| | 281 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Dr. Heidegger's Experiment  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THAT very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four
venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three
white-bearded gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr.
Gascoigne, and a withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow
Wycherly. They were all melancholy old creatures, who had been
unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they
were not long ago in their graves. Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his
age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic
speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant. Colonel
Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in
the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of
pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body.
Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least
had been so till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present
generation, and made him obscure instead of infamous. As for the Widow
Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day;
but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account
of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry of the
town against her. It is a circumstance worth mentioning that each of
these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr.
Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been
on the point of cutting each other's throats for her sake. And, before
proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his
foul guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside
themselves,—as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when
worried either by present troubles or woful recollections. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 282 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | A YOUNG fellow, a tobacco pedlar by trade, was on his way from
Morristown, where he had dealt largely with the Deacon of the
Shaker
settlement, to the village of Parker's Falls, on Salmon River. He
had a
neat little cart, painted green, with a box of cigars depicted on
each side
panel,
and an Indian chief, holding a pipe and a golden tobacco stalk, on
the
rear. The pedlar drove a smart little mare, and was a young man of
excellent character, keen at a bargain, but none the worse liked by
the Yankees; who, as I have heard them say, would rather be shaved
with a
sharp
razor than a dull one. Especially was he beloved by the pretty
girls along
the Connecticut, whose favor he used to court by presents of the
best
smoking tobacco in his stock; knowing well that the country lasses
of
New England are generally great performers on pipes. Moreover, as
will
be seen in the course of my story, the pedlar was inquisitive, and
something of a tattler, always itching to hear the news and anxious
to
tell it
again. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 283 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Hollow of the Three Hills | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IN those strange old times, when fantastic dreams and madmen's
reveries
were realized among the actual circumstances of life, two persons
met together at an appointed hour and place. One was a lady,
graceful in
form
and fair of feature, though pale and troubled, and smitten with an
untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her
years; the
other was an ancient and meanly-dressed woman, of ill-favored
aspect,
and so withered, shrunken, and decrepit, that even the space since
she began to decay must have exceeded the ordinary term of human
existence.
In the spot where they encountered, no mortal could observe them.
Three
little hills stood near each other, and down in the midst of them
sunk a
hollow basin, almost mathematically circular, two or three hundred
feet
in breadth, and of such depth that a stately cedar might but just
be visible
above the sides. Dwarf pines were numerous upon the hills, and
partly fringed the outer verge of the intermediate hollow, within
which
there
was nothing but the brown grass of October, and here and there a
tree
trunk that had fallen long ago, and lay mouldering with no green
successsor from its roots. One of these masses of decaying wood,
formerly
a majestic oak, rested close beside a pool of green and sluggish
water
at the
bottom of the basin. Such scenes as this (so gray tradition tells)
were
once the resort of the Power of Evil and his plighted subjects; and
here,
at midnight or on the dim verge of evening, they were said to stand
round
the mantling pool, disturbing its putrid waters in the performance
of an
impious baptismal rite. The chill beauty of an autumnal sunset was
now
gilding the three hill-tops, whence a paler tint stole down their
sides into
the hollow. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 284 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | My Kinsman, Major Molineux | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | AFTER the kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of
appointing
the colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with
the
ready and generous approbation which had been paid to those of
their
predecessors, under the original charters. The people looked with
most
jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power which did not emanate
from
themselves, and they usually rewarded their rulers with slender
gratitude for the compliances by which, in softening their
instructions
from
beyond the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who
gave
them. The annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six
governors in the space of about forty years from the surrender of
the
old
charter, under James II., two were imprisoned by a popular
insurrection; a third, as Hutchinson inclines to believe, was
driven from
the
province by the whizzing of a musket-ball; a fourth, in the opinion
of
the same historian, was hastened to his grave by continual
bickerings
with the House of Representatives; and the remaining two, as well
as
their successors, till the Revolution, were favored with few and
brief intervals of peaceful sway. The inferior members of the court
party,
in
times of high political excitement, led scarcely a more desirable
life.
These remarks may serve as a preface to the following adventures,
which chanced upon a summer night, not far from a hundred years
ago.
The reader, in order to avoid a long and dry detail of colonial
affairs, is
requested to dispense with an account of the train of circumstances
that
had caused much temporary inflammation of the popular mind. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 286 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The May-Pole of Merry Mount | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | BRIGHT were the days at Merry Mount, when the Maypole was the
banner staff of that gay colony! They who reared it, should their
banner be
triumphant, were to pour sunshine over New England's rugged hills,
and
scatter flower seeds throughout the soil. Jollity and gloom were
contending for an empire. Midsummer eve had come, bringing deep
verdure to
the forest, and roses in her lap, of a more vivid hue than the
tender buds
of Spring. But May, or her mirthful spirit, dwelt all the year
round at
Merry Mount, sporting with the Summer months, and revelling with
Autumn, and basking in the glow of Winter's fireside. Through a
world
of
toil and care she flitted with a dreamlike smile, and came hither
to find a
home among the lightsome hearts of Merry Mount. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 287 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Minister's Black Veil | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE sexton stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling
busily at
the bell-rope. The old people of the village came stooping along
the street.
Children, with bright faces, tripped merrily beside their parents,
or mimicked a graver gait, in the conscious dignity of their Sunday
clothes.
Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty maidens, and fancied
that
the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on week days. When the
throng had mostly streamed into the porch, the sexton began to toll
the
bell, keeping his eye on the Reverend Mr. Hooper's door. The first
glimpse of the clergyman's figure was the signal for the bell to
cease its
summons. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 288 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Mrs. Bullfrog | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IT makes me melancholy to see how like fools some very sensible
people
act in the matter of choosing wives. They perplex their judgments
by a
most undue attention to little niceties of personal appearance,
habits,
disposition, and other trifles which concern nobody but the lady
herself.
An unhappy gentleman, resolving to wed nothing short of perfection,
keeps his heart and hand till both get so old and withered that no
tolerable woman will accept them. Now this is the very height of
absurdity.
A kind Providence has so skilfully adapted sex to sex and the mass
of individuals to each other, that, with certain obvious
exceptions, any
male
and female may be moderately happy in the married state. The true
rule
is to ascertain that the match is fundamentally a good one, and
then to
take it for granted that all minor objections, should there be
such, will
vanish, if you let them alone. Only put yourself beyond hazard as
to the
real basis of matrimonial bliss, and it is scarcely to be imagined
what
miracles, in the way of recognizing smaller incongruities,
connubial love
will effect. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 289 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ``AND SO, Peter, you won't even consider of the business?''
said Mr. John
Brown, buttoning his surtout over the snug rotundity of his person,
and
drawing on his gloves. ``You positively refuse to let me have this
crazy
old house, and the land under and adjoining, at the price named?'' | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 290 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Procession of Life | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | LIFE figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession. All
of us have
our places, and are to move onward under the direction of the Chief
Marshal. The grand difficulty results from the invariably mistaken
principles
on which the deputy marshals seek to arrange this immense concourse
of
people, so much more numerous than those that train their
interminable
length through streets and highways in times of political
excitement.
Their scheme is ancient, far beyond the memory of man or even the
record of history, and has hitherto been very little modified by
the
innate
sense of something wrong, and the dim perception of better methods,
that
have disquieted all the ages through which the procession has taken
its
march. Its members are classified by the merest external
circumstances,
and thus are more certain to be thrown out of their true positions
than if
no principle of arrangement were attempted. In one part of the
procession
we see men of landed estate or moneyed capital gravely keeping each
other company, for the preposterous reason that they chance to have
a
similar standing in the tax-gatherer's book. Trades and professions
march
together with scarcely a more real bond of union. In this manner,
it cannot be denied, people are disentangled from the mass and
separated
into
various classes according to certain apparent relations; all have
some artificial badge which the world, and themselves among the
first,
learn to
consider as a genuine characteristic. Fixing our attention on such
outside
shows of similarity or difference, we lose sight of those realities
by which
nature, fortune, fate, or Providence has constituted for every man
a
brotherhood, wherein it is one great office of human wisdom to
classify
him. When the mind has once accustomed itself to a proper
arrangement
of the Procession of Life, or a true classification of society,
even though
merely speculative, there is thenceforth a satisfaction which
pretty well
suffices for itself without the aid of any actual reformation in
the order of
march. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 292 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Roger Malvin's Burial | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE of the few incidents of Indian warfare naturally susceptible of
the
moonlight of romance was that expedition undertaken for the defence
of
the frontiers in the year 1725, which resulted in the
well-remembered
``Lovell's Fight.'' Imagination, by casting certain circumstances
judicially into the shade, may see much to admire in the heroism of
a
little band
who gave battle to twice their number in the heart of the enemy's
country. The open bravery displayed by both parties was in
accordance
with
civilized ideas of valor; and chivalry itself might not blush to
record the
deeds of one or two individuals. The battle, though so fatal to
those who
fought, was not unfortunate in its consequences to the country; for
it
broke the strength of a tribe and conduced to the peace which
subsisted
during several ensuing years. History and tradition are unusually
minute in their memorials of their affair; and the captain of a
scouting party
of frontier men has acquired as actual a military renown as many a
victorious leader of thousands. Some of the incidents contained in
the
following pages will be recognized, notwithstanding the
substitution
of fictitious names, by such as have heard, from old men's lips,
the fate
of the
few combatants who were in a condition to retreat after ``Lovell's
Fight.'' | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 293 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Shaker Bridal | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE day, in the sick chamber of Father Ephraim, who had been forty
years the presiding elder over the Shaker settlement at Goshen,
there was
an assemblage of several of the chief men of the sect. Individuals
had come
from the rich establishment at Lebanon, from Canterbury, Harvard,
and
Alfred, and from all the other localities where this strange people
have
fertilized the rugged hills of New England by their systematic
industry.
An elder was likewise there, who had made a pilgrimage of a
thousand
miles from a village of the faithful in Kentucky, to visit his
spiritual kindred, the children of the sainted mother Ann. He had
partaken of
the
homely abundance of their tables, had quaffed the far-famed Shaker
cider, and had joined in the sacred dance, every step of which is
believed to
alienate the enthusiast from earth, and bear him onward to heavenly
purity and bliss. His brethren of the north had now courteously
invited him
to be present on an occasion, when the concurrence of every eminent
member of their community was peculiarly desirable. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 294 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Great Stone Face | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little
boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great Stone
Face.
They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be
seen,
though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 295 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Wakefield | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | IN some old magazine or newspaper I recollect a story, told as
truth, of a
man—let us call him Wakefield—who absented himself for a long
time
from his wife. The fact, thus abstractedly stated, is not very
uncommon,
nor—without a proper distinction of circumstances—to be condemned
either as naughty or nonsensical. Howbeit, this, though far from
the most
aggravated, is perhaps the strangest, instance on record, of
marital delinquency; and, moreover, as remarkable a freak as may be
found in
the
whole list of human oddities. The wedded couple lived in London.
The
man, under pretence of going a journey, took lodgings in the next
street
to his own house, and there, unheard of by his wife or friends, and
without the shadow of a reason for such self-banishment, dwelt
upwards
of
twenty years. During that period, he beheld his home every day, and
frequently the forlorn Mrs. Wakefield. And after so great a gap in
his
matrimonial felicity—when his death was reckoned certain, his
estate
settled,
his name dismissed from memory, and his wife, long, long ago,
resigned to
her autumnal widowhood—he entered the door one evening, quietly,
as
from a day's absence, and became a loving spouse till death. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 296 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Wedding Knell | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THERE is a certain church in the city of New York which I have
always
regarded with peculiar interest, on account of a marriage there
solemnized, under very singular circumstances, in my grandmother's
girlhood.
That venerable lady chanced to be a spectator of the scene, and
ever after
made it her favorite narrative. Whether the edifice now standing on
the
same site be the identical one to which she referred, I am not
antiquarian
enough to know; nor would it be worth while to correct myself,
perhaps,
of an agreeable error, by reading the date of its erection on the
tablet over
the door. It is a stately church, surrounded by an inclosure of the
loveliest
green, within which appear urns, pillars, obelisks, and other forms
of
monumental marble, the tributes of private affection, or more
splendid
memorials of historic dust. With such a place, though the tumult of
the
city rolls beneath its tower, one would be willing to connect some
legendary interest. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 297 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Young Goodman Brown | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | YOUNG Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem
village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to
exchange a
parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly
named,
thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play
with the
pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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