The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-07-31

90 w nys.ei'ous secrets OF the stars only be.
come visible in the night, so, in these eclipses
OF the more material faculties, they held there
~ss ol1en an awakening of supernatural per-
The hot and positive light of our modern
ma'eriahsm, which exhales from the growth of
our existence every dew-drop, which searches
out and dries every rivulet of romance. which
sends an unsparing beam into every cool grotto
OF poetic possibility, whitening the moss. and
turning the dropping cave to q dusty den-this
spirit, 80 remorseless, allows us no such inde6.
mite land. There are but two words in the
whole department of modern anthropoloqv-
the sane and the insane; the latter dismissed
from human reckoning, almost with contennt.
We should find it difficult to give a suitable
name to the strange and abnormal condition in
which this singular being, of whom we are
speaking, passed the most of his time.
1t was state of exaltation and trance. which
yet appeared not at all to impede the exercise
OF his outward and physical faculties, but rather
TO give them preternatural keenness and in.
tensity, such as sometimes attends the more
completely developed phenomena of somnam.
bulism.
In regard to his physical system there was
also much that was peculiar Our readers
may imagine human body of the largest and
'A'Aeys w SiOW up 81 cOupl6JelY under
the nursing influences of nature, that il NAV
seem to be as perfectly en- rapport with them
as tree; so that the rain, the wind, and the
thunder, all those forces from which human
beings generally seek shelter, seem to hold with
1t kind OF fellowship, and to be familiar COM
panions of existence.
Such was the case with bred. So completely
had he come into sympathy and communion
with nature, and with those forms of il which
more particularly surrounded him in the swamps.
that he moved about among them with as much
ease as lady treads her Turkey carpet. What
would seem to us in recital to be incredible
hardship, was TO him but an ordinary condition
OF existence. To walk knee.deep in the spongy
soil OF the swamp, to force his way through
thickets, to lie all night sinking in the porous
soil, or to crouch, like the alligator, among
reeds and rushes, were to him situations of as
much comfort as well-curtained beds and pill
lows are to u.s.
1t is not to be denied, that there is in this
savage perfection of the natural organs a keen
and almost fierce delight, which must excel the
sottest seductlons of luxury. Anybody who
has ever watched the eager zest with which the
hunting-dog plunges through the woods, darts
through the thicket, or dives into water, in an
ecstasy OF enjoyment, sees something of what
such vital force must be.
bred was under the inspiring belief that he
was the subject of visions and supernatural
communications. The African race are said
by mesmerists to possess, in the fullest degree,
that peculiar temperament which fits them for
the evolution of mesmeric phenomena; and
hence the existence among them, to this day,
OF men and women who are supposed to have
peculiar magical powers. The grandfather of
bred, on his mothers side, had been one of
these reputed African sorcerers and he had
early discovered in the boy this peculiar species
of temperament. He had taught him the secret
of snake charming, and had possessed bis mind
from childhood with expectations of prophetic
and supernatural impulses. That mysterious
seers denominate second sight, is a
very common tradition among the negroes
and there are not wanting thousands of reputed
instances among them to confirm belief in it.
What this faculty may be, we shall not pretend
to say. Whether there be in the soul yet un-
developed attribute, which is to be to the future
what memoryis to the past, or whether in some
individuals an extremely high and perfect con-
dition Of the sensuous organization endows
them with something of that certainty of in
stinctive discrimination which belongs to ami.
mails, are things which we shall not venture to
decide upon.
1t was, however, an absolute fact with regard
to bred, that he had often escaped danger BY
means of a popularity of this kind. He had
been warned from particular places where the
hunters had lain in wait for him; had foreseen
in times of want where game might be en-
shared, and received limitations where persons
were to be found in whom he might safely con.
hde; and his predictions with regard to persons
and things had often CHANGED to be so strikingly
rue, as to invest his sayings with a singular
awe and Importance among his associates.
1t was remarkable fact, but one not pecu-
lar to this case, that the mysterious exaltation
Of mind in this individual seemed to run par
allel with the current of shrewd, practical
sense and, like man who converses alter
1ately in two languages, he would speak now
he language of exaltation, and now that of
common life, INTERCHANGEABLE. This peculiarly |
impaired singular and grotesque effect 10 his
whole personality.
On the night of the camp meeting, he was, |
IS We have already seen, in state of the high |
st ecstasy. The wanton murder of his asso. |
late seemed to food his soul with an awful |
ide of emotion, as thunder-cloud is filled and |
haken by low-gathering electricity. And, |
although the distance from his retreat to the |
ground was nearly fifteen miles, most of
through what seemed to be impossible |!
wamps, yet he performed it with as little con- |
ciousness of fatigue as if he had been spirit. |
even had he been perceived at that time, it is |
robable that he could no more have been ia
ZEN, or bound, than the demoniac of Gadara.
After he parted from Harry, he pursued his
ray to the interior of the swamp, as was his
sual habit, repeating 10 himself, in chanting
dice, such words of prophetic writ as were ia.
niliar to him.
The day had been sultry, and it was now an
our or two past midnight, when thunder
torn, which had long been gathering and
,uttering in the dlstsnt sky, began TO develop
s forces.
A low, shivering sigh crept through the woods,
nd swayed in weird whistlngs the tops of the
ines; and sharp arrows of lightning came
littering down among the darkness of the
ranches, as if sent from the bow of some war
Ike angel. An army of heavy clouds swept in
moment across the moon; then came broad,
azzling, binding sheet of fame, concentrating
self on the top of tall pine near where Qred
as standing, and In moment shivered all its
ranches to the ground, as a child strips the
caves from a twig. bred clapped his bands
nth fierce delight; and, while the rain and
ind were bowling and Kissing around him, he
aouted aloud;
"Wake, o, arm of the LordI Awake, put
q thy strength! The voice of the Lord break
n the cedars--yea, the cedars of Lebanon
he voice Of the Lord divideth the flames of
re! The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilder.
ess OF Kadesh! Hailstones and Goals of
rel"
The storm, which howled around him, bent
le forest like reed, and large trees, uprooted
ON the spongy and tremulous soil, fell crash.
g WITH tremendous noisei but as if he had
I'D explted,
The perception Of such awful power seemed
animate him, and yet to excite in his soul an
apatience that he whose power was so infinite