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  THE

  YALE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

  CONDUCTED

  BY THE

  STUDENTS OF YALE COLLEGE.

  NO. 1.

  FEBRUARY, 1836.


  NEW HAVEN:
  HERRICK & NOYES.

  MDCCCXXXVL




CONTENTS.


  The Editor to the Reader,                       1

  Revolutions and their Tendencies,               4

  The Christian Principle--a Fragment,           11

  The Sciot Girl,                                13

  Story and Sentiment, No. 1,                    19

  Fanny Willoughby,                              24

  Confessions of a Sensitive Man, No. 1,         25

  Every Man his own Critic,                      30

  Washington on the Banks of the Delaware,       34

  Greek Anthology, No. 1,                        34

  “Our Magazine,”                                39




THE

YALE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

  VOL. I.      FEBRUARY, 1836.      NO. 1.




THE EDITOR TO THE READER.*

  _Clown._ ‘List ye now, friend--let’s hear what this fellow would be
                saying.’

  _Sneer._ ‘God’s blessing! man--d’ye believe any of his feather?’

                        _Farquhar._


GENTLE READER,--

As I am about to have some little converse with thee, I cannot pass
this first bright page of our Magazine, without a greeting word, and
a ‘God’s benison’ on our acquaintanceship. Good fellowship and kind
wishes betwixt man and man, should first be established. I have ever
held this to be one of the little items that go towards making up the
sum of human happiness; and as we ourselves cannot justly lay claim
to that which we deny to others, and as I would at any sacrifice
purchase thy good will, I must needs as a matter of course tell thee,
how much I wish for thy prosperity. I cannot flatter thee, gentle
reader, (and a wise man will not be flattered into fellowship,) else
I should tell thee how much I respect thy good taste and sagacity,
on all the delicate matters of nice criticism. I should tell thee,
how anxious I am to please thee--how patiently I shall think--write
and rewrite--polish and repolish--roam here and every where, culling
the sweetest plants and blossoms I can find--only to suit thee; and
make a melancholy hour, if any such thou hast, less painful; and if
thou art troubled with misanthropy, bring thee back into peace with
self and harmony with those around thee. I should tell thee, how
patiently I shall submit to the opinions of others--receive their
strictures--transpose and re-transpose--twist and re-twist some of
my sentences--for fear they may not accomplish the object whereunto
I send them, viz. thy pleasure and profit; and how, in more than one
instance, I hope even to sacrifice my own taste, lest unhappily it
come in contact with thine. I should tell thee, how I shall repeatedly
twitch at my purse strings, and with no miserly hand--and how, when
unfortunately some inaccuracies slip into a page, I shall cast the same
aside and give it a reprint, that nothing may offend the nicety of
thine observation. But I cannot flatter thee--therefore these things
shall all remain in oblivion.

      * The reader will please suppose himself conversing with the
    Editors of this Magazine, ‘rolled into one.’

Modesty does not permit me to speak largely of _my_ deserts, gentle
reader, (though we Editors--that means _me_--are excepted and a degree
of favor, an egotistical licence, is sometimes extended to us,) else I
should acquaint thee with some of my excellences. I should tell thee,
how much I mourn the wicked independency which may characterize my
speculations; and the silly _egoisms_ which may disfigure my otherwise
beautiful compositions. I should tell thee, how much I mourn over
the badness of my style, so contrary to etiquette, and sometimes so
outrageously fantastical; and the vile spirit of satire, which now
and then perhaps, may be found in them. I should tell thee, how much
I mourn over (what you may think) my inaccuracies of taste, thought,
and expression; and the vulgarisms, which, in spite of me, may creep
into them; though, indeed, vulgarisms are less exceptionable of late,
since the delicate (detestable--beg pardon!) Fanny Kemble _pottered_ in
them. I should tell thee, how much I mourn over my infallibility, as
now established on the Editorial throne--that, as Editor, I can never
be in the wrong--that I can never do or say a silly thing--that I can
never criticise, but with the sagacity of Wisdom’s self--that I can
never be called into judgment by any one who honors himself by reading
my papers--and that I shall _feel_ my independence, shall _act_ from
it, and always disregard every thing that barks or brays, and meet
meddlers with the cartel--_I am your servant, but I will not bear your
dictation_. But, as I am very modest, these things shall all remain in
oblivion.

Would you believe it, gentle reader, I sometimes find me endeavoring
to fashion to myself, who and what thou art? ’Tis a truth though--and
pray tell me now, who art thou? Art thou one who is ever looking on
the dark side of poor humanity--one ever neglecting the beautiful
truth, that thy being is necessary to the happiness of the world--one
unconscious of the fact, that thou art an item in the great economy of
human action--and one ever searching for, and caviling at, the wants
and weaknesses of thy fellow men? I think thou wilt find something
congenial in the work I proffer thee.

Again--art thou the reverse of this--one ever choosing the bright
side, ever giving the light and fairer traits of human character thine
admiration--one ever looking abroad on the earth with a deep spiritual
eye--to whom nature is familiar--to whom the winds, and woods, and
waters are companions--one to whom the breathings of spring, the
twitter of birds, the voices of infancy are a melody--one ever sending
out thy fancy for imaginary bliss, exploring amid the haunts of evil
for good, and tracing out the sweet attractivenesses of virtue? Thou
too, I think, wilt find something pleasant and profitable, in the
medley I lay before thee; and to thee I commend it with a hearty good
will, trusting that thou wilt be content to pass the evil for the sake
of the better, and give the writer here a kind wish for his labor in
your behalf.

Again--for our poets (for poets we must have, and I must defend them)
let me ask, art thou one of those who look upon poetry, and the mystic
profession of the poets, with contempt--one carrying a wise man’s
wig on a fool’s crown--one talking of what thou hast not sense to
understand--a child grasping at air? ‘Wert thou,’ in the quaint, yet
rich language of Sir Philip Sidney, ‘born so near the dull-making
cataract of Nilus, that you cannot hear the planet-like music of
poetry; have you so earth-creeping a mind, that it cannot lift itself
up to look at the sky of poetry, or rather, by a certain rustical
disdain, will become such a mome as to be a Momus of poetry?’ If thou
wert, take then, in his words, my hearty anathema--‘Though I will not
wish unto you the ass’s ears of Midas, nor to be driven by a poet’s
verses, as Bubonax was, to hang himself; nor to be rhymed to death, as
is said to be done in Ireland; yet thus much curse I must send you, in
the behalf of all poets; that while you live, you live in love, and
never get favor, for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your
memory die from the earth, for want of an epitaph.’

Again--art thou a bright and gentle one--full of the rich life and
soul of poetry--taking every thing in its first aspect--and ready to
launch thy little barque on the stream of life? Ah! it is for such
as thee I write. And yet, I tremble for thee, thou Peri, slight in
thy person, pale, yet beautiful, glossy hair, and eyes as bright as
Love ever looked on, and shrinking in thy native timidity as at the
shadow of thine own happiness! ’Tis painful to look at thee, so young,
so beautiful--knowing that thou must one day cast thine all--thy
dreams--thy high hopes--thine innocent feelings--thy depths of woman’s
tenderness into the hands of another--to hang upon him--to look to him
for hope, for council, for happiness! It pains me to think of what a
world this is; to think of the hazard thou must ever run of losing
thy bliss, and of being dashed on some of the hidden shoals that
lurk beneath the current of human felicity; to think of detraction,
and the thousand calumnies that may be aimed at the purity of that
breast, which seems too innocent even to suspect harm! But--softly,
softly--where the _deuce_ am I running?

Finally--whatever be thy disposition, gentle reader, whether
thou be critic or no critic, misanthrope or no misanthrope, fool
or wise man--whether thou be sneering and cynical, or young and
buoyant--whether thou be a phlegmatic old proser, and a doughty
advocate of mustified knowledge, or one not altogether too wise,
and one that can be delighted with the more delicate blossoms of
literature;--I trust at least, thou art willing to be pleased; and
that thou thinkest a hearty laugh at times, is no sacrilege. Now I
give thee leave to laugh at me or about me, just as shall seem good to
thee--only make thyself happy. I give thee leave to curse my work and
all of my fraternity, from the days of--I know not who, down to those
of old Kit North himself; and pour out thine honest indignation against
our Eleusinian mysteries (for such they are, and thou wilt never
understand them, especially if thou be blessed with a stock of modern
dullness,) and to hold us all in the most righteous contempt;--this
thou may’st do--only make thyself happy. I give thee leave to call me
(thy humble servant,) conceited, because I dare to think--presumptuous,
because I dare to print--impudent, because I present thee my
speculations--only make thyself happy. In short, thou may’st do any
thing, only pleasure thyself;--be thou thus employed, and I am content.

And now, gentle reader, as I have given thee thus much--as I have
made not the least reservation--as I have given thee permission to be
happy, and in thine own way, and that too, without the least regard
to my feelings--pray grant me in return, a simple privilege. Permit
me sometimes in memory, to think upon the pleasant ramble we may have
together--to think of its green and sunny spots, as well as its dark
ones--of its pleasant, as well as disagreeable windings--and to enjoy
the sweet consciousness of having sought to contribute to thine, a
fellow creature’s happiness.

                        ‘GOD’S BENISON BE ON YE.’




REVOLUTIONS--AND THEIR TENDENCIES.

  “Man is born to die,
  And so are nations.”


To the search of unassisted reason, man is an enigma--his origin, a
deep unfathomed mystery--his being, nothing but a sad and strange
commingling of discordant elements--his destiny unknown! He comes forth
as it were unbidden--mingles for a few short hours in earth’s sorrows
and enjoyments,--hurries through the part assigned him in the mighty
drama of existence, when the curtain closes and he vanishes forever.
We tread over the “green roof of his dark mansion,”--and he lives but
in remembrance. The works too of his hands are frail and fleeting. The
proudest monument he rears, but scarce outlasts his memory--and the
very dwelling which has sheltered him is hastening to destruction.
“The ivy clings to the mouldering tower, the brier hangs out from the
shattered window, and the wall-flower springs from the disjointed
stones. The voices of merriment and of wailing, the steps of the busy
and the idle, have ceased in the deserted courts, and the weeds choke
the entrances, and the grass waves upon the hearthstones.”

And it is so with nations! Earth is little better than a splendid waste
of ruins,--a vast unbroken solitude, garnished with the sepulchers of
countless myriads, and crowded with the relics of departed grandeur!
There is the tyranny of Desolation! There Change is ever busy,
wandering amid the wasting forms of beauty, gathering the banquet of
Decay!

Such to unassisted reason is the history of nations. They spring
up into being, linger for a fleeting period,--are cut down and
perish--their origin, their progress and their end, alike mysterious
and inexplicable! Revelation has indeed assured us of the destiny
of man. We know that the same grave which closes over his decaying
body shrouds not the undying spirit--that earth is but the threshold
to another state of being. Far beyond its earthly scene of trial,
Affection follows her departed object, and pillowed on the bosom of
immortal hope, casts down the burden of her sorrows. The unfettered
soul purified from her pollutions, soars upward,--

                      “On a wing
  That moving through eternity will ever
  Be active and unwearied, and as bright
  In its unruffled plumage after years
  Have gathered into ages, and have gone
  Beyond the eldest memory of time.”

It is thus that Revelation fathoms the deep mystery of death--that it
brings before us man and the purpose of his being. Guided then by the
clear light it radiates, we can walk amid the darkness which enshrouds
the fate of nations, and gather even from their silent ruins the true
cause of their extinction. More crowded is the catalogue of buried than
of living generations! The records of departed States and Empires--the
time-worn monuments of former strength and grandeur--the disjointed
fragments of a once unbroken whole,--each, all, are eloquent around us!
Why is it we can gaze on nothing permanent? Why is it that we stand
the beings of a universe which Change is ever wasting? Why is it that
innumerable nations of the earth, in the midst of all their beauty and
magnificence, are stricken down for ever, and the place they occupied
left desolate? Is their fate without an object? Is their influence
unfelt? Is it chance that rules their destiny?

One of the earliest theories respecting the progress of society, has
been the regular tendency of our race to decline and degradation.
This theory, the result partly of tradition and partly of poetic
fancy, carries back the mind to a golden age of primeval excellence,
and represents the progress of mankind as a continual departure
from a higher and a better state of being. Those occasional
exhibitions of lofty virtue and of noble self-devotion which mark
the establishment of new States and Empires,--the stern integrity
of Regulus,--the high-souled magnanimity of Fabricius,--it regards
only as the ineffectual struggles of exalted minds to check the
downward tendency of our race, and as swept away by the resistless
current of human corruption. This theory was transmitted even from
remote antiquity,--interwoven with the superstitions of that early
time, strengthened by the implicit confidence of each successive
age, and destined to exist till that religion of which it was the
offspring, should be crushed beneath the wider and the nobler system
of Christianity. It was too a theory interesting and attractive,--well
adapted to the age of its formation. It dealt much in the ideal. Its
conceptions were those of poetry, mournful indeed, but beautiful and
alluring. It spoke of an elevated state of being from which man had
fallen,--of a grandeur, every trace of which was then effaced,--of a
beauty which had long since faded. It told of nobler aspirations that
had fired the soul,--of loftier communings of the spirit with the world
above,--of thoughts unbounded in their range, whose center was the
universe. It breathed of a quiet and a happy era,--of a peace beyond
all trouble,--of an innocence without a stain. It hurried its votaries
away from the earth that met their vision, to the brighter one of its
creation--a land beautiful beyond conception--the Elysium of gods and
the residence of heroes. It was all that the genius of Paganism could
do to linger around the visions of departed greatness.

This theory is now surrendered,--or its advocates, if any such there
be, are few in number. We, of the present age, regard it as a wild and
brilliant error, poetically beautiful, but in practice incorrect,--as a
rich and elegant production of a distant age,--as a flower that sprung
up, bloomed and faded in the spring-time of the world.

There is a second theory, which numbers among its supporters a large
part of the philosophers of modern time. We would call it without
reproach the Atheistic scheme, for it seems to shut out a governing
Providence from the successive evolutions of our race. It attributes
the same principles of stability to the natural and moral world,
considering them as both liable to the same law of physical necessity,
which causes them to “alternate, between fixed and narrow limits of
progress and decay.” States and Empires it regards as rising only like
the waves of the ocean, to give way to those that follow them--an
endless succession of events, without one indication of plan or aim, to
remind us of a governing Intelligence!

Laying aside these theories, as equally unworthy of man and of Him who
made him,--with history for our guide, the monument at once of the rise
and fall of nations,--what theory shall _we_ form? What shall we affirm
of history itself? Is it nothing but the chronicle of unconnected
facts--the assemblage of by-gone events, that have passed without an
object? What too is the lesson that we read in the revolutions of the
world? Are they mere isolated exhibitions of a vast and mighty energy
expended for no purpose,--monuments reared along the track of ages as
mementos of unmeaning greatness,--meteors that burst from the midst of
clouds and darkness to reveal the wreck of nations, and then go out
for ever? In the eloquent language of another: “Is the change in its
generations the only change in society? Are the actors alone renewed,
and the same drama of life for ever repeated? Or rather does each
succeeding generation, standing on the graves of their forefathers,
rise to a higher vantage ground, as the oaks of the wilderness in
succession strike deeper roots, and grow more flourishing over the dust
of their predecessors?”

The theory implied in these remarks, if properly stated and understood,
is the true theory of the progress of society. It is a _real_ progress.
One after another of its empires may have risen, flourished for a
time, and then crumbled into ruins. Some may have remained apparently
unaltered, balanced by the action of opposing causes,--but the grand,
the mighty WHOLE, has been progressive. The current that sustained and
bore it onward, has increased in energy,--it has never lingered,--its
apparent rest or retrocession, was but the reflux of the wave that is
rising higher along the shore.

Our great principle then is,--that in the revolutions of the world we
can trace the working of a vast design,--that they were but established
agents to secure a mighty end. They may be regarded as a series of
EXPERIMENTS upon mankind,--each powerful in its influence,--occurring
at its proper time,--and all tending toward an object which is yet
to be attained. We find in these dark and gloomy spots of history
nothing to alarm us! We consider them indeed as clouds, heavy and
portentous, resting on the path of ages--but as clouds surcharged with
energy,--embosoming the elements of mighty action, destined to sweep
away abuses,--to purify and disenthrall our race!

As an illustration of these remarks, let us turn to the last and
greatest of those monarchies that were the glory of the ancient
world. What now is the prospect that is opened to our vision? How
rich in its variety of features--how gorgeous in its colorings! We
are treading on the golden age of History. All that it has of beauty,
power and grandeur, are at once before us. On the confines of a dark
and superstitious era we behold the fabric of a mighty Empire. It
has sprung up like the Oase of the desert, reared by the workings of
magic power, instantaneous, electric! Yonder tower the columns of its
capitol--the beautiful and arbitrary Mistress of the world--proud,
imperial, ill-fated Rome! The city with its seven hills--its gorgeous
palaces--its thousand fabrics, molded by the plastic hand of symmetry,
burst at once upon our view. Here then is the mighty theatre, where
human nature is destined to stand forth, so near perfected--to display
so many virtues, and yet innumerable vices--to exhibit all that
Paganism can accomplish for the advancement of our race. Here are
assembled the monuments of Grecian genius, and of Roman valor--the
pride of Philosophy, and the miracles of Art--all that Heathenism
can do to adorn and dignify mankind. The experiment is made, and
the Empress of the world sinks from the stern virtues of her early
founders, to the bloody licentiousness of a Nero or Caligula. Rome is
tottering to her fall!

Here opens the mightiest revolution in the history of our globe--the
introduction of Christianity. Forty centuries had been occupied in
showing the impotency of unaided reason for the advancement of our
race--and a new series of experiments now commences, to exhibit the
evils of those human improvements which were soon engrafted on the
simplicity of the Gospel. Christianity had a single object--to raise
the spiritual nature of man above the sensual--to establish the
dominion of reason, enlightened by Faith. It was the first system of
religion which was favorable to the cause of freedom.

Trace now the progress of this glorious principle as it goes forth,
forlorn and insulted from the hill of Calvary, to take possession of
the falling empire of the world. Witness the thousand persecutions it
endures--the obstacles it overcomes--its silent and gradual extension,
till, in the age of Constantine, “it ascends the imperial throne
and waves its banner over the palace of the Cæsars.” To the eye of
unassisted reason how glorious are the prospects of our race! Yet in
the progress of three centuries, we see the wave of extermination
sweep over that proud empire. It fell, for its existence was no longer
needed. It had played the part assigned it in the grand, the mighty
drama of the world--the energies of its youth, had wasted to the
feebleness of age--its glory was departing--the fire of its genius
had grown dim, flickered and expired--it was “feeding not on hope but
on remembrances.” It fell, to prepare the way for a more glorious
exhibition of the Christian faith--to give place for the foundation
of rational liberty on the ruins of despotism. Christianity, by her
union with imperial power, had lost her former purity. She had put on
the garb, and even revived the principles of Paganism, while liberty,
the attendent and ally of all genuine improvement, lay bound and
bleeding at the feet of the Mistress of the world. Why then, knowing
as we do--the ultimate result--why should we regard the dark period of
nearly a thousand years, which followed, as giving any support to the
Atheistic scheme of alternate elevation and decay? The feudal system,
with all its errors, was the REMEDY applied to save the world from
the destructive influence of a corrupted christianity, in union with
despotic power. That system too in the progress of events, governed not
by miracles but moral causes, was of necessity to have its course--an
energy great enough to demolish the empire of the world, could be
expended only in the lapse of centuries. Monarchs had learned to
believe themselves supreme and their thrones immoveable. Literature
had fled for safety to the cloisters of the monks, and the enemies
of human improvement had seized upon the church as the most powerful
engine of political intrigue. There was something in the darkness
and the superstition of the last ten centuries, that had augured of
a mighty change. It had been the fearful stillness that precedes the
storm--the awful silence that is heralding the bursting forth of the
volcano. The way had been preparing for a protracted struggle between
perverted and genuine Christianity--the dawn of the reformation was at
hand.

The period at length arrived. In the gloom of the dark ages there had
been one agent unceasing in its efforts, whose step, silent as the
tread of death, was yet as certain in its progress. Unsuspected, and
apparently chained down by its opposers, it had been collecting the
materials of another great explosion. It had fitted and prepared them,
till their energy was irresistible, and then buried them beneath the
ponderous but rotten fabric of the Popish faith. The materials are
ready and the time has come! It is now that there arises another and
a human agent--one, whose daring spirit and unconquerable firmness,
proclaim him of no common order--who bears in his hand the torch that
is destined to awaken these energies to fury, and as he hurls it to
its purpose, stands forth the chosen one of heaven in this mighty
undertaking. Need we say that it was Luther! His is indeed, a lofty
elevation in the long line of the Reformers. His too is a name,
imperishable, in the pages of Christianity! His the conceded title of a
universal benefactor.

It was impossible, however, upon the ordinary principles of human
nature, that the Reformation, glorious as was its influence, should
be at once complete. The wave that had swept over the corruptions of
the Romish church, had also borne forward and deposited the dregs of
its pollution. By degrees, a spurious philosophy took possession of
a large part of the intellect of continental Europe, and the deep
degeneracy of the Papal system, which still claimed the exclusive
honors of christianity, gave plausibility to an attack upon the whole
of revealed religion. In the midst of this incipient regeneration of
the world, there is one, a proud and mighty empire, that remains aloof!
In the very heart of Christendom she has reared a temple, beautiful in
its proportions and eloquent with grandeur!--whose worshipers are not
of heaven. The dark banner of Infidelity is unfurled above it. On its
entrance is written the inscription, that “there is no God,”--and the
prayer that ascends within it is an insult and a mockery. And where now
is that Christianity which the Reformation introduced? Is its purity
again to be perverted and its throne usurped? We answer that it has not
slumbered. Already is it going forth to battle with the giant form of
Heresy. Animated with the spirit of its author, it is purifying this
temple of abominations--washing out this impious inscription in the
blood of a polluted nation. It has reared again the altar of a purer
faith.

It is not with feelings of vanity but with a sense of the most solemn
responsibilities, that we look upon the era which is now opening
on the world, as probably the last great stage in the progressive
advancement of our race. Shall we hail it as the greatest of all eras?
Does it not, in the long line of ages, stand forth as a brilliant and
attractive point, collecting by its brightness, every ray of knowledge
and of science, to disseminate them wider through the nations of the
earth? With all that we have to deplore of remaining ignorance and
superstition on the one hand--and of restless and misapplied activity
on the other--what age has ever witnessed such cheering prospects for
the cause of Freedom and Christianity? As we look back on the past we
see each succeeding revolution, sweeping away abuses and reading a
great moral lesson to mankind!--while all have been pointing to the
era, which seems now to have arrived, THE UNION OF WELL-REGULATED
FREEDOM, AND A PURER FAITH, and all are eloquent in proof of the
position we have labored to establish. How delightful to trace in part,
the mighty experiment of sixty centuries, and find in it one harmonious
system of events!--to follow out a golden chain, down through the
darkness of the past, binding the disjointed fragments of society into
one vast phalanx, moving ever onward! How animating to behold the
incipient disenthrallment of a world!--to see Christianity coming forth
purified and strengthened from the conflict, and hand in hand with
freedom, leading on our race towards the perfection of their nature.

Whether the future progress of society will again be broken by sudden
and disastrous changes--or will go on to rise by a gradual succession
of elevations, we cannot determine. The sky that now bends over it
so bright and beautiful may yet be clouded--the thunder of another
revolution may be heard, and the lightnings of a mighty power may shake
it to its center. These changes if they come, will hurry it along a
burning track to its destined elevation. The promised redemption of
our race, we trust is near at hand. It may be when the sun that now
rides in light above us, shall look down on others who are soon to fill
our places--while the temples of our worship are unshaken in their
strength--when the stone that marks the place of our deposit, shall not
yet have crumbled. But, sooner or later, that period will arrive. It
will be an era, glorious beyond conception. The patriot and christian
of that favored age, as he stands amidst its brightness and ministers
at the altar of regulated freedom and uncorrupted faith, gifted with
that prophetic vision which connects the future with the past--will
trace the golden chain that binds our system to the throne of God, and
while he mourns over the suffering and degradation which has marked our
world, will yet adore that wisdom, which

  From seeming evil, still educes good
  And better thence, and better yet again
  In infinite progression.




FRAGMENT.

_Excellence of the Christian Principle set forth, and recommended._

[From an unpublished work.]


        If thou would’st lay thee in the grave at last,
  And die as dies the good man; if thy heart
  In that sad hour would feel its sympathies
  Sweeten’d, and soothed by solitary thought;
  Let thy whole life with virtuous actions teem,
  With virtue’s law compare. Thou can’st not live
  Too pure, or o’er thy smallest actions keep
  Too close restraint. Thou can’st not think too oft,
  There is a never, never sleeping eye
  Which reads thy heart, and registers thy thoughts;
  Thou can’st not say too oft--‘Teach me to know
  My end, that I may feel how short it is’--
  Nor can’st thou lie too frequent, or too low
  Before that cross whereon the Saviour hung--
  A blameless sacrifice. It is his fate,
  And by his disobedience invoked,
  That man shall view the sepulchre with dread;
  That when he looks into its narrow depths,
  Its gloom--its cheerlessness; and, spurning earth,
  Reflection lifts the separating veil
  Which hides the future, undissembled awe
  Shall grasp his soul, and will not be dispell’d.
  Yet in this chalice hath a provident God
  Commingled blessings. He hath mark’d a path,
  And promis’d peace to him who walks therein,
  And safety through the portals of the grave:
  And though thorns weary, and temptations press
  To win him into crime--his word is sure,
  And it will save him. Our emotions take
  Their hues from the complexion of the heart,
  As landscapes their variety from light;
  And he who pays his conscience due regard,
  Is virtue’s friend, and reaps a sure reward.
  He who has train’d his heart with lib’ral care,
  Has robb’d the sable tyrant of his crown,
  And torn the robe of terror from his breast.
  Death cannot fright him; he has that within
  Which, as the needle to the Arctic kept
  By law immutable, his mind upbears,
  And fastens where earth’s influence cannot reach:
  Let loose the cohort of diseases--rend
  The finest shoots of passion from his heart--
  Snap ev’ry tie of common sympathy,
  And let the adverse and remorseless waves
  Of disappointment roar against his breast--
  And you have struck some rock on Newstra’s coast,
  With but the heavings of a summer’s sea.
  His spirit knows no thraldom, and it takes
  A flight sublime, where earth hath never power.

        There is a half-way virtue in the world
  Which is the world’s worst enemy; its bane;
  Its with’ring curse. It cheats it with a show--
  But offers nought of substance, when is sought
  Its peaceful fruits. It suffers men in power
  To let the young aspirant rise or fall
  As chance directs. The rich man fosters it;
  And for the favor, it shuts up his ears
  Against the cry of virtuous penury;
  Or bids him dole out with a miserly hand,
  A farthing, where a thousand should be thrown
  And proffer’d kindly. The lone orphan’s cries,
  The widow’s wail in impotence, perchance
  Secure a few unmeaning tears--but not
  The pity which administers relief.
  Words flow as freely as a parrot talks
  At tales of suffering; and tears may fall
  As free as Niobe’s; but not a sacrifice
  The heart accepts, nor pleasure is forgone,
  Which marks the principle of virtue there,
  Or such as finds acceptance in the skies.
  Who pays with pity, all my debt of love--
  Who weeps for me, yet never sees my lack--
  Who says be clothed, yet never proffers aught--
  He’s not my fellow, nor deserves the name.

        A feeble virtue is a vice, adorn’d
  With virtue’s semblance. ’Tis a negative
  And useless quality. It exempts from wo
  Insufferable, yet grudges perfect bliss;
  And he but tricks him in a knave’s attire,
  Who boasts no other. He’s but half the man
  Who, when temptation stares him in the face,
  Assents, yet trembles to be overcome!
  Such men do things by halves, and never do
  Aught with an earnest soul. They fool away
  A life, in which the good and evil mix
  So equal, that the sum is neutralized;
  And Justice on their sepulchres inscribes
  No sterner truth, than when she writes--a blank.
  Why linger then betwixt the two extremes--
  The passive puppet of each circumstance?
  Why pure, and dev’lish--mortal, and immortal--
  Too good for earth--and yet unfit for Heaven?
  Why not at once, dispel these baneful mists,
  Thrust from thy path, the arts and blandishments
  Which win to wickedness; and rise at once
  With a proud moral freedom, until thou
  Can’st stand upon the stars--and see to Heaven?

                                                                  *




THE SCIOT GIRL.

            ----“I cannot bear
  To be the scorned and trampled thing I am
  In this degraded land. Its very skies,
  That smile as if but festivals were held
  Beneath their cloudless azure, weigh me down
  With a dull sense of bondage.”--_Hemans._


The inhabitants of the once beautiful island of Scio, were among
the last to rise against their oppressors and throw off the Turkish
yoke. A combination of causes prevented them from taking part in the
revolt when it first broke out. The spirit of enterprise and commerce,
while it enriched and refined the people, had withdrawn them, by
degrees, from those warlike habits which had distinguished many of the
neighboring isles. They were immediately under the coast of Asia Minor,
from whence, without a moment’s warning, they might be overwhelmed by
hordes of merciless barbarians. They could not look out upon their
vine-clad hills and their cultivated fields, where the orange, citron
and pomegranate bloomed in oriental richness, and think that the fair
scene should be polluted by the horrors of a desolating war. Learning
and religion were protected. They were prosperous and happy under a
government which, to _them_ at least, had been an indulgent one, and
they wisely preferred their present safety to the uncertain chance of
future benefit. The young men of the island, many of whom had been
educated in the universities of France and Italy, with the generous
impulse of their age, hastened, at the first cry, to join the ranks of
the revolters; and we may well imagine that many, who were themselves
unable to take up arms, prayed for the success of the cause and aided
it in secret.

A year had now passed, and such was the situation of Scio.

It was an evening in the month of March, when a young Greek might be
seen hastening along the beach in the direction of the principal town
of the island. In the dress of the person--which was that of the
higher class of citizens--there was nothing remarkable; but in his
manner there was much to draw attention. His countenance was marked by
an expression of cool and high-strung desperation. He strode on, as if
to escape from the burthen of some intolerable thought, and muttered to
himself from between his close set teeth. We may catch the import of
his words.

“Well, well! it is over; and in sooth, she carried it nobly for one so
young; but that pride shall have a fall, my haughty beauty,--and that
stripling Antonio, too--by the cross! to be outwitted, circumvented,
thus--that _he_ should step in and pluck the fruit I had coveted so
long. Most excellent Constantine! truly thy wits have grown sharp of
late to be thus miserably foiled by a beardless boy, and thine own
egregious self conceit.--Fool! fool!” He paused for an instant, and
a demoniac scowl passed across his features. “Ay, revenge----and she
shall kneel to me even as I knelt to her, and pray to me in her agony
and I will not hear her. Wo to those who would trifle with the proffers
of Constantine.”

That night he disappeared from the island, and his absence excited
little remark and less regret. Of his history scarcely any thing was
known; but the mystery with which he chose to envelope his early days,
his unbounded prodigality of wealth, and the recklessness of his
character, gave rise to a strong suspicion, that his life had been one
of desperate and unlawful courses.

And who was she against whom that fearful malediction had been uttered?
A gentle spiritual being, unfit for the stormy waves on which she
had been cast, destined to struggle with difficulty against them,
and perhaps, ere long, to float away on the wilderness of waters, a
withered and a broken thing. Surrounded with all that wealth could
bring, she had grown up, shadowed from the gaze of the world, beautiful
and accomplished in person, but still more lovely, if possible, in her
intellectual being. To her the literature of the present and the past
were unfolded, and she drank deeply of all that is high or impassioned
therein. But most she loved to dwell upon the records of her country,
and her young blood would thrill as she read of the ancient glory
of her people, of their triumphs in arts and arms, of their bards,
and warriors, and sages, and she wept when she beheld the degeneracy
of their descendants. The beautiful in nature “haunted her like a
passion.” She loved the Egean and its isles and the blue sky above
them, because they were beautiful themselves, but still more because
antiquity had hallowed them. And she was wont to steal away from her
companions, and in some shady nook made pleasant by the dashing of
a mountain rivulet, to read the stories of the ‘olden time,’ till
consciousness stole from her and she lived and moved an actor in the
scene. On one thus constituted, the first tidings of the revolt struck
like an electric shock. The day-dream of her existence seemed to be on
the eve of its accomplishment. Already, in imagination, she saw the
chains falling from her nation, and Greece, with her bright coronet
of isles, smiling in her recovered independence and happiness. She saw
the ruined temples and altars reconstructed, and the statues of the
renowned of old, restored to their long deserted niches. She lamented
that she too might not grasp the lance and wield the sword. But all the
interest of an actual combatant was hers. Her soul was with Niketas,
among the passes of the Morea, with Miaulis and Canaris in their
desperate engagements by sea, and her prayers were daily with God, that
he would crown their efforts with success. She mingled no longer in the
song or dance, she was no longer seen in the masque or revel of the
festival--a high and holy enthusiasm filled her soul, and

  “The boon that nature gave her at her birth,
  Her own original gaiety of heart”

was gone. As a mother watches with intense solicitude, the varying
pulses of a dying child, so did Zara watch the rising and sinking
fortunes of the cause to which she had bound her happiness forever.

It was the night on which commences our story, and Zara is gazing
out upon the sea, and the evening breeze that comes in through the
lattice, lifts her dark hair and caresses her cheek, as if conscious
of the beauty around which it played. The scene through which she
had passed, and which had resulted so bitterly to one, had vanished
entirely from her mind. The stars were looking down from an unclouded
sky, and the waves made music as they broke upon the shore, but both
were equally unmarked by her. She thought of her lover beyond the sea,
she watched him in all the hazards of a fierce contest, she heard his
voice, nerving with confidence his fainting friends and sending dismay
into the ranks of the enemy. She saw him driving the Moslem before
him, now he is among the thickest of the foe, he struggles valiantly,
the infidels hem him in on every side, Holy Virgin preserve him, he
is down!--she was suddenly aroused from her painful thoughts. A light
boat, containing a single individual, shot rapidly round a curve of the
shore, and glided into the dark, smooth water of the little bay that
lay beneath her window. A moment after a rich, manly voice rose gaily
on the air:--

  Lady, from thy lofty bower
    Look not out so tearfully,
  Lady know, this joyous hour,
    From beyond the star-lit sea
    Brings thy lover back to thee,
    Brings him, love, to life and thee!

That voice! it was Antonio’s--a moment more and she is in his arms.

“Ah recreant!” said she, smiling fondly upon him, “is this your boasted
patriotism? What sends you from your post in the hour of danger?”

“Can you ask, Zara, and do you forget, that it is a whole year, an age
since I have seen you?”

“It is indeed a long weary time, and it has changed you much, Antonio.”

“In all things else, perhaps, but not in my devotion to you. But you
are paler, Zara, than when we parted, and your voice is more low and
melancholy than I have ever heard it. I fear you have not lived happily
as you were wont. A soldier’s mistress should never repine at his
absence.”

“I could not be gay, while Greek swords were striking for liberty, and
while you, Antonio, were hazarding your life; but now that you are
here, and I listen to you and see you.”----

----“And feel this warm kiss upon your cheek.”----

“I am happy indeed.”

“You have lived too much in your own sad fancies, and while I remain I
must contrive some diversion for you. Suppose we excite a conspiracy in
Scio, by way of amusement.”

“Oh delightful!”

“Yes, and so romantic. You shall assume the manly toga; the costume of
an Albanian chief will become that dark beauty of yours right well;
and with your eloquence of words and looks we shall soon get up an
insurrection. To tell the truth, Zara,” he continued more seriously,
“it was not love alone that brought me here; our cause is going forward
nobly, and the Sciots must give to it all their strength and influence.
These degenerate countrymen of ours must be awakened from their
lethargy, and I have come to rouse them.” And thus, from trifling to
serious, from serious to trifling, he wandered on, and Zara was sad no
longer.

Time passed, and Antonio had not appealed to his countrymen in vain.
The Sciots responded to his call, and were only waiting a favorable
opportunity to evince their patriotism. At this juncture, history
informs us that two adventurers, with troops from Samos, landed on the
island. The Sciots rose. A considerable force sent out against them
was repulsed, and the whole body of the Turks were finally driven into
the citadel and there besieged. The Greeks, however, had no means of
securing their advantage from want of cannon to batter down the walls,
and they were forced to wait in anxious suspense, till artillery might
be sent them from abroad. Their hopes were frustrated, and all their
plans destroyed by the arrival of a Turkish fleet of fifty sail, which
anchored in the bay, and immediately began to bombard the town. Their
faithless allies, the Samians, at the first appearance of the enemy,
had deserted them, and sought safety in flight. Under the guns of the
castle thousands of Turkish troops were disembarked. Some resistance
was attempted, but all resistance was in vain. Hordes of barbarians
rolled on and thronged the coast, fit instruments for the horrible
tragedy which had been planned in the divan of the sultan, and was now
soon to be enacted.

That day had worn wearily with Zara. Hour after hour she had heard
the firing of cannon from the fleet; she knew that the Turks were
landing; she had seen at a distance, troops passing and re-passing
across the country, and her lover came not. A thousand doubts, a
thousand misgivings, harassed her mind. The sun had set, and yet she
had received no tidings from Antonio. The booming of the cannon broke
incessantly on her ear, and sounded like a knell to all her hopes. Her
anxiety was now increased to agony. Her heart beat with joy as she
heard a quick step along the corridor. It approached the apartment. Was
that her lover’s step? The door opened, and a stranger stood before her.

“I have come!”

“I know you not; who are you?”

“You will know me sooner than you think--one whom you _once_ despised,
one whom your scorn has made a seared and blasted thing. But I bear
no malice, lady; no, I am merciful compared with you. I have come
to save you. Listen! the people of Scio are doomed to inevitable,
indiscriminate massacre.” A red light fell across the room. “Hah! at
work so soon? Lady, do you doubt me, look! Scio is in flames! The work
of pillage and slaughter has commenced. The fiends will soon be here--a
boat lies moored below, in which I will convey you to a place of
safety--away! away!”

“Villain! no. What means that Moslem dress? Apostate from your country
and your God! If I must perish, I will perish here; not to thee will I
owe my safety.”

“No! well, listen to me, and be calm as I am: mark me. ’Twas _I_ who
urged upon the Sultan the strong necessity of taking summary vengeance
on the Sciots. ’Twas _I_ who poured upon the shore these swarms of
merciless barbarians. ’Twas _I_ who ordered the burning of yonder town.
’Twas I that _slew thy lover_--perhaps you like me better now.”

“Miscreant! back, lay not your hand upon me. Oh God!” She caught
a slender dagger from her girdle, and assumed an attitude of
self-defense. “I am not so weak and timid as you think.”

“This is folly: I am wasting time.” He seized her by the wrist, and
with a smile of pity, forced the weapon from her delicate hand. She
fainted.

The last words of gratuitous cruelty, “’twas I that slew thy lover,”
false as they were, had done their office, and Constantine, lifting her
in his arms, bore her swiftly away.

As long as it was possible, Antonio, with a few brave Greeks, made head
against the enemy. He saw that the enterprise in which he had toiled so
long had failed, but he could not bear tamely to relinquish the field.
Overpowering numbers at length forced him to retire, and he sullenly
watched from a distance the landing of the enemy. From what he had
already witnessed of Turkish warfare, he soon suspected the scene that
would ensue. The thought of Zara flashed upon his mind--giving a few
brief orders to those under his command, he hastened towards her home.
What he heard and saw by the way increased his alarm. Yells and groans,
and the report of musketry, rose from the city, while, here and there,
the flames had begun to burst forth. Now and then, a crowd of women
and children, frantic with fear, crossed his path, seeking for safety
in the country. He hurries forward--the house is now in sight, but all
is dark and desolate; he crosses the threshold--no one answers to his
call; he reaches her apartment--it is empty.

He hastens again from the house. Following with his eye the path that
led to the shore, he caught a glance of Constantine moving swiftly
forward with his burden.

With the fierceness of a maniac, he bounds down the declivity.
Constantine hears his pursuer, and quickens his pace. He is near the
boat. On! on! if you would save your bride. Too late--too late. Yet
there is one, though a desperate resource. Antonio’s pistol rings upon
the air. Hah! he staggers with his burthen, but struggles forward--in
vain--he supports his sinking form against a rock, while his life blood
ebbs fast away. With the look of a baffled fiend, he turns towards
his pursuer. Rage and disappointment writhe his lip, while his brow
grows pale in death. He seeks his sash, and a stiletto gleams in the
moonlight. What means that strange, ghastly smile? Oh God! he cannot
mean----the blow is struck, and as he sinks to the earth, the life
blood of Zara mingles with his own upon the sands. In an instant her
lover kneels over her, but she hears him not, she answers him not.
Thy pure soul has fled, unconscious of the blow thy ‘demon lover’
dealt. Thou hast gone ere the storm had desolated thy beautiful
island-home--ere the sorrows of thy country had entered into thy soul.
It is well with thee, sweet enthusiast, it is well with thee as thou
art.

Antonio knelt over her, and called loudly upon her name, but he only
heard it repeated, as if in derision, by the echoes of the cliffs. That
tremendous moment when doubt struggles against a dreadful certainty
passed by, and he knew that she was dead.

Pride, wealth, ambition, glory, what now are they to him? One word from
those pale lips, one ray of light from those darkened eyes were worth
them all.

The bodies were found the next morning on the spot where they had
fallen, but Antonio had disappeared. He was never seen again in his
native island. Life with him had ceased to have any attractions, and
he sought release from it in the most desperate engagements with the
enemies of Greece. He perished in battle, but not till he had obtained
the glad assurance that the cause in which he had suffered so much
would eventually triumph. As for Zara,

                          “She sleeps well,
  By the sea-shore whereon she loved to dwell.”




STORY AND SENTIMENT,

OR, CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAN OF TASTE AND IMAGINATION.

No. 1.

  ‘His thoughts were not the thoughts of other men.’


In the spring of 18--, in consequence of ill health I betook me to
one of those lovely vallies on the Connecticut, where the traveler if
he has taste enough to look about him, may find grouped within the
circuit of half a mile, one of the loveliest villages in the world.
Its clear warm airs gently tempered by the winds of the ocean--the
freshness and verdure of the landscape sloping gradually backward from
the water side--the high hills which surround it, still covered with
dark and rolling forests, as when first the white man took possession
of them--and the thousand other natural beauties which are ever found
in quiet New England villages, made me bless the fate which carried me
thither, and the hour I made it my home.

My first want was a companion. From my boyhood, the book of nature was
familiar. I had loved to ramble by woods and streams--gather flowers
on meadow and hillside--and, with some favorite book, something to
pleasure me, while away the mornings in many a gay bewilderment of
fancy. But from the peculiarity of my disease, the bliss of solitary
thought was denied me; while my natural bent which was quiet and
meditative, it was thought might be indulged in to a degree, if shared
with some gentle and kindred spirit. This lack was supplied me. I had
been accustomed to observe in my rambles a pale thoughtful looking
man, whose peculiarly fine countenance made me wish his acquaintance.
This was brought about in some ordinary way, and would little interest
the reader--so I pass it at once; but the result of that acquaintance,
the knowledge I gained from it, the pleasure I derived from his
friendship, are things to be forgotten by me never; and it is with
reminiscences of my intercourse with this individual, that I intend to
supply myself with subject matter for these occasional papers. So much
was I delighted with him, that the first morning of our acquaintance
I committed to paper the results of our conversation; so I have but
little to do, save copying as from a register, such passages as I deem
will be entertaining--which thing I hope to do in an unostentatious
manner, at the same time throwing in such reflections as I think
apposite, and rambling backwards and forwards as suits the mood of my
mind. If I please, my time is well spent.

I must first give you a description of him, gentle reader, and the
place in which I found him, even if it take up my whole sheet. Conceive
yourself then on a little eminence about fifty yards removed from the
water side, the ground sloping gradually to the stream; and conceive a
small, low-roof’d farm house upon it with its windows facing the east,
and its white roof partly covered and quite shaded by a clump of tall
beech trees; and after you have looked at the creeper, and wild rose,
and honeysuckles that grow in profusion about the door, you may stand
and listen to the sound of the clearest, sweetest, sparkling little
rivulet, that ever gushed from its native bed, to go and mix its sweet
waters with the weltering waves of the ocean.

You may now stand with your back towards the farm-house, and look
down before you. The broad Connecticut sweeps majestically by, its
clear surface crinkled only by the sportings of some wanton fish as
it darts through it, dashing a shower of pearls into the sunbeams; or
perchance the form of a water fowl as it skims unwarily over it, gently
catching the liquid on its pinions to scatter it off again with the
next evolution. The soft piles of white clouds that sleep in the upper
heaven, are as moveless below you; and as the startled dor-hawk sweeps
out from the wood behind, and wends his course across to the distant
mountains, you may watch his small form on the water growing fainter
and fainter, till it becomes a speck and fades from the vision.

Now enter with me the dwelling. Is it not a scholar’s dwelling?
That finely stocked library, with its newly-dusted curtain of green
cotton-stuff--that row of antique busts over the mantel-piece--that
engraving of the fiery Byron--that fine one of Scott--and that
pleasing one of the gentle and melancholy Cowper--say, do you like
it? A table stands in the middle of the room, and on it are books of
a dozen languages--some thumbed and turned down as if they had seen
good service, and others uncut as fresh from the book-seller’s. Here’s
the antiquarian Homer. There’s the mellifluous Anachreon. This is the
shrewd Horace--and there’s the philosophic Seneca. How worn they all
are! No common one surely is the spirit of this place--But you shall
see him.

He sits by the table, writing. There’s a forehead for you, shaded
with fine dark hair--there’s an eye, deep, crystaline, full--there’s
a cheek, delicate, perhaps too delicate--and above a prominent chin,
there’s the pale thin lip of the scholar. His countenance is gentle,
but there’s something of severity about the small closed mouth, and in
the glitter of that eye--and yet all is calm, all is serenity, all is
gentleness. No dark passions have had commission to mark that noble
forehead--no feverish and fiery ambition have dared to light their
hectic taper on that cheek--all is natural. And his voice--that is
gentle too--woman would not wish softer. And now he smiles--how gentle!
There’s so much of peace in it, you _feel_ its gentleness.

Such was my friend. Alas! that he is not--that I have but the poor
satisfaction of poring over these few, brief-sketched passages of his
history.


HIS FIRST LOVE.

I found him one evening sad and solitary, seated by an open window with
a book in his hand, and gazing out into the moonlight. I addressed him,
but he answered me not. I took his hand and pressed it--he turned to
me, and to my surprise, his eyes were filled with tears.

I did not offer him my pity--his feelings were too holy. I let him weep.

‘My friend,’ said he, after a pause, ‘you are welcome.’

I ventured to ask if any thing had disturbed him.

‘There are moments,’ replied he, ‘in the life of every man, when,
whether he will or no, the simplest circumstance, such as a note of
music, a word, or a moonlight evening like this, will by the subtle law
of association call up a train of dead memories, and pour them in a
flood tide on the heart; and as these are pleasant or melancholy, will
his feelings take their coloring. Here is a little book of Sir Humphry
Davy’s, and it has set me weeping; for as I have followed him through
one and another of his foolish though beautiful theories, it has called
up passages of my life I would fain forget. They are sweet though--

  ‘Pleasant are the memories of days in the shades of Morven’--

and I know not but I thank the philosopher though he makes me womanish.’

My companion’s history was unknown to me--I had once or twice wished to
ask him--here was a chance. I delicately hinted as much.

‘You ask to your hurt I fear, my young friend,’ said he. ‘Little in my
life can interest another. It has seen little action. Feeling--strong,
continuous, deep feeling with small variation, is all it boasts; and
pleasant as it is to me, it may little please you.’

I was importunate.

‘I had a lovely cousin,’ began he, ‘a very lovely creature, and one
for whom I felt all that ardor of attachment, for the description and
stories of which, poets and novelists have been so much laughed at.
I shall not describe her to you. The graces of her mind only shall I
acquaint you with, and through them you must see her countenance. Her
parents were dead; and, taken into our house as one of the family,
our love went far back beyond our memories, even into childhood,
where if we love, it is by some subtle affinity which unconsciously
draws kindred spirits together--since at that age we seldom think to
dwell upon individual excellences of character. Our love as we knew
not when it began, so we knew not its force; yet it was pure, deep,
spiritual, and dreaming--that passion which instead of being modified,
modifies--instead of becoming assimilated, assimilates--belonging
not to the other power, but making those powers its own. Hence
our characters were alike. This unity softened down every unhappy
prepossession; and the result was, that our loves were like two
streams, which though they gush not from the same source, soon after
mingle and go quietly on together.

‘From what I have said, you will readily perceive we were dreamers. My
cousin was a dreamer--you would know it from the deep, full, swimming
eye, without any body’s telling it you; and we were wont to go of a
summer’s evening to the church yard, and seated on her mother’s grave,
drink in from the silence, and darkness, and solitude of the scene,
that witchery and madness which dreamers so much love. From such habits
it will easily be seen, that our characters must soon be sobered over
with the sad shapings of melancholy. Such habits cultivate this mood;
and persisted in, the sensibilities if naturally exquisite, become so
much the more so that they soon unfit us for every thing else, and win
us from the laughter-making and foolish.

‘We were seated one evening as I have mentioned, and our thoughts very
naturally turned upon spirits, their intercourse, and the laws which
govern them, and the conversation took such a tone as fastened it
forever in my memory.

‘I sometimes think,’ said she, clinging tenderly to me, and clasping my
hand firmly in both of hers--‘that when we are free from this world,
and disenthralled, are ushered into a new existence, we shall lose our
identity, and have to find out new sympathies and sources of enjoyment;
and the thought saddens me.’

‘Why saddens you?’

‘O! I would not forget this world. I would not forget its beauties--its
rocks, woodlands, wilds,

  ‘Its human and its natural beauties all.’--

I would not forget them. They _must_ be a source of felicity ever--ever
pleasant to be remembered--ever spots to which memory shall turn her
saddened eye, when the heart is sick with its melancholies.’

‘Fanny, think you the blessed weep?’

‘O! I know not--‘but I could not bear to forget this beautiful world,
and those I love in it.’

‘Think you’--said I--‘that he who made the spirit and knows its
capacities, will not find for it something more substantial than earth
proffers us? You know the aged tell us, there’s no bliss here; and we
see the young, and gay, and beautiful, fall around us like leaves in
Autumn-time. What matters it then if we take other minds, as distinct
as our own bodies?’

‘Arthur! Arthur!--you pain me. Would you not know _me_ hereafter?’

‘Doubt it not--we _shall_ know each other.’

‘I would think so.’

‘From God’s benevolence we cannot prove it; for as benevolence leads
to giving the highest good, it may lead him to give us faculties above
those we now possess, and felicities in comparison with which all that
we have here shall instantly be forgotten. But it is seen from our
natures. Our faculties, in their aspirations for something higher,
by those very aspirations _evidence_ faculties, which earth puts not
in requisition. Few are the thinking minds who have not sometimes in
the calm of the evening, as they have sent their gaze away into the
heavens, and watched the stars come out to join the mighty sisterhood
of planets and rolling worlds, felt a thirst and a lifting up within
them as the pulsations of immortality. This _is_ immortality. The
world (not to speak poetically,) is forgotten. I myself have been so
far enrapt in this mystery, that I have as completely lost my mortal
consciousness as if I had never possessed any; at the same time I
have been partly conscious of the same powers as those I use when
admiring things around me. I was translated to another sphere--worlds
of light were rolling around me--I myself was a source of light and
magnificence, rolling on forever

  ‘Still quiring to the young eyed Cherubim!’

A state of purity was there. I admired it--but it was the same as my
love of virtue here, though incomparably higher; and I was conscious of
the same though more elevated communion, as the music of the spheres

  ‘Harping along their viewless boundaries,’

came floating about me. And these things prove that the same faculties
go with us from earth, though their reachings and exercises may be as
much nobler, as time is less than eternity.’

‘My sweet cousin was re-assured--and we soon betook us home.

‘This evening,’ continued he, ‘its stillness, its soft moonlight, and
this foolish little treasure of a book in my hand, have recalled that
evening, and that conversation--they have set me weeping. ’Tis seldom I
speak of the past, but your importunity stands apology.’

I quickly and firmly assured him, that so far from seeking apology, my
interest was unaccountable; and I begged the sequel in relation to his
cousin.

‘Ask it not--ask it not’--said he, with deep solemnity.

He spake no farther.

Such was a single evening’s intercourse with this mysterious being.
More I learned from him--which in good time the reader shall have from
me. Till then, adieu.

                                                                  *




FANNY WILLOUGHBY.


  “I love thee, Fanny Willoughby,
    And that’s the why, ye see,
  I woo thee, Fanny Willoughby,
    And cannot let thee be,--
  I sing for thee, I sigh for thee,
    And O! you may depend on’t,
  I’ll weep for thee, I’ll die for thee,
    And that will be the end on’t.

  “I love thy form so tall and straight,
    To me it always seems,
  As if it were the counterfeit
    Of some I’ve seen in dreams,--
  It makes me feel as if I had
    An angel by my side,
  And then I think I am so bad,
    You will not be my bride.

  “I love thy clear and hazel eye--
    They say the blue is fairer,
  And I confess that formerly
    I thought the blue the rarer,--
  But when I saw thine eye so clear,
    Though perfectly at rest,
  I did kneel down, and I did swear
    The hazel was the best.

  “I love thy hand so pale and soft,
    The which, in days lang syne,
  Ye innocent as trusting, oft
    Would softly clasp in mine;
  I thought it sure was chiseled out
    Of marble by the geniuses,
  The which the poets rant about,
    The virgins and the Venuses.

  “I love the sounds that from thy lip
    Gush holily and free,
  As rills that from their caverns slip,
    And prattle to the sea;
  The melody for aye doth steal
    To hearts by sorrow riven,
  And then I think, and then I _feel_
    That music comes from Heaven.

  “Now listen, Fanny Willoughby,
    To what I cannot keep,
  My days ye rob of happiness,
    My nights ye rob of sleep;
  And if ye don’t relent, why I
    Believe you will me kill;
  For passion must have vent, and I
    Will kill myself I will.”

  ’Twas thus, when love had made me mad
    For Fanny Willoughby,
  I told my tale, half gay, half sad,
    To Fanny Willoughby;
  And Fanny look’d as maiden would
    When love her heart did burn,
  And Fanny sigh’d as maiden should,
    And murmur’d a return.

  And so I woo’d Fan Willoughby--
    A maiden like a dove,
  And so I won Fan Willoughby--
    The maiden of my love;
  And though sad years have pass’d since that,
    And she is in the sky,
  I never, never can forget
    Sweet Fanny Willoughby.

                                                                  *




CONFESSIONS OF A SENSITIVE MAN.

No. 1.


The first time I left Droneville, was for the purpose of joining the
Junior Class in Yale College. Having received letters of introduction
to Dr. ----, I was ushered by his misjudged kindness, with all my
awkwardness upon me, into the very center of fashionable life.
Fashionable life! what a variety of blunders, of ludicrous mistakes,
of embarrassing scenes, rise up at the very phrase, mingled with the
uproarious laughter of young men, and the suppressed titter of young
ladies, the mere memory of which is sufficient to drive distracted a
sensitive man. To my miserable, rustic education, I am indebted for
a great share of my calamities. Before relating my experience in the
world of fashion, I will attempt to convey to my readers an idea of
some of the peculiarities of Droneville people.

In one of the western counties of Massachusetts, is situated the
village of Droneville--the Rip Van Winkle of the state--the very focus
of stupidity. Droneville people are a century behind the rest of the
world. One would imagine that old Time had pitched them out of his
car in 1700, while he has been driving on the rest of the world like
Jehu. Without the least scruple, they use those rank provincialisms,
which would make the most legitimate Yankee tongue of other parts,
feel “considerably streaked.” Droneville people are opposed to all
your modern refinements in education. “We are satisfied with the
language of our fathers, without bringing it to the test of any of
your grammar rules.” As a necessary consequence, the king’s English
is murdered by them without the least mercy. Double comparatives and
superlatives dance through their conversation in an intricate maze of
the sublimest obscurity. To Droneville people I was indebted for my
pure, classical dialect, which was so extremely pleasing that I never
addressed a polite speech to a young lady, without making her giggle
in spite of her most vigorous efforts. “Hisen” and “hern,” “yourn”
and “theirn,” and such phrases, might be expected as a matter of
course; but Droneville people are no common Yankees; they have words
and expressions which are perfectly unique. “Chirk” is a favorite of
theirs. If you enquire respecting some invalid who is convalescing,
the answer is, “he is more chirk.” A young Miss of Droneville, (for
whom, by the way, I always had a sneaking partiality,) once replied to
a question as to her mother’s health--an old bedridden dame of eighty,
“Why, she is not very _chirk_, but more _chirker_ than she has been;
all our folks appear more _chirker_ than they really feel, in order to
_chirk_ her up.” “Comper” is another of their expressions. Any fracas
or tumult, like the Calethump of Christmas eve memory, would be styled
by them a “comper.” Their language is certainly original:

“Mrs. Doublechin, what is the matter with your good man?”

“I don’t hardly know, ‘Squire, he seems to be _kinder fevery and kinder
aguery_.”

Droneville people are profound philosophers. You will not find them
chattering incessantly upon every topic under the sun; their ideas are
connected by none of your “obvious relations;” they are slow, but sure
thinkers, and when they _do_ speak, you may expect to hear something.
Catch Droneville people doing any thing in a rash, hasty manner?
catch a weasel asleep. They are equally considerate in their mental
and physical operations. If a man begins to build a house, without
reflecting upon it for some twenty years, Droneville people shake their
heads in a very significant manner, muttering something about not
“counting the cost.” A house is commenced by one generation, allowed to
“season” through another, and completed by the third. Droneville people
are not composed of any of your inflammable materials; you will not
find them acting under the influence of “excitement” or “passion.” They
like to “take things coolly”--to think deliberately.

Deacon Snuffle was informed that widow Switchtail had been _recently_
converted, and hastened to converse with her. “How long is it, Mrs.
Switchtail,” said he, “since you first began to see the error of your
ways?”

“Why, Deacon, it is as long ago as what we old folks call the _hard
winter_.” Deacon Snuffle made his exit with all imaginable speed,
exclaiming, “your religion, widow, is something like an old clock, in
considerable need of being wound up.”

A minister was “settled” among Droneville people, several years since,
who is about as ardent as they are phlegmatic, suggesting the image
of a spirited young steed, yoked to a contemplative ox. He exhorts,
preaches, frets, drives his flesh off in attempting to “rouse them
up;” but they take it “just as easy” as conceivable. What can be more
tantalizing! He appoints meetings upon week days, but Droneville people
are not so fond of meetings upon week days; it savors too much of
_driving_ people into religion. The parson consoles himself with the
thought that they will come to church upon the Sabbath, and prepares
for them a warm reception. And they _do_ come upon the Sabbath, and
sleep, yea, snore as loud as if they were in their beds. Miss Catnip, a
snappish old maid, once complained that “Deacon Snuffle’s wife snored
so loud that she couldn’t get the least bit of rest.” My Aunt Tabitha
is never absent from church. She has so constantly seated herself upon
the same bench, that she has fairly impressed her own proportions
there. She has one invariable reply to the parson’s oft repeated
exhortations, “young people may die, old people must die.”

The parson wishes to do great things for all the benevolent operations
of the day, but what do Droneville people know about benevolent
operations? Instruct them? “Droneville people ar’nt to be instructed;
they know a thing or two.” Besides, Droneville people are half inclined
to think that “charity begins at home.” Turn them? You may turn a mule,
when he has once “placed his foot down,” with a mule’s determination,
but there is no turning _them_. They are as obstinate and headstrong as
doctors of theology; coaxing and cuffs are equally unavailing.

There is nothing which Droneville people resist so much as innovation.
An attempt to change old customs, or to drive them from the well
trodden path of their ancestors, will raise such a cackling among
long-winded gossippers and slippery tongued spinsters, as would
drive Beelzebub himself from the roost. Mr. Long Metre--a member of
that fraternity who wander about teaching one half of the people how
they can best _squeal off_ the ears of the other half--attempted to
reform Droneville choir. This Radical broached the theory, that it
was impossible for the young ladies to sing melodiously while they
wore their bonnets, since the sweet nightingales were prevented from
hearing their neighbors’ voices. The singing master, having been
joined by a few of the young bucks--bold fellows these--venturing
sometimes to give the ‘gals’ a sneaking glance or a sly wink, made a
movement to carry the reform into operation. What pen can describe the
“comper” which this excited! It was too much for the equanimity of the
gentlemen of the old school. It was like touching a torch to their
beards. Oh Droneville! who would have thought, that the flames of
party animosity could ever have been kindled in thy peaceful streets?
yet such was the fact. Every man, woman, and child, was ranged under
the banner of the bonnets, or the anti-bonnets. The bonnets claimed,
“that the measure of their opponents was an unheard-of innovation,
exposing the health of the ‘little dears,’ encouraging extravagance in
dress, endangering the morals of the young men, in short, that it was
wholly unrighteous, unscriptural and indelicate, for St. Paul expressly
declares that ‘every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head
uncovered, dishonoreth her head.’” I noticed that this doctrine was
warmly espoused by all the red haired young ladies, and desperate
spinsters. The anti-bonnets, headed by the singing master, supported
by the aforementioned bucks, and all the most buxom of the village
girls, unable to withstand the cogent arguments of their adversaries,
dispatched a delegation to secure upon their side, the influence of the
parson. The good man stood aghast! What could he do? To commit himself
upon either side, would be his ruin: to stand neutral, was impossible.
Mr. Soporific Heth--the village tailor--a most vigorous performer upon
a cracked clarionet, was chosen ambassador. Mr. Heth was a lean, long
sided piece of anatomy, with an elongated phiz, nose like a fish hook,
and lips blown to a point by his constant musical exertions. In order
to add dignity to the delegation, Mr. Wonderful Gruff--whose magic
powers wooed harmony from an antiquated base viol--accompanied Mr.
Heth. Mr. Gruff was the wisest man in Droneville. To be sure, he never
spoke a word to reveal his wisdom, but then he _looked_ tremendous
wise, and a nod or a grunt from Mr. Gruff, had more influence in the
village councils, than a speech of an hour’s length from most men. Mr.
Gruff was a perfect personification of conceited obstinacy. His short
stubborn neck and mulish character, evinced a perfect harmony of parts,
and unity of design. Such were the animals which presented themselves
in the parson’s study. Mr. Heth, of course, was the orator--and such a
one! He was none of your concise speakers, who tell all they have to
say in the fewest words possible, but an eloquent, long-winded orator,
able to talk a vast while without saying any thing. Mr. Heth was very
fond of onions--the parson, however, had rather an aversion to these
delicacies. Mr. Heth was, moreover, afflicted with deafness, and for
the double purpose of increasing the effect of his own masterly powers,
and hearing his auditor’s replies, he drew a chair near his victim, and
for about half an hour, blew an irresistible torrent of eloquence into
the parson’s nose. Unable to resist such honied words, accompanied by a
voice which rivaled the most cracked notes of Mr. Heth’s own clarionet,
and seconded by the momentous nods and grunts of Mr. Gruff, the parson
declared himself a convert to the principles of the anti-bonnets.
This was the signal of triumph to their party--their opponents were
crushed, and the bonnets were banished from the choir. After several
weeks spent in preparation, the eventful Sabbath finally arrived,
when the _élite_ of Droneville maidens, were to appear in ‘unbonneted’
beauty. Never had there been such an excitement in Droneville. The
choir, and their appearance, were discussed in all places. It was
regularly “served up,” at every tea table in the village. “What are
Droneville people coming to,” exclaimed the old ladies; “things are
changed since we were lads,” responded the veterans. “If I hadn’t any
more hair than Polly Snipe, you wouldn’t catch me singing with my
bonnet off,” said Miss Catnip. The day arrived; it was a cool bracing
morning in January; but never, “within the memory of the oldest
inhabitants,” had Droneville church been so crowded. While the parson
was imploring God’s blessing, the bucks were ogling and whispering,
the singers were turning over the leaves of their books, an occasional
note escaped from the nose of Mr. Long Metre, Mr. Gruff was tuning
his base viol, Mr. Heth was caulking his clarionet. The hymn is at
length “given out,”--all eyes are turned to the gallery,--every mouth
is opened in wondering expectation,--the blind wipe their spectacles,
the deaf seize their trumpets, the eyes of the young bucks flashed
with pleasure, those of the spinsters looked “unutterable things.”
The choir arise, and while they stand like impatient coursers, with
parted lips, awaiting the signal from Mr. Long Metre, let me attempt to
describe the vision of paradise which burst upon my enraptured sight.
It was a scene worthy the graphic pencil of Hogarth. There stood the
assembled beauty of Droneville, with cheeks and noses kindled into a
glow by the fresh air of a January morning. The gallery rose, seat
over seat, presenting to the beholder an inclined plane of all that
is beautiful in a red and blue phiz, studded with love-darting eyes,
and party-colored heads, which might rival the coat of the patriarch.
There they stand--long hinnies and short hinnies, sylph-like hinnies
and porpoise-like hinnies, in regular confusion, with pates arrayed
in every variety of fantastical gear ever invented by womankind. Some
were adorned with flowers, others with feathers; some, having strained
their hair so tight from their foreheads that they could not wink, had
twisted it into a pig’s-tail upon the top of their craniums; a few,
of more classic taste, had parted their locks from their brows, a la
Madonna; others suffered them to float in unbraided beauty, a la witch
of Endor; and one roguish little urchin was evidently arrayed in her
grandmother’s cap. Thus they stand--the “pitch” is given, and away
burst Droneville choir with impetuous fury--the power of every voice
and every instrument is strained to its utmost capacity--Mr. Long Metre
managed to scream the loudest--Mr. Soporific Heth blew his clarionet
into several pieces--Mr. Gruff sawed his base viol ‘in two.’

Such was the performance of Droneville choir.--The combined power of
all that is thrilling in beauty and melody, inflicted a wound upon my
sentimental heart from which it has not yet recovered.




EVERY ONE HIS OWN CRITIC.

  “A spirit and judgment equal or superior.”--_Milton._


A distinctly formed power of judging of literary productions, and of
rightly and fully estimating their intrinsic and their comparative
merits, is a thing of rare occurrence. Even educated men, whose
opinions with respect to other things are of high value, seem not
generally to have carried their systematic habits of thought into this
province, deferring it almost wholly to professed critics. On the other
hand, there is a crowd of slender judges, of some qualities of books,
who are yet utterly incapable of appreciating others which are more
vital.

It becomes, therefore, an important question to one who would be an
independent thinker, how the evil may be remedied in his own case. It
may be answered in general, not chiefly by reading literary reviews.
Much, doubtless, may be learned in this way about many books and their
authors; so much indeed, so wide is the field opened, as to divert the
mind from seeking an intimate acquaintance with any. Without question,
the effect of this kind of reading often, and indeed usually is, to
overload the mind with a multitude of opinions which speedily pass
from it, leaving it advanced in no respect except in an opinion of
its own knowledge. Even where something more than mere entertainment
is sought, the result is much the same. We would ask those who are so
busy in collecting the opinions of others, how often an attempt is made
effectually to reproduce those opinions in their own minds, and to test
them by a careful study of the author in hand. The comparatively light
manner of hurrying over even the extracts, which critical kindness
has pointed out, is a sufficient answer. The very object indeed of
resorting to reviews is to avoid tasking the mind. It is indeed vastly
easier to take from the review opinions ready made, than to struggle
to bring up into the light one’s own dim conceptions of excellence or
defect, and to summon the mind to make account to itself. But as the
result we have an unformed and lifeless acquaintance, with works even
of the highest order--an acquaintance consisting, for the most part, of
half-remembered, and half-forgotten crude opinions _about_ them. For
the mind itself there is a habit of dependence on something without,
and not of itself, for the grounds of its opinions--a habit arising,
almost necessarily, from being accustomed to submit to the absoluteness
and dictatorship of the professed critic.

There is liable to be created also, a habit of dependence for the
_interest_ which is felt in literary works generally, novels excepted.
It cannot be denied that the critic himself and his opinions, often
form the main point of interest, and that the author is comparatively
uninteresting; when it is not so, the critic is often depended upon
to excite for the author an interest, which is to cease with the
remembrance of the former. The sympathies are with the critic, not with
the author. Besides this, reviews treat mostly of what is passing;
the attention of the review reader is, therefore, in a great degree
confined to that. Hence we have, in many of those who are thought to be
acquainted with literature, a love for excitement, dependent on what is
conventional and present, rather than a permanent interest resulting
from broad and well grounded views.

It is certain that he who aims not merely to understand, but vigorously
to apprehend, and distinctly to appreciate the work before him, will
wish, in matters of opinion, to banish all thoughts of the critic, as
an unwelcome intruder, however excellent in his kind, between himself
and the author.

In order that a man may thus become a critic for himself, he should
seek to excite in himself a love of literature for its own sake,
in opposition both to a mere love of entertainment and to mere
indifference. For here, it is eminently true that unless a man
loves he cannot understand. But then that love must be liberal and
discriminating; it must be a love which will carry one through the
difficulties of the way. But for these qualities a mere love of
entertainment is least remarkable, devouring indiscriminately what is
often least valuable, and blindly rejecting the rest.

It deserves to be considered, whether this has not been too much the
spirit of the readers of poetry. The maxim, that “it is the office
of the poet to please, not to instruct,” ought not to be taken thus
absolutely. It is indeed “sweetly uttered knowledge,” which the poet
imparts, but is it the less knowledge? It is not indeed knowledge
systematized, but not the less real knowledge of the human heart in all
its relations.

But the great obstacle to be removed, is an indifference which leads
to desultory reading. We refer especially to an indifference to
merits. Fault-finding we have enough; while of merits there is often a
comparatively languid appreciation. A very low mind and small abilities
may be equal to the former; the latter demands a mind liberal and
vigorous.

In order to remove this indifference, there must be a love of
literature for its own sake. This will animate the mind with a
liberal zeal, and, at the same time, will supersede the love of mere
entertainment.

Let him who would feel such a love, endeavor to obtain some notion of
literature as it is. In order to this let him acquaint himself with
its history. Let him view it as the offspring of the human mind in
all ages, wrought up to its divinest energy; as that which embodies
in itself thoughts of power and images of beauty; as a purifier and
refiner of the human feelings. Let him consider it also, with direct
reference to his own mind and heart. For this end, he should place
himself on the broad ground of our common humanity, in distinction
from any prejudice, or conventional mode of thinking. Viewing himself
as a man, and as such recognizing the mind and the human feelings
within his own breast, let him look upon literature, as the glorious
expression of what is kindred to those, and as such demanding his
sympathy. By this habit of constant reference to his own mind, he will
acquire in literature, a permanent interest. Distinctly conscious of
the mind within his own breast, he will welcome mind wherever he meets
it: recognizing the feelings of his own heart, he will go forth in
sympathy with those of another; feeling within himself a love of the
beautiful, he will stand ready to admire and value its objects. Unless
a man cultivates such habits, so that he shall have a warm and living
interest in ascertaining literary worth, he cannot be a critic. He
will not seek out merits which he has not some interest in finding.
If, on the other hand, a man have this habit of immediate reference to
his own mind, he will not only have such an interest, but will also
have placed himself in the only right point of view to judge of any
literary production. He will not be guided by a set of rules which are
in a manner foreign to the mind; nor will his criticism be expressed in
phrases which are unmeaning, or the meaning of which he has never asked
himself. It will be the faithful exhibition of the warm impressions
upon a mind rightly prepared to receive them. How the mind is to be
thus prepared is another question. The attitude which it should take we
have stated; but to assume this it is not qualified at once, and with
regard to every work. Obviously it must be enlightened by knowledge of
the various departments of literature, that it may judge accurately
of any one. Yet this is not all that is demanded of it. In order to
judge of the intrinsic merits of any literary production, there must
be an exercise of powers like those which originated it. The mind
must be trained distinctly, and by itself, for this end. Otherwise,
it cannot form any conception of those powers, much less can it know
how to value their productions. In proportion also as the latter are
of a high order, must be the activity to which feebler powers must be
aroused to apprehend them. While this is true with respect to every
kind of writing, its necessity is more distinctly seen in reading the
works of the poet. For the powers there demanded are less in daily use.
The reader must, in a certain sense, be himself a poet, in order to be
a critic of poetry. Otherwise, he cannot sympathize with the author,
and cannot judge of him at all. For, we repeat it, it is by a direct
reference to our own minds, as appealed to by the mind of another, that
we must judge of literary worth.

Thus to qualify and attune the mind, is indeed a task. The necessity,
however, is plain. We may now, also understand how it is that a man
may with ease equal the critic whom he reads, and then flatter himself
into the belief that he has compassed the author whom he has not the
vigor and habits of mind necessary to appreciate. For want of them, the
opinions of the critic will be either forgotten, or vaguely remembered
or applied. In either case the mind will have gained a feeling of undue
self-importance.

It may seem audacious to approach in the manner we have attempted to
describe, the works of those to whom we have been wont to look up with
implicit reverence. But no one, we think, will be more humble in his
own eyes, than he who has tried and found how hard it is to attempt
fully to comprehend when fairly set before him, that which another
wrought out from unshaped materials. Nor will his admiration be the
less, because he sees that it is well grounded; while by a habit of
raising himself to cope with great minds, he will be enabled to see in
their true light, and to approach with an air of just superiority those
which are inferior.

We have thus attempted to show some of the preparations of mind and
spirit, for the office of criticism. But there must also be a strict
and severe judgment, to exercise over the mind a constant supervision,
and to keep it from partaking of the unsoundness of those with which it
comes in contact, as well as a sensibility to their merits.

It has not been our object to dwell upon the particular points
of criticism. There is one which will be found to include almost
all others, and which has been already implied. We have spoken of
literature as the means of correspondence between mind and mind. Of
course, by far the most important point of criticism will be to study
the mind and spirit of the author in his works. Much may be learned,
in this way, that shall fix a lasting communion between ourselves and
the author who is worthy of such intimacy. And further, by laying bare
the shaping and moving spirit of that which is presented to us, and
by ascertaining the precise attitude of the author with respect to
his work, we shall be enabled to see more distinctly what are merits
and defects, because we shall know whither to refer them. By this
means, even the minutest peculiarities may be marked; that which is
artificial, may be distinguished from that which is genuine; style may
be clearly characterized, and the whole work will be set before us in
two-fold clearness, and with two-fold interest.

If literature is worth any thing, it is worth such study and such
exertions, on the part of every one. He who studies it in this way,
will not view the books which meet his eye with a languid and feeble
interest; nor as so many subjects for examination, which are afterwards
to be set aside, as a sort of explained phenomena. He will study their
merits in order to welcome and appropriate them to himself, as the
fruits of kindred minds. The wise and the good of all ages will thus
become his friends and companions.

                        G.




TRUMBULL GALLERY.

WASHINGTON ON THE BANKS OF THE DELAWARE.


  ’Tis well to gaze upon thee, glorious chief:
  There is instruction with thee. There’s no brief
  Or fleeting lesson traced on thy calm brow.
  A nation’s love is thine. Her prayer is now
  Uprising for thy weal. A nation’s life
  Is trusted to thy care; and calls thee to the strife.
  The mother leaneth on her well tried son
  And finds thee never wanting, Washington.

  The angry waters leap and roar below.
  Danger is on the air--sounds of the mighty foe--
  Wildness is all around thee. The scathed oak,
  Rent rock--earth ploughed by the death wing’d stroke,
  Wind-shriek, storm-gloom, death-chill.
  Thou art alone unmoved. Thine eye is still
  Proudly undaunted--far darting, fearless, grand,
  Flashing with patriot fire, shielding our father-land.

  Thine is no kingly dignity. Thy brow
  Wears not so poor a wreath.--The sacred glow
  And majesty of freedom beam around thee there--
  Her laurel crown is thine--no other would’st thou wear.
  She knows thee, her lov’d worshiper. To guard her shrine
  No truer arm the sword has bared, high chief, than thine.
  ’Tis well to think of thee--thy immortality how won,
  Tried warrior, statesman, father, Washington.

  IONE.




GREEK ANTHOLOGY.--No. 1.


Reader! hast thou seen the Greek Anthology? If not, go get it. ’Tis
passing beautiful. Dost thou wish to see into the very heart of the
finest people God ever made? Dost thou long to acquaint thee with the
real character of the bright-souled Grecian? Then lay upon the shelf
the fiery Homer, with his “damnable iteration,” and even the neat
Xenophon--the soldier, historian, and philosopher. Lay them aside, I
bid thee, and run thine eye gently over those little heart-bursts,
to which chance gave being, and which chance has most marvellously
preserved. Dost thou look to see the true proportions of the actor, as
he “struts his brief hour upon the busy stage?” Go to the green-room,
and behold him divested of all the super-imposed grandeur of cork and
buskin. Dost thou think to _know_ men, by scanning them, as they thread
the streets of the city, as they toil in the heat of the forum, or pray
among the pillars of the temple? The smile is, indeed, gracious--the
bow lowly--the look subdued. But, man, you see the _face_, not the
_heart_. They are all masquerading--most ludicrously too. Go to their
homes, my friend. Watch them by their fire-sides--with their wives
and children--in their household familiarity. Vexings are upon them,
and their hearts are troubled. The world--the censorious world is far
away, and they fear not the scrutiny of its prying eyes. A cloud comes
over the sunshine of the soul, and they fret and fume at their petty
tribulations. And are _these_ those unctuous men, on whose faces sat
enthroned such unruffled peace? Yea, verily!

Thou mayest think this an impertinent digression; but I made it, and
_I_ best know its design. ’Tis merely a rambling illustration--a
stroll through the woods instead of a prosing walk along the road.
’Tis a similitude, I say--too long--yet a good one. Its pith is this.
The poets, orators, philosophers, and historians--in fine, _all_ the
great authors dressed for court, or--if that term seem too monarchical
for the Republic of Letters--they dressed for a levee--a democratic
_jam_--they _rouged_, frizzled, combed, brushed, and bedizened
themselves artificially. Homer, the oldest, is likewise the simplest
of them all. But even _he_ knew that he was stared at, and, like a
man in company, adjusted his neckoloth, felt queer, and walked stiff.
He does not give his own sentiments--he was writing a history of his
nation, and it was at once his interest and his pleasure, to gild
each slightest incident, and turn poverty to splendor. Thus does he
show us about as much of the real character of those simple people in
that early age, as do the roundelays of chivalry acquaint us with the
habits of those motley knights, whose loves they celebrate, and whose
prowess they record. It is not, then, in the elaborate writers of any
nation, that you are to look for faithful portraitures of that nation’s
character. Great geniuses bear the same leading traits in all climates,
and their works are simple mental creations, rather than copies of
the habits of their age. ’Tis familiarity with the various effusions
of a thousand different pens--drinking from the heart’s overflowing
fullness,--that thoroughly acquaints one with a people.

Reader, I am weary of these remarks, as I doubt not thou art. Therefore
will I cease. And here would I advertise thee that I travel more for my
own pleasure than for thine. My path lies through a lovely country, and
I shall walk, run, halt, refresh, whenever and wherever I think proper.
I shall take the cross-roads--rove through the green fields--lie under
the shady trees--and drink of the cool springs. If thou wilt wander
with me, it is well, and I trust our trip will be a merry one. It is
my design to do into English--as we may aptly express such barbarous
usage--some of the Anthology--to transplant and naturalize among our
northern rocks some of those rare and beautiful exotics. The soil is
cold, and the clime rude--yet, with thy fostering care, and sunny
smiles, the flowers may grow. And if, thus roughly torn from their
warm home, they seem pale and sickly, have the justice, kind reader,
to believe that they _were_ beautiful--yea! most beautiful. The blame
be on the unskillful hand that removed them from their own sunny
Greece--the garden, where they bloomed. Thou knowest that the Syrian
olive would be but a stinted thing among the snows of Greenland, even
though “with cost, and care, and warmth, induced to shoot.” Perchance
my efforts may not be entirely without their value, since those, who
have drunk with thirsty fervor at the fountain, my awkward paraphrase
will only send back to their “first love” with renewed devotion, while
that Sun of Poetry, which, though “shorn of his beams,” will not,
I trust, have lost all “his original brightness,” will, in others,
enkindle a holy ardor to climb the “Aonian mount,” and gaze full on his
unclouded splendor.

First of all, let me present thee with a glorious song--I mean glorious
in its primal sky of Greece, before my dull northern disc transmitted
its beams, dimmed and diminished. It is an ode to two tyrannicidal
brothers, Aristogeiton and Harmodius, who, at the Panathenian festival
of Minerva, concealing swords in the myrtle branches borne on that
occasion, attacked Hipparchus, and by his death regained their
country’s freedom. It was sung by the Greeks at their entertainments.
It has been Anglicised frequently, but its simple beauty, and deep
enthusiasm, defy all translation.

  In branch of myrtle will I bear the sword,
    As did Harmodius of old,
  When slew he Athens’ tyrant-lord,
    And, with his brother bold,
    Armed in his country’s cause,
    Preserved her equal laws.

  Dearest Harmodius! thou art not dead;
    But in the islands of the bless’d thou art,
  Where swift Achilles rests his weary head,
    And brave Tydides calms his stormy heart.

  In branch of myrtle will I bear the sword,
      As did Harmodius of old,
      Who, with his brother bold,
  When votive cups at Pallas’ shrine were poured,
  Destroyed Hipparchus, Athens’ tyrant-lord.

  Thy glory on the earth shall never fade,
    Dearest Harmodius, with thy brother brave,
  Because the tyrant in the dust ye laid,
    And did the equal laws of Athens save.

What have we next? Pollianus. And who was Pollianus? I know not. It
is certain he has left us a very pretty epigram, which I have thus
endeavored to render in Latin and English. _Hem tibi!_


_To a miserly Usurer._

  Multa tenes, et nulla tenes. Quare? Omnia locas.
    Sic te inopem reddis, debitor ut teneat.

  Though rich, yet poor. How thus? Your all you lend,
  And rob yourself of what your debtors spend.

Here follows another, and, once for all, if any proud critic, in his
wisdom, or pretty girl, in her ignorance, object to my translating, now
and then, into bald Latin as well as plain English, let them know that
I am a bit of a pedant. Some of it needs a Latin guise, to cover its
roughness. The critic may deride, _si placet_, and the lady _skip_, if
she like.


EPIGRAM.--_By Julianus Egyptius, whose poverty secured him against
robbers._

  Aedibus ex aliis, fures, vos quaerite lucrum.
    His foribus custos pauperies mea erit.

  Expect not here, ye thieves, your lust to sate,
  For need, strong portress, watcheth at the gate.

Here is an epitaph. Upon whom? Euripides. By whom. Thucydides. Read it.
It is instructive. The subject and the author are dead; but each sleeps
under a stately tomb. Their works are their mausolea. But the idea--is
it not affecting? Twenty-three centuries agone, a great historian
weeping over the grave of a splendid poet!

  Greece is thy tomb; but Sparta holds thy clay,
  For there thy life beheld its latest day.
  Athens--the Greece of Greece--first gave thee breath,
  Dear to the muses, and renowned in death.


AN EPITAPH, _which Hippo ordered to be placed on his monument_.

  Lo! Hippo’s tomb, whom Fate, by death, has made
  Peer to the gods in their immortal shade.


_By Rufinus, to Melite_--Anglicè, _Fanny--a very pretty girl_.

  Lumina habes Junonia pulchra, manusque Minervae,
    Pectora (proh!) Veneris, atque pedes Thetidos.
  Felix, qui viderit, qui te audieritque, beatus:
    _Semi_deus tui amans, _omni_deus tui vir.

The word _omni_deus I claim as my own. I made it myself. _Noli
tangere._

  Thy face is brightened by fair Juno’s eyes,
    And Pallas lends thee her immortal hand;
  Thy breasts, like those of Paphian Venus, rise;
    Thy feet, like Thetis’, trip across the sand.
  Ah! happy he, that gazes on thy face,
    And he twice-bless’d, that listens to thy voice;
  Thy lover, sure, is of angelic race,
    And--a bright god--thy husband may rejoice.


_An address to Mammon, by Timocrates, the Rhodian._

      Vellem, vellem, caece Plute,
      Nec in terra, nec in alto,
      Tua forma cerneretur.
      Tartarum autem inhabitare,
      Acheronta teque oportet.
      Ex te namque prava nobis
      Enasci omnia videntur.

  Sightless Mammon, may’st thou be
  Neither on the earth nor sea;
  But be thou condemned to dwell
  In the deepest depth of hell.
  For, thou eyeless god, from thee
  Springeth all our misery.

Here we have Plato--the philosopher--tilting it in verse.


_To Aristophanes, the comedian._

  The Graces, seeking long to find
    Some temple, free from all decay,
  Chose, Aristophanes, thy mind,
    As that, which cannot pass away.


_To Sappho._

  Falsely they say the Muses are but nine--
  A tenth is Lesbian Sappho--the divine.

In the following little _morceau_, the frog is considered as a priest
to the Nymphs, whose particular jurisdiction was over streams and
fountains.


_To a brazen frog, set up by a traveler, as an offering to the Nymphs._

  Thee--the Nymphs’ servant--lover of the shower--
    Moist songster, dwelling in the shallow springs--
  The traveler, forming with mimetic power,
    A brazen offering, to the temple brings.
  For to the wanderer thine amphibious note
    Forth from thy dewy lodge, all timely, rung,
  And led his fainting footsteps to the spot,
    Where from the earth the gushing fountain sprung.


_To a statue of Pan--the shepherd-god--carved with a pipe in his mouth._

  Seat thee, O Pan, beneath this vocal tree,
    Whose high leaves whisper, as the west-winds rise.
  And by my gurgling springs thy pipe shall be
    A lull of magic to my closing eyes.


_To a statue of Venus, at Cnidus, by Praxiteles._

  To view her image at her Cnidian shrine.
    The Paphian goddess through the billows came,
  Looked long upon the lineaments divine,
    And gazed, in rapture, at the faultless frame.
  “Where did the sculptor view my naked form
    With gaze unlawful?” Cythereia cried;
  “’Tis the cold chisel makes the marble warm,
    Like me, when Ares for my beauty sighed.”

Reader! should we meet again, be it kindly.

                        HERMENEUTES.




“OUR MAGAZINE.”


What was contrived by the intellectual skill of many, has been
accomplished by the physical energies of a few, and the first number of
the “Yale Literary Magazine,” is now before the public. But, dropping
this Johnsonian magnificence, indulgent reader, so little consonant
with the tremulous anxiety with which we pen these closing lines--how
are you pleased? As you have glanced from one article to another, till
your eye meets this last page, has your brow been gathering a frown,
or has a pleasant smile lit up your features? In either case, but
especially the former, we pray you to remember, that in preparing this
number, we have, in some respects, labored at a disadvantage. Our utter
inexperience in the mechanical portion of the work--the distracting
influence of the intervening vacation--with some other petty troubles,
will, with your indulgence, account for some of the errors, which your
sagacity has, doubtless, ere this discovered.

A word or two, now, of self-gratulation.--Our _prospects_
are encouraging. Our subscription list fully equals our
expectations--communications are abundant--(alas! too much so, one
might say, looking at the melancholy number of rejections,) and we have
hardly heard one croaking voice, foreboding failure. We are confident
in the assertion, that the future numbers will be superior in external
appearance, and not a whit inferior in literary merit.

To those who have furnished communications for the present number,
we render our sincere thanks, and request a continuance of their
favors. To _all_ we would extend a general invitation, ‘to send us
pieces’--asking of each ‘according to his ability,’--from the gay
trifling of wit, to the sober morality of wisdom--in prose, or in
verse--in long, or in short.

We were prevented, by divers mischances, from issuing this number on
the day it was due; and the same reason will account for the absence of
an intended engraving from the cover.




TO CORRESPONDENTS.


The communication, signed A, contains many thoughts of peculiar
poetical beauty, yet we regret to see, here and there, blemishes,
which materially affect its merits as a whole, and which none but the
author can properly remedy. A careful correction would do away those
redundancies, with which it is now encumbered, and render it of more
finished excellence. For the present, therefore, it is deferred.

Tuum Carmen, Grai, _‘limae labore’ deficiens_, “in cineres citissime
redegimus” ☞ ‘cinis ad cinerem.’

Z’s manuscript is too _extensive_ for our limited space, and also too
obscure for our mental and bodily vision.

The “Musings of Adonis” are also among the “great rejected.” To use his
own language, “Their beauty and fragrance,(?)

  “Long since in sad silence have flown,
  Like thistle-down, far on the gale!”

“Omega” shall receive a place corresponding with his signature, by the
by, one most appropriate, and withal, a fine typical emblem of the
merits of his performance.

The perusal of the first couplet of the “Apostrophe to the Moon”
sufficed us.--“Look!--lo! behold!”

  “O! thou shiny orb, that careerest above--
  Thy spirit how soothing,--thy light full of love!”

All articles intended for No. 2, we would wish to receive at an early
date, through the Post Office.




PROSPECTUS

OF THE

YALE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

TO BE CONDUCTED BY THE STUDENTS OF YALE COLLEGE.


An _apology_ for establishing a Literary Magazine, in an institution
like Yale College, can hardly be deemed requisite by an enlightened
public; yet a statement of the objects which are proposed in this
Periodical, may not be out of place.

To foster a literary spirit, and to furnish a medium for its exercise;
to rescue from utter waste the many thoughts and musings of a student’s
leisure hours; and to afford some opportunity to train ourselves
for the strife and collision of mind which we must expect in after
life;--such, and similar motives have urged us to this undertaking.

So long as we confine ourselves to these simple objects, and do not
forget the modesty becoming our years and station, we confidently
hope for the approbation and support of all who wish well to this
institution.

       *       *       *       *       *

The work will be printed on fine paper and good type. Three numbers to
be issued every term, each containing about 40 pages, 8vo.

_Conditions_--$2,00 per annum, if paid in advance, or 75 cents at the
commencement of each term.

Communications may be addressed through the Post Office, “To the
Editors of the Yale Literary Magazine.”

       *       *       *       *       *

This No. contains 2½ sheets. Postage, under 100 miles, 3¾ cents; over
100 miles, 6¼ cents.




Transcriber’s Notes


Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.

Unexplained right-side asterisks at the ends of three articles or poems
on pages 13, 23, and 25, were in the original issue and have been
retained here.