A Study of Hawthorne Part 16

"The author's college life was prophetic of the after years, when he so dwelt apart from the ma.s.s of men, and yet stirred so deeply the world's sensibilities and delighted its fancy. His themes were written in the sustained, finished style that gives to his mature productions an inimitable charm. The late Professor Newman, his instructor in rhetoric, was so impressed with Hawthorne's powers as a writer, that he not infrequently summoned the family circle to share in the enjoyment of reading his compositions. The recollection is very distinct of Hawthorne's reluctant step and averted look, when he presented himself at the Professor's study, and with girlish diffidence submitted a composition which no man in his cla.s.s could equal.... When the cla.s.s was graduated, Hawthorne could not be persuaded to join them in having their profiles cut in paper, the only cla.s.s picture of the time; nor did he take part in the Commencement exercises. His cla.s.smates understood that he intended to be a writer of romance, but none antic.i.p.ated his remarkable development and enduring fame. It seems strange that among his admirers no one has offered him a fitting tribute by founding the Hawthorne Professors.h.i.+p of English Literature in the college where, under the tutelage of the accomplished and appreciative Professor Newman, he was stimulated to cultivate his native gift."

DE PATRIS CONSCRIPTIS ROMANORUM.

Senatum Romanorum jam primum inst.i.tutum, simplicem siniul atquo praestantissimuni fuisse sentiant onmes. Imperium fint, quod populo aec avaritis nee luxuria vitiato optimum videretar. Lecti fuerunt senatores, non qui ambitiose potestatem eupiere, sesl qui senectute, qui sapientia, qui virtute bellica vel privata insigues, in republica plurimam pollebant. Hominum consiliis virtute tam singulari praeditorum paruit populus libenter atque senatores at patres civilius venerati. Studium illis paternum adhibuere. Nulla unquam respublica, quam turn Romana, nec sanctior nec beatior t'uit; iis temporibus etenim solum in public.u.m commodum principes administrabant; fidemque principibus populi habetant.

Sed virtute prisca reipublierc perdita, inimicitus mutuis patres plebesque flagrare coeperunt, alienaque prosequi. Senatus in populum tyrannice saeviit, atque hostem se monstravit potiue quam custodem reipubliere. Concitatur vulgus studio libertatis repetendre, alque per multa secula patrum plebisque contentiones historia Romana memorat; patribus pristinam auctoriratem servare conatis, liccentiaque plebis omnia jura spernante. Hoc modo usque ad Panieum bellum, res se habebant.

Tun pericula externa discordiam domesticam superabant, reipublicaeque studium priscam patribus sapientiam, priscam populis reverentiam redundit. Hae aetate omnibus virtutibus cnituit Roma. Senatus, jure omnium consensu facto, opes suas prope ad inopiam plebis aequavit; patriaeque solum amore gloria quaesita, pecunia niluii habita est. Sed quuam Carthaginem reformidavit non diutius Roma, rediit respublica ad vitia pristina. Patres luxuria solum populis praest.i.terunt, et vestigia eorum populi secuti sunt. Senatus auctoritatem, ex illo ipso tempore, annus unusquisque diminuit, donce in aerate Angasti interitus n.o.bilium humiliumque delectus omnino fere dignitatem conficerunt. Augustus equidem antiquam magnificentiam patribus reddidit, sed fulgor tantum liut sine fervore. Nunquam in republica senatoribus potestates recuperatae. Postremum species etiam amissa est.

HATHORNE.

THE ROMAN SENATE.

Every one perceives that the Roman Senate, as it was originally const.i.tuted, was a no less simple than ill.u.s.trious body. It was a sovereignty which appeared most desirable to a populace vitiated neither by avarice nor luxury. The senators were chosen, not from those who were ambitious of power, but those who wielded the largest influence in the Republic through wisdom and warlike valor or private virtue. The citizens bowed willingly to the counsels of men endowed with such singular worth, and venerated the senators as fathers. The latter exercised a paternal care. No republic ever was holier or more blessed than that of Rome at this time; for in those days the rulers administered for the public convenience alone, and the people had faith in their rulers. But, the pristine virtue of the Republic lost, the fathers and the commonalty began to blaze forth with mutual hostilities, and to seek after the possessions of others. The Senate vented its wrath savagely upon the people, and showed itself rather the enemy than the guardian of the Republic. The mult.i.tude was aroused by the desire of recovering liberty, and through a very long period Roman history recounts the contentions of the fathers and the commonalty; the fathers attempting to preserve their old authority, and the license of the commons scorning every law. Affairs remained in this condition until the Punic War. Then foreign perils prevailed over domestic discord, and love of the Republic restored to the fathers their early wisdom, to the people their reverence. At this period, Rome shone with every virtue.

The Senate, through the rightfully obtained consent of all parties, nearly equalized its power with the powerlessness of the commonalty; and glory being sought solely through love of the fatherland, wealth was regarded as of no account. But when Rome no longer dreaded Carthage, the commonwealth returned to its former vices. The fathers were superior to the populace only in luxury, and the populace followed in their footsteps. From that very time, every year diminished the authority of the Senate, until in the age of Augustus the death of the n.o.bles and the selection of insignificant men almost wholly destroyed its dignity.

Augustus, to be sure, restored to the fathers their ancient magnificence, but, great as was the fire (so to speak), it was without real heat. Never was the power of the senators recovered. At last even the appearance of it vanished.

III.

The lists of books referred to in Chapter IV. were recorded by different hands, or in different ways at various dates, so that they have not been made out quite satisfactorily. Some of the authors named below were taken out a great many times, but the number of the volume is given in only a few cases. It would seem, for example, that Voltaire's complete works were examined by Hawthorne, if we judge by his frequent application for some part of them, and the considerable number of volumes actually mentioned. In this and in other cases, the same volume is sometimes called for more than once. To make the matter clearer here, I have reduced the entries to a simple list of the authors read, without attempting to show how often a particular one was taken up. Few or none of them were read consecutively, and the magazines placed together at the end of my list were taken out at short intervals throughout the different years.

1830.

Oeuvres de Voltaire.

Memoire de Literature.

Liancourt.

Oeuvres de Rousseau.

Ma.s.s. Historical Collections.

Trial and Triumph of Faith.

Oeuvres de Pascal.

Varenius' Geography.

Mickle's Lucian.

Dictionnaire des Sciences.

Pamela. (Vols. I., II.) Life of Baxter.

Tournefort's Voyage.

Swift's Works.

Hitt on Fruit-Trees.

Bibliotheca Americana.

Ames's Antiquities.

Hamilton's Works.

Gifford's Juvenal.

Allen's Biographical Dictionary.

Fenelon.

Academie Royale des Inscriptions.

Mather's Apology.

Vertol's History of Sweden.

Taylor's Sermons.

Life of Luckington.

L'an 2440.

Montague's Letters.

English Botany. (3 vols.) Gay's Poems.

Inchbald's Theatre.

Sowerby's English Botany.

Crabbe's Borough.

Crabbe's Bibliographical Dictionary.

Collection of Voyages (Hakluyt's?).

Lives of the Admirals.

British Zoology.

1831

Los Eruditos.

Connoisseur.

Camilla.

Gifford's Persius.

Bartram's Travels.

Humphrey's Works.

Voltaire.

Pennant's British Zoology.

Mandeville's Travels.

Rehearsal Transposed.

Gay's Poems.

Pompey the Little.

Shaw's General Zoology.

Philip's Poems.

Sowerby's English Botany.

Racine.

Corneille.

Wilkinson's Memoirs and Atlas.

History of the Shakers.

The Confessional.

Calamy's Life of Baxter.

Academie Royale des Inscripts.

Essais de Montaigne. (Vols. I., II., III., IV.) Cadell's Journey through Italy and Carniola.

Cobbet's Rule in France.

Temple's Works. (Vols. I., II., III.) Asiatic Researches.

Cochran's Tour in Siberia.

Chardin's Travels.

Brandt's History of the Reformation.

Russell's Natural History.

Aleppo. (Vol. I.) Answer to the Fable of the Bees.

Hanway's Travels.

Memoirs of C. J. Fox.

Bayle's Critical Dictionary. (Vols. II., V., VI.) State Trials. (Vols. I., II., IV., V., VI.) Tales of a Traveller.

Dictionnaire des Sciences. (Vol. XVII.) Bacon's Works. (Vol. II.) Gordon's Tacitus.

Colquhoun on the Police.