A-field all summer, all winter in-doors, was the Anglo-Saxon rule, and
holds good for the Anglo-American to-day. Englishmen still, here in
New England we borrow, at some variance with the sun's courses, our
calendar from the old country. Ordinarily our seasons fall almost a
month later, our winter hardly opening till New-year's, nor spring till
All Fools' Day, the date of which can hardly fall amiss, and with All
Saints' may be left indefinite in wit's almanac. Doubtless there is a
closer sympathy than we suspect between souls and seasons. Sensitive to
climate within as weather without, our intelligence dips or rises as
the signs range from Aries to Pisces in the ideal ephemeris, measuring
to faculty and member in turn the rising or falling tides, and so
determining our solar and lunar periods.
"'Tis not every day that I
Fitted am to prophesy;
No; but when the spirit fills
The fantastic pinnacles
Full of fire, then I write
As the Godhead doth indite.
Thus enraged, my lines are hurled,
Like the sibyls, through the world.
Look, how next the holy fire
Either slakes, or doth retire;
So the fancy carols, till when
That brave spirit comes again."
Nature is the best dictionary and school of eloquence; genius the
pupil of sun and stars, wood-lands, waters, the fields, the spectacle
of things seen under all aspects, in all seasons and moods. Blot
these from his vision, and the scholar's page were of small account.
Letters show pale and poor from inside chambers and halls of learning
alone; and whoever will deal directly with ideas, is often abroad
to import the stuff of things into his diction, and clothe them in
a rhetoric robust and racy, addressing the senses and mind at once.
One is surprised at finding how a little exercise, though taken
for the thousandth time, and along familiar haunts even, refreshes
and strengthens body and mind. A turn about his grounds, a sally
into the woods, climbing the hill-top, sauntering by brook-sides,
brings him back with new senses and a new soul. One's handwriting
becomes illuminated as he turns his leaves, the thoughts standing out
distinctly, which before were blurred, and failed to show their import.
Then his thought is sprightliest, and tells its tale firmly to the end.
It sets flowing what blood one has in his veins, quickening wonderfully
his circulations; he is valiant, humorsome, the soul prevailing in
every part, and he takes hope of himself and the world around him.
An open fire, too, that best of friends to greet him within doors for
most of the months; better than councils of friends to settle numerous
questions wont to smoulder and fret by an air-tight, or flash forth in
no lovely manner at unexpected moments. And where else is conversation
possible? A countryman without an open fire will consider whether he
can afford to spend himself and family to spare his wood-lot. It was
comforting to see the other day on a bookseller's counter, tiles of
porcelain, with suggestive devices of the graceful hospitalities of the
olden time, when every mantelpiece had its attractions of fable and
verse, the conversation enhanced by the friendly blaze, around which
the family gathered and paid their devotions to friendships, human and
divine.
"Go where I will, thou lucky Lar, stay here
Close by the glittering chimney all the year."
Then, a country-seat for summer and a city residence for the winter
were desirable. For recreation, the due allowance taken from business,
leisures as profitable as labors, alike enjoyable, and promoting the
relish for more.
"Books, studies, business, entertain the light,
And sleep as undisturbed as death the night.
Acquaintance one would have, but when it depends
Not on the number, but the choice of friends.
His house a cottage more
Than palace, and should fitting be
For all his use, no luxury."
One's house should be roomy enough for his thought, for his family
and guests; honor the ceilings, and geniality the hearthstone. Ample
apartments, a charming landscape and surroundings; these have their
influence on the dispositions, the tastes, manners of the inmates,
and are not to be left out of account. Yet, without nobility to grace
them, what were the costly palace, its parlors and parks, luxuries and
elegancies, within or without,--the handsome house owing its chief
beauty to the occupants, the company, one's virtues and accomplishments
draw inside of the mansion; persons being the figures that grace the
edifice, else unfurnished, and but a showy pile of ostentation and
folly, as desolate within as pretentious without.
"Two things money cannot buy,
Breeding and integrity."
"It happens," says Plutarch, "that neither rich furniture, nor
moveables, nor abundance of gold, nor descent from an illustrious
family, nor greatness of authority, nor eloquence, and all the charms
of speaking, can procure so great a serenity of life, as a mind free
from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions but from purposes
that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted,
but not disturbed; the fountain will run clear and unsullied, and
the streams that flow from it will be just and honest deeds, full of
satisfaction, a brisk energy of spirit which makes a man an enthusiast
in his joy, and a tenacious memory sweeter than hope, which, as Pindar
says, 'with a virgin warmth cherishes old men.' For as shrubs which are
cut down with morning dew upon them, do for a long time after retain
their fragrance, so the good actions of a wise man perfume his mind
and leave a rich scent behind them. So that joy is, as it were, watered
with those essences, and owes its flourishing to them."