University of Virginia Library

THE APPARITION.

Cowper.

About fifty miles from Albany, in the proud
state of New-York, there is a pleasantly situated
little village, which we call Harmony.
Some events which occurred there a few years
since, may perhaps interest those readers who
have the good taste to prefer exhibitions of our
national and republican peculiarities of character
to descriptions of European manners, and
the good nature to concede, that the efforts of
those American writers who are attempting to
awaken the love and the pride of national literature
among their countrymen, deserve, at
least, to be tolerated. The southeastern line
of Harmony is bounded by a high, rugged
mountain, that seems to look frowningly down
on the neat, thriving farms stretching along the
borders of a small river, which winds silently
through copse and plain at its base. The
meanderings of this quiet stream are marked

on the western border by a narrow strip of rich
meadow land, displaying alternately patches of
mowing, fields of corn, or of that vegetable
which an European might with propriety term
a republican root, as its discovery and use
have more perhaps than any other resource,
contributed to support an increase of population
among the laboring classes in the old
world. The broad harvest moon had just risen
above the rugged mountain, and there trembled
over the landscape that soft silvery lustre which
so frequently tempts the poet to write and the
maniac to rove. But neither poet or maniac
had ever been known to exist within the precincts
of Harmony, and it seemed quite improbable
Luna should there find a worshipper. Yet
one there was, and a fair one too, regarding that
bright moon with an attention as absorbing, if
not a devotion as sincere, as ever a devotee of
Ephesus paid at the shrine of Diana. Lois Lawton
was the last surviving child of the clergyman
who presided over the only church which
had then been organized in Harmony. He
was a Presbyterian, a good preacher and a
strictly conscientious man, and but for two
reasons might have been very popular among
his parishioners. In the first place he did not
sufficiently regard the feelings of the minority
who were from principle or prejudice (it is
sometimes very difficult to determine which
predominates in the human mind) opposed
to his settlement; and in the second place he
strenuously insisted on the fulfilment of a promise
which the majority had made him, namely,
that at the expiration of five years from the
time of his installation, there should be a convenient
and handsome house for divine worship
erected in the town. No one disputed the need
of such a building, as the congregation were
obliged to assemble alternately at a school-house
and a hall. The unchurchlike character
of the hall, where the Fourth-of-July revels,
and New Year balls, were held as regularly as
the summer and winter came round, was, in the
opinion of all the good women, quite a scandal
to their religious services. The men were not
quite so scrupulous. They wisely considered
that the building of a church would involve the
payment of taxes, and that inconvenience came
more home to the sensibilities of many rich men
than the recollection that where the fiddle had
resounded, prayers and holy hymns were to be
fervently breathed, or devoutly sung. But
finally Mr. Lawton, by dint of private expostulations
with his church members, and public
reproofs from the pulpit, succeeded so far that
a town meeting was warned to be held, to see
what steps should be taken to provide ways
and means for building a meeting-house.

There is no record of a nation on earth
whose origin, progress, character and institutions
were, or are, in their predominating features,
similar to ours. Democracies have
been, and governments called, free; but the
spirit of independence and the consciousness
of unalienable rights, were never before transfused
into the minds of a whole people. The
trammels of rank have always been, since the

days of Nimrod, worn in the old world; and
there men, even when attempting to throw off
the yoke of despotism, will be found stooping
to established customs, and wearing the `fardels'
of fashion as if still in the harness. But
in these United States no idol of nobility was
ever set up; and consequently, the people
have never been degraded by cringing at the
nod of a fellow mortal. Our citizens walk the
earth with a consciousness of moral dignity
which places them on a level with the king
upon his throne. The feeling of equality
which they proudly cherish does not proceed
from an ignorance of their station, but from the
knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge
which will render it so exceedingly difficult
for any tyrant ever to triumph over the
liberties of our country. However, to know
the rights of man is but half the benefit imparted
by our free institutions—they teach also
to know his duties. Persons accustomed only
to those establishments where the interests of
church and state are inseparably blended, and
where some particular form of devotion is enforced
and supported by authority, can hardly
believe that were religious worship left wholly
to the free choice and voluntary support of the
people, it would be adequately maintained.
Yet our history will conclusively prove that
piety of heart and freedom of mind are not
only perfectly compatible, but that the exercise
of the understanding in the examination
of creeds, and the volition of the will in the
admission of truth, are favorable to the cause
of religion and the Bible. Is this doubted?—
then let the caviller point to the christian nation
in which are so few infidels as here; here,
where freedom of inquiry, and conscience,
and belief, and worship, are not only enjoyed,
but exercised without the least shadow of civil
control.

These remarks are not foreign to my subject,
though they may seem misplaced, and actually
be uninteresting or dull. It was only the
conscientious feeling of duty, which freedom
of inquiry and conduct brings home with a
sense of awful responsibility to those who profess
to be Christians and know themselves
free, that would have induced the frugal, painstaking,
unostentatious citizens of Harmony to
tax themselves with the expense of erecting a
handsome house for religious worship, when
they were many of them still dwelling in their
small, inconvenient log tenements. The town
patent had been originally granted to a Dutchman
belonging to Albany, and the first settlers
were descendants from the Dutch colonists;
but about the year 1790 the unoccupied parts
of the patent were purchased by a Yankee
speculator, and most of the later emigrants had
been from New-England. The inhabitants,
however, lived harmoniously together. Not
that they agreed exactly in sentiment on every
subject, but they seemed for some time to
cherish a spirit of mutual forbearance. The
Dutchman suffered his Yankee visiter to talk
without interruption and argue without contradiction,
and in return for this politeness the

latter saw his phlegmatic neighbour still adhere
to those old customs, which he had been striving
to convince him were not only extremely
absurd, but very expensive and inconvenient,
without exhibiting much disgust.

The settlement of Mr. Lawton was the first
occurrence that threatened to make a deadly
breach between the parties. The Yankees
were nearly all Congregationalists—the Dutch,
Presbyterians;—the former made the most
bustle, but the latter polled the most votes, and
the settlement of their favorite was accordingly
effected. The Congregationalists were at
perfect liberty to seek a pastor after their own
faith, but as the town did not contain more
people than might conveniently be accommodated
at one meeting, and Mr. Lawton was respected
by all and acknowledged to be a good
man, the Yankees finally concluded to attend
on his ministry, and pay their proportion of
his salary. Had Mr. Lawton been what, in
worldly language, is termed a managing man,
he might doubtless have satisfied both parties.
But he had fixed rules of action, from which
he would not swerve, and settled principles
which he would not soften, even though he
might by that means have gained the popularity
of a Chalmers. And then he had a serious
dislike to the Puritan mode of church government,
which he took no pains to conceal or
qualify. In short, though, as I have said, he
was a good man, he was not sufficiently careful
to prevent `his good from being evil spoken
of.' The consequence was, that his Congregational

hearers soon took mortal offence and
withdrew from his society. Had they stopped
there, perhaps their conduct might not have
deserved much blame, as it was evident to all
that Mr. Lawton's sermons were oftener calculated
to rouse their sectarian prejudices than
awaken their religious feelings. But they
were not satisfied with acting merely on the
defensive, for when was a Yankee ever known
to underrate his own importance, or quietly
submit to have his religious faith and mode of
worship censured as unsound and unscriptural?

Meekness and forbearance was not certainly
the spirit evinced by the Congregationalists
of Harmony; and from protesting against the
presbyterian forms, they soon came to detest
and vilify the man, who so strenuously supported
them, and the people who were his adherents.

Matters were in this state between the parties,
when the meeting-house was voted to be
erected. This vote was conscientiously given,
for when roused to reflection by the arguments
and expostulations of their pastor, the
Presbyterians knew it to be their duty to build
the house, and yet, so wayward is the heart,
so deeply rooted is selfishness, that many
were dissatisfied, almost angry, because Mr.
Lawton thus urged upon them the performance
of an inconvenient duty.

Some Europeans have suggested that while
depending entirely upon the people for their
support, our clergy must be timid and time-serving,
and while their own interest is involved

in pleasing their hearers, that there is cause
to fear they will often make a sacrifice of conscience
to convenience. This might be the
case, were not the clergy sensible that they
are themselves a part of the sovereign people,
and that to bow, cringe and fawn, would be a
renunciation of the dignity which here entitles
a man to respect from his fellow men. It is
the great merit of our free institutions that
they accustom those who enjoy them, to reflection
and reasoning. It is not that our citizens
may choose their own governors, and
enact the laws by which such governors must
be guided, that makes the privileges of which
Americans should be most proud. It is, that,
with the knowledge of his own personal independence,
which is as familiar to the republican
child as `household words,' there is also
inculcated a conviction of man's responsibility,
not only to his God, but his country, posterity,
the whole world. And so far as the human
mind can shake off selfishness and act from a
sacred regard to truth, justice and duty, so far
will men not only be virtuous, but fearless in
virtue. And will not a clergyman be more
likely thus to feel and act, in a situation where
he is placed and retained by the sober approval
of a majority of his free parishioners, than
when he owes his station to caprice, or favoritism,
or stipulation with an individual? There
needs no proof, but to attend our churches or
read the sermons of our divines, to convince
the most skeptical that our clergy are faithful
in the cause of religion, and that their flocks
esteem them higher for such plain dealing.
But everything excellent is liable to be abused
or perverted; and this plain dealing may
be rendered ungracious by a disagreeable
manner. It is the manner which offends; and
it was the manner of Mr. Lawton which made
his people complain. No one thought of blaming
him for supporting freely his own opinions,
or insisting that the promise concerning the
meeting-house should be fulfilled, but it was
said he was too dictatorial, and that he hurried
on the workmen without reference to the
extra expense which it made the people, to
move faster than the usual considerate motion
of a Dutchman would allow.

But what has this long explanation to do
with Lois Lawton, the clergyman's daughter?
Much—it will enable you, reader, if you have
read it, which I somewhat doubt, to judge of
the perplexities which surrounded that young,
fair girl who is my heroine, and I hope will be
yours, while she was earnestly seeking to heal
those divisions which had unhappily, for some
time, rendered the inhabitants of Harmony as
unharmonious a set as can well be imagined.
To soothe suffering and calm the turbulent
passions of men, is so naturally the office of woman,
that Lois Lawton need not be considered
a heroine merely because she was a peace-maker;
but it really must be placed among extraordinary
achievements, that she, by her prudent
and conciliating conduct, so ingratiated
herself with the good vrows, that they actually
came to the resolution to abstain from the use

of tea and sugar for a given period, till they
had saved a sum sufficient to pay for painting
the church, which expense, by the way, was
the one of which the Dutchmen most loudly
complained; and it was likewise an item on
which Mr. Lawton had strenuously insisted.
But to appease and please the Yankees, required
more address, and yet their good will
was very necessary to the happiness of the
clergyman's daughter.

She thought as she gazed on the bright moon,
of the bitter prejudices that existed between her
father and Captain Isaiah Warren, the chief
leader of the Yankee faction; and then she
thought of his son, the young Isaiah, between
whom and her father's daughter, prejudices,
but not bitter ones, also existed.

`He said he had a plan which he hoped
would heal these differences, and make my
father look with approbation on our love,' said
the fair girl, softly yet audibly, a blush crimsoning
her cheek, even though alone, and veiled
around by the shades of night, at the thought
of marrying Isaiah.

`And you consent I shall pursue my plan,'
said Isaiah, who had advanced, unperceived,
and then stood close beside her.

Lois had not expected him so soon, but she
was not easily flurried, or at least, she never
affected more fright than she really felt, and
though somewhat confused that he had over-heard
her soliloquy, she neither screamed nor
fainted; but, after a moment's silence, turned
calmly towards him, and begged he would explain

why he had so anxiously urged this interview.
`I wish to return home before prayers,'
said she—`or my father will be uneasy, perhaps
offended, at my absence.'

The lovers were standing partly in the
shadow of a broad sycamore that threw its
branches over the little stream at their feet.
The water there looked dark and deep, but further
on, it was sparkling in the moonbeams,
that came down with that glistening power
which so sweetly invites `lovers to breathe their
vows,' and disposes `ladies to listen.' I wish
I had time to describe these two young persons,
just as they looked while they glanced
their eyes alternately at the charming prospect
around them, and then turned, by stealth, their
gaze on each other.

A genuine descendant of the pilgrims, has
usually, a high, bold forehead, and a firm expression
around the chin and mouth, which
gives a decided, and generally a grave cast to
the countenance. This gravity, however, is,
in a degree, more or less, according to the age
and character of the person, counteracted by
the expression in the deep-set eye—keen, lively,
penetrating; it announces quickness of
thought and humor, which is always allowed
to the Yankees, both by friends and foes—the
one terming the quickness wit, the other wickedness.
When I say that Isaiah Warren had
a fine complexion, good features, and real roguish-looking,
Yankee eyes, that would flash
with thought or merriment till the blue iris appeared
nearly black as the pupil dilated, I

mean to be understood that he was very handsome,
or, to use a more indefinite, and therefore,
more polite phrase, that he had a very fascinating
expression of countenance. And he
thought Lois Lawton was beautiful as an angel.
It is therefore of little consequence what
others would think, should she be portrayed.
A woman should never sigh for personal admiration,
except from the man she loves.

`You have heard, I presume,' said Isaiah,
the blood flushing over his cheeks and temple
as he spoke, `that my mother is firmly persuaded
that I am to become a clergyman?'

Lois half smiled, as she answered in the
affirmative.

`It is a foolish whim,' he continued, `and yet
my mother is a worthy woman, and a sensible
one, in all, except what relates to me. Somehow
my parents, from my being the first born,
I presume, always appeared to expect I should
do marvels. I am sorry they indulge such hopes,
and yet the knowledge of their expectations,
has, I confess, spurred me on to attempt being
the first, both at school and college. At
school my superiority was never denied, and
at college, though I labored under the disadvantage
of being poorly fitted, and having to
be a teacher every winter, in order to earn
money to support myself, my father being, with
his large family, unable to furnish sufficient
funds; yet I know I maintained a respectable
standing in my class. But I have now graduated,
and my parents are urging me to commence
the study of divinity. Could I study

with your father, Lois, I would willingly obey
them.'

Lois looked astonished, and yet gratified,
for her father was, in her opinion, the best
man, and best minister, in the whole world.
But how could the matter be brought about?
Captain Warren would never suffer his son to
study with a Presbyterian clergyman.

`My mother,' resumed Isaiah, `is confident
she once saw a vision; though, I presume, it
was nothing but a dream. When I was an infant,
she says, that one night a figure, clothed
in the costume of spirits, which is, I believe,
always white, approached her bed, and told her
that I would be a marvellous boy, and that I
must have a good education, and then it would
be again revealed what I must do. Since that
time, my mother has watched every incident
which has occurred to me, and tortured them
all into omens, which she constantly interprets
in my favor, till she has worked herself into the
belief, that I am to be a great man; and, as
greatness and goodness are, in her pure mind,
inseparably connected, she is convinced I am
to be a great, good man, which must mean a
minister. It is in vain for me to combat these
imaginings. Indeed, I do not wish to disprove
her fancies, but to fulfil them; still I should
like, I own, to make this romance, superstition,
or prophecy, whichever it may be, somewhat
subservient to my own happiness.'

`But how has this any reference to my father?'
inquired Lois, timidly.

`I have thought—,' and he hesitated, as

if afraid or ashamed to say what he was intending—`I
have thought, if the apparition would
again inform my mother that it was necessary
for me to study with Mr. Lawton, that all objections,
on the part of my family, would be removed
at once.'

`You would not, surely, deceive your mother,
Isaiah?' said Lois, turning on him her dark,
expressive eyes, with a look of reproachful
tenderness.

`She has deceived herself, Lois. You are
not more credulous than I; nor do you imagine,
that, like Glendower—you remember it in
Shakspeare—

Yet my mother firmly believes it. The Yankees
are not credulous, or easily imposed
upon; but, when once they have imbibed a
superstition, it is difficult to eradicate the prejudice;
because they are constantly reasoning
themselves more and more into the belief of
the reality of their fancies. Thus, everything,
even the most common incidents, concerning
me, are marked, and noted, and made, in
some sense or other, to refer to the destiny for
which my mother thinks me born. Where can
be the harm in taking advantage of this superstition,
which I cannot remove, to heal the
prejudices that, at present, unhappily divide
our families; and thus overcome the only obstacles
that exist to our union?' He then went
on to state, that what he proposed was, to envelope
himself in a white sheet, appear in his
mother's room, and say, in a hoarse, sepulchral
voice, that `Isaiah must study divinity
with Mr. Lawton.' And he wished Lois to
aid in disposing her father to credit the story
and receive the student. The families would
then be necessitated to hold some intercourse,
which, the sanguine lover was confident, would
ripen into fellowship and friendship.

`But we must not do evil, that good may
follow,' said Lois, with that solemnity of manner
so peculiarly affecting when assumed by
the young and lovely. `This deception on your
good and kind parents, though not intended
for evil purposes, is still a deception. It will
be derogatory to the sacred character you are
intending to assume. It is wrong—I cannot
tell you all the evil consequences that may
follow—but my conscience tells me it is wrong.
You must not, Isaiah, you must not do it.'

It was all in vain, that he represented he
should otherwise be sent to Connecticut, to
study there with the favorite clergyman of his
mother; and that, in the interim, the jealousies
and divisions in the town would probably increase;
and, perhaps, his father and hers, become
so exasperated with each other, as to
forbid their children to marry together. It
was all in vain. Lois would not be convinced
that expediency was any excuse for practising
deception; and though Isaiah's passion had,
in a measure, stifled his conscientious scruples,
his sophistry could not stifle hers. So
they separated—she, with a sad face and slow

step, proceeded homewards—and he, with a
sadder face and slower movement, wended his
way towards a neighbouring house, where he
had promised to assist as a watcher with an
old man, who was dangerously sick. The man
died that night, and Isaiah gazed on a scene
he had never before witnessed—the last scene
of all. It struck him most painfully; because
the old man frequently adverted to, and lamented,
the follies of his youth,—while it was
continually occurring to Isaiah, that he had
been guilty of a great sin, even to plan a deception
upon his kind parents.

When the youth entered his father's house,
the next morning, he found the whole family in
commotion; and he learned, to his astonishment,
almost horror, that his mother had seen
the white apparition again, and it had told her
that if Isaiah would prosper in this world, and
be saved in the next, he must study with Mr.
Lawton.

Isaiah was thunderstruck,—and, in the consternation
of the moment, he acknowledged
what had been his own intentions respecting
the personating of the apparition. The matter
grew more solemn, and Mr. Lawton and
Lois were summoned; when the clergyman
was, for the first time, apprised, that his daughter
and the young student were looking to each
other for their earthly happiness. As nothing,
to clear up the mystery of the apparition, appeared,
it was believed, by all the women in
the town, to be an awful warning, a solemn call
to the two religious parties, to lay aside their

prejudices against each other; and as the meeting-house
was now completed, and the people
were curious to attend in the new building, Mr.
Lawton had the satisfaction, and a heart-felt
satisfaction it is to a good man, of seeing a full
audience listening to his sermon on the first
Sabbath he performed divine service in the
new church.

From that time, there was more unanimity
among the inhabitants, than had been since
Mr. Lawton began his ministry. This change
was universally ascribed to the priest, who, his
hearers observed, preached fewer doctrinal sermons,
and insisted less on the doctrinal points
than used to be his wont. Undoubtedly there
was a change. Mr. Lawton as firmly believed
in the apparition as any of his people. Neither
was this strange, as he was descended, by the
father's side, from a Scotch emigrant, who
fancied himself gifted with the second sight,
and his mother was a German, fully believing
in all the wild and awful legends of German
superstition. And, notwithstanding Mr. Lawton
was a man of sound sense and fervent piety,
it is not strange he should be a little infected
with superstitious or imaginative notions. But
these had, in this instance, a salutary effect;
because, as the apparition had, as it were,
borne witness to the saving creed of the minister,
he did not think it necessary to argue
continually to prove his creed the saving one.
And so the town of Harmony seemed soon
more deserving of its name.

There was a marked change of manner in

Isaiah Warren, from the time he commenced
his religious studies; and when he was licensed
and entered on the duties of his sacred office,
no young clergyman could be more devout and
devoted. Fourteen years passed away—The
Rev. David Lawton and Captain Isaiah Warren
were both gathered to their fathers. They
had died in full charity with each other, and in
the assured belief, that Presbyterians and Congregationalists
were to inherit the same heaven.
But Mrs. Warren still lived—lived, to
enjoy the pious triumph of seeing her favorite
son installed as pastor over the destitute church
of Harmony. And all this, she firmly believed
was foretold her by the apparition. She was
never undeceived—but the reader must be.

Isaiah Warren had a brother Benjamin, a
wild, roguish, adventurous fellow, who finally
went to sea, and was absent many years. After
his return, as he was sitting one evening in
his brother's study, telling such tales of his
wondrous chances as sailors will tell, he remarked
an air of incredulity on Isaiah's countenance,
and instantly paused.

`Why do you not proceed?' inquired Isaiah.

`You do not credit me,' returned Benjamin;
`and yet it does not require a greater degree
of faith than you once exercised about an apparition.'

Isaiah saw the keen eye of his brother sparkle
with mirth, and something that announced
a triumph. In a moment the truth flashed on
his mind. He started up, and striking the table
with a volume of Baxter's “Saint's Rest,”

(the favorite book, next to the Bible, of his
father-in-law, the late Mr. Lawton,) as if the
said book had been a batten, he exclaimed—
`Ben, I know you were that apparition!'

After a hearty laugh, Ben confessed the
whole. `I was,' said he, `down close by the
river, among some bushes at your feet, where
I had crept to fix a trap for a mink, and there
I lay and heard all your conversation with
Lois. After you had gone, thinks I to myself,
I will even play the trick on mother, and
it will be no sin, for I am not intending to be
a minister. So I wrapped up myself, and
stole into mother's room, on tiptoe, and I said
“Isaiah must study with Mr. Lawton,” and
then was out again in the twinkling of an eye.
That was all I did say, and that about your
being saved, was no words of mine. When I
found how seriously the affair was taken, I did
not dare to own what I had done. But, on the
whole, I think it was a good thing. You obtained
your wife, and the people were all made
more peaceable and christianlike, and no bad
effect has followed. This, I guess, happened,
because I was not influenced by any bad or
selfish motives, for our chaplain always said,
that it was only the indulgence of selfishness
that caused us to sin.'