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University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


The  Peter  and  Rosell  Harvey 
Memorial  Fund 


THE  WORKS 

OP 

RUBEET  HOWE  BANCROFT 


THE    WORKS 


HUBERT  HOWE  BANCROFT 


VOLUME   XXXVIII 


ESSAYS  AND   MISCELLANY 


SAN     FRANCISCO 

THE   HISTORY   COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 

1890 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  Year  1890,  by 

HUBERT  H.  BANCROFT, 
In  the  Oifice  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 

All  Bights  Reserved. 


CO^l^ET^TS   OF   THIS   YOLUME. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   EARLY   AMERICAN   CHRONICLERS,     1 

CHAPTER   11. 

THE   NEW   CIVILIZATION, 39 

CHAPTER   III. 

ROOT    DIGGERS   AND   GOLD    DIGGERS, 54 

CHAPTER   IV. 

OUR  TREATMENT   OF  THE   NATIVE    RACES, 65 

CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY   WRITING, 75 

CHAPTER   VI. 

CRITICISM 113 

CHAPTER   VIL 

WORK, 148 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

BATTRE   LE   FER   SUR   l'eNCLUME, 165 

CHAPTER   IX. 

SOCIAL   ANALYSIS 182 

CHAPTER  X. 

NATION-MAKING, 205 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XI.  p^o,. 

TWO   SIDES   OF   A    VEXED   QUESTION, 235 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   JURY    SYSTEM, 280 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
mongolianism:  in  America, 309 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

MONEY    AND   MONOPOLY, 419 

CHAPTER   XV. 

LITERATURE   OF  CENTRAL   AMERICA, 455 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO 481 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

LITERATURE   OF   MEXICO   DURING    THE    PRESENT   CENTURY 537 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

EARLY   CALIFORNIA   LITERATURE 591 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

PLATO    REVISED 669 


ESSAYS 


MISCELLANY 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS 

Facts  can  be  accurately  known  to  us  only  by  the  most  rigid  observation 
and  sustained  and  scrutinizing  scepticism 

— Froude 

In  the  North  American  Revieiu  for  April,  1876,  ap- 
peared an  article  by  Lewis  H.  Morgan  entitled  ''  Mon- 
tezuma's Dinner,"  in  which  the  writer  attempts  to 
show  that  the  native  nations  of  Central  and  South 
America  were  not  so  far  advanced  in  culture  as  from 
the  evidence  of  priests  and  conquerors  we  have  been  led 
to  suppose,  were  not  indeed  so  far  advanced  as  the  Iro- 
quois and  some  other  northern  tribes.  As  Mr  Mor- 
gan takes  for  his  text  the  second  volume  of  my  Na- 
tive Races  of  the  Pacific  States^  treating  of  the  aboriginal 
civilization  of  the  Mexican  and  Central  American 
table-lands;  and  as  his  remarkable  hypotheses  affect 
not  alone  the  quality  of  American  aboriginal  culture, 
but  the  foundations  of  early  American  history,  and 
indeed  of  all  historic  evidence ;  and  as  among  his  dis- 
iples  are  found  several  popular  writers  disseminating 
these  erroneous  ideas,  I  deem  it  not  out  of  place  to 
^^xpress  my  views  upon  the  subject. 

I  shall  not  attempt  the  elucidation  of  Mr  Morgan's 
theories,  which  run  through  voluminous  and  somev/hat 


2  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

turbid  writings,  and  which  have  been  brought  into 
some  degree  of  notice,  more  by  the  persistent  energy 
of  the  author  than  by  any  able  arguments  or  convin- 
cing proofs.  I  have  noticed  tiiat  not  every  originator 
or  supporter  of  a  theory  holds  to  one  belief  through- 
out the  entire  course  of  his  investigations,  or  can  him- 
self explahi  exactly  what  he  thinks  he  believes. 

The  Morgan  hypothesis  adopts  a  distinction  of  its 
own  as  to  what  constitutes  a  savage  or  a  civilized  na- 
tion, in  which  rise  prominent  the  systems  of  kinship, 
conspicuous  in  particular  among  the  Iroquois  and 
Ojibways,  together  with  plurality  of  wives  and  com- 
munity of  property,  as  tests  of  a  former  grade.  Con- 
vinced that  the  American  nations  all  belong  to  one 
family,  Mr  Morgan  assumes  that  their  various  insti- 
tutions must  be  practically  identical,  and  that  the  so- 
cial customs  of  extinct  tribes  may  be  best  learned,  not 
from  the  statements  of  men  who  wrote  from  actual 
observation,  but  from  the  study  of  existing  tribes. 
Himself  familiar  with  the  Iroquois,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent with  other  northern  tribes,  he  arbitrarily  applies 
the  tribal  organization  of  the  Iroquois,  of  gentes.  phra- 
tries,  tribes,  and  confederations  to  the  nations  of  Mex- 
ico and  Central  and  South  America,  thus  making 
savages  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  Americas. 

With  Mr  Morgan's  theory  I  have  nothing  to  do.  I 
cannot  see  that  it  alters  the  facts  regarding  the  cul- 
ture, the  intellectual  and  social  conditions  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Mexican  and  Central  American 
table-lands  whether  they  are  called  savage  or  civilized, 
especially  by  those  whose  conception  of  the  meaning  of 
these  words  is  peculiar,  or  at  least  quite  different  from 
that  of  the  foremost  scholars  of  the  day.  What  alone 
interests  me  in  this  connection  is  the  effect  of  such 
teachings  on  popular  estimates  of  historical  evidence, 
particularly  as  touching  the  early  American  chroni- 
clers. Not  that  the  teachings  of  Mr  Morgan  himself 
could  exercise  any  great  popular  influence  anywhere; 
but  there  is  a  class  of  writers  for  the  million,  who 


THE  MORGAN  THEORY.  3 

■flit  in  the  sunshine  of  public  favor,  in  the  borderland 
between  fact  and  fancy,  caring  less  for  the, truth  of 
what  they  say  than  for  the  manner  in  which  it  is  said, 
and  the  money  that  comes  to  them  in  consequence. 

Men  of  this  stamp  have  taken  up  the  Morgan  theory, 
and  by  pretending  that  there  is  more  in  it  than  ever 
the  author  himself  dreamed  of,  have  exercised  a  most 
pernicious  influence  over  the  popular  mind,  succeeding 
at  one  time  in  attracting  to  themselves  considerable 
attention.  They  claimed  that  the  literary  and  monu- 
mental remains  of  the  Aztecs,  Mayas,  and  Mound- 
builders  might  now  be  translated  by  skillful  students  ; 
that  it  clew  to  the  labyrinths  of  race  and  origin  had 
been  found  ;  that  conjecture  in  this  direction  had  be- 
gun for  science  a  new  era,  and  that  there  remains 
little  affecting  American  archaeology  which  the  new 
theory  will  not  make  plain.  For  not  one  of  these 
statements  was  there  any  foundation  in  fact  or  reason. 

They  even  went  further  to  astonish  the  w^orld,  by 
asserting  that  the  early  American  annals  are  by  the 
light  of  this  new  theory  transformed,  and  to  a  great 
extent  ammlled,  the  eyes  of  the  first  comers  having 
deceived  them ;  that  the  aboriginal  culture,  its  arts, 
literature,  sciences,  polities,  and  religions,  mean  not 
these,  but  other  things,  as  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
**new  interpretation,"  and  that  the  tales  of  the  con- 
querors must  accordingly  be  written  anew,  written 
and  read  by  this  new  transforming  light;  that  there 
never  was  an  Aztec  or  a  Maya  empire,  but  only  wild 
tribes  leagued  like  the  northern  savages ;  that  Yuca- 
tan never  had  great  cities,  nor  Montezuma  a  palace, 
but  that  as  an  ordinary  Indian  chief  this  personage 
had  lived  in  the  communal  dwelling  of  his  tribe  ;  that 
we  can  see  America  as  Cortes  saw  it,  not  in  the  words 
of  Cortes  and  his  companions,  or  in  the  monumental 
remains  of  the  south,  but  in  the  reflection  of  New 
Mexican  villages,  and  through  the  mental  vagaries 
of  one  man  after  the  annihilation  of  facts  presented 
by  a  hundred  men. 


4  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

All  that  was  seen  and  said  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest, and  all  that  has  since  been  seen  or  said  conflict- 
ing with  this  fancy,  is  illusion;  reasonable,  tangible 
evidence,  such  alone  as  could  be  accepted  by  unbiassed 
common- sense,  was  not  admissible  if  conflicting  with 
the  preconceived  idea.  I  was  surprised  that  sucli 
conceits  should  ever  assume  tangible  form  and  be  re- 
ceived as  truth  by  any  considerable  number  of  scholars ; 
that  such  conceits  should  ever  be  disseminated  as  facts 
by  men  pretending  to  a  love  of  truth.  It  seems  some- 
what difficult  for  the  average  mind,  slowly  undergoing 
eternal  emancipation,  to  establish  the  true  relative 
values  of  learned  and  unlearned  ignorance.  In  the 
former  category  may  be  placed  all  those  unprovable 
speculations  destined  to  end  where  they  begin,  and 
which  so  largely  occupy  the  attention  of  the  human 
race.  And  so  long  as  those  who  assume  the  roles  of 
teachers  present  their  illusions  in  pleasing  forms,  with 
a  fair  amount  of  dogmatic  assurance,  they  will  find 
listeners. 

In  the  present  instance  the  disciples  are  far  worse 
than  the  master.  I  fail  to  see  the  wisdom  of  thus 
attempting  to  sweep  from  the  face  of  the  earth  by 
mere  negation  all  persons  and  facts  opposing  a  propo- 
sition. It  is  not  by  such  means  that  reasonable  hy- 
potheses are  established;  blank  negation  never  yet 
overthrew  substantial  truth.  It  seems  a  long  leap, 
indeed,  from  a  theory  resting  on  a  trace  of  certain 
organizations  in  the  north,  to  an  arbitrary  conclusion 
that  the  Mayas  w^ere  identical  in  their  institutions 
with  the  Pueblo  Indians.  Grant  the  fundamental 
doctrine,  and  there  is  yet  a  wide  distance  between 
Zufii  and  Uxmal.  It  requires  a  vivid  imagination  to 
see  only  joint-tenement  structures  in  the  remains  at 
Palenque.  But  admitting  it,  the  radical  difference  in 
plan,  architecture,  and  sculptured  and  stucco  decora- 
tions, to  employ  Morgan's  own  line  of  argument, 
suggests  a  corresponding  development  and  improve- 
ment in  other  mstitutions  and  arts,  which  would  in- 


FACTS  AND   FANCY.  5 

troduce  some  troublesome  variations  in  the  assumed 
identity  with  the  Pueblos  and  Iroquois,  even  if  all 
started  together.  The  Maya  hieroglyphs,  and  even 
certain  of  the  Aztec,  form  also  an  obstacle  by  no 
means  so  easily  removed.  True,  not  being  deciphered, 
their  actual  grade  cannot  be  positively  proved;  yet 
the  common  picture-writing  contains  enough  of  the 
phonetic  element  to  place  the  better  class  high  above 
the  line  fixed  by  the  new  transforming  light  as  the 
mark  of  civilization.  Even  by  this  bright  illumination 
it  seems  scarcely  possible  to  reconcile  the  testimony 
of  existing  relics,  and  of  Spanish  witnesses  who  came 
into  contact  with  the  Maya  and  Nahua  nations,  with 
the  narrow  conclusions  of  supporters  of  the  all-embrac- 
ing consanguinity.  In  the  earlier  life  of  the  hypothe- 
sis the  changes  to  what  are  called  descriptive  consan- 
guinity and  the  inheritance  of  property  were  made 
tests  of  civilization;  but  these  tests  were  abandoned 
when  it  was  ascertained,  among  other  things,  that  the 
Aztecs  did  inherit  personal  property,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  landed  estate. 

If  this  were  the  only  theory  ever  advanced  to  prove 
indemonstrable  propositions  regarding  the  Americans, 
it  might  be  more  imposing ;  but  it  is  only  one  of  fifty, 
each  of  which  has  had  its  day  and  its  supporters, 
and  we  cannot  look  forward  with  any  degree  of  con- 
fidence to  the  fulfilment  of  promises  based  on  grounds 
so  weak  and  fictitious.  Nor  do  I  regard  such  inves- 
tigation as  in  every  respect  beneficial;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  clearly  detrimental  where  facts  are  warped 
to  fit  theories,  the  theory  being  of  less  importance  to 
mankind  than  the  fact.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  true 
that  great  discoveries  have  sprung  from  apparently 
puerile  conceits ;  and  facts  are  sure  to  live,  however 
sometimes  distorted,  while  false  doctrines  are  sure  to 
die,  however  ably  presented. 

In  common  with  all  such  suppositions,  the  paths  by 
which  the  advocate  reaches  his  conclusions  are  fuller 
of  instruction  than  the  conclusions  themselves.     There 


6  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

is  something  of  instruction  in  the  nine  massive  folios 
left  by  the  poor  demented  Lord  Kingsborough,  who 
greatly  desired  to  prove  the  American  Indians  Jews, 
tliough  he  was  not  one  whit  nearer  such  proof  at  the 
end  than  at  the  beginning.  The  more  knowledge  the 
learned  abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  brought  to  the 
subject  the  more  confused  he  became,  until  the  latter 
parts  of  his  labors  were  directed  toward  revising  his 
earlier  conjectures.  Such  a  course  appears  not  unusual 
with  theorists — from  the  dooniatic  to  the  aro;umenta- 
tive,  then  back  to  the  dogmatic  again,  forever  explain- 
ing away  mistakes  and  falling  into  new  ones.  The 
eloquent  Robert  Mackenzie  is  still  in  the  first  stage 
of  dogmatism  w^hen  with  a  glance  at  the  map  showing 
tlie  proximity  of  Asia  and  America  he  would  forever 
settle  the  question  of  origin.  Nor  is  the  straining  of 
modern  scientists  to  prove  Asiatic  intercourse  by 
shipwrecked  Japanese  junks  at  all  necessary.  It  is  a 
well  established  fact  that  for  many  centuries  there  has 
been  free  intercourse  between  the  peoples  on  either 
side  of  Bering  strait,  both  by  means  of  boats  and  by 
crossing  on  the  ice.  It  may  be  as  Mr  Morgan  says, 
though  his  arguments  appear  scarcely  more  convincing 
than  the  arguments  of  those  who  preceded  him,  or  of 
those  who  came  after  him.  Some  of  these  other 
theories  are  held  to-day ;  grant  them  all — ^what  then? 
Grant  that  the  Americans  are  one  stock  with  the 
people  of  Asia,  Scandinavia,  or  Africa,  or  Armenia, 
there  still  remains  to  be  proven  whether  the  Old 
World  peopled  the  New,  or  the  New  the  Old ;  where 
stood  the  primordial  cradle  or  cradles  of  the  race ; 
where  man  was  first  made,  and  how . 

The  fundamental  weakness  of  Mr  Morgan's  argu- 
ment lies  in  the  glaring  distortion  of  evidence  to  sus- 
tain it.  Mr  Morgan  begins  by  telling  what  the  Span- 
ish conquerers  found  in  Mexico — not  what  they  them- 
selves reported  to  have  seen,  but  what  they  should  have 
seen  to  establish  the  *  new  interpretation.'  This  being 
infallible,  the  Spanish  conquerors  did  not  see   what 


DOGMATIC   THEORIZING.  7 

they  claimed.  It  may  be  immaterial  whether  we  call 
the  Nah  ua  culture  savagism  or  civilization, Montezuma's 
dwelling  a  palace  or  a  tenement  house,  himself  empcx'or 
or  cacique,  and  his  subordinate  rulers  lords  or  chiefs; 
but  it  is  somewhat  presum^ptuous  for  Mr  Morgan, 
who  never  examined  the  monumental  remains  of  the 
Aztecs,  who  had  no  greater  opportunity  than  others 
of  studying  their  social  system,  and  who  in  fact 
never  knew  anything  about  it  except  upon  the  evi- 
dence of  the  very  witnesses  he  denounces  as  blind 
and  false,  sweepingly  to  assert,  in  order  to  extend  a 
preconceived  theory  over  all  the  nations  of  America, 
that  the  conquerors  were  mistaken,  that  they  could 
not  have  seen  what  they  thought  they  saw.  It  is 
the  old  Ihie  of  reasoning  employed  by  learned  super- 
sition  these  many  centuries ;  if  the  universe,  or  any 
part  of  it,  does  not  accord  with  the  doctrine,  so 
much  the  worse  for  the  universe,  which  nmst  there- 
upon be  reconstructed.  As  the  good  elder  of  one 
of  our  ftishionable  churches  lately  remarked,  "  If  the 
bible  affirmed  that  Jonah  swallowed  the  whale,  I 
should  believe  it." 

Without  advancing  adequate  evidence  to  show  the 
existence  of  his  system  among  the  Nahuas,  Mr  Morgan 
eno:a<T^es  in  sagre  discussions  concernhw  it,  transform- 
ing  by  the  light  of  the  new  interpretation  as  many 
of  the  new  facts  into  his  fancies  as  suits  his  purpose. 
In  doinof  this,  he  allows  the  chroniclers  to  be  riolit  in 
whatever  they  say  supporting  his  views ;  in  all  such 
statements  as  oppose  his  system  they  were  in  error. 
It  was  indeed  a  transforming  light  that  enabled  this 
man  to  see,  not  being  present,  what  others  could  by 
no  means  perceive  though  they  were  on  the  ground ; 
and  he  kindly  admits  that  the  early  histories  of 
Spanish  America  may  for  the  most  part  be  trusted, 
except  where  his  pet  project  is  touched. 

This,  then,  is  my  opinion  of  the  Morgan  theory. 
There  may  be  grounds  for  certain  of  its  suppositions 
in   certain    directions,    but    there   are   not   sufficient 


8  THE   EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

grounds  for  its  acceptance  as  affecting  the  nations  of 
the  Mexican  and  Central  American  table-lands.  In 
all  such  discussions  there  may  be  marshalled  many- 
analogies,  some  of  them  remarkable  Nature  is 
everywhere  one ;  the  nations  of  the  earth,  of  whatever 
origin,  are  formed  on  one  model  But  for  every  anal- 
ogy these  theorists  have  found,  their  predecessors  have 
found  a  score  of  analogies  in  suppc^rt  of  some  other 
theory.  Analogy  presents  no  reliable  basis  for  prov- 
ing origin  or  race  migrations. 

In  lookincr  over  Mr  Mororan's  writin^js,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  traces  of  his  tests  to  prove  his  theories 
become  fainter  and  fainter  as  the  southern  and  more 
advanced  nations  are  approached.  His  attempt  to 
locate  the  ancient  Cibola  shows  no  small  lack  of  skill 
in  tlie  use  of  evidence.  Likewise,  though  more  dog- 
matical in  some  respects,  in  his  later  works  he  appa- 
rently relinquishes  in  some  degree  the  positions  which 
at  first  were  maintained  with  such  obstinacy,  and 
spends  some  time  in  qualifying  some  of  the  more  pal- 
pable of  his  former  errors,  yet  still  insisting  in  ex- 
tending his  doctrines  over  the  southern  plateaux. 

In  estimating  the  relative  advancement  of  peoples, 
some  standard  of  measurement  is  necessary.  The 
term  savage  and  civilized,  as  employed  by  various 
persons,  have  widely  different  significations.  Proba- 
bly no  words  so  freely  used  are  so  little  understood. 
The  terms  are  usually  employed  to  designate  fixed 
conditions,  when  by  the  very  nature  of  things  such 
conditions  cannot  properly  be  applied  to  man. 

Mr  Morgan  classified  culture  periods  under  the 
categories  of  savagism,  barbarism,  and  civilization; 
to  emerge  from  the  first  of  which  there  should  be 
knowledge  of  fire,  fish  subsistence,  and  the  bow  and 
arrow;  from  the  second,  pottery,  domestication  of  ani- 
mals, agriculture,  and  smelting  of  iron ;  and  to  attain 
full  civilization  a  phonetic  alphabet  was  necessary,  or 
use  of  hieroglyphs  upon  stone  as  an  equivalent. 


SAVAGISM  AND   CIVILIZATION.  9 

This  may  have  been  a  convenient  arrangement  for 
his  purpose,  and  I  see  no  reason  wliy  he,  and  all  v/ho 
choose,  should  not  employ  it.  But  surely  the  same 
right  should  be  accorded  others,  who  perchance  may 
find  another  classification  convenient.  For  instance, 
one  miGfht  wish  to  throw  Mr  Monxan's  three  divisions 
into  the  one  category  of  savagism,  and  spread  the 
idea  of  civilization  upon  a  higher  plane ;  for  surely 
our  present  highest  civilization  is  as  much  superior  to 
the  condition  essential  to  admission  into  his  highest 
class  as  his  highest  class  is  superior  to  his  lowest. 
Italian  song,  French  art,  German  letters,  English 
poetry,  and  American  invention  are  certahil}'  far 
enough  in  advance  of  the  first  use  of  the  phonetic 
alphabet  to  entitle  such  accomplishments  to  a  new 
category. 

One  estimates  a  nation's  civilization  by  its  agri- 
culture;  another  by  its  manufactures;  others  by  the 
quality  of  its  religion,  morality,  literature,  or  politi- 
cal and  social  institutions.  Some  say  that  tillers  of 
the  soil  should  be  preferred  before  herders  of  cattle ; 
some  hold  w^(3rkers  in  iron  and  coal  above  w^orkers 
in  gold  and  feathers;  some  place  pottery  in  advance 
of  sculpture  ;  the  fine  arts  before  the  industrial ;  some 
compare  implements  of  war,  others  plionetic  charac- 
ters, others  knowledge  of  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies ;  some  w^ould  take  a  general  average. 

But  weighing  a  people's  civilization,  or  lack  of  it, 
by  any  of  these  standards,  yet  other  standards  are 
necessary  by  which  to  measure  progress.  What  is 
meant  by  half  civilized,  or  quarter  civilized,  or  wholly 
civilized?  A  half  civilized  nation  is  a  nation  half  as 
civilized  as  ours.  But  is  ours  civilized,  fully  civilized  ? 
Is  there  no  higher  culture,  or  refinement,  or  justice, 
or  humanity  in  store  for  man  than  those  formed  on 
present  European  models,  which  sanction  coercion, 
bloody  arbitrament,  international  robbery,  the  exter- 
mination of  primitive  peoples,  and  hide  in  society 
under  more  comely  coverings  all  the  iniquities  of  sav- 


10  THE  EARLY   AMERICAN   CHRONICLERS. 

agisiii  ?  Judging  from  the  past  and  the  present  there 
is  yet  another  six  thousand,  or  sixty  thousand  years 
of  progress  for  man,  and  then  lie  may  be  still  a 
savage  compared  with  his  condition  at  the  end  of  the 
next  twelve  tliousand  or  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  years'  term.  Is  there  then  no  such  thing 
as  civilization?  Assuredly  not,  in  the  significance  of 
a  fixed  condition,  a  goal  attained,  a  complete  and 
perfected  idea  or  state.  Civilization  and  savagism 
are  relative  and  not  absolute  terms.  True,  temporary 
standards  have  to  be  adopted  at  different  stages  in 
history  for  the  sake  of  argument  and  elucidation; 
but  to  attempt  to  make  them  absolute  and  apply 
them  to  fixed  conditions  is  to  render  them  meaning- 
less, and  make  null  the  conditions  indicated.  The 
moment  the  man  ])rimeval  kindles  a  fire,  or  employs 
a  crooked  stick  in  procuring  food,  he  has  entered  upon 
his  never  ending  progressional  journey ;  he  is  no 
longer  wholly  and  primordially  savage.  The  terms 
being  rightly  employed,  there  are  no  absolute  savages 
or  civilized  peoples  on  the  earth  to-day ;  and  when 
there  arc  so  many  standards  by  which  progress  may 
properly  be  measured,  is  it  wise  to  warp  fundamental 
facts  in  dogmatically  thrusting  one  people  into  the 
category  of  half  civilized,  and  another  but  slightly 
different  into  that  of  one  quarter  savage  ?  We  might 
have  a  hundred  fixed  stages,  not  one  of  which  by  any 
possibility  could  bo  so  defined  in  words  as  completely 
to  fit  any  one  of  the  millions  of  human  conditions. 
Howsoever  definite  an  idea  we  may  have  of  that  end 
of  the  line  which  began  with  man,  of  the  other  which 
will  never  cease  spinning  until  the  last  human  being 
has  left  the  planet,  we  can  have  no  conception.  For 
aught  we  know  it  may  not  stop  short  of  omniscience. 
Civilization  is  an  unfolding,  and  develops  mainly 
from  its  own  germ ;  it  is  not  a  superficial  acquisition, 
but  an  inward  growth,  even  if  nourished  by  extra- 
neous food.  You  may  whitewash  a  savage  with  your 
superiority,  but  you  cannot  civilize  him  at  once. 


AZTEC  CULTURE.  11 

Whether  we  turn  to  the  extreme  eastern  kingdoms 
of  Asia,  or  to  the  region  watered  by  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile,  all  inhabited  since  the  remotest  historic 
past  by  races  of  acknowledged  culture,  everywhere  we 
find  vast  differences  and  strong  peculiarities  in  the 
respective  cultures,  developed  by  environment.  Some 
of  the  characteristics  are  of  a  high  order,  others  de- 
scend to  a  grade  of  actual  barbarism;  some  are  in 
course  of  development,  others  stationary,  or  even 
retrogradhig.  The  Nahua  culture  partakes  of  the 
same  traits,  fashioned  by  its  peculiar  environment. 
For  purposes  of  his  own,  Mr  Morgan  arbitrarily  de- 
scribes limits  to  what  is  called  civilization  in  order  if 
possible  to  prevent  the  Nahuas  from  entering  its  pre- 
cincts. In  this  effort  he  ignores  many  distinctively 
higher  traits  which  the  most  superficial  observer  must 
discover  among  the  southern  races;  he  chooses  to 
disregard  or  slight  the  very  distinct  evidences  of  not 
merely  settled  life,  but  of  settled  comnmnities  under 
a  high  form  of  government,  with  advanced  institu- 
tions and  arts. 

I  will  present  briefly  some  facts  and  characteristics 
on  which,  according  to  my  conception  of  the  term, 
the  Nahuas  and  ]\Iayas  may  justly  lay  claim  to  be 
called  civilized.  I  will  give  beforeliand  the  proof  that 
these  traits  did  actually  exist  among  the  peoples  of 
the  Mexican  and  Central  American  table-lands  at  the 
time  of  their  conquest  by  the  Spaniards,  laying  before 
the  reader  the  principal  authorities  in  their  true  char- 
acter as  fully  as  I  am  able  to  discover  it,  with  all 
tlieir  merits  and  demerits,  their  veracity  and  men- 
dacity; making  as  close  and  critical  an  analysis  of 
their  writings  as  the  most  skeptical  could  desire.  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  special  desire  to  prove  the  pres- 
ence or  absence  of  a  civilization  in  this  instance.  If 
my  historical  writings  display  any  one  marked  pecu- 
liarity, it  is  that  of  a  critical  incredulity  in  respect  of 
both  Indian  and  Spanish  tales.      I  have  avoided,  so 


12  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN   CHRONICLERS. 

far  as  possible,  placing  myself  in  a  position  where  I 
should  be  tempted  to  exaggerate.  I  have  no  theory 
to  advocate.  My  narrations  are  based  on  the  reports 
of  eye-witnesses  whose  characters  have  been  studied, 
whose  education,  idiosyncrasies,  positions,  conditions, 
temper,  and  temptations  have  all  been  carefully  con- 
sidered in  weighing  their  evidence,  and  the  results 
are  so  given  that  the  reader  can  easily  form  conclu- 
sions of  his  own  if  mine  do  not  satisfy  him. 

It  is  well  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact,  either  in  the 
present  investigation  or  in  using  the  writings  of  the 
chroniclers  as  historical  evidence  or  for  any  other  pur- 
pose, that  the  men  of  the  period  were  deceived  in  re- 
gard to  many  things,  but  that  it  is  not  difficult  for  us 
to  perceive  in  what  things  and  to  what  extent  they 
were  laboring  under  misapprehension.  All  men  and 
all  things  are  to  a  certain  extent  deceiving,  even  to 
our  wiser  discrimination  of  to-day.  Classes  and 
creeds  are  given  to  misrepresentation ;  either  intention- 
ally or  unintentionally,  the  false  colors  placed  before 
the  mind  of  man  in  the  beginning,  through  which 
alone  the  universe  and  whatever  it  contains  must  of 
necessity  be  viewed,  were  quite  different  in  different 
times  and  from  various  standpoints.  The  priest,  how- 
ever, is  not  likely  wilfully  to  misrepresent  in  matters 
wherefrom  there  will  arise  no  benefit  either  to  him 
or  to  his  church  or  order.  And  so  with  the  soldier 
and  adventurer,  each  perhaps  jealous  of  the  other,  and 
ever  ready  to  contradict  any  false  statement  which 
w^ill  lessen  his  own  importance  or  add  to  the  wealth 
or  happiness  of  one  he  hates. 

In  regard  to  aboriginal  testimony,  aside  from  that 
displayed  by  the  still  existing  material  remains,  I 
never  have  placed  great  reliance,  although  on  no  better 
evidence  than  that  of  native  Aztec  writers,  and  abori- 
ginal traditions  in  existence  long  before  the  appearance 
in  the  country  of  Europeans,  Christianity,  mahomet- 
anism,  and  all  religions  pin  their  faith.  There  are 
some  able  scholars  and  investigators  of  the  present 


ABORIGINAL  WRITINGS.  13 

day  who  are  confident  that  in  the  hieroglyphics  of 
the  Nahuas  and  Mayas  will  yet  be  found  the  key  to 
many  mysteries,  among  others  to  unknown  languages, 
to  kinship  with  the  Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  or  other 
peoples,  and  to  the  routes  and  purposes  of  the  great 
migrations  of  the  earth  ;  but  there  has  as  yet  appeared 
no  evidence  whatever  to  base  any  such  expectations 
upon.  Towards  deciphering  the  picture  writings  of 
the  aboriginal  peoples  of  the  Mexican  and  Central 
American  table-lands,  little  or  no  advance  has  been 
made.  Nevertheless,  there  were  among  the  native 
nations  inhabiting  this  region  prior  to  the  conquest 
wise  and  able  men,  who,  after  the  Spaniards  had  come, 
and  they  had  learned  the  language  of  the  conquerors, 
transcribed  much  of  their  aboriginal  history  from  the 
original  hieroglyphics  into  Spanish,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  may  not  as  well  believe  the  more  evi- 
dent truths  contained  in  these  writings,  particularly 
such  portions  as  we  have  at  hand  collateral  evidence 
to  sustain,  as  credit  anything  found  in  any  ancient 
writings,  sacred  or  profane.  Even  though  the  state- 
ments recorded  in  tliese  aboriginal  books  are  all  thrown 
into  the  category  of  mythology,  there  is  still  evidence 
of  a  well-advanced  culture  in  the  bare  ability  to  ori- 
ginate, entertain,  and  record  such  ideas.  The  measure 
of  their  civilization,  which  is  the  prominent  point  at 
issue  in  the  present  instance,  is  to  a  certain  extent 
determined  by  the  character  and  quality  of  their  writ- 
ings, whether  true  or  false.  Let  every  word  of  the 
Iliad  be  untrue,  Homer  would  not  therefore  be  termed 
a  savage.  It  seems  superfluous  to  attempt  to  prove 
the  validity  of  the  early  chroniclers.  Mr  Morgan's 
singular  position  would  not  be  worthy  of  notice  but 
that  his  statements  have  proved  misleading  to  others. 
Imagine  the  history  of  the  conquest  written  from  the 
Morgan  standpoint.  The  story  might  be  told  based  on 
the  authority  of  the  chroniclers — it  can  never  other- 
wise be  written ;  but  all  that  they  report  in  any  way 
conflicting  with  the  preconceived  idea  must  be  thrown 


14  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

out  or  explained  away.  Imagine  my  account  of  the 
aborigines  announced  as  A  JDescrijDtion  of  the  Native 
Races  of  North  America,  founded  on  such  2oarts  of 
existing  Spanish  Testimony,  and  on  such  Material 
Relics  as  seem  to  agree  ivith  the  researches  of  Lewis 
II.  Morgan  among  the  Iroquois  of  New  York!  If, 
after  the  evidence  in  the  present  instance  is  fully 
given,  the  reader  prefers  denominating  the  peoples 
referred  to  as  savages  or  satyrs,  I  have  not  the 
slightest  objection. 

With  the  first  expedition  to  IMexico  went  two  men 
by  the  name  of  Diaz,  one  a  priest  and  the  other  a 
soldier.  Both  wrote  accounts  of  what  they  saw,  thus 
giving  us  at  the  outset  narratives  from  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  standpoints.  It  was  a  voyage  along  the 
coast ;  they  did  not  penetrate  the  interior.  Observa- 
tion being  general,  the  descriptions  are  general.  There 
was  nothing  remarkable  about  the  priest;  he  was  not 
particularly  intelligent  or  honest.  I  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  commonplace  incidents  of  the  voyage  as 
given  in  the  Itinerario  de  Grijalva.  The  towns,  with 
their  white  stone  buildings  and  temple-towers  glisten- 
ing in  the  foliage,  remind  him  of  Seville;  when  he 
mentions  a  miracle  which  happens  at  one  of  them, 
we  know  he  is  not  telling  the  truth.  Indeed,  an 
experienced  judge  can  almost  always  arrive  at  the 
truth  even  if  the  evidence  comes  only  from  the 
mouths  of  Ijing  witnesses,  provided  he  can  examine 
them  apart.  Where  the  evidence  is  abundant,  the 
judge  soon  knows  more  of  the  facts  of  the  case  than 
any  one  witness,  and  can  easily  discern  the  true  state- 
ments from  the  false.  But  on  the  whole,  the  priest 
Juan  Diaz  was  quite  moderate  in  his  descriptions  of 
what  we  know  from  other  sources  to  have  been  there. 

The  same  evidence  is  offered  in  the  Historia  Ver- 
dadera  of  Bernal  Diaz,  who  attended  not  only  on  this 
voyage,  but  on  the  first  and  succeeding  expeditions; 
all  is  plain,  unvarnished,  and  devoid  of  coloring.  If 
hyperbole  was  ever  to  be  employed  it  should  be  in 


DIAZ,  TERRAZAS.  15 

connection  with  the  revelation  of  these  first  startling 
evidences  of  a  new  art  and  a  strange  race.  But  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  author  becomes  marked  only  as  he 
ascends  later  with  Cortes  to  the  table-land  and  there 
beholds  the  varied  extent  of  the  new  culture.  What 
stronger  proof  can  there  be  of  its  superior  grade  when 
he  passes  by  with  comparative  indifference  the  Yucatec 
specimen,  known  to  us  to  be  of  rare  beauty,  and  ex- 
presses marked  wonder  only  on  reaching  Mexico? 

Bernal  Diaz  wrote  rather  late  in  life,  after  many 
accounts  had  already  been  given.  He  prided  himself 
on  giving  a  true  history,  was  quite  as  ready  to  fight 
with  his  pen  as  with  his  sword,  and  having  had  many 
quarrels,  and  still  harboring  many  jealousies,  was 
very  apt  to  criticise  what  others  said;  and  he  did  so 
criticise  and  refute.  The  truth  is,  there  were  here 
many  and  opposing  elements  in  the  evidence  to  win- 
now it  from  falsehood,  far  more  than  are  usually 
found  in  early  materials  for  history. 

The  memorials  of  the  relatives  of  Velazquez  to  the 
king  are  not  worth  considering,  being  little  more  than 
masses  of  misstatements  and  exaof2ferations. 

The  personage  known  as  the  Anonymous  Con- 
queror, probably  Francisco  de  Terrazas,  mayordomo 
of  Cortes,  gave  a  clear  description  of  Mexico,  the 
country,  people,  towns,  and  institutions,  and  particu- 
larly the  capital  city,  arranged  in  paragraphs  with 
proper  headings,  with  drawings  of  the  great  temple 
and  of  the  city.  His  method  and  language  denote  in- 
telligence and  inspire  confidence.  No  reason  is  known 
why  he  should  exaggerate,  many  being  apparent 
why  he  should  render  a  true  account.  If  his  testi- 
mony can  be  ruled  out  on  the  ground  that  it  does  not 
fit  a  theory,  then  can  that  of  any  man  who  furnishes 
material  for  history,  and  our  histories  may  as  well  be 
written  Vv4th  the  theories  as  authorities,  and  have  done 
with  it.  Dealing  wholly  with  native  institutions,  the 
writer  seems  to  have  no  desire,  as  is  the  case  with 
some,  to  magnify  native  strength  and  resources  for  the 


16  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

sake  of  raising  the  estimate  of  the  deeds  of  himself 
and  comrades;  on  the  contrary,  in  speaking  of  native 
troops  and  arms,  where  a  soldier  would  be  most  in- 
clined to  boast,  the  description  rather  moderates  the 
idea  of  their  prowess.  The  population  of  Mexico  he 
gives  lower  than  most  writers,  and  yet,  when  describing 
the  city  and  its  arts,  he  grows  quite  eloquent  on  the 
size,  the  beauty,  the  civilized  features.  The  whole 
narrative  bears  the  stamp  of  reliability,  and  the  stu- 
dent may  easily  from  internal  evidence  and  com- 
parison deduct  approximate  truth. 

There  are  documents,  such  as  Carta  del  Ejercito  and 
Prohanza  de  Lejalde,  attested  under  oath  by  hundreds, 
and  therefore  apparently  worthy  of  credit  above  others ; 
but  when  we  examine  the  motives  for  their  production, 
and  find  that  they  were  intended  to  palliate  the  con- 
duct of  the  conquerors,  our  confidence  is  shaken. 

Hernan  Cortes  was  ever  ready  with  a  lie  when  it 
suited  his  purpose,  but  he  was  far  too  wise  a  man  need- 
lessly to  waste  so  useful  an  agent.  He  would  not,  and 
did  not,  acquire  a  name  for  untruthfulness.  He  knew 
that  others  were  w^riting  as  well  as  himself,  and  it 
could  by  no  possibility  bring  him  permanent  benefit 
to  indulge  in  much  deception.  His  misstatements 
chiefly  affect  himself  and  his  enemies  and  opponents 
among  his  own  countrymen;  in  giving  detailed  infor- 
mation concerning  the  natives  there  was  little  temp- 
tation to  deceive.  His  Cartas  might  naturally  be 
expected  to  aim  at  extolling  his  achievements  and  the 
value  of  his  discovery.  Expecting  some  coloring,  the 
student  is  forewarned.  We  find  at  times  what  we  feel 
inclined  to  stamp  as  exaggeration,  but  here  also  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  narrator  rises  only  as  he  approaches 
Mexico,  the  fame  of  which  is  dinned  into  his  ears  all 
along  his  march,  and  that  by  the  natives  nearer  the 
coast,  whose  high  advancement  is  attested  by  ruins 
and  relics.  Internal  and  collateral  evidence  shows  his 
first  descriptions  of  sights  to  be  far  from  overrated, 
and  his  later  discoveries  to  be  in  the  main  quite  trust- 


HERNAN  CORTIilS.  17 

worthy.  Indeed,  aware  that  some  of  his  statements 
may  be  doubted,  he  urges  his  sovereign  more  than 
once  to  send  out  a  commission  to  verify  them. 

Such  verification  was  exacted.  Officials  did  come 
out  to  report  on  the  conquest  and  its  value,  only  to 
join,  in  the  main,  in  confirmation  of  what  had  been 
said.  A  series  of  questions  was  also  sent  to  public 
men  in  Mexico  not  long  after  the  conquest,  bearing  to 
a  great  extent  on  the  native  culture,  and  the  answers 
all  tend  to  confirm  the  high  estimate  already  formed 
from  the  specimens  and  reports  forwarded  to  Spain. 
One  of  the  most  exhaustive  answers  was  sent  by  the 
eminent  jurist  Alonso  de  Zurita,  connected  for  nearly 
twenty  years  with  Spanish  audiencias  in  New  Spain. 
He  reviews  the  native  institutions  with  calm  and  clear 
judgment,  and  it  is  only  in  rejecting  the  epithet  of 
barbarians  as  bestowed  by  unthinking  persons — a  term 
applied  also  to  Europeans  by  Chinese — that  he  grows 
indignant,  declaring  that  none  who  had  any  knowledge 
of  Mexican  institutions  and  capacity  could  use  such 
a  term.  He  spoke  while  evidences  were  quite  fresh, 
and  well  knew  what  he  affirmed.  Similar  confirm- 
atory evidence  may  be  found  massed  in  the  various 
collections  of  letters  and  narratives  about  the  Indies 
brought  to  light  from  the  archives  of  Spain  and 
America,  and  published  by  the  editors  of  the  extensive 
Coleccion  de  Documentos  Ineditos;  Coleccion  de  Docu- 
mentos  para  la  Historia  de  Mexico,  etc. ;  by  the  learned 
Navarrete,  Ramirez,  Icazbalceta,  Ternaux-Compans, 
and  others. 

Still  stronger  evidence  of  the  reliability  of  the 
early  authorities  comes  from  the  consideration  that 
the  rumors  of  IMexico's  grandeur  and  wealth  attracted 
vast  hordes  of  hungry  seekers  for  gold,  grants  of  land, 
?aid  office.  Of  course,  most  of  them  were  disap- 
pointed, and  Cortes,  from  his  inability  to  please  and 
gratify  all,  raised  a  host  of  enemies,  who  joined  the 
large  number  already  arraigned  against  him  by  reason 
of  his  successes.     Their  aim  was  naturally  to  vilify 

Essays  and  Miscellany    2 


18  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

him,  to  lower  the  achievements  of  the  conquest,  and 
to  disparage  the  country  which  had  failed  to  satisfy 
them.  If  ever  a  subject  was  assailed,  it  was  this  of 
Mexico,  her  resources  and  people;  assailed,  too,  during 
the  very  opening  years  of  the  occupation,  when  the 
testimony  of  eye-witnesses  was  abundant,  and  particu- 
larly of  the  disappointed,  whose  voice  was  loudest. 
Notwithstanding  all  this  the  glories  of  Mexico  stand 
unshaken,  and  greater  grow  the  confirmed  ideas  of 
the  superior  condition  of  her  race  in  number,  culture, 
and  resources;  and  this,  too,  when  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment began  to  discountenance  the  glowing  reports 
of  native  superiority,  and  to  lower  the  estimates  of 
aboriginal  wealth  and  condition,  with  a  view  to  keep 
foreign  attention  from  the  country,  and  to  hide  the 
facts  which  would  tell  ag^ainstit  while  crushin^f  ahio^h 
culture  and  enslaving  a  noble  race. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  writinofs  of  Sahas^un,  Las 
Casas,  and  others,  were  suppressed  or  neglected.  But 
if  many  such  were  lost,  others  came  finally  to  light 
to  receive  additional  confirmation  from  the  native 
records.  It  is  to  these  records  that  we  must  look 
not  only  for  confirmation  of  what  the  chroniclers 
relate,  but  for  the  only  reliable  data  on  political  ma- 
chinery and  other  esoteric  subjects  with  which  Span- 
iards could  not  become  so  well  acquainted.  The  value 
of  native  records  as  supplementary  and  confirmatory 
testimony  is  self-apparent,  since  they  were  written  by 
and  for  the  natives  themselves,  and  naturally  without 
the  idea  of  exaggeration  or  deception  being  dominant. 
A  sufficient  number  of  original  and  copied  native 
manuscripts  or  paintings  exists  in  different  museums 
and  libraries,  relating  not  only  to  historic  events,  but 
describing  the  nature  and  development  of  institutions 
and  arts. 

Besides  the  actual  records,  many  histories  exist, 
by  natives  and  friars,  based  wholly  on  such  paintings 
and  on  traditions  and  personal  observations,  such 
as  those  of  Tezozomoc,  Camargo,  and  Ixtlilxochitl. 


NATIVE  HISTORIANS.  19 

Each  of  these  native  authors  wrote  from  a  different 
standpoint,  in  the  interest  of  his  respective  nation- 
ality. Camargo,  for  instance,  as  a  Tlascaltec  is  bit- 
terly hostile  to  the  Aztecs,  and  seeks  of  course  to 
detract  from  their  grandeur  in  order  to  exalt  his  own 
people.  He  rather  avoids  dwelhng  on  Aztec  glories; 
nevertheless  frequent  admissions  appear  which  help 
to  confirm  the  impression  of  their  advanced  institu- 
tions. Ixtlilxochitl,  again,  writes  from  the  family 
archives  of  his  royal  house  of  Tezcuco,  and  dwells 
upon  the  deeds  and  grandeur  of  his  city  and  tribe. 
None  of  these  authors  possess  sufficient  skill  to  con- 
ceal the  coloring  which  constitutes  their  chief  defect 
as  authorities.  A  number  of  chroniclers,  and  even 
modern  writers  like  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  have 
used  native  paintings  and  narratives  more  or  less  for 
their  histories,  while  certain  others,  like  Veytia,  de- 
pend upon  them  or  their  translations  almost  wholly. 

Ixtlilxochitl  was  called  by  Bustama-nte  the  Cicero 
of  Andhuac,  and  of  course  is  to  be  read  with  allowance 
when  speaking  of  his  people.  And  so  with  Father 
Duran — I  would  no  more  trust  a  zealous  priest  while 
defending  the  natives  than  I  would  trust  Morgan 
while  defending  his  theory. 

The  reliability  of  translators  is  best  judged  by  the 
method  used  by  Father  Sahagun  in  the  formation 
of  the  Historia  General^  the  three  volumes  of  which 
are  devoted  to  an  account  of  native  manners  and  cus- 
toms, their  domestic  and  public  life,  their  festivals 
and  rites,  their  institutions  and  traits.  Instructed  by 
his  superiors,  the  friar  called  upon  intelligent  and 
learned  Indians  in  different  places  to  paint  in  hiero- 
glyphics their  accounts  of  these  subjects.  To  these, 
explanations  were  attached  in  full  Mexican  text,  and 
tested  by  further  inquiries,  and  then  translated  into 
Spanish  by  Sahagun.  Many  of  the  narratives  are 
vague  and  absurd,  yet  these  very  faults  point  in  most 
cases  to  simple-minded  earnestness  and  frankness,  and 
render  the  work  rather  easier  for  the  discriminating 


20  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

student  to  sift.  The  honesty  of  Sahagun's  labors 
brought  upon  them  obloquy  and  neglect,  which  only 
the  more  serve  to  commend  the  work  to  us. 

It  is  from  such  sources,  original  and  translated 
native  records,  and  verbal  and  written  narrations  of 
eye-witnesses,  that  succeeding  writers,  or  chroniclers 
proper,  obtained  the  main  portion  of  their  accounts 
of  conquests  and  aboriginal  institutions.  They  them- 
selves had  opportunities  for  observation ;  and  actuated 
by  different  motives,  they  were  naturally  impelled  to 
investigate  and  weigh  to  a  certain  extent,  whether 
through  eagerness  for  fixme,  or  from  desire  to  raise 
the  achievements  of  favorites,  or  to  detract  from  the 
glories  of  envied  or  detested  leaders. 

Las  Casas,  for  instance,  in  his  different  works 
stands  forward  as  a  pronounced  champion  of  the 
natives,  and  unflinchingly  lashes  the  conquerors  and 
historians  for  what  he  terms  cruelty,  unjust  policy, 
and  false  statement.  His  Historia  Ajwlogetica  is 
purely  a  defence  of  the  Indians,  their  institutions  and 
characteristics,  and  consequently  to  be  accepted  with 
caution.  The  need  of  this  caution  becomes  stronger 
when  we  behold  the  extreme  exaggerations  to  which 
he  is  led  in  the  Breve  Relacion,  claiming  to  be  an  expose 
of  Spanish  excesses  and  cruelties.  In  the  Historia  de 
las  Indias,  again,  he  allows  his  feelings  of  friendship 
for  Velazquez  to  detract  from  the  achievements  of 
Cortes.  On  every  hand,  therefore,  the  historian  finds 
reasons  for  accepting  with  caution  the  statements  of 
Las  Casas;  but  thus  forewarned,  he  is  able  to  reject 
the  false  and  determine  the  true.  He  also  finds  that 
when  not  blinded  by  zeal  the  worthy  bishop  is  honest, 
and  withal  a  keen  and  valuable  observer,  guided  by 
practical  sagacity  and  endowed  with  a  certain  genius. 

His  contemporary,  Oviedo,  although  less  talented, 
is  by  no  means  deficient  in  knowledge,  and  a  varied 
experience  in  both  hemispheres  had  given  him  a 
useful  insight  into  affairs.  He  is  not  partial  to  the 
natives,  and  Las  Casas  actually  denounces  his  state- 


LAS  CASAS,  OVIEDO,  PETER  MARTYR,  GOMARA.  21 

ments  against  them  as  lies.  This  is  hardly  just,  ex- 
cept in  some  instances.  While  personally  acquainted 
only  with  the  region  to  the  south  of  Nicaragua  Lake, 
his  account  embraces  all  Spanish  conquests  in  the 
western  Indies,  the  facts  being  gathered  from  every 
accessible  source,  and  either  compiled  or  given  in 
separate  form.  Indian  and  Spaniard,  friend,  foe,  and 
rival,  all  receive  a  hearing  and  a  record,  so  that  his 
work  is  to  a  great  extent  a  mass  of  testimony  from 
opposite  sides.  This  to  the  hasty  reader  may  present 
a  contradictory  appearance,  as  Las  Casas  is  led  to 
assume,  but  to  the  student  such  material  is  valuable. 

A  third  contemporary  and  famous  writer  is  Peter 
Martyr,  a  man  of  brilliant  attainments,  deep,  clear 
mind,  and  honest  purpose,  who  had  gained  for  him- 
self a  prominent  position  in  Spain,  and  even  a  seat  in 
the  Council  of  the  Indies.  Naturally  interested  in 
the  New  World,  whose  affairs  were  then  unfolding, 
he  eagerly  questioned  those  who  came  thence,  con- 
sulted their  charts  and  reports,  and  was  thus  enabled 
to  form  a  moi^e  accurate  opinion  about  the  Indians 
and  their  land,  one  that  was  thus  founded  on 
reliable  and  varied  testimony.  A  fault,  however,  is 
the  haste  with  which  his  summaries  were  formed, 
both  in  order  and  detail;  yet  even  this  defect  tends 
to  leave  the  narrative  unvarnished  and  free  from  a 
dangerous  elaboration.  Even  Las  Casas  admits  its 
credibility. 

The  different  minds,  motives,  prejudices,  and  even 
antagonisms,  of  these  three  writers  each  impart  an 
additional  value  to  their  respective  writings  from 
which  the  historian  cannot  fail  to  derive  benefit. 

Like  Peter  Martyr,  Gomara  took  his  material 
entirely  from  testimony,  chiefly  letters,  reports,  and 
other  documents  in  the  archives  of  Cortes,  his  patron, 
and  collections  to  which  his  influence  gained  access. 
His  high  literar}^  tastes  gave  a  zest  to  his  writings, 
but  impelled  him  also  to  elaboration,  and  his  Ilistoria 
de  Mexico  is  colored  by  his  predilections  as  biographer 


22  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHROXICLERS. 

of  the  conqueror.  On  the  other  hand,  he  finds  en- 
dorsement in  the  decree  which  was  issued  against 
his  history  because  of  its  treatment  of  government 
affairs,  and  comparison  with  other  histories  reveals 
the  many  valuable  points  which  he  has  brought  to 
light.  The  adoption  of  his  Mexican  work  by  so 
prominent  a  native  as  Chimalpain  is  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent an  assurance  of  its  truthfulness. 

Munoz  places  Gomara  among  the  first  of  the 
chroniclers.  He  had  no  special  reason  that  we  can 
see  to  extol  unduly  native  institutions.  He  wrote 
early  enough  to  know  all  about  them,  but  not  so  early 
as  to  be  carried  away  by  a  first  enthusiasm.  Made 
secretary  and  chaplain  to  Cortes  in  1540,  his  object 
of  adulation  was  his  patron,  in  recounting  whose 
deeds  he  cannot  be  trusted.  Neither  had  Cortds,  as 
before  remarked,  special  interest,  least  of  all  at  this 
time,  in  magnifying  the  civilization — the  civilization 
he  had  destroyed.  Alvarado  and  others  of  the  chron- 
iclers were  repeatedly  tried  by  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment for  their  cruelty  to  the  natives,  whom  it  was 
the  desire  of  both  church  and  state  to  preserve.  It 
would  therefore  be  rather  in  favor  of  the  conquerors 
to  hold  them  up  as  ignoble  and  low. 

The  learned  and  elegant  Antonio  de  Solis,  though 
so  bigoted  as  to  render  his  deductions  in  many  in- 
stances puerile,  and  though  constantly  raving  against 
the  natives,  was  closely  followed  by  both  Robertson 
and  Prescott. 

Herrera,  the  historiographer  of  the  Indies,  uses 
the  material  of  all  the  preceding  writers,  in  addition  to 
original  narratives,  and  has  in  his  Historia  General 
the  most  complete  account  of  American  affairs  up  to 
his  time.  His  method  of  massing  material  makes  it 
most  valuable,  but  a  slavish  adherence  to  chronology 
destroys  the  sequence,  interferes  with  broad  views, 
and  renders  the  reading  uninteresting.  This  defect  is 
increased  by  a  bald,  prolix  style,  the  effect  of  inexpe- 
rienced aid,  and  by  the  extreme  patriotism  and  piety 


HERRERA,  TORQUEMADA,  MEKDIETA  23 

which  often  set  aside  integrity  and  humanity.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  in  some  measure  tempered  and 
corrected  the  exaggerations  of  his  predecessors. 

Torquemada  was  less  critical  in  accepting  material, 
but  he  was  indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  exhaust  the 
information  about  New  Spain  and  her  natives,  and 
his  Monarquia  Indiana  is  the  most  complete  account 
extant  in  its  combination  of  topics.  Though  an  able 
work,  it  contains  many  errors;  yet  the  manifold  sources 
of  information  all  the  more  help  the  student  to  arrive 
at  the  truth.  Torquemada  amassed  a  great  store  of 
private  information  about  native  institutions  during 
the  fifty  years  of  his  labor  among  the  Indians,  and 
he  made  use  of  many  histories  then  unpublished — 
instance  those  of  Sahagun,  Mendicta,  and  others. 

Mendicta  was  an  ardent  champion  of  the  natives, 
and  a  bitter  opponent  of  the  audicncia  and  govern- 
ment oflScials;  yet  in  mundane  affairs  he  possessed 
sound  judgment,  so  much  so  that  he  was  frequently 
intrusted  with  important  missions  of  a  diplomatic  na- 
ture. He  became  the  historian  of  his  iirovinciay  and 
gained  the  title  of  its  Cicero.  His  Ilistoria  Eclesi- 
dsticaj  which  treats  chiefly  of  the  missionary  progress 
of  his  order,  contains  a  large  amount  of  matter  on 
native  customs,  arts,  and  traits. 

Mendicta  may  be  regarded  as  the  pupil  of  Toribio 
de  Benavente,  whose  humility  of  spirit  caused  him  to 
adopt  the  name  of  Motolinia,  applied  by  the  Indians 
out  of  commiseration  for  his  appearance.  Not  that 
he  was  very  humble  in  all  matters,  as  may  be  seen 
from  his  bitter  attack  on  Las  Casas.  In  this  in- 
stance, however,  he  was  merely  an  exponent  of  the 
hostility  prevaihng  between  the  Franciscans,  to  which 
he  belonged,  and  the  Dominicans,  which  led  to  many 
pen  contests  and  contradictory  measures  for  the  In- 
dians, from  all  of  which  the  historian  gains  new  facts. 
Motolinia  arrived  in  Mexico  in  1524,  and  wandered 
over  it  and  the  countries  to  the  south  for  a  series  of 
years,  teaching  and  converting.    He  is  claimed  to  have 


24  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

baptized  over  four  hundred  thousand  persons.  His 
knowledge  of  the  aborigines  and  long  intercourse  with 
them  before  their  customs  were  changed,  enabled  him 
to  acquire  most  important  information  about  them. 
All  this,  together  with  the  story  of  his  mission  work, 
is  related  in  the  Historia  de  los  Indios  de  Nueva 
Espana^  written  in  a  rambling  manner,  with  a  nixive 
acceptance  of  the  marvellous,  yet  bearing  a  stamp  of 
truthfulness  that  wins  confidence. 

Occasionally  there  have  risen  winters  who,  from 
excess  of  zeal,  personal  ambition,  or  careless  study  of 
facts,  sought  to  cast  doubts  on  native  culture  and 
similar  topics,  like  De  Pau  and  Raynal,  only  to  evoke 
replies  more  or  less  hasty.  This  unsatisfactory  contest 
roused  the  ire,  among  others,  of  the  learned  Jesuit 
Clavigero.  Himself  born  in  Mexico,  his  patriotic 
zeal  was  kindled,  and  during  a  residence  there  of 
thirty-iive  years,  till  driven  forth  by  the  general  edict 
against  his  order,  he  made  the  ancient  history  and 
institutions  thereof  his  special  study.  The  result  was 
the  Storia  Antica  del  Messico,  which  if  less  bulky  than 
Torquemadas  work,  is  far  more  satisfactory  in  its 
plan  for  thoroughness  and  clearness,  and  remains  the 
leading  authority  in  its  field.  Clavigero  is  generally 
admitted  to  have  refuted  the  two  prominent  oppo- 
nents above  named  on  the  culture  questions,  even 
though  his  statements  are  at  times  colored  with  the 
heat  of  argument  and  with  zeal  for  race. 

Among  the  remaining  historians  who  treat  on  civi- 
lized tribes  may  be  named  Acosta,  who  in  speaking 
of  Mexican  culture  borrow^s  wholly  from"  Duran,  a 
Franciscan,  born  in  New  Spain  of  a  native  mother, 
and  consequently  predisposed  in  favor  of  his  race. 
Indeed,  nearly  all  of  Duran's  bulky  narrative  on 
ancient  history  and  institutions  is  not  only  from  native 
sources,  but  from  a  native  standpoint.  Vetancurt, 
w^ho  agrees  mainly  with  Torquemada,  follows  both 
native  and  Spanish  versions.  Benzoni  offers  a  good 
store  of  personal   observation  on   Central  American 


OTHER  WRITERS.  25 

Indians  and  affairs,  but  writes  from  hearsay  when 
touching  on  Mexico.  Writers  on  special  districts  are 
also  numerous.  Bishop  Landa  wrote  on  Yucatan  aad 
its  culture,  and  is  accused  of  having  given  forth  and  in- 
vented alphabets,  as  the  Maya.  Cogolludo  adds  much 
to  his  accounts,  while  Fuentes,  Remesal,  Vasquez, 
Villagutierre,  and  Juarros  exhaust  the  adjoining  fields 
of  Chiapas  and  Guatemala.  Thence  northward  the 
circle  may  be  continued  wdth  Burgoa's  works  on 
Oajaca,  Beaumont's  on  Michoacan,  Mota  Padilla's 
on  Nueva  Galicia,  Arlegui's  on  Zacatecas,  Bibas'  on 
Sinaloa;  and  so  forth. 

Descriptions  of  the  chroniclers  and  their  works 
might  be  carried  to  almost  any  extent,  but  sufficient 
has  been  given,  I  trust,  to  prove  their  testimony, 
taken  as  a  whole,  closely  sifted  and  carefully  \veighed, 
to  be  quite  as  worthy  of  credence  as  that  from  Avhich 
history  is  usually  derived.  I  cannot  throw  to  the 
winds  such  testimony  in  order  that  certain  specu- 
lators may  the  better  win  converts  to  their  fancy. 

The  traducers  of  Aztec  culture  and  its  clironiclers 
have  evidently  failed  in  that  most  important  point  of 
carefully  reading,  comparing,  and  analyzing  the  author- 
ities which  they  so  recklessly  condemn  as  a  mass  of 
fiction  or  exaggeration.  It  seems  to  me  ridiculous  for 
the  superficial  readers  of  a  few  books  to  criticise  the 
result  of  such  thorough  researches  as  Prescott's,  and 
even  to  sweep  them  all  away  with  one  contemptuous 
breath.  I  for  one  can  testify  to  Prescott's  general 
fairness  and  accuracy.  His  researches  and  writings 
are  beyond  all  comparison  with  those  of  any  modern 
theorist.  Others  also  have  read,  compared,  and  ana- 
lyzed the  authorities  on  Mexico,  perhaps  even  more 
than  Prescott,  for  fresh  documents  have  appeared 
since  his  time;  and  while  some  errors  and  discrep- 
ancies have  been  discovered,  yet  in  the  main  neither 
Nahua  culture  nor  the  chronicles  and  records  de- 
scribing it  can  be  said  to  have  been  misrepresented  or 
exaggerated  by  him. 


26  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

The  very  discrepancies  in  the  accounts  of  different 
chroniclers,  which  to  the  experienced  observer  indi- 
cate genuineness  and  truthfuhiess,  are  paraded  by  the 
superficial  reader  as  proof  of  falsity.  The  chroniclers 
have  for  centuries  been  exposed  to  numerous  and 
severe  ordeals  of  critique,  and  their  respective  defects 
and  merits  have  been  widely  discussed;  but  on  the 
whole  these  discussions  tend  to  confirm  the  state- 
ments which  I  have  given,  some  of  the  strongest 
testimony  being  found  in  their  very  differences  and 
blunders.  Thus  not  even  their  bigotry,  then  so  strong 
and  wide-spread,  their  simplicity,  their  prejudices  in 
different  directions,  none  of  these  can  conceal  the 
truth  or  its  main  features,  although  occasional  points 
may  still  remain  hidden  under  a  false  coloring.  The 
rigid  censorship  exercised  in  Spain  over  all  writings 
led  to  the  suppression  of  many  works,  but  the  main 
effort  was  to  suppress  heterodoxy  and  unfavorable 
reflections  on  Spanish  policy,  and  if  culture  questions 
were  touched,  to  lower  the  estimate  thereof  in  order 
to  cover  vandalism. 

While  thoroughly  convinced  that  we  have  in  the 
early  American  chroniclers  a  solid  foundation  for  his- 
tory, as  before  stated  I  do  not  by  any  means  accept 
as  truth  all  they  say;  I  do  not  accept  half  of  what 
some  say,  while  others  I  find  it  difficult  to  believe 
at  all.  Upon  this  basis,  then — that  is,  on  the  basis 
of  truth  and  well  sifted  facts — I  will  present  a  few  of 
the  leading  characteristics  of  the  Nahua  and  Maya 
peoples,  sufficient  in  my  opinion  to  justify  their  claim, 
as  the  Avorld  goes,  to  be  called  civilized. 

Whether  those  w^ho  thus  affect  to  disbelieve  in 
Aztec  culture,  including  such  men  as  Lewis  Cass 
and  R.  A.  Wilson,  advocate  an  Old  World  origin  for 
some  of  the  advanced  features  does  not  matter,  for 
there  is  absolutely  no  evidence  for  such  origin  beyond 
resemblances  which  may  be  traced  between  nations 
throughout  the  world;  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 


THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO.  27 

strong  internal  evidences  of  the  autochthonic  origin 
of  some  of  the  highest  features  of  this  civilization, 
such  as  hieroglyphics  and  many  branches  of  the  higher 
arts.  Besides,  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  these 
advanced  arts  is  the  point  in  question,  not  whence 
they  came. 

The  city  of  Mexico  presents  many  features  of  ad- 
vanced urban  life  under  Aztec  occupation,  not  alone 
as  related  by  chroniclers,  but  as  proved  by  incidental 
details  in  the  account  of  the  sieges  of  and  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  by  the  ruins.  Humboldt  found  distinct 
traces  of  the  old  city,  extending  in  some  directions  far 
beyond  the  present  actual  hmits;  and  the  numerous 
and  substantial  causeways  which  led  to  it  for  several 
miles  through  the  lake  prove  that  it  must  have  been 
of  great  extent.  The  causeways,  though  now  passing 
over  dry  land,  arc  still  in  use,  and  reveal  their  soHdity. 
Any  one  who  will  carefully  read  the  mihtary  report 
and  other  accounts  of  the  long  protracted  siege  must 
become  impressed  with  the  vast  extent  and  strength 
of  the  city;  the  large  number  and  size  of  its  temple 
pyramids  affirm  the  same.  Through  an  aqueduct  of 
masonry  several  miles  long  it  was  supplied  with  water, 
which  was  distributed  by  pipes,  and  by  boatmen. 
Light-houses  guided  the  lake  traffic;  a  large  body  of 
men  kept  the  numerous  canals  in  order,  swept  the 
streets,  and  sprinkled  them.  The  houses  were,  many 
of  them,  large  and  well  built.  The  emperor's  palace 
contained  many  suites  of  rooms  designed  for  individual 
occupation,  not  at  all  like  anything  in  New  Mexico. 
Temple -towers  and  turrets  were  frequent,  proving 
that  structures  several  stories  in  height  were  in  use. 

Among  the  Nahuas  the  several  branches  of  art 
were  under  control  of  a  council  or  academy,  with  a 
view  to  promote  development  in  poetry,  music,  oratory, 
painting,  and  sculpture,  though  chiefly  literary  arts, 
and  to  check  the  production  of  defective  work.  Before 
this  council  poems  and  essays  were  recited,  and  inven- 
tions exhibited. 


28  THE  EiVRLY  AMEPvICAX  CHRONICLERS. 

If  distortion  assumes  prominence  in  a  large  class  of 
models  instead  of  ideal  beauty,  this  must  be  attributed 
to  the  peculiarity  and  cruelty  of  certain  Aztec  insti- 
tutions, which  stamp  their  traits  on  subjective  art. 

Beauty  of  outline  is  nevertheless  common,  notably 
in  the  rich  ornamentation  to  be  seen  on  ruins,  and 
on  art  relics  transmitted  in  large  numbers  to  Spain 
by  the  conquerors.  The  friezes  or  borders  equal  the 
Grecian  in  elegant  outline  and  combination.  The 
well  known  calendar  stone  contains  in  itself  a  vast 
number  of  beautiful  designs.  Some  of  the  vases  in 
the  museums  at  Mexico  and  Washington  surpass  the 
Etruscan  in  beauty  of  form  and  in  tasteful  decora- 
tions. Again,  the  terra-cotta  heads  picked  up  round 
Teotihuacan,  some  of  whicli  I  have  in  my  possession, 
exhibit  a  most  truthful  delineation  of  the  human  face, 
with  considerable  expression,  and  are  of  actual  beauty. 

Other  admirable  specimens  are  the  female  Aztec 
idol  in  the  British  Museum,  the  mosaic  knife  with  its 
human  figure  from  Cliristy's  collection,  the  skin-clad 
Aztec  priest,  the  Ethiopian  granite  head,  the  beauti- 
ful head  from  !Mitla,  and  the  grotesque  figures  from 
the  JNIexican  gulf  Such  specimens  suffice  to  establish 
the  existence  of  a  hi<xh  decree  of  art  amoni]^  the 
Nahuas. 

As  for  the  advance  exhibited  by  adjoining  races, 
one  glance  at  the  numerous  artistic  designs  and 
groupings  on  Yucatan  ruins  must  command  admira- 
tion, which  rises  as  the  observer  examines  the  monu- 
ments at  Palenque,  with  their  extent  of  massive 
edifices,  their  advanced  mode  of  construction,  their 
galleries,  their  arches,  their  fine  facade  and  interior 
ornamentation,  and  above  all,  their  numerous  human 
figures  of  absolute  beauty  in  model.  This  applies 
also  to  some  terra-cotta  relics  from  the  same  quarter. 

Ornamental  work  in  gold  and  silver  had  reached  a 
perfection  which  struck  the  Spaniards  with  admira- 
tion, and  much  of  the  metal  obtained  by  them  was 
given  to  native  smiths  to  shape  into  models  and  set- 


WORK  IN  METALS.  29 

tings.  Many  pieces  sent  to  Europe  were  pronounced 
superior  to  what  Old  World  artists  could  then  pro- 
duce. Birds  and  other  animals  were  modelled  with 
astonishing  exactness,  and  furnished  with  movable 
wings,  legs,  and  tongues.  The  so-called  'lost  art'  of 
casting  parts  of  the  same  object  in  different  metals 
was  known;  thus  fishes  were  modelled  with  alternate 
scales  of  gold  and  silver.  Copper  and  other  metals 
were  gilded  by  a  process  which  would  have  made  the 
fortune  of  a  goldsnnth  in  Europe.  Furnaces,  perhaps 
of  earthen-ware,  and  blowpipes,  are  depicted  on  native 
paintings  in  connection  with  gold-working. 

Although  there  had  been  but  little  progress  in 
mining,  yet  a  beginning  appears  to  have  been  made 
in  obtaining  metals  and  minerals  from  the  solid  rock, 
and  melting,  casting,  hammering,  and  carving  were  in 
use  among  goldsmiths  and  other  workers,  as  shown 
in  native  paintings.  This  is  one  of  the  strongest 
proofs  that  the  Xalmas  were  progressing  in  civilization, 
not  at  a  stand-still  nor  retrograding,  for  such  mining 
and  melting  methods  must  surely  lead  to  the  discovery 
of  iron  ere  they  stopped.  Cutting  implements  were 
made  of  copper  alloyed  with  tin,  and  tempered  to 
great  hardness.  Yet  stone  tools  were  still  chiefly 
used,  particularly  those  of  obsidian,  from  which  mir- 
rors were  also  made,  equal  in  reflecting  powder  to 
those  of  Europe  at  that  time,  it  was  said.  Softer 
stone  being  chiefly  used,  flint  implements  sufiiced 
for  the  sculptor;  yet  specimens  exist  in  hard  stone. 
Precious  stones  were  cut  with  copper  tools,  with  the 
aid  of  silicious  sand,  and  carved  in  forms  of  ani- 
mals. Specimens  of  their  art  m  stone  and  metal  were 
received  in  Europe,  where  chroniclers  of  diflerent 
minds  and  impulses  write  in  ecstasy  over  workman- 
ship which  in  so  many  instances  surpassed  in  excel- 
lence that  of  Spain.  The  fabrics  and  feather-work 
were  equally  admired  for  fineness  of  texture,  brilliancy 
of  coloring,  and  beauty  of  arrangement  and  form.  So 
accurate  were  the  representations  of  animals  in  relief 


30  THE  EARLY   AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

and  drawing  as  to  serve  the  naturalist  Hernandez  for 
models. 

The  Nahua  paintings  show  little  artistic  merit, 
because  the  figures,  in  order  to  be  intelligible,  were 
necessarily  conventional,  as  were  the  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics. This  necessity  naturally  cramped  art.  But 
while  the  Egyptians  carried  the  conventionality  even 
to  sculpture  and  painting  generally,  the  Nahuas  clung 
to  it  closely  only  in  their  waitings;  and  it  needs 
but  a  glance  at  many  specimens  among  ruins  and 
relics  to  see  that  considerable  skill  had  been  reached 
in  delineating  even  the  human  form  and  face  in 
plastic  material,  for  in  painting  the  development  was 
small.  An  art,  however,  which  approached  that  of 
painting  was  the  formation  of  Resigns  and  imitation 
of  animal  forms,  and  even  faces,  wdth  feathers — feather- 
mosaic — so  beautifully  done  that  the  feather-pictures 
are  declared  by  wondering  Spaniards  to  have  equalled 
the  best  works  of  European  painters.  Specimens  are 
still  to  be  seen  in  museums.  The  artist  would  often 
spend  hours,  even  days,  in  selecting  and  adjusting 
one  feather  in  order  to  obtain  the  desired  shade  of 
color. 

Fabrics  were  made  of  cotton,  of  rabbit-hair,  or  of 
both  mixed,  or  w^th  feather  admixture.  The  rabbit- 
hair  fabrics  were  pronounced  equal  in  finish  and  text- 
ure to  silk.  The  fibres  of  maguey  and  palm  leaves 
were  used  for  coarser  cloth.  Paper  in  long  narrow 
sheets  w^as  made  chiefly  of  maguey  fibres,  and  though 
thick,  the  surface  was  smooth.  Gums  appear  to  have 
been  used  for  cohesion.  Parchment  was  also  used. 
Skins  were  tanned  by  a  process  not  described,  but  the 
result  is  highly  praised.  In  dyeing  they  appeared  to 
have  excelled  Europeans,  and  cochineal  and  other 
dyes  have  been  introduced  among  us  from  them. 
Many  of  their  secrets  in  this  art  have  since  been  lost. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  palaces  of  the  rulers 
were  of  immense  extent,  and  provided  with  manifold 
comforts  and  specimens  of  art.    Numerous  divisions 


NAHUA  INSTITUTI0:N'S.  31 

existed  for  harems,  private  rooms,  reception  and  state 
rooms,  guard-rooms,  servants'  quarter,  storehouses, 
gardens,  and  menageries.  The  chroniclers  speak  of 
walls  faced  with  polished  marble  and  jasper;  of  balco- 
nies supported  bymonoliths,  of  sculptures  and  carvings, 
of  tapestry  brilliant  in  colors  and  fine  in  texture,  of 
censers  with  burning  perfume.  The  admitted  excel- 
lence in  arts  and  wealth,  the  possession  of  rare  stones 
and  metals,  permit  to  some  extent  the  belief  in  a 
Hall  of  Gold,  Room  of  Emeralds,  and  so  forth,  which 
the  chroniclers  place  within  the  palaces. 

The  menagerie  at  Mexico  was  large  and  varied,  and 
the  many  beautifully  laid  out  gardens  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  some  devoted  to  scientific  advancement, 
denote  a  high  status  in  natural  history. 

Throughout  the  narratives  of  the  chroniclers  the 
Aztec  ruler  receives  the  title  of  emperor,  which  it  was 
not  the  custom  of  the  conquerors  to  give  unadvisedly. 
It  was  almost  a  sacred  title  in  their  eyes,  their  own 
sovereign  being  so  called,  and  they  were  not  likely  to 
apply  that  title  to  a  common  Indian  chief  Indeed, 
the  native  records  relate  that  Montezuma  11.  after 
many  conquests  assumed  the  title  emperor,  or  ruler, 
of  the  world.  In  two  of  the  Nahua  kingdoms  the 
succession  was  lineal  and  hereditary,  and  fell  to  the 
eldest  legitimate  son,  those  born  of  concubines  or 
lesser  wives  being  passed  over.  In  Mexico  election 
prevailed,  but  the  choice  was  restricted  to  one  family. 
The  system  resembled  very  much  that  of  the  electoral 
German  empire.  Each  of  these  rulers  was  expected 
to  confer  with  a  council,  the  number  and  composition 
of  whose  members  are  not  quite  satisfactorily  estab- 
lished. Executive  government  was  intrusted  to  regu- 
larly appointed  officials  and  tribunals.  In  Tlascala  a 
parliament  composed  of  the  nobility  and  headed  by 
the  four  lords  determined  the  affairs  of  government. 

The  native  records  indicate  a  number  of  classes  and 
orders  among  nobles,  officials,  and  warriors.  The 
highest  were  the  feudal  lords,  as  in  Tezcuco,  whose 


32  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

position  corresponded  very  much  to  that  of  the  mighty 
baron  of  Germany  in  former  times,  all  kept  from  defying 
the  supreme  ruler  by  a  balancing  of  power,  by  private 
jealousies,  and  later  by  the  ruler  increasing  their  num- 
bers, and  thus  closely  attaching  to  himself  a  large  pro- 
portion, and  by  obliging  others  to  constantly  reside  in 
the  capital,  either  to  form  a  council  or  on  other  pre- 
tences. Another  means  for  controlling  the  haughty 
feudal  lord,  and  indeed  a  step  toward  abolishing  their 
power,  was  to  divide  the  kingdom  into  sixty-five  de- 
partments, whose  governors  were  nearly  all  creatures 
of  the  king.  The  population  of  certain  districts  was 
moved  in  part  to  other  districts,  or  made  to  receive 
inwanderers,  both  operations  tending  to  give  the  king 
greater  control.  Instances  of  such  master-strokes  of 
policy  as  are  related  in  aboriginal  records  serve  to 
show  the  power  of  the  monarch  and  the  advanced 
system  of  government. 

In  Mexico  the  people  had  had  access  in  a  great 
measure  to  military,  civil,  and  court  offices,  but  with 
the  enthronement  of  Montezuma  II.  the  nobles  man- 
aged to  obtain  exclusive  control  of  nearly  all  dignities. 
This  reform  naturally  served  to  alienate  the  people 
and  to  aid  in  the  downfall  of  the  empire. 

The  list  of  royal  officials  is  imposing  in  its  length, 
and  is  vouched  for  not  only  by  the  minute  account  of 
the  titles  and  duties  of  the  dignitaries,  but  by  the 
many  incidental  allusions  to  them  and  their  acts  in 
the  native  records  of  events.  The  list  embraces  offices 
corresponding  to  minister  of  war,  who  was  also  com- 
mander-in-chief; to  minister  of  finance,  grand  master  of 
ceremonies,  grand  chamberlain,  superintendent  of  arts, 
etc.  There  were  also  military  orders,  corresponding 
to  the  knights  of  mediaeval  Europe,  while  the  church 
had  its  gradations  of  priests,  guardians,  deacons,  friars, 
nuns,  and  probationers. 

Several  tribunals  existed,  each  with  a  number  of 
appointed  judges  and  a  staff  of  officials;  and  appeals 
could  be  carried  from  one  to  the  other,  and  finally  to 


JUDICIARY  AND  LAND  TENURE.  33 

the  supreme  judge,  who  was  without  a  colleague.  In 
the  wards  were  elected  magistrates,  who  judged  minor 
cases  in  the  first  instance,  and  an  inferior  class  of 
justices,  assisted  by  bailiffs  and  constables.  Some 
courts  had  jurisdiction  over  matters  relating  only  to 
taxes  and  their  collectors,  others  over  industries  and 
arts.  Cases  were  conducted  with  the  aid  not  alone  of 
verbal  testimony  under  oath,  but  of  paintings,  repre- 
senting documents;  and  names,  evidence,  and  decisions 
were  recorded  by  clerks.  Whether  advocates  were 
employed  is  not  clear,  but  the  judges  were  skilled  in 
cross-examination,  and  many  a  perjury  was  proved, 
followed  by  the  penalty  of  death.  Suits  were  limited 
to  eighty  days.  Bribery  was  strictly  forbidden.  The 
judges  were  selected  from  the  higher  class,  the  superior 
from  relatives  of  the  kings,  and  held  office  for  life, 
sustained  by  ample  revenues.  Adultery  and  similar 
crimes  were  severely  punished. 

Land  was  divided  in  different  proportions,  the 
largest  owned  by  king  and  nobles,  and  the  remainder 
by  the  temples  and  communities  of  the  people.  All 
such  property  was  duly  surveyed,  and  each  estate 
accurately  marked  on  maps  or  paintings,  kept  on  file 
by  district  officials.  Each  class  of  landed  estate  had 
then  its  distinctive  color  and  name,  and  from  each 
owner  or  tenant  was  exacted  tribute  in  product  or 
service,  regular  or  occasional.  Portions  of  the  crown 
land  were  granted  to  usufructuaries  and  their  heirs; 
for  service  rendered  and  to  be  rendered.  In  con- 
quered provinces  a  certain  territory  was  set  aside  for 
the  conqueror  and  cultivated  by  the  people  for  his 
benefit.  The  estates  of  the  nobles  were,  many  of 
them,  of  ancient  origin,  and  often  entailed,  which  fact 
establishes  to  a  certain  extent  the  private  ownership 
of  land.  These  feudatories  paid  no  rent,  but  were 
bound  to  render  service  to  the  crown  with  person, 
vassals,  and  property,  when  called  upon.  The  people's 
land  belonged  to  the  wards  of  the  towns  or  villages, 
with  perpetual  and   inalienable   tenure.      Individual 

Essays  and  Miscellany     3 


34  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

members  of  the  ward  were,  on  demand,  assigned  por- 
tions for  use,  and  could  even  transmit  the  control 
thereof  to  heirs,  but  not  sell.  Certain  conditions 
must  be  observed  for  the  tenure  of  such  lands,  and 
the  observance  was  watched  over  by  a  council  of 
elders  or  its  asfents. 

There  is  much  in  this  to  confirm  the  resemblances 
to  the  feudal  system  of  Europe  already  noticed.  The 
exactness  of  the  information  on  land  tenure  is  con- 
firmed by  investigations  instituted  under  auspices  of 
the  Spanish  government  with  a  view  to  respect  the 
rights  of  the  natives,  so  far  as  the  claims  of  con- 
querors and  settlers  permitted.  Cortes  obtained  from 
the  native  archives  and  officials  copies  of  the  estate 
maps,  and  tax  lists,  by  which  he  was  guided  in  his 
distribution  of  land  and  collection  of  tribute. 

In  the  department  of  the  minister  of  finance,  and 
in  the  offices  of  the  numerous  tax  collectors,  were  kept 
hieroglyphic  lists  of  the  districts,  towns,  and  estates, 
designating  the  kind  and  quantity  of  tax  to  be  paid 
by  each,  in  product  or  service.  A  copy  of  such  a  list 
is  given  by  Lorenzana,  and  others  are  reproduced  in 
the  Codex  Mendoza,  and  other  collections.  Certain 
cities  had  to  supply  the  palaces  with  laborers  and  ser- 
vants, food  and  furniture,  fabrics  and  other  material; 
others  paid  their  service  and  products  regularly  to 
the  finance  department,  or  when  called  upon.  Manu- 
facturers and  merchants  paid  in  the  kind  they  pos- 
sessed, and  artisans  often  in  labor.  The  tenants  of 
nobles  tilled  land  for  their  own  benefit,  and  paid 
rent  in  a  certain  amount  of  labor  for  the  landlord, 
and  in  military  service  when  called  upon;  besides 
this,  they  paid  tribute  in  kind  to  the  crown,  the  pro- 
duce being  stored  away  in  magazines  in  the  nearest 
towns. 

There  were  nearly  four  hundred  tributary  towns 
in  the  Mexican  empire,  some  paying  taxes  several 
times  a  month,  others  less  often,  and  still  others  only 
once  a  year,  the  amount  being  in  many  instances  over 


COMMERCE  AND  SOCIETY.  35 

a  third  of  everything  produced.  Custom-houses  also 
existed  for  exacting  duties. 

In  the  capitals  of  the  provinces  resided  chief  treas- 
urers, each  with  a  corps  of  collectors,  who  not  only  en- 
forced the  payment  of  taxes  but  watched  that  lands 
were  kept  under  cultivation  and  industries  generally 
maintained. 

To  illustrate  the  extent  to  which  organization  en- 
tered into  the  affairs  of  life,  we  can  point  to  the  mer- 
chants, with  their  guilds,  apprenticeship,  caravans, 
markets,  fairs,  agencies,  and  factories  in  distant  re- 
gions. Tlatelulco  was  renowned  for  her  trade  and 
vast  market,  and  her  merchants  really  formed  a 
commercial  corporation  controlling  the  trade  of  the 
country.  Sahagun's  records  sketch  the  development 
of  this  company.  Maps  guided  them  in  their  journeys, 
tribunals  of  their  own  regulated  affairs,  and  different 
articles  were  accepted  as  a  medium  for  exchange,  in- 
cluding copper  and  tin  pieces,  and  gold-dust.  The 
market  at  Tlatelulco,  in  the  vast  extent  of  booths, 
and  of  articles  for  sale,  and  in  its  regulations,  was  a 
source  of  wonder  to  the  Spaniards.  Couriers  and 
inns  existed  to  aid  travel  and  intercourse;  also  roads, 
well  kept  and  often  paved,  such  as  late  exploration 
in  Yucatan  shows  to  have  connected  distant  cities. 
In  navigation  the  Mexicans  were  less  advanced. 

One  lawful  wife  was  married  with  special  ceremo- 
nies, and  her  children  were  the  only  legitimate  issue. 
Three  additional  classes  of  mates  were  admissible: 
those  bound  to  the  man  with  less  solemn  ceremonies, 
and  bearing  the  title  of  w^fe,  like  the  legitimate  one, 
yet  deprived  of  inheritance  or  nearly  so,  together  with 
their  children;  those  bound  with  no  ceremonies,  and 
ranking  merely  as  concubines;  and  those  who  co- 
habited with  unmarried  men,  and  who  might  be 
married  by  their  lovers  or  by  other  men.  These  two 
classes  of  concubines  were  not  entitled  to  the  respect 
accorded  to  the  first-named,  yet  no  dishonor  attached 
to  their  condition.    Public  prostitutes  were  tolerated 


36  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

as  a  necessary  evil.  This  is  a  social  condition  which 
needs  not  for  its  justification  to  seek  a  parallel  among 
other  nations  recognized  as  civilized,  nor  among  the 
European  princes  who  publicly  maintained  the  same 
classes  of  consorts  and  mistresses. 

Schools  tiourisned  in  connection  with  the  temple 
under  control  of  the  priests,  and  in  Mexico  every  quar- 
ter had  its  school  for  the  common  people,  after  the  man- 
ner of  our  public  schools.  There  were  higher  schools 
or  colleges  for  sons  of  nobles  and  those  destined  for  the 
priesthood,  wherein  were  taught  history,  religion, 
philosophy,  law,  astronomy,  writing,  and  interpreting 
hieroglyphics,  singing,  dancing,  use  of  arms,  gymnas- 
tics, and  many  arts  and  sciences.  A  result  of  this 
high  training  may  be  found  in  the  many  botanical 
and  zoological  collections  in  the  country,  and  the  pro- 
motion of  art  in  sculpture,  weaving,  feather  orna- 
ments, and  jewelry,  by  the  nobles  and  the  wealthy. 

Picture-writing  is  practised  to  a  certain  extent  by 
all  savages,  both  in  representative  and  symbolic  form, 
but  it  is  only  by  studying  the  art,  or  following  its 
development  to  a  higher  grade,  that  it  acquires  per- 
manent value,  or  can  be  made  the  means  to  gain  for 
its  possessors  the  culture  stamp  of  keeping  records, 
and  records  were  kept  by  the  Nahuas.  They  had  ad- 
vanced to  some  extent  even  in  the  phonetic  form  of 
picture-writing,  but  had  not  reached  the  alphabetic 
grade.  Any  codex  will  show  in  abundance  the  repre- 
sentative and  symbolic  signs,  and  some  that  are  pho- 
netic. In  religious  and  astrologic  documents  the  signs 
vary  so  greatly  that  the  theory  has  been  strongly 
asserted  that  the  priests  used  a  partially  distinct 
symbolic  system  for  certain  records.  When  studying 
church  forms  under  the  missionaries  the  natives  used 
phonetic  signs  to  aid  their  memory  in  remembering 
abstract  words,  a  method  also  recognized  in  the  pre- 
served paintings  for  designation  of  names.  The  sys- 
tem is  apparently  of  native  origin.  The  Maya  writing 
is  still  more  phonetic  in  its  character. 


HISTORY  AND  ASTRONOMY.  37 

The  Nahua  records,  in  hieroglyphic  characters,  in- 
clude traditional  and  historical  annals,  with  names  and 
genealogic  tables  of  kings  and  nobles,  lists  and  tribute 
rolls  of  provinces  and  towns,  land  titles,  law  codes, 
court  records,  calendar,  religious  rules  and  rites,  edu- 
cational and  mechanical  processes,  etc.  The  hiero- 
glyphic system  was  known  in  its  ordinary  application 
to  the  educated  classes,  while  the  priests  alone  under- 
stood it  fully.  The  characters  were  painted  in  bright 
colors,  on  long  strips  of  paper,  cloth,  or  parchment,  or 
carved  in  stone.  Original  specimens  on  stone  and 
paper  or  skin  exist  to  prove  the  efficiency  of  the  sys- 
tem for  all  ordinary  requirements,  and  to  establish  for 
the  race  that  high  index  of  culture,  the  possession  of 
written  annals.  The  Spanish  authorities  for  a  long 
time  had  to  appeal  to  them  to  settle  land  and  other 
suits,  and  to  fix  taxes,  etc.  The  several  codices  in 
European  libraries  and  museums,  with  their  early  and 
recent  interpretation,  have  added  much  valuable  ma- 
terial to  ancient  history;  Ixtlilxochitl  and  others  built 
their  histories  mainly  on  such  paintings. 

The  Nahuas  were  well  acquainted  with  the  move- 
ments of  the  sun,  moon,  and  of  some  planets,  and 
observed  and  recorded  eclipses,  though  not  attributing 
them  to  natural  causes.  Their  calendar  divided  time 
into  ages  of  two  cycles,  each  cycle  consisting  of  four 
periods  of  thirteen  years,  the  years  of  each  cycle  being 
distinctly  designated  by  signs  and  names  with  num- 
bers, in  orderly  arrangement,  as  shown  on  their  sculpt- 
ured stones.  The  civil  year  w^as  divided  into  eighteen 
months  of  twenty  clays,  with  five  extra  days  to  com- 
plete the  year;  and  each  month  into  four  sections 
or  weeks.  Extra  days  were  also  added  at  the  end  of 
the  cycle,  so  that  our  calculations  are  closely  ap- 
proached. The  day  was  divided  into  fixed  periods 
corresponding  to  hours.  All  the  above  divisions  had 
their  signs  and  names.  The  ritual  calendar  was  lunar, 
wdth  twenty  weeks  of  thirteen  days  for  the  year,  all 
differinsr  in  their  enumeration,  thouoii  the  names  of 


38  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  CHRONICLERS. 

the  days  were  the  same  as  in  the  solar  calendar.  The 
system  of  numeration  was  simple  and  comprehensive, 
without  limit  to  the  numbers  that  could  be  expressed; 
and  so  were  the  signs  for  them.  It  was  essentially 
decimal. 

These  are  some  few  instances  of  Nahua  culture 
which  might  easily  be  extended  to  fill  a  volume  after 
all  exaggeration  has  been  thrown  out;  and  all  this, 
be  it  remembered,  was  the  condition  of  things  four 
hundred  years  ago.  Compare  it  with  the  European 
civilization  or  semi-civilization  of  that  day  on  the  one 
hand,  and  with  the  savagism  of  the  Iroquois  and 
Ojibways  on  the  other,  and  then  judge  which  of  the 
two  it  most  resembled. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 


Among  men  valor  and  prudence  are  seldom  met  with,  and  of  all  human 
excellencies  justice  is  still  more  uncommon. 

— Plutarch. 

Amidst  tlie  seemingly  fortuitous  flight  of  time  and 
evolution  of  nations,  we  may  rest  assured  of  some 
things  that  they  are  tolerably  certain  to  come  to  pass. 
There  are  a  few  simple  and  self-evident  propositions 
which  are  sure  to  work  themselves  out  in  certain  sim- 
ple and  self-evident  results. 

For  example,  satisfied  that  from  the  once  chaotic 
universe  this  planet  emerged  in  a  crude  uninhabited 
state  ;  that  the  cooling  process  is  yet  going  on,  and 
the  plants  and  animals  engendered  have  not  yet  reached 
perfection ;  that  the  once  wikl  humanity  is  gradually  be- 
coming what  is  called  civilized,  the  human  intellect 
slowly  extending  its  sway  over  all  the  eartli ;  satisfied 
of  these  and  other  like  phenomena,  we  may  know  that 
it  is  only  a  question  of  more  time,  a  further  progress, 
a  yet  more  powerful  reign  of  mind,  when  there  will 
be  no  more  savagism,  measured  by  the  standard  of 
to-day  ;  when  a  higher  than  the  present  culture  will 
extend  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  when  a 
culture  more  refined  than  ever  yet  the  world  has  wit- 
nessed, intellectual  domination  more  extended  and 
complete,  science,  literature,  and  the  arts  more  elevated 
and  all-compelling  than  ever  has  been  or  at  present  is 
dreamed  of  will  develop  upon  these  shores,  upon  this 
western  earth's  end,  this  terminus  of  the  grand  pro- 
gressional  highway  from  the  oriental  cradle  of  civili- 
zation to  the  farthest  occidental  reach  of  firm  land. 

(39) 


40  THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 

Of  old,  prophets  spake  of  a  new  lieaven  and  a  new 
earth  ;  we  may  here  predict  with  Air  better  reason  a 
New  CiviHzation. 

If  the  future  can  in  any  degree  be  determined  from 
the  past — and  upon  this  doctrhie  man  bases  every  rule 
of  action  ;  if,  in  the  progress  of  human  affairs,  the  de- 
velopment of  intellect,  the  evolution  of  societies,  there 
is  anything  like  method  or  law,  by  wliich  from  what 
has  been  we  may  judge  to  some  extent  of  what  will 
be,  then  we  may  know  that  liereupon  and  around  this 
western  pohit  of  the  temperate  zone  man's  highest  and 
ultimate  endeavor  is  to  be  achieved. 

For  the  tide  of  intelliijjence  havino^  ever  been  from 
east  to  west,  and  the  ultimate  west  having  been  at- 
tained, civilization  must  pause  in  its  migration,  and 
either  turn  backward  or  work  out  its  salvation  on  this 
ground.  Hitherto  there  has  been  no  turning  back ; 
the  east  has  ever  declined  as  tlie  west  has  advanced, 
oriental  peoples  having  lapsed  toward  barbarism,  and 
oriental  cities  being  well-nigh  dead. 

That  away  back  in  the  dim  prehistoric  there  may 
have  been  movements  of  peoples  other  than  those 
given  in  orthodox  story,  or  origins  of  race,  or  cradles 
of  civilization  other  than  those  generally  accepted, 
does  not  affect  the  fact ;  indeed,  we  can  plainly  trace 
the  westward  current  for  thirty  or  forty  centuries,  and 
it  has  not  wholly  ceased  flowing  yet. 

The  classic  nations  of  the  Mediterranean  preserve 
the  tradition  of  their  respective  phases  of  the  Aryan 
migration,  with  the  elaborations  prompted  by  romance 
and  vanity,  as  in  ^neas,  who  with  his  followers,  with 
sacred  fire  and  the  national  gods  of  Troy,  set  out  for 
the  unknown  shores  of  Hesperia.  The  east  is  known, 
though  dimly,  by  means  of  maintained  commercial 
relations,  while  the  west  became  the  object  of  curios- 
ity and  attraction,  to  which  mystery  lent  a  veneration 
which  stands  revealed  in  the  assignment  here  of  the 
happy  abode  of  the  Hesperides. 

The  incentives  for  the  movement  must  ever  remain 


PAST  AND  FUTURE.  41 

a  dim  conjecture.  Science  points  to  America  as  the 
oldest  continent,  peopled  perchance  from  now  sub- 
merged areas,  of  which  the  Azores  and  Cape  Verde 
islands  present  vestiges  on  one  side,  and  Polynesia  on 
the  other.  The  resemblance  of  race-types  on  either 
side  of  Bering  strait  confirms  the  natural  supposition 
of  ancient  intercourse  in  this  quarter.  The  oceans 
interposed  obstacles  well-nigh  insurmountable  to  mi- 
grations from  America,  save  by  thp  north-western  ap- 
proach to  Asia.  In  times  of  more  favorable  climatic 
conditions,  this  route  may  have  been  a  great  highway, 
although  long  since  closed  by  its  winters,  and  its  dreary, 
barren  surroundings. 

Whether  or  not  we  accept  one  common  origin  for 
mankind,  or  a  migration  to  Asia  from  America,  or 
still  older  lost  continents,  the  westward  advance  from 
the  Asiatic  table-lands  is  generally  adopted.  The  re- 
cent theory  of  a  Scandinavian  source  for  the  Aryans 
has  not  presented  itself  in  sufficiently  strong  array  to 
merit  comparison  with  the  other.  TJie  Phoenician 
migration  of  traders  and  colonizers  alone  forms  a 
more  imposing  evidence  of  the  westward  movement 
than  any  to  be  found  in  favor  of  the  south-eastward. 

Among  the  incentives  for  the  start  of  the  migration 
must  be  considered,  as  now,  not  alone  over-population, 
war,  famine,  and  other  disastrous  incidents,  but  the 
attractions  also  of  nomnd  life  on  the  plains,  and  the 
inspiriting  influence  of  travel.  From  the  interior 
of  Asia  swept  several  great  invading  hosts  within  his- 
toric times.  The  instilled  passion  for  roaming,  fostered 
by  the  possession  of  beasts  of  burden,  found  a  stinmlus 
in  the  swiftness  of  the  animals  wherein  lay  alike  safety 
and  the  temptation  to  daring  feats.  The  pressure  of 
such  restless  peoples  was  sufficient  in  itself  to  compel 
their  more  settled  neighbors  to  seek  a  new  home, 
while  the  resources  of  richer  nations, bordering  on  the 
ocean  and  its  fertilizing  tributaries,  served  as  an  allure- 
ment to  raid  and  conquest,  from  which  China  and 
India  suffered  in  common  with  occidental  retjions. 


42  THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 

The  direction  of  advance  from  the  Asiatic  plateaux 
may  have  been  in  a  measure  indicated  by  the  course  of 
the  sun,  wliich  in  tlie  si)lcndor  of  its  western  retreat 
held  fortli  an  entrancini^  promise  to  the  toiler  as  he 
sank  to  rest  and  meditation  after  the  day's  labor.  It 
is  evident,  however,  that  the  route  westward  was  less 
obstructed  than  those  to  the  east  and  south,  for  here 
interposed  lofty  mountain  ranges,  the  bulwark  of  com- 
pact settlements  reaching  to  the  ocean.  In  these 
directions  the  proxiuiity  of  the  sea  placed  a  bar  to 
advance.  For  that  matter,  the  exodus  from  the  in- 
terior plains  overran  the  continent  in  all  directions, 
into  Kathai,  Hindostan,  and  Persia ;  but  it  was  left 
to  the  highest  race,  the  Aryan,  to  follow  the  guiding 
sun  mainly  along  an  equable  zone,  whose  conditions 
were  best  adai)ted  to  the  unfolding  of  culture.  The 
fructifying  element  lay  in  the  movement,  and  the  con- 
sequent contact  with  different  peoples  and  histitutions, 
to  be  absorbed  during  a  more  or  less  prolonged  stay, 
together  with  the  blood-infusion  of  the  conquered. 
Thus  the  eye  of  progress  with  its  inquiring  gaze,  and 
the  arm  of  progress  with  its  romance  and  revelations, 
have  ever  been  directed  toward  the  setting  sun. 

Still  another  explanation  for  the  westward  march 
is  furnished  by  the  unfolding  of  settlements  in  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  first  colonists  occu- 
pied the  coast  region.  Later  comers  were  obliged  to 
extend  themselves  along  the  rivers  inland.  The 
movement  continued  westward  in  quest  of  new  lands, 
until  the  inner  border  peoples,  cramped  for  lack  of 
outlet,  began  to  look  toward  the  Pacific  coast  for  re- 
lief. The  construction  of  railways  has  rendered  less 
attractive  or  important  the  sea-shore,  with  its  pre- 
viously better  means  for  intercourse  and  trade,  and  its 
more  equable  temperature. 

Thus  in  Asia,  whether  originating  in  an  older  con- 
tinent or  not,  the  people  naturally  clustered  along  the 
coast  and  the   great  river  channels,  with  their  addi^ 
tional  attractions  of  fish.     The  gradual  filling  up  oj 


THE  EAST  AND  THE  WEST.  43 

China  and  India  left  the  Aryans  among  others  as  a 
border  tribe  of  the  interior.  The  wealth  of  the  In- 
dian peninsulas  served  to  increase  the  attractions  for 
the  seaboards,  and  lend  an  incentive  to  the  march. 
Thus  was  occupied  every  attractive  point  westward. 
On  reaching  Africa,  the  desert  on  one  side,  and  the 
mountains  and  equatorial  heat  on  the  other,  turned 
the  next  phase  of  the  movement  from  the  Nile  ranges, 
along  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  until 
the  Atlantic  was  reached.  A  fresh  field  being  opened 
in  America,  social  and  political  troubles  and  aspira- 
tions prompted  anotlier  advance,  with  a  still  greater 
intellectual  development.  The  highest  culture  is 
found  always  along  tlie  paths  of  trade,  with  its  stimu- 
lating intercourse,  along  the  highway  from  India  to 
Phoenicia,  along  the  peninsula  of  the  northern  Medi- 
terranean, thence  to  spread  by  colonization  westward 
and  north,  to  be  rooted  among  the  slower  yet  stronger 
peoples  bordering  on  the  North  Sea. 

The  most  striking  progress  was  attained  with  the 
opening  of  new  fields  in  America,  attended  by  more 
daring  and  insph^iting  voyages  and  expeditions,  and  by 
a  battling  with  nature  in  the  founding  of  settlements, 
which  led  to  a  practical  self-reliance  and  inventive 
faculty,  ever  the  sources  of  the  widest  development. 
The  acquisition  of  vacant  land  on  which  to  exert  in- 
telligent energy  was  a  strong  factor  in  the  advance, 
and  the  location  of  progressive  peoples  along  the  tem- 
perate belt  gave  stimulus  to  eflbrts,  as  did  the  libera- 
tion from  civil  and  ecclesiastical  restraint,  with  the 
privilege  to  freely  think  and  act  and  work  out  the 
promptings  of  laudable  aspirations. 

This  check  to  liberty,  and  the  lack  of  free  land,  tended 
to  steep  the  middle  ages  of  Europe  in  stagnation, 
while  the  encircling  Mohammedans,  of  inferior  traits 
and  abilities,  under  stimulating  movement  and  inter- 
course, conquest  and  empire  building,  were  developing 
to  an  exceptional  degree  of  culture.  The  two  obsta- 
cles removed,    Europe  resumed  her  onward   march, 


44  THE  NEW   CIVILIZATION. 

while  the  Saracens,  deprived  of  these  benefits,  fell  be- 
hind. The  energy  latent  in  man  needs  only  proper 
incentive  to  manifest  itself  with  effect;  but  tlie  nature 
of  the  incentive  varies  somewhat  as  illustrated  by 
the  followers  of  the  Bible  and  the  Koran.  The  pres- 
ent advance  is  marked  especially  by  the  elevation  of 
the  masses,  by  means  of  inventions  and  acquisition 
of  landed  interest. 

It  is  a  matter  worthy  of  consideration,  that  ever 
since  the  world  was  made  down  to  the  present  time, 
there  have  been  untenanted  lands  for  a  crowded  hu- 
manity to  overflow  into,  swarming  places  for  the  race; 
that  although  as  men  fathomed  science  more  and 
more,  and  became  skilled  in  the  arts,  and  assumed 
more  and  more  a  master}^  over  nature,  they  re(|uired 
less  room,  yet  the  area  occupied  was  ever  filling  up 
with  human  beings,  whom  land  could  not  adequately 
sustain,  or  development  provide  for,  thus  rendering 
constantly  necessary  new  lands  or  else  a  curtailment 
of  population. 

The  theory  of  population  wliich  leaves  no  standing- 
room  for  further  comers  is  findinof  realization  faster 

o 

than  its  originators  imagined.  It  is  but  a  question  of 
time  when  the  race  increase  must  stop,  if  not  by  one 
means  then  by  another.  Until  now  the  world  has 
had  a  west,  where  good  land  could  be  had  for  the 
takino:;  there  is  not  now  left  a  single  acre  of  the  kind. 
True,  our  western  lands  for  tlie  present  will  hold  many 
more  people,  and  poorer  lands  will  be  utilized,  but  all 
the  same  the  end  will  come — the  end  of  the  world,  it 
may  be,  as  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  more  advanced 
stages  of  national  aixe  and  culture,  increase  is  first 
arrested,  and  then  population  retrogrades. 

What  is  civilization?  The  question  has  often  been 
asked,  but  never  answered.  Nor  can  it  be  satisfac- 
torily explained  until  human  knowledge  has  advanced 
much  farther,  has,  indeed,  entered  the  domain  of  om- 
niscience. The  irrepressible  unfolding  of  intellect  stands 


WHAT   IS   CIVILIZATION?  46 

in  the  same  category  with  the  otlier  great  unknowable 
mysteries  of  the  miiverse.  What  is.  life  ?  what  intel- 
lect? How  shall  be  unravelled  the  tangled  thread  of 
origin  and  destiny?  The  self-consciousness  which 
makes  man  know  that  he  is,  the  reasoning  faculties 
which  tell  him  that  his  mind  is  something  different 
from  mere  brute  intelligence,  his  aspirations  something 
different  from,  if  not,  indeed,  higlier  and  more  lasting 
than  mere  brute  instinct,  and  that  existence  has  its 
significance  to  him — this  consciousness  reveals  to  the 
possessor  at  once  an  ocean  of  knowledge  and  an  eter- 
nity of  despair. 

Although  tlie  offspring  of  man  is  the  most  hr^lpless 
and  apparently  senseless  of  all  animals  during  the  long 
period  of  its  intant  existence,  it  makes  rapid  strides 
afterwards.  Measure  by  this  standard  the  life  of 
the  human  race,  and  it  has  many  millions  of  years 
yet  to  live  before  it  knows  all  there  is  to  be  known, 
and  can  do  all  there  is  to  be  done ;  so  slowly  unfolds 
the  intellect,  so  slowly  nature  reveals  herself  to  man  I 
It  seems  to  have  taken  a  long  time  before  man  could 
gain  a  position  distinct  from  the  brute  creation.  It 
is  difficult  to  conceive  the  point  of  separation,  or  to 
apply  tlie  ordinary  tests  to  distinguish  absolute  savag- 
isni  from  incipient  civilization.  We  say  that  when 
man,  with  intellect  still  a  germ,  indistinguishable  from 
instinct,  bends  branches  and  places  sticks  and  bark  so 
as  the  better  to  shelter  himself;  the  moment  he  seizes 
a  club  to  assist  him  in  capturing  food,  he  has  taken 
the  first  step  from  savagism  toward  civilization;  and 
yet  many  animals  do  this,  and  more,  animals  which 
never  advance  further.  The  difference  is  more 
marked,  however,  w^ien  man,  after  deliberately  erect- 
ing for  himself  a  hut,  sits  dow^n  before  it,  and  sharpens 
one  end  of  his  stick,  or  in  one  end  of  it  makes  a  slit, 
in  which  he  fastens  a  stone  so  that  one  end  shall  be 
the  heavier,  or  perhaps  sharpens  the  stone  before  he 
ties  it  to  a  stick  in  the  form  of  a  hatchet,  notwith- 
standing sticks  and  stones  when  taken  apart  are  used 


46  THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 

by  many  animals  as  weapons.  Let  the  sharpened 
end  of  the  stick  be  hardened  in  the  fire,  tipped  with 
poison,  or  with  sharpened  flint,  or  both,  and  let  a 
bow  be  strung  with  which  to  drive  the  feathered  dart, 
and  a  stride  has  been  made  which  satisfies  hmnanity 
peiliaps  for  thousands  of  years. 

The  advance  may  be  slow.  Nevertheless,  there  is 
an  advance  ;  and  herein  lies  the  diflerence  between 
man  and  brute.  The  one,  with  the  aid  of  reason,  im- 
proves his  weapons,  while  the  other  does  not.  And 
this  improving  is  civilization.  Here  may  be  noticed 
the  anomaly  in  man  emerging  from  a  purely  primitive 
state,  that  while  decoration  is  before  dress,  in  tem- 
perate zones  at  least,  in  all  of  his  other  unfoldings, 
the  practical  precedes  the  ornamental.  In  the  very 
fact  that  the  naked  wild  man  is  of  all  animals  the  least 
fitted  by  nature  to  provide  for  himself  his  first  necessity, 
fot)d,  lies  the  strongest  of  hnpulses  for  him  to  abandon 
savagism,  and  set  out  on  his  endless  journey  toward 
civilization — endless,  because  civilization  is  not  an  end 
but  an  aim.  If  the  world  stands  ten  thousand  years 
longer,  and  men  continue  to  come  and  go  as  of  old, 
then  we  of  to-day  are  savages  as  compared  with  the 
more  cultured  people  of  that  remote  period.  As  no- 
where on  the  globe  mankind  are  now  born  into  a 
state  of  absolute  savagism,  so  nowhere  can  their 
beginning  here  be  made  in  an  atmosphere  of  perfect 
civilization. 

We  may  go  further  and  say  with  truth  and  reason 
of  the  latest  civilization,  that  if  it  be  the  foremost  on 
the  earth  of  its  day,  it  must  of  necessity  be  the  far- 
thest advanced  of  any  that  has  been  before.  It  can 
not  blot  out  all  the  benefits  to  the  race  added  by  its 
predecessors,  and  so  leave  the  world  the  worse.  Civ- 
ilization is  a  progress,  a  perpetual  and  continuous  pro- 
gress, although  the  advance  is  more  marked  at  certain 
times  and  in  certain  directions.  Such  growth,  like 
that  of  most  things  in  nature,  may  not  be  visible  to 
the  eye,  but  it  is  none  the  less  present.     There  may 


PROGRESS  DURING  THE  DARK  AGE.  47 

be  apparent  inaction,  or  even  retrogression,  during 
wliicli  many  things  are  forgotten,  and  some  valuable 
arts  lost ;  yet  who  shall  say  of  any  period,  long  or  short, 
that  here  was  no  advance,  or  there  civilization  rested  ? 

It  is  true  that  since  the  dawn  of  our  present  de- 
velopment there  has  been  a  so-called  Dark  Age,  ten 
ceuturies,  during  which  knowledge  lay  hidden  away 
in  musty  prison-houses,  and  civilization. slumbered, 
while  the  heavens  were  hung  in  black.  But  was 
there  then  really  no  advance  during  these  ten  dark  cen- 
turies ?  Was  there  no  leaven  of  progress  working  in 
society,  no  hidden  processes  going  on,  no  unseen 
changes  which  were  to  yield  mighty  results,  turning 
and  overturning  nations,  and  kneading  the  world  of 
Europe  into  new  forms  ?  It  is  true  the  sky  was  dark, 
aiul  all  the  earth  incarnadine  with  man's  blood,  shed 
by  man  because  of  conceptions  so  absurd,  so  super- 
latively silly  as  to  appear  to  us  naught  but  the  work- 
ings of  insanity ;  and  yet  out  of  all  this  wickedness 
and  folly  came  great  good;  out  of  feudalism  the  com- 
pacting of  societies,  out  of  knight-errantry  the  eleva- 
tion of  woman,  out  of  the  crusades  the  general  break- 
mg  down  of  barriers,  the  explosion  of  fallacies,  and  the 
out-spreading  of  knowledge,  not  to  mention  the  tem- 
porary ascendancy  of  Mohammedanism  in  general 
culture.  Add  the  high  achievements  of  art  and 
science,  culminating  in  the  inventions  of  gunpowder 
and  printing,  the  adaptation  of  the  mariner's  compass 
to  navigation,  which  was  followed  by  the  discovery  of 
a  new  world,  divers  circumnavigations,  and  the  final 
uncovenng  of  the  entire  globe.  Such  grand  results, 
the  grandest  the  world  has  ever  witnessed,  could 
hardly  have  arisen  from  a  stagnant  pool,  notwith- 
standing we  are  in  the  habit  of  calHng  it  the  Dark 
Age  of  general  depression,  when  the  intellect  of  man 
lay  dormant. 

Yet,  while  the  period  following  the  opening  of 
America  was  indeed  an  age  of  progress,  aside  from 
the  few  great  inventions  mentioned,  how  insignificant 


48  THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 

have  been  the  clevelopinents  of  the  tlirce  past  centu- 
ries as  eonipareil  witli  the  achievements  massed  within 
five  decades  of  the  present  century,  the  era  of  steam 
and  steel.  Still  greater  j)rosi)ects  of  development 
are  promised  by  electricity  alone,  which  is  as  yet  in 
its  infancy;  and  who  shall  venture  to  predict  the  ad- 
vance to  be  made  within  the  following  centuries? 

During  the  past  few  thousand  years,  for  which 
time  alone  the  doings  of  the  human  race  have  left  any 
record,  men  have  been  much  occupied  in  their  migra- 
tions. These  are  now  for  the  most  part  finished,  so 
far  at  least  as  large  united  bodies  are  concerned.  The 
great  migrations  of  the  human  race  are  ended.  There 
will  continue,  more  than  ever  before,  a  restless  moving 
hither  and  thither  over  the  face  of  the  earth  of  in- 
dividuals and  small  parties;  but  for  a  nation,  or  any 
considerable  portion  of  a  nation,  to  arise,  go  forth, 
and  conquer,  despoil,  and  sul)jugate  or  drive  out  an- 
other nation,  will  never  again  be  done  under  the  pres- 
ent order  of  things.  The  general  connningling  of 
the  peoples  of  the  earth  essentially  prohil)it  such 
usurpation.  Never  was  intercourse  so  wide-spread 
and  expeditious  as  now;  never  was  less  conspicuous 
the  idea  of  race  robbery  and  national  spoliation. 

The  last  great  migration  was  to  California,  the 
western  world's  end,  com])leting  the  cycle  of  Aryan 
wanderings.  Far  less  voluminous  and  cosmopolitan 
were  the  movements  toward  Australia  and  Africa. 
On  the  Pacific  coast  met  the  representatives  of 
nations  from  all  quarters  to  form  a  new  organization, 
bringing  into  contribution  the  choicest  traits  and  ac- 
quirements. What  Egyptian  and  west  Asiatic  civiliza- 
tion did  for  Greece,  what  Greece  did  for  Rome,  what 
Rome  did  for  Western  Europe,  all  the  world  has 
done  for  these  Pacific  States. 

The  site  of  this  new  civilization,  which  but  lately 
seemed  far  removed  from  reoions  of  refinement  and 

o 

the  higher  culture,  is  gradually  becoming  the  centre 


DEAD  NATIONS.  49 

of  the  most  energetic  material  and  intellectual  progress 
tliat  may  be  found  among  the  nation's  of  the  earth 
to-day.  The  stranger  coming  hither  from  any  part 
of  the  world  may  find  more  congenial  companionship, 
more  that  is  like  himself  and  his  early  life  than  in  any 
other  community.  He  finds  himself  at  home,  envi- 
roned by  an  atmosphere  in  which  his  true  inwardness 
may  best  thrive,  and  he  may  transplant  himself  into 
this  new  and  natural  civilization  and  grow  as  if  born 
in  it. 

Following  the  law  of  progress,  other  things  being 
equals  the  latest  civilization  is  the  most  powerful,  and 
becomes  the  world's  master.  It  is  most  powerful  be- 
cause of  its  superior  knowledge,  its  superior  mental 
force,  which  breeds  mechanical  force  surmounting  the 
forces  of  otlier  peoples  and  of  nature.  The  new  civili- 
zation has  for  its  guide  all  the  recorded  experiences 
of  otlier  civilizations.  To  tliese  world-wide  and  ac- 
cumulated ex[)eriences  it  may  add  its  own  intuitions 
and  inventions,  and  wliile  avoiding  the  errors  of  oth- 
ers it  may  [)r()fit  by  the  wisdom  of  the  past. 

The  train  of  thought  stiirted  in  the  east  has  ever 
expanded  in  its  westward  advance.  Each  succeeding 
generation  has  surpassed  tlie  preceding.  Neverthe- 
less, the  self-esteem  and  prestige  of  age  has  naturally 
sought  to  assert  itself  over  youth  ;  the  parent  has 
striven  to  maintain  its  authority  over  the  child.  As 
before  intimated,  since  the  first  appearance  of  civiliza- 
tion in  Europe,  and  indeed  before  it  left  Asia,  it  has 
been  the  tendency  of  the  east  to  rule  the  west.  Al- 
ways further  advanced  in  culture,  superior  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  tlie  people  of  the  cast  have  ever  assumed 
it  as  a  divine  riglit  to  tyrannize  over  those  of  the  west, 
to  fasten  upon  them  not  alone  tlieir  social  customs, 
and  their  mechanical  contrivances,  but  their  laws, 
their  literature,  their  modes  of  thought,  and  their  re- 
ligious beliefs. 

Wlien  Europeans  broke  the  boundaries  of  time,  tra- 
versed the  Sea  of  Darkness,  and  found  a  strange  peo- 

ESSAYS   AND   MiSCKLLANV       4 


50  THE  NEW   CIVILIZATION. 

pie  in  their  new  India,  the  same  old  story  was 
repeated.  The  nations  of  America  were  less  powerful 
than  those  of  Europe  ;  and  we  well  know  the  inex- 
orable law  of  nature,  that  the  weaker  must  give  w^ay 
to  the  stronger.  The  Indians  were  naked ;  their 
weapons  were  crude  and  ineffectual ;  they  had  neither 
steel  nor  gunpowder;  they  were  simple-minded,  su- 
perstitious, at  war  one  with  anotlier,  easily  played 
upon  ;  and  finally,  with  no  great  difficulty,  they  were 
subjugated.  As  matters  of  course  they  must  learn 
the  language  of  the  conquerors,  they  must  accept  the 
faith  and  obey  the  laws  of  the  conquerors.  This  was 
demanded  and  enforced,  all  in  the  way  of  true  right- 
eousness, as  the  will  of  heaven,  as  the  eternal  purpose 
of  the  almighty.  God  should  feel  truly  grateful  for 
what  man  has  done  for  him. 

And  even  to  the  present  day  lingers  this  same 
spirit  of  domination,  with  the  difference  that  the  spots 
whereon  appeared  the  oldest  civilizations  are  no  longer 
centres  of  superior  intelligence.  Progress  there  has 
become  withered,  dead,  the  nations  retrograde,  and 
the  people  have  relapsed  into  a  state  more  hopeless 
in  some  respects  than  that  of  savagism.  Thus  the 
seat  of  domination  has  shifted  ever  further  westward 
with  the  unfolding  of  civilization,  following  in  the 
path  of  the  select  elements  which  have  cut  loose  from 
eastern  homes  to  flourish  in  fresher  soil. 

Hound  about  the  hypothetical  cradle  of  the  race 
the  very  earth  has  gone  out  with  its  people,  the  for- 
ests are  withered,  and  the  soil  exhausted.  Siva  has 
usurped  the  place  of  Vishnu,  to  assume  sway  over 
lands  once  as  fair  as  any  which  have  so  long  been 
kept  fresh  for  the  new  civilization.  Eden  of  the  Eu- 
phrates is  a  desert ;  where  once  grew  the  oaks  of  Bash- 
an  acorns  will  not  sprout ;  the  elysian  fields  which 
once  bordered  the  Mediterranean,  where  are  they  ? 

Unlike  the  mouldering  plant  which  fertilizes  its 
successor,  the  decaying  nations  of  the  old  w^orld,  in 
common  with  their  forests  and  fields,  seem  difficult  to 


REVIVAL  OF  MATERIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  51 

restore.  Like  the  soil  of  the  east,  progress  is  dissi- 
pated rather  than  decayed ;  for  in  decay  is  life. 

In  practical  enterprise  and  cognate  traits,  whereon 
depend  the  highest  unfolding  of  civilization,  America 
is  nearly  as  far  in  advance  of  Europe  as  Europe  is  of 
Asia.  This  relative  excellence  applies  also  to  the 
western  and  Pacific  states,  as  compared  with  the  At- 
lantic seaboard  of  the  United  States.  Behold  the 
effect  of  open  fields  and  fresh  resources  on  self-reliant 
man  on  this  western  slope,  in  the  transformation  of  a 
wilderness  into  a  series  of  flourishing  states,  with  a 
rapidity,  soundness,  and  perfection  that  stand  unparal- 
leled I  Consider  the  impromptu  yet  efficient  organi- 
zations of  local  and  general  government ;  the  elabora- 
tion of  a  new  system  of  mining  under  the  promptings 
of  necessity,  marked  by  inventions  for  sluicing  and 
hydraulics,  in  cribbing,  pumping,  crushing,  and  reduc- 
tion, devices  so  great  as  to  revolutionize  and  revive 
the  exploitation  of  precious  metals  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  the  improvements  in  lumbering,  which  have 
increased  this  business  to  huge  porportions,  and  bene- 
fited the  world  at  large,  notably  by  means  of  the 
flume  and  saw-tooth,  and  the  powerful  and  economic 
method  and  machinery  applied  to  agriculture,  which 
assisted  to  lift  California  within  a  few  years  to  the 
front  rank  among  wheat  regions.  Similar  advances 
have  been  made  in  other  industries,  and  this 
within  the  first  decade  or  two  after  the  birth  of 
these  territories  and  states.  Within  the  same  period 
California  raised  herself  from  an  obscure  colonial 
and  frontier  settlement  to  a  position  of  paramount 
influence  along  the  entire  Pacific  coast,  the  nucleus 
whence  started  the  founders  of  states,  the  chief  seat 
of  commerce  in  the  Occident,  the  school  whence  issued 
disciples  to  scatter  the  seed  of  Anglo-Saxon  culture 
among  the  retrograde  nations  of  the  south  and  the 
orient. 

Turnips  transplanted  from  the  east  to  California 
change  in  their  nature;  so  do  grains  and  grasses,  fruit 


52  THE  NEW  CIVILIZATION. 

and  live  stock,  and  likewise  men.  Bone,  sinew, 
brains,  the  whole  person  teeming  with  detenuinato 
purpose,  comprise  the  lapis  phiIos(fpIiorfnii  of  Californian 
alchemists.  Thus  into  the  alembic  of  this  heterogene- 
ous society,  into  this  land  of  broad  possibilities,  came 
many  a  young  farmer  and  mechanic  for  his  refining; 
many  a  business  man  and  scientist. 

In  art,  literature,  and  learning,  we  must  expect  the 
east  for  some  time  yet  to  patronize  the  west.  In 
journalism  we  must  expect  that  as  the  editor  of  the 
L<in(lon  JI/fjl(J>in<lcr  regards  the  editor  of  the  New 
York  7//y////>/??^/rr  with* disdain,  so  will  the  editor  of 
the  NewYork  Jfif/hhindrr  have  no  hesitation  in  man- 
ifesting his  contempt  for  whatever  appears  in  the 
colunuTs  of  the  Chicago  Highbinder  or  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Highbinder,  The  eastern  editor  may  be  the 
wiser  man,  or  he  may  not  be  so;  if  tlie  latter,  he 
happily  does  not  know  it,  and  putting  on  his  cloak  of 
tracHti'()n  and  environment,  he  will  contiime  to  write 
most  bravely. 

Tlie  east  has  been  so  long  accustomed  to  i)lay  the 
part  of  schoolmaster  that  it  "does  not  realize  that  in 
the  west  also  are  things  to  learn  and  brains  to  learn 
them ;  it  does  not  realize  that  much  of  its  so-called 
learnhig  is  obsolete  or  untrue,  that  many  of  its  teach- 
ings ai-e  absurdly  fallacious  and  false,  and  that  the 
first  work  of  western  wisdom  is  to  unlearn  a  large  part 
of  what  it  has  been  taught  by  the  east,  more  especially 
in  regard  to  matters  oV  wliicli  no  one  can  know  any- 
thing^ If  we  have  not  here  so  much  of  conversational^ 
refin'ement  and  prudish  formalism,  it  is  because  we  doj 
not  want  them,  preferring  a  physical  energy  with  un- 
adulterated intellectual  force. 

For  centuries  to  come,  and  henceforth  to  the  end 
for  aught  anyone  can  tell,  the  tendency  of  culturd 
will  be  to  concentrate  on  this  Pacific  seaboard,  thd 
terminal  of  the  great  Aryan  march;  nor  is  this  expecj 
tation  without  good  and  reasonable  ground.     Conside 


THE  LATEST  MIGRATION.  53 

alone  the  vast  array  of  resources  in  fertile  soil,  mineral 
deposits,  forests,  fish,  and  the  like,  and  a  climate  of 
unsurpassed  equability  for  fully  twenty  degrees  oF 
latitude.  The  choicest  of  these  advantages  unite  in 
California,  which,  from  its  peculiarly  favorable  geo- 
graphic position  and  fine  harbors,  will  ever  sustain  it- 
self as  a  great  entrepot  for  trade  between  the  orient 
and  the  Australasias, and  the  vast  range  of  states  and 
countries  eastward. 

This  prospect  of  a  great  future  brings  forward  one 
more  point  for  consideration.  There  is  a  unity  of  in- 
terests among  the  nations  bordering  the  Pacific  side 
of  the  continent  which  circumstances  are  just  now  be- 
ginning fully  to  develop.  Time  brings  to  pass  many 
wonderful  things.  The  eastern  side  of  America  does 
not  always  regard  tlie  western  with  a  benignant  eye, 
single  to  the  interests  of  the  nation.  There  are  moun- 
tain barriers  dividing  the  east  from  the  west;  there 
are  broad  placid  waters  inviting  intercourse  between 
the  south  and  the  north.  This  western  strip  of  North 
America  nature  has  made  one  country.  Tlie  same 
world-enwrapping  waters  wash  its  entire  shore ;  the 
same  glow  of  sunset  bathes  its  entire  borders.  It 
makes  little  difference  what  the  political  divisions 
may  be,  so  long  as  the  several  states  or  republics  are 
at  peace  and  liarmony,  one  with  another.  Several  in- 
dependent governments  along  this  Pacific  seaboard  may 
be  better  or  worse  than  one,  according  to  circumstances. 

In  proof  of  these  premises,  we  see  already  com- 
menced a  migration  different  from  any  which  has 
preceded  it ;  a  migration,  not  for  gold,  or  furs,  or  con- 
quest, or  religion,  by  adventurers,  soldiers,  priests,  or 
peltry  men,  but  by  persons  of  wealtli  and  intelligence 
from  the  more  inhospitable  climates  of  the  east  and 
Europe,  who  come  hither  for  health  and  pleasure  and 
happy  homes.  Already  has  begun  the  New  Civiliza- 
tion. And  when  decay  comes  here,  will  the  western 
sunset  be  followed  by  a  new  sunrise  in  the  east,  or 
will  the  world  be  rejuvenated  by  a  new  cataclysm? 


CHAPTER  III. 

ROOT  DIGGERS  AND  GOLD  DIGGERS. 

Con  legno  legno  spranga  mai  non  cinse 
Lorte  cosi;  ond'ei,  come  duo  becclii, 
Cozzaro  insieme,  tanb'ira  gli  vinse. 

— DelV  Inferno. 

One  hot  day  in  July  1848,  such  as  the  middle  prong 
of  the  American  river  has  long  been  subject  to, 
perched  upon  one  of  the  high  boulders  time  had 
tumbled  into  the  defile,  sat  a  philosophic  savage,  his 
hairless  chin  resting  on  his  naked  knees,  his  bony 
hands  clasped  over  his  bushy  head,  and  his  black 
eyes  gleaming  with  dim  intelligence  as  they  strained 
their  powers  to  encompass  the  scene  before  him.  On 
either  side,  scattered  up  the  stream  and  down  it,  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach  and  until  the  steel-and-silver 
band  was  lost  behind  precipitous  banks,  were  strange 
beings  engaged  in  a  strange  business. 

Some  were  in  red  and  black,  some  in  white  and 
gray;  many  were  almost  as  naked  as  himself,  their 
bare  arms  and  legs  whiter  than  the  white  stones  over 
which  the  waters  skipped.  Crawling  between  the 
rocks,  and  turning  up  the  red  earth,  and  kneading 
with  their  hands  the  mud  they  made,  through  the 
dry  baked  air  tremulous  with  rarefactions,  they  looked 
not  unlike  variegated  bugs  rolling  their  delectable 
dung-balls.  Some  were  swinging  over  their  heads 
large  double- pronged  clubs,  and  smiting  the  earth 
therewith  ;  some  were  standing  bare-legged  and  bare- 
armed  in  the  rushing  waters,  peering  into  them  as  if 
to  read  their  records  or  fathom  the  secrets  of  the 
mountains ;  some  were  on  their  knees  in  an  attitude 


THE   MEDITATIVE   SAVAGE.  55 

of  worship  or  supplication;  others  lay  like  lizards  on 
the  rocks  pecking  with  their  knives.  Some  with 
shovels  were  digging  in  the  sands  and  gravel,  leaving 
beside  the  earth-heaps  holes  half  filled  with  water. 

"These  must  be  graves,"  the  savage  thought,  ''pre- 
pared before  the  coming  sacrifice."  Right,  my  big- 
lipped  brother!  These  are  graves,  every  one  of 
them,  graves  of  sense  and  soul,  of  high  hopes  and 
the  better  quality  of  manhood.  Indeed,  of  all  this 
fine  array  of  mind-driven  mechanism,  of  beings  that 
in  this  wilderness  might  rise  to  the  full  stature  of 
gods  were  they  not  under  curse  to  crawl  about  these 
canons  serpentine  upon  their  bellies;  of  all  of  them, 
I  say,  there  will  be  little  left  this  day  twelve-month 
not  buried  in  these  holes.  For  most  of  the  gold  the 
foothills  gave,  brought  like  that  of  Nibeluiigen,  noth- 
ing but  ill-luck  to  the  possessor. 

''What  are  they  digging  for?"  the  meditative 
aboriginal  asks  himself.  "My  faithful  wives  dig  roots 
and  so  sustain  the  lives  of  their  liege  lord  and  little 
ones,  as  in  duty  they  are  ever  bound ;  but  these  poor 
pale  fools  will  find  no  nourishment  beneath  those 
stones.  I  will  tell  them  so.  But  stop  !  What  is 
that  he  holds  aloft  with  out-stretched  arms  midst 
yells  and  waving  of  his  hat,  the  one  more  frantic  than 
the  rest  ?  By  the  dried  bones  of  my  grandsire  I 
believe  it  is  the  heavy  3^ellow  dirt  that  often  as  a 
child  I  gathered  to  see  it  glitter  in  the  sun,  though 
it  is  not  half  so  beautiful  for  that  as  the  snake's  back. 
Once  I  hammered  handfuls  of  it  into  a  dish  for  crush- 
ing grasshoppers  in,  or  for  boiling  fish,  but  the  stones 
my  greasy  darlings  hollow  out  are  better  for  the  one 
purpose,  and  their  baskets  for  the  other.  Besides, 
willows  and  grass  are  easier  worked  than  that  heavy 
stuff.  So  I  kicked  the  old  dish  into  the  river  and 
was  glad  to  see  it  sink.  The  young  chief  tried  that 
same  dirt  for  his  arrow-heads,  but  it  was  not  fit ;  the 
women  forged  it  into  chains  for  ornaments,  but  there 
was  nothing  ornamental  about  them ;  so  after  trying 


56  ROOT  DIGGERS   AND  GOLD  DIGGERS 

it  for  one  thing  and  another  it  was  finally  let  alone  as 
good  for  nothing. 

"But  heavenly  spirit  I  we  found  that  out  ages  ago. 
It  must  be  that  these  white  scramblers  have  not  been 
long  upon  this  earth  to   be   so  taken   by  so  poor  a 
glitter.     Mark  their   posture.     Even  their  eyes  are 
turned  downward.     They  cannot  see  the  sun,  which 
is    brighter   than    their   gold.       And    the    stars   are 
brighter;  and  the  dancing  water,  and  the  purple  haze 
that  lies  on  misty  mountains,  and  the  awful  craggincss 
hereabout  are  a  thousand  times  more  beautiful  and 
grand.     Can  they  eat  this  they  so  covet?     No.     It  . 
is  good  for  nothing  or  for  very  little  for  which  there  I 
are  not  other  better  things.     I  have  it.       The  stuffs 
melts;  I  saw  some  running  down  the  edges  of  my 
dish  when  they  put  the  fire  to  it.     They  want  it  for  j 
images,  for  molten  gods.     Alas  I  alas  I  that  through-  I 
out  this  universe  intelligences  yet  exist  possessed  of 
such  insensate  folly." 

Softly,  bad-smelling  barbarian  !  Though  thou  art 
right,  it  is  for  gods  they  want  the  stuff,  and  very 
good  gods  it  makes.  None  of  your  deaf  and  dumb 
effigies,  nor  even  invisible,  impalpable  spirits  perched 
on  high  Olympus,  hell-bound,  or  be-heavened  beyond 
space.  Appeal  to  these  golden  gods  and  they  answer 
you.  Invoke  them  and  forthwith  they  procure  you 
food,  obeisance,  and  eternal  life. 

And  yet  you  question,  tawny  friend,  why  this  insa- 
tiate human  appetite  for  bits  of  yellow  earth,  for  cold, 
dead  metal,  and  why  for  this  more  than  for  any  other 
kind  of  earth  ?  Not  for  its  utility,  surely,  you  argue  ; 
though  economists  say  that  it  is  an  absolute  equivo- 
lent  as  well  as  a  measure  of  value.  It  is  scarcely 
more  valuable  than  other  metals,  scarcely  more  valua- 
ble intrinsically  than  the  least  of  all  created  things. 
It  is  less  valuable  than  stone,  which  makes  the  moun- 
tains that  rib  and  form  the  valleys,  than  grass  which 
offers  food,  than  soil  which  feeds  the  grass.  For  or- 
nament, if  ornament  be  essential  to  human  happiness, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  GOLD,  57 

sliells  or  laurel  serve  as  well ;  for  plate,  porcelain  is 
better.  True,  some  little  of  it  may  be  used  for  filling 
teeth,  but  tons  of  it  might  be  employed  in  vain  to 
fill  the  stomach.  Other  metals  are  just  as  rare,  and 
beautiful,  and  durable.  ''Then  what  magic  power 
lies  wrapped  withia  its  molecules  ? "  you  seem  to 
say.  "  Will  it  heal  the  sick  or  raise  the  dead ;  will  it 
even  clothe  or  feed,  or  add  one  comfort  to  naked, 
houseless  humanity  ?  Hidden  beneath  its  cold  and 
weighty  covering  may  we  hope  to  find  an  elixir  vitae, 
a  fountain  of  youth;  or  will  it  save  a  soul  from  hell, 
or  a  body  from  the  grave  ?  Surely  there  must  be 
some  innate  virtue  there,  some  power,  natural  or 
supernatural,  that  thus  brings  intellect  and  all  the 
high  attributes  and  holy  aspirations  of  intelligent  rea- 
soning creatures  beneath  its  sway." 

Peace,  brute  I  Nothing  of  the  kind.  Yes  and  no. 
Have  I  not  told  you  that  in  the  civilization  which  so 
sage  a  savage  even  as  yourself  can  but  faintly  com- 
prehend, gold  is  god,  and  a  very  good  god  ?  All  men 
worship  it,  and  all  women.  It  buys  men  and  it  buys 
women.  It  buys  intellect  and  honor;  it  buys  beauty 
and  chastity.  There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  it  will 
not  purchase,  nor  yet  anything  in  heaven,  or  in  hell. 
Lucifer  has  his  broker  on  every  street  corner,  and 
Christ  his  agent  in  every  pulpit.  All  cry  alike  for 
gold  !  gold  1  Men  cannot  live  without  it,  or  die  with- 
out it.  Unless  he  finds  an  obolus  in  their  mouth  to 
pay  the  ferriage  over  the  stygian  stream,  Charon  will 
not  pass  them.  You  do  not  know  Charon  ?  Well, 
you  shall  know  him  presently.  Charon  is  a  very  good 
god,  but  not  so  good  as  gold.  Indeed,  gold  is  Charon's 
god;  and  every  god's  god,  as  well  as  every  man's. 
You  are  somewhat  like  Charon,  oh !  sooty  and  filthy ! 
Charon  is  he  who,  while  with  Mercury  on  a  visit  for 
a  day  to  the  upper  world  to  see  what  life  was  like, 
wondered  how  men  should  so  wail  while  crossing  Styx 
when  there  was  so  little  on  earth  to  lose. 

No,  shock-head  1   gold  is  not  wealth  even,  and  yet 


68  ROOT  DIGGERS   AND  GOLD  DIGGERS. 

men  give  all  their  wealth  for  it.  Money,  as  intrinsic 
wealth,  has  little  value,  and  yet  wealth  is  valued  only 
as  it  can  be  converted  into  money.  Nor  is  it  long 
since  the  doctrine  prevailed  that  money  was  wealth, 
the  only  wealth;  but  after  commerce  and  industry 
had  begged  for  centuries,  and  men  and  nations  had 
fought  for  the  enforcement  of  this  principle,  the  world 
awoke  one  day  and  found  it  fallacy ;  found  that  money, 
instead  of  being  wealth,  was  only  the  attendant  on 
traffic  and  not  actual  wealth.  Money  is  synonymous 
neither  with  capital  nor  wealth.  It  is  capital  only 
when  it  is  bought  and  sold  like  any  other  commodity; 
it  is  wealth  only  according  to  its  worth  as  a  measure 
of  values.  Gold  is  not  value,  or  the  representative 
of  value,  until  it  is  made  such  by  the  stamp  of  the 
image  and  superscription.  All  men  desire  it,  and  in 
limitless  quantities;  yet  those  who  have  it  are  anx- 
ious to  be  rid  of  it,  as  it  is  the  most  profitless  of  all 
things  to  hold. 

Know,  then,  the  truth  of  the  matter.  Oh  !  red- 
painted  and  tattooed!  Long  ago,  before  Adam  Smith 
or  John  Stuart  Mill,  when  those  diggers  to  the  gods 
down  there  were  little  less  wild  and  beastly  than  your- 
self,— craving  your  pardon, — at  the  instigation  of 
Pluto,  perhaps,  though  some  hold  opinion  that  the 
creator  made  gold  specially  to  be  used  by  man  as  money, 
it  so  happened  that  a  conventionalism  arose  concerning 
this  metal.  It  was  agreed  between  the  fathers  of  the 
Pharaohs  and  Job's  ancestors,  that  this  heavy  durable 
substance,  chiefly  because  it  was  hard  to  get,  should 
be  baptized  into  the  category  of  wealth ;  nay  more, 
that  it  should  be  endowed  with  the  soul  of  riches,  be 
coined  into  idols,  worshipful  crowned  pieces,  and  be 
called  money,  as  children  in  their  play  cut  paper  into 
bits  and  call  it  money,  or  as  certain  tamed  tribes  have 
sought  to  use  for  money  merely  the  name,  without  all 
this  trouble  and  agitation  about  the  metal,  computing- 
value  by  means  of  the  idea  instead  of  the  substance. 
Since  which  time  their  descendants  and  offshoots,  that 


THE  MONEY  INFATUATION.  59 

is  those  of  the  Jobs  and  the  Pharaohs,  have  kept  up 
the  joke,  and  it  appears  that  we  of  this  boasted  scien- 
tific and  economic  nineteenth-century  civihzation  can 
do  no  better  than  to  keep  it  up.  It  requires  as  much 
labor  to  find  and  dig  a  certain  quantity  of  it  as  it  does 
to  raise  a  field  of  grain,  so  we  swear  it  to  be  worth  as 
much  as  the  grain.  So  subtle  is  its  energy,  that 
moulded  and  milled  into  the  current  image  of  wealth, 
it  assumes  all  qualities  and  virtues.  Call  it  land,  and 
it  is  land ;  labor,  and  straightway  the  fields  sweat  with 
labor.  It  is  health  and  happiness,  it  is  body,  intellect, 
soul,  aye,  and  eternal  salvation.  Thrice  lucky  metal 
to  be  so  humanly  endowed,  so  divinely  inspired  I  Oh  1 
precious  metal,  how  I  do  love  thee  I  Oh  I  holy  metal, 
how  I  do  worship  thee  I 

Thus  you  see,  thrice  honored  scalper  and  camiibal, 
that  these  men  down  among  the  boulders  are  slaves 
of  a  slave.  To  serve  us  in  our  interchanges  we  endow 
with  imaginative  miraculous  power  the  yellow  sub- 
stance wliicli  you  see  them  all  so  eagerly  snatching 
from  the  all-unconscious  earth.  They  snatch  it  to 
make  it  their  slave,  but  being  beforehand  deified,  as 
heathen  idolators  deify  the  little  images  which  their 
fingers  have  made,  and  their  mouths  call  gods,  they 
straightway  find  themselves  in  bondage  to  tlieir  ser- 
vant. Sage  though  you  are,  and  a  most  respectable 
wild  man,  you  cannot  yet  fairly  comprehend  this  pe- 
culiarity of  civilized  liberty,  wherein  you  are  permitted 
to  call  yourself  free  only  in  so  far  as  you  are  in  bond- 
age to  something.  You  find  one  wife  good,  but  sev- 
eral wives  better;  one  wife  finds  you  good,  several 
also.  You  may  now  marry  as  many  wives  as  you 
please;  as  many  women  as  please  may  marry  you, 
provided  you  mutually  agree.  Doubtless  you  will  be 
j  surprised  to  learn  that  the  liberty  of  civilization  per- 
j  mits  you  but  one  wife,  howsoever  half  a  dozen  love 
'  you.  This  is  technically  called  giving  up  some  portion 
I  of  your  natural  rights  for  the  benefit  of  all ;  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  is  falling  into  the  tyranny  of  the  majority, 


60  ROOT  DIGGERS  AND  GOLD  DIGGERS. 

however  stupid  or  unjust  that  may  be.  Again,  gamble 
commercially,  and  your  piety  is  not  impeached ;  gamble 
with  money  only,  and  you  are  an  odious  thing.  You 
may  not  marry  but  one  wife,  but  you  may  keep  as 
many  mistresses  as  you  please ;  you  may  keep  them, 
always  in  proper  retirement,  unchidden  by  society, 
though  she  whom  you  have  enticed  into  such  connec- 
tion is  forever  anathematized  by  the  whole  sisterhood. 
But  as  I  said,  you  do  not  understand  such  things, 
and  I  will  confess  it  to  you,  greasy  brother,  neither 
do  I. 

Coming  back  to  our  gold — for  however  much  we 
may  despise  it,  we  cannot  do  without  it — we  have 
seen  that  money  is  wealth  only  by  sufFerance.^  Men 
have  agreed  to  call  gold  stamped  in  a  certain  way 
money ,%ut  for  all  that,  only  in  as  far  as  it  series 
purpose,  like  anything  useful,  in  so  far  it  is  wealth. 
You  might  ask,  to  what  good  is  this  great  expenditure 
of  time'and  energy,  of  health  and  life,  when  we  con- 
sider that  in  proportion  as  the  quantity  of  gold  in 
circulation  increases,  its  value  diminishes,  that  the 
aggregation  of  money  is  not  aggregation  of  wealth, 
and  that  the  uses  of  money  are  not  facilitated  by  in- 
creasing the  quantity  ?  Increase  the  volume  of  money 
and  you  increase  prices;  diminish  the  quantity  in  cir- 
culation and  prices  diminish.  Give  to  every  man  in 
the  world  a  boat-load  of  it,  and  not  one  of  them  is 
the  richer;  take  from  every  man  living  half  he  hath, 
and  not  one  of  them  is  the  poorer.  Why,  then, 
is  the  result  of  the  labors  of  these  ditch-gods  re- 
garded with  such  concern  throughout  the  commercia 
world? 

In  answer  to  which  queries,  gentle  savage,  I  re- 
spectfully refer  you  to  the  libraries.  You  must  ask 
me  easy  questions  respecting  the  present  order  of 
things  among  so-called  civilized  societies  if  you  would 
have  answers.  I  can  get  no  answers  even  to  many 
simple  questions.  Some  medium  for  exchanges,  some 
materialization  of  the  spirit  of  commerce  is  certainly 


i  J 


COMMERCE  AND  CURRENCY.  61 

convenient,  as  business  is  now  done.  That  there  is 
room  for  improvement  upon  our  present  system  I  am 
equally  certain.  In  extensive  transactions  barter  is  a 
cumbrous  process;  there  must  be  money,  but  is  it 
necessary  that  money  should  be  made  of  metals  ?  Is 
it  necessary  for  a  measure  of  values  that  the  world 
should  expend  as  much  labor  as  for  the  values  meas- 
ured? As  it  is  now,  the  value  of  money  depends 
upon  the  cost  of  the  metal  coinposing  it.  If  the  metal 
exists  in  large  quantities  and  is  easily  gathered,  the 
amount  produced  is  large,  and  its  value  correspond- 
ingly low.  Could  a  bushel  of  gold  dust  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances  be  produced  with  no  more  labor 
than  a  bushel  of  potatoes,  then  a  bushel  of  potatoes 
would  be  worth  a  bushel  of  gold  dust.  Gold,  because 
of  its  scarcity,  and  consequent  cost  of  production,  its 
divisibility,  and  its  imperishable  qualities,  was  tacitly 
adopted  by  almost  all  nations  as  money.  Its  very 
intrinsic  worthlessness  adds  to  its  importance  as  a 
make-believe  value,  for  not  being  used  to  any  great 
extent  for  other  purposes,  it  is  not  subject  to  sudden 
or  violent  fluctuations  in  value.  I  have  actually  heard 
men  in  the  pulpit,  who  professed  to  be  teachers  of 
their  fellow-men,  say  that  God  not  only  made  gold 
specially  to  be  used  as  money,  but  that  he  kept  some 
of  it  hidden,  and  let  men  find  it  only  as  commerce  re- 
quired it.  This  may  be  true  in  the  sense  that  he 
made  death  that  the  livino^  might  have  standino'-room 
upon  the  earth,  but  being  too  slow  at  his  work  disease 
and  war  were  sent  to  help  him. 

I  say  something  of  the  kind,  as  matters  are  now 
arranged,  seems  to  be  necessary.  You,  yourself, 
tawny  sir,  have  felt  the  need  of  a  currency  medium 
in  your  petty  barters.  You  have  taken  shells  and 
beads,  and  have  called  them  money,  making  the  long- 
est shells  and  beads  of  a  certain  color  to  represent  the 
higher  values,  just  as  others  have  invested  the  yellow 
metal  with  a  greater  purchasing  power  than  the  white 
or  the    copper-colored.     Money  is    a  convenience,  a 


62  ROOT  DIGGERS  AND  GOLD  DIGGERS. 

great  labor-saving  machine,  and  would  be  worth  all 
it  costs  provided  something  cheaper  could  not  be  de- 
vised to  take  its  place.  It  permits  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent the  division  of  labor;  it  ameliorates  the  condition 
of  man  by  bringing  to  his  door  the  products  of  distant 
nations;  it  facilitates  industrial  activities,  promotes 
national  intercourse,  and  stimulates  the  life  blood  of 
society.  But  a  moderate  amount  of  gold,  if  gold  must 
be  had  for  a  currency,  is  as  valuable  to  connnerce  as 
a  large  amount.  We  may  safely  say  that  before  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  the  world  had  sufficient. 
Then  were  not  the  labor  and  lives  spent  here  in  add- 
ing to  the  store  to  some  extent  thrown  away  ?  Though 
the  discovery  of  precious  metals  has  hitherto  more 
than  kept  pace  with  the  requirements  of  commerce, 
yet  so  elastic  and  capacious  is  the  maw  of  man  that 
he  has  been  able  to  appropriate  it.  The  time  will 
come,  however,  when  the  mountains  will  be  exhausted 
of  their  gold  and  silver,  which  likewise  shall  drop  out 
of  commerce.  California,  Australia,  and  the  Ural 
mountains  together  poured  their  precious  metals  into 
the  world's  coffers,  and  the  value  of  gold  soon  fell  one 
half  and  more.  We  can  wait  some  time  yet  with 
what  we  have,  but  where  will  we  find  other  Califor- 
nias,  Australias,  and  Ural  mountains  when  wanted? 
Much  more  will  yet  be  found,  but  there  is  obviously 
a  limit.  When  the  value  of  gold  was  thus  so  seriously 
disturbed,  silver  was  talked  of  as  the  chief  monetary 
standard.  Then  Nevada  poured  out  her  several  thou- 
sand tons  of  silver,  which  became  such  a  drug  in  the 
market  as  to  be  bought  and  sold  at  from  one  to  ten 
per  cent  discount.  But  even  Comstock  lodes  have 
bottoms,  and  when  the  end  of  it  all  comes,  perhaps 
mankind  will  improve  its  currency. 

Under  the  present  infliction,  and  relatively  in  the 
proportion  of  the  aggregate  product  to  the  work  gold 
has  to  accomplish,  the  race  must  earn  its  comforts 
once  and  more.  First  it  must  till  the  land  so  that  it 
will  bring  forth,  and  then  unearth  the  gold  with  which 


LOGIC    OF  THE  RIFLE.  63 

to  buy  and  sell  the  product.  Thus  is  avoided  bar- 
ter, which  is  cumbersome  to  commerce  and  industries, 
and  every  way  undesirable.  But  so  far  ingenuity 
has  sought  in  vain  a  cheaper  substitute.  With 
changes  in  the  national  conditions,  however,  there 
will  in  due  time  be  a  change  here.  Just  as  we  shall 
have  new  religions,  new  moralities,  and  new  political 
orders,  so  shall  we  have  new  standards  of  value  and 
new  currencies.  Meanwhile  we  must  be  thankful  for 
what  we  have,  and  in  our  present  imperfect  state 
accept  it  as  a  blessing,  as  an  aid  to  civilization  and 
all  cheating.  Then  let  the  diggers  continue,  let  them 
sweat  in  death-distilling  labor  until  they  drop  in  the 
graves  of  their  own  digging,  so  that  wealth  may.  have 
its  image  and  commerce  its  superscription.  But  let 
us  not  pride  ourselves  too  much  on  intellectual  supe- 
riority over  the  Pharaohs'  and  Jobs'  ancestors  in  this 
respect,  wherein  we  make  so  slight  improvement. 

And  this,  my  dear  root-digger,  is  civilization,  and 
religion,  and  all  the  rest.  If  you  have  acuteness  of 
intellect,  eloquence,  and  personal  magnetism  enough, 
you  may  go  out  even  under  the  shining  skies  of 
America  and  play  the  prophet  with  the  best  of  those 
that  gulled  humanity  fift}^  or  five  thousand  years 
back.  You  may  go  to  New  York,  to  London,  to 
Berlin  and  capture  your  thousands.  The  gullibility 
of  mankind  in  its  extent  is  a  question  not  so  much  of 
intelligence  and  enlightenment  as  of  the  strength  of 
the  impostor.  Some  little  advance  out  of  the  subter- 
ranean darkness  has  been  made  during  the  last  two 
thousand  years,  but  it  is  little  comparatively.  The 
world  still,  in  many  respects,  prefers  falsehood  to 
truth,  and  men  will  believe  a  lie,  though  their  rea- 
son, if  they  have  any,  plainly  tells  them  it  is  such. 
It  is  not  ia  the  power  of  the  human  mind  to  conceive 
a  creed  so  absurd  or  diabolical  as  not  to  find  believers 
amons:  the  most  enlio-htened  nations  of  the  earth,  and 
that  in  proportion  to  the  power  with  which  the  doc- 
trine is  enforced. 


64  ROOT  DIGGERS  AND  GOLD   DIGGERS 

Suddenly  the  sharp  crack  of  a  rifle  is  heard,  and 
the  meditative  aboriginal  tumbles  from  his  seat  a 
lifeless  mass  into  the  stream.  A  miner's  mustanor 
was  missing  yesterday;  some  skulking  redskin  must 
have  stolen  it. 

Even  the  rattlesnake  will  not  strike  until  it  sounds 
the  note  of  battle. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OUR  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

Qii  'on  me  donne  six  lignes  ecrites  de  la  main  de  plus  honnete  homme,  j'y 
trouverai  de  quoi  le  faire  pendre. 

— Riclielku. 

Notwithstanding  the  pretentions  of  Portugal  and 
Prance,  the  two  Americas  in  their  final  occupancy  fell 
largely  to  Spain  and  Great  Britain.  The  policy  of 
the  several  nations  in  the  disposal  of  their  prizes  was 
directed  not  alone  by  the  race  characteristics  of  Latin 
and  Teuton,  marked  on  one  side  by  a  laisser-aller  dis- 
position, on  the  other  by  selfish  energy,  but  by  geo- 
graphic conditions,  which  invited  to  one  section  of 
North  America  the  immigration  of  families  for  agri- 
cultural colonies,  and  to  others  men  who  were  ambi- 
tious to  reap  fortunes  at  mining,  fur-hunting,  and  exac- 
tion, with  attendant  instability  and  undefined  inten- 
tions at  permanent  settlement. 

The  attitude  tow^ard  the  aborigines  of  the  quiet 
and  reserved  settler,  intent  on  home-building,  differed 
radically  from  that  of  the  adventurer  and  fortune- 
hunter  aiming  at  speedy  enrichment.  The  one  was 
prompted  to  propitiatory  measures  by  regard  for  his 
exposed  family  and  possessions  ;  the  other  had  noth- 
ing to  lose  and  everything  to  gain  by  yielding  to  the 
still  rampant  war  spirit,  fresh  from  "^ Mohammedan 
crusades,  and  to  the  greed  which  had  lured  across 
the  seas  an  otherwise  unwilling  colonist.  Hence  the 
noly  calm  of  puritan  advent,  as  contrasted  with  the 
blood-stained  invasion  of  the  Iberian. 

Gradually  came  a  change,  from  the  very  nature  of 
these  primary  conditions.     As  the  settler  acquired  a 

Essays  AND  Miscellany    5  (65j 


C6  OUR  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

foothold  and  strength,  the  restraints  of  fear  were  cast 
aside,  together  with  solemn  obligations,  while  selfish 
assertion  assumed  the  reins.  As  the  glitter  of  gold 
beo-an  to  fade,  the  eyes  of  the  fortune-seeker  opened 
to  the  existence  of  more  substantial  treasures  for  his 
o-leaning,  in  fertile  soils,  existing  plantations,  unfolding 
silver  mines,  and  other  resources,  and  above  all  in 
submissive  natives  to  develop  them.  The  Indians  ac- 
quired a  value ;  but  were  too  plentiful  to  obtain  due 
appreciation  and  consequent  immunity  from  the  ex 
acting  oppression  of  irresponsible  masters.  Fortunate- 
ly for  them  both  church  and  government  learned  to 
better  estimate  their  worth,  and  to  impress  it  upon  their 
graceless  sons  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  own 
economic  and  sovereign  interests. 

The  Spanish  government  was  never  intentionally 
unkind  to  the  Indians,  however  cruel  may  have  been 
the  unprincipled  horde  of  conquerors.  When  the 
Holy  See  had  passed  upon  the  quality  of  this  new 
humanity — when  the  pope  had  pronounced  that  the 
dusky  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  were  possessed 
of  souls,  the  queen  of  Castile  declared  them  her  sub- 
jects, with  rights  of  life  and  protection,  always  pro- 
vided that  they  bowed  submission  to  Christ  and  tlieir 
catholic  Majesties.  The  pope's  decision,  indeed,  could 
scarcely  have  been  otherwise  in  view  of  church  pre- 
rogatives, as  these  beings,  whether  human  or  not, 
were  destined  to  become  important  factors  in  New 
World  affairs ;  but  it  was  a  judgment  less  happy  for 
the  savages  presently  to  be  converted  at  the  point  of 
the  sword,  than  for  the  missionaries  who  were  to  gain 
much  wealth  and  glory  thereby.  The  Spanish  sov- 
ereigns were  true  to  their  original  declaration,  and 
did  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  the  infamies  con- 
stantly being  perpetrated  by  the  distant  colonists  in 
their  eag:erness  for  slaves  and  results.  The  extermin- 
ation  of  the  Indians  was  equally  remote  from  the 
minds  of  the  colonists,  averse  as  they  were  to  work ;  and 
their  lands  and  mines  were  valueless  without  laborers. 


COMPARATIVE   CRUELTY.  67 

A  similar  governmental  interference  took  place  in 
the  north,  when  the  rivalry  of  miscrupulous  fur-traders 
led  to  excesses  and  disregard  alike  for  the  morals  of 
the  natives  and  the  revenues  of  the  crown.  For  the 
preservation  of  both,  charters  were  issued  to  respon- 
sible companies  in  French  and  Eussian  America, 
These  soon  found  it  to  their  interest  to  court  the 
aborigine  for  his  fur  and  his  trade,  as  well  as  for  the 
safety  of  their  scattered  trappers  and  peddlers.  In 
supplanting  the  Gaul  the  English  adopted  his  ad- 
mirable policy. 

Neither  of  these  nations  cared  for  the  native 
Americans,  their  souls  or  bodies;  they  cared  far  less 
than  the  Spaniards,  who  were  so  widely  swayed  by 
the  church,  wherein  humanity  found  also  strong 
material  incentive. 

All  were  of  the  same  stock,  and  claimed  alike  the 
highest  morality  and  the  purest  religion;  comparing 
one  with  another  of  the  great  nations  of  the  foremost 
civilization,  there  is  little  to  choose  between  them 
in  regard  to  equity  and  humanity.  Englishmen  speak 
of  the  Spaniards  and  Russians  of  a  century  or  two 
ago  as  cruel,  and  so  they  were ;  but  it  is  not  possible 
in  the  compass  of  crime  for  men  to  inflict  upon  their 
fellow-men  greater  wrongs  than  those  put  by  England 
upon  India  and  China, within  the  century. 

With  the  decline  of  pecuniary  interest  in  the 
Indians  fell  also  the  consideration  of  the  invaders 
and  the  zeal  of  the  authorities.  When  the  independ- 
ence of  the  New  England  provinces  divided  Anglo- 
American  domination,  the  policy  of  the  two  parts  in 
their  treatment  of  the  aborigines  became  as  distinct 
as  that  of  Spain  or  Kussia. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  nowhere  in  the  history  of 
colonization  were  native  nations  worse  treated  than  in 
the  United  States,  or  better  treated  than  in  British 
America.  Not  that  the  revolted  colonists  were  in- 
herently less  humane  than  their  northern  brethren, 
and  least  of  all  was  it   owing  to  any   influence  from 


68  OUR  TREATMENT   OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

the  mother  country.  The  cause  lay  in  the  fur  wealth 
of  the  northern  section,  which  prompted  the  company 
representing  the  crown  to  comport  itself  with  circum- 
spection, while  southward  there  was  less  of  this  in- 
centive to  self-control,  and  no  government  to  assign 
the  trade  to  responsible  parties  or  regulate  the  fiercer 
rivalry  which  ensued  among  a  host  of  competitors, 
heedless  of  the  future  or  the  consequences  to  others, 
and  bent  only  on  quick  profits. 

National  moralities,  outside  of  certain  bounds,  are 
regulated  by  pecuniary  interests.  It  so  happened  that 
it  was  money  in  the  pockets  of  the  Canadians  for  the 
savages  to  live,  so  they  were  kept  alive;  it  paid  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  have  them  die,  so 
their  wild  men  were  killed.  The  colonists  of  New 
England  and  their  descendants  were  essentially  work- 
ers, settlers,  agriculturalists,  and  wanted  the  land 
cleared  of  all  cumbrances,  while  the  Montreal  Scotch- 
men were  fur-dealers,  and  wished  to  maintain  half  of 
North  America  as  a  gfime  preserve,  with  the  Indians 
as  their  hunters.  Hence  the  officers  of  the  great 
fur  companies  were  exceedingly  kind  and  circumspect, 
placing  in  contact  with  the  savages  only  their  own 
servants  of  tried  integrity,  who  dealt  with  them  hon- 
estly, charitably,  respecting  their  rights  and  main- 
taining the  peace  of  nations. 

A  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  man  was  never  thanked 
by  his  superior  for  taking  advantage  of  an  Indian  in 
trade.  Promises  were  faith  fully  kept ;  and  if  a  white 
man  injured  an  Indian  he  was  punished  as  surely  if 
not  as  severely  as  the  Indian  who  injured  a  white 
man.  A  whole  village  was  not  murdered  for  a  theft 
by  one  of  its  members,  but  only  the  guilty  one  was 
made  to  suffer.  And  when  the  country  was  thrown 
open  to  settlement,  the  natives  were  not  left  to  the 
mercy  of  the  vilest  element  in  the  commonwealth  to 
be  robbed  and  insulted,  but  were  allotted  the  lands 
about  their  ancient  homes,  and  made  useful  and  re- 
spectable.      Along  the  ever-widening  border  of  the 


THE  FUR  COMPANIES.  69 

great  republic,  on  the  other  hand,  were  free  trappers, 
desperadoes,  the  scum  of  society,  together  with  un- 
Hcerised  settlers,  knowing  no  law  and  having  no  pro- 
tection save  of  their  own  devising.  It  was  alone  from 
contact  with  such  an  element  that  the  savages  were 
forced  to  form  their  opinion  of  white  men — an  element 
that  kept  them  in  a  state  of  constant  exasperation. 

More  than  was  the  case  with  the  Spaniards,  or 
Portuguese,  or  Russians,  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  rid  themselves  of  their 
savages.  ,They  were  in  the  way ;  of  no  use  to  any ; 
and  preordained  at  best  soon  to  die;  then  why  protect 
them  ?  Moreover,  they  killed  white  men,  stole  cattle, 
and  held  possession  of  land  which  could  be  put  to 
better  use.  That  white  men  did  worse  by  them,  or 
among  themselves,  made  no  difference.  That  the 
English  lord  might  fence  out  hundreds  of  paupers 
from  his  thousand-acre  park  which  gave  him  each 
year  a  few  days'  shooting,  or  a  Yankee  speculator 
hold  50,000  acres  for  an  advance  in  price  made  no 
difference.  Englishmen  and  Yankees  are  not  painted 
savages;  English  lords  are  not  American  lords;  civ- 
ilization and  savagism  are  natural  foes ;  the  weaker 
must  give  way,  and  the  less  said  about  justice  and 
humanity  the  better.  So  with  their  accustomed  en- 
ergy the  people  of  the  United  States  have  driven 
back  the  Indian  beyond  their  fast  expanding  border, 
and  with  the  extermination  of  their  wild  beasts  ex- 
terminated their  wild  men  when  these  ventured  to 
protest  or  resist.  Few  now  remain  within  their 
borders  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  while  Mex- 
ico, British  America,  and  Russian  America,  if  it  be 
any  satisfaction  to  them,  may  still  count  their  hordes 
of  unslain  aboriginals. 

Perhaps  it  is  better  so.  If  with  our  Indians  we 
would  kill  off  our  Africans,  and  Asiatics,  and  low 
Europeans,  we  might  in  due  time  breed  a  race  of 
gods.  But  must  we  not  first  revise  our  ethics,  and 
throw  out  as  obsolete  the  idea  of  any  other  right  than 


70  OUR  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

might,  of  any  other  principle  than  the  inexorable  law 
of  progress?  Must  we  not  root  out  of  our  religion 
every  sentiment  which  conflicts  with  culture  ?  We 
see  plainly  enough  that  the  rights  of  nations  are  re- 
spected by  other  nations  in  proportion  to  the  power 
of  a  people  to  defend  them.  Neither  religion  nor 
civilization  are  sufficiently  advanced  to  render  strict 
justice  to  savage  nations,  or  to  any  weaker  power. 
The  immigrants  from  England  were  no  exception  to 
this  rule.  Finding  the  savages  along  the  eastern  sea- 
board too  strong  to  be  at  once  driven  back,  they  ac- 
knowledged their  ownership  to  the  land,  but  did  not 
hesitate  to  cheat  them  out  of  it  as  opportunity  offered. 
And  later,  as  the  white  men  became  stronger  and  the 
red  men  weaker,  while  it  has  been  partially  acknowl- 
edged that  the  latter  have  some  rights,  practically 
but  few  have  been  granted  them.  It  would  have 
been  more  consistent  on  the  part  of  the  government 
to  have  ignored  them  entirely  or  to  have  recognized 
them  fully.  Savagism  has  no  rights  if  it  has  not 
equal  rights  with  civilization. 

It  is  revolting  to  our  every  sense  of  manhood,  of 
honor,  and  of  justice,  the  narrative  of  the  century- 
march  of  European  civilization,  from  east  to  west 
across  the  mid-continent  of  North  America.  It  were 
enough,  one  would  think,  to  inflict  on  the  doomed 
race  the  current  curses  of  civilization,  rum  and  divers 
strange  diseases,  without  employing  steel  and  gun- 
powder. But  no  sooner  were  the  English  plantations 
on  the  eastern  seaboard  strong  enough  than  the  strug- 
gle began,  and  in  one  line  may  be  told  the  story  ring- 
ing with  its  thousand  imfamies  to  fit  ten  thousand 
occasions.  The  white  man,  in  the  belief  of  his  mental 
and  moral  superiority,  imposes  upon  the  red  man, 
who,  daring  to  defend  himself,  is  struck  to  earth. 
The  story  fits  the  great  battles  of  the  period  no  less 
than  the  local  raids  brought  on  by  an  attempt  of  a 
husband  and  father  to  protect  an  insulted  wife  or 
daughter,  or  the  theft  of  a  hungry  Indian  from  whose 


ATTITUDE  OF  THE  GOVERNxMENT.  71 

lands  game  has  been  driven  to  give  pasturage  to  cattle, 
the  whole  neio^hborhood  rallvintr  in  reveno-e  and  shoot- 
ing  down  indiscriminately  every  native  man,  woman 
and  child  in  the  vicinity. 

The  government  has  been  likewise  at  fault.  We 
behold  warlike  and  blustering  tribes  wring  one  conces- 
sion after  another,  in  reservations,  provisions,  annui- 
ties, and  aid  toward  building  houses,  and  obtain  ready 
pardon  after  every  fresh  uprising  or  outrage.  Peace- 
ful and  weak  tribes,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been 
neglected,  or  put  off  with  barren  tracts  and  scanty 
allowance,  filtered  though  the  fingers  of  dishonest 
agents.  Thus  a  premium  was  ever  offered  to  disaffec- 
tion. Some  tribes,  like  the  Mission  Indians  of  Cali- 
fornia, have  been  surrendered  to  swindlers,  to  be  driven 
from  their  homes  occupied  for  generations,  and  left  to 
starve. 

Temporizing  was  in  a  measure  enforced  by  the  feud 
bred  of  long  hostility  and  the  exposed  condition  of  a 
vast  frontier;  and  the  mode  of  dealing  had  to  con- 
form to  the  character  and  strength  of  the  tribe,  as 
practised  among  so-called  civilized  nations.  Yet  it 
can  never  excuse  the  glaring  injustice  toward  well- 
disposed  and  deserving  peoples. 

For  the  last  half  century  the  aim  of  the  govern- 
ment in  its  Indian  policy  has  been  for  the  most  part 
humane  and  honorable,  equal  in  its  benevolent  inten- 
tions to  Spain's,  and  superior  to  that  of  England ; 
nevertheless,  its  mistakes  and  inconsistencies  have 
been  numberless.  Starting  out  upon  a  false  premise, 
striving  at  once  to  be  powerful  and  pure,  its  pathway 
has  bristled  with  difficulties.  It  made  lofty  distinctions 
which  were  without  a  difference,  acknowledging  in  words 
from  the  first  the  lords  aboriginal  in  possession  as  the 
rightful  owners  of  the  soil,  from  whom  to  steal  with- 
out pretext  of  right  was  sinful,  but  who  might  never- 
theless be  righteously  robbed  in  a  thousand  ways. 
Nor  was  it  until  the  young  republic  had  secured  for 
itself  acreage  broad  enough,  as  it  supposed,  for  all 


72  OUR  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

present  and  future  needs,  and  was  on  the  highroad 
to  wealth  and  fame,  tliat  the  cast  began  preach uig  to 
the  west  such  honesty  and  Imnianity  on  behalf  of  the 
natives  as  it  had  not  hitherto  felt  able  to  indulge  in 
on  its  own  account.  What  new  revelation  has  come 
to  the  connnon wealth,  that  the  settlers  west  of  the 
Mississippi  have  not  the  same  right  to  seize  the  lands 
and  kill  the  inhabitants  as  had  the  settlers  east  of 
that  line  ?  Had  a  clause  been  inserted  in  the  consti- 
tution making  the  robbery  and  nmrder  of  Indians 
lawful,  the  course  of  all  would  have  been  clear;  but 
to  rob  and  murder,  or  permit  a  straight  century  of 
such  license,  and  that  on  a  mighty  magnificent  scale, 
and  now  beirin  to  rail  at  similar  sli^jhter  deeds  en- 
forced  by  necessity,  seems  absurd. 

The  condition  of  the  philanthropists  of  the  east,  in 
no  fear  for  their  scalps,  and  in  the  full  enjoyment  of 
lands  stolen  from  the  savages  by  their  forefathers, 
differs  widely  from  that  of  tlie  settlers  on  the  border 
with  dwellings  aflame  and  wives  and  children 
slaughtered. 

AmoncT  the  more  common  and  continued  mistakes 
of  the  government  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  has 
been  the  employment  as  agents  of  men  who  would 
buy  their  appointment  from  some  political  hack,  de- 
pending on  peculation  or  other  rascality  for  a  return. 
Of  all  the  millions  of  money  appropriated  by  congress 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Indians,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
only  a  small  proportion  has  ever  reached  them.  Then 
there  has  been  much  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  govern- 
ment, broken  promises,  and  unfulfilled  treaties.  A 
savage  cannot  understand  how  a  nation  can  deceive 
without  expecting  to  fight.  Indian  outbreaks  have 
always  been  the  result  of  real  or  fancied  wrongs, 
which  nine  times  in  ten  the  government  might  have 
remedied,  and  thus  avoided  bloodshed,  had  it  acted 
through  honest,  competent  agents,  with  promptness, 
fairness,  and  firmness. 

An  insurmountable  obstacle  confinincy  the  action  of 


RACE  DIFFERENCES.  73 

the  authorities  lies  in  race  feelino-,  which  is  far  more  in- 
tense  among  the  Teutons  than  in  the  Latin  element. 
The  Frenchman  and  Spaniard  hold  themselves  above 
the  lowly  Indian,  but  they  do  not  spurn  him.  Inter- 
marriage was  unhesitatingly  adopted  by  their  young 
men,  and  favored  by  the  church  and  the  government, 
as  among  fur-traders,  on  the  ground  of  morality  and 
witli  a  view  to  form  a  claim  upon  native  loyalty.  The 
half-breed  grew  to  receive  a  share  in  the  affection  so 
freely  bestowed  by  Spanish  parents.  Thus  favored, 
the  mestizo  expanded  in  Latin  America  into  a  power- 
ful race.  Subjected  like  the  Creole  to  narrow-minded 
oppression  and  disregard,  he  turned  for  sympathy  to 
the  maternal  side,  to  cherish  ancient  tradition,  and  to 
revive  its  glories  in  the  achievement  of  independence. 

With  him  the  aborigines  have  been  lifted  to  full 
equality  before  the  law,  although  the  sprightlier  mes- 
tizo seeks  to  maintain  the  domination  over  the  masses 
inherited  from  the  Spaniard,  politically  as  well  as 
socially.  His  rise  is  most  desirable,  for  his  patient 
and  conservative  traits  form  a  needful  check  on  the 
cliangeable  disposition  of  the  others.  His  capacity 
for  elevation  is  demonstrated  not  alone  in  the  fraternal 
recognition  of  his  merits  and  character  in  the  various 
official  positions  which  he  shares  with  his  half-breed 
brother,  but  in  the  number  of  prominent  men  con- 
tributed by  him  to  the  circles  of  arts,  science,  and  lit- 
erature, as  in  the  case  of  Juarez,  the  great  lawgiver 
and  lil)erator,  whom  unanimous  gratitude  has  raised 
to  a  national  hero. 

So  in  the  north  also  we  find  bright  promises,  as  ex- 
hibited by  the  Cherokees,  by  instances  of  intellectual 
and  material  advancement  at  different  reservations, 
and  by  marked  reformation  effected  by  missionary 
effort  on  the  remote  Alaskan  border  of  British  Co- 
lumbia, in  creating  a  model  community  from  among 
rude  fisher  tribes.  There  is  not  here  the  same  pros- 
pect for  advancement,  however,  as  in  Spanish  America, 
for  the  contemptuous  race  antipathy  and  disdainful 


74  Oim  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVE  RACES. 

exclusiveness,  on  the  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  have 
placed  a  gulf  impassable  between  them  and  the  Indians 
and  half-breeds,  which  leaves  them  strangers  and  out- 
easts  on  their  ancestral  soil. 

There  can  be  no  great  good,  now  that  the  Indians 
are  nearly  all  dead,  in  devising  means  for  preserving 
their  lives.  At  tlie  same  time  the  mind  will  some- 
times revert  to  a  possible  condition  of  things,  wherein 
there  were  no  Indian  reservations  to  serve  as  prisons 
for  free  men,  and  hot-beds  of  political  iniquity;  wherein 
the  survivors  of  a  nation  had  each  been  secured  in  the 
possession  of  land  sufficient  for  his  easy  maintenance 
on  the  spot  where  had  lived  his  ancestors,  officers  be- 
ing appointed  for  their  further  protection  under  the 
severest  penalties  for  misconduct ;  wherein  there  were 
strict  regulations  respecting  settlers  on  the  border, 
their  occupation  of  lands,  and  intercourse  with  the 
natives;  wherein,  if  voting  in  this  republic  must  be 
promiscuous,  Africans  and  low  Europeans  being  in- 
vited to  become  our  peers,  the  privilege  was  not  de- 
nied the  Indians,  whose  soil  w^e  have  seized  and  whose 
nationalities  we  have  obliterated. 


CHAPTER  V. 


HISTORY  WRITING. 


He  alone  reads  history  aright,  M^ho,  observing  how  powerfully  circum- 
stances influence  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  man,  how  often  vices  pass  into 
virtues  and  paradoxes  into  axioms,  learns  to  distinguish  what  is  accidental  and 
transitory  in  human  nature  from  what  is  essential  and  imnmtable. 

— Macaulay. 

As  the  world  makes  history,  men  are  found  to  re- 
cord it ;  first  on  the  tablet  of  memory,  to  be  in  like 
manner  reinscribed  by  successive  generations,  illumi- 
nated with  the  glow  of  family  pride,  of  tribal  sympa- 
pathy,  of  patriotic  devotion.  In  the  course  of  this 
transmission  occur  further  modifications  under  in- 
fluences multifarious,  colored  by  the  vagaries  of  fanc}^ 
superstition,  or  emotion,  others  warped  by  defective 
retention  or  obscure  judgment :  others  perverted  to 
please  the  varying  audiences,  of  elders  or  youth,  of 
friends  or  strangers,  or  to  add  brilliancy  to  the  rhet- 
oric of  the  narrator. 

The  distortion  here  is  no  worse  than  in  the  host  of 
written  chronicles,  additionally  influenced  by  fanati- 
cism and  prejudice,  ignorance,  and  lack  of  reflection. 
In  the  latter,  however,  the  outlines  are  sharply  cut 
in  prose  and  with  unalterable  rigidity  ;  in  the  former 
they  fade  and  intermingle  with  the  metric  current 
which  bore  the  tales  of  illiterate  ancestors.  A  poetic 
imagination  lifts  incidents  into  the  sphere  of  miracu- 
lous or  supernatural  phenomena,  and  the  figure  rises 
from  the  sage  patriarch  or  valiant  chieftain  to  a  hero 
or  a  divinity,  euphemistically  transformed.  Distance 
wraps  around  all  its  mystifying  veil ;  age  invests  false- 
hood with  sanctity. 

A  step  back  and  history  fades.     As  the  vista  of 


76  HISTORY  WRITING. 

time  lengthens  and  the  past  recedes,  a  mist  closes  in 
behind  us  and  even  recorded  facts  grow  dim.  Poets 
themselves,  as  milestones  in  the  highway  of  history — 
Chaucer,  as  displaying  English  character  at  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century  ;  Shakespeare,  as  opening  a 
new  era  in  the  development  of  thought;  and  Shelley, 
as  heralding  the  approach  of  modern  skepticism — are 
doomed  in  time  to  become  obsolete,  and  crumble. 
With  the  fruits  of  their  lives  in  never-dying  fragrance 
still  before  us,  some  affect  to  believe  the  man  Homer 
a  myth ;  some  regard  Shakespeare  as  a  mask.  But 
where  is  the  difference,  if,  contrary  to  our  teachings, 
the  blind  minstrel  or  the  divine  dramatist  never  had 
authentic  reality?  Their  works,  the  testimony  of 
earnest  lives  and  matchless  intellects,  are  with  us,  and 
for  these  their  authors,  whosoever  they  are,  shall  be 
to  us  as  Homer  and  Shakespeare. 

From  hallowed  antiquity  emerges  mythology  to  en- 
fold the  cradle  of  most  nations,  and  to  be  in  time  set 
forth  in  records  like  the  Jewish  scriptures,  the  Hindoo 
Veda,  the  Popol  Vuh  of  the  Quiches,  regarded  by 
their  several  peoples  as  sacred,  and  supplemented  by 
heroic  ballads,  which  often  contain  tlie  beginnings  of 
national  history.  Even  science  had  its  occult  period, 
as  in  the  astrology  of  astronomy  and  the  alchemy  of 
chemistry.  All  the  unknown  was  tlie  doings  of  the 
gods;  and  while  imagination  thus  tyrannized  over 
reason,  all  historical  records  were  deemed  divine. 

Then  arose  skepticism  with  its  questionings,  and 
the  human  began  to  mix  with  the  spiritual.  The 
history  of  one  age  became  the  romance  of  the  next. 
Until  a  comparatively  late  period,  patristic  writings 
w^ere  regarded  by  Christians  as  but  little  less  worthy 
of  belief  than  the  holy  scriptures.  Now,  history,  in 
common  with  the  vital  forces  of  the  age,  has  become 
humanized,  materialized.  No  longer  are  mainsprings 
of  thought  and  action  sought  amidst  the  unknowable. 
Chivalry,  kingcraft,  and  military  Christianity  have 
had  their  day,  and  mankind  is  now  less  ruled  by  the 


SUrERSTIlION   AND   REALITY.  77 

ecclesiastical  spirit  or  by  the  sentiment  of  loyalty. 
Spiritual  power  and  temporal  power  are  divorced; 
and  instead  of  crusading  knights,  inquisitions,  and  an 
infallible  papacy,  we  have  constitutional  government 
and  a  free  press.  Thought  is  emancipated,  and  mind 
harnesses  the  forces  of  nature. 

We  are  becoming  more  and  more  satisfied  to  be 
guided  by  the  light  of  our  reason,  which,  howsoever 
dim  and  flickering,  distinguishes  us  from  brute  beasts, 
and  serves  to  reveal  the  will-o'-the-wisps  which  have 
so  long  misled  us,  dispelling  the  veneration  which 
once  attended  all  that  was  printed,  almost  all  that  was 
written,  and  much  of  what  was  said,  particularly  if 
spoken  from  the  pul})it  or  forum.  There  was  some- 
thing mysterious  and  almost  sacred  in  books,  and  in 
the  words  of  those  who  had  long  and  diligently 
searched  them.  The  unthinking  millions  were  ever 
ready  to  credit  philosopher  and  sage,  priest  and  pro- 
fessor, with  knowledge  and  powers  illimitable.  The 
earliest  book  of  the  nation  was  above  all  held  sacred, 
as  something  emanating  from  divinity,  by  virtue  of  its 
unearthly  and  unnatural  incidents.  But  the  older 
the  world  grows,  the  clearer  becomes  its  discrimina- 
tion in  historic  judgment.  In  this  it  is  aided  also  by 
the  unobscured  records  of  many  a  modern  nation  from 
its  political  inception. 

In  our  present  researches  we  have  recourse  to  lenses 
as  well  as  new  liohts.  The  cumulative  knowledo^e  of 
past  generations  is  becoming  more  accessible  and  con- 
centrated, and  science  gives  daily  fresh  tongues  to 
organic  and  inorganic  substance.  The  normal  unfold- 
ing of  nature  is  demonstrated,  together  with  depend- 
ing events ;  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  past  assume  an 
ever-brightening  outline,  and  the  elements  of  truth 
distill  from  the  ambiguous  and  absurd  in  the  national 
books.  As  history  emerges  from  this  shadowy  border- 
land, the  mythology  and  dim  beginning  of  national 
records  proceeding  from  the  sacred  to  the  profane,  it 


78  HISTORY  \YRITINO, 

loses  somewhat  of  its  deception  and  uncertainty,  until 
truth  triumphant  rises  superior  to  all  tradition. 

Similarly  graded  was  the  development  from  original 
reflective  and  philosophic  histor3\  In  regard  to  the 
latter,  it  is  better  thab  history  should  be  pure,  unadul- 
terated by  any  philosophy,  than  to  be  burdened  by  it. 
It  is  well  for  the  historian  ever  to  have  in  mind  causes 
and  principles ;  otherwise,  indeed,  he  would  be  only  a 
chronicler  or  annalist.  But  he  need  not  parade  his 
doctrines  unduly.  No  two  writers  or  readers,  if  they 
think  at  all,  will  agree  exactly  touching  the  origin  of 
human  affairs  and  the  nature  of  human  progress;  it 
is  not  necessary  that  they  should.  The  greater  the 
pretension  to  insight  into  these  enigmas,  the  greater 
the  confusion.  Let  us  have  our  facts,  so  far  as  con- 
sistent with  reasonable  and  critical  narration,  pure  and 
simple,  presented  clearly,  in  natural  order  and  logical 
sequence ;  and  each  of  us,  if  so  disposed,  can  weave 
from  them  any  additional  web  of  philosophy.  Strained 
efforts  in  this  direction  are  as  unprofitable  and  unpleas- 
ant as  preconceived  recognition  of  special  providence 
or  miraculous  interposition.  It  is  enough  to  discern 
wise  provisions  and  fundamental  rules,  or  proclaim  a 
seemingly  overruling  intelligence  in  all  that  relates  to 
man  and  nature,  without  appending  on  the  one  side 
evident  or  remote  explanations,  or  attempting  on  the 
other  to  trace  the  finger  of  God  in  the  affairs  of  men 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  the  Almighty  the  drudge 
and  scavenger  of  the  universe,  subject  to  the  beck  and 
call  of  every  atom  in  his  Boeotic  handiwork. 

In  mixing  too  freely  philosophy  with  history,  homely 
facts  are  liable  to  become  distorted  or  subverted.  In 
truth,  philosophizing  produces  too  often  only  a  phan- 
tom to  which  facts  will  not  cling.  While  pretending 
to  great  things,  to  primary  and  universal  investiga- 
tion, to  the  synthesis  and  analysis  of  all  knowledge, 
the  explanation  of  fundamental  causes  and  the  de- 
termining of  infinite  effects,  it  soars  away  from  real 
knowledge  to  deal  with  its  shadow.  With  Montaigne, 


REFORMATION  IN  NARRATION.  79 

M.  Sainte-Beuve  loved  ''only  the  simple  ingenuous 
historians  who  recounted  facts  without  choice  or 
selection  in  good  faith ; "  but  that  is  another  extreme 
to  which  few  will  subscribe. 

But  a  little  while  ago  it  was  assumed  that  a  nation 
which  had  not  waded  through  centuries  of  blood  had 
no  history.  To  our  more  refined  sensibilities,  pictures 
of  battle-field  agonies,  catalogues  of  death  wounds, 
and  barbarous  atrocities  are  less  congenial — I  will  not 
say  less  profitable — than  to  the  ruder  tastes  of  Homer's 
listeners  or  to  the  lover  of  King  Arthur  romances. 
Narratives  of  sieges  and  battles,  of  the  discipline  and 
movement  of  armies,  and  of  international  diplomacies ; 
biographies  of  ministers  and  generals,  and  the  idiosyn- 
cracies  of  great  ineu;  pictures  of  court  intrigues, 
dainty  morsels  of  court  scandals,  recitations  of  the 
sayings  of  imbecile  monarchs,  anecdotes  of  princes, 
the  opinions  of  counsellors,  or  the  tortuous  ways  of 
political  factions — these  are  not  all  of  history. 

What  Carlyle  wanted  to  see  was  "  not  red-book 
lists,  and  court  calendars,  and  parliamentary  registers, 
but  the  life  of  man  in  England ;  what  men  did,  thought, 
suffered,  enjoyed;  the  form,  especially  the  spirit,  of 
their  terrestrial  existence,  its  outward  environment, 
its  inward  principle ;  how  and  what  it  was ;  whence 
it  proceeded,  whither  it  was  tending." 

Beginning  with  Moses  or  Homer  and  tracing  the 
records  of  the  race  to  the  present  time,  if  we  take 
out  the  accounts  of  human  butcheries,  of  lying  and 
over-reaching  of  statesmen  and  rulers,  and  of  the 
sources  of  lamentation,  there  is  little  left.  Crushing 
is  the  curse  of  ignorance  and  injustice  !  How  blotted 
are  the  pages  of  history  with  the  cruelties  of  tyrants, 
the  corruptions  of  courts,  the  wanton  wickedness  of 
lawmakers  and  governors  I  What  wonder  that  the 
poor  steal,  and  bloated  sensualists  ravish  !  Gibbon 
considers  history  indeed  little  more  tlian  the  register 
of  the  crimes,  follies,  and  misfortunes  of  mankind. 


so  HISTORY  WRITING. 

History's  tale  as  given  is  by  far  too  woeful.  It  tells 
not  the  whole  truth.  It  holds  up  to  us  chiefly  the 
dolorous  side  of  humanity,  with  the  wounds,  conflicts, 
and  stains  of  crime, — the  hateful,  bloody  side. 

Now,  to  every  human  soul,  and  to  every  aggrega- 
tion of  souls,  there  is  a  bright  side,  generally  the  un- 
written side  of  history.  Between  the  black  periods 
of  passion  are  long  eras  of  peace  and  prosperity, 
as  fully  entitled  to  their  place  in  history  as  the 
other. 

A  still  greater  omission  lies  in  the  failure  to  duly 
observe  the  mighty  current  of  history  in  the  people, 
to  dilate  only  or  chiefly  upon  eddies,  streaks,  and 
flotsam,  in  stirring  incidents  and  striking  figures. 
No  intelligent  reader  of  the  present  day  will  for  a 
moment  question  the  relative  value  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  origin  and  structure  of  social  institutions  as 
compared  with  a  knowledge  of  kings,  dynasties,  geneal- 
ogies, and  political  intrigues.  Formerly  the  people 
seemed  to  be  kept  alive  in  order  that  the  government 
might  live,  but  as  the  people  become  strong  the  gov- 
ernment recedes  to  a  subordinate  position. 

We  are  told  that  history  is  but  the  essence  of  in- 
numerable biographies.  Resolving  then  this  essence, 
we  find  chronicled  how  this  prince  was  elevated  and 
deposed,  how  that  sycophant  intrigued ;  we  are  noti- 
fied at  length  how  certain  nobles  quarreled,  how 
ministers  were  made  and  unmade — as  if  the  universe 
revolved  round  these  poor  worms,  and  the  fate  of 
humanity  hung  upon  their  lips.  Descending  to  minor 
greatness,  we  find  recorded  the  mechanical  ingenuity 
of  an  inventor,  the  skill  or  magnanimity  of  a  politi- 
cian or  a  tradesman  ;  but  of  the  men,  moral  or  bestial, 
we  learn  little.  Success  we  can  but  worship,  weak 
creatures  that  we  are,  and  success  demands  a  place; 
whether  it  comes  from  propagandism  or  pickle-making, 
it  will  have  a  niche  in  the  pantheon.  But  this  is  not 
enough ;  the  new  immortal  must  be  bleached  or  black- 
ened    to     harmonize     with    the    surroundini:;s ;    he 


RULERS  AXD  TEOPLE.  81 

must  be  elevated  and  rendered  conspicuous,  as  angel 
or  devil,  above  the  crowd  whence  he  issued. 

In  history  the  people  have  been  represented  far 
too  much  by  their  chiefs.  The  movers  of  the  world 
are  mankind,  not  the  leaders.  Statesmen  are  un- 
doubtedly the  authors  of  many  evils  and  some  few 
benefits  to  man.  Yet  we  exat^oerate  when  from  the 
prow  of  the  ship  of  state  we  see  the  threatening 
breakers,  and  fancy  that,  but  for  the  helming  of  great 
men,  we  should  be  dashed  to  pieces.  From  the  cause 
of  bad  leadership  alone  is  seldom,  at  this  day,  a 
nation  wrecked.  The  people  are  the  nation ;  and  to 
their  ignorance  or  weakness,  poverty  or  cowardice,  we 
must  look  for  the  origin  of  all  the  greater  evils  that 
befall  them. 

The  time  was  when  Pharaohs  and  Alexanders,  or 
latterly  a  Napoleon,  seemed  to  sway  the  destinies  of 
their  own  and  adjacent  nations,  partly  by  inherited 
control  over  a  subjected  people,  partly  through  ascen- 
dency gained  by  prowess  and  intellect.  The  acts  of 
such  a  wielder  of  power  are  undoubtedly  all  impor- 
tant, and  his  biography  becomes  largely  the  history 
of  the  nation.  Neverthdess,  we  must  look  deeper, 
and  not  be  blinded  by  superficial  glitter.  We  must 
look  for  bases  and  causes,  not  alone  for  appearances 
and  effects. 

The  great  men  of  history,  or  those  who  play  prom- 
inent parts  on  the  world's  stage,  are  in  the  main  the 
result  of  accident  or  a  combination  of  circumstances, 
being  made  by  fortune  rather  than  making  it.  The 
evolution  of  a  king  varies  little  in  form  or  principle 
from  the  unfolding  of  any  other  object  in  nature  or  in 
man,  with  the  ditierence  that  fitness  as  the  element 
of  survival  seems  to  have  little  to  do  with  it.  Origi- 
nally, as  subordinate  leaders,  they  possessed  the  merit 
of  prowess,  or  as  representatives  in  whom  centered 
the  interests  of  castes  and  guilds  and  tribes,  held  in 
equilibrium  by  diplomatic  jealousy  and  distrust;  but 
otherwise  there  was  usually  no  merit  whatever. 

FSSAYS  AND   MlSCELLA>;V     (i 


82  HISTORY  A\TIITING. 

In  following  the  career  of  an  Alexander,  the  causes 
of  success  must  be  sought  not  in  his  legislative  acts 
and  military  feats,  in  his  public  conduct  or  private 
life,  but  in  the  character  and  habits  of  the  peoples 
which  achieved  his  conquests  or  submitted  to  his  sway. 
We  must  go  back  and  trace  the  influence  of  the  sur- 
rounding circumstances,  and  watch  the  ripening  in- 
cidents which  enable  one  man  to  step  to  the  front, 
and  seemingly  guide  the  current  of  national  perform- 
ance into  a  new  channel.  It  required  the  long  fer- 
mentations of  many  ingredients  to  start  the  Aryans 
on  the  great  westward  march  which  still  pursues  its 
civilizing  course.  In  tracing  it,  we  direct  our  glance 
no  longer  at  the  leaders,  but  at  the  movino^  mass,  and 
at  the  numerous  evidences  of  its  halt,  now  in  the  fertile 
valley  of  the  Euphrates,  now  on  the  sterile  shores  of 
Pooenicia,  in  the  semi-tropic  climate  of  Greece,  and  in 
the  diversified  valleys  of  America. 

Alexander's  father  introduced  a  primary  element 
of  success  in  the  military  system,  long  matured  in  the 
classic  peninsula,  and  which  inspired  the  Macedonians 
with  irresistible  confidence  as  well  as  military  ardor. 
It  was  the  spirit  of  Epaminondas,  to  a  certain  extent, 
which  guided  them  to  victory.  Then  we  must  take 
into  consideration  the  influence  of  Greek  thought  in 
other  directions  upon  the  leading  classes,  and  of  Aris- 
totle's teachings  upon  the  young  general,  until  finally 
we  approximate  the  cause  which  started  the  invasion, 
roused  the  flame  of  discord  among  the  nations 
throughout  south-western  Asia,  and  shaped  the  policy 
which  assured  the  conquest.  The  comparative  insig- 
nificance of  the  head  is  illustrated  by  the  parting 
asunder  of  the  fabric  at  his  death  for  the  benefit  of 
his  generals,  upheld  by  the  favor  and  desire  of  the 
subordinate  ofiScers  and  soldiers. 

In  Napoleon  we  behold  the  personification  of  a  new 
military  method,  which  found  success  among  old-fash- 
ioned and  rutty  systems,  and  of  the  consequent  inspir- 
ation which  drove  the  nation  onward  to  glorious  deeds. 


MODERN  ERA.  83 

In  the  reaction,  it  was  national  sympathy  and  love  of 
independence,  rather  than  the  direction  of  kings,  wiiich 
broke  the  chains,  while  national  integrity  kept  the 
allied  powers  from  exacting  terms  too  severe. 

The  material  and  intellectual  advancement  of  nations 
cannot  be  wholly  arrested  by  the  vagaries  of  rulers, 
who,  autocratic  as  they  may  be,  are  bound  and  guided 
by  common  interests  with  their  people,  although 
prompted  by  ambition  and  vanity  to  secure  more  than 
a  due  share  for  themselves.  The  statecraft  which  so 
long  deluded  the  masses  for  the  benefit  of  a  self-assert- 
ing few  avails  no  longer.  Democracy  has  had  its  ebbs 
and  tides,  but  since  the  middle  ages  its  progress  has 
been  more  steady.  The  practical  discoveries  and  in- 
ventions which  form  the  essentials  of  civilization  are 
the  levers  of  its  own  making,  whereby  it  is  uplifted. 

Note  also  the  effect  of  the  three  great  inventions 
upon  this  modern  era,  the  compass,  printing  press, 
and  gunpowder ;  the  first  opening  the  hitherto  locked 
oceans  and  western  continents  to  enterprise  and  emi- 
gration, offering  an  asylum  for  the  oppressed  and  a 
nursery  for  freedom ;  the  second  opening  the  portals  of 
knowledge  to  benighted  masses,  presenting  to  them 
means  and  guidance  for  self-reliant  acquisition  of 
power;  the  third,  by  revolutionizing  warfare,  dealing 
the  death  blow  to  feudal  tyranny,  and  reducing  the 
ascendancy  of  knights  and  nobles. 

The  success  of  democratic  rule  in  America  has  ex- 
erted a  powerful  influence  upon  Europe.  Autocracy 
has  had  to  yield  to  representative  government.  Ru- 
lers are  obliged  more  and  more  to  conform  to  their 
duty  as  executives  of  popular  will,  and  to  study  the 
requirements  of  the  masses,  in  order  to  sustain  them- 
selves. Subordinate  heads  have  in  similar  manner  to 
court  their  respective  constituents  or  apparent  de- 
fenders, and  to  figure  as  representatives  and  mouth- 
pieces rather  than  masters. 

The  comfort  of  the  people  and  the  growth  of  intel- 
ligence, the  genesis  of  laws  and  institutions,  are  of  as 


84  HISTORY  WHITING. 

vital  importance  in  our  study  of  social  anatomy,  and 
in  the  deduction  of  principles  as  the  juggleries  of  po- 
litical tricksters.  To  ignore  the  existence  of  the  ma- 
terial composing  the  nation  in  writing  its  history,  is  to 
persist  in  the  retention  of  the  barbaric  in  historic 
literature. 

The  absence  of  allusions  to  the  masses  in  the  Ho- 
meric poems,  and  in  the  Arthurian  and  Carlovingian 
tales,  is  striking.  Yet  what  minstrel  could  condescend 
to  celebrate  in  song  the  lives  and  thoughts  of  base- 
born  drudges,  when  the  general  was  considered  every- 
thing, the  soldier  nothhig,  the  lord  more  than  man, 
the  laborer  less  than  brute.  How  doth  the  halo  of 
divine  kingship  blind  the  eyes  of  men  I  Lamartine 
saw  in  gouty  old  Louis  XVIII.  a  manly  figure,  an 
honored  hero,  clothed  in  modest  wisdom ;  eyes  like 
lapis  lazuli,  without  anger,  without  timidity,  reflected 
the  ancestral  nobility  as  in  a  mirror  I 

Not  that  rulers  are  to  be  ignored  in  history.  The 
good  ruler  influences  the  interests  of  society  as  the 
mountains  give  direction  to  wind  and  rain.  Yet  in 
scientific  history,  forms  and  dignities  must  give  place 
to  human  nature,  men-killers  and  political  thimble- 
riggers  to  iron-smiths  and  wool-weavers.  Kings  and 
courts  will  never  again  figure  in  history  as  hitherto, 
for  as  their  hold  on  us  in  real  life  lessens,  so  does 
their  hold  in  tradition.  Rather  throw  rank  and  caste, 
with  patriotic  egoism  and  fanatical  creeds,  to  the  wind, 
and  rest  our  philosophy  on  the  broad  principles  of 
nature  and  humanity. 

Give  rulers,  generals,  and  great  men  their  place  in 
history — in  the  background.  These  are  the  creatures, 
not  the  creators  of  civilization.  Marshal  to  the 
front  generalizable  facts,  from  which  principles  impor- 
tant to  the  welfare  of  the  people  may  be  deduced. 
Let  us  see  how  nations  originate,  organize,  and  unfold ; 
let  us  examine  the  structure  and  operations  of  govern- 
ments, their  polities,  strength,  tyrannies,  and  corrup- 
tions ;  with  civil  government  let  us  parallel  ecclesias- 


MEN  AND  NATIONS.  85 

ticpJ  government,  with  its  powers,  creeds,  ceremonials, 
and  superstitions ;  domestic  customs,  sex  and  family 
relationships,  the  affinities  and  antagonisms  of  class, 
occupation,  and  every  species  of  social  phenomena 
down  to  the  apparently  most  insignificant  habits,  are 
worth  our  attention ;  labor,  industries,  the  economy 
of  wealth,  the  arts,  the  condition  and  advancement  of 
the  intellect,  aesthetic  culture,  morals,  and  everytliing 
appertaining  to  the  individual  as  well  as  to  the  body 
social  should  be  critically  considered;  in  short,  the 
progress  of  man's  domination  over  nature.  Costumes 
as  well  as  customs  should  be  reproduced,  for  dress,  no 
less  than  style,  is  the  man,  and  the  man  is  the  na- 
tion. A  half-century  ago  poets,  painters,  novelists, 
neither  knew  nor  cared  to  know  the  costumes  of  the 
several  nations  and  epochs  of  history  which  they  at- 
tempted to  picture,  so  tliat  the  grossest  anachronisms 
were  perpetrated.  And  this  w^as  only  one  phase  of 
the  disregard  for  knowledge  then  prevalent.  The 
analysis  of  history  should  be  made  inversely  from  the 
concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  the  homogeneous  to 
the  heterogeneous  and  complex.  After  examining 
the  facts,  we  may  proceed  inductively  to  gener- 
alizations. 

History,  heaven-born,  descends  to  earth  ;  from  the 
abstract  to  the  concrete  :  from  the  general  and  re- 
mote to  the  particular  and  proximate ;  from  the  do- 
ings of  demi-gods,  heroes,  and  kings,  it  comes  to  the 
doings  of  humbler  men.  Mighty  in  its  original  aspira- 
tions, history  bridged  the  chasm  between  heaven  and 
earth;  then  dropping  down  through  all  the  modifica- 
tions of  the  semi-supernatural,  through  all  the  phases 
of  divine  and  mortal  rule,  it  finally  rests  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  common  herd,  which  finally  raises  its 
eyes  dimly  conscious  of  its  destiny. 

The  history  of  the  United  States  illustrates  in  par- 
ticular the  unfolding  of  this  destiny,  presenting  a  lesson 
to  the  world  of  practical  energy  and  able  and  prosper- 
ous self-government.     We  are  not  as  yet  prepared  to 


86  HISTORY  WRITING. 

determine  the  exact  relative  importance  to  mankind 
of  the  histories  of  the  different  nations  of  the  earth. 
It  may  seem  to  us  now,  that  Greece,  and  Rome,  and 
England  have  exercised  a  broader  and  deeper  influ- 
ence upon  the  destinies  of  man  than  ever  will  Oregon, 
California,  or  Mexico  ;  but  we  cannot  tell.  The  civ- 
ilizations of  antiquity  flourished  while  yet  the  world 
was  small,  and  thought  circumscribed;  when  the  Pa- 
cific slope  shall  have  had  centuries  of  national  life, 
her  annals  may  tell  of  more  benefits  to  the  race  than 
those  of  Egypt  can  now  boast. 

In  order  to  better  understand  and  bring  forward 
with  proper  spirit  the  current  and  flotsam  of  history, 
the  laws  of  nature  and  humanity  should  be  kept  in 
mind,  and  all  those  natural  and  supernatural  forces 
of  which  we  know  so  little  and  feel  so  strongly ;  for 
these,  to  the  historian,  are  as  the  world's  wind  and 
water  currents  to  the  meteorologist,  or  as  the  effects 
of  heat  and  intermixtures  to  the  chemist ;  else  there 
is  no  accounting  for  the  insane  wranglings,  the  battles 
and  butcheries  over  nothings,  the  sacrifice  of  millions 
upon  the  altar  of  an  inane  idea.  They  proffer  clues  to 
the  modifications  to  which  changeable  man  is  con- 
stantly subjected  by  his  surroundings,  and  to  the  ac- 
tion and  reaction  of  individuals  and  institutions  on 
each  other. 

So  intertwined  and  subtle  are  the  relations  of  man 
and  nature  that  knowledge  of  mankind  constitutes  the 
sum  of  all  knowledge.  Physical  nature  marks  out  a 
path  to  human  nature,  and  human  nature  in  turn  be- 
comes the  key  to  physical  nature ;  as  in  the  motions 
of  matter  so  in  the  emotions  of  mind,  whether  evolved 
or  artificially  created,  human  passions  and  proclivities 
act  and  react  on  each  other,  are  measured  relatively 
not  absolutely,  and  balanced  one  by  another.  Hence 
it  is  that  change  in  one  place  involves  change  in  an- 
other, and  any  deviation  from  the  general  plan  would 
result  in  a  totally  different  order  of  things. 


THINGS  EASILY  FORGOTTEN".  87 

We  must  remember  that  individuals,  institutions, 
and  societies  are  developed,  not  self-created;  and  that  in 
this  evolution  evil  instruments  are  employed  in  com- 
mon with  good  ;  that  the  virtue  of  one  age  is  the  vice 
of  another,  and  the  beauty  of  one  age  the  deformity 
of  another.  We  do  not  realize  how  infinitesimal 
are  our  originatings,  how  infinite  the  powders  that 
mould  us ;  we  do  not  consider  that  in  the  ideal,  as  in 
the  material  world,  there  is  no  escape  from  external 
influences,  that  society  fastens  upon  every  member 
laws  as  inflexible  as  the  laws  of  nature,  and  that 
we  rest  under  dire  necessity.  We  may  imagine  our- 
selves free  when  in  truth  we  are  bound  to  the  strict- 
est servitude.  Statutory  laws,  with  their  limited  re- 
straint, may  be  evaded,  but  disobedience  to  the  laws 
of  nature  is  promptly  punished  by  nature  herself. 
Divine  law  comprehends  all  law,  but  divine  punish- 
ment is  remote  and  undefined.  The  laws  of  society 
however,  are  more  domineering  than  all  other  laws 
combined,  and,  although  punishing  with  but  a  frown, 
they  are  more  dreaded  than  either  the  laws  of  nations 
or  the  laws  of  nature 

We  forget,  moreover,  that  civilization,  this  evolu- 
tion of  the  mechanical  from  the  mechanical,  and  of  the 
mental  from  the  mental,  with  all  its  attendant  moral- 
ities, polities, and  religions,  is  not  a  human  invention; 
that  great  ideas,  great  consequences  are  born  of  time, 
not  originated  by  man  nor  self-imposed ;  that  indi- 
viduals owe  their  intelliojence  and  their  igrnorance  to 
the  age  and  society  in  which  by  their  destiny  they 
are  projected,  and  that  society  must  first  make  a  place 
for  the  great  man  before  it  can  produce  one ;  nay, 
more,  that  man  with  his  mighty  intellect  originates 
nothing,  not  even  one  poor  thought,  for  trains  of 
thought  inevitably  follow  trains  of  circumstances,  and 
every  thought  is  but  one  in  a  sequence  of  thought, 
dependent  upon  its  correlative,  the  seed  of  its  progen- 
itor, the  germ  of  its  successor,  and  that  man  can  no 
more    originate    or    exterminate    thought    than    he 


88  HISTORY  WRITING. 

can  originate  or  exterminate  a  solar  system,  so  that 
our  ideas  are  ever  coming  and  going,  and,  whether 
we  will  or  not,  gathering  color  and  volume  from  every 
fresh  experience — I  say  we  forget  all  this  and  a  thous- 
and other  things  of  like  import,  when  we  so  sagely 
sit  in  judgment  on  our  fellows. 

Some  intimation  humanity  has  of  its  elevation  from 
the  earthy  by  this  subtle  power,  for  in  the  naming  of 
itself,  in  speaking  the  word  "man"  it  says  ^'thinker," 
such  being  the  signification.  Man,  thinker,  and  not 
alone  brute,  not  stolid  senseless  brain  and  muscle  only, 
but  thinker.  So  if  we  would  be  men  and  not  ani- 
mals only  we  must  think,  and  the  more  we  think  the 
less  brutish  we  will  be.  Herein  is  a  world  of  philos- 
ophy, and  moreover  much  strength,  for  thought  breeds 
knowledge,  and  knowledge  is  strength. 

Innumerable  varieties  of  thought  are  generated  by 
innumerable  varieties  of  circumstance,  as  plants  are 
generated  by  soil  and  climate.  Men,  in  so  far  as  they 
think  at  all,  think  differently ;  few  are  wholly  wrong. 
Judgment  is  always  perverted  by  our  teachings,  which 
consist  largely  of  fallacies. 

In  our  estimations  of  human  nature  the  great  fault 
lies  in  our  restricted  vision,  and  in  the  narrow-minded 
and  one-sided  views  of  life  which  are  taken  even  by 
the  profoundest  scholars  in  every  branch  of  learning. 
By  some,  humanity  is  studied  as  an  art;  by  others,  as 
a  science.  Some  consider  proximate  causes  only,  en- 
dow mankind  with  absolute  volition,  make  the  indi- 
vidual the  arbiter  of  his  fate,  governing,  yet  in  some 
measure  being  governed  by  his  surroundings;  for- 
tuitous circumstances  are  referred  to  divine  interposi- 
tions, unexplainable  phenomena  are  thrown  back  upon 
the  supernatural,  and  the  supernatural  in  return  ex- 
plains all  mysteries.  Herein  life  is  an  art.  Others 
raise  their  eyes  to  causations  more  remote ;  they  be- 
hold the  broad  eternal  stream  of  progress  from  afar, 
human  rivers  flowing  on  solemnly,  resistlessly,  in 
channels   predetermined.     They  see  in  the  civiliza- 


STUDY  OF  HUMAXITY  89 

tions  of  nations,  in  the  evolutions  of  successive  socie- 
ties, an  orderly  march,  uniform  in  impulse,  under  the 
direction  of  supreme  intelligence,  and  regulated  by 
primordial  laws.  They  see  the  tide  of  human  aflairs 
ebbing  and  flowing,  now  sinking  into  the  depths  of 
the  material,  now  rising  to  the  confines  of  the  spiritual, 
but  ever  firmly  bound  by  omnipotence.  From  the 
association  of  human  intellects  they  perceive  engen- 
dering progressional  phenomena,  under  an  influence 
vivifying  as  the  sun  and  palpable  as  the  air  we 
breathe ;  a  living  principle,  like  conditions  ever  pro- 
ducing like  results.  Circumstances  apparently  for- 
tuitous they  refer  to  the  same  natural  laws  that 
govern  the  knowable,.  and  the  genesis  of  progress 
they  hold  to  be  one  with  the  genesis  of  man.  This 
view  raises  the  study  of  humanity  into  a  science ; 
and  thus  is  human  life  pictured  on  opposite  sides  of 
the  shield,  and  discussed  by  minds  practical  on  the 
one  hand  and  by  minds  speculative  on  the  other. 
True  philosophy,  however,  grasps  at  entireties;  man 
is  made  up  of  many  elements,  of  endless  impulses  as 
well  as  fixed  principles ;  take  away  parts  of  his  nature 
and  he  becomes  denaturalized,  becomes  either  more  or 
less  than  man. 

Every  philosophic  writer  of  history  has  his  own 
ideas  of  primal  causes  and  underlying  principles  reg- 
ulating society  and  progress.  Thus  Buckle  makes 
natural  phenomena  and  a  'priori  necessity  the  basis  of 
his  philosophy  of  history  ;  Draper  rears  his  structure 
on  the  physiological  idea ;  Froude  sees  in  the  ambi- 
tions and  passions  of  men  the  domineering  elements 
of  social  energetics,  while  Goldwin  Smith  believes  in 
the  direct  interposition  of  the  creator  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  Very  different  were  the  old-time  explanations 
of  social  phenomena  from  these  latter-day  explainers. 
Mandeville  went  so  far  as  to  make  moral  virtue  spring 
from  the  cunning  of  rulers,  who  the  better  to  govern 
their  subjects  persuaded  them  to  restrain  their  pas- 
sions and  achieve  the  good— -so  low  were  the  estimates 


90  HISTORY  WRITINC. 

placed  by  the  teachers  of  mankind  upon  the  over- 
ruhng  of  social  afiairs. 

All  seem  to  agree  that  an  unseen  mj^sterious  force 
has  some  direction  of  human  affairs,  and  rules  them 
by  intelligent  laws  for  man's  advancement.  It 
matters  little  for  the  purposes  of  history  what  this 
subtle  force  is  called,  whether  free-will,  necessity, 
progress,  or  providence.  Says  Jean  Paul  Richter, 
''Nature  forces  on  our  heart  a  creator;  history  a 
providence."  The  religionist  sees  in  history  God's 
plan  concerning  mankind,  and  the  records  of  our 
race  are  to  him  but  sequent  supernatural  interferences. 
The  scientist  sees  an  unfolding,  and  in  studying  causa- 
tions discovers  laws.  But  whether  these  laws  are 
called  God's  or  nature's  they  are  the  same  in  origin 
and  in  operation.  This  much,  however,  I  think  may 
safely  be  said :  No  one  seeks  truth  with  keener  zest 
or  with  higher  aspirations  toward  that  which  is  beau- 
tiful and  good  than  the  skeptic.  He  alone  w^ho  rests 
satisfied  in  the  stolid  ignorance  of  an  old  and  trodden 
path  prefers  falsehood. 

The  historian  of  ''innumerable  biographies,"  with 
mind  of  breadth  and  depth  sufficient  to  take  in  at  one 
view  the  whole  of  this  vast  theme,  has  yet  to  come 
forward.  Greatness  in  great  things  is  seldom  found 
united  to  greatness  in  little  things;  individual  action 
so  ill  accords  with  philosophic  speculation,  that  it  is 
with  extreme  difficulty  the  practical  mind  is  drawn 
from  immediate  practical  results,  or  the  speculative 
mind  can  be  brought  down  to  the  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  proximate.  "To  realize  with  any  adequacy 
the  force  of  a  passion  we  have  never  experienced,"  re- 
marks Lecky,  ^'  to  conceive  a  type  of  character  radi- 
cally different  from  our  own,  above  all,  to  form  any 
just  appreciation  of  the  lawlessness  and  obtuseness  of 
moral  temperament,  inevitably  generated  by  a  vicious 
education,  requires  a  power  of  imagination  which  is 
among  the  rarest  of  human  endowments." 

There  are  those  who  claim  that  many  of  the  leading 


INSIGNIFICANT  MARVELS.  91 

events  of  history  spring  from  trivial  accidents,  ignoring 
which,  in  his  efforts  at  more  dignified  causations,  the 
writer  exaggerates  or  warps  the  truth.  This  may  be 
so  to  a  Umited  extent.  But  when  Wilham  Mathews 
soberly  affirms  that  "  half  of  the  great  movements  in 
the  world  are  brought  about  by  means  far  more  in- 
significant than  a  Helen's  beauty  or  an  Achilles' 
wrath,"  that  '*one  more  pang  of  doubt  in  the  tossed 
and  wavering  soul  of  Luther,  and  the  current  of  the 
world's  history  would  have  been  changed,"  he  is  far 
from  the  fact.  And  when  this  writer  continues,  "had 
Cleopatra's  nose  been  shorter,  had  the  spider  not 
woven  its  web  across  the  cave  in  which  Mahomet 
took  refuge,  had  Luther's  friend  escaped  the  thunder- 
storm," mankind  shall  never  know  what  might  have 
been,  he  approaches  the  burlesque.  As  Fontanelle 
remarks,  ''L'histoire  a  pour  objct  les  effets  irreguliers 
des  passions  et  des  caprices  des  hommes,  et  une  suite 
d'evenements  si  bizarres,  que  Ton  a  autrefois  imagine 
une  divinite  avengle  et  insensee  pour  lui  en  donner  la 
direction." 

Another  sums  up  fifteen  decisive  battles,  any  one 

of  which,  if  resulting  differently,  would  have  brought 

destruction  on  mankind.     Western  civilization  would 

have  been  blotted  out  had  not  Asia  been  checked  at 

Marathon.     And  what  would   have    happened,  that 

did  not  happen,  had  Hasdrubal  won,  had  Themistocles 

lost,  had  Charles    Martel    been  overthrown    by  the 

Saracens,  or  had  Napoleon  been  successful  at  Leipzig, 

j  sages  recite  as  though  reading  from  a  record. 

I       While   Wellington    waited    Bluchers    arrival    at 

?  Waterloo  the  sun  stood  still  to  see  whether  its  services 

i  should  be  wanted  more  on  this  planet.     In  like  man- 

;  ner  momentous  turning-points  are  discovered  in  state- 

.  craft,  politics,  and  progress. 

I       Humboldt  saw  in   the   discovery  of  Columbus  a 

j  "wonderful  concatenation  of  trivial    circumstances," 

'  and  Irving  gives  a  string  of  incidents  to  show  that 

something  dreadful  might  have  happened  if  Columbus 


92  HISTORY  WRITING. 

Lad  resisted  Pinzon's  counsel,  when  the  latter  was  in- 
spired by  the  sight  of  a  flock  of  parrots  to  steer  west- 
ward. Mr  Mill  sagely  observes,  "  If  Mary  had  lived 
a  little  longer,  or  Elizabeth  died  sooner,  the  reforma- 
tion would  have  been  crushed  in  England."  An  innate 
love  for  the  marvellous  fondles  these  assumptions  ;  but 
human  affairs  do  not  flow  in  such  shallow  channels  as 
to  be  turned  from  their  course  by  the  falling  of  a 
pebble,  or  if  turned  from  one  course  they  find  another 
which  answers  as  well.  It  does  not  seem  reasonable 
that  had  not  the  Modes  and  Persians,  the  Saracens, 
the  French,  and  the  rest  of  them,  been  checked  just 
where  they  were,  that  we  all  would  now  be  Mahom- 
etans or  Frenchmen.  And  surely  it  does  not  argue 
well  for  Christ's  care  of  his  church  to  make  its  welfare 
dependent  upon  the  accident  of  a  woman's  fate. 

Nature  and  the  Great  Inexorable  have  some  voice 
in  the  dispensation  of  human  aflairs  as  well  as  Blucher, 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  or  Napoleon.  These  persons 
were  but  creatures  of  circumstances,  and  the  events 
that  raised  them  could  have  found  other  means  and 
instruments.  Politics  and  governments  may  run  away 
with  themselves,  and  with  one  another,  but  the  master 
is  sure  to  bring  them  back.  The  moral  ideal  of  every 
society  is  stronger  than  its  greatest  friend  or  enemy. 
The  great  mass  of  readers,  even  of  history,  seem  to 
prefer  to  have  their  thinking  done  for  them.  It  is 
not  given  to  every  man  to  think  as  all  the  world  shall !; 
think  a  century  hence.  The  deepest  original  thinkers 
add  little  to  the  world  of  thought ;  but  from  those 
who  hire  their  thinking  the  world  learns  nothing. 
They  are  not  satisfied  with  the  bald  facts,  but  must 
have  them  well  coated  with  romance  and  theory  be- 
fore they  are  palatable.  The  chief  art  of  partisan 
historians  is  to  make  the  facts  of  history  sufficiently 
pliable  to  fit  pre-determined  principles.  Their  plan  is 
not  to  deduce  but  to  induce.  Too  often  even  among 
philosophic  writers,  history  is  but  a  special  pleading 
— as  in  the  case  of  Thirwall  and  Mitford,  who  take 


SPECIAL  PLEADING.  93 

the  facts  of  Grecian  history,  and  warp  them,  one  to 
suit  democratic  ideas,  and  the  other  aristocratic ;  or  of 
Abbott  and  AlUson,  who  in  writing  of  the  French, 
station  God's  providence  on  opposite  sides.  The  pro- 
ficient historian  will  range  his  facts  in  natural  se- 
quence, so  that  each  event  may  show  at  once  its 
origin  and  its  influence, — and  herein  lies  the  essence 
of  history  writing, — while  for  his  philosophy  of  his- 
tory the  student  should  draw  from  his  Hegel  or  his 
Schlegel  rather  than  require  the  narrator  of  facts  to 
warp  them  for  popular  or  prejudiced  views.  As  in 
geological  science  we  discover  a  chronology  of  the 
material,  so  in  history  there  is  a  chronology  of  the  im- 
material. A  fact  in  history,  like  a  relic  in  archseology, 
may  from  its  form  and  character  be  ascribed  its  proper 
place  or  epoch.  There  are  the  beliefs,  the  politics, 
the  moralities  of  our  period,  which  by  no  possibility 
could  appear  in  another. 

**  To  serve  more  effectually  the  philosophical  ex- 
planation of  the  past,"  says  Noah  Porter,  *^the  great 
movements  of  historic  progress  in  separate  lines  and 
the  several  agencies  on  which  they  depend  have  been 
treated  of  in  distinct  works."     To  this  separate  treat- 
ment of  topics  particular  attention  should  be  given  in 
all  historical  writings,  bringing  severally  forward  the 
progress    of  commerce,    agriculture,    education,    and 
various  kindred  sections  cf  the  ground  covered,  so  as 
I  to  enable  the  mind  to  see  the  effects  of  each  of  these 
!  civilizing  agents  on  society  apart  from  other  causes 
I  and  effects. 

I      To  pure  and  healthy  minds  the  plain  truth   has 

j!  fascinations  which  no  fiction,  however  brilliant,   can 

\  equal.     A  taste  for  the  latter  can  be  cultivated,  how- 

l  ever,  until  it  surpasses  the  former.     The  child  contin- 

t  ually  asks  of  the  story  told,  Is  it  true  ?    But  by-and- 

by  we  find  half  the  world  reading  romance,  men  and 

women  of  all  classes,  ages,  and  grades  of  intelligence 

devouring  shadow  as  though  it  were  substance,  filling 

themselves  with  wind,  imagining  it  to  be  food,  laugh- 


94  HISTORY  WRITING. 

ing  and  weeping  over  the  airy  nothings  of  novelists, 
all  the  while  knowing  them  to  be  false  yet  pretending 
them  to  be  true.  And  those  who  can  make  this  false 
glitter  appear  most  like  truth  are  called  artists,  and 
apparently  esteemed  more  highly  than  if  they  dealt 
only  in  truth.  -Novels  afford  us  pastime  and  keep  us 
young ;  but  it  is  a  most  remarkable  commentary  on 
the  mental  and  moral  construction  of  humanity,  this 
preference  of  pleasing  fiction  to  substantial  fact ;  and 
yet,  in  the  earlier  processes  of  the  mind,  as  we  have 
seen,  truth  has  its  fascinations. 

In  the  domain  of  sober  history,  pure  unadulterated 
facts  were  never  in  greater  demand  than  in  the  pres- 
ent practical  and  material  age.  During  the  past 
thirty  centuries  and  more,  the  world  has  had  its  fill 
of  windy  speculations;  bubbles  blown  by  wondering 
savages,  half-crazed  philosophers,  and  bigoted  church- 
men. It  is  the  raw  material  that  worlds  are  made  of, 
and  guided  by,  and  more  knowledge  of  the  propelling 
power  that  drives  forward  the  mighty  machine  called 
civilization,  that  we  now  desire  to  see  and  handle. 

History  is  not  alone  facts,  not  alone  ideas,  but  facts 
in  their  relation  to  ideas.  The  duty  of  the  historian 
is  not  only  to  present  truth,  but  to  demand  its  origin 
and  significance.  According  to  Cousin's  conception: 
"To  recall  every  fact,  even  the  most  minute,  to  its 
general  law,  to  the  law  which  alone  causes  it  to  be : 
to  examine  its  relation  with  other  facts  referred  also 
to  their  laws  ;  and  from  relations  to  relations  to  arrive 
at  seizing  the  relation  of  the  most  fugitive  particular- 
ity, to  the  most  general  idea  of  an  epoch,  to  the  lofty 
rule  of  history."  Continuing  the  same  thoughts  by 
Froude;  ''When  historians  have  to  relate  great  so- 
cial or  speculative  changes,  the  overthrow  of  a  mon- 
archy or  the  establishment  of  a  creed,  they  do  but 
half  their  duty  if  they  merely  relate  the  events.  Tn 
an  account,  for  instance,  of  the  rise  of  Mahometan- 
ism,  it  is  not  enough  to  describe  the  character  of  the 
prophet,  the  ends  which  he  set  before  him,  the  means 


INCONGRUITIES  AND  EXAGGERATIONS.  95 

which  he  made  use  of,  and  the  effect  which  he  pro- 
duced ;  the  historian  must  show  what  there  was  in 
the  condition  of  the  eastern  races  which  enabled  Ma- 
homet to  act  upon  them  so  powerfully ;  their  existing 
beliefs,  their  existing  moral  and  political  condition." 

While  laying  the  foundations  of  history  for  an  im- 
portant section  of  the  world,  as  did  Herodotus,  the 
writer  should  with  Horace,  in  a  series  of  tableaux  vi- 
vants,  carry  the  reader  into  the  very  heart  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  in  the  examination  of  antecedents  bring  to 
his  aid  the  mirror  of  Lao,  by  which  the  mind  as  well 
as  the  visible  form  is  reflected. 

Certain  molecules  are  sure  to  assume  given  shapes 
in  aggregating ;  each  element  of  matter  has  its  own 
form  of  crystalization.  So  it  is  with  human  societies; 
ascertain  elemental  and  individual  qualities,  and  you 
may  predict  results.  As  the  universal  brotherhood 
of  man  becomes  more  and  more  apparent,  the  brother- 
hood of  history  is  no  less  recognized.  Nations  act 
and  react  on  each  other,  and  a  history  of  one  cannot 
be  complete  while  relating  nothing  of  another.  Nor 
yet  alone  by  years  are  historical  epochs  measured. 
In  modern  history  are  things  ancient,  and  in  ancient, 
things  modern.  A  century  before  Christ,  the  Romans, 
in  their  intentions  and  actions,  were  more  like  our- 
selves than  were  their  successors  four  or  five  centu- 
ries later.  The  stream  of  human  progress  at  the 
bottom  is  compact  and  silent  in  its  flow,  while  the 
surface  abounds  in  eddies,  whirlpools,  and  counter- 
currents.  The  branches  and  foliage  of  the  tree  are 
in  their  substance  equivalent  to  the  volume  and  diame- 
ter of  the  trunk  from  which  they  shoot ;  so  the  life  of 
man  is  not  that  which  it  now  appears,  a  network  of 
erratic  energies,  swayed  by  every  wind  of  passion,  but 
the  sum  of  wide-spread  influences,  which,  uprising  with 
the  birth  of  time,  unfolds  from  roots  of  good  and  evil. 

Many  of  the  exaggerations  of  history  have  undoubt- 
edly their  origin  in  the  writer's  effort  at  brilliancy  in 
painting  character;  and  nothing  is   truer   than  La 


96  HISTORY  WRITING. 

Harpe's  remark  '^On  affaiblit  toujours  ce  qui  on  ex- 
agere."  Such  efforts  tend  to  perdition,  for  before  the 
writer  is  aware  of  it  he  is  sacrificing  truth  to  style  in 
an  endeavor  to  please  rather  than  to  instruct.  There 
are  few  writers,  who  if  they  spoke  truly  could  but 
admit  with  Jean  Paul  that  ''there  was  a  time  when 
truth  charmed  me  less  than  its  ornament;  the  thought 
less  than  the  form  in  w^iich  it  was  expressed."  Some 
regard  style  of  the  first  importance  ;  others  make  style 
secondary  to  substance.  Time  was,  and  not  long 
since,  when  style  was  not  only  the  man,  but  the  book ; 
when  naked  facts  were  savagisms  not  admissible  into 
conventional  literature.  Ornamentation  was  more 
than  dress,  and  dress  more  than  the  body.  Un- 
less minted  by  philosophical  and  rhetorical  flourish, 
the  most  golden  of  truths  were  not  current.  Haply, 
now  we  will  gladly  take  the  gold  wherever  or  in  what- 
ever form  we  find  it,  even  if  it  be  not  already  exchange- 
able coin. 

On  the  whole  we  may  say  that  the  heroic  in  histor- 
ical composition  has  given  place  to  the  scientific,  the 
romantic  and  popular  to  the  austere  and  truthful. 
Yet  it  is  impossible  wholly  to  separate  romance  from 
reality.  Fiction  must  have  truth  for  its  base,  w^hile 
staid  indeed  must  be  the  narrative  which  is  not  tinged 
with  romance.  There  are  historical  romances  less 
romantic  than  the  histories  themselves — instance  the 
Cyrus  of  Xenophon  as  compared  with  the  Cyrus  of 
Herodotus. 

Let,  then,  him  who  in  writing  history  would  bathe 
his  rigid  limbs  in  pools  of  inspiration,  and  dip  his  am- 
bitious pen  in  auroral  colors,  pray  the  gods  that  fancy 
may  not  outstrip  fact. 

To  religion  must  be  accorded  the  foremost  credit 
of  sustaining  alike  ignorance  and  learning.  The  posi- 
tion of  its  servants,  from  the  early  sorcerer,  medicine- 
man, and  astrologer,  to  the  brahmin,  muezzin,  or  pope, 
made  them  the  middlemen  between  the  masses  and 


LEGENDS  AND  TRADITIONS.  97 

the  awe-inspiring  forces  of  nature,  and  rendered 
knowledge,  or  the  hiding  of  it,  the  object  of  their  lives, 
the  excuse  for  their  occupation,  the  apology  for  their 
existence.  As  the  means  for  influence  it  became  to 
them  as  current  coin. 

The  collection  and  transcription  of  legends  and  tradi- 
tions into  the  general  whole  formed  part  of  their  work- 
ing capital.  The  leisure  imposed  by  their  vows  and  con- 
ditions on  priests,  and  monks,  and  anarchists,  promoted 
their  labors.  Their  character  has  been  stamped  on 
most  national  literature,  adding  to  the  mysticism  of 
ancient  records.  The  Veda  is  as  widely  diffused  in 
India  as  the  religio-philosophic  precepts  of  Confucius 
in  the  Celestial  kingdom,  influencing  the  conduct  of 
a  large  proportion  of  the  human  race.  The  Koran 
spreads  over  many  smaller  nationalities,  and  the  Bible 
helped  to  shape  the  destinies  of  the  advanced  among 
nations,  permeating  the  middle 'ages  with  unparalleled 
tenacity.  Not  unlike  these  was  the  influence  of  the 
Popul  Vuh,  and  other  ancient  records  of  civilized 
America. 

The  first  of  the  historians  who  began  to  place  on 
record  the  myths  and  traditions  of  their  nation,  made 
additions  and  variations  of  their  own  mostly  with  a  frank 
effort  at  truth  ;  yet  they  were  not  devoid  of  invention 
and  wilful  falsification.  Dealing  in  the  impossible, 
they  readily  fell  back  upon  the  supernatural  to  deliver 
them  from  every  dilemma  ;  and  being  filled  with  dim 
conceptions  regarding  the  origin  and  end  of  things, 
and  that  insane  fervor,  sometimes  called  inspiration, 
they  were  well-conditioned  to  prepare  for  peoples  just 
aroused  from  savagism  the  bases  of  mental  pabulum, 
which  well  enough  served  the  purpose  for  certain 
centuries. 

The  secular  historian  had  to  wait  for  the  unfolding 
of  liberal  ideas,  as  in  Greece,  fostered  like  himself  in 
the  civilizing  circle  of  foreign  intercourse  and  trade. 
He  was  a  traveller,  roused  by  the  excitement  of  mo- 
tion and  the  novelty  of  changing  aspects,  which  also 

Essays  and  Miscellany    7 


98  HISTORY  WRITING. 

brought  comparison  and  judgment.  Inquiry  and 
skepticism  brought  improvement  upon  mere  narrative, 
in  philosophic  history,  to  which  further  strength  was 
imparted  through  the  agency  of  compilation.  The 
subsequent  halt  in  progress  was  marked  by  the  revival 
in  the  troubadour  of  Homeric  reciters. 

Improvement  was  slow  though  perceptible.  Follow- 
ing the  gleam  that  breaks  through  the  mist  we  behold 
those  who  begin  to  weigh  evidence ;  yet  they  venture 
only  partially  to  force  their  way  through  the  tram- 
mels cast  round  them  by  veneration  for  the  divine 
authority  and  national  character  of  the  earliest  books. 
This  is  strongly  illustrated  by  the  chroniclers  of  the 
twelfth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  who  mark  therein 
also  the  retrogression  of  the  middle  ages. 

Modern  historians  pride  themselves  on  being  freed 
from  the  superstitions  which  clouded  the  views  of 
their  predecessors,  and  on  having  gained  a  truer  in- 
sight into  events;  but  how  shrouded  are  still  their 
perceptions  by  inherited  and  acquired  bias,  and  how 
distorted  by  subordination  to  irrelevant  aims.  Few 
histories  stand  relieved  from  partisan  spirit.  Some 
seek  to  uphold  a  liberal  administration,  others  a  con- 
servative policy;  some  the  influence  of  ecclesiastics 
and  nobles,  others  to  champion  the  cause  of  the 
masses;  some  seek  to  justify  the  acts  of  a  certain 
potentate,  others  to  correct  the  omissions  or  prejudices 
of  recorders.  The  mere  effort  to  strengthen  their 
argument  brings  about  coloring  and  exaggeration^ 
even  if  it  does  not  carry  them  so  far  as  the  clasa 
which  writes  to  prove  some  predetermined  proposi- 
tion, and  warp  every  fact  to  fit  the  theory.  Then, 
there  are  those  who  write  for  reputation  and  display, 
who  strive  to  excel  in  the  narration  of  some  tale, 
to  elaborate  into  romance  some  brilliant  epoch  or 
episode,  too  often  at  the  expense  of  accuracy.  Never- 
theless we  encounter  those  who  write  to  tell  the  truth 
for  the  simple  love  of  it,  actuated  by  a  sense  of 
fairness;  and  others  there  are  who,  confident  in  their 


1 


VARIOUS  INFLUENCES.  99 

power  to  control  prejudices  and  exaggerations,  and  to 
discriminate,  yield  freely  to  style  as  well  as  argument 
in  order  to  impart  force  to  the  incident  and  theory. 

In  the  championship  of  a  dogma  or  doctrine  by  the 
religionist  or  scientist,  fanaticism  in  some  form  is 
seldom  wholly  separable.  In  regard  to  the  former, 
it  is  utterly  impossible  for  him  to  see  clearly  where 
his  faith  is  affected.  He  may  be  honest  and  conscien- 
tious, intelligent  and  virtuous ;  his  very  honesty  and 
virtue  are  barriers  between  him  and  truth.  He  has 
been  taught  to  believe  that  upon  his  religion  rests  the 
universe,  that  his  doctrina  is  the  embodiment  of 
truth;  that  by  his  holy  book  all  human  events,  all 
science,  all  history,  all  that  has  been  and  is  to  be  must 
be  adjusted ;  that  by  his  deity  exist  the  eternal  hills, 
and  all  forces,  attractive  and  repulsive,  and  all  worlds, 
and  all  space,  and  light,  and  life,  and  time.  And  as 
he  has  been  taught,  so  he  has  promised  to  teach ;  he 
may  not  investigate ;  he  is  bound ;  he  would  say  he 
is  bound  to  the  truth,  but  of  that  he  may  not  ques- 
tion, and  he  has  no  desire  to  question.  He  may  not 
subscribe  to  modern  miracles,  but  he  must  to  ancient 
ones  ;  he  may  trust  reason  and  science  for  the  present, 
but  for  the  past,  his  sacred  book  supplies  all.  The 
improbable,  impossible  stories,  the  insane  assertions 
of  dim  human  intelligences,  of  blind  ignorance,  words 
of  men  spoken  in  the  earlier  stages  of  mental  devel- 
opment— these  and  the  like  are  to  be  taken  as  the 
omnipotence  of  truth,  omnipotence  and  truth  as  pre- 
sented by  nature,  sense,  and  reason  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

In  a  similar  realm  of  obscurity,  blinded  by  the 
effulgence  of  inflowing  light,  stands  the  scientist  who 
subscribes  to  the  unprovable  propositions  of  some 
school,  or  is  seized  by  some  conception  of  his  own, 
the  establishment  of  which  absorbs  his  best  efforts, 
and  becomes  the  dearest  object  of  his  life. 

Superstition  is  not  alone  of  the  past,  nor  is  bigotry 
confined  to  religion.     There  is  a  fanaticism  of  liberty 


100  HISTORY  WRITING. 

as  well  as  a  fanaticism  of  enslavement.  There  is  a 
bigotry  of  libertinism  no  less  than  a  bigotry  of  secta- 
rianism ;  there  are  in  atheism  zealots  as  blind  as  ever 
disgraced  theism  or  deism.  The  pope  claims  infalli- 
bility m  the  face  of  protests  from  all  unfettered 
minds;  but  dogmatic  extremists,  of  whatsoever  sect 
or  creed,  likewise  assume  infallibility  in  denouncing 
opinions  opposed  to  their  own.  Upon  a  Procrustean 
bed  of  their  own  dimensions  these  liberalized  latter- 
day  contortionists  place  all  who  fall  into  their  hands, 
cuttino;  off  the  limbs  that  are  too  longr  for  it,  and 
stretching  those  that  are  too  short. 

Of  approximate  stamp  is  undue  bias  in  favor  of 
one's  own  people  or  country.  This  failing,  still  re- 
garded in  many  quarters  as  a  virtue,  is  worse  in  some 
respects  than  the  bigotry  arising  from  religious  belief, 
and  denotes  narrowness  of  mind. 

*'  One  historian  after  another  sets  himself  to  write 
the  panegyric  of  his  favorite  period,"  says  Gold  win 
Smith,  *'  and  each  panegyric  is  an  apology  or  a  false- 
hood." The  homily  of  glowing  patriot  or  zealous 
sectarian  is  not  history  but  verbiage.  Let  all  that  is 
worthy  of  censure  in  state,  church,  and  society  be  con- 
demned;  let  all  that  is  worthy  of  praise  be  extolled ; 
but  let  not  censure  and  praise  be  meted  out  according 
to  the  maxims  of  country  or  creed.  Patriotism  is  but 
a  form  of  egotism,  which  must  be  circumscribed  if  not 
laid  entirely  aside.  Let  us  meet  every  age  and  nation 
upon  the  broad  platform  of  humanity,  measuring  no 
man's  conscience  by  our  own  but  by  the  conscience  of 
nature,  and  condemning  cruelty  and  injustice  wherever 
we  find  it,  whether  in  Hebrew,  Turk,  or  Christian, 
Sj^aniard  or  Anglo-Saxon.  It  is  no  less  unwise  than  dis- 
honest to  wage  vituperative  warfare  against  any  nation 
or  sect  as  such.  Would  he  keep  pellucid  the  stream 
of  thought,  with  his  piety  and  patriotism  the  writer  of 
history  will  have  little  to  do.  *'  Nothing  endures  ex- 
cept that  which  is  necessary,  and  history  occupies  it- 
self only  with  that  which  endures,"  observes  M. Cousin. 


IMPEDIMENTS   AND   QUALIFICATIONS.  101 

Other  obstacles  interpose  in  forms  infinite  to  warp 
our  conceptions  of  incidents  and  character.  There  is 
the  intellectual  bias,  the  impossibility  of  reproducing 
in  our  own  minds  the  thoughts  and  abstractions  of 
others;  the  emotional  bias,  in  which  category  may  be 
placed  the  whole  range  of  passion,  family  and  class, 
loves  and  hates,  with  their  numberless  sympathies 
and  antipathies;  the  educational  bias,  and  many 
others. 

Impartiality  and  clearness  must  not  be  confounded 
or  obscured,  even  by  a  strong  detestation  of  the  hate- 
ful or  an  absorbing  admiration  for  the  excellent.     The 
effects  and  lessons  of  both  have  to  be  duly  emphasized, 
yet  the  writer  must  rise  above  the  excitement  which 
he  himself  seeks  to  rouse  by  incident  or  style.     Like 
the  general,  he  must  inspire  enthusiasm  without  al- 
I  lowing  himself  to  be  carried  away  by  it.     While  ap- 
I  parently  yielding  to  the  emotions  awakened  by  varying 
I  occurrences,  he  must  ever  be  on  his  guard  to  restrain 
'  those  sympathies  within  bounds,  or  he  becomes  un- 
trustworthy. 

j  There  are  many  yet  remaining  among  the  guilds 
I  and  schools  who  prefer  graceful  fiction  to  ungainly 
;  fact,  and  the  older  and  more  learned  and  more  refined 
^  the  school,  the  closer  they  hug  their  superstitions  and 
■  deny  conflicting  trutlis.  They  have  been  taught,  and 
sagely  ;  the  world's  storehouse  of  knowledge  has  been 
(opened  to  them,  and  tliey  have  been  able  to  secure 
.  more  of  it  to  themselves  than  usually  falls  to  the  lot 
;of  man;  percliance  they  receive  their  daily  food  by 
holding  to  certain  doctrines;  at  all  events,  they  seem 
too  ready  to  welcome  any  sham  which  will  bolster  up 
■their  learning,  as  against  any  reality  which  will  over- 
throw it.  To  pander  to  the  passions  or  prejudices  of 
a  class,  to  romance  for  the  pleasure  of  idle  brains,  or 
draw  thrilling  pictures  for  the  amusement  of  dull 
intellects,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  is  not  to  write 
history. 

No  less  indispensable  than  freedom  from  such  dc- 


102  HISTORY  WRITING. 

basing  shackles  is  fearlessness  in  the  portrayal  of  con- 
temporaneous events. 

The  impartial  judge  should  be  a  satisfied  man — 
satisfied  with  place  and  possessions,  and  as  free  from 
vanity  as  from  ambition.  He  should  have  nothing  to 
gain  by  the  expression  of  any  opinion  or  in  advocating 
any  principle,  and  if  loss  attends  such  expression,  he 
should  be  ready  to  sustain  it.  There  may  not  be 
many  historians  who,  like  Paulus  Jovius,  would  write 
openly  as  they  were  bribed,  who  would  assign  illus- 
trious acts  or  noble  pedigree  to  those  who  paid  for 
them,  and  who  would  blacken  and  vilify  the  name  of 
him  who  refused  to  buy  fame;  yet  there  are  enough 
over  whom  other  motives  and  influences  hold  sway 
sufficient  to  make  their  record  far  from  just. 

Hume  piqued  himself  on  his  judicial  fairness,  and 
yet  would  alter  or  reverse  a  fact  to  suit  his  printer. 
What  kind  of  a  historian  is  he  whose  charm  of  style 
and  whose  exquisite  grace  and  vivacity  of  narration 
have  captivated  so  many  readers,  and  of  whom  De 
Quincey  might  justly  say,  "Upon  any  question  of  fact, 
Hume's  authority  is  none  at  all?"  Macaulay  hated 
the  Quakers,  hated  the  duke  of  Marlborough,  idolized 
William  III. — conditions  wholly  unfitting  him  to 
write  truthfully. 

When  Douglas  Jerrold  went  to  Paris,  and  amidst 
the  scenes  then  stirring  the  capital  attempted  the  role 
of  special  correspondent  for  his  own  journal,  writing 
from  strange  nooks,  as  George  Hodder  says,  '^with- 
out the  accustomed  implements  of  his  calling,  and  far 
removed  from  those  domestic  influences  which  he 
often  confessed  quickened  his  impulses  and  chastened 
his  understanding,"  he  felt  that  the  same  work  could 
have  been  done  better  at  home.  When  his  companion 
reminded  him  that  he  came  there  for  facts,  he  angrily 
exclaimed,  ''Damn  the  facts!     I  don't  want  facts." 

History  is  a  magician's  bottle,  out  of  which  we  can 
pour  any  kind  of  wine  the  human  appetite  craves. 
Sophocles  pictured  humanity  a3  ib  ought  to  be ;  Eurip- 


TEMPER  AND  BIAS.  103 

ides  as  it  was.  Thucydides  wrote  down  democracy, 
Tacitus  imperialism.  Was  either  of  them  true  to  the 
interests  of  the  opposite  side  ?  Would  they  not  have 
been  accounted  as  traitors  by  their  respective  parties 
had  they  been  wholly  impartial,  and  might  not  their 
names  and  works  have  soon  perished  in  consequence? 
Macaulay  looks  upon  the  ills  of  the  English  poor  two 
centuries  back;  Cobbett  and  Hallam  dwell  more  upon 
their  comforts.  Read  one,  and  you  imagine  them  the 
most  miserable  of  mortals ;  read  the  others,  and  you 
think  how  much  happier  people  were  then  tlian  now. 
To  the  character  of  Philip  II  Prescott  applies  the 
words  bigoted,  perfidious,  suspicious,  cruel,  which  were 
enough  for  even  so  powerful  a  prince,  but  when  Mot- 
ley adds  to  these  the  terms  pedant  and  idiot,  one  be- 
gins to  wonder  how  such  a  driveller  was  able  to  manage 
his  estate  of  half  a  world  so  long  and  so  well. 

The  writer  of  liistory  need  not  be  a  genius — indeed, 
genius  is  ordinarily  too  erratic  for  faithful  plodding — 
but  he  must  be  a  fair  man,  a  man  of  sound  sense,  good 
judgment,  and  catholicity  of  opinion ;  of  broad  ex- 
perience and  a  wide  range  of  knowledge.  While 
guarding  against  a  too  free  indulgence  of  that  love  of 
personalities  which,  latent  in  simple  minds,  begins  in 
gossip  and  boyish  stories,  and  culminates  in  biography 
and  histor}^,  he  will  never  hold  himself  above  anything 
which  affects  human  nature,  however  humble,  nor  be- 
low those  abstract  generalities  which  are  a  later  pro- 
duct, the  result  of  study  and  experience.  He  should 
be  possessed  of  the  faculty  of  abstraction  to  the  de- 
gree of  double  sense  and  opposite  natures,  so  that  he 
may  clearly  see  the  two  sides  there  are  to  every  prop- 
osition and  every  human  character,  and  thus  be  ena- 
bled to  reconcile  the  antagonisms  of  mind  and  emotions. 
A  practical  imagination,  calm  energy,  and  cautious 
speculation,  should  underlie  all  his  efforts.  It  is  the 
historian's  duty  to  fill  vacant  spaces  with  probable 
events,  or  as  Porter  says  :  *'  The  power  when  trained 
and    used    in    the    search    after   historic    truth   be- 


104  HISTORY  WRITIXG, 

comes  what  is  called  the  historic  imagination,  which 
by  long  practice  becomes  so  discriminating  and  so 
trustworthy  as  to  be  termed  the  historic  sense." 

All  this  is  very  well  in  nuhibus.  It  is  easy  enough 
to  point  out  defects  and  tell  how  history  should  be 
written,  easier  far  than  to  find  the  model  historian. 
Wholly  to  abstract  thought  from  falsifying  influences, 
to  divorce  mind  from  its  superstitions,  its  hollow  max- 
ims, and  its  moral  phantasms,  is  not  possible.  Before 
attempting  it  let  Ithuriel  and  Zephon  search  for  Satan 
in  paradise,  and  let  Lucifer  cleanse  his  abode  of  every 
worthy  quality.  Between  opinion  and  experience, 
cognition  and  emotion,  there  is  perpetual  antagonism. 
How  little  we  know  of  nature,  of  ourselves,  of  our 
neighbor  I  How  little  of  impartial  thought  there  is 
even  among  those  who  most  earnestly  seek  it  I 

The  infant  beholds  the  moon  within  its  grasp,  and 
learns  but  gradually  how  unreliable  are  his  perceptions 
in  this  and  other  directions  without  the  correcting 
medium  of  experience.  The  artist  has  recourse  to 
delusive  methods  to  convey  to  the  observer  a  truer 
idea  of  his  work,  to  correct  the  aberrations  of  the  eye 
and  mind.  The  sculptor  curves  the  column  to  secure 
an  apparent  straightness  of  outlines ;  the  painter 
shades  the  background  to  convey  aerial  perspective  or 
project  his  figures;  the  musician  uses  now  slow,  now 
fast  vibrations  to  soothe  or  animate  his  listeners. 
Without  skilful  exaggeration  the  poem,  heroic  or 
idyllic,  would  fail  in  its  purpose.  Likewise  in  history, 
although  in  minor  degree,  writers  find  it  often  neces- 
sary to  emphasize,  in  more  or  less  forcible  manner, 
certain  incidents  in  order  to  raise  them  to  due  promi- 
nence above  the  general  level,  to  produce  a  proper 
contrast.  Coloring  of  style  is  permissible  to  relieve 
monotony,  or  to  secure  an  appreciation  of  a  trait  or 
happening  commensurate  with  its  importance;  all, 
however,  within  the  bounds  requisite  alone  for  strength- 
ening truth,  while  keeping  the  reins  of  thought  ever 


PARTISANSHIP   AND    SECTAPJANISM.  105 

under  control.  A  battle  could  not  be  effectually  de- 
picted in  the  monotone  applicable  to  the  enumeration 
of  legislative  enactments,  nor  a  humorous  occurrence 
in  the  strain  required  for  tragedy. 

In  this  age  of  rapid  transition  from  one  state  of 
thought  to  another,  some  might  consider  it  almost  a 
necessity  for  the  writer  of  history  at  the  outset  to  de- 
clare his  method  of  investigation  in  the  study  of  social 
phenomena,  whether  he  inclines  to  the  side  of  the  super- 
natural interference  theory,  to  the  influence  of  the  indi- 
vidual willsof  great  men  in  social  affairs,  or  to  the  theory 
of  evolution  and  the  unchangeable  operation  of  primor- 
dial law.  The  political  speaker,  or  pulpit  orator — and 
to  these  I  might  add  nine-tenths  of  the  book -writers — 
who  does  not  appear  before  the  public  as  a  partisan 
or  a  sectarian  of  some  sort,  and  hence  prepared  to 
suppress  half  the  truth  in  support  of  his  opinion,  is 
regarded  as  little  better  than  beside  himself  Better 
than  plain  truth  we  love  to  listen  to  that  which  pleases 
the  ear  and  absorbs  the  fancy,  and  he  who  speaks  to 
us  thus  speaks  truth;  him  we  will  feed,  and  clothe, 
and  praise,  for  he  it  is  who  holds  over  us  the  grateful 
shades  of  ignorance.  On  the  other  hand  those  who 
love  light  more  than  self-opinionated  blindness  can, 
perhaps,  listen  or  read  as  profitably,  if  they  know  at 
once  the  color  and  calibre  of  the  speaker's  or  writer's 
mind.  '^Broader  and  deeper  must  we  write  our  an- 
nals," says  Emerson,  ''  from  an  ethical  reformation, 
from  an  influx  of  the  ever  new,  ever  sanitive  conscience, 
if  we  would  trulier  express  our  central  and  wide- 
related  nature,  instead  of  this  old  chronology  of  selfish- 
ness and  pride  to  which  we  have  too  long  lent 
our  eyes." 

Yet  the  knowledge  of  the  end  from  the  beginning 
tends  to  operate  against  exact  narration  or  views. 
How  different  to  the  eye  of  an  observer  appear  the 
carriage  and  conduct  of  one  in  court  if  he  be  told  the 
individual  is  culprit  or  judge !     If  to  a  stranger  the 


106  HISTORY  WRITINa. 

most  innocent  man  that  walks  the  street  was  pointed 
out  as  a  thief  and  an  assassin,  villainy  would  seem  to 
lurk  about  his  heels  and  display  itself  in  every  feature. 
Then  too,  it  is  one  thing  to  write  fanaticism  for  fan- 
atics or  weave  fustian  for  demagogues,  and  quite  an- 
other to  write  for  those  with  whom  a  mere  assertion, 
however  strongly  made,  will  not  take  the  place  of 
well-digested  facts  and  logical  conclusions. 

History  repeats  itself,  we  are  told.     Yet  like  most 
maxims    this    is  too    frequently    misapplied.     Man's 
progress — and  history  is  but  the  record  of  this  pro- 
gress— though  infinitely   variable   in   its  phenomena, 
and  like  physical  nature  immutable  in  its  laws,  never, 
strictly  speaking,  repeats  itself.     Human  nature,  like 
physical  nature,  and  the  nature  of  all  created  things,  is 
unchangeable.     Like  conditions  produce  like  results  ; 
and  in  as  far  as  the  conditions  of  to-day  are  similar  to 
the  conditions  of  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago, 
in  so  far,  and  no  farther,  does  history  repeat  itself 
There  is  more  truth  in  the  idea  that  recent  events 
present  themselves  at  too  short  range  to  be  seen  as 
an  entirety,  and  hence  are  unfit  for  historical  record. 
Time  must  be  allowed  for  insignificant  detail,  and  in- 
terests purely   local  and  personal,  to  subside,  and  all 
parts  of  the  occurrence  to  assume  proper  proportions. 
The  member  of  a  society,  daily  commingling  with  his 
fellows,  is  not  only  ipso  facto  incapacitated  forjudging 
impartially  that  society,  but  he  cannot  rightly  esti- 
mate   contemporaneous   neighboring    societies.     His 
sympathies  and  antipathies  warp  his  judgment,  and 
if  he  attempts  to  bend  it  straight,  likely  enough  he 
crooks  it  in  the  opposite  direction.     Phrynichus,  the  J 
dramatist,  was  fined  for  breaking  the  rule  of  his  art,  I 
and  presenting  the  fall  of  Miletus  and  the  attendant! 
woes   so  soon  after  the  occurrence   as  to  excite  thai 
sympathy  of  the  audience  to  a  painful  degree.     Great  I 
actions  should  be  presented   in   their  simplicity,  not! 
in  their  complexity,  and  this  can  be  done  only  at  somel 
distance,  in  time,  from  the  date  of  their  occurrence.! 


PAST    AND   FUTURE.  107 

As  Taine  truly  says:  ''La  veritable  histoire 
s'eleve  a  sentiment  quand  I'historien  commence  a  dem6- 
ler,  a  travers  la  distance  des  temps,  riionniie  vivant, 
agissant,  donne  de  passions,  muni  d'habitudes,  avec  sa 
voix  et  sa  physionomie,  avec  ses  gestes  et  ses  habits, 
distinct  et  complet  comme  celui  que  tout  a  I'lieure 
nous  avons  quitte  dans  la  rue." 

At  the  same  time  there  may  be  occasions  when  it 
is  impracticable  for  a  writer  to  confine  himself  to  the 
remote  in  history,  when  important  incidents  and 
events  coming  to  his  knowledge  would  be  lost  if  left  un- 
recorded, or  it  may  be  deemed  best  sometimes  to  bring 
a  narrative  down  to  a  modern  date  rather  than  leave 
the  work  unfinished.  Kernels  of  permanent  history 
can  be  selected  from  current  events. 

Practical  life  and  our  views  of  the  after-life,  are 
based  upon  life  and  opinion  as  entertained  in  the  past. 
Among  the  three  sources  for  our  knowledge  of  the 
past,  personal  observation,  the  testimony  of  eye- 
witnesses, and  circumstantial  evidence,  the  former 
are  naturally  preferable.  Yet  circumstantial  evi- 
dence may  in  some  instances  be  stronger  than  tes- 
timonial evidence.  For  example,  no  evidence  is  more 
true  than  that  written  by  reptiles  on  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  by  insects  in  the  rocks,  or  by  plants  and  ani- 
mals in  the  sand.  Again,  a  bullet  in  the  brain  with 
a  hole  in  the  skull  corresponding  to  that  which  a  pis- 
tol-ball usually  makes,  is  better  proof  that  the  man 
was  shot,  than  would  be  the  assertion  of  a  pretended 
eye-witness  open  to  the  charge  of  faulty  vision. 

Although  there  are  phenomena  in  the  science  of 
human  nature  common  to  all,  yet  the  condition  and 
character  of  every  man  differ  from  those  of  every 
other  man.  Then,  to  the  same  minds  things  appear 
different  at  different  times.  Vision  is  affected  by  time 
and  place.  The  world  seems  very  large  to  the  unso- 
phisticated. To  the  young  man  returning  to  his  child- 
hood home  after  anabsence  of  years,  a  general  shrinkage 


108  HISTORY  WRITIXG. 

appears  to  have  taken  place ;  sizes  have  dwhidlcd  and 
distances  shortened.  Many  phases  of  human  charac- 
ter there  are  which,  Kke  certain  physical  elements,  act 
paradoxically  when  brouglit  in  contact.  I.liere  are 
two  clear  liquids  which  when  mixed  become  opaque 
mud ;  there  are  two  cold  liquids  which  when  brought 
together  become  boiling  hot.  Some  of  the  most  dia- 
bolical acts  ever  witnessed  have  been  committed  by 
brethren  of  the  same  faith  warring  on  each  other. 

What  we  now  call  infamous  deeds  may  have  been 
done  by  those  who  in  their  day  were  regarded  as  good 
men,  and  many  good  deeds  have  been  done  by  those 
whose  name  we  may  justly  consign  to  infamy;  for  by 
their  teachings  no  less  than  by  their  fruits  we  may 
know  them.  We  must  not  forget  what  the  world 
owes  to  its  bad  men,  nor  how  much  civilization  is  hi- 
debted  to  things  which  are  now  called  evil.  In  judg- 
ing by  the  light  of  conscience,  it  makes  a  vast  difference 
whose  conscience  is  to  be  the  guide,  and  at  what  place 
and  period  in  the  annals  of  the  race  it  was  exercised. 
Conscience  is  like  a  piece  of  wrought  steel,  its  value 
depending  upon  the  quality.  Well  tempered  with 
reason,  it  performs  its  functions  fairly.  It  has  often 
guided  mankind  into  the  most  shameful  atrocities,  to 
Christian  butcheries,  the  very  irony  of  Christian  love. 
The  Spanish  inquisitors  who  burned  heretics  for 
Christ's  sake  were  most  conscientious  and  respectable 
men.  "There  is  no  beast  more  savage  than  man, 
when  he  is  possessed  of  power  equal  to  his  passion," 
says  Plutarch.  While  the  effect  of  a  bad  act  is  in  no 
wise  lessened  by  a  praiseworthy  motive,  and  while 
such  an  act  merits  a  'priori  as  severe  condemnation  as 
if  committed  from  a  bad  motive,  yet  judgment  upon 
the  character  of  the  actors  in  the  two  cases  should  be 
rendered  very  differently  if  we  would  not  fall  into  the 
error  of  weighing  the  virtue  of  one  against  the  vice  of 
another,  the  cruelty  of  one  against  the  humaneness 
of  another,  loyalty  against  treachery,  rather  than 
against  a  loftier  standard. 


OPINIONS  AND  STANDARDS.  109 

Standards  differ.  What  is  right  or  expedient  in 
one  age  or  nation  may  not  be  right  and  expedient  in 
another  age  and  nation.  Opinion  changes;  mind 
evolves,  and  thought  becomes  material,  and  wc  find 
the  most  eminent  of  geologists,  Sir  Charles  Lyell, 
after  holding  for  forty  years  to  the  doctrine  of  special 
creation,  making  it  the  corner-stone  of  his  intellectual 
structure  through  nine  editions  of  his  work,  wholly 
abandoning  the  theory  in  the  tenth. 

Medissval  legends  were  born  of  a  time  when  there 
was  little  inclination  to  question  their  authenticity, 
and  little  opportunity  to  distinguish  between  the  true 
and  the  false.  Modern  canons  of  morality  are  not 
applicable  to  the  measurement  of  mediseval  character. 
Likewise  care  should  be  taken  to  distinguish  between 
the  various  standards  employed  by  different  persons. 
Thus,  one  would  regard  a  poet  as  possessing  the  high- 
est type  of  intellect,  another  a  philosopher,  another  a 
reformer.  One  would  name  Shakespeare,  one  New- 
ton, one  Luther,  as  the  greatest  of  men.  To  the 
miser,  who  can  be  more  exalted  in  every  virtue  than 
a  Rothschild ;  to  a  disciple  of  the  manly  art,  who  is 
there  more  worthy  of  imitation  than  the  champion 
prize-fighter?  When  in  the  region  of  shadows,  Men- 
ippus  asked  Mercury  to  show  Jiim  the  notable  wort] lies 
of  the  past  gone  thither.  *'  Yonder  on  your  right," 
he  said,  "are  Hyacinthus,  and  Narcissus,  Nireus, 
Achilles,  Tyro,  Helen,  and  Leda."  "I  see  nought 
but  bones  and  bare  skulls,"  replied  Menippus,  ''all 
very  alike."  *'  Yet  all  the  poets  have  gone  into  rap- 
tures about  those  very  bones  which  you  seem  to  look 
upon  with  such  contempt."  Thus  it  is  in  history. 
Those  we  praise  or  censure  are  dust,  as  we  soon  shall 
be.  Let  us  speak  of  them  justly,  as  we  shall  wish 
others  to  speak  of  us. 

Social  phenomena,  the  last  to  be  brought  under  the 
surveillance  of  science,  are  the  most  difficult  of  all  in- 
vestigations. Human  character  always  appears  before 
us  in  ever-ch angling:  colors.     There  is  no  such  thincr 


110  HISTORY  WRITING 

as  human  nature  apart  from  physical  nature.  As  in 
plants,  so  the  ovule  of  human  nature,  clothed  in  its 
own  integuments  and  enclosed  in  its  pericarp,  lies  hi 
embryo  embedded  in  the  albumen  that  feeds  it,  burst- 
ing which  it  finds  itself  ever  subject  to  the  governance 
of  new  surroundings.  The  milieu  of  proclivities  and 
passions  is  the  air  breathed,  the  earth  trodden  on,  and 
the  sky  gazed  into.  Thus  it  is  that  great  artists 
and  great  authors  are  always  keenly  alive  to  the  in- 
fluence of  external  nature  over  mind  and  emotion.  So 
multitudinous,  and  intricate,  and  interdependent  are 
the  laws  which  govern  mental  phenomena,  so  diversi- 
fied are  the  agencies  which  determine  human  charac- 
ter, that  only  an  approximate  knowledge  of  mankind 
is  possible.  Isolated  facts,  in  this  connection,  are  of 
little  value;  in  sequent  circumstances,  converging 
from  innumerable  sources,  and  reaching  back  to  the 
beginning  of  time,  and  in  the  innumerable  influences 
which  rise  within,  and  breathe  upon,  and  play  about 
the  individual — if  these  could  be  known,  might  be 
found  the  causations  of  character. 

Protagoras  said,  ''Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things." 
But  how  shall  we  measure  man?  Our  conceptions  of 
our  neighbor  are  of  necessity  automorphic.  We  judge 
others  by  ourselves;  how  else  shall  we  judge  them? 
True,  no  two  minds  or  characters  are  alike;  hence, 
automorphic  conceptions,  and,  inductively,  all  concep- 
tions of  human  character  are  more  or  less  erroneous. 
We  may  compare  this  arm  or  intellect  with  that  arm 
or  intellect,  measure  one  man  by  another  man,  one 
age  or  nation  by  another  age  or  nation,  but  abstract 
measurements  are  less  easily  made.  Consider  alone 
how  inseparable  from  the  mind  of  the  investigator  are 
inherent  distortions  and  sectional  prejudices,  which 
obstruct  or  render  notional  even  attempts  at  concrete 
perceptions.  In  the  question.  What  is  morality?  we 
are  unable  to  clearly  distinguish  innate  principles 
from  those  which  spring  from  association. 

With  Herr  Teufelsdrockh  one  must  look  through 


ABSENCE  OF  SELF-KNOWLEDGE.  Ill 

the  coat  and  through  the  skin  it  covers  if  one  would 
know  the  man.  Where  feehng  is  to  be  propitiated, 
few  may  boast  the  subtlety  of  the  serpent,  for  few 
carry  the  heart  so  near  the  head.  He  who  attempts 
to  portray  character  should  guard  as  much  against 
the  hallucinations  of  his  own  mind,  the  delusions  of 
his  own  vision,  as  against  falsity  in  fact,  form,  or  col- 
oring. From  a  balloon,  the  earth's  surface  next  the 
observer  appears  not  convex  but  concave.  Inferences 
from  the  clearest  data  may  be  illogical  and  untrue. 
Democritus  laughed  at  everything ;  Heraclitus  wept 
at  everything.  To  one,  the  world  and  all  it  contained 
seemed  unreal  and  ridiculous,  objects  of  mirth  to  a 
wise  man,  while  to  the  other  there  was  nothing  but 
what  called  for  tears.  Man,  he  cries,  is  only  to  be 
pitied ;  the  world  is  one  of  wickedness,  fit  only  for 
destruction.  Evil  reigns ;  pleasure  is  not  pleasure ; 
knowledge  is  ignorance;  life  is  but  a  winter's  day. 

Were  it  possible  even  to  know  self;  to  dive  into 
the  depths  of  our  own  consciousness,  and  drawing 
aside  the  veil,  scan  the  strange  conglomeration  of  op- 
posing forces,  and  mark  off  the  ego  and  the  non-ego; 
could  we  step  within  the  shrine,  and  examine  the  ma- 
chinery of  our  wondrous  life,  note  the  ticking  of  obso- 
lete formulas  and  the  unfolding  of  divine  intuitions; 
could  we  place  free-will  and  necessity  under  analysis, 
fathom  the  duality  of  our  nature,  decompose  the  falsity 
of  seeming  reality  and  the  reality  of  falsity,  and  ascer- 
tain whence  the  ascendency  of  these  vagaries  and  the 
subordination  of  those — we  might  then  understand 
what  is  due  to  intrinsic  self  and  what  to  intractable 
circumstances.  Could  we  play  the  critic  after  this 
fashion,  we  might  tell  why  feeling  has  so  much  more 
power  over  us  than  reason ;  why  we  feed  our  passions 
only  to  give  them  strength  to  devour  us;  why,  with 
scarcely  a  consciousness  of  our  inconsistency,  we  per- 
sist in  deceiving  ourselves  and  accepting  as  true  what 
we  know  to  be  false;  why  we  daily  tempt  death, 
struggling  for  we  know  not  what,  yet  intensify  hope 


112  HISTORY  WRITING. 

to  prolong  life ;  why  we  commit  a  wrong  in  order  to 
accomplish  a  right;  why  we  conceal  our  nobler  part, 
turn  our  baser  qualities  like  porcupine  quills  to  the 
world,  then  roll  ourselves  in  the  dust  to  hide  them. 
When  once  we  know  all  this,  we  have  then  but  to 
turn  our  eyes  within  and  there  beheld,  as  in  a  mirror, 
that  alter  ego,  our  neighbor. 

Momus  blamed  Jupiter  because  in  creating  man  he 
put  no  window  in  his  breast  through  which  the  heart 
might  be  seen.  Momus  was  a  sleepy  god,  and  we 
mortals  are  likewise  troubled  with  a  lack  of  insight 
into  human  character.  No  doubt  Jupiter  could  have 
done  better.  Man  is  far  from  a  perfect  creation. 
But  as  the  gods  saw  fit  to  do  no  more  for  us,  may  we 
not  now  do  something  for  ourselves  ?  Were  not  the 
eyes  of  Momus  somewhat  at  fault  as  well  as  the  fingers 
of  Ju]3iter?  If  we  lay  aside  the  narrowing  prejudices 
of  birth  and  education,  under  the  influences  of  which 
it  is  impossible  to  balance  nicely  the  actions  of  men, 
may  we  not  discover  here  and  there  openings  into  the 
soul? 


CHAPTER  VI. 


CRITICISM. 


Ich  bin  ein  Feind  von  Explicationen;  man  betrllgt  sich  oder  den  Andem, 
und  meist  beide. 

— Goethe. 
II  n'appartient  qu'aux  grands  hommes  d'avoic  de  grands  defauts. 

— La  Rochefoucauld, 

Los  h  ombres  famosos  por  sus  ingenios,  los  grandes  poetas,  los  ilustres 
historiadores  siempre,  d  las  mas  vezes,  son  embidiados  de  aquellos  que 
tienen  por  gusto,  y  por  particular  entretenimiento,  juzgar  los  escritos 
agenos,  sin  aver  dado  algunos  proprios  ^  la  luz  del  mundo. 

— Cervantes. 

Protagoras  begins  his  treatise  On  the  Gods,  in 
these  words:  ''Respecting  the  gods,  I  am  unable  to 
know  whether  they  exist  or  do  not  exist."  A  writer 
opens  a  chapter  On  the  Snakes  in  Ireland,  by  saying, 
''There  are  no  snakes  in  Ireland."  We  can  hardly 
affirm  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  criticism,  but  if 
any  exist,  it  is  of  doubtful  interpretation.  There  are 
tricks  in  all  trades,  but  there  are  few  trades  that  are 
all  tricks.  There  are  some  honest  men  who  are  critics ; 
there  is  even  such  a  thing  as  fair  criticism.  There 
are  many  who  try  to  be  just;  there  are  yet  more  who 
are  amiable;  a  great  many  in  this  world  are  politic; 
hundreds  of  thousands  are  obliged  to  live. 

The  office  is  one  of  honor,  and  honorably  filled 
is  of  benefit  to  the  community.  Books  are  the 
great  civilizers  of  the  race,  the  store-houses  of  knowl- 
edge, the  granaries  of  intellectual  food.  Therefore  to 
designate  in  all  candor  which  books  of  those  that  are 
made  are,  indeed,  public  pabulum,  and  which  are 
straw;  carefully  and  conscientiously  to  examine  and 
explain,  one  man  for  the  million,  the  publications 
which  are  conducive  or  detrimental,  in  whole  or  in 

Essays  and  Miscellany     8  ( 113  ) 


114  CRITICISM. 

part,  to  learning  and  progress,  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant and  noblest  works  in  which  man  can  be  en- 
gaged, w^hile  to  prostitute  the  powers  requisite  for 
such  a  position  is  one  of  the  basest. 

So  with  regard  to  newspaper  strictures  on  men. 
The  journahst  who  as  a  sacred  duty  strives  to  cleanse 
the  community  of  its  pollutions,  who  searches  out  and 
exposes  wickedness  in  high  and  low  places,  who  holds 
up  to  public  scorn  evil  purposes  and  practices,  derelic- 
tion of  duty  in  public  officials,  subversion  of  the  law, 
prostitution  of  politics,  injustice,  bribery,  iniquitous 
monopoly,  and  all  immorality,  employs  divine  func- 
tions for  the  highest  benefit  of  man.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  who,  through  fear  or  favor,  or  for  money,  or 
popularity,  or  to  increase  the  circulation  of  his  journal, 
or  through  prejudice,  or  fanaticism,  or  jealousy,  turns 
from  the  path  of  rectitude,  and  vilifies  the  good  while 
allowing  the  bad  to  escape,  is  a  curse  to  the  commu- 
nity. And  worst  of  all,  most  vile  and  most  detestable, 
is  the  hypocrite  who  strikes  in  the  dark,  who,  while 
pretending  to  pure  integrity,  sells  himself  and  his  in- 
fluence for  personal  benefit,  panders  to  depraved  pub- 
lic taste,  advocates  iniquitous  measures,  or  vilifies 
from  personal  spite  good  men  whose  ways  are  honest 
and  whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  praiseworthy 
efforts.  Such  a  man,  or  a  newspaper  proprietor  who 
will  allow  such  creatures  to  crawd  about  him  and  in- 
sert slanders  in  his  journal,  is  a  villain  of  the  deepesis 
dye,  more  deserving  of  the  hangman's  rope  than  manj 
who  suffer  thereat. 

More  than  ever  before,  during  these  days  of  exten-j 
sive  book-making,  the  scholar  immersed  in  his  invesJ 
tigations,  the  teacher,  the  general  reader,  need  the 
opinion  of  qualified  persons  on  the  respective  meritd 
of  books  as  they  appear,  need  the  conscientious  opinion 
of  discriminating  critics.  It  is  impossible  otherwisd 
for  a  specialist,  even,  to  keep  under  control  the  sci 
rapidly  multiplying  literature  relative  to  his  depart-] 
ment.    Indeed,  opinions  and  controversies  have  become 


AUTHORS  AND  REVIEWERS.  115 

SO  numerous  tliat  we  shall  soon  require  reviews  of  re- 
viewers; for  on  the  works  of  some  authors,  more  has 
been  written  than  by  the  authors  themselves. 

Many  have  essayed  criticism  ;  some  have  achieved 
it.  Although  critical  talent  is  ranked  a  little  lower 
than  creative  talent,  on  the  ground  that  in  free  creative 
power  man  finds  exercise  for  his  highest  capabilities, 
yet  in  all  the  field  of  letters  nothing  is  more  difficult 
of  attainment  than  pure  criticism, — not  that  conven- 
tional article  so  freely  flaunted  in  our  faces  by  aspiring 
youths  or  censorious  old  men,  of  which  Destouches 
says,  "  La  critique  est  aisee  et  I'art  est  difficile,"  but 
the  intelligent  expression  of  truthful  opinion  resulting 
from  unbiassed  inquiry.  With  comparative  ease, 
from  the  delicate  filament  of  his  inspiration  the  poet 
may  spin  stanzas,  but  omniscience,  justice,  goodness, 
and  truth,  all  the  attributes  of  the  deity,  scarcely 
suffice  for  the  qualifications  of  the  perfect  critic. 

In  no  department  of  literature  is  there  more  skilled 
humbug  employed  than  in  criticism.  Writers  of 
every  other  class  sail  under  colors  which  enable  the 
reader  to  form  some  idea  of  their  craft,  and  whither 
it  is  driving.  He  may  be  knave  or  fanatic,  philosopher 
or  fool,  who  deals  in  history  or  romance,  science  or 
religion ;  he  may  be  conscientious  and  exact,  or  men- 
dacious, ignorant,  and  superstitious  ;  but  whatever  he 
is,  the  intelligent  reader  can  approximately  place  him, 
and  attach  a  tolerably  correct  value  to  his  work.  But 
the  critic  finds  himself  in  a  peculiar  position.  He 
must  be  wiser  than  all  men,  abler  than  all,  and  of 
more  experience  than  any ;.  for  if  he  is  not,  then  is  he 
no  critic. 

The  fault  is  not  his ;  he  is  generally  a  very  good 
fellow ;  but  too  often  he  is  placed  at  the  treadle  of  the 
machine  and  instructed  to  do  certain  work  in  a  certain 
way,  and  he  must  obey.  Fifty  thousand  reviewers  in 
Europe  and  America  are  employed  to  tell  what  five 
thousand  authors  have  done  or  are  doing,  nominally 
to  read,  analyze,  prove,  and   truthfully  value   their 


116  CRITICISM 

work,  really  to  display  learning  and  acumen  in 
the  service  of  their  respective  journals.  It  is  a  diffi- 
cult position,  and  one  which  should  be  better  paid, 
that  of  too  often  sacrificino^  fair-mindedness  and  in- 
tegrity  for  policy  or  subordinating  them  to  prejudice, 
that  of  pretending  to  a  superiority  which  one  does  not 
possess,  that  of  appearing  erudite  and  honest  when 
one  is  not.  This  among  the  fifty  thousand  is  the  rule, 
but  to  which  there  are  exceptions. 

That  most  of  the  books  written  never  should  have 
had  being;  that  most  authors  are  men  who  display 
their  stupidity  through  a  desire  for  notoriety,  or  other 
ambition,  and  should  be  put  down  ;  that  this  flooding 
the  world  with  worthless  books  appealing  to  mankind 
for  examination  and  judgment  is  a  nuisance,  and  a 
detriment  to  learning  and  refinement,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  it.  The  lack  of  honesty  and  sincerity  in 
praising  a  poor  book  is  as  culpable  as  in  condemning 
a  good  one.  And  even  worse  than  this  is  so  magnify- 
ing the  non-essential  faults  of  a  really  good  book,  and 
omitting  to  mention  its  merits,  as  to  leave  the  impres- 
sion that  it  is  wholly  bad,  which  is  a  trick  very  com- 
mon with  malevolent  and  unprincipled  critics.  It  is 
the  utter  selling  of  himself  to  the  prejudice,  popularity, 
bigotry,  or  pecuniary  advantage  of  himself  or  another 
that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  false  criticism. 

This  literary  gauging  and  estimating  of  values  is  a 
matter  which  comes  home  to  every  writer,  whether 
his  labors  be  in  the  field  of  science,  and  in  the  study 
of  a  particular  branch,  or  in  the  all-embracing  province 
of  the  historian,  who  must  analyze  alike  individuals 
and  communities,  institutions  and  events,  authorities 
and  critics.  Says  the  talented  author  of  Causeries  du 
Lundij  '^Criticism  is  an  invention,  a  perpetual  creation. 
One  needs  to  renew,  to  repeat  continually  his  observa- 
tion and  study  of  men,  even  of  those  he  knows  best 
and  has  portrayed ;  otherwise  he  runs  the  risk  of  par- 
tially forgetting  them,  and  of  forming  imaginary  ideas 
of  them  while  rememberinc^   them.     No  one  has  a 


I 


OPINIONS  OF  AUTHORS.  117 

right  to  say,  ^I  understand  men.'  All  that  one  can 
truly  say  is,  'I  am  in  a  fair  way  to  understand  them.'" 

More  of  this  ideal  application  and  conscientiousness 
on  the  part  of  the  critic  is  due  to  both  authors  and 
readers,  that  one  may  not  be  injured  or  the  other 
misled.  Every  author,  except  of  course  the  few 
sensible  ones,  believes  his  work  to  be,  if  not  the  best 
that  ever  was  written,  at  least  the  equal  of  any,  and 
the  inferior  of  none.  He  has  no  intention  of  allowing 
it  to  rest  in  the  dismal  shades  of  silence,  preferring 
publicity  at  all  hazards.  Sometimes  he  deserves  the 
condemnation  he  receives,  but  earnest  and  honest 
effort  should  never  be  met  by  ridicule,  even  though 
the  author  be  an  ignoramus.  His  honesty  might  be 
respected  even  though  his  ability  were  not.  Readers 
of  books,  meanwhile,  justly  object  to  an  imposition  on 
the  part  of  a  critic  which  prevents  his  perusal  of  a 
good  book,  or  causes  him  to  waste  his  time  over  a 
worthless  one. 

For  so  ancient  an  art,  criticism  should  be  farther 
advanced  than  it  is.  Little  progress  seems  to  have 
been  made  since  that  day  when  cried  the  unhappy 
man  of  Uz,  ^'  O,  that  mine  adversary  had  written  a 
book ! "  He  had  been  comforted  and  criticized  by  his 
friends  well-nigh  to  death,  and  he  asked  no  better 
opportunity  for  squaring  accounts  with  his  enemy. 
The  art  seems  to  have  been  founded  upon  the  same 
morality,  which  was  to  half  love  your  friends  and 
wholly  hate  your  enemies;  to  half  recognize  and  flat- 
ter your  own  prejudices  as  spoken  by  another,  and 
wholly  to  condemn  all  antagonism  to  your  opinions 
wherever  found.  Instead  of  simple  inquiry,  as  it  pro- 
fessed to  be,  it  was  arbitrary  inquisition,  totally  unlike 
Christ's  criticism  when  he  judged  men  and  women. 

In  the  world  of  letters  are  three  several  classes  of 
critics;  there  is  the  critic  by  instinct,  the  critic  by 
education,  and  the  critic  who  is  no  critic.  The  first 
are  those  who  judge  by  inspiration,  like  Hazlitt  or 
Sainte-Beuve,  measuring  the  book  and  the  author  at 


118  CRITICISM. 

a  glance.  It  is  claimed  for  both  of  these  writers  that 
their  criticisms  are  divinations  rather  than  the  results 
of  investigation.  Beneath  their  all-searching  gaze 
the  author  might  ask  with  Venus,  who,  on  beholding 
her  statue  at  Cnidos,  cried,  "  Where  saw  Praxiteles 
me  thus  nude  ? "  They  read  a  book  as  a  necromancer 
reads  his  victim.  Then  come  those  who,  being  intel- 
ligent and  well-read,  are  charged  with  learning  of  so 
susceptible  a  nature  that  as  soon  as  a  few  facts  of  a 
writer  come  under  their  eye,  ignition  ensues,  and  like 
a  flash  of  gunpowder  sufficient  of  their  knowledge, 
colored  somewhat  by  the  contents  of  the  book  they 
review,  is  discharged  on  paper  to  the  extent  of  so 
many  columns  or  pages.  And  thirdly,  those  who 
gather  all  they  know  of  the  subject  treated  from  the 
book  they  review,  make  so  much  of  it  their  own  as 
they  require,  and  write  ad  libitum  at  so  much  the 
yard.  Any  one  of  these  may  be  honest  or  dishonest 
in  his  intentions,  and  skilful  or  bungling  in  the 
execution. 

In  the  first  of  these  more  than  in  either  of  the 
others  we  can  excuse  extravagance  of  expression,  for 
the  keener  the  appreciation  the  more  intense  the  feel- 
ings for  or  against.  He  by  whom  the  beauty  and 
fragrance  of  the  flower  are  most  enjoyed  is  most  of  all 
sensitive  to  ugly  and  odorous  weeds.  Rare  is  this 
natural  critic,  v/ho  sees  as  with  second  sight  the  spirit 
of  the  book,  not  without  looking  into  it,  but  without 
the  careful  reading  of  it;  or  who,  like  De  Quincey, 
instinctively  attacks  a  Junius,  throttles  a  windy 
Brougham,  and  dissects  a  pompous  Parr  or  hollow 
Sheridan,  and  with  Pascal  can  exclaim,  "■  It  is  not  in 
Montaigne,  but  in  myself,  that  I  find  all  I  read  in  his 
book."  But  let  those  devoid  of  this  fine  subtlety  be- 
ware how  they  don  the  lion's  skin,  lest  their  bray 
discover  them.  The  loud  long  wail  of  a  Byron  or  a 
Poe  fascinates  while  it  thrills,  because  there  is  human 
nature  in  it.  So  with  the  genius  of  criticism,  which 
means  more  than  metaphysical  hair-splitting. 


OMNISCIENCE  OF   CRITICS.  119 

Yet  of  all  classes  men  of  genius,  other  than  those 
critically  inspired,  make  the  worst  critics.  He  whose 
one  faculty  is  developed  at  the  expense  of  all  the 
other  faculties  is  in  no  fit  condition  to  judge  another's 
production,  still  less  his  own.  Contemporaneous  men 
of  letters,  particularly  if  occupying  the  same  field,  are 
always  envious  of  each  other ;  yet  they  emulate  while 
they  hate. 

Criticism  is  an  art  sui  generis.  The  best  authors 
are  seldom  the  best  critics;  just  as  artists  are  seldom 
the  best  judges  of  art,  or  lawyers  of  justice,  or  poli- 
ticians of  patriotism,  or  theologians  of  religion.  We  all 
lack  that  microscopic  vision  which  clearly  discerns  prox- 
imate objects  lying  under  the  shadow  of  our  egoism. 

None  rail  so  loudly  against  critics  as  the  critics  them- 
selves. With  the  ancient  philosophers,  whom  learned 
men  have  so  long  worshiped ,  criticism  was  a  sneering  and 
scolding  of  school  against  school,  and  of  individuals 
against  each  other.  Wordsworth,  who  was  scarcely  less 
critic  than  poet,  bunglingly  enough  affirms  that  review- 
ers ^'while  they  prosecute  their  inglorious  employment 
cannot  be  supposed  to  be  in  a  state  ofmind  very  favorable 
for  being  affected  by  the  finer  influences  of  a  thing  so 
pure  as  genuine  poetry."  Wordsworth's  strictures 
fit  Wordsworth  as  well  as  another ;  for  at  this  very 
time  he  was  snarling  at  Byron  for  plagiarizing  from 
him. 

Here,  then,  lies  a  reason  for  the  absorption  of  the 
field  by  the  special  class  called  into  existence  by  its 
vast  and  growing  expanse  and  by  the  mission  of  the 
press  as  a  medium  between  authors  and  the  public. 
Invested  with  this  power  of  judging  and  instructing 
on  topics  embracing  every  grade  of  knowledge,  they 
regard  it  as  a  duty  to  their  office  to  assume  a  versatility 
which  indeed  transcends  human  capacity.  They  claim 
it  as  essential  to  inspire  confidence,  just  as  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  physician,  whose  mere  tone  is  oft  sufficient 
to  gain  half  the  battle  over  the  influences  contending 
with  his  patient,  and  spur  the  weakened  imagination 


120  CRITICISM. 

to  aid  his  prescription;  or  like  the  judge  upon  whose 
insight  and  decision  depend  Hves  and  fortunes.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  claim  springs  from  vanity  rather  than 
duty. 

Since  Rabelais,  there  have  been  found  no  other  men 
save  this  race  of  critics,  who,  like  Gargantua  knew 
everything — knew  all  languages,  all  sciences,  all 
ologies,  isms,  and  onomies ;  history,  music,  mathe- 
matics, and  things  worthy  of  belief;  all  realities  and 
philosophy;  all  pleasures,  all  pains,  all  creeds,  and  all 
spiritualities,  all  mysteries  beneath  the  earth  and  be- 
yond the  sky. 

Behold  him,  then,  the  be-wigged  and  be-gowned 
by  virtue  of  authoritative  ink  and  paper,  who  sits  in 
judgment  upon  the  products  of  men's  brains  !  Regard 
him  well,  this  opinion-maker,  this  idea-autocrat.  Is 
he  a  partisan,  prescribed  already  in  his  decisions ;  or  a 
specialist  with  a  pet  theory  to  which  all  things  must 
square  themselves;  or  an  unfledged  litterateur  pufl^ed 
with  ambitious  conceits?  Choose  your  judge  and  be 
satisfied  to  be  condenmed  ad  pias  causas. 

Among  the  many  who  assume  the  office  of  critic, 
there  may  be  those  who  can  review  an  ordinary  book 
of  fiction,  history,  science,  or  philosophy  with  discrim- 
ination and  fairness  ;  who,  besides  possessing  as  great 
or  greater  knowledge  of  the  subject  than  the  author, 
can  weigh  in  an  even  balance  the  merits  and  demerits 
of  the  work,  and  mete  out  in  due  proportions  praise 
and  censure.  And  I  can  truthfully  say  that  it  has 
been  my  good  fortune  to  meet  with  many  men  occu- 
pying that  proud  position;  men  in  whom  are  united 
the  higjhest  order  of  critical  talent  with  inbred  honesty 
and  fair-mindedness ;  men  to  whom  is  given  the  power 
they  wield  because  they  use  it  justly ;  men  who  are 
wise  by  reason  of  native  talent  and  education,  and 
who  are  noblemen  by  instinct. 

And  I  have  met  others,  also,  those  who  are  any- 
thing but  honorable,  who  prostitute  their  talents,  and,  I 


ASSUMPTION   OF    KNOWLEDCxE.  121 

be  they  professors,  preachers,  or  pubhcans,  delight 
in  all  '^sorts  of  subterfuge,  pretending  to  what  is 
not  true.  It  is  certainly  within  the  limits  of  truth  to 
say  that  three  times  in  four  some  other  than  the  pre- 
tended purpose  actuates  the  ordinary  reviewer  in  in- 
troducing a  book  to  the  public,  a  deceit  based  upon 
an  assumed  knowledge  of  the  subject  which  he  does 
not  possess.  If  he  has  not  superior  knowledge,  how 
can  he  offer  a  superior  opinion?  If  ten  books  are 
given  him  to  review  in  three  days,  each  book  being 
the  life-work  of  an  abler  man  than  himself,  or  if  he  is 
a  specialist,  an  expert  in  certain  directions,  and  is 
given  a  work  fresh  from  the  hands  of  a  brother  spe- 
cialist, who  has  devoted  the  last  twenty  years  to  the 
latest  and  fullest  developments  of  the  subject,  we  will 
say  the  work  of  a  student  of  greater  natural  ability 
than  the  critic,  and  of  far  greater  research  and  appli- 
cation, the  reviewer  has  still  to  assume  a  knowledge  of 
the  subject  and  a  judgment  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
it  should  be  handled  superior  to  the  knowledge  and 
judgment  of  the  author,  if  he  would  not  be  put  down 
as  incompetent  for  the  task.  Nine  times  in  ten  the 
task  is  impossible,  from  sheer  lack  of  time  to  weigh 
the  subject,  but  nine  times  in  ten  the  counterfeit  in 
criticism  serves  the  public  just  as  well  as  the  genuine 
article,  and  the  consequence  is  that  nine  times  in  ten 
the  critic  is  a  sham. 

The  critic  fails  to  consider  that  his  point  of  observa- 
tion is  totally  different  from  that  of  the  general  reader. 
One  seeks  information  with  which  to  discourse  on  the 
book,  the  other  reads  for  instruction,  and  the  thoughts 
of  the  two  while  perusing  the  same  work  run  in  differ- 
ent channels.  It  is  not  necessary  for  the  reviewer  to 
know  as  much  of  the  subject  treated  as  the  author. 
This  is  impossible.  For  during  the  course  of  a  year 
the  reviewer  might  have  occasion  to  notice  a  hundred 
volumes,  each  on  an  average  having  cost  its  author 
five  years  of  study.  One  may  tell  a  good  watch  with- 
out being  able  to  reproduce  it.     Pretension  is  there- 


122  CRITICISM. 

fore  absurd  as  well  as  misleading.     Nevertheless  he 
persists. 

And  after  all  he  only  floats  with  the  general  cur- 
rent, for  three- fourths  of  every  man  is  pretence;  three- 
f)urths  of  society,  its  moralities,  its  politics,  its  con- 
ventionalities, and  its  religions,  is  hypocrisy.  Men  love 
companionship,  wherein  alone  is  progress;  yet  this 
companionship  which  we  call  society  is  more  a  seem- 
ing than  a  being.  The  forgeries  of  fashion  are  more 
than  its  sincerities ;  the  wrongs  of  religion  are  greater 
than  its  charities;  the  shufflings  and  prevarications  of 
business  and  pohtics  attend  all  their  dealings.  For 
so  noble  an  animal,  man  is  a  wretched  compound, 
though  seasoned  with  sagacity.  Beasts  assume  the 
mask  at  times,  but  man  is  a  living  mask,  and  the  worst 
of  it  is  that  he  cannot  escape  his  destiny.  He  is  the 
offspring  of  a  double  parentage,  truth  and  error;  one 
of  his  fathers  is  the  father  of  lies,  to  whom  the  resem- 
blance of  the  child  is  striking.  Man  is  a  mass  of 
sophisms.  The  chief  occupation  of  associated  man  is 
to  deceive  one  another.  Being  but  partially  true  to 
ourselves,  we  are  in  a  still  greater  degree  false  before 
our  fellows.  And  this  through  no  fault  of  our  own; 
we  are  so  made  ;  we  are  born  into  a  society  full  of 
pretension  and  disguise,  and  civilization  with  its  arts 
enforces  artfulness.  Entering  life  with  our  moral 
being  at  its  best,  we  endow  the  world  and  all  it  con- 
tains with  grace,  beauty,  and  perfection,  which  grad- 
ually change  to  our  perceptions  as  the  years  go  by, 
leaving  us  at  the  last  in  a  maze  of  bewilderment.  At 
the  beginning  of  our  consciousness  the  world  is  spread 
out  before  us  like  a  mirage  of  which  to  the  day  of  our 
death  we  are  proving  the  falsity. 

Among  the  child's  first  teachings  are  so  many 
aphorisms  heretical  to  nature  that  it  would  almost 
appear  that  his  maker  did  not  understand  his  business, 
*'  that  one  of  nature's  journeymen  had  made  him,  and 
not  made  him  well  either."  First  of  all  he  must  cover 
his  matchless   form,  his  God-made  body,  as  a  thing 


MORALITY   AND   CONSCIENCE.  123 

igiioaiinious  to  behold,  unfit  for  human  eyes  to  dwell 
upon ;  he  improvises  shame  and  hides  it  under  clothes. 
Not  only  in  certain  respects  must  he  be  to  himself  a 
lie,  but  his  deception  must  be  aided  by  nature.  Then 
that  unruly  member  the  tongue  must  be  curbed;  it 
must  not  speak  the  whole  truth,  and  may  often  vir- 
tuously prevaricate.  And  as  society  is  constructed 
we  cannot  escape  these  curses.  What  would  be  the 
man  of  commerce  with  unvarnished  plainness  of  speech 
and  dealing?  A  bankrupt.  What  would  be  the  reli- 
gious teacher,  who,  instead  of  telling  his  people  what 
he  does  not  know,  should  tell  them  all  that  he  does 
know  ?  Anathema.  What  should  we  say  of  a  strict- 
ly honest  politician  ?    That  he  was  not  a  politician. 

Even  conscience  is  a  counterfeit ;  not  a  heaven-born 
guide  as  it  pretends  to  be,  but  a  fungus  fastened  on 
the  mind  by  the  atmosphere  surrounding  it.  Nature 
furnishes  the  raw  material  for  its  manufacture,  and 
societies  hammer  it  out  according  to  their  several 
ideals.  Form,  fashion,  which  in  all  human  affairs  are 
a  necessity  until  man  is  perfect,  must  be  the  imperfect 
counterfeit  of  the  reality  they  represent.  Our  cloth- 
ing, our  courtesies,  our  worship,  our  rascalities,  must 
have  forms,  which  are  all  transparent  enough  to  him 
who  has  eyes.  We  pray  by  beads  and  genuflections, 
or  in  stereotyped  phrases.  Our  social  intercourse, 
like  our  dress,  is  for  simulution  and  display,  rather 
than  for  real  utility. 

Morality  is  but  a  fashion,  and  society  is  cemented 
by  subterfuge.  Our  religion  is  based  upon  a  not 
wholl}^  fair  purchase  of  heavenly  favors,  our  poor  tem- 
porary self-denials  being  urged  as  payment  for  an 
eternity  of  felicity.  True,  our  morality  must  be  for- 
mulated in  accordance  with  the  mandates  of  nature, 
and  the  standards  of  excellence  set  up  by  society,  as 
a  rule,  conform  to  the  standards  accepted  by  our  moral 
and  aesthetic  faculties;  but  it  is  no  less  a  fact  that 
three-fourths  of  our  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds  in  our 
intercourse  with  each  other  are  counterfeit. 


124  CRITICISM. 

Wherefore,  if  we  are  so  hollow  and  false  in  so  many 
other  things,  how  shall  we  have  literature  without 
hyperbole,  or  reviews  without  empiricism  ?  An  editop 
who  never  wholly  praised  any  book,  yet  often  be- 
smeared with  his  venom  a  really  good  one,  once  re- 
fused to  espouse  a  cause  of  great  public  utility  on  the 
ground  that  people  would  say  he  had  been  bribed! 
The  old,  vulgar,  and  time-worn  trick  of  finding  some 
fault — it  made  little  difference  what,  or  whether  or 
not  deserved,  or  whether  or  not  the  most  glaring  fault 
in  the  work — in  order  to  make  a  show  of  ability,  and 
for  fear  the  public  would  think  him  not  capable  of  discov- 
ering imperfections  unless  he  did  so,  was  a  policy  and 
principle  with  this  man,  leading  him  into  many  ludi- 
crous absurdities. 

He  was  of  the  truest  type  of  newspaper  hypocrite, 
professing  religion,  professing  integrity,  professing 
immaculate  purity  for  his  newspaper,  holding  himself 
a  worthy  member  of  society, — he  was  indeed  possessed 
of  wealth  and  much  influence, — ^yet  utteriy  insincere, 
unreliable,  and  not  entitled  to  half  the  respect  which 
should  fall  to  the  holder  of  looser  principles  openly 
avowed.  Though  no  lover  of  the  people,  except  as 
he  was  paid  for  his  love,  he  was  held  in  esteem  by 
many  for  whom  he  concocted  opinion,  and  who  seemed 
awed  by  the  feeling  that  in  the  inner  sanctuary  of  a 
master  mind  was  distilled  refined  knowledge,  presently 
to  impregnate  the  metal  types,  and  be  distributed  in 
multiplications  without  end  on  paper.  A  helper  was 
kept  in  the  office  more  especially  for  the  talent  he 
possessed  of  clothing  verbiage  in  the  apparel  of  learn- 
ing, like  Geber,  the  alchemist,  who  wrote  in  gibberish, 
or  mystical  jargon,  upon  his  art,  because  to  have  written 
plainly  would  have  brought  him  to  grief 

It  is  a  matter  the  people  would  do  well  to  consider, 
whether  or  not  there  should  be  allowed  always  to  ex- 
ist in  the  community  one  or  more  newspapers  either 
living  or  building  themselves  upon  black-mail,  attack- 
ing as  may  suit  their  fancy,  citizens  wholly  undeserv- 


HUMBUG  AND  HYPOCRISY.  125 

ing  of  such  treatment,  with  ridicule  and  scurrility,  in 
order  to  extort  money  or  attract  readers.  Such  jour- 
nalism reflects  the  tastes  and  propensities  of  society  no 
less  than  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  journalist,  for  the 
latter  .will  write  what  the  people  will  read.  Those 
who  so  like  to  hear  ill  of  their  neighbor,  whether  he 
may  be  deserving  of  it  or  not,  need  not  imagine  them- 
selves exempt  from  similar  slanders,  and  should  not 
forget  that  while  living  in  a  community  permitting  and 
patronizing  such  detraction,  they  are  at  any  moment 
liable  to  similar  attack. 

After  all,  when  we  consider  the  wrong  and  injustice 
so  frequently  inflicted  on  individual  members  of  the 
community  by  malicious  writers,  the  author  should 
not  complain  merely  at  seeing  the  better  qualities  of 
his  book  passed  over,  and  the  remainder,  so  far  as 
possible  reduced  to  an  absurdity  by  inuendoes  or  false 
statements. 

It  is  easy  to  deride  when  one  can  say  nothing  else. 
"My  dear  Tom,"  said  Curran  to  Moore  one  day, 
'^wlien  I  can't  talk  sense  I  talk  metaphor."  Few  can 
write  well ;  any  one  can  ridicule,  and  often  he  who 
knows  least  condemns  most.  *^  There  are  twenty  men 
of  wit,"  says  Pope,  ''  for  one  man  of  sense." 

''It  is  easy  to  write  an  average  literary  criticism," 
says  Mathews,  "  especially  of  the  fulsome,  laudatory, 
or  savage  cut-and-thrust  kind,  which  we  find  in  many 
American  journals.  For  such  a  purpose,  little  prepa- 
ration is  required ;  you  have  only  to  cut  the  leaves  of 
the  book  to  be  reviewed,  and  then  smell  of  the  paper 
knife." 

Underlying  most  criticism  is  the  desire  of  the  re- 
viewer to  bring  into  notice  either  himself  or  his  review, 
and  as  this  can  usually  be  done  more  effectually  by 
censure  than  by  praise,  the  weaker  victims  are  gener- 
ally sacrificed.  Some  delight  in  picking  a  meritorious 
work  to  pieces  purely  for  the  pleasure  it  affords,  just 
as  a  boy  pulls  off  the  legs  and  wings  of  a  fly  to  see  it 
squirm.     Truth  is  of  no  moment ;    blood  alone  will 


128  CRITICISM. 

answer  the  purpose.  Fur  and  feathers  are  made  to 
fly,  and  if  horsewhipped  by  the  outraged  author,  he 
raises  the  cry  of  martyrdom. 

The  mischievous  appetite  for  popularity  is  apparent 
in  ahnost  all  criticisms,  as  in  almost  every  kind  of 
teaching  and  amusing.  Every  reviewer  must  make 
or  sustain  a  reputation  as  an  ingenious  critic,  as  one  of 
brilhant  wit,  of  fiery  imagination,  and  who  revels 
in  scrupulous  distinctions.  Hence  the  work  reviewed 
is  first  made  to  do  service  to  the  reviewer,  after  which 
it  may  be  blessed  or  cursed,  as  fancy  dictates.  ''Half 
the  lies  of  history,"  says  Mathews,  ''  have  their  origin 
in  this  desire  to  be  brilliant." 

Authors  may  writhe  under  the  target  practice  in- 
stituted for  the  momentary  delight  of  reviewers  and 
readers,  but  their  own  attitude  as  critics  tends  to 
undermine  sympathy  for  them.  Every  poet  who  ever 
lived  has  been  ridiculed  by  his  brother  poets,  every 
essayist  by  his  brother  essayists,  every  blacksmith  by 
his  brother  blacksmiths.  Some,  indeed,  have  praised, 
but  all  have  censured.  Poets  often  stoop  even  to 
scurrility.  Southey  spoke  slightingly  of  Coleridge's 
Ancient  Manner.  Fielding  saw  nothing  good  in  Rich- 
ardson, nor  Richardson  in  Fielding.  To  the  ear  of 
Beattie,  Churchill's  verse  was  drivelling  and  dull. 
Doctor  Johnson,  with  all  his  acuteness  and  sagacity 
in  dissecting  metaphysical  writers,  like  Dry  den  and 
Pope,  failed  completely  when  he  touched  the  imagina- 
tive realms  of  romance.  Nor  was  he  better  at  criti- 
cism than  at  poetry.  Often  had  he  reviled  Milton, 
although  he  confessed  he  never  read  Paradise  Lost 
until  obliged  to  do  so  in  order  to  gather  its  words  into 
his  dictionary. 

Milton  preferred  Cowley  to  Drj^den;  Waller,  De 
Maistre,  Dryden,  and  many  others  affirmed  that  Mil- 
ton's blank  verse  was  not  poetry  ;  the  little  wasp  of 
Twickenham  received  about  as  many  stings  as  he  gave ; 
Ben  Johnson  scourged  Spenser,  Donne,    Sharpbam, 


QUARRELSOME  AUTHORS,  127 

Day,  and  Dekkar.  Byraer,  Voltaire,  and  Samuel 
Rogers  ridiculed  Shakespeare,  pronouncing  the  trage- 
dies bloody  farces,  without  reason  or  coherence.  Of 
Wordsworth's  Prelude,  Macaulay  says:  ''There  are 
the  old  raptures  about  mountains  and  cataracts;  the 
old  flimsy  philosophy  about  the  eflects  of  scenery  on 
the  mind;  the  old  crazy  mystical  metaphysics;  the 
endless  wilderness  of  dull,  flat,  prosaic  declamations 
interspersed  ;  "  and  this  is  the  poem  which  Coleridge 
had  called  ''  an  Orphic  song  indeed,  a  song  divine,  of 
high  and  passionate  thoughts,  to  their  own  music 
chanted." 

In  Gray's  Elegy  neither  Wordsworth  nor  Coleridge 
saw  merit.  Gray  pretended  he  could  distinguish  no 
genius  in  Goldsmith,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Hume, 
Thomson,  or  Collins;  indeed,  in  Gray's  eyes  there 
was  but  one  poet,  and  that  was  Gray.  Scarcely  an 
author  of  note  escapes  scathing  condemnation  in  some 
form.  To  be  of  note  implies  originality,  and  new  ideas 
falling  among  dogmatic  opinionists  are  sure  to  be 
wrangled  over.  Innovation  invites  derision ;  sneers 
are  the  present  reward  of  him  who  writes  for  the 
future. 

Elsewhere  than  in  literature  are  discovered  the 
same  manifestations.  Scott  saw  nothing  beautiful  in 
pictures,  nor  had  he  any  ear  for  music.  Sir  Robert 
Peel  disliked  music.  Lord  Holland  hated  pictures; 
Byron  did  not  care  for  architecture,  nor  did  Madame 
de  Stael  for  grand  scenery. 

In  every  pronounced  character  there  appears  to  be 
some  one  sense  lacking.  Probably  there  never  lived 
a  man  possessed  of  more  sweeping  or  subtler  critical 
faculties  than  William  Hazlitt,  already  mentioned.  By 
a  kind  of  preternatural  insight  or  intellectual  intuition 
he  felt  at  once  and  with  remarkable  precision  what 
another  could  reach  only  by  study;  just  as  a  musical 
genius  catches  the  spirit  of  a  composition  the  moment 
his  eye  alights  on  it.  And  yet,  though  the  assertion 
may  seem  paradoxical,  his  criticisms  were  always  de- 


128  CRITICISM. 

fective,  and  the  cause  may  be  traced  to  the  possession 
of  these  extraordinary  critical  faculties.  Inspiration 
is  a  splendid  thing  in  criticism,  but  even  genius  cannot 
know  all  a  book  contains  without  reading  it.  The 
trouble  with  Hazlitt  was,  that  he  did  not  possess  pa- 
tience thoroughly  to  master  the  work  he  attempted 
to  criticize.  His  sharp  invective  was  hurled  alike  on 
all.  Between  friend  and  foe  he  made  no  distinction. 
Wherever  he  saw  faults  or  foibles  he  assumed  the 
right  to  expose,  and  if  possible  to  exterminate  them. 
The  temperament  of  Rogers,  the  poet,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  most  variable.  With  whatsoever  his  spirit 
harmonized,  he  w^as  all  delicacy  and  affection ;  regard- 
ing things  hateful  to  him,  there  was  displayed  an 
acerbity  almost  diabolical.  Yet  while  every  man  does 
not  permit  his  judgment  to  be  made  the  tool  of  pas- 
sion, in  humanity  there  is  no  such  thing  as  passionless 
opinion.  ^'Tant  le  tres  irritable  amour-propre  des 
gens  de  lettres  est  difficile  a  menager ! "  exclaims 
Rousseau.  Some  yield  readily  to  tender  feelings,  as 
Pope,  who  burst  into  tears  on  reading  Homer's  rep- 
resentation of  Priam's  grief  over  Hector's  loss;  or 
Shelley,  who  fainted  on  hearing  read  for  the  first  time 
a  certain  passage  in  Christabel  I 

The  condition  of  the  reviewer's  blood  or  liver  often 
determines  the  color  of  his  criticisms,  leading  him  to 
dwell  on  parts,  or  to  select  for  special  attention  pas- 
sages of  beauty  or  deformity.  Most  energetic,  ambi- 
tious persons  have  within  them  a  certain  amount  of 
immoral  bile,  which  they  must  occasionally  discharge. 
Thus  with  indigestion,  loss  of  sleep,  matrimonial  infe- 
licities, or  wine  and  late  hours,  the  reviewer  whets 
his  pen,  and  books  are  made  the  innocent  victims  of 
an  acrimonious  temper.  From  the  freshly  opened  | 
volume  comes  an  odor,  fragrant  or  state  as  the  case 
may  be,  but  always  responsive  to  the  critic's  humor. 

Criticism    is    by  far    too    polemical.     Leaving    its : 
purely  literary  sphere,  we  see  it  every  now  and  then  I 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  WORK.  129 

striking  out  into  divers  controversies  which  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  questions  at  issue,  and  which 
narrow  the  minds  of  men  to  one-sided  views  of  things, 
and  bhnd  them  even  to  their  own  bhndness.  While 
some  have  assisted  to  popularity  fanatical  or  superficial 
authors,  as  Tupper,  Holland,  and  a  host  of  others, 
the  profound  lucidity  of  such  scholars  as  Mill,  Lecky, 
Spencer,  and  Draper  has  been  lost  upon  them,  their 
seat  of  judgment  being  in  the  heart  rather  than  in 
the  head,  if  indeed  they  can  be  said  to  possess  in  any 
sense  the  faculty  of  judgment.  In  others,  the  very 
superiority  of  the  author  inspires  dislike,  his  merit 
proving  the  cause  of  condemnation  ;  as  we  sometimes 
see  a  man  who  is  indebted  to  another  assail  his  bene- 
factor with  a  view  thereby  to  lessen  the  obligation. 

Not  unfrequently  the  critic  affects  to  photograph 
the  author  from  his  writings.  This  affords  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  display  of  much  fustian,  but  it  results 
in  Httle  else.  The  work  alone  falls  within  the  prov- 
ince of  criticism,  not  the  author,  else  faults  of  style 
become  faults  of  character.  Of  the  author  of  every 
work  he  criticised,  Saint-Beuve  asked  himself  the 
following  questions:  "What  were  his  religious  views? 
How  did  the  sight  of  nature  affect  him  ?  How  was 
he  affected  toward  women,  and  by  money?  Was  he 
rich,  poor,  and  what  was  his  regimen?  V/hat  were 
his  daily  habits,  and  his  besetting  sins  ? "  All  of  which 
are  essential  in  biography,  but  irrelevant  in  criticism. 
Because  an  artist  squints,  has  a  hair-lip,  or  a  broken 
nose,  are  his  Venuses  and  Madonnas  to  be  judged 
thereby  ?  Because  an  author  is  infidel,  or  immoral, 
or  wears  long  hair,  or  smokes,  swears,  gambles, 
preaches,  or  prays  are  his  printed  facts  any  better  or 
worse  on  account  of  any  of  these  ?  The  character  of 
the  writer  cannot  be  portrayed  from  his  works,  nor  is 
it  necessary  that  it  should  be.  Who  can  picture  the 
glories  of  Eden  like  Lucifer,  or  the  sweet  serenities 
of  temperance  like  the  inebriate  or  glutton  ?    Euripides, 

Essays  and  Miscellany     9 


130  CRITICISM. 

the  most  touching  of  Greek  tragic  poets,  though  more 
skeptical  in  his  religious  opinions  than  ^schylus,  was 
a  more  pious  writer.  Love  rather  than  fear  was  the 
spirit  of  his  teachings.  If  we  accept  such  precepts 
only  as  those  that  fall  from  pure  lips,  we  shall  wait 
long  to  be  wise.  And  yet  how  quickly  the  intelligent 
reader  imagines  he  detects  the  qualities  of  his  author's 
mind  and  manner,  fancying  he  sees  before  him  a  boor, 
a  gentleman,  one  instinct  with  fun,  kindness,  honesty, 
or  the  reverse.  Did  not  James  Boswell,  Esquire,  the 
blustering  British  coxcomb,  the  witless  wit,  the  syco- 
phant and  sot,  the  spy  and  tattler,  did  lie  not  write 
the  best  biography  in  the  English  language,  the  most 
natural,  the  most  vivid,  the  most  truthful,  and  that 
because  he  was  such  an  egregrious  ass  as  always  to 
tell  all  he  knew  ?  And  shall  not  a  critic  in  his  review 
separate  such  an  author  from  such  a  work?  This  as 
a  rule;  notwithstanding  which  there  may  be  some 
truth  in  the  words  of  Jean  Paul:  ^'Nie  zeichnet  der 
Mensch  den  eignen  charakter  scharfer  als  in  seiner 
Manier  einen  fremden  zu  zeichnen." 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  a  reader  can  know  noth- 
ing of  a  man  by  his  words  and  sentences.  If  we  may 
know  something  of  a  person  by  his  dress,  his  walk, 
his  air,  or  attitude,  surely  we  may  know  more  of  him 
when  he  opens  his  mouth  to  speak  or  introduces  us  to 
his  inner  self  through  the  expression  of  ideas  upon 
paper.  The  choice  of  language  and  style  is  an  index 
to  a  man's  character.  In  expressions  emphatic,  mod- 
erate, verbose,  we  see  men  of  different  dispositions. 
He  is  recognized  as  cool-headed,  temperate,  who 
weighs  carefully  his  opinions,  and  makes  his  words 
strong  from  their  very  scarcity.  We  see  a  dogmatic 
disposition  in  one  who  makes  assertions  in  a  positive, 
arrogant  manner,  never  admitting  a  doubt  as  to  the 
correctness  of  his  opinions.  We  know  another  to  be 
impetuous  and  irritable  from  the  hurried  vehemence 
of  his  words  and  his  impatience  of  controversy.  But 
to  know  and  judge  a  man  is  very  different  from  con- 


TRICKS   OF  THE  TRADE.  131 

demning  the  work  on  account  of  the  workman,  or  rat- 
ing a  book  as  good  or  bad  on  account  of  the  author's 
temper  or  morahty. 

Too  often  in  conversational  criticism  the  author  is 
made  a  vehicle  in  which  to  carry  off  the  lumber  of 
the  writer's  demolished  ideas.  This  is  the  case  when 
the  main  features  of  the  work  are  ignored  while  insig- 
nificant parts  are  taken  up  and  discussed  with  all  the 
gravity  of  a  De  Quincey  expatiating  on  murder  as  a 
fine  art.  The  critic's  own  idiosyncrasies  replace  the 
sentiments  of  the  author  criticized.  The  reviewer, 
who  perhaps  is  some  professional  man  or  theorist, 
takes  this  opportunity  for  ventilating  his  ideas  on  the 
subject  under  consideration,  and  the  author  and  his 
work  are  placed  in  the  background.  Such  were  many 
of  the  reviews  of  Macaulay,  who  used  the  book  only 
as  a  text  to  preach  a  sermon  from. 

There  is  much  of  this  special  pleading  in  criticism, 
where  the  member  of  a  sect  or  a  society,  a  professor 
or  doctor  of  something,  views  the  world  always  through 
the  mists  of  his  learning,  and  the  main  object  of  whose 
life  is  to  make  converts'to  his  theory.  As  for  unadul- 
terated truth,  few  desire  it,  or  have  the  coura<>-e  al- 
ways to  own  it  when  they  find  it.  "^ 

What  cares  the  sectarian  for  truth  while  pleadino- 
for  proselytes?  What  cares  the  politician  for  truth 
while  seeking  to  exalt  himself  or  his  party  ?  What 
cares  the  author  for  truth  who  seeks  only  to  prove  a 
favorite  theory,  or  who  writes  to  square  his  facts  to 
his  philosophy?  And  what  is  more,  this  garbled, 
mendacious  style  of  writing  is  expected,  regarded 
with  favor,  and  even  demanded  in  the  highest  quar- 
ters. He  who  does  not  write  as  advocate  or  special 
pleader  on  one  side  or  the  other  of  a  subject,  but 
simply  to  tell  what  is  known  of  it,  that  the  truth  may 
finally  be  ascertained,  seems  in  the  eyes  of  many  to 
be  lacking  in  something.  'A  critic  in  one  of  the  quar- 
terlies," says  Hamerton,  ^'  once  treated  me  as  a  feeble 


132  CRITICISM. 

defender  of  my  opinions,  because  I  gave  due  consider- 
ation to  both  sides  of  a  question." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  nearly  all  the  so- 
called  exponents  of  public  opinion  are  in  bondage  to 
bread-winning,  either  as  salaried  men  or  proprietors. 
All  teachers,  preachers,  professors,  editors,  and  nine- 
tenths  of  the  authors  are  chained  in  greater  or  less 
degree  by  some  one  interest,  obligation,  or  necessity 
to  certain  lines  of  thought  and  conduct.  The  jour- 
nalist, if  proprietor,  must  first  of  all  consider  the 
interests  of  his  journal,  the  salaried  editor,  of  his  pay  ; 
the  clergyman  and  the  professor  must  follow  the 
course  marked  out  for  them  by  tradition  and  associa- 
tion. True,  the}^  will  claim  to  believe  in  what  they 
teach  ;  but  if  knowledge  is  a  fixed  quantity  what  hope 
has  progress?  The  popular  writer  must  sacrifice 
whatever  prevents  the  admission  of  his  article  in  the 
popular  magazine,  whose  publishers  unhesitatingly 
sacrifice  whatever  impedes  its  circulation.  It  is  a 
very  difficult  matter  making  men  see  the  truth  con-  j 
trary  to  their  interests.  All  this  should  be  remem- 
bered in  criticising  critics. 

Even  apparently  independent  criticisms  in  book! 
form  have  to  study  the  views  of  publishers  and  par-  [ 
ties,  while  the  great  mass,  in  the  public  journals,  are] 
swayed  not  only  by  pressure  of  time,  but  by  preju-l 
dices  of  the  editor  and  proprietor,  and  the  spirit  of  tliej 
publication.  The  press  is  called  the  mouth-piece  of  thai 
people,  and  as  they  would  give  utterance  so  must  itl 
speak.  But  in  what  a  limited  degree  does  this  apply. I 
Few  of  the  people  think  at  all,  and  when  they  open! 
their  mouths  nothing  comes  forth.  To  such  the  pub- 1 
lie  journal  is  brains  rather  than  tongue. 

Of  those  who  think,  or  imagine  so,  few  penetrate! 
beneath  the  surface  of  things,  breaking  asunder  th( 
hold  upon  them  of  tradition  and   environment,  and 
casting  themselves  adrift  on  the  sea  of  reason,  witt 
only  nature  and  experience  as  a  rudder.     They  dc 


JOURNALISTIC  SUBTERFUGE.  133 

not  reach  the  bottom  of  any  thing,  or  follow  any  sub- 
ject to  its  source ;  consequently  they  are  ever  ready 
to  listen  to  those  who  pretend  to  know  more  than  they. 
Of  this  class,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  public  journal  is 
the  mouth-piece,  holding  sway  in  most  matters  by 
means  of  that  well-sustained  assumption  of  superior 
knowledge  which  is  necessary  to  successful  leadership. 

The  dignity  of  criticism  sinks  materially  when  the 
views  of  certain  journals  regarding  any  work  on  a 
given  subject  may  be  foretold  by  one  conversant  with 
the  policy  or  prejudices  of  its  editor.  The  popularity 
of  the  journal  is  its  life  blood,  and  is  paramount  to 
truth  or  fairness ;  sometimes  the  popular  course  is  in 
the  direction  of  truth  and  the  right.  Where  a  book 
falls  into  the  hands  of  a  school  or  clique,  it  is  made  a 
foot-ball,  and  criticism,  like  sectarianism,  or  political 
partisanship,  becomes  a  fight.  Though  the  free  indul- 
gence of  personalties  in  criticism  which  obtained  in 
Byron's  day  is  modified,  we  have  perhaps  what  is 
worse  in  these  self-opinionated  cabals.  What  would 
be  thought  of  a  Chinese  woman  jealously  decrying  a 
Parisian  head-dress,  or  a  Chinook  finding  fault  with 
the  religious  observances  of  the  Turks ;  and  yet  as 
gross  absurdities  are  perpetrated  daily  amid  the  world 
of  criticism. 

Every  shade  of  theological  and  political  opinion  has 
its  organ  of  criticism,  whose  illogical  dogmatism  is  the 
very  irony  of  honesty.  Its  mandates  take  the 
place  of  the  political  or  theological  censorship  which 
circumscribes  the  press  in  so  many  foreign  countries. 
Instance  the  effect  on  Merimee's  review  of  Napoleon's 
Csesar.  "  I  am  not  dissatisfied  with  my  article  on  27ie 
History  of  Julius  Csesar,''  writes  he  to  his  Incognita. 
"  As  the  task  was  imposed  on  me,  submission  was  un- 
avoidable. You  know  how  very  highly  I  think  both 
of  the  author  and  his  book,  and  you  also  appreciate 
the  difficulties  besetting  the  critic  who  would  depre- 
cate the  imputation  of  sycophancy  and  yet  say  noth- 
ing unbecoming." 


134  CRITICISM. 

After  all,  there  are  only  a  comparatively  few  lead- 
ing journals  and  journalists  in  the  world,  the  few 
which  are  really  what  they  pretend  to  be,  makers  of 
opinion,  that  a  writer  for  lasting  fame  needs  to  fear. 
About  these  there  is  little  of  that  "ignorant  praise, 
which,"  as  George  Elliot  says,  "  misses  every  valid 
quality,"  nor  yet  ignorant  condemnation.  Before  I 
should  agree  with  Doctor  Johnson  when  he  says,  "I 
would  rather  be  attacked  than  unnoticed;  for  the 
worst  thing  you  can  do  to  an  author  is  to  be  silent  as 
to  his  works,"  I  should  consider  who  or  what  it  was 
that  attacked.  While  the  Olympian  gods  in  council 
were  discussing  what  should  be  done  with  certain 
skeptics  on  earth  who  doubted  their  existence,  a  mes- 
senger from  below  announced  the  occurrence  of  a  duel 
of  philosophers  over  the  subject.  Orthodox  Timocles 
disputes  with  infidel  Damis.  Timocles  becomes  con- 
fused in  his  argument,  then  angry,  and  threatens  to 
break  the  head  of  Damis,  who  laughingly  escapes. 
Jupiter  is  in  sorrowful  doubt  where  lies  the  victory. 
Mercury  attempts  to  console  him  by  saying  that  they 
still  have  the  greater  numbers  with  them,  let  Damis 
win  whom  he  may.  ''Yes,"  replied  Jupiter,  "but  I 
would  rather  have  on  my  side  one  man  like  Damis 
than  ten  thousand  Babylonians." 

There  may  be  no  deeper  thinkers  in  the  world  now 
than  three  thousand  years  ago ;  but  mind  seems  to 
have  been  somewhat  quickened  since  the  days  of  the 
ancients,  and  there  is  more  to  think  about,  more  of 
reality  and  less  of  speculation.  After  the  voyages  of 
Columbus  knowledge  rapidly  multiplied. 

The  true  critic,  after  determining  the  questions 
whether  or  not  the  book  has  any  right  to  be,  whether 
or  not  the  author's  subject  is  of  sufficient  importance 
to  claim  public  attention,  whether  or  not  the  author 
has  a  proper  cause  to  lay  before  the  tribunal  of  letters, 
will  then  proceed  to  determine  the  merit  of  the  plan 
and  the  faithfulness  of  execution. 

Adverse  criticism,  in  so  far  as  it  is  merited,  should 


WORKS  OF  MIXED  MERIT.  135 

always  unflinchingly  be  given;  bub  not  in  a  spirit  of 
injustice  or  antagonism.  Neither  coarse  personalities 
nor  chronic  fault-findings  are  productive  of  any  good. 
Imperfections  may  be  pointed  out  with  scrupulous 
care,  but  unimportant  deficiencies  should  not  be  par- 
aded as  primary  failings,  and  so  made  condemnatory 
of  the  whole.  To  be  productive  of  good  both  to  the 
author  and  to  the  public,  let  faults  be  found  in  con- 
nection with  good  qualities,  if  of  the  latter  there  be 
any,  and  all  in  khid  and  conscientious  fairness;  so 
that  while  the  public  are  warned  of  false  pretenders, 
inexperienced  authors  of  meritorious  work  may  be  led 
to  correct  the  error  of  their  ways. 

It  is  not  expected  that  dullness  and  stupidity  should 
be  rewarded.  Least  of  all  is  it  to  the  interest  of 
writers  of  good  books  that  the  incompetent  should  be 
successful.  Yet  might  the  critics  make  it  a  little 
more  their  pleasure  to  point  out  the  merits  of  a  good 
book,  as  well  as  the  imperfections  of  a  poor  one. 
Jean  Paul  Richter  says  that  a  book  without  beauties 
is  a  bad  thing,  but  a  book  without  faults  is  not  there- 
fore necessarily  a  good  one.  "Let  your  rogues  in 
novels  act  like  rogues,"  says  Thackeray,  ''and  your 
honest  men  like  honest  men;  don't  let  us  have  any 
juggling  and  thimblerigging  with  virtue  and  vice,  so 
that  at  the  end  of  three  volumes  the  bewildered  reader 
shall  not  know  which  is  which."  This  may  sound 
very  well  in  novels,  though  such  a  sentiment  does  not 
tend  to  raise  the  discriminating  qualities  of  the  satir- 
ist in  the  reader's  opinion,  for  in  real  life  w^e  find  no 
such  thing  as  men  all  rogues  or  all  honest.  Paul 
Pichter  complained  that  the  reviews  bestowed  upon 
his  works  either  extravagant  praise  or  indiscriminate 
censure.  "Die  Kritik,"  he  says,  "nimmt  oft  dem 
Ban  me  Paupen  und  Bliithen  mit  einander."  It  is 
easy  to  flatter,  but  exceedingly  difficult  to  bestow 
heart-felt  praise.  We  may  for  charity's  sake  overlook 
slight  faults  in  a  meritorious  work.  *'A  book  may  be 
as  great  a  thing  as  a  battle,"  says  Disraeli;  the  life 


136  CRITICISM. 

and  character  of  a  good  book  may  be  measured  with 
the  Ufe  and  character  of  a  good  man ;  frequently  one 
good  book  is  worth  a  thousand  men.  He  therefore 
who  wilfully  and  maliciously  murders  a  good  book 
or  destroys  praiseworthy  effort,  cannot  be  too  severely 
condemned;  though  as  Martial  says:  *'  Chartis  nee  furta 
nocent,  et  falcula  prosunt;  solaque  non  n6runt  hsec 
monumenta  mori." 

Perfection  nowhere  exists;  yet  few  books  printed 
are  wholly  devoid  of  merit.  That  marvellous  student, 
the  elder  Pliny,  always  took  notes  as  he  read,  declar- 
ing that  he  could  find  something  good  in  the  worst  of 
books.  Attempts  even  are  worth  some  consideration. 
A  bad  author  is  bad  enough,  but  an  incompetent  or 
disiionest  critic  is  worse.  The  least  meritorious 
author  does  some  good ;  the  best  critic  much  evil. 

Carlyle   says:   "Of  no  given  book,  not   even   of  a 
fashionable  novel,  can  you  predict  with  certainty  that 
its  vacuity  is   absolute ;    that   there   are   not   other 
vacuities  which  shall  partially  replenish  themselves 
therefrom,  and  esteem  it  a  Plenum.     And  knowest 
thou,  may  the  distressed  novelwright  exclaim,  that  I, 
here  where  I  sit,  am  the  foolishest  of  existing  mortals;] 
that  this  my  long  ear  of  a  fictitious  biography  shall! 
not  find  one  and  the  other  into  whose  still  longer  ears] 
it  may   be  the  means,  under  providence,  of  instilling  J 
somewhat?     We  answer  none  knows,  none  can  cer-f 
tainly  know;  therefore  write  on,  worthy  brother,  even! 
as  thou  canst,  even  as  it  has  been  given  thee." 

In  literary  ventures  the  chances  of  success  are  inj 
no  wise  proportionate  to  the  necessary  efforts.  Dic- 
tion-drilling and  literary  stuffing  do  not  make 
writer.  Innumerable  perplexities  often  beset  thel 
author,  of  v/hich  the  reviewer  knows  nothing;  not  J 
unfrequently  an  author  is  obliged  to  adopt  a  plan! 
which  no  one  knows  better  than  himself  to  be  faulty,  I 
in  order  to  avoid  a  yet  more  faulty  course. 

In  quoting  from  a  work   the   reviewer  by    artful! 
selections   can   make    the   author   say   anything   he  J 


TRUTH  AND  FALSEHOOD.  137 

wishes.  The  Athanasian  creed  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  writings  of  Athaoasius.  Says  Herbert  Spencer 
on  this  subject,  "  We  cannot  infer  from  a  fragment  of 
a  composition  what  the  whole  is,  any  more  than  we 
could  describe  Babylon  from  specimens  of  the  bricks 
used  in  its  construction.  This  is  a  principle  whicli 
sound  criticism  holds  fast  to  in  pronouncing  its  judg- 
ments on  authors  and  books."  To  mass  facts  and 
present  arguments  for  the  support  of  but  one  side  of 
a  question,  pretending  meanwhile  to  state  the  whole 
case  truthfully,  be  it  in  law,  theology,  or  letters,  is 
neither  honorable,  nor  beneficial  to  mankind. 

In  the  ultimate  principles  of  human  nature  there  is 
a  dualism  which  manifests  itself  in  all  human  affairs. 
An  a  priori  analysis  of  humanity  is  not  necessary  to 
show  that  in  all  thino^s  relatins;  to  man,  no  less  than 
to  man  himself,  there  are  two  sides.  In  social  inter- 
course there  is  an  inner,  proximate,  and  real  side, 
and  an  outer,  disingenuous,  artificial,  and  false  side. 
We  know  what  we  are ;  we  are  none  of  us  exactly 
satisfied  with  ourselves ;  we  would  appear  something 
different.  Hence  the  primary  purpose  of  society  lies 
no  less  in  suppressio  veri  than  in  suggestio  falsi. 

Likewise  whatever  man  touches,  be  it  from  the 
highest  and  purest  motives,  he  warps  and  falsely 
colors.  There  is  nothing  he  so  eschews  as  truth, 
even  while  pretending  to  search  for  it.  If  he  ascends 
the  pulpit  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  dogmatizing  rather 
than  for  honest  inquiry.  If  he  enters  politics  it  is  for 
the  purpose  of  serving  himself,  while  pretending  to 
serve  the  public.  If  he  publishes  a  journal,  and 
swears  upon  the  holy  evangelists  that  honor,  integ- 
rity, and  the  welfare  of  the  people  are,  and  ever  shall 
be,  his  governing  principles,  beware  !  for  he  will  be- 
tray you,  aye,  he  will  besmear  his  manhood  with 
ditch-water  and  sacrifice  friend,  wife,  or  mother  to 
whatever  he  conceives  to  be  for  the  interests  of  his 
journal.     The  physician  will  leave  a  man  to  die  rather 


138  CRITICISM. 

than  submit  to  what  he  regards  as  a  breach  of  profes- 
sional etiquette.  The  lawyer  will  clear  a  murderer, 
knowing  him  to  be  such,  and  let  him  loose,  like  a  blood- 
hound, with  appetite  whetted  by  confinement,  again 
to  prey  upon  society.  Jurymen,  sworn  to  render  a 
verdict  according  to  the  testimony,  fling  evidence  to 
the  wind,  and  consult  only  their  feelings. 

Many  emphasize  the  value  of  standards  by  which 
to  judge.  Pope  says  study  the  ancients,  and  square 
all  criticism  by  their  rule ;  but  before  Greece  and 
Rome  is  nature,  whose  ethics  should  be  our  guide. 
The  ancients  were  not  so  wise  as  they  have  been  ac- 
counted ;  they  were  not  so  wise  as  the  men  of  to-day. 
Canons  of  critical  art  can  be  laid  down  but  partially, 
and  cannot  be  made  to  fit  every  case ;  yet  one  may 
always  broadly  know  sound  sincerity  from  hollow 
cliicanery.  Neither  in  literature  nor  in  art  has  the 
world  a  complete  and  accepted  standard  of  excellence. 
Art,  like  nature,  may  not  always  be  interpreted  by 
prescribed  rules.  Volumes  sent  forth  among  review- 
ers to  be  measured  by  rule  have  been  made  the  battle 
ground  of  contending  factions  equally  with  those  upon 
which  critics  have  passed  candid  judgment  from  their 
own  intuitive  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Philosophic 
criticism  is  broadly  guided  by  nature  as  the  source  of 
all  knowledge. 

Inspiration  alone  can  fathom  inspiration  or  experi- 
ence fathom  experience.  Beads  of  perspiration  rest- 
ing on  the  brow  may  tell  of  bodily  fatigue,  or  of  the 
soul's  great  agony,  or  they  may, give  welcome  notice 
that  the  crisis  of  fever  is  safely  passed. 

The  dramatic  critic  has  the  advantage  of  the  re- 
viewer of  books  in  one  respect;  he  is  not  obliged  to 
pronounce  his  verdict  until  after  the  public  have  ren- 
dered theirs.  Even  the  canons  of  dramatic  criticism 
are  taken  ready  made  from  the  play-goers.  Morality, 
an  essential  of  literature,  is  subordinated  to  expression 
in  the  drama.  We  read  books  for  instruction  and 
improvement ;    we    attend    the    play    for    pleasure. 


DISINTERESTEDNESS.  139 

Hence  in  the  drama,  more  than  in  literature,  to  em- 
phasize a  vice  is  no  less  pleasing  to  the  public  mind 
than  to  adorn  a  virtue.  The  pure-minded  though 
vengeful  Anne  Boleyn  is  tedious  on  the  stage  beside 
the  sinful  fascinations  of  Camille.  Philosophic  criti- 
cism is  an  enlightened  curiosity  which  seeks  to  know 
the  good,  an  enlightened  judgment  which  seeks  to 
determine  the  right.  It  seeks  to  turn  from  party 
cant  and  plant  itself  fairly  on  the  platform  of  truth. 
It  does  not  stop  to  cavil  at  unimportant  peculiarities 
of  style  or  diction ;  the  author's  opportunities  as  well 
as  his  aims  are  considered,  the  time  in  which  he  lived 
ai  well  as  the  result  of  his  undertaking.  The  critic 
should  be  en  rapport  with  the  author  instead  of  men- 
tally armed  against  him.  As  Porter  says,  "The 
critic  cannot  be  just  to  an  author  unless  he  puts  him- 
self in  the  author's  place." 

Matthew  Arnold  gives  his  rule  of  criticism  in  one 
word,  disinterestedness.  And  this  he  would  display 
by  holding  aloof  from  what  he  calls  the  practical  view 
of  things,  and  by  giving  the  mind  free  play.  Criti- 
cism should  follow  its  nobler  instincts,  utterly  refusing 
to  lend  itself  to  social,  political,  or  theological  fashions 
or  forms,  utterly  refusing  to  be  influenced  by  pique  or 
by  intellectual  vanity. 

A  good  reviewer,  with  a  wide  range  of  knowledge, 
combines  comprehensiveness  of  views  and  catholicity 
of  opinions,  sustained  by  subtle  instincts,  delicate 
tastes,  and  an  analytical  and  judicial  mind;  epigram 
and  paradox  he  subordinates,  and  hyperbole  and  hy- 
pereriticism  he  despises. 

He  must  be  neither  a  good  lover  nor  a  good 
hater.  He  must  have  wisdom  without  prejudices, 
power  without  passion.  Candor  controls  his  pen.  He 
is  bold  yet  modest;  severe,  if  necessary,  but  kind; 
neither  dogmatic  nor  moody,  neither  sentimental  nor 
cynical.  To  high-minded  unselfishness  is  added  a 
keen  and  correct  insight  into  the  minds  and  motives 
of  men.     He  discovers  to  a  friend  his  faults,  praises 


140  CRITICISM. 

an  enemy's  good  work,  and  never  talks  merely  for 
effect  nor  professes  too  much.  Of  that  which  he 
knows  nothmg  he  says  nothing.  He  is  satisfied  that 
no  trade  based  on  cheating  or  cant  ever  is  perma- 
nently successful. 

His  knowledge  of  mankind  is  not  less  than  his 
knowledge  of  books.  He  analyzes  nature  as  skilfully 
as  literature.  Saint-Beuve  served  an  apprenticeship 
dissecting  the  bodies  of  dead  men  before  he  began  on 
the  writings  of  living  ones.  ^'  Je  n'ai  plus  qu'un  plai- 
sir,"  he  exclaims,  "j  analyse,  j 'herborise,  je  suis  un 
naturaliste  des  esprits.  Ce  que  je  voudrais  constituer, 
c'est  riiistoire  naturelle  litteraire." 

Matthews  remarks  on  Saint-Beuve:  "It  is  safe  to 
say  there  never  was  a  literary  judge  who  was  more 
indefatigable  in  collecting  the  materials  for  his  de- 
cisions, or  who  tried  more  earnestly  to  keep  his  mind 
from  all  bias,  and  from  every  influence  which  could 
interfere  in  the  slightest  degree  with  the  clearness, 
vividness,  and  truthfulness  of  its  impression.  His 
jealousy  of  himself  was  carried,  at  times,  to  an  almost 
ridiculous  extreme.  So  keenly  was  he  sensible,  and 
so  morbidly  fearful  of  the  influence  of  friendship  upon 
one's  opinions,  that  he  sacrificed,  it  is  said,  some  of  his 
pleasantest  intimacies  to  his  love  of  impartiality." 

In  measuring  character,  as  in  everything  else,  we 
run  to  extremes ;  and  often  our  foolish  and  versatile 
prejudices  change  objects  most  familiar.  Through 
the  eyes  of  love  sparkle  sunlight  and  prismatic  rain- 
bow hues.  The  color  of  our  glasses  tinges  all  we  see ; 
from  our  collection  of  spectacles,  we  draw  and  adjust 
the  green  glass,  jealously;  or  the  yellow  gl^ss,  envy; 
or  the  red  glass,  revenge ;  or  the  black  glass,  racor ; 
turning  all  into  hate  and  hellish  hues.  But  in  spite 
of  our  blind  vagaries,  as  Pascal  says,  ''I'homme  n'est 
ni  ange  ni  bete  ;  et  le  malheur  veut  que  qui  veut  faire 
Tano^e  fait  la  bdte." 


The  improbability  of  encountering  the  paragon  re- 


1 


AUTHOR  AND   PUBLIC.  141 

viewer,  and  the  likelihood  of  meeting  with  more  flaw- 
finding  than  admiration,  should  teach  the  speaker  or 
writer  to  steel  his  sensibilities  and  submit  patiently  to 
criticism.  If  wise  he  will  not  be  pufled  by  praise  nor 
annihilated  by  censure,  but  will  be  soberly  stimulated 
by  the  one,  and  taught  improvement  by  the  other. 
The  public,  whose  attention  he  challenges,  have  their 
ri'^hts  as  well  as  he,  and  if  cheated  by  false  pretenses 
out  of  their  time  or  money,  have  just  cause  for  com- 
plaint. He  who  cries  truth  and  sells  only  its  imita- 
tion, is  a  charlatan,  and  the  people  through  their  paid 
agent,  the  press,  have  the  right  to  denounce  him.  If 
he  has  done  aught  worthy  of  fame,  let  him  rest  con- 
tent; time  will  establish  it.  A  good  book  cannot  be 
hidden.  Bury  it  in  the  grave  with  its  author,  as  in 
the  case  of  Dicty's  Cretensis,  and  an  earthquake  will 
burst  the  sepulchre. 

Tliat  a  book  lives,  though  condemned  by  its  critics, 
is  not  altogether  proof  of  unsound  judgment  on  the 
part  of  the  reviewer,  for  he  may  have  been  right  as 
to  both  the  absolute  and  relative  merits  of  the  work, 
and  the  world  led  away  by  caprice,  prejudice,  or  pas- 
sion. But  for  the  most  part,  and  in  the  long  run, 
time  and  the  world  are  to  be  trusted. 

''I  know  of  no  tonic  more  useful  for  a  J^oung  writer," 
says  Higginson,  ^'than  to  read  carefully  in  the  English 
reviews  of  seventy  or  eighty  years  ago  the  crushing 
criticisms  on  nearly  every  author  of  that  epoch  who 
has  achieved  lasting  fame."  Wordsworth  attempted 
to  disparage  Goethe  without  having  read  him;  he 
stigmatized  Dryden's  music  ode  as  a  drunken  song, 
and  held  Burns'  productions  in  profound  contempt. 
On  the  other  hand,  amidst  a  universal  hiss  of  scorn, 
upon  the  wheels  of  its  sarcasm  the  Edinburgh  Revieiu 
broke  every  poetic  bone  in  Wordsworth's  body. 

Hazlitt  has  often  been  pronounced  a  blockhead,  and 
Shelley's  poetry  meaningless.  Byron  called  Spenser 
a  dull  fellow,  and  Chaucer  contemptible ;  a  poem  of 
Wordsworth's  was  his  aversion.  When  it  first  appeared. 


142  CRITICISM. 

Jane  Eyre  was  denounced  in  the  severest  terms  by  the 
Quarterly  Review.  No  one  ever  aimed  at  severer  im- 
partiality than  Hallam,  but  in  spite  of  his  strictly 
judicial  mind,  his  admiration  was  often  too  much  for 
his  discrimination. 

Patmore  published  a  severe  criticism  on  Sheridan 
Knowles'  Virginius,  which  he  was  led  wholly  to  mod- 
ify after  having  seen  the  author.  When  an  old  and 
expert  critic  in  one  of  the  first  reviews  of  the  day 
feels  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  "  the  subsequent 
writings  of  this  distinguished  man  have  convinced  me 
that  my  first  impressions  of  his  talents  as  a  dramatic 
writer  did  him  manifest  injustice  in  some  particulars, 
and  fell  far  short  of  his  merit  in  others,"  what  trust 
can  be  placed  in  fledglings  ? 

It  was  deemed  scarcely  safe  at  one  time  for  the 
preface  of  a  book  to  go  out  unarmed,  that  is,  without 
defiance  and  loud  denunciations  of  the  critics. 

Soderini  ordered  to  be  made  for  him  by  Michael 
Angelo  a  statue,  which  when  done  was  perfect.  Nev- 
ertheless, Soderini  must  criticize;  the  nose  was  not 
Grecian  enough.  Taking  a  chisel  Angelo  pretended 
to  alter  it,  meanwhile  letting  fall  some  dust  which  he 
had  concealed  in  his  hand,  but  in  reality  not  touching 
the  statue.  Soderini  was  charmed  that  his  opinion 
should  have  been  so  cheerfully  acted  upon,  and  extolled 
the  nose  as  perfect.  In  like  manner  Pope  pretended 
to  change  certain  words  of  the  Iliad  which  Lord  Hal- 
ifax had  criticized  when  Pope  had  read  to  him  the 
poem,  to  the  infinite  gratification  of  his  critical 
lordship. 

Before  the  triumphant  march  of  genius  critics  are 
powerless.  Knowingly  they  never  attempt  to  write 
down  what  is  apt  to  become  popular.  Like  those  of 
journalism,  their  opinions  are  based  on  cowardice,  and 
too  often  on  the  trembling  timidity  of  ignorance.  Says 
Gillies,  the  Scotch  reviewer,  ''By  no  effort  of  criticism 
could  we  put  down  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  Even 
the  ballad  of  Rosabelle,  and  the  description  of  Melrose 


ORIGINALITY  AND  PLAGIARISM.  143 

by  moonlight,  were  alone  enough  to  keep  it  buoyant, 
notwithstanding  that  the  poem  was  decidedly  at  vari- 
ance with  all  our  acknowledged  models." 

Just  before  Talfourd's  Ion  was  put  upon  the  stage 
amidst  the  most  boisterous  triumph,  the  critic's  place 
on  the  Athenseum  was  taken  from  Chorley  and  given 
to  Darley,  who  used  the  axe  and  scalpel  with  such 
consummate  dexterity  that  to  cut  books  to  pieces  be- 
came a  passion  with  him.  But  in  writing  down  Ion 
Darley  made  a  mistake ;  and  Chorley  the  supposed 
culprit  was  hooted  to  the  wall  by  an  exasperated 
public.  He  was  blackguarded  as  the  ''chaw-bacon  of 
literature,"  ''a  worm,"  and  many  such  names.  ''I 
cannot  call  to  mind  a  writer  more  largely  neglected, 
sneered  at,  and  grudgingly  analyzed  than  myself," 
complains  this  innocent  victim. 

A  reviewer  is  hi  no  wise  backward  about  calling 
the  attention  of  his  reader  to  the  praise  bestowed  by 
him  on  the  first  appearance  of  what  subsequently 
proves  a  successful  book.  Says  Chorley,  of  the 
Athensefiim,  of  Hawthorne's  writings,  ''It  is  one  of 
my  greatest  pleasures  as  a  journalist  to  recollect  that 
I  was  the  first  who  had  the  honor  of  calling  attention 
to  these  tales  when  they  appeared  in  the  form  of 
periodical  articles." 

Plagiarism  is  a  charge  that  has  been  freely  bandied 
by  jealous  authors  no  less  than  by  keen  critics. 
Byron's  inspirations  of  nature,  Wordsworth  said,  were 
not  drawn  from  nature,  but  from  his  Tintern  Abbey, 
and  that  both  the  sentiment  and  style  of  the  third 
canto  of  Childe  Harold  were  caught  from  him  and 
greatly  marred  in  the  reproduction.  It  is  a  delicate 
matter  for  one  writer  to  charge  another  with  lack  of 
originality,  when  the  most  original  of  thinkers,  for 
nine  tenths  of  all  their  so-called  original  thoughts, 
draw  upon  the  past.  Besides,  every  writer  has  the 
right  to  use  all^  that  has  gone  before  him,  and  if  he 
but  add  one  original  idea  to  every  thousand  borrowed 


144  CRITICISM. 

ideas  his  labor  is  not  in  vain.  Human  experiences 
are  funded,  and  every  man  that  appears  has  a  right 
to  a  share.  Says  Bulwer,  "  from  that  which  time 
has  made  classical  we  cannot  plagiarize." 

How  many  of  the  best  plots  and  plaj^s  are  founded 
upon  classical  mythology  and  ancient  history  ?  From 
a  Grecian  legend  of  Hercules  and  the  Pigmies  Swift 
derives  his  story  of  Gulliver.  Shakespeare  in  llid- 
summer  Nighfs  Dream  has  innumerable  touches  and 
travesties  like  that  from  Ovid's  metamorphoses  of 
Pyramus  and  Thisbe.  De  Foe's  novel  is  founded  on 
the  published  voyages  in  1 7 1 2  of  Woodes  Rogers  and 
Edward  Cooke,  and  the  embryo  Robinson  Crusoe  may 
be  seen  in  the  Alexander  Selkirk  of  Captain  Bur- 
ney's  narrative.  See  how  the  story  of  Romeo  and 
Juliet  has  been  handled.  Shakespeare  is  directly  in- 
debted for  it  to  Arthur  Brooke,  who  made  a  poetical 
version  of  Bolsteau's  novel  Rhomeo  and  Julietta.  '  The 
main  incidents  were  obtained  by  Balsteau  from  a  story 
by  Luigi  da  Porto,  of  Vicenza,  called  La  Giulictta, 
and  this  closely  resembles  the  Ephesiaca  of  Ephesius 
Xenophon.  Under  the  title  of  Six  Old  Plays  on  tvhich 
Shakespeare  Founded  his  Comedies  published  by  S. 
Leacroft,  of  Charing  Cross,  was  one  of  the  same 
name  from  which  the  plot  of  Taming  the  Shreiv  was 
taken,  the  induction  being  borrowed  from  Heuterus' 
Rerum  Bitrgund. 

Few  v/riters  indeed  are  caught  pursuing  the  oppo- 
site course,  that  of  attributing  their  own  ideas  to 
others,  like  Xenophon,  who  makes  Socrates,  his  mas- 
ter, the  mouth-piece  for  many  of  his  own  conceptions. 

Style,  which  is  the  first  thing  an  inexperienced 
writer  thinks  oF,  and  which  should  be  the  last,  is  often 
made  a  handle  for  adverse  criticism  when  all  else  fails. 
A  style  consistent  with  the  serious  dignity  of  the  sub- 
ject may  be  sneered  at  as  Johnsonian,  or  if  it  be  nat- 
ural and  easy,  then  it  is  cheap  English.  In  questions 
of  svntax,  where  the   best  authorities  do  not  agree, 


STYLE.  145 

and  the  writer  is  obliged  to  employ  terms  sanctioned 
by  one  or  the  other,  whichever  course  he  takes  lays 
him  open  to  the  charge  of  solecism.  In  such  hands 
warrantable  hyperbole  is  gross  exaggeration,  and 
authorized  antithesis,  epigram,  and  metaphor,  glaring 
absurdities. 

Style  is  in  a  measure  to  letters  what  dress  is  to  the 
body.  Men  and  women  are  more  attractive  when 
tastefully  attired  than  when  clothed  in  rags  or  ill- 
fitting  garments ;  but  as  compared  with  the  body,  soul, 
or  life  of  the  person,  dress  is  insignificant.  So  it  is 
with  literary  composition.  Facts  are  more  pleasing 
when  adorned  with  elegant  diction  ;  but  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  words  in  which  ideas  are  clothed  is  of 
little  moment  beside  the  magnitude  and  truthfulness 
of  the  naked  fact.  Nevertheless,  say  what  we  will  of 
style  in  letters  or  in  dress,  it  will  have  its  influence. 
Beauty  and  symmetry  appeal  to  the  mind  not  less 
strongly  than  truth  and  logic.  Dress  is  admirable 
no  less  than  merit.  Good  clothes  and  a  pleasing  style 
captivate  the  multitude  more  than  do  shabby  virtue 
or  homely  truths. 

Again,  elegance  and  comfort  in  dress  are  greatly  to 
be  desired  ;  but  what  shall  we  say  of  him  who  all  day, 
I  and  every  day,  is  conscious  of  his  attire,  who  cannot 
!  lift  his  mind  above  the  cut  of  his  coat  or  the  fit  of  his 
1  boots ;  who  thinks  and  speaks  only  of  his  raiment, 
I  and  who  works  or  plays  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of 
j  displaying  his  dress  ?  In  the  various  walks  of  life 
|! there  are  men  who  live  by  style;  there  are  authors 
I  whose  ambition  and  eflbrts  are  all  for  style ;  take  from 
I  their  writings  style,  and  there  is  nothing  left. 
j  Time  was  when  the  ruler  prescribed  the  kind  and 
I  quality  of  dress  each  class  should  wear,  the  kind  and 
1  quality  of  food  each  class  should  eat.  In  the  eyes  of 
kriticism,  form  was  everything  in  those  days.  With 
[Johnson  and  Dryden  the  manner  was  no  less  import- 
ant than  the  matter.  While  we  of  this  latter-day 
and  less  trammelled  literature  do  not  despise  rhythm 

Essays  and  Miscellany     10 


146  CRITICISM. 

or  lightly  esteem  beauty  in  the  arrangement  of  words, 
sentiment  and  truth  we  deem  of  far  higher  importance. 
Chaste  imagery  we  admire,  but  clearness  and  energy 
are  indispensable.  The  truly  sublime  swallows  all 
petty  adornments. 

Style  is,  however,  something  more  than  dress.     It 
is  not  the  adaptation  of  thought  to  expression,  nor 
the  adaptation  of  expression  to  thought.     Style  is 
thought  itself;  expression  is  the  man ;  it  is  character, 
as  well  as  cut  of  clothes  and  carriage.     Qualities  of 
mind,  form  of  physique,  and  every  result  of  environ- 
ment, no   less   than   the   blaze  of  words  lighted  by 
thought,  generate  style,  and  are  in  turn  moulded  by 
style.     The  attitude  of  the  body  under  cogitation  is 
in  a  measure  the  outward  or  physical  expression  of 
thought.     Says  La  Bru}^  ere,  "  II  n'y  a  rien  de  si  delie 
de  si  simple,  et  de  si  imperceptible,  ou  il  n'entre  des 
manieres  qui  nous  decelent.     Un  sot  n'entre,  nine 
sort,  ni  ne  s'assied,  ni  ne  se  leve,  ni  ne  se  tait,  ni  n'est 
sur  les  jambes,  comme  un  homme  d'esprit.''     "The  I 
style  of  an  author  should  be  the  image  of  his  mind,"  • 
observes  Gibbon,  ''but  the  choice  and  command  of  i^ 
language  is  the  fruit  of  exercise.     Many  experiments  i: 
were  made  before  I  could  hit  the  middle  tone  between 
a  dull  chronicle  and  a  rhetorical  declamation." 

A  true  and  natural  style  is  the  product  of  birth, 
though  it  may  be  modified  by  education.  It  cannot 
be  acquired  any  more  than  blood  or  brains.  With  the 
physical  and  intellectual  man,  it  may  be  refined  by 
culture ;  but  it  must  be  as  the  unfolding  of  a  germ,  as 
the  development  of  an  innate  quality,  and  not  as  a 
creation  or  an  adoption ;  else  it  is  not  style  the  man, 
but  style  the  appearance,  style  the  imitation.  "  Un 
homme  qui  ecrit  bien,"  says  Montesqueieu,  ''n'ecrit 
pas  comme  on  ecrit ;  mais  comme  il^  ecrit ;  et  c'est 
souvent  en  parlant  mal  qu'il  parle  bien."  Suppose 
two  writers  should  attempt  to  exchange  their  style, 
that  of  both  would  be  ruined.  It  would  be  worse 
than  exchanging  coats;  the  probability  is  that  one 


STRONG  SIMPLICITY.  147 

would  not  fit  the  other.  Tyndall's  delicate  forms  of 
beauty,  and  Huxley's  incisive  wit  and  vivid  pictur- 
esqueness,  would  not  suit  the  plain  direct  forms  of 
Darwin,  whose  thoughts  spread  themselves  out  on 
paper  in  such  logical  sequence  and  with  such  effective- 
ness, that  from  a  mere  statement  of  the  facts  arise 
the  clearest  conclusions. 

There  are  natural  writers  and  there  are  artificial 
writers.  They  are  known  by  their  works.  Strong 
is  simplicity;  strong  the  power  of  truthful  words  to 
move  I  All  great  poets,  Homer,  Horace,  -^schylus, 
Shakespeare,  Tennyson,  exercised  this  charming 
power.  The  wisest  of  the  ancients,  feeling  its  superior 
strength  and  having  it  not,  affected  it.  Studied  sim- 
plicity of  style  seems  to  have  been  the  effort  of  Plato. 
For  we  are  assured  that  the  sentences  which  flow  so 
easily,  and  were  apparently  flung  off  currente  calamo, 
were,  indeed,  the  result  of  prolonged  elaboration. 
Sainte-Beuve  thanked  the  necessity  which  forced  him 
from  his  ingrained  mannerism  into  a  style  of  strong 
simplicity  which  every  one  could  understand. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WORK. 

Get  leave  to  work 
In  this  world,  'tis  the  best  you  get  at  all; 
For  God,  in  cursing,  gives  us  better  gifts 
Than  men  in  benediction.     God  says  "  Sweat 
For  foreheads;"  men  say  "crowns";  and  so  we  are  crowned, 
Ay,  gashed  l)y  some  tormenting  circle  of  steel 
Which  snaps  with  a  secret  spring.     Get  work;  get  work; 
Be  sure  'tis  better  than  what  you  work  to  get. 

— Mrs  Browning. 

The  necessity  to  labor  is  generally  regarded  as 
an  evil ;  the  first  and  sum  of  evils ;  offspring 
of  the  primal  curse,  spawn  of  Adamic  transgres- 
sion, born  of  the  serpent  which  envenoms  all, 
which  cradles  humanity  in  thistles  and  thorns,  and 
clothes  us  in  galling  fetters,  to  be  worn  'midst  sor- 
row and  sweat  until  the  body  returns  to  dust.  It  is 
the  severest  punishment  divine  vengeance  can  con- 
jure for  the  disobedient,  the  heaviest  infliction  al- 
mighty power  may  lay  upon  the  seed  of  woman  for 
her  sin  of  curiosity.  And  the  curse  of  curses,  Cain's 
curse,  was  that  he  should  labor  and  reap  no  reward. 

These  precepts  accord  with  our  earliest  impressions 
of  labor.  The  child  abhors  his  task.  It  is  neither 
affection,  food,  nor  any  good  gift  of  God ;  and  in- 
stinctively he  feels  that  it  is  not.  It  is  a  penalty  he 
must  pay,  not  having  committed  any  crime  ;  a  slavery 
he  must  undergo,  though  free-born.  Even  brutes 
blush,  and  hang  their  heads,  when  harnessed  to  man's 
infelicities. 

Enjoyment  alone  the  creatures  of  a  beneficent  crea- 
tor claim  as  their  birthright.  Therefore  call  it 
pleasure  and  the  exercise  is  easy ;  whereas  pleasure 
itself  is  painful  if  done  as  duty.  In  childhood,  how 
much  of  exertion  and  fatigue  we  laughingly  undergo 

(148; 


PLEASURABLE,   VS.    ENFORCED  LABOR.  149 

in  the  name  of  fun ;  how  intolerably  dull  and  spirit- 
crushing  the  slight  labor-lesson  our  kind  parent  gives 
us  to  learn.  For  the  child  at  play  winter  has  no  cold, 
nor  is  the  longest,  hottest  summer's  day  wearisome ; 
but  over  the  light  unfinished  task  the  songs  of  birds 
strike  heavily  upon  the  ear,  the  fresh,  fragrant  breath 
of  heaven  is  hateful,  and  the  joyful  sun-rays  stinging 
scorpions. 

In  grown-up  children  we  see  drawn  the  same  dis- 
tinctions. With  what  nervous  delight  the  delicate 
young  woman  dances  the  dark  hours  through,  when, 
were  those  midnight  whirls  and  ambles  necessary  or 
useful,  how  terrible  the  infliction!  Happy  as  a 
beaver  the  young  man  rises  before  day  for  a  ten-mile 
tramp  over  the  hills  for  a  possible  shot  at  a  deer, 
when,  did  his  breakfast  every  morning  depend  upon 
similar  early  and  severe  exertion,  better  die  at  once 
than  keep  up  life  at  such  a  cost.  Even  old,  prosaic, 
practical  men,  and  humdrum  women,  cheerful  as 
cackling  barn-fowl,  every  summer  leave  their  home 
comforts,  their  clean  carpets  and  soft  beds,  their  car- 
riage, garden,  and  well-stored  larder,  their  cosey 
parlor  and  cool  verandah,  and  go  into  voluntary 
exile,  become  savage  or  at  least  sylvan  while  encamp- 
ing under  the  chaparral  or  buckeye,  eating  indigesti- 
ble food,  breathing  the  blistering  air,  and  sweltering ' 
through  the  shelterless  day  only  at  night  to  stretch 
themselves  with  no  small  show  of  satisfaction  upon 
the  flea-and-fever-breeding  earth,  there  to  wait  the 
slow  approach  of  sleep,  while  the  mosquito's  soft 
soprano  alternates  with  the  loud  contralto  of  the 
sympathetic  frog.  Were  this  all  done  from  necessity, 
what  a  wail  would  go  heavenward  over  the  bitterness 
of  their  lot.  So  by  the  simple  name  of  sport  do  we 
sweeten  the  very  dregs  of  drudgery. 

Not  only  does  the  labor  we  delight  in  physic  pain, 
but  such  effort  ceases  to  be  labor  in  the  sense  here 
used;  that  is,  as  a  burden  to  be  borne.  Pleasures 
pall,  however,  showing  that  therein  we  may  not  seek 


150  WORK. 

the  highest  good ;  and  men  are  sometimes  driven  to 
do  things  useful  through  sheer  ennui;  activity  then 
becomes  delightful,  and  the  necessity  being  removed, 
it  falls  not  under  the  curse ;  there  are  some  whom 
wealth  and  luxury  cannot  wholly  debase. 

In  all  industry,  in  commerce,  agriculture,  and  man- 
ufactures; in  mechanical  or  intellectual  pursuits,  in 
education  and  religion ;  by  all  mankind,  throughout  all 
ages,  it  seems  to  have  been  tacitly  implied  that,  how- 
ever beneficial  the  result  of  labor,  work  jper  se  is  a 
curse.  It  is  something  to  be  deplored;  something 
to  be  endured,  rewarded ;  and  it  is  performed,  for  the 
most  part,  in  the  hope  and  endeavor  of  ultimate  relief 
from  it.  Who  has  not  this  hope,  and  what  would  life 
be  without  it?  How  often  we  hear  said,  "When  I 
have  so  much  money,  when  my  new  house  is  built, 
my  farm  paid  for,  my  daughters  educated,  my  sons 
settled,  I  will  no  longer  toil  in  this  fashion ;  I  will 
rest;  I  will  fling  care  to  the  winds,  release  brain, 
nerves,  and  muscles  from  their  life-long  tension,  take 
a  free  look  upward  and  outward,  and  live  a  little  be- 
fore I  die."  Alas!  how  seldom  is  this  effected;  or  if 
it  be,  how  laborious  this  inactive  waiting  for  death ! 

Anticipations  are  almost  always  more  enjoyable 
than  realizations.  The  pleasures  of  hope  enter  into 
labor  to  lighten  it  and  relieve  its  hard  lot  with  rose- 
colored  vistas.  One  shoulders  a  shovel,  another  a  hod, 
and  early  marches  to  melancholy  exercise,  foregoing 
awhile  the  companionable  pipe  at  the  corner  grocery, 
in  the  expectation  of  coupling  it  later  with  a  double 
reward.  The  merchant  finds  in  his  profit  a  delightful 
incentive  to  buying  and  selling.  Nothing  is  sooner 
suspected  in  a  stranger  than  a  display  of  disinterested 
benevolence.  The  pioneer  has  a  wider  object  in  view, 
when  planting  a  home  in  the  forest,  than  mere  delight 
in  swinging  an  axe  and  seeing  the  chips  fly.  Clearing 
the  ground,  and  ploughing,  and  planting  are  but  the 
paths  to  that  object. 

While  the  aim  sweetens  the  pursuit,  it  seldom  does 


THE    CURSE  OF  IT.  151 

SO  sufficiently  to  render  it  desirable.  Will  anyone 
wanting  a  house  to  shelter  his  family  say  to  himself, 
it  is  better  for  me  to  build  it  than  that  I  should  be 
saved  the  trouble?  Will  anyone  desiring  a  fortune 
which  shall  give  him  rest  for  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
which  shall  give  him  leisure  for  the  pursuit  of  refining 
arts  and  pleasures,  which  shall  give  him  the  means  of 
making  happy  those  he  loves,  of  giving  to  the  poor, 
of  building  schools  and  churches — will  he  say,  better 
for  me  to  rack  my  brain  and  ply  my  fingers  early  in 
the  morning  and  late  into  the  night,  day  after  day  for 
twenty  or  forty  years,  meanwhile  keeping  my  feet  to 
the  treadmill,  my  eyes  to  the  sordid  occupation  of 
money-making,  until  with  old  age  is  frozen  every  gen- 
erous impulse,  shutting  forever  from  my  understand- 
ing all  the  God-given  beauties  and  benefits  that  hang 
like  a  starry  canopy  above  my  head  to  the  very  hem- 
ming of  my  horizon;  will  he  say,  better  for  me  to 
endure  all  this,  to  sacrifice  all  this,  and  that,  too, 
while  attended  by  a  hundred  necessary  risks  and  ven- 
tures, any  one  of  which  may  wreck  all,  than  to  find 
fortune  ready-made,  with  a  lifetime  before  me  in 
which  to  enjoy  it  ? 

Or  if  his  soul  hungers  for  the  higher  good,  if,  in- 
different to  wealth  and  social  distinction,  thoughts  of 
the  great  What  and  Whence  and  Whither  urge  him 
to  a  more  defined  understanding  of  his  being  and  sur- 
roundings, and  if,  without  the  laborious  accumulating 
and  analyzing  of  experiences,  without  days  of  nervous 
investigating  and  long  nights  of  mental  strain,  scores 
of  years  of  the  severest  study  might  be  overleaped, 
and  the  youth  know  as  the  sage, — would  he  not  be  a 
dolt,  an  idiot,  to  refuse  any  Aladdin-lamp  assistance, 
on  the  ground  that  the  sore  travail  of  knowledge  was 
itself  a  blessing,  the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties 
thus  aroused  and  exercised  and  developed,  but  other- 
wise non-existent  or  dormant,  being  more  beneficial 
than  Minerva-births  or  other  spontaneous  results? 


152  WORK. 

This  daily  dead-lift  of  labor  that  walls  every  avenue 
of  progress,  that  hangs  like  Dantean  darkness  over 
every  effort  of  aspiring  intelligence,  that  lays  inexor- 
ably its  burden  upon  the  shoulder  alike  of  operative, 
artisan,  and  clerk,  of  merchant  and  manufacturer,  of 
student  and  professor,  of  lawyer,  doctor,  and  preacher — 
will  anyone  say  that  it  is  a  good  thing,  something  in 
and  of  itself  to  be  desired  ? 

In  a  word,  is  not  labor  regarded  by  mankind  gener- 
ally if  not  an  absolute  curse,  yet  less  a  blessing  than 
the  absence  of  its  necessity  ? 

Most  assuredly. 

And  yet  mankind  is  wrong.  Else  the  creator  is  a 
merciless  tyrant,  and  creation  a  botch,  or  this  great 
agony  of  our  existence  is  a  blessing. 

I  know  that  one  step  farther  carries  our  investiga- 
tion beyond  its  depths,  and  I  do  not  propose  to  spec- 
ulate. I  wish  to  confine  myself  to  the  plainest,  simplest 
view  of  the  case,  the  proximate  and  practical  parts  of 
these  life-embracing  anomalies  being  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  occupy  all  our  attention. 

It  requires  no  great  keenness  of  observation,  what- 
ever one's  creed  or  ethical  code  may  be  as  to  causations 
and  consequences,  to  see  that  nature  is  our  master, 
that  she  rules  us  with  an  iron  hand,  by  unalterable 
laws,  to  which  it  behooves  us  humbly  to  conform  the 
conduct  of  our  lives.  Nature  is  inexorable.  Obey 
her,  and  she  is  kind ;  throw  off  allegiance,  and  she  is 
mercilessly  cruel.  Whether  you  know,  or  do  not  care 
to  know,  or  forget,  break  one  of  the  least  of  her  laws 
and  you  suffer,  and  in  proportion  to  the  sin.  Only 
the  savage  sees  smiles  and  frowns  in  nature ;  the  phil- 
osopher fails  to  discover  wherein  the  slightest  par- 
tiality has  ever  been  shown  a  votary,  the  slightest 
sentiment,  or  favoritism,  or  interposition,  or  yielding 
under  supplication.  Rain  falls  upon  the  just  and  the 
unjust;  fire  burns  God's  martyr  as  surely  as  Satan's 
servant.     If  I  overreach  the  precipice  too  far  in  my 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  IT.  153 

effort  to  rescue  a  fellow-being,  I  am  dashed  in  pieces 
as  surely  as  if  I  fall  in  attempting  revenge  upon  an 
enemy. 

In  nature  man  finds  his  counterpart;  she  is  our 
great  example  and  teacher.  If  you  would  know  the 
price  of  happiness,  go  to  nature ;  she  will  spread  before 
you  a  true  catalogue  of  rewards  and  punishments.  To 
the  purest  codes  of  morality  creeds  are  by  no  means 
essential.  Even  religion  asks  not  of  man  labor  or 
sacrifice  for  nothing,  and  nature  asks  not  this.  Of 
nature  and  the  sublimest  selfishness  the  highest  ethics 
are  built. 

Before  labor  in  any  sense  can  be  called  a  curse,  the 
economy  of  nature  must  be  changed,  or  the  universe 
be  called  a  curse.  All  that  have  being  labor,  and  by 
labor  all  was  made  that  exists.  Nature  grows  under 
redundant  energy,  with  here  and  there  convulsive 
throes, — excesses  which  sent  worlds  a-whirling  into 
space  and  there  maintains  them,  despite  all  striving 
for  reunion,  for  rest.  This  seeking  is  the  normal  con- 
dition of  affairs ;  for  rest  only  brings  a  desire  for  fresh 
activity.  Bodies  in  motion  labor  to  be  quiet ;  bodies 
at  rest  labor  to  be  in  motion. 

Rest  is  found  in  constant  or  varied  activity.  Such 
is  nature's  rest,  God's  rest,  and  man's  only  rest;  night 
brings  with  it  a  restoration  of  the  forces  which  have 
been  expended  during  day.  Death  is  called  the 
absolute  repose,  yet  that  most  dreaded  quietude  can- 
not rest  for  rotting.     It  also  is  merely  transmutation. 

By  work  the  universe  is,  and  man.  Force  is  all 
prevading,  in  our  bodies  and  without;  by  it  instinct 
is  and  intellect,  mind  is  made,  and  soul  implanted. 
Nature  hinges  on  it;  by  it  winds  blow,  and  the  fer- 
tilizing moisture  is  lifted  from  the  ocean  and  dropped 
upon  the  hills;  by  it  grass  grows,  flowers  bloom,  and 
the  sunbeam  enters  my  window,  else  how  without 
work  should  it  have  come  so  far  to  greet  me.  The 
mind  cannot  conceive  of  a  state  of  things  wherein 
all  was  absolute  inactivity,  breathless  immobility,  rigid 


154  WORK. 

rest.     The  tendency  of  things  is  toward  an  unattain- 
able equihbrium.     Unrest  alone  is  eternal. 

So  labor  is  the  normal  condition  of  man  as  of 
nature,  both  by  will  and  from  necessity.  His  inherent 
energy  is  significant  of  that  destiny.  If  he  wills  not 
to  labor,  necessity  drives  him  to  it ;  if  necessity  is 
absent,  the  spirit  of  good  or  the  demon  of  evil  stirs 
him  to  the  accomplishment  of  he  knows  not  what. 
Beyond  the  vista  of  absolute  rest  lies  chaos. 

The  most  primitive  and  simple  existence  cannot  be 
maintained  without  work.  The  savage  must  dig 
roots,  pluck  fruit,  catch  fish,  or  pursue  game.  He 
must  construct  a  shelter  against  the  storm  and  the 
insecurities  of  night,  seek  covering  against  the  cold, 
and  prepare  weapons  for  onslaught  upon  wild  beasts 
or  defence  against  hostile  neighbors. 

Disliking  the  task  the  male  transfers  it  chiefly  to 
wives  and  slaves,  and  abandons  himself  to  indolent 
repose,  or  to  agreeable  pastime,  to  feats  of  strength 
and  valor,  flattering  to  his  conceit,  and  pleasing  to 
his  appetites.  In  the  tropics  an  over-indulgent  nature 
fosters  this  indulgence  to  excess.  Toward  the  arctic 
a  harsher  clime  calls  for  greater  exertion,  especially 
during  certain  seasons,  in  order  to  provide  food,  fuel, 
and  other  necessaries  for  the  long  winter.  The  alter- 
nate rest  and  desultory  labor  are  alike  marred  by 
risks  and  hardships. 

In  the  temperate  zone  man  is  relieved  from  many 
of  these  impedinjents  and  incubi,  with  the  attendant 
spasmodic  exertion  and  enervating  relaxation.  Both 
mind  and  body  respond  to  the  liberation  by  revel- 
mg  in  the  balmy  and  refreshing  atmosphere.  With 
greater  command  of  self  comes  wider  enjoyment  of 
resources.  Herein  lies  the  precious  gift  from  the 
prudently  restrained  generosity  of  nature,  for  products 
abound  here  on  soil  and  in  water,  sufficient  to  permit 
the  savage  to  enjoy  freely  the  dolce  far  niente,  as  in- 


THE  PLEASURE  OF  IT.  155 

stanced  by  the  aborigines  of  America  and  the  nomads 
of  the  Asiatic  plains. 

Nature  is  not  exacting.  She  works  incessantly  for 
her  children,  and  demands  as  a  rule  only  a  slight  ex- 
ertion on  their  part  to  sustain  the  machinery  of  mind 
and  body  set  in  motion  by  herself;  but  she  implants 
longings  and  offers  rewards  for  greater  performance ; 
and  to  these  have  responded  best  the  less  weighted  or 
benumbed  energies  of  temperate  regions. 

Vanity  leads  to  the  quest  for  ornament  and  im- 
proved covering.  The  hostility  of  neighbors,  prompted 
by  sex  jealousy,  greed,  or  pugnacity,  calls  not  alone 
for  weapons,  but  for  fortifications,  military  bodies  and 
organized  communities.  Thus  comes  good  from  evil. 
The  gathering  of  large  masses  at  one  point,  within 
walled  camps,  tended  naturally  to  the  development  of 
agricultural  and  other  industries.  The  inconvenience 
of  every  man  attending  to  every  duty  led  to  rapid 
subdivision  of  labor,  with  a  consequently  greater 
effectiveness  in  each  branch,  and  to  the  unfolding  of 
trade,  which,  reaching  in  time  to  distant  lands,  brought 
about  elevating  intercourse  and  exchange  of  ideas 
and  resources. 

Not  until  Adam  was  driven  from  his  paradisiacal 
garden  could  he  or  his  children  have  set  out  on  a 
progressional  journey.  Perfect  man  is  unfitted  for  an 
imperfect  world ;  and  imperfect  man  in  paradise,  it 
seems,  proved  a  failure. 

Among  advanced  peoples  most  of  the  labor  is  often 
imposed  not  by  nature  but  by  expanding  civiliza- 
tion, which  germinates  in  our  passions  and  aspira- 
tions. Herein  the  energy  of  progressive  spirits  and 
leaders  asserts  its  influence  from  the  earliest  stage, 
in  setting  example  and  giving  proper  direction  to 
efforts.  The  aptitude  of  one  inventive  mind,  and 
his  consequent  success  in  attracting  admiration  or 
attention,  create  emulation  in  others;  and  so  with 
superior  dress,  comforts,  and  enjoyments. 

In  time  is  reached  a   stage  when   the  majority, 


156  WORK. 

through  organized  government,  imposes  as  obligation 
the  additional  labor  demanded  by  the  condition  of 
their  culture.  The  man,  who  might  be  content  with 
the  bare  cover,  and  the  spontaneous  products  of  the 
soil,  is  ordered  by  statutes  and  by  the  more  imposing 
mandates  of  society,  under  pain  of  disgrace  and  other 
punishment,  to  provide  decent  clothing,  food,  and 
shelter  for  himself  and  family,  and  to  educate  his 
children.  Thus  is  laid  upon  civilized  males  a  mani- 
fold heavier  burden  than  upon  the  savage. 

Fortuiiately  many  attributes  attend  to  lighten  the 
weight  and  sweeten  the  toil.  The  potency  of  the  re- 
ward is  recognized.  There  is  also  inducement  in  the 
more  assured  enjoyment  of  property  and  life,  by 
means  of  agriculture  and  other  institutions  of  settled 
hfe.  Acquired  taste  for  improvements  lends  spurs  to 
their  attainment.  Habit  assists  to  render  labor  en- 
durable, and  interesting,  and  growing  skill  give  ease 
to  performance.  Mere  motion  and  exercise  furnish 
incentive  to  deeds,  to  improving  intercourse,  to  lofty 
aspirations.  There  is  pleasure  in  the  chase,  and  ex- 
ercise connected  with  the  game,  aside  from  the  pur- 
suit itself.  The  man  soon  turns  from  his  puerile 
pastime  to  sterner  sport  or  more  sedate  entertain- 
ment, yet  he  still  feels  animated  by  the  action  itself 
He  even  imbibes  a  preference  for  occupations  leading 
to  a  practical  and  substantial  end,  the  unprofitable 
growing  distasteful.  Many  take  a  decided  delight  in 
gardening,  building,  repairing,  as  compared  with 
siestas,  promenades,  and  sports.  How  irksome  to 
many  is  the  dumb-bell  performance,  as  contrasted 
with  the  doubly  useful  wood-chopping  has  been  illus- 
trated by  the  great  English  premier.  Some  find  pleas- 
ure in  riding  when  connected  with  stock-raising  or 
other  useful  purposes,  others  for  itself  alone.  Some 
prefer  scientific  books  to  novels. 

As  in  play,  labor  can  become  most  pleasing  when 
not  entirely  compulsory,  and  herein  lies  the  strong- 
est of  motives,  aside  from  the  reward,  for  the  eager 


THE  BLESSING   OF  IT.  157 

perseverance  of  farmers,  merchants,  and  other  self- 
dependent  classes  and  employers.  They  are  in  a 
measure  obliged  to  earn  a  livelihood,  but  can  at  least 
regulate  operations  to  their  taste  and  perhaps  to  their 
convenience.  This  soothing  element  is  absent  among 
the  great  mass  of  employers,  and  forms  one  of  the 
main  causes  for  dislike  to  labor.  The  restraint  on 
time,  inclination,  and  procedure  is  objectionable.  It 
partakes  of  slavery,  though  voluntarily  contracted. 
No  less  distasteful  is  the  idea  that  only  a  portion  of 
their  efforts  is  for  personal  benefit  in  the  form  of 
wages,  the  rest  being  absorbed  by  another.  Their 
balm  lies  chiefly  in  the  wages,  to  be  used  for  inde- 
pendent labor,  pastime,  or  rest.  Additional  relief 
and  incentive  are  brought  by  the  exciting  effect  of 
rivalry.  Competition  lends  zest  to  the  consideration 
that,  as  work  is  unavoidable,  it  may  best  be  performed 
with  spirit.  The  desire  to  complete  a  task  is  an  im- 
pulse, and  still  more  so  is  the  ambition  to  do  it 
well,  perhaps  to  excel  others  in  perfection  as  well  as 
speed.  This  strengthens  the  wish  to  learn,  to  become 
skilful,  and  to  improve  the  limbs  and  senses  by  means 
of  which  the  work  is  accomplished. 

AQ;er  all  it  is  in  work  itself,  rather  than  in  the  ac- 
complished result,  that  the  true  benefit  of  labor  lies. 
We  have  been  wrongly  taught ;  nor  is  this  the  only 
instance  wherein  our  teachers  need  instructing. 

It  is  evident  that  by  exercise  organs  and  faculties 
alone  develop.  This  is  the  central  principle  alike  in 
universal  evolution  and  in  individual  unfolding.  Or- 
gans and  organisms  improve  according  to  use.  The 
blacksmith  does  not  acquire  strength  to  swing  his 
hammer  by  running  foot-races,  nor  does  the  logician 
become  proficient  in  subtle  reasoning  by  counting 
money  or  selling  bacon.  Bind  a  limb  and  it  withers  ; 
put  out  one  eye,  and  the  other  performs  the  work  of 
two.  Mind  and  muscle  alike  grow,  acquire  strength 
and  elasticity  by  exercise.     Little  is  expected  of  the 


158  WORK. 

man  who  in  youth  was  not  sent  to  school  or  required 
to  work. 

To  this  end  exercise  is  encouraged  ahke  in  children 
and  adults,  often  in  dull  bar  or  club  movements,  or 
strained  walking,  which  lose  much  of  their  value  from 
the  associated  distaste.  A  boat  or  bicycle  might  be 
welcomed  as  more  agreeable,  and  therefore  also  as 
more  beneficial,  and  many  would  find  still  greater  sat- 
isfaction in  a  task  with  practical  results,  in  the  flower 
patch,  the  woodshed,  or  on  the  lawn;  the  manual 
worker,  on  his  side,  seeks  discipline  as  well  as  relaxa- 
tion for  the  mind  in  chess,  or  in  some  solid  reading. 
Many  a  craftsman  would  labor  without  recompense 
in  his  vocation  rather  than  lose  his  cunning  therein. 
Eflbrt  is  always  its  own  reward.  Every  well-directed 
blow  gives  strength  to  the  arm  and  skill  to  the  fingers 
equally,  whether  paid  for  or  not.  Better,  indeed,  to 
work  for  nothing  and  maintain  in  good  condition  the 
digestive  and  other  organs,  rather  than  spend  money 
at  the  alehouse  in  spoiling  them.  Laziness  is  social 
gangrene ;  like  the  sword  of  Hudibras,  which  ate  into 
itself  for  lack  of  blood  to  eat,  it  is  its  own  perdition. 
Deplorable  would  be  the  aspect  of  humanity  breeding 
like  maggots  upon  the  putridity  of  eflbrtless  existence. 
The  stoppage  of  work  would  bring  about  decay,  g:etro- 
gression  to  savagism,  annihilation. 

Labor,  then,  is  improving,  elevating,  ennobling  in 
itself,  besides  bringing  comfort  and  wealth,  unfolding 
civilization,  and  approximating  toward  that  perfection 
which  is  the  ideal  alike  of  the  individual  and  of  on- 
ward-pushing society.  This  applies  only  to  well- 
directed  labor,  for  the  spasmodic  efforts  of  the  savage 
yield  but  temporary  benefits  as  compared  with  pro- 
gressive and  enduring  operations  of  civilized  commu- 
nities. Nor  would  the  finished  results  of  the  latter, 
in  machinery,  silks,  and  books,  be  appreciated  by  the 
other. 

From  this  aspect  the  possession  of  inherited  wealth 


QUALITIES  OF  LABOR.  159 

seldom  confers  the  happiness  which  is  so  widely  asso- 
ciated with  it.  The  absence  of  an  inspiring  aim,  such, 
for  instance,  as  led  the  pioneers  of  the  west  to  build 
up  imposing  and  flourishing  commonwealths,  relaxes 
the  energy,  conduces  to  misdirected  and  abortive  ex- 
ertion, and  impairs  the  power  of  mind  and  body,  un- 
fitting them  for  the  proper  or  full  enjoyment  of  life. 
Pleasure  nauseates ;  labor  likewise  is  uncongenial  from 
lack  of  will  and  skill,  and  the  victim  sinks,  an  invalid, 
into  ennui. 

Blind  pursuit  of  wealth  is  no  less  debasing  than  the 
passionate  search  for  pleasures.  The  one  is  expected 
to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  other.  As  if  in  accord 
with  some  hidden  principle  in  the  economy  of  nature, 
the  miserly  sire  is  often  succeeded  by  a  spendthrift 
heir;  the  pushing  man  of  business  leaves  an  indolent 
son,  the  genius  a  commonplace  oflspring.  Excessive 
energy  spends  itself,  or  weakens  the  organs  upon 
which  falls  the  drain.  Likewise  the  aspirations  and 
desires  unduly  restrained  at  one  period  burst  forth  at 
another  in  over  indulgence.  The  predilections  of  one 
generation  find  their  balancing  bents  in  another.  In- 
tellectual revival  follows  a  long  period  of  material 
prosperity.  Surfeited  with  gold,  even  Midas  remem- 
bers his  mind,  and  turns  it  to  some  new  enjoyment. 

There  is  much  talk  about  honorable  or  dishonorable 
degrees  in  labor,  manual  and  mental,  menial  and  in- 
dependent, cheap  and  dear.  Cheap  labor  is  no  more 
degrading  than  dear  labor.  No  labor  is  degrading. 
It  all  contributes  to  the  well-being  of  mankind  and 
the  advancement  of  civilization  directly  or  indirectly. 
Some  kinds  of  labor  are  more  elevating,  more  improv- 
ing, more  refining  than  others,  but  all  are  honorable. 
The  literary  and  scientific  pursuits  which  expand  the 
mind  and  enlarge  the  soul  are  naturally  to  be  preferred 
to  handling  a  shovel  or  cobbling  shoes,  and  the  superior 
knowledge  and  skill  which  adapts  the  possessor  for 
such  tasks  confer  a  certain  advantage  over  those  less 


160  WORK. 

favored ;  yet  to  class  the  inferior  work  as  humiliating 
is  wrong,  since  labor  aims  at  a  benefit,  jper  se  and  in 
its  results.  Again,  some  kinds  of  work  are  light  ancj 
pleasant,  others  painful ;  others,  by  reason  of  collateral 
conditions,  unwholesome ;  excessive  labor  is  always 
disagreeable.  The  duties  of  the  physician  are  in  some 
respects  unpleasant,  but  no  one  thinks  of  calling  them 
degrading.  But  for  the  benefit  arising  from  the  care- 
ful examination  of  the  exquisite  anatomy  of  the 
human  body,  the  dissecting  of  dead  men  would  be 
about  as  revolting  an  occupation  as  the  mind  could 
imagine. 

In  its  repute  labor  has  undergone  many  fluctua- 
tions, from  the  character  of  those  to  whom  particular 
branches  have  been  assigned.  Thus  the  descendants 
of  Spanish  conquerors  in  America  consigned  tillage 
and  other  hard  tasks  to  enslaved  Indians,  and  regarded 
it  as  derogatory  to  their  dignity  to  join  therein.  Yet 
not  in  the  labor  which  Virgil  framed  in  glowing  verse, 
and  for  which  Cincinnatus  abandoned  the  dictator- 
ship, lay  the  stigma,  but  in  the  association  with  those 
who  performed  it. 

Labor  has  steadily  risen  in  estimation  with  the 
elevation  of  its  votaries.  Compare  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  farmer  and  plough-boy  of  America  with 
that  of  their  serf  predecessors  of  feudal  times,  and 
the  position  of  the  merchant  class  of  to-day  with  that 
of  the  period  when  the  wielder  of  the  sword  alone 
enjoyed  repute  above  ignoble  commoners.  The  rise 
is  proportionate  to  democratic  ascendancy,  as  illus- 
trated in  particular  in  the  United  States.  The  equali- 
zation of  classes,  and  in  a  measure  therefore  of  labor, 
was  never  more  strikingly  depicted  than  during  the 
early  mining  fevers  on  the  Pacific  coast,  when  scien- 
tist and  jurist  worked  side  by  side  with  artisan 
and  laborer  in  common  pursuit  of  gold,  and  joined  on 
equal  terms  in  every  phase  of  life.  Labor  was  deified. 
The  possibilities  opened  in  this  land  to  pure  energy, 
the  caprices  of  fortune  in  distributing  her  resources, 


EVILS   OF  EXCESS.  161 

and  the  general  participation  in  politics,  tend  to  sus- 
tain that  equality  to  a  great  extent. 

The  Spanish  view  of  Indian  labor  has  found  a 
parallel  on  this  coast  in  Mongolian  competition,  which, 
by  the  humiliating  association  of  a  lower  race,  is 
making  distasteful  to  Anglo-Saxons  different  branches 
of  labor.  It  is  claimed  that  by  its  political  and  social 
laws  the  nation  imposes  upon  the  latter  a  high  stand- 
ard of  living,  including  the  rearing  and  education  of 
families,  which  cannot  be  well  maintained  if  a  class 
of  unmarried  men,  free  from  such  ties  and  obligation, 
and  accustomed  to  a  cheap  mode  of  life  be  allowed 
to  encroach  upon  their  resources. 

Much  is  said  in  these  latter  days  about  overwork. 
Of  course  excess  of  any  kind  is  an  evil;  and  the 
greater  the  blessing,  the  greater  the  curse  when  car- 
ried too  far.  Yet  there  is  much  less  overwork  than 
many  would  have  us  believe;  much  less  overwork 
than  overreaching.  It  is  worry  that  kills  men,  not 
work.  The  harassing  cares  of  overstrained  business, 
the  snapping  of  hungry  hounds  who  follow  at  the 
heels  of  the  unwary,  the  burnings  of  jealousy,  stock 
gambling,  and  the  demon  drink,  extravagance  in  dress 
and  living — these  are  what  wear  life  away.  With  the 
necessary  food  and  raiment,  and  rest,  work  never  in- 
jures anyone. 

The  student  should  not  neglect  physical  exercise, 
or  the  laboring  or  business  man  intellectual  culture. 
Work  may  be  varied  with  great  advantage.  Indeed 
a  change  of  work  is  the  best  kind  of  rest.  The 
highest  attainment  comes  only  with  the  proper  de- 
velopment of  both  mind  and  body.  Either  exercised 
unduly  brings  weakness  upon  the  other.  In  this 
sense  overwork  signifies  simply  the  neglect  of  due 
precautions  and  adjuncts  for  carrjdng  out  the  main 
task.  Severe  injury  is  frequently  incurred  by  injudi- 
cious lifting  of  a  weight  which  with  care  or  proper 
appliances  could  be  handled  with  ease. 

Essays  and  Miscellany        il 


162  WORK. 

The  development  of  a  community  depends  upon  the 
knowledge,  disposition,  and  aptitude  of  its  members, 
rather  than  upon  natural  advantages.  The  law  of 
work  partakes  of  the  immutable  in  nature's  laws. 
The  chief  condition  for  success  is  work.  Honest, 
well-directed  effort  is  as  sure  to  succeed  as  the  swell- 
ing rivulet  is  sure  to  find  for  itself  a  channel.  Let 
the  wage-w^orker  also  take  heart,  have  patience,  and 
persevere,  laboring  not  as  in  the  presence  of  a  task- 
master, whom  to  defraud  by  perfunctory  services  were 
a  gain ;  but  remembering  that  every  good  deed  is  done 
for  himself,  and  makes  him  stronger,  healthier,  wiser, 
nobler,  whether  performed  in  the  dark  or  in  the  broad 
light  of  open  day. 

Every  subterfuge,  slight,  or  cheat  is  sure  to  react 
on  the  performer.  The  shop  or  office  is  but  the  cru- 
cible in  which  his  metal  is  to  be  tried,  the  work  the 
anvil  upon  which  with  his  own  arms  he  hammers 
out  his  character,  his  daily  duties  the  mould  in  which 
his  destiny  is  shaped.  The  spirit  in  which  his  duties 
are  done  gives  form  and  direction  to  his  future  life ;  it 
makes  or  unmakes  him  for  all  time.  The  reputation 
acquired  among  his  comrades  is  likely  to  be  a  true 
estimate  of  his  character.  From  the  incipient  stages 
of  a  business  career  proceed  natural  results,  and  few 
bad  beginnings  make  good  endings.  A  course  of  de- 
ception can  never  lead  to  success.  ''Nemo  omnes, 
neminem  omnes  fefellerunt,"  observes  the  younger 
Pliny. 

Character  will  not  be  hidden.  It  shows  itself  in 
gait  and  garments ;  it  shines  through  the  gossamer  of 
features  and  is  woven  into  observation  by  the  fingers. 
Even  the  contour  of  a  man,  his  back  towards  you 
speaks  volumes,  and  the  very  atmosphere  surround- 
ing him  breathes  of  his  occupation,  be  it  of  shop, 
pulpit,  or  the  courtroom.  Confine  ignited  gunpowder 
in  a  rock;  smother  Vesuvius  with  a  handful  of  ashes; 
but  do  not  attempt  the  role  of  the  foolish  ostrich  which 
thrusts  its  head  under  a  leaf  to  hide  itself  withal. 


SUCCESS   AND   FAILURE.  163 

The  appreciation  by  parents  of  early  training  for  a 
career,  no  less  for  inculcating  industrious  habits  than 
for  acquiring  knowledge  of  a  business,  is  manifest  in 
the  widely  prevalent  custom  of  binding  boys  to  a 
trade  or  profession,  often  paying  for  the  privilege. 
With  the  improvement  of  character,  mind,  and  limbs 
should  be  united  the  desire  to  elevate  the  vocation, 
and  to  study  the  employer's  interest  as  a  duty  to  one's 
own  honor  and  unfolding,  no  less  than  in  just  fulfil- 
ment of  agreements. 

Conscientious  performance  of  obligations  w^ill  com- 
mand alike  esteem  and  success.  Failure  arises  from 
not  doing  work  rather  than  not  having  work  to  do. 
Living  in  a  poorer  country  than  the  United  States 
Goethe  says,  "  Ich  habe  gesehen,  so  lange  einer  lebt 
und  sich  rlihrt,  findet  er  immer  seine  Nahrung,  und 
wenn  sie  audi  gleich  nicht  die  reichlichste  ist.  Und 
wor Liber  habt  ihr  euch  denn  zu  beschweren." 

Hear  Teufelsdrockh  rant  in  Sartor  Resartus. 
^' Tools!  Thou  hast  no  tools?  Why,  there  is  not  a 
man  or  a  thing  now  live  but  has  tools.  The  basest 
of  created  animalcules,  the  spider  itself  has  a  spinning- 
jenny,  and  warping-mill,  and  power-loom  within  its 
head;  the  stupidest  of  oysters  has  a  papin's  digestion, 
with  stone  and  lime  house  to  hold  it  in.  Every  being 
that  can  live  can  do  something ;  this  let  him  do. 
Tools?  Hast  thou  not  a  brain  furnished,  furnishable 
with  some  o-limmerino's  of  lioht ;  and  three  finorers  to 
hold  a  pen  withal  ?  Never  since  Aaron's  rod  went 
out  of  practice,  or  even  before  it,  was  there  such  a 
wonder- workings  tool ;  g^reater  than  all  recorded  mira- 
cles  have  been  performed  by  pens." 

Let  the  young  man  remember  he  will  be  rated  at 
his  worth ;  of  this  let  him  have  no  fear.  Be  the  night 
never  so  dark  in  w^hich  he  does  virtuously;  be  the 
solitude  never  so  dense  in  which  he  performs  more 
than  his  allotted  task  ;  be  the  thoughts  never  so  se- 
cret which  come  from  a  mind  occupied  with  another's 
welfare,  from  a  mind  pondering  on  improvement,  on 


164:  WORK. 

the  more  complete  surrender  of  self  to  a  manly  suc- 
cess; he  need  not  fear  lest  any  of  these  fall  to  the 
ground ;  his  own  head  and  heart  alone  retain  sufficient 
benefits  from  his  high  aspirations. 

To  him  who  does  his  best  life  is  no  venture.  Among 
human  possibilities  the  youth  may  make  of  himself 
what  he  will.  There  is  no  uncertainty  about  it.  It 
may  be  reduced  to  a  simple  mathematical  or  chemical 
proposition.  To  so  many  pounds  of  common-sense 
add  so  many  ounces  of  honesty,  mix  it  with  a  certain 
amount  of  energy,  and  bake  it  over  a  slow  fire  in  the 
oven  of  human  experience,  and  the  bread  so  fermented 
shall  make  fat  the  nation. 

Still  further  may  be  discussed  the  benefits  of  labor 
apart  from  its  fruits,  its  abstract  qualities  and  its  in- 
dividual relationship  to  human  progress  in  the  econo- 
my of  the  universe ;  but  enough  has  been  said  to  show 
the  fact  that  work  of  itself  is  a  blessing  rather  than  a 
curse.  If  it  fall  heavily  at  times  the  cause  lies  in 
man's  ambition,  and  the  artificial  demands  of  society 
with  its  cumulating  obligations.  The  civilization  which 
has  imposed  the  excess  is  also  continually  striving  to  re- 
duce it  by  means  of  inventions,  of  subdivision,  coopera- 
tion, and  other  methods  of  organization.  Machinery,  in 
particular,  has  relieved  man  of  the  most  severe  and 
difficult  tasks,  and  is  daily  lightening  his  toil.  It  has 
also  lessened  the  hours  of  labor,  giving  wider  oppor- 
tunity for  the  enjoyment  of  the  fast  multiplying  com- 
forts and  entertainments  provided  from  that  same 
source,  and  leisure  for  improvement  in  those  arts 
which  assist  the  individual  to  bear  his  burden  better, 
and  to  advance  society  toward  the  millennial  stage 
when  work  shall  be  generally  appreciated  as  a  bless- 
ing unalloyed. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

BATTRE  LE  FER  8UR  L'ENCLUME. 
Non  est  ars,  quae  ad  eflfectum  casu  venit. 


—Seneca. 


Success  and  failure  in  life  are  not  accidents.  Suc- 
cess springs  from  natural  causes,  and  follows  funda- 
mental rules.  There  must  be  the  implanted  germ 
and  the  developing  environment.  The  necessary  con- 
ditions are  often  deficient,  but  every  person  may  suc- 
ceed to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  some  direction. 

True  success  must  be  restricted  to  that  which  not 
only  strengthens  the  mind  and  body  and  morals  of 
the  person  directly  seeking  it,  but  which  brings  a 
benefit  of  greater  or  less  degree  to  every  member  of 
the  society  in  which  that  person  lives. 

Success  is  not  wholly  free  from  its  hypocrisies. 
Often  it  comes  to  us  disguised  ;  often  we  pursue  the 
shadow  of  it  while  the  substance  is  with  us.  Many 
have  achieved  success  who  deemed  their  lives  failures; 
many  failures  have  been  made  by  those  who  regard 
their  lives  successful.  It  is  altogether  as  men  meas- 
ure success;  whether  in  wealth,  virtue,  fame,  fashion, 
or  wickedness.  Aspiration  leading  to  effort  though 
attended  by  seeming  failure,  is  sometimes  success, 
while  effortless  success  may  be  failure;  for  one  carries 
with  it  improvement,  development,  increase  of  strength, 
the  other  weakness  and  decay. 

It  is  not  unconniion  to  hear  those  who  have 
achieved  success  in  any  one  of  the  paths  of  industry 
rail  at  their  less  fortunate  neighbor,  and  attribute  the 
cause  of  disappointment  to   some    radical    defect    of 


166  BATTRE  LE   FER   8UR  LENCLUME. 

character.  In  their  eyes  defeat  carries  with  it  prima 
facie  evidence  of  defect.  The  unfortunate  man  is  a 
visionary,  who  dreams  life  away  in  idle  speculation ; 
or  an  enthusiast,  who,  without  fortifying  his  premises 
by  sound  common  sense,  rushes  headlong  on  false 
conclusions ;  or  a  schemer,  wasting  his  time  in 
futile  attempts  at  great  things,  when  moderate  ef- 
forts would  be  attended  by  more  beneficial  results. 
Brimful  of  the  elements  of  success  themselves,  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  comprehend  a  nature  so  organ- 
ized as  not  to  possess  these  elements,  or  to  restrain 
their  virtuous  indignation.  A  man  has  no  business 
to  be  unsuccessful;  failure  is  a  fault,  and  penury  a 
crime. 

In  one  sense  this  is  true,  but  seldom  do  these  self- 
satisfied  autocrats  take  the  trouble  to  inquire  what 
success  is,  and  what  failure.  It  is  taken  for  granted 
that  the  prosperous  issue  of  whatever  they  may  have 
attempted,  the  attainment  of  whatever  may  have  been 
their  desires,  is  the  sum  of  merited  good  fortune  to 
themselves,  and  the  best  that  could  happen  to  man- 
kind. It  is  generally  understood  that  the  man  makes 
the  most  of  himself  who,  if  he  be  a  lawyer  or  a  doc- 
tor, enjoys  a  lucrative  practice  ;  if  a  clergyman,  fills 
the  largest  church  ;  or,  if  a  man  of  business,  accumu- 
lates a  fortune.  This  is  true  only  in  part;  the  speed- 
ing of  our  faculties  is  but  a  necessary  preparation 
before  we  are  entitled  to  a  place  even  among  the  com- 
petitors for  a  prize.  Were  there  no  attempts  except 
such  as  promised  success  ;  were  all  non- successful  ef- 
forts lost,  this  were  a  different  world.  Success,  or 
what  we  have  learned  to  look  upon  as  success,  is  gen- 
erally so  insignificant,  so  unsatisfying,  so  slight  in 
value  to  ourselves  or  others — sometimes  indeed  the 
greatest  evil — that  if  in  the  accomplishment  of  our 
desires,  the  consummation  of  our  purposes,  was  found 
the  only  benefit,  as  well  might  the  holder  of  the  uni- 
verse withdraw  his  arm  and  let  chaos  come  again,  for 
in  no  surer  way  could  mankind  be  sent  swiftly  to 
destruction. 


SUCCESS  THAT  IS  NOT  SUCCESS.  167 

Well  understood  is  the  evil  attending  the  attain- 
ment of  his  goal  by  the  tyrant,  the  blindly  ambitious 
soldier,  the  machiavellian  statesman.  In  aggressive 
efforts  the  loser  must  suffer  more  or  less  severely,  al- 
though the  winner  may  find  victory  disastrous.  Such 
struggles  for  mastery  are  constant  in  our  midst,  the 
roue  and  gamester  in  society,  the  unscrupulous  spec- 
ulator in  business,  alike  bringing  suffering  to  others. 

Winning  money  at  play ;  gambling  in  mining  stocks, 
in  wheat  or  other  merchandise,  and  in  securities;  origi- 
nating and  manipulating  monopolies  which  operate 
unjustly  upon  a  portion  of  the  people — these  and  the 
accomplishment  of  like  impositions  cannot  be  consid- 
ered in  connection  with  true  success,  though  they 
bring  into  the  pocket  their  millions,  and  friends  and 
sycophants  by  the  thousands,  and  seek  an  atoning  guise 
in  the  building  of  churches,  hospitals,  and  other  benevo- 
lent efforts. 

The  politician  who  secures  place  at  the  cost  of  man- 
hood, and  the  teacher,  clerical  or  literary,  who  pan- 
ders to  popular  taste  instead  of  promulgating  unpala- 
table truths,  or  parades  dead  forms  in  opposition  to 
living  facts,  no  less  than  the  absorbed  money-maker, 
sell  their  souls  to  slavery,  and  imperil  the  prospects  of 
themselves  and  their  neighbors  for  a  momentary  gain. 

Yet  by  the  people  these  fools  are  flattered  until 
they  learn  to  despise  their  flatterers.  The  country, 
the  world,  is  no  better  for  their  having  lived  in  it. 
Men  may  acquire  the  power  that  money  buys,  but  if 
their  influence  be  such  as  to  lower  the  standard  of 
public  morals,  to  forge  fetters  for  unfolding  intellect, 
or  to  advance  mammon  in  opposition  to  mind,  their 
broadest  successes  are  but  brilliant  failures.  From 
the  puddles  of  politics,  and  mammon  ditches  and  ec- 
clesiastic marshes,  rise  human  insectivora  with  feelers 
and  suckers  and  pincers  ready  for  victims,  most 
voracious  in  their  appetite,  preying  on  each  other  like 
men  who  eat  men,  for  there  are  human  insects  in  so- 
cial life  as  elsewhere. 


168  BATTRE   LE   FER   SUR  L'ENCLUxME. 

Even  the  general  accomplishment  of  wishes  by  hon- 
orable and  legitimate  means  would  be  equivalent  to 
failure  through  the  very  universality  of  the  success. 
If  all  obtained  the  riches  sighed  for,  or  the  honors 
sought,  these  would  become  worthless  and  leave  the 
gainer  no  better  off  than  before. 

While  considering  the  time  honored  way  to  success, 
we  must  remember  that  many  have  found  what  they 
sought,  taking  another  course.  Yet  he  who  steps 
aside  from  the  beaten  path  must  expect  a  rough  road, 
with  brambles  and  pitfalls ;  he  may  be  many  times 
discomfited,  driven  back,  and  perhaps,  finally  overcome; 
but  this  is  progress.  We  of  to-day  are  greatly  in- 
debted to  mechanical  inventions ;  our  usefulness  and 
our  comfort  are  increased  thereby  a  hundred  fold. 
Yet  the  patent  office  shows  that  for  every  success 
there  are  a  thousand  failures.  Success  comes  from  at- 
tempts ;  without  attempts  there  could  be  no  successes. 
Now  in  the  very  nature  of  things  there  must  be  more 
attempts  than  successes,  so  that,  speaking  broadly, 
every  success  is  the  result  of  a  multitude  of  failures. 

Life  consists,  then,  not  so  much  in  ends  as  in  efforts ; 
and  often  less  in  what  a  man  does  than  in  what  he 
attempts  to  do.  The  sum  of  human  accomplishment 
bears  but  a  small  proportion  to  the  sum  of  human 
efforts.  All  this  is  well  for  progress,  for  undertakings 
are  more  civilizing  than  successes.  Attempts  surpass 
results;  this  grand  civilization  of  ours  is  a  pressing 
forward,  not  a  rest,  just  as  philosophy  is  a  search  after 
truth,  rather  than  truth  itself 

He  who  fails  in  attempting  great  things  often 
achieves  the  grandest  success.  It  is  not  in  doing 
some  things  as  well  as  they  have  been  done  before 
that  civilization  is  promoted,  but  in  doing  one  thing 
better  than  it  has  ever  before  been  done,  or  by  doing 
something:  that  has  never  before  been  done.  Colum- 
bus  did  not  find  the  India  he  sought ;  but  were  not 
his  voyages  a  success  ? 


MISDIRECTED    EFFORTS.  169 

After  all  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  talk  of  the 
misery  attending  great  failures.  There  is  no  higher 
happiness  in  store  for  certain  souls  with  broad  am- 
bition than  these  very  embarrassments.  Only  ignoble 
attempts  bring  misery.  There  is  a  charm  attending 
virtuous  misfortune,  by  which  the  success  of  mere 
accident  is  shamed. 

Then  let  each  have  heart  to  labor  while  he  may, 
knowing  that  not  one  jot  shall  fall  purposeless  to  the 
ground;  that  every  blow  struck  by  his  puny  arm  is 
felt  in  the  vibrations  of  a  universe ;  that  every  thought 
of  his  poor  understanding,  every  emotion  of  his  loving 
and  hating  heart,  sends  a  throb  through  the  eternal 
ages  of  intelligence.  For  he,  even  he,  is  part  of  this 
great  universe,  an  inseparable,  ineradicable  part ;  mind, 
soul,  being,  one  with  the  eternal. 

Science  tells  us  that  in  the  universe  of  matter  there 
is  never  an  atom  made  or  unmade  ;  that  the  molecule 
no  more  than  the  mass  can  drop  out  of  its  place  and 
be  lost  in  absolute  void ;  that  not  an  iota  of  force  can 
be  created  or  uncreated  ;  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  originating  or  annihilating  potential  energy  any 
more  than  fundamental  elements  of  matter.  Force, 
then,  is  a  positive  existing  something,  incapable  of  ad- 
dition or  subtraction. 

Following  up  this  idea,  and  have  we  not  every  rea- 
son to  conclude  that  the  highest,  the  brightest,  the 
most  electric  of  all  forces,  life,  soul,  intellect,  when 
properly  exercised,  live  in  their  results ;  that  the  con- 
sequent thought,  motion,  being,  are  indestructible 
and  eternal  in  their  essentials,  come  from  some  source 
and  escape  to  some  bourne.  If  misdirected,  the  effect 
of  the  emotion  upon  ourselves  and  others  may  be  in- 
jurious or  fleeting;  the  idea  born  of  thought  may  dis- 
solve without  leavinof  a  trace ;  the  celibate  who  neo-- 
lects  to  rear  a  progeny  passes  unevolved  into  food  alone 
for  lower  organisms.  A  blow  may  spend  itself  in  air, 
or  it  may  cut  off  a  dynasty  or  agitate  a  nation.  The 
true  idea  is,  emotion  impresses  itself  from  generation 


170  BATTRE  LE   FER  SUR  L'ENCLUME. 

to  generation  in  ever-widening  expansion,  the  incen- 
tive to  great  achievements.  Taking  form,  the  idea 
transmits  its  germ  for  grander  unfolding  in  future 
ages,  even  failures  assisting  by  their  pointed  lessons 
to  smooth  the  path  for  successes.  The  idea  of  the 
improved  mind  springs  from  a  richer  soil  than  that  of 
the  uncultured  savage. 

How  little  of  originality  is  contained  in  the  so-called 
new  ideas.  At  their  best  they  seldom  pass  beyond 
an  additional  wing  to  the  existing  edifice.  Yet,  as  we 
form  new  combinations  of  matter,  and  say  we  have 
caused  these  plants  to  grow  or  made  this  house  or 
this  machine,  in  reality  we  only  change  the  form  of 
particles  already  made,  a  few  of  the  grander  con- 
ceptions springing  like  new  creations  from  the  m!nute 
germs  of  the  past.  Originality  in  literature  as  else- 
where is  therefore  a  re-arranging  rather  than  a  creating. 

How  feeble,  withal,  is  the  unfolding!  What  are 
all  our  schools,  our  printing  presses,  our  pulpits,  but 
bellows  for  fanning  the  flame,  which  else  would  die  ? 
With  all  the  enginery  of  ages  employed  in  inoculat- 
ing the  young  with  what  the  dying  old  can  by  no 
shorter  process  bequeath  to  them,  how  slight  the  ad- 
vance !  Cease  these  means,  and  how  rapid  the  retro- 
gression.    Ignorance  breeds. 

Nevertheless,  advancement  is  assured,  and  its 
prospective  grandeur  may  be  judged  by  our  present 
short-comings.  Is  the  fair  earth  made  fairer  by  man  ; 
are  prim  orchards,  and  clean  fields,  and  cold  hard 
metals  for  use,  ornament,  and  currency,  recompense 
suflScient  for  mutilated  forests  and  disembowelled 
sierras  ?  With  all  our  boasted  cultivating  and  refining 
we  cannot  improve  upon  the  lily,  nor  make  the  sweet 
air  sweeter,  nor  a  ray  of  sunshine  brighter.  We 
meddle  with  the  handiwork  of  omnipotence  in  a  crude 
striving  for  perfection,  to  regain  with  Plato  the  ideal 
type.  Herein  lies  power  enough  behind  our  intellect 
to  drive  it  on  to  eternal  activities,  willing  or  unwilling. 
But  there  are  also  other  impulses,  without  which  few 


EFFECT   OF   EFFORT.  171 

would  move  or  become  imbued  with  that  loftier  in- 
centive. 

What  home  and  foreign  foes  are  to  the  life  of  the 
nation,  so  the  daily  struggles  for  existence,  and  the 
antagonisms  which  attend  them,  are  to  the  life  of 
the  individual.  Remove  from  humanity  the  atmos- 
pheric pressure  of  want  and  calamity,  and  the  organism 
is  straightway  rent  asunder.  Nothing  so  closely 
cements  one  to  his  higher  destiny  as  necessity,  with 
its  corroding  care.  Social  phenomena,  under  whatso- 
ever form  or  phase  manifested,  while  seeking  their 
source  in  the  intellectual  force  expressed  by  human 
societies  and  individuals  of  remote  times,  pass  on  to 
exert  a  moulding  influence  of  perhaps  still  greater  im- 
port upon  the  future. 

We  have  seen  that  the  benefit  of  labor  lies  not  more 
in  the  fruits  of  labor  than  in  the  effects  of  labor  on 
the  laborer.  Gold's  lustre  comes  from  use.  It  is  or- 
dained that  in  the  use  of  our  limbs  and  faculties,  and 
in  their  use  alone,  there  is  develo|)ment.  But  whether 
direct  or  indirect  the  results,  by  these  alone  must  every 
human  life  be  measured.  In  the  centre  of  an  all- 
producing  universe,  man  the  fruit  of  all  must  yet 
bear  fruit.  It  is  the  inexorable  rule  of  perpetuation, 
bear  or  cease  to  be.  Nor  may  we  pass  by  as  void  of 
results  the  lives  of  that  great  army  of  workers  who 
go  down  to  their  former  dust,  leaving  their  millions 
of  unrecorded  efforts,  such  as  we  are  accustomed  to 
term  fruitless.  No  honest,  well-directed  effort  is  ever 
fruitless.  We  may  not  be  able  to  see  the  results,  yet 
the  results  exist;  the  fruit  may  not  appear  until  cen- 
turies after  the  seed  was  planted ;  yet  all  the  experi- 
ences by  which  comes  our  later  success  are  born, 
among  others,  of  these  so-called  fruitless  efforts,  as  we 
have  elsewhere  seen. 

Literature  is  the  accident  rather  than  the  object  of 
life,  and  being  coupled  with  some  collateral  occupation 


172  BATTRE  LE  FER  SUR  L'ENCLUME. 

by  means  of  which  Hvelihood  and  leisure  are  obtained, 
books  are  produced  not  in  proportion  to  the  demand, 
but  in  accordance  with  the  will  and  ability  of  men  to 
gratify  their  pleasure  or  vanity  by  thrusting  their 
ideas  upon  the. public.  Hence  it  is  that  literary  labor 
is  the  poorest  paid  of  all  labor,  and  often  a  poorer  class 
of  labor  is  better  paid  than  a  superior  kind. 

It  is  rash  to  talk  of  making  literature  a  profession. 
Such  as  it  is,  it  comes  of  its  own  volition,  making  its 
votary  rather  than  being  made  by  him.  A  journalist 
may  write  for  one  dollar  or  for  ten  dollars  a  day  what 
certain  people  like  best  to  read,  and  so  make  journal- 
ism a  business.  In  certain  quarters  professorships  of 
books  and  reading  are  spoken  of.  Instead  of  leaving 
the  mind  to  the  natural  direction  of  its  appetite,  every 
particle  of  food  must  be  prescribed  by  a  physician. 
But  who  is  to  direct  this  director  ?  While  guidance 
is  well  for  the  young  and  inexperienced,  nothing 
sooner  destroys  healthy  appetite  and  stifles  the  natural 
exercise  of  the  faculties  than  undue  interference. 

"  The  truth,"  says  Hammerton,  ''  seems  to  be  that 
literature  of  the  highest  kind  can  only  in  the  most 
exceptional  cases  be  made  a  profession,  yet  that  a 
skilful  writer  may  use  his  pen  professionally  if  he 
chooses.  The  production  of  the  printed  talk  of  the 
day  is  a  profession,  requiring  no  more  than  average 
ability,  and  the  tone  and  temper  of  ordinary  educated 
men.  The  outcome  of  it  is  journalism  and  magazine 
writing." 

Among  those  who  claimed  that  literature  should 
not  be  followed  as  a  vocation,  but  rather  as  a  pastime, 
were  Scott,  Southey,  Beranger,  and  many  others. 
This  depends,  however,  on  the  strength  of  the  writer. 
If  one  can  write  like  Scott,  one  need  not  die  in  debt. 

Byron  understood  poetry  to  be  an  art,  an  attribute, 
but  scouted  the  idea  of  calling  it  a  profession.  I  do 
not  say  that  mercenary  bookwriting  is  not,  or  cannot 
be  followed  in  some  degree  as  a  profession,  but  this 
is  by  no  means  the  higher  kind  of  authorship,     Car- 


SUCCESS   IN  LITERATURE.  173 

lyle  says:  "His  is  a  high,  laborious,  unrequited,  or 
only  self-requited  endeavor ;  which,  however,  by  the 
law  of  his  being,  he  is  compelled  to  undertake,  and 
must  prevail  in,  or  be  permanently  wretched ;  nay,  the 
more  wretched,  the  nobler  his  gifts  are.  For  it  is 
the  deep,  inborn  claim  of  his  whole  spiritual  nature, 
and  will  not,  and  must  not  go  unanswered.  His 
youthful  unrest,  that  ^  unrest  of  genius,'  often  so  way- 
ward in  its  character,  is  the  dim  anticipation  of  this ; 
the  mysterious,  all-powerful  mandate,  as  from  heaven, 
to  prepare  himself,  to  purify  himself,  for  the  vocation 
wherewith  he  is  called."  Few  real  poets  have  that 
insatiable  craving  for  fame  which  has  been  so  often 
attributed  to  them.  A  poet  knows  himself  to  be  a  poet, 
and  therewith  is  usually  content.  The  better  class  of 
them  write  as  birds  sing,  because  they  cannot  help  it. 

Journalism  and  book- writing  are  different  occupa- 
tions, and  a  person  may  be  fitted  for  one  and  not  for 
the  other.  The  effort  of  the  journalist  is  a  play  upon 
transient  popular  feeling ;  it  is  momentary  morning  or 
evening  gossip,  to  be  read  and  forgotten ;  the  aim  of 
the  writer  of  books  is  to  make  a  careful  selection  of 
his  facts  and  to  arrange  them  in  a  suitable  form  for 
permanent  use.  It  does  not  follow  that  because  a 
man  has  the  ability  and  patience  to  gather,  sift,  and 
classify  historical  data,  he  can  therefore  write  a  good 
magazine  article.  The  talents  and  training  needed  for 
one  are  different  from  those  which  find  success  in  the 
other.  Herein  many  have  failed,  not  knowing  why. 
There  is  a  wide  difference  even  in  the  qualities  required 
for  elaborating  at  leisure  a  review,  and  throwing  off  on 
the  instant  a  leader  or  a  local  for  a  daily  journal. 
Elaboration  may  be,  perhaps,  the  merit  of  one  and  a 
fault  of  the  other. 

In  the  first  number  of  the  Westminster  Review  is  an 
analysis  by  James  Mill  of  the  more  important  writ- 
ings published  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  from  its  be- 
ginning, which  produced  no  small  sensation  at  the 
time,     Among  other  things  he  pointed  out  the  fact 


174  BATTKE   LE   FER   SUR  L'ENCLUME. 

that  periodical  literature,  unlike  books,  must  succeed 
immediately  if  at  all,  and  hence  must  be  of  a  popular 
rather  than  of  a  permanent  character.  It  must,  in 
general,  pander  to  the  public  taste  rather  than  attempt 
to  reform  it.  Hence  honesty  must  be  sacrificed  to 
policy,  truthfulness  to  success. 

Compared  with  the  number* of  books  written,  but 
few  of  them  are  the  products  of  what  might  be  called 
skilled  labor.  Book- writing  for  the  most  part  is  the 
work  of  amateurs.  Few  write  books  who  have  not 
some  other  occupation ;  few  adopt  authorship  as  a 
business ;  few  devote  their  whole  time  to  the  writing 
of  books.  ^'Oh  thou  who  art  able  to  write  a  book," 
exclaims  Teufelsdrockh,  "which  once  in  the  two  cen- 
turies or  oftener  there  is  a  man  gifted  to  do,  envy  not 
him  whom  they  name  city-builder  and  inexpressibly 
pity  him  whom  they  name  conqueror,  or  city -burner. 
Thou,  too,  art  a  conquerer  and  victor ;  but  of  the  true 
sort,  namely  over  the  devil.  Thou,  too,  hast  built 
what  will  outlast  all  marble  and  metal,  and  be  a  won- 
der-bringing city  of  the  mind,  a  temple  and  seminary 
and  prophetic  mount,  whereto  all  kindreds  of  the 
earth  will  pilgrim." 

Enthusiasm  intense,  in  the  eyes  of  some  insane, 
underlies  all  great  things,  all  good  work.  What  will 
not  fanaticism  do  for  a  man  ?  If  he  hungers,  it  feeds 
him  ;  if  he  be  cold,  it  warms  him  ;  if  brought  to  mar- 
tyrdom, it  bears  him  to  happier  realms.  To  good  lit- 
erary work  enthusiasm  is  essential ;  fanaticism,  fatal. 
To  be  buoyed  up  and  carried  happily  forward  above 
storms  and  bufFetings,  and  at  the  same  time  to  have 
sufficient  coolness,  caution,  and  mental  balance  left  to 
avoid  the  maelstroms  of  excess  so  destructive  to  ven- 
turesome voyagers  on  untried  seas — this  is  to  preserve 
the  happy  medium.  Enthusiasm  often  supplies  the 
place  of  genius,  though  many  are  fired  by  desire 
whose  fuel  burns  out  too  soon.  Provided  he  is  not 
a  fool,  an  enthusiast  is  always  interesting. 


ENTHUSIASM  AND   ENNUI.  175 

In  crossing  the  Alps,  Napoleon's  artillery  proved 
too  heavy  for  the  men.  For  a  time  it  seemed  that  it 
must  be  abandoned.  At  length  the  general  ordered 
a  charge  somided,  when,  inspired  by  the  familiar  tones, 
up  went  the  heavy  guns  as  if  lifted  by  unseen  powers. 
It  is  not,  liowever,  by  spasms  that  great  things  in  lit- 
erature are  achieved.  The  fire  which  warms  and 
purifies  intelligence  must  be  kept  at  a  steadier  glow. 

A  central  enthusiasm,  indeed,  is  necessary  to  the 
well-being  of  every  man  and  every  woman.  It  mat- 
ters less  what  form  it  takes  than  that  it  should  exist. 
Thank  God,  then,  for  ambition !  Without  enthusiasm 
man  is  moveless  mechanism,  pistons  and  wheels  and 
cogs  without  propelling  power.  Ambition  is  the 
steam  that  drives  our  human  enginery,  and  the  higher 
the  ambition  the  nobler  the  man,  though  any  desire 
is  better  than  none.  "Better  far,"  as  Mrs  Browning 
says,  ''pursue  a  frivolous  trade  by  serious  means  than 
a  sublime  art  frivolously."  The  moment  enthusiasm 
dies  the  work  ends.  Every  heart  must  have  its  wor- 
shipful ideal,  else  it  is  empty  indeed.  The  lowest 
ordinary  form  of  this  inspiration  is  avarice,  the  high- 
est, faith. 

Take  from  the  average  citizen  the  passion  for  accu- 
mulating, and  you  deprive  him  of  his  manhood.  Take 
from  the  bereaved  Hindoo  or  Christian  mother  her 
faith,  and  you  blot  out  to  lier  the  stars  of  heaven.  A 
wise  enthusiasm  brings  witli  it  lasting  benefits,  but 
tlie  enthusiasm  of  folly  is  better  than  none.  A  man 
is  more  a  man  who  builds  Pisa  towers,  or  collects 
meerschaum  pipes,  than  one  who  mopes  in  the  chim- 
ney corner,  or  panders  to  animal  appetites. 

The  man  of  distemper  or  ennui  should  get  a  hobby 
and  ride  it,  even  though  the  thing  itself  be  no  more 
winsome  than  the  plank  to  which  the  drowning  man 
clings.  If  you  would  save  your  life  you  must  anchor 
it  to  something  more  noble  than  yourself. 

He  who  from  satiety,  ill  health,  or  other  cause,  has 
irrecoverably  lost  all  interest  in   the  affairs   of  this 


176  BATTRE   LE   FER   SUR  LENCLUME. 

world,  is  no  better  than  a  dead  man  ;  nay,  he  is  worse. 
His  mind,  sapped  of  its  ambitions,  feeding  on  fancied 
misfortunes,  becomes  infected  and  infectious.  It  poi- 
sons every  other  mind  coming  under  its  influence. 
Woe  betide  him  whose  last  great  hope  is  gone.  His 
sun  is  indeed  set.  Twice  dead  is  he,  dead  to  the  liv- 
ing and  dead  to  the  dead.  Worse  than  dead  he  seems 
to  the  actively  living,  his  unappeased  shade  wandering 
amidst  the  tasteless  things  of  earth  as  in  a  prison-yard 
beyond  whose  walls  is  endless  desert.  Occupation  in 
purgatory  were  better  than  inability  to  forget  the 
past  or  to  improve  the  future.  There  are  days  and 
weeks  and  months  with  such  an  one  when  the  sky  is 
overcast  with  blackness,  when  the  air  is  filled  with 
harpies  that  play  discordant  tunes  upon  his  nerve- 
strings,  and  steal  his  soul-sustenance  as  the  food  of 
blind  Phineus  was  stolen.  Storm  and  sunshine  alike 
wage  war  upon  his  sensibilities.  What  wonder  is  it, 
then,  that  there  appears  between  him  and  nature  so 
deadly  an  antagonism  that  sometimes  he  deems  it 
better  for  both  that  they  should  be  divorced?  From 
days  barren  of  hope,  from  an  old  age  in  which  the  soul 
has  nothing  to  look  forward  to,  may  the  gods  deliver 
us! 

The  recluse  habits  of  authors  account  for  much  of 
their  natural  shyness,  though  it  may  as  truthfully  be 
said  that  shyness  smothering  high  ambition  drives 
many  to  the  study  for  the  expression  of  irrepressible 
thought.  Unable  to  mint  the  treasures  of  their  minds 
into  the  rapidly  circulating  coin  of  conversation, 
they  retire,  and  dive  into  profounder  depths  for 
pearls  of  greater  price.  Society  talk  is  chiefly  for 
pleasure  or  display,  seldom  for  improvement ;  he  who 
is  conscious  of  abilities  above  the  average  is  unwilling 
to  fling  his  best  thoughts  where  they  drop  like  bullets 
among  the  bubbles  of  the  brilliant  wit  and  shining 
conversational  ist. 

Authors,  as  a  rule,  are  not  the  best  conversers. 
The  cause  is  obvious.     The  best  thous^hts  of  a  careful 


LITERARY  LABOR.  177 

writer  come  with  long  research  and  patient  study. 
He  whose  only  resource  is  the  spontaneous  flow  from 
the  accumulations  of  actual  experience  soon  writes 
himself  out.  The  mills  even  of  genius  refuse  to  grind 
unless  grain  be  thrown  in  at  the  hopper.  Days  and 
nights  of  study  breed  habits  of  thought  unfavorable 
to  wise  gossip  and  witty  repartee ;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  the  brilliant  conversationalist  will  seldom  leave 
the  fascinations  of  intellectual  encounter  and  closet 
himself  for  a  lifelong  drudgery.  The  mind,  roused  to 
its  utmost  endeavor  in  the  study,  droops  in  the  draw- 
ing-room. "  While  other  men  in  society  abandon 
their  whole  souls  to  the  topics  of  the  moment,"  says 
William  Mathews,  "and,  concentrating  their  energies, 
appear  keen  and  animated,  the  man  of  genius,  who 
has  stirred  the  vast  sea  of  human  hearts  by  liis  writ- 
ings, feels  a  languor  and  prostration  arising  from  the 
secret  toil  of  thought ;  and  it  is  only  when  he  has  re- 
cruited his  energies  by  relaxation  and  repose,  and  is 
once  more  in  his  study,  surrounded  by  those  master 
spirits  with  whom  he  has  so  often  held  celestial  col- 
oquy  sublime,  that  his  soul  rekindles  with  enthusiasm, 
and  pours  itself  on  paper  in  thoughts  that  breathe  and 
words  that  burn." 

All  work  which  benefits  our  fellows  is  entitled  to 
recognition  and  remuneration,  but  literary  work  per- 
formed solely  for  such  recognition  or  remuneration  is 
seldom  beneficial  to  them.  It  is  not  instructive  to  tell 
people  what  they  like  to  hear  rather  than  what  is 
true.  It  is  quite  different,  living  to  write  and  writing 
to  live.  "The  want  of  money,"  says  Hammerton,  "is 
in  the  higher  intellectual  pursuits  the  most  common 
hindrance  to  thoroughness  and  excellence  of  work." 
If  a  man  can  write  honestly  and  nobly,  and  can  find 
men  who  will  buy  his  efforts,  let  him  receive  his  pay 
as  the  price  of  precious  merchandise ;  but  to  counter- 
feit opinion  and  principle  for  pecuniary  or  other  reward 
is  to  prostitute  the  soul,  a  crime  as  much  greater  than 
the  prostitution  of  the  body  as  the  soul  is  above  the 

Essays  and  Miscellany      12 


178  BATTRE   LE   FER  SUR  L'ENCLUME. 

body.  Indeed,  such  artifice  almost  always  betrays 
the  author;  the  hypocrite  seldom  long  deceives  in 
literature  any  more  than  elsewhere. 

The  ordinary  incentives  to  literary  effort  are  found 
less  in  the  promptings  of  necessity  and  profit  than  in 
pleasure,  fame.  These,  or  any  one  of  them,  are  linked 
with  a  desire  to  say  something  to  which  the  world 
will  listen,  a  desire  to  give  expression  to  pent-up 
thought,  to  find  outlet  for  the  surcharged  heart  or 
brain. 

Love  of  distinction  is  but  a  love  of  self,  and  though 
it  sometimes  spurs  the  ardent  aspirer  to  greater  inter- 
est in  mankind,  and  thence  to  generous  sacrifices,  self 
still  is  the  song  and  the  refrain.  He  who  looks  for 
a  reward  for  his  labor,  other  than  that  which  satisfies 
the  highest  aspirations  of  the  soul  and  fills  the  mind 
with  fragrant  thoughts,  is  apt  to  meet  with  dis- 
appointment. Unlike  base  earthly  soil,  it  is  only  in 
the  bestowal  that  love's  field  is  fertilized ;  a  recompense 
required,  and  the  garden  moisture  turns  to  ice.  He 
who  lives  the  intellectual  life  finds  his  reward  not 
abroad,  but  in  being  ;  he  finds  solace  not  in  what  men 
say  of  him,  but  in  what  he  knows  of  himself  His 
happiness  is  in  ever  drawing  nearer  that  supreme  in- 
telligence which  he  is  destined  never  fully  to  attain. 

If  happiness  be  the  end  of  life  the  question  is  how 
most  successfully  to  pursue  it.  He  who  is  always 
thinking  of  his  happiness  is  never  happy.  The  healthy 
man  is  one  who  is  never  notified  by  his  lungs  or  liver 
that  all  is  well  with  him  to-day.  He  knows  not  that  he 
has  an  organism.  He  who  would  write  and  be  happy  in 
it,  must  not  write  for  happiness,  for  fame,  for  fortune ; 
must  write,  not  as  a  means  to  an  end,  but  as  finding  the 
end  in  the  means.  Pursue  pleasure  and  you  will  never 
find  it;  pursue  duty  and,  whether  it  be  pleasing  or 
not,  much  pleasure  may  be  taken  on  the  wing.  We 
all  desire  happiness,  and  yet  so  perverse  and  foolish 
are  we,  that  unless  secured  in  our  own  way  we  prefer 
being:  miserable.     The  miser  does  not  wish  to  be  made 


LOVE   OF   FAME.  179 

happy  by  giving,  nor  the  drunkard  by  abstinence.  It 
is  through  the  indulgence  of  those  things  which  bring 
us  woe  that  we  wish  to  achieve  happiness,  else  we 
prefer  to  hug  our  misery.  Quiet,  health-producing 
wisdom  renders  ardent  temperaments  only  the  more 
impatient. 

Up  to  his  twentieth  year  it  had  been  the  life  object 
of  John  Stuart  Mill  to  be,  as  he  expressed  it,  a  re- 
former of  the  world.  Such  careful  training  had  he 
received  from  his  father  that  he  was  then  the  equal 
of  most  scholars  at  forty.  One  dull,  insipid  day  he 
asked  himself  "  Suppose  all  my  objects  in  life  were 
realized,  would  I  be  glad  of  it  ?  "  And  the  irrepres- 
sible "No,"  that  followed  shivered  his  ideal  structure. 
He  thought  himself  living  for  an  end ;  he  found  him- 
self living  only  for  present  gratification. 

Nevertheless,  whatever  the  other  promptings,  the 
desire  for  fame  is  undoubtedly  present  with  the  writer. 
Says  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  ''The  desire  for  fame 
is  one  of  the  highest  by  which  man  is  actuated."  And 
again:  ''I  can  conceive  of  nothing  grander  than  the 
love  of  fame  by  which  so  many  are  governed."  Such 
words  seem  at  variance  with  purity  of  ambition  or 
elevation  of  feeling,  for  next  to  money  fame  per  se  is 
the  lowest  incentive  to  effort. 

What  to  the  dead  Achilles  in  his  gloomy  prison 
house  should  be  the  thought  of  the  unfading  glory 
that  was  to  illumine  his  name,  while  in  life,  to  Ulysses, 
who  essayed  him  comfort,  he  made  answer  that  he 
would  rather  be  a  churl's  slave  within  the  sunlight 
than  lord  of  a  universe  of  the  dead. 

''A  man's  conviction  that  justice  will  be  done  to 
him  in  history,"  says  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  ''is  a  second- 
ary motive,  and  not  one  which  of  itself  will  compel 
him  to  do  just  and  great  things."  Goethe  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life  was  apparently  as  indifferent  to 
fame  as  he  was  impervious  to  flattery.  Probably  he 
had  had  enough  of  both. 

Campbell  professed  to  care  nothing  for  his  reputa- 


]80  BATTRE  LE   FER   SUR  L'EN€LUME. 

tion  as  a  prose-writer,  and  appeared  careless  of  fame 
even  in  regard  to  his  poetry.  To  a  Life  of  Mrs  Sid- 
dons  and  a  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence^  the  name  of 
"T.  Campbell  Esq."  was  put  as  author,  though  that 
ease-loving  genius  had  little  else  to  do  with  the  books 
than  to  look  over  the  proof  sheets  as  they  passed 
through  the  press. 

But  though  fame  is  not  the  highest  incentive  to 
literary  work,  it  is  as  high  as  most  of  us  aspire  to. 
As  the  younger  Pliny  expresses  it:  "Alius  alium, 
ego  beatissimum  existimo,  qui  house  mansuraeque 
famse  prsesumptione  perfruitur,  certusque  posteritatis 
cum  futura  gloria  vivit." 

As  a  rule  he  who  prints  a  book  professing  indiffer- 
ence to  literary  fame  is  a  simpleton  and  a  hypocrite, 
even  though  he  lack  the  discrimination  to  perceive 
his  own  motives,  and  though  honest  in  his  assevera- 
tions of  indifference  to  public  praise.  So  coy  and 
prudish  may  be  his  blushing  modesty,  that  he  sends 
forth  his  work  anonymously;  yet  the  omission  from 
the  title  page  of  the  author's  name  indicates  a  morbid 
sensibility  upon  the  subject,  which  points  to  egotism, 
affectation,  and  hankering  for  that  which  he  pretends 
to  despise.  For  if  his  anonymous  publication  secures 
praise,  is  he  not  proud  of  it,  and  does  he  not  tell  his 
friend,  and  finally  all  the  world  ? 

He  who  works  for  fame  alone  deserves  none ;  he 
who  is  wholly  indifferent  to  fame  is  already  near  the 
end  of  his  labors.  The  moment  a  person  finds  greater 
pleasure  in  praise  than  in  speaking  the  truth,  he  is 
fast  losing  his  principles,  if  he  ever  had  any.  Low  is 
the  standard  in  anything,  in  literature  no  less  than  in 
morality,  which  is  reached  and  governed  by  what 
people  will  say.  But  sham  prevails,  swaying  most  of. 
us,  although  we  know  its  glaring  transparency. 
^'  Fame  usually  comes  to  those  who  are  thinking 
about  something  else,"  says  Holmes.  Indeed,  he  who 
seeks  fame  can  soonest  find  it  by  forgetting  that  he 
seeks  it.     Duty  rather  than  praise  should  be  upper- 


INCENTIVE   TO   LITERARY   LABOR.  181 

most  in  the  mind  of  the  writer  ;  the  just  rather  than 
the  expedient.  Remember  also  that  Hterary  fame  is 
seldom  lasting  and  is  scarcely  worth  the  looking  after. 
*'  What  do  they  think  of  Tapper  ? "  asked  some  one  of 
Thackeray.  ''  They  do  not  think  of  Tapper,"  was 
the  reply. 

The  trae  writer  writes  not  alone  for  fame  or  for  money, 
he  writes  becaase  he  has  something  to  say.  Hanger 
is  the  incentive  anderlying  all  literary  activity.  Bodily 
hunger  has  produced  thousands  of  books;  mind  hun- 
ger, soul  hunger,  other  thousands. 

Poor  indeed  is  the  ambition  which  cannot  sink  self 
in  the  object  to  be  attained.  Such  is  political  ambi- 
tion, place-seeking,  whose  immediate  and  only  desire 
is  self-gratification.  Such  were  not  the  missionary 
fathers'  aspirations,  willing  to  wait  until  after  death 
for  their  reward.  Political  ambition  is  pure  selfish 
ness.  Yet  the  enthusiasm  of  politics  is  better  than 
stale,  flat  emptiness.  Above  this  is  the  ordinary 
traffic  of  the  hour,  in  w^hich  the  pencil-maker,  the 
clothier,  and  the  tobacconist,  more  solicitous  for  the 
reputation  of  his  wares  than  his  own,  spends  his  life 
in  improving  some  trick  or  method  which  he  may 
leave  as  an  heirloom  to  his  son.  A  forgetfulness  of 
self  is  the  direct  means  of  attaining  any  object,  even 
when  that  object  is  self-aggrandisement. 

There  is  somethhig  better  in  this  enigmatical  exist- 
ence of  ours  even  than  well-deserved  honor,  and  fairly 
earned  fame  ;  for  in  the  teachings  of  the  Christ  do  we 
not  read  that  in  good  deeds  it  is  w^ell  that  the  right 
hand  should  not  know  the  doings  of  the  left  ?  To 
embody  in  one's  self  the  good,  to  burn  away  all  hate- 
ful vice  which  as  Cicero  says,  though  it  were  con- 
cealed from  the  eyes  of  gods  and  men  is  most  per- 
nicious ;  to  hold  with  Seneca  that  nobleness  is  none 
the  less  noble  when  prostrate  in  the  dust;  or  with 
others  of  the  porch-philosophers  that  virtue  is  better 
than  fame,  and  that  if  a  man  does  well  it  matters 
little  whether  he  be  known  or  not . 


CHAPTER  IX. 


SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 


No  one,  indeed,  who  is  once  led  to  dwell  on  the  matter,  can  fail  to  see 
how  absurd  is  the  proposition  that  there  can  be  a  rational  interpretation  of 
men's  combined  actions,  without  a  rational  interpretation  of  those  thoughts 
and  feelings  by  which  their  individual  actions  are  prompted. 

— Herbert  Spencer. 

In  California  we  behold  the  achievements  of  an  in- 
telligent and  exceedingly  well-mixed  jDopulation  under 
conditions  nowhere  else  existing.  One  result  will  be  a 
people  on  this  coast  different  from  any  other  on  the 
globe.  The  chosen  specimen  of  manhood  from  among 
all  nations,  they  have  affirmed  their  exceptional  quali- 
ties by  achievements  both  novel  and  Titanic.  Ra- 
diating from  the  central  El  Dorado,  they  have  with 
unprecedented  rapidity  transformed  the  Pacific  slope 
from  a  w^ilderness  and  hunting-field  into  a  number  of 
flourishing  states,  and  have  assumed  the  role  of  civil- 
izing mediums  toward  Spanish  America  and  the  trans- 
oceanic Orient. 

The  combination  of  elements  so  powerful  was  ap- 
propriately effected  by  one  of  the  strongest  of 
attractions. 

All  men  love  money ;  some  for  money's  self,  others 
for  the  good  or  evil  that  money  will  accomplish.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  all  mankind,  crave  the  power  that 
money  contributes.  This  is  one  of  the  deep-seated 
impulses  everywhere  found  in  nature,  but  made  intel- 
ligible more  especially  in  the  mind  of  man.  God  is 
all-powerful ;  nature  is  an  eternity  of  contending 
forces;  the  lives  of  beasts  are  a  struggle  for  the  mas- 
tery, and  man  is  ever  in  the  fiercest  of  the  contest. 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  beginning  early  and  continuing 


THE  PRIMARY  INCENTIVE.  183 

late,  avarice  is  probably  the  strongest  constant  pas- 
sion that  finds  lodgment  in  the  human  breast.  It  is 
more  general,  being  so  far  as  we  can  discern  equally 
powerful  amongst  all  nations,  castes,  and  conditions  of 
men,  ruling  alike  savage  and  civilized,  young  and  old, 
high  and  low,  learned  and  ignorant.  The  London 
banker  covets  Nevada's  silver  not  less  than  the 
Asiatic  launderer;  pure  patriotism  demands  pay  for 
its  services  in  gold  as  persistently  as  the  commonest 
servitude;  piety  scorns  it  not,  and  even  philanthropy 
esteems  it  for  more  than  one  reason.  There  are  out- 
bursts of  passion  which  for  the  moment  tower  above 
avarice,  but  there  is  no  flame  whicli  burns  so  uniformly 
hot  and  steady.  Love  often  rises  superior  to  lucre, 
but  is  sure  in  the  end  to  sink  beneath  it.  And  so 
with  religious  enthusiasm,  mind-culture,  and  every 
other  appetite  and  ambition,  however  conspicuous 
they  may  appear  above  the  often  hidden  main  incen- 
tive. Love  of  gold  alone  is  all-powerful,  and  will  so 
continue  as  long  as  gold  remains  the  embodiment  of 
human  good  and  human  greed. 

While  not  in  itself  lovely  or  lovable,  the  yellow 
metal  is  so  intimately  associated  in  our  minds  with 
the  gratification  of  our  desires  as  the  means  for  ac- 
quiring the  lovable  and  pleasurable,  that  we  learn  to 
love  it  for  itself.  The  miser  willingly  denies  himself 
the  comfort  it  buys  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  possess- 
ing it.  So  with  love  of  power  and  love  of  praise. 
Seeking  these  first  for  the  benefits  in  their  train,  men 
soon  learn  to  love  them  for  their  own  sake  ;  like  the 
eater  of  opium,  who,  partaking  of  the  insidious  drug 
first  to  allay  the  pains  of  disease,  in  time  takes  it  for 
the  happiness  it  directly  gives.  With  rusting  millions 
write  they  their  names  with  faint  fingers  upon  the 
seashore  sands,  where  next  morning  their  more 
thoughtful  children  will  search  in  vain  for  any  trace 
of  them,  save  in  hoarded  wealth,  which  obscures 
rather  than  enhances  their  memory. 

Such  were  the  motives  actuating  the  early  comers 


184  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

to  California.  And  now  let  us  examine  the  nature  of 
the  material  for  nation-making  that  came ;  for  thus 
shall  we  gain  two  things,  a  knowledge  of  what  this 
society  now  is,  and  some  idea  of  what  it  will  be. 

Here  was  the  final  point  of  reunion  for  the  human 
race,  after  the  dispersion  on  the  plains  of  Asia,  when 
Aryans  turned  westward  on  their  tour  of  conquest 
and  colonization,  leaving  the  Tartars  to  follow  and  to 
overrun  the  celestial  and  Indian  empires.  Now  after 
a  journey  of  four  thousand  years,  during  which  time 
environment  has  been  actively  at  work,  coloring  mind 
and  warping  manners,  the  same  brotherhood,  though 
severally  changed  by  circumstances,  meet  upon  the 
shores  and  islands  of  the  Pacific,  meet  to  restore  the 
mental  equilibrium  of  the  race,  and  to  unify  society. 
No  human  event  since  the  parting  is  pregnant  with 
greater  importance  than  the  meeting. 

Incentive  was  added  to  the  influx  by,  the  expecta- 
tion of  easy  acquirement,  without  rendering  the  cus- 
tomary equivalent  in  time,  talents,  and  labor.  More- 
over, the  period  was  ripe  for  such  movements.  Steam 
had  elaborated  a  new  and  expeditious  means  for  span- 
ning the  oceans  and  overcoming  many  of  their  still  re- 
pellent monsters.  Political  turmoils  had  roused  the  se- 
date nations  of  Europe  to  deeds  and  enterprise,  and  im- 
bued the  youth  with  a  thirst  for  adventure.  In  north- 
ern America  the  westward  march  of  settlement  had 
been  given  fresh  impulse  by  the  conquest  of  Mex- 
ican border  lands.  Disbanded  soldiers  stood  eagerly 
prepared  to  enter  and  reap  the  result  of  their  achieve- 
ments, and  trappers  and  pioneers  had  opened  paths 
across  the  trackless  continent  to  a  land  already  famed 
as  flowing  with  milk  and  hone}^ 

Predominant  was  the  English-speaking  element — 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  and  brains  Americanized  by  a 
century  or  two  of  free  thought  and  untrammeled  ac- 
tivity. It  was  but  natural  that  the  masters  of  the 
soil,  by  conquest  and  gradual  pioneer  immigration, 
should  excel  in  number  as  well  as  influence.     Next  to 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  NATIONALITIES.  185 

the  Mexicans  they  were  nearest  to  the  borders,  with 
two  great  routes  at  their  command,  one  by  sea,  pro- 
vided with  all  essential  facilities,  the  other  by  land,  for 
which  they  above  all  other  nations  were  well  equipped. 
They  possessed,  moreover,  a  marked  advantage  over 
other  nationalities  for  migration  and  colonization,  by 
A'irtue  of  the  century-training  in  backwood  life,  and 
expansion  of  the  frontier  settlements  by  constant  ac- 
cessions from  the  seaboard  states.  Herein  they  had 
developed  the  practical  adaptability  and  self-reliance 
inherited  from  the  mother  race,  so  much  so  as  to 
surpass  even  that  so  far  preeminent  colonist  element. 

Of  the  English  themselves  and  their  character,  it 
is  not  necessary  here  to  speak  at  length.  The  repre- 
sentative Englishman  we  know  by  his  grave,  taciturn, 
meditative  demeanor,  his  strong  intellect,  his  big, 
burly,  awkward  frame,  and  his  overshadowing  egoism. 
We  know  him  by  his  sound  mind  soundly  bodied ;  by 
his  coarse  energy  bordering  on  brutality;  by  his  re- 
spect for  law,  for  conventionalities  and  traditions  ;  by 
his  hatred  of  cant,  and  his  love  of  fairness  even  in 
the  most  brutal  of  his  pastimes.  Having  a  keen  sense 
of  their  own  rights,  the  English  learn  to  respect  the 
rights  of  others — particularly  of  the  strong  and  well 
armed.  They  are  self-willed,  captious  in  their  criti- 
cisms, jealous  in  their  love  of  freedom,  firm  in  the 
maintainance  of  general  good  conduct.  In  their 
treatment  of  conquered  provinces,  rights  and  human- 
ity are  too  often  ignored,  and  while  pretending  to  the 
highest  benevolence  no  nation  has  ever  surpassed 
them  in  acts  of  injustice  and  cruelty.  Though  forc- 
ing a  deleterious  drug  on  some,  and  firing  others  out 
of  the  mouths  of  cannons,  they  nevertheless  were  the 
first  to  take  active  measures  for  the  abolition  of  human 
slavery,  and  many  other  good  works.  Their  mer- 
chants are  noted  for  fair  dealing,  their  statesmen  for 
a  love  of  right,  and  their  women  for  virtue.  Of  all 
nations  they   best  know  themselves,  and  are   by  no 


186  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

means  disposed  to  place  a  low   estimate  upon  their   _ 
mental  or  physical  capabilities.     They  have  produced  I 
some  of  the   greatest  men  of  genius  the  world  has    ■ 
ever  seen,  and  more  of  them  than  any  other  people. 
They  are  an  exceedingly  busy  people.     As  Montes- 
quieu says  of  them,  "ils  n'ont  pas  le  temps  d'etre  polls." 
Being  great  eaters  of  flesh,  they  are  somewhat  fero- 
cious for  a  well-tamed  people.     Clearness  of  compre- 
hension characterizes  all  their  investigations;  utility, 
and  strength,  the  products  of  their  hands.     Into  their 
manufactured  articles  they  put  thought  and  substance 
as  well  as  finish,  and  the  consequence  is  that  in  every 
shop  and  household  in  Christendom,  on  every  table, 
and  in  every  wardrobe,  we  find  something  English. 

The  British  are  a  kingly  race.  A  fifth  of  the  globe 
and  of  its  inhabitants  they  claim,  and  they  have  not 
a  little  to  say  about  affairs  and  the  general  manage- 
ment of  things  on  this  planet.  Broader  in  their  pos- 
sessions than  Borne  in  her  palmiest  days,  they  are 
stronger  than  Spain  ever  was,  because  more  intelligent 
and  free.  Holding  money  and  life  in  as  high  estima- 
tion as  most  other  people,  there  are  yet  with  them 
sentiments  higher  than  these.  Bather  by  their  char- 
acter, than  by  force  of  arms,  they  give  direction  to 
the  polities  of  half  the  world. 

These  English  traits  were  in  a  measure  common 
with  the  Americanized  Englishman.  There  were  no 
greater  number  of  real  Englishmen  in  California  than 
of  several  other  nationalities ;  not  so  many  as  of  Irish 
or  of  Germans.  Yet  there  were  more  than  was 
apparent  on  the  surface;  for  speaking  the  same  lan- 
guage as  that  of  the  New  Englander,  the  southerner, 
the  western  border  man,  there  was  less  to  distinguish 
the  Englishman  from  the  Anglo-American,  more  es- 
pecially as  Californians,  of  whatsoever  nationality, 
soon  dropped  into  ways  of  their  own  which  blinded 
the  observer  more  or  less  as  to  their  origin  and  early 
life. 

The   British   colonies    contributed   largely    to  the 


EUROPEANS   AND   AMERICANS.  187 

population  of  California  ;  but  among  these  were  Irish 
and  Scotch  as  well  as  English  ;  yet  they  were  usually 
regarded  as  one  family.  Furthermore,  the  colonial 
element,  being  made  up  largely  of  a  criminal  class 
from  the  British  penal  settlements,  was  not  regard- 
ed as  permanent  inhabitants.  Some  few  of  them 
did  indeed  avail  themselves  of  this  new  apportion- 
ment of  providence,  became  respectable  citizens,  re- 
mained with  us  and  found  that  where  honesty  was 
within  the  reach  of  all,  demanding  so  little  sacrifice 
from  its  votaries,  requiring  of  them  to  be  but  reasona- 
bly correct,  to  be  only  superficially  or  pharisaically 
honest ;  finding  it  so  easy  to  be  called  great  and  good, 
and  profitable  withal,  they  placed  themselves  on  the 
Lord's  side,  and  became  loudest  in  the  denunciation 
of  their  old  master  the  devil.  Indeed,  if  many  a  good 
man  has  been  hurried  to  perdition  from  California, 
many  a  bad  one  has  ascended  thence  to  heaven. 

Next  to  the  English-speaking  population  in  Cali- 
fornia, in  early  days,  were  the  Spanish-speaking,  native 
Californians,  Mexicans,  and  South  Americans.  But 
these  too,  like  the  uncongenial  elements  from  British 
penal  colonies,  were  not  destined  to  remain  perma- 
nently, nor  to  any  great  extent  to  mix  their  blood 
with  that  of  fresher  arrivals  from  Europe,  and  from 
the  eastern  United  States,  in  the  engendering  of  this 
new  nation.  The  new  comers  were  too  shrewd  for 
them,  too  unscrupulous.  They  beat  them  at  nionte, 
they  surpassed  them  at  cattle-stealing,  at  whiskey- 
drinking  ;  they  swindled  them  out  of  their  lands,  se- 
duced their  wives  and  daughters,  and  played  the  mis- 
chief generally.  They  were  a  wicked  lot.  Harassed 
and  chagrined,  many  of  these  children  of  the  Latin 
race  gave  the  land  over  to  the  philistines,  and  de- 
parted for  countries  where  wits  were  tamer,  and  early 
rising  unfashionable.  But  out  of  no  such  precarious 
or  coarse  fabric  as  this  mongrel  stock  was  to  be  spun 
the  warp  and  woof  of  our  new  civilization.     There 


188  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

were  Spaniards  of  pure  blood,  with  their  families  al- 
ready upon  the  ground,  destined  to  exercise  no  small 
influence  in  the  formation  of  the  government,  and  in 
the  assimilations  of  society,  but  these  were  far  differ- 
ent material  from  the  dusky,  mixed  breeds,  which  dur- 
ing the  past  centuries  have  prevailed  largely 
throughout  the  Spanish-speaking  territories  in  the 
two  Americas. 

After  these  I  would  place  in  numerical  order  the 
Germans,  French,  cockney  English,  and  Italians,  with 
a  fair  peppering  of  black  men.  Of  Scandinavian  and 
Slavonic  stocks  there  were  not  so  many.  Asiatics,  and 
South  Sea  islanders  varied  in  number  from  originally 
few  to  latterly  more  than  any  other  one  race. 
Hawaiian  islanders  were  plentiful  at  first,  but  too 
tender  for  the  rough  morals  which  obtained  here  at 
that  time. 

None  of  the  dark-skinned  peoples  have,  from  paucity 
of  number  or  lack  of  recognition,  been  able  to  leave  any 
marked  impression  on  the  social  mixture.  Selfish  in 
his  pride  of  race,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  apt  to  scan 
closely  any  differentiation.  While  welcoming  freely 
even  low  classes  so  long  as  they  are  white,  he  shrinks 
from  the  dusky  hue  which  he  has  been  taught  to 
despise  in  the  abject  subordination  and  mental  infe- 
riority of  the  African  and  Indian.  Hence  he  also  held 
aloof  from  the  first  from  the  Mongolian,  and  when 
the  latter  displayed  his  caliber  in  remaining  at  the 
mudsill  and  back  door,  the  aversion  grew.  Political 
and  economic  reasons  have  widened  the  gulf,  and  the 
celestial  dwells  here  a  stranger,  to  add  his  leaven  only 
as  an  industrial  factor.  The  Indian  does  not  wield 
even  this  influence,  exiled  as  he  is  to  secluded  reserva- 
tions, or  hovering  an  outcast  along  the  frontier  settle- 
ments.    The  negro  rests  content  in  his  assigned  sphere. 

For  conspicuous  traits  and  effects  we  must  look  to 
the  inherited  or  adopted  characteristics  of  the  Teuton 
and  Latin  races.     We  love,  and  our  older  brothers  of 


COMPARATIVE   QUALITIES.  189 

England  love,  to  draw  comparisons  and  parade  each 
their  fancied  superiority.  I  must  confess  I  fail  to 
distinguish  the  radical  differences  many  would  make 
apparent.  In  physique  we  of  the  newer  England 
have  been  made  somewhat  thinner  and  keener-edged 
by  reason  of  our  assiduous  striving  ;  while  they  of  the 
ancient  isle,  fattened  under  the  paternal  roof,  and 
made  less  zealous  by  fewer  ambitions,  fewer  responsi- 
bilities, assume  sleeker  and  more  oily  proportions. 
Likewise  with  the  swelling  of  their  bodies  their  minds 
became  somewhat  inflated,  while  we  of  the  untamed 
west,  whatever  our  successes,  have  been  kept  humble 
by  the  very  magnitude  of  our  ventures,  and  by  the 
democratic  influence  of  the  back-woods. 

As  for  our  national  brag,  I  think  we  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans may  justly  assert  that  the  characteristic  energy 
and  penchant  for  utility  of  our  forefathers  has  not 
diminished  in  our  hands.  As  in  a  new  country  there 
is  always  more  room  for  the  exercise  of  native  skill 
and  enterprise  than  in  satisfied  societies  with  fixed 
habits,  so  we  may  safely  claim  to  have  employed 
faculties  of  no  mean  order,  in  no  mean  manner.  We 
do  not,  however,  now  as  formerly  claim  all  the  ad- 
vance made  during  this  nineteenth  century,  but  we 
are  willing  to  give  England,  France,  and  Germany 
their  share  of  credit.  Great  were  our  expectations 
and  great  our  realizations ;  as  instanced  by  the  un- 
paralleled growth  and  prosperity  of  the  republic,  the 
acquired  excellence  in  so  many  branches  of  industry, 
and  the  success  of  democratic  government — shining 
examples  in  all  their  essential  features  to  the  strug- 
gling masses  of  the  world.  Even  the  bloody  struggle 
of  the  union  war  taught  a  lesson  in  pointing  to  the 
bravery  and  perseverance  with  which  principle  was 
upheld,  the  moderation  with  which  victory  was  cele- 
brated, and  the  admirable  recuperation  following  so 
great  a  struggle. 

Innumerable  senseless  forms  in  government,  law, 
ethics,  and  everv-dav   intercourse  we  have  to  some 


190  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

extent  eliminated,  and  there  are  many  more  which 
a  progressive  people  might  dispense  with  ;  but  super- 
stition elsewhere  has  likewise  been  on  the  wane.  Ours 
are  not  the  only  eyes  from  which  have  dropped  scales 
during  these  latter  days. 

Religion,  or  rather  the  lack  of  it,  is  having  its  influ- 
ence on  California,  no  less  than  race  agglutinations. 
Puritanism,  the  little  of  it  that  left  New  England, 
evaporated  before  reaching  these  shores,  or  else  dwin- 
dled into  cant,  and  was  quickly  expelled  from  good 
society.  Sectarians  put  on  a  new  face,  and  spoke  low. 
Orthodoxy  began  to  ask  questions,  and  many  gave  up 
praying  as  senseless  and  unprofitable.  Even  Catholi- 
cism had  to  reform  its  diet,  finding  the  richer  food  of 
fatted  superstitions  ill-agreeing  with  the  new  organism. 
The  skies  of  California  were  too  clear  for  the  old 
mystic  credulity,  and  its  air  too  pure  to  harbor  unseen 
hobgoblins.  Hell  was  brought  to  the  surface  of 
things,  where  all  might  analyze,  and  then  embrace  or 
avoid  according  to  inclination  or  character.  Heaven 
dropped  from  the  skies,  and  mapped  its  celestial  city 
in  the  human  heart,  showing  its  presence  by  clearness 
of  eyes,  and  by  honest  speech. 

But  with  our  wide  freedom  of  thought,  and  our 
spirit  of  toleration,  we  have  opened  the  door  to  divers 
isms  which  creep  snake-like  about  the  heels  of  progress. 
For  the  most  part  they  are  fangless,  however,  and 
scarcely  worth  the  trouble  of  crushing.  It  is  a  great 
comfort  to  most  men  to  make  fools  of  themselves  in 
some  way;  and  however  sickening  to  sensitive  minds 
may  be  spiritualism,  salvationism,  free-loveism,  and 
the  rest,  they  are  here  regarded  as  the  foul  wayside 
beast  which  the  traveller,  who  holds  his  breath  while 
passing,  quickly  leaves  behind.  The  true  philanthro- 
pist, the  liberty  lover,  the  promoter  of  tolerant  ideas, 
may  here  find  work  enough  to  do  without  doing  battle 
upon  those  social  ulcerations  which  erratic  physicians 
delight  in.  Better  to  give  attention  to  the  abnormities 
resulting  from  indiscriminate  admission  of  low  foreio^n 


AMERICANS  IN  VARIATIONS.  191 

elements  into  the  population  and  participation  in  the 
government ;  from  the  expansion  of  monopolies  which 
suck  the  life-blood  out  of  the  people;  and  from  the 
opposing  organizations  which,  in  their  blind  hostility, 
threaten  to  involve  the  country  in  disorders. 

Herein  may  be  sought  one  reason  for  the  spirit  of 
discontent  which  marks  the  character  of  the  Ameri- 
canized Englishman, as  contrasted  with  his  former  self- 
satisfaction  over  the  water.  This  is  particularly 
observable  in  his  social  aspirations.  He  is  less  in  love 
with  his  home,  with  the  family  mansion  and  its  sur- 
roundings, particularly  if  it  be  dilapidated,  and  without 
revenue,  takes  less  pride  in  the  family  portraits,  espe- 
cially in  faded  photographs,  and  in  family  plate,  which 
is  too  often  pewter.  He  wishes  to  make  his  mark  in 
the  world,  and  is  not  so  particular  as  to  its  color  or 
significance,  so  long  as  it  is  loud  and  glaring.  Old 
customs  he  cares  little  for,  and  still  less  for  old  cos- 
tumes. In  buying  and  selling  he  likes  quick  trans- 
actions, preferring  often  a  ready  money  loss  to  a 
long-winded  profit.  The  Anglo-American  is  the 
Anglo-Saxon  retorted  and  galvanized. 

The  Yankee,  with  his  practical  sagacity  and  enter- 
prise, seasoned  by  a  Puritanic  spirit,  and  sustained  by 
the  bracing  and  frugal  training  of  a  less  indulgent 
environment,  finds  a  stronger  contrast  in  the  south- 
erner, with  his  tinge  of  affectation  and  chivalry,  inher- 
ited to  some  degree  from  the  French  colonist  neighbor, 
and  with  the  Creole  indolence  born  of  a  warmer  climate 
and  pernicious  slavery.  A  representation  of  this  type 
is  the  Virginian. 

Without  the  tincture  of  chivalry  from  Virginia,  the 
social  mixture  in  California  would  have  been,  perhaps, 
more  muddy  and  mercenary  than  it  was.  F.  F.  V.'s, 
first  families  of  Virginia,  every  one  of  these  dubious 
scions  dubbed  himself  So  numerous  were  claimants 
to  this  distniction  that  one  could  but  wonder  if  all  the 
families  of  Virginia  were  first;  for  if  the  immigrant 
had  been  reared  in  a  pigsty,  and  was  unable  to  write 


192  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

his  name,  he  still  swore  his  blood  was  blue,  while  his 
breath  told  of  its  alcoholic  warmth.  Brave  as  were 
the  Californians,  there  were  none  so  daring  as  to  deny 
to  any  the  right  of  nominating  himself  F.  F.  V. 

It  was  from  the  withered  and  unseasoned  hope  of 
the  Spendthrift  Fathers  of  fifty  years  ago  that  Cali- 
fornia derived  many  of  her  first  families.  Sons  of 
silk-stockinged  sires,  powdered  and  peruked  old  fel- 
lows, in  buff  vest,  ruffled  shirt,  top  boots,  and  shorts, 
of  noonda}^  toddy -takers,  of  blood  boasters  pugilistic- 
ally  proud  of  their  lineage  and  of  themselves,  the 
young  men  from  both  north  and  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  came  hither,  bringing  with  them  a  crush- 
ing courtesy  which  savored  strongly  of  rum,  tobacco, 
saltpetre,  and  the  stable.  Their  politeness  was  quite 
different  from  the  French  article ;  it  was  more  sincere, 
more  real,  but  less  artistic  and  finished.  Their  tongue 
betrayed  their  several  places  of  birth,  and  though  they 
called  themselves  educated,  their  knowledge  had  not 
much  learning  in  it.  Their  culture  had  been  empiri- 
cal, and  their  manner  was  now  provincial.  There 
had  been  hitherto  nothing:  broad  or  Parisian  in  their 
experiences,  and  their  conceptions  of  greatness  were 
narrowed  to  an  idea.  To  have  been  born  in  this  place 
or  that  was  good  luck  enough  for  any  man;  and  ex- 
cept, unfortunately,  their  native  land  was  part  of  the 
world,  they  might  decline  relationship  with  the  re- 
mainder of  the  race. 

If  this  intense  egotism  and  provincial  vanity  can  be 
called  patriotism,  then  was  this  somewhat  small  and 
select  class  patriotic.  They  might  travel,  but  not 
without  carrying  their  birth-place  with  them,  and  if 
their  whole  state  was  too  much  for  the  measure  of 
their  intellect,  then  a  piece  of  it,  the  particular  and 
hallowed  dirt  out  of  which  they  were  made,  would  do. 
Yet  wherever  they  went,  all  the  world  must  know 
where  they  were  from. 

These  scions  of  decayed  gentility  were  themselves 
a  little  seedy  in  California.     Though  their  manners 


SOME  PHASES   OF  CHARACTER.  193 

never  left  tliem  so  long  as  they  were  sober,  their 
clothes  sometimes  did.  As  they  were  not  equal  to 
Yankee  shrewdness  in  traffic,  and  being  constitution- 
ally opposed  to  manual  labor,  the  black  coat  and 
gloves  which  they  had  brought  from  home  soon  be- 
came shabby,  and  in  due  time  a  gray  flannel  shirt  was 
not  unacceptable. 

In  common  with  all  first-comers,  most  of  them  were 
obliged  to  go  to  the  mines.  To  root  the  ground  like 
a  rat,  and  cook  beans  like  a  wench  were  fearful  humil- 
iations, but  unavoidable.  It  was  gold  and  not  ruta- 
bagas they  dug;  and  work  over,  was  there  not  pleasure 
to  be  pursued  in  cards,  horse-racing,  and  Sunday  pis- 
tolings  and  bowie-knife  practice? 

What  many  of  them  delighted  in,  what  nature,  in 
his  own  estimation,  had  best  fitted  them  for,  was  to 
filU  public  offices.  Ask  one  of  them  what  business  he 
best  understood,  and  with  Diogenes  he  would  answer, 
"How  to  command  men."  The  judicial  bench  he  de- 
lighted in.  He  found  it  better  to  tend  jail  than  to 
herd  swine.  The  legislative  hall,  with  a  flush  lobby, 
and  scores  of  axe-grinding  rooms  contiguous,  witii 
free  liquors  and  cigars,  was  not  the  most  disagreeable 
of  places  during  the  muddy  winter ;  nor  did  he  disdain 
the  gubernatorial  chair.  He  was  born  to  rule,  and 
the  chief  utility  of  the  rest  of  the  race  was  to  live 
that  they  might  be  ruled  b}^  him.  To  smoke,  and 
talk,  to  swear  politely,  and  swing  his  dirk  gracefully, 
to  sit  benignly  in  all  the  lucrative  places  of  honor  and 
trust,  were  the  chief  ends  of  man  in  California. 

Unfortunately  for  this  class  the  Pike  county  miner 
and  the  New  England  trader,  the  men  of  Sydney,  of 
Asia,  and  of  Tipperary  did  not  wish  to  be  bothered 
with  a  too  gentlemanly  jurisprudence  or  excessive 
society  rules  during  their  dusty  scramble.  They  had 
no  use  for  a  master.  They  v/anted  gold,  not  govern- 
ment. So  the  American  nobleman,  finding  his  occu- 
pation gone,  was  constrained  to  remove  his  shabby 
black  coat  and  kid  gloves  and  go  to  work.     But  when 

Essays  and  Miscellany     13 


194  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

digging  grew  unprofitable,  uninteresting,  and  monoton- 
ous ;  or,  rather,  the  moment  he  was  able,  he  bought 
a  new  coarse  white  shirt,  resumed  his  shiny  black 
coat,  thin  tight  boots,  and  shabby  gloves,  and  mount- 
ing a  city-bound  stage  again  sought  a  position  where 
he  might  fulfil  his  high  destiny. 

But  with  all  their  intense  egoism  and  patriotism, 
this  class  did  much  for  California.  Those  from  the 
south  brought  in  their  true  chivalry  and  laid  it  beside 
the  ill-favored  beast,  avarice.  They  brought  us 
genuine,  though  somewhat  slovenly  politeness,  and 
laid  it  beside  the  counterfeit  though  highly  polished 
French  article.  They  brought  in  deep  human  sym- 
pathy, which  had  it  been  broader  would  have  been 
Christ-like. 

The  true  American  man,  from  whatever  quarter, 
displays  kindness  and  consideration  in  many  ways, 
and  his  words  are  not  hollow.  He  has  his  own  notions 
of  thrift  and  labor,  and  he  is  not  ostentatious  in  his 
morals ;  on  the  other  hand  his  features  are  not  con- 
torted by  prudish  piety,  and  if  he  has  less  of  the 
form  of  charity  than  Spaniards,  we  find  in  him  more 
of  the  substance.  Without  the  treacherous  simplicity 
of  the  Mexican  he  can  save  himself  from  imposition ; 
he  can  exercise  shrewdness  without  meanness.  If 
the  Mexican  cheats  you  of  your  money  he  does  it  in 
a  gentle  way,  such  as  borrowing  without  any  idea  of 
ever  returning.  He  will  lend  to  you  with  equal  lib- 
erality— if  he  has  it,  which  is  seldom  the  case;  but 
no  matter  how  needy,  he  will  not  stoop  to  the  low 
tricks  of  law-abiding  swindlers. 

To  California  the  Virginian  brought  with  his  vast 
store  of  unwritten  politics  his  Richmond  Wliig  and  his 
Richmond  Enquirer,  which  he  read  and  quoted  as  in- 
disputable authorities  on  all  points  of  law,  religion, 
and  social  ethics.  So  long  as  science  and  holy  writ 
did  not  run  counter  to  the  assertions  of  these  journals 
they  might  be  believed,  but  not  longer.  The  authors 
o^  the   bible  were  not  Yir<xinians,  and  all  there  was 


FIRST  FAMILIES   OF  VIRGINIA.  195 

in  science  the  Richmond  journals  knew  and  told;  if 
the  sun  rose  contrary  to  their  calculations,  there  was 
something  wrong  about  the  sun;  it  surely  had  made 
some  mistake  in  its  reckoning. 

Moreover,  for  the  patriots  Virginia  has  given  to  the 
commonwealth,  our  country  should  be  grateful.  Her 
orators  and  statesmen  were  of  a  higher  order  than 
those  from  any  other  quarter.  They  were  more  mag- 
nanimous, more  purely  patriotic,  less  selfish,  less  hypo- 
critical and  mercenary,  were  manly  and  noble.  She  has 
always  talked  wisely  and  well,  better  in  fact  than  she 
has  done.  But  her  dilatoriness  in  action  was  not  the 
result  of  deceit,  but  rather  of  indifference  to  money 
and  material  progress. 

In  regard  to  their  social  propensities  the  Virginians 
were  the  same  in  California  as  at  home,  eminently 
humane,  hospitable,  and  companionable.  And  by 
nature  no  less  than  by  training  were  they  proficient 
in  the  art  of  pleasing,  high-spirited,  and  sensitive  as 
to  their  reputation  under  the  code,  though  exceptions 
might  be  taken  to  some  of  their  ethical  forms  and 
doctrines.  Most  admirable  in  them  is  the  genuine- 
ness of  their  character.  Imperfect  as  it  may  be  in 
many  respects,  they  are  never  ashamed  of  it,  nor  do 
they  try  to  hide  or  color  any  part  of  it. 

Of  all  men,  most  reverential  were  the  Virginians; 
reverent  as  to  law,  divinity,  medicine,  and  all  the  old 
customs  and  traditions.  It  is  natural  to  those  who 
are  courteous  and  considerate  toward  humanity  to  be 
courteous  and  considerate  in  regard  to  all,  human  and 
divine.  All  things  in  the  eyes  of  the  reverential  man 
are  reverential.  In  California  the  law,  though  weak, 
was  worshipful ;  the  doctor's  pill-bag  was  worshipful ; 
and  so  was  the  minister's  desk,  the  monte-dealer's 
table,  and  the  counter  over  which  fiery  comforts  were 
dispensed.  The  free-and-easy  female  flower  of  the 
city  or  camp  was  a  Dulcinea  del  Toboso,  beside  whose 
virtue  that  of  no  one  was  more  stainless.  All  women 
were  angels;  and  if  some  were   fallen,  all  the  more 


196  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

need  had  they  of  a  kind  word  from  a  live  gentleman. 
The  Virginian  in  California,  or  elsewhere,  was  never 
a  quack,  charlatan,  or  sham. 

To  California  the  Virginians  were  sugar  rather  than 
salt.  They  acted  as  a  fine  flavor  to  a  new  settlement, 
but  as  practical  pioneers  they  were  inferior  to  worse 
men.  Their  early  isolation,  remote  from  any  of  the 
world's  great  highways  of  traffic,  their  lack  of  business 
experience,  their  credulity,  which  made  them  believe 
all  men  as  honorable  as  themselves,  their  habits,  tastes, 
and  training,  and  the  rosy  hues  in  which  their  sanguine 
temperament  colored  schemes  and  speculations,  made 
them  an  easy  prey  at  once  to  their  own  illusions,  and 
to  the  snares  of  designing  men. 

At  the  heels  of  aspiring  Irishmen  clung  closely  a 
quality  which,  partaking  of  little  of  their  good  charac- 
teristics, displays  to  excess  their  inferior  traits,  and  by 
virtue  of  its  services  in  the  political  field  clamors  loudly 
for  a  share  in  the  spoils.  The  Celts,  so  all-pervading 
in  the  United  States,  brought  to  the  Pacific  coast 
their  pugnacious  as  well  as  vivacious  mind,  their  ener- 
getic but  also  boisterous  disposition.  On  the  farm 
they  contribute  an  admirable  quota  to  development, 
but  a  large  proportion  lingers  unfortunately  in  the 
towns  to  pollute  the  political  arena,  and  to  form  in  the 
low  outskirts  a  social  quagmire  whence  spreads  foul 
disorders.  The  pungency  of  the  Irish  element  per- 
vades too  strongly  even  its  many  commendable  fea- 
tures to  make  it  so  desirable  as  those  from  the  other 
adjoining  nationalities  of  Europe. 

Kousseau,  who  seems  troubled  that  the  English 
should  prove  so  proud,  pronounces  the  French  vain. 
"L' Anglais  a  les  prejuges  de  Torgueil"  he  says,  ^'et 
les  Francais  ceux  de  la  vanite."  From  which  one 
would  infer  that  this  most  chaste  Swiss  believed  the 
pride  of  the  English  to  rest  upon  something  while  that 
of  the  French  did  not. 

Now  the  English  no  doubt  are  a  solid  nation,  disa- 


THE  MERCURIAL  GAUL.  197 

greeably  substantial  sometimes,  and  the  French  are 
superficial,  effervescent,  inconstant,  fascinatingly  so. 
Yet  as  this  life  goes,  more  particularly  as  life  in  Cali- 
fornia is  shaping  itself,  we  could  not  get  along  without 
the  qualities  supplied  only  by  the  mercurial  Gaul.  We 
do  not  want  our  mundane  existence  all  cast  iron  and 
stone.  Give  us  a  little  of  the  gilt  and  glitter  that 
please  children  withal,  and  let  our  sunshine  be  softened 
by  something  less  gloomy  and  opaque  than   London 

fog- 

The  world  of  humanity  has  been  divided  by  certain 
home-fed  philosophers  into  two  parts,  human  nature 
and  French  nature.  Now,  if  the  Gallic  people,  in  their 
rapidity  of  thought,  their  inflammable,  tumultuous 
activity,  their  caprices,  inconsistencies,  and  contradic- 
tions, display  a  variegated  whole  which  might  be  called 
a  distinct  species  of  human  nature,  that  species  is  re- 
quired in  California,  where  we  are  planting  a  new  and 
complete  civilization.  If  the  African  and  the  Asiatic 
possess  valuable  qualities  or  characteristics  which 
other  nationalities  cannot  lay  claim  to,  we  might  even 
wish  the  mass  seasoned  with  these  spices.  English 
solidity  and  stolidity  do  well  as  a  base,  better  by  far 
than  any  other  element  evolution  has  yet  revealed; 
but,  good  and  invaluable  as  they  are,  no  wise  builder 
of  a  commonwealth  would  reject  other  material  for 
his  structure. 

Everything  must  be  proportioned  here  for  a  future. 
We  want  under  Californian  skies  some  of  the  old 
Athenian  flexibility  of  mind  and  heart  found  only  in 
the  French  people.  We  want  their  refined  manners 
with  which  to  soften  and  tone  common  intercourse, 
and  tinge  with  elegance  social  reunions.  We  want 
their  gaiete  de  coeur,  their  happy  manner,  their  lively 
pastimes,  and  their  sprightly  conversation. 

We  will  take  lessons  from  them  in  soldiery  if  we 
descend  to  such  brutalizing  pastimes  as  war ;  we  will 
take  lessons  from  them  in  the  delicacy  and  finish  of 
their  manufactured  articles,  in  the  endurance  of  their 


198  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

drudgery,  in  the  harmonious  enjoyment  of  life,  and 
in  the  cut  of  gear  as  well  as  gait.  More  grace  may 
be  seen  in  the  costume  and  carriage  of  a  French  peas- 
ant woman  than  can  be  found  in  the  average  English 
woman  of  rank.  These  things  are  not  to  be  despised, 
for  women  love  them,  and  men  love  women.  Next 
to  the  poetry  of  mind  is  the  poetry  of  manners ;  next 
to  artless  grace,  graceful  art. 

Heartless  intrigue  and  virtue's  masquerade  we  will 
do  well  to  leave  in  France ;  and  with  them  the  French- 
man's proverbial  giddiness  and  insincerity.  I  do  not 
say  that  as  a  race  Frenchmen  are  frivolous  or  hypocrit- 
ical. But  their  politeness,  or  anything  else  about 
them,  is  not  very  deep,  or  earnest,  or  substantial. 
They  are  volatile,  full  of  effervescent  feeling  which 
passes  off  with  the  effects  of  their  claret.  They  are 
too  apt  to  be  carried  away  by  whatever  is  nearest 
them.  Yet  with  all  their  faults  the  French  are  greatly 
to  be  esteemed. 

With  the  inspiriting  fumes  of  light-headed  national- 
ities, the  deep,  phlegmatic  humor  of  the  German  min- 
gles profitably.  Amidst  the  intellectual  convulsions 
of  other  nations,  firm  upon  his  broad  platform  of  uni- 
versal knowledge,  he  stands  secure.  More  than  any 
other  people  the  Germans  separate  facts  from  ideas. 
To  their  early  love  of  nature  and  of  physical  enjoy- 
ment are  now  added  mind  culture  and  the  refined 
subtleties  of  metaphysical  speculation.  Nowhere  do 
we  find  more  patient  application,  deeper  study,  broader 
intelligence,  or  more  thorough  learning. 

All  our  Yankee  individualism  and  love  of  personal 
independence  came  to  us  through  the  British  nation 
from  Germany.  For  stolid  bravery  and  stolid  virtue 
we  may  safely  commend  the  German  nation.  That 
which  amuses,  captivates  the  Italian;  that  which 
touches,  affects  the  French ;  that  which  instructs, 
moves  the  German. 

Then  there  is  the  proud,  pompous  Spaniard,  who, 


THE  ANTIQUATED   SPANIARD.  199 

if  he  be  now  of  but  little  practical  utility  in  the 
scheme  of  a  progressive  commonwealth,  can  at  least 
boast  of  what  he  has  been.  He  can  point  to  his 
faded  grandeur,  to  the  land  of  lost  greatness,  where, 
if  you  have  eyes  for  the  teaching  of  human  unfoldings, 
you  may  discover  the  reasons  for  Spain's  unhappy 
dissolution. 

More  especially  is  this  nation  endowed  with  inter- 
est for  Californians,  as  the  source  of  our  history.  It 
was  before  the  spirit  of  chivalry  had  wholly  departed 
from  her  shores,  when  gallant  men  made  love  to 
graceful  women,  that  under  the  banner  of  loyalty  and 
superstition  Spain  sent  forth  her  sons  to  deeds  of 
New  World  daring.  And  in  this  New  World  are 
now  many  able  minds  and  stout  hearts,  who  regard 
with  mournful  regret  the  policy  of  short-sighted  priests 
and  rulers,  which  sapped  the  energy  and  ambition  of 
the  Spanish  people,  and  left  them  bankrupt  indeed, 
when  progress  stripped  the  black  veil  of  bigotry  in  a 
slight  measure  from  their  eyes. 

In  an  eminent  degree  they  may  now  boast  of  the 
two  qualities  which  Spinoza  denounces  as  the  great 
banes  of  humanity,  self-conceit  and  laziness.  As  a 
class  they  are  far  too  unreliable  for  important  under- 
takings. They  are  most  pleasant  companions  socially, 
and  manifest  profound  interest  in  what  is  said  during 
conversation ;  but  the  next  moment  all  is  forgotten, 
their  protestations  not  more  false  than  their  promises. 

From  Italy,  the  early  patron  of  literature,  and 
once  the  home  of  art,  from  skies  as  bright  and  air  as 
balmy  as  our  own,  came  many  hither.  And  notwith- 
standing their  languid  nature,  and  their  ancient  repu- 
tation for  cunning  and  treachery,  they  proved  to  be  a 
quiet  and  industrious  people,  capable  of  teaching  us 
many  things  besides  painting  and  music.  Those  in 
California  are  more  skilled  in  gardening,  boating,  fish- 
ing, and  maccaroni-making  than  in  the  dark  subtleties 
of  political  or  social  intrigues. 

Nor  has  the  ancjent  traveller,  the  Hebrew,  been 


200  SOCIAL   ANALYSIS. 

without  liis  inilueDce  in  California,  where  he  re- 
mained true  to  his  traditional  pursuits.  This  may 
be  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  for  centuries 
past,  in  fact  since  the  destruction  of  their  national- 
ity, almost  every  other  avenue  but  commerce  was 
denied  them  by  the  statutory  provisions  of  the  na- 
tions among  w^hom  they  had  found  residence.  But 
this  commercial  character  of  the  Hebrew  has  become 
so  recognized  an  element  in  the  social  and  industrial 
development  of  a  country,  that  the  early  entrance  of 
Hebrews  in  California  must  have  been  considered  as 
one  of  the  sure  indications  of  the  country's  future 
excellence  and  permanent  prosperity.  Those  who 
found  their  way  to  the  coast  were  sober,  industrious, 
abstemious,  for  the  most  part  of  good  family,  and 
hence  educated.  They  were  as  liberal  in  their  re- 
ligious sentiment  as  in  the  methods  of  their  business; 
hence  they  easily  became  prosperous,  met  with  prompt 
and  ready  recognition,  found  many  gentile  doors 
opened  to  them,  and  secured  for  themselves  the  con- 
sideration of  their  fellow-immigrants.  They  shunned 
politics,  without  refusing  to  serve  the  people;  some 
held  public  office ;  the  greatest  number  were  content 
with  pursuing  their  vocations,  and  assisting  in  the 
promotion  of  peace  and  the  enforcement  of  law.  As 
a  direct  result,  the  Hebrew  communities  of  California 
are  among  the  most  prosperous  of  the  world. 

Thus  we  see  here  in  California  a  fusion  of  widely 
distant  and  often  antagonistic  elements,  some  of  which 
blend  quickly  and  some  slowly.  Besides  these  are 
redundant  and  heterogeneous  qualities  which  do  not 
assimilate,  and  which  in  time  wither  and  finally  dis- 
appear. In  our  streets  are  now  heard  spoken  almost 
as  many  languages  as  there  are  nations  under  the 
sun,  but  the  time  will  come  when  one  language  will 
suffice  for  men  along  these  shores  in  which  to  commu- 
nicate their  thoughts,  when  home-sickness  for  mother- 
lands beyond  seas  will  be  no  longer  felt,  and  national 


THE  COMING  RACE.  201 

partition  lines  will  be  wholly  wiped  out.  Among 
those  who  now  drink  to  their  fatherland,  who  now 
drink  and  sing  their  eyes  dim,  shortly  there  will  be 
few  who  can  trace  the  family  name  beyond  the  Golden 
Gate  or  tell  from  what  country  their  great,  great 
grandfather  came. 

Though  not  of  one  root,  of  one  stem  this  people  will 
be ;  and  they  will  form  collectively  probably  a  finer 
race  than  any  from  which  they  individually  sprung. 
The  parent  source  represented  the  select  manhood 
from  the  different  nations  ;  for  the  remoteness  of  Cali- 
fornia, the  cost  and  dangers  of  the  voyage,  and  the 
presumed  hardships  of  life  here,  kept  back  all  save 
the  more  hardy,  self-reliant,  and  provided  classes,  and 
drew  in  particular  the  dashing  and  adventurous  spirits. 
This  sifting  continues  to  a  great  extent,  although 
settled  conditions  and  improved  communications  per- 
mit the  introduction  also  of  less  choice  specimens,  and 
the  climatic  advantag^es  attract  a  number  of  invalids 
and  indolent  villa-dwellers.  The}^  bring  compensation, 
however,  in  much  needed  culture  and  refinement,  and 
in  presenting  for  assimilation  a  superior  class  of 
women,  so  far  kept  back  by  the  circumstances  which 
eliminated  all  who  were  not  prepared  to  contend  with 
hard  border  life.  The  earlier  female  arrivals  were  of 
the  robust  mould,  well  calculated  to  bear  a  strong 
progeny;  but  mentally,  and  in  social  position  and 
acquirements,  they  were  inferior  to  the  male  pioneers, 
somewhat  deficient  in  those  finer  qualities  which  above 
all  win  the  admiration  of  the  lover,  the  esteem  of 
the  husband,  and  the  respect  of  the  children;  quali- 
ties which  are  particularly  sought  and  expected  no 
less  in  the  mother  than  in  the  bride,  since  in  the 
moral  and  intellectual  home-training  of  the  child  lies 
the  basis  for  its  future  unfolding  and  success. 

From  such  excellent  sources  there  is  every  reason 
to  expect  a  race  no  less  well  endowed.  Environment 
is  of  the  most  favorable  character.  Resources  are  so 
varied  and  extensive  that  they  promise  to  stimulate 


202  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS. 

and  reward  for  time  indefinite  the  enterprise  of  the 
people.  The  soil  is  so  fertile,  and  luxuriates  in  both 
choice  and  large  specimens  in  almost  every  branch 
of  culture ;  animals  as  well  as  plants  grow  so  rapidly 
and  produce  so  fine  a  progeny,  as  noticed  alike  in  the 
now  famed  horses,  in  the  superior  sheep  and  in  the 
ever  improving  cattle,  that  there  is  every  reason  to 
hope  for  a  similar  unfolding  in  man. 

In  the  zoological  unfolding  may  be  sought  an  an- 
swer to  the  only  questionable  feature  in  the  environ- 
ment, climate.  This  is  undoubtedly  warm,  and  some- 
what enervating  in  the  interior  valleys,  and  in  the 
south  where  the  main  population  will  abide.  Judg- 
ing from  the  effect  of  such  temperature  on  the  south- 
erners of  the  Atlantic  states,  for  instance,  there  rises 
the  spectre  of  a  blunting  indolence  to  thwart  the 
efforts  of  the  race.  But  the  climate  of  California 
differs  in  many  respects.  The  heat  is  modified  in 
its  depressing  influence  by  daily  breezes,  during  the 
season  and  hours  when  most  required,  and  the  sea 
winds  are  laden  with  tonic  elements  to  which  a  varied 
mountain  configuration  impart  variation.  The  as- 
sumed enervation  is  therefore  counteracted  here,  and 
less  applicable  to  the  elevated  table-land  beyond  the 
Sierra,  or  to  the  great  Columbia  basin,  with  its  briefer 
summer  and  greater  tempering  rainfall.  The  dryness 
of  California  may  prove  another  stimulant  to  nerve 
force.  Her  central  position  on  the  slope,  the  seat  for 
an  ever-expanding  and  vivifying  commerce  and  for 
attendant  industries,  and  also  the  vast  extent  of  her 
sea  coast,  with  broad  avenues  for  interior  traffic  and 
alluring  shores  beyond  the  ocean,  are  all  powerful  in- 
centives to  progress,  which  should  more  than  counter- 
act the  possibly  opposing  elements,  to  judge  from  the 
rise  of  Phoenicia  and  Carthage,  of  Athens  and  Rome, 
in  a  similar  zone. 

In  due  time,  then,  we  may  confidently  expect  to 
behold  here,  as  now  in  England,  the  best  qualities  of 
several  kinds  in  a  compact  oneness,  which  shall  be  of 


DIATHESIS   OF  THE  NATION.  203 

such  solidity,  such  raoral,  intellectual,  and  physical 
force  as  to  make  its  influence  felt  to  the  remotest  of 
earth's  corners.  Certain  elemental  qualities  of  Slavs, 
Latins,  and  Teutons,  have  here  married  certain  other 
elemental  qualities  of  Teutons,  Latins,  and  Slavs,  and 
in  the  offspring  we  find  a  new  diathesis. 

Henceforth  Californians  shall  claim  an  original  in- 
heritance, an  original  form  of  constitution.  Her  sky 
and  soil  suit  certain  temperaments,  certain  mental 
qualities,  and  bodily  attributes.  And  the  outcome 
will  be  a  temperament  something  between  the  nervous 
and  the  sanguine,  tinctured  but  slightly  by  the  pru- 
dential qualities  of  phlegm.  It  is  of  no  small  import- 
ance for  every  nation  to  know  its  diathesis,  whether 
gouty,  as  in  the  Teutonic  races,  or  strumous,  as  in  the 
Slavonic. 

By  intelligent  anatomy  we  may  discover  whence 
California  derives  her  temperament.  The  nervous 
she  imbibes  with  the  quickening  air ;  the  phlegmatic 
is  clearly  inherited  from  Teutonic  ancestry,  but  from 
many  a  source  does  she  derive  her  sanguine,  buoyant, 
hopeful  enthusiasm,  such  as  predominates  in  south  of 
Europe  dreamers,  in  New  England  speculators,  and 
French  faro-dealers ;  though  ruinous  loss  taught  many 
early  lessons,  and  kept  society  weeded  of  its  more 
venturesome  gamesters.  It  is  well  to  be  sanguine ;  it 
is  better  not  to  be  too  sanguine.  For  I  have  often 
remarked  that  those  with  whom  success  seemed  a 
little  doubtful  were  readier  with  their  sacrifices  to 
win  it.  The  intemperately  hopeful  are  apt  to  fall  on 
grief  Misfortune  usually  attends  the  irrationally  or 
excessively  sanguine.  Fortune  sometimes  favors  the 
reckless ;  but  he  who  plays  his  cards  trusting  his  skill 
rather  than  chance,  wins  in  the  long  run.  Yet  hope, 
although  warping  judgment,  quickens  energy. 

Onward  shall  flow  the  stream  of  successive  genera- 
tions, tinctured  as  in  times  past  by  additions  and  sub- 
tractions, but  midst  all  its  eternal  changes  ever 
influenced   by   the   original    elements.     CaUfornians, 


204  SOCIAL  ANALYSIS.. 

lapped  beneath  Italian  skies  in  soft  Levantine  airs, 
will  ever  display  the  buoyant  happy  temper  of  the 
Greco-Koman  races.  To  this  will  add  his  leaven  the 
Spaniard,  in  lofty  bearing  and  chivalrous  honor; 
the  Italian  in  happy  contentment  and  love  of  art;  the 
Frenchman  in  sesthetic  tastes  and  grace,  in  delicate 
performance,  etiquette,  and  bright  mercurial  man- 
ners; while  the  German  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  will 
infuse  practical  intelligence  and  enterprise  and  depth 
of  knowledge  into  the  fermenting  mass.  Meanwhile, 
the  Anglo-American,  by  his  shrewd  common  sense, 
sagacious  adaptiveness,  and  far-seeing,  far-reaching 
mind  and  ambition  will  make  all  his  own. 

From  such  race  varieties,  with  their  diversified  tal- 
ents, will  spring  painters  and  poets,  inventors  and 
statesmen.  There  will  be  multitudes  in  every  depart- 
ment of  letters  and  arts,  industry  and  commerce ;  men 
of  impatient  enterprise,  who  will  not  rest  satisfied 
until  they  secure  for  themselves  and  these  shores  all 
the  advantages  that  other  nations  possess  over  nature 
and  over  each  other.  They  will  form  another  Utgard, 
wherein,  like  Thor  and  his  companions,  the  new-comer 
finds  no  admittance  unless  he  excel  in  some  one  art. 
With  the  acquired  insight  and  skill  they  will  multiply 
knowledge,  and  add,  century  by  century,  to  the  store- 
house of  experiences  bequeathed  by  their  forefathers. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NATION-MAKING, 

Da  unten  aber  ist's  fiirchterlich, 

Und  der  Menscli  versuche  die  Gotter  nicht. 

— Scliiller. 

As  friction  generates  heat,  so  business  activity 
generates  creative  force.  Enveloping  the  commonest 
labor  of  the  early  California  period  was  a  glow  of  in- 
ventive thought,  such  as  attends  only  the  greatest 
strides  of  progress.  It  was  not  unlike  those  outbursts 
of  genius  which  attend  revolutions  and  reformations. 
The  first  question  California  put  to  the  gold-seekers 
was  not.  Is  it  moral  ?  Is  it  legal  ?  But,  is  it  rea- 
sonable ?  Is  it  possible  ?  There  never  was  a  time  or 
place  where  the  people  manifested  in  mind  and  body 
such  general  alacrity  and  vivacity.  It  seemed  pre- 
ferable not  to  be,  than  to  be  inactive.  The  brain 
would  work,  if  not  in  the  right  direction  then  in  the 
wrong  one. 

Children  influence  parents  as  well  as  parents  the 
children.  In  lieu  of  the  way  of  wisdom,  or  force  of 
argument,  or  the  matching  of  experiences,  they  exert 
a  less  perceptible  though  none  the  less  certain  reflex 
influence  upon  their  elders.  Soil  and  climate  act  on 
mind ;  atmosphere,  physical  and  social,  acts  on  the 
manners  and  morals.  On  the  sandhills  round  Yerba 
Buena  cove,  during  the  year  of  1849,  was  hatched  by 
artificial  incubation  a  new  species  of  society  destined 
throughout  all  time  to  exercise  an  influence  upon  the 
whole  human  world.  It  was  engendering  which  may 
in  time  prove  to  have  been  second  to  no  event  in  his- 

(20J) 


206  NATION-MAKING. 

tory.  Some  will  smile  at  the  idea,  and  point  to  the 
world's  babel-buildings  and  Marathon-battles,  to  the 
advent  of  prophets,  Confucius  or  Christ,  Buddha  or 
Mahomet,  overturning  or  regenerating  the  world; 
nevertheless,  the  time  may  come  when  this  sandy 
peninsula  is  surrounded  by  a  hundred  millions  of  the 
world's  foremost  men,  that  this  human  intermixture 
of  1849,  the  evaporation  of  feverish  energy  attending 
it,  and  the  new  coalescences  and  crystallizations  that 
followed,  will  prove  among  the  world's  most  import- 
ant events. 

With   mind  bewildered,  the  new-comer  could   feel 
hanging  about  him  old  ideas  and  instincts,  some  of 
which  seemed  out  of  place  midst  this  novel  environ- 
ment.     Flung  into  the  alembic  of  the  nations,  he  was 
transmuted.    Under  a  new  revelation  he  was  born  anew. 
The  old  form  brought  hither  was  wholly  or  in  part 
consumed  ;  certain  parts  of  his  nature,  the  unworthy 
parts,  turned  quickty  to  ashes.     Hypocrisy  and  cant,  j 
he   quickly  saw,  must   fade   like  a  dissolving  view;' 
therefore  the  cloak  to  vain  and  immoral  propensities, 
whether  it  was  religion,  social  standing,  or  other  coun- . 
terfeit,  was  thrown  aside,  for  directness  of  purpose  and  I 
honest  wickedness  were  regarded  with  greater  favor  ^ 
than  only  the  semblance  of  virtue. 

Trafficking  in  the  cities,  delving  in  the  mines,  travel- 
ling hither  and  thither,  as  their  excited  but  not 
always  intelligent  fancy  led  them,  by  steamboat  and 
stage,  by  pack-train  and  passenger  animals,  on  foot 
over  the  dusty  plains,  or  climbing  snow-covered 
mountains,  working,  idling,  praying,  cheating,  drink- 
ing, gambling,  killing,  curing,  were  representatives  of 
the  world's  races  hither  drawn,  and  their  actions  to 
some  extent  harmonized  by  the  only  universal  wor- 
ship under  heaven,  the  worship  of  gold. 

There  were  those  so  sun-browned  and  bearded,  so 
travel -stained  and  steeped  in  sin  that  the  cunningest 
race-fancier  might  fail  to  designate  the  soil  whence 
they  sprang.     Enough  there  were,  however,  and  by 


QUALITY  OF  THE  MATERIAL.  207 

far  the  greater  part  whose  nationaUty  betrayed  itself 
either  in  form,  feature,  or  dress ;  for  from  early  in- 
fluences, let  him  wander  about  the  world  as  he  will,  it 
is  impossible  for  man  wholly  to  liberate  himself  The 
sharp-visaged  Yankee  in  his  several  varieties  does  not 
present  the  blunt  features  and  bullet-shaped  head  of 
the  Dutchman,  nor  does  the  Kanaka  from  the 
Hawaiian  islands  carry  the  long  cue  of  the  Chinaman 
or  the  creese  of  the  Malay.  Whether  Latin  or  Teu- 
ton, Slavonic  or  Jewish,  African  or  Indian,  the  type 
was  impressed  by  its  representative  character. 

That  they  were  men  of  thought  if  not  of  culture  is 
evident.  First  a  man  must  be  above  the  average  in 
intelligence  and  energy  to  get  to  California  at  all.  It 
required  money,  called  forth  self-denial ;  it  was  a 
staking  of  comfort,  health,  life,  for  an  uncertain  bene- 
fit, and  churls  and  clowns  are  not  made  of  the  stuff  to 
take  these  risks ;  then,  what  followed  was  of  all  pro- 
cesses most  stimulating  to  the  mind.  A  general  cut- 
ting loose  from  old  habits  and  restraints,  new  scenes, 
new  countries,  contact  with  strangers  from  different 
parts  of  the  world;  all  the  enlightening  influences  of 
travel  tended  to  awaken  the  intellect  and  excite 
originality  in  thought  and  conduct. 

The  magnet  that  drew  men  hither,  the  manner  of 
their  coming,  the  necessities  thence  arising,  and  the 
ways  and  means  of  meeting  them,  all  exercised  a 
powerful  influence  in  the  formation  of  manners 
and  opinions.  Far  more  pronounced  and  powerful 
than  any  laws,  maxims,  or  other  form  of  expression 
was  this  influence,  which  moulded  the  minds  of  men, 
and  gave  character  and  individuality  even  to  modula- 
tions of  voice,  clothes,  and  carriage. 

Immigrants  who  arrived  in  California  seemed  to 
be  seized  with  a  sudden  glow  of  animal  spirits,  and 
revelling  in  the  exuberance  of  new  life  and  the  physical 
force  thus  infused,  were  carried  safely  over  innumera- 
ble obstacles  at  which  they  otherwise  would  have 
stumbled.     The  effect  was  by  no  means  fleeting,  for 


208  NATION-MAKING. 

the  varying  fortunes  of  mining  life  and  the  attendant 
speculations  in  all  pursuits  kept  them  in  a  constant 
tremor  of  excitement.  This  was  marked  in  the  gold 
region  by  continued  rushes,  and  in  the  towns  by  the 
mad  pursuit  of  business  or  pleasure.  The  inflamma- 
ble disposition  ignited  as  readily  as  a  tinder-box;  a 
yell  or  pistol  shot  on  the  corner  of  a  street  would  bring 
crowds  from  every  direction,  emptying  stores,  offices, 
and    bar-rooms  perhaps  several  times  a  day. 

This  was  but  the  scintillation  of  the  fiery  energy 
and  impulsive  recklessness  wherein  lay  the  greatest 
safeguards  of  the  times.  Swift  and  strong  must  be 
the  current  that  should  carry  ofi"  the  moral  impurities 
and  social  debris  of  that  mad  epoch.  It  was  not  the 
time  for  grave  deliberation  and  cool  reasoning.  The 
blood  of  the  people  was  on  fire ;  a  moral  chaos  lay 
upon  the  land,  imminent  dangers  threatened  society 
and  state,  and  prompt  and  determined  action  in  the 
many  crises  that  arose  was  the  people's  only  safety, 
all  entertaining  alike  the  treacherous  hope  of  sud- 
denly becoming  rich. 

While  mining  camps  were  surcharged  with  industry 
and  dissipation,  in  the  cities  was  concentrated  an 
activity  more  rapid  and  intense  than  even  America 
had  hitherto  seen.  There  was  an  eagerness,  a  fever- 
ishness  in  every  quarter,  particularly  in  every  kind  of 
traffic,  which  only  American  nervousness  was  able  to 
impart. 

The  road  to  success  was  traversed  only  by  the  self- 
reliant  and  independent,  lightning  thinkers  and 
livers,  strong  in  passion,  weak  in  prejudice,  keen  at 
circumvention,  lavish  with  money.  It  was  no  time  or 
place  for  dally ings,  even  conscience  must  not  be  too 
troublesome.  Thoughts  of  purity,  of  temperance,  of 
home  with  its  loved  ones,  softened  the  heart  ;  but,  car- 
ried too  far,  such  reflections  brought  painful  exhaus- 
tion, and  hence  must  not  be  indulged  in. 

Few  after  coming  to  California  failed  in  business 
from   excessive   conscientiousness.      Yet    there  were 


PROCESS   OF  TRANSMUTATION.  209 

those  few,  with  refined  sensibiUty,  whose  consciences 
had  been  educated  into  a  state  of  fastidiousness  which 
made  them  unfit  to  grapple  with  rude,  profane  labor, 
who,  fearful  of  doing  something  wrong,  did  nothing. 
Few  resisted  long  the  temptation  to  drop  into  a  gam- 
bling saloon,  to  take  now  and  then  a  drink,  to  stay 
away  from  church  and  work  or  travel  on  a  Sunday, 
to  swear  a  little  in  cases  of  emergency,  and  finally  to 
overreach  their  neighbor  in  a  bargain  when  opportunity 
offered.  No  one  was  likely  to  know  it,  or,  if  so, 
everybody  did  it;  in  any  event,  the  money  was  of 
more  value  than  the  morality — or  at  least,  money 
after  the  return  home  would  be  worth  more  than  a 
too  strict  previous  honesty  in  California.  Thus  con- 
science was  quieted. 

Once  unquestioning  believers  in  existing  traditions, 
in  old  men's  tales,  and  above  all  in  whatever  was 
stamped  in  ink  on  paper,  gradually  they  began  to  in- 
quire, are  these  things  true?  While  freely  yielding 
to  the  fascinations  of  highly  seasoned  novels,  with 
which  mining  camps  were  inundated,  the  minds  of 
these  uncouth  students  still  continued  their  blind 
groping  after  truth.  Prominent  among  the  many 
dogmas  early  ignored  was  that  special  scheme  of  sal- 
vation, contrived  for  an  elect  few,  which  surrounded 
itself  by  an  atmosphere  of  lofty  spirituality,  and  com- 
placently regarded  all  without  the  little  coterie  as 
wholly  reprobate.  Farther  and  farther  they  wander 
from  the  tracks  of  their  youth,  until  they  find  them- 
selves launched  upon  a  sea  of  thought,  bottomless  and 
boundless.  At  first  fearful,  then  joyous,  in  their  new 
liberty,  many  of  them  become  lovers  and  worshippers 
of  nature,  and  almost  everyone  has  his  individual  code 
of  ethics. 

Thus,  as  they  elbow  their  way  through  the  world, 
knocking  together  their  heads  newly  filled  with  ideas 
engendered  from  new  conditions,  with  all  their  stored 
principles  and  prejudices,  each  for  himself  begins  to 
think  both  of  the  present  and  of  the  future;  begins 

Essays  and  Miscellany        14 


210  NATION-MAKING. 

to  question  whether  the  institutions  of  his  own  coun- 
try alone  are  destined  to  last,  and  to  last  forever, 
whether  his  mother's  and  sister's  bright  and  beautiful 
beyond  is  as  real  as  he  once  believed  it  to  be.  He 
begins  to  see  in  the  affected  patriotism  of  politicians 
the  lowest  and  most  vulgar  selfishness,  and  in  his  own 
patriotism  a  senseless  instrument  to  be  played  upon 
for  tlie  benefit  of  office-seeking  jugglers;  he  begins  to 
see  multitudes  of  opinions  and  beliefs  held  by  slender 
traditions  and  supported  by  slim  proofs. 

All  ancient  maxims,  political  and  religious,  that  did 
not  fit  the  occasion,  be  their  origin  whencesoever  they 
■  miglit,  were  thrown  aside,  together  with  many  of  the 
superfluous  forms  of  law  and  institutions.  Not  that 
former  associations  and  instructions  here  suddenly  lost 
all  influence,  but  they  were  mixed,  even  at  the  first, 
and  later  there  came  still  other  elements,  in  different 
classes  and  aspirations,  notably  men  with  their  fami- 
lies, having  views  of  permanency. 

Class  distinctions  suffered  above  all  a  ruthless  lev- 
elling. Never  existed  a  varied  community  with  such 
equality  among  its  members  socially  and  politically ; 
there  were  none  rich,  for  the  rich  would  not  traverse 
thousands  of  miles  of  lands  and  seas  to  dig  for  gold, 
or  to  embark  in  uncertain  traffic.  There  were  none 
poor,  for  what  we  understand  by  poor  men  could  not 
afford  the  journey,  and  once  here  no  one  was  poor  with 
the  Sierra  foothills  as  their  bank  of  deposit.  When 
some  began  to  succeed  and  others  to  fail,  neither  need 
be  too  sure  of  their  footing,  for  fortune's  ways  were 
slippery  in  those  days. 

As  for  antecedents,  they  were  utterly  ignored.  A 
man  was  valued  only  for  his  qualities.  No  assump- 
tion of  aristocracy  or  pretended  superiority  was  toler- 
ated ;  there  were  no  men  and  women  in  the  country, 
but  all,  in  their  own  eyes,  were  gentlemen  and  ladies. 

Blood,  breeding,  and  education  went  for  nothing,  if 
the  woollen  shirt  covered  not  genuine  manhood;  yet 
nowhere  was  the  influence  which,  if  attended  by  true 


LIBERTY  AND   SINCERITY.  211 

manhood,  culture  carries  with  it,  more  quickly  felt 
than  here.  Honor  and  virtue  were  respected,  but 
they  were  looked  for  beneath  the  skin;  dress  could 
not  conceal  hypocrisy;  affectation  and  dissimulation 
in  any  shape  were  ridiculed. 

In  communities  where  the  people  are  separated  into 
distinct  classes,  there  is  a  certain  sacred  restraint 
which  prohibits  free  intercourse  of  speech  and  action 
between  individuals  of  one  class  and  those  of  another. 
It  is  only  among  associates  where  the  veil  of  reserve 
is  laid  aside,  that  imposition  is  fathomed,  and  the 
intrinsic  merit  of  the  individual  made  to  appear  in  its 
nakedness  and  purity.  In  California,  with  barriers 
of  caste  broken  down,  and  all  cloudy  prestige  of  an- 
cestry, education,  and  social  standing  removed,  it  was 
easy  to  know  men  as  they  were.  Accidentally  thrown 
together  for  a  brief  term  they  would  not  take  trouble 
to  conceal  feelings  or  hide  deformities.  There  were 
here  no  conventionalisms  of  society  in  which  its  mem- 
bers are  so  accustomed  to  disguise  themselves. 

So  keen  had  become  the  insight  into  human  nature 
of  these  horny-handed  diggers,  that  to  act  naturally 
was  soon  discovered  to  be  the  only  safe  way.  Un- 
fortunately, with  the  artifices  of  civilization  many  cast 
off  also  its  decencies;  from  looseness  in  dress  and 
manners  rose  looseness  in  morals. 

Among  many  original  creations  appeared  a  new 
vernacular.  Thouglit  crystalized  into  words  uneven 
and  sentences  disjointed,  which  were  jerked  out  in  a 
logic  eminently  paradoxical. 

All  legislation  tending  toward  a  forced  morality 
was  frowned  down;  under  all  attempts  to  inculcate 
puritanical  habits  by  coercion,  such  as  closing  the 
theatres  on  Sunday  nights,  expecting  thereby  to  drive 
the  habitu(§s  of  such  places  into  the  churches,  thus 
stimulating  their  piety  as  Falstaff  would  say  on  com- 
pulsion, they  were  stiff-necked  and  dogged. 

Politically  free  and  socially  untramelled,  these  new 
comers  made  rude  labor  the  central  figure,  the  ideal 


212  NATION-MAKING. 

in  their  code  of  ethics;  hence  roughness  and  labor 
were  not  only  honorable  but  virtuous,  and  often  the 
only  virtues.  Contempt  for  dress,  for  personal  ap- 
pearance, were  in  many  directions  followed  by  abjura- 
tion of  everything  refining,  and  attachment  to  what- 
ever brutalized;  and  this  deification  of  labor  must  be 
sustained  by  bravado  and  lawlessness. 

It  was  not  that  money  was  sought  for  or  worshipped 
with  so  much  greater  intensity  on  the  Pacific  coast 
than  on  the  Atlantic.  Nor  was  money-making  meaner 
or  more  debasing  here  than  elsewhere.  Voyaging  to 
California  was  no  less  respectable  than  voyaging  to 
Europe  or  Asia,  merchandising  was  no  more  merce- 
nary. Digging  for  gold  was  as  honorable  as  digging 
for  coal,  or  copper,  and  California  street  stock  specu- 
lations were  no  more  gambling  than  those  of  Wall 
street.  It  was  the  absence  of  counterbalancing  influ- 
ences that  made  life  more  licentious,  and  gave  Cali- 
fornia free  and  easy  airs  in  respect  to  moral  decorum. 

The  general  order  of  things  incident  to  new  settle- 
ments was  reversed.  There  was  none  of  the  innocence 
and  artlessness  of  youth ;  there  was  no  season  of 
childhood,  children  were  born  men  and  women ;  there 
was  no  period  of  healthy  growth  in  which  intellect 
might  strengthen  and  purity  and  virtue  bloom.  En- 
ervating luxury  and  voluptuous  pleasures  accompanied 
self-denying  effort,  and  severe  hardships.  Necessarily 
there  must  be  here  a  reconcilement  of  incongruities 
following  the  meeting  of  extremes  and  the  clash  of 
customs. 

Gold-seekers  were  adrift  as  upon  an  unknown  sea. 
Expatriated  by  their  ambitions  they  felt  themselves 
almost  beyond  the  world's  confines,  without  youthfui 
associations,  social  obligations,  or  ties  of  kindred  to 
impose  restraint  or  guidance.  The  refined  and  the 
uncultured  fell  alike  under  the  spell  of  disorder,  and 
reveled  like  schoolboys  in  the  novelty  of  the  license. 

It  was  astonishing  how  quickly  at  the  cry  of  gold 
clergymen    among    others    hastened    to    California. 


MORALITY  AND  HYPOCRISY.  213 

Wherever  the  necessity  existed,  there  the  ministers 
of  the  gospel  gathered,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  canon 
without  its  wickedness  in  those  days.  Preachers  at 
first  displayed  freely  their  piety,  and  were  as  zealous 
for  souls  as  ever  they  had  been  at  home.  More  so, 
the  field  being  new,  and  money  and  sin  abounding. 
It  soon  became  apparent,  however,  that  their  ancient 
labors  were  lost  in  these  gold-made  communities,  in- 
tent on  enjoyment  for  a  season,  and  to  compromise 
with  conscience  afterward.  Even  the  gospel  ministers 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  precious  time 
wasted  fighting  sin  in  the  foothills ;  so  after  holding 
divine  service  in  tents  or  under  the  trees  for  a  few 
Sundays,  many  turned  to  mining  or  other  service  of 
mammon. 

And  the  soft  black  raiment  of  sanctity  being  laid 
aside  for  the  coarse  gray  shirt  of  sin,  the  influence  of 
coddling  elders,  of  prayer-meetings,  of  conference 
meetings,  of  holy  meditations  and  brotherly  visitations, 
of  sermon-writing  and  fleshly  wrestlings,  and  old 
women's  soul-stirring  tea-drinkings,  and  missionary 
stocking-makings — all  this,  these  soul-subduing  influ- 
ences, being  absent,  it  was  marvellous  how  quickly 
the  flowers  of  piety  so  recently  blooming  under  these 
showers  of  benevolent  association  became  rank  weeds, 
reeking  with  blasphemy,  rum,  and  tobacco.  As  the 
leaven  of  sin  began  to  work  beneath  these  gray  shirts, 
it  is  wonderful  how  quickly  melted  the  thin  shell  of 
their  religion.  Many  of  the  fallen  ones  stopped  not 
on  reaching  the  broad  level  of  manhood,  but  fell  far 
below  it,  and  became  gamblers,  drinkers ;  yet  some 
remaimed  honest  and  earnest,  willing  to  take  time 
and  eternity  at  their  word,  and  make  the  most  of 
both. 

That  which  had  hitherto  been  taught  under  the 
names  of  morality  and  good  character  was  carefully 
laid  away  with  the  black  coat  and  white  shirt,  to  be 
again  resumed  on  returning  home.  It  mattered  little 
what  men  were  here,  how  they  behaved,  or  how  they 


214  NATION-MAKING. 

were  regarded,  so  that  their  parents  and  the  friends 
of  their  childhood  did  not  know  of  it.  A  husband 
might  be  faithless  unblushingly,  and  a  minister  indulge 
hi  a  little  Sunday  gambling  without  exciting  comment, 
and  as  nobody  expected  to  remain  here  permanently, 
who  cared?  Even  name  and  identity  were  willingly 
sunk  in  the  new  admixture.  The  public  benefactor, 
the  dispenser  of  justice,  the  doer  of  a  daring  deed,  the 
hero  or  the  bully  of  the  camp,  might  have  been 
known,  even  to  his  most  intimate  comrades,  only  as 
Sandy  Jim,  One-eyed  Bill,  Yank,  Dutchy,  or  Long- 
legged  Pete.  The  natural  became  here  a  disguise 
for  artificial  reality  of  the  home  country.  Rags  and 
undress  in  like  manner  covered  the  beautiful  and 
amiable. 

The  outward  signs  by  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
read  the  soul  are  here  obliterated.  Beneath  the 
broad-brimmed  Mexican  hat,  and  long,  uncombed  hair, 
the  bushy  beard  and  greasy  shirt,  intellect,  humanity, 
and  heart  may  be  concealed,  or  hellish  hate  and  loath- 
some lust.  The  true  character  is  lost  to  visible  sense 
in  dirt.  Still,  let  the  begrimed  one  move  about  among 
his  fellows,  show  his  eye  and  open  his  mouth,  and  the 
character  and  calibre  of  the  man  will  soon  be  weighed 
and  measured.  Where  life  or  death  is  so  often  the 
penalty  of  ignorance  or  stupidity,  insight  into  charac- 
ter becomes  an  instinct. 

There  is  always  a  deterioration  in  the  social  and 
moral  qualities  attendant  upon  a  search  for  the  precious 
metals,  and  upon  the  wild  excitement  which  must 
sway  a  community  in  which  it  is  carried  on.  Severe 
labor  alone  redeems  it  to  some  extent.  With  the 
flush-timer  the  supreme  thought,  aim,  and  hope  cen- 
tred in  gold.  It  was  worshipped  in  one  image  alone 
by  the  rusty,  ragged  miners,  with  their  thin,  grizzled, 
unkempt  visages,  shaggy  with  weather-bleached  hair, 
down  in  the  dolorous  canons,  sweating,  and  smiting 
the  rocks  for  gold,  which  if  gained  would  yield  only 


AVARICE   AND   AMBITION.  215 

pleasures  fitful  as  the  garden  of  Adonis,  buffeting 
misfortune  with  brawny  arm  and  steady  eye,  many 
of  them  held  for  months  and  years  in  a  limbo  of  sus- 
pense, with  an  aspect  neither  merry  nor  sad;  many 
living  along  in  a  Virgilian  hades,  having  no  hope 
though  consumed  by  strong  desire.  The  town-dwellers, 
seeking  the  same  object  in  more  varied  form,  enjoyed 
a  more  diversified  existence.  Nevertheless,  all  was 
of  a  metallic  brightness  and  a  metallic  ring;  golden 
light  and  landscape,  golden  soil  and  golden  compan- 
ionship, rationahstic  thought,  utilitarian  ideas,  material 
wealth.  Gold  was  god.  Like  the  one-eyed  Arimas- 
pians,  they  could  see  only  gold,  and  waste  their  lives 
quarrelling  with  the  gryfons  that  guarded  it. 

From  this  absorbing  mania  sprang  a  number  of 
others.  Passions  were  played  upon  ;  irritations,  toil, 
and  hunger  united  even  during  the  journey  to  stir  up 
selfishness,  meanness,  and  wickedness,  so  that  when 
the  gold  seeker  reached  his  destination,  he  was  half 
the  devil's,  and  ministering  spirits  stood  ready  and 
waiting  to  appropriate  the  other  half  Nor  was  he 
to  be  specially  blamed  for  all  this.  Circumstances 
did  it.  If  he  stumbled  not,  it  was  due  more  to  tem- 
perament than  to  merit.  Indeed,  an  extraordinary 
exercise  of  cold,  calculating  selfishness  is  essential  to 
success ;  he  would  have  been  regarded  as  little  better 
than  a  hypocrite  or  a  fool  who  should  have  made  the 
same  display  of  his  virtues  on  the  forty-nine  arena  as 
in  his  own  family  or  Sunday-school. 

Had  California  no  other  natural  resources  than  her 
mineral  wealth,  she  would  be  to-day  one  of  the  most 
sordid  and  insignificant  of  states.  We  have  only  to 
behold  the  stagnation  of  Nevada  and  the  decline  and 
desolation  of  mining  districts  in  different  directions. 
The  mining  for  gold  and  silver  is  too  near  akin  to 
gambling  to  be  wholly  free  from  excesses  in  tempera- 
ment and  habits,  and  cognate  abasements.  It  is  or- 
dained that  by  work  only  shall  man  improve,  either 
physically  or  mentally ;  and  by  work  is  meant  that 


216  NATION-MAKING. 

kind  of  labor  which  tends  to  results  beneficial  to  the 
human  race. 

Most  industries  tend  to  this  end,  but  gold  mining 
ranks  among  the  lowest  in  the  grade.  This  can  be 
best  illustrated  by  a  comparison  with  agriculture, 
wherein  every  application  leaves  a  more  or  less  tangi- 
ble improvement  for  the  future,  while  the  other  leaves 
a  trail  of  devastation  in  upturned  valleys  and  desert 
river-banks,  both  rendered  unfit  for  cultivation  by  the 
washing  away  of  the  soil,  or  by  the  superposition  of 
bottom  gravel  or  debris  from  hydraulic  washings. 
With  the  exhaustion  of  the  surface  deposits,  or  of  beds 
and  quartz  bodies,  the  settlements  sustained  by  their 
exploitation  sink  to  ruined  hamlets  or  are  abandoned  to 
solitude.  The  mining  of  baser  metals  and  minerals 
is  attended  by  little  or  none  of  this  harm,  while 
yielding  far  more  substantial  blessings.  Nevertheless, 
the  extraction  of  the  precious  metals  involves  by  no 
means  the  waste  of  labor  and  the  deplorable  results 
that'  are  so  sweepingly  ascribed  to  it.  Under  our 
present  commercial  system  these  metals  have  been  of 
incalculable  value  as  a  medium  of  exchange  ;  numer- 
ous useful  as  well  as  ornamental  arts  require  them, 
and  their  contribution  to  the  enjoyments  and  delights 
of  mankind  is  not  to  be  despised.  As  a  lever  for 
starting  civilization,  for  laying  the  bases  of  prosperous 
settlements,  they  stand  almost  unequalled.  Without 
their  aid  the  Pacific  coast  would  present  merely  a  few 
small  and  struggling  seaboard  states  with  a  waste  in- 
terior, instead  of  the  series  of  rich  political  sections  we 
now  can  boast, 

Gold  in  uncovering  itself  did  great  things  for  Cali- 
fornia ;  it  brought  hither  intelligence  and  culture,  and 
speedily  peopled  the  land  with  industrious,  enter- 
prising men.  In  making  its  exodus,  it  left  on  the  spot 
the  more  excellent  of  those  it  had  enticed  hither;  left 
their  minds  free  to  engage  in  superior  and  more  perma- 
nently profitable  pursuits ;  left  them  to  occupy  and 
subdue  the  land,  to  plant  homes,  to  civilize,  to  refine. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  GOLD-MINES.  217 

The  mines  of  California  bred  less  inactivity  or  indo- 
lence than  perhaps  any  other  gold  field.  The  class 
that  worked  them  had  come  too  far,  were  too  intelli- 
gent, energetic,  and  ambitious,  and  the  development 
of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  country  was  too  rapid 
to  beget  idleness.  True,  some  ended  their  lives  in 
dissipation,  but  this  arose  more  from  disappointment 
or  lack  of  self-control,  than  from  the  usual  enervating 
influence  attending  the  uncertain  and  gambling-like 
occupation  of  mining. 

Had  California  given  gold  to  the  early  adventurers 
without  labor,  as  Mexico  and  Peru  gave  it  to  Cortes 
and  Pizarro ;  had  there  been  an  aboriginal  race  which 
civilized  lords  could  have  whipped  into  the  mining 
service  without  immediately  killing  them  as  was  the 
case  in  Mexico  ;  and  had  the  Sierra  drainage  contin- 
ued to  yield  treasure  as  at  the  beginning,  the  worst 
results  to  the  country  might  have  followed.  Gold  is 
a  Judas  that  betrays  with  kisses,  a  Will  o'  the  wisp 
that  leads  its  followers  over  bogs  and  fens  to  destruc- 
tion ;  too  much  gold  too  easily  obtained  will  ruin  any 
man  or  nation,  as  Mexico  and  Spain  were  ruined. 
Gold  engendered  a  mania  for  speculation,  and  emigra- 
tion to  California ;  this  was  well.  Then  it  flitted 
hence,  until  it  took  a  mine  to  work  a  mine ;  this  was 
better.  Else  what  a  delirious  crack-brained  country 
this  would  be  to-day.  I  do  not  say  that  such  riches 
are  an  inherent  element  of  weakness  in  a  country. 
Far  from  it.  Wealth  and  leisure  lie  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  culture ;  but  wealth  to  be  of  much  benefit 
must  come  not  as  an  inheritance  or  conquest,  but  as 
the  fruit  of  labor,  by  which  means  alone  an  individual 
or  a  nation  can  become  great. 

The  man  born  to  wealth  is  not  wholly  to  be  envied ; 
four  fifths  of  his  chance  for  manhood  are  gone.  The 
youth  whose  money  and  position  are  already  secured 
to  him,  lacks  the  incentive  to  work,  and  without  work 
he  never  can  be  a  man.  His  money  will  not  put 
muscle  on  his  arm,  nor  intellect  within  his  head ;  and 


218  NATION-MAKING. 

though  he  be  as  rich  as  Croesus  he  will  be  but  a  puny 
idiot.  Ten  thousand  dollars  contain  greater  possibili- 
ties of  comfort  and  contentment  than  ten  millions. 

Some  dispositions  are  demoralized  by  adversity. 
It  is  more  difficult  for  a  person  pampered  by  wealth, 
and  petted  by  society,  to  turn  his  back  upon  the 
allurements  of  prosperity,  and  rigidly  pursue  a  life  of 
regularity  and  self-abnegation,  such  for  instance  as  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  one  who  would  achieve  suc- 
cess in  art  or  letters,  than  for  one  to  work  and  im- 
prove who  is  driven  on  by  poverty.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  the  shock  of  failure  to  one  of  a  sanguine  tem- 
perament, who  has  labored  long  for  a  competence 
which  appeared  just  within  his  grasp,  too  often  results 
in  demoralization. 

The  fire  of  religion  burns  fiercely  when  fanned  by 
persecution,  and  dies  away  under  the  enervatiag  in- 
fluences of  prosperity.  In  times  of  peace  pa.triotism 
lies  dormant  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  is 
awakened  only  by  the  approach  of  danger.  Wealth 
in  order  to  be  highly  prized  must  be  hard  to  get  and 
limited  to  a  few.  It  is  becoming  commonplace  for 
illiterate  clowns  by  some  lucky  turn  of  the  cards,  or 
by  some  system  of  overreaching,  to  be  able  to  write 
themselves  down  for  two  or  twenty  millions,  and  then 
buy  a  seat  in  congress,  or  secure  some  other  place 
which  only  renders  the  more  conspicuous  their  igno- 
rance and  vanity.  Fortunes  and  so-called  honors 
thus  obtained  cheapen  manhood^  and  bring  partici- 
pants into  contempt. 

So  far  we  have  presented  the  more  shaded  aspect  of 
California  characteristics,  which  after  all  applied  only 
in  a  degree.  Excesses  and  eccentricities  attract  more 
attention  because  of  their  prominence  above  the  broad 
current  of  ordinary  occurrences,  and  are  naturally 
seized  upon  by  observers,  who  moreover  emphasize 
them  in  order  to  impart  a  stronger  outline  to  the 
peculiarities.     A  certain  class  of  writers,  each  under 


REPRESENTATIVE  ECCENTRICITIES.  219 

the  effort  to  outdo  all  predecessors,  has  gone  further 
and  exaggerated  the  eccentricities  of  the  early  ad- 
venturers. In  the  main  they  were  not  so  very  singular; 
most  of  them  were  quiet,  orderly  men.  Some  camps 
were  worse  than  others,  and  nearly  every  camp  had 
some  eccentric  characters.  The  fault  is  that  the  most 
extravagant  descriptions  of  fictitious  characters  have 
been  wrought  up  by  sensational  writers  arid  palmed  off 
as  representatives. 

Yet  there  was  enough  of  the  strange  and  fantas- 
tic, and  that  without  adding  to  the  coloring.  The 
gathering  was  a  rare  novelty  in  its  general  aspect. 
For  the  moment  a  new  experiment  was  undergoing 
trial — how  civilized  men  of  several  nations  would  be- 
have when  thrown  promiscuously  together,  unre- 
strained by  law,  by  society,  by  religious  forms. 
Primitive  men  live  without  government ;  each  avenges 
his  own  wrongrs  or  leaves  them  unavenoed.  Prosfres- 
sive  men  refer  their  troubles  to  rulers;  in  common 
v\dth  primitive  men  they  likewise  weave  around  them- 
solves  innumerable  cords  of  restraint,  such  as  religious 
teachings,  moral  precepts,  fashion,  public  opinion, 
which  act  as  fetters  to  mind  and  passion.  Some  of 
these  are  good,  others  bad;  some  are  blessings  at  one 
time  and  evils  at  another.  Let  us  hope  that  mankind 
some  day  will  be  so  far  advanced  as  no  longer  to  require 
administrators  only ;  instead  of  rulers,  abitrators ; 
but  that  time  is  not  yet.  These  men  being  without 
law  straightway  became  a  law  unto  themselves.  As 
it  is  impossible  for  them  to  escape  form  and  fashion 
in  some  shape,  their  first  decree  that  society  shall  be 
without  trammels  or  traditions,  absolutely  free,  inde- 
pendent, and  individual,  is  but  the  casting  of  a  new 
fetter  which  makes  no  fashion  the  fashion. 

The  first  use  of  their  liberty  or  license  is  to  make 
that  license  the  law ;  so  impossible  is  it  for  men  to  fly 
the  track  of  destiny,  or  progress  faster  or  in  any 
direction  other  than  that  predetermined!  Keligious 
observances  were  no  longer  urged  upon  them  by  pre- 


220  NATION-MAKING. 

cept  and  example ;  so  many  became  infidel  to  ortho- 
dox creeds;  nevertheless  they  could  not  escape  re- 
ligion. Death  and  eternity  were  before  them;  that 
they  well  knew,  and  each  for  himself  must  meet  the 
issue.  So  each  for  himself  struck  out  on  some  inde- 
pendent belief,  tinctured  more  or  less  by  former  train- 
ing. Some  professed  to  believe  nothing ;  this  in  itself 
then  became  their  dogma  or  doctrine.  Not  a  few 
turned  philosophers;  and  far  might  be  the  search  be- 
fore finding,  within  a  given  number,  more  or  deeper 
thinkers  on  matters  of  religion  and  philosophy.  In 
these,  as  in  all  other  respects,  they  were  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources.  They  had  all  the  essentials  for 
deep  thinking,  an  abrupt  breaking  loose  from  the 
past,  a  new  interchange  of  ideas,  with  nature  and 
their  own  hearts  to  commune  with.  Old  moralities 
they  threw  away  and  established  new  maxims  to  meet 
the  occasion.  The  aristocracy  of  dress  and  refine- 
ment they  frowned  down,  and  set  up  an  aristocracy 
of  democracy. 

In  this  way  they  soon  perceived  that  humanity 
could  not  escape  the  shackles ;  that  as  well  might 
they  struggle  to  be  rid  of  their  nature  as  of  the  in- 
fluence of  physical  and  social  surroundings.  See 
how  it  works.  No  sooner  do  these  gold-hunters  cut 
loose  from  the  trammels  of  home  and  of  settled  civi- 
lized society  than  they  find  themselves  surrounded  by 
new  restrictions,  held  as  if  in  a  vise  by  the  great  law 
of  necessity,  growing  out  of  their  new  situation. 
There  is  no  escape  from  this  law.  Bands  of  outlaws 
are  subject  to  severer  restrictions  by  their  own  code 
than  ever  a  lawful  government  imposed  upon  its  sub- 
jects. The  leader,  in  order  to  be  leader,  must  gird 
himself  and  walk  wisely,  and  the  led  must  merge 
their  will  almost  wholly  in  that  of  their  leader,  and 
keep  a  stricter  guard  upon  their  intercourse  with  the 
rough  comrades  with  whom  the  knife  and  pistol  are 
readier  to  hand  than  words  to  mouth.  Wholesome 
law  falls  at  once  under  the  severest  despotism. 


THE  EYE  OF   MAN.  221 

All  of  US,  old  and  young,  become  subject  to  a 
master.  We  may  get  along  with  conscience,  no  mat- 
ter how  we  carry  ourselves;  either  by  compromising 
with  the  devil  or  putting  it  away  to  keep.  But  the 
omnipresent  eye  of  our  fellows  we  never  can  escape 
from.  In  the  days  of  his  budding  genius  Jean  Paul 
Kichter  affected  certain  singularities  in  dress,  wishing, 
as  he  expresses  it,  to  accustom  himself  to  the  censure 
of  others,  and  appear  a  fool,  that  he  might  learn  to 
endure  fools.  But  though  a  Diogenes  in  philosophy 
he  finally  broke  under  it  and  gave  up  his  fashion. 
Few  theoretical  or  artificially  formed  societies  stand 
the  test  of  time.  Communities  are  born  and  grow ; 
they  are  seldom  made. 

From  the  first  there  have  been  in  our  midst  men 
of  sterling  worth,  reticent,  modest,  with  brains  more 
active  than  their  tongues,  men  of  wonderful  and 
heroic  lives,  gems  of  manhood,  whose  quiet,  gentle 
deeds  go  unheralded  amidst  the  brass-and-cymbal 
soundings  of  the  hurrying  crowd.  It  was  such  men  as 
these,  a  few  of  them,  brought  by  fortune  or  circum- 
stance to  the  front,  but  for  the  most  part  remaining 
a  power  behind  appearances,  who  fashioned  society  on 
these  shores,  and  shaped  the  destiny  of  the  nation. 

Under  the  slouched  hats  even  of  the  miners  were 
brains  that  thought,  and  beneath  the  long  flowing 
unkempt  beards  shone  faces  of  homely  shrewdness. 
Observant  yet  visionary,  some  worked  hard,  striving 
to  overrule  the  inexorable  circumstances  that  ruled 
them,  while  others,  notwithstanding  their  apparent 
recklessness,  possessed  of  a  calmer  judgment,  of 
sagacity  and  quickness  of  apprehension,  seized  the 
favorable  opportunity,  and  improved  it  with  persever- 
ing industry  and  wonderful  power  of  endurance. 

A  higher  estimate  w^as  placed  upon  human  nature 
by  the  experiences  in  California.  Even  the  rough 
and  unlettered  workingman,  without  wisdom  or  moral 
excellence,  such  as  are  taught  in  the  schools,  displayed 
a  native  nobility  of  some  form  or  consistence,  which 


222  NATIOX-MAKING. 

controverts  the  once-held  doctrine  of  total  depravity. 
None  are  so  bad  that  no  good  can  be  found  in  them ; 
and  the  greatest  whilom  saint  too  often  in  the  hour  of 
trial  is  found  to  be  the  greatest  sinner. 

Kind-hearted,  benevolent,  generous,  they  were  as 
a  rule ;  although  some  of  them  could  be  as  cruel  and 
extravagant  as  Caracalla.  Ready  at  any  cost  of  time 
or  trouble  to  rescue  those  in  peril,  to  help  the  dis- 
tressed, they  scorned  pay  for  such  services.  Whether 
or  not  they  possessed  faith  in  God  or  their  countr}^, 
they  had  faith  in  themselves,  and  depended  upon  them- 
selves alone  for  their  success.  With  this  faith  they 
had  no  fear  of  misfortune  or  poverty. 

This  was  an  age  of  ventures  and  pioneer  plunges 
into  the  dark,  an  age  of  speculation  and  investigation, 
of  exploration  and  opening  of  unknown  wildernesses, 
in  which  restless  schemers,  confident  in  their  own  re- 
sources, stood  ready  to  undertake  anything,  from  the 
cutting  of  a  ship  canal  to  the  conquest  of  a  hundred 
thousand  Sonorans  with  a  handful  of  followers. 

Never  was  more  versatility  of  talents,  or  more  apt- 
ness in  emergencies.  As  the  richest  placers  were 
culled  over  and  began  to  be  exhausted,  mining  ma- 
chinery was  invented  with  marvellous  rapidity  and 
efficiency,  which  made  profitable  more  difficult  dig- 
gings. There  was  not  a  social  problem  that  could 
arise  but  was  solved  or  cut  upon  the  instant.  Although 
a  motley  crew,  without  law  or  order,  rights  of  property 
were  defined  and  respected ;  regulations  were  made 
concerning  mining  claims,  thieves  were  shot,  and 
ballot-box  stuiTers  hanged.  The  trammels  of  ancient 
forms,  inapplicable  to  the  present  order  of  things,  were 
flung  to  the  winds. 

There  was  here  manifest  in  early  times  none  of  that 
inequality  between  labor  and  capital  common  in  older 
communities,  where  the  poor  are  servants  of  the  rich, 
and  labor  is  ruled  by  capital.  In  California  labor  was 
not  only  on  an  equality  with  capital,  but  in  many  re- 
spects superior  to  it.     He  who  had  bone  and  sinew  to 


SOCIETY  AND  POLITICSc  223 

sell  was  more  independent  than  he  who  had  money 
with  which  to  buy.  There  was  no  cringing  of  tlie 
poor  laborer  before  the  rich  employer.  All  started 
evenly ;  all  must  work,  rich  and  poor  alike ;  the  rich 
of  to-day  might  be  the  poor  of  to-morrow,  the  em- 
ployer of  to-day  to-morrow's  laborer.  For  several 
years  the  prices  of  both  labor  and  capital  ruled  high 
in  California,  because  people  at  the  east  and  in  Europe 
lacked  confidence  in  the  stability  of  the  country ;  and 
when  our  prosperity  became  fixed,  and  men  and  money 
came  forward  liberally,  resources  inviting  development 
kept  so  far  in  advance  of  the  supply  of  the  means  of 
development,  that  the  rates  of  five  dollars  a  day  for 
labor  and  three  per  cent  a  month  for  the  use  of  money 
declined  but  slowly. 

As  slavery  shaped  politics,  the  chivalric  ideal,  and 
domestic  manners  in  the  south,  so  did  austere  puri- 
tanism  and  the  exaltation  of  labor  in  the  north.  In 
CaHfornia  were  both  ;  gold  was  slave,  and  the  gath- 
ering of  it  labor,  which  became  lord  of  all.  The  nat- 
ural and  material  predominated.  Brains  and  blood, 
which  are  sure  in  the  end  to  prevail  over  brute  force, 
were  for  a  ti^ie  under  ban.  Unassisted  by  muscular 
energy,  the  intellect  alone  would  not  disembowel  the 
earth,  turn  streams,  or  remove  boulders.  Pride  must 
have  a  fall ;  soft  hands  must  be  hardened.  The  aris- 
tocracy of  intellect  must  give  way  before  the  aristoc- 
racy of  muscle.  The  common  laborer  who  at  home 
hammered  stones  on  the  turnpike,  or  dug  canals,  was  as 
good  a  man  among  the  boulders  as  the  statesman  or  mer- 
chant. The  honest  miner  was  lord  of  the  land,  and 
clergymen,  doctors,  and  lawyers,  who  were  obliged  to 
drive  mules  or  wash  dishes,  were  his  servants. 

Master  and  slave  from  the  southern  states  Avould 
work  and  live  together ;  white  and  red  would  labor 
and  lie  down  together.  Failing  in  mining,  the  heter- 
ogeneous mass  would  segregate,  individuals  dropping 
off  into  pursuits  more  congenial,  or  better  adapted  to 
their  money-making  talents.     One  would  take  to  law, 


224  NATION-MAKING. 

another  to  medicine ;  one  would  become  an  artist,  and 
sketch  claims  and  cabins  and  portraits  for  his  com- 
rades, finding  tlie  new  occupation  more  congenial  as 
well  as  more  profitable  than  the  old. 

Conservative  notions  were  cast  to  the  winds;  and, 
stripped  of  its  folly  and  trumpery  as  well  as  of  its 
more  comely  adornments,  society  stood  naked ;  all 
things  seemed  reduced  to  a  state  of  nature,  but  the 
rapidity  with  which  order,  equity,  and  natural  justice 
formulated  themselves,  with  the  balance  of  right  and 
wrong  restored,  shows  the  inherent  capabilities  and 
good  qualities  of  the  founders  of  the  new  regime. 

Not  only  was  labor  made  honorable,  but  there  was 
a  chivalry  that  enveloped  all  industry  such  as  the 
marts  of  commerce  had  never  before  witnessed.  For 
so  small  a  community  traffic  was  conducted  on  a  grand 
scale,  and  the  way  of  it  was  princely — more  princely 
than  the  way  of  princes.  Enter  a  shop ;  it  might  be 
a  wooden  house,  a  tent,  or  an  uncovered  piece  of 
street  or  sandy  beach.  If  the  owner  regards  you  at 
all,  it  is  with  total  indifference  as  to  your  wealth  or 
your  wants ;  he  is  not  at  all  tremulous  a^to  the  dollars 
he  shall  make  out  of  you.  If  you  object  to  the  price, 
you  are  at  liberty  to  leave  the  article.  The  seller  has 
no  time  for  chaffering,  the  buyer  has  none  for  cheap- 
ening ;  if  they  are  old  Californians,  which  term  at 
this  juncture  implies  three  months  in  the  country, 
neither  of  them  will  stoop  to  many  words  when  gold 
can  settle  the  difference. 

Circumstances  cast  business  methods  into  a  mould 
widely  different  from  that  prevailing  in  staid  old  com- 
mercial circles,  and  those  who  neglected  to  adapt 
themselves  to  it  were  more  liable  to  be  borne  down  by 
the  current  than  those  who  abandoned  themselves 
freely  to  it.  Of  the  best  class  of  business  men — those 
of  the  most  sterling  integrity  and  soundest  morals, 
and  greatest  perseverance — who  arrived  here  first,  few 
have  been  permanently   successful.     The  reality  so 


AMIDST  MANY  FAILURES.  225 

far  exceeded  the  romance,  that  the  wisest  calculations 
and  the  wildest  dreams  were  ahke  one.  He  who 
should  tell  the  truth  regarding  the  future  was  a  rav- 
ing maniac,  while  the  imaginings  of  an  Arabian  story- 
teller might  find  credence.  Brimful  of  health,  hope, 
ambition,  and  enterprise,  they  failed  more  in  overdo- 
ing than  in  lack  of  energy. 

Aspersions  were  freely  cast  upon  the  moral  and 
mercantile  reputations  of  Californians  from  abroad ^ 
some  of  which  it  must  be  admitted  were  true,  but 
many  of  them  wholly  unjust.  For  the  innumerable 
losses  and  failures  which  occurred  to  early  shippers, 
they  were  themselves  greatly  to  blame.  As  eager  as 
any  to  make  speedy  fortunes  in  the  golden  wilderness, 
and  ignorant  of  the  country  and  of  the  necessities  of 
its  visitors,  schemes  the  most  visionary  were  thought- 
lessly concocted,  the  blame  for  the  failure  of  which 
often  fell  alone  upon  the  instruments  selected  for  car- 
rying them  out.  A  large  amount  of  capital  was 
thrown  upon  these  shores,  mostly  in  the  shape  of  mer- 
chandise, some  of  which  was  wholly  worthless. 
Money  was  advanced  by  capitalists  at  home  to  assist 
those  who  were  to  divide  with  them  the  gains ;  and  these 
speculators  in  the  lives  and  labors  of  others  were  nat- 
urally disappointed  if  the  pittance  advanced  for  out- 
fit and  passage  did  not  bring  them  a  fortune  equal  to 
that  brought  to  Whittington  by  his  cat. 

It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  personal  honor  ranked 
high  in  the  mining  community,  and  is  so  maintained 
during  the  present  wider  recourse  to  it  by  business 
men  generally ;  for,  owing  to  the  peculiar  climate  and 
other  conditions,  the  credit  system  obtains  here  exten- 
sively. In  the  absence  of  law  during  flush  times  men 
prided  themselves  on  their  integrity,  and  to  throw  a 
man  upon  his  honor  was  oftentimes  the  safest  security 
in  traffic.  Hence  honesty  became  a  ruling  propensity ; 
so  that  midst  the  hubbub  of  the  maddest  camp-life 
there  was  always  found  enough  of  righteousness  to 
save  the  place. 

Essays  and  Miscellany     15 


220  NATION-MAKING. 

Ill  the  manner  of  sustaining  this  independence  and 
dignity  at  manual  or  head  work,  a  vast  difference  ap- 
peared when  comparing  the  several  nationalities. 
With  one  an  earnestness  and  zest  for  brute  labor,  witli 
another  the  adjuncts  of  observation  and  thought,  lifted 
the  arm  to  easier  performance  and  wider  scope  ;  botli 
in  marked  contrast  to  the  desultory  and  less  energetic 
efforts  exhibited  especially  by  Spanish- American  and 
Latin  races,  which  trusted  more  to  good  fortune  than 
to  personal  force.  These  traits  cropped  out  clearly 
on  the  minhig  ground.  A  Frenchman,  for  example, 
lacked  the  independence  and  practical  sagacity  neces- 
sary for  emergencies  here.  Had  the  country  been 
peopled  entirely  by  them,  it  would  have  taken  ten 
times  as'  long  to  develop  it.  Frenchmen  seemed 
afraid  to  be  alone.  Yet  while  essentially  gregarious, 
they  manifested  little  of  that  mutual  confidence  and 
cohesiveness  necessary  to  self-government,  and  the 
prosecution  of  such  mining  enterprises  as  could  be 
successfully  carried  on  only  by  companies  of  twenty 
or  more  men.  Scarcely  half-a-dozen  could  work  to- 
gether harmoniously  for  any  length  of  time  ;  and  yet 
a  Frenchman  was  rarely  seen  prospecting  or  travelling 
in  the  mines  alone,  as  was  the  common  practice  of 
Teutons  and  Anglo-Americans.  The  latter  though  of 
all  men  the  most  individually  independent,  can  at  the 
same  time  most  perfectly  unite  and  organize  for  the 
prosecution  of  a  common  object. 

Large  mining  companies  always  required  a  prepon- 
derant Anglo-Saxon  element  to  give  them  consistency 
and  cohesion.  No  matter  how  lawless  and  overbear- 
ing the  respective  members  of  these  companies  might 
be  in  an  individual  and  private  capacity,  they  were 
almost  invariably  quiet  and  orderly  in  their  association, 
submitting  cheerfully  to  the  direction  of  their  leader. 
This  national  idea  of  uniting  for  strength,  merging 
the  proud  independence  of  one  into  the  proud  inde- 
pendence of  the  whole,  is  essentially  American,  and 
cannot   be  practised,  even  on  so   small  a  scale  as  a 


ALL  EQUAL  UNDER   MAMMON.  227 

mining  company,  so  successfully  by  Europeans,  or  by 
the  subjects  of  any  monarchy.  Perfect  equality  was 
the  fundamental  principle,  and  in  companies  formed 
for  mining,  a  doctor  and  a  drayman,  a  lawyer  and  a 
hod-carrier,  the  educated  the  refined  and  the  ignorant, 
worked  side  by  side  as  men.  Differences  were  laid 
aside,  and  a  union  complete  was  made  under  the 
banner  of  Mammon. 

Partnership  was  more  than  business  association ;  it 
was  a  union  of  all  interests,  social  and  physical.  If  one 
fell  sick,  the  other  took  care  of  him;  if  one  got  drunk, 
the  other  helped  him  home ;  if  both  fell  by  the  way- 
side, they  shared  their  misfortune  together. 

These  men  whom  avarice  had  drawn  to  this  wilder- 
ness from  comfortable  homes  were  not  altogether 
avaricious;  not  so  avaricious  as  many  they  had  left 
behind.  If  any  stranger  were  hungry  they  fed  him, 
if  any  comrade  were  in  need  they  divided  their  pos- 
sessions with  him.  Notwithstanding  the  yellow  tinge 
of  their  dreams  and  toils,  nowhere  could  be  found  men 
more  indifferent  to  gold,  men  who  guarded  it  so  care- 
lessly, who  squandered  it  so  recklessly,  who  parted 
from  it  with  fewer  pangs,  than  among  these  who  had 
come  so  far  and  had  denied  themselves  so  much  to 
find  it.  The  humanity  engendered  by  the  gathering 
of  the  gold-diggers  was  crude  and  unique,  but  it  was 
genuine  and  hearty.  Social  intercourse  was  pruned 
of  its  superfluous  courtesies,  and  blunt  goodfellowship 
took  the  place  of  meaningless  etiquette.  Greetings 
were  frank  and  cordial,  and  the  persistently  morose 
and  ill-tempered  were  cursed  into  kindness.  No  man 
of  any  parts  who  would  then  be  called  a  man  was 
long  a  stranger.  Almost  everyone  had  friends  in  the 
country,  and  he  who  had  none  made  them,  and  pres- 
ently himself  began  to  feel  that  everybody  was  his 
friend. 

For  cool  courage,  indifference  to  hardships,  and  the 
manliness  with  which  they  met  the  severest  misfor- 
tunes, the  world  offers  no  such  examples  since  the 


228  NATION-MAKING. 

days  of  Cortes.  The  miner  bore  his  ills  with  admi- 
rable indifference.  Far  from  bemoanins^  his  fate  and 
linking  under  discouragement,  and  crying  all  is  lost  and 
no  chance  any  more,  he  recommenced  with  the  same 
energy  and  enthusiasm  a  new  apprenticeship.  If  from 
master  he  became  a  simple  workman,  it  did  not  mat- 
ter. If  overtaken  by  death  before  rising  again,  the 
struggle  was  ended,  and  to  death  he  resigned  himself 
If  a  fire  swept  a  town,  and  half  the  inhabitants  were 
bankrupted,  there  was  no  repining,  no  mourning  over 
the  irretrievably  lost;  as  if  by  magic  buildings  rose 
again  and  business  proceeded  as  usual.  A  flood  bore 
away  in  a  single  night  the  results  of  a  summers 
labor ;  straightway  work  was  resumed  with  a  persist- 
ency worthy  a  nobler  cause.  Not  once  or  twice  but 
ten  times  they  fell  and  rose  again,  thousands  of  them 
dying  in  their  endeavors.  No  wonder  that  some  gave 
up  the  battle  and  succumbed,  victims  to  intemperance. 
And  let  those  blame  them  who  will;  for  me  there  is 
no  sight  so  pitiful,  none  that  so  draws  upon  my  every 
sympathy,  as  that  of  a  once  noble  man  who  from  re- 
peated misfortune  irrecoverably  falls,  and  gives  him- 
self up,  body  and  soul,  to  the  demon  of  drink.  In 
his  besotted  insanity  that  man  is  ten  times  more  my 
brother  than  the  successful  trickster  or  the  untried 
sentimental  moralist,  who  so  scornfully  pass  him  by 
on  the  other  side. 

To  this  wrecking  of  humanity  contributed  not  a 
little  the  wandering  habits  of  miners,  and  their  periodic 
idleness,  largely  compulsory,  but  developing  therefrom 
into  a  custom  with  those  predisposed  to  indolence. 
Thus  was  gradually  unfolded  the  tramp  in  the  country 
and  the  loafer  in  the  towns ;  and  this  in  so  marked  a 
manner  that  it  became  necessary  to  coin  a  word 
which  should  express  their  character.  The  foremost 
feature  of  the  bummer  is  his  idleness.  He  is  the 
drone  of  society.  He  may  even  be  a  man  of  some 
property  ;  but  if  he  spends  his  time  mainly  in  hanging 
about  saloons,   gossiping,  smoking,  playing  cards  or 


THE   GRAND   VENTURE.  229 

billiards,  he  is  a  bummer,  and  not  entitled  to  the  re- 
spect even  of  the  professional  gambler  and  saloon- 
keeper. He  is  not  necessarily  a  vagabond,  but  he 
must  be  something  of  a  sponge.  He  is  the  figure 
head  of  thriftlessness ;  he  lives  without  work,  often 
dresses  well,  nobody  knows  how,  is  happy  and  jovial. 
Landing  on  these  shores  without  money,  without 
friends,  with  no  definite  purpose  in  view,  wandering 
homeless  about  the  streets  from  day  to  day,  seeking 
rest  and  finding  none,  seeking  occupation,  seeking  the 
means  to  relieve  the  day's  hunger,  the  dream  that 
lured  men  hither  is  soon  dissipated,  the  charms  of 
novelty  fly  before  inexorable  destiri}^,  and  the  dazzling 
pictures  of  the  past  fade  before  unrelenting  want. 
Some  sink  into  vice,  insanity,  suicide,  others  chancing 
upon  some  lucky  hit,  or  through  their  indomitable 
exertions  overcoming  the  vicissitudes  that  beset  their 
path,  rise  to  eminence,  an^  live  to  laugh  at  their  former 
trials ;  many,  very  many,  go  down  to  the  grave  alone, 
unknown,  uncared  for,  with  a  dying  curse  upon  the 
tinsel  allurements  that  drew  them  from  home  and 
wrought  their  ruin.  Yet  those  behind  come  crowd- 
ing on,  the  lessons  of  sad  experience  taught  others 
having  no  meaning  for  them.  Well,  let  them  make 
the  venture.  Life,  after  all  is  but  a  wager,  and  he 
alone  is  sure  to  lose  who  will  not  stake  it. 

Now  that  this  grand  festival  is  over,  and  the  mor- 
row has  come,  stand  on  the  corner  of  a  street  in 
cosmopolitan  San  Francisco  and  watch  the  faces  as 
they  pass.  Behold  what  manner  of  men  are  these  ? 
Out  of  great  tribulation  they  have  come,  some  of 
them  unscathed ;  or  it  may  be  they  are  yet  in  trouble. 
The  once  innocent,  happy,  and  contented  look  lies 
deeply  buried  under  business  care  and  nervous  striv- 
ing. You  see  forms  bent  by  labor,  limbs  mutilated 
by  accidents,  faces  furrowed  by  disappointment  or 
disease,  hair  whitened  by  sorrow  and  remorse,  eyes 
dimmed  and  bleared  by  sensuality,  cheeks  flabby  and 


230  NATION-MAKING. 

bloated  by  drunkenness,  the  spirit  clouded  with  shame 
and  the  conscience  seared  with  the  cinders  of  hell. 
And  amoncT  those  who  have  overcome,  who  have  suc- 
ceeded in  life's  battle,  you  see  their  fossilized  features, 
their  intellectual  inanity,  and  the  gloomy  light  that 
glimmers  from  a  hopeless  heart,  from  hearts  yet  burn- 
ing in  the  unquenchable  fire  of  avarice,  each  of  which 
knoweth  its  own  bitterness. 

How  many  wrecked  lives  are  here ;  how  many  have 
already  gone  down  to  perdition  unknown  and  uncared 
for,  buried  beneath  mountain  snow,  rotting  at  the  foot 
of  a  precipice,  devoured  by  wild  beasts  or  laid  under 
the  ground  by  strangers  who  knew  not  even  their 
names !  Nevertheless  from  behind  these  pain-chiselled 
features  shines  out  many  a  noble  soul,  whose  battlings 
and  victories  and  defeats  none  but  itself  can  ever 
know ;  its  blunted  sensibilities  and  dead  energies  mak- 
ing it  a  thing  objectionable  to  its  fellows.  Let  him 
who  would  study  the  effect  of  mind  upon  body,  the 
influence  of  the  moral  upon  the  intellectual,  the  sub- 
tle impress  of  wrong-doing  and  right-doing  upon  the 
human  face,  pause  here  a  moment,  for  on  no  other 
corner  in  Christendom  will  he  find  such  riddles  to 
solve. 

What  were  to  them  the  attractions  of  climate,  the 
seductions  of  scenery,  the  natural  wealth  and  good 
qualities  of  the  country  ?  Blinded  by  their  losses  and 
mishaps  many  saw  neither  beauties  nor  benefits.  Dis- 
gust and  home-sickness  enveloped  them  like  a  cloud  ; 
and  not  until  they  neared  Sandy  Hook  on  their  re- 
turn did  the  sun  seem  to  shine.  The  eyes  of  others 
were  by  their  very  successes  so  fastened  upon  the 
ground  that  they  could  not  see  the  stars  ;  so  absorbed 
were  their  minds  in  their  various  pursuits,  that  the 
beauties  of  earth  were  lost  upon  them. 

The  thought  of  making  in  California  a  permanent 
home  was  at  the  first  entertained  by  few.  To  achieve 
wealth,  at  least  to  gather  gold  enough  to  satisfy  mod- 
erate desires,  to  pay  off  the  mortgage  on  the  old  home,  to 


ADAPTATIONS   AND   RECONCILIATIONS.  231 

shield  the  aged  parents,  or  assist  brothers  and  sisters  to 
establish  business,  or  peradventure  to  marry,  and  then 
to  return — such  was  the  ambition  of  nearly  every  man 
who  entered  California  in  1849.  To  rear  a  family  in 
such  a  place  as  the  country  where  were  neither 
schools  nor  churches,  where,  upon  the  surface  at  least, 
men  were  as  uncouth  as  bears,  and  coarser  and  more 
brutal  than  the  aboriginals  before  the  charm  of  the 
wilderness  was  broken,  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  and 
the  towns,  hot-beds  of  iniquity,  were  but  little  better. 

Meanwhile  circumstances  interposed  to  modify 
their  views.  Often  is  chronic  home-sickness  cured  or 
at  least  alleviated  by  the  receipt  of  letters  and  papers. 
Not  that  affection  is  thereby  diminished,  but  being 
transported  by  these  missives  to  familiar  scenes,  long- 
ings to  be  there  are  in  a  measure  satisfied ;  fears  arise 
lest  the  prospects  of  success  have  been  drawn  in  too 
high  colors,  and  considerations  arise  as  to  one's  condi- 
tion if  at  once  returned  thither.  Hence  the  wealtli- 
seeker  becomes  more  reconciled  to  wait  a  little  longer 
and  improve  his  prospects. 

The  realization  of  such  hopes  was  not  frequent.  Of 
all  the  first  steamship  pioneers,  who  deemed  them- 
selves so  fortunate  in  arriving  at  the  new  El  Dorado 
before  any  of  the  thousands  then  preparing  to  follow 
them,  how  few  succeeded  in  securing  the  coveted 
wealth  or  lived  to  enjoy  the  placid  old  age  of  opulence 
and  ease  so  often  dreamed  of !  Bags  of  gold,  wealth 
— all  were  but  husks  on  which  these  prodigals  fed. 

By  autumn  1850  tlie  character  of  the  population 
was  somewhat  changed.  The  only  object  was  no 
longer  to  delve  for  gold  wherewith  to  buy  pleasure  at 
the  east ;  most  of  the  class  intent  on  that  purpose  had 
returned  home  or  were  stiL  at  work  in  the  mines  una- 
ble to  return.  Those  who  now  came  included  many 
returned  Californians  bent  on  making  California 
their  permanent  residence.  With  the  arrival  of  vir- 
tuous women,  and  of  men  with  their  families,  the 
moral  aspect  of  California  began  to  change,  and  the 


232  NATION-MAKING. 

tendency  at  one  time  apparent  of  making  women 
masculine  was  corrected. 

The  influence  of  individuals  grew  fainter  by  degrees 
as  society  assumed  form  and  comeliness,  and  began  to 
issue  its  mandates  as  a  concentrated  and  crystallized 
fact,  based  on  the  common-sense  of  rational  commu- 
nities of  intelligent  men.  But  society  had  long  to 
struggle  with  a  lack  of  coherence;  itb  several  elements 
required  time  to  coalesce.  There  was  too  much 
change,  too  much  competition,  too  much  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  of  egoism;  but  to  all  of  which  time  brought 
a  remedy. 

It  could  already  be  seen  that  a  brilliant  society, 
composed  of  the  intellectual  and  polished  from  all 
nationalities,  was  within  the  reach  of  San  Francisco, 
and  that  this  magnificent  fusion  of  the  elegant  and 
refined,  each  contributing  the  best  traits,  would  some 
day  be  achieved.  As  yet  we  find  a  marked  contrast 
in  the  free  and  friendly  mingling  of  men  and  women 
here  and  elsewhere.  This  is  one  phase  of  the  restless- 
ness connected  with  migration  fever  that  drove  men 
hither,  with  the  nomadic  and  desultory  mining  life 
and  gambhng  spirit,  and  the  periodicity  of  farming 
and  many  other  industrial  operations.  It  is  also  at- 
tributable to  the  frivolous  disposition  of  the  women 
of  an  inferior  class  as  compared  with  the  males,  under 
the  eliminating  influence  of  distance,  difficulty  of  ac- 
cess, and  frontier  hardships,  and  too  much  intent  on 
marrying  money  for  enjoyment  and  display.  Indis- 
posed for  household  duties,  she  has  given  an  abnormal 
development  to  hotel  and  lodging-house  life,  with  its 
ease  and  indolence,  and  has  consequently  widely 
undermined  the  taste  for  domesticity  and  for  the 
home  circle.  Among  other  results  is  an  increasing 
host  of  unmarried  men,  a  forced  recourse  to  public 
places  of  amusement,  and  a  giddiness  of  temperament 
which  is  not  conducive  to  the  maintenance  of  the  staid 
moral  tone  of  puritan  times. 

Neither  separations  nor  great  wealth  are  conducive 


THE  NEGLECTED   WIFE.  '  233 

to  quiet  marital  relations.  How  many  illiterate  men, 
in  times  of  early  poverty  married  to  illiterate  women, 
when  riches  made  them  worshipful  among  their  fel- 
lows, and  redder  lips  and  brighter  eyes  than  those  of 
their  old  and  careworn  helpmeets  smiled  upon  them 
— how  many  has  prosperity  thus  turned  from  the 
faithful  partner  of  former  days  to  fresher  attractions, 
thus  sowing  seeds  of  dissension,  soon  growing  into 
weeds  of  discord  and  divorce !  Moreover,  in  a  country 
where  women  were  comparatively  few  in  number,  the 
neglected  wife  always  found  friends  of  the  opposite 
sex  to  lend  their  sympathy  and  advise  separation. 
In  California  the  ease  in  dissolving  marriages  was 
only  equalled  by  the  facility  with  which  meretricious 
unions  were  pronounced  legal. 

The  world  may  look  upon  the  graceless  doings  of 
the  past  and  censure,  but  the  soul  of  progress  is  not 
of  that  world.  The  prim  and  puritanical  may  regard 
the  profligate  acts  of  the  pioneers,  and  heave  a  sigh 
of  righteous  wrath,  but  the  prim  and  puritanical  are 
blind  to  the  great  mysteries  of  civilization ;  for  at  all 
epochs  in  the  refining  of  the  race,  such  deeds,  and 
worse,  are  patent,  and  to  these  and  kindred  evils 
sanctimonious  imprecators  owe  their  very  primness 
and  purity.  The  achievement  of  great  social  results 
requires  a  deep  stirring  of  the  different  elements,  even 
to  the  noxious  settlements  at  the  bottom.  These 
tunes,  and  the  like,  were  the  world's  nurseries  of  free- 
dom. The  knees  of  tyranny  smote  together,  and  all 
the  world  felt  it,  when  France  and  1792  made  kings 
of  the  canaille.  Does  the  world  yet  fully  comprehend 
it?  California  and  1849  were  the  first  to  make  capi- 
talists of  the  masses,  the  first  to  break  down  the 
flimsy  fabric  of  caste  and  social  duplicity,  the  first  to 
point  effectively  the  finger  of  scorn  at  time-honored 
cant,  hypocrisy,  and  humbug.  Here  the  nations  of 
the  earth  met  together  and  learned  the  first  lesson 
of  social  freedom,  freedom  from  that  hateful] est  and 
strongest  of  all  tyrannies,  the  eye,  not  of  God,  but  of 


234  NATION-MAKING. 

conservative  society.  Then  they  dispersed,  and  came 
again,  and  again  dispersed,  and  the  winds  of  lieaven 
never  scattered  seeds  further  or  more  surely  than 
these  migrations  and  remigrations  did  the  subhme  and 
simple  doctrines  of  social  liberty  without  license,  of 
individual  self-restraint  without  social  tyranny. 

In  the  admixture  of  races  in  California  we  have 
practically  a  congress  of  nations,  whose  effect  upon 
the  good-will  and  advancement  of  mankind  will  be 
felt  more  and  more  as  the  centuries  pass  by.  In  the 
interchange  of  mutual  benefits  which  fuse  under  the 
influences  of  good  government  and  free  institutions, 
and  the  cords  of  sympathy  radiating  hence  to  every 
land,  barriers  of  sectional  jealousy  and  prejudice  are 
broken  down,  national  eccentricities  are  worn  away, 
and  every  man  begins  to  see  something  good  in  his 
neighbor.  Nor  is  this  all.  This  fusion  of  the  races, 
this  intermixture  of  the  best  from  every  nation  rises 
and  swells  into  a  leaven,  which  reacts  upon  the  origi- 
nal contributors,  and  leavens  the  whole  mass  of 
mankind. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

Have  I  not  heard  the  sea  puflfed  up  with  winds, 
Rage  like  an  angry  boor,  chafed  with  sweat  ? 

— Taming  the  Shrew. 

Probably  never  was  there  so  favorable  an  opportu- 
nity for  working  out  one  of  the  grandest  of  race 
problems  as  in  the  republic  of  the  United  States 
during  the  first  half  century  of  its  existence.  The 
people  who  declared  separation  from  Great  Britain, 
and  fought  out  their  independence  with  consummate 
courage  and  self-reliance,  were  among  the  noblest  of 
the  earth.  There  were  none  to  be  found,  among  the 
most  favored  nations,  of  higher  manhood,  of  freer  minds, 
or  purer  hearts.  Intellectually  emancipated  above 
all  others,  their  purposes  were  exalted  and  their  lives 
heroic  and  virtuous.  Trained  in  the  school  of  adver- 
sity and  forced  to  self-denial,  forced  to  carve  out  their 
fortunes,  to  subdue  the  wilderness,  to  subdue  their 
own  passions,  they  had  acquired  a  hardihood,  a  phys- 
ical and  moral  endurance,  a  self-adaptation  to  circum- 
stances, and  the  power  of  subordinating  circumstances 
to  an  iron  will,  such  as  could  be  found  in  no  other 
community.  And  as  they  themselves  had  been  dis- 
ciplined, so  they  taught  their  children — to  work,  en- 
dure, worship  God,  govern  themselves,  and  be  intelli- 
gent and  free. 

The  material  conditions  were  most  favorable ;  lands 
unlimited,  prolific  soil,  temperate  climate,  with  no  de- 
moralizing metals  or  servile  race.  They  had  come 
for  conscience'  sake,  for  religious  and  political  liberty, 

(235) 


236  TWO  SIDES   OF  A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

not  for  gold  or  furs.  The  native  men  and  women 
they  encountered  were  poor  material  for  slaves,  pre- 
ferring to  die  rather  than  work ;  so  they  let  them  die, 
even  helping  them  betimes.  Wild  men  and  wild 
beasts  were  in  the  way,  and  it  was  the  will  of  God  that 
both  should  disappear  from  the  forest  when  the  men 
of  conscience  laid  their  axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree. 

No  start  in  the  race  of  empire-building  could  have 
been  better ;  and  had  this  course  been  preserved,  all 
other  nations  would  now  be  far  behind.  Had  there 
been  exercised  less  haste ;  had  the  men  of  nerve  and 
conscience,  of  muscle  and  morality,  been  less  eager  to 
get  rich,  less  eager  to  see  forests  cleared,  lands  popu- 
lated, towns  built,  and  government  established  ;  had 
they  been  satisfied  to  be  wise  and  prudent,  rearing 
sons  and  daughters  to  work  and  abstain,  to  cultivate 
body  and  mind  alike,  expanding  in  strength,  intelli- 
gence, and  virtue,  and  reserve  for  them  and  their  des- 
cendants the  vast  domain  which  has  been  given  to 
others,  tongue  cannot  tell  the  result. 

The  mistake  arose  from  lack  of  patience  and  foresight. 
The  theory  was  that  there  was  practically  no  limit  to 
land.  The  watchword  was  freedom ;  air  and  water 
were  free,  likewise  religion  and  government,  also  land. 
All  were  the  free  gift  of  God,  and  should  be  free  to 
all  the  children  of  God,  to  white  and  black,  to  Chris- 
tian and  barbarian.  The  commonwealth  should  be 
erected  on  this  basis,  and  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
should  be  invited  to  participate.  All  mankind  should 
find  on  one  spot  of  earth  at  least  freedom  in  its  fullest 
extent,  freedom  of  body,  mind,  and  estate. 

Here  was  truly  great  magnanimity  displayed  by 
our  venerated  forefathers,  both  in  theory  and  practice; 
we  will  not  inquire  too  closely  as  to  the  part,  if  any, 
played  by  an  inordinate  desire  for  wealth  and  progress. 
For  a  hundred  years  every  possible  effort  was  made 
to  bring  in  population,  fill  up  the  country,  and  get  rid 
of  the  land.  Every  possible  inducement  was  offered ; 
all  should  be  free  to  think  and  act  and  enjoy ;  even 


J 


TANGLED  LOGIC.  237 

our  government  we  would  divide  with  all  the  world. 
Little  attention  was  paid  to  quality ;  everything  in 
the  shape  of  a  man  counted,  and  one  man  was  as  good 
as  another  in  the  sight  of  God  and  under  the  banner 
of  freedom.  With  some  of  fair  endowment  was  gath- 
ered much  of  the  world's  refuse,  and  so  the  country 
was  peopled. 

Nevertheless,  in  due  time,  the  logic  of  our  well- 
planned  institutions  became  unreasonable  and  erratic 
in  certain  quarters,  sometimes  puzzling  to  the  simple 
mind.  There  is  the  enigma  of  the  African,  who 
amidst  a  glorious  exuberance  of  freedom  is  first  made 
slave  and  then  master,  and  seemingly  as  much  out  of 
place  in  one  position  as  in  the  other.  But  while  the 
black  man  has  thus  been  made  to  undergo  the  irony 
of  American  liberty,  the  white  European  enters  into 
the  enjoyment  of  rulership  at  once,  while  the  off-col- 
ored Mongolian  is  permitted  to  be  neither  slave  nor 
master. 

It  was  natural  to  quarrel  with  Great  Britain  over 
the  great  Oregon  game-preserve  ;  nations  like  men 
enjoy  their  disputes  if  by  any  twist  they  can  found 
them  on  some  fancied  principle.  When  the  great 
slice  was  secured  from  Mexico,  the  Americans  who 
traversed  the  continent  were  angry  to  find  the  charm- 
ing valleys  of  California  so  largely  occupied  by  Mexi- 
cans. And  when  gold  was  found  in  the  Sierra  foot- 
hills, the  question  immediatel}^  arose,  Can  foreigners 
carry  away  our  nuggets  ? 

American  miners  said  No,  but  American  statesmen, 
having  before  their  eyes  precepts  and  traditions,  said 
Yes.  Nevertheless,  the  Pike  county  men  drove  out 
Mexicans  and  frightened  away  Frenchmen,  while  the 
state  legislature  levelled  its  anathema  at  the  Chinese 
in  the  form  of  a  foreign  miners'  tax,  of  first  twenty 
dollars,  but  finally  reduced  to  four  dollars,  the  former 
sum  being  more  than  could  be  extorted  from  poor  men 
with  poor  implements  working  ground  which  had  been 
abandoned  by  the  superior  race. 


238  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

Thus  it  occurred  that  not  until  the  utmost  hmit 
of  their  country  had  been  reached  by  westward  push- 
ing settlers,  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  did  the  people 
of  the  United  States  take  thought  of  what  they  had 
been  doing,  California  being  the  first  to  enter  a  prac- 
tical protest  against  the  unlimited  and  indiscriminate 
admission  of  foreigners. 

But  before  this  the  evil  had  been  done.  The  re- 
public had  not  posed  before  the  world  as  the  land  of 
limitless  freedom  during  a  century  or  more  for 
nothing.  Low  Europeans  had  come  hither  in  droves, 
lowering  the  standards  of  intelligence  and  morality, 
and  polluting  our  politics. 

Nor  was  the  ground  taken  by  California  in  opposing 
foreign  immigration  reasonable  or  tenable ;  her  atti- 
tude and  action  did  not  arise  from  the  honest  and  sin- 
cere convictions  of  her  best  citizens.  Instead  of  levelling 
her  influence  against  the  principle,  she  made  war  alone 
on  an  individual  class,  on  a  single  nationality,  not  by 
any  means  the  one  that  had  done,  was  doing,  or  was 
likely  to  do,  the  greatest  injury  to  the  commonwealth; 
indeed,  it  was  the  most  harmless  class  of  all,  its  chief 
offence  being  the  only  one  which  was  never  mentioned, 
the  fact  that  it  would  not  and  could  not  vote. 

The  general  government  took  the  matter  quietly. 
It  could  not  yet  see  any  great  mistake  it  had  made ; 
it  would  not  see  the  cess-pools  of  immorality  in  all  the 
larger  cities,  and  how  filthy  had  become  its  politics ; 
above  all,  it  could  not  all  at  once  turn  its  back  upon 
tradition  and  give  the  lie  to  a  hundred  Fourth-of- 
Julys.  But  in  time  demagogism  made  an  impres- 
sion, and  a  reluctant  consent  was  finally  secured  to 
exclude  from  our  shores  any  further  accession  of  low 
Asiatics,  while  still  permitting  low  Africans  and  low 
Europeans  not  only  to  come  to  their  heart's  content, 
but  to  mingle  in  our  government  and  become  our 
masters,  attaining  their  ends  by  means  so  vile  that  no 
honest  man  can  enter  the  lists  against  them. 


OUR  TOO  HASTY  FOREFATHERS.  239 

Few  enjoy  hearing  the  unpopular  side  of  a  question. 
Still  fewer  care  to  present  the  facts  on  both  sides 
of  a  disputed  proposition.  It  is  a  thankless  task, 
bringing  down  upon  the  head  that  undertakes  it  the 
condemnation  of  all  concerned.  We  prefer  our  preju- 
dices to  facts ;  we  do  not  like  enlightenment  that  dis- 
turbs our  self-complacency.  Nevertheless,  every 
question  has  two  sides,  and  it  is  not  always  time  lost 
to  calmly  look  a  subject  through,  instead  of  shutting 
the  eyes  and  surrendering  to  blind  tradition,  or  bel- 
lowing for  whichever  proposition  pays. 

The  Chinese  question  rarely  receives  notice  on  more 
than  one  side,  and  at  the  narrowest  part  of  that. 
Like  almost  every  disputed  point,  it  is  not  a  point  at 
all,  but  something  wider  and  deeper  than  was  ever 
dreamed  of  until  it  came  to  be  sounded.  As  between 
the  Chinaman *s  side  and  that  of  other  foreigners, 
there  is  indeed  the  point ;  but  it  widens  as  we  consider 
Asia's  side  and  America's,  man's  side  and  God's. 

In  passing  upon,  let  alone  proving,  any  one  of  the 
many  propositions  surrounding  the  main  proposition, 
we  encounter  questions  as  difficult  of  solution  as  the 
main  question  itself  For  instance,  it  has  been  gen- 
erally held  here  in  America,  as  we  have  seen,  that 
immigration  from  Europe  is  desirable;  that  it  is  ben- 
eficial to  have  our  lands  occupied  as  soon  as  possible, 
reclaimed  from  savagism  and  placed  under  cultivation. 
If  we  ask  why  it  is  a  blessing,  the  answer  is,  the  more 
population  the  more  wealth  and  development.  But 
are  population,  wealth,  and  development  desirable 
before  every  other  consideration?  Our  large  cities 
have  population,  wealth,  and  development,  and  they 
are  hot-beds  of  corruption,  morally  and  politically 
rotten.  Is  this  state  of  things  in  every  respect  so 
much  better  than  when  the  wild  man  chased  the 
wild  buck  over  these  now  incorporated  grounds? 
Again,  good  lands  are  becoming  scarce.  The  de- 
scendants of  Americans  are  rapidly  multiplying. 
Soon  there  will  be  no  more  new  lands  for  them.     Is 


240  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED   QUESTION 

it  conducive  to  the  highest  good  of  the  commonwealth 
so  hastily  to  partition  soil  among  strangers  ?  Or  if 
it  be  best  to  have  the  land  quickly  occupied,  should 
we  not  discriminate  as  to  the  quality  of  humanity 
admitted  for  colaborers  in  race  and  nation  making  ? 
We  certainly  do  not  want  the  yellow-skinned  heathen 
to  marry  with  our  sons  and  daughters,  and  occupy 
our  lands;  but  do  we  want  the  l)lack,  bad-smelling 
African,  or  the  quarrelsome  European  ? 

This,  then,  is  one  side  of  the  question  :  that  a  low 
class  of  immigration  is  worse  tlian  none ;  that  it  is 
better  for  a  people  to  do  their  own  work  rather  than 
hire  it  done ;  that  the  Chinese  are  certainly  objection- 
able, bemg  heathen,  filthy,  immoral,  and  inexorably 
alien  in  heart  and  mind  to  all  our  institutions,  social 
and  political.  The  other  side  is  :  that  even  if  no  im- 
migration is  desirable,  if  we  admit  any  we  should  ad- 
mit all;  that  the  Chinese  are  no  more  objectionable 
than  others ;  that  laborers  are  required  to  develop 
agriculture  and  manufactures;  and  that  it  is  not  de- 
sirable that  any  low  class  of  foreigners  should  amal- 
gamate with  our  people  or  meddle  in  our  politics. 

If  material  development,  the  occupation,  and  culti- 
vation of  lands,  and  the  unfolding  of  mines  and  man- 
ufactures be  most  desirable,  then  we  deceive  ourselves 
and  malign  the  Asiatic  in  repudiating  him ;  for  he  is 
the  best  man  for  that  purpose,  better  than  the  African 
or  the  European.  He  works  as  the  steam-engine, 
the  cotton-gin,  woollen-mill,  and  sewing-machine  work, 
or  as  the  mule  or  gang-plow — that  is  he  does  the 
most  work  for  the  least  money,  absorbs  the  least  in 
food  and  clothes,  and  leaves  the  wealth  he  creates  for 
general  use,  getting  himself  out  of  the  country  when 
the  country  has  no  further  use  for  him,  not  stopping 
to  agitate,  or  amalgamate,  or  try  his  hand  at  bribing, 
ruling,  and  demoralizing  the  too  susceptible  Ameri- 
cans, and  carrying  away  with  him  the  few  metal 
dollars  which  he  has  justly  earned. 

High  wages  may  affect   humanity,  and  raise  the 


MACHINES  AND   MACHINE-MEN.  241 

standard  of  comfort  and  intelligence  in  the  community, 
but  it  is  low  wages  that  promote  manufactures  or 
other  material  development.  It  is  idle  to  argue,  as 
men  will  do,  that  the  California  raisin  maker,  or  cigar, 
or  cloth,  or  leather  manufacturer,  can  enter  the  world's 
market  and  compete  more  successfully  having  to  pay 
for  labor  two  dollars  than  one  dollar  a  day. 

For  twenty  years  Chinese  labor  has  acted  as  a  pro- 
tective tariff,  enabling  California  to  establish  wealth- 
creating  industries,  wliicli  form  the  basis  of  her  present 
and  future  greatness;  and  it  would  be  about  as  sensi- 
ble to  drive  out  all  steam-engines  or  other  machinery 
as  for  this  reason  alone  to  drive  out  the  Chinese. 

Again,  wages,  the  price  paid  for  labor,  is  a  relative 
quantity.  Low  wages,  other  things  being  equal,  are 
no  more  detrimental  to  comfort  and  the  general  well- 
being  of  the  community  than  high  wages  with  the 
price  of  commodities  correspondingly  high,  and  the 
labor  wage  regulates  the  prices  of  raw  material  as 
well  as  of  the  manufactured  article.  Chinese  labor 
is  in  some  branches  little  cheaper  than  white  labor. 
The  variations  of  wages  are  affected  by  the  efficiency 
and  faithfulness  of  the  laborer,  and  not  by  religious 
belief  or  the  color  of  the  skin.  In  California  a  Chinese 
cook  now  receives  from  twenty -five  to  thirty-five  dol- 
lars a  month,  and  is  generally  preferred  to  a  white 
cook  at  the  same  rate,  particularly  on  farms,  because 
he  will  do  more  and  better  work,  and  with  less  com- 
plaining. But  the  Chinese  are  becoming  every  day 
more  independent.  They  comprehend  the  situation 
fully.  Labor  has  no  more  conscience  than  capital ; 
when  there  is  a  scarcity  it  raises  the  price. 

The  European  assumes  that  he  is  a  better  man 
than  the  Asiatic,  in  which  position  he  is  upheld  by 
the  politician  seeking  votes,  by  tradesmen  desiring 
custom,  and  by  newspapers  desiring  circulation.  Yet 
he  is  unwilling  to  enter  the  arena  beside  the  Mongol- 
ian, put  his  superiority  to  the  test,  and  allow  compen- 
sation to  be  measured  hy  merit.     He  is  captious  and 

Essays  and  Miscellany     1G 


242  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

critical,  allesfingr  that  he  is  Immiliated  and  labor  de- 
graded  thereby,  though  he  does  not  object  to  follow 
the  horse  or  work  beside  a  steam-engine.  It  is 
mainly  an  excuse  with  him.  When  offered  work  at 
good  wages  he  too  often  demands  yet  higher  pay  and 
fewer  hours,  with  the  slowest  possible  movement  of 
the  pick  and  sliovel.  He  is  quick  to  take  offence,  and 
ever  ready  to  abandon  work  and  smoke  his  pipe  on 
the  street  corners  among  his  growling  companions. 
He  does  not  want  to  be  a  laborer  unless  he  can  be  at 
the  same  time  master,  and  rule  in  labor  as  in  govern- 
ment. 

The  solution  of  the  new  civilization's  labor  question 
is  not  to  be  found  in  Adam  Smith  or  John  Stuart 
Mill.  There  may  be  a  return  to  New  England's 
early  ways,  when  the  farmers'  sons  and  daughters  did 
the  work,  with  or  without  a  hired  man  or  two,  and 
in  the  town  factories  the  native  poor  found  a  place. 
But  if  this  is  ever  to  be,  something  is  to  be  done  in 
the  meantime.  Farming  lands  west  of  the  Mississippi 
are  not  laid  out  in  New  England  proportions.  There 
is  more  work  than  the  sons  can  do,  and  the  young 
lady  daughters  w^ill  not  cook  and  wash  for  the  farm 
hands.  A  million  laborers  are  wanted  immediately 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  not  for  purposes  of 
purification,  amalgamation,  or  social  or  political  re- 
quirements, but  to  plant  and  gather,  fence  lands  and 
tend  stock,  preserve  products  and  develop  manufac- 
tures. They  must  be  had,  or  the  industries  of  this 
country  will  suffer  as  never  before.  Where  are  they 
to  come  from? 

Hence  it  must  be  that  in  the  minds  of  our  enlight- 
ened advocates  of  immigration  it  is  not  material  pros- 
perity alone  that  actuates  them  in  helping  hither  one 
class  of  workers  while  repelling  another  and  better 
class.  Is  it  philanthropy,  then,  that  broad  benevolence 
which  would  bring  in  all  the  world  to  enjoy  our  liber- 
ties and  our  lands?  It  must  be  something  of  this 
kind.     We  seem  to  be  sufferinf>;  for  amalgamation  of 


THE  VOTING-MACHINE.  243 

some  sort ;  we  have  no  desire  to  join  hearts  and  minds 
with  those  of  the  steam-engine,  the  mule,  or  the  Mon- 
goUan,  and  through  union  with  these  agencies  hand 
down  to  posterity  our  time-honored  institutions. 
Why  not  ?  We  might  do  worse.  We  have  done  and 
are  doing  worse.  While  one  part  of  the  common- 
wealth has  hugged  to  its  bosom  the  black  African, 
who  is  not  half  so  white  as  the  half- white  Mongolian, 
the  other  portion  has  been  inviting  equally  objection- 
able elements  from  the  east.  We  have  made  our 
master  the  low  European,  who  has  befouled  our 
politics  and  demoralized  the  nation  more  than  all  the 
Mongolians  or  steam-engines  therein.  The  cess-pools 
of  Europe,  which  in  the  name  of  immigration  we  have 
been  draining  into  our  cities  for  the  last  century,  have 
finally  raised  such  a  moral  and  political  stench  as 
should  fully  satisfy  all  lovers  of  America  and  haters 
of  Asia.  No  I  No  Mono-olian  amalgamation  after 
this  I  Rather  let  celestials  sit  here  quietly  and  smoke 
all  the  opium  forced  by  England  on  China  than  make 
more  American  citizens  of  the  world's  refuse  humanity! 
Leaving  out  our  worthy  colored  citizens  as  not 
worth  discussion,  the  comparison  narrows  to  the  good 
and  bad  qualities  of  low  Asiatics  and  low  Europeans; 
for  the  inflowing  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  classes 
may  seriously  affbct  the  future  well-being  and  ad- 
vancement of  these  United  States.  The  question 
after  all  has  so  far  been,  not  which,  if  either,  is  the 
better  or  worse,  but  wherein  lies  expediency  ?  This 
is  the  aspect  with  our  governors,  legislators,  and 
judges,  likewise  our  demagogues  and  all  who  pander 
to  selfish  interests.  Yet  this  is  carefully  kept  in  the 
background,  and  sound  arguments  arc  seldom  touched. 
In  our  government,  the  right  of  suffrage  makes  the 
man  ;  it  does  not  matter  if  it  be  a  lamp-post,  or  a  sack 
of  bran,  if  it  votes  it  is  as  good  an  American  citizen, 
so  far  as  this  great  prerogative  is  concerned,  as  Daniel 
Webster  or  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  is  fortunate  we 
have  so  many  citizens  already  made,  so  much  is  de- 


244  TWO   SIDES   OF   A   VEXED   QUESTION. 

pendent  upon  them.  Could  the  Chinaman  vote,  there 
would  be  no  Chinese  question;  could  the  European 
not  vote,  there  would  be  no  Chinese  question. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  our  late  im- 
ported brethren  from  Europe  could  in  so  short  a 
time  after  coming  to  America,  not  only  snugly  estab- 
lish themselves  as  American  citizens,  and  gain  posses- 
sion of  so  large  a  part  of  the  government,  but  could 
set  the  people  at  large  barking  against  China,  not 
only  the  newspapers  and  politicians,  but  all  who  read 
the  newspapers  and  listen  to  the  politicians.  The 
politician  readily  perceives  that  by  cursing  China  ho 
obtains  votes,  and  the  editor  in  like  manner  seeks 
readers.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  single 
public  journal  or  politician  on  the  Pacific  coast  to-da}', 
our  worthy  regulators  from  Europe  being  present, 
that  dare  come  out  and  speak  in  favor  of  the  Chinese. 
It  is  remarkable,  I  say,  such  unanimity  of  opinion, 
and  that  too  where  in  far  more  trifling  matters  it  is 
the  custom  for  these  champions  of  free  thought  and 
progressive  civilization  to  take  sides  and  fight,  doing 
it  upon  principle,  and  because  in  fighting  is  the  great- 
est gain.  Our  masters  from  Europe  are  deserving  of 
great  credit  in  converting  so  thoroughly  and  universally 
our  foremost  men,  opinion-makers,  society-regulators, 
preachers,  teachers,  and  whiskey-sellers.  Such  is  the 
power  of  the  ballot  in  this  commonwealth,  making 
meal-bags  of  men  and  men  of  meal-bags,  and  granting 
to  all,  wdth  wonderful  clearness,  to  discern  the  path 
wherein  their  true  interest  lies  I 

At  the  beginning  of  the  great  influx  into  California 
the  American  miner  prepared  with  knife  and  pistol  to 
promulgate  the  doctrine  of  exclusion  against  all  foreign- 
ers. Teutons  and  Celts  escaped  with  a  growl,  w^hile 
the  persecution  fell  heavily  on  Spanish- Americans 
and  others  whose  hue  stamped  them  conspicuously  as 
aliens.  They  accordingly  moved  away  by  the  thou- 
sands, leaving  the  more  tenacious  Mongolian  to  bear 
the  brunt.     As  the   gold  placers  were  skimmed   of 


I 


ASIA  AND  EUROPE.  245 

their  surface  attraction  the  American  turned  to  more 
profitable  pursuits,  and  his  wrath  cooHng,  made  less 
objection  to  foreigners  taking  a  share  in  the  scrapings. 
Even  the  Chinaman  obtained  respite  awhile,  and  was 
permitted  to  serve  in  humble  capacity  in  the  new  in- 
dustries unfolded.  Stumbling  here  against  the  low 
European,  the  jealousy  of  the  latter  revived  the 
smouldering  persecution. 

But  aside  from  all  this,  and  placing  the  low  Euro- 
pean and  Chinaman  under  analysis,  what  do  we  seel 

Little  to  choose  between  them.  Neither  are  very 
comely,  nor  very  clean.  John  boasts  a  few  thousand 
years  more  of  nationality  than  the  European,  but  the 
latter  has  made  the  better  progress.  One  shaves  the 
head  and  braids  the  hair  too  much,  the  other  too  lit- 
tle. One  has  oblique  eyes,  the  other  an  oblique 
mouth;  one  smokes  opium  and  drinks  tea,  the  other 
smokes  tobacco  and  drinks  whiskey;  one  is  a  peniten- 
tiary builder  and  police  courtier,  the  other  a  high- 
binder and  bone-shipper;  and  finally,  one  swears  in 
one  language  and  the  other  in  another. 

As  reoards  relative  enlightenment  and  debasement, 
that  depends  on  ideas  and  standards.  Asia  was  cul- 
tured while  Europe  was  yet  barbaric.  There  are  few 
Asiatics  in  America  who  cannot  read  and  write  to 
some  extent.  To  all  appearances  their  intellect  is  as 
bright  as  that  of  the  Europeans,  both  being  far  above 
that  of  the  African.  The  Chinese  quarter  in  San 
Francisco  is  more  filthy  than  other  parts  of  the  city, 
and  the  low  Europeans  do  not  so  herd  here;  but  in 
New  York  and  London  the  low  European  quarter 
far  exceeds  in  fever-breeding  foulness  any  thing  in 
California.  The  Chinese  are  not  always  and  alto- 
gether neat  in  person,  orderly,  docile,  economical,  in- 
dustrious, tractable,  and  reliable,  but  they  are  more 
so  than  any  other  working  class  in  America.  The 
low  Europeans  are  not  always  and  altogether  turbu- 
lent, fault-finding,  politically  intermeddling,  drunken, 


240  TWO   SIDES   OF   A   VEXED   QUESTION. 

quarrelsome,  brutal,  blaspheming,  but  they  are  more 
so  than  any  other  work  nig  class  in  America.  The 
Chinese  have  some  prostitutes,  but  they  are  mostly 
patronized  by  white  men,  who  themselves  have  ten 
to  the  cclcstiars  one. 

All  the  world  is  bidding  against  us  in  the  labor  mart, 
offering  work  and  its  equivalent  at  far  lower  rates 
than  are  ruling  here.  Professor  Levi  shows  that  in 
1874  the  common  laborer  received  in  England  $22  a 
month;  in  Scotland  $20;  in  Ireland  $14;  on  the 
continent  of  Europe  $10;  in  Russia  $6;  and  in  China 
$3.  How  can  we  expect  to  develop  our  resources  on 
a  large  scale,  when  others  are  offering  the  products  of 
labor  at  prices  so  much  lower,  and  are  growing  rich 
tliereby  ?  Yet  we  are  told  not  to  avail  ourselves  here 
in  Cahfornia  of  the  low  wages  in  China. 

There  are  many  objections  to  the  Chinese  and 
cheap  labor,  for  both,  while  conferring  benefits,  entail 
great  curses.  They  make  the  poor  poorer  and  the 
rich  richer.  Many  producers  and  few  consumers 
make  a  dull  market.  Better  restrain  industrial  am- 
bition within  prudent  bounds  and  let  our  own  chil- 
dren do  the  work,  and  let  all  foreigners  stay  at  home. 
We  cannot  christianize  these  leathery  Asiatics ;  the 
other  foreigners  are  too  Christian.  There  are  advan- 
tages in  spending  as  well  as  in  saving. 

If  we  want  our  cities  quickly  enlarged,  150,000 
European  laborers  imply  600,000  inhabitants,  on  the 
lasis  of  four  to  a  family,  with  homes,  schools,  teachers, 
books,  papers,  churches,  theatres,  manufactories,  arti- 
zans,  traders,  and  professionals;  150,000  Chinamen 
signify  merely  that  number  of  ignorant  debased 
machine  laborers,  with  very  few  of  the  elevating  ad- 
juncts of  culture  upon  which  to  spend  their  earnings. 
Moreover,  the  earnings  of  the  latter  do  not  remain 
in  the  country,  but  are  forwarded  to  China,  at  the 
rate  of  several  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  thus  causing 
an  incessant  drain  on  our  resources,  and  that  to  a 


CHINESE   COMPETITION.  247 

country  which  takes  but  httle  of  our  exports,  and  sends 
us  in  return  the  staple  articles  of  food  consumed  by 
the  Chinamen  on  our  coast.  It  were  surely  better 
that  our  cities  should  not  be  too  rapidly  enlarged, 
our  manufactures  increased,  and  our  lands  cultivated 
under  such  adv^erse  conditions. 

Chinamen  intrude  on  our  trade  offering  to  work  for 
months  without  pay;  but  having  learned  the  art,  or 
stolen  the  inventions  that  have  cost  years  of  toil,  they 
turn  upon  the  over-reaching  employer,  reduce  him  to 
bankruptcy  by  competition  and  cheap  imitations,  cast 
the  white  workmen  into  the  street,  and  force  the  ap- 
prentices into  hoodlumism.  The  white  man  must 
subsist,  but  he  is  obliged  to  compete  w^ith  these  cattle, 
and  consequently  to  live  as  meanly,  feed  as  cheaply, 
and  leave  his  family  in  a  like  condition.  -  And  society 
will  brand  him  a  worthless  fellow,  and  treat  him  ac- 
cordingly if  he  fails  to  house  and  clothe  the  family  in 
accordance  with  its  rules  of  decency,  or  if  he  allows 
his  children  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  and  vice.  Here- 
in lies  the  root  of  the  evil.  The  Chinaman  by  neg- 
lecting to  conform  to  our  standard  of  life,  undermines 
our  civilization  and  infringes  on  our  social  and  political 
laws.  Other  foreigners,  of  more  cognate  and  sympa- 
thetic races,  learn  to  conform  to  our  customs,  if  only 
by  assuming  the  duties  of  marriage. 

Behold  the  effect  of  debasing  competition  on  the 
white  population  of  the  southern  states,  where  a  few 
grew  wealthy  at  the  expense  of  the  community.  The 
class  known  as  *4ow  whites"  was  once  composed  of 
happy  family  men  and  prosperous  farmers,  like  those 
who  make  this  occupation  so  honorable  and  wealth- 
creating  in  the  northern  states.  The  negro  came,  a 
cheap  competitor.  Labor  was  degrading.  The  mas- 
ter who  formerly  worked  would  no  longer  mingle  at 
the  task  with  the  slave,  to  whom  labor  was  now  dele- 
gated. He  grew  rich  and  began  to  ignore  his  neigh- 
bor, his  former  equal,  whose  larger  family,  or  smaller 
estate,  forbade  the  hire  or  purchase  of  a  negro,  and 


248  TWO  SIDES   OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

obliged  him  to  cling  to  labor,  now  already  branded  as 
slavery.  Negro  competition  reduced  the  poor  man's 
income  until  he  could  no  longer  afford  comforts,  barely 
necessaries,  or  education  for  his  children.  Bred  under 
such  circumstances  the  son  remained  ignorant,  grew 
coarse,  fell  lower  in  the  social  scale,  and  was  despised 
even  by  the  negro,  who  fed  well  while  he  starved. 
The  ** white  trash"  still  remain  in  the  position 
to  which  they  were  thus  forced ;  for  although  the 
negro  is  now  free,  and  his  labor  the  labor  of  the  free 
man,  yet  it  still  bears  the  stigma  of  the  lower  race. 

The  effect  of  progressive  civilization  has  been  to 
exalt. labor.  Not  hmg  since  the  merchant  was  re- 
garded as  a  contemptible  usurer,  the  chaplain  and 
scribe  as  menials,  the  artisan  and  laborer  as  serfs,  and 
as  such  they  lived  meanly.  Every  advance  in  culture 
has  tended  to  increase  wages,  and  to  raise  the  classes 
to  greater  equality.  The  merchant  is  now  among  the 
foremost  in  the  land,  the  chaplain,  the  writer,  are 
prominent  members  of  society,  artisans  and  laborers 
share  with  others  their  comforts,  luxuries,  and  insti- 
tutions, and  are  prepared  to  contribute  their  quota  to 
sustain  a  civilization  fraught  with  such  blessings. 
Shall  we,  by  receiving  another  low  race,  repeat  the 
negro  plague,  and  nullify  these  years  of  progress? 
The  Chinese  threaten  to  become  even  worse  than  the 
negroes,  for  they  have  stronger  if  not  baser  passions; 
they  live  more  meanly,  and  have  no  family  or  interest 
in  the  country.  Our  boys  are  growing  up  and  need 
a  trade.  The  welfare  of  the  community  demands  as 
strongly  that  this  opportunity  shall  be  given  them,  as 
it  demands  that  children  shall  be  trained  in  morals 
and  given  a  common-school  education. 

In  building  up  industries  by  means  of  a  low  race, 
we  establish  them  on  an  insecure  footing,  since  an 
alien  people  without  family  ties,  and  without  desire  to 
remain,  cannot  become  skilful  enough  to  compete  with 
the  finished  products  of  more  hitelligent  races,  nor 
furnish  the  inventive  spirit  by  which  they  shall  pro- 


ANTI-CHINESE  VIEW.  249 

gress.  One  cheap  industry  demands  another,  based 
on  similar  labor ;  one  branch  drags  down  the  otliers. 
Imbued  with  our  spirit,  the  youth  objects  to  mingle 
with  the  class  whose  degradation  pollutes  every  in- 
dustry. Hoodlumism  and  disorder  are  the  result, 
leading  to  national  deterioriation. 

A  struggle  of  races  might  ensue,  resulting  not  in 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  but  of  numbers ;  for  while 
the  white  man  surpasses  the  Chinaman  and  negro  in 
reasoning  and  invention  they  can  outstrip  him  at  lower 
work  and  overwhelm  him  by  numbers.  The  Roman 
empire  sank  with  its  culture  before  barbaric  invasions 
into  the  dismal  slough  of  the  middle  ages.  The  vigor 
and  intellect  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  cannot  be  sustained 
on  a  handful  of  rice.  Blood  intermixture  is  no  less 
repugnant  to  the  American  mind  than  to  the  Asiatic, 
but  should  it  ever  come  to  pass,  a  mongrel  race  would 
be  the  consequence.  The  mulatto  and  the  mestizo  are 
unquestionably  inferior  to  almost  any  unadulterated  peo- 
ple. The  mixed  races  of  ^Mexico  are  probably  the 
finest  specimens  of  a  hybrid  population  on  the  globe. 
Yet  how  inferior  in  enterprise,  in  originality,  in  pru- 
dence, in  ability,  to  the  Spanish  ancestor,  or  in  many 
respects  even  to  the  native  Aztec.  Social  and  politi- 
cal anarchy  and  intellectual  stagnation  have  over- 
spread the  land ;  the  spirit  of  progress  has  never  truly 
overspread  the  land. 

Wages  will  adjust  tlicmselves,  and  monopoly  disap- 
pear. Limited  prostitution  is  considered  necessary  to 
check  yet  darker  crime;  but  general  immorality  is 
destructive.  If  Chinese,  mules,  or  steam-engines  are 
needed  in  certain  industries,  employ  them,  but  with 
due  precaution,  within  the  reasonable  limits  of  a  pro- 
tective tariff  wliich  aims  to  foster  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation.     So  argue  many. 

Whatever  may  be  said  for  and  against  tlie  presence 
of  the  Chinese  among  us,  it  is  but  fair  to  state  thfit 
the  evil  has  been  greatly  exaggerated.     The  question 


250  TWO  SIDES  OF   A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

is  not  treated  with  that  judicial  fairness  which  it  de- 
mands; and  it  never  has  been.  He  wlio  finds  the 
Asiatic  beneficial  is  Wind  to  the  evils  he  brings  upon 
others ;  and  he  who  suffers  from  his  presence  sees  no 
good  in  him.  The  dark  picture  in  the  preceding  pages 
applies  only  to  continued  immigration.  So  far  the 
benefits  received  from  the  Chinese  influx,  in  laying 
the  foundation  for  many  indispensable  industries,  such 
as  vineyards,  irrigation  canals,  and  the  overland  rail- 
way, probably  balance  the  evil  inflicted  in  other 
dh'cctions. 

But  by  those  whose  occupation  it  is  to  pander  to  the 
prejudices  of  the  people  ;  by  politicians,  by  legislators, 
by  our  governors,  our  representatives  in  congress,  and 
especially  by  our  printed  exponents  of  public  opinion, 
more  than  by  those  directly  benefited  or  injured  by 
the  Mongolian  immigration,  are  multitudinous  warped 
facts  and  false  statements  brought  forth. 

It  is  not  the  better  class  of  laborers  who  most  ob- 
ject to  the  presence  of  the  Chinese.  Good  men,  capa- 
ble and  willing,  can  always  find  work,  if  not  in  the 
city  then  in  the  country.  Tliere  are  no  Chinese 
among  the  tramps  that  infest  the  country,  begging, 
stealing,  and  burning.  It  is  the  idler  and  vagabond, 
who  want  two  days'  pay  for  one  day's  labor,  who 
clamor  loudly  and  get  drunk  regularly  at  elections ; 
these,  and  women  who  will  not  work  at  all  unless 
everything  exactly  suits  them,  and  will  not  go  on  to 
the  farm  scarcely  at  any  price ;  these  are  the  trouble- 
makers. California  is  the  tramp's  paradise.  In  a 
land  of  freedom  he  is  of  all  men  most  free,  beinc 
bound  neither  by  money,  society,  religion,  honesty, 
nor  decency.  He  is  not  forced  by  a  rigorous  climate 
into  the  settled  habits  required  to  secure  heavy 
clothing  and  warm  shelter.  A  blanket  in  a  barn  suf- 
fices throughout  the  year,  and  a  little  work  here  and 
there  secures  food. 

Much  is  said  against  peopling  America  from  nations 
not  cognate  in  thought,  religion,  and  language.      Why 


BASE   INIERMIXTURES.  251 

was  this  not  thought  of  when  we  admitted  infidel 
Europeans  or  Africans.  True,  these  may  assimilate 
in  due  time,  whereas  the  Chinese  never  can.  But 
assimilation  with  a  bad  element  is  demorahzation  for 
the  mass,  which  is  certainly  worse  than  no  assimila- 
tion. 

We  rail  against  the  Chinaman  for  lowering  the 
tone  of  our  morality.  Yet  for  one  of  his  hidden  Cypri- 
ans, we  have  a  score  brazenly  trailing  their  skirts 
among  us.  For  one  of  his  opium  dens  we  boast 
whiskey-shops  innumerable,  spreading  their  curse  over 
impoverished  households,  ruined  constitutions,  and 
debased  minds,  into  future  generations.  And  more  ; 
China  long  since  sought  to  suppress  the  opium  evil, 
but  was  forced  at  the  mouth  of  Anglo-Saxon  cannon  to 
stay  the  reform. 

And  now  again  in  1878  an  imperial  edict  goes  forth 
prohibiting  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy.  Behold 
China  struggling  with  her  great  curse  I  Behold 
civilized  Christian  nations  lending  their  aid  to  the  de- 
vouring drug,  and  then  throwing  it  in  the  teeth  of 
the  Chinese  that  they  are  debased  by  it,  and  making 
of  it  a  pretext  for  doing  them  yet  greater  injury  I 

As  for  their  filtli,  slums,  and  disorder,  as  bad  exist 
in  most  large  towns.  Their  pagan  ceremonies,  their 
predilection  for  gambling  and  other  weakness,  do  less 
harm  than  many  of  our  spurious  sectarianisms,  our 
open  races  and  pools,  our  veiled  lotteries  and  games, 
our  prurient  books  and  cartoons.  Let  us  cleanse  our 
own  skirts  somewliat  before  we  declaim  so  loudly  up- 
on the  contaminating  influence  of  these  heathen. 

Some  couple  with  this  line  of  complaint  the  argu- 
ment that  the  family  is  the  center  and  ideal  of  our 
institutions,  that  all  our  refinement  revolves  round  its 
hallowed  altar;  and  because  the  Chinese  do  not  estab- 
lish families  among  us — which,  by  the  way,  is  not 
true — their  presence  is  hurtful. 

Others  declaim  against  them  for  not  assimilating, 
for   not  marrying   our   daughters,  forsooth.     Do   we 


252  TWO  SIDES   OF  A  VFAKT)   QUEoTION. 

wish  tlicni  to  do  so  ?  The  ohjectioii  tliat  they  do  not 
come  with  their  lares  and  pcnatos  as  imnhgrants 
seeking  permanent  homes  should  be  put  to  their 
credit,  for  assuredly  we  do  not  covet  more  foreign 
ditch-water  to  be  absorbed  into  our  veins.  They 
keep  (mt  otlier  immigration,  it  is  said;  this  is  by  no 
means  an  unmixed  evil,  I  would  ro[)ly. 

Wo  hear  much  said  about  tlie  degradation  of  labor. 
Our  wives  and  daugliteis  arc  dc\graded  by  working  in 
the  kitchen  with  black  or  3-ellow  wenches;  our  hood- 
lumts  are  degraded  by  working  in  tlie  fields  and  factories 
beside  yellow  and  black  men.  But  what  shall  we  say 
as  to  the  degradation  of  our  politics,  our  free  and 
noble  institutions?  In  places  where  women  vote,  you 
may  see  the  first  man  and  matron  of  the  common- 
wealth, a  statesman  and  his  wife  for  example,  a  man 
of  means,  having  large  interests  in  the  community 
and  a  woman  of  culture,  drive  up  to  the  polls  and 
take  their  places  beside  a  shock-headed  greasy 
negro,  and  an  illiterate  foul-mouthed  European,  and 
so  make  their  election,  the  vote  of  one  of  these 
American  citizens  being  no  whit  better  or  worse  than 
that  of  another.  So  with  the  thieves  in  our  prisons 
it  is  degrading  to  associate,  but  with  our  monopoliz- 
ing and  oflice-holding  thieves  we  wine  and  dine  with 
o-reat  Gfusto.  With  such  rank  rottenness  in  social, 
political,  and  commercial  quarters,  it  seems  twaddle 
to  talk  of  the  degradation  of  labor. 

The  quiet  Chinese  are  by  no  means  the  worst  class 
admitted,  if  restricted  in  number.  All  arguments 
tending  to  show  the  unfitness  of  the  Asiatic  to  be 
entrusted  with  the  ballot,  such  as  the  absence  of  any 
knowledge  of  our  institutions,  the  lack  of  responsibil- 
ity or  interest  in  them,  the  certainty  that  their  vote 
would  be  bought  with  money,  and  the  like,  apply 
with  equal  force  to  the  low  European  and  the  African. 
It  is  pure  political  pretence,  and  the  argument  offered 
in  that  direction  verbiage,  to  say  that  the  ballot  can- 
not be   confided  to  the  Asiatic  as  well   as   to   the 


OUR  DEBASED  GOVERNMENT.  253 

African.  The  average  Chinaman  is  far  brighter, 
more  iatelhgent,  more  energetic  than  the  negro ;  but 
no  lover  of  his  country  desires  by  any  means  to  see 
either  of  them  ruling  the  destinies  of  this  nation  at 
the  polls.  Are  we  not  governed  to-day  by  the  low- 
est, basest  element  of  our  commonwealth  ;  by  machine 
voters  under  the  control  of  politicians;  by  units  under 
the  sway  of  bosses  and  monopolists ;  by  a  majority 
of  all  the  people  witliout  regard  to  qualification  of 
any  kind?  How  long  shall  our  pure  democracy,  our 
pure  liberty,  our  pure  license  last !  As  the  Chinese 
will  neither  amalgamate  with  us  nor  accept  the 
electoral  franchise  at  our  hands,  the  less  can  they 
drag  us  down,  the  less  dauiaging  their  influence 
upon  us. 

Unjust  discrimination  is  marked.  From  the  first 
occupation  of  California  by  Anglo-Americans,  men 
of  every  nation  were  permitted  to  gather  gold  and 
carry  it  away.  Thousands  of  English  and  Scotch, 
French,  Dutcli,and  Spanish  came  and  went,  leaving 
no  blessing.  And  yet  they  were  never  greatly  blamed. 
Many  of  our  wealthy  and  respectable  people  spend 
more  in  useless  extravagance  abroad  than  in  beauti- 
fying or  benefiting  California.  Many  of  our  rich 
men  have  carried  off  millions,  and  spent  largely  and 
invested  largely  at  the  east  and  in  Europe,  and  yet 
no  one  ever  questioned  their  right.  Money  tricked 
from  the  people  by  political  knaves  and  stock  gam- 
blers who  never  added  a  dollar  to  the  wealth  of 
California  in  their  lives,  may  be  lavishly  emptied 
into  the  lap  of  pleasure  abroad  and  no  thought 
of  complaint;  but  let  the  miserable  Mongolian  carry 
hence  his  hard-earned  pittance,  and  what  a  cry  is 
raised ! 

Further:  that  the  Chinese  spend  so  very  much 
less  of  their  wages  than  the  European  laborer  is  not 
correct.  They  patronize  less  the  w^hiskey-shops,  those 
bulwarks  of  American  demagogism,  it  is  true;  but 
they  buy  flour,  clothing,  .thcis,  dry-goods,  groceries, 


254  TWO  SIDES   OF  A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

meat,  fruit,  and  many  other  articles,  and  they  are 
great  patrons  of  boats,  stages,  and  railways.  They 
pay  their  government  dues,  poll  tax,  and  property 
tax,  equally  with  tliose  who  are  so  eager  to  drive  them 
out.  With  all  the  complaint  of  starving  laborers 
seeking  employment  in  our  cities,  it  is  a  question 
if  our  average  crops  could  be  harvested  without 
Chinamen ;  and  many  a  farmer's  wife  is  saved  a 
life  of  drudgery  by  Jolm's  ever-ready  assistance. 
There  are  a  number  of  industries,  particularly  manu- 
facturing, wliich  provide  employment  also  for  white 
men,  but  could  not  be  sustained  without  the  aid  of 
cheap  and  reliable  Chinese  labor.  Their  suspension 
would  throw  out  of  work  not  alone  the  men  con- 
nected therewith,  but  cut  off  a  scries  of  dependent 
industries. 

If  there  is  any  difference,  the  Chinese  have  greater 
cause  of  complaint  from  the  unwelcome  interference 
of  Europeans  in  their  system,  than  Europeans  have  cf 
the  baneful  influence  of  the  Chinese  upon  their  pros- 
pects in  America.  By  force  of  arms  Europeans  enter 
China;  by  general  invitation,  and  under  treaty  stipu- 
lations, the  Chinese  come  to  America.  Forcing- 
themselves  upon  the  Chinese,  the  Europeans  estab- 
lished places  of  business,  and  began  trading  with  the 
interior,  greatly  to  the  damage  of  native  merchants, 
who,  as  they  expressed  it,  *'  suflbred  fire  and  water," 
thereby.  Hateful  foreigners  put  steamers  on  their 
rivers,  to  the  utter  annihilation  of  fleets  of  native 
craft,  thus  reducing  to  starvation  hosts  of  pilots, 
sailors,  and  laborers.  Within  a  few  years  thirty  for- 
eign steamers  were  placed  upon  the  Yang-tse-kiang 
river  alone,  to  the  displacement  of  30,000  wage- 
earners.  And  so  it  was  with  every  material  improve- 
ment Europeans  sought  to  thrust  upon  them. 
Telegraphs  and  railways  would  deprive  of  employment 
thousands  of  worthy  men,  with  wives  and  children 
depending  on  them  for  food.  The  mechanical  con- 
trivances are  the  cheap-labor  curse  brought  by  for- 


AMERICA  IN   CHINA.  255 

eigners  upon  China.  And  have  they  not  as  much 
cause  to  complain  of  our  inroads  as  we  of  theirs  ? 

The  United  States  are  reaping  their  share  from  this 
invasion  and  longing  for  more.  When  California  fell 
into  the  lap  of  the  union,  China  was  sending  away  in 
European  vessels  alone  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  teas,  sugar,  silks,  opium,  and  other  articles. 
In  the  same  quarter  looms  the  commerce  of  India, 
which,  since  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs,  has  enriched 
the  emporiums  of  Egypt  and  of  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  ;  also  the  important  trade  of  Siam, 
Corea,  and  Japan,  with  America  and  Europe.  Nature 
has  given  California  the  advantage  over  all  the  world 
in  securing  and  centralizing  the  world's  trade  with 
China  and  Japan.  Here  may  be  gathered  the  rich 
products  of  eastern  Asia,  and  hence  distributed,  passed 
on  eastward  over  the  continent  by  means  of  competing 
lines  of  railways,  and  over  the  Atlantic  to  Europe. 
California  is  the  natural  entrepot  and  distributing 
point  of  this  valuable  traffic. 

There  is  much  to  learn  as  well  as  gain  in  Asia. 
America  may  take  lessons  from  this  wrinkled  and 
toothless  grandame  of  civilization.  The  dusky,  almond- 
eyed  sons  of  the  primordial  east,  w]io  reckon  their 
ancestry  by  scores  of  centuries,  whose  government  and 
institutions  were  ages  old  before  Mohammed,  Csssar, 
or  Christ,  regard  with  not  unreasonable  contempt  the 
upstart  Yankee,  with  his  European  and  African  mas- 
ters, his  inconsistencies  of  freedom,  and  his  pretty 
new  republican  playtliing.  In  some  things  we  are 
contemptible,  even  in  the  eyes  of  a  heathen.  Pro- 
fessing Christ,  we  play  the  devil.  Swearing  by  God, 
we  kneel  before  Satan.  We  talk  much  of  justice 
— indeed,  we  have  plenty;  we  buy  it  as  required. 
We  build  an  altar  of  equal  rights,  honesty,  and  patri- 
otism, and  sacrifice  upon  it  offerings  of  hollow  mockery, 
deeming  a  lie  with  legality  better  than  a  lamb,  and 
bribery  better  than  the  fat  of  rams.  At  the  sight  of 
our  political  higli  priests,  Confucius    himself  might 


256  TWO   SIDES  OF   A  VEXED   QUESTION". 

well  arise,  make  of  the  divine  drug  bread,  and  shave 
anew  his  people. 

There  are  unquestionable  evils  attending  the  pres- 
ence in  a  free  government  of  a  non-assimilative  race 
to  which  the  electorial  franchise  may  not  be  safely 
confided,  and  I  heartily  agree  with  those  who  argue 
that  because  we  have  made  one  mistake  in  adopting 
Africa,  it  is  no  reason  why  we  should  make  another 
and  adopt  Asia.  We  do  not  want  the  low  Asiatics 
for  our  rulers ;  we  do  not  want  them  as  citizens.  Like 
the  iow  European  and  the  low  African  they  are  our 
inferiors.  The  tone  of  our  intelligence,  of  our  politics, 
of  our  morality,  is  lowered  by  associathig  with  them 
on  terms  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  political  equality. 
As  human  beings,  with  human  rights,  all  men  are 
equal.  The  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  is  the  same  to  all,  though  all  do  not  make 
the  same  beneficial  use  of  that  right,  and  in  so  far  as 
they  fail  in  this  they  are  not  the  equal  of  those  who 
do  not  fail. 

There  are  some  advantages  and  some  disadvantages 
in  non-assimilation.  There  can  be  no  question  that 
the  low  Europeans  have  been  a  greater  curse  to 
America  than  the  Asiatic  and  the  African  combined. 
The  electoral  franchise  which  we  have  so  freely  given 
them  has  pluralized  their  power  for  evil.  Had  they 
never  been  permitted  to  vote,  our  politics  had  never 
been  so  prostituted.  Citizenship  would  then  have 
been  a  thing  Americans  might  have  been  proud  of 
Much  corruption  and  many  disgraceful  riots  would 
have  been  avoided,  and  more  than  all,  we  should  not 
to-day  be  threatened  with  revolution  and  disruption 
by  reason  of  our  abased  liberties.  Because  they  can 
assimilate,  because  they  can  become  blood  of  our 
blood  and  bone  of  our  bone,  they  are  the  subtle  poison 
in  the  veins  of  our  institutions  to-day.  These  aliens, 
while  crying  against  the  grindings  of  monopolists  in 
railways  and  manufactures,    would  establish  in   our 


ABASEMENT   OF  AMERICA.  257 

midst  a  monopoly  of  labor,  and  force  us  to  employ 
them  at  their  own  price.  They  would  ignore  all 
rights  in  the  premises  save  those  conforming  to  their 
interests  and  prejudices. 

It  is  assumed  by  many  that  it  is  our  duty  not  only 
to  provide  with  remunerative  employment  all  those 
who  have  come  or  who  may  come  from  Europe  and 
from  Africa,  but  that  we  are  in  duty  bound  to  keep 
back  those  who  would  come  from  Asia  lest  they 
should  interfere  with  the  others.  This  has  been  the 
tendency  of  all  our  legislation,  a  protective  tariff  upon 
labor,  discriminating  in  favor  of  the  European  and 
African,  and  against  the  Asiatic.  I  see  no  reason 
why  we  should  provide  for  any  of  them. 

The  claim  advanced  by  low  Europeans  is  somewhat 
audacious.  They  must  be  paid  double  the  wages  of 
Asiatics,  and  be  fed  while  the  latter  may  starve ;  and 
what  is  most  remarkable,  they  have  their  way.  They 
have  the  whip-hand  of  California,  the  whip-hand  of 
politicians  and  people,  and  make  us  do  as  they  will. 
They  form  into  endless  labor  leagues,  say  **boo"  and 
**  boycott,"  and  instantly  we  beg  for  mercy.  We  must 
obey  our  masters  or  be  punished. 

Social  organisms  develop,  they  are  not  created. 
And  as  every  social  element  is  the  product  of  new  and 
strange  combinations,  the  results  in  individual  cases 
can  scarcely  be  foretold.  Intelligent  and  thrifty  men 
and  wximen  make  a  nation  stronger ;  ignorant  and 
degraded  men  and  women  make  a  nation  weaker. 
Base  infusions  are  the  bromine  and  chlorine  which 
dissipate  the  gold  of  our  morality  that  sulphuric  fires 
cannot  affect.  If  the  Chinese  lie  an  indigestible  mass 
upon  our  national  stomach,  low  Europeans  have  given 
us  a  worse  political  distemper.  If  the  former,  like 
many  of  our  most  thoughtful  citizens,  manifest  in- 
difference in  the  exercise  of  the  franchise,  the  latter, 
fresh  from  filth  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  with  no 
more  knowledge  of  our  ways  or  sympathy  with  our 
principles  than  their  late  stolid   companions,  with  a 

Essays  and  Miscellany    17 


258  TWO   SIDES   OF   A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

mental  whoop  plunge  into  our  politics  as  if  divinely 
commissioned  to  rule  America. 

Health,  in  the  body  social,  consists  in  the  proper 
performance  of  its  several  functions.  Society  is 
sound  only  as  the  people  are  pure.  When  emerging 
from  a  savage  state  societies  first  began  to  crystallize, 
physical  strength  and  skill  were  the  central  or  wor- 
shipful ideal.  Then  intellect  began  to  assume  sway, 
and  to  some  extent  brute  force  gave  way  before  rea- 
son in  the  settlement  of  disputes.  But  the  success 
through  intellectual  craft  and  subtlety,  by  which  busi- 
ness men,  orators,  and  writers  become  wealthy  and 
great,  is  but  one  remove  from  brute  cunning  and  force, 
and  must  be  subordinated  to  right  and  principle,  to 
the  sensibility  and  the  will,  before  the  highest  moral- 
ity can  be  approached. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  to  any  country,  at  any 
period  of  its  history,  and  under  almost  any  conceivable 
circumstances,  the  accession  of  men  of  learning,  wealth, 
and  integrity,  of  broad  intelligence,  skill,  and  energy, 
is  a  benefit.  But  with  us  the  question  has  never  as- 
sumed this  shape.  Men  of  such  a  stamp  do  not  as  a 
rule  emigrate  to  new  countries.  They  prefer  the  re- 
fined and  settled  society  of  their  equals ;  they  prefer 
to  live  among  men  of  cultivation  and  learning,  and  to 
buy  luxuries  in  the  cheapest  market.  Those  who  are 
successful  at  home  seldom  go  abroad  in  search  of  ven- 
tures. Never  have  the  rich  or  the  learned  as  a  class 
come  to  America ;  never  have  those  superior  in  skill, 
intelligence,  and  energy  come  hither  from  Asia,  or 
from  Africa,  or  from  Europe.  A  few  men  of  extraor- 
dinary intelligence  and  activity  have  undoubtedly  ar- 
rived, but  most  of  our  best  men,  I  am  proud  to  say, 
are  of  home  manufacture.  We  have  no  need  of  send- 
ing abroad  for  schoolmasters  or  for  city-builders,  and 
if  we  adopt  an  invention  or  a  discovery  from  beyond 
any  ocean,  we  are  apt  to  improve  on  it,  and  also  to 
return  an  equivalent  in  some  invention  or  discovery 


INTRODUCTION    OF  SLAVERY.  259 

of  our  own.  Nor  have  well-to-  do  artisans  and  agri- 
culturalists left  comfortable  homes  to  embark  in  haz- 
ardous enterprise  on  these  shores.  Our  better  class 
of  farmers  and  mechanics  are  not  foreigners. 

The  first  great  mistake  of  the  English  colonies  in 
America,  was  the  importation  of  Africans  as  slaves. 
That  ever-to-be-abhorred  Dutch  craft  which  in  1620 
landed  the  first  twenty  black  bondmen  at  Jamestown 
was  the  curse  of  God  upon  America.  It  was  worse 
than  the  repartlmientos  of  the  Spaniards  ;  for  the  en- 
slaved Indian  would  die,  while  the  more  stolid  African 
would  not.  There  was  too  much  work  yet  to  be  done 
in  America,  too  much  need  of  that  brain-force  and 
muscle-force  which  only  w^ork  gives,  for  the  colonists 
and  their  sons  and  daughters  to  fold  their  hands  and 
depend  solely  upon  others  for  supplying  their  wants. 
Hence  the  sting  of  the  infliction. 

African  slavery, aside  from  its  inhumanity,  was  a 
curse.  It  blasted  the  soil  and  the  products  thereof; 
it  blasted  the  air  and  all  who  breathed  it ;  it  blas- 
phemed God  and  humanity,  morality,  religion,  and 
all  the  institutions  of  progress.  It  had  not  even  the 
excuse  of  the  slavery  of  savagism,  as  these  negroes 
were  not  prisoners  of  war,  but  were  stolen  ;  civilized 
Christians  stealing,  and  selling,  and  working  human 
beings  like  cattle. 

For  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries  the  evil  grew 
until,  midst  mighty  convulsions  which  well-nigh  de- 
stroyed the  integrity  of  the  nation,  the  tumor  burst, 
scattering  its  horrible  stench  far  and  wide,  and  in  the 
cure  engendering  almost  as  great  an  evil  as  during  its 
growth.  Having  these  emancipated  chattels  on  our 
hands,  to  the  number  of  little  less  than  four  millions 
in  1860,  and  being  moved  with  pity  for  the  wrongs 
we  had  done  them  ;  or,  more  truthfully  stated,  the 
dominant  party  needing  votes  with  which  to  hold 
their  power,  this  black  and  brutish  horde  was  taken 
to  our  national  bosom,  which  has  been  rank-smelling 
and  sootv  ever  since. 


260  TWO   SIDES   OF   A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  war  of  1812  that  large 
accessions  were  received  from  Europe,  and  as  new 
western  states  were  then  rapidly  springing  up,  the  im- 
pure atmosphere  thus  engendered  was  carried  off  into 
the  wilderness. 

The  current  of  immigration  rose  midst  fluctuations 
from  about  4000  yearly  between  1784  and  1793  to 
22,240,  in  1817.  The  stream  broadened  and  deep- 
ened until  in  1875  not  far  from  six  millions  of  Europe's 
indigestible  masses  had  been  vomited  on  our  shores, 
the  rate  being  since  1820  over  100,000  per  annum, 
not  more  than  300,000  having  come  over  previously. 
Of  these,  over  2,000,000  were  from  Ireland,  over 
1,000,000  from  Germany,  a  quarter  of  a  million 
English,  50,000  Scotch,  and  about  200,000  French. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  material  advantages  of 
these  fuliginous  clouds,  the  wholesale  adulteration  of 
Anglo-American  blood  has  unquestionably  resulted 
in  tenfold  as  monstrous  moral  and  political  evils  as 
Africa  and  Asia  combined  has  brought  or  is  likely  to 
bring  upon  us. 

To  large  land  holders  who  wish  to  build  cities  and 
sell  the  suburbs  to  manufacturers  in  want  of  artisans, 
to  merchants  in  need  of  customers,  to  lawyers  looking 
for  clients,  and  doctors  in  quest  of  patients,  to  politi- 
cians hankering  for  office,  to  traffickers,  schemers, 
and  non-producers  of  every  quality,  the  speedy  peo- 
pling of  this  land,  and  every  part  of  it,  seemed  of  all 
policies  the  wisest  and  best,  and  of  all  things  the  one 
most  greatly  to  be  desired. 

It  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  America  will 
recognize  her  mistake.  To  behold  America  as  it  will 
be,  we  have  but  to  look  at  Europe  and  Asia  as  they 
are.  Europe  and  Asia  overcrowded  and  with  no  out- 
let ;  Europe  and  Asia  teeming  with  a  rapidly  multi- 
plying population  of  ignorant  and  diseased  humanity 
with  no  America  or  Australia  to  empty  it  into. 
Westward  civilization   has   crowded,  until   on  these 


CROWDED   HUMANITY  261 

Pacific  shores  we  front  the  east.  The  circle  is  com- 
plete. A  few  centuries,  and  in  point  of  population, 
in  point  of  packed  and  stifled  humanity,  America  will 
be  what  Europe  and  Asia  now  are,  only  worse,  in- 
finitely worse,  in  having  no  outlet,  save  through  war, 
or  pestilence,  or  other  dire  inflictions  which  shall  cut 
ofl*  before  its  time  portions  of  the  redundant  race. 
Such  inroads  are  contracted  however  by  our  civiliza- 
tion, which  tends  to  the  preservation  of  life,  and  to 
the  speedier  attainment  of  its  geographical  limit.  The 
law  of  fecundity  alone  promises  to  increase  our  number 
with  every  successive  generation,  while  the  sources 
for  food  supply  are  correspondingly  decreasing. 

However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  danger  of  imme- 
diate distress,  either  from  lack  of  land  or  increase  of 
population.  There  is  still  left  considerable  good  land, 
while  in  crowded  and  well-tilled  countries  like  England 
agricultural  products  may  readily  be  much  increased. 
France  does  not  produce  proportionately  as  much  as 
England,  and  America  is  far  behind  France  in  this 
respect. 

This  aspect  renders  only  more  glaring  the  huddling 
in  our  cities  of  hordes  of  hungry  laboring  men  and 
women,  especially  inflowing  foreigners,  howling  against 
the  rich,  when  by  scattering  on  unoccupied  lands  they 
might  prove  a  blessing  to  themselves  and  to  the 
country,  and  banish  poverty  from  America  these  hun- 
dred years  to  come.  From  this  gathering  result  the 
many  uncalled-for  strikes,  riots,  and  disorders  which 
have  disgraced  our  republican  organization  before  the 
world.  They  are  due  to  such  alien  rabbles  as  in  San 
Francisco  meet  upon  the  sand-lots  and  threaten  fire 
and  pistol  to  all  who  employ  Chinese  labor  in  prefer- 
ence to  their  own. 

Not  long  ago  with  pointed  bayonet  we  demanded 
commercial  relations  with  China ;  now  our  bayonets 
are  pointed  against  those  whose  friendly  intercourse 
we  so  lately  coveted.  It  is  not  the  ultimate  aim 
herein  that  we  detest,  as  it  embraces  much  good,  but 


2G2  TWO  SIDES   OF   A   VEXED   QUESTION. 

the  means  employed  and  the  manner  of  it.  In  view  of 
this,  well  might  we  exclaim  with  astounded  Europe : 
Our  civilization  and  Christianity,  our  boasted  liberty 
and  free  enlightened  institutions  which  aspire  to  set 
the  world  an  example  in  progress  and  prosperity, 
what  are  they  that  they  should  fear  the  weak  and 
inoifensive  touch  of  paganism?  What  folly  in  us  to 
heap  curses  on  others  for  practising  the  very  virtues 
we  preach  daily  to  our  children  I 

We  have  suddenly  grown  strangely  concerned, 
fearful  least  a  hundred  thousand  Asiatics,  begging  at 
our  back  door  the  favor  of  scrubbing  our  kitchens, 
that  these  shrinking,  trembling  creatures  should  at 
some  day,  not  far  distant,  arise  and  with  a  wave  of 
their  hand  overturn  and  scatter  to  the  four  winds  the 
institutions  of  fifty  millions  of  freemen.  Fifty  thou- 
sand Englishmen  in  Bengal  hold  in  subjection  one 
hundred  million  souls ;  and  here  fifty  million  Ameri- 
cans tremble  before  a  hundred  thousand  Chinamen. 

Asia  and  America  acknowledged  the  right  of  uni- 
versal and  unrestricted  migration  in  the  Burlingame 
treaty.  In  its  fifth  article  both  ^'cordially  recognize 
the  inherent  and  inalienable  rig^ht  of  man  to  chancre 
his  home  and  allegiance."  After  having  trampled 
down  the  scruples  of  this  mummyfied  eastern  civiliza- 
tion so  far  as  to  obtain  this  concession,  we  might 
blush  to  be  foremost  in  breaking  the  compact,  and  ac- 
knowledging before  the  world  that  our  institutions 
are  unable  to  withstand  the  presence  of  heathenism 
among  them.  Our  liberty,  our  Christianity,  our  intelli- 
gence, our  progress  are  nothing  if  they  do  not  offer 
mankind  a  fairer  prospect,  a  brighter  hope,  a  surer 
reward.  No  doubt  we  have  been  hasty  in  this  as  in 
many  other  measures;  but  if  we  wish  to  acknowl- 
edge the  mistake,  and  revise  our  policy,  then  let  our 
new  ruling  apply  equally  to  all. 

One  quality  the  people  of  the  United  States  have 
developed    in    a    remarkable   degree — that  of  strain. 


AMERICAN   STRAIN.  263 

And  very  properly  we  may  catalogue  it  among  our 
many  virtues.  We  delight  in  the  accomplishment  of 
great  things.  ^  To  accomplish  great  things  we  are 
willing  to  strain  ourselves.  Sometimes  we  strain  our- 
selves over  little  things,  thinking  them  great.  Often 
we  strain  at  the  gnats  of  iniquity  and  swallow  a 
camel.  We  strain  at  skepticism  and  swallow  libertin- 
ism; we  strain  at  political  tyranny  and  swallow  mo- 
nopoly; we  strain  at  the  low  Chinese  and  swallow  the 
low  European. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  exterminate  a  national  or 
social  evil  is  for  all  the  people  to  rush  upon  it  with 
one  accord  and  stamp  it  out.  It  may  sometimes  be 
the  only  way.  It  may  be  the  best  way  so  to  magnify 
this  one  evil,  that  all  other  evils,  though  there  be 
among  them  some  as  great  or  greater  than  the  one 
present  pet  evil,  shall  temporarily  sink  to  insignifi- 
cance beside  it.  Perhaps  this  evil  has  become  so  rank 
that  the  united  power  of  the  people  is  required  to  put 
it  down,  and  in  no  other  way  can  the  strength  of  the 
nation  be  so  concentrated  as  by  taking  up  one  thing 
at  a  time,  or  perhaps  two,  leaving  all  the  rest  alone 
until  these  be  extinguished. 

There  must  be  some  tincture  of  fanaticism  on  the 
subject  in  order  to  bring  men's  minds  to  the  proper 
state  of  frenzy  where  they  can  strike  quick  and  heavy 
blows,  regardless  of  the  consequences.  Cool  opinions 
quietly  expressed  are  not  sufficient  to  stop  dram-drink- 
ing. The  matron's  scowl  of  superior  virtue  on  meet- 
ing an  erring  sister,  is  not  sufficient  to  put  down 
prostitution.  There  must  be  thrown  into  the  cause 
that  fiery  heat  which  can  only  be  generated  by  con- 
gregations wrought  upon  by  speeches  and  discussions. 
But  as  to  these,  our  standard  evils,  gambling,  drink- 
ing, and  prostitution,  which  the  world  has  tried  so 
often  and  so  unsuccessfully  to  eradicate,  though  there 
are  still  spasms  of  reform  in  these  directions,  we  gen- 
erally have  singled  out  some  other  monster  to  vent 
our  righteous  energies  upon  for  the  time. 


264  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

For  fifty  years  the  good  people  of  the  northern 
United  States  took  soUd  comfort  in  fighting  the  great 
dragon  Slavery.  In  some  sections  this  iniquity  on 
the  part  of  our  neighbors  stood  out  in  such  bold  relief 
as  to  throw  into  the  shade  all  the  sins  of  the  decalogue 
combined.  In  the  eyes  of  the  anti-slavery  fanatics, 
nothing  good  could  belong  to  any  man  who  did  not 
denounce  slavery  and  the  slave  holders;  and  so  filled 
with  this  frenzy  were  they,  that  no  room  remained  in 
their  minds  or  li carts  for  minor  matters.  And  when 
the  thing  was  dead  they  could  not  refrain  from  kick- 
ing the  carcass  for  years  afterward.  Temperance 
zealots,  too,  sometimes  forget  that  drunkards  have 
rights,  and  may  as  justly  prescribe  what  others  shall 
eat,  as  to  be  by  law  restricted  in  their  drink.  Nor  is 
it  so  easy  a  question  to  determine  which  of  the  two 
evils  is  the  greater,  negro  suffrage  or  negro  slavery. 

This  may  be  the  best  way,  the  quickest  way,  the 
only  way,  even  though  it  does  lead  to  some  excesses 
when  the  blood  is  up ;  even  though  we  are  thereby 
thrown  into  some  absurdities,  and  forget  ourselves, 
forget  to  exercise  that  right  and  reason  which  we  so 
much  desire  always  to  see  in  others,  forget  that  we 
are  all  sinners,  that  none  of  us  live  up  to  our  high 
privileges  in  every  respect  as  social  beings  and  citizens, 
and  that  if  we  punish  some  offences  unduly  while  let- 
ting others  run  at  large,  we  are  committing  two  great 
wrongs,  in  punishing  one  wickedness  more  than  it  de- 
serves in  comparison  with  another  which  is  permitted 
to  go  unpunished,  or  so  lightly  corrected  as  to  give 
the  impression  that  it  is  only  a  small  sin. 

Of  late  we  have  singled  out  two  of  our  several 
great  dragons,  and  are  expending  all  our  energies  in 
their  extermination.  This  is  well;  but  it  is  well  also 
not  to  lose  our  heads  and  fall  into  all  manner  of  lyings 
and  self-delusions.  Probably  there  has  never  been 
as  much  nonsense  written  and  spoken  in  America  up- 
on any  two  subjects,  as  upon  those  of  polygamy  and 
mono'olianism.     And  in    both    cases  the   true  cause 


EXTERMINATION  OF  EVILS.  265 

of  offense,  the  matter  of  suffrage,  is  in  the  main  left 
wholly  out  of  the  discussion — one  votes  too  much  and 
the  other  too  little.  In  both  cases  about  the  only 
persons  affected  are  the  demagogues,  whose  business 
it  is  to  pander  to  the  prejudices  and  depravity  of  the 
people.  Nor  is  the  strange  part  of  it  that  in  our  free 
and  easy  government  the  management  of  affairs  should 
be  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  false  and  deceiving  men, 
— some  of  them  self-deluded,  unquestionably — but  that 
the  people  at  large  should  be  so  easily  and  completely 
gulled. 

In  concluding  this  expose  of  the  Chinese  question 
we  may  say  then :  That  the  presence  in  our  midst, 
in  ever- increasing  numbers,  of  low  Asiatics,  is  a 
palpable  curse;  and  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  permit  them  to  swarm  here  ad  libitum  would 
be  about  as  sensible  as  to  welcome  a  plague  of  locusts. 

They  arc  an  abomination,  worse  than  the  gypsies 
in  England  or  the  Arabs  in  Spain.  They  lie,  and 
steal,  smoke  opium,  and  gamble;  they  cheat,  and 
swear  in  horrible  heathen  gutterals,  to  the  horror  of 
white  Christians.  The  Chinese  are  clannish,  crowd- 
ing themselves  into  close,  filthy  quarters ;  they  work 
too  much,  loaf  about  the  streets  too  little,  and  do  not 
spend  money  enough.  They  do  not  get  up  strikes ; 
they  are  not  good  stump-speakers,  they  do  not  care 
to  cut  a  figure  on  the  floor  of  the  national  senate  cham- 
ber, they  do  not  want  to  be  governor  or  policeman. 
White  men  do  and  want  all  these  things.  The  Chi- 
nese do  not  amalgamate ;  they  will  not  marry  our 
daughters,  or  seduce  our  servants;  they  will  not  at- 
tend mass  regularly,  or  be  punctual  at  an  orthodox 
bible  class.  They  take  the  food  out  of  the  mouths  of 
others  lately  imported,  and  now  patriots  at  the  polls, 
patrons  of  the  corner  grocery,  curb-stone  tenders, 
watchers  of  the  public  weal,  and  who  very  rightly 
scorn  to  shovel  dirt  never  so  slowly  for  less  than  two 
dollars  a  day,  while  the  destinies  of  the  nation  are 
resting  on  their  shoulders. 

Then  again  we  are  very  sure  that  the  four  hundred 


266  TWO  SIDES   OF  A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

millions  of  these  people  over  the  ocean,  who  have 
hardly  standing  room,  have  sent  these  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred thousand  to  our  shores  to  open  the  way  for  the 
four  hundred  millions ;  who  are  even  now  making  and 
buying  a  million  of  ships  wherein  to  come  and  capture 
us  all,  to  seize  our  lands  and  make  us  slaves.  It  is 
too  horrible  to  contemplate ;  we  must  send  those  who 
are  here  back  at  once,  and  forbid  the  four  hundred 
millions  to  come  in  their  million  of  ships  to  capture  us 
and  make  us  slaves. 

It  is  quite  different  with  the  low  African  and  the 
low  European.  They  do  not  work  too  much,  or  at  too 
low  a  wage,  or  economize  too  much,  or  pass  by  all  the 
drinking  shops  without  looking  in,  or  neglect  to  run 
up  a  bill  at  the  butcher's  if  they  can  get  trusted ;  they 
will  amalgamate,  make  themselves  at  home  in  our 
houses,  do  our  voting,  beg,  and  steal,  and  breed  beg- 
gars and  thieves,  build  and  fill  our  penitentiaries,  go 
to  congress,  and  read  a  newspaper.  This  is  the  kind 
of  population  we  want;  it  is  for  the  helping  hither  of 
such  as  these  that  we  have  immigration  societies  and 
secure  large  contributions. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  too  much  for  me  to  assert 
that  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  intelligent  men  of 
California  are  really  sincere  in  their  tirades  against 
the  Chinese.  No  doubt  they  have  acquired  the  habit 
of  regarding  these  special  people  as  an  unmitigated 
evil,  even  while  employing  some  of  them  as  farm  cooks 
and  in  like  occupations,  in  which  they  excel,  and  white 
men  and  women  do  not  care  to  engage  in.  But  this 
I  can  say,  that  no  clear-headed,  unprejudiced,  fair- 
minded  and  disinterested  man  can  endorse  the  ship- 
loads of  twaddle  constantly  being  written  and  spoken 
by  demagogues  of  every  denomination  about  the  dan- 
ger to  our  institutions,  and  the  demoralization  of  our 
people  by  the  Chinese.  They  are  low,  ignorant,  de- 
based, and  filthy  heathen ;  we  likewise  have  low,  ignor- 
ant, debased,  and  filthy  Christians.  Which  are  the 
worse?     We   want  neither,  but  why  single  out  the 


HOLLOW   OPINIONS.  267 

Asiatic  to  vent  upon  him  this  indignation,  which  is 
the  result  wholly  of  our  own  folly?  As  many  sound 
arguments  can  be  brought  against  tolerating  here  the 
African,  and  twice  as  many  against  the  presence  of 
the  low  European. 

In  fact,  sound  arguments  are  seldom  touched  in 
this  connection.  The  true  cause  of  our  special  dislike 
for  the  Chinese  is  kept  carefully  concealed.  The  pol- 
itician does  not  mount  the  stump  and  say  that  the 
Chinaman  must  go  because  he  has  no  vote,  but  my 
black  brother  and  my  white  brother  may  stay  because 
they  have  votes.  The  newspapers  do  not  admit  that 
they  say  the  Chinese  must  go  because  it  is  easier  and 
more  profitable  to  foster  current  opinion  than  to  en- 
lighten the  people.  The  minister  and  missionary  do 
not  admit  that  they  say  the  Chinese  must  go,  because 
they  would  lose  their  situation  if  they  preached  against 
popular  prejudice. 

It  is  becoming  an  apparently  difficult  matter  for  the 
American  people  to  please  themselves  in  every  particu- 
lar. They  seem  quite  satisfied  to  let  the  low  European 
rule  them  through  unprincipled  demagogues,  but  they 
profess  not  to  like  the  Chinaman  because  he  will  not 
amalgamate  and  meddle  in  politics.  The  Mormons, 
on  the  other  hand,  amalgamate  too  much,  and  are  too 
many  for  their  neighbors  at  elections;  they  vote  only 
for  their  own  candidates,  and  so  politicians  cry  that 
they  must  go.  Again,  the  Chinamen  may  have  their 
Joss-house  and  secondary  wives  to  their  hearts'  con- 
tent, but  not  so  the  Mormons. 

If,  as  I  have  said,  we  could  go  back  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred years,  and  say  to  all  low  foreigners,  white,  black, 
and  yellow,  "This  American  land  we  want  for  our- 
selves and  our  children;  we  propose  to  breed  here  a 
superior  race,  and  we  cannot  have  our  blood  debased 
by  constant  intermixtures  with  the  common  stock  of 
other  countries  ;  hence  you  cannot  come  here," — such 
ground  taken  would  have  been  clear,  logical,  and  sen- 
sible.    True,  we  might  not  have  rolled  up  wealth  and 


268  TWO   SIDES   OF  A   VEXED   QUESTION. 

population  so  rapidly,  but  we  would  have  had  what  is 
far  better  than  wealth  and  population — a  nobler  race, 
a  purer  government,  a  less  artificial  society;  we  would 
have  saved  our  lands  for  our  sons  and  daughters, 
whom  we  might  have  taught  to  labor  with  their 
hands  and  brainy  thus  avoiding  not  one  but  a  hundred 
evils. 

But  we  did  not  do  this.  While  one  part  of  the 
commonwealth  was  hugging  close  to  its  heart  that 
monster,  slavery,  with  no  small  blood  intermixtures 
of  white  and  black,  the  other  portion  of  the  nation 
was  spending  time  and  money  in  bringing  to  our  shores 
the  lower  classes  of  Irish,  English,  Dutch,  Scandinav- 
ians, and  others  of  Europe,  who  presently  were  put 
upon  an  equality,  pohtically  and  industrially,  with  the 
highest,  tlie  most  intelligent,  learned,  and  wealthy  in 
our  land.  The  most  illiterate  and  stupid  dolt,  lately 
from  tlie  bogs  of  Ireland  or  the  coal-pits  of  England, 
who  had  scarcely  more  intelligent  ideas  about  govern- 
ment and  right-doing  than  a  fence-post,  could  be 
brought  over  from  Europe,  and  his  vote  at  an  election, 
which  a  drink  of  wliisky  would  buy,  was  estimated  a 
fair  offset  for  that  of  Daniel  Webster ;  three  of  these 
donkeys  were  equal  to  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun. 

We  used  to  pride  ourselves  that  here  in  America 
should  be  throughout  all  time  the  camping-ground  of 
the  nations.  All  the  world  were  invited  to  come 
hither  and  be  happy  and  be  free.  Our  government 
was  the  best  in  the  world ;  it  made  all  men  free  and 
equal,  no  matter  how  many  slaves  it  fostered,  or  how 
many  foreign  vagabonds  it  made  citizens.  Whatever 
nature  had  done,  the  American  constitution  was  su- 
perior to  nature,  and  made  Caliban  the  equal  of  Pros- 
pero.  So  high-minded  and  free  were  Americans,  with 
their  rich  lands  and  unapproachable  institutions,  that 
they  soon  began  to  regard  with  disfavor  the  older  and 
less  open-handed  nations,  and  even  went  so  far  some- 
times as  to  force  the  gates  marked  *'No  Admittance." 
No  nation  had  a  right  to  fence  off  a  part  of  this  earth, 


UNDER   OTHER   CONDITIONS.  269 

which  was  made  by  the  creator  of  all  for  the  free  use 
of  all,  and  say,  ''You  shall  not  enter  here." 

In  all  this  a  great  mistake  was  made.  Free  religion 
is  well  enough,  for  heaven  is  large,  and  hell  is  larger 
still ;  but  lands  are  limited,  and  whatever  may  be  said 
in  our  self-glorification  assemblages,  whatever  we 
think  we  believe  about  it,  our  true  opinion  of  our  free 
and  enlightened  institutions  is  shown  when  we  take 
by  the  hand  and  politically  make  first  our  equal,  and 
then  our  master,  ignorant  and  rank-smelling  foreigners 
fit  only  for  tending  swine. 

But  fortunately  we  have  learned  the  lesson  in  time 
to  apply  it  at  least  to  the  people  of  one  nationality. 
If  with  the  low  A^siatic  we  could  at  the  same  time 
keep  out  the  low  African  and  the  low  European,  it 
would  be  better  still,  but  we  should  be  thankful  to 
have  had  our  eyes  opened  at  last,  and  have  taken 
steps  to  keep  away  one  bad  clement,  even  if  others  as 
bad  arc  permitted  to  come. 

Had  no  low-born  foreigners  ever  been  admitted, 
our  sons  and  daughters  would  have  been  obliged  to 
work,  and  work  is  strengthening  and  ennobling.  It 
develops  body  and  mind  as  no  other  condition  or  in- 
vention can  do.  The  highest  and  healthiest  civiliza- 
tion is  not  found  along  the  most  fashionable  streets  of 
Boston  and  New  York;  it  is  in  the  more  rural  dis- 
tricts, where  life  is  less  artificial  and  hollow,  and  men 
and  women  work  with  head  and  hands,  living  piously 
and  virtuously,  and  rearing  sons  to  take  the  foremost 
places  in  the  marts  of  commerce  and  the  halls  of  legis- 
lation. Young  men  and  women  brought  up  in  the 
hot-beds  of  our  cities  to  do  nothing  but  minister  to 
their  own  selfish  and  too  often  sinful  pleasures  are  as 
a  rule  of  little  or  no  value.  They  come  and  go  like 
the  soft  south  wind,  leaving  no  mark. 

Now  the  Chinaman,  howsoever  degraded  he  is,  is 
a  thing  that  works ;  he  works  diligently,  and  econo- 
mizes closely,  so  that  he  may  have  enough  to  buy 
himself  a  small-footed   wife  when   he   goes  back  to 


270  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

China.  Rut  however  valuable  such  qualities  may  be 
regarded  in  our  children,  we  do  not  like  them  in  the 
imported  heathen  ;  we  do  not  want  the  Chinese  here 
to  deprive  our  children  of  the  great  blessings  of  labor. 
True,  there  is  the  African  and  European,  who  some- 
times work,  and  we  permit  them  to  come,  but  that  is 
quite  different.  They  do  not  work  nmch,  or  very 
hard;  and  then,  after  due  washings  and  bleachings 
they  intermarry  with  us,  and  by  and  by  go  to  congress. 

The  resulting  progeny,  it  is  true,  is  not  of  the  best 
stock  ;  there  is  too  nmch  mustang  in  it ;  and  dis- 
tributed generally  througliout  all  the  states  of  the 
union,  with  its  never-ceasing  inflowing  current,  it 
deteriorates  and  dwarfs  the  whole  mass.  But  even 
if  the  eftect  is  bad,  we  like  the  disposition.  We  do 
not  wish  to  have  the  heathen  come  here  and  look 
down  on  us,  our  daughters,  and  our  institutions;  we 
do  not  wish  when  they  have  washed  our  doorsteps, 
to  have  them  take  the  half  dollar  and  spend  it  in 
China,  though  speculating  manipulators  may  swindle 
the  people  out  of  millions,  and  spend  their  ill-gotten 
gains  at  the  east  and  in  Europe  and  have  nothing 
tliought  of  it.  Speculating  manipulators  are  not 
Chinese  ;  if  they  were,  it  would  have  been  a  great 
blessing  to  this  coast. 

Hence  I  say  that  the  rise  and  development  of  opinion 
in  California  on  the  Chinese  question  presents  one  of 
the  most  singular  anomalies  in  the  history  of  human 
societies.  It  is  not  so  strange  in  the  conclusions  arrived 
at,  that  the  Chinaman  here  is  a  nuisance,  an  unbe- 
liever, un-American,  and  altogether  an  unclean  thing 
not  wanted  in  our  midst — this  is  not  so  strange  as  is 
the  method  by  which  we  reach  such  conclusions. 
The  arguments  employed  are  so  fallacious,  the  ground 
taken  so  fanatical,  as  to  make  a  disinterested  observer 
question  our  sincerity  or  sanity. 

Going  back  to  the  beginning  of  Anglo- American 
occupation  in  these  parts,  and  the  rush  hither  of  men 
from  every  quarter  upon  the  discovery  of  gold,  and 


J 


ILLOGICAL  ARGUMENTS.  271 

we  find  the  great  American  miner  promulgating  with 
knife  and  pistol  the  doctrine — not  that  Asiatics  alone, 
or  more  than  others,  should  stay  away,  but  that  no 
foreigners  should  be  allowed  here.  So  they  made 
raids  on  Chinese  and  Mexicans,  Frenchmen  and  Eng- 
lishmen— in  fact  upon  all  foreigners,  killing  some  and 
taxing  all  severely  on  the  ground  that  we  had  beaten 
Mexico  fairly  out  of  these  gold  fields,  and  that  conse- 
quentl}^  the  gold  was  ours,  and  not  to  be  scooped  up 
and  carried  to  England,  or  Egypt,  or  China.  Whether 
right  or  wrong  in  this,  they  were  at  least  reasonable 
and  logical  in  their  proposition  and  deduction,  and 
that  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  our  people  to-day. 

The  American  miners,  after  some  beating  and  kill- 
ing of  Mexicans,  Chinese,  and  Kanakas,  with  occa- 
sional growls  at  Englishmen,  Irishmen,  and  French- 
men, the  placer  mines  meanwhile  having  been  skimmed 
of  their  surface  richness,  concluded  that  it  miirht  be 
just  as  well  to  let  foreigners  have  a  share  in  the  scrap- 
ings, but  to  tax  them  royally  for  the  privilege.  Of 
course  the  persecution  fell  heaviest  upon  the  weakest. 
Under  this  treatment  the  Kanakas  soon  withered; 
the  Mexicans  returned  to  their  homes  by  the  thou- 
sands, the  Europeans  gradually  moved  off,  leaving 
the  Chinaman  to  catch  the  full  force  of  the  blows  the 
great  American  man  continued  striking  in  defence  of 
his  life,  liberty,  and  sacred  honor. 

It  is  just  a  little  farcical  to  see  our  great  American 
men  fume  and  bluster  over  these  little  Asiatics,  who 
with  others  came  here  by  invitation,  and  tliat  of  not 
so  very  old  a  date,  threatenhig  to  annihilate  them, 
to  '*  chaw  'em  all  up,"  as  did  the  giant  to  Jack,  unless 
incontinently  they  go  away  and  stay  away  ;  especially 
when  these  same  blusterers  were  so  lately  before  t.he 
walls  of  China,  in  company  with  their  English  breth- 
ren, threatening  to  batter  down  their  gates  if  they 
would  not  let  them  in. 

It  is  just  a  little  comical  to  see  the  white  skins  of 
this  exalted  Christian  civilization  in  deep  disgust  cry 


272  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

"pall  I"  to  the  smokers  of  the  divme  drug  so  lately 
forced  upon  the  reluctant  Asiatics  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet. 

As  the  years  passed  by,  time  and  whiskey  weakened 
the  arm  of  the  honest  American  miner,  so  that  the 
Chinamen,  burrowing  as  harmless  as  mules  hi  thrice- 
worked-out  river  bars,  found  some  respite.  More  of 
them  came  and  entered  upon  other  pursuits,  such  as 
washino;  clothes,  cooking,  digging  ditches,  making 
railroads,  and  working  in  factories;  for  they  proved 
to  be  handy  and  not  much  given  to  drunkenness. 

For  all  this  the  true  American  man  cared  nothing; 
he  did  not  wish  to  cook,  wash  clothes,  or  work  on  a 
railroad;  he  could  do  better;  in  fact  he  was  glad  to 
get  in  this  wilderness  so  docile  and  efficient  a  servant, 
to  relieve  himself  and  family  from  some  portion  of 
their  drudgery.  And  had  these  two  races  been  left 
alone  in  the  matter,  nothing  more  would  have  come 
of  it.  There  would  have  been  no  bugbear  talk  of  a 
Chinese  invasion,  for  the  American  man  well  knew  that 
he  had  no  reason  to  fear  that  the  Mongols  who  had 
walled  themselves  in  for  thirty  or  sixty  centuries  were 
all  on  a  sudden  to  pour  forth  from  their  gates,  buy  a 
hundred  thousand  ships  and  come  over  and  capture 
the  United  States. 

Had  there  been  none  to  interfere  between  the  great 
American  man  and  the  little  China  man,  nothing  would 
have  been  said  about  the  pittance  of  gold  the  drudge 
carried  away  with  him  when  he  went  home,  leaving 
in  its  place  the  fruits  of  his  labor  in  the  form  of  a 
canal,  or  railroad,  or  other  useful  accomplishment, 
any  more  than  we  would  think  of  complaining  when 
the  stock-jobber  or  monopolist  carries  away  to  the  east 
or  Europe  his  stolen  millions,  leaving  along  his  trail 
thousands  of  shattered  fortunes  and  moral  and  political 
debasement. 

Nothing  would  have  been  said  about  the  poor  pig-  . 
tail's  religion;  let  him  have  his  little  gods,  and  scatter 
papers  to  the  devil;  what  harm  can  it  do?     Nothing 


ALL  VERY  LOW.  273 

would  have  been  said  about  indifFerence  to  citizenship 
and  amalgamation,  or  refusal  to  go  to  congress.  Who 
wants  that  good  and  patient  servant,  the  mule,  to  be- 
come an  American  citizen,  and  who  w^ants  his  blood 
debased  by  mixture  with  that  of  the  African  or  low 
European?  And  yet  the  mule,  the  negro,  or  the 
European  were  never  so  persecuted  as  the  Chinese 
have  been.  And  the  Chinaman  is  more  a  necessity 
in  California  to-day  than  was  ever  the  steam-engine 
or  gang-plough. 

Whether  or  not  a  mistake  was  made  fifty  years  ago 
in  admitting  freely  a  turbid  stream  of  population  from 
Europe,  which  our  people  had  constantly  to  absorb, 
to  their  eternal  debasement,  it  is  very  safe  to  say  that 
it  was  a  great  mistake  to  let  this  element  come  in  and 
become  our  rulers.  To  have  made  the  mule  a  voter 
and  our  ruler  would  have  been  no  more  foolishly  ab- 
surd than  to  make  a  voter  and  governor  of  shock- 
headed  Africans  just  emancipated  from  slavery.  For 
such  privileges  and  offices  the  Indian  has  more  rights 
and  the  Asiatic  more  intelligence. 

But  call  this  black  enfranchisement  a  piece  of  pleas- 
antry on  the  part  of  republican  patriots — at  which 
game  they  did  not  win  largely — there  is  still  a  darker 
element  in  our  politics.  The  greatest  curse  ever  en- 
tailed upon  our  government  and  institutions  was  in 
giving  the  low  European  a  hand  in  them.  Herein 
lies  the  cause  of  most  of  the  political  vice  and  corrup- 
tion of  our  large  cities;  herein  lies  the  cause  of  our 
prostituted  rights  of  high-minded  and  honorable  self- 
govermuent;  herein  lies  the  cause  of  all  California's 
troubles  over  the  presence  of  the  Asiatics.  Instead  of 
cursing  the  Chinese  for  having  no  desire  to  meddle  in 
our  politics,  we  had  better  curse  ourselves  for  ever  hav- 
ing allowed  the  negro  and  the  low  European  to  do  so. 

Pythagoras  divides  virtue  into  two  branches,  to 
seek  truth  and  to  do  good ;  whereupon  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  person  or  people  who  do  the  contrary 
are  vicious.     Nor  will  ignorance  or  inexperience  suf- 

EssAYS  AND  Miscellany    18 


274  TWO   SIDES   OF  A   VEXED   QUESTION. 

fice  as  a  plea  for  wrong-doing.  The  innnoralities  of 
conventionalism  are  no  less  fatal  in  their  effects  than 
the  immoralities  of  inherent  viciousness  and  debase- 
ment. Good  citizenship  comes  before  pleasurable 
gratification  or  the  indulgence  of  tastes;  it  begins 
with  right  conduct  in  the  family,  and  ends  in  right 
conduct  in  the  state.  All  rational  human  activities 
may  be  ranged  under  three  classes,  though  not 
wholly  separable:  those  which  tend  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  life,  those  which  tend  to  the  highest  social 
and  political  relations,  and  tliose  which  elevate  tlje 
tastes  and  gratify  the  feelings. 

No  doubt  many  of  the  champions  of  the  anti-Chinese 
cause  have  been  converted  through  their  own  per- 
sistent and  dogmatical  assertions.  But  they  can 
hardly  help  knowing  that  the  arguments  they  use 
in  support  of  the  cause  are  fallacious,  and  their  state- 
ments are  not  always  borne  out  by  the  facts.  A  dis- 
interested observer  cannot  but  feel  that  nine  tenths  of 
these  assertions  are  insincere,  or  if  those  who  utter 
them  really  believe  in  what  they  say,  then  is  the 
standard  of  intelligence  low  indeed,  while  humbug  and 
hollow  cant  hold  in  subordination  our  politics,  our 
morals,  and  our  religion. 

It  is  not  the  Asiatic,  but  this  same  turbid  stream 
from  Europe  that  debases  our  blood,  discolors  our 
politics,  makes  of  republican  government  a  farce,  stirs 
up  strife,  and  lowers  the  standard  of  our  morals.  It 
is  not  the  Chinaman  who  does  this,  for  he  will  not 
mix  himself  up  in  these  affairs.  The  mule,  at  work 
upon  the  highway,  does  not  affect  our  standard  of 
morals,  no  matter  what  may  be  its  habits,  however 
filthy,  or  however  different  from  humanity.  So  with 
the  Chinaman;  because  he  is  not  one  with  us,  because' 
he  will  not  mingle  or  interfere  in  our  affairs,  because 
he  likes  his  own  gods  better  than  ours,  his  own  dress, 
his  own  food,  his  own  customs — it  is  for  these  very 
reasons  that,  like  the  mule,  for  many  purposes,  he  is 
our  best  and  most  patient  drudge. 


FILTH  AND  IMMORALITY.  275 

In  regard  to  relative  morality;  it  is  by  no  means 
a  proved  proposition  that  the  Chinese  are  more  filthy, 
or  more  immoral  than  Europeans.  The  great  un- 
washed of  Europe  on  their  arrival  here  we  take  to  our 
bosoms;  come  election  day  we  give  them  rum  to 
drink,  place  votes  in  their  hands,  install  them  in  the 
various  offices  of  our  government,  and  make  them  our 
masters.  And  thus  in  proportion  as  we  elevate  them 
we  abase  ourselves.  With  regard  to  the  Chinese  it 
is  not  so.  In  the  presence  of  the  little  almond-eyed 
pig-tail  we  will  assert  our  great  American  manhood. 
He  shall  not  vote.  He  shall  not  sit  upon  the  benches 
of  our  supreme  courts  of  justice  ;  he  shall  not  be  our 
master.  Nay,  we  will  drive  him  from  our  shores  be- 
fore he  shall  do  any  of  these  things,  before  he  shall 
swallow  us  up,  before  this  little  pig-tail  shall  swallow 
up  our  great  American  manhood  I 

The  Chinese  in  our  small  country  towns  are  no  more 
fifthy  in  their  habits  than  the  poor  people  there  of  other 
nationalities  ;  in  all  large  cities  of  America  and  Europe 
there  are  quarters  occupied  by  white  people  as  filthy 
and  as  fever-breeding  as  any  of  the  Chinese  quarters. 
The  Chinese  do  not  steal,  or  kill,  or  commit  adultery 
proportionately  more  than  white  people.  They  have 
some  system  of  purchase  and  sale  of  women  for  vile 
purposes ;  is  that  any  worse  than  the  American  or 
European  method  of  using  women  for  vile  purposes 
without  bargain  and  sale,  without  ownership  or  pro- 
tection, but  casting  them  out  as  men  tire  of  them  ? 
And  in  regard  to  opium ;  will  any  one  for  a  moment 
maintain  that  this  drug  is  one  tenth  part  so  great  an 
evil  in  America  as  alcoholic  drinks  and  tobacco  ? 

I  can  understand  how  the  politician,  pandering  to 
foreign  votes,  w^hethcr  as  provincial  demagogue  or 
statesman  standing  on  the  floor  of  the  national  con- 
gres3,  feels  called  upon,  whatever  may  be  his  true 
opinion,  to  denounce  in  season  and  out  of  season  the 
presence  of  Asiatics  in  America.  He  would  not  long 
be  a  place-holder  otherwise.     The    newspaper  that 


276  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 


does  not  energetically  and  persistently  denounce  the 
Chinese,  and  denounce  all  who  do  not  denounce  them, 
and  that  without  regard  to  any  honest  opinion  of  tlie 
editor,  may  as  well  close  its  office.  Indeed  our 
teachers  and  preachers  are  all  personally  interested. 
If  they  speak  otherwise  than  against  the  Chinese, 
they  could  not  retain  their  places  for  a  moment. 
But  that  the  intelligent  masses  should  be  so  bought 
over,  shows  two  things — the  extent  and  quality  of 
their  intelligence,  and  also  what  effect  years  of  strong 
and  persistent  assertion  on  the  part  of  newspapers 
and  politicians  will  have  upon  the  public  mind. 

As  I  have  said,  I  do  not  advocate  Asiatic  immigra- 
tion, or  European,  or  African,  or  any  other  immigra- 
tion, if  only  the  lower  classes  come;  I  advocate  here 
only  common-sense  and  connnon  honesty  in  dealing 
with  this  question.  I  would  urge  upon  our  leading 
men,  whether  of  the  press,  the  political  arena,  or  the 
counting-house,  to  stop  pandering  to  these  low  foreign 
voters  by  heaping  odium,  by  false  accusations,  upon 
a  class  less  offending,  less  meddlesome,  less  trouble- 
some, more  industrious,  and  in  many  other  respects 
better  than  their  persecutors,  and  whose  chief  crimes 
are  that  they  neither  vote  nor  read  the  newspapers. 

In  fine,  from  the  presence  of  Asiatics  in  America 
flow  essentially  the  same  benefits  and  evils  brought 
upon  a  superior  people  by  base  elements  from  any 
quarter.  Even  the  irresponsible  bachelorhood  applies 
to  large  groups  of  white  men.  As  the  low  European 
and  the  low  Asiatic  each  differ  in  mind  and  body,  in 
characteristics  and  customs,  so  their  effect  upon  us, 
our  society,  our  morals,  our  institutions,  our  agricul- 
ture, manufactures,  and  general  development  are  each 
different  from  that  exercised  by  any  other  people ; 
and  this  difference  is  one  of  kind  rather  than  of  extent. 

And  when  from  our  deep  debasement  we  shall 
arise,  peradventure,  through  fire  and  blood,  and  place 
under  our   feet  political   libertinism,  when  we  shall 


THE  NEW  BY-LAWS.  277 

restrict  the  ballot  within  wholesome  limits,  placing 
public  affairs  in  the  hands  of  men  of  integrity  and  in- 
telligence, who  have  a  stake  in  the  community,  then 
should  we  write  in  the  by-laws  of  our  new  incorpora- 
tion: 

That  the  infusion  into  the  ranks  of  an  enlightened 
and  progressive  people  of  any  foreign  faex  iiojpidi,  or 
low  element,  from  any  source,  is  debasing  to  the  su- 
perior race. 

But  times  and  conditions  may  offer  counterbalancing 
advantages  rendenng  their  presence  temporarily 
profitable. 

In  no  event,  however,  should  a  base  foreign  infusion 
be  allowed  to  become  citizens,  or  to  participate  in  the 
government,  though  possibly  their  clarified  children 
may  be  permitted  to  do  so. 

The  better  class,  the  educated,  the  able  and  enter- 
prising, the  wealthy,  we  may  profitably  welcome. 

The  Chinese,  such  as  commonly  visit  our  shores, 
being  a  low  foreign  element,  their  presence  is  injurious 
to  the  general  and  permanent  welfare  of  America. 

Africans  as  a  class  being  base-minded  and  unintel- 
lectual,  their  presence  among  us  is  not  desirable. 

The  influx  of  ignorant  and  low  Europeans  is  detri- 
mental to  the  highest  well-being  of  America. 

In  equity,  all  classes  of  our  population  should  receive 
corresponding  attention  to  their  demands  for  restricted 
competitive  immigration,  and  no  nationality  should 
be  favored  above  another  in  the  exclusion. 

Having  reached  the  logical  ending  of  the  subject, 
we  might  let  it  there  rest.  But  it  will  not  rest. 
There  is  an  aspect  of  the  Chinese  question  outside  of 
politics,  outside  of  the  demands  of  other  foreigners  or 
their  tools,  the  demagogues,  and  outside  of  any  social 
consideration.  We  may  theorize  as  to  what  might 
have  been,  or  what  ought  to  be  ;  at  the  same  time  we 
may  as  well  consider  what  must  be,  following  the 
logic  of  necessity,     Keturning  to  California,  and  view- 


278  TWO  SIDES  OF  A  VEXED  QUESTION. 

incr  the  Chinese  question  from  the  quarter  where  the 
first  hollow  voice  of  office-seekers  and  politicians  was 
raised  against  them,  and  we  ask,  What  arc  we  to  do 
without  them? 

Take  from  California  to-day  Chinese  labor  and  in- 
dustries will  become  paralyzed,  commerce  become  stag- 
nant, and  absolute  ruin  overspread  vast  agricultural 
areas.  So  long  and  so  loud  has  been  the  cry  that 
the  Chinese  must  go,  so  blinded  are  the  people  to 
the  most  vital  interests  of  the  connnonwealth,  that 
they  will  not  see  the  approacliing  danger,  or  listen  to 
a  word  against  their  unreasonable  prejudices.  The 
time  will  come,  and  indeed  is  near  at  hand  when  there 
will  be  the  most  urgent  necessity  for  many  thousands 
of  additional  laborers.  For  unless  we  have  several 
times  more  than  are  in  the  country  now,  we  may  as 
well  stop  planting  trees,  as  there  will  be  no  one  to 
gather  the  fruit ;  we  may  as  well  abandon  at  once 
general  manufacturing,  and  all  those  important  indus- 
tries which  make  a  nation  prosperous,  and  sit  down 
satisfied  with  our  present  condition  with  no  hope  for 
future  progress — yet  not  our  present  position,  but 
infinitely  worse,  retrogression,  stagnation.  Our  land 
for  grain  is  worked-out;  we  cannot  return  to  cattle- 
raising;  fruit-growing,  the  coming  chief  and  higher 
industry,  will  alone  require  ten  times  as  many  labor- 
ers as  are  in  the  state  at  present,  or  the  fruit  from  the 
trees  lately  planted  never  will  be  gathered. 

Where  are  the  laborers  essential  to  our  prosperity 
to  come  from  ?  Not  from  the  sons  of  the  soil ;  they 
are  too  independent ;  they  are  employers,  or  labor 
only  for  themselves  ;  the  few  who  will  hire  themselves 
out  do  not  figure  in  the  labor  market.  Not  from  the 
African,  who,  as  a  free  man  is  trifling,  lazy,  without 
ambition,  or  any  probable  intellectual  improvement,  a 
disgrace  to  the  country,  a  foul  stain  in  our  politics. 
His  place  is  in  the  south,  or  in  the  jungles  of  Africa. 
Were  he  here  in  sufficient  numbers,  which  is  neither 
probable  nor  by  any  means  desirable,  he  could  not  be 


THE   POLICY   OF  NECESSITY.  279 

depended  on  as  a  laLorcr  in  our  fields  and  manu- 
factories. Mexicans  and  Indians  of  course  are  not  to 
be  mentioned;  Mexico  is  paying  a  premium  for 
Chinese  labor  to-day.  The  European  :  we  have  tried 
him,  and  know  to  what  extent  and  in  what  ways  he 
can  and  cannot  be  depended  upon.  Socially  and 
pohtically  ambitious,  captious  in  his  conceptions, 
wedded  to  Iiis  chuch  and  to  towns  and  cities,  from 
this  class  some  few  are  fv)und  to  work  as  mechanics, 
but  there  are  not  enough  of  them  for  successful  manu- 
facturing, and  in  country  labor  they  are  but  an  incon- 
siderable factor. 

Wisely  or  unwisely  we  have  placed  ourselves  in  a 
position  where  certain  work  has  to  be  done  to  avoid 
lamentable  consequences.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
heathenism,  amalgamation,  politics,  popularity,  or 
what  will  please  other  foreigners;  we  require  to 
have  our  fruit  gathered,  our  shoes  made,  our  wives 
relieved  from  the  heavier  household  drudgery ;  other- 
wise w^e  w^ill  have  to  take  long  steps  backward  in 
progress  and  prosperity,  and  organize  affairs  anew,  and 
on  a  basis  such  as  our  foreflxthcrs  should  have  done,  and 
arc  likely  enough  to  find  ourselves  worse  off  at  the  end 
of  another  century  than  at  present.  It  may  be  that 
our  development  would  have  been  healthier  and  hap- 
pier if  we  had  invented  and  empkn'cd  less  machinery, 
but  we  cannot  throw  away  machines  now  without 
serious  inconvenience.  It  is  clearly  evident  that  the 
Cliinaman  is  the  least  objectionable  of  any  human 
machine  wo  have  amonix  ns. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 


For  twelve  honest  men  have  decided  the  cause, 
Who  are  judges  alike  of  the  facts  and  the  laws, 

— PuUeneyy  The  Honest  Jury. 

The  hungry  judges  soon  the  sentence  sign, 
And  wretches  hang  that  jurymen  may  dine. 

^Pope. 
Do  not  your  juries  give  their  verdict 
As  if  they  felt  the  cause,  not  heard  it  ? 

^Hvdihras. 

The  mind  of  man,  no  less  than  the  body,  is  bom 
under  bonds.  Thick  black  clouds  of  ignorance  and 
superstition  encompass  and  overshadow  it  from  its  in- 
cipiency.  Not  only  docs  darkness  surround  it,  but 
the  light  of  past  ages  itself  gradually  merges  in  ob- 
scurity before  it.  It  sees  nothing,  feels  nothing,  hears 
nothing  aright.  Nature  it  misinterprets.  Of  its  own 
self,  its  character,  quality,  origin,  and  destiny,  it  knows 
little.  In  the  vain  search  for  its  maker  and  dominator, 
it  sends  forth  dismal  groans,  fills  earth,  sea,  and  sky 
with  fantastic  forms,  places  here  a  heaven  and  there 
a  hell,  and  in  every  thunder  cloud  and  sighing  breeze 
a  deity. 

To  emancipate  itself  from  this  thraldom  is  its 
eternal  struggle.  To  ascertain  truth  and  falsity,  the 
real  and  the  mythical,  is  progress.  Often  we  see 
portions  of  the  race  proceeding  far  in  some  directions 
while  lagging  behind  in  others.  Among  wise  men  we 
find  the  greatest  follies.  Nowhere  are  displayed 
greater  absurdities  than  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
philosophers,  the  wisest  among  mankind  in  some 
things.     What  shall  we  say  of  men  capable  of  fair 

(280) 


OLD  AND  NEW  CONDITIONS.  281 

reasoning  who  for  wounds  had  recourse  to  invocations, 
and  for  the  gout  apphed  a  weasel's  tooth  wrapped  in 
Hon  skin — -though  the  doctors  gravely  quarreled,  some 
holding  that  the  covering  should  be  deer  skin? 
Common  to  every  nation  as  household  words  are 
many  such  absurdities,  to  say  nothing  of  the  multitu- 
dinous minor  superstitions  of  daily  domestic  life,  all  of 
which  have  not  left  mankind  to  this  day. 

To  free  itself  from  the  constraining  covering  the 
mind  puts  on  when  first  perceiving  its  nakedness  is 
the  sum  of  all  aspirations,  the  end  of  all  activities. 
And  in  this  effort  to  escape  exposure,  often  it  employs 
divers  suits  and  makeshifts,  quickly  arraying  itself  in 
one  before  fairly  casting  off  another.  In  jurispru- 
dence, and  medicine,  in  merchandising  and  industries, 
as  well  as  in  religion,  we  see  numberless  infatuations 
from  which  the  mind  is  gradually  liberating  itself, 
and  in  no  age  more  rapidly  than  the  present. 

These  several  makeshifts  were  not  always  unneces- 
sary. On  the  contrary  there  is  no  evil,  or  what  we 
of  to-day  call  evil,  or  any  subterfuge  under  which 
progressive  peoples  have  sought  to  hide  tlieir  intel- 
lectual nakedness,  or  any  protection  for  their  exposed 
condition  but  at  the  time  was  essential,  if  not  to  life 
itself,  at  least  to  progress.  Unable  all  at  once  to  cast 
off  its  sombre  raiment,  to  stand  forth  and  eye  om- 
nipotence, to  give  unrestricted  sway  to  expanding 
thought,  the  nascent  intellect  must  blink,  and  stare, 
and  creep,  and  lisp  before  it  can  see  clearly,  walk 
firmly,  and  reason  intelligibly.  War,  worship,  slavery, 
usury,  and  the  like  were  once  superstitions,  were  once 
blessings. 

The  right  of  trial  by  jury  sprang  from  the  advance 
of  physical  and  intellectual  freedom.  Its  origin  was 
in  no  one  time  or  place.  It  was  a  necessity  demanded 
in  the  dawning  community  of  tyranny,  of  great-man 
worship,  the  moment  the  mind  had  reached  a  certain 
point  in  its  progress.  For  several  thousand  years  it 
has  done  good  service ;  but  like  many  evils  which  were 


282  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

once  blessings,  society  can  now  safely  dispense  with 
it,  would  indeed  be  better  off  without  it.  The  cir- 
cumstances which  called  it  into  being  have  changed 
in  most  countries.  The  people  do  not  now  have  to 
figlit  with  the  sword  for  an  acknowledgment  of  their 
rights  to  a  hearing  in  questions  of  law,  legislation, 
and  government;  they  are  the  law  and  the  govern- 
meiit.  Between  tliem  and  the  judges  tliere  are  not 
now,  as  formerly,  antagonisms;  the  judges  are  the 
servants  and  representatives  of  the  people,  and  not 
arbitrary  or  independent  rulers,  opposed  in  many 
respects  to  the  welfare  of  the  people.  Therefore,  as 
these  conditions  no  longer  exist,  the  necessities  and 
benefits  once  arising^  from  them  no  lonoer  accrue. 
Progressive  peoples  may  therefore  look  at  the  system 
of  trial  by  jury  apart  from  past  benefits,  considering 
alone  its  present  usefulness,  and  in  so  doing,  doubtless 
we  shall  find  that  the  system  may  now  be  safely 
embalmed. 

Under  the  patriarchal  regime  the  pater  familias 
was  absolute  ruler  and  the  sole  arbiter  of  disputes. 
Revenge,  or  the  personal  vindication  of  wrongs,  was 
the  primitive  idea  of  justice;  public  crimes,  and  public 
punishment  of  crime  were  a  later  development.  When 
patriarchal  and  roving  bands  united  as  nations  and 
assumed  despotism,  with  its  attendant  great-man  wor- 
ship, of  necessity  courts  were  established;  but  the 
jury  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  court,  as  is  too 
often  done  by  legal  writers.  Jurors  are  no  part  of  the 
court.  They  consist  of  members  of  the  community 
summoned  to  ascertain  the  facts  in  a  disputed  case,  to 
which  the  judge  applies  the  law  and  delivers  sentence. 
When  these  chosen  citizens  have  pronounced  on  the 
facts,  they  can  return  to  their  several  vocations,  having 
thenceforth  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  court  than 
others.  While  England  was  not  wholly  ignorant  of 
the  jury  principle,  the  judicium  dei  and  other  ordeals 
and  divinations  were  in  vogue,  in  which  fire,  water, 
and  red-hot  ploughshares  played  conspicuous  parts. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  283 

It  was  not  many  centuries  ago  that  any  acknowl- 
edgment by  a  ruler  of  personal  inherent  rights  among 
the  governed  was  a  great  gain.  Since  the  concessions 
wrung  from  despotism  by  the  magna  charta,  trial  by 
jury  has  been  regarded  as  an  inestimable  boon,  insep- 
arable from  free  institutions.  So  sacredly  was  this 
sentiment  revered, which  thus  secured  to  every  accused 
Englishman  the  judgment  of  his  peers,  the  verdict  of 
a  jury,  or  the  law  of  the  land,  that  Lord  Camden 
adopted  as  his  motto  the  quotation  from  the  great 
charter,  "Judicium  parium  aut  leges  terrse." 

But  long  before  magna  charta  was  trial  by  jury. 
Indeed,  in  all  civilized  nations,  before  the  existence  of 
regular  codes,  cr  of  any  theory  of  jurisprudence,  we 
find  the  germ  of  the  present  jury  system,  since  de- 
veloped and  moulded  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  time 
and  place.  The  system  then  has  not  one  origin  alone 
but  many.  Its  appearing  was  spontaneous,  and  not 
the  result  of  an^^  act  of  king  or  parliament.  To  the 
dicasts  of  Athens,  to  the  corresponding  judices  of 
Rome,  to  the  Rachinburgen  or  Scabini  of  the  conti- 
nent, to  the  compurgators  of  the  Saxons,  to  the  Nor- 
wegian Gulathing,  to  the  Gescliwornen-Gericlite  of 
Germany,  to  the  sectatores  and  pares  of  feudalism, 
and  to  other  sources  the  system  points  for  its  origin. 
Under  the  systems  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  we 
see  much  in  common  with  our  own. 

The  body  selected  from  the  dicasts  of  Athens  for 
hearing  and  determining  causes  numbered  sometimes 
five  hundred  jurors  for  a  single  case^  A  Scandina- 
vian tribunal  was  usually  composed  of  twelve  or  some 
multiple  of  twelve.  Over  the  dicasts  presided  an 
archon;  other  deliberative  assemblages  had  no  pre- 
siding judge.  There  was  a  time  when  at  a  Roman 
trial  the  jury  sat  alone.  No  praetor  or  other  officer 
presided  to  regulate  proceedings  and  determine  points 
of  law,  but  in  every  jury  was  one  or  more  lawyers 
who  lent  their  aid  to  reach  a  verdict. 

The  deliberations  of  such  tribunals  as  the  Athenian 


284  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

ekklesia  and  the  Roman  comitia  were  irregular,  often 
violent,  and  their  decisions  were  the  results  of  appeals 
to  feeling  rather  than  to  fixed  principles.  Tumultu- 
ous bodies  of  freemen  having  no  presiding  judge, 
governed  by  no  rule  or  precedent,  were  poor  places 
for  justice.  The  first  innovation  on  this  method  of 
adjudication  in  England  was  the  introduction  by  the 
Normans  of  judges  familiar  with  the  forms  of  regu- 
lar procedure  as  practised  in  Roman  tribunals. 

The  right  of  trial  by  jury  comes  to  Englishmen 
more  directly  in  the  form  of  a  victory.  During  the 
dark  centuries,  prerogative  or  despotism  denied  such 
a  right.  Though  in  England  under  the  Tudors  and 
Stewarts  the  practice  obtained  for  the  most  part  as  at 
present,  yet  the  popular  pulse  was  then  too  low  to 
baffle  the  subtleties  of  the  royal  prerogative,  or  of 
learned  malevolence.  But  later,  with  increase  of  in- 
tellectual strength  and  material  stability,  the  people 
intrenched  themselves  in  their  rights,  and  since  the 
magna  charta  this  privilege  has  been  held  the  dearest 
of  a  progressive  people.  It  was  a  right  guarded  with 
vigilant  care,  and  for  which  intelligent  freemen  every- 
where would  fight  and  die.  To  America  came  this 
sentiment,  and  was  embodied  in  the  constitutions  of 
the  several  states. 

The  victory  originally  achieved  by  the  people  over 
the  government  by  the  establishment  of  the  jury 
system  was  the  right  of  participation  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  law.  No  man  might  thenceforth  be 
jeopardized  in  person  or  property  without  appeal  to 
his  fellows  for  redress.  It  was  a  sign  of  the  increas- 
ing purity  of  political  character,  and  growing  love  of 
honesty  and  fair  play.  When  the  government  and 
the  people  were  one  the  victory  was  complete. 

As  with  hero  worship,  the  system  with  age  and 
adulation  became  apotheosized  ;  since  which  time  men 
have  thoughtlessly  and  blindly  worshipped  it  as  com- 
plete, God-given,  and  eternal, — the  English  jurist, 
Adam,  terming  it  ''  of  a  perfection  so  absolute  that  it 


IRONY  OF  JURY-JUSTICE.  285 

has  remained  in  unabated  rigor  from  its  commence- 
ment to  the  present  time." 

Often  when  the  jury  decided  contrary  to  the  wishes 
of  the  king,  or  rendered,  in  the  opinion  of  the  judge, 
an  improper  verdict,  they  were  punished ;  therein  the 
irony  of  ancient  jury -justice  displays  itself  in  scarcely 
less  degree  than  in  modern  jury -justice,  where  mem- 
bers of  a  jury  decide  as  they  choose,  without  any  fear 
of  punishment  from  God  or  man.  Many  cases  might 
be  cited — instance  the  Throckmorton  trial,  in  which 
three  of  the  jurors  were  adjudged  to  pay  each  two 
thousand  pounds,  and  the  rest  two  hundred  pounds 
each;  the  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey  in  1670  of  Penn  and 
Mead,  in  which  the  jurors  were  fined  forty  marks 
each  and  imprisoned  till  they  paid,  and  others  of  sim- 
ilar significance.  Many  cases  are  on  record  where 
the  jury  were  convicted  of  perjury,  forced  to  retract, 
and  heavily  fined  or  imprisoned.  In  a  land  case  aris- 
ing under  William  the  Conqueror,  between  the  crown 
and  the  church,  the  jury  first  found  for  the  king,  and 
afterward  acknowledged  rendering  a  wrong  decision. 
Such  was  the  palladium  of  English  liberty  at  that 
time. 

''It  is  not  trial  by  jury  tliat  produces  justice,"  says 
Herbert  Spencer,  **but  it  is  the  sentiment  of  justice 
that  produces  trial  by  jury,  as  the  organ  through 
which  it  is  to  act ;  and  the  organ  will  be  inert  unless 
the  sentiment  is  there." 

Trial  by  jury  means,  as  Blackstone  says,  that  a  man 
"cannot  be  affected  either  in  his  property,  his  libert}^ 
or  his  person,  but  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  twelve 
of  his  neighbors  and  equals."  If  it  is  intended  that 
this  sentiment  should  be  construed  literally,  then  like 
many  legal  maxims,  age  is  its  greatest  merit.  Of  all 
men  one's  neighbors  are  least  capable  of  judging  fairly, 
are  most  liable  to  prejudice  for  or  against  the  accused. 
To  those  nearest  us  we  are  never  indifferent ;  we  are 
apt  cither  to  love  or  hate  them.  One  remove,  and 
the  feeling  still  exists,  though  not  in  so  intense  a  form. 


286  THE   JURY    SYSTEM 

On  local  questions  the  popular  mind  is  always  more 
or  less  inflamed. 

The  arguments,  or  rather  the  palpable  evidence  in 
favor  of  trial  by  jury,  are  protection  from  arbitrary  or 
despotic  rule,  protection  from  biased  or  unjust  judges, 
repivscntation  by  the  people  in  the  administration  of 
justice,  the  recognized  right  of  judgment  by  one's 
peers,  to  which  we  might  add  the  blessings  arising  by 
virtue  of  habeas  corpus,  and  the  advantage  of  equity 
from  a  standpoint  of  moral  law  and  custom  to  oflset 
the  harshness  and  errors  of  technical  ruhng.  It  em- 
bodies the  sentiment  of  fairness.  It  secures  to  the 
citizen  a  feeling  of  safet}^  in  his  riglits  which  cannot 
be  disturbed  by  any  fanaticism  or  mahce.  If  accused 
he  may  be  sure  of  tlie  same  impartiality  from  his 
neiglibors  that  he  stands  ever  ready  to  mete  out  to 
them.  Furthermore,  following  M.  de  Tocqueville,  it 
is  an  ever-open  school  instructing  the  citizen  in  his 
legal  rights,  giving  manliness  to  cliaracter,  and  cloth- 
ing the  citizen  with  a  magisterial  dignity.  It  draws 
the  individual  from  his  selfishness,  which  is  the  rust 
of  society,  and  compels  him  to  occupy  his  mind  for 
the  moment  with  other  than  his  own  affairs.  To 
which  might  be  added  that  it  keeps  the  doings  of  the 
court  directly  under  the  eye  of  the  people,  and  famil- 
iarizes them  with  judicial  proceedings  and  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  keeps  ever  before  them  their  duty 
and  responsibility  as  members  of  a  free  and  enlight- 
ened commonwealth.  It  surrounds  the  rights  of  lib- 
erty with  the  strongest  safe-guards,  and  strips  fiom 
judgment  bigotry  and  legal  technicality. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  system  is  not  without  its 
evils,  which  at  the  present  day,  and  in  countries  with 
representative  governments,  more  than  counterbalance 
all  its  benefits. 

The  principle  of  the  right  of  representation  in  ad- 
ministering justice  is  no  longer  pertinent  as  an  argu- 
ment in  the  case,  for  the  judge  is  now  as  much  the 
representative  of  the  people  in  courts  of  justice  as  the 


THE  BENEFITS  OF  DESPOTISM.  287 

jury.  Courts,  people,  judge,  and  jury  are  one,  so  far 
as  power  and  representation  are  concerned.  As  to  its 
fairness,  one,  or  three  good  men  may  be  as  fair  as 
twelve  good  men,  and,  indeed,  experience  proves  that 
in  numbers  is  confusion  rather  than  clearer  judgment. 
Meyer  and  others,  while  warmly  upholding  the 
system  as  applied  to  criminal  cases,  denounce  it  in  the 
strongest  terms  in  civil  practice.  And  yet  I  find  no 
arguments  against  the  one  which  will  not  a.pply  eq ually 
to  the  other.  In  fact,  so  glarino-  are  the  evils  of  it  in 
criminal  cases,  so  rank  the  iniquity  arising  therefrom, 
tliat  if  it  could  be  discarded  only  in  one  I  should  pre- 
fer to  see  that  branch  of  jurisorudence  relieved  in 
preference  to  the  other. 

Every  good  government  is  based  upon  despotism. 
The  weakest  and  most  worthless  of  all  governments 
is  that  which  depends  alone  upon  its  constitution  and 
statutes  for  support.  A  single  despot,  if  he  be  wise 
and  good,  governing  with  unlimited  power,  is  the 
strongest,  best,  and  most  economical  of  all  govern- 
ments. Such  rule  is  most  natural,  and  best  accords 
with  man's  conceptions  of  supernatural  rule.  God  is 
God,  and  Christ  or  Mahomet  is  his  prophet.  He  is 
the  one  only  all-wise  and  beneficent  ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  forces  of  nature  appear  more  conflicting, 
yet  one  harmony  pervades  the  whole.  This  world 
was  not  governed  these  thousands  of  years  by  tyrants 
and  despots  for  nothing.  Republics,  in  particular, 
should  beware  of  the  rule  of  the  rabble. 

Next  to  the  single  despot  is  the  despotism  of  the 
whole;  that  is  to  say  where  the  governed,  in  their 
several  castes,  classes,  occupations,  and  interests,  are 
so  thoroughly  united  in  sentiment  and  purpose  as  to 
constitute  one  body,  with  one  mind,  arbitrary  and  ab- 
solute. This  is  the  republican  form  of  despotism ;  and 
a  republic  without  this  species  of  despotism  is  the 
saddest  of  all  pictures.  In  vigilance,  in  that  rigid 
patriotism  which  sinks  self  in  the  general  well-being 


288  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

of  society,  we  see  more  vividly  than  elsewhere  the 
part  which  discipline,  and  that  reflection  which  accom- 
panies responsibility,  play  in  securing  the  self-reliance 
which  imparts  soundness  to  the  desposition  of  the 
united  masses.  The  value  and  utility  of  despotism 
depend  upon  the  moral  character,  the  political  poise, 
and  the  social  organization  of  the  people.  As  Horace 
expresses  it,  "Quid  leges,  sine  moribus  vanae  pro- 
ficiunf?" 

Apply  these  principles  and  virtues  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  and  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  properly 
vested  despotism,  instead  of  surrendering  it  to  hap- 
hazard and  vacillating  ignorance.  So  long  as  it  is 
necessary  for  men  to  fight  for  their  rights  and  liber- 
ties, let  them  fight,  but  to  thrust  at  the  carcass  and 
beat  the  air  long  after  the  enemy  is  dead  is  not  wise. 
Nor  is  it  at  this  late  day  an  argument  in  favor  of  any 
polity  or  creed  that  it  has  been  in  force  for  centuries. 
Age  no  longer  lends  reason  or  respectability  to  error. 

We  are  taught  to  regard  with  horror  the  picture 
of  a  murderer  in  prison  with  a  weapon  or  with  poison 
taking  his  own  life.  Prison -keepers  are  held  respon- 
sible for  the  lives  of  those  the  law  reserves  for  its  ex- 
amples ;  and  if  unluckily  the  criminal  commits  suicide, 
and  so  cheats  the  gallows,  censure  follows. 

There  are  different  lights  in  which  any  subject  may 
be  regarded.  This  popular  idea  of  so  carefully  pre- 
serving life  in  order  to  take  it  artistically,  legally,  or 
for  the  entertainment  or  instruction  of  some,  and  as  a 
warning  to  others,  is  not  without  its  superstition.  It 
is  another  of  these  cases  in  which  the  same  result  is 
obtained  as  when  the  law  acts,  but  the  law  would  not 
have  its  acts  anticipated.  If  the  law  were  a  little 
more  particular  in  arresting  and  punishing  all  who  de- 
served it,  there  might  be  better  reason  to  complain  of 
infringements  upon  its  monopoly.  As  the  case  pre- 
sents itself,  the  murderer  in  prison  suffering  the  men- 
tal tortures  incident  to  the  commission  of  his  crime, 
as  an  act  of  humanity  to  himself,  a  sentiment  the  law 
indulges  when  not  in  conflict  with  traditions,  may 


THE  HARI-KARI  IN  AMERICA.  289 

naturally  wish  to  anticipate  the  law's  punishment. 
Or  he  may  consider  his  crime  sufficiently  atoned,  and 
in  the  desire  to  avoid  further  ignominy,  kill  himself. 
True,  there  is  something  repulsive  in  the  idea  of 
giving  the  criminal  in  his  cell  a  knife  or  a  pistol  with 
permission  to  slay  himself;  but  there  is  also  much 
that  is  abhorrent  in  legal  executions.  We  are  told 
that  the  purpose  of  the  law  is  to  make  a  solemn  ex- 
ample, not  a  revengeful  or  passionate  manslaughter ; 
but  what  could  be  more  solemn,  were  we  accustomed 
to  look  at  it  from  that  side,  than  the  felon  by  his  own 
act  satisfying  justice,  stepping  of  his  own  volition  into 
the  immediate  presence  of  his  maker,  appealing  at 
once  to  the  higher  tribunal.  Such  proceeding  has 
surely  some  things  in  its  favor.  It  saves  the  prisoner 
much  anxiety  ;  it  satisfies  justice ;  it  saves  the  people 
much  trouble ;  the  example  is  every  whit  the  same. 
Nevertheless  I  am  by  no  means  desirous  of  seeing  the 
hari-Jcari,  or  happy  dispatch  principle  of  Japan,  in  gen- 
eral practice  in  America,  unless  as  there,  it  be  confined 
to  officials,  when  it  would  doubtless  have  a  very  good 
effect,  the  officers  of  the  government  being  then  obliged 
to  eviscerate  themselves  whenever  the  people,  that  is 
to  say  the  ruling  power,  ordered  it  done. 

It  is  the  province  and  duty  of  a  jury  to  hear  the 

evidence,  weigh  the  testimony,  judge  the  credibility 
of  witnesses,  and  determine  the  facts  in  the  case. 
These  functions  must  be  exercised  under  the  direction 
of  the  judge,  who  ij^so  facto  is  better  qualified  to  pass 
upon  all  the  points  himself  than  those  to  whom  they 
are  submitted. 

It  is  plainly  apparent  that  men  ignorant  of  the  law 
are  incapable  of  judging  by  the  law.  But  may  we  not 
go  a  step  farther  and  affirm  that  as  society  increases, 
and  civil  affairs  become  more  intricate,  and  the  ma- 
nipulations of  law  become  a  science,  persons  chosen 
indiscriminately,  without  regard  to  qualification  or 
experience,  are  less  competent  to  deal  with  questions 

Essays  and  Miscellany     19 


290  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

arising  in  courts,  with  guilt  and  evidence  of  guilt,  and 
with  the  several  biases  the  custom  of  courts  permits 
to  be  thrown  around  them,  than  those  trained  by 
thoughtful  study  and  constant  experience  to  the  task  ? 
Then  again,  the  wrong  decision  of  a  judge,  involving 
reputation,  and  an  honorable  life-position,  is  far  more 
to  him  who  renders  it,  than  in  the  case  of  the  careless 
or  indifferent  citizen,  forced,  it  may  be  from  his  busi- 
ness against  his  will,  and  where  the  responsibility  and 
odium  of  a  biased  or  passionate  decision  is  divided 
among  twelve. 

As  in  all  matters  relative  to  social  and  political 
ethics,  practice  is  totally  at  variance  with  purpose. 
Take  twelve  intelligent  men,  enlightened  by  experi- 
ence, accustomed  to  close  analysis  of  intricate  subjects 
and  to  the  subtleties  of  argument,  w^ho  will  form  their 
verdict  from  the  evidence  alone  and  after  calm  and 
close  reflection,  unbiassed  by  education,  interest,  pride, 
sympathy  or  any  other  sentiment  or  feeling,  and  they 
no  doubt  would  prove  of  assistance  to  a  judge.  But 
never  did  twelve  such  men  sit  as  jurors  in  a  case,  and 
never  will  there  be  such  a  jury.  The  judge  himself 
comes  nearer  the  proper  qualifications  than  the  jury. 

Not  half  the  jurymen  who  serve,  chosen  as  they 
are  from  among  our  free  and  enlightened  American 
citizens,  have  adequate  ideas  of  their  duties.  They 
may  know  they  are  to  sit  upon  a  bench  and  listen  to 
the  proceedings  in  court,  and  after  that  retire  to  a 
room  and  say  guilty  or  not  guilty.  They  may  even 
remember  to  have  been  told  that  while  the  judge  will 
expound  to  them  the  law  they  are  to  determine  the 
facts.  But  do  they  know,  w^hen  rendering  their  de- 
cision, upon  what  they  base  it?  Do  they  know 
whether  they  are  deciding  upon  law,  facts,  or  feelings? 

Not  one  juror  in  fifty  has  any  true  realization  of  his 
position,  or  what  he  has  sworn  to  do ;  or  if  aware  of 
it  he  does  not  care.  He  does  not  stop  to  consider 
that  to  free  the  guilty  is  as  bad  as  to  commit  the 
deed ;  that  to  acquit  a  murderer  is  as  bad  as  to  com- 


THE  CRIME  OF  THE  JUROR.  291 

mit  murder — nay,  that  the  moral  effect  upon  the  com- 
munity is  worse,  for  to  let  escape  one  criminal  is  to 
invite  a  hundred  others  to  become  criminals.  To 
prevent  crime,  punishment  must  be  certain ;  and  not 
to  prevent  crime,  when  it  lies  in  one's  power,  is  to 
commit  crime.  Or  as  Seneca  says,  *'  Cui  prodest 
scelus,  is  fecit." 

It  does  not  matter  how  excellent  may  be  our  judges, 
or  how  perfect  our  code  of  laws,  so  long  as  questions 
of  fact  even  are  left  to  a  jury,  no  litigant,  innocent  or 
guilty,  can  know  where  he  stands.  It  has  become  a 
by- word,  that  of  all  earthly  things  a  jury  is  the  most 
uncertain.  And  yet  men  reverentially  cling  to  this 
shadow  of  support  as  to  one  of  the  greatest  props  of 
liberty. 

In  early  Saxon  times  jurors  were  witnesses  as  well 
as  judges,  and  determined  the  law  as  well  as  the  facts. 
Members  of  the  tribunal  were  selected  from  the 
neighborhood  where  the  crime  was  committed,  and 
the  more  a  juror  knew  of  the  affair  the  more  compe- 
tent was  he  to  serve.  The  principle  of  farna  publica 
entered  largely  into  jurisprudence,  side  by  side  with 
com})urgation  by  oath,  and  divers  other  divinations. 
At  the  present  day  any  knowledge  of  a  case  is  deemed 
undesirable.  Ignorance  of  the  facts  is  a  recommenda- 
tion for  acceptance  as  a  juror ;  yet  it  is  knowledge  alone 
upon  which  rational  judgment  is  formed,  and  surely 
the  evidence  of  one's  own  senses  is  as  direct  and  con- 
clusive as  that  obtained  through  the  senses  of 
another. 

The  sainted  twelve  must  be  docile,  and  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  dignity  of  judges,  the  learning  of 
counsel,  and  the  sacredness  of  law.  A  keen  practi- 
tioner deems  his  cause  half  won  when  he  has  his  judge 
and  jury  satisfactorily  selected  and  seated  before  him. 
Then  comes  lofty  declamation,  highly  seasoned  ap- 
peals, long  and  elaborate  arguments,  humor  and  pathos. 

The  fictitious  sentiment  of  privilege,  inseparable  in 


292  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

the  minds  of  a  liberty -loving  people  from  trials  by 
jury,  is  no  less  gratifying  to  the  law,  whose  officers 
thereby  have  an  opportunity  for  a  display  of  learning 
and  skill  not  otherwise  within  their  reach,  than  to  the 
citizens  of  the  commonwealth,  who  fancy  themselves 
to  be  the  court,  and  that  justice  can  be  administered 
only  by  themselves.  Anyone  cognizant  with  the 
manner  by  which  a  trial  is  determined  in  the  jury- 
room  can  know  upon  how  frail  a  foundation  this  latter 
idea  rests. 

In  impartial  results,  trials  by  jury  are  little  changed 
since  the  days  of  Cicero.  In  his  treatise  on  Oratory 
one  might  almost  imagine  him  speaking  of  a  modern 
court  of  justice.  "  Men  are  influenced  in  their  ver- 
dicts," he  says,  "much  more  by  prejudice,  or  favor,  or 
greed  of  gain,  or  anger,  or  indignation,  or  pleasure, 
or  hope,  or  fear,  or  by  misapprehension,  or  by  some 
excitement  of  their  feelings,  than  either  by  the  facts 
of  the  case,  or  by  established  precedents,  or  by  any 
rules  or  principles  whatever,  either  of  law  or  equity." 

'^It  is  lawful  for  you  to  use  your  gifts,"  said  Sir 
Nicholas  Throckmorton  to  his  prosecutor  when  on 
trial  for  high  treason  in  1554,  and  better  had  not  such 
use  of  gifts  been  lawful,  '*  which  I  know  God  hath 
largely  given  you,  as  your  learning,  wit,  and  eloquence, 
so  as  thereby  you  do  not  seduce  the  minds  of  the 
simple  and  unlearned  jury  to  credit  matters  otherwise 
than  they  be.  For,  Master  Sergeant,  I  know  how 
by  persuasions,  enforcements,  presumptions,  applying, 
implying,  inferring,  conjecturing,  deducing  of  argu- 
ments,  wrestling  and  exceeding  the  law,  the  circum- 
stances, the  depositions,  and  confessions,  unlearned 
men  may  be  enchanted  to  think  and  judge  those  that 
be  things  indifferent,  or  at  the  worst  oversights,  to  be 
great  treasons;  such  power  orators  have,  and  such 
ignorance  the  unlearned  have." 

The  special  province  of  the  jury  lawyer  is  to  move 
to  mercy,  to  produce  upon  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
impressions  favorable  to  the  character  and  conduct  of 


DISHONESTY  OR  INCOMPETEXCY.  293 

the  accused,  that  he  may  appear  to  them  a  good  but 
unfortunate  man,  deserving  of  generous  pity,  rather 
than  a  social  viper  such  as  he  truly  is. 

Under  this  system  the  worst  element  in  the  com- 
munity is  preserved,  and  at  the  expense  of  the  best. 
The  wicked  prosper  in  their  wickedness,  while  the 
virtuous  are  slain  for  their  virtues. 

^' Judex  damnatur  cum  nocens  absolvitur,"  says 
Publius  Syrus.  This  is  the  dark  side  of  the  jury 
system.  It  is  very  seldom  that  a  jury  brings  in  a 
verdict  of  guilty  where  the  accused  is  innocent ;  but 
it  is  very  common  for  them  to  fail  to  convict  where 
guilt  is  plainly  apparent.  In  answer,  we  fall  back 
upon  the  amiable  position  that  it  is  better  to  err  upon 
the  side  of  mercy,  that  it  is  better  ten  guilty  should 
escape  than  one  innocent  be  punished.  This  is  not  an 
altogether  sound  maxim.  The  injustice  is  as  great 
which  clears  the  guilty  as  that  which  punishes  the 
innocent,  whatever  may  be  the  humanity  or  sentiment 
of  the  case.  Nevertheless,  we  would  not  punish  the 
innocent;  neither  would  we  let  the  guilty  go.  Nor  is 
it  necessary.  If  juries,  since  these  thousand  years  of 
trial,  still  find  compassion  overpowering  duty,  they 
had  better  step  aside  and  make  room  for  judges  of 
sterner  stuff,  in  the  direction  of  whose  certain  judg- 
ments lies  the  true  economy  of  mercy. 

Frequently  jurors,  when  they  first  retire,  stand 
eight  or  ten  to  four  or  two.  Then  begins  the  work 
of  conversion,  and  the  minority  are  badgered  by  the 
majority  until  finally  opinion  and  conscience  are  sac- 
rificed by  the  former,  who  do  contrary  to  what  they 
have  sworn  to  do.  This  is  the  process  in  the  jury-room, 
and  this  the  perjury  which  is  undergone  in  four  fifths 
of  trials  by  jury 

The  merest  accident  often  determines  the  decision 
of  a  juror.  Entering  a  room  with  eleven  others, 
some  of  whom  are  strangers,  with  the  mind  oscillating 
between  the  arguments  ingeniously  urged  on  either 
side,  the  weak-minded  juror  would  often  rather  jump 


294  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

at  any  conclusion  than  appear  to  have  no  substantial 
convictions.  Hesitancy  and  suspense  under  such  cir- 
cumstances are  no  less  painful  to  him  than  to  liis  com- 
panions, and  many  times  the  word  and  the  vote  of 
some  strong-minded,  dogmatic  juror  influences  the 
next  vote,  those  two  the  next,  and  so  on  until  the 
whole  twelve  are  brought  to  ballot,  not  in  accordance 
with  their  own  private  and  well-considered  views,  but 
in  such  a  manner  as  will  best  give  them  the  appearance 
before  their  fellows  of  prompt,  well-opinionated,  and 
decisive  men 

Modest  or  sensitive  persons,  finding  themselves  in 
a  minority,  suspect  the  validity  of  their  opinions,  and 
hasten  to  recant  and  join  the  opposite  side.  But  this 
is  not  judging  honestly,  considerately,  or  according  to 
oath.  Few  like  to  appear  ungracious  or  obstinate, 
and  will  forswear  themselves  sooner  than  seem  obnox- 
iously conspicuous.  Thus  it  is  in  almost  every  jury, 
there  are  those  who  yield  their  honest  opinion  to  the 
force  of  circumstance,  just  as  in  society  fear  of  one's 
fellows  is  more  terrible  than  the  fear  of  government 
or  of  God. 

This  is  the  reason  why  comparatively  few  juries 
fail  to  find  a  verdict  althousjh  men  so  seldom  aojree  on 
any  one  point.  The  jurors  do  not  all  of  them  vote  in 
accordance  with  the  oath  which  they  have  taken,  do 
not  vote  their  honest  opinion,  do  not  vote  justly  ac- 
cording to  the  evidence  as  they  have  sworn  to  vote. 
Individual  obligation  is  shirked,  and  the  palladium  of 
all  our  liberties  becomes  a  puppet-show,  with  consent 
and  connivance  of  the  judge,  who  may  keep  jurors  of 
different  minds  imprisoned  in  a  room  until  the  work 
of  coercion  is  accomplished. 

If  the  jury  system  be,  indeed,  a  further  necessity, 
then  a  majority  should  be  permitted  to  find  a  verdict. 
There  is  no  advantage  in  the  enforced  unanimity  of 
twelve  blockheads,  and  often  great  wrong  is  done. 
In  the  large  assemblages  of  Greece  and  Rome  a  ma- 
jority found  the  verdict;  and  in  the  Scandinavian 


ENFORCED   UNANIMITY.  295 

and  Teutonic  nations  the  agreement  of  the  majority 
obtained.  In  Scotland,  after  an  ineffectual  three 
hours'  deliberation,  nine  jurors  may  find  a  verdict,  but 
in  England  unanimity  in  a  traverse  jury  has  prevailed 
from  the  earliest  times. 

A  forced  unanimity  is  absurd  upon  the  face  of  it. 
There  never  yet  were  found  on  earth  a  dozen  intelli- 
gent, thoughtful  men  who  fully  agreed  on  every  point. 
What  folly  then  for  a  court  of  law  to  force  men  by 
starvation  and  other  coercive  measures  to  break  their 
oath  and  render  a  verdict  which  may  be  contrary  to 
their  conviction.  Perjury  is  the  result  of  such  unan- 
imity, and  the  sin  of  it  is  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
law.  Admit  the  jury  system  a  necessity,  and  the  re- 
quirement of  unanimity  yet  remains  a  foul  blot  upon 
our  legal  practice.  Aside  from  the  objections  already 
stated  it  gives  one  evil-minded  or  obstinate  juror  the 
power  to  invalidate  a  righteous  verdict,  and  set  at 
naught  the  efforts,  perhaps,  of  eleven  honest  men 
laboring  in  the  ends  of  justice. 

In  an  important  land  case  in  San  Francisco,  which 
lasted  over  a  month,  on  retiring  to  the  jury  room 
probably  not  more  than  one  or  two  of  the  twelve  had 
determined  on  which  side  their  vote  should  be  cast. 
It  happened  that  one  of  the  jurors  was  agent  for  a 
line  of  steamers,  and  that  the  leading  attorney  for  the 
defence  was  counsel  for  an  opposition  line.  This 
wholly  irrevelant  circumstance  prejudiced  the  case. 
The  steamer  agent  determined  that  the  attorney  of 
his  competitor  should  not  triumph.  Impetuous  and 
plausible,  he  had,  before  many  moments,  more  than 
half  the  jury  his  way  of  thinking,  and  the  rest  were 
finally  brow-beaten  into  it,  with  the  exception  of  one 
or  two,  who  rendered  the  decision  of  the  case 
impossible.  In  such  instances  men  are  compelled 
to  leave  their  business,  and  devote  time  worth  to 
them  ten  or  a  hundred  dollars  a  day,  in  order  to 
determine  the  private  quarrel  of  two  citizens,  which 


296  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

the  judge  could  liave  iiiucli  more  riglitly  and  quickly 
decided. 

Before  court-houses,  were  courts.  lu  Mariposa,  in 
1850,  court  was  held  under  a  tree,  and  the  jury  re- 
tired to  another  tree  to  deliberate.  Under  the  classic 
shade  was  brought  one  day  an  American  for  assault- 
ing a  Mexican.     The  trial  over,  the  jury  retired. 

"  Let's  hang  him,"  said  number  one. 

*'  Oh  no,"  replied  number  two,  *'he  only  stabbed  a 
man ;  we  can't  hang  him  for  that." 

''  Send  him  to  the  state  prison  for  life,"  put  in 
number  three. 

"That'll  do,"  exclaimed  half  a  dozen  at  once. 
And  so  it  was  concluded,  all  agreeing  to  it. 

^*It  seems  to  me  rather  hard  after  all,"  ruminated 
number  two,  as  the  twelve  started  back  for  the  court- 
tree,  *'  to  imprison  a  man  for  life,  for  merely  stabbing 
a  Mexican;  besides,  where  is  your  prison  ?" 

•'Let's  acquit  him,'   said  number  one. 

*'Ao^reed,"  exclaimed  the  rest;  and  so  the  man  was 
set  at  liberty. 

Li  July  1851,  after  the  San  Francisco  vigilance 
committee  had  been  in  session  several  weeks  banish- 
ing and  hanging  desperadoes,  thereby  setting  as  it 
was  hoped  a  wholesome  example  to  the  officers  of  the 
law,  the  community  was  startled  by  a  verdict  before 
one  of  the  courts,  of  twelve  as  enlightened  and  inde- 
pendent as  any  Gal  way  jury.  A  young  man  named 
Barnes  was  tried  for  robbinor  a  fellow-lodojer  of 
seventy-eight  dollars.  He  was  caught  in  the  act  and 
the  precise  amount  found  in  his  pocket.  The  jury 
had  no  doubt  of  his  guilt,  but  in  consideration  of  his 
being  a  member  of  a  "  respectable  family  in  the  east," 
they  brought  in  a  verdict  of  not  guilty.  By  askhig 
the  judge  to  merely  ''admonish  the  prisoner,"  they 
showed  their  belief  in  his  guilt.  The  young  man  was 
turned  loose  to  continue  his  chosen  career ;  and  yet 
there  were  those  who  opposed  the  existence  of  a 
vigilance  committee. 


MISTAKEN  HUMANITY.  297 

It  is  not  in  America,  as  in  some  parts  of  Ireland, 
sympathy  with  crime  which  causes  this  failure  to  con- 
vict; it  is  a  nobler  sympathy,  a  sympathy  with  hu- 
manity, with  misfortune.  And  yet,  such  sympathy 
is  generally  mistaken,  and  sometimes  maudlin. 

One  of  the  strangest  things  about  the  vigilance 
committee  was  the  interest  in  and  sympathy  for  the 
prisoner,  manifested  by  those  associated  to  punish 
crime.  There  is  something  in  misfortune,  whether 
deserved  or  not,  which  touches  every  generous  heart. 
Here  were  strong  men  of  the  world,  men  of  thought, 
of  character,  nerved  to  the  work  of  punishment  by 
threatened  social  anarchy,  men  determined  to  do  their 
duty ;  and  yet  in  almost  every  instance  where  the 
good  man  and  the  bad  man  are  brought  together,  the 
former  soon  learns  to  regard  the  crimes  of  the  latter 
with  toleration.  Truett,  among  the  foremost  of 
Terry's  captors,  was  the  foremost  of  his  liberators. 
From  advocate  and  defender  of  the  accused,  he, 
the  stern,  self-constituted  instrument  of  retributive 
justice,  became  the  prisoner's  trusted  friend,  believing 
him  no  more  wortliy  of  punishment  than  his  own 
brother. 

So  with  regard  to  Smiley  in  his  intercourse  with 
one  of  the  greatest  villians  ever  hanged  by  a  vigilance 
committee.  ''  Hethcrington  w^as  a  man  of  great  cul- 
ture," he  says  in  his  dictation,  "  one  who  was  cut 
out  for  a  parson,  in  my  opinion.  He  had  a  strong  re- 
ligious under-current  in  his  inner  man.  I  knew  him 
very  well.  He  did  not  deserve  hanging  much,  and 
would  not  have  been  hanged  in  ordinary  times.  It 
was  a  sort  of  long  fight  between  him  and  Randall  in 
relation  to  property.  They  had  quarreled  and  Heth- 
crington committed  the  first  insult  and  Randall  re- 
sented it." 

Here  we  see  the  inxeperienced  judge,  acting  as  coun- 
sel for  the  accused,  pursuing  unconsciously  the  same 
line  of  excuses  as  tlie  criminal  himself;  he  had  lost 
himself  and  his  sense  of  duty  in  his  sympathy  for  the 


298  THE  JURY  SYSTEM 

poor  fellow.  And  yet  Smiley  was  wkle-awakc  and 
clear-headed,  and  Truett  was  far-sighted,  shrewd,  and 
a  close  reasoner.  You  could  not  make  Smiley  believe 
m  Terry's  innocence — Smiley  prosecuted  Terry — no 
more  than  you  could  convince  Truett  that  Hetherin^- 
ton  should  not  have  been  hanged.  There  were  several 
in  the  counnittee  who  thought  poor  little  Cora's  pun- 
ishment too  severe. 

Never  were  men  more  clear  in  their  convictions; 
never  were  men  more  sincere,  more  determined  to  do 
right,  more  thoughtful,  intelligent,  and  capable  of  dis- 
cerning the  right.  They  were  not  jurors  by  compul- 
sion, but  volunteers  enlisted  from  an  overwhelming 
sense  of  necessity.  They  had  staked  everything, 
honor,  property,  and  life  itself  in  order  to  accomplish 
what  they  deemed  a  paramount  obligation  resting  on 
them  as  citizens  of  a  moral  and  independent  common- 
wealth. If  with  all  these  fires  of  patriotism  burning 
within  them,  these  earnest  and  honest  endeavors  after 
the  virtuous,  the  right,  the  true,  such  men  fail  com- 
pletely the  moment  their  feelings  are  touched,  surely 
then,  forced  jurymen  of  lower  intellect,  of  reason  yet 
more  easily  bedimmed  by  sophistry,  picked  promiscu- 
ously from  the  mercantile  or  mechanical  class,  are  no 
better  fitted  for  sitting  in  judgment  upon  the  life  of 
a  fellow-being. 

This  Hetherington,  when  tried  before  a  j  ury  for  his 
first  murder,  was  acquitted.  Even  the  judge,  a  Cali- 
fornian  judge,  accustomed  to  liberating  criminals,  was 
so  struck  by  the  clearness  of  the  case  that  when  the 
jury  brought  in  their  verdict  he  could  not  hold  his 
peace. 

''Not  guilty,"  was  what  they  said,  though  why  they 
said  it,  by  what  process  of  reasoning  their  consciences 
acquitted  them  of  perjury,  no  one,  not  even  they  them- 
selves, pretended  to  know.  "But  the  man  has  com- 
mitted murder!"  exclaimed  the  judge,  confounded  at 
their  wilful  stupidity.  Fifteen  thousand  dollars,  Heth- 
erington complained,  this  killing  cost  him.     For  that 


THE  LAW  AND  THE  FACTS.  299 

sum  the  lawyers  persuaded  the  jury  that  Hctherington 
couldn't  help  it;  so  they  let  him  go  and  kill  an- 
other man. 

It  was  an  early  and  well-known  maxim,  *'ad  quaes- 
tionem  juris  respondeant  judices,  ad  quaestionem  facti 
respondeant  juratores,"  and  the  only  basis  upon  which 
the  system  could  rest.  The  judges  might  determine 
the  facts  as  well  as  the  law,  but  the  jurors  could  by 
no  possibility  determine  the  law,  for  they  knew  noth- 
ing about  it.  And  3^et  this  simple  and  just  rule  is  set 
aside  or  evaded  in  some  manner  almost  every  day. 
The  jury  nominally  may  not  pass  upon  the  law,  but 
in  reality  they  do  so,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  in 
every  verdict  rendered.  In  all  their  decisions  they 
consider  the  penalty,  which  they,  directly,  have  no 
right  to  do,  and  so  render  their  verdict  as  to  bring  the 
accused  under  the  punishment  deemed  by  them  most 
proper.  They  do  not  even  restrict  themselves  to  the 
law,  but  judge  according  to  their  ideas  of  what  the 
law  should  be. 

True,  it  is  expected  of  the  jury  in  a  measure  to 
mitigate  the  severe  technical  interpretation  of  the 
law  by  interpreting  the  facts  according  to  moral  law 
and  custom,  and  so  temper  decision  with  the  applica- 
tion of  equity  ;  but  in  America,  juries  altogether  ex- 
ceed these  limits  of  their  functions. 

In  all  cases  where  popular  opinion  pronounces  the 
law  too  severe,  such  as  capital  punishment  for  forgery, 
for  theft,  for  irregularities  incidental  to  popular  move- 
jnents,  and  the  like,  in  every  such  case  the  jury  is  apt 
to  take  the  law  into  its  hands,  judging  of  the  law  as 
well  as  of  the  facts.  Indeed,  too  often  it  ignores  the 
facts  entirely,  accepts  overruled  evidence  or  false 
hypotheses,  and  not  being  able  to  mitigate  the  pen- 
alty and  bring  in  sentence  inflicting  milder  punishment, 
it  boldly  and  untruthfully  asserts  that  the  accused 
is  not  guilty.  Instance  the  usual  verdict  in  the  case 
of  a  legal  charge  of  murder  caused  by  fighting  a  duel. 


300  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

How  often  has  guilty  life  been  spared  and  the  in- 
nocent made  to  suffer,  even  by  our  latter-day  juries  1 
How  often  by  reason  of  predilection  or  passion  have 
excessive  damages  been  awarded,  and  glaring  abuses 
fostered,  so  that  the  higher  courts  have  been  obliged 
to  set  aside  outrageous  verdicts  with  reprimands,  or 
to  bolster  this  defunct  S3\steni  by  establishing  rules  as 
to  the  measure  of  damages,  or  by  defining  and  restrict- 
ing the  duties  of  jurors. 

This  is  one  of  the  many  anomalies  of  the  system. 
Maxims  say,  and  the  law  says,  the  judge  shall  deter- 
mine the  law  and  the  jury  the  facts,  and  this  will  be 
reiterated  in  legislative  halls  and  tribunals  of  justice 
century  after  century,  and  all  the  while  tlie  contrary  is 
done  with  none  of  these  Solons  seemingly  aware  of  it. 

The  oath  of  a  juror  is  of  little  value  in  restricting 
him  to  the  evidence  as  tlie  foundation  of  his  verdict. 
The  more  stupid  think  themselves  so  restricted,  think 
themselves  under  a  load  of  responsibility,  when  in 
truth  it  is  nothing  but  stone-blindness  that  affects 
them.  Perjury  is  a  crime  of  hourly  occurrence  in  our 
courts.  How  easily  an  expert  lawyer  makes  a  wit- 
ness contradict  himself.  And  do  we  not  see  in  al- 
most every  case  brought  up  for  trial  the  witness  for 
the  one  side  and  the  other  flatly  contradicting  each 
other  ?  Men's  consciences  are  elastic.  Since  among 
all  classes  the  mind  is  being  stripped  by  science  of  its 
superstitions  there  is  little  fear  of  divine  wrath  for 
swearing  falsely.  And  of  all  men  jurors  seem  to  en- 
tertain the  least  regard  for  the  oath  they  have  taken. 
Some  there  are  who  hold  out  manfully  against  the  im- 
portunities of  impatient  associates,  but  their  motives 
are  usually  not  directed  by  conscience.  I  do  not  say 
that  there  is  much  wilful  perjury ;  quite  the  contrary. 
But  what  is  the  difference,  in  reality,  whether  the 
system  fails  through  wilful  or  unintentional  perjury? 

In  this  connection  the  question  arises:  When  the 
will  of  the  people  is  against  tlie  law  and  judge  that 
they  have  made,  how  should  a  jury  decide,  according 


MERIT   OF  IGNORANCE  AND   STUPIDITY.  301 

to  the  evidence  as  they  have  sworn  to  do,  or  accord- 
ing to  popular  prejudice  ?  We  know  how  they  do 
decide  in  such  instances. 

Ln  every  important  criminal  case  the  more  intelli- 
gent part  of  such  citizens  as  are  competent  to  serve 
as  jurors  is  rejected  on  the  ground  of  bias.  Those 
who  read  the  newspapers,  who  keep  themselves  in- 
formed of  passing  events,  who  take  an  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  the  commonwealth;  those  who  love  justice, 
who  hate  wrong-doing,  who  think,  form  opinions,  and 
dare  to  speak  their  minds ;  those  in  fact  who  alone 
are  capable  of  weighing  the  evidence,  determining  the 
facts,  and  rendering  a  proper  verdict,  are  too  often 
ruled  out  as  unfit  to  serve.  It  would  seem  at  times, 
among  a  high-minded,  active-brained  community, 
tliat  it  was  impossible  to  find  twelve  men  sufficiently 
stupid  to  meet  the  requirements  of  those  whose  profes- 
sion it  is  to  defeat  the  ends  of  justice.  It  would  seem 
at  times  that  recourse  nmst  be  had  to  an  inebriate  or 
idiot  asylum  for  jurymen  sufficiently  ignorant  and 
leatlier-brained  to  satisfy  the  wise  counsellors  and 
learned  judges  who  play  fi\st  and  loose  with  vagabonds, 
and  all  who  prey  upon  the  industrious  classes.  As 
John  T.  Morse,  Jr,  of  Boston,  writing  in  the  American 
Law  Ixcvicw  of  July  1871  says  of  the  jury  in  tlie 
Laura  D.  Fair  trial,  **  At  last,  after  a  long  period  and 
careful  search,  a  dozen  men  were  brought  together, 
presumably  the  most  unintelligent  creatures  in  Cali- 
fornia, so  exceptionably  imbecile  as  to  be  unexcep- 
tionable. These  worthies  sat  solemnly  in  the  box, 
listening  to  the  harangues  and  theories  of  the  learned 
and  eloquent  counsel  for  the  accused  lady,  until  it 
may  be  supposed  that  their  mental  condition  became 
more  confused  than  hers  was  represented  to  have  been 
at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the  deed  of  killing. 
Indeed  it  is  not  satisfactorily  shown  that  they  had 
ever  been  educated  up  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
idea  that  to  shoot  a  human  being  is  really  an  objec- 


302  THE  JURY   SYSTEM. 

tionable  act.  Their  finding  was  only  what  should  na- 
turally have  been  anticipated  ;  and  after  all  it  was  the 
law  or  the  administration  thereof  which  insisted  upon 
having  such  men  for  jurors  rather  than  the  men 
themselves,  that  ought  justly  to  be  held  answerable 
for  their  action." 

However  this  question  may  be  regarded,  of  Ameri- 
can justice  one  thing  can  truly  be  said.  Crime  is 
here  pampered  beyond  all  precedent.  A  moneyed 
criminal  is  almost  sure  of  acquittal  at  the  hands  of  our 
honest  and  intelligent  juries.  The  petty  poor  offender 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  punish  for  example's  sake. 
Sympathy  for  the  criminal  if  he  has  a  dash  of  heroism 
in  him,  or  a  mawkish  sentimentality,  shields  the 
shedder  of  blood.  Our  juries  seem  to  seize  on  any 
pretext  to  save  the  lives  of  those  who  so  ruthlessly 
take  the  lives  of  others.  Thus  our  courts  are  de- 
graded, society  demoralized,  and  justice  ridiculed. 
How  often  do  we  see  the  deliberate  and  proven  mur- 
derer either  wholly  acquitted  or  else  found  guilty  in 
the  second  degree  and  recommended  to  mercy.  Says 
an  editor  on  this  subject  ''  Juries  seldom  visit  the 
full  penalty  of  the  law  on  offenders,  and  often  acquit 
those  well  known  to  be  guilty."  And  thus  a  judge  : 
''In  this  country  crime  and  the  legal  penalties  seldom 
meet.  Too  much  is  made  out  of  juries  and  petitions 
for  pardon.  From  these  evils,  long  allowed,  spring 
occasional  necessities  for  vigilance  committees.  Hun- 
dreds of  lives  have  been  the  price,  in  Idaho  and  Mon- 
tana, of  a  few  which  escaped  the  law  in  California." 

It  would  seem  from  the  opinions  and  actions  of  our 
lawyers,  judges,  and  jurors,  that  courts  of  law  were 
established  for  the  primary  purpose  of  clearing  crimi- 
nals. In  almost  every  community  we  see  for  one 
prosecuting  attorney  in  criminal  cases  five  who  gain 
their  living  on  the  other  side.  This  is  painfully  sig- 
nificant. Crime  abounds.  Prisons  and  law  courts 
are  established  and  maintained,  at  the  cost  of  the  peo- 
ple,  to   suppress  crime.     Social   vultures  prey  upon 


COUETS   FOR  CLEARmC  CRIMINALS.  303 

the  people,  and  so  obtain  the  means,  not  only  to  in- 
dulge in  rioting  and  debauchery,  but  to  purchase  their 
freedom  from  punishment.  With  the  money  thus 
fraudulently  obtained  from  the  people,  criminals  em- 
ploy so-called  respectable  lawyers  to  procure  their 
acquittal  before  tribunals  likewise  established  and  paid 
for  by  the  people. 

To  gain  an  unjust  cause^  known  to  be  such  when 
undertaken,  lawyers  do  not  hesitate  to  wilfully  mis- 
represent witnesses,  distort  evidence,  pervert  facts, 
and  bring  upon  honest  men  the  foulest  imputations. 
To  perpetrate  the  diabolical  deed  of  letting  loose  upon 
society  a  human  hyena,  one  known  to  them  to  be 
such,  they  do  not  hesitate  to  pour  torrents  of  slander- 
ous invective  upon  the  heads  of  the  opposing  counsel, 
the  witnesses,  and  all  who  bar  their  progress  in  their 
infamous  purpose.  And  all  this  with  no  loss  of  char- 
acter or  caste.  All  is  professional,  and  strictly  in 
accordance  with  law  and  custom.  Indeed,  the  attor- 
ney, it  is  said,  does  not  earn  his  fee  unless  he  employs 
his  utmost  skill  in  the  conmiission  of  a  crime,  perhaps, 
as  great  as  that  for  which  his  client  is  being  tried. 

If  the  trial  goes  against  the  defence,  a  few  excep- 
tions taken  carries  the  case  to  the  supreme  court,  where 
enough  of  them  are  usually  sustained  to  secure  a  new 
hearing.  If  tlie  verdict  is  for  the  criminal,  and  unsat- 
isfactory to  the  public,  who  cares?  Vice  with  its 
putrifying  breath  bellows  approval,  and  virtue  must 
needs  stomach  it.  The  Rosicrucian  maxim  is  applied 
of  binding  the  wound  and  greasing  the  weapon,  in  the 
hope  that  by  some  sympathetic,  magical  reflex  action 
the  cause  of  the  evil  should  be  its  cure. 

After  all,  the  blame  attaches  mostly  to  the  system 
which  tolerates  such  practice  rather  than  to  the  prac- 
titioner. All  lawyers,  judges,  and  court  and  jail  offi- 
cials are  supported  by  the  people.  This  is  bad  enough 
to  begin  with.  But  when  one  sees  half  or  three 
fourths  of  those  so  supported  employing  their  time 
and  talents  in  the  promotion  of  injustice,  in  letting 


8(H  THE  JURY   SYSTEM. 

loose  acrain  the  comparatively  few  criminals  who  arc 
broup'ht  to  trial,  it  becomes  abominal^lu. 

The  system  of  trial  by  jury  certainly  was  once  bene- 
ficial, but  having  served  its  purpose  it  is  now  unneces- 
sary, and  even  pernicious,  wherever  representative 
oovcrnmcnt  exists  to  offer  better  substitutes.  Like 
war,  great-man  worship,  despotism,  hun?an  slavery, 
and  all  those  savagisms  which  many  still  deplore,  it 
was  a  necessary  stci)i)ing-stono  to  a  higher  plane,  to 
which  it  now  clings  a  mere  incumbrance. 

In  its  most  important  revival,  the  system  marked 
the  dawn  of  freedom.  In  as  far  as  the  spirit  of  liberty 
pervaded  a  people,  in  so  far  the  principle  of  trial  by 
jury  is  found  enfolded  in  its  legal  forms.  And  almost 
everywhere  the  princii)le  prevailed  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  for  despotism  is  never  absolute,  any  more  than 
savagism  can  be  fixed  and  complete. 

It  would  seem  that  justice  niiglit  gain  much  and 
lose  nothing  by  now  laying  aside  the  jury  system, 
and  in  its  place  let  one  judge  liear  and  determine  petty 
cases,  and  three  or  five,  or  more  if  necessary,  adjudi- 
cate in  matters  of  magnitude,  while  greatly  restricting 
appeals. 

May  not  a  judge,  or  a  bench  of  judges,  learned  in 
the  law,  practised  in  the  administration  of  courts,  ex- 
perienced in  listening  to  arguments,  hi  weighing  tes- 
timony, and  in  determining  truth  from  falsehood,  rep- 
resent the  people  in  their  tribunals,  and  administer  jus- 
tice more  evenly,  more  surely,  more  dispassionately 
than  twelve  common-place,  not  to  say  ignorant  and 
inexperienced  men,  chosen  indiscriminately  from  va- 
rious trades  and  occupations? 

We  are  certain  to  come  to  some  such  plan  sooner  or 
later.  Mr  Forsyth  says  truly  that  'Hhe  machinery 
of  our  law  is  too  complicated,  and  its  working  too 
expensive  to  suit  the  wants  of  the  present  age;  and 
it  must  be  effectually  amended,  or  it  will  run  the  risk 
of  being  rudely  overthrown."     For  as  in  mechanics 


THE   INJUSTICE   OF  IT.  305 

the  simpler  the  machine  the  less  liability  to  derange- 
ment, so  in  government,  the  fewer  the  laws  the  less 
the  inertia  and  friction  in  courts  of  justice,  and  the 
less  tlie  evils  to  society. 

The  responsibility  is  too  great,  some  say,  to  entrust 
to  so  few.  But  surely  it  is  not  in  numbers  that  jus- 
tice is  found.  Besides,  the  purity  of  the  court  can  as 
well  be  guarded  when  under  the  sole  direction  of 
competent  judges,  aye,  and  nmch  better,  than  when 
civilians  attempt  to  interfere.  King  Alfred  used  to 
hang  judges  for  false  judgment;  are  the  people  of  our 
republic  less  potent  than  King  Alfred? 

Tlie  law  in  every  trial  pre-supposes  controversy,  and 
men  of  average  intelligence  can  determine  most  facts 
as  well  as  tlie  astute.  But  can  they  do  so  better? 
Forsyth  contends  that  they  can.  "No  mind  feels 
the  force  of  technicalities,"  he  says,  "  so  strongly  as 
that  of  a  lawyer.  It  is  the  mystery  of  his  craft, 
which  ho  lias  taken  nmcli  pains  to  learn  and  which  he 
is  seldom  averse  to  exercise.  He  is  apt  to  become 
the  slave  of  forms,  and  to  illustrate  the  truth  of  the 
old  maxim,  *qui  lueret  in  litera  hjuret  in  cortice/" 
One  can  easily  understand  how  a  mind  may  be  en- 
slaved by  educating  and  drilHng  it  in  forms  and  tech- 
nicalities, but  that  brain  must  be  weak  indeed  which, 
once  educated  in  the  intricacies  of  tlie  law,  cannot 
comprehend  and  determine  facts.  Such  is  not  the 
talent  intelligent  communities  place  upon  their  judicial 
benches. 

The  lowest  average  of  such  judges  could  hardly  be 
inferior  to  the  ordinary  jury.  Twelve  men,  the 
thicker  their  heads  tlie  better,  are  taken  from  their 
farms  and  from  their  merchandise,  and  placed  upon 
the  judgment-seat.  What  can  they  do  that  competent 
paid  judges  cannot  do  better?  Unaccustomed  to  the 
weighing  of  evidence  or  to  logical  sequences,  they  are 
easily  swayed  by  frothy  ai)peals  to  their  passions  or 
prejudices^  and  in  the  hands  of  skilful  lawyers  are  of 
all  others  the  greatest  bar  to  correct  decisions. 

Essays  and  Miscellany     'iO 


306  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

The  recognition  of  their  incapacity  hes  in  the  cus- 
tom of  the  judge  to  review  for  them  in  plain  language 
the  evidence  and  explain  the  application  of  the  law  to 
the  case.  The  jury,  after  all,  is  but  a  smaller  edition 
of  the  popular  tribunal  which  jurists  so  strongly  con- 
demn, only  in  many  instances  it  is  much  worse,  doing 
deeds  which  would  put  to  the  blush  any  western 
frontier  lynch  court.  What  justice  might  Socrates 
expect  before  a  jury  of  five  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
Athenian  citizens,  whose  knowledge  he  had  impugned 
and  whose  folly  he  had  reproved?  Such  juries  are 
simply  mobs.  If  I  am  guilty,  try  me  before  a  jury; 
if  innocent,  before  a  judge. 

The  system  seems  unjust,  also,  in  that  it  exacts 
from  the  citizen  a  service  without  adequate  compen- 
sation. As  well  might  the  state  take  property  with- 
out paying  for  it,  as  to  take  the  time  of  the  citizens, 
paying  them  for  only  a  tenth  of  its  value.  But,  say 
the  supporters  of  this  system,  w^ill  not  the  unselfish 
and  patriotic  citizen  cheerfully  and  gratuitously  render 
his  neighbor  that  service  which  he  is  liable  at  any  time 
to  be  obliged  to  ask  at  his  hand  ?  No ;  why  should 
he?  President,  legislators,  judges,  soldiers,  are  all 
necessary,  and  might  as  equitably  be  asked  to  serve 
without  pay.  There  is  no  reason  why  any  person 
should  serve  the  country  in  one  capacity  more  than  in 
another  without  just  compensation.  The  pittance 
awarded  first-class  citizens  by  the  law  is  no  compen- 
sation for  time  taken  from  their  business;  and  yet 
even  this  is  often  a  heavy  burden  to  litigants.  Jus- 
tice should  be  absolutely  free;  and  the  most  efficient 
and  economical  plan  would  be  administration  by  judges 
alone,  which  would  greatly  simplify  as  well  as  cheapen 
court  procedure. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  reformation  embracing 
the  excision  of  the  jury  system  must  also  extend  to 
other  branches  of  the  administration  of  justice.  This 
involves  the  question  in  how  far  the  purity  of  the 
bench  can  be  assured  by  higher  pay,  life-tenure  of  office, 


PURITY  OF  THE  BENCH  307 

and  other  measures.  Whether  the  popular  election 
for  term-tenure  be  retained  or  not,  the  election  system 
needs  above  all  to  be  reformed,  for  herein  lies  the  root 
of  all  administrative  ills.  So  long  as  a  low  foreign 
rabble,  and  the  ignorant  and  vicious  scum  of  the  pop- 
ulation, with  little  or  no  tangible  interest  in  the  com- 
munity, are  permitted  under  the  leadership  of  unscru- 
pulous and  scheming  politicians  to  control  our  ballots 
by  their  creatures,  so  long  will  corruption  reign  in 
judicial  as  well  as  political  circles. 

A  purified  constituency  will  produce  able  and  up- 
right judges,  to  whom  can  be  safely  entrusted  the 
entire  responsibility  hitherto  shared  with  more  im- 
mediate representatives  of  the  people.  The  advantage 
of  a  jury  composed  of  such  official  professionals  will 
lie  not  alone  in  their  special  training  and  experience, 
but  in  their  being,  more  than  ordinary  jurors, account- 
ably responsible  to  the  public  for  acts  and  decisions ; 
subject  to  daily  criticisms  by  lynx-eyed  rivals  and 
party  press,  and  liable  to  indictment  and  disgrace  and 
other  punishment.  The  dignity  and  isolation  of  their 
office,  moreover,  exposes  them  less  to  those  maudlin 
and  baneful  sympathies,  and  other  objectionable  in- 
fluences, which  sway  the  average  juryman. 

Man  hi  his  proximate  relations  is  not  wholly  fit  to 
judge  his  fellow-man.  He  cannot  do  it  fairly,  dispas- 
sionately. He  must  first  become  somewhat  of  a  ma- 
chine, must  go  by  the  book,  must  acquire  full  control 
of  the  sympathies  and  feelings  of  humanity,  and  exer- 
cise mainly  his  reasoning  faculties,  regarding  guilt  in 
the  abstract,  in  its  effect  on  society,  weighing  calmly 
the  plea  of  individual  or  circumstantial  extenuation. 
He  must  be  blind  to  partiality,  yet  not  wholly  so  to 
pity  and  benevolence.  The  mother  who  commits  a 
crime  for  a  starving  or  injured  child  should  not  be 
punished  in  the  same  degree  as  the  professional  crim- 
inal. The  youthful  culprit  must  be  reclaimed,  not 
cast  forth  midst  hardened  offenders.  Crime  is  a  poison 
to  be  removed  from  the  body  politic  not  by  cruel  ex- 


308  THE  JURY   SYSTEM. 

cision  alone.  The  judge  should  weigh,  although  dis- 
passionately, the  fathomless  depth  of  man's  love  and 
hate,  his  ignorance  and  environment,  his  weakness  and 
temptation.  Above  the  letter  of  the  law  should  pre- 
vail the  spirit  of  the  law;  above  adamantine  justice, 
equity, 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


MONGOLIANIS^SI  IN  AMERICA. 


When  the  multitude  hate  a  man,  it  is  necessary  to  examine  into  the  case. 
When  the  multitude  like  a  man,  it  is  necessary  to  examine  into  the  case. 

— Confucius. 

At  first  it  was  regarded  as  a  novelty,  and  most 
amusinor  to  the  curious  Californians,  the  coniinoj  of  the 
Asiatic.  He  added  picturesqueness  to  the  population. 
With  Greek,  Turk,  and  Egyptian,  African,  Indian, 
and  Kanaka,  all  perambulating  the  streets  and  wan- 
dering about  the  mining  districts,  the  fresh- imported 
and  cleanly  scraped  Chinaman,  with  his  half-shaven 
head,  his  long  braided  queue,  his  oblique  almond  eyes, 
his  catgut  voice;  his  plain  blue  frock,  or,  if  a  man  of 
consequence,  arrayed  in  a  flashy  silk  tunic,  with  red 
sash,  clean  white  stockings,  and  shining  satin  and 
wooden  shoes,  followed  by  a  sleek  little  marketable 
wife  with  silver  anklets  and  other  jingling  ornaments, 
and  perhaps  a  demi-John  or  two — it  was  quite  amus- 
ing to  see  them  here  and  there  and  everywhere,  and 
to  show  them  to  strangers  as  one  of  the  many  unique 
features  California  could  boast.  It  put  one  quite  in 
good  humor  with  one's  self  to  watch  them  waddling 
under  the  springy  pole  sustaining  at  either  end  a  huge 
and  heavil3^-laden  basket;  it  made  one  quite  feel  one's 
superiority  to  see  these  queer  little  specimens  of  pet- 
rified progress,  to  listen  to  their  high-keyed  strains  of 
feline  conversation,  and  notice  all  their  cunning  curi- 
osity and  barbaric  artlessness.  It  was  easy  to  distin- 
guish the  new-comer  from  the  old  resident.  The 
former  appeared  at  first  lost  in  amazement,  bewildered, 
stunned    by  the    stran^>-e  sio-hts;    then  as  his  senses 

(W9  ) 


310  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA, 

slowly  came  to  him,  he  manifested  the  greatest  curi- 
osity at  everything  that  met  his  view,  eager  withal  to 
know  the  meaning  of  things.  The  latter  assumed  an 
air  of  sedate  superiority,  as  if  familiar  with  San  Fran- 
cisco scenes  from  childhood.  Yonder  is  an  ancient — 
not  many  such  are  seen — with  white  hairs  scattered 
over  the  chin,  and  covering  the  squint  of  the  obtuse- 
angled  eyes  a  pair  of  enormous  spectacles,  ugly  beyond 
the  power  of  words  to  express.  These  varieties  mingle 
with  other  varieties  of  different  origin  and  manufac- 
ture, giving  color  and  odor  to  new  compositions. 

The  similarity  in  dress,  and  the  want  of  beard,  give 
them  to  inexperienced  eyes  a  sameness  of  appearance, 
as  if  they  had  all  been  cast  in  one  mould.  This  re- 
mark has  also  been  applied  to  the  Indian,  whose  re- 
semblance to  the  celestial  has  been  the  frequent  theme 
of  travellers  and  scientists.  It  does  not  appear  that 
the  red  man  is  flattered  by  the  comparison,  to  judge 
from  the  abuse  he  is  so  ready  to  lavish  on  his  rival. 
It  is  related  that  when  John  Young  was  once  taking 
some  monkeys  to  the  museum  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
several  Reno  savages  approached  and  examined  them 
with  characteristic  gravity.  Young  asked  them  if 
they  knew  what  they  were.  The  chief  looked  up  as 
if  surprised  at  the  simplicity  of  the  question,  and  re- 
plied, "O,  yes,  me  know  well;  China  pappoose  !" 

This  may  not  be  fair  to  the  celestial  urchins,  who 
are  really  attractive  and  intelligent  in  eyes  and  features. 
With  increasing  years  they  retain  a  certain  simplicity 
of  expression,  a  childlike  innocence,  and  a  ready  smile, 
which  becomes  somewhat  spasmodic  if  forced  into  a 
laugh ;  but  a  characteristic  and  repulsive  stolidity  and 
unconcern  settle  upon  them,  as  if  the  bright,  unsophis- 
ticated mind  had  been  rudely  cramped  within  the 
narrow  compass  of  bigoted  custom  and  hopeless  bond- 
age before  it  had  gained  time  to  develop.  They  stand 
before  us  now,  a  mixture  of  the  child,  the  slave,  and 
the  sphinx.  The  eye  in  particular  is  cold,  meaning- 
less, yet  cunning  in  expression,  and  with  a  European 


PHYSIQUE   AND   DRESS.  311 

growth  of  hair  the  low  forehead  would  probably  in- 
crease this  repulsive  feature.  Intelligent  Chinamen 
have  with  frequent  intercourse  caught  a  gleam  of 
Caucasian  animation,  but  the  almost  slavish  quietude 
of  gait  and  manner  is  never  laid  aside.  Many,  espe- 
cially among  the  better  class,  can  be  termed  good- 
looking,  even  by  a  fastidious  European. 

They  are  shorter  than  Americans,  and  less  muscular, 
but  possessed  of  considerable  endurance.  The  women 
are  proportionately  lower  in  stature,  and  more  squat 
of  build.  The  monotony  of  figure  is  increased  by  the 
conservative  dark  blue  dress,  which  adds  neither  to 
stature  nor  to  grace. 

The  laborers  so  frequently  seen  in  our  streets  have 
made  us  familiar  with  the  wide  cotton  trousers,  barely 
reaching  to  the  ankle ;  the  equally  wide  and  shape- 
less blouse  which  terminates  above  the  knee,  fits  close 
around  the  neck,  unprotected  by  any  collar,  and  over- 
laps about  four  inches  in  front,  where  it  is  fastened 
with  loops  and  small  brass  buttons.  The  sleeve  wid- 
ens gradually  from  tlie  shoulder  and  reaches  below 
the  hand,  but  is  rolled  up  above  the  wrist  by  the 
workman,  or  secured  by  a  plaited  rush  cuff.  The 
white  underclothing  of  Canton  flannel  or  cotton  falls 
over  the  trousers  and  gleams  below  the  blouse.  In 
cold  weather  a  sleeveless,  quilted  jacket,  somewhat 
shorter  than  the  blouse,  is  worn  as  an  overcoat,  or 
the  quilted  blouse  is  used. 

The  rich  dress  of  the  wealthy  is  of  flowery  silk  and 
fine  cassimere,  with  less  amplitude,  and  unrolled 
sleeves ;  the  trousers,  of  equally  rich  material  and 
often  of  gray  color,  are  gathered  and  tied  at  the 
ankle.  This  strang:e  costume  does  not  altoo*ether  de- 
tract  from  the  dignity,  which,  added  to  a  polite  man- 
ner, readily  distinguishes  the  upper  classes,  whence 
the  vulgar  are  barred  by  a  rigid  exclusiveness.  A 
further  indication  of  high  caste  is  the  long  finger- 
nails, with  which  manual  labor  can  have  no  connection. 

A  low  cloth   shoe,  with  its  white  band  of  pig-skin 


312  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

round  the  sole,  and  its  frequently  eml^roidered  cover, 
forms  a  neat  foot-dress  for  all  seasons.  The  sole  is  of 
wood,  cork,  or  layers  of  felt,  or  paper,  the  final  layer 
being  leather.  It  is  about  three  quarters  of  an  inch 
in  thickness,  follows  the  outline  of  the  foot,  is  devoid 
of  heel,  and  tapers  somewhat  at  the  toe,  as  it  turns 
slightly  upward.  A  loose,  white,  shapeless  stocking 
protruding  at  the  instep,  is  worn  by  the  town-folk. 

The  most  common  hat  is  the  black  or  gray  Ameri- 
can felt,  with  straight  rim  and  low  flat  crown  ;  but 
field  laborers  use  a  wide  umbrella-shaped  structure 
of  split  bamboo,  or  rushes,  gathering  into  a  cone. 
Occasionally  may  be  seen  a  short  felt  hat  with  the 
rim  turned  vertically  up,  even  with  the  rounded 
crown.  The  wealthy  wear  a  close  fitting,  stiff  skull- 
cap, without  rim,  surmounted  by  a  bulb,  the  color  of 
which  is  regulated  by  the  rank  of  the  wearer. 

Women  use  the  blouse  and  trousers,  but  of  greater 
amplitude.  The  plain -colored  silken  under- robe  of 
the  female  of  higher  degree,  has  a  narrow  embroidery 
at  the  bottom  which  touches  the  feet,  and  over  this  a 
shorter  satin  skirt,  entirely  covered  with  fine  embroi- 
dery. The  waist  is  often  bound  by  a  silk  sash,  with 
trailing  ends. 

It  is  the  ambition  of  parents  to  achieve  social  im- 
portance, as  indicated  particularly  by  the  size  into 
which  they  can  afford  to  compress  the  feet  of  their 
girls,  in  order  to  render  them  as  helpless  as  possible, 
fit  only  for  a  wealthy  husband.  In  early  childhood 
the  four  small  toes  are  folded  against  the  sole,  so  as 
to  grow  into  it,  leaving  the  big  toe  to  form  a  part  of 
an  elongated  shrunken  hoof  of  some  three  inches, 
which  results  from  the  treatment.  The  pain  at  first 
is  severe  ;  and  though  suffering  in  due  time  disappears, 
the  gait  always  remains  tottering.  The  Canton 
river  women  in  America  are  not  marked  with  this 
index  of  gentility,  but  imitate  the  gait  by  using  a 
rounded  sole  which  tapers  at  the  toe. 

Their  neck  is  bare  and  unadorned,  like  that  of  the 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  QUEUE.  313 

men,  but  the  wrists  and  ankles  are  clasped  by  ivory 
or  other  rings.  Ear-rings  are  also  worn  ;  bat  the  rest 
of  the  jewelry  is  reserved  for  the  hair;  and  the  silk 
kerchief,  which  constitutes  the  only  head-dress,  is 
seldom  allowed  to  hide  the  artistic  rings  and  knots 
into  which  married  women  arrange  their  back  hair, 
with  the  aid  of  gold  bodkins,  ribbands,  and  wax,  sur- 
mounting the  whole  with  artificial  flowers.  Girls 
wear  plaits.  The  face  is  cunningly  enamelled,  red- 
tinged  lips  and  cheeks,  and  the  evident  artifice  is  not 
unattractive.  The  fan,  also  carried  by  men  of  quality, 
is  never  absent. 

The  circumscribed  taste  for  finery  finds  a  broader 
field  in  the  child,  on  whom  the  mother  lavishes  color, 
bracelets,  bells,  and  ribbands  in  profusion. 

Most  striking  is  the  shaven  head  of  the  men  with 
the  queue  dangling  obtrusively  to  the  heels.  There 
is  no  religious  significance  in  this,  for  it  is  merely  an 
innovation  of  the  Tartar  conquerors,  forced  upon  the 
people  in  the  middle  of  the  17th  century.  Great 
was  the  struggle  to  maintain  the  long  heavy  locks 
which  prior  to  their  subjugation  they  often  gathered 
into  a  knot  upon  the  crown ;  but  gradually  they  be- 
came resigned  to  the  innovation,  and  that  which  was 
once  the  symbol  of  enslavement  became  the  most 
cherished  appendage  of  their  dress ;  so  much  so  that 
the  loss  of  it  is  considered  a  disgrace,  and  few  can 
even  bear  to  coil  it  up,  although  it  is  often  in  the  way 
while  working.  Many  would  be  glad  to  adopt  our 
fashion,  but  prejudice  is  too  strong  even  for  the 
religious  convert. 

The  English  government  at  Hong  Kong  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  feeling  to  punish  culprits  with  loss  of 
queue  in  addition  to  imprisonment;  and  this  measure 
was  also  adopted  at  San  Francisco  in  1876,  after  a 
failure  to  introduce  it  in  1873.  The  victims  shrieked 
with  horror  at  the  sacrilege,  and  never  recovered  their 
former  self-respect — in  this  displaying  the  quality  of  a 
manufactured  conscience. 


314  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

Whatever  neglect  the  body  may  suffer,  the  head 
receives  frequent  and  rehgious  care,  as  may  be  judged 
from  the  large  number  of  barber  signs  displayed  in 
their  quarter.  Here  we  have,  instead  of  the  striped 
pole  of  the  ancient  blood-letters,  a  green  frame  with 
four  legs,  each  tipped  with  a  red  ball,  in  imitation  of 
their  washstands.  The  shop  is  generally  a  basement 
room,  furnished  with  a  stool  for  the  victim,  a  wash- 
stand  before  it,  and  a  bench  for  waiting  customers. 
Every  part  of  the  skin  above  the  shoulders  is  washed 
in  warm  water,  without  soap,  and  shaved,  all  except 
the  small  patch  on  the  crown  where  the  queue  is 
rooted ;  for,  until  the  youth  attains  the  magic  age  of 
forty,  he  is  not  supposed  to  cultivate  a  mustache  and 
goatee,  which  by  that  time  may  be  induced  to  struggle 
into  existence.  As  for  whiskers,  they  are  never  seen, 
even  on  the  rare  individual  who  happens  to  possess 
indications  of  a  crop.  After  scraping,  polishing,  and 
carefully  inspecting  the  skin,  the  barber  trims  the 
eyelashes,  tinting  them  at  times,  and  probes,  shaves, 
and  scrapes  the  ears,  nose,  and  tongue.  Still  greater 
attention  is  given  to  combing,  cleansing,  oiling,  and 
inter-plaiting  the  queue  with  a  long  silk  tassel.  The 
Chinaman  issues  refreshed  in  spirit,  and  confirmed  in 
his  hopes  of  heaven.  The  abolition  of  the  queue 
would  be  a  great  stride  toward  breaking  the  barrier 
of  Chinese  conservatism,  and  of  opening  the  way  for 
western  civilization. 

The  care  given  to  the  head  is  by  no  means  extended 
to  the  body,  although  the  dress  indicates  neatness. 
Among  the  Chinese  in  San  Francisco  there  has  not 
been  found  a  sufficient  number  to  support  a  single 
bath-house;  one  which  was  opened  by  a  rash  specula- 
tor had  to  close  its  doors.  Nor  are  the  accommoda- 
tions of  the  lodging-houses  of  a  character  to  admit 
even  of  a  sponge  bath. 

The  favorable  impression  made  at  the  first  by  the 
China  boys,  as  they  were  called,  was  not  destined  to 
last.     If  John  was  mild-mannered,  he  was  also  artful 


CHINESE  CHARACTERISTICS.  315 

and  insinuating.  Although  he  was  so  inoffensive,  so 
unobtrusive  and  retiring,  yet  he  was  soon  found  to 
be  no  less  positive  than  he  was  exclusive.  To  his 
unique  dress  and  customs  he  had  clung  so  long  that 
he  could  not  in  a  moment  shake  them  off.  The  pro> 
gress  which  two  thousand  years  ago  was  arrested  in 
him,  made  frigid  by  the  ghosts  of  his  own  conjuring, 
could  not  be  immediately  thawed  even  by  a  Californian 
sun.  There  was  in  him  no  sentiment  or  sympathy 
that  Christianity  could  reach.  Offer  him  what  we 
most  highly  prize,  he  had  better.  Our  clothes  were 
bungling  beside  his.  In  eating,  what  is  the  use  of 
so  much  clatter  of  knives  and  forks, when  chop-sticks 
answer  every  purpose?  Offer  him  our  alphabet,  and 
he  shows  us  one  his  forefathers  used  when  ours  were 
yet  savages.  Offer  him  our  religion,  our  God,  our 
heaven,  he  has  scores  of  his  own  manufacture  better 
and  cheaper.  Offer  him  silver  and  gold,  and  there 
you  touch  him ;  that  is  his  only  vulnerable  point. 

With  the  sudden  arresting  of  his  material  progress, 
his  mind  likewise  seems  to  have  become  fossilized. 
But  not  so  his  passions.  Or  if  they  were  brought  to 
a  pause,  it  was  after  being  thoroughly  roused.  For 
such  unruffled  outwardness  when  at  rest,  John  has  a 
most  ungovernable  temper  when  stirred.  You  may 
call  it  courage  or  desperation,  but  when  once  com- 
mitted, he  cares  no  more  for  his  life  than  you  for 
your  little  finger.  He  will  not  willingly  rush  into 
danger;  in  fact  he  will  go  far  out  of  his  way  to 
avoid  it;  but  once  entangled  there  is  no  tiger  more 
savage.  It  is  when  he  has  given  up  all  hope  that  he 
is  strongest. 

We  like  things  because  they  are  new ;  the  China- 
man likes  them  because  they  are  old.  Water  when 
immersed  in  sulphurous  acid  will  freeze  if  thrown  on 
a  hot  iron  plate.  So  with  the  Asiatic,  coated  by  the 
unwavering  customs  of  centuries,  when  suddenly 
thrown  into  the  furnace  fire  of  the  Californian  Inferno. 
His  traditions  froze  to  him  all  the  closer.     Change 


316  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

might  be  the  only  fixed  phenomenon  of  the  miiverse; 
it  might  apply  to  mountains,  and  seas,  and  planets, 
but  the  word  had  no  significance  for  John.  Like  om- 
niscience, he  IS  unchangeable. 

Neither  have  the  Chinese  been  fortunate  in  convert- 
ing America.  Though  they  brought  hither  their 
gods,  and  erected  temples,  our  priests  were  obdurate, 
and  our  people  profane.  Hard  were  our  hearts,  into 
which  the  truths  of  their  ancient  culture  and  their 
blessed  religion  would  not  sink.  Our  hoodlums  made 
martyrs  of  some  of  them,  or  at  least  mince-meat ;  many 
of  them  we  reviled,  and  some  we  crucified. 

The  Asiatic  olfactory  organs  were  early  educated 
to  smells  repugnant  to  the  uninitiated  ;  and  the  Chi- 
nese cuhnary  and  tonsorial  arts,  the  chop-sticks  exer- 
cise, and  the  vermin-hunting,  as  witnessed  from  the 
sidewalk,  to  say  nothing  of  the  winning  wiles  of  cat- 
voiced  sirens,  by  which  were  enticed  from  the  paths 
of  virtue  the  noble  hod-carrier,  the  restaurant  cook  and 
the  sailor,  and  the  thick,  putrid  atmosphere  which 
issued  from  opium  and  gamljling  dens — these  and  like 
infelicities  turned  the  European  stomach. 

And  most  unkind  of  all,  most  ungrateful,  most  dia- 
bolical, John  would  not  become  a  Melican  man.  Af- 
ter all  the  advantages  given  him  to  cease  his  swinish- 
ness, and  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  member  of  this 
greatest  of  commonwealths,  to  become  the  first  of 
created  things  under  the  first  of  creators,  an  American 
citizen,  a  voter,  with  the  privilege  to  manipulate  pri- 
maries, to  stuff  ballot-boxes,  to  fight  and  get  drunk 
gratis  at  elections,  to  dodge  his  taxes,  and  swear  big 
round  Christian  oaths;  aye,  and  with  the  privilege 
even  of  holding  office,  with  all  its  glorious  honors  and 
perquisites,  such  as  bestowing  favors  and  granting 
contracts,  half  the  proceeds  from  which  by  some  mys- 
terious process  should  find  their  way  into  his  own 
pocket ;  and  accepting  bribes,  and  punishing  all  honest 
effort  made  for  the  good  of  the  country — as  he  declined 
all  these  blessings  and  privileges,  the  great  American 


CHINESE  AND  JAPANEisE.  317 

heart  became  estranged  from  its  Asiatic  brother,  and 
we  cursed  him. 

Now,  John  might  go  to  the  devil ;  nay,  he  must  go 
there.  It  became  the  immediate  duty  of  every  Amer- 
ican citizen  to  send  him  there.  Sunday-school  teachers 
might  make  an  angel  of  him  if  they  liked,  and  give 
him  wings;  there  was  no  special  objection  to  that; 
but  out  and  away,  any  whither,  John  must  go  ;  for  in 
California  he  had  sinned  unpardonably,  he  would 
not  be  a  voter.  He  would  not  spend  his  mone}^  drink- 
ing bad  whiskey  ;  opium  was  good  enough  for  him. 
Horse-racing,  midnight  roarings,  faro,  monte,  poker, 
or  seven  up,  he  did  not  care  to  cultivate,  preferring  the 
old  gambling  games  his  mother  tauglit  him  while  yet 
a  little  boy  in  China.  A  half-century  of  steady 
cursing  confirms  the  habit. 

The  miners  were  the  first  to  see  that  John  would 
not  do  for  America.  For  a  time  the  Asiatic  was  a 
favorite  along  the  foothills  as  in  the  cities.  He  used 
to  build  his  little  hut  under  the  bank  down  by  the 
stream,  away  from  the  rude  noise  of  the  camp,  and  at 
a  respectful  distance  from  the  six-foot-four  men  from 
Kentucky  and  Missouri.  Seeing  the  Melican  men  go 
forth  to  prospect,  he,  too,  sought  the  ravines  and  upper 
forks  of  the  streams  which  drained  the  Sierra  slopes; 
and  being  as  artless  as  he  was  innocent  in  those  days, 
whenever  he  was  successful  he  did  not  hesitate  to  dis- 
play the  results  of  his  good  fortune  to  his  big  brother 
of  the  free  and  great  republic.  But  when  told  to 
leave  the  rich  digging  which  he  had  found;  when  he 
saw  outstretched  from  the  brawny  Tennesseean's  fist 
a  mighty  finger,  pointing  away  from  his  claim  toward 
the  old  worked-out  bars  and  river  banks  below,  and 
heard  the  classic  ejaculations,  "  Git  I  Vamouse  !  Go  I " 
then  the  single  heart  became  twenty,  and  the  single 
eye  saw  divers  ways,  and  John  grew  sly  and  cunning, 
and  thenceforth  would  not  tell  his  grcat-souled  brother 
all  he  knew.  The  more  the  western  border  man 
abused    the    Asiatic,  the  more  he    hated  him ;  and 


318  M0N(J0L1ANLSM   IN   AMERICA. 

thenceforth  t(3  this  day  Jolin  has  scarcely  had  a  friend 
in  this  all-cnibrachig  rcpubhc. 

In  1860  came  from  Japan  distinguished  visiti^rs; 
and  in  truth  it  made  the  gods  on  high  Olympus  laugh 
to  see  these  so  lately  white-skinned  growlers  toasting 
themselves  drunk  at  public  expense  over  Asia's  latest 
sent,  and  all  l)ecauso  they  were  not  laborers  who 
would  interfere  with  the  rights  of  our  European  mas- 
ters. It  was  well  to  honor  these  great  ones  of  Asia; 
and  yet  the  gods  did  laugh  1  Were  not  these  very 
islander-worshippers  grinding  their  neighbors  of  the 
mainland  day  by  day  into  the  very  dust,  stoning  them 
in  the  street,  dogging  them  in  legislative  halls,  and 
cutting  their  tails  in  court,  and  all  because  they  were 
poor,  and  the  uncombed  voters  from  Europe  demanded 
it?  To  the  naked  eye  there  is  little  in  point  of  merit 
to  distinguish  between  these  men  of  Asia.  One  is  a 
newer  convert  than  the  other;  one  wears  the  hair 
mixed  with  silk  in  a  long  pendant  braid,  the  other 
docks  the  well-greased  tail  and  points  the  stub  for- 
ward ;  one  shaves  all  but  the  crown,  while  the  other 
shaves  the  crown  and  nothing  else ;  one  wears  wooden- 
soled  shoes,  the  other  sandals.  Surely  these  grave 
distinctions  should  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  reasonable 
gods  why  men  display  worshipful  afiection  for  one 
copper-colored  Asiatic  and  such  diabolical  hatred  for 
another. 

A  visitor  to  San  Francisco's  Chinatown  feels  as  if 
he  had  been  suddenly  transferred  to  another  land. 
Yet  he  finds  no  pagodas  with  curved  eaves  and  number- 
less stories,  no  oriental  palaces  with  gardens  and  cool- 
ing fountains,  no  picturesque  bamboo  huts  with 
trailing  vines,  but  only  a  series  of  dingy  brick  build- 
ings in  American  style,  mingled  here  and  there  with 
some  old-fashioned  frame  house,  but  the  whole  bears, 
nevertheless,  an  outlandish  look.  Balconies  abound, 
running  either  the  whole  length  of  the  house,  or 
appearing  in  detached  fragments  at  the  windows  on 


SAN   FRANCISCO'S   CHINATOWN.  319 

different  stories.  They  are  frequently  of  a  clumsy 
construction,  like  coops,  and  disfigure  the  buildings 
with  their  superstructures  of  boards  and  trellis-work 
serving  for  pantries,  and  with  their  lines  and  poles 
whereon  dilapidated  garments  are  fluttering.  Their 
chief  use,  however,  is  for  holding  plants,  w^hich  relieve 
the  dingy  exterior  with  streaks  of  bright  green,  shed 
illuminating  rays  of  beauty,  and  refresh  the  stale  at- 
mosphere. They  form  the  sole  adornment  of  the 
windows,  whose  curtains  are  the  incrustated  dust, 
draped  in  cobwebs  and  red  paper  charms.  Many 
doors  and  windows,  even  in  the  upper  stories,  are  pro- 
tected on  the  outside  with  heavy  wooden  bars,  form- 
in^j  souvenirs  of  the  oft-threateninsr  outbreaks  against 
the  occupants.  Huge  and  tiny  signboards,  all  length 
and  no  breadth,  with  vertical  inscriptions  in  red, 
black,  or  gold,  on  red  or  green,  white  or  black  ground, 
flaunt  their  moral  and  florid  titles  in  all  dh^ections. 
Often  the  board  combines  all  the  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow, as  well  as  fret-work,  and  is  surmounted  by  a 
canopy  of  red  cloth.  Every  house  in  Dupont  street, 
the  central  artery  of  this  network  of  Mongolian  veins, 
bears  a  number  of  these  si^^ns,  indicatinjy  one  continu- 
ous  line  of  stores  and  workshops,  whence  issue  the 
blows  of  hammers,  the  rasp  of  files,  the  click  of  sew- 
ing-machines, to  mingle  with  the  tramp  of  feet.  The 
fountain-head  of  wealth  and  center  of  trade  lie  in  Sac- 
ramento and  Connnercial  streets,  which  are  almost 
entirely  occupied  by  tlie  stores  and  offices  of  wholesale 
merchants,  guarded  by  strong  iron  doors  in  green  and 
black.  The  approaches  are  clean,  and  the  interior 
woodwork  has  generally  a  yellow  grained  surface. 
Huge  piles  of  rice  bags  and  tea  chests  fill  one  side  of 
the  store,  while  the  others  are  covered  with  pigeon- 
holes and  drawers  containing  silks,  drugs,  fancy  goods, 
and  samples.  On  one  side  of  the  entrance  stretches 
a  counter,  behind  which  is  seated  a  number  of  clerks 
in  small,  dark  blue  caps,  with  a  red  button  in  the 
crown,  who  regard  the  visitor  with  calm  indifference, 


MON(JOLIANISM    IK   AMKUICA. 


while  near  the  window,  brliind  a  nd  and  ;^reen  raihng, 
is  the  book-keeper,  busily  paintini;  hicroi^lyphics  with 
liis  nimble  brush.  Numbers  of  loungers  occ'uj)y  the 
benches  outside  tlie  counter,  and  cliat  or  gaze  with 
placid  contentment  on  the  scene  before  thrin.  The 
retail  stores  are  nearly  all  in  ]^u[>ont  street,  and  uo- 
ticeable  by  their  motley  disjilay  in  th<^  window  of 
white-soled  slippers,  opium  and  tobacco  pipes,  dom- 
inoes and  markers,  chinaware,  from  small  tea  bowds 
to  stately  vases,  dolls,  and  images  of  fat-bellied  gods 
and  draped  babies,  charms,  sham  jewelry,  fans,  Japan- 
ese ware  and  cabinets,  artificial  boutjuets  illuminated 
with  tinsel  and  set  with  images,  and  other  strange 
gimcracks.  TIk^  pigeon-holes  within  are  closely  filled 
with  packages  in  curiously  figured  characters.  Some- 
times an  entresol  is  to  be  seen,  with  a  crowd  of  busy 
workmen,  while  below  sit  the  usual  loungers,  mingling 
their  tobacco  smoke  with  the  whiffs  of  the  equally 
languid  men  behind  the  counter.  From  an  adjoining 
store  comes  an  unintermitting  click,  and  within  are  a 
dozen  Chinamen  in  dark  blue  habiliments  bending  each 
over  a  sewing  machine,  and  turning  out  in  rapid  suc- 
cession overalls  and  slop  goods,  shirts  and  embroidery, 
a  work  at  \vhich  they  have  surpassed  the  white  mother, 
encumbered  with  her  troop  of  children,  and  are  out- 
stripping her  delicate  daughters.  A  little  beyond  is 
a  cigar  factory,  still  more  crammed  w^ith  a  busy  crowd, 
which,  seated  at  a  long  table,  roll  soothing  Habanas 
for  raving  anti-coolie  men.  On  the  opposite  side  are 
several  tinsmiths,  doing  a  large  business  not  only  for 
their  own  people,  but  for  those  enter})rising  white  men 
who  always  seek  the  cheapest  market.  Here  and 
there  a  watchmaker  occupies  a  portion  of  a  store,  and 
finds  good  employment  in  mending  alarm  clocks  for 
laborers,  or  watches  for  departing  miners. 

At  the  entrance  to  a  lodging-house  a  cobbler  has 
installed  himself  with  a  stool  and  some  implements, 
and  is  bending  over  his  horn  spectacles,  intent  on  a 
boot  of  suspiciously  wdiite-foot  dimensions.     Just  out- 


HOME   MANUFACTURES.  321 

side,  a  fruit  vender  has  erected  his  stall,  glad,  perhaps, 
to  pay  a  rental  for  the  privilege  of  obstructing  the 
narrow  sidewalk.  The  fruit  is  divided  into  tiny  lots ; 
leaves  are  rolled  into  cornucopias  to  hold  a  mixture 
of  fig  cake,  almond,  and  melon,  all  cut  into  the  small- 
est of  slices.  Dried  fruits  of  uninviting  aspect  and 
strange  appearance  fill  various  compartments  ;  greasy 
cakes  in  yellow  papers  and  of  rancid  taste  mingle  with 
buns  find  confectionery  in  towering  pyramids.  Near 
by  stands  a  crowd,  entranced  by  the  celestial  strains 
of  twanging  guitars  and  cla.shing  cymbals,  which  issue 
from  a  gaudy  building  in  front  of  them.  The  facade 
is  painted  in  imitation  of  gray-streaked  marble,  which 
sinks  in  a  bright  green  toward  tlie  upper  story,  and  is 
covered  with  aral)esque  decoration  here  and  there, 
surmounted  l)y  a  gaudy  cornice.  It  has  two  long  low 
balconies  of  wood,  witli  railing  in  red  and  green,  and 
with  iimumerable  fringes  and  fret-work  in  a  medley 
of  colors.  Fanciful  lanterns  of  paper  and  of  figured 
glass,  round  and  octangular,  hang  from  the  blue  ceil- 
ings of  the  balconies,  while  tlie  floors  are  set  with 
long-leaved  plants  and  dwarfed  trees.  Some  of  the 
windows  have  stained  glass,  and  one  in  the  center  is 
circular.  This  is  one  of  the  half  dozen  good  restau- 
rants in  the  quarter,  doubly  interesting  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  the  only  buildings  of  a  true  Chinese  as- 
pect, forming  a  most  agreeable  l^reak  in  tlie  monotonous 
dingyness  around.  The  lower  story  is  used  as  a  store 
for  the  sale  of  crockery  and  dried,  preserved,  and 
cooked  articles  of  food.  The  regular  provision  stores 
are  met  with  at  frequent  intervals  along  the  street, 
appealing  to  eyes  and  nose  with  squalid  stalls  and 
half  putrified  delicacies;  disjointed  pieces  of  meats  are 
cast  in  all  directions,  and  suspicious  looking  carcasses 
of  smoked  pig  dangle  from  the  hooks.  Pigeon-holes 
and  stands  are  filled  with  fresh,  salted,  and  prepared 
vegetables,  fish,  and  fruits ;  while  a  role  of  poles  and 
strings  in  the  ceiling  suppoi-t  dried  fowl,  roots,  and 
flitches  of  bacon. 

Essays  AND  Miscellany     21 


322  MOXCrOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

Every  now  and  then  a  jmpercd  and  lighted  passage 
may  be  seen,  turning  oft'  at  an  angle,  and  with  a 
watchman  at  the  entrance.  They  are  approaclies  to 
the  notorious  gambling  dens  from  which  Caucasians 
have  long  since  been  excluded,  owing  to  race  antij^a- 
thy  and  fear  of  denouncement.  Almost  side  b}^  side 
of  them  are  worksho[)s  where  there  is  no  cessation  of 
toil  even  on  the  Sabbath,  and  where  Chinamen  may 
be  seen  manufacturing  boots  and  shoes  or  cigars,  or 
bending  low  over  their  sewing  machines,  with  backs 
that  never  tire. 

The  sidewalks  teem  with  life,  particularly  in  the 
evening,  when  the  workmen  flock  in  from  factories 
and  shops,  and  on  Sundays,  when  the  outlying 
Mongol  settlements  contribute  their  quota  to  amuse- 
ment-seekers and  market-folk.  It  is  then  that  the 
celestial  cuticle  most  expands  and  adds  to  the  odorif- 
erous medley  of  burning  sandal-wood  and  singed  pig, 
of  nmch-used  gutters  and  reeking  cellars.  Despite 
the  throng  the  order  is  admirable,  and  the  almond- 
eyed  glide  noiselessly  along  in  their  peculiar  single 
file,  winding  in  and  out  between  stalls  and  lookers-on, 
or,  stopping  occasionally  to  listen  to  the  falsetto  which 
wails  to  the  twang  of  the  guitar  from  the  attic,  or  to 
the  din  of  the  orchestra  from  tlie  theatre.  With 
these  vie  the  yells  of  the  cake  and  nut  pedlars,  pro- 
claiming the  excellence  of  their  wares,  which  for 
greater  eftect  are  stowed  in  a  glaring  red  toy  junk, 
illuminated  fore  and  aft.  Occasionally  a  rival  shouter 
flits  past  with  a  board  on  his  head,  supporting  a  lot 
of  tin  cups  with    nondescript    delectable  compounds. 

Scarcely  less  crowded  are  the  by-streets,  where  the 
roofs  wave  with  showy  linen,  and  where  the  sky  is 
almost  hidden  by  clouds  of  laundry- stuff*;  but  all  are 
hurrying  along,  for  no  show-windows,  no  illuminated 
restaurants,  allure  them.  The  most  noticeable  feature 
is,  perhaps,  the  well-known  sign  of  washing  and  iron- 
ing, painted  in  red  letters  on  white  ground,  evidenth' 
by  some  Chinese  artist,  to  judge  from  the  wavy  out- 


STREETS   AXD  ALLEYS.  323 

line  of  the  letters,  and  the  precedence  accorded  to 
some  among  them,  which  rise  above  the  level  of  the 
rest.  A  gust  of  wind  comes  laden  with  the  peculiar 
odor  of  a  Mongol  laundry ;  a  mingling  of  vapors  from 
drying  clothes,  wasted  opium,  and  singed  linen.  The 
interior  has  a  tinge  of  the  oriental  in  its  bronzed 
figures,  robed  in  short  flowing  drawers,  and  over  them 
a  wide  blouse,  both  of  spotless  white  cotton,  an  ad- 
vertisement of  their  craft.  Some  are  spouting  a  fine 
rain  upon  the  petticoats  before  them,  others  are  busily 
passing  and  repassing  the  irons  which  have  been 
heated  on  the  stove  in  the  center  of  the  room,  wliile 
a  few  idlers  who  probably  form  a  part  of  the  night 
gang  of  the  scrubl^ing  brigade,  are  smoking  in  dreamy 
indolence. 

At  short  intervals  in  the  lane  a  gap  invites  into  a 
labyrinth  of  alleys  blocked  by  superstructures,  frail 
corridors  of  wood  which  run  along  the  upper  stories, 
and  form  an  elevated  thoroughfare,  after  the  fashion 
of  Chinese  cities,  while  the  ground  beneath  is  bur- 
rowed into  a  maze  of  cellar  habitations.  You  shrink 
from  one  slimy,  greasy  wall  only  to  encounter  its 
neighbor;  you  step  hurriedly  off  the  rotten  plank, 
spurting  its  mire,  only  to  land  in  a  cesspool ;  sleek  rats 
cross  lazily  before  you;  pufl's  of  fetor  greet  you  from 
every  opening;  unhinged  doors  disclose  rickety  stair- 
ways to  squalid  lodgings,  or  dismal  entrances  to  fetid 
cellars.  Here,  in  Bartlett  alley,  the  thieves  and 
ragpickers  hold  their  sessions ;  further  on,  in  Stout 
alley,  bedizened  females  beckon  to  the  visitors  from 
the  square  port-hole.  The  smoke  from  kitchen  fires 
at  the  doors  spread  a  haze  around,  as  if  to  dim  the 
glare  of  vice  and  shame. 

You  gaze  at  the  mass  of  humanity,  you  think  of 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  quarter,  and  you  are  puzzled 
to  know  how  and  where  it  lives.  But  John  has 
thoroughly  studied  the  economy  of  space,  and  worked 
hard  on  the  problem  of  compressing  the  largest  num- 
ber into  the  smallest  compass,     Nothing   is  wasted. 


324  MOXGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

Every  r.ook,  from  garret  to  cellar,  which  can  b}"  any 
possible  means  be  made  to  receive  the  body  of  a  man, 
is  made  available.  Every  breath  of  air  is  pressed 
into  service  to  fulfill  its  vitalizing  functions.  Yet  tlie 
supply  is  here  so  restricted  as  to  raise  the  question 
whether  a  Chinaman's  lungs  are  not  fi^rmed  on  a 
different  principle  from  ours,  or  changed  in  accord- 
ance with  the  doctrine  of  adaptation.  He  rertainly 
seems  to  thrive  in  stench  where  others  would  suffocate. 
This  immense  connnunity  of  men,  as  it  may  be  termed, 
is  composed  chiefly  of  the  peasant  class  who  knows 
little  or  nothing  of  luxuries  or  even  comforts.  They 
ask  for  bare  subsistence  and  a  nook,  two  feet  by  five 
— anywhere. 

It  was  not  unusual  to  find  a  dozen  men  enojaf^ed  in 
various  industries,  all  within  the  confined  space  of  as 
many  feet  square;  and  where  the  floor  could  not  ac- 
commodate them,  an  entresol  was  constructed,  so  that 
the  men  lived  literally  on  the  top  of  one  another, 
working  and  cooking  on  tlie  benches  by  day,  smoking 
and  sleeping  on  or  beneath  them  at  night. 

In  the  alleys  were  rooms  six  feet  square,  and  of 
the  same  height,  containing  five  to  six  sleepers.  Dur- 
ing two  months  of  1875,  800  Chinamen  were  arrested 
underthe  cubic-air  ordinance,  and  75  of  them  were  taken 
from  one  room  in  the  Globe  hotel,  which  contained  a 
superior  class  of  tenants,  and  was  occupied  by  only 
about  seven  times  the  number  intended  to  fill  it.  To 
secure  them  against  police  raids,  many  rooms  were  fitted 
with  traps,  in  floor  or  ceiling,  by  which  the  occupants 
might  escape  before  the  door  could  be  broken  in. 
Yet  policemen  might  daily  be  seen  driving  a  team  of 
]\Iongolians  by  their  queues  to  the  prison  where  they 
had  to  practise  respiration  in  a  still  smaller  cubic  area 
till  the  fine  of  ten  dollars  was  paid. 

The  fire  ordinance  is  infringed  to  a  more  dangerous 
extent.  The  chief  safe-guard  against  a  general  con- 
flagration lies  probably  in  the  filthy  and  moist  condi- 
tion of  the  buildings.     An  army  of  police  would  be 


WITHIN  THE  WALLS.  325 

required  to  enforce  the  various  sanitary  and  safety 
regulations.  As  it  is,  hardly  a  due  proportion,  out  of 
the  police  force  of  the  city,  has  been  stationed 
here,  aside  from  the  few  specials  employed  by  the 
Chinese.  The  proximity  of  the  City  Hall  is  regarded 
as  a  sufficient  offset,  particularly  since  the  Chinese 
rarely  attack  white  men. 

I  have  already  dwelled  on  the  ropulsivencss  of  the 
streets  and  alleys  ;  but  the  neglect  and  squalor  on  the 
outside,  the  dust-encrusted  windows,  the  stained  and 
cracked  walls,  the  cornices  fringed  with  dirt,  are  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  interior.  The  walls  ooze 
a  fetid  slime,  the  passages  reek,  the  bannisters  have  a 
clammy  touch.  A  dusky  nmltitude  crowds  round 
the  stairs  ;  faces  swarm  at  every  door,  inhaling  poison, 
exhaling  worse ;  eyes  stupefied  with  drugs  peer  from 
every  opening.  At  intervals,  in  passages,  or  in  alleys, 
are  small  hearths,  more  or  less  rude,  serving  for 
kitchens.  Chimneys  are  not  regarded  as  needful, 
even  in  the  rooms,  and  their  absence  may,  indeed,  be 
applauded  as  a  sanitary  measure. 

If  the  passages  have  repelled  you,  how  much  more 
will  the  rooms,  if  you  can  but  nerv^e  yourself  to  en- 
dure for  a  moment  the  concentrated  odor  from  opium, 
putrific'd  food,  and  human  effluvia  which  belches  forth 
on  opening  the  door.  The  walls  are  lined  with  bunks, 
or  rather  shelves,  about  four  feet  wide,  fixed  or  hang- 
ing, and  one  above  the  other.  A  straw  mat  forms 
the  bed,  for  the  celestial  has  a  contempt  for  effiminat- 
ing  bolsters,  and  in  this  breath-heated  place  he  needs 
but  little  covering,  other  than  the  underclothing  which 
is  retained  for  the  night.  At  the  head  is  a  narrow 
bar,  fixed  a  little  above  the  shelf,  or  else  a  wooden 
block,  to  ser\^e  for  pillow.  A  cross-piece  holds  the 
lamp,  at  which  the  occupant  lights  his  never-failing 
pipe  of  oi)iuni  or  tobacco,  wherewith  he  seeks  the 
gates  of  paradise,  and  then  the  oblivion  of  sleep,  for 
which  he  shows  wonderful  powers.      In  the  centre  of 


326  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

the  room  is  a  table,  and  on  it  a  lamp,  consistini^  of  a 
glass  tumbler  filled  with  oil,  in  which  a  peculiar  Chi- 
nese weed  supports  the  wick.  Around  this  the  occu- 
pants chatter  and  gamble,  lounge  and  smoke.  On 
Sundays  washing  and  mending  are  the  rule,  for  despite 
liis  surroundings  the  Chinaman  endeavors  to  present 
a  tidy  person.  There  is  often  no  room  for  a  stove, 
and  the  fire  for  cooking  is  held  in  a  brazier  or  dish. 
The  Mongolians  congregate  no  less  for  society  than 
for  purposes  of  economy.  One  dollar  a  month  is 
ample  to  pay  the  rent,  and  yet  he  will  divide  this  ex- 
pense by  subletting  his  bunk  to  another  lodger  during 
the  day,  a  la  Box  and  Cox.  It  is  not  rare  to  find  one 
bunk  occupied  by  three  lodgers,  each  for  eight  hours. 
Such  extreme  economy,  such  misery,  is  not  compul- 
sory, even  were  he  doubly  the  slave  we  suppose  him 
to  be.  He  evidently  delights  to  burrow.  If  a  town 
has  a  low,  filthy  quarter,  he  is  sure  to  ferret  it  out 
and  occupy  it.  He  would  revel  in  the  Five  Points 
of  New  York,  in  the  Seven  Dials  of  London,  in  the 
Marinella  of  Naples,  and  speedily  render  them  doubly 
repulsive  with  crowds  and  odors.  Belonging  as  he 
does  to  a  water  population  at  home,  it  is  strange  that 
he  has  not  sought  the  North  beach  of  San  Francisco, 
with  its  congenial  scents. 

His  den  has  also  its  attractive  features.  The 
peculiar  lily  bulbs,  set  in  a  saucer  half  filled  with  white 
stones,  and  fed  by  capillary  attraction  on  the  water 
beneath,  flourish  and  expand  their  emblems  of  purity; 
but  in  what  an  atmosphere  I  Strips  of  soiled  red 
paper,  with  moral  maxims  for  the  practice  of  virtue 
and  equity,  flutter  on  the  walls  in  all  directions,  and 
in  many  a  bunk  and  window  a  bunch  of  joss-sticks, 
with  red  and  gilt  papers,  burn  to  propitiate  the 
household  patron,  and  to  exorcise  the  presence  of  evil. 
But  what  eflect  can  these  maxims  have,  what  power 
this  god,  when  sunk  so  low  in  material  corruption  ? 
A  talented  companion  will  often  discourse  with  plain- 
tive strain    on   the  guitar,  and  lead  his  listeners  to 


POOR  AND   RICH.  327 

scenes  of  happy  childhood,  recall  the  gentle  admoni- 
tions of  a  mother,  and  the  pure  emotions  of  younger 
days;  but  alas,  deep,  dreamy  reveries  seem  to  be  the 
only  fruit  of  these  efforts. 

All  homes  are  not  like  these,  however.  The  wealthy 
merchant  is  content  with  the  one  small  room  behind 
the  store,  but  it  is  the  embodiment  of  neatness. 
Matting  or  carpets  cover  the  floor;  the  walls  are 
adorned  with  landscape  sketches  on  scrolls,  in  black 
and  colored  ink,  as  well  as  with  American  pictures. 
On  one  side  stands  a  cushioned  platform,  about  two 
feet  in  height,  with  red  cushions,  enclosed  by  damask 
curtains,  and  within  a  smoking-tray  with  all  acces- 
sories. In  this  sanctum  the  proprietor  may  be  found 
during  a  great  part  of  the  day,  seated  cross-legged, 
like  a  tailor,  to  enjoy  his  siesta  and  his  pipe.  Ranged 
along  the  wall  are  a  series  of  straight-backed  chairs 
and  stools  of  hard  shining  wood,  covered  with  loose 
red  cushion  mats.  At  intervals  are  small  tables  of 
the  same  material,  and  at  their  feet  stand  high,  nar- 
row, brass  spittoons.  Several  cases  of  shelving  may 
be  seen,  some  for  books,  paper,  and  small  hat-holders, 
others  for  tableware,  wine,  and  fruit.  Behhid  the 
door  is  the  bed,  with  mat  or  blanket  layers  in  lieu  of 
bolsters,  whereon  the  white  sheets  and  blanket  covers 
lie  rolled  up  against  the  wall,  and  at  the  head  a 
wooden  neck-pillow.  This  is  often  devoid  of  a  cushion, 
but  has  a  slight  indentation  for  the  neck,  and  is  par- 
ticularly prized  by  women  to  keep  their  complicated 
hair  structure  intact.  A  few  images,  artificial  bou- 
quets, and  other  ornaments  are  scattered  about,  and 
among  them  distorted  roots  bearing  the  form  of 
dragons,  which  were  probably  installed  during  the 
house-warming  ceremony,  and  have  since  remained  as 
guardian  patrons  of  the  house.  Married  people  in- 
dulge in  a  little  more  room  than  the  bachelor  of  the 
same  class,  but  the  furniture  even  of  the  merchant's 
family  home  is  of  the  simplest,  and  more  limited  than 
at  the  store  establishment,  save  an  extra  plant  or  so. 


828  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

Indeed,  the  wife  is  kept  so  secluded  that  all  show 
may  be  dispensed  witli. 

On  the  whole  we  may  conclude  that  the  Mongolian 
shares  with  the  antiquarian  his  superstitious  venera- 
tion for  dust,  with  the  toper  his  hiveterate  fear  of 
water,  with  the  bat  its  dislike  for  light.  To  clean  the 
steps  and  walls  would  be  a  loss  of  time  and  labor, 
which  represent  money,  and  his  economic  ideas  recoil 
at  the  mere  mention  of  such  extravagance.  To  stop 
the  innumerable  rat-holes  would  result  in  opening 
fresh  outlets.  His  considerations  for  health  have 
brought  him  to  the  conclusion  that  the  opening  of 
doors  and  windows  for  ventilation  might  expose  him 
to  the  danger  of  a  cold,  and  disturb  his  privacy,  for 
John  is  fond  of  this  luxury  in  his  own  way.  This 
desire  has  doubtless  led  him  to  discover  that  the  in- 
crustated  dust  on  the  window  panes  forms  a  cheap 
and  effective  blind  against  the  bleaching  sunlight,as 
well  as  against  the  prying  eyes  of  neighbors.  Nor 
could  he  endure  to  make  himself  conspicuous  by  a 
proceeding  so  unusual  and  extraordinary  as  cleaning. 

Indeed,  when  we  consider  the  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances by  which  he  is  surrounded,  living  in  a 
lodging  house,  and  sharing  his  room  with  a  dozen 
strangers,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  him  to  make 
even  an  attempt  at  cleanliness.  Besides,  the  close 
air  of  a  crowded  room  is  far  less  objectionable  than 
the  stench  of  human  effluvia,  to  which  his  olfactories 
have  longed  been  trained.  The  dirty  floor,  the  oozing 
walls,  are  purity  compared  with  the  vermin-covered 
garments,  the  leprous  sores,  to  which  his  eyes  and 
touch  have  long  since  become  familiar.  Yes,  he  shuns 
not  daily,  close  contact  with  men  suffering  from  hor- 
rible diseases,  and  with  lepers  rotting  away  piecemeal 
before  him.  His  pores,  his  throat,  have  probably 
become  equally  inured  to  the  rank  effluvia  which 
would  breed  pestilence  in  anyone  else.  Perhaps  the 
ever-present  smoke  which  almost  suffocates  others, 
the  smell  of  loathsome   dishes,  and  tlie  nondescript 


FILTH  AND  FOOD.  ^329 

odors  generally  which  fill  us  with  nausea,  may  be  pre- 
ventives of  the  threatening  pest;  the  very  rats  that 
scamper  impudently  before  us,  may  prove  to  be  the 
blessed  scavengers  they  need. 

The  peculiar  rules  of  economy  to  which  the  Asiatic 
submits  for  shelter,  are  also  made  to  regulate  his 
palate.  He  is  not  particular  as  to  the  quality  of  his 
food,  and  of  this  the  provision  stores  afford  ample 
proof  The  butcher  who  flourishes  under  the  sign  of 
Ten  Thousand  Harmonies,  or  some  equally  euphonious 
title,  scouts  the  idea  of  scraping  his  block,  or  w^iping 
his  knife,  as  unproductive  labor,  and  devotes  the  time 
instead  to  plucking  the  minutest  morsel  of  meat  from 
the  bone  before  him.  The  mangled  evidence  of  his 
efforts  is  exposed  on  the  dingy  board,  where  the  pur- 
chaser may  thumb  and  knead  each  piece  to  his  heart's 
content,  in  order  to  convince  himself  of  its  quality. 
Beef  is  not  nmch  in  vogue,  for  the  Chinaman  regards 
it  as  a  sin  to  kill  beasts  that  are  of  value  for  labor 
and  trade.  His  religious  tradition  teaches  that  the 
slayer  of  an  ox  shall  suffer  torments  in  the  world  to 
come,  and  if  i)ermitted  to  be  born  again  it  will  be 
only  in  the  form  of  his  victim.  Pork  is  the  favorite 
meat.  Indeed,  it  is  believed  that  the  Chinese  were 
the  first  to  discover  its  excellencies,  and  the  taste 
appears  to  be  all-pervading,  for  every  food,  nay,  almost 
every  object  among  them  has  a  larded  taste,  a  greasy 
touch.  Whole  pigs  are  roasted  and  displayed  from 
butchers  hooks  in  smoky,  shining  repulsiveness. 
Poultry  alone,  however,  satisfies  the  highest  quality 
of  appetite,  and  many  are  the  tricks  to  which  the 
celestials  will  resort  to  secure  the  bird.  Split  and 
flattened  ducks  and  birds  are  imported  from  China, 
whence  comes  the  greater  part  of  their  luxuries,  but 
the  American  markets  also  receive  a  share  of  their 
earnings.  Fish  of  all  kinds  are  acceptable,  and  some 
are  even  brought  in  a  fresh  condition  across  the 
Pacific,  with  the  aid  of  a  paste  in  which   they  are 


330  MONOOLIAXISM   IN   AMERICA. 

dipped.  The  Cliiiiainan  is  quite  expert  at  drying, 
curing  and  preserving  food,  in  his  way,  for  exact 
freshness  is  not  regarded  as  essential ;  he  has  an  innate 
respect  for  the  antique,  whether  it  is  represented  by 
a  venerable  gray  head,  or  by  a  decayed  chicken. 
Tlie  statement  that  he  has  a  predilection  for  rats 
arises  probably  from  an  account  of  tlie  extremities  to 
which  a  famine-stricken  district  may  be  driven.  The 
prisons  of  the  confederate  states  during  the  war  for 
the  union  furnished  similar  stories.  If  he  likes  dogs, 
surely  we  snail-eaters  have  no  riglit  to  object. 

Whatever  may  be  the  truth  of  such  insinuations, 
it  is  certain  that  the  staple  food  of  our  Chinese  is 
boiled  rice,  which  constitutes  their  bread.  With  this 
they  often  mix  the  less  favored  potatoes,  and  flavor 
the  whole  with  pork,  fish,  or  spice.  A  bowl  of  this, 
toi^ether  with  the  never-failinix  tea,  suffices  for  a  meal. 
Tea  is  drunk  at  all  times,  for  water  is  rarely  taken, 
and  tlien  only  when  warmed. 

The  food  is  cooked  on  a  brazier  with  an  absurdly 
small  amount  of  fuel.  The  produce-dealer  often 
unites  a  kitchen  with  his  business,  w^here  the  customer 
may  prepare  his  food  ;  merchants  have  usually  their 
own  kitchen. 

A  large  patronage  is  diverted  to  the  various  board- 
ing houses,  w^hich  graduate  from  well-appointed  res- 
taurants to  filthy  cellars.  At  the  latter  the  accommo- 
dation is  of  the  meanest  kind  :  a  bare  plank  table 
surrounded  by  benches ;  a  big  bowl  of  rice  and  pork 
in  the  center  of  the  mess,  each  of  whose  members  is 
provided  with  a  pair  of  fai-tje  nimble  lads,  or  chop- 
sticks, about  six  inches  in  length,  and  with  two  small 
bowls,  one  for  tea,  the  other  for  the  rice.  Scooping 
a  bowlful  from  the  common  dish,  and  holding  it  with 
one  hand  to  the  lips,  with  the  other  the  Chinaman 
grasps  the  fait-je  between  the  fore-finger  and  thumb, 
supporting  their  center  with  the  tips  of  the  middle  and 
ring-fingers,  and  sweeps  the  contents  into  the  mouth 
in  one  continuous  stream.     Tea  follows.     The  board 


COOKING  AND  WASHING.  331 

at  the  cheapest  restaurants  costs  from  eight  to  tea  dol- 
lars a  month ;  but  this  is  considered  extravagant  by 
the  new-comer,  whose  means  are  not  yet  assured.  By 
acting  as  his  own  cook,  sleeping  in  the  smallest  bunk, 
and  wearing  the  cheapest  clothes,  he  reduces  the  month- 
ly expenses  to  six  dollars,  but  this  does  not  include  the 
cherished  whifF  of  opium.  As  his  savings  increase  he 
becomes  more  indulgent,  and  even  ventures  to  patron- 
ize the  superior  class  of  restaurants,  where  good  living 
may  be  had  for  from  fifteen  to  twenty  dollars  a  month, 
and  where  he  speedily  develops  the  national  taste  for 
a  variety  of  dishes  and  deceptive  mixtures,  not  unlike 
that  of  the  French.  He  must  have  everything  cut 
and  minced,  ready  for  the  stomach.  He  objects  to 
act  as  butcher  at  the  table,  like  the  European,  or  to 
leave  to  teeth  and  digestive  organs  the  work  which 
may  as  well  l)e  done  by  chopper  and  masher.  An 
indication  of  his  culinary  skill  is  the  cunning  with 
which  he  obliterates  the  original  taste  or  essence  of  a 
food  with  condiments  and  processes.  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  sauces  he  even  surpasses  Soyer's  countrj^men. 
The  art  with  which  Chinese  washermen  regulate  the 
fineness  and  direction  of  the  spray  from  his  mouth 
upon  the  garments,  has  been  a  source  of  admiration 
to  the  uninitiated.  Their  admiration  would  increase 
were  they  to  witness  the  dexterity  with  which  the 
cook  would  mix  the  various  condiments  by  blowing 
from  his  mouth  the  exact  quantity  needed  by  the  dish 
before  him.  Many  dishes  depend  entirely  on  adjuncts 
for  savor ;  and  the  taste  as  a  rule  inclines  to  rancid  oil 
and  doubtful  lard. 

In  order  to  full}^  appreciate  celestial  cookery  we 
must  visit  a  leading  restaurant.  The  outside  beams 
with  attractions :  the  facade  is  a  gorgeous  medley  of 
C(^lors,  wherein  red  and  green  predominate ;  and  bal- 
conies are  filled  with  flowers,  lanterns,  and  flashy  tin- 
sel. The  ground  floor  is  used  as  a  provision  store;  on 
the  second  floor  are  the  common  dining-rooms,  and  on 
the  third,  the  grand  saloon  for  parties  and  first-class 


332  MOxN'GOLIANISM   IX   AMERICA. 

customers.  It  has  false  arcliways,  with  an  alcove  for 
musicians,  and  is  furnished  with  carved  and  richly 
polished  stools,  round  or  square,  and  ponderous,  and 
with  tables  both  of  mahogany  or  dark  Chinese  wood, 
inlaid  with  marble,  and  the  stools  covered  with  small 
mats.  This  saloon  is  at  times  formed  into  numerous 
small  divisions  by  screens  or  trellis-work,  ornamented 
with  foliage,  birds,  and  monsters  in  various  colors. 
Round  the  walls  are  lacquered  boxes,  and  cabinets, 
musical  instruments,  and  bills  of  fare ;  the  whole  pre- 
sided over  by  the  idol  Kwan  Sing.  This  is  the  place 
where  the  grand  banquets  are  given,  in  honor  of  prom- 
inent men,  on  the  inauguration  of  an  establishment, 
or  on  the  occasion  of  a  windfall.  Associates  at  a  fac- 
tory will  meet  here  once  a  year  and  testify  their  grat- 
itude to  a  kind  employer  by  a  supper,  which  often 
costs  from  two  to  ten  dollars  each. 

In  case  of  an  invitation  by  wealthy  merchants,  pink, 
gilt-edged  notes  of  invitation  are  sent,  with  two  en- 
closures, one  presenting  the  compliments  of  the  hosts 
or  their  proxy,  the  other  announcing  that  a  slight  re- 
past awaits  the  light  of  the  guest's  presence.  The 
reception-room  is  furnished  w^ith  tables,  bearing  trays 
with  cups  and  smoking  material,  from  which  the  ar- 
rivals are  offered  tea  and  cigars. 

The  dining-room  is  all  aglow  with  lanterns  and 
teeming  with  waiters.  The  circular  tables,  with 
snowy  covers,  accommodate  four  to  twelve  guests,  be- 
fore each  of  whom  stands  a  pile  of  tiny  plates  and 
saucers  of  fine  porcelain,  and  a  saucer  of  flowers 
which  are  at  their  disposal.  By  their  side  lies  a  white 
silk  napkin,  a  porcelain  spoon,  and  a  pair  of  ivory 
chopsticks.  Every  guest,  or  set  of  two  to  four,  is 
provided  with  two  metal  tankards,  holding  each  a  pint 
of  warm  tea  and  liquor  respectively.  The  latter  is  a 
white  brandy,  or  a  red  liquor,  rauo  qui  lo,  distilled 
from  rice  and  flavored  with  attar  of  roses.  No  spices 
are  provided,  since  the  food  is  supposed  to  be  duly  sea- 
soned.    Circular  wafers,  about  two  inches  in  diameter, 


AMONG  THE  ARISTOCRACY.  333 

are  often  used  to  envelop  niouthfuls  of  food.  Many 
dishes  are  arranged  in  earthern  bowls  round  the  soup. 

When  all  are  seated  the  host  returns  thanks  to  the 
guests  for  their  attendance,  and  invites  them  to  par- 
take of  the  appetizers,  which  usually  consist  of  cucum- 
bers, pickled  duck,  eggs,  and  ginger,  salted  almonds, 
melon-seeds,  celery,  and  a  variety  of  nuts,  not  forget- 
ting the  muo  qui  lo,  which  is  sipped  between  each 
dish  after  a  seriatim  bowing  all  around,  and  amidst  a 
hubbub  of  conversation. 

The  dinner  proper  now  opens  with,  say,  fried 
shark's  fin  and  grated  ham ;  stewed  pigeon  with  bam- 
boo sprouts ;  roast  sucking  pig  ;  boned  duck  stewed 
with  grated  nuts,  pearl  barley,  and  nmshrooms;  fish 
sinews  with  ham  ;  stewed  chicken  with  chestnuts  or 
water-cress ;  dried  oysters  boiled ;  bamboo  soup ; 
sponge,  omelet,  and  flower  cakes  ;  banana  fritters  ;  and 
birds-nest  soup,  made  with  minced  ham  and  chicken- 
breast,  and  particularly  with  that  rare  delicacy,  the 
mucilaginous  sea-moss,  picked  from  the  waves  by  a 
species  of  swallow  which  frequents  the  coasts  of  Ma- 
lacca and  the  Indian  archipelago.  Their  nests  are 
found  on  the  sides  of  precipitous  cliffs  to  which  access 
can  be  gained  only  by  lowering  a  rope  from  the  sum- 
mit. Their  rarity,  and  the  trouble  of  gathering,  make 
them  worth  their  weight  in  gold  by  the  time  they 
reach  San  Francisco.  The  taste  of  the  soup  is  not 
unlike  that  of  vermicelli.  There  are  also  other  dishes 
which  cost  up  to  a  dollar  a  mouthful.  A  sip  of  tea 
concludes  the  first  course  ;  and  whatever  the  objec- 
tions may  be  to  many  of  the  dishes,  the  stranger  can- 
not but  admit  the  superiority  of  this  beverage,  con- 
sisting of  the  first  light  infusion  from  the  most 
delicate  leaves,  which  cost  not  less  than  ^ve  dollars  a 
pound.  Green  tea  is  avoided  as  being  artificially  col- 
ored. Tea  is  served  in  tiny  blue-flowered  cups,  with- 
out milk  or  sugar.  The  tea  leaves  are  probably  sent 
to  the  lower  stor}^  to  surrender  the  second  and  less 
delicate  effusion  to  the  servants. 


334  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

Each  dish  is  served  cut  and  minced  in  quart  bowls, 
many  of  which  are  silver-plated  and  provided  with  a 
metal  heater  in  the  centre,  filled  with  coals  to  keep 
the  food  warm.  From  this  the  guests  help  themselves 
to  one  mouthful,  with  the  aid  of  a  spoon  or  chop- 
sticks, and  eitlier  transfer  it  directly  to  the  lips  or 
nibble  it  from  the  tiny  plate  before  tliem.  The  host 
will  sometimes  honor  the  guest  by  conveying  to  his 
mouth  a  choice  morsel  with  the  chopsticks  just  re- 
moved from  his  own  lips,  or  he  will  place  his  own  cup 
of  liquor  to  his  friend's  lips. 

After  the  first  course  the  company  retires  to  the 
anteroom  for  half  an  hour  to  chat,  smoke  and  gather 
inspiration  from  the  cymbal  clash,  the  twang  of  gui- 
tars, and  the  shrill  strains  of  the  singers,  preparatory 
to  another  onslaught.  After  this  first  course  the 
chief  men  retire,  in  accordance  with  celestial  etiquette; 
after  the  second  course  those  next  in  rank  or  import- 
ance drop  off ;  and  so  the  diminishing  continues  until 
none  but  the  connnoner  class  remain  during  the  fol- 
lowing one  or  more  courses,  each  of  at  least  a  dozen 
dishes. 

The  second  course  opens  with  tea  and  liquor,  fol- 
lowed by  lichens ;  terrapin-shells,  flavored  with  onion 
and  seasoned  with  water  chestnuts ;  mushrooms  with 
hundred-layer  leek ;  Chinese  quail ;  brochettes  of 
chicken  hearts  ;  more  shark-fins,  fungus,  nuts,  and 
mince  pies  ;  rice  soup,  stewed  mutton,  roast  duck, 
pickled  cucumber,  and  so  on  till  the  stranger  gasps  for 
breath,  while  the  initiated,  who  knows  what  is  before 
him,  reserves  his  powers,  and  by  only  nibbling  at 
each,  manages  to  taste  of  all.  After  the  second 
course  there  is  an  exchange  of  complimentary  speeches. 

The  desert  presents  an  equally  long  series  of  fancy 
dishes,  of  rather  delicate  cakes  and  nuts  of  all  kinds, 
and  in  the  form  of  birds  or  flowers  ;  water-lily  seed ; 
jelly  of  sea-weed  ;  oranges  apparently  fresh,  but  filled 
with  a  series  of  jelly  layers  of  different  colors  ;  the 
whole  concluding  with  a  variety  of  fruit;  and  the  tea. 


END   OF  A  GRAND   BANQUET.  335 

At  the  close  of  the  long  banquet  it  may  happen 
that  the  liquor  has  affected  the  otherwise  temperate 
Asiatic,  who  accordingly  retires  to  the  cushioned 
alcove  in  the  adjoining  opium  room,  either  to  sleep  off 
the  fumes  or  to  seek  the  paradise  hidden  within  the 
divine  drug. 

The  opium  habit  is  fully  as  prevalent  among  the 
Chinese  as  smoking  is  with  us,  although  the  better 
class  pretend  to  condemn  it  as  severely  as  we  do  hard 
drinking.  The  annual  import  of  the  drug  in  San 
Francisco  is  over  45,000  pounds,  retailing  for  nearly  a 
million  of  dollars,  and  half  as  much  more  is  probably 
smuggled  in  by  steamboat  employes  and  immigrants, 
despite  the  vigilance  of  the  custom-house  officials. 
The  Chinaman  is  generally  content  to  smoke  in  his 
own  bunk,  yet  large  numbers  of  public  resorts  are 
patronized.  The  common  den  is  not  like  the  neatly 
cusliioned  alcoves  of  the  better  restaurants,  where 
each  may  have  a  bunk  to  liimself  and  an  attendant. 
A  dingy  barrenness  is  apparent  in  the  rooms  of  the 
lower  class,  despite  tlie  hazy  atmosphere,  and  among 
the  oppressive  odors  of  the  confined  room  tliat  of  pea- 
nut seems  to  predominate.  In  tlie  centre  is  a  table 
with  a  light,  and  the  walls  are  lined  with  bunks  or 
shelves,  one  above  the  other,  furnished  with  a  mat 
and  wooden  pillows,  or  at  most  with  a  suspicious 
looking  blanket  or  mattress.  Each  shelf  receives  two 
men,  wlio  lie  face  to  face,  head  to  the  wall,  and  share 
between  them  a  peculiar  lamp  with  a  small  flame.  A 
fixed  charge  is  made  for  tliis  accommodation,  with  a 
pipe,  but  not  including  the  opium,  which  may  be  pur- 
chased at  any  store.  The  pipe  consists  of  a  bamboo 
or  wood  stem,  nearly  two  feet  long,  with  a  half  inch 
perforation.  To  the  side,  near  the  foot,  is  screwed  a 
covered  bowl  of  stone,  clay,  or  hard  wood,  nearly  two 
inches  in  diameter,  with  a  small  orifice  on  the  cover 
for  the  reception  of  the  drug.  This  is  kept  in  a  tiny 
horn  box,  in  the  form  of  a  thin  black  paste,  from  which 


336  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

the  smoker  takes  a  drop  on  the  tip  of  a  wire  pin, 
turns  it  over  the  flame  for  a  couple  of  minutes,  when 
it  bubbles  and  hardens  somewhat,  after  which  he 
pushes  it  into  the  orifice  of  the  bowl.  He  then  liolds 
the  pipe  to  the  lamp,  and  placing  tlie  lips  agahist  the 
end  of  the  tube,  he  takes  a  deep  pull,  the  pellet  his- 
sing in  response,  and  the  tube  gurgling.  The  smoke 
is  drawn  into  the  lungs,  retained  for  a  moment,  and 
expelled  in  a  white  cloud  through  nostrils  and  mouth. 
It  takes  but  a  few  whiffs,  and  about  one  minute,  to 
exhaust  the  charge,  and  the  smoker  proceeds  to  re- 
plenish it,  meanwhile  growing  more  and  more  hilari- 
ous or  sullen,  according  to  his  temperament.  At 
last  after  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  charges,  with  an  ex- 
penditure at  times  of  nearly  an  ounce  of  the  drug,  the 
smoker  becomes  stupified,  the  liand  and  pipe  drop, 
the  head  falls  back,  the  body  relaxes,  and  the  spirit 
wings  its  way  to  realms  of  bliss.  Mundane  realities 
fade ;  a  paradise  reveals  itself  wherein  fairy-like  pal- 
aces invite  the  sleeper  to  enter,  and  briglit  fresh  gar- 
dens allure  him  to  repose  ;  where  the  air  vibrates  with 
melodious  strains ;  where  angel  forms  float  upon  an 
ether  of  delicious  perfumes.  After  a  feast  of  nectar 
and  ambrosia,  the  soul  meanwhile  revelling  in  joys 
which  words  cannot  describe,  he  awakes  nervous  and 
uncomfortable,  with  a  yet  stronger  desire  for  a  renewal 
of  the  debauch. 

Many  use  opium  in  moderation,  as  a  soothing  re- 
laxation after  the  fatigue  of  the  day,  and  as  a  panacea 
for  the  ills  of  the  flesh ;  but  the  drug  is  most  insidious, 
and  more  apt  to  gain  ascendency  than  alcohol.  By 
inhaling  the  smoke  the  system  becomes  saturated 
with  the  poison ;  and  as  the  victim  becomes  lost  to  its 
influence  he  passes  the  day  in  listless  misery,  waiting 
only  for  night  when  he  may  escape  it  by  another 
trance.  He  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  den,  and  lies  on 
the  bunk  a  ghastly  pale  figure,  heaving  spasmodically, 
and  with  glassy  vacant  eyes.  He  sinks  into  physical 
and  mental  imbecility,  and  hurries  to  an  early  grave. 


THE   OPIUM   HABIT.  S37 

Good  opluin  costs  as  much  as  twenty-five  dollars  a 
pound,  but  the  scrapings  from  the  pipes  are  mixed 
with  the  cheaper  kind  sold  to  the  impecunious. 

Numbers  of  strictly  guarded  dens  were  kept  es- 
pecially for  the  accommodation  of  white  men  of  all 
classes,  and  of  abandoned  women,  who  mingled  in 
reckless  disorder.  The  municipality  of  San  Francisco 
was  finally  induced  to  repress  this  growing  danger  by 
imposing  heavy  fines  on  keepers  and  frequenters;  but 
Chinese  servants  nmst  have  aided  to  spread  the  vice, 
for  large  quantities  of  opium  are  bought  by  others 
than  Cliinamen.  The  not  uncommon  habit  of  eating- 
it  is  still  more  dangerous,  as  the  poison  then  enters 
directly  into  the  blood,  and  is  almost  certain  death. 

The  Chinese  also  are  great  smokers  of  tobacco. 
They  use  an  aromatic  tobacco  for  cigarettes,  and  also 
for  pipes.  Their  tobacc()-})ipes  are  ponderous  metal 
cases  of  square  or  fancy  shape,  with  a  receptacle  for  the 
weed  on  one  side,  and  a  pocket  for  water  on  the  other. 
A  small  narrow  tube  fits  into  the  pocket,  and  into  this 
the  tobacco  is  placed  so  tliat  the  smoke  may  pass 
through  the  water.  On  the  side  of  the  pipe  are 
sheaths  for  holdino;  trinnninir  and  cleanino^- sticks. 
Betel  nuts  are  chewed  by  many. 

The  most  conspicuous  evidence  of  the  Mongolian's 
presence  among  us,  next  to  his  own  striking  person, 
are  probably  the  signboards  with  their  persuasive  in- 
scriptions of  Shun  Wo,  Hang  Ki,  Ah  Lin,  and  the 
like,  w^hich  stare  us  in  the  face  at  every  turn.  The 
laundry-keeper  who  appeals  to  our  patronage  has  so 
far  infringed  upon  his  conservative  principles  as  to 
announce  his  calling  in  a  style  suited  to  our  barbaric 
ideas,  but  not  so  in  his  own  quarter.  Here  the  pres- 
ence of  another  civilization  is  at  once  made  manifest 
in  the  orientalism  of  the  gaudy  red  and  gilt  letter- 
ing on  the  black  signboard,  which  hangs  vertically, 
significant  of  the  isolated  and  stationary  character  of 
that  culture.     The  words  may  not  sound  musical  to 

Essays  and  Miscellany     22 


338  MOXnOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

our  ear,  but  wlicn  translated  they  certainly  are  most 
flowery,  partaking  indeed  of  the  subhnie  and  heavenly. 
Wo,  for  instance,  with  its  doleful  reminder  of  terres- 
trial misery,  becomes  ''harmony"  in  their  languaL^e, 
and  is  a  favorite  denomination  witli  merchants.  The 
mean  sounding  Tin  Yuk  is  transformed  into  ''heavenly 
jewel."  Each  place  of  business  or  abode  has  its  motto 
or  title,  wliich  is  chosen  with  the  most  careful  consid- 
eration of  its  lucky  import,  denoting  some  cardinal 
virtue,  wish,  or  phrase  of  welcome,  and  couched  in 
classic  or  poetic  terms.  The  sign  is  duly  installed 
with  religious  ceremonies  and  conjurations,  and  be- 
neath its  potent  charm,  for  the  invocation  of  higher 
powers,  and  for  the  allurement  of  weak  mortals,  does 
the  merchant  hide  his  own  cognomen,  in  accordance 
with  the  code  of  celestial  humility.  Every  object  in 
the  establishment  is  blessed  in  the  same  way,  amid 
appeals  to  various  idols,  and  in  particular  to  Psoi  Pah 
Sliing  Kwun,  the  god  of  wealth,  to  whom  all  address 
their  prayers  for  prosperity  and  riches.  The  motto 
is  often  made  to  denote  the  object  of  the  establish- 
ment. Thus,  Fragrant  Tea  Chambers,  Balcony  of 
Joy  and  Delight,  or  Chamber  of  Odors  of  Distant 
Lands,  are  applied  to  restaurants.  Hall  of  Joyful 
Relief,  Great  Life  Hall,  or  Everlasting  Spring  cannot 
fail  to  indicate  an  apothecary  shop.  Clothiers  sport 
the  elegant  and  ornamental,  and,  to  make  doubly  sure 
of  recognition,  the  weaving  or  embroidery  of  the  let- 
tering is  made  suggestive.  The  jeweler's  sign  is 
Original  Gold,  or  Flower  Pearls.  The  butchers  hang 
their  notice,  "we  receive  the  golden  hogs,"  beneath 
the  motto  of  Virtue  Abounding,  or  Brotherly  Union. 
Lottery  establishments  allure  with  Winning  Hall  or 
Lucky  and  Happy,  while  Fan  Fan  saloons  urge  you 
to  Get  Pich  and  attain  Heavenly  Felicity.  Besides 
auspicious  signs  of  this  character,  stores  have  another 
board  with  notices  of  the  goods  they  sell.  The  interior 
is  also  decorated  with  a  profusion  of  red  slips  bearing 
moral  quotations,  good  wishes,  or  exhortations,  where- 


SHOP-KEEPING.  339 

with  to  inspire  the  visitor  with  confidence  in  the  vir- 
tues of  the  place.  Over  the  door  may  be  the  an- 
nouncement Ten  Thousand  Customers  Constantly 
Arriving,  and  immediately  after  this  patent  falsehood 
he  reads  the  assurance  that  Neither  Old  nor  Young 
will  be  Deceived ;  but,  of  course,  if  he  is  a  Chinaman 
he  knows  better  than  that — or  if  he  knows  that  he 
will  be  deceived,  then  he  is  not  deceived,  and  the 
motto  holds  good.  Nor  is  he  likely  to  abate  one  iota 
of  his  chattering  before  the  notice,  One  Look,  One 
Utterance  Will  Settle  the  Business.  Safes,  scales, 
and  other  articles  bear  such  talismanic  inscriptions 
as  Amass  Gold,  Be  Busy  and  Prosperous. 

Private  houses  are  eijually  well  provided  with 
wishes.  The  entrance  bearing  such  words  as  May  the 
Five  Blessings  Enter;  the  stairway,  Ascending  and 
Descending  Safety  and  Peace ;  the  room,  Old  and 
Young  in  Health  and  Peace,  or  May  Your  Wishes  be 
Gratified. 

One  more  they  miglit  have  added.  Familiarity 
breeds  Contempt,  and  then  have  thrown  away  the 
whole.  For  here  we  have  the  explanation,  why  the 
celestial  always  remains  so  passive  and  devoid  of 
reverence  in  face  of  the  array  of  sacred  and  social 
admonitions.  Nevertheless,-  they  serve  a  purpose  in 
the  code  of  oriental  politeness,  for  he  of  our  western 
east  does  not  plunge  at  once  into  business  on  making  a 
call.  Time  is  taken  to  exchange  compliments,  par- 
take of  refreshments  and  to  chat,  during  which  the 
maxims  frequently  serve  as  a  theme. 

Shrewd  as  the  Chinese  traders  are  supposed  to  be, 
they  have  none  of  the  enterprising  spirit  of  our  dealers. 
No  attempt  is  made  to  display  goods.  The  few  arti- 
cles exhibited  in  the  windows  incHcate  no  attempt  at 
tasteful  arrangement,  and  no  care  is  taken  to  allure 
the  customer  who  enters.  Everything  is  packed  so 
as  to  occupy  the  least  space  possible,  although  in  ad- 
mirable order,  and  but  little  room  is  left  to  move  in. 
Several  branches  of  business  are  often  carried  on  in 


340  MO^TiOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

the  same  shop,  earli  with  its  desk, where  the  clerk  is 
busy  painting  letters  on  their  light  brown  paper  with 
brush  and  Indian  ink.  His  system  of  book-keeping 
appears  somewhat  complex  to  the  uninitiated,  but  is 
doubtless  as  clear  and  correct  as  the  method  of  calcu- 
lating on  the  abacus  by  his  side.  Among  his  duties 
is  to  send  around  advertisements  of  new  goods,  and 
for  this  purpose  almost  every  place  of  business  is  pro- 
vided with  a  limited  set  of  types,  engraved  on  pieces 
of  wood,  one  and  a  half  inches  long  by  three  eighths 
of  an  inch  square.  In  printing,  each  type  is  separately 
pressed  on  an  ink-pad  and  stamped  on  red  paper,  one 
sign  below  the  other,  according  to  the  Chinese  mode 
of  reading. 

This  is  the  limit  of  their  enterprise  as  traders,  for 
although  merchant  and  clerk  are  profuse  in  expressions 
of  welcome  and  offers  of  refreshment  and  services,  yet 
the  moment  business  is  entered  upon  they  assume  a 
dignified  nonchalance  that  is  truly  discouraging  to  the 
stranger.  Only  the  goods  demanded  are  produced, 
and  this  in  abstracted  manner,  as  if  their  thoughts 
were  bent  on  other  subjects. 

There  is  a  number  of  firms  who  have  amassed 
fortunes,  chiefly  by  saving,  although  a  few  have  fallen 
naturally  into  a  large  share  of  the  China  trade,  wherein 
several  millions  have  gradually  been  invested.  These 
great  merchants  keep  their  goods  stored  near  the 
wharves,  and  have  merely  an  office  for  the  transaction 
of  business  in  Sacramento  street  or  elsewhere.  To 
facilitate  affairs  they  erected  a  kind  of  merchants'  ex- 
change as  early  as  1854,  but  no  other  banks  exist  than 
the  counting-houses  of  the  different  merchants,  to 
whom  savings  are  intrusted  on  interest,  and  who  issue 
checks.  Where  they  keep  the  large  sums  which  are 
so  readily  forthcoming  when  called  for  is  not  revealed. 
Money- brokers  exist  who  are  prepared  to  grant  loans 
to  w^ell-known  merchants  on  their  word  alone,  which 
is  never  broken.  Indeed,  these  men  have  a  better 
reputation  for  honesty  than  the  Americans.     At  New 


DEATH  BEFORE  DISHONOR  341 

Year  books  are  balanced,  and  all  debts  settled.  Fail- 
ing in  this  they  are  cancelled  or  grace  is  offered,  but 
with  loss  of  credit  to  the  non-payer,  who  is  henceforth 
dishonored,  unless  his  efforts  to  retrieve  himself  are 
successful.  It  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  honor  with 
insolvent  debtors  to  kill  themselves,  for  death  alone 
cancels  unpaid  debts.  It  is  a  pity  this  rule  does  not 
obtain  in  America  and  Europe.  The  six  companies 
wield  power  over  all,  and  permit  none  to  leave  the 
country  who  have  not  settled  their  debts. 

Mine  uncle,  the  pawnbroker,  likewise  is  John,  and 
drives  a  thriving  business  among  the  poor  opium- 
smokers.  His  dealings  are  regulated  by  a  guild,  and 
licensed  by  American  authorities.  Everything  on 
which  a  bit  can  be  loaned  is  found  hypothecated  by 
needy  persons  and  gamblers;  even  prospective  wages 
are  pawned,  and  in  return  for  the  deposit,  besides  the 
money  loaned,  they  receive  a  ticket  corresponding  to 
the  tag  attached  to  the  article. 

If  they  do  not  possess  all  the  various  adjuncts  of 
our  enterprising  commerce,  they  at  least  learn  quickly 
enouc^h  to  take  advantage  of  them.  It  is  related  that 
a  Chinaman  had  insured  his  life  for  a  considerable 
amount,  and  on  being  brought  near  to  death  by  an 
accident,  his  friends  sent  to  the  insurance  company  to 
say  that  the  man  was  half  dead,  and  that  they  wanted 
half  tlie  money.  Bcliind  the  innocent  exterior  of  the 
celestial  is  hidden  much  cunning,  and  the  white  men 
wlio  are  tempted  by  this  appearance  to  make  him  the 
butt  of  their  jokes^,  or  to  take  an  unfair  advantage, 
often  find  themselves  the  victims.  One  day  a  China- 
man entered  a  Cheap  John  shop  on  Commercial 
street,  and  picking  up  one  boot  of  a  pair  examined  it 
attentively. 

"How  muchec?"  at  length  he  inquired. 

'*Five  dollars,"  replied  the  sliop-keeper. 

*'I  give  you  two  dollar,"  said  the  Chinaman.  The 
shop-keeper  looked  at  the  heathen  for  a  moment 
in  mingled  disgust  and  contempt;    his  features  and 


342  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

lips  then  wroatlied  themselves  into  what  by  some 
miglit  be  called  a  smile. 

"All  ni^ht,  take  it,"  he  at  length  replied. 

The  Chinaman  paid  the  money,  and  was  about 
picking  up  the  other  boot  to  make  the  pair  com[)lete 
when  the  shop-keeper  laid  his  hand  on  him,  and  break- 
ing into  a  loud  laugh  exclaimed,  "No  you  don't,  you 
heathen  !  I  sold  you  one  boot  only.  Pay  me  three 
dollars  more,  and  you  may  have  the  other.  Ha  I  ha ! 
ha!" 

Not  a  muscle  in  the  Mongolian's  face  moved,  but 
the  coppery  tincture  common  to  his  features  changed 
to  a  brassy  hue,  so  deeply  stirred  was  he ;  then  draw- 
ing from  his  pocket  a  knife,  he  opened  it,  and  before 
the  faintest  suspicion  of  what  he  was  about  to  do 
crossed  the  mind  of  the  shop-keeper,  the  Chinaman 
cut  the  boot  he  liad  bought  into  shreds,  threw  it  on 
the  floor,  and  walked  out  of  the  shop,  thus  spoiling 
the  pair  for  any  future  sale, 

Chinese  merchants  form  partnerships,  often  of  a 
dozen  members,  who  live  in  their  store,  where  they 
keep  a  cook  and  other  servants,  and  maintain  a  strict 
exclusiveness  from  the  common  people.  Their  edu- 
cation, refined  manners,  and  liberality  have  gained  for 
them  great  esteem  among  our  merchants.  Prominent 
among  them  was  Chung  Lock,  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  Chy  Lung  &  Co.  since  1850,  who  died  August  30, 
1868,  and  whose  funeral  was  attended  by  many 
Americans.  Their  largest  dealings  are  in  rice,  tea, 
opium,  silk,  clothing,  and  fancy  goods.  The  extent 
of  the  wholesale  trade  may  be  judged  from  the  cus- 
toms duties,  which  in  1877  amounted  to  $1,756,000. 
From  these  houses  are  supplied  hundreds  of  retail 
stores,  many  of  which,  especially  those  keeping  fancy 
goods,  appeal  to  American  patronage.  Many  of  them 
are  branches  of  the  wholesale  establishments.  In 
contrast  to  the  fancy  goods  warehouses,  and  remark- 
able chiefly  for  their  odor  and  filth,  are  the  provision 
stores,  with  their  mangled  chunks  of  meat  on  dingy 


COMMERCE  AND  INDUSTRIES.  343 

boards,  floor,  furniture,  and  walls  smeared  with  blood, 
dark  holes  filled  with  suspicious-looking  food,  vege- 
table and  nondescript.  Poles  and  strings  cross  one 
another  with  repulsive  loads  of  fish,  pork,  and  ducks, 
undergoing  a  curative  process  in  the  smoky  atmos- 
phere, and  adding  to  it  their  quota  of  putridity. 

To  become  a  shopkeeper  appears  to  be  as  much  an 
object  of  the  Chinaman's  ambition  as  the  Americans, 
but  the  main  point  is  to  get  rich,  as  indicated  by  their 
New  Year's  salutation.  If  he  has  not  the  means  to 
open  a  shop  and  await  patronage  with  dignity,  he  can 
at  least  stock  a  peddler's  basket,  and  armed  with  the 
license  issued  by  the  municipality  for  ten  dollars  per 
quarter,  he  braves  the  raw  morning,  the  hoodlums 
and  the  dogs,  to  offer  vegetables,  fish,  fancy  goods, 
matches  and  other  articles  at  the  doors  of  tlie  people. 
The  Ihnited  use  of  beasts  in  China  has  habituated  the 
inhabitants  to  carrying;  and  however  large  the  busi- 
ness may  be  of  the  peddler  or  laundryman,  no  wagons 
are  used.  The  vegetable  venders  may  daily  be  seen 
panting  at  a  swinging  and  never-relaxing  gait,  beneath 
150  pounds,  all  packed  and  arranged  with  admirable 
care.  They  are  under  control  of  certain  associations 
or  masters,  some  of  whom  have  an  arrangement  with 
market-dealers  to  receive  all  unsold  and  rejected  stuff. 
Faded  vegetables  are  sometimes  taken  to  a  cellar, 
where  tliey  are  freshened  with  water  and  picked.  In 
187G  tlie  number  of  Chinese  peddlers  in  San  Francisco 
and  Oakland  was  estimated  at  three  hundred. 

And  not  alone  vegetable  peddlers  are  thus  controlled, 
but  dealers  in  all  branches  of  trade;  tea  merchants, 
washermen,  shoemakers,  cigar  manufacturers,  and  rag- 
pickers are  likewise  subject  to  guilds  and  trades  unions, 
whose  rules  modify  competition,  fix  prices,  and  deter- 
mine other  matters. 

The  industries  of  the  Chinese  in  California  were 
chiefly  of  the  ruder  kind,  as  the  immigration  comprised 
for  the  most  part  unskilled  laborers;  hence  the  rail- 


344  MONOOTJANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

ways  came  in  for  a  lari^c  share  of  their  attention,  so 
much  so  that  iu  18GG  more  than  one  fourth  of  all  the 
Chinese  in  California  were  cnn)loyed  on  them.  Every 
railroad  on  the  coast  has  used  their  labor,  thus  hasten- 
ing the  completion  of  their  roads.  Their  efKcioncy  as 
pick-and-shovel  men  has  been  tested  also  on  wagon 
roads;  on  the  Pacific  ALiil  Steamsliip  Company's dep6t, 
where  tliey  cut  away  the  hill  and  filled  in  the  bay; 
on  the  Pilarcitos  creek  reservoir  which  was  chiefly 
constructed  by  them  ;  and  above  all  by  large  extent 
of  reclaimed  land  and  irrigation  canals.  For  this 
work  they  were  particularly  fitted  by  their  training  in 
the  native  rice  fields,  and  for  its  cultivation  they  have 
shown  themselves  ecjually  well  suited.  Among  the 
large  Chinese  contractors  was  the  Quong  Yee  Wo  Co. 
of  San  Francisco,  wliich  underbid  eleven  tenders  for 
the  ditch  of  the  Truckee  and  Steamboat  Springs  Canal 
Co.,  offering  to  dig  it  for  $30,000.  The  company 
keeps  an  army  of  laborers  on  the  various  contracts 
held  by  it. 

Their  value  as  farm  laborers  has  been  generclly  re- 
cognized; and  but  for  their  ready  and  cheaper  labor 
the  farmer  would  often  have  been  at  a  loss  to  clear 
his  field  or  gather  his  crop.  Whole  parties  flock  to 
the  potato  diggings  and  help  to  clieapen  this  needful 
food.  Most  of  the  small  fruit  is  gathered  by  them. 
Indeed,  the  long  belt  of  orchards  along  the  Sacramento 
and  its  tributaries  in  1876  employed  over  2,500  of 
them  to  a  score  or  so  of  white  laborers  The  stoop- 
ing posture  the  European  cannot  so  well  endure,  and 
the  neat  handlingr  and  trimminor  he  does  not  attain 
to.  Often  the  small  value  of  the  crop  will  not  permit 
the  payment  of  high  wages  for  gathering  it.  For  the 
cultivation  of  sandy  and  less  productive  soil,  and  for 
the  hot  and  marshy  valley  of  San  Joaquin,  they  prove 
more  efficient  than  white  men;  and  in  particular  for 
the  introduction  and  cultivation  of  rice,  cotton,  coffee, 
tea,  sugar,  and  similar  products  for  which  southern 
California  is  admirably  suited,  but  for  which  she  must 


CHJDs  AMEN  AS  LABORERS.  345 

have  cheap  and  experienced  labor  in  order  to  compete 
with  countries  whence  we  now  import  them,  they  are 
indespensible.  Rice  has  not  succeeded  as  yet,  but 
silk  culture  is  promising,  and  in  1869  a  firm  at  San 
Gabriel  contracted  for  forty  Chinese  families  to  attend 
to  its  mulberry  plantations.  Tlie  contract  was  for 
four  years ;  but  if  tlicy  remained  permanently  they 
were  to  receive  as  a  gift  a  house  aiid  garden  for  each 
family. 

As  vegetable  gardeners  the  Chinese  were  scarcely 
excelled.  They  had  regular  plantations  on  the  Sac- 
ramento and  elsewhere,  where  they  worked  for  the 
proprietor,  who  furnished  teams  and  some  implements, 
and  attended  to  the  sale  of  the  produce  in  return  for 
his  half  share  of  vegetables  and  grain,  and  three-fiftlis 
of  the  fruit.  The  tenants  employed  countrymen  la- 
borers at  from  ten  to  sixteen  dollars  a  month,  with 
board.  Others  leased  land  for  a  money  rental,  and 
some  even  ventured  to  purchase  farming  land.  Above 
Rio  Vista  was  a  rancho  of  21G5  acres  which  was 
l)ought  by  a  Chinsse  joint  stock  company  for  thirty 
dollars  per  acre,  stockc^d  and  improved.  Another 
tract  of  1000  above  Benicia  was  purchased  for 
twenty-seven  dollars  an  acre  by  Chinese.  That  favor- 
ite connnodity  of  the  fruit-dealer,  peanuts,  was 
largely  produced  by  Chinese.  In  18G8  one  man  made 
$1500  by  employing  his  countrymen  to  pick  wild 
nmstard  in  Monterey  county.  They  also  had  exten- 
sive arrangements  for  the  hatching  of  eggs  by  artifi- 
cial heat.  Wood-cutting,  clearing  fields  of  stubble, 
and  burning  charcoal  were  branches  of  work  under- 
taken by  them. 

Until  stopped  by  trades  unions,  manufacturers  were 
glad  to  employ  them,  particularly  since  contractors 
were  willing  to  guarantee  them  from  loss  by  pilfering, 
for  which  they  liave  a  penchant  There  was  scarcely 
a  trade  into  which  they  did  not  enter  in  competition 
with  white  men  whon\  they  sometimes  succeeded  in 
ousting.     They  were  to  be"^  found  in  lumber,  paper, 


346  MOXGOLIANISM   IX  A:MERICA. 

and  powder  mills,  tanneries,  rope-walks,  lead-works, 
tin-shops,  and  fiictorios  for  jute,  oakum,  sack,  bag, 
blacking,  soap,  and  candles.  Some  were  employed  as 
cabinet-makers  and  carvers,  others  as  brick-makers, 
competing  with  the  convicts,  and  in  condensing  salt 
from  the  sea.  At  Isleton  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Sacramento,  they  w^orked  in  a  beet-root  sugar  refinery. 
At  ^larysville  a  number  of  broom  and  sack  makers 
employed  them,  and  the  woollen-mills  in  San  Fran- 
cisco had  about  IGO.  The  three  woollen-mills  in  San 
Francisco  employed  about  700  in  1876.  The  Eureka 
hair  factory  could  not  maintain  itself  but  for  their 
cheap  labor  to  gather  and  prepare  the  soap  root ;  they 
also  assisted  in  making  curled  hair  and  coir  for  uphol- 
sterers. There  were  at  this  time  thirty  Chinese  cloth- 
ing manufactories  with  male  and  female  employes, 
the  females  doing  tlie  light  finishing  work.  Overalls 
and  underwear  for  men  and  women  could  not  be  made 
here  so  as  to  compete  with  eastern  maimfactures 
except  with  the  cheap  and  efficient  aid  of  Chinese,  of 
whomever  1000  used  to  ply  the  sewing  machine. 

In  1876  there  were  seventy  Chinese  establishments 
for  tlie  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes,  and  to  com- 
pete with  them  the  American  firms  were  obliged  to 
employ  a  large  proportion  of  Chinese,  especially  for 
making  women's  and  children's  shoes.  Some  of  the 
largest  manufacturers,  who  employed  Chinese  and 
white  men  in  about  equal  proportion,  were  in  conse- 
quence exposed  to  great  danger  at  the  hands  of  agi- 
tators ;  but  recognizing  their  inability  to  maintain 
their  establishments  with  exclusively  white  labor, 
their  own  white  employes  organized  into  a  force  to 
guard  the  factory  during  an  excitement.  The  shoe- 
makers' union  presented  a  dark  picture  of  the  distress 
among  its  members,  and  said  that  the  Chinese  work- 
men, of  whom  there  were  3000,  had  deprived  more 
than  half  of  the  1200  members  of  work,  besides 
monopolizing  the  slipper  trade. 

These  men  forget,  however,  that  were  the  Chinese 


CIGAR-MAKING   AND   LAUNDRIES.  347 

labor  dispensed  with,  the  factories  would  succumb  be- 
fore the  eastern  trade,  and  the  white  men  employed 
by  them  would  be  added  to  the  idle.  In  this  light 
the  Chinese  may  be  considered,  as  before  remarked, 
rather  as  benefactors  to  industry.  This  argument  ap- 
plies to  a  number  of  other  industries  such  as  the 
woollen-mills,  sack,  jute,  and  hair  factories,  which 
could  not  be  maintained,  and  perhaps  could  never 
have  been  established,  but  for  the  cheap  labor  which 
enables  them  to  compete  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 
The  prices  paid  to  Chinamen  are,  as  a  rule,  less  than 
for  wliite  labor,  the  former  receiving  in  San  Francisco 
woollen  mills  §1  a  day,  against  $1.75  to  §2  for  skilled 
white  operatives,  and  from  $1  to  $1.60  for  women  and 
girls. 

If  the  Chinese  encroached  largely  on  the  shoe 
trade,  they  nearly  appropriated  the  cigar  manufacture. 
The  cigar-makers  swarmed  between  Sansome  and 
Front  streets,  and  in  the  loathsome  dens  of  the  Chi- 
nese quarter,  where  the  cheap  weeds  patronized  by 
the  hoodlums  were  chiefly  manufactured.  They  num- 
bered from  4000  to  7000,  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
cigars  and  cigarettes  were  from  their  hands.  Germans 
introduced  them  to  the  business,  and  had  later  reason 
to  dread  their  rivalry.  In  1862  the  white  cigar- 
makers  rose  to  drive  them  out,  but  failed. 

A  room  fifteen  feet  wide  and  twenty  in  length,  with 
a  gallery  for  greater  economy  of  space,  would  hold 
nearly  fifty  men,  who  worked  under  a  foreman  ;  they 
smoked  and  talked  at  pleasure,  for  the  work  was  by 
the  piece,  at  from  five  to  fourteen  dollars  a  thousand, 
according  to  quality.  The  average  earnings  were  one 
dollar  a  day.  The  tobacco  passed  through  three  pro- 
cesses, after  being  moistened  by  a  fine  spray  from  the 
mouth.  The  stems  of  the  leaf  were  extracted  by  one, 
another  rolled  up  the  filler,  while  a  third  enveloped 
the  whole  in  a  wrapper,  pasted  it,  and  twisted  the  end 
into  shape.  Cigar  stumps  from  the  streets  formed  a 
part  of  the  filling  for  cheap  cigars,     Besides  the  legit- 


348  MON(;OLIxVNISM   IN   AMERICA. 

imate  manufacturers,  tlicre  was  a  number  of  illn  it 
makers,  whose  wares  were  hawked  by  peddlers,  wlio 
kept  the  cigars  hidden  in  their  sleeves  or  close  to  their 
bronzed  skin.  The  Chinese  dealer  was  constantly 
evading  the  tax  by  omitting  to  destroy  the  stamp  on 
the  box  ;  they  got  rid  of  low  grade  ware  by  placing  a 
few  good  cigars  on  the  top  in  the  box. 

In  the  laundry  bushiess  tlie  Chinese  gained  as  strong 
a  footintj:  as  in  the  ci^ar  trade.  In  187G  San  Fran- 
cisco  alone  contained  some  300  Chinese  laundries, 
employing  on  an  average  five  men  each,  and  1,500 
more  were  employed  at  w^hite  establishments.  Almost 
every  block  in  the  city  had  one  or  more  laundries; 
hotels,  boarding-houses,  and  other  institutions  had 
generally  one  of  their  own.  There  is  scarcely  a  vil- 
lage on  the  coast  without  them.  Altliough  not  very 
enterprising  as  business  men,  they  have  acquired  to 
some  extent  the  American  art  of  soliciting  orders, 
and  families  are  sometimes  applied  to  with  the  not 
very  clear  inquiry,  *'You  dirty?"  followed  by  the 
explanation,  "  Me  w^ashee  belly  clean."  They  are  not 
particular  as  to  the  quality  of  the  work,  but  with  im- 
pressive persuasion  they  may  be  made  to  understand 
that  spots  and  wrinkles  do  not  add  to  the  finish  of  a 
shirt-front ;  still  more  difficult  is  it  to  prevail  upon 
them  to  spare  the  material,  which  rapidly  decays 
under  their  s^'Stem  of  pounding  and  the  use  of  acids 
for  bleaching.  The  sprinkling  process  is  most  effect- 
ively performed  with  the  mouth,  and  ironing  is  often 
done  with  hollow  irons  containing  glowing  coals. 
Arsenic  is  said  to  be  added  to  the  starch  to  give  a 
gloss.  The  economic  principle  is  carried  so  far  that 
the  proprietor  will  employ  two  gangs,  one  for  the  day, 
the  other  for  the  night,  in  order  to  utilize  the  shop 
and  its  stock  in  trade  to  the  fullest  extent,  or  two 
washing  companies  will  alternate.  Their  laundry 
rental  for  1877  was  $152,000  and  the  water  tax 
$68,800.  Laundries  are  not  desirable  in  any  locality, 
for  people  naturally  object  to  such  neighbors,  and  wfll 


SONG  07  THE  SHIRT.  349 

not  take  adjoining  houses  except  at  a  lower  rent. 
The  odor  is  objectionable,  and  the  danger  from  fires 
is  increased,  owing  to  the  crudeness  of  the  fire-places, 
and  the  absence  or  defect  of  the  chimney.  In  a  Chi- 
nese song  of  the  shirt  to  his  cousin  at  home  the  wash- 
man  in  California  thus  complains : 

Workee,  workee,  Washee,  washee,  Chinee  countree, 

All  same  workee.  All  day  washee,  All  one  samee, 

No  time  thinkee,  All  day  gettee,  John  have  pickee. 

No  time  see,  One  rupee,  Big  ladee, 

Me  no  likee,  No  buy  smokee.  Here  no  likee, 

Why  for  workee,  All  dam  boshee.  Big  damsliamee, 

Dampoor  ricee,  No   buy  drinkee.  All  John  havee, 

Dampoor  tea.  Poor  whiskee.  Ono  Paddee. 

Another  work  extensively  engaged  in  by  the 
Chinese,  and  for  which  their  home  training  on  the 
river  has  particularly  fitted  them,  is  fishing.  In  1857 
we  find  them  employing  twelve  vessels  and  several 
hundred  men  in  the  pearl  oyster  fishery  to  gather 
auloncs,  as  tlie  meat  of  this  oyster  is  termed,  for  the 
San  Francisco  and  China  market.  The  Chinese  fisher- 
men spread  rapidly  along  coast  and  inlets,  and  carried 
on  their  (|uest  with  such  energy  that  the  legislature 
of  1859  was  induced  to  impose  a  tax  of  four  dollars 
per  month. 

In  various  parts  of  the  bay  a  series  of  piles  or 
sticks  may  be  seen  rising  from  the  water  to  which 
nets  are  attached.  At  the  turn  of  the  tide  the  junks 
or  sampans  come  round  with  their  queer  cross-ribbed 
sails  to  receive  the  catch,  including  the  thiiest  min- 
now, for  before  the  law  was  passed  regulating  the  size 
of  their  meshes  nothing  was  allowed  to  escape  them. 
The  haul  is  sorted  on  shore,  and  the  big  fish  placed 
in  perforated  boxes  and  kept  in  the  water  till  the 
market  boat  leaves.  The  minnows,  which  include 
our  choicest  food  fishes,  are  dried  in  the  sun  and 
shipped  to  San  Francisco  and  China.  Shrimps  are 
also  caught  and  dried,  and  beaten  with  sticks  to  release 
the  shell ;  both  meat  and  shell  are  then  packed  for 
export,  the  latter  being  used  for  fertilizing  purposes. 
The  manifest  of  the  steamer  for  China,  m  May  1877, 


350  MOXGOLIAXISM   IX  AMERICA, 


I 


showed  an  export  of  045  sacks  of  shrimp  sliclls,  600 
of  shrhiips  and  7G5  of  minnows,  valued  at  §l!2,000. 
Other  steamers  took  similar  lots,  showing  a  total 
export  for  tlie  year  of  nearly  one  million  dollars  worth 
of  tliis  article  alone 

This  wholesale  extermination  has  made  the  fish 
scarce;  for  notwithstanding  the  law  regulating  the 
size  of  the  meshes,  the  Chinese  readily  i)ay  the  fine 
and  repeat  the  oftence.  Between  Yallejo  and  Sau- 
zalito  alone  about  one  thousand  Chinese  prey  upon 
the  fish,  and  obstruct  navigation  with  their  piles. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  useless  to  plant  ova. 

Near  Point  Pinos,  two  miles  from  Monterey,  was 
a  colony  of  400  or  500  fishermen,  with  women  and 
children,  who  made  a  good  living  by  catching  And 
drying  smelts  and  shell  fish,  with  occasionally  some 
cod  and  other  species.  AVhaling  was  not  indulged  in, 
behig  too  dangerous.  The  settlement  consisted  of 
about  100  frail  shed-dwellings,  with  gardens,  pig- 
sties, hen-roosts,  and  drying-poles,  guarded  by  dogs 
no  less  tlian  by  the  usual  odors  of  celestial  quarters, 
among  which  that  of  dead  fish  here  predominated. 
Yet  the  huts  were  rather  tidy,  and  protected  by 
moral  inscription  and  an  idol  patron  before  which 
joss-sticks  and  prayers  were  constantly  oflered.  It 
needed  but  a  small  portion  of  the  revenue  from 
fish  and  fish  oil  to  supply  the  few  extra  articles  re- 
quired by  these  temperate  people,  such  as  rice,  tea, 
opium,  and  joss- wood,  for  the  sea  and  garden  supplied 
the  rest. 

The  Chinese  were  not  content  with  wao^ingc  war 
upon  the  labor  of  white  men,  but  arrayed  themselves 
also  against  the  women,  the  number  of  house  servants 
furnished  by  them  amounting  to  5000  in  San  Fran- 
cisco alone.  A  Chinese  servant  is  as  a  rule  more 
willing  to  do  what  is  required  of  him  than  a  white 
woman  who  is  apt  to  offer  objections  at  every  turn, 
insisting  on  superior  accommodation  and  inconvenient 
privileges.     Asiatic   servants  are    generally    neat  in 


LITTLE  CHINA.  351 

person,  quiet,  and  not  at  all  objectionable  in  their 
habits.  Their  wages  were  maintained  through  all  the 
raids  against  them,  and  in  1887  were  nearer  those  of 
white  women  than  in  1857,  many  housekeepers  prefer- 
ring them  to  Irish  or  German  girls  at  the  same  rate. 
Rag-picking  rose  into  a  profession  in  Little  China, 
and  was  of  considerable  benefit  to  manufacturers.  A 
large  building  on  Yerina  street,  formerly  used  as  a 
church,  became  the  headquarters  of  perhaps  two  hun- 
dred vagabonds,  who  increased  their  revenue  by  rob- 
bery and  murder.  They  worked  in  squads,  under  the 
direction  of  a  chief  for  whom  a  corner  was  set  aside 
at  the  alcove  consecrated  to  the  idol  patron.  The 
rest  of  this  abode  w^as  filled  with  a  miscellaneous  as- 
sortment of  dilapidated  household  ware,  apparel, 
pieces  of  food,  and  scraps  of  every  imaginable  material. 
Tlie  filth  was  repugnant,  the  odors  overpowering,  and 
vice  and  disease  reigned  in  the  most  loathsome  form. 

So  far  the  Chinese  are  principally  confined  to  the 
lower  walks  of  our  industries ;  but  here  their  lack 
of  originality  and  inventive  ingenuity  is  very  con- 
s[)icuous  for  such  apt  imitators,  and  militate  against 
them.  Their  mechanical  contrivances  at  the  mines 
and  elsewhere  liave  been  elaborate,  but  wasteful  and 
inefficient.  The  Cornell  watch  factory  at  Berkeley 
introduced  their  labor  with  most  flattering  results. 
Indeed,  there  was  a  number  of  watchmakers  in  the 
Chinese  quarter  to  whom  any  work  might  be  safely 
intrusted.  Still,  the  genius  of  the  Mongolian  does 
not  rise  above  imitation,  and  at  this  he  probably  sur- 
passes the  white  man,  for  he  masters  a  trade  in  a  few 
weeks,  which  the  other  requires  months  or  years  to 
learn. 

On  the  first  entry  of  the  Chinese  colony  into  San 
Jose,  the  head  man,  who  wanted  ten  houses,  liired  a 
carpenter  to  erect  one.  While  he  was  constructing  it, 
the  Chinamen  lay  around,  smoking  and  idling,  but  not 
without  an  object.  No  sooner  was  the  first  house 
ready  than  the  carpenter  was  dismissed  with  the  dec- 


352  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

laratioii  tliat  the  ''Cliinamaii  sabee  all  same  Melican 
man,"  and  would  now  build  the  rest  witliout  his  aid. 
The  stone  for  a  corner  building  on  Montgomery  and 
California  streets,  San  Francisco,  was  brought  from 
China,  where  the  granite  blocks  were  cut  and  fitted, 
the  Chinese  workmen  accompanying  the  cargo  and 
aiding  to  erect  the  building,  in  1852.  It  is  not  exactly 
a  model  of  beauty  or  of  skill,  but  did  good  service. 
The  cost  was  $117,000,  and  it  rented  at  first  for  about 
$40,000  per  annum. 

A  Chinaman  at  the  machine  shops  of  the  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Company  in  San  Francisco  had  not 
been  there  long  before  he  made  a  working  model  of  a 
locomotive,  which  was  exhibited  at  the  Sacramento 
fair.  Their  skill  at  carving  is  too  well  known  to  re- 
quire comments;  a  Chinese  portrait-painter  established 
himself  on  Kearney  street  in  18G9,  and  received  many 
orders.  A  sea-captain  sent  a  picture  injured  by  a 
rent  to  a  painter  at  Hongkong,  requesting  him  to 
make  a  copy.  In  due  time  he  received  the  work,  but 
was  amazed  to  find  that  the  rent  and  stitches  had 
also  been  reproduced  with  such  exactness  that  it  re- 
quired a  close  examination  to  discover  whctlier  the 
rent  was  real  or  not.  Chiar-oscuro,  perspective,  and 
other  principles  are  little  understood,  and  brilliancy 
of  coloring  constitutes  the  chief  merit  of  the  art,  as 
illustrated  in  the  well-known  rice  pictures.  Besides 
these,  the  most  common  products  of  the  Chinese  easel 
are  plain  and  colored  outline  sketches  on  silk,  similar 
to  the  lantern  patterns,  mounted  scroll  fashion  on  the 
walls,  and  representing  chiefly  landscapes,  wherein  a 
fair  linear  perspective  is  noticeable.  Straight  lines 
and  uniformity  are  carefully  avoided,  and  elaborate 
maze-like  and  symbolic  lines  enter  as  the  favorite  mode 
of  decoration,  reflecting  the  instability  of  the  national 
character. 

Europeans  in  China  are  obliged  to  be  painfully 
cautious  in  dealing  with  them,  and  if  the  traders  here 


RASCALITY,    WHITE  AND  YELLOW  353 

observe  good  faith,  it  is  ascribed  to  self-interest  and 
fear.  The  same  motives  may  rule  engagements 
among  themselves,  but  they  are  well  observed.  The 
regular  payment  of  debts  at  New  Year,  and  the  fear 
of  the  disgrace  which  attaches  to  a  defaulter,  are  ad- 
mirable features  that  do  not  conform  to  our  general 
experience  of  them ;  but  the  barbarian  may  be  regarded 
as  fair  prey.  With  us  they  overthrow  a  contract  or 
break  an  engagement  on  the  least  whim,  listen  un- 
moved to  our  remonstrances,  and  as  soon  as  we  have 
finished  they  turn  their  back  and  walk  away.  While 
they  are  at  work  for  you,  however,  they  generall}^ 
attend  closely  to  their  duties,  and  there  have  been 
found  among  them  rare  instances  of  disinterested 
fidelity  under  trying  circumstances. 

After  all  the  yellow  man  is  not  so  very  different 
from  the  white  man  or  black  man,  whether  their  cre- 
ators are  the  same  or  not,  the  chief  characteristics  of 
the  Asiatic  in  America  being  a  sliglitly  surly  and  reti- 
cent timidity  overlying  a  disposition  easily  roused  to 
reckless  revenge,  but  always  preferring  peace,  and  of-  • 
ten  displaying  happy  content  and  attachment.  There 
are  many  honest  Chinamen,  and  there  are  Chinamen 
who  steal.  1  do  not  know  that  the  yellow  man  in 
this  respect  is  any  worse  than  the  black  or  the  white 
man.  Indeed  our  greatest  thieves  are  found  among 
the  rich  manipulators ;  after  them  the  politicians 
and  office-holders,  and  lastly  the  low  foreigners,  in- 
cluding celestials.  The  thieves'  repositories  in  the 
Chinatowns  are  protected  by  every  inhabitant,  out  of 
pure  anti-barbaric  spirit.  Occasionally  the  police  are 
enlightened  by  a  "ghost"  or  a  spy,  and  swoop  down 
to  pry  into  corners. 

The  inmates  are  profuse  with  bland  smiles  and  ''no 
sabbe  ",  and  when  the  spoils  are  uncovered  under  their 
eyes,  they  still  maintain  their  blandness  and  denial. 
It  is  hard  to  say  what  will  ruffle  their  equanimity. 
An  expose  of  baseness  or  rascality  raises  no  blush;  a 
grotesque   exhibition  draws  but  a  smile;    an  event 

Essays  and  Miscellany        23 


354  MONGOLIANISM  IN   AMERICA. 

which  would  create  a  ferment  of  excitement  among 
white  men  does  not  stir  them.  The  nonchalance  of 
their  death-condemned  is  well  known.  They  chat  and 
smile,  eat  heartily  and  sleej)  soundly,  without  a  thought 
apparently  of  the  scaffold  and  its  dread  beyond.  The 
unconcerned  exterior  betokens  an  unsympathetic  na- 
ture ;  yet  while  laughter  and  chat  are  freely  indulged 
in  round  a  funeral  bier,  sympathy  and  self-denial  are 
common.  The  neglect  of  the  sick,  and  the  exposure 
of  dying  persons,  who  are  allowed  to  starve  to  death 
beneath  their  eyes,  indicate  a  heartless  indifference, 
but  this  after  all  displays  a  fatalism,  a  resignation 
to  the  inevitable  which  helps  them  through  their  own 
dark  hours.  Men  overtaken  by  reverses,  struck  down 
by  disease,  or  pursued  by  justice,  yield  to  fate,  and  do 
not  hesitate  to  turn  upon  themselves,  ]jlunghig  into 
the  unknown. 

Indifferent  to  their  surroundings  here,  the  memory 
of  home  fills  their  bn^ast ;  and  formal  as  may  be  their 
worship  of  the  gods,  fervor  creeps  over  the  soul  as 
they  bend  before  the  ancestral  tablet.  The  maxims 
of  the  Great  Sage  rest  upon  their  lips  ;  the  gentle  ad- 
monitions of  the  mother  dwell  in  the  heart.  The  duty 
toward  their  fellow-creatures,  inculcated  from  early 
childhood,  is  centred  in  the  sacred  obligation  toward 
their  aged  relatives,  which  extends  into  a  commenda- 
ble respect  for  those  old  enough  to  be  their  parents, 
and  declines  into  a  feeble  clannishness  for  their  imme- 
diate district  folk.  The  latter  may  depend  on  their 
aid  for  certain  occasions ;  patriarchs  commend  their 
deference;  but  the  respect  for  parents  deepens  into 
adoration.  For  them  the  son's  toils  are  pleasure;  for 
them  he  sacrifices  luxuries ;  for  them  he  saves  from 
his  pittance ;  and  on  their  graves  he  sheds  his  only 
tears  of  pure  grief  and  sympathy. 

With  this  absorbing  virtue  are  bound  three  others, 
patience,  industry,  and  economy.  The  former  are  im- 
pressed on  them  in  school,  the  latter  at  home.  They 
become,  in  consequence,  regular,  precise,  and  plodding, 


IDEAS   AND    IDIOSYNCRACIES.  355 

and  these  are  qualities  which  the  contractor  appre- 
ciates in  connection  with  their  temperate  disposition, 
adaptable  nature,  admirable  imitative  powers,  and 
nimble  deftness;  while  the  housewife  delights  in  their 
noiseless  step,  quiet  conduct,  polite  and  unobtrusive 
manner,  and  neat  appearance.  But,  alas!  even  in 
their  virtues  the  enemy  finds  stains.  Beneath  the 
Mongol  lurks  the  Tartar.  The  neatness  is  allowed 
to  be  superficial  only  ;  politeness  covers  deceit ;  meek- 
ness is  but  cowardice,  and  an  index  of  slavish  subjec- 
tion. Their  economy  sinks  either  into  miserly  greed, 
or  springs  under  the  promptings  of  vanity  into  extrav- 
agant recklessness.  Their  imitative  powers  are  but 
mechanical,  and  have  never  risen  to  the  inventive 
spirit  of  the  Americans.  Their  stunted  minds  have 
failed  to  grasp  the  progressive  enterprise  of  our  insti- 
tutions. Their  speculative  ideas  are  spurred  to  action 
by  the  gambling  table.  Their  energy  never  rises 
above  a  sluggisli  perseverance  which  sinks  into  iner- 
tia when  the  task  is  done.  Like  a  child  they  learn 
rapidly  the  rudimentary  principles,  but  the  effort 
seems  to  exhaust  them.  Herein  lies  a  clue  to  the  sta- 
tionary condition  of  their  empire,  awed  by  the  an- 
tiquity of  its  civilization,  trannneled  by  its  unwieldy 
system  of  education,  and  overwhelmed  by  an  exces- 
sive populace  which,  absorbed  by  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, has  sunk  into  superstition,  and  writhes  beneath 
the  iron  heel  of  an  autocratic  despotism.  So  write  we 
them  down,  good  and  bad,  particularly  bad :  when  we 
cross  the  water  to  work  for  them  what  will  they 
gay  of  us? 

Queen  of  the  Celestials  in  the  golden  mountains  of 
California,  during  the  year  1851,  was  Miss  Ah  Toy, 
though  the  mountains  proper  she  never  saw,  her 
Olympus  being  tlie  Dupont-street  hill.  There  she 
reigned,  white  men  kneeling  at  her  shrine,  and  fright- 
ening back  birds  of  darker  hue — white  men  presently 
to  shout  "the  Chinese  must  go! "  Aye,  the  lovely  Miss 


356  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

Toy  must  go.  The  glories  of  this  Eden  reaching  the 
ears  of  the  sisterhood  at  home,  soon  the  pathway  of 
the  Pacific  was  strewed  with  frail  fair  ones  from  the 
Flowery  Kingdom.  Women  are  cheap  hi  China. 
Poor  indeed  is  he  who,  wanting  more,  has  but  one 
wife ;  thougli  prostitution  is  not  held  in  great  disre- 
pute, the  men  very  justly  ruling  that  the  women's  sin 
cannot  be  greater  than  their  own.  Indeed,  if  many 
of  the  female  infants  were  not  drowned  at  birth,  Mon- 
golian millions  would  long  since  have  smoked  opium 
in  American  wigwams. 

It  was  a  fine  traffic,  bringing  peris  to  Paradise,  and 
the  honorable  Hip  Ye  Tung  company,  heaven-com- 
pellers  and  highbinders  trading  into  San  Francisco 
bay,  were  rich  men  before  the  end  of  1852,  since  which 
time  6000  of  these  delectable  chattels  have  been 
brought  hither  at  a  good  profit,  thus  proving  the  taste 
of  the  people. 

Immediately  on  landing  they  were  taken  to  the 
house  of  the  company.  If  introduced  on  speculation, 
they  were  placed  on  sale  at  from  100  to  300  per  cent 
profit  on  cost  in  China,  and  were  critically  examined 
by  purchasers  from  town  and  country.  If  introduced 
for  account  of  others,  the  women  were  held  till  their 
owner  paid  the  initiation  fee  of  $40,  in  return  for 
which  the  company  agreed  to  defend  his  rights  to  the 
chattel  against  American  authorities,  rival  slave  deal- 
ers, and  lovers,  the  latter  being  particularly  danger- 
ous. A  regular  weekly  or  monthly  tax  was  further- 
more levied  on  every  prostitute  for  the  same  purpose. 

It  was  through  no  fault  of  theirs  that  they  were 
what  they  were.  Omnipotence  must  be  questioned 
about  it.  The  poor  creatures  were  generally  obtained 
by  purchase  among  the  large-footed  river  population ; 
many  were  decoyed  by  dealers  under  false  promises, 
or  forcibly  abducted.  The  famine-stricken  parents 
found  it  hard  to  resist  the  temping  bait,  and  many 
were  only  too  glad  to  secure  for  the  child  the  prom- 
ised comforts. 


THE   FEMALE  ELEMENT.  357 

They  were  little  more  than  children,  these  girls, 
say  from  twelve  to  sixteen,  many  of  them,  and  they 
knew  as  much  of  the  world  as  kittens — as  much  of 
what  were  their  rights  here  in  America,  and  of  what 
was  morality  throughout  God's  universe. 

They  used  to  stand  at  the  open  door,  enameled, 
bedizened,  and  in  gaudy  apparel,  to  invite  the  passer-by; 
but  the  municipality  shut  the  door,  whereupon  they 
showed  their  faces  at  a  wicket  or  window,  proclaim- 
ing their  presence  by  voice  and  taps  when  the  police 
were  not  too  near.  Within  was  a  front  room,  relieved 
occasionally  with  flowers  and  drapery,  occupied  by 
from  two  to  six,  or  even  more,  women ;  and  behind 
were  a  number  of  tiny  rooms,  or  frail  partitions  with 
a  rough  alcove  bed  provided  with  a  mat,  pillow,  and 
chintz  curtain  ;  a  chair,  perhaps  a  cupboard,  with  a 
lamp,  some  chinaware,  and  tinsel  completed  the  fur- 
niture. Some  brothels  supported  on  an  upper  floor 
boudoirs  with  rich  furniture,  where  brilliant  robes  and 
perfumed  air  charmed  the  more  fastidious  patrons. 
Chinamen  did  not  usually  consort  with  the  class  de- 
voted to  the  Melican  service,  but  visited  a  special  set. 

Celestials  share  fully  in  tlic  general  weakness  of  the 
lower  strata  of  mankind  for  holidays,  and  possessing 
no  such  blessed  institution  as  the  Sabbath,  they  have 
supplied  the  deficiency  by  a  scries  of  festivals  in  honor 
of  deities,  heroes,  ancestors,  stars,  seasons,  and  ele- 
ments, which  embrace  one  third  of  the  year,  and  form 
the  movable  feature  in  the  fixed  institutions  of  the 
Flowery  Kingdom.  The  ofiicial  almanac  gives  due 
notice  of  their  approach,  as  well  as  of  lucky  and  un- 
lucky days,  changes  in  dress,  regulations,  and  other 
matters,  for  no  step  of  importance  may  be  undertaken 
without  consulting  its  rules.  Not  content  with  the 
formidable  list  of  prescribed  holidays,  the  priests  ar- 
range celebrations  from  time  to  time  with  a  view  of 
increasing  the  sale  of  prayers,  incense,  and  candles,  a 
scheme  for  which  they  find   a  powerful  ally  in  the 


368  MON(iOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 


popular  superstition.  There  are  besides  birthday 
fetes,  not  only  in  honor  of  living  friends,  but  of  de- 
ceased ancestors ;  and  steamer  days  on  which  to  greet 
arrivals  with  news  from  home,  or  to  take  leave  of  de- 
parting friends  who  shall  bear  messages  to  the  old 
folk.  Hence,  any  person  with  the  will  and  the  means 
can  always  find  an  excuse  for  recreation  ;  but  since 
this  inclination  is  not  prevalent  among  our  Chinese, 
owing  to  the  restless  strife  for  the  dear  dollar  and 
the  restraint  of  our  customs,  only  a  few  of  the  most 
prominent  festivals  are  observed,  and  generally  in  a 
quiet  way,  the  rest  being  abandoned  to  the  care  of  the 
temple  assistants,  who  occasionally^  honor  them  by 
lighting  a  candle  or  two  and  hoisting  a  flag  over  the 
edifice.  It  was  found  necessary  to  conform  to  a 
great  extent  to  our  usages,  and  adopt  Sunday  as  the 
day  of  rest,  and  for  it  have  been  reserved  the  various 
functions  of  washing  and  mending,  marketing  and 
promenading,  visiting  and  gambling.  A  number  de- 
vote the  day  to  reading  and  writing,  and  several  hun- 
dred attend  our  Sunday-schools.  Laundrymen,  min- 
ers, and  traders,  are  less  yielding  in  this  respect, 
except  in  so  far  as  to  indulge  the  appetite  with  a  few 
delicacies.  This  enjoyment  occurs  more  particularly 
during  their  own  fetes,  and  a  sure  indication  of  their 
approach  is  afforded  by  the  demand  on  pork  butchers 
and  poultry  dealers. 

The  New -Year  festival  overshadows  all  the  rest  in 
solemnity  as  well  as  fun,  and  none,  however  poor, 
busy,  or  friendless  fail  to  celebrate.  Families,  laun- 
dries, factories,  and  railroads  are  all  left  by  servants 
and  employes  to  shift  for  themselves,  mission  schools 
are  neglected,  and  outlying  settlements,  mining  camps, 
and  ranchos,  are  abandoned,  if  possible,  for  the  cen- 
tral settlements,  where  a  round  of  pleasure  awaits 
them  for  a  week  or  more.  When  the  thing  was  pos- 
sible they  used  to  prefer  a  trip  to  the  home  country, 
to  attend  the  family  gathering,  and  witness  the  grand 
celebrations  at  the   capital   of  the  provinces,  which 


THE  NEW   YEAR.  359 

continue  for  three  weeks.  Hence  the  China  steamers 
that  left  San  Francisco  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
year  were  well  filled  with  passengers. 

The  Chinese  year  begins  with  the  first  new  moon 
after  the  sun  has  entered  Aquarius,  between  January 
2 1st  and  February  1 9th.  The  year  has  twelve  months, 
which  correspond  to  the  moons,  and  are  designated  as 
the  first,  second,  or  third  moon,  as  the  case  may  be. 
This  gives  the  year  six  months  of  twenty-nine  days, 
and  six  of  thirty  days,  leaving  a  surplus  of  days  to  be 
combined  into  an  intercalary  month,  in  order  to 
regulate  the  year  with  the  sun.  The  intercalation 
takes  place  about  once  in  three  years,  by  doubling  or 
repeating  one  of  the  spring  months.  The  years  are 
named  according  to  their  position  in  the  cycle  of 
sixty  years,  a  computation  which  began  2637  years 
B.  C.  They  are  also  formed  into  epochs,  each  of 
whicli  corresponds  to  the  reign  of  an  emperor,  a  sys- 
tem introduced  in  1G3  B.  C.  The  year  1870  would 
correspond  to  the  seventh  of  the  seventy-sixth  cycle, 
and  the  ninth  of  the  emperor's  reign. 

The  preparations  for  the  festival  arc  most  elaborate. 
House,  body,  and  clothing  undergo  a  general  cleans- 
ing and  renewal ;  useless  or  worn-out  household  arti- 
cles, clothes,  and  rubbish  are  consigned  to  the  bonfire 
with  prescribed  ceremonies,  and  a  fresh  supply  pro- 
cured. Scrolls  of  joy-portending  red  paper  are  pasted 
over  entrances  and  shrines,  on  walls  and  furniture, 
bearing  moral  inscriptions,  and  talismanic  mottoes, 
especially  the  word  fuh,  happiness,  and  the  five  bless- 
ings of  health,  riches,  long  life,  friends,  and  prosper- 
ity. If  the  past  year  has  been  prosperous,  the  old 
mottoes  are  retained  ;  if  not,  others  are  selected  in 
the  hope  of  propitiating  fortune  or  exorcising  ill-luck. 
Rooms,  windows,  and  balconies  are  hung  with  bright 
paper,  tinsel,  bunting,  and  lanterns  of  slight  bamboo 
frames  covered  with  transparent  paper,  bearing  fanci- 
ful inscription  and  drawings  of  birds,  flowers,  and 
other  fiizures.     For   the  amusement  of  the  children 


360  MONGOLIAN  ISM  IN  AMERICA. 

transparencies  are  attached  so  as  to  revolve  by  the 
flow  of  the  heated  air.  Natural  and  artificial  flowers 
form  a  great  part  of  the  decorations,  particularly  the 
lily  bulbs  in  white  saucers,  the  emblem  of  purity, 
which  it  is  sought  to  bring  into  bloom  for  this  season 
of  renovation.  The  fagades  of  restaurants  and  stores 
are  gorgeous  in  the  extreme,  and  generally  repainted 
for  the  occasion. 

The  person  must  be  thoroughly  bathed  even  at  the 
risk  of  a  cold,  the  head  shaven,  the  queue  rebraided, 
and  the  richest  attire  procured  that  means  will  buy 
or  hire ;  for  not  only  has  the  season  to  be  honored, 
but  family  pride  must  be  upheld,  with  respect  for 
superiors,  to  the  confusion  of  rivals  and  the  awe  of 
inferiors.  The  inner  man  also  participates  in  the 
general  change,  and  eschewing  the  frugal  diet  of  rice 
and  tea  the  palate  shall  revel  in  the  choicest  viands, 
to  which  the  ambrosial  flavor  of  the  idol's  benediction 
has  been  im})arted. 

No  joy  is  unalloyed,  how^ever.  Bills  must  be  paid, 
and  all  accounts  settled  before  the  great  day,  and 
this  at  a  time  when  so  man}  demands  are  made  on  the 
purse.  Merchants  make  preparations  for  the  emer- 
gency, and  stock-taking  w^ith  balancing  of  books,  is  the 
rule  during  the  final  month.  Collectors  are  despatched 
even  to  the  most  remote  corner  of  the  country, 
and  expressmen  groan  under  the  pressure  of  business. 
A  few  persons  who  find  themselves  unable  to  pay 
their  creditors,  or  to  make  satisfactory  arrangements, 
will  hide  till  the  old  year  has  expired,  for  during  the 
New -Year's  season  there  must  be  no  intrusion  of 
business.  Of  course,  there  are  disagreeable  persons 
who  will  forget  good  manners  and  mortify  a  debtor 
by  appearing  at  his  door  on  New -Year's  morn,  with 
lantern  in  hand  to  indicate  that  they  are  still  engaged 
on  the  old-year  errand.  But  as  a  rule  nothing  but 
good  wishes  and  joy  are  manifested  at  this  season; 
old  rancor  must  be  buried  and  friendship  renewed; 
friends  may  die  by  the  score,  yet  no  allusion  must  be 


CEREMONIES   AND   CELEBRATION.  361 

made  to  anything  which  might  cast  a  gloom  over 
the  festivities — private  sorrow  may  not  intrude  on 
pubHc  happiness. 

Not  only  temporal  affairs  are  settled  at  this  time, 
but  tradition  has  it  that  the  gods  also  balance  ac- 
counts with  men,  and  pass  before  the  close  of  the 
year  with  their  statements  into  the  presence  of  the 
supreme  ruler,  tlie  Pearly  Emperor,  whence  they  re- 
turn on  New- Year  s  day  or  shortly  after.  It  behooves 
the  multitude  therefore  to  look  to  their  spiritual  debts, 
so  that  they  may  not  be  represented  as  defaulters, 
and,  truly,  the  temples  are  crowded  by  old  and  young 
of  both  sexes,  bearing  offerings  of  prayers,  incense, 
food,  and  toys. 

As  the  eventful  midnight  approaches,  the  people 
bid  farewell  to  the  old  year  with  prescribed  ceremo- 
nies, giving  thanks  for  blessings  received;  and  then 
the  new  year  is  ushered  in  with  a  toast  in  wine. 
Occasional  discharges  of  fire-crackers  have  betokened 
the  impending  demonstration ;  the  streets  are  filled 
with  people,  windows  teem  with  expectant  faces  bent 
toward  the  rows  of  fireworks  which,  suspended  on 
poles,  protrude  from  windows  and  balconies,  ready 
not  only  to  greet  the  dawning  year  and  to  manifest 
the  general  happiness,  but  to  give  a  wholesome  warn- 
ing to  bad  spirits,  to  drive  cff  the  evil  influence  of  a 
past  year,  and  to  propitiate  tlie  gods.  No  sooner  has 
the  witching  liour  struck  than  a  deafening  explosion 
succeeds,  one  house  opening  the  fire  and  the  rest  follow- 
ing in  close  succession,  so  as  to  allow  no  cessation  of 
the  noise.  It  is  like  a  rattling  fusilade  amid  the 
boom  of  cannon.  The  streets  seem  to  be  ablaze, 
and  soon  a  dense  smoke  settles  on  the  neighborhood, 
while  the  ground  becomes  matted  with  red  and  brown 
remnants  of  fireworks.  Neighbors  appear  to  rival  one 
another  in  departing  as  much  as  possible  from  their 
usual  quiet  life,  and  in  creating  the  longest  and  loudest 
uproar.  If  ordinary  means  of  explosion  do  not  effect 
this,  they  discharge  the  bombs  in  barrels  and  tin  cans. 


302  MON(JOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

Patriarchs  vie  with  youngsters  in  pitching  stringed 
explosives  from  roofs  and  balconies  upon  tlie  heads  of 
the  scampering  throng,  or  in  firing  a  bomb  at  tlie  feet 
of  staid  citizens  and  demure  matrons.  The  charac- 
teristic economy  appears  to  have  been  discarded  with 
the  departing  year,  and  wealthy  establishments  ex- 
pend several  hundred  dollars  on  fireworks,  besides 
large  amounts  on  decorations  and  for  hospitality  dur- 
ing the  festival.  Tlie  first  morning  of  the  year  is 
fraught  with  the  greatest  din,  but  explosions  are  fre- 
quent all  through  the  week,  if  the  police  permit  them, 
and  when  they  cease  at  intervals,  the  ear  is  assailed 
by  booming  drums,  clashing  cymbals,  and  squeaking 
fiddles,  as  if,  as  with  us,  enthusiasm  were  measured  by 
noise,  and  patriotism  by  burned  powder. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  morning  every  household 
assembles  in  holiday  attire  to  assist  at  religious  ser- 
vice, directed  by  the  head  of  the  family.  Heaven 
and  earth  are  first  adored,  then  the  various  gods  of 
wealth,  war,  hearth,  mercy,  and  other  departments 
before  whom  offerings  of  incense,  candles,  food,  and 
toys  are  placed,  to  remain  for  several  days.  Ances- 
tral tablets,  and  senior  members  of  the  family  are 
adored  with  low  prostrations,  and  all  join  in  spreading 
choice  viands  for  the  departed,  who  are  implored  to 
grant  their  mediation  and  protection.  The  next  duty 
is  to  visit  the  temples,  which  are  constantly  filled  with 
a  devout  multitude  of  praise-givers  and  favor-seekers, 
adding  their  quota  to  the  mass  of  offerings.  Almost 
every  day  during  the  first  half  of  the  month  has  its 
specified  ceremonies,  for  different  classes  of  society. 
The  pious  set  aside  the  greater  part  of  the  first  day 
for  worship,  reserving  feasting  and  rioting  for  other 
days,  but  there  are  not  many  of  our  Chinese  who 
overburden  themselves  with  devotion  to  peaceful 
deities,  and  since  the  rioting  itself  keeps  off  the  fiends 
and  imps  they  feel  safe  in  abandoning  themselves  to 
revelry. 

The  early  crowd  of  merry-andrews,  spectators,  and 


NEW-YEAR'S   CEREMONIES.  363 

temple-visitors  is  soon  varied  by  a  throng  of  silk- 
decked  callers,  and  of  servants  who  rush  to  leave 
cards  of  congratulations  on  those  friends  of  their 
masters  whose  inferiority  of  rank  or  age  obliges  them 
to  make  the  first  call.  ^'Kunghi,  kung  hi!"  ''I  wish 
you  joy/'  or  the  phrase  ''new  joy,  new  joy  ;  get  rich, 
get  rich ! "  is  on  everbody's  lips,  in  street  or  house. 
To  this  is  added  a  wish  for  increased  prosperity,  con- 
tinued health,  and  other  blessings  appropriate  to  the 
condition  of  the  person  addressed.  To  merchants  the 
wish  is  expressed  tliat  lie  may  strike  good  bargains 
and  make  large  profits ;  to  officials,  that  they  may 
advance  in  rank  witli  increased  pay;  to  old  folks,  that 
their  years  may  be  numerous ;  to  married  people,  that 
a  son  may  come  to  them.  When  a  visitor  arrives, 
the  host  advances  toward  him  more  or  less,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  rank,  each  one  grasps  and  shakes  his 
own  hand  as  he  bows,  and  then  follows  a  series  of  the 
many  observances  of  etiquette  in  gesture  and  lan- 
guage with  which  these  people  are  afflicted.  Elegance 
of  com])liments  and  extreme  self-deprecation  are  the 
main  propositions.  If  one  inquires,  "  How  fares  your 
illustrious  consort?"  the  other  replies,  ''The  mean  oc- 
cupant of  my  miserable  hovel  is  well."  The  question, 
"Is  your  noble  son  doing  well?"  solicits  the  answer 
that  "the  contemptible  dog  is  progressing."  Inferiors 
bow  their  deepest  and  drop  on  one  knee,  while  cliil- 
dren  prostrate  themselves  and  press  the  ground  with 
the  head  before  their  parents  and  elders.  The  house- 
wife, if  there  is  one,  appears  at  intervals  to  challenge 
admiration  with  the  minarets  and  wings  which  crest 
her  elaborate  hair  structure,  while  demi- Johns  toddle 
around  in  spangled  cap  and  bright  clothes,  protected 
by  amulets  innumerable.  Every  caller  is  expected  to 
implore  the  pot-bellied  idols  for  their  blessing  on  the 
house,  and  to  honor  the  lavish  hospitality  by  tasting 
of  paste,  fruit,  or  sweetmeat,  sipping  a  tiny  cup  of  tea 
or  liquor,  and  taking  a  cigarette,  all  of  which  stand 
prepared  on  lacquered  trays.     Liquors  and  cigars  are 


364  MONGOLIANISM    IK    AMERICA. 

chiefly  reserved  for  white  caUers,  who  receive  a  poUte 
welcome,  despite  tlie  well-known  anti-cooHe  character 
of  the  majority  of  these  thirsty  souls.  Cards  of  neat 
red  paper,  with  stamped  name,  are  exchanged,  and 
their  number  and  class  exliibited  witli  considerable 
pride,  and  even  kept  permanently  on  view.  Presents 
of  fancy  articles,  toys,  and  sweets  are  also  customary. 

At  night  the  Chinese  quarter  assumes  a  brilliant 
aspect,  with  the  rows  of  fanciful  lanterns,  the  glitter- 
ing tinsel,  and  the  windows  ablaze  with  liglit.  The 
streets  are  almost  deserted,  but  from  the  homes  come 
the  sounds  of  music,  chat,  and  merriment,  particularly 
from  the  restaurants.  The  great  efibrt  is  to  crowd  all 
possible  amusement  into  this  season.  A  holocaust  of 
pigs  and  poultry,  liquor  and  betel-nuts,  opium  and  to- 
bacco, tempt  the  palate  and  ()i)])re.ss  tlie  stomach, 
create  hilarity,  and  lead  to  ebullition.  Theatres  open 
in  the  morning  and  keep  the  l)lay  going  till  past  mid- 
night, w^ith  brief  intervals  for  refreshments,  while  the 
gambling-hells  allow  no  rest  whatever.  The  delirium 
lasts  a  week,  and  then  conies  the  awakening,  with 
aching  heads  and  empty  pockets.  The  younger  mem- 
bers of  the  community  overcome  the  weakness  of  the 
flesh  with  more  natural  diversion. 

In  the  alleys  may  be  witnessed  the  favorite  game 
of  shuttle-cock,  played  w4th  an  elastic  ball,  one  inch 
and  a  half  in  diameter,  miade  of  dry,  scaly  flshskin, 
weighted  with  a  copper  coin,  and  set  with  a  few 
feathers  three  to  four  inches  in  length,  to  give  it 
poise.  The  players  form  a  circle  and  seek  to  keep 
the  ball  from  touching  the  ground,  by  batting  it  with 
toe  and  knee ;  or  sometimes  only  with  the  sole  of  the 
shoe,  a  movement  which  requires  a  peculiar  and  agile 
twist  of  the  leg.  Kite-flying  is  also  a  popular  amuse- 
ment, the  kites  representing  the  forms  of  birds,  fishes, 
and  ot?ier  creatures.  Crowds  of  boys  may  be  seen 
marching  from  house  to  house  with  a  huge  dragon  of 
bamboo  frame  covered  with  cloth,  borne  aloft  on  sticks, 
which  are  raised  and  lowered  to  impart  motion  to  the 


OTHER    FESTIVALS.  365 

monster.  With  this  sacred  image  they  offer  to  drive 
out  evil  spirits  from  any  locaHty  for  a  small  con- 
sideration. 

The  next  festival  of  note  is  the  Feast  of  Lanterns, 
in  honor  of  the  first  full  moon  of  the  year,  which  is 
extensively  participated  in,  since  it  takes  place  in  the 
evening.  The  houses  are  illuminated,  within  and 
without,  by  fancifully  colored  lanterns,  and  adorned 
with  scrolls,  and  a  procession  parades  the  streets  with 
banners  and  lights,  discharging  fireworks  and  discours- 
ing celestial  music.  The  moon  is  again  the  object  of 
adoration  during  the  harvest  festival ;  but  since  this 
concerns  chiefly  the  agricultural  -classes,  it  is  not 
closely  observed  in  California.  There  is  a  considera- 
ble immolation  of  pigs  and  fowls,  however,  on  the 
Epicurean  altar,  and  out-door  gatherings,  with  Dian 
worship  and  stellar  observations,  which  bring  revenue 
to  astrologers  and  butchers.  The  four  seasons  of  tlie 
equinox  and  solstice  are  observed  with  more  solenmity, 
and  a  well-clad  nmltitude  throngs  the  temples  with 
offerings  to  propitiate  the  idols  during  these  moment- 
ous turning-points  of  nature. 

Shortly  after  the  spring  festival  of  the  Feeding  of 
the  Dead,  described  under  burial,  a  temple  celebration 
takes  place.  The  abodes  of  the  deities  are  adorned 
with  the  usual  tinsel,  streamers,  and  symbolic  banners, 
and  before  the  chief  idol  a  roast  pig  is  presented  amid 
bursting  bombs  and  orchestral  din.  Meanwhile  a  pro- 
cession is  formed,  and  presently  the  van-guard  appears, 
bearing  poles  strung  with  fire-crackers  which  maintain 
an  incessant  rattling,  each  pole  being  remounted  with 
fresh  explosives  for  a  new  fusilade,  while  the  others 
are  taking  their  turn.  Musicians  follow  with  drums, 
cymbals,  and  stringed  instruments ;  then  a  band  of 
women  with  lanterns,  leading  a  display  of  gigantic 
animal  figures,  and  carcasses  of  consecrated  pigs,  the 
fumes  from  which  allure  a  jaunty  personage  behind, 
arrayed  in  rich  and  ancient  costume,  and  attended  by 
a   long   retinue   bearhig   embroidered  banners,  fans, 


366  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

curious  weapons,  and  flowers.  Behind  them  march 
the  representatives  of  various  guilds,  and  last  of  all  a 
number  of  giants  of  astounding  make,  who  do  not  fail 
to  attract  a  crowd  of  admiring  followers.  After  hold- 
ing religious  exercises  before  the  temple  an  exhibition 
is  given  on  consecrated  ground.  Bombs  are  exploded 
containing  small  parachutes,  and  whosoever  is  able  to 
secure  one  of  these  as  they  descend  is  assured  of  good 
fortune.  There  is  quite  a  crowd  of  aspirants,  and 
the  struggle  is  awful  to  behold  :  clothes  go  to  wreck, 
physiognomies  are  ruined,  yells  rend  the  air,  and 
after  all  his  exertions  the  victor  may  not  gain 
more  than  a  tattered  remnant  as  an  evidence  of  his 
prowess. 

The  chief  attraction  for  the  amusement-seekers  is 
the  drama,  the  taste  for  which  nmst  be  stronger  than 
with  us,  since  a  community  so  poor  and  small  compar- 
atively as  the  Chinese  can  support  two  theaters  with  a 
large  force  of  artistes,  devoted  almost  wholly  to  what 
may  be  termed  legitimate  drama.  The  drama  is  of 
celestial  origin,  as  may  be  expected,  although  tradition 
has  failed  to  shroud  it  in  the  customary  mist  of  an- 
tiquity. Only  some  eleven  centuries  ago,  during  a  cel- 
ebration in  honor  of  the  moon,  an  imperial  servitor 
became  so  fervent  in  his  adoration,  that  he  flung  his 
staff"  as  an  offering  to  the  luminary.  But  lo  1  the  staff* 
was  transformed  into  a  bridge,  upon  which  the  servitor 
and  his  exalted  master  passed  from  our  planet  to  the 
pale  satillite.  A  garden  and  palace  of  wondrous 
beauty  opened  before  them,  and  beneath  a  cinnamon 
tree  they  saw  a  bevy  of  noble-looking  women  seated 
on  white  birds  which  warbled  the  most  delicious 
strains  in  response  to  still  sweeter  melody  from  un- 
seen lips.  On  their  return  to  earth,  the  imperial  com- 
poser was  charged  to  reproduce  the  lunar  music,  and 
this  was  performed  by  300  singing  girls  in  dithyram- 
bic  form,  in  the  emperor's  pear-orchard.  Play-actors 
are  for  this  reason  known  also  as  the  pear-orchard 
fraternity, 


THE  DRAMA.  367 

The  first  of  these  celestial  performances,  which,  like 
our  Bacchanalian  chorus,  have  gradually  developed 
into  romantic  drama,  was  given  in  San  Francisco  at 
the  American  theater,  and  then  in  a  building  brought 
from  China,  which  was  erected  on  Dupont  street,  near 
Green,  and  opened  on  the  23d  of  December,  1852. 
The  interior  was  ornamented  with  paintings,  lighted 
by  twenty -two  variegated  lanterns,  and  fitted  with  all 
the  paraphernalia  incident  to  their  play-acting.  Since 
then  various  localities  served  for  the  drama  till  1868, 
when  the  first  one  of  two  theatres  was  erected  on 
Jackson  street.  The  second  rose  in  1877  in  Wash- 
ington street  under  the  title  of  Look  Lun  Foong,  Im- 
perial Show  House.  Both  have  a  large  troop  of 
actors,  who  are  provided  with  board  and  lodging  in 
the  building.  The  exterior  presents  the  usual  dingy 
brick  facade  of  the  quarter,  with  a  simple  name  sign 
over  the  entrance.  The  passages  leading  to  the  inte- 
rior are  lined  with  stalls  for  the  sale  of  fruit,  sweet- 
meats, betel-nuts,  and  other  delicacies.  The  audito- 
rium is  even  more  dingy  and  unpretentious  than  the 
exterior,  devoid  of  decorations,  save  a  scroll  here  and 
there,  and  not  even  on  a  par  with  a  travelling  circus 
for  comfort.  The  ornamental  lanterns  have  been  re- 
placed by  bare  gas-fixtures.  There  are  two  divisions, 
a  pit  and  a  gallery,  both  fitted  with  rough,  uncush- 
ioned  benches  with  back-rests,  rising  one  above  the 
other.  The  gallery  extends  on  both  sides,  the  whole 
length  of  the  room,  the  extreme  left  of  it  being  set 
aside  for  women,  and  the  right  fitted  with  three  boxes, 
equally  comfortless.  The  parquette  of  the  largest 
theater,  on  Washington  street,  holds  600  persons,  and 
the  gallery  accommodates  two-thirds  more.  They 
are  generally  well  filled,  and  present  one  sombre  mass 
of  black  hats  and  dark  blouses,  without  a  relieving 
streak,  save  where  a  visitor  lifts  his  hat  for  a  moment 
to  air  his  shining  pate,  or  where  some  comfort-loving 
spectators  have  kicked  off  their  shoes  and  planted 
their  feet  against  the  backs  of  their  neighbors. 


368  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

The  stage  consists  of  an  open  raised  platform,  like 
that  of  a  lecture  hall,  without  wings,  shifting  scenes, 
drop-curtain,  or  stage  machinery.  In  the  rear  are  the 
doors,  closed  by  red  curtains,  the  right  to  enter  by, 
the  left  for  exit,  both  leading  to  the  green-room,  which 
is  also  the  property-room,  although  a  part  of  the 
paraphernalia  and  wardrobes  is  kept  in  big  boxes  on 
the  side  of  the  stage.  By  the  side  of  these  stand 
some  chairs  and  tables,  which  serve  for  scenery  as  • 
required,  but  are  at  other  times  used  by  the  actors  to 
lounge- upon  while  waiting  for  their  cue.  Deprived 
of  the  pleasing  delusions  of  curtain  and  scenery,  the 
audience  is  obliged  to  rely  on  the  imagination  to  cover 
the  glaring  incongruities  and  supply  the  many  defi- 
ciencies. Change  of  dress  is  often  made  in  full  view 
of  the  spectators  ;  a  warrior  will  fall,  undergo  the  ter- 
rific death  struggles,  give  the  final  throes,  and  rise  the 
next  moment  to  join  his  chatting  and  smoking  con- 
freres on  the  side  of  the  stage.  Actors,  and  even 
spectators,  who  are  allowed  on  the  stage,  will  cross  to 
and  fro  between  the  players,  and  perform  other  im- 
proper acts  during  the  most  interesting  part  of  the 
drama.  Scene-shifting  is  replaced  by  posting  placards 
giving  notice  that  the  scene  is  a  city,  farm,  forest,  or 
interior  of  a  building.  To  increase  the  effect,  a  box 
or  stool  is  added  to  represent  a  mountain  or  a  house. 
Occasionally  an  imaginary  line  is  drawn  in  the  air  to 
denote  a  wall,  against  which  the  actor  will  kick  with 
ludicrous  earnestness.  If  the  playwright  wishes  to 
represent  a  man  going  into  a  house  and  slamming  the 
door  in  the  face  of  another,  the  serving-man  hands  a 
chair  to  one  actor,  who  walks  across  the  stage  and 
plants  it  violently  at  the  feet  of  another  player,  taking 
his  stand  beside  it  to  intimate  that  he  is  now  within 
the  house.  To  represent  the  crossing  of  a  bridge,  the 
ends  of  a  board  are  laid  on  two  tables,  which  stand  a 
short  distance  apart ;  an  actor  mounts  with  the  aid  of 
a  stool,  crosses  on  the  board,  or  imaginary  bridge, 
from  one  table  to  another,  and  thence  steps  to  the 


UPON  THE  BOARDS.  369 

floor.  A  horseback  ride  is  pictured  by  mounting  boy- 
like an  imaginary  steed,  and  applying  an  equally  un- 
substantial whip.  Giants  and  other  figures  are 
introduced  with  but  little  effort  to  deceive  the  audi- 
ence as  to  their  composition.  However  crude  aud 
grotesque  such  representations  may  appear  to  us,  they 
are  quite  comme  il  faut  to  the  children  of  the  Flowery 
Kingdom. 

Equally  different  are  their  ideas  of  music.  The 
orchestra  is  placed  in  the  background  of  the  stage, 
between  the  doors,  and  consists  of  four  or  six  per- 
formers, who  keep  up  an  incessant  extempore  jumble 
of  banging,  scraping,  and  piping,  as  terrific  as  it  is 
unique,  varying  from  a  plaintive  wail  to  a  warlike 
clash  as  the  play  demands,  and  as  the  individual  taste 
of  the  musician  may  dictate.  When  the  actor  spouts 
his  part  there  appears  to  be  no  abatement  of  the  noise, 
but  rather  an  effort  to  drown  his  words,  which  he  re- 
sists by  shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  The  more 
excited  the  actor  becomes,  the  more  earnestly  the 
musicians  puff  their  cigarettes  and  strive  to  do  justice 
to  the  strength  of  their  arms  and  the  material  of  their 
instruments,  without  any  other  method  apparently 
than  to  break  the  musical  bars,  to  blend  all  discord 
into  one,  and  to  run  riot  generally.  During  certain 
recitatives  and  arias  the  violin  is  allowed  to  predomi- 
nate, and  a  melody  is  produced  which  would  not  be 
unpleasing  were  it  not  for  the  jarring  plaintiveness  of 
the  tones,  which  reject  the  sensuous  element,  and  are 
devoid  of  graceful  modulation.  They  possess  an  im- 
perfect system  of  notation  for  melodies,  but  no  knowl- 
edge of  harmony  and  other  important  elements.  The 
musical  and  dramatic  arts  are  equally  backward,  and 
have  probably  made  no  advance  for  a  millenary  under 
the  sumptuary  laws  which  hamper  all  development  in 
the  orient.  A  retrogression  may  just  as  likely  have 
set  in,  for  although  musicians  are  raising  themselves 
to  high  honors  and  imperial  favor,  our  ears  cannot 
discover  the  charm  and  influence  by  which  they  do  it, 

Essays  and  Miscellany     24 


370  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

and  on  which  their  Great  Sage  has  so  loftily  dis- 
coursed ;  nor  can  we  find  any  relic  of  the  skilful  artists 
spoken  of  by  tradition,  who,  like  Orpheus  and  AnipLion, 
moved  the  very  stones  with  their  strains,  and  cast  a 
spell  upon  the  organic  creation.  The  musical  instru- 
ments are  quite  numerous,  however,  and  each  member 
of  the  orchestra  is  required  to  manii)ulate  several,  at 
one  time  or  successively.  The  percussion  instruments 
which  form  the  pieces  de  resistance,  consist  of  a  big 
tomtom  standing  on  its  end,  another,  small  and  flat, 
like  a  covered  tambourine,  a  tambour,  a  gong  sus- 
pended by  a  cord,  a  small,  sonorous  mortar  of  wood, 
having  the  rounded  upper  side  covered  with  skin,  and 
a  tiny  square  sounding-board,  fastened  to  the  side  of  a 
stick,  all  of  which  are  beaten  with  drumsticks.  There 
are  also  the  cymbal  and  castanet,  the  latter  being  a 
heavy  black  piece  of  wood,  some  nine  inches  in  length, 
which  is  held  in  the  hand  while  the  other  piece,  con- 
nected with  it  by  a  cord  at  the  top,  is  made  to  fall 
against  it.  The  stringed  instruments  embrace  guitars 
of  several  varieties,  one  being  a  flat,  solid,  pear-sliaped 
sounding-board,  with  a  short  neck,  curved  at  the  head, 
and  bearing  four  strings,  which  are  fingered  in  pairs; 
another  kind  has  a  smaller,  circular  board,  with  a  long 
neck  and  two  strings.  Some  have  bodies  of  small, 
flat  tomtoms  with  long  neck  and  one  to  three  strings, 
but  with  less  frets  than  our  guitars.  They  are  usually 
struck  with  a  bone  or  flint.  The  violin  is  a  small, 
heavy  tambourine,  with  a  long  neck,  upon  which  two 
strings  cross  one  another,  holding  between  them,  be- 
low the  crossing,  the  bowstring,  which  accordingly 
touches  one  string  on  the  upper  the  other  on  the  lower 
side.  Wind  instruments  consist  of  trumpet,  two  con- 
nected hautboys,  like  the  Greek  double  flute,  and 
bamboo  flutes,  some  with  lateral  blow-hole,  and  about 
six  finger-holes. 

The  play  appears  to  be  a  mixture  of  melodrama, 
farce,  and  circus  performance,  representing  a  train  of 
events  or  an  epoch  from  ancient  history,  with  love 


THE  PLAY.  371 

incidents  and  battles,  rendered  in  dialogue,  recitative, 
and  pantomine.  Modern  events  are  not  in  favor  with 
this  antiquated  people.  One  drama  continues  for 
weeks  or  even  months,  and  is  given  in  nightly  install- 
ments of  a  few  scenes,  or  an  act,  like  the  serial  in  a 
magazine,  taking  up  the  hero  from  the  hour  of  his 
birth  and  giving  his  career  as  doughty  warrior,  or 
pompous  emperor,  till  he  descends  into  the  grave, 
laden  with  glory.  There  is  no  condensation  or  rapid 
development  of  plot,  as  in  our  modernized  drama,  but 
every  puerile  triviality,  obscene  detail,  and  revolting 
deed,  is  elaborately  portrayed,  and  nothing  is  left  to 
the  imagination  except  scenery  and  artistic  effect. 
Purely  pantomimic  passages  are  not  frequent,  for  voice 
and  mimicry  generally  combine,  the  sharp  falsetto 
predominating  to  a  disagreeable  extent,  both  in  male 
and  female  parts,  mingled  with  screams  and  shouts. 
At  intervals  a  force  of  dignitaries,  soldiers,  and  de- 
pendents enter  in  procession  to  display  their  rich 
dresses  of  costly  fabrics  and  embroidered  dragons, 
birds,  flowers,  and  tracery  in  gold,  silver,  and  silk  of 
all  colors.  The  face  is  often  enamelled,  or  smeared 
with  paint,  especially  for  grotesque  characters,  and 
warriors  strut  in  plumed  helmet  and  fierce  mustache. 
Women  are  excluded  from  the  scenic  boards,  their 
part  being  assumed  by  men  who  are  trained  from 
childhood  to  the  gait,  manner,  and  voice,  and  deceive 
even  a  close  observer  by  their  disguise.  The  fingers 
are  often  tapered  from  infancy,  and  the  feet  confined 
in  small  boots,  or  stilts  are  used  when  they  act,  the 
feet  of  which  resemble  ladies'  shoes. 

Dancing  is  occasionally  introduced  by  actors,  but  it 
is  not  much  in  vogue,  for  Chinese  regard  it  as  a  vul- 
garit}^  and  a  fatiguing  exercise,  and  leave  it  almost 
entirely  to  the  Tartars.  In  tlie  early  days  of  Cali- 
fornia, the  latter  gave  special  exhibitions  of  the  po- 
etry of  motion,  wherein  men  and  women  appeared, 
advancing  and  receding  with  an  ambling  gait,  chang- 
ing sides  and  bowing,  but  without  joining  hands. 


372  MONGOLIANISM   W  AMERICA. 

During  the  course  of  the  play  a  band  of  warriors 
enters  the  scene,  capering  and  frisking  on  imaginary 
chargers,  standing  at  times  on  one  leg  and  whirling 
around,  at  others  dashing  headlong  forward.  Sud- 
denly the  men  throw  one  foot  into  the  air,  wheel 
round  and  waft  their  prancing  steeds  into  vacuum. 
They  then  form  in  line  and  begin  the  onslaught  in 
earnest,  dealing  spear-thrusts,  sword-cuts,  and  blows, 
with  a  rapidity  that  betokens  long  practice  and  extra- 
ordinary skill.  Combatants  fall  fast  and  thick  during 
the  action,  but  rise  the  next  moment  to  restore  the 
vital  spark  with  a  cup  of  tea,  and  be  ready  fcjr  a  sec- 
ond extinction.  Blood  and  thunder  realizations  are 
evidently  in  favor  among  the  timid  celestials,  and 
probably  not  one  of  the  original  characters  remains 
aliye  at  the  end  of  the  piece.  After  awhile  the  strug- 
gle becomes  hot,  and  the  men  strip  to  the  waist. 
Warriors  pursue  warriors ;  high  tables  are  cleared  in 
a  bound,  and  the  performers  land  on  the  bare  floor, 
falling  heavily  on  the  flat  back  or  side  with  a  shock 
as  if  every  bone  has  been  broken  ;  but  ere  the  inex- 
perienced visitor  has  time  to  make  an  exclamation, 
the  men  are  up,  and  pirouetting  wilder  than  ever ;  per- 
forming somersaults  one  over  the  other,  spinning  like 
tops,  wheeling  on  hands  and  feet,  doing  lofty  tum- 
bling, and  concluding  with  extraordinary  contortions — 
all  in  confused  medley,  yet  in  eager  rivalry  to  surpass 
one  another.  This  is  the  most  interesting  part  of  the 
entertainment  to  a  stranger,  who  is  apt  to  conclude 
that  the  strongest  dramatic  power  of  the  Chinese  actor 
lies  in  his  feet.  The  imitative  propensity  of  the  peo- 
ple is  not  displayed  to  full  advantage  on  the  stage, 
for  although  the  mimicry  is  excellent  at  times,  and 
assists  the  tongue  to  render  the  acting  more  lively 
and  suggestive  than  with  us,  yet  there  is  a  lack  of 
soul,  of  expression,  a  failure  to  identify  one's  self  with 
the  role,  to  merge  the  actor  in  the  character.  The 
degraded  position  of  actors  has  tended  to  oppose  ad- 
vancement  in   the  histrionic  art  ;  but  another   cause 


RETURN   OF   SIT  PING   QUAI.  373 

may  be  found  in  the  undemonstrative  nature  of  the 
people.  The  incident  depicted  may  be  ever  so  excit- 
ing or  ludicrous,  the  character  ever  so  grotesque,  yet 
the  audience  manifests  neither  approval  nor  dissatis- 
faction, beyond  a  quiet  grin  of  delight,  to  which  the 
actor  responds  with  interest.  Trivialities  do  not  ap- 
pear to  tire  it,  as  they  would  us  ;  cruelty  is  witnessed 
without  a  thrill,  and  obscenities  pass  as  a  matter  of 
course.  All  is  not  riveted  attention,  however,  for 
when  ears  and  eyes  fail  to  convey  the  full  measure  of 
interest,  the  other  senses  come  to  the  rescue.  Loud 
talk  is  unconcernedly  indulged  in,  and  pipes,  tea, 
sweetmeats  and  the  like,  are  generally  discussed,  as 
if  it  were  resolved  to  make  the  most  of  every  moment, 
and  let  no  pleasure  escape. 

The  play  usually  begins  at  seven  in  the  evening 
and  continues  till  one  or  two  in  the  morning.  Those 
who  come  early  pay  twenty-five  to  fift}''  cents,  at  ten 
o'clock  half  price  is  charged,  and  towards  midnight 
the  price  of  entrance  falls  to  a  dime.  The  length  of 
the  drama  makes  it  almost  impossible  for  even  the 
most  devoted  theatre-Moer  to  follow  the  whole  rendi- 
tion,  and  submitting  to  the  inevitable  he  is  content  to 
catch  a  glimpse  of  a  scene  or  an  episode. 

If  you  desire  to  witness  one  of  these  plays,  and  can 
make  up  your  mind  to  endure  six  hours  a  night  for  a 
month  or  two,  a  mixture  of  the  vilest  stenches  that 
ever  offended  civilized  nostrils — opium  effluvium,  to- 
bacco-smoke, pig-pen  putridity,  and  rancid  asafoetida, 
step  with  me  and  seat  yourself  on  any  of  those  board 
benches.  But  first,  and  as  a  means  of  self-defence, 
light  a  cigar  and  smoke,  for  by  so  doing  alone  can  you 
clear  a  cubic  foot  of  space  about  your  head  of  its  in- 
tolerable odor. 

The  portion  of  history  played  to-night  is  entitled, 
''  The  Return  of  Sit  Ping  Quai."  Many,  many  years 
ago  there  lived  in  the  Empire  of  the  Sun  a  poor 
young  man  named  Sit  Ping  Quai,  who  had  married  a 
young  wife,  likewise  poor  save  in  beauty  and  accom- 


374  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

plishments.  Her  name  was  Wong  She.  Sit  Ping 
Quai  was  noble  though  poor,  and  Wong  She  had  a 
pure  and  faithful  heart. 

Happy  were  the  days  the  gods  granted  them  each 
other's  society.  But  hunger  pressed  heavily.  Wong 
She  faded.  The  color  fled  from  her  face  affrighted. 
Sit  Ping  Quai  could  not  endure  the  sight.  He  joined 
the  army  of  the  great  emperor,  determined  to  win 
Wong  She  a  happier  lot  or  die.  Rising  rapidly  he 
was  made  general,  and  sent  at  the  head  of  a  large 
army  against  the  King  of  the  East. 

Sorrowful  was  the  leave-taking  and  inconsolable 
was  poor  Wong  She ;  but  Sit  Ping  Quai  must  depart. 
Hastening  hence  he  fought  and  won  a  great  battle ; 
but  by  some  mischance,  separating  from  his  army,  he 
was  captured  by  the  princess  Linfa,  only  child  and 
heir  to  the  King  of  the  East.  Linfa  loved  her  cap- 
tive, who  durst  not  tell  her  he  was  wedded;  for  in 
love  the  free  find  favor  while  enthralment  makes  its 
victim  uninteresting. 

Tlie  rich,  the  beautiful,  the  powerful,  the  suscepti- 
ble Linfa  caged  her  loved  one  in  her  castle,  drove  back 
his  army  with  great  slaughter,  and  then  wedded  him. 
Sit  Ping  Quai,  though  honest  as  married  men  go  was 
mortal ;  and  to  tell  the  truth  he  began  to  like  it. 
With  the  dove-eyed  Linfa  to  love  him  and  minister  to 
his  wants  it  was  easy  to  forget  poor  Wong  She.  A 
letter,  however,  brought  by  a  messenger  revived  his 
former  love  and  patriotism,  and  set  his  brain  at  work 
devising  means  of  escape. 

Now  none  might  leave  the  Kingdom  of  the  East 
save  by  royal  permission.  Linfa,  however,  always 
had  in  her  possession  a  copy  of  the  king's  license,  but 
how  should  Sit  Ping  Quai  obtain  possession  of  it?  In 
vain  he  begged  it  of  her,  first  under  one  pretense  and 
then  another;  love  was  quick-witted  and  suspicious. 
Finally  he  made  her  insensible  with  wine,  and  while 
in  that  condition  he  seized  the  license  and  mounting 
his  horse  rode  rapidly  away.      The  servants  told  their 


THRILLING   SCENES.  375 

mistress,  who  roused  herself  and  rushed  after  her 
faithless  spouse. 

And  now  behold  the  flourish  of  the  whip  and  spur 
about  the  stage  and  the  plunging  of  invisible  chargers 
as  Linfa  overtakes  her  lord  and  demands  his  destina- 
tion. ''I  am  only  riding  over  the  hills  for  pleasure," 
Sit  Ping  Quai  replied,  but  meanwhile  he  gave  his 
words  the  lie  by  driving  his  spurs  into  his  horse  and 
breaking  away.  But  the  princess  was  not  to  be  baf- 
fled. After  him  she  rode  fleeter  than  the  wind,  and 
catching  by  the  tail  of  his  horse  she  held  to  it  as  only 
a  wife  can  hold  to  a  renegade  husband.  At  last  he 
was  obliged  to  yield  himself  her  prisoner. 

Then  when  all  else  failed  he  began  to  beg.  Dis- 
mounting he  told  her  all  his  heart,  told  her  the  story 
of  his  former  life  and  love  for  Wong  She,  showed  her 
the  letter,  and  begged,  begged  like  a  beaten  husband. 
Love  and  duty  struggled  in  Linfa's  bosom,  and  draw- 
ing her  sword  she  prayed  her  lord  to  liberate  her  soul. 
Then,  sorry  unto  death,  both  fell  flat  on  their  backs 
and  mourned  their  sad  lot. 

Sit  Ping  Quai  was  first  to  revive.  Starting  up  he 
sprang  upon  his  horse,  promised  faithfully  to  return, 
and  soon  was  out  of  sight.  Then  repented  Linfa; 
with  ^vomanly  repentance  she  cursed  herself  for  per- 
mitting the  recreant's  escape.  As  quickly  as  she 
could  she  followed  him.  Perceiving  the  princess 
pressing  upon  him,  he  dashed  across  a  bridge,  that  is  to 
say,  the  board  resting  on  the  two  tables,  and  throwing 
it  down  after  him,  he  watched  with  much  complacency 
the  princess  tear  her  hair  and  rend  her  garments. 
Then  she  throws  herself  from  the  table,  falls  full  five 
feet,  and  strikes  upon  her  back  with  a  force  sufficient 
to  dislocate  the  joints  and  maim  for  life  any  white 
princess  in  Christendom.  Thus  ends  the  first  part  of 
the  story  of  the  Return  of  Sit  Ping  Quai. 

The  second  part  of  the  drama  details  the  sorrows 
of  Wong  She,  who,  left  alone  to  grapple  with  penury 
and  mourn  a  husband  dead,  became  reduced  to  need- 


376  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

ful  extremities.  The  tidings  of  her  hero-husband's 
capture  and  probable  death  struck  Wong  She  from 
the  high  estate  in  which  her  lord  had  left  her,  ar- 
rayed her  in  widow's  weeds,  and  tuned  her  voice  to 
mourning. 

Secluding  herself,  and  nursing  her  affliction,  she 
refused  to  see  her  friends,  and  gave  herself  up  to  grief. 
Messengers  were  dispatched  to  learn  his  fate,  but  failed 
in  their  endeavor.  Thus  years  rolled  on ;  spring 
flowers  bloomed  and  withered,  and  autumn  fruit 
ripened  and  fell,  and  still  Wong  She  mourned  faith- 
fully. 

Saint-like  and  efl*ulgent  grew  her  beauty  under  her 
great  grief,  so  much  so  that  the  poor  simple-minded 
people  who  saw  her  come  and  go  in  her  daily  search 
for  food  well-nigh  worshipped  her  as  a  being  not  of 
earth.  Many  offers  of  marriage  were  made  her,  but 
she  treated  them  all  with  scorn ;  yet  so  straitened  in 
her  condition  was  she  that  she  was  obliged  to  dig 
roots  by  the  roadside  to  support  life. 

While  thus  engaged  one  day,  a  man  of  noble  bear- 
ing, but  dressed  like  a  courier,  accosted  her  as  he  was 
passing  by.  Sit  Ping  Quai,  through  his  unwonted 
dress  and  bronzed,  thick-bearded  visage,  was  not  rec- 
ognized by  her  who  loved  him,  though  instantly  he 
knew  Wong  She.  Scarcely  could  he  refrain  from 
clasping  her  to  his  heart  as  she  modestly  drew  back 
from  him,  but  as  she  did  not  know  him,  he  thought 
to  practice  a  little  upon  her  before  he  declared  himself. 

First  he  represented  himself  as  a  messenger  from 
her  captive  husband,  but  when  she  demanded  his  cre- 
dentials he  could  not  give  them  to  her.  Then  he  de- 
clared himself  a  rich  nobleman,  praised  her  beauty, 
and  offered  her  money,  all  of  which  advances  she  re- 
jected in  disdain.  Then  he  swore  he  knew  her  hus- 
band, swore  he  was  false  to  her,  but  when  he  pressed 
her  hand  she  threw  dust  into  his  eyes  and  flying  to 
her  house  shut  herself  in. 

Half  blinded,  Sit  Ping  Quai  followed  and  loudly 


GAT^lBLINd.  377 

proclaimed  himself  through  the  bolted  door.  Faith- 
ful Wong  She  thought  this  another  subterfuge  and 
would  not  let  him  in.  He  protested,  entreated, 
stormed ;  all  was  of  no  avail.  The  insulted  and  en- 
raged wife  did  not  believe  him  to  be  her  husband, 
until  at  length  he  drew  forth  her  letter  to  him  and 
threw  it  in  at  the  lattice. 

And  now  comes  a  scene  eminently  oriental.  Wong 
She  had  grown  suspicious.  This  man  had  come  to 
her  in  the  form  of  a  fiend  incarnate,  in  the  shape  of  a 
libertine  and  a  liar.  This  letter  might  be  another  de- 
ception, a  forgery.  But,  heaven  be  praised,  she  had 
the  means  at  her  command  of  testing  it.  In  lands 
celestial  letters  are  often  written  on  linen  or  satin.  I 
have  said  Wong  She  was  poor;  cloth  she  had  none 
suitable  on  which  to  write  to  her  lord.  But  there  was 
the  fine  inner  garment  she  wore,  relic  of  more  opulent 
days;  and  in  her  strait  she  cut  from  it  a  piece  on 
which  to  write  to  her  husband.  And  now  is  she  not 
supposed  to  be  within  her  own  chamber  ?  With  be- 
witching naivete  the  chaste  Wong  She — remember, 
she  is  a  man — raises  her  skirts,  and  fits  the  returned 
epistle  to  its  former  place.  Heaven  be  praised,  'tis 
the  very  same!  This  was  indeed  her  husband.  The 
door  was  opened ;  husband  and  wife  are  reconciled, 
and  the  entertainment  ends. 

Evidently  the  Chinese  dramatist  throws  himself 
upon  the  pure-mindedness  of  the  audience,  for  he 
scruples  at  nothing  that  nature  does  not  scruple  at, 
and  the  birth  of  a  child,  and  like  scenes,  are  of 
common  occurrence. 

More  attractive  than  the  drama,  and  more  absorb- 
ing than  any  other  vice,  to  the  Chinese,  is  gambling, 
in  which  probably  not  one  of  them  fails  to  indulge  to 
some  extent.  Thousands  economize  and  begrudge 
themselves  even  necessaries,  in  order  to  save  where- 
with to  pander  to  a  passion  which  appears  so  opposed 
to  their  usually  prudent  habits.  They  number  proba- 
bly more  professional  gamblers  than  any  other  nation, 


378  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

and  despite  tlie  raids  upon  them  in  tliis  country  their 
dens  flourish  in  large  numbers. 

In  early  days  white  folk  were  freely  admitted,  but 
as  the  gap  widened  between  the  races,  Caucasians 
came  to  be  excluded  as  unruly  and  not  to  be  trusted. 
Under  the  alluring  motto  of  Riches  and  Plenty,  or 
the  Winning  Hall,  hung  a  signboard  that  the  game 
was  running  day  and  night.  Within  were  further 
attractions  in  the  shape  of  half  a  dozen  male  and 
female  musicians,  who  aided  a  richly  dressed  singer  in 
creating  celestial  symphony.  Cigarettes  were  freely 
supplied,  and  a  huge  tea  kettle,  with  tiny  cups  by  its 
side,  stood  prepared  to  minister  to  the  refreshment  of 
victims,  many  of  whom  were  tlie  dupes  of  oracular 
utterances  of  idols  and  fortune-tellers  pretending  to 
reveal  a  lucky  combination. 

The  former  commodious  hells  with  several  tables, 
brilliant  lights,  and  gaudy  decorations,  declined  under 
the  pressure  of  police  and  hoodlums  into  dingy  garrets, 
hazy  with  smoke.  Access  was  had,  by  Chinese  only, 
by  means  of  a  long  passage,  with  perhaps  a  rickety 
stairway  and  a  second  passage  after  that.  At  the 
entrance,  on  the  street,  stood  a  dreamy-looking  yet 
lynx-eyed  sentinel,  who  on  the  least  suspicion  of 
danger  pulled  a  hidden  cord  to  warn  the  inmates. 
In  a  twinkling  one  or  more  heavy  plank  doors  with 
sturdy  bars  closed  before  the  intruder,  and  ere  the 
police  could  force  their  way  to  the  den,  the  occupants 
had  disappeared  through  openings  in  the  floor  and 
wall.  They  had  little  to  fear,  however,  for  the 
weekly  fees  given  to  the  police  made  it  to  their  inter- 
est to  shield  them,  and  raids  were  made  only  on  de- 
linquents for  the  sake  of  appearance,  since  not  Ameri- 
cans only,  but  the  six  companies  repeatedly  urged  the 
restriction  of  a  vice  which  creates  so  much  misery, 
idleness,  and  crime.  Beside  the  weekly  fee  of  five 
dollars  to  the  special  police  of  the  quarter  for  immu- 
nity and  guard,  the  gambling  and  lottery  establish- 
ments paid  a  large  tax   to  one  who  raised  himself  to 


A  CELESTIAL  HELL.  379 

the  superintendency  of  their  guild,  and  professed  to 
protect  them  against  raids  by  means  of  bribery,  by 
despatching  informers,  and  by  engaging  counsel. 
He  was  said  to  receive  $3000  a  month,  and  to  ac- 
count for  less  than  half  of  it,  the  remainder  going  to 
swell  the  large  fortune  which  became  his  within  a 
few  years. 

Nearly  all  the  dens  were  devoted  to  the  favorite 
game  o^  tan,  or  fan-tan,  meaning  "funds  spread  out." 
There  was  rarely  more  than  one  table  in  the  room, 
which  was  illuminated  by  a  tong  toy,  a  candlestick 
supporting  a  bowl  with  oil,  on  the  rim  of  which  was 
a  series  of  wicks.  A  wire  frame  was  attached,  bear- 
ing a  paper  shade,  four  inches  in  width.  At  the  head 
of  the  table  sat  the  banker  and  croupier,  with  a  heap 
of  buttons  before  them,  or  more  usually  bronze  coun- 
ters, known  as  clilns,  or  cash,  being  coins  of  about  the 
size  of  a  cent,  but  lighter,  and  only  one  tenth  in 
value.  A  square  hole  in  the  centre,  surrounded  by 
Chinese  characters,  served  for  stringing  them  together 
ill  bunches  of  100  to  1000,  for  the  convenience  of 
trade  in  China.  From  the  heap  of  cash  the  croupier 
separated  a  part  at  random,  and  covered  them  with  a 
bowl,  w^hercupon  the  gamblers  began  to  bet  against 
the  bank  by  placing  their  money  on  a  square  mat 
with  marks  and  numbers  on  the  centre  of  the  table. 
The  croupier  then  lifted  the  cup  and  counted  the  cash 
deliberately,  raking  them  in  fours  to  one  side  with  a 
stick  slightly  curved  at  the  end.  On  the  last  four 
counters,  or  the  fraction  thereof,  depended  the  issue. 
The  majority  of  the  gamblers  bet  on  their  turning  out 
odd  or  even,  while  the  others  wager  with  smaller 
chance  on  the  final  number  being  one,  two,  three,  or 
four,  whereby  they  made  larger  winnings  if  successful. 
The  game  seemed  fair,  yet  the  chances  were  greatly 
in  favor  of  the  banks,  since  they  were  not  only  able 
to  pay  heavy  bribes  to  police  and  highbinders,  but 
grew  rich.  It  is  hinted  that  in  Chinese  gambling 
when  the  bets  are  heavy  on  one  side,  the  croupier  is 


380  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

able  to  make  the  counters  odd  or  even  as  he  pleases 
by  dropping  one  from  his  sleeve,  or  by  other  sleight 
of  hand.  The  fear  of  raids  gave  rise  to  a  more  inno- 
cent game,  known  as  sick,  wherein  four  or  five  dice 
were  thrown  in  turn  by  different  players.  They  bet 
on  the  larger  result  of  certain  throws,  and  settled 
their  losses  chiefly  with  drafts  on  Chinese  bankers 
representing  certain  amounts. 

Dominoes  were  in  great  favor,  each  player  taking 
six  from  the  well-mixed  heap,  after  determining  the 
turn  of  playing  by  dice-throws.  The  first  choice 
placed  the  first  domino,  and  then  followed  the  usual 
matching  of  pieces.  Cards  were  narrow  strips  of 
pasteboard  about  three  inches  long  by  three  quarters 
of  an  inch  wide,  marked  with  circles  and  peculiar 
hieroglyphics,  and  were  not  so  easy  to  handle  as  ours. 
Cash  or  counters  were  regarded  as  indispensable  to 
make  the  game  interesting. 

Lotteries  were  numerous,  and  conducted  on  differ- 
ent plans,  with  drawings  as  often  as  twice  a  day. 
Agents  for  the  sale  of  tickets  were  to  be  found  at 
almost  every  Chinese  cigar-store  and  laundry. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Chinese  in  general 
have  been  ready  to  appeal  to  our  courts.  Their  con- 
servative spirit,  the  antagonism  of  races,  their  non- 
acquaintance  with  our  language,  and  the  striking 
difference  between  our  liberal  institutions  and  their 
autocratic  system,  have  held  them  back.  Nor  have 
they  felt  inspired  with  the  necessary  confidence  in 
our  tribunals,  on  finding  that  their  right  to  testify 
against  white  persecutors  was  restricted,  and  on  ob- 
serving that  law-makers  united  with  law-dispensers 
to  falsify,  distort,  and  evade  the  ends  of  justice. 
Their  only  remedy  was  to  protect  themselves,  and  in 
this  they  merely  followed  the  example  set  them  by 
our  own  society,  first  by  miners,  and  then  by  the 
committees  of  vigilance. 

The  Chinese  companies  and  guilds  combine  not  only 


TRIBUNALS   OF  JUSTICE.  381 

the  benevolent,  social,  and  political  phases  of  our  own 
numerous  societies  and  trades-union,  but  also  to  some 
extent  the  military  character  of  our  guards,  and  the 
judicial  power  of  our  popular  tribunals.  Their  rules 
prescribe  for  the  settlement  of  disputes,  the  holding 
of  courts,  and  the  arrest  of  offenders,  the  levy  of  as- 
sessments to  provide  for  rewards  to  captors,  for  law- 
yers' fees,  and  for  bribes,  the  lending  of  weapons  to 
responsible  members,  and  so  on.  They  claim,  of 
course,  that  the  system  indicated  is  merely  a  persua- 
sive arbitration,  and  that  the  parties  whose  case  is 
brought  before  the  company  may  appeal  to  the  Amer- 
ican courts,  to  which  heavy  offenders  are  handed  over, 
but  the  evidence  is  strongly  against  this  plea.  It  is 
rare  for  them  to  bring  a  case  before  our  courts  unless 
the  police  have  gained  notice  of  the  affair.  We  also 
learn  that  they  have  secret  tribunals  and  inquisitions 
which  overawe  their  whole  community,  and  which  are 
composed  of  the  leading  members  of  guilds  and  com- 
panies, men  who  control  coolies  and  manage  the  asso- 
ciations with  an  iron  hand. 

It  was  not  unusual  to  find  posted  on  some  street 
corner,  in  the  Chinese  quarter,  a  notice  on  red  paper, 
subscribed  by  a  firm,  offering  a  reward,  generally  of 
$500  or  $600,  for  the  murder  of  a  designated  person. 
Such  notices  were  produced  before  the  congressional 
committee  in  1876,  and  witnesses  testified  that,  in  case 
the  assassin  was  arrested  by  American  authorities,  it 
was  understood  he  should  be  provided  with  good 
counsel;  if  sentenced  to  prison,  an  extra  recompense 
would  be  paid,  and  if  doomed  to  death,  the  reward 
would  be  paid  to  his  relatives.  These  inducements 
were  strong  enough  to  prevail  on  any  number  of  men 
to  undertake  the  task,  and  the  fate  of  the  objectiona- 
ble person  was  regarded  as  sealed.  It  was  still  more 
common  for  associations  to  issue  death-warrants  to 
their  own  members,  or  to  call  directly  upon  assassins 
and  arrange  the  deed.  Although  Chinamen  as  a  rule 
confine   quarrels  to  angry  words  and  gesticulations, 


382  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

yet  they  have  an  extreme  disregard  for  life  when  bent 
on  a  purpose. 

The  men  usually  charged  to  carry  out  the  decrees 
of  the  secret  tribunals  were  known  as  Highbinders, 
who  form  several  associations  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  of  varying  strength,  but  all  subject  to  the 
rules  of  the  guild.  They  were  also  called  Hatchet- 
men  from  their  most  common  weapon,  a  six  inch 
hatchet  with  a  short  notched  handle.  Many  of  them 
were  engaged  at  honest  work,  but  ever  ready  to  obey 
the  call  of  their  leaders,  who  protected  the  interests  of 
women-venders,  attended  to  the  collection  of  debts,  the 
levy  of  blackmail,  robbery,  pillage,  and  nmrder.  Their 
weapons  were  pistols,  hatchets,  and  daggers,  the  long, 
keen  blade  of  the  latter  being  sheathed  in  a  layer  of 
cloth,  by  which  the  tell-tale  blood  might  be  at  once 
removed.  The  name  of  the  chief  company  was  Hip 
Ye  Tong,  or  Temple  of  United  Justice,  numbering 
some  300  desporadoes,  whose  chief  revenue  was  de- 
rived from  a  $40  fee  from  every  prostitute,  besides 
the  regular  tax  and  extraordinary  assessments  where- 
with to  bribe  Christians,  fee  lawyers,  spirit  away  wit- 
nesses, and  check  interference  generally. 

Little  attempt  was  made  to  suppress  vice  in  China- 
town, for  that  would  have  required  an  army  of  police. 
As  it  was,  both  the  Chinese  and  the  police  engaged 
in  the  quarter  submitted  to  circumstances,  and  the 
latter  accepted  not  only  a  regular  pay  from  all  classes, 
but  found  it  profitable,  as  well  as  safer,  to  receive 
bribes  from  highbinders  and  others  in  return  for  non- 
interference. Occasionally  the  American  courts  were 
employed  to  assist  at  wreaking  vengeance  on  obnox- 
ious Chinamen,  surrendered  on  some  trumped-up 
charge,  and  the  crime  fastened  on  them  by  means  of 
hired  witnesses. 

The  manner  of  administering  the  oath  to  Chinese 
witnesses  in  American  courts  was  to  cut  off  the  head 
of  a  fowl,  and  as  the  blood  dripped  the  witness  would 
swear  to  speak  the  truth,  invoking  upon  himself  a  fate 


ADMINISTERIXG   THE   OATH.  383 

like  that  of  the  bird  in  case  he  spoke  falsely.  The 
fowls  thus  consecrated  to  heaven  could  not  be  eaten 
by  Chinamen,  but  were  given  to  less  scrupulous  white 
persons.  A  saucer  was  sometimes  broken,  or  salt  scat- 
tered on  the  ground,  with  a  similar  invocation;  or  all 
the  three  rites  combined  were  employed.  Finding 
that  even  the  triple  oath  was  disrgarded,  the  Confu- 
cius formula,  so  called,  was  tried  in  1861.  A  slip  of 
yellow  paper  with  the  oath  inscribed  in  Chinese  char- 
acters, and  signed  by  the  witness,  was  set  on  fire. 
Taking  the  slip  in  his  left  hand  to  waft  the  spirit  of 
the  oath  to  the  gods,  the  witness  raised  his  right  arm 
and  repeated  the  oath,  calling  on  heaven  to  crush  him 
in  case  he  failed  to  speak  the  truth,  and  declaring 
that  in  testimony  of  the  promise  made  he  offered  the 
burning  paper  for  the  perusal  of  the  imperial  heaven. 
A  criminal  was  not  unfrequently  personated  by  an 
innocent  person  for  a  pecuniary  consideration.  Wit- 
nesses were  readily  obtained  to  testify  as  desired.  The 
restraint  and  seclusion  of  the  prison  offered  little  ter- 
ror to  him  who  had  been  used  to  the  confinement  of  a 
crowded  workroom  by  day,  and  to  the  narrow  space 
of  a  bunk  at  night ;  nor  could  its  regime  prove  very 
objectionable  to  the  hard-worked  coolie  who  subsisted 
on  a  cup  of  tea  and  a  bowl  of  rice.  The  proxy  artifice 
was  once  exposed  in  the  case  of  a  prisoner  who  had 
been  sentenced  to  a  term  of  three  years,  and  served 
two.  Owing  to  good  behavior  he  gained  promotion 
in  the  prison  service,  whereby  he  learned  the  art  of 
cooking,  received  good  clothes,  and  enjoyed  comforts 
which  he  would  not  otherwise  have  expected.  On 
his  release  he  found  himself  possessed  of  a  fair  knowl- 
edge of  English,  and  a  good  occupation,  besides  a  sum 
of  money  paid  him  by  the  real  culprit. 

Not  withstanding  the  foul  atmosphere  of  their  quarter, 
no  epidemics  can  be  traced  to  them.  The  death  rate 
there  is  smallerthan  in  any  other  part  of  thecity;  butthey 
have  few  ch  ildren,  which  weakens  the  com  parison.    That 


384  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

the  small-pox  has  been  spread  by  their  infected  immi- 
grants may  be  true  ;  but  America  suffered  more  from 
this  disease  before  the  arrival  of  Chinese,  as  shown 
by  the  records  of  the  decimation  among  our  Indians 
on  this  coast  and  elsewhere.  A  physician,  who  has 
resided  a  long  time  in  China,  declares  that  inocula- 
tion, which  is  a  surer  prophylactic  than  vaccination, 
is  almost  universally  practised  there ;  others  qualify 
this  statement  by  asserting  that  the  inoculation  is 
faulty  and  has  often  spread  the  very  disease  it  is  in- 
tended to  check.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  steamers 
from  China  have  frequently  brought  infected  passen- 
gers, and  that  hidden  sufferers  have  been  unearthed 
in  the  Chinese  quarters.  The  prevalence  of  the  scourge 
is  shown  by  the  large  number  of  pock-marked  China- 
men. It  w^as  testified  before  the  congressional  com- 
mittee in  1876  that  of  800  passengers  brought  by  a 
China  steamer  a  few  years  before,  740  were  found  by 
the  examining  physicians  to  have  had  the  disease  at 
some  time,  chiefly  in  a  mild  form. 

A  scourge  much  more  feared,  owing  to  its  insidious 
approach  and  effect  on  future  generations,  was  syphilis, 
which  existed  very  generally  amongst  Chinese  females, 
who  with  their  cheap  allurements  attracted  silly  boys 
and  sowed  in  their  system  the  germ  of  this  malignant 
disorder,  which  may  overwhelm  a  whole  race.  A 
prominent  physician  testified  that  the  large  majority 
of  our  youth  aflflicted  with  the  taints,  received  it 
from  these  women,  and  many  is  the  life  which  has 
been  ruined  thereby. 

A  third  disease  prevalent  among  them  was  leprosy. 
There  are  several  degrees  of  the  malady,  all  incurable 
and  some  very  contagious,  particularly  if  the  virus 
happens  to  touch  a  delicate  or  sore  part  of  the  body. 
Some  persons  have  been  infected  for  years,  without 
being  aware  of  it,  till  the  taint  w^as  found  in  their 
offspring.  The  police  could  readily  point  out  any 
number  of  lepers  in  the  Chinese  quarter  of  San 
Francisco,  in  various  stages  of  the  disease,  from  the 


DISEASES  AND  REMEDIES.  385 

simple  white  or  red  spots,  and  swollen  flesh,  to  the 
blue  lumps,  dark  ulcers,  and  putrified  sores  eating 
away  the  flesh  and  leaving  sickening  gaps.  Few  per- 
sons can  endure  the  shock  to  sight  and  feelings,  or 
venture  to  come  in  contact  with  these  unfortunates. 
In  an  alley  on  Pacific  street  were  two  cellars  wherein 
lepers  and  incurables  congregated,  were  left  to  struggle 
for  life  as  best  they  might,  and  die  the  death  of  a 
dog.  Contributions  from  visitors  formed  their  chief 
means  of  subsistence.  There  were  a  few  in  the 
American  pest-house,  eight  of  thirty-six  Chinese 
inmates  in  April,  1876,  being  lepers,  the  rest  suffering 
chiefly  from  syphilis.  The  less  afflicted  were  scattered 
through  the  quarter,  and  finding  no  commiseration 
among  their  countrymen,  they  were  driven  to  seek  Chris- 
tian charity,  either  by  begging  or  by  peddling  their 
tainted  cigars  and  matches  under  the  cover  of  night. 
In  China  they  are  dreaded  as  much  as  here,  but  are 
permitted  to  wander  around  in  bands  to  scatter  terror 
and  extort  tribute.  Wherever  Chinamen  have  immi- 
grated leprosy  appears  to  have  developed.  On  the 
Sandwich  Islands  the  scourge  carried  off*  large  num- 
bers. The  white  race  cannot  be  regarded  as  exempt 
from  the  contagion,  for  English  sailors  have  several 
times  been  stricken,  and  it  has  prevailed  in  Lorabardy. 
In  view  of  our  intimate  relation  with  the  race  which 
washes  our  clothes,  manufactures  our  cigars,  and  cooks 
our  food,  a  certain  degree  of  apprehension  is  justifiable. 
In  case  of  a  slight  indisposition  the  Chinaman  is 
content  to  seek  that  panacea  for  physical  and  mental 
ills,  the  opium  pipe ;  but  if  the  symptoms  assume  the 
least  complication  he  hurries  to  seek  more  reliable 
nostrums;  and  to  judge  by  the  quantity  he  consumes, 
he  is  evidently  not  in  favor  of  homoeopathic  doses, 
even  if  that  system  is  upheld  in  other  respects.  The 
first  recourse  is  probably  to  Wah  To,  God  of  Health, 
whom  he  approaches  with  offerings  and  propitiatory 
rites,  asking  him  to  designate  a  remedy  or  a  doctor. 
The  framer  of  the  oracle   has  not  been  a  whit  less 

Essays  and  Miscellany     25 


386  MONGOLIANISM  IN   AMERICA. 

zealous  of  the  influence  of  his  god  than  Pythia  of 
the  Olympian  deity,  and  gives  only  the  vaguest  of 
answers,  unless  the  bribes  of  some  particular  member 
of  the  Esculapian  fraternity  have  overcome  the  scruples 
of  the  priest,  and  make  him  designate  with  greater 
exactness  who  the  healer  is  in  whom  the  gods  delight. 
When  gods  and  god-keepers  must  have  money  for 
their  favors,  we  should  have  more  charity  for  men. 
The  more  prudent  sufferer  applies  directly  to  one  of 
the  280  works  containing  the  medical  lore  of  the 
celestial  kingdom,  with  full  description  of  herbs  and 
drugs,  their  property  and  mode  of  application,  the 
regime  to  be  observed  by  patients,  the  influence  of 
natural  and  supernatural  causes  on  different  portions 
of  the  body,  and  how  to  court  or  avoid  them,  the 
internal  structure  of  the  body,  and  other  useful 
matters. 

Despite  the  deep  study  given  to  medical  art,  its  con- 
dition is  lamentably  backward  ;  and  although  theories 
on  diseases  and  remedies  are  numerous  and  elaborate, 
they  are  founded  on  a  wrong  basis,  and  their  practice 
is  pampered  by  the  most  absurd  superstition.  The 
study  of  physiology  and  the  art  of  dissecting  are  not  • 
in  vogue,  and  glands,  nerves,  ducts,  the  organs,  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  and  other  features,  are  there- 
fore misunderstood  or  entirely  unknown.  It  is  taught 
that  different  parts  of  the  body  require  distinct  treat- 
ment, and  that  the  drugs  destined  for  them  are  con- 
ducted there  with  the  aid  of  particular  medicines,  by 
means  of  certain  channels  or  cords.  The  condition 
of  the  body  is  determined  by  the  state  of  the  several 
pulses,  making,  with  their  several  forms  of  develop- 
ments, twelve  in  all,  which,  again,  are  classed  under 
several  heads.  Some  medicines  are  supposed  to  drive 
out  diseases,  others  to  coax  them  away;  and  if  one 
kind  fails  the  other  must  be  tried,  according  to  the 
indications  of  various  natural  and  supernatural  influ- 
ences, behind  which  the  doctor  finds  convenient  refuge 
in  a  dilemma.     Similia  similibus  curantur  is  a  favorite 


CURATIVE  CUSTOMS.  387 

idea;  again,  members  and  organs  from  a  sound  indi- 
vidual and  animal,  or  matter  relating  thereto,  are  pre- 
scribed for  those  who  are  weak  therein.  Among  the 
curious  remedies  obtained  from  the  human  body  are, 
the  placentae,  ashes  of  nails  pared  from  a  pregnant 
woman,  woman's  milk,  plasters  of  hair  cut  fine,  a  hair 
from  a  mustache,  a  bone  from  the  forehead,  and  other 
matter  taken  from  felons  or  young  children,  whose 
remains  are  not  sacredly  guarded  like  those  of  re- 
spectable adults.  From  animals  are  taken  such  arti- 
cles as  the  hoof  of  a  white  horse,  bull's  excrement, 
the  tip  of  deer  horns,  the  hair  of  a  cow's  tail,  dragon's 
bones.  The  bulk  of  the  medicines  are  obtained  from 
plants,  however,  many  of  them  unknown  to  us.  The 
ngau  tzat  root,  which  runs  deep  into  the  earth,  is 
frequently  administered  to  guide  to  the  lower  extrem- 
ities such  medicines  as  are  destined  to  act  there. 

A  famous  prescription  invented  by  a  distinguished 
individual  reads  as  follows  :  Frankincense  and  myrrh, 
one  mace  (one  tenth  of  an  ounce)  each ;  one  dog's  gall 
dried  in  the  sun;  one  carp's  gall  dried  in  the  shade; 
sal  ammonia,  two  mace;  striped  frog's  spittle,  two 
mace ;  dog's  bezoar,  one  mace ;  musk,  one  and  a  half 
mace ;  white  cloves,  forty-nine  berries ;  seven  centi- 
pedes dried  and  pulverized;  beeswax,  three  mace; 
black  gold  stone,  one  mace ;  one  gill  of  the  milk  of  a 
woman  after  the  birth  of  her  first  child,  which  must 
be  a  boy;  king  fun  (a  stone),  powdered,  one  mace; 
hung  wong  (also  a  stone),  one  mace;  quicksilver, 
roasted  and  powdered  till  made  white,  three  mace ; 
to  be  mixed  and  made  into  pills,  the  size  of  the  green 
bean,  and  administered  in  doses  of  one  pill  for  a  child, 
and  three  to  five  for  an  adult,  in  cases  of  chills  and 
fever,  ulcers  and  swellings,  and  in  violent  attacks  of 
sickness.  The  patient  must  be  put  to  bed  and  per- 
spiration induced.  The  sick  man  who  after  all  this 
refuses  to  revive  deserves  to  die. 

Like  all  the  prayers  of  man  to  his  gods,  like  all  the 
appeals  of  man  to  the  supernatural  and  unknowable, 


S88  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

the  more  mysterious  the  virtues  of  these  remedies, 
the  more  inexplicable  their  effect,  the  greater  the  de- 
mand for  them,  and  not  a  shipment  of  importance 
leaves  San  Francisco  for  the  interior  of  which  they 
do  not  form  a  considerable  proportion.  They  are 
mostly  prepared  at  one  of  the  dozen  apothecary  shops 
in  the  Chinese  quarter,  where  several  men  are  con- 
stantly employed  to  dry,  peel,  crush,  distill,  and  mix 
from  500  to  1000  varieties  of  medicinal  substances, 
according  to  the  prescriptions  of  the  books,  but  with- 
out an  attempt  to  form  anything  like  a  scientific  com- 
pound or  extract,  for  chemistry  is  an  unexplored  field 
to  the  Chinese.  Apothecaries  may  be  found  at  any 
large  settlement  under  the  suggestive  names  of  The 
Hall  of  the  Approved  Medicines  of  every  Land, 
Great  Life  Hall,  or  Hall  of  the  Hill  with  Two  Peaks, 
referring  to  a  famous  doctor  of  a  past  age.  There  is 
humbug  enough  among  our  own  medicine  men,  but 
those  of  the  Asiatics  are,  if  anything,  worse. 

The  Chinese  have  an  infinite  subdivision  of  branches 
in  all  trades,  including  the  medical  profession,  and 
more  reliance  is  placed  in  those  who  modestly  pro- 
claim themselves  as  specialists.  Some  among  them 
offer  to  cure  certain  diseases  for  a  fixed  sum,  including 
the  cost  of  medicines.  The  intricacy  of  the  branch 
requires  deep  study,  and  this  in  itself  indicates  suffi- 
cient learning  to  assure  the  practitioner  of  an  honored 
position  among  his  countrymen.  Political  as  well  as 
guild  regulations  have  in  China  aided  to  check  re- 
searches tending  to  advance  their  art,  and  the  profes- 
sion is  restricted  to  antiquated  methods,  with  heavy 
penalties  for  the  bad  results  that  may  follow  innova- 
tions. Experience  has,  of  course,  led  them  to  discover 
many  eflScient  methods,  and  they  are  quite  expert  in 
the  treatment  of  simple  ailments,  but  superstition 
enters  largely  into  all  operations,  even  of  respectable 
physicians.  The  condition  of  the  patient  is  determined 
by  feeling  the  pulses  for  the  different  parts  of  the 
body,  under  varying  circumstances,  a  task  which  re- 


SUPERSTITION  IN  MEDICINE.  389 

quires  some  time,  despite  the  wonderful  accuracy  and 
fineness  of  touch  of  the  experienced  doctor.  The  or- 
gans are  also  examined,  and  aided  by  the  statement 
of  the  patient,  the  diagnosis  is  formed  and  the  remedy 
prescribed  with  due  regard  for  the  state  of  the 
.  weather,  the  moon,  planets,  and  various  other  subtle 
and  occult  influences.  Gods  good  and  evil  must  be 
continually  invoked  and  spirits  exorcised  to  comfort  the 
sufferer.  While  the  examination  progresses  the  doctor 
does  not  fail  to  impress  the  patient  with  his  profound 
knowledge  of  the  disease  and  its  treatment  by  reciting 
the  wonderful  cures  effected  by  him,  as  many  of  our 
own  doctors  do. 

Counter-irritants,  such  as  rubbing,  pinching,  pricking, 
and  applying  caustics  are  much  used,  particularly  by 
barbers ;  and  the  victim  submits  with  unflinching 
stolidity  to  the  most  severe  torbures.  Surgery  is  not 
understood,  for  Chinese  have  a  decided  objection  to 
cutting  or  amputating  ;  hence  they  have  few  of  our 
numerous  surgical  instruments,  and  none  of  the  ap- 
paratus for  the  cure  of  deformities  and  kindred  treat- 
ments. In  cases  of  broken  limbs,  simple  bandages 
and  poultices  are  applied.  Of  most  operations  they 
have  peculiar  ideas.  For  a  female  suicide  from  an 
overdose  of  opium  a  live  kid  was  procured,  into  whose 
throat  an  incision  was  made,  and  the  warm  blood 
caught  in  a  syringe  and  thrust  down  the  throat  of  the 
dead.  She  did  not,  like  Lazarus,  return  to  life. 
Obstetrics  is  left  to  women,  whose  chief  fitness  lies  in 
tact  and  experience. 

Liberal  in  the  use  of  drugs,  the  Chinaman  is  also 
free  in  the  employment  of  doctors  ;  and  since  different 
parts  of  the  body  require  different  treatment,  he  will 
often  seek  several  doctors  to  prescribe  in  their  respec- 
tive departments ;  and  if  the  desired  effect  is  not  ob- 
tained, he  is  quite  ready  to  bestow  his  confidence  on 
other  healers  who  offer  to  cure  all  diseases,  even  those 
unheard  of,  and  whose  sole  claims  to  the  profession 
are  the  possession  of  a  few  medical  books  and  a  ready 


390  MONGOLTANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

wit  for  mummery,  so  soothing  to  the  feelings  of  the 
poor.  At  one  time  there  was  quite  a  mania  among 
white  women  to  test  the  skill  of  the  mystic  oriental. 
Clairvoyants  prescribe  in  accordance  with  the  revela- 
tions they  receive  in  their  visions.  Anotlier  class  of 
men  frequently  consulted  is  students  whose  enthu- 
siasm has  led  them  to  dip  into  Esculapian  lore,  and 
being  more  disinterested  than  prefessionals,  they  en- 
joy the  confidence  of  the  prudent. 

The  regulations  of  the  Chinese  companies  provide 
for  the  care  of  sick  members  ;  the  first  regular  hos- 
pital established  in  San  Francisco  was  the  Chinese 
asylum  on  Union  street,  for  which  the  city  granted  a 
lot.  Two  or  three  other  hospitals  were  supported  by 
the  companies,  whose  sick  members  were  there  made 
to  work  as  long  as  they  could  move  a  limb.  These 
establishments  were  situated  in  back-rooms  and  cellars 
without  furniture  save  a  few  thin  mats,  and  where  no 
regard  was  paid  to  cleanliness  and  comfort,  or  even 
to  the  sustenance  of  the  helpless  and  often  famishing 
patients.  The  charge  at  these  places  was  extremely 
moderate,  and  even  among  those  belonging  to  the  very 
lowest  order,  who  were  friendless  and  entirely  desti- 
tute, there  was  always  room  for  the  sick  and  dying  in 
the  out-of-the-way  corners  of  Little  China,  where  were 
always  found  some  neglected  by  all,  lingering  in  filth 
and  misery.  This  was  particularly  the  fate  of  the 
women,  who  were  less  esteemed  than  men,  and  less 
apt  to  have  relatives  here  to  care  for  them.  It  would 
seem  a  good  business  for  the  boastful  doctors,  buying 
sick  women  to  cure  and  sell,  but  for  the  rule  that  if 
they  should  prove  obstinate,  all  flesh  having  some- 
time to  die,  the  funeral  expenses  must  be  borne  by 
the  person  at  whose  house  the  death  takes  place. 
And  if  the  body  be  not  properly  cared  for  by  the  un- 
lucky landlord,  the  spirit  returns  to  haunt  the  place. 
Another  sensible  view  taken  was  in  their  fatalism. 
Of  course  every  one  knows  what  is  to  be  will  be; 
and  what  the  Chinaman  knows  he  usually  acts  upon. 


PRODIGALITY  IN  DEATH.  391 

So  when  once  in  the  thin  waters  of  a  mountain  lake, 
some  fisherman  might  easily  have  saved  a  drowning 
comrade,  and  did  not,  their  maxim  was  proved  cor- 
rect, for  thus  the  fates  had  ordained. 

The  Chinese  may  be  economical  in  thi^  life,  but 
they  are  liberal  enough  in  regard  to  the  life  to  come. 
And  indeed  it  costs  but  little  more  to  have  many  gods 
and  several  souls,  than  one  of  each.  After  death  the 
body  is  laid  on  the  floor  to  be  more  under  the  protec- 
tive influence  of  earth,  the  universal  mother ;  and 
while  in  this  position  the  three  spiritual  and  seven 
animal  souls  are  liberated,  one  of  the  spiritual  souls 
passing  at  once  to  the  eternal  judge,  the  second  into 
the  ancestral  tablet,  and  the  third  remaining  to  hover 
round  the  tomb.  The  corpse  is  washed,  dressed  in  its 
best  clothes,  or  in  rich  new  garments,  paper  clothing 
being  used  by  the  poor,  and  placed  in  the  coffin,  to- 
gether with  some  rice,  fruit,  and  tea  by  its  side,  and  a 
bonne  boucJie  between  the  lips,  whereupon  it  is  covered 
with  a  pall  of  white  cloth,  the  mourning  color.  Cof- 
fins, or  "longevity  boards,"  are  made  of  the  most  dur- 
able material,  generally  rosewood  and  at  times  richly 
mounted,  In  China  they  often  form  a  favorite  pres- 
ent with  children  and  are  placed  in  the  ancestral  room 
as  an  assurance  to  the  parents  that  their  remains  will 
be  properly  cared  for.  Colored  candles  and  incense- 
sticks  burn  round  the  pall  to  light  the  soul  on  its 
journey,  and  propitiate  the  inhabitants  of  the  spirit 
world  to  accord  the  new-comer  a  friendly  reception. 
A  quantity  of  choice  offerings  is  displayed  beside  the 
coffin  on  several  tables,  guarded  by  two  small  figures, 
male  and  female,  which  stand  beside  a  miniature 
mountain,  covered  with  trees  that  bear  red  leaves  and 
silvered -paper  fruit.  Huge  platters  support  whole 
carcasses  of  pigs  and  sheep,  grotesquely  ornamented, 
and  flanked  by  chickens  and  ducks  in  strangely  dis- 
torted shapes.  Five  kinds  of  the  meat  must  be  cooked 
and  five  uncooked.  Around  these  stand  rows  of  choice 
dishes  in  great  variety,  with  cups  of  wine  and  tea,  and 


MONGOLIANISM  IN   AMERICA. 


pyramids  of  cakes  and  fruit,  artistically  prepared  and 
arrayed,  and  interspersed  with  flowers,  ornaments,  pa- 
per toys  of  all  description,  and  make-believe  money  to 
pay  the  way  in  spirit-land. 

While  these  preparations  are  going  on,  a  priest  in 
yellow  robe  with  black  stripes  chants  the  ritual,  with 
several  assistants  dressed  in  simple  white  surplices, 
tied  at  the  waist,  and  with  white  strips  round  their 
heads.  There  is  kneeling  and  bowing,  gesticulation 
and  grieving,  accompanied  by  shrill  and  clashing  mu- 
sic, and  the  explosion  of  fire-crackers,  to  keep  away 
the  ever-watching  imps  of  evil.  Still  louder  rises  the 
wail  of  paid  women,  and  well-simulated  sobs,  some- 
•  times  accompanied  by  the  genuine  article.  Words  of 
lament  over  the  irreparable  loss  sustained  by  surviv- 
ing friends  are  spoken,  and  eulogies  on  the  deceased, 
in  improvised  or  prescribed  form  ''Alas!  alas!  why 
was  it  not  I  that  had  died  rather  than  be  doomed  to  re- 
main in  the  land  of  the  living,  an  inheritor  of  trouble 
and  grief,  while  thou  art  removed.  Thou,  so  talented 
and  wise;  thou  shouldst  have  been  spared  to  become 
an  officer  of  the  empire,  even  a  pillar  of  the  royal  pal- 
ace. In  the  parting  our  heart  is  torn ;  but  we  hope 
that  after  death  thy  soul  has  joy  and  peace,  having 
ascended  to  the  heavenly  palace,  there  to  confer  pros- 
perity on  thy  children  and  grand-children."  White 
men  are  less  selfish  in  this  respect,  being  willing  to 
undergo  the  trials  of  earth  a  little  longer  and  let 
others  die. 

Neighbors  flock  in  to  respect  and  criticize  the  dis- 
play for  the  dead,  to  whom  they  refer  as  having  de- 
parted, passed  from  this  world,  ascended  to  the  sky; 
yet  with  all  this  respect  for  the  deceased  they  laugh 
and  talk  unconcernedly  among  the  mourners.  They 
know  that  funeral  faces,  and  sighs,  and  groans  will 
make  no  diflerence. 

Soon  the  wailing  is  interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  the 
hearse,  carriages,  and  wagons,  and  the  procession  starts 
for  the  cemetery,  attended  by  the  imp-scaring  music, 


FUNERAL  RITES.  393 

and  the  scattering  along  the  road  of  colored  bits  of 
paper  with  square  holes,  representing  money  where- 
with to  buy  the  right  of  way  from  the  spirits.  In  the 
front  carriages  may  be  noticed  the  female  mourners 
in  white  robes  and  hoods.  If  the  deceased  was  an  old 
or  a  prominent  man,  the  pomp  is  proportionately 
greater,  and  one  or  more  young  men  are  engaged  to 
walk  behind  the  hearse,  bare-footed  and  in  coarse, 
dirty,  white  garb,  with  the  head  deeply  bent  over  a 
cane,  and  supported  by  a  person  on  either  side.  They 
represent  sons  of  the  dead,  and  their  appearance  is 
emblematic  of  the  sorrow  caused  by  the  bereavement. 
Humbler  acquaintances  bring  up  the  rear  in  wagons, 
several  of  which  are  laden  with  the  offerings.  The 
procession  is  received  at  the  cemetery  with  a  volley 
of  crackers,  and  the  body  is  placed  before  the  grave, 
surrounded  with  burning  candles,  and  incense-sticks, 
and  platforms  set  with  the  offerings.  Incisions  are 
made  in  the  meats  for  the  spirits ;  some  rice  is  scattered, 
and  wine  and  tea  poured  out  while  every  one  present 
bows  profoundly  and  goes  through  certain  pious  gyra- 
tions. The  various  to^^s  consisting  of  tiny  chests  of 
clothing,  furniture,  horses,  servants,  ornaments,  all 
made  of  paper — a  flimsy  trick  of  celestial  economy, 
which  goes  so  far  as  to  pass  forged  checks  on  the  help- 
less spirits — together  with  tobacco,  flowers,  and  cer- 
tain clothing,  are  now  burned  and  transmitted  to 
spirit  land  for  the  use  and  service  of  the  departed, 
amid  a  rattling  discharge  of  crackers  to  speed  the  part- 
ing soul  of  things.  After  several  prayers  and  acts  of 
devotion,  the  body  is  deposited  in  the  grave,  and  on 
the  mound  is  placed  a  board  with  an  inscription,  to- 
gether with  the  remnants  of  candles  and  incense-sticks. 
More  tea  and  wine  are  poured  out,  and  rice  scattered 
for  the  benefit  of  other  hovering  souls,  whereupon 
the  company  return  to  town,  bringing  away  the 
food  of  which  the  spirits  have  inhaled  the  essence, 
to  serve  for  a  riotous  feast.  It  is  even  stated  that 
some   of   the    pigs   and    fowls    probably    find    their 


394  MONGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

way  back  to  the  seller  from  whom  they  had  been 
borrowed. 

Each  of  the  six  Chinese  companies  has  a  special 
section  at  the  cemetery,  with  an  altar  here  and  there 
for  ceremonies.  The  courtesans'  graves  have  a  sepa- 
rate altar,  with  a  tablet  before  which  expensive 
offerings  are  at  times  made,  generally  by  keepers  of 
brothels,  who  by  these  ministrations  to  the  dead  hold 
their  influence  over  the  living.  Having  no  descend- 
ants, these  women  cannot  hope  for  greater  post  mortem 
care  in  China  than  here,  and  their  bones  are,  there- 
fore, as  a  rule  left  to  moulder  in  the  foreign  soil. 

The  belief  that  spirits  have  the  same  need  for  food, 
clothes,  shelter,  and  anmsements  as  the  living,  is 
somewhat  akin  to  the  Christian's  idea  of  earning  here 
glory  and  happiness  for  heaven  ;  and  as  they  cannot 
rest  in  peace  in  a  foreign  land,  the  Chinese  are  ex- 
tremely anxious  to  have  their  bones  sent  home,  where 
friends  will  provide  for  their  wants  in  spirit-land, 
either  from  love,  or  from  fear  that  the  neglected  soul 
may  haunt  tliem.  In  early  days  it  was  not  unusual 
to  send  home  the  whole  body  in  a  leaden  coffin, 
but  now  it  is  rare  to  send  anything  more  than  the 
bones.  Rather  more  than  half  of  the  number  who 
have  died  on  the  coast  have  so  far  had  their  remains 
sent  back.  An  account  is  kept  of  the  time  required 
for  the  body  to  decompose.  The  grave  is  then  opened, 
the  bones  collected,  scraped,  dipped  in  spirits  and 
water,  well  rubbed  with  a  brush,  without  being 
touched  by  the  hand,  and  packed  into  as  small  a  box 
as  will  hold  them.  This  duty  is  performed  by  special 
societies.  In  China  the  site  for  the  grave  must  be 
carefully  selected  by  diviners,  who  usually  choose  hill 
slopes  facing  a  bend  in  a  river,  which  is  supposed  to 
bring  good  influences  to  the  spot.  All  the  hills  round 
the  cities  are  dotted  with  tombs,  which  must  on  no 
account  be  disturbed.  There  are  also  ancestral  tem- 
ples, where  the  tablets  of  the  family  or  clan  are  erected, 
lights  kept  burning,  and  festivals  held  at  certain  in- 


AFTER  DEATH.  395 

tervals.  A  substitute  for  these  may  be  found  at  the 
company  houses  in  San  Francisco,  where  the  names 
of  deceased  members  are  inscribed  on  an  altar,  illumi- 
nated by  a  constantly  burning  light,  and  provided 
with  a  table  for  offerings.  At  the  home  of  the  de- 
ceased a  tablet  is  also  erected  with  his  name,  and  per- 
haps with  his  image,  bearing  a  panegyric  phrase.  If 
the  family  is  wealthy,  a  niche  or  room  is  devoted  to 
dead  members.  Before  these  tablets  the  descendants 
bend  in  adoration,  keep  the  lamp  burning  to  light  the 
path  of  the  spirits  and  to  honor  them,  and  make  fre- 
quent offerings  of  food  and  toys  Lengthy  eulogies 
are  suspended  in  the  bereaved  home  for  forty-nine 
days  after  death,  wherein  the  spirit  is  implored  to 
leave  his  blessing. 

On  the  fourteenth  day  after  the  funeral,  on  every 
thirtieth  day  thereafter,  and  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
death,  prescribed  mourning  ceremonies,  with  offerings, 
are  observed.  On  the  fourteenth  day  the  mourners 
repair  with  temple  assistants  to  the  grave,  where  food 
is  presented  and  paper  offerings  are  burned,  attended 
by  the  pretty  conceit  of  liberating  four  song-birds,  to 
speed  the  soul  of  the  offerings  and  cheer  the  spirit 
with  their  warbling.  The  moon-eyed  priest  rings  a 
bell,  mutters  an  incantation  amid  responsive  groans 
from  the  assemblage,  w^hich  thereupon  marches  round 
the  grave,  the  priest  leading  with  his  bell. 

Parents  are  most  deeply  lamented  and  cared  for, 
and  honored  by  the  children  with  a  three  years* 
mourning  in  white  or  slate-colored  clothes,  with  collar 
and  white  cord  in  the  queue.  Other  members  of  the 
family  receive  much  less  attention,  and  young  women 
and  infants  are  scarcely  accorded  a  thought  after  the 
meagre  funeral  rites  have  been  rendered. 

Filial  devotion  is  manifested  by  the  prominence 
given  to  the  Festival  of  the  Tombs,  or  the  Feeding 
of  the  Dead,  also  called  Tsing  Ming,  the  Pure  and 
Eesplendent  Festival,  which  takes  place  usually  in 
the  end  of  March,  and  forms,  next  to  New  Year,  the 


396  MONGOLIANISM  IN   AMERICA. 

most  sacred  celebration  in  the  Chinese  calendar.  All 
who  can  by  any  possibility  suspend  work  do  so,  and 
abandon  the  abode  of  the  living  for  the  precincts  of 
the  dead,  to  worship  the  ancestral  manes  who  on  this 
day  are  released  from  the  world  of  spirits  that  they 
may  mingle  with  their  descendants  on  earth.  In  a 
continuous  throng  they  proceed  to  the  cemeteries 
with  baskets  full  of  delicacies  which  they  share  with 
the  hovering  souls,  giving  them  the  essence  while  re- 
serving for  themselves  the  substance.  The  smoke  of 
burning  incense-sticks  and  tapers,  lighted  from  the 
consecrated  ten] pie  fire,  curls  upward  in  fantastic  fig- 
ures, and  rises  jointly  with  the  prayers  of  the  devout 
and  tlie  fragrance  from  flower-decked  graves  to  honor 
and  appease  both  gods  and  spirits.  A  clod  of  earth 
is  added  to  the  mound,  and  a  paper  affixed  to  com- 
memorate the  visit.  A  second  feeding  of  the  dead 
takes  place  about  August,  at  which  spirits  having  no 
living  kindred  receive  special  attention.  They,  as  well 
as  other  neglected  souls,  are  otherwise  under  the  pro- 
tective care  of  Kwan  Yin,  the  goddess  of  mercy. 
Food  and  presents  are  displayed  at  the  windows  and 
balconies,  or  hung  on  lines  across  the  street,  and  left 
at  the  graves,  so  that  the  roaming  phantoms  may 
feast  and  be  merry.  A  procession  adds  lustre  to  the 
festival  with  nmsic,  banners,  and  idols.  Prominent 
among  the  latter  may  be  seen  the  ten-foot-high  image 
of  Kwan  Yin,  bristling  with  armor  from  head  to  foot, 
and  looking  like  anything  else  than  a  goddess  of  mercy ; 
but  the  hungry  spirits  are  apt  to  quarrel  over  the 
feast,  and  to  keep  them  in  check  it  is  necessary  for 
her  to  assume  this  fierce  guise.  When  the  offerings 
are  burned,  the  image  ascends  the  pyre  also,  and  the 
stern  warrior  passes  again  into  the  form  of  the  gentle 
spirit  which  superintends  the  distribution  of  the  gifts 
that  are  to  last  the  hungry  souls  till  the  next  festival. 
After  the  lapse  of  from  three  to  seven  years,  a  pub- 
lic ceremony,  called  the  Universal  Rescue,  is  held  for 
a^  week  for  the  benefit  of  all  spirits  not  yet  released 


THE  SriRIT  WORLD.  397 

from  earthly  bonds,  and  notice  of  this  is  sent  to  them 
by  burning  messages  on  yellow  paper.  Altars  and 
rooms  are  purified,  incense  burned,  and  propitiatory 
offerings  made,  amid  the  chant  of  priests  and  the 
clash  of  music.  On  concluding,  the  priest  burns  paper 
images  of  certain  idols,  the  names  of  interested  spirits, 
and  certain  records. 

The  imperturbable  disposition  of  the  Chinese  admits 
little  or  none  of  the  spiritual  exaltation  or  sectarian 
fanaticism  so  prevalent  among  other  nations.  Their 
religion  is  rather  a  teaching  and  a  formalism  than  a 
faith  and  divine  bond.  They  have  a  trinity,  but  it  is 
one  of  systems,  moral,  metaphysicah  and  materialistic, 
represented  by  the  doctrines  of  Confucius,  Lao-tze, 
and  Buddha  respectively,  which  exist  commingled  and 
coordinate  without  rivalr}^  Although  every  person 
is  allowed  to  give  prominence  to  the  cult  chosen  by 
his  inclination,  yet  few  have  adopted  any  one  system 
exclusively,  while  all  combine  in  the  observance  of 
certain  features,  such  as  the  worship  of  heaven  and 
earth,  particularly  at  New  Year,  of  the  kitchen  god, 
whose  only  temple  is  the  shrine  in  the  household  cor- 
ner, and  especially  of  ancestry,  which  may  in  one 
sense  be  regarded  as  the  basis  of  the  combined  S3^s- 
tems,  since  the  gods  and  genii  are  nearly  all  apotheo- 
sized rulers,  heroes,  and  men  who  have  earned  popular 
gratitude  and  esteem. 

Confucius,  or  Kong-fu-tze,  is,  however,  the  control- 
ling power  in  Chinadom.  All  its  social  and  political 
institutions  are  founded  on  his  teachings,  which  are 
identical  with  the"  main  principles  of  the  leading  reli- 
gions of  the  world;  and  his  simple,  practical  code  of 
ethics  is  the  officially  recognized  guide  of  every  China- 
man, for  Kong  the  Teacher,  as  the  name  signifies, 
taught  and  practiced  a  moral  philosophy  combined 
with  a  mystic  cosmogony  which  avoids  all  inquiry 
into  theologic  dogmas,  and  commits  itself  to  no  creed, 
except  in  promoting  ancestral  worship.     Yet  he  be- 


398  MONGOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

lieved  in  omens  and  advocated  divination,  and  numer- 
ous stories  are  told  of  his  superstitions  and  eccentric 
habits.  No  images  desecrate  his  temples,  but  a  plain 
tablet  faces  the  worshipper,  with  the  simple  yet  grand 
inscription.  The  Great  and  Holy  Sage. 

Contemporary  with  the  youth  of  Confucius  was 
Lao-tze,  the  founder  of  the  Taouists,  or  Rationalists, 
born  in  the  year  604  B.  C,  whose  transcendentalism 
proved  too  abstruse  for  the  masses,  and  forced  the  in- 
troduction of  many  superstitions  until  the  system  be- 
came transformed  into  a  gross,  confused,  spiritualistic 
idolatry,  largely  mixed  with  Sabianism,  and  suited 
ratlier  for  the  ignorant.  Many  traditions  are  current 
regarding  Lao-tze,  depicting  him  as  a  pantheistic  es- 
sence, a  spirit  who  assumed  the  forms  of  deities,  kings, 
and  teachers,  and  at  one  time  descended  from  heaven 
on  a  sunbeam,  fell  into  the  mouth  of  a  virgin,  and 
after  eighty-one  years'  gestation,  was  born  in  the  form 
of  an  old,  white-headed  man,  whence  his  name,  which 
signifies  Old  Boy.  Himself  too  exalted  to  be  the 
immediate  object  of  worship,  prominence  is  assigned 
to  the  medicine  god,  the  dragon,  and  a  host  of  other 
euphemistic  gods  and  genii  presiding  over  inferior  de- 
partments. The  system  concerns  itself  less  with  prepa- 
rations for  a  future  life  than  with  the  requirements  of 
the  present,  and  its  temples,  idols,  and  worship  are 
therefore  insignificant  compared  with  those  of  the 
Buddhist. 

Buddhism  with  its  meditation,  its  practice  of  virtue 
and  self-abnegation,  its  belief  in  a  final  ideal  uncon- 
sciousness, a  Nirvana,  miglit  never  have  become  es- 
tablished in  China  but  for  the  leaven  of  superstitious 
rites  and  beliefs,  partly  the  remnants  of  a  former 
national  religion,  which  was  added  to  suit  the  popular 
taste.  In  this  corrupted  form  it  filled  a  void  in  the 
yearning  spirit  of  the  celestials,  and  spreading  rajoidly 
from  the  time  of  its  introduction  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era,  it  became  tolerated,  and  even  gen- 
erally accepted,  despite  the  persecution  of  alternate 


THE  CHINAMAN'S  RELIGION.  399 

rulers  and  the  sneers  of  the  learned  at  the  incongruous 
idolatry  wherein  the  masses  had  engulfed  both  this 
and  the  Taouistic  religion. 

Materialistic  in  his  tendencies,  and  devoid  of  rev- 
erence, the  Chinaman  is  prone  to  neglect  the  superior 
deities,  to  whom  his  mind  cannot  so  readily  be  lifted, 
who,  absorbed  in  their  grandeur,  concern  themselves 
little  w^ith  insignificant  humanity,  and  who  will  not 
harm  him,  since  they  are  the  embodiment  of  goodness 
and  mercy.  But  yielding  to  his  fear,  he  cringes  be- 
fore the  minor  gods  and  spirits  who  may  injure  him, 
and  with  whom  he  has  filled  every  earthly  object. 
Nature  is  to  him  a  sealed  book,  and  having  nothing 
wherewith  to  replace  these  childish  fancies,  phenomena 
and  incidents  appear  but  as  the  sport  of  imps  and 
deities.  The  more  wonderful  and  inexplicable  their 
manifestation,  the  more  readily  he  yields  them  wor- 
ship. It  is  by  offering  the  means  to  avert  or  control 
the  ever-threatening  prodigies  that  Taouism  has  man- 
aged to  sustain  itself,  despite  the  encroachments  of 
Buddhist  ideas.  Belief  influences  the  Chinaman  less 
than  fatalistic  adherence  to  custom,  and  thus  we  find 
even  the  superior  mind  bending  to  the  inevitable,  and 
accepting  not  so  much  the  gross  superstitions  as  the 
higher  principles  and  the  hopeful  prospect  of  a  future, 
painted  by  the  Taouist  in  the  existence  of  genii,  and 
by  the  Buddhist  follower  in  a  more  ideal  absorption. 
Confucius  also  speaks  in  his  book  of  heaven,  but  the 
references  are  too  vague  for  definition,  and  many 
scholars  give  them  a  pantheistic  significance,  which 
appears  supported  by  the  worship  of  heaven  and  earth, 
evidently  as  a  dual,  all-pervading  essence.  Others 
recognize  in  these  phrases  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
supreme  being.  The  worship  of  heaven  is  regarded 
as  pertaining  rather  to  the  superior  dignity  of  the 
emperor,  as  the  son  of  heaven,  and  as  ruler  not  only 
of  men  but  of  spirits  ;  as  the  embodiment  of  universal 
will,  acting  on  individual  and  inexorable  destiny,  and 
as  the  unified  spirit  of  the  familv,  which  is  the  state, 


400  MOKCOLIAKISM   IN   AMERICA. 

wherein  patriotism  takes  the  form  of  family  piety  and 
'ancestral  worship. 

The  future  existence  of  the  soul  depends  upon  the 
purity  of  its  mundane  career,  or  rather,  it  would  seem, 
upon  the  amount  of  incense  and  offerings  wherewith 
the  gods  have  been  propitiated.  It  is  believed  that 
the  jpoosali,  the  minor  gods  of  various  departments, 
keep  account  of  the  actions  of  men,  and  pass  annually, 
at  the  close  of  the  year,  to  report  to  the  supreme 
ruler.  The  god  of  the  hearth  is  even  supposed  to 
render  a  monthly  balance  sheet,  and  the  divinity  occu- 
pying the  cynosura  to  take  account  thereof,  and 
shorten  the  thread  of  life  in  proportion  to  the  deficit 
The  three  spiritual  and  seven  animal  souls  of  the  body 
represent  the  male  and  female  principles  respectively 
of  the  dual  power  of  nature.  What  becomes  of  the 
animal  spirits  or  senses  is  not  defined,  but  of  the  male 
principle,  or  souls  of  reason,  one  remains  by  the  body, 
the  second  enters  the  ancestral  tablet,  and  the  third 
speeds  to  the  other  world  to  be  arraigned  before  the 
ten  judgment  gods.  His  good  and  evil  deeds — as 
represented  by  the  bribed  divinities  below — appear  as 
defenders  and  accusers,  and  sentence  is  passed  in  ac- 
cordance, condemning  him  to  a  higher  or  lower  form 
of  existence,  to  the  sphere  of  gods  and  genii,  or  to  the 
circle  of  suffering  wretches  and  abhorred  beasts. 
There  is  generally  a  probationary  gradation  to  either 
destiny,  but  he  may  attain  bliss  or  misery  at  once. 
The  punishment  accords  with  the  crime;  gluttons 
may  be  plunged  into  lakes  of  blood  and  filth,  or 
changed  to  starving  wolves;  liars  have  the  tongue 
pierced  with  scorching  pincers ;  and  the  most  wicked 
are  cast  into  burning  furnaces.  There  are  many  in- 
congruities in  the  system,  and  to  account  for  the  mul- 
titude of  hovering  spirits  is  a  puzzle  even  to  the  priests ; 
they  may  belong  to  beings  who  have  not  yet  been 
assigned  forms  wherein  to  be  reborn.  Whether  the 
souls  become  gods  and  genii  or  not,  they  still  continue 
to  crave  for  the  same  wants  as  the  living,  apparently 


TEMPLES   m  REMOTE  LANDS.  401 

unable  to  help  themselves  to  anything  that  is  not 
specially  offered  to  them.  When  the  offerings  are 
burned,  and  the  soul  of  things  despatched  to  them  by 
loving  friends,  their  attention  must  be  called  to  the 
consignment.  The  custom  of  offering  food  and  other 
gifts  to  the  ancestral  tablet  and  at  the  grave  indicates 
either  that  the  spirits  inhabiting  these  places  have 
separate  wants,  or  that  they  conmiunicate  with  the 
soul  in  the  spirit  world,  who  is  allowed  to  mingle  with 
his  living  friends  only  on  certain  occasions,  during  the 
festivals  to  the  dead. 

There  was  quite  a  number  of  temples  in  the  Chi- 
nese quarter.  Five  of  the  six  companies  had  one 
each,  and  several  of  the  guilds  had  others,  which  as  a 
rule  occupied  a  room  in  the  upper  story  of  their  build- 
ings. They  owed  their  existence  to  small  subscriptions 
from  the  members  of  the  associations,  who  were  glad 
to  contribute  a  dollar  or  two  for  the  privilege  of  hav- 
ing their  names  inscribed  on  the  registers  posted 
round  the  temple  walls ;  but  the  piety  of  liberal  pa- 
trons was  also  evident,  and  speculators  were  not 
wanting  to  invest  money  in  a  scheme  which  promised 
good  returns.  Many  years  ago, when  the  region  be- 
yond Union  square,  in  San  Francisco,  was  yet  a  mass 
of  sand  and  brush,  an  enterprising  celestial  resolved 
to  stimulate  individual  piety  to  aid  him  in  making  an 
investment  of  this  kind,  whereby  he  might  live  at 
ease  and  grow  wealthy  by  the  sale  of  prayers  and 
candles.  The  corner  of  Post  and  Mason  streets  was 
the  site  chosen  for  the  divine  abode,  and  there  it  rose, 
facing  the  rising  sun,  though  hidden  from  eyes  pro- 
fane by  a  high  board  fence.  The  initiated  recognized 
the  place  by  the  Chinese  characters  over  the  gate, 
which  announced  that  the  Imperial  Heaven  spreads 
out  to  these  remote  lands,  which  were  indeed  de- 
pendencies of  the  Flowery  Kingdom.  Nevertheless, 
the  intrusion  of  barbarians  compelled  the  removal  of 
this  divine  advance  post,  and  it  was  left  to  other 
speculators  to  rear  the  monuments  of  devout  enter- 

£ssAYs  AND  Miscellany     26 


402  MONGOLIANISM   IX   AxMERlCA. 

prise  within  the  precincts  of  their  quarter.  There  was 
nothing  grand  or  awe-inspiring  about  these  edifices  ; 
quite  the  reverse.  A  few  were  situated  on  the  main 
streets,  with  tolerably  decent  approaches,  but  tlie 
rest  must  be  sought  in  a  labyrinth  of  noisome  alleys, 
as  if  to  illustrate  the  apothegm  that  it  is  not  a  broad 
pleasant  path  which  leadeth  to  heaven. 

The  most  extensive  temple,  with  the  largest  con- 
stellation of  divinities,  was  in  a  narrow  passage  con- 
necting with  Dupont  and  Jackson  streets,  and  pre- 
senting a  most  uninviting  aspect  of  greasy,  smoky 
walls  and  shaky  superstructures,  with  odors  puffing 
from  every  door  and  window.  Tearing  himself  loose 
from  the  importunities  of  a  fortune-teller,  and  a  series 
of  bedizened  females  who  blockaded  the  approaches, 
the  visitor  reached  a  dingy  brick  building,  the  two 
lower  stories  of  which  were  occupied  as  workshops 
and  dwellings.  Ascending  an  outside  stairway  of  the 
most  rickety  description,  he  came  to  the  third  and 
highest  floor,  where  dwelt  the  gods  in  gloomy  sol- 
emnity, and  in  an  atmosphere  laden  with  odors  of 
sandal- wood,  smoke,  and  incense.  If  cleanliness  is 
akin  to  godliness  then  assuredly  Satan  reigns  in 
pagandom.  The  only  notification  of  the  sacred  prox- 
imity was  afforded  by  a  small  gilt  sign  over  the  en- 
trance. Just  inside  stood  a  huge  plain  screen  with 
inscriptions  to  exclude  the  intrusive  glare  of  daylight, 
and  before  it  hung  a  three-foot  wide  tablet,  with 
gilded  figures  of  men,  animals,  foliage,  and  pagodas, 
in  high  and  demi-relief,  depicting  incidents  from  the 
lives  of  the  gods.  The  right-hand  corner  throned  an 
idol  in  a  rather  flimsy  shrine,  surrounded  by  a  few 
scroll  decorations,  and  with  a  case  of  extinguished  in- 
cense tapers  before  him.  This  position  is  often  as- 
signed to  Thing  Wong,  god  of  the  wall  and  moat,  or 
lord  of  the  province,  whose  image  rises  in  every 
town  in  China,  to  defend  it  from  enemies,  and  to  pro- 
mote its  welfare,  to  control  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and 
to  regulate  the  rains.     In  time  of  drouth,  the  image 


1 


GODS   AND   THEIR  DUTIES.  403 

is  exposed  to  the  scorching  sun,  that  it  may  feel  the 
heat  and  observe  the  neglect  it  has  been  guilty  of. 
To  aid  the  god  in  retrieving  his  error,  food  is  cast  in- 
to the  rivers  to  feed  the  waters  and  appease  their 
spirits. 

In  the  opposite  corner,  to  the  left  of  the  entrance, 
stood  a  platform,  seven  feet  high,  resembling  an  office- 
stool,  which  supported  a  tomtom,  and  beneath  it  a 
bell  of  bronze,  both  serving  to  rouse  the  gods  when 
special  appeals  or  offerings  were  made.  Behind  this 
was  a  brick  oven,  wherein  were  burned  the  toy  pres- 
ents for  gods  and  spirits,  releasing  their  souls  from 
the  earthly  substance  that  they  might  pass  to  spirit 
land  and  serve  its  inhabitants.  A  small  dust-cov- 
ered skylight  allowed  a  dim  light  to  penetrate  into 
the  temple,  and  revealed  in  the  center  of  it  a  cabinet 
of  dark  wood,  three  feet  and  a  half  in  height  and  four 
feet  in  length,  with  an  elaborately  carved  front,  pro- 
tected by  glass  and  wire,  and  representing  figures  like 
those  on  the  tablet  by  the  entrance,  but  finer  and  on 
a  larger  scale.  Upon  the  cabinet  stood  a  dozen  neatly 
moulded  vases  of  zinc,  or  pewter,  and  brass,  holding 
bouquets  of  artificial  flowers  mingled  with  tinsel  and 
dolls,  and  candlesticks  in  the  form  of  carved  and  col- 
ored tubes,  all  guarded  by  a  dragon  of  bulldog  as- 
pect. Dragons  also  occupy  a  prominent  position  in 
the  Taouist  worship  as  rulers  over  seas,  rivers,  and 
ponds,  and  are,  therefore,  appealed  to  in  rainless  sea- 
sons. Immediately  beyond  this  cabinet,  stood  an- 
other of  plainer  construction,  with  similar  vases,  a  few 
tiny  images,  and  a  bronze  bowl  nearly  filled  with 
ashes,  wherein  was  stuck  a  number  of  burnt  sticks 
which  had  once  supported  colored  candles  and  incense 
tapers.  The  tapers  were  made  of  sandal  wood  rolled 
in  paper.  The  walls  were  covered  with  a  bountiful 
sprinkling  of  long,  narrow  tablets  and  gay -looking  red 
and  yellow  paper  scrolls,  occasionally  set  with  cotton 
strips  and  fringes,  and  all  inscribed  in  characters  of 
scarlet,  blue,  and  gold,  formhig  panegyrics  on  the  gods, 


404  MONCOLIANISM   IN   AMERICA. 

and  with  prayers  for  worshippers,  and  lists  of  sub- 
scribers, with  the  amounts  donated  for  the  erection 
and  maintenance  of  the  temple.  A  few  lanterns  of 
glass  and  of  paper,  with  an  oil  lamp  chandelier, 
adorned  the  center  of  the  room,  but  were  lit  only  on 
festive  occasions.  Above  the  second  cabinet  rose  a 
false  arch  of  scroll  and  fret-work,  with  gilt  and  col- 
ored surfaces,  forming  an  alcove  of  the  inner  depart- 
ment, and  bearing  the  inscription  Shing  Ti  Ling  Toi, 
spiritual  gallery  of  the  all-powerful  gods.  Behind 
this  was  a  silken  strip  with  the  words  Shing  Shan 
Mo  Keung,  gods  whose  holy  age  is  perpetual. 

In  the  recess  of  the  alcove  were  three  cabinets  sur- 
mounted by  elaborate  frames  of  scroll  work  and 
arabesque,  gilt  and  colored,  over  which  hung  red 
canopies,  drawn  back  and  knotted.  These  were  the 
shrines,  guarded  by  sitting  dragons.  In  the  central 
shrine,  which  was  larger  and  finer  than  the  rest, 
three  idols  were  enthroned  with  sceptres  and  other 
insignia  in  their  hands.  Heavy,  black  mustaches  and 
imperials  ornamented  their  faces,  and  long,  red  veils  fell 
from  their  heads  to  either  side.  Above  their  heads 
were  symbolic  characters,  representing  their  attributes, 
and  before  and  around  them  was  a  profusion  of 
ornaments  of  artificial  flowers,  brass,  and  tinsel.  The 
central  and  larger  idol  was  Quong  Muh  Tien  Wang, 
tlie  clear-eyed  heaven  king,  trampling  on  snakes  and 
reptiles,  who  with  the  aid  of  his  two  companions  pro- 
tected the  people  from  ills.  This  central  place  was 
often  given  to  Yum  Ten  Tin,  god  of  the  sombre 
heaven,  who  also  guards  against  conflagrations.  At 
his  feet  stood  several  cups  with  cold  tea  to  prevent 
the  pangs  of  thirst  from  ruffling  the  divine  temper, 
and  by  their  side  a  bronze  bowl  with  the  stumps 
of  tapers,  one  of  which  was  still  smouldering  and 
oflering  its  incense  to  the  august  nostrils.  Above 
this  hung  a  lantern  of  figured  glass,  set  in  a  black 
frame,  wherein  burned  the  vestal  fire  which  cast  a 
perpetual  although  dim  light  on  the  path  of  the  gods. 


ONE  OF  THE  ONLY   TRUE  RELIGIONS.  405 

Before  the  other  idols  hung  simple  glasses  with  oil, 
not  always  lighted,  however,  and  equally  neglected 
were  their  incense  bowls. 

In  the  shrine  to  the  right  sat  the  god  of  wealth, 
Tsoi  Pah  Shing  Kwun,  grasping  a  bar  of  gold,  which 
attracted  the  frequent  invocations  of  his  lucre-lovino* 
people  ;  and  to  the  left  was  Wah  To,  the  god  of  medi- 
cine, with  a  pill  between  his  eight  fingers.  He  flour- 
ished two  millenaries  ago  as  a  great  scholar,  possessed 
of  wohderous  healing  power,  which  he  exercised 
among  the  poor.  Having  on  one  occasion  adminis- 
tered a  wrong  medicine  with  fatal  results,  Wah  To 
became  so  stricken  with  grief  that  he  disposed  of  his 
worldly  affairs  and  followed  his  patient,  only  to  be 
raised  to  godship,  and  be  forever  pestered  with  appeals 
for  the  preservation  of  health  and  the  cure  of  diseases. 
His  prescriptions  were  obtained  by  means  of  the 
divining  slips  to  be  found  in  an  urn  on  one  of  the 
tables,  the  characters  of  which  were  explained  by  the 
temple  servants  with  the  aid  of  the  mystery  books  ; 
and  they  also  sold  medicines  prepared  according  to 
the  recipes  therein.  Pin  Tseuh  is  the  name  of 
another  deified  physician. 

Ranged  along  the  wall  between  the  arch  and  the 
shrines  were  the  eight  precious  emblems,  in  duplicate, 
one  set  on  either  side  of  the  room,  mounted  on  poles 
and  having  the  appearance  of  imperial  insignia.  By 
their  side  were  a  few  shabby  standards  and  bannerets 
of  silk,  with  gold  and  colored  embroidery.  Several 
plain  deal  tables  were  placed  here  and  there  to  receive 
oflerings,  but  were  seldom  used   except  at  festivals. 

Passing  through  a  side  door  to  the  right,  the  visitor 
entered  a  second  room,  more  scantily  furnished  than 
the  preceding.  A  few  scrolls  of  paper  and  cotton 
adorned  tlie  walls  here  and  there ;  two  dark  paper 
lanterns  hung  from  the  ceiling ;  and  on  the  floor 
stood  a  plain  cabinet  with  zinc  vases  for  candlesticks 
and  bouquets,  and  a  few  common  deal  tables  for  pro- 
spective offerings.     This  chamber  was  consecrated  to 


406  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AIM  ERICA. 

Kwan  Yin,  the  goddess  of  mercy,  a  princess  whose 
origin  is  lost  in  the  mist  of  antiquity,  but  of  whom 
tradition  relates  that  her  opposition  to  a  marriage, 
arranged  by  the  king,  her  father,  so  enraged  him  that 
he  ordered  the  Buddhist  convent  whither  she  had 
fled  to  be  set  on  fire.  Her  prayers  turned  aside  the 
flames  from  herself  and  companions,  and  they  escaped, 
while  all  around  them  crumbled  into  ashes.  This 
miracle  caused  her  to  be  adored  under  the  title  of 
Savior  from  Distress.  She  is  generally  represented  as 
a  maiden,  seated  in  a  lotus  flower,  the  emblem  of 
purity,  with  a  roll  of  prayers  in  her  hands,  round  her 
head  a  halo,  and  over  it  a  cloud  with  a  flying  parrot 
which  holds  a  rosary  in  its  beak.  Sheets  were  sold 
at  the  temple  bearing  this  representation  of  the 
goddess,  together  with  several  prayers,  an  extract  from 
which  read  as  follows:  "Revolving,  shining  goddess, 
goddess  of  repeating  goodness,  great  heavenly  king. 
Ah  Nan,  goddess  of  the  well-ordered  palace,  mo  yau 
mo  yau,  tsingtsing,  pi  yau  ;  cause  litigations  to  be 
quieted,  and  deliver  us  from  all  courts  and  judicial 
business.  All  ye  great  gods,  all  ye  five  hundred  dis- 
tinguished disciples  of  Buddha,  save  me  a  true  be- 
liever, and  deliver  me  from  distress  and  trouble; 
then  will  I  make  mention  of  Kwan  Shi  Yin  ;  without 
laying  aside  the  ceremonial  cap,  diligently  will  I  re- 
hearse this  formula  a  thousand  times,  and  then  of 
necessity  calamities  and  troubles  will  be  dissipated." 
Another  of  the  forms  assigned  to  this  goddess  is 
that  of  a  mother  dressed  in  white  and  holding  a  child 
in  her  arms.  To  her  appeal  the  young  wives  who  de- 
sire issue.  She  also  appears  in  the  garb  of  a  fishmaid,  * 
as  the  patroness  of  fishermen ;  or  in  the  form  of  a 
monster  with  four  faces  and  eight  arms,  significant  of 
her  protean  attributes.  Twenty  days  a  year  are  set 
aside  for  her  worship,  and  her  festivals  occur  on  the 
18th  day  of  the  second  and  sixth  months.  On  all 
souls'  day  she  is  borne  in  procession  in  the  guise  of  a 
gigantic  and  fierce  warrior,  to  keep  order  among  the 


POVERTY  STRICKEN  DEITIES.  407 

hungry  spirits.  Despite  the  prominence  of  her  divin- 
ity, the  shrine  was  not  carefully  tended,  for  a  common 
oil  lamp  glimmered  feebly  on  nothing  but  cold  tea,  and 
extinguished  the  incense  tapers  at  her  feet.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  room,  in  a  plain  niche,  was  the  only 
other  idol  in  the  room,  a  dark,  erect,  little  man,  gaz- 
ing forlornly  on  the  extinguished  lamp  and  taper- 
stumps  before  him. 

The  third  and  innermost  room  was  filled  with  smoke 
and  odors  from  an  adjacent  kitchen,  and  was  of  still 
meaner  appearance.  The  wall  ornaments  were  rarer, 
and  the  cabinet  of  the  plainest.  Facing  the  side  en- 
trance was  Tu  Ti,  god  of  earth  in  a  poor  shrine,  or 
box,  level  with  the  floor,  and  arrayed  in  a  miserable 
cotton  blouse ;  yet  this  idol  had  great  influence,  owing 
to  his  supposed  power  to  grant  prosperity,  and  to  pro- 
tect houses  and  streets  from  evil  spirits.  He  was 
originally  a  prefect,  in  which  capacity  he  managed  to 
procure  the  emancipation  of  his  department  from  a 
yearly  slave  levy;  and  in  recognition  of  this  service  a 
grateful  people  raised  him  to  godship  and  spread  his 
worsliip  all  over  the  empire.  Deceased  heroes  and 
honored  residents  of  a  place  are  often  exalted  to  local 
proxies  of  tlie  god,  and  receive  honors  during  his  fes- 
tival on  the  second  day  of  the  second  month. 

In  the  recess  of  the  alcove  stood  a  large  shrine, 
plainer  than  the  alcove  shrines  in  the  other  rooms, 
and  containing  the  image  of  Wah  Kwang,  the  giver 
of  wisdom,  with  three  eyes,  whose  festival  takes  place 
on  the  28th  day  of  the  ninth  month.  With  the  third 
and  never-slumbering  eye  in  the  forehead,  he  is  able 
to  see  1000  miles  around  him,  and  protect  his  adhe- 
rents against  conflagrations.  On  his  left  stood  two 
smaller  idols,  the  nearest  having  three  eyes  like  himself, 
and  on  his  right  is  a  black-faced  deity,  with  a  roughly- 
made  tiger  by  his  side,  before  which  was  an  egg  and 
some  scattered  rice  to  appease  the  evil  propensities 
that  seem  to  lurk  in  its  eyes. 

The  idols  were  draped  statuettes  of  wood  or  plaster, 


408  MONGOLIANI^M   IN  AMERICA. 

one  and  a  half  to  tliree  feet  high,  accordinor  to  their 
importance;  usually  fat,  grotesque,  and  often  cross- 
eyed and  inane  in  ap})earance.  The  complexion  was 
in  conformity  with  its  character,  and  the  males  usually 
wore  nmstache  and  imperial.  The  sculptured  dress 
was  made  conspicuous  by  paint  in  imitation  of  em- 
broidered silk  ;  glass  and  tinsel  ornaments  were  added. 
Few  wore  any  other  fabrics  than  a  long  red  cotton 
veil,  which  fell  from  both  sides  of  the  head  over  the 
shoulders  ;  and  although  most  of  them  were  flimsy  af- 
fairs, there  were  a  few  images  in  the  quarter  arrayed 
in  costly,  embroidered  silk  robes  and  jewels,  one  in 
Doctor  Li-po-tai's  tem})le  costing  several  thousand 
dollars.  They  were  brought  from  China  where  their 
consecration  is  attended  with  elaborate  ceremonies  to 
induce  the  deity  to  occupy  the  image  with  a  portion 
of  his  spirit.  Through  a  hole  in  the  back  are  inserted 
the  heart,  lungs,  and  intestines,  of  silver  or  zinc,  with- 
out which  the  idol  cannot  live  and  be  effective.  The 
local  idol  manufacturers  confine  their  skill  to  the  pro- 
duction of  images  for  household  use,  of  shrines,  cloth- 
ing, and  presents  of  paper,  which  are  sold  by  the  tem- 
ple servants,  w^ho  keep  in  their  office  a  large  stock  of 
candles,  chiefly  of  red  color,  tapers,  incense,  and  printed 
prayers.  Paper  money  and  certain  other  offerings  re- 
quire to  be  consecrated  with  prescribed  ceremonies, 
including  a  long  array  of  prayers,  in  order  to  have 
effect.  Of  course,  a  large  quantity  is  consecrated  by 
one  process. 

The  neatest  of  the  several  temples  in  San  Francisco 
was  that  of  the  Hop  Wo  company,  on  Clay  street, 
which  occupied  the  front  portion  of  the  top  story. 
Attention  was  called  to  the  building  by  a  clean, 
painted  balcony,  with  two  gilded  signs  and  a  couple  of 
lanterns,  backed  by  windows  of  tinted  glass.  There 
was  only  one  room,  but  it  was  clean  and  comparatively 
bright,  enabling  the  visitor  to  examine  to  his  satisfac- 
tion the  red  silk  bannerets,  standards,  and  ceremonial 
umbrella  with  heavy  curtain  fringes,  all  richly  em- 


CHINESE  MYTHOLOGY.  409 

broidered  with  gold  and  silk  of  different  colors,  repre- 
senting dragons,  birds,  and  foliage.  The  carved 
cabinets  and  shrines,  with  gilt  figures,  were  finer  than 
those  already  described,  and  the  wall-tablets  were 
neater.  This  abode  was  dedicated  exclusively  to 
Kwan  Tai,  the  god  of  war,  whose  image,  with  red 
face,  glaring  eyes,  and  red  flannel  surtout,  was  en- 
throned in  the  gaudy  shrine.  He  was  powerful  not 
only  in  settling  riots  and  disputes,  in  conferring 
bravery  and  intimidating  the  enemy,  but  also  in  finan- 
cial matters,  and  might  consequently  be  found  presid- 
ing at  almost  every  store.  Sixteen  centuries  ago 
Kwan  Tai  played  the  role  of  a  successful  general,  who, 
on  the  conclusion  of  a  long  war,  declined  all  honors 
and  rewards,  and  joined  a  holy  order  for  the  practice 
of  benevolence.  Formerly  a  leader  of  bloodthirsty 
soldiers  for  the  relief  of  towns  and  government,  he 
now  led  pious  monks  to  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  sick. 
Once  only  he  left  this  duty  to  save  the  enipire  from 
the  rebels,  but  returned  immediately  afterward  to  his 
task  of  mercy.  While  so  employed,  there  appeared 
at  the  convent  a  distressed  and  wounded  pilgrim,  in 
whom  he  recognized  the  defeated  rebel  chief  The 
duty  of  the  soldier  struggled  with  the  spirit  of  charity 
and  succumbed.  The  wanderer  was  .relieved  and  sent 
on  his  way  rejoicing,  while  Kwan  Tai  surrendered 
himself  to  the  unyielding  law  to  sufter  death.  The 
grief-stricken  emperor  did  not  interfere  with  the  course 
of  justice,  but  he  exalted  him  to  the  ranks  of  the  gods, 
and  as  the  patron  of  the  ^lanchu  dynasty  Kwan  Tai 
has  often  appeared  to  aid  the  imperial  arms. 

A  few  other  temples  in  San  Francisco  were  conse- 
crated to  special  divinities.  That  which  once  stood 
on  Post  street  was  originally  dedicated  to  Tien  Han, 
queen  of  heaven,  the  comforter  in  trouble,  especially 
of  sailors.  In  conformity  with  the  euhemeristic  ideas 
of  the  Chinese,  she  is  traced  to  a  common  mortal  who 
lived  about  eight  centuries  ago  at  Po  Tin,  on  the  sea- 
board of  Tukien,  the  daughter  of  a  seafaring  family. 


410  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

Her  extraordinary  beauty  and  talent  drew  a  liost  of 
admirers,  but  they  vowed  in  vain,  for  heaven  itself 
had  selected  her  for  a  bride,  and  removed  her  early 
from  their  midst.  She  had  been  subject  to  ei)ile})tic 
fits,  during  which  her  spirit  was  said  to  fiy  to  the 
rescue  of  storm-ridden  crews.  This  belief  gained  ac- 
ceptance among  her  countrymen,  who  speedily  exalted 
her  to  a  divinity,  and  raised  temples  for  her  along  the 
seashores  and  river  banks,  whence  they  invited  the 
worship  of  passing  mariners.  A  favorite  eml)lematic 
adjunct  of  the  idol  is  a  full-rigged  junk,  with  eyes  in 
the  bow  wherewith  to  find  its  way  across  the  pathless 
ocean.  To  her  tem])le  in  San  Francisco  was  afterward 
added  the  image  of  KinWah,  the  guardian  of  children, 
to  whom  pretenders  to  motherhood  made  apjx^als. 
The  Traviatas  had  also  a  patroness.  For  so  little 
religion,  the  Chinese  had  niany  gods. 

In  the  temple  building  of  the  six  companies  might 
be  found  altars  bearing  the  names  of  deceased  mem- 
bers, and  tablets  were  erected  in  the  households  to 
receive  the  adoration  and  offerings  of  loving  descend- 
ants. Several  traditions  exist  to  account  for  this  the 
most  sacred  and  widespread  worship  among  tlie  Chi- 
nese. One  relates  that  many  centuries  ago  an  officer 
who  was  travelling  with  his  prince  through  a  famine- 
stricken  district  of  the  empire  cut  off  a  piece  of  his 
own  flesh  to  sustain  his  beloved  master.  This  so  ex- 
hausted him  tliat  he  died  by  the  way,  and  the  prince 
on  hearing  of  his  devotion  erected  a  tablet  to  com- 
memorate it.  Another  story  runs  that  a  man  who 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  ill-treating  a  female  relative 
became  so  repentant  after  her  death  that  he  raised  an 
image  to  her  in  the  household.  On  one  occasion 
when  the  man  was  beating  his  wife,  in  pursuance  of 
the  old  habit,  the  latter  pricked  the  image,  in  anger 
or  appeal,  whereupon  the  statuette  manifested  her 
sorrow  at  the  family  feud  by  shedding  blood  as  well 
as  tears.  This  miracle  was  noised  abroad,  and  it  came 
gradually  to  be  a  custom  to  erect  images  or  tablets  to 


TEMPLE  GUARDIAXS.  411 

ancestors,  whose  spirits  were  evidently  watching  over 
the  household. 

The  guardians  of  the  temples  are  not  regular  priests 
but  merely  attendants,  who  wait  upon  the  idols,  trim 
the  lamps,  supply  incense  tapers,  sound  the  tomtom, 
keep  clean,  and  aid  in  ceremonial  acts.  They  are 
supported  by  the  revenue  which  results  from  the  sale 
of  incense,  candles,  prayers,  toys,  and  talismans,  and 
assist  to  dispose  of  the  choice  food  offerings  presented 
to  the  gods.  They  also  act  as  diviners  and  exorcists, 
and  if  the  attendance  becomes  slack  at  any  period,  a 
miracle  is  readily  invented  to  stir  the  slumbering  piety 
into  activity,  or  little  festivals  are  extemporized  to  in- 
duce guilds  or  particular  classes  to  patronize  them. 
The  attendants  as  well  as  the  temples  may  be  hired 
by  the  day  or  hour  for  the  performance  of  special  ser- 
vices, when  tlianks  liave  to  be  rendered  for  favors,  or 
appeals  made  for  divine  aid. 

The  ceremonies  for  special  services  vary  but  little 
from  those  observed  daily  during  the  festivals.  At 
certain  intervals  during  the  day  the  attendants  appear 
in  robes  of  dark  and  light  blue  silk,  and  march  round 
the  idol-chamber  chanting  a  hymn.  They  then  kneel 
before  the  idol,  bowing  a  certain  number  of  times,  rise 
and  circle  round,  and  halt  before  the  hicense-table, 
where  the  arms  are  extended  in  ceremonial  gesture. 
A  third  march  round  brings  them  once  more  to  the 
idol,  to  whom  food  is  huml)ly  offered  after  a  seriatim 
bow  to  one  another.  Having  propitiated  the  deity 
they  return  to  the  incense  table  to  consult  the  divin- 
ing urn,  and  the  book  of  mystery,  a  task  which  is 
Iternated  with  several  more  processions,  attended  by 
L  hants  and  orchestral  music.  The  music  has  in  view 
the  twofold  object  of  rousing  the  drowsy  god,  and 
keeping  liim  in  good  humor. 

On  ordinary  occasions  little  or  no  reverence  is 
shown  to  the  gods,  probably  because  they  are  sup- 
posed to  be  napping,  and  attendants  move  round  in 
their  sacred  duties  of  lighthig  tapers,  placing  otlerings, 


412  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA. 

and  so  forth,  as  unconcernedly  as  if  they  were  per- 
forming a  liouseliold  task.  Worshippers  are  equally 
nonchalant.  The  hat  is  retained  on  the  head,  the 
cigar  is  not  removed,  and  talk  as  well  as  laughter  are 
freely  indulged  in.  On  approaching  the  idol  to  make 
an  offering,  they  place  it  on  the  table  or  altar,  light 
the  incense  taper,  and  retire  without  more  ceremony 
than  a  quick,  careless  chin-chinning,  that  is,  three 
low  bows.  It  is  only  for  special  reasons  that  they 
exhibit  more  devotion.  If  health  has  been  restored, 
a  journey  safely  accomplished,  or  a  fortunate  bargain 
made,  then  may  they  consider  it  prudent  to  return 
thanks  in  order  to  insure  the  continuance  of  divine 
favor.  Still  more  devout  in  prayers  and  offerings  do 
they  become  when  a  favor  has  to  be  sought,  the  care- 
less bow  is  then  replaced  by  humble  prostration, 
wherein  the  head  strikes  the  floor  before  the  shrine, 
and  prayers  are  repeated  on  the  rosary  beads.  This 
devotion  is  particularly  noticeable  among  the  women, 
who  appear  to  feel  their  inferiority.  If  the  wor- 
shipper has  a  request  to  make,  he  turns  from  the  god 
whom  he  has  propitiated  to  the  divining  urn,  which 
contains  a  score  or  more  of  bamboo  strips,  and  either 
picks  one,  while  muttering  his  wish,  or  shakes  the 
urn,  until  a  strip  falls  out.  The  mark  on  this  strip 
refers  him  to  the  yellow  book  of  oracles,  wherein  lies 
the  answer  of  the  god,  worded  in  parables,  or  mystic 
sentences,  which  may  be  construed  into  almost  any 
form.  For  instance,  *'  The  ancient  man  Luk  Shun 
suftcred  captivity  in  a  labyrinth.  Like  a  person  in 
his  cups,  he  sees  forms  confused  and  deceptive.  Sud- 
denly he  meets  with  an  honorable  man  who  leads  him 
safely  out.  This  person,  thereupon  rejoicing,  escapes 
from  the  net."  Another  may  read:  '*  Desiring  one, 
he  obtains  two.  Venturing  little  and  gaining  much. 
Both  public  and  private  business  mutually  aid  each 
other.  There  is  extreme  profit  in  asking  for  wealth." 
The  former  reply  is  evidently  favorable,  while  the 
latter   appears   like   an  admonition   not  to   feel   de- 


GOOD  AND   EVIL  OMENS.  413 

spondent,  but  to  try  again  at  a  future  time.  An- 
other and  simple  mode  of  questioning  the  gods  is  to 
appeal  to  the  divining  blocks.  These  consist  of  a 
pair  of  wooden  half-moons,  round  on  one  side,  and 
flat  on  the  other,  representing  the  male  and  female 
principles  of  the  dual  power  in  nature.  Framing  his 
wish,  the  worshipper  drops  them  on  the  floor,  and  if 
one  falls  flat,  while  the  other  remains  on  its  rounded 
surface,  then  the  answer  is  favorable.  If  this  happens 
twice  out  of  three  times,  he  is  satisfied;  if  not,  he 
stru'jjtrles  witli  fortune  thrice  the  sacred  three  times ; 
or,  if  the  enterprise  is  of  great  importance,  he  will 
consult  the  gods  and  the  blocks  for  three  successive 
days.  It  is  also  tlie  custom  to  seek  divine  answers  in 
a  dream,  and  after  propitiating  the  god  the  worshipper 
will  spread  his  mat  on  the  temple  floor,  praying  for  a 
whisper  from  spirit  land.  This  ceremony  is  frequently 
performed  at  home,  where  the  kitchen  god  is  the  usual 
personage  addressed. 

The  direction  of  all  aftairs  in  life  does  not  pertain  im- 
mediately to  the  gods,  however,  but  falls  under  the 
control  of  imps  or  spirits,  whose  disposition  must  be 
studied  before  an  enterprise  can  be  carried  out.  The 
almanac,  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  combined 
wisdom  of  imperial  counselors,  is  an  indispensable 
guide  in  these  matters.  It  points  out  the  lucky  and 
unlucky  days  and  signs ;  wlien  a  man  should  or 
should  not  enter  on  official  duties  or  important  trans- 
actions, when  it  might  bo  disastrous  to  engage  in  a 
battle,  when  risky  to  speculate  or  gamble,  when  dan- 
gerous to  slaughter  or  to  apply  certain  remedies,  and 
so  on.  Rules  like  these  may  cause  expense,  incon- 
venience, and  misery,  but  they  also  aflbrd  a  good  ex- 
cuse for  ignoring  the  calls  of  duty.  Every  unusual 
phenomenon,  every  accident,  every  peculiar  occur- 
rence, is  fraught  with  portentous  significance.  If  a 
cloud  assumes  a  strange  form,  if  the  candle  is  extin- 
guished bv  a  gust  of  wind,  if  the  wick  curls,  or  a 
spark  falls,  if  a  umscle  twitches,  then  may  good  or 


414  MOXGOLIANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

bad  fortune  be  expected,  according  to  the  hour  and 
circumstance.  If  a  crow  or  hawk  flics  over  one's 
head,  it  is  a  bad  omen ;  but  a  singing  bird  is  a  har- 
binger of  joy.  To  overcome  or  to  neutraUze  the  ills 
which  beset  the  path  of  life  at  every  step,  becomes  a 
serious  business.  Fortunately  there  is  that  com- 
pendium of  wisdom,  the  almanac,  to  consult.  It  di- 
rects that  if  a  house  suffers  evil  by  being  overshadowed 
by  a  tree,  or  by  the  higher  dwelling  of  a  neighbor, 
then  a  flagstaff  may  be  erected  of  a  certain  length, 
and  in  a  certain  positic^n,  or  a  lantern  may  be  sus- 
pended, bearing  the  hiscription,  **  peace,"  and  the  di- 
vine name  of  Tz-mi-yuen,  and  the  influence  will  be 
neutralized.  Houses  and  furniture  may  be  made  of 
a  peculiar  form,  to  attract  fortune  or  repel  evil. 
Doors,  walls,  and  effects  may  be  charmed  with  sacred 
inscriptions,  dragons,  or  other  figures.  Charms  also 
protect  the  person,  and  the  ankles  of  children  and 
women  are  encircled  by  ivory  rings ;  round  the  neck 
hang  amulets  of  sandal-wood,  archaeological  relics,  or 
a  gilded  bag ;  in  the  ears  are  talismanic  rings ;  and 
bells  and  imasres  clinoj  to  the  dress. 

In  matters  so  momentous  which  concern  health, 
prosperity,  and  life  itself,  the  Chinaman  dares  not,  of 
course,  trust  to  his  own  judgment,  aided  only  by  the 
limited  rules  of  the  almanac  and  the  vague  oracles  of 
gods  ;  he  must  hie  to  one  of  the  numerous  professional 
mediums,  astrologers,  and  sorcerers,  who  are  deeply 
read  in  spirit  lore,  and  hoary  with  experience.  They 
will  call  any  given  spirit  to  lift  the  veil  of  the  future, 
consult  the  Fung-shwui,  or  wunds  and  waters,  sketch 
a  career,  guide  to  fortune,  and  surmount  obstacles. 

Mediums  who  commune  with  spirits  are  generally 
old  women,  called  Kwai-ma,  and  the  most  popular 
are  those,  who,  anterior  to  being  reborn  in  this  world, 
are  supposed  to  have  allied  themselves  by  friendship 
and  gratitude  with  a  soul  yet  awaiting  birth,  and  which 
hves  in  their  body,  aiding  them  to  confer  with  other 
spirits.     Some  mediums  acquire  control  over  a  spirit 


ASIATIC  SPIRITUALISM.  415 

by  placing  an  image  among  the  graves,  and  seeking 
by  long  prayers  and  attractive  offerings  to  induce  a 
wandering  soul  to  enter  therein  and  become  their  aid. 
Others  fasten  their  evil  eye  on  some  person  of  ability, 
and  seek  to  cast  a  spell  over  his  soul,  obliging  it  to 
take  up  its  abode  in  the  image  after  his  death  which 
is  said  to  follow  very  quickly  with  such  practices. 
No  subject  is  too  trivial  or  too  vast  for  the  greedy 
medium,  and  she  is  prepared  to  act  for  anyone  who 
brings  the  necessary  adjuncts  of  a  little  rice,  three 
incense  sticks,  and,  above  all,  some  money,  wherewith 
to  allure  the  spirit.  She  endeavors  to  learn  as  much 
as  possible  of  the  history  of  the  applicant,  in  connec- 
tion with  his  wishes,  and  then,  lighting  the  sticks  and 
placing  them  in  her  hair,  she  scatters  some  rice  about 
her,  closes  her  eyes,  and  mutters  words  of  mystic  im- 
port as  her  head  droops  over  the  table  before  her. 
After  a  while  the  spirit  appears,  and  addresses  the 
applicant  through  the  unconscious  medium.  If  the 
s})irit  is  not  in  a  favorable  mood,  it  may  be  necessary 
to  appease  it  with  a  choice  meal.  While  discussing  its 
steaming  essence,  the  mutterings  may  assume  vague 
reference  to  the  wishes  of  the  dupe,  who  is  usually 
recommended  to  perform  certain  religious  rites,  in 
order  to  attain  his  object.  Even  the  temple  and  the 
class  of  oflcrings  are  indicated  to  gain  for  the  medium 
the  additional  profit  of  a  percentage  from  the  priests. 
A  favorite  mode  of  spirit  communication,  even  with 
the  intelligent,  is  for  two  persons  to  hold  a  stick,  with 
pencil  attached,  vertically  on  a  board  covered  with 
sand,  and  invoke  the  spirit  to  write  the  oracle  under 
their  tremulous  hands. 

Fortune-tellers  arc  more  patronized  than  mediums, 
and  may  be  found  in  considerable  number,  prepared 
to  write  out  the  past  and  future,  disclose  the  prospects 
of  an  undertaking,  and  point  out  the  way  to  employ- 
ment, to  investments,  and  to  happiness.  Their  stock 
in  trade  consists  of  a  table  ;  an  urn  containing  divining 
sticks,  which  are  strips  of  wood  with  characters  in- 


416  MONCrOLTANISM   IN  AMERICA. 

scribed  ;  a  slate  and  some  paper,  with  pencil  and  India 
ink;  and  a  tew  books  w^tli  explanations  of  various 
methods  of  divination,  including  phrenology,  pahnis- 
try,  theomancy,  sciomancy,  and  sortilege,  illustrated 
with  diagrams.  The  principal  method  is  by  aid  of  the 
Confucian  system  of  the  dual  principles  of  nature,  male 
and  female,  tlie  former  representing  the  heavenly  at- 
tributes of  liglit,  heat,  and  perfection,  the  latter,  the 
earthly,  of  darkness,  cold,  and  imperfection,  symbolized 

respectively  by  —  and .      By  forming  these  lines 

into  parallel  couples,  four  combinations  are  obtained, 
to  wliich  have  been  applied  the  names  of  the  cardinal 
virtues,  piety,  morality,  justice,  and  wisdom.  By 
forming  them  into  triple  parallels,  eight  combinations 
result,  which  symbolize  heaven,  earth,  fire,  air,  water, 
mountains,  thunder,  moisture.  By  further  combina- 
tion of  the  virtues  and  elements  sixty-four  aphorisms 
result,  on  which  have  been  framed  not  only  the  an- 
swers of  diviners,  but  a  system  of  ethics  and  a  cosmog- 
ony. The  applicant  for  mystic  glimpses  draws  one 
or  more  divining  strips,  the  characters  on  which  are 
noted  by  the  fortune-teller,  and  combined  with  the 
above  symbols  according  to  a  prescribed  form.  The 
result  is  conveyed  generally  in  an  abscure,  non-com- 
mittal answer,  which  is  greedily  puzzled  over  by  the 
dupe,  and  twisted  into  the  most  flattering  versions 
possible.  Instead  of  the  strips,  three  copper  cash, 
marked  with  similar  characters,  may  be  used  by  the 
applicant.  Shaken  in  a  box,  they  are  cast  by  him 
thrice  three  times,  and  the  diflerent  combinations  of 
characters  formed  into  a  diagram  by  the  numismancer, 
who,  as  a  close  observer  of  human  nature,  also  calls  his 
penetration  to  aid  in  framing  the  answer.  He  further 
discovers  the  cause  of  diseases  and  their  remed}",  and 
keeps  a  supply  of  medicine  to  palm  off  upon  his  im- 
pressible patients,  or  throws  custom  into  the  hands 
of  certain  doctors  and  apothecaries.  Spare  moments 
are  besides  devoted  to  writing  letters  for  the  illiterate. 
In  the  upper  strata  of  the  divining  profession  stands 


ASTROLOGY  AND  DEMONOLOGY.  417 

the  astrologer,  who  paves  his  way  to  respectabiUty  by 
charging  from  one  to  five  dollars  for  what  the  hum- 
bler brother  will  do  for  as  many  dimes,  and  who  sus- 
tains his  reputation  by  a  larger  collection  of  books, 
treating  on  soothsaying,  cosmogony,  and  stellar  in- 
fluence. The  dual  character  of  the  hours,  days, 
months,  and  years  of  a  cycle,  are  formed  into  eight 
diagrams,  each  having  several  scores  of  combinations, 
some  marked  with  lucky  red,  others  with  ominous 
black.  With  these  are  connected  the  ethic  diagrams 
of  the  fortune-teller,  and  the  kings  of  the  four  seasons, 
represented  by  four  figures,  on  the  various  parts  of 
which  are  marked  characters  denoting  the  different 
hours  of  the  day  and  night,  changed  in  position  on 
each  figure.  If  a  person  has  been  born  under  the 
character  marked  on  the  head  or  hand  of  the  king, 
prosperity  awaits  him;  under  other  characters  his 
prospects  are  more  or  less  favorable,  but  the  sign  on 
the  foot  bodes  misfortune.  Provided  with  the  hour, 
day,  month,  and  year  of  birth,  the  astrologer  forms 
the  horoscope  by  connecting  their  characters  with 
those  of  the  five  elements,  the  zodiac,  and  the  kings, 
till  the  diagram  develops  into  a  perfect  chart,  gene- 
rahzing  destiny  for  decades,  or  detailing  the  prospects 
of  every  month,  if  the  fee  is  large  enough.  The 
periods  are  pointed  out  which  fall  under  the  influence 
of  evil  stars  and  phenomena,  and  the  course  of  con- 
duct indicated  wherewith  to  pass  safely  through  the 
danger.  The  happy  epochs  are  also  marked  with  pre- 
cautionary regulations  for  neutralizing  the  appearance 
of  a  crow  or  other  evil  omens  that  may  cloud  the  hor- 
izon. The  best  year  is  pointed  out  for  making  a  for- 
tune ;  wlien  to  build  a  house  and  where ;  when  a  son 
will  be  born,  and  so  on.  Palmistry,  phrenology,  and 
pliysiognomy  are  frequently  made  use  of  to  perfect 
the  diagrams. 

Many  revelations  of  diviners  attribute  the  cause  of 
troubles  to  some  of  the  evil  spirits  which  haunt  the 
children  of  heaven  on  every  side.     When  a  house  is 

ES8AY8  AND  MISCELLANY       27 


41S  MONGOLIANISM  IN  AMERICA, 

built,  a  new  lodging  occupied,  or  a  new  suit  of  clothes 
put  on,  an  imp  is  sure  to  inveigle  himself  into  some 
cranny,  and  being  aware  of  this  the  Chinaman  has 
timely  recourse  to  exorcism  and  charms,  in  order  to 
secure  himself.  A  common  method  is  to  take  a  tray 
with  some  rice  and  three  cups  of  liquid,  place  a  burn- 
ing incense-stick  at  each  corner,  light  some  paper  of 
the  yellow,  talismanic  color,  and  empty  the  three  cups 
upon  the  flaming  paper,  while  scattering  the  rice. 
This  has  the  effect  of  driving  away  demoniac  spirits 
and  of  appeasing  the  good.  But  there  are  unguarded 
moments  when  a  charm  may  have  been  neglected,  and 
free  entry  allowed  to  the  ever-lurking  spirits,  whose 
second  entry  is  far  more  serious  than  the  first,  as  the 
holy  book  teaches.  In  such  cases  it  is  safer  to  call 
in  the  experienced  aid  of  one  of  the  professional 
exorcists,  known  as  Nam  Mo.  If  a  house  is  haunted, 
for  instance,  the  charmer  commences  by  burning  in- 
cense before  the  family  gods  and  mumbling  incanta- 
tions, while  preparing  a  sacred  liquid  consisting  of 
water  mixed  with  ashes  from  yellow  charm  scrips, 
which  bears  a  curse  in  vermilion  or  red  letters. 
Armed  with  a  sword  and  a  magic  wand  engraved 
with  three  stars  and  the  name  of  the  Thunderer,  he 
proceeds  to  rave  and  stamp,  to  brandish  and  whirl  his 
implements,  and  to  squirt  in  every  direction  from 
his  mouth  the  sooty  liquid,  yelling  to  the  demons 
to  depart  in  a  manner  that  makes  it  appear  as 
if  they  had  possession  of  him  rather  than  of  the 
house.  A  similar  procedure  is  used  to  relieve  a 
possessed  person.  If  the  diviner  finds  that  an  ances- 
tral spirit  troubles  the  afilicted,  the  cause  must  be 
looked  for  and  remedied  by  more  liberal  offerings,  or 
chang^e  of  tomb. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


MONEY  AND  MONOPOLY. 


Of  man's  injustice  why  should  I  complain  ? 
The  gods  and  Jove  himseif,  behold  in  vain 
Triumphant  treason,  yet  no  thunder  flies. 

— Collins'  Vij-gil. 

There  is  something  in  the  handhng  of  money  for 
gain  that  tends  to  the  demorahzation  of  the  finer 
faculties.  It  sears  the  more  generous  feehngs,  and 
makes  the  heart  hke  the  metal,  cold  and  hard.  There 
is  a  difference  in  manipulating  one's  own  money  or 
another's,  the  former  tending  to  the  higher  selfishness. 
There  is  a  difference  in  this  respect  even  between  the 
commercial  banker  and  men  of  the  savings  bank, 
to  the  disadvantage  of  tlie  former,  in  whose  occupa- 
tion there  is  less  of  the  sentiment  of  benefit  to  others. 

There  are  few  positions  more  unfavorable  for  mind 
and  soul  development  than  that  of  bank-teller,  where 
the  man  becomes  a  counting-machine,  the  mind  being 
forced  to  fix  itself  attentively  on  the  work  in  order  to 
avoid  mistakes,  while  ground  down  by  dead  monotony. 
This,  however,  is  totally  different  from  the  occupation 
of  the  manager,  who  is  obliged  constantly  to  arbitrate 
between  the  interests  of  the  bank  and  the  necessities 
of  applicants  for  loans.  The  aristocracy  of  England, 
when  ruling  trade  and  money-making  from  their 
higher  atmosphere,  could  hardly  have  selected  less 
improving  occupations  to  be  followed  with  some 
degree  of  respectability  by  necessitous  lordlings  than 
those  of  banker  and  jeweller. 

Monopoly  exercises  a  more  vicious  reflex  influence 
upon  the  man  than  usury  or  any  other  form  of  exact- 

(419) 


420  MONEY  AND  MONOrOLY. 

ing  gain  from  one's  fellows.  The  system  of  slavery  is 
demoralizing  to  the  master,  because  no  man  can  prac- 
tice injustice  toward  his  fellow-man  without  being 
himself  injured  and  debased  thereby.  So  it  is  with 
the  gambler,  whether  in  the  shares  of  the  broker's 
board,  or  in  the  cornering  of  wheat  for  an  advance,  or 
at  the  faro-table  in  the  club-room, — any  system  of  ex- 
tortion, or  obtaining  from  or  forcing  persons  to  pay 
money  unjustly,  and  without  giving  full  equivalent,  is 
not  only  injurious  to  the  victim  and  the  public,  but 
most  of  all  to  him  who  pockets  the  spoils. 

Tv/enty  years  ago  half  a  million  of  dollars  was  con- 
sidered quite  a  fortune  ;  ten  years  ago  three  or  five 
million-dollar  men  were  becoming  plentiful ;  to-day 
for  a  person  to  be  remarkably  rich  he  must  have  from 
ten  to  fifty  millions.  Some  of  these  large  fortunes 
have  been  legitimately  made,  others  of  them  have  not; 
hence,  not  unfrcquently  we  hear  the  question  asked 
regarding  a  rich  man  and  his  money,  Did  he  come  by 
it  honestly  ? 

During  these  days  of  strong  competition  and  well- 
defined  business  channels,  the  largest  fortunes  are  not 
made  by  merchants  or  manufacturers,  but  by  manipu- 
lators of  mines,  railways,  or  grain.  The  lands  of  a 
large  holder  may  so  increase  in  value  as  to  make  him 
enormously  wealthy,  and  there  are  many  cattle-kings 
among  the  millionaires;  but  as  a  rule  the  great  for- 
tunes come  from  gambling  ventures,  trickery  on  a 
mighty  magnificent  scale,  or  downright  rascality 
barely  shielded  by  all-accommodating  law,  but  all 
under  various  degrees  of  indirection. 

The  manipulation  of  capital  in  a  speculative  manner, 
and  the  making  avail  of  opportunity,  which  in  the 
Pacific  States  have  led  to  so  many  large  fortunes,  were 
primarily  due  in  a  measure  to  the  placer-mining  occu- 
pation which  predominated  throughout  the  Pacific 
coast.  The  pursuit,  with  its  chance  results,  now  a 
competency,  now  a  sudden  fortune,  but  usually  blanks, 
with  its  desultory  work,  its  wandering  life,  and  its 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  GAMBLING  SPIRIT.  421 

loose  habits,  all  tended  to  confirm  the  restless  and 
gambling  propensities  of  the  adventurers  who  flocked 
hither.  The  example  of  those  who  returned,  the 
news  and  fancies  spread  from  the  enchanted  shores, 
and  the  marked  effect  of  the  new  region  on  our  trade 
and  industries,  filled  others  with  speculative  ideas. 

Then,  with  the  opening  of  the  Nevada  silver  de- 
posits, came  regular  gambling  in  mining  stocks  at 
special  exchanges,  hi  which  all  classes  frantically  par- 
ticipated, to  the  impoverishment  of  thousands,  whose 
investments  and  assessments  disappeared  into  the 
capacious  pockets  of  unscrupulous  managers.  East- 
ern men  caught  the  infection,  which  received  no  small 
stimulus  from  the  fluctuations  in  gold  values  during 
the  war,  and  was  marked  subsequently  by  the  trans- 
planting of  western  mining  stock  deals  into  their 
midst,  in  fitting  association  with  corners,  rings,  trusts, 
and  other  vicious  devices. 

We  pass  laws  to  suppress  gambling  with  cards 
where  the  chances  are  fair  and  the  game  honestly 
dealt,  and  call  it  vice,  and  so  it  is;  but  we  not  only 
tolerate  but  patronize  mammoth  gaming  establish- 
ments where  the  poor  and  hiexperienced  are  regularly 
victimized  by  rich  and  reputable  sharpers.  We  are 
shocked  to  see  a  man  enter  a  club-room  and  lay  his 
money  on  a  moiite -table,  but  prim  matrons  and 
puritanical  preachers  and  churchmen  can  bet  with 
respectable  impunity  on  what  shall  be  the  value  of 
stocks  or  grain  a  week  or  a  month  hence. 

In  the  race  for  wealth  loftier  aspirations  are  too 
often  trampled  under  foot,  many  devoting  themselves 
heart  and  soul  tliroughout  life  to  the  fascination  of 
gambling  and  cheating  within  the  pale  of  law.  Barren 
in  all  the  nobler  attributes  of  intellect,  and  in  heart 
and  feeling  cold  as  ice  and  hard  as  stone,  the  souls  of 
these  imuvres  riches  are  shrivelled  to  slag,  their  con- 
sciences utterly  benumbed.  Selfish  and  unprincipled, 
they  play  upon  the  necessities  of  others,  using  the 
power  their  wealth  gives  them  to  increase  its  already 


422  MONEY  AND  MONOrOLY. 

enormous  bulk,  by  impoverishing  poor  producers ; 
by  lying  in  wait  for  opportunities  to  get  something 
for  nothing ;  by  regulating  elections  so  as  to  put  their 
tools  in  power ;  by  originating  plausible  schemes  to 
rob  the  people;  by  inflating  or  breaking  the  stock- 
market  at  pleasure,  so  as  to  gather  at  one  fell  swoop 
the  small  accumulations  of  those  thousands  of  smaller 
gamblers  who  are  foolish  enough  to  stake  their  all  on 
games  beside  which  faro  and  three-card  monte  are 
honorable  and  fair ;  by  bribing  assessors  so  that  the 
burden  of  taxation  shall  fall  on  the  laboring  classes 
and  honest  merchants. 

Whipple  says  of  them:  ''Such  men  we  occasion- 
ally meet  in  business  life  ;  men  who  have  not  one 
atom  of  soul,  but  have  sold  the  last  innnortal  grain 
of  it  for  hard  cash.  They  have  received  the  millions 
they  desired,  but  have  they  made  a  good  bargain? 
The  difficulty  with  their  case  comes  from  their  having 
no  capacity  for  enjoyment  left  after  the  sale.  Coarse, 
callous,  without  sympathy,  without  affection,  without 
frankness  and  generosity  of  feeling,  dull  even  in  their 
senses,  despising  human  nature,  and  looking  upon 
their  fellow  creatures  simply  as  possible  victims  of 
their  all-grasping  extortion,  it  would  seem  as  though 
they  had  deliberately  shut  up,  one  by  one,  all  the  sources 
of  enjoyment,  and  had,  coiled  up  in  their  breasts,  a 
snake-like  avarice,  which  must  eventually  sting  them 
to  death.  Some  men  find  happiness  in  gluttony  and 
in  drunkenness;  but  no  delicate  viands  can  touch  their 
taste  with  the  thrill  of  pleasure,  and  what  generosity 
there  is  in  wine  steadily  refuses  to  impart  its  glow  to 
their  shrivelled  hearts." 

But  preaching  against  the  passion  has  little  effect. 
Some  worship  wealth  with  greater  intensity  than 
others,  but  all  love  money.  Every  man  thinks  if  he 
had  it  he  could  master  it.  He  is  quite  sure  it  would 
not  master  him.  As  the  adage  says  ''  Qui  uti  scit,  ei 
bona."  To  him  who  knows  how  to  use  them,  riches 
are  a  blessing;  to  those  who  do  not,  they  are  a  curse. 


ILL-GOTTEN  GAINS.  423 

What  power  of  gold  that  can  make  of  hell  a  heaven, 
or  of  heaven  a  hell  1  Whether  a  curse  or  a  blessing 
to  the  possessor  is  of  small  moment  as  compared  to 
the  effect  on  the  community  at  large.  And  this  we 
know,  that  great  wealth  in  the  hands  of  individuals 
does  not  usually  redound  to  the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number. 

In  the  decay  of  the  republic,  says  Plato,  an  intem- 
perate thirst  for  wealth  and  the  licentiousness  and 
extravagance  resulting  therefrom,  breed  in  the  state 
a  race  of  grasping  misers  and  ruined  spendthrifts. 
The  first  stage  of  decay  is  a  timocracy  marked  by 
ambition  and  love  of  gain ;  the  second  step  in  its  de- 
cline and  fall  is  an  oligarchy  ^' where  gold  is  all  pow- 
erful and  virtue  is  depreciated  ;  and  the  state  becomes 
divided  into  two  hostile  classes,  one  enormously  rich 
and  the  other  miserably  poor;  and  in  it  paupers  and 
criminals  multiply,  and  education  deteriorates." 

In  monopoly  'per  se  there  may  be  nothing  wrong. 
There  are  various  kinds  and  phases  of  monopoly. 
Monopoly,  in  and  of  itself,  signifies  simply  exclusive 
right  or  sole  ownership.  This  sole  possession  or  ex- 
clusive right  to  buy,  sell,  or  enjoy  may  have  been  ob- 
tained honestly  and  exercised  justly.  The  law  gives 
authors  and  inventors  the  monopoly  of  their  works 
for  a  time  that  they  may  secure  proper  remuneration 
for  their  labors.  So  if  with  his  own  money  a  man 
buys  a  right  of  way  and  builds  a  road  he  may  monop- 
olize traffic,  but  he  cannot  rightly  employ  money  to 
prevent  other  roads  from  being  made,  or  other  per- 
sons to  engage  in  the  traffic.  It  is  a  swindle  upon 
the  public  for  a  steamboat  company  to  pay  money 
obtained  from  the  public  to  a  rival  craft  in  order  to 
get  more  from  the  public  than  is  fair  for  the  people 
to  pay.  It  is  impossible  for  a  monopolist  who  stoops 
to  any  indirection  to  be  anything  but  a  dishonest  man, 
and  a  curse  to  the  community. 

Further  than  this,  the  sudden  acquisition  of  great 


424"  MONEY  AND  MONOPOLY. 

wealth  is  usually  attended  by  fraud.  How  do  presi- 
dents and  directors  of  great  corporations,  beginning 
on  nothing,  by  simply  manipulating  other  })e()ple's 
money,  so  quickly  make  it  their  own?  Or,  as  the 
Roman  once  more  pointedly  })ut  it  to  Lucius  Cornelius 
Sylla,  ''How  can  you  be  an  honest  man  who,  since 
the  death  of  a  father  who  left  you  nothing,  have  be- 
come so  rich  ? " 

True,  in  some  instances,  public  benefactions  flow 
from  these  large  accumulations,  to  the  applause  of  the 
thoughtless  and  dazzled  masses;  but  as  a  rule  the 
greedy  monopolist  hugs  his  ill-gotten  gains  with 
miserly  tenacity,  or  spends  it  in  infamous  ways  for  in- 
famous purposes.  Even  if  large  sums  are  sometimes 
spent  in  charity,  or  in  the  erection  of  some  conspicu- 
ous institution  and  benefaction  by  those  who  cannot 
carry  their  wealth  into  the  other  world,  how  much  of 
thanks  sliould  be  given  them  by  those  from  whom 
they  fraudulently  obtained  this  wealth,  and  who  per- 
adventure  w^ould  prefer  distributing  their  own  gifts 
rather  than  liave  it  done  by  robbers?  Then,  too,  we 
might  ask.  How  much  restitution  of  stolen  wealth 
does  it  take  to  condone  the  off*ence? 

Knowing  themselves  to  be  frauds,  knowing  that 
all  men  are  aware  of  it,  and  knowing  that  all  men  will 
bow  down  and  worship  a  wealthy  fraud,  such  men  can 
at  least  console  themselves  in  the  reflection  that  how- 
soever they  may  rank  in  knavery,  they  are  envied 
rather  than  despised  by  the  great  majority  of  tbeir 
neighbors.  Yet  there  are  men  in  this  world  who  will 
not  worship  besotted  wealth.  Let  Croesus  with  his 
ground-out  gains  build  him  a  Galiana  palace ;  let  him 
fill  it  with  rare  and  costly  furnishings,  and  invite  his 
parasites  to  enter  and  eat  with  him  ;  nevertheless,  like 
the  soulless  monster  made  by  Frankenstein  out  of  the 
fragments  of  men  gathered  from  dissecting  tables  and 
churchyards,  and  imbued  with  life  by  galvanism,  his 
first  consciousness  being  a  longing  for  companionship, 
he  is  shunned  by  every  true  man. 


THE  ALLUREMENTS  OF  WEALTH.  425 

By  a  lucky  stroke  of  fortune,  not  by  industry,  not 
by  merit,  not  by  mind,  the  man  of  nothing  yesterday 
is  to-day  the  man  of  millions.  The  individual  himself 
is  in  no  whit  changed ;  he  is  just  as  ignorant  or  learned, 
just  as  stupid  or  intelligent,  just  as  vulgar  and  ras- 
cally, or  as  refined,  pious,  and  honest  as  before.  Yet 
some  resplendent  virtue  seems,  in  the  eyes  of  his  fel- 
lows, suddenly  to  have  taken  possession  of  him,  and 
his  every  movement  is  watched  by  eager  admirers — 
of  his  money.  These  doff  their  hats  and  bend  their 
backs,  and  he,  poor  idiot,  thinks  it  to  himself  and  not 
to  his  lucre  the  time-servers  do  obeisance. 

Mind  bows  before  money.  Brave,  indeed,  must  be 
the  striTggles  that  overcome  the  allurements  of  luxury, 
the  subtle,  sensuous  influence  of  wealth,  entering  as  it 
does  the  domains  alike  of  intellect  and  the  affections, 
opening  nature,  widening  art,  and  filling  enlarged  ca- 
pacities for  enjoyment.  Yet  he  who  would  attain  the 
highest  must  shake  from  him  these  entrancing  fetters 
and  stand  forth  absolutely  a  free  man.  I  cannot  but 
choose  to  say  to  poverty,  witli  Jean  Paul  Bichter, 
whose  thoughts  roll  off  in  swells  of  poetry,  "be  wel- 
come, so  tliou  come  not  too  late  in  life.  Biches  weigh 
more  heavily  upon  talent  than  poverty.  Under  gold 
mountains  and  thrones  lie  buried  many  spiritual 
giants.  When  to  the  flame  that  the  natural  heat  of 
youth  kindles  the  oil  of  riches  is  added,  little  more 
than  the  ashes  of  the  phoenix  remains,  and  only  a  Goth 
has  had  the  forbearance  not  to  singe  his  phoenix  wings 
of  fortune." 

It  is  not  a  pleasing  feature  of  the  existing  condition 
of  things  for  an  intelligent  and  fair-minded  freeman  to 
contemplate,  that  a  few  selfish  and  grasping  men,  rat- 
ing as  respectable — that  is,  as  more  respectable  than 
the  swindlers  whom  the  law  punishes — are  ever  plot- 
ting to  gain  some  undue  advantage  over  their  fellows, 
over  those  less  cunning  and  unscrupulous  than  them- 
selves. Pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  their  way,  pres- 
ently tliese  citizens  of  simpler  minds  and  more  contented 


42G  MONEY  AND  MONOrOLY 

hearts  feel  themselves  and  tlie  whole  conununity  to 
be  enfolded  in  the  suflbcating  grasp  of  some  demon 
monopoly.  They  awake,  perhaps,  to  find  seized  every 
avenue  of  approach  to  the  city,  by  land  or  by  water, 
to  find  every  traveller  and  every  article  of  merchan- 
dise that  comes  to  the  country  taxed  to  support  the 
monster,  their  own  money  being  taken,  first  to  make 
ricli  tlie  monopolists,  anrj  then  to  buy  ofl'  legitimate 
competition,  so  that  more  money  may  be  wrongfully 
extorted  from  them ;  to  find  merchants  made  serts  by- 
tricksters  who  lord  it  more  bravely  than  ever  did 
feudal  baron,  to  the  everlasting  shame  of  those  who 
endure  it. 

It  is  worse  than  the  autocratic  tyrant,  who  perpe- 
trates his  abuses  openly,  while  this  insidiously  attacks 
us  under  the  guise  of  conferring  benefits,  attacking  us 
indeed  through  the  very  benefactions  bestowed  upon 
it  by  ourselves. 

If  we  must  have  kings  to  rule  over  us,  better  feudal 
kings  than  modern  money-kings,  one-eyed  cyclops 
who  can  see  nothinor  but  gold,  and  in  whom  with 
their  retainers,  their  courtiers,  lawyers,  legislators, 
and  judges,  the  interest  of  the  people  are  sunk  in  a 
close  corporation  with  a  one-man  power  for  its  center, 
and  for  whose  sole  benefit  the  property  is 
manipulated. 

My  friend  Charles  NordhofF  sends  me  his  little  book 
Politics  For  Yoiuig  Americans.  I  open  it  and  read: 
**  Napoleon  III.  held  France  by  the  throat  ftjr  eigh- 
teen years,  and  all  the  meaner  sort  of  mankind  glori- 
fied him  as  the  wisest  of  rulers."  This  is  the  tone  we 
love  to  assume  in  teaching  our  children,  in  comparing 
our  governmeut  with  that  of  other  nations.  No 
wonder  we  are  puffed  up  and  ignorant.  When  I  look 
upon  the  prostitution  of  principles  in  my  own  coun- 
try ;  when  I  smell  the  rank  corruption  of  our  legisla- 
tive assemblies  and  nmnicipal  halls,  when  I  see  vil- 
lainy, in  the  similitude  of  men,  bought  and  sold  as  in 
the   rankest  days  of  licentious   Rome,   when  I   see 


WANTED,  BETTER  GOVERNMENT.  427 

disease  creeping  toward  the  vitals  of  this  intellectually 
young  and  strong  commonwealth,  and  thousands  of 
black  African  and  parasitical  European  patriots  with 
their  vile  leaders  feeding  the  plague  instead  of  stop- 
ping it,  then  I  must  confess,  with  no  small  thanks 
for  the  enlightenment  acquired,  that  I  am  one  of  the 
meaner  sort  who  prefer  honest  despotism  to  rotten 
republicanism. 

Men  have  always  depended  too  much  on  govern- 
ment and  too  little  on  themselves.  Setting  up  judge, 
governor,  and  legislature,  they  call  upon  these  crea- 
tures of  their  own  creating  as  on  gods,  begging  to  be 
delivered  from  wrath  of  every  kind.  Looking  upon 
our  legislators  and  our  governors,  and  knowing  noth- 
ing of  the  gifts  of  gold  so  freely  passed  to  them  by 
those  who  would  buy  justice  or  injustice,  both  of 
which  are  always  for  sale,  we  feel  with  Oxenstierna 
when  he  exclaimed,  **  See,  my  son,  by  how  little 
wisdom  we  are  governed  1" 

What  we  want  is  more  of  the  old-fashioned  despot- 
ism ;  not  the  duspotism  of  the  mob,  or  of  money,  but 
of  the  despotism  which  punishes  rabble  outbreaks,  and 
bribery,  tlie  despotism  which  hangs  iniquitous  mo- 
nopolists and  unjust  judges  ;  for  when  the  cohesive 
force  of  desi)otism  is  absent  from  the  government,  and 
the  cohesive  force  of  virtue  is  lacking  in  the  people, 
beware  of  trouble.  We  may  be  very  sure,  that  with- 
out intelligence  and  morality,  despotism  or  anarchy 
are  inevitable,  and  of  the  two  I  prefer  the  former. 

Nevertheless,  monopoly  is  too  prominent  a  feature 
of  that  selfishness  which  forms  the  chief  motive  for 
our  actions,  and  consequently  for  progress,  to  be  ut- 
terly decried.  It  is  condemned  merely  m  the  abuse, 
especially  as  manifested  by  soulless  corporations- 
soulless  in  their  acts  as  well  as  in  the  sense  of  Chief 
Justice  IManwood's  demonstration  that  God  alone 
creates  souls,  not  political  authorities  to  whom  cor- 
porations owe  exiiitence.     Abuse  began  with  the  very 


428  MONEY  AND   MONOPOLY. 

first  strife  in  the  chase  between  savage  men,  when 
the  winner  secured  for  himself  the  entire  body  or  the 
larger  proportion.  It  assumed  magnitude  witli  inva- 
sion and  conquest,  when  the  source  for  wealth  and 
subsistence  was  seized  upon  in  the  land,  which  in  it- 
self was  an  enslavement  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  iniquitous  monopoly  is  evidently  objectionable 
in  every  respect,  while  the  just  and  legitimate  spe- 
cies implies  a  bargain  of  one  favor  for  another,  a 
reward  for  benefits  received  or  to  be  conferred. 
The  strongest  illustration  hereof  appears  in  patents, 
which  grant  to  the  inventor  the  sole  control  of  his 
idea  or  machine  for  a  term,  as  compensation  for 
sharing  their  advantages  with  the  public.  Similar 
benefits  are  expected  from  charters  conceded  for  rail- 
ways, manufactures,  and  other  commercial  and  indus- 
trial purposes.  But  for  the  expected  blessings  to  flow 
therefrom  they  would  not  be  allowed  to  spring  into 
existence  ;  for  the  attendant  evil,  aside  from  the  exac- 
tion of  the  reward  or  price,  is  signified  by  the  stipula- 
tions, especially  as  to  term  of  life,  which  varies  ac- 
cording to  the  magnitude  of  the  concession.  A 
patent  endures  for  only  a  few  years,  but  the  piece  of 
land  is  given  in  perpetuity,  in  return  for  settlement 
and  cultivation,  while  the  railway  charter  embraces 
certain  facilities  which  yield  to  the  holders  a  mo- 
nopoly dependent  on  circumstances.  Long  before  the 
expiration  of  the  terms,  the  impatient  public,  with 
poor  memory  for  past  favors,  begins  to  growl  at  the 
exclusiveness  and  the  consequent  restriction  or  burden 
on  itself,  and  this  becomes  louder  as  the  holders,  by 
means  of  their  prerogatives  and  acquired  strength,  seek 
to  extend  and  prolong  their  power,  or  take  additional 
or  undue  advantages.  The  murmur  should  be  equally 
directed  against  the  king  or  government  or  system 
which  make  concessions  without  due  foresight  as  to 
equivalents  and  results. 

Monopoly  has  borrowed  its  main  strength  from  the 
organization  and  cooperation  which  form  such  important 


ORIGIN   AND   DEVELOPMENT.  429 

factors  in  civilization.  Its  growth  indeed  has  been 
apace  with  progress,  and  with  the  expansion  of  free- 
dom. The  success  of  man  in  shaking  off  poUtical  des- 
potism and  attaining  to  greater  Hberty  of  thought  and 
action,  has  brought  to  the  surface  or  intensified  a 
number  of  hitherto  suppressed  evils — the  usual  result 
of  all  experiments,  as  the  republic  still  is  in  a  measure, 
and  as  the  present  industrial  development  is  in  partic- 
ular, with  novel  steam-powder,  machinery,  and  railways, 
which  form  the  great  implements  for  monopoly.  Un- 
der a  despotic  government  such  outcropping  is  readily 
checked;  but  in  overthrowing  the  political  autocrat 
and  distributing  his  prerogatives  among  themselves, 
the  people  gave  power  to  this  and  other  obnoxious 
elements.  Instead  of  one  tyrant  rose  many.  Midst 
the  scramble  for  position  and  wealth  the  strong  and 
the  supple  elbowed  their  way  forward,  pushing  the 
weaker  to  the  wall.  The  very  privileges  vested  in 
them  for  the  general  welfare  they  diverted  to  their 
own  purposes. 

The  faculty  to  associate  for  the  achievement  of 
great  enterprises,  which  must  have  had  its  greatest 
impulse  in  the  need  for  protection,  especially  against 
hostile  neighbors,  was  particularly  well  developed 
among  the  Aryans,  nourished  by  their  system  of 
kinship,  property-holding,  and  adoption  of  new  mem- 
bers. The  practical  Roman  attained  to  preeminence 
in  this  respect.  The  collegium  rose  as  the  ar- 
tificial substitute  for  the  Aryan  household,  to  unite 
religious  and  political  bodies,  commercial  and  indus- 
trial, social  and  benevolent.  The  most  useful  forms 
of  it  were  adaptations  of  Punic  institutions,  notably 
from  Carthage,  which  in  itself  presents  a  prototype 
for  the  later  India  companies  of  Dutch  and  Enghsh. 
In  the  universities  we  behold  a  corporation  of  corpor- 
ations, of  which  the  Christian  church  exhibited  in  due 
time  the  most  extensive  consolidation,  with  spiritual, 
social,  and  material  aims. 

Among  the  early  Teutons  the  faciUties  for  combi- 


430  MONEY  AXD  MOXOrOLY. 

nation  were  inferior,  partly  from  their  scattered  condi- 
tion, with  Httle  concentration  in  towns.  Trade, 
nevertheless,  asserted  its  influence  in  this  direction, 
and  with  the  growing  abnormities  of  feudal  times, 
merchants  and  artisans  were  obliged  to  elaborate  the 
guild  for  the  protection  especially  of  labor,  and  with 
regulations  of  prices  as  well  as  methods  and  appren- 
ticeship, and  social  and  charitable  performances.  In 
England  it  assumed  formal  shape  only  after  the  Nor- 
man invasion,  although  based  on  Saxon  customs.  In 
France  the  Roman  model  prevailed,  and  here  mer- 
chants early  separated  into  a  distinct  class  from  that 
of  crafts  or  metiers,  with  their  o^rades  of  petty  masters, 
companions  or  journeymen,  and  apprentices.  Early 
monopolies  were  almost  always  beneficial. 

liecognizing  these  corporations  in  a  measure  as  the 
stomach  of  the  body  social  for  the  employment  of  es- 
pecially skilled  labor  in  tlie  transmutation  of  raw  labor 
and  raw  resources  or  capital  into  new  forms,  sover- 
eigns found  it  to  their  interest  to  favor  them,  partly  with 
a  view  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  nobility ;  so  guilds  and 
barons  w^ere  pitted  against  each  other.  The  former, 
as  a  fulcrum  for  the  autocratic  lever,  received  a  num- 
ber of  privileges,  notably  for  municipal  government. 
The  Germanic  independence  of  character  which  as- 
serted itself  in  the  strife  for  a  share  in  sovereignty 
and  administration  by  nobles  and  commoners,  lords, 
and  tribes,  and  municipalities,  stood  manifest  in  the 
socio-political  nature  of  the  guilds,  on  which,  indeed, 
local  administration  mainly  rested,  guided  by  guild 
laws.  Sometimes  a  merchant  guild  alone  held  sway. 
The  parish  corporations  of  England  display  the  relics 
of  the  system. 

At  one  time  all  classes  were  embraced  therein,  Lon- 
don, for  instance,  conferring  the  full  enjoyment  of  cit- 
izenship only  on  members.  In  China  the  system  of 
associations  is  widely  diffused  among  all  social  branches, 
but  with  a  slavish  conformity  to  habit  rather  than 
to  utility,  while  the  latter  motive  forms  the  chief  in- 


MATERIA.LIZATION  OF  INDUSTRY.  431 

centive  among  Americans,  who  rank  as  the  foremost 
practical  organizers. 

Organization  and  cooperation  have  been  great  levers 
of  progress,  for  elevating  the  masses,  yet  their  very 
success  breeds  elements  of  corruption.  The  leading 
bodies  in  a  certain  branch,  incited  by  greed  and  am- 
bition, seek  to  crush  minor  competitors;  others  grow 
exclusive,  and  render  admission  difficult  for  apprentices. 
In  other  cases  more  prosperous  and  shrewder  members 
will  absorb  the  shares  or  influence  of  others,  and  with 
growing  strength  oust  obnoxious  partners  by  means 
of  assessments,  manipulations,  and  other  trickery. 
When  the  successors  of  Charlemagne  united  state  and 
church  to  crush  the  peasantry,  the  towns'  guilds  were 
implored  to  aid  their  brethren.  They  selfishly  re- 
fused, and  looked  calmly  on,  confiding  in  strong  walls 
for  their  own  safety.  Similar  was  the  attitude  of 
the  burghers  and  craftsmen  of  England.  These 
classes,  indeed,  joined  in  oppressing  the  classes  below 
them.  In  this  manner  were  developed  the  objection- 
able features  of  the  manse  organization,  whereby 
barons  and  abbots  reduced  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
peasantry  to  a  serviKi  condition,  with  the  aid  of  a  war 
corporation  of  knightly  adlierents,  while  in  the  towns 
the  guild  leaders  unf  )l(led  into  a  moneyed  aristocracy, 
wliicli  was  courted  to  sustain  the  other  wing  of  state 
and  cimrch. 

The  invention  of  the  steam-engine,  and  its  vast 
train  of  novel  machinery  for  all  branches  of  industry 
and  trade,  proved  the  means  for  cheapening  food,  for 
increasing  creature  comforts,  for  opening  fresh  and 
readier  outlets  for  a  surphis  population,  for  elevating 
intercourse,  and  otlier  benefits  calculated  especially  to 
improve  tlie  condition  of  the  masses.  Nevertheless, 
out  of  these  very  blessings  capital  snatched  its  strong- 
est means  for  oppression.  Instead  of  petty  masters 
working  at  home  with  their  small  band  of  journey- 
men and  apprentices,  as  in  weaving,  labor-saving 
machinery  called  for  united  operations  at  one  locality. 


432  MONKV  AND   MONOPOLY. 

Factories  wore  erected  witli  a  lar^e  plant  rccjuiriiiL; 
capital;  ricli  men  and  corporations  come  into  control  of 
enterprises  hitherto  divided  among  a  large  number  of 
small  bodies  or  individuals,  and  petty  masters  \V(  r(; 
reduced  to  wage-workers.  Macliinery  tended,  njore- 
over,  to  a  wider  subdivision  of  labor,  wherein  lay  both 
economy  and  i)erfection,  but  it  also  made  factory  hands 
more  helpless  and  dependent  on  their  employers. 
Economy  in  working  and  cheapness  of  results  being 
usually  in  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  operations, 
monopoly  was  hereby  fostered  by  forcing  minor  and 
weaker  establishments  from  the  field.  Improved 
comnmnication  lent  its  aid  to  extend  the  influence  of 
the  larger  concerns  to  remote  localities.  In  trade, 
likewise,  the  larger  sliops  undermined  the  small  shop- 
keeper by  economy  of  service  and  by  offering  a  greater 
variety  of  goods. 

Comj)etition  and  overstocked  markets  give  em- 
ployers frequently  no  alternative  save  to  reduce  wages 
or  suspend  work,  and  the  existence  of  a  small  body  of 
idle  men  in  a  tow^n  suffices  by  the  consequent  demand 
for  enq^loyment  to  lower  the  earnings  of  entire  classes. 
In  both  cases  the  blame  for  the  reduction  lies  mainly 
with  the  laborers,  wdio  crowd  into  cities  and  offer 
themselves  as  willing  tools  to  capital,  instead  of  striv- 
ing, in  America  at  least,  to  build  up  their  fortunes 
in  the  country.  The  prospect  of  temporary  hardship 
repels  most  of  them,  and  improvidence  tends  to  dis- 
able them. 

The  w^ielding  of  power  is  too  enticing  to  be  resisted 
by  the  employer,  and  shielded  from  public  gaze  or 
personal  responsibility  by  the  mask  of  corporation,  and 
by  the  paid  manager,  his  scruples  readily  vanish  before 
the  visions  of  enrichment. 

The  conscience  of  a  corporation  is  remarkable  only 
for  its  absence ;  where  such  a  tiling  as  a  corporate 
conscience  exists  at  all  it  is  extremely  callous.  The 
individuality  which  loses  itself  in  the  body  corporate 


LACK   OF  HONOR  AND   PRINCIPLE.  433 

does  not  scruple  to  receive  the  cruelly  or  illicitly 
extorted  gains  of  the  corporation. 

Here  is  their  creed.  Let  your  watchword  be 
expediency.  Policy  is  the  best  honesty.  Strict  in- 
tegrity does  not  pay;  a  little  of  it,  mixed  with  policy 
will  suffice  as  leaven  for  a  large  loaf  of  appearance, 
which  may  be  fed  to  those  from  whom  favors  are 
desired.  Thus  credit  may  be  established,  and  credit 
is  money — especially  wliere  one  can  cheat  one's  credi- 
tors without  too  much  damage  to  reputation.  In 
principles,  winding  cross-paths,  though  longer  than 
straight  ones,  are  safer  and  more  attractive,  and 
hence  in  reality  are  the  shorter.  Love  yourself;  hate 
your  enemies;  let  neither  friends  nor  sentiment  stand 
in  the  way  of  success.  Keep  within  the  pale  of  the 
law;  forgive  your  creditors.  Finally,  clothe  your 
misbeliavior  in  sanctimonious  garb,  and  thus  be  happy 
and  virtuous. 

Such  are  the  principles  by  which  corporations  allow 
themselves  to  be  guided  in  extortion  and  nefarious 
transactions.  Emplo3'es  are  oppressed,  the  public  de- 
frauded, and  the  authorities  hoodwinked.  Legisla- 
tors are  bribed  to  promote  or  cover  up  tlieir  schemes; 
rivals  are  absorbed  or  subsidized  to  neutrality  ;  em- 
ployes are  subjected  to  coercion.  Combinations  and 
corners,  trusts  and  other  iniquities  are  imposed  upon 
the  helpless  masses.  In  one  instance  outlets  and 
means  of  communication  w^ill  be  closed  or  obstructed 
to  check  the  competition  of  rivals,  as  in  the  infamous 
tactics  of  the  notorious  eastern  oil  company;  in  an- 
other, access  to  raw  resources  or  finished  material  will 
be  impeded  by  lease  or  purchase,  without  intention  to 
utilize  them  until  the  holder  finds  it  convenient.  In 
this  way  salt  and  coal  fields  have  been  taken  up  and 
kept  closed  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  firms  in  distant 
states  ;  small  stock-raisers  have  been  cut  off  from 
water  as  well  as  markets ;  and  so  with  other  branches 
of  industry.  The  absorption  of  competitors  is  con- 
stantly   illustrated    by   railway,  steamer,   stage,   and 

Essays  and  Miscellany        28 


434  MONEY  AND   MONOPOLY. 

telegraph  companies.  Combinations  of  different  firms 
in  a  trade,  for  sustaining  prices  and  taxing  the  people, 
are  no  less  frccpient,  and  are  even  formed  in  oixii 
conventions.  Tlie  modern  *  trusts '  find  it  profitable 
to  pension  into  idleness  a  number  of  mine  and  fiictory 
owners  out  of  the  gains  extorted  from  the  trade.  In 
this  manner  may  be  extended  the  list  of  gigantic 
frauds  practised  upon  the  public. 

Unless  restriction  is  imposed,  none  can  tell  where 
monopoly  impositions  may  stop.  They  extend  not 
alone  over  all  industrial  and  commercial  enterprise, 
but  to  the  surface  and  bowels  of  land  and  sea,  and 
may  embrace  the  very  atmosphere  and  sunlight,  as 
illustrated  by  Congressman  l^hillips  in  an  oriental 
story.  A  speculator  applied  to  a  monarch  for  a  lease 
of  the  wind  witliin  his  domains.  This  was  granted, 
much  to  the  anmsement  of  the  people.  The  laugh 
was  soon  turned  against  them  when  a  notice  appeared 
forbidding  the  use  of  the  breezes  for  navigation, 
windmills,  winnowing,  and  other  purposes,  except 
under  license  or  sub-lease,  in  accordance  with  the 
contract.  A  general  murmur  ensued,  followed  by 
appeals  for  a  revocation  of  the  absurd  lease.  The 
speculator  entered  a  counter-protest  against  a  repeal 
without  due  compensation  for  his  expenses  and  pros- 
pective profits,  as  an  infringement  on  one  of  the 
dearest  privileges  of  man,  property  rights.  The  sov- 
ereign recognized  the  validity  of  the  objection.  Yet, 
as  it  did  not  answer  to  drive  the  people  to  desperate 
measures,  a  tax  was  levied  to  buy  off  the  claimant, 
or  rather  to  swell  the  royal  purse. 

Aware  of  the  indignation  tli at  would  fall  upon  tliem 
if  their  transactions  were  made  public,  many  corpora- 
tions keep  secret  their  real  accounts,  and  make  reports 
to  suit  their  purposes.  Few  iniquitous  schemes  could 
be  floated  without  such  precautionary  deception. 
What  a  host  of  mining  and  other  companies  have 
drained  the  pockets  of  dupes  through  their  fictions  I 


RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  435 

Society  has  a  right  to  investigate  all  concerns  which 
affect  its  well-being.  This  indeed  is  applied  by  the 
granting  of  charters  and  licenses  for  railways,  tele- 
graphs, banks,  insurance  companies,  manufactures, 
and  other  industrial  purposes,  as  well  as  for  trades- 
unions,  military,  fraternal  and  benevolent  associations. 
The  rights  and  duties  of  corporations,  whose  object  it 
is  to  bestow  the  character  and  properties  of  individu- 
ality on  a  changing  body  of  men,  are  by  this  charter 
restricted  to  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  for- 
mally organized.  They  may  conduct  operations  under 
their  own  proclaimed  by-laws,  but  as  creatures  of  the 
government  they  remain  subject  to  its  laws,  and  may 
be  restricted  or  dissolved  when  found  injurious  to 
pul)lic  wx'al,  or  when  failing  to  fulfil  the  obligations 
assumed. 

Kail  way  companies  present  the  most  conspicuous 
form  of  incorporation  in  the  United  States  for  public 
benefit,  but  they  have  too  often  proved  vampires  as 
well.  The  value  of  railways  stands  demonstrated  in 
the  building  up  of  states  and  cities,  as  the  main  chan- 
nels of  interior  traffic,  cheapening  food  on  one  side  and 
opening  avenues  for  enrichment  on  the  other,  and  as  the 
great  medium  for  beneficial  intercourse.  They  were 
chartered  to  construct  a  public  highway  and  to  act  as 
public  carriers,  and  so  high  an  estimate  was  placed  upon 
the  advantages  thereby  to  accrue  to  the  people  tliat  the 
government  gave  not  alone  liberal  land  grants  but  oc- 
casionally advanced  money  wherewith  to  aid  the  con- 
struction, while  states,  counties,  and  towns  each 
contributed  funds  and  lots.  In  many  cases  the  money 
thus  obtained  sufficed  to  build  the  road,  so  that  the 
company  without  any  real  outlay  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  immense  tracts  of  land  and  a  valuable  busi- 
ness, both  rajMdly  increasing  in  revenue. 

Not  contc>nt  with  such  easy  acquisition,  such  mu- 
nificent rewards,  the  managers,  once  in  possession, 
turn  alike  on  immediate  associates  and  on  the  pub- 
lic, to  plunder  friends  and  patrons  either  by  insidious 


436  MONEY  AND   MONOPOLY. 

manipulations  or  brazen  trickery  and  extortion.  To 
this  pernicious  end  is  used  the  very  money  and 
power  entrusted  to  them  for  individual  and  general 
benefit. 

Both  public  and  private  morality  have  been  ruth- 
lessly trodden  under  foot  by  these  unscrupulous  men. 
The  rising  generation  is  taught  that  any  rascality 
short  of  that  which  reaches  the  prison-cell  or  the  hang- 
man's rope,  may  properly  be  resorted  to  in  order  to 
insure  success.  Truth,  honor,  honesty,  morality,  fair- 
mindedness,  and  good  citizenship,  are  obsolete  terms, 
not  to  be  employed  by  men  in  life's  battle,  but  fit 
only  for  the  nursery  and  the  Sunday-school.  Thus  is 
iniquity  sown  broadcast  throughout  the  land. 

Before  the  great  modern  development  in  railway- 
building  there  were  few  of  those  stupendous  frauds  in 
manipulation  and  management  so  common  afterward. 
The  enormous  wealth  rolled  up  by  government  sub- 
sidy, stock  inflation,  and  discrimination,  aroused  of 
course  the  cupidity  of  imitators.  All  over  the  land, 
not  only  in  railroads  but  in  all  kinds  of  business,  there 
was  a  universal  decline  in  commercial  morals. 

It  is  well  known  that  many  roads  have  been 
built  by  construction  companies,  on  the  credit  mo- 
bilier  plan,  upon  a  nominal  investment,  the  greater 
portion  of  the  shares  being  distributed  as  dividends. 
Of  the  capitalization  of  these  roads,  not  one  dollar  in 
ten  represented  actual  investment.  Sometimes  all 
the  resources  of  the  company  were  protected  by  the 
buildel-s,  who  made  construction  contracts  with  them- 
selves at  three  times  the  actual  cost.  And  when  the 
road  was  thus  finished  they  would  continue  the  same 
course,  bleeding  the  public  and  leaving  the  govern- 
ment to  pay  their  debts. 

Such  dealings  with  a  government  which  had  loaned 
them  the  money  with  which  to  build  the  road,  and  with 
the  people,  can  be  designated  but  by  one  word — swin- 
dling. The  government  debt  from  year  to  year  they 
would  sometimes  alter  and  manipulate  in  congress. 


CORRUPTION   AND  FRAUD.  437 

evading  their  agreements,  pocketing  everything,  pay- 
ing httle  or  nothing,  and  never  intending  from  the 
first  to  pay  a  dollar  out  of  the  ample  dividends  on  the 
roads  which  cost  them  nothing.  We  teach  our  chil- 
dren that  he  who  borrows  without  reasonable  prospects 
of  repayment,  borrows  dishonestly ;  how,  then,  is  it 
with  those  who  borrow  with  the  deliberate  intention 
of  never  paying  ? 

Corruption  and  spoliation  attend  almost  every  meas- 
ure of  such  companies.  Congressmen  are  bribed  to 
obtain  valuable  concessions  from  the  general  govern- 
ment; local  legislators  and  lesser  officials  are  enlisted 
in  like  manner  to  beguile  states,  counties,  and  towns 
with  delusive  promises;  all  this  tending  to  gild  the 
bait  held  out  to  the  general  public.  Then,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  fraudulent  construction  contracts  by  the 
managers  with  themselves,  additional  debts  are  accu- 
mulated to  pass  straight  into  the  pockets  of  the  con- 
trolling clique.  This  is  a  good  opportunity  to  fright- 
en undesirable  shareholders,  and  force  them  to  sell 
really  valuable  stock  at  a  discount;  or,  as  happens 
in  some  cases,  to  sell  out  to  a  confiding  public  before 
it  becomes  aware  of  the  depreciated  character  of  the 
paper,  and  then  probably  purchase  at  ruinous  rates 
for  further  manipulation.  Watered  and  other  fictitious 
stock  facilitate  subsequent  speculation,  cover  up  du- 
bious transactions,  and  provide  a  plausible  excuse  for 
the  next  raid  on  the  public,  in  the  shape  of  exorbi- 
tant rates. 

In  this  kind  of  railway  building,  however,  the  peo- 
ple, stupid  and  long-suffering  as  they  are,  do  in  time 
begin  to  feel  that  the  roads  which  their  money  have 
constructed  are  not  operated  in  their  interest,  but  in 
the  interest  of  the  agents  with  whom  they  had  en- 
trusted their  funds.  Tariffs  of  fares  and  freights  are 
established,  based,  not  on  the  cost  of  tranportation, 
but  on  the  amount  that  passenger  traffic  and  the  freight 
on  each  article  will  bear  without  ruling  the  same  en- 
tirely off  their  lines. 


438  MONEY   AND   MONOPOLY. 

Remote  regions,  where  there  can  be  no  competition, 
are  left  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  managers,  while 
districts  accessible  to  other  roads,  or  near  water  routes, 
secure  transportation  at  rates  which  seem  barely  to 
pay  expenses.  Discrimination  is  also  shown  toward 
persons  and  places  from  which  the  managers  expect 
other  advantages.  Corporations  follow  a  similar 
practice  against  interior  manufacturers  in  order  to  re- 
strict their  operations,  or  kill  incipient  industries,  so 
that  the  traffic  of  the  road  may  not  be  injured  by  such 
local  sources  of  supply.  Nor  do  they  hesitate  to  re- 
sort to  persecution  where  their  profits  or  feelings  are 
concerned.  Has  any  town  or  individual  offended,  woe 
be  to  them;  the  town  shall  be  passed  by  and  another 
built  in  its  place;  the  individual  shall  be  crushed. 

Since  the  first  days  of  the  republic  there  has  been 
no  such  iniquity  attempted  by  one  class  of  citizens 
against  another,  no  such  indignity  endured  by  a  free,  in- 
telligent people,  pretending  to  independence  and  self- 
government.  It  is  an  insult  and  an  outrage  upon  a 
city  or  a  country,  upon  the  merchants,  manufacturers, 
and  consumers  thereof,  upon  all  the  people  who  are 
thus  placed  under  tribute,  to  pay  an  unjust  tax  on 
every  article  of  dress,  every  mouthful  of  food,  every 
thing  that  is  bought,  sold,  or  used. 

Competition  might  remedy  many  of  the  evils,  but 
it  is  the  special  policy  of  such  railway  management  to 
prevent  competition  by  combinations  and  pools,  with 
the  special  object  of  putting  under  foot  all  the  laws 
of  trade.  To  this  end  the  assets  of  the  corporation 
are  freely  used  in  buying  a  controlling  interest  in  rival 
lines,  and  then  absorbing  their  traffic,  often  to  the 
destruction  of  districts  which  had  sprung  into  existence 
under  the  early  favoring  auspices  of  these  roads. 
James  F.  Hudson  characterizes  the  ^^policy  of  buying 
up  or  bringing  competing  roads  to  an  agreement,"  as 
the  ^'perfection  of  tyranny." 

It  is  claimed  that  the  pooling  system  carries  advan- 
tages to  the  public  in  improved  service.     And  further, 


THE  POOLING  POLICY.  439 

says  the  railway  manager,  have  we  not  the  same  right 
as  the  merchant  to  seize  advantages  and  opportunities, 
and  to  charge  one  customer  one  price  and  another 
customer  another  price  ?  Decidedly  not.  A  private 
merchant  is  not  a  public  carrier.  But  were  it  so  that 
the  discriminations  of  the  merchant  affected  the  rights 
and  welfare  of  a  community  to  as  great  an  extent  as 
that  of  a  feudal  baron,  then  such  merchant  should  be 
put  down,  even  as  the  feudal  baron  was  long  ago  put 
down.  The  public  benefit  derived  from  pooling  is 
slight  as  compared  with  the  abuses  which  it  covers. 

No  one  denies  the  right  of  persons  to  build  railways 
with  their  own  money,  over  lands  fairly  bought  from 
the  owners,  and  to  charge  what  they  choose ;  but  it  is 
a  moral,  and  should  be  a  legal,  crime  to  interfere  with 
others  who  likewise  desire  to  do  business  in  the  same 
section ;  it  is  a  moral,  and  should  be  a  legal,  crime  for 
the  railways  to  bribe  transportation  companies  or  other 
competitors  to  charge  advance  rates  in  freight  so  as 
to  force  from  the  people  illicit  gains. 

On  the  occasion  of  collisions  between  capital  and 
labor,  railroad  men  complain  of  secret,  oath-bound 
organizations,  under  despotic  officers,  refusing  to  work 
themselves  and  preventing  others  from  doing  so,  even 
resorting  to  violence  and  murder  when  so  ordered. 
It  is  an  absolutism  in  a  republic,  they  say,  which  seeks 
to  control  both  capital  and  labor.  This  seems  to  be 
the  position  of  the  railroads  as  well — absolutism,  and 
not  only  the  control  of  capital  and  labor,  but  the  con- 
trol of  all  traffic,  of  all  commerce  and  manufactures,  • 
of  all  rights  of  way,  avenues  of  business,  and  liberties 
and  rights  of  man. 

''No  one  denies  the  right  of  the  laborer  to  cease 
work,"  continue  these  railway  logicians,  "when  terms 
are  not  satisfactory,  but  it  is  a  moral,  and  should  be  a 
legal,  crime  to  interfere  with  others  who  desire  to 
work.  The  use  of  force  or  other  wrongful  act  to  pre- 
vent the  earning  of  property  does  not  differ  in  princi- 
ple from  the  forcible  taking   of  property."     This  is 


440  MONEY   AXD   MOXOrOLY. 

very  true,  and  applies  admirably  to  the  position  taken 
by  the  railroad  men  in  the  management  of  railroads. 

If  the  people  call  upon  the  authorities  to  redress 
the  evil,  the  railway  magnates  laugh  their  efforts 
equally  to  scorn.  Not  only  are  public  and  private 
rights  made  subordinate  to  railway  influence,  but 
honesty  and  morality  are  thrown  to  the  winds. 
Bribery  and  corruption  are  openly  and  unblushingly  • 
practised.  All  over  the  United  States  these  manipu- 
lators seem  to  have  no  moral  sense ;  they  profess  to 
have  none  ;  they  glory  in  having  none.  They  openly 
boast  that  when  they  want  a  legislature  they  buy  it. 
When  they  want  a  judge  they  buy  him.  If  a  com- 
mission be  appointed  to  investigate  or  regulate  their 
acts,  they  buy  it.  And  as  their  wealth  and  power 
increase,  the  cheaper  becomes  the  price  of  officials,  of 
public  morality  and  private  honor. 

There  are  many  ways  of  bribing  without  actually 
handing  over  the  money.  Judges  and  legislators  are 
mortal  like  other  men.  They  all  want  something. 
They  are  no  more  satisfied  with  what  they  have  than 
the  bonanza  or  the  railroad  men.  One  aspires  to 
high  political  preferment,  and  would  so  warp  the  law 
as  to  enable  him  to  decide  almost  any  way  for  the 
votes  of  a  vast  corporation.  Another  covets  lesser 
distinction — a  dinner  with  Croesus,  various  uncom- 
mon courtesies,  a  few  shares  in  something  profita- 
ble. There  are  a  hundred  ways  to  offer  a  bribe ;  and 
if  of  suitable  quality  and  tendered  in  the  right  way, 
there  is  slight  chance  of  its  being  refused.  There  are 
many  who  like  Paris  scorn  the  power  of  Juno  and  the 
wisdom  of  Minerva  for  the  fascinations  of  a  Helen, 
be  she  lobbyist  or  siren.  Others,  like  Danae,  are  too 
willing  to  receive  the  visits  of  Jupiter  in  a  shower  of 
gold. 

It  seems  strange  sometimes  that  the  people  will 
tamely  submit  to  it.  Time  was  when  they  were 
quick  to  discover  fraud  and  insult,  quick  to  rise  in  the 
defence  of  their  rights  and  honor.     And  even  now, 


A  PUSILLANIMOUS  PEOPLE.  441 

should  the  hupositions  of  monopoly  be  put  upon  the 
people  in  the  name  of  unrighteous  rule  or  foreign  in- 
terference they  would  shed  their  last  drop  of  blood  in 
opposing  it.  But,  done  by  neighbors,  and  in  the  name 
of  commerce,  of  progress,  their  own  money  being  em- 
ployed to  forge  the  fetters,  to  rivet  chains  on  them 
more  disgraceful  to  wear  than  any  which  ornamented 
the  serfs  of  feudalism,  they  bear  it,  pusillanimously 
licking  the  hand  that  smites  them. 

The  fact  that  great  benefits  flow  from  the  building 
of  railroads,  does  not  make  right  a  system  of  whole- 
sale robbery.  If  railways  are  a  benefit  conducted  on 
discriminating  and  unfair  bases,  would  not  a  greater 
public  benefit  accrue  if  they  were  conducted  on  hon- 
est principles  ?  With  all  great  blessings,  railways 
are  all  the  more  a  curse  when  turned  from  their 
proper  uses.  Whatever  their  benefits,  if  they  make 
a  hundred  new  states,  and  a  thousand  prosperous 
cities,  if  at  the  same  time  they  bring  demoralization, 
decay,  and  death  to  the  body  politic  and  the  body  so- 
cial, they  are  a  curse.  The  theory  of  our  government, 
that  all  power  is  lodged  in  tlie  people,  and  is  to  be 
used  only  for  the  equal  benefit  of  every  individual,  is 
perverted  by  the  discriminations  of  corporations  made 
and  supported  by  the  government. 

The  railway  owes  its  existence  to  and  is  the  crea- 
ture of  the  government,  and  should  be  promptly 
checked  in  a  course  so  glaringly  in  opposition  to  laws, 
morals,  and  public  weal.  In  the  right  of  eminent 
domain  is  an  implied  principle  that  the  land  of  a 
private  individual, condemned  for  public  use,  must  be 
used  in  the  interests  of  the  public,  and  not  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  another  private  individual.  The 
railroad  is  a  public  liighway,  built  largely  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  public,  and  sulDJect  to  regulation  by  the 
public  in  rates  and  other  respects,  in  consideration  of 
the  privileges  and  grants  accorded  to  it.  When  this 
creature    of  the  government  becomes   a   conspirator 


442  MONEY   AND   MONOPOLY. 

against  the  community,  it  is  time  the  people  should 
assert  their  sovereignty  in  the  matter. 

"Every  man  in  the  nation  ought  to  know,"  says 
Hudson,  **  how  public  rights  are  affected  by  the  abuses 
of  the  existing  system.  To  know  that  corporations 
are  powerful  and  that  individuals  are  weak,  will  not 
suffice.  It  should  be  as  familiar  to  the  public  mind 
as  the  multiplication  table,  how  the  monopoly  of  the 
railways  in  transportation  enables  them  to  discrimi- 
nate in  rates,  to  crush  out  independent  trade,  to  ex- 
tinguish small  merchants,  and  to  dominate  great  com- 
mercial interests;  how  their  combinations  to  con- 
trol industries  tend  to  oppress  production  and  to  keep 
down  wages ;  how  they  suspend  work  through  in- 
definite periods  for  selfish  ends;  how  their  efforts  to 
establish  a  centralized  control  over  the  entire  trans- 
portation of  the  land,  by  a  single  unauthorized  and 
irresponsible  agency,  has  resulted,  and  may  again 
result,  in  oppressing  the  consumer  of  the  great  agri- 
cultural staples  while  impoverishing  the  producer,  by 
imposing  artificial  burdens  upon  the  interchange  of 
products ;  and,  finally,  how  the  tendency  of  their 
practices,  as  a  system,  is  to  concentrate  all  the  profits 
and  rewards  of  industry  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  while 
the  people  at  large  have  little  share  in  the  benefits 
accruing  from  the  march  of  improvement.  If  the 
railways  go  on  as  they  have  begun ;  if  they  continue 
to  purchase  legislators,  to  count  seats  in  congress  as 
their  property,  and  to  nominate  judges  to  the  higher 
courts ;  if  they  continue  to  warp  legislation  to  the 
support  of  railway  supremacy ;  if  they  continue  to 
erect  artificial  barriers  to  the  free  operations  of  great 
industries,  and  to  concentrate  the  profits  of  commerce 
by  their  favors  to  the  privileged  few ;  if  they  continue 
to  secure  the  enforcement  of  laws  which  protect  their 
privileges,  and  to  nullify  those  which  restrict  them ; 
if  they  delay  and  prevent  the  passage  of  laws  to  regu- 
late them  and  restrain  their  power,  and  cozen  the 
public  with  deceptive  measures — in  a  word,  if  all  the 


REFORM   OR  REVOLUTION.  443 

features  which  now  mark  the  influence  of  great  cor- 
porations in  politics  are  maintained  and  perpetuated, 
in  defiance  of  efforts  to  restrain  them  by  peaceful 
means,  the  result  will  inevitably  be,  that  one  day 
their  injustice  and  usurpation  will  be  punished  by  a 
revolt  of  the  classes  they  have  wronged,  beside  which 
the  French  revolution  wdll  seem  an  equitable  and 
peaceful  reform." 

The  franchise  of  a  railway,  as  a  public  highway, 
should  not  be  used  for  gain  save  for  public  benefit. 
The  road  should  remain  subject  to  the  supervision  of 
the  government,  and  be  used  by  all  citizens  on  equal 
terms,  without  discrimination  or  respect  to  places  or 
persons  to  and  from  which  business  is  tendered. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  a  loophole  for  excesses  in  the 
latitude  to  accept  low  rates  in  order  to  secure  business, 
and  to  levy  higher  rates  on  a  costly  road  than  on  one 
of  comparatively  easy  construction.  These  points 
alone,  together  with  the  need  in  general  for  super- 
vision of  so  important  a  public  institution,  call  for 
government  interference  of  more  effective  character 
than  has  so  far  been  displayed. 

Among  proposed  remedies  is  government  ownership 
of  railways,  as  existing  in  some  parts  of  Europe.  But 
until  our  politics  are  purified,  monopoly  is  the  lesser 
evil.  The  worst  feature  of  government  management 
in  this  republic,  which  is  less  strict  than  in  France, 
would  arise  in  rings,  jobberies,  and  other  corruption 
by  unscrupulous  politicians  imbued  with  the  spoil  sys- 
tem. When  we  consider  the  extent  of  the  present 
bribery,  vote-selling,  spoliation,  and  other  infamies 
among  officials  and  legislators,  what  might  not  be  ex- 
pected when  the  control  of  additional  interests,  in- 
volving thousands  of  millions  of  property,  were  sur- 
rendered to  such  hands?  Other  reasons  might  be 
adduced  to  stamp  the  plan  as  hopeless  under  existing 
conditions. 

This  is  the  view  taken  by  Mr  Hudson,  who  pro- 
posed, instead,  the  opening  of  railways,  like  turnpike 


444  MONEY   AND  MONOPOLY. 

roads,  for  free  public  use,  the  railway  companies  con- 
structing and  maintaining  the  lines  in  good  order,  with 
repairing  and  inspecting  forces,  signal-men  and  the  like, 
leaving  to  any  public  carrier  to  operate  passenger  and 
freight  trains,  each  competing  with  the  other  for  pub- 
lic patronage  by  offering  special  dispatch  and  handling, 
superior  comfort  and  attractions,  as  in  the  case  of 
stages  and  steamers.  This  system  looks  plausible; 
but  the  objections  are  that  the  railway  company  would 
retain  as  much  latitude  as  ever  in  favoring  certain 
carriers,  with  profitable  connivance,  and  with  less  re- 
sponsibility for  obstructions  and  accidents,  when  these 
could  so  readily  be  shuffled  from  one  shoulder  to  an- 
other. Moreover,  the  company  which  controls  the 
road  could  clearly  enough,  with  its  primary  advan- 
tages, operate  trains  with  greater  dispatch  and  clieap- 
ness,  and  would  do  so  surreptitiously  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  ordinary  carriers  and  consequently  to  the  pub- 
lic. The  restriction  of  companies  to  mere  road  toll 
would  check  enterprise  and  retard  the  extension  of 
such  costly  work  to  remote  or  isolated  regions,  and 
hinder  the  development  of  settlements.  Finally,  this 
system  has  been  tried  elsewhere,  not  alone  in  the  par- 
tial degree  occasionally  practised  in  this  country,  where 
several  companies  use  one  line  for  a  certain  distance, 
and  it  has  not  been  found  to  answer. 

Another  remedy  is  suggested  in  a  freer  competition, 
even  within  the  limits  assigned  to  certain  railways, 
when  these  fail  to  conform  to  stipulations.  Such 
competition  has  unfortunately  not  proved  enduring, 
for  the  stronger  company  has  generally  succeeded  in 
crippling  or  driving  into  bankruptcy  the  obstinate 
rivals  by  a  prolonged  reduction  of  rates  below  a  re- 
munerative basis,  or  it  has  persuaded  the  others  to 
enter  into  secret  or  open  combination,  unless  it  could 
acquire  a  controlling  interest  in  their  management  by  j 
purchase.  ' 

Railway   commissions  have  been  appointed  to  fix 
rates,   to  enquire  into  discrimination,   and  to  watch 


GOVERNMENT  INTERPOSITION.  445 

over  public  interests  generally,  but  how  unsatisfactory 
their  ministration  has  been  is  attested  by  the  frequent 
and  wide  condemnation  of  their  acts  and  attitude.  It 
is  most  difficult  to  ensure  such  a  body  against  the  in- 
sidious approaches  of  a  powerful  corporation. 

Official  weakness  and  corruption  stand  in  the  way 
of  all  public  reforms.  To  the  government  musfc  we 
nevertheless  look  for  redress,  whatsoever  the  proposed 
plan  of  reform  may  be.  More  effective  laws  must  be 
passed  to  regulate  traffic  on  railways,  and  a  special 
department  at  Washington,  removed  from  local  in- 
fluences at  least,  should  be  entrusted  with  the  task  of 
watching  over  their  observance  and  applicability,  in 
order  to  report  amendments  for  eliminating  obstruc- 
tions and  improving  the  valuable  features  of  such 
laws.  Its  power  could  probably  not  be  extended  over 
state  commissions  and  state  regulations,  but  the  re- 
form achieved  in  inter-state  communication  alone,  the 
most  important  under  consideration,  would  be  of  great 
benefit,  and  serve  as  a  standard  for  inter-state  man- 
agement, so  patent  to  all  as  to  greatly  enforce  com- 
pliance, even  with  a  corrupt  local  commission. 

Reform  is  needed  also  in  other  directions.  Besides 
the  three  great  monopolies,  which  are  fast  uniting 
into  one,  railroad,  telegraph,  and  express — there 
are  other  monopolies  with  power  likewise  unscrupu- 
lously wielded,  which  is  dangerous  to  the  American 
people.  In  the  great  corporations  constituting  these 
monopolies  is  every  essential  element  of  despotism — 
permanent  privileges,  with  legal  rights  and  accumu- 
lated powers,  superior  to  law  and  society.  It  is  the 
lust  for  power,  the  most  ominous  among  humanity's 
vices,  a  power  which  shall  make  one  man  master  and 
many  men  slaves,  that  is  the  governing  principle  in 
all  iniquitous  monopolies. 

Fastening  themselves  on  federal,  state,  county,  and 
town  governments  and  courts,  like  leeches  they  suck 
the  life's  blood  of  the  nation,  leaving  it  a  weak,  inert, 


446  MONEY  AND  MONOPOLY. 


I 


and  flabby  thing.  Worse  than  this.  Into  the  aper- 
ture thus  made  they  inject  a  subtle  poison,  which, 
though  it  may  work  slowly,  works  surely.  The  time 
will  come  when  this  truth  will  be  recognized  by  all: 
these  iniquitous  monopolies  must  die,  or  the  nation 
will  die.  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  a  pa- 
tient, long-suffering  race,  but  when  fairly  aroused  no 
social,  political,  or  industrial  enormity  can  stand  up 
against  them.  It  is  for  the  people  to  look  for  them- 
selves into  all  these  matters,  and  determine  whether 
they  will  be  bond  or  free. 

Society  has  a  right  to  enforce  the  doctrine  of  per- 
fect equivalents  in  all  bargains  affecting  its  interests, 
be  it  in  charters,  patents,  licenses,  in  the  manufacture 
and  disposal  of  wares,  in  the  intentional  or  accidental 
control  of  large  resources,  natural  or  artificial,  or  in 
the  aim  and  attitude  of  all  manner  of  associations. 
Corporate  privileges  are  a  public  trust,  to  be  resumed 
by  the  people  when  detrimental.  Hence  all  public 
organizations  should  be  under  supervision  of  the  au- 
thorities, with  free  access  to  their  books,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent all  confidence  operations,  misrepresentations, 
and  inflations.  Disbursements  should  be  duly  ac- 
counted for,  as  well  as  the  reason  for  loans  and  the 
application  of  profits.  In  many  instances  interfer- 
ence may  not  be  advisable  until  a  sufficient  number  of 
members  demand  investigation.  In  other  cases  the 
investigation  should  be  periodical.  Regulations 
should  embrace  the  suppression  of  stock-gambling, 
and  all  business  conducted  on  bases  of  chance  or  mis- 
representation. 

Mill  objects  to  the  concentration  of  manufactures 
and  other  industrial  branches  in  the  hands  of  a  few. 
Equally  undesirable  is  the  accumulation  of  immense 
wealth  by  individuals.  To  place  a  limit  on  acquisition 
might  deal  a  blow  to  enterprise,  but  taxes  could  be  so 
regulated  as  to  fall  heaviest  on  those  best  able  to  bear 
them,  that  is,  they  could  be  increased  in  proportion 


DESPOTISM  OF  WEALTH.  447 

to  the  fortune  possessed,  without  hampering  the 
talented  and  industrious, or  unduly  burdening  corpora- 
tions that  have  worthy  objects  in  view.  This  idea  is 
applied  in  many  countries  in  the  exemption  of  incomes 
below  a  certain  amount,  and  in  the  usual  subjection 
of  luxuries  to  duties  in  preference  to  necessities. 
Nevertheless  the  enforcement  might  be  widened  and 
made  stricter.  The  ease  with  which  assessors  at 
present  allow  rich  men  to  escape  from  paying  their 
rightful  share  of  taxation  is  shameful. 

It  is  becoming  a  serious  question  in  this  country, 
how  much  wealth  it  is  safe  for  one  man  to  control. 
If  with  five  millions  legislators  may  be  corrupted, 
judges  and  juries  bought,  the  laws  trampled  under 
foot,  as  is  done  before  our  eyes  every  day,  how  much 
of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  may  be 
diverted  from  constitutional  channels  by  the  possessor 
of  a  hundred  millions?  How  many  white,  freeborn 
American  citizens  does  it  take  to  make  a  million  of 
dollars?  When  we  consider  that  the  majority  of 
immense  fortunes  have  been  accumulated  by  specula- 
tion, tinged,  more  or  less,  with  pernicious  gambling 
and  fraud,  to  the  impoverishment  and  oppression  of 
thousands,  and  when  we  behold  capital  resort  to 
practices  damaging  to  the  citizen;  when  it  resorts  to 
unjust  monopoly,  bribery,  and  moral,  political,  and 
commercial  corruption,  practices  more  damaging  to 
the  commonwealth  a  hundred  fold  than  murder,  high- 
way robbery,  and  all  the  rest  combined,  may  not 
those  who  made  the  laws  change  them  to  meet  the 
emergency  ? 

As  a  rule,  inequalities  in  fortunes  receive  a  natural 
readjustment  in  the  distribution  among  children.  Yet 
this  is  not  effective  in  all  cases.  A  tendency  is  mani- 
fested among  rich  men  in  the  United  States  to  imitate 
the  primogeniture  system  of  Europe.  France  struck 
a  mortal  blow  at  this  custom  during  the  revolution, 
as  the  basis  for  the  maintenance  of  an  objectionable 
aristocracy  of  nobles  and  drones.     Primogeniture  and 


448  MONFA'  AND   MONOPOLY. 


I 


class  pri-vileges  are  utterly  inconsistent  with  republican 
ideas,  and  indeed  with  social  interests.  Some  theorists 
advocate  the  reduction  of  hereditary  fortunes  by  tax 
on  legacies  which  should  be  so  increased  with  each  sub- 
sequent transmission  as  to  leave  comparatively  little, 
say  for  the  fourth  generation.  Enforcements  would 
be  difficult,  yet  some  such  remedy  would  be  welcome, 
for  it  is  undeniable  that  idlers,  supported  by  inherited 
wealth,  set  a  bad  example  to  society,  and  form  a 
phase  of  monopoly,  exacting  a  tax  from  their  neigh- 
bors for  the  use  of  land,  houses,  money,  or  other  pos- 
sessions, of  which  an  accident  of  birth  has  made  them 
masters.  What  most  grates  upon  the  feelings  of  the 
less  fortunate  is  this  acquisition  by  accident,  in  per- 
petuity, of  what  is  denied  or  meagrely  accorded  to 
worth  and  ability.  They  desire  that  all  citizens 
should  do  their  share  of  labor  and  produce  something. 

The  most  objectionable  feature  of  accumulation 
consists  in  the  monopoly  of  land.  As  the  main 
source  for  the  food  of  all,  it  should  apparently  be  for 
the  benefit  of  all.  Its  primary  acquisition  rests  upon 
unjust  might,  upon  the  sword  between  nations.  Con- 
querors apportioned  between  themselves  the  subju- 
gated territory,  even  if  they  did  not  also  enslave  the 
people.  In  Egypt  the  humbler  and  conquered  classes 
never  were  allowed  to  regain  any  portion  of  the  soil,  for 
it  remained  with  the  king,  priests,  and  soldiers,  the 
vitality -absorbing  drones  of  the  nation.  The  Span- 
iards in  America  held  largely  this  position,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  has  been  free  with  the  sword  if  not 
with  the  yoke.  In  India,  where  no  proprietory  rights 
in  land  existed,  they  have  sought  to  create  a  land- 
holding  aristocracy. 

The  ownership  of  land  is  dear  to  our  race,  and  has 
proved  one  of  the  strongest  incentives  to  progress. 
Nevertheless,  the  time  may  come  when  exclusive 
rights  therein  may  be  declared  detrimental  to  public 
weal.  The  crofter  troubles  in  the  northern  part  of 
Great  Britain  have  created  a  general  sentiment  that 


LAND-HOLDING.  449 

good  land  should  not  be  withheld  for  useless  personal 
purposes,  where  the  community  requires  it  for  sub- 
sistence. It  also  seems  unreasonable  that  one  man  by 
virtue  of  accidental  discovery,  or  first  occupation, 
should  claim  exclusive  right  to  large  tracts  for  his 
family,  in  perpetuity,  when  future  generations  may 
be  sorely  in  need  of  a  share. 

Tiie  acquisition  of  land  should  undoubtedly  be  re- 
stricted to  limited  holdings.  The  rule  enforced  by  the 
republic  for  homestead  and  preemption  grants,  this 
century  and  more,  which  concedes  a  title  only  upon 
proofs  of  occupation  and  cultivation,  might  well  be 
extended  to  all  land-holders.  Indeed,  that  rule  points 
to  the  communal  interest  in  the  soil,  by  requiring  a 
good  use  to  be  made  of  it.  It  is  the  patrimony  of  the 
nation  for  the  benefit  of  all  its  children,  not  of  a  few. 
Most  reprehensible  and  injurious  is  therefore  the  loose 
system  in  the  United  States  which  has  permitted  rich 
men,  foreigners,  and  speculators,  to  absorb  so  much  of 
the  richest  lands  in  areas  unlimited,  while  the  poor 
man  has  been  kept  strictly  to  the  letter  of  the  law. 

The  remedy  for  this  abuse  lies  in  equalizing  the 
taxation,  or  rather  unjust  assessment,  so  that  holders 
of  uncultivated  tracts  in  a  cultivated  district  may  be 
forced  by  the  burden  to  make  good  use  of  it  or  sell  it 
to  those  who  shall  do  so.  It  may  be  well  also  to 
hasten  the  reduction  of  large  estates,  especially  inher- 
ited, by  increasing  the  taxation  with  the  size  of  the 
tract,  as  Mr  Phillips  proposes.  In  common  with  Mr 
George  he  is  opposed  to  ownership  in  land,  and  urges 
that  it  be  merely  leased  to  the  highest  bidder,  with 
transmission  of  possessory  rights  under  condition  of 
good  use.  Taxation  would  as  a  rule  enforce  the 
latter  stipulation. 

In  England  taxation  has  of  late  assisted  in  reducing 
holdings,  and  augmenting  the  shares  of  the  masses. 
In  France  the  law  against  primogeniture  has  hastened 
the  distribution,  and  the  increased  prosperity  resulting 
from  a  large  class  of  peasant  proprietors,  numbering 

Essays  and  Miscellany     29 


450  MONEY   AND   MONOPOLY. 

about  four  millions,  demonstrates  the  advantage  of 
small  holdings  alike  to  the  country  and  the  individuals. 
They  promote  also  better  cultivation  and  improvements, 
increased  production,  and  higher  wages,  the  latter  by 
the  constant  advance  of  laborers  to  proprietorship. 
The  elevation  of  labor  by  this  means  is  one  of  the  most 
promising  phases  of  American  progress.  The  greater 
the  number  of  land-owners,  the  greater  the  interest 
in  the  nation's  weal  and  in  the  preservation  of  peace. 

It  may  be  objected  that  our  improved  machinery 
and  methods  render  cultivation  cheaper  on  large 
tracts.  Where  this  becomes  evident,  as  in  large  val- 
leys, farmers  may  unite  in  cooperative  efforts  as  well 
as  purchase  of  improved  machines.  Experimental 
efforts  on  a  small  or  large  scale  may  be  entrusted  to 
agricultural  societies.  Such  combination  of  interests 
cannot  fail  to  benefit  everyone  concerned,  by  incentive, 
method,  and  increased  profits,  besides  achieving  all  the 
advantages  claimed  for  large  operations. 

Judicious  taxation  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  large 
holdings  is  evidently  in  favor  of  the  masses  and  of 
general  prosperity.  Nevertheless  I  cannot  agree  with 
Mr  George's  scheme  of  burdening  the  land  alone  with 
the  entire  tax  levy  of  the  country,  for  such  a  tax  would 
fall  heaviest  on  the  main  necessaries  of  life,  and  con- 
sequently on  the  poor.  Luxuries  can  better  sustain 
a  larger  share  of  the  burden,  as  under  our  present 
system,  and  should  do  so,  if  only  for  the  moral  benefits 
thereby  attained. 

In  connection  with  the  general  reform  must  enter 
a  number  of  accessory  or  subordinate  regulations, 
such  as  the  restoration  and  extensionof  timber  regions, 
in  return  for  access  to  their  resources ;  and  the  appor- 
tionment of  pastures  so  that  scanty  water  deposits 
may  not  fall  to  a  few.  Water  should  even  more  than 
land  be  for  the  general  benefit.  This  has  been  recog- 
nized by  several  nations  in  enactments  which  reserve 
for  the  public  not  alone  navigable  rivers  but  all  run- 
ning streams.     In  England  riparian  laws  prevail,  and 


THE   Wx\TER   PROBLEM.  451 

have  been  adopted  in  the  United  States,  because  the 
problem  of  irrigation  has  not  entered  into  serious  con- 
sideration until  lately.  Now,  the  conditions  are 
changing  with  the  occupation  of  the  Rocky  mountain 
region  and  the  Pacific  slope,  once  regarded  as  deserts, 
but  proved  to  be  rich  land  if  reclaimed  by  irrigation. 
This  requires  free  access  to  water.  It  becomes  evi- 
dent that  laws  framed  for  a  country  not  dependent  on 
water-channels  for  cultivation  should  not  be  applied 
to  a  region  which  is  so  dependent,  owing  to  scanty  or 
unequally  distributed  rain-fall.  The  aim  of  laws 
is  to  promote  the  common  good,  and  must  naturally 
be  adjusted  to  suit  changing  conditions.  Rules  gov- 
erning a  nomad  people  or  regulating  slavery  are  in- 
appropriate for  settled  freemen.  Where  laws  have 
become  injurious  they  must  be  amended.  The  ob- 
jections of  a  few  riparian  property-holders  must  not 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  prosperity  of  entire  districts, 
or  imperil  the  existence  of  entire  communities.  Else- 
where I  have  considered  the  reasons  and  local  prece- 
dence for  amending  riparian  laws,  and  the  methods  for 
arriving  at  a  proper  distribution  of  available  waters. 

The  most  encouraging  phase  of  progress  since 
mediaeval  times  has  been  the  elevation  of  the  masses, 
to  which  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  compass,  and 
printing-press  gave  the  great  impulse.  This  amelio- 
ration is  constantly  augmenting  under  the  daily  addi- 
tions to  ideas,  methods,  and  machinery,  for  cheapening 
food,  increasing  comforts,  and  spreading  enlighten- 
ment. The  transformation  has  been  especially  marked 
during  the  last  half  century,  and  to  the  suddenness  of 
the  change,  beyond  all  expectations,  and  in  advance  of 
knowledge  wherewith  to  frame  restrictive  laws,  must 
be  ascribed  such  attendant  evils  as  monopoly,  oppres- 
sion of  factory  hands,  and  the  like.  The  greater  the 
present  excess,  however,  the  quicker  will  come  the  sur- 
feit, and  the  swifter  the  scattering  and  the  deliverance. 

Mill  believes  that  the  relation  of  master  and  work- 


452  MONEY  AND   MONOrOLY. 


men  will  be  gradually  superseded  by  partnerships,  by 
associations  of  workmen  with  capitalists,  and  of  work- 
men alone,  the  latter  to  predominate   in  due   time. 
As  the  toiling  labor  of  to-day  is  entitled  to  greater 
consideration  than  the  capital  of  yesterday,  so  itseems 
just  that  labor  should  by  preference  be  controlled  by 
organized  labor— be  independent,  self-governed.     Co- 
operation has  so  far  not  succeeded  well   in  industrial 
branches,  from  a  lack  of  the  necessary  training  in 
self-control  and  self-reliance.     The  solution  lies  cliTefly 
with  such  associations  as  the  trades -unions,  wliicli 
sprang  up  among  the  working  people  when  the  guilds, 
undermined    by      capital,   fell    into  exclusive  hands.' 
They  have  of  late  assumed  huge  proportions,  corres- 
ponding   to    the    growth   of    antagonistic    monopoly. 
Harmony  and  proper  organization  are  still   the   ele- 
ments wanting  for  success.     A  great  stride  forward 
has  been  taken  in  the  federation  of  hitherto  scattered 
unions,   for  mutual  relief  as  well  as  more   effective 
action.     The  absurdity  and  failure  of  so  many  strikes, 
even  when  encouraged   by  the  federation,     indicate 
the  lack  of  an  efficient  head.     The  members  of  unions 
should  learn  a  lesson  from  the  administration  of  the 
republic,  with  its  representative  and  legislative  coun- 
cils and  its  executive,  and  the  patient  submission  of 
the  people  to  their  directions,  which  constitute   the 
supposed  wish  of  the  majority.     Dissatisfaction  with 
existing    enactments  can  be  expressed  in  the  election 
of  better  representatives.     With  intelligent  considera- 
tion of  pending  questions  by  a  council^  sustained  by 
harmonious  cooperation  among  the  members,  errors 
will    be    avoided  and    satisfactory  success    achieved. 
Discord  must  above  all  be  eschewed  in  the  face  of  the 
stupendous  struggle  before  them.     Nationalities  have 
been  undermined  thereby  no  less  than  social  and  in- 
dustrial bodies. 

Such  an  organization,  when  duly  perfected,  could 
aid  the  establishment  of  cooperative  works  in  different 
branches  and  localities,  and  issue  general  rules  for  their 


ORGANIZED   COOPERATION.  453 

guidance.  It  could,  like  any  government,  call  for 
levies  or  loans  wherewith  to  provide  plant  and  work- 
ing capital.  Proposed  cooperations  might  for  that 
matter  obtain  credit  from  outside  sources,  when  once 
confidence  has  been  infused  by  judicious  and  respon- 
sible organization,  whether  this  be  of  federal  or  cen- 
tral type,  under  the  direct  supervision  of  one  general 
council,  or  of  special  councils  for  each  branch  of  in- 
dustry. Under  the  guidance  of  similar  assemblies 
may  be  adjusted  the  relations  between  employers  and 
employed,  or  between  associated  workmen  and  capi- 
talists. The  interior  management  of  cooperative  con- 
cerns should  in  turn  be  subject  to  its  own  elected 
council  and  constitution,  with  the  necessary  officials. 
In  fine,  a  good  republican  form  of  government  ap- 
plies admirably  to  industrial  organizations.  Without 
wise  rule  and  due  submission  arise  corruption  and 
anarchy.  But  even  here,  as  in  any  well-regulated 
republic,  there  should  not  be  indiscriminate  voting. 

Association  of  this  character  would  be  able  to  study 
markets,  methods,  and  other  conditions  with  great 
effect,  by  maintaining  exchange  of  ideas  with  similar 
foreign  bodies,  as  merchants  and  manufacturers  en- 
deavor to  do  under  present  defective  arrangements. 
One  good  result  would  be  to  check  the  over-produc- 
tion which  now  manifests  itself  in  periodic  stagnation, 
bankruptcies,  and  distress,  with  occasional  severe 
panics.  Another  would  be  to  obviate  suffering  among 
operatives  by  pointing  out  the  condition,  avenues,  and 
prospects  of  trade.  For  that  matter  cooperation  or 
protective  associations  could  readily  be  extended  to 
the  pension  system  now  organized  by  the  German 
government,  and,  farther,  to  an  equable  division  of 
labor  and  profits,  with  a  corresponding  reduction  in 
working  hours  and  increased  leisure  for  improving 
and  enjoyable  entertainment.  The  constant  invention 
of  labor-saving  machinery  tends  naturally  to  such  re- 
duction, and  the  growing  ease  of  intercourse  assists  to 
weld  the  nations  into  one  brotherhood.     Similar  mil- 


454  MONEY  AND  MONOPOLY. 


I 


lennial  though  by  no  means  visionary  methods  can 
evidently  be  applied  to  commerce,  agriculture,  and 
other  industries. 

The  objection  rises  that  such  combinations  tend  to 
tlio  perpetuation  of  new  phases  of  monopoly,  as  ex- 
hibited in  fact  by  trades-unions  in  many  directions,  by 
injurious  strikes  and  other  arbitrary  proceedings. 
But  the  remedy  lies  with  the  government,  whose 
anticipated  measures  may,  as  we  hope,  soon  relieve 
us  from  the  present  abuses  by  capital  monopoly. 
Questions  not  readily  reached  in  that  manner  can  un- 
doubtedly be  settled  by  appeals  to  the  intelligent 
councils  and  heads  of  the  coming  corporations  and 
federations,  with  settlement  by  common-sense  and  by 
the  simple  arbitration  which  is  rapidly  gaining  favor 
among  all  classes. 

The  foremost  consideration  must  of  course  be  for 
the  interest  of  the  greatest  number,  for  the  common 
good,  and  to  this  must  be  subordinate  the  aspirations 
of  mere  classes,  although  with  due  regard  for  minority 
requirements.  Inventions  are  hailed  by  all,  as  tend- 
ing to  increase  the  general  well-being  and  enjoyment. 
When  machinery  revolutionizes  a  certain  branch  of 
industry  and  throws  a  number  of  people  out  of  work, 
a  class  must  suffer  for  the  public  welfare,  and  adjust 
itself  to  new  conditions.  The  strong  and  rich  likewise 
must  restrain  tlieir  aspirations  for  excessive  wealth  and 
power,  and  for  the  enjoyment  of  luxuries  which  may 
injure  other  classes,  or  come  in  conflict  with  the  re- 
formed national  principles.  To  such  sacrifice  and  ab- 
stenance  may  in  due  time  be  accorded  rewards  beyond 
the  pleasing  consciousness  of  social  duty  performed,  to 
the  furtherance  of  happiness  and  of  general  progress. 


CHAPTER  XV, 

LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

Tout  homme  est  forme  par  son  siecle ;   bieu  peu  s'elevent  au-dessus  des 
moeurs  des  temps. 

—  Voltaire. 

Under  the  heading  of  Uterature  I  propose  to  em- 
brace not  alone  the  elegant  and  imaginative,  but  to 
some  extent  the  scientific  and  instructive  branches 
of  the  subject,  in  order  to  convey  a  clearer  view  of 
the  progress  made  in  this  farthest  west  toward  the 
higher  realms  of  authorship.  This  becomes  particu- 
larly desirable  in  tlie  infancy  of  literature,  and  in  coun- 
tries where  the  practical  and  didactive  predominates; 
where  unsettled  conditions  permit  little  attention 
to  arts  that  depend  for  perfect  development  on  the 
leisure  and  refinement  centring  in  great  cities.  In 
Mexico  we  behold  one  such  centre,  for  Spanish  Amer- 
ica; in  San  Francisco  another  is  forming  for  the  An- 
glo-Saxon possessions.  In  both,  the  fostering  co-effi- 
cients have  encountered  formidable  obstacles. 

The  cultivation  of  letters  has  here  been  spasmodic 
and  erratic.  In  Latin  America  a  long  period  of  colo- 
nial tutelage,  with  rigid  censorship,  followed  by  dis- 
tracting civil  wars,  has  had  a  retarding  effect,  aug- 
mented by  the  indolence  and  superficiality  prevailing 
among  the  people.  North-w^estward,  the  youthfulness 
of  the  states,  the  pre-occupation  with  mines  and  other 
industrial  resources,  home-building,  and  the  eager 
pursuit  of  trade  and  speculation  in  the  metropolis, 
preclude  so  far  any  wide  efibrts  to  set  aside  the  over- 
shadowino;  influence  of  the  eastern  states. 

O  (455) 


456  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

On  the  other  hand  exist  many  favoring  elements. 
In  Spanish  America  the  rehgious  orders,  as  elsewhere, 
became  the  depositories  of  knowledge  and  the  trainers 
of  a  host  of  orators  and  writers,  from  among  whom 
issued  many  a  brilliant  light  to  illuminate  every  de- 
partment of  literature.  The  most  interesting  feature 
is  the  presence  of  an  aboriginal  factor,  which  in  time 
left  its  impress  on  the  productions  of  anew,  composite, 
and  vivacious  race,  tending  to  a  departure  from  Ibe- 
rian models  by  presenthig  new  themes  and  fresh  in- 
spiration, patriotic  and  social,  and  by  adding  a  leaven 
to  the  admixture  of  central  and  w^estern  European 
styles,  wherewith  to  foster  the  creation  of  a  new 
school. 

Northward  the  favoring  causes  must  be  sought  in 
strange  environment,  peculiar  incidents,  and  abnormal 
development,  which,  acting  on  a  cosmopolitan  medley 
of  select  representatives  from  different  nationalities, 
have  unfolded  a  dash  and  energy  unparalleled,  as 
manifested  in  great  ideas,  novel  experiments,  and  vast 
undertakings.  These  traits  have  extended  to  litera- 
ture, and  the  success  achieved  in  several  directions 
hold  out  the  most  flattering  promises  for  the  future, 
in  original  and  varied  as  well  as  prolific  efforts. 

The  minds  of  both  regions  have  been  primarily  cast 
in  eastern  moulds,  those  of  California  mainly  in  the 
Atlantic  states  centring  round  Boston  and  New  York, 
which  again  draw  no  little  inspiration  from  the  trans- 
oceanic shores.  The  Hispano-Americans  yielded  for 
centuries  a  slavish  adherence  to  the  one  mother  coun- 
try, whose  sources  and  models  still  remain  their  prin- 
cipal shrines,  notwithstanding  the  influence  of  varied 
intercourse  during  the  last  six  decades,  and  the  ad- 
mission of  other  types. 

In  both  regions  the  early  dabbling  in  literature,  and 
indeed  much  of  the  subsequent  performances,  were 
necessarily  due  to  immigrants,  so  that  the  local  claim 
to  their  ownership  stands  in  questionable  light.  Those 
efforts  do,  nevertheless,  belong  largely  here,  inspired 


PHYSICAL  INFLUENCES.  457 

and  framed  as  they  were  by  new  environments  in 
nature  and  society,  without  which  they  would  never 
have  become  manifest.  Each  formed  besides  an  in- 
centive and  standard  for  succeeding  productions,  which 
rapidly  followed  amid  new  interests  and  new  homes, 
in  no  contemptible  rivalry  with  the  exhibits  of  the 
mother  soil. 

Mexico,  as  the  capital  from  the  beginning  of  a  vast 
and  rich  state,  became  the  political  head  of  all  Spanish 
America  north  of  the  Isthmus,  and  continues  the 
social  and  intellectual  centre.  Nevertheless,  the 
region  between  Panama  and  Guatemala  takes  prece- 
dence in  both  chronologic  and  geographic  order  for 
review,  as  the  fountain  if  not  the  scene  for  historical 
and  scientific  reports,  oratorical  and  theological  pro- 
ductions, and  even  poetic  effusions,  for  about  two 
decades  prior  to  the  discovery  of  New  Spain. 

The  novelties  of  aspect  and  circumstances  cropping 
out  at  every  turn  were  a  constant  source  of  inspira- 
tion. And  what  a  panorama  is  presented  to  the 
historian  as  well  as  the  poet  in  Central  America,  with 
its  varied  fields  for  conquests,  its  diversity  of  phys- 
ical conditions,  from  miasmatic  coast  lands  to  high 
plateaux  and  lofty  ranges  crowned  by  smoking  volca- 
noes ;  a  region  often  stirred  by  eruptions  and  earth- 
quakes, while  nature  otherwise  lies  masked  in  all  the 
luxuriance  of  tropic  vegetation,  alive  with  song  from 
birds  of  brilliant  plumage,  aglow  with  brightness  from 
a  sunlit  sky,  and  fanned  by  etesian  zephyrs.  Two 
vast  oceans  bathe  the  winding  shores,  on  one  side  with 
quickening  currents  from  the  orient,  the  cradle  of  civ- 
ilization, which  seem  to  evoke  a  response  in  the 
numerous  evidences  of  life  and  culture,  while  the  com- 
paratively inferior  types  and  less  alluring  features  of 
the  eastern  slopes  reflect  rather  the  dark  continent 
fronting  it.  Thus  we  find  here  the  ruder,  naked  fisher 
tribes,  largely  mixed  with  negro  blood,  while  in  the 
adjoining  Take-dotted  Nicaragua  flourishes  a  people  as 
advanced  as  any  in  Spanish  America,     Further  north 


458  LITERATURE  OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

this  race  has  inherited  tlie  glorious  prestige  of  such 
ancient  nations  as  the  Quiches  and  Cakchiquels,  famed 
for  high  culture  and  great  achievements. 

This  culture  is  above  all  indicated  in  the  phonetic 
elements  of  the  picture-writing  with  which  priestly 
chroniclers  recorded  myths  and  rites,  heroes  and  rulers, 
incidents  and  institutions.  Of  a  more  complex  form 
than  the  Nahua  hieroglyphics,  the  Maya  books  have 
unfortunately  remained  sealed  to  us,  despite  the  efforts 
made  by  Landa  and  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  toward 
deciphering  them.^  The  esoteric  nature  of  these 
records,  however,  tended  to  strengthen  traditional 
knowledge  among  the  people,  and  to  this  we  are  in- 
debted even  in  Aztec  matters  for  most  of  the  informa- 
tion relating  to  times  before  the  conquest. 

A  type  of  Maya  writing  is  presented  in  the  Popul 
Vuh  of  the  Quiches,  transcribed  from  memory  in  the 
vernacular,  but  in  Roman  letters,  by  one  or  more 
well-informed  natives.  It  tells  of  the  creation  of  the 
world,  as  understood  by  this  people,  the  progress  of 
culture,  the  wanderings  and  struggles  of  their  own 
national  heroes,  and  the  growth  of  the  Quiches.  The 
religious  element  predominates  throughout,  with  a 
striking  intonation  of  the  mysterious,  the  terrible, 
which  form  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  worship. 
These  features,  indeed,  seem  to  cast  their  dread  spell 
on  the  narrators,  who  tell  the  story  with  a  marked 
awe  that  weighs  heavily  upon  their  spirits,  and  allows 
little  of  the  lofty  soaring  that  allures  and  transports 
the  reader  of  similar  Hellenic  lore.  There  is  more 
approximation  to  the  sterner,  cold-blooded  incidents 
in  the  Scandinavian  mythology,  yet  without  the  bold 
and  grand  conceptions  of  the  free  and  hardy  North- 
men. A  sadness  pervades  every  page,  denoting  less 
the  regretful  musing  of  a  conquered  race,  fallen  from 
high  aspirations,  and  deprived  of  its  cherished  institu- 
tions, than  one  whose  spirit  has  been  broken  under 
long  centuries  of  despotic  rule  and  cruel  rites.  The 
trait  is  strongly  marked  to  this  day. 


ABORIGINAL  RECORDS.  459 

Not  only  is  the  diction  rather  bald  throughout,  but 
the  phraseology  is  stilted.  The  writer  appears  too 
deeply  impressed  by  his  facts  to  permit  much  digres- 
sion toward  either  dramatization  or  embellishment. 
The  inferiority  in  these  respects  is  due  greatly  to  the 
influences  already  mentioned,  and  it  becomes  more 
marked  by  comparison  with  the  traits  of  northern 
Indians,  free  in  their  vast  hunting-grounds  and  less 
dominated  by  the  terrible  in  religion.  Limited  as 
their  vocabulary  may  be,  it  finds  a  ready  flow  in  dig- 
nified and  even  majestic  harangue,  full  of  beautiful 
imagery. 

Nevertheless  there  appear  scenes  in  the  Popul  Vuh 
which  stir  even  the  grovelling  serf.  The  first  dawn- 
ing of  the  sun  evokes  for  instance  an  effort  to  depict 
its  splendor.  ^'  Great  is  my  brilliancy.  Before  me 
have  men  to  walk  and  to  stand  still,  for  my  eyes  are 
of  silver,  resplendent  like  precious  stones,  stones  which 
are  green  like  the  heavens.'  My  nostrils  gleam  like 
the  moon.  My  throne  is  of  silver;  and  the  earth 
brightens  as  I  advance.  I  am  sun  and  moon  for  the 
enlightenment  of  my  vassals." 

In  the  very  first  line  we  perceive  the  bending  of 
the  awe-stricken  adorer  instead  of  the  lofty  psean  of 
the  inspired  admirer.  The  similes  have  a  barbaric 
and  circumscribed  stamp  instead  of  soaring  grandeur, 
and  poverty  of  language  is  indicated  in  repetition  as 
well  as  in  the  use  of  green  for  blue  or  azure.  Select 
paragraphs  like  the  above  are  not  very  frequent,  still 
a  certain  poetic  originality  shines  forth  now  and  then, 
and  the  strides  toward  eloquence,  while  short  and 
unsustained,  and  due  largely  to  the  translator,  are 
perceptible  also  in  the  emphasis  so  frequently  though 
crudely  employed,  notably  in  the  addresses  and 
invocations. 

Whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  style,  the  native 
records  are  full  of  themes  as  varied  and  alluring  as 
those  that  stirred  the  mediaeval  romanciers  and  trou- 


460  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

badours.  We  find  indications  enough  in  the  pages  of 
Oviedo,  Las  Casas,  and  other  early  writers  on  aborig- 
inal times,  but  they  are  mere  glimpses,  and  to  the 
efforts  of  later  resident  authors  are  we  chiefly  hi- 
debted  for  a  fuller  display  of  the  subject.  It  is  by 
no  means  so  thorough  however  as  in  many  Nahua 
records.  These  men  came  too  late  to  rescue  more 
than  fragments  of  either  records  or  traditions  from  the 
ravages  of  time  and  fanaticism.  The  inroads  have 
continued  to  our  days.  Religious  biogotry  yielded 
the  foremost  place  to  military  marauders  and  pre- 
judiced chroniclers,  and  the  result  is  a  deficiency  of 
public  and  private  archives  that  is  appalling.  Guate- 
mala alone  presented  at  the  close  of  the  colonial  period 
a  collection  at  all  worthy  of  such  a  term,  and  this  had 
to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  invaders  under  Iturbide, 
Morgan,  and  others,  with  foreign  relic  hunters  in  the 
wake.^ 

Such  general  neglect  could  bo  associated  only  with 
a  criminal  indiffarence  for  literary  treasures;  and  this 
has  been  the  case  until  recent  times,  when  men  like 
Squier  and  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  set  a  beneficial 
example  in  research  and  in  collecting.  Similar  pre- 
vious attempts  were  isolated,  and  as  a  rule  directed 
toward  some  special  object,  as  writing  a  history  or 
elaborate  report  with  a  view  to  personal  fame  or  profit. 
The  repeated  demands  from  Spain  for  historic  mate- 
rial gave  no  doubt  an  impulse,  but  it  was  almost 
wholly  confined  to  colonial  incidents  and  conditions, 
with  little  or  no  regard  for  aboriginal  times ;  and 
European  Spaniards  obeyed  the  call  more  than 
Creoles,  who  should  have  manifested  the  greater 
interest.  * 

The  intellectual  revival  inaugurated  toward  the  end 
of  the  century  in  the  colonial  possessions  of  Spain,  and 
which  in  Guatemala  received  its  cue  from  Mexico, 
was  directed  almost  wholly  to  the  acquisition  of  new 
scientific  and  philosophic  learning  by  the  higher  classes, 
with  a  slight  general  dissemination  of  more  practical 


WRITINGS  OF  THE  CONQUERORS.  461 

knowledge.  In  Andhuac  aboriginal  subjects  received 
very  naturally  a  good  deal  of  attention  at  the  same 
time ;  but  in  Central  America  the  efforts  in  this  field 
were  comparatively  feeble,  partly  because  the  field 
proved  less  varied,  partly  because  less  material  ex- 
isted to  form  a  base  for  research,  and  to  allure  and 
guide  the  investigator.  There  were  also  less  popula- 
tion, wealth,  and  emulation  to  encourage  antiquarian 
and  historic  labor. 

The  scattered  and  fragmentary  nature  of  the  con- 
tributions to  the  colonial  history  should  have  proved 
incentive  enough  for  a  more  complete  and  comprehen- 
sive account,  replete  as  those  writings  are  with  stir- 
ring incidents,  often  related  in  a  manner  botli  graphic 
and  eloquent.  For  instance,  in  the  Relacion  of  Pedro 
Alvarado  which  presents  the  first  view  of  Guatemala, 
we  find  a  vivid  description  of  scenes  and  events  con- 
nected with  the  conquest,  and  this  by  a  leader  famous 
alike  for  his  daring  exploits  and  his  cruel  disposition. 
The  latter  stands  forth  in  bold  relief  above  every 
other  trait,  though  closely  linked  with  restlessness 
and  ambition,  with  an  indomitable  will  that  supersti- 
tion alone  could  bend.  Simple  is  the  diction  of  the 
soldier,  and  terse  like  his  words  of  command,  while 
an  admirable  clearness  pervades  the  whole. 

Equally  stirring  though  less  revolting  are  the 
Cartas  of  his  chief,  Cortes  himself,  whose  famous 
march  to  Honduras  and  operations  there  occupy  a 
large  space  in  his  letters.  While  the  lieutenant  de- 
lights in  slaughter  and  wades  in  blood,  the  chief  ex- 
hibits his  endurance  and  ingenuity  in  transporting  a 
great  army  across  vast  marshes  and  over  mighty 
rivers,  guiding  it  through  trackless  forests  and  arid 
deserts,  and  climbing  cloud-clapped  ranges.  The  lat- 
ter struoorles  atrainst  the  forces  of  nature,  against 
sickness  and  hunger ;  now  to  set  the  example  in  tor- 
titude,  encouraging  the  faint-hearted  and  succoring 
the  feeble ;  now  to  circumvent  a  treacherous  foe  ; 
again  to  quell  a  conspiracy,  or  to  overcome  some  for- 


462  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

midable  barrier.  Never  did  this  man  appear  a  greater 
hero ;  never  did  his  varied  talents  shine  to  greater 
advantage.  The  subtlety  of  the  diplomatist  combine 
with  the  energy  and  resources  ot  the  leader  and  the 
frankness  of  the  soldier,  while  religious  fanaticism  is 
softened  by  a  naive  reliance  on  providence.  All  these 
qualities  are  displayed  in  his  writings,  which  rise  far 
above  the  average  of  the  time  in  purity  and  clearness, 
fluency  and  conciseness ;  evincing  also  a  training  in 
rhetoric,  legal  forms  and  business  habits.  His  Latin 
is  introduced  with  taste,  mingled  with  courtly  phrases, 
and  occasionally  an  ornamented  sentence  reveals  a 
pen  which  had  oft  enough  dabbled  in  verse.  Even 
the  easy  flowing  diction  of  Gomara,  his  biographer, 
sometime  professor  of  rhetoric,  pales  before  the  out- 
pouring of  this  great  mind  moulded  in  experiences  so 
varied. 

What  a  contrast  do  we  find  in  the  pages  of  the  con- 
temporary Oviedo,  who  covers  more  particularly  the 
southern  provinces  of  Central  America,  where  he 
himself  figured.  He  had  a  passion  for  writing  which 
gratified  itself  in  bulky  folios,  but  he  lacked  the  power 
to  plan  and  to  generalize,  and  the  aptitude  to  profit 
by  his  manifold  lessons.  Thus,  while  aiming  at  judi- 
cious treatment  he  loses  himself  in  the  vastness  of  his 
subject,  and  presents  a  series  of  versions  as  they  reach 
him ;  often  repeating,  now  entering  into  tiresome  de- 
tails, now  skimming  the  surface  or  making  mere  use- 
less allusions.  While  striving  to  be  concise,  he  be- 
comes verbose  and  rambling,  yet  he  redeems  himself 
somewhat  in  occasional  displays  of  eloquence  and 
purity  of  style.  While  possessing  no  less  literary 
education  than  Cortes,  he  shows  less  ability  and  taste 
in  using  it,  in  criticism  and  diction.  Later  his  inclina- 
tion for  gossip  and  moralizing  was  allowed  freer  range 
than  ever. 

Unscrupulous,  like  the  rest  of  the  early  colonists 
and  conquerors,  the  cavalier  Oviedo  attracted  the 
frown  of  the  ecclesiastic   Las  Casas,  the  champion  of 


EARLY   HISTORIANS.  463 

oppressed  natives,  whose  tongue  and  pen  were  equally 
absorbed  by  his  noble  cause,  to  defend  his  charge  and 
to  lash  the  persecutor.  But  his  fiery  zeal  too  often 
carried  him  away.  While  Oviedo  used  little  discrim- 
ination in  accepting  any  version,  or  incident,  or  nat- 
ural phenomenon,  Las  Cases  as  readily  listened  to  ac- 
cusations which  national  pride  alone  should  have  urged 
him  to  sift  ere  he  used  them  to  damn  his  countrymen. 
Intent  chiefly  on  his  great  cause,  he  was  easily 
swayed  in  most  directions  by  partiality,  and  his  ab- 
sorption promoted  carelessness  in  diction  as  w^ell  as 
facts  and  treatment.  All  this  tends  to  detract  from 
the  vigilant  subtlety  attributed  to  him  by  his  learned 
opponent  Sepulveda ;  but  his  fluency  of  thought  and 
expression  is  evident,  and  marked  by  frequent  out- 
bursts of  stirring  eloquence  and  strains  of  biting  irony. 

Gomara  availed  himself  of  these  preceding  authori- 
ties to  form  a  general,  concise  work,  wherein,  however, 
he  sacrificed  truth  and  research  to  style  and  partisan 
spirit  in  the  effort  to  please  his  patron  and  to  court 
popularity.  This  roused  the  ire  of  the  soldier,  Ber- 
nai  Diaz,  jealous  for  the  prestige  of  himself  and  his 
comrades.  Printed  books,  private  memoranda,  and  a 
somewhat  treacherous  memory,  all  serve  him  in  his 
striving  for  truth,  and  in  contrast  to  his  opponent  he 
sacrifices  for  this,  style,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  popu- 
larity. But  it  is  not  a  voluntary  surrender ;  for  per- 
sonal vanity,  and  a  sympathy  for  broth ers-in-arms, 
prompt  him  to  sturdily  vindicate  his  own  party. 
Though  others  suffer  somewhat,  yet  he  is  not  ungen- 
erous. As  for  style,  this  has  been  irremediably 
neglected,  amid  the  toils  of  the  campaign  and  pioneer 
life.  He  is  graphic,  however,  in  bringing  before  us 
scenes  and  adventures  from  camp  and  field,  and  grows 
animated  and  pathetic  by  turns;  but  the  garrulous 
tendency  is  strongest,  and  leads  to  wearisome  details 
and  digressions. 

In  the  Italian,  Benzoni,  we  find  a  less  generous  and 
frank  spirit.     His  motive  for  writing  was  chiefly  per- 


464  LITERATURE  OP  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

sonal  spite,  which  peers  forth  in  sarcasms  and  exagge- 
rations, or  even  falsehoods,  while  a  ready  credulity 
allows  free  entrance  to  vague  gossip,  quite  in  keeping 
with  his  uncultured  style.  But  he  is  \'aluable  in  pre- 
senting testimony  not  partial  to  the  Spaniards. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  first  century,  Herrera,  the 
royal  historiographer,  appears  to  combine  all  these 
and  other  narrations  into  one  general  history,  and  to 
become  the  standard  historian  for  his  field  and  period. 
But  his  examination  of  material  is  not  careful,  and 
his  method  is  faulty.  A  slavishly  chronological  treat- 
ment interferes  with  the  spirit  of  the  narrative,  and 
breaks  the  interest;  religious  and  patriotic  zeal  over- 
rule truth  and  humanity,  and  a  bald  and  prolix  style 
tires  the  reader. 

What  an  opportunity  is  here  among  so  many  frag- 
mentary and  faulty  versions  to  complete,  to  compile, 
to  summarize,  to  restudy  and  comment,  with  such 
varied  models,  and  attain  results  prominent  for  sim- 
plicity and  clearness,  for  purity  and  eloquence,  for 
conciseness  and  discrimination,  for  truth  and  order, 
while  the  contrasting  and  more  general  defects  serve 
for  the  same  end  by  warning  the  student!  The  appeal 
was  not  unheeded  by  colonial  men,  but  they  were 
cramped  by  false  training,  and  party  spirit  ruled  high, 
so  that  models  and  warnings  served  to  stimulate  zeal 
rather  than  direct  the  method.^ 

The  first  to  awake  to  the  necessity  for  a  special 
work  on  Guatemalan  history  were  the  Dominicans, 
who  from  their  centre  in  Chiapas  exercised  a  wide 
influence.  Antonio  de  Remesal  was  intrusted  with 
the  task  of  compiling  the  records  of  their  religious 
provincia,  interweaving  it  with  secular  events.  He 
proceeded  with  extraordinary  diligence  to  ransack 
different  archives  which  were  then,  in  the  opening  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  in  good  condition,  and  he 
was  also  exact,  as  may  be  noticed  in  both  facts  and 


GUATEMALAN  HISTORY.  465 

style ;  yet  the  latter  is  clear  and  pleasing,  and  com- 
paratively free  from  redundancy.  The  bias  of  the 
zealous  friar  is  strikingly  apparent  wherever  his  order 
is  concerned,  and  here  coloring  and  assertion  are  made 
subordinate  to  feeling,  and  to  what  he  deems  duty, 
while  the  imagination  is  largely  drawn  upon  for 
speeches  and  conversation  wherewith  to  uphold  Do- 
minican prestige.  On  the  other  hand  he  strives,  in  imi- 
tation of  Las  Casas,  as  champion  of  the  Indians,  to 
lash  their  oppressors,  and  this  with  a  fearlessness  that 
evoked  a  storm  against  his  book  before  it  was  pub- 
lished. Otherwise  he  upholds  the  colonists,  and 
shows  often  a  graceful  forbearance  that  covers  many 
objections. 

For  a  whole  century  did  the  Historia  de  Chyapa  of 
Remesal  flaunt  before  the  world  the  supremacy  of  the 
Dominicans  in  this  region,  to  the  ill-suppressed  anger 
of  the  Franciscans.  At  last,  in  1714,  the  latter  gave 
vent  to  their  feelings  in  the  Chronica  de  la  Provinda 
del  Santissimo  Nombre  de  Jems  de  Guatemala,  by  Fran- 
cisco Vazquez,  printed  at  Guatemala,  a  circumstance 
which  renders  it  more  thoroughly  a  part  of  Central 
American  literature.  It  lacks,  however,  the  ability 
and  pertinent  research  manifest  in  many  preceding 
works.  It  displays,  no  doubt,  a  certain  amount  of 
investlo^ation,  but  also  a  lar^e  amount  of  cullincr  from 
Remesal,  and  other  ready  sources,  without  giving  due 
credit,  and  it  dwindles  in  the  main  features  rather 
into  an  argument  against  the  claims  of  the  opposite 
order,  taking,  on  every  possible  occasion,  a  contrary 
view.  In  this  effort  on  behalf  of  his  brotherhood, 
Vazquez  shows  as  little  hesitation  as  the  other  party 
to  exaggerate  and  misinterpret,  and  he  freely  upholds 
the  Franciscan  plea  for  cooperation  of  the  cross  and 
sword,  by  stoutly  defending  the  conduct  of  the  con- 
querors, and  declaring  the  Indians  undeserving  of  the 
sympathy  lavished  upon  them  by  artificial  piety. 
These  weaknesses  are  not  redeemed  by  literary  treat- 
ment, for  the  arrangement  is  defective,  guided  greatly 

Essays  and  Miscellany     SO 


466  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

by  unreflecting  imp.ulse,  and  a  large  part  of  »the  work 
is  occupied  with  verbose  details  concerning  obscure 
friars, which  reflect  on  the  discrimination  of  the  writer, 
as  compared  with  the  more  clear-sighted  and  concise 
Remesal.  The  latter  opens  his  volume  with  appro- 
priate directness,  while  Vazquez  begins  with  a  conven- 
tional preamble  of  the  pulpit  order.  The  phraseology- 
is  rambling  and  involved,  and  the  diction  florid, 
with  a  frequent  parade  of  Latin  and  scholastic  quota- 
tions. The  latter  features  are  by  no  means  regarded 
as  blemishes  among  Spaniards,  with  whom  the  inflated 
cultismo  was  still  at  its  height,  never,  indeed,  to  be 
wholly  eradicated  from  the  language,  for  it  accorded 
with  the  very  traits  of  the  people. 

The  same  observations  apply  almost  exactly  to  the 
Recordacion  Florida  de  la  Historia  de  Guatemala,  written 
two  decades  before  by  Fuentes  y  Guzman,  but  never 
published.  It  forms  the  first  recognized  secular  his- 
tory of  Guatemala,  and  has  for  us  the  additional  in- 
terest that  the  author  is  not  only  a  Creole,  but  a  de- 
scendant of  the  soldier  chronicler  Bernal  Diaz,  who 
settled  in  the  old  city  of  Guatemala  where  Fuentes 
was  born.  With  such  family  traditions  one  cannot 
expect  from  him  anything  but  a  blind  advocacy  of 
the  acts  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  policy  of  the  colo- 
nists ;  he  not  only  disregards  testimony  and  suppresses 
damaging  facts,  but  he  inserts  statements  to  suit  his 
aim.  The  style  shows  a  ready  appreciation  of  G6n- 
gora's  school ;  but  it  is  redeemed  by  considerable 
descriptive  power,  with  not  infrequent  elegance  of 
diction.^ 

While  Fuentes  y  Guzman  is  entitled  to  the  repre- 
sentative place  as  historian  of  Guatemala,  it  has  been 
occupied  before  the  world  by  Domingo  Juarros,  whose 
Historia  de  Guatemala  is  the  only  well-known  work  on 
this  country  for  colonial  times.  He  came  across  the 
manuscripts  of  his  predecessor,  and  perceived  at  once 
his  opportunity.  The  country  was  ripe  to  receive 
such  revelations,  for  the  wave  of  intellectual  awaken- 


GUATEMALAN  HISTORY.  467 

ing  had  rolled  across  the  Atlantic,  and  aroused  a 
more  vivid  interest  in  history.  He  had  the  tact,how- 
ever,to  create  a  special  interest  in  his  book  by  call- 
ing it  a  history  of  the  capital,  and  by  the  clever 
manoeuvre  of  devoting  a  large  space  to  the  biography 
of  her  notable  men.  *'No  existiendo  su  historia, 
sino  es  en  el  deseo  de  los  verdaderos  patriotas,"  he  adds. 
He  recognizes  geography  and  chronology  as  the  ''two 
eyes  '*  of  history,  and  promises  to  use  both.  He  ac- 
cordingly opens  the  volumes  with  the  aid  of  the 
former,  applying  it  successively  to  every  province  in 
Central  America;  for  Guatemala,  as  the  leading 
state,  was  often  assumed  to  comprise  those  to  the 
south.  The  capital,  the  cherished  city  of  his  birth, 
receives  special  attention  in  her  buildings,  institutions, 
and  renowned  children  and  leaders.  This  has  evi- 
dently been  a  labor  of  love,  for  a  good  deal  of  inves- 
tigation is  exhibited  in  connection  with  archives  of 
church  and  state,  to  which  his  position  as  synodal 
examiner  procured  his  ready  access.  In  the  second 
volume  he  confines  himself  more  particularly  to  his- 
tory, beginning  with  pre-con quest  times,  which  apply 
only  to  Guatemala  for  want  of  even  traditional 
records  elsewhere.  In  taking  up  the  account  of  sub- 
jugation and  settlement  by  Spaniards  he  passes  from 
one  province  to  another,  and  seeks  to  complete  the 
narrative  by  adding  institutional  matter  and  curious 
items.  The  book  is  just  what  one  might  expect  for  a 
country  little  written  upon,  and  from  a  man  eager  to 
tell  all  about  it.  Not  that  he  is  exhaustive,  for  he 
fails  to  present  any  adequate  view  of  society  and  in- 
dustrial condition,  and  in  the  history  he  follows  the 
unreliable  Fuentes  without  exercising  due  care  or 
discrimination,  or  supplementing  with  sufficient  addi- 
tional investigation.  This,  together  with  the  lack  of 
sequence  and  symmetry,  imparts  a  fragmentary  and 
unsatisfactory  character  to  the  w^ork,  which  is  besides 
unrelieved  by  any  beauty  of  diction  ;  yet  the  style 
possesses  a  conciseness  and  clearness  that  is  remark- 


468  LITERATURE  OF   CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

able  for  a  preacher  of  Spanish  America.  Equally 
refreshing  is  the  comparative  freedom  from  bigotry 
and  credulity  in  a  Koman  catholic  priest  of  this 
remote  corner,  except  when  treading  on  scientific  or 
other  new  ground.  He  rarely  intrudes  his  pulpit 
sentences,  and  if  he  occasionally  upholds  miracles 
and  asceticism,  it  is  but  duty  to  his  profession.'' 

Among  representative  historical  writers  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  must  be  placed  Doctor  Francisco  de  Paula 
Garcia  Pelaez,  archbishop  of  Guatemala,  whose  Memo- 
Tias  para  la  Historia  de  Guatemala  present  the  most 
complete  account  of  colonial  times  in  Central  America. 
He  treats  less  of  ancient  history  and  conquest,  which 
more  than  one  accessible  author  has  fully  spoken  of, 
but  displays  close  observation  on  subsequent  matter, 
with  particular  attention  to  institutions  and  society, 
to  government  policy  and  the  unfolding  of  trade,  in- 
dustries, education,  thus  approaching  closely  to  later 
ideas  as  to  what  should  constitute  material  for  the 
history  of  a  people.  To  this  end  he  has  applied  re- 
search of  no  slight  extent,  and  a  careful  arrangement, 
without  pretending  to  offer  a  history  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  Indeed,  the  work  is  rather  a  series 
of  collected  statements  from  different  authorities,  ar- 
ranged under  topics  and  in  historic  sequence,  with  lit- 
tle or  no  attempt  to  present  or  to  reconcile  differences, 
or  to  combine  scattered  facts  or  hints  in  explanatory 
or  complimentary  shape,  or  to  offer  conclusions  which 
should  result  from  analysis  and  comparison.  Nor  has 
any  use  been  made  of  foot-notes,  wherewith  to  relieve 
the  text  from  trivial  details  and  bare  references,  which 
are  therefore  left  to  interfere  with  the  connection  and 
obstruct  the  style.  There  is  no  effort  in  the  latter  di- 
rection, however,  and  even  stirring  incidents  are  related 
without  the  least  animation ;  yet  the  language  is  pure 
and  clear,  and  the  sentences  smooth. 

The  valuable  features  of  Palaez'  work  become  more 
conspicuous  when  contrasted  with  other  contributions 
in  this  field,  of  the  same  period.     These  are  chiefly 


FIRST  PRINTING. 


political  pamphlets  by  leaders  or  hangers-on  in  defense 
of  parties  or  individuals,  full  of  loud  assertion  and 
bombast,  sustained  by  fiery  emphasis,  and  disguised 
by  rambling  digression.  Occasionally  the  compact 
yet  disjointed  style,  with  its  forensic  stamp,  drifts  into 
reiteration  and  mere  bombast,  with  faulty  punctuation, 
revealing  in  both  forms  the  crudeness  of  diction  and 
phraseology.  The  use  of  foot-notes  is  little  understood, 
but  there  is  usually  an  appendix  with  corroborative 
documents.  Superior  to  these  in  style  are  the  produc- 
tions of  such  men  as  Alejandro  Morure,  though  occa- 
sionally marked  by  ill-sustained  efforts  at  florid  decla- 
mation.^ As  for  sifting  of  evidence,  study,  and 
deduction,  there  is  little  or  none.  The  domination  of 
idea,  party,  or  passion  is  almost  everywhere  glaringly 
apparent,  together  with  a  glossy  superficiality  that 
shields  the  unstable  reasoning  of  the  polemic,  and  the 
lack  of  profundity  in  his  attainments. 

The  scantiness  and  defects  of  Central  American 
literature  are  greatly  due,  as  I  have  intimated,  to  the 
paucity  and  scattered  distribution  of  the  population, 
and  in  modern  times  above  all,  to  the  continual 
civil  wars  which  have  absorbed  the  attention  of 
the  superior  classes,  and  created  such  disorder  and 
neglect  of  progressive  measures  as  to  keep  the  masses 
in  abject  ignorance,  and  greatly  to  diminish  the  means 
for  instructing  the  rest.  Spain  was  ever  the  classic 
country  from  which  the  colonists  drew  their  knowledge 
and  obtained  their  models,  and  so  it  still  remains,  wide 
as  the  political  and  social  gulf  may  be  between  them. 
With  so  small  a  circle  of  readers,  those  fitted  and  called 
to  wield  the  pen  found  little  encouragement,  at  least 
for  works  of  an  ambitious  character.  Heavy  as  well 
as  light  literature  was  brought  from  across  the  sea, 
and  from  Mexico,  a  fair  proportion  coming  from  France, 
for  whose  people  and  productions  a  warm  sympathy 
has  always  existed,  and  whose  language  found  ready 
learners  from  its  similarity  to  the  Spanish. 


470  LITEBATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


The  backward  condition  of  literature  can  be  readily 
understood  when  it  is  learned  that  the  printing  press 
was  not  introduced  at  Guatemala  until  1660,  when 
Joseph  de  Pineda  Ibarra  figures  as  the  first  printer." 
The  first  publication  is  said  to  have  been  a  letter  by 
President  Caldas  to  the  king  concerning  the  conquest 
of  the  Lacandon  country ;  but  the  claim  to  be  the  first 
book  is  made  for  Relacion  de  la  Vida  y  Virtudes  del  V. 
Hermano  Pedro  de  San  Joseph  Betancur,  Guatemala, 
1667,  by  Manuel  Lobo/"  After  this,  publication  be- 
came not  infrequent;  for  works  from  all  parts  of  Cen- 
tral America,  hitherto  sent  to  Spain  or  Mexico  to  be 
printed,  were  now  forwarded  to  Guatemala,  which  has 
ever  maintained  the  lead  over  the  other  states,  owing 
to  its  greater  population  and  interests.  Some  of  the 
provinces  to  the  south  did  not  obtain  presses  till  long 
after  the  independence. 

Guatemala  early  followed  the  example  set  in  Mex- 
ico of  issuing  a  periodical,  a  monthly  Gaceta,  started 
in  1729  by  Sebastian  de  Arevalo,  which  has  amid 
different  suspensions  and  revivals  managed  to  pass 
into  the  present  century,  and  to  sustain  itself  later  as 
a  weekly,  and  generally  as  the  official  organ."  In 
1797  Villaurrutia  began  to  publish  a  weekly  paper  in 
connection  with  his  Sociedad  Economica,  devoted  to 
general  advancement,  both  of  which  suffered  tempo- 
rary suppression  as  too  advanced  in  spirit  for  the 
Spanish  government.  In  1820  two  journals  appeared, 
and  after  this  new  ones  spring  up  almost  every  year, 
occasionally  as  many  as  ten  within  the  twelve  months, 
although  few  survive.  Among  the  other  states  Sal- 
vador follows  with  about  twenty-four  journals  within 
eighteen  years,  beginning  in  1824,  less  than  half  the 
number  issued  in  Guatemala.  Honduras  has  eleven 
within  thirteen  years,  and  Nicaragua  nine,  both  be- 
ginning in  1830  ;  Costa  Rica  falls  to  seven  between 
1832  and  1842,  and  Panama  declines  to  even  less.'' 
They  were  with  rare  exceptions  political  organs,  full 
of  polemics  and  stale  news,  with  occasionally  scien- 


HELIGIOUS  BIOGRAPHY.  471 

tific  articles,  and  feuilletons  translated  or  copied  from 
foreign  papers. 

Liberty  of  the  press  entered  with  the  independence, 
only  to  find  itself  obstructed  or  suppressed  now  by 
some  dictator,  anon  by  formal  law  from  legislatures, 
yet  with  intervals  of  absolute  freedom.  The  most 
severe  legislative  measure  appeared  in  1852,  when 
close  government  censorship  was  established." 

One  effect  of  the  independence,  and  the  dissemina- 
tion of  liberal  ideas  from  France,  manifested  itself  in 
a  lessened  religious  feeling  among  the  educated 
classes,  which  has  finally  led  to  the  suppression  of 
convents,  and  to  a  diminished  influence  for  the  clergy 
with  every  successive  effort  of  theirs  to  assert  them- 
selves. This  is  only  too  apparent  in  the  bulk  of  po- 
litical pamphlets  which  in  modern  times  form  the 
main  feature  of  publications,  replacing  the  former 
excessive  production  of  theological  treatises,  sermons, 
and  saintly  biography. 

Of  the  last  class  we  find  good  specimens  in  Lobo's 
Relacion  de  la  Vida  de  Betancur,  already  mentioned  as 
the  first  book  proper  issued  in  Central  America,  in 
Antonio  de  Siria's  Vida  de  la  Venerable  Loiia  Ana 
Guerra,  and  in  such  works  as  Eemesal  and  Vazquez. 
The  latter,  for  that  matter,  rewrote  Lobo's  Relacion, 
and  made  copious  additions  to  the  biography  of  Be- 
tancur,  who  was  highly  venerated  in  the  country  as  a 
religious  founder  and  humanitarian.^*  This  work  is  in 
the  usual  exalted,  visionary  spirit  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  with  special  prominence  to  abstract  and  as- 
cetic features,  the  monotony  of  which  Vazquez  has 
increased  with  his  verbose  inflation,  rambhng  phrase- 
ology, and  florid  diction.  Yet  the  last  would  no 
doubt  add  to  the  interest  for  lovers  of  such  lore, 
while  the  earnestness  pervading  every  line,  and  the 
mysticism,  serve  to  impress  on  the  devout  the  lesson 
intended  to  be  inculcated. 


472  LITERATURE   OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

In  colonial  times  the  oratory  of  the  bar  and  pulpit 
was  never  allowed  the  full  range  accorded  in  protes- 
tant  Europe,  where  appeals  reached  the  head  as  well 
as  the  heart.  With  the  liberty  conferred  by  revolu- 
tion and  fostered  by  the  debates  of  assemblies  and  the 
demand  of  elections,  the  pent-up  spirit  found  free  vent, 
and  astonished  itself  by  its  rapidity  of  progress  in  this 
new  path.  A  vivacious  temperament,  a  ready  flow  of 
words,  and  the  stirring  subjects  of  national  birth  and 
men  consecrated  to  the  people  as  heroes  and  martyrs, 
all  assisted  to  impart  an  eloquence  which  met  with 
prompt  response  among  an  emotional  audience. 
Depth  and  logical  sequence  were  lacking,  however,  and 
rules  of  elocution  were  not  allowed  to  interfere  greatly 
with  the  natural  flow  and  the  impulsive  rather  than 
studied  emphasis  so  frequently  employed,  and  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  oratory. 

The  revival  in  learning,  which  became  manifest 
toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  naturally 
gave  an  impulse  to  the  demand  for  works  of  a  scien- 
tific nature,  notably  in  connection  with  industrial  arts, 
as  indicated  by  the  reports  of  the  Sociedad  Economica 
begun  in  1797 ;  but  the  disorders  under  repubhcan 
rule  have  allowed  far  less  room  for  progress  in  this 
direction  than  could  be  expected  from  the  promising 
number  of  names  which,  during  the  later  colonial 
period,  are  connected  with  similar  topics. 

Bias  de  Pineda  y  Polanco  had,  in  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  collected  27  volumes  of  material 
on  natural  history  and  geography,  in  dictionary  form, 
with  illustrations.  The  most  ambitious  efforts  were 
by  Juan  de  Padilla,  a  presbyter,  who  wrote  on  mathe- 
matics and  astronomy,  the  latter  subject  embraced  in 
a  bulky  manuscript  folio  of  585  pages  entitled  Teorica 
y  prdctica  de  la  astronomia.  He  was  long  an  authority 
in  this  branch  for  Guatemala.  Fuentes  speaks  of  an 
earlier  student  in  the  field,  Juan  Jacinto  Garrido. 
The  Creole  friar  Joaquin  Calderon  de  la  Barca  figured 
as  a  mathematician  about  1735;  while  Ignacio  Ceballos 


SCIENTIFIC  WORKS.  473 

of  Guatemala  became  an  academician  of  Spain  and 
assisted  in  forming  the  first  great  dictionary/' 

The  great  variety  of  Indian  tribes  in  this  extensive 
region,  which  attrac^ted  the  missionary  zeal,  gave  rise 
to  a  number  of  linguistic  productions,  wherein  Friar 
Francisco  Jimenez  shines  with  particular  lustre.  I 
have  collected  a  number  of  these  works,  vocabularies, 
grammars,  and  religious  text-books,  in  connection 
with  my  studies  on  aboriginal  languages  as  expressed 
in  my  Native  Races,  but  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  applied 
himself  more  especially  to  the  subject,  as  indicated 
in  his  several  writings. 

In  this  connection  must  be  mentioned  the  Historia 
de  la  Creadon  del  Cielo  y  de  la  Tierra  by  Ramon  de 
Ordonez,  presbyter.  Assisted  by  the  aboriginal  rec- 
ords and  traditions  and  the  hieroglyphics  and  sculp- 
tures at  the  then  recently  discovered  Palenque,  the 
author  attempts  to  explain  the  Maya  theory  of  the 
creation,  and  to  follow  the  wanderings  and  adventures 
of  the  founders  of  the  cultured  nations  in  this  region. 
Guided  by  the  scripture,  he  finds  no  difficulty  in  con- 
necting them  with  Chaldea,  and  in  supporting  this 
assumption  by  a  comparison  of  rites  and  customs. 
The  ingenuity  and  boldness  of  his  interpretations  are 
as  striking  as  the  transparency  of  his  arguments. 
But  the  mystic  nature  of  the  subject,  the  evident  re- 
search, and  the  profusion  of  reference  and  learned 
allusions,  all  lend  a  glamour  to  the  book  that  sustains 
the  earnestness  and  high  character  of  the  author. ^^ 

Spanish  poets  have  not  failed  to  seize  upon  the 
grand  achievements  connected  with  discovery  and 
conquest  in  America,  unsurpassed  for  range,  interest, 
and  beauty.  Nevertheless  these  themes  have  been 
left  in  a  great  measure  to  the  conquerors  themselves, 
such  as  Castellanos,  who,  in  his  Elegias  de  Varones^ 
Ilustres  de  Indias,  ambitiously  seeks  to  cover  the  whole 
field,  and  to  commemorate  the  glories  of  all  the  lead- 
ing heroes  from  Columbus'  time  far  into  the  opening 


474  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

century  of  Spanish  rule.  His  is  rather  a  versified 
narrative, however,of  varying  form,  with  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  incidents  and  novelties,  yet  combined  with  a 
great  smoothness  and  rare  purity  of  diction.  The  stir- 
ring deeds  of  the  Castilian  invaders  are  related  by 
him  in  a  very  incomplete  manner,  yet  the  Creole  de- 
scendants of  those  invaders  have  not  felt  moved  to 
continue  the  song  of  the  soldier  bard.  Their  versifi- 
cation was  confined  chiefly  to  odes  and  sonnets  on  the 
occasion  of  birthdays  and  other  celebrations  in  honor 
of  royalty  or  high  officials,  and  more  ambitious  efforts 
sought  rather  a  foreign  and  seemingly  more  alluring 
though  well-worn  topic. 

La  Thomasiada  of  Friar  Diego  Saenz  is  a  passable 
epic  on  the  angelic  doctor,  and  noticeable  here  rather 
as  one  of  the  first  publications  of  Guatemala.  Of 
greater  interest  is  Raphael  Landivar's  Rusticatio  Mexi- 
cana,  a  didactic  poem  in  initation  of  the  Georgics,  em- 
bracing natural  features,  resources,  and  industries  of 
Central  America  as  well  as  Mexico.  Landivar  wasa 
native  of  Guatemala,  and  professor  there  of  rhetoric 
and  philosophy  in  the  Jesuit  college.  On  the  expul- 
sion of  the  society  in  1767,  he  proceeded  like  most 
of  the  members  to  Italy,  there  to  seek  consolation  in 
literary  labors.  The  Rusticatio  contains  the  outgrow- 
ing of  his  very  soul,  while  reviewing  scenes  dear  to 
his  memory,  and  displaying  to  the  world  the  wealth 
and  beauty  of  his  native  land.  In  the  dedicatory 
verses  to  Guatemala,  the  longing  of  the  exile  and  the 
love  of  the  patriot  find  a  touching  expression.  The 
selection  of  Latin  instead  of  Spanish  must  be  attrib- 
uted both  to  his  environment  while  writing,  and  to 
the  pride  of  the  scholar,  who  entertained  a  hope  that 
the  v/ork  might  be  adopted  as  a  text  book  in  his  own 
country — an  expectation  not  unfairly  based  on  an 
appropriate  subject,  a  pure  diction  and  classic  form. 

The  ready  adaptation  of  the  Spanish  language  to 
classic  verse  has  led  to  several  minor  imitations,  nota- 
bly in  Virgil's  vein,  but  they  are  seldom  above  the 


POETRY  AOT)  SONG.  475 

barest  and  dullest  mediocrity.  Instance  the  eclogue 
of  Ruiz  y  Lara  in  honor  of  the  prominent  Nicaraguan, 
Larreynaga,  of  1834.  The  glorious  memories  of  the 
independence  have  provided  appropriate  and  freer 
topics,  to  be  revived  at  the  annual  celebration,  largely 
in  satiric  form.  The  feelings  of  the  vanquished  patriot 
and  exile  seek  utterance  at  every  turn  of  fortune's 
wheel,  while  woman  reigns  supreme  above  all  in  her 
power  to  inspire,  as  may  readily  be  understood  with 
regard  to  a  people  so  devoted  to  gallantry  and  other 
amenities  of  society. 

The  ode  and  the  elegiac  strain  appear  to  be  the 
happiest  efforts,  and  octaves  of  undecasyllabic  triple 
measure  the  most  common  form.  A  poetry  which, 
like  the  Spanish,  so  readily  admits  the  free,  irregular, 
improvisatory  verse  known  as  silvas,  must  not  be 
scanned  so  rigidly  as  ours.  The  metre,  for  that  mat- 
ter, retains  to  a  certain  extent  the  classic  features  of 
emphasis  and  idiomatic  rhythm,  and  the  mixture  ac- 
cords well  with  the  impulsive,  declamatory  bent  of 
the  Hispano- American.  It  requires  often  an  inter- 
pretation of  its  own,  and  this  individualit}^  is  also 
marked  in  elocution  generally.  While  the  method 
may  be  erratic,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the 
theme  is  such,  although  the  Spaniards  are  somewhat 
addicted  to  broad  allusions.  The  tone  of  the  amatory 
pieces  before  me  is  most  chaste,  and  the  similes  be- 
long, as  a  rule,  to  the  sweeter  and  grander  elements 
in  nature. 

As  specimens  of  elegiac  pieces  I  will  cite  from  the 
recollections  of  an  exile  : 

Venid  con  la  luna  Es  pintada  mariposa, 

Y  estrellas  brillantes,  Que  vagando  eiitre  las  florea 

Cual  ricos  diamantes  Roba  de  ellas  los  olores, 

Tambien  rutilad.  Que  nos  brinda  carinosa. 

El  recuerdo  es  mi  perfume  Es  un  eco  desprendido 

Con  que  el  alma  se  adormece:  De  concierto  misterioso; 

Tierno  lirio  que  aparece  Blando,  suave,   melodioso, 

Cuando  el  tedio  nos  consume.  Y  entre  sombras  escondido. 

This  is  from  the  pen  of  Juan  de  Canas,  which  also 


476  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

contributes  a  number  of  odes  and  sonnets,  the  latter 
less  happy.  Another  poet  of  Salvador,  Carlos  Bo- 
nilla,  sings  at  the  tomb  of  a  wife : 

Tan  solo  de  inmortal,  seca  corola,  Una  arboleda  plantarecon    ellos, 

Del  Saucey,del  cipres  las  tristes  hojas  Melancdlica  al  par   que  funeraria, 

Me  quedan,   en  lugar  de  flores  rojas,  Que  circunde  la  fosa  cineraria 

Para  adornar  tu  losa  sepulchral.  Que  encierra   tu  despojo  terrenaL 

And  farther: 

Antitesis  dolorosa,  Eu  esa  cuna  me  queda 
Que  el  corazon  ha  sufrido,  El  pimpollo  de  una  rosa, 

Cual  arbolillo  batido  Y  en  esta  sombria  fosa, 

Por  furioso  vendabal.  Queda  seco  mi  rosal! 

Here  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  oral  ballads 
of  the  populace  are  not  so  pure  as  might  be  desired. 
And  this  observation  leads  me  to  a  few  closing  re- 
marks on  the  songs  of  the  Indians.  While  undoubt- 
edly retaining  many  aboriginal  features,  they  have 
been  greatly  influenced  by  Spanish  subjects,  melodies, 
and  rhythm,  under  constant  association  with  the  con- 
quering race,  and  diligent  training  of  priests  and 
church  choirs,  whose  art  entered  also  into  secular 
pastimes.  The  theme  concerns  the  duties  of  the  hus- 
bandman, the  hunter,  the  fisherman,  and  the  attendant 
adventures  or  dangers,  or  it  dwells  on  the  charms  of 
budding  woman,  with  many  a  broad  reference  to  the 
snares  laid  for  her  by  strangers.  Only  too  frequently 
the  vagaries  and  weaknesses  of  the  parish  priest  meet 
with  sarcastic  exposure,  and  the  slumbering  feeling 
against  the  ruling  class,  with  its  Castilian  pride  and 
affectation,  is  still  nursed  in  the  popular  verse,  which, 
moreover,  displays  a  lingering  predilection  for  ancient 
rites  and  superstitions,  midst  covert  sneers  at  Chris- 
tian dogmas.  Both  subject  and  form  are  simple,  of 
an  improvised  character,  with  frequent  repetition  of 
lines,  generally  in  antithetical  and  paraphrastic  form: 

He  roamed  through  the  forest  with  axe  on  the  shoulder, 
With  axe  on  the  shoulder  he  roamed  through  the  forest. 
It  was  night — deep  night;  in  the  sky  not  a  moon!  ' 

Not  a  moon  in  the  sky;   it  was  night — deep  night! 


FORMS  AND  CONDITIONS.  477 

In  the  distance  rolled  the  sea,  the  great  sea; 
The  sea,   the  great  sea,  was  heard  from  afar. 
As  it  sadly  groaned,   like  a  wounded  deer, 
Like  a  wounded  deer,  which  sadly  groans. 
Refrain: 

With  axe  on  the  shoulder  he  roamed  through  the  forest, 
He  roamed  through  the  forest  with  axe  on  the  shoulder. 

The  iteration  is  undoubtedly  effective  despite  its 
frequency,  but  the  poetic  imagery  occasionally  indi- 
cated is  rarely  sustained.  In  alluding  to  the  charms 
of  maidens,  flowers,  and  gold,  sunlight  and  birds  are 
generally  used  to  form  the  simile,  although  not 
always  appropriate. 

Tula,  the  pretty  one,  with  teeth  so  white,  with  eyes  of  gold,. 
Loved  to  roam  in  the  forest ;  around  in  the  forest  to  roam, 
The  flowers  she  gathered  to  adorn  her  long  tresses 
Appeared  in  the  gleam  of  her  eyes  so  much  brighter. 
And  little  birds  from  trees  around,   all  robed  in  sunlight. 
They  flew  when  she  came,  to  perch  on  her  lips  so  pretty, 
And  sweetly  carolling  on  her  shoulder  they  nestled. 

Satiric  compositions,  with  their  short  round  stanzas, 
contain  at  times  very  neat  epigrammatic  lines,  but  as 
a  rule  form  is  sacrificed  to  the  subject  and  euphony. 

Sweet  girls  and  young  maids,  Sweet  girls  and  young  maids, 
Place  buds  in  your  hair.  Show  pesos  and  gold, 

But  let  them  have  thorns,  And  priests  will  display 
The  curate  to  sting.  Their  old  paradise. 

The  refrain  is  not  always  fit  to  translate. 

The  stanzas  close  with  a  couplet  in  which  the  au- 
dience joins.  It  is  usually  taken  from  the  opening 
lines,  or  consists  of  a  meaningless  jingle. 

A  striking  feature  is  the  sad  strain  which  enters 
into  nearly  all  these  songs,  especially  toward  the 
close,  and  which  pervades  most  of  the  melodies. 
This  predominant  tinge  has  not  failed  to  reach  the 
poetry  generally  of  Central  America,  to  judge  by  the 
prevalence  and  success  so  far  of  elegiac  verse.  The 
satiric  and  mystic  elements  of  the  aboriginal  have  also 
left  their  impress;  the  former  accords  well  with  the 
sly,  retiring  disposition  of  the  Indians  as  compared 
with  the  other  castes,  their  suspiciousness  and  as- 
sumption of  even  more  than  their  natural  stolidity, 
while  it  also  points  to  a  lack  of  power  for  loftier  ex- 


478  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

pression.  Similar  remarks  apply  to  the  mystic  form, 
which  supplies  with  vague  allusions  what  utterance 
fails  to  convey.  The  impulsive  intonation  and  bom- 
bast manifested  in  odes  and  oratory  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  from  a  Spanish  source,  evolved  under  congenial 
circumstances  with  the  new  race,  and  given  free  sway 
by  the  revolution. 

The  independence  opened  wide  the  door  for  foreign 
influence  toward  research,  method,  style,  in  all 
branches  of  knowledge  and  art,  and  the  press  seeks 
to  extend  it,  although  as  a  rule,  indirectly,  through 
the  medium  of  Mexico,  which,  under  improving  com- 
munications is  rather  strengthening  her  authority  as 
the  chief  source,  model,  and  market  for  Central 
American  readers  and  writers.  Paucity  of  popula- 
tion, and  ignorance,  and  lack  of  ambition  among  the 
large  proportion  of  Indians,  add  obstacles  which  it 
will  take  long  to  overcome.  The  people  must  learn 
above  all,  however,  that  peace  is  required  to  establish 
the  secure  prosperity  which  alone  can  give  a  fostering 
impulse  to  art  and  literature. 

^  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  Mayas  attained  even  to  an  al- 
phabet. The  sculptured  hieroglyphics  in  regular  compact  squares,  at  both 
Copan  and  Palenque,  seem  identical  with  the  written  characters  of  surviving 
manuscripts,  and  bear  a  stamp  superior  to  those  of  the  Aztecs.  The  failure 
of  the  several  attempted  solutions  has  not  dampened  zeal  in  this  direction ; 
in  California  alone  more  than  one  student  has  taken  up  the  problem.  Las 
Casas  touches  upon  the  subject  eloquently  in  his  Hkt.  Apolog.,  MS.,  iv. 
367.  The  manuscript  Troano  published  by  the  French  government,  the 
Dresden  Codex,  included  in  Kingsborough's  work,  and  one  other  document 
in  a  European  library,  are  the  only  written  specimens  left  to  us. 

2  Scherzer  points  out  that  the  Quiche  language  does  not  distinguish  be- 
tween green  and  blue.  Xinienez,  Hist.  Orig.  fnd.,   15. 

^Brasseur  de  Bourboarg  joined  in  the  rush  for  relics,  but  his  effort  was  to 
save  from  destruction,  and  nobly  has  he  proven  his  intent  in  publications  as 
priceless  as  they  are  interesting.  Pelaez,  Squier,  Stephens,  and  Scherzer  fig- 
ure by  his  side  in  rescuing  and  supplementing  the  earlier  labors  in  this  field 
of  such  men  as  Jimenez.  Panama  lost  its  archives  chiefly  by  fires,  which 
involved  also  to  a  great  extent  those  of  Nicaragua  and  other  provinces  de- 
pending on  Guatemala  and  Lima.  In  Salvador  earthquakes  engulfed  much 
material,  while  everywhere  civil  wars  by  invaders  or  factions  assisted  con- 
flagrations and  neglect  in  completing  the  destruction.  Thus  it  is  that  records 
of  the  early  history  of  Central  America  must  be  sought  chiefly  in  works 
written  beyond  its  limits,  in  Spain  and  England,  and  above  all  in  tlie  manu- 
script and  printed  collections  of  documents  issued  from  peninsular  archives, 
where  copies  and  originals  of  letters,  reports,  and  even  elaborate  books  on 


NOTES.  479 

the  provinces  accumulated,  partly  in  the  ordinary  course  of  official  routine, 
partly  in  obedience  to  repeated  orders  for  transmission  of  material  for  the  use 
of  royal  chroniclers,  '  Para  que  se  pueda  proseguir  la  historia  general  de  las 
Indias.'  Eecop.  de  Ind.,  i.  629. 

*The  incentive  to  collect  historic  material  lay  in  the  duty  and  personal 
motives  prevailing  among  the  European  Spaniards  who  held  nearly  all  the 
offices.  Specimens  of  their  reports  have  been  frequently  cited  by  me  through- 
out these  volumes  in  the  original  or  copied  manuscripts  of  Alvarado,  Mon- 
te jo,  Gil  Gonzalez,  Cerezeda,  Estrada  Gallego,  Cadena,  Miranda,  Niebla, 
Castello,  Avila,  Duarte,  Aninon,  Izaguirre,  Hermosillo,  Velasco,  biaya,  and 
more  from  the  Squier  collection  ;  in  the  printed  accounts  issued  in  the  col- 
lections by  Pacheco  and  Cardenas,  Squier,  Ternaux-Compans,  Arevalo 
and  others. 

^  For  an  account  of  the  life  and  works  of  the  chroniclers  of  Central  Amer- 
ica, I  refer  to  the  bibliographic  notes  scattered  throughout  the  first  two  vol- 
umes of  my  histories  of  Central  America  and  of  Mexico. 

^Fuentes'  Norte  Politico  forms  a  suitable  adjunct  to  his  history  in  giving 
an  account  of  the  duties,  privileges  and  ceremonies  of  the  ayuntamiento  of 
Guatemala,  whereof  he  was  a  member.  Allusion  is  made  to  this  manuscript 
in  the  records  of  the  city  council  for  1700,  which  refer  a  dozen  years  pre- 
viously to  Fuentes'  researches  in  the  local  archives.  While  his  history  is  the 
fir^it  recognized  as  such,  Beristain  refers  to  an  earlier  Historia  de  Guatemala 
by  Friar  Estevan  Aviles,  which  remained  in  manuscript,  and  has  disappeared. 
It  may  have  been  used  by  Fuentes.  Contemporary  with  him  were  the  mili- 
tary leaders  Nicolas  de  Valenzuela  and  Pero  Ursiia,  engaged  in  the  conquest 
of  the  Itza  country,  of  which  the  former  in  particular  wrote  a  very  minute 
account.  This  and  other  material  was  used  by  Villagutierre  Soto-mayor 
relator  of  the  India  Council,  to  form  a  very  complete  Historia  de  la  Conquista 
de  Itza,  with  the  necessary  information  concerning  the  discovery  and  features 
of  the  country.  The  book  opens  in  a  most  direct  manner,  but  drifts  gradu- 
ally into  trivial  details.  The  author  has  evidently  no  aptitude  for  florid  cul- 
tismo  ;  but  while  the  diction  is  not  inflated,  the  phraseology  is  loose  and  in- 
volved, so  that  altogether  interest  finds  little  means  to  sustain  itself.  The 
work  is  rather  on  than  of  Central  America.  More  in  the  style  of  Vazquez  ia 
tlie  Informe  sohre  la  Suhlevacion  de  las  Zendales,  a  manuscript  of  78  folios,  by 
Friar  Pedro  Marselino  Garcia.  The  Creole,  Jose  Sanchez,  wrote  a  history 
of  Guatemala,  MS.,  dated  1779,  but  it  is  little  known  and  by  no  means  the 
connected  or  complete  review  of  events  and  institutions  indicated  by  the 
title.  Father  Ramon  Leal,  of  the  Dominican  order,  wrote  at  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century  the  G uatemalensis  Ecclesice  Monumenta,  which  relates  more 
particularly  to  the  capital. 

'  Similar  to  Juarros  in  its  descriptive  features  is  the  little  Memoria  His- 
toiica  de  Chiapa,  by  Mariano  Robles  Dominguez  de  Mazariegos,  deputy  to  the 
cortes  for  his  province,  which  shows  a  clear,  plain,  business-like  hand. 

^  For  an  account  of  these  dififerent  grades  of  historical  writings  and  their 
authors,  I  refer  to  the  bibliographic  notes  of  my  historical  volumes.  There 
1  have  shown  that  however  defective  the  style  and  treatment  may  often  be, 
the  value  of  the  contributions  to  the  investigator  is  not  overlooked,  particu- 
larly in  such  instances  as  Manuel  M.  de  Peralta,  who  modestly  confines  him- 
self to  an  able  presentation  of  original  documents  on  the  history  of  Costa 
Rica,  Nicaragua,  and  Panama,  rather  than  to  strive  for  the  more  ambitious 
efi"ort  of  using  them  for  historic  dissertations.  His  merit  shines  no  less 
brightly,  however,  in  the  \  ast  research,  the  careful  arrangement,  and  the 
appropriate  notes. 

'The  name  of  the  first  printer  in  Guatemala  appears  by  a  slip  as  Sbarra, 
in  Pelacz,  Mem.  Giiat.,  ii.  2G0.  Ternaux  writes  Francisco  de  Pineda.  Nouv. 
Annales  des  Voy.,  xciii.  25.     According  to  Echevero,  the  first  matrices  for 


480  LITERATURE  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

type  made  in  America  must  be  credited  to  the  printer  Arevalo  of  Guatemala, 
ill  1742. 

I-'  Of  the  first  Guatemalan  work  there  is  a  copy  in  my  library.  Ternaux 
has  an  epic,  La  Thomasiada  by  Diego  Saenz,  printed  the  same  year.  Uld  sup. 
Pelaez  mentions  some  later  books,  and  one  for  1GG3,  which  seems  to  be  Lobo's. 

1^  Arevalo  was  evidently  a  relative  of  the  contemporary  Mexican  journal- 
ist, who  in  1731  alludes  to  this  journal.  Arevalo,  Compendio,  preface,  2.  The 
first  suspension  occurred  in  1731.  Valdes  dates  its  existence  about  1740. 
GazeUis  de  Mex.  (1784),  i.  3;  Id.,  x.  207;  Mex.  Diano,  vi.  20G,  etc. 

i^Marure  gives  a  list  of  journals  published  between  1821  and  1842  in  five 
of  the  Central  American  states.  Efememles,  77-9.  His  number  for  Guate- 
mala is  57.  Reichardt  states  that  Nicaragua  had  in  1 852  only  one  press  and 
one  journal.  Nic,  222.  In  1872  the  Porvenir  de  Nicaragua  of  Dec.  8th, 
enumerates  four,  while  Guatemala  possesses  ten  and  Salvador  fifteen.  Of 
the  four,  two  are  supported  by  the  government,  and  the  other  two  barely 
manage  to  exist.  La  Universidad  Nacional,  begun  in  1875  at  San  Salvador, 
is  one  of  the  brightest  of  the  few  literary  and  scientific  journals  of  Central 
America.  During  the  California  gold  excitement,  and  for  some  time  after, 
polyglot  journals  appeared  in  Nicaragua  and  Panama,  with  the  aid  of  Eng- 
lish editors,  or  even  French,  and  at  Panama  this  feature  has  proved  perma- 
nent.    Instance  the  Panama,  Echo  of  1850,  and  the  surviving  Star  and  Herald. 

"The  final  abolishment  of  censorship  in  the  northern  states  took  place 
in  1871.  Guat.  Recap.  Leyes,  i.  4;  iv.  240-7.  Yet  in  the  following  year  an 
outcry  was  raised  against  Costa  Rica  for  prohibiting,  under  imprisonment 
and  other  penalty,  any  strictures  on  the  authorities.  Nic.  Sewanal,  Oct.  31, 
1872;  Porvenir  JVic,  Nov.  10,  1872.  See  also  Pacha,  Codhjo  Nic,  i.  173-6; 
Gaceta  Guat,  June  18,  1849;  El  Sigla,  May  15,  1852;  Gac.  Ofic.  Hand.,  May 
30,  1852,  Jan.  20,  1853;  Nic,  Decret.  y  Acuerd..  1860,  140-2;  1872,  34-40; 
Nic  Liforme  Min.  Gab.,  v.  2-3;  vi.  16.  Bonds  were  generally  demanded 
from  editors.  Notwithstanding  the  decline  of  ecclesiastical  influence  en- 
actments have  appeared  against  impious  as  w^ell  as  pernicious  books.  Guat. 
Recap.  I^eyes,  iii.  286-7;  Cent.  Am.  Pamphlets,  v.  pt.  vi. 

1*  The  original  manuscript  of  Vazquez,  a  closely  written  volume  of  over 
200  folios,  in  double  columns,  dated  1724,  is  in  my  library.  It  was  never 
printed.  Siria's  work  was  issued  at  Guatemala  in.  1716  in  4*'  form  of  330 
pages.  To  these  may  be  added  the  Vida  de  la  Vmjen  and  other  religious 
treatises  by  the  Jesuit  Juan  Antonio  de  Oviedo,  a  native  of  Bogota,  educated 
in  Guatemala  but  chiefly  connected  Mdth  Mexico.  He  died  in  1757.  The 
Dominican  Father  Leal  who  wrote  the  Ecclesic  Manumenta,  containing  the 
lives  of  the  bishops  of  Guatemala,  was  a  Peruvian;  and  the  Jesuit  Jose 
Ignacio  Vallejo,  author  of    Vida  de  S.  Jas6,  came  from  Guadalajara. 

1^  Friar  Pedro  Sapien,  Pedro  Jose  Arrece,  a  presbyter.  Friar  Pedro  Mari- 
ano Iturbide,  and  Friar  Juan  Lerrasa,  all  of  Guatemala  city,  wrote  on 
philosophic  subjects;  and  Friar  Miguel  Frausesch,  Friar  Jose  Antonio  Goi- 
coechea  and  Friar  Matias  de  Cordova  on  educational  topics. 

16  The  work  never  saw  the  press,  but  the  contents  were  plagiarized  by 
Doctor  Pablo  Feliz  Cabrera  and  published  in  condensed  form,  with  certain 
new  interpretations,  under  the  title  of  Teatro  Critico,  in  connection  with 
Ria's  Description  of  an  Ancient  City,  London,  1822.  Both  translated  into 
German,  Berlhi,  1 832.  Besides  these  I  have  in  my  library  one  of  the  two 
or  at  the  most  three  copies  extant  of  Ordonez'  work.  Moreover,  a  great 
portion  of  the  bulky  tome  before  me  is  in  the  original,  marked  by  frequent 
corrections. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

Nescire  autem,  quid  antea,  quam  natus  sis,  acciderit,  id  est  semper  esse 
puerum. 

— Cicero. 

Mexico  was  the  first  city  on  the  American  conti- 
nent to  own  a  printing-press  and  to  pubhsh  a  book,  a 
claim  that  adds  not  a  Kttle  to  the  prestige  of  the  Aztec 
capital.  The  press  came  out  with  Viceroy  Mendoza, 
who  arrived  in  October  1535,  and  appears  to  have 
been  in  charge  of  Juan  Pablos  from  Lombardy,  acting 
for  Juan  Cromberger,  the  owner  of  a  printing-house 
at  Seville.  Cromberger  died  in  1540,  and  although 
permission  was  granted  for  the  widow  and  children  to 
continue  his  business,  Pablo  must  have  bought  their 
interest,  for  after  1544  he  obtained  royal  permission 
to  carry  on  printing  exclusively  for  a  term  of  years/ 

The  first  book  issued  was  the  Escala  Espiritual 
para  llegar  at  Cielo,  Traducidode  Latin  en  CasteUano  por 
el  Venerable  Padre  Fr.  Ivan  de  la  Madalena,  Religioso 
DominicOy  in  1536.  The  work  had  been  originally 
written  in  Greek  by  San  Juan  Climacus,  the  hermit. 
Madalena  was  the  cloister  name  for  Estrada,  the  son 
of  Governor  Estrada,  the  successor  of  Cortes,  a  feature 
which  lends  additional  interest  to  the  work.^ 

The  Escala  no  longer  exists,  and  the  history  of  its 
immediate  successors  on  the  press  is  involved  in  doubt. 
Only  two  books  of  the  fourth  decade  are  said  to  sur- 
vive— the  Breve  y  Mas  Compendiosa  Doctrina  Christiana 
en  Lengua  Mexicana  y  Castellana.  At  the  end,  ^'By 
order  of  Bishop  Zumd-rraga,  by  Cromberger,  1539/* 

Essays  and  Miscellany     31  (481) 


482  LITERATURE    OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

12  leaves  in  4to.  The  other  is  a  Manual  de  Adultos,m 
by  Logrono,  printed  by  Cromberger,  December  13,] 
1540,  which  recently  found  its  way  to  London/  Half 
a  score  of  other  books  printed  before  1550  are  nov 
known  to  bibliographers,  one  of  them  in  my  library,] 
and  about  six  dozen  more  exist  with  dates  of  the| 
sixteenth  century. 

Of  these  Icazbalceta  gives  a  catalogue  of  44,  whichl 
are  nearly  all  in  Mexico,  several  in  his  own  possession.! 
Harrisse  presents  a  fuller  list,  and  less  complete  ones! 
have  been  printed  in  several  works.  Those  issued 
before  1550  are,  besides  the  three  enumerated  above, 
Relacion  del  espantahle  terremoto. .  ,el  Guatimala,  1541, 
Cromberger ;  Doctrina  breue  of  Bishop  Zumdrraga, 
1543;  Tripartito  del, , , luan  Gerson,  1544,  Cromberger ; 
Compendio  hreue  que  tracta . ,  .de  hacer  las processiones, 
1544,  Cromberger;  another  fuller  edition  of  same 
year;  Doctrina expiana . .  .por  Pedro  de  Cordoua,  1544, 
Cromberger;  Doctrina  Christiana,  1546,  Cromberger 
is  not  mentioned;  Cancionero  Spiritual  of  Las  Casas, 
1546,  Juan  Pablos  here  affixes  his  first  imprint;  Regla 
Christiana  breue,  1547 ;  Si Doctrina  of  1548,  Juan  Pablos; 
another  Doctrina,  of  doubtful  date  ;  Ordenac^as  y  copi- 
lacion  de  leyes:  hechas  por, . ,  Antonio  deMedoca,  1548, 
Juan  Pablos.* 

A  few  more  sixteenth  century  tomes  may  no  doubt 
be  brought  to  light,  particularly  in  the  Mexican  con- 
vents. Among  the  existing  number,  twenty-seven 
are  minor  ecclesiastical  works,  such  as  manuals  of 
church  ceremonies,  catechisms,  and  doctrinas,  reprinted 
for  the  most  part  from  Spanish  editions,  and  of  no 
value  save  as  rare  samples  of  New  World  typography. 
Of  the  remainder,  thirty-seven  are  works  similar  to 
the  above,  but  partially  translated  into  various  native 
dialects,  chiefly  the  Aztec,  together  with  a  few  vocab- 
ularies and  brief  grammatical  rules. 

Ten  others  are  ecclesiastical  works  of  a  somewhat 
higher  class,  notably  regulations  of  the  religious 
orders.     There   are  two  medical  treatises,   and  two 


FIRST  AMERICAN   PRESS.  483 

classical  commentaries.  Two  present  secular  laws 
and  the  ordenanzas  of  the  Viceroy  Mendoza,  one  an 
account  of  a  terrible  earthquake  in  Guatemala,  and 
another  an  account  of  the  funeral  ceremonies  of 
Philip  II.  These  first  fruits  of  the  American  press 
were  many  of  them  issued  in  several  editions. 

Among  the  authors  figure  such  notable  men  as 
Zumdrraga,  the  iconoclast,  first  bishop  of  Mexico; 
Father  Gante,  the  first  teacher  in  New  Spain ;  Father 
Veracruz,  the  zealous  missionary  ;  Molina,  who  formed 
the  first  Aztec  vocabularly,  even  now  a  standard  work. 
Latin  is  the  most  frequent  medium  after  Spanish, 
then  come  Aztec,  Tarascan,  Otomi,  Miztec,  and 
Zapotec.  The  type  is  Gothic,  Italic,  and  Roman, 
with  frequent  abbreviations  and  rare  woodcuts  of  a 
rude  character,  re-introduced  into  different  works. 
The  size  varies  from  folio  to  octavo,  the  small  quarto 
predominating.  The  binding  is  usually  the  plain 
vellum  wrapper. 

Printing  was  hampered  by  too  many  restrictions  to 
attain  any  flourishing  condition,  and  only  the  leading 
towns  like  Puebla,  Guadalajara,  and  Vera  Cruz  could 
exhibit  presses.  At  Mexico  it  appears  there  were 
six  in  1761 ;  but  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  only 
three  remained.^  These  printers  had  to  obtain  licenses, 
not  being  allowed  to  print  without  official  sanction. 

The  introduction  of  books  was  rigorously  supervised, 
so  as  to  exclude  anything  that  savored  of  heresy,  or 
too  great  liberty  of  thought  and  speculation ;  and 
even  books  authorized  in  Spain  were  often  excluded 
as  dangerous  to  the  loyal  or  moral  tendency  of  the 
more  unsophisticated  children  beyond  the  sea.*  While 
the  inquisition  possessed  the  main  censorship,  inter- 
ference came  also  from  other  quarters  to  protect  the 
public.  Notwithstanding  this  strictness,  many  books 
were  smuggled  in  and  read  even  by  prelates,  as 
appears  from  charges  made.  Latterly  the  govern- 
ment  became  more  induls^ent. 


484  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

Periodicals  were  ever  strictly  watched,  even  so  far 
as  to  frequently  exclude  from  their  columns  narratives 
of  ordinary  events,  and  to  render  them  of  compara- 
tively small  value  to  the  historian.  A  sort  of  special 
journal  was  issued  in  early  times  on  the  arrival  of  the 
fleets,  with  accounts  of  important  occurrences,  of 
appointments,  and  the  like,  but  the  first  issue  of  a 
regular  periodical  was  begun  at  Mexico  in  1693,  with 
the  Mercurio  Volante  of  Sigiienza,  which  reached  four 
volumes.  In  1722  Juan  Ignacio  Maria  de  Castorena 
y  Ursua,  precentor  at  Mexico,  and  later  bishop  of 
Yucatan,  presented  in  the  Gaceta  a  publication  more 
in  accordance  with  our  idea  of  a  journal.  The  issue 
stopped  for  some  reason  the  same  year,  but  was  re- 
sumed in  1728  by  Arevalo.'  It  continued  monthly 
until  1739,  reporting  events  in  different  provinces  and 
towns  and  in  Europe,  and  giving  notices  of  fleets, 
books,  and  curious  things.  Then  came  a  long  in- 
terval until  1784,  when  the  Gaceta  de  Mexico  reappeared 
permanently  in  about  the  same  form,  in  semi-monthly 
numbers,  occasionally  weekly,  and  with  supplements 
and  illustrations.  In  1805  it  expanded  to  semi- 
weekly  numbers.* 

Meanwhile  the  Mercurio  had  been  twice  revived,  in 
1772  by  Bartolache  who  issued  a  few  numbers  on 
scientific  subjects.  This  higher  sphere  of  periodicals 
received  its  first  reliable  support  from  the  learned 
Alzate  in  his  Gacetas  de  Literatura,  devoted  to  arts, 
science,  and  critical  reviews.  In  1805,  about  ten 
years  after  Alzate' s  paper  stopped,  a  similiar  daily 
publication,  the  Diario  de  MexicOy  made  its  appearance, 
with  preference  for  light  literature,  yet  with  a  small 
proportion  of  political  matter.  It  continued  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  consisted  generally  of  two  small  quarto 
sheets.  The  projector  was  the  alcalde  de  corte.  Villa 
Urrutia.  Reports  of  transactions  by  societies  became 
not  infrequent  even  before  the  independence. 

The  revolution  gave  rise  to  a  number  of  small 
sheets,  and  the  greater  liberty  accorded  to  the  press 


PERIODICALS.  485 

after  1810  gave  impulse  to  all  classes  of  literature. 
Periodicals  were  issued  also  at  a  few  other  places,  as 
Guatemala  and  Vera  Cruz,  but  these  could  not  in- 
fringe on  the  exclusive  rights  granted  to  the  official 
paper  at  Mexico  to  publish  certain  foreign  and  local 
information.'* 

With  the  limited  range  of  education  and  the  re- 
strictions on  literature  it  can  readily  be  supposed  that 
collections  of  books  were  not  numerous,  beyond  the 
convents,  where  more  or  less  extensive  libraries  very 
naturally  collected,  almost  wholly  of  a  theological 
nature.  To  these,  different  chronicles  of  the  orders 
refer  as  the  source  for  their  data.  The  chief  collec- 
tions were  at  the  head  convent  of  the  provincia,  to 
which  flowed  all  reports,  and  where  the  chief  school 
of  the  order  was  situated. 

The  few  colleges  accumulated  sets,  as  in  San  Juan 
de  Letran,  the  Jesuit  institute,  and  the  university. 
The  churches  had  also  respectable  libraries  formed  by 
donations  from  chapters  and  prelates,  and  so  had  the 
public  offices,  notably  the  audience  court  from  which 
the  royal  chronicler  drew  his  data.^' 

From  what  has  been  said  about  the  strict  exclusion 
of  foreign  books  and  the  zealous  efforts  of  churchmen 
to  banish  also  light  Spanish  literature,  it  may  be  as- 
sumed that  the  collections  were  even  more  national  in 
their  character  than  would  be  expected  in  a  colony ; 
that  is,  composed  of  works  written  within  the  country, 
and  vastly  preponderating  in  theologic  lore.  True, 
the  standard  authors  of  Spain,  scholastics,  legal  lights, 
chroniclers,  poets,  dramatists,  formed  the  gems,  the 
nucleus,  of  the  sets ;  but  we  can  readily  imagine  the 
proportion  of  local  writers  and  of  subjects  for  the  rest, 
when  it  is  shown  that  merely  the  Franciscan  authors 
of  New  Spain,  who  until  1800  inflicted  their  verbose 
and  monotonous  narratives  and  dissertations  on  a  sub- 
missive   people,  numbered  over  four  hundred,''  and 


486  LITERATURE  OF   COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

when  it  is  considered  that  the  religious  teachers 
guided  pubUc  taste,  and  strove  to  obtain  a  circulation 
for  their  own  productions. 

This  feature  is  of  certain  significance,  since  it 
stamped  to  a  great  extent  the  literary  taste  in  all  di- 
rections. The  friars  were  not  what  were  called  well- 
read  men.  Many  missionaries  in  the  out-lying  prov- 
inces, who  have  contributed  so  much  to  history,  pos- 
sessed a  merely  rudimentary  education ;  others  had 
taken  degress  at  their  colleges  without  dipping  into 
other  lore  than  that  furnished  by  the  fathers  of  the 
church.  Medina  points  out  that  his  order  heeded 
well  the  exhortation  of  St  Francis  to  his  followers — 
not  to  profess  sciences  and  books,  but  to  study  humil- 
ity." Such  writers  as  Torquemada,  whose  knowledge 
of  Greek  and  Latin  classics  created  some  attention 
for  him,  were  therefore  rare ;  yet  even  this  class  had 
been  so  moulded  in  the  religious  element  of  their 
studies,  and  by  the  ascetic  influence  around  them,  as 
to  leave  the  impress  thereof  on  every  page. 

Since  every  work  had  to  pass  through  the  hands  of 
censors,  notably  the  rigid  inquisition,  it  became  al- 
most necessary  to  give  a  pious  tinge  to  the  pages  in 
order  to  secure  permission  to  publish,  and  above  all 
to  suppress  whatever  savored  of  acquaintance  with 
works  not  favored  by  the  church.  Ever}^  book,  even 
the  petty  pamphlet,  is  prefaced  with  a  host  of  certifi- 
cates to  vouch  for  its  orthodox  and  local  sentiments, 
and  the  absence  of  anything  that  might  disturb  the 
desired  frame  of  the  public  mind. 

Add  to  this  the  control  of  schools  and  colleges  by 
ecclesiastic  teachers,  bound  by  training  and  duty  to 
leaven  the  youthful  mind  with  religious  dogmas  and 
forms,  discouraging  physics  and  cognate  subjects, 
and  strictly  excluding  speculative  thought  of  a  liberal 
character  ;  even  the  study  of  medicine  would  probably 
have  been  frowned  down  but  for  the  exigent  demand 
of  health.  Thus  bigotry  stifled  intellectual  life.  A 
lamentable  superstition  is  apparent  in  the  works  even 


CENSORSHIP.  487 

of  later  writers,  who,  like  Yeytia,  had  travelled  and 
dipped  widely  into  foreign  literature.  Critical  and 
satiric  writings  were  banished,  the  eloquence  of  the 
bar  and  pulpit  depressed,  and  didactic  works  circum- 
scribed, a  certain  outlet  being  permitted  only  in 
poetry  and  the  drama,  which  from  the  pressure  of 
pent-up  feeling  in  this  direction  became  tinged  with 
undesirable  elements  and  colors. 

All  this  was  but  a  reflection  of  the  influence  at  work 
in  Spain,  intensified  here  where  the  people  for  various 
reasons  must  be  held  in  stricter  pupilage.  Born  amid 
the  strife  of  battle,  literature  had  sprung  forth  endowed 
with  the  strength  of  its  mountain  home,  and  fired 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  heroic  spirits.  Similar  influ- 
ences fostered  it  also  on  the  Anahuac  plateau,  where 
the  chivalry  romances,  with  Amadis  in  the  lead,  urged 
the  conquering  hordes  to  fresh  deeds  and  wider  roam- 
ing. Yet  this  early  period  was  one  of  transition  from 
a  decline  to  a  revival  of  letters,  whereof  even  Bernal 
Diaz,  with  all  his  crudities,  affords  an  indication.  The 
new  impulse  came  from  Italy,  to  which  the  gilded 
youth  of  Spain  had  been  led  under  the  victorious  ban- 
ners of  the  Great  Captain,  only  to  fall  captive  in  the 
meshes  of  an  intellectual  influence  that  was  slowly  to 
change  the  national  form ;  a  form  hitherto  colored 
only  by  Moorish  sources,  from  which  the  ballads  in 
particular  had  borrowed  so  much  material.  Although 
the  new  school  met  with  strong  opposition  in  certain 
quarters,  and  failed  to  find  root  for  all  its  branches, 
the  effect  was  wide-spread  and  vivifying,  even  to  the 
conservative  faction.  This  is  instanced  by  the  splen- 
dor of  the  Yega-Calderon  period,  and  even  in  such  prose 
writers  as  Solis,  wherein,  however,  affectation  and 
floridity  reach  a  degree  that  is  unendurable  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  ear,  though  not  equal  to  the  still  wilder 
revelling  of  the  Concettisti.  Among  these  our  Sala- 
zar  y  Olarte  may  well  figure  as  a  representative,  and 
their  spirit  has  found  only  too  wide  a  response  in 


488  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

American  literature,  with  its  extravagant  and  unsus- 
tained  soarings  in  fancy  and  diction. 

What  was  excusable  in  poetry  became  a  glaring  de- 
fect in  prose.  The  latter  indeed  received  compara- 
tively little  study  in  historic  and  didactic  branches, 
and  fell  far  behind  poetry  in  appropriate  development. 
Not  so,  however,  romance,  which  continued  to  flourish, 
intimately  connected  as  it  was  with  the  prevalent  bal- 
lad spirit  so  rooted  on  the  peninsula.  But  it  took  a 
departure  from  chivalry  romance  in  the  picaresco,  rogu- 
ish novels,  which  are  distinctively  Spanish,  yet  owe 
their  rise  greatly  to  Italian  fiction.  A  high  standard 
was  reached  in  those  wherein  Cervantes  has  challenged 
universal  admiration. 

The  establishment  of  the  Bourbon  dynasty  prepared 
the  way  for  another  change  where  Italian  influence 
was  displaced  by  French.  This  met  with  similar  op- 
position from  the  national  party  and  affected  literature 
in  a  less  radical  manner  than  the  former,  yet  it  infused 
everywhere  a  more  classic  and  sedate  tone,  even  when 
direct  application  failed.  It  seems,  however,  as  if  the 
bridle  proved  also  a  check  on  genius,  for  the  eighteenth 
century  produced  no  poet  at  all  comparable  to  those 
of  the  preceding  period ;  but  prose  was  lifted  to  a 
higher  level,  and  early  national  literature  came  into 
favor  transformed  to  some  extent  after  the  new  models. 
The  royal  academy,  founded  in  1714,  sougth  to  confirm 
the  taste  by  praiseworthy  efforts  in  different  directions, 
notably  in  the  dictionary,  its  crowning  task.  Gallic 
influence  is  above  all  to  be  accredited  with  assisting 
to  break  down  the  barriers  so  long  maintained  by  big- 
otry ;  and  herein  the  Benedictine  Feijoo  proved  an 
admirable  instrument  by  his  long  and  persevering  on- 
slaught against  the  prevailing  dialects  and  scholasti- 
cism, and  by  his  exposition  of  scientific  studies. 

That  this  sketch  of  peninsula  literature  applies  to 
New  Spain  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  foreign  books 
were  excluded,  while  teachers  and  guides  had  nearly 
all  been  trained  in  Spain.     The  difference  lay  in  the 


OLD  AND  NEW  SPAIN.  489 

slower  introduction  of  changes,  in  their  greater  cur- 
tailment, and  in  the  modifications  imparted  by  a  var- 
iety of  races.  The  Creole  was  precocious  and  impul- 
sive, but  unsustained,  non-persevering,  and  his  indo- 
lence of  spirit,  added  to  the  non-reflective  bent  of  the 
Castilian,  imparted  a  shallowness  to  his  efforts.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  catalogue  of  prominent  writers  contains 
a  large  proportion  of  local  names,  many  of  which  cast 
a  lustre  that  has  obtained  for  them  a  trans-oceanic 
fame. 

Among  the  Indians  also  a  long  array  of  writers 
stands  forth  to  redeem  the  race  from  the  obloquy  with 
which  caste,  distinction, and  short-sighted  policy  have 
assisted  to  cover  them ;  and  while  their  mind  is  almost 
wholly  imitative,  lacking  in  breadth  and  subtlety, 
and  strikingly  devoid  of  imagination  and  invention, 
yet  their  aptitude  for  mastering  mechanical  details 
tends  to  hide  many  imperfections.  It  would  seem  as 
if  the  bloody  rites,  monarchial  despotism,  and  popular 
serfdom  had  from  remotest  times  left  an  impression 
on  their  literary  efforts. 

In  aboriginal  times  they  were  naturally  hampered 
by  the  imperfect  system  of  writing,  which  consisted 
chiefly  of  figurative  and  symbolic  characters,  with  a 
mere  admixture  of  phonetic  elements.  It  was  fully 
understood  alone  by  the  priesthood  who  kept  the 
records,  and  by  the  select  educated  few,  while  another 
less  advanced  class  comprehended  the  more  common 
signs,  with  their  narrow  range  of  exoteric  subjects, 
and  stood  in  this  respect  above  the  mass  of  the 
people.  The  Nahuas,  and  perhaps  even  more  so  the 
Mayas,  stood  conspicuously  forward  as  the  most  ad- 
vanced in  culture  on  the  American  continent ;  and 
nothing  so  strikingly  illustrates  this  superiority  as 
their  picture-writing.  Rising  above  the  use  of  repre- 
sentative and  symbolic  pictures  as  adequate  only  for 
temporary  purposes,  they  conceived  the  idea  of  per- 
manent records,  and  consequently  developed  and  per- 


490  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

fected  their  hieroglyphic  system  until  they  had  added 
a  phonetic  element.  The  realization  of  the  want  was 
the  true  beginning,  was  almost  the  accomplished  fact; 
all  the  rest  followed  as  naturally  as  the  plant  germi- 
nates from  the  seed.  With  them  the  painted  like- 
ness of  glistening  drops  no  longer  signified,  as  in  more 
primitive  stages,  simply  the  pictured  substance  atlj  as 
it  would  have  signified,  with  equal  clearness,  water, 
eau,  or  agua  to  the  Englishman,  Frenchman,  or  Span- 
iard ;  but  it  conveyed  to  the  reader's  mind  the  sound 
or  syllable  atl,  or  even  a,  in  many  words  which  retain 
in  their  meaning  and  derivation  no  reference  what- 
ever to  the  fluid  depicted  by  the  character.  The 
transition  to  the  phonetic  element  is  strikingly  illus- 
trated in  the  illustrated  rebuses — children's  hierogly- 
phics— as  when  charity  is  written  by  drawing  in  suc- 
cession a  chair,  an  eye,  and  a  chest  of  tea,  chair-eye- 
tea.  The  sounds  of  the  word  have  their  meaning. 
To  the  Frenchman  the  same  pictures,  chaise-oeil- 
the  would  have  no  significance.  One  stage  of  de- 
velopment only,  that  from  representative  syllabic 
character  to  an  arbitrary  literal  alphabet,  remained,  to 
which  the  native  American  litterateur  might  aspire. 
But  we  must  not  picture  too  broad  the  gulf  that  sep- 
arates Aztec  literature  and  its  aboriginal  amateurs 
from  the  writer  and  printer  of  the  present  day.  The 
future  scribe,  seated  on  the  pedestal  of  the  centuries, 
may  consider  the  difference  slight,  and  condemn  our 
signs  as  crude. 

Every  phase  of  human  knowledge  is  a  development 
from  a  germ,  a  result,  grand  or  otherwise,  built  by 
gradual  accumulation  upon  small  beginnings.  The 
wheel  of  progress,  now  whirling  with  such  lightning 
speed  through  the  nations,  accomplished  but  slowly 
and  with  frequent  rests  its  primary  revolutions.  And 
yet  the  first  triumphs  of  our  race  were  the  most  glo- 
rious and  the  most  important.  From  these  have 
sprung  all  subsequent  conquests  of  mind  over  matter. 
The  naked,  primitive  man,  who,  threatened  by  superior 


ABORIGINAL  ATTEMPTS.  491 

animals,  first  defended  his  life,  and  opposed  brute 
force  by  intelligent  cunning  in  the  use  of  a  projectile, 
became  thereby  a  just  claimant  to  some  part  of  the 
honor  due  the  inventor  of  the  rifled  cannon.  The 
aboriginal  who  first  bethought  him  to  call  into  requi- 
istion  a  floating  log  for  crossing  the  river,  was  the  true 
originator  of  the  ocean  steamer.  In  painting  and 
sculpture,  the  actual  old  masters  were  those  whose 
latent  power  revealed  itself  by  caricaturing  in  lines 
of  coal  or  berry-juice,  or  rudely  modelling  in  river- 
bank  mud  the  forms  of  familiar  objects.  In  literature, 
as  in  all  art  and  science,  "c'est  le  premier  pas  qui 
coute."  The  first  wild  bohemian  who,  by  a  mark  on 
a  forest  tree  indicated  to  him  who  came  after  the 
route  taken,  was  the  founder  of  written  language. 
He  who  signed  the  tree  record  with  his  name,  '  The 
Panther,'  by  an  outline  carving  of  the  beast  whose 
appellation  and  qualities  he  had  assumed,  achieved  a 
greater  triumph  than  did  in  later  times  the  inventor 
of  movable  types ;  and  the  first  faint  conception  of  a 
phonetic  in  addition  to  a  purely  representative  use  of 
the  native  pictures  was  one  more  pregnant  with  re- 
sults in  the  interests  of  progress  than  was  that  of  the 
printing-press. 

Every  wild  tribe  from  Alaska  to  Panamd,  before 
its  obliteration,  had  made  more  or  less  progress  in 
representative  picture-writing.  Their  primitive  pages, 
carved  or  painted  on  wood  or  stone,  are  open  to  in- 
spection in  every  one  of  the  Pacific  states.  Some  of 
the  pages  doubtless  contain  also  symbolic  writing; 
surely  many  of  the  figures  represent  no  natural  object 
in  the  heavens  above  or  the  earth  beneath.  The  sav- 
age who,  to  save  labor,  gradually  omits  features, 
limbs,  and  body  from  the  picture  by  which  he  indi- 
cates 'a  man,'  until  nothing  is  left  but  a  line  arbi- 
trarily crooked,  certainly  makes  no  small  advance  in 
the  direction  of  shorthand.  His  idea  is  a  grand  one; 
not  that  it  enlarges  greatly  at  first  the  scope  of  his 
recording  abilities,  but  by  reason  of  the  possible  re- 


492  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 


^ 


suits  to  which  it  may  lead.  Symbolic  writing,  in  its 
abandonment  of  clues  for  general  interpretation,  often 
leaves  no  positive  proof  of  being  a  class  of  cipher;  not 
a  few  of  the  curious  characters  that  so  sorely  puzzle 
antiquarian  investigators  may  be  fairly  attributed  to 
the  propensity  possessed  by  savages,  in  common  with 
children,  to  seek  amusement  in  the  tracing  of  mean- 
ingless lines. 

These  picture-pages  of  American  savagism,  proving 
as  they  do  that  their  authors  were  on  the  road  to  let- 
ters, are,  nevertheless,  utterly  devoid  of  meaning  to 
us.  Enthusiastic  attempts  to  explain  their  significance 
have  signally  failed,  and  theories  reared  on  the  Digh  - 
ton  rock  inscription  have  proved  inapplicable.  The 
ludicrous  failure  of  Domenech's  Book  of  Savages  has 
dampened  the  ardor  of  many.  Representative  and  sym- 
bolic hieroglyphics,  unaided  by  the  phonetic  or  alpha- 
betic element,  may  rarely  be  handed  down  to  a  follow- 
ing generation.  Left  alone  the  native  germ  would 
have  developed,  but  it  was  not  so  decreed.  All  honor 
nevertheless  to  the  dusky  scribes  I  They  did  what 
they  could  before  us  in  trying  to  decipher  the  mystery. 
Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  our  ancestors  for  hundreds 
of  centuries  past,  rather  than  to  any  merit  of  our 
own,  we  are  enabled  to  work  systematically  for  the 
attainment  of  a  desired  end,  and  by  means  and  devices 
which  shine  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  remote 
past,  as  they  will  pale  before  those  of  the  less  remote 
future. 

The  Aztec  system  of  writing,  although  imperfect, 
was  adequate  enough  to  their  by  no  means  small  or 
simple  necessities.  By  its  aid  they  could  intelligibly 
commit  their  language  to  sheets  of  cloth  or  skin,  but 
chiefly  to  long  strips  of  the  native  metl,  or  agave-paper, 
rolled  or  if  preferable  folded  fan-like  into  a  form  con- 
venient for  use  Thus  they  recorded  the  laws  of  their 
complicated  code,  the  tribute-rolls  of  their  conquered 
domains,  ritual  tables  of  feast-days,  and  sacrifices 
appointed  to  honor  the  divinities  of  an  over-crowded 


AZTEC  RECORDS.  493 

pantheon,  genealogic  lists  of  kings  and  noble  families, 
with  the  chronology  of  their  succession,  and  the 
events  of  their  respective  reigns;  in  fact  their  history 
— for  they,  like  Europeans  of  the  same  age,  deemed 
the  deeds  only  of  kings  and  priests  worthy  of  the 
recorder's  notice. 

Over  this  magic  hieroglyphic  art  a  veil  of  mystery 
was  cast.  The  priesthood  controlled  it  as  they  did 
all  else  in  this  American  Middle  Age,  and  only  a 
chosen  few  could  aspire  to  fathom  its  secrets.  The 
million  could  only  stand  aloof  and  wonder  as  they 
listened  to  the  vague  rumors  afloat  respecting  the 
wonderful  powers  of  the  god-like  literati  with  their 
charmed  scrolls. 

The  last  native  triumph  in  letters  was  won.  Fate, 
envious  of  their  indigenous  success,  refused  to  the 
Americans  a  few  centuries  more  in  order  to  enlarge 
and  perfect  what  they  had  so  nobly  accomplished. 
Their  literature  and  civilization,  their  priesthood  and 
religion,  withered  at  the  touch  of  foreign  interference, 
never  to  revive.  Not  only  was  the  further  unfolding 
of  Nahua  letters  effectually  checked,  but  the  light 
which  the  Aztec  records  might  have  shed  on  the 
American  past  was  in  a  great  measure  extinguished 
in  the  flood  of  foreign  fanaticism.  Before  the  coming 
of  the  Europeans  the  native  documentary  records, 
comparatively  few  in  number,  were  collected  in  the 
principal  religious  centres,  and  locked  in  the  archives 
of  the  capital  cities,  there  to  be  seized  and  destroyed 
by  order  of  catholic  bishops.  Not  alone  to  the  barba- 
rian invasions,  civil  broils,  or  Roman  catholic  zeal  is 
due  the  infamy  of  book-burning,  an  infamy  as  much 
more  odious  than  human  slaughter  as  knowledge  is 
better  than  life.  The  calif  Omar  burns  the  writings 
of  the  Greeks  lest  they  should  not  agree  with  his 
holy  book ;  the  catholic  fathers  burn  the  writings  of 
the  heathen  lest  they  should  not  agree  with  their 
holy  book ;  and  later  and  stranger  infatuation  than 
all,  protestants  burn  the  books  of  the  catholics  be- 


494  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

cause  in  their  opinion  they  do  not  fairly  represent  the 
faith  which  both  accept.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  IV. 
the  reforming  visitors  of  the  university  of  Oxford 
purged  the  pubHc  hbrary  of  popery ;  leaving  only  a 
manuscript  of  Valerius  Maximus,  they  burned  the 
remaining  writings  in  the  market-place,  or  sold  them 
to  low  artificers.  A  cartload  of  manuscripts,  including 
even  mathematical  figures,  rubrics,  and  astronomical 
demonstrations,  was  thus  taken  from  the  library  of 
Merton  college. 

The  Reverendissimo  Senor  Don  Fray  Juan  Zumdr- 
raga,  a  most  venerable  and  illustrious  Franciscan,  was 
a  man  of  great  learning,  as  learning  then  went.  A 
native  of  Durango,  a  city  of  northern  Spain,  his  early 
life  was  devoted  to  the  strict  observances  of  the  rules 
of  his  order,  which  led  to  his  appointment  as  guardian 
of  the  convent  of  Concepcion,  and  later  of  Abrigo,  a 
convent  near  Valladolid,  whither  Charles  V.  was  wont 
to  retire  during  holy- week;  and  so  greatly  pleased 
was  the  monarch  with  the  priest's  devotion,  that  when 
Cortes  captured  Montezuma,  Zumdrraga  was  made 
first  bishop  of  Mexico.  His  zeal  was  surpassed  only 
by  his  bigotry ;  and  for  this  the  natives  had  reason  to 
curse,  while  blessing  him,  because  he  discouraged  their 
indiscriminate  abuse. 

Zumdrraga  was  a  good  man,  a  pious  man,  an  honest 
man.  His  was  an  enlightened  conscience  in  so  far  as 
light  had  as  yet  reached  this  planet.  His  trouble 
was  excess  of  conscience.  His  piety  overwhelmed 
his  humanity.  He  would  do  men  good  if  he  had  to 
torture  or  slay  in  order  to  accomplish  it. 

Because,  forsooth,  the  Christian's  devil  lurked  be- 
tween those  barbaric  pages ;  because  characters  unex- 
plainable  by  papal  Daniels  must  be  scrawls  of  Satan, 
traced  by  pitchy  fingers  to  the  eternal  confounding 
of  these  poor  heathens;  because  of  a  learned  infatu- 
ation well  nigh  incomprehensible  to  us  of  the  present 
day,  there  must  be  sacrificed  and  lost  to  progres- 
sive man  treasures  inestimable,  pictures  of  primitive 


ABORIGINAL  HISTORY.  495 

thought,  incipient  civilizations,  of  a  progress  in  some 
respects  which  might  put  to  blush  that  of  these  icono- 
clastic teachers. 

Even  were  those  heaps  of  horrible  scrawls  what 
you  regarded  them,  oh  I  holy  fanatics,  better  to 
have  kept  them  amongst  us,  better  to  have  kept  and 
read  these  written  instructions  of  Lucifer,  and  to 
have  learned  therefrom,  to  our  further  safety,  how  by 
his  arts  he  deluded  these  poor  barbarians,  than  by 
fire  to  have  sent  his  missives  back  to  him  unopened. 
But  now  both  Aztec  manuscripts  and  fanatic  fathers 
have  gone  their  way. 

Saved  from  the  fires  which  Zumarraga's  bigotry 
kindled,  or  copied  by  ecclesiastical  permission  before 
serving  as  food  for  the  purifying  flames,  or  trans- 
scribed  from  memory  by  converts,  many  specimens  of 
picture-writing  were  sent  by  the  conquerors  to  Spain 
in  the  sixteenth  century  as  curiosities  of  New  World 
art.  These  excited  momentary  attention  by  their 
mysterious  devices  ;  then  they  were  scattered,  and  for 
two  centuries  forgotten.  When  attention  was  again 
directed  to  these  relics  of  an  extinct  civilization,  and 
their  importance  began  to  be  appreciated,  search  was 
made  throughout  Europe,  and  such  scattered  rem- 
nants as  survived  their  long  neglect  were  gathered 
and  deposited  in  public  aud  private  libraries.  Eight 
or  ten  such  collections  were  formed,  and  most  of  their 
contents,  with  plates  and  explanations,  published 
by  Lord  Kingsborough  in  a  work  of  nine  mammoth 
folios,  which  cost  him  his  reason  and  his  fortune. 
His  reason  was  wasted  in  the  absurd  attempt  to  prove 
the  Jewish  origin  of  American  indigenous  races. 
If  bulk  or  bull-dog  determination  can  prove  a  propo- 
sition, surely  this  half-demented  English  lord  should 
be  believed,  and  all  mankind  forever  agree  with  him 
that  the  American  aboriginal  descended  from  the  ten 
lost  tribes  of  Israel,  which  wandered  over  to  these 
shores,  either  by  sea  or  land,  and  here,  abandoned  by 
their  god  in  their  propagations,  became  dusky  and 


496  LITERATUrxE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

degenerate,  so  that  later,  Christians  coming  hither 
might  easily  kill  them. 

The  remnants  of  Tezcuco's  aboriginal  archives  were 
bequeathed  by  her  last  king  to  his  lineal  descendant, 
Ixtlilxochitl,  who  used  them  extensively,  albeit  not 
always  judiciously,  in  his  voluminous  historical  writ- 
ings. From  this  scion  of  a  royal  race,  these  may  be 
traced  more  or  less  clearly  as  in  the  possession  suc- 
cessively of  Siguenza,  Boturini,Vcytia,  Ortega,  Leony 
Gama,  Pichardo,  and  Sanchez,  and  finally  to  the 
National  Museum  of  the  University  of  Mexico,  their 
present  and  proper  place  of  deposit. 

In  the  hands  of  some  of  these  owners  a  portion  of 
the  manuscripts  were  scattered ;  others  by  personal 
research  augmented  their  collection,  as  Boturini,  who 
added  500  specimens.  These  were  confiscated  by  the 
government,  but  surrendered  to  the  historian  Veytia 
for  consultation  in  the  preparation  of  his  work  on 
aboriginal  history.  Gemelli  Careri  and  Clavigero 
had  had  similar  access  for  public  benefit.  At  the 
death  of  Leon  y  Gama,  a  portion  of  his  inherited 
hieroglyphic  treasures  was  sold,  and  from  this  source 
Humboldt  obtained  some  specimens  for  the  Berlin 
collection. 

During  the  revolution  and  subsequent  civil  war, 
many  papers  were  transferred  to  Europe,  and  mostly 
secured  by  M.  Aubin.  Still,  a  rich  collection  re- 
mains in  the  Mexican  archives,  and  ardent  students 
of  the  Aztec  hieroglyphic  system  are  not  wanting, 
from  whose  researches  the  future  has  much  to  learn 
respecting  the  American  past.  The  zeal  of  a  few  na- 
tive scholars,  and  the  practical  use  made  of  the  native 
pictures  before  the  courts  during  the  years  following 
the  conquest,  fortunately  prevented  a  loss  of  the  key 
to  their  interpretation. 

Respecting  the  value  of  the  native  records  de- 
stroyed there  can  be  only  conjecture.  That  the 
Aztecs  felt  the  need  of  recording  their  past,  and  pos- 
sessed   a    hieroglyphic  system  fully  adequate  to  the 


NAHUA   WRITINGS.  497 

purpose,  and  yet  did  not  use  it,  is  hardly  to  be  sup- 
posed. There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  they 
wrote  all  they  knew  concerning  their  history ;  the 
only  question  is  how  much  they  knew.  The  annals 
were  certainly  detailed  and  tolerably  accurate  for  the 
two  centuries  of  Aztec  domination  ;  but  prior  to  that 
nation's  rise,  the  point  where  history  fades  into  tradi- 
tion, in  American  as  in  Old  World  annals,  cannot  be 
definitely  fixed.  Traditionally,  the  branches  of  the 
Naliua  peoples  preceding  that  known  as  the  Aztec 
were  no  less  skilled  in  the  art  of  picture-records ;  but 
tradition  also  tells  us  that  the  scrolls  with  pre- Aztec 
annals  were  destroyed  by  one  of  the  Mexican  mon- 
archs,  ambitious  to  blot  from  the  knowledge  of  hu- 
man kind  all  details  of  greatness  preceding  and 
exceeding  that  of  his  own  achievements. 

The  Nahuas  were  proficient  also  in  other  phases  of 
intellectual  development,  as  instanced  by  the  remark- 
able knowledge  of  astronomy  and  other  branches  set 
forth  in  my  Native  Races.  ^loreover,  there  existed  at 
Tezcuco  an  institution  under  the  name  of  Council  of 
Music,  whose  exclusive  aim  it  w^as  to  foster  arts  and 
sciences,  and  above  all  oratory,  poetry,  and  similar 
literary  eflbrts.  Its  members,  selected  purely  on  the 
ground  of  ability,  held  daily  sessions,  and  formed  a 
tribunal  which  decided  on  the  merits  of  productions 
by  authors,  and  conferred  prizes  that  were  at  times 
munificent.  This  academy  exerted  a  decided  influence 
throughout  Anahuac,  for  the  Acolhua  capital,  although 
secondary  to  Mexico  in  political  power,  retained  the 
leading  position  in  arts  and  refinement  acquired  dur- 
ing the  davs  of  Chichimec  grandeur. 

The  emulation  evoked  and  the  taste  impressed 
under  such  auspices  could  not  fail  to  produce  their 
effects.  Oratory  received  particular  attention,  owdng 
to  its  intimate  connection  with  public  and  social  affairs 
and  life,  for  speeches  were  the  rule  on  every  conceiva- 
ble occasion.     Prayers  to  the  gods  were  of  a  most 

Essays  and  Miscellany     32 


498  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

elaborate  character ;  addresses  salutatory  or  of  con- 
dolence, and  dinner-speeches  received  studied  care ; 
declamations  and  harangues  flowed  incessantly  at 
feasts  or  reunions  ;  correspondence  was  largely  carried 
on  by  orators.  If  with  all  this  fostering  care  the  art 
does  not  possess  any  marked  excellencies,  the  fault 
must  be  attributed  to  the  lack  of  imaginative  power 
so  generally  assumed  for  the  aborigines.  Indeed,  the 
style  of  the  orations  so  abundantly  recorded  by  Saha- 
gun  and  other  writers  is  bald,  with  rare  outbursts  of 
eloquence,  and  with  similes  as  a  rule  stupid  or  com- 
monplace. The  range  of  the  latter  are  limited  to 
certain  choice  objects  ever  before  the  eye,  rather  than 
to  the  grand  or  subtle  phenomena  which  stir  reflection 
and  poetic  instinct.  Thought  and  language  alike 
rather  abstain  from  lofty  flights,  to  grovel  with  the 
speaker  in  self-abasement.  Terror  and  awe  find  fre- 
quent display,  with  maudlin  plaintiveness,  to  which  a 
response  of  tears  is  readily  accorded.  These  reflect 
the  despotic  government  and  bloody  rights  which  en- 
slaved both  mind  and  body.  Apostrophe  and  em- 
phasis dwindle  into  feeble  wails  and  appeals,  while  re- 
dundancy and  periphase  with  loose  sentences  charac- 
terize the  construction,  if  we  may  judge  by  Spanish 
translations.     The  garrulous  and  didactic  prevail. 

Of  poetic  efforts  fewer  specimens  have  been  pre- 
served to  us,  but  the  most  authentic  are  evidently  by 
a  man  of  greater  inspiration,  from  Tezcuco  itself  the 
Athenian  centre,  with  its  purer  idiom  and  greater 
refinement.  The  poet  is  King  Nezahualcoyotl, 
famed  as  philosopher  and  law-giver,  whose  mind  had 
freed  itself  in  a  degree  from  the  shackles  of  bloody 
and  debasing  superstition  around  him,  and  sought  a 
mightier  God,  a  primordial  cause.  Full  of  vicissi- 
tudes, his  life  displayed  to  him  rather  sad  phases  and 
his  verse  assumed  an  elegiac  cast. 

The  abundance  of  treasures  and  joys,      And  nectar  is  sipped  by  the  bee, 

Are  but  nosegays  that  wither  and  die.     So  ye  enter  to  revel, 

As  the  birds  thrill  their  melody,  In  the  seasons  of  flowering  spring. 


ABORIGINAL  POETRY.  499 

In  another  poem  he  dwells  on  the  qualities  and 
symbols  of  precious  stones  with  less  happy  effect ; 
but  in  speaking  of  the  brevity  of  life  he  again  presents 
attractive  similes: 

The  rose  preserves  its  beauty  of  color  and  aspect  so  long  as  the  chaste 
buds  collect  those  particles  formed  by  dawn  into  rich  pearls,  to  be  evapo- 
rated in  liquid  spray. 

Rivers,  brooks,  and  waters  rush  onward,  never  returning  to  their  joyous 
sources.  They  rather  hasten  toward  the  vast  domains  of  Tloluca  (Neptune), 
and  on  approaching  the  wide  border  they  fashion  the  gloomy  funeral  urn. 

The  awe-inspiring  tomb  is  really  a  cradle  for  the  sun  ;  the  dismal  shades 
are  brilliant  lights  for  stars.  ^^ 

Owing  to  distortions  by  translators  it  is  difficult  to 
form  an  opinion  concerning  the  real  merits  of  the 
pieces  ;  the  above  lines  can  hardly  be  relied  upon. 
Nevertheless,  beauty  of  comparisons  must  be  ad- 
mitted, with  a  preference  for  native  objects,  and  even 
characterizes  the  natives  to  this  day.  A  true  poetic 
spirit  is  evinced  far  above  anything  indicated  in  ora- 
torical and  other  prose  extracts.  The  longer  poem 
cited  in  the  Native  Races,  while  marked  by  several  ef- 
fective outbursts,  is  uneven,  with  a  reiteration  of 
metaphor  that  reveals  circumscribed  power.  The 
similarity  of  strain  pervading  Nezahualcoyotl's  verses, 
and  the  tendency  displayed  in  oratory,  indicate  that 
the  happiest  efforts  were  produced  when  sadness 
stirred  the  emotions.  Rhyme  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  used,  but  cadence  and  metre  received  much  at- 
tention, with  a  preference  for  iambic  verse,  according 
to  Granados.  The  introduction  of  unmeaning  sylla- 
bles to  accommodate  the  measure  seems  to  have  been 
common,  and  the  frequent  use  of  agglutination,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  character  of  the  language,  encum- 
bers the  verse  with  ponderous  words,  sometimes  a 
single  word  to  a  line.  These  crudities  must  greatly 
reduce  the  glowing  estimates  by  Clavigero  and  other 
champions. 

With  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards  a  more  perfect 
language  came  to  the  assistance  of  native  thought. 
The  multiplicity  of  aboriginal  dialects  rendered  not 


500  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

undesirable  the  adoption  among  all  classes  of  a  tongue 
so  smooth  and  uniform  as  the  Spanish.  But  many 
new  obstacles  intervened  against  any  marked  devel- 
opment. Besides  political  and  social  restrictions,  an 
intense  religious  spirit  entered  into  every  feature  of 
life,  placing  the  children  of  the  soil  especially  in  close 
leading-strings,  from  which  they  were  never  released. 
While  the  characteristic  mental  defects  remained  an 
obstacle,  the  imitative  bent  enabled  the  Indians  to 
readily  adapt  themselves  to  the  wider  field  opened. 
Their  Spanish  poetry,  modeled  on  the  productions  of 
spiritual  guides,  does  not  indicate  in  its  crudeness  and 
mediocrity  the  liberation  of  a  mind  hitherto  shackled 
by  language ;  yet  these  defects  may  be  due  partly  to 
the  novelty  of  medium  and  the  limitation  of  range  by 
submissiveness  and  bigotry.  Translations  into  native 
tongues,  chiefly  of  religious  discourses,  vocabularies 
and  grammars,  form  a  large  part  of  their  contribu- 
tions; and  so  do  sermons  by  ordained  and  lay  preach- 
ers ;  while  the  more  valuable  part  relates  to  ancient 
history  and  rites,  based  on  documentary  and  tradi- 
tional records,  interesting  and  absorbing  to  them  from 
patriotic  motives. 

Among  the  more  prominent  writers  may  be  men- 
tioned three  bearing  the  princely  name  of  Ixtlilxochitl, 
Fernando  Pimentel,  his  son  Antonio,  and  Fernando 
de  Alva,  all  three  intent  chiefly  on  recording  the 
glories  of  their  Acolhuacan  ancestors.  Alva  stands 
in  the  foremost  rank  of  earlier  Indian  historians,  both 
for  style  and  extent  of  writings,  as  manifested  in  the 
Historia  Chichimeca  and  Relaciones,  the  latter  a  series 
of  versions  of  the  same  aboriginal  history.  Indeed, 
his  diction  is  so  far  above  the  average  of  his  surround- 
ings for  clearness,  [)urity,  and  conciseness,  as  to  have 
procured  for  him  the  name  of  the  Cicero  of  Anahuac. 
But  the  structure  of  sentences  is  uneven,  and  only  too 
frequently  lax  and  ambiguous.  The  general  grasp  of 
the  subject  is  fair,  but  less  so  the  conformity  of  details. 
Juan  de  Tovar,  who   also    obtained   the    Ciceronian 


CLASSIC   AZTEC  WRITERS.  501 

epithet  for  his  proficiency  in  Aztec,  gave  a  more  liberal 
share  in  his  history  of  the  lake  region  to  provinces 
adjoining  the  classic  Tezcuco,  as  did  his  father,  An- 
tonio Tovar,  while  Tezozomoc  devoted  himself  more 
to  the  south-west  section  of  the  valley.  The  latter 
evinces  greater  appreciation  for  the  descriptive, 
although  lacking  in  spirit  and  power  of  expression, 
with  a  more  prolific  and  crude  phraseology.  The 
annals  of  the  valiant  Tlascaltecs  again  found  less 
finished  recorders  in  such  men  as  Tadeo  Miza,  Ca- 
margo,  and  Zapata  y  Mendoza;  Chimalpain  ranks 
higher  and  is  more  critical ;  Pomar  wrote  on  ancient 
rites ;  Aguero  ranked  high  among  philologic  contribu- 
tors, and  the  brothers  Ortega  attained  distinction  in 
ecclesiastic  subjects.^* 

The  lack  of  imagination  is  apparent  throughout 
these  productions  in  the  utter  indifference  to  dramatic 
opportunity,  and  in  the  feebleness  of  descriptive 
efforts.  It  can  also  be  recognized  in  the  very  excel- 
lency of  the  opening  paragraphs,  which  proceed  at 
once  to  the  subject  instead  of  wasting  themselves 
upon  florid  and  often  inappropriate  prologues,  as  with 
Spanish  writers  of  the  time.  The  poverty  of  lan- 
guage herein  manifested  is  also  revealed  in  the  want 
of  embellishment,  so  that  the  diction  is  rather  bare, 
while  obscure  pleonasms,  at  times  very  marked, 
result  from  the  same  defect.  The  characteristic 
gloomy  disposition  crops  out  frequently,  and  so  do 
the  inherited  manifestations  of  awe  in  alluding  to 
.  huge  or  grand  objects.  Religious  influences  have  here 
supplanted  aboriginal  terrorism,  impressing  upon  the 
mind  its  own  littleness,  and  assisted  by  the  inherited 
mysticism,  account  in  a  measure  for  the  poverty  of 
language.  A  veiled  satire  can  be  traced  in  many  of 
the  writings,  in  consonance  with  the  observant  yet 
shy  disposition,  and  the  suspicious  subserviency  of  the 
natives.  These  several  traits  have  widely  stamped 
themselves  upon  the  new  mestizo  race,  in  topics,  treat- 
ment, and  diction;  yet  the  sanguine    and  vivacious 


n 


502  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

temperament  imparted  by  the  superior  Iberian  stock 
has  naturally  maintained  the  ascendancy  for  the 
Spanish  type, so  assiduously  impressed  during  a  pro- 
bationary period  of  three  centuries,  by  masters,  lan- 
guage, and  national  affinity. 

During  the  colonial  times  it  is  often  difficult  to  draw 
the  line  in  the  literature  of  New  Spain  between  pro- 
ductions that  properly  belong  to  it  and  those  that 
appear  to  do  so.  There  are  writers  born  on  the  penin- 
sula but  educated  in  colonies;  some  arrive  there  at  a 
later  age,  yet  are  manifestly  influenced  by  their  new 
environments;  while  others  remain  in  sympathy 
and  methods  true  to  old  ideas ;  and  still  others,  of 
Creole  birth,  receive  their  training  in  Spain,  with  its 
political  and  literary  impress,  or  they  remain  there  to 
gather  laurels  which  belong  by  rights  to  Mexico. 
Again,  in  early  times  especially,  a  large  proportion  of 
their  writers  were  Spaniards  who  remained  only  for  a 
time  in  quest  of  fortune,  yet  whose  productions  were 
wholly  inspired  by  New  World  associations,  which 
affected  to  a  great  extent  also  the  form.  We  can,  for 
instance,  hardly  fail  to  associate  with  the  writings  of 
this  country  the  celebrated  Cartas  of  Cortes  which 
depict  therein  much  of  the  beauty  and  wealth  that 
have  since  disappeared;  which  took  an  impress  from 
it  by  means  of  the  political  and  social  sympathies  of 
the  author,  and  which  left  an  influence  as  one  of  its 
most  prolific  sources  for  history,  and  as  a  model  for 
style  in  lucid,  pure,  and  frequently  elegant  diction. 

As  for  Bernal  Diaz,  the  gossippy  old-soldier  chron- 
icler, he  was  really  modeled  by  new  world  experiences, 
and  his  camp  and  field  life  may  be  recognized  in  the 
frank  and  graphic  descriptions  and  occasional  crude 
outbursts  of  eloquence,  while  the  similes  due  to  a 
certain  amount  of  classic  reading,  and  the  monotonous 
garrulity,  were  acquired  during  later  retirement  as 
colonist.  For  over  half  a  century  is  he  identified 
with  New  Spain.     And  so  with  many  others,  especi- 


FRIAR  AND  SOLDIER  CHRONICLERS.  503 

ally  of  friar  chroniclers,  who  not  only  grow  up  with 
their  districts,  but  train  the  generation  as  teachers 
and  writers.  Such  a  one  was  Father  Motolinia, 
whose  rambling  and  naive  writings  characterize  his 
life  and  mind,  and  serve  as  material  for  subseqent  en- 
quirers into  aboriginal  and  early  colonial  society  and 
incidents. 

Several  of  his  robe  follow  the  example,  from  duty 
or  from  a  desire  to  record  deeds  b}^  themselves  and 
companions — deeds  in  the  missionary  field,  for  the 
cross  gradually  replaces  the  sword  and  becomes  the 
dominant  symbol  of  conquest  and  rule.  And  how 
stirring  are  the  incidents  attending  these  invasions 
through  the  midst  of  hostile  and  savage  tribes,  through 
arid  wildernesses,  in  rugged  mountain  regions,  along 
malaria- stricken  shores,  fighting  both  men  and  nature ! 
At  times  soldier  and  friar  unite,  or  the  one  paves 
the  way  for  the  other ;  but  more  and  more  the 
long-robe  advances,  alone  and  unarmed  to  suffer  priva- 
tions, rebuffs,  insults,  and  danger  of  every  description, 
often  to  meet  a  martyr's  fate.  When  successful, 
how  great  is  the  triumph  of  virtuous  example,  of 
eloquence,  of  superior  mind  over  inferior  intelligence  ; 
and  how  glorious  is  often  the  result  I  It  is  the 
advent  of  the  modern-culture  hero,  who  gathers 
roaming  tribes  into  settlements,  transforms  the  bare 
ground  into  blooming  gardens,  clothes  the  naked,  cares 
for  the  sick,  and  replaces  base  or  bloody  rites  with 
gentle,  elevating  worship.  Turn  our  eyes  wherever 
we  may  and  these  peaceful  heroes  meet  them,  no 
longer  as  of  yore  deified,  but  sheltered  beneath  for- 
gotten tombstones,  and  their  names  and  acts  com- 
memorated alone  in  some  vague  tradition,  and  in  the 
chronicles  by  themselves  or  their  brethren. 

Unfortunately  the  record  is  not  in  the  form  of  epic, 
or  invested  with  romantic  glamour,  but  in  the  barest 
or  most  turgid  of  prose,  weighted  with  insufferable 
verbiage  and  ambiguity,  and  by  crude  and  careless 
construction,  while  inappropriate  digressions  tend  still 


604  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 


I 


further  to  break  the  interest.  It  is  a  dreamy  discon- 
nection in  which  both  writer  and  reader  lose  them- 
selves, with  numerous  pitfalls  dug  by  credulity  and 
superstition ;  the  whole  stamped  by  the  scholastic 
method  that  prevailed  till  close  upon  the  present  cen- 
tury. Such  is  the  average  character  of  the  friar 
chronicles  and  provincial  histories;  and  no  wonder, 
then,  that  the  most  splendid  achievements  are  so 
veiled  in  the  obscurity  of  treatment  and  of  poor,  pe- 
dantic or  inflated  language  as  to  remain  unnoticed  or 
misunderstood  by  the  ordinary  reader,  and  to  require 
the  careful  labor  of  the  student  to  disclose.  The 
style  was  a  natural  result  partly  of  imperfect  training, 
for  the  friars  were  not  well-read,  any  more  than  those 
in  Spain;  and  even  the  studies  of  the  more  educated 
had  a  very  narrow  range,  chiefly  theological  lore, 
while  few  had  ventured  into  classic  or  scientific  pre- 
cincts. They  were  not  taught  to  sift  and  weigh ;  they 
accepted  almost  any  tradition  with  the  naive  confi- 
dence demanded  of  true  believers.  Their  minds  had 
ever  been  directed  to  the  holy  precepts  of  their  order, 
as  paramount  to  any  knowledge,  according  to  St 
Francis,  and  they  regarded  it  a  duty  to  their  own  re- 
pute and  to  their  order  to  impress  this  upon  the 
reader.  While  the  countrymen  of  Lope  de  Vega 
cannot  be  said  to  lack  dramatic  power,  these  chroni- 
clers seem  to  avoid  the  use  of  it,  or  the  display  of  ap- 
preciation for  the  grand,  the  beautiful.  It  is  mere 
tedious  narrating  of  details,  wherein  the  general  and 
important  features  are  almost  lost,  with  special  atten- 
tion for  traits  of  virtue  and  piety  that  can  point  a 
moral  and  aflbrd  an  excuse  for  digression. 

Whatever  the  defects  of  these  ChrSnicas  de  las  Pro- 
vincias,  they  are  in  many  respects  the  most  important 
and  valuable  source  of  information  concerning  the 
Hispano- American  territory.  As  the  largest  part 
of  the  country  was  occupied  by  mission  establish- 
ments, and  as  the  work  of  exploration  and  con- 
quest of  the  native  races  was  so  largely  carried  on 


PROVINCIAL  HISTORY.  505 

under  the  auspices  of  the  church,  these  chronicles 
constitute  an  ahnost  complete  record  of  the  earlier 
periods  of  history.  Some  of  them  were  written  in 
the  chronicle  form  direct,  as  a  record  for  the  particu- 
lar district  or  circle  with  which  the  author  was  con- 
nected ;  yet  they  passed  like  ordinary  mission  reports 
to  the  head  convent  of  the  provincia,  there  to  bide 
the  time  when  the  leaders  of  the  order  should  assign 
to  a  specially  fitted  member  the  task  of  compiling  from 
them  an  authorized  chronicle. 

In  accordance  with  this  procedure,  Mendieta  pre- 
pared at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  most 
complete  history  so  far  of  Franciscan  labors  in  New 
Spain,  interspered  with  matter  on  politics  and  society. 
While  not  showing  great  talent,  the  writer  cannot  be 
accused  of  verboseness,  and  the  style  has  the  advantage 
of  a  simplicity  which  promotes  clearness.  It  would 
appear  that  the  defect  of  diction  became  so  glaring  to 
the  compiler  that  he  perforce  corrected  himself 

This  is  also  evident  in  Torquemada,  who,  through 
the  failure  of  Mendieta's  work  to  appear  in  print  till 
our  time,  took  advantage  of  his  labor,  as  well  as  a  host 
of  other  writings,  to  i^^mqUiq  Monarquia  Indiana,  which 
attained  the  just  distinction  of  standard  history  for 
New  Spain,  and  fame  for  the  author  as  the  Livy  of  this 
region.  He  embraced  every  historic  knowledge  within 
his  reach,  from  the  earliest  aboriginal  times,  including 
rites,  society,  strange  phenomena,  the  achievements 
of  his  Franciscan  order,  and  the  lives  of  its  members. 
He  rises  above  the  mere  monk  chronicler  and  strives 
to  interest  his  readers  by  variety  of  topics,  as  well  as 
by  treatment,  which  receives  no  inconsiderable  aid 
from  a  descriptive  power  of  rare  occurrence  among 
his  confreres;  other  faults  remain,  however.  While 
concise  enough  in  the  narrative  generally,  he  abandons 
himself  to  inappropriate  deviations  and  wordy  argu- 
ment, and  revels  in  learned  references.  He  is  en- 
grossed with  the  outpouring  of  his  patristic  and  classic 
lore,  rather  than  with  critical  consideration,  and  to 


506  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

this  end  sacrifices  also  phraseology,  which  is  marked 
in  particular  by  numerous  parentheses. 

A  less  voluminous  but  more  prolific  writer  on  polit- 
ical, civic  and  religious  history  is  the  Creole,  Father 
Augustine  de  Yetancurt,  who  in  his  Teatro  covers 
very  nearly  the  same  ground  as  Torquemada,  with 
additional  matter  for  the  seventeenth  century.  All 
this  he  condenses  in  a  much  smaller  space  ;  and  it  is 
only  in  the  religious  subjects  more  directly  from  his 
own  pen  that  he  yields  to  discoursive  laxity. 

An  earlier  Creole,  Friar  Antonio  Tello,  author  of 
Cronica  de  Jalisco  of  about  1650,  excels  in  vivid  por- 
trayal and  a  certain  dramatic  skill,  although  the  dic- 
tion hardly  displays  a  proportionate  advance ;  but  this 
is  the  fault  of  his  school,  not  of  his  mind,  wherein  pa- 
triotic zeal  for  his  native  provinces  combines  with  nat- 
ural abilities  to  produce  one  of  the  most  attractive 
colonial  writers. 

Inferior  in  style  is  the  history  of  the  same  province 
written  nearly  a  century  later  by  Mata  Padilla,  a 
townsman  of  Tello.  His  earlier  profession  as  a  law- 
yer and  his  later  adhesion  to  the  priesthood  are  both 
discernible  in  an  occasional  forensic  form,  and  in  the 
preference  given  to  miracles  and  church  matter,  neither 
of  which  lends  interest  to  the  pages  or  raises  our  esti- 
mate of  his  judgment. 

Equally  defective  is  the  Cronica  de  Mechocan  by 
Beaumont,  born  in  Europe,  partly  of  French  descent, 
and  educated  as  a  physician  before  he  became  a  Fran- 
ciscan. While  pretending  to  record  merely  the  pro- 
gress of  his  religious  provincia  in  Michoacan,  he  plans 
it  on  a  scale  ambitious  enough  for  a  history  of  the  In- 
dies, and  fails  to  carry  his  task  beyond  1565.  The 
same  inequality  applies  to  expression,  marred  also  by 
faulty  Spanish,  and  to  discrimination,  which  is  over- 
ruled by  pertinacity  and  religious  bias.  These  blem- 
ishes are  less  excusable  for  the  advanced  period  in 
which  the  work  was  written,  about  1777. 

Contemporary  with  Yetancurt  were  the  friars  Bal- 


WORKS  OF  THE  FATHERS.  507 

tasar  Medina  and  Davila  Padilla,  both  natives  of  Mex- 
ico, and  ranking  as  Franciscan  and  Dominican  chron- 
iclers respectively.  The  former  exhibits  more  research, 
but  also  an  excess  of  patristic  lore,  combined  with  an 
exalted  inflation,  while  the  latter  inclines  to  digres- 
sions and  moralizing.  The  worst  features  of  these 
monk  scribes,  coupled  with  defectiv^e  treatment 
generally,  are  displayed  in  the  first  Jesuit  chronicle 
of  the  same  period,  by  Francisco  de  Florencia,  born 
in  Florida,  but  otherwise  wholly  connected  with 
'  New  Spain.  And  yet  this  man  had  achieved  fame 
as  a  preacher  and  distinction  as  a  manager  for  the 
society. 

It  is  evident  that  prose,  with  the  rare  exceptions 
signalized  in  such  men  as  Siguenza  and  Telle,  does 
not  show  any  improvement  during  the  first  two  centuries 
and  a  half  of  colonial  rule,  either  in  treatment  or  style. 
Scholastic  methods  and  ideas  retained  too  firmly  the 
control,  throughout  the  marked  variation  introduced 
by  the  Gongora  school,  with  its  soaring  inflations. 
Solis  became  here  one  of  the  great  models  for  orna- 
mental form,  by  means  of  his  famous  history  of  the 
conquest,  which  also  assumed  the  Thucydidean  manu- 
facture of  speeches.  If  floridity  itself  did  not  become 
general,  it  must  be  partly  ascribed  to  the  slower  ac- 
ceptance of  the  changes  effected  in  Spain,  owing  to 
the  cultivation  of  older  models;  partly  to  the  unsus- 
tained  exaltation  of  the  Creoles  and  the  lack  of  imagi- 
nation among  the  natives.  The  rarer  mestizo  writers 
evince,  indeed,  less  appreciation  for  the  cultismo  style. 
The  marked  prevalence  among  them  of  aboriginal 
traits  is  manifested  also  in  naivete  and  crudeness  of 
diction,  while  a  tendency  to  flippancy  and  verbiage  is 
derived  from  the  other  race.  A  representative  of 
this  class  may  be  consulted  in  Father  Duran,  who  re- 
veals in  the  Historia  de  las  Indias  not  only  poverty  of 
expression,  but  a  slovenly  pen.  It  is  relieved,  how- 
ever, by  earnestness,  and  a  certain  ability  to  portray 
character.     The  contemporaneous  Noticias  Historicas 


508  LITERATURE  OF   COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

of  Suarez  Peralta  displays  many  similarities  to  the 
chronicle  of  Bernal  Diaz. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  revival 
emanating  from  France  in  favor  of  a  more  classic  and 
sedate  tone  became  conspicuous,  notably  so  in  the 
writing  of  the  Jesuits,  Alegre,  Clavigero,  Cavo,  and 
Mariano  Veytia,  who  rank  as  the  foremost  historians 
of  their  period  in  New  Spain.  All  were  Creoles  by 
birth,  and  animated  by  the  patriotic  spirit  which  was 
rapidly  spreading,  and  fostered  both  political  and  lit- 
erary ambition.  Clavigero  had  acquired  a  sympathy  for 
the  aborigines,  and  resolved  to  uphold  their  prestige 
against  the  attacks  of  De  Pauw  and  Robertson.  The 
result  was  a  work  on  their  history  and  customs,  to- 
gether with  the  Spanish  conquest,  that  wholly  eclipsed 
every  previous  attempt  in  this  direction  for  compre- 
hensiveness and  philosophic  treatment,  for  clear  and 
even  elegant  style.  It  was  written  in  the  language 
of  Italy,  whe--e  the  exiled  Jesuit  had  sought  a  new 
home,  but  the  dedication  is  directed  to  the  native 
country.  Veytia  wrote  also  on  the  ancient  history 
of  the  Mexicans,  from  Boturini's  collected  records; 
but  while  throwing  additional  light  on  the  subject,  he 
shows  far  less  ability.  I  have  spoken  of  his  other 
works  elsewhere. 

His  townsman,  Francisco  Javier  Alegre,  had  a  sim- 
ilar training,  except  that  he  devoted  himself  to  classics 
instead  of  aboriginal  studies,  and  attained  such  dis- 
tinction in  theology  as  to  be  ordered  to  write  on  eccle- 
siastic institutions,  his  famous  work  being  published  at 
Bologne  in  1789,  a  year  after  his  death.  Besides  seve- 
ral treatises  on  mathematics,  he  translated  the  Iliads 
and  produced  original  poems.  His  sentences  are  stud- 
ied and  the  diction  is  chaste  and  unaffected,  but  the 
same  praise  cannot  be  accorded  to  the  arrangement,  and 
consequently  to  handling,  which  lack  connection  and 
generalization,  while  subtle  casuistry  and  doubtful  ra- 
tiocination seek  ever  to  shield  or  gild  the  Jesuit  cause. 


CREOLE  WRITERS.  509 

Andres  Cavo  is  not  devoid  of  the  latter  fault,  but 
he  has  less  occasion  for  it,  since  he  writes  rather  the 
political  history  of  the  country.  While  more  succinct 
and  orderly,  he  is  too  strictly  chronologic  for  the  re- 
quirements of  true  history,  and  sinks  through  this 
method  into  the  annalistic  form  to  which  Alegre  is  led 
by  a  somewhat  different  road.  His  style  is  less  pure 
and  rounded,  yet  not  diffuse.  The  pages  present  the 
pleasing  evidence  of  research  in  foot-notes,  which,  as  a 
rule,  however,  are  mere  titles  of  authorities  used. 
Still,  it  is  a  departure  from  the  long-established  fashion 
of  marginal  references  for  quotations,  with  which  the 
text  was  burdened  to  the  interruption  of  the  regular 
narrative.  A  smaller  size  of  volume  also  begins  to 
prevail  in  lieu  of  huge  folios  or  bulky  quartos  with 
double  columns.  The  influence  of  new  models  is 
everywhere  apparent.^* 

Biography  was  a  field  to  which  churchmen  gave 
much  attention,  as  a  means  to  inculcate  upon  their 
flocks  the  lessons  taught  by  the  observance  of  virtu- 
ous and  ascetic  friars  and  hermits.  But  the  aim  must 
have  been  greatly  nullified  by  method.  Amplification 
of  petty  details  concerning  the  uninteresting  lives  of 
such  persons,  with  monotonous  recurrences  to  their 
devotional  acts  in  cell  and  chapel,  and  to  crude  rhap- 
sodies, could  hardly  have  given  weight  to  their  instruc- 
tion. Nevertheless,  the  earnest  tone  of  the  narrator 
must  have  influenced  the  reader,  while  the  exalted 
mysticism  of  the  topic  could  not  fail  to  counteract 
in  a  measure  the  defects  of  style.  Involved  phrase- 
ology might  almost  be  declared  suitable  for  such  de- 
tails, and  rambling  discourse  accorded  with  the  general 
gossippy  taste.  After  Gongora's  time  grandiloquence 
added  its  faults  and  allurements,  and  is  particularly 
illustrated  in  the  obituary  eulogies  bestowed  on 
wealthy  individuals  and  published  by  devoted  families. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  colonial  period  we  come  to 
works  of  greater  merit,  as  instanced  in  De  Vitis  aliquot 


510  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

Mexicanorum,  by  Juan  Luis  Maneiro,  an  exiled  Jesuit 
of  Vera  Cruz.  Here  is  displayed  the  yearning  patriot- 
ism of  the  refugee,  combined  with  the  classic  bent  of 
the  scholar,  the  lives  and  characters  of  prominent 
men  in  little  known  Anahuac  being  faithfully  por- 
trayed, while  fellow-exiles,  as  Clavigero  and  Landivar 
described  her  antiquities.  Although  there  is  no  ap- 
parent effort  at  the  investigation  or  analysis  required 
in  modern  biography,  the  author  enters  with  spirit  into 
his  subject,  and  introduces  most  happy  comparisons, 
frequently  expressed  in  neat  and  graceful  sentences. 

The  first  efforts  in  didactic  treatises  w^ere  directed 
toward  the  civilizing  of  the  natives,  or  rather  their 
conversion,  for  little  instruction  was  imparted,  save 
in  religious  lessons  and  the  rudimentary  knowledge 
required  to  master  them.  The  catechisms  and  moral 
disquisitions  in  use  were  based  on  authorized  versions 
from  Spain ;  but  their  translation  for  the  benefit  of 
teachers  and  pupils  gave  rise  to  an  array  of  vocabu- 
laries and  grammars,  owing  to  the  multiplicity  of  lan- 
guages and  dialects,  as  set  forth  in  my  Native  Baces. 

The  natives  appear  prolific  in  this  field,  either  as 
assistant  or  independent  authors,  yet  they  w^ere  an- 
ticipated by  early  friars,  such  as  Father  Gante,  Jime- 
nez, and  Molina,  whose  Aztec  Vocabulario  remains  the 
standard  to  this  day;  and  later  they  w^ere  surpassed 
by  such  men  as  Becarra  Tanco.^^ 

To  the  friars  also  are  mainly  due  the  educational  and 
philosophic  treatises  occasionally  issued,  as  well  as 
works  on  geography,  botany,  and  medicine.  In  none 
of  these  is  shown  any  marked  development,  although  a 
few  discoveries  were  made  with  which  to  supplement 
the  more  valuable  and  standard  books  by  specialists, 
w^hich  either  covered  the  field  beforehand  or  served  as 
guides  toward  it.  Alegre  and  Palafox  figure  promi- 
nently as  writers  on  ecclesiastical  institutions. 

Ancient    history,  and   rites  and   speculations   con- 


DIDACTIC  TREATISES.  611 

nected  with  it,  had  naturally  engaged  the  attention  of 
patriotic  natives,  allured  by  ancestral  glories  and  rec- 
ords, which  often  proved  their  only  consolation  amid 
the  oppression  practised  upon  them  ;  but  the  investi- 
gation of  archseologic  remains  was  neglected,  and  only 
toward  the  close  of  the  last  century  did  it  receive 
official  patronage,  and  become  prominent  under  the 
auspices  of  scholars  like  Gama. 

The  revelations  made  in  this  connection  on  aborig- 
inal astronomy  gave  fresh  encouragement  in  general 
to  scientific  studies,  in  which  there  had  so  far  been 
only  occasional  dabbling.  The  earliest  to  achieve 
prominence  in  this  field  was  SigUenza,  a  man  of  most 
versatile  attainments,  figuring  also  as  historian,  phil- 
osopher, essayist,  and  journalist,  the  first  to  issue  in 
Mexico,  in  1693,  a  periodical  for  promoting  literary 
and  scientific  knowledge.  His  voluminous  writings 
embraced  contributions  on  archaeologic  subjects  and 
geography,  and  he  created  wide-spread  attention  b}^ 
his  attacks  on  superstitions  connected  with  comets  and 
astrology.  While  so  much  in  advance  of  his  time  in 
these  respects,  he  was  by  no  means  free  from  bigotry 
in  other  directions.  He  rejected  the  most  flattering 
appointments  in  order  to  devote  himself  more  exclu- 
sively to  religious  and  benevolent  duties,  and  to  study. 
His  fertile  pen  had  recourse  also  to  poetry,  of  a  sacred 
cast,  and  of  no  mean  order,  as  may  be  judged  from  the 
attractive,  even  elegant  style  of  his  prose. 

Hardly  less  versatile  was  Becerra  Tanco,  as  math- 
ematician, linguist,  and  poet,  and  the  scientist  and 
critic  Algate,  who  flourished  nearly  a  century  later, 
and  occupied  by  means  of  his  Gazeta  and  other  publi- 
cations a  position  corresponding  to  that  of  the  reformer 
Feijoo  in  Spain.'" 

Eguiara  and  Beristain  rank  as  the  first  recognized 
bibliographers  of  New  Spain,  the  main  reliance  for  all 
who  may  follow  in  this  path.  Their  sources  lay  in 
lists  partial  or  complete  by  chroniclers  of  religious 
provinces;  but  they  unearthed  a  mass  of  new  material 


512  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

and  groped  also  in  the  pages  of  European  investiga- 
tors, such  as  Nicolds  Antonio,  whose  typical  work, 
BibliotJieca  Hispana,  assumed  under  the  hands  of  Mars 
and  others  so  complete  a  condition,  marred  though  it 
is  by  nmch  confusion. 

More  facts,  if  less  inspiration,  did  they  draw  from 
Antonio  de  Leon  y  Pinelo,  who  in  his  Epitome  de  la 
Bibliotheca  Oriental  i  Occidental^  Ndutica  i  Geogrdficay 
Madrid  1629,  presented  the  first  American  bibliog- 
raphy. This  formed  but  a  small  abridgement  of  the 
vast  material  which  his  long  and  close  researches  had 
amassed,  and  their  value  becoming  more  apparent,  Bar- 
cia,  in  1737-8,  under  superior  auspices,  issued  an  en- 
larged edition,  in  three  volumes,  enriched  from  different 
sources,  for  Pinelo's  manuscripts  had  nearly  all  disap- 
peared by  this  time.  The  division  indicated  in  the 
title  of  the  first  publication  is  maintained  also  here, 
and  a  triple  index  gives  ready  access  to  any  work ; 
but  far  less  care  and  thoroughness  is  evident  than 
could  have  been  expected.  Pinelo  is  of  special  inter- 
est to  us  in  being  not  only  a  Creole,  born  in  Peru,  but 
official  chronicler  of  the  Indies,  and  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  Recopilacion  de  Indias,  in  which  latter  post  he 
was  succeeded  in  1634  by  Solorzano  Pereira,  a  change 
pointing  no  doubt  to  his  death  about  this  time. 

Stimulated  both  by  the  material  and  deficiencies  of 
these  sources,  Juan  Jose  de  Eguiara  y  Eguren  under- 
took his  Bibliotheca  Mexicana  sive  eriiditorum  Historia 
virontm,  Mexico  1755,  which  is  really  a  historical  and 
bibliographic  dictionary  of  New  Spain  writers.  Un- 
fortunately, death  in  1763  put  an  end  to  his  task  at 
the  letter  J,  and  only  the  first  three  letters  appeared 
in  the  above  rare  volume.  Although  prolix  and  non- 
critical,  the  work  possesses  merits  which  must  ever 
cause  us  to  regret  its  abrupt  termination.  Eguiara 
was  born  at  Mexico  in  1706,  of  a  distinguished  family, 
studied  at  the  university  there  and  long  held  one  of 
its  theologic  chairs,  receiving  a  number  of  important 
commissions  and  in  1751  the  offer  of  the  Yucatan  see, 


PULPIT  METHODS.  513 

which  he  declined.  He  is  one  of  the  most  prolific  of 
Mexican  writers  on  biography,  jurisprudence,  and 
chiefly  religious  subjects,  but  only  a  small  part  of  his 
works  exist  in  print,  of  which  my  library  contains  more 
than  a  dozen,  while  bibliographers  notice  only  a  few. 
His  bibliographic  manuscripts  were  not  left  to  ob- 
livion, however,  for  Jose  Mariano  Beristain  Martin  de 
Souza,  of  Puebla,  dean  of  Mexico  and  rector  of  San 
Pedro  college,  celebrated  both  for  varied  attainments 
and  eloquence,  took  up  his  labors  and  made  use  of 
them  for  the  Bihlioteca  His'pano- Americana  Septen- 
trional, Mexico,  1816-21,  containing  nearly  4,000  lit- 
erary notices,  which  form  the  most  complete  series 
prepared  on  New  Spain,  yet  are  so  faulty,  with  muti- 
lated titles  and  careless  statements,  as  to  induce  Icaz- 
balceta  to  report  against  the  revision  and  reprint  of  a 
work  esteemed  chiefly  for  its  rarity.  Many  of  the 
defects, including  the  omission  of  anonymous  works, 
are  due  to  his  nephew,  who  edited  the  last  two 
volumes,  for  Beristain  died  in  1817  at  the  age  of  61. 
He  had  proved  a  valiant  champion  for  the  expiring 
monarchy  in  the  new  world,  and  most  of  his  published 
orations,  poems,  and  other  waitings  served  to  uphold 
that  feature,  even  to  servility.^' 

It  has  been  said  that  Spanish  genius  is  opposed  to  for- 
ensic eloquence ;  and  Iberian  institutions  certainly  were 
so  to  oratory  in  general,  for  with  the  suppression  of  the 
comunidades  no  opportunity  for  parliamentary  discus- 
sion arose  till  the  present  century.  Pulpit  rhetoric 
also  met  with  restrictions  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
rehgion,  which  was  one  of  form,  with  appeal  to  the 
senses  rather  than  to  the  soul.  Preachers  accordingly 
inclined  to  descriptive  and  exhortative  appeals  to  the 
emotions,  instead  of  seeking  to  reach  the  higher  facul- 
ties of  the  mind.  While  illustrations  from  the  scrip- 
tures formed  a  primary  element,  it  was  deemed  neces- 
sary to  introduce  Latin  quotations  and  patristic  lore, 
and  this  with  such  profusion  as  often  to  lose   sight  of 

-  Essays  and  Miscellany     33 


514  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

the  main  object,  the  teaching  of  moral  lessons. 
Others  abated  somewhat  from  theologic  learning  only 
to  weave  the  text  in  florid  redundancy.  A  third  class 
reveled  in  metaphors  and  mysticisms  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  lead  astray  both  preacher  and  audience  in 
the  maze  of  words  and  ideas.  Certain  others  indulged 
in  polemical  harangues  or  yielded  to  an  innate  bent  for 
anecdotes,  not  always  appropriate,  yet  serving  the  pur- 
pose of  vehicle  for  the  exhortation. 

Among  the  bright  lights  in  these  fields  may  be  in- 
stanced the  Jesuit  Avendafio,  toward  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  whose  eloquence  procured  for  him 
the  appellation  of  the  Mexican  Vieira ;  Mancilla,  wlio 
acquired  celebrity  for  his  anecdotal  discourses;  Leon, 
noted  for  mysticism  and  metaphor;  Kobles,  Jesus 
Maria,  and  others  famed  for  floridity  and  lore.  In 
marked  distinction  to  these  appear  the  chaste  and 
pointed  addresses  of  men  like  Archbishop  Munoz  de 
Haro  y  Peralta,  for  a  time  viceroy,  with  his  true  moral 
teachings,  drawn  from  life  as  well  as  books,  address- 
ingr  now  a  tender  invocation,  now  an  effective  argu- 
ment,  then  a  lofty  apostrophe,  anon  a  stirring  appeal.^" 

Another  man  of  remarkable  prominence  as  orator 
was  Conde  y  Oquendo,  who  figured  both  in  the  forum 
and  the  temple  of  Mexico,  although  born  and  edu- 
cated at  Habana,  and  who  received  the  prize  of  the 
royal  academy  for  one  of  his  efforts.'^  Of  more  pro- 
found talent  was  Francisco  Javier  Gamboa,  the  bright 
star  of  Mexican  jurisprudence,  from  the  eminence  which 
he  attained  as  regente  of  the  audiencia,  and  for  the 
impulse  he  gave  to  the  study  of  the  profession.  He 
was  born  at  Guadalajara  in  1717,  and  early  evinced  a 
talent  which  caused  his  parents  to  dedicate  him  to  a 
literary  career.  After  his  father's  early  death  Oidor 
Cerda  of  that  city  fulfilled  his  desire  by  sending  him 
to  the  university  at  Mexico  to  study  law.  The  pros- 
pects in  this  path  were  splendid  enough  for  his  ambition, 
since  a  lawyer  of  standing  could  make  as  much  as 
$50,000  a  year,  despite  the   restrictions   placed   by 


ORATORY.  515 

statutes  on  his  gains.  The  sudden  death  of  the  hcen^ 
tiate  under  whom  he  was  practising,  presented  an 
opportunity  for  pubhc  display  which  at  once  launched 
him  into  fame.  The  board  of  trade  entrusted  him 
in  1755  with  important  commissions  in  Spain,  and  so 
well  did  he  use  the  means  cast  in  his  way  that  he 
figured  ten  years  afterward  as  a  member  of  the  audi- 
encia.  Suspected  of  partiality  for  the  Jesuits,  he  was 
in  1769  summoned  to  Madrid,  but  behaved  with  such 
discretion  as  to  be  sent  back  five  years  later  with  the 
rank  of  oidor.  He  finally  attained  the  high  position 
of  regente  of  the  audiencia,  after  having  for  a  time 
occupied  a  similar  office  at  Santo  Domingo;  he  died 
in  June  1704.  Besides  a  vast  number  of  briefs  he 
left  treatises  on  sciences,  statistics,  and  other  subjects. 
Of  three  volumes  printed,  one,  the  Comentarios  a  las 
Ordenanzas  de  Minas,  was  highly  commended." 

With  the  example  of  Gamboa  before  them,  and  the 
avenues  opened  by  revolution,  the  modern  Mexican 
has  developed  a  marked  aptitude  for  at  least  emo- 
tional oratory,  to  which  impulsiveness,  volubility,  and 
self-confidence  lend  their  aid. 

The  impulsiveness  of  the  Spanish  character,  cou- 
pled with  a  light  gaiety  which  appeared  at  variance 
with  the  stately  punctiliousness  then  prevalent,  but 
which  really  formed  a  natural  offset  to  it,  in  accord 
with  universal  duality,  found  an  appropriate  vent  in 
metrical  motion  as  well  as  metrical  language.  The 
two  forms  agree  well  together,  for  the  poetry  is 
chiefly  lyric  and  dramatic,  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  little  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  verse  of  the  lofty 
and  sustained  efforts  demanded  in  the  true  epic ;  in- 
deed the  national  character  has  become  less  favorable 
for  this  higher  combination.  As  for  the  heroic 
themes  of  old  Spain,  they  found  no  effective  response 
in  the  indolent  Creole:  none  of  the  strong  imagination 
needed  to  mould  the  fancies  of  a  prevailing  oriental- 
ism into  clearer  forms,  or  to  elude  the  restraints  of 


516  LITERATURE   OF   COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

tradition  and  rule.  The  latter  applies  more  to  the 
peninsular  stamp,  however,  for  Spanish  poetry  is 
strongly  national,  despite  the  successive  influence  of 
Italian  and  French  schools,  which  affected  it  only  in 
certain  features. 

The  distinctiveness  is  due  no  less  to  the  national 
character  than  to  the  marked  suitability  of  the  lan- 
guage for  versification,  notably  in  forming  rhyme,  not 
only  consonantal,  but  alliterative  and  assonantal. 
The  last  is  so  common  and  brought  to  such  perfection 
as  to  be  considered  a  Spanish  feature.  With  its  aid 
double  or  even  triple  rhyme  is  readily  produced,  and 
poems  of  considerable  length  may  be  found  of  one 
continuous  rhyme,  as  in  Arabic  literature.  The 
Spaniard  in  this  respect  prefers  the  predominant 
intonation  to  monotonous  endings.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  facility  for  tliis  form  of  rhythm,  great  abuse 
has  crept  in,  degenerating  into  mere  recurrence  of 
unaccented  consonants,  and  similar  license.  The  fa- 
vorite^ metre  is  trisyllabic  and  redondillas,  or  octo- 
syllabic quatrains ;  stanzas  of  four  lines  are  the  most 
common  form  of  verse. 

While  the  ballad  has  ever  retained  its  hold  on 
popular  taste,  sonnets  were  even  more  frequent  than 
in  Spain,  as  might  of  course  be  expected  from  the 
prevalent  formality  and  imitation,  and  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  the  Italian  school.  The  true  elegy,  with 
its  subued  gentleness,  accords  less  with  Spanish  dis- 
position, and  this  applies  also  to  satires  of  a  personal 
character,  but  epigrammatic  verse  is  common,  though 
it  inchnes  to  erotic  sentiment.  The  pastoral,  which  at- 
tains so  true  a  ring  amid  the  happy  environments  of  the 
Iberian  uplands,  fails  to  obtain  a  full  response,  and 
descriptive  poetry  still  suffers  from  apathetic  neglect, 
although  not  to  such  extent  as  manifested  by  the  early 
Spanish  verse-makers,  who  passed  by  with  compara- 
tive indifference  scenery  so  stirring  as  that  presented 
in  a  transit  from  the  miasmatic  lowland  of  the  gulf 
coast,  through  the  varied  features  of  the  tierra  tern- 


■  POETRY   AND   SONG.  517 

I  plada  wrapped  in  eternal  spring,  on  to  the  lofty  pla- 
I  teau  seamed  with  snow-peaked  ranges  and  smoulder- 
j  ing  volcanoes.  The  Mexican  poet  turns  to  nature 
I  incidentally  rather  than  from  appreciative  admiration, 
I  and  like  the  child  spoiled  by  over-indulgence,  he 
I  yields  it  reluctant  tribute,  placing  it  in  subservience 
to  other  incentives. 

Notwithstanding  the  obstacles  against  the  highest 
realms  of  fancy,  the  facilities  presented  by  the  lan- 
guage and  the  musical  tastes  of  a  vivacious  people 
led  to  wide-spread  attempts  in  this  direction,  under 
the  fostering  amenities  of  serenading,  of  social  reunions, 
and  of  frequent  religious  and  official  ceremonies.  The 
church  had  implanted  a  predilection  for  festivals  with 
her  numerous  celebrations,  and  the  Creoles,  ever  glad 
of  an  excuse,  yielded  readily  to  the  allurement.  Too 
proud  to  engage  in  occupations  in  which  inferior  races 
and  classes  competed,  and  allowed  only  a  limited 
share  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  offices  by  a  suspi- 
cious government,  which  favored  its  more  immediate 
proteges,  the  upper  colonial  elements  were  forced  into 
the  condition  of  idlers,  led  by  training  to  the  cultiva- 
tion chiefly  of  letters,  and  especially  of  poetry,  as  best 
in  consonance  with  their  indisposition  for  earnest 
application. 

Besides  these  incentives  for  their  muse,  opportuni- 
ties presented  themselves  in  the  custom  of  participating 
in  the  published  efforts  of  friends  by  prefatory  obser- 
vations on  the  work  or  its  writer,  naturally  of  a  eulo- 
gistic nature,  and  chiefly  in  metric  form.  The  origin 
of  the  practice  lay  in  the  obligation  imposed  by  Span- 
ish laws  for  presenting  testimony  from  persons  of  re- 
puted learning  and  of  experience  in  the  subject  treated, 
and  from  ecclesiastical  and  political  authorities,  vouch- 
ing above  all  for  the  moral  and  loyal  tone  of  the  book. 
In  order  to  promote  its  successful  passage  through 
the  censorial  office,  as  well  as  to  court  public  interest, 
authors  sought  as  many  influential  and  friendly  com- 
mendations as  possible.     Not  infrequently  these  en- 


518  LITERATURE   OF   COLONIAL   MEXICO. 

comiums  surpassed  in  volume  and  beauty  the  theme 
itself. 

In  all  this  there  was  little  spontaneous  outpouring 
of  soul,  but  rather  a  toying  with  verse  for  pastime  and 
pandering  to  vanity,  to  a  display  of  skill  in  construc- 
tion, and  acquaintance  with  classics.  The  simple  style 
of  the  sixteenth  century  had  small  attraction  for  such 
triflers,  but  as  they  grew  in  number,  relief  came  to 
them  during  the  following  century,  after  a  course  in 
the  lyric  channels  of  Herrera,  the  dramatic  of  Calde- 
ron,  and  in  the  cultismo  of  Gongora.  Its  false  glitter 
and  floridity,  its  tropes  and  play  on  words,  seemed  a 
revival  of  the  inflation  which,  under  Lucan,  marked 
the  decline  of  Koman  poetry.  It  supplied  the  lack  of 
inspiration  and  ideas  with  word  painting  and  pedantry, 
but  instead  of  approaching  the  combination  of  sense 
and  gilding  of  a  Pope,  it  degenerated  rapidly  into  a 
meaningless  jingle.  Anything  was  accepted,  so  long 
as  it  rose  above  despised  simplicity. 

Meaningless  terms  and  phrases  are,  for  that  matter, 
common  among  Spanish- Americans,  in  harmony  aUke 
with  Creole  traits  and  inherited  aboriginal  forms.  The 
lack  of  imagination  among  Indians,  and  of  depth  and 
earnestness  among  the  other  races,  combined  here  to 
procure  for  the  conceptisto  element  of  the  Gongora 
circle  a  wide  and  lasting  response ;  yet  this  extrava- 
gant flight  in  both  fancy  and  diction  is  by  no  means 
so  inappropriate  to  Spanish  language  and  spirit  as  it 
would  be  to  us.  The  predominance  of  religious  topics 
is  due  not  alone  to  long,  bigoted  training,  but  to  a  dis- 
position among  the  masses  to  be  readily  impressed  by 
an  exalted  mysticism  lost  in  immature  and  half-defined 
expressions.  Another  characteristic  of  the  poetry  is 
an  intermingling  of  fanciful,  though  only  too  often 
forced,  conceit,  manifested  in  epigrammatic  points  and 
half-mischievous  jests,  corresponding  to  the  gracioso 
spirit  of  the  drama,  and  particularly  conspicuous  in 
the  rustic  villancico  songs,  with  their  refrains,  which 
form  a  usual  accompaniment  to  the  dance  music. 


HISTORIC  VERSE.  519 

The  achievements  of  the  conquerors  could  not  fail 
to  stir  descendants  who  at  their  feet  had  listened  to 
narratives  of  dangers  encountered  and  scenes  beheld. 
Indeed,  the  generation  after  the  subjugation  found 
the  Creole,  Antonio  de  Saavedra  y  Guzman,  initiating 
the  topic  with  El  Peregrino  Indiano,  which  commemo- 
rates in  ottava  rima  the  doings  of  Cortes  and  his  com- 
panions; but  he  lacks  dramatic  instinct  and  spirit,  and 
.  descends  to  a  rhyming  chronicler  of  somewhat  vulgar 
stamp."  A  similar  attempt  was  made  more  than  a 
century  later  by  Francisco  Kuiz  de  Leon,  who  gives 
his  epic  the  very  appropriate  title  of  Hernandia.  It 
is  really  a  synopsis  from  Solis,  beginning  with  the 
discovery  voyages  to  New  Spain,  and  closing  with  the 
fall  of  Mexico,  the  whole  comprised  in  twelve  cantos 
of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  octaves  each,  issued 
at  Madrid  in  1755.  No  appreciation  is  shown  for 
scenery,  and  little  tact  in  depicting  incidents,  or  por- 
traying character.  The  strain  is  more  ambitious  than 
the  preceding,  however,  with  frequent  use  of  classic 
terms  and  metaphors,  although  as  a  rule  forced.  For 
instance : 

Eolo  desata  de  su  Gruta  opaca 

El  voluble  Esquadron,  que  en  silvos  roncos, 

Roinpe  los  Montes,  con  que  mas  lo  atraca, 
Y  Escollos  parte,  quando  buela  Troncos; 

Retirase  el  Alcyon  de  la  resaea, 

Busca  el  Echeiisis  los  Penascos  broncos, 

Y  los  mudos  Delfines  testifican 

El  tiempo,  que,  avisados,  pronostican. 

The  author  was  a  native  of  Tehuacan,  and  lived  in 
retirement.  ^^ 

Midway  between  these  two,  between  the  simplicity 
of  Saavedra  and  the  floridity  of  Leon,  may  be  placed 
a  fragment  of  the  unfinished  Nuevo  Mundo  by  Fran- 
cisco de  Terrazas,  a  son  of  Cortes'  mayordomo,  which, 
together  with  some  lyrics  from  the  same  pen,  indicate 
a  study  of  Herrera's  classic  style.'" 

A  number  of  verse-makers  figured  during  the  inter- 
vals marked  by  the  above  representative  historic  poems, 
and   strove  in  vain  to  obtain  a  place  by  their  side,  in 


520  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

notoriety  at  least,  for  similar  productions.  Among 
these  may  be  mentioned  the  Historia  de  Mexico  en  verso 
castellano,  1623,  by  Arias  Villalobos,  which  seeks  am- 
bitiously to  cover  all  preceding  events,  from  traditional 
times.  In  Saavedra's  simple  flow  runs  the  Conquista 
de  Xalisco,  by  the  Dominican  Parra.  Early  Zapotec 
history  received  commemoration  in  crude  quatrains  at 
the  hand  of  a  Zapotec  cacique  named  Antonio  Lopez.^^ 

Into  similar  neglect,  though  published  at  Alcata, 
1610,  fell  the  Historia  de  la  Nueva-Mexico  by  Gaspar 
Villagrd,  one  of  the  participants  in  the  conquest  of 
that  region.  The  book  is  very  rare,  and  has  lain  for- 
gotten by  students  from  the  apparent  absence  of  his- 
toric material  in  such  metric  form,  while  the  public  in 
general  felt  no  desire  to  accord  favor  to  simple  verse 
so  utterly  cast  into  the  shade  by  the  then  rising  school 
of  grandiloquence.  In  accordance  with  my  system  of 
sifting  every  class  of  wisdom,  I  examined  the  work,  and 
was  gladly  surprised  to  find  it  exceedingly  comprehen- 
sive, and  covering  many  a  gap  in  New  Mexican  history 
for  which  no  records  are  extant.  The  homeliness  of 
the  thirty-four  cantos,  in  blank-verse,  with  little  at- 
tempt at  confusing  ornamentation,  and  with  the  occa- 
sional interpolation  of  official  documents  in  prose,  as- 
sists to  restore  it  to  the  proper  status  of  a  chronicle, 
which,  since  the  discovery  of  its  merits,  has  been  gain- 
ing wider  appreciation. 

Among  descriptive  poems  must  be  mentioned  Gran- 
deza  de  3fexico,  by  Bishop  Balbuena,  whose  fame  as  a 
poet  shines  brightly  in  his  epic,  El  Bernardo,  and  his 
pastoral  romance,  Siglo  del  Oro,  both  among  the  finest 
of  their  class  in  the  Spanish  language.  While  born 
on  the  peninsula,  and  living  chiefly  in  the  West  In- 
dies, he  was  educated  at  Mexico,  and  there  carried 
ofl*a  prize  for  poetry  in  1585.  The  Grandeza  has  the 
additional  interest  for  my  purpose  of  not  only  con- 
cerning this  country,  whose  capital  it  describes,  its  site, 
buildings  and  institutions,  but  in  wielding  a  certain 
influence  on  colonial  writers.     It  is  in  endacasyllabic 


THE  GUADATXiPE   MIRACLE.  521 

tiercets,  divided  into  eight  chapters,  and  is  full  of  at- 
tractive lines  with  many  striking  metaphors." 

Besides  the  conquest  there  were  two  subjects  which 
allured  the  most  ambitious  poets,  the  sacred  passion 
and  the  Guadalupe  miracle.  The  latter  concerns  the 
apparition  in  1531,  to  a  humble  Indian,  of  the  virgin, 
who  leaves  to  him  her  full  length  portrait  miracu- 
lously impressed  on  his  rude  mantle.  This  is  de- 
posited at  Guadalupe  and  becomes  the  object  of 
veneration  throughout  the  country.  Voluminous 
treatises  have  been  written  in  defence  of  the  miracle, 
and  verses  innumerable  in  honor  thereof,  several  of 
the  latter  aiming  at  epic  completeness.  Sigiienza,  the 
philosopher,  made  an  attempt  in  his  Primavera  Indiana, 
which  contains  several  poetic  flashes,  but  insufficient 
to  redeem  it  from  the  mass  of  puerilities,  metonymy, 
and  hyperbole.  He  also  wrote  a  poem  in  honor  of 
Saint  Francis  Xavier,  and  Poesias  Sagradas.  Affecta- 
tion are  their  chief  defect,  but  this  was  the  prevalent 
evil  of  his  time,  as  recognized  by  the  award  of  a  first 
prize  from  the  university  for  a  most  unintelligible 
song  of  his.  La  Octava  Maravilla,  Mexico  1729,  by 
Francisco  de  Castro  of  Madrid,  is  still  further  marred 
by  rhapsodic  mysticism  and  strained  classic  similes. 
In  like  ottava  rima  measure  is  El  Triunfo  del  Silendo 
of  Joseph  Agustin  de  Castro,  of  Valladolid,  relating 
to  the  martyrdom  of  San  Juan  Nepomuceno,  wherein 
phantastic  figures  replace  the  classic  element.  ^  A 
later  attempt  to  portray  the  feelings  and  meditations 
of  a  convert  shows  less  artificiality,  and  accords  well 
with  the  chastening  of  spirit  he  is  supposed  to  have 
undergone.  ^^ 

This  class  of  poetry,  including  moral  exhortations, 
is  exceedingly  bulky,  as  may  be  understood  from  the 
influences  of  the  church  and  the  predilection  of  its 
members,  who  outnumbered  all  others  in  the  literary 
field.  The  nature  of  the  pieces  and  the  circumscribed 
language  and  tone  of  the  authors,  from  duty,  bent,  or 


522  LITERATURE  OF   COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

reverence,  operated  against  any  marked  excellence. 
A  not  uncommon  performance  with  the  friars  was  to 
reduce  the  rules  of  their  orders  into  prolific  verse,  as 
did  Pardo  for  the  Franciscans. 

Among  those  who  have  sung  the  passion  I  will  in- 
stance three  representatives  in  their  respective  method 
of  treatment.  £'irst  the  Jesuit,  Carnero,  who  gives 
a  mere  rhymed  description,  spiritless  and  with  often 
absurd  coloring.  Second  the  presbyter.  Friar,  de- 
votes one  thousand  octaves  to  the  subject  in  Descenso 
y  Humillacion  de  Dios,  Mexico  17G9,  beginning  with 
the  causes  in  the  fall  of  Adam  and  ending  with  the 
resurrection.  The  writer  seems  impressed  by  the 
incidents  before  him  and  imparts  this  feeling  in  the 
simple  earnestness  of  his  strain,  but  without  rising  to 
the  grandeur  of  the  theme. ^*  The  third,  Luis  An- 
tonio de  Oviedo  Herrera  y  Kueda,  shows  himself  in 
his  Poema  Sacro  de  la  Pasion  far  superior.  He  opens 
with  dramatic  tact  at  the  arrest  of  Christ  in  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  closes  with  the  catas- 
trophic phenomena  attending  his  death,  illuminating 
the  subjects  with  frequent  pleasing  imagery  marred 
by  little  extravagance.  In  accordance  with  the  term 
romance  applied  to  his  Poema  he  uses  the  redondilla 
measure,  with  asonantes^  while  the  others  write  in 
ottava  rima.  The  seven  parts  of  the  poem  are  called 
estaciones.  The  author  is  a  descendant  of  the  Oviedo 
who  achieved  for  himself  the  title  of  Conde  de  la 
Granja,  and  settled  in  Peru.  Referring  to  the 
approach  of  the  posse  intent  on  arresting  Christ,  he 
says: 

Entre  el  horror  de  la  noche  Ba  mas  cuerpo  ^  sus  horrores. 

Embuelta,  abultando  sombras,  Solo  el  silencio  se  oye. 

And  alluding  to  the  death  scene : 

Aqui  rasgando  el  cielo  Abrid  los  ojos  el  dia 

Y  las  sombras  a  girones,  Por  ver  al  Sol  que  se  pone. 

Above  any  of  these  as  a  writer  of  sacred  verse 
ranks  Fernan  Gonzalez  Esclava,  whose  Coloquios  espiri- 
tuales,  Canciones  Divinas,  and  Poesias  were  published  at 


HAPPY   INHERITANCE.  523 

Mexico  in  1610,  after  his  death.  They  exhibit  a  rare 
combination  of  pure  diction,  good  versification,  and 
natural  grace,  yet  have  from  this  very  reason  been 
pushed  aside  by  the  more  bombastic  appeals  of  less 
able  pens.  The  Teressiada,  sive  Teressia  a  Jesu,  by  friar 
Juan  Valencia,  a  Mexican  of  a  few  decades  later, 
serves  mainly  to  exhibit  his  skill  in  Latin  hexameters.' 
The  contemporary  Jesuit,  M.  Castroverde,  excelled  in 
such  verse.  Bishop  Deza  y  Ulloa  of  Huexotcingo 
received  a  premium  from  the  university  for  his 
Spanish  octaves;  F.  Cochero  Carreno's  Desagmvio  de 
Cristo  achieved  a  certain  celebrity.  The  nun  Teresa 
de  Cristo  belongs  to  this  period. 

Among  the  mass  of  shorter  poems,  odes,  sonnets, 
elegies,  satires,  and  epigrams,  we  find  by  far  the  hap- 
piest specimens,  as  may  be  supposed,  from  the  impul- 
sive but  unsustained  spirit  of  the  people,  and  from  the 
mingling  of  gay  effusiveness  and  lofty  gallantry  in- 
herited from  Spain,  with  the  sad  yet  sly  traits  of  the 
aborigines.  Church  festivals,  public  inaugurations, 
celebrations  connected  with  the  royal  family  or  prom- 
inent citizens,  and  reunions,  gave  occasion  for  display 
in  this  field  whicli  frequently  assumed  the  form  of 
contests.  The  number  of  participants  and  interested 
auditors  afforded  ready  opportunity  for  reproducing 
the  different  pieces  in  print,  prefaced  as  usual  with  a 
number  of  similar  verses  by  critics,  or  by  the  admi- 
rers of  the  contestants.  They  are  generally  weighted 
with  classic  lore,  strained  metaphor  and  grandiloquent 
nothings,  the  main  effort  being  evidently  to  exhibit 
learning  and  express  eulogy.  They  embrace  all  im- 
aginable forms  of  verses,  with  acrostics  of  the  most 
intricate  pattern.  In  such  representative  volumes  as 
Odstillo,  Letras,  on  the  occasion  of  taking  the  oath  to 
Luis  Fernando  I.  Carlos  TIL,  Real  Proc;  Rodrigmz, 
AugvMo  Ihim.;  Soria,  Descript,  at  a  church  festival,  we 
find  the  participants  range  from  pompous  prelates  to 
humble  friars,  from  staid  professors  to  youthful  pupils. 


524  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

Special  mention  must  be  accorded  to  Matias  Boca- 
negra,  whose  Cmicion  a  la  vista  de  un  desengano  be- 
came very  popular  and  was  widely  adopted  as  a  model 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  al- 
though by  no  means  finished  in  form. 

A  contemporary  elegy  by  Zapata  on  the  death  of 
the  brothers  Avila  is  noticeable  for  many  effective 
lines.  The  sword  which  brings  them  death  he  de- 
picts as  : 

Una  vivora  de  lumbre  Porque  6.  sus  impetus  muera. 

Con  veneno  de  Centellas  Suplid  el  Uanto  de  los  ojos 

La  region  del  aire  vibre,  El  defecto  de  la  lengua. 

Juan  de  Gaona,  a  Franciscan  friar,  who  wrote  sev- 
eral works  in  Aztec,  Latin,  and  Spanish,  attracted  at- 
tention by  his  Poesias  Castellanas  en  alahanza  de  la 
Virgen.  Francisco  Placido,  an  Aztec  noble,  wrote 
some  Cdnticos  which  Chimalpain  preserved.  E.  Sa- 
lazar  de  Alarcon,  a  native  of  Madrid,  who  resided 
many  years  in  Guatemala  and  Mexico  as  oidor,  and 
was  made  a  councillor  of  the  Indies  in  1601,  left  a 
highly  praised  Silva  de  Poesia ;  some  of  his  letters  are 
said  to  be  masterpieces.  The  freer  development  of 
lyrics  during  the  following  century  will  render  a  later 
consideration  more  satisfactory. 

Mention  must  be  made  of  one  whose  varied  power 
and  productions  have  procured  for  her  a  recognition 
far  above  any  other  truly  national  poet  of  colonial 
times.  This  is  Juana  Inez  de  la  Cruz,  to  whom  even 
contemporaries  of  the  peninsula  gave  the  extravagant 
appellation  of  tenth  muse.  Pacheco  compares  her  to 
Camoens,  and  Feijoo  lauds  her  critical  and  philo- 
sophic mind.  She  was  truly  a  prodigy.  As  a  child 
her  thoughts  seemed  to  find  appropriate  utterance  in 
verse  alone,  and  she  became  the  wonder  of  the  vicere- 
gal court.  Her  sylph-like  beauty  also  drew  admi- 
rers and  fortune  smiled  brightly.  Suddenly  a  change 
came  over  her.  Imbued  with  sensitiveness  and  ex- 
alted imagination,  she  felt  keenly  the  slight  thrown 
upon  her  Creole  caste  ;  she  felt  the  want  of  sympathy. 


JUANA  INEZ  DE  LA  CRUZ.  525 

the  failure  to  be  understood.  Clinging  more  than 
ever  to  her  beloved  books,  she  sought  at  the  early 
age  of  seventeen  the  seclusion  of  the  convent,  aban- 
doning the  future  opened  to  her  in  society  as  lady  of 
honor,  to  devote  herself  to  letters.  A  deep  religious 
feeling  can  hardly  have  been  the  chief  prompter,  as 
some  declare  ;  there  was  something  more,  for  pretended 
happiness  and  quiet  suffering  are  frequently  revealed 
in  her  lines.  Undeniable  is  the  bigoted  interference 
of  religious  advisers,  who  finally  persuaded  her  to 
abandon  even  books  and  writing  for  ascetic  penance. 
Freed  from  worldly  distractions  at  least,  she  yielded 
to  the  bent  of  her  mind,  and  poured  forth  a  prolific 
flow,  chiefly  of  lyrics,  which  roused  deserved  admira- 
tion from  their  delicate  tone,  their  varied  imagery,  and 
their  smooth  versification.  The  religious  sentiment 
predominates,  relieved  by  many  a  lofty  allegory,  but 
coupled  also  with  a  mystic  speculation  that  smacks  of 
forced  patristic  inculcation,  and  is  often  of  questionable 
taste;  yet  the  light  emotions  are  also  touched,  and 
with  charming  naivete  in  the  love  sonnets.  The  ele- 
giac tone  is  frequent,  indicative,  perhaps,  of  a  wounded 
heart,  and  certainly  of  her  treatment  within  the 
cloister  and  by  the  world. 

Si  al  arroyo  parlero  A  cuantas  mira  intima  su  cuidado, 

Ves  galan  de  las  flores  en  el  prado,     En  su  corriente  mi  dolor  te  avisa, 
Que  amante  y  lisongero  Que  i.  costa  de  mi  llanto,  tiene  risa. 

This  is,  indeed,  a  smile  amid  tears. 

Al  dulce  iman  de  su  voz  Tan  bella,  sobre  canora, 

Quisieran  por  asistirla,  Que  el  amor  dudoso  admira 

Firmamento  ser  el  Movil,  Si  se  deben  sus  harpones 

El  8ol  ser  Estrella  fixa.  A  sus  ecos  d  ^  su  vista. 

No  dupliques  las  armas, 

Bella  homicida, 
Que  esta  ociosa  la  muerte 

Donde  no  ay  vida. 

She  can  also  sing  in  a  merry  strain.  Her  eclogues 
are  pervaded  by  a  bantering  vein,  and  her  ovillejos  and 
other  jocose  pieces  vie  with  the  sonnets  and  romances 
for  the  foremost  place.     There   is  a  number  of  satiri- 


526  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

cal  compositions,  and  several  decimas  of  true  epigram- 
matic form.  She  displays,  moreover,  a  profoundly 
critical  mind.  Before  entering  the  convent  she  aston- 
ished a  committee  of  learned  men  with  the  variety 
and  depth  of  her  attainments. 

Juana  also  wrote  several  dramatic  pieces,  notably 
two  autos,  or  religious  allegories,  and  two  comedies, 
Amor  es  mas  Labyrinto  and  Los  Empeiios  de  una  Casa, 
preceded  and  interspersed  with  the  customary  loas, 
letras,  saynetes,  and  saraos,  or  dialogues,  farces,  and 
songs.  The  last-named  piece,  the  only  one  that  has 
received  much  attention,  embraces  Mexican  life,  and 
has  some  tender  love  scenes,  with  occasional  stirring 
verses ;  yet  it  is  cold  and  wearisome  on  the  whole, 
and  stamped  by  the  defects  of  the  times. 

Imitations  of  such  men  as  Seneca  and  Calderon  are 
only  too  apparent,  but  she  allowed  herself,  above  all, 
to  be  influenced  by  the  cultismo  spirit,  with  its  inex- 
cusable mannerism  and  trivialities,  and  the  religious 
surrounding  proved  another  restraint  on  her  naturally 
graceful  flow,  while  strength  and  originality  flag  in 
the  more  prolonged  eflbrts.  It  was  her  misfortune  to 
live  in  the  period  of  dramatic  decadence  in  Spain,  and 
during  the  unfolding  of  corrupt  Gongorism,  and  to  be 
permeated  by  the  levelling  influences  of  both.  Hence 
it  is  that  her  works  gradually  passed  into  oblivion, 
notwithstanding  their  evident  mark  of  genius,  their 
rich  form,  and  grand  symbolism.  Mexicans  did  not 
appreciate  the  Nun  of  Mexico  so  much  as  the  penin- 
sular readers,  with  all  their  penchant  for  national  per- 
sonages. They  were  too  deeply  engrossed  with 
transatlantic  models  to  give  due  consideration  to  local 
talent. '° 

The  drama  begins  in  Mexico  with  the  representation 
of  autos,  religious  or  allegoric  pieces,  which  owe  their 
derivation  from  the  mystery  or  passion  plays  intro- 
duced from  Italy  into  Spain,  there  to  acquire  a  dis- 
tinctive  elaboration  and  stamp,  under  the  different 


THE  DRAMA.  527 

methods  of  Vicente,  Lope,  and  Calderon.  They  were 
early  brought  forward  as  an  attractive  medium  for 
promoting  conversion  among  the  aborigines,  and  pro- 
duced partly  in  the  churches,  but  chiefly  in  the  open 
air.  Friars  adapted  or  composed  the  pieces,  some- 
times translating  them  into  the  vernacular,  while  the 
neophytes  were  trained  in  the  roles.  The  subjects 
were  chiefly  biblical,  the  adoration  of  the  magi  being 
a  favorite,  the  Indians  applying  to  themselves  the 
divine  summons  herein  indicated  to  pagans.  Allegoric 
and  complicated  composition  found  more  favor  in  the 
cities,  for  edification  of  the  white  classes.  Here  also 
the  productions  were  more  apt  to  be  enlivened  with 
comical  passages.  In  course  of  time,  indeed,  they 
were  so  burdened  with  this  and  other  abuse  as  to 
hasten  the  suppression  and  decline  of  the  autos,  as  in 
Europe.  Nevertheless,  they  still  survive  in  remote 
country  districts. 

The  contemporary  loas,  eulogistic  declamations  by 
one  or  more  dramatic  persons,  largely  used  as  pro- 
logues, survived  somewhat  longer  as  independent 
pieces  for  production  at  different  public  festivals,  as 
the  arrival  of  viceroys  and  prelates,  installations,  and 
the  like. 

Tlie  first  prominent  local  writer  of  autos  and  loas 
was  Fernan  Gonzalez  Esclava,  the  Andalusian  pres- 
byter, whose  religious  poems  rank  so  high  in  Mexico. 
His  Coloquios  espirituales,  issued  there  in  1610,  and 
lately  rediscovered  and  reprinted  by  Icazbalceta,  con- 
sist chiefly  of  allegories  with  moral  and  theological 
figures.  In  diction  they  partake  of  the  good  qualities 
of  his  sacred  verse,  but  their  dramatic  aspect  indicates 
so  little  of  the  elegance  and  vivacity  of  Lope,  or  of 
the  lofty  thoughts  and  rich  form  of  Calderon,  as  to 
lower  them  to  a  secondary  position  on  the  peninsula, 
yet  one  of  conspicuous  merit  in  New  Spain. 

The  drifting  of  the  auto  into  farce,  was  a  natural 
response  to  the  light-hearted  disposition  of  the  Creoles, 
if  not   to  the   staid    bent  of  the  Indians.     Comedy 


528  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

ranked  foremost  among  Spanish  Americans,  as  may 
be  judged  from  the  character  of  the  dramatic  Hghts 
of  Iberia.  Their  most  popular  pieces  were  of  the  capa 
y  espada  class,  cloak  and  sword,  signifying  a  theme 
on  love  and  jealousy,  productions  marked  by  compli- 
cated and  ingenious  plots,  piquant  portrayals  and 
striking  situations,  with  alternating  passion,  sarcasm, 
and  caricature,  impertinent  inuendoes  and  strong 
double  entente.  The  most  conspicuous  features  are  a 
gallantry  and  intrigue  which  stretch  the  line  of  deli- 
cacy far  beyond  northern  ideas. 

So  little  were  these  vagaries  heeded  that  even  a 
devout  soul  like  Juana  de  la  Cruz  employed  her  pen 
in  delineating  intrigues;  yet  the  restraints  of  her 
training  and  surroundings  are  evident  in  defective 
dramatic  taste  and  flagging  spirit.  These  inequalities 
apply  also  to  a  diction  at  times  rich  and  even  elegant, 
but  more  frequently  marred  by  puerilities  and  verbose 
bombast,  which  indeed  preponderate  to  such  extent 
as  to  stamp  the  productions  as  hopelessly  dull.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  specimens  by  other  local 
playwrights  of  the  period,  as  Eusebio  Vela,  the  most 
prolific  dramatist  of  the  seventeenth  century,  who  left 
a  dozen  comedies  in  manuscript ;  Juan  Arriola  of  Guan- 
ajuato, who  transmitted  one  production  in  print;  the 
promising  Salazary  Torres;  and  Francisco  Soria.  All 
these  are  pronounced  imitators  of  Spanish  model,  but 
the  last,  while  burdened  chiefly  with  the  extrava- 
gances of  Calderon,  rises  nevertheless  above  the  others 
in  merit  and  appreciation.^^ 

All  these  are  eclipsed  by  Kuiz  de  Alarcon,  who 
was  by  birth  and  education  a  Creole,  although  he 
wTote  in  Spain,  and  there  achieved  for  himself  a  place 
among  her  great  dramatists.  Some  of  his  pieces  were 
at  first  ascribed  to  his  foremost  rivals,  and  Corneille, 
among  other  borrowers,  derived,  with  glowing  acknowl- 
edgment, his  Menteiir,  from  the  Verdad  Sospechosa  o^ 
Alarcon.  This,  Todo  es  Ventura,  and  other  comedies, 
written  chiefly  in  redondilla  measure,  brought   him 


ALARCON  Y  MENDOZA.  529 

prominently  into  notice  about  1621,  although  he  ap- 
pears to  have  tried  his  pen  fully  twenty  years  before. 
By  1634  nearly  thirty  pieces  had  appeared,  including 
the  celebrated  Ezdmen  de  Maridos.  Their  character- 
istic feature  is  Alarcon's  adhesion  to  the  Latin  models, 
and  from  Terence  he  has  above  all  imbibed  the  spirit 
which  was  to  guide  him,  while  the  Italian  method  has 
not  failed  to  leave  its  impress.  Nevertheless  he  stands 
forward  as  one  of  the  most  original  and  varied  writers, 
though  less  prolific  and  imaginative.  His  diction  is 
more  formal  and  his  versification  purer  than  Lope  de 
Vega's ;  indeed,  he  ranks  rather  as  a  classic  who  strove 
to  infuse  not  only  a  more  correct  style,  but  a  healthier 
moral  tone  into  comedy,  which  was  still  entangled  in 
a  licentiousness  from  which  the  church  was  seeking 
to  rescue  it.  His  effort  was  to  bring  into  prominence 
noble  qualities,  and  expose  the  evil  of  vice,  rather 
than  to  draw  from  the  sources  of  chivalric  romance,  and 
offset  it  with  broad  buffoonery.  These  admirable 
features  were  too  strongly  drawn  for  his  age,  and  thus 
he  failed  to  attain  that  popularity  while  living  which 
has  since  been  enthusiastically  accorded  him  in  both 
hemispheres  by  a  posterity  of  more  elevated  taste.  Mex- 
ico has  adopted  him  as  father  of  her  dramatic  litera- 
ture. 

Juan  Ruiz  de  Alarcon  y  Mendoza  came  of  famous 
descent,  the  last  name  denoting  a  connection  with 
Viceroy  Mendoza.  He  was  born  about  1580,  not  as 
generally  supposed  at  Tasco,  where  his  father  owned 
mines,  but  at  Mexico.  After  graduating  at  the  uni- 
versity of  this  city,  he  perfected  his  studies  at  Sala- 
manca during  the  opening  years  of  the  following  cen- 
tury, and  then  adopted  the  legal  profession,  returning 
in  1658  to  Mexico  to  exercise  it,  and  obtained  the 
position  of  acting  corregidor  of  the  capital.  A  few 
years  later  he  went  again  to  Spain  as  office-hunter, 
and  after  many  struggles  with  adversity,  aggravated 
by  a  hunchback  deformity,  he  secured  a  post  as  rela- 
tor in  the   India  council  which  he  held  for  some  13 

Essays  and  Miscellany     34 


530  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

years,  till  his  death  in  1639.  In  1599,  during  the 
opening  studies  at  Salamanca,  he  appears  to  have 
made  the  first  attempts  in  a  career  which  was  to 
bring  him  surely  though  slowly  to  fame.^^ 

The  neglect  of  Alarcon  and  the  paucity  of  dramatic 
writers  in  New  Spain,  and  the  existence  before  1790 
of  only  one  theatre  in  the  country  worthy  the  name, 
leave  the  impression  that  the  stage  was  little  appre- 
ciated. The  indications  are  not  quite  reliable,  how- 
ever, for  dramatic  performances,  sacred  and  profane, 
were  frequently  given  at  public  festivals  and  private 
entertainments,  in  convents  and  private  mansions, 
notably  at  the  palace,  where  the  viceroy  sought  to 
encourage  native  talent  by  attending  presentations. 
These  were  often  mere  loas,  which  failed  to  see  print, 
while  the  pieces  generally  offered  to  the  public  came 
from  Spain,  as  did  the  more  appreciated  actors." 
Comedies  by  Lope  de  Vega  and  others  were  even 
translated  into  native  tongues. 

The  slight  esteem  accorded  to  home  productions, 
even  by  those  who  ranked  with  the  creole  party,  was 
due  greatly  to  the  authors  themselves,  who  drew  in- 
spiration, method,  and  even  subjects  from  Spain, 
thus  upholding  her  too  exclusively  to  the  colonies  as 
the  model  which  she  still  in  a  great  measure  remains. 
Even  Alarcon  found  tardy  appreciation  at  home  only 
after  the  peninsula  had  given  her  approval,  and  La 
Cruz  rose  far  higher  there  than  among  her  own  people. 
The  all-influential  class  of  officials  also  turned  public 
sentiment  with  their  disdainful  affectation  away  from 
the  less  esteemed  Creoles,  and  the  clergy  exerted  a 
greater  control  here  in  directing  preference  to  chosen 
literature  from  the  mother  country,  and  in  restricting 
local  talent  in  scope  and  treatment.  Nevertheless  the 
new  direction  and  impulse  imparted  from  France, 
came  to  be  felt  in  the  colonies  toward  the  end  of  the 
last  century.  As  in  Spain,  it  produced  no  immediate 
brilliant  result  in  literature,  although  the  first  effect 
was  less  depressing;  but  by  pointing  to  the  necessity 


NOTES.  531 

for  deeper  and  more  varied  studies,  especially  of 
classics,  it  laid  the  foundation  for  a  higher  develop- 
ment. This  is  indicated  in  the  efforts  of  Abad,  Cla- 
vigero,  Alegre,  and  other  exiled  Jesuits,  and  more 
strikingly  by  Jose  Rafael  Larranaga,  who  produced 
the  first  complete  translation  of  Virgil's  work  into 
Spanish  heroic  verse.  It  is  marked  by  an  exactitude 
and  close  adherence  to  the  spirit  and  form  of  the 
original  that  is  lacking  in  the  more  elegant  partial 
versions  of  Friar  Luis  de  Leon  and  Hernandez  de 
Velasco,  and  gives  Mexico  the  greater  reason  to  be 
proud  of  so  influential  a  guide  during  the  dawn  of 
revival." 


1  The  chroniclers  agree  that  the  press  came  under  the  auspices  of  Mendoza, 
Hist.  Mex.,  ii.  378,  this  series,  but  they  differ  about  the  year,  Gonzalez 
Davila,  Teatro  Ecles.,  i.  23,  giving  it  as  1532,  for  instance.  The  name  of 
the  printer  was  probably  Paoli,  which  became  Pablos — the  plural  of  Paolo 
— by  translation.  Cromberger  is  also  printed  Crumberger  and  Kromberger, 
but  was  probably  written  Kronberger  or  Krummberger  in  German.  He 
was  preceded  in  the  business  at  Seville  by  Jacobo  Cromberger,  who  figures 
there  in  1511,  and  may  have  been  his  father.  The  name  of  Pablos  does  not 
appear  in  the  colophon  till  154G;  it  seems  eight  years  later  in  the  Constitu- 
dones  del  Arzobispado,  he  styles  himself  *  primer  impresor  en  esta. ,  .ciudad  de 
Mexico,'  a  term  which  has  also  been  interpreted  foremost  or  leading,  for  a 
rival  printer  existed  about  that  time  in  the  person  of  Antonio  Espinosa. 
This  late  appearance  of  Pablos,  together  with  the  fact  that  Cromberger 
alone  figures  during  the  first  years  as  printer,  has  led  to  a  very  general  belief 
that  the  latter  actually  had  charge  of  the  press;  but  the  colophon  of  a  book 
printed  at  Seville  in  1541  alludes  to  him  as  lately  deceased,  and  Icazbalceta, 
who  has  given  this  subject  a  share  of  his  scholarly  attention,  rightly  assumes 
that  the  owner  of  a  flourishing  business  at  Seville  would  hardly  exile  him- 
self to  a  remote  corner  of  the  earth  with  its  petty  prospects.  It  is  possible 
that  a  son  of  his  may  have  gone;  but  since  this  is  a  mere  conjecture  it  will 
be  preferable  to  accept  the  statement  of  two  chroniclers  who  declare  '  Juan 
Pablos,  primer  impresor  que  d,  esta  tierra  vino. '  Davila  Padilla,  Hist.  Fond. 
Mex.  542.  *E1  primer  Impresor  fue  luan  Pablos.  Gonzalez  Davila,  Teatro 
Ecles.,  i.  23;  Medina,  Chron.  S.  Dieyo,  233;  Concilios  Prov.,  1555-65,  p.  v. 
Padilla  not  only  lived  near  the  time  in  question,  but  he  had  every  facility 
for  knowing.  In  1542  the  viceroy  granted  to  the  widow  and  children  of 
Cromberger  the  right  to  continue  the  printing  and  importation  of  books  for 
ten  years.  Dates,  in  Cartas  de  Indias,  78C-7.  The  grant  appears  to  have 
been  exclusive,  and  Pablos  must  therefore  have  bought  their  establishment. 

2 Estrada  is  called  'Hi jo  legitimo  del  Virrey,'  by  Fernandez,  ubi  sup.  He 
died  in  1579.  Davila  Padilla;  Hist.  Fond.,  Mex.,  543.  This  author  gives  sev- 
eral columns  to  the  life  of  Estrada,  who  joined  the  Dominicans  in  15S5,  and 
tells  how  neatly  and  quickly  he  made  the  translation.  It  is  probable  that 
only  a  few  copies  were  printed  for  use  among  the  novices,  who  soon  de- 
stroyed them.  The  title  and  statement  are  given  in  Gonzalez  Davila,  loc.  cit., 
although  with  the  date  wrongly  placed  as  1532,  and  the  facts  are  confirmed 
by  Fernandez,  Hist.  Ecles.,  122,  who  writes  1535,  by  Padilla  and  other  cred- 
itable  chroniclers.     See  also /^ane^,  Vireyes,MS.,7Z, 


532  LITERATURE  OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

'The  Doctrina  of  1539  is  described  by  the  editors  of  Cartas  de  Tndias,  78& 
7.  Icazbalceta  acquired  notice  of  the  Manual.  Gonzalez  Davila  states  thal^ 
the  first  catechism  in  Aztec  was  written  by  the  Dominican  Juan  RamirezJI 
later  bishop  of  Guatemala,  and  printed  in  1537.  Teatro  Ecles.,  i.  7,  but  this  <M 
course  cannot  be  accepted  with  any  confidence.  Mendieta  alludes  to  an  Azteffl 
vocabulary  by  Jimenez,  one  of  the  first  Franciscan  apostles,  as  the  first  ofJ 
the  kind  although  not  printed.  He  seems  to  credit  Motolinia  with  the  first! 
printed  Doctrina  'la  cual  anda  impresa.'  Ribas  and  Cisneros,  also  of  the! 
twelve,  wrote  various  pieces.  Hist.  Edes.,  550.  Thomas,  Hist.  Pnnting,  i.  194,f 
leaves  the  impression  that  Puga,  Ceduiario,  of  1563,  and  Molina,  Vocahulario^\ 
1571,  were  probably  the  first  productions  of  the  Mexican  press.  In  myl 
library  are  also  earlier  specimens.  The  British  museum  not  long  ago  cata-l 
logued  the  Doctrina  of  Cordoba,  1544,  as  the  first  book.  Such  was  the  igno-l 
ranee  on  this  point  until  lately.  North  of  Mexico  the  first  book  appearedl 
only  a  century  later,  in  the  Whole  Booke  of  Psalmes,  issued  at  Cambridge  I 
in  1640,  the  year  after  the  press  was  introduced.  I 

^  Eguiara,  Bib.  Mex.,  221,  adds:  Ordinationes  legumque  collectiones  1549,1 
but  Harrisse  and  Icazbalceta  identify  it  with  the  preceding  Spanish  Ordenan-T 
zas;  Opera  medicinalia,  Auctore  Francisco  Bravo  Orsumesiis  assigned  to  1549;j 
but  the  name  of  the  printer,  Ocharte,  and  the  dedication  to  Viceroy  Enri-I 
quez,  indicate  that  the  date  is  a  misprint,  not  a  forgery,  and  should  bal 
placed  between  1568  and  1580. 

^  A  list  of  the  printing  houses  which  figured  at  Mexico  in  the  sixteenth! 
century  may  stand  as  follows:  Cromberger  1535-44,  Pablos  1542-60  orl 
1562,  Antonio  Espinosa  1559-73,  Pedro  Ocharte  1563-91,  Pedro  Balli  1571-1 
97,  or  later,  Antonio  Ricardos  1577-79,  Melchor  Ocharte  1599.  The  dates  I 
are  merely  approximate.  Icazbalceta  gives  additional  valuable  details.  I 
Harrisse  upholds  him  in  asserting  that  Ricardos,  an  Italian  like  Pablos,  went! 
to  Lima  in  1580,  as  the  first  printer  there.  At  Puebla  the  first  book  appeared! 
in  1650.  Nouv.  Annales  Des  Voy.,  xciii.  42-9,  mentions  other  more  doubtful! 
places  and  dates.  Ziiniga  y  Ontiveros  owned  the  chief  printing  office  in! 
Mexico  at  the  opening  of  the  present  century.  Estalla,  xxvi.  350;  Diariom 
Mex.,  vi.  23.  Mexicans  early  showed  a  fondness  for  fanciful  type  and  em-f 
bellishment  as  indicated  by  specimens  on  my  shelves,  letters  in  gold  and  red! 
being  very  frequent,  with  floriated  capitals. 

^  Orders  came  frequently  for  officials  to  ferret  and  burn  all  obnoxious  lit-! 
erature,  Ordenes  de  Corona,  MS.,  iii.  14,  and  Bishop  Palafox  devoted  even  his! 
private  funds  to  buy  up  and  destroy  comedies,  novels,  and  other  works  re-f 
garded  by  him  as  unhealthy.  "Accion.  .  .bien  digna,"  comments  Calle.l 
Mem.  y  Not.,  40.  Even  the  colonial  authorities  were  mistrusted  in  respect! 
of  censorship  by  the  supreme  government.  By  a  law  of  1559,  no  book  treat-! 
ing  of  the  Indies  could  be  published  before  it  had  been  examined  by  the  India! 
Council,  Becop.  de  Ind.,  and  in  the  following  year  came  orders  to  collect  and! 
send  to  Spain  all  books  published  without  royal  privilege.  Puga,  CedidariOff 
210.  Regulations  for  publishing  are  given  in  Montemayor,  Sumarios,  64,  etc.! 
In  Gaceta  de  Mexico  of  1728  and  following  years  there  is  an  advertisement  of 
new  books  at  the  end  of  almost  every  monthly  number,  averaging  about  two 
in  each. 

^  Arevalo  stamps  his  Gaceta  de  Mexico  of  Jan.  1728  as  No.  1.  By  the  end 
of  1730  it  formed  37  numbers,  all  of  which  were  bound,  indexed,  and  dedi- 
cated to  Archbishop  Vizarron  by  Hogal,  the  printer.  The  volume  forms  a 
small  quarto  of  295  pages.  A  rude  cut  of  an  eagle  on  a  cactus,  with  a  snake 
in  its  beak,  and  surmounted  by  a  star  and  crown,  figures  on  the  first  page  of 
each  number.  Of  all  these  early  papers  it  is  hard  to  find  more  than  scattered 
fragments.  At  Guatemala  a  monthly  periodical  was  issued  for  about  the 
same  time.  I  have  found  them  of  greater  value  comparatively  than  the  peri- 
odicals of  later  stirring  times. 

^  Valdes  began  the  Gaceta  in  1784,  in  accordance  with  royal  permission. 
See  Belena,  Becop.,  i.  pt  iii.  195.  In  1805  it  was  under  the  editorship  of  Can- 
celada,  who  became  noted  for  the  persecution  he  suffered,  as  related  else- 


NOTES.  533 

where.     Throughout  its  career  there  were  frequent  interruptions,  from  lack 
of  printing  material  and  news,  and  from  official  interference. 

3  The  first  periodical  at  Vera  Cruz  was  the  short-lived  Correo  Mercantil  of 
1804.  In  180G  came  the  Jornal  Economico,  which  was  succeeded  in  1807  by 
Diiuio  Mercantil,  and  later  by  Diario  de  Veracruz,  which  continued  after  the 
independence.  Lerdo  de  TejaJda,  Apuntes  Hist,  344.  The  Observador  Ameri- 
cano is  said  to  have  been  printed  with  wooden  types  at  Soltepec  in  1810. 
Mosaico  Mex.,  vi.  4:1.  Among  Trarisactions,  I  have  that  of  the  Sociedad 
Econdmica  of  Guatemala,  begun  in  1797. 

^*  Copies  of  documents  from  all  American  departments  passed  to  the  India 
Council  in  Spain.  Regulations  for  the  guidance  of  the  royal  historian,  and 
for  the  care  of  the  archives,  are  to  be  found  in  Zamora,  Bib.  Leg.  UU.,  i.  381- 
2;  iii.  509;  Recop.  de  Ind.,  Ordenaiaas  lleaks  del  Consejo,  folios  xxi.-ii.  Basa- 
lenque  shows  that  in  1576  the  Augustinians  had  four  respectable  libraries. 
Prov.  S.  Nic,  39.  The  university  opened  to  the  public  in  1762.  The  Jesuit 
college  had,  in  1797,  4300  volumes,  and  the  Letran  had  grown  in  modern 
times  to  more  than  12,000.  Alaman,  H'tst.  Mej.,  i.  120,  mentions  four  private 
libraries  at  Guanajuato  with  over  1000  volumes,  besides  the  select  collections 
of  Intendente  Riano  and  Doctor  Labarrieta.  Zamacois  borrows  modern  sta- 
tistics to  give  size  to  old  libraries,  so  as  to  raise  the  estimate  for  colonial 
times.  UisL  Mdj.,  pp.  1206-7. 

^^  A  list  of  419  is  given  in  Papeles  Franciscanos,  MS.,  i.  7  et  seq.  Vetan- 
curt  also  gives  lists  in  Cron.,  140,  etc.;  Menolo<j.,  436-56;  and  Davila Padilla, 
Hist.  Fond.  Mex.,  653  et  seq.,  gives  Dommican  authors. 

^■'  See  exhortation  in  Medina,  Chron.  de  S.  Diego,  64-6. 

1'  For  additional  specimens  of  Nahua  verse  I  refer  to  my  Native  Races,  ii. 
494-7.  Speeches  are  frequently  introduced  into  the  same  and  following 
volumes.  See  also,  Granados,  Tardes,  90-4;  Kingsborouglis  Mex.  Antiq.,  viii. 
110-15;  Doc.  Hist.  Mex.,  serie  iii.,  tom.  iv.  286-93;  Miiller,  Reisen,  iii.  138- 
41.  The  verses  preserved  by  Pesado  in  Las  Aztecas  are  so  distorted  by 
rhythmic  transformation  from  translated  versions  as  to  be  valueless  to  the 
student.  Clavigero  declares  exuberantly  that  '  il  linguaggio  della  lor  Poesia 
era  puro,  ameno,  brillante,  figurato,  e  fregiato  di  frequenj;i  comparazioni  falle 
colle  cose  piu  piacevoli  della  natura.'  Storia,  Mois.,  ii.  175. 

"  For  particulars  concerning  the  host  of  literary  lights  anaong  Indians,  I 
refer  to  Eguiara,  Bib.  Mex.,  i.;  Beristain,  Bib.  Hisp.  Amer.,  i.-iii.;  Boturini, 
Catahgo,  passim;  Alcedo,  Bib.  Am.,  MS.,  i.-ii.;  Granados,  Tardes  Amer.,  145 
etc.;  Clavigero,  Stoiia  M&is.,  iv.  262,  etc.,  wherein  is  given  a  long  list  of 
writers  in  Indian  dialects;  Zerecero,  Mem.  Rev.,  436  et  seq.;  Zamacois,  Hist. 
Mej.,  V.  215-20,  482,  719,  etc.;  x.  1230  etc.,  app.  91-5;  Gallo  Hombres  Ilust., 
i.-iv.;  Dice.  Univ.,  i.-x.;  Soc.  Mex.  Geog.,  Boletin,  epoc.  ii.,  tom.  iv.,  136,  etc.; 
Ortiz,  Mex.  Indep.,  179-228. 

1^  Burgoa  and  Ribas  present  important  chronicles  for  Oajaca  and  Sonora, 
respectively,  in  the  old-fashioned  ambiguous  and  verbose  style.  In  more 
advanced  form  is  the  bulky  history  of  Mexico  by  Ignacio  Carrillo,  a  prolific 
expounder  of  the  shrine  lore  of  ISTew  Spain.  The  work  remains  m  manu- 
script, which  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  as  the  information  relates  largely 
to  institutional  matter  of  great  interest.  Nicolas  Segura  ranks  before  the 
time  of  his  religious  brother  Alegre  as  a  prominent  writer  on  theology. 

16  His  work  in  three  volumes  bears  the  imprint  Bononia,  1791-2.  I  have 
had  frequent  occasion  in  the  earlier  volumes  of  this  series  to  refer  to  the  dif- 
fel-ent  kinds  of  biography,  which  appear  besides  to  profusion  in  the  chronicles, 
notably  Vetancurt's.  Among  special  representative  books  may  be  mentioned 
Torres,  Vida  Ejemplar  de  BdrMra  Josepha  de  S.  Francisco,  (1723);  Rodriguez, 
Bida  Prodigiosa  del.  .  .Fray  Sebastian  de  Aparicio ;  Ximenezy  Frias,  El  Femx  de 
hs  Mineros  Ricos,  1779;  Velasco,  Elogio  Hist.  The  Bibliotheca  Mexicana  of 
Eguiara,  in  Latin,  is  really  a  biography  of  writers  but  by  no  means  equal  to 
the  preceding.  I.  Lazcano  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  century  a  number  ot 
Jesuit  biographies.  u-i  i     • 

I'Torquemada  furnishes  a  list  of  early  Franciscans  who  figured  as  phiiologic 


534  LITERATURE   OF  COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

writers.  Among  the  earliest  was  Friar  Juan  Bautista  Vetancurt,  Cron.  140 
etc., Menolog.,  430-56,  has  additional  names,  Davila  Padilla,  Hist.  Fund.  Mex., 
653  et  seq.,  gives  Dominican  authors,  Cogolludo,  Hint.  Yucathan,  439-40, 
mentions  writers  in  the  Maya  tongue,  added  to  by  Ancona,  Hist.  Yur..,  iii. 
247  and  others  ;  Clavigero,  Stoi-ici  3Iess.,  iv.  264,  enumerates  aboriginal  con- 
tributors ;  as  in  «5oc.  Alex.  Oeo<j.,  Boletin,  2a  ep.,  iv,  148  etc.  In  Zamacoia 
and  other  authorities  may  be  found  further  details. 

^^In  Alzate's  footsteps  follows  the  curate,  Diego  de  Alvarez,  a  prolific  writer 
on  arts  and  sciences,  as  well  as  theology.  Hipdlito  Villarroel  figures  about 
the  same  time  as  a  political  essayist,  and  Fausto  de  Elhuyar  wrote  on  the 
coinage  system.  For  more  detailed  accounts  of  these  and  other  writers  I  refer 
to  the  foot-notes  of  the  earlier  volumes  of  my  History  of  Mexico,  and  to  the 
works  of  Eguiara  and  Beristain. 

^'Of  Beristain 's  numerous  works,  of  which  only  a  few  are  noticed  by  bibli- 
ographers, I  have  more  than  a  dozen,  including  manuscripts.  Among  the 
sources  used  by  him  without  acknowledgement  were  the  notes  on  Mexican 
literature  by  Azcarate  y  Lezama,  whose  pen  figured  also  in  jurisprudence, 
biography  and  poetry.  Another  Creole  of  colonial  times  who  prepared  a  biljli- 
ography  was  Alcedo,  of  whom  I  speak  elsewhere,  but  his  Bihlioteca  Americana 
of  1807,  remains  in  manuscript,  of  which  my  shelves  contain  one  of  the  few 
copies  extant  in  two  volumes.  The  supposition  that  it  embraces  little  more 
than  the  later  edition  of  Pinelo  is  hardly  just,  for  I  am  indebted  to  it  for 
much  important  information. 

^°  Cabrera  Quintero  was  an  eloquent  presbyter  with  a  prolific  pen.  Ser- 
mons of  all  classes  are  well  represented  on  my  shelves,  one  set  alone  consisting 
of  49  volumes,  with  specimens  from  three  centuries.  Among  these  several  vol- 
umes embrace  specimens  from  Haro  y  Peralta,  with  Latin  foot-notes  instead 
of  the  usual  marginal  references  of  previous  and  contemporary  sermons. 
Several  are  printed  at  Mexico  in  about  1777. 

^* Conde  y  Oquendo's  prize  speech  was  the  Elogio  de  Felipe  F.,  published 
by  the  academy  in  1779  and  at  Mexico  in  1785.  He  left  three  volumes  of 
orations,  a  dissertation  on  the  Guadalupe  image,  Mexico  1852,  and  some 
minor  pieces.  After  figuring  as  professor  and  canon  in  New  Spain  he  died 
at  Puebla  in  1779,  06  years  of  age.  Arellano,  Elo(jia  Selecta,  1-91,  contains 
specimens  of  orations  by  college  graduates. 

^^Gamboa  was  a  man  of  great  magnetism,  'tanto  el  virey  y  real  audiencia 
como  los  dos  cabildos. .  .recommendando  su  merito,' observes  Alzate,  iii.  378. 
Beristain,  Bih.  Hisp.  Amer.,  art.  Gamboa,  credits  him  with  17  volumes  of 
writings,  chiefly  briefs.  The  Comentarios  a  las  Ordenaivzas  de  Minos  was  issued 
at  Madrid  1761  and  London  1830,  in  translation,  as  a  work  of  great  merit 
and  value.  See  also  Otero,  in  Dice.  Univ.,  ix.  317  et  seq  ;  Gallo,  HomJyres  II- 
ustres,  iii.  15-34.  Here  may  be  mentioned  Lardizabal  y  Uribe,  whose  opin- 
ions are  highly  esteemed.  Among  treatises  for  the  guidance  of  aspiring  ora- 
tors, I  find  the  Disciirso  Historico  Critico  sre  la  Oratoria  Espanola  y  Americana, 
a  bulky  manuscript  work  of  the  last  century,  wherein  the  author  seeks  to 
analyze  the  elements  of  the  art  and  the  proficiency  exhibited  by  different 
nations,  notably  the  Spaniards  on  both  continents.  He  is  full  of  learned  re- 
ferences, and  also  of  cumbrous  quotations,  and  wanders  sadly  from  his  sub- 
ject, so  that  but  little  is  gained  by  the  reader. 

■-^^  Saavedra's  Peregrino,  issued  at  Madrid  1599,  and  consisting  of  20  cantos 
of  16,000  lines  concludes  the  main  conquest;  a  promised  second  part  failed  to 
appear.  Balbuena  places  him  among  the  excellent  poets  of  the  West  Indies, 
and  Lope  de  Vega,  in  a  sonnet  dedicated  to  Saavedra  Guzman,  calls  him 
Cortes'  Lucan.  Vicente  Espinel  speaks  of  the  Perenrino  as  a  'pura  cendrada 
y  verdadera  historia.'  Pinelo  Epito7ne,  ii.  605,  and  Antonio  ^eV;.  Hisp.  Nov., 
i.  125,  notice  him,  and  Eguiara,  Bih.  Mex.,  27^-3,  devotes  two  columns  to 
his  work,  which  was  written  in  70  days,  '  quod  post  modum  edidit. ' 

2*  Beristain  mentions  several  shorter  poems  by  Ruiz  de  Leon,  and  rightly 
attributes  his  defects  chiefly  to  the  prevalent  bad  taste.  He  also  wrote  La 
Tebaida  Indiana,  concerning  the  Carmelites.    Icazbalceta  lately  discovered  his 


NOTES.  535 

Mirra  dulce  para  aliento  de  pecadores,  Bogota  1790,  which  contains  over  300 
ten-line  stanzas  depicting  the  virgin's  sorrow  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  which 
manifest  an  exuberant  variety. 

^^Terrazas  figured  in  1574  and  received  the  honor  of  praise  from  Cervantes 
in  book  vi.  of  his  Galatea.  Carta  de  Ind.,  181,  847.  His  assumed  father,  the 
mayordomo,  is  identified  with  the  Anonoymous  Conqueror,  who  wrote  on 
the  conquest. 

^6  The  caciqueship  of  Lopez  adds  interest  to  his  collection  of  traditions, 
which  remain  in  manuscript  on  my  shelf.  Parra's  poem,  in  31  cantos  of  40 
octaves  each,  covering  the  history  of  Jalisco  between  1529^7,  also  remains 
in  manuscript,  at  the  museum  of  Mexico  and  in  my  library.  L.  R.  Ugarte 
wrote  a  Ckl  which  received  the  praise  of  Balbuena. 

^'^The  Grandeza  de  i^feii^eco  of  Balbuena  was  issued  at  Mexico  in  1604,  a 
copy  of  which  rare  edition  is  in  my  collection.  Reprints  have  appeared 
even  in  modern  times. 

^8  Castro's  Tnunfo  is  dated  1786,  and  the  Gratitudes,  1793.  The  latter  is 
in  octo-syllal)ic  quatrains,  with  asonantes.  Viage  de  America  d  Roma,  Mex- 
ico, 1745,  is  by  a  namesake  friar,  in  running  verse,  a  mere  rhythmic  narra- 
tive, in  dreary  monotone  of  what  the  writer  saw  on  a  journey  to  Rome. 
A.  M.  Pastrana  wrote  several  pieces  in  honor  of  the  Guadalupe  virgin 
notably  the  Cancion  Historica,  1697,  which  was  praised  as  a  blending  of 
Virgil  and  Gdngora.  The  first  of  the  above  Castros,  Francisco,  was  a  native 
of  Madrid. 

2'  Among  the  customary  prefatory  eulogies  Frias'  book  contains  a  lira 
from  his  printer. 

2*  Juana  de  la  Cruz  had  a  double  claim  to  Creole  blood  on  the  mother's 
side,  with  patriotic  sympathies.  Little  Juana  Ines  de  Asbaje  y  Ramirez  de 
Cantillana,  as  she  was  called  after  her  parents,  was  taken  to  Mexico  from 
her  home  at  San  Miguel  de  Nepantla,  on  tlie  slope  of  Popocatepetl;  she  died 
in  1695  at  the  age  of  44,  in  the  convent  of  San  Jerdnimo  at  Mexico,  of  the 
Concepcion  sisters,  after  having  lived  there  for  27  years.  *  Asistio  todo  el 
cabildo  en  la  iglesias, '  says  Robles,  Diario,  iii.  466,  implying  that  a  pest  car- 
ried her  off.  A  model  for  her  later  life  had  been  a  sister  of  the  same  con- 
vent name,  Juana  Inez  de  la  Cruz,  whose  life  is  given  in  Stguenza  y  Gongora, 
Parayso  Occid. ,  129-52,  aud  for  whom  steps  were  taken  toward  canonization 
as  shown  in  Ordenes  de  Corona,  vii.  60-1.  Of  our  poetess  Father  Calleja 
gives  the  earliest  sketch  in  a  preface  to  the  Barcelona  1701  edition  of  her 
poems,  and  to  this  little  is  added  by  later  Mexican  writers,  such  as  Gallo, 
Hombres  Ilustres,  ii.  353-72,  Ortiz,  Mex.  Indepent,  201-3,  Zamacois,  Pimen- 
tel  others.  Many  of  her  writings  appeared  during  her  life,  at  Mexico,  Pue- 
bla,  and  in  Spain,  some  of  them  unknown  to  our  biographers,  yet  represented 
on  my  shelves.  In  1690  a  set  of  collected  poems  was  issued  at  Madrid;  oth- 
ers followed  in  1693,  1709,  1714,  at  different  cities,  and  in  1725  came  what  is 
termed  a  fourth  complete  edition  in  three  sm.  4o  volumes,  far  inferior  in 
shape  to  the  preceding.  An  issue  seems  to  have  appeared  in  1801.  The 
Anwr,  comedy,  placed  in  ancient  Greece  and  marred  also  by  anachronisms, 
is  partly  from  the  pen  of  Juan  de  Guevara,  of  Mexico. 

^^Soria's  comedies  were  much  appreciated  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
notably  Genoveva  and  Guillermo.  The  manuscript  of  Vela's  comedies  is  nearly 
all  lost.  Some  of  Arriola's  sacred  poetry  is  on  my  shelves.  Besides  come- 
dies Salazar  left  two  autos  sacramentales,  a  loa  for  the  comedy  TJtetis  and 
Peleus,  a  drama  for  the  university  of  Mexico,  a  collection  of  lyrics  under  the 
title  La  Citnra  de  Apola,  and  some  fables.  He  died  at  the  early  age  of  33. 
Ortiz  de  Torres  and  G.  Bederra  are  remembered  for  their  loas,  and  Ramirez 
Vargas  for  El  Mayor  Triunfo  de  Diana. 

^^  Of  Alarcon's  works  twenty  comedies  were  issued  in  collected  form  at 
Madrid  in  1628  and  1634,  although  his  name  had  already  appeared  in  print. 
This  number  by  no  means  includes  all  the  pieces  from  his  pen,  many  of  which 
were  long  ascribed  to  his  greater  rivals.  Reprints  have  since  been  issued  at 
Mexico   and  Madrid,  and  a  voluminous  biography  at  the  latter  place,    in 


536  LITERATURE   OF   COLONIAL  MEXICO. 

1871,  by  Fernandez-Guerra,  under  the  auspices  of  the  royal  academy,  which 
deserves  the  prize  accorded  to  it  for  exhaustive  and  careful  research.  In 
Gallo,  Hmnhres  Ilustres,  ii.  284-330,  and  several  Mexican  works,  ample  refer- 
ence is  made  to  him.  Ticknor  and  other  historians  of  literature  have  hardly 
done  him  justice.  Pinelo  barely  alludes  to  him,  but  Antonio -Si6.  Hisjp.  Am., 
iii.  354  is  somewhat  more  generous.  Medina  speaks  of  his  brother  Pedro 
who  attained  some  prominence  in  the  church,  and  was-rector  of  San  Juan  de 
Letran.   Chron.  S.  Diego,  251;  Ximencz  y  FHas,  El  Femx. 

23  Diego  de  Asis  Franco  is  claimed  as  the  first  Creole  actor  of  note  in  Mex- 
ico, figuring  about  1740.  Concerning  theatres  I  refer  to  Hist.  Mexico,  iii. 
773-4,  this  series.  Among  the  manuscript  sets  on  my  shelves,  under  the 
title  Comedias  en  Mexicano  ,  are  several  translations  into  aboriginal  tongues 
from  Lope  and  other  dramatists 

2*  Larranaga's  Virgil  was  published  at  Mexico  in  1787  in  4  volumes.  Hia 
brother  joined  him  in  other  translations  and  original  poems.  Vicente  Torija 
also  translated  Virgil's  works  into  Castilian  verse,  but  failed  to  achieve  pub- 
lication.    He  wrote  a  letter  from  Dido  to  JEneas,  beginning: 

Cual  cisne  moribundo  Tierno  se  queja  del  rigor  del  hado; 

Sobre  el  hiimedo  cesped  recostado,      Asi  yo,  con  impulso  mas  divino 
Del  Ueandro  profundo  Canto  la  ley  de  mi  fatal  destine. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

LITERATURE   OF   MEXICO   DURING  THE   PRESENT   CENTURY. 

In  all  that  affects  the  weal  or  woe  of  communities,  mind-power  is  greater 
than  steam-power. 

—  Whipple. 

The  impulse  given  to  education  and  literature  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century  manifested  itself  among  other 
forms  in  the  accumulation  of  books,  and  later  in  the 
issue  of  periodicals.  Unfortunately  the  revolution 
and  subsequent  disorders  checked  the  one,  and  gave 
an  irregular  and  less  desirable  direction  to  the  other. 
Aside  from  the  ravages  of  war,  and  attendant  inse- 
curity, which  caused  the  destruction  of  archives,  and 
the  exportation  and  sale  in  Europe  of  such  inestima- 
ble libraries  as  those  of  Andrade  and  Ramirez,  a  blow 
even  more  severe  was  struck  in  the  extinction  of  re- 
ligious orders,  which  involved  the  disappearance  of 
books  and  manuscripts  never  to  be  replaced.  Monks 
were  here  as  elsewhere  the  stern  censors  of  literature 
as  well  as  its  watchful  guardians,  a  bane  to  contem- 
porary flocks,  a  blessing  to  future  generations.  In  a 
few  states  zealous  persons  interfered  to  save  a  rem- 
nant of  works  as  a  nucleus  for  public  collections,  but 
the  supreme  government  took  no  effective  steps  to 
form  a  national  library  before  1857.  Meanwhile  a 
number  of  private  collections  had  been  made  and 
cared  for,  that  of  Icazbalceta,  for  instance,  including 
many  early  and  rare  Mexican  volumes,  while  others 
exhibit  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  equal  to  the  enlight- 
ened aspirations  of  the  country,  or  rather  of  the  cul- 
tured classes,  for  the  masses  remain  sunken  in  igno- 

(537) 


538      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

ranee,  caring  little  or  nothing  for  books  or  even  news- 
papers. ^ 

Men  of  letters  combined  moreover  to  organize  lit- 
erary societies  for  the  accumulation  of  books,  the  fos- 
tering   of  taste,  and  the   publication  of  meritorious 
efforts.     The  first    of  the    kind,    the    Institute,  was 
opened  in  1826,  on   April  2d,  with  such  members  as 
Lucas  Alaman,  Carpio,  and  Roo ;  but  like  the  Colegio 
de  Jesus  of  Doctor  Mora,  opened  under  the  auspices 
of  Gomez    Farias,    it  failed  to   survive.     Ten  years 
later  was    started    the   Academia   de    San    Juan   de 
Letran,  which   also  sank,  yet  rose  again  in   1850  as 
the   Liceo   Hidalgo,  recently  reestablished  by  Alta- 
mirano,  together  with  the  more  imposing  Academia 
Nacional  de  ciencias  y  literatura,  founded  by  Maxi- 
milian and   given  impulse  under  Juarez.     A  special 
linguistic    association   rose    in   accord   with    that   of 
Madrid.      The  most  vigorous  of  this  class  has  been 
the  Institute  Nacional  de  Geografia,  which  since  its 
creation    in    1833,  chiefly   by   Minister  Angulo,  has 
done  great  service  to  the   country  in  collecting   his- 
toric, descriptive,  and  statistical  data  from  all  parts. 
Others  of  a  more  social  character,  or  with  less  ambi- 
tious aims  and  operations,  appeared  at  diflerent  state 
centres  to  the  number  of  four  score,  of  which  three- 
eighths  are  scientific,  the  rest  artistic  and  literary, 
with  the  latter  increasing.^     Their  influence  on  the 
cultivation  of  letters  has  been  of  value,  and  promises 
to  become  greater,  to  the  achievement  of  many  im- 
portant tasks,   among   them   probably   a   dictionary, 
which  the  ever-growing  number  of  idioms  and  new 
words  seem  to  call  for. 

The  societies  assisted  to  spread  the  taste  for  French 
writings  and  methods  which  has  so  widely  entered 
into  rivalry  with  the  models.  In  the  liberal  recep- 
tion of  foreign  ideas  Mexico  surpasses  the  mother 
country,  which  lies  so  much  nearer  the  centres  of 
culture,  and  she  drinks  readily  at  the  classic  founts. 
The  fact  is  she  remains  nearly  as   much  as  ever  a 


LIBERATION  OF  MIND.  539 

copyist,  only  her  range  is  wider.  There  are  so  few 
independent  efforts,  and  those  not  sufficiently  vigorous 
or  striking  to  impart  a  new  direction.  One  cause  lies 
in  the  withdrawal  of  so  many  of  the  best  men  into 
political  life,  with  its  alluring  prospects  of  position 
and  wealth,  to  the  neglect  of  the  literary  field,  which 
is  accordingly  left  too  open  to  foreign  influence  to 
prove  encouraging  to  the  local  writer.  Nor  can  it  be 
expected  that  literature  should  assume  great  strength 
amid  the  disorder  so  long  prevailing. 

Nevertheless  the  liberation  from  colonial  thraldom 
is  apparent ;  liberation  from  the  narrow-minded  policy 
of  isolation,  from  the  lack  of  facilities  for  printing 
and  of  patronage,  and  from  the  rigid  censorship  of 
state  and  church,  which  excluded  anything  that  might 
in  the  least  shake  child-like  independence,  loyal  de- 
votion, and  orthodox  sentiment;  from  anything  which 
might  render  the  suspected  Creoles  equal  to  Iberian 
prototypes,  and  therefore  insufferably  conceited,  puffed 
by  dangerous  aspirations.  Rewards  were  reserved 
for  Iberian  imitators,  while  attempts  at  originality  or 
foreign  admixtures  were  frowned  down.  Home  pro- 
ductions were  despised, and  soaring  geniuses  like  Juana 
de  la  Cruz  were  actually  induced  by  bigoted  church- 
men to  abandon  verse-making  as  pernicious  to  the  soul. 
The  stirring  incidents  of  the  revolution  and  of  in- 
dependent rule  gave  certain  encouragement  and  direc- 
tion to  the  liberated  mind,  although  less  than  might 
have  been  expected.  The  subsequent  fratricidal  wars 
could  hardly  prove  a  fountain  of  inspiration.  The  main 
stimulus  came  in  intercourse  with  hitherto  excluded 
nations,  notably  France,  whose  law  and  precepts  fur- 
nished also  the  incentive  for  a  more  liberal  yet  critical 
recourse  to  the  ever-cherished  models  of  the  penin- 
sula. The  bond  of  language  and  race  was  too  strong 
to  be  broken  by  mere  political  differences.  The  atten- 
uated ligament  received  indeed  a  negative  recupera- 
tion, in  the  direction  of  literature  at  least,  by  the  lack 
of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  Teutonic  peoples. 


540      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

To  Central  America  likewise  was  opened  the  enliv- 
ening foreign  intercourse,  but  it  did  not  possess  the 
massed  population  or  the  large  centres  of  Mexico,  and 
least  of  all  a  fostering  capital,  with  inhabitants  num- 
bered by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  the  seat  for  the 
wealth  and  culture  of  a  vast  country,  where  libraries, 
archives,  museums,  and  learned  societies  provided 
sources  and  incentives  innumerable ;  where  an  impos- 
ing series  of  newspapers  and  magazines  offered  chan- 
nels for  productions,  for  training  and  remuneration, 
and  where  influential  patrons  figured  as  Maecenas  for 
a  host  of  aspirants. 

The  foreign  influence  is  observable  not  alone  in  the 
improved  thought  and  form,  but  in  a  change  from 
the  religious  element  which  predominated  in  colonial 
times  to  more  profane  or  eclectic  topics.  The  descrip- 
tive and  objective  have  yielded  greatly  to  reflective  or 
subjective.  The  artificial  and  borrowed  similes  from 
classic  mythology  have  been  widely  supplanted  by 
aboriginal  sources  and  nature.  Variety,  rich  sim- 
plicity, and  comparative  ease  and  freedom  have  re- 
placed the  old  conventional  monotone. 

The  most  conspicuous  evidence  of  the  revival  is 
presented  in  the  press,  and  notably,  for  our  purpose, 
in  literary  periodicals.  They  have  been  imposing  in 
the  aggregate,  and  although  as  a  rule  short-lived,  un- 
sustained  in  contents  as  well  as  existence,  like  the 
efforts  of  the  Creoles  in  general,  yet  the  fugitive  con- 
tributions, and  still  more  numerous  clippings  from 
abroad,  could  not  fail  to  prove  attractive.  In  the 
decade  after  the  independence,  several  literary  papers 
appeared,  only  to  perish  at  the  outset.  Heredia  issued 
at  Tlalpam  in  1821  the  Misceldnea  Periodico  critico  y 
Llterario,  in  duodecimo  form,  with  a  very  attractive 
medley.  The  Euterpe  sought  a  field  at  Vera  Cruz  in 
1826,  and  the  Miscelanea  de  Liter atura  was  started  at 
Mexico  on  Oct.  4,  1828.  El  Observador  and  La  Min- 
erva heralded  the  regeneration  of  poetry.  In  the  fol- 
lowing decade,  two  of  somewhat  heavier  stamp  were 


EPHEMERAL  PUBLICATIONS.  541 

essayed  in  the  Registro  and  Revista,  In  1840  and 
subsequent  years  several  quite  successful  efforts 
were  made,  and  after  that  a  series  of  more  or  less 
ephemeral  publications  come  forth  in  swifter  succes- 
sion. The  illustrated  Mosako  reached  the  seventh  and 
last  volume  in  1842;  the  Museo,  likewise  provided 
with  cuts,  had  more  than  one  interruption  between 
1843-6.  The  Liceo  of  1844  and  Album  of  1849  at- 
tained to  only  tw^o  volumes  each,  but  the  Ilustracion 
went  further.  Among  the  host  of  less  notable  speci- 
mens stands  prominent  the  Presente  Amistoso,  with  its 
fine  selections  and  attractive  appearance.  Sheets  de- 
voted to  humor,  satire,  and  arts  figure  in  the  list, 
and  also  industrial  journals.  Several  of  the  out- 
lying states  swell  the  number,  even  Yucatan  exhi- 
biting before  1850  the  literary  periodicals  Museo 
and  Registro,  and  later  the  industrial  paper  of  Bar- 
bachano. 

Their  lack  of  support  is  due  greatly  to  the  en- 
croachment of  the  newspapers,  which  so  generallv 
supply  the  public  with  feuilletons,  poetry,  and  other 
light  reading  matter.  This  class  of  publications  re- 
ceived a  perceptible  impulse  from  the  acquisition  of 
independence,  when  every  state  and  many  a  party  be- 
came eager  to  sustain  an  organ.  In  1826  flourished 
fifteen,  six  being  at  Mexico  and  four  in  Yucatan. 
Before  the  middle  of  the  century  there  were  as  many 
as  fifty  within  the  republic,  of  which  the  capital 
boasted  about  a  dozen.  Since  then  a  marked  increase 
has  taken  place,  amid  fluctuations  greatly  due  to  gov- 
ernment restrictions  which  presidents,  governors,  and 
their  parties  found  it  necessary  to  impose  in  order  to 
maintain  their  often  illegally  acquired  power.  Itur- 
bide  suppressed  two  leading  journals  in  1822.  While 
some  were  thus  disposed  of,  others  were  forced  by 
regulations  from  the  field,  or  into  submission,  or  sub- 
sidized to  support  the  government. 

The  restrictions  were  in  some  respects  as  bad  as 
during  colonial  times,  but  they  were  fortunately  not 


542      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

permanent.  The  frequent  change  in  administrations 
gave  rehef  and  recuperation,  and  the  latterly  prevail- 
ing liberal  form  of  government  imposes  limitation  only 
in  certain  directions. 

There  are  now  about  two  hundred  journals  in  the 
republic,  of  which  three  dozen  are  claimed  by  litera- 
ture, science,  and  art,  two  dozen  by  religion,  and  the 
rest  by  politics  and  attendant  variety  of  subjects,  fully 
half  belonging  to  the  capital.^ 

The  uncertain  liberty  of  the  press,  the  large  pro- 
portion of  subsidized  papers,  and  their  limited  circula- 
tion, all  tended  to  lower  the  influence  of  the  public 
journals.  Nevertheless  they  did  good  service  to  lit- 
erature in  training  and  bringing  before  the  public  the 
writers  of  the  country.  Indeed,  the  foremost  public 
men  in  politics  and  letters  have  been  and  are  con- 
nected with  the  press  as  editors  or  contributors, 
either  for  the  literary  columns,  or  for  editorials,  which 
are  remarkable  for  their  forcible,  although  too  often 
abusive  spirit,  and  compare  well  enough  for  thought 
and  style  with  average  productions  of  the  world.  The 
collecting  of  local  news  receives  little  attention  as 
compared  with  gossip  and  party  warfare,  and  the  va- 
ried selection  of  items  on  history,  industries,  arts,  and 
sciences,  so  freely  supplied  by  Anglo-Saxon  journals, 
and  serving  so  high  a  purpose  in  the  education  of  the 
masses,  yield  here  to  frivolous  feuilletons ;  and  these 
are  as  a  rule  copied  from  French  and  other  foreign 
sources,  original  notes  being  rare. 

The  characteristics  of  the  editorials  are  more 
pointedly  exhibited  in  the  new  outcropping  of  republi- 
can times,  the  political  pamphlet,  the  voice  of  the 
budding  orator  which  seeks  this  means  to  reach  the 
multitude,  or,  of  the  popular  one,  to  extend  or  impress 
his  utterance,  and  to  further  relieve  his  pent  up  feel- 
ings. With  the  constant  strife  between  innumerable 
factions  and  the  impetuous  temperament  of  the  parti- 
zans,  it  is  but  natural  that  they  should  seek  the  surer 
method  of  special   appeal,    since   the   circumscribed 


NEWSPAPERS  AND  JOURNALS.  543 

limits  of  the  press  afforded  so  little  scope.  Bold  as- 
sertion here  replaces  fact,  and  emphasis  diverts  atten- 
tion from  the  inherent  weakness  in  charges  or  defence, 
while  a  fiery  tone  and  occasional  bombast  strive  to 
stir  the  feelings.  Many  appear  in  the  form  of  cate- 
chisms, allegories,   political  testaments,  and  the  like. 

Superficiality  and  vapor  have  unfortunately  been 
allowed  to  stamp  nearly  every  branch  of  literature,  at- 
tention being  directed  rather  toward  brief  and  petty 
than  grand  and  elaborate  efforts.  So  also  in  critical 
essays  the  writers  are  prone  to  pick  out  trifles,  and 
exhaust  themselves  on  details,  instead  of  grasping 
general  features.  There  is  a  manifest  lack  of  discrimi- 
nation, of  judgment,  with  a  leaning  for  the  Quixotic 
traits  of  Zoilus,  rather  than  the  staid  observations  of 
an  Aristarchus. 

I  need  here  instance  only  Pimental,  one  volume  of 
whose  Historia  Critica  de  la  Literatura  comes  to  hand 
after  the  writing  of  this  treatise,  yet  in  time  for  the 
interpolation  of  a  few  remarks  upon  it.  He  displays 
varied  reading  and  a  retentive  memory  of  foreign  lit- 
erature no  less  than  of  the  critical  works  of  Schlegel, 
Sismondi,  Ticknor,  and  others,  and  applies  their 
analysis  of  European  literature  with  great  effect,  so 
far,  to  Mexican  poetry  by  classes  and  in  general.  But 
there  are  many  drawbacks,  as  in  the  application  of  rigid, 
tasteless  rules  to  the  measurement  and  versification, 
and  in  the  encumbering  of  the  text  with  prolonged 
dissections  of  isolated  words,  wherein  a  mass  of  very 
proper  expressions  are  ruled  out  as  prosiac;  words  like 
naked  are  condemned  as  indecent,  and  so  forth.  These 
inequalities  and  extremes,  which  are  national  rather 
than  individual,  do  not,  however,  overshadow  the 
many  excellencies  of  a  work  which  promises  to  be  the 
first  history  of  literature  for  Mexico,  by  one  of  her 
ablest  literary  men.  Among  earher  critics  La  Cor- 
tina has  achieved  consideration,  although  too  great 
attention  to  trivialities  lowers  the  value  of  his  efforts. 
Estrada  y  Lecler  and  Ignacio  Kamirez  reach  a  higher 


544      LITERATURE  OF   MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

plane  in  treatment,  but  give  less  evidence  of  original- 
ity and  insight. 

Literature  is  stamped  throughout  by  the  volatile 
disposition  of  the  race,  covered  to  some  extent  by  a 
Castilian  dignity  of  exterior,  yet  peering  forth  in  the 
extreme  politeness  of  manner,  and  in  the  superficial- 
ity of  education  and  application.  A  prominent  trait 
in  connection  herewith  is  the  disposition  for  frivolous 
banter  and  playful  mockery,  which  find  utterance  in 
humorous  and  satiric  sheets,  and  wide  response  from 
the  social  circle,  with  its  mischievous  yet  innocent 
gaiety,  and  from  the  more  severe  sarcasms  of  the 
pamphleteer.  The  latter  resorts  to  broad  similes  or 
direct  allusions  rather  than  to  subtler  delineations; 
hence  the  presence  of  many  features,  objectionable  to 
the  differently  trained  ideas  of  northern  people,  but 
which  on  the  other  hand  are  far  less  prevalent  than 
supposed  in  the  amatory  poetry. 

Satire  pertains  to  the  Indian  element  as  much  as 
to  the  Spanish,  although  the  latter  bears  an  impress 
of  its  refined  Horatian  prototype.  It  comes  there- 
fore more  naturally  to  the  Mexican  than  humor  or 
wit.  For  the  last  he  possesses  vivacious  readiness, 
but  not  originality ;  for  humor  he  relies  chiefly  upon 
a  rollicking  mimicry  in  accord  v/ith  the  talent  for  imi- 
tation, but  which  differs  alike  from  the  sneering  con- 
ceit of  the  Briton  and  the  contrasting  self- ridicule  of 
the  American,  while  striving  to  approach  the  middle 
course  of  the  French.  An  innate  vanity  and  the 
easy  structure  of  the  language  forbid  the  adoption  of 
the  successful  American  method,  while  peculiar  race 
and  class  condition  and  a  democratic  spirit  oppose  the 
other.  During  the  colonial  regime  the  indulgence 
was  held  within  bounds,  but  the  revolution  gave  it 
free  reins,  and  it  turned  particularly  against  the  then 
expanding  taste  for  French  models,  against  a  declin- 
ing clergy,  and  against  political  parties,  with  their 
scrambling  aspirants. 


SATIRE  AXD   HUMOR.  545 

Foremost  in  this  field  were  Fernandez  de  Lizardi 
and  Juan  Bautista  Morales,  the  latter  well  known 
through  his  Gallo  Pttagorico,  suggested  by  Lucian, 
and  abounding  in  vivacious  comments  on  society  and 
politics,  wherein  he  has  figured  as  governor.  Far 
more  proline,  though  less  spirited,  was  Lizardi,  one  of 
the  first  to  avail  himself  of  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
granted  in  1812,  by  publishing  the  sharp  political 
journal  El  Pcnsador,  a  name  ever  after  applied  to  him. 
Persecution  only  gave  zest,  and  his  pen  flowed  freely 
amid  the  dissolution  of  social  and  political  institu- 
tions, doing  good  service  to  the  cause  of  a  regenerat- 
ing independence.  His  attacks  in  different  sheets  or 
pamphlets  concentrated  gradually  against  the  obnox- 
ious elements  in  church  and  society  transmitted  from 
colonial  times.  His  chief  work  in  the  satiric  novel 
El  Periqidllo  Sarmiento,  of  the  Gil  Bias  type,  although 
approaching  more  closely  to  the  picarcsco  form  of 
Lcizarillo  de  Tormcs,  with  features  borrowed  from 
Montesquieu.  Its  observations  on  society  are  attrib- 
uted to  a  traveller,  whose  comparisons  are  mainly 
drawn  from  Chinese  manners  and  institutions.  The 
political  feeling  of  the  time,  and  the  state  of  transi- 
tion, tended  toward  the  success  of  the  book  ;  although 
it  never  was  well  received  by  the  higher  classes,  and 
not  unjustly  so  in  view  of  its  vulgar  tone  and  unsavory 
incidents.  Nor  can  it  exact  much  admiration  for  in- 
ventive power  or  spirit.  There  is  an  excess  of  cold 
moralizing,  and  too  little  humor.  Nevertheless  the 
work  stands  foremost  in  its  field  for  ]\Iexico.  His 
Don  Catrin  and  Quijofita  are  both  of  the  picaresco 
order,  that  is,  good-naturedly  malicious,  the  former 
less  pretentious  but  far  better  than  the  other.  ^  The 
author  was  the  son  of  a  doctor,  bom  in  Mexico  in 
1771,  and  well  educated ;  persecution  and  comparative 
neglect  long  attended  him.* 

Lizardi  wrote  some  fables  which  are  still  quoted. 
In  this  line  he  had  a  rival  in  J.  N.  Troncoso,  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  first  journal  at  Puebla.     Both  were  sur- 

Essays  asd  Miscellany     T') 


546      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

passed  in  due  time  by  Jose  Rosas  y  Moreno,  whose 
simple  yet  elegant  productions  merit  for  him  recogni- 
tion as  the  La  Fontaine  of  Mexico  no  less  than  as  the 
children's  poet.  Ochoa,  the  lyric  and  dramatic  writer, 
contributed  some  satiric  letrillas  which  may  be  classed 
among  the  best  in  the  language.  El  Jarabe  of  Zama- 
cois  presents  a  series  of  jocose  and  piquant  sketches  of 
Mexican  society,  widely  appreciated.  Among  satires 
of  a  political  stamp  are  several  of  Carlos  Bustamante's 
shorter  pieces,  and  such  specimens  as  Arellano's  Ados, 
although  neither  exhibit  the  humorous  vein  that  runs 
through  Gimenez'  Ensayos  Magneticos,  1849.  Santa- 
cilia's  Genio  del  Mai,  18G1,  is  directed  against  the 
clergy  and  aristocracy,  but  with  a  less  pronounced 
burlesque  spirit. 

The  effects  of  independence  on  oratory  became  evi- 
dent in  more  than  one  direction.  Secure  in  the  abso- 
lute sway  to  which  government  policy  lent  every  aid, 
the  pulpit  in  colonial  times  confined  itself  leisurely 
either  to  the  conventional  homiletics  or  to  descriptive 
appeals.  The  revolution  roused  it  from  this  contented 
indolence  and  opened  a  wider  field.  This  movement, 
started  and  led  by  clergymen,  in  itself  induced  the 
cloth  very  generally  to  dwell  on  political  questions, 
while  the  spread  of  liberal  or  even  heretical  views 
stirred  them  to  action  for  the  defense  of  the  church 
and  professional  existence,  and  for  retaining  their 
hold  on  the  public.  Infidelity  had  to  be  met  with  ar- 
guments, and  stolidity  with  eloquence.  Doubt  was 
encountered  with  arms  drawn  from  the  very  country 
of  Voltaire,  although  in  imitation  of  a  Bossuet  and 
Massilon.  Hidalgo  himself  found  it  necessary  at  the 
opening  of  his  campaigns  to  rise  in  defense  of  the 
church  ;  and  this  in  an  address  which  confirms  the  or- 
atorical power  of  the  great  leader.  That  stirring  pe- 
riod gave  rise  to  several  orators,  which  an  epigram 
thus  characterizes :  Sancha  diverts,  Sartorlo  converts, 
Uribe  assumes,  and  Dimas  confounds.     Sartorio,  if  not 


ORATORICAL  DEVELOPMENT.  547 

a  perfect  speaker,  deserved  to  have  applied  to  him  the 
words,  ''vir  bonus,  peritus  dicendi"  of  the  ancients. 
The  revivalist  tours,  especially  of  tlie  religious  orders, 
assisted  to  maintain  a  fiery  delivery ;  but  the  lofty  and 
profound  eloquence  exhibited  in  France  is  of  rare  oc- 
currence in  the  Spanish  race,  and  rarer  still  in  the 
Indian. 

The  change  in  judicial  methods,  in  accordance  with 
suggestions  presented  by  foreign  tribunals,  has  not 
failed  to  disclose  a  wider  range  for  the  legal  profes- 
sion, with  additional  incentive  for  rhetorical  display. 
But  the  great  feature  in  oratory  has  been  its  develop- 
ment in  connection  with  politics,  which  is  indeed  a  new 
phase,  since  no  assembly  existed  in  colonial  times 
wherein  to  foster  debate,  and  no  election  field  for  the 
unfolding  of  harangue.  Fluency  of  tongue  was  innate, 
as  well  as  vivacity  and  grace ;  they  needed  but  freedom 
of  speech  and  motive.  Both  were  granted  by  the 
revolution,  whose  great  cause  gave  the  primary  in- 
spiration, while  stirring  themes  were  presented  in  its 
incidents,  its  heroes  and  martyrs.  If  the  discourse 
lacks  depth,  conviction  supplies  a  gap;  if  unity  and 
sequence  fail,  a  sympathetic  cord  is  touched ;  while 
soaring  and  inflated  language,  intoned  by  loose  impul- 
sive emphasis  and  freely  assisted  by  gesture,  shed 
over  all  a  gloss  and  infuse  a  spirit  which  cannot  fail 
to  influence  audiences  equally  emotional.  The  Mexi- 
can possesses  a  natural  eloquence,  which,  like  his  volatile 
disposition,  brooks  little  the  interference  of  studied 
order  and  intonation.  The  latter  does  not  accord  well 
with  our  ideas,  for  it  follows  a  quantitative  rather 
than  accentuated  rhythm. 

Among  parliamentary  speakers  Ezequiel  Montes, 
of  Queretaro,  received  the  special  encomiums  of  Cas- 
telar.  Luis  de  la  Rosa,  a  minister  of  state  like  the 
other,  wielded  great  influence  with  his  eloquence. 
Gutierrez  Otero  also  ranked  high,  and  Governor  Chav- 
ero  now  stands  among  the  foremost,  although  some  prefer 
the  more  fiery  alcalde,  or  point  to  inspired  Zamacona. 


548      LITERATURE  OF   MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

The  formality  of  the  Spanish  epistolar  writing,  ag- 
gravated by  the  frequent  use  of  titles  and  polite  terms, 
was  intensified  in  America  with  caste  distinction  and 
strife  for  position,  and  gradually  a  stiff  legal  phrase- 
ology crept  in  which  accorded  well  enough  with  in- 
herited Spanish  dignity.  Indeed,  the  few  admired 
specimens  date  back  to  the  time  prior  to  Juana  de  la 
Cruz,  whose  Carta  a  Filotea  is  stamped  by  the  pedan- 
tic turgidity  of  the  period.  The  acknowledged  master- 
pieces are  from  the  pen  of  Oidor  Salazar  de  Alarcon, 
figuring  at  the  advent  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Nevertheless,  several  women  of  the  present  age  assist 
in  upholding  here  the  superiority  accorded  to  their 
sex  in  this  branch.  The  characteristic  fondness  of 
Iberians  for  proverbs  has  by  no  means  been  lost  in 
transplanting,  and  the  additions  made  are  many  of 
them  peculiar  to  the  new  environment. 

The  same  spirit  that  prompted  the  issue  of  political 
pamphlets  impelled  to  a  great  extent  the  more  ambi- 
tious efforts  at  history  writing.  The  beginning  of 
revolutionary  movements  brought  out  several  persons 
eager  to  rush  into  print  for  the  defence  of  principles, 
or  personal  conduct,  such  as  Cancelada,  known  chiefly 
as  a  journalist,  Alcocer,  and  Villa  Urrutia;  but  lack 
of  time,  means,  and  patronage  limited  the  projects  to 
insignificant  productions.  A  higher  aim  animated 
Doctor  Mier  y  Guerra,  a  Dominican  from  Monterey, 
whose  unjust  persecution  for  certain  liberal  expressions 
in  a  sermon  led  him  to  abandon  his  profession  and  be- 
come a  wanderer  and  pamphleteer.  His  ability  in- 
duced Viceroy  Iturrigaray  to  engage  him  as  a  writer 
in  his  defence,  but  he  drifted  into  pronounced  revolu- 
tionary sentiments;  the  patron  withdrew,  and  the 
doctor  was  cast  into  a  debtor's  prison.  This  cut  short 
the  continuation  of  the  work,  limiting  the  narration 
from  1808  till  the  beginning  of  1813,  a  period  of  un- 
surpassed interest  and  importance  for  Mexican  history. 
Research  and  erudition  are  evident,  but  marred  by  a 


CARLOS   MAMA  BUSTAMANTE.  549 

lack  of  calm  discrimination,  and  by  strong  bias.  The 
treatment  is,  moreover,  rambling,  with  inconsiderate 
digressions,  and  the  text  is  burdened  with  quotations 
and  trivialities,  defects  which  the  frequent  instances 
of  vigorous  and  pleasing  style  are  not  sufficient  to 
redeem. 

Doctor  Mora,  of  Guanajuato,  clergyman,  and  later 
foreign  minister,  took  a  wider  view  of  the  same  sub- 
ject in  tracing  its  causes  from  the  very  conquest,  and 
its  effect  in  the  social  and  political  condition  of  the 
republic.  While  seeking  to  correct  the  false  or  parti- 
san views  of  others,  he  falls  into  equally  narrow  ruts, 
and  does  not  display  sufficient  depth  in  his  speculations, 
but  he  surpasses  in  clearness,  and  comprehensive  and 
symmetric  treatment. 

These  qualities  have  not  been  displayed  by  the 
chronicler  Anastasio  Zerecero,  who  while  borrowing 
liberally  from  preceding  w^orks,  restricts  himself  in  the 
main  to  an  apologetic  review  of  Hidalgo.  Lorenzo  de 
Zavala,  on  the  other  hand,  uses  the  incidents  of  colo- 
nial times  rather  as  stepping-stones  to  a  description  of 
the  disorders  during  the  first  decade  of  republican 
rule.  He  sides  with  the  lower  factions  in  a  most  de- 
cided manner,  intrudes  his  own  person  and  guberna- 
torial acts  on  every  possible  occasion,  and  breaks  the 
historic  chain  with  frequent  controversies  and  devia- 
tions, wdiich  are  not  infrequently  redeemed,  however, 
by  vivid  portrayals. 

The  most  comprehensive  historian  for  the  first  half 
of  this  century  is  Carlos  Maria  Bustamante,  a  man 
who  figured  prominently  throughout  this  period,  and 
early  attached  himself  to  the  cause  of  independence, 
henceforth  to  become  the  most  zealous  champion  of 
republicanism.  With  a  passion  for  waiting,  he  drifted 
from  law  into  journalism,  and  thence  into  history,  and 
is  said  to  have  left  as  many  as  eighty  volumes  of 
diaries  alone.  The  Cvadro  Historico,  in  six  volumes, 
forms  the  beginning  and  the  most  important  of  the 
historical  series,  which  contains  more  than  a  dozen 


550      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

sets,  although  several  are  to  a  great  extent  mere 
elaborations  of  periods  already  covered  in  preceding 
parts.  He  also  wrote  a  number  of  biographies,  reli- 
gious dissertations,  and  other  treatises,  and  edited 
several  valuable  works  on  aboriginal  rites  and  history, 
and  on  colonial  rule,  adding  notes  and  supplements. 
The  edited  series  may  be  regarded  as  an  introduction 
to  his  own,  so  that  the  two  combined  embrace  all 
Mexican  history  to  1848. 

While  showing  diligent  research  he  is  careless  and 
hasty,  and  ever  ready  to  accept  even  absurd  state- 
ments so  long  as  they  do  not  interfere  with  his  per- 
sonal bias.  In  earlier  works  he  is,  for  instance,  quite 
rabid  against  the  Spaniards;  later  this  feeling  is 
turned  against  the  Anglo-Americans;  and  through- 
out pervades  a  bigotry  which  is  singularly  extreme 
on  religious  topics.  To  this  he  subordinates  every- 
thing else  when  they  meet,  and  only  too  frequently 
he  seeks  a  divine  or  miraculous  agency  to  explain  in- 
cidents. After  independence  he  constituted  himself 
a  censor  of  nearly  every  administration.  His  strong 
prejudices  and  fiery  and  erratic  impulses  are  percepti- 
ble in  style,  marked  by  unmethodical  arrangement, 
unwarranted  digressions,  and  consequent  lack  of  co- 
herency. While  not  wanting  in  graphic,  and  even 
lofty  passages,  the  diction  is  on  the  whole  inflated 
and  slovenly,  with  a  stamp  of  fitful  emphasis.  In 
short,  the  absence  of  study  in  subject,  treatment,  and 
language  tend  greatly  to  lower  Bustamante's  claim  as 
a  historian ;  but  his  material,  based  partly  on  per- 
sonal observations,  partly  on  documents  now  inacces- 
sible, will  remain  an  imperishable  monument  to  his 
indefatigable  and  patriotic  zeal.  An  instance  of  the 
use  to  be  made  of  his  labors  is  given  by  Mendivil,who 
in  1828  found  it  well  to  reduce  the  Guadro  Historico  to 
the  more  reasonable  form  of  a  Resumen  in  one  volume. 

A  most  striking  contrast  to  this  voluminous  writer 
is  presented  in  the  works  of  the  able  minister  Liicas 
Alaman,  who,  with   almost   equal   ardor,  combined 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS.  551 

deeper  research,  irreproachable  care,  and  admirable 
discrimination.  He  not  only  declaimed  against  the 
bitter  tirade  of  Spanish  historians,  and  the  blind  zeal 
of  Mexicans,  displayed  in  accomits  of  the  revolution, 
but  he  saw  the  need  for  a  more  impartial  and  thorouc^h 
version.  At  first  a  fear  of  public  feeling  withheld 
him ;  but  finally  he  acquired  courage,  and  issued  the 
Historia  de  Mcjico,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  most  val- 
uable publication  of  its  kind.  He  proposed  to  cover 
also  the  republican  period,  but  the  apathy  with  which 
the  first  volumes  were  received  must  have  discouraged 
him;  he  certainly  hurried  his  work  to  an  abrupt  close. 
Couscientious  research  is  evident  throughout,  but 
despite  the  striving  for  impartiality,  marked  preju- 
dices crop  out.  The  instincts  of  the  aristocratic 
Creole  cling  to  him,  and  he  cannot  conceal  his  contempt 
for  the  Indian  and  mixed  races  by  and  for  whom  the 
revolution  was  mainly  achieved.  To  him  they  are 
an  inhuman  rabble,  and  in  their  leaders  he  recognizes 
nothing  meritorious.  Toward  the  royalist  he  is  even 
tender,  while  Iturbide  is  persistently  upheld  as  a  hero 
above  all  comparison.  The  treatment  of  his  subject 
is  able,  and  the  style,  while  frequently  constrained 
and  laden  with  Americanisms,  is  clear  and  attractive, 
and  even  elegant.  The  Americans  are  purposely  intro- 
duced, with  an  assertion  that  it  is  but  right  and  ap- 
propriate to  do  so  in  a  Mexican  work.  The  length 
of  this  history,  the  Iturbidist  bias,  and  otlier  de- 
fects induced  Liceaga  to  issue  a  condensed  and  cor- 
rected version  of  it  in  1868.  Alaman's  research  and 
careful  study  are  still  more  displayed  in  the  Disserta- 
cioneSj  a  series  of  revised  lectures  on  episodes  in  colo- 
nial times,  notably  on  the  career  of  Cortes. 

With  the  establishment  of  republican  regime,  Santa 
Anna  comes  into  prominence  as  the  leading  figure, 
round  whom  all  others  may  be  said  to  group  ;  and 
this  position  he  holds,  with  occasional  intervals  until 
Juarez  rises  like  him  on  the  ruins  of  an  ephemeral 
empire,    but  to   a   nobler   elevation.     Santa   Anna's 


552      LITERATURE   OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

career  is  stamped  rather  with  intrigue  and  jugglery 
than  patriotism  and  statesmanship,  sustained  chiefly 
by  the  party  spirit  created  by  him  and  engaged  in 
bitter  contention,  while  he  watched  to  turn  the  issue 
to  his  own  advantage.  The  history  for  all  his  period 
bears  the  impress  of  this  division  and  strife,  certain 
writers  like  Suarez  y  Navarro  assuming  the  defence 
of  the  dictator,  while  others,  like  Portilla,  Payno, 
Tornal,  and  Filisola,  uphold  the  conduct  of  his  oppo- 
nents or  subordinates. 

The  Revistas  of  Minister  Iglesias  on  the  French  in- 
tervention is  a  disjointed  mass  of  material  hastily 
prepared  in  the  interest  of  the  Juarez  party,  and  full  of 
gaps,  repetitions,  and  misstatements.  Vigil  and  Ibi- 
jar's  account  for  the  same  and  subsequent  periods  of 
operations  on  the  west  coast  is  more  complete,  but  it 
descends  rather  into  a  biography  of  General  Corona, 
and  is  confusing  and  dull  in  detail  and  style.  Far 
abler  than  these,  and  more  in  the  style  of  Alaman, 
although  with  less  research  and  effort  at  impartiality, 
is  the  Mejico  of  Arrangoiz,  whose  main  object  is  to 
defend  the  upholders  of  Maximilian's  empire. 

Ignacio  Alvarez  attempted  a  comprehensive  general 
history  of  the  country ;  bat  while  exhibiting  both 
system  and  symmetry  he  is  superficial  and  biased, 
and  careless  in  style  as  well  as  statements.  Zama- 
cois  covers  the  same  field  in  a  voluminous  series, 
which  dwindles  however  into  a  mere  feuilleton  his- 
tory, compiled  from  a  few  of  the  most  available  books 
on  each  period,  with  evident  haste,  to  the  sacrifice  of 
both  uniformity  and  critique,  from  a  Spanish  stand- 
point, and  with  marked  hostility  toward  the  English 
race.  He  is  indeed  a  Spaniard,  although  long  con- 
nected with  Mexico.  His  productions  as  poet,  novel- 
ist, and  journalist  are  also  conspicuous  in  style,  with 
its  tiresome  prolixity,  exaggerations,  and  digressions, 
its  inappropriate  dramatic  efforts  and  florid  diction. 

A  superior  historical  method,  combining  considera- 
ble research,  careful  arrangement,  and  great  fairness. 


PATRIOTISM  AND  PARTISANSHIP.  553 

must  be  credited  to  the  Historia  de  Yucatan  of  Gov- 
ernor Ancona,  which  wholly  eclipses  any  provincial 
work  of  the  kind  in  Mexico.  It  may  well  serve  as 
a  model  both  to  writers  in  general  and  to  the  many 
special  state  historians  who  are  now  endeavoring  to 
cover  a  long  existing  defect,  and  to  supply  material 
for  a  more  thorough  work  on  the  republic.  To  this 
end  serve  also  a  number  of  annals  for  towns,  which 
authors  have  been  led  to  undertake  no  less  from 
family  reasons  than  from  an  anticipation  of  local 
patronage  connected  with  the  district  pride  so  strongly 
developed  in  Mexico  during  colonial  isolation,  and 
subsequently  during  long  revolutionary  feuds.  Ro- 
mero, Gil,  Rivera,  and  Gonzalez  are  among  prominent 
local  annalists,  and  Manual  Pay  no,  Esendero,  La- 
cunza,  Arroniz,  Barcena,  and  Lerdo  de  Tejada  figure 
with  credit  as  contributors  to  history.* 

Among  historical  commentators  who  have  sought 
to  combine  a  review  of  events  with  social  and  politi- 
cal science,  may  be  named  Gonzaga  Cuevas  and  Tadco 
Ortiz,  both  imbued  with  most  sound  and  liberal  views 
for  the  regeneration  of  their  country,  and  Victor 
Jose  Martinez,  who  exhibits  greater  profundity,  but 
also  decided  religio-aristocratic  leanings  that  accord 
little  with  progressive  republican  tendencies  around 
him. 

The  wide  attention  roused  by  Prescott's  work  on 
Aztec  culture  and  the  conquest  served  to  impart 
method  to  the  reviving  interest  of  Mexicans  in  these 
topics,  and  the  foremost  scholars  of  the  country,  such 
as  Alaman,  Ramirez,  Icazbalceta,  Orozco  y  Berra, 
Pimentel,  and  Larrainzar  hastened  to  supplement  the 
production  by  publishing  documents,  notes,  and  es- 
says, on  which  much  labor  and  thought  had  been  be- 
stowed. Orozco  y  Berra  went  farther  and  resolved 
with  the  light  of  the  latest  investigations  to  under- 
take a  new  examination  of  the  whole  subject,  includ- 
ing the  history  of  the  aborigines,  based  more  largely 
on  their  own  testimony.     Upon  this  task  he  concen- 


554      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

trated  the  fruit  of  his  previous  researches  on  geogra- 
phy, idioms,  and  peoples.  The  result  was  a  work 
which  for  comprehensiveness  and  value  in  this  respect, 
surpasses  any  native  effort.  Unfortunately  the  au- 
thor has  not  bestowed  sufficient  care  on  the  arrange- 
ment and  treatment  of  his  material.  Subjects  are 
introduced  without  due  sequences,  and  at  different 
times,  with  repetitions ;  the  text  is  burdened  with 
discussions  and  trivialities,  and  the  interest  is  further 
broken  by  needless  straggling. 

In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  the  ambitious 
work  of  Larrainzar  on  American  ruins,  notably  those 
of  Mexico,  with  speculations  on  the  origin  of  Indians 
and  their  institutions.  It  certainly  bears  the  evidence 
of  both  learning  and  research,  but  the  descriptions 
and  comparisons  are  hardly  ever  followed  by  any 
original  observations  of  value,  and  quotations  and 
points  from  a  vast  array  of  authorities  are  often  intro- 
duced with  little  discrimination  as  to  value  or  fitness. 
Indeed,  the  main  effort  of  the  author  appears  directed 
to  a  display  of  his  acquaintance  with  classic  and  archse- 
ologic  lore,  and  of  his  turgid  style.^ 

The  defects  observable  especially  in  the  last  two 
writers  are  shared  more  or  less  by  almost  all  their 
brethren.  It  would  appear  as  if  they  had  still  before 
their  eyes  the  random  chronicles  of  the  inflation 
period.  The  real  cause  of  the  fault  lies,  however, 
in  the  national  impulsiveness,  which  chafes  under  the 
restraint  of  method  and  prolonged  application,  and 
delights  in  superficial  gloss.  In  yielding,  therefore, 
to  the  bent  for  imitation,  they  are  apt  to  seize  upon 
surface  attraction,  passing  by  blindly  or  impatiently 
the  pervading  principles,  the  subtler  thoughts,  spirit, 
harmony,  and  philosophic  sequence.  Generalization 
and  reflection  exhibit  the  lack  of  system  and  depth  in 
false  or  imperfect  views,  and  where  more  elaborate 
efforts  appear  they  are  usually  governed  by  a  mathe- 
matical adhesion  to  studied  rules  which  fails  to  grasp 
the   main  truths.     The  course  of  events  in  Mexico 


BIOGRAPHIES.  555 

seems  to  be  impressed  upon  the  style  of  their  record. 
Freed  from  the  depressing  sway  and  censorship  of 
colonial  days,  writers  pressed  forward  in  tumultuous 
partisan  attacks,  and  in  defence  of  patrons  and  stand- 
ard, the  liberals  and  conservatives,  or  churchmen, 
forming  the  two  principal  bodies.  Adhesion  to  one 
of  these  sides  seems  imperative,  to  the  sacrifice  of 
truth  and  justice.  Even  Alaman,  so  punctilious  in 
his  striving  for  impartiality,  stumbles  over  race  and 
class  feeling.  Passion,  fickleness,  and  impatience 
overrule  critical  discrimination  and  treatment,  and  the 
structure  of  the  language  favors  redundancy  and 
looseness.  Notwithstanding  a  certain  dramatic  in- 
stinct, striking  episodes  rarely  receive  effective  presen- 
tation, most  attempts  in  this  direction  relying  on 
florid  display. 

The  achievement  of  independence  and  the  conse- 
quent revival  of  local  traditions  and  inherited  glories, 
with  the  exaltation  of  contemporary  as  well  as  ancient 
leaders,  gave  impulse  particularly  to  collective  biog- 
raphy. The  general  strife  for  political  and  military 
positions,  and  a  conspicious  vanity,  tended  in  the  same 
direction.  With  a  change  in  the  taste  which  marked 
the  colonial  period,  from  the  lives  of  ascetics  and  mar- 
tyrs to  hero  worship,  concentrated  on  such  men  as 
Hidalgo,  Iturbide,  and  Juarez,  numerous  followers 
manifested  a  desire  to  share  by  association  in  the 
lustre  of  their  achievements. 

The  most  voluminous  writers  in  this  branch  are 
Manuel  Rivera  and  Francisco  Sosa.  The  Gohernantes 
de  Mexico  of  the  former  is  really  an  account  of  events 
under  the  rule  of  the  respective  viceroys  and  governors, 
full  of  tiresome  detail  massed  with  little  symmetry  or 
judgment,  and  partaking  of  the  other  defects  observ- 
able in  his  Historia  de  Jalapa;  yet  it  fills  a  perceptible 
gap.  It  presents  a  contrast  to  the  many  so-called 
histories  of  epochs  in  Mexico,  which  are  properly 
biographies  by  partisans,  or  disguised  autobiographies. 


556      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

Of  more  general  character  is  the  Biografias  de  Mexi- 
canos  Distinguidos  of  Sosa,  which  claims  to  embrace 
prominent  men  in  all  the  liberal  professions,  as  well  as 
statesmen  and  soldiers,  but  the  selection  displays  a 
preference  for  writers,  including  a  host  of  petty  poets, 
notably  of  Yucatan,  to  whom  he  devotes  a  special 
little  volume.  The  sketches  are  mere  outlines  of 
career,  with  little  or  no  attempt  at  analysis  of  char- 
acter. His  more  pretentious  Episcopado  Mexicano 
possesses  greater  historic  value  by  devoting  itself  to 
so  influential  a  class  as  the  archbishops  of  a  priest- 
ruled  country,  but  in  treatment  it  is  no  improvement 
upon  the  former,  for  conciseness  is  here  broken  by 
the  introduction  of  petty  detail/ 

Far  superior  to  either  in  careful  selection  and  style 
is  the  Hombres  Ihistres,  edited  by  Gallo,  and  written 
by  a  number  of  the  ablest  literary  men  in  the  republic. 
It  falls  largely  into  tame  narrative,  but  several  of  the 
sketches  exhibit  research  as  well  as  study  and  critique, 
and  tend  to  lift  the  work  to  the  foremost  rank  in  its 
line.  Among  individual  biographies  the  first  place 
must  properly  be  accorded,  by  virtue  of  its  form,  to 
Baz  Vida  de  Juarez.  It  does  not  surpass  the  choice 
articles  in  the  preceding  work;  indeed,  the  delineation 
of  traits,  the  study  of  effect  and  counter-effect  between 
the  man  and  his  acts  and  surroundings,  the  sounding 
of  the  depths  in  human  nature,  are  little  considered ; 
yet  these  are  general  rather  than  personal  short-com- 
ings, and  the  work  remains  one  of  the  best  specimens 
of  extended  efforts  by  Mexicans  in  a  field  well  occu- 
pied, chiefly  by  obituary  panegyrics,  marred  by  efforts 
at  rhetorical  displaj^ 

The  church  now  appeals  less  to  biography  as  a 
means  to  inculcate  devotion.  The  cause  lies  not  alone 
in  the  transition  of  its  members  from  somewhat  pas- 
sive to  more  active  life,  enforced  by  political  changes 
and  public  opinion,  but  in  the  suppression  of  monastic 
orders.     The  independence  war  brought  about  a  famil- 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  SCIENCE.  557 

iarity  of  mingling  which  detracted  greatly  from  the 
influence  of  the  clergy.  Similar  was  the  result  of  their 
subsequent  attitude  as  the  chief  promoters  of  the  pro- 
longed patricidal  wars,  in  the  struggle  to  maintain 
control  over  the  masses  and  to  perpetuate  superstitions. 
Their  defeat  and  humiliation  and  the  satiric  abuse  of 
the  liberals  all  tended  to  lower  religious  feeling  and 
foster  among  the  men  at  least  a  wide  disregard  for 
topics  once  held  sacred,  and  a  parade  of  atheism.  One 
eflect  has  been  to  give  a  truer  direction  to  clerical 
labors,  to  pulpit  oratory,  and  to  special  periodicals  and 
tracts.  The  decline  of  pastoral,  moral,  and  symbohc 
theology  among  publications  is  due  also  to  a  change 
in  taste  among  the  reading  classes,  under  a  wider 
range  of  topics.  Yet  it  is  to  be  observed  that  among 
notable  writers,  in  the  latter  respects,  figure  promi- 
nently such  political  and  civil  personages  as  Bustamante 
and  Mendivil.  Both  uphold  zealously,  in  bulky  pages, 
the  miraculous  appearance  of  the  Guadalupe  virgin 
image,  a  subject  likewise  defended  by  Marin,  Guridi 
and  others,  against  the  growing  skepticism.  This 
tendency  has  not  failed  to  produce  a  change  in  polemic 
efforts,  from  the  so  exclusive  patristic,  to  a  more  ra- 
tionalizing method,  wherein  the  utterances  of  Voltaire, 
Montesquieu,  and  Chateaubriand  are  freely  used  or 
debated.  The  position  here  held  in  the  preceding 
century  by  men  like  Palafox  and  Alegre  was  prom- 
inently occupied,  among  others,  by  Bishop  Munguia 
of  Michoacan,  Avhose  defense  of  the  church  against  gov- 
ernment encroachment  has  procured  him  no  less  fame 
as  a  champion  than  his  contributions  to  moral  theology 
as  a  thinker,  and  spirited  and  elegant  writer.^ 

For  their  philosophy  the  Mexicans  have  as  a  rule 
been  content  with  translations  from  European  writers, 
and  so  with  political  economy.  Synoptical  compila- 
tions are  well  represented,  and  have  assisted  to  guide 
the  numerous  essay ists,  prompting  them  also  to  wider 
study  and  to  original  speculations,  as  instanced  in 
Mora's  Libertad  de  Comercio,  and  in  Pimentel's  article. 


558      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

While  efforts  in  linguistics  have  not  been  so  frequent 
as  before,  with  the  decline  of  the  religious  orders 
they  have  developed  into  the  higher  analytic  and 
comparative  studies  for  which  the  country  presents  so 
vast  a  field.  Herein  the  talented  Gomez  de  la  Cor- 
tina has  distinguished  himself  as  a  prolific  writer, 
and  Pimentel  for  comprehensive  and  admirable  inves- 
tigations. His  Cuadro  received  wide  recognition  as 
one  of  the  most  important  works  on  American  lan- 
guages, and  was  rewarded  with  a  gold  medal  from 
the  Instituto  of  France.  An  admirable  adjunct  to  it 
exists  in  the  Geografia  de  las  Lenguas  of  Orozco  y 
Berra,  whose  varied  contributions  on  geographic  and 
statistical  subjects  procured  for  him  much  popularity 
and  honor.  More  numerous  on  these  topics,  and 
marked  by  clearness  and  judgment,  are  the  works  of 
Garcia  Cubas.  Diaz  Covarrubias  stands  forward  as 
the  most  prominent  among  Mexican  astronomers; 
his  treatises  in  this  field  and  also  on  geodesy  have 
been  received  as  text-books,  and  commanded  attention 
also  abroad  for  their  new  methods  of  observation. 
In  geology  and  botany  Mariano  Bdrcena  has  achieved 
for  himself  equal  distinction.  Many  more  are  follow- 
ing in  paths  opened  by  these  men,  to  strive  for  similar 
usefulness  and  success,  and  to  advance  still  further 
the  honorable  position  acquired  by  Mexico  in  scientific 
circles.  Payno,  Gil,  Hernandez,  and  San  Miguel 
figure  among  the  host  of  statistical  workers,  roused 
by  the  precepts  of  the  geographic  society  of  Mexico, 
which  has  also  fostered  the  study  of  natural  history, 
physics,  and  similar  branches  of  science,  and  incited 
travellers  to  publish  their  observations  for  the  benefit 
of  the  home-dwellers.  In  nearly  all  of  these  produc- 
tions however,  there  is  so  far  a  marked  unevenness, 
with  a  frequent  admixture  of  puerilities  and  enthu- 
siastic vagary,  while  the  examinations  and  discussions 
are  either  imperfectly  carried  out  or  lacking  in  depth; 
but  better  methods  are  gaining  ground. 


FICTION.  559 

Among  the  paternal  measures  which  characterized 
colonial  regime  was  one  restricting  the  circulation  of 
prose  fiction  as  dangerous  to  the  political  and  moral  con- 
dition. The  more  mature  folli  in  the  peninsula  might 
indulge  in  works  even  decidedly  loose  and  blasphemous, 
but  the  colonists  were  regarded  somewhat  like  chil- 
dren, who  must  be  the  more  closely  guarded  against 
the  absorption  of  noxious  ideas,  since  they  were  so 
remote  from  the  controlling  hand  of  the  ruler.  The 
ecclesiastical  powers  were  only  too  eager  to  support 
a  law  which  operated  above  all  in  their  interests,  and 
Bishop  Palafox  took  active  steps  to  suppress  all 
novels  and  similar  books  that  he  could  find.'^  Spas- 
modic as  were  these  efforts,  they  served  at  least  to 
increase  the  difficulties  with  which  a  local  aspirant  in 
this  field  would  have  to  contend.  The  taste  for  read- 
ing manifested  toward  the  close  of  the  colonial  period 
could  not  fail  to  direct  attention  greatly  to  fiction; 
and  France^  and  Spain,  and  even  England  and  Ger- 
many were  called  upon  to  meet  the  demand.  The 
clergy  continued  to  wage  war  on  the  immoral  publi- 
cations which  flow  freely,  especially  from  France,  and 
prevailed  on  the  government  to  lend  its  aid.  These 
sources  are  still  so  extensively  drawn  from,  that  Mexi- 
can novelists,  w4io  may  be  said  to  have  come  into 
existence  only  within  the  last  few  decades,  find  com- 
paratively little  encouragement. 

The  most  pretentious  are  historic  novels  by  such 
men  as  Juan  Mateos  and  Riva  Palacio.  The  Sacer- 
dote  y  Caudillo  and  Inmrgentes  of  the  former  treat  of 
the  independence  struggle,  the  Sacerdote  represent- 
ing Hidalgo,  and  his  Sol  de  Mayo  touches  the  French 
intervention.  Palacio  continues  the  subject  in  his  Cal- 
vario  y  Tabor,  closing  with  the  overthrow  of  Maxi- 
milian. The  latter  deals  chiefly  with  the  lower 
classes,  and  introduces  a  number  of  stirring  incidents 
from  their  life  to  sustain  a  flickering  interest.  Ma- 
teos rises  to  a  higher  social  level,  and  keeps  close  to 
the  military  leaders  who  form  his  heroes ;  but  while 


560    LITERATURE    OF    AIEXICO— NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

the  frequent  introduction  of  battles  and  political  af- 
fairs give  a  historic  value  to  the  volumes,  the  nature 
and  place  of  the  digressions  are  such  as  to  interfere 
greatly  with  the  interest,  although  the  appeals  to 
patriotic  sympathies  no  doubt  serve  as  compensation. 

Lack  of  symmetry  cannot  be  complained  of  in  the 
similar  class  of  novels  by  Ancona,  the  able  historian  of 
Yucatan,  who  has  also  used  the  romantic  incidents 
culled  during  his  annalistic  researches,  with  such  ef- 
fect as  to  merit  a  reprint  at  Paris  of  two  stories. 
Nevertheless  they  are  somewhat  weighted  by  the 
hand  of  the  journalist  and  investigator,  and  this  be- 
comes more  apparent  in  the  Mestlza,  which  differs  from 
the  others  in  relating  to  middle-class  life. 

Far  inferior  to  these  is  Trebarra's  Misterios  de  Chan, 
relating  to  insurrectionary  incidents  in  Yucatan,  which 
represents  a  class  of  novelettes,  disjointed  in  treat- 
ment and  in  style,  and  springing  from  the  brain  of 
feeble  enthusiasts. 

The  Gil  Gomez  of  Covarrubias,  which  covers  the 
same  scenes  as  Mateo's  Sacerdote,  has  a  more  Spanish 
stamp  than  the  preceding,  and  concentrates  its 
strength  rather  upon  love  incidents ;  the  author  feels 
therefore  at  home  when  treating  of  ordinary  life,  as  in 
La  Clase  Media.  The  tender  passion  is  all-absorbing 
with  Florencio  del  Castillo.  He  leads  indeed  in  sen- 
timent, but  the  sameness  of  mould  in  which  his  hero- 
ines are  cast,  pure  and  sweet,  yet  melancholy,  and  the 
general  tinge  of  sadness,  are  apt  to  pall  upon  the 
reader.  He  introduces  absurd  and  broadly  suggest- 
ive climaxes,  as  well  as  strange  and  inappropriate 
phrases,  and  exhibits  other  crudities  hardly  in  accord 
with  the  praise  lavished  by  admirers,  who  call  him 
the  Balzac  of  Mexico.  His  best  work  is  Hermana  de 
los  Angeles.  Roberto  Esteva's  few  efforts  savor  of  the 
same  spirit.  Fernando,  Orozco  y  Berra,  brother  of 
the  archaeologist,  wrote  a  novel  in  the  style  of  Karr, 
which,  like  his  poems,  breathes  the  sorrow  of  disap- 
pointed love,  and  indicates  the  broken  spirit  that  faded 


POETRY.  561 

away  with  the  completion  of  the  volume.  J.  M.  Ra- 
mirez represents  a  large  class  of  feuilleton  novelists, 
whose  productions  seldom  pass  into  more  permanent 
form.  Maturer  in  their  aspect  of  life,  and  of  wider 
scope,  are  the  works  of  Jose  de  Cuellar ;  but  while 
marked  by  a  vivacious  flow  the  plot  is  feeble  and  the 
narrative  rambling. 

Nearly  all  the  novels  savor  of  French  models,  in 
style  as  well  as  subject.  Nevertheless,  aflairs  of  the 
heart  are  depicted  in  a  more  tender  vein,  a  reverential 
mean  between  the  impassioned  fervor  and  extreme 
suggestiveness  of  the  Gaul.  Indeed,  the  love  scenes 
surpass  any  other  in  attraction  and  power.  They 
exhibit  in  a  marked  degree  the  soft  melancholy  which 
so  widely  pervades  the  literature.  The  portrayal  of 
character  is  not  eflective,  and  it  declines  either  into 
surface  delineations,  or  leaves  very  marked  gaps.  In 
the  adherence  to  subject  and  the  evolving  of  plot, 
there  is  also  a  neglect  that  mars  otherwise  spirited 
narration.  The  Mexican  is  altogether  too  absorbed 
with  particular  features  to  maintain  the  necessary 
balance,  or  attend  to  symmetry.  There  is  a  tendency 
to  apostrophize,  to  indulge  in  vague,  imperfect  philos- 
ophizing, which  is  attributable  partly  to  the  affecta- 
tion and  floridity  impressed  during  the  cultismo  period, 
and  still  widely  sustained  by  language-structure  and 
popular  predilections.  The  dialogues  are  easy  and 
vivacious,  although  stamped  by  the  general  lack  of 
completeness,  of  finish.  From  this  it  may  readily  be 
understood  that  the  short  tales  which  abound  in  peri- 
odicals, signed  by  Pay  no,  Fidel,  Barcena,  and  others, 
possess  many  excellencies,  from  the  mere  necessity  for 
conciseness,  which  favors  the  more  eflective  features 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  defects  pertaining  to  elabora- 
tion in  larger  and  more  pretentious  works. ^^ 

The  close  of  the  colonial  period  forms  in  Mexico  a 
transition  epoch  also  in  poetry,  from  the  revival  of 
classic  models  so  general  toward  the  end  of  the  cen- 

EssAYS  AND  Miscellany     36 


562      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

tury,  to  the  liberal  admission  of  French,  Engjlish,  and 
even  Teutonic  literature.  The  change  could  not  fail 
to  prove  beneficial,  for  the  imitation  fostered  by  the 
revival  was  so  slavish  as  to  shackle  the  imagination 
and  hamper  all  effort  at  independent  flight.  The 
opening  of  a  wider  field,  and  the  free  entry  of  varied 
types,  gave  opportunity  and  impulses  that  affected 
even  those  who  still  clung  to  the  Latin  masters. 
Spanish  ideas  remained  supreme,  however,  and  during 
the  transition  becomes  apparent  the  influence  of  Me- 
lendez  and  his  companions,  who  in  the  peninsula  were 
struggling  to  establisli  a  new  school  in  connection 
with  the  philosophic  spirit  then  invading  its  limits. 

Although  the  disorders  of  the  re^'olution  and  sub- 
sequent republican  regime  were  a  serious  drawback  to 
the  cultivation  of  letters,  and  political  aspirations  as- 
sisted to  draw  devotees  to  more  absorbing  pursuits, 
nevertheless  poetry,  like  history  and  certain  other 
branches,  found  herein  fresh  sources  for  inspiration, 
prompted  by  newly  acquired  freedom.  At  times,  in- 
deed, war  and  patriotism  wholly  overshadowed  the 
other  sources  for  lyric  efforts,  in  public  and  private 
reunions  and  celebrations,  and  in  the  serenade  and 
cognate  amenities  of  a  peculiar  courtship,  here  fostered 
by  the  seclusion  of  woman.  Foreign  intercourse  gave 
zest  also  to  other  verse,  chiefly  by  presenting  varied 
forms  for  study,  since  the  country  itself  provided  an 
abundance  of  themes,  and  offered  ever-increasing  en- 
couragement to  writers  through  multiplying  periodi- 
cals and  associations.  While  turning  from  religious 
topics,  the  foreign  schools  fostered  subjective  and  re- 
flective compositions  in  richer  and  freer  courses,  and 
instilled  a  hio-her  reofard  for  nature. 

In  each  of  the  different  branches  appears  a  special 
revival  or  inaugural  under  successive  leaders,  the  first 
being  lyric  and  descriptive.  The  Latinists,  headed 
by  Abad,  and  the  Gongorist-tinged  followers  of  Ruiz 
de  Leon  had  both  to  yield  before  the  new  order  of 
things,    heralded    by   the    Franciscan    friar   Manuel 


POETRY   AND  THE  DRIMA.  563 

Navarrete,  who  slimes  during  the  opening  decade  of 
our  century  with  a  lustre  so  surpassing  as  to  procure 
for  him  the  cognomen  of  the  American  swan.  He 
was  a  native  of  Michoacan,  born  in  1768,  and  began 
writing  at  an  early  period,  but  modesty  restrained 
him  from  giving  any  poem  to  the  public  till  1805, 
and  then  anonymously.  When  on  his  death -bed,  ia 
1809,  he  burned  a  number  of  his  productions,  includ- 
ing dramas,  it  appears;  but  enough  of  printed  and 
manuscript  pieces  were  gathered  by  Valdes,  and 
issued  at  Mexico  in  1823  to  make  two  12o  volumes. 
Editions  also  came  out  in  Peru,  and  at  Paris  in  1835, 
while  many  poems  were  reprinted  in  collections. 

His  vast  superiority  over  almost  every  predecessor 
in  New  Spain  is  evident  throughout  his  range  of 
pastorals  and  varied  lyrics.  While  the  first  are  per- 
vaded by  a  light  jocular  vein,  strains  appear  even 
here  of  the  sweet  melancholy  which  stamp  the  greater 
part  of  his  productions. 

Como  en  un  ramillete  i  Ay  edad  halagiiefia! 

Advierte  en  esta  obrilla,  Huyeron  tus  delicias, 

Las  mas  preciosas  flores  Sin  dejarme  otros  frutos 

Que  los  tiempos  marchitan  Que  punzantes  espinas. 

His  bucolics  are  least  regarded,  and  justly  so,  for 
there  fashion  and  imitation  left  the  strongest  mark. 
Although  a  friar  by  profession,  he  was  an  apt  disciple 
of  Anacreon,  though  chaste  tenderness  and  purity 
breathe  in  every  Hne.  His  greatest  power  lies,  how- 
ever, in  religious  and  elegiac  efforts,  which  abound  in 
touching  sentiment  and  rise  occasionally  into  lofty 
imasery. 

In  El  Alma  Privada  de  la  Gloria  he  surrenders 
himself  freely  to  impassioned  monody. 

Melancdlico  vago  por  el  mundo, 

Como  hurtando  el  semblante  h  la  alegria, 

Conformes  solo  con  mi  triste  idea 

Son  tus  lugubres  sombras,  tu  profundo 

Silencio,  noche  obscura 

;  Eterno  Dios!  de  donde  se  desprende 

Contra  mi  alma  el  raudal  de  tus  enojos 
Que  en  tu  furor  la  enciende. 


564      LITERATURE  OF  M EXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

I  Fallezco  ?  en  el  instante  me  parece 
Que  el  hermoso  espeetaculo  del  miindo 
Con  sempiterna  noche  se  oscurece. 
Sale  del  hondo  pecho,  el  mas  prof  undo, 
El  ultimo  suspiro,  en  que  lanzada 
\a,  mi  alma  i,  tu  preseneia .... 
Aterranla  tus  ojos,  y  el  sereno 
Resplandor  de  tu  rostro  le  parece 
Nube  que  anuncia  rayo  formidable 
Cuando  truena  el  Olimpo  y  se  enardece. 

He  has  evidently  read  Young,  as  well  as  Melendez 
and  others.  His  defects  are  of  the  time  no  less 
than  of  himself,  as  instanced  by  the  often  inappropriate 
use  of  mythologic  similes.  While  uneven  and  faulty 
in  prosody,  he  is  fluent  and  unaftected.  He  is  sweet 
rather  than  strong  or  profound,  and  the  swan  is  a 
designation  quite  in  keeping  with  his  strain,  and  also 
with  the  change  now  coming  over  the  spirit  of  poetry. 
He  could  rise  to  fiery  vigor,  however,  as  shown  in  his  cel- 
ebration of  Fernando's  ascent  to  the  throne,  for  which 
he  received  six  prize  medals. 

The  insurrection  begins,  and  servile  loyalty  is  trans- 
formed into  bombastic  patriotism.  Heroes  and  na- 
tional martyrs  take  the  place  of  kings  and  governors; 
fetters  are  cast  off,  and  portals  are  opened  to  liberal 
and  cosmopolitan  ideas.  Several  poets  feel  the  impulse 
and  sing  to  the  dawning  era,  notably  Sanchez  de  Ta- 
gle,  who  had  long  remained  loyal,  but  finally  turned 
to  the  new  dominant  power,  hailing  it  in  lofty  odes. 
Satisfied  with  duty  performed,  he  thereupon  sought 
the  more  alluring  range  of  erotics;  yet  this  was  hardly 
his  forte.  He  lacks  the  tenderness  of  Navarrete,  and 
displays  a  robust  vivacity  which  hovers  round  surface 
attractions  to  the  neglect  of  the  spiritual  traits.  In 
the  sonnets  he  approaches  Argensola,  and  in  the  more 
exalted  paean  which  contains  his  happiest  lines  he  re- 
veals a  study  of  Herrera.     Of  Humboldt  he  writes  : 

Aguila  audaz,  que  remontando  el  vuelo 
Por  los  orbes  de  luz  sin  pausa  giras, 
Y  con  ardiente  celo 
Les  dictas  leyes  y  obediencia  inspiras; 
Pesas  de  cada  cual  la  masa  inmensa, 
La  drbita  encuentras,  la  distancia  mides. 


POETRY  AND  THE  DRAMA.  665 

To  God  he  sings: 

Bajo  tus  pies,  el  tiempo  en  raudo  vuelo 
Pasa,  arrollando  deleznales  seres  : 

Pueblan  voraz  el  suelo, 
Y  pasaii,  y  no  son — i  y  tu  ?     Siempre  eres. 

His  imitation  is  limited  to  form,  however,  and  above 
all  to  the  classic.  Herein  he  stands  the  foremost  rep- 
resentative of  the  century  among  his  countrymen, 
admired  for  chaste  unaffected  diction  no  less  than  for 
vigorous  and  fiery  inspiration.  Like  Navarrete  he 
consigned  most  of  his  poems  to  the  flames,  but  his  son 
preserved  enough  to  form  two  volumes.  His  death  was 
hastened  in  1847,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  by  the  United 
States  invasion,  the  deplorable  incidents  of  which 
struck  deep  into  the  patriotic  soul  of  a  man  who  had 
for  several  decades  served  his  country  in  important 
positions,  as  Spanish  regidor  and  deputy,  and  as  re- 
publican senator  and  governor  for  Michoacan,  his 
native  state. 

Quiiitana  Koo,  a  prominent  journalist  and  president 
of  the  first  independent  congress  during  the  revolution, 
ranks  among  the  earliest  restorers  of  good  taste  in 
Mexico,  with  his  correct  and  graceful  verse.  A  later 
exponent  of  the  classicism  is  Manuel  Perez  Salazar, 
a  prominent  Pueblan  ;  but  with  less  originality  than 
Tagle,  he  sinks  too  frequently  into  a  cold  formality, 
which  has  not  tended  to  gain  favor  for  his  school.  He 
excels  in  didactic  pieces.  In  the  -path  of  Tagle  moved 
also  the  brothers  Lacunza,  especially  Juan,  whose 
early  death  in  1843  cut  short  a  promising  career. 
With  vivid  imagination  he  combined  a  passionate  ten- 
derness and  sweet  sadness  that  shone  admirably  in  his 
amatory  verses.  Equal  suavity,  but  less  range  of 
fancy,  is  displayed  by  Francisco  Bocanegra. 

The  influence  of  foreign  intercourse  is  observed  in 
the  departure  inaugurated  by  Kodriguez  Galvan,  best 
known  as  the  dramatist  who  introduced  the  romantic 
school.  His  forte  lies  in  patriotic  appeals,  wherein  he 
exhibits  a  spirited  idealism,  combined  with  a  clear, 
chaste  style,  a  sensitive  delicacy,  and  a  pathos  border- 


5C6      LITERATURE   OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

ing  on  profound  melancholy.  The  latter  pervades  all 
his  verses  to  some  extent,  reflecting  the  sorrows  and 
disappointments  of  his  curtailed  life.  It  is  particularly 
displayed  in  his  Ilusion,  which  is  described  as 

*     *     *     Un  soplo  leve  Es  cual  rapido  placer 

Que  la  lampara  reanima  Que  arrebata  a  la  muger 

Y  la  apaga.  Su  hermosura, 

Brisa  que  mece  las  flore3 
Robandoles   sus  olores 
Y  frescura. 

His  translations  from  Lamartine  and  other  French 
writers  are  exceedingly  good.  Galvan  has  been  con- 
sidered as  the  poet  who  introduced  romanticism  in 
Mexico.  Fernando  Calderon  takes  a  step  further  into 
the  romantic,  and  fairly  revels  in  ideal  creations  that 
combine  noble  ardor  with  tender  passion.  In  singing 
to  Amira,  he  neatly  observes, 

Tus  risas  son  amores,  Y  amor  es  tu  mirar. 

But  he  is  above  all  effective  in  patriotic  pieces,  uniting 
lofty  thoughts  with  fiery  utterance,  and  reaching  at 
times  a  vivid  intensity  that  places  him  in  this  field 
above  any  countryman. 
Glory,  he  calls, 

*     *     *     paiabra  sonora,  Del  sufrido  soldado  consuelo, 

Que  repiten  la  tierra  y  el  cielo,  De  los  heroes  brillante  deidad. 

The  Sueno  del  Tirano,  is  of  Byronian  strength. 

Del  lecho  se  lanza  Pareee  que  escucha 

Con  grito  doliente,  La  voz  del  destine, 

Se  inunda  su  frente  Y  el  trueno  divino, 

Pe  frio  sudor.  De  justo  furor. 

Sus  ojos  cansados 
Anhelan  el  llanto, 
Mas  nunca  su  encanto 
Probd  la  maldad. 

The  rhyme  is  after  Garcilaso.  Among  his  best  lyric 
and  descriptive  compositions  are  El  Soldado  de  la 
Libertad,  Los  Becuerdos,  La  Rosa  MarcMta,  of  eclectic 
type,  and  El  Porvenir.  Marcos  Arroniz  represents 
the   ultra-romanticists,   with  a  Byronian   pessimism 


POETRY.  567 

tinged  by  the  bitterness  of  rejected  love.     The  novel- 
ist Covarrubias  indulged  in  similar  effusions. 

The  sentimentalists  have  a  striking  exponent  in 
Juan  Valle,  related  to  the  first  president  of  the  re- 
public. Blind  from  early  boyhood,  he  was,  neverthe- 
less, exposed  to  political  persecution  for  his  ardent 
party  spirit,  and  had  thus  a  double  origin  for  his 
pathos.  He  was  essentially  the  poet  of  the  revolu- 
tions, but  indulged  also  in  sacred  and  erotic  verse, 
pure  and  fluent.  His  descriptive  lines  leave  no  defects 
to  indicate  his  affliction.  The  love  bard  is  a  coo-- 
nomen  applied  to  L.  G.  Ortiz,  from  the  predominating 
character  of  his  pieces  in  the  two  volumes  so  far  is- 
sued. The  imagery  is  delicate,  and  frequently  of  a 
high  order.  The  sonnets  are  admirable.  Ortiz  has 
also  acquired  reputation  for  translations  and  novels. 
M.  M.  Flores  is  a  rival  in  his  particular  field,  whose 
fiery  invocations,  combined  with  a  certain  originality, 
procured  a  speedy  second  edition  for  his  Pasionarias 
collection.  Another  contributor  of  great  fecundity  is 
A.  L.  Gallardo,  of  Guanajuato,  the  founder  of  a  Span- 
ish journal  in  California,  where  he  died  a  few  years 
ago.  The  three  volumes  issued  by  him,  including 
some  tales,  breathe  the  spirit  of  the  love-stricken 
exile. 

Of  a  different  stamp  are  the  productions  of  A.  M. 
Ochoa  y  Ac  una,  a  priest  by  profession,  and  of  pure 
Spanish  descent,  whose  best  known  pieces  indicate 
one  of  those  portly,  merry  curates  to  be  found  in 
Hispano- American  country  parishes,  but  who  really 
appears  to  have  been  of  a  sedate  temperament,  addicted 
above  all  to  books.  His  extensive  reading  was  dis- 
played in  numerous  translations  from  Latin,  French, 
and  Italian  writers,  which  found  little  appreciation. 
From  his  own  pen  flowed  odes,  sonnets,  satires,  the 
former  altogether  too  imitative,  with  less  sentiment 
than  piquancy  and  suggestion.  Their  light-tripping 
lines  were  especially  adapted  to  the  satires  and  epi- 
grams on  which  his  fame  mainly  rests,  and  for  which 


568      LITERATURE  OF   MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

he  stands  unapproached  among  his  countrymen.  In- 
deed, in  many  respects  he  equals  and  even  surpasses 
Gongora  and  Quevedo,  the  foremost  Spaniards  in  this 
field.  He  is  good-natured  and  quizzical  rather  than 
stinging,  free  from  trivialities  as  well  as  personalities, 
and  observes  a  decorum  and  delicacy  that  raised  him 
far  above  Lizardi.  Another  merit  is  the  avoidance, 
both  in  translations  and  compositions,  of  the  gallicism 
which  was  corrupting  the  language.  One  instance  of 
his  style  will  suffice : 

A  un  paje  nada  dormido  No  era  la  primera  vez 

Dijo,  dandole  un  papel,  Que  iba  el  paje,  pues  tomd 

Cierta  dama:    ve  con  el  El  papel,  y  preguntd: 

Y  entr^galo  a  mi  querido.  Senora  ^a  cual  de  los  diez? 

Lines  of  five  syllables  are  frequently  used.  Of  the 
two  volumes  of  his  poetry  issued  at  New  York  as 
Poesias  de  un  Mejicano,  the  second  is  devoted  to  this 
class.     He  lived  between  1783-1833. 

Satire  comes  readily  to  the  aborigines,  no  less  from 
natural  bent  than  from  the  effect  of  their  enforced 
subordination  for  centuries  to  autocrats  and  castes,  as 
already  observed.  The  cultured  manifestation  of  the 
faculty  has  been  restricted  by  obvious  circumstances, 
but  of  late  years  it  is  finding  more  numerous  expo- 
nents. As  their  leader,  by  virtue  of  pure  Indian  de- 
scent and  seniority,  as  well  as  a  high  order  of  produc- 
tion, may  be  placed  Ignacio  Ramirez,  sometime  min- 
ister of  justice  and  public  works,  and  professor  of 
letters,  yet  best  known  for  the  varied  flow  of  his 
pen  in  prose  and  verse.  Aboriginal  sentiment  seems 
less  amatory  than  that  of  some  of  the  other  races. 
Class  peculiarities  strike  them  most  readily,  and  to 
the  long-abused  clergy  is  dispensed  a  full  quota  of 
the  banter  and  ridicule  to  which  they  are  exposed 
from  all  quarters.  Even  the  most  sacred  of  subjects 
are  no  longer  respected,  and  several  attempts  have 
been  made  in  the  vein  of  Avila  y  Uribe,  who  among 
other  things  wrote  a  comic  version  of  the  Guadalupe 
miracle,     It  remains  in  manuscript  on  my  shelves. 


ABORIGINAL  EFFORTS.  569 

In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  the  droll  and 
suggestive  verses  of  Telesforo  Ruiz,  who  issued  a  col- 
lection in  1866 ;  the  exuberant  lines  of  Tidel ;  the  neat 
epigrams  of  Tellez,  mingled  with  equally  attractive 
sonnets  in  his  Ratos  Perdidos,  and  the  critical  satires  of 
Zarco,  in  the  spirit  of  Larra.  The  Spanish  residents, 
Zamacois,  and  Zorrilla,  have  written  much  verse  of 
this  character,  which  is  widely  read  in  Mexico. 

The  observations  so  far  made  apply  very  well  to 
characterize  the  classes  and  styles  of  poetry  among 
modern  Mexicans.  In  more  ambitious  compositions 
they  have  as  a  rule  been  content  with  translations  of 
some  ancient  and  modern  classics.  Yet  epics  have 
been  attempted,  the  most  pretentious  being  the  A^id- 
huac  of  Rodiguez  y  Cos,  which  treats  of  the  conquest, 
a  subject  that  should  have  allured  more  writers  amid 
the  reviving  enthusiasm  for  aboriginal  prestige.  The 
poem  is  in  heroic  quatrains  with  asonantes  of  a  more 
sedate  tone  than  that  of  Ruiz  de  Leon,  a  century 
before,  and  reveals  indeed  less  spirit  and  ability. 
Portraiture  is  hardly  attempted,  scenery  is  little 
noticed,  and  dramatic  opportunities  neglected.  While 
Ruiz  sings  the  achievements  of  Cortes,  Rodriguez 
seeks  to  commemorate  the  glories  of  Montezuma  and 
Quauhtemotzin,  and  to  this  end  he  warps  and  colors  an 
otherwise  close  adherence  to  historic  narrative.  The 
thirteen  cantos,  of  about  ten  thousand  lines,  were  pub- 
lished at  Mexico  in  1853,  and  dedicated  with  profuse 
compliments  to  Santa  Anna,  the  dictator. 

Turning  from  him  to  Jose  Joaquin  Pesado,  whom 
we  have  met  in  history  as  senator  and  minister,  we 
find  a  poet,  who,  in  La  Revelacion,  displays  a  lofty 
sentiment  and  a  beautiful  imagery  that  rouse  our 
highest  admiration.  Unfortunately  the  cantos  prove 
to  be  in  subject  as  well  as  form  an  imitation  of  Dante  s 
Inferno.  The  horrors  of  the  doomed,  and  bliss  of 
the  angels  are  successively  pictured,  and  even  a  Bea- 
trice is  found  in  Elisa,  only  to  reveal  by  comparison 
how  far  behind  the  model  are  these  verses  in  soaring 


570      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO-NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

grandeur,  in  penetration  and  feeling.     Borne  by  an 
angel  to  the  infernal  regions  lie  sees : 

La  interrumpida  luz,  funebre,  escasa, 
De  un  fuego  subterraneo  que  a  lo    lejos 
Un  nionte    inmenso  retumbando  abrasa, 
Entre  iiieves  lanzando  sus  reHejos, 
El  rastro  alumbra,   de  la  barca  pasa: 
Atdnitos  mis  ojos  y  perplejos 
Veu  las  olas  roilar,   correr  los  montes, 
Y  eiisancharse  los  negros  horizontes. 

The  blessed  dwell 

en  sombrosas  selvas   dilatadas, 

Auras  serenas  y  corrieiites  puras, 

Moran  aquesas  almas,   entregadas 

De  humaiia  ciencia  a  inciertas  congeturas: 

Hablau  de  las  edades  ya  pasadas, 

De  las  horas  presentes  y  futuras. 

Better  known  from  the  nature  of  the  topic,  is  the 
lyric  descriptive  poem  La  Jerusalem,  in  nine  parts,  the 
earlier  centering  in  the  career  of  Jesus,  the  later  treat- 
ing of  the  subsequent  vicissitudes  of  the  city.  The 
evident  suggestions  from  Tasso  assist  to  unfold  the 
many  beauties  which  have  procured  for  the  piece  so 
wide  an  appreciation.  Translations  of  Petrarch  have 
also  left  their  impress  on  Pesado,  yet  his  sonnets  bear 
more  distinctly  the  touch  of  Garcilaso.  In  erotic 
pieces  he  is  reverential,  and  his  pictur.es  of  nature 
have  a  dreamy  beauty,  both  features  forming  the 
main  characteristics  of  his  unquestionably  sweet  and 
graceful  verse. 

Whatever  the  objections  to  his  bent  for  imita- 
tion, he  has  performed  thereby  a  service  of  great 
value  to  his  countrymen  in  pointing  out  the  best 
features  of  a  variety  of  models  and  infusing  a  superior 
taste.  Althoug^h  reachino'  the  higfhest  elevation  in 
religious  topics,  marked  by  pure  idealism,  the  greatest 
credit  should  be  accorded  to  him  for  his  efforts  on  na- 
tional themes,  on  scenes  and  sites,  and  in  the  elabora- 
tion of  aboriginal  lore,  as  in  Las  Aztecas,  wherein  he 
strives  to  preserve  the  native  spirit.  He  stands  the 
representative  eclectic  poet  of  Mexico,  in  applying  the 


IMITATIONS  AISD  TRANSLATIONS.  571 

classic  form  to  the  best  features  of  romanticism.  His 
works  received  the  compUmerit  of  several  editions,  be- 
ginning in  1839,  and  of  recognition  also  in  Spain, 
whence  many  honors  were  conferred  upon  him. 

Imitations  of  Dante  and  Milton  are  observable  also 
in  the  epic  production  of  La  Venida  del  Espiritu 
Santo,  by  Francisco  Ortega,  but  with  less  happy 
results,  for  the  verses  are  weighted  with  a  tiresome 
formality  except  for  a  few  occasional  episodes.  In 
the  minor  pieces  issued  in  1839  under  the  title  Poesias, 
Leon  appears  a  conspicious  model.  Color  and  feeling 
seem  however  to  be  subordinated  to  prosody,  which  he 
illustrated  by  example  and  by  special  treatises. 

Un evenness  and  irregjular  diverpence  are  the  rule 
rather  than  exception.  In  some  imitation  dims  the 
lustre  of  at  first  striking  passages ;  others  in  striving 
for  originality  mar  the  picture  by  defective  plan,  bald 
or  over- wrought  portrayal,  and  inappropriate  similes. 
Neglect  of  form  has  overshadowed  many  spirited  es- 
says, but,  with  the  naturally  imitative  tendency  in 
the  people,  still  more  have  been  borne  down  by  too 
close  study  of  models,  which  has  fettered  inspiration 
and  neutralized  other  higher  purposes.  This  is  ob- 
servable in  Franco  and  Lafragua,  who  conform  closely 
to  the  severe  quintana,  and  in  Diaz,  of  Jalapa, 
whose  patriotism  led  him  first  to  a  distinguished  mili- 
tary career,  and  subsequently  to  the  commemoration 
of  historic  incidents  and  legends,  so  much  so  that  he 
is  widely  regarded  as  the  leading  poet  romancer  of 
Mexico.  Others  accord  this  position  to  Peon  y  Con- 
treras,  a  doctor  and  senator  of  Yucatan.  His  i?o- 
mmices  Historicos  are  modelled  after  Duque  de  Rivas, 
but  while  inferior  in  form  they  fully  equal  his  in 
brilliancy,  in  description  and  metaphor,  with  an  ap- 
propriate change  of  versification  to  suit  the  theme. 
His  lyrics  received  the  compliment  of  a  reissue.  P. 
Araos,  of  the  same  state,  has  achieved  a  certain  repu- 
tation in  the  same  field  for  traditions  and  fables. 

Roa    Barcena   figures    prominently      in      historic 


572      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

themes,  chiefly  from  Aztec  sources.  Although  re- 
heved  by  occasional  flashes,  his  verse  evinces  a  neglect 
of  the  finest  opportunities  for  description  and  pathos. 
Similarly  defective,  and  faulty  in  form,  is  the  volume 
of  lyrics  which  preceded  his  legends. 

Castillo  y  Lanzas,  Arango,  Jose  Segura,  Busto, 
and  Alcaraz  are  best  known  for  translations,  from 
which  they  have  borrowed  the  characteristics  of  their 
original  poems.  Alcaraz  shows  himself  an  apt  stu- 
dent of  Byron  in  his  rich  oriental  tints  that  accord 
so  well  with  Spanish  expression,  forming  indeed 
a  part  thereof  ever  since  romancists  followed  the 
cross  into  the  crescent  precincts  of  Andalucia.  Luis 
de  la  Rosa  approaches  him  in  coloring,  but  lacks  in 
strength. 

Jose  Segura  left  some  neat  sonnets  and  hexameters, 
but  his  brother  Vicente  reveals  greater  promise  in 
the  freshness  of  his  few  contributions.  Barbacero 
made  a  pretentious  translation  into  verse  of  Chateau- 
briand's Martyrs.  Castillo  published  a  small  volume, 
half  of  it  translations,  half  mediocre  lyrics. 

In  contrast  to  these  more  modeled  productions  may 
be  placed  those  of  Guillermo  Prieto,  Felix  Escalante, 
and  the  Yucatan  poet  Alpuche,  who  display  less  re- 
straint and  carry  the  reader  along  with  their  strong 
impulsivness.  The  last  excels  in  the  fiery  ardor  of 
love,  and  Prieto  in  patriotic  zeal,  while  Alpuche  com- 
bines both  features  in  somewhat  thundering  periods 
and  passionate  appeals.  P.  Tovar  indulges  in  social- 
istic strain,  and  Agapito  Silva  arrays  himself  as  the 
champion  of  the  laboring  class.  They  are  uneven,  as 
may  be  supposed,  and  a  few  brilliant  flashes  are  inter- 
spersed with  much  crude  and  commonplace  matter. 
This  applies  also  to  Jose  de  Cuellar,  Emilio  Bey,  Gal- 
lardo  and  even  to  Sarinana,  who  shows  considerable 
feeling,  but  as  a  rule  is  like  all  the  rest  continually 
on  the  verge  of  something  promising,  without  realiz- 
ing the  expectation  roused.  Miran  appears  to  have 
read  Ossian,  Gav^arni  indicates  a  taste  for  portraits. 


RELIGIOUS  POETRY.  573 

Couto  shows  a  curbed  enthusiasm,  and  the  mysticism 
so  dear  to  native  fancy  is  embraced  by  the  priests 
Martinez  and  Sartorio.  The  latter  belongs  to  the 
revolutionary  period,  and  may  be  classed  as  a  repre- 
sentative versifier,  in  whom  a  pious  adoration  of  the 
virgin  could  alone  infuse  a  scintillating  spark. 

Yucatan  has  been  comparatively  prolific  in  writers 
of  no  mean  order,  although  they  are  little  heard  of. 
By  the  side  of  Apulche  figure  Ildefonso  Perez, 
Montero,  Peraza,  Truzillo,  Estrada,  and  Zorrilla, 
whose  verses  have  a  rather  formal  stamp. 

The  Spanish  Zorilla  finds  an  apt  follower  in  P.  J. 
Perez,  who  yields  in  soaring  metaphor  to  an  ardent 
patriotism.  Aznar  Barbachano  sings  in  tearful  ac- 
cents; Aldana  has  achieved  recognition  for  fanciful 
embellishment;  and  Justo  Sierra  is  a  promising  poet, 
who  made  his  first  mark  by  introducing  the  causerie 
column  in  Mexican  journals. 

Notwithstanding  the  excellencies  of  several  among 
.the  preceding  writers,  the  rank  of  favorite  poet  must 
be  assigned  to  Manuel  Carpio.  By  some  he  is  esteemed 
as  the  representative  in  sacred  themes,  by  virtue  of 
his  own  devotion,  of  the  character  of  his  more  preten- 
tious pieces,  notably  in  honor  of  the  virgin,  and  of  a 
marked  degree  of  originality.  A  closer  analysis  re- 
veals many  defects.  The  epic  verse  is  faulty  in  plan 
and  proportion,  as  instanced  particularly  in  La  Im- 
maculada  Concepcion.  At  some  of  the  most  interest- 
ing points  of  portrayal  or  reflection  he  hastens  onward 
abruptly,  to  dilate  instead  on  less  striking  phases. 
There  is  also  a  repetition  of  imagery  with  slight  varia- 
tion of  form,  and  some  glaring  prosaicisms.  These 
disappointments  of  expectation,  and  lapses,  are  not  in- 
frequent. Yet  they  are  here  to  be  ascribed  less  to  un- 
sustained  power  and  resources  than  to  vagarious  taste 
and  impulsiveness,  and  to  lack  of  appreciation  for  sym- 
metry, all  short-comings  of  a  national  rather  than  in- 
dividual stamp.  Compared  with  those  of  his  confreres 
the  flippancies  are  therefore  not  serious,  and  they  are 


574      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

fully  balanced  by  the  truer  poetic  ring  of  the  lines,  the 
unaffected  flow  of  diction. 

The  forte  of  Carpio,  however,  lies  properly  in  de- 
scriptive poetry.  Herein  he  occupies  undoubtedly 
the  representative  place.  While  impressed  by  the 
solemnity  of  religion  and  its  sublime  adjuncts,  he 
finds  his  real  inspiration  in  the  grandeur  and  beauty 
of  nature.  He  beholds  the  splendor  of  spheres,  he 
recognizes  the  majesty  of  towering  peaks,  he  delights 
in  the  variegated  aspect  of  pastoral  scenes,  he  feels 
the  desolation  of  the  ruin. 

In  La  Inmensidad  de  Dios  he  writes : 

Asi,  Dios  sublime,  td  Uenas  los  mundos 
De  un  lado  hasta  el  otro  del  gran  firmamento, 
Y  muy  mas  arriba  se  eleva  tu  asiento, 
Adonde  no  llegan  los  rayos  del  sol. 

He  seeks  evidence  of  the  creator  in  all  the  panora- 
mic phases  of  nature  till  he  reaches  the  flower  in  the 
field. 

Pasada  la  lluvia  se  alegra  la  yerba, 

Y  al  aire  se  mueve  su  tallo  florido, 

Y  en  tauto  mis  ojos  te  ven  escondido 
Alia  entre  las  hojas  de  la  hiimeda  flor. 

In  this  class  of  composition  the  blots  mentioned  are 
less  obtrusive.  Here  his  soul  revels  in  unrestrained 
ease,  with  oft-surprising  maintenance  of  power.  It 
becomes  apparent  that  the  descriptive  passages  in  his 
sacred  verse  are  the  chief  props  and  attractions ;  that 
the  abstract  was  imposed  upon  him  by  piety  rather 
than  innate  disposition.  He  is  an  objective  rather  than 
subjective  writer,  excelling  in  observation  rather  than 
reflection,  and  surpassing  in  certain  loftier  topics  the 
celebrated  Heredia,  a  Cuban  exile  long  associated  with 
Mexican  aflairs.  Here  is  also  more  conspicuous  the 
influence  of  his  classic  studies,  in  the  admirable  equi- 
poise of  diction  which  eschews  floridity  and  seeks 
adornment  in  bright  traceries  of  fancy — a  combination 
of  simplicity  and  elegance  in  accord  with  true  poetic 
instinct.  He  delights  in  vigorous  utterance,  as  illus- 
trated partly  in  the  consonant  rhyme,  yet  abhors  ex- 


WOMAN.  575 

aggeration  no  less  than  artificiality,  as  instanced  in  his 
epigram  on  frenetic  writers. 

Este  drama  sf  esta  bueno, 
Hay  en  el  monjas,  soldados, 
Locos,  animas,  ahorcados, 
Bebedores  de  veneiio, 
I  unos  cuantos  degollados. 

In  lighter  verse  he  is  less  at  home.  The  tender- 
ness of  Petrarch  and  the  grace  of  Anacreon  both  fail 
to  appear,  and  the  more  evident  imitation  sinks  into 
commonplace. 

Born  at  Cosamaloapan,  in  Vera  Cruz,  1791,  the  son 
of  a  Spanish  trader  and  his  Creole  wife,  he  studied  first 
at  Puebla  and  then  at  Mexico,  where  he  afterward 
acquired  a  high  reputation  as  doctor.  He  long  held 
the  chair  of  physiology  and  h\'giene  at  the  capital, 
and  while  in  congress  was  elected  speaker  of  the 
house.  Archselogy,  classics,  and  theology  were  the 
favorite  pursuits  of  this  eager  student,  and  several  lit- 
erary and  scientific  societies  enrolled  his  name.  Not 
till  after  passing  his  fortieth  year  did  he  give  any 
productions  to  the  public,  the  first  being  in  honor  of 
the  virgin.  After  this  he  became  a  frequent  contri- 
butor to  the  journals,  and  to  some  books.  His  pieces 
were  collected  and  published  under  the  auspices  of 
Pesado  and  Couto,  and  received  more  than  one  re- 
print.    He  died  in  1860. 

While  endowed  with  relatively  stronger  mind  than 
her  European  sisters,  woman  in  Mexico  has  been  kept 
more  in  the  background  under  the  duenna  system, 
which  stifles  her  budding  youth,  and  leaves  her  ever 
after  unfit  to  encounter  the  responsibilities  of  life. 
The  modesty  and  gentle  sense  of  the  Creole  women 
ever  prompt  them  to  accord  preeminence  to  their 
lords,  who  accept  the  concession  with  conceited  self- 
assurance.  With  spreading  education  and  infusion 
of  liberal  ideas  from  the  adjoining  republic,  woman  is 
beginning  to  understand  and  exert  her  ability  under 
the  guidance  of  an  able  group  of  leaders. 


57G      LITEBATURE  OF  MEXICO-NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

Among  these  stand  prominent  Ester  Tdpia  de 
Castellanos,  of  Michoacan,  a  lyric  poetess  of  no  mean 
order,  far  superior  to  the  average  of  pretentious  and 
better-known  singers  of  the  other  sex,  and  whose 
worth  must  in  time  raise  her  nearer  to  the  elevation 
to  which  she  is  entitled.  Her  Flares  Silvestres,  issued 
in  1871,  commanded  attention  in  so  many  quarters  as 
to  encourage  the  publication  some  years  later  of  Caoi- 
ticos  de  los  Ninos,  a  theme  appropriate  for  the  woman 
as  well  as  mother,  and  promising  to  add  popularity  if 
not  higher  fame.  Her  lines  have  smoothness  of  flow 
markedly  in  contrast  to  the  common  impulsiveness 
and  exaggeration,  and  her  pictures  are  refreshingly 
pure  and  daintily  delicate.  Her's  is  no  slavish  imita- 
tion ;  images  form  in  natural  and  appropriate  order, 
and  while  not  soaring  to  the  sublime,  they  reflect  deep 
feeling  and  emotion  hidden  from  ruder  eyes.  She  is 
essentially  chaste,  and  happy  conceits  dance  along  in 
graceful  rhythm.  In  answer  to  a  child's  question 
what  is  fatherland  ?   she  answers  : 

....  ese   nombre  adorado, 
Es  manantial  de  emociones; 
Es  lo  que  hay  mas  venerado, 
Es  un  conjunto  sagrado 
De  recuerdos  e  ilusiones. 

She  finds  it  in  the  air  and  soil,  in  hearths  and 
temples. 

Es  la  brisa  perfumada 
Que  mece  las  frescas  floras 
Eu  la  ribera  encantada, 
Do  la  rosa  nacarada 
Luce  ufana  sus  eolores. 

She  thus  neatly  compares  the  humming-bird  with 
love  : 

Es  inconstante  La  grata  esencia 

Cuanto  es  hermoso;  Se  va  robando, 

Es  engafioso  Y  va  volando 

Cual  la  ilusion.  Como  el  amor. 

In  this  tripping  metre  she  succeeds  admirably. 
Among  aspiring  contemporary  women  may  be  meit- 
tioned  G.  I.  Zavala  and  R.  C.  Gutierrez  of  Yucatan. 


DRAMATIC   WRITERS.  577 

Teresa  Vera  of  Tabasco,  and  Dolores  Guerrero  of 
Durango,  died  both  at  an  early  age  after  leaving  fugi- 
tive pieces  of  the  most  promising  nature,  chieSy  ele- 
giac.    Guerrero  has  been  compared  to  the  Mexican 


The  condition  of  affairs  is  not  favorable  to  dramatic 
art  in  a  country  with  a  decided  predilection  for  balls, 
parties,  and  similar  gatherings  of  an  actively  partici- 
pative rather  than  auditorial  character ;  where  there 
are  few  towns  populous  enough  to  support  theatres, 
and  where  managers  find  for  their  infrequent  per- 
formances ample  and  cheap  recourse  in  Spanish 
dramas,  or  in  translations,  especially  from  the  sympa- 
thetic French,  of  pieces  whose  fame  abroad  had  roused 
a  general  desire  for  local  presentation.  In  the  face  of 
such  imposing  competition  for  the  meagre  opening  at 
hand,  there  is  little  encouragement  for  native  play- 
wrights. Nevertheless,  considerable  numbers  have 
cropped  up,  stimulated  by  literary  and  dramatic  asso- 
ciations, and  content  with  the  applause  of  friends  at 
the  rare  and  crude  production  of  their  efforts.  Among 
the  names,  three  have  risen  to  distinction.  Foremost 
stands  Manuel  Eduardo  de  Gorostiza,  the  restorer  of 
his  art  in  Mexico,  as  the  first  to  write  good  comedies 
after  the  decline,  and  who  ranks  with  the  leading 
dramatists  of  his  time  in  Spanish  literature.  He 
was  born  at  Vera  Cruz,  where  his  father  was  governor, 
on  account  of  whose  death  he  was  taken  to  Spain  at 
an  early  age.  His  brother  induced  him  to  adopt  the 
military  profession,  and  he  attained  the  rank  of  a 
lieutenant-colonel  ;  but  in  1823  we  find  him  an  exile 
in  England.  His  talents  and  liberal  ideas  had  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  Mexico,  and  henceforth  until 
his  death,  in  1851,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two,  he  is  con- 
nected wholly  with  his  natal  country,  as  foreign  min- 
ister, and  in  other  exalted  positions.  He  served  in 
the  war  against  the  United  States,  and  being  taken 
prisoner  at   Churubusco,  was  treated  by  the  victors 

Essays  and  Misckllany     a" 


578     LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

with  both  kindness  and  respect.  He  can  therefore 
be  claimed  as  a  Mexican  as  fully  as  his  great  prede- 
cessor, Alarcon.  The  dramatic  instinct  was  innate, 
for  he  began  to  write  in  boyhood,  but  achieved  fame 
only  after  1815  with  his  InduJgencia  jmra  Todos,  a 
comedy  wherein  a  sprightly  fiancee  entraps  her  be- 
trothed into  several  so'apes,  and  proves  to  the  joy  of 
all  that  he  is  by  no  means  the  spiritless  and  insipidl}^ 
virtuous  man  painted  by  reputation.  The  most  strik- 
ing incident  is  the  winning  of  his  love  by  the  bride  in 
an  assumed  character,  which  results  in  a  sham  duel 
with  her  brother.  Contigo  Pan  y  Cebolla,  from  which 
Scribe  borrowed  one  of  his  successes,  is  even  superior 
to  this,  and  El  Amiga  Intimo,  Don  Dieguito,  and  others 
in  verse  and  prose,  sustained  both  his  popularity  and 
merit  as  a  writer.  The  subjects  belong  to  the  middle 
class  of  life,  and  reveal  an  intimate  knowledge  of  soci- 
ety and  human  nature,  depicted  with  much  humor  and 
neat  raillery,  yet  with  great  purity  of  tone  and  lan- 
guage. He  rearranged  several  works  of  others,  and 
translated  a  number  of  French  dramatic  compositions. 
Gorostiza  must  be  placed  by  the  side  of  Moratin  the 
younger,  to  whose  school  of  Moliere's  type  he  belongs, 
but  whom  he  surpasses  in  spirit  if  not  in  sentiment, 
thus  aiding  essentially  to  promote  a  taste  for  the 
classic  elements  with  which  it  was  sought  to  remodel 
the  drama.  Besides  special  publications,  a  collection 
of  his  early  works  appeared  at  Brussels  in  1825,  in 
two  volumes,  and  a  number  of  select  pieces  have  been 
reprinted  in  such  publications  as  Bihlioteca  Mexicana, 
Mexico,  1851.  His  plots  are  ingenious,  and  the  use 
of  different  metre  to  suit  the  varying  action  adds  to 
the  animation. 

Close  to  Gorostiza  as  dramatic  restorer  or  initiator 
must  be  placed  Ignacio  Rodriguez  Gal  van,  already 
spoken  of  in  connection  with  the  romantic  school  of 
poetry,  to  whom  is  credited  the  introduction  of  mod- 
ern drama  into  Mexico.  He,  himself,  lays  claim  to 
Munoz^  Visitador  de  Mejico,  as  the  first  original  Mexi- 


THE  DRAMA.  579 

can  production  in  this  field.  It  was  presented  at  the 
capital  in  1838,  midst  great  applause,  as  the  first 
national  historic  dramatization.  The  subject  is  the 
amorous  infatuation  of  the  infamous  Munoz,  who  held 
sway  over  New  Spain  in  1567.  The  woman  scorns 
his  advances,  and  in  his  fury  he  causes  the  object  of 
her  love  to  be  slain ;  she  falls  dead  upon  the  corpse. 

In  the  effort  to  depict  the  tyrant,  the  author  goes 
to  an  extreme  that  becomes  monotonous  ;  neverthe- 
less, there  is  a  number  of  fine  and  strong  passages, 
which  indicate  an  exalted  imagination,  while  the  ac- 
cessory figures  and  dialogues  show  a  due  appreciation 
for  effect.  El  Privado  del  Virey,  also  taken  from 
early  colonial  history,  and  published  four  years  later, 
is  not  so  strong.  While  imbued  with  romanticism, 
Gal  van  tempered  it  by  a  close  study  of  Alarcon,  to 
him  the  supreme  master  in  the  art,  as  he  declares  in 
a  dedication  to  this  personage  written  in  exaggerated 
imitation  of  old  Spanish.  The  defects  are  to  be  at- 
tributed to  immaturity  of  age  and  training.  Curbed 
ambition  and  disappointments  had  tinged  his  spirit 
with  the  melancholy  observable  in  nearly  all  his  works. 
He  had  struggled  since  boyhood  for  a  humble  exist- 
ence in  the  book-store  of  his  uncle  at  Mexico,  devot- 
ing the  late  hours  of  night  to  study.  In  1842  he 
received  a  tardy  recognition  in  an  appointment  with 
a  legation  to  South  America,  but  died  of  yellow  fever 
on  the  way,  at  the  age  of  twenty -six,  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  brilliant  promise. 

*  In  this  connection  may  be  noted  Bocanegra's  Vasco 
Nunez,  which  appears  to'^have  been  influenced  to  some 
extent  by  Gahan's  pieces,  and  Encarnacion  Bosas  by 
Pablo  Villasenor,  relating  to  the  defence  of  Mescala 
during  the  revolution.  The  latter  is  cruder,  with  not 
sufficient  spirit  in  incident  and  language  to  sustain 
it.  It  was  well  received  at  Guadalajara  in  1851, 
despite  the  temperate  treatment  of  the  Spanish  side. 

Francisco  Ortega,  the  poet,  wrote  as  early  as  1821, 
Mcjico  Libre,  a  drama  celebrating  the   acquisition   ^? 


580     LITERATURE  OF   MEXICO-NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

independence,  and  which  in  a  measure  sets  aside  the 
claim  of  Galvan  to  priority  in  this  direction.  He 
left  another  historic  piece,  Camaiziji,  relating  to  the 
conquests,  and  also  a  comedy.  The  same  epoch  as  in 
Mejlco  Libre  is  touched  in  Sarinana's  Entrada  Triunfal 
de  Itarbide,  but  it  lacks  dramatic  art,  and  is  remarkable 
rather  as  a  poem  imbued  with  the  well-known  feeling 
of  the  writer.  Ochoa  had  also  appeared  in  this  field 
with  a  tragedy  and  two  comedies,  one  of  these  in  his 
humor(3US  vein.  A  short  piece  by  Gonzalez  Castro 
reveals  promising  lines  in  the  same  vein,  directed 
against  political  parties. 

The  work  begun  by  Galvan  was  taken  up  most  suc- 
cessfully by  Fernando  Calderon  y  Beltran,  who  per- 
fected the  modern  drama,  although  not  from  national 
subjects,  but  from  sources  more  suited  to  his  romantic 
ideas.  To  this  he  applied  such  inspiration  and  finish, 
in  addition  to  a  prolific  production,  as  to  assume  rank 
as  leading  dramatist  of  the  republic,  that  is,  apart 
from  comedy,  for  herein  Gorostiza  enjoys  the  undis- 
puted preeminence.  His  neglect  of  local  topics  is  not 
to  be  expected  of  a  man  who  has  taken  so  active  a 
part  in  public  life.  As  an  enthusiastic  liberal  he  joined 
in  revolutions  at  the  expense  of  his  health  and  estate, 
exiled  as  he  was  both  from  his  native  city  of  Guada- 
lajara and  from  Zacatecas,  his  adopted  state.  Par- 
doned in  consideration  of  his  genius,  he  here  entered 
anew  into  the  political  arena,  figuring  as  deputy,  magis- 
trate, and  other  positions  suited  to  his  training  as 
barrister,  until  his  death  in  1845  at  the  age  of  thirty-six. ' 

His  efforts  were  guided  by  a  study  of  Breton  de 
los  Herreros,  which  certainly  tended  to  his  popularity. 
In  truth,  the  success  of  his  comedy,  Ninguna  de  las 
TreSy  depicting  the  vain  efforts  of  three  unworthy 
suitors  to  gain  the  hand  of  a  prudent  widow,  lies 
greatly  in  its  imitations  of  Breton's  Marcela.  Yet  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  exposure  of  social  weak- 
nesses is  neat,  especially  the  assumption  of  those  who 
after  a  trip  abroad  come  back  only  to  criticise  every- 


THE  DRAMA.  58i 

thing  at  home.  Calderon's  best  work  lies  however  in 
a  heavier  line,  notably  in  chivalry  pieces,  in  which 
his  romantic  sentiments  and  soaring  verse  find  free 
scope,  and  fitting  subjects  in  proud  knights  and  noble 
dames.  In  the  mist  of  mediaeval  times  he  can  safely 
depict  ideal  heroes  with  all  the  finery  of  enthusiasm, 
with  lofty  aim  and  sounding  words  and  fiery  love. 
Historic  truth  is  not  allowed  to  interrupt  his  flow, 
and  he  almost  scorns  to  mar  scenes  so  stately  with 
artifice  of  plot.  His  love  soars  above  the  sensual  to 
the  spiritual,  along  with  his  intense  patriotism ;  and 
notwithstanding  the  fame  acquired  as  a  playwright,  he 
remains  above  all  the  poet,  and  his  verse  now  mainly 
sustains  his  works.  The  foremost  place  may  be  as- 
signed to  his  Herman,  a  young  crusader  who  returns 
to  find  his  betrothed  surrendered  to  an  elderly  duke. 
While  seeking  an  interview  with  her  he  is  surprised 
by  the  jealous  husband  and  is  condemned  to  death. 
His  mother  comes  to  the  rescue  by  disclosing  him  to 
be  the  natural  son  of  that  personage.  He  is  recog- 
nized by  tlie  duke,  and  returns  to  die  for  the  holy 
cause.  El  Torneo  turns  on  the  adventures  of  a  youth 
abducted  from  the  creole,  who  at  the  supreme  moment 
finds  both  his  parents  and  his  bride.  Ana  Bolena  is 
a  stately  piece,  but  plays  havoc  with  historic  truth. 
Eight  earlier  pieces  had  been  performed  at  Zacatecas 
and  Guadalajara,  the  first,  in  1827,  being  Reinaldo  y 
Elvira.  El  Cahallero  Negro  was  left  unfinished.  Two 
editions  of  Calderon's  works  appeared  at  Mexico  in 
1844  and  1849,  and  appreciation  has  also  been  mani- 
fested abroad,  particularly  in  South  America. 

J.  Seon  y  Contreras  of  Yucatan  has  attained  con- 
sidera,ble  popularity  in  the  republic  with  his  capa  y 
es'pada  or  love-intrigue  pieces,  so  peculiarly  Spanish 
in  form  and  estimation.  He  follows  the  old  school 
too  closely,  however,  and  is  moreover  hasty.  J.  A. 
Cisneros,  an  elegiac  poet,  outranks  him  in  priority 
as  the  first  dramatic  writer  of  his  peninsula,  where  he 
also  aspired  to  the  foremost  position   as  satirist.     He 


582      LITERATURE   OF  MEXICO-NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

claims  the  credit  of  several  reforms  in  his  art,  such  as 
the  suppression  of  monologues.  Mexicans  delight 
above  all  in  the  farcical,  and  a  typical  piece  in  this  re- 
spect is  presented  in  the  Borrasca  de  iin  Sobretodo  by 
Palacio  and  Mateos,  depicting  the  troubles  into  which 
tlie  careless  and  graceless  owner  of  an  overcoat  is  led. 
It  is  full  of  the  droll  incidents  and  conceits  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  people,  yet  it  descends  too  frequently 
into  puerilities  for  the  northern  mind,  which  also  ob- 
jects to  the  sacrifice  of  connection  and  consistency  to 
momentary  gain.  The  Odio  Hereditario  accords  better 
with  the  vein  of  these  historical  novelists. 

While  the  comic  would  seemingly  prove  attractive 
to  local  writers,  those  possessing  the  ability  expend 
their  efforts  as  a  rule  on  short  verse,  and  aspirants 
to  sustained  contributions  for  the  theatre  are  too  fre- 
quently carried  away  by  more  ambitious  themes. 
Thus  hi  society  plays  the  sentimental  strain  becomes 
marked,  with  a  tendency  to  unhappy  love,  as  ex- 
pi'essed  in  Peon  Contrera's  Castigo  de  Dios,  and  Cue- 
liar's  Deberes  y  8cu:nficios.  The  latter  exhibits  the 
patriotic  devotion  of  a  husband  for  a  refugee  friend, 
who,  again,  sacrifices  himself  by  declining  the  love 
of  the  wife  which  had  meanwhile  turned  to  him. 

El  Midato  of  Torvella  relates  in  prose  the  unhappy 
passion  of  a  slave  for  the  daughter  of  his  master,  for 
wh  ich  he  is  persecuted  and  driven  to  suicide.  It  finally 
appears  that  he  is  an  offspring  of  the  cruel  master. 

In  this  vein  run  several  among  the  score  of  dramas 
written  by  A.  L.  Gallardo,  the  exiled  editor  and  poet  of 
San  Francisco,  the  best  being,  however,  Maria  Anto- 
nieta  de  Lorena,  in  Galvan's  historic  form.  Camprodon 
dwells  in  Flor  de  un  Dia,  on  the  brighter  subject  of  a 
woman  who  marries  a  man  for  his  title,  grows  un- 
happy, but  is  finally  won  by  the  noble  traits  of  her  hus- 
band. An  equally  attractive  subject  is  El  Beso  of  Car- 
los Escudero,  whose  several  excellent  comedies  brought 
him  much  local  fame,  and  induced  a  dramatic  society 
to  adopt  his  name  for  a  title.     Among  other  writers 


LATER  WRITERS,  583 

must  be  mentioned  J.  M.  Vigil,  the  historian  and 
poet;  Es  Anievas,  Senator  Ortega,  General  Tornel, 
whose  prose  work,  La  Muerte  de  Ciceron,  hardly  ac- 
cords with  the  times  and  circumstances ;  Yalle,  the 
blind  poet ;  R.  Aldana,  of  Yucatan  ;  A.  Silva,  the 
democratic  poet.  M.  Gutierrez'  Una  para  Todos,  re- 
calls Calderon's  Ningima  de  las  Tres.  F.  Orozco  y 
Berra,  the  poet,  wrote  the  comedies  Los  Tres  Aspi- 
rantes  and  Los  Tres  Patriotas.  Moreno,  renowned  for 
his  fables,  and  F.  de  Soria  left  comedies,  and  Ignacio 
Austria,  Antonio  Hurtado,  Emilio  Rey,  Jose  G.  Za- 
mora,  Zayas  y  Enriquez,  Zeronimo  Baturoni,  Joaquin 
Villalobos,  F.  M.  Escalante,  and  Tovar  have  likewise 
tried  their  pens  as  playwrights.  Finally  must  be  men- 
tioned one  conspicuous  member  from  the  other  sex  in 
Isabel  Prieto,  who,  while  born  in  Spain,  came  to 
Mexico  in  early  childhood,  there  to  be  educated  and 
married.  As  a  poetess  she  sings  of  maternal  love  and 
family  joys,  and  this  sentimental  spirit  is  noticeable 
also  in  her  works  for  the  stage,  more  than  a  dozen  in 
number,  notably  dramas  of  the  temperate  romantic 
school,  with  neat  female  characters,  supplemented  by 
some  comedies  of  Bretonian  stamp. 

Few  of  these  productions  have  survived  the  first 
presentation,  less  have  seen  print,  and  many  have  re- 
mained unheard  and  uncopied.  The  cause  lies  not  so 
much  in  defects  due  to  lack  of  experience  or  dramatic 
taste  or  inspiration,  as  in  the  lack  of  opportunities  to 
reach  the  stage,  as  observed  before.  The  result  has 
been  partly  to  discourage  authors,  particularly  from 
original  efforts,  and  to  foster  the  imitations  observable 
even  in  Calderon  and  Galvan.  The  tendency  is  de- 
plorable from  one  aspect,  but  the  superior  training 
thereby  acquired  must  in  time  make  itself  felt,  and 
permit  a  departure  leading,  perhaps,  to  a  truly  national 
school.  The  array  of  aspirants  in  the  field,  despite  all 
obstacles,  indicates  how  wide-spread  is  the  taste  inher- 
ited from  forefathers  among  whom  flourished  Lope, 
Calderon,  and  Cervantes,  and  what  may  consequently 


584      LITERATURE   OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

be  expected  from  a  country  which  has  cradled  Alarcon 
and  Gorostiza,  not  to  mention  the  immediate  succes- 
sors of  the  latter. 

The  government  has  occasionally  manifested  a  de- 
sire to  promote  local  talent,  and  to  foster  taste,  but 
the  subsidies  have  been  misdirected  and  spasmodic, 
owing  to  distracting  party  struggles  and  constant 
changes.  In  1831-2  a  credit  of  $20,000  was  opened, 
and  Maximilian  sliowed  himself  equally  thoughtful, 
two  theatres  receiving  from  him  $300  a  month  each. 
Musical  performances  were  chiefly  favored.  One  care 
of  the  censor  appointed  in  1828  was  to  expose  royalty 
and  its  accessories  as  objects  for  scofl*  or  tragedy.^'  A 
censorship  has  generally  existed,  and  while  little 
aversion  is  shown  for  extremes  of  French  style,  objec- 
tionable features  are  glossed  or  turned  into  a  more 
acceptable  channel.  A  characteristic  eflbrt  is  always 
made  to  save  appearances.  The  disposition  for  show 
and  eflect,  combined  with  unreflecting  impulse,  reveals 
itself,  especially  in  ambitious  themes,  by  inconsistency 
and  lack  of  historic  truth,  and  a  yielding  to  rhapsody 
and  the  fantastic  rather  than  the  imaginative. 

The  best  efforts  of  the  Mexican  poets  must  be  sought 
rather  in  fugitive  pieces,  prompted  by  an  impulsive 
vivacity,  than  in  more  elaborate  compositions,  requir- 
ing a  sustained  plan,  and  a  harmonious  coordination  of 
details.  The  attempted  epics  have,  as  a  rule,  dropped 
down  to  plain  narrative  poems,  or  shone  for  a  time  in 
the  borrowed  lustre  of  more  or  less  glaring  imitation. 
The  inclination  to  copy,  marked  enough  in  this  re- 
spect among  the  Spaniards,  has  been  intensified  with 
the  infusion  of  aboriginal  blood.  When  confined  to 
Spanish  or  classic  models,  it  seems  to  have  stultified 
the  students.  Later,  the  art  of  all  Europe  was  opened 
to  them,  and  although  they  lingered  rather  exclusively 
within  the  Gallic  border,  taste  failed  not  to  derive 
benefit,  as  instanced  by  Alcaraz,  Lacunza,  and  others. 

Their  strength  lies  above  all  in  amatory  poems,  so 


POETRY.  585 

much  in  keeping  with  their  gallant  disposition,  socia- 
bility, and  mobile  passions,  but  here  neither  the 
bluntness  of  the  Spaniard  in  ordinary  life,  nor  the 
extreme  suggestiveness  of  the  Frenchman,  can  be  said 
to  prevail ;  rather  an  impetuous  tenderness  that  im- 
parts a  special  charm  to  the  verse.  To  this  must  be 
added  the  tendency  toward  elegiac  strains  which  is  so 
marked  among  the  aboriginal  ancestry.  It  is  not 
deep,  however,  for  the  Mexican  is  after  all  a  sprightly 
individual,  inclined  to  frivolity,  and  little  intent  on  the 
cares  of  to-morrow.  Hence  his  affection  for  the  Cas- 
tilian  proverb  and  epigram,  which,  united  to  the 
native  bent  for  satire,  have  tended  to  form  a  droll 
suggestive  kind  of  humor  of  a  picaresque  order,  that 
to  the  foreigner  smacks  of  puerility.  It  is  innocent, 
however,  for  it  attacks  classes  and  class  traits  rather 
than  individuals. 

While  the  ode  is  a  favorite  form  of  verse,  whether 
prompted  by  patriotism,  or  by  the  inspiring  beauty  and 
grandeur  of  nature,  it  must  be  confessed  that  on  the 
whole  the  efforts  in  this  direction  fall  short  of  their 
aim ;  the  will  is  there  but  not  the  power,  and  excep- 
tions sustain  the  rule.  Of  patriotic  lines  it  may  be 
said  that  they  are  pitched  too  high  for  us,  with  thun- 
dering apostrophes,  strong  invectives,  and  glittering 
sentences.  In  philosophic  themes  the  shallow  treat- 
ment is  either  broken  in  upon  by  rash  utterance,  or 
left  markedly  unfinished :  the  mysticism  of  the  schol- 
astic era  has  faded  with  the  influx  of  new  ideas.  In- 
completeness also  stamps  the  portrayal  of  character 
or  hidividuals,  and  the  description  of  scenery,  due 
partly  to  want  of  depth  and  criticism,  partly  to  inher- 
ent lack  of  appreciation.  The  Indians  are  noted  for 
a  love  of  flowers,  but  the  Spaniards  reveal  little  taste 
for  any  natural  object,  and  the  feeble  efforts  of  the 
Mexicans  in  this  regard  appear  to  be  prompted  by 
foreign  models;  a  prompting  also  indicated  by  the 
choice  of  subjects,  with  insufficient  regard  for  the  rich 
aborio-inal  sources. 


586      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO-^NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

While  the  study  of  classic  metre  has  left  its  traces, 
the  declamatory  bent  of  the  people  also  leads  to  the 
idiomatic  and  quantitative  rhythm  which  characterizes 
it.  The  irregular  improvisatory  silva  is  much  used. 
Otherwise  the  old  national  redoiidilla  and  the  ottava 
riina  measures  may  be  regarded  as  the  favorites,  nota- 
bly the  latter,  although  the  short  verse  is  undoubtedly 
the  happiest  with  them.  The  leaning  toward  versos 
de  arte  mayor^  as  longer  lines  are  called,  is  greatly  due 
to  affectation,  although  fostered  by  the  remarkable 
adaptiveness  of  the  language  for  rhyme,  extending  in 
the  consonantal  to  two,  and  even  three  syllables,  and 
to  three  or  more  lines.  Indeed,  there  are  long  poems 
with  a  predominant  or  unchanging  rhyme.  The  mo- 
notony of  this  Moorish  feature  no  doubt  influenced 
the  reaction  manifested  in  the  asonante  compromise 
between  blank  and  consonantal  endings,  so  purely 
Spanish,  and  so  pleasing.  Occasional  rhyme  is  also 
used,  and  the  form  of  Garcilaso  in  connecting  one 
stanza  with  the  following.  The  tendency  to  inappro- 
priate language  and  imagery,  to  vehement  terms  and 
a  multiplicity  of  adjectives,  is  partly  idiosyncratic,  and 
must  not  be  judged  by  the  same  strict  rules  governing 
less  volatile  nations.  With  all  the  study  of  models, 
the  laws  of  prosody,  of  euphony,  are  frequently  in- 
vaded, as  might  of  course  by  expected  from  the  impet- 
uous temperament  of  the  Creoles,  impatient  under 
sustained  regulations.  It  must  be  admitted,  however, 
that  they  possess  a  wide  and  choice  range  of  words, 
strikingly  manifested  in  comparing  the  vocabulary  of 
the  lower  classes  with  that  of  corresponding  Anglo- 
Saxon  ranks;  and  this  facility,  combined  with  easy 
rhythmic  flow  and  natural  vivacity,  imparts  an  un- 
deniable attraction. 

The  use  of  Americanisms  is  widely  approved  by 
leading  writers,  yet  not  very  marked.  While  the 
academy  dictionary  is  upheld,  the  number  of  transla- 
tions current,  and  the  aflectation  of  foreign  imitators 
has  led  to  the  introduction  of  foreign  phrases,  and  a 


PROGRESS.  587 

French  form  at  times  very  glaring ;  others  affect  an 
antiquated  style,  with  enclitics  and  other  features. 
The  use  of  lo  and  le  in  the  accusative,  and  certain 
other  points  differ  from  the  peninsular  rules.  The 
orthography  is  strictly  phonetic;  nevertheless  the 
confusion  with  b  and  v,  g,  j  and  x,  c,  q,  s  and  z,  i  and  7/, 
and  h,  with  accents  and  other  forms,  even  among  the 
best  writers,  shows  the  prevalent  instability,  and  the 
need  of  concerted  action  among  men  of  letters  under 
the  guidance  of  another  Cortina.  In  such  a  case  it 
might  be  commendable,  in  a  patriotic  sense,  to  yield 
to  the  party  clamoring  for  Mexican  distinctiveness, 
yet  the  modern  tendency  toward  universality  and  sim- 
plicity, toward  progress,  would  undoubtedly  demand 
greater  accord  with  peninsular  taste. 

Mexico  has  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  universal 
advance  during  the  present  century,  when  her  back- 
ward position  during  colonial  days  is  considered.  The 
masses  then  were  restrained  in  aspirations  not  alone 
by  state  and  church,  as  in  other  catholic  countries, 
but  by  class  and  race  jealousies.  With  the  achieve- 
ment of  independence,  mestizos  advanced  to  the  front 
in  public  life,  and  to  contend  with  the  pure  Creoles  for 
supremacy  also  in  literature  and  other  fields.  The 
Indian  was  held  back  awhile  by  political  intrigue,  by 
the  effect  of  centuries  of  suppression,  and  by  natural 
diffidence.  Nevertheless  he  gradually  crept  forward, 
and  his  progress  would  have  been  greater  but  for  the 
struggles  of  the  church  to  retain  her  control. 

The  Creole  fashion  of  despising  local  productions 
and  writers  had  to  yield  before  the  revolution  to  the 
aptitude  and  vivacity  of  the  mestizo,  and  now  has 
passed  away  in  all  directions  with  the  rise  of  rulers, 
savants,  and  industrial  leaders  from  every  class  and 
race.  The  revival  so  widely  observed  of  aboriginal 
traditions  and  glories  must  acquire  firmer  hold  under 
the  auspices  of  such  men  as  Juarez  and  Alvarez, 
Ramirez  and  Altamirano ;  and  with  the  elevation  of 


588      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO— NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

national  topics  and  local  writers,  Andhuac  will  soon 
boast  of  schools  of  her  own  in  different  departments 
of  letters. 

From  this  aspect  names  like  Gorostiza  and  Calderon 
recede  before  that  of  Galvan,  who,  although  less 
prolific  and  brilliant,  performed  a  greater  service  for 
his  country  in  presenting  a  national  drama  and  direct- 
ing taste  to  historic  as  well  as  local  sources.  The 
efforts  of  lyric  poets  in  the  same  direction  were  less 
meritorious,  impelled  as  they  were  by  circumstances, 
in  response  to  general  public  demand.  With  them 
the  credit  shall  be  perseverance,  for  Mexicans,  by 
their  own  admission,  are  backward  in  many  branches, 
and  lack,  for  instance,  a  national  epic  of  a  high  type. 
There  is  also  room  for  improvement  in  form.  The 
simple  style  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  abandoned 
for  the  artificialities  of  Gongorism,  wherein  the  striv- 
ing was  to  surpass  in  extravagance  and  floridity.  A 
reaction  set  in,  but  the  disposition  still  clings  strongly, 
favored  by  the  structure  of  the  language  and  race 
characteristics.  A  deeper  study  of  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Teutonic  models  offer  the  best  antidote. 

The  growing  participation  of  Indians  in  literature 
may  have  a  good  effect  in  opening  additional  founts  for 
inspiration,  and  in  toning  the  inherited  Spanish  ex- 
uberance, as  well  as  imjmrting  strength  to  deficient 
branches.  The  precocity  of  the  mestizo,  resting 
partly  on  the  fact  that  he  enjoyed  superior  advan- 
tages, may  be  balanced  by  the  greater  depth  of  the 
less  volatile  natives,  which  again  reminds  us  that 
these,  with  their  inferior  range  of  imagination,  prom- 
ise to  excel  rather  in  the  solid  branches,  leaving  to  the 
more  sprightly  Creole  and  intermediate  races  lighter 
and  more  fanciful  topics.  Nevertheless  satiric  no  less 
than  mystic  veins  are  innate  with  the  aborigines,  and 
their  keenness  of  observation  and  conspicuous  love  for 
flowers,  and  for  open  air  life,  indicate  an  aptitude  for 
descriptive  and  pastoral  themes. 

Now  with  peace  assured,  with  the  spread  of  educa- 


THE  FUTURE.  589 

tion  through  rapidly  multiplying  schools  and  period- 
icals; and  with  growing  intercourse,  especially  toward 
the  enterprising  and  enlightened  United  States,  a 
vista  opens  so  far  unequalled.  Thousands  hitherto 
distracted  by  the  turmoils  of  war  and  attendant 
political  changes  will  turn  to  the  cultivation  of  letters, 
under  the  incentives  of  inherited  taste  and  leisure,  and 
of  widening  fields  for  observation  and  expanding 
opportunities. 

^Concerning  the  national  library,  Mex.,  Archivo,  Col  Ley.,  vi.  709-10, 
refers  to  appointment  of  regular  officers  in  1861,  and  the  grant  of  aid.  The 
largest  collections  in  the  country,  of  the  university,  cathedral,  the  former 
Jesuit  college,  and  others,  were  absorbed  by  it,  so  that  over  100,000  volumes 
were  counted  within  a  few  years  after  the  formation.  Soc.  Mex.  Geofj.,  Bol., 
serieii.,  torn,  i.,  359.  Covarrubias  in  1875  enumerates  20  public  libraries, 
with  236,000  volumes,  of  which  three  are  at  ^Mexico.  Insti^c.  Piib.  Reference 
to  puljlic  collections  in  diflferent  states  may  be  found  in  the  Mex.  Diai-.  Ofic. , 
Nov.  20,  1870,  etc.;  Bolctin  de  Notic,  Jan.  2,  1861,  etc.;  Diano  de  Avis.,  Feb. 
11,  May  6,  14,  1857,  with  decrees;  Wappaus,  Mex.,  120-1;  Iris  Espan.,  Dec. 
2,  1846;  EcoNac,  Jan.  19,  Aug.  28,  1857,  Aug.  21-2,  1858;  Estandarte  Nac, 
Jan.  19,  1857,  etc.;  Dice.  Univ.,  i.-x.,  passim,  in  connection  with  towns  and 
colleges;  also  in  Pensamiento  Nac.,  La  Nacion,  El  Ticmpo,  etc.  The  estab- 
lishment of  reading-rooms  is  spoken  of  in  Mex.  Mem.,  Sec.  Estad.  (1823),  39- 
40,  and  later  in  Amigo  del  Pueblo,  Sept.  6,  1845.  No  circulating  libraries  for 
the  people  exist  even  now — none  worthy  the  name.  Their  reading  is  confined 
chiefly  to  religious  books,  say;?  Bulloch,  Across  Mex.,  277. 

2  In  1876  Covarrubias,  Imtnic.  Puhlica,  enumerated  73  associations,  of 
which  29  were  scientific,  21  literary,  20  artistic,  and  3  mixed.  For  descrip- 
tion of  several  provincial  societies,  I  refer  to  Album,  Mex,  ii.  62;  La  Cruz,  iii. 
467;  Diario  de  Avis.,  Apr.  8,  1857;  Universal,  Apr.  14,  and  other  dates  of 
1850;  Mex.,  Diario  of,  Jan.  18,  Feb.  7,  1871,  etc.;  Mex.,  Col.  Leyes,  1848, 
270-1.  Campeche  boasted  until  lately  the  best  arch*ological  museum  next 
to  Mexico.  Four  other  states  possess  collections  of  a  varied  character.  The 
Academia  de  Letran  counted  among  its  founders  the  Lacunzas  and  G.  Prieto, 
the  Liceo  Hidalgo  embraced  J.  Navarro  and  Granados  Maldonado.  For 
opening  and  associates  of  the  Instituto,  see  Instituto  de  Ciencias,  Literatura,  y 
Artes,  1-42.  Concerning  its  struggles,  see  Congreso,  Constit.  ult  Adios,  18-19; 
Mex.,  Cor.  Fed.,  Mar.  20,  1828;  Pap.  Var.,  cxlii.,  pt  x.  An  informal^ rm(i2a 
existed  before  the  revolution,  and  the  academies  known  as  La  Encarnacion  y 
San  Jose,  S.  Felipe  Neri,  Troncoso's,  and  others. 

=*  The  code  contains  a  mass  of  decrees  concerning  liberty  of  press  and  cog- 
nate subjects  under  almost  every  year  of  republican  rule,  and  histories  and 
journals  abound  in  comments  thereon.  A  republican  organ  was  established 
in  1812  in  Oajaca.  Alaman,  Hist.  M^j.,  iii.  330;  v.  401-6,  645.  Mex.,  Cor.  Fed., 
Dec.  3,  1826,  gives  a  list  of  contemporary  journals.  In  Liceo  Mex.,  i.  77,  for 
1844,  are  enumerated  19  in  the  provinces  and  13  at  Mexico,  the  latter  includ- 
ing one  French  and  several  literary  and  satiric  periodicals,  but  only  one  daily 
newspaper,  adds  Calderon,  Life,  326.  Fossey,  Mex.,  288,  gives  52  for  1850, 
of  which  ten  were  issued  at  Mexico.  The  censorship  reduced  the  number 
after  1853.  For  1861,  Hernandez,  Estad.  Mej.,  278,  appends  a  list  of  5b,  ot 
which  eight  at  Mexico,  five  in  the  state  of  Guanajuato,  four  in  Michoacan, 
four  in  Zacatecas,  the  other  states  having  from  one  to  three.  By  1871 
Mexico  city  alone  had  19  of  all  classes.  Aim.,  Leon  y  White,  1871,  42-3;  Pa.p. 
Var.,  cviii.,  pt  i.,  61-3.  Barl)achano,  Mem.  Camp.,  69  et  seq.,  gives  those 
that  have  flourished  in  Yucatan;  aXsoRejistro  Yuc,  i.  233-7;   Waj^aus,  Mex., 


590      LITERATURE  OF  MEXICO- NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

120-1;  Richthofen,  Mex.,  166-71;  Temaux-Compons,  Nouv.  Annales  des  Voy., 
xciii.  49;  Mex.,  Cor.  Fed.,  Sept.  30,  1828;  Dos  Anos  en  Mex.,  48-9,  84-5;  La 
Cruz,  iii.  607,  etc.     Universal,  Feb.  22,  1850,  etc.,  exposes  the  subsidies  paid. 

*  With  more  care  Lizardi,  observes  Beristain,  '  podia  merecer,  si  no  el  nom- 
bre  de  Quevedo  Americano,  d  lo  inenos  el  de  Torres  Villaroel  Mexicano.' 
Bib,  Hisp.  Am.,  ii.  191.  Senator  M.  Bdrbachano  ranks  as  the  leading  satir- 
ist of  Yucatan. 

^  Rivera  claims  precedence  for  the  most  bulky  of  local  histories  in  HisUrria 
de  Jalapa,  in  five  volumes,  which  cover  the  republic  in  general,  however, 
though  imperfectly  and  unsymmetrically.  Baqueiro's  incomplete  Enmyo  on 
the  later  history  of  Yucatan  is  stamped  by  similar  defects. 

'^  Carrillo  is  an  enthusiastic  priest  who  has  written  much  on  the  history 
and  relics  of  that  country.  The  chief  work  of  J.  Arroniz,  the  well-known 
general  writer,  was  a  history  of  Orizdlm.  The  publications  of  the  geographi- 
cal society  embrace  a  most  valuable  series  of  such  local  material,  largely  of 
statistical  nature.  The  diffuseness  of  both  general  and  local  histories  has 
brought  about  many  abridgements,  as  instanced  in  the  cases  of  Bustamante 
and  Alaman.  Arrangoiz  forms  from  the  latter  an  introductory  synopsis  to 
his  own  book.  History  of  Mexican  Revolutions  is  the  virtual  title  of  Mora, 
Zerecero,  and  Zavala's  works.  The  first  added  a  Ohras  Sueltas,  Paris  1817, 
which  really  forms  a  supplement  to  his  history,  with  its  reviews  and  articles. 
Zavala  issued  the  first  journal  in  Yucatan. 

^To  Larrainzar,  who  figured  as  minister  of  state,  is  also  due  an  accept- 
able history  of  Soconusco,  and  an  imperfect  essay  on  Mexican  history-writing. 
J.  M.  de  Barcena  wrote  an  abridged  history  of  ancient  Mexico.  Vigil  has 
done  good  service  by  the  publication  of  many  forgotten  chronicles  and 
documents. 

■*  Similar  to  Sosa's  is  a  small  volume  by  Arroniz,  forming  part  of  an  in- 
completed descriptive  series  knoM-n  as  Enciclopedia  Hisp.  Amer.  In  the 
Mexican  supplement  to  Dice.  Univ..  is  similar  material. 

^  Munguia  also  wrote  on  psychology  and  political  science.  The  religious 
Meditacioncs  of  Quintana,  father  of  the  famous  patriot  and  writer  Quintina 
Roo,  passed  through  three  editions.  Bustamante,  among  others,  undertook 
an  energetic  defense  of  the  Jesuits.  One  of  his  earliest  essays  was  in  behalf 
of  the  aristocratic  shrine  of  Remedios.  There  are  plenty  of  tracts  and  brief 
essays  on  these  fields. 

^  Cortina  was  widely  honored  abroad.  He  resided  for  a  long  time  in  Spain 
and  represented  her  as  minister.  His  Sinonimos  received  the  commendation 
of  the  Spanish  academy,  and  his  manual  for  diplomats  was  widely  accepted 
as  a  guide.  Orozco  y  Berra  acquired  distinction  for  geodetic  work,  and  rose 
to  the  position  of  minister  of  public  works,  and  to  the  supreme  bench,  but  by  ac- 
cepting service  under  Maximilian  he  lost  much  of  his  influence,  and  was  even 
fined  and  imprisoned  for  the  misstep.  Garcfa  Cubas  is  well  known  for  his 
maps,  on  which  he  was  assisted  by  Covarrubias.  The  latter  headed  the  Mex- 
ican astronomic  expedition  to  Japan  in  1874;  later  he  went  as  minister  to 
Guatemala.  Barcena  has  had  many  plants  named  after  him.  J.  P.  Perez  and 
J.  Ruz  stand  prominent  in  Yucatan  for  linguistic  studies.  The  books  of  travel 
by  Zavala  and  G.  Prieto  have  achieved  a  representative  character  with  their 
descriptive  and  reflective  passages. 

1*^  Bishop  Palafox  had  search  made  for  novels,  and  they  were  either  bought 
or  seized  and  burned,  religious  books  being  substituted.  '  Accion . . . .  bien 
digna  de  que  los  demas  la  imiten  en  toda  la  Christiandad, '  comments  Calle, 
Mem.  y  Not,  40. 

^^  G.  Prieto  frankly  admits  that  *  no  se  bosquejan  caracteres  sino  retractor, ' 
Castillo,  Horas,  p.  iv.  In  this  edition  of  Castillo  appear  El  cerebro  y  el  cora- 
zon,  Hasta  et  cielo,  and  other  pieces.  Among  Cuellar's  works  is  Las  Gentes 
que  son  asi,  in  two  volumes.  Lizardi's  satiric  novels  have  been  considered 
elsewhere. 

1^  Concerning  government  subsidies  to  theatres  I  refer  to  Mexico,  Memoria 
de  Hacienda,  1831,  118,  etc  ;  Payno,  Cuentas,  719-20;  Amigo  del  Pueblo,  iv.  21-2. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

EARLY   CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

The  advancing  man  discovers  how  deep  a  property  he  has  in  literature, 
in  all  fable  as  well  as  in  all  history. 

■ — Emerson. 

The  remarkable  strides  made  by  California  in  ma- 
terial advancement  are  not  unattended  by  a  corres- 
ponding intellectual  development,  though  the  latter 
has  in  it  more  of  the  practical  than  of  the  aesthetic. 
While  yet  too  young  to  boast  of  a  literature  wholly 
lier  own,  she  has  achieved  prominence  in  the  field  of 
letters  by  the  number  and  variety  as  well  as  quality 
of  books  emanating  from  her  midst.  Just  what  pro- 
portion of  these  writings  properly  belong  here  is  a 
question,  for  our  leading  authors  were  none  of  them 
born,  or  to  any  great  extent  educated,  on  the  Pacific 
coast;  nevertheless,  there  are  present  the  condi- 
tions of  development  which  have  contributed  essen- 
tially, if  not  wholly,  in  producing  certain  results. 

Environment  moulds  the  mind  for  opportunity';  both 
of  these  all-important  factors  were  here  provided. 
The  one  acted  imperceptibly,  the  other  by  waiting. 
Elsewhere  scenery  exists  equally  inspiring;  indeed,  it 
is  not  wisdom  to  dwell  too  much  on  the  influence  of 
snow-crowned  sierras,  Yosemite  pictures,  stately  for- 
ests with  towering  sequoias,  puffing  geysers,  and  a 
land  overflowing  with  industry  and  wealth.  Temper- 
ate air,  with  pleasant  and  healthy  surroundings,  is 
more  conducive  to  every  kind  of  culture  than  the 
miasmatic  tropics  or  hyperborean  rigors.  Our  climate 
is  that  of  Italy  freed  from  its  impurities,  and  reen- 
forced  with  a  bracing,  quickening  current,  which  pro- 


592  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

motes  energy  of  body  and  mind.  There  is,  as  a  rule, 
no  depressing  cold,  no  enervating  heat  to  retard  the 
machinery  of  life;  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  every- 
thing to  foster  activity,  as  evidenced  in  the  bustle  that 
surrounds  us.  There  is  exhilaration  in  the  air,  and  in 
the  unfolding  of  countless  resources  in  every  direction, 
following  quickly  upon  one  another  since  the  all-coni- 
pelbng  discovery  of  gold.  The  excitement  of  constant 
disclosures,  of  ever-changing  phases  of  fortune,  has 
imparted  a  buoyancy,  partaking  frequently  of  fever- 
ishness,  that  might  be  regarded  with  apprehension 
but  for  the  sustaining  qualities  of  the  soil  and  air. 

While  these  features  influence  literary  life,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  they  are  particularly  creative,  for  no  in- 
digenous civilization  sprang  here  into  being,  or  found 
even  a  halting-place  in  this  latitude.  The  superficial, 
vivacious  Mexican  brought  no  mental  elements  to  be 
developed,  but  inclined  rather  toward  sports,  local 
turmoil,  and  patriarchal  simplicity.  iDtellectual  de- 
volopment  came  from  the  east,  brouglit  by  adventur- 
ous, enterprising  men  with  liberal  ideas.  Every 
element  for  the  formation  of  a  most  progressive  com- 
monwealth was  thus  all  at  once  introduced.  The 
traits  of  a  dozen  nationalities  served  to  modify  and 
improve  the  predominating  American  mind.  They 
were  full-fledged  yjioneers,  and  as  such  .their  efforts, 
physical  or  mental,  might  be  claimed  for  tlieir  respec- 
tive natal  states;  but  without  the  stimulus  here  im- 
parted their  energies  would  have  taken  a  very  different 
direction,  or,  indeed,  have  lain  dormant.  These  ad- 
ventures, and  the  attendant  opportunity,  proved  the 
cradle  for  productions  stamped  by  those  same  agencies 
as  distinctly  Caiifornian. 

Consider  well  the  inspiring  effect  upon  the  mind  of 
the  physical  surroundings,  earth,  air,  and  sky,  after  a 
tedious  trip  across  the  plains,  or  a  long,  monotonous 
voyage  by  sea ;  and  above  all,  of  the  new  social  con- 
ditions, of  peculiar  life,  strange  happenings,  and  excit- 
ing pursuits,  restless  activity,  and  great  achievements 


UNDER  MEXICAN  RULE.  593 

in  developing  character,  and  producing  physical  and 
mental  exuberance. 

Letters  poured  eastward  to  friends  and  journals, 
revealing  in  their  graphic  narration  the  development 
of  the  new  era.  Local  periodicals  displayed  their 
side  of  the  picture,  and  occasionally  enthusiasts  tore 
themselves  away  from  all-absorbing  business  and  en- 
ervating excesses  to  elaborate  their  impressions  in 
books,  for  which  the  universal  interest  in  the  country 
provided  a  popular  reception.  Nor  were  these  pro- 
ductions few  when  compared  with  those  of  other 
states.  Indeed,  more  volumes  were  written  in  Cali- 
fornia within  the  quarter  century  following  1849  than 
in  all  the  other  states  and  territories  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. They  number  nearly  two  hundred,  some  of 
which  sought  a  wider  publishing  field  in  eastern 
centres. 

These  progressional  phenomena  are  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  condition  of  mind  in  colonial  times. 
During  the  period  of  Mexican  rule,  from  1769  to  1846, 
not  a  single  literary  effort  appears  worthy  of  note,  and 
what  was  written  consists  almost  wholly  of  letters 
and  reports  by  officials,  friars,  and  a  few  leading  resi- 
dents, which  have  swollen  in  course  of  time  to  a  vcl- 
uminous  mass,  as  indicated  by  a  series  of  shelves  in 
my  library.  They  relate  to  the  growth  of  the  colony, 
to  local  disturbances,  and  even  to  petty  revolutions ; 
'while  rare  foreign  visits  evoked  a  flood  of  details  pro- 
portionate to  the  fears,  jealousies,  and  excitement 
created.  They  are  pervaded  by  the  tone  of  bustling 
officiousness,  from  men  intent  on  asserting  their  im- 
portance, and  their  pomposity  becomes  amusing  when 
compared  with  the  insignificant  jurisdiction  and  inter- 
ests concerned.  The  friars  treat  of  the  economic  and 
spiritual  administration  of  their  charge,  varied  by 
disputes  with  the  military  commanders.  Their  com- 
munications breathe  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  super- 
stitious men  who  have  voluntarily  exiled  themselves 
for  the  fancied  cause  of  duty  and  humanity. 

Essays  and  Miscellany     38 


594  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

The  style  compares  favorably  with  similar  emana- 
tions in  Mexico;  but  on  the  whole  it  has  less  of  that 
floridity  and  inflation  which,  however  undesirable,  in- 
dicates a  bent  for  writing.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
migration  from  the  pleasant  slopes  and  highlands  of 
Anahuac  to  the  wild  border  had  depressed  any  aspi- 
ration of  the  fancy  to  the  level  of  the  immediate  sur- 
roundings. The  lack  of  educational  facilities  operated 
against  a  development  of  taste  on  the  part  of  the  ris- 
ing generation;  yet  the  nature  of  the  language,  and 
the  punctilious  character  of  the  people,  compensated 
for  a  disadvantage  that  among  our  race  would  have 
left  a  more  glaring  deficiency ;  for  the  lower  classes 
of  Hispano-Americans  display  a  remarkable  correct- 
ness and  fluency  of  expression.  The  general  punctili- 
ousness has  led  to  that  formal  and  forensic  phraseology 
so  characteristic  of  Mexican  epistolary  and  narrative 
productions,  and  so  conducive  to  loose  and  involved 
construction,  which  serves  as  additional  hindrance 
to  beauty  and  interest.  Nevertheless,  the  natural 
sprightliness  will  find  an  outlet,  even  amid  the  exag- 
gerated account  of  dangers  and  isolation  on  the  dis- 
tant frontier,  prompted  by  the  forlorn  condition  or 
longings  of  the  exile. 

Several  of  the  above  writings  have  seen  the  light 
in  government  documents,  journals,  and  collections, 
but  only  a  few  within  the  covers  of  a  special  book. 
The  earliest  production  of  this  kind,  prepared  within 
the  territory  and  by  a  resident,  is  the  Relacion  HiS' 
torica  de  la  Vida  of  Junipero  Serra,  founder  of  the 
missions,  by  his  companion  and  successor,  Francisco 
Palou,  printed  at  Mexico  in  1787.  Although  a  biog- 
raphy of  the  pious  labors  of  an  examplary  friar,  it 
aims  to  give  the  history  of  California  to  1783;  and 
to  this  end  the  rhapsodies  and  prolix  dissertations  so 
common  in  such  works  are  almost  entirely  dispensed 
with.  While  disposed  to  affirm  the  merits  of  his  hero 
and  his  order,  Palou  displays  much  good  sense  in  the 
treatment  of  the  subject,  without  rising  to  any  marked 


UNDER   MEXICAN  RULE.  595 

excellency  in  his  rather  prosaic  narrative.  The  same 
ground  is  covered  with  greater  completeness,  although 
less  elaboration,  in  his  Noticias,  the  sources  for  the 
former  work,  the  publication  of  which  made  that  of 
the  other  less  needful  at  the  time. 

The  country  did  not  possess  a  press  until  1833;  and 
of  its  productions,  less  than  three  score  in  all,  seven 
attained  to  the  respectability  of  book  form.  There 
w ere  the  Reglamento  Frovicio7ial,lS34:,  16  pages,  rules  for 
the  legislature ;  Manifiesto,  b}^  Governor  Figueroa,  1835, 
183  pages;  Catecismo  de  Ortologia,  by  J.  M.  Romero, 
1836,  16  pages;  Ecspocision,  by  Comandante-general 
Vallejo,  1837,  21  pages,  suggestions  concerning  trade 
and  custom-house ;  Botica  general  de  los  Remedios,  1838, 
16  pages,  reprint  of  a  Cadiz  medicinal  pamphlet; 
California,  Comavdancia  General,  Comunicaciones  del 
General  M.  G.  Vallejo,  1837-9,  21  pp.,  a  collection  of 
decrees.  The  last  is  a  small  4to,  the  others  vary  from 
12mo  to  32mo.  The  imprhit  of  the  first  three  books  is 
Monterey,  the  following  are  dated  at  Sonoma.  Later 
the  press  was  restored  to  Monterey,  as  indicated  by 
the  Catecismo  de  la  doctrina,  by  Ripalda,  1842,  12mo,  8 
pages.  In  most  cases  the  other  printing  was  poor  and  de- 
void of  taste,  the  type  being  worn  and  the  press  warped. 
The  only  volume  of  any  pretension  is  the  Manifiesto 
of  Governor  Jose  Figueroa  in  defence  of  his  admin- 
istration from  1832  to  1835,  particularly  in  regard  to 
his  attitude  toward  the  colonization  project  of  Hijar 
and  Padres;  yet  it  does  not  rise  above  the  usual  style 
of  such  political  documents  among  Mexicans.  Be- 
sides the  Catecismo  of  Ripalda  reprinted  here,  the 
friars  circulated  a  number  of  catechisms  and  sermons 
in  manuscripts,  which  they  had  translated  into  differ- 
ent native  dialects.  In  this  coimection  were  produced 
several  vocabularies  and  grammars,  two  of  which,  by 
padres  Arroyo  de  la  Cuesta  and  Sitjar,  form  part  of 
Shea's  collection.^ 

Zalvadea    left   several  translations,  and  President 


596  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

Sarria  some  impressive  sermons,  in  autograph.  Friar 
Boscana  prepared  an  account  of  the  customs  and 
myths  of  the  Indians  round  San  Juan  Capistrano, 
which  was  translated  into  EngUsh,  and  printed  at 
New  York  in  1846,  under  the  title  of  Chinigchinuh. 
While  condemning  the  superstitions  of  the  natives,  the 
friar  himself  displays  a  prejudice  and  leaning  hardly 
less  excusable;  but  he  strives  for  truth  and  seeks 
naively  to  explain  every  peculiarity.  The  work  was 
issued  as  a  part  of  Life  in  Calif omia,  by  Alfred  Rob- 
inson, a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  who  had  for 
several  years  been  established  here  as  a  trader.  His 
proposed  introduction  to  the  CJmiigchiriich  gradually 
expanded  into  a  volume  of  over  200  pages,  in  which 
from  personal  experience  he  describes  places  and  peo- 
ple, scenery,  resources,  and  customs,  together  with  an 
interesting  outline  of  history.  Appearing  at  the 
time  the  conquest  of  the  country  was  undertaken  by 
the  United  States,  the  book  created  no  small  atten- 
tion, and  this  was  sustained  by  the  attractive  nature 
and  treatment  of  the  subject.  A  ready  appreciation 
of  salient  and  interesting  topics  is  apparent,  tempered 
by  a  generous  and  good-natured  spirit,  which  led  to 
rose-colored  statements  in  favor  of  his  California 
friends.' 

With  the  occupation  by  Americans,  it  was  not  long 
before  the  characteristic  newspaper  presented  itself, 
beginning  at  Monterey  on  August  15,  1846,  with  the 
Californian,  under  the  auspices  of  Walter  Colton, 
chaplain  of  the  United  States  frigate  Congress,  and 
Robert  Semple.  It  was  not  an  imposing  specimen  in 
its  foolscap  size,  printed  on  rough  paper  with  worn 
and  deficient  type,  and  with  the  rickety  California 
press  of  1833,  now  rescued  from  a  garret;  but  it  w^as 
pregnant  with  the  patriotic  aspirations  of  the  conquer- 
ors, although  extremely  subservient  to  the  military 
authorities.  On  January  9th  following,  another  weekly 
paper,  the  California  >S'torw"as  issued  at  San  Francisco 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  DECADE.  597 

by  the  Mormon,  Sam  Brannan,  assisted  by  E.  P. 
Jones,  as  editor."  It  was  larger  and  neater  than  the 
rival  sheet,  but  reflecting  only  too  frequently  the 
sharp,  coarse  traits  of  the  provincial  lawyer  and  dog- 
matic leader,  as  compared  with  the  fairer  and  gentler 
spirit  of  Semple  and  Colton/ 

The  two  papers  were  consolidated  after  the  suspen- 
sion caused  by  the  excitement  attending  the  gold  dis- 
covery, and  merged,  on  January  4,  1849,  into  the 
Alta  California.  Four  months  later  an  offshoot  ap- 
peared at  Sacramento  in  the  Placer  Times;  after  this 
sheets  began  to  multiply  rapidly  in  towns  and  mining 
camps,  as  elsewhere  fully  related.  Every  party,  class, 
and  nationality  souglit  to  be  represented.  The  French 
made  several  attempts  to  establish  organs,  the  first  in 
January  1850.  The  Spanish  residents  were  courted 
by  the  Gallic  journals,  but  obtained  a  special  sheet  in 
1854,  wliile  the  Germans  had  one  two  years  earlier. 

In  September  1850  the  Illustrated  Times  made  a  vain 
bid  for  favor  with  cuts,  and  the  early  humorous  and 
satiric  sheets,  beginning  in  1851  with  the  Homhrej 
fared  no  better.  Religious  denominations  strove  to 
promote  their  efforts  with  the  press,  the  Christian  Ob- 
server of  the  same  year  being  first  in  the  field.  The 
Academy  of  Sciences  began  its  reports  in  1853,  the 
Agricultural  Society  in  the  following  year;  doctors 
issued  a  journal  in  1855,  and  so  publications  increased. 

Journalistic  enterprise  in  California  is  commensurate 
with  the  phenomenal  rise  of  the  country.  No  state 
in  the  union  can  show  so  large  an  average  of  news- 
paper circulation  among  its  inhabitants.  Even  New 
York  was  for  years  surpassed,  and  the  average  there 
amounted  to  nearly  treble  that  of  the  other  states. 
In  this  by  no  means  unenviable  respect,  California 
consequently  stood  foremost  in  the  world.  There  has 
also  existed  a  more  than  ordinary  intimacy  between 
the  press  and  the  public  in  the  interchange  both  of 
information  and  opinions.  Moreover,  the  number  of 
persons  engaged  on  newspapers  has  been  extraordi- 


59S  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

narily  large,  over  one  thousand  figuring  in  this  con- 
nection in  San  Francisco  during  the  ten  years  ending 
in  1858.  During  its  earlier  period  such  a  press  must 
have  been  very  partisan  in  character,  tlie  medium  of 
cliques,  rather  than  of  the  public,  organ  instead  of 
mentor,  rising  and  falling  with  parties  and  interests, 
fluctuating  like  its  fickle  supporters.  The  journals  of 
the  eastern  states  maintained  a  large  share  of  patron- 
age till  the  telegraph  drove  them  back;  railroads  ef- 
fected local  revolutions  of  equal  importance. 

It  may  be  readily  understood  that  this  instability 
has  not  tended  to  establish  a  high  character  for  hon- 
esty, learning,  or  originality  among  the  journalists. 
They  have  not  been  chosen  from  tlie  fittest  ranks,  for 
that  matter,  but  from  all  grades  of  society,  and  the 
result  is  evident  in  the  material  they  furnish,  chiefly 
made  to  fill  space,  and  to  serve  some  personal  end  or 
prejudice,  and  framed  in  language  by  no  means  of  the 
choicest,  displaying  numerous  errors  in  grammar,  many 
Americanisms,  and  nmch  vulgar  slang.  In  these 
respects  it  may  not  be  below  the  average  throughout 
America,  which  compares  rather  unfavorably  with  the 
European,  but  the  taste  for  the  sensational  adds  a 
feature  to  the  many  undesirable  elements  in  this 
medium  for  popular  education  and  guidance.  It  must 
be  conceded,  however,  that  California  is  not  devoid  of 
journals  and  newspaper  productions  of  a  higher 
o^der,  and  bright  with  promise. 

Among  prominent  editors  may  be  named  Gilbert 
and  Kemble,  who  established  the  AltUy  the  former, 
the  first  elected  congressman  for  California,  being  a 
high-minded  though  foolish  fellow,  w^ho  fell  in  a  duel 
for  his  principles;  Soule  and  Nesbit,  associated  on 
the  first  history  of  San  Francisco;  the  versatile  Noah 
Brooks;  Avery,  sometime  minister  to  China;  John 
S.  Hittell,  the  well-known  statistical  writer  ;  the  pun- 
gent Frank  Pixley;  George,  the  author  of  Progress 
and  Poverty;  Gorham,  Bartlett,  G.  K.  Fitch,  Sey- 
bougrh   Georgje  H.  Fitch  and  John  P.  You  no*  of  the 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  DECADE.  599 

Chronicle,  T.  T.  Williams  of  the  Post,  Jerome  A.  Hart 
of  the  Argonaut,  John  P.  Irish  of  the  Alta,  and  S.  C. 
Carrington  of  the  Sacramento  Record-  Union.  On  this 
last  journal  was  once  George  Frederic  Parsons,  later 
literary  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  one  of 
the  ablest  writers  in  America. 

In  early  times  purely  literary  efforts  did  not  receive 
adequate  support,  owing  to  the  unsettled  condition  of 
society.  Later  the  wider  range  and  superior  charac- 
ter of  eastern  periodicals  attracted  too  much  of  public 
attention,  and  humorous,  satirical,  and  critical  journals 
can  alone  be  said  to  have  flourished.  The  best  early 
paper  of  this  latter  class  was  the  Bon-ton  Critic,  issued 
in  March  1854,  and  the  latest  is  the  Argonaut.  Never- 
theless, there  have  been  repeated  attempts  to  establish 
literary  publications.  The  first,  the  weekly  Golden  Era, 
dated  from  December  1852  ;  but  its  pages  contained  a 
large  proportion  of  newspaper  matter,  and  were  suited 
rather  for  the  taste  of  the  less  exacting  portions  of  the 
rural  and  mining  population.  Of  similar  papers  none 
have  equalled  it  in  popularity.  The  first  monthly  issue 
of  a  higher  order  was  the  Pioneer,  published  in  January 
1854,  and  continuing  for  two  years.  The  editor  was 
F.  C.  Ewer,  later  well-known  on  the  Atlantic  side  as 
a  high -church  episcopalian  clergyman.  The  articles 
consisted  chiefly  of  semi-historical  and  descriptive 
pieces,  interspersed  with  more  poems  than  tales  or 
novelettes,  and  closing  with  a  review  of  events,  soci- 
ety, arts,  and  sciences,  somewhat  too  staid,  perhaps, 
for  the  period. 

James  M.  Hutchings  fancied  that  he  understood 
the  public  taste  better,  and  in  his  California  Magazine, 
begun  in  July  1856,  he  introduced  a  larger  portion  of 
light  matter,  with  special  attention  to  humorous 
sketches.  The  size  was  somewhat  reduced,  and  the 
editor's  department  cut  down,  but  the  pages  received 
instead  the  addition  of  wood-cuts,  of  a  mediocre  and 
at  times  decidedly  trashy  stamp,  like  much  of  the 
text.     It  existed  for  five  years,  improving  somewhat 


600  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

toward  the  close  in  tone.  It  might  have  Hved  lono-er 
but  for  the  rivalry  of  The  Hesperian,  started  in  May 
1858,  as  a  semi-monthly  journal  of  literature  and  art, 
and  consisting  largely  of  items.  Mrs  F.  H.  Day,  who 
soon  took  sole  charge,  converted  this  with  the  second 
volume  into  a  monthly  magazine,  of  a  higher  order 
than  the  preceding,  with  a  juvenile  department,  with 
more  reflective  and  instructive  articles,  and  with  a 
few  excellent  illustrations.  It  changed  in  1863  to 
The  Pacific  Monthly,  under  less  firm  editorship,  and  died 
not  long  afterward.  The  contemporary  California 
Magazine,  with  its  predominance  of  novels  and  fashion 
items,  appealed  to  the  fair  sex.  The  California  Moun- 
taineer, begun  at  Tuolumne  in  1861  by  H.  S.  Brooks, 
adopted  some  features  of  the  early  Hesperian,  and  a 
number  of  less  notable  magazines  sprang  up  at  inter- 
vals to  seek  a  share  of  favor.  ^ 

Finally,  in  1868,  appeared  the  Overland  Monthly, 
the  hightest  of  its  class,  and  started  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Bret  Harte,  who  was  then  rishig  into  fame. 
His  contributions  to  it,  during  a  period  of  two  years 
and  a  half,  were  indeed  a  main  feature,  and  gave  no 
small  impulse  to  the  circulation,  besides  bringing  the 
writer  into  that  notice  which  later  drew  him  to  wider 
fields  in  the  eastern  states  and  Europe.  A  mass  of 
slumbering  talent  was  awakened  by  this  medium,  and 
their  scattered  offerings  in  prose  and  verse  have  since 
in  several  instances,  reappeared  in  special  books. 
Harte's  pieces  formed  an  important  feature  of  three 
large  volumes,  and  so  with  Coolbrith,  W.  C.  Bartlett, 
Avery,  J.  Miller,  Clarence  King,  Stoddard,  Clifford, 
Cremony,  Scammon,  Victor,  and  others,  who  shall  be 
noticed  in  due  course.  Bartlett  assumed,  temporarily, 
the  editorial  chair,  until  Avery  accepted  it.  After 
his  departure  as  minister  to  China,  the  magazine  de- 
clined and  was  suspended  in  December,  1875.  The 
original  publisher,  A.  Roman,  revived  it  in  January 
1880,  under  the  title  of  the  Calif ornian,  which  three 
years  later  merged  into  the  Overland  Monthly  again, 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  DECADE.  601 

called  the  second  series.  It  has  ever  adhered  to  the 
proclamied  mission  of  "developing  the  country,"  by 
devoting  a  proportionately  large  space  to  instructive 
and  descriptive  articles  concerning  the  coast.  These, 
indeed,  form  its  best  material,  and  next  ranks  the 
poetry,  which,  despite  its  doubtful  admixture  is-  de- 
cidedly superior  to  the  average  fiction.  Its  influence, 
like  that  of  tlie  preceding  magazines,  has  been  less 
marked  in  directing  public  taste,  over  which  the 
newspapers  and  the  eastern  periodicals  exercise 
greater  control ;  but  it  has  rendered  good  service  in 
fostering  local  talent,  and  in  bringing  new  writers  into 
notice,  even  beyond  our  borders. 

No  country  has  probably  roused  so  sudden,  wide- 
spread, and  intense  an  interest  as  did  California,  when 
reports  of  her  gold-beds  flashed  throughout  the  world. 
The  discovery  of  Columbus  did  not  attract  half  the 
attention,  and  the  invasions  of  the  Tartar  and  Cres- 
cent hordes  failed  to  create  the  same  excitement,  even 
in  Europe,  partly  because  news  travelled  slowly  in 
those  days,  and  overspread  the  world  so  gradually  as 
to  lose  its  eflect.  What  scenes,  what  incidents,  what 
budding  fancies  are  not  associated  with  this  last  great 
hegira  and  its  halt  at  this  earth's  end  !  Books  innu- 
merable have  alluded  to,  or  dwelled  at  length  on, 
these  romantic  phases ;  and  not  a  periodical  out  of 
the  thousands  existing  but  has  added  to  the  halo  sur- 
rounding the  name  of  California. 

But  the  most  valuable  of  all  material  for  the  history 
of  California  lies  in  the  thousand  manuscript  dicta- 
tions and  experience  of  those  who  helped  to  make  the 
history  of  the  country,  and  which  I  have  been  accu- 
mulating during  tlie  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Many 
of  the  early  settlers  wrote  or  dictated  matter  which 
swelled  into  ponderous  works,  sometimes  of  four  and 
five  volumes,  and  covering  all  subjects,  from  sober 
history  to  romantic  tales,  from  reviews  of  natural 
features  and  industrial  resources  to  social  types  and 


602  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

amenities.  Some,  like  Salvador,  the  Indian  fighter, 
and  Amador,  a  name  commemorated  in  that  of  a 
country,  tell  their  story  in  the  blunt  style  of  the 
mountaineer  and  soldier ;  others,  like  Vicente  Gomez, 
rely  on  pointed  anecdotes  and  racy  humor ;  still 
others,  like  Torres,  Jaussens,  Hijar,  Arce,  and  Fer- 
nandez, are  intent  on  certain  episodes ;  Botello  and 
Coronel  on  formality  of  style,  at  the  expense  of 
freshness  and  vio^or ;  while  a  larofe  number  sacrifice 
essential  elements  of  history  to  the  feeling  of  import- 
ance which  pervades  them  in  being  called  upon  to  es- 
timate men  and  events.  They  are,  above  all,  im- 
pressed wdth  a  desire  to  perpetuate  their  own 
achievements,  to  glorify  the  e(jo  and  proceed  with 
their  narrative,  as  if  truth  were  an  incidental  rather 
than  primary  requirement.  While  prolix  and  full  of 
details,  they  care  little  for  exactness,  and  general 
ideas  and  plans  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  aim  to  apply  a 
certain  coloring,  and  to  ci'eate  effect.  Sequence 
and  completeness  are  so  little  regarded  as  to  stamp 
most  efforts  as  unsatisfactory  and  fragmentary.  The 
humorous  is  not  neglected,  however,  and  the  narra- 
tives are  frequently  enlivened  with  some  bright  sally 
or  good  story.  But  for  all  this,  as  I  have  said,  used 
with  proper  care  and  discrimination,  they  constitute 
the  very  foundation  of  California  history. 

Governor  Pio  Pico  may  be  regarded  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  class,  in  his  disjointed  and  contradictory 
volume.  Manuel  Castro  is  more  connected  and  fluent 
and  clear,  but  unscrupulous  in  his  skillfully  woven 
tissues.  Osio,  on  the  other  hand,  is  swayed  by  preju- 
dices, despite  himself.  He  is  also  uneven  in  treat- 
ment and  style,  beginning  his  character  sketches  and 
scenes  with  animation,  and  evincing  considerable  apti- 
tude as  he  proceeds,  only  to  digress  and  leave  them 
unfinished,  or  even  to  contradict  himself  on  later 
pages.  In  the  same  manner  pleasingly  told  paragraphs 
are  frequently  broken  by  crude  and  puerile  phrases. 
This  caprice  is  greatly  due  to  the  infirmity  of  age,  as 


MANUSCRIPT  DICTATIONS.  603 

revealed  in  garrulous  details.  Governor  Alvarado  is 
positive,  rather  than  prejudiced,  and  supplies  a  vast 
amount  of  information,  marked  by  a  clear  judgment. 
Bandini  conveys  his  less  valuable  memoirs  under  a 
pretentious  title,  and  regards  them  evidently  as  ad- 
mirable ;  yet  he  disclaims  any  attempt  at  writino- 
history,  or  any  striving  for  elegance  and  method,  and 
this  declaration  he  certainly  adheres  to.  Far  more 
acceptable  are  Botello's  records,  and  still  more  so  the 
imposing  tomes  of  General  Vallejo,  a  man  imbued 
with  enthusiastic  regard  for  the  history  of  his  country, 
as  well  as  for  his  contributions  to  it.  This  zeal  leads 
him  often  to  exaggerate,  but  the  reader  cannot  fail  to 
be  impressed  by  his  sincerity  and  striving  for  truth, 
and  readily  overlooks  an  all-pervading  pompousness, 
which  for  that  matter  accords  not  ill  with  his  services 
and  prestige.  He  combines  strong  descriptive  power 
with  due  appreciation  for  fitness.  Notwithstanding 
the  several  peculiarities  of  the  Latin  race,  where  the 
evidence  is  so  full  the  truth  can  always  be  reached. 
Side  by  side  with  the  recollections  of  Hispano-Cal- 
ifornians,  which  apply  chiefly  to  Mexican  times,  I 
have  arranged  on  my  library  shelves  those  of  Ameri- 
can and  other  pioneers,  which  are  even  more  numer- 
ous, and  relate  to  the  journey  out,  to  the  conquest  by 
the  United  States,  to  the  gold  discovery,  and  to  the 
subsequent  development.  They  are  more  matter  of 
fact  and  exact,  but  while  questions  are  considered 
with  due  regard  to  their  importance,  the  style  savors 
too  frequently  of  the  free-and-easy  intercourse  of 
early  days,  and  compares  unfavorably  with  the  more 
dignified  tone  and  choicer  diction  of  the  Mexicans. 
This  inferiority  belongs  only  to  a  class,  however;  for 
the  rest,  headed  by  such  men  as  Senator  Gwin  and 
generals  Sutter  and  Bidwell,  exhibit  admirable  fea- 
tures in  treatment  and  language. 

The  influx  of  gold-seekers  ignorant  of  the  country, 
its  resources,  and   the  methods   in  vogue,   led  to  the 


604  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

early  publication  of  books  for  their  guidance,  among 
the  first  of  the  kind  being  California  as  it  is,  and  as  it 
may  he,  San  Francisco,  1849,  8vo,  7^  pages,  by  F. 
P.  Wierzbicki,  a  Pole,  who  is  said  to  have  made  a  con- 
siderable sum  of  money  by  its  sale.  John  J.  Worth 
followed  with  A  Dissertation  on  the  Resources,  Benicia, 
1851;  and  then  came  Crane  in  1855,  Bushnell,  De 
Groot,  Truman,  Menefee,  Hutch ings,  and  a  host  of 
more  or  less  special  treatises,  some  referring  only  to 
certain  counties  or  districts.  A  larger  number  would 
no  doubt  have  been  issued  in  early  years  had  not  the 
eastern  states  and  Europe  anticipated  the  movement 
by  a  flood  of  books  and  pamphlets,  some  prepared  by 
returned  miners,  others  compiled  from  different 
sources.  Their  incompleteness  and  misstatements  in- 
duced John  S.  Hittell  in  1863  to  issue  The  Resources 
of  California,  which  speedily  passed  through  several 
editions,  one  of  which  attained  a  local  prize,  offered 
for  a  book  of  this  character,  prepared  wholly  from 
material  which  might  be  obtained  within  the  state. 
Its  success  led  to  the  publication  in  1868  of  The  Nat- 
ural Wealth  of  California,  and  later  of  the  Commerce  and 
Industries  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  most  compreliensive 
and  exhaustive  work  on  the  country.  Both  are  em- 
bellished with  cuts  and  complemented  by  historic  and 
geographic  sketches,  yet  not  sufficiently  digested 
and  elaborated.  Both  of  these  leading  works  were 
issued  under  my  auspices.  In  TJie  Golden  State,  by  B. 
Guy  McClellan,  there  are  sketches  of  the  other 
Pacific  states.  I.  I.  Powell  provides  a  similar 
work  on  Nevada,  whose  silver  mines  had  been  calling 
universal  attention  to  this  region.  Mrs  Victor's 
Avorks  on  Oregon  and  Washington  excel  in  a  descrip- 
tive view  and  sprightly  tone  that  impart  a  particular 
charm.  To  this  class  may  be  added  directories,  which 
embody  much  historic  and  statistical  matter,  and  give 
testimony  of  the  progress  made  by  population  and 
industries.  The  first  was  issued  at  San  Francisco  in 
September  1850  by  Charles  P.  Kimball.' 


EFFECT  OF  GOLD.  605 

For  several  years  after  the  gold  excitement  every- 
thing concerning  California  was  read  with  avidity, 
partly  interwoven  in  novels,  partly  in  equally  alluring 
narratives  of  travel  and  life,  based  on  personal  ex- 
periences, more  or  less  colored,  and  due  chiefly  to  the 
pens  of  eye-witnesses,  such  as  E.  Gould  Buffum, 
prominent  in  the  state  since  1847  as  lieutenant  of 
Stevenson's  volunteers,  as  member  of  the  legislature, 
and  journalist.  He  committed  suicide  at  Paris  in 
1868,  leaving  the  manuscript  for  Lights  and  Sensations 
in  France  to  be  printed  by  a  brother.  His  Bix  Months 
in  the  Gold  Mines  is  disjointed,  both  in  plan  and  style, 
under  the  pressure  of  a  hurried  publication.  It  was 
issued  in  1850  at  Philadelphia,  as  the  better  market; 
but  similar  narratives  began  to  appear  within  the 
country,  at  first  in  newspaper  columns,  and  gradually 
in  book  form,  among  the  first  being  Carson's  Early 
Recollections,  Stockton,  1852,  which  is  even  less  fin- 
ished than  the  preceding,  and  intended  chiefly  for  an 
emigrant  guide. 

The  California  Pilgrim^  by  J.  A.  Benton,  printed  at 
Sacramento  in  1853,  is  an  embodiment  of  scenes  wit- 
nessed and  characters  encountered  in  towns,  camps, 
and  country,  but  described  as  seen  by  the  writer  in  a 
dream,  and  in  imitation  of  Bunyan's  treatment  and 
style,  yet  witli  an  admixture  of  ordinary  dialogue  on 
e very-day  topics,  political  and  social,  and  with  moral 
reflections  at  the  end  of  the  chapters,  here  called  lec- 
tures, for  as  such  they  had  been  originally  delivered. 
In  the  same  year  Delano  began  the  Life  on  the  Plains 
and  other  sketches,  which  have  procured  for  him  a 
place  among  the  humorists.  With  the  establishment 
in  1854  of  the  monthly  magazine,  narratives  of  this 
kind  received  a  more  appropriate  repository,  and  ac- 
cordingly greater  elaboration  than  those  destined  for 
mere  newspapers.  In  the  Pioneer  is  a  long  serial 
piece,  California  in  1S51,  by  Shirley,  running  through 
its  four  volumes,  and  remarkable  for  this  time  it  bemg 
from  the   pen  of  a  woman.     It  is  in  epistolary  form, 


G06  EARLY  CALIFOnNIA  LITERATURE. 

showing  a  cultured  mind  and  feminine  grace,  yet  with 
some  characteristic  defects  in  prohxity  and  triviahties. 
Another  resident  female,  Mrs  Farnham,  prepared 
about  the  same  time  a  more  formal  and  prosaic  ac- 
count, full  of  valuable  information,  but  also  with  an 
excessive  intrusion  of  her  private  troubles,  colored  by 
religious  thoughts.  It  was  published  at  New  York 
in  1856,  as  the  first  book  written  by  her  sex  in  and 
on  the  country.  The  Captivity  of  the  Oatman  Girls 
may  also  be  regarded  as  a  woman's  narrative,  al- 
though edited  by  a  man,  R.  B.  Stratton,  also  a  resi- 
dent Californian.  In  a  preface  to  the  second  edition 
he  seeks  to  remove  tlie  doubts  cast  upon  his  literary 
taste  for  indulging  in  florid  and  melodramatic  style. 
The  latter  served  well  with  the  readers  of  such  mat- 
ter to  convey  a  harrowing  effect,  and  so  rapidly  did 
the  two  California  editions  of  1857  sell  that  the  book 
was  in  1858  issued  at  New  York.  A  favorable  con- 
trast is  presented  in  the  natural  and  appropriate  tone 
of  T/ie  Adventures  of  James  Capen  Adams,  San  Fran- 
cisco, 1860,  wherein  Theodore  Hittell  relates  the  life 
of  a  mountaineer  and  bear  hunter. 

The  publication  in  San  Francisco  in  1857  o^  Travels 
on  the  Western  Slope  of  the  Western  Cordillera  must  be 
attributed  rather  to  the  closer  interest  which  San 
Francisco  was  supposed  to  take  in  the  resources  and 
features  of  this  region  ;  yet  it  indicates  a  remarkable 
confidence  in  the  bent  for  reading  among  Californians, 
the  more  so  since  the  information  is  imparted  in  a  series 
of  short  and  prosy  letters.  Less  pretentious  in  size, 
but  more  attractively  written,  is  Stewart's  Last  of  the 
Filibusters,  Sacramento,  1857,  relating  to  Walker's 
Nicaragua  expedition.  To  these  new  fields  for  the 
pen  was  added  another  in  Seven  Years  Street  Preaching 
in  San  Francisco,  by  Reverend  William  Taylor,  pub- 
lished the  same  year,  but  in  New  York.  It  was  not 
likely  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  rollicking  people 
on  this  coast,  for  the  book  treats  almost  exclusively  of 
religious  efforts  in  dens  and  alleys  among  the  ruder 


SECOND  DECADE.  G07 

classes,  and  with  a  monotonous  sameness  of  both  sub- 
ject and  language.  His  California  Z^/e,  published 
two  years  later,  is  more  varied,  and  gives  an  instruc- 
tive account  of  society  and  development.  Numerous 
illustrations  have  been  added,  although  some  of 
them  hardly  accord  with  the  predominating  religious 
strain.  About  the  same  time  appeared  a  number  of 
minor  publications  bearing  on  the  vigilance  movements, 
notably  McGowan's  Narrative,  which  relates  his  per- 
secution by  the  popular  tribunal  and  his  escapes,  to- 
gether with  a  defence  of  his  career  as  a  politician. 

Such  is  the  outline  of  a  characteristic  class  of  books 
presented  to  the  public  during  the  first  decade.  The 
same  range  of  subjects  continues  to  attract  writers, 
but  while  pioneers  still  cling  to  the  golden  dreams  of 
early  days,  others  follow  the  progressive  phases 
around  them,  in  style  as  well  as  theme.  Lack  of  due 
care  and  elaboration  still  mark  their  efforts;  neverthe- 
less, there  is  a  manifest  improvement,  due  no  less  to 
the  emulative  example  of  prominent  eastern  competi- 
tors than  to  the  refining  influence  of  a  society  now 
approaching  the  normal  family  proportion,  and  to 
ready  intercourse  with  other  countries. 

A  striking  feature  is  the  predilection  for  humor, 
reflecting  the  boisterous  times  of  1849,  and  the  conviv- 
ialities of  a  community  consisting  almost  entirely  of 
bachelors,  with  the  varied  aspects  of  a  cosmo- 
poKtan  people.  Another  trait  is  the  love  for 
scenery,  indirectly  strengthened  no  doubt  during 
the  toilsome  march  over  plains,  ranges,  and  deserts, 
or  the  irksome  voyage  by  sea.  The  monotony  of 
the  route,  heightened  by  the  dullness  and  hardship, 
caused  the  newly  found  country  to  be  invested  by  the 
weary  wanderer  with  exceeding  fairness,  a  picture 
gilded  in  course  of  time  by  bright  memories.  The 
newcomers  hailed,  besides,  from  a  ruder  clime,  in  com- 
parison with  which  the  present  seemed  a  perennial 
spring,  an  Arcadia  festooned  with  vines,  and  shaded 
by  cypress  and  fig-trees,  varied  by  snow-tipped  peaks 


608  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

and  miglity  canons,  with  spouting  geysers  and  stately 
trees,  with  cloud- enbosomed  lakes  and  winding  cav- 
erns. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  influence  of  scenery 
so  grand  and  beautiful,  and  Californians  may  well  be 
pardoned  for  dwelling  with  fondness  upon  it.  They 
display  their  admiration  not  alone  in  books,  but  in  the 
enjoyment  of  nature  by  summer  saunterings  and  camp- 
ing expeditions.  The  numerous  descriptions  given  in 
periodicals,  guide-books,  and  more  pretentious  works 
are  a  fair  record  of  wide  experience.  Foremost 
among  such  sketches  must  be  placed  Clarence  King's 
Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  written  originally 
for  a  California  magazine  amid  the  scenes  depicted, 
and  by  one  who  has  long  been  connected  with  the 
country.  Loft}^  summits  and  rugged  cliffs  attract  him 
most,  with  mantling  glaciers  in  their  encroachments  on 
border  vegetation.  His  spirit  responds  to  the  inspir- 
ing vistas  that  unfold  on  every  side,  past  the  circHng 
shades  of  forests  to  green-clad  slopes,  and  into  peace- 
ful dales  half  shrouded  in  misty  blue,  and  his  descrip- 
tion comes  forth  in  the  same  variegated  colors  of 
language,  mingled  w^ith  thrilling  accounts  of  adven- 
tures, vivid  portrayals  of  character,  romantic  episodes, 
and  touches  of  quaint  humor.  Popular  appreciation 
is  shown  by  the  issue,  in  1882,  of  a  sixth  edition.  His 
contributions  to  the  reports  of  the  geological  survey 
of  California  have  earned  for  him  an  enviable  reputa- 
tion. The  picturesque  is  generally  affected,  and  fre- 
quently attained,  in  such  books  as  Truman's  Semi-tropical 
California  and  Occidental  Sketches,  Turrill's  California 
Notes,  Powell's  Wonders,  Avery's  California  Pictures, 
and  a  host  of  others,  aiming  to  instruct  the  immigrant 
or  guide  the  visitor.  The  style  of  Avery,  for  a  time 
editor  of  the  Overland,  and  later  minister  to  China,  is 
fluent  and  harmonious,  but  there  is  a  tiresome  same- 
ness of  scenes  and  a  marked  subordination  of  topic  to 
diction. 


SECOND  DECADE.  609 

Society  and  institutions  on  this  remote  ocean  border 
sprang  up  as  it  were  in  a  day,  with  their  strange  com- 
mingUng  of  races,  of  dreamy  indolence  and  stupendous 
striving,  of  ghttering  acquisition  and  reckless  prodigali- 
ty these  topics  furnish  ever-alluring  sources  for  pen 
and  eye,  as  instanced  in  the  sketches  of  ^  la  California 
by  Evans.  With  keen  observation  and  quick  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beautiful,  the  useful,  and  the  droll,  he 
seized  upon  all  salient  features  of  scenery,  development, 
and  character  as  they  passed  before  him  during  a  series 
of  trips  through  the  country,  and  fixed  the  pictures 
with  fresh  and  pleasing  touches,  adding  now  some  ex- 
cellent descriptive  bit,  now  some  ludicrous  trait  or 
racy  anecdote.  If  they  lack  finish  and  symmetry, 
they  are  at  least  interesting  in  subject,  and  sparkling 
in  treatment. 

The  book  was  published  at  San  Francisco  in  1873, 
after  his  sad  end  on  the  Atlantic,  while  on  the  way  to 
Mexico.  He  had  visited  that  country  in  1869-70 
with  Seward's  party,  and  left  a  record  of  his  observa- 
tions in  Our  Sister  Republic,  Hartford,  1870,  of  the 
same  type  as  the  preceding,  although  somewhat  more 
connected.  A  large  part  of  his  checkered  career  as 
pioneer,  soldier,  lawyer,  banker,  and  v^riter  was  spent 
in  California,  chiefly  in  connection  with  the  press. 
He  wrote  for  eastern  journals,  and  his  works  are 
chiefly  culled  from  published  articles  and  letters. 

A  marked  tendency  in  all  such  sketches  is  to  exag- 
gerate in  order  to  strengthen  the  story,  and  this  has 
been  the  case  particularly  with  the  gold  discovery 
period.  The  reader  may  seldom  object,  but  it  cer- 
tainly touches  the  feelings  of  many  a  class  and  fre- 
quent protests  have  been  uttered.  In  A  Picture  of 
Pioneer  Times,  William  Gray  makes  a  special  effort  in 
this  direction,  while  seeking  to  impress  his  own  not 
wholly  unselfish  or  unprejudiced  views  about  men  and 
events.  The  narrative  is  plain,  though  gossipy,  and 
interspersed  with  a  number  of  racy  anecdotes.  The 
Lights  and  Shades  in  Sa7i  Francisco,  by  Lloyd,  dwells 

Essays  and  Miscellany     39 


610  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

on  later  aspects  of  society  and  institutions,  with  a 
sensational  partiality  for  low  life,  while  Isabelle  Saxon 
in  her  Five  Years  Within  tJw  Golden  Gate,  and  other 
contributions,  depicts  rather  the  superior  classes. 
There  is  a  strange  mixture  of  credulity  and  good 
sense  in  her  observations,  marked,  also,  by  the  rather 
stubborn  English  idea  of  fitness,  and  by  a  refreshing 
absence  of  feminine  diffusion.  Mrs  Bates'  Four  Years 
on  tlw  Pacific  Coast,  stands  midway  between  the  two 
in  treatment  and  in  describing  interior  village  and 
mining  life.  Of  a  higher  grade  are  Kirchhoff's  Reise- 
hildes,  and  W.  M.  Fisher's  Californians,  the  latter 
forming  a  series  of  clever  character  sketches,  albeit 
somewhat  strained  and  pedantic.  W.  Wright,  long  a 
journalist  on  the  coast  and  writing  under  different 
noms  de  plume,  chiefly  that  of  Dan  De  Quille,  pre- 
sents in  the  History  of  the  Big  Bonanza  a  curious  med- 
ley of  historical  facts  and  humorous  phases  of  society 
in  connection  with  a  mining  excitement  that  brought 
about,  in  a  measure,  the  repetition  of  flush  times  of 
El  Dorado,  and  raised  Nevada  from  a  county  appen- 
dage to  a  state.  It  is  full  of  stirring  incidents  and 
anecdotes,  and  delights  in  rough  characters  and  dia- 
lects ;  but  the  illustrations  are,  as  a  rule,  more  amus- 
ing than  the  too  frequently  strained  attempts  to 
imitate  Mark  Twain. 

A  central  picture  in  sketches  of  California  society 
has  ever  been  accorded  to  the  Chinese,  who  with 
extreme  conservatism,  preserve  almost  intact  their 
peculiar  customs  in  the  midst  of  hostile  and  absorbing 
elements.  They  occupy  a  district  wholly  to  them- 
selves, where  their  curious  habits  form  a  never-ending 
source  of  interest  to  other  nationalities,  and  the  visitor 
may  gather  a  very  fair  idea  of  the  Celestial  empire 
from  this  miniature.  The  most  comprehensive  ac- 
counts of  them  have  been  furnished  by  the  missiona- 
ries Loomis,  Speer,  and  Gibson,  here  established.  The 
former  contributed   his   in  a  series  of  articles  to  the 


SECOND  DECADE.  611 

Overland;  Speer's  swelled  to  a  bulky  volume,  The  Oldest 
and  Newest  Empire,  with  his  previous  experiences  in 
China,  and  with  lengthly  arguments  in  answer  to 
their  traducers  and  political  assailants.  In  this  Gibson 
supplements  him  in  his  Chinese  in  America,  1877. 
Their  religious  tone  and  partisan  spirit  have  afforded 
room  for  additional,  though  less  extensive,  observa- 
tions from  different  standpoints. 

Another  class  of  recollections  pertains  more  directly 
to  travels.  Stillman's  Seeking  the  Golden  Fleece  is  oc- 
cupied chiefly  wdth  his  voyage  out  round  Cape  Horn, 
and  the  return  journey  by  way  of  Nicaragua  in  1850, 
with  an  intermediate  diary  of  incidents  in  California. 
The  appearance  of  the  book  is  too  pretentious  for  the 
crude  journal  it  embodies,  and  the  incoherency  and 
want  of  polish  appears  greater  when  compared  with 
an  introduction  on  the  gold  excitement,  which  reveals 
that  the  author  had  the  ability  to  revise  his  work. 
The  Log  of  an  Ancient  Mariner,  by  Captain  Wake- 
man,  may  be  termed  a  series  of  yarns,  w^ith  occasion- 
ally humorous  passages,  spun  by  a  blunt  and  some- 
what conceited  yet  good-natured  sailor,  in  connection 
with  his  cruises,  chiefly  along  this  coast,  to  which  he 
belongs  since  1849.  The  book  was  edited  by  his 
daughter,  who  carefully  preserves  the  quaint  dialect  as 
an  essential  feature.  Interior  movements  with  pic- 
tures of  Indian  life  is  presented  in  Cremony's  Life 
Among  the  Apaches,  giving  the  experiences  of  an  active 
participant  in  frontier  wars,  who  comes  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  the  extermination  of  red-skins  lies  the 
only  safety  for  settlers.  The  book  is  unsymmetrical 
and  the  diction  careless,  though  graphic.  Stephen 
Powers  goes  over  the  same  ground  in  his  Afoot,  but  he 
dwells  mainly  on  the  pastoral  phases;  depicts  the 
varied  scenery  in  word-painting  that  is  at  times  ex- 
quisite ;  gives  glowing  pictures  of  budding  settlements, 
and  portrays  the  life  within  in  graphic  touches,  re- 
lieved by  veins  of  satire  and  softened  by  a  veil  of  sub- 


612  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

tie  humor,  rising  now  and  then  into  happy  witticism. 
Nevertheless,  the  narrative  drags  at  times,  and  only 
too  many  pages  have  been  filled  with  dull  anecdotes 
and  dialect  pieces.  His  Muskingum  Legends,  partly 
reprinted  from  the  Overland,  are  a  series  of  sketches 
from  different  climes,  well  studied  and  finished ;  gems 
sparkling  with  all  the  beauties  of  the  preceding,  and 
with  hardly  any  of  their  defects  ;  full  of  happy  obser- 
vations and  conveyed  in  picturesque  language.  Both 
he  and  Cremony  have  left  some  useful  manuscripts  on 
Indian  dialects. 

More  distant  scenes  are  presented  by  Swift  in 
Going  to  Jericho,  by  way  of  the  land  of  the  Cid 
through  the  Halicarnassian  stamping-grounds.  His 
aim  is  to  be  entertaining  rather  than  correct,  and  to 
this  end  he  strains  somewhat  the  Derbian  vein,  which 
he  has  evidently  cultivated ;  nevertheless  there  is  a 
sufficient  flow  of  natural  and  genial  humor  and  fre- 
quent bursts  of  real  eloquence,  mingled  with  delicate 
sentiment,  to  sustain  the  intimations  made,  and  to 
atone  for  occasional  lapses  in  taste  and  effort.  Read- 
ers who  delight  in  harrowing  and  pathetic  stories  may 
turn  to  McGlashan's  History  of  the  Donner  Party,  de- 
scribing its  terrible  sufferings  during  the  trip  to  Cal- 
ifornia. 

A  great  proportion  of  the  several  hundred  manu- 
script contributions  to  my  library  by  pioneers  be- 
longs to  the  class  of  historic  biography,  dealing 
more  with  tangible  facts  than  abstract  analysis  or 
moral  influence,  but  generally  relieved  by  quaint 
drollery  and  piquant  anecdotes.  Their  value  to  his- 
tory is  of  the  highest,  bearing  as  they  do  on  the  dif- 
ferent phases  of  California's  unfolding.  Few  of  these 
men  have  even  attempted  to  give  their  memoirs  in 
print,  their  direct  or  indirect  articles  in  public  jour- 
nals referring  chiefl}^  to  episodes.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  contribution  among  them  is  the  Recollec- 
tions  and   Opinions  of  an  old  Pioneer,  by  Peter  H. 


HISTORIC  BIOGRAPHY.  613 

Burnett,  the  first  governor  of  the  state.  The  first 
half  describes  the  land  journey  to  Oregon,  and  his 
career  there  as  judge  till  the  gold  excitement  lured 
him  to  California.  The  flush  times,  early  political 
affairs,  and  industrial  development  from  a  banker's 
standpoint  are  successively  reviewed,  interspersed 
with  reflections  and  personal  matter.  The  tone  is 
egotistic,  and  the  phraseology  ungrammatical.  The 
River  of  the  West,  by  that  most  versatile  writer,  Mrs 
F.  F.  Victor,  belongs  properly  to  Oregon,  but  de- 
serves special  mention  here  for  its  attractive  weft  of 
mountain  and  trapper  incidents,  with  descriptive  and 
anecdotal  matter.  The  Personal  Reminiscences  of  Judge 
Field,  printed  in  1880  only  for  private  distribution,  re- 
late almost  exclusively  to  his  professional  experi- 
ences, supplemented  by  Some  Account  of  the  Work  of 
Stephen  J.  Field,  1881,  filled  mainly  with  his  decisions. 
O'Meara's  Broderick  and  Gwin  delineates  two  political 
leaders  with  the  subtlety  of  a  calculating  partisan. 
Biographic  anecdotes  of  early  men  find  special  consid- 
eration in  Barry  and  Patten's  Men  and  Memoirs,  a  dis- 
connected book,  full  of  trivialities  and  poor  anecdotes 
as  retailed  in  the  wine-shop. 

Numbers  of  clergymen  have  added  records  of 
their  efl*orts  in  furtherance  of  religious  and  educa- 
tional advancement,  notably  the  reverends  Williams, 
Willey,  and  Woods,  in  A  Pioneer  Pastorate  and  Times, 
TJdrty  Years  in  California,  and  Recollections  of  Pioneer 
Work.  The  first  attained  a  second  edition  in  1882, 
and  dwells  on  the  history  of  the  presbyterian  church 
at  San  Francisco,  founded  by  him  ;  the  second  extends 
his  observations  to  ecclesiastic  labors  generally ;  and 
the  last  swells  his  account  with  sketches  of  early 
times  and  characters,  in  a  chatty  style,  marked  by 
considerable  naivete,  and  frequent  attempts  at  elo- 
quence. The  Checkered  Life  of  Ver  Mehr  concerns 
above  all  himself  and  his  old- world  career,  and  reveals 
a  weak  character  with  little  talent,  bufleted  by  a  hard, 
practical  world,  as  may  be  judged   from  the  puerile 


614  EARLY  CALIFORXIA  LITERATURE. 

sentiments  and  trivialities  of  the  story.  General 
biography  has  also  received  attention.  Oscar  Schuck 
prepared  matter  which  grew  to  two  volumes,  but  his 
effort  was  far  surpassed  in  size,  treatment,  and  appear- 
ance by  the  Contemporary  Biography  of  California's 
Representative  Men,  edited  by  Professor  Phelps,  and  il- 
lustrated, forming  the  most  pretentious  specimen  of 
book  manufacture  on  the  coast. 

Amid  this  flow  of  contributions  toward  history, 
Californians  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  main  object  for 
utilizing  them.  Men  like  Edmund  Randolph,  Alex- 
ander Taylor,  Benjamin  Hayes,  and  others  energeti- 
cally advocated  the  need  for  a  formal  history  of 
the  state.  Some  became  so  interested  as  to  form 
in  1870  the  California  historical  society,  and  went 
so  far  as  to  issue  a  reprint  of  Palous  Noticia. 
Randolph  gave  an  earlier  example  in  1860  by  is- 
suing An  Outline  of  the  History  of  California  till 
1849,  in  less  than  seventy  octavo  pages,  which, 
brief  as  it  is,  reveals  considerable  research  for  that 
time.  Like  them,  Taylor  collected  material,  and 
gave  to  the  public  a  portion  of  his  treasures  and 
studies  in  journalistic  articles  on  mission  regime, 
biography,  and  other  topics,  confused  and  incorrect  in 
form,  and  pedantic  in  execution.  Hayes,  on  the 
other  hand,  modestly  confined  himself  to  the  laborious 
task  of  forming  scrap-books  of  newspaper  clippings 
and  manuscripts,  classified  by  locality  and  subject,  and 
extending  to  scores  of  volumes — all  of  which  I  pur- 
chased as  one  collection.  Others  contributed  to  the 
press,  as  did  Taylor,  on  special  episodes  or  districts, 
and  K.  F.  Ryan  at  an  early  date  wrote  for  the 
Golden  Era  a  series  of  chapters  under  a  sensational 
heading  on  the  history  of  the  state,  beginning  with 
the  expedition  of  Cortes,  but  even  less  satisfactory 
than  Randolph's  sketch,  and  very  fragmentary.  Out- 
lines more  or  less  complete  and  general  may  be  found 
appended  or  embodied  in  descriptive  and  statistical 
works  on  the  countrv. 


SOME  HISTORICAL  EFFORTS.  615 

In  1851  John  F.  Morse  hegsin  the  Illustrated  Histor- 
ical Sketches  of  California^  with  special  attention  to  the 
history  of  Sacramento,  issued  in  cheap  numbers,  and 
with  httle  evidence  of  research  or  elaboration,  defects 
which  no  doubt  assisted  to  render  the  attempt  a  fail- 
ure. In  the  following  year  appeared  The  Annals  of 
So/n  Francisco,  with  a  historical  introduction,  a  de- 
scription of  society  and  institutions,  and  a  series 
of  biographies;  the  former  lacking  investigation  and 
care,  the  social  pictures  savoring  strongly  of  the  sen- 
sational, and  the  biography  of  fulsome  flattery,  the 
historic  text  being  also  frequently  marred  with  per- 
sjiial  notices.  It  may  be  classed  as  a  book  intended 
to  sell. 

It  was  not  till  eleven  years  later  that  Franklin 
Tuthill  issued  the  first  History  of  CaUfornia  deserving 
the  title.  He  was  fitted  for  his  task  by  varied  train- 
ing and  experiences  as  doctor,  legislator,  and  journal- 
ist in  his  native  state  of  New  York.  In  1859  he  came 
to  settle  in  California  as  an  editor  of  the  Bulletin. 
Perceiving  in  him  a  natural  taste  for  historic  research, 
I  requested  him  to  undertake  the  work,  and  as  it  was 
in  a  measure  connected  with  his  duties,  he  readily  ac- 
quiesced. Unfortunately,  there  were  many  obstacles 
to  hamper  him.  He  had  neither  time  nor  opportunity 
for  investigation,  and  adopted,  often  with  insufficient 
study,  the  accounts  of  the  most  accessible  printed 
sources.  For  later  times  the  newspapers  enabled  him 
to  be  more  complete.  In  treatment  he  is  not  sym- 
metrical, and  skims  many  momentous  and  thrilling 
incidents,  while  according  to  others  an  undue  share  of 
attention.  Although  revealing  a  commendable  grasp 
of  generalities  and  a  clear  judgment,  he  shows  a  simi- 
lar unevenness  in  often  failing  to  seize  essential  fea- 
tures. The  same  characteristics  apply  to  style,  which 
is  essentially  cramped,  a  stiff  adherence  to  Macaulay's 
laconisms.  He  seems  chary  of  words  as  well  as  space, 
and  while  the  acknowledged  possessor  of  a  flowing 
pen  he  governs  it  too  rigidly  by  the  superior  claims 


616  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

of  fact  recital.  There  are  occasional  plays  of  wit  and 
fancy,  but  he  is  not  always  happy  in  similes,  despite 
his  range  of  diction  and  lore.  Altogether  the  work 
leaves  an  impression  not  wholly  satisfactory  to  either 
student  or  casual  reader. 

Excess  of  work  fostered  an  organic  disease  in  Tut- 
hill,  and  in  1864  he  undertook  a  European  tour  for 
his  health,  only  to  succumb  at  New  York  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  at  the  age  of  forty -three.  His  last  mo- 
ments were  given  to  revising  the  proof-sheets  of  the 
history.  While  printed  at  New  York,  it  was  written 
and  published  in  CaUfornia.  A  Youtlis  History  oj 
California,  by  Lucia  Norman,  may  be  regarded  as  an 
abridgment  of  the  above.  Compact  form  and  cheap- 
ness were  the  chief  causes  for  its  success. 

Nearly  all  the  pre- American  history  of  California, 
extending  over  three  quarters  of  a  century,  turns  on 
the  missions;  yet  to  tliis  period  and  features  little  at- 
tention has  been  given  by  the  new  occupants  as  com- 
pared with  the  flood  of  information  on  the  decade 
beginning  with  1846.  This  is  pardonable  in  view  of 
the  stirring  incidents  herein  grouped ;  but  as  their 
splendor  passed,  and  observers  recovered  somewhat 
from  the  dazzling  effect,  they  reverted  to  the  quieter 
scenes  of  the  past,  round  the  cradle  of  their  state,  and 
saw  there  the  heroic  struggles  of  self-sacrificing  friars, 
braving  danger  and  enduring  hardship  for  the  saving 
of  souls  and  the  planting  of  civilization.  Thousands 
of  rude  beings  were  undoubtedly  made  better  and 
happier,  even  if  they  served  mainly  as  stepping-stones 
for  colonization ;  and  thousands  of  somewhat  higher 
beings  were  lifted  to  comfort  and  enjoyment  in  the 
farms  and  towns  that  sprang  up  along  the  path  of  the 
cross.  This  was  the  wand  that  transformed  a  wilder- 
ness into  a  flourishing  territory. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  church  which  had  laid 
the  foundation  for  an  empire  should  desire  to  record 
the  great  achievement,  neglected  as  it  was  by  civilians, 
and  this  it  has  sought  to  do  in  a.  History  of  the  Catholic 


SOME  HISTORICAL  EFFORTS.  617 

Church  in  California,  by  W.  Gleeson,  professor  in  St 
Mary's  college.  The  work  was  printed  at  San  Fran- 
cisco in  1871-2  in  two  volumes,  with  illustrations. 

While  adhering  to  the  title,  the  text  treats  also  of 
secular  events  linked  with  the  main  topic,  notably 
those  that  led  to  the  occupation  of  this  country. 
There  is  a  disproportion  between  the  topics,  however. 
The  missions  very  properly  receive  the  greatest  space, 
but  those  of  Lower  California  embrace  nearly  one 
third  of  all  the  material,  and  evidently  because  their 
history  lay  ready  for  the  compiler  in  well-written  vol- 
umes. For  the  northern  establishments  he  has,  nev- 
ertheless, gathered  some  excellent  facts.  After  1850 
he  ignores  political  data,  and  swells  his  pages  with 
tales  of  wonderful  conversions.  He  is  not  alone 
strongly  partisan,  but  he  upholds  modern  miracles, 
and  gives  undue  importance  to  the  traditions  of  pre- 
Columbian  visits  by  St  Thomas  and  the  Irish  fathers, 
whose  traces  he  fondly  unravels  in  North  American 
mounds.  These  peculiarities  are  not  balanced  by  any 
particular  excellence  of  treatment  or  style.  Indeed, 
he  lacks  Tuthill's  dignified  regard  for  history,  and  dis- 
plays less  ability  and  care. 

The  centennial  celebration  of  the  United  States 
was,  by  suggestion  from  congress,  widely  commemo- 
rated by  a  production  of  local  histories,  in  California 
no  less  than  elsewhere.  Among  them  was  one  of 
San  Francisco,  which  expanded  into  a  large  volume, 
embracing  incidentally  an  outline  of  state  occurrences. 
It  was  prepared  by  John  S.  Hittell,  the  leading  statisti- 
cal writer  on  the  coast,  and  marked  by  his  characteristic 
formality  of  treatment  and  independent,  clear,  and 
comprehensive  style.  While  surpassing  in  complete- 
ness any  previous  effort,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  still 
better  use  was  not  made  of  his  opportunities  by  an 
author  with  such  wide  experience  and  versatility  of 
themes.  Connected  with  the  press  of  this  city  almost 
since  its  beginning,  he  has  exercised  a  marked  influ- 
ence on  public  thought,  and  placed  himself  prominently 


G18  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE, 

before  it  in  a  number  of  publications,  notably  the 
Resources  already  spoken  of,  and  A  Brief  History  of 
Culture,  written  with  special  attention  to  industrial 
development,  and  in  a  measure  complementary  to 
Draper's  Intellectual  Development.  It  does  not  attain 
the  same  lofty  range  as  tliis  famous  work,  and  is  de- 
ficient in  the  inductive  and  deductive  study  and  treat- 
ment to  be  expected ;  nevertheless,  its  value  is 
undoubted,  forming  as  it  does  the  first  popular  book 
of  the  kind  in  English  which  combines  scope  and  con- 
ciseness. The  issue,  in  1857,  of  a  Plea  for  Pantheism 
indicates  his  bent  of  thought.  He  wrote  on  phrenol- 
ogy, translated  several  German  scientific  treatises, 
dabbled  in  drama,  and  touched  a  variety  of  other  sub- 
jects. One  of  his  latest  tasks  was  to  edit  the  CoTYh- 
merce  and  Industries  of  the  PacifiG  States,  at  my  request. 
Among  other  local  histories  of  California  must  be 
mentioned  Dwinelle's  Colonial  History  of  San  Francisco ^ 
which  passed  through  several  editions,  and  which 
presents  an  exhaustive  argument  before  the  court, 
with  a  series  of  documents  establishing  the  early 
existence  of  this  city  as  a  pueblo,  and  tracing  the 
colonial  policy  of  Spain  and  Mexico  toward  such  set- 
tlements. The  History  of  San  Jose — by  F.  Hall, 
author  of  the  Life  of  Maximilian,  and  legal  adviser  to 
this  ruler — is  a  very  full  and  ratherambitious  work,  con- 
sidering the  subject.  Tinkham  wrote  a  much  inferior 
account  of  Stockton.  Hugo  Reid  and  others  early 
contributed  articles  to  the  press  on  county  history, 
wherein  Isaac  Cox  takes  the  lead  with  his  Annals  of 
Trinity  County.  This  is  a  class  of  books  which  of  late 
years  has  been  issued  in  great  profusion  by  speculative 
firms,  based  on  the  vanity  of  pushing  settlers,  whose 
biographies  and  estates  form  the  main  topics.  With 
all  their  undigested  and  fulsome  details,  often 
embodied  in  florid  verbiage,  they  contain  many  val- 
uable facts.  Little  superior  to  these  is  the  pretentious 
Republicanism  m  America  by  R.  Guy  M'Clellan, 
which  may  be  called  an  apology  for  the  republican 


SCIENCE.  619 

party,  to  whose  prejudices  it  appeals.  It  is  uneven 
in  treatment,  hastily  thrown  together,  and  not  very 
dignified  in  style  or  logical  in  spirit. 

That  Californians  are  interested  in  scientific  subjects 
is  demonstrated  by  the  foundation,  in  1853,  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  which  has  grown  in 
importance  ever  since,  and  contributed  much  to  the 
enlightenment  of  the  people  in  its  special  de- 
partment. The  source  for  admiration  herein  lies 
not  so  much  in  the  early  date  of  its  establish- 
ment, for  the  heavy  immigration  to  California 
brought  a  large  proportion  of  educated  men  with  a 
taste  in  this  direction;  it  is  its  steady  growth,  amid  ex- 
citing incidents  and  absorbiing  pursuits,  which  attracts 
our  attention.  Mining  was  naturally  the  main  in- 
centive for  investigation,  and  called  for  a  vast  number 
of  more  or  less  elaborate  and  learned  treatises,  either 
in  the  several  journals  devoted  to  this  branch,  or  in 
special  form.  Among  the  latter  must  be  mentioned 
the  reports  and  hand-books  of  William  Blake,  Kustel, 
Phillips,  J.  J.  Powell ;  and  above  all  J.  Ross  Browne 
and  Clarence  King,  the  former  reporting  to  the  fed- 
eral government.  The  latter  was  connected  with  the 
geological  survey  of  California,  begun  in  1860,  and 
from  which  resulted  several  bulky  volumes  on  the 
different  subjects  falling  within  its  province.  William 
P.  Blake,  later  connected  in  this  state  with  the 
university,  had  in  1853  made  a  geologic  survey 
for  the  federal  authorities,  and  thereupon  a  special 
examination.  An  amateur  investigator  in  this  field 
is  John  Muir,  whose  enthusiastic  researches,  embrac- 
ing-several  important  discoveries  and  theories,  he  re- 
vealed in  articles  to  periodicals.  Professor  Joseph 
Le  Conte's  studies  on  this  and  other  subjects  have 
appeared  also  in  book  form;  those  of  his  brother, 
John,  likewise  professor  at  the  university  of  California, 
relate  mainly  to  physics,  astronomy,  and  medicine. 
Both  have  an  attractive  style.     Medical  and  agricul- 


620  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

tural  journals  are  here  in  respectable  number,  with 
articles  of  as  high  an  order  as  elsewhere,  and  several 
doctors  have,  like  Toland,  published  lectures  and  dis- 
sertations. Members  of  this  profession  have  also 
been  foremost  in  botanic  research,  Kelloggr  setting-  a 
good  example  more  than  twenty  years  ago  with  his 
illustrated  articles  for  the  periodicals.  K.  H.  Stretch 
and  W.  H.  Edwards,  the  former  mineralogist  of  Ne- 
vada, the  latter  an  actor,  wrote  extensively  on  lepi- 
doptera ;  Grayson  contributed  to  the  knowledge  of 
California  birds,  and  left  much  material  on  Mexican 
ornithology,  and  Scammon  prepared  interesting  arti- 
cles for  the  Overland,  which  were  afterward  incorpo- 
rated in  his  elaborate  work  on  Marine  Mammals. 
Davidson  of  the  coast  survey  has  made  important 
additions  to  the  knowledge  of  geography,  meteorology, 
and  astronomy. 

Comparative  philology  has  engaged  the  attention 
of  Adley  Hook  Cummins,  whose  contributions  to  the 
study  of  old  Germanic  languages  have  procured  him 
an  enviable  record.  George  Gibbs  has  acquired  prom- 
inence as  a  writer  on  aborio^inal  languaixes,  and  on  the 
ethnology  of  this  coast.  I  have  already  spoken  of 
the  vocabularies  and  grammars  prepared  by  the  friars, 
and  by  later  writers  like  Powers  and  Cremony.  There 
is  room  for  much  similar  work,  with  an  ample  field 
among  the  numerous  tribes  of  the  country  now  rapidly 
fading  away.  John  Swett  stands  prominent  as  a 
writer  on  education.  E.  S.  Carr,  sometime  professor 
at  the  university  of  California,  has  given  the  annals 
of  the  farmers'  movement  in  his  Patrons  of  Husbandry. 
Hilgard,  Hyatt,  and  Perkins  have  supplemented  his 
treatises  by  valuable  researches  on  agriculture. 

Political  science  shows  such  writers  as  C.  T.  Hop- 
kins and  Henry  George.  The  latter,  an  able  editor, 
achieved  celebrity  with  his  Progress  and  Poverty,  a 
work  that  revives  in  an  effective  manner  doctrines 
enunciated  by  Quesnay  and  De  Gournay  for  placing 
taxation  mainly  on  land.     George  urges  that  land  be 


JURISPRUDENCE.  621 

vested  wholly  in  the  government,  and  propounds  sev- 
eral other  theories  stamped  by  certain  originality  as 
well  as  by  strong  imagination  and  vigorous  style. 
The  success  of  the  book  was  greatly  due  to  the  social- 
istic excitement  prevalent  at  the  time  of  issue,  savor- 
ing as  it  does  of  communism,  and  revelling  in  utopian 
fancies.  The  introductory  review  of  economic  prin- 
ciples and  writers  is  not  treated  with  sufficient  con- 
sideration. 

The  peculiar  conditions  attending  the  occupation  of 
land  and  mines  in  this  country  has  led  to  an  amount 
of  litigation  unparalleled  for  extent  and  importance, 
and  consequently  to  vast  additions  in  forensic  litera- 
ture, remarkable  not  alone  for  research  but  for  elo- 
quence and  depth  of  thought.  Of  the  former  class 
may  be  mentioned  the  compilations  of  M.  M.  Estee, 
J.  N.  Pomeroy,  and  those  begun  by  ProfFatt,  now 
grown  to  one  of  the  most  voluminous  issues  of  de- 
cisions ever  made.  The  efforts  of  legal  lights,  par- 
taking of  Dwinelle's  argument  on  pueblo  lands,  or 
Gregory  Yale's  Water  Rights,  will  be  found  noticed 
elsewhere.  Suffice  it  here  to  allude  to  those  of  H.  W. 
Halleck,  whose  justly  esteemed  International  Law 
found  its  beginning  in  questions  decided  by  him  as 
early  as  1846,  during  the  conquest  of  the  country. 
Halleck  had  before  this  issued  Elements  of  Militarj 
Art,  which  obtained  a  second  edition  in  1861,  and  A 
Collection  of  Mining  Laivs  of  Spain  and  Mexico.  This 
and  the  first-named  work  were  pubhshed  in  San 
Francisco. 

The  devotion  to  scientific  and  practical  studies  is 
marked  in  California  among  the  men,  and  in  accord 
with  the  general  activity  in  developing  the  cumulat- 
ing resources.  This  observation  is  supported  not  so 
much  by  the  number  and  labors  of  societies,  which  are 
chiefly  of  the  literary  and  debating  classes,  as  by  the 
records  of  libraries.  These  have  been  rapidly  multi- 
Dlying  and  enlarging  since  the  momentous  year  of 
1849,'^with  a  commendable  predilection  for  useful  and 


622  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

standard  works,  notwithstanding  the  strong  demand 
for  sentimental  novels  by  a  mass  of  leisure-ridden 
women/ 

Religious  feeling  on  this  coast  is  far  less  Avide-spread 
or  intense  than  in  the  countries  from  which  its  popu- 
lation is  drawn,  as  can  be  readily  judged  from  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath,  with  its  excursions  and  local 
entertainments,  and  from  the  want  of  fervor  among 
those  who  attend  church.  The  adventurous  spirit 
that  prompted  most  of  the  comers  to  this  far  off  shore  ; 
the  very  object  that  allured  them,  and  which  has  con- 
tinued to  be  so  all-absorbing ;  the  roaming  life  of 
many,  and  the  unsettled  position  of  others — all  this 
has  contributed  to  the  prevalent  indifference  for  de- 
votion, fostered  also  by  the  tone  of  an  influential 
press.  Materialistic  tendencies  are  common  among 
its  writers,  a  few  with  German  sympathies  inclining 
to  such  teachings  as  are  given  in  John  S.  Hibtell's 
Plea  for  Pantheism,  San  Francisco,  1857.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten,  however,  that  since  California  has  been 
made  a  state,  the  people  of  New  England  have  cast  off 
much  of  their  superstition ;  so  that  after  all  our  coast 
cannot  be  considered  freer  from  fanaticism  to-day  than 
the  intellectual  and  cultured  circles  of  the  east.  The 
most  fervent  believers  in  old-time  doctrines  and  tra- 
ditions are  no  doubt  those  of  the  Roman  catholic 
church,  which  appeals  greatly  to  the  senses  and  emo- 
tions, and  relies  chiefly  on  certain  classes.  Rare,  in- 
deed are  conversions  like  that  recorded  by  Governor 
Burnett  in  Tlie  Path  which  Led  a  Protestant  Lawyer  to 
the  Catholic  Church,  New  York,  1859.  It  bears  traces 
of  priestly  pens.  The  conversion  took  place  while  he 
resided  in  Oregon,  and  was  attributed  by  opponents  to 
ambitious  motives.  This  the  book  seeks  to  disprove. 
Teachings  of  the  Ages  is  a  book,  issued  in  1874  by  A. 
C.  Traveler,  advocating  a  universal  church,  having 
for  its  creed  the  general  principles  underlying  Chris- 
tianity.    It  is  stamped  by  Swedenborgian  views,  how- 


RELIGION.  623 

ever,  and  full  of  feminine  rhapsodies  and  difFuseness. 
Judge  Widney,  of  Los  Angeles,  wrote  a  very  able  and 
orthodox  work  entitled  The  Plan  of  Creation. 

With  this  mingling  of  indifference  for  the  pulpit 
and  attention  to  estranging  thought,  ministers  have 
struggled  hard  to  maintain  their  influence,  and  have 
only  too  frequently  resorted  to  more  or  less  sensa- 
tional adjuncts,  in  theme  of  sermon,  in  music,  and 
other  contrivances  to  attract  the  wayward  flock. 
Theirs  has  in  a  great  measure  continued  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary field,  with  demand  for  teachers  and  guides 
rather  than  theologians  and  thinkers.  Thus,  while  our 
protestant  clergy  include  in  their  ranks  men  of  the  lat- 
ter stamp,  they  have  both  in  their  preaching  and  writ- 
mg  sought  to  conform  to  the  claims  of  their  profession. 

Bishop  Kip,  so  long  connected  with  California,  is 
the  author  of  a  number  of  books  bearing  on  his  field, 
but  they  are  all  of  what  may  be  termed  popular 
treatises  both  in  size  and  treatment.  His  series  on  the 
Jesuit  missions  are  extracts  from  the  old  and  curious 
Letters  Edifiantes,  Tfie  Early  Conflicts  of  Christianity^ 
T/ie  Church  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  better  known  Cata- 
combs  of  Rome,  illustrating  the  earliest  unfolding  of  the 
faith,  and  impress  lessons  which  are  happily  brought 
home  in  Unnoticed  Things  of  Scripture.  Several  of 
these  volumes  reached  a  number  of  editions,  particu- 
larly the  Double  Witness  of  the  Churchy  which  is  a  de- 
fence of  episcopal  principles,  a  cause  also  espoused 
by  F.  C.  Ewer,  rector  of  Christ  church,  for  protest- 
antism generally  in  his  Sermons,  New  York,  1869. 
This  talented  man  was  in  early  days  connected  with 
California,  notably  as  editor  of  the  Pioneer  magazine 
of  1854-6. 

Another  prolific  church  writer  was  W.  A.  Scott, 
an  able  though  somewhat  egotistical  and  dogmatical 
presbyterian,  whose  opposition  to  the  vigilance  com- 
mittee of  1856,  and  to  the  war  for  the  union  in  1860-1, 
created  some  excitement  at  the  respective  dates.  His 
subjects  were  mainly  the  portrayal  of  bible  characters 


624  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

whose  example  he  seeks  to  uphold,  while  investing 
the  story  with  many  of  the  alluring  features  of  the 
historic  novel,  including  pictures  of  Oriental  society. 
This  is  especially  the  case  with  EstJier,  the  Hebrew- 
Persian  Queen,  intended  for  female  readers.  In  Daniel 
he  addresses  young  men,  and  The  Giant  Judge,  a  study 
of  Samson,  is  intended  to  promote  the  purity  of  mar- 
riage and  domestic  life,  while  The  Church  in  the  Army 
points  to  early  centurions  as  guides  for  soldiers. 
Their  publication  was  due  to  the  success,  especially 
in  the  eastern  states,  of  his  Wedge  of  Gold,  1855, 
with  its  lessons  from  the  life  of  Achan  against  ex- 
travagance and  love  of  money.  The  diction  and 
phraseology  are  frequently  biblical,  and  the  religious 
strain  is  perhaps  too  intense,  in  its  continuance  at 
least.  Trade  and  Letters,  on  their  relationship  and 
moral  tendency,  is  more  profane  in  tone.  Hoses  and 
the  Pentateuch  forms  a  reply  to  Colenso,  and  in  The 
Christ  of  the  Apostles  Creed  he  arrays  himself  against 
Arianism  and  kindred  dogmas.  This  is  the  most  pre- 
tentious of  his  works,  and  reveals  indeed  research  of 
no  mean  extent,  in  addition  to  the  study  impressed  on 
all  his  pages,  with  its  admirable  display  of  analysis 
and  deduction,  and  further,  a  liberality  of  opinion 
which  is  demonstrated  in  his  argument  against  secta- 
rianism in  schools.  In  this  he  was  opposed  by  his 
confrere,  W.  C.  Anderson,  who  eloquently  upheld  the 
use  of  the  bible  for  schools.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
such  pronounced  abilities  and  severe  study  should  be 
in  the  main  wasted  on  puerile  subjects. 

In  the  sermons  and  addresses  of  the  unitarian  min- 
ister, Thomas  Starr  King,  Christianity  and  Humanity y 
Patriotism  and  other  Papers,  we  find  thought  clothed 
in  picturesque  word-painting,  and  in  the  author  a 
magnetism  that  drew  crowds  of  admirers.  His  stir- 
ring eloquence  found  a  fitting  theme  during  the  union 
war,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  died,  regretted  by  peo- 
ple of  every  religion  and  of  no  religion. 


ORATORY.  625 

To  the  above  may  be  added  the  discourses  of  the 
Reverend  Wadsworth,  and  the  rarer  sermons  of  a  few 
others,  besides  memoirs  elsewhere  noticed.  More 
publications  could  not  reasonably  be  expected,  for  the 
clergy  of  California  lived  in  an  age  of  a,ction  rather 
than  of  thought.  The  scenes  depicted  in  Taylor's  Street 
Preaching  stamp  to  a  great  extent  the  early  struggles, 
with  which  only  too  many  are  still  occupied,  although 
others  have  passed  through  different  stages  to  a  more 
settled  condition,  here  or  elsewhere.  Their  most 
effective  appeals  were  probably  those  in  which  they 
roused  attention  by  interweaving  illustrations  from 
professional  pursuits  and  home  life,  and  drawing  les- 
sons in  prudence,  integrity,  manliness,  and  kindness. 
Among  these  practical  preachers  were  the  congrega- 
tionalist  A.  L.  Stone — see  his  Memorial  Discourses, 
Boston,  1866 — and  J.  B.  Thomas,  a  baptist,  with  sci- 
entific tastes;  also  Kincard  and  Briggs.  Others 
like  Jewell,  the  methodist,  aroused  interest  by  anec- 
dotes from  common  life,  inclining  somewhat  to  the 
sensational.  Cox  and  Pierpont  approached  the  re- 
vivalist method,  with  its  play  upon  the  emotions,  the 
loftier  and  purer  phases  of  which  were  admirably 
touched  by  Wadsworth.  Scenes  and  characters  from 
the  bible  were  treated  with  comprehensive  thorough- 
ness, not  alone  by  Scott,  but  by  the  congregationaUst 
Noble.  Kip  inclined  to  historic  subjects,  and  the  con- 
gregationaUst, Burrows,  was  strong  in  the  classical  and 
in  social  analysis.  In  Piatt  of  the  episcopal  church 
we  meet  the  philosopher ;  the  unitarian,  Stebbins,  is 
more  metaphysical,  and  also  the  methodist,  Stratton. 
The  term  ethical  applies  best  to  Beckwith  and  Ijams, 
congreo-ationalists.  Gray,  baptist,  and  the  presbyte- 
rians.  Eels  and  Williams— the  latter  brought  before 
the  public  also  as  editor  of  Confucius  and  the  Chi- 
nese Classics,  San  Francisco,  1867— also  Gibson  and 
Loomis.  and  such  eloquent  preachers  of  the  Roman 
church  as  Gibney,  Grey,  and  Prendergast.  ^  The  spir- 
ited Buchard  may  be  classed  as  a  polemiC;   like  his 

Essays  and  Miscellany     40 


626  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

opponent,  Hemphill,  a  somewhat  bigoted  presbyterian, 
disposed  toward  the  sensational,  yet  endowed  with  a 
natural  form  of  eloquence.  Sensationalism  has  lured 
many  from  the  dignified  attitude  associated  with  the 
pulpit,  partly  from  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  but 
also  from  innate  disposition,  and  political  questions 
have  frequently  been  discussed  with  indecorous  heat, 
notably  by  the  baptist,  Kalloch.  Another  desecrator 
of  the  cloth.  Van  de  Mark,  the  universalist,  excelled 
in  elocution.  For  picturesque  eloquence  Guard,  nieth- 
odist,  stands  unsurpassed  ;  Macdonald,  episcopalian, 
had  a  studied  brilliancy,  and  Starr  King  shone  in  his 
strength  and  magnetism. 

In  the  oratory  of  the  bar  and  assembly  are  equally 
bright  names,  and  among  them  California  claims  also 
a  share  in  E.  D.  Baker,  a  prominent  debater  of  his 
day  in  the  United  States  senate,  who,  during  the 
opening  decade  of  the  state's  development,  exerted 
his  magic  eloquence  in  behalf  of  patriotism,  moved 
the  heart  with  his  lofty  tenderness,  and  dazzled  with 
his  superb  word-painting.  Colonel  Kewen  possessed 
the  latter  quality  in  a  high  degree,  but  with  too 
marked  floridity.  Thomas  Fitch  excelled  in  imagery, 
and  George  Gordon  is  conspicuous  for  poetic  strains. 
John  B.  Felton,  with  his  love  for  the  heroic  and  great 
in  human  nature,  revealed  a  strong  emotional  vein. 
Then  there  were  Edmund  Randolph,  deep  with  his- 
toric lore,  the  epigrammatic  W.  S.  Ferguson,  Til- 
ford,  J.  A.  Collins,  George  Barstow,  Charles  A. 
Sumner,  James  A.  McDougall,  Volney  Howard,  and 
Henry  Edgerton  ;  while  native  Californians  find  rep- 
resentatives in  men  like  Sepiilveda  and  Del  Valle. 

Their  efforts  are  naturally  more  or  less  colored  by 
the  greater  excitability  of  temperament  around  them, 
drawn  from  the  very  air  and  soil,  and  manifested 
partly  in  enterprise,  partly  in  a  taste  for  the  sensa- 
tional rather  than  for  the  reflective.  The  audi- 
ence is  accordingly  less  cold  and  critical,  and  easily 
swayed    by    humorous    fancies    or    sarcastic    sallies, 


PECULIARITIES  AND   CONDITIONS.  627 

stirring  impulses  or  lofty  emotions,  the  sentimental 
being  rather  exclusively  left  to  women.  Volu- 
bility and  self-confidence  cannot  be  called  lackino" 
among  the  orators,  and  thus  fortified,  they  are  able 
to  exert  their  power  with  considerable  freedom.  Sub- 
jects are  not  wanting,  sharing  as  we  do  in  all  the 
great  and  glorious  incidents  in  American  national  life 
and  in  its  constant  and  varying  political  struggles, 
and  possessing  besides  a  histor^^  of  our  own,  unequalled 
for  vivid  pictures,  with  a  triple  array  of  pilgrim  fathers 
from  semi-legendary  times  through  vistas  of  fierce 
frontier  wars,  thrilling  hunting  adventures,  and  calm 
pastoral  pursuits,  all  merging  in  brilliant  transforma- 
tion scenes.  The  foremost  ot  these,  the  gold  discov- 
ery, is  a  never  ending  source  for  appeal  and  flattery, 
as  progress  and  liberty  are  for  incentive  and  exhorta- 
tion. Equally  characteristic  are  the  embellishments, 
chiefly  scenic  imagery  from  a  truly  beautiful  and 
varied  landscape  and  an  Italian  sky.  If  the  objective 
theme  be  often  vapid  and  meaningless,  its  background 
is  at  least  grand,  and  the  coloring  warm  and  animat- 
ing. From  one  must  spring  taste,  from  both  lofty 
aspirations,  and  with  them  a  strain  of  originality 
drawn  not  alone  from  our  novel  social  phases,  and 
manifested  in  human  dialects,  and  other  classical  ab- 
normities ;  and  not  abne  from  inspiring  scenery  ;  but 
from  a  combination  of  ethical  and  physical  circum- 
stances which  holds  forth  the  brightest  promise. 

California  has  a  certain  literature  of  her  own  re- 
volving round  the  hicidents  and  characters  of  mining 
camps,  the  novelty  and  peculiarity  of  which  sufficed 
to  impart  a  special  stamp  to  the  narration.  It  depicts 
frontier  life  in  the  diggings,  in  the  towns  of  sheds  and 
tents  sprung  up  within  a  day,  and  oft  as  speedily 
abandoned  fo  solitude  and  decay.  Weather-beaten, 
bushy-bearded  men  formed  the  bulk  of  the  commu- 
nity, with  a  sprinkling  of  effeminacy  and  wreck  m 
broken-down  topers  and   empty^ieaded   tyros,   with 


628  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

gamblers  and  dupes,  villains  and  bullies.  Catastrophes, 
wild  orgies  and  rash  deeds,  streaks  of  fortune  and 
mishaps,  alternate  in  rapid  sequence,  narrated  largely 
in  the  racy  frontier  vernacular,  with  varied  admixture 
of  brogue. 

Life  was  a  gamble,  centring  as  it  did  on  ever- 
expected  yet  rare  realizations  of  riches,  which  were 
usually  dissipated  with  the  reckless  disregard  accom- 
panying easy  acquisition.  It  took  a  mazy  turn  and 
motley  coloring,  and  the  predominance  of  males  im- 
parted a  rough  masculine  stamp.  There  is  a  marked 
appeal  to  sentiment,  particularly  in  allusions  to  a  dis- 
tant home,  to  exile  longings,  and  to  death-bed  scenes; 
yet  love  episodes  are  wrought  in  a  spirit  of  droll 
bluntness.  The  spectacle  is  too  extravagant  in  its 
picturesque  ness  and  incongruities  to  be  described  in 
ordinary  language.  It  moulds  diction  as  well  as 
fancy.  Writers  fall  irresistibly  into  a  fictitious  st3'le, 
and  swell  the  improbable  with  exaggeration  and 
anomaly. 

Thus  grew  a  class  of  tales  and  novels,  known  in 
some  directions  as  Californian,  which  achieved  wide 
popularity,  from  their  novelty  of  form  and  subject, 
from  the  broad  interest  taken  in  the  country,  and 
from  the  excuse  they  afforded  to  certain  classes  to  in- 
dulge their  secret  penchant  for  a  tabooed  blood-and- 
thunder  and  flashy  literature. 

The  leadino;  figure  is  the  honest  miner,  in  woollen 
shirt  and  high  boots,  with  pistol  and  bag  of  gold-dust 
at  the  belt.  The  piquant  soubriquet  under  which  he 
is  introduced,  like  those  of  his  camp  and  gulch,  pre- 
sents the  individual  peculiarity  which  marks  him 
throughout  the  progress  of  his  career,  in  perse- 
vering effort  or  reckless  abandon,  in  rollicking 
indulgence  or  sage  discussion;  yet  underlaid  by  a 
tender-hearted  disposition  which  peers  through  the 
oath-laden  vigor  of  his  talk.  A  swarthy  Mexi- 
can or  South  American  is  introduced  to  bear  the  ob- 
loquy of  certain  crimes,  a  love  tragedy  or  vendetta, 


INFLUENCE  OF  WOMAN.  629 

born  of  a  jealous  disposition  or  a  slighted  and  revenge- 
ful soul.  Around  the  outskirts  hovers  the  last  survi- 
vor of  some  Indian  tribe,  to  point  out  the  degradation 
lurking  in  rum,  to  illustrate  in  his  devotion  the  mag- 
netism and  superiority  of  white  men,  or  to  personate 
the  devilish  instincts  of  scalp-hunting  savages.  The 
role  of  gentleman,  in  white  shirt  and  semi-Mexican 
picturesqueness  of  covering,  is  usually  assigned  to  the 
gambler,  but  its  inferiority  to  that  of  the  horny-handed 
digger  is  indicated  by  pronounced  black-leg  proclivities. 
The  ever- welcome  doctor  is  accordingly  invested  with 
the  garb  of  honored  toiler,  relieved  alone  by  more 
studied  speech.  In  truth,  the  dandy  is  either  hypo- 
crite, maudlin  numbskull,  or  rascal,  while  frankness, 
generosity,  and  bravery  lie  in  the  rough  diamond, 
who  discovers  the  slumbering  treasure,  or  achieves 
the  culminating  success. 

Woman  usually  dawns  like  a  heavenly  vision  upon 
the  camp,  where  her  sex  has  not  been  seen  before. 
She  is  enshrined  the  guardian  spirit,  the  queen,  or 
sprightly  elf  of  the  place.  Or  she  may  be  a  romping 
wild  flower,  self-reliant  and  keen,  abounding  in  slang, 
and  in  famihar  comradeship  w^ith  admiring  courtiers,  to 
a  certain  limit.  Beyond  the  magic  circle  flits  the  stray 
waif,  in  a  glamor  of  compassionate  regard,  which  sur- 
sounds  even  the  beldame.  Some  noble  sacrifice  or 
generous  trait  adds  its  redeeming  halo. 

Woman  is  the  sole  aristocracy.  The  rest  mingle 
in  the  democratic  equality  which  here  assumed  a  level 
never  before  attained.  But  it  is  a  reckless  community, 
frequently  bordering  on  lawlessness,  although  re- 
strained "in  the  nick  of  time  by  the  valiant  hero; 
brawls  and  murders  do  alternate,  likewise  plots  and 
vigilance  committees,  all  in  quick  changes,  with  strik- 
ing tableaux,  full  of  improbability  and  paradox,  of 
humor,  pathos,  and  above  all,  eccentricity.  In  Indian 
and  Spanish  communities  are  also  many  striking  and 
attractive  features,  which  have  found  popular  approval 
in    novels   of  the  Ramona   type.     The    new    social 


630  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

circles  arising  in  connection  with  southern  CaUfornia 
health  and  pleasure  resorts  and  colony  tracts  otler 
additional  topics  for  the  many  writers  joining  in  the 
California  pilgrimage 

Specimens  of  the  border  or  *'tale"  class  of  fiction, 
founded  on  experience  or  unvarnished  recollections  by 
pioneers,  are  common  enough  since  all-inspiring  '49, 
especially  in  periodicals,  but  it  was  given  to  Francis 
Bret  Harte  to  invest  it  with  marked  excellence,  and 
to  attract  world-wide  attention,  thus  gaining  for  him- 
self the  credit  of  having  founded  a  new  school.  The 
grounds  for  this  claim  appear  less  substantial  when 
we  consider  the  evolution  of  the  tales  in  question,  and 
the  similarity  of  his  methods  of  writing  to  those,  say,  of 
Dickens  and  Lowell,  with  traces,  also,  of  Thackeray 
and  Irving.  Nevertheless,  he  exhibits  a  combination 
of  traits  so  admirable  as  to  entitle  him  to  the  credit  of 
positive  genius,  and  to  explain  why  he  has  been  so 
widely  imitated.  His  strength  lies,  above  all  in  ap- 
preciation of  the  grotesque,  which  crops  out  every- 
where, now  in  broad  veins,  now  in  subtile  tracery, 
investing:  even  solemn  and  trag^ic  incidents  with  a  bor- 
der  of  humor  that  turns  the  most  serious  affairs  in  life 
into  burlesque.  With  this  is  mingled  an  under- 
current of  satire,  the  more  pleasing  because  unobtru- 
sive, although  it  often  bursts  upon  the  reader  in  swelling 
volume  and  force ;  and  then  a  pathos  so  tender,  yet 
so  penetrating,  as  to  change  the  smile  into  a  tear. 
He  is  full  of  quaint  ideas  and  eccentricity,  but  he 
subdues  the  offensive,  intimating  rather  than  uttering, 
and  seeking  ever  to  cast  a  veil  of  mercy  or  doubt  over 
even  the  worst  characters,  whose  traits  he  has  other- 
wise so  graphically  delineated  in  colors  true  to  their 
strange  environment.  The  analytic  power  underlying 
his  creations  is  revealed  especially  in  the  Condensed 
Novels,  parodies  wherein  he  exposes  the  mannerism, 
shallowness,  and  other  defects  or  peculiarities  of 
authors.  He  is  also  skilled  in  the  use  of  words,  as 
may  be  seen  also  in  his  neat  sketches  of  scenery,  al- 


FICTION.  631 

though  this  frequently  degenerates  Into  a  striving  for 
effect. 

Such  are  indisputably  the  merits  of  Harte  as  dis- 
played in  his  best  efforts,  notably  those  connected 
with  The  Luck  of  Roaring  Gamp,  however  much  may 
be  due  to  the  inspiration  born  of  environment  and  as- 
sociation since  boyhood,  with  their  striking  realities. 
But  he  has  also  his  deficiencies.  He  sought  for 
years  before  he  struck  the  happy  vein  which  bore 
him  on  to  success,  and  upon  this  he  worked  till  signs 
of  monotony  and  weakness  indicated  that  it  had  been 
well  nigh  exhausted.  Then  he  tried  the  novel  and 
the  drama,  only  to  fail  and  to  disclose  the  narrow 
limits  of  his  range.  Even  in  his  best  sketches  there 
is  an  ominous  sameness  of  features  and  of  phrases. 
The  sentiment  degenerates  to  the  commonplace,  and 
the  melodramatic  exaggeration  assumes  a  glaring 
prominence  in  the  inferior  pieces.  We  must  not  ex- 
pect from  him  sustained  efforts  involving  plot,  sym- 
metry, consistency  ;  but  be  content  with  the  surpass- 
ing excellence  of  his  short  California  pieces,  which  are 
not  likely,  however,  to  bring  him  enduring  fame. 
His  training,  no  less  than  his  greatest  successes,  were 
as  intimately  connected  with  California  as  his  career 
was  a  happy  illustration  of  its  boliemian  vicissitudes. 
He  came  of  mixed  English,  German,  and  Hebrew 
blood,  and  was  born  in  1836  at  Albany,  New  York, 
where  his  father  held  the  position  of  teacher  at  a 
female  college.  In  1854  the  family  came  to  this 
country  and  Bret — originally  Brett — for  three  years 
passed  through  the  experiences  of  miner,  expressman, 
teacher,  and  the  like,  mingling  with  the  strange  char- 
acters of  the  mining  region,  and  observing  their  pecu- 
liarities with  an  acuteness  sharpened  by  novelty  and 
by  developing  faculties.  After  this  he  went  to  San 
Francisco  as  compositor  on  the  Golden  Era,  and  be- 
gan to  contribute  sketches  which  attracted  friendly 
notice  from  men  like  Starr  King,  who  procured  him  a 
sinecure  clerkship  in  the  mint.     Harte  made  good  use 


632  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

of  his  leisure  by  devoting  himself  to  studies  and  writ- 
ing, and  to  editing  the  Californian,  where  appeared  the 
Condensed  Novels,  the  first  production  to  attract  for 
him  trans-continental  notice.  In  1868  he  was  entrusted 
with  tlie  editorship  of  the  Overland  Monthly ;  and  in 
making  it  a  literary  success,  mainly  with  his  California 
sketches  in  prose  and  verse,  he  also  achieved  for  himself 
that  recognition  on  which  his  fame  rests.  California 
readers  were  backward  in  according  their  approval  to 
the  credit  given  him  on  the  Atlantic  slopes.  In  1871 
we  find  him  in  the  eastern  states  reaping  the  reward  to 
which  the  Heathen  Chinee  gave  the  decisive  impulse, 
and  later  consular  appointments  in  Germany  and  Scot- 
land afforded  a  change  of  scene  both  for  studies  and 
honors.  His  contributions  to  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines have  all  been  collected  since  his  first  decided  suc- 
cess, and  issued  in  book  form  under  such  leading  titles 
as  Condensed  Novels,  The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,  Mrs 
Skagg's  Husbands,  Flip,  and  Tales  of  the  Argonauts. 
Gabriel  Conroy^  an  8vo  of  466  pages,  is  the  largest  and 
worst  story,  and  next  to  it  is  The  Story  of  a  Mine, 
a  12mo  of  172  pages.  None  of  the  collection  equal  in 
the  aggregate  that  of  The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp, 
with  its  admirable  Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat,  Tennessee's 
Partner,  Miggles,  and  the  title  piece. 

Harte's  theme  had  been  cultivated  in  different  veins 
since  the  year  of  the  gold  fever,  as  may  have  been 
seen  in  stray  sections  of  early  books  on  California  and 
in  periodicals.  For  Ralph  Keeler  may  however  be 
reserved  the  claim  of  having  written  the  first  novel  of 
any  merit  on  California  life.  It  was  published  at 
Boston,  but  failed  to  attract  attention.  Keeler  fig- 
ured later  in  eastern  magazines  and  as  a  foreign  cor- 
respondent. Josephine  Clifford  has  been  among  the 
happiest  contributors  of  short  tales,  based  on  per- 
sonal observations  in  Arizona  and  California.  The 
Mexican  population  takes  a  prominent  place  in  the 
strong  incidents  depicted,  and  share  in  the  neat 
bits  of  character  portrayal,  which  together  with  the 


FICTION.  633 

spirit  of  narration  and  smoothness  of  diction  impart 
an  unflagging  interest.  Her  Overland  Tales,  published 
in  1877,  take  their  name  from  the  magazine  from  which 
they  were  reprinted.  B.  C.  Truman  issued  in  1881  a 
similar  collection,  the  Occidental  Sketches,  which  are 
vigorously  traced,  and  enlivened  by  frequent  streaks  of 
humor.  Cremony's  contributions  to  the  Overland 
possess  similar  attractive  qualities.  Noah  Brooks  is 
a  prolific  writer  for  the  same  magazine,  as  well  as 
S.  Powers  and  P.  Mulford.  Gaily 's  Sand,  and 
Big  Jack  Small  attracted  much  attention  in  1881. 
Grey's  Pioneer  Times  contain  three  stories  on  early 
California  experiences  which  do  not  lack  interest,  but 
which  reveal  in  their  many  naive  and  crude  passages 
an  untrained  pen.  Daggett's  Braxton  Bar  is  abler, 
and  displays  some  of  Harte's  conspicuous  features. 
H.  Busch  attempts,  in  the  German  Harry  Plower- 
field,  to  follow  the  steps  of  an  early  gold-seeker, 
but  his  style  is  too  stifl*to  suit  the  subject.  Joaquin 
Miller's  tales  are  uneven,  like  his  poetry,  while  full 
of  the  dramatic  incidents  that  have  led  to  adaptations 
on  the  stage  of  the  Danites  and  other  pieces. 

One  of  the  most  meritorious  of  elaborations  on 
Pacific  coast  life  is  J.  F.  Swift's  American  novel,  as 
he  styles  it,  Robert  Greathouse.  It  deals  with  the 
career  of  a  dare-devil  gambler  of  the  Nevada  mining 
region,  of  good  descent,  whose  many  graceless  schemes 
and  escapades  stand  redeemed  by  certain  strict  ideas 
of  honor  inculcated  b}^  family  pride,  and  by  a  patri- 
otic devotion  which  finally,  during  the  union  war, 
consigns  him  to  the  grave  of  a  soldier.  The  vein 
of  humor  noticed  in  connection  with  his  Going  to 
Jericho,  assists  to  brigjhten  the  well-sustained  inci- 
dents  and  characters. 

Phases  of  the  unfolding  of  fashionable  and  artistic 
life  at  the  western  metropolis  are  touched  upon  in 
Mary  W.  Glascock's  Dare,  while  its  temptations  find 
an  exponent  in  Annie  Lake,  who  delights  in  extrava- 
gant ideas  no  less  fanciful  than  her  word  painting. 


634  EARLY   CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

Trivial  dialogues  add  to  the  defects  of  her  On  the 
Verge.  The  struggles  of  humbler  classes  in  England 
and  America  are  revealed  in  Madame  Jane  Jurk  and 
Joe,  in  imitation  of  Dickens,  by  Mary  Borneman.  J. 
F.  Clark  strives  in  The  Society  in  Search  of  Truth  to 
expose  the  evils  of  stock-gambling,  in  which  he  as  bro- 
ker had  taken  an  unfortunate  part.  But  tlie  manipu- 
lation of  bonds  has  evidently  not  tended  to  improve 
that  of  the  pen.  Another  moralist  is  Andre,  who  in 
Overcome  advocates  the  virtues  of  temperance,  but 
with  a  feminine  effort  at  delicacy  that  here  unfor- 
tunately transcends  into  insipidity.  Even  anti-Chi- 
nese declaimers  have  sought  fiction  as  a  medium  for 
impressing  their  arguments,  as  instanced  by  A.  Whit- 
ney's Almond  Eyed,  of  somewhat  coarse  grain.  A 
more  imaginative  production  is  the  Last  Days  of  the 
Republic,  by  P.  W.  Dooner,  although  marred  by  a 
socialistic  tone  and  stiff  pretentious  diction.  It  as- 
sumes a  swelling  immigration  of  Mongols  until  the 
entire  United  States  is  overrun  and  surrendered  to 
the  control  of  the  new  masters,  who  thereupon  re- 
model all  institutions  to  suit  their  ideas.  The  opera- 
tions of  the  celestial  system,  a  century  hence,  are 
minutely  outlined. 

The  taste  for  sensational  stories  among  the  early 
miners,  in  harmony  with  their  own  feverish  life,  is  in- 
dicated by  the  favor  accorded  to  the  contributions  of 
Rowena  Granice  (Steele)  to  the  Golden  Era,  so  much 
so  as  to  prompt  the  reissue  of  several.  Of  a  similar 
though  higher  grade  are  the  weird  tales  of  W.  H. 
Rhodes,  partly  collected  in  Caxtoris  Boole,  whose  ingen- 
ious and  scientific  weft,  with  many  a  humorous  thread, 
partake  both  of  Poe  and  Verne,  and  have  hke  them 
found  imitators  in  different  directions. 

The  affectation  for  English  customs  is  upheld  in 
Behind  the  Arras  by  Constance  Maude  Neville,  whose 
name  harmonizes  with  the  somewhat  pompous  and 
stereotyped  style  and  character  of  the  book,  laden  also 
with  feminine  intensity  and  adjectives  and  bordering 


FICTION.  635 

on  the  romantic,  as  truly  set  forth  by  the  title.  The 
theme  concerns  a  strayed  brood  of  children  of  aristo- 
cratic lineage.  Religion  and  love  are  judiciously 
mingled  in  Laura  Preston's  In  Bonds,  and  in  Leak's 
Confessions,  for  the  edification  of  scrupulous  Sunday 
readers.  The  former  relates  to  two  women,  one  of 
clouded  descent,  the  other  tainted  with  negro  blood, 
whose  sufferings  seek  expression  in  ungrammatical 
form,  and  in  frequent  forced  rhapsodies  of  the  revival- 
ist type,  im/i  assumes  the  plaintive  strain  in  confess- 
ing her  unhappy  love,  but  offsets  the  weakness  with  a 
series  of  strong-minded  opinions.  Nellie  Brown,  by 
T.  Detter,  is  remarkable  only  in  being  written  by  a 
colored  man.  The  Greek  Slave,  describing  the  devo- 
tion of  a  girl  of  the  classic  peninsula  who  married  a 
detested  man  to  save  her  father,  indicates  in  its  gush- 
ing effusiveness  the  recently  escaped  school-girl. 
Superior  to  most  of  these  rises  Edna  Verne  in 
Fidelite,  in  describmg  how  two  lovers,  separated  by  a 
jealous  intriguer,  reunited  in  California  after  many 
struggles,  and  on  the  eve  of  the  bride's  proposed  sac- 
rifice of  her  hand  in  behalf  of  her  father's  tottering 
fortunes. 

With  still  more  pleasure  can  we  turn  to  the  shorter 
stories  of  Frances  Fuller  Victor.  Rising  above  affec- 
tation and  trifling  sentiment,  she  invests  her  char- 
acters and  incidents  with  a  vividness  of  tone  that 
appeals  to  the  reader,  while  the  poetic  instinct  which 
first  gained  her  popular  approval  weaves  an  appro- 
priate tracery.  Her  apparent  preference  for  Oregon 
topics  has  arisen  from  the  discovery  of  a  fresh  field, 
in  opposition  to  California,  which  has  been  so  often 
depictured. 

The  references  already  made  to  this  writer 
give  evidence  of  a  rare  versatility  in  heavy  as 
well  as  lio-ht  branches  of  literature,  and  in  this 
and  other^  respects  she  stands  unapproached  among 
the  female  authors  of  the  Pacific  coast.  In  the  east- 
ern states  her   sketches,  novelettes,  and  poems  had 


636  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

since  the  forties  procured  for  her  wide  recognition, 
and  after  her  arrival  here  in  1863  she  at  once  took  a 
prominent  place  in  the  literary  circle  for  varied  con- 
tributions, embracing  also  historic  articles  and  essays, 
and  h amorous-satiric  pieces,  the  latter  chiefly  con- 
nected with  the  nom  de  plume  of  Florence  Fane, 
which  so  long  assisted  to  maintain  the  popularity  of 
the  Golden  Era,  Only  a  few  of  her  writings  have 
been  collected  for  the  New  Penelope,  and  this  together 
with  the  River  of  the  West,  a  historic  biography  relat- 
ing to  the  fur-hunting  era  of  the  slope,  and  the  fascinat- 
ing descriptive  work.  All  over  Oregon  and  Washington, 
constitute  the  sole  specimens  in  book  form  bearing 
her  widely  appreciated  name. 

In  juvenile  books,  Laura  Preston  reveals  a  graphic 
simplicity  and  strength  not  found  in  her  novel;  yet 
she  stands  surpassed  by  Carrie  Carlton  (W.  Wright), 
whose  vivacity  drifts  at  times  into  delightful  abandon, 
and  again  rising  to  enthusiasm.  Fanciful  legends  and 
bits  of  poetry  add  to  the  fascination  of  her  Inglenook. 
K.  D.  Smith  combines  happily  the  sympathetic, 
sprightly,  and  picturesque  in  the  The  Story  of  Patsy. 
The  collection  in  No  Baby  in  the  House  is  spirited  yet 
tender,  and  that  in  The  Candy  Elephant  has  a  redeem- 
ing vein  of  fun. 

•  It  will  be  noticed  that  love  stories  and  society 
novels  have  fallen  almost  exclusively  into  the  hands 
of  women ;  the  men,  seizing  upon  the  more  pertinent 
realities  before  them,  found  therein  sufficient  of  the 
picturesque  and  extravagant  to  exclude  the  desire  for 
conjuring  up  sentimental  fancies.  The  large  propor- 
tion of  women  contributing  here  to  all  light  branches  of 
literature  is  due  to  conditions  which  will  be  considered 
elsewhere.  Their  superior  fitness  in  many  directions 
is  conceded,  if  only  from  the  intuitive  penetration  and 
the  keenness  of  observation  in  social  matters  lacking 
in  men.  Society  is  still  in  course  of  formation,  but 
this  by  no  means  detracts  from  the  scope  of  subject, 
for  already  there  is  found  a  most  cosmopolitan  admix- 


THE  DRAMA.  637 

ture  and  the  frequent  changes  of  fortune,  which  bring 
forward  a  great  variety  of  figures  in  rapid  rotatioii^ 
together  with  an  abundance  of  singular  characters, 
and  food  for  caricature  and  humor,  notably  among  the 
shoddy  and  ambitious  class.  The  fact  that  there  is 
little  encouragement  for  literary  productions  among 
this  population,  which  barely  supports  even  a  few 
magazines,  has  encouraged  the  writing  of  short  tales 
in  preference  to  elaborate  novels,  which  seldom  repay 
even  the  cost  of  printing. 

The  striking  incidents  which  form  so  abundant  a 
source  for  the  short  tale  could  nob  fail  to  suggest 
themselves   as   admirable   for   the    stao-e.       Eastern 

o 

dramatists  early  made  use  of  them,  and  several  local 
observers  hastened  forward  with  productions  founded 
in  their  entirety  on  this  highly-colored  material,  as 
Delano  in  A  Live  Woman  in  the  Mines,  Harte  in  Two 
Men  of  Sandy  Bar,  Miller  in  the  Danites,  My  Partner, 
and  similar  pieces.  Their  strong  seasoning  soon  rele- 
gated them,  however,  together  with  other  frontier 
dramas,  to  inferior  theatres.  Only  a  few  have  man- 
aged to  sustain  themselves  midst  the  predilection  ex- 
hibited for  foreign  productions,  especially  of  the  soci- 
ety class.  Even  loud  melodramas  from  such  a  source 
were  deemed  acceptable,  if  presented  as  successes  from 
some  decent  theatre  of  London  or  Paris.  In  Califor^ 
nia  the  desire  to  behold  reputed  pieces  from  the  east 
and  Europe  proved  still  stronger,  bound  as  the  public 
was  by  so  many  ties  to  those  regions,  in  addition  to 
curiosity.  With  a  paucity  of  theatres  and  competi- 
tion, managers  felt  little  inclined  to  risk  their  efforts 
on  doubtful  local  compositions,  when  so  rich  an  array 
of  assured  merit  lay  ready  for  plucking  beyond  the 
mountains  and  the  ocean. 

The  spirit,  nevertheless,  moved  many  a  local  aspi- 
rant to  reduce  his  ideas  to  paper,  among  them  C.  E. 
B.  Howe,  who  issued,  in  1858,  a  five-acfc  play  on 
Joaquin  Murieta,  the  noted  bandit.     He  paints  him  as 


638.  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

a  hero,  who  passes  unstained  through  the  butcheries 
that  surround  him,  and  spouts  noble  though  ungram- 
matical  sentences,  scintillating  with  many  a  "'tis"  and 
^'yonder."  Similar  coast  characters  are  touched  in  Mc- 
Kinley's  Brigham  Young  y  and  Webb's  Our  Friend  from 
Victoria.  Mrs  Burton  reveals  her  innate  Spanish 
taste  in  the  five-act  comedy  of  Don  Quixote.  Lake 
exposes  the  Dark  Seance.  De  Chado,  Bansman, 
Barnes  the  lawyer,  and  J.  S.  Hittell  also  figure 
among  playwrights.  The  last  strives  for  a  1(  (ty 
topic  in  dramatizing  Goethe's  Faust  under  every- 
day conditions,  from  which  the  scenic  and  supernatural 
are  omitted.  The  theme  has  been  too  closely  wedded 
to  music,  however,  with  other  striking  adjuncts,  to  be 
appreciated  in  barer  form,  despite  its  many  excellen- 
cies, as  many  other  writers  have  learned  to  their  cost. 
Of  late  a  few  triumphs  have  been  achieved,  but  chiefly 
with  adaptations,  as  the  safest  middle  ground  en 
which  to  encourage  managers,  and  to  train  and  inspire 
confielence  among  writers. 

In  the  production  of  such  pieces  another  obstacle 
is  a  lack  of  stock  companies  with  which  to  bring  them 
forward.  They  have  been  tried  at  diflferent  times, 
with  only  partial  success,  and  theatres  are  for  the  most 
part  surrendered  to  travelling  bands  or  to  actois  of  re- 
nown, or  with  special  pieces,  for  whom  support  ishastily 
collected  from  among  the  numerous  devotees  to  the  his- 
trionic art  abiding  at  San  Francisco,  and  there  develop- 
ing under  several  teachers  of  reputation.  Students  are 
by  no  means  few.  The  city  of  the  Golden  Gate  is  one  of 
the  most  amusement-loving  places  m  the  world,  al- 
though with  a  bent  for  the  Teutonic  rather  than  Latin 
form  of  gayety.  The  cause  lies  in  the  excitable  tem- 
perament developed  during  the  gold  fever,  fostereel 
by  climate  and  speculative  operations,  and  displayed  in 
drinking,  mining  gambles,  and  other  excesses.  The 
preponderance  of  men  on  the  coast,  for  whom  the  city 
is  the  great  centre  of  pleasure  as  well  as  business, 
directs    entertainments    chiefly    to    theatres,    billiard 


HUMOROUS  WRITINGS  639 

halls,  and  the  like,  with  a  preference  on  the  stage  for 
hilarious  rather  than  grave  pieces.  Numbers  of 
associations  have  formed  for  purposes  of  amusement, 
and  among  them  a  large  proportion  of  dramatic  clubs, 
whose  reunions,  though  ending  usually  with  a  dance, 
are  marked  by  the  presentation  of  amateur  as  well  as 
standard  plays.  Even  here  local  writers  rarely  find 
an  opening,  while  in  Mexico  such  talent  is  specially 
favored  by  associations.  Their  influence  must  be  felt 
in  time,  however,  when  the  expa,nsion  of  other 
branches  shall  offer  greater  opportunities  also  for 
dramatists. 

A  marked  feature  of  the  California  tales  is  the  hu- 
morous vein  pervading  a  large  proportion  of  them;  a 
vein  which  rapidly  culminated  in  productions  of  so  ex- 
ceptional a  character  as  to  attain  a  rare  popularity  in 
that  particular  field.  It  is  a  humor  in  most  respects 
as  cosmopolitan  as  the  region  whence  it  sprang.  It 
partakes  by  inheritance  of  the  English  predilection 
for  individual  and  class  traits,  though  with  little  of 
its  characteristic  sneering  conceit  and  ironyo  It  tends 
in  fact  toward  the  broader,  though  more  generous 
mood  of  the  German,  yet  does  not  descend  to  the 
grossness  of  the  Mediterranean  nation,  nor  to  the 
veiled  suggestiveness  of  the  French.  It  sympathizes 
also,  with  the  droll  roguishness  of  the  Iberian,  without 
approaching  the  puerile  admixture  of  the  Spanish- 
Americans,  and  reveals  a  tinge  of  the  Irish  infringe- 
ment of  logic. 

It  found  a  prolific  source  in  the  miscellaneous  gath- 
erings at  the  gold  fields,  boisterously  active  for  work 
or  play,  and  with  striking  characters  and  occurrences 
on  which  to  direct  a  keen  observation.  The  region 
was  replete  with  those  odd  contrasts  wherein  lies  the 
germ  for  wit;  with  abnormities  of  a  grotesque  order  ; 
with  peculiar  figures  and  habits;  visionary  expecta- 
tions and  consequent  disappointments  ;  ^  ambitious 
strife  and  race  feelmg;  and  a  variety  of  dialects  and 


640  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

brogues.  The  paucity  of  women,  and  the  degraded 
nature  of  so  many  of  them,  did  not  produce  the  cor- 
responding levity  of  speech  that  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, owing  to  the  large  admixture  of  superior  men, 
and  to  the  lingering  effect  of  early  training  among 
the  numerous  descendants  of  the  puritans. 

The  humor  here  originating  partook  largely  of  that 
audacious  western  vein,  of  which  Lincoln's  stories 
present  a  moderated  form,  and  of  the  dialect-twisting 
associated  with  American  border  scenes,  while  yield- 
ing less  to  the  characteristic  play  of  eastern  writers 
on  the  absurdities  of  English  orthography,  thus  sep- 
arating alike  from  Breitmann  and  Nasby,  with  their 
quaint  learning  and  blundering  wisdom.  It  gives 
preference  to  facts  and  form  rather  than  to  words, 
the  pun  coming  less  naturally  to  the  Californian  than 
to  the  English,  to  judge  partly  from  the  slow  response 
of  galleries  to  burlesque  contortions  of  that  class,  and 
to  the  labored  demonstration  attached  to  journalistic 
specimens.  It  delights  in  the  characteristic  Ameri- 
can exaggeration,  extravagant,  distorted,  and  incon- 
gruous, and  in  the  affectation  of  simplicity  and 
surprise,  with  a  mock  self-abasement  or  underrating, 
in  contrast  with  the  British  supercilious  sarcasm. 

The  foremost  place  among  writers  of  California 
training  in  this  field  is  Samuel  L.  Clemens,  (Mark 
Twain).  The  experience  of  the  young  Missourian  in 
printing-offices  and  on  the  deck  of  Mississippi  steam- 
boats served  to  develop  the  innate  appreciation  of  the 
grotesque,  which  presented  itself  in  so  concentrated  a 
form  before  his  eyes  during  a  journalistic  career  on 
the  Pacific  coast  extending  from  1861  to  1866.  His 
Jumping  Frog,  and  other  tales,  as  collected  and 
issued  at  London  in  1867,  first  brought  him  to 
notice,  and  inspired  the  confidence  which  enabled 
him  to  give  to  the  world  the  more  elaborate  Inno- 
cents Abroad.  This  established  his  reputation  and 
brought  him  pecuniary  reward.  He  now  revived 
his  Pacific  experiences  in  Roughing  It,  infusing   his 


HUMOROUS  WRITINGS.  641 

peculiar  facetiousness  into  the  class  of  incidents 
and  characters  displayed  in  California  stories, 
and  investing  this  west  coast  product  with  fresh 
interest.  In  like  manner  he  turned  back  to  his  Mis- 
sissippi steamboat  experiences,  without  striking  here 
or  in  subsequent  writings  the  same  attractive  chord. 
While  Rouijking  It  pours  forth  the  most  natural  and 
copious  stream  of  whimsicalities,  and  reveals  their 
California  source  in  form  as  well  as  substance,  the 
Life  on  the  Mississippi  applies  a  more  serious  under- 
current, with  a  surface  flow  of  farcical  anecdotes,  ab- 
surd burlesque,  and  hoax  sketches  often  of  a  ghastly 
type,  yet  so  clothed  with  details  as  to  leave  a  strong 
impression  of  truth.  The  Innocents  is  marked  chiefly 
by  flippant  caricature  and  an  exaggerated  criticism 
which  respects  neither  the  sacred  nor  solemn,  neither 
the  classic  nor  the  crude.  His  fancies  are  seldom 
strained,  and  one  reason  for  their  sustained  interest 
lies  in  the  connected  story  forming  their  frame- work. 
Mark  Twain  had  a  host  of  imitators  on  this  coast, 
as  elsewhere,  filling  the  press  and  a  number  of  vol- 
umes with  every  degree  of  scintillation,  but  only  a 
few  have  succeeded  in  lending  thereby  additional  in- 
terest to  their  production.  Several  writers  on  min- 
ing episodes,  as  Dan  De  Quille,  (Wright),  seek  to  cast 
their  narrative  in  facetious  and  satiric  mould,  and 
very  acceptably.  Old  Block,  (A.  Delano),  did  so  in 
a  dry  suggestive  tone,  breaking  out  in  occasional  word 
play.  Swift  has  a  natural  fund  of  humor,  which  in 
Robert  Greathouse  takes  the  form  of  Roughing  It,  while 
his  Going  to  Jericho,  corresponds  greatly  to^  the  Inno- 
cents Abroad.  Eoss  Browne  exhibits  a  similar  jocun- 
dity when  treating  of  miners  and  Indians.  ^  Prentice 
Mulford  possesses  a  genuine  vein  of  criticism  which 
illumines  nearly  everything  he  writes,  and  is  fre- 
quently marked  by  epigrammatic  flashes.  All  of  these, 
even  Clemens,  have  studied  to  some  extent  the  pro- 
ductions of  George  H.  Derby,  the  earliest  of  Califor- 
nia humorists,  better  known  as  ''John  Phoenix."    His 

Essays  and  Miscellany     41 


642  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

exuberance  found  vent  during  a  six  years'  military 
service  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  a  warm  welcome  was 
subsequently  accorded  to  him  and  his  books  in  the 
eastern  states.  He  was  a  spontaneous  joker,  ever  ready 
with  an  anecdote  or  burlesque,  and  fond  of  bantering 
in  the  abstruse  topics  harmonizing  with  his  superior 
education  and  taste.  Harte  approached  him  in  fine- 
ness of  grain,  as  a  satirist.  Carrie  Carlton,  (Mrs  W. 
Wright),  the  best  known  female  humorist,  under  the 
name  of  Topsey  Turvey,  partakes  of  Delano's  style. 
Light-hearted  as  ever,  and  with  a  preponderance 
of  rollicking,  bachelor  Californians  cultivate  the 
comic  aspect  of  life  with  promising  assiduity,  and  sev- 
eral journals  have  devoted  themseves  especially  to 
their  edification.  The  competition  of  eastern  period- 
icals, with  their  striking  advantages,  tends  to  over- 
shadow them,  however,  and  developing  lights  seek 
naturally  the  broader  fields  of  the  Atlantic  slope 

Music  and  poetry  are  widely  associated  with  semi- 
tropic  lands  like  the  Iberian  and  Apennine  peninsulas, 
although  England  leads  in  the  profusenessand  beauty 
of  metric  effusions,  and  Germany  and  Sweden  reveal 
in  the  number  of  concert  gardens  and  glee  clubs  their 
devotion  to  the  lyric  element.  The  influencing  cause 
has  to  be  sought  not  alone  in  physical  surroundings, 
but  in  language,  habits,  and  other  features. 

California  combines  several  favorinof  conditions,  in 
grand  scenery,  delightful  air,  and  a  motley  represent- 
ation from  cultivated  nations.  Musicshops  and 
teachers  are  exceptionally  numerous  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  other  centres  ;  pianos  and  other  instruments 
resound  in  all  quarters,  and  verse  is  sandwiched  into 
all  grades  of  entertainment  The  taste  is  conspicu- 
ous since  early  colonial  days,  when  the  Spanish  facil- 
ity for  versification  was  illustrated  among  settlers  in 
ready  improvisation  on  local  topics,  at  social  reunions, 
aided  as  they  were  by  the  easy  assonance  rhyming. 
In  political  circles  satire  flowed  freely.  Their  effusions 


POETRY.  643 

can  hardly  be  said  to  have  reached  the  grade  of 
poetry,  however.  This  awaited  the  influx  of  educated 
people  after  the  memorable  gold  discovery. 

It  might  be  expected  that  the  display  here  of 
strange  scenes  and  novel  and  varied  conditions  which 
burst  upon  the  immigrants,  after  a  long  interval  of 
monotony  and  hardship  on  the  march  and  voyage, 
would  prove  inspiring.  The  country  undoubtedly 
presented  itself  a  paradise  and  treasure-field,  but 
the  preoccupation  of  mining  and  other  pursuits,  and 
the  unsettled  state  of  affairs,  gave  little  opportunity 
for  verse  writing.  As  society  began  to  crystallize, 
how^ever,  and  journals  multiplied,  together  with 
ephemeral  magazines,  the  poet's  corner  lured  onward 
a  fast  growing  contribution.  In  the  second  decade 
rhymesters  could  be  counted  by  the  hundred.  They 
pertained  to  the  spasmodic  grade,  which  too  clearly 
pointed  to  the  prevailing  utilitarianism,  and  to  imita- 
tive or  inculcated  forms  which  overshadowed  proxi- 
mate objects,  and  exhausted  themselves  in  vain  and 
idle  pursuit  of  loftier  themes,  too  often  utterly  remote 
and  inappropriate. 

This  neglect,  though  mainly  due  to  lack  of  poetic 
instinct,  gave  the  opportunity  which  brought  fame 
to  the  two  men  who  so  far  figure  as  the  repre- 
sentative poets  of  the  coast,  by  virtue  of  training, 
characteristic  subjects,  and  high  excellence.  Bret 
Harte  carried  the  California  stories  into  verse,  and 
therein  hkewise  aflfirmed  his  position  as  the  founder 
of  a  new  school  of  dialect  writing.  Nevertheless  his 
foremost  element  here  is  the  exquisite  satire  which 
first  lifted  him  to  fame  in  the  Heathen  Chinee.  He 
adds  the  analysis,  pith,  and  expressiveness  displayed 
in  the  Condensed  Novels,  and  intensifies  the  pathetic 
and  descriptive  power  of  his  tales. 

The  poet  of  inspiration  is  Cincinnatus  Heme  Miller, 
born  in  Ohio,  but  belonging  since  his  teens  to  Oregon 
and  California,  where  he  also  passed  the  first  decade 
of   manhood,    though    in    a    roammg    and   desultory 


644  EARLY   CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

manner.  The  first  collection  of  poems  was  issued  at 
Portland  in  18G9,  under  the  title  Joaquin  etal,  a  name 
he  had  adopted  out  of  admiration  for  the  noted  Cal- 
ifornia bandit,  Joaquin  Murieta.  It  received  suffi- 
cient recognition  to  encourage  his  aspirations  for 
wider  fame.  And  so  he  started  for  the  Atlantic 
states  and  England,  there  to  obtain  an  attention,  per- 
haps not  equal  to  his  own  expectations,  yet  somewhat 
startling  to  his  coast  compatriots,  who  had  looked 
down  upon  him  as  a  flighty  bohemian.  The  Songs  of 
the  Sierras  had  an  alluring  western  ring  for  the  Brit- 
ish ear,  and  its  championship  of  oppressed  Indians 
added  a  claim  on  New  England  sympathisers.  The 
subjects  are  largely  based  on  personal  experience  in 
the  wilds  and  the  mountains,  among  his  former  com- 
panions, the  aborigines  and  miners,  and  under  the 
banner  of  Walker,  the  filibuster.  A  **  loose  and  un- 
couth bouquet,"  he  calls  the  book,  and  so  it  is,  though 
with  many  a  beautiful  flower.  The  imagery,  fre- 
quently rich  and  striking,  degenerates  too  often  into 
the  fantastic  and  absurd.  Vigor  and  puerility,  the 
gorgeous  and  bare,  stand  side  by  side;  lofty  inspira- 
tion and  crude  prosaism  with  slips  of  grammar.  Now 
a  series  of  Byronic  flashes,  then  an  impetuous  flow  of 
verbiage.  These  glaring  defects  long  maintained  a 
current  of  ridicule  against  him,  especially  at  home, 
but  more  impartial  judges  abroad  recognized  that 
although  uneven  and  little  polished,  the  diamond  had 
the  true  sparkle  of  genuineness.  A  reception  was 
assured  for  his  Shadows  of  Shasta,  Songs  of  the  Sun- 
land,  and  other  verse,  which  continue  the  initial 
topics,  and  he  acquired  a  position  among  second-class 
poets.  Tales,  novels,  and  dramas  point  the  profitable 
variety  of  his  pen,  yet  indicate  no  improvement  in 
method. 

Harte  was  instrumental  in  procuring  wider  publicity 
for  a  number  of  early  California  verse-makers,  by 
issuing  in  1866  a  selection  of  their  work  under  the 
title  of  Outcroppings.     While  little  noticed  abroad  it 


POETRY.  645 

created  much  local  attention,  chiefly  on  the  part  of  the 
overlooked  aspirants.  After  an  ^exchange  of  sharp 
pen-thrusts  they  prevailed  on  Mary  Wentworth  (Mrs 
Neumann)  to  do  them  justice  by  sending  forth  a  larger 
collection  under  the  imposing  title  of  Poetry  of  the 
Pacific,^  which  utterly  ignores  the  preceding  volume, 
repeating  its  choicest  bits.  The  selection  is  certainly 
more  representative  and  embraces  such  well  knowo 
names  as  E.  Pollock,  C.  W.  Stoddard,  L.  and  J.  T. 
Goodman,  F.  Soule,  the  veteran  singer  J.  Linen,  J. 
R  Ridge,  W.  A.  Kendall,  J.  F.  Bowman,  H.  C. 
Dorr,  and  on  the  female  side  with  an  equal  array;  F. 
F.  Victor,  who  enjoyed  the  preeminent  distinction 
of  having  achieved  a  place  in  the  gallery  of  Ameri- 
can poets  prior  to  her  arrival,  partly  by  means  of  her 
volume  entitled  Poems  of  Sentiment  and  Imagination, 
1851,  and  who  here  sought  especially  to  link  the  fan- 
cies of  the  Sacramento  and  the  Columbia;  Carrie 
Carlton,  the  humorist  E.  Lawson,  E.  A.  Simonton, 
Page,  Clara  Clyde,  May  Wentworth,  Mrs  Field,  and 
Ina  Coolbrith.  Most  of  these  must  be  assigned  to 
the  period  of  and  after  the  union  war.  Among  the 
earlier  lights  Pollock  stands  alone,  credited  with  a 
certain  degree  of  originality,  but  his  pieces  were  not 
of  such  a  character  as  to  attain  special  publication 
after  his  death.  Stoddard,  who  ranked  close  to  him, 
soon  turned  his  reflective  and  descriptive  fancy  into 
the  idyllic  prose  sketches  on  which  his  reputation  now 
rests.  Among  the  most  gifted  of  female  poets  may 
be  placed  Mary  H.  Field,  who  wrote  An  Arhored  Song. 
Among  the  first  metric  effusions  published  in  special 
form  in  California,  was  Idealina  by  Harry  Quillam, 
which  sold  well  despite  its  stilted  mediocrity.  Some 
exquisitely  written  and  illustrated  volumes  have  been 
issued  by  Mrs  M.  B.  M.  Toland. 

Women  swelled  the  ranks  of  writers  in  this  as  weh 
as  other  lighter  branches  of  literature,  in  ever  grow- 
ing numbers  after  the  first  decade,  and  exhibit  a  com- 
paratively greater  improvement  in  shorter  pieces,  for 


646  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LIIERATURE. 

their  ambitious  efforts  are  unsustainecl  in  power.  From 
their  fugitive  pieces  alone  could  be  formed  an  anthol- 
ogy appropriate  to  the  coast,  which  might  safely 
challenge  comparison  with  the  productions  of  older 
states. 

Those  of  California  were  imitative  like  all  colonial 
efforts,  and  still  remain  so  in  a  great  measure,  sipping 
alike  from  eastern  and  British  sources.  Nevertheless, 
an  early  independent  flight  is  observed  in  Bret  Harte, 
and  a  wide  recognition  for  true  poetic  spirit  was  ob- 
tained in  another,  beside  which  we  behold  many  a 
gleam  of  originality  in  contemporary  essays.  The 
mass  is  remarkable  rather  for  subdued  sweetness  and 
pathos,  however,  than  for  thundering  apostrophes  or 
fiery  enunciation.  Inspiration  was  found  less  in  nature's 
aspects,  although  scenery  is  both  grand  and  compact, 
with  the  infinite  ocean  on  one  sida  and  the  snow- 
crowned  Sierra  on  the  other.  It  sprang  rather  from 
the  novel  and  varied  social  conditions.  Harte  ob- 
served the  deficiency  in  descriptive  and  pastoral  efforts, 
and  ascribed  it  to  absence  of  w^ell-defined  seasons  and 
to  the  consequent  monotony;  but  another  and  fully 
as  strong  an  influence  is  to  be  observed,  which  affects 
also  the  tone  in  general  with  an  elegiac  strain,  par- 
ticularly in  reflective  passages.  A  restlessness  and 
yearning  is  noticeable  of  pending  aspirations,  of  in- 
complete fulfilment,  which  harmonizes  with  the  strug- 
gle for  wealth,  the  speculative  bent,  and  the  unsettled 
state  of  affairs  so  greatly  due  to  a  stimulating  cli- 
mate. Hence  the  soaring  paeans  corresponding  to 
the  instilled  exuberance  of  thought  and  action; 
followed  by  depressions,  of  pensive  melancholy — like 
the  two  seasons  of  bustle  and  idleness,  of  rain  and 
sunshine. 

Within  the  past  decade  or  two  pastoral  verse 
has  markedly  increased,  following  upon  the  heels 
of  social  evolution  like  other  branches  of  art.  The 
comic  aspect  stands  revealed  in  the  California  story, 
so  fruitful  a  source  for  compositions,  and  so  extreme 


ENGENDERING  CONDITIONS.  647 

in  that  deviation  now  observable  among  Americans 
from  puritan  reverence  and  soberness.  It  does  not 
however  descend  to  the  flippant  gayety  displayed  in 
Mexican  poetry,  which  is  affected  by  a  similar  under- 
current of  sadness.  In  California  both  elements  are 
modified  by  a  more  practical  tone  and  a  greater 
strength  and  independence  of  mind,  which,  reacting 
likewise  on  the  pervading  exuberance  in  society  and 
the  attendant  unpromising  fluctuations  of  character, 
may  in  time  assert  themselves  in  lofty  and  sustained 
productions  worthy  of  an  auspicious  beginning  and  of 
enduring  reputation. 

Gold  and  the  cross  play  similar  r61es  in  Spanish 
America  and  along  the  Pacific  coast,  in  planting  the 
foundation  for  settlement,  and  impressing  their  re- 
spective stamps  on  society  and  literature.  Gold,  with 
its  pale  sister,  proved  the  more  energetic  and  enter- 
prising. More  potent  than  royalty  or  religion,  it 
ignored  or  overcame  obstacles  which  were  deemed 
impassable  under  any  other  auspices,  impelling  on- 
ward explorers,  conquerors,  and  colonists,  converting 
the  wilderness  to  civilization. 

The  cross  followed  close  behind  to  seek  a  share  in 
the  unfolding  treasure,  and  strengthening  pillars  for 
its  power  in  aboriginal  converts.  Encouraged  by 
success  it  pressed  onward  when  the  other  leader  fal- 
tered before  the  shattered  fable  of  golden  cities,  and 
the  dwindling  veins  of  precious  metals.  It  beckoned 
the  conqueror  on  to  glory,  and  joined  with  settlers  in 
bending  the  Indian  to  the  yoke.  It  infused  fresh 
spirit,  and  Avith  aid  of  the  harpy-visaged  inquisition 
stamped  all  efforts  with  its  seal.  It  occupied  the 
historic  field  with  naive  chronicles ;  filled  biography 
with  dreary  ascetic  experiences;  crowded  out  science 
with  scholastic  polemics  and  homihes.  It  immured 
the  foremost  muse  of  Mexico  within  a  convent,  and 
walled  the  masses  round  with  ignorance ;  but  it  also 
raised  monasteries  as  depositories  for  learning  toward 
a  later  revival. 


648  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

When  during  the  repubUc  men  fell  off  in  allegiance 
to  wrangle  on  battle-field  and  in  legislative  hall, 
the  church  still  retained  the  hold  on  impressionable 
women  and  children.  Through  them  mainly  was 
retained  in  California  a  foothold  for  the  church  which 
had  changed  it  from  a  savage  hunting-ground  to  a 
prosperous  pastoral  colony,  centering  round  the  fast 
crumbling  missions.  California  became  the  scene  of  the 
greatest  subversion  of  religious  influence  in  the  demo- 
cratic levelling  which  attended  the  gold  discovery ; 
and  this  extended  also  over  Oregon  and  beyond,  to 
Alaska,  where  occupation  had  been  established  under 
missionary  auspices. 

Gold  asserted  once  more  its  superior  might  by  sur- 
passing the  slow  advance  of  clerical  leaders  in  the 
sudden  transformation  of  desert  valleys  into  populous 
states.  It  provided  the  grandest  of  topics  for  history 
and  poetry,  the  finest  of  wefts  for  fiction,  great  char- 
acters for  biography,  and  a  new  field  for  science.  It 
moulded  every  aspiration  and  utterance,  and  brushed 
away  the  cobwebs  of  conventional  influence  and  tra- 
dition ;  it  produced  the  condition  on  which  rose  the 
California  story,  to  lifb  to  fame  humorists,  dialect 
writers,  and  poets. 

The  profane  assumed  absolute  sway,  and  though 
California  was  once  more  declared  a  mission  field,  into 
which  different  sects  poured  their  apostles,  and  began 
under  the  powerful  patronage  of  inflowing  women  a 
work  of  regeneration  by  means  of  congregations, 
tractS;  and  religious  journals,  naught  availed  against 
omnipotent  gold.  Doctrines  and  worship  sank  to  their 
proper  level  as  mere  refining  agents.  Progress,  un- 
hampered, sped  on  its  way,  leaving  California's  former 
mistress  still  struggling  to  free  herself  from  the  bur- 
den of  the  cross. 

Besides  the  all-compelling  gold  and  cross,  many 
other  influences  have  impressed  themselves  on  litera- 
ture. In  Mexico  conquest  and  race  feeling,  an  oppres- 
sive   state  and  church  policy,  and  the  Spanish  dis- 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS.  649 

regard  for  and  suspicion  of  Creoles,  enforced  a  non- 
committal tone  in  so  many  directions  that  emotions 
had  to  seek  a  disguised  vent,  notably  in  religious 
topics  and  amatory  poetry.  With  the  revolution 
asceticism  was  to  some  extent  cast  aside  in  favor  of 
the  fiery  patriotic  spirit  which  invaded  all  branches  of 
literature.  This  was  sustained  by  internecine  wars 
and  foreign  invasions,  and  spread  in  feeble  reflection 
to  California  and  other  frontier  regions.  Here  how- 
ever rose  more  potent  factors  in  the  wake  of  the 
vast  metal  discoveries:  an  adventurous  intercourse 
by  sea  and  land,  the  influx  of  fleets,  the  rise  of  camps 
and  towns,  the  unfolding  of  resources  on  a  scale  of 
unparalleled  magnitude,  the  growth  of  new  race  an- 
tipathies between  Latin  and  Teutonic  Americans,  and 
against  intruding  Mongols.  This  and  the  vagabond- 
age fostered  by  the  roaming  life  of  miners  gave  a 
foothold  for  socialistic  writings,  w^hile  the  growth  of 
monopoly,  particularly  in  land,  suggested  the  widely 
read  works  of  Henry  George.  Camp  hfe  with  its 
incongruities  started  a  new  dialect  literature,  with 
racy  humor  and  satire.  Later  and  more  sedate  de- 
velopments promoted  a  taste  for  idyllic  compositions. 
The  union  war  imparted  a  glow  to  smouldering  patriot- 
ism, and  the  extending  intercourse  with  adjacent 
countries  opened  wider  fields  for  observation. 

Both  Mexico  and  California  cherished  the  exuber- 
ance which  is  so  largely  associated  with  mining  and 
frontier  settlements.  It  appears  in  the  extravagance 
of  the  California  story,  in  the  bent  for  irreverent  and 
exaggerated  witticism,  in  imitations  of  Poe's  weird 
fancies,  in  soaring  oratory,  and  sensational  novels  and 
dramas.  Mexico  partook  of  similar  fancies,  especially 
the  droll,  gay,  and  satiric,  while  the  floriated  Gongo- 
rism  in  style  found  here  a  more  abiding  home  than  m 
Spain,  owing  to  the  natural  disposition  of  the  people 
for  artificial  effusiveness.  •  i      • 

The  elegiac  strain,  which  seems  a  natural  antithesis 
to  this  exuberant  spirit  and  activity,  harmonizes  with 


650  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

the  idea  enfolding  this  extreme  western  shore.  It  is 
the  terminal  land  for  the  Aryan  march  of  centuries 
from  their  Asiatic  cradle  to  the  borders  of  the  great 
ocean  intervening  between  them  and  their  ancient 
home.  While  the  tone  here  is  greatly  due  to  climate, 
in  Mexico  it  comes  also  in  inheritance  from  the  abor- 
igines, among  whom  it  lies  impressed  by  centuries  of 
tyranny  and  bloody  worship,  followed  by  serfdom 
under  Spain.  The  Yankee  has  likewise  been  termed 
by  many  observers  a  mournful  soul,  in  his  inner- 
most depths,  despite  his  dry  humor.  Grimaldi  was 
a  lugubrious  fellow  at  home.  We  know  of  Irish 
gayety,  but  also  of  the  melancholy  which  pervades 
his  favorite  standard  songs,  and  of  the  doleful  refrains 
of  the  cronies  at  the  hearth. 

Amatory  poetry  and  sentimental  tales  occupy  lead- 
ing places  in  Mexican  literature.  The  cause  may  be 
traced  to  a  semi-tropic  clime  and  to  the  propensities 
arising  with  race  mixture,  but  is  greatly  due  to  the 
oriental  seclusion  of  young  women,  drawn  from  Moor- 
ish-Iberian custom,  with  the  attendant  serenade. 
Yet  like  the  prevailing  conventionalities  everything 
is  glossed,  leaving  the  passionate  impulses  in  the 
undercurrent.  Allusions  to  the  family  are  reverently 
tender,  but  satire  is  apt  to  be  somewhat  gross.  In 
business  intercourse,  words  and  promises  count  for 
little,  and  in  partisan  affairs  no  one  ventures  to  come 
forth  without  an  array  of  substantiating  documents  to 
prove  statements.  Of  all  this  an  inkling  comes  to  us 
through  the  colonial  occupants  of  California.  The 
different  traits  and  habits  of  the  colder  Anglo-Saxon 
revealed  little  of  such  tendencies.  Nevertheless,  the 
climate  and  peculiar  social  conditions  have  effected 
certain  changes;  and  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  a  number 
of  sentimental  novels  have  been  written,  almost  exclu 
sively  by  women,  and  frequently  in  a  tone  far  from 
healthy. 

Women  have    here    contributed    an    exceptionally 
large   proportion    of  light   literature,    owing   to   the 


ABORIGINAL.  651 

preoccupation  of  men  with  exacting  business  pursuits. 
The  striking  scenes  of  actual  Hfe  were,  besides,  too 
absorbing  to  allow  for  the  latter  to  yield  much  of 
their  attention  to  maudlin  fancies.  The  adulation  of 
woman,  the  general  affluence,  and  the  disposition  for 
hotel  life  to  the  avoidance  of  household  cares,  pro- 
vided her  with  an  excess  of  leisure  that  impelled  many 
to  enter  the  literary  field.  The  productions  affirm 
the  verdict  of  her  inferiority  to  the  man,  as  may  be 
expected  under  the  deterring  influences  of  frontier  life, 
which  have  until  lately  held  back  the  higher  grades 
of  her  sex.  In  Mexico,  on  tlie  contrary,  women  stand 
more  nearly  on  a  plane  of  intellectual  equality  with 
the  men,  although  neglected  in  education  and  socially 
restrained,  as  illustrated  in  the  duenna  system,  which 
stamps  them  with  an  absurd  irresponsibility.  When 
married,  prudence  concedes  a  flattering  deference  to 
their  lords.  Nevertheless,  a  number  of  promising 
female  lights  have  appeared  of  late  in  poetry  and 
prose  fiction,  from  which  in  time  may  emerge  a  fitting 
successor  to  the  Mexican  nun,  who  in  Spain  ranks  as 
the  tenth  muse. 

California  has  no  rich  aboriginal  sources  from  which 
to  gather  inspiration  and  prestige  for  her  literature  ; 
nothing  beyond  some  puerile  hieroglyphics  on  rock 
walls,  and  a  few  vague  myths  concerning  faded  tribes 
and  geographic  points  of  interest,  half  intimated  in 
the  musical  names  transmitted  to  us.^  Spanish- 
America  rejoices  in  an  abundance  of  native  records, 
backed  by  traditions,  and  mingled  with  legends 
bearing  the  impress  of  both  a  Hesiod  and  an 
Ossian.  And  what  may  not  the  unsolved  Maya  pic- 
ture-writings disclose  to  a  coming  Champollion  ! 

Race  influences  are  apparent  in  both  regions :  in 
Latin  America  in  triple  degree.  The  aborigines,  after 
long  providing  merely  topics,  have  recently  entered 
into  active  competition  in  letters,  to  balance  with 
their  sedate  tone  the  florid  exuberance  of  the  mes- 
tizo.    The  sprightly  vivacity  of  the  latter  has  led  him 


652  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

to  the  exaggerated  cultismo,  and  his  spasmodic  energy 
and  love  for  gloss  to  superficiality.  The  less  imagina- 
tive and  more  patient  Indian  inclines  to  history  and 
science,  leaving  the  lighter  branches  chiefly  to  the 
soaring  taste  and  aspirations  of  the  other.  The 
Spaniard,  who  used  to  give  the  impress  to  colonial 
productions,  responded  to  the  varying  fashions  of 
peninsular  style,  yet  in  a  more  stately  and  dignified 
form  than  the  extreme-loving  half-brother.  Iji  Cali- 
fornia both  the  latter  are  perceptible  in  the  trans- 
mitted memoirs  and  records,  chiefly  in  manuscript. 
After  the  Americans  came  the  Latin  element  declined 
to  mere  subjects  for  writing,  together  with  the  fast 
disappearing  Indian;  yet  both  figure  so  prominently 
and  attractively  on  the  pages  as  to  impart  a  marked 
character  to  them,  and  they  promise  to  gain  in  inter- 
est as  traditional  features.  The  predominating  in- 
fluence comes,  however,  from  England  no  less  than 
from  the  Atlantic  states,  and  is  sustained  in  all  its 
freshness  by  periodicals  and  books.  The  German 
and  Frencli  impress  is  indirect  and  slight. 

The  effect  of  these  influences  on  the  two  fields  of  lit- 
erature is  strikingly  revealed  in  the  newspapers,  which 
by  systematically  courting  public  taste,  attain  the  form 
of  an  index  to  it.  The  California  press,  while  sensa- 
tional and  careless  in  style,  gives  preference  in  the 
odd  columns  to  sport,  science,  and  art.  It  presents  a 
mean  between  the  ponderous  and  dignified  tone  of 
British  journals,  and  the  frivolously  bright  sheets  of 
France.  Spanish-Americans  cling  to  the  latter,  and 
indicate  their  lighter  fancy  by  a  demand  for  feuilleton 
novels,  although  women  there  take  little  to  news- 
papers. 

The  aborigines  of  North  America  are  accredited 
with  a  flowery  diction,  which  borrows  much  of  its 
beauty  from  nature,  and  is  rendered  the  more  lofty  by 
an  association  of  striking  objects  with  deities  and 
spirits.  This  is  applicable  to  the  region  southward 
only   in  a  limited   degree.     We   behold  allusions  in 


ABORIGINAL.  653 

Quiche  tradition  partaking  of  a  certain  eloquence  and 
nature  painting,  but  they  are  crude,  and  the  natives 
of  to-day  reveal  a  deficiency  of  imagination.  Al- 
though the  Aztecs  and  other  unmixed  tribes  are  con- 
spicuously fond  of  flowers  and  of  the  open  air,  their 
imagery  is  subdued  and  stunted,  as  if  the  oppression 
of  centuries  had  dwarfed  their  fancy  and  restricted 
it  to  minor  and  immediate  objects.  Mexicans  did  not 
inherit  a  much  wider  taste  for  scenery  from  the  im- 
migrants of  the  bare  uplands  of  Iberia.  Nevertheless, 
they  are  now  cultivating  the  descriptive  to  some  ex- 
tent. The  peculiar  climate  of  California,  and  the 
restless  activity  prevailing  there,  have  also  circum- 
scribed this  class  of  writing ;  but  the  inspiring  variety 
of  landscape  in  the  sunset  land,  which  attracts  an 
ever  growing  number  of  tourists  and  camping  par- 
ties, is  asserting  itself  more  and  more. 

The  successive  supplanting  of  languages  in  Cali- 
fornia has  been  an  improvement  in  every  instance. 
The  musical  intonation  observable  in  native  names 
applies  only  in  a  limited  degree  to  the  mass  of  dialects 
there  existing.  The  smooth  flow  of  Spauish  is  well- 
known,  however,  with  its  ready  assonant  rhyme,  so 
favorable  to  improvisation  ;  but  it  lacks  the  strength 
and  expressiveness  of  the  English,  which  possesses, 
moreover,  a  tuneful  iambic  rhythm,  or  euphonious 
ring,  and  a  flexibility  and  variety  permitting  a  wide 
range  for  choice  between  the  softer  and  harsher 
words.  The  displacement  of  aboriginal  dialects  was 
a  gain  in  many  respects.  Crude  and  poor  languages 
yielded  to  those  of  a  higher  inflected  type.  The  sub- 
stitution of  many  tongues  for  one  promoted  in 
Spanish-America  a  healthful  unification  among  the 
races,  which  had  so  far  been  held  estranged  by  lin- 
guistic and  other  barriers,  and  torn  by  strife.  ^  It 
promoted  intercourse  and  civilization,  notwithstanding 
the  new  obstructions  interposed  by  a  narrow  state 
policy.  The  introduction  of  English  was  a  still  further 
advance,  by  virtue  of  its  superior  qualities,  and  by 


654  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

reason  of  its  wide  sway,  so  favorable  to  the  exchange 
of  ideas,  to  peaceful  intercourse,  to  progress. 

The  services  which  the  Spanish  tongne  alone 
has  rendered  illustrates  the  advantages  of  a  uni- 
versal language.  To  this  we  are  clearly  drifting, 
despite  the  narrow  patriotic  efforts  in  different 
directions  to  increase  the  number  of  distinct 
tongues  by  reviving  many,  neglected  and  decayed, 
as  in  Ireland  and  Finland.  This  raising  of  bar- 
riers for  the  sake  of  sustaining  antiquated  national 
forms  and  empty  traditions  is  to  obstruct  culture  and 
advancement.  It  imposes  on  future  generations  the 
burden  of  mastering  several  tongues,  or  confines  them 
within  the  limits  of  less  effective  forms  of  expression, 
excluding  them  from  free  participation  in  the  glorious 
revelations  of  sciences  and  arts,  which  seek  outlet  in 
the  richest  and  most  wide-spread  language.  It  taxes 
and  distorts  every  scrap  of  needful  information  by  the 
trouble,  cost,  and  defects  of  translations. 

Enlio^htenment  will  not  loner  suffer  such  shackles. 
A  universal  tongue  must  in  time  prevail.  Destiny 
points  to  English  as  the  medium  of  the  most  progres- 
sive peoples,  who  numerically  surpass  all  other  lin- 
guistic groups,  save  the  Chinese,  holding  sway  in 
North  America,  Australia,  southern  Africa  and  Asia, 
and  in  the  island  cradle,  besides  controlling  most 
maritime  centres  and  districts  of  the  world,  the  dis- 
tributing points  for  practical  culture.  Its  adaptability 
alike  for  poetry,  narrative,  and  science  is  unequalled 
by  any  other  language.  With  the  simplest  of  gram- 
matic  structure,  it  is  easy  to  acquire.  Its  only  great 
defect  lies  in  the  orthography,  which  can  readily  be 
remedied,  and  is  fast  improving,  if  not  under  the  rad- 
ical method  of  Pitman's  phonetic  spelling,  at  least 
under  the  efforts  of  societies  and  literary  leaders  to 
gradually  eliminate  useless  forms.  When  remodelled, 
it  need  fear  no  competition  from  such  artificial  substi- 
tutes as  Volapuk,  of  uncouth  aspect.  The  wide  sup- 
port given  by  philosophic  Germans  to  this  new  medium 


LANGUAGE.  655 

indicates  the  growing  strength  of  the  universaUzing 
idea,  and  should  stimulate  English-speaking  people! 
to  push  the  necessary  reformation  of  defects,  which 
are  no  less  harassing  and  burdensome  to  them  than  to 
foreign  students. 

Spanish  is  unsurpassed  for  harmonious  orthography, 
and  its  value  is  demonstrated  in  the  purity  of  diction 
among  all  classes  in  Spain  and  America,  where  even 
the  beggar  speaks  correctly,  almost  elegantly.  True, 
the  national  character  contributes  its  influence. 
Nevertheless,  Americanisms  have  crept  in  among 
the  colonists,  although  they  are  nearly  all  of  so  com- 
mendable a  grade  that  the  learned  and  exact  Alaman 
advocated  their  recognition  in  Mexico,  as  consistent 
with  colonial  writing.  These  innovations  are  more 
numerous  in  English,  and  indicate  in  a  measure  the 
rise  of  dialects,  of  which  the  lano;uao;e  in  its  insular 
evolution  has  left  strangely  broad  tracks  in  so  small 
and  unbroken  a  country  as  England.  Improved 
communication  and  the  increase  of  schools  and  news- 
papers are  fast  contributing  to  the  obliteration  of 
such  corrupt  and  undesirable  distinctions.  The  orig- 
inality and  practical  sense  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  account 
partly  for  the  growth  of  Americanisms,  as  they  do  of 
vulgar  but  expressive  slang.  The  character  of  neither 
people  nor  language  in  Spanish  America  is  favorable 
to  the  latter  class  of  inchoate  epigram,  whether  from 
classic  or  common  source.  California  has  been  very 
free  in  adopting  new  words,  with  her  unconventional 
and  reckless  frontier  and  mining  traits,  which  delight 
in  expressive  and  concise  utterance.  Much  "is  Span- 
ish, as  inculcated  and  in  vogue  among  early  American 
settlers. 

Under  a  comparatively  recent  development  America 
escaped  the  varied  influence  of  foreign  schools,  which 
made  themselves  felt  in  England  as  well  as  Spain. 
It  confined  itself  chiefly  to  one  fount,  sipping  the 
clarified  essence  of  manifold  distillation.  Mexico 
underwent,  however,  a  greater  degree  of  buffeting  in 


656  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

style  than  the  United  States,  partly  owing  to  the  less 
even  course  of  the  Spanish  language,  as  compared 
with  the  English,  since  Shakespeare.  Yet  she  re- 
mains essentially  a  copyist  of  Spanish  models,  with  an 
admixture  chiefly  from  France  The  United  States 
accepted  a  broader  tint,  under  the  influx  of  Teutonic 
and  Latin  colonists,  with  which  to  temper  the  predom- 
inating British  standard.  California  adheres  to  a  ju- 
dicious mingling  of  Anglo-Saxon  types  from  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Slie  follows  the  guidance  of 
eastern  centers,  yet  reveals  m  scenes,  characters,  and 
terms  the  effect  of  intercourse  with  Spanish  settlers, 
which  has  not,  however,  led  to  any  appreciable  study 
of  Iberian  literature. 

Notwithstanding  her  youth  and  preoccupation,  and 
the  discouraging  competition  of  eastern  literature  for 
local  patronage,  California  has  repaid  her  indebtedness 
to  universal  knowledge  with  rare  promptness  and 
profusion,  revealing  the  intensity  of  her  intellectual 
as  well  as  material  development.  She  contributed 
writers  of  world-wide  fame  in  nearly  all  the  leading 
branches  of  letters,  and  assisted  to  give  new  direction 
to  research  and  thought,  fancy  and  feeling.  The  last 
is  instanced  in  a  certain  democratic  levelling  and 
irruption  on  puritanic  soberness.  Mexico's  response 
for  similar  cumulative  inheritance  has  been  very 
meagre,  considering  her  age.  The  cause  lies  greatly 
in  an  objectionable  colonial  policy  and  a  disturbed 
condition,  in  too  rigid  adherence  to  models,  and  lack 
of  earnestness.  Yet  the  United  States  was  nearly 
as  backward  during  colonial  times,  and  it  is  only  since 
the  union  war  that  this  country  can  be  said  to  have 
acquired  a  position  in  literature  commensurate  with 
its  national  importance. 

The  isolation  of  the  first  two  decades,  prior  to  the 
opening  of  railway  communication  with  the  east, 
favored,  in  a  measure,  the  local  cultivation  of  letters, 
as  indicated  by  the  more  flourishing  condition  of 
light  periodicals.     A   much  smaller  population  sup- 


PHYSICAL  CONDITIONS.  G57 

supported  since  the  early  fifties  a  series  of  magazines, 
provided  with  illustrations  and  other  costly  adjuncts, 
while  subsequently  the  only  representative  periodical 
of  the  kind,  in  cheaper  form,  found  it  difficult  to 
subsist,  or  to  offer  adequate  inducements  to  local 
talent.  Indeed,  the  three  brightest  lights  of  that 
period  took  flight  toward  its  close  to  seek  and  receive 
more  generous  recognition  abroad.  Facilitated  inter- 
course with  the  eastern  states  turned  attenti(3n  to 
the  more  attractive  publications  of  the  other  slope,  in 
the  same  manner  that  increased  state  railways  spread 
the  influence  of  the  San  Francisco  press.  The  con- 
sequent lack  of  fostering  mediums  tends  to  account 
for  the  uncovered  gaps  since  the  departure  of  the 
fanciful  lights  above  alluded  to.  In  other  directions 
strides  were  made,  however,  which  have  attained  wide 
reputation  for  method,  research,  and  depth,  as  well 
as  for  magnitude  in  size  and  scope. 

Aside  from  the  various  natural  and  social  influences 
which  have  been  pointed  out  as  affecting  letters  in 
California,  an  element  exists  in  the  high  average  in- 
telligence and  education  of  the  immigrants,  forming 
as  they  do  the  choice  manhood  from  their  respective 
countries.  The  distance,  cost,  and  hardship  connected 
with  migration  to  so  remote  a  point  served  to  reduce 
the  proportion  of  undesirable  admixture,  and  the 
general  opulence  has  favored  the  maintenance  of  that 
standard  by  permitting  a  hberal  education  of  the 
children.  The  recent  large  influx  is  likewise  of  a 
superior  class,  in  harmony  with  the  new  era  of  horti- 
cultural development  so  promising  for  the  highest 
progress. 

The  east  has  with  slight  variations  been  the  master,^ 
mentor,  and  light  for  the  west  ;  but  the  centre  of 
learning  and  domination  has  been  ever  moving  on- 
ward in  the  path  of  the  illuminating  and  vivifying 
sun — shifted  by  the  advancing  Aryans  to  the  Euphra- 
tes, to  the  Nile,  to  Greece,  to  Kome,  and  thence 
north-westward.     The   late   strides    of  the    United 

Essays  and  Miscellany     42 


658  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

States  also  in  literature  is  already  drawing  the  intel- 
lectual centre  perceptibly  from  the  line  so  long  encir- 
cling it  in  Europe.  Here  even  Chicago,  though  far 
inland,  has  become  a  publishing  point  of  importance. 
With  the  expansion  of  population  the  Pacific  coast 
will  in  due  time  assert  her  strength  and  the  claims 
which  she  put  forth  in  the  earlier  days  of  her  career. 
Her  sway  promises  to  assume  a  vast  range,  to  judge 
from  the  centralization  at  the  Golden  Gate  of  trade 
throughout  the  Pacific,  with  lines  converging  from  * 
oriental  Asia,  Australia,  Spanish  America,  and  the 
north-west.  Into  several  of  these  quarters  her  children 
have  penetrated  as  apostles  of  practical  progress,  and 
may  in  future  carry  also  the  seeds  of  a  higher  culture. 

The  geographic  advantages  which  establish  San 
Francisco  in  her  position  of  metropolis  for  the  coast, 
with  the  concentration  here  of  its  greatest  wealth  and 
patronage,  assure  also  for  this  vicinity  the  seat  of 
letters.  Literature  and  art  depend  too  much  on  the 
patronage  clustered  in  large  trade  centres  to  sepa- 
rate from  it.  Thus  New  York  is  rapidly  overshadow- 
ing Boston.  Round  the  metropolis  of  California  are 
grouped  within  convenient  range  all  that  is  most  in- 
spiring in  nature  along  the  entire  slope.  Additional 
interest  is  vested  therein  by  the  enfolding  glow  of 
tradition  from  a  fading  Indian  race,  from  a  fast  merg- 
ing Spanish  people,  and  from  Caucasian  pioneers, 
whose  advent  stands  recorded  in  mighty  enterprises 
and  transformations  in  oriorinal  thouo-ht  and  methods. 

Such  are  the  sources,  precedents,  and  prospects 
for  the  new  race,  which  rises  to  inherit  the  attributes 
and  aspirations  of  its  varied  and  select  prototype,  and 
to  be  influenced  by  the  electric  atmosphere  and  en- 
vironment that  gave  rise  to  world-stirring  material 
and  intellectual  eflbrts. 

^The  linguistic  works  of  padres  Cuesta  and  Sitjar  were  printed  in  1861 
and  1862,  two  score  years  and  more  after  they  were  written.  Cuesta's 
vocabulary  and  grammar  occupy  a  volume  each.  The  Smithsonian  publica- 
tiofts  embrace  also  two  catechisms  by  fathers  Serra  and  Cabot.  Some  trans- 
lations by  Zalvadea,  and  Sarria's  impressive  sermons,  in  autograph,  are  on 
my  shelved. 


NOTES.  659 

2 The  coloring  of  the  biographies  in  Robinson's  California  was  so  marked 
as  to  call  forth  condemnation  even  from  native  Calif ornians.  Atvarado,  Hist 
MS.,  ii.  242;  HartnelCs  Narr.,  MS.,  8-9.  The  work  was  evoked  to  some  ex- 
tent by  Mofras'  French  book  and  Forbes'  Hist.  Cal,  1839,  compiled  in  Mexico 
by  an  Englishman,  with  a  view  to  call  the  attention  of  his  countrymen  to 
the  advantages  of  the  territory. 

3 An  advance  'extra'  of  the  California  Star  appeared  on  November  1, 
1846,  its  press  having  been  in  operation  since  September.  It  is  even  claimed 
that  a  part  of  the  type  for  the  Star  had  been  set  at  New  York  in  December 
1845. 

*  Colton  published  at  New  York,  in  1850,  Three  Years  in  California,  Deck 
and  Port,  and  other  books  treating  of  his  voyage  to  California  and  short 
stay  there.  The  attention  they  roused  was  due  not  alone  to  the  subject,  for 
the  treatment  is  interesting  and  the  style  flowing,  although  somewhat  florid; 
the  exaggeration  is  easily  detected. 

^  Among  poets  in  the  Pioneer  figure  the  names  of  Pollock,  Charles  Havens, 
Linen,  Mrs  Downer,  J.  Swett,  Soule,  and  J.  P.  Anthony.  In  1864  a  woman 
named  Lester  controlled  the  Pacific  Monthly.  Among  the  poetic  contribu- 
tors were  Sproat,  John  Taylor,  ToUes,  Dorr,  J.  J.  Bowman,  Ridge,  Mr  and 
Mrs  Strong,  editors  in  1803,  and  the  women  Page,  Clarke,  Wilburn,  Fader, 
and  McDougal.  Subsequently  flourished  the  San  Francisco  Pictorial  Magazine, 
in  July,  1857,  the  weekly  CaUfornian,  where  Bret  Harte  began  to  shine; 
Golden  Gate  in  1804,  at  Sacramento,  by  Mrs  MacDougal;  Every  Day  Life,  in 
1867,  by  Mrs  Wright;  Howard  Quarterly,  in  April,  1867,  by  a  religio-literary 
society;  Ladies'  and  Gentlemen  s  Magazine,  in  1869,  of  very  small  size; 
Berkelei/an,  in  1872,  by  the  literary  societies  of  the  university;  Berkeley 
Quarterly  of  1880,  from  a  similar  source,  but  devoted  to  social  science; 
Oakland  Monthly  Peview,  1873;  Califominn,  in  June  1876,  a  name  afterward 
adopted  for  the  Overland,  and  used  for  a  time 

^The  first  San  Francisco  directory  of  1850  contained  about  3,000  names. 
Many  addresses  refer  to  mere  tents  and  sheds;  a  staff  of  policemen  are  re- 
corded, half  a  dozen  express  ofiices,  four  place;?  of  entertainment,  including 
a  *  Bull  Fighting  Arena,'  seven  places  of  worship,  and  the  same  number  of 
newspapers.  Sacramento  issued  its  smaller  directory  in  January  1851,  and 
Stockton  and  other  places  followed  in  due  time. 

'  The  discrimination  shown  in  the  biographies  of  The  Annals  of  San  Fran- 
cisco gave  riie  to  the  chief  local  criticism.  The  numerous  illustrations  are 
generally  good  and  the  whole  appearance  is  fair,  beyond  what  San  Francisco 
could  at  that  time  produce;  the  book  was  issued  at  New  York.  Of  the 
three  authors,  on  the  title  page,  Frank  Soule,  John  H.  Gihon,  M.  D.,  and 
James  Nisbet,  the  latter  appears  to  have  prepared  the  historic  part.  He 
was  born  at  Glasgow,  Scotland,  where  he  practised  law,  wrote  a  novel,  and 
lost  his  money  in  speculation.  In  1852  he  sought  California  and  was  here 
engaged  on  the  press,  ranking  as  an  able  and  worthy  journahst.  He  per- 
ished in  1305  with  the  Brother  Jonathan  on  the  way  to  Victoria,  V.  I. 

^Reading-rooms  were  founded  prior  to  1850 and  small  collections  of  books 
existed  in  several  quarters.  In  that  year  the  legislature  passed  a  bill  for  a 
state  library.  Cal.  Jotir.  Sen.,  1850,  p.  1310,  etc.  In  1855  its  law  dept  was 
a  feature,  Cal.  Statutes,  1855,  pp.  147,  267,  when  steps  were  taken  for  a  special 
law  library.  Cal.  Jour.  Ass.,  1855,  pp.  375-6,  902.  The  San  Francisco  law 
library  was  opened  to  the  public  in  1870.  Cal.  Statutes.  1869-70,  235-8.  ihe 
Mercantile  Library  Assoc,  of  Sacramento  took  the  lead  in  oijening  a  general 
public  library  in  February  1851.  A  course  of  lectures  was  arranged  to  aid 
the  struggling  concern.  Sac.  Transcript,  Feb.  14,  1851  The  well-known 
mercantile  library  of  San  Francisco,  although  organized  only  m  Jan.  24, 
1853,  dates  properly  from  1851,  when  the  disbanding  committee  of  vigilance 
contributed  a  considerable  collection  of  books  for  public  use  Bluxome, 
Com.  Vif,. ,  MS. ,  1 6,  gave  500  volumes.  This  was  the  nucleus  for  that  hbrary. 
S.  F.  Alta,  Dec.  24,  1S52.  Ccmcerning  legislative  aid,  see  (7af.  Jour.  Sen.,  185d, 
649.     The  first  annual  report  may  be  consulted  in  1854.  Hunt's  Mag.,  xxxm. 


660  EARLY  CAUFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

317-22;  Merc.  Lib.  Assoc.  Eeports ;  S.  F.  Alta,  Jan.  11,  1853,  Mar.  29,  1855. 
A  gift  concert  providetl  funds  for  the  fine  new  building  erected  for  ic  in 
1870.  CiiL  Lihrark.'i  6'c/ap.s,  p.  3  et  seq.  Later  it  declined,  aud  the  foreiiiobfc 
place  was  taken  by  the  Mechanics'  Institute  Library,  organized  in  1855. 
The  Odd  Fellows'  Library,  formed  in  1854,  ranks  third.  The  Free  Library, 
he  inaugural  steps  for  which  were  begun  in  1877,  is  however  fast  outstrip-, 
ping  them  all  under  the  generous  aid  extended  from  public  funds  and  contri- 
butions. A  number  of  minor  collections  pertain  to  different  societies 
as  Young  Men's  Christ.  Assoc,  Cal.  Pioneers,  Academy  of  Science, 
the  Military  Library.  S.  F.  Verein,  the  French,  existing  since  1853,  Alta^ 
Jan.  5,  1853;  the  Spanish,  of  recent  years. 

In  addition  to  a  review  of  works  by  Americans,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
glance  at  the  early  books  and  manuscripts  on  America,  jjartly  from  the  in- 
lluence  exercised  by  them  over  it.  As  one  of  the  turning  points  for  progress, 
in  giving  a  signal  impulse  to  voyages  and  enterprise,  to  conquest  and  settle- 
ment, America  imparted  also  zest  and  direction  t5  writing,  especially  on  the 
achievenxents  mentioned.  The  productions  speedily  became  numerous  and 
striking  enough  to  awaken  a  tliirst  for  wider  reading  and  for  elaborations  in 
other  branches  of  literature,  even  in  epic  form,  by  virtue  of  enmlation  and 
response  to  demand.  Historians  and  biographers  were  stimulated  to  place 
befoi-e  the  reader  the  incidents  and  heroes  of  the  New  World.  Scientific 
men  were  stirred  by  the  novelties  here  unfolded.  Poets  were  inspired  by 
scenes  and  feats  of  arms.  Philosophers  and  theologians  found  food  for 
thought  and  speculation  in  the  revelation  under  strange  conditions,  of  a  new 
race  whose  benighted  intellect  invited  friars  and  priests  to  mission  work, 
and  to  advocacy  of  their  cause  against  rapacity  and  oppression.  The  church 
delighted  in  so  vast  an  addition  to  its  fold,  as  an  offset  for  tlie  inroads  of 
the  Mahommedans  and  protestants. 

So  absorbing  was  the  interest  in  the  New  World  that  few  of  the  books 
published  during  the  sixteenth  century  failed  to  refer  to  it  in  some  degree. 
The  number  was  not  large,  for  the  days  had  not  yet  arrived  of  a  press, 
which,  although  encroaching  so  much  on  all  branches  of  literature  by  its 
eclectic  collection,  has  intensified  the  taste  for  reading  and  increased  the 
monthly  publication  of  books  by  the  thousand. 

Publications  on  America,  beg'nning  so  soon  after  the  discovery  of  print- 
ing, serve  to  illustrate  the  progress  of  the  manufacturing  art,  from 
block  and  black-letter  to  script  and  modern  type;  from  plaquette  and  parch- 
ment-bound books,  and  ponderous  folios  in  wooden  covers  with  clasps,  to 
elegant  cloth,  paper,  and  varied  bindings  of  to-day.  It  is  a  change  in  har- 
mony with  the  development  from  simplicity  and  striving  for  thoroughness, 
to  superficial  gloss  and  smattering;  the  latter  enforced  indeed  by  the  expan- 
sion in  number  and  range  of  branches  to  be  studied,  and  the  other  by  the 
growing  artificiality  of  intercourse. 

Only  four  original  works  on  America  are  known  to  have  been  printed  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  namely,  two  letters  of  Columbus,  dated  1493,  one  of 
which  underwent  a  number  of  translations  and  reprints;  a  letter  to  Syllacio, 
one  of  Columbus'  companions,  printed  about  1494;  and  a  papal  bull  of  1493. 
They  are  all  in  the  form  of  plaqttettes,  or  small  thin  pamphlets  without  covers, 
printed  in  black  letter.  The  originals  are  exceedingly  rare  and  of  great 
value  as  specimens  of  early  printing. 

In  150.3  some  papal  bulls  relating  to  America  were  published;  in  1505  a 
letter  of  Columbus  describing  his  fourth  voyage  to  the  tierra Jirme.  In  gen- 
eral the  few  printed  narratives  of  his  voyages  had  a  very  limited  circulation. 
Between  1502-8  appeared  over  a  score  of  different  editions  of  Amerigo  Vespuc- 
ci's Mundus  Novus,  describing  his  third  and  fourth  voyages.  The  regions 
stumbled  upon  by  Columbus  were  supposed  to  be  part  of  Japan  and  India, 
but  here  was  evidently  another  country,  sufficiently  large  and  important  to 
be  called  tlie  New  World.  Tliis  roused  greater  interest  in  the  discovery, 
and  assisted  to  procure  a  wider  circulation  for  Vespucci's  reports  than  for 


NOTES.  661 

those  of  the  great  admiral,  together  with  the  application  of  his  name  to  the 
discovery.  A  collection  of  his  four  voyages  appeared  in  1507  and  subse- 
quently. In  1510  Globeo  printed  an  account  of  a  shipwreck  by  a  voyager  to 
the  Isthmus. 

In  1511  the  first  decade  of  Peter  Martyr  appeared  in  two  editions. 
Three  decades_were  issued  in  1516.  The  complete  eight  decades  were  first 
published  in  1 530.  Translations  and  reprints  of  parts  or  total  were  frequent. 
Martyr's  Opus  Epistolarum,  of  over  800  letters,  was  first  printed  in  1530. 
These  two  works  were  the  chief  source  for  compilers  during  the  century. 

The  Ptolemy  Geographia  of  1513  presented  20  new  maps.  Enciso's  Suma 
de  Gcograjia  of  1519  gave  personal  observations  on  America.  The  Itimrario 
of  Grijalva  s  voyage  to  Yucatan  bears  date  1520,  in  two  versions,  by  Diaz 
and  by  an  anonj'mous  writer.  In  1522  the  famous  Relaciones  of  Cortes  be- 
gan to  appear ;  a  letter  in  verse  to  stir  by  romantic  incidents  a  fresh  ecxite- 
ment  in  regard  to  the  New  World.  The  achievements  of  Pizarro,  as  narrated 
in  his  letters  after  1533,  added  to  the  flame.  A  letter  in  verse  by  the  im- 
famous  Pediarias  Davila  was  printed  in  1525  concerning  events  on  the  Panama 
isthmus.  Oviedo's  De  la  Natural  Historia  de  las  Indian  bears  imprint  Toledo, 
1 526.  The  first  part  of  his  Historia  General  de  las  Indias  did  not  see  the  liglit 
till  1535.  The  only  complete  edition  thereof  came  out  only  in  1851-5  in 
four  folio  volumes.  One  of  the  two  papal  bulls  of  1530  urged  on  Charles  V. 
the  conversion  of  the  Indians  'by  force  and  arms  if  needful,  in  order 
that  their  souls  may  partake  of  the  heavenly  kingdom.'  One  of  the  earli- 
est specimens  of  American  typography  was  a  plaquette  of  1541  describing 
the  terrible  earthquake  in  Guatemala.  About  this  time  letters  began  to 
pour  in  from  the  missionaries  treating  of  all  the  varied  subjects  of  interest 
in  the  colonies,  which  found  ready  circulation  in  special  and  collected  form. 
These  works  influenced  not  alone  local  investigations  and  ample  accounts, 
but  they  started  in  Europe  also  a  desire  for  inquiry  and  exploration  in 
similar  fields  hitherto  neglected. 

vVfter  1550  books  on  the  Pacific  states  territories  increased  rapidly. 
Among  the  most  prominent  were  Las  Casas'  treatises  on  the  Destruction  of 
the  Indies,  that  is,  the  maltreatment  of  the  natives  of  1552.  His  chief  works, 
the  Historia  de  Indias,  existed  until  recently  only  in  manuscript  copies;  of 
which  I  used  one  The  nature  of  his  advocacy  and  the  severity  of  his 
charges  brought  forth  numerous  replies,  as  Sepulveda's  Apologia,  and  gave 
rise  to  speculation  on  the  rights  of  aborigines,  and  on  the  value  of  America 
to  the  church,  and  its  influence  on  European  nations. 

Gomara's  Historia  de  Mexico  and  Historia  General  de  las  Indias  were  printed 
in  several  editions  between  1552-4,  followed  in  time  by  a  score  more.  Ben- 
zoni's  Historia  del  Momlo  Nuovo  of  15G5  obtained  Hkewise  several  reprints 
and  translations,  and  served  to  affirm  the  unfavorable  idea  of  Spanish  greed 
and  cruelty.  Doctor  :Monardes'  Histoiia  Medicinal  of  the  same  date  was 
completed  in  15"7'4.  Columbus'  biography  by  his  son  reached  several  editions 
after  1571,  under  the  increasing  demand  for  biography,  embracing  heroes 
like  Cortes  and  Pizarro.  In  1587  Palacios'  Instruccion  Nautica  appeared  to 
guide  navigators  in  West  India  waters,  and  Ortelius'  geographical  work. 
Two  years  later  Acosta's  De  Natura  Novi  Orhis,  followed  m  lo90  by  his 
Historia  de  Im  Indias,  both  of  which  received  wide  circulation  m  different 
forms  and  languages,  and  tended  to  promote  a  philisoplnc  inquiry  mto 
American  resources  and  afl"airs.  The  appearance  in  1596  of  PadiUa  s  history 
of  the  provincia  of  Santiago  in  Mexico  was  the  signal  for  the  periodic  publi- 
cation  of  the  priestly  chronicles  which  constitute  the  most  important  liistori- 
cal  writings  during  the  following  two  centuries.  j   •     +i 

Of  voyage  collections,  so  numerous  in  later  times,  five  appeared  m  tie 
sixteenth  century,  beginning  with  the  Libretto  de  tutta  laNavKjationeoi  1.04 
by  Verccllese,  now  disappeared;  the  Pae^i  Nouamente  retrouati  by  Montla- 
baddo,  1507;  the  Novos  Orhi,  hy  Huttich,  prefaced  by  Grynseus  1532,  which 
is  founded  on  the  preceding.  Both  received  several  reprints  and  translation. 
All  three  were  fragmentary  in  theh-  information  as  compared  with  Kamusio  s 


662  EARLY   CALIFORNIA  LITERATQRE. 

Navigationc  ct  Via/jiji,  in  tliree  bulky  folio  volumes,  which  appeared  in  1550, 
1553,  and  1559,  respectively,  and  in  subsequent  editions.  The  last  volume 
relates  wholly  to  the  New  VVorld,  and  contains  summaries  from  I'eter  Martyr, 
Oviedo,  Cortes,  and  other  conquerors  and  explorers  down  to  1542.  The  set 
is.  admirably  printed  in  close  old  style  black-letter,  with  maps  and  illustra- 
tions, and  forms  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  collections.  At  the  turn  of  the 
century,  in  1599-1600,  appeared  the  famous  English  compilation  of  Hakluyt, 
in  three  volumes,  the  last  devoted  to  America.  It  adds  to  selections  from 
Ramusio  a  number  of  later  explorations  and  voyages,  notably  by  Drake 
and  Candish,  and  dated  as  late  as  1597. 

These  collections  of  voyages  are  a  new  form  of  the  cyclopedic  works  on 
cosmography  and  universal  history.  Several  of  these  had  been  written  long 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  had  been  rewritten  and  furnished  with 
notes  and  additions  at  frequent  intervals  by  different  editors,  and  the  same 
custom  was  continued  after  the  printing-press  had  superseded  the  pen  in  the 
multiplication  of  copies. 

The  1498  edition  of  Pomponius  Mela's  De  Orhis  Situ  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  of  this  class  to  include  the  New  World.  The  ^neids  of  Sabellicus, 
and  the  De  MirahiUhus  of  Albertini  follow  in  1504-5.  The  Stijiplementurn 
Chronicaruin  of  Bergomas  began  to  include  the  New  World  in  1503,  and  ten 
editions  followed  before  1600.  My  copy  of  1513  has  only  a  short  paragraph, 
of  less  than  half  a  page,  on  America,  beginning  '  De  quartuor  p'  maximis 
insulis  in  india  extra  orben  nuper  inuentis. 

Maffei's  commentaries  were  often  republished  between  1506  and  1544. 
The  Cosmotjraphice  Introductio  of  Hylacomylus,  or  Wald-See-MuUer,  of  wdiich 
four  editions  appeared  in  1507,  contains  the  first  printed  account  of  the  first 
and  fourth  voyages  of  Vespucci,  and  the  first  proposal  to  name  the  New 
World  America. 

Ptolemy's  Geography  of  1508  had  the  first  engraved  map  in  which  any 
part  of  America  was  shown.  The  name  America  was  first  used,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  suggestion  of  Hylacomylus,  in  the  Globus  Mundi,  printed  at 
Strasbourg  in  1509.  The  name  was  first  used  on  a  map  in  the  Enarra- 
ttones  of  Solinus-Camers  of  1520,  while  the  first  protest  against  the  use  of 
that  name  is  believed  to  have  been  in  Schoner's  Opusculum  of  1533. 

The  cosmographical  writings  of  Apianus,  beginning  in  1522,  and  of 
Munster  from  1541,  are  the  remaining  works  of  this  class,  which  I  find  rep- 
resented by  most  frequent  editions  on  my  shelves. 

Of  the  long  list  of  similar  works  may  be  noted  the  Cosmography  of 
Nebrissensis,  1498,  Ludd's  Speculum  Orhis,  1507,  the  Chronicon  of  Eusebius, 
1512,  De  Natura  Loconim  by  Albertus  Magnus,  1514,  Reisch's  Manjarita 
Philosophlca,  1515,  Loritz'  Geof/raphia,  1527,  'Bordones  hole  del  Mundo,  1528, 
Frauck's  Wdthuch,  1533,  the  Epitome  of  Vadianus,  1534,  Steinhowel's  C/ira?z2"fa 
Besckreihiinrj,  1535,  Sacro-Bosco's  Sphera,  1537,  Dionysius'  De  Situ  Orhis  and 
Copernicus'  Celestial  Orbs,  1543,  the  work  of  Frisius  on  Astronomy,  1544,  of 
Glareanus  on  Geography,  1544,  Honter's  Rudiments  of  Cosmography,  1546. 
Many  others  were  puljlished  during  the  last  half  of  the  century.  The  first 
printed  mention  of  America  in  the  English  language  is  supposed  to  be  in 
Brant's  Shyppe  of  Fooles  of  1509.  Ihe  New  World  is  also  mentioned  m  the 
Neiv  Interlude  of  1511  and  1520,  and  in  a  treatise  on  the  New  Landes  of 
about  1522. 

About  one  hundred  additional  books,  in  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
editions,  issued  in  Europe  during  the  sixteenth  century,  contain  more  or 
less  extended  notices  of  the  New  World,  drawn  from  original  or  compiled 
sources.  The  list  begins  with  a  collection  of  treatises  and  letters  of  1493,  by 
Canon  Ortiz;  two  orations  by  Carvajal  and  Almeida  of  1493.  Indeed,  there 
is  hardly  any  class  of  publications  during  the  period  not  represented  in  the 
list  of  those  containing  mention  of  America.  The  newly  found  land,  with 
all  its  belongings,  was  a  marvel,  was  well-nigh  a  miracle,  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Europe.  Such  mention  was  often  attached  to  orations  of  any  class 
and  to  sermons;  to  scientific  treatises,  as  by  Lilio  in  1496;  to  dramas,  as  by 


NOTES.  6G3 

Stamler  in  1508;  to  Seneca's  tragedies  in  1510;  to  panegyrics,  as  by  Sobra- 
rius  in  1511;  to  poems,  as  by  Cataneo  in  1514;  Giustimani's  edition  of  the 
Psalter  in  1516;  to  a  romance  by  Oviedo  in  1519;  to  the  travels  of  Marco 
Polo  in  1528;  to  works  on  syphillitic  ailments  in  1531  et  seq.;  to  the  letters 
of  Tritiiemus  in  1536;  to  the  annals  of  various  European  countries  by  dif- 
ferent authors;  to  treatises  on  navigation  and  sailing  directions  in  1544  et 
seq. ;  and  to  rudimentary  treatises  on  cosmography  and  other  branches  of 
science  and  art. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  papal  bulls,  laws,  orders, 
and  instructions  multiply  rapidly.  Of  compiled  laws  the  JSFuevas  Leyes  of 
1543  form  the  first  of  the  class  relating  to  America,  although  the  Ordenanzas 
for  the  Casa  de  Contraiacion  of  1547  were  first  proper  collection.  Viceroy 
Mendoza's  Ordenanzas  y  Copilacion  de  Leyes,  of  1548,  was  the  first  book  of  laws 
printed  in  America.  Puga's  (kdulas  extends  the  collection  to  1563,  when  it 
was  issued  at  Mexico.  The  compilations  of  Encinas,  Yrolo,  Aguilar, 
Pinelo,  and  Cordova,  preceded  the  famous  Jiecopilacion  de  Indices  of  1681. 

The  seventeenth  century  opens  appropriately  with  the  first  general  his- 
tory published  on  America,  the  Hktoria  General  de  loshechos  de  los  Castellanos 
en  la,^  Islas  y  ti'rrajirim  del  Mar  Oceano,  by  Antonio  de  Herrera,  chronicler 
of  the  king  of  Spain,  issued  in  1601-15,  and  subsequently  in  four  quarto 
volumes,  and  forming  the  first  general  history  published  on  America. 

Torquemada's  Monarch/a  Indiana  appeared  in  1613  in  three  large  volumes. 
It  is  a  richer  store-house  of  information  on  the  indigenous  tribes  oi  America 
than  had  before  been  printed,  together  with  the  history  and  description  of 
the  country. 

Thomas  Gage's  I^ew  Survey  of  the  West  Indies,  the  first  English  account  of 
western  affair:^,  was  first  printed  in  1648.  Although  somewhat  exaggerated 
in  tone,  and  severely  criticised  by  catholic  writers,  I  regard  Gage  as  the  best 
writer  on  America  up  to  his  time,  and  for  a  hundred  years  later. 

Boturini  gave,  in  1746,  suggestions  concerning  sources  and  method  for  a 
new  history  of  America  in  his  Idea.  It  may  have  proved  of  value  to  Munoz 
in  preparing  the  Hktona  del  Nuevo  Mundo,  which  stopped  with  the  first  vol- 
ume in  1793.      Robertson's  attractive  History  of  America  came  out  in  1777-96. 

Among  notable  sectional  histories,  from  which  the  general  chroniclers 
were  supposed  to  cull  most  of  their  information,  J  would  mention  a  rare 
and  forgotten  little  book,  almost  unknown  to  historians,  Gaspar  de  Vil- 
lagri's  Histwia  de  la  Nuevn  Mexico,  del  Capitan  Gaspar  de  Villajra,  ana  1610^ 
in  epic  form,  which  is  exceedingly  valuable  as  the  foundation  of  the  history 
of  New  Mexico. 

To  the  Isthmus  and  adjoining  region  relate  Timon's  Noticias  Hl^toriales, 
1626,  Piedraliita's  Historia  (jeneral  de  las  conquistas  del  nuevo  reyno  de  Granada, 
and  a  large  number  of  tracts  respecting  the  famous  Scot's  colony  at  Darien, 
which  began  to  appear  in  1699. 

Stachlin's  Neue  Nachrichten,  1776,  is  invaluable  for  the  history  of  Alaska.^ 
In  1632  was  presented  the  so-called  true  version  of  the  history  of  Cortes' 
conquest  in  the  Historia  Verdadera  of  Bernal  Diaz.  Fifty  years  later  Soils 
issued  his  less  reliable  account  in  the  Historia  de  la  Conquista,  which,  accepted 
as  a  model  of  elegance,  passed  through  more  editions  and  translations  than 
perhaps  any  other  Hispano- American  standard  work.  A  sequel  to  it  was 
published  in  1743  by  Salazar  y  Olarte,  in  the  most  extreme  of  inflated  Gdn- 
gorism.  The  defects  of  these  writers  were  remedied  in  Clavigero's  Storia 
Antica  del  Messico,  1780-1,  in  4  volumes,  which  covers  the  conquest  as  well  as 
aboriginal  annals  and  customs,  and  treats  the  subject  with  admirable  com- 
mon  sense.  .  . 

To  this  class  pertain  the  missionary  chronicles  of  the  provinces  or  orders 
to  which  the  authors  respectively  belong.  Written  with  a  naive  religious 
zeal  and  faith,  facts  suflFer  somewhat,  yet  with  experience  the  sifting  becomes 
easy.  A  large  number  have  reached  my  shelves  m  the  manuscript  form  be- 
yond which  they  failed  to  pass.  First  on  the  list  stands  Dayila  Padilla  s 
Historia  de  Santiago  de  Mexico,  of  1596,  revised  in  1625;  Remesals  Histona  de 


664  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITER  AT  QRE. 

S.  Vincents  de  Chyapa  y  Guatemala  is  a  very  rare  and  valuable  record,  printed 
in  1619.  Puente's  work  on  the  order  of  San  Augustin  in  Miclioacan,  and 
Grijalva's  Cronka  de  la  orden  de  N.  P.  S.  Augustin  de  la  nueva  Kspana,  bear 
date  1624.  A  Latin  chronicle  of  the  Franciscan  order  was  published  in 
Europe  in  1625.  Lizana's  Yucatan  appeared  in  1631,  and  in  1635  and  1643 
came  two  chronicles  of  the  Provinda  de  S.  Pedro  y  S.  Pablo  in  Miclioacan, 
both  surpassed  by  Beaumont's  Cronica  de  Mechoacan,  which  has  only  recently 
seen  the  press,  after  I  had  secured  a  manuscript  copy.  The  Historia  de  los 
Triumphos,  by  Ribas,  1645,  is  one  of  the  rarest  of  the  series,  and  relates 
chiefly  to  the  Jesuit  missions  in  northwest  Mexico.  Andres  de  Guadalupe's 
Provincia  de  los  Angeles  dates  from  1662.  Burgoa's  Palestra  Nistorlal  and 
Geogrixfica  Descripcion,  of  1674,  are  very  rare,  and  the  standard  authorities, 
especially  on  the  early  history  of  Oajaca. 

To  the  eighteenth  century  belong  the  missionary  chronicles  of  Vasquez 
on  Guatemala,  1714;  Arlegui,  Chronica  de  Zacatecas,  1737;  Espinosa's  Chronica 
Apostolica  y  Seraphica  de  todos  los  colegios  de  Propaganda  Fide,  1746,  continued 
in  Arrici vita's  Cronica  de  Queretaro,  1792;  Venegas'  Noticia  de  la  California,  3 
vols,  1757;  the  Apostolica  Afanes  of  the  company  of  Jesus,  1768;  accounts  by 
Baegert  and  others  on  Lower  California  missions;  Palou's  Relacion,  or  life  of 
Junipero  8erra,  founder  of  the  missions  of  Upper  California. 

Diaz  de  la  Calle's  Memorial  y  Noticia^,  1646,  is  a  statistical  handbook  on 
New  World  affairs.  The  Epitome  Sumario,  1659,  relates  to  the  I^Iexican  in- 
quisition. Gil  Gonzales  Davila's  IWitro  Eclesiastico,  1649,  narrates  the  lives 
of  early  church  dignitaries,  and  constitutes  a  valuable  history  of  early 
church  affairs  in  America.  In  1607  appeared  Garcia's  famous  Origen  de  los 
Indios  de  el  Nuevo  Mundo,  in  which  he  aims  to  present  all  the  theories  enter- 
tained on  the  origin  of  the  Indians.  The  same  question  was  weighed  dur- 
ing the  century  by  Grotius,  De  Laet,  Horn,  Spizelius,  Wagner,  and  in  the 
followiiig  century  notably  by  De  Panco.  It  is  fully  reviewed  in  my  Native 
Races,  v.  Stjlorzano  Pereira's  great  juridical  work  De  Indiarom  Ivre,  was  pub- 
lished in  1639.  Montemaya  de  Cuenea  treated  on  repartimientos  in  his 
Discurso  Politico-historico-jvridico,  1658. 

The  swelling  bulk  of  the  American  sections  in  the  world -descriptions  of 
the  old  cosmographical  works  so  numerous  during  the  jjast  century,  and  still 
published  to  some  extent,  suggested  a  series  of  compiled  works  devoted 
purely  to  the  New  World.  They  are  quaint  old  volumes,  generally  in  black- 
letter  and  quite  bulky,  with  maps  and  numerous  wood  cuts,  and  engravings 
of  monsters  and  abnormities.  Among  them  may  be  named  Ens'  history  of 
the  West  Indies,  the  West  und  Ost  Indl'^cher  Ltistgart  1618;  the  Nova  Typis 
Francacta  navigatio  Novo  Orhis  of  Philoponus,  1621;  the  West  Indische  Spiegliel, 
1624;  Gottfriedt's  A^me  Velt,  1631;  De  Laet'n  Novus  Orhis,  1633;  D'Avity's 
Le  Monde,  1637;  Ogilby's  Amei-ica,  and  De  Nieuioe  en  Onhekende  Weereld  of 
Montanus,  a  fine  old  Dutch  work,  clearly  printed  and  elaborately  illustrated 
1671.  The  profusely  illuminated  works  of  Doctors  Hernandez  and  Erasmus 
Franciscus  on  American  botany  are  among  the  curious  relics  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  This  class  and  their  prototypes,  with  quaint  illustrations, 
diminish  rapidly  after  1700.     Voyage  collections  continue  in  favor. 

Hulsins,  De  Bry,  and  Purchas  are  the  most  noticeable  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  although  all  of  them,  so  far  as  our  territory  is  concerned,  are  re- 
markable for  their  rarity  rather  than  for  their  intrinsic  importance.  The 
work  of  De  Bry  is  a  series,  rather  than  a  collection,  of  voyages  to  the  East 
and  West  Indies,  published  in  both  Latin  and  German  at  irregular  intervals 
from  1590  to  1634,  in  hastily  rehashed  editions,  culled  from  the  readiest  source, 
with  illustrations  drawn  from  fancy  to  fit  the  narrative.  The  series  is 
divided  by  the  sizes  of  the  volumes  into  '  great '  and  'little'  voyages,  the 
first  alone  relating  to  the  West  Indies  or  the  New  World.  The  engravings 
were  of  a  high  artistic  order  however,  and  assisted  to  sustain  the  mania  for 
forming  complete  sets  of  the  work. 

The  Hulsins  collection,  Sammlung  von  Seek  und  Zwanzig  Schiffahrten,  is  a 
similar  series  dating  from  1598  to  1650.     Its  text  is  considered  more  accu- 


NOTES.  665 

rately  edited  than  De  Bry,  and  a  complete  set  is  also  of  greater  rarity. 
Aslier  has  devoted  a  voluine  to  a  bibliographical  essay  on  Hulsius,  and  Camus 
has  done  the  same  for  De  Bry. 

Of  Pvrchas  his  Pihjriines  an  edition  was  published  in  1514,  but  the  com- 
plete and  now  rare  edition  in  five  large  folio  volumes  appeared  in  1525-6. 
During  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  began  the  narratives  of  the  voyages 
of  Lussan,  Sharp,  Dampier,  Wafer,  and  the  long  series  of  buccaneers  who 
infested  the  Spanish-American  waters.  Gemelli  Carreri's  Giro  del  Mwiido 
including  a  visit  to  Mexico,  was  published  in  1699.  ' 

Narrations  of  voyages  round  the  world,  and  in  the  northern  Pacific,  are 
numerous  and  important  during  the  following  century,  including  Woodes 
Rogers,  1718;  Shelvocke,  1726;  Anson,  1748;  Betagh,  1757;  Cook,  1773-84; 
Parkinson,  1784;  Portlock  and  Dixon,  1789;  Meares,  1790;  Vancouver' 
1798;  and  La  Perouse,  1798.  Collections  of  similar  accounts  are  accordingly 
more  numerous,  if  not  more  important,  than  formerly.  The  Harris  collec- 
tion, in  two  folios  was  published  in  1705;  a  Naaukeurhje  Versameliiig  in  thirty 
small  volumes  was  printed  in  1707  by  Pieter  van  der  Aa,  and  reproduced  in 
Gottfriedt's  German  collection  in  four  folios  in  1727.  The  Churchill  and 
Harleian  collections,  forming  together  ten  folios,  were  issued  in  1745  and 
1752.  Drake's  appeared  in  1771;  Forster's  in  1786;  Berenger's,  at  Paris, 
in  1788;  and  the  Spanish  Viagero  Universal  in  43  vols  in  1796.  I  have,  more- 
over, a  score  of  minor  collections  published  during  the  century  in  different 
languages,  for  the  most  part  without  the  name  of  editor  or  collector.  Ad- 
juncts to  these  are  Linage's  Norte  de  Contracion  of  1672,  translated  into 
English  in  1700  as  the  Spanish  Rule  of  Ti-ade,  and  Cabrera  Bueno's  Naveya- 
cion  Espendatioi  Practivo  printed  at  Manila  in  1734,  and  which  includes  a 
kind  of  Coast  Pilot  of  the  western  coast  of  North  America.  AntunezyAce- 
vedo's  memorial  on  the  commerce  of  the  Indies  appeared  in  1 797. 

Villa-Senor  y  Sanchez'  TJieatro  Americano,  1746,  is  of  a  geographic-statis- 
tical character,  which  finds  more  concise  and  complete  form  in  Alcedo's 
Diccionario  Oeograjico-Histonco,  1786-9,  in  5  volumes.  Leon  Pinelo's  Ejntome 
de  la  Bihliotheca,  1629,  in  three  volumes  is  the  earliest  attempt  at  American 
bibliography.  Alzates  Gacetas  de  Literatiira,  1 790-4,  marks  an  epoch  in  Mexico, 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Gazetas  de  Mexico,  begun  in  1784  as  a 
periodical  summary  of  events,  and  continued  till  1821.  This  valuable  set  of 
49  volumes  is  very  rare. 

Many  of  the  preceding  publications  may  be  recognized  as  the  product  of  the 
few  presses  existing  in  the  New  World  during  the  preceding  centuries.  The 
chief  emanations  from  this  source  consisted,  however,  in  catechisms,  rituals, 
vocabularies,  calendars,  regulations  of  the  several  religious  orders,  and  the  like. 
Biographical  sketches  of  American  priests  and  missionaries  beginning  per- 
haps with  the  life  of  Cordova  y  Bocanegra  in  1617,  are  very  numerous,  deal- 
ing with  the  Christian  virtues  of  the  subject  rather  than  with  the  events  of 
his  life.  Then  there  are  hundreds  of  printed  accounts  of  the  Apparition  of 
Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe,  and  of  other  miraculous  incidents.  Sermons  are 
found  in  still  greater  number.  It  seems  to  have  been  customary  from  the 
earliest  times  for  clergvmen  to  have  obituary  sermons  printed,  with  eulog- 
istic dedication  ;  they  are  often  of  a  mystic  character,  or  of  verbose  vapor 
in  which  the  deceased  is  often  not  mentioned  at  all,  or  accorded  slight 
allusion  in  praise  of  certain  qualities.  But  on  the  title  page  of  the  book, 
the  printing  of  which,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  patron  or  deceased  pays 
for,  there  is  compensation  in  the  fulsome  flattery  according  to  the  amount 
of  money  donated.  The  method  is  judicious,  for  it  assures  recognition  on 
the  only  page  that  is  apt  to  be  read. 

The  scientific  revival  preceding  the  opening  of  the  present  century  found 
fit  representation  in  the  works  of  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  based  on  per- 
sonal observations  during  his  travels  in  Spanish- America  from  1799  to  1804 
His  Vuen  dcs  Cordillire,  Examen  Critique  de  C  Histoire  de  la  G^ogra'phe,  and 
Essai  Politique  sur  la  Nonvelle  Espagne  are  monumental  m  Pacific  coast  litera- 
ture for  their  revelations  in  historic  and  scientific  branches,  and  for  the  m- 


666  EARLY  CALIFORNIA  LITERATURE. 

centive  they  gave  to  wider  investigation.  Civil  wars  supervened  to  check 
efforts  along  the  new  path,  while  calling  attention  to  regions  so  long  with- 
drawn from  the  world.  Intercourse  and  trade  with  enterprising  nations 
serve  however  to  strengthen  the  dawning  aspirations  on  both  sides  for  learn- 
ing more  of  each  other.  The  result  is  particularly  observable  in  the  historic, 
geographic,  and  statistical  publications  emanating  from  or  under  the  auspices 
of  societies  devoted  to  sucli  studies,  and  which  were  rapidly  organized  in 
the  late  Spanish  colonies.  The  iSociedad  de  Ueograha  y  Estadistica  of  Mexico 
has  signalized  itself  in  this  work  by  voluminous,  exhaustive,  and  varied  re- 
ports in  all  sections  of  the  republic,  in  emulation  with  the  travellers  and 
students  belonging  notably  to  the  American  Antiquarian  and  Ethnological 
societies,  to  the  Royal  Geographical  and  Hakluyt  societies  of  England,  the 
Societi  de  Geographie  of  France,  and  the  Academie  der  Wissenschaft  of 
Germany.  Private  books  on  similar  topics  are  instanced  by  Escudero  s 
Notici  IS  on  Chihuahua  and  Durango,  Squier's  Central  America,  Brantz 
Mayer's  Mexico,  and  others. 

While  priests  and  conquerors  united  in  establishing  the  outlines  of  South 
America,  the  north-west  reinaiued  involved  in  mystery  until  the  Russians, 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  established  its  separation  trom  Asia 
by  Bering  strait,  and  incited  the  jealous  Spaniards  and  English  to  renewed 
explorations  under  Cook  and  Vancouver,  and  by  the  Sritil  y  Mexicava,  which 
revealed  the  true  outline  of  the  coast.  The  search  for  the  north-west  pas- 
sage disclosed,  a  few  decades  later,  the  water  boundary  along  the  north, 
although  impracticable  for  navigation. 

Books  are  our  boon  companions,  ever  fresh,  ever  entertaining,  and  no  less 
welcome  for  their  savoir  vivre  than  for  their  antique  wisdom.  Printed  books 
are  social,  but  there  is  something  like  sacred  reserve  in  a  manuscript,  par- 
ticularly if  there  be  no  copy  of  it.  Then  it  stands  an  incarnated  soul,  whose 
visible  being  niay  by  vandal  book-burners  be  blotted  out,  even  as  the  assas- 
sin speeds  hence  the  soul  of  his  victim. 

Among  the  printed  books  of  a  library  there  are  many  faces  familiar  on 
other  shelves,  but  manuscripts  have  their  distinct  personality.  A  printed 
book  has  its  alter  ego  in  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  different  places  at  one  time; 
a  manuscript  is  like  a  man,  one  and  indivisible. 

In  America,  manuscripts  readily  span  the  entire  period  of  occupation,  and 
have  therefore  an  inestimable  chronologic  completeness.  The  slow  intro- 
duction of  the  printing-press  iiitothe  different  colonies  prompted  greater  de- 
pendence on  pen  and  ink  records.  Involving  as  these  do  the  beginning  and 
development  of  nearly  all  existing  orders  of  things,  their  importance  is  corre- 
spondingly increased.  They  represent  in  Spanish  America  the  efforts  of  three 
successively  dominating  races,  and  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  sections  of  the  ener- 
getic founders  of  states,  planted  midst  warfare  and  hardships.  They  reveal 
in  the  chirography  the  characteristics  of  these  men  and  races,  and  breathe 
in  the  style  the  spirit  which  animated  here  cruel  conquerors,  there  peaceful 
missionaries,  fearless  explorers,  and  enterprising  settlers,  oppressed  natives, 
and  struggling  communities. 

They  embrace  edicts  and  regulations  by  political  and  ecclesiastical  author- 
ities, memorials  and  petitions  of  towns  and  individuals,  reports  and  statistics 
by  officials  and  mission  fathers,  correspondence  of  traders  and  industrial 
representatives,  and  of  private  persons  who  picture  the  inner  phases  of  so- 
ciety. They  are  originals  and  select  copies,  and  dictations  from  pioneers 
and  prominent  men  in  all  branches  of  life,  giving  their  experiences  and  views 
of  affairs.  This  and  more  is  contained  in  that  particular  portion  which  I 
regard  as  the  gem  of  my  library.  Arranged  and  bound  in  volumes,  the  offi- 
cial and  private  correspondence  in  itself  presents  a  complete  historic  outline. 
The  dictations  cover  it  in  another  form,  the  number  of  testimonies  on  each 
point  serving  to  substantiate  the  principal  facts  in  each  occurrence.  One 
series  of  shelves  contain,  in  concise  form,  the  entire  archives  of  California 
from  1769  for  the  following  hundred  years,  as  reduced  from  the  official  depos- 


NOTES.  667 

itory,  and  weeded  of  superfluities.  The  value  of  the  California  manuscripts, 
original  and  copies,  can  best  be  estimated  by  the  statement  that  from 
the  in  alone  can  be  written  a  far  more  complete  history  than  from  all  the 
printed  accounts  and  books  extant;  these  latter  being,  for  that  matter, 
very  defective  on,  or  containing  no  allusion  whatever  to,  some  of  the  most 
interesting  episodes.  Thus  far  in  illustration  of  the  importance  of  American 
and  particularly  Pacific  manuscripts. 

Still  greater  treasures  would  have  reached  us  but  for  the  vandalism,  first 
of  bigoted  ecclesiastics,  at  whose  hands  the  shadow  of  knowledge  received 
more  attention  than  the  substance.  American  gold  was  Christ's,  but  Amer- 
ican art  and  science  were  Satan's.  Bishops  led  the  way  in  raids  on  the 
choicest  specimens  of  native  craft,  and  even  of  the  fruits  of  immortal  mind 
black  smoke-clouds  were  made  which  should  obscure  still  more  the  rays  of 
the  engendering  sun.  The  raids  revived  later  during  the  internecine  wars, 
which  in  Spanish  America  led  to  the  destruction  of  archives  and  to  the  scat- 
tering of  libraries.  To  the  latter  my  shelves  bear  witness  in  thousands  of 
volumes  gathered  at  the  sale  of  such  collections  as  the  Andrade-Maximilian. 

Among  these  manuscripts  are  four  bulky  tomes  containing  the  original  acts 
of  the  first  three  provincial  councils  held  in  Mexico  during  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, together  with  the  various  petitions  and  questions  on  civil  and  religious 
ati'airs  submitted  to  their  decision,  and  provided  with  the  autographs  and 
seals  of  the  king,  prelates,  ofiicials,  and  men  of  note.  Their  value  may  be 
understood  when  we  consider  the  important  role  played  by  the  church  in 
afi'airs  of  state — in  open  council  or  behind  it — even  during  later  times,  in  the 
wane  of  her  power,  and  her  continued  influence  over  the  individual  by  means 
of  pulpit  and  confessionil. 

The  spiritual  administration,  and  even  secular  branches,  in  the  whole  of 
Spanish  northern  and  central  America,  were  regulated  by  the  decrees  of  the 
three  councils  of  bishops  contained  in  the  four  volumes  of  original  records 
before  me;  and  their  rules,  approved  by  popes  and  kings,  have  in  a  greater 
or  less  degree  controlled  the  destiny  of  the  Spanish -speaking  race  in  America 
till  the  present  day. 

The  first  council  was  convened  in  1555  by  Alonso  de  Montiifar,  second 
archbishop  of  Mexico,  assisted  by  four  bishops;  the  second  ten  years  later, 
by  the  same  prelate,  attended  by  five  bishops;  and  the  third  in  1585,  under 
the  presidency  of  Pedro  Moya  y  Contreras,  archbishop  and  viceroy,  with 
seven  bishops,  one  by  proxy.  "  The  principal  points  referred  to  are,  the  pro- 
fession of  faitli,  instruction  books,  Indian  regulations,  church  decrees,  sac- 
raments, ceremonies  and  rites,  testaments,  feasts,  marriage,  regulations  for 
clergy,  tribunals,  notaries  and  alcaldes,  usury,  sorcery,  blasphemy,  and 
immorality. 

The  acts  are  signed  by  the  several  members  of  the  councils,  with  a 
rubrica,  or  elaborate  flourish,  which  forms  the  essential  part  of  Spanish- 
American  signatures,  or  with  an  initial  affixed  to  the  episcopal  title.  Some 
of  the  regulations  point  to  laxity  among  the  clergy  in  connection  with 
gambling  and  women.  Several  of  the  catechisms  and  doctrinas,  regulations, 
and  commentaries  by  these  councils  form  special  volumes  on  my  shelves, 
signed  by  the  presiding  prelates.  i     ^    x  i  •  i 

A  pastoral  of  Zumarraga  is  interesting  as  being  from  the  first  bishop  on 
the  continent,  relating  to  the  foundation  of  the  cathedral  at  Mexico,  and 
containing  an  order  signed  Yo  la  Reyna— the  usual  autocratic  form  ot 
Spanish  sovereigns— by  Queen  Juana,  mother  of  Charles  V. 

The  nature  of  early  Spanish  manuscripts  reveal  the  predominance  of 
friars  and  churchmen  in  clerical  tasks,  as  missionaries  and  as  attendants  ot 
explorers,  conquerors,  and  pioneers.  Tlie  reports  and  correspondence  are 
largely  from  their  pen.  Tlie  religious  feeling  enforced  and  sustained  by  the 
church,  and  the  work  of  converting  the  numerous  natives,  gave  moreover  a 
preponderating  stamp  to  pen  productions  in  the  form  of  sermons  and  pas- 
torals, devotional  exercis  s,  sacred  allegories  comments  on  miracles  and 
shrines,  saintly  panegyrics  and  biographies.     The  regard  for  these  efforts  is 


668  EARLY   CALIFORNIA  LITERATURK 

further  indicated  by  the  frequent  illumination  of  text  and  title  pages  with 
capitals,  traceries  in  blue  and  red,  scrolls,  floral  decorations,  arches,  aod 
pedestals,  with  shields  and  euiblazonings,  cherubs,  and  symbols,  in  imitation 
of  the  uiediaeval  monk  productions  on  vellum,  as  in  the  elaborate  Moralia  S. 
Grefjorii  Pape,  a  commentary  on  the  book  of  Job  in  35  parts,  by  the  saintly 
Gregory.  It  is  written  in  small,  close,  Gothic  type,  so  even  as  to  resend)le 
printing.  A  monument  of  patient  industry,  it  is  also  an  attractive  specimen 
of  ornamentation. 

Many  of  the  early  chronicles  which  failed  to  reach  the  press  lie  on  my 
shelves  in  original  or  copied  manuscript,  yet  present  fully  as  valuable  mate- 
rial as  those  in  publislied  form.  This  has  lately  been  recognized  by  the 
printed  issue  of  several  aniong  them,  under  the  auspices  of  societies  and 
zealous  scholars.  This  is  also  the  case  with  such  documents  as  the  Lihro  de 
Cahildo  of  Mexico,  with  the  enactments  of  the  first  city  council  on  the  North 
American  continent;  likewise  the  reports  and  memorials  of  early  Central 
American  and  Mexican  explorers,  from  Columbus  to  Alvarado,  and  later. 
Diaries  form  an  important  section;  scientific  and  philosophical  treatises 
abound.  The  originals  of  the  prolific  Mexican  historian  and  legislator,  Busta- 
mante,  revealed  to  me  much  important  matter  suppressed  when  they  were 
sent  to  the  printer,  and  shedding  additional  light  on  his  period.  The  Mexi- 
cans have  a  forensic  phraseology  in  their  correspondence,  and  the  mass  of 
legal  papers  seems  to  indicate  a  fondness  for  juridic  mysticism.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  declamatory  style  and  softness  of  their  language  lead  natu- 
rally to  versification,  for  which  their  vivacity,  social  gayety,  and  gallantry 
afford  frequent  excuse.  Numerous  collections  of  unpublished  poems,  and 
single  pieces,  especially  lyric  and  satiric,  bear  witness  to  the  disposition. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

PLATO  REVISED. 
Tantum  religio  potuit  suadere  malorum  \— Lucretius. 

Socrates.      Can  this  be  Plato  ? 

Flato.     It  is  he. 

Socrates.     Where  are  we? 

Plato.  In  hell  or  heaven  ;  I  know  not  how  the 
place  is  called  ;  but  howsoever  called  it  is  the  same, 
and,  let  us  hope,  a  happy  conservation-ground  for  the 
gods. 

Socrates.  Is  it  a  place  ?  Are  we  awake  ?  How 
long  have  I  slept  ? 

Plato.  If  w^e  are  not  awake,  then  is  it  no  place — 
perhaps  in  any  event  more  a  condition  than  a  place  ; 
and  if  it  be  within  the  realm  of  eternity,  the  measure 
of  days  is  not  employed.  Some  lately  come  hither 
from  where  time  is  told  say  there  are  a  score  and 
more  of  centuries  since  the  affair  of  the  hemlock. 

Socrates.  Ah  I  I  remember.  I  was  permitted  to 
kill  myself  because  Melitus  said  I  did  not  believe  in 
the  gods —  that  I  sought  too  curiously  into  things 
above  the  earth  and  under  it,  and  made  the  worse 
ap])ear  the  better. 

Plato.  Ill  commonly  befalls  him  who  speaks  against 
time-honored  traditions,  dissuading  men  from  their 
favorite  opinions. 

Socrates.  But  what  if  they  believe  a  lie  ;  what  if 
there  are  no  gods  on  Olympus,  no  reserved  heaven  of 
happiness,  no  hades,  with  infernal  enginery  for  the 
torture  of  departed  souls  ? 

Plato.     Men   would   rather  not  know,  than  know 

(669) 


670  PLATO  REVISED. 

what  likes  them  not.  Besides,  Socrates,  you  never 
taught  that  doctrine.  You  have  ever  upheld  all 
respectable  deities,  would  not  tolerate  Homer  where 
he  criticises  their  conduct,  would  not  even  admit  that 
it  were  possible  for  them  to  do  wrong.  If  you 
believed  not  in  the  gods,  why  ordered  you  a  cock 
sacrificed  to  ^sculapius  ? 

Socrates.  As  being  is  to  becoming  so  is  truth  to 
belief,  and  believing  to  doing.  Habit  is  strong  within 
us,  and  worshippers  must  not  too  closely  scrutinize  the 
character  and  morals  of  the  object  of  their  adoration  ; 
else  they  will  not  long  be  worshippers.  We  may 
truly  say  that  the  gods  have  much  to  answer  for,  man 
having  sacrificed  to  them  many  of  his  noblest 
impulses. 

I^lato.  You  have  ever  listened  to  the  divine  voice, 
my  master,  and  possessed  the  wisdom  to  apprehend 
ignorance,  even  if  found  within  yourself;  for  it  is  no 
less  the  mark  of  wisdom  to  know  wherein  we  know 
not  than  to  know  wherein  we  know.  Your  philosophy 
comes  humanized  from  heaven. 

Socrates.  I  have  always  loved  knowledge,  my 
Plato,  deemed  it  virtue,  and  the  condition  of  soul 
incident  thereto  the  highest  good,  and  preferred  the 
study  of  human  nature  of  which  we  may  know  much, 
to  that  of  the  divine  nature  of  which  we  can  learn  so 
little. 

Plato.  In  that  thou  showest  true  wisdom,  O 
Socrates.  A  proper  apprehension  of  the  nature  of 
ideas  unfolds  a  system  of  perfect  and  perpetual  types 
as  the  foundation  of  all  morality.  Philosophy  is  not 
alone  knowledge,  or  speculation,  but  wisdom,  that  is 
wise  action,  and  virtue,  which  is  nothing  less  than 
practical  reason. 

Socrates.  Yes,  Plato,  notwithstanding  its  occasional 
transcendental  flights,  your  philosophy  is  essentially 
altruistic.  Virtue  is  wisdom  and  vice  folly  ;  moder- 
ation and  justice  are  two  of  the  chief  Platonic  virtues, 
moderation   meaning    sound-mindedness,  and  justice 


PLATO  REVISED.  671 

assigning  to  acts  and  functions  their  proper  places. 
Yet  Platonic  philosophy,  though  altruistic  and  prac- 
tical, is  eminently  theologic,  action  being  the  highest 
aim  of  man,  morality  the  ideal  of  action,  and  God, 
author  of  all,  the  ideal  of  ideals,  or  supreme  source 
of  virtue  and  excellence. 

Plato.  Platonic  philosophy,  as  you  are  pleased  to 
term  it,  comes  from  Socrates  and  Greece,  and  embodies, 
like  the  teachings  of  the  Buddha,  and  all  subsequent 
founders  of  new  and  great  religions,  all  that  was  best 
in  all  that  previously  existed.  You,  my  master,  were 
a  moral  phenomenon,  appearing  midway  between  two 
other  great  teachers,  the  Buddha  and  the  Christ.  In 
conjunction  with  a  lofty  soul  you  displayed  strong 
animal  propensities,  and  had,  if  you  remember,  a  flat 
nose,  prominent  eyes,  and  were  not  remarkably  fine 
looking.  The  comic  poet  Aristophanes  ridiculed  you 
in  his  comedy  of  The  Clouds,  yet  not  in  the  least  to 
your  discomfiture.  You  taught  in  poverty  without 
pay,  overturning  false  systems,  and  inculcating  superi- 
ority of  soul  and  the  true  welfare  of  man  in  prefer- 
ence to  worldly  pleasures.  You  were  captious  and 
critical,  dealt  freely  in  sarcasm,  pricked  bubbles,  and 
despised  meaningless  phrases.  You  were  always 
attacking  popular  opinion.  Any  doctrine  whose  log- 
ical conclusions  were  palpably  absurd  you  Avould 
promptly  put  away.  Knowing  little  of  natural 
science,  you  turned  from  physical  phenomena  to  the 
sovereignty  of  truth  as  revealed  by  man's  conscious- 
ness. It  was  because  you  denounced  popular  vice, 
exposed  sophistry,  and  scourged  folly  that  you  were 
persecuted.     It  is  the  fate  of  reformers. 

Socrates.  Enough,  my  Plato.  Of  you  I  will  only 
say  that  your  effort  to  combine  poetry  and  philoso- 
phy in  your  writings  was  most  successful,  the  result 
being  a  model  of  artistic  perfection  united  with  the 
most  profound  philosophic  acuteness.  Yet  you  are  a 
little  too  polemical,  some  might  say,  and  at  times  one- 
sided, particularly  when   the   supremacy   of  thought 


672  PLATO  REVISED. 

comes  in  conflict  with  the  claims  of  the  senses.  Again, 
ethics  and  ontology  are  so  blended  that  it  is  often 
impossible  to  apprehend  your  meaning,  and  when  you 
descend  to  deal  in  the  unknowable  your  superiority  is 
wholly  lost.  Am  I  right  in  my  surmise,  O  greatest  and 
best  of  men,  that  you  adopted  the  dialogistic  form, 
following  the  Socratic  idea,  not  so  much  to  communi- 
cate knowledge  as  to  lead  to  the  spontaneous  dis- 
covery of  it  ? 

Plato.     Quite  right,  Socrates. 

Socrates.  In  the  Theaetetus  we  find  developed  the 
Platonic  theory  of  knowledge,  which,  1  might  say,  is 
too  idealistic  for  practical  minds. 

Plato.  In  the  formation  of  conceptions  mind 
rather  than  sensation  is  the  dominant  factor. 

Socrates.  True;  but  I  surmise  that  times  have 
changed  since  our  happy  days  at  Athens,  and  that  in 
present  aflairs  the  real  stands  above  the  fanciful. 

Plato,  therefore,  must  we  forever  continue  our 
negative  discussion  of  the  philosophy  of  life  begun  in 
the  ancient  dialectics  ? 

Socrates.     Assuredly  not. 

Plato.  Yet,  how  far  shall  we  venture,  O  Socrates  ? 
Are  you  prepared  to  ask  yourself.  Is  the  divine 
reached  through  the  human,  or  the  human  through 
the  divine  ? 

Socrates.  Before  attempting  to  answer  that  ques- 
tion, Plato,  I  would  know  something  more  of  the 
moral  attnosphere  of  this  place,  and  what  advance,  if 
any,  has  been  made  toward  fathoming  the  secrets  of 
the  universe  since  we  were  in  Athens.  Long  laid 
away  the  mind  becomes  musty,  and  I  could  never 
talk  well  in  the  dark. 

Plato.  Nothing  new  is  known ;  nothing  can  be 
learned  even  here.  Some  backward  advance  has 
been  made,  which  is  indeed  sometimes  the  greatest 
progress  forward,  in  unlearning  what  was  wrongly 
learned.  Long  has  been  the  time  of  meditation,  and 
hard  the  words  to  utter,  even  by  mouths  of  gravest 


PLATO  REVISED.  673 

wisdom,  that  of  the  unknowable  man  can  know 
nothing. 

Socrates.  But  who  shall  say  there  is  aught  to  man 
unknowable,  either  on  earth  or  in  heaven?  Let 
mind  be  matter,  and  matter  immortal ;  let  soul  be 
nature,  and  nature  God  ;  then  is  it  not  folly  for  man, 
a  half-finished  product  of  the  universe,  to  limit  the 
powers  of  nature  and  of  mind  ? 

Plato.  Since  coming  hither  and  finding  neither 
entity  nor  nonentity,  I  have  been  tempted  to  review 
somewhat  my  own  and  others'  teachings. 

Socrates.  Little  have  I  taught,  though  questioning 
much.  They  say  I  professed  ignorance  as  a  foil  to 
sarcasm.  Little  need  for  feigning,  as  I  am  reminded 
by  my  present  surroundings.  On  what  based  you, 
Plato,  the  knowledge  that  you  taught  ? 

Plato.     On  traditions  and  intuitions. 

Socrates.     Of  what  ? 

Plato.  Of  origin,  agency,  immortality,  and  the 
rest. 

Socrates.  In  the  Timseus  it  is  written  that  for 
everything  there  is  a  cause;  for  the  creation  of  the 
world  the  father  of  all,  the  best  of  causes,  who,  being 
good,  and  finding  things  in  disorder,  framed  the  uni- 
verse, this  world,  his  fairest  work,  becoming  a  living 
soul,  with  divine  life  of  everlasting  motion. 

Plato.     It  is  so  written. 

Socrates.  And,  having  been  created  in  this  way, 
the  world  has  been  framed  with  a  view  to  that  which 
is  apprehended  by  reason  and  mind. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  And  that  the  beginning  of  everything 
should  be  according  to  nature. 

Plato.     It  must  be  so. 

Socrates.  Where  shall  we  look  for  the  beginning, 
Plato  ? 

Plato.  As  I  have  said,  in  the  best  of  causes,  the 
father  of  all. 

Socrates.     Tell   me,   what   were  the    things  which 

Essays  and  Miscellany    43 


674  PLATO  REVISED. 

the  father  of  all  found  in  disorder  when  he  framed 
them  into  a  harmonious  cosmos  ? 

Plato.  Chaos,  that  vacant,  infinite  space,  or  con- 
fused shapeless  mass,  out  of  which  sprang  all  things 
that  exist. 

Socrates.  And  God  was  there,  God  and  Chaos, 
only  those  two  ;  and  what  and  whence  were  they,  mv 
Plato? 

Plato,  Out  of  chaos  arose  all  things,  and  gods  and 
men. 

Socrates.  Who  made  the  gods  and  men  and  all 
things  out  of  chaos  ? 

Plato.     The  great  artificer. 

Socrates.     That  is  to  say,  God  ? 

Plato.     Socrates,  yes. 

Socrates.     Plato,  who  was  first,  Chaos  or  God  ? 

Plato.  By  Jupiter  I  Socrates,  why  do  you  ask  me 
such  a  question  ? 

Socrates.  Not  that  I  expect  an  answer,  truly,  but 
that  I  mav  ask  another. 

Plato.     What  is  that  ? 

Socrates.  You  say  that  everything  that  is  must 
have  been  created  by  some  cause.  God  exists  and 
chaos  was.  Which  was  first,  God  or  chaos,  you  cannot 
tell  ;  how  can  you  better  know  or  better  explain  the 
creation  of  the  universe  outof  chaos  than  the  creation 
or  existence  of  chaos  ? 

Plato.  I  know,  Socrates,  you  merely  wish  to  talk, 
and  though  I  see  no  profit  in  it,  I  will  humor  you. 

Socrates.  I  would  to  God,  Plato,  I  might  do  more 
than  talk.  Many  bubbles  have  I  pricked,  many  false 
doctrines  exposed,  but  here  would  I  gladly  be  estab- 
lished. 

Plato.  Whether  we  will  or  no,  we  must  distin- 
guish cause  from  condition  ;  or  rather  we  must  some- 
where cease  to  question  for  a  cause  and  accept  the 
condition. 

Socrates.  Then  why  not  take  up  the  question  of 
cause  from  some  real  and  tanojible  condition  ? 


PLATO  REVISED.  675 

Plato.     There  is  no  law  against  it. 

Socrates,  But  when  asked,  was  the  world  created, 
or  had  it  always  existence,  created,  you  reply,  being 
as  you  say,  visible  and  tangible  and  having  a  body, 
and  therefore  sensible,  as  more  fully  explained  in  your 
Timseus. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  And  you  further  state,  in  that  not  too 
logical  effusion,  that  the  causes  God  employs  are  of 
two  kinds,  intelligent  and  unintelligent,  and  the  pro- 
duct is  made  up  of  necessity  and  mind.  Mind,  you 
say,  the  ruling  power,  persuaded  necessity  to  bring 
the  greater  part  of  created  things  to  perfection,  and 
thus  in  the  beginning,  when  the  influence  of  reason 
got  tlie  better  of  necessity,  the  universe  was  created. 
All  this  is  pure  fancy,  as  any  one  may  know  ;  and 
you  finally  admit  that  you  cannot  explain  first  prin- 
ciples, and  will  not  discuss  the  origin  of  things, 
though  you  have  your  opinion  thereon. 

Plato,     You  are  wholly  correct. 

Socrates.  But  my  dear  Plato,  how  can  you  better 
explain  the  ways  of  God  than  the  origin  of  God  ? 
You  will  admit  that  you  know  no  more  of  one  than 
of  the  other ;  that  you  were  no  more  present  at  the 
creation  of  the  world  than  at  the  creation  of  the 
creator.  And  yet,  while  you  decline  to  discuss  the 
one  you  will  discourse  upon  the    other  till  doomsday. 

Plato.  The  world  being  visible  and  tangible,  I  said 
it  had  a  creator ;  the  creator  being  invisible  and 
intangible,  I  said  I  could  not  account  for  his  becom- 
ing. 

Socrates.  That  does  not  answer  my  question, 
which  was,  how  can  you  better  explain  the  acts  than 
the  origin  of  an  invisible  creator,  knowing  nothing  of 
either  ? 

Plato.  We  must  fall  back  on  tradition,  Socrates, 
which  has  had  more  to  do  in  forming  opinion  than 
all  other  evidence  and  influence  combined. 

Socrates.     What  has  tradition   to  do  with  it  ?     Did 


076  PLATO  REVISED. 

the  earlier  and  more  ignorant  men  know  more  of  their 
maker  than  we  ? 

Plato,  Of  the  origin  of  the  great  artificer  we  have 
held  that  it  is  sacrilege  to  question  ;  to  tell  of  other 
divinities  and  to  know  their  origin  is  beyond  us,  and 
we  must  accept  the  genealogies  of  the  poets  and  the 
traditions  of  the  men  of  old  who  affirm  themselves  to 
be  the  offspring  of  the  gods,  and  they  must  surely 
have  known  the  truth  about  their  own  anceetors. 

Socrates.     How  should  they  know  ? 

Flato.     They  were  so  told. 

Socrates.     Who  told  them  ? 

Plato,     Their  ancestors. 

Socrates.     And  who  told  their  ancestors  ? 

Plato.     Those  who  lived  before  them. 

Socrates.  Ye  gods  I  Plato  ;  and  is  this  the  only 
basis  of  your  belief  ? 

Plato.  How  can  we  doubt  the  word  of  the  children 
of  the  gods  ? 

Socrates.  Do  you  know  there  were  ever  any  gods, 
or  if  so  that  they  had  any  children,  or  if  so  that 
they  ever  so  asserted  ? 

Plato.  It  is  true  that  they  give  no  certain,  or  even 
probable  proof;  yet,  as  they  declare  that  they  are 
speaking  of  family  traditions,  we  must  believe  them 
in  obedience  to  the  laws. 

Socrates.  By  the  dog  of  Egypt  I  Plato,  that  were 
stout  argument  for  the  blockheads  of  Athens,  two 
thousand  years  ago — we  must  obey  the  law  and 
believe  them  !  My  dear  friend,  where  have  you  been 
since  I  last  saw  you  ?  Although  I  have  slept,  I 
am  aware  that  all  these  centuries  there  has  been 
progress,  which  is  indeed  eternal  as  the  gods  them- 
selves, and  that  I  am  now  with  all  the  world  far 
away  from  the  Greece  of  old.  One  cannot  sleep  a 
single  night  and  aw^ake  to  find  himself  the  same  ; 
much  less  can  the  soul  lie  dormant  for  centuries. 

Plato.  Socrates,  you  speak  the  truth.  I,  too,  am 
not  the  Plato  of  old,  else  I   were  not  Plato,  beliefs 


PLATO  REVISED.  677 

having  so  changed,  and  knowledge  having  so  won- 
derfully increased.  But  when  you  question  after  the 
ancient  way,  constrained  by  my  custom  I  answer  in 
like  manner.  As  to  our  gods,  I  really  doubt  if  they 
be  worth  further  recounting.  There  are  Oceanus 
and  Tethys,  children  of  earth  and  heaven,  from  whom 
sprang  Phorcys  and  Chronos  and  Rhea,  and  many 
others ;  and  from  Chronos  and  Rhea  sprang  Zeus  and 
Here,  and  their  brethren  and  children ;  and  there  were 
many  others,  as  we  all  know. 

Socrates.  I  know  that  you  have  said  that  Homer 
and  Hesiod,  and  others  of  the  poets  who  catalogue 
the  gods,  have  ever  been  the  greatest  story-tellers  of 
mankind,  their  fault  being  that  of  telling  a  lie,  and 
what  is  more,  a  bad  lie,  whenever  a  representation  is 
made  of  the  nature  of  gods  and  heroes. 

Plato.  Nevertheless,  the  fact  that  the  poets  were 
not  always  truthful  does  not  prove  that  traditions  are 
false.  What  I  understand  to  be  the  modern  doctrine 
of  emanation,  or  a  philosophic  transformation  of  the 
idea  of  an  original  creation  of  the  world,  which 
makes  the  universe  a  product  of  the  divine  nature, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  physical  rather  than  a  moral 
act,  had  its  origin  in  the  east  ages  ago,  and  differs 
little  from  the  modern  theory  of  evolution,  though 
somewhat  reversing  the  order  of  things. 

Socrates.  Let  us  question  for  a  moment  the  value 
of  tradition,  and  see  where  the  ancient  manner  of 
discussion  thereon  will  lead  us.  Whence  comes  tra- 
dition, Plato  ? 

Plato.  Answering  after  the  former  method  I 
should  say  from  those  the  gods  first  made. 

Socrates.  I  notice,  Plato,  in  your  Statesman  you 
give  a  tradition  which  you  say  may  be  proved  by 
internal  evidence. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     Had  the  children  of  the  gods  intuitions  ? 

Plato.     Certainly. 

Socrates.     And  their  children  had  traditions? 


678  PLATO  REVISED. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     And  we  have  both? 

Plato.     We  have. 

Socrates.  Then  we  may  prove  tradition  by  intu- 
ition and  intuition  by  tradition? 

Plato.     That  is  the  logical  conclusion. 

Socrates.  The  study  of  evolution  raises  a  doubt  as 
to  the  construction  of  this  world  out  of  nothing  for 
man's  supremacy.  Where  now  are  the  gods  of 
Olympus,  and  that  golden  age  of  wisdom  and  happi- 
ness of  which  poets  sang?  In  vain  we  search  the 
by-paths  of  history ;  no  trace  of  gods  or  demi-gods 
remain.  And  the  one  invisible  God,  creator  of  all, 
has  been  driven  by  science  farther  and  farther  back, 
until  now  he  is  well-nigh  lost  to  us. 

Plato.  The  traditions  of  the  Chinese,  and  other 
nations  called  half  civilized  or  savage,  seem  near  akin 
to  the  truth,  affirming  as  they  do  that  their  primo- 
genitors went  naked,  had  no  fire,  lived  in  caves,  ate 
raw  meat,  and  that  man}^  ages  elapsed  before  any 
consciousness  of  their  uncomfortable  state  dawned 
upon  them. 

Socrates.  There  are  the  seen  and  unseen,  the 
apparent  and  non-apparent,  the  material  and  the 
spiritual,  but  all  natural,  each  living  in  the  other,  the 
universal  forces  ever  passing  from  one  to  the  other, 
all  cooperative  in  endless  evolution. 

Plato.     So  says  science. 

Socrates.  To  come  back  to  the  origin  of  things. 
You,  Plato,  who  were  taught  music,  gymnastics,  and 
literature,  who  essayed  poetry,  and  who  in  philosophy 
soug^ht  the  ideal  rather  than  the  real  and  material, 
investigating  mind  rather  than  matter,  surely  you,  if 
any  one,  should  be  able  to  give  mankind  some  reason- 
able and  apprehensible  explanation  of  the  source  of 
existing  phenomena. 

Plato.  In  fathoming  the  mysteries  of  existence,  O 
Socrates,  surely  my  ideal  philosophy,  which  plays 
with  art  and  poetry  and  feeds  on  inborn  conceptions, 


PLATO   REVISED.  679 

is  of  no  more  value  than  your  searching  and  dis- 
cruninating  analyses  of  things  and  beliefs,  which  seek 
the  definite  and  certain  as  the  foundation  of  knowl- 
edge. 

Socrates.  In  the  Republic,  and  also  in  the  Laws, 
you  prove,  to  your  own  apparent  satisfaction,  and  m 
the  main  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  people  of  Athens, 
and  all  the  world,  the  existence,  nature,  and  origin  of 
the  gods  and  of  the  universe,  how  all  that  is  was 
made,  and  by  whom,  and  endowed  with  soul  and 
immortality;  what  soul  is,  and  mind,  and  matter,  and 
the  rest ;  you,  the  profoundest  and  divinest  of  philos- 
ophers, appearing  in  the  centre  of  the  world's  highest 
culture  ;  you  explained  minutely  all  this,  and  much 
more,  of  which  man  could  know  nothing,  but  which, 
however,  was  largely  believed  by  many,  some  of  your 
speculations  being  entertained  to  this  day  ;  tell  me,  I 
pray  you,  whence  came  your  so-called  vast  knowledge 
of  things  so  far  beyond  the  apprehension  of  the  ordi- 
nary mind  ? 

Plato.  I  told  you,  Socrates,  from  tradition  and 
intuition. 

Socrates.  Are  oral  or  written  communications 
deemed  most  reliable  ? 

Plato.     Obviously,  written  communications. 

Socrates.  Classify  traditions  as  secular  and  sacred  ; 
would  the  former  prove  mostly  true  or  false  ? 

Plato.     In  the  main,  false. 

Socrates.     This  is  proved  by  history  ? 

Plato.     It  is. 

Socrates.  If  the  early  traditions  regarding  the  real 
are  mostly  false,  may  we  not  infer  the  same  or  worse 
in  regard  to  the  fanciful  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Then  what  shall  we  say  regarding  the 
thousands  of  conflicting  traditions  ? 

Plato.     Some  of  them  must  be  untrue. 

Socrates.  When  we  consider  how  creeds  originate 
and  are  preserved,  expression  born  of  fear  and  expla- 


680  PLATO  REVISED. 

nation  forced,  heaven's  conviction  falling  from  imagi- 
nation-clouds, and  breathed  into  the  soul  midst  the 
fervid  feelings  of  unrest,  we  can  see  how  but  a  step  fur- 
ther the  substance  and  shadow  become  one,  the 
attainment  of  a  good  being  made  to  depend  upon  the 
self-enslavement  of  intellect  and  the  prostitution  of 
reason  to  the  extent  of  wilhng  a  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  that  good.  The  creed  accumulations  of  the 
centuries,  gathered  now  into  books  of  divers  names, 
each  an  abomination  to  the  others,  are  placed  before 
the  youths  of  the  various  religions,  all  being  told  to 
believe  their  particular  book  under  penalty  of  the  se- 
verest punishment  a  benignant  deity  can  invent.  They 
must  not  question;  they  must  only  believe.  Later, 
skilled  teachers  explain  away  absurdities,  while  flat 
contradictions  and  impossibilities  are  placed  in  the 
category  of  things  not  at  present  to  be  understood. 
The  works  of  the  creator  are  examined  ;  where  they 
are  good  the  creator  is  praised  ;  where  bad,  the  blame 
is  thrown  on  another  deity  which  omnipotence  cannot 
or  will  not  annihilate.  If  this  be  the  best  method  to 
arrive  at  truth,  why  not  employ  it  in  worldly  affairs, 
where,  if  we  do  not  use  our  reason,  and  trust  for 
results  to  the  knowledge  of  experience,  we  are  justly 
blamed  or  punished  ?  We  must  know  and  under- 
stand before  we  can  believe.  Evidence,  based  on 
sense  or  reason,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  belief. 
To  repeat  parrot-like  a  formula  and  cry  credo!  is  not 
belief.  And  if  evidence  carries  reason  away  from 
tradition,  let  not  theology  be  filled  with  horror,  and 
insult  the  almighty  by  saying  that  savagisms  and 
superstitions  please  him  better  than  the  exercise  of 
that  noblest  of  faculties  found  in  his  creation. 

Plato.  And  what  say  you  with  regard  to  intuition 
Socrates  ?  It  has  been  held  that  as  one  of  the  agen- 
cies through  which  works  the  almighty,  man  should 
pay  heed  to  the  sympathies  voiced  within  him. 

Socrates.  But  these  intuitive  sympathies  which 
many  mistake  for  beliefs  are  multiform,  opposed  one 


PLATO  REVISED.  681 

to  another  like  traditions  ;  how  then  could  they  have 
been  implanted  by  the  same  reasonable  and  all-wise 
being  ? 

Plato.  Does  not  inward  longing  imply  the  exist- 
ence somewhere  of  the  means  of  gratification  ? 

Socrates.  Have  all  your  intuitions  come  true^ 
Plato  ? 

Plato.     By  no  means. 

Socrates.  If,  then,  intuitions  are  not  a  sure  guide, 
of  what  value  are  they  ? 

Plato.  To  what  end,  then,  are  intuitions  im- 
planted ? 

Socrates.  What  essence  is  to  generation,  truth  is  to 
belief.  These  are  your  own  words,  O  Plato,  put 
into  the  mouth  of  Timseus  twenty-three  hundred 
years  ago. 

Plato.  In  treating  of  things  beyond  the  domain  of 
the  absolute,  we  can  only  speak  according  to  our 
enlightenment. 

Socrates.  Have  we  any  enlightenment  whatever 
regarding  things  beyond  the  domain  of  the  absolute  ? 
As  the  author  of  all,  one  refers  us  to  the  fiat  of  an 
extra-natural  creator ;  another  to  mechanical  action 
in  pre-existing  atoms;  another  to  an  eternal  function 
or  potency  of  the  universe.  The  first  hypothesis 
assumes  something  to  have  been  made  from  nothing  ; 
the  last  two  may  be  called  one  ;  none  of  them  begin 
at  the  beginning,  the  existence  of  the  extra-natural 
creator,  the  pre-existing  atoms  and  the  eternal 
potency  all  having  to  be  accounted  for.  What  have 
you  to  say  to  the  first  ? 

Plato.  There  is  nothing  to  be  said.  That  which 
is  made  from  nothing  is  nothing,  and  all  reasoning  on 
it  begias  and  ends  in  nothing. 

Socrates.  Such  a  theory  assumes  in  the  beginning 
a  universal  nothing,  or  at  least  a  dead  universe,  God 
alone  having  life,  his  first  creation  being  lifeless.  It 
is  a  theology  of  automatic  emotion  based  on  illogical 
phenomena,  in  the  discussion  of  which  the   premises 


682  PLATO  REVISED. 

aretaken  from  tradition  and  not  from  reason.  Nature, 
on  the  other  hand,  points  to  hfe  as  an  essential  faculty 
of  the  universe.  You  may  choose  for  yourself  which 
is  the  more  rational  hypothesis. 

Plato.  If  nature  is  not  God,  it  is  wonderful  how 
like  a  God  she  works,  moving  ever  on  with  infinite 
patience  in  lines  intelligent  for  definite  ends.  Hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  years  were  occupied  by  nature 
in  making  man. 

Socrates.  Then  how  long  does  it  take  this  same  pro- 
tean power  to  make  of  man  a  god  ? 

Plato.  They  say  now  that  the  earlier  gods  were 
but  the  ghosts  of  dead  heroes. 

Socrates.  Says  the  Veda  :  Who  knows  exactly  and 
who  shall  in  this  Avorld  declare  whence  and  why  this 
creation  took  place  ?  The  gods  are  subsequent  to  the 
production  of  this  world.  Then  who  can  know 
whence  it  proceeded  or  whence  this  varied  world 
arose,  or  whether  it  uphold  itself  or  not  ?  Immature 
in  understanding,  the  Hindoo  poet  sings,  undiscerning 
in  mind,  I  inquire  of  those  things  which  are  hidden 
even  from  the  gods,  what  are  the  seven  threads  which 
the  sages  have  spread  to  envelop  the  sun,  in  whom  all 
abide.  Yet  we  are  here  assured  that  once  there  was 
nothing,  vacuity  absolute — no  world  or  sky  or  aught 
above  it,  nor  water  deep  or  dangerous. 

Plato.  Nevertheless,  while  the  Hindoos  w^orship 
the  sun,  fire,  and  lightning,  not  as  superior  beings  but 
as  agencies  to  be  propitiated,  and  because  their  assist- 
ance is  wanted  against  enemies,  Brahma,  in  their 
religion  and  philosophy,  signifies  the  universal  spirit, 
an  eternal  self-existent  being,  the  ground  and  cause 
of  all  existence  ;  not  so  much,  however,  a  deity  to  be 
worshipped  as  an  object  of  contemplation. 

Socrates.  Vishnu  is  one  of  the  forms  of  the  sun. 
The  Chaldeans  worshipped  the  heavenly  bodies;  the 
gods  of  the  Parsees,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  evolved 
themselves  out  of  primordial  matter,  while  out  of  a 


PLATO   REVISED.  683 

cosmic  egg  issued  the  Egyptian  god,  Phta,  who  cre- 
ated the  world. 

Plato.  But  with  these  same  Egyptians  worship 
became  chronic ;  for,  not  content  with  a  god  for 
every  day  in  the  year,  they  must  needs  resort  to  the 
worships  of  the  cat,  the  dog,  ibis,  and  hawk. 

Socrates.  We  know  that  among  the  world's  theolo- 
gies, savage  and  civilized,  there  have  been  hundreds 
of  theories  of  the  origin  of  things,  one  as  good,  or  as 
bad,  as  another.  But,  let  us  call  matter  created,  or  at 
all  events  existing,  whence  comes  intellect  ?  Or,  as  the 
Hindoo  poet  asks.  From  the  earth  are  the  breath  and 
blood,  but  where  is  the  soul  ? 

Plato.  If  we  are  ready,  O  Socrates,  to  accept  the 
answer  to  that  question  of  modern  science,  it  is  this : 
Mind  exists  in  matter,  has  always  directed  matter  ; 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  mindless  life-stuff.  Every 
form  of  life  involves  sensation,  which  is  the  basis  of 
all  knowing.  Throughout  the  long  journey  from  pro- 
toplasm to  man,  from  the  carbonic  acid,  water,  and 
ammonia, in  whose  conjunction  first  appears  the  phe- 
nomenon of  life,  to  mind,  and  that  intelligence  which 
apprehends  itself,  there  is  no  break,  no  new  develop- 
ing agency  appearing,  no  new  factor  of  evolution 
introduced.  All  organic  life  thus  evolving  from  tlje 
primordial  protoplasmic  cell  falls  into  co-related  and 
classifiable  groups,  assuming  sentience  and  heredity, 
and  proceeds  from  the  simple  and  physical  to  the 
complex  and  ethical,  until  the  monad  becomes  the 
animal  who  thinks  and  reasons. 

Socrates.  Of  all  the  millions  of  deities  created  for 
the  confusion  of  man,  how  many  have  evaporated  I 
And  yet  enough  remain,  and  more  than  enough. 

Plato.  In  searching  among  the  forces  behind 
events  for  a  cause  of  causes,  monotheism  and  the 
unity  of  nature  and  mankind  were  invented,  the  deity 
being  still  apart  from,  and  above,  nature. 

Socrates.     And  after  monotheism  ? 

Plato.     After  monotheism,  Socrates,  atheism,  which 


684  PLATO  REVISED. 

in  my  Laws  is  set  forth  as  a  disease  of  the  soul  before 
it  becomes  an  error  of  the  understandino*. 

Socrates.  You,  O  Crito,  and  you,  Phssdo,  Apollo- 
dorus,  and  Evenus,  have  been  abroad  somewhat,  and 
should  have  gathered  knowledge ;  tell  me,  I  pray 
you,  about  what  are  men  now  most  concerned  ? 

Crito.     As  always,  power. 

Socrates.  What  would  tliey  with  power?  Thereby 
to  eat  better,  to  sleep  better,  the  better  to  study  the 
ways  of  wisdom  and  lead  mankind  heavenward 
through  happier,  holier  paths  ? 

Crito.  Not  so.  The  gods  claim  all  rights  to  such 
dispensations.  Men  ape  the  gods  and  fawn  upon 
them,  scrambling  among  themselves  to  gather  the 
fallen  crumbs  of  deity,  that  they  too,  like  the  omnip- 
otent ones,  may  lord  it  over  their  fellows,  make  slaves 
and  concubines  out  of  good  human  flesh,  and  riot  in 
worshipful  wealth,  until  death  takes  pity  on  the  earth 
and  thrusts  them  under. 

Socrates.     And  then?  Have  men  now  no  religions? 

Crito.  Yes,  truly,  plenty  of  them,  and  some  very 
good  ones.  Indeed,  religion  still  holds  the  human 
race  bound  in  iron  fetters;  beliefs  of  all  qualities  and 
grades,  from  the  crude  conceptions  of  savagism  to 
the  more  refined  and  involved  theologies  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  latter,  however,  gradually  fading  in  the 
more  intellectual  quarters  before  the  lights  of  advanc- 
ing reason  and  natural  science. 

Socrates.  Has  philosophy  done  nothing  for  human- 
ity ?    Are  men  no  better  than  they  were  ? 

Crito.  Outwardly,  yes;  inwardly,  no.  Notwith- 
standing the  vast  period  and  endless  processes 
employed  in  its  becoming,  human  nature  appears  to 
be  a  definite  quantity,  as  fixed  and  immutable  as 
any  primary  element.  Men's  natures  are  as  treach- 
erous, their  instincts  as  brutal,  and  their  hearts  as 
immoral  as  ever ;  only  by  a  cunning  use  of  the  arts 
of  refinement  they  are  not  so  grossly  apparent.     Thou 


PLATO   REVISED.  68 

well  knowest,  0  Socrates,  that  civilization  creates 
nothing,  but  only  refines. 

Socrates.     Are  the  gods  no  better  than  they  were  ? 

Grito.  In  the  great  race  of  progress  the  gods 
scarcely  keep  pace  with  their  human  subjects.  I 
have  heard  you  say,  my  master,  that  the  worst  of  all 
evils  is  belief  in  a  bad  god,  and  now  I  almost  ques- 
tion if  there  has  ever  been  a  good  god. 

ApoUodonts.  And  I  note  that  very  many  about 
the  world  begin  to  question  if  ever  there  was  a  god 
at  all,  never  one  of  any  age  or  nation  upon  good 
authority  having  been  seen,  or  heard,  or  felt.  Think 
you,  O  Socrates,  that  the  world  can  exist  with- 
out gods  ? 

Socrates.  Gods  are  but  human  ideals  projected 
upon  the  infinite  unknown,  and  theologies  take  color 
and  character  from  the  time  and  place  of  their  origi- 
nating. And  all  must  change  ;  all  that  is  must  cease 
to  be,  men,  nations,  and  religions. 

PJixdo.  And  it  would  seem,  further,  that  in  this 
w^orld  man  was  becoming  more  and  more  master — 
master  of  himself  and  his  environment,  moral  and 
physical,  master  of  his  beliefs,  mind  dominating  mat- 
ter and  reason  supplanting  ritualism. 

Socrates.  Ah  !  then  the  gods  indeed  have  had  to 
go  to  the  wall. 

Crito.  Thousands  of  them  have  been  driven  to  the 
wall,  and  other  thousands  hurled  over  it ;  and  yet  the 
world  lies  bound,  as  I  said,  fifty  millions  of  so-called 
teachers  being  still  occupied  in  perpetuating  the  false- 
hoods of  the  past. 

Apollodorus.  Critias  says  that  man  was  once  law- 
less and  beast-like,  the  slave  of  force,  paying  no  heed 
to  the  good  or  bad  ;  wherefore  a  wise  man  arose,  and 
the  deity  was  made,  with  thunder  and  lightning  at 
his  command,  that  terror  might  be  employed. 

Socrates.  Men  make  their  gods  upon  their  own 
pattern ;  they  have  no  other.  They  endow  them 
with  their  own  qualities,  good  and  bad,  but  in  a  mag- 


686  PLATO   REVISED. 

nified  degree.  The  gods  of  savage  races  are  as  wild 
and  uncouth,  as  cruel  and  grovehng,  as  themselves. 
The  gods  of  civilization  are  never  above  but  always 
below  the  standards  of  morality  and  equity  set  up  by 
the  people.  While  pretending  to  superhuman  justice 
and  benevolence,  they  are  licensed  to  indulge  in  all 
the  wickedness  which  men  deny  themselves,  such  as 
vengeance,  robbery,  tyranny,  and  every  species  of  cru- 
elty and  injustice. 

Crito.  When  we  consider  the  spontaneity  of  evo- 
lution, and  the  uniformity  in  mway  particulars  of  the 
independent  generation  of  ideas,  customs,  and  con- 
trivances in  widely  separated  parts  of  the  world,  all 
under  pressure  of  similar  engendering  causes  and  con- 
ditions, it  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  gods  are  made. 
Thus  the  Mayas,  Germans,  and  Chinese,  each  invented 
the  printing  press  ;  Mexicans,  Peruvians,  Egyptians, 
and  Chinese,  each  unknown  to  the  other  made  bronze  ; 
and  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  and  Christ  in  like  manner 
promulgated  the  golden  rule. 

Evenus.  There  is  but  one  true  religion,  one  cor- 
rect code  of  ethics. 

Crito.     That  is  what  they  all  say. 

Evenus.  You  surely  would  not  class  the  religions 
of  sav  agism  and  barbarism  with  that  of  the  highest 
civilization  and  intelligence  ? 

Crito.  Intelligence  has  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  it  is 
from  lack  of  intelligence  that  religions  are  first  made. 

Phsedo.  The  barbaric  days  of  dogmatic  theology 
are  passing  away.  Barbaric  nations  make  their  gods 
of  wood  and  stone  ;  civilized  nations  carve  theirs  out  of 
the  imagination,  and  for  everything  that  civilization 
and  science  does  for  them  they  thank  their  ideal  deity. 

Apollodorus.  The  gods  of  Egypt  have  been  wholly 
subject  to  the  manufacture  and  manipulation  of  the 
priests  from  the  beginning,  while  the  minds  of  the 
millions  subject  to  their  sway  have  been  as  stolid  as 
stones. 

Phaedo,     The  cure  of  being  is  not  to  be,  says  the 


PLATO  REVISED.  687 

Buddha  ;  existence  is  the  sum  of  all  evil,  birth  the 
origin.  Had  we  never  been  born  we  had  not  known 
misery,  old  age,  and  death. 

Apollodorus.  It  would  scarcely  seem  to  demand, 
Phsedo,  the  perfect  contemplation  of  Sakya-muni  to 
attain  the  summit  of  wisdom  and  enlightenment  of 
which  you  speak. 

Phsedo.  The  Brahmins  taught  the  doctrine  of  a 
single  invisible  supreme  being,  an  omnipotent,  omni- 
scent  creator,  preserver,  and  destroyer  of  all,  who  was 
the  soul  of  the  universe,  or  the  universe  itself,  and 
who  manifested  himself  in  three  forms,  Brahma  the 
creator,  Vishnu  the  preserver,  and  Siva  the  destroyer. 
Zoroaster  tried  at  first  a  single  supreme  god,  but  it 
was  finall}^  found  necessary  to  divide  it  in  order  to 
represent  the  two  principles  of  good  and  evil,  to 
which  the  names  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  were 
given 

Apollodorus.  Confucianism  contains  no  trace  of  a 
personal  god,  no  attempt  of  a  creation  out  of  nothing, 
the  idea  in  this  respect  varying  little  from  the  anima 
mundi  of  the  classical  philosoj^hy ;  good  and  evil  are 
found  existing,  and  the  life  of  the  religious  devoted  to 
promoting  the  one  and  extinguishing  the  other,  with 
little  concern  as  to  their  origin  or  nature.  **  To  what 
sublime  religion  do  you  belong  ?"  asks  one  of  another 
in  China,  where  three  great  systems  exist  peaceably 
side  by  side  ;  and  the  answer  comes,  *'  Religions  are 
many  ;    reason  is  one  ;  we  are  all  brothers." 

Phsedo.  True,  Apollodorus,  and  the  Chinese 
threaten  their  gods  with  deposition,  one  if  he  fails  to 
give  them  victory  in  war,  another  if  he  fails  to  send 
rain ;  the  super-civilized  thank  God  for  success  in 
war,  and  importune  him  for  rain  when  desired. 
Wherein  lies  the  difference,  unless  it  be  that  the 
Chinese  way  has  less  of  absurdity  in  it  than  the  other  ? 

Apollodorus.  Civilization  not  only  threatens  depo- 
sition but  deposes,  many  of  the  best  and  wisest  men 
every  day  emerging  from  the  clouds  of  superstition. 


688  PLATO    REVISED. 

Crito.  There  are  to  be  accounted  for  the  origin 
and  existence  of  God,  of  chaos,  and  of  man  ;  was  man 
or  chaos  first  ? 

Apollodorics.  Man,  he  being  a  product  of  the  ele- 
ments. 

Crito.     Who  made  the  elements  ? 

Apollodorus.     The  gods. 

Crito.     Who  made  the  gods  ? 

Apollodonis.     Man,  they  now  say. 

Crito.  Man  made  the  gods  ;  the  gods  made  the 
elements  ;  man  is  a  product  of  the  elements  ;  there- 
fore man  made  himself 

Apollodorus.  As  well  so  as  that  the  gods  made 
themselves. 

Phsedo.  You  are  nearer  the  truth,  my  friends,  than 
you  yourselves  imagine.  Man  makes  not  only  his 
own  gods  but  himself.  He  has  had  to  physically 
fashion  himself,  working  his  way  outward  and  upward 
from  the  protoplasmic  cell  through  millions  of  ages, 
improving  form  and  features,  making  his  tools,  cus- 
toms, beliefs,  literature,  arts,  and  the  rest,  adding  on 
the  way  organs  and  accomplishments,  one  after 
another,  until  from  atoms  and  force  he  becomes  body 
and  mind. 

Socrates.  In  your  Republic,  Plato,  you  make  God, 
that  is  to  say,  Zeus,  a  being  unchangeable,  and  not 
the  author  of  all  things,  as  the  many  assert,  but  of  a 
few  things,  of  the  good  only ;  for  few  are  the  goods 
and  many  the  evils  of  life.  As  to  variableness  he  is 
no  Proteus,  no  magician,  deceiving  us  by  appearing 
now  in  one  shape  and  now  in  another ;  God  is  simple 
and  true  in  both  word  and  deed.  In  knowledge  he  is 
absolute,  as  we  find  in  the  Parmenides.  In  the  Laws 
you  say  that  God  governs  all  things,  and  that  chance 
and  opportunity  cooperate  with  him ;  but  design 
takes  part  with  them,  for  there  is  advantage  in  having 
a  pilot  in  a  storm. 

Plato.     I  have  so  said. 


PLATO  REVISED.  689 

Socrates.  You  cause  Timseus  to  say  that  nothing 
can  exist  without  having  been  created,  and  nothing 
can  be  created  without  a  cause,  and  that  of  which  the 
perfect  artificer  works  out  the  form  and  nature  after 
an  unchangeable  pattern  must  of  necessity  be  made 
fair  and  perfect.  This  world,  the  product  of  a  cause,  is 
the  fairest  work  of  creation,  and  the  creator  only  good. 

Plato,     True. 

Socrates.  Instead  of  imputing  evil  to  God,  the 
supreme  creator,  or  making  him  the  author  of  evil,  or 
opposmg  to  him  a  devil,  you  commit  the  lesser  or 
lower  works  of  creation  to  inferior  deities,  and  fasten 
on  them  the  many  faults  of  creation.  From  the  evil 
inherent  in  matter,  and  which  he  cannot  annihilate, 
God  detaches  himself,  that  he  may  be  forever  guiltless. 

Plato.     You  state  my  views  correctly,  Socrates. 

Socrates.  Do  I  understand  you  to  say  that  God 
first  made  all,  worlds  and  gods  and  men,  but  that  in 
finishing  off  his  work  he  employed  the  inferior  deities 
to  assist  him,  and  that  these  subordinates  spoiled  some 
of  his  work,  intermixing  evil  therewith  ? 

Plato.     It  must  have  been  so  in  a  measure. 

Socrates.  You  say  further,  Plato,  that  God  is  the 
author  of  your  laws — that  is  Zeus  in  Greece  and 
Apollo  in  Lacedsemon. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     Yet  they  are  made  by  men. 

Plato.  They  are  made  by  men,  yet  all  declared 
good,  and  of  divine  origin. 

Socrates.  Are  gods  thus  made  and  declared  good 
and  of  divine  origin  ? 

Plato.  It  may  be  so  sometimes,  though  I  know  of 
no  such  cases. 

Socrates.  If  all  laws  and  all  gods  were  so  made, 
and  so  declared  divine  and  good,  and  some  of  them 
proved  to  be  bad,  would  these  latter  be  good  or  bad  ? 

Plato.      What  are  you  aiming  at,  Socrates  ? 

Socrates.     There  are  bad  gods  as  there  are  bad  laws. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Essays  and  Miscellany    44 


690  PLATO  REVISED. 

Socrates.  Yet  all  laws,  whether  good  or  bad,  you 
declare  good  and  divine. 

Plato,     Yes. 

Socrates.     There  are  some  bad  gods. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Yet  men  must  declare  them  good  and 
divine. 

Plato.     I  suppose  so. 

Socrates.     To  do  otherwise  would  be  sacrilege. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Then  your  lavv  compels  men  to  declare 
to  be  true  what  they  know  to  be  false. 

Plato.  Is  it  not  so  in  all  religions,  if  the  people  are 
capable  in  any  wise  of  distinguishing  truth  from 
error  ?  Every  religion  is  nihilistic,  admitting  the 
creator's  work  imperfect,  and  lapsing  into  fatalism, 
involving  moral  failure. 

Socrates.  In  your  Laws,  Plato,  you  say  that  no 
one  ever  intentionally  did  any  unholy  act,  or  uttered 
any  unlawful  word,  retaining  a  beUef  in  the  existence 
of  the  gods. 

Plato.     That  is  true. 

Socrates.  Let  me  ask  you,  Plato,  has  there  ever 
lived  in  this  world,  from  first  to  last,  one  who  has 
never  spoken  an  unlawful  word  or  committed  an 
unholy  act? 

Plato.  I  said  not  intentionally,  if  he  retained  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  the  gods. 

Socrates.  May  not  the  wicked  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  the  gods  and  yet  hate  them  ? 

Plato.     That  is  probable. 

Socrates.  Else  what  avail  reviling  and  cursing,  if 
spent  on  nothingness — that  is  on  beings  whose  exist- 
ence is  denied  ? 

Plato.      The  idea  is  absurd,  of  course. 

Socrates.  That  is  that  one  can  intentionally  speak 
against  the  gods  who  does  not  believe  in  their 
existence  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 


PLATO   REVISED.  G91 

Socrates.  But  you  say  that  no  one  can  intentionally 
speak  against  the  gods  and  yet  believe  in  their 
existence  ? 

Plato.     I  have  so  stated. 

Socrates.  Now,  in  regard  to  the  unholy  acts,  is  it 
not  the  same;  may  not  the  wicked,  believing  in  the 
gods,  still  defy  and  fight  against  them  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Then  it  would  seem  that  men  may  inten- 
tionally commit  unholy  acts  and  speak  unlawful 
words,  retainingr  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  the  2fods. 

Plato.     It  must  be  so. 

Socrates.  Did  you  not  affirm  at  Athens,  O  Plato, 
that  God  could  not  be  the  author  of  all  without  being 
the  author  of  evil  ? 

Plato.     Any  child  may  see  that. 

Socrates.     And  that  he  was  not  the  author  of  evil  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  And  therefore  that  he  was  not  the 
author  of  all  ? 

Plato.     Certainly. 

Socrates.  And  yet  you  make  God  the  sole  and 
only  creator,  but  not  the  author  of  evil. 

Plato.  I  have  said  in  my  Republic  that  God  is  the 
author  of  evil  only  with  a  view  to  good. 

Socrates.  Then  you  admit  that  God  made,  sanctions, 
and  employs  evil  ? 

Plato.  .  Only  with  a  view  to  good. 

Socrates.     May  not  man  do  what  God  does  ? 

Plato.     Certainly,  if  he  can. 

Socrates.  Is  it  not  right  for  man  to  do  as  God  does 
if  he  can  ? 

Plato.     It  is  so  commanded  him. 

Socrates.  Then  man  may  do  evil  with  a  view  to  do 
good  ? 

Plato.     He  may. 

Socrates.     Man  being  the  judge  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     Then  you  endow  man  with  the  right  at 


692  PLATO   REVISED. 

his  discretion  to  indulge  in  murder,  robbery,  cruelty, 
injustice,  and  every  crime. 

Plato.     That  cannot  be. 

Socrates.  To  repeat  what  I  have  just  said;  God  is 
the  author  of  all  things  ? 

Plato.     It  has  been  so  believed. 

Socrates.     And  yet  not  of  all  but  only  of  the  good  ? 

Plato.     Only  of  the  good. 

Socrates.     He  is  not  the  author  of  evil  ? 

Plato.     It  were  sacrilege  so  to  say. 

Socrates.  He  is  the  author  of  all  good,  and  of  good 
only  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  In  the  beginning  were  only  the  great 
artificer  and  chaos  ? 

Plato.     Nothing  else. 

Socrates.     And  out  of  chaos  God  created  all  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     But  he  did  not  create  evil  ? 

Plato.     He  did  not. 

Socrates.     Who  then  is  the  author  of  evil  ? 

Plato.     The  inferior  gods. 

Socrates.     Who  made  the  inferior  gods  ? 

Plato.  Thus  spoke  the  great  artificer,  as  it  is  written 
in  the  Timseus,  the  creation  being  finished  :  Gods  and 
sons  of  gods,  who  are  my  works,  and  of  whom  I  am 
the  artificer  and  father,  my  creations  are  indissoluble 
if  so  I  will ;  all  that  is  bound  may  be  dissolved,  but 
only  an  evil  being  would  wish  to  dissolve  that  which 
is  harmonious  and  happy. 

Socrates.  But  if  God  makes  the  gods  who  make 
evil,  is  not  that  making  evil  ?  And  if  God  makes  evil 
how  can  he  be  only  the  author  of  good  ? 

Plato.  Evil  came  and  God  permits  it  that  in  the 
resisting  thereof  men  may  become  stronger. 

Socrates.  Either  God  created  all  or  he  did  not ;  if 
not,  then  is  he  not  the  sole  creator,  and  the  mono- 
theistic idea  must  be  discarded ;  if  being  sole  creator, 
and    omnipotent,     and  he  permits      evil     to     come 


PLATO  REVISED.  693 

and  to  exist,  then  clearly  he  is  the  author 
and  sustainer  of  evil.  Again,  if  evil  is  neces- 
sary for  the  growth  of  good,  then  evil  is  not  evil  but 
good. 

Phsedo,  Every  religion  revolves  on  its  own  axis, 
moves  in  its  own  orbit,  and  ends  where  it  begins. 

Socrates,  If  good  is  one  with  knowledge  and  God, 
why  not  evil  as  well,  since  evil  is  as  much  the  essence 
of  things  as  good  ? 

Grito.  Still  your  interminable  discussion,  O  Socrates, 
on  good  and  evil,  and  you  have  not  yet  even  defined 
your  conception  of  the  meaning  of  the  terms. 

Socrates.  Everybody  knows  that  good  and  evil  are 
sometimes  absolute  though  often  relative  terms ;  that 
which  in  one  time,  place,  and  degree  is  good  may  in 
another  be  evil. 

Plato.  Just  as  there  are  good  men,  yet  not  worthy 
of  eternal  happiness,  so  there  are  bad  men  not  worthy 
of  eternal  damnation. 

Socrates.  Good,  its  origin  and  essence,  man  seems 
able  to  explain  to  his  apparent  satisfaction  better 
than  evil.  You  say  that  good  is  God.  Very  well. 
Account  for  God  and  you  account  for  good. 

Crito.  In  other  words,  to  make  the  interpretation 
more  modern,  evil  is  that  which  is  opposed  to  the 
harmony  and  happiness  of  the  universe,  as  convulsions 
of  nature,  suffering,  injustice.  Evil  originates  all 
religions,  evil,  and  fear,  for  if  there  were  no  evil  there 
would  be  nothing  to  fear,  and  no  incentive  to  worship. 

PJixdo.  Think  you,  Crito,  that  men  would  not 
worship  God  through  love  alone  ? 

Crito.  No.  Unless  lashed  to  it  by  fear,  men 
would  not  worship  ;  fear  is  the  foundation  of  celestial 
love,  fear  and  favor.  Give  us  the  good  and  stay  the 
evil  is  the  burden  of  all  prayer.  Upon  this  dualism 
rest  all  religions. 

Phsedo.  True  ;  in  the  explanation  which  the  defects 
of  creation  at  the  hand  of  a  beneficent  creator,  absolute 
in  power,  will    demand,  the    dogma  of  dualism  was 


694  PLATO  REVISED. 

resorted  to  by  the  early  aryan  religion,  which  had  two 
supreme  gods,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  one  good  and 
the  other  evil,  while,  later,  less  logical  religions  threw 
the  evil  upon  a  subordinate  spirit  in  rebellion  against 
omnipotence. 

Crito.  Then  there  is  the  dualistic  idea  of  evolu- 
tion, which  refers  the  physical  to  the  inorganic  world 
and  the  mental  to  man,  and  the  monistic,  which  makes 
mind  only  a  manifestation  of  matter. 

Phsedo.  A  perfect  creation  must  follow  as  the  work 
of  a  perfect  creator,  and  a  perfect  creation  admits 
of  neither  retrogression  nor  progress.  Nor  will  the 
hypothesis  hold  that  fallen  man  was  originally  per- 
fectly created;  for  unless  the  seeds  of  sin  and  rebellion 
had  been  implanted  by  the  creator,  it  were  not  possible 
for  the  perfect  man  to  fall. 

Crito.  Unless  they  first  change  his  character  and 
make  him  a  different  being  from  what  they  claim  he 
is,  man  should  not  say  that  God  is  love,  any  more  than 
that  God  is  hate  ;  or  that  whatever  he  does  is  right  ; 
whatever  he  wills  or  permits  is  wise,  just,  and  benefi- 
cent; for  this  makes  ignorance,  cruelty,  wrong, 
injustice,  and  immorality  right,  being  God's  will  and 
suffered  by  him  to  exist.  Of  the  three  innocent 
children  of  a  devoted  mother,  two  of  them  are  burned 
to  death  by  fever,  but  a  merciful  providence  spares  her 
one,  the  same  merciful  providence  that  burned  the 
other  two. 

Plisedo.  In  nothing  is  civilization  so  backward  as 
in  its  religions.  Men  endowed  with  reason  and  intelli- 
gence should  be  ashamed  of  their  crude  and  illogical 
conceptions  of  the  deity.  This  deity  his  votaries 
make  the  creator  of  all  realities  and  ideas,  of  all 
ethics  and  moralities,  on  whose  fiat  alone  rest 
right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  righteousness  and 
iniquity,  who  is  above  all  reason  and  common  sense, 
above  all  equities  and  moralities,  author  of  all  good 
and  all  evil,  responsible  for  all  happiness  and  unhap- 
piness,  for  all  misery  and  crime,  and  all  cruelties  and 


PLATO   REVISED.  695 

injustice  in  which  the  universe  abounds.  Of  man 
these  same  votaries  make  an  imperfectly  created 
being,  condemned  by  his  maker  as  a  failure,  a  thing- 
altogether  vile  and  abominable,  a  fallen  being,  alien  to 
all  good,  but  who,  through  the  mediation  of  another, 
is  forgiven  for  what  he  was  in  nowise  to  blame,  and 
ordered  to  a  perfect  course  such  as  was  never  yet 
achieved  by  any  god  or  man.  As  compared  with 
their  state  of  advancement  no  nation  of  antiquity  can 
boast  a  theology  so  barbarous  and  absurd. 

Crito.  How,  then,  reconcile  any  theory  of  the 
origin  of  evil  with  the  doctrine  of  a  sole  and  absolute 
creator,  omnipotent,  omniscient,  just  and  holy  and 
good  ? 

Phsedo.  They  never  have  been  and  never  can  be  rec- 
onciled. Argue  around  the  circle  as  many  times  as  you 
will,  and  you  reach  always  the  same  conclusion — that 
if  evil  exists,  its  origin  is  in  the  sole  creator,  who,  if 
he  is  not  the  author  of  evil,  is  not  the  author  of  all 
things ;  and,  if  the  author  of  evil,  is  not  all-perfect, 
all-wise,  and  good,  as  claimed. 

Crito,  Some  have  held  that  without  the  dual- 
istic  principle  in  ethics  there  could  be  no  real  individ- 
uality or  strength  of  character ;  tliat,  as  in  nature, 
we  see  working  in  harmony  and  power  opposing 
forces,  as  attraction  and  repulsion,  heat  and  cold,  posi- 
tive and  negative  electricity,  so  in  humanity,  moral 
stamina  and  growth  require  the  interaction  of  the 
opposing  influences  of  good  and  evil.  Ethical  polar- 
ity is  essential  to  moral  and  intellectual  well-being. 
Without  evil  there  could  be  no  good,  without  misery 
no  happiness. 

Apollodorus.  To  that  I  sliould  answer  that  it 
depends  upon  one's  conception  of  the  nature  and  power 
of  the  creator.  An  all-wise  and  all-powerful  creator 
can  do  anything,  else  he  is  not  all- wise  and  all-power- 
ful. Is  not  God  good  ?  Is  he  not  happy  ?  Was  it 
necessary,  in  order  for  him  to  attain  his  holy  estate, 
to  undergo  this  dualistic  influence  ?    And  if  he  exists, 


696  PLATO  REVISED. 

having  in  his  nature  all  the  attributes  of  good  and 
none  of  the  attributes  of  evil,  being  almighty,  could 
he  not  have  endowed  this  image  of  himself,  which  he 
made  and  called  man,  with  his  own  perfect  qualities 
in  every  respect  ?  God  is  perfect.  Could  he  not 
have  made  man  perfect,  without  limitation,  without 
the  necessity  of  internal  conflict  with  opposing  forces, 
all  implanted  by  the  sole  creator,  who  gives  the  victory 
to  whom  he  will  ? 

Socrates.  You  say,  Plato,  that  God,  the  great 
artificer,  is  a  good  and  perfect  being,  and  created 
only  what  is  good  and  perfect  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Let  us  examine  some  of  his  work — the 
first  man  he  made,  for  example.  Cail  him  Adam,  if 
you  do  not  object  to  the  Hebrew  doctrine  ;  if  you 
do,  the  Olympian  deities  will  answer,  of  whom  we 
shall  speak  presently. 

Plato.  We  will  accept  Adam  and  God,  whoever 
they  were,  as  terms  signifying  the  first  man  and  the 
creator  of  the  universe. 

Socrates.  Very  well.  Was  Adam  created  a  savage 
or  a  civilized  man  ? 

Plato.     He  was  certainly  not  civilized. 

Socrates.  At  all  events,  he  was  pure  and  holy  and 
perfect,  being  fresh  from  the  hand  of  a  pure  and  holy 
and  perfect  creator. 

Plato.     It  could  not  be  otherwise. 

Socrates.  But  he  fell  from  his  high  and  happy 
estate  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     How  came  he  to  so  fall  ? 

Plato.  Either  through  the  agency  of  inferior  deities 
or  through  his  own  indiscretion,  the  fall  in  either  case 
resulting  from  the  seeds  of  sin  implanted  in  his  nature. 

Socrates.  This  Adam  was  created  perfect,  it  is 
alleged ;  but,   on   entering  the  experiment  of  exist- 


PLATO   REVISED.  697 

ence,  his  coarse  proved  imperfect.  Could  a  perfectly 
created  machine,  when  set  in  motion,  run  imperfectly? 

Plato.     Clearly  not. 

Socrates.  Can  a  true  religion  promulgate  false 
ideas  of  nature  ? 

Plato.     It  cannot. 

Socrates.  Again,  the  perfect  type  of  an  absolute 
final  cause,  created  in  the  image  of  and  for  tlie  glory 
of  its  maker,  should  be,  one  would  think,  the  best  of 
its  kind — a  Thales  of  Miletus,  a  Buddha,  or  a  Christ 
— instead  of  which  we  have  an  exceedingly  weak 
specimen,  a  vertebrate  mammal,  with  organs  and 
brain  enlightened  only  by  instinct  or  intuition,  irra- 
tional, puerile,  deceitful,  cowardly,  and  altogether 
contemptible.  Given  a  condition  of  perfect  holiness 
and  happiness,  how  could  he  desire  more?  Yet  he 
did.  Was  it  childish  curiosity,  or  a  thirst  for  that 
knowledge  with  which  his  maker  failed  to  endow  him, 
that  prompted  him  to  transgress  ?  Was  this  the  best 
divine  power  could  do?  I  say  it  is  a  disgrace  to  civi- 
lization to  hold  such  crude,  unjust,  illogical,  and  absurd 
conceptions  of  its  deity. 

Plato.  Can  moral  strength  and  that  knowledge 
which  comes  from  human  experience  be  created  ? 
Righteousness  is  a  result ;  human  wisdom  springs 
from  human  activities. 

Socrates.  True,  my  Plato;  but  if  we  once  limit  the 
power  of  God,  in  whatsoever  manner  or  degree,  and 
he  ceases  to  be  almighty  or  omnipotent,  he  ceases, 
indeed,  to  be  God.  Now,  although  you  limit  the 
action  of  God  to  the  creation  of  good  only,  and  not 
evil,  you  do  not  limit  his  power ;  or,  if  you  so  do  or 
desire,  you  fail  to  maintain  your  ground.  To  pro- 
ceed with  our  story,  this  first-made  innocent  and 
happy  man  was  placed  in  a  garden,  and  surrounded 
with  temptations  which  his  maker  knew  beforehand 
he  could  not  and  would  not  resist,  the  strength  never 
having  been  given  him  to  do  so.  Driven  thence, 
naked  and  helpless,  without  food  or  shelter,  without 


698  PLATO  REVISED. 

tool  or  weapon,  he  and  his  descendants  were  doomed 
forever  to  struggle  with  adverse  environment,  and  all 
through  no  fault  of  theirs,  they  having  been  created 
for  this  and  no  other  purpose,  and  never  having  been 
endowed  with  power  to  do  otherwise.  These  are  the 
tenets  held  and  promulgated  by  men  who  call  them- 
selves sane. 

Apollodoms.  Man  must  master  or  be  mastered  by 
the  forces  around  him. 

Socrates.  Keturning  to  your  book,  Plato,  in  your 
Laws  you  impose  heavy  penalties  for  what  you  call  the 
crime  of  sacrilege. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Why  is  it  a  crime  to  speak  against  the 
gods  ? 

Plato.     Because  they  are  holy,  wise,  and  good. 

Socrates.  And  yet  you  say  that  man  is  free  to  do  as 
he  pleases,  so  long  as  he  does  not  injure  others. 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.     Can  men  hurt  or  injure  the  gods  ? 

Plato.     That  is  impossible. 

Socrates.  Then  it  injures  only  themselves  to  blas- 
pheme ? 

Plato.     Certainly. 

Socrates.     And  that  they  have  a  right  to  do  ? 

Plato.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Then  is  it  just  to  punish  a  man  for  doing 
what  he  has  a  right  to  do  ? 

Plato.      Have  you  nothing  else  to  say,  Socrates  ? 

Socrates.  Yes ;  about  your  philosophy  as  to  lying. 
My  dear  Plato,  why  do  you  permit  rulers  in  your 
republic  to  he,  and  not  give  the  people  the  same 
privilege  ? 

Plato.  Do  not  men  give  the  gods  they  make  more 
license  in  regard  to  sinning  than  they  take  for  them- 
selves ? 

Socrates.  You  say  in  your  Laws  that  the  poets 
and   mythologers  are  not  the  most  truthful  interpre- 


PLATO  REVISED.  699 

ters  of  the  gods,  who  indeed  can  do  no  evil,  but  the 
legislator  is  the  better  judge. 

Plato.     That  is  true. 

Socrates.  You  grant  the  ruler  the  right  to  lie, 
which  right  of  necessity  must  extend  to  his  deputy 
or  coadjutor,  in  which  category  we  may  place  the 
legislator. 

Plato.     You  state  correctly. 

Socrates.  This  gives  the  legislator  the  legal  right 
to  lie. 

Plato.     It  does. 

Socrates.  But  if  the  legislator  has  the  legal  right 
to  lie,  and  the  poets  and  mythologers  lie  without  the 
legal  right,  how  shall  we  know  when  any  of  them 
rightfully  or  truthfully  interpret  the  gods? 

Plato.  When  they  say  what  is  best  for  men  to 
believe,  that  is  the  truth,  or  better  than  the  truth. 

Socrates.     Is  a  lie  ever  better  than  the  truth? 

Plato.  Yes.  For  example  :  the  world  below  must 
not  be  represented  as  an  unhappy  place,  else  soldiers 
will  be  afraid  to  die,  and  so  become  cowardly. 

Socrates.  Therefore,  in  order  to  have  them  bravely 
killed  you  would  doom  their  souls  to  hell  with  a-  lie  ? 

Plato.  A  lie  is  excusable  only  as  a  medicine  to 
men;  then  the  use  of  such  medicines  will  have  to  be 
restricted  to  physicians;  private  individuals  have  no 
business  with  them.  If  any  persons  are  to  have  the 
privilege  of  lying,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  they 
will  be  the  rulers  of  the  state;  they  may  be  allowed 
to  lie  for  the  public  good. 

Socrates.  Or  if  not  allowed,  they  will  lie  without 
permission. 

Plato.  There  is  the  true  lie  and  the  false  lie,  the 
former  told  for  good  purposes  and  the  latter  for  bad 
purposes. 

Socrates.     Yet  both  a  lie,  nevertheless. 

Plato.  There  is  the  lie  in  action  and  the  lie  in 
words,  the  latter  being  in  certain  cases  useful  and  not 
hurtful. 


700  PLATO    REVISED. 

Socrates.     Hear,  ye  godsl 

Plato.  In  the  tales  of  mythology,  because  we  do 
not  know  the  truth  about  ancient  tradition,  w^e  make 
the  falsehood  as  much  like  truth  as  may  be,  and  so  of 
use. 

Socrates.     O  heavens! 

Plato.     Hast  had  enough,  Socrates? 

Socrates.  By  Jupiter!  yes;  enough  of  lying  and 
your  explanation  thereof 

Plato.  Proceed,  then,  to  something  else  if  you 
have  aught  more  to  say. 

Socrates.  First,  confess,  my  dear  Plato,  that  scores 
of  pages  in  your  immortal  writings  were  spun  from 
your  prolific  brain,  without  the  slightest  foundation 
in  truth  or  reason. 

Plato.  Of  such  are  all  teachers  and  teachings. 
Let  his  imagination  be  chaste,  and  his  speech  accept- 
able, and  the  dealer  in  dogmas  need  give  himself  no 
trouble  as  to  their  truth. 

Socrates.  What  advantage  is  there  if  other  or 
more  than  the  truth  is  taught? 

Plato.  None  whatever;  yet  such,  I  say,  has  ever 
been  and  is  the  practice  of  all  teachers,  who  are  ever 
pretending  to  know  what  never  has  been  divulged  by 
any  god  or  science.  I  taught  some  truth  and  much 
error,  but  no  more  of  the  latter  than  is  taught  to-day. 

Socrates.     But  why  teach  error  at  all? 

Plato.  By  Jupiter!  Socrates,  will  you  ask  of  men 
what  the  gods  cannot  give  ? 

Socrates.  Confined  to  what  may  be  known,  either 
gods  or  men  can  tell  the  truth. 

Plato.  Yet  what  oceans  of  pure  pretence  they  still 
persist  in  pouring  out,  knowing  that  no  sensible  per- 
son can  possibly  believe  half  they  say — extolling 
charity,  humility,  poverty,  sincerity,  justice,  holiness, 
commandinof  that  men  shall  love  each  other,  return 
good  for  evil,  cease  from  war,  but  never  expecting  to 
see  these  things  done,  themselves  with  the  rest  invari- 
ably practising  the  contrary.     Such  morality  is  beau- 


PLATO   REVISED.  701 

tiful  to  teach,  but  of  what  avail  is  it  if  no  one  ever 
puts  it  into  practice? 

Socrates.  Phssdo,  was  there  ever  a  religious  teacher 
whose  precepts  were  fully  or  even  approximately 
carried  out  ? 

Phsedo.     No,  my  master. 

Socrates.  Are  strong  religionists  generally  persons 
of  the  highest  learning  and  intelligence  in  the  com- 
munity ? 

Phsedo.     No. 

Socrates.  Do  they  laugh  at  the  ignorance  and 
superstition  of  others  no  worse  than  themselves? 

Phsedo.     Most  heartily. 

Socrates,     Do  they  love  or  hate  their  enemies? 

Plisedo.     They  hate  them. 

Socrates.     Do  they  rejoice  in  their  misfortunes  ? 

Phxdo.     They  do. 

Socrates.  Do  they  ever  feel  joy  instead  of  sorrow 
over  the  misfortunes  of  a  friend? 

Plisedo.     Very  frequently  they  feel  joy. 

Socrates.  Are  they  ever  envious  or  jealous  of 
their  friends  ? 

Plisedo.     They  are. 

Socrates.  Do  they  love  or  hate  their  brethren  or 
associates  in  religion? 

Phsedo.     It  is  about  the  same  as  with  others. 

Socrates.  That  is  to  say,  in  them  you  find  nothing 
more  of  the  essence  and  application  of  their  belief 
than  in  others? 

Phsedo.  In  place  of  piety  we  have  profession;  in 
place  of  reason,  ritualism. 

Socrates.  What  were  the  morals  of  those  whose 
teachings  we  deem  divine,  on  whose  superstitious 
assertions  we  rest  all  our  hopes  of  heaven? 

Phsedo.  They  believed  in  slavery,  practised  polyg- 
amy, robbed  their  enemies,  killed  captives  taken  in 
war,  and  indulged  in  all  the  immoralities  and  cruel 
savagisms  of  the  most  ancient  theologies. 

Socrates.     Does  any  great  or  small  religious  sect 


702  PLATO  REVISED. 

pay  any  attention  to  the  fundamental  principles  of 
their  faith,  such  as  unselfishness,  honesty,  justice, 
returning  good  for  evil,  and  refusing  violent  resistance 
to  violence? 

Phdedo.     None  that  I  ever  heard  of. 

Socrates.  Now  for  the  application.  The  stoics 
regarded  passion  as  error  which  the  wise  would  avoid; 
to  bodily  pain  or  pleasure  the  mind  must  be  indiffer- 
ent. To  be  a  stoic  required  the  possession  of  these 
qualities;  as  they  never  were  possessed  there  were 
never  stoics. 

Crito.  Many  refined  intellects  have  been  crushed 
by  an  enforced  reticence  which  stifled  independent 
thinking,  sacrificed  moral  courage,  and  prevented  the 
attainment  of  that  full  mental  stature  which  lies  at 
the  foundation  of  our  noblest  aspirations. 

Phsedo.  If  the  so-called  truths  of  religion  cannot 
be  overthrown,  why  fear  discussion,  why  such  reti- 
cence on  the  part  of  its  teachers  whenever  the  sub- 
ject is  broached  ?  The  trouble  is,  the  teachers 
themselves  know  nothing  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrines 
which  they  profess,  cannot  with  good  sense  explain 
them,  and  cannot  in  any  wise  defend  them. 

Crito.  They  explain  well  where  none  question, 
but  when  proof  is  demanded  they  decline  to  answer. 

Phsedo.  Doubts  and  difficulties,  they  say,  beset  the 
paths  of  faith. 

Crito.  Why  should  there  be  doubts  and  difficul- 
ties ?  Why  should  the  great  creator  employ  subter- 
fuge and  phantasm  for  the  promulgation  of  plain 
honest  truths,  which  would  seem  to  demand  plain 
honest  explanation  ?  Of  what  benefit  to  religion  are 
riddles  and  the  cloudy  obscurations  of  truth  ?  Why 
do  men,  wise  and  intelHgent  in  all  things  else,  insist  on 
saddling  such  diabolisms  on  the  deity  they  adore  ? 

Phsedo.  Would  not  a  beneficent  being  meet  every 
uplook  of  a  devoted  child  with  an  answering  smile  ? 

Crito,     The  logic  of  religion    is  found  in  those  self- 


PLATO   REVISED.  703 

deceptions  and   illusions  which  are  among   the  most 
precious  of  man's  inheritances. 

Plwedo.  In  his  moral  government  men  make  the 
almighty  display,  to  say  the  least,  not  the  most  admir- 
able traits  of  humanity. 

Crito.  Theology  seldom  appeals  to  the  good  in 
us,  but  denounces  human  nature,  makes  us  degenerate 
by  inheritance,  and  hurls  upon  us  the  threatened 
vengeance  of  a  creator,  by  whom  and  through  whom 
we  are  what  we  are. 

Plixdo.  They  go  further,  and  make  their  most  benef- 
icent creator  implant  ravening  instincts  in  all  his  creat- 
ures, such  as  forever  urge  them  on  to  destroy  each 
other.  They  make  every  work  of  a  perfect  being  in 
some  way  defective.  They  construct  the  crowning 
work  of  a  high  and  holy  being  on  a  basis  of  moral  and 
physical  ruin. 

Crito.  Nine-tenths  of  all  blood  distilled  in  the 
veins  of  man  and  beast  has  been  poured  forth  as  an 
oblation  to  this  influence  which  they  say  created  it. 

Plisedo.  Every  crime  within  the  possibility  of  man 
to  conceive  of,  and  attended  by  all  the  atrocities  and 
injustices  the  world  of  humanity  has  had  at  com- 
mand, has  been  committed  by  believers  for  the  love 
of  their  deity. 

Crito.  All  the  iniquities  the  gods  deny  to  men, 
hate,  revenge,  robbery  and  murder,  their  worshippers 
permit  them  to  indulge  in  to  their  heart's  content. 

Plisedo.  In  what  actual  estimation  can  men  hold 
a  deity  whom  they  seek  by  groveling,  fawning,  flat- 
tery, cajolery  and  bribery,  to  sway  from  a  pre- 
determined purpose,  which  if  wrong  proves  the  god 
a  bad  one,  and  if  right  it  would  make  him  bad  to 
deviate  from  ? 

Crito.     Why  should  a  superlatively  glorious  being  . 
desire  further  glorification  by  imperfect  creatures  of 
his  own   construction,  which  were  indeed  so  vile  as 
to  be  condemned  and  cast  away  by  the  maker  ? 

Phsedo.    Over  and  over  again  his  followers  acknowl- 


704  PLATO  REVISED. 

edge  his  errors,  lament  his  failure,  and  cause  him  to 
wipe  out  his  work  in  fire  or  blood. 

Crito.  To  lead  a  perfect  life,  to  follow  a  perfect 
moral  code,  implies  perfection  in  man,  with  all  knowl- 
edge, self-command,  and  goodness,  which  these  men 
make  the  law-giver  himself  the  first  to  declare  as 
wholly  absent  from  both  the  nature  and  possibilities 
of  man. 

Plwedo.  In  all  religions  revenge  is  right  for  the 
creator,  but  not  always  for  the  creature.  Indra,  who 
is  pleased  by  praise,  and  Vishnu,  one  of  the  forms  of 
the  sun,  are  sought,  not  for  their  spiritual  but  for 
their  material  aid.  There  is  no  ethical  or  moral  idea 
about  their  worship.  Evil  abounds,  and  the  gods  are 
praised  because  they  destroy  sinners,  in  which  cate- 
gory are  placed  those  who  do  not  praise  and  sacrifice 
to  the  gods. 

Crito.  It  is  singular  that  so  many  intelligent  per- 
sons should  hold  some  one  particular  collection  of 
absurd  fancies  and  superstitions  true,  and  all  other 
collections  false. 

Phsedo.  Strange  indeed  are  the  ways  of  the  world, 
when  viewed  as  the  work  of  perfect  wisdom,  love, 
and  power,  this  slowly  unfolding  and  most  defective 
earth,  with  its  rattlesnakes  and  tigers  and  tigerish 
humanity,  its  progressions  by  births  and  deaths,  its 
religions  of  loves  and  hates,  of  ravenous  selfishness, 
ruthless  carnage,  and  ever-improved  death-dealing 
contrivances. 

Evenus.  The  first  man  was  made  upright,  but  he 
fell  under  the  temptations  of  evil. 

Crito.  Why  did  God  allow  the  evil  to  tempt  this 
man  ? 

Evenus,     To  try  him. 

Crito.     Why  did  he  wish  to  try  him  ? 

Evenus.     To  make  him  a  responsible  creature. 

Crito.  Could  not  God  have  made  him  a  responsi- 
ble creature  in  the  first  place  ? 

Evenus,     That  was  no  part  of  his  purpose. 


PLATO  REVISED.  705 

Crito.     How  know  you  his  purpose  ? 

Evenus,     From  his  acts. 

Crito,     Are  his  acts  good  or  bad  ? 

Evenus.     The  holy  one  cannot  tolerate  evil. 

Crito,  Am  I  not  responsible  for  a  wrong  I  can 
prevent,  and  will  not  ? 

Evenus.     Undoubtedly. 

Crito.  Your  religion  needs  a  little  patching  here, 
my  friend.  Your  creator  knowingly  makes  a  creature 
not  strong  enough  to  withstand  the  temptation  pre- 
viously prepared  for  his  eternal  entrapment.  Tell  me, 
my  good  Evenus,  how  it  is,  when  we  see  the  universe, 
material  and  moral,  held  together  by  opposing  forces, 
attraction  and  repulsion,  good  and  evil,  or  whatsoever 
they  may  be  called,  that  one  deity  can  be  absolute 
over  all,  without  the  several  parts  of  his  nature  being 
divided  against  themselves,  and  antagonistic  one  to 
the  other  ? 

Evenus.  We  cannot  understand  all  of  God's  ways, 
or  fathom  all  of  his  mysteries. 

Crito.  That,  my  friend,  is  a  mere  evasion  of  the 
difficulty.  You  make  a  deity,  and  endow  him  with 
attributes,  the  most  of  wliich  you  explain  clearly 
enough  to  your  own  satisfaction  ;  but  where  your 
plan  is  defective,  incongruous,  contradictory,  absurd, 
or  utterly  impossible,  instead  of  frankly  admitting  its 
imperfection  and  revising  your  religion  so  as  to  bring 
it  within  the  pale  of  common  sense,  you  avoid  the 
issue  by  hiding  God  behind  an  impenetrable  veil  of 
mystery.  God  is  either  the  author  of  all  or  only  of 
part ;  he  is  the  master  of  evil  or  else  not  omnipotent ; 
to  say  that  you  cannot  understand  why,  hating  evil 
and  being  able  instantly  to  extinguish  it,  he  permits 
it,  is  to  place  yourself  and  your  deity  in  false  posi- 
tions and  render  both  ridiculous.  It  is  true  that 
some  things  about  your  deity  you  think  you  under- 
stand, while  regarding  others  you  think  otherwise. 
The  fact  is,  you  know  nothing  about  God,  and  in 
common    sense    and    common    honesty   you    should 

Essays  and  Miscellany    45 


7C6  PLATO  REVISED. 

frankly  admit  as  much,  instead  of  weaving  fantastic 
theories  which  leave  him  in  a  maze  of  absurdities, 
when  in  truth  you  are  obliged  after  all  to  admit  that 
you  know  nothing  about  it. 

Phxdo,      Shall  you  ever  make  a  deit}^,  Socrates  ? 

Socrates.  Not  until  I  can  improve  upon  any  now 
existing. 

Phdedo.     On    what  would  you  base  a  rational  God  ? 

Socrates.     On  nature. 

Plixdo.  But  there  are  two  elements  in  nature — 
good  and  evil. 

Socrates.  Then  I  would  have  two  gods,  or  one 
god  with  two  sides  or  two  natures,  open  and  antago- 
nistic ;  such  as  we  see  everywhere  in  the  universe.  I 
would  not  ascribe  all  good  qualities  to  his  attributes, 
and  all  bad  qualities  to  his  actions.  Throughout  the 
universal  realm  of  dim  intelligence  it  is  most  conven- 
ient for  learned  ignorance  to  have  a  God  with  whom 
all  things  are  possible,  and  whose  wa3^s  are  past  find- 
ing out.  With  the  principles  of  good  and  evil  abroad,  it 
is  necessary  in  every  well-ordered  religion  either  to  have 
two  supreme  deities  of  about  equally  balanced  powers 
that  are  eternally  antagonistic,  though  neither  can 
ever  wholly  overthrow  the  other,  or  else  to  make  the 
one  supreme  deity  father  of  the  evil  and  author  of  all 
wickedness.  For  clearly,  if  there  be  but  one,  and  he 
the  author  of  all,  he  must  of  necessity  be  the  origina- 
tor and  preserver  of  evil  as  of  good.  Further  than  this, 
being  omnipotent  and  permitting  evil,  is  to  be  directly 
responsible  for  it ;  so  that  on  any  ground  it  is  impossi- 
ble that  God  should  not  be  held  absolutely  responsible 
for  all  the  sin  and  misery  as  well  as  the  righteousness 
and  happiness  of  all.  The  truth  is,  the  worshippers  of 
God  put  forth  all  their  efforts  to  invest  his  nature 
with  the  most  monstrous  incongruities. 

Phsedo.  Of  the  senseless  and  absurd  infatuations 
man  has  indulged  in  during  his  long  journey  from 
protoplasm  to  his  present  state  of  not  too  high  intel- 
lectuality, his  religions  have  been  the  most  nonsensical. 


PLATO   REVISED.  707 

What  with  the  savagisms  of  the  supernatural,  perse- 
cutions for  opinion's  sake,  bloody  wars,  and  hateful 
revenges,  and  all  under  pretence  of  piety,  self-sacrifice, 
justice,  and  the  special  enjoyment  of  the  favor  of  the 
king  of  heaven,  we  have  made  up  a  catalogue  of  self- 
delusions  that  is  almost  incredible. 

Crito.     And  still  the  infatuation  continues. 

Apollodorus.  THe  maxims  of  all  gods  must  be  better 
than  their  practice;  else  man  who  made  them  would 
bo  their  inferior,  which  has  never  yet  been  the  case. 
If  a  man  were  not  better  than  his  creed  he  would  be 
driven  from  society. 

Crito,  Is  there  more  of  good  or  of  evil  in  the 
world  ? 

Evenus,  I  should  say  they  were  about  equally  bal- 
anced. 

Socrates.  These  two  principles  have  ever  been  at 
war  ;  is  there  any  gain  of  one  upon  the  other  ? 

Evenus.     It  cannot  be  so  demonstrated. 

Socrates.     This  is  not  a  perfect  world  ? 

Evenus.     Anyone  can  see  that  it  is  not. 

Socrates.  Is  it  possible  for  a  perfect  being  to  be 
the  author  of  an  imperfect  work  ? 

Evenus.     No,  I  think  not. 

Socrates.     And  yet  God  is  perfect  ? 

EvenxLS.     Unquestionably. 

Socrates.     And  his  work  imperfect. 

Evenus.     We  see  evidences  about  us  of  imperfection. 

Socrates.  It  is  an  inadmissible  proposition  that  a 
perfect  being  should  execute  or  sustain  an  imperfect 
work.  It  is  no  more  possible  for  perfection  to  breed 
imperfection  than  for  perfection  to  be  engendered 
under  any  other  than  faultless  conditions.  If,  while 
just  and  holy,  God  is  supreme,  there  is  no  place 
wherein  it  is  possible  for  iniquity  and  injustice  to 
exist ;  if  while  he  hates  evil  God  is  supreme,  evil  can- 
not exist.  If  famine  and  pestilence  are  abroad,  if 
robbery,  slavery,  murder,  and  death  abound,  they  are 
the  wish,  will,  and  work  of  the  almighty ;  if  the  evil 


708  PLATO  REVISED. 

lives,  it  lives  alone  by  the  sustaining  power  of  the 
almighty,  by  virtue  of  the  almighty's  will,  and  for  tlie 
purpose  of  doing  what  it  does,  which  is  to  sow  mis- 
chief, and  tempt  and  destroy  other  of  God's  creatures. 
Thus  he  who  is  called  perfect  justice  makes  birds, 
and  beasts,  and  fishes,  the  strong  to  prey  upon  the 
weak,  and  among  men  the  cunning  to  circumvent  the 
simple,  and  devils  to  torture  and  devour  all  over 
whom  they  may  by  the  grace  of  God  gain  dominion. 

Evenus.  We  cannot  fathom  all  the  mysteries  of 
the  almighty. 

Socrates.  If  you  can  fathom  any  of  them  why 
cannot  you  fathom  them  all ;  is  not  one  mystery  as 
mysterious  as  another  ? 

Evenus.  Some  things  God  has  explained;  others 
he  has  not  revealed. 

Socrates.     Has  he  revealed  to  you  anything  ? 

Evenus.     Yes. 

Socrates.  Has  he  revealed  to  you  his  loving  kind- 
ness ? 

Evenus.     Yes. 

Socrates.  It  is  a  mark  of  loving  kindness  to  make 
a  world  full  of  misery,  life  itself  being  sustained  by 
sufferings  and  death  ? 

Evenus.     We  cannot  understand. 

Socrates.  Then  why  pretend  that  you  understand  ; 
why  make  statements  and  propagate  beliefs  which  so 
contradict  each  other  that  they  cannot  be  true  ? 
God,  you  say,  is  omniscient,  knowing  the  end  from 
the  beginning. 

Evenus.     Yes. 

Socrates.     And  you  say  he  is  wise  ? 

Evenus.     Yes. 

Socrates.  What  would  you  say  of  a  wise  and  good 
man  who  knowingly  and  intentionally  brought  to 
pass  innumerable  dire  disasters  and  atrocities,  calmly 
doing  the  things  he  most  of  all  abhorred,  fostering 
what  he  most  hated,  and  punishing,  so  far  as  he  was 


PLATO  REVISED.  709 

able,  evil  agents  which  he  had  made  to  do  the  evil, 
and  could  not  help  so  doing  ? 

Evenus.     Such  could  not  be. 

Socrates.  Are  modern  religionists  generally  men  of 
sound  minds? 

Evenus.  The}^  are  far  above  tlie  average  intelli- 
gence of  men  throughout  the  world. 

Socrates.  Then  I  am  sorry  for  the  world,  and  have 
again  to  thank  the  hemlock.  For  these  whose  religion 
appears  to  have  been  made  up  of  parts  of  older  beliefs, 
and  partaking  of  the  incongruities  and  contradictions 
of  them  all,  set  up  for  themselves  a  deity  claiming  all 
perfections  in  power,  knowledge,  benevolence,  holi- 
ness, and  justice,  yet  the  author  of  evil,  or  if  not,  then 
not  the  author  of  all  nor  supreme  creator — in  any 
event  permitting  evil,  and  thereby  making  himself  a 
party  to  it ;  with  pretended  omnipotence,  pretending 
to  hate  unto  death  an  adversary  whom  he  permits  to 
live,  and  tempting  and  tormenting  his  children  whom 
purposely,  out  of  his  infinite  loving  kindness  and 
tender  mercy,  he  created  too  weak  to  withstand  the 
temptation,  God  knowing  all  the  time  that  the  vast 
majority  of  his  people  would  fall  and  be  punished  in 
endless  agony. 

Evenus.  An  omniscient  God  knows  the  end  from 
the  beginning — knows  all  that  will  come  to  pass 
before  the  world  is  made. 

Socrates.  Even  so;  whatever  happens  must  have 
happened.  And  yet  the  creature  is  made  responsible 
for  what  the  creator  compels  him  to  do,  and  punishes 
him  for  doing. 

Crito.  In  attempting  to  make  known  his  will,  the 
creator  either  intended  man  should  understand  or  he 
did  not;  if  the  former,  then  the  creator  should  either 
have  spoken  plainer,  or  else  have  rendered  the  per- 
ceptive faculties  of  man  more  acute  ;  if  the  latter, 
men  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  not  comprehend- 
ing what  their  maker  did  not  wish  or  expect  them  to 
comprehend      Nor  do   I   see   how  in  any    event    the 


710  PLATO  REVISED. 

fault  can  be  the  creature's,  to  whom  has  never 
been  given  sufficient  evidence  on  which  to  base  a 
reasonable  opinion ;  for  surely  if  the  creator  did  not 
wish  to  have  his  people  mystified  on  this  most  momen- 
tous subject  he  would  have  enlightened  them,  and  if 
he  did  not  wish  them  to  use  their  reasoning  faculties, 
he  never  would  have  formulated  them.  He  who  made 
the  mind  could  so  reveal  himself  to  the  mind  as  to  leave 
no  doubt ;  he  who  formulated  reason  could  so  address 
reason  as  to  satisfy  reason. 

Apollodonis.  Ah,  I  see  I  As  Lucian  in  his  Sale 
of  the  Philosophers  says  of  the  boy  who,  in  crossing  a 
river,  is  seized  by  a  crocodile,  the  captor  promises  to 
give  him  up  to  his  father  if  the  father  will  rightly 
guess  what  the  crocodile  is  going  to  do  with  him.  Now 
if  the  father  guesses  that  the  crocodile  means  to 
restore  the  boy,  the  guess  is  wron^,  for  the  beast 
means  to  eat  him.  If  the  father  guesses  the  croco- 
dile is  going  to  eat  him,  clearly  the  guess  would  be 
wrong  should  the  crocodile  give  him  up.  And  again, 
Plowden,  the  priest,  could  not  be  punished  for  attend- 
ing mass  performed  by  a  layman,  because  mass  so 
performed,  without  the  offices  of  priests,  was  no  mass ; 
and  therefore  Plowden  did  not  attend  mass,  and 
could  not  be  punished  for  doing  what  he  did  not  do. 
And  so  on. 

Socrates.  I  find  written  in  your  Pepublic,  Plato, 
that  we  must  not  listen  to  Homer,  or  to  any  other 
poet  who  intimates  or  is  guilty  of  the  folly  of  saying  that 
God  is  the  dispenser  of  good  and  evil;  and  that  of  the 
evils  the  cause  is  to  be  sought  elsewhere,  and  not  in 
him.  And  you  say,  if  any  one  asserts  that  the  viola- 
tion of  oaths  and  treaties,  of  which  Pandarus  was  the 
real  author,  was  brought  about  by  Athene  and 
Zeus,  or  that  strife  among  the  gods  was  instigated  by 
Themis  and  Zeus,  he  shall  not  have  your  approval ; 
neither  will  you  allow  our  young  men  to  hear  the 
words  of  ^schylus  that  God  plants  guilt  among  the 


PLATO  REVISED.  711 

men  he  desires  to  destroy.  And  if  a  poet  writes  of  the 
sufferings  of  Niobe,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  tragedy 
in  which  these  iambic  verses  occur,  or  of  the  house 
of  Pelops,  or  of  the  Trojan  war,  or  any  similar  theme, 
either  we  must  not  permit  him  to  say  that  these  are 
the  works  of  God^  or  if  they  are  of  God  he  must 
devise  some  such  explanation  of  them  as  we  are  seek- 
ing ;  he  must  say  that  God  did  what  was  just  and 
right,  and  they  were  the  better  for  being  punished  ; 
but  that  those  who  are  punished  are  miserable,  and 
God  is  the  author  of  their  misery — the  poet  is  not  to 
be  permitted  so  to  say,  though  he  may  say  that  the 
wicked  are  miserable  because  they  require  to  be  pun- 
ished and  are  benefited  by  receiving  punishment  from 
God  ;  but  that  God  being  good  is  the  author  of  evil 
to  anyone,  that  is  to  be  strenuously  denied,  and  not 
allowed  to  be  sung  or  said  in  any  well-ordered  com- 
monwealth by  old  or  young. 

Plato.     We  must  shield  the  good  name  of  God. 

Socrates.     Why  must  we  shield  his  good  name  ( 
he  is  wiser  and  better  and  stronger  than  man,  cannot 
he  take  care  of  his  own  reputation  ? 

Plato.  He  works  not  in  that  way.  Troubled  you 
yourself  regarding  your  reputation,  Socrates,  while 
in  Athens  ?  Neither  troubles  God  himself  over  many 
other  things  which  throw  the  minds  of  men  into 
confusion. 

Socrates.  You  are  like  all  the  rest,  Plato,  you  can 
discourse  with  some  degree  of  common  sense  upon 
any  system  of  theology  except  your  own. 

Plato.  If,  Socrates,  amid  the  many  opinions  about 
the  gods  and  the  generation  of  the  universe,  we  are 
not  able  to  give  notions  which  are  in  every  way  exact 
and  consistent  with  one  another,  do  not  be  surprised. 
Enough  if  we  adduce  probabilities  as  likely  as  any 
others,  for  we  must  remember  that  we  are  only 
mortal  men,  and  ought  to  accept  the  tale  which  is 
probable  and  not  inquire  further. 


712  PLATO  REVISED. 

Socrates.  That  were  the  answer  of  a  common 
priest,  but  not  of  Plato. 

Plato.     In  reUgion  Plato  is  no  better  than  a  priest. 

Socrates.  When  you  admit  the  necessity  of  explain- 
ing the  motives  of  the  gods,  and  of  defending  their 
seemingly  impious  and  iniquitous  wa^^s ;  and  when 
you  declare  further,  as  is  written  in  the  Laws,  that 
gods  and  temples  are  not  easily  established,  and  to 
establish  them  rightly  is  the  work  of  a  mighty 
intellect,  were  you  not  even  then  of  opinion  that  gods 
and  theogonics  are  made  by  men  ? 

Plato.  God  and  his  ways  nmst  be  set  right  before 
ignorant  men,  who  otherwise  go  astray  in  their  con- 
ceptions of  the  nature  and  attributes  of  the  deity. 

Socrates.  Cannot  God,  if  he  chooses,  reveal  him- 
self to  the  ignorant  as  well  as  to  the  wise  ?  You  say 
that  Homer  and  the  poets  are  not  to  be  believed, 
and  the  ignorant  are  not  to  be  trusted.  Truly  you 
bring  the  power  of  God  within  narrow  limits,  like- 
wise the  possibilities  of  men. 

Plato.  Well,  then,  let  the  gods  take  care  of  them- 
selves, and  let  ignorance  and  superstition  breed  if 
they  brmg  happiness. 

Socrates.  Ye  gods !  is  this  Plato,  whilom  called  the 
divine,  the  reputed  lover  of  truth,  holding  in  abhor- 
rence whatsoever  obscured  the  light  of  life  and 
reason  ?  To  me  the  hemlock  is  nectar  beside  goblets 
of  delicious  deceit. 

Plato.  I  do  not  say  that  I  love  lies,  or  for  myself 
prefer  the  pleasures  of  superstition  to  unpalatable 
truth ;  nor  do  I  say  that  I  would  rather  drink  hem- 
lock than  good  wine,  or  have  a  fancy  for  teaching 
toads  the  glory  of  the  stars.  Leave  swine  to  their 
wallow,  and  let  only  those  who  choose  come  out 
upon  the  plain  of  universal  actuality,  even  though 
the  horizon  lacks  mirage,  and  no  celestial  city  shines 
beyond  the  skj. 

Socrates.  But,  my  Plato,  how  are  men  to  know 
truth  from  error  if  they  are  not  told  ? 


PLATO  REVISED.  713 

Plato.  Who  is  to  tell  them,  O  Socrates?  How 
much  of  truth  know  you  ?  How  much  know  I  ? 
And  what  advantage  over  ours  had  earlier  and  darker 
ages  ?  In  matters  whereof  none  can  know  aught,  it 
pleases  some  to  pretend  to  a  knowledge  for  whicli 
there  is  no  warrant.  Ancient  lies,  long  wrapped  in 
popular  formulas,  become  things  sacred,  which  to  ques- 
tion is  sacrilege.  Then,  as  civilization  advances,  and 
a  little  light  breaks  in  upon  the  mind,  to  fit  the  ever- 
lessening  remnant  of  these  absurdities  to  the  indis- 
putable truths  of  science  becomes  a  fine  art,  to  which 
many  thousands  of  w^orthy  men  devote  their  lives, 
regarding  it  as  highly  meritorious  to  fill  in  with  new 
fancies  the  gaps  caused  by  the  demolition  of  progress. 

Socrates.  Dost  thou,  then,  the  divine  teacher, 
discourage  meditation,  and  the  analysis  thereof? 

Plato.  In  so  far  as  it  tends  to  fasten  upon  the 
minds  of  men  the  foibles  and  fables  of  antiquity  as 
holy  and  everlasting  truths,  I  do.  Most  reforms 
are  killed  by  the  reformers.  Indeed,  my  master,  will 
not  the  earth  revolve,  the  sun  shine,  and  waters  flow 
without  so  much  agony  and  bloody  sw^eat  on  the  part 
of  those  who  measure  their  knowledge  by  the  igno- 
rance of  others,  and  who  find  so  much  to  improve  in 
the  creator's  work,  which  originally  was  pronounced 
very  good  ?  It  is  by  no  means  an  established  propo- 
sition that  mankind  has  been  benefited  by  these 
strained  efforts  of  priests,  reformers,  salvation  saints, 
and  all  that  army  of  evil-exterminators  who  harness 
infernal  agencies  to  the  chariot  of  the  Lord,  and  who 
have  been  so  diligently  at  work  to  batter  down  the 
walls  of  Satan's  stronghold  ever  since  the  idea  got 
abroad  that  there  were  such  beings  and  places  in  this 
fair  universe.  With  what  matchless  confidence  the 
creature  expounds  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  creator 
to  the  less  favored  of  his  race.  Truly,  it  is  among 
the  ignorant,  the  thoughtless,  the  unreasoning  that 
religions  most  do  flourish;  indeed,  never  yet  was  a 
new  religion  established  among  the  more  intelligent, 


714  PLATO    REVISED. 

educated,  and  refined  of  a  community.  Turn  into  a 
field  the  young  asses,  and  set  the  old  asses  braying 
at  them  ;  is  the  breed  improved  thereby  ?  By  any 
amount  of  prayer  and  exhortation  can  the  trees  be 
made  to  bear  better  and  larger  fruit  ?  Is  man,  then, 
so  much  worse  than  animals  and  plants?  Has  human 
clay  in  the  hands  of  the  almighty  becume  so  stiffened 
as  to  require  the  assistance  of  men  in  the  further 
fashioning  ? 

Socrates.     So  it  would  seem,  Plato. 

Plato.  On  the  whole,  is  it  not  presumptuous  on 
the  part  of  one  portion  of  humanity  to  regard  them- 
selves in  spiritual  matters  as  the  teachers  and  regu- 
lators of  the  other  portion  ?  What  knowledge  of  the 
unknowable  had  the  earlier  comers  to  this  planet 
that  the  later  comers  have  not  ?  What  more  knows 
the  man  in  the  pulpit  on  Sunday  of  the  abstract 
theology  which  he  discusses  than  the  man  who  carries 
bricks  on  Saturday  ?  He  talks  better,  but  how  much 
more  does  he  know  ?  What  can  the  one  learn  from 
his  books  of  that  which  is  hidden  in  utter  darkness 
that  the  other  cannot  learn  from  his  bricks  ?  '^  Can 
we  explain  what  we  see  and  are  conscious  of  by  refer- 
ring it  to  what  we  do  not  see  and  are  not  conscious 
of?"  asks  one.  What  is  religious  study  but  an 
attempt  at  reasoning  from  false  premises,  or  no  prem- 
ises, a  manipulation  of  uncertainties  and  absurdities  ? 

Socrates.  Religion  is  man's  necessity,  though  so 
often  the  subterfuge  of  a  hypocrite. 

Plato.  Natural  or  true  religion,  yes ;  but  not  the 
creeds  interwoven  of  demons  and  deities  of  worpe 
natures  than  the  men  who  make  them ;  creeds  formu- 
lated in  half-savage  societies,  and  drawn  into  a  thread 
to  mark  the  only  safe  path  across  the  narrow  isthmus 
of  our  lives. 

Socrates.  For  all  that,  the  moral  element  will  have 
its  ideality,  howsoever  the  progressional  may  be  able 
to  work  without  it. 

Plato.     Grant  it  be  so  ;    but  give  not  to  its  absurd 


PLATO  REVISED.  715 

inventions  almighty  and  immaculate  powers,  which, 
if  so  be  any  such  ever  existed,  and  desired  the  regen- 
eration of  the  world,  they  would  long  since  have 
accomplished  it.  Neither  intellectual  nor  religious 
culture  has  the  moralizing  effect  usually  attributed 
to  it.  And  if  religionists  would  have  the  respect  of 
the  intelligent,  they  must  do  something  besides  hold 
in  mute  abhorrence  those  who  differ  from  them  in 
opinion,  and  insist  upon  the  truth  of  dogmas  which 
nature  and  reason  declare  false,  until  there  are  given 
to  us  other  and  better  means  than  reason  and  nature 
for  determining  truth. 

Socrates.  It  would  seem  in  your  opinion,  then,  that 
there  are  no  honest  teachers  of  religion  ? 

Plato.  Yes,  many,  ignorantly  honest,  for  the  intel- 
ligently honest  must  needs  immediately  stop  the 
present  kind  of  teaching.  There  is  a  class  of  able 
men  who,  fearing  starvation,  struggle  with  their 
spiritual  as  with  their  material  difficulties,  coercing 
conscience,  explaining  away  unfulfilled  prophecies 
and  palpable  contradictions,  and  striving  in  every 
way  to  twist  the  statements  of  holy  books  to  fit  the 
facts  of  science,  or  vice  versa.  There  are  in  this 
world  some  expounders  of  religion  who  are  lofty 
minded  and  holy  men —  whatsoever  this  latter  term 
may  signify — whose  lives  are  an  oblation.  There  are 
some  religious  people  who  are  honest;  but  men  of 
the  world  have  learned  not  to  trust  to  the  religion 
that  is  in  a  person  for  the  payment  of  a  debt.  So 
with  our  religious  teachers.  The  moral  sense  of 
many  of  them  is  warped,  being  chained  to  tradition, 
and  made  to  walk  between  high  walls  of  dogmas. 
Many  of  them  are  openly  dishonest,  it  being  a  small 
matter  in  their  opinion  for  a  servant  of  the  almighty 
to  appropriate  to  his  own  use  the  fruits  of  the 
almighty's  handiwork  wherever  he  may  find  them. 
Men  preach  too  much  and  practise  too  little,  my 
master. 


716  PLATO  REVISED. 

Socrates.  I  fear  that  you  and  your  philosophy  are 
somewhat  changed,  my  Plato. 

Plato.  I  hold  it  wisdom  to  change  ideas  and  opin- 
ions as  evidence  changes.  *^Have  an  opinion  and 
hold  to  it,"  is  a  maxim  which  has  filled  the  world 
with  fanatics.  Lacking  the  brains  to  formulate 
correct  opinions  yourself,  take  another's  and  hold 
to  them,  even  though  they  come  from  ancient  igno- 
ramuses whose  superstition  time  hallows.  Evidence 
matters  not,  nor  yet  a  knowable  or  provable  propo- 
sition. No,  my  dear  master.  He  must  be  more  than 
God  or  less  than  man  who  never  has  occasion  to 
change  his  opinions.  When  the  Ionic  gods  of  Homer 
and  the  Doric  gods  of  Hesiod  could  not  stand  the 
test  of  philosophic  enquiry,  pious  men  became  infu- 
riated. Euripides  was  charged  with  heresy,  and 
-^schylus  threatened  with  stoning  to  death  for  blas- 
phemy.    Only  fools  and  fanatics  never  change. 

Socrates.     How  is  it  written  in  your  book  ? 

Plato.  My  book  !  Cast  not  in  my  teeth  my  book. 
By  Jupiter !  I  will  revise  my  book.  Every  book 
sliould  be  revised  once  in  two  thousand  years. 

Socrates.     But  will  you  not  revise  your  religion  ? 

Plato.  No.  Religions  revise  themselves,  forced 
thereto  by  that  inexplicable  unfolding  of  the  intellect 
called  civilization.  Religions  make  books,  and  books 
perpetuate  religions  ;  but  long  after  the  religion  has 
departed  the  book  remains,  which,  if  not  changed  to 
fit  new  conditions  becomes  obsolete,  inculcating  igno- 
rance and  superstition. 

Socrates.  How  ?  If  a  book  teaches  ignorance  and 
superstition  at  the  last,  did  it  not  so  at  the  first  ? 

Plato.  Yes.  But  savages  and  the  simple-minded 
seem  to  require  a  solution  of  superstition  in  their 
intellectual  nutriment  which  the  more  advanced  minds 
do  not  demand.  Books  tend  to  preserve  the  forms 
of  religion  lono;  after  the  essence  is  sfone,  to  enforce 
tlie  power  of  religion  long  after  its  falsehoods  are 
exposed,  to  keep  alive  lip  service  conforming  to  the 


PLATO  REVISED.  717 

barbarisms  of  antiquity  long  after  civilization  has 
forbidden  indulgence  in  sacred  savagisms. 

Socrates.  Indeed,  my  Plato,  I  have  slept.  For  I, 
thy  former  teacher,  find  myself  appealing  to  thee  for 
instruction.  Thus  it  is,  ever  and  forever,  the  new 
teaches  the  old  ;  the  old  reiterates,  the  new  unfolds. 
In  learning  and  intellect  the  ancients  were  once  gods ; 
now  they  are  babes ;  for  besides  the  searching  logic 
of  modern  science  their  aphorisms  and  doctrines  are 
but  gilded  superstition,  as  many  of  those  of  the 
present  day  will  be  regarded  three  hundred  years 
hence.  Yet  I  do  believe  that  in  form  and  ideality 
the  ancients  are  still  the  world's  teachers,  however 
in  the  knowledge  of  matter,  and  the  art  of  its  subser- 
vience to  the  requirements  of  man,  they  may  have 
been  outstripped  by  more  material  minds  during  these 
centuries  of  practical  progress. 

Plato.  Men  make  their  gods  by  slow  degrees, 
without  knowing  it,  endowing  them  with  so-called 
superior  attributes,  and  soon  coming  to  think  that 
the  gods  made  them,  that  they  are  beings  to  be  petted 
and  prayed  to,  coaxed,  cajoled,  bribed,  and  bepraised 
without  limit  or  reason,  and  not  to  be  disturbed  in 
their  sage  and  eternal  cogitations  by  prying  philos- 
ophers. Men  are  nowhere  so  sensitive  as  about  their 
religion,  especially  when  called  upon  to  prove  it. 
What  did  you  expect  to  gain,  Socrates,  by  obtruding 
your  good  sense  upon  those  blockheads  of  Athens? 

Socrates.  I  was  not  in  search  of  gain  ;  that,  Plato, 
you  know  well  enough.  And  truly  the  hemlock 
harmed  me  not ;  I  needed  sleep.  But  how  knew 
Melitus  what  I  did  not  believe  ?  How  know  I  what 
I  believe  ?  Knowinor  not  I  denied  not ;  knowino^ 
naught  I  affirmed  naught.  Plato,  can  one  believe 
what  one  cannot  apprehend  ? 

Plato.  By  the  gods  !  no.  Belief  comes  from  evi- 
dence, from  a  knowledge  of  facts.  Where  the  facts 
are  not  made  evident  there  can  be  no  belief  What 
men  call  faith,  or  belief  in  the  unseen  and  unknown, 


718  PLATO  REVISED. 

is  but  the  blindness  of  bigotry;  the  greater  the 
ignorance  and  stupidity,  the  greater  such  faith.  Dogs 
bark  because  other  dogs  bark. 

Socrates.  As  well  so  as  to  follow  Anaxagoras  when 
he  cries,  ''Nothing  can  be  known,  nothing  can  be 
learned,  nothing  can  be  certain ;  sense  is  limited, 
intellect  is  weak,  life  is  short."  Or  still  worse,  to 
hold  with  Gorgias  of  Leontini  the  doctrines  of  utter 
nihilism^  that  nothing  exists,  or  if  existing  cannot  be 
known,  or  if  known  the  knowledge  cannot  be  imparted. 
There  is  the  testimony  of  inner  consciousness,  which 
you  say  may  be  above  that  of  reason.  More  people 
trust  to  their  feelings  than  to  their  reason.  They 
know  a  thing  to  be  so  because  all  their  inner  sense 
tells  them  it  is  so. 

Plato.  Not  necessarily.  Either  God  and  heaven 
exist  or  they  do  not,  and  the  fact  is  not  affected  by 
any  one's  belief  Therefore  the  inner  consciousness 
which  affirms  the  non-existence  of  spiritual  intelli- 
gences goes  as  far  to  prove  the  fact  as  the  inner 
consciousness  which  is  certain  of  their  existence. 

Crito.  Some  say  that  because  all  men  believe  in  a 
supreme  deity — which,  indeed,  is  not  true — therefore 
there  must  be  one. 

Plato.  If  believing  a  thing  makes  it  true,  then  is 
the  earth  flat,  and  in  the  center  of  the  universe,  with 
all  the  heavenly  bodies  revolving  round  it,  and  hell 
in  its  bowels ;  for  all  men  once  so  believed.  There 
are  ghosts  and  witches,  spirits  in  the  air,  miracles 
every  day  ;  if  what  men  believe  makes  a  thing  true, 
then  are  the  religions  of  savagism  true.  Moham- 
medanism and  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  are  true, 
for  more  men  believe  in  these  religions  than  in  any 
others.  If  there  is  anything  in  this  argument,  then 
the  majority  must  rule,  and  everybody  knows  that 
the  masses  of  mankind  are  dolts,  stupidly  ignorant 
and  superstitious.  Were  a  child,  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life,  to  act  as  do  men  in  their  religions,  and 


PLATO  REVISED.  719 

upon  no  better  evidence,  he  would  be  beaten  with 
rods. 

Crito.  But  men  have  had  an  origin,  and  they 
would  know  it ;  not  being  able  to  know  it,  they  prefer 
to  give  reins  to  the  imagination  and  create  a  theory 
out  of  nothing  than  to  offer  no  explanation. 

Phsedo.  Whoever  theorizes  upon  origin  must 
either  assume  the  eternity  of  matter  in  a  chaotic  state 
or  else  a  maker ;  if  the  former,  then  a  designer  of 
spheres  and  organisms  is  wanting ;  if  the  latter,  a 
creator  of  the  creator  must  be  found.  This  not  being 
possible,  from  the  beginning  men  have  gone  on 
deceiving  themselves  with  no  starting  point  and  no 
ground  to  stand  on,  putting  forth  the  most  absurd 
aro-uments,  buildingr  maofnificent  castles  on  no  founda- 
tion  whatever. 

ApoUodoTus.  Every  religion  and  every  philosophy 
answers  as  well  as  asks  the  question.  What  and 
whence  is  man  ?  Every  barbarian  is  expected  to 
have  ready  his  creed,  every  savage  his  solution  of 
creation  and  the  origin  and  destiny  of  man,  every 
faith  its  great  intelligence  and  its  lessser  intelligences 
by  whi(;h  all  things  were  made.  Arguments  upon  the 
various  theories  and  speculations  which  have  been 
advanced  have  derived  their  force  more  from  the 
learning  and  skill  of  the  advocates  than  from  any 
force  of  reason  in  the  positions  taken  ;  and  so  far  as 
the  most  enlightened,  unbiased  judgment  can  deter- 
mine, one  hypothesis  is  but  little  nearer  the  truth 
than  another.  Our  own  religious  belief,  the  only  true 
faith,  man's  sole  salvation  in  time  past  and  in  time  to 
come,  we  learn  to  cherish  as  a  truth  fixed  and 
unchangeable  as  the  eternal  hills;  and  yet  in  compari- 
son to  the  thousands  of  ages  since  the  advent  of  man 
upon  the  earth,  all  creeds  and  faiths  are  but  of 
yesterday,  and  are,  like  the  eternal  hills,  daily  and 
visibly  undergoing  change. 

Crito.  That  man  makes  his  religion  and  is  even 
now  making  it,  we  may  plainly  see.     Nations,  and  to 


720  PLATO  REVISED. 

some  extent  individuals,  have  each  their  religion. 
Look  at  the  millions  of  pcnates  in  the  homes  of  Asia, 
every  family  having  its  joss  and  every  hamlet  a  joss- 
house.  Were  there  one  only  omnipotent  and  omnis- 
cient creator,  the  author  of  all  men,  lover  of  truth  ; 
liater  of  ignorance,  crime  and  human  debasement ; 
hater  of  the  wars  and  horrible  deeds  committed  for 
and  in  the  name  of  religion;  were  there  one  only 
wise  and  benevolent  father  of  all,  clearly  there  would 
be  but  one  religion.  A  good,  kind,  loving  creator 
could  by  no  possibilit}^  permit  for  one  moment  the 
stupendous  evils,  the  woes  and  wickedness  attendant 
on  an  ignorance  of  our  origin  and  originator. 

Plisedo.  True ;  whether  a  self-created  creator  or 
eternal  matter  evolving  into  life  and  intelligence  be 
author  of  all,  the  problem  is  equally  puzzling.  With 
all  the  meditations  and  discussions,  the  quarrellings 
and  social  convulsions,  the  slavery  of  soul  and  body, 
and  slaughters  of  innocent  millions  attendant  on  the 
effort  to  ascertain  and  enforce  opinions  concerning 
man's  origin  and  destiny,  we  have  this  reflection  for 
our  consolation  that  not  the  slightest  advance  has 
been  made  from  the  creation  of  the  world  until  now. 
Many  learned  men  think  they  know  the  truth,  and,  as 
they  believe,  preach  it ;  but  it  is  clear  to  an  impartial 
observer  that  they  know  absolutely  nothing,  can  agree 
upon  nothing,  and  are  in  no  way  making  any  progress. 

Crito.  Is  it  better  to  know  the  truth  or  not  to 
know  it  ? 

Socrates.  Truth  is  better  than  falsehood.  It  is 
wiser  to  know  and  meet  an  unwelcome  truth  than  to 
harbor  and  place  hopes  upon  a  lie. 

Crito.  Is  not  the  Santa  Claus  an  innocent  fable 
for  children  ? 

Socrates.  The  pleasing  lies  of  religion  may  be 
harmless  if  presented  as  lies ;  but  if  presented  as 
truths  they  pervert  the  mind,  weaving  round  it  ct 
web  of  superstition  which  a  lifetime  is  often  too  short 
to  clear  away. 


PLATO  REVISED.  721 

Crito.  If  the  world  is  ever  to  hug  its  falsehoods 
and  follies,  how  is  there,  ever  to  be  progress  ? 

Socrates.  There  is  no  intellectual  progress  in  reli- 
gion, except  in  casting  it  off.  When  nature  is  fully 
known  there  will  be  no  more  supernatural ;  when 
men  become  as  gods  there  will  be  no  more  religion. 

Plixdo.  Socrates,  may  I  ask,  what  is  the  general 
idea  of  the  supernatural  ? 

Socrates.  That  which  is  above  or  outside  of  the 
laws  of  nature. 

PJixdo.  Man  made  the  gods  and  the  gods  made 
nature,  giving  fixed  and  unutterable  laws  thereto, 
which  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge  have  never  once 
been  broken  or  suspended.  Now  who  made  the 
supernatural ;  or  was  it  something  left  over  after 
omnipotence  had  made  nature,  that  he  might  have  it 
to  play  with,  to  do  with  just  as  he  pleased  ? 

Socrates.  No  such  quality  is  known  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, increase  of  knowledge  only  dispels  superstitions, 
never  establishing  one  of  them,  although  a  few  cen- 
turies ago  the  world  was  full  of  them,  and  there  are 
some  remaining  yet. 

Plidedo.     Is  there  then  no  supernatural  ? 

Socrates.  None  whatever  so  far  as  discerned. 
What  we  know  we  call  natural ;  what  we  know  not 
we  call  supernatural ;  but  when  the  supernatural  in 
its  cause  and  effect  is  explained,  it  becomes  natural. 
The  sun,  and  stars,  and  sk}^,  the  interior  earth, 
thunder,  lightning,  storm,  and  pestilence,  all  lately 
supernatural,  are  now  natural ;  and  so  the  rest  will  be 
as  science  continues  to  dispel  illusions.  The  telescope 
is  yet  to  be  invented  which  shall  bring  ghosts  and 
spirits  to  the  eye  of  common-sense  and  reason  ;  the 
chemicals  have  yet  to  be  mixed  for  an  actual  miracle, 
and  the  first  answer  to  prayer  remains  as  yet 
unproved. 

Phsedo.  Will  not  any  one  of  the  numberless  divini- 
ties whose  attributes  and  deeds  are  recorded  in  the 

Essays  and  Miscellany    46 


722  PLATO  REVISED. 

sacred  books  ever  establish  a  kingdom  of  the  super- 
natural ? 

Socrates.  When  such  an  appearance  presents  itself 
to  my  senses  and  reason,  these  not  failing  me,  I  shall 
apprehend  it.  Until  something  supernatural  is  once 
brought  home  to  my  mind  so  that  it  shall  ai)pear  to 
it  as  outside  or  beyond  the  control  of  nature,  I  sjiall 
feel  myself  obliged  to  refer  all  unexplained  phe- 
nomena to  the  category  of  things  not  yet  known,  and 
an}^  pretended  explanation  thereof  to  the  other  cate- 
gory of  fraud  and  sujx^rstition. 

Pliwdo.  You,  O  Socrates,  who  prize  virtue  before 
doctrine,  and  with  whom  knowledge  is  akin  to  hap- 
piness, tell  me,  I  pray  you,  how  distinguish  wisdom 
and  religion  ? 

Socrates.  Wisdom  is  the  knowledge  of  nature  ; 
religion  the  recognition  of  and  obedience  to  the  forces 
of  nature. 

Phxdo.     And  where  there  are  many  religions? 

Socrates.  Creeds  are  many ;  religions  are  one.  To 
think  correctly  and  act  honestly  is  the  sum  of  all 
religions.  Righteousness  and  love  are  the  basis  of  all 
moralities.  To  live  a  life  of  justice  and  temperance 
is  to  rise  superior  to  all  creeds,  or  render  useless 
prayers  for  personal  favors  with  every  kind  of  stored 
selfishness. 

Phscdo.     What  is  prayer  ? 

Socrates.  Prayer  is  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
creature  to  influence  his  creator,  an  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  changeable  to  turn  from  his  purpose  the 
unchangeable,  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  ignorant 
and  sinful  to  bring  the  author  of  all  wisdom  and 
righteousness  to  conform  to  the  creature's  conceptions 
of  duty  and  morality. 

Plato.  Nay,  more;  if  the  world  and  all  its  ways 
are  not  as  they  should  be,  if  all  that  is  is  not  right, 
if  might  is  not  right,  if  evil  is  not  good,  and  injustice 
the  purest  equity,  then  an  appeal  to  the  author  of  all 
to  revolutionize  affairs  and  improve  upon  himself  is 


PLATO  REVISED.  723 

reducing  omnipotence,  omniscience,  and  all-holiness  to 
most  contemptible  proportions. 

Crito.     Give  us  your  definition  of  religion,  Plato. 

Plato.  Religion  is  the  attempted  circumvention  of 
the  unknowable. 

Crito.     How  does  it  originate  ? 

Plato.     Through  fear. 

Crito.     What  is  its  aim  ? 

Plato.     The  highest,  holiest,  and  purest  selfishness. 

Crito.  Socrates,  if  man  makes  his  gods,  of  what  is 
he  afraid  ? 

Socrates.  He  does  not  know  that  he  makes  them  ; 
he  thinks  that  they  made  him. 

Crito.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  sanctified  selfishness 
is  the  root  of  all  religion. 

PJuedo.     What  is  the  highest  morality  ? 

Socrates.  An  enlightened  selfishness.  That  man 
is  moral  who  follows  his  true  interests. 

Pksedo.  You  agree  with  Crito  that  selfishness  is 
the  root  of  all  religion  ? 

Socrates.     Yes. 

Plato.  How  then  do  morality  and  religion  diflfer 
in  this  respect  ? 

Socrates.  Morality  is  enlightened  selfishness,  reli- 
gion unenlightened  selfishness. 

Plmdo.  Are  all  the  highest  and  holiest  aflfections 
of  man  based  on  selfishness  ? 

Socrates.  If  there  is  any  idea,  sentiment,  passion, 
feeling,  hope,  or  aspiration  in  heaven  or  earth,  in  the 
liuman  or  the  divine  breast,  which  traced  back  to  its 
source  and  followed  on  to  its  consummation  does  not 
begin  and  end  in  selfishness,  I  have  yet  to  discover  it. 

Plisedo.     What  is  man's  highest  good  ? 

Socrates.  To  know  the  knowable,  and  bow  before 
the  unknowable  without  pretending  to  fathom  it. 

Phxdo,     What  is  holiness  ? 

Socrates.  Conducting  ourselves  in  accord  with  our 
surroundings  ;  and  this  also  is  justice,  goodness,  and 
truth. 


724  PLATO  REVISED. 

Plisedo.  Pray  tell  me,  O  Socrates!  What  are 
progress,  civilization,  evolution  ? 

Socrates.  They  belong  to  the  unexplained  mys- 
teries. 

Phdedo.  The  several  religionists  claim  each  that 
it  is  the  child  of  their  faith  ;  that  outside  of  their 
system  there  is  no  increase  of  knowledge. 

Socrates.  That  cannot  be  ;  for  it  is  well  known 
that  the  whole  strength  of  every  religion  is  employed 
to  crush  independent  thought  and  hamper  progress. 
Science  opens  the  door  of  nature  and  spreads  before 
the  understanding  of  men  the  beauties  and  mysteries 
of  the  universe,  while  faith  closes  the  eyes  that  the 
heart  may  receive  unreal  assurance  and  the  mind 
vain  imaginings. 

Plixdo.     Is  progress  the  offspring  of  good  or  evil? 

Socrates.  Of  both.  Good  and  evil  are  to  intellect- 
ual progress  what  attraction  and  repulsion  are  to  the 
equipoise  of  planets  and  the  evolution  of  material 
things.  If  in  human  nature  there  was  but  one  prin- 
ciple, progress  never  could  be  generated. 

Plato.  From  friction  comes  heat,  and  from  heat 
mentality.  From  mutual  helpfulness  and  antagonisms 
come  ethical  as  well  as  natural  evolution. 

PJisedo.     Were  all  religions  one,  would  religion  die  ? 

Socrates.  There  is  but  one  religion.  Dogmas  die, 
and  the  world  can  well  spare  them  ;  but  religion,  or 
the  recognition  of  the  true  and  beautiful  in  nature, 
can  never  die  so  long  as  intelligence  lasts,  and  the 
objects  of  its  fear,  love,  hate,  and  admiration  cease  to 
exist. 

Phaedo.  But  surely  refined  religion  is  an  aid  to 
progress. 

Socrates.  So  it  is  usually  maintained  ;  but  history 
teaches  the  contrary.  As  a  rule,  people  low  in  the 
scale  of  intelligence  are  the  most  religious,  and  when 
their  religion  becomes  well  refined  there  is  but  little 
left  of  it.  In  due  time  they  ascertain  that  they  must 
either  renounce  progress  or  renounce  a  religion  which 


PLATO  REVISED.  725 

hampers  progress.  But  progress  is  omnipotent,  uni- 
versal, and  eternal,  and  will  not  be  restrained. 
Progress  is  God.  Your  manufactured  creeds,  if  you 
do  not  renounce  them,  will  in  due  time  renounce  you. 

Plixdo.  The  world  still  lies  sunk  in  error,  all  based 
upon  supposed  self-interest. 

Socrates.  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  persons  strong  in 
the  faith,  that,  believing  their  religion  to  be  the  only 
true  one,  and  under  the  exclusive  protection  of  the 
ahnighty,  it  will  in  time  overturn  all  its  enemies,  and 
fill  the  whole  earth.  Such  is  not  the  testimony  of 
history.  Religions  come  and  go;  like  all  things  else 
are  born  and  die.  Were  it  otherwise,  why  is  it 
that  the  only  true  faith,  whatever  that  is,  has  not 
long  ere  this  achieved  universality  ?  Why  is  it  that 
it  has  not  always  been  one  and  universal  ?  Time 
enough  surely  has  elapsed,  and  there  has  been  no 
lack  of  opportunity ;  but  in  every  instance  wdien  a 
refined  people,  with  the  most  refined  religion,  have 
reached  a  certain  point,  they  begin  to  fall  away  from 
it,  and  their  gods  vanish  into  thin  air. 

Crito.  So,  then,  if  there  be  only  one  true  theory 
of  the  supernatural,  as  every  religionist  claims,  the 
thousand  others  being  false,  as  all  agree,  palpable 
reality,  its  essence  and  influence,  is  as  plain  in  one  as 
in  another,  and  from  their  eflfect  on  man,  and  the 
regulation  of  terrestrial  affairs,  the  existence  of  one 
is  as  susceptible  of  proof  as  that  of  another. 

Phxdo.  That  is  clear.  The  religion  of  others  to 
us  is  a  huge  joke.  Our  own  is  quite  a  different  mat- 
ter. For  exam})le,  when  we  read  how  Prometheus 
made  man  out  of  mud,  after  the  deluge  of  Deucalion, 
Minerva  helpmg  him,  Jupiter  standing  by  issuing  the 
orders,  and  the  wind  blowing  into  the  thing  the 
breath  of  life,  the  serpent  Python  being  made  of  the 
same  mud,  which  was  very  plentiful  about  that  time, 
we  wonder  how  people  so  learned  and  intelligent  as 
the  Greeks  could  have  believed  such  stuff. 

Criio,     The  Egyptians  were  considerate  enough  to 


725  PLATO  REVISED. 

create  a  deity  for  their  dogs,  which,  hke  the  cats, 
were  sacred  in  that  section,  thus  saving  the  very 
ancient  and  honorable  society  for  the  prevention  of 
cruelty  to  animals  much  trouble  along  the  Nile. 
Anubis,  he  was  called  ;  and  no  doubt  the  dogs  of 
Egypt  took  much  comfort  in  him,  howling  to  him 
nightly  for  plenty  to  eat  here,  and  after  this  life  a 
high  place  in  his  heaven  ;  fighting  for  him,  chasing 
away  his  enemies,  and  thanking  their  masters  always 
for  giving  them  so  great  a  hope  of  eternal  comfort. 

Socrates.  Of  necessity  man  must  make  his  own 
gods,  and  upon  his  own  model.  He  has  no  other 
way  to  get  them,  and  no  other  standard  to  go  by. 
Never  having  seen  a  god,  never  having  heard  or 
handled  one,  never  having  seen  any  one  who  has 
seen,  or  heard,  or  handled  a  deity,  and  himself  and 
his  attributes  being  his  highest  conception  of  any 
personality  or  entity,  finite  or  infinite,  organic  or 
inorganic,  his  gods  must  be  like  himself,  only  an 
exaggeration  of  himself.  This  is  why  there  are  so 
many  mean  gods ;  it  is  because  there  are  so  many 
mean  men.  If  they  make  their  gods  better  than 
themselves  in  some  respects,  they  are  sure  to  make 
them  worse  in  other  respects.  Mark  the  record, 
choosing  any  holy  book  you  will ;  when  the  people 
are  puerile,  their  god  is  puerile  ;  when  the  people  are 
cruel  or  base,  their  god  is  the  same.  It  is  the  most 
difficult  thing  in  the  world,  after  beginning  a  god, 
the  intention  being  to  make  a  very  good  one,  the 
best  one  possible  for  man  to  make,  to  finish  it  with- 
out spoiling  it ;  that  is,  to  finish  it  and  have  every 
part  perfect  in  every  respect.  It  must  be  omniscient 
and  omnipotent,  and  yet  must  not  know  or  bo  able  to 
do  certain  things  which  the  all-wise  and  all-kind  ought 
to  know  and  do.  The  world  of  wickedness,  and  sor- 
row, and  crime  must  be  accounted  for  in  some  way, 
for  it  exists ;  God's  authorship  therein  must  in  the 
same  breath  be  affirmed  and  denied,  for  although  the 
author  of  all  things,  it  will  not  do  to  acknowledge 


PLATO  REVISED.  727 

the  creator  the  author  of  evil.  And  so  on,  until  of  a 
truth  the  creator  is  by  the  creature  fearfully  and 
•  wonderfully  made. 

Plisedo,  In  any  event  the  men  of  Athens  had 
little  to  boast  of  in  their  gods.  They  know  better 
now,  if  they  know  anything  ;  and  if  still  existing,  I 
venture  to  say,  they  have  no  better  place  than  this. 

Crito.  I  suppose  it  is  safe  to  call  the  Olympian 
deities  savages ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  not  civilized 
gods,  although  the  men  who  made  them  were  at 
the  time  accounted  the  most  civilized  of  any  upon 
the  earth.  Taken  all  together,  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  the 
rest  were  a  pretty  bad  lot.  They  could  not  read  or 
write ;  in  arts  and  industries  they  were  woefully 
deficient,  being  too  ignorant  or  too  lazy  to  make  for 
themselves  clothes  that  would  fairly  cover  their 
nakedness,  though  Arachne  was  so  proud  of  her  talents 
in  that  direction  that  she  challenged  Minerva  to  com- 
pete with  her.  They  were  liars,  murderers,  and 
everything  that  was  vile,  breaking  with  impunity  all 
the  laws  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  they  were  heavenly 
vagabonds,  having  no  visible  means  of  support,  celes- 
tial tramps,  whom  the  great  thunderer  had  often  to 
order  to  move  along.  They  fed  well  and  drank  well ; 
what  else  they  did,  following  the  bent  of  their 
passions,  it  is  not  lawful  or  respectable  even  to  con- 
template. 

P/uxdo.  And  how  abominably  jealous  Juno  was 
toward  other  women,  fully  as  bad  as  earthly  women 
toward  each  other — tormenting  lo  with  a  gadfly  that 
made  her  wild  as  she  rushed  round  the  earth  to  get 
away  from  it  I  But  then  Jupiter  was  such  a  naughty 
fellow,  and  given  to  all  sorts  of  tricks.  Think  of  his 
causing  Echo  to  talk  incessantly  to  Juno  so  as  to  keep 
her  attention  diverted  while  he  sported  with  the 
nymphs  ? 

Crito.  And  what  thieves  they  were,  those  gods ! 
Not  kind  Prometheus,  who,  in  a  hollow  tube  stole  fire 
from  heaven  because  the   father  of  the   gods,  out  of 


728  PLATO  REVISED. 

revenge,  withheld  it  from  mortals.  Why,  indeed, 
should  mortals  make  such  a  father  foi*  their  gods? 
Not  Prometheus,  then,  but  that  cunning  rascal, 
Hermes ;  and  he  who  stole  nectar  and  ambrosia  from 
the  table,  Tantalus,  and  gave  them  to  his  fellows — a 
kind  of  sneakthief,  he. 

Phsedo.  Atlanta,  the  swift- footed,  might  doom  to 
death  him  whom  she  outstripped,  while  he  who  caught 
her  might  take  his  pay  in  what  best  pleased  him.  Did 
Atlanta  love  murder  more  than  she  hated  love  ? 

Crito.  Apollo  wished  some  wickedness  with  Cas- 
sandra, and  presented  her  the  gift  of  prophecy  as  the 
price  of  her  favor ;  but  when  she  refused,  the  god  in 
spite  decreed  that  no  one  should  believe  her.  Fre- 
quently half  a  dozen  gods  would  desire  one  woman, 
and  fall  to  fightings  over  her ;  indeed,  it  seemed  to  be 
the  sum  of  existence  with  the  Olympian  deities  to 
eat,  drink,  sleep,  plot  mischief,  and  quarrel.  What 
work  Athena  made  of  it  to  change  Medusa's  hair  into 
serpents,  and  in  such  a  way  that  whoever  beheld  it 
afterward  was  transformed  to  stone  ! 

Plixdo.  Nor  had  the  people  any  hesitation  in  ask- 
ing their  gods,  knowing  the  way  they  passed  their 
time  in  heaven,  to  assist  them  in  their  evil  efforts  the 
same  as  in  their  good  desires,  worshippers  of  the  same 
being,  on  coming  together  to  fight  and  kill  each  other, 
both  asking  for  victory,  which  is  impossible  even  for 
omnipotence  to  grant. 

Socrates.  I  would  ask  you,  Plato,  as  you  have 
kept  awake  somewhat  while  I  have  slept,  how  much 
dependence  it  is  wise  for  men  to  place  upon  the  several 
so-called  holy  books,  which  profess  to  emanate  from 
the  gods,  and  tell  the  origin  and  end  of  things  ?  All 
of  them  cannot  be  true,  as  they  contradict  each  other, 
as  well  as  themselves,  from  first  to  last.  Each  claims 
alone  to  be  what  it  pretends,  all  the  others  being  lies 
and  the  emanations  of  evil.  As  in  the  case  of  reli- 
gions, there  are  ten  or  more  of  these  books  held  in 


PLATO  REVISED.  729 

the  aggregate  over  the  heads  of  the  greater  part  of 
men  inhabiting  the  civihzed  world,  it  foUovvs  from 
their  own  showing  that  more  than  nine-tenths  of  all 
who  have  ever  lived  upon  the  earth  were  doomed  to 
destruction.  In  all  of  these  books,  with  much  truth 
and  sound  morahty,  is  mingled  the  supernatural.  One 
is  as  easy  of  belief  as  another,  none  of  them  from 
their  own  showing  being  of  the  slightest  credence, 
because  they  require  men  to  believe,  on  the  mere 
assertion  of  tradition,  of  empty  air  sounds,  and  the 
statements  of  ignorant  and  deluded  men,  what  they 
know  to  be  impossible,  and  what  bears  upon  the  face 
the  impress  of  untruth. 

Plato.  Heaven  help  us,  Socrates,  how  you  talk  ! 
First  let  us  ask  how  these  books  are  made.  Every 
nation  far  enough  advanced  has  its  sacred  book,  a 
crude  combination  of  legal  and  religious  ethics,  half 
mythology,  half  morality,  all  done  ages  ago,  when 
men  were  more  ignorant  and  superstitious  than  now ; 
and  all  of  these  half-savage  traditions  are  ever  to  be 
held  holy  above  all  truth,  spiritual  worship  charming 
the  intellect  of  man  long  after  reason  tells  him  it  is  a 
lie.  All  of  these  books  claim  to  have  a  divine  origin 
— to  be  inspired.  What  that  may  be,  when  this  same 
divinity  professes  to  be  the  origin  of  all  things,  and 
by  its  will  and  power  to  vitalize  and  inspire  all  things, 
the  wicked  as  well  as  the  righteous,  I  will  not  at  this 
moment  discuss ;  suffice  it  to  say  that  under  this  same 
inspiration,  I  exist,  act,  think  ;  by  the  breath  of  this 
same  divinity  I  am  now  speaking  to  you,  O  Socrates. 
If  by  inspiration  and  divine  origin  we  are  to  under- 
stand that  these  books,  or  anyone  of  them,  is  written 
by  the  hand  of  omniscience,  by  an  all-wise  and  truth- 
telling  God,  then  upon  the  face  of  them  they  are 
every  one  false,  for  they  are  full  of  self-contradictions 
and  errors  regarding  the  physical  world,  besides 
inculcating  within  certain  limits  immorality,  injustice, 
treachery,  and  cruelty.     In  other  words,  like  all  early 


730  PLATO  REVISED. 

unrecorded  traditions,  they  are  made  up  of  mingled 
fact  and  fiction. 

Evenus.     To  some  comes  belief  by  intuition. 

Crito,     To  some  comes  non-belief  by  intuition. 

Socrates.  Let  me  ask  you,  Evenus,  what  is  inspi- 
ration ? 

Evenus.  In  this  connection,  the  breath  of  the 
almighty,  overspreading  the  mind,  and  working  in 
the  hearts  of  men. 

Socrates.  Is  not  all  the  world,  and  are  not  all  men 
so  made  and  so  upheld  ? 

Evenus.     I  suppose  so. 

Socrates.  Then  every  human  heart  and  mind,  every 
blade  of  grass  and  flower,  every  slimy  reptile  and 
noxious  insect,  every  thief  and  murderer — all  are 
alike  inspired,  all  being  alike  made  and  upheld  by 
God,  in  his  infinite  wisdom  and  loving  kindness,  for 
the  alleged  benefit  of  man. 

Evenus.     The  term  is  not  so  used. 

Socrates.     Then,  I  ask  again,  what  is  inspiration  ? 

Evenus.     Endowing  man  with  a  knowledge  of  God. 

Socrates.  Were  it  not  better  all  men  were  so 
endowed,  that  they  might  know  their  maker  and 
serve  him  better  ? 

Evenus.     It  was  not  so  ordained. 

Socrates.  I  fail  to  find  any  evidence  that  what  you 
call  inspiration  in  man  is  anj^thing  more  than  ordinary 
intelligence,  or  that  any  one  person  was  ever  endowed 
with  a  divine  afflatus  in  a  greater  degree  than  any 
other  person. 

Plisedo.  Pray,  then,  interpret  to  us  inspiration,  0 
Socrates,  who  art  thyself  inspired. 

Socrates.  As  the  cooling  earth  sent  forth  ever- 
green trees,  and  the  blooming  of  vegetation  began, 
man  with  nature  became  inspired ;  and  when  over 
the  beautiful  landscape  the  grass  appeared,  and  the 
flowers  became  fairer,  and  birds  sang,  and  all  the 
world  was  a  poem,  the  poet  appeared,  poem  and  poet 
alike  inspired. 


PLATO  REVISED.  73I 

Phsedo.  In  the  early  religions  was  a  prophetic  and 
an  apocalyptic  literature,  which  forever  after  were 
strained  to  fit  various  times,  personages,  and  events. 
Meaningless  payings  and  unfulfilled  predictions  were 
at  the  same  time  so  twisted  as  to  give  to  the  words 
some  significance  other  than  their  true  or  usual  one. 
If  by  any  means,  in  the  hands  of  skilful  interpreters, 
one  in  fifty  of  the  old-time  wild  asseverations  came 
true,  it  was  enough  to  convince  the  unthinking  of  the 
validity  of  them  all. 

ISocrates.  Men  work  away  like  ants  in  a  dung-hill 
to  determine  the  truths  of  their  religion  ;  but  they 
determine  nothing,  apparently  make  no  headway,  and 
certainly  will  never  be  able  to  achieve  the  slightest 
result  until  new  light  breaks  in  from  some  quarter. 
Nevertheless,  so  eager  are  they  to  reach  conclusions 
that  they  jump  at  them,  having  no  proof  or  reason. 
As  to  origin,  we  know  the  origin  of  nothing,  neither 
of  man,  the  almighty,  nor  of  a  single  atom.  We 
know  nothing  of  what  is,  of  what  was,  of  what  will 
be.  Men  talk  about  the  fundamental  truths  of 
religion,  the  existence  and  attributes  of  the  creator, 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  future  state,  and  so 
forth,  teaching  them  to  their  children,  opening  schools 
and  employing  books  and  professors  for  the  purpose, 
when  they  know  and  can  know  absolutely  nothing. 
It  is  more  than  time  wasted,  this  teaching  as  truth 
what  at  best  is  but  speculation. 

Plato.  Man  is  born  under  the  dominion  of  some 
unknown  and  unknowable  power  or  powers  ;  and  in 
his  efforts  to  fathom  and  explain  the  nature  of  this 
force  he  is  led  into  all  sorts  of  theologies  and  theo- 
ries. In  the  absence  of  knowledge  he  invents,  reiter- 
ating his  fancies,  weaving  them  into  fables,  until 
in  due  time  they  become  fastened  upon  the  minds  of 
nations  in  the  form  of  religions.  The  mighty  powers 
of  nature,  the  governing  influences  which  originate 
thought  and  action,  ruling  despotically  the  minute 
affairs  of  every -day  life  as  well  as  those  great  princi- 


732  PLATO  REVISED. 

pies  which  determine  his  destiny,  he  seeks  to  propi- 
tiate with  prayers  and  offerings.  He  would  bribe 
omnipotence  to  befriend  him  ;  and  that  his  dark  and 
narrow  mind  maj^  better  compassthe  difficulties  which 
beset  him,  he  resolves  these  various  forces  into  deities, 
one  or  severah  Even  though  unconscious  of  the 
existence  of  that  subtle  power  which  subordinates  to 
its  laws  every  movement  of  a  muscle,  every  pulsation 
of  the  heart,  every  wave  of  thought,  he  acts  under  it  ; 
or  awakening  to  the  fact  he  finds  the  immediate  cause 
governed  by  some  other  cause  lying  back  of  it,  and 
that  by  another  still  more  remote;  so  that  in  the  end 
he  is  forced  to  confess  himself  ruled  by  those  very 
influences  over  which  he  once  fancied  himself  to  hold 
absolute  control. 

Socrates.  It  is  plain  that  the  forces  of  nature 
intimidate  man,  bringing  him  to  his  knees,  and  throw- 
ing him  into  numberless  absurd  physical  and  mental 
contortions,  but  the  forces  underlying  human  associ- 
tion  are  not  so  easily  followed,  or  so  greatly  feared. 

Plato.  We  see  in  the  ordinary  walks  of  life  actu- 
ating principles  which  govern  individuals  in  their 
respective  occupations.  One  pursues  wealth,  another 
honor,  another  pleasure,  and  another  religion.  Wealth, 
honor,  pleasure,  or  religion  then  becomes  the  grand 
master,  the  governor,  or  ruler  of  the  individual.  For 
the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  a  thousand  means 
are  necessary,  each  one  of  which  becomes  a  subordi- 
nate ruler.  Sometimes  all  are  pursued  coordinately, 
and  then  the  rulers  are  proportionately  increased. 
Those  who  deny  that  the  ordinary  interests  of  life 
hold  dominion  over  them  are  none  the  less  slaves ; 
for  to  possess  none  of  the  nobler  aspirations  of  life  is 
to  abandon  one's  self  to  vice,  the  most  cruel  and  arbi- 
trary of  masters.  These  governing  impulses,  there- 
fore, some  stronger  and  some  weaker,  as  the  case  may 
be,  are  multiplied  indefinitely,  and  increased  in  pro- 
portion to  the  activity  of  the  brain,  the  healthfulness 
of  the   body,  and  the  longings  of  the  heart ;  so  that 


PLATO  REVISED.  733 

each  particle  of  which  the  essence  of  human  existence 
is  composed  is  a  law  unto  itself,  acting  upon  the  mind 
of  the  individual  so  as  to  produce  fixed  and  deter- 
mined results.  We  see  then  that  it  is  the  will  of  man 
at  the  outset  immediately  to  place  his  freedom  in  the 
hands  of  a  keeper;  nay,  it  is  his  imperative  necessity 
so  to  do,  for  if  he  refuses  to  be  the  slave  of  vice  he 
becomes  the  servant  of  virtue.  If  in  the  exercise  of 
his  free  will  he  fights  against  and  overcomes  avarice 
and  ambition,  instantaneously  charity  and  patriotism 
become  his  rulers,  and  the  will  may  not,  and  does  not 
act  freely,  but  only  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of 
the  master  passion. 

Fhdedo.  Superstition  is  based  on  the  evils  which 
surround  us. 

Crito.  And  so  the  Veda  hymns  praises  to  wind, 
clouds,  and  fire. 

Plipcdo.  Pray  enlighten  me,  O  Socrates!  Is  it 
wisdom  for  man  to  use  his  reason  in  matters  of 
religion,  or  should  he  rely  on  tradition,  on  feeling,  on 
faith,  on  the  teachings  of  priests,  and  the  general 
opinions  of  mankind  ? 

Socrates.  By  my  soul,  good  Phsedo,  I  almost  won- 
der you  can  ask  so  silly  a  question;  and  yet  I  do  not 
wonder  when  I  consider  the  foolishness  and  stupidity 
of  mankind,  and  how  they  toil  to  mystify  each  other, 
subvert  the  truth,  and  ape  the  gods  in  making 
something  out  of  nothing.  You  ask,  is  it  wisdom 
for  man  to  use  his  reason  as  against  sentiment  and 
tradition  ? 

Phsedo.     Yes. 

Socrates.     Is  it  better  to  be  a  man  or  a  brute  ? 

Plipedo.  Being  a  man,  I  say  it  is  better  to  be  a 
man;  were  I  a  brute,  perhaps  I  might*  prefer  remain- 
ing a  brute. 

Socrates.  Very  well.  Being  a  man,  you  prefer  to 
remain  a  man.  Now  what  are  the  leading  character- 
istics distingjuishing  men  from  brutes  ? 


734  PLATO   REVISED. 

Flmdo.  Intellect,  the  faculties  of  speech,  sequences 
of  thought,  and  reason. 

Socrates,     By  what  are  beasts  chiefly  governed  ? 

Phxdo.     By  instinct  and  feeling. 

Socrates.  Is  the  quality  of  instinct  nearer  akin  to 
the  intellect  and  the  reasoning  faculties  of  men,  or  to 
sentiment,  tradition,  and  physical  environment? 

Phsedo.  To  the  latter  ;  man  cannot  be  guided  by 
feeling  and  tradition  unless  he  chooses  to  lay  aside 
his  reason,  and  descend  to  the  level  of  the  brute. 

Socrates.  True.  Reason  being  the  highest  faculty 
of  man,  is  it  not  insane  ever  to  lay  it  aside,  partic- 
ularly in  dealing  with  questions  so  momentous  as 
eternal  happiness  and  misery  ? 

Pheedo.     It  certainly  would  seem  so. 

Socrates.  If  man  ever  needs  his  faculty  of  reason, 
which  lifts  him  out  of  the  brute  category,  and  places 
him  beside  the  gods,  it  is  when  called  upon  to  inter- 
pret and  understand  the  teachings  of  the  gods.  By 
Jupiter!  I  hold  it  an  insult  to  the  gods  for  men  to 
employ  their  reason  in  all  things  except  in  their  inter- 
course with  them,  when  they  deem  it  necessary  to 
play  the  part  of  a  brute.  For  in  all  matters  except 
religion  he  w^ho  will  not  consul  this  reason  and  be 
guided  by  common  sense  is  justly  condemned  as  a 
fool,  an  idiot,  and  left  to  suffer  the  penalties  of  his 
stupidity  without  sympathy.  But  religion's  highest 
merit,  bringing  the  highest  reward,  is  that  blind 
acquiescence  in  the  fictitious  and  fantastic  ideas  and 
assertions  of  half-savage  or  half-witted  dreamers  of 
remotest  ages,  called  at  the  present  day  faith,  belief. 
Not  only  has  man  the  right  to  use  his  reason,  but  it 
is  his  bounden  duty  to  do  so — to  appeal  to  it  always, 
and  abide  by  its  decision.  Without  reason  there  can 
be  no  moral  sense,  no  conscience,  no  religion.  All 
animals  have  instincts  and  weapons  by  means  of  which 
they  secure  food  and  protect  life.  Man's  reason  is 
his  life's  protector,  his  soul's  salvation,  and  if  he  does 
not  make  use  of  his  reason  and  abide  by  its  mandates 


PLATO  REVISED.  735 

he  is  justly,  and  without  sympathy  doomed  to  per- 
dition, any  conception  of  free-will  and  necessity  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

ApoUodorus.  Perillus  invented  a  new  kind  of  pun- 
ishment, a  brazen  bull,  with  a  door  through  which 
victims  to  be  roasted  were  thrust.  This  was  free- 
will. Phalaris,  tyrant  of  Agrigentum,  was  greatly 
pleased  by  the  machine,  and  ordered  its  merits  tested 
on  the  person  of  the   inventor.     This  was  necessity. 

Evenm.  That  knowledge  of  God  for  which  all  men 
strive  is  beyond  the  sphere  of  reason  to  attain. 

Socrates.  No  knowledge  of  any  kind  was  ever 
attained  outside  the  sphere  of  reason.  It  is  alone  by 
the  faculties  of  sense  and  reason  that  we  can  appre- 
hend anything,  natural  or  supernatural;  without  their 
use  we  can  recognize  neither  the  voice  of  God 
nor  the  voice  of  nature;  we  can  entertain  neither 
belief  nor  disbelief  in  original  sin  or  immortality. 
The  same  faculties  whose  use  are  forbidden  in  thino-s 
spiritual  we  must  employ  even  in  our  belief,  if  we 
believe, 

Evenus.  But  reason  may  be  restricted,  the  senses 
limited;  there  may  be  more  in  heaven  and  earth  than 
man's  perceptive  faculties  can  encompass. 

Socrates.     How  so? 

Evenus.  For  instance;  the  horse  that  draws  me 
to  the  temple  of  music  has  eyes  and  ears,  and  reason 
to  some  extent,  but  standing  every  night  at  the  door 
it  has  little  conception  of  the  performance  within,  nor 
can  it  have.  It  lacks  the  necessary  perceptive  facul- 
ties. So  man  may  lack  some  sense  possessed  by  other 
beings  whom  he  cannot  see  or  know,  and  whose  per- 
ceptive faculties  as  much  surpass  his  own  as  do  the 
latter  those  of  brutes. 

Socrates.  Possibly;  and  yet  if  reason  and  my 
senses  are  my  guides,  I  can  in  no  wise  be  held  respon- 
sible for  what  exists  beyond  the  realm  of  their  vision, 
any  more  than  the  horse  can  be  held  responsible  for 
not  appreciating  music. 


736  PLATO  REVISED. 

Plato.  We  may  as  well  discard,  once  for  all,  the 
sentiment  that  there  are  things  in  heaven  and  earth 
not  meant  for  us  now  to  know;  that  we  have 
been  endowed  with  a  discrimination  which  is  to  be 
used  up  to  a  certain  point  and  then  dropped,  a  decoc- 
tion of  tradition  and  blind  faith  to  be  employed  as  a 
substitute.  Our  intelligence,  if  not  always  a  guide, 
is  no  guide.  As  the  hitherto  hidden  opens  to  our 
perceptions,  reason  takes  possession ;  meanwhile  we 
will  not  account  it  wisdom  to  insist  on  a  belief  in  the 
unknowable. 

Crlto.  Amid  so  many  conflicting  ideas,  opinions, 
doctrines,  and  beliefs,  how  are  we  to  tell  right  and 
wrong,  good  and  bad,  morality  and  immorality? 

Socrates.  Religionists  refer  you  each  to  his  holy 
book,  and  thence  to  conscience. 

Crito.  But  none  of  these  satisfy  common  sense 
and  reason,  while  conscience  we  know  is  purely  a 
manufactured  article. 

Plato,  How  manufactured  ?  Knowledge,  virtue, 
and  happiness  are  the  life  of  the  soul,  immortal  and 
most  precious,  and  so  to  be  guarded  and  illuminated 
by  an  internal  supernatural  voice,  which  is  the  guide 
of  the  good. 

Crito.  Conscience  is  called  a  divine  guide ;  if  so, 
how  many  different  divinities  must  the  several  races 
present  as  sources  of  the  multitudinous  consciences 
existing  throughout  the  world.  One  god  certainly 
never  could  have  made  them  all. 

Phsedo.  Conscience  is  no  inherent  or  fundamental 
guide,  but  a  basis  of  moral  possibilities. 

Crito.  The  most  abominable  acts  have  been  com- 
mitted by  men  of  weightiest  conscience. 

Socrates.  Good  Evenus,  I  beg  you,  tell  us  what  is 
conscience^ 

Evenus.     Conscience  is  the  voice  of  God  in  man. 

Crito.  Then  why  have  not  all  men  like  consciences, 
as  God  surely  would  not  speak  one  conscience  to  one 
aid  another  to  another. 


PLATO  REVISED.  737 

Phsedo.  I  do  not  understand;  I  thought  that  all 
the  world  agreed  on  the  fundamental  principles  of 
right  and  morality,  the  variations  being  local  and 
unimportant,  while  conscience  must  be  part  of  man's 
nature,  since  it  is  found  everywhere. 

Socrates.  True,  yet  not  true.  The  germ  of  con- 
science is  implanted,  but  in  the  development  its  char- 
acter and  quality  depend  upon  time  and  place,  the 
fruit  being  according  to  the  atmosphere  in  which  it 
unfolds.  Thugism  taught  that  murder  was  no  crime; 
therefore  it  offended  not  conscience  to  kill.  The  con- 
science of  the  Persian  woman  is  troubled  if  her  face 
is  exposed,  while  the  European  is  shamed  if  her  breast 
is  seen  upon  the  street.  Physical  perfection  was  the 
moral  ideal  of  the  early  Greeks,  and  not  female 
chastity,  so  highly  prized  elsewhere.  The  soldier 
who  proudly  murders  ten  men  in  battle  blushes  to 
kill  one  in  a  private  brawl.  As  a  nation,  or  corpo- 
ration, men  will  steal  with  impunity  who  would  not 
rob  in  dividually.  The  mumblings  of  priest  or  magis- 
trate in  the  form  of  a  marriage  ceremony  make 
sacred  subsequent  acts  which  were  otherwise  abom- 
inable. Blood  revenge,  slavery,  polygamy  are  good 
to-day  and  bad  to-morrow,  even  under  theologic  teach- 
ings. And  so  with  brute  conscience.  Teach  a  dog 
to  chase  the  sheep,  and  he  is  proud  of  it;  whip  him 
for  so  doing  and  he  hangs  his  tail  when  caught  at  it. 
Between  the  conscience  of  the  man  and  the  dog,  apart 
from  their  relative  intelligence  and  education,  there  is 
little  to  choose.  Each  is  as  it  was  made.  Great  minds 
throw  off  all  teachings  and  restrictions ;  great  men 
have  little  conscience. 

Crito.     But  surely  we  may  know  good  from  evil  ? 

Socrates.  Yes.  But  how  shall  we  know  it  ?  Not 
by  any  book,  revelation,  or  promulgation.  Only  shal- 
low brains  confound  right  with  religion,  and  say  that 
faith  is  essential  to  conscience,  and  conscience  to 
morality.  Religion  is  a  respect  paid  to  unknowable 
forces;    morality   is  the   prevailing   sentiment,  while 

Essays  and  Miscellany    47 


738  PLATO  REVISED. 

conscience  is  lo3^alty  to  that  sentiment.  Wrong  is 
what  hurts  me;  right  is  what  hurts  me  not. 

Crito.     This,  then,  is  the  moraHty  of  nature. 

Socrates.  Precisely.  I  know  of  no  other  teacher 
than  nature.  I  know  of  no  thing,  idea,  force,  intelh- 
gence,  or  entity  outside  of  nature.  All  gods  are 
nature,  and  all  men  and  beasts  ;  mortal  or  immortal, 
essences,  spirits,  intelligences,  or  seas  or  solid  stones, 
all  are  nature ;  these,  and  all  heat  and  cold,  forces 
chemical  and  electrical,  and  hunger  and  sorrow  and 
hope,  these  are  my  teachers ;  also  love  and  hate,  and 
birds,  and  fishes,  and  all  that  is  and  is  not. 

Crito.  So  have  we  not  been  taught,  even  by  your- 
self, my  master. 

Socrates.  We  have  been  taught  erroneously,  and 
must  unteach  ourselves.  Lies,  licentiousness,  hypoc- 
risy, cheatings,  and  overreachings  we  have  been 
taught  in  the  name  of  religion,  morality,  conscience, 
civilization,  under  whose  respective  banners  the  world 
has  been  a  great  human  slaughter-house,  a  field  of 
moral  pestilence  since  the  beginning.  And  the  author 
of  this  state  of  things  we  are  soberly  asked  to  call 
perfect,  just,  wise,  merciful,  and  good. 

Phxdo.  Knowledge  of  good  and  evil  by  no  means 
brincrs  rigfht  action.  We  do  wrongs  knowinoly  and 
suffer  for  it,  only  again  to  do  wrong  and  again  suffer. 
We  love  only  that  which  is  bad  ;  virtue  is  too  tame 
for  the  times. 

Socrates.  If  I  tell  my  child  that  Santa  Claus  will 
not  bring  him  a  present  if  he  is  a  bad  boy,  and  on 
Christmas  day  he  gets  the  present,  he  may  then  think 
me  a  good  father ;  but  later,  when  his  mind  begins  to 
act  for  itself,  he  cannot  have  a  very  high  opinion  of 
my  judgment  or  veracity.  If  I  tell  my  child  that 
God  will  punish  him  if  he  commits  that  wicked  act, 
and  he  commits  the  act,  not  once  or  twice,  but 
twenty  times,  and  finds  that  God  does  not  punish 
him,  he  must,  if  he  reasons  on  the  matter,  consider 
me,  his  father,  either  stupid  or  deceitful.     It  will  not 


PLATO  REVISED.  739 

do ;  he  will  not  always  be  satisfied  with  the  answer : 
*'  Ah,  wait  1  the  end  is  not  yet ;  God  is  long-suffering ; 
he  does  not  punish  in  a  spirit  of  revenge ;  he  does 
not  always  mete  out  justice  in  this  world;"  but  rather, 
when  he  reaches  manhood,  he  will  turn  to  me  and 
ask,  "  How  do  you  know  ?  How  came  you  to  know 
so  much  about  God,  his  character,  and  attributes,  his 
acts  and.  intentions  ?  Did  you  ever  see"  him  ?  Have 
you  any  satisfactory  knowledge  of  him,  such  knowl- 
edge or  evidence  as  would  be  received  in  any  court  of 
justice  in  regard  to  any  of  the  affairs  of  life?  Besides, 
he  d(^es  exercise  revenge.  ^  Vengeance  is  mine,  saith 
the  Lord.'  Why  is  it  his — why  will  he  keep  the 
whole  of  it,  and  give  man  none  ?  '  I  am  a  jealous 
God.'  Of  what  is  he  jealous,  if  he  is  supreme  ?  "  He 
might  add  that  all  theories  and  examples  of  theo- 
logical punishments  are  retaliative  and  revengeful — 
obey  me  and  I  will  bless  you ;  disobey  me  and  I  will 
curse  you ;  serve  me  and  you  shall  have  heaven  ; 
serve  me  not  and  hell  shall  have  you.  Again, 
if  he  does  not  mete  out  justice  here,  he  is, 
in  this  respect,  worse  than  the  men  who  made  him. 
An  omnipotent  and  beneficent  being  could  not, 
first  of  all,  make  so  imperfect  a  mechanism  as  this 
world  and  its  inhabitants ;  and,  secondly,  could  not 
permit  an  act  of  injustice  in  any  of  his  creatures  ;  or 
if  he  did,  for  the  benefit  of  their  free-will  and  disci- 
pline, as  his  ministers  would  say,  he  could  not  rest  for  a 
moment  until  the  wrong  was  made  right.  He  could 
not  permit  an  innocent  person  to  atone  for  the  sins  of 
the  guilty.  Suppose  one  of  our  judges  should  do 
that  ?  Does  God  rew^ard  me  for  praying  to  him  ? 
No.  For  ten  thousand  prayers  I  never  receive  the 
slightest  acknowledgment ;  from  ten  thousand  mil- 
lion prayers  we  know  of  not  one  answer  of  any  kind 
being  granted.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  almighty 
power  ever  having  in  a  single  instance  deviated  from 
the  usual  course,  such  as  we  call  the  fixed  laws  of 
nature,  because  observation  has  taught  us  that  they 


740  PLATO  REVISED. 

do  not  change.  Omnipotence  can  do  much,  but  it 
cannot  do  all  that  the  votaries  of  religion  demand 
of  it ;  it  cannot  answer  two  opposing  prayers  at  the 
same  time  and  place,  as  where  twenty  persons  prav, 
some  for  rain,  and  others  for  no  rain  ;  one  for  victory 
for  the  armies  of  the  slave-holders,  and  one  for  victory 
for  the  armies  of  the  abolitionists — omnipotence  can- 
not achieve  a  contradiction  ;  and  this  is  what  religion- 
ists are  constantly  making  God  do,  calling  him  kind, 
and  yet  showing  him  to  be  merciless,  more  so  than 
any  man  he  ever  made  ;  calling  him  just,  and  yet 
showing  him  to  be  unjust:  and  finally  asserting  that 
if  he  could  have  it  so  the  devil  would  be  extinguished 
altogether,  which  acknowledges  that  he  is  not 
omnipotent,  else  he  would  extinguish  him.  These 
are  only  a  few  examples  out  of  hundreds  that  might 
be  brought  forward.  No ;  I  would  tell  my  boy,  do 
right  because  right-doing  brings  its  own  reward. 
This  is  why  it  is  right,  because  it  brings  its  own  reward. 
Wrong-doing  brings  its  own  punishment  ;  this  is 
why  we  may  know  it  is  wrong,  because  it  brings 
pain  and  not  pleasure.  Any  act  bringing  unquali- 
fied pleasure  to  all  and  pain  upon  none,  cannot  be 
wrong,  no  matter  what  any  person  or  book  may 
say.  Do  right  for  the  love  of  it  and  because  it  makes 
you  better,  happier,  nobler.  Avoid  wrong-doing,  not 
from  fear  of  a  thunderbolt  hurled  by  an  ofiended 
deity  from  behind  the  clouds,  for  no  such  visitation 
will  come  upon  you ;  but  avoid  doing  wrong  because 
it  is  degrading  and  will  bring  upon  you  pain.  Put  not 
your  hand  in  the  fire,  for  it  will  be  burned  :  drink  not 
that  fiery  intoxicant,  for  it  dries  up  your  life's  blood  ; 
smoke  not,  to  the  destruction  of  your  nerves  ;  gamble 
not,  to  the  dissipation  of  your  fortune ;  steal  not, 
thereby  giving  others  the  right  to  steal  from  you; 
kill  not,  if  you  do  not  want  to  be  killed  ;  and  so  on. 
A  morality  thus  based  upon  the  simple  truths  of 
nature  will  last  a  man  through  life,  and  give  him  the 
most  steadfast  assurance  in  time  of  death;  it   will 


PLATO  REVISED.  741 

never  be  deceptive ;  it  will  never  prove  untrue,  and 
the  person  basing  his  conduct  upon  it  will  stand 
always  the  same.  He  will  not  have  to  eradicate 
any  false  teachings  and  construct  a  new  basis  of  moral- 
ity for  himself,  or  go  without  any  ;  his  principles  will 
be  founded  upon  a  rock.  And  he  who  thus  stands 
has  nothing  in  the  wide  universe  to  fear,  while  he 
who  is  governed  all  his  life  by  superstition,  by  the 
fancied  arbitrary  mandates  of  a  fancied  deity,  must 
needs  crawl  in  craven  cowardice  all  through  this 
world  and  into  the  next. 

Crito.  But  if  morality  is  neither  religion  nor  civil- 
ization, it  certainly  must  be  in  accord  with  both. 

Socrates.  Not  necessarily.  There  are  plenty  of 
immoral  religions  and  immoral  civilizations,  though 
such  religions  and  civilizations  would  not  call  their 
morality  immoral.  Morality,  like  religion,  is  largely 
a  conventional  article,  being  but  the  ideal  of  the  com- 
munity, whatever  that  may  happen  to  be.  The 
Greek  mother  would  never  call  her  patriotic  son 
immoral,  though  he  drank  wine  by  the  gallon  and 
kept  half  a  dozen  mistresses.  The  popular  preacher 
is  not  immoral  if  he  tells  no  lies  except  in  the  pulpit. 
The  monopolist  may  steal  his  millions,  deal  wholesale 
in  bribery  and  corruption,  and  not  be  called  immoral, 
provided  he  does  it  within  limits  of  the  law,  or  is  not 
caught  at  it. 

Plato.  The  moral  sentiment,  right  or  wrong,  is  the 
central  force  of  every  society.  Intrinsic  right  is  less 
powerful  under  such  conditions  than  conventional 
right  or  public  moral  sense.  This  sense,  after  all, 
though  it  may  be  the  prison- wall  of  reason,  is  the 
only  hope  of  progress.  It  gives  aggregated  humanity 
personality,  and  before  the  soul  of  man  it  lays  an 
empire.  Moral  philosophy  treats  only  of  perfect  rec- 
titude and  right  conduct,  ignoring  evil,  as  physiology 
treats  of  the  functions  of  organs  and  knows  nothing 
of  disease. 

Socrates.     Ethics  is  the  science  of  human  duty.  By 


742  PLATO  REVISED. 

the  term  human  duty  moral  obhgation  is  implied.  No 
one  arrives  at  the  age  of  maturity,  reaches  the  period 
of  youth,  or  is  even  born  into  the  world  without  hav- 
ing accumulated  a  load  of  indebtedness,  to  discharge 
which  a  life-time  is  too  short.  The  infant  owes 
for  its  existence,  for  the  preparation  and  pangs  of 
its  birth.  The  youth  owes  for  nourishment  and 
care  during  childhood.  The  young  citizen  owes  for 
protection  and  culture,  and  the  old  man  for  such 
existing  conditions  as  enabled  him  to  attain  comfort- 
able and  honorable  old  age.  In  the  annals  of  the  race 
good  has  ever  manifested  a  strength  superior  to  that 
of  evil  ;  hence  our  sympathy  and  allegiance  must  be 
on  the  side  of  good.  At  all  events  we  must  side  with 
the  good  as  long  as  good  preponderates.  If  before 
the  end  evil  rises  superior  to  good,  then  all  moral 
men  must  worship  evil,  which  thereby  becomes  the 
ideal  good,  and  can  no  longer  be  called  immorality. 

ApoUodorus.  The  suppression  of  malignant  feeling 
is  itself  a  reward,  says  Prahlada. 

Phdedo.     Pray  tell  me,  Evenus,  is  the  soul  immortal  ? 

Evenus.     Of  course  it  is  immortal. 

Phsedo.     How  do  you  know  ? 

Evenus.  Men  of  all  ages  and  nations  have  held  to 
belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  ;  nothing  in 
nature  dies,  therefore  the  soul  cannot  die  ;  my  inner 
consciousness  bells  me  that  I  am  not  like  the  brute 
w^hich  perishes. 

Phdedo.  The  secret  mysteries  of  Dionysius  held 
that  the  soul  is  imperishable;  were  the  rest  of  the 
mysteries  true  ?  Have  not  the  early  nations  held  to 
thousands  of  untrue  beliefs  ? 

Evenus.     Certainly. 

Phmdo.  Then  why  attempt  to  prove  anything  true 
by  such  evidence  ? 

Evenus.     It  is  a  standard  argument. 

Phsedo.  Nothing  in  nature  dies,  you  say;  but 
there  are  infinite  changes,  as  great  as  would  be  the 


PLATO  REVISED.  743 

instant  transformation  of  life,  soul,  intellect,  into  gas 
and  vapor,  or  consigning  them  to  the  original  reser- 
voir, or  source  of  all  intelligence. 

Evenus.     Then  the  soul  is  not  immortal. 

Phsedo.     I  did  not  say  so. 

Evenus.  Matter  is  indestructible;  is  mind  less 
worthy  of  preservation  than  matter  ?  What  becomes 
of  man's  learning,  of  his  skill,  when  the  body  dies  ? 
Neither  force  nor  matter  are  created  or  lost.  Noth- 
ing that  comes  within  the  scope  of  our  knowledge  is 
either  created  or  lost.  Is  the  cultured  intellect  a 
creation,  or  an  accumulation  of  experiences,  and  are 
they  all  annihilated  by  death? 

Phxdo.  It  would  seem,  if  there  is  any  immor- 
tality left,  if  there  is  somewhere,  throughout  the 
realms  of  space,  for  us  a  glorified  heaven,  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  which  a  keener  edge  is  given  by  the  existence 
of  a  dreadful  hell  for  our  hapless  neighbor,  some 
angels  would  be  sent  to  tell  us  of  it.  God,  if  he 
chose,  could  at  once  end  all  sin  and  misery;  he  could 
obliterate  unbelief,  take  from  the  world  its  injustice 
and  from  death  its  sting,  showing  man  what  he  is  and 
what  his  future  will  be.  If  there  be  a  God,  and  a 
future  state,  why  does  he  not  do  this  ?  Surely  the 
world  needs  God's  presence  as  greatly  as  it  ever  did ; 
and  if  men  had  here  the  same  evidence  upon  which 
to  base  opinion  that  is  required  of  them  in  the  ordi- 
nary walks  of  life,  millions  of  beings  might  be  saved 
who  now  are  lost.  Men  have  written  much,  and 
achieved  much  fame  in  writing  on  the  immortality  of 
the  gods.  Of  course  the  gods  were  all  immortal 
then,  but  where  are  they  now  ?  The  Japanese  still 
have  their  bamboo,  symbol  of  immortality,  which 
they  plant  beside  the  tombs  of  the  illustrious  dead, 
but  what  have  the  Greeks? 

Crito.     What  is  the  soul  ? 

Phsedo.     The  spiritual  part  of  man. 

Crito.  In  what  sense  spiritual?  Is  intellect  spir- 
itual ? 


744  PLATO  REVISED. 

Plixdo.     It  is  certainly  not  material 

Crito,  Have  brutes  souls?  How  do  soul  charac- 
teristics differ  in  men  and  brutes? 

Phdedo.  Only  in  degree,  so  far  as  we  can  perceive. 
We  cannot  say  that  brutes  have  not  souls,  nor  any 
after-life  ;  we  do  not  know. 

Crito.  If  the  soul  has  existence  apart  from  the 
body,  it  may  have  had  being  before  the  making  of  the 
body  ;  but  we  trouble  ourselves  less  about  what  we 
were  than  what  we  will  be. 

Plixdo.  If  the  soul  be  not  immortal,  how  many 
good  men  are  doomed  to  disappointment! 

Crito.  Not  so ;  for  if  the  soul  wake  not  in  eternity, 
how  shall  it  ever  know  it? 

Phsedo.  Even  though  it  be  not  true,  they  say,  it  is 
better  to  believe  it  if  it  brings  comfort. 

Crito.  But  it  does  not  always  bring  comfort.  Can 
it  be  comfort  to  the  mother  at  the  grave  of  an  erring 
son  to  feel  that  he  must  be  forever  in  torment  while 
she  enjoys  heaven  ?  The  doctrine  of  a  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments  necessitates  the  eternal 
separation  of  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children. 

Socrates.  In  your  Republic,  Plato,  you  defend  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  of  the  soul;  do  you  still  hold 
to  that  opinion? 

Plato.     Thus  far  I  find  myself  immortal. 

Socrates.  How  about  the  gods  and  their  immor- 
tality ? 

Plato.     I  have  met  no  gods  as  yet. 

Socrates.  You  have  often  been  quoted  as  a  pagan 
of  profound  wisdom  who  believed  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul. 

Plato.  No  one  can  be  religious  who  does  not  so 
hold. 

Socrates.  You  have  taught  also  that  there  is 
mind  in  the  stars,  in  which  teaching  you  were 
perhaps  nearer  the  truth  than  you  supposed. 

Plato.  There  are  in  all  things  mind  and  soul, 
and  these  ever  were  and  always  will  be. 


PLATO  REVISED.  745 

Socrates.  You  believed  also  in  sorcery,  witchcraft, 
transmigration  of  the  soul,  and  a  thousand  absurd- 
ities about  God  and  creation. 

Plato,  There  is  a  future  ;  we  know  not  what  it  is  ; 
whatever  it  is  it  were  w^ell  to  be  prepared  for  it. 

Evenus.  If  there  is  no  immortality  there  is  no 
God,  no  justice,  no  truth,  no  good.  That  the  soul  is 
immortal  we  know  by  an  instinct  deeply  rooted  in 
all  humanity. 

Crito.  Do  men  like  brutes  depend  upon  instinct  for 
guidance  ? 

Evenus.  Well,  intuition,  if  you  like  the  word  bet- 
ter. 

Crito.     Millions  of  intuitions  have  come  to  naught. 

Evenus.     If  God  lives  the  soul  lives  alway. 

Crito.     I  agree  with  you. 

Evenus.  In  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Egyptians 
are  grand  conceptions  concerning  the  immortality  of 
the  soul. 

Crito.  Do  you  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the 
Egyptian  soul  ? 

Evenus.     I  do. 

Crito.     Do    you  believe  in  the  Egyptian  heaven  ? 

Evenus.     I  cannot. 

Crito.  Then,  if  the  Egyptian  soul  is  immortal, 
what  will  it  do  without  the  Egyptian  heaven  ? 

Socrates.  A  life  beyond  the  grave  may  be  relied 
upon  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  demonstrable  by  the  senses ; 
yet  there  may  be  immortality  for  man  for  all  that. 

Crito,  Now  tell  me,  Apollodorus,  can  you  dis- 
course on  miracles  ? 

Apollodorus.  Yes  ;  and  I  will  begin  my  discourse 
by  saying  that  there  are  no  miracles. 

Crito.     What  is  a  miracle  ? 

Apollodorus.  A  performance  outside  the  pale  of 
nature. 

Crito.  How  can  you  prove  that  there  never  have 
been  miracles  ? 


746  PLATO  REVISED. 

Apollodorm.  I  am  not  so  called  upon  J  it  is  for 
those  who  believe  in  them  to  prove  their  existence,  as 
is  the  case  in  regard  to  the  whole  range  of  super- 
natural phenomena. 

Crito.     And  as  to  prayer? 

Apollodorus.  Prayer  is  the  begging  of  omnipotence 
to  do  the  impossible — a  harmless  diversion,  so  long  as 
those  who  pray  expect  no  results,  or  are  satisfied  with 
the  reflex  effect. 

Crito.  Do  not  those  who  pray  usually  expect  an 
answer  ? 

Apollodorus.  They  think  they  do,  and  often  feel 
that  they  have  it ;  but  were  a  prompt  and  palpable 
response  to  come  to  one  of  their  petitions,  no  one 
would  be  more  surprised  than  the  petitioner. 

Crito.  Why  do  the  gods  wish  to  be  importuned  by 
their  votaries  ? 

Apollodorus.  They  do  not.  Why  should  men  make 
their  gods  in  some  respects  so  much  worse  than 
themselves  ?  A  kind  and  benevolent  human  father 
does  not  enjoy  seeing  his  children  all  their  lives  grov- 
elling in  the  dust  before  him  ;  beseeching  him  to 
remember  their  wants  and  relieve  their  miseries  ; 
importuning  him  for  favors  which  it  costs  him  noth- 
ing to  grant,  and  which  he  withholds  seemingly  to 
tantalize  them,  and  cause  them  to  beg  the  more  and 
louder.  The  attitude  is  not  a  noble  one  for  either 
man  or  god  to  pose  in.  How,  then,  shall  we  say  of 
those  who  make  their  god  in  theory  a  high  and  holy 
one — creator,  preserver,  dominator,  an  onmipotent 
and  unchangeable  being,  absolutely  just,  full  of  com- 
passion and  tender  mercy — and  yet  in  their  interpre- 
tation of  him,  by  their  words  and  acts,  they  make  him 
out  now  a  contemptible  thing,  and  now  a  demon ! 

Crito.     May  not  good  gods  permit  prayer  ? 

Apollodorus.  Yes ;  it  pacifies  some  persons  and 
teaches  obedience.  But  look  back  and  see  what  use 
men  and  gods  make  of  prayer,  and  then  say  if  it  be 
decent,     Formerly  men   prayed   an  enemy  to  death, 


PLATO  REVISED,  747 

prayed  devils  out  of  the  dying,  prayed  the  departed 
soul  into  heaven,  prayed  fish  to  ascend  the  stream, 
the  corn  to  grow,  the  sun  to  shine  ;  robbers  and  mur- 
derers prayed  for  fat  victims,  while  the  fat  victims 
prayed  to  be  delivered  from  robbers  and  murderers. 
And  the  same  incongruities  and  absurdities  continue, 
though  in  a  modified  form.  Nations  pray  for  victory 
over  their  enemies ;  though  brother  fight  against 
brother,  both  beseech  the  same  God  for  strength  to 
kill  the  other.  There  are  places  where  rain  is  prayed 
for ;  also  deliverence  from  earthquake  famine  and 
pestilence,  success  at  the  polls,  blessings  on  infamous 
persons  and  principles.  God  is  constantly  reminded 
that  there  are  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  blind,  the 
infirm,  whom  he  is  sadly  neglecting  ;  there  are  the 
dying  who  want  a  reserved  seat  in  heaven,  something 
better  than  is  given  to  their  neighbors  In  a  word,  if 
the  character  of  God  is  as  represented  by  his  votaries, 
their  petitions  are  a  disgrace  to  their  intelligence  and 
an  insult  to  him. 

Crito.  But  surely  the  creator  can  break  his  own 
laws  if  he  chooses?. 

ApoUodorus,  We  have  no  evidence  that  ever  a  sin- 
gle law  of  nature  was  suspended  or  diverted  from  its 
ordinary  course. 

Crito.  Do  not  all  the  national  and  sacred  books  of 
all  nations  and  ages  testify  to  the  existence  of  mira- 
cles ? 

Apollodorus.  Yes,  and  if  you  call  that  proof,  you 
prove  too  much  ;  for  every  one  of  them  condemns  all 
the  others  as  false.  Now,  where  there  are  a  thou- 
sand and  one  religions,  every  one  railing  against  the 
pretended  miracles  of  the  other  as  preposterous, 
surely  the  chance  for  one  of  them  to  be  true  is 
small.  Besides,  how  reconcile  the  doctrine  of 
special  providences  and  answer  to  prayer  with  the 
immutability  and  unchangeableness  of  the  creator? 

Crito,     Well,  how  about  the  millions  of  petitioners 


748  PLATO  REVISED. 

who  know  from  internal  evidence  that   their  prayers 
are  answered  ? 

ApoUodorus.  1  would  rather  see  one  external 
evidence,  than  hear  of  a  million  of  the  other  descrip- 
tion. The  heart-broken  mother,  begging  the  life  of 
her  fever-stricken  child,  is  greatly  comforted  though 
the  child  dies.  The  false  religionist  enjoys  as  much 
internal  evidence  as  the  true  religionist.  In  a  word 
the  internal  evidence  is  the  same,  wJi ether  the  prayer 
is  answered  or  not,  and  so,  as  evidence,  goes  for  noth- 
ing. The  doctrine  of  special  providences  and  prayer 
imply  imperfection  in  the  creation  and  regulation  of 
the  universe.  If  all  were  rightly  made  and  rightly 
ruled,  any  deviation  from  existing  or  predetermined 
courses  would  be  wrong.  Therefore,  to  pray  a  just 
and  holy  God  to  do  what  otherwise  he  would  not  do, 
is  to  ask  him  to  do  wrong,  which,  if  he  does  not, 
prayer  is  of  no  avail. 

Crito.  Then  prayer  springs  from  fear  and  desire, 
and  its  reflex  influence  is  the  chief  one. 

ApoUodorus.  Say  rather  the  only  one.  Imagine  a 
being  sitting  in  heavenly  state,  regarding  the  world 
of  worms  which  he  has  made.  One  worm  asks  for 
grace,  mercy,  and  peace;  another  for  food  and 
raiment;  a  third  asks  pardon  for  its  measure  of  sins 
only  that  it  may  be  as  quickly  filled  again.  Imagine 
this  being  healing^  those  whom  he  had  made  sick, 
binding  up  the  hearts  he  had  broken,  and  in  a  thou- 
sand other  ways  righting  the  wrongs  that  he  had 
done.  Sorry  contemplation,  indeed,  for  a  maker  of 
mortals  who  could  have  done  better  but  would  not ! 

Crito.  How  then  would  you  account  for  the  pres- 
ence of  miracles  in  all  the  ancient  writings? 

ApoUodorus.  Most  religions  were  made  long  ago, 
when  the  world  was  young,  ignorant,  imaginative, 
ready  to  believe  anything,  and  therefore  exceedingly 
superstitious.  In  oriental  countries  particularly,  signs 
and  wonders  were  everywhere.  Any  person  who 
from  any  cause  became  conspicuous  was  sooner  or 


PLATO  REVISED.  749 

later  endowed  with  supernatural  powers,  and  thouc^h 
he  might  never  have  pretended  to  perform  a  miracle, 
he  was  sure  to  be  accredited  with  many. 

Plato.  What  shall  we  say,  Socrates  ;  is  life  worth 
the  living  ? 

Socrates.  Under  some  circumstances,  and  by  cer- 
tain persons,  it  may  be,  but  in  the  main  it  is  not. 
The  world's  religion,  philosophy,  and  poetry  are  as  a 
rule  pessimistic. 

Plato.  You  speak  truly.  Human  existence  is  too 
often  a  vast  despair,  whether  viewed  as  an  evolution, 
or  from  a  theological  point  of  view.  Under  the  first 
supposition  we  are  one  with  the  elements,  coming  from 
them  and  returning  to  them  after  a  life  of  bulfeting. 
Under  the  second,  the  race  is  no  sooner  made  than  it 
falls  from  a  state  of  angelic  purity,  becomes  totally 
depraved,  and  is  driven  forth  by  a  hated  master  to 
endless  torment,  a  few  favorites  excepted. 

Socrates.  Infinitely  higher  than  that  of  the  relio-ion- 
ist  is  the  realistic  conception  of  man's  nature  and 
destiny.  The  gods  of  man's  creation  fade  before  ever 
increasing  intelligence  and  morality.  The  conscious- 
ness of  divine  self  gains  strength,  until  to  the  infinite 
development  to  which  we  were  created  we  look  for 
the  only  living  and  true  God. 

ApoUodorus.  Perhaps  we  take  life  too  seriously, 
which  after  all  may  be  a  huge  joke,  man  the  sportive 
play  of  the  elements,  and  mind  a  force  of  matter  tinc- 
tured with  intelligence. 

Plato.  When  nature  can  supply  a  better  man  it  is 
time  for  each  one  to  die,  and  give  place  to  him;  when 
man  becomes  perfect  he  may  rightly  and  reasonably 
live  on  forever. 

Co'ito.  By  the  mute  attraction  and  repulsion  in 
inorganic  forces  worlds  out  of  chaos  grew  ;  as  by 
articulate  love  and  hate  beasts  have  become  men,  and 
men  gods. 

Socrates.  Emerging  from  the  darkness  of  brute 
instinct  to  the  illumination  of  thought ;  rising  out  of 


750  PLATO  REVISED. 

inferior  life-forms,  and  advancing  from  consciousness 
to  self -consciousness  under  the  inspiration  of  ever- 
brightening  sky  and  sea,  of  landscape,  birds,  and 
flowers,  all  through  life's  ages  man  has  been  left  to 
work  out  his  destiny  in  darkness  and  in  li^^ht  under 
the  unfolding  duality  of  mind  and  matter,  beauty  that 
catches  the  eye  being  ever  before  utility,  ornament 
before  dress,  poetry  before  prose,  and  brilliant  theol- 
ogies before  hard  and  practical  science. 

ApoUodorus.  Happy  the  Arabs,  who  refuse  to 
know  anything  of  what  happened  before  Mohammed 
came  !  What  an  infinitude  of  trouble  men  might  save 
themselves  by  refusing  to  know  anything  of  what 
shall  happen  after  death ! 

Socrates.  While  at  Athens,  Plato,  you  had  much 
thouglit  of  legislation  and  the  affairs  of  state.  In 
your  Republic  your  main  distinction  as  to  forms  was 
whether  the  government  vested  in  the  hands  of  one 
or  many — that  is  to  say  monarchy  or  oligarchy  on  the 
one  hand  and  democracy  or  republicanism  on  the  other. 

Plato.     That  is  true. 

Socrates.  Of  all  the  governments  mankind  has  had, 
which  do  you  regard  as  the  best  form  ? 

Plato.  There  is  no  one  form  greatly  better  than 
another ;  there  is  not,  and  never  has  been,  any  gov- 
ernment at  all  approaching  perfection. 

Socrates.  How?  Are  not  the  more  liberal  ways 
which  mark  the  emergence  of  intellect  from  the  clouds 
of  savagism  better  than  the  wearing  of  the  former 
fetters  ?  Is  not  monarchy  better  than  despotism,  and 
democracy  better  than  monarchy  ? 

Plato,     It  has  not  been  so  proved. 

Socrates.  Is  liberty  nothing  ?  The  limitations  of 
authority,  the  restriction  of  the  so-called  divine  right, 
constitutional  safeguards  in  place  of  the  absolute  and 
individual  will^^ — are  these  nothing? 

Plato  They  are  much,  all  fitting  in  their  way; 
and  so  I  suppose  are  demagogy  and  mobocracy,  else 
they  had  never  been. 


PLATO  REVISED.  751 

Socrates.  Tell  me,  I  pray  you,  Plato,  what  you  mean. 

Plato.  This  ;  you  may  as  well  ask  which  of  all  the 
styles  of  garments  naked  humanity  has  ever  employed 
are  the  best.  The  fashion  of  government,  like  the 
cut  of  coats,  depends  upon  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the 
wearers.  That  government  or  garment  is  best  which 
best  meets  present  needs.  The  government  is  made 
to  fit  the  condition,  and  not  the  condition  to  fit  the 
government.  I  have  said  before,  that  governments 
vary  as  the  characters  of  men  vary  ;  states  are  made 
not  of  oak  and  rock,  but  of  the  human  natures  wliich 
are  in  them,  The  states  are  as  the  men  ;  they  do  but 
grow  out  of  human  characters. 

Socrates.  Before  we  can  have  any  good  government 
we  must  have  those  for  rulers  who  can  master  the 
passions  that  master  men.  But  even  the  gods  them- 
selves have  not  been  able  to  do  this,  not  a  single  deity 
in  all  the  theogonies  and  theologies  of  the  world  being 
able  to  control  himself  in  this  regard  as  he  attempts  to 
control  the  men  who  made  him. 

Plato.      Socrates,  you  speak  the  truth. 

Socrates.  You  treat  of  justice  in  your  Laws  as  the 
interest  of  the  stronger. 

Plato.  Yes.  The  governing  power  makes  the 
laws  ;  God  makes  the  governing  power  ;  justice  must 
uphold  God  and  the  laws,  right  or  wrong. 

Socrates.  Are  not  God  and  the  laws  just  ;  do  they 
not  render  bo  every  man  his  due? 

Plato.  Answer  that  question  for  yourself,  O 
Socrates. 

Socrates.  In  your  opinion,  Plato,  it  is  folly  to 
imagine  that  war  will  ever  cease,  that  it  is  a  natural 
condition  between  states. 

Plato.  I  see  no  indication  of  a  change  from  what 
always  has  been  the  case  in  this  regard. 

Socrates.  And  the  affairs  of  a  state  should  be  so 
ordered  as  to  conquer  all  other  states  in  war  ? 

Plato,  All  men  are  the  enemies  of  all  other  men, 
both  in  public  and  private. 


752  PLATO  REVISED. 

Socrates.  And  the  life  of  man  should  be  ordered 
with  a  view  to   continue   internal  and  exteriml  strife  ? 

Plato.     It  is  the  only  way. 

Socrates.     Is  war  a  good  or  an  evil  ? 

Plato.     A  necessary  evil. 

Socrates.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  necessary  evil  ; 
if  the  evil  is  necessary  its  practise  is  a  good.  War  is 
either  a  good  or  an  evil. 

Plato.  One  might  say  on  the  side  of  right  and  lib- 
erty, if  the  winning  side,  it  is  a  lamentable  good  ;  on 
the  other  side  it  is  assuredly  an  evil. 

Socrates.  Is  victory  oftener  on  the  side  of  right  or 
wrong  ? 

Plato.     Of  wrong. 

Socrates.     Why  ? 

Plato.  Because  numbers  carrying  preponderance 
of  strength  breed  arrogance,  and  render  the  majority 
indifferent  to  the  rights  of  the  minority. 

Socrates.  Well,  Plato,  take  it  as  a  whole,  is  it  a 
good  or  an  evil  that  men  should  have  no  more  sane 
or  humane  ultimate  appeal  in  the  adjustment  of  differ- 
ences than  the  bloody  arbitrament  of  battle,  after  the 
manner  of  brute  beasts  ? 

Plato.     An  evil,  decidedly. 

Socrates.  And  yet  you  would  have  the  affairs  of  the 
state  always  so  ordered  as  best  to  perpetuate  this  evil  ? 

Plato.     It  must  be  so. 

Socrates.  Were  it  not  better  to  have  the  laws  and 
customs  such  that  reason  rather  than  brute  force 
should  regulate? 

Plato.  If  possible,  yes.  But  no  wise  legislator 
orders  peace  for  the  sake  of  war,  and  not  war  for  the 
sake  of  peace. 

Socrates.  Yet,  as  war  is  brutal,  not  reasonable,  and 
the  winner  more  apt  to  be  wrong  than  right,  were  it 
not  better  to  adopt  measures  to  abolish  war  than  try 
to  maintain  the  ground  that  the  world  cannot  do 
without  it  ? 

Plato.      Certainly. 


PLATO  REVISED.  753 

Socrates,     One  word  more,  Plato. 

Plato.     What  is  it,  Socrates  ? 

Socrates,  Consider  the  nebular  theory  of  the  solar 
system  correct,  eternal  change  the  changeless  law 
thereof,  evolution  implying  dissolution,  or,  as  Kant 
hath  it,  chaos  ever  passing  into  cosmos,  and  cosmos 
returning  to  chaos  again;  where,  then,  are  men  and 
gods,  and  all  those  bright  intelligences,  creations  of 
the  conscious  atoms? 

Plato,  The  philosophy  of  being  is  more  worthy  of 
our  consideration  than  methods  of  becoming. 

Essays  and  Miscellany    48 


INDEX. 


Abbott,  works  of,  93. 

Academia  .Nacional,  Mex.,  founding 

of,  538. 
Academy  of   Natural  Sciences,  Cal., 

descript.  of,  619. 
Acosta,  works  of,  24,  661. 
Africans,  assimilation,  etc.,  of,  256. 
Agnese,  map  of,  667. 
Alaman,  L.,  works  of,  550-1. 
Alarcon,    E.    S.    de,    works   of,    524, 

535-6. 
Alarcon  y  Mendoza,  works  of,  528-9; 

biog.,  529-30. 
Alcaraz,  works  of,  572. 
Aldana,  R.,  mention  of,  583. 
Alegre,  works  of,  508. 
Alexander  the  Great,  career  of,  82. 
Allison,  works  of,  93. 
Alpuche,  works  of,  572. 
Alva,  F.  de,  works  of,  500. 
Alvarado,  Gov.,  writings  of,  603. 
Alvarado,  P.,  'Relacion,' 461. 
Alvarez,  I.,  writings  of,  552. 
Ambition,  remarks  on,  175-6. 
'American   Law   Review,'   quotation 

from,  301-2. 
Americans,    characteristics,    etc.,    of, 

189-204. 
Ancona,  works  of,  552-3,  560. 
Anderson,  Dr  W.  C,  mention  of,  624. 
Andre,  '  Overcome,'  634. 
Angelo,  M.,  story  of,  142. 
'Annals  of  San  Francisco,'  615,  640. 
'Anonymous  Conqueror,'  writings  of 

the,  15-16. 
Antonio,  N.,  works  of,  512. 
Apianus,  works  of,  662. 
Arevalo,  S.   de,  mention  of,  470,  480. 
Arrangoiz,  works  of,  552,  590. 
Arronez,  M.,  works  of,  566,  590. 
Athens,  dicasts  of,  283. 
Austria,  I.,  plays  of,  583. 
Authors,     as    critics,     126-8,     141-3; 

characteristics,     etc.,     of,     129-30, 


176-7;  perplexities,  136;  apprecia- 
tion of,  141. 

Autocracy,  decline  of,  83. 

Avarice,  prevalence  of,  183. 

Avery,  W.  S.,  writings,  etc.,  of,  598, 
600,  608. 

Aztecs,  records,  etc.,  of,  489-99. 


Baker,  Senator  E.  D.,  eloquence  of, 
626. 

Balbuena,  Bishop,  works  of,  520-1, 
585. 

Bandini,  writings  of,  603. 

Baqueiro,  '  Ensayo, '  590. 

Barbacero,  translation  by,  572. 

Barcena,  M.,  works  of,  568. 

Barcena,  R.,  works  of,  571-2. 

Barcia,  works  of,  512. 

Barry  and  Patten,  'Men  and  Memoirs,' 
613. 

Barstow,  G.,  mention  of,  6C!6. 

Bartlett,  W.  C,  writings,  etc.,  of, 
598-600. 

Bates,  Mrs,  'Four  Years  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast,'  610. 

Baturoni,  Z  ,  plays  of,  583. 

Baz,  '  Vida  de  Juare,'  556. 

Beaumont,  'Cronica  de  Michoacan,' 
506. 

Beckwith,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 

Benton,  J.  A.,  'The  California  Pil- 
grim,'605. 

Benzoni,  G.,  works  of,  24,  463^,  661. 

Beristain,  works  of,  534. 

Bibliography,  Cent.  Amer.,  478-80; 
Mex.,  511-13,  530-6,  589-90;  Cal., 
658-70. 

Bidwell,  Gen.,  writings  of,  603. 

Biography,  Cent.  Amer.,  471;  Mex., 
509-10. 

Blackstone,  quotation  from,  285. 

Blaka,  W.  P.,  survey,  etc.,  of,  1853, 
619. 

(755) 


758 


INDEX. 


Bocanegra,  works  of,  565,  579 . 

Bornemaa,  M.,  writings  of,  634. 

Boscana,   Friar,  'Chiuigchinich,' 596. 

Boswell,  J.,  works,  etc.,  of,  130. 

Botello,  writings  of,  603. 

Bourbourg,  B.  de,  works  of,  458,  460. 

Bowman,  J.  F.,  writings  of,  645. 

Brcinnan,  S.,  the  'California  Star,' 
596-7. 

Brooks,  A.,  mention  of,  144. 

Brooks,  H.  S.,  'California  Mountain- 
eer,' 600. 

Brooks,  N.,  writings  of,  598,  633. 

Browne,  J.   R.,  writings  of,  619.  641. 

Bucbard,  Father,  mention  of,  625. 

Buckle,  H.  T.,  works  of,  89. 

Buddhism,  398-9. 

Buffum,  E.  G.,  writings,  etc.,  of,  605. 

Bulwer,  quotation  from,  144. 

Burlingame  treaty,  mention  of,  262. 

Burnett,  Gov.,  writings  of,  612,  622. 

Barton,  Mrs,  '  Don  Quixote,' 638. 

Busch,  H.,  'Harry  Plowerfield,' 633. 

Bustamante,  C.  M.,  works  of,  546, 
549-50,  590,  667. 


Calderon,  F.,  works  of,  566. 

Calderon  y  Beltran,  F.,  dramas  of, 
580-1;  biog.,  580. 

California,  progress  of,  51-2;  future 
of,  53;  gold  digging  in,  1848,  54-5; 
migration  to,  184-5;  race  elements 
in,  185-200;  religion  in,  190;  future 
races  of,  201-4;  climate,  202;  char- 
acter of  population,  1849,  205-34; 
new  comers  to,  206-12;  temptations 
in,  209;  religion,  209-10,  219-20; 
class  distinctions,  210-11;  absence 
of  restraint,  211-12;  gold  hunting 
in,  214-17;  labor,  222-4;  traffic, 
etc.,  224-5;  association,  226-7; 
women  of,  232-3;  dislike  to  for- 
eigners in,  237-8,  244-5,  271;  the 
Chinese  question,  239-78;  Europe- 
ans in,  241-4;  Irishmen,  243-6;  labor 
needed  in,  277-9;  trial  by  jury, 
295-302;  Chinese  in,  309^18;  lit- 
erature, etc.,  591-668;  oratory, 
625-7. 

Camargo,  writings  of,  19. 

Camden,  Lord,  motto  of,  283. 

Campbell,  T.,  indifference  of  to  fame, 
180. 

Camprodon,  'Flor  deun  Dia,'  582. 

Cafias,  J.  de,  odes,  etc.,  of,  475-6. 

Carleton,  C,  see  Wright,  W. 

Carlyle,  T.,  quotations  from,  136,  173. 


Carpio,  M.,  works  of,  573-5;  biog.,  575. 

Carr,  E.  S.,  '  Patrons  of  Husbandry,' 
620. 

Carrillo,  works  of,  590. 

Carrington,  S.  C,  the  'Record-Union,' 
599. 

Carson,  'Early  Recollections,'  605. 

Castellanos,  E.  P.  de,  poems  of,  473- 
4,  576. 

Castillo,  F.  del,  works  of,  560. 

Castro,  F.  de,  'La  Octava  Maravilla,* 
521. 

Castro,  J.  A.  de,  'El  Triumfo  del 
Silencio,'  521. 

Castro,  M.,  writings  of,  602. 

Cavo,  works  of,  509. 

Central  America,  literature,  etc.,  of, 
455-80,  540. 

Charts,  see  Maps. 

Chinatown,  descript.  of,  318-418. 

Chinese,  objections  to,  240,  245-52, 
265-6;  labor  of,  240-1;  wages,  241; 
discrimination  against,  252-3;  use- 
fulness of,  25.3-4;  complaints 
against,  254-5;  the  Burlingame 
treaty,  262;  denunciation  of,  267; 
persecution,  271-3;  as  factory  op- 
eratives, 273-5;  first  arrival  of, 
309;  new  comers,  309-10;  children, 
310;  dress,  311-13;  queues,  313; 
barbers,  314;  characteristics,  314- 
17.  353-5;  dislike  of,  317-18;  build- 
ings, 318-19;  stores,  319-21;  gam- 
blmg-dens,  322,  377-80;  streets, 
322-3;  overcrowding,  323-4;  squa- 
lor among,  325-9;  homes,  327-8; 
food,  329-30;  restaurants,  330-5; 
opium-dens,  835-7;  sign  boards, 
337-9;  business  system,  339-43; 
laborers,  343-5;  gardeners,  345; 
operatives,  345-8;  laundries,  348-9; 
rag-pickers,  351;  fisheries,  349-50; 
servants,  350-1;  artists,  352;  pros- 
titutes, 355-7;  festivals,  357-66; 
new  year,  358-65;  the  drama,  365- 
77;  companies,  380-2;  highbinders, 
382;  oaths  administ.  to,  382-3; 
diseases,  383-5;  medicines,  386-8; 
physicians,  388-90;  hospitals,  390; 
funeral  rites,  etc.,  391-6;  religion, 
397-401;  temples,  401-13;  worship, 
411-13;  omens,  413-14;  spiritual- 
ism, 414-15;  fortune-tellers,  415- 
17;  exorcism,  417-18. 

Chorley,  story  of,  143. 

Christianity,  discussions  on,  669-753. 

'Chronica?  de  la  Provincias,'  504-5. 

Church,  literat.  in  Mex  ,  481-2;  in 
Cal.,  616-17,  622-4;  influence  of  on 
literat.,  648. 


INDEX. 


767 


Cicero,  quotation  from,  292. 

Cisneros,  J.  A.,  plays,  etc.,  of, 
581. 

Civilization,  remarks  on,  8-10,  87-8. 

Clark,  J.  ¥.,  writings  ot,  (534. 

Clavigero,  works  of,  24,  508,  663. 

Clemens,  S.  L.,  works  of,  640-1. 

CliflPord,  J.,  writings  of,  600,  632-3. 

Climate  of  Cal.,  202. 

Clyde,  C,  writings' of,  645. 

Collins,  J.  A.,  mention  ot,  626. 

Colton,  W.,  writings  of,  596,  659. 

Commerce  in  Cal.,  224-5. 

Compass,  the  effect  of  discov.,  83. 

Conde  y  Oquendo,  works  of,  534. 

Confucianism,  397-8. 

Contrera,  P.,  'Castigo  de  Dios,'  582. 

Coolbrith,  I.,  writings  of,  600,  645. 

Cooperation,  remarks  on,  431,  451-4. 

Corporations,  principles,  etc.,  of, 
432-3;  abuses  by,  433-43;  restric- 
tions on,  435,  446. 

Cortes,  H.,  writings,  etc.,  of,  16-17, 
461-2,  502,  661. 

Cortina,  G.  de  la,  works  of,  558,  590. 

Cosa,  chart  of,  667. 

Cousin,  M.,  quotations  from,  94,  100. 

Covarrubias,  D.,  works  of,  558,  560. 

Cox,  I.,  'Annals  of  Trinity  County,' 
618. 

Cox,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 

Cremony,  Col,  writings  of,  600,  611- 
12,  633. 

Criticism,  sphere  of,  113-14;  journal- 
istic, 114;  talent  in,  115;  super- 
abundance of,  115-16;  insincere, 
116-17;  classes  of,  117-20;  preten- 
sion in,  121-2;  hypocrisy  in,  124-5; 
motives  for,  125-6;  among  authors, 
126-8;  unfairness  in,  128-33;  irrel- 
evant, 129-31;  legitimate,  1.34-5; 
standards  of,  138;  dramatic,  138-9; 
qualifications  for,  139-40;  plagiar- 
ism, 143-4;  style,  144-7. 

Cromberger,  J.,  works  printed  by, 
etc.,  481-2,  531. 

Cruz,  .J.  A.  I.  de  la,  biog.,  etc.,  of, 
524-5,  535;  works  of,  525-8,  535. 

Cubas,  C,  works  of,  558,  590. 

Cuellar,  J.  de,  works  of,  561,  582, 
590. 

Cuevas,  G.,  writings  of,  553. 

Cummins,  A.  H.,  writings  of,  620. 


;t,  'Baxtfir  Bar,' 6.33. 
'Dan  De  Quelle,'  see  Wright,  W. 
Dark  Age,  remarks  on  the,  47. 


Davidson,    G.,    'Marine    Mammals,' 

620. 
Day,    Mrs  F.   H.,    the    'Hesperian,' 

600. 
De  Bray,  collection  of,  664. 
De  Foe,  D.,  works  of,  144. 
Delano    A.,    writings    of,    605,    637, 

641. 
Democracy,  progress,  etc.,  of,  83. 
De  Quincey,  criticisms  of,  118. 
Derby,  G.  H.,  writings  of,  641-2. 
Despotism,    benefits,   etc.,  of,    287-8, 

427. 
Detter,  T.,  'Nellie  Brown,' 635. 
Diaz,   B.,   works  of,   14-15,  463,  502, 

661,  663. 
Diaz,  J.,    'Itinerario  de  Grijalva,' 14. 
Disraeli,  B.,  quotation  from,  135. 
Dooner,   P.   W.,    'Last   Days   of  the 

Republic,'  6.34. 
Dorr,  H.  C,  writings  of,  645. 
Drama,    criticism  on  the,  138-9;  Chi- 
nese, 366-7;  literat.  of  the,  in  Mex., 

526-30;   577-84;  in  Cal.,  637-9. 
Draper,  I.  J.  W.,  works  of,  89. 
Dress,  Chinese,  311-13. 
Duran,  works  of,  24. 
Duran,    Father,    '  Historia   de  las  In- 

dias, '  507. 
Dwindle,    Judge,    '  Colonial   History 

of  California,'  618. 


E 

Edgerton,  H.,  mention  of,  626. 
Edwards,  W.  H.,  writings,  etc.,  of, 

620. 
Eels,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 
Effort,  remarks  on,  168-9. 
Eguiara  y  Eguren,  works  of,  512-13. 
Elliott,  G.,  quotation  from,  134. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  quotation  from,  105. 
Enciso,   'Suma  de  Geografia,'  661. 
England,  trial  by  jury  in,  282-5. 
Englishmen,    characteristics,  etc.,  of, 

185-6. 
Enthusiasm,  remarks  on,  174-5. 
Escalante,     F.     M.,    works    of,    572, 

583. 
Esclava,    F.    G.,    works    of,    522-3, 

527. 
Escudero,  C,  comedies,   etc.,  of,  582. 
Estee,  M.  M.,  mention  of,  621. 
Evans,  writings,  etc.,  of,  609. 
Europeans,      assumption     of,     241-2, 

257;  polit.  influence,  243^. 
Ewer,   F.   C,  writings,  etc.,   of,   699, 

623. 
Executions,  mode,  etc.,  of,  288-9. 


75S 


INDEX. 


Fair,  L.  D.,  trial  of,  301-2. 
Pa,me,  remarks  on,  179-81. 
Farnham,  Mrs,  writings  of,  606. 
Felton,  J.  B.,  eloquence  of,  626. 
Ferguson,  W.  S.,  mention  of,  626. 
Festivals,  Chinese,  357-66. 
Fiction,     demand     for,     93-4;     Mex. 

writers    of,    559-61;    Cal.    writers, 

627-42. 
Field,  M.  H.,  writings  of,  645. 
Field,  S.  J.,  writings  of,  613. 
Field,  Mrs,  writings  of,  645. 
Figueroa,  Gov.,  '  Manifesto, '  595. 
Fine,  O.,  map  of,  667. 
Fisher,  W.  M.,  writings  of,  610, 
Fitch,  G.  K.,  writings  of,  598. 
Fitch,  T.,  eloquence  of,  626. 
Flores,  M.  M.,  works  of,  567. 
Fontanelle,  quotation  from,  91. 
French,  characteristics,   etc.,  of,  196- 

8. 
Friar,  Presbyter,  writings  of,  522. 
Froude,   A.,   theory  of,  89;  quotation 

from,  94-5. 
Fuentes   y   Guzman,   works    of,    466, 

479. 

G 

Gage,  T.,  'New  Survey,'  663. 
Gallardo,  A.  L.,  works  of,  567,  582. 
Gallo,   '  Hombres  Ilustres,'  556. 
Gaily,  works  of,  633. 
Gal  van,   I.   R.,  works  of,  565-6,  578- 

9,  583;  biog.,  579. 
Gambling,  Chinese,  322,  377-80;  evils 

of,  420-1. 
Gamboa,     F.    J.,    biog.     of,    514-15; 

works,  515,  534. 
Gaona,  J.  de,  works  of,  524. 
Garcia,   '  Origin,' 664. 
George  H.,  'Progress   and   Poverty,' 

598,  620-1. 
Germans,     characteristics,    etc.,     of, 

198. 
Gibbon,  quotation  from,  146. 
Gibbs,  G.,  writings  of,  620. 
Gibney,  Father,  mention  of,  625. 
Gibson,  Rev.,  writings  of,  610-11. 
G  Ibert,  writings  of,  598. 
(xdlies,  quotations  from,  142-3. 
Gimeuez,  'Eusayos  Magneticos,' 546. 
Glascock,  M.  W.,  works  of,  633-4. 
Gleeson,  W.,  'History  of  the  Catholic 

Church  in  California,'  616-17. 
Gomara,  works  of,  21-2,  462-3,  661. 
Gonzales,  G.  G.,  '  Teatro, '  664. 
Goodman,  J.  T.,  writings  of,  645. 


Goodman,  L.,  writings  of,  645. 
Gordon,  G.,  eloquence  of,  626. 
Gorham,  writings  of,  598. 
Gorostiza,  M.  E.  de,  plays  of,  577-8; 

biog.,  577-8. 
Granico,  R.,  see  Steele. 
Gray,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 
Gra,y,  T.,  criticisms  of,  127. 
Gray,    W.,    *A    Picture    of    Pioneer 

Times,' 609. 
Grayson,  writings  of,  620. 
Grey,  Father,  mention  of,  625. 
Grey,  'Pioneer  Times,'  633. 
Gryneus,  map  of,  667. 
Guard,  Rev.,  mention  of,  626. 
Guatemala,  literature  of,  464-71. 
Guilds,    founding,  etc.,   of,  430;  hist. 

of,  430-1. 
Gunpowder,  effect  of  discov.,  83. 
Gutierrez,  M.,  'Una  para  Todos,'583. 
Gwin,  Senator,  writings  of,  603. 


H 

Hakluyt,  works  of,  662. 

Hall,  F.,  works  of,  618. 

Hallam,  criticisms  of,  142. 

Halleck,  H.  W.,  works  of,  621. 

Hamerton,  quotations  from,  131-2, 
172,  177. 

Hart,  J.  A. ,  the  '  Argonaut, '  599. 

Hart,  B.,  writings  of,  600,  631-2,  637, 
642-6;  biog.,  631-2. 

Hazlitt,  W.,  criticisms  of,  117-18, 
127-8. 

Helps,  Sir  A.,  quotation  from,  179. 

Hemphill,  Rev.,  mention  of,  626. 

Herrera,  works  of,  22-3,  464,  663. 

Herrera  y  Rueda,  L.  A.  de  O., 
'Poema  Sacra,'  522. 

Hetherington,  trial,  etc.,  of,  297-9. 

Higginson,  quotation  from,  141. 

History,  relation  of  poetry  to,  76;  of 
mythology,  76-7;  of  philosophy, 
78-9;  of  war  and  politics,  79-80: 
of  monarchy,  81-4;  of  govt,  84-5; 
general  field  of,  85-6;  civilization, 
87-9;  writers  of,  89-90;  hist, 
method,  92-3;  appreciation  of,  93; 
facts  and  ideas  in,  94-5;  exaggera- 
tion in,  95-6;  the  religious  element 
in,  96-100;  traditions,  97-8;  bias, 
100-1;  qualifications  for  writing, 
103-8;  social  phenomena,  109-12; 
Cent.  Amer.  writers,  4C0-9;  Mex. 
writers,  502-8;  Cal.  writers,  601-3, 
612-18. 

Hittell,  J.  S.,  writings  of,  598,  604, 
617-18,  622,  386. 


INDEX. 


75<»- 


Hittell,  T.,  works  of,  606,  621. 

Holder,  G.,  quotation  from,  102. 

Howard,  V.,  inention  of,  626. 

Howe,  C.  E.  B.,  'Joaquin  Murieta, 
637-8. 

Hudson,  on  railroad  abuses,  442-4. 

Hudson's  Bay  Co.,  treatment  of  In- 
dians by,  67-8. 

Hulsins,  collection  of,  664-5. 

Humanity,  study  of,  88-9. 

Humboldt,  A.  von,  works  of,  665-6. 

Hume,  works  of,  102. 

Hurtado.  A.,  plays  of,  583. 

Hutchings,  J.  M.,  'California  Maga- 
zine,' 599. 


Icazbalceta,  collection  of,  537. 
Iglesias,  Minister,  '  Re  vistas,' 552. 
Ijams,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 
Indians,  treatment,  etc.,  of,  65-74. 
Instituto  Nacional,  founding,  etc.,  of, 

1833,  538. 
Irish,  in  Cal.,  196;  polit.  injluence  of, 

243-4;    compared  with   Chinamen, 

245-6,  257-8. 
Irish,  J.  P.,  the  'Alta,' 599. 
Irving,  W.,  on  Columbus'  voy.,  91-2. 
Italians,      characteristics,     etc.,     of, 

199. 
Ixtlilxochitl,  works  of,  19,  496. 


Japan,  visitors  from,  1860,  318. 

Jerrold,  D,,  story  of,  102. 

Jewell,  Rev.,  sermons  of,  625. 

Jews,  in  Cal.,  199-200. 

Jiminez,  works  of,  473. 

Johnson,  Dr,  criticisms  of,  126;  quo- 
tation from,  134. 

Jones,  E.,  the  'California  Star,' 
597. 

Journals,  criticisms  in,  114-43;  of 
Cent.  Amer.,  470-1;  names,  etc., 
of,  480,  484,  532-3,  540-1,  545,  596- 
601,  659. 

Jovius,  P.,  writings  of,  102. 

Juarros,  works  of,  466-8. 

Judges,  trial  by.  304-8;  election,  etc., 
of,  306-7;  qualifications,  307-8. 

Juries,  origin  of  trial  by,  281;  un- 
necessary, 282,  304;  in  England, 
282-3;  arguments  for  and  against, 
286-307;  functions  of,  289;  disqual- 
ifications, 289-91;  errors,  293-302; 
incapacity  of,  305-6;  system  of, 
oppressive,  306. 


Kalloch,  Rev.,  mention  of,  626. 
Keeler,  R.,  writings  of,  632. 
Keliog,  Professor,  writings  of,  620. 
Kemble,  writings  of,  598. 
Kendall,  W.  A.,  writings  of,  645. 
Kewen,  Colonel,  eloquence  of,  626. 
Kimball,    C.   P.,   directory   of,    1850, 

604,  659. 
King,  C,  writings  of,  600,  608,  619. 
King,  T.  S.,  sermons,  etc.,  of,  624,  626. 
Kingsborough,  Lord,  works,  etc.,  of, 

6,  495-6. 
Kingship,  hist,  treatment  of,  81-4. 
Kip,  Bishop,  works  of,  623. 
Kirchoff,  'Reisebildes,' 610. 
Kustel,  reports,  etc.,  of,  619. 


La  Bruy^re,  quotation  from,  146. 

La  Harpe,  quotation  from,  96. 

Labor,  curse  of,  148-53;  enforced, 
148-9;  pleasant,  148-50;  rest  from, 
153;  necessity  for,  153-6;  subdi- 
vision of,  155;  benefits  of,  156-8, 
164;  kinds  of,  159-60;  estimation 
of,  160-1;  excessive,  161;  perform- 
ance of,  162-3;  in  Cal,  222^;  re- 
marks on,  273-9. 

Lacunza,  J.,  works  of,  565. 

Land,  monopoly  of,  448-50;  distribu- 
tion of,  448-50;  taxation  of,  449-50. 

Landa,  Bishop,  works  of,  25,  460. 

Landivar,  R.,  'Rusticatio  Mexicana,' 
474. 

Language,  remarks  on,  653-5. 

Larrainzar,  works  of,  554,  590. 

Larranaga,  J.  R.,  trausl.  of  Virgil  by, 
531,  536. 

Las  Casas,  B.  de,  works  of,  20,  460, 
462-3,  661. 

Lawyers,  unscrupulousness  of,  303. 

Lawson,  E.,  writings  of,  645. 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  quotation  from,  90. 

Legends,  mediaeval,  109. 

Leon,  F.  R.  de,  works  of,  519,  534-5, 
571. 

Leon  y  Pinelo,  A.  de,  works  of,  512. 

Le  Conte,  John,  writings  of,  619. 

Le  Conte,  Joseph,  writings  of,  619. 

Libraries,  in  Mex.,  537-8;  in  Cal., 
659-GO. 

Linen,  J.,  writings  of,  645. 

Literature,  as  a  vocation,  171-4;  peri- 
odical, 173-4;  enthusiasm  in,  174; 
recompense  of,  177-8;  liter,  fame, 
179-81. 


760 


INDEX. 


Literature  in  California,  influences 
aflfecting,  591-2,  647-58;  early, 
593-6;  period.,  596-601;  hist,  and 
descript,,  601-18;  manuscript, 
601-3,  612-13,  668-70;  church, 
616-17,  622-4;  scientific,  etc.,  619- 
21;  oratory,  625-7;  fiction,  627-37, 
639-42;  dramatic,  637-9;  poetry, 
642-6;  bibliog.,  658-68. 

Literature  in  Central  America,  condi- 
tions of,  455-7;  Maya,  458-9;  hist. 
and  descript.,  460-9;  period.,  470- 
1;  biog.,  etc.,  471;  scientific,  472- 
3;  poetry,  473-8;  bibliog.,  478- 
80. 

Literature  in  Mexico,  colonial,  481- 
536;  early  eccles.,  481-501;  period., 
484-5,  540-3;  Nahua,  489-99; 
poetry,  498-9,  515-26,  561-77,  584- 
7;  hist.,  502-8,  548-55,  661-4; 
biog.,  509-10,  555-6;  didactic,  510- 
11;  bibliog.,  511-13,  530-6,  589-90; 
dramatic,  526-30,  577-84;  miscell., 
530-6;  modern,  537-90;  liter,  socie- 
ties, 538;  effect  of  revolution  on, 
539;  satire,  544-6;  scientific,  558; 
fiction,  559-61;  progress  of,  587-9; 
influences  affecting,  647-56;  voy- 
ages, 661-2. 

Lizardi,  F.  de,  works  of,  545. 

Lloyd,  'The  Lights  and  Shades  in 
San  Francisco,'  609-10. 

Lobo,  M.,  works  of,  470-1. 

Logrono,  'Manual  de  Adultos,'  482. 

Loomis,  Rev.,  writings  of,  610-11. 

Lyell,  Sir  C,  works  of,  109. 


M 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  bias  of,  102,  127. 
Macdonald,  Rev.,  mention  of,  626. 
Mackenzie,  R.,  works  of,  6. 
Madalena,    Father  I.   de  la,    'Escala 

Espiritual,'  481-2. 
Magazines,  see  Journals. 
Mandeville,  Sir  J.,  theory  of,  89. 
Maneiro,  J.  L.,  works  of,  510. 
Manufactures,    Chinese    competition 

in,  345-8. 
Maps,      Zeno's,      667;      Cosa's,    667; 

Ptolemy's,    667;    Fine's,    667;  Gry- 

neus',   667;  Agnese's,   667;    Merca- 

tor's,  667. 
Mariposa,  jury  trial  in,  1850,  296. 
Martinez,  J.,  writings  of,  553. 
Martyr,  P.,  works  of,  21,  661. 
Mateos,  J.,  works  of,  559-60,  582. 
Mathews,    W.,    quotations  from,  91, 

125-6,  140,  177. 


Mayas,  civilization  among  the,  11-13; 

literat.  of,  458-61. 
McClellan,  R.  G.,  works  of,  604,  618- 

19. 
McDougall,  J.  A.,  mention  of,  626. 
McGlashan,    '  History  of  the  Donner 

Party,'  012. 
McGowan,  '  narrative, '  607. 
McKinley,  'Brigham  Young,'  638. 
Medina,  B.,  writings  of,  506-7. 
Mendieta,  works,   etc.,  of,  23-4,  505. 
Merimee,  review  of,  133. 
Mestizo,  condition  of  the,  73. 
Mexico,     literature    of,     14-26,    457, 

481-590;  oratory  in,  513-15,  546-7. 
Mexico  City,  descript.  of,  27. 
Mier  y  Guerra,   Doctor,  writings  of, 

548-9. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  quotation  from,  92;  story 

of,  179. 
Mill,  J.,  article  of,  173-4. 
Miller,  C.  H.,  writings,  etc.,  of,  600, 

643^;  biog.,  643-4. 
Miners,  characteristics,   etc.,  of,  205- 

29. 
Mitford,  works  of,  92-3. 
Monardes,  Dr,    '  Historia  Medicinal,' 

661. 
Money,   use,   etc.,  of,  56-63;  love  of, 

182-3;  treatment  of,  419. 
Monopoly,  evils  of,  419-46;  phases  of, 

423;   of  wealth,  424-6;    legitimate, 

428;  growth  of,  428-32. 
Montesquieu,  quotation  from,  146. 
Mora,  Doctor,  works  of,  549,  590. 
Morales,  J.  B.,  works  of,  545. 
Moreno,  fables,  etc.  of,  583. 
Morgan,  L.  H.,  article  of,  1-15,  38. 
Morse,  J.  F.,  writings  of,  615. 
Morse,    J.    T.,    jr,    quotation    from, 

201-2. 
Morure,  works  of,  469. 
Motolinia,  Father,  works  of,  503. 
Muir,  J.,  works,  etc.,  of,  619. 
Mulford,  P.,  works  of,  633,  641. 
Munguia,  works  of,  590. 
Munoz,  *  Historia, '  663. 
Mythology,  relation  of  to  hist.,  76-7. 

N 

Nahuas,  civilization  among  the,  11, 
27-38;  arts  of  the,  27-31,  36-7; 
govt,  31-2;  administ.  of  justice, 
32-3;  land  tenure,  33-4;  taxation, 
34-5;  commerce,  35;  marriage,  etc., 
35-6;  education,  36;  calendar,  37- 
8;  literat.,  etc.,  489-99. 

Napoleon  I.,  career  of.  82-3. 

Nature,  laws,  etc.,  of,  152-5. 


INDEX. 


7G1 


Navarette,  M.,  works  of,  562-3. 

Nesbit,  writiags  of,  598. 

Neumami,  Mrs,  '  Poetry  of  the  Pa- 
cific,'  645. 

Neville,  C.  M.,  'Behind  the  Arras,' 
634-5. 

Newman,  Mrs,  writings  of,  645. 

Newspapers,  see  Journals. 

Nezahualcoytl,  King,  poems  of,  498-9. 

Nisbet,  J.,  biog.,  659. 

Noble,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 

Nordhoff,  C,  quotation  from,  426. 

Norman,  L.,  'A  Youths  History  of 
California,'  616. 

Novels,  see  Fiction. 


Ochoa,  works  of,  546,  580. 

Ochoa  y  Acunas,.  A.   M.,   works    of, 

567-8. 
O'Meara,  '  Broderick  and  Gwin, '  613. 
Oratory,    in    Cent.     Amer.,    472;      in 

Mex.,   513-15,   546-7;  in  Cal.    625- 

7. 
Ordonez,  works  of,  473. 
Orozco  y  Barra,  works,  etc.,   of,  553- 

4,  558,  533-1,  58 i;  biog.,  590. 
Ortega,  F.,  'La  Venida,' 571;   dramas 

of,  579-80. 
Ortiz,  L.  O.,  works  of,  567. 
Ortiz,  T.,  writings  of,  553. 
Osio,  writings  of,  602. 
Oviedo,    works    of,   20-1,   460,  462-3, 

661. 


Pablos,  J,  mention  of,  481. 

Pacheco  and  Cardenas,  collection  of, 

666. 
Pacific  states,  migration,  etc.,  to  the, 

48-9;  progress   of,   51-2;  future  of, 

52-3. 
Padilla,  D  ,  writings  of,  507. 
Paiilla,  M.,  works  of,  506. 
Page,  writings  of,  695. 
Palacio,  R  ,  works  of,  559,  582,  661. 
Palafox,  Bishop,  mention  of,  590. 
Palon,  F.,  works  of,  594. 
Parsons,  Gr.  F.,   mention  of,  599. 
Pascal,  quotation  from,  140. 
Patmore,  criticism  of,  142. 
Paul,  J.,  quotation    from,  96,  130. 
Pelaez,  work?  of,  468. 
Pdon   y    Contreras,    '  Romances    His- 

toricos, '  571. 
Peralta.    '  Noticias    Historicas,' 507-8. 
Perez,  P.  J.,  writings  of,  573,  590. 


Pesado,  J.  J.,  works  of,  569-70. 
Phelps,     Professor,      '  Contemporary 

Biography,'  614. 
Phillips,      Congressman,      story     of, 

434. 
Phillips,  reports,  etc.,  of,  619. 
Philosphy,  relation  of  to  hist.,  78-9. 
Pico,  Gov.  P.,  writings  of,  602. 
Piedrahita,  '  Historia  General, '  663. 
Pierpont,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 
Pimental,    'Historia  Critica,'  543. 
Pineda  y  Polanco,  works  of,  472. 
Pixley,  F.,  writings  of,  598. 
Plagiarism,  remarks  on,  143-4. 
Piatt,  Rev.,  mention  of,  625. 
Poetry,  relation  of  to  hist.  76;  Cent. 

Amer.,    473-8;   Mex.,  498-9,    515- 

26,  561-77,  584-7;  Cal.,  642-6. 
Poets,  as  critics,  126-8,  141-2. 
Politics,  hist,  treatment  of,  79-80. 
Pollock,  E.,  writings  of,  645. 
*  Popul  Vuh, '  descript.  of,  458-9. 
Porter,  N.,  quotation  from,  93,  103-4. 
Powell,  I.  I.,  writings  of,  604. 
Powell,  J.  J.,  reports,  etc.,  of,  619. 
Powell,   'Wonders,' 608. 
Powers,   S.,  writings  of,  611-12,  633. 
Prendergast,     Father,     mention     of, 

625. 
Prescott,  works  of,  25. 
Preston,  L.,  works  of,  635-6. 
Prieto,  0.,  works  of,  572,  590. 
Prieto,  I.,  dramas,  etc.,  of,  583. 
Printing,  efi"ect  of  discov.,  83. 
Ptolemy,  maps,  etc.,  of,  661-2,  667. 
Purchas,  '  Pilgrimes,'  665. 


Quiches,  literat.  of  the,  458-9. 
Quillam,  H.  'Idcalina,' 645. 
Quintana,  '  Meditaciones, '  590. 
Quintero,  C,  works  of,  534. 


R 

Railroad  companies,  object  of  chart- 
ers to,  435;  abuses  by,  435-43; 
good  control  of,  443-5;  reforms 
suggested,  443-5;  r.  r.  commissions, 
444-5. 

Ramirez,  I.,  writings  of,  568. 

Ramusio,  'Navigatione  at  Viaggi,' 
661-2. 

Randolph,  E.,  writings,  etc.,  cf,  614, 
626. 

'  Reglamento  Provincial,'  595. 

Reid,  H.,  writings  of,  618. 


762 


INDEX. 


Religion,  connection  of  with  history, 

9d-l00;  of    the    Chinese,    397-401j 

discusjisioii  on,  071-7(55. 
Reuiesal,  works  of,  464-5. 
Restaurants,  Cliinese,  330-5. 
Rey,  E.,  plays  of,  588. 
Rhodes,  W.  H  ,  writings  of,  634. 
Richter,  J.    P.,   quotations   from,  90, 

135,  425. 
Ridge,  J.  R.,  writings  of,  645. 
RipalJa,  '  Catecismo,' 595. 
Rivera,  M.,  works  of,  555,  590. 
Robinson,    A.,    'Life    in   California,' 

595,  659. 
Rodriguez  y  Cos,  *  Anahuac,'  569 
Rogers,  criticisms  of,  128. 
Roman,  A.,  the  'Overland  Monthly,' 

600. 
Romero,  J.  M.,  *  Catecismo, '  595. 
Roo,  Q.,  works  of,  565. 
Rosa,  L.  de  la,  works  of,  572. 
Rosas  y  Moreno,  J.,  works  of,  546. 
Rousseau,  quotation  from,  196. 
Ruiz,  T.,  verses  of,  569. 
Ruiz  y  Lara,  eclogue  of,  475. 
Ruz,  J.,  mention  of,  590. 
Ryan,  R.  F.,  writings  of,  614. 


Sahagun,  Father,  'Historia  General,' 
19-20. 

Sainte  Beuve,  quotation  from,  1,  140; 
criticisms  of,  117-18,  129,  140. 

Salazar,  M.  P.,  works  of,  565. 

San  Francisco,  character  of  popula- 
tion, 229-33;  woman  in,  232-3; 
jury  trials  in,  295-.302;  Chinatown, 
318-418. 

San  Jose,  Chinese  colony  at,  351-2. 

Santacilla,  '  Genio  del  Mai, '  546. 

Sariiiana,  works  of,  572,  580. 

Sarria,  President,  sermons  of,  596. 

Sartorio,  writings,  etc.,  of,  546-7, 
573. 

Savagism,  remarks  on,  8-10. 

Saxon,  I.,  'Five  Years  within  the 
Golden  Gate,'  610. 

Scammon,  writings  of,  600,  620. 

Science,  dogma  in,  99;  Cent.  Amer. 
writers  on,  472-3;  Mex.  writers, 
558;  Cal.  writers,  619-21. 

Scott,  Sir  W.,  'Lay  of  the  Last  Min- 
strel,' 142-3. 

Scott,  W.  A.,  works,  etc.,  of,  623-4. 

Segura,  J.,   sonnets,  etc.,  of,  572. 

Segura,  V.,  verses  of,  572. 

Sample,  R.,  the  '  Calif ornian,' 596. 

Seon  y  Coutreas,  J.,  plays  of,  581. 


Seybough,  writings  of,  598. 
Shakespeare,  works  of,   144. 
Shuck,  0.,  works  of,  614. 
Shirley,  Mrs,  writings  of,  605-6. 
Sierra,  J.,  writings  of,  573. 
Siguenza,  works  of,  511,  521. 
Siiva,  A.,  works,  etc.,  of,  572,  583. 
Simonton,  E.  A.,  writings  of,  645. 
Slavery,  evils  of,  247-8,  260. 
Smith,  G.,    theory   of,    89;  quotation 

from,  100. 
Smith,  K.  D.,  writings  of,  636. 
'  Sociedad  de  Geogratia, '  6116. 
Solis,  A.  de,  works  of,  22,  487,  663 
Soria,  F.  de,  comedies  of,  583. 
Sosa,  F.,  works  of,  555-6. 
Soule,  F.,  writings  of,  598,  645. 
Spain,  Ind.  policy  of,  66. 
Spaniards,     characteristics,    etc.,    of, 

198-9. 
Spanish    America,    treatment    of  In- 
dians in,  73. 
Spanish  Americans  in  Cal.,  187-8. 
Speculation,    remarks  on,   167;  evils, 

etc.,  of,  420-22. 
Speer,  Rev.,  writings  of,  610-11. 
Spencer,    H.,    quotations   from,    137, 

285. 
Spiritualism,  Chinese,  414-15." 
Squier,  works  of,  460. 
Steam-engines,    effect    of    invention, 

431-2. 
Stebbins,  Rev.,  mention  of,  6'25. 
Steele,  writings  of,  634. 
Stewart,    'Last     of   the   Filibusters,' 

606. 
Stillman,       'Seeking      the       Golden 

Fleece,'  611. 
Stoddard,    C.    W.,    writings   of,  600, 

645. 
Stoddard,    R.    H.,    quotation     from, 

179. 
Stone,  A.  L.,  'Memorial  Discourses,' 

625. 
Stratton,  R.  B.,  writings  of,  606. 
Stratton,  Rev.  mention  of,  6'25. 
Stretch,  R.  H.,  writings  of,  620. 
Style,  remarks  on,  144-7. 
Success,  remarks  on,  165-71. 
Sumner,  C.  A.,  mention  of,  626. 
Sutter,  Capt.,  writings  of,  603. 
Swett,  J.,  writings  of,  620. 
Swift,  J.  F.,  works  of,  633,  641.  . 


Tagle,  S.  de,  works  of,  564-5. 
Talfourd,  Judge,  'Ion,'  143. 
Tanco,  B.,  works  of,  511. 


INDEX. 


763 


Taxation  of  land,  449-50. 
Taylor,  A.,  wntiugcs  of,  614. 
Taylor,     Rev.    VV.,     works    of,     607, 

625. 
Tellez,  '  Ratos  Perdidos, '  569. 
Tello,  '  Cronica  de  Jalisco, '  506. 
Temples,  Chinese,  401-13. 
Terry,  Judge,  trial  of,  297. 
'  Teufelsdrockh, '  quotation  from,  163, 

174. 
Thackeray,  W,   M.,  quotation   from, 

135. 
Theatres,  Chinese,  367-73. 
Thirlwall,  works  of,  92-3. 
Thomas,  J.  B.,  mention  of,  625. 
Throckmorton,     Sir    N.,    speech    of, 

1554,  292. 
Timon,  '  Noticias,'  663. 
Tinkham,  works  of,  618. 
Toland,  Dr,  lectures,  etc.,  of,  620. 
Toland,  M.  B.  M.,  works  of,  645. 
Tornel,  G.,  mention  of,  583. 
Torquemada,  works  of,  23,  486,  505- 

6,  663. 
Torvella,  *  El  Mulato,'  582. 
Tovar,  J.  de,  works  of,  500-1. 
Tovar,  P.  works  of,  572. 
Traveller,   A.   C,    'Teachings  of   the 

Ages, '  622-3. 
Tradition,  in  history,  97-8. 
Trebarra,  '  Misterios  de  Chan, '  560. 
Troncoso,  J.  N.,  mention  of,  545. 
Truman,  writings  of,  608,  633. 
Turrill,  'California  Notes,' 608. 
Tuthill,  F.,    'History  of   California,' 

615-16;  death  of,  616. 
Twain,  M.,  see  Clemens,  S.  L. 


U 

United  States,  civilization  in,  51-3; 
treatment  of  Indians,  67-74;  hist, 
of  the,  85-6;  early  condition  of, 
235-6;  foreigners  invited  to,  236-7; 
immigration  to,  239-40,  258-60; 
the  Chinese  question,  239-78;  Afri- 
cans in,  256;  danger  of  overcrowd- 
ing, 260-1;  influence  of  foreigners 
in,  268-9. 

V 

Valencia,  J.,  *  Teressiada, '  523. 

Valle,  J.,  writings  of,  567. 

Vallejo,     Gen.,     writings      of,      595, 

603. 
Van    de     Mark,    Rev.,    mention    of, 

626. 
Vazquez,   works  of,  465-6,  471,  480. 


Vela,  E.,  works  of,  528. 

Ver    Mehr,    'Checkered   Life,'   613- 

14. 
Verne,  K.,  'Fidelite,' 635. 
Vetancurt,  works  of,  24,  506. 
Veytia,  works  of  496,  508. 
Victor,    Mrs  F.   F.,  writings  of,  600, 

604,  613,  635-6,  645. 
Villagra,     G.     de,     'Historia,'     520, 

663. 
Villalobos,  J.,  plays  of,  583. 
Villasenor,  P.,    'Encarnacioa  Rosas,' 

579. 
Virginians,    characteristics,    etc.,    of 

191-6. 
Voyages,  collections  of,  661-2,  665-6. 


W 

Wadsworth,  Rev.,  sermons,  etc.,  of, 
625. 

Wake  man,  Capt.,  *  Log  of  an  Ancient 
Mariner,'  611. 

War,  hist,  treatment  of,  79. 

Water,  distribution  of,  450-1. 

Wealth,  pursuit  of,  421-2,  446-7. 
evils    of    excessive,   422-6;    allure- 
ments of,  425. 

Webb,  '  Our  Friend  from  Victoria, ' 
638. 

Wentworth,  Mary,  see  Neumann, 
Mrs. 

Whipple,  quotation  from,  422. 

Whitney,  A.,  *  Almond-eyed, '  634. 

Widney,  Judge,  'The  Plan  of  Crea- 
tion,'623. 

Wierzbicki,  F.  P.,  'California  as  It 
is,'  604. 

Willey,  Rev.,  'Thirty  Years  in  Cali- 
fornia,' 613. 

Williams,  Rev.,  *A  Pioneer  Pas- 
torate and  Times,'  613;  sermons  of, 
625. 

Williams,  T.  T.,  Writings  of,  599. 

Woods,  Rev.,  'Recollections  of  Pio- 
neer Work,' 613. 

Wordsworth,  criticisms,  etc.,  of,  119, 
141. 

Worth,  J.  J.,  *  A  Dissertation,'  604. 

Wright,  W.,  writings  of,  610,  636, 
641. 

Wright,  Mrs  W.,  writings  of,  642. 


Ybarra,  J.  de  P.,  mention  of,  470. 
Young,  J.  P.,  writings  of,  598-9. 
Yucatan,  literat.  of,  573. 


764 


IS'DEX. 


Zilv^adea,  translations  of,  595. 
Zamacois.  works  of,  546,  255. 
Zamora,  J.  G.,  plays  of,  5S3. 
Zarco,  satires  of,  569. 
Zavala,  L.  de,  works  of,  549,  590. 


Zayas  y  Enriquez,  plays  of,  583. 
Zeno,  map  of,  667. 
Zerecero,  A.,  works  of,  549,  590. 
Zamarraga,     Bishop    J.,     biog.,    449; 

iconoclasm  of,  494-5. 
Zurita,  A.  de,  report  of,  17. 


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