The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-30
BY EDWARD SPENCER
VIII.
HoU Jasper ClWised an the Flirt.

That Journal of his is remarkably truthful
record, considering the mans natural foolish
ness it contains some curious items, and we
have mind to borrow from some of its strange
discursive pages in order to indicate the bent
of his thought, and to set forth his character,
(if he yet had one) in somewhat clearer colors
than we have yet succeeded in doing. A queer
affair." that Journal kept on the spot, from day
to day; containing here the measurement of a
cocoa-nut tree, there quotation from Hschy-
lus; here the description of banquet in
Fegee, there poem la Corsair; here COM
ment upon something in Burton. There is not
much of Bowditch in it; apparently he had
but faint stomach for logarithms but there is
queer dissertation upon the humor Of Rabelais !;
some critical remarks upon the text in Kschy-
lus, perhaps not dscreditable to Plato Classic :;
a clever essay upon phosphorescence an
apOstrophe 10 Japan in praise of her exclusive
ness several sailor legends worked up suffi-
GENTLY well; resume of the New Zealand
mythology, as communicated by native
harpooner; a Marquesan romance done into
proper octo-syllabic verse ; several notices of
the little ocean-livers, medusae, madrepores, &c.
and much, very much about Jasper, Jasper
with his "dei de 10 pdrOn kdkOn," his ever
present woe. Some of his moods are quite
entertaining, as for instance the following,
which one can readily think of as having been
written in the tropical moonlight, after weeks
idleness, when sleep by day prevented sleep by
night
Thou CHASTITY head of Savage whom in my
need slew, why dost thou still surge up through
the quivering wave, and stare at me hauntingly
in the still hours Dost reproach dost defy,
dost threaten! Away with thee, twas my life
and thy life: should ! not hold fast to that
which was my own? And yet, thou mayst
have been of higher use than this poor Jasper,
in the worlds economy happy as am wretch
ed blest wherein | am eursedl May
hap even now thy wife walls for thee on
that bleak coast, tearing her flesh and refusing
to be comforted! Mayhap her curses still
pursue me, and make this air to hang so heavi-
lyfdown upon mel Oh, Ruth, Ruth, why didst
thou not permit me to use that keen knife blade
otherwise than did, in such fashion as long
thy gestures, wherefore dost thou beckon me
ever towards thee, and motion so wayngly
towards thy bleak home shore2 Art unbured
Do the crabs make their home i'm thy white sea
washed ribs-have there their crustacean reve-
~, and there indulge crustacean love? Green
the ishes in AND OPT the sockets Of thy polished
skull grow the oysters milky and reproductive
around thy Wondering frame? Still here still
staring, with thy dark, immobile facelines, still
9eek9nngl pray thee, good Savage, tell me
thine GRAND: Bnngst thoR a message to me
from Thy dismal soonrning f.iaesy keedst
THOU masses said for thy black unsAriyen soul
God help ihee-let moi gussj, car len al
6es0fn J But what then wouldst thou, heokon.
ing thus ever? My blood for thine? Is the good
old code of blood for blood the lea scripta
indeed of ghost-land? Oh, stern follower, oh
unreenting blacktace, oh thou of the CORY,
pierced breast, let me whisper to- thee my
though, ~iy, 'eanpisiian 'iis to faloY thea at
my bld and thus to attain to that perfect
knowledge of things spiritual which is thine.
impart me OF that store of mystery, to which |
by thrust helped thee. Give me of thy super
aLuni4nt tGnwledre No? Must / then seek
for myself? Can only the bony hand Of Death
lift the vail of the Temple for me 2? / tell thee,
dread one, but for certain Craven Anchor, and
the memories that enwreathe it, hiding the bar
renness vi the Hope, rs CAESARS aulel ehaplet
kept men from sight ofhs baldness---an Anchor
craven on tree which perhaps the lightning
hath already blasted would long ago have
been in thy land. But that Anchor, oh follow
er mine, is potent beyond all becks of thine, all
horror-hannrnys Vi ,hy etaliag Eace, all gloomy
despair of my own souls begetting Away
then, for the Anchor is between thee and me,
and thou canst not harm me Away, for when
thoH CONTEST. 1t cometh also, and thou, with thy
glft OF despair arr but snadow OF Ntjeiheim
before Hopes own emblem. Away! dost not
see how lttempers thy lurid glow how it comes
to my hand how lean upon it, strengthened
Y my Eeqknsss acquiring, trust in my agony?
away, Tor oy this symbol shall pau from thee,
oh haunter, part from thee foreverl"
Did you ever see better testimony 10 the
mind diseased my reader? Our poor Jasper
is in saddest ease, of surety. Yet he has his
own way to work OUT we can loan him no
Charts tell him of no breakers.
"The land was all before him, where 10 choose
His place ofies and Providence his guidep
AproPos of the foregoing, (which is styled "a
vision " IN the journal, there are some com
ments which Jasper wrote long afterwards, and
in far different mood:
: al do not think should have been so much af
fected by the killing of this savage under ord-
nary circumstances. The mere fact of having
taken the life of fellow creature is full of
painful Suggestions, bnt the necessity was so
plainly manifest in my case, that should not
have let it take possession Of my mind, had the
latter been in a healthy state. But the exhaus
ton of the open-hoat voyage, and the attendant
starvation, pampered the fancy at the expense
of the body, and produced a morbid state of
mental exaltation peculiarly calculated to foster