Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems.
the emotion excited on my first acquaintance with thy poem flowed over
this hour; a joyous confidence in the existence of Goodness and Beauty
supplied for a season, the want of thy society. The delicious clearness
of every emotion exalted my soul into a realm full of life. Some time
elapsed in this state. The whole of my temporal existence passed in
review before me. My thoughts, my actions, were placed in full relief
before the cleared eye of my spirit. Beloved, thou wilt rejoice to know
that thy Meta could then feel that her worst faults sprung from
ignorance. As I was striving to connect my present state with my past,
and, as it were, poising myself on the brink of space and time, the
breath of another presence came across me, and, gradually evolving from
the bosom of light, a figure rose before me, in grace, in sweetness, how
excelling! Fixing her eyes on mine with the full gaze of love, she said,
in flute-like tones, 'Dost thou know me, my sister?'
"'Art thou not,' I replied, 'the love of Petrarch? I have seen the
portraiture of thy mortal lineaments, and now recognize that perfect
beauty, the full violet flower which thy lover's genius was able to
anticipate.'
"'Yes,' she said, 'I am Laura--on earth most happy, yet most sad; most
rich, and yet most poor. I come to greet her whom I recognize as the
inheritress of all that was lovely in my earthly being, more happy than
I in her temporal state. I have sympathized, O wife of Klopstock! in thy
transitory happiness. Thy lover was thy priest and thy poet; thy model
and oracle was thy bosom friend. All that earth could give was thine;
and I joyed to think on thy rewarded love, thy freedom of soul, and
unchecked faith. Follow me now: we are to dwell in the same circle, and
I am appointed to show thee thine abiding place.'
"She guided me towards the source of that light which I have described
to thee. We paused before a structure of dazzling whiteness, which stood
on a slope, and overlooked a valley of exceeding beauty. It was shaded
by trees which had that peculiar calmness that the shadows of trees have
below in the high noon of summer moonlight--
'... trees which are still
As the shades of trees below,
When they sleep on the lonely hill,
In the summer moonlight glow.'
It was decked with majestic sculptures, of which I may speak in some
future interview. Before it rose a fountain, from which the stream of
light flowed down the valley, dividing it into two unequal parts. The
larger and farther from us seemed, when I first looked on it, populous
with shapes, beauteous as that of my guide. But, when I looked more
fixedly, I saw only the valley, carpeted with large blue and white
flowers, which emitted a hyacinthine odor. Here, Laura, turning round,
asked, 'Is not this a poetic home, Meta?'
"I paused a moment ere I replied, 'It is indeed a place of beauty, but
more like the Greek elysium than the home Klopstock and I were wont to
picture to ourselves beyond the gates of Death.'
"'Thou sayest well,' she said; 'nor is this thy final home; thou wilt
but wait here a season, till Klopstock comes.'
"'What' said I, 'alone! alone in Eden?'
"'Has not Meta, then, collected aught on which she might meditate? Hast
thou never read, "While I was musing, the fire burned"?'
"'Laura,' said I, 'spare the reproach. The love of Petrach, whose soul
grew up in golden fetters, whose strongest emotions, whose most natural
actions were, through a long life, constantly repressed by the dictates
of duty and honor, she content might pass long years in that
contemplation which was on earth her only solace. But I, whose life has
all been breathed out in love and ministry, can I endure that my
existence be reversed? Can I live without utterance of spirit? or would
such be a stage of that progressive happiness we are promised?'
"'True, little one!' said she, with her first heavenly smile; 'nor shall
it be thus with thee. A ministry is appointed thee--the same which I
exercised while waiting here for that friend whom below I was forbidden
to call my own.'
"She touched me, and from my shoulders sprung a pair of wings, white and
azure, wide and glistering.
"'Meta!' she resumed, 'spirit of love! be this thine office. Wherever a
soul pines in absence from all companionship, breathe sweet thoughts of
sympathy to be had in another life, if deserved by virtuous exertions
and mental progress. Bind up the wounds of hearts torn by bereavement;
teach them where healing is to be found. Revive in the betrayed and
forsaken heart that belief in virtue and nobleness, without which life
is an odious, disconnected dream. Fan every flame of generous
enthusiasm, and on the altars where it is kindled strew thou the incense
of wisdom. In such a ministry thou couldst never be alone, since hope
must dwell with thee. But I shall often come and discourse to thee of
the future glories of thy destiny. Yet more: Seest thou that marble
tablet? Retire here when thy pinions are wearied. Give up thy soul to
faith. Fix thine eyes on the tablet, and the deeds and thoughts which
fill the days of Klopstock shall he traced on it. Thus shall ye not be
for a day divided. Hast thou, Meta, aught more to ask?"
"'Messenger of peace and bliss!' said I, 'dare I frame another request?
Is it too presumptuous to ask that Klopstock may be one of those to whom
I minister, and that he may know it is Meta who consoles him?'
"'Even this, to a certain extent, I have power to grant. Most pure, most
holy was thy life with Klopstock; ye taught one another only good
things, and peculiarly are ye rewarded. Thou mayst occasionally manifest
thyself to him, and answer his prayers with words,--so long,' she
continued, looking fixedly at me, 'as he continues true to himself and
thee!'
"O, my beloved, why tell thee what were my emotions at such a promise?
Ah! I must now leave thee, for dawn is bringing back the world's doings.
Soon I shall visit thee again. Farewell! Remember that thy every thought
and deed will be known to me, and be happy!"
She vanished.
WHAT FITS A MAN TO BE A VOTER?
A FABLE.
The country had been denuded of its forests, and men cried, "Come! we
must plant anew, or there will be no shade for the homes of our
children, or fuel for their hearths. Let us find the best kernels for a
new growth." And a basket of butternuts was offered.
But the planters rejected it with disgust. "What a black, rough coat it
has!" said they; "it is entirely unfit for the dishes on a nobleman's
table, nor have we ever seen it in such places. It must have a greasy,
offensive kernel; nor can fine trees grow up from such a nut."
"Friends," said one of the planters, "this decision may be rash. The
chestnut has not a handsome outside; it is long encased in troublesome
burs, and, when disengaged, is almost as black as these nuts you
despise. Yet from it grow trees of lofty stature, graceful form, and
long life. Its kernel is white, and has furnished food to the most
poetic and splendid nations of the older world."
"Don't tell me," says another; "brown is entirely different from black.
I like brown very well; there is Oriental precedent for its
respectability. Perhaps we will use some of your chestnuts, if we can
get fine samples. But for the present, I think we should use only
English walnuts, such as our forefathers delighted to honor. Here are
many basketsful of them, quite enough for the present. We will plant
them with a sprinkling between of the chestnut and acorn."
"But," rejoined the other, "many butternuts are beneath the sod, and
you cannot help a mixture of them being in your wood, at any rate."
"Well, we will grub them up and cut them down whenever we find them. We
can use the young shrubs for kindlings."
At that moment two persons entered the council of a darker complexion
than most of those present, as if born beneath the glow of a more
scorching sun. First came a woman, beautiful in the mild, pure grandeur
of her look; in whose large dark eye a prophetic intelligence was
mingled with infinite sweetness. She looked at the assembly with an air
of surprise, as if its aspect was strange to her. She threw quite back
her veil, and stepping aside, made room for her companion. His form was
youthful, about the age of one we have seen in many a picture produced
by the thought of eighteen centuries, as of one "instructing the
doctors." I need not describe the features; all minds have their own
impressions of such an image,
"Severe in youthful beauty."
In his hand he bore a white banner, on which was embroidered, "PEACE AND
GOOD WILL TO MEN." And the words seemed to glitter and give out sparks,
as he paused in the assembly.
"I came hither," said he, "an uninvited guest, because I read sculptured
above the door 'All men born free and equal,' and in this dwelling hoped
to find myself at home. What is the matter in dispute?"
Then they whispered one to another, and murmurs were heard--"He is a
mere boy; young people are always foolish and extravagant;" or, "He
looks like a fanatic." But others said, "He looks like one whom we have
been taught to honor. It will be best to tell him the matter in
dispute."
When he heard it, he smiled, and said, "It will be needful first to
ascertain which of the nuts is soundest _within_." And with a hammer he
broke one, two, and more of the English walnuts, and they were mouldy.
Then he tried the other nuts, but found most of them fresh within and
_white_, for they were fresh from the bosom of the earth, while the
others had been kept in a damp cellar.
And he said, "You had better plant them together, lest none, or few, of
the walnuts be sound. And why are you so reluctant? Has not Heaven
permitted them both to grow on the same soil? and does not that show
what is intended about it?"
And they said, "But they are black and ugly to look upon." He replied,
"They do not seem so to me. What my Father has fashioned in such guise
offends not mine eye."
And they said, "But from one of these trees flew a bird of prey, who has
done great wrong. We meant, therefore, to suffer no such tree among us."
And he replied, "Amid the band of my countrymen and friends there was
one guilty of the blackest crime--that of selling for a price the life
of his dearest friend; yet all the others of his blood were not put
under ban because of his guilt."
Then they said, "But in the Holy Book our teachers tell us, we are bid
to keep in exile or distress whatsoever is black and unseemly in our
eyes."
Then he put his hand to his brow, and cried in a voice of the most
penetrating pathos, "Have I been so long among you, and ye have not
known me?" And the woman turned from them the majestic hope of her
glance, and both forms suddenly vanished; but the banner was left
trailing in the dust.
The men stood gazing at one another. After which one mounted on high,
and said, "Perhaps, my friends, we carry too far this aversion to
objects merely because they are black. I heard, the other day, a wise
man say that black was the color of evil--marked as such by God, and
that whenever a white man struck a black man he did an act of worship
to God.[37] I could not quite believe him. I hope, in what I am about to
add, I shall not be misunderstood. I am no abolitionist. I respect above
all things, divine or human, the constitution framed by our forefathers,
and the peculiar institutions hallowed by the usage of their sons. I
have no sympathy with the black race in this country. I wish it to be
understood that I feel towards negroes the purest personal antipathy. It
is a family trait with us. My little son, scarce able to speak, will cry
out, 'Nigger! Nigger!' whenever he sees one, and try to throw things at