And now
that my body has grown weak, I find consolation in the saying of
St.
that my body has grown weak, I find consolation in the saying of
St.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v01 - A to Apu
”
"I wish I'd known that nice girl; maybe she would have
helped me, I'm so stupid,” said Beth, who stood beside him
listening eagerly.
“You do know her, and she helps you better than any one
else could,” answered Laurie, looking at her with such mis-
chievous meaning in his merry eyes, that Beth suddenly turned
very red, and hid her face in the sofa-cushion, quite overcome by
such an unexpected discovery.
Jo let Laurie win the game, to pay for that praise of her
Beth, who could not be prevailed upon to play for them after
her compliment. So Laurie did his best and sung delightfully,
being in a particularly lively humor, for to the Marches he
seldom showed the moody side of his character. When he was
## p. 293 (#323) ############################################
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
293
gone, Amy, who had been pensive all the evening, said suddenly,
as if busy over some new idea:-
“Is Laurie an accomplished boy ? ”
“Yes; he has had an excellent education, and has much talent;
he will make a fine man, if not spoilt by petting,” replied her
mother.
“And he isn't conceited, is he? ” asked Amy.
“Not in the least; that is why he is so charming, and we all
like him so much. ”
"I see: it's nice to have accomplishments, and be elegant, but
not to show off, or get perked up,” said Amy thoughtfully.
« These things are always seen and felt in a person's manner
and conversation, if modestly used; but it is not necessary to
display them,” said Mrs. March.
“Any more than it's proper to wear all your bonnets, and
gowns and ribbons, at once, that folks may know you've got
'em,” added Jo; and the lecture ended in a laugh.
THOREAU'S FLUTE
From the Atlantic Monthly, September, 1863
W*
E, SIGHING, said, “Our Pan is dead;
His pipe hangs mute beside the river;
Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
But Music's airy voice is fled.
Spring mourns as for untimely frost;
The bluebird chants a requiem;
The willow-blossom waits for him;-
The Genius of the wood is lost. ”
Then from the flute, untouched by hands,
There came a low, harmonious breath:
“For such as he there is no death;
His life the eternal life commands;
Above man's aims his nature rose :
The wisdom of a just content
Made one small spot a continent,
And turned to poetry Life's prose.
« Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,
Swallow and aster, lake and pine,
To him grew human or divine, -
Fit mates for this large-hearted child.
## p. 294 (#324) ############################################
294
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Such homage Nature ne'er forgets,
And yearly on the coverlid
'Neath which her darling lieth hid
Will write his name in violets.
«To him no vain regrets belong,
Whose soul, that finer instrument,
Gave to the world no poor lament,
But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.
O lonely friend! he still will be
A potent presence, though unseen,-
Steadfast, sagacious, and serene:
Seek not for him, he is with thee. ”
A SONG FROM THE SUDS
From Little Women)
Q
UEEN of my tub, I merrily sing,
While the white foam rises high;
And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
And fasten the clothes to dry;
Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
Under the sunny sky.
I wish we could wash from our hearts and souls
The stains of the week away,
And let water and air by their magic make
Ourselves as pure as they;
Then on the earth there would be indeed
A glorious washing-day!
Along the path of a useful life,
Will heart's-ease ever bloom;
The busy mind has no time to think
Of sorrow, or care, or gloom ;
And anxious thoughts may be swept away,
As we busily wield a broom.
I am glad a task to me is given,
To labor at day by day;
For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
And I cheerfully learn to say, -
«Head you may think, Heart you may feel,
But Hand you shall work alway! ”
Selections used by permission of Roberts Brothers, Publishers, and John S. P.
Alcott
## p. 295 (#325) ############################################
295
ALCUIN
(735? - 804)
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
Lcuin, usually called Alcuin of York, came of a patrician
family of Northumberland. Neither the date nor the place
of his birth is known with definiteness, but he was born
about 735 at or near York. As a child he entered the cathedral
school recently founded by Egbert, Archbishop of York, and ulti-
mately became its most eminent pupil. He was subsequently as-
sistant master to Albert, its head; and when Ælbert succeeded to
the archbishopric, on the death of Egbert in 766, Alcuin became
scholasticus or master of the school. On the death of Ælbert in 780,
Alcuin was placed in charge of the cathedral library, the most
famous in Western Europe. In his longest poem,
(Versus de
Eboracensi Ecclesia' (Poem on the Saints of the Church at York),
he has left an important record of his connection with York. This
poem, written before he left England, is, like most of his verse, in
dactylic hexameters. To a certain extent it follows Virgil as a
model, and is partly based on the writings of Bede, partly on his
own personal experience. It is not only valuable for its historical
bearings, but for its disclosure of the manner and matter of instruc-
tion in the schools of the time, and the contents of the great library.
As master of the cathedral school, Alcuin acquired name and fame
at home and abroad, and was soon the most celebrated teacher in
Britain. Before 766, in company with Ælbert, he made his first
journey to Germany, and may have visited Rome. Earlier than 780
he was again abroad, and at Pavia
under the notice of
Charlemagne, who was on his way back from Italy. In 781 Eanbald,
the new Archbishop of York, sent Alcuin to Rome to bring back the
Archbishop's pallium. At Parma he again met Charlemagne, who
invited him to take up his abode at the Frankish court. With the
consent of his king and his archbishop he resigned his position at
York, and with a few pupils departed for the court at Aachen, in 782.
Alcuin's arrival in Germany was the beginning of a new intel-
lectual epoch among the Franks. Learning was at this time in a
deplorable state. The older monastic and cathedral schools had
been broken up, and the monasteries themselves often unworthily
bestowed upon royal favorites. There had been a palace school for
rudimentary instruction, but it was wholly inefficient and unimportant.
During the years immediately following his arrival, Alcuin zeal-
ously labored at his projects of educational reform. First reorganizing
came
## p. 296 (#326) ############################################
296
ALCUIN
names.
was
the palace school, he afterward undertook a reform of the monasteries
and their system of instruction, and the establishment of new schools
throughout the kingdom of Charlemagne. At the court school the
great king himself, as well as Liutgard the queen, became his
pupil. Gisela, Abbess of Chelles, the sister of Charlemagne, came
also to him for instruction, as did the Princes Charles, Pepin, and
Louis, and the Princesses Rotrud and Gisela. On himself and the
others, in accordance with the fashion of the time, Alcuin bestowed
fanciful
He Flaccus or Albinus, Charlemagne was
David, the queen was Ava, and Pepin was Julius. The subjects of
instruction in this school, the centre of culture of the kingdom, were
first of all, grammar; then arithmetic, astronomy, rhetoric, and
dialectic. The king himself studied poetry, astronomy, arithmetic,
the writings of the Fathers, and theology proper. It was under the
influence of Alcuin that Charlemagne issued in 787 the capitulary
that has been called “the first general charter of education for the
Middle Ages. ” It reproves the abbots for their illiteracy, and exhorts
them to the study of letters; and although its effect was less than
its purpose, it served, with subsequent decrees of the king, to stimu-
late learning and literature throughout all Germany.
Alcuin's system included, besides the palace school, and the
monastic and cathedral schools, which in some instances gave both
elementary and superior instruction, all the parish or village ele-
mentary schools, whose head was the parish priest.
In 790, seeing his plans well established, Alcuin returned to York
bearing letters of reconciliation to Offa, King of Mercia, between
whom and Charlemagne dissension had arisen. Having accomplished
his errand, he went back to the German court in 792. Here his first
act was to take a vigorous part in the furious controversy respect-
ing the doctrine of Adoptionism. Alcuin not only wrote against
the heresy, but brought about its condemnation by the Council of
Frankfort, in 794.
Two years later, at his own request, he was made Abbot of the
Benedictine monastery of St. Martin, at Tours. Not contented with
reforming the lax monastic life, he resolved to make Tours a seat of
learning Under his management, it presently became the most
renowned school in the kingdom. Especially in the copying of man-
uscripts did the brethren excel. Alcuin kept up a vast correspond-
ence with Britain as well as with different parts of the Frankish
kingdom; and of the two hundred and thirty letters preserved, the
greater part belonged to this time. In 799, at Aachen, he held a
public disputation on Adoptionism with Felix, Bishop of Urgel, who
was wholly vanquished. When the king, in 800, was preparing for
that visit to the Papal court which was to end with his coronation as
## p. 297 (#327) ############################################
ALCUIN
297
(
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he invited Alcuin to accompany
him. But the old man, wearied with many burdens, could not make
the journey. By the beginning of 804 he had become much enfeebled.
It was his desire, often expressed, to die on the day of Pentecost.
His wish was fulfilled, for he died at dawn on the 19th of May. He
was buried in the Cloister Church of St. Martin, near the monastery.
Alcuin's literary activity was exerted in various directions. Two-
thirds of all that he wrote was theological in character. These works
are exegetical, like the Commentary on the Gospel of St. John';
dogmatic, like the Writings against Felix of Urgel and Elipandus
of Toledo,' his best work of this class; or liturgical and moral, like
the Lives of the Saints. The other third is made up of the epis-
tles, already mentioned; of poems on a great variety of subjects, the
principal one being the ‘Poem on the Saints of the Church at York);
and of those didactic works which form his principal claim to atten-
tion at the present day. His educational treatises are the following:
(On Grammar, On Orthography,' (On Rhetoric and the Virtues,'
(On Dialectics,' 'Disputation between the Royal and Most Noble
Youth Pepin, and Albinus the Scholastic,' and 'On the Calculation
of Easter. ' The most important of all these writings is his (Gram-
mar,' which consists of two parts: the first a dialogue between a
teacher and his pupils on philosophy and studies in general; the
other a dialogue between a teacher, a young Frank, and a young
Saxon, on grammar. These latter, in Alcuin's language, have “but
lately rushed upon the thorny thickets of grammatical density. ”
Grammar begins with the consideration of the letters, the vowels
and consonants, the former of which «are, as it were, the souls, and
the consonants the bodies of words. ” Grammar itself is defined
to be the science of written sounds, the guardian of correct speak-
ing and writing. It is founded on nature, reason, authority, and
custom. ” He enumerates no less than twenty-six parts of grammar,
which he then defines. Many of his definitions and particularly his
etymologies, are remarkable. He tells us that feet in poetry are so
called “because the metres walk on them”; littera is derived from
legitera, “since the littera serve to prepare the way for readers
(legere, iter). In his Orthography,' a pendant to the "Grammar,'
cælebs, a bachelor, is “one who is on his way ad cælum” (to heaven).
Alcuin's (Grammar' is based principally on Donatus. In this, as in
all his works, he compiles and adapts, but is only rarely original.
(On Rhetoric and the Virtues) is a dialogue between Charlemagne
and Albinus (Alcuin). The Disputation between Pepin and Albi-
nus,' the beginning of which is here given, shows both the manner
and the subject-matter of his instruction. Alcuin, with all the lim-
itations which his environment imposed upon him, stamped himself
(
## p. 298 (#328) ############################################
298
ALCUIN
indelibly upon his day and generation, and left behind him, in his
scholars, an enduring influence. Men like Rabanus, the famous
Bishop of Mayence, gloried in having been his pupils, and down to
the wars and devastations of the tenth century his influence upon
education was paramount throughout all Western Europe. There is
an excellent account of Alcuin in Professor West's Alcuin' (“Great
Educators) Series ), published in 1893.
Umst Carpenter,
ON THE SAINTS OF THE CHURCH AT YORK
HERE the Eboric scholars felt the rule
Of Master Ælbert, teaching in the school.
Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew
With doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew.
T"
To some he made the grammar understood,
And poured on others rhetoric's copious flood.
The rules of jurisprudence these rehearse,
While those recite in high Eonian verse,
Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet
And mount Parnassus on swift lyric feet.
Anon the master turns their gaze on high
To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky
In order turning with its planets seven,
And starry hosts that keep the law of heaven.
The storms at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race
Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace;
Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind,
And search till Easter's annual day they find.
Then, last and best, he opened up to view
The depths of Holy Scripture, Old and New.
Was any youth in studies well approved,
Then him the master cherished, taught, and loved;
And thus the double knowledge he conferred
Of liberal studies and the Holy Word.
From West's (Alcuin, and the Rise of the Christian Schools): by permission of
Charles Scribner's Sons
## p. 299 (#329) ############################################
ALCUIN
299
DISPUTATION BETWEEN PEPIN, THE MOST NOBLE AND ROYAL
YOUTH, AND ALBINUS THE SCHOLASTIC
P
-
EPIN — What is writing?
Albinus — The treasury of history.
Pepin — What is language ?
Albinus — The herald of the soul.
Pepin — What generates language ?
Albinus — The tongue.
Pepin - What is the tongue ?
Albinus — A whip of the air.
Pepin— What is the air ?
Albinus — A maintainer of life.
Pepin - What is life?
Albinus — The joy of the happy; the torment of the suffering;
a waiting for death.
Pepin — What is death?
Albinus — An inevitable ending; a journey into uncertainty; a
source of tears for the living; the probation of wills; a waylayer
of men.
Pepin - What is man?
Albinus — A booty of death; a passing traveler; a stranger on
earth.
Pepin - What is man like?
Albinus - The fruit of a tree.
Pepin- What are the heavens ?
Albinus - A rolling ball; an immeasurable vault.
Pepin — What is light?
Albinus — The sight of all things.
Pepin — What is day?
Albinus — The admonisher to labor.
Pepin — What is the sun ?
Albinus — The glory and splendor of the heavens; the attract-
ive in nature; the measure of hours; the adornment of day.
Pepin - What is the moon ?
Albinus — The eye of night; the dispenser of dew; the pre-
sager of storms.
Pepin — What are the stars ?
Albinus — A picture on the vault of heaven; the steersmen of
ships; the ornament of night.
-
## p. 300 (#330) ############################################
300
ALCUIN
Pepin — What is rain ?
Albinus — The fertilizer of the earth; the producer of crops.
Pepin — What is fog?
Albinus - Night in day; the annoyance of eyes.
Pepin - What is wind?
Albinus — The mover of air; the agitation of water; the dryer
of the earth.
Pepin — What is the earth ?
Albinus — The mother of growth; the nourisher of the living;
the storehouse of life; the effacer of all.
Pepin - What is the sea ?
Albinus — The path of adventure; the bounds of the earth;
the division of lands; the harbor of rivers; the source of rains;
a refuge in danger; a pleasure in enjoyment.
Pepin — What are rivers ?
Albinus - A ceaseless motion; a refreshment to the sun; the
waters of the earth.
Pepin — What is water ?
Albinus — The supporter of life; the cleanser of filth.
Pepin — What is fire ?
Albinus - An excessive heat; the nurse of growing things; the
ripener of crops.
Pepin — What is cold ?
Albinus — The trembling of our members.
Pepin — What is frost ?
Albinus — An assailer of plants; the destruction of leaves; a
fetter to the earth; a bridger of streams.
Pepin - What is snow?
Albinus - Dry water.
Pepin — What is winter?
Albinus An exile of summer.
Pepin - What is spring?
Albinus - A painter
A painter of the earth.
Pepin - What is summer ?
Albinus - That which brings to the earth a new garment, and
ripens the fruit.
Pepin - What is autumn ?
Albinus — The barn of the year.
## p. 301 (#331) ############################################
ALCUIN
301
A LETTER FROM ALCUIN TO CHARLEMAGNE
(Written in the year 796)
YOUR Flaccus, in accordance with your entreaty and your
gracious kindness, am busied under the shelter of St. Mar.
tin's, in bestowing upon many of my pupils the honey of
the Holy Scriptures. I am eager that others should drink deep
of the old wine of ancient learning; I shall presently begin to
nourish still others with the fruits of grammatical ingenuity; and
some of them I am eager to enlighten with a knowledge of the
order of the stars, that seem painted, as it were, on the dome
of some mighty palace. I have become all things to all men
(1 Cor. i. 22) so that I may train up many to the profession of
God's Holy Church and to the glory of your imperial realm, lest
the grace of Almighty God in me should be fruitless (1 Cor. xv.
10) and your munificent bounty of no avail. But your servant
lacks the rarer books of scholastic learning, which in my own
country I used to have (thanks to the generous and most devoted
care of my teacher and to my own humble endeavors), and I
mention it to your Majesty so that, perchance, it may please you
who are eagerly concerned about the whole body of learning, to
have me dispatch some of our young men to procure for us cer-
tain necessary works, and bring with them to France the flowers
of England; so that a graceful garden may not exist in York
alone, but so that at Tours as well there may be found the blos-
soming of Paradise with its abundant fruits; that the south wind,
when it comes, may cause the gardens along the River Loire to
burst into bloom, and their perfumed airs to stream forth, and
finally, that which follows in the Canticle, whence I have drawn
this simile, may be brought to pass.
(Canticle v. 1, 2).
Or even this exhortation of the prophet Isaiah, which urges us to
acquire wisdom:—"All ye who thirst, come to the waters; and
you who have not money, hasten, buy and eat: come, without
money and without price, and buy wine and milk” (Isaiah iv. 1. )
And this is a thing which your gracious zeal will not over-
look: how upon every page of the Holy Scriptures we are urged
to the acquisition of wisdom; how nothing is more honorable for
insuring a happy life, nothing more pleasing in the observance,
nothing more efficient against sin, nothing more praiseworthy in
any lofty station, than that men live according to the teachings of
## p. 302 (#332) ############################################
302
ALCUIN
the philosophers. Moreover, nothing is more essential to the gov-
ernment of the people, nothing better for the guidance of life
into the paths of honorable character, than the grace which wis-
dom gives, and the glory of training and the power of learning.
Therefore it is that in its praise, Solomon, the wisest of all men,
exclaims, Better is wisdom than all precious things, and more
to be desired” (Prov. viii. i seq). To secure this with every pos-
sible effort and to get possession of it by daily endeavor, do you,
my lord King, exhort the young men who are in your Majesty's
palace, that they strive for this in the flower of their youth, so
that they may be deemed worthy to live through an old age of
honor, and that by its means they may be able to attain to ever-
lasting happiness. I, myself, according to my disposition, shall
not be slothful in sowing the seeds of wisdom among your serv-
ants in this land, being mindful of the injunction, “Sow thy
seed in the morning, and at eventide let not thy hand cease;
since thou knowest not what will spring up, whether these or
those, and if both together, still better is it” (Eccles. xi. 6). In
the morning of my life and in the fruitful period of my studies I
sowed seed in Britain, and now that my blood has grown cool in
the evening of life, I still cease not; but sow the seed in France,
desiring that both may spring up by the grace of God.
And now
that my body has grown weak, I find consolation in the saying of
St. Jerome, who declares in his letter to Nepotianus, «Almost all
the powers of the body are altered in old men, and wisdom alone
will increase while the rest decay. ” And a little further he says,
« The old age of those who have adorned their youth with noble
accomplishments and have meditated on the law of the Lord both
day and night becomes more and more deeply accomplished with
its years, more polished from experience, more wise by the lapse
of time; and it reaps the sweetest fruit of ancient learning. ” In
this letter in praise of wisdom, one who wishes can read many
things of the scientific pursuits of the ancients, and can under-
stand how eager were these ancients to abound in the grace of
wisdom. I have noted that your zeal, which is pleasing to God
and praiseworthy, is always advancing toward this wisdom and
takes pleasure in it, and that you are adorning the magnificence
of your worldly rule with still greater intellectual splendor. In
this may our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the supreme type
of divine wisdom, guard you and exalt you, and cause you to
attain to the glory of His own blessed and everlasting vision.
## p. 303 (#333) ############################################
303
HENRY M. ALDEN
(1836-)
ENRY Mills ALDEN, since 1864 the editor of Harper's Maga-
zine, was born in Mount Tabor, Vermont, November uth,
1836, the eighth in descent from Captain John Alden, the
Pilgrim. He graduated at Williams College, and studied theology
at Andover Seminary, but was never ordained a minister, having
almost immediately turned his attention to literature. His first work
that attracted attention was an essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries,
published in the Atlantic Monthly. The scholarship and subtle
method revealed in this and similar works led to his engagement to
deliver a course of twelve Lowell Institute lectures at Boston, in
1863 and 1864, and he took for his subject “The Structure of Pagan-
ism. ' Before this he had removed to New York, had engaged in
general editorial work, and formed his lasting connection with the
house of Harper and Brothers.
As an editor Mr. Alden is the most practical of men, but he is in
reality a poet, and in another age he might have been a mystic.
He has the secret of preserving his life to himself, while paying the
keenest attention to his daily duties. In his office he is immersed in
affairs which require the exercise of vigilant common-sense, and
knowledge of life and literature. At his home he is a serene and
optimistic philosopher, contemplating the forces that make for our
civilization, and musing over the deep problems of man's occupa-
tion of this earth. In 1893 appeared anonymously a volume entitled
"God in His World, which attracted instantly wide attention in this
country and in England for its subtlety of thought, its boldness of
treatment, its winning sweetness of temper, and its exquisite style.
It was by Mr. Alden, and in 1895 it was followed by A Study of
Death, continuing the great theme of the first, – the unity of crea-
tion, the certainty that there is in no sense a war between the
Creator and his creation. In this view the Universe is not divided
into the Natural and the Supernatural: all is Natural. ut we can
speak here only of their literary quality. The author is seen to be a
poet in his conceptions, but in form his writing is entirely within
the limits of prose; yet it is a prose most harmonious, most melodi-
ous, and it exhibits the capacity of our English tongue in the hand of
a master. The thought is sometimes so subtle as to elude the care-
less reader, but the charm of the melody never fails to entrance.
The study of life and civilization is profound, but the grace of treat-
ment seems to relieve the problems of half their difficulty.
His wife did not live to read the exquisite dedication given below.
## p. 304 (#334) ############################################
304
HENRY M. ALDEN
From A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
A DEDICATION
TO MY BELOVED WIFE
M
Y EARLIEST written expression of intimate thought or cher-
ished fancy was for your eyes only; it was my first
approach to your maidenly heart, a mystical wooing, which
neglected no resource, near or remote, for the enhancement of
its charm, and so involved all other mystery in its own.
In you, childhood has been inviolate, never losing its power
of leading me by an unspoken invocation to a green field, ever
kept fresh by a living fountain, where the Shepherd tends his
flock. Now, through a body racked with pain, and sadly broken,
still shines this unbroken childhood, teaching me Love's deepest
mystery.
It is fitting, then, that I should dedicate to you this book
touching that mystery.
It has been written in the shadow, but
illumined by the brightness of an angel's face seen in the dark-
ness, so that it has seemed easy and natural for me to find at
the thorn's heart a secret and everlasting sweetness far surpass-
ing that of the rose itself, which ceases in its own perfection.
Whether that angel we have seen shall, for my need and
comfort, and for your own longing, hold back his greatest gift,
and leave you mine in the earthly ways we know and love, or
shall hasten to make the heavenly surprise, the issue in either
event will be a home-coming: if here, yet already the deeper
secret will have been in part disclosed; and if beyond, that
secret, fully known, will not betray the fondest hope of loving
hearts. Love never denied Death, and Death will not deny
Love.
From (A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
THE DOVE AND THE SERPENT
TH
.
HE Dove flies, and the Serpent creeps. Yet is the Dove
fond, while the Serpent is the emblem of wisdom. Both
were in Eden: the cooing, fluttering, winged spirit, loving
to descend, companion-like, brooding, following; and the creep-
ing thing which had glided into the sunshine of Paradise from
## p. 305 (#335) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
305
the cold bosoms of those nurses of an older world — Pain, and
Darkness, and Death - himself forgetting these in the warmth
and green life of the Garden. And our first parents knew
naught of these as yet unutterable mysteries, any more than
they knew that their roses bloomed over a tomb: so that when
all animate creatures came to Adam to be named, the meaning
of this living allegory which passed before him was in great
part hidden, and he saw no sharp line dividing the firmament
below from the firmament above; rather he leaned toward the
ground, as one does in a garden, seeing how quickly it was
fashioned into the climbing trees, into the clean flowers, and
into his own shapely frame. It was upon the ground he lay
when that deep sleep fell upon him from which he woke to find
his mate, lithe as the serpent, yet with the fluttering heart of
the dove.
As the Duve, though winged for flight, ever descended, so the
Serpent, though unable wholly to leave the ground, tried ever to
lift himself therefrom, as if to escape some ancient bond. The
cool nights revived and nourished his memories of an older time,
wherein lay his subtile wisdom, but day by day his aspiring crest
grew brighter. The life of Eden became for him oblivion, the
light of the sun obscuring and confounding his reminiscence, even
as for Adam and Eve this life was Illusion, the visible disguising
the invisible, and pleasure veiling pain.
In Adam the culture of the ground maintained humility. He
was held, moreover, in lowly content by the charm of the
woman, who was to him like the earth grown human; and since
she was the daughter of Sleep, her love seemed to him restful
as the night. Her raven locks were like the mantle of darkness,
and her voice had the laughter of streams that lapsed into
unseen depths.
But Eve had something of the Serpent's unrest, as if she too
had come from the Under-world, which she would fain forget,
seeking liberation, urged by desire as deep as the abyss she had
left behind her, and nourished from roots unfathomably hidden -
the roots of the Tree of Life. She thus came to have conversa-
tion with the Serpent.
In the lengthening days of Eden's one Summer these two
were more and more completely enfolded in the Illusion of Light.
It was under this spell that, dwelling upon the enticement of
fruit good to look at, and pleasant to the taste, the Serpent
1-20
## p. 306 (#336) ############################################
306
HENRY M. ALDEN
»
denied Death, and thought of Good as separate from Evil. « Ye
shall not surely die, but shall be as the gods, knowing good and
evil. ” So far, in his aspiring day-dream, had the Serpent fared
from his old familiar haunts—so far from his old-world wisdom!
A surer omen would have come to Eve had she listened to
the plaintive notes of the bewildered Dove that in his downward
flutterings had begun to divine what the Serpent had come to
forget, and to confess what he had come to deny.
For already was beginning to be felt “the season's difference,"
and the grave mystery, without which Paradise itself could not
have been, was about to be unveiled, — the background of the
picture becoming its foreground. The fond hands plucking the
rose had found the thorn. Evil was known as something by
.
itself, apart from Good, and Eden was left behind, as one steps
out of infancy.
From that hour have the eyes of the children of men been
turned from the accursed earth, looking into the blue above,
straining their vision for a glimpse of white-robed angels.
Yet it was the Serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness;
and when He who became sin for us was being bruised in the
heel by the old enemy, the Dove descended upon Him at His
baptism. He united the wisdom of the Serpent with the harm-
lessness of the Dove. Thus in Him were bound together and
reconciled the elements which in human thought had been put
asunder. In Him, Evil is overcome of Good, as, in Him, Death
is swallowed up of Life; and with His eyes we see that the robes
of angels are white, because they have been washed in blood.
>>
From A Study of Death,' copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
DEATH AND SLEEP
,
HE Angel of Death is the invisible Angel of Life. While the
organism is alive as a human embodiment, death is present,
having the same human distinction as the life, from which
it is inseparable, being, indeed, the better half of living, — its
winged half, its rest and inspiration, its secret spring of elasticity,
and quickness. Life came upon the wings of Death, and
departs.
If we think of life apart from death our thought is partial, as
if we would give flight to the arrow without bending the bow.
SO
## p. 307 (#337) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
307
No living movement either begins or is completed save through
death. If the shuttle return not there is no web; and the text-
ure of life is woven through this tropic movement.
It is a commonly accepted scientific truth that the continu-
ance of life in any living thing depends upon death. But there
are two ways of expressing this truth: one, regarding merely
the outward fact, as when we say that animal or vegetable tissue
is renewed through decay; the other, regarding the action and
reaction proper to life itself, whereby it forever springs freshly
from its source.
The latter form of expression is mystical, in
the true meaning of that term. We close our eyes to the out-
ward appearance, in order that we may directly confront a mys-
tery which is already past before there is any visible indication
thereof. Though the imagination engaged in this mystical appre-
hension borrows its symbols or analogues from observation and
experience, yet these symbols are spiritually regarded by looking
at life on its living side, and abstracted as far as possible from
outward embodiment. We especially affect physiological ana-
logues because, being derived from our experience, we may the
more readily have the inward regard of them; and by passing
from one physiological analogue to another, and from all these to
those furnished by the processes of nature outside of our bodies,
we come to an apprehension of the action and reaction proper to
life itself as an idea independent of all its physical representa-
tions.
Thus we trace the rhythmic beating of the pulse to the systole
and diastole of the heart, and we note a similar alternation in
the contraction and relaxation of all our muscles. Breathing is
alternately inspiration and expiration. Sensation itself is by beats,
and falls into rhythm. There is no uninterrupted strain of either
action or sensibility; a current or a contact is renewed, having
been broken. In psychical operation there is the same alternate
lapse and resurgence. Memory rises from the grave of oblivion.
No holding can be maintained save through alternate release.
Pulsation establishes circulation, and vital motions proceed through
cycles, each one of which, however minute, has its tropic of Can-
cer and of Capricorn. Then there are the larger physiological
cycles, like that wherein sleep is the alternation of waking. Pass-
ing from the field of our direct experience to that of observation,
we note similar alternations, as of day and night, summer and
winter, flood and ebb tide; and science discloses them at every
## p. 308 (#338) ############################################
308
HENRY M. ALDEN
-
turn, especially in its recent consideration of the subtle forces of
Nature, leading us back of all visible motions to the pulsations
of the ether.
In considering the action and reaction proper to life itself, we
here dismiss from view all measured cycles, whose beginning and
end are appreciably separate; our regard is confined to living
moments, so fleet that their beginning and ending meet as in one
point, which is seen to be at once the point of departure and of
return. Thus we may speak of a man's life as included between
his birth and his death, and with reference to this physiological
term, think of him as living, and then as dead; but we may also
consider him while living as yet every moment dying, and in this
view death is clearly seen to be the inseparable companion of
life, - the way of return, and so of continuance. This pulsation,
forever a vanishing and a resurgence, so incalculably swift as to
escape observation, is proper to life as life, does not begin with
what we call birth nor end with what we call death (considering
birth and death as terms applicable to an individual existence); it
is forever beginning and forever ending. Thus to all manifest
existence we apply the term Nature (natura), which means “for-
ever being born”; and on its vanishing side it is moritura, or
«forever dying. ” Resurrection is thus a natural and perpetual
miracle. The idea of life as transcending any individual embodi-
ment is as germane to science as it is to faith.
Death, thus seen as essential, is lifted above its temporary
and visible accidents. It is no longer associated with corruption,
but rather with the sweet and wholesome freshness of life, being
the way of its renewal. Sweeter than the honey which Samson
found in the lion's carcass is this everlasting sweetness of Death;
and it is a mystery deeper than the strong man's riddle.
So is Death pure and clean, as is the dew that comes with the
cool night when the sun has set; clean and white as the snow-
flakes that betoken the absolution which Winter gives, shriving
the earth of all her Summer wantonness and excess, when only
the trees that yield balsam and aromatic fragrance remain green,
breaking the box of precious ointment for burial.
In this view also is restored the kinship of Death with Sleep.
The state of the infant seems to be one of chronic mysticism,
since during the greater part of its days its eyes are closed to
the outer world. Its larger familiarity is still with the invisible,
and it seems as if the Mothers of Darkness were still withholding
## p. 309 (#339) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
309
it as their nursling, accomplishing for it some mighty work
in their proper realm, some such fiery baptism of infants as is
frequently instanced in Greek mythology, tempering them for
earthly trials. The infant must needs sleep while this work is
being done for it; it has been sleeping since the work began,
from the foundation of the world, and the old habit still clings
about it and is not easily laid aside.
That which we have been considering as the death that is in
every moment is a reaction proper to life itself, waking or sleep-
ing, whereby it is renewed, sharing at once Time and Eternity
time as outward form, and eternity as its essential quality. Sleep
is a special relaxation, relieving a special strain. As daily we
build with effort and design an elaborate superstructure above
the living foundation, so must this edifice nightly be laid in
ruins.
Sleep is thus a disembarrassment, the unloading of a
burden wherewith we have weighted ourselves. Here again we
are brought into a kind of repentance, and receive absolution.
Sleep is forgiveness.
From A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL
I
S"
TANDING of it would if
vital destination of all things to fly from their source, as if
it were the dominant desire of life to enter into limitations.
We might mentally represent to ourselves an essence simple and
indivisible that denies itself in diversified manifold existence. To
us, this side the veil, nay, immeshed in innumerable veils that
hide from us the Father's face, this insistence appears to have
the stress of urgency, as if the effort of all being, its unceasing
travail, were like the beating of the infinite ocean upon the
shores of Time; and as if, within the continent of Time, all
existence were forever knocking at new gates, seeking, through
some as yet untried path of progression, greater complexity, a
deeper involvement. All the children seem to be beseeching the
Father to divide unto them His living, none willingly abiding in
that Father's house. But in reality their will is His will — they
fly, and they are driven, like fledglings from the mother-nest.
## p. 310 (#340) ############################################
310
HENRY M. ALDEN
II
The story of a solar system, or of any synthesis in time,
repeats the parable of the Prodigal Son, in its essential features.
It is a cosmic parable.
The planet is a wanderer (planes), and the individual planet.
ary destiny can be accomplished only through flight from its
source. After all its prodigality it shall sicken and return.
Attributing to the Earth, thus apparently separated from the
Sun, some macrocosmic sentience, what must have been her won-
dering dream, finding herself at once thrust away and securely
held, poised between her flight and her bond, and so swinging
into a regular orbit about the Sun, while at the same time, in
her rotation, turning to him and away from him into the light,
and into the darkness, forever denying and confessing her lord!
Her emotion must have been one of delight, however mingled
with a feeling of timorous awe, since her desire could not have
been other than one with her destination. Despite the distance
and the growing coolness she could feel the kinship still; her
pulse, though modulated, was still in rhythm with that of the
solar heart, and in her bosom were hidden consubstantial fires.
But it was the sense of otherness, of her own distinct individua-
tion, that was mainly being nourished, this sense, moreover,
being proper to her destiny; therefore, the signs of her likeness
to the Sun were more and more being buried from her view;
her fires were veiled by a hardening crust, and her opaqueness
stood out against his light. She had no regret for all she was
surrendering, thinking only of her gain, of being clothed upon
with a garment showing ever some new fold of surprising beauty
and wonder. If she had remained in the Father's house
like the elder brother in the Parable — then would all that He
had have been hers, in nebulous simplicity. But now, holding
her revels apart, she seems to sing her own song, and to dream
her own beautiful dream, wandering, with a motion wholly her
own, among the gardens of cosmic order and loveliness. She
glories in her many veils, which, though they hide from her both
her source and her very self, are the media through which the
invisible light is broken into multiform illusions that enrich her
dream. She beholds the Sun as a far-off, insphered being existing
for her, her ministrant bridegroom; and when her face is turned
away from him into the night, she beholds innumerable suns, a
## p. 311 (#341) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
311
myriad of archangels, all witnesses of some infinitely remote and
central flame — the Spirit of all life. Yet, in the midst of these
visible images, she is absorbed in her individual dream, wherein
she appears to herself to be the mother of all living. It is proper
to her destiny that she should be thus enwrapped in her own
distinct action and passion, and refer to herself the appearances
of a universe. While all that is not she is what she really is,-
necessary, that is, to her full definition,-she, on the other hand,
from herself interprets all else. This is the inevitable terrestrial
idealism, peculiar to every individuation in time — the individual
thus balancing the universe.
-
III
In reality, the Earth has never left the Sun; apart from him
she has no life, any more than has the branch severed from the
vine. More truly it may be said that the Sun has never left the
Earth.
No prodigal can really leave the Father's house, any more than
he can leave himself; coming to himself, he feels the Father's
arms about him — they have always been there — he is newly
-
appareled, and wears the signet ring of native prestige; he hears
the sound of familiar music and dancing, and it may be that the
young and beautiful forms mingling with him in this festival are
the riotous youths and maidens of his far-country revels, also
come to themselves and home, of whom also the Father saith:
These were dead and are alive again, they were lost and are
found. The starvation and sense of exile had been parts of a
troubled dream a dream which had also had its ecstasy, but
had come into a consuming fever, with delirious imaginings of
fresh fountains, of shapes drawn from the memory of childhood,
and of the cool touch of kindred hands upon the brow. So near
is exile to home, misery to divine commiseration — so near are
pain and death, desolation and divestiture, to "a new creature,”
and to the kinship involved in all creation and re-creation.
Distance in the cosmic order is a standing-apart, which is only
another expression of the expansion and abundance of creative
life; but at every remove its reflex is nearness, a bond of at-
traction, insphering and curving, making orb and orbit. While
in
space this attraction is diminished — being inversely as the
square of the distance - and so there is maintained and empha-
sized the appearance of suspension and isolation, yet in time it
»
## p. 312 (#342) ############################################
312
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
gains preponderance, contracting sphere and orbit, aging planets
and suns, and accumulating destruction, which at the point of
annihilation becomes a new creation. This Grand Cycle, which is
but a pulsation or breath of the Eternal life, illustrates a truth
which is repeated in its least and most minutely divided mo-
ment — that birth lies next to death, as water crystallizes at the
freezing-point, and the plant blossoms at points most remote from
the source of nutrition.
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
(1836--)
-
So.
POET in verse often becomes a poet in prose also, in com-
posing novels; although the novelist may not, and in gen-
eral does not, possess the faculty of writing poems. The
poet-novelist is apt to put into his prose a good deal of the same
charm and the same picturesque choice of phrase and image that
characterize his verse; while it does not follow that the novelist who
at times writes verse — like George Eliot, for example — succeeds in
giving a distinctly poetic quality to prose, or even wishes to do
Among authors who have displayed
peculiar power and won fame in the dual
capacity of poet and of prose romancer or
novelist, Sir Walter Scott and Victor Hugo
no doubt stand pre-eminent; and in Amer-
ican literature, Edgar Allan Poe and Oliver
Wendell Holmes very strikingly combine
these two functions. Another American
author who has gained a distinguished
position both as a poet and as a writer of
prose fiction and essays is Thomas Bailey
Aldrich.
THOMAS B. ALDRICH
It is upon his work in the form of
verse, perhaps, that Aldrich's chief renown
is based; but some of his short stories in especial have contributed
much to his popularity, no less than to his repute as a delicate and
polished artificer in words. A New Englander, he has infused into
some of his poems the true atmosphere of New England, and has
given the same light and color of home to his prose, while impart-
ing to his productions in both kinds a delightful tinge of the foreign
and remote. In addition to his capacities as a poet and a romancer,
## p. 313 (#343) ############################################
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
313
he is a wit and humorist of sparkling quality. In reading his books
one seems also to inhale the perfumes of Arabia and the farther
East, blended with the salt sea-breeze and the pine-scented air of
his native State, New Hampshire.
He was born in the old seaside town of Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire, November 11th, 1836; but moved to New York City in 1854, at
the age of seventeen. There he remained until 1866; beginning his
work quite early; forming his literary character by reading and ob-
servation, by the writing of poems, and by practice and experience
of writing prose sketches and articles for journals and periodicals.
During this period he entered into associations with the poets Sted-
man, Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor, and was more or less in touch
with the group that included Walt Whitman, Fitz-James O'Brien,
and William Winter. Removing to Boston in January, 1866, he be-
came the editor of Every Saturday, and remained in that post until
1874, when he resigned. In 1875 he made a long tour in Europe,
plucking the first fruits of foreign travel, which were succeeded by
many rich and dainty gatherings from the same source in later
years. In the intervals of these wanderings he lived in Boston and
Cambridge; occupying for a time James Russell Lowell's historic
house of Elmwood, in the semi-rural university city; and then estab-
lished a pretty country house at Ponkapog, a few miles west of
Boston. This last suggested the title for a charming book of travel
papers, (From Ponkapog to Pesth. In 1881 he was appointed editor of
the Atlantic Monthly, and continued to direct that famous magazine
for nine years, frequently making short trips to Europe, extending
his tours as far as the heart of Russia, and gathering fresh materials
for essay or song. Much of his time since giving up the Atlantic
editorship has been passed in voyaging, and in 1894-5 he made a
journey around the world.
From the beginning he struck with quiet certainty the vein that
was his by nature in poetry; and this has broadened almost contin-
ually, yielding richer results, which have been worked out with an
increasing refinement of skill. His predilection is for the picturesque;
for romance combined with simplicity, purity, and tenderness of
feeling, touched by fancy and by occasional lights of humor so
reserved and dainty that they never disturb the pictorial harmony.
The capacity for unaffected utterance of feeling on matters common
to humanity reached a climax in the poem of Baby Bell,' which
by its sympathetic and delicate description of a child's advent and
death gave the author a claim to the affections of a wide circle; and
this remained for a long time probably the best known among his
poems. 'Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book) is another of the earlier
favorites. (Spring in New England' has since come to hold high
(
## p. 314 (#344) ############################################
314
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
rank both for its vivid and graceful description of the season, for its
tender fervor of patriotism, and for its sentiment of reconciliation
between North and South. The lines on Piscataqua River) remain
one of the best illustrations of boyhood memories, and have some-
thing of Whittier's homely truth. In his longer narrative pieces,
(Judith” and “Wyndham Towers,' cast in the mold of blank-verse
idyls, Mr. Aldrich does not seem so much himself as in many of his
briefer flights. An instinctive dramatic tendency finds outlet in
(Pauline Paulovna' and (Mercedes '-- the latter of which, a two-act
piece in prose, has found representation in the theatre; yet in these,
also, he is less eminently successful than in his lyrics and society
verse.
No American poet has wrought his stanzas with greater faithful-
ness to an exacting standard of craftsmanship than Mr. Aldrich, or
has known better when to leave a line loosely cast, and when to rein-
force it with correction or with a syllable that might seem, to an ear
less true, redundant. This gives to his most carefully chiseled pro-
ductions an air of spontaneous ease, and has made him eminent as a
sonneteer. His sonnet on “Sleep' is one of the finest in the lan-
guage. The conciseness and concentrated aptness of his expression
also- together with a faculty of bringing into conjunction subtly
contrasted thoughts, images, or feelings — has issued happily in short,
concentrated pieces like An Untimely Thought, Destiny,' and
(Identity,' and in a number of pointed and effective quatrains. With-
out overmastering purpose outside of art itself, his is the poetry of
luxury rather than of deep passion or conviction; yet, with the fresh-
ness of bud and tint in springtime, it still always relates itself effect-
ively to human experience. The author's specially American quality,
also, though not dominant, comes out clearly in Unguarded Gates,'
and with a differing tone in the plaintive Indian legend of Mianto-
wona. '
If we perceive in his verse a kinship with the dainty ideals of
Théophile Gautier and Alfred de Musset, this does not obscure his
originality or his individual charm; and the same thing may be said
with regard to his prose. The first of his short fictions that made a
decided mark was Marjorie Daw. The fame which it gained, in
its separate field, was as swift and widespread as that of Hawthorne's
(The Gentle Boy' or Bret Harte's 'Luck of Roaring Camp. It is a
bright and half-pathetic little parody on human life and affection; or
perhaps we should call it a parable symbolizing the power which
imagination wields over real life, even in supposedly unimaginative
people. The covert smile which it involves, at the importance of
human emotions, may be traced to a certain extent in some of Mr.
Aldrich's longer and more serious works of fiction: his three novels,
## p. 315 (#345) ############################################
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
315
(Prudence Paltrey,' 'The Queen of Sheba,' and 'The Stillwater
Tragedy. ' "The Story of a Bad Boy, frankly but quietly humorous
in its record of the pranks and vicissitudes of a healthy average lad
(with the scene of the story localized at old Portsmouth, under the
name of Rivermouth), a less ambitious work, still holds a secure
place in the affections of many mature as well as younger readers.
Besides these books, Mr. Aldrich has published a collection of short
descriptive, reminiscent, and half-historic papers on Portsmouth,–
(An Old Town by the Sea'; with a second volume of short stories
entitled “Two Bites at a Cherry. The character-drawing in his
fiction is clear-cut and effective, often sympathetic, and nearly always
suffused with an agreeable coloring of humor. There are notes of
pathos, too, in some of his tales; and it is the blending of these
qualities, through the medium of a lucid and delightful style, that
defines his pleasing quality in prose.
[The following selections are copyrighted, and are reprinted by permission of
the author, and Houghton, Miffin & Co.
"I wish I'd known that nice girl; maybe she would have
helped me, I'm so stupid,” said Beth, who stood beside him
listening eagerly.
“You do know her, and she helps you better than any one
else could,” answered Laurie, looking at her with such mis-
chievous meaning in his merry eyes, that Beth suddenly turned
very red, and hid her face in the sofa-cushion, quite overcome by
such an unexpected discovery.
Jo let Laurie win the game, to pay for that praise of her
Beth, who could not be prevailed upon to play for them after
her compliment. So Laurie did his best and sung delightfully,
being in a particularly lively humor, for to the Marches he
seldom showed the moody side of his character. When he was
## p. 293 (#323) ############################################
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
293
gone, Amy, who had been pensive all the evening, said suddenly,
as if busy over some new idea:-
“Is Laurie an accomplished boy ? ”
“Yes; he has had an excellent education, and has much talent;
he will make a fine man, if not spoilt by petting,” replied her
mother.
“And he isn't conceited, is he? ” asked Amy.
“Not in the least; that is why he is so charming, and we all
like him so much. ”
"I see: it's nice to have accomplishments, and be elegant, but
not to show off, or get perked up,” said Amy thoughtfully.
« These things are always seen and felt in a person's manner
and conversation, if modestly used; but it is not necessary to
display them,” said Mrs. March.
“Any more than it's proper to wear all your bonnets, and
gowns and ribbons, at once, that folks may know you've got
'em,” added Jo; and the lecture ended in a laugh.
THOREAU'S FLUTE
From the Atlantic Monthly, September, 1863
W*
E, SIGHING, said, “Our Pan is dead;
His pipe hangs mute beside the river;
Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
But Music's airy voice is fled.
Spring mourns as for untimely frost;
The bluebird chants a requiem;
The willow-blossom waits for him;-
The Genius of the wood is lost. ”
Then from the flute, untouched by hands,
There came a low, harmonious breath:
“For such as he there is no death;
His life the eternal life commands;
Above man's aims his nature rose :
The wisdom of a just content
Made one small spot a continent,
And turned to poetry Life's prose.
« Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,
Swallow and aster, lake and pine,
To him grew human or divine, -
Fit mates for this large-hearted child.
## p. 294 (#324) ############################################
294
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Such homage Nature ne'er forgets,
And yearly on the coverlid
'Neath which her darling lieth hid
Will write his name in violets.
«To him no vain regrets belong,
Whose soul, that finer instrument,
Gave to the world no poor lament,
But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.
O lonely friend! he still will be
A potent presence, though unseen,-
Steadfast, sagacious, and serene:
Seek not for him, he is with thee. ”
A SONG FROM THE SUDS
From Little Women)
Q
UEEN of my tub, I merrily sing,
While the white foam rises high;
And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
And fasten the clothes to dry;
Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
Under the sunny sky.
I wish we could wash from our hearts and souls
The stains of the week away,
And let water and air by their magic make
Ourselves as pure as they;
Then on the earth there would be indeed
A glorious washing-day!
Along the path of a useful life,
Will heart's-ease ever bloom;
The busy mind has no time to think
Of sorrow, or care, or gloom ;
And anxious thoughts may be swept away,
As we busily wield a broom.
I am glad a task to me is given,
To labor at day by day;
For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
And I cheerfully learn to say, -
«Head you may think, Heart you may feel,
But Hand you shall work alway! ”
Selections used by permission of Roberts Brothers, Publishers, and John S. P.
Alcott
## p. 295 (#325) ############################################
295
ALCUIN
(735? - 804)
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
Lcuin, usually called Alcuin of York, came of a patrician
family of Northumberland. Neither the date nor the place
of his birth is known with definiteness, but he was born
about 735 at or near York. As a child he entered the cathedral
school recently founded by Egbert, Archbishop of York, and ulti-
mately became its most eminent pupil. He was subsequently as-
sistant master to Albert, its head; and when Ælbert succeeded to
the archbishopric, on the death of Egbert in 766, Alcuin became
scholasticus or master of the school. On the death of Ælbert in 780,
Alcuin was placed in charge of the cathedral library, the most
famous in Western Europe. In his longest poem,
(Versus de
Eboracensi Ecclesia' (Poem on the Saints of the Church at York),
he has left an important record of his connection with York. This
poem, written before he left England, is, like most of his verse, in
dactylic hexameters. To a certain extent it follows Virgil as a
model, and is partly based on the writings of Bede, partly on his
own personal experience. It is not only valuable for its historical
bearings, but for its disclosure of the manner and matter of instruc-
tion in the schools of the time, and the contents of the great library.
As master of the cathedral school, Alcuin acquired name and fame
at home and abroad, and was soon the most celebrated teacher in
Britain. Before 766, in company with Ælbert, he made his first
journey to Germany, and may have visited Rome. Earlier than 780
he was again abroad, and at Pavia
under the notice of
Charlemagne, who was on his way back from Italy. In 781 Eanbald,
the new Archbishop of York, sent Alcuin to Rome to bring back the
Archbishop's pallium. At Parma he again met Charlemagne, who
invited him to take up his abode at the Frankish court. With the
consent of his king and his archbishop he resigned his position at
York, and with a few pupils departed for the court at Aachen, in 782.
Alcuin's arrival in Germany was the beginning of a new intel-
lectual epoch among the Franks. Learning was at this time in a
deplorable state. The older monastic and cathedral schools had
been broken up, and the monasteries themselves often unworthily
bestowed upon royal favorites. There had been a palace school for
rudimentary instruction, but it was wholly inefficient and unimportant.
During the years immediately following his arrival, Alcuin zeal-
ously labored at his projects of educational reform. First reorganizing
came
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ALCUIN
names.
was
the palace school, he afterward undertook a reform of the monasteries
and their system of instruction, and the establishment of new schools
throughout the kingdom of Charlemagne. At the court school the
great king himself, as well as Liutgard the queen, became his
pupil. Gisela, Abbess of Chelles, the sister of Charlemagne, came
also to him for instruction, as did the Princes Charles, Pepin, and
Louis, and the Princesses Rotrud and Gisela. On himself and the
others, in accordance with the fashion of the time, Alcuin bestowed
fanciful
He Flaccus or Albinus, Charlemagne was
David, the queen was Ava, and Pepin was Julius. The subjects of
instruction in this school, the centre of culture of the kingdom, were
first of all, grammar; then arithmetic, astronomy, rhetoric, and
dialectic. The king himself studied poetry, astronomy, arithmetic,
the writings of the Fathers, and theology proper. It was under the
influence of Alcuin that Charlemagne issued in 787 the capitulary
that has been called “the first general charter of education for the
Middle Ages. ” It reproves the abbots for their illiteracy, and exhorts
them to the study of letters; and although its effect was less than
its purpose, it served, with subsequent decrees of the king, to stimu-
late learning and literature throughout all Germany.
Alcuin's system included, besides the palace school, and the
monastic and cathedral schools, which in some instances gave both
elementary and superior instruction, all the parish or village ele-
mentary schools, whose head was the parish priest.
In 790, seeing his plans well established, Alcuin returned to York
bearing letters of reconciliation to Offa, King of Mercia, between
whom and Charlemagne dissension had arisen. Having accomplished
his errand, he went back to the German court in 792. Here his first
act was to take a vigorous part in the furious controversy respect-
ing the doctrine of Adoptionism. Alcuin not only wrote against
the heresy, but brought about its condemnation by the Council of
Frankfort, in 794.
Two years later, at his own request, he was made Abbot of the
Benedictine monastery of St. Martin, at Tours. Not contented with
reforming the lax monastic life, he resolved to make Tours a seat of
learning Under his management, it presently became the most
renowned school in the kingdom. Especially in the copying of man-
uscripts did the brethren excel. Alcuin kept up a vast correspond-
ence with Britain as well as with different parts of the Frankish
kingdom; and of the two hundred and thirty letters preserved, the
greater part belonged to this time. In 799, at Aachen, he held a
public disputation on Adoptionism with Felix, Bishop of Urgel, who
was wholly vanquished. When the king, in 800, was preparing for
that visit to the Papal court which was to end with his coronation as
## p. 297 (#327) ############################################
ALCUIN
297
(
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he invited Alcuin to accompany
him. But the old man, wearied with many burdens, could not make
the journey. By the beginning of 804 he had become much enfeebled.
It was his desire, often expressed, to die on the day of Pentecost.
His wish was fulfilled, for he died at dawn on the 19th of May. He
was buried in the Cloister Church of St. Martin, near the monastery.
Alcuin's literary activity was exerted in various directions. Two-
thirds of all that he wrote was theological in character. These works
are exegetical, like the Commentary on the Gospel of St. John';
dogmatic, like the Writings against Felix of Urgel and Elipandus
of Toledo,' his best work of this class; or liturgical and moral, like
the Lives of the Saints. The other third is made up of the epis-
tles, already mentioned; of poems on a great variety of subjects, the
principal one being the ‘Poem on the Saints of the Church at York);
and of those didactic works which form his principal claim to atten-
tion at the present day. His educational treatises are the following:
(On Grammar, On Orthography,' (On Rhetoric and the Virtues,'
(On Dialectics,' 'Disputation between the Royal and Most Noble
Youth Pepin, and Albinus the Scholastic,' and 'On the Calculation
of Easter. ' The most important of all these writings is his (Gram-
mar,' which consists of two parts: the first a dialogue between a
teacher and his pupils on philosophy and studies in general; the
other a dialogue between a teacher, a young Frank, and a young
Saxon, on grammar. These latter, in Alcuin's language, have “but
lately rushed upon the thorny thickets of grammatical density. ”
Grammar begins with the consideration of the letters, the vowels
and consonants, the former of which «are, as it were, the souls, and
the consonants the bodies of words. ” Grammar itself is defined
to be the science of written sounds, the guardian of correct speak-
ing and writing. It is founded on nature, reason, authority, and
custom. ” He enumerates no less than twenty-six parts of grammar,
which he then defines. Many of his definitions and particularly his
etymologies, are remarkable. He tells us that feet in poetry are so
called “because the metres walk on them”; littera is derived from
legitera, “since the littera serve to prepare the way for readers
(legere, iter). In his Orthography,' a pendant to the "Grammar,'
cælebs, a bachelor, is “one who is on his way ad cælum” (to heaven).
Alcuin's (Grammar' is based principally on Donatus. In this, as in
all his works, he compiles and adapts, but is only rarely original.
(On Rhetoric and the Virtues) is a dialogue between Charlemagne
and Albinus (Alcuin). The Disputation between Pepin and Albi-
nus,' the beginning of which is here given, shows both the manner
and the subject-matter of his instruction. Alcuin, with all the lim-
itations which his environment imposed upon him, stamped himself
(
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298
ALCUIN
indelibly upon his day and generation, and left behind him, in his
scholars, an enduring influence. Men like Rabanus, the famous
Bishop of Mayence, gloried in having been his pupils, and down to
the wars and devastations of the tenth century his influence upon
education was paramount throughout all Western Europe. There is
an excellent account of Alcuin in Professor West's Alcuin' (“Great
Educators) Series ), published in 1893.
Umst Carpenter,
ON THE SAINTS OF THE CHURCH AT YORK
HERE the Eboric scholars felt the rule
Of Master Ælbert, teaching in the school.
Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew
With doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew.
T"
To some he made the grammar understood,
And poured on others rhetoric's copious flood.
The rules of jurisprudence these rehearse,
While those recite in high Eonian verse,
Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet
And mount Parnassus on swift lyric feet.
Anon the master turns their gaze on high
To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky
In order turning with its planets seven,
And starry hosts that keep the law of heaven.
The storms at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race
Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace;
Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind,
And search till Easter's annual day they find.
Then, last and best, he opened up to view
The depths of Holy Scripture, Old and New.
Was any youth in studies well approved,
Then him the master cherished, taught, and loved;
And thus the double knowledge he conferred
Of liberal studies and the Holy Word.
From West's (Alcuin, and the Rise of the Christian Schools): by permission of
Charles Scribner's Sons
## p. 299 (#329) ############################################
ALCUIN
299
DISPUTATION BETWEEN PEPIN, THE MOST NOBLE AND ROYAL
YOUTH, AND ALBINUS THE SCHOLASTIC
P
-
EPIN — What is writing?
Albinus — The treasury of history.
Pepin — What is language ?
Albinus — The herald of the soul.
Pepin — What generates language ?
Albinus — The tongue.
Pepin - What is the tongue ?
Albinus — A whip of the air.
Pepin— What is the air ?
Albinus — A maintainer of life.
Pepin - What is life?
Albinus — The joy of the happy; the torment of the suffering;
a waiting for death.
Pepin — What is death?
Albinus — An inevitable ending; a journey into uncertainty; a
source of tears for the living; the probation of wills; a waylayer
of men.
Pepin - What is man?
Albinus — A booty of death; a passing traveler; a stranger on
earth.
Pepin - What is man like?
Albinus - The fruit of a tree.
Pepin- What are the heavens ?
Albinus - A rolling ball; an immeasurable vault.
Pepin — What is light?
Albinus — The sight of all things.
Pepin — What is day?
Albinus — The admonisher to labor.
Pepin — What is the sun ?
Albinus — The glory and splendor of the heavens; the attract-
ive in nature; the measure of hours; the adornment of day.
Pepin - What is the moon ?
Albinus — The eye of night; the dispenser of dew; the pre-
sager of storms.
Pepin — What are the stars ?
Albinus — A picture on the vault of heaven; the steersmen of
ships; the ornament of night.
-
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300
ALCUIN
Pepin — What is rain ?
Albinus — The fertilizer of the earth; the producer of crops.
Pepin — What is fog?
Albinus - Night in day; the annoyance of eyes.
Pepin - What is wind?
Albinus — The mover of air; the agitation of water; the dryer
of the earth.
Pepin — What is the earth ?
Albinus — The mother of growth; the nourisher of the living;
the storehouse of life; the effacer of all.
Pepin - What is the sea ?
Albinus — The path of adventure; the bounds of the earth;
the division of lands; the harbor of rivers; the source of rains;
a refuge in danger; a pleasure in enjoyment.
Pepin — What are rivers ?
Albinus - A ceaseless motion; a refreshment to the sun; the
waters of the earth.
Pepin — What is water ?
Albinus — The supporter of life; the cleanser of filth.
Pepin — What is fire ?
Albinus - An excessive heat; the nurse of growing things; the
ripener of crops.
Pepin — What is cold ?
Albinus — The trembling of our members.
Pepin — What is frost ?
Albinus — An assailer of plants; the destruction of leaves; a
fetter to the earth; a bridger of streams.
Pepin - What is snow?
Albinus - Dry water.
Pepin — What is winter?
Albinus An exile of summer.
Pepin - What is spring?
Albinus - A painter
A painter of the earth.
Pepin - What is summer ?
Albinus - That which brings to the earth a new garment, and
ripens the fruit.
Pepin - What is autumn ?
Albinus — The barn of the year.
## p. 301 (#331) ############################################
ALCUIN
301
A LETTER FROM ALCUIN TO CHARLEMAGNE
(Written in the year 796)
YOUR Flaccus, in accordance with your entreaty and your
gracious kindness, am busied under the shelter of St. Mar.
tin's, in bestowing upon many of my pupils the honey of
the Holy Scriptures. I am eager that others should drink deep
of the old wine of ancient learning; I shall presently begin to
nourish still others with the fruits of grammatical ingenuity; and
some of them I am eager to enlighten with a knowledge of the
order of the stars, that seem painted, as it were, on the dome
of some mighty palace. I have become all things to all men
(1 Cor. i. 22) so that I may train up many to the profession of
God's Holy Church and to the glory of your imperial realm, lest
the grace of Almighty God in me should be fruitless (1 Cor. xv.
10) and your munificent bounty of no avail. But your servant
lacks the rarer books of scholastic learning, which in my own
country I used to have (thanks to the generous and most devoted
care of my teacher and to my own humble endeavors), and I
mention it to your Majesty so that, perchance, it may please you
who are eagerly concerned about the whole body of learning, to
have me dispatch some of our young men to procure for us cer-
tain necessary works, and bring with them to France the flowers
of England; so that a graceful garden may not exist in York
alone, but so that at Tours as well there may be found the blos-
soming of Paradise with its abundant fruits; that the south wind,
when it comes, may cause the gardens along the River Loire to
burst into bloom, and their perfumed airs to stream forth, and
finally, that which follows in the Canticle, whence I have drawn
this simile, may be brought to pass.
(Canticle v. 1, 2).
Or even this exhortation of the prophet Isaiah, which urges us to
acquire wisdom:—"All ye who thirst, come to the waters; and
you who have not money, hasten, buy and eat: come, without
money and without price, and buy wine and milk” (Isaiah iv. 1. )
And this is a thing which your gracious zeal will not over-
look: how upon every page of the Holy Scriptures we are urged
to the acquisition of wisdom; how nothing is more honorable for
insuring a happy life, nothing more pleasing in the observance,
nothing more efficient against sin, nothing more praiseworthy in
any lofty station, than that men live according to the teachings of
## p. 302 (#332) ############################################
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ALCUIN
the philosophers. Moreover, nothing is more essential to the gov-
ernment of the people, nothing better for the guidance of life
into the paths of honorable character, than the grace which wis-
dom gives, and the glory of training and the power of learning.
Therefore it is that in its praise, Solomon, the wisest of all men,
exclaims, Better is wisdom than all precious things, and more
to be desired” (Prov. viii. i seq). To secure this with every pos-
sible effort and to get possession of it by daily endeavor, do you,
my lord King, exhort the young men who are in your Majesty's
palace, that they strive for this in the flower of their youth, so
that they may be deemed worthy to live through an old age of
honor, and that by its means they may be able to attain to ever-
lasting happiness. I, myself, according to my disposition, shall
not be slothful in sowing the seeds of wisdom among your serv-
ants in this land, being mindful of the injunction, “Sow thy
seed in the morning, and at eventide let not thy hand cease;
since thou knowest not what will spring up, whether these or
those, and if both together, still better is it” (Eccles. xi. 6). In
the morning of my life and in the fruitful period of my studies I
sowed seed in Britain, and now that my blood has grown cool in
the evening of life, I still cease not; but sow the seed in France,
desiring that both may spring up by the grace of God.
And now
that my body has grown weak, I find consolation in the saying of
St. Jerome, who declares in his letter to Nepotianus, «Almost all
the powers of the body are altered in old men, and wisdom alone
will increase while the rest decay. ” And a little further he says,
« The old age of those who have adorned their youth with noble
accomplishments and have meditated on the law of the Lord both
day and night becomes more and more deeply accomplished with
its years, more polished from experience, more wise by the lapse
of time; and it reaps the sweetest fruit of ancient learning. ” In
this letter in praise of wisdom, one who wishes can read many
things of the scientific pursuits of the ancients, and can under-
stand how eager were these ancients to abound in the grace of
wisdom. I have noted that your zeal, which is pleasing to God
and praiseworthy, is always advancing toward this wisdom and
takes pleasure in it, and that you are adorning the magnificence
of your worldly rule with still greater intellectual splendor. In
this may our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the supreme type
of divine wisdom, guard you and exalt you, and cause you to
attain to the glory of His own blessed and everlasting vision.
## p. 303 (#333) ############################################
303
HENRY M. ALDEN
(1836-)
ENRY Mills ALDEN, since 1864 the editor of Harper's Maga-
zine, was born in Mount Tabor, Vermont, November uth,
1836, the eighth in descent from Captain John Alden, the
Pilgrim. He graduated at Williams College, and studied theology
at Andover Seminary, but was never ordained a minister, having
almost immediately turned his attention to literature. His first work
that attracted attention was an essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries,
published in the Atlantic Monthly. The scholarship and subtle
method revealed in this and similar works led to his engagement to
deliver a course of twelve Lowell Institute lectures at Boston, in
1863 and 1864, and he took for his subject “The Structure of Pagan-
ism. ' Before this he had removed to New York, had engaged in
general editorial work, and formed his lasting connection with the
house of Harper and Brothers.
As an editor Mr. Alden is the most practical of men, but he is in
reality a poet, and in another age he might have been a mystic.
He has the secret of preserving his life to himself, while paying the
keenest attention to his daily duties. In his office he is immersed in
affairs which require the exercise of vigilant common-sense, and
knowledge of life and literature. At his home he is a serene and
optimistic philosopher, contemplating the forces that make for our
civilization, and musing over the deep problems of man's occupa-
tion of this earth. In 1893 appeared anonymously a volume entitled
"God in His World, which attracted instantly wide attention in this
country and in England for its subtlety of thought, its boldness of
treatment, its winning sweetness of temper, and its exquisite style.
It was by Mr. Alden, and in 1895 it was followed by A Study of
Death, continuing the great theme of the first, – the unity of crea-
tion, the certainty that there is in no sense a war between the
Creator and his creation. In this view the Universe is not divided
into the Natural and the Supernatural: all is Natural. ut we can
speak here only of their literary quality. The author is seen to be a
poet in his conceptions, but in form his writing is entirely within
the limits of prose; yet it is a prose most harmonious, most melodi-
ous, and it exhibits the capacity of our English tongue in the hand of
a master. The thought is sometimes so subtle as to elude the care-
less reader, but the charm of the melody never fails to entrance.
The study of life and civilization is profound, but the grace of treat-
ment seems to relieve the problems of half their difficulty.
His wife did not live to read the exquisite dedication given below.
## p. 304 (#334) ############################################
304
HENRY M. ALDEN
From A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
A DEDICATION
TO MY BELOVED WIFE
M
Y EARLIEST written expression of intimate thought or cher-
ished fancy was for your eyes only; it was my first
approach to your maidenly heart, a mystical wooing, which
neglected no resource, near or remote, for the enhancement of
its charm, and so involved all other mystery in its own.
In you, childhood has been inviolate, never losing its power
of leading me by an unspoken invocation to a green field, ever
kept fresh by a living fountain, where the Shepherd tends his
flock. Now, through a body racked with pain, and sadly broken,
still shines this unbroken childhood, teaching me Love's deepest
mystery.
It is fitting, then, that I should dedicate to you this book
touching that mystery.
It has been written in the shadow, but
illumined by the brightness of an angel's face seen in the dark-
ness, so that it has seemed easy and natural for me to find at
the thorn's heart a secret and everlasting sweetness far surpass-
ing that of the rose itself, which ceases in its own perfection.
Whether that angel we have seen shall, for my need and
comfort, and for your own longing, hold back his greatest gift,
and leave you mine in the earthly ways we know and love, or
shall hasten to make the heavenly surprise, the issue in either
event will be a home-coming: if here, yet already the deeper
secret will have been in part disclosed; and if beyond, that
secret, fully known, will not betray the fondest hope of loving
hearts. Love never denied Death, and Death will not deny
Love.
From (A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
THE DOVE AND THE SERPENT
TH
.
HE Dove flies, and the Serpent creeps. Yet is the Dove
fond, while the Serpent is the emblem of wisdom. Both
were in Eden: the cooing, fluttering, winged spirit, loving
to descend, companion-like, brooding, following; and the creep-
ing thing which had glided into the sunshine of Paradise from
## p. 305 (#335) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
305
the cold bosoms of those nurses of an older world — Pain, and
Darkness, and Death - himself forgetting these in the warmth
and green life of the Garden. And our first parents knew
naught of these as yet unutterable mysteries, any more than
they knew that their roses bloomed over a tomb: so that when
all animate creatures came to Adam to be named, the meaning
of this living allegory which passed before him was in great
part hidden, and he saw no sharp line dividing the firmament
below from the firmament above; rather he leaned toward the
ground, as one does in a garden, seeing how quickly it was
fashioned into the climbing trees, into the clean flowers, and
into his own shapely frame. It was upon the ground he lay
when that deep sleep fell upon him from which he woke to find
his mate, lithe as the serpent, yet with the fluttering heart of
the dove.
As the Duve, though winged for flight, ever descended, so the
Serpent, though unable wholly to leave the ground, tried ever to
lift himself therefrom, as if to escape some ancient bond. The
cool nights revived and nourished his memories of an older time,
wherein lay his subtile wisdom, but day by day his aspiring crest
grew brighter. The life of Eden became for him oblivion, the
light of the sun obscuring and confounding his reminiscence, even
as for Adam and Eve this life was Illusion, the visible disguising
the invisible, and pleasure veiling pain.
In Adam the culture of the ground maintained humility. He
was held, moreover, in lowly content by the charm of the
woman, who was to him like the earth grown human; and since
she was the daughter of Sleep, her love seemed to him restful
as the night. Her raven locks were like the mantle of darkness,
and her voice had the laughter of streams that lapsed into
unseen depths.
But Eve had something of the Serpent's unrest, as if she too
had come from the Under-world, which she would fain forget,
seeking liberation, urged by desire as deep as the abyss she had
left behind her, and nourished from roots unfathomably hidden -
the roots of the Tree of Life. She thus came to have conversa-
tion with the Serpent.
In the lengthening days of Eden's one Summer these two
were more and more completely enfolded in the Illusion of Light.
It was under this spell that, dwelling upon the enticement of
fruit good to look at, and pleasant to the taste, the Serpent
1-20
## p. 306 (#336) ############################################
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HENRY M. ALDEN
»
denied Death, and thought of Good as separate from Evil. « Ye
shall not surely die, but shall be as the gods, knowing good and
evil. ” So far, in his aspiring day-dream, had the Serpent fared
from his old familiar haunts—so far from his old-world wisdom!
A surer omen would have come to Eve had she listened to
the plaintive notes of the bewildered Dove that in his downward
flutterings had begun to divine what the Serpent had come to
forget, and to confess what he had come to deny.
For already was beginning to be felt “the season's difference,"
and the grave mystery, without which Paradise itself could not
have been, was about to be unveiled, — the background of the
picture becoming its foreground. The fond hands plucking the
rose had found the thorn. Evil was known as something by
.
itself, apart from Good, and Eden was left behind, as one steps
out of infancy.
From that hour have the eyes of the children of men been
turned from the accursed earth, looking into the blue above,
straining their vision for a glimpse of white-robed angels.
Yet it was the Serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness;
and when He who became sin for us was being bruised in the
heel by the old enemy, the Dove descended upon Him at His
baptism. He united the wisdom of the Serpent with the harm-
lessness of the Dove. Thus in Him were bound together and
reconciled the elements which in human thought had been put
asunder. In Him, Evil is overcome of Good, as, in Him, Death
is swallowed up of Life; and with His eyes we see that the robes
of angels are white, because they have been washed in blood.
>>
From A Study of Death,' copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
DEATH AND SLEEP
,
HE Angel of Death is the invisible Angel of Life. While the
organism is alive as a human embodiment, death is present,
having the same human distinction as the life, from which
it is inseparable, being, indeed, the better half of living, — its
winged half, its rest and inspiration, its secret spring of elasticity,
and quickness. Life came upon the wings of Death, and
departs.
If we think of life apart from death our thought is partial, as
if we would give flight to the arrow without bending the bow.
SO
## p. 307 (#337) ############################################
HENRY M. ALDEN
307
No living movement either begins or is completed save through
death. If the shuttle return not there is no web; and the text-
ure of life is woven through this tropic movement.
It is a commonly accepted scientific truth that the continu-
ance of life in any living thing depends upon death. But there
are two ways of expressing this truth: one, regarding merely
the outward fact, as when we say that animal or vegetable tissue
is renewed through decay; the other, regarding the action and
reaction proper to life itself, whereby it forever springs freshly
from its source.
The latter form of expression is mystical, in
the true meaning of that term. We close our eyes to the out-
ward appearance, in order that we may directly confront a mys-
tery which is already past before there is any visible indication
thereof. Though the imagination engaged in this mystical appre-
hension borrows its symbols or analogues from observation and
experience, yet these symbols are spiritually regarded by looking
at life on its living side, and abstracted as far as possible from
outward embodiment. We especially affect physiological ana-
logues because, being derived from our experience, we may the
more readily have the inward regard of them; and by passing
from one physiological analogue to another, and from all these to
those furnished by the processes of nature outside of our bodies,
we come to an apprehension of the action and reaction proper to
life itself as an idea independent of all its physical representa-
tions.
Thus we trace the rhythmic beating of the pulse to the systole
and diastole of the heart, and we note a similar alternation in
the contraction and relaxation of all our muscles. Breathing is
alternately inspiration and expiration. Sensation itself is by beats,
and falls into rhythm. There is no uninterrupted strain of either
action or sensibility; a current or a contact is renewed, having
been broken. In psychical operation there is the same alternate
lapse and resurgence. Memory rises from the grave of oblivion.
No holding can be maintained save through alternate release.
Pulsation establishes circulation, and vital motions proceed through
cycles, each one of which, however minute, has its tropic of Can-
cer and of Capricorn. Then there are the larger physiological
cycles, like that wherein sleep is the alternation of waking. Pass-
ing from the field of our direct experience to that of observation,
we note similar alternations, as of day and night, summer and
winter, flood and ebb tide; and science discloses them at every
## p. 308 (#338) ############################################
308
HENRY M. ALDEN
-
turn, especially in its recent consideration of the subtle forces of
Nature, leading us back of all visible motions to the pulsations
of the ether.
In considering the action and reaction proper to life itself, we
here dismiss from view all measured cycles, whose beginning and
end are appreciably separate; our regard is confined to living
moments, so fleet that their beginning and ending meet as in one
point, which is seen to be at once the point of departure and of
return. Thus we may speak of a man's life as included between
his birth and his death, and with reference to this physiological
term, think of him as living, and then as dead; but we may also
consider him while living as yet every moment dying, and in this
view death is clearly seen to be the inseparable companion of
life, - the way of return, and so of continuance. This pulsation,
forever a vanishing and a resurgence, so incalculably swift as to
escape observation, is proper to life as life, does not begin with
what we call birth nor end with what we call death (considering
birth and death as terms applicable to an individual existence); it
is forever beginning and forever ending. Thus to all manifest
existence we apply the term Nature (natura), which means “for-
ever being born”; and on its vanishing side it is moritura, or
«forever dying. ” Resurrection is thus a natural and perpetual
miracle. The idea of life as transcending any individual embodi-
ment is as germane to science as it is to faith.
Death, thus seen as essential, is lifted above its temporary
and visible accidents. It is no longer associated with corruption,
but rather with the sweet and wholesome freshness of life, being
the way of its renewal. Sweeter than the honey which Samson
found in the lion's carcass is this everlasting sweetness of Death;
and it is a mystery deeper than the strong man's riddle.
So is Death pure and clean, as is the dew that comes with the
cool night when the sun has set; clean and white as the snow-
flakes that betoken the absolution which Winter gives, shriving
the earth of all her Summer wantonness and excess, when only
the trees that yield balsam and aromatic fragrance remain green,
breaking the box of precious ointment for burial.
In this view also is restored the kinship of Death with Sleep.
The state of the infant seems to be one of chronic mysticism,
since during the greater part of its days its eyes are closed to
the outer world. Its larger familiarity is still with the invisible,
and it seems as if the Mothers of Darkness were still withholding
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HENRY M. ALDEN
309
it as their nursling, accomplishing for it some mighty work
in their proper realm, some such fiery baptism of infants as is
frequently instanced in Greek mythology, tempering them for
earthly trials. The infant must needs sleep while this work is
being done for it; it has been sleeping since the work began,
from the foundation of the world, and the old habit still clings
about it and is not easily laid aside.
That which we have been considering as the death that is in
every moment is a reaction proper to life itself, waking or sleep-
ing, whereby it is renewed, sharing at once Time and Eternity
time as outward form, and eternity as its essential quality. Sleep
is a special relaxation, relieving a special strain. As daily we
build with effort and design an elaborate superstructure above
the living foundation, so must this edifice nightly be laid in
ruins.
Sleep is thus a disembarrassment, the unloading of a
burden wherewith we have weighted ourselves. Here again we
are brought into a kind of repentance, and receive absolution.
Sleep is forgiveness.
From A Study of Death, copyright 1895, by Harper and Brothers
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL
I
S"
TANDING of it would if
vital destination of all things to fly from their source, as if
it were the dominant desire of life to enter into limitations.
We might mentally represent to ourselves an essence simple and
indivisible that denies itself in diversified manifold existence. To
us, this side the veil, nay, immeshed in innumerable veils that
hide from us the Father's face, this insistence appears to have
the stress of urgency, as if the effort of all being, its unceasing
travail, were like the beating of the infinite ocean upon the
shores of Time; and as if, within the continent of Time, all
existence were forever knocking at new gates, seeking, through
some as yet untried path of progression, greater complexity, a
deeper involvement. All the children seem to be beseeching the
Father to divide unto them His living, none willingly abiding in
that Father's house. But in reality their will is His will — they
fly, and they are driven, like fledglings from the mother-nest.
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310
HENRY M. ALDEN
II
The story of a solar system, or of any synthesis in time,
repeats the parable of the Prodigal Son, in its essential features.
It is a cosmic parable.
The planet is a wanderer (planes), and the individual planet.
ary destiny can be accomplished only through flight from its
source. After all its prodigality it shall sicken and return.
Attributing to the Earth, thus apparently separated from the
Sun, some macrocosmic sentience, what must have been her won-
dering dream, finding herself at once thrust away and securely
held, poised between her flight and her bond, and so swinging
into a regular orbit about the Sun, while at the same time, in
her rotation, turning to him and away from him into the light,
and into the darkness, forever denying and confessing her lord!
Her emotion must have been one of delight, however mingled
with a feeling of timorous awe, since her desire could not have
been other than one with her destination. Despite the distance
and the growing coolness she could feel the kinship still; her
pulse, though modulated, was still in rhythm with that of the
solar heart, and in her bosom were hidden consubstantial fires.
But it was the sense of otherness, of her own distinct individua-
tion, that was mainly being nourished, this sense, moreover,
being proper to her destiny; therefore, the signs of her likeness
to the Sun were more and more being buried from her view;
her fires were veiled by a hardening crust, and her opaqueness
stood out against his light. She had no regret for all she was
surrendering, thinking only of her gain, of being clothed upon
with a garment showing ever some new fold of surprising beauty
and wonder. If she had remained in the Father's house
like the elder brother in the Parable — then would all that He
had have been hers, in nebulous simplicity. But now, holding
her revels apart, she seems to sing her own song, and to dream
her own beautiful dream, wandering, with a motion wholly her
own, among the gardens of cosmic order and loveliness. She
glories in her many veils, which, though they hide from her both
her source and her very self, are the media through which the
invisible light is broken into multiform illusions that enrich her
dream. She beholds the Sun as a far-off, insphered being existing
for her, her ministrant bridegroom; and when her face is turned
away from him into the night, she beholds innumerable suns, a
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HENRY M. ALDEN
311
myriad of archangels, all witnesses of some infinitely remote and
central flame — the Spirit of all life. Yet, in the midst of these
visible images, she is absorbed in her individual dream, wherein
she appears to herself to be the mother of all living. It is proper
to her destiny that she should be thus enwrapped in her own
distinct action and passion, and refer to herself the appearances
of a universe. While all that is not she is what she really is,-
necessary, that is, to her full definition,-she, on the other hand,
from herself interprets all else. This is the inevitable terrestrial
idealism, peculiar to every individuation in time — the individual
thus balancing the universe.
-
III
In reality, the Earth has never left the Sun; apart from him
she has no life, any more than has the branch severed from the
vine. More truly it may be said that the Sun has never left the
Earth.
No prodigal can really leave the Father's house, any more than
he can leave himself; coming to himself, he feels the Father's
arms about him — they have always been there — he is newly
-
appareled, and wears the signet ring of native prestige; he hears
the sound of familiar music and dancing, and it may be that the
young and beautiful forms mingling with him in this festival are
the riotous youths and maidens of his far-country revels, also
come to themselves and home, of whom also the Father saith:
These were dead and are alive again, they were lost and are
found. The starvation and sense of exile had been parts of a
troubled dream a dream which had also had its ecstasy, but
had come into a consuming fever, with delirious imaginings of
fresh fountains, of shapes drawn from the memory of childhood,
and of the cool touch of kindred hands upon the brow. So near
is exile to home, misery to divine commiseration — so near are
pain and death, desolation and divestiture, to "a new creature,”
and to the kinship involved in all creation and re-creation.
Distance in the cosmic order is a standing-apart, which is only
another expression of the expansion and abundance of creative
life; but at every remove its reflex is nearness, a bond of at-
traction, insphering and curving, making orb and orbit. While
in
space this attraction is diminished — being inversely as the
square of the distance - and so there is maintained and empha-
sized the appearance of suspension and isolation, yet in time it
»
## p. 312 (#342) ############################################
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THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
gains preponderance, contracting sphere and orbit, aging planets
and suns, and accumulating destruction, which at the point of
annihilation becomes a new creation. This Grand Cycle, which is
but a pulsation or breath of the Eternal life, illustrates a truth
which is repeated in its least and most minutely divided mo-
ment — that birth lies next to death, as water crystallizes at the
freezing-point, and the plant blossoms at points most remote from
the source of nutrition.
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
(1836--)
-
So.
POET in verse often becomes a poet in prose also, in com-
posing novels; although the novelist may not, and in gen-
eral does not, possess the faculty of writing poems. The
poet-novelist is apt to put into his prose a good deal of the same
charm and the same picturesque choice of phrase and image that
characterize his verse; while it does not follow that the novelist who
at times writes verse — like George Eliot, for example — succeeds in
giving a distinctly poetic quality to prose, or even wishes to do
Among authors who have displayed
peculiar power and won fame in the dual
capacity of poet and of prose romancer or
novelist, Sir Walter Scott and Victor Hugo
no doubt stand pre-eminent; and in Amer-
ican literature, Edgar Allan Poe and Oliver
Wendell Holmes very strikingly combine
these two functions. Another American
author who has gained a distinguished
position both as a poet and as a writer of
prose fiction and essays is Thomas Bailey
Aldrich.
THOMAS B. ALDRICH
It is upon his work in the form of
verse, perhaps, that Aldrich's chief renown
is based; but some of his short stories in especial have contributed
much to his popularity, no less than to his repute as a delicate and
polished artificer in words. A New Englander, he has infused into
some of his poems the true atmosphere of New England, and has
given the same light and color of home to his prose, while impart-
ing to his productions in both kinds a delightful tinge of the foreign
and remote. In addition to his capacities as a poet and a romancer,
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THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
313
he is a wit and humorist of sparkling quality. In reading his books
one seems also to inhale the perfumes of Arabia and the farther
East, blended with the salt sea-breeze and the pine-scented air of
his native State, New Hampshire.
He was born in the old seaside town of Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire, November 11th, 1836; but moved to New York City in 1854, at
the age of seventeen. There he remained until 1866; beginning his
work quite early; forming his literary character by reading and ob-
servation, by the writing of poems, and by practice and experience
of writing prose sketches and articles for journals and periodicals.
During this period he entered into associations with the poets Sted-
man, Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor, and was more or less in touch
with the group that included Walt Whitman, Fitz-James O'Brien,
and William Winter. Removing to Boston in January, 1866, he be-
came the editor of Every Saturday, and remained in that post until
1874, when he resigned. In 1875 he made a long tour in Europe,
plucking the first fruits of foreign travel, which were succeeded by
many rich and dainty gatherings from the same source in later
years. In the intervals of these wanderings he lived in Boston and
Cambridge; occupying for a time James Russell Lowell's historic
house of Elmwood, in the semi-rural university city; and then estab-
lished a pretty country house at Ponkapog, a few miles west of
Boston. This last suggested the title for a charming book of travel
papers, (From Ponkapog to Pesth. In 1881 he was appointed editor of
the Atlantic Monthly, and continued to direct that famous magazine
for nine years, frequently making short trips to Europe, extending
his tours as far as the heart of Russia, and gathering fresh materials
for essay or song. Much of his time since giving up the Atlantic
editorship has been passed in voyaging, and in 1894-5 he made a
journey around the world.
From the beginning he struck with quiet certainty the vein that
was his by nature in poetry; and this has broadened almost contin-
ually, yielding richer results, which have been worked out with an
increasing refinement of skill. His predilection is for the picturesque;
for romance combined with simplicity, purity, and tenderness of
feeling, touched by fancy and by occasional lights of humor so
reserved and dainty that they never disturb the pictorial harmony.
The capacity for unaffected utterance of feeling on matters common
to humanity reached a climax in the poem of Baby Bell,' which
by its sympathetic and delicate description of a child's advent and
death gave the author a claim to the affections of a wide circle; and
this remained for a long time probably the best known among his
poems. 'Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book) is another of the earlier
favorites. (Spring in New England' has since come to hold high
(
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314
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
rank both for its vivid and graceful description of the season, for its
tender fervor of patriotism, and for its sentiment of reconciliation
between North and South. The lines on Piscataqua River) remain
one of the best illustrations of boyhood memories, and have some-
thing of Whittier's homely truth. In his longer narrative pieces,
(Judith” and “Wyndham Towers,' cast in the mold of blank-verse
idyls, Mr. Aldrich does not seem so much himself as in many of his
briefer flights. An instinctive dramatic tendency finds outlet in
(Pauline Paulovna' and (Mercedes '-- the latter of which, a two-act
piece in prose, has found representation in the theatre; yet in these,
also, he is less eminently successful than in his lyrics and society
verse.
No American poet has wrought his stanzas with greater faithful-
ness to an exacting standard of craftsmanship than Mr. Aldrich, or
has known better when to leave a line loosely cast, and when to rein-
force it with correction or with a syllable that might seem, to an ear
less true, redundant. This gives to his most carefully chiseled pro-
ductions an air of spontaneous ease, and has made him eminent as a
sonneteer. His sonnet on “Sleep' is one of the finest in the lan-
guage. The conciseness and concentrated aptness of his expression
also- together with a faculty of bringing into conjunction subtly
contrasted thoughts, images, or feelings — has issued happily in short,
concentrated pieces like An Untimely Thought, Destiny,' and
(Identity,' and in a number of pointed and effective quatrains. With-
out overmastering purpose outside of art itself, his is the poetry of
luxury rather than of deep passion or conviction; yet, with the fresh-
ness of bud and tint in springtime, it still always relates itself effect-
ively to human experience. The author's specially American quality,
also, though not dominant, comes out clearly in Unguarded Gates,'
and with a differing tone in the plaintive Indian legend of Mianto-
wona. '
If we perceive in his verse a kinship with the dainty ideals of
Théophile Gautier and Alfred de Musset, this does not obscure his
originality or his individual charm; and the same thing may be said
with regard to his prose. The first of his short fictions that made a
decided mark was Marjorie Daw. The fame which it gained, in
its separate field, was as swift and widespread as that of Hawthorne's
(The Gentle Boy' or Bret Harte's 'Luck of Roaring Camp. It is a
bright and half-pathetic little parody on human life and affection; or
perhaps we should call it a parable symbolizing the power which
imagination wields over real life, even in supposedly unimaginative
people. The covert smile which it involves, at the importance of
human emotions, may be traced to a certain extent in some of Mr.
Aldrich's longer and more serious works of fiction: his three novels,
## p. 315 (#345) ############################################
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
315
(Prudence Paltrey,' 'The Queen of Sheba,' and 'The Stillwater
Tragedy. ' "The Story of a Bad Boy, frankly but quietly humorous
in its record of the pranks and vicissitudes of a healthy average lad
(with the scene of the story localized at old Portsmouth, under the
name of Rivermouth), a less ambitious work, still holds a secure
place in the affections of many mature as well as younger readers.
Besides these books, Mr. Aldrich has published a collection of short
descriptive, reminiscent, and half-historic papers on Portsmouth,–
(An Old Town by the Sea'; with a second volume of short stories
entitled “Two Bites at a Cherry. The character-drawing in his
fiction is clear-cut and effective, often sympathetic, and nearly always
suffused with an agreeable coloring of humor. There are notes of
pathos, too, in some of his tales; and it is the blending of these
qualities, through the medium of a lucid and delightful style, that
defines his pleasing quality in prose.
[The following selections are copyrighted, and are reprinted by permission of
the author, and Houghton, Miffin & Co.
