The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-15

wonderful picture of its kind: The life of a
man happily married cannot fail to be influenced
by the character and conduct of his wife. Els
pecially will this be the case when the man is of
a highiy-organized and sensitive temperament,
and most of all, perhaps, when his professional
pursuits are sedentary and imaginative, rather
than active and practical. Nathaniel Haw-
thorne was particularly susceptible to influences
of this kind; and all the available evidence goes
to show that the most fortunate event of his life
was, probably, his marriage with Sophia Pea
body. To attempt TO explain and describe his
career without taking this event into consldera-
ton would, therefore, be like trying to imagine
a sun without heat or a day without sun. Moth
ing seems less likely than that he would have
accomplished his work in literature independent
ly of her sympathy and companionship. Not
that she afforded him any direct and
literal assistance in the composition of his books
and stories; her gifts were wholly unsuited to
such employment, and no one apprehended more
keenly than she the soitariness and uniqueness
of his genius, insomuch that she would have
deemed it something not far removed from pro
fanation to have offered to advise or sway him
in regard to his literary productions. She be
lieved in his inspiration; and her office was to
promote, so far as in her lay, the favorableness
Of the conditions under which it should manifest
itself. AS food and repose nourish and refresh
the body so did she nourish and refresh her hus-
bands mind and heart. Her feminine intuition
corresponded to his masculine insight; she felt
the truth that he saw, and his recognition of
this pure faculty in her, and his reverence for it,
endowed his perception with that tender human
ity in which otherwise it might have been de
fcient. Her lofty and assured ideals kept him
to a belief in the reality and veracity of his own.
In the warmth and light of such companionship
as hers he could not fall into the GOODNESS and
gloom of a selfish intellectual habit.
She revived his confidence and courage by the
touch of her gentle humor and cheerfulness; be-
fore her unshakaSle hopefulness and serenity
his constitutional tendency to ill-foreboding and
diseouragement vanished away. Nor was she of
ln-G ain 10 h1vp IN fhn aAAal SA4al1nn4r1al
side. Her mental faculties were finely balanced
and of great capacity; her taste was by nature
highly refined, and was rendered exquisitely so
by cultivation. Her learning and accomplish
ments were rare and varied, and yet she was
always childlike in her modesty and simplicity.
She read Latin Greek and Hebrew; she was
familiar with history; and in drawing, painting
and sculpture she showed a loving talent not far
removed from original genius. Thus she was
able to meet at all points her husbands medita-
tive and theoretic needs with substantial and
practical qualification. Awaking to her, he
found in her the softened and humanized real
lzation of.his dreams. In all this she acted less
OF defined purpose than unconsciously and in
stinctively followed the natural promptings
of her love. What she did was done so we'll
because she could not do otherwise. Her hus-
appreciation of herself. She only felt what a
privilege it was to love and minister to such a
man., and to be loved by him.. For he was not,
as so many men are, a merely passive and com
placent absorber of all this devotion. What she
gave ne returned; she never touched him with
out a response; she never called to him without
an echo. He never became so familiar with her
minlstrations, unceasing though these were, as
TO accept them as a matter of course. The
springs of gratitude and recognition could not
run dry in him; his wife always remained to
him a sort of mystery of goodness and helpful
ness. he protected her, championed her and
cherished her in all ways that a man may a
woman, but, half p~layfully and all earnestly, he
4 aVOncled her S11OarlOritU OVpp h1mSnlf and in O
certain class of questions relating to practical
morality and domestic expediency, he always
deferred to and availed himself of her Judgment
and counsel. This was no make-believe, or
hollow humility on his part; he believed.
and was delighted to believe, in the higher purity
and. as it were. angelic. wisdom of her feminine
nature; and, if he ever ascribed wisdom to him
self, it was on the ground that he accepted her
views upon all matters as to which mere worldly
experience and sagacity were uncertain guides.
In comparing himself with her (supposlng him
to have done such a thingl, he would leave en-
tirely out Of account his vast intellectual power
and capacity. Intellect, in his opinion, was but
an accident of organization or inheritance, and
could be almost entirely divorced from purity
and elevation of ch~aracter-upon the basis of
which only could a mans value as a creature of
God be finally estimated. He deemed the cult
walton and Improvement of the intellect to be
mainly selfish and instructive, whereas goodness
of character was the result of a purely Christian
and regenerated effort. From this point Of view
lLbN Will O2 NOI htS WIG UtIODltS
natural and comprehensive enough; and. no
doubt, as some writer has suggested, no one but
he knew how great was his debt to her. When
| said that the life Of Hawthorne could not be
understood apart from that Of his wife. / might
have added that without her assistance it could
not have been written
Miss Peabody lends her brilliant memory and
fine characterization to these pages again and
again. Here is her portrait of the childhood of
her sister; Sophia was an instance, if ever
there was one in the world, of a child growing
up full of tire idea Of God and the perfect man
Jesus, and OF the possibility as well as duty but
rather privilege than duty of growing up limo
cent and forever improving, with the simple
creed that everything that can happen to a hui
man being is either for enjoyment in the pres
ent or instruction for the future; and that even
our faults, and all our suferings from others
faults, are means of development into new forms
of good and beauty
Concerning his fathers personal habits. the
son bears emphatic witness: MIR. Hawthorne
never was a teetotaler, any more than he was
an Abolitionist or a thug; but he was invariably
temperate. During his lifetime he smoked
something like half a dozen boxes of cigars, and
drank as much wine and spirits as would
naturally accompany that amount of
tobacco. Months and sometimes years
would pass without his either
drinking or smoking at all; but, when he would
resume those practices, it was not to i'make up
for lost time"-his moderation was not influenced
by his ahstention. Though very tolerant of ex-
cesses in Others he never permitted them in
himself; and his conduct in this respect was the
result not more OF moral prejudice than of tenn
peramental aversion. He would have been sober
if he had had no morality. At one time, in his
younger days, he was accustomed TO sup fire.
quently at a friends table, where the lady of the
house made very excellent tea. which the guest
was very fond of. One evening, in sending down
to replenish his cup, she remarked: Now, Mr..
Hawthorne, / am going to play Mrs. Thrale to
your johnson. l know you are a slave to my
tea Mr.. Hawthorne made no reply, but coz
tented himself with mentally noting that he
had been guilty of a personal Indulgence; and
during five years, dating from that evening, he
never touched anothercnp of tea. Every aspect
Of his life reflects the same principle; he could
not endure the thought of being in the thraldom
Of any selfish or sensuous habit
Hawthorne's portrait has never been outlined
il, mora opaphie wnpdc thap tho fOllouin1, an.