A man may be formed by nature for an admirable citizen, and yet, from
the purest motives, be a dangerous one to the State in which the
accident of birth has placed him.--STEPHEN MONTAGUE.
The night again closed., and the student once more resumed his
labours. The spirit of his hope and comforter of his toils sat by
him, ever and anon lifting her fond eyes from her work to gaze upon
his countenance, to sigh, and to return sadly and quietly to her
employment.
A heavy step ascended the stairs, the door opened, and the tall figure
of Wolfe, the republican, presented itself. The female rose, pushed a
chair towards him with a smile and grace suited to better fortunes,
and, retiring from the table, reseated herself silent and apart.
"It is a fine night," said the student, when the mutual greetings were
over. "Whence come you?"
"From contemplating human misery and worse than human degradation,"
replied Wolfe, slowly seating himself.
"Those words specify no place: they apply universally," said the
student, with a sigh.
"Ay, Glendower, for misgovernment is universal," rejoined Wolfe.
Glendower made no answer.
"Oh!" said Wolfe, in the low, suppressed tone of intense passion which
was customary to him, "it maddens me to look upon the willingness with
which men hug their trappings of slavery,--bears, proud of the rags
which deck and the monkeys which ride them. But it frets me yet more
when some lordling sweeps along, lifting his dull eyes above the fools
whose only crime and debasement are--what?--their subjection to him!
Such a one I encountered a few nights since; and he will remember the
meeting longer than I shall. I taught that 'god to tremble.'"
The female rose, glanced towards her husband, and silently withdrew.
Wolfe paused for a few moments, looked curiously and pryingly round,
and then rising went forth into the passage to see that no loiterer or
listener was near; returned, and drawing his chair close to Glendower,
fixed his dark eye upon him, and said,--
"You are poor, and your spirit rises against your lot, you are just,
and your heart swells against the general oppression you behold: can
you not dare to remedy your ills and those of mankind?"
"I can dare," said Glendower, calmly, though haughtily, all things but
crime."
"And which is crime?--the rising against, or the submission to, evil
government? Which is crime, I ask you?"
"That which is the most imprudent," answered Glendower.
"We may sport in ordinary cases with our own safeties, but only in
rare cases with the safety of others."
Wolfe rose, and paced the narrow room impatiently to and fro. He
paused by the window and threw it open. "Come here," he cried,--"come
and look out."
Glendower did so; all was still and quiet.
"Why did you call me?" said he; "I see nothing."
"Nothing!" exclaimed Wolfe; "look again; look on yon sordid and
squalid huts; look at yon court, that from this wretched street leads
to abodes to which these are as palaces; look at yon victims of vice
and famine, plying beneath the midnight skies their filthy and
infectious trade. Wherever you turn your eyes, what see you? Misery,
loathsomeness, sin! Are you a man, and call you these nothing? And
now lean forth still more; see afar off, by yonder lamp, the mansion
of ill-gotten and griping wealth. He who owns those buildings, what
did he that he should riot while we starve? He wrung from the negro's
tears and bloody sweat the luxuries of a pampered and vitiated taste;
he pandered to the excesses of the rich; he heaped their tables with
the product of a nation's groans. Lo!--his reward! He is rich,
prosperous, honoured! He sits in the legislative assembly; he
declaims against immorality; he contends for the safety of property
and the equilibrium of ranks. Transport yourself from this spot for
an instant; imagine that you survey the gorgeous homes of aristocracy
and power, the palaces of the west. What see you there?--the few
sucking, draining, exhausting the blood, the treasure, the very
existence of the many. Are we, who are of the many, wise to suffer
it?"
"Are we of the many?" said Glendower.
"We could be," said Wolfe, hastily.
"I doubt it;" replied Glendower.
"Listen," said the republican, laying his hand upon Glendower's
shoulder, "listen to me. There are in this country men whose spirits
not years of delayed hope, wearisome persecution, and, bitterer than
all, misrepresentation from some and contempt from others, have yet
quelled and tamed. We watch our opportunity; the growing distress of
the country, the increasing severity and misrule of the
administration, will soon afford it us. Your talents, your
benevolence, render you worthy to join us. Do so, and--"
"Hush!" interrupted the student; "you know not what you say: you weigh
not the folly, the madness of your design! I am a man more fallen,
more sunken, more disappointed than you. I, too, have had at my heart
the burning and lonely hope which, through years of misfortune and
want, has comforted me with the thought of serving and enlightening
mankind,--I, too, have devoted to the fulfilment of that hope, days
and nights, in which the brain grew dizzy and the heart heavy and
clogged with the intensity of my pursuits. Were the dungeon and the
scaffold my reward Heaven knows that I would not flinch eye or hand or
abate a jot of heart and hope in the thankless prosecution of my
toils. Know me, then, as one of fortunes more desperate than your
own; of an ambition more unquenchable; of a philanthropy no less
ardent; and, I will add, of a courage no less firm: and behold the
utter hopelessness of your projects with others, when to me they only
appear the visions of an enthusiast."
Wolfe sank down in the chair.
"Is it even so?" said he, slowly and musingly. "Are my hopes but
delusions? Has my life been but one idle, though convulsive dream?
Is the goddess of our religion banished from this great and populous
earth to the seared and barren hearts of a few solitary worshippers,
whom all else despise as madmen or persecute as idolaters? And if so,
shall we adore her the less?---No! though we perish in her cause, it
is around her altar that our corpses shall be found!"
"My friend," said Glendower, kindly, for he was touched by the
sincerity though opposed to the opinions of the republican, "the night
is yet early: we will sit down to discuss our several doctrines calmly
and in the spirit of truth and investigation."
"Away!" cried Wolfe, rising and slouching his hat over his bent and
lowering brows; "away! I will not listen to you: I dread your
reasonings; I would not have a particle of my faith shaken. If I err,
I have erred from my birth,--erred with Brutus and Tell, Hampden and
Milton, and all whom the thousand tribes and parties of earth
consecrate with their common gratitude and eternal reverence. In that
error I will die! If our party can struggle not with hosts, there may
yet arise some minister with the ambition of Caesar, if not his
genius,--of whom a single dagger can rid the earth!"
"And if not?" said Glendower.
"I have the same dagger for myself!" replied Wolfe, as he closed the
door.