Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-04-22

liked the companfenship Of books: they were good
irisn1s Tor MS solitude. But although he had the
humor OF Charles Lamb, and the pathos OF
r Inter. AMI the penetration OF Goldsmith, he
hAd no need OF their support He knew
WI what he did know, but he seldom
introduced his knowledge into his books, never
o5tent stiously or Ike pedfne He never pre-
5entcd bis knowledge or the incident OF history In
novel ike Scott: he never poured out his con-
tempt for social wrong Ike Dickens: he never
exposed the hollow folly OF society like Thackeray;
Dut he wrought the work Of all into bis marvel
lous volumes, not as the result OF careful study,
hut as the consequences OF that comman ling
vision with which he surveyed society, and the
sciteneSs with which he re II the heart OF man.
mJny sizes or human experience and has an ap-
p-oprfate word for all aEfi evidently understands
aud Is famlar with them all, he Il ne philosopher
for the poor or the rich, for the ignorant or the
learnei, FOR the righteous the wicked, for any
special rams or condition In life, but for human
nature rs given by God into the hands OF man.
He calls Us to be indignant witnesses OF no
partf:ular social or religious or political enOrmty.
he asks for no admiration OF this or that In
dlvi iull or associated virtue. The face OF
before you, as you study the extraordinary ex-
perience OF his men and women, except as q
necessary setting OF tho pictura
THE TASK WHICH HAWTHORNE UNDERTOOK.
IS . novelist was indeed difIlcuit and peculiar,-
the task OF clothing the New England Puritan
with he and beauty, and OF breathing into hts
u iiInpassiOned heart the warmth OF human
emotion Lowell has told US In one Of hts essays
tlat "we may be great a. people, we may be
rich, We may be powerful. but wa are unfnterest-
ing except IS The me century cn ana
ancestors led on this continent, during which THY
S",r passing from the aspirations an 5i
defiance OF the revolution, has indeed but littb
OF the radiance and pageant out OF With
their ana the The sog incieoss can Of
were lew and mostly embarrassing. The split
, M not cnivairous but LOFTY, stern, sturt,
dom filled VI tn bounding JOY
HAwrHoRNB's GRIN MArBRIALs
LII. Lorlng proceeded to give an elaborate sketcl
Oh the Puritan character and experience out
which Hawthorne drew the materials for hi
romance. He described their severity: thief
austere faith; their repression OF gaity; their pro-
nioitlon OF amu5ementS; their absence of music
art, poetry; their exposure to temptation: theiI
exposure also to the horrors OF savage lire: theil
oeiter In and fear OF the Devil whose presence they
Ieco8hEed; their constant recognition OF witches
ana portentS; their want OF literature: their des-
pefdt devotion to religion and the effect of their
creed 20 rouse their minds, and awaken their HIGH
moral sens. and I'LL their souls with a def ant
all this high endeavor, he said, there hung a cold
grey sky, and around 1t lay a wihtry Landscape
tIon when one could hardly hope to gather any
ana c!vii org IMITATION may have been q "phenom-
enOn 10 some minds, but 1t constituted n reality
rom which the highest lessons could be drawn,
and In which the noblest characters for history
and romance were created.
1t Is OF this remarkable people that one of the
most eloquent and accomplished OF their descend
ants has aid: but while we appreci tie what the
PurltanS have done, anu recognize the divine Wis
dom anu purposes In raising them up to do it.
ana fortunes warm quick interest, charm for tina
feelings and Imagination, an abiding Mace in the
heart and memory and affections OF ali the genera
lions OF the peopl3 to whom they bauuaathed
these representative governments and this unfie-
nted religion. 1t Is time that literature and the
artS should cooperate with history. Them, s more
inspiring or more Instructive were never sung by
Old or modern bard in hall or bower The whole
history OF the PuritanS-Of that portion which re-
manned IN Enyi.ni and plucked Charles from his
t1rone, and buried crown and mitre beneath the
foundations OF the coInmOnwe ltll, ana of that
other not less noble portion viii h came out hither
from England, and founded freer fairer and more
enduring conl;nonwealth-ali the leading traits of
Their religious. intellectual and active character
thtlf theoioSfcal doctrines, their SuperStitiOns
ony, AMI OF the place they filled In it-sYerythng
acout them, everything which befell them was
OUT OF tue ordinary course OF life, and he who
would lfquat"ly record their fortunes disoI,y
their paculiarities and decide upon their nreten
tons m !St like the writer Oftne Pentateuch nut
IN gu Sition Alternately music. poetry, eloqience
ana history, and speak by turns To the senses the
fancy, and the reason or the world" Their lives
ana ltborS possess ! charm hardly to be found in
the records of chiyalry ana conquest. They were
battered, they were tempted, they were shut I'D in
prison, they were baptized with the fire OF martyr
dom Soi:it3tiOn violence were alike unayoilt1.r
except tn consolidate their energies pnrrp / ther
virtues, and mortiy their human affections-to
r1ioe taeir thoughts from tae kingdoms and kings
W TINS wofl AMI the glory Oh them. to the con-
reve led. Some of them at length. not so much
because these many years OF persecution had
wearied and disheartened them, as because they
saw In IL an intim2tion OF the will OF God sought
the frtefom which tley found not on the bI AK
Shorc and beneath the dark pine-forest OF New
hIsinl; Ill tory fiction, literature, does not re-
Slrt.hr Il
IN ENTERING UPON THIS FIELD OF ROMANCE,
ii Wtlorne was inspired and guided by all the
domestic al Iirs In which he passed his childhood.
oy iii tle traditions, as we'll as the recorded his
Tory OF his birthplace, by the landmarks OF past
by the ment,l and moral character-
isti OF Puritan-descended COMPANIONS The
pulpit OF HigginSpn, the grassy mound from winch
Hugh Peters preached, the altar of Rorer VII.
Hams, al reminded him OF the protesting faith OF
the fathers who founded the church and stlte
un Ter which he lived. They were there before hi,
eyes The Indictment, the sentence, the shprf's
return, Will n brought any an innocent accused
70 the scanold In the dark days OF the wtchCra:t
uelus on were preserved in the courthouse near
n S dwelling. The hill on which the sid tragedy
WIS s,so. enacted, and whose wini-stricken trees
stood, overlooked his town and was the Iayorite
spot OF his morning walk. Beyond him lay the
WATTS OF that bay. whose waves the keel Of the
Maynowar, the Arbclla and John Winthrop's fleet
had divided. The headland from which roger
Con MT watched for the coming OF his Protestant
CoioniStS, the II irDOr where John EndfcOtt first
sought shelter, the strand on which he landed the
tri-mountain which Winthrop chose as the homs
OF the Massachusetts bay colony, the SANITY
naacheS stretching southwark to the harbor OF
PiVmouth, were all within the reach OF his eve
as ne stood upon that hill OF deiusion and
s1Herin? and sorrow. The scene of that re-
Inarkaoie decade from 1620 TO 1880, In which
Roger Conant at Cape Ann, John En- iicott at Sa-
leIn, John Winthrop at Boston, and John Carver at
fiymouth, mas through trial and suffering and
failure and faint success laid the Foundation Of
lree gov ernnent based on popular right a civil
syst Ia erected on the consent OF the goyerne1.
was all lie ore him. The gabed roofs ami low
ceilings OF the Puritans dwelling were his architec
lure; the gu Unit costume o. the Puritan fathers
gut o. seen lingering in the streets in the DAYS
ol Ills childhood. The gloomy voIuInns OF their
literature still reposed on the narrow book-shelves
o. tue colonial home. Their ecclesiastical cont ro
VERSES their hot debate their angry protest, were
tae topics or daily conversation. He listened ON
tue sacred Sunday OF the Purit to the sweet nj
plOuS and simple service OF the Puritan's Worshin
Inspired by the pfaty AMI expressed 18th the
strehStn and Iervor or the Puritan minister The
taleS Oh Inif11!ne adventure, the stories or those
VINO mao Fought at lexington, and whose fathers
nal fought at Louisburg, the sententlous express
sionS or the m tgnateS OF an Old seabo lrd town
werr all familiar to his ears He knew well the
qu iintneSS, the strength. the pecullartieS, the
weak eccentriciteS, the resolution, the pride the
energy, the fearleSSneSS OF those generations
which had planted civilization in the wilderness
nal louniied state, had swept unknown seas had
lought great wars, and he brought forth In his
owing romance those pictures so dear to all who
now them WELL and opened the inner lives of the
ha nnAn