New-York tribune., 1871-05-02
4 ROLUN1EER PRISONER.

A POLUNTEER PRISONER.
IL net this, related in a private letter from
| London, rather remarkable stOryf About ten
years ago young American from NeW-YorE'
| Walter Hastings by name, dining in London III
company with Lord c., expressed the Cpln-
ion that solitary confinement III dark cell
was not so dreadful a punishment as had been
represented. His LOTdship-sO goes the tale
offered Hastings G10,000 if he wOu!d undergo
entire seclusion for ten years. The PROPOSE
tiop being agreed TO, cell was fitted mp in
Lord C--s town house. twas from twelveto
fifteen feet square. The prisoner was to be
allowed candles, few books writing materi-
ais plain fOod-the latter served by man
who was not to be seon. In this way Hastings
has been living for decade of years, his term
expiring about the 1st of the present month.
He is now released, and has received, we sup
pose, his hard earned money. He cmerges from
his dungeon in rather a dilapdated condition,
appoaring, though only thirtyiye, like man
OF sixty-iiyo years of age, his frame STOPPING
and his steps tottcrng, Lis face saliow, his
hair and beard white, his voice tremulons ana
his speech hestating. He is coming directly
TO America, and we should not wonder if Mr..
Baruum knew something about him. If So in
this respect tie volunteer incaTcerate has an
advantage over the Prisoner of ChLOn, who
never found his Bamum at all, but only his
ByrOn-and il other respects, over the famous
St. Simon Stylites, who remained SO long, not
at his post, but upon the top of 1t, looking
down with a cOntemptuOus eye upon the ad-
mircrs who sent him up his lenten proyender
by means of rope and basket We can only
compare our Walter Hastings with the histori-
cal old gentleman who was found, very much
in need Of a hair-dresser in one OF the sub
ierrancan dcns of the Bastilc, and who died
soon after being released, as toads do when
the splitting Of their granite inclosure liber-
ates them.
bir. Emerson once told a congregation of
college students that if they hoped to do any
thing in this world they should WOO solitude
Gas a bride;" ard he must be unhealthly
fond of hustle and babble who does not now
and then experience a longing to turn ere
mite. David, in moment of irreprcssible
impotence, declared all men to be liars; and
so one may, when his sight seems to be at the
clearest, imagine all men TO be fools, forget
ting, perhaps, that he may be entitled to high
rank among the schOlastcs. History, from
Cincinnatus at the plow-tail to Charles V.
muddling with his watches in the moras-
terry, gives Us examples enough of men
weary of public and ardent for perfectly
private routine. Unquestionably all of us,
could we but live long enough would look
forward with relief to the coming solitude of
the sepulcher, and peevishly complain, like
those horrible Mortal-Immor 'als of Swift, that
Death has forgotten us in his hunt for the
shining marks. In the older zine it was easy
enough to find cave and 10 set up a slow
sort of business therein as hermit away from
" the purse proud, elbowing influence" the
dissensions, batteries, grimaces, and censures
OF those we call (facctiOusly) our "brethren.r
1t would be pretty even now, to be
"a gentle hermit of the dale" and to live
upon herbs and fruits, and water from the
spring. But caves are not so common as they
were, and hermit nowadays being soon
found out. ia exposed to paragraphs in the
newspapers and whole caravans of gaping and
chattering visitors. 1t is easier, should solitary
propensities get the better of us, to set up our
hermitage in chamber, and to have our din
ner brought up to us by some neat-handed
Phyllis, who will also give us a taste Of cor
versaton as she arranges the room of a morn
though this il hardly true of any woman-to
flee from the hustle and shOuldering of the
world nor do We ny this mean to oifer any
extenuation of mere cynicsm. which may
be regarded as the most foolish Of self lndul-
gences, even if 1t were CJmpa.bl, with self
respect. At the same time, a mind natl lt..ly
quiet and peaceahc is irritated, with but little
help for it, by tho polyphonOus jargon of
more practical and less nervous natures. If
any one of our readers dislikes mere noise,
and finds it q serious impediment to his pur-
suits, he has probably unless he has made a
close secret Of hi infrmity, been laughed
at for harborinc H. Our cities and towns and
houses are peoped by legitimate descendants
of Boanerges. l'ey seem to think (as Byron
said of the sea- that there "is music in their
"roar" We youn to get away from them and
t. mediate upon that rule of human dignity
which il only proyedby iunumerable exceptions.
Some philosopher said that he was "nevor