No More Learning

There was a restless energy which fitted him to become
the preacher of a new crusade - urging him to throw a haughty
defiance in the face of every authority in every country, - an energy
which closed his wild adventurous career at the stake. He was dis-
tinguished also by a rich fancy, a varied humor, and a chivalrous
gallantry, which constantly remind us that the intellectual athlete is
an Italian, and an Italian of the sixteenth century.
A DISCOURSE OF POETS
From The Heroic Enthusiasts)
Cica
ICADA Say, what do you mean by those who vaunt them-
selves of myrtle and laurel ?
Tansillo— Those may and do boast of the myrtle who
sing of love: if they bear themselves nobly, they may wear a
crown of that plant consecrated to Venus, of which they know
the potency. Those may boast of the laurel who sing worthily
of things pertaining to heroes, substituting heroic souls for spec-
ulative and moral philosophy, praising them and setting them as
mirrors and exemplars for political and civil actions.
Cicada — There are then many species of poets and crowns ?
Tansillo-Not only as many as there are Muses, but a great
many more; for although genius is to be met with, yet certain
modes and species of human ingenuity cannot be thus classified.
Cicada — There certain schoolmen who barely allow
Homer to be a poet, and set down Virgil, Ovid, Martial, Hesiod,
Lucretius, and many others as versifiers, judging them by the
rules of poetry of Aristotle.
Tansillo— Know for certain, my brother, that such as these
are beasts. They do not consider that those rules serve princi-
pally as a frame for the Homeric poetry, and for other similar
to it; and they set up one as a great poet, high as Homer, and
disallow those of other vein and art and enthusiasm, who in
their various kinds are equal, similar, or greater.
Cicada - So that Homer was not a poet who depended upon
rules, but was the cause of the rules which serve for those who
are more apt at imitation than invention, and they have been
are


## p. 2617 (#177) ###########################################

GIORDANO BRUNO
2617
used by him who, being no poet, yet knew how to take the
rules of Homeric poetry into service, so as to become, not a
poet or a Homer, but one who apes the Muse of others ?
Tansillo — Thou dost well conclude that poetry is not born in
rules, or only slightly and accidentally so: the rules are derived
from the poetry, and there are as many kinds and sorts of true
rules as there are kinds and sorts of true poets.
Cicada — How then are the true poets to be known?
Tansillo — By the singing of their verses: in that singing they
give delight, or they edify, or they edify and delight together.
Cicada — To whom then are the rules of Aristotle useful ?
Tansillo — To him who, unlike Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, and
others, could not sing without the rules of Aristotle, and who,
having no Muse of his own, would coquette with that of Homer.
Cicada - Then they are wrong, those stupid pedants of our
days, who exclude from the number of poets those who do not
use words and metaphors conformable to, or whose principles are
not in union with, those of Homer and Virgil; or because they
do not observe the custom of invocation, or because they weave
one history or tale with another, or because they finish the song
with an epilogue on what has been said and a prelude on what
is to be said, and many other kinds of criticism and censure;
from whence it seems they would imply that they themselves,
if the fancy took them, could be the true poets: and yet in fact
they are no other than worms, that know not how to do any.
thing well, but are born only to gnaw and befoul the studies and
labors of others; and not being able to attain celebrity by their
own virtue and ingenuity, seek to put themselves in the front, by
hook or by crook, through the defects and errors of others.
Tansillo — There are as many sorts of poets as there are senti-
ments and ideas; and to these it is possible to adapt garlands,
not only of every species of plant, but also of other kinds of
material. So the crowns of poets are made not only of myrtle
and of laurel, but of vine leaves for the white-wine verses, and
of ivy for the bacchanals; of olive for sacrifice and laws; of pop-
lar, of elm, and of corn for agriculture; of cypress for funerals,
and innumerable others for other occasions; and if it please you,
also of the material signified by a good fellow when he exclaimed:
“O Friar Leck! O Poetaster!
That in Milan didst buckle on thy wreath
Composed of salad, sausage, and the pepper-caster. ”


## p. 2618 (#178) ###########################################

2618
GIORDANO BRUNO
Cicada — Now surely he of divers moods, which he exhibits
in various ways, may cover himself with the branches of differ-
ent plants, and may hold discourse worthily with the Muses; for
they are his aura or comforter, his anchor or support, and his
harbor, to which he retires in times of labor, of agitation, and
of storm. Hence he cries: - "O Mountain of Parnassus, where
I abide; Muses, with whom I converse; Fountain of Helicon,
where I am nourished; Mountain, that affordest me a quiet
dwelling-place; Muses, that inspire me with profound doctrines;
Fountain, that cleansest me; Mountain, on whose ascent my heart
uprises; Muses, that in discourse revive my spirits; Fountain,
whose arbors cool my brows, - change my death into life, my
cypress to laurels, and my hells into heavens: that is, give me
immortality, make me a poet, render me illustrious! ”
Tansillo— Well; because to those whom Heaven favors, the
greatest evils turn to greatest good; for needs or necessities
bring forth labors and studies, and these most often bring the
glory of immortal splendor.
Cicada — For to die in one age makes us live in all the rest.
CANTICLE OF THE SHINING ONES
A Tribute to English Women, from "The Nolan)
"Nº
OTHING I envy, Jove, from this thy sky,”
Spake Neptune thus, and raised his lofty crest.
«God of the waves,” said Jove, “thy pride runs high;
What more wouldst add to own thy stern behest ? »
“Thou,” spake the god, “dost rule the fiery span,
The circling spheres, the glittering shafts of day;
Greater am I, who in the realm of man
Rule Thames, with all his Nymphs in fair array.
“In this my breast I hold the fruitful land,
The vasty reaches of the trembling sea;
And what in night's bright dome, or day's, shall stand
Before these radiant maids who dwell with me? )
“Not thine,” said Jove, "god of the watery mount,
To exceed my lot; but thou my lot shalt share:
Thy heavenly maids among my stars I'll count,
And thou shalt own the stars beyond compare! ”


## p. 2619 (#179) ###########################################

GIORDANO BRUNO
2619
THE SONG OF THE NINE SINGERS
O
[The first sings and plays the cithern. ]
CLIFFS and rocks! O thorny woods! O shore!
O hills and dales! O valleys, rivers, seas!
How do your new-discovered beauties please?
O Nymph, 'tis yours the guerdon rare,
If now the open skies shine fair;
O happy wanderings, well spent and o'er!
[The second sings and plays to his mandolin. ]
O happy wanderings, well spent and o'er!
Say then, O Circe, these heroic tears,
These griefs, endured through tedious months and years,
Were as a grace divine bestowed
If now our weary travail is no more.
[The third sings and plays to his lyre. ]
If now our weary travail is no more!
If this sweet haven be our destined rest,
Then naught remains but to be blest,
To thank our God for all his gifts,
Who from our eyes the veil uplifts,
Where shines the light upon the heavenly shore.
(The fourth sings to the viol. ]
Where shines the light upon the heavenly shore!
O blindness, dearer far than others' sight!
O sweeter grief than earth's most sweet delight!
For ye have led the erring soul
By gradual steps to this fair goal,
And through the darkness into light we soar.
[The fifth sings to a Spanish timbrel. ]
And through the darkness into light we soar!
To full fruition all high thought is brought,
With such brave patience that ev'n we
At least the only path can see,
And in his noblest work our God adore.


## p. 2620 (#180) ###########################################

2620
GIORDANO BRUNO
[The sixth sings to a lute. )
And in his noblest work our God adore!
God doth not will joy should to joy succeed,
Nor ill shall be of other ill the seed;
But in his hand the wheel of fate
Turns, now depressed and now elate,
Evolving day from night for evermore.
[The seventh sings to the Irish harp. ]
Evolving day from night for evermore!
And as yon robe of glorious nightly fire
Pales when the morning beams to noon aspire,
Thus He who rules with law eternal,
Creating order fair diurnal,
Casts down the proud and doth exalt the poor.
[The eighth plays with a viol and bow. )
Casts down the proud and doth exalt the poor!
And with an equal hand maintains
The boundless worlds which He sustains,
And scatters all our finite sense
At thought of His omnipotence,
Clouded awhile, to be revealed once more.
[The ninth plays upon the rebeck. ]
Clouded awhile, to be revealed once more!
Thus neither doubt nor fear avails;
O'er all the incomparable End prevails,
O'er fair champaign and mountain,
O'er river-brink and fountain,
And o'er the shocks of seas and perils of the shore.
Translation of Isa Blagden.


## p. 2621 (#181) ###########################################

GIORDANO BRUNO
2621
OF IMMENSITY
From Frith's Life of Giordano Bruno)
'T'S
is thou, O Spirit, dost within my soul
This weakly thought with thine own life amend;
Rejoicing, dost thy rapid pinions lend
Me, and dost wing me to that lofty goal
Where secret portals ope and fetters break,
And thou dost grant me, by thy grace complete,
Fortune to spurn, and death; ( high retreat,
Which few attain, and fewer yet forsake!
Girdled with gates of brass in every part,
Prisoned and bound in vain, 'tis mine to rise
Through sparkling fields of air to pierce the skies,
Sped and accoutred by no doubting heart,
Till, raised on clouds of contemplation vast,
Light, leader, law, Creator, I attain at last.
LIFE WELL LOST
W"
INGED by desire and thee, O dear delight!
As still the vast and succoring air I tread,
So, mounting still, on swifter pinions sped,
I scorn the world, and heaven receives my flight.
And if the end of Ikaros be nigh,
I will submit, for I shall know no pain:
And falling dead to earth, shall rise again;
What lowly life with such high death can vie ?
Then speaks my heart from out the upper air,
«Whither dost lead me ? sorrow and despair
Attend the rash:” and thus I make reply:-
« Fear thou no fall, nor lofty ruin sent;
Safely divide the clouds, and die content,
When such proud death is dealt thee from on high. ”
PARNASSUS WITHIN
O
HEART, 'tis you my chief Parnassus are,
Where for my safety I must ever climb.
My winged thoughts are Muses, who from far
Bring gifts of beauty to the court of Time;
And Helicon, that fair unwasted rill,
Springs newly in my tears upon the earth,


## p. 2622 (#182) ###########################################

262 2
GIORDANO BRUNO
And by those streams and nymphs, and by that hill,
It pleased the gods to give a poet birth.
No favoring hand that comes of lofty race,
No priestly unction, nor the grant of kings,
Can on me lay such lustre and such grace,
Nor add such heritage; for one who sings
Hath a crowned head, and by the sacred bay,
His heart, his thoughts, his tears, are consecrate alway.
COMPENSATION
THE
HE moth beholds not death as forth he flies
Into the splendor of the living flame;
The hart athirst to crystal water hies,
Nor heeds the shaft, nor fears the hunter's aim;
The timid bird, returning from above
To join his mate, deems not the net is nigh;
Unto the light, the fount, and to my love,
Seeing the flame, the shaft, the chains, I fly;
So high a torch, love-lighted in the skies,
Consumes my soul; and with this bow divine
Of piercing sweetness what terrestrial vies ?
This net of dear delight doth prison mine;
And I to life's last day have this desire -
Be mine thine arrows, love, and mine thy fire.
LIFE FOR SONG
COM
HOME Muse, O Muse, so often scorned by me,
The hope of sorrow and the balm of care,–
Give to me speech and song, that I may be
Unchid by grief; grant me such graces rare
As other ministering souls may never see
Who boast thy laurel, and thy myrtle wear.
I know no joy wherein thou hast not part,
My speeding wind, my anchor, and my goal.
Come, fair Parnassus, lift thou up my heart;
Come, Helicon, renew my thirsty soul.
A cypress crown, ( Muse, is thine to give,
And pain eternal: take this weary frame,
Touch me with fire, and this my death shall live
On all men's lips and in undying fame.


## p. 2622 (#183) ###########################################



## p. 2622 (#184) ###########################################


CONT
TELLITE
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.


## p. 2623 (#185) ###########################################

2623
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
(1794-1878)
BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP
D
ISTINGUISHED as he was by the lofty qualities of his verse,
William Cullen Bryant held a place almost unique in Amer-
ican literature, by the union of his activity as a poet with
his eminence as a citizen and an influential journalist, throughout
an uncommonly long career. Two traits still further define the
peculiarity of his position — his precocious development, and the
evenness and sustained vigor of all his poetic work from the begin-
ning to the end. He began writing verse at the age of eight; at
ten he made contributions in this kind to the county gazette, and
produced a finished and effective rhymed address, read at his school
examination, which became popular for recitation; and in his thir-
teenth year, during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, he com-
posed a political satire, The Embargo. This, being published, was
at first supposed by many to be the work of a man, attracted much
attention and praise, and passed into a second edition with other
shorter pieces.
But these, while well wrought in the formal eighteenth-century
fashion, showed no special originality. It was with Thanatopsis,'
written in 1811, when he was only seventeen, that his career as a
poet of original and assured strength began. “Thanatopsis) was an
inspiration of the primeval woods of America, of the scenes that
surrounded the writer in youth. At the same time it expressed with
striking independence and power a fresh conception of the univer-
sality of Death in the natural order. ” As has been well said, “it
takes the idea of death out of its theological aspects and restores it
to its proper place in the vast scheme of things. This in itself was
a mark of genius in a youth of his time and place. ” Another Amer-
ican poet, Stoddard, calls it the greatest poem ever written by so
young a man. The author's son-in-law and biographer, Parke God-
win, remarks upon it aptly, “For the first time on this continent
a poem was written destined to general admiration and enduring
fame;" and this indeed is a very significant point, that it began the
history of true poetry in the United States, a fact which further
secured to Bryant his exceptional place. The poem remains a classic
of the English language, and the author himself never surpassed the
high mark attained in it; although the balanced and iasting nature


## p. 2624 (#186) ###########################################

2624
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
of his faculty is shown in a pendant to this poem, which he created
in his old age and entitled “The Flood of Years. ' The last is equal
to the first in dignity and finish, but is less original, and has never
gained a similar fame.
Another consideration regarding Bryant is, that representing a
modern development of poetry under American inspiration, he was
also a descendant of the early Massachusetts colonists, being con-
nected with the Pilgrim Fathers through three ancestral lines. Born
at Cummington, Massachusetts, November 3d, 1794, the son of a stal-
wart but studious country physician of literary tastes, he inherited
the strong religious feeling of this ancestry, which was united in
him with a deep and sensitive love of nature. This led him to
reflect in his poems the strength and beauty of American landscape,
vividly as it had never before been mirrored; and the blending of
serious thought and innate piety with the sentiment for nature so
reflected gave a new and impressive result.
Like many other long-lived men, Bryant suffered from delicate
health in the earlier third of his life: there was a tendency to
consumption in his otherwise vigorous family stock. He read much,
and was much interested in Greek literature and somewhat influenced
by it. But he also lived a great deal in the open air, rejoiced in the
boisterous games and excursions in the woods with his brothers and
sisters, and took long rambles alone among the hills and wild
groves; being then, as always afterwards, an untiring walker. After
a stay of only seven months at Williams College, he studied law,
which he practiced for some eight years in Plainfield and Great
Barrington. In the last-named village he was elected a tithingman,
charged with the duty of keeping order in the churches and
enforcing the observance of Sunday. Chosen town clerk soon after-
wards, at a salary of five dollars a year, he kept the records of the
town with his own hand for five years, and also served as justice
of the peace with power to hear cases in a lower court. These
biographical items are of value, as showing his close relation to the
self-government of the people in its simpler forms, and his early
practical familiarity with the duties of a trusted citizen.
Meanwhile, however, he kept on writing at intervals, and in 1821
read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard a long poem,
( The Ages,' a kind of composition more in favor at that period than
in later days, being a general review of the progress of man in
knowledge and virtue. With the passage of time it has not held
its own as against some of his other poems, although it long enjoyed
a high reputation; but its success on its original hearing was the
cause of his bringing together his first volume of poems, hardly more
than a pamphlet, in the same year. It made him famous with the


## p. 2625 (#187) ###########################################

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
2625
reading public of the United States, and won some recognition in
England. In this little book were contained, besides (The Ages
and Thanatopsis, several pieces which have kept their hold upon
popular taste; such as the well-known lines (To a Waterfowl' and
the Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood. '
The year of its publication also brought into the world Cooper's
(The Spy,' Irving's (Sketch Book) and Bracebridge Hall, with vari-
ous other significant volumes, including Channing's early essays
and Daniel Webster's great Plymouth Oration. It was evident that
a native literature was dawning brightly; and as Bryant's productions
now came into demand, and he had never liked the profession of
law, he quitted it and went to New York in 1825, there to seek a
living by his pen as “a literary adventurer. ” The adventure led to
ultimate triumph, but not until after a long term of dark prospects
and hard struggles.
Even in his latest years Bryant used to declare that his favorite
among his poems — although it is one of the least known - was
'Green River'; perhaps because it recalled the scenes of young man-
hood, when he was about entering the law, and contrasted the peace-
fulness of that stream with the life in which he would be
«Forced to drudge for the dregs of men,
And scrawl strange words with the barbarous pen,
And mingle among the jostling crowd,
Where the sons of strife are subtle and loud. »
This might be applied to much of his experience in New York,
where he edited the New York Review and became one of the edi-
tors, then a proprietor, and finally chief editor of the Evening Post.
A great part of his energies now for many years was given to hi
journalistic function, and to the active outspoken discussion of import-
ant political questions; often in trying crises and at the cost of harsh
unpopularity. Success, financial as well as moral, came to him within
the next quarter-century, during which laborious interval he had like-
wise maintained his interest and work in pure literature and produced
new poems from time to time in various editions.
From this point on until his death, June 12th, 1878, in his eighty-
fourth year, he was the central and commanding figure in the enlarging
literary world of New York. His newspaper had gained a potent
reputation, and it brought to bear upon public affairs a strong influ-
ence of the highest sort. Its editorial course and tone, as well as the
earnest and patriotic part taken by Bryant in popular questions and
national affairs, without political ambition or office-holding, had estab-
lished him as one of the most distinguished citizens of the metropolis,
no less than its most renowned poet. His presence and co-operation
V-165


## p. 2626 (#188) ###########################################

2626
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
were indispensable in all great public functions or humanitarian and
intellectual movements. In 1864 his seventieth birthday was celebrated
at the Century Club with extraordinary honors. In 1875, again, the
two houses of the State Legislature at Albany paid him the compli-
ment, unprecedented in the annals of American authorship, of inviting
him to a reception given to him in their official capacity. Another
mark of the abounding esteem in which he was held among his
fellow-citizens was the presentation to him in 1876 of a rich silver
vase, commemorative of his life and works. He was now a wealthy
man; yet his habits of life remained essentially unchanged. His
tastes were simple, his love of nature was still ardent; his literary
and editorial industry unflagging.
Besides his poems, Bryant wrote two short stories for “Tales of
the Glauber Spa'; and published Letters of a Traveler' in 1850, as
a result of three journeys to Europe and the Orient, together with
various public addresses. His style as a writer of prose is clear,
calm, dignified, and denotes exact observation and a wide range of
interests. So too his editorial articles in the Evening Post, some
of which have been preserved in his collected writings, are couched
in serene and forcible English, with nothing of the sensational or the
colloquial about them. They were a fitting medium of expression
for his firm conscientiousness and integrity as a journalist.
But it is as a poet, and especially by a few distinctive composi-
tions, that Bryant will be most widely and deeply held in remem-
brance. In the midst of the exacting business of his career as an
editor, and many public or social demands upon his time, he found
opportunity to familiarize himself with portions of German and Span-
ish poetry, which he translated, and to maintain in the quietude of
his country home in Roslyn, Long Island, his old acquaintance with
the Greek and Latin classics. From this continued study there re-
sulted naturally in 1870 his elaborate translation of Homer's Iliad,
which was followed by that of the Odyssey in 1871. These scholarly
works, cast in strong and polished blank verse, won high praise from
American critics, and even achieved a popular success, although they
were not warmly acclaimed, in England. Among literarians they are
still regarded as in a manner standards of their kind. Bryant, in his
long march of over sixty-five years across the literary field, was wit-
ness to many new developments in poetic writing, in both his own
and other countries. But while he perceived the splendor and color
and rich novelty of these, he held in his own work to the plain
theory and practice which had guided him from the start. «The best
poetry,” he still believed — “that which takes the strongest hold of
the general mind, not in one age only but in all ages — is that which
is always simple and always luminous. ” He did not embody in


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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