The other day, having a leisure hour at my disposal, I stepped into a
new museum, to which my notice was casually drawn by a small and
unobtrusive sign: “TO BE SEEN HERE, A VIRTUOSO’S COLLECTION.” Such was
the simple yet not altogether unpromising announcement that turned my
steps aside for a little while from the sunny sidewalk of our principal
thoroughfare. Mounting a sombre staircase, I pushed open a door at its
summit, and found myself in the presence of a person, who mentioned the
moderate sum that would entitle me to admittance.
“Three shillings, Massachusetts tenor,” said he. “No, I mean half a
dollar, as you reckon in these days.”
While searching my pocket for the coin I glanced at the doorkeeper, the
marked character and individuality of whose aspect encouraged me to
expect something not quite in the ordinary way. He wore an
old-fashioned great-coat, much faded, within which his meagre person
was so completely enveloped that the rest of his attire was
undistinguishable. But his visage was remarkably wind-flushed,
sunburnt, and weather-worn, and had a most, unquiet, nervous, and
apprehensive expression. It seemed as if this man had some
all-important object in view, some point of deepest interest to be
decided, some momentous question to ask, might he but hope for a reply.
As it was evident, however, that I could have nothing to do with his
private affairs, I passed through an open doorway, which admitted me
into the extensive hall of the museum.
Directly in front of the portal was the bronze statue of a youth with
winged feet. He was represented in the act of flitting away from earth,
yet wore such a look of earnest invitation that it impressed me like a
summons to enter the hall.
“It is the original statue of Opportunity, by the ancient sculptor
Lysippus,” said a gentleman who now approached me. “I place it at the
entrance of my museum, because it is not at all times that one can gain
admittance to such a collection.”
The speaker was a middle-aged person, of whom it was not easy to
determine whether he had spent his life as a scholar or as a man of
action; in truth, all outward and obvious peculiarities had been worn
away by an extensive and promiscuous intercourse with the world. There
was no mark about him of profession, individual habits, or scarcely of
country; although his dark complexion and high features made me
conjecture that he was a native of some southern clime of Europe. At
all events, he was evidently the virtuoso in person.
“With your permission,” said he, “as we have no descriptive catalogue,
I will accompany you through the museum and point out whatever may be
most worthy of attention. In the first place, here is a choice
collection of stuffed animals.”
Nearest the door stood the outward semblance of a wolf, exquisitely
prepared, it is true, and showing a very wolfish fierceness in the
large glass eyes which were inserted into its wild and crafty head.
Still it was merely the skin of a wolf, with nothing to distinguish it
from other individuals of that unlovely breed.
“How does this animal deserve a place in your collection?” inquired I.
“It is the wolf that devoured Little Red Riding Hood,” answered the
virtuoso; “and by his side—with a milder and more matronly look, as you
perceive—stands the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus.”
“Ah, indeed!” exclaimed I. “And what lovely lamb is this with the
snow-white fleece, which seems to be of as delicate a texture as
innocence itself?”
“Methinks you have but carelessly read Spenser,” replied my guide, “or
you would at once recognize the ‘milk-white lamb’ which Una led. But I
set no great value upon the lamb. The next specimen is better worth our
notice.”
“What!” cried I, “this strange animal, with the black head of an ox
upon the body of a white horse? Were it possible to suppose it, I
should say that this was Alexander’s steed Bucephalus.”
“The same,” said the virtuoso. “And can you likewise give a name to the
famous charger that stands beside him?”
Next to the renowned Bucephalus stood the mere skeleton of a horse,
with the white bones peeping through his ill-conditioned hide; but, if
my heart had not warmed towards that pitiful anatomy, I might as well
have quitted the museum at once. Its rarities had not been collected
with pain and toil from the four quarters of the earth, and from the
depths of the sea, and from the palaces and sepulchres of ages, for
those who could mistake this illustrious steed.
“It, is Rosinante!” exclaimed I, with enthusiasm.
And so it proved. My admiration for the noble and gallant horse caused
me to glance with less interest at the other animals, although many of
them might have deserved the notice of Cuvier himself. There was the
donkey which Peter Bell cudgelled so soundly, and a brother of the same
species who had suffered a similar infliction from the ancient prophet
Balaam. Some doubts were entertained, however, as to the authenticity
of the latter beast. My guide pointed out the venerable Argus, that
faithful dog of Ulysses, and also another dog (for so the skin bespoke
it), which, though imperfectly preserved, seemed once to have had three
heads. It was Cerberus. I was considerably amused at detecting in an
obscure corner the fox that became so famous by the loss of his tail.
There were several stuffed cats, which, as a dear lover of that
comfortable beast, attracted my affectionate regards. One was Dr.
Johnson’s cat Hodge; and in the same row stood the favorite cats of
Mahomet, Gray, and Walter Scott, together with Puss in Boots, and a cat
of very noble aspect—who had once been a deity of ancient Egypt.
Byron’s tame bear came next. I must not forget to mention the
Eryruanthean boar, the skin of St. George’s dragon, and that of the
serpent Python; and another skin with beautifully variegated hues,
supposed to have been the garment of the “spirited sly snake,” which
tempted Eve. Against the walls were suspended the horns of the stag
that Shakespeare shot; and on the floor lay the ponderous shell of the
tortoise which fell upon the head of Aeschylus. In one row, as natural
as life, stood the sacred bull Apis, the “cow with the crumpled horn,”
and a very wild-looking young heifer, which I guessed to be the cow
that jumped over the moon. She was probably killed by the rapidity of
her descent. As I turned away, my eyes fell upon an indescribable
monster, which proved to be a griffin.
“I look in vain,” observed I, “for the skin of an animal which might
well deserve the closest study of a naturalist,—the winged horse,
Pegasus.”
“He is not yet dead,” replied the virtuoso; “but he is so hard ridden
by many young gentlemen of the day that I hope soon to add his skin and
skeleton to my collection.”
We now passed to the next alcove of the hall, in which was a multitude
of stuffed birds. They were very prettily arranged, some upon the
branches of trees, others brooding upon nests, and others suspended by
wires so artificially that they seemed in the very act of flight. Among
them was a white dove, with a withered branch of olive-leaves in her
mouth.
“Can this be the very dove,” inquired I, “that brought the message of
peace and hope to the tempest-beaten passengers of the ark?”
“Even so,” said my companion.
“And this raven, I suppose,” continued I, “is the same that fed Elijah
in the wilderness.”
“The raven? No,” said the virtuoso; “it is a bird of modern date. He
belonged to one Barnaby Rudge, and many people fancied that the Devil
himself was disguised under his sable plumage. But poor Grip has drawn
his last cork, and has been forced to ‘say die’ at last. This other
raven, hardly less curious, is that in which the soul of King George I.
revisited his lady-love, the Duchess of Kendall.”
My guide next pointed out Minerva’s owl and the vulture that preyed
upon the liver of Prometheus. There was likewise the sacred ibis of
Egypt, and one of the Stymphalides which Hercules shot in his sixth
labor. Shelley’s skylark, Bryant’s water-fowl, and a pigeon from the
belfry of the Old South Church, preserved by N. P. Willis, were placed
on the same perch. I could not but shudder on beholding Coleridge’s
albatross, transfixed with the Ancient Mariner’s crossbow shaft. Beside
this bird of awful poesy stood a gray goose of very ordinary aspect.
“Stuffed goose is no such rarity,” observed I. “Why do you preserve
such a specimen in your museum?”
“It is one of the flock whose cackling saved the Roman Capitol,”
answered the virtuoso. “Many geese have cackled and hissed both before
and since; but none, like those, have clamored themselves into
immortality.”
There seemed to be little else that demanded notice in this department
of the museum, unless we except Robinson Crusoe’s parrot, a live
phoenix, a footless bird of paradise, and a splendid peacock, supposed
to be the same that once contained the soul of Pythagoras. I therefore
passed to the next alcove, the shelves of which were covered with a
miscellaneous collection of curiosities such as are usually found in
similar establishments. One of the first things that took my eye was a
strange-looking cap, woven of some substance that appeared to be
neither woollen, cotton, nor linen.
“Is this a magician’s cap?” I asked.
“No,” replied the virtuoso; “it is merely Dr. Franklin’s cap of
asbestos. But here is one which, perhaps, may suit you better. It is
the wishing-cap of Fortunatus. Will you try it on?”
“By no means,” answered I, putting it aside with my hand. “The day of
wild wishes is past with me. I desire nothing that may not come in the
ordinary course of Providence.”
“Then probably,” returned the virtuoso, “you will not be tempted to rub
this lamp?”
While speaking, he took from the shelf an antique brass lamp, curiously
wrought with embossed figures, but so covered with verdigris that the
sculpture was almost eaten away.
“It is a thousand years,” said he, “since the genius of this lamp
constructed Aladdin’s palace in a single night. But he still retains
his power; and the man who rubs Aladdin’s lamp has but to desire either
a palace or a cottage.”
“I might desire a cottage,” replied I; “but I would have it founded on
sure and stable truth, not on dreams and fantasies. I have learned to
look for the real and the true.”
My guide next showed me Prospero’s magic wand, broken into three
fragments by the hand of its mighty master. On the same shelf lay the
gold ring of ancient Gyges, which enabled the wearer to walk invisible.
On the other side of the alcove was a tall looking-glass in a frame of
ebony, but veiled with a curtain of purple silk, through the rents of
which the gleam of the mirror was perceptible.
“This is Cornelius Agrippa’s magic glass,” observed the virtuoso. “Draw
aside the curtain, and picture any human form within your mind, and it
will be reflected in the mirror.”
“It is enough if I can picture it within my mind,” answered I. “Why
should I wish it to be repeated in the mirror? But, indeed, these works
of magic have grown wearisome to me. There are so many greater wonders
in the world, to those who keep their eyes open and their sight
undimmed by custom, that all the delusions of the old sorcerers seem
flat and stale. Unless you can show me something really curious, I care
not to look further into your museum.”
“Ah, well, then,” said the virtuoso, composedly, “perhaps you may deem
some of my antiquarian rarities deserving of a glance.”
He pointed out the iron mask, now corroded with rust; and my heart grew
sick at the sight of this dreadful relic, which had shut out a human
being from sympathy with his race. There was nothing half so terrible
in the axe that beheaded King Charles, nor in the dagger that slew
Henry of Navarre, nor in the arrow that pierced the heart of William
Rufus,—all of which were shown to me. Many of the articles derived
their interest, such as it was, from having been formerly in the
possession of royalty. For instance, here was Charlemagne’s sheepskin
cloak, the flowing wig of Louis Quatorze, the spinning-wheel of
Sardanapalus, and King Stephen’s famous breeches which cost him but a
crown. The heart of the Bloody Mary, with the word “Calais” worn into
its diseased substance, was preserved in a bottle of spirits; and near
it lay the golden case in which the queen of Gustavus Adolphus
treasured up that hero’s heart. Among these relics and heirlooms of
kings I must not forget the long, hairy ears of Midas, and a piece of
bread which had been changed to gold by the touch of that unlucky
monarch. And as Grecian Helen was a queen, it may here be mentioned
that I was permitted to take into my hand a lock of her golden hair and
the bowl which a sculptor modelled from the curve of her perfect
breast. Here, likewise, was the robe that smothered Agamemnon, Nero’s
fiddle, the Czar Peter’s brandy-bottle, the crown of Semiramis, and
Canute’s sceptre which he extended over the sea. That my own land may
not deem itself neglected, let me add that I was favored with a sight
of the skull of King Philip, the famous Indian chief, whose head the
Puritans smote off and exhibited upon a pole.
“Show me something else,” said I to the virtuoso. “Kings are in such an
artificial position that people in the ordinary walks of life cannot
feel an interest in their relics. If you could show me the straw hat of
sweet little Nell, I would far rather see it than a king’s golden
crown.”
“There it is,” said my guide, pointing carelessly with his staff to the
straw hat in question. “But, indeed, you are hard to please. Here are
the seven-league boots. Will you try them on?”
“Our modern railroads have superseded their use,” answered I; “and as
to these cowhide boots, I could show you quite as curious a pair at the
Transcendental community in Roxbury.”
We next examined a collection of swords and other weapons, belonging to
different epochs, but thrown together without much attempt at
arrangement. Here Was Arthur’s sword Excalibar, and that of the Cid
Campeader, and the sword of Brutus rusted with Caesar’s blood and his
own, and the sword of Joan of Arc, and that of Horatius, and that with
which Virginius slew his daughter, and the one which Dionysius
suspended over the head of Damocles. Here also was Arria’s sword, which
she plunged into her own breast, in order to taste of death before her
husband. The crooked blade of Saladin’s cimeter next attracted my
notice. I know not by what chance, but so it happened, that the sword
of one of our own militia generals was suspended between Don Quixote’s
lance and the brown blade of Hudibras. My heart throbbed high at the
sight of the helmet of Miltiades and the spear that was broken in the
breast of Epaminondas. I recognized the shield of Achilles by its
resemblance to the admirable cast in the possession of Professor
Felton. Nothing in this apartment interested me more than Major
Pitcairn’s pistol, the discharge of which, at Lexington, began the war
of the Revolution, and was reverberated in thunder around the land for
seven long years. The bow of Ulysses, though unstrung for ages, was
placed against the wall, together with a sheaf of Robin Hood’s arrows
and the rifle of Daniel Boone.
“Enough of weapons,” said I, at length; “although I would gladly have
seen the sacred shield which fell from heaven in the time of Numa. And
surely you should obtain the sword which Washington unsheathed at
Cambridge. But the collection does you much credit. Let us pass on.”
In the next alcove we saw the golden thigh of Pythagoras, which had so
divine a meaning; and, by one of the queer analogies to which the
virtuoso seemed to be addicted, this ancient emblem lay on the same
shelf with Peter Stuyvesant’s wooden leg, that was fabled to be of
silver. Here was a remnant of the Golden Fleece, and a sprig of yellow
leaves that resembled the foliage of a frost-bitten elm, but was duly
authenticated as a portion of the golden branch by which AEneas gained
admittance to the realm of Pluto. Atalanta’s golden apple and one of
the apples of discord were wrapped in the napkin of gold which
Rampsinitus brought from Hades; and the whole were deposited in the
golden vase of Bias, with its inscription: “TO THE WISEST.”
“And how did you obtain this vase?” said I to the virtuoso.
“It was given me long ago,” replied he, with a scornful expression in
his eye, “because I had learned to despise all things.”
It had not escaped me that, though the virtuoso was evidently a man of
high cultivation, yet he seemed to lack sympathy with the spiritual,
the sublime, and the tender. Apart from the whim that had led him to
devote so much time, pains, and expense to the collection of this
museum, he impressed me as one of the hardest and coldest men of the
world whom I had ever met.
“To despise all things!” repeated I. “This, at best, is the wisdom of
the understanding. It is the creed of a man whose soul, whose better
and diviner part, has never been awakened, or has died out of him.”
“I did not think that you were still so young,” said the virtuoso.
“Should you live to my years, you will acknowledge that the vase of
Bias was not ill bestowed.”
Without further discussion of the point, he directed my attention to
other curiosities. I examined Cinderella’s little glass slipper, and
compared it with one of Diana’s sandals, and with Fanny Elssler’s shoe,
which bore testimony to the muscular character of her illustrious foot.
On the same shelf were Thomas the Rhymer’s green velvet shoes, and the
brazen shoe of Empedocles which was thrown out of Mount AEtna.
Anacreon’s drinking-cup was placed in apt juxtaposition with one of Tom
Moore’s wine-glasses and Circe’s magic bowl. These were symbols of
luxury and riot; but near them stood the cup whence Socrates drank his
hemlock, and that which Sir Philip Sidney put from his death-parched
lips to bestow the draught upon a dying soldier. Next appeared a
cluster of tobacco-pipes, consisting of Sir Walter Raleigh’s, the
earliest on record, Dr. Parr’s, Charles Lamb’s, and the first calumet
of peace which was ever smoked between a European and an Indian. Among
other musical instruments, I noticed the lyre of Orpheus and those of
Homer and Sappho, Dr. Franklin’s famous whistle, the trumpet of Anthony
Van Corlear, and the flute which Goldsmith played upon in his rambles
through the French provinces. The staff of Peter the Hermit stood in a
corner with that of good old Bishop Jewel, and one of ivory, which had
belonged to Papirius, the Roman senator. The ponderous club of Hercules
was close at hand. The virtuoso showed me the chisel of Phidias,
Claude’s palette, and the brush of Apelles, observing that he intended
to bestow the former either on Greenough, Crawford, or Powers, and the
two latter upon Washington Allston. There was a small vase of oracular
gas from Delphos, which I trust will be submitted to the scientific
analysis of Professor Silliman. I was deeply moved on beholding a vial
of the tears into which Niobe was dissolved; nor less so on learning
that a shapeless fragment of salt was a relic of that victim of
despondency and sinful regrets,—Lot’s wife. My companion appeared to
set great value upon some Egyptian darkness in a blacking-jug. Several
of the shelves were covered by a collection of coins, among which,
however, I remember none but the Splendid Shilling, celebrated by
Phillips, and a dollar’s worth of the iron money of Lycurgus, weighing
about fifty pounds.
Walking carelessly onward, I had nearly fallen over a huge bundle, like
a peddler’s pack, done up in sackcloth, and very securely strapped and
corded.
“It is Christian’s burden of sin,” said the virtuoso.
“O, pray let us open it!” cried I. “For many a year I have longed to
know its contents.”
“Look into your own consciousness and memory,” replied the virtuoso.
“You will there find a list of whatever it contains.”
As this was all undeniable truth, I threw a melancholy look at the
burden and passed on. A collection of old garments, banging on pegs,
was worthy of some attention, especially the shirt of Nessus, Caesar’s
mantle, Joseph’s coat of many colors, the Vicar of Bray’s cassock,
Goldsmith’s peach-bloom suit, a pair of President Jefferson’s scarlet
breeches, John Randolph’s red baize hunting-shirt, the drab
small-clothes of the Stout Gentleman, and the rags of the “man all
tattered and torn.” George Fox’s hat impressed me with deep reverence
as a relic of perhaps the truest apostle that has appeared on earth for
these eighteen hundred years. My eye was next attracted by an old pair
of shears, which I should have taken for a memorial of some famous
tailor, only that the virtuoso pledged his veracity that they were the
identical scissors of Atropos. He also showed me a broken hourglass
which had been thrown aside by Father Time, together with the old
gentleman’s gray forelock, tastefully braided into a brooch. In the
hour-glass was the handful of sand, the grains of which had numbered
the years of the Cumeean sibyl. I think it was in this alcove that I
saw the inkstand which Luther threw at the Devil, and the ring which
Essex, while under sentence of death, sent to Queen Elizabeth. And here
was the blood-incrusted pen of steel with which Faust signed away his
salvation.
The virtuoso now opened the door of a closet and showed me a lamp
burning, while three others stood unlighted by its side. One of the
three was the lamp of Diogenes, another that of Guy Fawkes, and the
third that which Hero set forth to the midnight breeze in the high
tower of Ahydos.
“See!” said the virtuoso, blowing with all his force at the lighted
lamp.
The flame quivered and shrank away from his breath, but clung to the
wick, and resumed its brilliancy as soon as the blast was exhausted.
“It is an undying lamp from the tomb of Charlemagne,” observed my
guide. “That flame was kindled a thousand years ago.”
“How ridiculous to kindle an unnatural light in tombs!” exclaimed I.
“We should seek to behold the dead in the light of heaven. But what is
the meaning of this chafing-dish of glowing coals?”
“That,” answered the virtuoso, “is the original fire which Prometheus
stole from heaven. Look steadfastly into it, and you will discern
another curiosity.”
I gazed into that fire,—which, symbolically, was the origin of all that
was bright and glorious in the soul of man,—and in the midst of it,
behold a little reptile, sporting with evident enjoyment of the fervid
heat! It was a salamander.
“What a sacrilege!” cried I, with inexpressible disgust. “Can you find
no better use for this ethereal fire than to cherish a loathsome
reptile in it? Yet there are men who abuse the sacred fire of their own
souls to as foul and guilty a purpose.”
The virtuoso made no answer except by a dry laugh and an assurance that
the salamander was the very same which Benvenuto Cellini had seen in
his father’s household fire. He then proceeded to show me other
rarities; for this closet appeared to be the receptacle of what he
considered most valuable in his collection.
“There,” said he, “is the Great Carbuncle of the White Mountains.”
I gazed with no little interest at this mighty gem, which it had been
one of the wild projects of my youth to discover. Possibly it might
have looked brighter to me in those days than now; at all events, it
had not such brilliancy as to detain me long from the other articles of
the museum. The virtuoso pointed out to me a crystalline stone which
hung by a gold chain against the wall.
“That is the philosopher’s stone,” said he.
“And have you the elixir vita which generally accompanies it?” inquired
I.
“Even so; this urn is filled with it,” he replied. “A draught would
refresh you. Here is Hebe’s cup; will you quaff a health from it?”
My heart thrilled within me at the idea of such a reviving draught; for
methought I had great need of it after travelling so far on the dusty
road of life. But I know not whether it were a peculiar glance in the
virtuoso’s eye, or the circumstance that this most precious liquid was
contained in an antique sepulchral urn, that made me pause. Then came
many a thought with which, in the calmer and better hours of life, I
had strengthened myself to feel that Death is the very friend whom, in
his due season, even the happiest mortal should be willing to embrace.
“No; I desire not an earthly immortality,” said I.
“Were man to live longer on the earth, the spiritual would die out of
him. The spark of ethereal fire would be choked by the material, the
sensual. There is a celestial something within us that requires, after
a certain time, the atmosphere of heaven to preserve it from decay and
ruin. I will have none of this liquid. You do well to keep it in a
sepulchral urn; for it would produce death while bestowing the shadow
of life.”
“All this is unintelligible to me,” responded my guide, with
indifference. “Life—earthly life—is the only good. But you refuse the
draught? Well, it is not likely to be offered twice within one man’s
experience. Probably you have griefs which you seek to forget in death.
I can enable you to forget them in life. Will you take a draught of
Lethe?”
As he spoke, the virtuoso took from the shelf a crystal vase containing
a sable liquor, which caught no reflected image from the objects
around.
“Not for the world!” exclaimed I, shrinking back. “I can spare none of
my recollections, not even those of error or sorrow. They are all alike
the food of my spirit. As well never to have lived as to lose them
now.”
Without further parley we passed to the next alcove, the shelves of
which were burdened with ancient volumes and with those rolls of
papyrus in which was treasured up the eldest wisdom of the earth.
Perhaps the most valuable work in the collection, to a bibliomaniac,
was the Book of Hermes. For my part, however, I would have given a
higher price for those six of the Sibyl’s books which Tarquin refused
to purchase, and which the virtuoso informed me he had himself found in
the cave of Trophonius. Doubtless these old volumes contain prophecies
of the fate of Rome, both as respects the decline and fall of her
temporal empire and the rise of her spiritual one. Not without value,
likewise, was the work of Anaxagoras on Nature, hitherto supposed to be
irrecoverably lost, and the missing treatises of Longinus, by which
modern criticism might profit, and those books of Livy for which the
classic student has so long sorrowed without hope. Among these precious
tomes I observed the original manuscript of the Koran, and also that of
the Mormon Bible in Joe Smith’s authentic autograph. Alexander’s copy
of the Iliad was also there, enclosed in the jewelled casket of Darius,
still fragrant of the perfumes which the Persian kept in it.
Opening an iron-clasped volume, bound in black leather, I discovered it
to be Cornelius Agrippa’s book of magic; and it was rendered still more
interesting by the fact that many flowers, ancient and modern, were
pressed between its leaves. Here was a rose from Eve’s bridal bower,
and all those red and white roses which were plucked in the garden of
the Temple by the partisans of York and Lancaster. Here was Halleck’s
Wild Rose of Alloway. Cowper had contributed a Sensitive Plant, and
Wordsworth an Eglantine, and Burns a Mountain Daisy, and Kirke White a
Star of Bethlehem, and Longfellow a Sprig of Fennel, with its yellow
flowers. James Russell Lowell had given a Pressed Flower, but fragrant
still, which had been shadowed in the Rhine. There was also a sprig
from Southey’s Holly Tree. One of the most beautiful specimens was a
Fringed Gentian, which had been plucked and preserved for immortality
by Bryant. From Jones Very, a poet whose voice is scarcely heard among
us by reason of its depth, there was a Wind Flower and a Columbine.
As I closed Cornelius Agrippa’s magic volume, an old, mildewed letter
fell upon the floor. It proved to be an autograph from the Flying
Dutchman to his wife. I could linger no longer among books; for the
afternoon was waning, and there was yet much to see. The bare mention
of a few more curiosities must suffice. The immense skull of Polyphemus
was recognizable by the cavernous hollow in the centre of the forehead
where once had blazed the giant’s single eye. The tub of Diogenes,
Medea’s caldron, and Psyche’s vase of beauty were placed one within
another. Pandora’s box, without the lid, stood next, containing nothing
but the girdle of Venus, which had been carelessly flung into it. A
bundle of birch-rods which had been used by Shenstone’s schoolmistress
were tied up with the Countess of Salisbury’s garter. I know not which
to value most, a roc’s egg as big as an ordinary hogshead, or the shell
of the egg which Columbus set upon its end. Perhaps the most delicate
article in the whole museum was Queen Mab’s chariot, which, to guard it
from the touch of meddlesome fingers, was placed under a glass tumbler.
Several of the shelves were occupied by specimens of entomology.
Feeling but little interest in the science, I noticed only Anacreon’s
grasshopper, and a bumblebee which had been presented to the virtuoso
by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In the part of the hall which we had now reached I observed a curtain,
that descended from the ceiling to the floor in voluminous folds, of a
depth, richness, and magnificence which I had never seen equalled. It
was not to be doubted that this splendid though dark and solemn veil
concealed a portion of the museum even richer in wonders than that
through which I had already passed; but, on my attempting to grasp the
edge of the curtain and draw it aside, it proved to be an illusive
picture.
“You need not blush,” remarked the virtuoso; “for that same curtain
deceived Zeuxis. It is the celebrated painting of Parrhasius.”
In a range with the curtain there were a number of other choice
pictures by artists of ancient days. Here was the famous cluster of
grapes by Zeuxis, so admirably depicted that it seemed as if the ripe
juice were bursting forth. As to the picture of the old woman by the
same illustrious painter, and which was so ludicrous that he himself
died with laughing at it, I cannot say that it particularly moved my
risibility. Ancient humor seems to have little power over modern
muscles. Here, also, was the horse painted by Apelles which living
horses neighed at; his first portrait of Alexander the Great, and his
last unfinished picture of Venus asleep. Each of these works of art,
together with others by Parrhasius, Timanthes, Polygnotus, Apollodorus,
Pausias, and Pamplulus, required more time and study than I could
bestow for the adequate perception of their merits. I shall therefore
leave them undescribed and uncriticised, nor attempt to settle the
question of superiority between ancient and modern art.
For the same reason I shall pass lightly over the specimens of antique
sculpture which this indefatigable and fortunate virtuoso had dug out
of the dust of fallen empires. Here was AEtion’s cedar statue of
AEsculapius, much decayed, and Alcon’s iron statue of Hercules,
lamentably rusted. Here was the statue of Victory, six feet high, which
the Jupiter Olympus of Phidias had held in his hand. Here was a
forefinger of the Colossus of Rhodes, seven feet in length. Here was
the Venus Urania of Phidias, and other images of male and female beauty
or grandeur, wrought by sculptors who appeared never to have debased
their souls by the sight of any meaner forms than those of gods or
godlike mortals. But the deep simplicity of these great works was not
to be comprehended by a mind excited and disturbed, as mine was, by the
various objects that had recently been presented to it. I therefore
turned away with merely a passing glance, resolving on some future
occasion to brood over each individual statue and picture until my
inmost spirit should feel their excellence. In this department, again,
I noticed the tendency to whimsical combinations and ludicrous
analogies which seemed to influence many of the arrangements of the
museum. The wooden statue so well known as the Palladium of Troy was
placed in close apposition with the wooden head of General Jackson,
which was stolen a few years since from the bows of the frigate
Constitution.
We had now completed the circuit of the spacious hall, and found
ourselves again near the door. Feeling somewhat wearied with the survey
of so many novelties and antiquities, I sat down upon Cowper’s sofa,
while the virtuoso threw himself carelessly into Rabelais’s easychair.
Casting my eyes upon the opposite wall, I was surprised to perceive the
shadow of a man flickering unsteadily across the wainscot, and looking
as if it were stirred by some breath of air that found its way through
the door or windows. No substantial figure was visible from which this
shadow might be thrown; nor, had there been such, was there any
sunshine that would have caused it to darken upon the wall.
“It is Peter Schlemihl’s shadow,” observed the virtuoso, “and one of
the most valuable articles in my collection.”
“Methinks a shadow would have made a fitting doorkeeper to such a
museum,” said I; “although, indeed, yonder figure has something strange
and fantastic about him, which suits well enough with many of the
impressions which I have received here. Pray, who is he?”
While speaking, I gazed more scrutinizingly than before at the
antiquated presence of the person who had admitted me, and who still
sat on his bench with the same restless aspect, and dim, confused,
questioning anxiety that I had noticed on my first entrance. At this
moment he looked eagerly towards us, and, half starting from his seat,
addressed me.
“I beseech you, kind sir,” said he, in a cracked, melancholy tone,
“have pity on the most unfortunate man in the world. For Heaven’s sake,
answer me a single question! Is this the town of Boston?”
“You have recognized him now,” said the virtuoso. “It is Peter Rugg,
the missing man. I chanced to meet him the other day still in search of
Boston, and conducted him hither; and, as he could not succeed in
finding his friends, I have taken him into my service as doorkeeper. He
is somewhat too apt to ramble, but otherwise a man of trust and
integrity.”
“And might I venture to ask,” continued I, “to whom am I indebted for
this afternoon’s gratification?”
The virtuoso, before replying, laid his hand upon an antique dart, or
javelin, the rusty steel head of winch seemed to have been blunted, as
if it had encountered the resistance of a tempered shield, or
breastplate.
“My name has not been without its distinction in the world for a longer
period than that of any other man alive,” answered he. “Yet many doubt
of my existence; perhaps you will do so to-morrow. This dart which I
hold in my hand was once grim Death’s own weapon. It served him well
for the space of four thousand years; but it fell blunted, as you see,
when he directed it against my breast.”
These words were spoken with the calm and cold courtesy of manner that
had characterized this singular personage throughout our interview. I
fancied, it is true, that there was a bitterness indefinably mingled
with his tone, as of one cut off from natural sympathies and blasted
with a doom that had been inflicted on no other human being, and by the
results of which he had ceased to be human. Yet, withal, it seemed one
of the most terrible consequences of that doom that the victim no
longer regarded it as a calamity, but had finally accepted it as the
greatest good that could have befallen him.
“You are the Wandering Jew!” exclaimed I.
The virtuoso bowed without emotion of any kind; for, by centuries of
custom, he had almost lost the sense of strangeness in his fate, and
was but imperfectly conscious of the astonishment and awe with which it
affected such as are capable of death.
“Your doom is indeed a fearful one!” said I, with irrepressible feeling
and a frankness that afterwards startled me; “yet perhaps the ethereal
spirit is not entirely extinct under all this corrupted or frozen mass
of earthly life. Perhaps the immortal spark may yet be rekindled by a
breath of heaven. Perhaps you may yet be permitted to die before it is
too late to live eternally. You have my prayers for such a
consummation. Farewell.”
“Your prayers will be in vain,” replied he, with a smile of cold
triumph. “My destiny is linked with the realities of earth. You are
welcome to your visions and shadows of a future state; but give me what
I can see, and touch, and understand, and I ask no more.”
“It is indeed too late,” thought I. “The soul is dead within him.”
Struggling between pity and horror, I extended my hand, to which the
virtuoso gave his own, still with the habitual courtesy of a man of the
world, but without a single heart-throb of human brotherhood. The touch
seemed like ice, yet I know not whether morally or physically. As I
departed, he bade me observe that the inner door of the hall was
constructed with the ivory leaves of the gateway through which Aeneas
and the Sibyl had been dismissed from Hades.