unfortunately upon the back of the
burgomaster, and rolled him over and over no less than one-and-twenty times, in the face
of every man in Rotterdam. It is not to be supposed, however, that the great Underduk
suffered this impertinence on the part of the little old man to pass off with impunity. It is
said, on the contrary, that during each and every one of his one-and twenty
circumvolutions he emitted no less than one-and-twenty distinct and furious whiffs from
his pipe, to which he held fast the whole time with all his might, and to which he intends
holding fast until the day of his death.
In the meantime the balloon arose like a lark, and, soaring far away above the city, at
length drifted quietly behind a cloud similar to that from which it had so oddly emerged,
and was thus lost forever to the wondering eyes of the good citiezns of Rotterdam. All
attention was now directed to the letter, the descent of which, and the consequences
attending thereupon, had proved so fatally subversive of both person and personal dignity
to his Excellency, the illustrious Burgomaster Mynheer Superbus Von Underduk. That
functionary, however, had not failed, during his circumgyratory movements, to bestow a
thought upon the important subject of securing the packet in question, which was seen,
upon inspection, to have fAllan into the most proper hands, being actually addressed to
himself and Professor Rub-a-dub, in their official capacities of President and VicePresident of the Rotterdam College of Astronomy. It was accordingly opened by those
dignitaries upon the spot, and found to contain the following extraordinary, and indeed
very serious, communications.
To their Excellencies Von Underduk and Rub-a-dub, President and Vice-President of the
States' College of Astronomers, in the city of Rotterdam.
Your Excellencies may perhaps be able to remember an humble artizan, by name Hans
Phaall, and by occupation a mender of bellows, who, with three others, disappeared from
Rotterdam, about five years ago, in a manner which must have been considered by all
parties at once sudden, and extremely unaccountable. If, however, it so please your
Excellencies, I, the writer of this communication, am the identical Hans Phaall himself. It
is well known to most of my fellow citizens, that for the period of forty years I continued
to occupy the little square brick building, at the head of the alley called Sauerkraut, in
which I resided at the time of my disappearance. My ancestors have also resided therein
time out of mind–they, as well as myself, steadily following the respectable and indeed
lucrative profession of mending of bellows. For, to speak the truth, until of late years, that
the heads of all the people have been set agog with politics, no better business than my
own could an honest citizen of Rotterdam either desire or deserve. Credit was good,
employment was never wanting, and on all hands there was no lack of either money or
good-will. But, as I was saying, we soon began to feel the effects of liberty and long
speeches, and radicalism, and all that sort of thing. People who were formerly, the very
best customers in the world, had now not a moment of time to think of us at all. They
had, so they said, as much as they could do to read about the revolutions, and keep up
with the march of intellect and the spirit of the age. If a fire wanted fanning, it could
readily be fanned with a newspaper, and as the government grew weaker, I have no doubt
that leather and iron acquired durability in proportion, for, in a very short time, there was
not a pair of bellows in all Rotterdam that ever stood in need of a stitch or required the
assistance of a hammer. This was a state of things not to be endured. I soon grew as poor
as a rat, and, having a wife and children to provide for, my burdens at length became
intolerable, and I spent hour after hour in reflecting upon the most convenient method of
putting an end to my life. Duns, in the meantime, left me little leisure for contemplation.
My house was literally besieged from morning till night, so that I began to rave, and
foam, and fret like a caged tiger against the bars of his enclosure. There were three
fellows in particular who worried me beyond endurance, keeping watch continually about
my door, and threatening me with the law. Upon these three I internally vowed the
bitterest revenge, if ever I should be so happy as to get them within my clutches; and I
believe nothing in the world but the pleasure of this anticipation prevented me from
putting my plan of suicide into immediate execution, by blowing my brains out with a
blunderbuss. I thought it best, however, to dissemble my wrath, and to treat them with
promises and fair words, until, by some good turn of fate, an opportunity of vengeance
should be afforded me.
One day, having given my creditors the slip, and feeling more than usually dejected, I
continued for a long time to wander about the most obscure streets without object
whatever, until at length I chanced to stumble against the corner of a bookseller's stall.
Seeing a chair close at hand, for the use of customers, I threw myself doggedly into it,
and, hardly knowing why, opened the pages of the first volume which came within my
reach. It proved to be a small pamphlet treatise on Speculative Astronomy, written either
by Professor Encke of Berlin or by a Frenchman of somewhat similar name. I had some
little tincture of information on matters of this nature, and soon became more and more
absorbed in the contents of the book, reading it actually through twice before I awoke to a
recollection of what was passing around me. By this time it began to grow dark, and I
directed my steps toward home. But the treatise had made an indelible impression on my
mind, and, as I sauntered along the dusky streets, I revolved carefully over in my memory
the wild and sometimes unintelligible reasonings of the writer. There are some particular
passages which affected my imagination in a powerful and extraordinary manner. The
longer I meditated upon these the more intense grew the interest which had been excited
within me. The limited nature of my education in general, and more especially my
ignorance on subjects connected with natural philosophy, so far from rendering me
diffident of my own ability to comprehend what I had read, or inducing me to mistrust
the many vague notions which had arisen in consequence, merely served as a farther
stimulus to imagination; and I was vain enough, or perhaps reasonable enough, to doubt
whether those crude ideas which, arising in ill-regulated minds, have all the appearance,
may not often in effect possess all the force, the reality, and other inherent properties, of
instinct or intuition; whether, to proceed a step farther, profundity itself might not, in
matters of a purely speculative nature, be detected as a legitimate source of falsity and
error. In other words, I believed, and still do believe, that truth, is frequently of its own
essence, superficial, and that, in many cases, the depth lies more in the abysses where we
seek her, than in the actual situations wherein she may be found. Nature herself seemed
to afford me corroboration of these ideas. In the contemplation of the heavenly bodies it
struck me forcibly that I could not distinguish a star with nearly as much precision, when
I gazed on it with earnest, direct and undeviating attention, as when I suffered my eye
only to glance in its vicinity alone. I was not, of course, at that time aware that this
apparent paradox was occasioned by the center of the visual area being less susceptible of
feeble impressions of light than the exterior portions of the retina. This knowledge, and
some of another kind, came afterwards in the course of an eventful five years, during
which I have dropped the prejudices of my former humble situation in life, and forgotten
the bellows-mender in far different occupations. But at the epoch of which I speak, the
analogy which a casual observation of a star offered to the conclusions I had already
drawn, struck me with the force of positive conformation, and I then finally made up my
mind to the course which I afterwards pursued.
It was late when I reached home, and I went immediately to bed. My mind, however, was
too much occupied to sleep, and I lay the whole night buried in meditation. Arising early
in the morning, and contriving again to escape the vigilance of my creditors, I repaired
eagerly to the bookseller's stall, and laid out what little ready money I possessed, in the
purchase of some volumes of Mechanics and Practical Astronomy. Having arrived at
home safely with these, I devoted every spare moment to their perusal, and soon made
such proficiency in studies of this nature as I thought sufficient for the execution of my
plan. In the intervals of this period, I made every endeavor to conciliate the three
creditors who had given me so much annoyance. In this I finally succeeded–partly by
selling enough of my household furniture to satisfy a moiety of their claim, and partly by
a promise of paying the balance upon completion of a little project which I told them I
had in view, and for assistance in which I solicited their services. By these means–for
they were ignorant men–I found little difficulty in gaining them over to my purpose.
Matters being thus arranged, I contrived, by the aid of my wife and with the greatest
secrecy and caution, to dispose of what property I had remaining, and to borrow, in small
sums, under various pretences, and without paying any attention to my future means of
repayment, no inconsiderable quantity of ready money. With the means thus accruing I
proceeded to procure at intervals, cambric muslin, very fine, in pieces of twelve yards
each; twine; a lot of the varnish of caoutchouc; a large and deep basket of wicker-work,
made to order; and several other articles necessary in the construction and equipment of a
balloon of extraordinary dimensions. This I directed my wife to make up as soon as
possible, and gave her all requisite information as to the particular method of proceeding.
In the meantime I worked up the twine into a net-work of sufficient dimensions; rigged it
with a hoop and the necessary cords; bought a quadrant, a compass, a spy-glass, a
common barometer with some important modifications, and two astronomical
instruments not so generally known. I then took opportunities of conveying by night, to a
retired situation east of Rotterdam, five iron-bound casks, to contain about fifty gallons
each, and one of a larger size; six tinned ware tubes, three inches in diameter, properly
shaped, and ten feet in length; a quantity of a particular metallic substance, or semi-metal,
which I shall not name, and a dozen demijohns of a very common acid. The gas to be
formed from these latter materials is a gas never yet generated by any other person than
myself–or at least never applied to any similar purpose. The secret I would make no
difficulty in disclosing, but that it of right belongs to a citizen of Nantz, in France, by
whom it was conditionally communicated to myself. The same individual submitted to
me, without being at all aware of my intentions, a method of constructing balloons from
the membrane of a certain animal, through which substance any escape of gas was nearly
an impossibility. I found it, however, altogether too expensive, and was not sure, upon
the whole, whether cambric muslin with a coating of gum caoutchouc, was not equally as
good. I mention this circumstance, because I think it probable that hereafter the
individual in question may attempt a balloon ascension with the novel gas and material I
have spoken of, and I do not wish to deprive him of the honor of a very singular
invention.
On the spot which I intended each of the smaller casks to occupy respectively during the
inflation of the balloon, I privately dug a hole two feet deep; the holes forming in this
manner a circle twenty-five feet in diameter. In the centre of this circle, being the station
designed for the large cask, I also dug a hole three feet in depth. In each of the five
smaller holes, I deposited a canister containing fifty pounds, and in the larger one a keg
holding one hundred and fifty pounds, of cannon powder. These–the keg and canisters–I
connected in a proper manner with covered trains; and having let into one of the canisters
the end of about four feet of slow match, I covered up the hole, and placed the cask over
it, leaving the other end of the match protruding about an inch, and barely visible beyond
the cask. I then filled up the remaining holes, and placed the barrels over them in their
destined situation.
Besides the articles above enumerated, I conveyed to the depot, and there secreted, one of
M. Grimm's improvements upon the apparatus for condensation of the atmospheric air. I
found this machine, however, to require considerable alteration before it could be adapted
to the purposes to which I intended making it applicable. But, with severe labor and
unremitting perseverance, I at length met with entire success in all my preparations. My
balloon was soon completed. It would contain more than forty thousand cubic feet of gas;
would take me up easily, I calculated, with all my implements, and, if I managed rightly,
with one hundred and seventy-five pounds of ballast into the bargain. It had received
three coats of varnish, and I found the cambric muslin to answer all the purposes of silk
itself, quite as strong and a good deal less expensive.
Everything being now ready, I exacted from my wife an oath of secrecy in relation to all
my actions from the day of my first visit to the bookseller's stall; and promising, on my
part, to return as soon as circumstances would permit, I gave her what little money I had
left, and bade her farewell. Indeed I had no fear on her account. She was what people call
a notable woman, and could manage matters in the world without my assistance. I
believe, to tell the truth, she always looked upon me as an idle boy, a mere make-weight,
good for nothing but building castles in the air, and was rather glad to get rid of me. It
was a dark night when I bade her good-bye, and taking with me, as aides-de-camp, the
three creditors who had given me so much trouble, we carried the balloon, with the car
and accoutrements, by a roundabout way, to the station where the other articles were
deposited. We there found them all unmolested, and I proceeded immediately to business.
It was the first of April. The night, as I said before, was dark; there was not a star to be
seen; and a drizzling rain, falling at intervals, rendered us very uncomfortable. But my
chief anxiety was concerning the balloon, which, in spite of the varnish with which it was
defended, began to grow rather heavy with the moisture; the powder also was liable to
damage. I therefore kept my three duns working with great diligence, pounding down ice
around the central cask, and stirring the acid in the others. They did not cease, however,
importuning me with questions as to what I intended to do with all this apparatus, and
expressed much dissatisfaction at the terrible labor I made them undergo. They could not
perceive, so they said, what good was likely to result from their getting wet to the skin,
merely to take a part in such horrible incantations. I began to get uneasy, and worked
away with all my might, for I verily believe the idiots supposed that I had entered into a
compact with the devil, and that, in short, what I was now doing was nothing better than
it should be. I was, therefore, in great fear of their leaving me altogether. I contrived,
however, to pacify them by promises of payment of all scores in full, as soon as I could
bring the present business to a termination. To these speeches they gave, of course, their
own interpretation; fancying, no doubt, that at all events I should come into possession of
vast quantities of ready money; and provided I paid them all I owed, and a trifle more, in
consideration of their services, I dare say they cared very little what became of either my
soul or my carcass.
In about four hours and a half I found the balloon sufficiently inflated. I attached the car,
therefore, and put all my implements in it–not forgetting the condensing apparatus, a
copious supply of water, and a large quantity of provisions, such as pemmican, in which
much nutriment is contained in comparatively little bulk. I also secured in the car a pair
of pigeons and a cat. It was now nearly daybreak, and I thought it high time to take my
departure. Dropping a lighted cigar on the ground, as if by accident, I took the
opportunity, in stooping to pick it up, of igniting privately the piece of slow match, whose
end, as I said before, protruded a very little beyond the lower rim of one of the smaller
casks. This manoeuvre was totally unperceived on the part of the three duns; and,
jumping into the car, I immediately cut the single cord which held me to the earth, and
was pleased to find that I shot upward, carrying with all ease one hundred and seventyfive pounds of leaden ballast, and able to have carried up as many more.
Scarcely, however, had I attained the height of fifty yards, when, roaring and rumbling up
after me in the most horrible and tumultuous manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire,
and smoke, and sulphur, and legs and arms, and gravel, and burning wood, and blazing
metal, that my very heart sunk within me, and I fell down in the bottom of the car,
trembling with unmitigated terror. Indeed, I now perceived that I had entirely overdone
the business, and that the main consequences of the shock were yet to be experienced.
Accordingly, in less than a second, I felt all the blood in my body rushing to my temples,
and immediately thereupon, a concussion, which I shall never forget, burst abruptly
through the night and seemed to rip the very firmament asunder. When I afterward had
time for reflection, I did not fail to attribute the extreme violence of the explosion, as
regarded myself, to its proper cause–my situation directly above it, and in the line of its
greatest power. But at the time, I thought only of preserving my life. The balloon at first
collapsed, then furiously expanded, then whirled round and round with horrible velocity,
and finally, reeling and staggering like a drunken man, hurled me with great force over
the rim of the car, and left me dangling, at a terrific height, with my head downward, and
my face outwards, by a piece of slender cord about three feet in length, which hung
accidentally through a crevice near the bottom of the wicker-work, and in which, as I fell,
my left foot became most providentially entangled. It is impossible–utterly impossible–to
form any adequate idea of the horror of my situation. I gasped convulsively for breath–a
shudder resembling a fit of the ague agitated every nerve and muscle of my frame–I felt
my eyes starting from their sockets–a horrible nausea overwhelmed me–and at length I
fainted away.
How long I remained in this state it is impossible to say. It must, however, have been no
inconsiderable time, for when I partially recovered the sense of existence, I found the day
breaking, the balloon at a prodigious height over a wilderness of ocean, and not a trace of
land to be discovered far and wide within the limits of the vast horizon. My sensations,
however, upon thus recovering, were by no means so rife with agony as might have been
anticipated. Indeed, there was much of incipient madness in the calm survey which I
began to take of my situation. I drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other,
and wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of the veins, and the
horrible blackness of the fingemails. I afterward carefully examined my head, shaking it
repeatedly, and feeling it with minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying myself that
it was not, as I had more than half suspected, larger than my balloon. Then, in a knowing
manner, I felt in both my breeches pockets, and, missing therefrom a set of tablets and a
toothpick case, endeavored to account for their disappearance, and not being able to do
so, felt inexpressibly chagrined. It now occurred to me that I suffered great uneasiness in
the joint of my left ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to glimmer
through my mind. But, strange to say! I was neither astonished nor horror-stricken. If I
felt any emotion at all, it was a kind of chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness I was
about to display in extricating myself from this dilemma; and I never, for a moment,
looked upon my ultimate safety as a question susceptible of doubt. For a few minutes I
remained wrapped in the profoundest meditation. I have a distinct recollection of
frequently compressing my lips, putting my forefinger to the side of my nose, and making
use of other gesticulations and grimaces common to men who, at ease in their arm-chairs,
meditate upon matters of intricacy or importance. Having, as I thought, sufficiently
collected my ideas, I now, with great caution and deliberation, put my hands behind my
back, and unfastened the large iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my
inexpressibles. This buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty, turned with
great difficulty on their axis. I brought them, however, after some trouble, at right angles
to the body of the buckle, and was glad to find them remain firm in that position. Holding
the instrument thus obtained within my teeth, I now proceeded to untie the knot of my
cravat. I had to rest several times before I could accomplish this manoeuvre, but it was at
length accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then made fast the buckle, and the other
end I tied, for greater security, tightly around my wrist. Drawing now my body upwards,
with a prodigious exertion of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in
throwing the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had anticipated, in the circular
rim of the wicker-work.
My body was now inclined towards the side of the car, at an angle of about forty-five
degrees; but it must not be understood that I was therefore only forty-five degrees below
the perpendicular. So far from it, I still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon; for
the change of situation which I had acquired, had forced the bottom of the car
considerably outwards from my position, which was accordingly one of the most
imminent and deadly peril. It should be remembered, however, that when I fell in the first
instance, from the car, if I had fAllan with my face turned toward the balloon, instead of
turned outwardly from it, as it actually was; or if, in the second place, the cord by which I
was suspended had chanced to hang over the upper edge, instead of through a crevice
near the bottom of the car,–I say it may be readily conceived that, in either of these
supposed cases, I should have been unable to accomplish even as much as I had now
accomplished, and the wonderful adventures of Hans Phaall would have been utterly lost
to posterity, I had therefore every reason to be grateful; although, in point of fact, I was
still too stupid to be anything at all, and hung for, perhaps, a quarter of an hour in that
extraordinary manner, without making the slightest farther exertion whatsoever, and in a
singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment. But this feeling did not fail to die rapidly
away, and thereunto succeeded horror, and dismay, and a chilling sense of utter
helplessness and ruin. In fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head
and throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with madness and delirium, had
now begun to retire within their proper channels, and the distinctness which was thus
added to my perception of the danger, merely served to deprive me of the self-possession
and courage to encounter it. But this weakness was, luckily for me, of no very long
duration. In good time came to my rescue the spirit of despair, and, with frantic cries and
struggles, I jerked my way bodily upwards, till at length, clutching with a vise-like grip
the long-desired rim, I writhed my person over it, and fell headlong and shuddering
within the car.
It was not until some time afterward that I recovered myself sufficiently to attend to the
ordinary cares of the balloon. I then, however, examined it with attention, and found it, to
my great relief, uninjured. My implements were all safe, and, fortunately, I had lost
neither ballast nor provisions. Indeed, I had so well secured them in their places, that such
an accident was entirely out of the question. Looking at my watch, I found it six o'clock. I
was still rapidly ascending, and my barometer gave a present altitude of three and threequarter miles. Immediately beneath me in the ocean, lay a small black object, slightly
oblong in shape, seemingly about the size, and in every way bearing a great resemblance
to one of those childish toys called a domino. Bringing my telescope to bear upon it, I
plainly discerned it to be a British ninety four-gun ship, close-hauled, and pitching
heavily in the sea with her head to the W.S.W. Besides this ship, I saw nothing but the
ocean and the sky, and the sun, which had long arisen.
It is now high time that I should explain to your Excellencies the object of my perilous
voyage. Your Excellencies will bear in mind that distressed circumstances in Rotterdam
had at length driven me to the resolution of committing suicide. It was not, however, that
to life itself I had any, positive disgust, but that I was harassed beyond endurance by the
adventitious miseries attending my situation. In this state of mind, wishing to live, yet
wearied with life, the treatise at the stall of the bookseller opened a resource to my
imagination. I then finally made up my mind. I determined to depart, yet live–to leave the
world, yet continue to exist–in short, to drop enigmas, I resolved, let what would ensue,
to force a passage, if I could, to the moon. Now, lest I should be supposed more of a
madman than I actually am, I will detail, as well as I am able, the considerations which
led me to believe that an achievement of this nature, although without doubt difficult, and
incontestably full of danger, was not absolutely, to a bold spirit, beyond the confines of
the possible.
The moon's actual distance from the earth was the first thing to be attended to. Now, the
mean or average interval between the centres of the two planets is 59.9643 of the earth's
equatorial radii, or only about 237,000 miles. I say the mean or average interval. But it
must be borne in mind that the form of the moon's orbit being an ellipse of eccentricity
amounting to no less than 0.05484 of the major semi-axis of the ellipse itself, and the
earth's centre being situated in its focus, if I could, in any manner, contrive to meet the
moon, as it were, in its perigee, the above mentioned distance would be materially
diminished. But, to say nothing at present of this possibility, it was very certain that, at all
events, from the 237,000 miles I would have to deduct the radius of the earth, say 4,000,
and the radius of the moon, say 1080, in all 5,080, leaving an actual interval to be
traversed, under average circumstances, of 231,920 miles. Now this, I reflected, was no
very extraordinary distance. Travelling on land has been repeatedly accomplished at the
rate of thirty miles per hour, and indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. But
even at this velocity, it would take me no more than 322 days to reach the surface of the
moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe that my average
rate of travelling might possibly very much exceed that of thirty miles per hour, and, as
these considerations did not fail to make a deep impression upon my mind, I will mention
them more fully hereafter.
The next point to be regarded was a matter of far greater importance. From indications
afforded by the barometer, we find that, in ascensions from the surface of the earth we
have, at the height of 1,000 feet, left below us about one-thirtieth of the entire mass of
atmospheric air, that at 10,600 we have ascended through nearly one-third; and that at
18,000, which is not far from the elevation of Cotopaxi, we have surmounted one-half the
material, or, at all events, one-half the ponderable, body of air incumbent upon our globe.
It is also calculated that at an altitude not exceeding the hundredth part of the earth's
diameter–that is, not exceeding eighty miles–the rarefaction would be so excessive that
animal life could in no manner be sustained, and, moreover, that the most delicate means
we possess of ascertaining the presence of the atmosphere would be inadequate to assure
us of its existence. But I did not fail to perceive that these latter calculations are founded
altogether on our experimental knowledge of the properties of air, and the mechanical
laws regulating its dilation and compression, in what may be called, comparatively
speaking, the immediate vicinity of the earth itself; and, at the same time, it is taken for
granted that animal life is and must be essentially incapable of modification at any given
unattainable distance from the surface. Now, all such reasoning and from such data must,
of course, be simply analogical. The greatest height ever reached by man was that of
25,000 feet, attained in the aeronautic expedition of Messieurs Gay-Lussac and Biot. This
is a moderate altitude, even when compared with the eighty miles in question; and I could
not help thinking that the subject admitted room for doubt and great latitude for
speculation.
But, in point of fact, an ascension being made to any given altitude, the ponderable
quantity of air surmounted in any farther ascension is by no means in proportion to the
additional height ascended (as may be plainly seen from what has been stated before), but
in a ratio constantly decreasing. It is therefore evident that, ascend as high as we may, we
cannot, literally speaking, arrive at a limit beyond which no atmosphere is to be found. It
must exist, I argued; although it may exist in a state of infinite rarefaction.
On the other hand, I was aware that arguments have not been wanting to prove the
existence of a real and definite limit to the atmosphere, beyond which there is absolutely
no air whatsoever. But a circumstance which has been left out of view by those who
contend for such a limit seemed to me, although no positive refutation of their creed, still
a point worthy very serious investigation. On comparing the intervals between the
successive arrivals of Encke's comet at its perihelion, after giving credit, in the most
exact manner, for all the disturbances due to the attractions of the planets, it appears that
the periods are gradually diminishing; that is to say, the major axis of the comet's ellipse
is growing shorter, in a slow but perfectly regular decrease. Now, this is precisely what
ought to be the case, if we suppose a resistance experienced from the comet from an
extremely rare ethereal medium pervading the regions of its orbit. For it is evident that
such a medium must, in retarding the comet's velocity, increase its centripetal, by
weakening its centrifugal force. In other words, the sun's attraction would be constantly
attaining greater power, and the comet would be drawn nearer at every revolution.
Indeed, there is no other way of accounting for the variation in question. But again. The
real diameter of the same comet's nebulosity is observed to contract rapidly as it
approaches the sun, and dilate with equal rapidity in its departure towards its aphelion.
Was I not justifiable in supposing with M. Valz, that this apparent condensation of
volume has its origin in the compression of the same ethereal medium I have spoken of
before, and which is only denser in proportion to its solar vicinity? The lenticular-shaped
phenomenon, also called the zodiacal light, was a matter worthy of attention. This
radiance, so apparent in the tropics, and which cannot be mistaken for any meteoric
lustre, extends from the horizon obliquely upward, and follows generally the direction of
the sun's equator. It appeared to me evidently in the nature of a rare atmosphere extending
from the sun outward, beyond the orbit of Venus at least, and I believed indefinitely
farther.* Indeed, this medium I could not suppose confined to the path of the comet's
ellipse, or to the immediate neighborhood of the sun. It was easy, on the contrary, to
imagine it pervading the entire regions of our planetary system, condensed into what we
call atmosphere at the planets themselves, and perhaps at some of them modified by
considerations, so to speak, purely geological.
*The zodiacal light is probably what the ancients called Trabes. Emicant Trabes quos
docos vocant.–Pliny, lib. 2, p. 26.
Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little further hesitation. Granting that on
my passage I should meet with atmosphere essentially the same as at the surface of the
earth, I conceived that, by means of the very ingenious apparatus of M. Grimm, I should
readily be enabled to condense it in sufficient quantity for the purposes of respiration.
This would remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon. I had indeed spent some
money and great labor in adapting the apparatus to the object intended, and confidently
looked forward to its successful application, if I could manage to complete the voyage
within any reasonable period. This brings me back to the rate at which it might be
possible to travel.
It is true that balloons, in the first stage of their ascensions from the earth, are known to
rise with a velocity comparatively moderate. Now, the power of elevation lies altogether
in the superior lightness of the gas in the balloon compared with the atmospheric air; and,
at first sight, it does not appear probable that, as the balloon acquires altitude, and
consequently arrives successively in atmospheric strata of densities rapidly diminishing–I
say, it does not appear at all reasonable that, in this its progress upwards, the original
velocity should be accelerated. On the other hand, I was not aware that, in any recorded
ascension, a diminution was apparent in the absolute rate of ascent; although such should
have been the case, if on account of nothing else, on account of the escape of gas through
balloons ill-constructed, and varnished with no better material than the ordinary varnish.
It seemed, therefore, that the effect of such escape was only sufficient to counterbalance
the effect of some accelerating power. I now considered that, provided in my passage I
found the medium I had imagined, and provided that it should prove to be actually and
essentially what we denominate atmospheric air, it could make comparatively little
difference at what extreme state of rarefaction I should discover it–that is to say, in regard
to my power of ascending–for the gas in the balloon would not only be itself subject to
rarefaction partially similar (in proportion to the occurrence of which, I could suffer an
escape of so much as would be requisite to prevent explosion), but, being what it was,
would, at all events, continue specifically lighter than any compound whatever of mere
nitrogen and oxygen. In the meantime, the force of gravitation would be constantly
diminishing, in proportion to the squares of the distances, and thus, with a velocity
prodigiously accelerating, I should at length arrive in those distant regions where the
force of the earth's attraction would be superseded by that of the moon. In accordance
with these ideas, I did not think it worth while to encumber myself with more provisions
than would be sufficient for a period of forty days.
There was still, however, another difficulty, which occasioned me some little disquietude.
It has been observed, that, in balloon ascensions to any considerable height, besides the
pain attending respiration, great uneasiness is experienced about the head and body, often
accompanied with bleeding at the nose, and other symptoms of an alarming kind, and
growing more and more inconvenient in proportion to the altitude attained.* This was a
reflection of a nature somewhat startling. Was it not probable that these symptoms would
increase indefinitely, or at least until terminated by death itself? I finally thought not.
Their origin was to be looked for in the progressive removal of the customary
atmospheric pressure upon the surface of the body, and consequent distention of the
superficial blood-vessels–not in any positive disorganization of the animal system, as in
the case of difficulty in breathing, where the atmospheric density is chemically
insufficient for the due renovation of blood in a ventricle of the heart. Unless for default
of this renovation, I could see no reason, therefore, why life could not be sustained even
in a vacuum; for the expansion and compression of chest, commonly called breathing, is
action purely muscular, and the cause, not the effect, of respiration. In a word, I
conceived that, as the body should become habituated to the want of atmospheric
pressure, the sensations of pain would gradually diminish–and to endure them while they
continued, I relied with confidence upon the iron hardihood of my constitution.
*Since the original publication of Hans Phaall, I find that Mr. Green, of Nassau balloon
notoriety, and other late aeronauts, deny the assertions of Humboldt, in this respect, and
speak of a decreasing inconvenience,–precisely in accordance with the theory here urged
in a mere spirit of banter.
Thus, may it please your Excellencies, I have detailed some, though by no means all, the
considerations which led me to form the project of a lunar voyage. I shall now proceed to
lay before you the result of an attempt so apparently audacious in conception, and, at all
events, so utterly unparalleled in the annals of mankind.
Having attained the altitude before mentioned, that is to say three miles and threequarters, I threw out from the car a quantity of feathers, and found that I still ascended
with sufficient rapidity; there was, therefore, no necessity for discharging any ballast. I
was glad of this, for I wished to retain with me as much weight as I could carry, for
reasons which will be explained in the sequel. I as yet suffered no bodily inconvenience,
breathing with great freedom, and feeling no pain whatever in the head. The cat was lying
very demurely upon my coat, which I had taken off, and eyeing the pigeons with an air of
nonchalance. These latter being tied by the leg, to prevent their escape, were busily
employed in picking up some grains of rice scattered for them in the bottom of the car.
At twenty minutes past six o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of 26,400 feet, or
five miles to a fraction. The prospect seemed unbounded. Indeed, it is very easily
calculated by means of spherical geometry, what a great extent of the earth's area I
beheld. The convex surface of any segment of a sphere is, to the entire surface of the
sphere itself, as the versed sine of the segment to the diameter of the sphere. Now, in my
case, the versed sine–that is to say, the thickness of the segment beneath me–was about
equal to my elevation, or the elevation of the point of sight above the surface. "As five
miles, then, to eight thousand," would express the proportion of the earth's area seen by
me. In other words, I beheld as much as a sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of
the globe. The sea appeared unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the spy-glass, I
could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. The ship was no longer visible,
having drifted away, apparently to the eastward. I now began to experience, at intervals,
severe pain in the head, especially about the ears–still, however, breathing with tolerable
freedom. The cat and pigeons seemed to suffer no inconvenience whatsoever.
At twenty minutes before seven, the balloon entered a long series of dense cloud, which
put me to great trouble, by damaging my condensing apparatus and wetting me to the
skin. This was, to be sure, a singular recontre, for I had not believed it possible that a
cloud of this nature could be sustained at so great an elevation. I thought it best, however,
to throw out two five-pound pieces of ballast, reserving still a weight of one hundred and
sixty-five pounds. Upon so doing, I soon rose above the difficulty, and perceived
immediately, that I had obtained a great increase in my rate of ascent. In a few seconds
after my leaving the cloud, a flash of vivid lightning shot from one end of it to the other,
and caused it to kindle up, throughout its vast extent, like a mass of ignited and glowing
charcoal. This, it must be remembered, was in the broad light of day. No fancy may
picture the sublimity which might have been exhibited by a similar phenomenon taking
place amid the darkness of the night. Hell itself might have been found a fitting image.
Even as it was, my hair stood on end, while I gazed afar down within the yawning
abysses, letting imagination descend, as it were, and stalk about in the strange vaulted
halls, and ruddy gulfs, and red ghastly chasms of the hideous and unfathomable fire. I had
indeed made a narrow escape. Had the balloon remained a very short while longer within
the cloud–that is to say–had not the inconvenience of getting wet, determined me to
discharge the ballast, inevitable ruin would have been the consequence. Such perils,
although little considered, are perhaps the greatest which must be encountered in
balloons. I had by this time, however, attained too great an elevation to be any longer
uneasy on this head.
I was now rising rapidly, and by seven o'clock the barometer indicated an altitude of no
less than nine miles and a half. I began to find great difficulty in drawing my breath. My
head, too, was excessively painful; and, having felt for some time a moisture about my
cheeks, I at length discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums
of my ears. My eyes, also, gave me great uneasiness. Upon passing the hand over them
they seemed to have protruded from their sockets in no inconsiderable degree; and all
objects in the car, and even the balloon itself, appeared distorted to my vision. These
symptoms were more than I had expected, and occasioned me some alarm. At this
juncture, very imprudently, and without consideration, I threw out from the car three fivepound pieces of ballast. The accelerated rate of ascent thus obtained, carried me too
rapidly, and without sufficient gradation, into a highly rarefied stratum of the atmosphere,
and the result had nearly proved fatal to my expedition and to myself. I was suddenly
seized with a spasm which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when this, in a
measure, ceased, I could catch my breath only at long intervals, and in a gasping manner–
bleeding all the while copiously at the nose and ears, and even slightly at the eyes. The
pigeons appeared distressed in the extreme, and struggled to escape; while the cat mewed
piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, staggered to and fro in the car
as if under the influence of poison. I now too late discovered the great rashness of which I
had been guilty in discharging the ballast, and my agitation was excessive. I anticipated
nothing less than death, and death in a few minutes. The physical suffering I underwent
contributed also to render me nearly incapable of making any exertion for the
preservation of my life. I had, indeed, little power of reflection left, and the violence of
the pain in my head seemed to be greatly on the increase. Thus I found that my senses
would shortly give way altogether, and I had already clutched one of the valve ropes with
the view of attempting a descent, when the recollection of the trick I had played the three
creditors, and the possible consequences to myself, should I return, operated to deter me
for the moment. I lay down in the bottom of the car, and endeavored to collect my
faculties. In this I so far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood.
Having no lancet, however, I was constrained to perform the operation in the best manner
I was able, and finally succeeded in opening a vein in my right arm, with the blade of my
penknife. The blood had hardly commenced flowing when I experienced a sensible relief,
and by the time I had lost about half a moderate basin full, most of the worst symptoms
had abandoned me entirely. I nevertheless did not think it expedient to attempt getting on
my feet immediately; but, having tied up my arm as well as I could, I lay still for about a
quarter of an hour. At the end of this time I arose, and found myself freer from absolute
pain of any kind than I had been during the last hour and a quarter of my ascension. The
difficulty of breathing, however, was diminished in a very slight degree, and I found that
it would soon be positively necessary to make use of my condenser. In the meantime,
looking toward the cat, who was again snugly stowed away upon my coat, I discovered to
my infinite surprise, that she had taken the opportunity of my indisposition to bring into
light a litter of three little kittens. This was an addition to the number of passengers on
my part altogether unexpected; but I was pleased at the occurrence. It would afford me a
chance of bringing to a kind of test the truth of a surmise, which, more than anything else,
had influenced me in attempting this ascension. I had imagined that the habitual
endurance of the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the earth was the cause, or nearly
so, of the pain attending animal existence at a distance above the surface. Should the
kittens be found to suffer uneasiness in an equal degree with their mother, I must consider
my theory in fault, but a failure to do so I should look upon as a strong confirmation of
my idea.
By eight o'clock I had actually attained an elevation of seventeen miles above the surface
of the earth. Thus it seemed to me evident that my rate of ascent was not only on the
increase, but that the progression would have been apparent in a slight degree even had I
not discharged the ballast which I did. The pains in my head and ears returned, at
intervals, with violence, and I still continued to bleed occasionally at the nose; but, upon
the whole, I suffered much less than might have been expected. I breathed, however, at
every moment, with more and more difficulty, and each inhalation was attended with a
troublesome spasmodic action of the chest. I now unpacked the condensing apparatus,
and got it ready for immediate use.
The view of the earth, at this period of my ascension, was beautiful indeed. To the
westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I could see, lay a boundless sheet
of apparently unruffled ocean, which every moment gained a deeper and a deeper tint of
blue and began already to assume a slight appearance of convexity. At a vast distance to
the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of Great Britain, the
entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a small portion of the northern part of the
continent of Africa. Of individual edifices not a trace could be discovered, and the
proudest cities of mankind had utterly faded away from the face of the earth. From the
rock of Gibraltar, now dwindled into a dim speck, the dark Mediterranean sea, dotted
with shining islands as the heaven is dotted with stars, spread itself out to the eastward as
far as my vision extended, until its entire mass of waters seemed at length to tumble
headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and I found myself listening on tiptoe for the
echoes of the mighty cataract. Overhead, the sky was of a jetty black, and the stars were
brilliantly visible.
The pigeons about this time seeming to undergo much suffering, I determined upon
giving them their liberty. I first untied one of them, a beautiful gray-mottled pigeon, and
placed him upon the rim of the wicker-work. He appeared extremely uneasy, looking
anxiously around him, fluttering his wings, and making a loud cooing noise, but could
not be persuaded to trust himself from off the car. I took him up at last, and threw him to
about half a dozen yards from the balloon. He made, however, no attempt to descend as I
had expected, but struggled with great vehemence to get back, uttering at the same time
very shrill and piercing cries. He at length succeeded in regaining his former station on
the rim, but had hardly done so when his head dropped upon his breast, and be fell dead
within the car. The other one did not prove so unfortunate. To prevent his following the
example of his companion, and accomplishing a return, I threw him downward with all
my force, and was pleased to find him continue his descent, with great velocity, making
use of his wings with ease, and in a perfectly natural manner. In a very short time he was
out of sight, and I have no doubt he reached home in safety. Puss, who seemed in a great
measure recovered from her illness, now made a hearty meal of the dead bird and then
went to sleep with much apparent satisfaction. Her kittens were quite lively, and so far
evinced not the slightest sign of any uneasiness whatever.
At a quarter-past eight, being no longer able to draw breath without the most intolerable
pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car the apparatus belonging to the
condenser. This apparatus will require some little explanation, and your Excellencies will
please to bear in mind that my object, in the first place, was to surround myself and cat
entirely with a barricade against the highly rarefied atmosphere in which I was existing,
with the intention of introducing within this barricade, by means of my condenser, a
quantity of this same atmosphere sufficiently condensed for the purposes of respiration.
With this object in view I had prepared a very strong perfectly air-tight, but flexible gumelastic bag. In this bag, which was of sufficient dimensions, the entire car was in a
manner placed. That is to say, it (the bag) was drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up
its sides, and so on, along the outside of the ropes, to the upper rim or hoop where the
net-work is attached. Having pulled the bag up in this way, and formed a complete
enclosure on all sides, and at botttom, it was now necessary to fasten up its top or mouth,
by passing its material over the hoop of the net-work–in other words, between the network and the hoop. But if the net-work were separated from the hoop to admit this
passage, what was to sustain the car in the meantime? Now the net-work was not
permanently fastened to the hoop, but attached by a series of running loops or nooses. I
therefore undid only a few of these loops at one time, leaving the car suspended by the
remainder. Having thus inserted a portion of the cloth forming the upper part of the bag, I
refastened the loops–not to the hoop, for that would have been impossible, since the cloth
now intervened–but to a series of large buttons, affixed to the cloth itself, about three feet
below the mouth of the bag, the intervals between the buttons having been made to
correspond to the intervals between the loops. This done, a few more of the loops were
unfastened from the rim, a farther portion of the cloth introduced, and the disengaged
loops then connected with their proper buttons. In this way it was possible to insert the
whole upper part of the bag between the net-work and the hoop. It is evident that the
hoop would now drop down within the car, while the whole weight of the car itself, with
all its contents, would be held up merely by the strength of the buttons. This, at first sight,
would seem an inadequate dependence; but it was by no means so, for the buttons were
not only very strong in themselves, but so close together that a very slight portion of the
whole weight was supported by any one of them. Indeed, had the car and contents been
three times heavier than they were, I should not have been at all uneasy. I now raised up
the hoop again within the covering of gum-elastic, and propped it at nearly its former
height by means of three light poles prepared for the occasion. This was done, of course,
to keep the bag distended at the top, and to preserve the lower part of the net-work in its
proper situation. All that now remained was to fasten up the mouth of the enclosure; and
this was readily accomplished by gathering the folds of the material together, and
twisting them up very tightly on the inside by means of a kind of stationary tourniquet.
In the sides of the covering thus adjusted round the car, had been inserted three circular
panes of thick but clear glass, through which I could see without difficulty around me in
every horizontal direction. In that portion of the cloth forming the bottom, was likewise, a
fourth window, of the same kind, and corresponding with a small aperture in the floor of
the car itself. This enabled me to see perpendicularly down, but having found it
impossible to place any similar contrivance overhead, on account of the peculiar manner
of closing up the opening there, and the consequent wrinkles in the cloth, I could expect
to see no objects situated directly in my zenith. This, of course, was a matter of little
consequence; for had I even been able to place a window at top, the balloon itself would
have prevented my making any use of it.
About a foot below one of the side windows was a circular opening, eight inches in
diameter, and fitted with a brass rim adapted in its inner edge to the windings of a screw.
In this rim was screwed the large tube of the condenser, the body of the machine being,
of course, within the chamber of gum-elastic. Through this tube a quantity of the rare
atmosphere circumjacent being drawn by means of a vacuum created in the body of the
machine, was thence discharged, in a state of condensation, to mingle with the thin air
already in the chamber. This operation being repeated several times, at length filled the
chamber with atmosphere proper for all the purposes of respiration. But in so confined a
space it would, in a short time, necessarily become foul, and unfit for use from frequent
contact with the lungs. It was then ejected by a small valve at the bottom of the car–the
dense air readily sinking into the thinner atmosphere below. To avoid the inconvenience
of making a total vacuum at any moment within the chamber, this purification was never
accomplished all at once, but in a gradual manner–the valve being opened only for a few
seconds, then closed again, until one or two strokes from the pump of the condenser had
supplied the place of the atmosphere ejected. For the sake of experiment I had put the cat
and kittens in a small basket, and suspended it outside the car to a button at the bottom,
close by the valve, through which I could feed them at any moment when necessary. I did
this at some little risk, and before closing the mouth of the chamber, by reaching under
the car with one of the poles before mentioned to which a hook had been attached.
By the time I had fully completed these arrangements and filled the chamber as
explained, it wanted only ten minutes of nine o'clock. During the whole period of my
being thus employed, I endured the most terrible distress from difficulty of respiration,
and bitterly did I repent the negligence or rather fool-hardiness, of which I had been
guilty, of putting off to the last moment a matter of so much importance. But having at
length accomplished it, I soon began to reap the benefit of my invention. Once again I
breathed with perfect freedom and ease–and indeed why should I not? I was also
agreeably surprised to find myself, in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains
which had hitherto tormented me. A slight headache, accompanied with a sensation of
fulness or distention about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all of which I
had now to complain. Thus it seemed evident that a greater part of the uneasiness
attending the removal of atmospheric pressure had actually worn off, as I had expected,
and that much of the pain endured for the last two hours should have been attributed
altogether to the effects of a deficient respiration.
At twenty minutes before nine o'clock–that is to say, a short time prior to my closing up
the mouth of the chamber, the mercury attained its limit, or ran down, in the barometer,
which, as I mentioned before, was one of an extended construction. It then indicated an
altitude on my part of 132,000 feet, or five-and-twenty miles, and I consequently
surveyed at that time an extent of the earth's area amounting to no less than the three
hundred-and-twentieth part of its entire superficies. At nine o'clock I had again lost sight
of land to the eastward, but not before I became aware that the balloon was drifting
rapidly to the N. N. W. The convexity of the ocean beneath me was very evident indeed,
although my view was often interrupted by the masses of cloud which floated to and fro.
I observed now that even the lightest vapors never rose to more than ten miles above the
level of the sea.
At half past nine I tried the experiment of throwing out a handful of feathers through the
valve. They did not float as I had expected; but dropped down perpendicularly, like a
bullet, en masse, and with the greatest velocity–being out of sight in a very few seconds. I
did not at first know what to make of this extraordinary phenomenon; not being able to
believe that my rate of ascent had, of a sudden, met with so prodigious an acceleration.
But it soon occurred to me that the atmosphere was now far too rare to sustain even the
feathers; that they actually fell, as they appeared to do, with great rapidity; and that I had
been surprised by the united velocities of their descent and my own elevation.
By ten o'clock I found that I had very little to occupy my immediate attention. Affairs
went swimmingly, and I believed the balloon to be going upward witb a speed increasing
momently although I had no longer any means of ascertaining the progression of the
increase. I suffered no pain or uneasiness of any kind, and enjoyed better spirits than I
had at any period since my departure from Rotterdam, busying myself now in examining
the state of my various apparatus, and now in regenerating the atmosphere within the
chamber. This latter point I determined to attend to at regular intervals of forty minutes,
more on account of the preservation of my health, than from so frequent a renovation
being absolutely necessary. In the meanwhile I could not help making anticipations.
Fancy revelled in the wild and dreamy regions of the moon. Imagination, feeling herself
for once unshackled, roamed at will among the ever-changing wonders of a shadowy and
unstable land. Now there were boary and time-honored forests, and craggy precipices,
and waterfalls tumbling with a loud noise into abysses without a bottom. Then I came
suddenly into still noonday solitudes, where no wind of heaven ever intruded, and where
vast meadows of poppies, and slender, lily-looking flowers spread themselves out a
weary distance, all silent and motionless forever. Then again I journeyed far down away
into another country where it was all one dim and vague lake, with a boundary line of
clouds. And out of this melancholy water arose a forest of tall eastern trees, like a
wilderness of dreams. And I have in mind that the shadows of the trees which fell upon
the lake remained not on the surface where they fell, but sunk slowly and steadily down,
and commingled with the waves, while from the trunks of the trees other shadows were
continually coming out, and taking the place of their brothers thus entombed. "This then,"
I said thoughtfully, "is the very reason why the waters of this lake grow blacker with age,
and more melancholy as the hours run on." But fancies such as these were not the sole
possessors of my brain. Horrors of a nature most stern and most appalling would too
frequently obtrude themselves upon my mind, and shake the innermost depths of my soul
with the bare supposition of their possibility. Yet I would not suffer my thoughts for any
length of time to dwell upon these latter speculations, rightly judging the real and
palpable dangers of the voyage sufficient for my undivided attention.
At five o'clock, p.m., being engaged in regenerating the atmosphere within the chamber, I
took that opportunity of observing the cat and kittens through the valve. The cat herself
appeared to suffer again very much, and I had no hesitation in attributing her uneasiness
chiefly to a difficulty in breathing; but my experiment with the kittens had resulted very
strangely. I had expected, of course, to see them betray a sense of pain, although in a less
degree than their mother, and this would have been sufficient to confirm my opinion
concerning the habitual endurance of atmospheric pressure. But I was not prepared to
find them, upon close examination, evidently enjoying a high degree of health, breathing
with the greatest ease and perfect regularity, and evincing not the slightest sign of any
uneasiness whatever. I could only account for all this by extending my theory, and
supposing that the highly rarefied atmosphere around might perhaps not be, as I had
taken for granted, chemically insufficient for the purposes of life, and that a person born
in such a medium might, possibly, be unaware of any inconvenience attending its
inhalation, while, upon removal to the denser strata near the earth, he might endure
tortures of a similar nature to those I had so lately experienced. It has since been to me a
matter of deep regret that an awkward accident, at this time, occasioned me the loss of
my little family of cats, and deprived me of the insight into this matter which a continued
experiment might have afforded. In passing my hand through the valve, with a cup of
water for the old puss, the sleeves of my shirt became entangled in the loop which
sustained the basket, and thus, in a moment, loosened it from the bottom. Had the whole
actually vanished into air, it could not have shot from my sight in a more abrupt and
instantaneous manner. Positively, there could not have intervened the tenth part of a
second between the disengagement of the basket and its absolute and total disappearance
with all that it contained. My good wishes followed it to the earth, but of course, I had no
hope that either cat or kittens would ever live to tell the tale of their misfortune.
At six o'clock, I perceived a great portion of the earth's visible area to the eastward
involved in thick shadow, which continued to advance with great rapidity, until, at five
minutes before seven, the whole surface in view was enveloped in the darkness of night.
It was not, however, until long after this time that the rays of the setting sun ceased to
illumine the balloon; and this circumstance, although of course fully anticipated, did not
fail to give me an infinite deal of pleasure. It was evident that, in the morning, I should
behold the rising luminary many hours at least before the citizens of Rotterdam, in spite
of their situation so much farther to the eastward, and thus, day after day, in proportion to
the height ascended, would I enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and a longer period. I
now determined to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days from one to twentyfour hours continuously, without taking into consideration the intervals of darkness.
At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie down for the rest of the night; but here a
difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it may appear, had escaped my attention up
to the very moment of which I am now speaking. If I went to sleep as I proposed, how
could the atmosphere in the chamber be regenerated in the interim? To breathe it for
more than an hour, at the farthest, would be a matter of impossibility, or, if even this term
could be extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences might ensue.
The consideration of this dilemma gave me no little disquietude; and it will hardly be
believed, that, after the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon this business in so
serious a light, as to give up all hope of accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally
make up my mind to the necessity of a descent. But this hesitation was only momentary. I
reflected that man is the veriest slave of custom, and that many points in the routine of his
existence are deemed essentially important, which are only so at all by his having
rendered them habitual. It was very certain that I could not do without sleep; but I might
easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience from being awakened at intervals of an hour
during the whole period of my repose. It would require but five minutes at most to
regenerate the atmosphere in the fullest manner, and the only real difficulty was to
contrive a method of arousing myself at the proper moment for so doing. But this was a
question which, I am willing to confess, occasioned me no little trouble in its solution. To
be sure, I had heard of the student who, to prevent his falling asleep over his books, held
in one hand a ball of copper, the din of whose descent into a basin of the same metal on
the floor beside his chair, served effectually to startle him up, if, at any moment, he
should be overcome with drowsiness. My own case, however, was very different indeed,
and left me no room for any similar idea; for I did not wish to keep awake, but to be
aroused from slumber at regular intervals of time. I at length hit upon the following
expedient, which, simple as it may seem, was hailed by me, at the moment of discovery,
as an invention fully equal to that of the telescope, the steam-engine, or the art of printing
itself.
It is necessary to premise, that the balloon, at the elevation now attained, continued its
course upward with an even and undeviating ascent, and the car consequently followed
with a steadiness so perfect that it would have been impossible to detect in it the slightest
vacillation whatever. This circumstance favored me greatly in the project I now
determined to adopt. My supply of water had been put on board in kegs containing five
gallons each, and ranged very securely around the interior of the car. I unfastened one of
these, and taking two ropes tied them tightly across the rim of the wicker-work from one
side to the other; placing them about a foot apart and parallel so as to form a kind of
shelf, upon which I placed the keg, and steadied it in a horizontal position. About eight
inches immediately below these ropes, and four feet from the bottom of the car I fastened
another shelf–but made of thin plank, being the only similar piece of wood I had. Upon
this latter shelf, and exactly beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small earthern pitcher
was deposited. I now bored a hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher, and fitted in a
plug of soft wood, cut in a tapering or conical shape. This plug I pushed in or pulled out,
as might happen, until, after a few experiments, it arrived at that exact degree of
tightness, at which the water, oozing from the hole, and falling into the pitcher below,
would fill the latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. This, of course, was a
matter briefly and easily ascertained, by noticing the proportion of the pitcher filled in
any given time. Having arranged all this, the rest of the plan is obvious. My bed was so
contrived upon the floor of the car, as to bring my head, in lying down, immediately
below the mouth of the pitcher. It was evident, that, at the expiration of an hour, the
pitcher, getting full, would be forced to run over, and to run over at the mouth, which was
somewhat lower than the rim. It was also evident, that the water thus falling from a height
of more than four feet, could not do otherwise than fall upon my face, and that the sure
consequences would be, to waken me up instantaneously, even from the soundest
slumber in the world.
It was fully eleven by the time I had completed these arrangements, and I immediately
betook myself to bed, with full confidence in the efficiency of my invention. Nor in this
matter was I disappointed. Punctually every sixty minutes was I aroused by my trusty
chronometer, when, having emptied the pitcher into the bung-hole of the keg, and
performed the duties of the condenser, I retired again to bed. These regular interruptions
to my slumber caused me even less discomfort than I had anticipated; and when I finally
arose for the day, it was seven o'clock, and the sun had attained many degrees above the
line of my horizon.
April 3d. I found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and the earth's apparent
convexity increased in a material degree. Below me in the ocean lay a cluster of black
specks, which undoubtedly were islands. Far away to the northward I perceived a thin,
white, and exceedingly brilliant line, or streak, on the edge of the horizon, and I had no
hesitation in supposing it to be the southern disk of the ices of the Polar Sea. My curiosity
was greatly excited, for I had hopes of passing on much farther to the north, and might
possibly, at some period, find myself placed directly above the Pole itself. I now
lamented that my great elevation would, in this case, prevent my taking as accurate a
survey as I could wish. Much, however, might be ascertained. Nothing else of an
extraordinary nature occurred during the day. My apparatus all continued in good order,
and the balloon still ascended without any perceptible vacillation. The cold was intense,
and obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat. When darkness came over the earth, I
betook myself to bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad daylight all around
my immediate situation. The water-clock was punctual in its duty, and I slept until next
morning soundly, with the exception of the periodical interruption.
April 4th. Arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished at the singular change
which had taken place in the appearance of the sea. It had lost, in a great measure, the
deep tint of blue it had hitherto worn, being now of a grayish-white, and of a lustre
dazzling to the eye. The islands were no longer visible; whether they had passed down
the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing elevation had left them out of
sight, it is impossible to say. I was inclined, however, to the latter opinion. The rim of ice
to the northward was growing more and more apparent. Cold by no means so intense.
Nothing of importance occurred, and I passed the day in reading, having taken care to
supply myself with books.
April 5th. Beheld the singular phenomenon of the sun rising while nearly the whole
visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in darkness. In time, however, the
light spread itself over all, and I again saw the line of ice to the northward. It was now
very distinct, and appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I was
evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity. Fancied I could again distinguish a strip
of land to the eastward, and one also to the westward, but could not be certain. Weather
moderate. Nothing of any consequence happened during the day. Went early to bed.
April 6th. Was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate distance, and an
immense field of the same material stretching away off to the horizon in the north. It was
evident that if the balloon held its present course, it would soon arrive above the Frozen
Ocean, and I had now little doubt of ultimately seeing the Pole. During the whole of the
day I continued to near the ice. Toward night the limits of my horizon very suddenly and
materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth's form being that of an oblate
spheroid, and my arriving above the flattened regions in the vicinity of the Arctic circle.
When darkness at length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over
the object of so much curiosity when I should have no opportunity of observing it.
April 7th. Arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what there could be no
hesitation in supposing the northern Pole itself. It was there, beyond a doubt, and
immediately beneath my feet; but, alas! I had now ascended to so vast a distance, that
nothing could with accuracy be discerned. Indeed, to judge from the progression of the
numbers indicating my various altitudes, respectively, at different periods, between six
A.M. on the second of April, and twenty minutes before nine A.M. of the same day (at
which time the barometer ran down), it might be fairly inferred that the balloon had now,
at four o'clock in the morning of April the seventh, reached a height of not less, certainly,
than 7,254 miles above the surface of the sea. This elevation may appear immense, but
the estimate upon which it is calculated gave a result in all probability far inferior to the
truth. At all events I undoubtedly beheld the whole of the earth's major diameter; the
entire northern hemisphere lay beneath me like a chart orthographically projected: and
the great circle of the equator itself formed the boundary line of my horizon. Your
Excellencies may, however, readily imagine that the confined regions hitherto unexplored
within the limits of the Arctic circle, although situated directly beneath me, and therefore
seen without any appearance of being foreshortened, were still, in themselves,
comparatively too diminutive, and at too great a distance from the point of sight, to admit
of any very accurate examination. Nevertheless, what could be seen was of a nature
singular and exciting. Northwardly from that huge rim before mentioned, and which, with
slight qualification, may be called the limit of human discovery in these regions, one
unbroken, or nearly unbroken, sheet of ice continues to extend. In the first few degrees of
this its progress, its surface is very sensibly flattened, farther on depressed into a plane,
and finally, becoming not a little concave, it terminates, at the Pole itself, in a circular
centre, sharply defined, wbose apparent diameter subtended at the balloon an angle of
about sixty-five seconds, and whose dusky hue, varying in intensity, was, at all times,
darker than any other spot upon the visible hemisphere, and occasionally deepened into
the most absolute and impenetrable blackness. Farther than this, little could be
ascertained. By twelve o'clock the circular centre had materially decreased in
circumference, and by seven P.M. I lost sight of it entirely; the balloon passing over the
western limb of the ice, and floating away rapidly in the direction of the equator.
April 8th. Found a sensible diminution in the earth's apparent diameter, besides a material
alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole visible area partook in different
degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some portions had acquired a brilliancy even
painful to the eye. My view downward was also considerably impeded by the dense
atmosphere in the vicinity of the surface being loaded with clouds, between whose
masses I could only now and then obtain a glimpse of the earth itself. This difficulty of
direct vision had troubled me more or less for the last forty-eight hours; but my present
enormous elevation brought closer together, as it were, the floating bodies of vapor, and
the inconvenience became, of course, more and more palpable in proportion to my ascent.
Nevertheless, I could easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the range of
great lakes in the continent of North America, and was holding a course, due south,
which would bring me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartful satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate success. Indeed, the
direction I had hitherto taken, had filled me with uneasiness; for it was evident that, had I
continued it much longer, there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the
moon at all, whose orbit is inclined to the ecliptic at only the small angle of 5 degrees 8'
48".
April 9th. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the color of the
surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon kept steadily on her course to
the southward, and arrived, at nine P.M., over the northern edge of the Mexican Gulf.
April 10th. I was suddenly aroused from slumber, about five o'clock this morning, by a
loud, crackling, and terrific sound, for which I could in no manner account. It was of very
brief duration, but, while it lasted resembled nothing in the world of which I had any
previous experience. It is needless to say that I became excessively alarmed, having, in
the first instance, attributed the noise to the bursting of the balloon. I examined all my
apparatus, however, with great attention, and could discover nothing out of order. Spent a
great part of the day in meditating upon an occurrence so extraordinary, but could find no
means whatever of accounting for it. Went to bed dissatisfied, and in a state of great
anxiety and agitation.
April 11th. Found a startling diminution in the apparent diameter of the earth, and a
considerable increase, now observable for the first time, in that of the moon itself, which
wanted only a few days of being full. It now required long and excessive labor to
condense within the chamber sufficient atmospheric air for the sustenance of life.
April 12th. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction of the balloon, and
although fully anticipated, afforded me the most unequivocal delight. Having reached, in
its former course, about the twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly,
at an acute angle, to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day, keeping nearly,
if not altogether, in the exact plane of the lunar elipse. What was worthy of remark, a
very perceptible vacillation in the car was a consequence of this change of route–a
vacillation which prevailed, in a more or less degree, for a period of many hours.
April 13th. Was again very much alarmed by a repetition of the loud, crackling noise
which terrified me on the tenth. Thought long upon the subject, but was unable to form
any satisfactory conclusion. Great decrease in the earth's apparent diameter, which now
subtended from the balloon an angle of very little more than twenty-five degrees. The
moon could not be seen at all,
THE END
HOP-FROG OR THE EIGHT CHAINED OURANGOUTANGS
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed to live only
for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell it well, was the surest road to
his favor. Thus it happened that his seven ministers were all noted for their
accomplishments as jokers. They all took after the king, too, in being large, corpulent,
oily men, as well as inimitable jokers. Whether people grow fat by joking, or whether
there is something in fat itself which predisposes to a joke, I have never been quite able to
determine; but certain it is that a lean joker is a rara avis in terris.
About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the king troubled himself
very little. He had an especial admiration for breadth in a jest, and would often put up
with length, for the sake of it. Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred
Rabelais' 'Gargantua' to the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes
suited his taste far better than verbal ones.
At the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at
court. Several of the great continental 'powers' still retain their 'fools,' who wore motley,
with caps and bells, and who were expected to be always ready with sharp witticisms, at a
moment's notice, in consideration of the crumbs that fell from the royal table.
Our king, as a matter of course, retained his 'fool.' The fact is, he required something in
the way of folly–if only to counterbalance the heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who
were his ministers–not to mention himself.
His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value was trebled in the
eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf and a cripple. Dwarfs were as
common at court, in those days, as fools; and many monarchs would have found it
difficult to get through their days (days are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without
both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at. But, as I have already observed, your
jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and unwieldy–so that it was
no small source of self-gratulation with our king that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool's
name), he possessed a triplicate treasure in one person.
I believe the name 'Hop-Frog' was not that given to the dwarf by his sponsors at baptism,
but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of the several ministers, on account of
his inability to walk as other men do. In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of
interjectional gait–something between a leap and a wriggle–a movement that afforded
illimitable amusement, and of course consolation, to the king, for (notwithstanding the
protuberance of his stomach and a constitutional swelling of the head) the king, by his
whole court, was accounted a capital figure.
But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could move only with great
pain and difficulty along a road or floor, the prodigious muscular power which nature
seemed to have bestowed upon his arms, by way of compensation for deficiency in the
lower limbs, enabled him to perform many feats of wonderful dexterity, where trees or
ropes were in question, or any thing else to climb. At such exercises he certainly much
more resembled a squirrel, or a small monkey, than a frog.
I am not able to say, with precision, from what country Hop-Frog originally came. It was
from some barbarous region, however, that no person ever heard of–a vast distance from
the court of our king. Hop-Frog, and a young girl very little less dwarfish than himself
(although of exquisite proportions, and a marvellous dancer), had been forcibly carried
off from their respective homes in adjoining provinces, and sent as presents to the king,
by one of his ever-victorious generals.
Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that a close intimacy arose
between the two little captives. Indeed, they soon became sworn friends. Hop-Frog, who,
although he made a great deal of sport, was by no means popular, had it not in his power
to render Trippetta many services; but she, on account of her grace and exquisite beauty
(although a dwarf), was universally admired and petted; so she possessed much
influence; and never failed to use it, whenever she could, for the benefit of Hop-Frog.
On some grand state occasion–I forgot what–the king determined to have a masquerade,
and whenever a masquerade or any thing of that kind, occurred at our court, then the
talents, both of Hop-Frog and Trippetta were sure to be called into play. Hop-Frog, in
especial, was so inventive in the way of getting up pageants, suggesting novel characters,
and arranging costumes, for masked balls, that nothing could be done, it seems, without
his assistance.
The night appointed for the fete had arrived. A gorgeous hall had been fitted up, under
Trippetta's eye, with every kind of device which could possibly give eclat to a
masquerade. The whole court was in a fever of expectation. As for costumes and
characters, it might well be supposed that everybody had come to a decision on such
points. Many had made up their minds (as to what roles they should assume) a week, or
even a month, in advance; and, in fact, there was not a particle of indecision anywhere–
except in the case of the king and his seven minsters. Why they hesitated I never could
tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More probably, they found it difficult, on account
of being so fat, to make up their minds. At all events, time flew; and, as a last resort they
sent for Trippetta and Hop-Frog.
When the two little friends obeyed the summons of the king they found him sitting at his
wine with the seven members of his cabinet council; but the monarch appeared to be in a
very ill humor. He knew that Hop-Frog was not fond of wine, for it excited the poor
cripple almost to madness; and madness is no comfortable feeling. But the king loved his
practical jokes, and took pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink and (as the king called it)
'to be merry.'
"Come here, Hop-Frog," said he, as the jester and his friend entered the room; "swallow
this bumper to the health of your absent friends, [here Hop-Frog sighed,] and then let us
have the benefit of your invention. We want characters–characters, man–something
novel–out of the way. We are wearied with this everlasting sameness. Come, drink! the
wine will brighten your wits."
Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these advances from the king;
but the effort was too much. It happened to be the poor dwarf's birthday, and the
command to drink to his 'absent friends' forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter
drops fell into the goblet as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.
"Ah! ha! ha!" roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the beaker.–"See what a
glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are shining already!"
Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the effect of wine on his
excitable brain was not more powerful than instantaneous. He placed the goblet
nervously on the table, and looked round upon the company with a half–insane stare.
They all seemed highly amused at the success of the king's 'joke.'
"And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.
"Yes," said the King; "Come lend us your assistance. Characters, my fine fellow; we
stand in need of characters–all of us–ha! ha! ha!" and as this was seriously meant for a
joke, his laugh was chorused by the seven.
Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.
"Come, come," said the king, impatiently, "have you nothing to suggest?"
"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf, abstractedly, for he
was quite bewildered by the wine.
"Endeavoring!" cried the tyrant, fiercely; "what do you mean by that? Ah, I perceive.
You are Sulky, and want more wine. Here, drink this!" and he poured out another goblet
full and offered it to the cripple, who merely gazed at it, gasping for breath.
"Drink, I say!" shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"
The dwarf hesitated. The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers smirked. Trippetta,
pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch's seat, and, falling on her knees before him,
implored him to spare her friend.
The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at her audacity. He
seemed quite at a loss what to do or say–how most becomingly to express his indignation.
At last, without uttering a syllable, he pushed her violently from him, and threw the
contents of the brimming goblet in her face.
The poor girl got up the best she could, and, not daring even to sigh, resumed her position
at the foot of the table.
There was a dead silence for about half a minute, during which the falling of a leaf, or of
a feather, might have been heard. It was interrupted by a low, but harsh and protracted
grating sound which seemed to come at once from every corner of the room.
"What–what–what are you making that noise for?" demanded the king, turning furiously
to the dwarf.
The latter seemed to have recovered, in great measure, from his intoxication, and looking
fixedly but quietly into the tyrant's face, merely ejaculated:
"I–I? How could it have been me?"
"The sound appeared to come from without," observed one of the courtiers. "I fancy it
was the parrot at the window, whetting his bill upon his cage-wires."
"True," replied the monarch, as if much relieved by the suggestion; "but, on the honor of
a knight, I could have sworn that it was the gritting of this vagabond's teeth."
Hereupon the dwarf laughed (the king was too confirmed a joker to object to any one's
laughing), and displayed a set of large, powerful, and very repulsive teeth. Moreover, he
avowed his perfect willingness to swallow as much wine as desired. The monarch was
pacified; and having drained another bumper with no very perceptible ill effect, HopFrog entered at once, and with spirit, into the plans for the masquerade.
"I cannot tell what was the association of idea," observed he, very tranquilly, and as if he
had never tasted wine in his life, "but just after your majesty, had struck the girl and
thrown the wine in her face–just after your majesty had done this, and while the parrot
was making that odd noise outside the window, there came into my mind a capital
diversion–one of my own country frolics–often enacted among us, at our masquerades:
but here it will be new altogether. Unfortunately, however, it requires a company of eight
persons and-"
"Here we are!" cried the king, laughing at his acute discovery of the coincidence; "eight
to a fraction–I and my seven ministers. Come! what is the diversion?"
"We call it," replied the cripple, "the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs, and it really is
excellent sport if well enacted."
"We will enact it," remarked the king, drawing himself up, and lowering his eyelids.
"The beauty of the game," continued Hop-Frog, "lies in the fright it occasions among the
women."
"Capital!" roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry.
"I will equip you as ourang-outangs," proceeded the dwarf; "leave all that to me. The
resemblance shall be so striking, that the company of masqueraders will take you for real
beasts–and of course, they will be as much terrified as astonished."
"Oh, this is exquisite!" exclaimed the king. "Hop-Frog! I will make a man of you."
"The chains are for the purpose of increasing the confusion by their jangling. You are
supposed to have escaped, en masse, from your keepers. Your majesty cannot conceive
the effect produced, at a masquerade, by eight chained ourang-outangs, imagined to be
real ones by most of the company; and rushing in with savage cries, among the crowd of
delicately and gorgeously habited men and women. The contrast is inimitable!"
"It must be," said the king: and the council arose hurriedly (as it was growing late), to put
in execution the scheme of Hop-Frog.
His mode of equipping the party as ourang-outangs was very simple, but effective enough
for his purposes. The animals in question had, at the epoch of my story, very rarely been
seen in any part of the civilized world; and as the imitations made by the dwarf were
sufficiently beast-like and more than sufficiently hideous, their truthfulness to nature was
thus thought to be secured.
The king and his ministers were first encased in tight-fitting stockinet shirts and drawers.
They were then saturated with tar. At this stage of the process, some one of the party
suggested feathers; but the suggestion was at once overruled by the dwarf, who soon
convinced the eight, by ocular demonstration, that the hair of such a brute as the ourangoutang was much more efficiently represented by flu. A thick coating of the latter was
accordingly plastered upon the coating of tar. A long chain was now procured. First, it
was passed about the waist of the king, and tied, then about another of the party, and also
tied; then about all successively, in the same manner. When this chaining arrangement
was complete, and the party stood as far apart from each other as possible, they formed a
circle; and to make all things appear natural, Hop-Frog passed the residue of the chain in
two diameters, at right angles, across the circle, after the fashion adopted, at the present
day, by those who capture Chimpanzees, or other large apes, in Borneo.
The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a circular room, very
lofty, and receiving the light of the sun only through a single window at top. At night (the
season for which the apartment was especially designed) it was illuminated principally by
a large chandelier, depending by a chain from the centre of the sky-light, and lowered, or
elevated, by means of a counter-balance as usual; but (in order not to look unsightly) this
latter passed outside the cupola and over the roof.
The arrangements of the room had been left to Trippetta's superintendence; but, in some
particulars, it seems, she had been guided by the calmer judgment of her friend the dwarf.
At his suggestion it was that, on this occasion, the chandelier was removed. Its waxen
drippings (which, in weather so warm, it was quite impossible to prevent) would have
been seriously detrimental to the rich dresses of the guests, who, on account of the
crowded state of the saloon, could not all be expected to keep from out its centre; that is
to say, from under the chandelier. Additional sconces were set in various parts of the hall,
out of the war, and a flambeau, emitting sweet odor, was placed in the right hand of each
of the Caryatides that stood against the wall–some fifty or sixty altogether.
The eight ourang-outangs, taking Hop-Frog's advice, waited patiently until midnight
(when the room was thoroughly filled with masqueraders) before making their
appearance. No sooner had the clock ceased striking, however, than they rushed, or rather
rolled in, all together–for the impediments of their chains caused most of the party to fall,
and all to stumble as they entered.
The excitement among the masqueraders was prodigious, and filled the heart of the king
with glee. As had been anticipated, there were not a few of the guests who supposed the
ferocious-looking creatures to be beasts of some kind in reality, if not precisely ourangoutangs. Many of the women swooned with affright; and had not the king taken the
precaution to exclude all weapons from the saloon, his party might soon have expiated
their frolic in their blood. As it was, a general rush was made for the doors; but the king
had ordered them to be locked immediately upon his entrance; and, at the dwarf's
suggestion, the keys had been deposited with him.
While the tumult was at its height, and each masquerader attentive only to his own safety
(for, in fact, there was much real danger from the pressure of the excited crowd), the
chain by which the chandelier ordinarily hung, and which had been drawn up on its
removal, might have been seen very gradually to descend, until its hooked extremity
came within three feet of the floor.
Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the hall in all
directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of course, in immediate contact
with the chain. While they were thus situated, the dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at
their heels, inciting them to keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the
intersection of the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles.
Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the chandelier had
been wont to depend; and, in an instant, by some unseen agency, the chandelier-chain
was drawn so far upward as to take the hook out of reach, and, as an inevitable
consequence, to drag the ourang-outangs together in close connection, and face to face.
The masqueraders, by this time, had recovered, in some measure, from their alarm; and,
beginning to regard the whole matter as a well-contrived pleasantry, set up a loud shout
of laughter at the predicament of the apes.
"Leave them to me!" now screamed Hop-Frog, his shrill voice making itself easily heard
through all the din. "Leave them to me. I fancy I know them. If I can only get a good look
at them, I can soon tell who they are."
Here, scrambling over the heads of the crowd, he managed to get to the wall; when,
seizing a flambeau from one of the Caryatides, he returned, as he went, to the centre of
the room-leaping, with the agility of a monkey, upon the kings head, and thence
clambered a few feet up the chain; holding down the torch to examine the group of
ourang-outangs, and still screaming: "I shall soon find out who they are!"
And now, while the whole assembly (the apes included) were convulsed with laughter,
the jester suddenly uttered a shrill whistle; when the chain flew violently up for about
thirty feet–dragging with it the dismayed and struggling ourang-outangs, and leaving
them suspended in mid-air between the sky-light and the floor. Hop-Frog, clinging to the
chain as it rose, still maintained his relative position in respect to the eight maskers, and
still (as if nothing were the matter) continued to thrust his torch down toward them, as
though endeavoring to discover who they were.
So thoroughly astonished was the whole company at this ascent, that a dead silence, of
about a minute's duration, ensued. It was broken by just such a low, harsh, grating sound,
as had before attracted the attention of the king and his councillors when the former
threw the wine in the face of Trippetta. But, on the present occasion, there could be no
question as to whence the sound issued. It came from the fang–like teeth of the dwarf,
who ground them and gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth, and glared, with an
expression of maniacal rage, into the upturned countenances of the king and his seven
companions.
"Ah, ha!" said at length the infuriated jester. "Ah, ha! I begin to see who these people are
now!" Here, pretending to scrutinize the king more closely, he held the flambeau to the
flaxen coat which enveloped him, and which instantly burst into a sheet of vivid flame. In
less than half a minute the whole eight ourang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the
shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below, horror-stricken, and without the
power to render them the slightest assistance.
At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the jester to climb higher
up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as he made this movement, the crowd again
sank, for a brief instant, into silence. The dwarf seized his opportunity, and once more
spoke:
"I now see distinctly." he said, "what manner of people these maskers are. They are a
great king and his seven privy-councillors,–a king who does not scruple to strike a
defenceless girl and his seven councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I
am simply Hop-Frog, the jester–and this is my last jest."
Owing to the high combustibility of both the flax and the tar to which it adhered, the
dwarf had scarcely made an end of his brief speech before the work of vengeance was
complete. The eight corpses swung in their chains, a fetid, blackened, hideous, and
indistinguishable mass. The cripple hurled his torch at them, clambered leisurely to the
ceiling, and disappeared through the sky-light.
It is supposed that Trippetta, stationed on the roof of the saloon, had been the accomplice
of her friend in his fiery revenge, and that, together, they effected their escape to their
own country: for neither was seen again.
THE END
HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD ARTICLE
by Edgar Allan Poe
1850
"In the name of the prophets–figs!!"
Cry of Turkish fig-peddler.
I PRESUME everybody has heard of me. My name is the Signora Psyche Zenobia. This I
know to be a fact. Nobody but my enemies ever calls me Suky Snobbs. I have been
assured that Suky is but a vulgar corruption of Psyche, which is good Greek, and means
"the soul" (that's me, I'm all soul) and sometimes "a butterfly," which latter meaning
undoubtedly alludes to my appearance in my new crimson satin dress, with the sky-blue
Arabian mantelet, and the trimmings of green agraffas, and the seven flounces of orangecolored auriculas. As for Snobbs–any person who should look at me would be instantly
aware that my name wasn't Snobbs. Miss Tabitha Turnip propagated that report through
sheer envy. Tabitha Turnip indeed! Oh the little wretch! But what can we expect from a
turnip? Wonder if she remembers the old adage about "blood out of a turnip," &c.?
[Mem. put her in mind of it the first opportunity.] [Mem. again–pull her nose.] Where
was I? Ah! I have been assured that Snobbs is a mere corruption of Zenobia, and that
Zenobia was a queen–(So am I. Dr. Moneypenny always calls me the Queen of the
Hearts)–and that Zenobia, as well as Psyche, is good Greek, and that my father was "a
Greek," and that consequently I have a right to our patronymic, which is Zenobia and not
by any means Snobbs. Nobody but Tabitha Turnip calls me Suky Snobbs. I am the
Signora Psyche Zenobia.
As I said before, everybody has heard of me. I am that very Signora Psyche Zenobia, so
justly celebrated as corresponding secretary to the "Philadelphia, Regular, Exchange,
Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental, Bibliographical,
Association, To, Civilize, Humanity." Dr. Moneypenny made the title for us, and says he
chose it because it sounded big like an empty rum-puncheon. (A vulgar man that
sometimes–but he's deep.) We all sign the initials of the society after our names, in the
fashion of the R. S. A., Royal Society of Arts–the S. D. U. K., Society for the Diffusion
of Useful Knowledge, &c, &c. Dr. Moneypenny says that S. stands for stale, and that D.
U. K. spells duck, (but it don't,) that S. D. U. K. stands for Stale Duck and not for Lord
Brougham's society–but then Dr. Moneypenny is such a queer man that I am never sure
when he is telling me the truth. At any rate we always add to our names the initials P. R.
E. T. T. Y. B. L. U. E. B. A. T. C. H.- that is to say, Philadelphia, Regular, Exchange,
Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental, Bibliographical,
Association, To, Civilize, Humanity–one letter for each word, which is a decided
improvement upon Lord Brougham. Dr. Moneypenny will have it that our initials give
our true character–but for my life I can't see what he means.
Notwithstanding the good offices of the Doctor, and the strenuous exertions of the
association to get itself into notice, it met with no very great success until I joined it. The
truth is, the members indulged in too flippant a tone of discussion. The papers read every
Saturday evening were characterized less by depth than buffoonery. They were all
whipped syllabub. There was no investigation of first causes, first principles. There was
no investigation of any thing at all. There was no attention paid to that great point, the
"fitness of things." In short there was no fine writing like this. It was all low–very! No
profundity, no reading, no metaphysics–nothing which the learned call spirituality, and
which the unlearned choose to stigmatize as cant. [Dr. M. says I ought to spell "cant"
with a capital K–but I know better.]
When I joined the society it was my endeavor to introduce a better style of thinking and
writing, and all the world knows how well I have succeeded. We get up as good papers
now in the P. R. E. T. T. Y. B. L. U. E. B. A. T. C. H. as any to be found even in
Blackwood. I say, Blackwood, because I have been assured that the finest writing, upon
every subject, is to be discovered in the pages of that justly celebrated Magazine. We
now take it for our model upon all themes, and are getting into rapid notice accordingly.
And, after all, it's not so very difficult a matter to compose an article of the genuine
Blackwood stamp, if one only goes properly about it. Of course I don't speak of the
political articles. Everybody knows how they are managed, since Dr. Moneypenny
explained it. Mr. Blackwood has a pair of tailor's-shears, and three apprentices who stand
by him for orders. One hands him the "Times," another the "Examiner" and a third a
"Culley's New Compendium of Slang-Whang." Mr. B. merely cuts out and intersperses.
It is soon done–nothing but "Examiner," "Slang-Whang," and "Times"–then "Times,"
"Slang-Whang," and "Examiner"–and then "Times," "Examiner," and "Slang-Whang."
But the chief merit of the Magazine lies in its miscellaneous articles; and the best of these
come under the head of what Dr. Moneypenny calls the bizarreries (whatever that may
mean) and what everybody else calls the intensities. This is a species of writing which I
have long known how to appreciate, although it is only since my late visit to Mr.
Blackwood (deputed by the society) that I have been made aware of the exact method of
composition. This method is very simple, but not so much so as the politics. Upon my
calling at Mr. B.'s, and making known to him the wishes of the society, he received me
with great civility, took me into his study, and gave me a clear explanation of the whole
process.
"My dear madam," said he, evidently struck with my majestic appearance, for I had on
the crimson satin, with the green agraffas, and orange-colored auriclas. "My dear
madam," said he, "sit down. The matter stands thus: In the first place your writer of
intensities must have very black ink, and a very big pen, with a very blunt nib. And, mark
me, Miss Psyche Zenobia!" he continued, after a pause, with the most expressive energy
and solemnity of manner, "mark me!–that pen–must–never be mended! Herein, madam,
lies the secret, the soul, of intensity. I assume upon myself to say, that no individual, of
however great genius ever wrote with a good pen–understand me,–a good article. You
may take, it for granted, that when manuscript can be read it is never worth reading. This
is a leading principle in our faith, to which if you cannot readily assent, our conference is
at an end."
He paused. But, of course, as I had no wish to put an end to the conference, I assented to
a proposition so very obvious, and one, too, of whose truth I had all along been
sufficiently aware. He seemed pleased, and went on with his instructions.
"It may appear invidious in me, Miss Psyche Zenobia, to refer you to any article, or set of
articles, in the way of model or study, yet perhaps I may as well call your attention to a
few cases. Let me see. There was 'The Dead Alive,' a capital thing!–the record of a
gentleman's sensations when entombed before the breath was out of his body–full of
tastes, terror, sentiment, metaphysics, and erudition. You would have sworn that the
writer had been born and brought up in a coffin. Then we had the 'Confessions of an
Opium-eater'–fine, very fine!–glorious imagination–deep philosophy acute speculation–
plenty of fire and fury, and a good spicing of the decidedly unintelligible. That was a nice
bit of flummery, and went down the throats of the people delightfully. They would have
it that Coleridge wrote the paper–but not so. It was composed by my pet baboon, Juniper,
over a rummer of Hollands and water, 'hot, without sugar.'" [This I could scarcely have
believed had it been anybody but Mr. Blackwood, who assured me of it.] "Then there was
'The Involuntary Experimentalist,' all about a gentleman who got baked in an oven, and
came out alive and well, although certainly done to a turn. And then there was 'The Diary
of a Late Physician,' where the merit lay in good rant, and indifferent Greek- both of
them taking things with the public. And then there was 'The Man in the Bell,' a paper bythe-by, Miss Zenobia, which I cannot sufficiently recommend to your attention. It is the
history of a young person who goes to sleep under the clapper of a church bell, and is
awakened by its tolling for a funeral. The sound drives him mad, and, accordingly,
pulling out his tablets, he gives a record of his sensations. Sensations are the great things
after all. Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your
sensations–they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet. If you wish to write forcibly,
Miss Zenobia, pay minute attention to the sensations."
"That I certainly will, Mr. Blackwood," said I.
"Good!" he replied. "I see you are a pupil after my own heart. But I must put you au fait
to the details necessary in composing what may be denominated a genuine Blackwood
article of the sensation stamp–the kind which you will understand me to say I consider
the best for all purposes.
"The first thing requisite is to get yourself into such a scrape as no one ever got into
before. The oven, for instance,–that was a good hit. But if you have no oven or big bell,
at hand, and if you cannot conveniently tumble out of a balloon, or be swallowed up in an
earthquake, or get stuck fast in a chimney, you will have to be contented with simply
imagining some similar misadventure. I should prefer, however, that you have the actual
fact to bear you out. Nothing so well assists the fancy, as an experimental knowledge of
the matter in hand. 'Truth is strange,' you know, 'stranger than fiction'- besides being
more to the purpose."
Here I assured him I had an excellent pair of garters, and would go and hang myself
forthwith.
"Good!" he replied, "do so;–although hanging is somewhat hacknied. Perhaps you might
do better. Take a dose of Brandreth's pills, and then give us your sensations. However,
my instructions will apply equally well to any variety of misadventure, and in your way
home you may easily get knocked in the head, or run over by an omnibus, or bitten by a
mad dog, or drowned in a gutter. But to proceed.
"Having determined upon your subject, you must next consider the tone, or manner, of
your narration. There is the tone didactic, the tone enthusiastic, the tone natural–all
common–place enough. But then there is the tone laconic, or curt, which has lately come
much into use. It consists in short sentences. Somehow thus: Can't be too brief. Can't be
too snappish. Always a full stop. And never a paragraph.
"Then there is the tone elevated, diffusive, and interjectional. Some of our best novelists
patronize this tone. The words must be all in a whirl, like a humming-top, and make a
noise very similar, which answers remarkably well instead of meaning. This is the best of
all possible styles where the writer is in too great a hurry to think.
"The tone metaphysical is also a good one. If you know any big words this is your chance
for them. Talk of the Ionic and Eleatic schools- of Archytas, Gorgias, and Alcmaeon. Say
something about objectivity and subjectivity. Be sure and abuse a man named Locke.
Turn up your nose at things in general, and when you let slip any thing a little too absurd,
you need not be at the trouble of scratching it out, but just add a footnote and say that you
are indebted for the above profound observation to the 'Kritik der reinem Vernunft,' or to
the 'Metaphysithe Anfongsgrunde der Noturwissenchaft.' This would look erudite and–
and–and frank.
"There are various other tones of equal celebrity, but I shall mention only two more–the
tone transcendental and the tone heterogeneous. In the former the merit consists in seeing
into the nature of affairs a very great deal farther than anybody else. This second sight is
very efficient when properly managed. A little reading of the 'Dial' will carry you a great
way. Eschew, in this case, big words; get them as small as possible, and write them
upside down. Look over Channing's poems and quote what he says about a 'fat little man
with a delusive show of Can.' Put in something about the Supernal Oneness. Don't say a
syllable about the Infernal Twoness. Above all, study innuendo. Hint everything–assert
nothing. If you feel inclined to say 'bread and butter,' do not by any means say it outright.
You may say any thing and every thing approaching to 'bread and butter.' You may hint
at buck-wheat cake, or you may even go so far as to insinuate oat-meal porridge, but if
bread and butter be your real meaning, be cautious, my dear Miss Psyche, not on any
account to say 'bread and butter!'
I assured him that I should never say it again as long as I lived. He kissed me and
continued:
"As for the tone heterogeneous, it is merely a judicious mixture, in equal proportions, of
all the other tones in the world, and is consequently made up of every thing deep, great,
odd, piquant, pertinent, and pretty.
"Let us suppose now you have determined upon your incidents and tone. The most
important portion–in fact, the soul of the whole business, is yet to be attended to–I allude
to the filling up. It is not to be supposed that a lady, or gentleman either, has been leading
the life of a book worm. And yet above all things it is necessary that your article have an
air of erudition, or at least afford evidence of extensive general reading. Now I'll put you
in the way of accomplishing this point. See here!" (pulling down some three or four
ordinary-looking volumes, and opening them at random). "By casting your eye down
almost any page of any book in the world, you will be able to perceive at once a host of
little scraps of either learning or bel-espritism, which are the very thing for the spicing of
a Blackwood article. You might as well note down a few while I read them to you. I shall
make two divisions: first, Piquant Facts for the Manufacture of Similes, and, second,
Piquant Expressions to be introduced as occasion may require. Write now!"–and I wrote
as he dictated.
"PIQUANT FACTS FOR SIMILES. 'There were originally but three Muses–Melete,
Mneme, Aoede–meditation, memory, and singing.' You may make a good deal of that
little fact if properly worked. You see it is not generally known, and looks recherche. You
must be careful and give the thing with a downright improviso air.
"Again. 'The river Alpheus passed beneath the sea, and emerged without injury to the
purity of its waters.' Rather stale that, to be sure, but, if properly dressed and dished up,
will look quite as fresh as ever.
"Here is something better. 'The Persian Iris appears to some persons to possess a sweet
and very powerful perfume, while to others it is perfectly scentless.' Fine that, and very
delicate! Turn it about a little, and it will do wonders. We'll have some thing else in the
botanical line. There's nothing goes down so well, especially with the help of a little
Latin. Write!
"'The Epidendrum Flos Aeris, of Java, bears a very beautiful flower, and will live when
pulled up by the roots. The natives suspend it by a cord from the ceiling, and enjoy its
fragrance for years.' That's capital! That will do for the similes. Now for the Piquant
Expressions.
"PIQUANT EXPRESSIONS. 'The Venerable Chinese novel Ju-Kiao-Li.' Good! By
introducing these few words with dexterity you will evince your intimate acquaintance
with the language and literature of the Chinese. With the aid of this you may either get
along without either Arabic, or Sanscrit, or Chickasaw. There is no passing muster,
however, without Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, and Greek. I must look you out a little
specimen of each. Any scrap will answer, because you must depend upon your own
ingenuity to make it fit into your article. Now write!
"'Aussi tendre que Zaire'–as tender as Zaire-French. Alludes to the frequent repetition of
the phrase, la tendre Zaire, in the French tragedy of that name. Properly introduced, will
show not only your knowledge of the language, but your general reading and wit. You
can say, for instance, that the chicken you were eating (write an article about being
choked to death by a chicken-bone) was not altogether aussi tendre que Zaire. Write!
'Van muerte tan escondida,
Que no te sienta venir,
Porque el plazer del morir,
No mestorne a dar la vida.'
"That's Spanish–from Miguel de Cervantes. 'Come quickly, O death! but be sure and
don't let me see you coming, lest the pleasure I shall feel at your appearance should
unfortunately bring me back again to life.' This you may slip in quite a propos when you
are struggling in the last agonies with the chicken-bone. Write!
'Il pover 'huomo che non se'n era accorto,
Andava combattendo, e era morto.' That's Italian, you perceive–from Ariosto. It means
that a great hero, in the heat of combat, not perceiving that he had been fairly killed,
continued to fight valiantly, dead as he was. The application of this to your own case is
obvious–for I trust, Miss Psyche, that you will not neglect to kick for at least an hour and
a half after you have been choked to death by that chicken-bone. Please to write!
'Und sterb'ich doch, no sterb'ich denn
Durch sie–durch sie!' That's German–from Schiller. 'And if I die, at least I die–for theefor thee!' Here it is clear that you are apostrophizing the cause of your disaster, the
chicken. Indeed what gentleman (or lady either) of sense, wouldn't die, I should like to
know, for a well fattened capon of the right Molucca breed, stuffed with capers and
mushrooms, and served up in a salad-bowl, with orange-jellies en mosaiques. Write!
(You can get them that way at Tortoni's)–Write, if you please!
"Here is a nice little Latin phrase, and rare too, (one can't be too recherche or brief in
one's Latin, it's getting so common–ignoratio elenchi. He has committed an ignoratio
elenchi–that is to say, he has understood the words of your proposition, but not the idea.
The man was a fool, you see. Some poor fellow whom you address while choking with
that chicken-bone, and who therefore didn't precisely understand what you were talking
about. Throw the ignoratio elenchi in his teeth, and, at once, you have him annihilated. If
he dares to reply, you can tell him from Lucan (here it is) that speeches are mere
anemonae verborum, anemone words. The anemone, with great brilliancy, has no smell.
Or, if he begins to bluster, you may be down upon him with insomnia Jovis, reveries of
Jupiter–a phrase which Silius Italicus (see here!) applies to thoughts pompous and
inflated. This will be sure and cut him to the heart. He can do nothing but roll over and
die. Will you be kind enough to write?
"In Greek we must have some thing pretty–from Demosthenes, for example.
Anerh o pheugoen kai palin makesetai
There is a tolerably good translation of it in Hudibras
'For he that flies may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.'
In a Blackwood article nothing makes so fine a show as your Greek. The very letters have
an air of profundity about them. Only observe, madam, the astute look of that Epsilon!
That Phi ought certainly to be a bishop! Was ever there a smarter fellow than that
Omicron? Just twig that Tau! In short, there is nothing like Greek for a genuine
sensation-paper. In the present case your application is the most obvious thing in the
world. Rap out the sentence, with a huge oath, and by way of ultimatum at the good-fornothing dunder-headed villain who couldn't understand your plain English in relation to
the chicken-bone. He'll take the hint and be off, you may depend upon it."
These were all the instructions Mr. B. could afford me upon the topic in question, but I
felt they would be entirely sufficient. I was, at length, able to write a genuine Blackwood
article, and determined to do it forthwith. In taking leave of me, Mr. B. made a
proposition for the purchase of the paper when written; but as he could offer me only fifty
guineas a sheet, I thought it better to let our society have it, than sacrifice it for so paltry a
sum. Notwithstanding this niggardly spirit, however, the gentleman showed his
consideration for me in all other respects, and indeed treated me with the greatest civility.
His parting words made a deep impression upon my heart, and I hope I shall always
remember them with gratitude.
"My dear Miss Zenobia," he said, while the tears stood in his eyes, "is there anything else
I can do to promote the success of your laudable undertaking? Let me reflect! It is just
possible that you may not be able, so soon as convenient, to–to–get yourself drowned,
or–choked with a chicken-bone, or–or hung,–or–bitten by a–but stay! Now I think me of
it, there are a couple of very excellent bull-dogs in the yard–fine fellows, I assure you–
savage, and all that–indeed just the thing for your money–they'll have you eaten up,
auricula and all, in less than five minutes (here's my watch!)–and then only think of the
sensations! Here! I say–Tom!- Peter!–Dick, you villain!–let out those"–but as I was really
in a great hurry, and had not another moment to spare, I was reluctantly forced to
expedite my departure, and accordingly took leave at once- somewhat more abruptly, I
admit, than strict courtesy would have otherwise allowed.
It was my primary object upon quitting Mr. Blackwood, to get into some immediate
difficulty, pursuant to his advice, and with this view I spent the greater part of the day in
wandering about Edinburgh, seeking for desperate adventures–adventures adequate to the
intensity of my feelings, and adapted to the vast character of the article I intended to
write. In this excursion I was attended by one negro- servant, Pompey, and my little lapdog Diana, whom I had brought with me from Philadelphia. It was not, however, until
late in the afternoon that I fully succeeded in my arduous undertaking. An important
event then happened of which the following Blackwood article, in the tone
heterogeneous, is the substance and result.
THE END
HYMN
by Edgar Allan Poe
1835
At morn–at noon–at twilight dimMaria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe–in good and illMother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!
THE END
IMITATION
by Edgar Allan Poe
A dark unfathomed tide
Of interminable pride A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision of my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it passed on:
I care not though it perish
With a thought I then did cherish.
THE END
ISRAFEL
by Edgar Allan Poe
1831
In Heaven a spirit doth dwell
"Whose heart-strings are a lute";
None sing so wildly well
As the angel Israfel,
And the giddy stars (so legends tell),
Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell
Of his voice, all mute.
Tottering above
In her highest noon,
The enamored moon
Blushes with love,
While, to listen, the red levin
(With the rapid Pleiads, even,
Which were seven,)
Pauses in Heaven.
And they say (the starry choir
And the other listening things)
That Israfeli's fire
Is owing to that lyre
By which he sits and singsThe trembling living wire
Of those unusual strings.
But the skies that angel trod,
Where deep thoughts are a dutyWhere Love's a grown-up GodWhere the Houri glances are
Imbued with all the beauty
Which we worship in a star.
Therefore thou art not wrong,
Israfeli, who despisest
An unimpassioned song;
To thee the laurels belong,
Best bard, because the wisest!
Merrily live, and long!
The ecstasies above
With thy burning measures suitThy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,
With the fervor of thy luteWell may the stars be mute!
Yes, Heaven is thine; but this
Is a world of sweets and sours;
Our flowers are merely–flowers,
And the shadow of thy perfect bliss
Is the sunshine of ours.
If I could dwell
Where Israfel
Hath dwelt, and he where I,
He might not sing so wildly well
A mortal melody,
While a bolder note than this might swell
From my lyre within the sky.
THE END
KING PEST
A Tale Containing an Allegory
by Edgar Allan Poe
1835
The gods do bear and will allow in kings
The things which they abhor in rascal routes.
Buckhurst's Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex.
ABOUT twelve o'clock, one night in the month of October, and during the chivalrous
reign of the third Edward, two seamen belonging to the crew of the "Free and Easy," a
trading schooner plying between Sluys and the Thames, and then at anchor in that river,
were much astonished to find themselves seated in the tap-room of an ale-house in the
parish of St. Andrews, London --which ale-house bore for sign the portraiture of a "Jolly
Tar."
The room, although ill-contrived, smoke-blackened, low-pitched, and in every other
respect agreeing with the general character of such places at the period --was,
nevertheless, in the opinion of the grotesque groups scattered here and there within it,
sufficiently well adapted to its purpose.
Of these groups our two seamen formed, I think, the most interesting, if not the most
conspicuous.
The one who appeared to be the elder, and whom his companion addressed by the
characteristic appellation of "Legs," was at the same time much the taller of the two. He
might have measured six feet and a half, and an habitual stoop in the shoulders seemed to
have been the necessary consequence of an altitude so enormous.--Superfluities in height
were, however, more than accounted for by deficiencies in other respects. He was
exceedingly thin; and might, as his associates asserted, have answered, when drunk, for a
pennant at the mast-head, or, when sober, have served for a jib-boom. But these jests, and
others of a similar nature, had evidently produced, at no time, any effect upon the
cachinnatory muscles of the tar. With high cheek-bones, a large hawk-nose, retreating
chin, fAllan under-jaw, and huge protruding white eyes, the expression of his
countenance, although tinged with a species of dogged indifference to matters and things
in general, was not the less utterly solemn and serious beyond all attempts at imitation or
description.
The younger seaman was, in all outward appearance, the converse of his companion. His
stature could not have exceeded four feet. A pair of stumpy bow-legs supported his squat,
unwieldy figure, while his unusually short and thick arms, with no ordinary fists at their
extremities, swung off dangling from his sides like the fins of a sea-turtle. Small eyes, of
no particular color, twinkled far back in his head. His nose remained buried in the mass
of flesh which enveloped his round, full, and purple face; and his thick upper-lip rested
upon the still thicker one beneath with an air of complacent self-satisfaction, much
heightened by the owner's habit of licking them at intervals. He evidently regarded his
tall shipmate with a feeling half-wondrous, half-quizzical; and stared up occasionally in
his face as the red setting sun stares up at the crags of Ben Nevis.
Various and eventful, however, had been the peregrinations of the worthy couple in and
about the different tap-houses of the neighbourhood during the earlier hours of the night.
Funds even the most ample, are not always everlasting: and it was with empty pockets
our friends had ventured upon the present hostelrie.
At the precise period, then, when this history properly commences, Legs, and his fellow
Hugh Tarpaulin, sat, each with both elbows resting upon the large oaken table in the
middle of the floor, and with a hand upon either cheek. They were eyeing, from behind a
huge flagon of unpaid-for "humming-stuff," the portentous words, "No Chalk," which to
their indignation and astonishment were scored over the doorway by means of that very
mineral whose presence they purported to deny. Not that the gift of decyphering written
characters --a gift among the commonalty of that day considered little less cabalistical
than the art of inditing --could, in strict justice, have been laid to the charge of either
disciple of the sea; but there was, to say the truth, a certain twist in the formation of the
letters --an indescribable lee-lurch about the whole ---which foreboded, in the opinion of
both seamen, a long run of dirty weather; and determined them at once, in the allegorical
words of Legs himself, to "pump ship, clew up all sail, and scud before the wind."
Having accordingly disposed of what remained of the ale, and looped up the points of
their short doublets, they finally made a bolt for the street. Although Tarpaulin rolled
twice into the fire-place, mistaking it for the door, yet their escape was at length happily
effected --and half after twelve o'clock found our heroes ripe for mischief, and running
for life down a dark alley in the direction of St. Andrew's Stair, hotly pursued by the
landlady of the "Jolly Tar."
At the epoch of this eventful tale, and periodically, for many years before and after, all
England, but more especially the metropolis, resounded with the fearful cry of "Plague!"
The city was in a great measure depopulated --and in those horrible regions, in the
vicinity of the Thames, where amid the dark, narrow, and filthy lanes and alleys, the
Demon of Disease was supposed to have had his nativity, Awe, Terror, and Superstition
were alone to be found stalking abroad.
By authority of the king such districts were placed under ban, and all persons forbidden,
under pain of death, to intrude upon their dismal solitude. Yet neither the mandate of the
monarch, nor the huge barriers erected at the entrances of the streets, nor the prospect of
that loathsome death which, with almost absolute certainty, overwhelmed the wretch
whom no peril could deter from the adventure, prevented the unfurnished and untenanted
dwellings from being stripped, by the hand of nightly rapine, of every article, such as
iron, brass, or lead-work, which could in any manner be turned to a profitable account.
Above all, it was usually found, upon the annual winter opening of the barriers, that
locks, bolts, and secret cellars, had proved but slender protection to those rich stores of
wines and liquors which, in consideration of the risk and trouble of removal, many of the
numerous dealers having shops in the neighbourhood had consented to trust, during the
period of exile, to so insufficient a security.
But there were very few of the terror-stricken people who attributed these doings to the
agency of human hands. Pest-spirits, plague-goblins, and fever-demons, were the popular
imps of mischief; and tales so blood-chilling were hourly told, that the whole mass of
forbidden buildings was, at length, enveloped in terror as in a shroud, and the plunderer
himself was often scared away by the horrors his own depreciations had created; leaving
the entire vast circuit of prohibited district to gloom, silence, pestilence, and death.
It was by one of the terrific barriers already mentioned, and which indicated the region
beyond to be under the Pest-ban, that, in scrambling down an alley, Legs and the worthy
Hugh Tarpaulin found their progress suddenly impeded. To return was out of the
question, and no time was to be lost, as their pursuers were close upon their heels. With
thorough-bred seamen to clamber up the roughly fashioned plank-work was a trifle; and,
maddened with the twofold excitement of exercise and liquor, they leaped unhesitatingly
down within the enclosure, and holding on their drunken course with shouts and yellings,
were soon bewildered in its noisome and intricate recesses.
Had they not, indeed, been intoxicated beyond moral sense, their reeling footsteps must
have been palsied by the horrors of their situation. The air was cold and misty. The
paving-stones, loosened from their beds, lay in wild disorder amid the tall, rank grass,
which sprang up around the feet and ankles. FAllan houses choked up the streets. The
most fetid and poisonous smells everywhere prevailed; --and by the aid of that ghastly
light which, even at midnight, never fails to emanate from a vapory and pestilential at
atmosphere, might be discerned lying in the by-paths and alleys, or rotting in the
windowless habitations, the carcass of many a nocturnal plunderer arrested by the hand of
the plague in the very perpetration of his robbery.
--But it lay not in the power of images, or sensations, or impediments such as these, to
stay the course of men who, naturally brave, and at that time especially, brimful of
courage and of "humming-stuff!" would have reeled, as straight as their condition might
have permitted, undauntedly into the very jaws of Death. Onward --still onward stalked
the grim Legs, making the desolate solemnity echo and re-echo with yells like the terrific
war-whoop of the Indian: and onward, still onward rolled the dumpy Tarpaulin, hanging
on to the doublet of his more active companion, and far surpassing the latter's most
strenuous exertions in the way of vocal music, by bull-roarings in basso, from the
profundity of his stentorian lungs.
They had now evidently reached the strong hold of the pestilence. Their way at every step
or plunge grew more noisome and more horrible --the paths more narrow and more
intricate. Huge stones and beams falling momently from the decaying roofs above them,
gave evidence, by their sullen and heavy descent, of the vast height of the surrounding
houses; and while actual exertion became necessary to force a passage through frequent
heaps of rubbish, it was by no means seldom that the hand fell upon a skeleton or rested
upon a more fleshly corpse.
Suddenly, as the seamen stumbled against the entrance of a tall and ghastly-looking
building, a yell more than usually shrill from the throat of the excited Legs, was replied to
from within, in a rapid succession of wild, laughter-like, and fiendish shrieks. Nothing
daunted at sounds which, of such a nature, at such a time, and in such a place, might have
curdled the very blood in hearts less irrevocably on fire, the drunken couple rushed
headlong against the door, burst it open, and staggered into the midst of things with a
volley of curses.
The room within which they found themselves proved to be the shop of an undertaker;
but an open trap-door, in a corner of the floor near the entrance, looked down upon a long
range of wine-cellars, whose depths the occasional sound of bursting bottles proclaimed
to be well stored with their appropriate contents. In the middle of the room stood a table -in the centre of which again arose a huge tub of what appeared to be punch. Bottles of
various wines and cordials, together with jugs, pitchers, and flagons of every shape and
quality, were scattered profusely upon the board. Around it, upon coffin-tressels, was
seated a company of six. This company I will endeavor to delineate one by one.
Fronting the entrance, and elevated a little above his companions, sat a personage who
appeared to be the president of the table. His stature was gaunt and tall, and Legs was
confounded to behold in him a figure more emaciated than himself. His face was as
yellow as saffron --but no feature excepting one alone, was sufficiently marked to merit a
particular description. This one consisted in a forehead so unusually and hideously lofty,
as to have the appearance of a bonnet or crown of flesh superadded upon the natural
head. His mouth was puckered and dimpled into an expression of ghastly affability, and
his eyes, as indeed the eyes of all at table, were glazed over with the fumes of
intoxication. This gentleman was clothed from head to foot in a richly-embroidered black
silk-velvet pall, wrapped negligently around his form after the fashion of a Spanish cloak.
--His head was stuck full of sable hearse-plumes, which he nodded to and fro with a
jaunty and knowing air; and, in his right hand, he held a huge human thigh-bone, with
which he appeared to have been just knocking down some member of the company for a
song.
Opposite him, and with her back to the door, was a lady of no whit the less extraordinary
character. Although quite as tall as the person just described, she had no right to complain
of his unnatural emaciation. She was evidently in the last stage of a dropsy; and her
figure resembled nearly that of the huge puncheon of October beer which stood, with the
head driven in, close by her side, in a corner of the chamber. Her face was exceedingly
round, red, and full; and the same peculiarity, or rather want of peculiarity, attached itself
to her countenance, which I before mentioned in the case of the president --that is to say,
only one feature of her face was sufficiently distinguished to need a separate
characterization: indeed the acute Tarpaulin immediately observed that the same remark
might have applied to each individual person of the party; every one of whom seemed to
possess a monopoly of some particular portion of physiognomy. With the lady in
question this portion proved to be the mouth. Commencing at the right ear, it swept with
a terrific chasm to the left --the short pendants which she wore in either auricle
continually bobbing into the aperture. She made, however, every exertion to keep her
mouth closed and look dignified, in a dress consisting of a newly starched and ironed
shroud coming up close under her chin, with a crimpled ruffle of cambric muslin.
At her right hand sat a diminutive young lady whom she appeared to patronise. This
delicate little creature, in the trembling of her wasted fingers, in the livid hue of her lips,
and in the slight hectic spot which tinged her otherwise leaden complexion, gave evident
indications of a galloping consumption. An air of gave extreme haut ton, however,
pervaded her whole appearance; she wore in a graceful and degage manner, a large and
beautiful winding-sheet of the finest India lawn; her hair hung in ringlets over her neck; a
soft smile played about her mouth; but her nose, extremely long, thin, sinuous, flexible
and pimpled, hung down far below her under lip, and in spite of the delicate manner in
which she now and then moved it to one side or the other with her tongue, gave to her
countenance a somewhat equivocal expression.
Over against her, and upon the left of the dropsical lady, was seated a little puffy,
wheezing, and gouty old man, whose cheeks reposed upon the shoulders of their owner,
like two huge bladders of Oporto wine. With his arms folded, and with one bandaged leg
deposited upon the table, he seemed to think himself entitled to some consideration. He
evidently prided himself much upon every inch of his personal appearance, but took more
especial delight in calling attention to his gaudy-colored surtout. This, to say the truth,
must have cost him no little money, and was made to fit him exceedingly well --being
fashioned from one of the curiously embroidered silken covers appertaining to those
glorious escutcheons which, in England and elsewhere, are customarily hung up, in some
conspicuous place, upon the dwellings of departed aristocracy.
Next to him, and at the right hand of the president, was a gentleman in long white hose
and cotton drawers. His frame shook, in a ridiculous manner, with a fit of what Tarpaulin
called "the horrors." His jaws, which had been newly shaved, were tightly tied up by a
bandage of muslin; and his arms being fastened in a similar way at the wrists, I I
prevented him from helping himself too freely to the liquors upon the table; a precaution
rendered necessary, in the opinion of Legs, by the peculiarly sottish and wine-bibbing
cast of his visage. A pair of prodigious ears, nevertheless, which it was no doubt found
impossible to confine, towered away into the atmosphere of the apartment, and were
occasionally pricked up i