No More Learning

In the midst of the exacting business of his career as an
editor, and many public or social demands upon his time, he found
opportunity to familiarize himself with portions of German and Span-
ish poetry, which he translated, and to maintain in the quietude of
his country home in Roslyn, Long Island, his old acquaintance with
the Greek and Latin classics. From this continued study there re-
sulted naturally in 1870 his elaborate translation of Homer's Iliad,
which was followed by that of the Odyssey in 1871. These scholarly
works, cast in strong and polished blank verse, won high praise from
American critics, and even achieved a popular success, although they
were not warmly acclaimed, in England. Among literarians they are
still regarded as in a manner standards of their kind. Bryant, in his
long march of over sixty-five years across the literary field, was wit-
ness to many new developments in poetic writing, in both his own
and other countries. But while he perceived the splendor and color
and rich novelty of these, he held in his own work to the plain
theory and practice which had guided him from the start. «The best
poetry,” he still believed — “that which takes the strongest hold of
the general mind, not in one age only but in all ages — is that which
is always simple and always luminous. ” He did not embody in


## p. 2627 (#189) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2627
impassioned forms the sufferings, emotions, or problems of the hu-
man kind, but was disposed to generalize them, as in The Journey
of Life,' the (Hymn of the City,' and 'The Song of the Sower. ' It is
characteristic that two of the longer poems, Sella' and 'The Little
People of the Snow,' which are narratives, deal with legends of an
individual human life merging itself with the inner life of nature,
under the form of imaginary beings who dwell in the snow or in
water. On the other hand, one of his eulogists observes that al-
though some of his contemporaries went much beyond him in full-
ness of insight and nearness to the great conflicts of the age, «he
has certainly not been surpassed, perhaps not been approached, by
any writer since Wordsworth, in that majestic repose and that self-
reliant simplicity which characterized the morning stars of song. ” In
(Our Country's Call, however, one hears the ring of true martial
enthusiasm; and there is a deep patriotic fervor in O Mother of
a Mighty Race. ' The noble and sympathetic homage paid to the
typical womanhood of a genuine woman of every day, in “The
Conqueror's Grave,' reveals also great underlying warmth and sensi-
tiveness of feeling. Robert of Lincoln' and (The Planting of the
Apple-Tree' are both touched with a lighter mood of joy in nature,
which supplies a contrast to his usual pensiveness.
Bryant's venerable aspect in old age — with erect form, white hair,
and flowing snowy beard - gave him a resemblance to Homer; and
there was something Homeric about his influence upon the litera-
ture of his country, in the dignity with which he invested the poetic
art and the poet's relation to the people.
Serge Persons Latterop
(All Bryant's poems were originally published by D. Appleton and Company. )
THANATOPSIS
T°
0 Him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,


## p. 2628 (#190) ###########################################

2628
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air
Comes a still voice:-
Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix for ever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings,
The powerful of the earth — the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods — rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste, —
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom. - Take the wings
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound


## p. 2629 (#191) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2629
Save his own dashings — yet the dead are there;
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep — the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure ? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men,
The youth in life's fresh spring and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe and the gray-headed man
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those who in their turn shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
THE CROWDED STREET
L
ET me move slowly through the street,
Filled with an ever-shifting train,
Amid the sound of steps that beat
The murmuring walks like autumn rain.
How fast the fitting figures come!
The mild, the fierce, the stony face –
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some
Where secret tears have lost their trace.
They pass to toil, to strife, to rest --
To halls in which the feast is spread —


## p. 2630 (#192) ###########################################

2630
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
To chambers where the funeral guest
In silence sits beside the dead.
And some to happy homes repair,
Where children, pressing cheek to cheek,
With mute caresses shall declare
The tenderness they cannot speak.
And some, who walk in calmness here,
Shall shudder as they reach the door
Where one who made their dwelling dear,
Its flower, its light, is seen no more.
Youth, with pale cheek and slender frame,
And dreams of greatness in thine eye!
Go'st thou to build an early name,
Or early in the task to die?
Keen son of trade, with eager brow!
Who is now fluttering in thy snare?
Thy golden fortunes, tower they now,
Or melt the glittering spires in air?
Who of this crowd to-night shall tread
The dance till daylight gleam again?
Who sorrow o'er the untimely dead ?
Who writhe in throes of mortal pain ?
Some, famine-struck, shall think how long
The cold dark hours, how slow the light;
And some who flaunt amid the throng
Shall hide in dens of shame to-night.
Each where his tasks or pleasures call,
They pass, and heed each other not.
There is Who heeds, Who holds them all
In His large love and boundless thought.
These struggling tides of life, that seem
In wayward, aimless course to tend,
Are eddies of the mighty stream
That rolls to its appointed end.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.
1


## p. 2631 (#193) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2631
THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS
T"
HE melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and
sere.
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.
The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,
And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day.
Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and
stood
In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood ?
Alas! they all are in their graves; the gentle race of flowers
Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.
The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain
Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again.
The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,
And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;
But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood,
Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on
men,
And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland, glade, and
glen.
And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will
come,
To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home;
When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are
still,
And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill,
The south-wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he
bore,
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.
And then I think of one who in her youthful ity died,
The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side.
In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf,
And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief;
Yet not unmeet it was that one like that young friend of ours,
So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers.


## p. 2632 (#194) ###########################################

2632
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
THE CONQUEROR'S GRAVE
W"
IThin this lowly grave a Conqueror lies,
And yet the monument proclaims it not,
Nor round the sleeper's name hath chisel wrought
The emblems of a fame that never dies, -
Ivy and amaranth, in a graceful sheaf,
Twined with the laurel's fair, imperial leaf.
A simple name alone,
To the great world unknown,
Is graven here, and wild-flowers rising round,
Meek meadow-sweet and violets of the ground,
Lean lovingly against the humble stone.
Here, in the quiet earth, they laid apart
No man of iron mold and bloody hands,
Who sought to wreak upon the cowering lands
The passions that consumed his restless heart:
But one of tender spirit and delicate frame,
Gentlest, in mien and mind,
Of gentle womankind,
Timidly shrinking from the breath of blame;
One in whose eyes the smile of kindness made
Its haunts, like flowers by sunny brooks in May,
Yet, at the thought of others' pain, a shade
Of sweeter sadness chased the smile away.
Nor deem that when the hand that molders here
Was raised in menace, realms were chilled with fear,
And armies mustered at the sign, as when
Clouds rise on clouds before the rainy East –
Gray captains leading bands of veteran men
And fiery youths to be the vulture's feast.
Not thus were waged the mighty wars that gave
The victory to her who fills this grave:
Alone her task was wrought,
Alone the battle fought;
Through that long strife her constant hope was staid
On God alone, nor looked for other aid.
She met the hosts of Sorrow with a look
That altered not beneath the frown they wore,
And soon the lowering brood were tamed, and took
Meekly her gentle rule, and frowned no more.


## p. 2633 (#195) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2633
Her soft hand put aside the assaults of wrath,
And calmly broke in twain
The fiery shafts of pain,
And rent the nets of passion from her path.
By that victorious hand despair was slain.
With love she vanquished hate and overcame
Evil with good, in her Great Master's name.
Her glory is not of this shadowy state,
Glory that with the fleeting season dies;
But when she entered at the sapphire gate
What joy was radiant in celestial eyes!
How heaven's bright depths with sounding welcomes rung,
And flowers of heaven by shining hands were flung!
And He who long before,
Pain, scorn, and sorrow bore,
The Mighty Sufferer, with aspect sweet,
Smiled on the timid stranger from his seat;
He who returning, glorious, from the grave,
Dragged Death disarmed, in chains, a crouching slave.
See, as I linger here, the sun grows low;
Cool airs are murmuring that the night is near.
O gentle sleeper, from the grave
I
go,
Consoled though sad, in hope and yet in fear.
Brief is the time, I know,
The warfare scarce begun;
Yet all may win the triumphs thou hast won.
Still flows the fount whose waters strengthened thee;
The victors' names are yet too few to fill
Heaven's mighty roll; the glorious armory
That ministered to thee, is open still.
THE BATTLE-FIELD
OY
NCE this soft turf, this rivulet's sands,
Were trampled by a hurrying crowd,
And fiery hearts and armed hands
Encountered in the battle-cloud.
Ah! never shall the land forget
How gushed the life-blood of her brave –
Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet,
Upon the soil they sought to save.


## p. 2634 (#196) ###########################################

2634
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
Now all is calm, and fresh, and still;
Alone the chirp of flitting bird,
And talk of children on the hill,
And bell of wandering kine are heard.
No solemn host goes trailing by
The black-mouthed gun and staggering wain;
Men start not at the battle-cry-
Oh, be it never heard again!
Soon rested those who fought; but thou
Who minglest in the harder strife
For truths which men receive not now,
Thy warfare only ends with life.
A friendless warfare! lingering long
Through weary day and weary year;
A wild and many-weaponed throng
Hang on thy front, and flank, and rear.
Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof,
And blench not at thy chosen lot;
The timid good may stand aloof,
The sage may frown — yet faint thou not.
Nor heed the shaft too surely cast,
The foul and hissing bolt of scorn;
For with thy side shall dwell, at last,
The victory of endurance born.
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again -
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshipers.
Yea, though thou lie upon the dust,
When they who helped thee flee in fear,
Die full of hope and manly trust,
Like those who fell in battle here!
Another hand thy sword shall wield,
Another hand the standard wave,
Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed
The blast of triumph o'er thy grave.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.


## p. 2635 (#197) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2635
TO A WATERFOWL
W"
HITHER, 'midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of
day,
Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.
Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean-side ?
There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast -
The desert and illimitable air-
Lone wandering, but not lost.
All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.
And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.
Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.
He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.


## p. 2636 (#198) ###########################################

2636
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
ROBERT OF LINCOLN
M
ERRILY swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln is gayly drest,
Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;
White are his shoulders and white his crest.
Hear him call in his merry note:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Look what a nice new coat is mine,
Sure there was never a bird so fine.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife,
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
Passing at home a patient life,
Broods in the grass while her husband sings :-
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink:
Brood, kind creature; you need not fear
Thieves and robbers while I am here.
Chee, chee, chee.
Modest and shy as a nun is she;
One weak chirp is her only note.
Braggart and prince of braggarts is he,
Pouring boasts from his little throat :
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink:
Never was I afraid of man;
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can!
Chee, chee, chee.
Six white eggs on a bed of hay,
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight!


## p. 2637 (#199) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2637
There as the mother sits all day,
Robert is singing with all his might:-
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Nice good wife, that never goes out,
Keeping house while I frolic about.
Chee, chee, chee.
Soon as the little ones chip the shell,
Six wide mouths are open for food;
Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well,
Gathering seeds for the hungry brood.
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
This new life is likely to be
Hard for a gay young fellow like me.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln at length is made
Sober with work, and silent with care;
Off is his holiday garment laid,
Half forgotten that merry air:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Nobody knows but my mate and I
Where our nest and our nestlings lie.
Chee, chee, chee.
Summer wanes; the children are grown;
Fun and frolic no more he knows;
Robert of Lincoln's a humdrum crone;
Off he fies, and we sing as he goes:-
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
When you can pipe that merry old strain,
Robert of Lincoln, come back again.
Chee, chee, chee.
1855.


## p. 2638 (#200) ###########################################

2638
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
JUNE
I
GAZED upon the glorious sky
And the green mountains round;
And thought that when I came to lie
At rest within the ground,
"Twere pleasant that in flowery June,
When brooks send up a cheerful tune
And groves a joyous sound,
The sexton's hand, my grave to make,
The rich green mountain turf should break.
A cell within the frozen mold,
A coffin borne through sleet,
And icy clods above it rolled,
While fierce the tempests beat -
Away! I will not think of these:
Blue be the sky and soft the breeze,
Earth green beneath the feet,
And be the damp mold gently pressed
Into my narrow place of rest.
There through the long, long summer hours
The golden light should lie,
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
Stand in their beauty by;
The oriole should build and tell
His love-tale close beside my cell;
The idle butterfly
Should rest him there, and there be heard
The housewife bee and humming-bird.
And what if cheerful shouts at noon
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids beneath the moon,
With fairy laughter blent ?
And what if, in the evening light,
Betrothèd lovers walk in sight
Of my low monument ?
I would the lovely scene around
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
I know that I no more should see
The season's glorious show,


## p. 2639 (#201) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2639
Nor would its brightness shine for me,
Nor its wild music flow;
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom,
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
These to their softened hearts should bear
The thought of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
The gladness of the scene;
Whose part in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills
Is- that his grave is green;
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice.
TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN
Hou blossom, bright with autumn dew,
And colored with the heaven's own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night;
THON
Thou comest not when violets lean
O’er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.
Thou waitest late, and com'st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frost and shortening days portend
The aged Year is near his end.
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue - blue — as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.
I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.


## p. 2640 (#202) ###########################################

2640
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
THE FUTURE LIFE
Hº"
OW SHALL I know thee in the sphere which keeps
The disembodied spirits of the dead,
When all of thee that time could wither sleeps
And perishes among the dust we tread ?
For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain
If there I meet thy gentle presence not;
Nor hear the voice I love, nor read again
In thy serenest eyes the tender thought.
Will not thy own meek heart demand me there?
That heart whose fondest throbs to me were given?
My name on earth was ever in thy prayer,
And wilt thou never utter it in heaven?
In meadows fanned by heaven's life-breathing wind,
In the resplendence of that glorious sphere,
And larger movements of the unfettered mind,
Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here?
The love that lived through all the stormy past,
And meekly with my harsher nature bore,
And deeper grew, and tenderer to the last,
Shall it expire with life, and be no more?
A happier lot than mine, and larger light,
Await thee there; for thou hast bowed thy will
In cheerful homage to the rule of right,
And lovest all, and renderest good for ill.
For me, the sordid cares in which I dwell
Shrink and consume my heart, as heat the scroll;
And wrath has left its scar - that fire of hell
Has left its frightful scar upon my soul.
Yet though thou wear'st the glory of the sky,
Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name,
The same fair thoughtful brow, and gentle eye,
Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the same?
Shalt thou not teach me, in that calmer home,
The wisdom that I learned so ill in this
The wisdom which is love - till I become
Thy fit companion in that land of bliss ?
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.


## p. 2641 (#203) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2641
TO THE PAST
TO
THOU unrelenting Past!
Stern are the fetters round thy dark domain,
And fetters, sure and fast,
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.
Far in thy realm withdrawn
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom,
And glorious ages gone
Lie deep within the shadows of thy womb.
Childhood, with all its mirth,
Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground,
And last, Man's Life on earth,
Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.
Thou hast my better years,
Thou hast my earlier friends — the good, the kind –
Yielded to thee with tears -
The venerable form, the exalted mind.
My spirit yearns to bring
The lost ones back; yearns with desire intense,
And struggles hard to wring
Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence.
In vain! - Thy gates deny
All passage save to those who hence depart.
Nor to the streaming eye
Thou givest them back, nor to the broken heart.
In thy abysses hide
Beauty and excellence unknown. To thee
Earth's wonder and her pride
Are gathered, as the waters to the sea.
Labors of good to man,
Unpublished charity, unbroken faith;
Love, that 'midst grief began,
And grew with years, and faltered not in death.
Full many a mighty name
Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered.
With thee are silent Fame,
Forgotten Arts, and Wisdom disappeared.
V-166


## p. 2642 (#204) ###########################################

2642
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
Thine for a space are they.
Yet thou shalt yield thy treasures up at last;
Thy gates shall yet give way,
Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past!
All that of good and fair
Has gone into thy womb from earliest time
Shall then come forth, to wear
The glory and the beauty of its prime.
They have not perished - no!
Kind words, remembered voices once so sweet,
Smiles, radiant long ago,
And features, the great soul's apparent seat:
All shall come back. Each tie
Of pure affection shall be knit again:
Alone shall Evil die,
And sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign.
And then shall I behold
Him by whose kind paternal side I sprung;
And her who, still and cold,
Fills the next grave — the beautiful and young.
Copyrighted by D. Appleton and Company, New York.


## p. 2643 (#205) ###########################################

2643
JAMES BRYCE
(1838-)
AMES BRYCE was born at Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch and Irish
parents. He studied at the University of Glasgow and later
at Oxford, where he graduated with high honors in 1862, and
where after some ars of legal practice he was appointed Regius
Professor of Civil Law in 1870. He had already established a high
reputation as an original and accurate historical scholar by his prize
essay on the Holy Roman Empire) (1864), which passed through
many editions, was translated into German, French, and Italian, and
remains to-day a standard work and the
best known work on the subject. Edward
A. Freeman said on the appearance
of the
work that it had raised the author at once
to the rank of a great historian. It has
done more than any other treatise to clar-
ify the vague notions of historians as to
the significance of the imperial idea in the
Middle Ages, and its importance as a fac-
tor in German and Italian politics; and it
is safe to say that there is scarcely a recent
history of the period that does not show
traces of its influence. The scope of this
work being juristic and philosophical, it JAMES BRYCE
does not admit of much historical narra-
tive, and the style is lucid but not brilliant. It is not in fact as
a historian that Mr. Bryce is best known, but rather as a jurist, a
politician, and a student of institutions.
The most striking characteristic of the man is his versatility; a
quality which in his case has not been accompanied by its usual
defects, for his achievements in one field seem to have made him no
less conscientious in others, while they have given him that breadth
of view which is more essential than any special training to the
critic of men and affairs. For the ten years that followed his Oxford
appointment he contributed frequently to the magazines on geograph-
ical, social, and political topics. His vacations he spent in travel and
in mountain climbing, of which he gave an interesting narrative in
(Transcaucasia and Ararat" (1877). In 1880 he entered active poli-
tics, and was elected to Parliament in the Liberal interest. He has



## p. 2644 (#206) ###########################################

2644
JAMES BRYCE
continued steadfast in his support of the Liberal party and of Mr.
Gladstone, whose Home Rule policy he has heartily seconded. In
1886 he became Gladstone's Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and
in 1894 was appointed President of the Board of Trade.
The work by which he is best known in this country, the Amer-
ican Commonwealth (1888), is the fruit of his observations during
three visits to the United States, and of many years of study. It is
generally conceded to be the best critical analysis of American insti-
tutions ever made by a foreign author. Inferior in point of style to
De Tocqueville's Democracy in America,' it far surpasses that book
in amplitude, breadth of view, acuteness of observation, and minute-
ness of information; besides being half a century later in date, and
therefore able to set down accomplished facts where the earlier
observer could only make forecasts. His extensive knowledge of for-
eign countries, by divesting him of insular prejudice, fitted him to
handle his theme with impartiality, and his experience in the prac-
tical workings of British institutions gave him an insight into the
practical defects and benefits of ours. That he has a keen eye for
defects is obvious, but his tone is invariably sympathetic; so much
so, in fact, that Goldwin Smith has accused him of being somewhat
hard on England in some of his comparisons. The faults of the
book pertain rather to the manner than to the matter. He does not
mislead, but sometimes wearies, and in some portions of the work
the frequent repetitions, the massing of details, and the absence of
compact statement tend to obscure the general drift of his argument
and to add unduly to the bulkiness of his volumes.
THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES
From The American Commonwealth)
Soc
OCIAL intercourse between youths and maidens is everywhere
more easy and unrestrained than in England or Germany,
not to speak of France. Yet there are considerable differ-
ences between the Eastern cities, whose usages have begun to
approximate to those of Europe, and other parts of the country.
In the rural districts, and generally all over the West, young
men and girls are permitted to walk together, drive together, go
out to parties and even to public entertainments together, with-
out the presence of any third person who can be supposed to be
looking after or taking charge of the girl. So a girl may, if
she pleases, keep up a correspondence with a young man, nor
will her parents think of interfering. She will have her own


## p. 2645 (#207) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2645
friends, who when they call at her house ask for her, and are
received by her, it may be alone; because they are not deemed
to be necessarily the friends of her parents also, nor even of her
sisters.
In the cities of the Atlantic States it is now thought scarcely
correct for a young man to take a young lady out for a solitary
drive; and in few sets would he be permitted to escort her
alone to the theatre. But girls still go without chaperons to
dances, the hostess being deemed to act as chaperon for all her
guests; and as regards both correspondence and the right to
have one's own circle of acquaintances, the usage even of New
York or Boston allows more liberty than does that of London or
Edinburgh. It was at one time, and it may possibly still be,
not uncommon for a group of young people
who know one
another well to make up an autumn “party in the woods. ” They
choose some mountain and forest region, such as the Adirondack
Wilderness west of Lake Champlain, engage three or four
guides, embark with guns and fishing-rods, tents, blankets, and
a stock of groceries, and pass in boats up the rivers and across
the lakes of this wild country through sixty or seventy miles of
trackless forest, to their chosen camping-ground at the foot of
some tall rock that rises from the still crystal of the lake. Here
they build their bark hut, and spread their beds of the elastic
and fragrant hemlock boughs; the youths roam about during the
day, tracking the deer, the girls read and work and bake the
corn-cakes; at night there is a merry gathering round the fire,
or a row in the soft moonlight. On these expeditions brothers
will take their sisters and cousins, who bring perhaps some lady
friends with them; the brothers' friends will come too; and all
will live together in a fraternal way for weeks or months, though
no elderly relative or married lady be of the party.
There can be no doubt that the pleasure of life is sensibly
increased by the greater freedom which transatlantic custom per-
mits; and as the Americans insist that no bad results have fol-
lowed, one notes with regret that freedom declines in the places.
which deem themselves most civilized. American girls have been,
so far as a stranger can ascertain, less disposed to what are
called “fast ways than girls of the corresponding classes in
England, and exercise in this respect a pretty rigorous censorship
over one another. But when two young people find pleasure in
one another's company, they can see as much of each other as


## p. 2646 (#208) ###########################################

2646
JAMES BRYCE
Soon
they please, can talk and walk together frequently, can show
that they are mutually interested, and yet need have little fear
of being misunderstood either by one another or by the rest of
the world. It is all a matter of custom. In the West, custom
sanctions this easy friendship; in the Atlantic cities, so
as people have come to find something exceptional in it, con-
straint is felt, and a conventional etiquette like that of the Old
World begins to replace the innocent simplicity of the older
time, the test of whose merit may be gathered from the univer-
sal persuasion in America that happy marriages are in the middle
and
upper ranks more common than in Europe, and that this
is due to the ampler opportunities which young men and women
have of learning one another's characters and habits before
becoming betrothed. Most girls have a larger range of intimate
acquaintances than girls have in Europe, intercourse is franker,
there is less difference between the manners of home and the
manners of general society. The conclusions of a stranger are
in such matters of no value; so I can only repeat that I have
never met any judicious American lady who, however well she
knew the Old World, did not think that the New World customs
conduced more both to the pleasantness of life before marriage,
and to constancy and concord after it.
In no country are women, and especially young women, so
much made of. The world is at their feet. Society seems organ-
ized for the purpose of providing enjoyment for them. Parents,
uncles, aunts, elderly friends, even brothers, are ready to make
their comfort and convenience bend to the girls' wishes. The
wife has fewer opportunities for reigning over the world of
amusements, because except among the richest people she has
more to do in household management than in England, owing
to the scarcity of servants; but she holds in her own house
a more prominent if not a more substantially powerful position
than in England or even in France. With the German haus-
frau, who is too often content to be a mere housewife, there is
of course no comparison. The best proof of the superior place
American ladies occupy is to be found in the notions they pro-
fess to entertain of the relations of an English married pair.
They talk of the English wife as little better than a slave;
declaring that when they stay with English friends, or receive
an English couple in America, they see the wife always defer-
ring to the husband and the husband always assuming that his


## p. 2647 (#209) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2647
pleasure and convenience are to prevail. The European wife,
they admit, often gets her own way, but she gets it by tactful
arts, by flattery or wheedling or playing on the man's weak-
nesses; whereas in America the husband's duty and desire is to
gratify the wife, and render to her those services which the
English tyrant exacts from his consort. One may often hear
an American matron commiserate a friend who has married in
Europe, while the daughters declare in chorus that they will
never follow the example. Laughable as all this may seem to
English women, it is perfectly true that the theory as well as
the practice of conjugal life is not the same in America as in
England. There are overbearing husbands in America, but they
are more condemned by the opinion of the neighborhood than
in England. There are exacting wives in England, but their
husbands are more pitied than would be the case in America.
In neither country can one say that the principle of perfect
equality reigns; for in America the balance inclines nearly,
though not quite, as much in favor of the wife as it does in
England in favor of the husband. No one man can have a
sufficiently large acquaintance in both countries to entitle his
individual opinion on the results to much weight. So far as I
have been able to collect views from those observers who have
lived in both countries, they are in favor of the American prac-
tice, perhaps because the theory it is based on departs less from
pure equality than does that of England. These observers do
not mean that the recognition of women as equals or superiors
makes them any better or sweeter or wiser than English women;
but rather that the principle of equality, by correcting the
characteristic faults of men, and especially their selfishness and
vanity, is more conducive to the concord and happiness of a
home. They conceive that to make the wife feel her independ-
ence and responsibility more strongly than she does in Europe
tends to brace and expand her character; while conjugal affec-
tion, usually stronger in her than in the husband, inasmuch as
there are fewer competing interests, saves her from abusing the
precedence yielded to her. This seems to be true; but I have
heard others maintain that the American system, since it does
not require the wife habitually to forego her own wishes, tends,
if not to make her self-indulgent and capricious, yet slightly to
impair the more delicate charms of character; as it is written,
"It is more blessed to give than to receive. ”


## p. 2648 (#210) ###########################################

2648
JAMES BRYCE
woman
cross
A European cannot spend an evening in an American draw-
ing-room without perceiving that the attitude of men to women
is not that with which he is familiar at home. The average
European man has usually a slight sense of condescension when
he talks to a
on serious subjects. Even if she is his
superior in intellect, in character, in social rank, he thinks that
as a man he is her superior, and consciously or unconsciously
talks down to her. She is too much accustomed to this to resent
it, unless it becomes tastelessly palpable. Such a notion does not
an American's mind. He talks to a woman just as he
would to a man; of course with more deference of manner, and
with a proper regard to the topics likely to interest her, but
giving her his intellectual best, addressing her as a person whose
opinion is understood by both to be worth as much as his own.
Similarly an American lady does not expect to have conversation
made to her: it is just as much her duty or pleasure to lead it
as the man's is; and more often than not she takes the burden
from him, darting along with a gay vivacity which puts to
shame his slower wits.
It need hardly be said that in all cases where the two sexes
come into competition for comfort, the provision is made first for
women. In railroads the end car of the train, being that farthest
removed from the smoke of the locomotive, is often reserved for
them (though men accompanying a lady are allowed to enter it);
and at hotels their sitting-room is the best and sometimes the
only available public room, ladyless guests being driven to the
bar or the hall. In omnibuses and horse-cars (tram-cars), it was
formerly the custom for a gentleman to rise and offer his seat to
a lady if there were no vacant place. This is now less univer-
sally done.
In New York and Boston (and I think also in San
Francisco), I have seen the men keep their seats when ladies
entered; and I recollect one occasion when the offer of a seat
to a lady was declined by her, on the ground that as she had
chosen to enter a full car she ought to take the consequences.
It was (I was told in Boston) a feeling of this kind that had
led to the discontinuance of the old courtesy: when ladies con-
stantly pressed into the already crowded vehicles, the men, who
could not secure the enforcement of the regulations against over-
crowding, tried to protect themselves by refusing to rise. It is
sometimes said that the privileges yielded to American women
have disposed them to claim as a right what was only a courtesy,
1
1
1
1


## p. 2649 (#211) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2649
and have told unfavorably upon their manners.
I know of sev-
eral instances, besides this one of the horse-cars, which might
seem to support the criticism, but cannot on the whole think it
well founded. The better-bred women do not presume on their
sex, and the area of good breeding is always widening. It need
hardly be said that the community at large gains by the softening
and restraining influence which the reverence for womanhood
diffuses. Nothing so quickly incenses the people as any insult
offered to a woman. Wife-beating, and indeed any kind of rough
violence offered to women, is far less common among the rudest
class than it is in England. Field work or work at the pit-mouth
of mines is seldom or never done by women in America; and the
American traveler who in some parts of Europe finds women
performing severe manual labor, is revolted by the sight in a
way which Europeans find surprising.
In the farther West, that is to say, beyond the Mississippi, in
the Rocky Mountain and Pacific States, one is much struck by
what seems the absence of the humblest class of women. The
trains are full of poorly dressed and sometimes (though less fre-
quently) rough-mannered men. One discovers no women whose
dress or air marks them out as the wives, daughters, or sisters
of these men, and wonders whether the male population is celi-
bate, and if so, why there are so many women. Closer observa-
tion shows that the wives, daughters, and sisters are there, only
their attire and manner are those of what Europeans would call
middle-class and not working-class people. This is partly due
to the fact that Western men affect a rough dress.
Still one
may say that the remark so often made, that the masses of the
American people correspond to the middle class of Europe, is
more true of the women than of the men; and is more true of
them in the rural districts and in the West than it is of the
inhabitants of Atlantic cities. I remember to have been daw-
dling in a book-store in a small town in Oregon when a lady
entered to inquire if a monthly magazine, whose name
unknown to me, had yet arrived. When she was gone I asked
the salesman who she was, and what was the periodical she
wanted. He answered that she was the wife of a railway work-
man, that the magazine was a journal of fashions, and that
the demand for such journals was large and constant among
women of the wage-earning class in the town. This set me to
observing female dress more closely; and it turned out to be
was


## p. 2650 (#212) ###########################################

2650
JAMES BRYCE
an
perfectly true that the women in these little towns were follow-
ing the Parisian fashions very closely, and were in fact ahead
of the majority of English ladies belonging to the professional
and mercantile classes. Of course in such a town as I refer to,
there are no domestic servants except in the hotels (indeed,
almost the only domestic service to be had in the Pacific States
was till very recently that of Chinese), so these votaries of
fashion did all their own housework and looked after their own
babies.
Three causes combine to create among American women
average of literary taste and influence higher than that of women
in any European country. These are the educational facilities they
enjoy, the recognition of the equality of the sexes in the whole
social and intellectual sphere, and the leisure which they possess
as compared with men. In a country where men are incessantly
occupied at their business or profession, the function of keeping
up the level of culture devolves upon women. It is safe in their
hands. They are quick and keen-witted, less fond of open-air
life and physical exertion than English women are, and obliged
by the climate to pass a greater part of their time under shelter
from the cold of winter and the sun of summer. For music and
for the pictorial arts they do not yet seem to have formed so
strong a taste as for literature; partly perhaps owing to the fact
that in America the opportunities of seeing and hearing master-
pieces, except indeed operas, are rarer than in Europe. But
they are eager and assiduous readers of all such books and
periodicals as do not presuppose special knowledge in
branch of science or learning, while the number who have de-
voted themselves to some special study and attained proficiency
in it is large. The fondness for sentiment, especially moral and
domestic sentiment, which is often observed as characterizing
American taste in literature, seems to be mainly due to the
influence of women, for they form not only the larger part of
the reading public, but an independent-minded part, not disposed
to adopt the canons laid down by men, and their preferences
count for more in the opinions and predilections of the whole
nation than is the case in England. Similarly the number of
women who write is infinitely larger in America than in Europe.
Fiction, essays, and poetry are naturally their favorite provinces.
In poetry more particularly, many whose names are quite un-
known in Europe have attained wide-spread fame.
some


## p. 2651 (#213) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2651
Some one may ask how far the differences between the posi-
tion of women in America and their position in Europe are due
to democracy? or if not to this, then to what other cause ?
They are due to democratic feeling, in so far as they spring
from the notion that all men are free and equal, possessed of
certain inalienable rights and owing certain corresponding duties.
This root idea of democracy cannot stop at defining men as male
human beings, any more than it could ultimately stop at defining
them as white human beings. For many years the Americans
believed in equality with the pride of discoverers as well as with
the fervor of apostles. Accustomed to apply it to all sorts and
conditions of men, they were naturally the first to apply it to
women also; not indeed as respects politics, but in all the social
as well as legal relations of life. Democracy is in America more
respectful of the individual, less disposed to infringe his freedom
or subject him to any sort of legal or family control, than it has
shown itself in Continental Europe; and this regard for the
individual inured to the benefit of women. Of the other causes
that have worked in the same direction, two may be mentioned.
One is the usage of the Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and
Baptist churches, under which a woman who is a member of the
congregation has the same rights in choosing a deacon, elder, or
pastor, as a man has. Another is the fact that among the west-
ward-moving settlers women were at first few in number, and
were therefore treated with special respect. The habit then
formed was retained as the communities grew, and propagated
itself all over the country.
What have been the results on the character and usefulness
of women themselves ?
Favorable. They have opened to them a wider life and more
variety of career. While the special graces of the feminine
character do not appear to have suffered, there has been pro-
duced a sort of independence and a capacity for self-help which
are increasingly valuable as the number of unmarried women
increases. More resources are open to an American woman who
has to lead a solitary life, not merely in the way of employment,
but for the occupation of her mind and tastes, than to a Euro-
pean spinster or widow; while her education has not rendered
the American wife less competent for the discharge of household
duties.


## p. 2652 (#214) ###########################################

2652
JAMES BRYCE
How has the nation at large been affected by the develop-
ment of this new type of womanhood, or rather perhaps of this
variation on the English type ?
If women have on the whole gained, it is clear that the
nation gains through them. As mothers they mold the character
of their children; while the function of forming the habits of
society and determining its moral tone rests greatly in their
hands. But there is reason to think that the influence of the
American system tells directly for good upon men as well as
upon the whole community. Men gain in being brought to treat
women as equals, rather than as graceful playthings or useful
drudges. The respect for women which every American man
either feels, or is obliged by public sentiment to profess, has a
wholesome effect on his conduct and character, and serves to
check the cynicism which some other peculiarities of the country
foster. The nation as a whole owes to the active benevolence of
its women, and their zeal in promoting social reforms, benefits
which the customs of Continental Europe would scarcely have
permitted women to confer. Europeans have of late years begun
to render a well-deserved admiration to the brightness and
vivacity of American ladies. Those who know the work they
have done and are doing in many a noble cause will admire still
more their energy, their courage, their self-devotion. No coun-
try seems to owe more to its women than America does, nor to
owe to them so much of what is best in social institutions and
in the beliefs that govern conduct.
By permission of James Bryce and the Macmillan Company.
1
THE ASCENT OF ARARAT
From (Trans-Caucasia and Ararat)
1
A
BOUT I A. M. we got off, thirteen in all, and made straight
across the grassy hollows for the ridges which trend up
towards the great cone, running parallel in a west-north-
westerly direction, and inclosing between them several long
narrow depressions, hardly deep enough to be called valleys.
The Kurds led the way, and at first we made pretty good
progress. The Cossacks seemed fair walkers, though less stal-
wart than the Kurds; the pace generally was better than that
with which Swiss guides start. However, we were soon cruelly


## p. 2653 (#215) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2653
undeceived. In twenty-five minutes there came a steep bit, and
at the top of it they flung themselves down on the grass to rest.
So did we all. Less than half a mile farther, down they dropped
again, and this time we were obliged to give the signal for
resuming the march. In another quarter of an hour they were
down once more, and so it continued for the rest of the way.
Every ten minutes' walking – it was seldom steep enough to be
called actual climbing – was followed by seven or eight minutes
of sitting still, smoking and chattering. How they did chatter!
It was to no purpose that we continued to move on when they
sat down, or that we rose to go before they had sufficiently
rested. They looked at one another, so far as I could make out
by the faint light, and occasionally they laughed; but they would
not and did not stir till such time as pleased themselves. We
were helpless. Impossible to go on alone; impossible also to
explain to them why every moment was precious, for the
acquaintance who had acted as interpreter had been obliged to
stay behind at Sardarbulakh, and we were absolutely without
means of communication with our companions. One could not
even be angry, had there been any use in that, for they were
perfectly good-humored. It was all very well to beckon them,
or pull them by the elbow, or clap them on the back; they
thought this was only our fun, and sat still and chattered all the
same. When it grew light enough to see the hands of a watch,
and mark how the hours advanced while the party did not, we
began for a second time to despair of success.
About 3 A. M. there suddenly sprang up from behind the
Median mountains the morning star, shedding a light such as no
star ever gave in these northern climes of ours, - a light that
almost outshone the moon. An hour later it began to pale in
the first faint Aush of yellowish light that spread over the eastern
heaven; and first the rocky masses above us, then Little Ararat,
throwing behind him a gigantic shadow, then the long lines of
mountains beyond the Araxes, became revealed, while the wide
Araxes plain still lay dim and shadowy below. One by one the
stars died out as the yellow turned to a deeper glow that shot
forth in long streamers, the rosy fingers of the dawn, from the
horizon to the zenith. Cold and ghostly lay the snows on the
mighty cone; till at last there came upon their topmost slope,
six thousand feet above us, a sudden blush of pink. Swiftly it
floated down the eastern face, and touched and kindled the rocks


## p. 2654 (#216) ###########################################

2654
JAMES BRYCE
just above us. Then the sun flamed out, and in a moment the
Araxes valley and all the hollows of the savage ridges we were
crossing were flooded with overpowering light.
It was nearly six o'clock, and progress became easier now
that we could see our way distinctly. The Cossacks seemed to
grow lazier, halting as often as before and walking less briskly;
in fact, they did not relish the exceeding roughness of the jagged
lava ridges along whose tops or sides we toiled. I could will-
ingly have lingered here myself; for in the hollows, wherever a
little soil appeared, some interesting plants were growing, whose
similarity to and difference from the Alpine species of Western
Europe alike excited one's curiosity. Time allowed me to secure
only a few; I trusted to get more on the way back, but this
turned out to be impossible. As we scrambled along a ridge
above a long narrow winding glen filled with loose blocks, one
of the Kurds suddenly swooped down like a vulture from the
height on a spot at the bottom, and began peering and grubbing
among the stones. In a minute or two he cried out, and the
rest followed; he had found a spring, and by scraping in the
gravel had made a tiny basin out of which we could manage to
drink a little. Here was a fresh cause of delay: everybody was
thirsty, and everybody must drink; not only the water which, as
we afterwards saw, trickled down hither under the stones from a
snow-bed seven hundred feet higher, but the water mixed with
some whisky from a flask my friend carried, which even in this
highly diluted state the Cossacks took to heartily. When at last
we got them up and away again, they began to waddle and
strangle; after a while two or three sat down, and plainly gave
us to see they would go no farther. By the time we had reached
a little snow-bed whence the now strong sun was drawing a
stream of water, and halted on the rocks beside it for breakfast,
there were only two Cossacks and the four Kurds left with us, the
rest having scattered themselves about somewhere lower down.
We had no idea what instructions they had received, nor whether
indeed they had been told anything except to bring us as far as
they could, to see that the Kurds brought the baggage, and to
fetch us back again, which last was essential for Jaafar's peace
of mind. We concluded therefore that if left to themselves they
would probably wait our return; and the day was running on so
fast that it was clear there was no more time to be lost in trying
to drag them along with us.


## p. 2655 (#217) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2655
an-
Accordingly I resolved to take what I wanted in the way of
food, and start at my own pace. My friend, who carried more
weight, and had felt the want of training on our way up, de-
cided to come no farther, but wait about here, and look out for
me towards nightfall. We noted the landmarks carefully,—the
little snow-bed, the head of the glen covered with reddish masses
of stone and gravel; and high above it, standing out of the
face of the great cone of Ararat, a bold peak or rather project-
ing tooth of black rock, which our Cossacks called the Monas-
tery, and which, I suppose from the same fancied resemblance
to a building, is said to be called in Tatar Tach Kilissa, “the
church rock. " It is doubtless an old cone of eruption, about
thirteen thousand feet in height, and is really the upper end of
the long ridge we had been following, which may perhaps rep-
resent a lava flow from it, or the edge of a fissure which at this
point found a vent.
It was
an odd position to be in: guides of two different
races, unable to communicate either with us or with one
other; guides who could not lead and would not follow; guides
one-half of whom were supposed to be there to save us from
being robbed and murdered by the other half, but all of whom,
I am bound to say, looked for the moment equally simple and
friendly, the swarthy Iranian as well as the blue-eyed Slav.
At eight o'clock I buckled on my canvas gaiters, thrust some
crusts of bread, a lemon, a small flask of cold tea, four hard-
boiled eggs, and a few meat lozenges into my pocket, bade
good-by to my friend, and set off. Rather to our surprise, the
two Cossacks and one of the Kurds came with me, whether per-
suaded by a pantomime of encouraging signs, or simply curious
to see what would happen. The ice-axe had hugely amused the
Cossacks all through. Climbing the ridge to the left, and keep-
ing along its top for a little way, I then struck across the semi-
circular head of a wide glen, in the middle of which, a little
lower, lay a snow-bed over a long steep slope of loose broken
stones and sand.
This slope, a sort of talus for
screen,”
they say in the Lake country, was excessively fatiguing from
the want of firm foothold; and when I reached the other side, I
was already so tired and breathless, having been on foot since
midnight, that it seemed almost useless to persevere farther.
However, on the other side I got upon solid rock, where the
walking was better, and was soon environed by a multitude of
as


## p. 2656 (#218) ###########################################

2656
JAMES BRYCE
rills bubbling down over the stones from the stone-slopes above.
The summit of Little Ararat, which had for the last two hours
provokingly kept at the same apparent height above me, began
to sink, and before ten o'clock I could look down upon its small
flat top, studded with lumps of rock, but bearing no trace of a
crater. Mounting steadily along the same ridge, I saw at a
height of over thirteen thousand feet, lying on the loose blocks,
a piece of wood about four feet long and five inches thick, evi-
dently cut by some tool, and so far above the limit of trees that
it could by no possibility be a natural fragment of one. Darting
on it with a glee that astonished the Cossack and the Kurd, I
held it up to them, and repeated several times the word "Noah. ”
The Cossack grinned; but he was such a cheery, genial fellow
that I think he would have grinned whatever I had said, and I
cannot be sure that he took my meaning, and recognized the
wood as
a fragment of the true Ark. Whether it was really
gopher wood, of which material the Ark was built, I will not
undertake to say, but am willing to submit to the inspection of
the curious the bit which I cut off with my ice-axe and brought
away. Anyhow, it will be hard to prove that it is not gopher
wood. And if there be any remains of the Ark on Ararat at
all,-a point as to which the natives are perfectly clear,— here
rather than the top is the place where one might expect to find
them, since in the course of ages they would get carried down
by the onward movement of the snow-beds along the declivi-
ties. This wood, therefore, suits all the requirements of the case.
In fact, the argument is for the case of a relic exceptionally
strong: the Crusaders who found the Holy Lance at Antioch,
the archbishop who recognized the Holy Coat at Trèves, not to
speak of many others, proceeded upon slighter evidence.
however, bound to admit that another explanation of the pres-
ence of this piece of timber on the rocks of this vast height did
occur to me.
But as
man is bound to discredit his own
relic, and such is certainly not the practice of the Armenian
Church, I will not disturb my readers' minds or yield to the
rationalizing tendencies of the age by suggesting it.
Fearing that the ridge by which we were mounting would
become too precipitous higher up, I turned off to the left, and
crossed a long, narrow snow-slope that descended between this
ridge and another line of rocks more to the west. It was firm,
and just steep enough to make steps cut in the snow comfortable,
I am,
no


## p. 2657 (#219) ###########################################

JAMES BRYCE
2657
on
though not necessary; so the ice axe was brought into use. The
Cossack who accompanied me there was but one now, for the
other Cossack had gone away to the right some time before, and
was quite lost to view — had brought my friend's alpenstock, and
was developing a considerable capacity for wielding it. He fol-
lowed nimbly across; but the Kurd stopped on the edge of the
snow, and stood peering and hesitating, like one who shivers
on the plank at a bathing-place, nor could the jeering cries of the
Cossack induce him to venture the treacherous surface.
Meanwhile, we who had crossed were examining the broken cliff
which rose above us. It looked not exactly dangerous, but a
little troublesome, as if it might want some care to get over or
through.