"Six months' sunshine bound in sheaves,"
being brought home in thankfulness. The grain harvesting was the pride and praise of the country round, as good to be sung as the Syrian pastoral of Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz. But this, and other customs, introduced with the cultivation of wheat into Britain, and brought here by the Puritan planters, are fast fading from memory, and the coming generation will need commentaries on Tusser and Thomson to make plain our reaping-idyl.
As kindles now the blazing EastAfield I haste,Eager the sickle's feat to play,Sweeping along the stalked fields my widening way;Vexing the eared spires,Pricked with desires,My golden gavels on the stubble spend,And to the fair achievement every member lend,The laughing breeze my colleague in my forte,While the grave sun beams zealous on the sport.Nor doth penurious gain famish my fist,As earing fast it sheds abundant grist,And gleaning damsels kerchief all they list,—Kindly conceive me friendliest of peers,And glad my brows adorn with yellow ears;The wide-spread field, its sheafed hoard,The lively symbol of their liberal Lord,Whose plenteous crop, and ripe supplyAreapéd is of every hand and eye—An opulent shock for poor humanity.
Their garments, too, were home-spun. Every house, the scene of sprightly industry, was Homeric as were the employments in the garden of Alcinous,
"Where to encounter feast with housewifery,In one room, numerous women did applyTheir several tasks; some apple-colored cornGround in fair querns, and some did spindles turn;Some work in looms; no hand least rest receives,But all have motion apt as aspen leaves;And from the weeds they wove, so fast they laidAnd so thick thrust together thread by thread,That the oil of which the wool had drank its fill,Did with his moisture in bright dews distil."
It was plain wool and flax which they spun and wove thus innocently, nor suspected the web of sophistries that was to be twisted and coiled about the countries' liberties from a coming rival. "The weed which, planted long ago by the kings of Tyre, made their city a great nation, their merchantmen princes, and spread the Tyrian dye throughout the world; of which Solomon obtained a branch, and made his little kingdom the admiration of surrounding nations; of which Alexander sowed the seed in the city to which he gave his name, and Constantine transplanted to Constantinople; which the first Edward sowed on the banks of the Thames, and Elizabeth lived to see blossom through the nourishment which her enlightened mind procured, not only from the original soil of the Levant but from the eastern and newly discovered western world, as well as from the North,"—this famous plant, thus cherished by kings, has now becomeKing, and wields its sceptre over the most cultivated and prosperous nations of the earth; its history for the last half century being more closely woven with civilization, than perhaps any other commodity known to commerce. And whether it shall be woven into robes of coronation or the shroud of freedom, for the freest of Republics, the fortunes of races, the present moment is determining.
Lettuce has always been loyal. Herodotus tells us that it was served at royal tables some centuries before the Christian era, and one of the Roman families ennobled its name with that of Lactucinü. So spinach, asparagus and celery have been held in high repute among the eastern nations, as with us. And the parable of the mustard seed shows that plant was known in Christ's time. The Greeks are said to have esteemed radishes so highly that, in offering oblations to Apollo, they presented them in beaten gold. And the Emperor Tiberius held parsnips in such high repute that he had them brought annually from the Rhine for his table. The beet is still prized, but the carrot has lost the reputation it had in Queen Elizabeth's time, the leaves being used in the head-dresses of the ladies of her court, from whence the epithet applied to the hair is derived.
Peas had scarcely made their appearance at the tables of the court of Elizabeth, "being very rare," Fuller says, "in the early part of her reign, and seldom seen except they were brought from Holland, and these were dainties for ladies, they came so far and cost so dear." Nor did the currant appear much earlier in European gardens, coming first under the name of the Corinthian grape: Evelyn calls the berries Corinths. So the damson took its name from Damascus; the cherry from Cerasus, a city of Pontus; and the peach from Persia. The quince, first known as the Cydonian apple, was dedicated to the goddess of love; and pears, like apples, are from Paradise.
The apple is the representative fruit, and owes most to culture in its ancient varieties of quince, pear, pomegranate, citron, peach; as it comprehended all originally. Of these, pears and peaches have partaken more largely of man's essence, and may be called creations of his, being civilized in the measure he is himself; as are the apple and the grape. These last are more generally diffused over the earth, and their history embraces that of the origin and progress of mankind, the apple being coeval with man; Eve's apple preserving the traditions of his earliest experiences, and the grape appears in connection with him not long after his story comes into clearness from the dimness of the past.
Fruits have the honor of being most widely diffused geographically, grown with the kindliest care, and of being first used by man as food. They still enter largely into the regimen of the cultivated nations, and are the fairest of civilizers; like Orpheus, they tame the human passions to consonance and harmony by their lyric influence. The use of them is of that universal importance that we cannot subsist in any plenty or elegance without them. And everywhere beside the cultivated man grows the orchard, to intimate his refinement in those excellences most befitting his race. The Romans designated the union of all the virtues in the word we render fruit; and bread comes from Pan, the representative of Nature, whose stores we gather for our common sustenance in our pantries. Biography shows that fruit has been the preferred food of the most illuminated persons of past times, and of many of the ablest. It is friendly to the human constitution, and has been made classic by the pens of poets who have celebrated its beauty and excellence.
vii.—rations.
The food of a people may be taken as a natural gauge of their civility. In any scale of the relative virtues of plants, fruits take their place at the top, the grains next, then the herbs, last and lowest the roots. The rule seems this:
Whatever grows above ground, and tempered in the solar ray, is most friendly to the strength, genius and beauty proper to man.
The poet has intimated the law:
"Plants in the root with earth do most comply,Their leaves with water and humidity;The flowers to air draw near and subtilty,And seeds a kindred fire have with the sky."
So the ancient doctrine affirms that the originals of all bodies are to be found in their food, every living creature representing its root and feeding upon its mother; and that from the food chosen, is derived the spirit and complexion of each; persons, plants, animals, being tempered of earth or sun, according to their likings.
Apollo feeds his fair ones, Ceres hers,Pomona, Pan, dun Jove, and Luna pale;So Nox her olives, so swarth Niobe.
It was the doctrine of the Samian Sage, that whatsoever food obstructs divination, is prejudicial to purity and chastity of mind and body, to temperance, health, sweetness of disposition, suavity of manners, grace of form, and dignity of carriage, should be shunned. Especially should those who would apprehend the deepest wisdom and preserve through life the relish for elegant studies and pursuits, abstain from flesh, cherishing the justice which animals claim at man's hands, nor slaughtering them for food nor profit. And, anciently, there existed what is called the Orphic Life, men keeping fast to all things without life, and abstaining wholly from those that had.
And, aside from all considerations of humanity for the animals, genius and grace alike enjoin abstinence from every indulgence that impairs the beauty and order of things. Our instincts instruct us to protect, to tame and transform, as far as may be, the animals we domesticate into the image of gentleness and humanity, and that these traits in ourselves are impaired by converting their flesh into ours. Nor do any pleas of necessity avail. Since the experience of large classes of mankind in different climates shows conclusively that health, strength, beauty, agility, sprightliness, longevity, the graces and attainments appertaining to body and mind, are insured, if not best promoted, by abstinence from animal food. Science, moreover, favors this experience, since it teaches that man extracts his bodily nourishment mediately or immediately from the vegetable kingdom, and thus lives at the cost of the atmosphere, needing not the interfusion of the spirit of beasts into his system to animalize and sustain him. "He feeds on air alone, springs from it, and returns to it again."
A purer civilization than ours can yet claim to be, is to inspire the genius of mankind with the skill to deal dutifully with soils and souls, exalt agriculture and manculture into a religion of art; the freer interchange of commodities which the current world-wide intercourse promotes, spread a more various, wholesome, classic table, whereby the race shall be refined of traits reminding too plainly of barbarism and the beast. "Ye desire from the gods excellent health and a beautiful old age, but your table opposes itself, since it fetters the hands of Zeus."[A]
"Time may come when manWith angels may participate and findNo inconvenient diet, no too light fare,And, from these corporal nutriments, perhaps,Their bodies may at last turn all to SpiritImproved by tract of time, and winged ascendEthereal as they; or may at choiceHere, or in heavenly Paradises, dwell."
An elegant abstinence is complimentary to any one, as, fed from the virgin essences of the season, his genius, dispositions, tastes, have no shame to blush for, and modestly claim the honor of being well bred. And one's table, like Apelles', may be fitly pictured with the beauty of sobriety on the one side, the deformity of excess on the other, the feast substantial as it is lyrical, praising itself and those who partake; and his guests as ready to compliment him, as Timotheus did Plato, when he said: "They who dine with the philosopher never complain the next morning."
the seer's rations.
Takes sunbeams, spring waters,Earth's juices, meads' creams,Bathes in floods of sweet ethers,Comes baptized from the streams;Guest of Him, the sweet-lipp'd,The Dreamer's quaint dreams.Mingles morals idyllicWith Samian fable,Sage seasoned from cruets,Of Plutarch's chaste table.Pledges Zeus, Zoroaster,Tastes Cana's glad cheer,Suns, globes, on his trencher,The elements there.Bowls of sunrise for breakfastBrimful of the East,Foaming flagons of frolicHis evening's gay feast.Sov'reign solids of nature,Solar seeds of the sphere,Olympian viandSurprising as rare.Thus baiting his genius,His wonderful wordBrings poets and sibylsTo sup at his board.Feeds thus and thus fares he,Speeds thus and thus cares he,Thus faces and gracesLife's long euthanasies,His gifts unabated,Transfigured, translated—The idealist prudent,Saint, poet, priest, student,Philosopher, he.
Takes sunbeams, spring waters,Earth's juices, meads' creams,Bathes in floods of sweet ethers,Comes baptized from the streams;Guest of Him, the sweet-lipp'd,The Dreamer's quaint dreams.
Mingles morals idyllicWith Samian fable,Sage seasoned from cruets,Of Plutarch's chaste table.
Pledges Zeus, Zoroaster,Tastes Cana's glad cheer,Suns, globes, on his trencher,The elements there.
Bowls of sunrise for breakfastBrimful of the East,Foaming flagons of frolicHis evening's gay feast.
Sov'reign solids of nature,Solar seeds of the sphere,Olympian viandSurprising as rare.
Thus baiting his genius,His wonderful wordBrings poets and sibylsTo sup at his board.
Feeds thus and thus fares he,Speeds thus and thus cares he,Thus faces and gracesLife's long euthanasies,
His gifts unabated,Transfigured, translated—The idealist prudent,Saint, poet, priest, student,Philosopher, he.
viii.—economies.
"——Much will always wanting beTo him who much desires. Thrice happy heTo whom the indulgency of heaven,With sparing hand, but just enough has given."
Life, when hospitably taken, is a simple affair. Very little suffices to enrich us. Being, a fountain and fireside, a web of cloth, a garden, a few friends, and good books, a chosen task, health and peace of mind—these are a competent estate, embracing all we need.
"Like to one's fortune should be his expense,Men's fortunes rightly held in reverence."
The country opens the best advantages for these enjoyments. And where one has the privilege of choosing for himself, he prefers the scope for seclusion and society that a homestead implies. For his human satisfactions, he draws upon his dispositions and gifts. His appetites he willingly digs for, nor cares to cherish any that he is ashamed to own. For nobler pleasures he delights to climb. His best estate is in himself. He needs little beside. With good sense for his main portion to make the most of that little, he may well consider Hesiod's opinion of weight:
"The half is better far than whole."
If his house is an ancient one, or ancestral, by so much the stronger are the ties that bind his affections to it; especially if it stand in an orchard, and have a good garden. Even if inconvenient in some respects, he will hesitate about pulling it down in hopes of pleasing himself better in a new one. The genius that repairs an old house successfully may fail in building another. Besides, there were many comforts provided for by our ancestors, who were old Englishmen even here in New England, and knew well what a house was built for, and they built for that, against any odds of counsel or expense. Then 'tis fatal to take time out of a building, which so consecrates it.
An old house, well built, pleases more with the repairs rendered necessary than a costlier new one. There are good points about it which have been proved by a century or two, and these may be adopted as parts for preserving, while any additions may be made for holding the whole in keeping with the orignal design, or as improvements on it. Perhaps there are snug recesses, and window-seats, spacious entries, hospitable stairways, wainscoting, finished summers running across the ceilings, a dry cellar, a good well, fence rows in natural places, shrubbery, which if not well set can be reset in the grounds; an orchard and garden whose mould is infused with the genius of years and humanized for culture. Then the tenement has its genealogy, and belongs to the race who have built into it a history. Trees, too, venerable with age it has, or it could not have been the residence of gentlemen. Outbuildings of any kind, useful or ornamental, have found their proper sites, and meet the eye as if they had always been there. It takes some generations to complete and harmonize any place with the laws of beauty, as these best honor themselves in that fairest of structures, a human mansion; which, next to its occupant, is the noblest symbol of the mind that art can render to the senses. One may spend largely upon it, if he have not ousted his manliness in amassing the money. That is an honest house which has the owner's honor built into its apartments, and whose appointments are his proper ornaments.
Building is a severe schoolmaster, and gets the best and worst out of us, both, before it has done with us. I conclude no man knows himself on terms cheaper than the building of one house at least, and paying for it out of his pains. The proverb says:
"'Tis a sweet impoverishment, and a great waste of gall."
Do we not build ourselves into its foundations, to stand or fall with its beams and rafters, every nail being driven in trouble from sills to roof-tree, and the whole proving often a defeat and disappointment: no one liking it, the builder least of all? One may thank heaven, and not himself, if he do not find
He builded costlier than he knew,Unhoused himself and virtues too,
at the dismission of his carpenters, and occupancy of it. Perhaps the idea of a house is too precious to be cut into shapes of comfort and comeliness on cheaper conditions than this trial of his manliness by the payment of his equanimity as the fair equivalent for the privilege. Nor is this the end of the matter, since it costs many virtues to deal dutifully by his household, by servants—if served by second hands—day by day, and come forth from the stewardship with credit and self-respect.
But a garden is a feasible matter. 'Tis within the means of almost every one; none, or next to none, are so destitute, or indifferent, as to be without one. It may be the smallest conceivable, a flower bed only, yet is prized none the less for that. It is loved all the more for its smallness, and the better cared for. Virgil advises to
——"Commend large fields,But cultivate small ones."
And it was a saying of the Carthaginians, that "the land should be weaker than the husbandman, since of necessity he must wrestle with it, and if the ground prevailed, the owner must be crushed by it." The little is much to the frugal and industrious; and the least most to him who puts that little to loving usury.
"We are the farmers of ourselves, yet mayIf we can stock ourselves and thrive, repayMuch, much good treasure for the great rent day."
'Tis a pity that men want eyes, oftentimes, to harvest crops from their acres never served to them from their trenchers. Civilization has not meliorated mankind essentially while men hold themselves to services they make menial and degrading. Æleas, king of Scythia, was wont to say ingeniously, that "while he was doing nothing, he differed in nothing from his groom," thus discriminating between services proper to freemen and slaves. The humblest labors may ennoble us. Honorable in themselves when properly undertaken, they promote us from things to persons. They give us the essential goods of existence as we deserve and can best enjoy them: order, namely, industry, leisure, of which idleness defrauds, and distraction deprives us. Labor suffices. Putting us, for the time, beyond anxiety and our caprices, it calls into exercise the sentiments proper to the citizen. It softens and humanizes other pleasures. Like philosophy, like religion, it revenges on fortune, and so keeps us bythe Oneamidst the multitude of our perplexities—against reverses, and above want. By making us a party in the administration of affairs, and superior to Fate, it puts into our hands the iron keys for unlocking her wards, and thus gives us to opulence and independence. We become, thereby, the subjects and friends of Saturn, ever known to be a person of so strict justice as he forces none to serve him unwillingly, and has nothing private to himself, but all things in common, as of one universal patrimony. And so, owning nothing, because wanting nothing, he had all things desirable to make life rich and illustrious.
——"This Golden AgeMet all contentment in no surplusageOf dainty viands, but, (as we do still,)Drank the pure water of the crystal rill,Fed on no other meats than those they fed—Labor the salad that their stomachs bred."
Labor saves us from the chaos of sloth, the pains of shiftlessness. It sweetens the fountains of our enjoyments; 'tis neighbor to the elements. Coming in from July heats, we taste the sweetness of Pindar's line,
"Water with purest lustre flows,"
of whose zest the idler knows nothing, and which the sensualist soils and spoils. Besides, there are advantages to be gained from intimacy with farmers, whose wits are so level with the world they measure and work in. We become one of them for the time, by sympathy of employment, and get the practical skill and adaptedness that comes from yoking our idealism in their harness of uses. Thus, too, we come to comprehend the better the working classes which minister so largely to the comforts of all men, and are so deserving of consideration for their services. Moreover, this laboring with plain men is the best cure for any foolishness one may have never sounded in the depths of his egotism, or scorn of persons in humbler stations than his own; and the swiftest leap across the gulf yawning between his pride and the humility gracing a gentleman in any walk of life.
ix.—rural culture.
"Nor need the muse to palaces resort,Or bring examples only from the court,The country strives to do our subject right,And gard'ning is the gentleman's delight."
I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country; the arts of handicraft and husbandry coming by mother wit, like the best use of books, the language one speaks. There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor universities enjoy. Nor is it creditable to the teaching that so few college graduates take to husbandry and rural pursuits. Held subordinate to thought, as every calling should be, these promote intellectual freshness and moral vigor. They have been made classic by the genius of antiquity; are recreations most becoming to men of every profession and rank in life:—
"Books, wise discourse, garden and fields,And all the joys that unmixed nature yields."
Rural influences seem to be most desirable, if not necessary, for cherishing the home virtues, especially in a community like ours, where, by prejudices of tradition, we seek culture more through books and universities than from that closer contact with men and things to which newer communities owe so much, which agriculture promotes, and for which the classic authors chiefly deserve to be studied.
Men follow what they love, and the love of rural enjoyments is almost universal. Every one likes the country whose tastes are cultivated in the least, and who enjoys what is primitive and pure. The citizen tires of city pleasures. He soon finds that there is no freedom comparable to that which the country affords; for though he dwell in the city for advantages of libraries, and social entertainments, he seeks the country for inspiration when these lose their attractions, his spirits as his friendships, crave refreshment and renewal.
"Who in sad cities dwell,Are of the green trees fully sensible."
We see how this appetite declares itself in the general swarming during the summer season from the cities to the suburban towns, if not to the hill countries, for the freedom, the health, found there; and how to gratify and meet the demand for more natural satisfactions, our Guide Books have become, not only the most attractive geographies of the territories therein described, but works of taste, combining some of the choicest illustrations of poetry and prose in our literature: sketches of such scenes and parties are sure of an eager reading. The rustic books, too, are beginning to be inquired after; translations of the ancient authors, which bring the sentiment of the originals within the grasp of the plainest minds. And we look forward to the time, when, according to the recommendation of Cowley and Milton,—poets who did so much for the culture of their time,—these authors will be studied in our schools and universities, as Virgil and Horace have been so long, for cultivating the love of nature, of rural pursuits, beauty of sentiment, the graces of style, without an acquaintance with which, the epithet of a liberal and elegant culture were misapplied on any graduate. Nor need the students be restricted to Greek and Roman pastoral poets, when some of our own authors have given charming examples of treating New England life and landscape in their pages. A people's freshest literature springs from free soil, tilled by free men. Every man owes primary duty to the soil, and shall be held incapable by coming generations if he neglect planting an orchard at least, if not a family, or book, for their benefit.
"Agriculture, for an honorable and high-minded man," says Xenophon, "is the best of all occupations and arts by which men procure the means of living. For it is a pursuit that is most easy to learn and most pleasant to practise; it puts the bodies of men in the fairest and most vigorous condition, and is far from giving such constant occupation to their minds as to prevent them from attending to the interests of their friends or their country. And it affords some incitement to those who pursue it to become courageous, as it produces and sustains what is necessary for human life without the need of walls or fortresses. A man's home and fireside are the sweetest of all human possessions."
I have always admired the good sense and fine ambition of a friend of mine, who, on quitting College, with fair prospects of winning respect in any of the learned professions, chose rather to step aside into the quiet retreat of a cottage, and there give himself to the pleasures and duties of cultivating his family and grounds. And this he did from a sense of its suitableness to promote the best ends and aims; esteeming his gifts and accomplishments due to pursuits which seemed the natural means of securing self-respect and independence. His first outlay was moderate—a sequestered field, on which he erected a comfortable dwelling, planned for convenience and hospitality. His grounds were laid out and planted with shrubbery, the slopes dotted with evergreens and shapely trees. A nursery was set; a conservatory, with suitable outbuildings and ornaments. As he gave himself personally to the work, everything prospered that he touched. A few years' profits paid for his investment, and his thrift soon enabled him to add an adjoining orchard to his first purchase. And so successful was his adventure, that his most sceptical neighbors, the old farmers, confessed him to be the better husbandman; his gold was ruddier than theirs; his fields the neater. Nor did our Evelyn disgrace social engagements. His friendships were kept in as good plight as his grounds. He was none the worse citizen for being the better neighbor and gentleman they found him to be, nor the less worthy of the honors of his college. "'Tis impossible that he who is a true scholar, and has attained besides the felicity of being a good gardener, should give jealousy to the State in which he lives." Civilization has a deeper stake in the tillage of the ground than in the other arts, since its roots are fast planted therein, and it thrives only as this flourishes. Omit the garden, degrade this along with the orchard to mere material uses, treat these as of secondary importance, and the State falls fast into worldliness and decay.
"Oh blessed shades! oh gentle, cool retreatFrom all the immoderate heatIn which the frantic world does burn and sweat!This does the Lion-star, Ambition's rage;This Avarice, the Dog-star's thirst assuage;Everywhere else their fatal power we see,They make and rule man's wretched destiny;They neither set, nor disappear,But tyrannize o'er all the year,—Whilst we ne'er feel their heat nor influence here.The birds that dance from bough to bough,And sing above in every tree,Are not from fears and cares more free,Than we who muse or toil below,And should by right be singers too.What Prince's quire of music can excelThat which within this shade does dwell?To which we nothing pay or give?They, like all other poets, liveWithout reward or thanks for their obliging pains;'Tis well if they become not prey:The whistling winds add their less ardent strains,And a grave bass the murmuring fountains play.Nature does all this harmony bestow;But, to our plants, arts, music, too,The pipe, theorbo, and guitar, we owe,The lute itself, which once was green and mute;When Orpheus struck the inspired luteThe trees danced round and understood,By sympathy, the voice of wood."Methinks I see great Dioclesian walkIn the Salonian garden's noble shade,Which by his own imperial hands was made;I see him smile, methinks, as he does talkWith the ambassadors, who come in vainTo entice him to a throne again."If I, my friends," said he, "should to you showAll the delights that in these gardens grow,'Tis likelier much that you should with me stay,Than 'tis that you should carry me away;And trust me not, my friends, if every dayI walk not here with more delightThan ever, after the most happy fight,In triumph to the capitol I ride,To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost a god."
"Oh blessed shades! oh gentle, cool retreatFrom all the immoderate heatIn which the frantic world does burn and sweat!This does the Lion-star, Ambition's rage;This Avarice, the Dog-star's thirst assuage;Everywhere else their fatal power we see,They make and rule man's wretched destiny;They neither set, nor disappear,But tyrannize o'er all the year,—Whilst we ne'er feel their heat nor influence here.The birds that dance from bough to bough,And sing above in every tree,Are not from fears and cares more free,Than we who muse or toil below,And should by right be singers too.What Prince's quire of music can excelThat which within this shade does dwell?To which we nothing pay or give?They, like all other poets, liveWithout reward or thanks for their obliging pains;'Tis well if they become not prey:The whistling winds add their less ardent strains,And a grave bass the murmuring fountains play.Nature does all this harmony bestow;But, to our plants, arts, music, too,The pipe, theorbo, and guitar, we owe,The lute itself, which once was green and mute;When Orpheus struck the inspired luteThe trees danced round and understood,By sympathy, the voice of wood."
Methinks I see great Dioclesian walkIn the Salonian garden's noble shade,Which by his own imperial hands was made;I see him smile, methinks, as he does talkWith the ambassadors, who come in vainTo entice him to a throne again."If I, my friends," said he, "should to you showAll the delights that in these gardens grow,'Tis likelier much that you should with me stay,Than 'tis that you should carry me away;And trust me not, my friends, if every dayI walk not here with more delightThan ever, after the most happy fight,In triumph to the capitol I ride,To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost a god."
Do we ask, on viewing the rural pictures which the Pastoral Poets afford us,—Whither is our modern civilization tending? What solid profits has it gained on the state of things they describe, seeing the primitive virtues and customs, once enjoyed by our ancestors, are fading,—the generosity, the cheer, the patriotism, the piety, the republican simplicity and heartiness of those times? Machinery is fast displacing the poetry of farm and fireside; the sickle, the distaff, the chimney-piece, the family institution, being superseded by prose powers; and, with their sway, have come slavery, pusillanimity, dishonor. I know there are reconciling compensations for all risks of revolution. For while the Demos thus takes his inch, Divinity secures his ell; so the garment of mankind comes the fuller from the loom in this transfer of labors. The fig leaf thus cunningly woven, costs fair honors, nevertheless, and we covet in our hearts the florid simplicity of times of sturdier virtues and unassailable integrity.[B]
Illustration: Flower with leaves
[A]Grillis having been transformed from a beast into a man, used to discourse with his table companions, about how much better he fed while in that state than his present one, since he then took instinctively what was best for him, avoiding what was hurtful; but now, he said, though endowed with reason and natural knowledge to guide him in the selection, he yet seemed to have fallen below the beast he was, since he found he liked what did not like him, and took it, moreover, without shame.
[B]Evelyn draws a lively picture of those old times, though not without sadness at the contrast with his own. "The style and method of life are quite changed as well as the language, since the days of our ancestors, simple and plain as they were, courting their wives for their modesty, frugality, keeping at home, good housewifery, and other economical virtues then in reputation. And when the young damsels were taught all these at home in the country at their parents' houses; the portion they brought being more in virtue than money, she being a richer match than any one who could bring a million and nothing else to commend her. The presents then made when all was concluded, were a ring, a necklace of pearls, and perhaps the fair jewel, the paraphernalia of her prudent mother, whose nuptial kirtle, gown and petticoat, lasted as many anniversaries as the happy couple lived together, and were at last bequeathed with a purse of old gold, as an heir-loom to her granddaughter. The virgins and young ladies of that golden age, put their hands to the spindle, nor disdained the needle; were obsequious and helpful to their parents, instructed in the management of the family, and gave presage of making excellent wives. Their retirements were devout and religious books, their recreations in the distillery and knowledge of plants, and their virtues for the comfort of their poor neighbors, and use of the family, which wholesome diet and kitchen physic preserved in health. Nor were the young gentlemen, though extremely modest, at all melancholy, or less gay and in good humor. They could touch the lute and virginal, sing
"Like to the damask rose,"
and their breath was as sweet as their voices. Then things were natural, plain and wholesome; nothing was superfluous, nothing necessary wanting. Men of estate studied the public good, and gave examples of true piety, loyalty, justice, sobriety, charity; and the good of the neighborhood composed most differences. Laws were reasons, not craft; men's estates were secure: they served their generation with honor, left patrimonial estates improved to a hopeful heir, who, passing from the free school to the college, and thence to Inns of Court, acquainting himself with a competent tincture of the laws of his country, followed the example of his worthy ancestors. And if he travelled abroad, it was not to count steeples, and bring home feather and ribbon and the sins of other nations, but to gain such experience as rendered him useful to his Prince and his countrymen upon occasion, and confirmed him in the love of both of them above any other. Hospitality was kept up in town and country, by which the tenants were enabled to pay their landlords at punctual day. The poor were relieved bountifully, and charity was as warm as the kitchen, where the fire was perpetual."
"Thou who wouldst know the things that be,Bathe thy heart in the sunrise red,Till its stains of earthly dross are fled."
Goethe.
Illustration: Banner with beetle
i.—the fountains.
Nature is wholesome. Without her elixirs daily taken we perish of lassitude and inanity. The fountains must be stirred to their depths and their torrents sent bounding along their sluices, else we sink presently into the pool of inertia, victims of indecision and slaves of fate. "Thy body, O well disposed man, is a meadow through which flow three hundred and sixty-five rivulets." Every pulse pushes nature's quaternion along life's currents recreating us afresh; the morn feeding the morn, Memnon's music issuing from every stop, as if the Orient itself had sung.
Nature is virtuous. Imparting sanity and sweetness, it spares from decay, giving life with temperance and a continency that keeps our pleasures chaste and perennial. Nothing short of her flowing atmosphere suffices to refill our urns. Neither books, company, conversation,—not Genius even, the power present in persons, nature's nature pouring her floods through mind,—not this is enough. Nature is the good Baptist plunging us in her Jordan streams to be purified of our stains, and fulfil all righteousness. And wheresoever our lodge, there is but the thin casement between us and immensity. Nature without, mind within, inviting us forth into the solacing air, the blue ether, if we will but shake our sloth and cares aside, and step forth into her great contentments.
As from himself he fled,Possessed, insane,Tormenting demons drove him from the gate:Away he sped,Casting his woes behind,His joys to find,His better mind.'Tis passing strange,The glorious change,The pleasing pain!Recovered,Himself againOver his threshold led,Peace fills his breast,He finds his rest;Expecting angels his arrival wait.
As from himself he fled,Possessed, insane,Tormenting demons drove him from the gate:Away he sped,Casting his woes behind,His joys to find,His better mind.
'Tis passing strange,The glorious change,The pleasing pain!
Recovered,Himself againOver his threshold led,Peace fills his breast,He finds his rest;Expecting angels his arrival wait.
If we cannot spin our tops briskly as boys do theirs, the wailers may chant their dirges over us. Enthusiasm is existence; earnestness, life's exceeding great reward. How busy then, and above criticism. Our cup runs over. But a parted activity, divorcing us from ourselves, degrades our noblest parts to the sway of the lowest and renders our task a drudgery and shame. For what avails, if while one's mind hovers about Olympus, his members flounder in Styx, and he is drawn asunder in the conflict? Let the days deify the days, the work the workman, giving the joyous task that leaves pleasant memories behind, and ennobles in the performance:
Tasked daysAbove delays;Hours that borrowSpeed of the morrow,Light from sorrow:Business bate not,Want nor wait not,Doubt nor date not;Life from limb forbid to sever,Recreate in rapt endeavor.
We come as a muse to our toil and find amusement in it; to a taskmaster whose company never tires. 'Tis life, the partaking of immortality. A day lived so, glorifies all moments afterwards. Long postponed, perhaps, the hours wearisome, till broke this immortal morning with engagements that time can complete never, nor compel, and whose importunity outlasts the hours.
Sleep, too, having the keys of life in its keeping. How we rise from its delectable divinations with eyes sovereign and anointed for the day's occupations. All our powers are touched with flame, all things are possible. But last night, the world had come to an end; the floods ebbed low, as if the fates were reversing the torch. How we blazed all the morning, to be cinders yesternight. Then came the god to re-kindle our faded embers, the Phœnix wings her way to meet the rising dawn and embrace the young world once more. Sleep took the sleep out of us. From forth the void there rises a roseate morn upon us.
The flattering East her gates impearled,We hunt the morning round the world.
Nor is a day lived if the dawn is left out of it, with the prospects it opens. Who speaks charmingly of nature or of mankind, like him who comes bibulous of sunrise and the fountains of waters?
"Mornings are mysteries, the first world's youth,Man's resurrection, and the future's budShown in their birth; they make us happy,Make us rich."Rise in the morning, riseWhile yet the streaming tideFlames o'er the blue acclivities,And pours its splendors wide;Kindling its high intentAlong the firmament,Silence and sleep to break,Imaginations wake,Ideas insphereAnd bring them here.Loiter nor playIn soft delay;Speed glad thy course alongThe orbs and globes among,And as yon toiling sunAttain thy high meridian:Radiant and round thy day;—Speed, speed thee on thy way.
"Mornings are mysteries, the first world's youth,Man's resurrection, and the future's budShown in their birth; they make us happy,Make us rich."
Rise in the morning, riseWhile yet the streaming tideFlames o'er the blue acclivities,And pours its splendors wide;Kindling its high intentAlong the firmament,Silence and sleep to break,Imaginations wake,Ideas insphereAnd bring them here.Loiter nor playIn soft delay;Speed glad thy course alongThe orbs and globes among,And as yon toiling sunAttain thy high meridian:Radiant and round thy day;—Speed, speed thee on thy way.
"Every day is a festival, and that which makes it the more splendid is gladness. For as the world is a spacious and beautiful temple, so is life the most perfect institution that introduces us into it. And it is but just that it should be full of cheerfulness and tranquillity." Our dispositions are the atmosphere we breathe, and we carry our climate and world in ourselves. Good humor, gay spirits are the liberators, the sure cure for spleen and melancholy. Deeper than tears, these irradiate the tophets with their glad heavens. Go laugh, vent the pits, transmuting imps into angels by the alchymy of smiles. The satans flee at the sight of these redeemers. And he who smiles never is beyond redemption. Once clothed in a suit of light we may cast aside forever our sables. Our best economist of this flowing estate is good temper, without whose presidency life is a perplexity and disaster. Luck is bad luck and ourselves a disappointment and vexation. Victims of our humors, we victimize everybody. How the swift repulsions play: our atoms all insular, insulating; demonized, demonizing, from heel to crown; at the mercy of a glance, a gesture, a word, and ourselves overthrown. Equanimity is the gem in Virtue's chaplet and St. Sweetness the loveliest in her calendar. "On beholding thyself, fear," says the oracle. Only the saints are sane and wholesome.
ii.—the cheap physician.
"That which makes us have no needOf physic, that's physic indeed.Hark, hither, reader, wilt thou seeNature her own physician be?Wilt see a man all his own wealth,His own music, his own health,—A man whose sober soul can tellHow to wear her garments well:Her garments that upon her sit,As garments should do, close and fit;A well-clothed soul that's not oppressed,Nor choked with what she should be dressed;A soul sheathed in a crystal shrine,Through which all her bright features shine,As when a piece of wanton lawn,A thin, aerial veil is drawnO'er beauty's face, seeming to hide,More sweetly shows the blushing bride:A soul, whose intellectual beamsNo mists do mask, no lazy streams:A happy soul that all the wayTo heaven rides in a summer's day?Wouldst see a man whose well-warmed bloodBathes him in a genuine flood,—A man whose tuned humors beA seat of rarest harmony?Wouldst see blithe looks, fresh cheeks beguileAge; wouldst see December smile?Wouldst see nests of new roses growIn a bed of reverend snow?Warm thought, free spirits flatteringWinter's self into a spring?In sum, wouldst see a man that canLive to be old, and still a manWhose latest and most leaden hoursFall with soft wings, stuck with soft flowers;And when life's sweet fable ends,Soul and body part like friends;No quarrels, murmurs, no delay,A kiss, a sigh,—and so away,—This rare one, reader, wouldst thou see?Hark within, and thyself be he."