| | 1 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Monikins  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | “Providence brought us together for more purposes than
were, at first, apparent. I have long hesitated about publishing
the accompanying narrative, for in England there is
a disposition to cavil at extraordinary facts, but the distance
of America from my place of residence will completely save
me from ridicule. The world must have the truth, and I see
no better means than by resorting to your agency. All I ask
is that you will have the book fairly printed, and that you
will send one copy to my address, Householder-hall, Dorsetshire,
England, and another to Capt. Noah Poke, Stonington,
Connecticut, in your own country. My Anna prays for you,
and is ever your friend. Do not forget us. Dear Sir,—Your favour is come to hand, and found me
in good health, as I hope these few lines will have the same
advantage with you. I have read the book, and must say
there is some truth in it, which, I suppose, is as much as befalls
any book, the Bible, the Almanac, and the State Laws,
excepted. I remember Sir John well, and shall gainsay nothing
he testifies to, for the reason that friends should not
contradict each other. I was also acquainted with the four
Monikins he speaks of, though I knew them by differentnames.
Miss Poke says she wonders if it's all true, which I wunt tell
her, seeing that a little unsartainty makes a woman rational.
As to my navigating without geometry, that's a matter that
was'n't worth booking, for it's no cur'osity in these parts,
bating a look at the compass once or twice a day, and so I
take my leave of you, with offers to do any commission for
you among the Sealing Islands, for which I sail to-morrow,
wind and weather permitting. The philosopher who broaches a new theory is
bound to furnish, at least, some elementary proofs
of the reasonableness of his positions, and the historian
who ventures to record marvels that have
hitherto been hid from human knowledge, owes it
to a decent regard to the opinions of others, to produce
some credible testimony in favor of his veracity.
I am peculiarly placed in regard to these
two great essentials, having little more than its
plausibility to offer in favor of my philosophy, and
no other witness than myself to establish the important
facts that are now about to be laid before the
reading world, for the first time. In this dilemma,
I fully feel the weight of responsibility under which
I stand; for there are truths of so little apparent
probability as to appear fictions, and fictions so like
the truth that the ordinary observer is very apt to
affirm that he was an eye-witness to their existence:
two facts that all our historians would do
well to bear in mind, since a knowledge of the circumstances
might spare them the mortification of
having testimony that cost a deal of trouble, discredited
in the one case, and save a vast deal of
painful and unnecessary labor, in the other. Thrown
upon myself, therefore, for what the French call les
pièces justîficatives of my theories, as well as of
my facts, I see no better way to prepare the reader
to believe me, than by giving an unvarnished narrative
of my descent, birth, education and life, up
to the time I became a spectator of those wonderful
facts it is my happiness to record, and with
which it is now his to be made acquainted. I have this moment heard of your being in town, and
am exceedingly rejoiced to learn it. A long intimacy with
your late excellent and most loyal father, justifies my claiming
you for a friend, and I waive all ceremony, (official, of
course, is meant, there being no reason for any other between
us,) and beg to be admitted for half an hour. I met your old neighbor —, this morning, on the
boulevards, and during an interview of an hour we did little
else but talk of thee. Although it has been my most ardent
and most predominant wish to open my heart to the whole
species, yet, Anna, I fear I have loved thee alone! Absence,
so far from expanding, appears to contract my affections, too
many of which centre in thy sweet form and excellent virtues.
The remedy I proposed is insufficient, and I begin to
think that matrimony alone can leave me master of sufficient
freedom of thought and action, to turn the attention I ought
to the rest of the human race. Thou hast been with me in
idea, in the four corners of the earth, by sea and by land,
in dangers and in safety, in all seasons, regions and situations,
and there is no sufficient reason why those who are
ever present in the spirit, should be materially separated.
Thou hast only to say a word, to whisper a hope, to breathe
a wish, and I will throw myself, a repentant truant, at thy
feet, and implore thy pity. When united, however, we will
not lose ourselves in the sordid and narrow paths of selfishness,
but come forth again, in company, to acquire a new
and still more powerful hold on this beautiful creation, of
which, by this act, I acknowledge thee to be the most divine
portion. Thy letter was put into my hands yesterday. This is
the fifth answer I have commenced, and you will therefore
see that I do not write without reflection. I know thy excellent
heart, John, better than it is known to thyself. It has
either led thee to the discovery of a secret of the last importance
to thy fellow-creatures, or it has led thee cruelly
astray. An experiment so noble and so praiseworthy, ought
not to be abandoned, on account of a few momentary misgivings
concerning the result. Do not stay thy eagle flight,
at the instant thou art soaring so near the sun! Should
we both judge it for our mutual happiness, I can become thy
wife at a future day. We are still young, and there is no
urgency for an immediate union. In the mean time, I will
endeavor to prepare myself to be the companion of a philanthropist,
by practising on thy theory, and, by expanding my
own affections, render myself worthy to be the wife of one
who has so large a stake in society, and who loves so many
and so truly. “At a full and overflowing meeting of the most
monikinized of the monikin race, holden at the house
of Peleg Pat, (we still used the human appellations,
at that epoeh,) in the year of the world 3,007, and
of the monikin era 317, Plausible Shout was called
to the chair, and Ready Quill was named secretary. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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