Bolster's Mills, in Maine, who had also known Hawthorne as a boy; some
poetry on the Tarbox tragedy was also found, and printed, which
afterward proved to have been written by another person; and one or two
other letters were published, not especially relevant to Hawthorne, but
concerning the Tarbox affair. After this, "W. S." wrote again from
Alexandria (November 23, 1870), revealing the fact that he had come into
possession, several years before, of the manuscript book from which he
afterward sent extracts. The book, he explained, was found by a man
named Small, who had assisted in moving a lot of furniture, among it a
"large mahogany bookcase" full of old books, from the old Manning House.
This was several years before the civil war, and "W. S." met Small in
the army, in Virginia. He reported that the book--"originally a bound
blank one not ruled," and "gnawed by mice or eaten by moths on the
edges"--contained about two hundred and fifty pages, and was written
throughout, "the first part in a boyish hand though legibly, and showing
in its progress a marked improvement in penmanship." The passages
reprinted in the present volume were sent by him, over the signature "W.
Sims," to the "Transcript," and published at different dates (February
11, 1871; April 22, 1871). Their appearance called out various
communications, all tending to establish their genuineness; but, beyond
the identification of localities and persons, and the approximate
establishing of dates, no decisive proof was forthcoming. Sims himself,
however, was recalled by former residents near Raymond; and there seemed
at least much inferential proof in favor of the notes. A long silence
ensued upon the printing of the second portion; and at the end of 1871
it was made known that Sims had died at Pensacola, Florida. The third
and last supposed extract from Hawthorne's note-book was sent from
Virginia again, in 1873 (published June 21 of that year), by a person
professing to have charge of Sims's papers. This person was written to
by the editors of the "Transcript," but no reply has ever been received.
A relative of Hawthorne in Salem also wrote to the Pensacola journal in
which Sims's death was announced, making inquiry as to its knowledge of
him and as to the source of the mortuary notice. No reply was ever
received from this quarter, either. Sims, it is said, had been in the
secret service under Colonel Baker, of dreaded fame in war-days; and it
may be that, having enemies, he feared the notoriety to which his
contributions to journalism might expose him, and decided to die,--at
least so far as printer's ink could kill him. All these circumstances
are unfortunate, because they make the solution of doubts concerning the
early notes quite impossible, for the present.
The fabrication of the journal by a person possessed of some literary
skill and familiar with the localities mentioned, at dates so long ago
as 1816 to 1819, might not be an impossible feat, but it is an extremely
improbable one. It is not likely that an ordinary impostor would hit
upon the sort of incident selected for mention in these extracts. Even
if he drew upon circumstances of his own boyhood, transferring them to
Hawthorne's, he must possess a singularly clear memory, to recall
matters of this sort; and to invent them would require a nice
imaginative faculty. One of the first passages, touching the "son of old
Mrs. Shane" and the "son of the Widow Hawthorne," is of a sort to
entirely evade the mind of an impostor. The whole method of observation,
too, seems very characteristic. If the portion descriptive of a raft and
of the manners of the lumbermen be compared with certain memoranda in
the "American Note-Books" (July 13 and 15, 1837), derived from somewhat
similar scenes, a general resemblance in the way of seizing
characteristics will be observed. Of course, if the early notes are
fabrications, it may be that the author of them drew carefully after
passages of the maturer journal, and this among others. But the
resemblance is crossed by a greater youthfulness in the early notes, it
seems to me, which it would be hard to produce artificially. The cool
and collected style of the early journal is not improbable in a boy like
Hawthorne, who had read many books and lived much in the companionship
of older persons. Indeed, it is very much like the style of "The
Spectator" of 1820. A noticeable coincidence is, that the pedler,
Dominicus Jordan, should be mentioned in both the journal and "The
Spectator." The circumstance that the dates should all have been said to
be missing from the manuscript book is suspicious. Yet the last extract
has the month and year appended, August, 1819. What is more important
is, that the date of the initial inscription is given as 1816; and at
the time when this was announced it had not been ascertained even by
Hawthorne's own family and relatives that he had been at Raymond so
early. But since the publications in the "Transcript," some letters have
come to light of which I have made use; and one of these, bearing date
July 21, 1818, to which I have alluded in another connection, speaks of
Raymond from actual recollection. "Does the Pond look the same as when I
was there? It is almost as pleasant at Nahant as at Raymond. I thought
there was no place that I should say so much of." The furnisher of the
notes, if he was disingenuous, might indeed have remembered that
Hawthorne was in Maine about 1816; he may also have relied on a
statement in the "Transcript's" editorial, to the effect that Hawthorne
was taken to Raymond in 1814. In that editorial, it is also observed:
"Hawthorne was then a lad of ten years." I have already said that Sims
refers to the period of the verses on the Tarboxes as being a time when
he and Hawthorne were "not more than ten years old." This, at first,
would seem to suggest that he was relying still further upon the
editorial. But if he had been taking the editorial statement as a basis
for fabrication, it is not likely that he would have failed to ascertain
exactly the date of the freezing of Mr. and Mrs. Tarbox, which was 1819.
The careless way in which he alludes to this may have been the
inadvertence of an impostor trying to make his account agree with one
already published; but it is more likely that the sender of the notes
did not remember the precise year in which the accident occurred, and
was confused by the statement of the "Transcript." An impostor must have
taken more pains, one would think. It must also be noticed that "the
Widow _Haw_thorne" is spoken of in the notes. Sims, however, in his
preliminary letter, refers to the fact that "the universal pronunciation
of the name in Raymond was Hathorn,--the first syllable exactly as the
word 'hearth' was pronounced at that time"; and the explanation of the
spelling in the notes doubtless is that Sims, or whoever transcribed the
passage, changed it as being out of keeping with the now historic form
of the name. It is possible that further changes were also made by the
transcriber; and a theory which has some color is, that the object in
keeping the original manuscript out of the way may have been, to make it
available for expansions and embellishments, using the actual record as
a nucleus.
II.
The theme referred to in Chapter III. is given in full below. After the
earlier portion of the present essay had been stereotyped, an article by
Professor G. T. Packard, on Bowdoin College, was published in
"Scribner's Monthly," which contains this mention of Hawthorne:--
"The author's college life was prophetic of the after years, when he so
dwelt apart from the mass 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 class could equal.... When the class was
graduated, Hawthorne could not be persuaded to join them in having their
profiles cut in paper, the only class picture of the time; nor did he
take part in the Commencement exercises. His classmates understood that
he intended to be a writer of romance, but none anticipated 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 Professorship 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 institutum, 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 publicum
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 praestiterunt, et vestigia
eorum populi secuti sunt. Senatus auctoritatem, ex illo ipso tempore,
annus unusquisque diminuit, donce in aerate Angasti interitus nobilium
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
constituted, was a no less simple than illustrious 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 multitude 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 nobles 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.
Mémoire de Litérature.
Liancourt.
Oeuvres de Rousseau.
Mass. 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.
Fénélon.
Académie 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 Zoölogy.
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.
Académie 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.
Cheyne on Health.
Pope's Homer. (Vol I.)
Letters: De Maintenon. (Vol. IX.)
Reichard's Germany.
Oeuvres de Rousseau.
Notes on the West Indies by Prichard.
Crishull's Travels in Turkey.
1832-33.
Clarendon's Tracts.
History of England.
Prose Works of Walter Scott. (Vols. III., V., VI.)
Feltham's Resolves.
Roscoe's Sovereigns.
Histoire de l'Académie.
South America.
Savages of New Zealand.
Stackhouse's History of the Bible.
Dryden's Poems.
Tucker's Light of Nature.
History of South Carolina.
Poinsett's Notes on Mexico.
Brace's Travels.
Browne's Jamaica.
Collins's New South Wales.
Broughton's Dictionary.
Seminole War.
Shaw's Zoology.
Reverie.
Gifford's Pitt.
Curiosities of Literature.
Massinger.
Literary Recollections.
Coleridge's Aids to Reflection.
Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats.
Paris and Fonblanque.
Elia.
Gardens and Menagerie.
Medical Jurisprudence.
History of Paris.
Scott's Prose Works.
Kittell's Specimens American Poetry.
Lister's Journey.
Annals of Salem.
Library of Old English Prose Writers.
Memoirs of Canning.
Miscellaneous Works of Scott.
Jefferson's Writings.
History of Andover.
Good's Book of Nature.
History of Haverhill.
Madden's Travels. (Vols. I., II.)
Riedesel's Memoirs.
Boston Newspapers (1736, 1739, 1754, 1762, 1771, 1783).
Drake's Mornings in Spring.
Drake's Evenings in Autumn.
Anecdotes of Bowyer.
Gouverneur Morris. (Vols. I., II.)
Bryan Walton's Memoirs.
Moses Mendelssohn.
Collingwood.
Felt's Annals.
Strutt's Sports and Pastimes.
Schiller.
Mrs. Jameson. (2 vols.)
Thatcher's Medical Biography.
History of Plymouth.
Crabbe's Universal Dictionary.
Lewis's History of Lynn.
A Year in Spain, by a Young American. (Vols. I., II.)
Croker's Boswell.
Deane's History of Scituate.
Diplomatic Correspondence. (Vols. I., II.)
Temple's Travels. (Vol. II.)
Fuller's Holy State.
Remarkables of Increase Mather.
History of Portland. (Vols. I., II.)
Practical Tourist.
Elements of Technology.
Heber's Life, by Taylor.
Ductor Substantium.
Heber's Travels in India. (Vols. I., II.)
Byron's Works.
Travels in Brazil and Buenos Ayres.
History of Spain.
Franklin's Works.
Mental Cultivation.
1835.
Life of Gouverneur Morris.
Hamilton's Progress of Society.
Twiner's Sacred History.
Encyclopaedia.
Life of Arthur Lee.
Life of Sir Humphry Davy.
Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats.
Prior's Poems. (Vol. I.)
Jefferson's Writings. (Vols. I., II.)
Memoirs of the Tower of London.
History of King's Chapel.
Memoirs of Dr. Burney.
Hone's Every Day Book. (Vols. I, II., III.)
Life of Livingstone.
1836.
Life of Hamilton. (Vol. I.)
Debates in Parliament. (Vol. I.)
Curiosities of Literature (Vol. I.)
Combe on the Constitution of Man.
Babbage on Economy of Machinery.
Eulogies on Jefferson and Adams.
Hone's Every Day Book. (Vols. I., III.)
Dunlap's History of the Arts of Design. (Vols. I., II.)
Mende's Guide to Observation of Nature.
Cobbett's Cottage Economy.
Douglas's Summary. (Vol. I.)
Practical Tourist. (Vols. I., II.)
Dick on Improvement of Society.
Bush's Life of Mohammed.
Temple's Travels in Peru. (Vol. I.)
Gay's Poems.
Pliny's Natural History.
Coleridge's Table-Talk.
Letters from Constantinople. (Vols. I., II.)
Reynolds's Voyages.
Adventures on Columbia River, by Ross Cox.
Baine's History of Cotton Manufacture.
History of Nantucket.
Travels in South America.
Müller's Universal History.
Antar. A Bedoueen Romance.
Lives of the Philosophers. (Vols. I., II.)
Description of Trades.
Colman's Visit to England.
Ludolph's History of Ethiopia.
Griffin's Remains.
McCree's Life of Knox.
Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy.
Voyage de la mer du Sud an Nord.
Biographia Literaria.
The Stranger in America.
Raumer's England in 1835.
Random Recollections of the House of Lords.
The German Student.
Sparks's American Biography.
Brewster's Natural Magic.
Prior's Life of Goldsmith.
Sparks's Washington.
Walter Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft.
Scott's Life of Bonaparte. (3 vols.)
1837.
Washington's Writings.
Martineau's Miscellany.
Wraxall's Memoirs.
Bancroft's United States History.
Rush, on the Human Voice.
Drake's Indian Biography.
Wordsworth's Poetical Works.
Clarendon's History of the Rebellion.
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
Bayle's Historical Memoirs of Plymouth County.
Life of Jefferson, by Tucker.
Random Recollections of the House of Commons.
Specimens of American Poetry.
1838.
Life of Jefferson.
Brown's Novels.
Parr's Works.
Select Comedies.
Froissart's Ancient Chronology.
Byron's Works.
Plutarch's Lives.
London Encyclopedia of Architecture.
Gentleman's Magazine.
Monthly Magazine.
Monthly Review.
European Magazine.
Christian Examiner.
Edinburgh Magazine.
Annual Register.
Quarterly Review.
Southern Review.
Worcester's Magazine.
North American Review.
United States Service Journal.
Court Magazine.
Museum of Literature and Science.
Westminster Review.
London Monthly Magazine.
Eclectic Review.
Foreign Quarterly Review.
Blackwood's Magazine.
Metropolitan Magazine.
New England Magazine.
British Critic.
American Encyclopaedia.
Rees's Cyclopaedia.
Gifford's Juvenal.
INDEX.
Addison, Joseph
Allegory and symbolism
Ambitious Guest, The
America, Hawthorne's sentiment about returning to
American Magazine
American Note-Books, record of youth in
American nurture of Hawthorne's genius
American quality in literature
Andrews, Ferdinand
Apollyon, name of cat
Artist of the Beautiful, The
Atmosphere, Hawthorne's susceptibility to
Autobiographies
Balzac's method of dealing with sin
Bancroft, George
Baudelaire
Bay writers, nickname given by Church Review
Beelzebub, Hawthorne's cat
Belief, Hawthorne's
Bewick Company
Biography, Hawthorne's feeling about
Birth-mark, The
Blithedale Romance
its relation to Brook Farm
real incident applied in
when written
remarks on
Bloody Footstep
Boston Custom-House
Boston Token, The
Bowdoin College
passage from "Fanshawe" descriptive of
Bridge, Horatio
prognostic of, concerning Hawthorne
Brig Fair American, Ballad of
Brook Farm, origin of
Hawthorne's aim in going to
length of stay there
trenchant remark upon, in Blithedale
Brown, Brockden
Buchanan, James
Buds and Bird-Voices
Bunyan, compared with Milton
with Hawthorne
Burroughs, Rev. Dr. Charles, note from, to Hawthorne
Bryant, William Cullen
Celestial Railroad, The
Characters of Hawthorne
Chippings with a Chisel
Chorley, H. F.
Christmas Banquet, The
Church Review
attack of, on The Scarlet Letter
Cilley, Jonathan
Clarendon's History
Coleridge, S. T.
Conception of Character, Hawthorne's method of
Contact of life and death
Contradictions of critics
Cooper, J. Fenimore
Cooper Memorial letter of Hawthorne
Coverdale, Miles, origin of name
character of, how related to Hawthorne
Curtis, George William
letters from Hawthorne to
Curwin Mansion
Cushing, Caleb
Custom-House, prefatory chapter on the
excitement over it in Salem
Democratic Review
Devil in Manuscript, The
Dickens
Dixey, William, name in Seven Gables
Doctor Heidegger's Experiment
Dolliver Romance, The
Drake, J. R.
Dramatic quality in Hawthorne
Drowne's Wooden Image
D'Urfé
Early Notes, discovery of
passages from
Earth's Holocaust
Eccentricity in Salem
Edinburgh Review, stricture of, upon Irving
Emerson's English Traits
Endicott and The Red Cross
passage from, bearing on Scarlet Letter
Endicotts, anecdote of
English Note-Books, characteristics of
Evangeline, origin of
Hawthorne's review of
Fame, in what way desirable
Fancy's Show-Box
Faust
"Fanshawe"
abstract of
passages from
Fearing, Master, and Hawthorne
Fielding, Henry
Fields, J. T., mistake of
Fine Art, Hawthorne's way of looking at
Fire worship
First Church of Salem
First publication by Hawthorne
Foote, Caleb
Fouqué
French and Italian Note-Books
Froissart
Gautier, Theophile
Goethe
Godwin, William
Goldsmith
Goodrich, S. G.
employs Hawthorne as editor
difficulties with
Grandfather's Chair
publication of
Gray Champion, The