254 43 18MB
German Pages 352 Year 1834
L.ETTE2RS
A
GENTLEMAN
IN
GERMANY,
WRITTEN AFTER
A TRIP FROM PHILADELPHIA TO NIAGARA.
EDITED BY
FRANCIS L.1EBER.
PHILADELPHIA:
CAREY. LEA & BLANCHARD. 1834.
h
-
'-
Entehkp, according
Lka &
liiANCHATiD, in
to the
tile
sylvania.
fiKlGfJS
&
CO.,
Act of Congress,
District
PHINTEUS.
Court for
in the year 1834,
tlie
by CareTi
Eastern District of Penn-
3 0^
/
WASHINGTON
IRVING, ESQ.
Sir,
In dedicating the following pages to you,
know
I
that I
have but acted in accordance with the view of the author, which in this case entirely coincides with so,
we meet your
wishes
is
my
own.
Whether,
another question: but
it
in doino-
seemed
formal, to ask your permission to dedicate so trifling a
work
so to
you, and this previous permission appears so decidedly to counteract the intended courtesy of a dedication, that I preferred to
grace this volume with your
in the
name without your consent obtained
However you may
beforehand.
work,
I
beg you to accept
differ its
from some opinions stated
dedication to you, as a token
of admiration, which the author and his editor feel for the pro-
ductions with which you have enriched the literature of two great nations.
meaning
The it
is
token,
I
am
aware,
is
very disproportionate to the
intended to convey, but
may
not even indistinct
characters express a glowing sentence? I
am, with great regard. Sir,
Your most obedient
servant,
Francis Lieber. Philadelphia, Nov. 1834.
A
—
LrETTERS,
LETTER So you wish me,
I.
deaf- friend, to
write a whole " se-
Why, you seem to have studied with the whom " begging boldly " is constitution-
ries of letters."
Franciscans, with al.
my
&c.
" Vadatis pro eleemosyna confidenier^^* says their
founder and saint in the constitution of the order.
And
On
give
on what
me
shall I write?
the United States?
a subject as vast as their territory, and surely
wish a
series of letters
and heavy
as a novel
You
you do not
running through six volumes
ofold
would be quite out of
!
as big
Besides a book of that size
season.
Nowadays every
thing,
even commentaries on a code, must be twelve-moed out
Nay,
the public.
many, may
I
this
pie.
to
too troublesome for
They
say for most, people?
tellectual dishes to
per
diminutive size
is
require their in-
be chopped and minced into a newspa-
" Sir," said an old and thoroughly experienced
editor lately to me, " an article, calculated for being read,
ought never to exceed haif a column," and he knows the palate of the public as well as
market.
Were
I
in the
to write a history of
tion, I should follow the
*
any man
fruit
modern civilizarule, by making
most philosophical
" Go and beg boldly."
meat or
Editoh,
10
(
)
division into periods according to striking manifesta-
my
tions of powerful and characteristic principles.
would
I
call one of the great divisions the period of folios; the time
when bury
controversialists
more poisonous arrow to opponent, than to remind him that
knew
in the heart of their
of no
he had written but a quarto! See D'Israeli's Curiosities, where he speaks of Nominalists. This huge folio age might go down to Cartesius or thereabouts.* Whatever was the subject, folio
was the
half of the
first
Next
is
the epoch of
—small and
single leaves,
requisite form.
quartos and the dawn ofnewspapers
page occupied by a quaint
The discovery
phantastically ornamented.
title
of a
in letters
new world
and the news of all the wonders successively appearing to the European there, were given to astounded mankind in " flying leaves,"t not so large little diminutive sheets, true as
now
the smallest handbill which informs you of a poc-
ket having been picked or a colt having leaped the fence. Next, comes the period of octavos; newspapers grow rapidly, so does the quantity of books.
succeeded by the
It is
age of twelve-mos (as the booksellers classically
call
duodeci-
• Though our author seems to take the whole in joke, there is much scope for reflection in his remark; and not only is the size of books characteristic of an age, but also, and, perhaps in a still greater degree, their price.
But a few centuries ago, a breviary would be
equivalent for
all
the other personal property,
At
bequeathed to another.
present,
dias, Gazetteers, &c., accessible
on the one gor
on
one heir as an
we have Penny
Magazines, Cyclopse-
by the meanest. Knowledge, whilst soaring,
haixl, to the highest regions,
in all dh-ections, has,
left to
even of considerable value,
tlie
and expanding with increasing
vi-
other hand, followed the general tendency
o^ our age, th&t o? popularization, while, at first, it greatly co-operated in It is of no use to speak of •' penny literature " with the bringing it about. sneer of learned aristocracy.
The cheap
catechisms which contain the sim-
" penplest and most important principles of Christianity, belong to the ny literature;" and complaints, too, were raised in early times against the Christian religion, on account of its having no mystery for an initiated few.
Editor.
itoh
.
expressions used in f Sal and sakro (salt and salt-cellar) are very common Andalusia with reference to beauty and endearment, thongh the author deviates
somewhat from the Spanish use, which generally employs tliese strange Sakro del alma,
expressions as terms of endearment between the two sexes. salt-cellar
she ;ire
is
of
very
my
salt,
soul,
tknt mucha
sal,
she has
salado y vaknion del alma,
frequently used.
— F.niTon.
salt
much one
salt, es
:ind
muy salada, my soul,
hero of
—
92
(
)
whom I
might mention yet a whole list of deviations from the But we do not only meet in reality with persons who
rule.
in plain prose the creations of the poet;
would be considered
you of many events and occurrences which have happened, as I myself know, in real life, and yet would not be tolerated in a novel, merely on account of their esI could tell
sential improbability, or impossibility, perhaps, as the critic
would have and yet
Like
it.
mountains
Italian
were
so purely blue, that,
them, they might be considered
a
as
at a distance, so
dark
landscape painter to copy
belonging
to the
scenery
of a land of visions. I
found
my friend
pensive and sad
does not often indulge; but reason of his melanclioly, that he had
A
humor
that
in
which he of the
could not but agree with
him
it.
friend of his had lately arrived from the
West
Indies
whose beauty was enhanced most melancholy charm, which told that Death had
with his
by
a
when he imformed me
I
good cause for
—
sister, a
lovely girl, but
entered in his book of record, opposite her name, the fearful
word
The
Consumption.
spotless teeth, such as
we
transparent whiteness of her
observe only in those, whose
veins have drunk of the poison of that disease, the deep
crimson of her ful
lips,
the brilliant lustre of her eyes, that fear-
ornament peculiar
to
the victims of this fever,
mocking
paints with delicate vermilion the
which
flush, as if in
scorn of health; the pallid cheek, fanned and softened by the wings of inexorable Death,
seems
to
shower
crifices, as
if to
all
who
hovers around and
bloom and charm upon his youthful
say to those
their beauty, and such
my
who
power
to
sa-
remain, " Behold, such
destroy:"
—
ah,
every
thing about this Spanish girl sufficiently proved that there
was no hope in human skill, and that her noble figure, of which nature might have been proud, and her dark and luxthat all these features beaming with kinduriant tresses,
—
ness and intense attachment to her afllicted brother, the last
and only kinsman
left her,
and that her heart, which never
yet had beaten but in purest innocence, would soon be laid
93
(
)
narrow shrine and become
into the
servants of Death.
and never had
saw
1
a
prey
loathsome
to the
and
this lonely
afflicted couple,
beheld a more affecting picture of silent
I
grief and of despairing love; she had his hand in hers, her
eyes fixed upon
very comfort she wished in
of speaking of their ap-
his, as if desirous
proaching separation, but fearful
to pierce his heart
to give
make
himself to belie his fears and griefs, and to
knew
countenance speak of hopes his heavy heart all this in a
not.
his
And
distant country, far from their friends, their sky,
and native tongue!
A
woman
I
know, did
I
by the
him; he struggling with-
my
intwined with
lady,
not
life,
whom
know
would
I
call
the kindest
whose kindness
the one
is
had visited her, indeed, as often as
her sufferings would permit her to see any one besides
her brother.
It
kind be-
true, that the looks of that
is
ing must soon have told the sufferer that joy and grief
quicken the steps of friendship; yet
this friend
had not
been a companion of her youth, she was not a friend of her friends; her appearance
was not
a record
which
told of a
thousand pleasures enjoyed together, a thousand griefs suffered in faithful companionship. is
That balm of friendship
but slowly collected by single drops on a long journey
through
The
life.
physicians had advised the patient to proceed forth-
with to Havre
She was
my
morning, and
to go with her brother the next
friend had had the painful foresight to
ask the latter whether he was prepared to lose his sister
"
on the passage.
"she
will
tinued
my
I
fear," said he, with moistened eyes,
"Then," con-
never see the shores of France." friend, "
you are
to consider
which you prefer
in
case of death, to hand her over to the deep, or to have her
buried on shore."
"
I
tremble at the idea of parting with
" If this be the case,
her on sea."
my
friend, I shall be
obliged to send a cask of spirits on board." so," he
sobbed, overwhelmed
thoughts.
—
Now,
I
at
all
wish Sterne had described
there
is
the it
something heart-rending
"
Do
so,
do
horror of his
to you.
in the idea of sail-
94
(
)
ing on the lonely track of the wide ocean, in that awful
—vastness above
si-
—
you and vastness beneath with the body, yet nothing but the body of a being you love, and love beyond every other human one, close by you. Even the lence
idea of an easy posture in the coffin has something soothing
compared
The human mind abhors being
to this.
obliged
connect the idea of the narrow, the ugly, and especially
to
of that, which, in any other case, would cause the opposite
who have departed from this I know well, upon feel-
to grief, with the beloved
world.
Things of
this
To some,
ing alone.
kind depend,
grave, there to be devoured
the deep,
United
life,
descend into the watery
by the
ill-shaped inhabitants of
horrid.
is
knew when she I
body
the idea of seeing the shrouded
of a once dear companion in
who
a lady lost
me
told
once the story of her
grief,
her husband on a passage from Brazil to the
States, a
few days
after
they had set
sail,
and could
not persuade herself to part with his body, but rather chose
keep
to
it
near her for more than two months, in the
that bodies are preserved on sea.
When
way
asked, " and j'ou
I
did not prefer to let the ocean receive it?" she uttered,
with a shuddering and trembling voice, pressing her hands against her face:
"Ah! and
My feeling on
—a
fishes
gnaw upon!"* The burial
this point is different.
service
community, under the vastest dome of heaven's canopy, surrounded by the unbounded ocean which on the sea
is to
floating
receive the remains of a departed friend, and soon
ingulph those
who
ly regard, should
—
He
that
pest
this faithful picture of
has in
it
know and
for
it is
our whole course through
me, something sublime.
the spot
where our friends
rest
We
*
life,
love, indeed, to
from the
toils
of
life,
soothing to go unseen to their graves, to plant a
flower on the turf beneath which they slumber; but Shakspeaie
est joy
may
him the last tribute of earthbade him die, call up the tem-
are paying
will
and deepest
put his words into our mouths
grief;
in
if this
moments of the great-
he penetrates so intimately our
comes our spokesman, and we quote him unconsciously.
souls, that
— Ein'mu.
he be-
(
can only be obtained by
which reminds you of things, I let the
me
)
placing the body in a liquid
first
a thousand prosaic and contrasting
would much prefer the
burial on the waves,
heaving billows close for ever over him, from
the breath of to
95
life
has
There
fled.
is
and
whom
something elevating
in the contemplation, that thus matter returns to
matter in this wide element; that death has given sustenance to life according to the eternal laws
mencement of with those
who
all
which regulate the ever-
Maker willed them from the comthings. Though the same takes place
changing substance, as
its
sleep in the
bosom of the earth, I think more grandeur to
that that great truth presents itself with
our mind,
when we contemplate
unbroken element which
rolls
nant with a thousand germs of I
never can forget what
this dissolution in the vast,
from pole life in
I felt
to pole,
and
is
preg-
every drop.
when
I
came
to the
end of
Southey's Life of Nelson, where the hero terminates his career in a barrel of rum.
(
96
)
LETTER
Few
things in
life, it
seems
to
VI.
me, can dispose us
to feel
more sad than the looking over of old letters, and yet all
the interest of a sad story,
all
the painful
How,
events related in a vivid style.
our
life
passes before our inward eye!
a hand that
now
is
cold and
once so dearly loved to you; the date of
stiff;
letters,
has
tragic
moments, Here some lines of in such
there the characters
to contemplate, but
some
charm of
it
you
no longer directed
the buoyant style, and jokes,
and puns of others; the blots of burning tears in one; the yellow paper, cut and smoked by the precautious quarantine; the large capitals of a childish correspondent; the brief
but happy
official
information that your petition at length
has been granted ; a colored and embossed note, whose three or four lines remind you of a world of enjoyment; a tattered letter crossed
and crammed; a note written by a
fair
hand,
and which once accompanied some choice wine, when you were sick in a foreign country; a letter from your old teacher with Greek and Latin quotations; the happy writing of your parents, traced by a hand trembling with joy, after
they had learned that a great
were a
still
man
battle
had been fought and you
alive; the unsolicited praise of
of distinguished authority,
who
your own work by
thus begins his cor-
respondence; the malevolent misrepresentation of your best intentions; the joyous information that your election
is
ing on swimmingly—represented in such documents
golies
—
97
(
the history of your it
life
)
around you
—ruins and
which
ashes,
requires courage to contemplate, a strong resolution to
view without
a bleeding heart; while pain retains its sting,
joy almost turns to
grief, since ruthless
time has written un-
der most of these messengers of pleasure
And fect us,
—" past and gone."
our correspondence of elapsed years can thus
if
we
with what feelings do
not lay
down
af-
an old journal
of ours, not a book of lying sentiments, but a brief and true
Why can
record of names, dates, events and facts?
my journal
ly ever take up
of
Rome
are the faint characters I wrote in Greece with
Why
gun-powder, so sadly dear to me?
my
the tattered leaves, which recall to field,
with
life is
in such
moments
looked again
I
—but
was
my
my left side?
Time
has trod
you ever copy-books? I have a I
had
to write in
religious instruction preceding confirma-
useless to dwell
it is
not look at
—Have
book containing the compositions, which the course of
Why
wine and
spread out before us
strides.
one of your earliest
at
I
hard-
mind Waterloo's
withered blossoms, over which
all its
with his hasty and destroying
tion*
can
without feeling something heavy here at
Because human
I
without sadness?
upon these
led to this introduction to
my
things.
epistle,
from
my
be-
York, in the course of my letters to you, that seven years ago I arrived there on the same day,
ing reminded in
and put
my
foot
ball prostrated
reflective;
I
New
on land
me.
in
the same hour, that in 1815 a
This coincidence made
sought the
field,
and
at
me
at the
Wiehawk, on
perpendicularly above the Hudson, from which
view over the whole I
remembered
•
sat
I
had a
city and the bay, the river and the
down and mused.
country, terloo, I
time
a point
that
Thus reminded
of
Wa-
some time ago you asked me
to
The German Protestants, who consider confirmation as the voluntaryrevow which others made for the infant at the font of baptism,
petition of the
allow no person to be confirmed without previous and regular instruction in
our religion and a public examination, which proves the fitness of being admitted to confirmation.
ment exacts
Lutherans and Calvinists do
this instruction.
Editor.
13
this alike,
and govern-
98
(
)
give you a sketch of my adventures in that battle; I determined to comply with your wish, and searched among my papers for a copy, which my mother gave me once, of my
own for,
the
letter,
days of
first
battle.
I
I
was able
to write after the eventful
did not succeed in finding what I looked
but will, nevertheless, give you a sketch of what you
Do
desire.
not expect a kind of memoirs;
I
played too
humble a part in the chorusses of that great drama, though Nor a French sergeant has, I see, published his memoirs. must you even expect a monography. It will be but a very brief sketch, of some little interest perhaps, in as
much
as
we
love to observe
how a
great and
memorable era
has affected a single individual; of what particular elements that
which we know only
was made up; and
we know
in as
as a great historical
much
as
that
be true, when, as a
to
would be void and wanting of
may
fictitious
all
phenomenon
interest,
which
composition,
salient points.
I
it
wish
some Egyptian had noted every evening during one whole year, on his imperishable papyrus, every thing he had done
during the day.
now, had
would be
a
document of no mean value
his occupation been but the superintending of
men engaged But,
It
if I
in building a
thus
tell
you
pyramid, or digging a
a plain, true story,
you must not be
surprised to find strange contrasts, the most
ludicrously placed Life,
by the
some
canal.
common
thing
side of the noblest or gravest.
you know well, does not
select
and
classify,
does not
by gradual transitions, but seems to delight is much like the index of an encyclopedia, where Locke follows Lobster, where Lace precedes Lacepresent things in contrasts,
and
dsemon, and Shakers speare.
in the capital of a altar,
is
the neighboring article to
It places, like the old architects, a
grinning
column, which supports the canopy of an
or covers the walls of the
room where
Jefierson
the Declaration of Independence, with scenes of ote's
life.""
Shak-
monkey
Perhaps the very
spot,
drew up
Don Quix-
on which he fastened his
• Room No. 2, in the Indian Queen in Philadelphia, in which Jefferson dw elt during the memorable Congress, is universally believed to be the room
—
—
99
(
eye when meditating
now
ment,
how he
)
should word that great instru-
We
represents Sancho tossed like a fox.
To
with contrasts every where.
meet
the version of the bible used
by the freest nation of Europe, continues to be prefixed an address to one of England's most obnoxious kings, drawn up in terms of offensive flattery; whilst the sect,
which takes
name from
its
women
of the very
meekness, are
its
sufficient-
Does not the gay
ly bold to speak in their public meetings.
riband of fashion almost touch the gravestone which looks
from the churchyard into Broadway?
Lyon found
Captain
the nest of a snow-bunting built on the breast of a dead in-
and Domitian was brother
fant,*
pasian, and Charles the Fifth's
to Titus
own
and a son of Ves-
sister professed Protes-
tantism.
" Boys, clean your ther, entering
my
Anatomical Tables; "
"He
He
is
for a
old and venerable fa-
was just studying Loder's
I
loose again."
has returned from Elba."
was glorious news
my
rifles," said
room, where
—My
—" Napoleon?"
heart beat high;
boy of sixteen, who had
it
often heard
with silent envy the account of the campaigns of 1813 and -14 from the lips of his two brothers, both of whom had marched in 1813, in common with most young men of good families, as volunteer riflemen,
and returned
as
wounded
officers.
The
one, cured of his wounds, rejoined his regiment; an-
other of
ment
my brothers and myself followed the call of govern-
to enter the
army
as volunteers, though our age
have exempted us from should
we
choose?
all
would
Which regiment
obligation.
Of course one which was garrisoned
near the enemy's frontier, so that
we were
sure not to have
where he drew up the Declaration of Independence, and is shown as such to yet Mr. Jefferson himself, in a letter to Dr. Mease of Philadelphia,
visiters;
states, that
he wrote
that instrument in the
second story of the house
south-west corner of Market and Seventh Streets. It
was
high. *
at that time a
He
two or three story building, but
it is
now
four stories
— EniTon.
In his Narrative of an
Attempt
to reach
at the
then boarded there.
Repulse Bay.
Editob.
—
100
(
campaign
a peaceable
ment among
)
There was
in a distant reserve.
a regi-
the troops near the frontiers of France which
enjoyed a peculiarly high and just reputation;
its
name was
Colberg, bestowed upon the brave band in honor of liant
the only Prussian fortified place
at that
did not surrender to the French.
It
and sturdy Pomeranians,
wretched time which
was composed of brave
a short, broad-shouldered, healthy
In more than twenty "ranged" engagements during
race.
the campaign of —13 and -14, had they
worthy of
their honorable
My
name.
When
selected this regiment.
to
said,
"Well
then,
your mother," he
were
we
go;
With
is it
we?"
She
went
much during
a half-choked voice I said, "
rolled, shall
we went
to
my
father
with your consent?"
We
replied.
big; she had suffered so
shown themselves
brother and myself
the day appointed for the
enlistment of the volunteers arrived,
and
va-
its
defence of the fortress of Colberg, in the year 1806
to her;
our hearts
the
campaign.
first
Mother, we go
to be en-
into our arms, that noble
fell
"Go
wo-
man, worthy of the best times of Rome, and sobbed aloud. *'Go," was
all
her bleeding heart allowed her to utter; and
had she been the mother of twenty sons, she would have fient
them
all.
A
table
was placed in the centre of a square in the city of which several officers were enlisting those who
Berlin, at
offered themselves.
before
we
We
had to wait from ten to one o'clock
could get a chance to have our names taken down;
the throng was so great.
In the beginning of the month of
from Berlin
to
and brothers were calm when
May, we were marched
My
our regiments.
we
mother,
my
sisters,
took leave; tears would
burst out of their burning eyes, which had wept the live-
long night; but they did parting too painful to us. the place of rendezvous. lines,
we looked
for
stolen himself away.
all
they could not to make the
My
father
When
him, to take the
A
great
accompanied us
to
the bugle called us to the
many
last leave;
he had
people accompanied
us out of the city; the beautiful Brandenburg gate was soon
—
101
(
behind us; that
it
we began
looked but forward, happy
I
my lot to carry arms in defence of my country.
was yet
On
to sing.
)
the 16th
we
With all the feelGerman of the north will noble and classical river, when he sees it passed the Rhine.
ings of veneration with which a
ever regard that
for the first time,
was mixed
patriotism such as )^ou
in our breasts a
may expect
to find
glowing of
only in one whose
had fallen in that exciting time. On the we May passed in review before Prince Bliicher, in Namur. On the 26th we marched to a village called Voistin,
morning of
life
25th of
and were incorporated with our regiment.
Its colonel re-
ceived us with a calmness which almost bordered on cold-
was always
ness; he
so.
In the most trying moments, or
when
the cry of victory was raised after a long and doubtful struggle, his face
Our men called him Old him for his justice and bravery, and men. Every man of the army or navy will
betrayed no emotion.
Iron, yet they loved his love of his
understand me.
On
the second of June
we had
our
first
regiment, and the colonel declared that
parade with the
we had
ing of old soldiers; he was satisfied with us.* to be tried.
I
saw on that day,
man who was sergeant in our herself so much that she could gown, when, another
girl
longed
for the first time, the
wo-
regiment, and distinguished boast of three orders on her
after the peace, she
another sergeant.
the bear-
We
was married,
in Berlin, to
In a second regiment of our brigade was
serving as soldier; but she was very different
from our sergeant; her sex was discovered by mere accident; she had marched instead of her brother, that he might sup-
Y6u probably
port their aged parents.
and the
recollect Pochasca,
who followed her lover to the army, fought by was known to nobody but him, was wounded and
girl
his side,
discovered herself only just before she breathed her the Berlin hospital, •
The
—
infantry volunteers,
who were
panies, called detachments, one of
giment, according' to the number
Editor.
last in
to the Princess William. all
riflemen, formed separate com-
which was added
who had
to each battalion or re-
enrolled for a certain regiment.
102
(
We marched to On
the 9th
we
)
Longueville, seven leagues from Brussels.
received lead to cast our
balls,
the
being
rifles
of different calibre, as each volunteer had equipped himself. It is
man
one of the most peculiar situations a
mind can be
in,
when he
of reflecting
casts his balls for battles near at
hand.
In the evening
whom
was lying with two comrades, one of
I
was a Jew,
in a hay-loft; the crazy roof allowed us to
We spoke of home. "My father," said
see the brilliant stars.
the one, " told
me
he was sure he would not see
me
again,
though he never attempted to keep me back," and, added he, " I feel as if I should fall." A ball entered his forehead in the
first battle,
the Jew, said, "
and killed him on the
Nobody
has told
lieve I shall remain on the field." battle of
throat.
spot.
—
home, though with
a scratched skin."
the whole night.
ground, on which
We marched the whole day and
In the morning
the battle-field of Ligny;
we
we
arrived not far from
Before us was a rising
halted.
we saw innumerable
troops ascending
the plain with flying colors, and music playing. a sight a soldier loves to look
Napoleon, that the earth seemed
I
at.
to
soldiers
played
at cards
belong to these
Orders for charging were given;
more and more.
carried cards in their knapsacks
them away, believing
that they bring bad luck.
and carried none, but
timid superstition disgusted
me
made
this
so, that I
up a pack and put it in my knapsack. consisted of very young men, nearly patient for battle, and
was
cannot say, with
the pressure of the coming battle was felt
who
It
be proud to carry so
to
we were proud
brave men, but
brave and calm masses.
Some
Thus,
fulfilled.
the morning of the 15th the general was beaten; hostili-
had begun on the 14th.
many
be-
the
Ligny, before he had fired a shot a ball cutting his " And I," said I, " shall be brushed, but, I think,
shall return
On
second,
me of my death, yet I He fell at my side, in
strangely every prophecy of that night was
ties
The
I
threw
had never
poor instance of purposely picked
Our whole company who were im-
all lads,
a thousand questions in their
—
103
(
)
who
excited state to the old, well-seasoned sergeant-major,
had been given ble calmness,
to us
from the regiment.
which neither betrayed
fear nor excited cou-
amused us much. plain, and by one
rage, but took the battle like a drilling,
We
now marched
His imperturba-
up the sloping
again,
Our
o'clock, in the afternoon, arrived on the battle-ground.
destiny was
first
a trying reserve; the enemy's brass played
hard upon us; shell shots
men I
around us and took several
fell
We were commanded to lie down;
out of our column.
piqued myself on not making any motion when
shells
were
one of their
He
lin.
he
fall,
officers
rode up to
he would do
He
soon after
the
fire,
when our
had been a near neighbor to us in Ber-
me as
me to write home should me should I be shot down.
and asked
much
We
fell.
balls or
Behind us stood some cavalry;
flying over us.
for
longed most heartily to be led into
officer, a well-tried soldier, for
own
yet exercised our right of electing our
we had
officers, as
of us had sufficient experience, spoke these few words: " friends, fire;
it is
you are
tried at once
you upon your conduct.
by the severest
Look
shall not find yourselves
up
My
easier to fight than to stand inactive exposed to test,
me, and
at
show then
that
My honor depends
can be calm as the oldest soldiers.
two
not
none
I
promise you, you
At
mistaken."
length, at about
o'clock, an aide of the general of our brigade galloped
to our
column, and said to the colonel: " Your column
must throw the enemy out of the
left
wing of the
village."'
Presently the colonel rode up to us and said, " Riflemen, you are young,!
am afraid too ardent;
calmness makes the soldier,
hold yourselves in order;" then he turned round: "March
and the
dull, half-sufibcated
drum, from within the deep
lumn, was heard beating such delicious music.
was
all to
be realized for which
suffered so
many
fatigues,
The
signal
out to the right and
Our ardor now
we
we were
was given
left
had
left
Now,
co'-
at last,
our homes, had
had so ardently longed
bugle gave the signal of halt; of Ligny.
!"
for.
The
in front of the village
for the riflemen to
march
of the column, and to attack.
led us entirely
beyond the proper
limits; the
—
104
(
section to
which
the enemy,
I
who
)
belonged ran madly, without
My
retreated.
hindman*
toward
firing,
fell;
rushed
I
on, hearing well but not heeding the urgent calls of our old
The
sergeant.
village
was intersected with thick hedges, fired upon us, but we
from behind which the grenadiers drove them from one to the other.
and what
to fire
ought
I
I,
forgetting altogether
have done, tore the red plume
to
from one of the grenadiers bear-caps, and swung
it
over
my
head, calling triumphantly to
we
arrived at a road crossing the village lengthwise, and the
my comrades.
now succeeded
sergeant-major had
At
length
in his attempt to bring us
somewhat back to our reason. There was a house around the corner of which he suspected that a number of French lay. "
Be
cautious," said he to me, " until the others are up," but
I stepped round and a grenadier stood about fifteen paces
from me; he aimed well,
my boy,"
at
me,
ing.
fell; I
found
my
I
Several times
I
was
face;
good sound
really a
regiment had ever fought,
rough
as
I
was
battle, to
delighted.
or, in fact,
I
observed a hog and a child both equally be-
omit observing contrasts,
young ones and
I
member, made me
• Riflemen,
when who
I
in the
striving to protect
A
never can
them
in this
degree of vanity,
beginning of the
thought that a man's
life
battle, feel
I re-
very
depended upon
attack as tirailleurs and never shoot without aiming, are
placed two by two together.
These couples
whilst the other aims, and vice versa.
the other liind-man.
I
noticed a bird anxiously flying
tremendous uproar and carnage. important,
any
All I had feared
should not have the honor of assisting in a tho-
battle.
its
ask
and when
Dennewitz, one of the most
wildered; they must have soon been killed, and as
about
he was dy-
battle,
sanguinary engagements in which our regiment
I
My
shot ever fired in battle.
they told me, as heavy a one
was, that
Aim
hair on the right side; I shot
approached old soldiers in the
this
"
who saw me.
had shot through his
my first
This was
them whether
my rifle at him.
said the sergeant-major,
antagonist's ball grazed
and he
I levelled
Editor.
assist
each other, one charges
One of them
is
called tlie fore-man,
—
105
(
my
)
After about an hour,
trigger.
got the proper
Irempe*
vering a well,
I felt
was calmed down, and
I
a parchuig
tliirst,
and disco-
took a canteen from the knapsack of a
I
dead soldier, contrived
to fasten it
by thongs obtained
in a
drew up some water. A captain, seeing me, partook of it, and made some remarks about my calmness, which made me feel proud. It happened where the fire was briskest. But I cannot tell you all the similar way, to a pole, and
—
details of the fight,
bloody and so long as that of Ligny;
battle, so
of
my
and what a soldier personally does
friends I have seen falling dead or
me, how desperately we
wounded around
fought on both sides for the pos-
session of the village; and
three times renewed, while
how the troops against us were we received no succour. Suf-
fice it to say, that the battle lasted in all its
The
in a
how many
vigor until dark.
was four times taken and retaken; the last time we had to march in a hollow way, which leads across the centre of the place, and where the struggle had been the village
hottest
all
the afternoon.
Three or four layers of dead and
living, men and horses, impeded the progress of the soldiers, who were obliged to wade in the blood of their comrades,
or to trample upon wounded enemies, imploring them give some assistance, but to
whom
This
turn a deaf ear, whatever might be their feelings. last
attempt to regain the village,
to-
they were obliged to
when
I
was
called
upon
to
getting a cannon over the mangled bodies of com-
assist in
rades or enemies, leaping in agony
when
the heavy wheel
crossed over them, has impressed itself with indelible horror
upon
my
mind.
I
might give you
seen in no picture of a carnage,* painted; but
All I
my
details such as 3'ou
by whatever master
have
it
was
why?
ammunition was exhausted except one
ball,
which
was anxious to save, should any cavalrist attempt to sabre
me. so I
It
was impossible
was obliged,
for •
for
me
to get
new ammunition, and
more than an hour, Temper of steel.
14
to be present at the
Editor.
—
106
(
fire as a
mere
spectator.
)
would not have gone back on
I
any account, though the commander of our company once advised
me
do
to
In the course of the battle, one of
so.
my
friends had, in the heat of the engagement, put his ball into
before the powder.
It is
things that can happen to a
young
the
rifle
one of the most painful soldier.
There
is
a kind
of stigma or suspicion attached to this mishap; besides,
who
likes to leave the battle?
and get the
Yet I advised him
ball extracted.
with a stick," he exclaimed.
He
balls until
he
I
fell.
now
the enemy's
fired
tried to do the same, but
guns enough were strewed on the ground,
I
though
found no car-
box with ammunition.
tridge
Toward evening more;
more and was impossible; our troops were became dark; the bugle blew to
the cavalry began to press us
to regain the village
thinned to the utmost; retreat,
The
go back
then took the gun and am-
munition from a dead Frenchman, and
own
to
" I'd rather fight the whole day
when
signal
it
horse grenadiers approached to charge us.
was given
to
form heaps.^
It
was now, when
men began for the first time to show The colonel observed it by the irregular beat of the gun, when he commanded " Ready." But as if he were on the drilling place, he said, "Your beat is bad; have we drilled so long for nothing? down with your guns; now, 'Ready;'" and every man was calm again. Treat retreating, that our
uneasiness.
good soldiers
soldier-like,
and good
sailors sailor-like,
and
you may always depend upon them. The cavalry charged, but we received them according to the rule, " No firing until
you see the white of their eyes;" and they were reMy brother had been wounded in the foot and was
pelled.
obliged to ride the night through on the pointed cover of
•
Infantry forms, at the approach of cavalry, regular squares; but,
when
troops are so thinned and dispersed as the regiment Colberg- was toward the
end of
this battle, or,
when
the attack of cavalry
is
too sudden and unex-
pected to admit of their regular formation, mere heaps
ai'e
formed; that
the infantry run together and imitate a squai'e as well as they can.
Editor.
is,
107
(
He
an ammunition car.
uncomfortable ride of
it,
)
assured
me
which
willingly believe.
I
afterwards he had an
Of our whole company, which, on entering the engagement, mustered about 150 strong, not more than from twenty to thirty combattans remained. The old soldiers of our regi-
ment
treated us ever after this battle with signal regard,
while, before
We
boys.
it,
tempted twice
by
to
enemy.
the
they had looked upon us rather as beardless
marched
all
night.
On
we
the seventeenth
at-
go to bivouac, but were twice disturbed
we made
Suffering greatly from hunger,
a
meal of raw pork, having met with a hog.
Toward evening
I
was sent with some others
to get
what-
ever might be obtained in the shape of victuals, from the sur-
rounding
villages. It
we
of every thing,
was
a sad charge
found a young
the side of her father,
who had been
by some marauding enemies.
we had
bread;
none.
!
We
In one house, stripped
woman with
She asked us
We received this
by
for a piece of
gave her some potatoes which
had just found, but she said she had nothing with.
an infant,
beaten and wounded
to
we
cook them
day the order of the army,
which
in
Bliicher spoke in high terms of the conduct of the infantry
during the battle; our regiment was singled out by name.
We marched rents;
a great part of the night.
Rain
fell in tor-
had rained the whole of the 17th; the roads were
it
Early in the morning of the 18th we found part
very bad.
of our regiment from which
we had been
separated.
It
was
a touching scene, to see the soldiers rushing to each other, to find ing.
no
comrades
We
rest.
passed the against a
had believed
to be
dead or miss-
quiet,
enough
began early on the 18th our march.
marshal, wrapped up in a cloak
hill,
a delight to
"Be
whom wc
Our men were exhausted, but old Bliicher allowed us
As we
and leaning
it was always " Old one," as he was called.
our soldiers began to hurrah, for
them
my
to see the
lads," said he;
after the victory is
"hold your tongues; time
gained."
He
issued this
morn-
ing his famous order, which ended by assuring our that he
would prove the
possibility of beating
two days
army after
108
(
)
a retreat, and, with inferior numbers; and
which concluded
with the words, ^'We shall conquer because
we must
con-
quer."
We
entered the battle with Bliicher in the afternoon:
you know the history of been again our
It had memorable day. for some time, in
this
lot to stand,
unengaged
we saw some
sight of the battle;
brilliant
stood the huzzars,
charges of our
Not
cavalry putting to rout French squares.
from us
far
commanded by Colonel Colomb. An
came with the order
vance!" called the colonel,
aide
" Volunteers, ad-
to charge a square.
— intending form the body — when the whole regiment, to
as
for the attack of volunteers,
by magic, advanced some steps. He was obliged to order Numerous wounded a company in the common way. Marshal Bliipassed by us while we stood there inactive. cher rode by, and when he observed our uniform, said, "Ah, my Colberger, wait, wait a moment, I'll give you presently if
something
We
do."
to
suffered dreadfully
from the cravings of hunger.
I
found a peasant in the cellar of a house near the road, and threatened to shoot him instantly unless he gave us bread.
He
assured us he had none.
him, while
I
would seem
ys a small
loaf.
palate are,
who
Let
a
No
my
told
I
to prepare to shoot
comrade
to hold
him; he brought
one knows what the enjoyments of the
has not really suffered from hunger or
thirst.
shipwrecked man, who floated for many days with the
scantiest supply of water, tical sun, tell lie felt,
under the scorching rays of
you what he
when,
suffered,
a ver-
and describe to you what
time again, he could quaff the de-
for the first
licious crystal liquid, without the jealous eyes of his fellow sufferers fixed
upon him, counting with the envy of
a
maniac
moments we
receive
an enjoyment, which ever
after gives us a different
view of
the senses through which
we
each draught he takes.
It is in
such
obtained
it.
pear to us in their true light, sanctified by
They then all
tance and necessity in the great world of creation see
how
ap-
their impor;
we
their subtle organization forms a powerful
then
means
(
109
)
of connecting scattered elements, and our inmost soul perceives that they, too, are the gifts of a great God. It
was heart-rending
to halt, as
we
did in the evening, on
Fires were lighted,
the field of battle after such blood-shed.
wounded might creep
that the
in,
for march,
and
when
anxiety was great
in attracting the attention of
delivered
me
my
from
hearty laugh at
The
heard the signal
found
I
I
could
It
up a tremendous shouting, and
I set
ed
my
found a hen-
I I
was perfectly dark; I groped about, but, to At last discomfiture, I found no way of escape.
not get out. utter
them.
and the door shut after me;
house, got
my
to
my
after
awhile succeed-
some of our regiment, who
unpleasant situation, and enjoyed a
expense.
body of the Prussian and English armies marched toward Paris; but half of our army corps, to which great
I belonged, received orders to pursue
thrown himself upon Namur.
We
Vandamme, who had
marched the whole of
the 19th; the heat was excessive, and our exhaustion and
two men of our regiment became de-
thirst so great, that
We
ranged in consequence.
ture
chewed
by the wheels of the cannons.
made
No
clay, over
which the
had marched, and thus had pressed out
artillery
the attempt soldier
is
through a place,
—but
I
my
In
to step
mois-
could not.
allowed by the regulations,
wells on the road; but
its
despair I even
when marching
out of the ranks or to drink from
when we marched
in the course of this
day through Gemblours, where the people had placed large tubs before their doors,
filled
with water,
them some drank
officers
and privates
Such was the impression then made upon me by the consuming thirst, that, for a long time after, I was unable to see liquid
fell
pellmell upon
;
their last draught.
of any kind, without feeling an intense desire to swallow
though
I
might not
in the afternoon
and now
at the
we went
my strength
time
feel thirsty.
to bivouac;
forsook me.
I
the troops, and began to lag behind; feeling to me, but
I
we
it,
At four o'clock
started early again,
could not keep up with it
was
could not do otherwise.
a
most painful I
tried to get
(
hold of a cannon: an
even
to take
permit
me
)
artillerist, pitying
my appearance, wished
on the cannon, but his
Suddenly,
it.
the battle of
110
at
Namur had
about noon,
begun.
I
would not
officer
heard the
Heavens, and
my corps! My strength was suddenly restored;
guns;
first
not with
I I
ran across
enemy were mowing down the high wheat, toward the commander of our brigade, whom I asked him, " Where is my reI espied on an elevation. a field, in
which the
He
giment?"
me
balls of the
very angrily turned round:
"Who
here during the engagement? go to the d
soon as he began to observe
me more
disturbs
," but as
narrowly,
my
ex-
hausted appearance, my youth, and particularly when I quickly said, " Sir, I ask, because I want to fight," he bent
down from tone,
my face, and my rifleman?"
his horse, stroked
"What
do you want,
said, in a I
mild
repeated
my
showed me where I had to go, gave me to drink, and called after me, " Come and see me after the bat" I do," said I. Two minutes aftle: do you understand?" ter he fell. He was a most kind officer, and the soldiers said question; he
he treated the riflemen too kindly.
where my regiment stood, or, as I should band representing it, I dropped down, but fortunately one of my comrades had some eggs, one of which gave me great strength. Our colonel came up to us, saying, " Riflemen, you have twice fought like the oldest soldiers; I have to say nothing more; this wood is to be bugleman, the signal!" and off we went cleared; be calm
When
I
arrived
rather say, the
little
—
with a great hurrah hill
—
!
driving the French before us
toward Namur, which lay on our
like his predecessor
rushing too
fast
down
—was
the
killed.
hill, I
was
My
front.
When
I
afraid that
down
a
hindman
saw our men some enemies
might be hid under the precipice to receive them. Holding myself with my left hand by a tree, I looked over the
saw about seven Frenchmen. " They will thought, and turning round to call to our soldiers,
precipice, and hit
me,"
I
I suddenly experienced a sensation as if
were compressed
in
my
my
whole body
head, and this, like a
ball,
were
111
(
quivering in the else; it
was
was able
my
open
to
I
air.
could feel the existence of nothing
most painful
a
)
me
found myself on the ground; over
enemy.
at the
I
After some time, I
sensation.
eyes, or to see again with them; I
stood a soldier firing
strained every nerve to ask, though in
broken accents, whether, and if so, where I was wounded. " You are shot through the neck." I begged him to shoot
me; the idea of dying miserably, half of hunger, half of my wound, alone in the wood, overpowered me. He, of course, refused, spoke a word of comfort, that, perhaps, I might yet be saved, and soon after himself received a shot through both knees, in consequence of which he died in the hospital, while I
am now writing
an account of his sufferings here, in
Ame-
rica.
My thirst was beyond description; ing.
my
I
thought
sins, as I
it
my
forgave
all; I
recollect I prayed for
beloved ones; and,
speedy end of fore
my
my mind.
chest,
gave
me
I
a
a feverish burn-
should die, and prayed for forgiveness of
I
and begged the Dispenser of blessings
upon
was
if it
my
received a second
more
shower
Napoleon; his
bounty
could be, to grant
All
sufferings.
to
ball,
me
a
relations passed be-
which entering
local pain than the first; I
my
thought
my fervent prayer. I'perceived, as I supposed, that the ball had pierced my lungs, and tried to breathe hard to hasten my dissolution. At several periods I heard God had
granted
soldiers passing I
by and making
their
had no power of giving any sign of
remarks upon me, but life.
A
boy, the son
of a colonel, was led by an old soldier past me; I could see them dimly, and heard the boy exclaim, " Oh, my father 1" I
heard afterwards that his father had been killed, and the se-
cond I
in
now
command had fell
sent the
into a deep
boy out of the
fire.
swoon; the ideas of approaching
death, the burning thirst, and the fever, created
by
my
wounds, together with the desire which had occupied our
minds so often during the good quarters, produced
last days,
a singular
lively and as like reality as
it
was
of seeing once
more
dream, which was as
strange.
I
dreamt that
112
(
)
had died and arrived before the gates of heaven, where
I
presented
my
Peter looked
St.
billet.
at
it,
and
I
was ad-
I
mitted into a wide saloon, where an immense table was spread out, covered with the choicest tal
transported with joy, yet
drink?"
St.
and with crys-
fruits,
most cooling beverages.
vessels filled with the I
asked, "
Do
do
so,
partake of them,
no evil
effects in
possible there without food
I
my
who were
but that those
felt
went
was
who wished
Peter answered, that those
enjoy these refreshments, as was probably at liberty to
I
people here eat and
case,
unwilling to
consequence; to
to
were
life
was
one of the crystal
bowls, and drank in deep draughts the refreshing liquid.
awoke, and found
I
me
a soldier
out of his canteen what
bending over
deliciously and vivifyingly did
But
at a later period I
me
and giving
long believed to be wine, so
I
happened
it
course through every vein.
to
meet the same
soldier,
learned that this reviving liquid was simple water.
It
and
was
extremely hot, and the wounded suffered very much; but this heat, so painful to us, saved
out any bandage over
my
perhaps
wounds,
I
my
life,
since with-
soon must have bled
to
death, had not the clogged blood served instead of a ban-
dage, and stopped in a measure farther bleeding. I
succeeded
in
expressing to the soldier
my
wish that he
me away;
would return with some men
to carry
mised
again became senseless, and
to return,
when
I
but did not.
I
awoke found myself digging
ground, as
I
had seen so
previous battles.
I
speedy dissolution.
many
in
of the dying
he pro-
agony
in
men do
the
in the
shuddered, and prayed once more for a I
had, fortunately, in
my
agony and
struggle, turned from the precipice; had I turned toward it,
I
must inevitably have perished.
clivity,
was such
My
situation,
on a de-
that I could see into the plain of
Namur,
was rejoiced, when I saw by the fire that our troops had, by this time, hard pressed the enemy. My strength was fast going, and when, toward evening and
I
I
was awakened by the peasants sent
ed, but
who
found
it
more
to collect the
wound-
profitable to plunder the dead or
11^
(
)
such of the wounded, as could ofter no resistance, and to
throw both
into the fosses, the
could not speak;
foe, I
common
felt as
I
grave of friend and
was weighing
a rock
if
upon every limb and muscle. They searched
me
and money, and rudely stripped increased
my
wounds.
At
and renewed the
pains last I
was enabled
for
my
that not only
was
I living,
ficiently sensible, to be aware of
One
ation.
un
of
them
said, "./?/«,
eyelids,
but that
my
I
the horrors of
all
mon
camarade, tu
When
etat quHlfaict que tu creves!'^
my
bleeding of
move my
to
this motion, as well as, probably, the expression of
showed them
watch
of m}^ clothes, which
and
look,
was
suf-
my
situ-
es
dans
they had nearly
finished their w^ork, I heard a loud threatening voice, a shot,
and
a
scream of one of the peasants, upon which they
Soon
absconded.
after a soldier of the
Westphalia
He
himself wounded, dragged himself toward me.
all
militia,
had
seen the peasants at their nefarious work, and fired upon
He saw my
them.
below
a surgeon
and dress
my
when he espied to him to come hour work is left off,"*
helpless situation, and
in the valley,
"At
wounds.
he called
this
he replied, and proceeded on his way. tended
to fire at
him
also,
from loading quickly enough. soon with assistance.
I
He
feared he
My
protector in-
wounds prevented him
but his
promised
me
to return
would not return, and saw
him, with a heavy heart, disappear behind the trees; but he did not deceive me.
At
—
painful as it was to him some peasants, who dressed me with the clothes of the dead around me, and made a litter, by means of guns; upon which they carried me into the valley, to a farm where the surgeons were. All the lint had been used, and it was necessary to cut open the uniform I had on, and
about 9 o'clock he returned,
to walk,
employ
— with
the
make me
wadding of
as a substitute.
it
A
eat small crumbs, but I could not
muscle without great pain. *
Es
isl
jezt Feierabend.
15
—Enrroii.
sutler tried to
move
a single
114
(
)
A short time after, a false alarm spread that the French were coming up again; wounded
soldiers are full of apprehension,
and the rumor was believed.
by
for I had,
me away;
take
soner
me
nothing so
I feared
He
when wounded.
carry lime, got
me
into
it,
much
as well as
the road to this farm w^e I
be taken pri-
met
a
made
to
he could, and carried
from the main road.
to a fcirm at a distance
company.
as to
fetched a wheelbarrow,
my
during this time, were excruciating;
On
my kind friend, my speech, to
implored
I
somewhat recovered
this time,
My
bandages
pains,
fell off.
wounded sergeant of
my
heard the militia-man ask him whether he
knew me; he answered in the negative, and I could not tell who I was. My head had struck against the wheel, and my wound had bled anew. " Poor fellow," said the sergeant, " may God assist you;" then, addressing the militia-man, I heard him express his serious doubts as to the possibility of
my
recovery, but requesting him to take care of
me
as long
as I should be alive.
The house
which
to
kind companion tried ground;
mency after
I
rained hard,
it
was taken, was
to
of the weather.
of wounded;
full
my
make some room for me on the and we were exposed to the incle-
my friend
In the morning,
me
having recommended
left
me
to the care of an officer of our
Toward noon a coal-cart some of the wounded to Namur; the officer into it and I then heard him say, " Fetch that
regiment, shot through the belly. arrived, to take
was
carried
;
rifleman:" but those
another in
my
place,
who were and
I
to execute his order,
took
could not speak loud enough to
correct the mistake.
By
the time that evening arrived, the
wounded had
gi-eatly
diminished;
selves to town, had done so. prietor of the house ly, into his
own
— an
house.
old
could eat but very
a son in the army.
who
little.
number of
the
could carry them-
Late
in the evening, the pro-
man
— came, slowly and shy-
He made some
manner, which betrayed much I
all
porridge, and in a
feeling, tried to feed
The poor
old
me, but
man had himself
115
(
On
)
the 22d every one was carried out of the house ex-
We
cept myself and three others, with equally bad wounds.
had not strength to make ourselves sufficiently noticed when
We
the carts arrived.
remained together the whole day in
man had
companionship; the old
silent
he had attempted
after
to feed
the house soon
left
On
me.
the 23d, in the
forenoon, I resolved to creep out of the door, should I perish
by
in the attempt, in order to stand a chance of being seen
passengers. I
It
must have been more than two hours before
succeeded in reaching the road, though but a few rods
from the house;
I fell
from one swoon into another.
persons, passing by, threw
At
do with money? had remained
They
by.
my
face
in
last
Namur,
money
two
to
have their
rifles
me by my
was incrusted with blood and
me by my
boots,
which
tlie
my
soldiers of
could not recognise
Many
me, but what was
to
I
to
company, who
repaired, passed features, because
earth, but they
knew
plundering peasants had not
protect the soles of
It was my custom, in order to my boots, to drive nails in, all over them,
and every evening
I
succeeded in pulling off
new
used to put in a
found the head of an old one gone.
nail,
wherever
I
This had given them
almost the appearance of a steel plate, and as they could be plainly seen
by
passers by, did
me
the essential service I
have mentioned.
As soon
ing by, to serve as ing by, to carry across
my
me
wounded
escort,
to depart, and the
new comer
arrived at the house
carriers
was allowed
obliged to take his place.
where
my
wounds had been
we found
make room for me, and it was accordingly
it
a cart lite-
was necessary
done.
to
The dipping
on the paved was excessively anand made the French scream lustily, at which
motion of the two-wheeled
cart, the jolting
roads, such as they are in that country, us,
to
pass-
Whenever we came
my
crowded with wounded French; but
noying to
who was
and obliged four persons go-
dressed on the evening of the 30th, rally
soldier,
toward Namur.
any one on the road, one of
When we
me, they managed
as the soldiers recognised
get a stable-door, begged a
116
(
)
me
a soldier of our regiment, the only Prussian besides
in
the cart, and himself very grievously wounded, swore in great anger.
When we entered the city of Namur, the inhabitants showed much kindness to us; so much, indeed, that it became annoying. One man, I think he was a hair-dresser,
my
upon washing
insisted
face,
me
ry touch he gave caused
though
We
were taken
to the
were obliged
Meuse, where two
Two
chained together, received the wounded.
my
deavored here to dress
many
found
of
my
The
comrades.
Toward evening,
the vessel in which
besides which
rained.
it
girls
We
en-
shirt,
thanked the kind souls;
I
and they gave me, in addition, some currants. sel I
to
vessels,
my
wound; and changed
with blood, for a clean one.
stiff
that eve-
The French were
carried to their hospital, but the Prussians
proceed.
him
I told
great pain.
In the ves-
sun was very hot.
was drew water;
I
At Huy,
much.
suffered
where we arrived at about midnight, we received some bread, but we wanted surgeons. In the morning, at about eight o'clock,
Liege; the inhabitants received us with ness. five
I
was carried
into a house,
wounded, and two young
After they had dressed to
my
one of
tried to support I
me
I
arrived in
possible kind-
found four or
most disgusting
consciousness
the yard; that
I
to the hospital; as
my wounds
said
felt
I
required
he was in the thigh,
we had who found me in me to be placed on a litter, and when returned, I found myself on my way to but soon after
in getting there;
A
lady,
was rung, the doors opened, and I
state.
I
the hospital, which was established in an old convent. large bell
them;
in dressing
as well as they could,
fainted away.
this state, ordered
my
in a
He, wounded
proper attendance.
the house,
busy
we
comrades, a school-mate of mine, that
needs must try to get
left
me
where
ladies
some of the wounds were already
all
very unhappy.
The
I
hospital
was placed, with many others, on straw
besides, the uniform
I
now had on
did not
— Tht;
was carried into was
so full,
in the
yard;
my
rank.
show
117
(
Every morning a
)
would enter
cart
into the yard, stop in the
would pass along the straw, to see he found one whose life was extinct, he
centre, and the driver
who was
dead.
If
him out and
pulled
were very quick
to
him
carried
show by
The
to the cart.
living
their motions, that they
were
not yet ready for the cart.
At
length, I succeeded in getting a place in the
with another.
my
Close to
same bed
bed lay a dragoon, whose
left
arm, shoulder, and part of the chest had been carried away
by
a shell shot, so that part of the interior could be seen;
it
was the most cruel wound I have ever beheld. Some time after, a few men, some with one arm, some with one leg, some otherwise wounded, would amuse themselves by marching up and down the long rooms, commanded by
some gay wooden I vvas
So light-hearted
leg.
was found necessary
to prohibit these
the soldier.
is
mock
It
drillings.
once present in the amputation room, when a ser-
geant, after his leg had been taken his pipe, "
was from
Why,
the
fire is
he said
affectation that
off,
gone out it,
exclaimed, drawing
Perhaps,
after all."
but
it
was, at
all
it
events,
soldier-like affectation. I
man
had had a
letter of introduction
Liege,
in
whom
it
to see, in order to obtain the tal;
but
my memory
and credit
to a gentle-
was now very important
failed
for
me
means of leaving the hospi-
me
entirely.
The
cutting off
of several nerves descending from the brain, and the ball
grazing the skull, must have been the causes;
only re-
I
But even if I should be able to find him, would he recognise me? Others had not known me in my sad guise; why should he? Yet I was degained
it
afterwards by degrees.
termined, at
least, to
make
the
trial.
and slowly dragging myself along,
left
I
took a large stick,
the hospital.
I
was
obliged often to rest on the steps in the street, and people
A
showed invariably great kindness toward me.
who
sold fruit took a particular fancy to
ought
to
be hung for allowing such lads as
arms, and overwhelmed
me
woman
me, swore a king I
was
with caresses, which
I
to take
was
in-
— 118
(
hand, anil did
accepting
On
I
was
fourth
tl\e
trial,
When
me
I
refused
At
on the piazza, and imme-
JMy
He
rung
1
hist^
with
the hell
sull'erings
gave
me
were now, for
much money
as
as I
obtained ipiarters in town, and walked every day
I
where any
to a place
soldier could get his
lay wovuuled in Liege, one of
1
wluMi
the servant opened the gate,
to stand
hy name.
the present, at an end.
While
it,
nrade the attempt to tlnd the
1
found the house;
1
gentleman happened
diately called
wanted;
of
in ipiest of, hut did not succeed.
small hope of success. tl^e
mako
to
it.
three different days
genthMuan on
know what
ni)l
my
People very often put money into
of parrying;-
t'apal)le
)
wounds
my
dressed.
brothers was in
the hospital of Brussels, and another in Aix-la-Chapelle just distributed in a triangle.
After
had been
I
with one of our carrieil
on the
met
a considerable time in Liege, 1
company, who
told
litter to the hosj)ital,
me,
tliat,
while
I Avas
he followed on anotlier,
the bones of one of his arms having been shattered; that after
I
had passed
beckoncil
at
belonged
to
He met
by
a
certain
a
buly
corner,
his
carriers
were
the} carried liim into the house;
;
one of the richest wine merchants of the
it
city.
with the utmost kindness in his house, especially
from the young lady, about sixteen yeai'S old. He was glad to tind me, because he could not with case converse with her.
I
went: Julie,
an angel.
woundeil comrade, dist2;usting,
—
this
was her name,
— had
the look of
Alert whenever she could do any thing for anil
— she prayetl
shunning labors, even
not
tlie
my
most
him, when she could not be of
for
anv active service. Often, when painful operations were performing on him. and her assistance was not required, she
would kneel before her
crucifix in a neighboring
pray for the assistance of
Him who
have ever since been unable
to
can heal
all
room, and pains.
I
imagine an angel without
her features. It
was not long before
was delighted
I
at linding this
went
daily to her house.
I
being after such rough hand-
(
ling; the contrast
was immenso.
great youth for a uniform
my
chin
—and with —
seldom seen other?
'ly
a
— the
wound
)
On the other hand, my down iianlly budding on
of a peculiar kind, such as
shall I add, that
we
fell
in love
is
with each
—
(
120
LETTER
Though
I
)
VII.
remained for a long time under the physician's
care in Liege, I returned as soon as possible, for
my
health,
—
my
to
—and too soon
mother, as our soldiers used to
call
company, appropriately expressing in this homely way attachment which an honorable soldier feels towarm the ward his comrades, officers, and regiment; toward that body their
in
which alone he "
he
is
is
worth
obliged to guard against lists
his price,"
and out of which
Our physicians were continually deceptions, when making out the
an insulated nullity.
of convalescents.
The company is the soldier's home; there he knows every body and is known by all; and what a feeling, when, as a battery is to be taken, or some other hard work to be done, the colonel looks round for a few seconds and says. Take the third or fourth in short, the company to which you
—
—
belong!
A
similar feeling extends of course over the
regiment, and, in like manner, as the uniform importance, because
it
is
whole
of great
strengthens the feeling of uniformity
and of honor, and produces a care not coat," so
is
to
" disgrace the
the name, given to a particular regiment in honor
of some signal actions or other worthy deeds, of great
Mere numbers
are too abstract: a regiment
effect.
which has often
stood well the hardest buffetings, will, indeed, confer a peculiar signification
upon such
a
number.
There were,
for
instance, in Napoleon's and Wellington's armies, regiments
—
121
(
)
whose mere number needed only
affords
awaken is more an admirable means of
When,
late in the afternoon of
to be
mentioned
to
every breast a soldier-like feeling; yet a name
in
more
pithy,
significant
—and
rallying in times of danger.
the ISth, our regiment passed Prince Bliicher, he turned to his aide-de-camp, " Colberg?"
answer, and the old
man took
token of respect
off his hat in
There were some moist eyes,
for bur regiment.
With what
sure you.
—" Yes, your grace," was the joy does
a thrilling
I
can as-
not a sailor hear
name of his vessel; and where is the man in the whole navy, where is the American in the whole Union, who would not grieve to see the name of a vessel, which has become the nation's favorite, for instance, of a Constitution, the
Why are the names,
changed
for another not yet historical?
at least,
of famous ships, preserved in the various navies,
when
the vessel herself cannot be kept afloat any longer?
Should for
we have war
again. Congress
might
find a
fit
means
acknowledging the services of the most distinguished
regiments, or rewarding those
who
suffered most, in bestow-
ing upon them peculiar names, taken from the places of their hottest actions, or given in
memory
of our greatest men.
Regiment Washington would not sound badly.
Owing
to
my
able to support
returning to the regiment before its
duties, I fell sick again.
I
I
was
underwent
an attack of the worst kind of typhus fever, and was sent to the hospital at Aix-la-Chapelle.
consciousness
when
I
was brought
W^hen
for several days.
I
I
was
into
it,
in a state of un-
and remained so
awoke, and for the
first
time re-
turned to consciousness, I found mj^self in a long room,
"the Fever Station," ranged along both
in
which there were above sixty beds,
sides.
for
my
main all
brother
there,
who
—the
took
my my acquaintance,
Thus, again separated from
company, and from every human
me
soul of
to the hospital could not re-
knowledge of
my
being in the worst of
the rooms of an hospital, and the atmosphere which car-
ried with
it
to
the senses the quick conviction that I
was
once more surrounded by sick and dying, made a deep im16
—
122
(
pression upon me.
whom
bed,
)
my
saw an old man by the side of
I
immediately recognised for one of the nurses,
I
and asked him where
He
was.
I
he did not understand me.
[
in
French that
my
question in
answered repeated
French, and he told me, " In the hospital of Aix-la-Cha-
denly
What day is it?" the many thousand
"
pelle." all
" Christmas morning."
Sud-
associations, connected in the
mind of a German with Christmas, burst upon me, and, weakened by disease, I cried bitterly.* The old nurse,
*
Christmas
England,
I
is
the most joyous festival in Germany, especially in the Pro-
In Italy, childi'en, as
testant parts.
think,
hang up
is
the custom in the U. States and in
a stocking, into which, during night, the Beffana,
woman answering to the American cryskirtgle, is said to put The name Beffana is a coniiption of Epiphanias, and the chai'acter is represented in the ch-oUcst ways, generally by men, in the streets of many Ita-
an imaginary presents.
Rome, on the
lian places, in
many
fifth
the making of presents
is
before Christmas, children, and
But
of Januaiy, and thereabout.
grown people
begin to " wish,"
too,
sist,
with children, mostly of toys. is
there
among
families;
is
to
con-
nearer the time di-aws, the more mys-
packages come
sci-utinized b_v the children; yet
thing of the kind
The
e.
i.
They
intimate or openly to tell what presents they particularly desire.
tery
Ger-
in
Six weeks
of a character quite different.
in,
whose
size
and form are
none dare to open them, because every
considered taboo in this season.
Sisters
seek a hidden
corner in the house, or go to some aunt to work secretly a purse, a handkerchief, or other articles for
hearsals of farces, written spiracies are going steal a
book
to
members of the family or friends; some have reamong themselves, others of living pictures; con-
on to find out what some person particularly wishes, or to
have others bound
in
the same way,
At
&.c.
last,
Christmas
when, either on Christmas eve or on the morning of the feast, all presents are "laid out," or " built up," as the German phrase is, on large tables, arrives,
in the centre
tapers,
of which stands the Christmas tree, an evergreen, with
When
on moss.
selves to give, or
of the family open.
the parents have arranged every present they have them-
which has been handed
to
them by the
for others, all the tapers are lighted,
If there are grandparents in a family,
them generally takes place on Christmas
when
many
and under which often the birth of the Savior is represented by figures
all
different
" the building up " with
eve; and
what a noise there
the grandchildren are assembled and tiy their toys!
young student, separate from
his
own
take in the Christmas joys in some family or other.
The
There
rents give their presents in such case on Christmas morning.
bachelor, no
members
and the doors flung
is
is
pa-
no
family, that will not par-
We fear
it
is
necessary
—
123
(
Frangois was his name,
you
will
But
feelings.
know
will never
my
will not dismiss this subject
I
and, were he to read this,
it,
my
that I give vent to
But
it is
How
feelings.
it
Kind
old Francois,
how ready
How
to allow
my
me
went
in
closed
by
when,
demands,
its
me!
cious treatment could allow
to
this
my
bed,
I
it
was not yet morn-
thou wert to do any
heavy
a
often hast thou begged the physician
a larger portion,
appetite
at
made walking
service for me, though thy old age
task to thee.
myself
to satisfy
was, and, irritated by fever and inter-
rupted sleep, was angry with thee that ing!
what would
often hast thou tried
calm me, when, watching out of thy time
asked what o'clock
He
gratitude to good old Francois.
paper gratitude be to him?
this
me, and
tried to comfort
and being myself one, soon checked the sad cur-
my
without expressing
to
—kindly
imagine that the mere idea of being surrounded by
soldiers,
rent of
)
time over thee.
in a convalescent state, far
beyond what
a judi-
The grave has probably Be thy memory ever dear
me.
was not long befoie
It
and
I literally suffered,
craving appetite. tain
I
my
—
sickness took a favorable turn,
as I
have already hinted,
was on half
ration,
more, though every morning and evening
for a
whole
to be a
German, to
say to those assure
who
them
feeling"
ration
the physician
feel with the author In the
cannot undcvsland him,
that there
among
when
is
on Christmas
in
made
I
above passage. they
the people toward each other.
would ask Re-
his round.
may believe Germany a universal
tliat
— from a
and could not ob-
We will only when we
us, stir
Every one endeavors
of kind to learn
the wishes of others and secretly to prepare a pleasure, for which the
little
ones will empty their saving boxes, the larger ones paste and paint lamps
and other ornaments at embroidery, &c.,
young
ladies
for the Christmas tree,
so
much
so,
were occupied with
that
fine
work
work
busily
several instances
when
and the
we know
sisters
so late at night for
that their eyes and general health suffered in consequence.
can be abused.
Perhaps, our readers are not aware of the
ladies far surpass others in skill, taste,
and other work
fit
for ladies,
and ingenuity
Editor.
Every thing
fact, that
in all kinds
German
of needle
and that they are ever ready to give pleasure to
those around them, by delicate attentions evinced
work.
many weeks,
ir
making such kind of
124
(
)
duced in strength, and young as I was, I had not sufficient judgment and energy to resist the cravings of my appetite, and began to ask my fellow patients for pieces of bread
which they had
With
left.
greater anxiety have
there a piece of bread travel from bed to bed through sick hands before
it
reached me, than
now
I
seen
I
the
all
wait for the
most savory canvass-back duck. I did not deviate with impunity from the physician's prescriptions; I suffered a relapse,
which brought
given over.
and
still
—
But,
me
so near to the grave that I
The good
often dined, after I interest
stories of
was somewhat restored
— the preaching of some processions of — but others,
was
life
— where —the I
to health,
— the childish disobedience of the soldier
without,
I
survived,
high and low
table of the surgeons,
will lay out his wits to obtain
tastic
I
which grows up among those who have been long
together in a room,
who
—
living.
might give you some good
I
in an hospital.
you know,
as I believe
remain among the
was
carried, before
my
by
stealth a herring
from
to their brethren, the fanthis is not the place for
restoration, to
it.
the hospital of
who had
Cologne, and found again there an apothecary,
al-
ready in Aix-la-Chapelle evinced the warmest interest for
me, and without whose kind
care, I think
probable
it
I
should not write these lines to you. It
was here
time in sion,
my
which
in the hospital of
life,
at
drew from
Cologne that
my own
I,
for the first
experience a conclu-
every subsequent period has been confirmed;
namely, that ignorance creates it,
in
distrust, and, if you extend want of knowledge makes us incapable of acting. As the physical world we must know, before every thing
else,
time and place
—the importance of which
so deeply on our mind, that a traveller,
is
impressed
awakened from sleep
by the stopping of the stage-coach, starts up with the words, Where are we? What o'clock is it? so is it impossible for
—
us to ever,
make a safe step in any occupation or enterprise whatif we have not a just knowledge of our situation.
125
(
Thus,
many
)
acts of genius are considered as demonstrations
of great boldness or moral courage, while, in the sagacity of genius which enables ther than others into the
means of
things, that the attempt
is
due.
Soon
my
after
was so
I
which
their families,
besides the service I
became the
the
I
did with
I
to give the instance
an hospital.
write for
to
much
thus rendered
be able to
as to
me
sit
in
them
to
pleasure, because,
them and
my
father confessor of
agreeable
when
I
in
far restored
bed, soldiers would re{|uest
to see far-
safety, as into all other
—But,
which taught me the above truth
fact, it is to
owner
its
their friends,
older comrades, and
which they generally manifested,
surprise
my
read the letter to them, at
having so well ex-
pressed what they wished to say, but had not been able to
communicate
to
me, was ample reward
for
my
trou-
All went on well, until one day, after having read one
ble.
of these letters to a most stupid fellow, wiio had not yet
home the least information of his having escaped with wound from all the murderous battles, I jocosely said, " You don't believe I wrote all this? I gave quite a different sent
a
Enraged he
account of you."
tore the letter, and I never
succeeded in convincing him, that what a joke; and that I could
count of him, even sh6uld raised in him, and his
I
said
was meant
as
have no interest in giving a bad acI
dare to do
it.
Distrust
powers were too limited
was
to obtain a
The fool's wit is incredulity, as case. The same happens every day between go-
proper view of the Raleigh says.
vernments and nations
to
whom
the former neglect to afford
the means of gaining knowledge. It I
was not
was
until long after peace
had been concluded, that
so far restored to health as to
My family had given
me
l)e
able to travel
home.
up; letters had miscarried, and the
news they had heard of me, was of a kind to encourage them but little; so I truly gave them a surprise. Having arlast
rived in Berlin,
I
went home on
foot
from the
post-office; the
streets, the houses, the shops,
every thing the same, and yet
looking so differently to me.
In one year
I
had grown older
^2G
(
many
years.
was
all as
it
)
stepped into the house and looked around;
I
before; the scenes of
my
which enclosed the persons dearest up
stairs;* I
and
fell
into
a dragoon, pelle,
opened the door;
my
who
arms.
it
until I
saw
me;
I
went slowly
," cried
my sister,
had a dog with me, which
I
died in the bed next to mine, in Aix-la-Cha-
me
with the broken accents of a
The animal had been
going.
is fast
where
childhood, the walls
"Ah!
—Now,
had bequeathed to
man who
to
end of
at
Waterloo,
by a ball; I loved the beast, so did he me, and when he saw my sister hanging at my neck and sobbing, he thought it was high time to defend his master; so he flew at her, most mercilessly tearing her gown, lost the
its tail
and, fortunately, before he did injury to her-
it
The exclamations of my dear sister, the howling of the dog, perhaps my own words, soon attracted all the other members of my family, and almost but where am I? self.
Am
I
writing
my
biography?
Waterloo and Berlin
to
Come, come,
New York
let's leap
from
again.
A scene
which strikingly proves the brisk and constant communication between New York and foreign countries, is
exhibited on board the steamboat, which, on packet days,
takes the passengers to their various vessels, waiting at an-
Some
I made the round in more packets than usual happened to start on the same day. I remember, among others, the Liverpool London, Havre, Hamburg, and New Orleans
chor in the stream.
one of these steamboats,
years ago,
as
Ha-
packets, besides, there were vessels going for Mexico,
vana, Rio de Janeiro, and Calcutta
bound them, and other teresting to see
• lies,
how
Contrary winds had
vessels, for a long
time
It
differently the prospect of the
was
in-
voyage
Houses on the continent of Europe are often Inhabited by several fami-
and generally open. The ringing of the
bell, therefore, is
not necessa-
ry to obtain admission, which,
by the way, has some influence upon
intercourse, in our opinion.
Intrigues could not possibly be so frequent
in
France and
bell,
Italy,
and thus to
—EmTOR.
among many classes, had
attract the attention
social
the visitor always to ring the
of the servants, before he could enter.
—
127
(
affected the passengers.
)
Some young travellers looked beam-
ing with joy at the pleasures they expected from a journey in
Europe; others, agents who had crossed the Atlantic many
some
a time, looked perfectly indifferent, whilst the eyes of ladies
showed
from those
that they had taken leave
their hearts yearned.
A
French agent was
still
for
whom
engaged in
folding up his samples, neatly pasted on morocco, and recapitulating, with a friend, his last instructions.
close to
me, four languages
at
—English,
once
I
heard,
German,
French, and Spanish, which, with the addition of Italian,
you may hear almost any day, when it is most frequented.
When York
walking
in that
in
Broadway,
as
hours
long street, which gives to
the character of a crocodile,
seem but created
at the
secondary
all
New
the limbs of which
appendages
to
its
im-
mense spine, I have often been reminded of the question which Mr. Niebuhr's little daughter asked me, as I was strolling with her in the streets of Naples, then occupied by the Austrian army, composed of Hungarian grenadiers, Bohemian artillery, German musqueteers, Illyrians, and I don't know of what others, of whom that military olla potrida consisted. Besides, there were some Italian and Swiss troops in town.
The
little girl
saw
a soldier in a uniform she
had
never seen before, and, in an Oriental style she asked me, " Di che lingua I queslo soldato?^^* •
Of what
tongxie
is
this soldier?
Editok.
—
128
(
)
LETTER
I
YIII.
to see large cities rise out of bed
LOVE
ber of curious things
when
the
still
we
;
num
see a
morning makes
his pre-
parations for the noisy day, and a populous place rubs her eyes.
out;
A
window is opened, and an old woman peeps an aged man goes to the pump to fetch water; the little small
chimney sweeper
—a
forsaken being
sings his shrill tune; the gardeners
wagonner
tables; the
man.
stomach
Then
in
with their vege-
gets ready to start;
opened, of course, such as tisfy the
over the globe
all
come
sell
some
always and every where the
is
are
stalls
things to eat, because to sa-
the hucksters appear; at
last,
first
wish of
a grisette of a fa-
shionable house looks out of the
window, with the duster
her hand, sees what weather
going to be, and
curiosity
by looking
it is
into the street.
baker rings the house
in
satisfies
her
The iceman comes;
the
bell; the carrier trots
along with the
morning paper, and gradually one profession appears
after
the other on the stage of the day, until every thing
once
more
in the fair road of toil
and bustle, and,
boisterous letter carrier raps at the door, as lictor of a
the other
Roman
is
consul.
The
not less interesting.
if
is
at length, the
he were the
transition of one
day
At one and two
into
o'clock
the seranaders retire, and the bill-sticker appears with his
burden of large papers and the paste pot the longest awake, gain drives It is curious to
him the
Love keeps man
earliest out of bed.
observe the diflference in this respect be-
—
1^9
(
)
In Naples, as soon as the doors of
tvveen different cities.
the small houses are opened, the whole family there the
street;
little
man
they have crumbs of bread, for the
and
Rome,
there; in
it
out in the
bring their break-
to
fast in his buckets, or all start together to
the corner, to take
is
urchins wait with bowls, in which
the
some woman at man with horse's
meat, on a pole over his shoulder, whistles, and
ass's
every cat appears before her door, patiently waiting with a high-arched back and
tail erect, for
her turn; she never in-
When
trudes upon the territory of her neighbor.
milkman comes, not with
are satisfied, the
cows and goats themselves,
to
the cats
cans, but with the
milk the liquid, which
all
somewhat
re-
mankind loves, into the servant's minding you of Eldorado. I have
pitcher,
seen, in other places,
asses brought before the doors of the consumptive, that they
might have the salutary milk fresh from the animal; but in
Rome,
I suspect, dislike of labor is the
London, you see breakfast
on the throats which have
only reason.
swallow
to
In
with tea and coffee (mercy
tables,
it)
steaming and
inviting the passers by; in Paris, the old gentleman, with
small-clothes and striped stockings, takes his breakfast, also, in the
open
air
and reads his paper, which the
down from
cartman peruses in driving the busy part.
New York
in
European
But, generally speaking, the early morning
does not offer so
cities;
many
cry. Potatoes! Mackerel! Old
Clothes! Hair Skins! Maccheroni!
seldom, a person
may
but in
Rome
it
who
offers his
many
there are so
of these peculiar cries,
set in music; and, in
Na-
seems, nothing can be sold, without crying and
clamoring "
and then, though
In Boston, you never meet with
and screams, that they have been ples,
Now
be found in that city
articles thus screamingly. it,
various sights as large
people take their breakfast comfortably
home; no women or men
at
New York
the upper city to
it
about.
I
Chief street of Naples.
saw once,
in the
Toledo,* a
The name comes from
was governed by Spanish viceroys.
the times
man who
when Naples
Editoii,
17
#
—
130
(
had
to sell a
)
broken iron mortar, and what
he made
a noise
with his pestle and tongue together! I
made my
New
early tour through the streets of
York,
not forgetting the harbor, and then proceeded to one of the
You know my 'penchant for markets, prisons, steeples, by-ways, and old women. The markets show you how the people live, the prisons how they most frequented markets.
punish, the high steeples teach you geography and topogra-
phy from nature, by-ways highways are
you want
to
know.
How many " messenger
a long conversation have
woman,"
me
have considered I
you many things on which women tell you every thing
tell
and old
silent,
Europe, and,
I
had with some old
they always " a very nice young man." One day, in
in return,
walked from Eisenach and Luther's Wartburg,*
suhl;
I
met the
some place
old Botenfrau of
Mark-
to
in the neigh-
borhood, carrying, in the large basket on her back, pots, bread, clothes, brushes, blacking, hams, and I do not
know
what motley collection besides. She was all kindness to me, told me of her late husband, who had been a soldier, and
whom
she had accompanied as sutler,
were fought over
rent she paid, the excellent
cow she had;
have a cow think her always the always the
his vessel
ter;) in short, I
graphy of
my
*
his battles
fleetest,
(for
people
best, as a captain considers
be she slow as a
eloquent companion,
who
But when we came
When Luther returned,
fly in
in
invited
me
and
I
1520/from the diet of the Germart empire
at
elector of Saxony, his prince, justly feared that the safe conduct,
dered, therefore, some persons to waylay the burg, a castle in the Thurlngian Forest. carried there
Luther worked great interest to
by
his
own
at his vei-sion all
veller in the centre
^T
win-
to take
to a steep hill,
He or-
promised by the emperor, would not be kept toward the reformer.
he was
who
soon was enabled to write a complete bio-
dinner with her.
Worms, the
(all
again,) of her daughters' marriages, the
latter,
and carry him
Luther himself did not
protector.
of the bible.
to
Wart-
know
Beautiful as
tlie
spot
is, it is
Germans, and visited by every pedestrian and other of Germany.
Editok.
that
In this solitude of the forest,
of
tra-
(
asked whether
I
131
)
should not carry her burden up to the top,
she flew into a passion, that
I
had not considered her equal to
her profession.
At an end was
had offended her
in the vital point of her honor, distrusted
our amiable intimacy; I
all
her capacity of acting up to her calling;
had called Alex-
I
ander a coward.
You mentioned,
in
one of your
letters, that 1
should never
allow a striking instance of moral or intellectual power to pass
by without communicating
above reminds
me
it
The
to you.
old
of such an instance, and here
whom
it
woman is.
A
she was sa-
friend of
mine had
tisfied in
every respect; she believed, in turn, that the cook
was
a colored cook,
on her
satisfied
small family.
with
had
part, since she
to
provide but for a
Nevertheless, one day, the cook told her that
she wished to leave her house.
"And why?"
asked the
knowing that she had given no cause for " Because," answered the superintendant of the
lady, with surprise,
complaint.
kitchen, " there are no large dinners or suppers given in
your house." The
fact was, the active
mind
of the cook, con-
scious of thoroughly understanding her art, felt uneasy that
she could not bring
its
powers
into action.
If
you consider
that the cook has no gain or profit whatever in large dinners,
but only more labor, you will allow that
it
would not be
bad for the world, were every one, in his sphere, propelled
by
that zeal and activity
this
humble
which gave impetus
to the
mind
of
individual.
Never omit,
my
friend, to go, in the course of
your jour-
neys, and even, from time to time, at home, to the market. It is
an index, not to be neglected, of the state of a great
many you
things, important in national
economy, and,
see an assemblage of farmers and laboring
besides,
men, whose
behavior and customs you have thus an opportunity to observe.
What
an advanced state of the whole art of farm-
ing does not a single, huge cheese, well
made and
carefully
prepared, such as you see here or in England, indicate! If
you see
fresh and clean butter laid out on white, neat boards,
and vessels near
it,
with bright, polished
br^iss
hoops, and
—
132
(
)
hear not a single rude word, or see a single coarse gesture,
from the persons who brought
may
good management.
If
you
this to the market,
all
safely conclude that their farms and
homes
are under
you see poultry or calves' feet neatly up in good order,
prepared, or the fresh vegetables piled
some
displaying, perhaps, even
taste in
the arrangement,
you may safely conclude that the venders cannot be a lazy, good for nothing set of people. If you see mountains of turkeys, or of beef, sold by butchers, in clean, white linen frocks, you may set it down, for certain, that the people, on the whole, must live well, especially when you see, at the same time, an abundance of produce, which comes hundreds of miles distant, or fish brought up from sea, at considerable
expense.*
If
you hardly meet with
a single constable, and he
common dress, without arms, leisurely walking about, you may believe that the people are pretty well-behaved. But, when you see many police officers and gend'armes walking about with attentive mein; when you see half-nabut in
ked beggars picking up here
a cabbage-leaf, there a
brown
piece of stringy meat, or when, perhaps, you meet with a poor
insane wretch amusing the sellers and buyers by her frantic
movements, when you hear screaming, and scolding, and coarse language, and can discover no neatness, or no great
beyond
variety of produce, no fruit
no vegetable out of season
whom
the farmer
is
—
set
yet but in the
and the lower classes have
its
down
little
most common
size,
the people as one with
first
stages of agriculture,
education.
Savarin, in his inestimable Physiologie
du Gout,
in
my
opinion one of the finest recent productions, gives, as his fourth aphorism, " Dis-moi ce que tii manges, je te dircii
que tu
ce
•
e.9."t
To come
sold at
two
the whole
This
is
truer
to this conclusion,
dollars
fish, as
it
is
still
in the
communi-
not necessary that salmon should be
and a half a pound, and
was the case
of nations or
its
owner refuse
fifty dollars for
Boston market, on April 23d, 1833.
—Editor. j-
titlt
Tell
me what
thou eatest, and
I'll tell
thee what thou
of this work, which we, too, have perused, to our
art.
The whole
infinite pleas>ire
and
133
(
ties
than of individuals.
what people
live,
I
how
and
)
have always liked they
live,
have declared the Italian a lazy farmer,
proved that he
—
visited,
is
one of the very
first
to observe
and had
all
those
—while
can be
it
farmers in the world,
Roman pizzicagnolo and
with me, the
on
who
seen the
which require labor and would not have sweepingly charged the Italian farmer with sloth. There are some parts of Italy utterly great variety of excellent articles, nicety, they
neglected I admit, but even the Neapolitan
— that
being,
whose sole desire is to enjoy himself, see him in the field, walk through the Campagna Felice, and then say whether he is a farmer or not. But the best farmer is found near Turin. I advise you to read a work by Mr. Chateauvieu, a gentleman sent by Napoleon to report on the state of agriculture in Italy and Germany, He was acquainted with English husbandry, too; and he declares the farmer of the fertile parts
of Piedmont, the
first in
the world, as to the cul-
tivation of the ground, not the breeding of live stock.
has Mr. Niebuhr said to me,
when
Often
travelling through Italy,
" There see; the Italians always were pre-eminently an agricultural people.
soldiers; this
is
loved farming;
The Romans essentially
we
mere
are often represented as
wrong; they were farmers and
find the proof in
many
of their
first
men
and best writings."
You may it
think that
if I
must have been easy
for
like so well to
me
to fall in
view markets,
with the Ameri-
can custom, according to which, gentlemen often go to the
market
to designate
the custom.
what
shall
be sent home.
I
cannot say
some one else, though, at the same time, you ought to remember that going to the market here is very different from what it would be I relish
great profit,
is,
I
rather leave this to
" Physiologic du Gout ou Meditations de Gastronomie
Transcendante,- Ouvrage theorique, hisiorique
aux Gastronomes
parisiens.
cieties Suvantes.
Paris.
The
Far un author
is
et
a tordre du Jour.
Professeur,
D6di4 Membre deplusieurs So-
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,
late judg-e
of the Court of Cassation, member of the Legion of Honor, &c. &c. TOR.
—Enr-
— 134
(
)
on the continent of Europe, and though, from considering
far
may
I
add,
am
I
a proper attention to our viands be-
neath a thinking man, as you in
Germany
are but too apt
no
to do,
and the consequence of which
where many.
in a less favorable state than in the interior of Ger-
man
breed of our
we
we
very curious that a
cattle,
hogs, &c.,
consider horticulture
wine,
fruits,
who improves
by agricultural societies, worthy of the patronage
we
flour, &c., that
we
speak with pleasure in
new
vegetable, that
glorify in comparing the variety of garden and
we
fruits,
now
tury ago;
that only
when the moment
at length arrives
the pains have been taken, and
all
bestowed
tion has been
rious articles
—
—the
degree of judgment or
it
the atten-
be considered be-
to attend to the
relish.
all
consumption of the va-
actual
that then only should
neath an elevated mind
matter with any
Is that not important,
returns at least three times every day with every
being? to
Why
is it
pay proper care
ly?
The
field
our disposal, with the scanty supply of a cen-
at
—and
which
for
of
are at great pains to im-
public prints of the introduction of a
all
is
take the greatest trouble to improve the
the most elevated men, that
prove
that cookery
called a benefactor of his country
agriculture; that
that
me
has always appeared to
It
is
is,
which
human
man of superior mind may shave smoothwe do: Cato bestowed
not unworthy of a to his razors that
they
ancients did not think as
attention on cookery, and
many
families had
names
indi-
cating the care some one of their forefathers had taken to
introduce a
new
vegetable, and the people's gratitude in
consequence. It is
likewise altogether erroneous to suppose gourmets
and friands
to exist
only in the higher
On
lates are spoiled.
classes,
greater lovers of good dishes than the higher. a farmer
"
How
when he
sweet
it
talks of a peculiarly
all
Listen to
good kind of corn,
and ate last and assuring you " he never ate
tastes;" of a hog, he raised
Sunday, smacking his a finer pig in
whose pa-
the contrary, the lower classes are
lips
his life."
Look
at the brightness
of his
135
(
eye when he then
you of excellent
ale,
or fine wine, and
me, whether he loves good things or
tell
man
hear a
tells
)
not.
If I
boasting that he cannot find any difference be-
tween a good and poor dinner, and that he engulfs him, that nature
five minutes, I pity
it
in
tongue and
left his
throat unprovided with those fine nerves of taste, to feel the great variety of salts, fect us,
by which the
him
lieve that she intended pell-mell, every thing
human
able that
Who
being.
dull ears
bad?
different nutriments af-
with pleasurable or unpleasant sensations; and be-
which swallows,
entire, rather than for a
boasts of having received from nature
which are unable
to discriminate
It is these nerves of the
man
for a shark,
whole and
many
to distinguish and relish so
mainly impelled him
to
good music from
tongue and palate which endifferent tastes,
master nature and maintain
himself the lord of the creation,
for,
without them there
would be no cultivation, industry, or commerce. Of what use is it to try to depreciate the value of vated
taste,
when every
proves the great importance attached to
and
how powerful
means of
a culti-
thing around us, and every language,
the sensation
this delicate sense?
is,
it
which
The word
by is
all
nations;
received by
taste itself is ap-
plied to the
most refined objects of a moral and
character.
We
intellectual
hardly can speak of the commonest
affair,
of the most abstract, of poetr}^, or of religion herself, with
i
out constantly borrowing words which originally refer to impressions, received by means of that wronged instrument of sensation. it
" Sweet boy," " dear, sweet mother," does Is not this word even applied to the
not sound sweet?
whom our religion reveals? Does not the bitter cup of sorrow, when mentioned, convey a meaning which we cannot express by any other words? Who does not feel
highest being
at the expression Attic salt, all the acuteness of
gifted people to
whom
it
refers?
You
wit of the
can not only use with
great success all ideas, supplied by the sense of taste, in a metaphorical meaning, such as "bread of life," "well of
— 136
(
life,"
we
but
)
use every day words, with which
we
cannot
dispense, and yet they are derived from the sensations
owe
nerves of
to the
taste
and those nearly related
many much has
while
expressions are hardly any longer metaphorical, so constant use effaced their original meaning: of the above, and besides,
among
imbody the
rites, as
act of taking
as, for
instance,
others, thirsting,
Nor
food of mind, craving for novelty, &c. refused to
we
it:
pungent, insipid, sour and sweet (tem-
satisfied, disgusting,
per,) tasteless, surfeited, to relish an author, &c.;
many
to
has religion
nourishment into her
the paschal lamb, agapes, &c., and the founder of
our religion
calls his disciples
but rather give
it its
Let us
the salt of the earth.
not, therefore, treat the sense of taste
proper rank as
with superciliousness,
we would
to
any thing
else.
What
keeps not only body and soul together, but the
dif-
ferent classes in a nation, and connects nations with one
Throw
another?
many
are
a glance at the industry of a people;
employed
many, not
directly
in providing for
employed
for the use of the farmer?
in this
how
—the stomach, and how way, make instruments exists mainly by the
Commerce
wants of the mouth; property receives value from these wants; and, in short, civilization, as well as our preservation, is
intimately connected with
Of no statistics
— our
appetite.
place in the world, perhaps, have
They
than of Paris.
which we should not
we more accurate
are obtained at a price at
like to collect them,
though much more
attention ought to, and will be, in course of time, directed to statistics
with
us,
without which a great part of
lating remains but a groping in the dark.
But
all legis-
let us
make
use, at least, of the valuable materials obtained in this line
by
others.
from
Galignani's
official reports, a
New
Paris Guide communicates,
mass of interesting
statistical details,
of which I will only give you a few; you conclusions yourself.
They
may draw
relate to the year 1826.
the
—
137
(
For
was paid
rent,
^ Annual maintenance ^, andJ repairoi houses
)
3,166,666£
st, j C
'
.
(
I (
Food
The
°^ ^^ shillings for each inhabitant.
_„, 666£ 791, arc
St.,
-nor lo 18 shillings. °
12,221, 150£
St.,
or
+
« "
1
13£
«
"
various items under this principal head are enume-
you may imagine how inteThe expenditure on clothing amounts to
rated in the official paper, and resting they are.
on food, namely,
one-fifth of that
to
lings 4 pence for each inhabitant. shillings 3
2,444,230£, or 55
shil-
Fuel, 1,674,375^, or 38
Washing, l,24G,S75£, being 28
pence each.
lings 6 pence for each person.
shil-
Lighting, Furniture, Salaries
form other items of these documents.
for servants, &c.,
you now consider how much of the
fuel
If
used for cook-
is
ery, and that the expense for clothing, in a city like Paris, is
much
in the
part
greater in proportion to the expense for food than
whole country of France besides, you
all
will find
what
gastric concerns play in the social life of our spe-
cies.*
would pay more attention to the subwhich is, as in all sidevelop by art the peculiar character of each
If people in general
ject of cookery, the true principle of
milar cases, to
given subject, imprinted upon
many
be tormented with so health, as
juice
the case in
is
is left
in the
it
by
nature,
we
should not
senseless dishes, nor ruin our
Germany, with meat boiled
white strings, or roasted until
it
until
no
looks like
bread found under the ashes of Pompeii, nor in the United States with dishes to
swimming
in fat; but
we would endeavor
have on our tables juicy dishes with the flavor and aro-
ma, which nature, in her wisdom, has given In general,
may
it
to each.
be said that American cookery has
somewhat engrafted
the French upon the English, the capi-
dish of which
roast beef, all others being secondary;
tal
in the
same way
ment, and •
The
in Part
all
is
as the
English
call
hanging, capital punish-
the rest of punishments secondary.
However,
reader will find ample extracts of these very interesting statements
XXVII. of the London Penny Magazine.
IS
Editor.
—
—
138
(
honor
to
how
out
English cookery!
No
meat
proper
to treat
have the
in its
other nation has found style.
The Americans
materials for a plentiful and savory table,
finest
some of which do not grow Europe;
)
at all, or
not so plentifully in
might be done, were not cookery allowed to go on in
way, but received proper I
do not mean
from shop
to
one, and the
shop; but
I
who
its
old
from reflecting people.
atitention
to say that they
ought
to imitate an acquain-
when first the oysters appear, shop, and selects among bushels of them but only perfect one among the bushels, in each do mean to say, that health and many other
of mine,
tance
much
example, tomato or the egg-plant: and
for
goes,
considerations require that proper attention be given to the subject.*• tills
That readers country, in
some
travellers,
in
Europe may not suppose we are altogether starving
good
we
things, as they
might be led
to
in
do from the accounts of
here insert the following, cut at random out of a Phila-
delphia newspaper.
It is
the
December 25th, 1833. "2 saddles Bears' Meat; 2
of fare of the American coffee house, of
bill
saddles Fine Mountain Venison; 2 saddles Alba-
—
ny Mutton; 500 Terrapins large size, very fine; 40 pair Canvass Back Ducks; Pheasants, Snipe, Woodcock, Red Necks, Black Duck, Broad Bills, Vermicelli Soup; Chickens —Barba— Stewed and Barbacued; Sweetbreads; Sweetbreads Larded, Rabbits; Potatoes — Boiled or Roasted; Spanish Olives; French Mallard, Dried Salmon,
Young Ducks,
cued and Fricasseed; Squabs
Olives; Pickles of various kinds; Sardines, ters;
style;
shallots;
Rabbit; lets;
Dutch Herring; Tripe and Oys-
—plain, stewed, roasted, broiled and fried; Mutton Chops, with Anchovy Toast; Welch Lamb Chops —French and English
Oysters
Pork Steaks, Beef Steaks, with tomato sauce or
Ham
onions; Veal Cut-
and Eggs; Omelet; Chocolate; Cocoa; Coffee; Tea.
" A regular supply of Sauces, received direct from London.
" In addition made, as
will
to the above
render
it
list
of dishes, such arrangements have been
possible to serve
up
all
descriptions of
Game
in their
proper seasons, together with every luxury the epicure can desire.
" N. B.
The curism
Relishes always ready."
following advertisement tries to
mingle with
may
find a place here, as
it
shows how
epi-
politics in a large city:
" Green turtle-soup on Election Day. "A
fine fat turtle,
weighing 250
lbs., will
be cooked and served up
in
soup, steaks, calipash and calipee, on Tuesday next, the 14th instant, the
day of the election, &c."
Editor.
139
(
It is a fact, that the
)
Americans have very small churches
The
and exceedingly large markets.
is,
that food
mankind can
the only thing upon which poor
is
The
reason
Roman
Presbyterian, the Quaker, the
agree.
Catholic, the
Baptist, the Methodist, the Jackson-man, the Calhoun, the
Clay, the M'Lean, the
Van Buren men,
the federalist, the
democrat, the anti-mason, the abolitionist and colonization-man, the nullifier and the union-man ably at the same butcher's
What
ox.
country can that there
stall
—
all
meet peace-
and take meat of the same
neither religious forbearance, nor the love of effect, is effected
is at least
by the
Thank heaven,
palate.
one thing on this earth on which people
Don't smile at me, I am in earnest. What would become of mankind were not this cement in existence, to hold families, nations, mankind together? I will conclude my dissertation on cookery with one more agree.
remark, namely, that the dinner, when well prepared, neatly arranged, and of savory taste,
portance with
all
is
of very great moral im-
There
the industrial classes.
an hour during which a hard laboring
man
is
hardly
enjoys his family
more, and when his wife has a better opportunity to show that her attention to his comfort
than the dinner hour. but
I
and a
know
I
is
of no finer sight than
fine piece of
deserving of his industry,
have seen
man
a table,
in,
many
situations,
with a clean cloth
meat, and some good vegetables,
showing the care of the housewife, husband comes
in
and
sitting
children, and thanking the
Lord
— when
down with
—
all
presently the a nice
set of
for all his bounty, eats
with
a hearty appetite, while
the wife, with her eyes directed
toward him, enjoys the
silent praise
which
his partaking
twice and three times of the dish bestows upon her work. I went with my brother-in-law, who was proceed to the West Indies, to see him " out to sea."
After breakfast, to
A
pilot-boat followed our vessel, like a dancing
and nimble
horse led behind a carriage, to take the rider at the spot of separation.
Slowly we
sailed,
with a sluggish breeze, along
140
(
that beautiful bay,
of Naples
—why,
in its appearance
once more the
I
)
which people have compared
bay
to the
cannot say, probably, because every item
Out of Sandyhook,
is different.
sea, its vivifying
breeze and
its
enjoyed
I
expanding
sight, the
heaving of the billows and the sharp line of the
horizon.
Did
be sure that
I
believe in the migration of souls, I should
I
was once
some
a gull, or
sea-bird, enjoying
the mighty view from his soaring sails above; or or,
perchance, an oyster?
there must be
some
hope not; but, certain
I
mighty element, boyhood; walde
—
when
I
Lost
I
it
for
which
was from the
was deeply
saw, for the
cod,
it is,
that
soon as
perceive
I
I beheld, for the first time,
the
the dreams of
my
longed in
I
all
spire of the city-church of Greifs-
affected; I sat
first
I a
nerves which pro-
affinity, as
remember when
I
my
peculiarity in
duces a decided sensation of the sea.
was
and gazed, overcome, as
time, Raphael's
in the pleasure of gazing, I
Madonna
di Sisto.
then stood before the hea-
venly picture for two hours, when the keeper gently tapped
me
on the shoulder and told
me
that the doors of the gal-
lery were to be closed.
The ideas
sea
we
is
beautiful in itself, yet
connect with
more
still
The knowledge
it.
so
that
from the it
is
not
bounded by our horizon, that this same swelling and heaving mass extends from here to China, that billow follows on billow, without end, that
without number, that
sea
—
this, it is its
glory and
danger, that inspire us with awe or delight.
It is the
and on its
it
has rolled and roared for years
it
connects the most distant nations,
its
back rides history
we do not
which
creates
thought.
behold, as this state
much
as
that
of our soul,
which we espy,
—half
feeling, half
Otherwise our sensations would be the same on
beholding a lake of moderate
we
it is
size,
whose opposite shores
cannot discern; and there can be
Casper Hauser would have
felt
little
other sensation, had he seen the sea, as for the first time, gardens
and
doubt but that
as little pleasure, or
fields;
when he
any
observed,
while he wept on be-
141
(
This
holding the starlight sky.* in
itself,
we
but
)
is
much grander
a
are accustomed to
and
it,
unknown deep
threaten with destruction; the idea of the
not connected with •
sight
does not
it
is
it.
Casper Hauser was an individual
who had been
kept, by some atrocious
hand, in a narrow dungeon in Bavaria, from his earliest infancy to about his sixteenth year, shut out from
quirement of knowledge of rately described in a small
now
highest distinction,
all
this
The
communication with the world.
youth when he entered the world
is
ac-
accu-
work by Mr. Von Feuerbach, a gentleman of the
deceased.
Boston, 2d edition, 1833.
has been translated and published in
It
Since the publication of this work, the poor
youth has been murdered, probably by the same hand that had murdered
The
already his childhood.
Earl of Stanhope,
who
took a great and active
interest in Hauser, has published, for private distribution,
some
formation on this interesting individual, a copy of which
is
and we may communicate parts of acquisition of notions
course, through the
it
to the public.
on
additional in-
way
its
— Casper had,
and knowledge through the sense of
to us,
as to the
sight, to go,
same processes and gradual acquaintance with the
of
effects
of colors on his eyes, as a person, born blind, when restored to sight in riper
A view of a gaiden or a landscape, which appears beautiful to us, would
years.
at first displease
him much,
he had learnt to judge of distances, or experi-
until
A white-washed wall, a red shawl would At the same time he never complained of " the man "
ence had taught him perspective. please him far more.
who had kept him to him,
when
and produced
in
the dungeon? on the contrary, he was anxious to return
the world burst upon him with that uneasiness of
its
thousand
new
impressions,
mind and melancholy which are the cause of
when he descends from his higli Alps, The first time that Casper felt the him by his barbarous keeper, was when he
the consuming home-sickness of a Swiss
where he great
lives in the greatest simplicity.
wrong committed
beheld the starlight sky. lating to this fact, to
against It is
we have appended tliis note. common interest: "It was in summer evening, vens.
We will extract the
his instructer
it,
same time
its
sight,
for
all
fixing accurately with his eye the different groups
to him,
remarking the
But who has placed
who
all
stars
a fine
tliat
it;
could at the
were point-
most distinguished for their brightness, and
tliat I
'That,' he exclaimed,
have ever yet seen
in the world.
these numerous beautiful candles there?
puts them ouf'
He
description.
and was ever returning to gaze upon
indeed the most beautiful sight
them''
the words to which
seems to us of un-
for the first time the starry hea-
observing the differences of their respective colors. •is
in
it
month of August, 1829, when, on
showed him
His astonishment and transport surpassed
not be satiated with
ed out
the passage in the above-mentioned book re-
which our author, probably, alludes
When
he was told
that, like
who
lights
the sun with
—
142
(
We had
Champagne with
us,
)
some fowl and a pdte de
foies gras, which tasted excellent on the ocean.
ternoon,
we made
veller a
happy
signal to our pilot-boat
Two vessels came
passage.
number, and some
They I
and
ed for the ties, I
if
The former
fight.
in
great
Hobbes
is
right,
to
at a
man's natural
is
game
in the streets
but a slight occasion had been wanting,
the coats were ready pulled
all
both
be
warring
at least, that
have seen them here dispute
of the suburbs; as
us,
af-
tra-
in a deplorable state
are strange people, these Irish.
with regard to them state.
with
in
They seemed
laden with Irish emigrants.
In the
and wished the
off,
and both parties gird-
inhabitants of
two
Irish coun-
forget their names, had a hard fight in the streets of
A
Philadelphia!
similar occurrence took place while I re-
were mayor, on such an occasion, I would let the fire-engines play upon them, and, a hundred to one, they would be cooled down and, perhaps, be ashamed sided in Boston.
If I
But the worst
of their brutal folly.
the following it
out of the paper, because
neither
you nor
aflfray I
ever heard of
must send you the whole account,
I
I
it
shows man
had ever dreamt
to see
'Who
nue
him
When he
placed them there above, that they
At
to give lighti"
down, and his eyes
which
in a light in
which he was already acquainted, they always continue asked again:
to give light,
may always
he
fell into
he
conti-
bowed
length, standing motionless, with his head
staring,
is
as I cut
a train of deep and serious meditation.
again recovered his recollection, his transport had been succeeded
by deep sadness. He sank trembling upon a chair, and asked, why that wicked man had kept him always locked up, and had never shown him any of these beautiful things.
broke out with
into a
difficulty
been,
fit
He
(Casper) had never done any harm.
be soothed; and
may now
He then
of crying, which lasted for a long time, and which could
also
said, that
be locked up
for a
the
man with whom he had always to know
few days, that he may learn
how hard it is to be treated so. Before seeing this beautiful celestial display, Casper had never shown any thing like indignation against that man; and much less had he ever been willing to hear that he ought to be punished. Only weariness and slumber were able fall
asleep
—
a thing that
about 11 o'clock."
to quiet his sensations;
had never happened to him before
Editor.
and he did not
—
until
was
143
(
" Dublin, June 27.
)
— One of the most sanguinary
faction-
unhappy country took place of Ballyheag, thirteen miles from
fights that ever disgraced this
on Tuesday,
at the races
Tralee, between two clans, the Cooleens and the Lawlors,
who have
been
at feud
above half a century, and
still
defy
both the law and the gospel, in taking vengeance of each other,
whenever opportunity
Rumors
neration.
to the
at Tralee, for a force sufficient to
keep
i'^cordingly, on the day previous,
the peace at the races,
(Monday,)
to ge-
country magistrates, they applied to the
commanding
officer
from generation
some days previous, and information having
culation for
been given
offers,
of the intended fight having been in cir-
detachment of the 69th regiment, with
a strong
three officers, marched from Tralee barracks to Ballyheag,
and on Tuesday took up a position on the race-ground, on the bank of the river Cashen, to be ready to interfere on the first
symptoms of
The two
the expected riot.
factions soon ap-
peared on the ground, in great numbers, but remained quiet till
stones. it
Then
the races were over, at three o'clock.
battle began, in earnest,
A
the appointed
on the river strand, with sticks and
gentleman who witnessed the combat, describes
as one of the most savage and merciless scenes he ever
witnessed or could imagine to have taken place in a Christian country.
The
soldiers could do nothing to stem the
At
torrent of fury and blows that raged on every side. least,
one thousand
men were
the resident parties, numbers
engaged,
"The
all
addition to
came from miles around,
take part in the conflict, against
seen before,
for, in
men whom
to
they had never
for the pleasure of a fight.
Cooleens,
it
appears, received aid from the mountains
of Ballylongford, and even
county of Limerick.
some came
to join
them from the
Captain Hawson, of Ennismore, and
other magistrates, present with the troops, caused the Riot
Act
to be read, but
no body would
listen to
it.
women were occupied, supplying their friends, on with stones, which they carried in their aprons! tle
The very both sides,
The
bat-
soon spread to such an extent, that neither the soldiers
(
144
)
nor police could possibly interfere effectually to separate the
By
parties.
make
the magistrate's orders, they endeavored to
individual prisoners, and,
it
appears, that about twen-
ty were lodged in Lists well Bridewell, but were not per-
mitted to
fire
going on
fast
a shot.
— Indeed, the work of destruction was
enough; no quarter was given, and ghastly
to those who fell and to those who At length, the Cooleens retreated to the river's where many were driven in and drowned. Several
wounds were given both stood up. brink,
attempted to escape by swimming, but were
barbarously
still
by the victorious Lawlors. It was full tide, and two sand-boats on the shore were afloat, into which numbers of
pelted
the defeated party crowded, and pushed off across the ferry, but, being overladen, they sank, and all on board perished.
Four bodies were found next morning at the ferry, and twelve others, men and women, have since been taken up in other parts of the river.
many have been
It is
known how
not yet accurately
sacrificed, either
on shore or in the melan-
choly noyades that followed, but eight or ten lay dead on the strand of battle, at the northern side of the river, and their friends
move
on the southern dared not venture across
them.
It
(of retaliation) last
was expected that another savage
to re-
conflict
would take place on Wednesday, when the
accounts came from Tralee."
Oh
for the civilized Christians!
a stag, follows the
sharp," did
it
to
show
be driven by want,
A stag which fights with
impetus of nature; a knight his skill
or, at least,
who "ran may
and gallantry; a robber
by the
passion of gain, bad
and degenerated, yet originally natural; but here
—
it is
too
disgusting.
When
I
arrived in town, as I had nothing else to do, I
to a bookseller's.
Books
interest
sic merit, or as pathological is
me
either
symptoms of
by
the time.
always something to be learned from them.
went
their intrin-
If I
There
am
de-
tained in a small place where I have no acquaintance, I in-
variably go to the bookseller's,
if
there
Booksellei*s, generally speaking, are,
is
by
one to be found. their
very trade,
—
145
(
minded men of
liberal
may
from them you
)
a certain range of knowledge; and
often learn facts uhich
may
give you
an insight into the disposition or state of society. I
new number
found with the bibliopolist, a
ny Magazine; what
a clever publication
new number!
will rejoice at receiving this
ture-book. tiate of
If the editors
would only be
However,
Gothic churches!
and many others with me.
What mighty
clever book.
Some
are!
the
is
engines
I
it is
his best pic-
a little less insa-
am grateful to them, Penny Cyclopsedia a these publications
all
people deride the propagatioii> of knowledge,
and the idea of
its
want being
of the community. spite of
So
of the Pen-
How my boy
it is!
felt
by the laboring portion
Let them smile, the world goes on
them; and, though
London
a turn out of
in
tailors, to
enforce a claim for leisure to improve their minds, be foolish and a caricature, yet
a sign of the time, as the cari-
it is
catures of the time, properly taken, always are; and
ther have a tailor risian
women,
who wants
to
improve
his
Pd
ra-
mind, than Pa-
so ignorant that, in the time of the cholera,
they believed in a universal poisoning, and brutally killed suspected persons with their
own
hands.
have sometimes thought a very brief encyclopedia
I
might be written
—A Pocket Cyclopaedia on
a
Hieroglyphic
You have seen the Dictionnaire des Giroueltes,^ in which the name of every French politician is given with as many vanes represented as he has undergone political mePlan.
tamorphoses. ficant
enough
This plan can be expanded. if
we
say,
A.
drums; C. D., an orator of E.
F., a patriot
B
,
five
a
Is it not signi-
parson of three kettle-
whale-heads or jets d'eau;
of four sinecures; G. H., an author of a
single hand-organ, grinding the J.
a
same tune over and over;
K., a publisher of six cider-presses; L. M., a printer of
hundred blunderbusses; or Talleyrand,
fox-tails, as there are • Dictionary
of Vanes.
cocks, Indicative of the tracts
a politician of ten
pachas of three horse-tails?
For some
—This wotk contains besides the vanes or weather-
number of
political
changes of each individual, ex-
of his speeches, manifestos, SsC, as proofs that the number of vanes
correct.
Editor.
19
is
146
(
)
politicians the hieroglyphic representation of their instabi-
by means of vanes, will not answer, were we to allow them a dozen. A top will express it more exactly, for it keeps constantly whirling. I mean politicians, whose model
lity
is
a Cobbett, except that
show
height, and
science
whose
is
very few elevate themselves
like the
moveable disk
in a
their principle,
They change
which
Nothing is,
to
is stable in
have none.
They seem
to
—
as often as their &hirt.
and are yet,
Throw
have something rotary motion,
a
in other respects, similar to these animalcules.
the water of
honor, and
every side
them, except
their politics as Lipsius did his religion, al-
of the nature of certain infusory animals
most
of ronletie, and
game
politics are like a round-robbin, turning to
but nowhere tangible.
to his
whose con-
their arts without disguise;
let
and you will
them ferment
call
— the
power upon the dregs of honesty and in the sunshine of patronage,
these vile creatures
more
by thousands
into ex-
you observe them. I also found, at the bookseller's a number of the Chinese Register, published in Canton. In this number was a review of an article on Canton, in the Encyclopedia Ameriistence
cana,
which
What
con.
viler the
is
closely
founded on the German Conversations-Lexi-
an intercourse, at present, exists between the
different parts of the world! I
spoke of bad books as pathological symptoms of the
time.
I
must send you the
title
peculiar sign of " bad times," cal
symptom
of mankind.
is,
of one, which,
if it is
no
at all events, a pathologi-
People love the horrid; the
poorer classes will flock to executions, and to meet the appetite of the wealthier, the following advertisement
serted in the
werp,
in
be had tlie
at
1S32:
was
papers, at the time of the siege of
in-
Ant-
— "The public are informed that places may
the Theatre des Varieth,
siege."
this:—
London
The
title
at
Antwerp,
of the book which
I
for seeing
mentioned
is
;
(
''
147
)
Cheapest and most popular
Work
ever
published. THE
TERRIFIC REGISTER; OR,
RECORD OF
JUDGITIEIVT8, CALAMITIES.
CRI]?IEI!!>,
PROVIDENCES, AND
FROM THE LONDON EDITION. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. Published in Numbers of
SIXTEEN
large octavo Pages.
Price only 6 1-4 cents each. Ofie or
more numbers will appear every week.
EACH NUMBER EMBELLISHED WITH
AN ENGRAVING ON
WOOD, BY NORTON, FROM THE ORIGINAL DESIGN.
oi'the Work embraces: BARBARITIES inflicted by savage Hordes;
The Plan Accounts of
CRUEL PUNISHMENTS witli whicfi crime lias been BARBAROUS MURDERS; ATROCIOUS ASSASSINATIONS;
visited;
DIABOLICAL CRUELTIES; and SANGUINARY CONFLICTS;
BLOODY DUELS
DARING VILLANIES; FRAUDS, PLOTS, CONSPIRACIES, and REBELLIONS;
REMARKABLE ROBBERIKS, EXECUTIONS,
and
PERSECUTIONS,
for
PIRACIES,
CONSCIENCE' SAKE;
WELL AUTHENTICATED
STORIES of APPARITIONS, and strange and fearful SUPERSTITIONS, DISASTROUS ACCIDENTS; PERILOUS ENTERPRISES and MIRACULOUS ESCAPES, by Sea and Land
AWFUL
and SINGULAR INTERPOSITIONS; PLAGUE, FAMINE, FIRE, EARTHQUAKE,
VISITATIONS,
Accounts of
AND OTHER SPECIAL CHASTISEMENTS OF PROVIDENCE.
ALREADY
WORK, ENGRAVINCrS,S,'c.
IN HAND, FOR THIS
UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED
—
148
(
Horrid
more
as this catalogue
at the
who
reader
—
may
enjoys
)
be,
all
who
does not shudder
these horrors?
in spite of its
appealing to the worst cravings of a
I think, still
worse
dn Crime et de P InEvenements lespius trngiqiies, Empoi-
is
nocence, Reciieil des
And yet, gross mi^,
the " Chrnniqiie
sonnemen/s, Massacres, ^Sssassinats, Parricides Forfuits; comrnis en France depuis
le
et
autres
Commencement de la
MonarchicjusqiC a nosjours;^'''^ by Baron Lamothe Langon, reputed father of Memoirs of Madame du Barri, Louis XVIII,, Femme de Qualite. Langdon does not write for an entirely He knowingly and willingly strives to exilliterate public. cite, in
the very worst way, surfeited minds, while the Regis-
ter is chiefly calculated for the uneducated,
who, like children,
have always a peculiar relish for the grotesque, wild, awful, overpowering, or gigantic. t
But the most disgusting inby the managers of a Lon-
stance of the kind was afforded
don
theatre,
when they informed
the public that the
murder
of Thornton would be represented, and the very vehicle in
And we preRomans took in the
which the murder was committed, exhibited. tend to be surprised at the pleasure the fights of gladiators!
The trast
•
heat,
when
returned home, was suffocating; the con-
I
between the fresh sea-breeze and the dead heat of the
Chronicle of Crime and Innocence; or Collection of the most
trag'ic
Events, Poisoning's, Massacres, Assassinations, Paj-ricides, and other foul
Deeds, from the Beginning of the Monarchy down to
tlie
present Time.
—
Editor.
f The following' notice, of the papers of 1833, may find a place here: " New Publications. The following works are announced as being sale at Lemoine's, a Paris bookseller in the Place Vendome:
—
«'
Crimes of the Popes, from
" Crimes of chy
the
St.
for
Peter to Pius VI., inclusive.
Kings of France, from the commencement of the monar-
to Charles X., inclusive.
Crimes of the Queens of France, from the commencement of the monarchy to Marie Antoinette, inclusive. •'
"The announcement
is
followed by the attractive puff, that these works
were prohibited by the ex-government.
Editor.
149
(
city
If
think
No
was immense.
which made me
had been cast upon me.
we mention, in a letter, the time when we write it, I we ought, likewise, to inform the person who is fa-
me
at all at
what temperature
in
me
write
If a friend
written.
I
the heavy atmosphere,
in
stir
feel as if lead
vored with our communication,
write
)
95° above zero,
I set
was
it
at 10°
below, or
him down
as a friend
amiably
His friendship must be deeply seated,
can depend upon.
not to have frozen in the former case, and be firm as Anto-
have melted away
nio's, not to
in the latter.
May
day, but which must belong to
some
flannel
seems to pervade
may
on such a day, you thing very near
nature
set
—
him down
the white
lie to
and a longing for
said,
man
if a
a
is
good-natured
for a saint, or
some-
Dryness and moisture, cold and
it.
are, at least, of as
mine once
all
is
stray week, lost
during winter, when the red nose gives the pantaloons, as a friend of
man
call itself
If a
kindly disposed on a day which makes bold to
much importance
to be
known
heat,
as the time,
and the wearing of a watch forms altogether a very imperfect
A
accomplishment.
Have
formality?
—
all
I
steel
thermometer ought never
not met with a buck, this evening,
the year round, a
"
off his cravat? all
pocket
Does not heat change every thing? dissolve
to be wanting.
A
dandy a quatre epingles
Oh!" was
mouth
half open,
From
a
the time with a languid motion of his hand.
all
the great effect which
exercises
left
bare neck!" I exclaimed; "
he uttered, with eyes half closed and
fanning
—had
all
who
upon individuals,
found that this unusual heat
I
have learned
I
to
understand,
with greater clearness, the causes of several phenomena in the private
nor has
it
life as
well as in the history of Asiatic nations,
me
passed without giving
me, with regard
to literature.
great excellence of Shakspeare.
the evening,
I
a lesson, important to
proved
It
He
to
me
stood the
was nearly exhausted and had
after another, grave, satirical, or
my mind,
When,
tried
one book
in
humorous; La Secchia ra-
pila, or Camoens, and nothing would do,
opened would interest
once more the fire.
when no book
I resorted, at last,
I
again to
150
(
Shalfspeare.
opened the volume
I
In him
ceives me.
electric rapidity to
companied
me
)
is
a life
random: he never de-
at
which communicates
every thinking
on land and sea, in camp and prison,
me by
often delighted
became now
the fire-side,
He who
comfort in this suffocating heat.
and saddens you, when you read him,
your mind,
in
ever event
may
and
much
I
it
ever ready to
meet.
He
think,
may now
rise or sink.
is
with the
a question whether he be not ac-
by the Germans.
not yet entirely got over their period
notions in regard to taste.
I
cannot follow
Schlegel in all his admiration of this most gifted of
of Apollo, nor Mrs. Jamieson. designs where there are to
—
like
me
They
I
find beauties
none.
some designs of Raphael
flowings of genius; but as they do.
like
certainly be called nearly
with the Germans as he
would be
The English have
ties
is
of itself at sunrise
tually held in higher esteem at present
of French
my
he finds within you an echo, whether the
a national poet
English; nay,
has
also
be placed, what-
your hope or the sun of your success
Shakspeare, as
may
Memnon, which sounded
at sunset; so
star of
who
occur to you, or with whatever character,
high or low, exalted or sensual, you the statue of
has ac-
instructs, cheers, is
may
whatever situation you
with
itself
He who
soul.
—
sons
all
and deep
Shakspeare's beau-
are sometimes the over-
believe him, nevertheless, as great
The English seem very
generally to have com-
mitted the mistake of considering Shakvspeare as a mere genius, powerful
tion on his
and gigantic indeed, but without much
own works,
reflec-
or any wise arrangements of his
dramatic plans. This mistake has produced a great
effect
own
upon
their literature: they allowed, for a long time, Shakspeare to
stand alone, and followed French
The Germans, on
the other hand,
correctness, so called.
now
often strive to find
plan and well-devised beauty in every part; even in those
where sober
would consider admiration too great a stretch of our love for the poet. I cannot find any thing so enormously elevated in Isabella, or such peculiar
places
wisdom
in the
reflection
devising of her character, as Schlegel does;
——
131
(
nor would, in
all
alive, tell us that
ciencies in him.
His
fect?
)
probability, Shakspeare himself,
So there
he did.
But was he
deficiencies,
are,
however, are but like the momenta-
when
his
incorrect in
But never would
if
I
wrote — " Shak-
plans, as Blair
Some
speare, a great, but incorrect genius."
may
him
his steed carries
rapidly through the highest regions.
him
defi-
a god, and could he be per-
ry derangement of his drapery,
call
were he
undoubtedly,
of his pieces
not be well suited to our imagination in every detail,
they come to be represented, but this has nothing to do
with the poet, or the true merit of his works.
were
to be represented in his time;
His pieces
and whatever
is
called
into existence in this world, must assume a form, which
form
is
by the
subject to changes.
My
opinion
which the French believe
rule
Aristotle, and
not influenced
is
to
have found in
which has forced their dramatic poets
absurdities, such as
you
find
none
into
in Shakspeare.
Shakspeare, to use an unpoetic comparison of a poet, takes
human
the whole
life
like a lemon, presses out the juice
essence, and throws away the pulp.
deep, great, essential truth; but,
you must go
to the
if
In
him
you wish
all is
for reality,
reality.
why,
market, or to the courts, and patiently
wait five years for the denouement of an intricate
The French
and
truth
classical dramatists give
affair.
you neither truth nor
Their greatest conspiracies, which change the
fate
of a whole dynasty, are begun and terminated within one
day, during which time, the most designing statesmen are
won
all
the time in public
much more
natural, say they,
over, the conspiracies going on
places
— why?
because
it
is
that the authorities of the state should be stock-blind, than that the spectator should allow that there, is
unnatural
must turn
to
actor,
who needs
the audience in order to be understood
change of the scenery acts,
where every thing
— from the lamp-daylight to the
which again
is
a
admissible, or that between the
are unnatural, a longer time than ten mi-
nutes can be imagined to elapse. It
must be owned, however,
that the English are return-
152
(
)
ing to a better judgment; and soon, treat a
of
Tate as persons,
who
That
art, are treated in all countries.
turn,
is
proved to
that Shakspeare
me by
it is
to
be boped, will
mutilate statues and other works
nothing so
spirits
much
as
cannot re-
by the
and Mozart have never appeared
to
fact,
Tate
and Bishop.
The Germans approach
the
works of
this great philoso-
pher, lofty historian, and powerful poet, with a devotion
which
strives but to enter deeper
and deeper into his vast
designs and immortal beauties, while the English, as yet,
allow the Pegasus, which he rode more masterly than to appear before
them only
maimed and hamstrung. ardent followers.
after the noble animal has
May
Shakspeare
is
Mrs. Jamieson as
find
all,
been
many
important to the English
or ourselves as the greatest of our warriors or legislators.
«
153
(
LETTER
>
IX,
SEND you to-day some of Major Jack Downing's Letters, which will amuse you, though some of their allusions I
may
As
be unintelligible to a foreigner.
tion of
them
published
is
I
you
will send
soon as a collec-
The
a copy.
terest of these letters lies partly in the simple
in-
and blunt,
yet forcible, and not unfrequently convincing manner, with
which
certain intricate questions, of
nation, are treated in
much importance
to the
them, partly in the peculiar compound
of the bluntness and shrewdness of a country Yankee, being personified in
Major Jack Downing, the pretended author
of the Letters, partly, also, in the impudence of the real author,
who, sans /aeon, makes the major
tell
long stories
of what happened between him and the president, the vicepresident,
Mr. Clay, Calhoun, Biddle, and other
guished citizens; and, again, in the singular
distin-
mode which
the
author has chosen for bringing forth his views and argu-
ments, as Jack
Downing pretends
to
belong to the party of
the president, while the real author
is
a
member
of that
party which thinks that the president has wantonly disen-
chanted the constitution, feat at
Baylen:
—"
With you, on
//
as
Napoleon
a desenchante
said of
Dupont's de-
VarmV
the other side of the water, people
have no doubt but that the whole vessel of the founder,
if
would
state
must
the highest magistrate and the most prominent
20
—
154
(
men
)
Here people
are handled with such bold familiarity.
The
think differently.
New
the butchers of
president signs himself in a letter to
York, who had sent him a peculiarly hat-maker,
fine piece of beef, or to a
who
him
presented
with some broad-brimmed beaver, " Your humble servant,"
and the law
is
yet observed.
Downing's Letters cannot be compared
which was
are altogether of a higher cast.
work — "Letters
The
author
would
is a
there
hence the necessity of secrecy, which lends
real danger;
no inconsiderable charm a
to those of Junius,
With Junius
seen
on Junius, by Newhall, Boston, 1831?"
merchant
be, if a "
Have you ever
to his letters.
in Salem,
and curious enough
it
cute" Salem merchant should have pene-
He
trated the secret.
Lord
ascribes their authorship to
Temple, and makes out his case pretty well. This is, however, not the only American work on the authorship of
The game
these famous productions.
venom is deadly; in name has been uttered
of Junius
;
his letters
were written
they amuse some, instruct others.
riosity to the philologist
the true
high; his
Yankee idiom
his
for the high-
Downing's, on the other hand, are
est in the nation. all:
is
commons
the house of lords and
They
for
will be a cu-
some hundred years hence, when
will
have given way,
languages in time do; and, in
fact,
they are
as all provincial
now
of interest
to the student, unacquainted with the peculiar expressions
New
of
England,
tached to them
—and
a little
when they
glossary ought to be
are collected together.*
heard, however, some true blue Yankees assert, that
ing does not write
classical
Toscan Yankee spoken? different
Yankee; but where
The Connecticut idiom
from that of Boston or
New
Hampshire.
at-
have
I
Downis
the
is
very
I
once
heard two Mecklinburghers earnestly dispute on the question •
whether
The
a purer
Low-German
is
spoken
Letters of both the Jack Downing's (the major
thological person, of whom there are
two
in Strelitz or is
not the only my-
editions; there are
two Bacchuses,
two Venuses, &c.,) have been separately published since the author wrote the above, yet no glossaiy has been appended to them. Editou.
—
155
(
However,
Schvverin.
Low-German
)
this is not quite the
same; because
a decided dialect, with a different
grammar, Yankee consists much more in some peculiar words, or words used in a peculiar sense, and in the pecuis
&c., while
liar it
mode
of expression, in strange metaphors, &c.,
consists as
and
is,
much
in
in fact,
compared rather
therefore, in this respect, to be
the language of the
—
thought and pronunciation as in words;
common people
ter never failed to disgust
But
in Berlin.
the
to
lat-
me, while the former may be very
amusing.
Some
of Downing's illustrations are capital, at which no-
body, of whatever party he
though he leans strongly
now and
then gives his
to
own
may
party some smart
times he wanders in allegories
meddle with. But
that
be, can help smiling;
hits.
Some-
—the most dangerous things
many of the
proved by their great popularity.
view has yet taken them up.
and
one side of the question, yet he
am
I
They
istructive and sprightly article
to
letters are well written is
surprised that no re-
afford opportunity for
an
on the various jargons, and
same time, some single books which have exercised
at the
a great influence in politics, such as Junius, the
Rendu of Necker, &c. Did we live in ancient
Compte
Downing, being a mysgrow into aheros: gods may have sometimes a mythological personage become such by strange processes. I was reading, shortly ago, with what great fear the crew of Captain Kotzebue's times. Jack
terious person, would, without question, gradually
vessel,
made
when he circumnavigated
their first approach to
had passed
it,
the poor Russian tars were so rejoiced, that,
ex tempore creating a deity of
god Horn, covite
in the act of It
flag.
the world a second time,
Cape Horn, and how, when they this Cape,
they represented
paying particular respect
would do the captain and
his
to the
Mus-
crew good
to
know how entirely the terrors of this Cape are lost on our whalers, who think no more of weathering it than Cape Cod; and prefer
it
much
to the tedious passage
through the Straits
of Magellan.
Children,
illiterate
people, and nations in their earliest
156
{
by a
stages, are constantly impelled
make
)
desire to personify, to
the abstract, or invisible, concrete and palpable.
This
celebration of the Russian sailors, though but in sport, af-
Had
fords, nevertheless, an exhibition of this natural desire. it
happened
we
in earlier ages,
should soon have had sacri-
win the good graces of the jealous god Horn, whose symbol might have been a large horn, out of which he blew the gales which harass the circumnavigators of the Cape, or who might have been represented with a huge horn fices offered to
on his forehead,
to buffet the vessels;
two thousand years, might have " symbolics" of
this mytlios.
many thousand
one of the
the illiterate
and a Creuzer,
tried his ingenuity
The name Cape Horn
after
on the
itself is
instances of the facility with
which
mould and change things to make them fitted to The Cape was discovered by Lemaire and
their capacity.
Schouten, and called Cape Hoorn, in honor of the city of
Hoorn, not been
far
from the Texel, where their expedition had
The English
fitted out.
Horn,
a
changed the name into
sailor
good name for any cape, and for
this
par
excel-
lence.
Imagine
tween tels
me now
New
going on board a steamboat, plying be-
York and Albany, those
refined floating ho-
and swift couriers on the Hudson, which, one might say,
arts,
which
fine arts, are the
country presents to a foreigner.
this
in respect to
most striking objects It is a fact, that
the Americans, these enthusiastic utilitarians, to venture a bull, lavish
an elegance upon these steamboats, which would
be unaccountable, were we not acquainted with the powerful effect
"
of competition.
Courier and Inquirer!
Sir, the
rope, sir,"
— says
a little fellow,
dle of that paper, in
landing.
"
The
some
Standard,
street not far sir!
news from Washington," your
"
Le Blanc's
sir," calls another; "
A
trial
a
Eubun-
from the steamboat-
A Jackson
calls
refusal of the Courier, that
ministration.
Latest news from
approaching you with
paper; the latest
another, concluding from
you
are a friend of the ad-
and conviction for murder,
revolution in Paris," says his oppo-
(
157
)
you approach, the more these officious messengers of the events and gossip of two hemispheres nent; and the nearer
thicken around you. one;
"The
third; "
—"The
Daily Advertiser!" exclaims
Gazette!" says another;
There
is
"The Advocate!"
Downing
a letter of Jack
"
again the spokesman of the Daily Advertiser. fire in
Charleston," says his competitor; "
a
in to-day," says
The
A
great
total loss of
the ship Raleigh," utters another news-pedler; "
The Tem-
perance Recorder!" and a quarto paper is held out to you; " what? " Oranges, sir," asks a " The Anti-Masonic man, pushing through the crowd of urchins and lads. " I
want nothing but
to
be
left
alone."
steam begins to whistle with to
its
—" Very
well, sir."
—The
sharp noise, an overmatch
every other sound, except the similar cutting tone of
caping steam from the pipes of opposition boats.
The
es-
vessel,
yet fastened to the pier, moves forward and backward, like an impatient horse, dashing the water against the side of the
wharf; the loud bell rings over your head; the opposition boats ring their bells, too; ladies and gentlemen, with their children, rush in over the narrow bridge,
which connects
the boat with the land, together with pushing porters and
searching friends; trunks
your
over your head, veils
fly
by
your eyes, carpet bags knock you wheelbarrows endanger your toes and shins.
face, canes threaten
right and
The
float
left,
single strokes are tolling; the opposition toll their sin-
comers hasten from the different
gle strokes, too; late
puffing and blowing; tions;
—some people
hackney coaches call
rattle
from
streets,
all
direc-
from the wharves, some leap on
board, and climb over the railing; the boat
moves more
—
unruly to and fro; a bundle of tracts is thrown to you: " Please, sir, distribute them;" a baby, with a cap of sky-blue sarsinet, silver tassels,
and yellow feathers,
is
yet handed
over to a red-faced, panting Irish woman, with a bonnet of contrasting colors, and
—some
people remain disappointed
on shore, looking, with an angry
face, after the boat, be-
cause a single second costs them twelve hours, perhaps, twenty-four.
The
shrill
steam ceases
—the boat moves
on.
!
(
)
bundles and vallises are yet thrown from the wharf;
Some one
158
falls into
the
water— never mind,
the boat cannot stop.
Presently, a second boat darts from between two other piers the dangerous race begins, and
Another
fortable.
bell!
paid their passage, please
Another
the
American
feels
com-
to step to
the captain's office!"
rush, another squeeze; oh, for the everlasting trou-
bles in this
Since
now
"Passengers who have not
I
life
have been in
this country, the size
and general
arrangement of these boats have been considerably improved, much as I admired them, when I first arrived. The same is
the case with the packets to Liverpool and Havre.
I
lately
visited one of these stately vessels, and was struck with the
improvements,
in respect to the vessel itself, as well as the
comfort and elegance of the accommodations for the passengers, though the vessel in
which
I
came from England was
then, and justly so, considered a model of a fine ship, and
of a comfortable and elegant packet.
These packets be-
tween the two worlds belong to a branch of statistics, important for the correct understanding of the history of our times.
The
large steamboats on the
Hudson have
a
room
sively devoted to the use of the ladies, where they
down
or arrange their dress; adjoining
and gentlemen
;
so that the different
is a
exclu-
may
lie
parlor for ladies
members of a family may
see each other below deck, and yet the ladies need not go into
the
common room for gentlemen, nor the latter need enter tne The next room is the long cabin, which
lady's cabin proper.
serves as a dining saloon, and, during the time between
used by the gentlemen. There is, besides, at the fore end of the boat, a separate " bar-room," where refreshments may be had, books may be borrowed, and maps, the meals,
is
and guide-books may be bought. In all rooms, except the The last, you find fine carpets and tasteful silk curtains.
deck
is
shaded by a wooden roof, on which
itself
you can
Smoking is permitted walk, under an awning of sail-cloth. with the activity of was struck only on the fore-deck, and I
159
(
,
)
two men, who were here engaged in removing the moist traces of smoking and chewing, as soon as a passenger had
make
taken the liberty to
the fore-deck his spitting-box.
mankind should be so cleanly as to require the services of two men to be constantly employed in removing an object of disgust, which the other half is, Strange, that one half of
nevertheless, dirty enough to throw into their way, and not sufficiently civil to take the
even
very modest and practical
hint thus given them.
A
number of
ladies in
mourning were,
In England and here, mourning dress cess.
A
traveller,
prised
at
seeing
from
far
New
is
on board.
carried to ex-
from the European continent,
so
many
both these countries.
I
people dressed
a village
She was
York.
in
in
is
sur-
black in
met, one day, a lady of
Rockaway,
quaintance, in
as usual,
my
ac-
on the sea-shore, not
mourning; she told
me
the reason of her sombre dress; some distant relation had " But," said I, " I saw you in mourning half a year died. ago: for for
whom was
"We
that?"
— Mary, my dear," turning
we
in
mourning, then?"
effect of this
were then
in
to her sister, " for
You may
mourning
whom were
easily imagine that the
naivete upon the whole circle was the opposite
to the lugubrious.
A proper regard ternal signs,
is,
for our departed friends,
and agrees with our feelings. to
shown by ex-
undoubtedly, becoming for a civilized man,
But
if
mourning
is-
carried
such an extent as in England and the United States,
it
has no more meaning than the going into mourning of a court, ordered
by the high-chamberlain,
princess of a distant dynasty, to
for some prince or which the mourners are not
by the use of the word cousin between it causes a state of things which may with the whole life of an individual. A
farther related than
ruling heads.
Besides,
seriously interfere
female
is
born to be married, marriage requires previous ac-
quaintance, and, as things
now
stand, acquaintance cannot,
generally, take place without social intercourse; mourning,
however, throws a young lady out of society.
I
have known
;
160
(
families in
which young
)
ladies continued to
wear mourn-
ing for some very distant cousins, from their seventeenth
year to their twenty-first: a very serious
much
affair in a
country
where
ladies cease
on the
full tide
of marriageableness than in other parts of the
world.
Some
avoid this inconvenience by going to balls in
earlier to be considered as floating
semi-mourning, which never
There
pleasant impression.
—
which shows too plainly the Germans and French
I
fails to is a
make on me
mockery
mourn, but
are
more
a
very un-
in such a contrast,
I grieve not.
I
think
rational in regard to the
wearing of mourning.
On board of these steamboats, between New York and Albany, and New York and Philadelphia, there is generally a man with a case of types, offering them for sale to passengers, who are desirous of printing their names, with indelible ink, on their wearing apparel.
years ago, the dustry. It
is
first
remember, when
I
saw, a number of
carried on this novel branch of in-
clear that these types cannot be of use to
yet, standing not far
how the
I
man who
from the man with
any one
his box, I observed
principle, so universally spread, of self-love or self-
consideration, united with the leisure of every passenger on a steamboat, and his eagerness to seize upon any thing which will give some occupation to his mind, induced a number of people to buy what at first they universally took into their hands with the expression of, " Well, what nonA farmer would approach, and, as an Amesense is this?"
board
rican takes every thing in his hand, and views sides,
whether
it
one of the names already composed, and placed case, in
it
on
all
belong to him or not, he would take up
which the
letters
in a little tin
were kept together by a screw.
come and explain own name on linen, in books, &c. Great doubt is, mean while, expressed on the visage of him who handles the types. " What's your name, sir? you need not buy it, just tell me your name." The goddess Suada, the protectress of all shopkeepers, assists, and the name of the hesitating farmer Presently, the vender of the types would
the great advantages of being able to print one's
-
161
(
is
I
With
given.
in type
—
the swiftness of the best compositor,
printed
it is
—" There,
add the surnames for nothing,
be; don't
the
)
sir,
however long they may
look fine? You'd better take
it
it."
time our farmer has seen his name
first
over the world
It is,
faction in the assurance that their
The
love of authorship
is
some
satis-
it is
will be as active
town-meeting,
sends his report to the county-paper.
By
degrees, the farmer pulls out his quarter of a dollar,
receives his name, puts
—
all
know
whole process universal;
in kings as in the secretary of the smallest
who
and I
this.
that criminals, sentenced to die, will often find
printed.
perhaps,
in print,
sometliing flattering in
there; is
put
it is
your whole name, and
sir,
it
in his pocket,
and
Another has already begun
retires.
—half ashamed handle other
to
types, to go through the same psychological process, found-
human
ed upon some of the original principles of the and, therefore,
is
sure to produce the same result.
soul,
After
about half a dozen persons had thus been rendered happy
by the contemplation of
their
own names,
I
stepped up
to the seller of types, and, perceiving that his dialect
him
foreign, addressed
than told
English,
his
In French,
Germany he spoke
I tried
worse
still
peddling disciple of Guttenberg
me, that he was a Dutchman; he was actually
Holland.
my
in French.
this
was
it.
I
a
Jew
of
nov/ expressed
surprise at his success; but he assured me, that he had
carried on this lucrative trade in battered types, for several years, every
day going up the
way
to
Alba-
ny, and returning, by another boat, the same day to
New
York.
I freely
lity of these
can't do I
river, half the
acquainted him with
my
disbelief in the uti-
who had bought them. " They with them," he said. "But how is it,"
types to any one
any thing
replied, " that people, notwithstanding, continue to buy,
since
you
years?"
tell
me
that
— Shrugging
fools there are going,
will always be fools
you have been in this line for several he answered, "Why, sir,
his shoulders,
and fools there are coming, and there
enough
" no baker's business
is
to
buy."
—"
If
it is
so," said
I,
founded upon surer principles." 21
—
(
These, as
162
)
have given them, are the ipsissima verba of the
I
and
type-seller,
perhaps, not quite
it is,
in
fair
me, that
I
thus expose the secret of his trade; but considering that, so far
from declining, a great competition exists already in
commerce,
this sure-footed
probably, produce
my
secret will,
its
That the boxes of these phi-
harm.
little
revealing of
losophical tradesmen should be decorated with great as "
blems and mottos, such of Liberty," or
Go
course.
The Free
"Every Man's Own
em-
Press, the Palladium
Press,"
is
a matter of
through the world, and you will find that every
trade, which is founded upon some simple principle of the body or mind, such as appetite, vanity, hatred, or laziness,
All the world over,
sure to flourish.
is
by menageries, sweet
chiefly because, as
to read, in the
much money
Goethe says,
made is
weekly paper, on Sunday morning,
so in
comfort and ease, of some bloody battles against the
all
Turks, afar
It is so nice to see a
off".
grim tiger behind a
safe grate.
" "
is it
Do you
think
The Hudson."
different,
parisons
it
—
as fine as the
I
am
and besides
—the
Rhine?"
—" What,
sir.^"
unable to compare two things totally I
am
ingenuity of
a great enem}'" to odious little
minds.
com-
Dante has never
gained by being compared to Homer, or Vondel to Shak-
What
speare.
within
itself,
the small
is
or
is
great stands
to be
by
itself,
and has
its
compared
when
to the great, it is not difficult to
say which will be the loser by the comparison.
enjoy on a hot day
character
not great, and on the other hand,
it is
When you
a glass of cool sparkling cider of the
best kind, and an officitfus acquaintance of yours, seeing the praise of the liquid in the expression of your face, asks you:
" is
Now, tell me, is gone
not
it
equal to any
Champagne?"
the taste
at once.
The Rhine descends from
the lofty Alps,
where he takes
leave from his twin-brother, the Rhone, and after a course of
nine hundred miles through loses in beauty
length, his
way
many most
on a nearer approach lies
through
flat
romantic countries, to the sea, until at
j)rose (as
some
illustrious
—
163
(
)
dynasties end) and he empties his volumes into the ocean.
The Hudson, coming from an creases in beauty in
uninteresting country, in-
comparatively short course, the
its
toward the Atlantic, until the
nearer
it
of
course equal in grandeur any object of nature.
its
rolls
peaks and its
basaltic walls, its precipices
miles
last sixty
Its
and lofty crags, and
vast sheet of water, as seen from the height of Singsing,
by any thing the Rhine can offer to Hudson is beautiful, nature has done more for it than for the Rhine, which history and art have ennobled beyond any other river in the world. If are perhaps unequalled
Where
the beholder.
the
Flanders be (according to Sterne,) the great prize-fighting stage of it is
Europe
—Saxony
is
then at least the
whose bosom
the Rhine, on
sails
first
cock-pit
the History of the
From the wars of Cesar, and the first Roman colonist planted on its bank, down
European Continent. vine which the
to Bliicher's bold passage of the river at Caub,
on new-
year's night, of 1814, and the pictures sent forth from Diisseldorf *
—what
distruction and
and the
what
activity in
civilization, in science, in war, in
commerce,
battles, conflicts, councils,
elections and coronations,
arts,
governments are we not reminded
How many
Rhine?
perched on
yards between
on
How lovely are
Strasburg,
banks and
its
fastnesses raised
in its
neighborhood, the strong
by human hands, and the
man's perseverance, which ceptible of
the green vine-
how noble the minsters and Worms! The ancient
shaggy rocks, and
its
of Cologne, and cities
what changes of passing along the
legends are told of the bold castles
high peaks!
its
of, in
striking proofs of
effects its results
on a spot, sus-
any cultivation only by dint of the most laborious
exertion, are objects of continual and ever-varying interest • In
many
the fine
parts of
Germany,
prevails, at present, the greatest activity in
extending' through
arts,
all classes
of society.
While
in
Munich
palaces are raised to gain room for fresco paintings, the effect of a high elevation of taste for
common
is
seen
in
many manufactured
comfort or domestic ornament.
articles or trifles, calculated
In Prussia,
it
would seem,
that sculpture has attained a far higher degree in Berlin, than painting',
while the academy art.
— EnrTon.
at
Dusseldorf, lately re-established, excels in the latter
164
(
to the traveller,
him
delight
who no where
at all,
Hudson
— the
in the
world finds more
to
going on foot and passing from village to
in
village, than along
If the
)
and near the banks of the Rhine.
is
grander in those parts where
grand
it is
neighborhood of the Taunus, the Vosges, the
whence you look into the valley Moses must have gazed from his height
heights at Heidelberg, from of the Rhine, as into the
promised land, and many other spots and places, are
much more
important to all,
Frankfort, so near to the Rhine,
interesting.
many with
on account of
regard to history, but interesting to
forming the crossing point of the travel-
its
Here the Russian passes through
lers of all nations.
if
glishman journeying to Italy, the Italian travelling to
And
people,
many watering
then the
making
somewhere
I
is
my
have expressed
else,
and
I
will
" There are rivers, whose course
volume of water
which
collect
time enjoyment their business, from
for a
quarters of the globe.
the Rhine
places,
greater, but
he
EnLon-
goes to Paris, the Parisian proceeding to Vienna, the
don.
is
all
admiration of
copy the passage. is
longer, and
whose
none which unites almost
every thing that can render an earthly object magnificent and charming, in the same degree as the Rhine.
down from
gions into the open sea, so
many
it
flows
comes down from remote an-
neighboring nations.
the history of the so
it
every age with momentous events in
tiquity, associated in
presents
As
the distant ridges of the Alps, through fertile re-
historical
A
recollections of
river
which
Roman
con-
quests and defeats, of the chivalric exploits in the feudal periods, of the wars and negotiations of
modern
times, of
whose bones repose by its side; on whose borders stand the two grandest monuments of the noble architecture of the middle ages; whose banks present
the coronations of emperors,
every variety of wild and picturesque rocks, thick forests, fertile plains; vineyards, sometimes gently sloping, sometimes perched
among
lofty crags,
where industry has won
a
domain among the fortresses of nature; whose banks are orna-
mented with populous
cities,
flourishing towns and villages.
165
(
)
and ruins, with which a thousand legends are con-
castles
nected; with beautiful and romantic roads, and salutary mineral springs; a river,
banks
whose waters
wines; which, in
offer the choicest
hundred miles,
offer choice fish, as its its
course of nine
hundred and thirty miles of unin-
affords six
terrupted navigation, from Basle to the sea, and enables the inhabitants of
ducts of
its
banks
to
exchange the rich and various pro-
whose
shores;
its
cities,
famous
for
commerce,
sci-
ence, and
works of strength, which furnish protection
Germany,
are also famous as the seats of
and of
ecclesiastical councils,
Roman
to
colonies,
many
and are associated with
of the most important events recorded in the history of man-
kind;
— such
a river,
Germans
not surprising that the
is
it
regard with a kind of reverence, and frequently
call
in
poetry Father, or King Rhhie."
The Hudson
has
more of
a
marine character; Tappan-Sea
and Haverstraw-Bay, notwithstanding their inland have really the character of bays; the vessels,
may
sider the
more
contribute to give
view of the
beautiful,
it
last fifteen
when you
sail
many
this appearance.
You
can hardly imagine a
which you may enjoy,
down; but above, the view
who
is
nobler sight on for
Its eastern
gentle cast,
is
is,
sailing up.
earth, than
twelve cents, by taking
passage in the Manhattanville steamboat, and sailing the river.
con-
I
miles of the river, to be
perhaps, more beautiful to the traveller
that
situation,
square-rigged
down
bank, whose scenery partakes of the
studded with neat and comfortable looking
houses, peeping out of the thick and rich foliage; the Avestern
bank, bolder, grander, and more variegated in
covered with equally rich
and then by path.
foliage,
its
a rock, projecting over a picturesque
As you approach
form,
though interrupted
is
now
winding
nearer to the city, you can perceive
vessels lying in the river, already widening like a land-locked
bay; the eastern bank becomes more and more covered with houses, until at last you glide along a forest of masts, and
presently are landed in the midst of noise and bustle.
Hardly
less
imposing
is
the view up Ihe river, on
some
166
(
parts of
There
it.
)
on shore from which most
are points
magnificent vistas open themselves.
my
perb view from the top of one of height of which river toward
I
one summer
I lived
and often enjoyed the su-
in Manhattanville near the river,
cherry trees, of a
have seen specimens here only, up the
Tappan
Opposite was Fort Lea, where
Sea.
that singular and imposing wall of dark trap begins,
hundred
rising perpendicularly several
which
accompa-
feet high,
about twenty miles, the Hudson so closely, that
nies, for
sometimes the broken pieces which have tumbled from the steep heights have hardly found a resting place between
the water and these rocks,
They form by
—justly
and dale, by cultivated
hill
called the Palisadoes.
a fine contrast to the opposite scenery, variegated fields
At
and thick woods.
a distance, a great sheet of water might be seen extending far
up
to the border of the rising shores near Singsing.
have added
and impressive in
vistas,
order to be brought back to I
very useful complement
I
of beautiful or instructive
list
over which
ing spots in the world. a
my
this point to
I
have only
many
have found
to cast a glance
of the most interest-
a list of this
to a journal; to
me
kind
has
it
to
be
become
indispensable. It
has been often observed that Americans eat quickly,
and devour instead of dining. spect to
all
I
subscribe to this with re-
the classes busily engaged in any occupation of
industry, and in the case of nearly boats, &c.
I
all
public houses, steam-
do not wish to detain you with an inquiry into
the probable causes of this rapidity in eating, the connexion of which, with other national satisfactorily traced;
traits, can, in
nor into
its
probable
my
opinion, be
effects,
such as a
universal tendency to indigestion; which, however, stands
undoubtedly in some connexion
also
with the
many sudden
and violent changes of weather which we have
But
I will
mention one
fact
which, singular as
observed so often, that I think I can rely is
well
known how
intimately
ed with each other, and
all
how much
on
it
its
to endure. is,
I
have
truth.
It
our senses are connectthe sense of hearing af-
167
(
)
If a person be desirous of tasting
fects that of taste.
some-
thing very delicate, or to find out some ingredient of a mixture
by
taste,
the air; and,
much
there be
moment."
quiet for a to
he either shuts his eyes or looks vaguely into
if
It
accustom one's self to
rounded by a great
taste
No
noise.
"Be
noise in the room, says,
would require considerable time with
fine discrimination, sur-
chymist, in a situation of this
kind, would trust his taste in a scientific and delicate in-
Hence
quiry.
so absurd to
it is
have Turkish music during
the host gives something exquisite; if he give
dinner,
if
poor or
common
fare, the
more
noise the better.
Soft and
very harmonious music might, perhaps, not interfere with
a
connoisseur's silent meditation upon the delicate bouquet of
prime Latour or Margaux, or the delights of
But
juicy snipe.
a savory
the music ought not to be so good as to
and
draw
the attention from the primary object of a diner choisi; for it is
impossible to have two ideas or the clear consciousness
of two distinctly different sensations at once.
be surprised, then,
if I
tell
you
You
will not
that I always have found
the people on board a steamboat to eat faster, the faster the
machine
goes.
If the boat stop during dinner, the rattling
of knives and forks abates; not only because a few inquire at
what landing-place the boat
tention to the place
is,
(for
people
where the boat happens
who pay no
at-
to be, but con-
tinue to occupy themselves with the dinner, unconsciously relax in their exertions;) but also, and principally, because
the engine slackens
sumes
its
pace.
As
soon as the piston re-
its activity, the clattering of plates
knives recommences in
all its
vigor.
and clanking of
The engine produces
the sensation of quickness and bustle upon the mind, which,
with
this general impression
imparting If,
as I
it
to the
on the sensorium, cannot avoid
nerves of the hands and the lower jaw.
have no doubt, the velocity with which every
thing around us proceeds, influences our whole disposition, I
am
sure the inhabitants of Mercury, which
rate of three
hundred and
fifteen
moves
at the
miles in a second, must
dine so quickly, that a Yankee would be considered, with
168
(
)
them, an old English country gentleman; and perhaps they restore the deposites, before they are
removed
they would not have talked about
half a year,
it
at all events,
:
— while, on
the other hand, a senator, haranguing against the bank of
Uranus, would begin his speech
in the year 1800, and on new-year's day of 1900, would be just saying, " One word
more, Mr. President, and
I
have done."
About twenty -five miles from New York, you pass Tarrytown, where Mr. Irving has bought a house, to spend his I am glad to see that Mr. Irving has become, one might say, a national writer, with the Germans. I believe
summers. his
works are nearly
as
much known
in
Why
and not only by translations.
is
Germany
as here,
that the
it
cans have so few writers like Irving, so few
Ameri-
who show
an
inventive talent and independent character of their own?
There are numerous reasons, which
would take
it
me more
time to enumerate, than you would be willing to grant
me.
Some
of the most important, in
my
opinion, are the
vastness of the country, which gives indeed, to many, a field
of laborious enterprise and occupation; but
duces
also, the
renders the whole book trade very
from what
it is
necessarily in-
it
population to scatter over vast extents, which
in central
difficult
and different
Europe, or England, France, and
Germany. Our " enterprising publishers," have it not in their power, to " encourage" authors so " liberally" as a Paris, or
London Murray can
do.
them, a whole nation having a long
Then
there
start ahead,
is
before
which speaks
the same language, and in which a whole literature has al-
ready gone through ment.
all
ricans, than perhaps to
before
the successive stages of
Originality, therefore,
comes more
its
develop-
AmeNone was ever
difficult to
any other people.
placed in the same situation with regard to this
point.
Besides,
nations
every thing
at the
fight the pope,
stand
still
are
like
same time.
individuals; they cannot do
The Germans
did not at once
fathom the depths of philosophy, bid the sun
and the earth march, send Humboldt
to
South
—
169
(
)
America, compose Don Juan, and produce Faust. strtutian of the
much and
United States
a charter
is
a gradual development
— enough
con-
occupy whole
to
For the present, the two great
generations.
The
which requires objects
which
engage the main activity of the nation, are material and mechanical improvement, (in which
I
and the development of
capital,)
include the obtaining of politics.
young
It is a
country, placed in a very peculiar situation, by the side of
most
th'C
civilized
direct at once
its
and oldest nations, and, therefore, has
attention to a thousand things
more
connected with the Well-being of society, than polite
The United
ture, or the fine arts.
spects, to introduce, sow, plant,
States have, in
to
directly litera-
some
re-
and raise what other nations
gained slowly in the course of centuries.
These are some of the reasons; the facts cannot be denied. Poland rose and sank, and not a chord of that lyre
was touched, which before
all
others should have been ex-
pected to sound, in praise or sympathy, with that struggle
Nor can
for independence.
tion for satire, if
which
no other cause, would
gave
to
call forth; for
Governor Hamilton
Ensign Frost, the holy banner of
rhymer
pers, in a
nullification,
with
—" Take Ensign Frost, &c.," without inducing
the words single
there be, at present, any disposi-
would be supposed party virulence,
it
to dress
up the account,
as given
by the
few verses; and nothing more would have been
quisite to
make
a
pare-
a satire nearly as bitter, as the lashing
it
lays of Hipponax*.
How many not,
songs of praise or of keen reproach, would
with other nations,
carried
all
the elections produce, were they
on with the same universal interest
as here.
Though
but few citizens can take a personal part in French elections,
none passes without bringing forth some smart poetry. it may be very well that it is so. Certainly it is
But, again,
connected with that soberness so important to the whole political fabric •
of America.
Not quite so bad
bitter satires, that
!
Had
the Americans
more
readi-
Hipponax lashed Buphalus and Anthermus, with so
they liung themselves.
22
Editor.
170
(
)
ness to enjoy a biting sarcasm, or plaisanterie, and not to
them
let
also
roll off like vvater
have to
suffer
from
from a duck's wing, they would
has gone often
much
mind the same which a piercing remark
this agility of
the French have suffered, with
whom
who, not
farther than plain truth, and
unfrequently, have believed that a whole philosophical sys-
tem or an institution might be proved trated by a single conceit. I
be
to
false,
and pros-
think the English parliament keep, in this respect, a
wise and agreeable mean between the French and the
There
ricans.
much more fun
American congress, and,
in the to
is
produce this
much
—which necessary — member of parliament is,
state of things,
in fact,
a
is
surer that something smart or witty will be relished,
than a
member
of congress.
humorous kind,
of a
Ame-
in their parliament than
more
or, at least,
For attacks
in parliament, if
more good
are received with
nature,
they ought to be, as the attacks of wit
as
and humor, than in congress, where every thing
is
taken as
mere downright, plodding politics. A few miles above Tarrytown, (where it will not require much persuasion by the inhabitants to make a stranger act
name
as the
lumbus
of the place requires, since the historian of Co-
lives there,) lies the state prison,
sing or
Mount
name.
Instead of Singsing,
Hush', or,
Pleasant,
we might
of the Turks
is
in it
ought
borrow, for this place, the
for their church-yards,
be preferred.*
readers
The inmates may
of New York. penitentiary,
and
call it
the City of
of this
I
dare say, would
dumb
abode, proba-
is at
Singsing one of the state prisons of the state
There are from eight hundred to a thousand convicts in this founded upon the Auburn plan, the chief characteristics of
are, that die prisoner is
tinues to
its
Hushpoetic name
not understand the allusion of the author without
being informed that there
which
Sing-
But, according to the exquisite American taste in
Silence.
Some
call it
to be called
making geographical names, Mumville,
•
which,
direct contradiction to
bound
be an inmate of the
to perpetual sile.nce as long as
penitentiarj',
and that he sleeps
he con-
in a solitary
—
(
do not cherish
bly,
though
must
I
view from the
it
171
)
by the name of Mount Pleasant,
testify to the truth of this
name,
as to the
Close to the prison, on the top of
spot.
The wide waHudson, the high and steep bank of the opposite shore, and the distant view along the river the a hill opens a prospect of great beauty.
ters of the
—
many
objects of nature before you, all testifying to
power and
greatness,
beneath; with
its
straight
narrow window holes,
Here
many uniform and men who have forfeited
walls and
built for
is
a spot
where,
vent would have been
built.
The
their liberty.
her
contrast strangely with the prison
in olden times, a confinest spots,
and very
properly so, were always selected for the erection of convents.
Names
often play cruel
and sometimes
men upon
tricks
upon men and
things,
To meet
a plain,
their names.
very common. I saw lately But there are contrasts more The arch-villain Gates was called striking than these. Titus, as his crowned kinsman in disposition, Louis XL, was the first French monarch who called himself Most Christian Majesty; for the same reason, probably, that the inquisition, unholy if ever any thing was so, was called the Holy Office. cross,
and unamiable Laura
is
a Porcia, ah, such a Porcia!
Thus, the name of the assassin of Henry HI. was Clement,
and Tiberius's name was Gracchus; and there
is
Archbishop
There have been Laud, never many guilty Innocents; but we should find no end to the The dirk by which list of these beliers of their own names. to be sufficiently lauded.
the French knight gave the final coup, was called misericorde, (the coup itself,
coup de grace,) and the drop
in ancient cas-
by which people were "eliminated," as the phrase was in the French revolution, went by the neat little name of oubliette; as if the horrors of the living grave beneath were tles,
cell.
The
eliuion.
Pennsylvania Penitentiary system
In both the prisoner
is
constantly
is
fonnded on perpetual
engaged
in labor.
Editor.
se-
—
—
—
172
(
)
but like a dram of Lethe.
Cannons, formerly used in moundrawn by men, were styled amuseltes very pleasant toys! So is a brook, near the Trasimene lake,
—
tainous countries and
which drank human blood
in
such
and deep draughts, now
full
called Sanguinetto* Blood-kin, to translate tle
it
literally, or Lit-
Blood; while Ferdinand IV., King of Naples,
who
fled
three times from his capital and the main part of his king-
dom,
is
called Invictiis, on the pedestal of his statue,
There
the Studj.
in congress a
is
lately in the papers that a
judge;
now
bench, and
I
Judge Cage, and
in
saw
I
Mr. Lawless had been appointed
suppose Judges Lawless and Cage form the ask any honest
man whether he would
not feel
A Docwas one of this York, from West
inclined to challenge the bench instead of the jury.
Physick or Lieutenant Drummer, name in the Literary Convention in
tor
Point, are correct, but sometimes
as there
New
names are cruelly
true;
for example, the brig which carried Napoleon from Elba
was
called
The Inconstant. Seldom does the name happen when Napoleon presented Marshal Keller-
to hit so well, as
mannt with Johannisberg.
That Mount Auburn, the
ing place of the Bostonians, ter; as
the entombed
solitary
so called,
is
is
rest-
somewhat
bit-
are certainly subject to silence and
confinement, though
the
comparison with
the
Auburn system cannot be carried any farther. The most shocking contrast between name and person, of which I know, is offered in the case of the woman who poisoned more than thirty individuals, and whose name was Gottfried. J
When
our boat approached Newburg, a town on the right
bank of the Hudson,
a farmer,
into conversation, told
me
with
that, the
whom
I
had entered
day before, he went
from Albany down the river. His family lives in Newburg, and he came from the west to see them, after an ab•
i
Near Ossaja (Bone-field.) Editoh. Kelkrmann would be translated Cellar-man, and Johannisberg produces
the best hock. t
Peare
Editor.
in (.iwl.
She was executed
in
Bremen.
Editoh.
— 173
(
sence of five years.
)
Shortly before the boat arrived at the
place of his destination, he
fell
asleep, as is often the case
with members of the industrial classes on board these boats,
owing
to the
cupation.
uniform motion and the want of physical oc-
When
passed the place.
he awoke, he found that the boat had "
shrewd look, " paid say nothing to I
come from
I said
my
passage on to
my folks here.
at this
She took a
with a
York, and
will
But
time of the day."
sirous of going to a place
when
New
Only they
so bad as the fate of the poor old
Manchester.
me
nothing," he said to
shall
wonder where
this is not quite
quaker lady who was de-
midway between London and
seat in the mail-coach, in
London;
she had arrived at the place of her destination, she
began to collect her bag, handkerchief, parasol, shawl " All right!" said the guard, dashing the door to, and on the poor
woman was
She was obliged
carried to Manchester.
to return, but before she could get out of the coach,
she tried this time to be
much
though
quicker, the mail-coach start-
ed again for London, before she could manage to get out. It is said that
she floated for three whole months, in this
state of painful suspense,
between the metropolis and Man-
chester.
On
the wharf, in Albany,
coachmen and porters
we were
received by hackney-
offering their services, as
many
imagine; but there are here not as
as in
you may
New York
and Philadelphia, and, consequently, the bustle of their competition
is
not so great.
In the two latter
cities,
they be-
gan to importune passengers in such a degree, that the captains of the steamboats
saw themselves obliged
them from coming on board. They,
therefore,
to prohibit
now stand
five
or six deep on shore, stretching out their heads, with a pair
some by some interrogatory heads and hands. And if you happen to
of anxiously searching eyes, trying to catch those of passenger, or to attract his attention
motion with their
meet the look of one of these aurigse,
his longing desire
and imploring expression, second to none in the whole world, except, perhaps, to that of a half-desponding lover,
(
it
moves your very
heart.
174
)
That you may not disappoint any
of these eager candidates for the carriage of your effects, is
it
necessary to stand before them with downcast eyes, as
you must do
in an auction,
have carefully
to
where
a look
auctioneer, or a twinkling of the lid thing.
is
a bid,
and you
avoid the greedy eye of the loquacious
may
cost
you some-
175
(
)
LETTER
I
There was this time know whether
no music on board the steamboat.
do not
by
method of
the
attracting passengers
the refined call of a band has been entirely abandoned
or not.
When
I
first
impression
came
New
about in the streets of
made upon me by
to this country,
York,
I recollect
and strolled
very well the
the different bands on board the in the air,
and waving
over the wharf, near which they were lying.
This good
boats, far
X.
whose
colors
were streaming
impression, however, was
much enhanced by the tune which
one of these bands played
— the hunter's chorus of the Frei-
schiitz.
When Weber's popular opera first came out,
in Dresden. rus,
Every
I
lived
ear caught the tune of the hunter's cho-
which must certainly have been previously lying
in
every human breast, and only wanted to be called forth, and clearly
pronounced by some one,
and loved by every hearer; poet,
which pointedly and
in order to be
known,
felt,
as the best passages of a great
pithily
pronounce something, the
truth of which instantly strikes every one, and renders the
sentence, in a
moment,
a
common-place.
It is the
same with
effect of the productions of the two just more general, because they speak languages understood by all who think and feel. The artist is for us
all arts,
only the
mentioned
is
the greatest, and
dom
we
love
him most, when, with the wis-
of a master, and the might of genius, he calls up before
176
(
we
us that which
moment we behold
the
feel, in
)
work,
his
was always in our inmost soul, but which we had neither the power of mind, nor elevation and energy enough to bring
Hence the surprise, the undeep emotion, when we are suddenly
clearly to our consciousness.
speakable joy, the
placed before a shepherd boy of Thorwaldson.
It is the
image of grace we carried always with
could not
give
it
we
di Sisto of Raphael;
entire conception of the heavenly
nurses to
but
we
hence our feelings when
birth;
Madonna
us,
we
see, at last, the
recognise the true,
the greatest destiny; hence our feelings,
fulfil
full,
mother and the babe she
when
the waves of Palestrini's music roll on, and our soul says,
" For that music
may
call into life that
within
us.
When
No
have always longed."
I
new
carry any thing absolutely
all
wand
of which the elements lay dormant
the mathematician
Lambert
having heard Gluck's incomparable Alceste, "
proved by
can
artist
into our soul, but his
asks, after
What shall
be
this?" St. Cecilia herself would not be able to
touch a chord of his heart.
From Dresden
went
I
to the
South of Germany, and the
music of the Freischiitz had preceded me. seilles,
Greece, and a Greek,
back a
went
I
and heard the hunter's chorus again.
who had been
in
to
I
it.
went
Naples, and the band played the same tune on parade.
turned to Germany, and
Mar-
sailed to
France and brought
our civilized music, whistled
taste for
I
to
I re-
found that every shoemaker's
I
boy, fetching bread in the early morning for the journey-
men
of his master, sung
it
in the street,
and already
been stereotyped on the cylinder of hand-organs. to
England, where
I
human neyed
feeling all
must
had
it
welcomed me even
From what this tune
I
here, in the
depths in the well of
be drawn to become so hack-
over the world, even to the disgust of lightly
thinking minds!
my
I
wish
I
could ever produce a work, which
would be hawked about for Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet was offered
centuries after
pence, as
it
travelled
was greeted with Weber's tune;
crossed the Atlantic, and
western hemisphere.
I
death,
a sixto
me
—
(
177
)
on bad paper and
in the Strand,
in
bad print,
poor editions of Don Quixote, are sold
What makes a truth or as
it is
its
" sickening
great beauty
common
which
place,"
is felt
if
or, as the
over Spain.*
all
not
its
Have you ever
how the two extremes meet
considered,
The one proceeding from
ing, and addressing
— both
in
Mathematics and music are universal; they defy
the bars of nations and are understood through
ing
soon
as
heard?
this case?
alike.
striking
by every one
zones
all
the absolute understand-
the other the pure language of feel-
it,
as universal as the principles
of the understand-
Lichtenstein
ing and the elementary feelings of the soul.
found a native of the Cape of Good Hope, humming the tune of a German song,t and Euclid is as true to-day as he
was thousands of years ago; as ten times ten can make no more or less, a thousand years hence than it makes now, but must make a hundred alike for the Esquimaux and the
And
Chinese.
kindest of
There
is
this
is,
also, the
and the most
all arts,
faithful
no age or condition in the
why
reason
life
music
companion
is
to
the
man.
of the individual, and
no period in the history of a nation, from
its
rudest starting
point to the last stages of refinement, that music
is
not wil-
ling to grieve with the afflicted, and to laugh with the gay,
and
to offer
treasures. its
comfort and joy from the infinite variety of her
None of the
fine arts affords so
much
pleasure in
simplest beginnings, as music, none can satisfy the
heart with so for her,
little
The lowest
materials.
human
are not too
and the highest owe her a thousand delights.
the poor slave,
whom
low
When
neither painting nor sculpture, nor
knowledge ennobles, returns from the toilsome task of the day, and wipes the sweat from his heavy brow, he resorts yet to her for some comfort, before he rests his weary limbs; • In liarly
some of our
auctions,
we have heard
" Well, how much's bid
for the Vicar."
It
was the tunc
of,
Freut
cucli des
Lebcns.
23
rattling' to tlie
At the same time
with which every foreigner begins English. •j-
the Vicar of Wakefield fami-
put up as the Vicar, and the auctioneer's tongue
Editoh,
— Euixoii.
it is
tune of
the Vicar,
(
178
)
and the bondsman, who knows but little pleasure in the conwhich he moves, owes to her the richest
tracted circle in
enjoyment he
when he
has,
plays his rude instrument for
young ones to dance around him, and to forget who they How happy I have seen Bohemian peasants, with their are. It seems, as if man, the more he is robbed of his violins! the
rights, the
more he
calls for pleasure
a nation sinks into bondage, and
mer
all
from music; and when the
monuments of forwhen by the
glory, and liberty, and thought are lost,
fierceness of a tyrant or the cruelty of time, all the records
of what still
it
its is
memory
were and
fathers
did, are destroyed,
she, the daughter of
even then,
Heaven, who preserves the
of happier ages, in plaintive songs to kindle at a
future and better day, the pride of freemen and the love of
country in the hearts of daring insurgents, and to change the
song of grief into the bursting
air
Greece ever have risen from her
of the warrior. sleep,
Would
had her degraded
sons not sung the deeds of their fathers, and the
memory
of
where they were unwatched by If you knew the whole history of this people their masters ? What share had as I do, you would answer with me, no. their early honor, in places
—
the inspiring Marseillaise in the late revolution of France?
How much sailors'
for her? all
does England
It is
owe
to her soldiers'
How many battles has Rule
songs?
and her
Britannia fought
recorded in no history, and yet the
effect of
these songs has been immense.
Hark! the trumpet, even
very horses that have
to carry their bold riders
firing the
into yonder square would they go without that martial leader, which sends its piercing sounds into the weakest heart? ;
Hark! the simple, solemn beat of the drums; they sound from the centre of that column, which irtarches up, in measured time, to the doubtful assault, and bridle the bounding courage of the brave and faithful band. tory
is
—And when the
vie-
won, the thankful peals of the conquerors, rise to the
God of the
Just,
and a grateful country answers by the swell-
ing anthem and the
Most High!
full
Te Deum
in the
wide temples of the
—
179
(
)
The herdsman trusts to her, to while away his time, and makes the cliffs of solitary Alps, raised high above the busy home
world, converse with him; she leads the vine dresser
where by rewarded, pleasure grows from the
hills,
irksome and niggardly
his labor, for others,
and she makes lighter
the trying task on board the rolling vessel.
wanderer,
who
his early youth;
sings a song of his
and with her
She
is
with the
home, or hums a tune of quicker the time of
aid, passes
a soldier in the camp. It is
music with which a mother's untiring love,
restless
babe to sleep; music which
lulls
the
ones to a
calls the little
merry show, and gives to toys the greatest charm; music, to which the youth resorts, to speak of love, in the late hour of others' rest, to her, whose eyes have wounded him; it is music which measures the merry steps of harmless joy, and gives utterance to forgetful mirth, stirred by the sparkling contents of the slender glass;
fashion to hear the brilliant
who
work
it
is
she
who
assembles
of a glowing master; she
beguiles the slow hours of a prisoner, and transports
an exile to his
home and
friends; and,
it is
who
she
brings
the balm of comfort to the widow, pouring, with a feeble voice, her burning grief into a lonely
hymn, and she who
accompanies us to the grave.*
When
the rude Indian gives utterance
drum accompanies
to his joy, his
the quickened steps and louder voice,
which, obedient to the universal law, he pours forth in rhyt-
mic measure; and the tibia sounded to the highest strains of Sophocles, and David played his harp, and cornets and cym bals
sounded before the ark,
to praise the
King of Israel, and
Christians go and bid their feelings, too strong for any Ian
guage, rise to the Creator of our hearts on the sacred wings of Heaven-devoted music
— of her whose power
and yet so mysterious, that man, sure, comfort,
• In
grave;
speak of
and peace, which she can
many European still
to
countries, the
more frequently
is
a
all
is
so great
the plea-
instil into his soul,
dead are accompanied by songs
hymn sung
over the grave.
Editoh.
to the
—
(
has no words to
180
)
name them, but must borrow
all
from
taste,
or touch, or sight.
Well
is
she called a daughter of Heaven: whoe'er has
heard, in Michel Angelo's most noble chapel,* the sacred strains,
which
Palestrini has revealed to us, like the greeting
from another world, has
Ay!
felt
the breath of heavenly calm.
not only doth music love man; even the brute to
which the word of reason has been denied, gives utterance to its feeling of life,
and health, and of enjoyment, in notes
which make the wood resound of thanks pious
men do
tell us,
to
Heaven; and
of the pure melodies in which the
blessed sing the praise of God. * Cappella Sistina,in the Vatican, in is
performed.
Editor,
which the service of the passion week
181
(
)
LETTER XL
From Albany
to Schenectady,
and the least exciting of
all
you
travelling,
by
travel it
seems
cidedly locomotion by steam on a rail-road.
to
The
rail-road;
me,
is
de-
traveller,
whose train of ideas is always influenced by the manner in which he proceeds, thinks in a steam car of nothing else but the place of his destination, for the very reason that he
moving
Pent up
so quickly.
in a
on an even plain which seldom and which, when that your attention
people
who have
you of nothing ney's end
is
offers
any objects of
curiosity,
by with such rapidity, together with a number of
pass
never fixed;
all
the same object in view, and think like
else,
but when they shall arrive at their jour-
—thus
situated,
divert you, except
dow
you
does,
it
is
narrow space, rolling along
you
now and
find nothing to entertain or
then a spark flying into the win-
of the car and burning a hole in a lady's veil, or other-
wise exciting the interest of the travellers by a gentle smell of burning. There is no common conversation, no rondolaugh, nothing but a dead calm, interrupted from time to
time, only
by some passenger pulling out
his
watch and
ut-
tering a sound of impatience, that a mile in four minutes
is
the rate of travelling on " this line." Strange, that the most rapid travelling should be the most
wearisome, but so every where. of
man
is
it is;
les
extremes se iouchent, always and
The animal which comes
nearest to the shape
the ugliest; gods and beggars go half naked, and
182
(
)
kings and servants are called by their baptismal names; and
Madame
de Stael delighted in playing soubrettes, while
sombre Shelley amused himself by paper I
letting little ships of
on the water.
float
Madame de Stael, and, in a former letter, Recamier; and now I will tell you an anecdote
have mentioned
Madame
de
which ought not to be lost. A gentleman (who sailed with Captain Kotzebue round the world) told me, that, when he
— — he took, one day, a
lived in Copet, in the house of the former
could but rule or adore
two
with these
company
a storm,
which
at times
a very dangerous occurrence on that superb water.
whole party had at tea,
Had we
fine
newspaper
The
narrow escape, and when, in the evening
a
they talked over their
served, "
a
woman who
and some gentlemen, on the lake of
They were overtaken by
Geneva. is
ladies
a
sail in
Madame
perils,
been drowned,
all
de Stael ob-
would have afforded both the most beautiful woman of
article;
it
the age, and the most gifted would have perished together."
Rolling on in
ways by which from one place and money in
my
swift car, I thought of
to another.
his pocket,
Rousseau, that there
all
the different
man contrives to move man has health in his limbs
earth-bound
little
is
If a
and time
but one
way
to spare, I agree
of travelling
—
with
that
on
foot, " provided always nevertheless " the country be inte-
It is impossible to learn half as
resting.
way; and, fellow
as
Seume
when you
says,
are on foot than to throw
in our country, since
many
live for
tle
much
easier to give a it
in any other penny to a poor
out of the coach
make much difference many hundred miles, or
This, to be sure, would not
window.
alms.
it is
years in a place without ever being asked for
I recollect
beggar
you may travel
girl, in
very well, when Boston, for the
She belonged
sidence.
to
I
was addressed by a
lit-
time after a long re-
first
emigrants
who had
lately ar-
rived.
There
is
when you
a zest in
all
travel on foot.
march into the day
enjoyments, even the meanest,
To
rise
before daybreak and
in a thick lonely forest; to lie
down,
af-
—
183
(
)
under the rich foliage of a beach-tree, on
ter a long walk,
the top of a mountain, from which you see into a valley va-
by nature and
riegated
and go
after the journey,
opera of a large city I can
To
compare sit
with a
to a library or gallery, or into the
—are enjoyments
and contrasts, which
no others.
to
down
civilization; to take a refreshing bath
in Switzerland, at ten o'clock in the
fine piece of cheese
a march, begun
and a
morning,
tumbler of wine,
full
after
given you a smart ap-
just after sunrise, has
is a luxury of which but few who sit down to a dinner West End clubhouse know the keenness and pleasure. Next seems to come the travelling by way of swimming. Though I consider myself a pretty fair swimmer, I cannot say, that I should relish much the aquatic expeditions of the correos que nadan* Poor amphibious post-boys, how you must feel when you descend the Guancabamba and Amazon,
petite,
at a
floating
with your bombax
your head!
stick,
and the mail tied round
Naturalists mention, as something very re-
markable, of the animal homo, that he alone in all climes.
seems
It
that he can vegetate in
couriers,
banker
or
to
me much more
all
situations,
is
able to live
surprising, indeed,
from these paddling
the sooty chimney-sweeper, to the
in Paris or
from the beggar
refined
one of the richest countesses in England;
at the
door of a palace to
its
inmate, or the
starving copyist of music or galley-slave to the dispenser of
sinecures or a governor-general of the East Indies, It is
mail
is
well that they have not in those countries, where the carried along
phlets and papers
by swimmers, franked bushels of pamwe have here. There are cu-
to send, as
rious post-establishments in this world
man who
spent her
and from Posen
She was
life
in
to Berlin, about a
called the
!
I
knew an
walking from Berlin
Living Gazette,
old
to
wo-
Posen,
hundred and forty miles.
Have you ever heard
of the celebrated post-office of the whalers at Essex Bay, on
one of the Gallapagos Islands in the Pacific? There
*
Couriere
who swim.
Editoh.
is
a cave,
—
184
(
)
well secured against the weather, in which whalers deposite letters
sometimes
the deep passes by.
and found
some-
for the information of other whalers,
times to be taken home,
when
a returning fellow-hunter
had heard of
I
by whaling
it
on
captains,
afterwards, mentioned in Lieutenant Pauld-
it,
ing's Journal of a Cruise of the United States Schooner Dol-
phin among the Islands of the Pacific,* book,
full
of interesting items.
—
fact
shows
trust
among
This insolated
a letter there safely deposited.
common bond and
strikingly the existence of a
unassuming
a little
Lieutenant Paulding found
civilized nations; so does a letter deposited in a post-office
of the farthest west of Missouri, which safely arrives in a
most eastern part of Germany,
village in the
New York and Havre"
the two words " Via
In the middle ages, there was a
Pomerania existing,
yet
its
direction.
carried letters from
country in the university lived in Rome the " courier " was yet
to the students of that
of Paris, and
And
man who
only has
if it
on
when
I
who regularly carried letters from Rome to Spain. we are told the world goes back; or is it main-
tained that improvements of this kind belong to the indus-
which
try of nations only,
rapidly, while, morally,
there
is
tions;
is
we
allowed on
hands
all
degenerate?
I
to
improve
would deny
this;
morality in an intercourse of this kind between na-
it
requires a universal acknowledgment of certain
broad principles of honor and morality.
—
It will
yet hap-
pen, within the next hundred years, that letters are directed
from London
York and
to
New
Canton, (perhaps, to Peking,) via
the city
which
will rise at the
mouth of the Co-
lumbia River.
And now call it, I,
contrast the general post-office, as
you may well
of the Gallapagos Islands with that in London.
for the first time, past through the old
London
When
post-office,
an unpretending narrow building, and found, written on a " Mails due from Hamburg, Malta, Jamaica, Ca-
little table,
nada," with a long
list
•
of other places and islands
New York,
1831.
Eijitor.
all
over
1S5
(
the world, I
was
)
by
forcibly reminded^
this small board, of
knew of nothing with many confessionals in the
Great Britain's vast dominion, and
which
to
compare
nave of Rome's
except the
it,
over each of which the name of a
St. Peter,
particular language
is
written, inviting the faithful of
tions to confess in their
own
all
na-
Over one stands Lin-
tongue.
gua Germanica, over another Lingua
Gallica, Anglica, His-
panica, Hungarica, Lusitana, Neograeca, &c.
But, to return to
my swimming
travellers.
The
peasants
of a certain part of Bavaria sometimes journey in a manner not
much
different
from the Indian
take large logs of wood, dispose little
or other of their
baggage, place themselves in a riding position on the
hind end, and
down they
their feet dangling
all
go,
much
in the beaver fashion,
the time in the water.
Travelling on horseback
Man's thoughts
able.
They
Amazon.
in the
somehow
is,
in
some countries, very
agree-
are freer on the back of an animsilv
whose four legs are his own, as Mephistopheles correctly suggests. But the care of a horse, his liability to indispositions, the regular rests which he requires, and the slow-
way
ness of this
of travelling, are serious drawbacks to
ploying a horse's back for our speed our journey by taking,
seat.
We
em-
cannot, besides,
now and then, a " lift" in the we go on foot; and it is
stage-coaches, as
we may
very convenient
to cross rapidly an uninteresting country,
do when
good mule with a caravan of muleteers is
like skipping over an insipid passage of an otherwise
book.
To
ride on a
always interesting; for the muleteer has a thousand amusing
and instructive things and anecdotes
to tell
you provided ;^
nature has given you the skill of easily assimilating with
people of this
A
class.
peculiar gift of the kind
ever, required, at least in
is
who
takes care of the mule, rides with
faithful animal;
To
travel
in
words are then found
went up Vesuvius
I
when
the
you on the same
easily.
sedan must be abominable.
a
how-
any uncommon degree, when you
pass over the mountains from France to Spain; girl
not,
When
I
could not even endure the idea of see-
24
—
186
(
)
move
ing
men
laboring hard in the heat of the sun only to
my
flesh
and skeleton; and preferred paying something to
the
men who
offered themselves, and going
ever, in India
is
it
up
How-
alone.
often impossible to travel in any other
way, and people soon accustom themselves to see the trotting bipeds under the litter on which they recline. To tra-
Mr. Moore has
vel poste-haste, either on an ostrich, as
seen,
or on a dolphin with Arion, or on a cannon ball, as Miinch-
hausen
tried,
jumping from one twenty-four pounder, shot
into the fortress,
upon another, shot out of
the air in Zambullo's style, the diable hoiteux sliding from the
—
or,
by holding
which
is
— or navigating
it
mantle of
fast to the
the equal of any of these,
snowy mountain
tops on a small sledge in
the Swiss fashion, I do not believe will generally be consi-
A
dered the ne plus ultra of comfort.
makes you
camel in the desert
^ea-sick, during the first days, and I have never
Nor
been rocked in a howdah on an elephant's back.
been
my
an ass
I
lot to try the
Esquimaux dog or the
have travelled, and
its
when
obliged to resort, in the army,
The
fall.
when tages
carries
it
On
paradisiaI
was once
had hurt myself by a
I
when
you and you carry the canoe, and
the packages and provisions are taken over the por-
by the
number is
is
toilsome journeying in our farthest west,
by turns the canoe
to
broken step
short,
comfort compared to a ride on a cow, to which
cal
has
reindeer.
and
trotting
voyageurs
in the
way
that cats carry a
of kittens from one place to another
fro,
—by running
and thus transporting the goods by instalments
a style of travelling
But now, we have
which cannot abound
all
in pleasure.
sorts of travelling in
wagons,
and coaches; from the rickety one horse omnibus
carts,
in the
south of France, to the proud and flying mail-coach in England
— from
the
wagon of
the
the vettorino from Florence to like, ancient post
New Rome
baggage-wagon,
Turkey: and then there
is all
England emigrant,
—and
to
from the
the light Tartar
the travelling
to
snail-
in
by water, from
the raft on the Rhine, or the American rivers, to the refined
packet of
New York
and Philadelphia—from the boat on
—
(
187
)
where you are devoured by insects, to our boat on where you must look out not to arrive in
the Nile,
the grand canal,
Buffalo without a head
Mayence and west.
—from the slow market-boat between
Frankfort, to the darting steamboat in our
—But, there would never be an end, were we
to enu-
ways of crawling and creeping, which it after all remains, of bustling man. Only of one more way of compound locomotion will I tell you. It is said that Frederic William I., King of Prussia, who merate
all
the
liked a joke, though
it
might be a rude one, overheard a if he were the king
peasant saying to his companion, that
he would not move otherwise than
"You
in a sedan.
shall
try it," said the king, stepping forward; and soon after
wished-for conveyance was
the
stepped out
in,
—and
The
brought.
peasant
but the king had ordered the bottom to be taken
now
wind
the carriers began to run, and
about,
forward and backward, over stones and through mire, until the shins of the poor fellow within
At
length they halted
—and when
were deplorably
sore.
the king asked the pea-
how he was pleased with the royal conveyance, he "Uncommonly, sire, uncommonly; only, to say
sant
swered,
truth, if
it
were not
life
for the honor,
it
Don't you think there are
walking."
very much like
would be almost
many
an-
the like
things in this
this sedan? and, alas! kings
themselves
are but too often obliged to go through honorable but shin-
How
breaking procedures of this kind.
often do they not
look with envy upon a simple, healthful pedestrian,
whole power of self-locomotion from their
gilt
still
—whose
remains inviolate,
and ornamented, but narrow and uncomfort-
able incasement, in which,
remain men like
all
however splendid
their fellow creatures
it
may be, they
—with
the
same
pains and desires, and not an inch higher from the ground
than those, who, in their turn, admire and envy them.
thought
I
but
I
am
Porte, for train
this
would be " positively the
last
" anecdote,
bold enough to take the Russian ultimatums to the
my example. Were there my ideas took by the
which
not four of them? last
The
anecdote, calls up
—
(
another, which
cating
is
it
you,
to
)
of too generic and representative a cha-
You
to be omitted.
racter,
18S
when
I tell
which allows no doubt of
will thank
you, that
I
me
have
communi-
for
from a source,
it
truth; besides, the
its
whole
is
but natural.
The Empress toys to her
Josephine, had sent some exquisite Parisian
little
and favorite grandson, Louis, the son of
King of Holland. When they were unpacked, and Queen of Holland, who was a most tender mother, was the
the an-
ticipating the pleasure of her child, the prince disappointed
her entirely, by the
little
interest
he seemed to take in
He would
beautiful toys and contrivances around him.
them, but
at
alvv^ays
return to the
all
the
look
window from which he
looked out, with a longing desire, into the
street.
" Louis,
you not charmed with these beautiful play-things?" " Yes, but" " What is your desire? look here with what tender care, the Empress has chosen these handsome playare
—
you pleasure?"
things to give
" " But what,
but
—" Oh,
my child;
they are very
fine,
can you wish for any thing
—
grandmamma.^" " Yes, cer" But they do not seem to amuse you much!" tainly I do." " They do; but, mamma, if I only could walk for a short time else? don't
in the
A
you
—
mud
feel grateful to
there, with that child in the square!"
friend of
mine instructed Princess
,
in
German,
and for a long time, he could not bestow a more acceptable
reward upon
by
his royal pupil, than
telling
her of the rus-
some peasants on the continent; tic on the same principle that every tale for peasant girls must begin with, " There was a beautiful princess." Every great monarch has been glad to throw off, at times, and primitive
life
of
the lacing of royalty and to appear like an equal of others.
Harun Alreshid, Charlemagne, Henry Great, Napoleon, for a
moment.
a tedious
all
To
have enjoyed
say the truth, I should think,
way, di campare*
• Italian, for "getting' along."
ples
IV., Frederic the
this pleasure,
to be
We
by a man, who looked reduced
though but it
must be
born for a throne, without
were one evening addressed
in his circumstances indeed,
in
Na-
but had
189
(
)
uncommon capacity; to be above the law, to owe nothing to one's own exertions, and to be from birth at the ne plus ultra This, undoubtedly,
of
life.
so
many monarchs have
active; the
is
They want
meanest of their subjects can say, "This
done;" they alone
find
why
one of the great reasons
loved conquest.
be
to
have
I
every thing done to their hands.
Lucian was not wrong when he pitied the gods
for their
Olympic ennui. Kings are always something of a Dalai Lama; honored and revered outlaws; sacrifices to society, whose welfare often requires one visible being above the
—
law, just to
fill
a place, that no continual quarrel for
disturb the peace.
I
a citizen, a whole
am
man;
ing under the law.
it
shall
thankful for being under the law, for
man was created we presume,
Or, must
very reason which elevates monarchs above the
to be a be-
that for the
common
in-
and cares, and pangs of ambition, they seek a higher
terests,
sphere of activity, and strive to do good for
own
its
sake?
That, from their peculiar situation they have an immense
men, and can
start before other
old, a speech
deliver,
"with peculiar grace,"
as
when
three years
Croly says in his
Life of George IV., the prince did, when receiving the society of Ancient Britons, on St. David's day?
History records,
no such necessary consequence, and every book of memoirs shows us, that kings have all the same petty troubles, as yet,
jealousies, pains,
and and
all
and
we
griefs, that
have; toothache, gout,
the other elements of vexation of our mortal bodies;
as strong a disrelish of a minister's popularity, as the
minister has of his It has often
first
secretary.
appeared to me, that since the succession by
primogeniture has been firmly established in Europe, which
was the only way of securing those advantages which are peculiar to monarchies, there
is
no situation
less enviable,
than that of a brother to a king or crown-prince. nevertheless the clerical distinctions of dress.
ment
at
being asked for alms by a person in
the answer, "./Ih/ che vuol signore, talk? thus
wc must'try
cosi si
to get along.)
We
—EniTon.
all
expressed our amaze-
this dress,
campa,'^
With
— (Ah
when we
sir,
received
what use
is it
to
190
(
)
the privations of the monarch, and they are numberless in-
deed, they have not his power, and must see the same honor,
due
to their birth, paid to greatness risen
are but few princes
who
create their
the
to promote, in a similar
progress of
discovery?
by
not
many
way, knowledge, or
— Simply,
There
merit.
sphere, as the noble
Why? — have
Prince Henry the Navigator.
power
own
because
the
art,
or
they are
princes by birth.
Yet there
whom
are
two
sides to every subject, and a prince to
much good
has been given a noble soul, can do
certain ways, for the
very reason that he
vated, and yet not the actual ruler.
Only
so fixedly ele-
is it
in
requires a truly
noble soul, to pass uninjured, through the ordeal of high elevation from earliest infancy.
Esquirol, in his Lectures, states that the proportion of de-
ranged monarchs to other people under an alienation of mind, is
as sixty to
of legitimacy!
one
—
—
a bitter
comment upon
since Esquirol ascribes to the
breeding, this proportion, so enormous, even
the principle
want of if
cross-
we make
all
possible allowance for the fact, that not a single deranged ruler escapes public notice, while the lists of lunatic subjects will always be defective.
If Esquirol be correct in assigning
this cause for so startling a fact,
we would
have another rea-
son against the philosophy of the principle, for the officially
first
time
pronounced by the Congress of Vienna, that a
le-
gitimate heir to a throne can be only an individual descend-
ing from two parents legitimately descending from sovereign families.
Strange,
some countries
are peculiarly jealous of
the birthright of their citizens, and will not allow a foreigner to hold as
much
as an inferior office; and, according to the
principle of legitimacy, as
whom
all
now
observed, the monarch, in
must always be some dynasties never can become na-
nationality ought to concentrate,
half a foreigner; and
by blood, e. g. the Hanoverian race on the English throne, which was, and ever has remained German in blood and bone. The same is the case with the Holstein race, on
turalized
the throne of Russia, and, in other cases,
it
leads to the re-
191
(
suit that a foreigner rules
)
over a nation peculiarly proud of
which we have an instance in the present government of Spain. The same was the case with the moits
nationality; of
Mary of Medici, Catherine of many other sovereigns. Monarchies will yet many nations a long time, owing to their state of po-
ther of Louis XIV., with Russia, and last for
litical as
well as social development, or to their relations
with other
states;
hut even Chateaubriand said, in the cham-
"I do not believe and " monarchy is no longer a
ber of peers, on the 19th of April, 1831, in the divine right of kings," religion;
it
is
Nay, even the Duke of
a political form."
Fitz-James waived the idea of divine right, and appealed to
Our time has seen
the people.
down and
so
many
thrones tumbling
in the state of being raised, has seen so
crowns handed round and of which the "
refusal
safe authority for a
crown,
"
at
is
many
no peculiar attraction,
like dishes of
most was asked, that the only
reason and the interest of the
people; but as to prolonging the belief that there
is
some-
thing peculiar in an anointed race, an actual difference be-
tween the blood of a ruling family and other blood, people
who have gone through
— why,
our time and seen dozens of
kings stripped of their purple, and appearing like any other
who have many peeps behind
by memoirs and docu-
mortal beings, and
had,
ments, so
the curtain, cannot, even
force such a theory upon
they wished
it,
naked
would stand
loyal
facts
mind of
fight
with
it,
their belief.
even
in the
if
Plain
most
a devout continental tory; he might as well
force himself to believe three times three are ten; facts are facts,
and must remain such
The more
to the world's end.
times have advanced, the more has royalty been enabled to
power upon moral grounds. The kings of Prussia are never crowned, and if we compare a monarch of northern Europe with an Asiatic ruler, surrounded by the traprest its
pings and pompous show of eastern despotism, and consider
how much
less of the
forms and formalities of royalty
our times, found to be necessary for giving authority, than but a century ago,
we
shall
it
is,
stability
come
in
and
to the con-
(
elusion, that the time
may
192
)
not be too far
when
it
will not
be considered any longer dangerous, that dynasties should continue their race without exposing themselves to the frightful
consequences pointed out by Esquirol.
However,
I
must confess
ought to be brought
to
you, that some farther proof
to support the assertion of that distin-
guished man, that the " breeding in and in," as
it is
termed, of
the European dynasties, is the only cause of the enormous fre-
quency of derangement which dwells under crowns. In former ages, not a few consorts of monarchs have, with the most maternal feeling for their people, taken care of a proper ad-
mixture of renovating blood
Beaux Rantzaus
in their race.
are not so exceedingly rare in European history; and, though I
know
it is
asserted, and, I believe, pretty well tested, that
Jews, Quakers, and Catholics,
in
England, produce more
sane people than others, owing, as
it
in-
seems, to their mar-
rying generally among themselves, yet
do not remember
I
having read that in those villages in Europe, the inhabitants of which marry hardly ever a girl out of their place, and often have but one family name, insanity often than in other villages.
An
is
met with more
inquiry of this kind would
be interesting and very easy. There are many peasants who would have the best claim to high nobility, if belonging to an " old family " constitutes one of the chief ingredients of noblesse.
That cross-breeding improves the race
doubt, on the principle that the farmer, both in
America, exchanges grain with his neighbor, terioration. I
As
far as
my observation
goes, I
I
have
little
Europe and to avoid de-
must
say, that
have generally found bright children in the families of pa-
rents of
two
different nations,
though
I
can be accounted for in a different way.
allow that this result This, at
first sight,
would appear to be in favor of the ruling dynasties, but we must recollect, that they have thoroughly mixed so many years since, that they form, by this time, one general race, and, again, it has been found by many travellers, that, in large capitals, the situation of which invites people of many different nations to settle within them, those classes in which
• "*
193
(
nations
all
mix
breed, which
)
for a long time, receive
is far
an addition in a
from being desirable for a good popu-
lation.
Whatever
is
born, constructed, or contrived in this nether
world, carries with
germ of
the
it
The
dissolution.
very-
or start becomes the cause of
which gives its Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, can give great
principle
it life
decline.
elan to a nation; but the principle of legitimacy carries within
germ of change, equally with the principle of Nothing shall last for ever, except the
the
it
universal suffrage.
plans of the great Ruler.
How fect the
does, on the other hand, our system of politics af-
mind?
Arc
the frequent excitements,
trate into the smallest arteries of our
not productive of
much
evil in this
whole
which penesystem,
social
very particular?
Aris-
even in his time, observed the great prevalence of
totle,
sanity
among
politicians,
in-
and Esquirol says, that a history
of the French revolution might be written from the variety of cases, to be found in a French insane hospital, so
much
has each convulsive change of politics and government fected the hopes, desires, ambition, or happiness of a
af-
num-
ber of persons, strengthened as this effect was, by a very universal absence of that confidence
which firmly
relies
on
Do many individuals, to an alienmany act in a way which would
the guiding care of a kind and wise supreme Ruler.
then our politics not lead, with
mind?
ation of
make
Certainly
the observer suppose that but the final disappointment
in the result of an election
one step farther I
—
is
wanting
have paid some attention
inquiry, and from
United
States, I
pointment say, from
is
in order to lead
them
to the loss of reason?
am
my
visits
to this subject, so
worthy of
to the insane hospitals in the
inclined to believe that political disap-
very rarely the
final
cause of loss of reason.
my visits to these hospitals;
the view of the causes of insanity,
now
I
to
me that
often adopted
among
for
it
seemed
English physicians, and which ascribes the origin of aliena-
25
—
(
194
tion to physical causes alone,
among American
also
very frequently to be found
That
physicians.
I
cannot subscribe
opinion, appears from the remarks I have already
this
to
is
)
The
made.
proofs to the contrary
and conclusive,
seem
to
me numerous by
patient investigation, unbiassed
if
conceived ideas, or a fondness for a system, or some views, be given to the matter.
you a medical
to give
However,
I
am
pre-
general
not going
treatise.
How much the frequent recurrence of political excitement may gradually dispose many individuals in this country, finally to
fall
victims to a disturbance of the mental faculties,! have
had, of course, no opportunity to observe. I
But, as
I stated,
believe that the frequent changes in politics are not preg-
nant with the same disastrous consequences here as they
have been ral
And
ference.
it
seems
first,
me, may be given
to
which, otherwise, the disappoint-
ment they necessarily must bring on the mind of many individuals. out, a party vanquished,
—
to
one party, would have
To-day a man is thrown to-morrow he goes to work again, Secondly, however
and hopes for success the next time. great the excitement
know very
in jeopardy;
for this dif-
the very frequency of elections neutra-
lizes the injurious effect,
people
Seve-
in other countries, for instance, in France.
good reasons,
may
appear, on paper or in words, the
well that their lives and property are not
that whatever party
may come
in or
go out,
the broad principles of the whole system will be acted upon, the general laws will be observed.
Should
it
ever come
with us to that point, that the monstrous idea should prethere only
where the majority can
—while, on the
contrary, the degree of
vail, that liberty exists
do what they please
existing liberty can justly be measured only
by the degree
of undoubted protection which the minority enjoys, and the
degree in which the sovereign, be he one or many, or presented by the majority,
is
restricted,
by fundamental
re-
laws,
from acting on sudden impulses and impassioned caprices, to
which
should
it
a
body of men
is
as subject as a single
man
ever come with us to this absolutism, for absolu-
195
(
tism
)
there where the representative of sovereignty can
is
act capriciously
and uncontrolled; then, indeed, our insane
would become
hospitals
fickleness
now are.
as,
as
much
the direful records of man's
according to Esquirol, the French hospitals
Thirdly, there
is
in this country
no dishonor what-
ever connected either with being turned out of
being vanquished at an election.
One party must be
feated.
be so the next time.
may
party, tions
An
be defeated, he
office
or
no shame to be de-
It is
victorious, and the other tries to
American, is
as the
member
of a
Persecu-
never conquered.
do not take place; the successful party does not annihi-
late its
opponents
— each party continues
And,
papers, &c.
as in those periods in
sons are discharged from public places,
knowledged
to
that politics alone
is
have
its
meetings,
which many per-
it is
most openly
the reason,
ac-
blemish
all
which may be attached to the loss of an office in public service, in countries where no such changes occur, must vanish; while, again, the country offers so
many
opportunities
of gaining
one's livelihood, that, also, in this respect, a loss
of office
not so ruinous as in France, where a
is
thinks his honor as soon as
he
is
is
man
thrown out of public employment.
quency of changes, likewise, prevents the higher
The
offices
becoming the objects of so ardent an ambition fect seriously the
often
gone, and his career for ever destroyed, fre-
from
as to af-
mental faculties of the disappointed candi-
date.
As
I
have touched upon
may mention
this subject, I
an interesting case of alienation, with which
I
met
here
in the
New York. The individual man apparently of the lower classes, labored under the very common delusion of being a monarch. He called himself Henry I., I think, emperor of the United
Manhattanville hospital, near to
whom
States.
I refer, a
He was
an ardent newspaper reader, and the inte-
rest of the case lay in the readiness with
mind
which
assimilated whatever he read to his
royalty, and the rapidity with
which what he read appeared
which to
it
his disturbed
presumed
state of
invented causes of
him the consequences,
pre-
19G
(
cisely in the
same way
and some pain
)
our mind, when
as
us, often invents, in
aflfects
wo
are asleep,
dreaming, va-
rious causes of which, according to the dream, this pain
the final effect, though, in reality,
The patient
dream.
showed me
my
read in
how he
that and
is
the cause of the whole
presence the news relating
governor of his
to the election of the
ly
it is
state,
and immediate-
appointed him, turning,
with great ingenuity, the various data of the election into items of his story, with a zeal and earnestness, as cares of
government had rested on
showed me some dals coined
if all
the
So he
his shoulders.
were me-
cents, which, according to him,
on occasion of some victories which he had
me
number of emblematic allusions, the images of which his diseased mind undoubtedly perceived in that moment. Tn speaking of derangement, I remember a circumstance,
gained, pointing out to
which
a
will not be without interest to you,
The
levant in this place.
me
the insane, introduced
to a
it
be irre-
gentleman under his care,
symptoms whatever of
Avho betrayed no
though
physician of an establishment for
yet his focultics were deranged.
a disturbed
He held a book in
mind,
his hand,
which, he informed me, he was perusing with great interest.
He praised it in It was Dr. Spurzheim's work on insanity. some respects, in others he criticized it, and when I declared, on one occasion,
my dissent
from his opinion, he assured
knew what he maintained from
that he
and never have
I
too painful to me, and
ceived the cause of quiet
my
I
The
Dr. Rush's
my
One
work on
who
it off,
but he per-
and tried very calmly
desire,
Philadelphia told
deranged man,
me
experience,
conversation became
wished to break
apprehensions.
in
own
heard any one speak more rationally on
insanity than this deranged man.
sicians
his
to
of the most eminent phy-
me
that he
owns
a
copy of
insanity, with notes throughout
by
a
formerly was in the hospital of Phila-
delphia.
The
appalling frequency of alienation of mind, in
parts of our country,
is
chiefly
owing
some
to other causes, at
(
197
least final causes, than politics.
)
It is religious
excitement, I
believe, together with a diseased anxiety to be equal to the
wealthiest, the
craving for wealth and consequent disap-
pointment, which ruins the intellect of many.
more anon.
But of
that
198
(
)
LETTER
At
Schenectady you
may
XII.
take passage in a canal boat; and
I would advise every traveller, who has not yet seen the Grand
Canal, to do
The valley of the Mohawk, along which the Rome, is, in many parts, very beautiful, much greater advantage from the canal boat than so.
canal goes as far as
and seen
to
from a stage-coach; and
it is
of this union
is
well worth the while to become
work
acquainted with this great
—
a
clamp by which the west
tightly fastened to the east and north; one of
the great siphons which equalizes prices and wages in this vast country, and thus contributes not a of our political existence.
monument which
little to
the stability
It is, indeed, as yet,
the greatest
world
this part of the
conquering superiority over matter.
be outstripped by sylvania
ward
is
the boldness of
which
Yet, perhaps,
man's it
will
the noble communication which Penn-
leading over mountains and through valleys west-
to the Ohio,
York
affords, of
canal
and which,
its
projector.
was the
first
if finished, will
On
prove for ever
the other hand, the
New
—
a fact
of these extensive works;
will remain a great testimony in the history of civi-
lization, in favor qf the state
which gave
it
birth.
It
shows
Gothe's good sense, that the progress of this canal interest-
ed him so much. a copy of the
I will
Laws
send you, by the next opportunity,
of the State of
New York
in Relation
199
(
Erie and Champlain Canals, &c., Albany, 1825, where
to the
you
)
will find, in detail, an official history of these great
The study
works.
of this undertaking has been a source
of deep interest to me, and I doubt not I shall add Darby's
give you a
View
much more
it
will be so to you.
of the United States,
which
will
accurate view of the geological cha-
racter of these parts of the country, than an account of
mine
could afford you; and as the natural features of the United States do not change quite as rapidly as the statistics, the
book
will be
statistics,
tempted
still
an
valuable
author,
to say
I
when you
by Authority
in,
New
1830,
now
'An
the general and public
3d day of
act establishing a board of road
commissioners for layihg out is
to put the
in force, excepting an act passed the
January, 1829, entitled
which
all
fit
page of their collec-
title
" This edition comprehends
statutes
to the
Hampshire Laws, pub-
who thought
following sagacious notice on the tion.
As
it.
nothing about them, and follow the ex-
ample of the editors of the lished
receive
should almost think, would feel
and repairing highways,'
omitted under the expectatio7i
tJiat it will he re-
pealed at the ensuing session of the Legislature. " For our statistics and every feature imprinted upon the country by civilization are continually
undergoing so rapid changes, that
what was true a year ago, may be antiquated to-day. These immense canals send branches into many directions, by which they are connected with navigable rivers, lakes and roads, nor is this system by any means completed.
Branch canals and
rail-roads are continually adding; nay,
were no Thus the building of a railUtica, will soon begin, the company
rail-roads are building along the canal, as if there
American road from Albany end
to
activity. to
being already incorporated.
Could but a
little
of this quick-
ness in practical perception, and boldness in embarking in
the most daring enterprises, be engrafted upon German steadiness and thoroughness,
deed.
But
it
it
would produce
must be remembered, how
fine fruits in-
different an aspect
200
(
)
Germany would present, were she not chopped into pieces, as freely work its way into all direc-
all
and could enterprise,
tions as in this extensive and
When the
canal
was
first
untrammelled country.
opened, farmers, whose property
lay close to this great blood-vessel of the state, had their
own
barges to carry their produce to advantageous markets; but the navigation of
all
who
kinds, for goods and passengers,
required good accommodations, became within a short time so brisk, that private navigation, if I can use this expression as contradistinguished to
company
navigation, soon ceased.
There are yet many proprietors of
make
single barges, but they
a business of canal navigation; no farmers, as I under-
stand, have
any longer boats
for their
own
use.
that the state derives a very great revenue It is interesting to see
might almost
say,
how
—You know
from
this source.
this easy intercourse
makes,
one place out of many habitations,
we
at dis-
tances from one another, which would otherwise be consi-
dered great. as, in
the
It is likewise
common
worthy of
attention, that,
course of things, the vender
is
where-
usually sta-
tionary and the buyer goes to him; here, on the other hand, as in the
primary stages of society, the
to place
— a way of
details; it
is, if
trafficking
you choose
Even knowledge
is
to call
brought in
it so,
this
On
to the smallest
an aquatic peddling.
way
of the inhabitants of detached houses, lating libraries.
moves from place
seller
which extends
within the reach
by
floating circu-
the Mississippi, this system of hawking
has been extended, in some branches,
still
farther.
are on that river several floating companies of actors. sail in their flat boats, fitted
to plantation, perform,
who
for theatres,
The Chapman
family were the
conceived the clever idea of leading Thalia to the
door of every spectator, instead of calling him ple,
They
from plantation
and break up when their receipts do
not warrant a longer stay. first
up
There
and of teaching Melpomene
to lead an
to
her tem-
amphibious
life.
Here, then, the scarcity of population produces a similar fect to lation.
what
results in
some
parts of China,
ef-
from over-popu-
201
(
When
)
came down from Utica to Schenectady, on my believe that not two hours passed without our meeting one or several barges laden with Germans excellent I
way home,
I
—
stock for
Michigan, whither most proceeded, "
in passing.
American mix their ;
As many
them
of
as
as
they told
you can spare,"
me
said an
me: " they are all useful men provided they will steadiness finds ample reward on those fertile plains to
Amen,
in the west."
said
and thought of Pope Nicholas
I,
v., who, in 1451, charged the ambassador of the Teutonic Or-
der
to
import for him a number of Germans, to be employed
in the papal chuncelleria,
on account of their trustiness and
industrious habits.
How
easily do these emigrants
from their native country, to emigrate or
if
to sever themselves
their willingnesss
contentment in foreign regions, with the ideas
When
of an ancient colonist or exile! left their
seem
we compare a
number
of Greeks
beloved country to colonise a spot, distant for the di-
minutive dimensions of antiquity, they took with them a
lamp lighted by the sacred
fire
They took
of their temple.
would
their gods with them, and yet
for
many
generations
consider Greece their true home, toward which the most anxious wishes of their heart steadily pointed.
was banished from the narrow he
felt
When
a
man
territory of his native city,
himself deprived of the customs of his people, of his
legal rights, of his
An Athenian
gods
in Sparta,
—he was henceforth but half a man. was
a stranger indeed.
In the middle ages, the Christian religion was spread over all
Europe, and with greater uniformity even than
at present;
yet the intercourse not only between nations, but also be-
tween petty dividual,
states
most necessary cult for
and
cities,
was of
a kind to deprive an in-
thrown among strangers, of many of the rights for his well being.
It
was exceedingly
him to find a new home. Nor were, at that time,
intercourse and the
common
habits of
diffi-
social
men founded upon
so
universal and broad principles, as to allow the foreigner to feel
himself at ease.
The
Florentine wept in Ferrara or
Venice, for his home, hxa pairia, 26
we cannot say
hiscountrt/.
202
(
It is far difierent
his birth,
An
now.
)
emigrant leaves the place of
travels many hundred miles through a foreign
country, crosses the wide ocean, travels a thousand miles into the interior of another hemisphere,
He
is
among
strangers,
true, yet
it is
and builds his
hut.
he finds there the same
same manners, the same principles of morality, If the language which surrounds him in his the same God. dress, the
new
country, be not his native tongue, the sentiments, views,
and customs of the people, whose neighbor he has become, are mainly those with which he has grown up, and the friendlessness of a foreign tongue,
which must have weighed most
mind of an exile in antiquity, loses much There is a Catholicism in modern morality, of its asperity. knowledge and civilization, which makes an individual belonging to the European family, feel easier at home, wher-
heavily upon the
may be
ever he
This
within the pale of European civilization.
ease, I willingly allow, is greater
families of nations, into
A German
still
among
which the European race
will generally find himself sooner at
the great
is
divided.
home among
A
English or Americans, than a Frenchman or Italian. Pole, perhaps, less so than either; yet to whatever nation
he may belong, nations, he will than a
man
if
he be but of one of the most civilized
feel
more
at
home with any
of Epirus did in Argolis.
of the others,
And
an Egyptian
could hardly have lived in Messenia. I
have often tried
class, to
feel
to ascer'tain
which most of those belong who go to America, after they have resided for some time in
home-sick
this country.
Italians
and French never give up the hope
of regaining their native shore.
and
whether emigrants of the
Irish assimilate
much
Germans, English, Scotch,
easier with the natives of this
its whole national system. The natural German to acquire a foreign language may conmuch to his greater ease in assimilating. The ad-
country and join in talent of a
tribute
vantage which the emigrants of the three other countries have, in point of language, over
mentioned.
The French
all
the rest, need not be
form, in the larger
cities,
where
203
(
there
number of them,
a sufficient
is
themselves; and
country when
known
have
I
)
years old, from
fifteen
much who came to
a circle
a lady St.
Domingo,
for this
at the
time of the insurrection of the negroes in that island, and whose husband was a zealous admirer of American institutions;
who, nevertheless, had not learned to speak, when I became acquainted with
to read, English,
a year ago.
did not
In Berlin,
know German
I
knew
less
still
her, but
who
of a French silk weaver
he had resided more than twenand must have been obliged by his
after
ty-five years in that city,
station in society, to live in continual contact
with the na-
tives.
may, however, mention here a
I
foreigner much, is,
that the Irish,
when he
—
first
in spite of
facility in assimilating
fact,
which surprises a
arrives in this country;
what
I
with the Americans,
— clan more
gether than the emigrants of any other nation. fact,
which
have said above of their
They,
to-
in
openly retain their name, and often, in the very mo-
ment
that they
make
use of the highest privileges of
zenship which any country can bestow, they do
it
citi-
under
There is no election in any of the some previous calls upon the " true-born On the election day itsons of Ireland," to vote so or so. self banners are seen floating from the windows of taverns,* the banner of Irishmen.
large cities without
•
By
the by, there
is
among- other laws of the canton Lausanne,
in Swit-
management of elections, one which prohibits the opening of winehouses or shops where liquors of any kind are sold, or the sale of liquoi"s in any other way. If this be done in wine countries, what zerland, relating to the safe
ought we
to
do
in
a grog-countiy ?
Reports of temperance societies have
already designated election days as peculiarly mischievous with regard to in-
temperance. If our whole tizens,
it is
as to ensure the
lot-box
political
system finally rests upon the votes of the ci-
certainly within the pale of state legislation to take such measures
weakest and most decrepit old man a free passage
—that sacred covenant of om-
liberty; the safety
our national existence, precisely the same importance assurance of the legitimate birth of the monarch. safe,
as, in
Make
and we have the worst, the very worst times of
to the bal-
of which has, as to monarchies, the
the ballot-box un-
Rome
at once.
On
whatever principle a government may be founded, that principle must be sustainfd in
its
purity, or convulsions arc the necessary consequence,
more
—
304
(
some of which, you may be
)
certain, are
ornamented with
They go farown candi-
mottos having reference to the Irish alone.
sometimes; they will bring forward their
ther,
All this
date, if they feel strong enough.
speak guard-
to
is,
who
edly, at least, impolite towards the natives,
receive
the foreigner with a degree of national hospitality unequalled
by any other terprise lic, is
nation.
which
is
Every
career on the wide field of en-
to the natural citizens of this repub-
open
After the brief pe-
equally open to the naturalized.
any
riod of five years' residence,
may
alien
take the
zen's oath, and this done, he enjoys every privilege of a free-born
American
can. boast,
an vuistinted citizenship,
become
with the single exception that he cannot of the United States.
The
return for such a boon,
it
citi-
which
a president
be expected, in
least that could
should be supposed, would be the
frankest and most heartfelt union, in every thing, with the nation, which so hospitably makes
new
sons and the
no difierence between
But the
comers.
its
own
Irish are desirous of be-
coming Americans and yet remaining Irish; and this serving of two masters will not do. Whatever the inmost feelings of an emigrant toward his native country
may
and with
be,
every generous heart will be, as a citizen of America, he should be American and American only, or let him remain alien.
As
the latter, he
the land as
is
or less violent, according to
compose the
state
tlie
much by
protected as
is
a citizen; there is
the law of
no necessity whatever for
previous dissolution of the elements which
—and our principle
is
He who
the ballot-box.
disturbs
with us free and calm voting, whether secretly or openly, commits the
gi-eat-
high treason which a citizen of the United States can commit, a
much
est
greater one, in our opinion, than Arnold committed.
tached to
this species
to
home and
our politics depend upon the
throw obstacles
in
at-
of high-treason, and no more important truth can be im-
pressed upon our children, at all
Infamy ought to be
Avill
the legitimate
in school,
than
of the people,
this, that if
it is
way of expressing
we make
barbarity and crime, this will
—an incon-
gruity from which necessarily and directly the worst species of all despotism
must if
result.
It
would be ciime
an individual,
in
government ever should attempt
nation the arms which
it
places in
it
tliree times
accursed crime,
—much worse than turning
tlieir
hands to defend
it.
against the
Etiitoh.
205
(
his
becoming
)
It is, therefore,
naturalized.
with great con-
must observe that disturbances at caused by those who do not unfrequently elections are not enjoy their citizenship by birthright, sometimes by those cern, that a good citizen
who do not enjoy it at all. What are the reasons that believe they are threefold.
come
of other countries think,
I
the Irish in this country clan
the emigrants of any other nation?
more together than
more
First,
to the
United
have observed in a previous
States, and,
letter,
Secondly, the Irish
wronged
in their country;
driven from
it;
as I
they have a pre-
dilection for large cities, so that they remain in greater
bers together.
feel that
num-
they have been
they have, in a degree, been
the feelings with which they look back to
are, therefore, of a
otherwise be; or,
more
it
intense character than they
would
be not the case, they feel
among
if this
themselves the strong
I
Irish than people
of bearing one
tie
common wrong.
Thirdly, they are encouraged to this clanship by party men; their Irish feelings are flattered and excited, in order to
them; they are called upon as votes,
which become,
in
win
Irish, in order to gain their
some quarters of large
cities, or, in-
deed, in some whole counties, at times, very important,
when, otherwise, the parties might be nearly balanced. Let me throw in, here, the remark, though it be not quite in
its
place, that the
common
language of the English,
Scotch, Irish, and Americans, causes the
last,
unconsciously
to themselves, to consider emigrants of the three first nations
when
settled
countries. is
among them,
There are many
hardly known
Irish in congress, of
that they are strangers
been told a story, which
man
nearer akin than those of other
I feel
in the
middle
and
was pretty generally understood,
states:
it
I
have
A
Ger-
birth.
inclined to believe.
offered himself for a professorship of
it
by
whom
one of the colleges
he w^as unsuccessful in his application;
be preferred; but a short time
after,
that a native
would
an Irish gentleman ob-
tained the chair, certainly not on account of his superiority.
This,however,is not always the course of things; for instance,
(
206
)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, there are two Germans who
in
But
hold prominent professorships. list
if
you glance over the
many
of officers of the United States, you will find very
Irish; nor does
any
appointment of one
difficulty arise at the
of that people, while the contrary would, probably, be the
were a German, or Frenchmen by birth, to offer himself which easily might be filled by some one else. This, I think, is not quite fair; the Irish emigrants do by case
for a place,
no means deserve more confidence, than those of other countries; and though the existence of a
may
naturally lead the
Americans not
common
language,
to feel so strongly
the difference between themselves and the Irish, they ought to be careful not to az'e
called
may
upon
act
upon
to guide their
this feeling,
judgment
whenever they
any matter which
in
arise in relation to this subject.
Those Swiss who usually emigrate
to this
from the lower part of Switzerland, and subject to that home-sickness, which, in
its
the character of a true disease.
am
If I
country come
are, therefore, less
patients,
assumes
right, there are
three chief causes of this peculiar affection of the nervous
system, which begins with an oppression of the heart, and
produces a pain of a compound character: of
affliction, half
it
has in
it
consists half
of a physical and very distinct pain,
common
which
with every oppression of the heart,
if it
continue for any length of time, and from whatever cause it
may
originate.
beginning, but
it
I
do not know whether
be none more favorable for is
this pain
my
be always the
personal observation.
and restlessness, which
night with images,
still
body throughout of
many
this
was so in a case, than which there could
its
fill
more disturbing
It
the mind, day and it,
necessary elasticity.
and deprive the Thus, as in so
more mind has no longer
other cases, the effect of one stage becomes the
powerful cause of the next, until the
any mastery over the disease, and rapid decline is the necesThere is no doubt, in my mind, but that sary consequence. in many cases, the patient has it in his power to stifle the disease in its incipient stages; as there are a number of other
207
(
afflictions,
Any
)
which might be thus arrested by
man, who
will testify to the truth of
the soldier
is
army
has served in an
what
a decided will.
by
visited
When
I say.
depressed, his body becomes
the mind of more disposed to
a variety of diseases; hence, there are always so
on
many
sick
then that a decided will, not to be sick,
It is
retreats.
disasters,
often can parry off the beginning and, consequently, the
whole
disease.
— But
to
proceed to the enumeration of
my
causes.
Home-sickness mass of new
When
may
be occasioned by an overwhelming
ideas, impressions,
the Swiss,
who
new
and
relations in
has lived his whole
life.
in the soli-
life
tude and simplicity of his high Alps, descends into more
populous countries, where
a brisk intercourse
various members of society exists, he tally new a world, that he cannot feel
at ease.
I
told that the inhabitants of Hiddensoe, near live
between the
finds himself in so to-
have been
Rugen, who
on their barren island in the simplest possible way, half
under ground, and feeding hardly upon any thing but are home-sick,
when kept long from
They are accustomed
to the simplicity and
island and the surrounding sea,
world. tier
So will often the
feel
soldier,
monotony of their
uneasy
in the bustling
from some distant fron-
province of Austria, hasten home, though he
risen in the in
and
Vienna.
society
strives the Indian to regain his silent
woods,
to a rank,
which opens
or the half-bred hunter, to quit Quebec. this sickness,
may have
him any
army So
fish,
the spot of their birth.
may
to
Incipient stages of
be observed in the uncomfortable feeling
which disturbs the mind of an individual who has been accustomed to a quiet life, and is suddenly thrown into the bustle
But in no case has the peculiar character shown itself more decidedly than in Caspar Hauser. He was so overwhelmed by all the impressions of the world, when he was first taken from his dungeon, that he felt
of a noisy world. of this disease
exceedingly unhappy, complained of constant head-ache, and
longed to return to "his hole."* * See our note, appended
to
In this instance, there
page 141.
Kditoh.
208
(
beautiful features of nature, no endeared
were no bold or family
circle, or
)
memento
of his childhood, to reclaim the
was the variety of new impressions, which wanderer; weighed him down and haunted him back. it
Another cause of home-sickness, is the striking peculiarity may have surrounded an individual
of the objects which
from early childhood, and the images of which have become with the movements of his mind, that he can-
so associated
happy
not feel
any length of time,
for
It is not necessary, that
them.
have been the source of happiness
by
they be beautiful, or should to
him;
it is,
in
many
cases,
they are strikingly peculiar and different from
sufficient that
any thing
not surrounded
if
else
with which he meets.
cause operates in union with the
Such
more powerful.
Often, indeed, this
and becomes thus the
first,
the case with the Swiss, and with
is
the unsettled inhabitant of the desert,
whenever removed from the dreary
knew a German emigrant
who
feels
unhappy
plain of his birth.
who had
in this country,
I
settled in
where the fertility of the soil prevented tree, to which he had been accustomed Now, few persons will think a common
a part of our Union,
the growth of the
fir
in his native land. fir
tree
very beautiful
of the odor of so either; yet
had found
a
its
in appearance,
nor fragrant on account
exuding gum, nor did the emigrant think
me
he assured
sandy
spot,
that he had not rested until
he
where he could plant some of the
trees so sweet to him, and whither he occasionally resorts, in order to it.
"smell home," as he very appropriately termed
Impressions which
edly for
many
we
receive through the senses repeat-
years, or in the
moment when something Some words
extraordinary happens to us, are indelible.
which
me most deeply, and roused my whole indigme while yet a boy, in the moment that uttered his peculiar noise, and, to this day, I am
affected
nation, were a turkey
said to
unable to hear a turkey without an unpleasant sensation,
which often makes conscious of
itself felt
its distant,
but
Avay, there are, certainly,
long before
still
my mind
active cause.
few persons,
if
any,
becomes
In a s'imilar
who do
not
209
(
)
consider the scent of box disagreeable.
nerves decidedly so, were
not the
It
greatly overbalanced
my
on
into a garden
by hot summer day
a
walks
linetl
with box, and
my
in
to
with old-fashioned
mind will suddenly float on remembers the Roman garwhere I have spent so many
1813, in a corps belonging to the Prussian
whom
commander
the
leave the service, since
it
so
offered permission to
happened that
this
very corps
had to act against the Danes, and the commanding
would not expose him
to the pain
countrymen. But the
officer, it
conscience than the Dane, the thing one
my
it
purling fountain,
its
happy hours. There was, army, a Dane
to
Lead me
association of ideas.
the waves of delight, before
den with
would be
unpleasant sensation
way
who
appeared, had a said
own
more tender
he did not care about
The
or the other.
officer
of fighting against his
offer
was repeated
various periods, but always bluntly declined.
At
at
length
the regiment in which he served surprised the Danes in their
camp, so that the
hurry, and to leave hind.
When
latter
much of
were obliged
to retreat in great
their baggage and utensils be-
the Prussians took possession of the spot, the
enemy were yet burning, and the little kettles hanging over them. Most of these contained a national fires
of the
dish of the Danes, called grit, and, as
much
all
national dishes are
by their respective nations, so the grit is highly esteemed by these Scandinavians, though other people, probably, would call the pleasure in this peculiar dish " an relished
acquired taste."
been able
What
to effect in
about by the
grit.
"
no patriotism,
our Dane, was
By
the grit suddenly stood before his tive, the
most striking
would seem, had
now suddenly brought
," he exclaimed, "these noble
fellows have grit in their pots."
parents, for aught I
it
The steaming mind
pot with
as the representa-
to his senses, of his youth, his sisters,
know, of his love;
"the moist impediments unto stantly to the colonel, to
in his
eyes appeared
his speech," and he went
make
leave the armv.
27
in-
use of the repeated offer to
210
(
To
the last cause, which
I
)
have mentioned
producing
as
home-sickness, vve must likewise refer the peculiar predilec-
some people have for their profession, though it offer not half the comfort, which others derive from their occupations. The enthusiasm with which an individual speaks of his trade does not depend upon his success or the enjoyment he tion
finds in
The
it.
richest
merchant
is
generally the most disin-
clined to let his children follow the
feels
more
most toilsome
leads the
scantily rewarded than
cause
it is
totally different
from any thing
German wagoner should To walk
and dreary one.
and
life,
any other laborer, speaks
He
with a kind of enthusiasm of his pursuit.
a
But the
pursuit.
himself somewhat better than the rest of mankind.*
The German miner, who is
same
with pleasure of his profession, and in his pride
sailor talks
loves
else.
The
be-
it,
of
life
certainly be considered a stupid slo-wly, step
by
step,
by the
side
of a team, day after day; continually to travel over the same route, say
from the Rhine
the Rhine, on which he
every
have
attractions.
which,
to
a train
else,
In one of
We
visited
sailors.
pedestrian journeys
fair.
I
I
entered into a conversa-
who,
in informing
once a man-of-war and found several colored
"Do
to
seems strongly to partake
my
tion with the oldest of the wagoners,
•
and
of heavily laden wagons, proceeding to
Leipsig, shortly before the
the
face,
Yet, he speaks with delight of his
every one
of the lobster-like.
met with
Leipsig and from Leipsig to
and descent of the road, cannot be believed
rise
many
trade,
to
knows every inn-keeper's
me
men among we
the white and colored sailors agree well together?"
asked; ''and does not the difference of color interfere with that uniform and
quick working, on which the safety of the vessel so
"They
was the answer of the
much depends?"
"we
let
the
colored dine in separate messes, but the white sailors would not have
tlie
perfectly agree,"
slightest objection against
officer;
being in the same mess with their colored fellows."
The fact is, that a sailor considers his profession so distinct from any other human pursuit, that even color, so powerful a cause of distinction among all
the rest of mankind, does not outweigh, with him, the distinction which
his pride induces
him
to
make between
sailor
and non-sailor.— Editor.
211
(
of his course of
life,
told
me
)
of the several diseases to which
he was subject, and mentioned that he had remained
some time
for
As
consequence of sickness.
in
are generally wealthy,
I
my
evinced
at
these
home men
astonishment that he
again exposed himself to the inclemency of the weather, as his
of health seemed to warrant no such exposure.
state
" Ah," said the old man, jogging along on his legs,
'•
a
wagoner cannot remain
crooked
home; we love our pro-
at
fession."
The
third kind of home-sickness proceeds from a source
directly opposite to those I have indicated.
It besets the
heart of a refined and carefully cultivated mind, of a soul
endowed with generous existence
is
feelings
—of a man, whose
closely connected with
mental
the science, art, and
choicest social intercourse of his country. I
have spoken above of the Catholicism of civilization, and,
more ready ap-
in certain respects, this expression finds no
man who
plication than with a ciety,
is
familiar with the best so-
Let
and has a truly cultivated mind.
New York
Russian or Swede land in
a well-educated
and proceed forth-
know
the
The same
ge-
with to an assembled company, and, provided he language, he will
feel, in a
degree, at home.
the same forms of
neral sentiments and views prevail,
But
intercourse are observed.
this holds
only as
social
far as it
goes.
A
man who has enjoyed who has entered
his country,
the intellectual intercourse of into the
and productions of the flower of
may
well imagine, I do not
its
mean
most
delicate feelings
society,
by which, you
fashionable society,
who
has, perhaps, himself taken an active part in its political life
or
its literature;
tirely barren,
a
communing with
who tions it
in
man who
feels that his
mind
is
not en-
and experiences that internal necessity of others,
and of being understood
—
a
man
does not only love his country, because early associa-
have endeared
mind and
divorced from
it
to
him, but
soul, such a it.
He may
who
man cannot
has been wedded to forget
it
frankly join in with
— cannot be hi.ense of the former, because a
at
good
The most important The name of a place
to flow easily, neither to be too long,
the contrary exist.
that
every ludicrous, or uncalled for
to guide us, that simplicity is
quisite for beauty
ought
some general
are
any other;
rules applicable in this case, as in
if
we
and rhythmical flow,
these cases, every thing.
Secondly,
if
name may he derived from »ome historical event, so much the better. It is well to surround ourselves, as much
the
as possible,
with that which reminds us of memorable events
Gothe
or persons; history,
is
says,
the enthusiasm
"The it
advise to be cautious as to using places.
is
which we have from
But
I
would always
nouns proper of persons for
not in good taste to call a place
It is
Brown, or the the latter
best
excites."
like,
not so
yet Hudson,
much
idea of personality.
I
own,
is
associated in our
minds with the
Thirdly, geological features
ford good materials for names, yet good taste
other cases, decide.
in all to
me
flat;
while,
small
it
Thompson,
good enough; for
may
must here,
af-
as
Thus, Mount Carbon, sounds
smacks too mucli of lectures on chemistry,
perhaps.
number of
boring coal-pits
Colliers'
Home
does very well
houses,, where the colliers of live.
for
a
some neigh-
I'he form of mountains, rivers, &c.,
often aflbrds us tbc rlcmenfs
of fuic names, such as fork,
ridge, niounl, confluence, (like Coblcnl/.,) r.ipids,
fall,
rock,
242
(
Fourthly, the vegetable world, a prevailing
bridge, &c.
may
plant, tree, or herb,
for nomenclature,
which
not bad;
is
may
it
Mount
give us a whole name,
Holly, Laurel Hill, Cedar, or
Fifthly, the comparison to other places,
the addition of Little, or to
very convenient element
afford a
sometimes e. g.
Pine Grove, &c. ought
)
New.
But
have
this, as I
Sixthly, any English
be used very carefully.
names
of small places, villages, &c., some of which are very
and have never yet been used
fine,
They
in this country.
by
said,
are
preferable to Italian, French, &c. names, simply, because
own
they belong to our sociation
language, and do 7iot carry any as-
of ideas with
me much
sounds to
Seventhly, invention by arbitrary
Lodis and Waterloos. composition. to bestow, let
Newham,
Leominster, or
them.
better, for a small place, than all the
what name
If the person be utterly at a loss
him put the consonants of the
alphabet, writ-
ten on separate pieces of paper, into one hat, and the vowels
him draw
into another, and let
other; sometimes,
if
alternately from one or the
he choose, he
may draw
twice from the
consonants, until he has a word with two or three sylla-
Though words,
bles.
thus formed, will often be strange to
our ears, they will at other times be exceedingly sonorous,
and as
very easy
it is
to
make
necessary only to select the
way very much rule, that man ought
this
power, and
;
for
a great
finest.
it is
confess, I do not like
chance wherever
ville,
number
it
is
in his
and reflection guide him.
In order to form names after the above rules,
well to collect a
it is
better to follow the general
to discard
to let reason
I
number of them,
of elements of names.
borough, (not as often used, by the by, as
be) city, (as in Delaware City,) town,
mount,
would be
it
We it
creek,
have
ought
&c
to
But
It seems to me that if we many thousands of old geographicomposed, we might use many of these com-
these are by no
means enough.
consider of what elements cal
names
are
ponent parts to
great advantage, provided they be con-
genial to our language; on lables of
which account, words and
Teutonic origin would generally be
best.
syl-
The
(
may
following
243
)
many
serve as samples, though there are
more: V?e, derived either
from the Celtic aa, or the Latin aqua^ to water, and occurs often in the
proximity
signifies a
South of France,
German for
»fldely
as the final syllable.
moun-
noble, often used for high, noble
tains.
Alt,
German
for old.
Dutch names, and
Jirde, last syllable of several as
much
the
as
German Erde,
earth:
for
signifies
example,
Oudenarde, Old-Earth. Jlrlj Jiar,
and Adhr, German for eagle, as Jlrlberg,
Eagle-Mountain.
Bach, German Bait and Belt, for
for rivulet.
Celtic for a great assemblage of water:
example, the Baltic and the Belt.
Berg, German
for
in the
mountain, (and,
English lan-
guage, an ice-berg.)
Borg, Danish and Swedish
for castle,
and might be taken
as borough.
Burg, German Brig, Celtic
for the same.
for bridge.
—Bothwellbrig
in
Old Morta-
lity.
Brunn, German (where
Den, Gothic
for well:
hock
fine
is
for
raised,)
example, Markebrunn,
Well on the Frontier.
for town.
Dorf, German for village.
Dun,
Celtic for
Ec, Ey, Jiye, trees, &c.,
hill.
Celtic.
and
Mostly found with names of
signifies
Ey, Scandinavian
plants,
an assemblage of them.
for island, as in
Anglesey,
Isle of the
Angles. Feld,
German
Greenfields,
Greenfeld.)
for it
field.
(If
there
might be convenient
happen to
to
be two
change one into
244
(
German
Fels,
)
for rock.
Fiord, Danish and Swedisli for dctroit, an arm of the sea.
Furt, German
for ford.
GaVy German and Persian
for a fortified place.
Haff, German for port.
Hof, German for yard,
Hohn, Scandinavian
a farm.
for islet.
m^ny Saxou names, meaning field. Kerke, Flemish corruption of the German Kirche, Scot-
Juge,
last syllable of
tish kirk, church.
Mark, German
for frontier, thus
Marksuhl,
i.
e.
Suhl on
the frontier.
Mor,
Celtic for sea.
Mund, German Nant,
for
mouth
of a river.
Celtic for rivulet.
Ness, Scandinavian syllable at the end of a word, sig-
nifying a promontory, as Inverness.
Nieder,
German
for low.
Norr, Gothic for north.
Ny, Danish Ober,
for
German
new. for upper.
Oe, Danish syllable of termination, signifying island. Ort,
German
Oude, Dutch
Pen, Celtic Schcen,
for place, as Fredericsort.
for old.
for
summit.
German
for beautiful, as Schoeneiche, Beautiful
Oak, and Schcenbrunn. Seng, Danish for near.
German for rock. German for valley, dale. fVald, German for forest. There are many short and well-sounding elements Stein,
Thai,
ographical names in the Asiatic languages, but droll again, Avere
ho
fui-
river,
7^^'
we
to
it
of ge-
would be
make compounds with the Chinese pao for fortress, men for passage,
for north,
245
(
)
or lar, the Russian for shore or bank, or hiina, the Sanscrit for cold.
If
we add
such
above elements those
to the
we
names, but which
(from casirum,) dale,
as, Chester,
same with the German heim, abode,) head, vicus,) &c.,
which,
if
as, in
stone, wick,
hill,
we
find in
English
hardly ever use in our compounds, frith, hall, Jiam, (the
Durham, meaning home,
and wich, (from the Latin
we shall have a number of geographical
elements,
used according to the above rules, might serve for
the composition of
many
fair
names.
For instance,
if
the
name Thompson must be retained, Thompsonort seems better than merely Thompson. It is not meant to say, that the given elements of foreign languages are better than the cor-
may
responding English ones, but one or the other
be more
convenient in certain compositions, or the English syllable or
word may have been used
has at
all
already, and every
body who
directed his attention to the subject, will agree with
me, that the enormous repetition of geographical names this country is a serious evil
er every day. offices
which threatens
to
have made some inquiry
I
and the general
post-office in
become
in various post-
Washington, and have
found, what can easily be imagined, that the large
of places of the same
name
open a gazetteer
number
occasions, both to the offices and
the public, countless inconveniences. to
in
great-
in order to
In
fact,
you have but
convince yourself of what
I
say.
then, a
If,
ty, &c., let the
name
is to
be given to a place, township, coun-
and no appropriate Indian name be
still
in existence,
name-giver inquire w^hether there be any prominent
object within
it,
or whether any important event has hap-
pened there, and then try whether, with the above elements,
name may be compounded; for it is to be adopted an some natural connexion should subbetween name and place. If the place has ever borne
a fair
a rule, that, generally, sist
an Indian name, retain this before
omit
a svllable or
two;
if it
all
be too
others;
if it
difficult for
be too long,
white
men
to
246
{
pronounce, change and shape retain the
name
it
)
according to our organs, but Indian names have the
as far as possible.
we
advantage of natural growth and antiquity;
feel as if
they
belong to the place, and are not pasted on as something
ar-
which may be changed again with equal caprice. Besides, the Indian names of our country are generally well bitrary,
sounding.
we come
If
to the
South American Iztaccihuatls,
Huitzompans, Cajotepeques, and Axajacatls, deed; yet, even there,
if a
different, in-
it is
general assumes an elevated tone
in his proclamation, or an orator be desirous of addressing
his hearers in a dignified style, they resort to the Indian
names, and
by the
call
native
the inhabitants of the different
names of those
countries. This
in a great measure, to the love of ral to
titles
power
in ancient
pompousness, so natu-
They
names.
The French
is,
be-
are like the
of works, with the contents of which
acquainted.
states
may be owing,
Spaniards and their descendants, but there
sides, a great
short
Mexican
we
are well
revolution abolished carefully the
names of the different provinces which had constituted the kingdom, and introduced the more statistic names of the old
At no subsequent
departments.
period of the republic or
the empire were they revived or even alluded
poleon returned from the Russian snow-fields.
he was conscious of being obliged heard of exertions,
when he
felt
to
call
for
to, until
new and
un-
that he was in want of the
undivided energy of the whole nation, he, for the called
Na-
Then, when
first
time,
upon the inhabitants of Burgundy, Brittany, Pro-
vence, Languedoc, &c., to rush to the banners for the defence of the sacred
pendence.
knowing
With
a
soil
of their country and national inde-
man
like Napoleon, in his situation and
the French nation so well,
fact to trifling
motives
or,
we
cannot ascribe this
perhaps, to chance.
Another way of making names would be to collect the most general processes by which corruptions, or, to use a milder term, transformations have been brought about; to reduce the whole to some rules, and apply them in given cases.
But the
difiicully here
would
be, that first the
name
247
(
or word, to be transformed,
is
)
wanting, and, secondly, that
these transformations would, in most cases, not be easy, often
Besides, the whole would be too scientific a
impossible.
the people, who bestow the names. Madame Roland (that high-minded woman, but misplaced in her age, as we find not a few such characters in history; who should have lived in Rome when Coriolanus threatened
way, and
it,
or
it is
when Hannibal was
carrying terror over Italy) begins
her memoirs, relating to the French revolution, by an anecdote of her grandmother, who,
when one day
the curtain
support of her bed broke down, exclaimed, in astonishment, *'
This has lasted
break now!" sertation on
a few
I
fifty-five years,
names has
moments
Names very
how
does
happen
it
to
agree with the old lady, and as this dislasted so long, I intend
it
shall last
longer.
often
amuse me, by giving me an opportunity
of tracing their probable connexion with events of history.
There are Baron de Schmidts (Smith) in Germany. Great and powerful convulsions of affaii*s were required to raise
name
this
— originally given
to individuals
pations which were considered
men
—
to a
fit
The
rank in the peerage.
engaged in occu-
only for slaves and bondsexistence of this
title
represents, in the smallest possible compass, the ascendency
which the popular principle has been continually gaining over the aristocratic throughout the whole European race.
Again, take a name like
Tarifi'ville.
sary to produce such a name!
What was not necesmix historica.* In
It is a
order to induce people to give to a place so tion, their ardor for a
tariff"
flat
an appella-
must have run high, indeed;
represents the existing state of
American
politics at
it
the
time, the zeal of the northern states to vie with older countries in the career of
manufacturing industry, and brings
mind the struggle against this course of policy. But the name tariff' would not have been given in this country to
to
•
Thus
is
the text, but when the editor received the proof sheet, he found
that the printer
Editob.
had made of
it,
nux
vomica.
Did he do
it
on purpose
i"
—
—
248
(
which
the subject
—
)
designates, had not
it
England adopted
it
which we owe, with so many other branches of modern civilization, one of the most important the modern system of commerce. And she again took the word tariff from the Orient, which, in many respects, had from Italy
Italy to
obtained, at the time
it
afforded the name, great superiority
Through Italy was then running the great stream of commerce; and mighty revolutions caused it at once to flow in a totally different direction, and made over the Occident.
And
Spain great, and gave to Portugal the age of heroism.
and swimmer, the noble poet, and
Camoens, the
soldier, bard,
the beggar,
brought before your mind, or the
is
reminds you of the ancient
castle Tarifa,
Italian
which no
that ever passed the Straits of Gibraltar, will forget
monument man,
of the Spanish Manlius,
called el
Bueno* by
tarifi'
sailor
—
his grateful king, for having, like
a hero, refused to surrender the castle to the Moors,
had captured his
that
Don Alonso Perez Guz-
first-born son
and threatened
to
Guzman,
before his eyes, should he not surrender.
who
behead him as an-
down from the battlement his own sword, with Moors severed the head of the son, in the pre-
swer, threw
which the
And
sence of his father.
all
the deeds of Spanish chivalry,
and the songs which celebrate them
in Castilian tongue,
—thus you may dream
may
on, and on,
rise
up before you and
you
are obliged to halt in a dreary inn of a barren place such
as little Tariffville.
Or take the name
and most glorious country, called for coal; or Africa, originally a ra,
sounding so pleasantly
of Brazil, a vast, rich,
after brasa,
Portuguese
mere province; or Madei-
to the connoisseur in
madera, Portuguese
wines, from
if
her noble
for ivood, or, properly
speaking, matter, stuff.
These
are instances of
names which rose
to signify
higher
things than they originally designated; there are other words "
This
is
the
name which congress might have bestowed on Washington, fit to bestow upon him any peculiar appellation whatever.
had they thought
Washington the Good; ing
it.
Editor.
it is
a
meet
designation.
But
historj- is
now bestow-
249
(
which have met with proper word for
)
The Spanish
a similar fate.
face,
rostro, the
hesitates to use, is de-
which no poet
rived from the Latin rostrum, which, probably, was intro-
duced into Spain
in
connexion with the meaning of
by
face,
the Roman soldier, who, vulgarly, would use the word beak for face, as people, of the same class, with us, would use
snout, by says,
way
Macbeth he
tions, that
But there
of contempt. is
Or,
who
the most tragic of
calls
in fact, the
it,
are, in original languages,
thinks that
all
when he
dramatic composi-
most goatish of plays?
words of domestic
ori-
gin which, nevertheless, have been elevated to the rank of a
much more
exalted signification than their original one.
Yet their number is infinitely smaller than that of the woi*ds, which continually sink in their meaning. Words and phrasesy in themselves the purest possible, become, in the course of
time,
common, vulgar, and even indecent, or, must I say word indecent itself having- sunk already
decorous, the
in-
too
low? I'll
give you yet another instance of a far-travelling name^
The Baroness de
Rredesel
tells,
in
her memoirs, that she
commanding the Hessian and Brunsus, with a daughter, when in this part of
presented her husband,
wick troops against the world.
She was
called
Countess of Bernstorff.
America, and
is
now America,
She would not have received
this
name, had not the chain-rewarded Columbus, an honor to
mankind and
a
shame
to moiiarchs,
been wronged out of the
glory due to him- and to him alone. the Italian
name Amerigo,
Then consider, that Emmerigo, is one
the same with
of the
many names
Italy,
brought thither by the conquering Germans, such as
not unfrequent in the northern part of
Arrigo, Carlo, Ludovico (Luigi,) Matelda, &c.
Amerigo
and Emmerigo are derived from the German Emmerich; so
you see that our western hemisphere bears a German name, which made the tour du monde before it came back to its original land in the person of Countess Bernstorff,
ver, the
name
is
certainly
most melodious and
Howe-
beautiful,
and
—
(
250
)
I feel truly grateful that the Spaniards have not
name
part of the world after the family
named our
of the Florentine
Suppose our great continent
merchant-navigator.
to
have
been called Vespuccia!
The wrong done to the noble-minded Genoese, was felt, when Congress called the small piece of national ground, where we meet to prove that we are a nation, and love to have one banner, waving alike over the representatives from all
parts,
— the District of Columbia;
and when the
Ame-
rican poet mentions his country, inspired with her noble destinies,
he
calls
one
for poetry, as the
one
"by which
The
we have two
her Columbia, so that here,
common
names, one for politics and the
concerns of
mortals
call
quaint names used in
parts of the United States, but
not give you a
will
I
know where
to stop.
Old Testament, and,
list
name through
one skilled
in the
as
I
commented
which
though
it
is
I
should not
have already remarked, often with
life,
which
women have sometimes
calls
customary also
in
cannot be denied, that
to
up in the mind of every
Old Testament associations of
pleasant kind; or of giving the family child,
of them;
The custom of adopting names from the
inconceivable negligence, so that carry a
and
them." all
especially in the Eastern states, have often been
upon, and
life,
Greek gods had an Olympic name, and
name
as a
a
most un-
surname
England, and a usage
to a
I like,
often gives rise to very
it
queer compounds, as in the instance of a boy, whose baptismal
name was
Dolittle, after an uncle of this
of following mere wliim or fancy,
names very frequent.
The following
Barnstable Journal, of February to find.
There
9,
name; or
that
renders these strange I
ctit
1832, which
are, certainly, quaint
short space, and not put together for
out I
of the
happened
names enough in a very any other purpose than
the advertertising of marriages.
" In
West
Barnstable.
Mr. Harris, Capt. ThoTemperance Cobb, of W.
Barnstable, by the Rev.
mas Cobb, of Hyannis,
to JNIiss
251
(
)
" In South Dennis, Capt. Julius Baker, to Miss Diadema D.
Capt Shubael Nickerson
Killey.
Miss Phoebe Downes.
to
" In North Dennis, Capt. Aaron Crowell to Miss Fear Hall.
Mr. Jeremiah Hall to Miss Thankful Howes." There was a lady in Berlin, so full of enthusiasm
for the
glory of regenerated Prussia, that she called her son
Land-
sturm
of Eighteen-hundred-and-Thirteen, (Militia of the
Third Banner of 1813;) another called her daughter Bluyou remember perhaps the Prussian cabinet-
cherine, and
order, which forbade clergymen to baptize children
other than customary names
—a law which,
hearty dislike of quaint and ugly appellations,
very queer.
by any
in spite, of I
my
thought
If parents are not the best people to be trusted
with naming their children,
think
still less
ought they to
be trusted with cutting their hair or
nails, or
judging of the
best time of
weaning them.
I
This
is
certainly a striking ex-
ample of the peculiar intermeddling principle, the
cultiva-
was considered, on the European the greatest problem of domestic politics, but
tion of which, at one time,
continent, as
which
is
now
gradually giving
way
more expanded views
to
of legislation.
In few things, perhaps, appears the difference of the Eng-
more decided light than names and descent. As soon an Englishman becomes known in any way, his descent
lish
and American character
in a
in their respective regard for as is
many
traced out through as
generations as possible.
"
He
descends from a family highly respectable for several generations, in such
and such a county,"
is
an expression
we
meet with in English publications. If some distant relationship to some distant nobleman exist, it is sure to be often
ferreted out,
before
it
were
all
the pages of history to be ransacked
can be arrived
at,
and did
it
exist, after all, but in
the collateral line, as of some daughter to some
nephew of
some sister of some earl. Who can read tlie preface to the memoirs of Lord Collingwood without a smile? However, a preface of this kind
is
easily forgotton,
when
the excel-
— 252
(
may
lent subject of the biography
leon, "
my
Let
)
so justly say, with
Napo-
When Wash-
nobility date Irom myself."
ington had risen to be admired, even by his enemies, the
Garter King-at-Arms, Sir Isaac Head, requested the great
man
we
for his genealogy, as
Such
the course of things:
is
Memoirs.
are told in Roscoe's
people pay high for
little
having made out their pedigree in London or Vienna;
dis-
tinguished men, like Washington or Napoleon, are begged to give
care
or to accept
it,
from obsequious inquirers, and
it
little for it
That
wish to prove a respectable origin comes from
this
by no one: but some-
a praiseworthy source, can be denied
times
it
On
degenerates into the ludicrous.
the other hand,
the ease with which Americans change their names
more
That
astonishing.
change of name
a
is
is
still
readily granted
name be improper, or, as I saw in the petition of a lady to the New York legislature, if a change be necessary, if
the
" for obvious reasons," (the name,
one of the
However
ugliest
great
respect
tiie
must be owned, was
it
had ever heard.)
I
we
is
do not see any reason which obliges us
name
to carry
not right to countries,
But the
make
where
a change of
be,
I
through
life
a
whole
call
act,
so difficult as in
which names are changed
levity with
nothing more than
names
something
It is certainly
many
approaches nearly to an impossibility.
it
of the United States
wishes to
it
to our children.
just.
may
unfit for society, or expressing or indicating
ridiculous, and transmit
a
no more than
bear to our parents
is
again an abuse.
Often
that a person is called
BA
himself
C.
I
in it
some
parts
amounts
ABC,
to
and now
will send you, as a proof,
granted by the legislature of JNIassachusetts, in
1830, to change the names of persons.
Remember, the
le-
gislature sits annually and, probably, grants usually as large a
number of changes;* •
\Y'e give the list
tion, at full length,
of
at least, 1
tliese
because
have not heard that the ac-
names, though apparently a tedious enumera-
it is,
in fact, a subject
worthy the attention of
(
companying
is
253
)
an unusually large number.
Jiut,
on the other
must not be forgotten that there are more individuals of the same name in America than I have found with any European nation. Names which signify occupations or hand,
it
our legislators, and
will
be
interesting' to
many
readers, as characteristic of
American moveability:
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. AN ACT TO CHANGE THE NAMES OF THE PERSONS THEREIN MENTIONED.
Be it enacted by the Senate and Ilouxe of Representatives in general Court assemhkd, andbijthe authority of the same. That Webber Kicker, of Boston, take the name of George Webber Ricker^ that Orlando White, of Bosmay take the name of Henry Kirke Wiiite; that Samson Wilder Thurston, of Boston, may take the name of Wilder Stoddard Thurston; that Petro Papathakes, of Boston, may take the name of Peter Patterson; that William McManagle, of Boston, may take the name of William Pinkerton McKay; that John McManagle, of Boston, may take the name of John McKay; that P^lizabeth McManagle, wife of the said John McManagle, may take the name of Elizabeth McKay; and that Mary Ann McManagle, daughter of the said John McManagle, may take the name of Mary Ann McKay; and that his son John Pinkerton McManagle, may take the name of John Pinkerton McKay; that Rebecca Waitt, of Clielsea, may take the name of Ann Rebecca Waitt; that Thomas James Prince, of Boston, may tidce the name of James Prince; that Lucius Augustus Hoar, of Boston, may take the name of Lucius Augustus Horr; that WiUiam Smith, of Boston, may take the name of William Otis Smith; that Blowers Danforth, of Boston, may take the name of Bowers Danforth; that Thomas Goddard, son of James Goddard, of Boston, may take the name of Thomas Austin Goddard; that Nathaniel Thayer, minor, son of Susan F. Thayer, of l?oston, may take the name of Nathaniel Frederick Thayer; that Andrew Haskell, of Boston, may take the name of Andrew W. Haskell; that William Eckley, minor, son of David Eckley, of Boston, may take the name of William Havard Eliot Eckley; that Robert Lapish, of Boston, may take the name of Robert Hardison Dalton; that James Lloyd Borland, son of John Borland, of Boston, may take the name of James Lloyd; that William Richardson, of Boston, may take the name of William Horatio Richardson; of
may
ton,
—
That Elizabeth Wendell, of Salem, may take name of Maiy Elizabeth Wendell; that Samuel Becket Kehew, of Salem, may take the name of Samuel K. Appleton; that Elianan Winchester Knight,
all
of the county of Suffolk.
the
may
name of Winchester Knight; that Josiah Cooper, name of Henry Franklin Benton; that Caroline Chase, of Newbur}'port, may take the name of Caroline Boardman Chase; that Harriet Chase, of Newbuiyport, may take the name of Harriet Augusta
of Salisbury,
of Newbur}'port,
take the
may
take the
254
(
qualities,
such as Young, Brown, Black, White, (why does
no nation use Blue lors are used ter,
)
as a family
by one or the
name? All other decided
co-
Mercer, Carpenter, Car-
other,)
Smith are common every where; but names of a
differ-
Chase; that Peter Augustine Kimball, of Ipswich, may take the name of Augustine Phillips Kimball; that William Micklefield, junior, minor, son of Mary
Magruth, of Salem, may take the name of Thomas Morris; that Daniel Put-
nam, junior, and William Putnam, second, sons of Daniel Putnam, esquire, ofDanvers, may severally take the names of Daniel Franklin Putnam and William Richardson Putnam; that Timothy than Plumer, of Newburyport,
Dow
Plumer, minor, son of Na-
may take the name
of Charles Henry Plumer;
that Helen Ehzabeth Cook, and that Joseph Augustus
minor, children of John Cook, junior, of Newbuiyport,
Edwin Long Cook, may take the respec-
names of Helen Mar Cook and Joseph Augustus Cook;
tive sina,
that
Pedro Bla-
of Beverly, may take the name of Edward Harrington; that Margaret
Welman
may
McMillan, of Salem,
may
take the
name of Margaret Ann Maskalli
Young, minor, daughter of Levi Young, of Ips-
that Cynthia Clarinda Dennis
name of Cynthia Clarinda Young; that Nathaniel Rogers may take the name of Fitz Henry Lane; that Daniel Jackson Doggett, of Ipswich, may take the name of Daniel Jackson Akerman; that Lucy Lord Doggett, wife of the said Daniel Jackson Doggett, may take the name of Lucy Lord Akerman; that Joseph L. Doggett, may take the name of Joseph Lord Akerman; that Sarah L. Doggett, may take the name of Sarah Lord Akemian; that Lucy M. Doggett, may take the name of Lucy Maria Akerman; that Susan L. Doggett, may take the name of Susan Lord Akennan that Walter P Doggett, may take the name of Walter Phillips wich,
take the
Lane, of Gloucester,
;
Akerman; the niel
ble
.
last five
above-named persons are minor children of the said Da-
Jackson Dogget; that Daniel Wardwell, the
Putnam Wardwell, wife of the said Daniel,
minor, daughter of the said Daniel Wardwell,
third,
of Andover, Mehita-
Putnam Wardwell, may each respectively take the that Susan
surname of Davenport, instead of Wardwell; that Mori'is Hern, of Rowley, may take the name of Morris Hersey; that Joseph Worm.wood, of Lynn, that Susan Wormwood, Wormwood, daughter of
wife of the said Joseph, and that Eliza
may each of Wormwood; all of
the said Joseph,
surname of Everett instead
—
Ellen
respectively take the
the county of Essex.
may take name of Charles Augustus Carter; that Stillman Hoar, of Sterling, may take the name of Stillman Haven: that Hannah Ward Hoar, wife of the said Stilhuan Hoai", may take the name of Hannah Ward Haven; that Oscar Dextor and Ward Knowlton, minor sons of said Stillman Hoar, may That Charles
Carter, minor, son of Jacob Carter, of Leominster,
the
severally take the
surname of Haven; that Jonathan Fairbanks, of Leo-
may take the name of Henry Fairbanks; tliat Samuel Granger, of New Bi-aintree, may take the name of Edwin Granger; that Thomas Lawminster,
255
(
ent signification, and
many
)
of which are derived from bap-
tismal names, such as Jackson,
Andrews, Williams, Jones,
You have only
Hamilton, Patterson, are very frequent.
to
look at a directory of any of our large places, to convince
may take the name of Thomas Edmunds; may take the name of John B. Marshall; that Nathaniel Bradford, of Fitchburg-, may take tlie name of Gustavus Lyman; that Ann Mai-ia Keyes, of Ashburnham, may take the name of Almira Keyes; that Thomas Woodbury Gaffield, of Grafton, may take the name of George Woodbury Hale; that Oliver Goodridge of Lunenburg-, may take tlie name of Oliver Newton Goodrich; that Abiel Murdock, junior, of Leominster, may take the name of Thomas A. Murdock; that William Meriam, junior, of Ashburnham, may take the name of WiUiam Sanborn Meriam; that Nabby Willis, of Charlton, may take the name of Abigail Ellis WiJlis; that Mary L. B. Wiswall, of Westminster, may take the name of Mary Ly. man; that Sarali Crouch, of Bolton, may take tlie name of Sarah Alvira Nelson; that Jefferson Beers, of Spencer, may take the name of Edward Beman; that Samuel Bullcn, of Charlton, may take the naine of Samuel Boyden; and that Adams S. Bullen, of said Charlton, may take the name of Adams Boyden; all of the county of Worcester. That Moses C. Danforth, of Lowell, and that Pamelia Danforth, wife of the said Moses C. Danforth, may serence, second, of Leominster, that
John Babcock, of
Fitchburg-,
—
surname of Monroe instead of Danforth; that Jolm Henry
verally take the
may
Blasker, of Lowell,
take the
Nichols, junior, of Reading,
may
name of John Henry Blake; that Jame name of James Churchill Nichols;
take the
Brigam Barns, of Reading, may take
that Vashti
Barns; that Haslet McManaglc, of Marlborough, jet
McKay;
that
tlte name of Mary Jane may take the name of Has-
Nancy McManagle, wife of the
daughter, and that
WiUiam PinkerVon,
his son,
said Haslet, that
may
surname of McKay instead of McManagle; that Ephraim minor son of Oliver P.
llston,
Littlefield,
deceased,
Ann,
his
respectively take the
may
Littlefield,
take the
of Hol-
name of
Ephi-aim Oliver Prescott Littlefield; that Benjamin Thompson, of Charles-
town,
may take
the
name of Benjamin Lowell Thompson; that Samuel MatTownsend, may take the name of William Matticks
ticks Ellenkittle, of
Rogers; that James Kidder, minor child of James Kidder, junior, of Water-
may
name of James Hosmer Kidder; that Jason Chamberlain may take the name of Jason Smith; that Anna Damon, of Reading, may take the name of Anna Pratt; all of tlie county of Middle-
town,
take the
Smith, of HoUiston,
—
sex.
That
Isaac
name of Isaac
Mahtoa Wansongthi Adams, of Brooklyn, may take the
Mahti-a
Wansongthi Adams;
that Franklin Oakes, of Cohasset,
minor son of Levi Oakes, may take the name of Benjamin Franklin Oakes; that Martin Speai";
—
take the
all
Speiu-,
of Dcdham, may take the name of
of the county of Norfolk.
name of Anna Doane Mayo;
that
Hemy
Forrister
That Anna Mayo, of Eastham, may Lucy Knowles, of Eastham,may take
—
256
(
)
This paucity of names,
yourself of the truth of this remark.
which
England, likewise, though not in so great a
exists in
degree
as,
course,
much
with ourselves, (except in Wales,) creates, of confusion,
which people are sometimes
desi-
rous of escaping by a change of name. It
happens, besides, very frequently, in the United States,
that property
certain person on condition of his
is left to a
changing his name for that of the
testator; thus exhibiting
again a strong desire of perpetuating a certain name.
The growing up distinction of
of family names, as well as the peculiar
Roman
names, into prxnomina, nomina, and
cognomina, have served
marks
as to
grounds for various broad re-
as
the history of civilization.
trouble you with
my
I
will not here
notions on this subject, but merely re-
you a fact of great interest, with which you might not become acquainted otherwise. Mr. Schoolcraft, in his
late to
Narrative of an Expedition to Itasca Lake, the Actual
Source of the Mississippi, page 146,
in the
"The most
name of Lucy
in 1832,
(New York,
Harding' Knowles; that Thankful Hallet Bray, of Yar-
mouth, may take the name of Susan Augusta Bray; Barnstable.
1834,) says,
striking trait in their (the Indians)
—
all
of the county of
—That Ignatius Loring, of Great Barrington, may take the name
of Almon Ignatius Loring; that Grosvenor Curtis, of Egremont, may take the name of Harvey Grosvenor Curtis;
That John Foster, Foster;
junior, of Scituate,
—of the county of Plymouth.
—both
may
of Hoyt instead of Hoar;
Hunt, of Northfield, Watriss Hunt.
—
in the
all
county of Berkshire.
name of John Hatherly
That Calvin Hoar, of Northampton
that Phoebe Hoar, wife of the said Calvin
Johnson, children of the said Calvin,
in the
take the
—that William Patrick, and Samuel
may each respectively take the surname
of the county of Hampshire.
county of Franklin,
may
take the
That Elisha
name of Elisha
That Martha Leavett Mayhevv, an adopted daughter of Lea-
vett Thaxter, of Edgartown, in
tlie
county of Dukes,
Martha Leavett Tiiaxter; that Nancy
S. Covell,
of
may
New
name of may take
take the
Bedford,
the name of Nancy S. Blackmere; that Abigail Gifford, daughter of John Gifford, of Westport,
way, of
New
may take the name of Abby Giftbrd; that Isaac Hathamay take the name of Isaac Franklin Hathaway; all
Bedford,
in the county of Bristol;
by allowed by
this act
to take
—and the several persons herein mentioned are here-
and hereafter be known by the respective names which
they severally are authorized to assume.
Approved by the Governor, March
13, 1832.
257
(
moral history,
is
)
the institution of the
iontem
—
a sign
ma-
nuel,
by which the
more
exactly, perhaps, than has been supposed, with the ar-
affiliation
of families
is
And
morial bearings of the feudal ages.
traced, agreeing
this institution is
kept up with a feeling of importance, which
An
to account for. specific
name with
mily name,
—
Indian, as
is
it
is difficult
well known, will
tell his
great reluctance, but his generic or fa-
in other
words
his tontem,
—he
will declare
without hesitation, and with an evident feeling of pride."
The philosophy
of this
is
like that of the prohibition of
mentioning the name of his Chinese majesty. peror, and that
is all.
All individuality
neral idea of sovereignty
the French,
And now at length
*
The
names.
le
—the
merged
is
He
is
em-
in the ge-
same principle as that of
roi est mart, vive le rot.
my
the tester of
breaks down, and
author speaks, in this
T
letter,
letter,
In as far as this relates to
having lasted so long,
wish you
a
good night.*
of American fickleness respecting'
names of
places,
it
is
not peculiar to the
inhabitants of the United States, but results from certain relations inherent
newly and rapidly peopled as many parts of North America. name of York, in Upper Canada, was chang'ed back into its Indian name of Toronto. Editob.
in cour\tries so
But
lately the
ancient
33
(
258
)
LETTER Utica
is
XIV.
quainted with the astonishing rapidity of chiefly, to
and
You
a fine and friendly looking city.
its
in a point
its
are ac-
growth, owing,
peculiarly favorable situation on the canal,
where many channels of a large productive In the year 1794, the place contained
country concentrate.
nineteen families; at present,
counts above 10,000 inha-
it
city, by which the name of an individual might, with perpropriety, be bestowed upon a place. Instead of calling
the way, affords one of the few in-
This
bitants.
stances in fect
a town, which owes
importance chiefly
its
peculiar character as to beauty and
to its inland situation, after an ancient seaport,
renowned
would not
for the suicide of noble Cato,
Clinton have been a more appropriate appellation,
whose monument
Utica as well as
places
on the canal
seems
to
may
geographical appellation; and
all
if,
may
in
him
other thriving
be considered?
me, would have had
called after places, places
many
after
This name,
it
the requisites of a good
former ages,
well be called
men were now after
men, provided there be a strong reason for it, and the name have not too strongly assumed the character of a personal designation. to call a
Utica
I
town Smith is
cannot help considering
it
in
bad
taste
or Taylor.
remarkable in the history of civilization, for
when she was made
a city in 1832, an express prohibition
against licensing shops for retailing ardent spirits was in-
serted in her charter,
—
a restriction
made, probably,
for the
259
(
first
)
time, in the history of the world, though temperance
middle ages.
societies existed as early as in the
every other place
street of Utica, like that of
The main
in the Union,
considerable in size, exhibits a large
if at all
collection of those vast shops or stores of in the great
numbers
whole country, seem and
in
to
all
kinds, which?
which they are scattered over the
me quite peculiar to the United
States,
immense consumption of their inhabiIn England, especially in London, retail shops of
to indicate the
tants.
extraordinary size, with twenty and thirty people in them, to
may
wait on the customers,
be found; but they are not so
The
frequent in the smaller places. stores, as the
Americans
gists, grocers,
and for the
call
spacious shops, or
them, of ironmongers, drug-
sale of earthen ware, &c.,
have
al-
ways astonished me. They prove, on a larger scale, what you see continually on a smaller one in your own house, in the streets, &c., that the American consumes more than any other human being, in respect to victuals, dress, and domestic concerns.
There
much
not so
is
patching, pasting,
puttying, in the United States, as in other countries, especially
on the European continent; and when,
in
judges of a court in Kentucky had to decide case, of
what "a decent new
suit of clothes," to
1833, the
in a specific
be furnished
to apprentices on the expiration of their term of service to consist, the dollars.
bench decided that
Broad-cloth
own; yet
this
is
here
sum, large
it
much
ought
else, if
we
is
much higher
in this
speak of the industrial
be worth
may
of comfort," which
If
Servants live in-
we
could obtain as
accurate statements respecting consumption of
any large place
we would
in the
made out some
it
we
all
kinds in
possess of Paris,
statistical results.
calculations of the kind
portations, but I think tistics
United States Jls
be astonished at the
I
serve you as in-
country than any where
classes.
finitely better here than in Europe.
is
fifty
dearer than in Europe,
for the case,
dicating, in a degree, the " standard
altogether
to
from the
lists
I
have
of im-
will be better to reserve these sta-
for another opportunity; for they will serve as the
260
(
some
basis of
)
farther reflections, too extensive, and of too
numerical a character, for these familiar
some
to give
is
work on
scientific
My
letters.
desire
the United States; and,
there, tables and calculations of this kind will be
more
place.
best things,"
—"Very bad men, very bad, throw away me, when
said once a Chinese servant to
on
this country, in
must be
contrast
comparison with
spoke with him
I
Poor fellow! the
his.
made
be sure, with his dishes
great, to
of every part of animals; and entrails boiled
in their
I,
too,
with maize, which
thought of the sheep
was forced
I
to eat in
make me swallow
Corinth, and which hunger was able to but not to relish.
The The
To
was
object of the greatest interest to me, in Utica,
weigh-lock
—an American invention freight on the canal
toll for
if I
am
proportionate to weight.
is
commonly Eng-
arrive at the weight of a cargo, gauges are
used: this
is
the process of weighing, for instance, in
land; another tic scale is
means
A
used here.
is
fits
conveniently in
pairs of iron rods on a strong iron
manner
that
hangs by three rests
and
beam
this large iron
fastened perpendicularly in a horizontal plain,
forming the arm from which the weights, depends.
The whole
in this latter scale balances
scale; and,
it,
beam, which
To
plays on three nice points of steel. is
steelyard on a gigan-
constructed; the scale, formed in a
the bottom of a vessel
another
a
not mistaken.
is
scale, destined for the
so balanced, that one
one hundred pounds
with such a degree of nicety
chinery made,
that quarter
is
pound
in the large
the whole ma-
pounds are used
as
weights,
which, of course, counterbalance twenty-five pounds in the large scale.
This hangs
down
cating with the canal, with
Whenever j^boat
a lock.
opened, and the vessel iron rods of the scale,
lock
is
closed, and
which
it
to
is
is
be weighed the lock
now under
its
bottom. is
a short time the
Weights
are
now
is
basin between the
by another lock the water
in the scale.
communi-
can be disconnected by
into the
floats
from the basin, so that within hangs dry
into a small basin,
which
The
discharged
whole boat
placed in the weigh-
261
(
)
ing scale; the original burden of the boat, the testimony of
which every boatman
with him,
carries
the gross weight, and the
toll
is
deducted from
weight of the boat and cargo on which
I
saw the operation
much
performed, was sixty two tons or 136,000 pounds;
When
heavier cargoes, however, are weighed.
was balanced,
I
was
the whole
move by my
able, literally, to
When
136,000 pounds up and down.
finger,
The
paid accordingly.
is
little
the lock has
admitted again a sufficient quantity of water, and the boat
once more
is
The
floats out.
lasted
set afloat, the first
lock
opened, and the boat
is
operation of weighing, which I witnessed,
from the time the boat entered the lock
to its sailing
out again, nine minutes; but three or four minutes must be
deducted, as the weigh-master had to fetch a lantern,
He
having grown dark.
assured
on board the boat understand the
that
when
details of the
it
the people
whole opera-
and no unnecessary delay takes place, he can weigh
tion,
any boat
name as
me
in less than four minutes.
I
could not learn the
of the author of this invention, the more interesting
it is
the bold application of a simple principle
known
to
every one. In the cathedral of Pisa, the work of Buschetto, the worthy tion
Greek
architect, I
found the following inscrip-
on the monument erected in
his honor:
Qtiod vix mille bovum possent jugajuncta movere,
Ed quod vix potuit per mare
ferre rates,
Busketi nisu, quod erat mirabile visu,
Dena puellarum
The engineer who
turba levabat onus.*
invented the weigh-locks, deserves to
be celebrated in a similar manner, though,
it is
to be
hoped,
in a better style.
About fourteen miles north of Utica, Before you reach them, you have
Falls.
heights, which form the basin or • "
A burden,
are the Trenton to pass
kettle, as the
over the
German
which hardly could be moved by a tliousand yokes of oxen,
and which the vessel could hardly carry over the
sea, has
through the exertion of Buschetto, by ten
been
lifted, a
marvel to see
it!
Philadelphia
a weigh-lock of the same kind, and, probably, they are
to
is
to-
be found on other canals
in the Union.
Editor.
girls."
Near
now
—
262
(
pographer
calls
you have
a fine
it,
which Utica
in
situated.
From them
Utica
before you,
The Trenton
West Canada Creek,
the
is
view of the whole.
as in a nest, well-bedded.
by
)
a river
lies
Falls are formed
—though
called with us
which empties into the Mohawk, but which, like the Missouri, has been wronged out of its name, and is, properly speaking, the upper part of the Mohawk, as the Misa creek,
souri
is
the upper part of the Mississippi.
instrumentality the
now
I
send you a de-
by John Sherman, "through whose
cription of Trenton Falls,
celebrated Trenton Falls were pre-
You
pared for examination, and brought into public notice."
must endeavor
to pick out for yourself the interesting facts
from the chaff of poetico-religious prating,
Many
lized nation.
when
Americans excel
natural scenery, descend into
description,
"screwed" admiration at
which the
of nature.
the beauties of nature,
is silent,
speaks a language very easily to be distinguished
from that utters
is
in that style of
call a
True, deep-felt delight it
civi-
and therefore unfelt "enthusemusy;" but the
Germans would or
which, as yet,
books, indeed, in whatever language,
the subject matter
this verbose
to
more given than any other
the Americans are certainly
it
which
cant,
carries
with
it
the proof that he
who
thinks of himself and his words far more than of
the subject which, as he pretends, Causes his transport.
rude or blunt man,
who
magnificence, or charms, I
must choose,
I
timental prattler. artificial
would
feels is
nothing
at
no agreeable companion; but,
a thousand times prefer
It was,
A
beholding nature's
him
if
to a sen-
undoubtedly, disgust, caused by
raptures or swollen, yet hollow phrases, which in-
duced Gothe, when one day he visited some of the finest points around Jena, in company of some ladies, and they were soaring high on " the winged words," to turn round to a gentle-
man and
drily to say,
"Let us
eat
some of the
sausage, while
the ladies are so busily admiring."
The Trenton
Falls are
most romantic.
felt,
acquaintance,
I
and, therefore,
went
now
to see
them
Kendid not say much, and whose
with a young clergyman of Boston, but tucky, who
I
value as a real acquisition.
settled in
It
had rained
263
(
for several
days previous to our
much
consequently, very paths, or
)
ought
I
visit,
and the Canada was,
swollen, so that the narrow foot
hewn
to say foot-steps,
in the rocks,
were
covered by the hurrying waves of the river, which tumbled like melted amber, graced
we had
and
to walk,
with early snow from rock
sometimes with no
many
the
spot,
we
re-
could quietly enjoy
beauties and variegated charms of this delightful
which looked
What
to rock,
danger, for
But we were well
several hours bare foot in the water.
paid; no visiters disturbed us, and
little
as if
made
for the reveries
of Petrarch.
nooks, and corners, and steep walls, cascades on cas-
cades; what whirling and tumblingof the water, rushing with
such rapidity, that you are unable to follow with your eyes a branch to
thrown
appeared to I
am
The sound
!
of the falling waters seemed
A
me
G on the first line in the bass.
to be
I
believe
not mistaken, as I ascertained repeatedly the sound
my own
voice, and verified
man who
tionis, all
in
me, by two tones higher than that of the Niagara, which
it,
as soon as I
suffers seriously
which seems
civilized nations,
to
by
found a piano.
mania comparacommon disease among
with the
be a very
might compare the general character of
the Trenton Falls to that of Saxon Switzerland, though there is
no tumbling waterfall in that country equal to the cascades
The person who
of the Canada at Trenton.
first called
the
mountain scenery of Upper Misnia, Saxon Switzerland, must himself have been grievously
afflicted
with this mania, which,
in spite of its universality, has not been
enumerated by any Rush, Pinel, Esquirol, Horn, or Heinrothj and certainly he has not done any service either to the scenery or the traveller.
People seem
paring
it
Bolivar, though you
South.
It is
they elevate a pony by comHenry; but Bolivar remains
to think that
to an an Eclipse or
may
call
him the Washington of the
always forgotten that nothing recoils with such
malignant force, as misplaced, or hypocritical, or servile comparison: no one laughs at the frog, until puffed up and
com-
paring himself with the bull.* • calls
We perfectly agree with the it, is
so
common, because
it
author. is
The mania
comparationis, as
the abuse of a genei'al principle.
htj
Wc
—
264
(
There
)
near the largest of the cascades which constitute
is,
the Trenton Falls, a horizontal plateau of rock, on which
abundant spray
is
from the ground.
It
visited
on June 22d, the sun
formed a rain-bow horizontally over foot
When we
continually falling.
this spot, at half past eleven o'clock,
this plateau,
about a
surrounded us in a semicircle, of
a very short diameter, and, of course,
moved with our move-
ments, presenting altogether a very striking appearance. If
you go from Utica
to
Lockport, by land, you have the
advantage of passing through a number of truly lovely places,
which seem quietly
to flourish there
in the west,
under
the benign influence of the sun of liberty, shedding his
enlivening rays upon a blessed and
make
places in the world can
fertile
country.
a finer impression, than
No
Onon-
daga, Skaneateles, Auburn, (where you will not omit to visit
the State-Prison, though standing in bold contrast with the
smiling country around,) Geneva, and, before
all,
sweet Ca-
nandaigua; from here you must go to Rochester, a wonder of the west, and then proceed either by the Ridge Road, or
by
canal to Lockport.
The Ridge Road or topographic, or, to
make
a
is
very interesting
in
geological
a
should say, in a hodological view,
I
new word;
because nature has acted here, for
once, as ingenieur des ponts
et chaussees,
and made a con-
venient and even road of gravel from Rochester to Lewiston, a distance of eighty-seven miles; while, generally, she
wisely leaves the making of communications to man's acIts
tivity.
general width
is
from four
the rivers Genessee and Niagara
hundred and twenty height it is
may
is
we
from six
live
to ten miles.
kind of critique,
There
upon comparison; the processes of
language subsists by comparison.
which
all
But
is
Near
from one
feet.
This
a regular and
thinking-,
of acquiring
—are founded upon comparison;
it is
time,
we must
limited minds are but too prone to do.
Editor.
is
above Lake Ontario, from which
knowledg-e, of obtaining even simple ideas
principle,
to eight rods.
elevation
one hundred and thirty
also its elevation
distant
say,
to
its
not abuse this
It is
the cheapest
265
(
)
gradual descent from the road to the lake, and no
way
of ac-
counting for this ridge seems to exist without supposing that
some former period, one There is of Lake Erie, one hundred
Lake Ontario was,
the surface of
hundred and thirty
at
feet higher than at present.
a similar ridge on the south side
and twenty miles long.
was while travelling on this Ridge Road, that I asked a farmer, who was one of my fellow passengers in the stagecoach where he originally came from; for he had told me, in It
the course of conversation, that he was not a native of the state of
New York, where he had now a farm. " Why, sir," man, " my wife is from Mansfield in ConnectiTwo young friends of mine, of Boston, burst out
said the old
cut."
and
in a loud laugh;
undoubtedly from
New
He was
affirmative.
had already invited
He
asked, ''And you, too, are
I directly
He
England?"
answered in the
a fine, good-humored old man,
me
to
stay a
who
day or two with him.
had been above twenty-five years
in this state,
yet he
New
England round-about-way of answering, which has so often provoked me. This anecdote, I think, is still more characteristic than that which Abbe Corea used to relate. He was travelling in New Eng-
had not got rid of the
land, and observed, at a distance, a fine blue flower.
boy," said he
name
to a lad
working
of that blue flower?"
"that yellow flower
is
could induce ral
my
Why," answered
the boy,
Here there was at be concealed, as the boy did not know but, in
my
case,
nothing else
otherwise frank companion to give his spi-
answer, except the deep-rooted custom of the
New
"My
the field, "what's the
called cowslip."
some ignorance to the name of the blue flower;
least
"
in
England people, never
to say or
admit
at
common once and
frankly "yes," "no," "this" or "that," but always to prefix an " I believe," or to suffix an " I think," or some such
words.
who
What would
wished, and not without some good reason, to excom-
municate the whole as,
Fichte have said, in such a case; he
"as
it
class of indetermijiative phrases,
were," "so
to
such
speak," "one might say," "in a
266
(
)
degree," "if I may say so/' the many "perhaps," "might," " may be,"&c. So much is certain, that the less sound and firm a writer, the
more he
resorts to these qualifying ex-
On the other hand, the adopted style is much more timid than that of others.
pressions.
languages
of some
In the
same degree as the Americans and English are more apt to adopt names and expressions of practical life in their writings than the Germans; they are more timid in using com-
you may use a hundred images which you cannot introduce into English
parisons and metaphors; and in
German
common
prose,
writing without craving permission by a " so to
speak," or putting over the glowing word an extinguisher, such as, " If I may use the expression." I
remember, soon
had arrived in Boston,
after I
man, whether he had the key of "
nasium was, with him.
key was
it
asked a
where the gym-
believe," he answered, and the
I
a big thing, large
known whether he had
a garden,
I
enough
for a Briareus to
have
or not in his pocket, and
suffi-
ciently long to fight a duel with, as the students of Upsala
are said to fight them.
myself
what the
first
was long before
I
could accustom
unmanly phraseology.
to this
There are
It
in the
idiom of
New
England,
grammarian of the Yankee,
round-aboutives, such
as, I suspect,
a
will
number
have
of,
to call
imagine, suppose, believe,
judge, fancy, think, guess, reckon, calculate, conclude, rather think,
am
of opinion,
should imagine, &c.
,
am
all
inclined to think, should think,
used where there
convey the idea of uncertainty. different expressions are requisite.
of a similar character, which
you ask
to appreciate.
If
he answers, "
Hem,
I
a
it is
is
no intention
to
If this be the case, quite
There
are
not easy, at
whole phrases first,
properly
thorough Yankee any thing, and
don't
nounced with a rising voice,
know," the word know proyou don't know whether he
means " yes," or " no," or neither. If he answ^ers, " I don't know," it means no; if he says, " I don't know that I shall," he means to express doubt; but if he answers, " I don't know The English, on the other hand. but I shall," he means yes.
2G7
(
continually throw in their
man
be a case where a
Thus,
I
)
—" you
know," though it may know any thing.
cannot possibly
was once conversing with an English gentleman, a
made know," be-
friend of mine, when, in the course of conversation, he
me
guess something.
answered rapidly, "
I
I
which he referred, You can't know, whether you know it,
lieving to have discovered the subject to
when
he replied, "
In the southern parts of Germany, the com-
you know."
mon
people use the
(you
ivisseii's,
ner as conversational
suffix,
know
or inlerjix,
if
it,)
in like
you want
it
manmore
accurately expressed.
In Rochester are some of the largest flour-mills in exIt is really interesting to see,
istence.
in
all
There
ject.
how
is
more flower made,
in a
much
neater way,
by
expense and trouble, in one hour, in one of these mills
less
than within whole days, in several others. I
here again, as
other cases, true art and knowledge si|nplify the sub-
became acquainted with two
They were
study these mills of the west.
them, and
I
suppose you
know
Guide has been republished
Some
millers, sent
in
years ago,
from Prussia,
to
delighted with
that Evans's Mill-wright's
England and
translated in
Germany too, and is altogether the standard authority, among the gentry, who still keep to hair powder. Thanks to him, who gave the decent, simple, fine name of Rochester to this place, whoever he may be, or have France, probably in
been.
Perjury, was a crime so
that a
man was
if
with the old Franks,
lauded, for never having perjured himself, as
he had been somewhat of a
individuals,
common
who,
in this part
saint; so I think,
ought those
of the country, have the moral
courage to bestow a simple and proper name upon a place,
be held up for public veneration.
At Lockport,
(another decent name,) you will do well to
take passage in a canal boat, after having examined the
which the locks form Mountain Ridge, five rise,
and
here. in
offers
an
stairs,
are at the foot of the
number, of twelve
feet each, to
The whole is of fine workinteresting sight, when boats, full
five others to descend.
manship, and
They
(
2GS
)
of people, goods, and live stock, are rising sixty feet, and others close by, descending the same height. are convenient steps, with iron railings.
Between them,
Above Lockport,
within the village, the cut begins, by which
or, in fact, partly
the Grand Canal has been lead a distance of three miles,
an average depth of twenty
at
feet,
through the rock of the
Lockport, contains, at present, four thou-
Mountain Ridge. sand inhabitants.
The
native of
New
England
found here, as
is
the Union, chiefly, however, besides his
country, in
all
western
you are reminded
England
states.
It is
in the course of
You
activity.
own
all
over
part of the
how
often
your journey, of
New
remarkable
see a large "academy building"
on the road, and ask your fellow travellers. Who keeps Where does he come from?" From it? Mr. Such-a-one.
New England. You you
ask,
You
which
ask,
who
is
hear of a good country school-master:
his native state?
A New
England
state.
was the engineer of this rail-road, or that
A New England man. Who keeps this tavern so well Rochester? A New England man. Where did this rich
canal? in
farmer come from, at
who
immense wealth?
inherited nothing and has arrived
He came
from Connecticut.
Many
of the most eminent lawyers and merchants, in different cities
of the Union, came originally from
New England.
If
you ask, who pursues the whale on the distant main, far up " on the New Shetland to the north, and who goes " sealing Islands?
It is
New England men. Who keeps up that brisk
coasting trade? the modest but most important part of ma-
commerce. New England captains command the vessels. Who are the owners of this manufactory, which consumes so large amount of domestic produce? New England men. rine
a list of the members of congress, and of new western states, according to their birth places, you will find among them, a disproportionate number of New England men. And these are the worth-
If
you make out
o-overnors
of the
—
less people of certain travellers!
toms of
their
If
they have ^vays and cus-
owm, which are not pleasing
to a visiter, if those
2G9
(
among them who have
)
not travelled are sometimes infatu-
ated as to their country and climate, they are, at worst, but like
do, it
A people
Besides, I reason from results.
most people.
who do what
they do; who,
at their elections,
behave as they
Take
must be considered a valuable part of our Union.
away, and you slacken the bow-string. In going to the west of
New
York, you have
pass
to
through the Genesee country, the delight of wheat-growing farmers, and
when
which reminded me of Gothe's exclamation,
passing through Naples' happy fields and endless gar-
dens: Yes here
it is
worth the while
Far from agreeing,
wish
to cultivate the ground.
with those writers
as a politician,
who
to see the right of representation attached to landed
property only
—
a system,
which,
one time, when the
at
great mass of intelligence found a pretty fair standard in
landed property, was sound, but which the noble struggle fought by the cities of the middle ages for
ought
to
all
mankind,
be considered as having dismantled for ever; and
equally far from agreeing as a political economist with that school,
which considers the
source of national wealth
cultivation of the soil as the only
—
I,
nevertheless, consider, both
in an historical and political view, the condition of the culti-
vator of the soil as invariably one of the most interesting subjects
is
which any nation can
In America there
is
no bondsman, that
is a
offer to
no peasant;
I
our observation.
do not mean that there
matter of course; but the American
farmer forms no class by himself.
He
a citizen to
is
all in-
tents and purposes, not only as to political rights, but as to his
whole standing and
No
social connexion.
views of his
own, no dress distinguish him, from the inhabitant of the
He
towns.
homme,* no
no conipode, no rusticus, no Jaque Bon-
is
villain, or boor.
rich or poor; that
seems •
to
me
is all
He
is
a farmer,
the difference.
and
may
be
This circumstance
of great importance in our whole national orga-
Conipode means
dust-footer, a nick
name
ancient Greek cities to the peasants; Jaque
g-iven
by
tiie
Bonhomme was
inhabitants of
the nickname
given by the French nobility to the pcasantiy, keeping quiet to be fleeced.
— Editor.
270
(
nization,
which
and would alone account
foreigners often
The
for
seem unable
numerous phenomena,
to explain.
condition of the cultivator of the soil will always
by which
afford one of the standards ral
)
amount of
to estimate the gene-
by a nation;
liberty enjoyed
form an important item of the
will always
at
scale,
any
rate, it
and nearly
every peasant war, if at all of a general character, has been in consequence of advancing civilization, whatever the appearance of
may have
it
ly the peasant, beast,
— may
revolting
been
—treated
moment; however
We may
often act.
cruelties,
at the
like a beast
which
ferocious-
and breaking loose like a
turn with horror from the
often, perhaps,
generally have
stained these wars, yet not on one side alone; the masters
have shown
as
much
cruelty as the insurgents, yet, as I
said, these insurrections
have been nearly always
in con-
sequence of the spreading of some general, broad ideas;
whatever
may have been
breaking, whether
it
the immediate cause for the out-
be of a religious,
character, only excepting
political or physical
mere accidental
causes, such as
the cholera, and the consequent suspicion of the Hungarian
Often enough,
peasants.
ended by a
total
it
is
true,
their struggles
have
submission of the cultivator; hardly ever
has he risen from the lowest and most degraded
state,
with-
more degraded the struggler had previously been; until in modern times, concessions have sometimes been made by the intelligence of the rulers Such was the abolition of all service attached to the alone. But whether Prussia would have been led soil in Prussia. out a struggle, the fiercer, the
to this peaceable
change
having taken place
at that time,
tained after fearful contests only, rise in the scale of social
farmer,
is
a
without similar changes
in other countries,
and
is
where they were ob-
another question.
political
much more melancholy
The
existence, of the
subject than the gra-
dual rise of the mechanics and industrious commoner, but of equal importance; and I repeat it, whatever cruelties of the peasant
we meet
with in studying
this subject,
our opi-
nion of their masters will not be exalted, neither in Eng-
271
(
land, France,
)
The
Germany, or Hungary.
Stellinger, the
ancient Saxon peasants, the peasants in Switzerland, in Nor-
mandy,
in
Jutland and Schonen, the Stedinger, these noble
Frisians, the Pastourcaux in the south of France, the Jac-
querie, the peasants under
Wat
Tyler, Ball and Straw, the
Curuczians or the Hungarian peasants under George Dosa all
prove the truth of what
after
I say.
It
has been long, and
much, and, oftentimes, apparently unsuccessful strug-
gling, that the farmer has elevated
large country, to that station,
himself throughout a
which he now occupies.
In-
stances do indeed exist, that in former times, the free pea-
were
sants of a small country
as jealous of their
rights,
ready to defend them, and proud enough of their condition, as the Ditmarsians, that intrepid
doomed
nevertheless was
and most noble band, which
Yet
to perish.
in
most cases the
farmer has either risen from actual slavery or servitude, to independence; or he had been reduced from a state of a free proprietor, to that of fettered and stinted ownership,
way
long continued attacks of the stronger, by fraud, and
had
to
emerge
The American farmer thinks, and
again.
knows how
owns the land he
generally
what he gains
tivates in fee simple;
is his.
to converse
He is
on his
never received from one a stupid answer. try, yet has
by
of force or
affairs.
He
cul-
intelligent, I
have
loves his coun-
no especial attachment to the peculiar spot of
his birth, which,
I believe nowhere exists in any where the farmer cannot move. If he noble country, where he can buy for a
however,
great degree, except sees before
him
a
dollar
and a quarter an acre of ground, yielding abundant
crops
and affording him the greatest pleasure a farmer
knows, that of seeing a fme soil willingly answer to his labors, it would be strange indeed were he to remain on a jealous earth, which seems to grudge the husbandman his wellearned reward.
A
proof of this
may
be found in the emi-
by thousands and thousands of European peasants. On the whole, the American fanners are a hardy and well-
gration
disposed race.
Homer's wise
—
272
(
)
does not only continue to be true, but
is
and Jove gives half of the virtue with
liberty.
That you should not seek bandry among the farmers
also true reversed,
who have
cost
obtained,
more than would be gained from the
spots thus
him
commit the common
to
have
sometimes induces
fault of farmers, of
husbanding
you may Mark Brandenburg, many places the farmer
land, and thereby scattering his nnieans,
Bad
easily imagine. I
to
evident; and that, moreover, the facility with
is
a farmer can here obtain land,
much
plough
them out
which too
to
dig
between the stumps, because the labor
would
and minute hus-
for refined
in the west,
still
but
would obtain
as the soil is in the
doubt that
little
fair crops,
in
could he be induced to abandon
part of his land and cultivate the rest with greater care.
The of
thirty years' war,
some whole
villages,
of the remainder.
On
which exterminated the inhabitants threw too much land into the hands the other hand,
it
is
necessary to
travel but a short distance toward the west, in order to be
how
convinced
erroneous the frequent assertion
Americans are more
a commercial nation than
they are on the contrary, thus
else; tural,
tliat
Every American
far essentially agricul-
is fitted
Romans and the who never were famous farmers.
If I say,
you should not seek
bandry here,
same
state of
time, and
low,
if
I
for the farmer
In this the Ameri-
loves farming.
cans resemble the ancient
Greeks,
that the
any thing
not only the vastly greater part of them are
farmers, but also that their disposition life.
is,
for refined
English, not the
and minute hus-
speak of the west alone. In some parts of the
New York, which
where the
compared
have been settled for a long
price of the land
is
not so exceedingly
to the price of labour, farms are
* Half of the virtue of the day of slavery begins.
man
is
found which
taken away by fui--sighted Jove, as soon as
Editoh.
273
(
are
managed with minute
)
branches
care, in all the different
of husbandry; so that the farmer docs not only compete
with the cultivator of the chief article
—wheat,
in other countries, as to his
soil
but even butter
is
cxjiorted in con-
siderable quantity from the farms along the Hudson or
near
Some
it.
of the best butter, called
Goshen
butter,
is
exported to Malta and other places of the Mediterranean,
where the best kind brings
much
as
more Thus I
as a half-penny
per pound than the best English or Irish butter.
have been
by
told
a
who had
gdntlcman
long resided in va-
So wc go; American butter sent
rious ports of that sea.
to
the shores of antiquity! In the west of are
owned
New York, probably,
in fee simple,
though
a third) are subject to mortgage.
many
nine farms out of ten (perhaps, as
much
as
A lease is seldom for more
than ten years, and for a rent in kind, or money, or wheat
The
alone.
proportion of produce given as rent
few exceptions, of
New York)
(I
is,
with
speak, here, always of the western part
one-third of the grain and one-half of the hay.
This proportion
is
delivered to the lessee, ready for market,
On
on or near the premises. about ^2,50 per acre, for
all
fine
wheat land
it
amounts
the farm not in timber.
to
Many
recent leases are at about $2 per acre, for the cleared land.
One-third or fourth of a farm
One hundred persons
acres
who occupy
take jobs and
hundred
is
cultivators;
less,
work on
Many
acres.
is
generally reserved in timber.
the magnitude of fair farms.
carry on, besides,
larger farms;
where
else,
Throughout the United in
five
American
provements, and not, as
is
here, of
States, as
land, as I said before.
compared with Europe,
dear and land cheap, and
difference
few farms exceed
governed by the relation be-
tween price of labor and price of
is
Those
trade, or
consider the largest farmers the best
and the character of the cultivation
course, as every
labor
some
cultivation
it
is
this
which causes
and agricultural im-
is
not unfrequently supposed, a
want of industry or capacity
for business in the agricultural
35
(
It is
population.
the western
274
)
very obvious, that a farmer upon one of
prairies,
who
gives ^1,25 per acre for his land,
seventy-five cents per diem to his laborers, and gets for his
corn from ten to twenty cents per bushel, must adopt a
dif-
who many pounds per acre, a few pence per day to his laborers, and who gets for his products from ten Reverse to twenty times as much as the western farmer. mode
ferent
of agriculture from the European cultivator,
pays for his land
American
the case, and let the English farmer pursue the
mode
of cultivation, and vice versa,
and one would be ruined
Each must adapt himself
about as soon as the other.
given circumstances, and only thus can prosper. nine in ten of farm laborers in the west of
New
to the
At
least
York, pur-
chase or lease farms by the time they are twenty-five years
A
of age.
majority of them go to the west, after having
accumulated from 200 to 500 dollars, and purchase govern-
ment lands. There are very few of the class of cottagers. Those who are so, I have been told, are generally found improvident, incompetent to take care of their earnings, in-
There
temperate, or the victims of unusual misfortunes.
the state of
New York
patented by
The plough used throughout
few of them.
are, as I said,
is
mould board plough, answer better than any
the cast iron
Wood, and found
to
which have been tried of a different construction. I send you the drawing of it, the sacred weapon of the conquests of civilization:
seems
to
me
it
differs essentially
from yours,
is
simple, and
very judiciously formed.
member
of so-
ciety, superior to the farmers of other countries with
which
The American farmer I
am
acquainted;
I
mean
appears to me, as a
the actual cultivators of the
soil,
and of large countries, the population of which is nearly equal in number to the inhabitants of the United States; for there are spots in
superior in ral, for
some
Europe where the farmer is American farmer
respects to the
instance Aitenburg.
quaintance with the Englivsh
I
have not
common
certainly in gene-
sufficient personal ac-
cultivator, but accord-
275
(
ing to what
I
know
circumstances, I
)
of him, and to conclude from various
should believe him not to be superior.
I
So
consider the American mechanic, intelligent, industrious,
and well-disposed
They,
in general.
like the rest of
man-
kind, labor sometimes under delusions and seek to redress
such as a diminution of demand of their
evils,
means which, by ploded; but
I
The degree in
my
hold
by
remark
to be true, in general.
of physical comfort and mental development,
which the two
large classes of a nation live
gaged in husbandry and the vital
articles,
experience ought to have ex-
this time,
common
—those
mechanics,
is
an interest to society, and a clear knowledge of
en-
of so it
so
indispensable for the formation of a correct idea of a nation, that
it
has appeared to
me
necessary to reduce those vague
expressions, as, " the farmer of such a country
being;" "a greater stock of ideas
is
to be
" the mechanic of such a country
is
more
others of the kind, to distinct nations,
You do
their character.
which declares
one prophet and one truth"
by numerical
am
different in
guilty of the
that there
human
calculations; but,
and
at all de-
—the tabulary form, and
the most delicate relations of the
tangible
we be
if
not believe that I
sin of statistical temerity,
superior
intelligent,"
comparing two countries, decidedly
sirous of
if
is a
found among them;"
is
" but
acts as
society
were
on the other hand,
also both
my
conviction, that in no case in which
an extensive subject
lies
before us,
you know
we
can hope for any de-
gree of accuracy in our knowledge, without analyzing the
matter and abandoning wholesale thoughts and phrases, and the great value data,
I
put upon the collection of any
on whatever subject
it
be (and, were
of a correct statement of the
number of
we
statistical
in possession
carious teeth in a
how many pints of tears have been poured how often people have given their most decided opinion on subjects they do not know, or how many books have been read, and how few thoughts been gained, large place, or
forth in a year, or
&c.,
—
all
these would furnish valuable data to a
Guerry or
276
(
Quetelet: and altogether,
domestic
statistics,
I
think, could
we
but arrive at
they would prove more important than
those relating to national I
)
affairs.)
have, therefore, endeavored to analyze the physical and
mental
life
of these classes into
its
component
parts,
and
more definite knowledge. I will not give you here the tables which I have drawn up for this purpose, because a statistical work would be a fitter place for them, and you shall have them sooner or later. I will but give you an idea of them, so that you may decide whether thus tried to arrive at a
I
am
likely to have arrived at the truth in judging of the
American farmer and mechanic.
The
division
first
Physical Comfort; some of the
is
most important items under
this
head
are,
what
constitutes
the great bulk of nourishment, (potato, rye, wheat, or rice &c.
;)
and
is it
the same food with that of the better classes
or of a totally different substance?
meat, what
is
how
often do people eat
their chief beverage (beer, wine, grog, &c.
;)
what does it consist? what is it worth? &c.;) Domestic Comfort; what houses do they live in, crowded or not? cleanliness; in what station is the woman? &c.
clothing, (of
If I
speak of dear or cheap &c.,
unit,
and with reference
to a
I
always use these terms
common
with reference to the value of a
day's labor, as
comparison of
this value of
a day's labor, to the daily expenses of an individual, con-
sidered in a
common
Further questions
good looking, of anatomical view.
comfortable situation. are,
what
whether the people are generally race,
and whether peculiar
Then comes
whether quite rude, whether improved, whether the of science are continually applying to
whether
utensils are
in
an
the State of Agriculture,
home-made or bought;
results
or stationary;
it,
cattle,
&c.
Are
there societies for its furtherance, or not, &c. Character.
Cowardly or courageous; open and manly,
independent, gay or morose, fond of drinking, hunting, love of country: seafaring men, mountaineers; whether provident
or not, &c.
277
(
)
Participation in government, justice, &c.;
Civil State.
criminal laws; corvees, military laws; castes, or equality.
Education, reading, writing, &c., of
Intellectual State.
males and females;
whose expense the schools are kept;
at
poetry, whether acquainted with national poetry or not, ro-
mances, &c.; music; knowledge in general; reflective; inventive;
whether they form a progressing society or
striving for
a stationary,
improvement; are the history and the laws of
known;
the country generally
amusement; love of dance;
is
division
of labor; public
much
police of govern-
there
ment; colors of dress, and whether national; influence of clergy, and their condition and learning;
knowledge of va-
lue of time; state of medicine; popular belief in supernatural
powers, &c.
This
may
serve to give you a very general idea of
plan and tables.
More
The
contains
last division
more
mean,
offer
you
my
here.
especially those ideas, for
to inquire, in order to ascer-
clearly the intellectual state of a given tribe; I
attachment to the
Bushman,
soil
a
and wrong (how
spirit,)
dif-
Turk, an American) of
and society; (wandering, hunting,
community, lively
munity, public iard,
more
for instance, the ideas of right
ferent are these in a
tled
do not attempt to
we have
the amount of which tain
I
interest in the welfare of the
set-
com-
value of time (Indian, Turk, Span-
Englishman;) family attachment and care for the
young; combination of forces and division of labor (Patagonian, numerous companies in England and here;) fine arts, taste, &c.;
After this
religion, &c.
test, I
have given
my
above opinion of the
American farmer, though he is, with regard to some items enumerated above, very deficient, and far inferior to the But in order to ascertain Italian husbandman for instance. how near I have come to the truth, more is necessary than the mere observation of outward signs.
What
are out-
ward signs! deceptive indeed, if not well and cautiously Suppose a foreigner goes to the continent of Eu-
weighed.
rope; the
first tiling
which
strikes
him may be an odd
title.
278
(
)
conscientiously pronounced each time that the
person
is
mentioned,
who
perhaps wears a
name of
the
riband in
little
his button-hole, such as in the country of the traveller chil-
dren only, and that but very young ones, would dare to wear.
Would he
be warranted in setting
tions?
down
which pays attention
childish race,
He may
read in the
to
the whole people as a
such unmanly decora-
paper of some govern-
official
ment, that a certain counsellor in a distant provincial place, received a snuff-box with diamonds from his monarch, that
he placed
it
on a table
and invited
in his house,
quaintance to come and view
The
it.
all his
ac-
may, with
traveller
perfect propriety, compare the account of this affair with a similar one, in the
Peking Gazette,
in
which the public are
informed, that Governor Lee of Canton has received the
peacock feather; that
it
in the great audience
was placed
of the gubernatorial palace, and there received the
room
honor due to
and -favor.
this sign of imperial grace
But would our foreigner be justified in going farther in the comparison of the two governments, nations and countries? That man who wears the little riband in his button-hole or
who may
lays out the snuff-box for the admiration of his friends,
be a
man
of independent character, zealously working
often, indeed,) despising these
who
very
—perhaps
(it
happens
signs, while the
monarch
for the true benefit of his country,
bestows them, knows, too, that by no means always the
most worthy obtain them.
Yet he uses them
as a
means,
following the advice of Horace, with a slight modification:
Misce stuUitiam pecunise brevem.; and
—such things
often
are connected with a thousand extraneous matters, from
which
it is
Every form
impossible to disentangle them in the moment. of government has
edly with some there
is
its
sham, though, undoubt-
a far greater quantity of
it
than with
others.
During
my tour through this part of the
again what had always struck try, ples.
wherever
I
have travelled
Here there
are no
me in
Union,
I
remarked
as peculiar to this counit
—the
absence of crip-
hunch-backed sextons
as in Italy,
259
(
)
no deformed hostlers, no lame in the
Are such
street.
persons merely removed from the observation of the traveller, or are, in general, families better able to
these
unhappy
much exposed
to the
way
for the rare sight of
persons in the United States.
On
fact.
Deformity
Any
paratively rare occurrence.
show the
We
view of any but their friends?
cannot account in this
will
provide for
beings, so that their misfortunes arc not so
is
deformed
actually of
com-
inquiry into the subject
the continent of
Europe deformed
persons are not of very rare occurrence, even in the better classes; here
Whether
they are nearly unknown.
comparative ease of child-birth in this
the
country can be considered as one of the causes of the fact
do not know; but, in
in question, I
certainly does not form the chief one; the
In the
causes are, perhaps, the true ones.
Americans have,
in
my
opinion,
it
two following first
place, the
a considerable degree, adopted
the
English treatment and management of infants, in which, as in every thing else appertaining to physical education, the English so vastly excel the nations of the European continent
The
free play,
which
is
allowed to every limb of
an English baby, together with the whole treatment, contributes certainly not a little to the formation of those fine
we meet with in England. A hundred unhappy ways of incasement, and of fettering the tender limbs of the young creatures, together with the most injurious systems
figures
of nourishment, are yet
common on
especially with the lower classes. infant of a that
its
German
man
verse, as if in
is
Whoever
has seen the
or Italian peasant, and does not declare
remaining alive
proves that
the continent of Europe,
in spite
made of
him the
of
all
parental care and love,
the toughest material in the uni-
durability of glass had been united
to the pliability of Indian rubber, can be no lover of truth.
Secondly, American parents seldom leave their young children entirely without capable attendants, or under the care of children but a
little
older than the infants themselves.
(
280
) »
You a
rarely see here a child of
little
two years dragged about by
perhaps ten, and both in danger of de-
sister of
formity, the one by being exposed to
rying a burden
much
too heavy for
falls,
the other by car-
.its
yet undeveloped
limbs.
might be thought that
It
are quite as
much exposed
at a later age,
American children induce
to accidents, calculated to
deformity, as with us; for a more independent, and,
more daring
add,
does not
exist.
race, than that of
Climbing, riding, driving,
are arts
which they
Perhaps
this
make them
American boys,
and boldness.
better fitted to take care of themselves, and to
much
that deformity
argument;
for this
may
boys daily run the risk
American boys very much; there
and boldness about them, which please are,
when very young,
appears to
me
of.
are a frankness greatly.
They
not unfrequently fine looking, and
that, in this respect, the
Americans are
are fine looking, because the good looks of
Americans
consist
much more
it
like
men, therefore, do not
strike
Jews and
in the delineations of the
bones, than in any thing else; their
A set of
would
Their children are beautiful, and again, their old
the Jews.
men
me
I
obvious reason,
for the
be brought on by a single mishap, such
as these independent I like
may
think
at this age, contributes to
escape unhurt, where others would be injured. Yet
not give
I
sailing, shooting,
cultivate with great zeal
very independence
I
me
young and middle aged
as generally
good looking.
less attractive faces
than those you meet with in
some of the northern houses
of representatives, can hardly
be imagined.
So hollow, care-worn, and looking almost
sour as their cider actually
Speaking of babies,
bandaged from chin
I
Gensano, near Rome, a bler,
seen
who worked
—under
was reminded of
to toe,
as
is.
a little thing well
which, during
woman
in the noblest
heaven's canopy.
my
residence in
used to bring to an old cob-
workshop
I
ever yet have
The baby was provided
with two bands, fastened like leading strings, and near the
281
(
)
proud cobbler, who " mended bad soles " right opposite
my
window, was an iron hook; on this the woman would hang her baby by the leading strings, with a, " Come sla, amico mioV^ " Benone, graziuy cava mia grazia,''^ said the light-hearted disciple of St. Crispin,
who
away, while the
thing was hanging from the hook,
little
dangling about and crying, its
hammer and
continued to
its
sing
shoulders bent forward, and
arms hanging perpendiculaly down,
as if
it
had been the
intention of the mother to teach the child the position of a
higher and more conspicuous hanging.
screamed for a while, as
if
near
its
After the child had
end, the mother would
return from her errand or labor, and ask, " Well,
how
neighbor,
signora cava,
has the
una
hamhina been?"
—"C/h'
my
dear
agnella^
would the cobbler reply,
colombina,''^
having, perhaps, actually not heard the child bawling, as
lungs had been
its
made
if
of the remains of a pair of black-
smith's bellows.
When
I
visited the Riesengebirge,*
log-house of one of the graziers,
who
I
once entered the
live in the highest
parts of this chain of mountains, and feed their cattle on the
short but fine grass growing on
When
and the Swiss JilpsA
I
what the Tyrolese entered,
in the room, but in one corner I
saw
parently, without a rocking agent. walls?
I
call
Kds
observed nobody
I
a cradle,
moving, ap-
Was I within
enchanted
approached the cradle, and a healthy looking baby
was enjoying
in
it
a
sound sleep,
its
round
little
head moving
and rolling on the pillow from one side to the other.
Far-
showed me that far from all the machine stirring world, a second Arkwright dwelt here on the mountain ther inquiry
top; for the father of the baby had used, with great ingenuity,
the rushing stream,
which every grazier
in this part
leads through his dairy-room to keep his cream and butter •
The
-}•
Kas
chain of mountaina in Silesia. in Tyrol,
and Alps
high mountains on which that hair,
Editor.
in Switzerland, signify those small
fine grass
grows, which
and affords excellent pasture for dairy
36
cattle.
is
patches in the
almost as thin as
Editok.
^
(
fresh, as the
kee, with
all
282
)
moving agent of the cradle. I defy any Yanhis ingenious " improvement " of " water pri-
vileges," to beat our countryman here. this looked like
coming pretty near
dren are to be baptized by steam.
Truly,
to the time
I
thought
when
chil-
(
283
)
LETTER
XV.
Buffalo, the western point of termination of the Grand is an interesting place, both for its situation on Lake Erie, and its rapid growth, which it bids fair to continue for Canal,*
It is astonishing to see
a long time.
wide
streets (a little
too wide, indeed, like those of Washington) of
handsome
and high houses of the best appearance, where but a few years ago an inconsiderable village was
all
that
was
to be
seen.
What is at
is
my
to be done,
once to be
laid out?
dear friend,
Wherever
built according to a regular plan,
if
I
the plan of a place
have seen towns
they seemed to be
failures,
contrivances which look very well on paper, or sound well if
you hear them described, but
From
are very different in reality.
the concentric circles of Carlsruhe to the
plan of Washington,
all
compound
these places have a thousand incon-
veniences in practice, and as to the rectangular plan, on
which Philadelphia, Mannheim, and many places here and
Europe are
in
—
laid out
taste, in
matters of this kind,
is
no
subject of discussion, but I dislike the eternal sameness of this plan, if the place be of
any considerable magnitude, particu-
larly if to the rectangular prose be joined the abstract •
Of this,
as
of all other canals and
rail-roads, a brief,
numbers
but instructive de-
" A brief Uescription of the Canals and Rail-roads ofthe United States, 8s.c. By H. S. Tanner. Philadelphia, 1834." This small work is a useful addition to Mr. Tanner's large map of tlic United States, scription
is
contained in
in four sheets.
Euitoh.
—
(
284
in the appellation of the streets.
systematizing
is,
in part,
)
Man is a systematizing being,
thinking
Hence
itself.
for seeing principles carried througli; but
his fondness
very often princi-
ples only sound well, because they appear simple, while ap-
Such
plied, they offer little for approbation. after
which the Philadelphia
culiarly
is to
streets are called.
good sense of locality, and never
lost
me the rule I
have a pe-
my way in a fo-
reign place, with the only exception of Philadelphia,
where
"What
street
to this is
day
I
am
continually ol)ligcd
this; seventh, eighth,
me, escape
my
to ask,
ninth?" while directions given to
mind much
easier than those in other places,
owing to the character of generality attached to all these numbered streets; and, as to the numbers combined with the letters of the alphabet, as in Washington, they require a man born for a mathematician, to remember these viatic forA man may just as well remember mulas.
Cotang as
:
and a Half Before
I
«,
B
and Sixth
exercises.
I
saw
found an
it I
very strikingly exemplified the
built of stone,
cious,
:
corner of
entered the city of Buflalo, close to
which power which custom
man
—Cot.
W.
streets.
instance
a
=
(180°— «)
Mrs. So and So's, on the N.
immense
a farmer's
house
and having the appearance of being owned by
of substantial wealth, yet, though of brick and spait
was
built
on the Westphalian plan, the
cattle
and
horses standing with their heads turned into the barn, at the
end of which are the hearth and sitting-room of the family. Here the farmer bad the examples of much more convenient farm houses around him, he had
them, yet he followed a
\^hln
all
the
means of imitating
which originated
in
times
when
neither cleanliness, health, safety, nor even interest
made
a
was
subject of unjjrejudiced reasoning, and improve-
ments were but rarely made. Thus the migrating nations in the beginning of the middle ages, carried a thousand cus-
toms with them
into countries for
which they were
culated.
In the
liotel
the foMowinsi; card was given to
me:
not cal-
(
285
)
—
—
286
(
New York
lady in
thinks no more of going to Havre or Li-
verpool than a lady in
London
feeling, together
This
)
of going to Paris.
with the vast unsettled continent
before them, induced people to push on and settle at great
was
distances, especially as the life of the early colonists to develop a daring spirit of enterprise,
such as
dually has settled
down
into a fixed trait of
General Moreau, when residing in
racter.
which
gra-
American chathis country,
so said a French gentleman, an acquaintance of mine,
—
be-
lieved that no soldier would be equal to an American,
if
well and thoroughly disciplined; (to be sure, the present
would require some "rubbings,") because, said he, American doubts of nothing." It was true what Moreau observed, that an American doubts of nothing; sometimes owing to enterprising boldness, sometimes to want of militia
"An
knowledge or to self-confidence, always, in a measure, to the fact, that want of success in an enterprise is not followed in the United States by obloquy or ridicule, even though the undertaking
may have been
calculated to mislead,
is,
injudicious.
This, though often
on the whole, an excellent thing;
man to have miscalculated his strength in one attempt, he may take better care the next time.* This spirit of enterprise and adventure pushed new set-
and, even supposing a
tlers far into all directions; a
we now
consequence of which
the same language, and living under the same laws ther reason
why
paratively small
distances appear shorter to us.
number
of mountain
cause of the same singular
which
to
judge distances,
fact.
—
As we
chains
land,
—ano-
The comis
a third
require objects
by
thus, for instance, objects, seen
over a wide expanse of water, appear nearer to
when
that
is,
dwell in a vast country, inhabited by people of
us,
than
the view lies across an equally extensive tract of
—
so a distance
by
land, if
we have
to
pass through
many
different languages and governments, and over moun-
tains,
appears to us greater than
jects existed. *
" Or he may
In the Atlantic
if
no such intervening ob-
states,
people are, besides, so
not," as one of Mr. Mathew's characters says.
Editor.
287
(
)
familiar with voyages to Canton, the Pacific,
&c., that I have seen in
member
Europe more
Buenos Ayres,
bustle in a family, a
of which was going to a university, perhaps
sixty miles
off,
than
I
some
have here when the son or brother
was embarking for China or the Manillas. The steamwhich greatly facilitate travelling, the population
boats,
—
being scattered over so vast a country, disposition of the
American
by the above given
—and the
reasons, contribute, in turn, their full
The next
part to the production of the same effect.
Americans
migratory
in general, originally caused
nation
whose possessions in all quarters of the globe would make them consider distances as still less than the Americans, were their own country not itself so very confined. Every mile after the
has there
its full
Not distances
in this respect are the English,
value.
alone are measured here by a standard dif-
ferent from that of other countries; time, too, receives a different value, but
An
in Europe.
it is measured by a smaller standard than American wants to perform within a year
what others do within a much longer period. Ten years in America are like a century in Spain. The United States really change in
some
respects
more within ten years, than England moves,,
a country like Spain has within a hundred. in
all
practical affairs, quicker than the continent: the
United
move quicker still, in some respects, than England. There are many reasons for this more rapid movement which I will not oblige you to read; let me only observe, that it
States
influences
all
relations of
ments, a female servant in
life.
hundred and sixty-two days no doubt,
According
London in the
same
that, if similar accounts could
Germany, we would
to recent state-
remains, on average, four
find that they
situation.
I
have
be obtained from
remain much longer
there in the same place, and the corresponding period in
New York
would average much
less.
Sometimes
indivi-
duals long for a stationary country, where things remain in their place for
some time, and where one does not feel all wing of a windmill. This desire
the time as if tied to the
288
(
)
very natural whether they would be pleased by a change
is
:
for a long time
the rest
or not,
—the choice
is
is
quite a different question.
not with the nations.
present, two classes of nations, which, in
all
There your
For are, at
inquiries,
you must strictly distinguish from each other; namely, moving nations and stationary nations. The former would be utterly ruined, were they petus.
own im-
to counteract their
speak here chiefly of industry, and diffusion and
I
This movement has become
application of knowledge.
with them one of the "historical tasks" which they have
They must have
to perform.
ing boat
may
steamboats, though a
sail-
grace the landscape a thousand times more:
they must have rail-roads, though travelling on them be a dull thing.
And
—"You
know,"
Professor
as
in Berlin used to say,
when,
in the overflow of his ideas,
he could not wait
finish
his sentence, but hurried
to
to
other subjects, which were crowding his fertile and abun-
dant mind.
Now,
his overflowing of ideas corresponds, in
my
case, to the scantiness of
lity
of his mind, perhaps, to
happened
I
paper and time, and the
my paucity.
to find, here in Buffalo, an
which the writer of a pretty able Americans to imitate England, as tion of her slaves, and declares that
ing
if
now
only
once mother country
I
to it
calls
upon the
the late emancipa-
would be
astonish-
to follow the brilliant
example of
—
was easy
a language
which
it
had previously seen even amalgamation hinted
calmly and fearlessly look this vast subject
my
You may
at a
and
easily imagine, that
it
cannot
intention to enter here fully into a question of so it
would require
a trea-
a thorough inquiry, rather than a few considerations
thrown out with
at,
few prominent points of
grave and momentous a character; tise,
to fore-
Let us
necessary measure.
as a
their
In some English papers,
would soon become common.
once openly demanded
be
English paper in
article
the United States, were not to free their slaves, as
they have
see,
ferti-
in a letter;
yet having occupied myself
this subject, of absorbing
much
importance throughout
his-
2S9
(
tory and in our
own
)
times, I think,
a few considerations, which
may
I
you
will aid
in
place before yoa
forming a more
correct opinion upon the matter.
In the abstract,
hold slavery to be,
I
— philosophically, —morally a
an absurdity, (man cannot become property.)
bane both to the slave and his owner;
—
violation of the spirit of the times
we
historically, a direct
with
live in, and,
regard to public economy, a great malady, to any society at all
advanced
Murat, son
in industry.
I
neither allow with Achilla
King of Naples,
to the late
that slavery is for
the present condition of our southern states, a highly desirable state of things, and conducive to the greatest advantage
of society (he does not speak of pecuniary advantages,) nor
do
I at all
Report on
agree with Duden, a a
Journey
to the
German
Western
author,
who,
in his
North
States of the
—
American Union, in 1824 to 1827, inclusive a work which contains some very valuable information, whenever the author abstains from political and historical disquisitions
— sup-
poses himself to have very nicely demonstrated, that a society has a full right to declare on
admit other people, and
make them
how
it
what conditions
will treat
them
incapable of participating in government,
original society think
fit
to dictate in
will
it
in future, to
the
if
what relation of depend-
ence they are to be placed, who, in short, sees no objection on the ground of justice to slavery, and altogether forgets, that the idea of right between men, cannot, by any possibility, be established, except ligations.
He
on the idea of mutual duties and ob-
has recourse, in order to
make
out his case, to
the relation of a father of a family to his children, as nearly
every one does,
who
founded on force, a getting that hardly
wishes to make out of a state
two things
different than family
and
state of things
founded on reason, always in
the world can be
state; the
one based on
for-
more
instinct,
love and forbearance, the other on justice, law, and right; the one to
the end of the preservation
which we have partly
in
common
of the species;
with the animals, the
Thrice unhappy comparisoir,
other in no degree whatever.
37
290
(
)
from ages when every thing
entailed on us
in politics
was
poorly defined: which has served the legitimatist and slavedealer, the absolutist and the ambitious priest, as a cloak for
sordid plans! I
must observe, however,
American who
tive
ciple;
what
they say, are
we
matter stands, slavery exists;
as in fact the
do with
to
that I hardly ever found a na-
attempted to palliate slavery in prin-
In one single instance, only,
it.
have met with an attempt
to represent slavery as
I
something
quite the thing, on the ground of the relation between ser-
vant and master, being comparable to that between child and father, the
"noble Romans," and the Old Testament, being
likewise adduced as evidence, that slavery
This mauvaise plaisanterie, to
was contained Testament as
a
Roman
Heaven
we are to take the Old relations, we had better create and
liberty,
code of legal
not so bad.
one of our reviews.
in an article of
preserve us from
is
by the mildest term,
call it
if
ourselves Jews surrounded by heathens at once, and adopt their laws
all
did not even
and
Moreover, the author
social relations.
know what was
signified
with the Jews, by
sla-
very, which was an institution, very different from what he
In order
supposes.
to
become acquainted with the
spirit of
the slaveholders themselves, in our Union, you ought to read the interesting debates on this subject in the late Virginia
make some changes in They have been collected
convention, which had assembled to the constitution of that into one volume,
interesting
state.
which appears
to
works with regard
me
to be
one of the most
to the history of
man, and
practical morality. I will
me
grant even more than you might perhaps, suppose
willing to do, after
my
will
have among them
Aristotle, I
know
general remarks at the begin-
Whether
ning of these reflections.
the African race ever
a Shakspeare, a Charlemagne, or
not; nor
is it
necessary to
know
this, in
order to settle the question as to their political capacity for participating in all civil rights and duties.
respectable colored persons with us, and
I
There are many believe none will
291
(
conscientiously deny that,
on quite
as
)
when
fiiirly
educated, they stand
high a level of mental development as the lowest
who
of the whites,
are nevertheless admitted to a full par-
ticipation in all political privileges; nor that the question
under consideration would ever have been African race not
from ourselves
differ
testing the comparative capability of the
two
The mental
colored and white servants.
started, did the
One way of
in color.
classes, is to try
as well as physical
difference between the white and black races, have
which
subject to
came
I
have directed
to this country;
and
I will
my
communicate
observations, not as supporting any of
facts, interesting in
where
State prisons,
to
you a few
my statements — I
claim entering here fully into the subject
detached
formed a
attention ever since I
—but
dis-
merely as
themselves.
a large
number of colored and white
people are kept under the close observance of intelligent
men, and have duties,
and
to
obey the same laws,
upon the same
live
diet,
to
perform the same
seemed
to
me
to afford
a peculiarly favorable opportunity of ascertaining certain
There
are, of
about eight
facts relating to
this
hundred convicts
in the penitentiary at Singsing, about
hundred individuals of from
whom
I
obtained
subject.
color.
my
The
two
physician of the prison
information, had not found that
there was any striking difference between the diseases of the blacks and the whites, nor did they assume any different
have been assured of the same
character in their course.
I
by experienced physicians
in large cities.
However, as the more than
colored people resort to quacks, perhaps even
the whites of the poorer classes, and have sometimes physicians of their
own
color, closer
examination would be
still
required to state any thing definite on this point. It is for
early.
ever to be regretted that Doctor Spurzheim died so
This able anatomist and observer of the configuration
of the head, told
which he had
was
me
that
laid out to
one of the chief subjects of inquiry himself
in
coming
to investigate the physical difference
to this country,
between the two
races and to settle something definite on this point.
He
in-
292
(
)
tended to proceed to our southern
many
I trust that is
states,
and
make
to
as
observations as possible on living and dead subjects.
some
where
a field
able anatomist will take
a fair
name
is
up the
It
subject.
yet to be won, and the con-
sequences of a thorough inquiry into the minutest details of this subject
As
might be of incalculable
effect.
moral difference between the prisoners of the two
to
colors in the above mentioned penitentiary,
a curious
it is
behave themselves
fact that in general the colored j^eople
more orderly, follow the laws more wiland work more steadily. The superintendent of
better; they are lingly,
that state-prison, a gentleman of
much
bestowed unwearied attention
to
intelligence,
my
troublesome inquiries both in person and by not attempt to explain the as such I give
and it,
it
it.
fact;
and
who
often repeated and
he merely stated
letter, it
did
as such,
Whatever reasons may be given for At one time, when I was
deserves our attention.
walking with him through the building and we had entered one of the cells, after having given me some information on certain points of said, "
1
am
so?" said
its
architecture, he looked round and
sure this cell belongs to a colored man." "
Why
" Because every thing looks neater, better ar-
I.
On inquiry, we found that his surmise was corwas greatly surprised, and lie then told me, that a colored prisoner will generally keep his cell in more snug order than a white man. Equally interesting is the fact,
ranged." rect.
that
I
more colored people ask
for admission to the
Sunday-
school of the prison, and for instruction in reading, than
white people; speaking merely of the proportion of individuals of both colors, who have no knowledge of reading. I
not
allow
this,
all
whether we
existing
—what
but the question
shall
be done with
in hand, according to the
by cutting
measure of
no other means
it,
—slavery
Fanaticism, which body of the question
it?
like Procrustes, stretches or chops the
ideas, or has
not an abstract one;
is
shall introduce slavery or not, but
its
to untie a
own
preconceived
Gordian knot, than
cuts this matter also short.
Emancipate,
is
293
(
)
And
their short prescription of remedies for the disease. if
you
ask,
mation,
But
what
will
by which they think to
the drug
is
who knows
a statesman,
which has two
case, a question
religious, or a
perfect the cure.
that countless evils are in-
by solving from
variably produced
and a
become of the emancipated? Amalga-
view of the
a partial
aspects,
e.
a political
g.
commercial and a political,
—by making
ourselves voluntarily blind to the other view, will not decide so hastily.
Suppose, for argument's sake, that
would be induced
to
all
the slave owners
emancipate their slaves to-day; or that
the non-slave-holding states were willing to pay annually a large
sum by way
of compensation to the slave-holders, and
that gradual emancipation could be thus effected.
We
would be the consequence? crease of free
might be
What would
should have a large in-
colored population, which,
any
politically as free as
be gained?
class
if
we
it
A
choose,
of our citizens.
Political equality is of
value compared to social equality. graded, or, let us not call
What
race,
very
little
socially de-
degraded, one excluded from
general society, and consequently from the broad course
of civilization,
is
in a state of real suffering,
sarily generate in its
History affords us
bosom
many
all
and will neces-
kinds of vices and crimes.
instances to this effect.
It is
of no
use whatever to be, in the eye of the law, equal to others, if
you are
socially disabled, except
you hope
all
to at-
by means of the former. The free colored race, the existence of which the argument supposes is large in number, would then remain an oppressed tain social disfranchisement
and degraded cipated.
race, as long as
Hence would
of freedom for the
mean social intercourse as well latter would indeed be soon the con-
sequence of the former.
and equally elevated tivated,
order to obtain a real state
emancipated slave, the necessity of
amalgamation; by which as intermarriage: the
they were not socially eman-
arise, in
I
Two
different races, equally free,
in the social scale,
hence equally cul-
and yet distinctly separated, cannot be imagined.
294
(
Whoever does
it,
)
has other views of mankind, and learnt
Whether
other lessons from history than myself.
be
this
founded upon prejudice or not, is not here the question; the prejudice is at any rate so founded in human nature that it
would not depend upon us to change its effects. Here then we have already arrived at the barrier, which will
make
for ever inexpedient to follow the course in
it
question, of restoring the natural rights
among
us,
wronged race of slaves to their their number is large. That
where
a Montesquieu, and other writers of his age, ridiculed the
idea of
making
a difference of color the
ground of a sub-
human
stantial difference in caste, treating the color of a
race as
they would
that of an inanimate object, of
which
it
may form an unessential quality, was but natural, since enormous wrongs and cruelties were at that time heaped upon the African race, and palliated on the score of difference in color. light to this
one
But the matter presents
who now
family.
lives
itself in a different
surrounded by the children of
easy to say, at the distance of
It is
many
thousand miles, what is color! but if you were to act daily and hourly up to this assertion, you would find cause to
change your opinion, or to judge milder of those with
whom
the difference of color forms an insuperable barrier.
Coloris something whichstrikes that sense which carries the
most vivid impressions millions to disregard it is
so striking an
marked
difference
eradicated.
I
to the
it; it
mind; you cannot expect the
presents too glaring an appearance;
outward
sign, that the idea of a well
between the two races cannot be well
can very well imagine that in some cases a
fact I
man might lose his sensibility to know a mulatto-man who is clerk
and
went
white
I
this difference; in
with a bookseller,
often there and transacted business with him,
without thinking of his color. Generally, however, you cannot expect to find this indifference; especially, as another sense is
affected
by near intercourse with the colored
population.
Objections of this kind seem very light and perhaps frivolous, to
one
who
only becomes acquainted with the
fact
by
295
(
)
hearsay; but few things affect us more powerfully than dis-
Why
gust.
does the Prussian code allow, under certain
circumstances, divorce on the ground of "unconquerable
The
disgust?"
most sacred
dissolution of the
mitted with you, on the ground that
other, if one
happy with each
that people should be
per-
tie is
utterly impossible
it is
only by
way
A
of the senses.
peculiar odor
emanating, more especially in a
when
bodies of negroes, even
cl
it
be
continually
is
imate, from the
which renders them white people. There are indi-
personally unpleasant to
cleanly,
viduals of the white race from is
warm
con-
is
tinually an object of repulsion to the other, though
emitted, unpleasant enough,
whom
it is
a strong
true,
gustingly repulsive; but that of a negro
musky odor
and sometimes is
different
dis-
It re-
sembles that exuding from the snake and beetle.
Soon
after I
peculiar odor
would
arrived in this country, I found that this
was considered one of the chief causes which
for ever prevent a social equalization
was anxious
races,
and
had a
real existence.
I
I
two
of the
myself whether
to ascertain for
it
have very sensitive olfactory nerves,
having received them from nature well organized, and having exercised them by studying botany, on
have been
able,
on
my
my
travels, &c.
or a villase at the distance of several miles, if the at all
favorable; and yet
difference
could not at
I
often perceived
when many
were assembled
in the
was
first
wind was
discover any
between the odor of the negroes and that
Boston; the
soldiers, after a
same room.
summer was very
in the house.
Since
I
cool,
I
was
I
time in
at that
and no colored servant
have gone farther south
who
some very few who deny
have
long march,
I
this; so I
knew an
must
There
testify to the correctness of the current statement.
are
I
pedestrian journeys, to scent a lake
old lady
actually loved the music of quarreling or plaintively
squalling cats.
convinced; yet rest of
It I
was no
affectation
with her, of that
should not be willing to charge
mankind with
I feel
all
affectation or disregard to truth,
cause they declare that
this
kind of music does not
the be-
affect.
—
296
(
them with pleasurable
more
)
Some
sensations.
nations seem to be
by the scent of the African race than others and none more so than the English: Spaniards care less for it. Bolivar had some colored aides, if I am rightly informed; and in Brazil you may see black priests administer the communion to white people. Yet even there is no affected
social mixture,
no true
social disfranchisement of the colored.
In judging of this subject,
ought never to be forgotten
it
that the stability of social intercourse does not depend
upon
the agreement of a few broad general ideas, but chiefly
on an agreement upon the minor opinions, &c.
I
do not pretend
man
that a white
them.
ful to
our
faces,
I
can imagine that people, unaccustomed to
I
when they
perceive in them,
will shudder at all the ugliness it is
ac-
mix with
it
his colors to
and you
face,
Yet be
contains.
this as
views of beauty must essentially
clear that our
and races who cannot,
differ;
to
Analyze a bloated
arrive at the true tints.
become
first
those shades of yellow, blue,
all
and green, which the painter has
may,
can very well imagine
appearing among them must seem fright-
quainted with our race,
it
white race
to say that the
handsomer than the colored;
is
of taste, views,
affairs
in general, please each other,
will never cement.
This strong barrier will for ever prevent a free tercourse between the two shall a
me, a
white
man wish
races.
one must lead
to
country has ever had any
the other.
ever
I for
one love
my
still.
many misdeeds and crimes
plans,
and however much
may have is,
led
it
with
for,
its
its
to superior
I
to
am
race; that race which, it
may have
tory to enter on her records, however often suffered avarice to guide
—
the love of
If
meaning attached
love of race has a weightier meaning
man, and
did not,
and intermarriage are one and
free social intercourse
the same:
mixture of them?
for a
social in-
it
But, suppose
it
it,
a
the
white
—how-
forced his-
may have
actions and blast the noblest
superior skill and knowledge
and shameful incongruities,
nevertheless, the favored one from
which the Europeans
297
(
have descended; who, with
theii'
above
children, in other parts of
immense
the world, have risen to an ity
)
intellectual superior-
other tribes and nations.
all
one do ex-
for
I
ecrate the idea of seeing this noble race degenerate into a
yellow mongrel breed, such as exists
and the
in Brazil
Portuguese islands along the coast of Africa.
for
I
one
pray that heaven's best blessings, the extension of knowledge and civilization,
may
be showered
down on our
bre-
thren of a darker skin, but desire with equal anxiety that the white race be continued in
becomes master wherever self
many good
other races,
—
it
its
purity,
—
which
that race,
appears, because
it
unites in
it-
among
properties which are but scattered
intelligence, sociability, activity, desire of pri-
vate property and elevation of mind.
Let us suppose, however,
for a
moment,
—and
we must
be prepared for the most extravagant expectations
we
—
that
could suddenly divest ourselves of the unpleasant sen-
sations hinted at, could disregard all considerations of pro-
perty, politics, &c., and let the two
of blacks
millions
be absorbed by the eleven millions of whites, and that the
whole mixture should, within
six or seven generations, re-
turn to a tolerable white, this color being originally so
—through what
preponderant;;
not have passed, is it
how low would
our nation have sunk!
really believed that those tender relations
could exist between black and white?
Now,
if
changed.
It is
a par,
the relation
between husband and wife be changed, the whole is
Or
between hus-
band and wife which, within the house, put them on
civilization
much we
should
state of barbarity
state of
only befitting the fanatic to
spin out the subject any farther; to say that laws
would be
required to prevent a relapse of color, to enforce bur white
females to ally themselves to blacks, &c.
That
fanatics
should be found senseless enough to preach amalgamation as the only
means
very presents
to
overcome the great
to us
difficulty
or other, every state and government have; yet, in
which
sla-
—our chronic disease which, of one kind
our case an incurable one
—
is
I
hope, not
what wc might expect accord-
298
(
Whenever
ing to history.
men
agitated,
)
great and important questions are
will always be found
who
are incapable of
placing themselves but on a single point of view, and who neglect or forget
every thing else but their one favorite idea; they fall into what must be
look but to one single spot, and thus called a mania.
regard to
I
know
paying too much
that the habit of
the possible bearings of an important projected
all
measure, has not unfrequently
stifled
the noblest zeal and
thwarted the hopes of the best friends of mankind; but I also know, that well-meaning maniacs have done incalculable mischief in politics and religion, in the arts and the sciences. I
believe that every disinterested and clear-minded obser-
ver will allow that slavery
against the spirit of the times,
is
and will become more so every day; and history affords thousands and thousands of examples, tliat whatever is against the spirit of
tlie
the part of true
times must sooner or later
wisdom
If I judge aright, the
fall;
and that
it is
to prepare in time for the change.
most judicious mode of emancipation
would be gradually to create a peasantry of colored people, which should have in itself the means of melioration and final discharge of the relations of peasantry, because, without the latter condition, this
come
as
much
peasantry would, in course of time, be-
an element alien to our system and contrary
to the general course of ideas, as slavery
now
As, on
is.
the other hand, the two races will not, and ought not to
amalgamate,
it
would be always inconvenient to have a disnumber of colored people at one time
proportionately large
among
us; elimination of the greater part of
therefore, always to be considered as the
measure just mentioned
some
—
distant part of our
dily in
view
own
as the result to
effective
continent, should be kept stea-
be finally eifected.
measure of
would be ready
to
all
make
If the sou-
among themselves
this kind, there is
but that the other states, at least tern ones,
of the
colonization, either in Africa or in
thern states, or some of them, could agree
on some
them ought,
final object
no doubt
the northern and easta great sacrifice of the
299
(
money in order to assist But, for many reasons, political, public
)
the operation of the plan.
be possibly carried into
and moral, the mea-
legal,
sure must proceed from the south;
it
could not, otherwise,
effect.
away
Let, at the same time, our southern brethren do
with a certain system of harshness in one part of their conNo duct, which justly surprises every friend of mankind. plea of expediency, of advantage, or of fear, can justify a
law which directs a colored person,
who
cannot give a ready
explanation of his condition as to freedom, to be arrested,
and,
nothing can be proved against him, to make him pay
if
he cannot pay them, to be
the expenses of his arrest, and,
if
sold in order to defray them.
It is
ny.
It is
double and triple tyran-
even worse than the Brazilian law, which does
not provide for a prisoner before
and proper counsel
trial,
nor allow him a
he has the means
until
yer, so that, at Rio, people
may always
for
trial
paying a law-
be found chained to
the outer wall of the prison, pedindo justiga, (begging justice,) as
the begging of alms, in order to defray the expenses
of support in the prison and to pay a counsellor,
Physical force
is
nowhere
is
called.
so powerful as moral force; and
endowed with certain rights, leads, by good behavior emancipation, would afford, it
the condition of a peasantry
and with a way before and industry,
seems its
to
it,
which
to final entire
me, tenfold more security than slavery, which,
character and essence,
is
in
a state of force, pregnant with
countless dangers, and particularly so in a republic like ours,
which the executive has not many means of physical the force at its disposal, and in which the severity of laws in
more
—
readily enacted, as the law-makers are the interested
whom
and the slaves stands no inde-
—must
supplant the means of safety
persons, and between
pendent government
which, in monarchical establishment.
states, is afforded
by a large military
Another very important point would be
gained by the above measure, namely, the gradual accus-
toming of the once slaves
to industry, directed
by
their
own
judgment, without which the sudden emancipation of a large
300
(
number
at once, is
)
one of the greatest evils which can
fords an instance of the to rid
growing desire
befall
Maryland
either the emancipated or the emancipator.
af-
in our southern states
themselves of their slave population.
More
ardently than myself no one can wish that the mea-
sures of the British parliament
may meet
with
full success,
How
and, finally, lead to beneficial results.
so
whose superior oppose any
development would be unable
intellectual
effectual
numerous
few whites,
a free colored population will behave toward a
power
to the superior
to
number of the
Africans, will always, until the event determines
form
it,
a subject of intense attention to the citizens of our republic.
If the English glory in this measure,
but they ought not to forget, that
it
owners who emancipated, but people
but natural,
it is
was not
their
own
slave-
at a great distance,
and, in like manner, our northern and eastern states wish to see slavery abolished, and
whatever
is
in their
would be willing
power, by
English remember, that
many
way
of
to contribute
money; and
their slaves long before the English thought of
the people of this country,
made repeated
efforts to
let
the
of our states had emancipated it;
when dependent upon
that
Britain,
prevent the importation of slaves,
but in vain (to which Jefferson, also, alludes in a passage of his original draught of the declaration of independence, but
which was erased,) and that our republic was the vernment which abolished slave-trade, as early as while a Roscoe was yet hooted
at in
first
go-
in 1794,
1808, in Liverpool,
for having voted against this abominable
traffic.
And who
does not remember the foul arguments, which were at that period brought forward to prevent
its al3olition.
Persons
at
a distance often judge of the question of emancipation, quite
wrongly, because they think congress might, like a
ment
of the kind
is
parlia-
it
would be done; but nothing
in fact the case.
Congress can do nothing
in a capital,
decree
originally in the matter;
it
and
it is
altogether a subject which be-
longs to the forum of the state-legislatures
—those true foun-
301
(
)
of our liberty, without which
dations
it
would not have
been possible even to preserve her appearance.
moment
I do not hesitate for a
to say, that
by
the
far
greatest majority of our southern people would be glad,
could they abolish slavery, but
it
more
requires
to effect
such a measure with wisdom, than a newspaper
which ver,
calls us,
"slave-holding repuhjicans."
article,
May we
ne-
The
experience a sudden emancipation in the south.
whites would either become the slaves of the blacks, or at least the
suppressed
or they would have to emigrate,
class,
and the south would be
lost to
our Union, and for a long
time even to mankind. In the same paper, the assertion was made, that the want of wisdom, in our national organization, was proved
by the
dissolution of the Union, evidently approaching with hasty strides,
political all, I
and chiefly brought on
at the
system was ever put to the
grant that the
Union
is
very time that this
Suppose
test.
I
grant
hurrying toward dissolution,
that the separation once having taken place, wars, and wars
of the worst kind, will soon follow
—
a dissolution of the
elements of society, similar to that in some periods of the feudal ages, yet without chivalry, and that severe contests
must be gone through state of things
—even
in order to arrive if I
grant you
once more
all this, I
at a stable
nevertheless,
maintain, that the Union, and our constitution, were a wise contrivance, and
it
seems
to
me, the only one which was
capable of producing so rapid a progress, in so spects, of this
young
whole should tumble to
have established I
nation, and
to pieces, it
re-
it.
am the warmest advocate for
forms of government which
them the guarantee of changes undermine the whole society,
carry within
stability:
to its
morality and the pursuit of knowledge. the firm adherence to right and law, cannot
Many states in
many
to-morrow the was yet worth the while that if
continual
very views of
The
civic spirit,
grow and expand.
the middle ages, and France, afford numerous
instances; but the duration alone
is
no
test of the
goodness of
(
a government; otherwise
China, as the
Romans
302
we
)
ought to send ambassadors to
such, does not last half as long as
worn
A
sent theirs to Greece.
when
trod
it is
shoe, as
down and
as a slipper.
There are some
tests
which no government can possibly
stand, because every government, even the strongest,
must
have, like Achilles and Siegfried, one vulnerable point, where it
may
be wounded to the quick.
with regard with the
to durability, that
Wisdom must choose,
form which bids
fair to
expose
least frequency, this vulnerable point, according to
Thus the English number of the finest points,
the given materials and circumstances. constitution,
which combines
my opinion, never
has, in
a
yet been truly tested.
course of the constitution since
it
I
speak of
has become a true and
professed contract between the people and the monarch.
weak by
is
point of a constitutional monarchy inheritance
endowed with
The
that one person
is,
great privileges,
which ne-
vertheless shall be used in the spirit of the constitution and for the benefit of the people only.
A variety of contrivances
are resorted to in order to effect this result, contrivances which
in
my
thing
opinion do as I
know
of.
much honor
to the
human mind
as
any
But, nevertheless, they constitute the vul-
nerable point of this form of government.
The English
would be put to a severe test, if a Frederic or a Napoleon should be born upon the throne of the Brunswick In such case, if the crown were not to absorb family.
constitution
the constitutional privileges of the people, stifle
it
would
at least
their truly constitutional use and application, or the
people would rise and absorb the privileges of the crown.
Men
like those I
have mentioned cannot but be independent
and unshackled, or must be conquered and subdued. You ask, what are our vulnerable points? I think they are two in number, but, in order to let you judge whether I am right or not, it would be necessary to give you a tableau of our whole political organization, and an abstract of our history in the bargain.
303
(
)
LETTER
XVI.
I write to you, my dear friend, in no happy mood, have seen man, once more, in a situation not calculated
To-day for I
to exalt our opinion of
of the methodists
—
a camp-meeting.
The followers
citement of feeling.
you this.
him
in a great degree,
is,
They do
The religion
founded on the ex-
of methodism will grant
not admit, indeed, that the peculiar trait
it from all other protestant dewhat they would term an excitement of feeling; they would call it an agitation produced by the power of God, or the powerful effect of the divine spirit, or would characterize it by an expression of this kin(J.
of their sect, distinguishing
nominations,
But, however
is
we may
and name, we That which appears of excitement, and which they believe differ as to the cause
agree, I believe, as to the subject itself
to us as a high state
to be the effect and true sign of intense piety, forms that trait of their religion
Camp-meetings,
if
planations, given
I
which
is
peculiar to them, as a sect.
have properly understood the ex-
me by
methodists themselves, are held,
for the purpose of promoting
this
powerful
effect,
with the
followers of this creed, and thereby of strengthening religion in their souls, as also, in order to excite in persons
not yet converted, that state of overwhelming contrition,
which according
to
methodism, must generally precede con-
version and regeneration. then,
is
I to say, that
which
The
object of camp-meetings,
powerfully to excite religious feelings, and sorry
to
am
they are the scenes of unrefrained excitement,
every one, but the methodists themselves, appear
but as a wild outbursting of vague, though passionate and
304
(
)
my
powerful feelings; of great danger, in a most
gloomy
sight,
opinion, to true
A camp-meeting
moral and religious development.
is
to
me
and gives you the clew to a number
of phenomena in history, which otherwise would be nearly inconceivable by a sober mind.
A
conveniently situated spot, shaded
and near
if
possible
by
trees
selected as the place of the meeting,
to water, is
which generally takes place
in
A
autumn.
temporary
plat-
form, with a shed and a kind of desk for the ministers to
preach from
It is generally, or
to the multitude, is erected.
always, in the middle of one line of an oblong, which
formed by the
tents, pitched for the
exercises
people, as well as for their religious
" classes."
It is
not
my
is
accommodation of the
intention to give
you
in
their
a description
of the whole proceedings, or of
all
the scenes which are
acted under the eye of the visiter;
it
has been done by seve-
on the customs and manners of
ral writers
this
country with
considerable fidelity.
Nothing
is
easier than to write an attractive account on
subjects of this very kind, since the
are forced
upon the mind of the
most striking contrasts even were he not
spectator,
generally apt to seize at once upon the characteristic traits
of subjects offered to his observation; but you must expect
nothing of the kind in the following; though fess, that
my
no religious service, however
views of
a
due reverence
to
it
I
openly con-
might
differ
from
the deity, not even the
Jewish confusion during some of the religious celebrations peculiar to that people, has inspired
respect which
we
me
naturally feel for any
with
mode
adopted by our fellow creatures, than the scenes in the camp-meetings. is
The
less of that
of adoration I
witnessed
service of the Shaking Quakers
strikingly ludicrous; but camp-meetings are startling in
the highest degree,
filling
you
at
once with contempt of
men, and compassion for their unwary, deluded, and tormented victims. I intend merely to give you a few observations, which, indeed, will not inform you
certain designing
of any thing nevv, but will be additional facts of psycholo-
305
(
gical interest
— contributions
rations; alas!
pared to the
to the account of
a long scroll in the
slip
lips,
this effect is
facts,
acts of
wisdom.
this letter, nevertheless, force a smile
grief I write these lines,
omitted several
man's aber-
hand of History, com-
on which she notices his
Should the perusal of
upon your
)
not
its
object.
not with pleasure; and
because they had too
with
It is
much
I
have
of the
merely ridiculous about them.
Let me first give you a few general observations, the which has been impressed upon my mind with ad-
truth of
ditional strength
by
my
seeing camp-meetings.
First: All protestant enthusiasts or fanatics resort to the
Old Testament and the book of revelation in preference the
New
lief
and kind of worship,
to
Testament, for proofs and testimony of their befor
imagery
in
preaching and their
forms of conception and expression, often even of the prin-
They believe themGod "who swears in his wrath " seems to be more congenial to them than a God who "is love," the bountiful father of his children. Roman catholic fanatics, though their zeal may carry them to monstrosities of belief and action, nevertheless move more within ciples of their peculiar ethical views.
selves to be the people of Israel.
A
the general outlines of the tenets of their church, or, at least,
within what
is
believed to be true by great catholic masses.
Secondly: Christian fanatics universally occupy themselves more,
nay nearly exclusively, with the fear of
and the
of the damned, not with the hope of a reunion
state
hell
with God; with the anxiety to escape eternal punishment, not the zeal to
win the love of God, and
to love
him with the
in-
creasing pleasure which a pure soul finds in loving the only perfect being.
would
If the comparison be not offensive to you, I
say, they are like bad soldiers driven into battle
by
cannons placed behind them, not led by the love of country,
and a genuine feeling of honor. Third: All religious enthusiasts preach dogmatics and polemics, not practical virtue or the longsuffering of a purified soul; or if
they do preach the 39
latter, it is
not in order
306
(
)
to instil into the souls of the hearers that gentle charity
elevated kindness, which
and
religion, all virtue
all
and
one of the choicest flowers of cultivation of the mind, but
all
them against the gibes and sneers or
rather to strengthen
All the sermons
attacks of the world.
meeting which gave
is
I
heard
and
rise to this letter,
in the
camp-
in another I visit-
ed some years ago, were exclusively dogmatic or polemic,
and one preacher actually mentioned every Christian sect
from the catholics the true methodist I
from the
expect in after
to
is
with unkind and unchaall
which
bliss
life.
have often enough heard similar strains of preaching in
Roman was
to the quakers,
remarks, excluding them
ritable
catholic countries.
a soldier,
Once
a landlord of mine,
took great pains in his way, to save
and assured me, when
when
my
I
soul,
asked him whether he really believed,
I
good and virtuous protestant could not possibly enter
that a
into heaven, that perliaps
but undoubtedly only pressed
my
hope that
I
he might by
to wait
way
upon the
of exception,
catholics.
I
ex-
should be made his servant and that
he would prove an indulgent master. On the other hand^ the minister who preached the above mentioned sermon, said that if
any but methodists would be admitted
to the
purest bliss, he was sure his grandmother would be one of
them; she was a most pious baptist. The ignorant will always mingle their personal affairs with whatever subject they
may
be treating
of.
So much for uncharitableness, the
vulgarest banner that can be unfurled for enlistment in any cause.
Fourth: Also, the less informed a preacher
dogmatic and polemic he invariably
is
is,
the
more
in his sermons.
Fifth: All Christian fanatics give to the
word
love,
though
used in a religious sense, a certain amorous meaning, applied in a spiritual sense.
through
all
You can
trace this index of entliusiasm
ages of the Christian church; from the times of
some most glowing early hymns,
to
those of the latest
methodist songs. Sixth: All enthusiasts dislike exceedingly to reason, as
307
(
')
and always will end by saying, All you say is perfectly right according to the world's reasoning and from is
natural,
your point of view; but the true
dawned upon
light has not
we know we are right, bewe know it, and if ever the light you will say with us, "We know it, it is
you; you cannot understand us; cause
God
within us;
is
appears within you, certain."
Seventh: Love of notoriety, be limited circle,
most
is
even but in
it
a
very
action, with
one of the main springs of
fanatics.
Eighth: Fanatics are never
satisfied
with a calm and placid
adoration of the deity, but evidently seek for excitement,
and obvious proofs of
so
it;
preachers appear dissatisfied
much so, that frequently the when they are unable to bring
their hearers to the desired pitch, and they
judge of the
excellence of a sermon or prayer by the degree of ex-
citement
it
has produced; though every observer
well, that nothing, in fact,
is
easier than to
move
knows
a congre-
gation to tears, or to produce any similar signs of emotion.
The account
of a few touching scenes, eloquently described,
is sufficient;
but conviction, which takes root in the mind,
and which
work on
lasts,
a
more
difficult
task.
I
pastoral theology the advice given to
ters, carefully to ter,
is
found in a
young minis-
avoid excitement, ^because, said the wri-
(an experienced and pious minister and professor of
theology,) nothing
is
more enticing
if
once begun, and no-
thing creates so craving an appetite for more excitement,
and disposes the hearer
less for true conviction,
calm state of mind, without which
and that
no fulfilment of our
most sacred duties is possible. Ninth: Nothing is more frequent,
than
that
fanatic
preachers entertain their hearers with accounts of their
former
state of infidelity,
and
in a boasting
vered over by words of self-accusation.
own
manner badly Sometimes
co-
this
is
done in order to show that they too, in their time, were smart people, sometimes to show their great humility by thus exposing their sins and errors, and
it is
always, partly.
308
(
owing
to the
)
circumstance that ignorant as well as fanatic
people delight in treating of themselves, to which
This remark holds not only
already alluded.
Finally, fanatics of religions,
all
times, in
all
I
have
in religion.
countries, and of all
have considered religious hysterics as a sign of the
peculiar favor of the deity toward the afflicted individual;
and have dwelt upon them effect
which the
who have Jews and
as a striking
proof of the strong
spirit of the deity exercises
received
its
upon those
Heathens, Mahometans,
influence.
Christians, in antiquity, in the middle ages, and in
our own times, have done and are doing the The camp-meeting of which I speak was
same. held in West-
Chester, not far from the borough of the same name, about
three and twenty miles from Philadelphia.
when we approached
friend of mine;
I
went with
a
the " camp," w^- heard
a loud shouting, peculiar to the methodists,
when
of religious excitement, intermingled with
in a state
tunes equally
Perhaps you are not aware of
peculiar to their worship.
the fact that the methodists adopt any popular tune,
ever gay, and for whatever wordly text originally composed, or be
still
it
may
how-
have been
universally used, and either
substitute other words, or adapt those belonging to the tune to their religious
which, as
may
phraseology by changing a few expressions,
be easily conceived, produces songs some-
times appearing to the adherents of other sects in a dress
very different from what they consider an appropriate religious style, and one sometimes even positively improper and indecorous.
Amorous and
songs &c. are not
sailors'
rejected, but merely altered in certain parts, which might
not give rise to the purest associations with the uninitiated. I
send you, as a proof of what
Songster, in
New
York, 1830.
which the existence of
I
say, a
There
are
copy of the Zion
some of
their tunes,
a lyric glow, the rapid expression
of intense feeling, or the vivacity of an enraptured soul, can-
not be denied, however they
hymns which
may
alone are considered
differ
from the tunes of
by other
sects to be
fit-
led to this species of poetry. But they are sung in a manner
309
(
)
most modest demands of music, that they never produced any becoming effect upon me. So gay are some of their tunes, that I have several times so little consistent with the
believed myself to be approaching a scene of merriment, until I
happened
few days ago
met
I
to hear a hallelujah or hosanna. But a was under the same impression, when I
You must know, much inhymns, wherever they may be. I
a stage-coach full of methodists.
that when assembled in any number, they are
ch :ied to sing their
Washington
travelled last winter from
with two ladies of their the other began to
of the rest, or
all
hum
and
sect,
Baltimore with
to
from a meeting of theirs
six travelling ministers, returning
at various periods
of them shortly joined.
tion of worldly songs
one or
one of their tunes, in which several In the adapta-
and tunes^ the methodists are not un-
like the early Christians, with this exception, that the lat-
know, employed only odes to the pagan gods, poems of a higher cast, substituting a Christian meaning; in like manner as the statues of the dethroned gods, or of consuls and senators, were not unfrequently ter, as far as I
—
or other
used to represent the evangelists or other
The
saints.
op-
posite to the methodistical substitution of a religious sense
worldly songs,
to
is
the adaptation, in the middle ages, of
psalms or religious poems, to gay wine songs frequently
sung
in this
for instance,
My
way,
companion,
physician,
in the
convents and by students.
who
whom
mentioned above,
I
is
a
German
passed with credit through the whole Prus-
sian medical " state-examination" at Berlin, sufficient to
Such,
was the origin of the famous Gaudeamus igitur.
convince you,
who
which will be
are acquainted with the or-
ganization of the medical school of Prussia, that he
is
thorough bred physician.*
will
•
The
I
mention
various examinations, established
this,
because
it
by the Prussian g-overnment,
a
to
assure itself of the fitness of candidates either for offices under government, or the license of practising, are in
all
branches
—in medicine, theology, law,
education, pharmacy, mining, the department of forests, the ai-my, the administration, Sec, so infinitely
more
rigid, than similar examinations in
any
310
(
be found
to
)
be a fact of some importance in the sequel of
this letter.
We
went
the evening,
the "
first to
when
camp"
about eight o'clock in
at
the meeting had already lasted five long
other countries, that It may not be unhiteresthig- to some of our readers, to give them a hasty sketch of the " state-examhiation " mentioned in the above
No
text.
student of medicine
is
admitted to the university, any more than
the student of any other branch, without having proved by examination, that
he has received a thorough
which
The
classical education.
devote to his univei-slty studies,
is
and
are chiefly spent in the medical, surgical,
the one half year the student
is
time he
obliged to
is
a period of four years, the two latter of obstetric clinica.
but a " hearer" in the different
cllnica, In
In
the
next he practises himself under the direction and constant examination and instruction of the directing professor.
Hospitals are likewise regularly visit-
That the reader may obtain an idea of the great variety of
ed.
lectures
thorough treatment of every single branch, we would refer him to the
and
article
University In the Encyclopaedia Americana, in wlilch the catalogue of lec-
one half year
tures, delivered in It is
been given.
in the university of Berlin has
the catalogue for the winter term from 1829
— 1830,
In
which we find
ninety different courses of lectures enumerated, some of which are of course
on the same subject, but by
different professors.
finished his university studies
he
which he
orally
is
examined
and publicly
dissertation,
himself, with
bestowed ovAqv to
in all branches,
to dispute in Latin
is
compelled to write a Latin
on certain theses, selected by
of doctor
is
licentiapradicandi'it
is
Among
down
other tests of fitness, he
is
is
doctor,
he
prac-
and after having thorough-
locked up in a room without books, where he has to of treatment, with
all
the reasons for his in all the different
shapes
may
After this he draws by
assume.
lot,
out of an urn containing
of paper on which the different important surgical operations are writ-
slips
and the one which
falls to his
chance he must forthwith explain, with
the history of the various ways of performing
form
it
himself on a subject.
He
it,
after
which he must per-
then receives a number of acute and
chronic cases, which he must attend for the space of three months. stetrics
he
is
not admitted to the examination,
if
is
orally
examined
in all
In ob-
he has not previously de-
livered iiimself at least twelve cases in the obstetric clinicum.
he
Is
led to the bedside of a
and the various ways of treating the disease
it,
ten,
is
his diagnosis, the plan
adopting it
case,
In
necessary for every Prussian to
Here, after having proved that he
examined.
examined the
write
to enter the
merely an honorary degree of the university,
patient in the Charity, the chief hospital in Berlin, ly
the student has
an acknowledgment of sufficient theoretical attjunments.
as
ohX.sS.n\.\\e
repair to BerUn. tically
When
allowed to take the degree of doctor, for
any person, professor or student, who chooses
The degree
arena.
is
After
this
branches of medicine, and the related sciences,
311
(
The
days and nights. ofifering
field
)
was not crowded with booths,
refreshments or entertainments of any kind, as I
have seen on particular days, near places of pilgrimage in catholic countries, causing scenes of
great dissipation,
on account of which the governments of France and Ger-
many,
that of Austria perhaps alone excepted,
have entirely
Nor do I really believe that these campmeetings occasion as much mischief of a certain kind among
abolished them.
the methodists themselves, as
the pilgrimages just
men-
tioned; for instance, the annual one to Einsiedel in the can-
ton of Schwytz, creates
among
those
who
posed, a priori; for there
is
But
attend them.
this evil is certainly not entirely obviated, as
may
be sup-
nothing on earth more danger-
ous in this respect than a concourse of
many people
of both
sexes, in a state of high religious excitement, for the very
reason that they are excited and brought nearer together
under the delusive forms of brotherly and religious purity.
that
find,
all
If
you throw a glance
and
you
will
meetings of religiously excited people end
with mischief of
this kind.
peculiar to Christian sects;
of the meeting of
Burckhard gives
whom
it is
Nor
is
by any means
on Mount Ararat for instance, and you are well ac-
a frightful picture,
thus assembled.
this
the same with Mahometans,
among
quainted with the licentious disorder
when
sisterly love
at history,
When
the Hindoos,
in the course of the
evening
one of the ministers made from the pulpit the necessary arrangements for the watches, &c., he did not omit to recom-
mend
to the sentinels, not to allow
walk about
We
together.
These
tents, destined for class meetings, are di-
vided lengthwise by a bench about such as botany, chemistry, &c. satisfaction of tlie examiners,
dom
and ladies" to
entered one of the tents where a "class" was as-
sembled.
are not
"men
a foot high,
If he passes through
he obtains the
more than about one hundred
these ordeals to the
license of practising-.
individuals a year in the
(containing thirteen millions of inhabitants,)
Editor.
all
and called
who obtain
There
whole king-
this Ucense.
312
(
On one
the mourners' bench. other the
which
is
women; they
lie
or
side are the
men, on the
disorder on the straw,
sit in
strewn on the ground, and was by
broken into small the people
)
moved much
time
this
particles, causing in those places
where
about, dense dust, extremely offen-
This dust, together with the hot atmo-
sive to the lungs.
by the breath of so many people crowded into a narrow space, and the smoke of lamps, rendered the interior of the tents very obnoxious to a spectator coming
sphere, poisoned
from the fresh and pure
air
without, and not in such a state
of excitement as to be insensible to
its
injurious effects
upon
the human organs. Along both sides of the mourners' bench kneel " the sinners in a repenting state" who wish to join
by
the faithful; or, overpowered haustion, they
lie
their feelings or
by ex-
on the ground, or in the arms of others,
quiet, half faint, exclaiming, groaning or weeping, while,
from time
minister or any other "brother"
to time, the
speaks into their ears of impending everlasting damnation,
men
or the bright hope of salvation; and I saw, repeatedly,
taking the hands of
women between
their hands,
and patting
and striking them, exhorting them, mean while, in
God,
mere
or, if
those in the interior and to re-
spectators, to join
In these cases, as well as at several times
pent.
to trust
they stood at the entrance of the tent as
when
the
ministers or other "brethren" addressed the uninitiated, a
language was used, the familiarity of which struck our ears " Now come," they would say, " why as very strange.
won't you try?
—
upon you try it, you
—come my dear brother
don't you see
will see
how
the mourners' bench
is
how powerful
sweet
open
it is
actually indecorous scene
doubt would be considered
were
so
we
God
calls
his spirit is? just
—won't you?
for you,
come
be too late;" and other expressions of
One
or sister;
in, it
Come in, may soon
this kind.
saw, which
I
have no
by mostmethodists themselves,
their attention directed to
entry of a tent as spectator, and a
A
man woman, a
it.
a cousin of his, because slie called
stood near the friend, perhaps
him James, was very
313
(
)
anxious that he should join their service. She tried her best, though, of course, she did not use any kind of argument; but during the whole time she stroked his hand or fingers,
taking one after the other between
ed
he
at length in
with
did'
We
me."
way which
persuading the
h'er
man
hands.
She succeed-
to enter the tent,
which
words, "I don't care, but you' won't catch
th-e
saw another man ushered really
reminded one of
into the tent, in a a
kind of
similar
by persons of which the methoHe half dists would not like to remind the spectator. walked, and was half pushed in by one of the ministers handed over to the minister of the respective tent, and pushed down to the mourners' bench, where he lay for seizing on men, adopted
time, his face resting on the bench, but he soion turned
some it
upward, with convulsive distortions of his eyes and the
muscles of his
As many
face.
appear undignified, so
is
of the methodists' songs
their language in speaking of re-
ligious subjects not unfrequently offensively quaint
directly after a
and
One person we heard
miliar to unaccustomed ears.
most passionate prayer, "I think
it is
fa-
say,
now
time to close the concern." In the tent which
we visited
there were several per-
first
sons in a state of blessing, as the methodists
say presently more about it. ral times, " Five or six sins fear,
call it;
I sh-all
One woman exclaimed, I
seve-
have committed, which, I
never can be forgiven;" weeping, at the same time^
bit-
Others prayed aloud, or called amen, whenever a
terly.
passage in the prayer of the loudest seemed to strike them as particularly true;
were
quiet, but,
some
from time
slept in the corner, others, again, to time,
they would ejaculate ex-
pressions of sorrow or delight; and the laugh, not the smile,
but the loud laugh with which these people greet the assurances of the bliss and happiness of the saved, or the glory in
which Christ
will appear to his faithful followers, or
their familiar exclamations, such as,
and the
"God bless my soul," many of their ex-
like, arc as strange to others as
40
314
(
)
pressions of grief and religious fear.
theme of
invariable
The
constant and
their exhortations was, as long as
we
were witnesses of these proceedings, " It is yet time to repent, come then and do so; death may suddenly cut you off,
when your
you:" and
doom
eternal
seems
it
to be a
be
will
pronounced upon
decidedly settled opinion with
the methodists, that, whenever and however you to die, the state in
which you are
at the
may happen
time of death
is
by which to pronounce his irrevocable sentence for eternity. Not one single
the sole testimony for the great judge
time,
(I state
my words,)
this
have
while
I
am
fully
aware of the import of
I
heard a rational advice calculated to lead
to the fulfilment of
our duties, to a true elevation of the soul,
or to teach forbearance to others; and I can assure you, that the constant repetition of the eternal damnation,"
words " everlasting flames and
would alone be sickening
to the hearer,
leaving their meaning entirely out of consideration. I
found here, again, what
I
have often had occasion
to ob-
which appea^^in a great degree to feeling, has its peculiar kind of delivery and enunciation. The methodists, generally, add ane at the end of serve, that each sect, and especially those
words, after which they make a short pause, and thus say,
Godde, cominge, salvationne, which peculiarity in
fact ap-
pearsto bea result oftheirexcitement,whichcannotas readily find
words
quire. is,
as their
It is
minds, wrought up
somewhat
have, &c., so
to passion,
would
re-
similar to the dwelling on words, like
common
in the British parliament,
and made
use of, in order to gain time for the arrangement of the next sentence. is
The methodist pronunciation of "Oh, Lord!" Maine to Mississippi, in
quite peculiar to them, from
America and England; while the unpleasant, nasal pronunciation is very common with them but not exclusively their own. A nasal and tremulous twang belongs generally to all
protestant sects,
people of Israel.
who
consider themselves the persecuted
It originates in
feeling of over-humility,
tones of a
lachrymous
my
opinion, from a sickly
which expresses
character.
The
fact
itself in
these
cannot be denied,
315
(
and
as
it is
so general, there
)
must be
a general cause for
it.
Trust no sect or man, with a nasal long-drawn twang. After having listened to their singing, exhorting, praying
and violent preaching, we entered one of the
tents,
which
distinguished itself by a greater noise, and wilder devotional exercise, at nearly
was
two o'clock
pestilential; the dust
ticles of dried earth
in the
The
air
from pulverized straw and par-
very thick; the general appearence of
the whole was similar to that of a tal,
morning.
room
in an insane hospi-
but even more frightful; the same motions of the limbs,
Some were
expressions of faces, and fearful noise.
rubbing their hands, apparently
in great
seen
agony, others clap-
ping them together, others stretching them out toward heaven, and distorting their eyes, some stamping with the
some rubbing their knees, some moving the upper body forward and backward, others screaming, and weeping, surrounded by a number of friends, who prevented the small current of air, which yet existed, from reaching them, and sung and spoke into their ears; some feet,
part of the
leaping up and down, with staring eyes, their hair dishevelled, others, lying on the ground, distended as if in a
swoon, some
sitting in a state of perfect exhaustion
anity, with pale cheeks and vacant eyes,
of
many
tears.
One
before
all,
and
which bore
was lying on
in-
traces
his knees, ap-
parently in a state of great agony, and uttering the expressions of a desponding soul, addressed to a wrathful God.
An
Esquirol would have found here more interesting sub-
jects, than a theologian.
We approached
two of the
girls,
extended on the ground
in a "state of blessing," in order to find out their precise
condition, determined to retire immediately, should
considered as intruders. But
I
are invariably pleased with attention being
proceedings.
We touched
we
be
had not miscalculated; fanatics
shown
to their
the pulses of the girls and found
them rather slow, but not more
so than can be easily ex-
plained from previous great exhaustion, and the quiet breathing, lying as they had been, for a long time
on the ground.
316
(
)
One had her hands cramped together and her eyes open;
the
other, the hands extended: the skin of both had a perfectly
We attracted,
natural heat.
and from some
girls
of course, immediate attention,
near us, a sneer of religious conceit at
the benighted profanity, which endeavored to become ac-
quainted with this state of blessedness, by the
thod of worldly science.
Two
amusing, and had a real girlish giggling of the
first
females and said, "
do not seem
from your
whom her
td
at
My dear
I
it.
young woman, you
and that
be charitable toward those
is to
This was attacking her on
ground, and she was not unconscious of
showed
dest silence
Another
girl, a
us, as well as
it
addressed one
have yet learned one very important lesson
religion,
you consider ignorant."
own
common me-
observed, found
girls, I
that she confessed
bright and friendly
many men, and
little
it;
a
mo-
herself guilty.
person, came up to
a long conversation ensued, of
I will give you the substance as accurately as I can remember, and which strikingly illustrates one of the most amiable traits of American character, namely, the allowing
which
—
every one
to
even here,
have and
state fully his
in this scene of violent excitement.
unreserved freedom, without at tion;
say. in
own opinion,
all
I
spoke with
provoking their indigna-
on the contrary, they listened calmly
what
to
They, on the other hand, no doubt saw
good earnest, and made no joke of
them greatly wrong and were
—displayed
it,
I
had
to
that
we were
we
thought
that
displeased with the whole exhi-
bition of religious passion, but that
we
took the whole matter
One surly fellow, indeed, left the little crowd around us, and said when passing me, though not directed to me, " What do you talk to them fellows, and if God should show them signs all day long, they would not believe." An elderly man caine up to me, one of the very few more to heart.
aged persons present, and asked me, what
we
thought of the
meaning those extended on the ground. I said, that we thought that many of them were actually endeavoring to deceive the others: an assertion in which we were justigirls,
fied;
because one of
,lhe
females
who
lay with o}>en and
317
(
winked when we passed oUr hand
staring eyes, had
some
at
who had her eyes when we opened the eye-
her face, and the other,
distance from closed, rolled
)
them
instantly up,
—an evident proof,
that the light had its full effect upon them; nor were her pupils either unnaturally dilated or lids,
In-
contracted, but appeared in their natural extension.
deed, any physician will
an individual can state of real
lie for
you whether it be possible, that two or thr^e hours together in a
tell
exhaustion and unconsciousness, deprived of
power of volition, without laboring under a
the
all
serious affec-
tion of the nervous system and experiencing the evil conse-
quences of such
a
for several
fit
weeks.
Yet these
indi-
viduals appear a few hours after, in a comparatively sound
That these simulations cannot but
state of health.
finally
bring on disturbances of the various functions of the body, is
evident.*
"And," continued
I,
"
were not improper
if it
sprinkle their faces with cold water, you
would
see
to
how
quickly they would leave their present state."
my
you might throw over them, they would not awake the Lord had intended." '^
"
Oh,
We
dear,
cannot
your idea of
make
the proof,"
this peculiar state, in
a a
whole bucket of water
moment
I said.
sooner than
" But, what
is
which you believe these
individuals to be?"
"
It is a state
of happiness; the Lord
makes them happy,
and shows his power," was his answer. " Do you mean to say, that the soul leaves the body, and is
united for a time to
"Oh
no,
that
God?"
would be entrancement; they are only
blessed."
« So you call it blessing? Why do you give it this name?" " Because they feel blessed, when they are in this state: •
A case is on record,
in
which a man had the power vokinUirily to supAt length he died during-
press the pulsation of the heart for some minutes.
one of
his exhibitions.
checked
in time, pass
—Editor.
Hysteric attacks,
if freely
over into real spasmodic
fits
indulged
and nenous
in,
and not
affections.
318
(
they say,
when awakening, And,
ever do otherwise.
Lord."
I
my
expressed
)
that they feel happier than they
it
is
show the power
to'
"who
I,
can
to
that light in the heavens," pointing
fix
moon, "I think should not be doubted by
at a glorious
any one,
"He,"
power of God:
of a girl a peculiar proof of the
fit
said
of the
great astonishment, at calling the
have the power of depriving any living being of
consciousness" No answer was given, and the old asked me, " How would you call this state?"
"
We
would term
it
a kind of hysteric
fits,
half voluntary
and conscious, half brought on by the exhausting and noxious
air
—
man
fatigue,
which might be, probably, in every by severe reprimand, or threats. How they are chiefly women, and young wo-
fits,
single case prevented
does it happen that men, who fall into this condition?" "I cannot say, but men do also, and sometimes very strong
ones."
" They may, nevertheless, have weak nerves, or deceive you, and, which fits
not unlikely, deceive themselves; for
is
are often half true, half not, and very often tliey
with a
real
In
tarily."
bright
kind of
little
fit,
the girl
fact,
woman,
end
though they were brought on volun-
whom
I
designated above as a
told us the next
morning,
when
the
conversation had turned upon the same subject, and in order to
prove that there was no simulation in these
knew
woman who
a
cases, that she
once continued three days in this state
of blessedness, with short interruptions, and that her friends
became
so alarmed, that a physician
was
called,
who
restored
To
her to health after six weeks of serious sufiering. this in
was
many
Alarming
just a case in point. cases, the
" But," said
I,
"
consequences of these
how
does
it
diseases
must
us be,
fits.
make them happy?
I
cannot
understand this." " You are right, you cannot, but the Lord is within us." " And," added my companion, " you will find that all the girls
come
who
to their
are often gifted
with these blessings, will
end by diseases of the heart or
epileptic fits."
319
(
No
"
fear of that; there are
)
some who have had very often
these blessings, and are yet healthy."
" There
may
be exceptions, but depend upon
A
little girl, pale,
with a nervous look and peculiar
" This girl,"
stood near.
" Yes," said the smart asked she, smilingly, "
I said,
pointing at her, "
stare,
subject
" she has them often, and,"
girl,
am
I
subject?"
" Assuredly not," I said. " You are right," she answered. " But," said one of the crowd, " not the cause of these blessings,
never hurt themselves
is
not?"
to these blessings, is she
fell
either
it,
must be the consequence."
these diseases or insanity
they
if
if
the Lord's Spirit
how does it happen
fall?
who
have seen a man
I
is
that they
with his head right against the corner of an iron stove,
and it did not hurt him in the least." " Well," said my companion, " that they always
know very
is
only a proof that
well what they are about, and, be-
sides, it is bare superstition to believe
what you
You
do.
have serious objections against the baptists, as I have seen from one of the sermons of your ministers, and yet the baptists
say that
a proof of the Lord's spirit being
it is
them, that no person baptized by them, even were winter, in an open river, catches as
" Oh, the baptists; that
is
much
it
in
with
dead
as a cold."
very different," was the an-
swer, yet an American will always relish something smart,
and as such, the reply
to their observation respecting
the
safety from injury of the person in " a state of blessing," ap-
Americans have, likewise, a
peared to them.
considered superstitious;
so
against us on this score.
I,
thinking of what
I
for
my
ridicules, in the passage of
who
part, could
not help
found in a translation of a Chinese work
on medicine, by Abel Remusat. lous people
fear of being
they urged nothing farther
which
I
The Chinese naturalist am reminded, the credu-
believe that the cherry-bird
is
transformed
into a mole, and that rice, strewed into a river, at a proper
season, changes into fishes.
" These," he says, " are ludi-
(
320
)
There
crous tales, calculated for children only.
is
but one
transformation well authenticated; namely, that of the rat told in
good books, and
have myself
into the quail; that
is
often observed
because transformations have their regular
But
course.
it,
all
I
as to the absurdity of cherry-birds
changing
into moles, and rice into fish, no person in his sound senses
can believe
Our
in the course of
it,
meetings are held clare
too foolish."
it; it is
discussion extended yet to other subjects, and I said,
them
that,
they having granted
in order to get
me
essentially unchristian; that Christ
cited the people, nor did he
that
up excitement,
recommend
I
camp-
must de-
no where ex-
nor establish camp-meetings. " Did he not preach in the open air?" asked " Yes, because he had no other place, nor do I now one. it,
—
speak against preaching in the open velling in religious excitement ter day."
another.
—"
"
And
It
but against this re-
air,
and day
night after night
af-
did not David leap before the ark?" said
means, in the original, dancing, and that was
considered then as not indecorous, but
it
does not
mean
leap-
movements, as you do here. [You remember that the shakers use the same argument for their jump" Besides," said I, " are you reing about during service.] ing, with frantic
ally not
aware of the great indecency of
stretched on the ground in the sight of
men
and
women
girls
lying here,
numerous people,
stepping over them; nor of the injurious
consequences with which the inhaling of this shocking dust, so near the ground, for hours together, must be pregnant?"
No
answer was given, but the elderly man advised some
girls to carry
tent;
one of them into their sleeping or boarding
and when she was
lifted up, I
observed
how
she
stif-
fened her body and suddenly cramped her hands together.
was one of deOnly remember how often the love of
I have the strongest suspicion that this case
cided deception.
kinds of deceits:
notoriety induces females to practise
all
sometimes they
sometimes they read
fall
into religious
with their fingers, sometimes they
fits,
fall
third day, at the precise minute, &c.
into convulsions every
321
(
We parted
good
friends,
the next morning.
I
present, because they
bring in what is
I
had
and continued our conversation
was glad none of
their ministers
would have allowed
The
to say.
really immense, owing
assumed passion,
real or
)
me
little
volubility of their tongues
to their constantly speaking in
their speaking so often,
to
having, of course, accustomed their minds train of ideas
velling preachers from what latter are
ments
deluded, and
a
to
and
certain
wards and phrases. look very differently upon the tra-
and their tongue
I freely confess that I
were
chance to
to certain
I do.
upon
pay with
But the
for their delusion.
whether they are deluded or
The
their people.
grief and
mental tor-
travelling, preachers,
up
not, set
yet are so grossly ignorant of the most
as preachers,
and
common know-
ledge requisite for a right understanding of certain passages of the Bible, they preach with such unanswerable
boldness from
some passages
totally
misunderstood by
them, because they have not the requisite knowledge of biblical
— they
antiquity,
work
so intentionally
upon the
deluded minds of their hearers, in order to bring them to a desired state of excitement, they are so uncharitable in their exhortations,
and
in all their conceptions so crude, that
they produce a feeling of abhorrence.
When we went away, after our first conversation, a gentleman addressed me, saying, " Believe me, you made several doubtful
in their minds: tliese people are utterly igno-
norant in matters of religion, and give themselves up to this
kind af sectarianism, because they
indeed persons
I
was surprised
who were
know no
to hear several times
better;" and
from these
so positive in their assurances of
damna-
"I cannot answer you, because I have not read the Bible so much as you have." Consider now the deplorable effect which a camp-meeting
tion, &c.:
must produce upon health, domestic happiness, industry and Here are girls and young men who, the national wealth.
Sunday
before, had been probably three times to church; on
Monday
the camp-meeting began.
41
They remained
in this
—
^
322
(
state of excitement, fatigue
)
and exhausting
way
of living
whole week; on Sunday, the minister announced there
for a
would be again three times service, and that the Lord's supper would be administered. For what can these people be fit after this long indulgence in fanaticism?
Certainly not for
and, therefore, most important
common,
any kind of the duties, upon which our whole happiness so much depends. How entirely must they become unfitted by these gross excitements for what must be the end of all religion, the true refinement of the soul, the elevation of charity, the peace of mind, and the development of our best powers!
Could those
who
are their leaders, but be induced to
read Brigham on the Influence of mental Excitement upon
Health.*
They might
learn there,
among
a
number
of
other useful facts, that insanity in the state of Connecticut
is
twice as frequent as in Europe, and there
reason to
suppose that
as frequent in
insanity than
less life
many
are
much more
it
is
no
should not be nearly or equally
Yet we ought
other states.
Europe, because
all
to
have
our relations
in
Religious excitement and too
simple.
early instruction, (not education,) whether they originate
from a mistaken notion of parental duty, or from vicious two scourges of our
parental vanity, are at present like
country.
They
will probably
wear
out, like other excite-
ments, but not before having destroyed thousands of victims.
Strange, that religion, which has been given to
man
calm and comfort him, to give him peace and happiness,
to
made a tool of, to ruin our health and destroy in the surest way our wellbeing. The Greek impairs his constitution
is
*
Remarks on the Influence of Mental
Cultivation and Mental Excitement
upon Health; by A. Brigham, M. D. 2d. ed. Boston, 1833: a small work, which we would take this opportunity of recommending- most earnestly to Dr. Brigham enumerates, among others, all American mothers and ministers.
—
the
many religious
papers, periodicals, occasional publications, &c., read in a
single place, as Hartford.
Almanac
for 1835,
The
reader
page 279 and
seq.,
may
in addition refer to the
where he
will find a list
American
of the
exti-a-
ordmary number of religious papers published here, not a small part of most of which is occupied with mere controvei-sy. Editor.
323
(
by
)
a rigid fasting of forty days, allowing himself nothing but
bread and olives; the
Jew
many
abstains for
hours from any
nourishment, solid or liquid; the methodist undermines his
whole system by mental and physical means.
—Juggernaut
travels with his crushing wheels over the world,
Behold how powerful he
fatuated cry, I
am
not against fasting on general grounds.
trary, I believe
mode
sary in our dedicated
of social
life,
is
the con-
some time should be
that
We
those of the palate of course included.
go on without
to allow ourselves to
On
and abstaining from enjoyments,
reflection
to
in-
very salutary, and especially neces-
to be
it
and the
is!
much
are but too apt
reflection,
and
it
therefore very useful to fix a certain time for directing
our ideas more especially to serious subjects, because without such a fixed period, they will be forgotten by most. But as soon as this fasting itself is considered as a
good work,
made use of only to change abuse. Never omit, my friend,
becomes an
or
from time
to time,
the dishes, to
go
you
Nor omit
in bitter agony.
are afflicted, or
your healthy days,
through the long rooms of an hospital.
Otherwise, you forget that there are
men
in
it
you
to
many of your fellowsee man happy, when
will forget that happiness is yet
on
Shun not the sight of misery; turn not from the view of happiness. But I am preaching! Add to this the many thousand other excitements which earth.
—
man
is
getting up every day, as so
adored, in politics
—
people might adopt as their as a sign
— but my am
idols to be
on a house on the Pei-ho: Idols and Budhas of
Descriptions newly
I
many new
which many papers and motto, what Mr. GutzlafF found
in regard to
letter
made and repaired
would never end
surprised that in
among whom
are
many
—
all
in regard to rank, in
in this style.
the vast
number of methodists,
respectable people, not one has as
yet dared to raise his voice against camp-meetings, and yet there must be
many sober-minded members
of this sect,
who
heartily disapprove of them.
When we
left
the "
camp,"
after three o'clock,
we saw
the
324
(
moon and
bright
)
What
a starlight sky.
a contrast
between
the calm majesty of the heavens and the scenes of man's fanaticism,
which we had just
the actors in
How much wiser would
left.
them have behaved, had they made
a
few con-
templations on that great subject.
At
nine o'clock on Saturday morning, a procession was
formed,
We
when each member shook hands with
each minister.
had then a sight of every individual, and
struck at the dire expression of those
who came
frightful
Some
up.
movements even
many
are enacting
—
was horror-
in this procession,
some looked
and looked shockingly worn
literally the
this fanaticism,
out.
what you
most revolting physical and men-
mischief, to the advancement of ignorance and the de-
tal
priving your fellow-beings of the choicest blessings
of
among
continued their distortions and
down, many Beware, beware ye who promote girls cried,
I
countenances
spirit,
—peace
and an enlightened mind.
There are many reasons, physical, moral and political, by which we must explain the great religious excitement now prevailing in the United States, and extending to more than the methodist sect; but my letter would assume too much the character of an essay, were I even briefly to touch upon these causes, and, perhaps,
it
has had too
much
of that ap-
must be permitted to
pearance already.
But one cause
mention, since
not so easily detected as the others, and
yet
is,
in
my
it is
opinion, very powerful in
The American is
I
is
its effect.
an independent being; his government
founded upon an appeal to the reason of every indivi-
dual, and as there
is
nothing in
human
life
—no
principle
of action, no disposition or custom which forms an isolated part of his being, but must necessarily send its ramifications in
every direction through his whole character, so also this independence, although productive of much good
spirit of
in
many
American sometimes to act where he cannot have sufficient
respects, induces the
for himself, in circumstances
knowledge or experience in few cases
And
this is perhaps
in those in
which medical
to guide him.
mor« apparent than
325
(
knowledge
is
)
by the people with
are considered
a
A
prises every foreigner.
calomel or laudanum, as
mother
if
which
sur-
give to her child
will
they were the m.ost innocent
remedies that could be employed. first
kind of awe, are admi-
families with a boldness
American
nistered in
he
Every American
required to act with safety.
quack, and remedies, which on the European continent
is a
American is sick, or, which in
If an
quacks for a long time for himself,
most cases
much
not
is
an apothecary to
better, allows
Generally, therefore, serious and already ne-
quack him.
come under the eye of the physician, and to perhaps, is partly owing the bold character of
glected cases this cause,
American medical
practice in general.
tries, I believe, are
the great mass of the people so ready to
In no other coun-
use quack medicines, as in England and the United States.
In France, there seems to
nowhere
so little as in
me
to be less of this abuse; but
Germany.
I
speak
now
of
common
quack medicines, panaceas, catholicons, &c., not of quackeries
en gros, such
Hahnemann's homeopathics.
as
Calomel and laudanum, the two trunnions of the gun
from which American country medicine shoots shot, (often supported
and seconded by
its
grape-
the lancet,) are also
used unsparingly in families without special advice of the physician.
merity the
I
have been
startled at finding
latter, especially, is
children, both in the cities and, in a in the country.
To
that laudanum
called simply drops.
is
such an extent
I
know
te-
greater degree,
still
is this
tle restless and disturbs those around
mediately given.
with what
administered by parents to
abuse carried,
If a child is a it,
laudanum
a farmer's family in
is
lit-
im-
which every
some " drops " before going to bed. many children killed by laudanum, paragoric
child receives regularly
That there are
and other preparations, need not say
how
I
have not the slightest doubt.
injurious this practice
be to the whole nervous system, which
it
I
must eventually reduces to a state
of morbid irritability, calculated to lead to those religious
excesses in the consideration of which
we have been
en-
326
(
)
gaged, and which in turn promote to a greater degree the
excitement of the nervous temperament, while on the other
hand
this
unwarrantable use of opium creates, at a later
period, that
many
immense craving
for strong liquors,
which with
ends in habitual drunkenness, but with an incalcula-
bly greater number in habitual drinking, not characterized excesses, but manifesting
by any
quences by
unknown
melancholy conse-
its
whose true cause remains perhaps Temperance societies the sufferer himself
fatal diseases,
to
to turn their attention to this calamitous malpractice
ought
for a future abuse of
and systematic preparation of children strong liquors.
Though, probably, not so
fatal in
regard to physical conse-
quences, as the exposure and fatigue in camp-meetings must be, but equally objectionable in itself,
which
witnessed in the cathedral of
I
was the excitement Januarius, in Na-
St.
In a small tabernacle on the grand
ples.
altar of this
church
are preserved the head of the patron saint of the city, and
The latter is in a solid state, when placed before the head, when it miraculously The ceremony of this miracle is repeated three liquefies. two
vials containing his blood.
except
times a year.
It is
considered as a sign of peculiar grace,
foreboding great blessings to the liquid
immediately when
city, if the
blood becomes
placed before the other relic; on
the other hand, the anxiety and terror shown, especially
by the women, when
the blood refuses for a long time to
The
liquefy, are surprising. priest
is
vials stand
on the
altar,
and a
near to try from time to time, by moving them,
whether the adored substance has become liquid or not; while a large number of believers kneel before
it,
praying
and imploring the saint to grant the miracle, growing and more urgent liquefaction
is
in their supplication
protracted.
When
I
every moment that the
was
in that paradisiacal
country, the blood of the saint had remained solid
beyond half; I
its
usual time
—
if I
went with a friend
The alarming news had
more
remember of mine to
right, a
much
day and a
see the ceremony.
already spread over the city, and a
327
(
)
Two women
large concourse of people had assembled.
tracted our particular
They
attention.
at-
knelt with their
arms stretched out toward heaven, betraying by their wide and staring eyes a most intense anxiety, the fervor of ma-
They
niacs.
which had
uttered imploring words,
the character of imprecations than prayers.*
In
far
more
fact,
they
boldly reproached the saint for his refusal of the neces-
And
sary miracle. the vial, and
every time the
showed
officiating priest lifted
solid state, the excitement and feverish
higher.
At length
were yet vehemence rose
that the sacred contents
it
became
and the rush
liquid,
in a still
to the altar
was so sudden and universal, that in a moment we found ourselves before it, where the vial was presented to us to be kissed, after which the priest touched our foreheads with the The whole scene had a very strong tincture sacred vessel. of that clamor and religious passion, of which
having accompanied some
There was,
we
read as
sacred rites of the ancients.
also, a considerable
number of negroes
at the
camp-meeting of Westchester: a separate place had been assigned to them, nor had they any tent. They seemed to me to behave very quietly here;
it is
not so in the meeting-houses
There, their boisterous violence
of the colored people.
ago
I
went
into
is
Some years
greater in proportion to their greater ignorance.
one of the principal methodist meeting-
houses of colored people in Philadelphia, and I never shall forget the impression
made upon me by
the unbounded ex-
The
citement and passion of the congregation.
preacher,
"a
mulatto, spoke incoherently on a variety of subjects, thi-ow-
ing *
in, at
Many
number of passages of the
the same time, a
of our readers will hardly understand this passage; yet
Bible,
it is
true,
that the great vivacity and excitability, peculiar to the inhabitants of southern Italy,
often cany them on this occasion so utterly beyond
that a language
is
used toward
St. Januarius,
a foreigner as threatening, but which actually
and reproaches. That the women is
a matter of course.
far
is in
Berzelius never touched them.
exceed the men
them
is all
Editor.
own
wits,
that
is
to
composed of
tlu-eats
in this religious
clamor
part
—Of what the contents of these
tiated person can say; to look at
tlieir
which does not only appear
vials consist,
granted, and a
no unini-
Davy
or
(
much
328
in the style of all fanatics.
)
His gesticulations were
violent in the highest degree; a large in the pulpit,
mug
with water stood
from which he took frequent draughts.
was not long before
his ideas concentrated
It
upon the constant
—the torments of the damned, which he depicted not without the eloquence and poetry of high —" Imagine," member some of theme
passion.
his
he
said, " that
bottom of the
you sea,
I re-
fanciful descriptions.
will be for ten thousand years
on the
and mountains of rocks weighing upon
your breast." The people uttered a deep groan. " Imagine that no being on earth or in heaven, or in listens to
your agony." The people groaned
excitement.
all
creation,
in still greater
" Imagine ten thousand years more, alone,
without a single friend, without a soul, not even the consolation of a fellow sufferer."
came louder and
The groans and
shrieks be-
louder, and the preacher at length
wrought
himself to such a pitch of excitement, after he had called with a loud voice, " Hear ye the trumpets, hear ye?" that
he himself could
find
no longer either words or images; and,
bending forward over the pulpit, he waved several times with both his arms in different directions, and uttered a loud, tremulous groan.
This was the sign for a general convul-
sion of the meeting: screaming, shrieking, moaning, calling to absent persons, weeping, praying, stamping, groaning
were
heard or seen in every part of the church; while, in contrast
with this scene,
I
signs of violence, over
observed an old negro without any
whose dark cheeks
rolled the big
tears of contrition.
After some time the agitation subsided; the preacher was
heard again praying,
first in
tones comparatively calm and
moderate; but, as his excitement increased, his utterance partook more and more of the former violence, and his
prayer ended by his grasping the pulpit with both hands
and actually stretching both air, from
the
his legs far out
mere overflowing of passion
—
a
behind in the
phrensy incapa-
ble of being any longer expressed in definite words, and seek-
ing vent in these vehement movements of the body.
That
329
(
•
)
the hearers followed in their agitation their preacher at a
proportionate distance, was natural.
—
There was no emotion,
was the bewildering opiutn of passion, instead of the pure wine of religion, which strengthens the weary wanderer on his long and toilsome path; it was a religious running amuck. was
it
intoxication
all
The same
it
stages of excitement were run through, when, to-
ward the conclusion of the ing-house where
I
service, the servant of the board-
lodged, and
who
acted
it
seems
as clerk,
"Wasn't it fine?" said hej when I left the meeting-house, and he saw me. I should not have given you these descriptions, had I in the least to fear that you will peruse them by way of amuseuttered his fervent prayer.
ment: they
are, in
them
I give
and much
my opinion,
of a character but too grave.
as contributions to the study of the
as 1
man's aberration, madness and crime, to discountenance the
by
human
abhor the amusing ourselves by the I
am
soul,
recital
of
equally disposed
smothering of a true knowledge of man
Let the ti-uth be unveiled, and let him knowing man, boldly look reality into the Unwarped knowledge of bare reality must accom-
ill-timed delicacy.
who
is
face.
zealous of
pany and
direct our reiTections on
man and
we
society, lest
should never be enabled to choose appropriate means for realizing the best and wisest plans.
These preachers resemble, street preachers
whom
I
great agitation, they pace
in their violence, the
have often seen in
upand down,
monks
a crucifix in
or
when, in
Italy,
one hand,
and a handkerchief in the other, to remove their profuse perspiration;
fering
now
them the
nating, too, the
now
loudly calling upon the faithful,
crucifix to kiss,
now
of-
threatening and fulmi-
supplicating and imploring.
And
with them,
torments of the infernal regions formed a frequent
theme of
their addresses, to
with their well
known o
with them, this theme I
now
is
which the hearers responded
Gesii, o Gesii, misericordia, though,
often varied with that of indulgences.
have heard many, many startling sermons, and speeches
on religion, and the offering of indulgences "cheap, 42
re-
—
330
(
you consider,"
ally cheap, if
and the long
month
lists
)
monk
once a
as
at the church-doors, or the
said to
me,
by year and
of indulgences regulated
roba'santa, as the Italians
often call the various articles offered for the edification of
the faithful in Loretto or
Rome,
or almost any place in Italy,
formed certainly not the least surprising addition. I find in my journal, on November 25, 1822, an account of a street sermon in
Rome, which
will translate as accu-
I
rately as I can, though things of this kind sound in Italian I both more striking and, in some respects, less positive. remember the whole perfectly well, and that I wrote it down
had returned home. The passage is this: " After having seen the church of St. Gregory, beautifully situated on Mons Coelius, I went again to the Co-
as soon as I
liseum (the mighty fabric, which tyranny seems to have the quarry for raised to reconcile posterity to its existence
—
the palace-castles of the Orsini and other
and found here again the old
man
Roman
families*)
in soiled garment, preach-
Sometimes he sung the credo, &c., the peasants and children sung after him; then he preached in the most familiar style; suddenly he addresses one: 'Who 'Might he let has created the heaven?' Answer: 'God.' ing to the peasants.
—
the heavens tinued, '
'
down?' and, answering himself, he con-
fall
certainly.'
'
Could he break down the earth?'
Most undoubtedly !' and
now he spoke
of earthquakes, sud-
den deaths and the oath " accidente." subject to another, and spoke of the tento." he feast days,
stamped with his and that of
in
Andrews
St.
The Coliseum is so mighty a Rome were obtained from it.
*
foot;)
He
('
at-
they used to keep
all
first
too.'
Christians,
'
fabric, that the stones
The
flew from one
Now,'
said he,
form any buildings
Teatro Marcello, which Augustus
caused to be built and dedicated to Marcellus, the son of his sister Octavia, was changed in the middle ages, into a fortified palace of tlie Orsini family,
who had
obtained permission from the pope to take the stones necessary
for their building
from the Coliseum.
enough remains of moonshine, such as
up
like rocks,
is
this edifice,
is
common
in
to
And
show
Rome,
yet after
its
falling
one of the most impressive
all
these spoliations,
gigantic dimensions.
upon these
sights.
A clear
vast mins, piled
Editoh.
.
*
if
you appear
331
(
at the gate
)
of heaven, and knock at the door
(he knocked himself against the wall) St. Peter will ask, '
Who's
there?'
regard to me?' Yes,
am
I
'
'
Yes,
feasts?'
'
Andrew,
likewise?'
'
sir.' '
sir.'
Have you paid proper Have you properly kept my
a sinner.'
And
'
my
those of
'And why Go along,
'No!'
the festival was abolished.'
dear brother St.
go along,
'
nothing to do with you; yes, yes go along
'And where
—
'
the
shall
we
go?'
Thus,' continued he,
many
His sermon lasted yet a
began
to
somewhat higher
city.
On
Where you
'
I
I
have
say, begone.'
like, I don't care?'
eternal complaint
is
raised against
and here you see the consequences.' "
festivals,
ing, people
'
'Because
not?'
with
style, but again
man
The
old
the
19th of January, 1823,
is
who spoke in uncommon viva-
paid by a pious society.
preaching in the coliseo.
heard another
I
man
In the course of his address he
"Who
asked his hearers,
While he was preach-
for a long time.
assemble to hear a monk,
is
"
the prince of the church?
John," one of the people answered. " St. John what stupidity St. Peter, my dearest {principe della chiesa.")
St.
you
so stupid! St.
of you calls himself John?" seventeen.
— — !
!
friend; are
John!
St.
Peter, ass!
Who
"I, sir," said a lad of about
"Well, now look here:
St.
John came
penitence before Christ, that people should
to
preach
make good
Christians of themselves, in every thing and also in their
customs.
Now,
thou wearest Turkish pantaloons, and the
Turks are not Christians. Go therefore to your father and ask him to have your pantaloons made tighter," The lad had somewhat wide pantaloons made of some blue stuff'. A few minutes after an old man, and one of about forty years, both of this congregation, quarreled with each other, as to
which had taken
off his
cap
first
since the preacher had scolded his
at a
passing clergyman,
congregation for not showing due regard to this priest, who " was nevertheless
spending his I
life in
praying for them."
have now spoken
will give
you
a
little
of so
much
startling
sermon which appears
to
preachmg, that
me
I
one of the sub-
(
An
it.
against the
French
On
soldiers.
in
refer,
I
is
no ranting or cant
1813, and had been made, by the
an
officer.
Previous to his taking
a student of theology,
arms he had been
mander of
there
acquaintance of mine marched as a volunteer
time to which
nister.
)
At any rate
limest I ever heard. in
332
and
is
now
a mi-
the morning of the battle at Leipzig, the com-
upon him
his battalion called
The
to preach to the
drums was formed; the rethe view from which extend-
usual scaffold of
giment was placed on a
hill,
ed over a large part of the corded —the giant easy to imagine
field of the largest battle
battle, as it often has
how
the preacher
felt
ever re-
been termed.
when he
It is
stood on his
elevation, and looked on his brethren in arms, and on the ex-
tensive plain which in torrents.
enemy ven)
He
was soon
to drink the blood of the brave
began, " Brethren, warriors
of our country
—there
God
is
—pray" —he could say no
more.
gation in arms prayed in silence,
—there
is
the
(pointing toward hea-
when
The whole
congre-
the distant thunder
of artillery called them to their martial duty, and gave the signal that the
murderous contest was beginning, which raged
three days, and decided the fate of Europe.
333
(
)
LETTER " JJ/ que no
Tia visfo
XVII.
d Sevilh,
No ha visto maravilla,El que no ha visto d Granada, No ha visto nada."
The
que d Niagara vi6,
Pero
el
Todo
h bueno se hallo.*
last is, at all events, as true as the first
and second
positions; but have no fear, I will try to be sober.
Nature
is
a book; this
monplace.
The
is
so true that
it
has become a com-
readers of this book of nature are various
as the readers of other works.
Some few ponder
on the great contents of
sacred volume, faithfully
this
silently
humble
striving to perceive the spirit of its author, as an
reader
is
anxious to
written by a master.
wed
to his
mind
the contents of a book
And, as a volume of deep contents forms
the bridge on which the minds of the author and his earnest
reader meet, so will the contemplative student of nature's
pages perceive the breath of
life
of
its
great author,
when
• The four first lines are proverbially used by the people of Granada; they mean, " He who has not seen Seville has not seen any wonder; he who has
not seen Granada has seen nothing."
Dios
lo
quiso bien en
g'ives his
Granada
le
bread to eat in Granada. )
the author, mean, "But he
of admiration."
Editor.
did de
A
similar expression
comer" (him,
The two
last lines,
who has seen Niagara,
is,
"A
whom God
quien
loves,
he
probably added by
has seen every thing worthy
334
(
)
He
he peruses them in solitary meditation.
will forget the
and the words and phrases before him, and be carried away by the thought which lives within them. Other readletters
ers approach this
book
as they take
up any other work,
They read it, but cannot rid themselves, in doing so, of their own self; they do not enter on its contents freely, and as a scholar who has to learn, but as a reviewer who thinks himself above the book.
with a mind whetted by egotism.
Others read with the eye of vanity,
to
be able to quote
it,
to
appear in society as well read and learned; to grace and orna-
ment
their
own
pages.
Others look
hastily skims over the pages of a
at it as a thoughtless girl
new novel, forgetting
to-day
what they read yesterday, merely to drive away time, which for others rushes
by
so inexorably swift; or, to catch a few
passages for the motley scrap-book of their shallow mind. Others,
— plodding
tourists,
when they
— dwell upon every syllable and
remember the words only which they have seen, as a reader, fatigued by long study, when morning begins to throw her glances on the book which letter; but
he opened
stop they
in the evening, passes
a page, and yet cannot
with his eye repeatedly over
any longer comprehend
its
meaning.
There are other readers of nature, who peruse her with noisy devotion; who would make people believe that they feel
much because they exclaim, admire, and talk much; others who read with garrulous sentimentality; and still others who proof reader goes over the most
spell nature's poetry, as the
exalted passages to the compositor, with heavy, loud mo-
notony, every syllable and
comma
well pronounced:
As-if-to-sweep-down-all-things-in-its-track (comma)
Charm-ing-the-eye-with-dread (comma-dash) a-match-less-ca-ta-ract (full-stop.)
To
which of the above mentioned classes I belong you I only know to which I would wish to belong,
must judge. and that ality,
I
cannot be counted
some apparently
— are
among
those
who
—some
in re-
affected in the presence of the
noble aspect of Niagara, more deeply with the sensation of the
power of God, than they ever were
in their lives be
335
(
The
fore.
)
following pages and the verses
ever poor they
may
send you,* how-
I
be in themselves, will show you that
I
cannot be called a thoughtless gazer on the mighty cataracts; I cannot see how they can impress us more much with the idea of God's power as many The firmament, the sea, from a mounother phenomena. tain near the shore, the lofty Alps, when they appear for the
but
I
own,
or even so
first
time to the lonely wanderer with the rosy evening glow
on their hoary summits, like Raphael's Jove with his gray locks, yet cheeks
glowing with immortal vigor, have
expansive power upon It is painful to see
my
mind than the
how many
great
how
more
people seem to require
grand and powerful physical phenomena roused, and
a
falls.
order to be
in
they seem thus to adhere to matter, not
elevating themselves to a contemplation of the principle of life.
One walk
in the spring in the
open
fields,
when
the
blades shoot forth from the ground, and variegated flowers
new garments,
all
taking nou-
rishment from the same ground and the same
air,
but changing
bud, and trees put on their
it
by unseen and unknown processes with subtle delicacy, most different pro-
into opposite colors, into juices of the
reminds
perties, into millions of different forms,
of the central hearth of
life,
of the
nature with unaccountable laws,
all
life
You
into matter.
tounded
at
power which pervades
—the breath which blew
will often find that people
some contrivance
me more
in nature
seem
which, when you
quire closely into the grounds of their astonishment, to
is
asin-
found
be in fact nothing else than a surprise that nature should
have been
as inventive
and wise
as
man
himself; for
I
speak
here of cases, when, in nature, the application of a principle
which man has independently found out and applied, covered.
The
fructification of sage is certainly a
is dis-
very
inte-
resting subject of observation and reflection; but the circum-
stance that the stamina
work
pollen, the back of the insect, •
Probably a German
Germany.
Editor.
poem on
like levers,
and powder, with
which searches
Niagara, wliich
we
for the
honey
have seen, published in
336
(
exuded seems
bottom of the flower, so that the insect must
in the
carry this to
powder
me,
)
to the female
we once admit
if
blossoms of the same species, a difference in these subjects,
not to be calculated to excite our admiration of the power of nature's God, in as great a degree, as the colors of these
very flowers, which are formed by processes unapproached.
In short, the
life in
nature
yet entirely
as
subject
is a
much
greater than the contrivances, but the pulley of the wrist
seems
to
many
people more admirable than the living pulse
close by.
There seems, moreover, to
among men,
in
conception, to
my
draw
exist a general
opinion founded upon an erroneous
a sharp line of distinction
works of nature and those of man, and at the
expense of the
one time, so the most
latter.
far, that it
common
disposition
between the
admire the former
to
This feeling was carried,
was even
at
a usual pretence to find
more admirable than the Yet what is man? Is he excluded
object in nature
most perfect work of art. from nature? does he stand without her? or
is
he, like all
the rest of creation, wrapt up in the all-enshrouding spirit
of the Creator? Can he sever himself for a
moment from
the matter which surrounds him, and to which he
by
a thousand ties, and can he
abandon
for a
all
bound
is
moment
the
laws which form the principles of his body and his soul? Is
mind not
his
tain? are
we
a
work
moun-
of God, as well as a plant, or a
not taught to consider
it
God's greatest crea-
Are not the laws, according to which the mind of man works and conceives, his laws, and is not a statue of Apollo conceived and made after the images of perfection which he moulded and set up in the noblest souls, as much a work
tion?
of his creation as the towering Alps? Does his almighty
me.
When
power I
less than the
"wing
stand before the noble fabric
of Cologne, I perceive God's spirit in in
the heaven-kissing
my
hills.
When
it
it
indeed reflect
of a bee?"
as
Not
to
—the
cathedral
much
as I see it
Palestrina's heavenly
when
a glo-
rious sun rises out of the sea, and changes the lilies
which
peals swell
upon
ear, I feel its presence, as
337
(
a silvery
moon had strewn on
)
the main, for the roses and ru-
bies of the
morn. That there is a sublimity in the great works of nature which more powerfully affects most minds than the sublimity of works of art, I admit; but this does not prove that there less of this character in a perfect statue or painting
is
in a
mountain scenery or
more
cultivated
mind
a cataract; but
than
requires perhaps a
it
to be as susceptible of the sublimity
of the former as of that of the latter; for the grandeur of art of a
is
more
The impression
spiritual cast
the sublime includes,
of awe, which
phenomena of nature;: but as to the other the sublime, I would not make any difference in or great
You have
read nearly
I shall not detain
all
you by
have
said,
his.
general.
a fresh attempt at description.
If I
now and
I
in relation to this
then repeat what others
you may apply what Gothe
every one give
qualities of
the late accounts of Niagara, and
merely intend to give you some items magnificent spectacle.
works
inore powerful in stupendous
is
impressions; there
Let
said of Italy:
room enough
is
for
all.
It is
my
custom, Avhenever any thing great or powerful
brought within the sphere of
is
my
moral character, an action, a great
phenomenon ty,
—
first to
in nature,
allow
mind, and then
component ble,
by
it
and undivided
its full
to endeavoi- to analyze
parts, in order to
that
we
view of
it
effect
—
to
of a
it
of
art,
I
have been
we
upon
a
its
if possi-
affected.
It is
can obtain a calm,
intellectual or physical
can deprive danger of
my
discover
become acquainted,
this latter operation alone, that
true and unbiassed
work
era, a
a beauty, or an object of sublimi-
with the process by which
mena;
observation, be
its
pheno-
fearful aspects, or
bring moral sublimity within the grasp of our emulation. I
have performed this analysis with regard
After
I
to the Falls.
had gazed, and given myself passively up to
my
sensations, I endeavored to trace out, as far as an individual can, the elements of
my
impressions.
43
In writing to you
I
—
—
338
(
shall
)
perhaps follow somewhat the opposite course; and be
obliged to begin with the
order to do
me
this, let
little
and
But in some of
rise to the grand.
hastily sketch, once more,
the most characteristic outlines of the picture of the great cataract.
The
vast inland seas west of the Niagara, send from out
the mighty basins their waters toward the Falls, and their never-ceasing
volumes tend
all
which forms
to this point,
the greatest beauty of that chain of lakes whose vast sheets vie with the sea, extending nearly fifteen hundred miles in length, and constituting the ornament and a great blessing
The
of our North.
which
distant St. Louis,
ning moves in a doubtful* course, as
if
in its begin-
undecided whether
to contribute its contents to the giant river of our west,
travel with
it,
three thousand miles,
Mexico, or empty
itself into the basin
down of
and
to the gulf of
Lake
Superior,
is the most remote source of this chain of waters. The last named lake, with a sheet of thirty thousand square miles. Lake Michigan, with a surface of fifteen thousand, Lake Huron with one of eighteen thousand, and all three of
amazing depth, feet
so that their
below the ocean
tides,
bottom
is
nearly three hundred
while their surface
to seven hundred feet above the level of the
sea,
is
from six
— and Lake
Erie, with a sheet of eight thousand square miles,
—
all
these
reservoirs send their waters to Niagara.
Niagara
Strait, a
channel of thirty-seven miles, connect-
ing Lakes Erie and Ontario,
is
about a mile in width at
commencement, but narrows and again widens even
much
as five
before
it
miles.
and six miles, and bends
two hundred and the stream
The
its
twenty
depth has been ascertained to be
forty feet; in others
it
is
probably
much
Shortly before arriving at the Falls, the course of
greater.
•
in various directions
arrives at the Falls, after a course of about
In some places
its
to as
is
a little north of west; rolling over the Falls
course of the St. Louis
west, as if
it
were
is,
in the beginning', directed
to join the Mississippi,
Editor.
it
toward the
339
(
makes an abrupt
Not
')
angle, and runs toward north north-east.
variable than the breadth and direction of the
less
Near Black Rock,
the rapidity of the current.
strait, is
the velocity
is
probably not
less
than from six to eight miles
an hour; the stream then glides quietly along,
more than from two to four miles, like ing of a people, mocking patience, before a not
At
at the rate of
the silent broodgreat revolution.
the Rapids, above the Falls, the current assumes an im-
mense velocity; and the water below the Falls, rushes on, in some places with mad fury, in all, with great rapidity as far as
The
Lewiston and Queenston.
the strait
The banks
of the strait are low as far as the Falls; from
water flows
this point the
as high as three
in a
deep ravine with rocky walls
hundred and seventy
lower near Lake Ontario.
bed which produces the these
descent of the water in
three hundred and thirty-four feet.
is
It is this Falls.
feet,
which gradually
sudden change of the
Immediately below them
stupendous walls, sometimes perpendicular, some-
times with beetling rocks, and defying with very few exceptions the best crags-man, are about three hundred feet
The
high.
the ferries,
You have
six rods.
vine:
and
between the two landing-places of nearly a mile below the Falls, is about seventydistance
its
then the depth and width of this ra-
rugged sides are adorned and crested with shrubs
trees.
They run
nearly parallel; at the beginning or
upper end of the ravine, they join in a curve. Over this curve of the ravine rolls the Niagara in three distinct Falls, divided
from each other by two islands enthroned
One
on the edge of the ravine. largest of a group of three,
is
of them. Goat Island, the
quite at the end of the south-
eastern side of the ravine, leaving on
its
western side or
end only the closing curve, over which the largest of the cataracts, the Crescent Fall, flows into the deep abyss below.
On
the northern side of Goat Island, and between
small Prospect Island,
the latter island, again,
Niagara
is
is is
the Central Fall.
To
the Schlosser Fall.
so peculiar, that
it
requires
it
and the
the north of
The bend
of
some exertion of your
340
(
mind
)
to arrive at a clear perception
of the four cardinal
You
points in relation to the cataract.
ought, however, to
represent clearly to yourself the precise situation of the
you to do Manuel for the Use of Niagara," by Mr. Ingraham, which
Falls and their bends; and the better to enable this, I
send you hereby a
of Visiters to the Falls
he has published merely
The
latter will be,
little
book,
"A
as the forerunner of a larger
work.
probably, the most complete publication
ever sent forth on this great work of nature. The little book I send you contains, along with a
suffi-
number of exclamations and quotations, a great many facts; which will have the more value in your eyes, when I cient
assure
you that the author has spared no pains and
in reading
and observing,
to arrive as
fatigue,
near the truth of the
various subjects as possible.
Goat Island contains about sixty acres, and, for a variety Prospect Island is very is a most charming spot.
of reasons,
small: I have written
it
down on
the tablet of
as Isola Freziosa; and a precious isle
it
my memory
It lies
is.
on the
brink of the lofty battlement between the two Falls on the
United States for the
side, like a jutting
watch-tower, placed there
purpose of affording the
There
Schlosser Fall.
is
prospect of the
finest
one particular
spot,
— where you
upon the roots of a juniper, overhanging the fearful from which you can see far under you, and there precipice,
tread
—
have a view of the waters precipitating themselves in one great mass after having tumbled over the many cliffs be-
tween Goat Island and the main. It is one of the finest siThey might have called this island, tuations for the sight. the Islet, par excellence; Prospect Island sounds a
little
of
the show-case.
Let
me now
rapidly sketch out the upper line or edge
of the end of this ravine,
which forms the
American
called, the
most northern of the three,
Fall, as
it
is
Falls.
Schlos-
sometimes very loosely
ser, or the
is
about
fifty-six
rods in width, and one hundred and sixty-seven in perpendicular descent.
Prospect Island
is
about ten yards in
(
341
)
The edge
width, and the Central Fall also about ten yards. of the ravine, which of Goat Island,
is
is
formed by the north-western limit
eighty rods, and the Crescent or Horse-
shoe Fall, extending from Goat Island to the Canada shore, " is about a quarter of a mile in a direct line, or about half a mile following the curve;"'* which, though Crescent Fall is a fit
name, and a thousand times better than Horse-shoe
Fall, resembles
more
a parabolic line, the longer leg of
which
lies
toward the Canada shore, and the apex of which gives
way
to a
sudden angle receding
to the south-east.
gle and the comparatively straight line close to
This an-
on the
it
west, are the causes of the production of one of the sublimest spectacles in the world, as sequel.
The whole Crescent
is
of the ravine, which causes a to roll over
it
you
will see
much
greater
body of water
than over either of the two other
perpendicular descent of the Crescent Fall
and
from the
lower than the eastern bank
is
falls.
The
one hundred
lower than the
fifty-four feet, therefore, thirteen feet
Schlosser Fall.
From
the shore of Goat Island, a bridge, called Terrapin
Bridge, of three hundred feet in length,
is built,
leading to a
point north of the receding angle of the Crescent just mentioned, and projecting over the falls about eight or ten feet. It
ends in a point, and this point, (from which you can see
perpendicularly
down
into the gulf, while
under your
feet
the waters rush and hurry on, and swell and roll over,)
one of the jewel-spots, as I think I fine
views
I
as I call
them
have mentioned already,
have seen, together
—
in I
my journal, have placed
a precious
list to
all
me.
tower of the Acrocorinth, the highest point of the ter of Vesuvius, the eastern side of the
is
where, the
The cra-
convent of the Ca-
maldoli, near Naples, the Konigstuhl, near Heidelberg, a certain
spot on the Palatino, in
Rome,
a spot
above the
Hudson, near Wiehawk, Terrapin Bridge, several spots in Switzerland and Tyrol, and a certain point near Mar*
Sec
Ingi'aliam's
Manuel,
p.
46 et seq.
Editor.
342
(
)
when you approach from Avignon, rank among The view from the point of bridge, though of uncommon interest, is not, however,
seilles,
the solitaires of these jewels. this
a good
view of the
Falls, as a
whole; this can only be ob-
tained from below, or at a distance.
Close to this bridge has been erected a turret, which, I think,
is
perfectly in keeping with
the gigantic objects
all
and stupendous phenomena around you, provided you can bring yourself to take
Much, and not without
fair.
ret,
yet from
it
But
for a pepper-box.
it
you have
a
reason,
is
I will
be
said against this tur-
view of the incision or receding
angle of the Crescent, such as you could not possibly have
any where I
even with regard to
else; and,
its
own
appearance,
must say that when on one afternoon I the rainbow resting with one end on Goat Island edge,
saw from Table-
Rock
and the other on the opposite shore, like a glorious triumphal arch over the mighty cataract, this turret, seen at a distance, contributed not a
little to
beautify the great picture.
was a slight indication that man was there, also; somewhat like a little garden which we sometimes suddenly meet with, perched among the steepest rocks in a lonely It
Alpine country.
The depth
of the mass of water, where
it
rolls
over the
Mr. Dwight estimates the quantity which hourly is sent into the abyss, at 102,093,750 tons; Mr. Darby at 1,672,704,000 cubic feet, and Mr. Picken at 113, 510,000 gallons, or 18,524,000 cubic feet per minute. These
precipice,
is
prodigious.
made according to the depth and veloleaving Lake Erie, near Black Rock. precipitating itself with such immense swift-
estimates have been city of Niagara at
The
water,
its
ness over the edge of the ravine,
(it
descends about
fifty-
eight feet in the half mile immediately above the Falls,) does not, as
you may well imagine, drop down perpendicularly,
but in a parabolic
line.
It is believed that the
waters of the
Crescent Fall touch the surface of the stream below about fifty feet fall
from the point, which they would reach, were the
perpendicular.
The whole
height, including the descent
343
(
of the rapids above,
)
given as two hundred and sixteen
is
feet.
Owing
to this projecting of the waters, the traveller is ena-
way behind
bled to get some
taracts the Crescent
the latter
we owe
the sheets of two of these ca-
and Central
er to cut a path in the rock, about
the sight here
is
The
Falls.
passage behind
Mr. Ingraham, who induced the own-
to
not so
midway
in the bank.
If
of terror as behind the sheet
full
of the Crescent, you have, at
least,
a better opportunity of
studying the grace of these leaping waters,
when
the
moving
your eyes, with such a steadiness and continuance, that I, who never was giddy in crystal arch descends before
my
life, felt
down;
a powerful effect,
my
lowed, with
was
it
when
I
looked up and
eye, the rushing arch in
a sensation as if I
ter; and, indeed, I
its
fol-
whole course
were powerfully drawn
would not advise any one, who
af-
is liable
to giddiness to try this particular experiment. It
was,
I
own with
jealous feelings
Mr. Ingraham has succeeded from below.
He
in getting
had long foreseen that
cable to penetrate behind this
dual
who had
fall,
I
lately read, that
behind this sheet it
would be
practi-
though only an indivi-
resided so long on the spot, and familiarized
himself as m^uch with every appearance of the Falls, as he
had could have conceived the
idea,
veringly in the attempt to realize
it.
and persisted so perse-
The rushing streams
through which you must wade, the dangerous and
slip-
pery rock, over which you must climb, the tremendous noise, the streams of water
your
in
face,
which the crossing winds dash
and which almost prevent you from seeing
your companion, while your face is whipped by together render it a most hazardous expedition. the
first
who
attempted
it,
insisted
and
if
upon
its
possibility,
it
He was
and the
he was not actually the
ceeded in the attempt,
blasts, al-
was owing merely
first
to a
first
who
who
suc-
temporaiy
absence from Niagara.
When
I
had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Ingraham
344
(
at Niagara,
we went
)
together in a boat to the foot of the Cen-
and be made an attempt then
tral Fall,
to penetrate
behind the
sheet while our boat was in great danger of being dashed to pieces against the rocks, the current here driving violently
toward the shore, owing falls
to the
immense mass of water which
from the centre of Crescent Fall into the depth, and
is
then forced violently up in the middle of the stream, by the
At
pressure of succeeding volumes of water.
was not
Almost'
all
travellers go behind the sheet of the Crescent
The works which you have
western end.
Fall, at its
have already informed you, a guide
that time he
successful.
is
necessary to lead you through the violent
Most people path ends
dred and
is
will always require one.
You
of water.
The
Termination Rock, and
called
fifty feet
read
time you enter,
that, for the first
blasts.
spot where the
is
above a hun-
from the commencement of the volume
cannot arrive there otherwise than perfectly
drenched, and the entire novelty of the scene, incomparable
with any thing you have ever perceived
in
your
life
before,
and the difficulty of breathing, as you inhale a quantity of water, would induce most people to give up the idea of penetrating to the end, had not long experience
proper precaution, there dies
who
When
visit Niagara, I
is
no
shown
real danger.
that,
Even most
la-
go behind this sheet.
had arrived
at the
extremity of the path, and
—the
deafening roar, the gusts of
looked over into the gulf
water, the sight of the rebellious streams driving in rections, and of the
with
all di-
watery volleys shot up from below, the
rolling sea above, water
on
all sides,
and the
air
nauseous-
ly impregnated with heavy moisture; the eyes deprived of half their vision,
by the ter
by the water which
is
driven into them
violent blasts; and the piercing whistling of the
lat-
round the edges and sharp points of the rocks; the un-
certainty of the color of the waters, white, gray, green, continually changing, and the greenish
dim
light reaching
you
through the furious waters above; the enraged froth beneath, boiling in madness, that
it
must break against the rock*
345
(
)
when all that which I slowly enumerate, moment upon me, my first thought or feeling
peaks and points, burst in one
Oh Dante, why couldst thou not see it!" Most commentators on this great poet, (who wore the best wreath on Mount Parnassus, until the inspiring maids was, "
placed a
still
his inventive
the
human
poetry.
I,
on the brows of Albion's son,) say that
richer,
mind, has exhausted
soul can conceive, and too,
was of
the terrors of which
all
which are
fit
subjects for
this opinion, until I stood
on Termi-
nation Rock. There is not once, in Dante's whole poem, even an allusion to watery torment and horror, and yet how would
he have seized upon the I
sight,
and wrought
have read Dante again and again, and
ations;
which
I belicA'e I
in
it
into poetry!
many
various situ-
have not remained a stranger to the
lives in his great
work, and
trust lyee/
it,
in his
spirit
and yet
work
convinced that he could not have seen this without showing that he had seen
it;
I
am
of nature,
poem.
It can-
not be said that Dante could not have used the horrors of the water, since the belief then prevalent chose to consider
the chief agent of infernal sufferings.
fire as
in the general outlines adhering, as belief, is
why
independent in
all
he should not have
Dante, though
was necessary,
his details,
and there
is
to general
no reason
one bolgia with the terrors of
filled
the waters, particularly as they seera to most people terrific
There
than those of fire.
is
a
clammy
more
disgust, a scent
of mouldering, a sight of slime and slippery weed, a want of
warmth and animal the waters, which
life, is
in caverns filled
not inherent in
we
with the terrors of
fire,
an element with
much more familiarized by the concerns of our daily life. Whether Dante has ever seen the Evelino tumbling from the Caduta del Marmore, I know the effects of which
not; but even at all
if
he had,
are
it
would not have afforded elements
comparable to those which would most powerfully
have impressed themselves upon his mind Evelino
is
not terrific; nowhere does
Every eye-witness of both the
it
at Niagara.
The
appear frightful.
cataracts, I fear not, will agree
with me.
44
346
(
The is
as I
when
color of Niagara,
)
not changed by heavy rains,
a
peculiarly beautiful green, differing
it
seems
to
me
to
is
have more of an emerald hue
in it;
dye of the Neckar, yet the much more beautiful. I have already spoken
can only compare
Niagara
from sea-green,
it
to the
of the salient angle in the line of the Crescent Fall, and the comparatively straight line to the west of
send
I
it.
a croquis of the currents and eddies above and be-
you low the
Falls;
I
have taken and verified
wooden house above Table Rock, from
it
from the
little
the turret, from the
spot where the road along the Canada shore bends
down
the ferry house, and according to the observations
I
opportunity of making, ately
below the
Falls.
when I
make
so that
was impossible
it
in the river
Mr. Ingraham; but
on a very reduced
it
swam
immedi-
had the pleasure of making a copy
of this chart of currents for to
I
to
had an
scale,
for
rents and counter currents
me
I
was obliged
from the original croquis^
to enter all the
below the
Falls.
Yet
many it
cur-
contains
a delineation of the chief currents of the irritated
river
below.
From by the
the accompanying croquis you will perceive, that,
different
tity rolls
sweeps of the water, a much greater quan-
over the straight line of which
and which occupies
The most
less
I
have just spoken,
than a third of the Crescent Fall.
beautiful part of the finest of the cataracts
to this circumstance.
is
owing
This immense thick mass of water
re-
mains unbroken down to the middle of the Falls, and the color being of a fine emerald hue, it produces one dense and deep sheet or mass of uncommonly beautiful
one side
is
color.
On
the
the pointed angle which gives the very picture of
irresistible ingulfing,
and on each side a large white foamy
sheet, like large borders to the green central piece.
This
emerald part has such a compound character of compactness, united with a transparent crystal elegance, it rolls over the crest so majestically, and has, with
all its
ance of steadiness, owing to
its
yet the swelling lines on
its
velocity, such an appear-
thickness and density, and
surface, as
it
rolls
over and de-
(,347
)
scends, form such a graceful contrast with the turmoil and
uproar close at hand, that there
which
can possibly compare
I
nothing
is
in the
world to
have never seen any
I
it:
thing similar, even on a smaller scale
— never before,
ma-
Some of the best views window of Biddle Staircase, by
jesty and grace thus blended.
of this part are from the
which you descend from Goat Island low,
—from the middle of the —and from Table Rock,
ferry,
the
to
when you
river
river be-
cross in the
rock which, in the form of
a
a plate, projects and forms a precipice close to the north-
eastern end of the Crescent.
It
three feet from the depth, and
you look down,
—lying, of course,
every experienced traveller does precipice,
you can
and you
may
in
flat
much
To your
such cases,
right
that
when
on the ground,
—
see not only perpendicularly
even under the rock. Fall,
hundred and sixty-
a
is
projects so
it
to
as
enjoy a
down, but
you have the Crescent
see the upper part of the emerald sheet to
more advantage from here than from any other
spot; while
the rest of the great cataract has, from this point, the character
None of the three falls tumble; they leap: and from Table Rock you may see the long leap which the waters make, down to where the horror sf an eternal mist covers the still more horrific depth. The terror of Niagara from here is like the fury of a lion, who leaps with grace of the
upon I
terrific.
his prey.
remember well
felt
I
all
when
of the crater of Vesuvius, and, since
over again
my journal, in which I my expedition
awfulness which
it
inspired
is
produced by Niagara seen from noise, the tone of
which
letter,* interrupted
the falling of • It
was the in
return, have read
have entered a somewhat
detailed account of
tioned
was on the brink
I
my
I
to that volcano; but the
not to be compared to that this point.
The unceasing
have named to you
only by
still
in a
previous
deeper tones occasioned by
some more compact masses, and very
first
G
below the
first
line in the bass.
similar
This tone was men-
a previous Letter on occasion of the Trenton Falls, but by some in-
advertence
it is
called there
which the reader
will
G oUt instead
of
hdow
be kind enough to coiTCct.
the
first line
Editor.
— an erraUnn
—
7.- ' '-**large masses of
by
to the sound' produced
:
snow breaking
from the high Alps, and rolling upon. the loose snow in the the thick a tone which resembles distant thunder, valley
—
—
mist below, throu-gh which you see, toward the river, the ever-boiling and madly dancing foam, and the volumes of
dense spray rising above a hundred
and through them
feet,
again aquatic meteors ascending to a hundred and twenty feet
and then bursting; the ingulfing character which the falls have from here, give them something far more awful in their effects
Yet, as
upon the
though nature
that,
feelings than the crater of Vesuvius.
may seem
moment
for a
yet every atom carries
move
of
out
move
its
character,
—
floats
in re-
fixed lines,
eternal law along with
its
its
to
from
bellious lawlessness, and to have broken
cannot
show him
placed here to comfort man, and to
if
over
and
it,
this
all
roar and riot of the elements a consoling rainbow formed
of the very water which but a struction in
its
heedless hurry,
moment
—
to
before carried de-
remind you that there
is
order in nature where you perceive but wild disorder,and that fearful struggle or loathsome dissolution returns to the
beauty which graces the universe,
moveth upon the
The
bow
lunar
is
equally beautiful;
sun lends his splendor. grief;
and
" the spirit of
^that
God
face of the waters."
tinged with a slight hue of
as it rested
truly like "
—
It
its
I
saw
it
one night,
brighter mate, to
looked like
a
whom
the
rain-bow, pale from
over the foaming waters of Niagara
Love watching madness with
This madness of the waters
is
unalterable mien.'*
found, however, only in the
gulf below; where the boiling, and gushing, and leaping
element, as
if
fury had changed
firm rocks and conquers
In
all
them
its
nature wrestles with the
in the
long struggle.
other places, the character of Niagara Falls,
different.
I
passage of descriptive poetry, than that roar of waters, &c.," I
Niagara.
He
ent grouping,
However,
is
very
more beautiful of Byron: "The
recollect the Evelino well, and a
know
not; yet
it
does not describe
u ould have employed different colors, a differ-
and another style
great as
Byron
is
to
paint this
in description, should I
cataract.
wish for
(.349
)
*
one of the Falls, ahd' could I
would
say,, let
The words
I
ambng
choose
Shakspeare sketch
it
of his descriptions, as of
all
the masters,
with his firm hand.
all
his other passages,
are " spaced" with thought.
There
is,
strange as
it*
may sound
to
you, a character
Those gigan-
of majestic steadiness in the Niagara Falls. tic
masses preserve their compact form, throughout one
half of their entire
fall,,
and as they
roll
over the precipice,
and descend to midway, almost unchanged, present such an
unbroken
front, that the
pearance as still,
whole picture has about
commanded
the waters had been
an ap-
it
to
stand
and had' been suddenly stopped in their course.
It is
if
the contrast which this distinguishing feature of the cataract
forms with the bounding leap, and the actual and
velocity of the waters, together with the trasts
which
phenomenoh
this
and blinding spray,
v,
many
known
other con-
presents, the deafening noise
ith the bright
rainbow, and the spark-
ling surface of parts of the waters, the solemn roar and the piercing, single tones, the cheerful vegetation on the banks,
and the thriving helpless weed whipped against the rock it is the thousand contrasts which you meet here, that lend
charm to this stupendous and lovely phenomenon, and which cause every one to take leave of it, as of a friend you have learned to love, in spite of the esssential
so inexpressible a
sternness and grandeur of his character.
The emerald,
of which I spoke above,
is
not seen with
the Schlosser, nor Central Falls; they leap in a sheet of foam
from their immense height. About two-thirds of the surface of the water, enclosed
by the Crescent
Fall, are
covered with
impenetrable spray and mist, out of which the peculiar meteors or jets I mentioned are seen to shoot up.
Hall calls them cones, or comets.
I
Captain
saw them rather
in the
shape of a hay-stack, the top of which was formed by a compact body of water, from which a thick spray descending,
gave the outline of the sides.* * This spray diverges,
in descending,
through the centre of the glohular top,
from the perpendicular in
line passing
an angle of forty-five degrees,
350
(
Where
)
the mist becomes thinner, you perceive the leap-
ing and foaming surface; a
lower
little
down
the river, the
becomes comparatively calm, yet is covered with one thick coat of foam, which extends a considerable distance down the river farther on the Canada side than on surface
the opposite,
— — forming
field of waters.
what might be termed the snow-
was
It
to this snow-field that I
and
to approach as near as possible,
if
endeavored
practicable to get
into it, when I made the excursion mentioned above with Mr. Ingraham. I was desirous of determining the buoyancy of this foamy water by immersing my body in it; but the
boatmen could not take us fore
went
enough up
close
to'it.
I
there-
some rods below the margin of the swim down to the Canada ferry met with two difficulties which interrupted my
into the water
snow-field, intending to
house, but
I
progress.
The waves
some, without any breakers,
—
of the river, short, high and trouble-
real
swell,
—
like the
waves between
had, besides, the peculiarity that they did not
foamy crest ivith the current, and, thereswimmer, as the waves of the sea always throw over the crest with the wind, but against the swimmer, owing to the extreme velocity of the current. The motion was at the same time violent; and it became as diffithrow over
their
—
fore, y^om the
cult to
keep
my
grade motions.
—
breath as to struggle against these retro-
The
eddies in different directions were
besides very numerous, and irresistible
sometimes
I
would
find
myself on
boiled up from below, while at the surface directions,
which made
it difficult
by human force: which the water
a spot at
for
me
it
to
glided off in
work
all
my body.
know whether it was alone the difficulty of swimming that gave me the feeling, or whether the water, not
I
do not
having discharged certain
it is
that
it
all
the
seemed
air,
to
was sensibly
me
so.
I
less
have often
buoyant;
swam
in
the sea and the surf, even near rocks and breakers, and
having besides once proved by an uninterrupted swimming of three hours and a quarter, that sometimes tinct mist.
I
can stand great fatigue
in very distinct outlines; at others, they are dissolved in indis-
— EpiTon.
351
(
way, you will believe slight. Yet
in that
were not
culties
)
me when if I
say that the
I
diffi-
go another time to visit
the magnificent spectacle of the Cataract,
I shall
try to get
end of the Crescent, the foam extends much lower down.
in nearer toward the north-western
where, as
I said,
Here you have enough asked a compositor
why
my own personage. I once had an unusual quantity of the he of
" Sir," said he, "
capital letter I in his case.
But what can
posing a book of travels."
I
am com-
a traveller do?
he
cannot speak in the third person as a Cesar or Napoleon. I
have often watched the different forms which the single composing this great phenomenon, adopt in falling. I
parts
succeeded nowhere better in doing this than at the south-
western part of the Crescent, where of the Cataract as nearly as
I
I could,
approached the foot without having
my
by the heavy spray. I was looking up nearly perpendicularly, and saw the water rolling over sight
obstructed
and descending a considerable distance
in a green, trans-
parent arch, the outside of which was rippled by the tion of the
water
fell,
air.
while the water
assumed the form
—the
These ripples increased to
which
itself all
as the
began to divide.
liquid strives, if left to itself
globular, and looked like large crystal balls, of a
lighter
dye than when
it
fric-
body of Soon it
was united
one mass.
in
much These
subdivided into smaller ones, and became of course lighter in color with each subdivision, while the fric-
balls again
.
tion of the air caused particles of the surface to fly off as little satellites
The
of spray.
balls
now
divided so
much You may works, when drops
that they appeared like drops of melted glass.
have seen the exact appearance, of melted glass are allowed to
Prince Rupert's drops.
I
in glass fall
into water, to produce
was reminded
at the
time of these
heavy drops, which deviate from the globular form by having a larger (lower) and a somewhat tapering (upper) end. The tapering end of the water-drop becomes thinner and the color, from a state of transparency, changes to a white, owing to the intermixture of air, and a foam appears on the outside of the drops, which now assume the form of
352
(
descending comets, with a of water for
of foam, and compact
tail
This soon
head.
its
)
splits,
body
forms rapidly a
number of other smaller comets, which gradually split again they become mere spray. A part of this changes into
until
Like a
mist, and rises out of the valley of roar and struggle.
heavy cloud
sometimes seen hovering over the scene
it is
of contest, and, in
weather,
fair
clouds
little
now and
then
detach themselves from the larger mass, and rise to unite
themselves with some high cloud of the sky, as below, and to
tale of the fearful contest
sail
if to tell
away with
the
it
to
calmer regions.
much upon
the state of the
weather, the wind, and the time of the day.
A very heavy
The
rise of the
mist depends
Rock
spray often rises out of the deep basin, draws over Table
and drenches the
My
trees.
observations respecting the
forms of the water in descending, apply, of course, only to In the centre those heavy masses are pre-
the outer parts. cipitated,
which reach the water below entire and
rumbling thunder which Fall,
I
Behind the Central
mentioned.
on Mr. Ingraham's path,
I
create the
observed the same changes
of forms, which, in fact, are very easily accounted
Here, I
at the foot of the south-eastern
for.
end of the Crescent,
heard again, and very clearly and distinctly, the third
sound peculiar to the
Falls.
the thunders between,
I
go very
The deep
the water, you hear
near to
piercing sound very
roaring tone, with
have mentioned before; but
much like
now and
when hurrying
this peculiar noise of the cataract
any where, yet
I
I
directed to the subject.
It is
attention, otherwise the
sound
adopt
it:
in
among
have I
sure that I do not deceive myself; for
have repeatedly noticed them, and found
plain
I
mentioned
my
observation
confirmed by several other persons whose attention
powering general
shrill
along the Strand.
have not found
am
you
the horn or trumpet of one of
our stage-coachmen, or of the guards of the mail, as
heard them in London,
if
then a
noise.
It
I
had
necessary to listen with some is
swallowed up by the over-
seems
to
me
not difficult to ex-
the endless forms which the water must
this constant
and violent motion,
it
can be easily
(
353
)
imagined, that sometimes a mass of water happens to include a quantity of compressed
air,
which,
if
opportunity
offers,
escapes through a small opening, producing this disagreeable shriek, well comparable to the trumpets of evil spirits
sounding from the abyss of torment.
A and
from the brink of the eastern bank,
staircase leads
path from the top of the western bank to the
a steep
ferry-houses below.
I
have suggested
that, to
save the
trouble of descending and ascending, an apparatus should
be constructed for hoisting visiters up and comfortable basket on iron chains.
why
should
it
It is
down
in a large
done
in mines,
not be practicable here? and a fine view would
be afforded by this means during the whole time of descent.
when engaged in building high steeples, often when otherwise the superintending of
Architects,
resort to this means,
the
work might
easily
throw them
into a consumption.
I
have seen the scene-painter of the Theatre Royal in Berlin flitting
up and down
Another to the
in a seat of this kind.
staircase, leading
water below,
I
from the brink of Goat Island
have mentioned already.
name from Mr. Nicholas Biddle, expense
it
It
has
its
of Philadelphia, at whose
was erected; and though the expenses cannot
have been small, terest such as
it is
few
an excellent investment, bringing in-
No
capitals do.
traveller can leave this
sacred spot of nature without feeling grateful to since, in fact,
some of the
Mr. Biddle,
best views and spots of observa-
tion have thus been rendered accessible to the traveller.
The
path behind the Central Fall, the walk to the foot of the south-eastern end of the Crescent, the best views of the Cataract
from below, the true views of
been presented to us, because case that
we
it is
a waterfall,
only by
way
have thus
of this stair-
can reach the respective point, except by means
of boats, which are troublesome and expensive.
Some
of the best views of the Cataract are
from Table Rock and Terrapin bridge, the point where the path winds
Canada bank;
—from above,
at a distance,
down from
—from below, from the 45
—
ferry,
from
the brink of the
where the
stair-
,
354
(
)
case on the United States side reaches the rocks below,
the
window
of the Biddle Staircase, and at
prospect presents itself on a certain
at a distance, a noble
spot, about
two miles from the Falls on the road to Lewisthrough the forest gives you a view of the
A vista
ton.
Cataract, and as
distance for
greatness, physical or moral, requires
all
impression, so also does the Cataract ap-
its full
pear to you on this spot in I
from
Quite
its foot.
went with
still
a party to the
more solemn grandeur. whirlpool, where the waters
abruptly turn from a north-westerly course, to a north-
and so swift
easterly,
is
the current that the water, sweep-
ing round the corner of the ravine, actually does not find
on a
time to put
itself
the peculiar
phenomenon of
a high water ridge,
level, so that
which
a river having in its
crest of the
it
to
can be seen very distinctly
—here
so high that large timbers
and the waves of the which are very high, appear quite small.
in the river
rapids,
bank
middle
must consider from seven
I
eight feet high at least; for
from the
you have before you
look like
sticks,
little
There are yet many interesting subjects connected with Niagara
—the Rapids, the Whirlpool, many
nomena which ought
to
be detailed, had
or even a complete sketch. as a hasty croquis, of
only.
The work
of
Take
which
I
I
Mr. Ingraham
But however correct
his
and phe-
the whole I have given
have
filled
were
work may
I to
describe
be, certain
it is
many
that no description can give a satisfactory idea of traits of the great Cataract.
you
up certain parts
will be so complete, that
I should unnecessarily tax your time,
more.
vistas
promised a picture
Sound, movement, color, form
cannot be conveyed upon paper, so as to burst upon you like
Niagara
itself.
There have been fought some
battles,
even near Niagara,
but they are not of sufficient importance to add an historical interest to the scene.
nature, and if
It is essentially a
you view
it
as such in
phenomenon of
connexion with the
whole chain of lakes and waters of the west, it will stand before you as one of the noblest works of nature which man '
can behold.
355
(
)
From the moment when you first see Niagara, to the hour when you leave it, one of the great characteristics with which Alps,
it
it
spurns his
it; it
man,
strikes the soul of
is
that like the sea or the
He cannot change
does and will exist without him. skill
and power, nor does
it
heed thunder or
The changes it undergoes are worked upon own unconquerable force.
season or time.
by
itself
its
Niagara besides uniting the characteristic of grave solemnity with that of continued and rapid motion, stands belike a giant thing, alone but perfect in its con-
you
fore
The
struction.
by
sea afiects us
boundlessness, and
its
its
thousand historical and geographical associations; by its horror and destruction at some times, and its graceful movements and refreshing coolness at others, and by the depth of
womb
its
us by
its
with the elements of
filled
power,
its
horror,
its
Niagara
life;
grace, and
its
affects
gigantic beauty
united.
all
Where ing
itself
there is so
much motion,
so vast a subject present-
under such a variety of aspects, you cannot exnew views and
haust the interest of the subject, and of the
phenomena which are continually arising to your notice, and the longer you tarry the dearer Niagara becomes to you.
As Niagara narrow spot
is
essentially a beauty of nature, and on a
in the
new
world,
it is
in
my mind
the counter
view which
I
enjoyed from the tower of
Acrocorinth, which, indeed,
is
one of the
picture to the
natural scenery; yet
you
there, as nature at Niagara.
first traveller
castle of the
Wheler
since Sir
•
I
have been,
I think, the
Acrocorinth and given a public account of it*
my journal The jealousy
as long as they
on earth for
George Wheler, who has entered the
visited the castle at about 1680,
February of 1821. in
it is
finest
history which mainly bursts upon
Have you
and
I
was there
read the description
on Greece? Perhaps not; here of the Turks allowed no foreig'ner to
had the sway over Greece.
The
it
was in the power of Venice,
Editoh.
in
gave
it is:
visit
the Acrocorinth
author visited that countr}'
soon after the expulsion of the Turks: Sir Wheler travelled
when
I
in
the Morca
— 356
(
"Thie view from I
trouble.
this
tower richly rewarded
have spoken several times in
of beautiful prospects, but
when
q
)
the country
why
should
so rich in them!
is
not do
I
—
me
this small
my
for
volume
here again,
it
It is true,
what
Stra-
bo says, that in the north you have a view of the high and white Helicon and Parnassus, with their long and beautifully delineated chains, upon which rests the softening azure
In the west extends the
haze or ether of a southern climate.
Bay
of Corinth as far as Crissa, along
it
the ridge of Cithae-
ron, and the Alcyonian Sea with the Olmiaean Promontory.
In the east the Saronic Gulf washes the islands of Salamis
and ^gina, toward the north-east, the shores of Attica.
There were before us Pentelicus, Hymettus, and Laurion, The day was serene; to the Cape of Sunium.
even down
we
could discern the Acropolis.
In the south
into the territory of the Argives, in the west
and Sicyonia.
where
In one view around
me
I
I
far
beheld the spots
flourished.
" Beautiful as the extraordinary view was
light
looked
saw Achaia
the best art, science and valor of favored Greece had
^welt and chosen
I
spot, justly sacred to Helius, the
and beauty,
it
was not
graphical perception.
from
god of the sun
this
—of
less instructive for a clear geo-
The many peaks and mountains, with
distinguishing forms, afford you convenient points for so vast
a panorama, and after a short time you are enabled to im-
mind a very distinct image. What a field we viewed! Sicyonia, Achaia, Locrls, Phocis, Boeotia, Megara, Attica, Salamis, ^gina, Argolis and Corinth, and beneath us press upon your
the Isthmus with Lechaeum and Cenchrese, and the spot
where the ivy and pine rewarded the Isthmian victor." History was concentrated here as art is in the Tribuna
me
Florence.
Greece lay around
Niagara
like a powerful ode, a
is
herself has seized the
like
in
one great epic, while
rhapsody
mighty harp and plays
in
which nature
a rapturous tune.