{"1": {"fulltext": "Li...\\nft\\nv.\\nc\\nA--V-\\ni\\n1 y\\nm\\ni\\nV\\n:;:.^:%m", "height": "4281", "width": "2647", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "Class _ZL i^L\\nBook A_J .._\\nCOPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "", "height": "4130", "width": "2681", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0009.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0010.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "THE AUTOCRAT\\nOF\\nTHE BREAKFAST- TABLE\\nBY\\nOLIVER WENDELL HOLMES\\nWITH AN INTRODUCTION\\nBY\\nRICHARD BU RTON\\nEvery man his own Boswell\\nJ\\nNEW YORK\\nTHOMAS Y. CROWELL CO.\\nPUBLISHERS", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0011.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "62\\nwary of Congress\\n|Two Copses Received\\nOCT 171900\\nCopjrtgnt entry\\nFIRST COPY.\\n2nd Copy Oeiivered to\\nORDER DIVISION\\nOCT 2 t -iff MJ\\nrs\\nCopyright, 1900,\\nBy THOMAS Y. CROWELL CO.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0012.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "INTRODUCTION.\\nThe particular work of a writer may be called his\\nfinest for several reasons. It has whether justly\\nor no come to be regarded as most expressive\\nof his essential gift or it is the most successful ac-\\ncomplishment in a form of art more important and\\ndifficult than he elsewhere attempted with a like result\\nor, again, it is most clearly stamped with the impress\\nof his time and country and hence is a work truly\\nnational. Doubtless such a question can never be\\nsettled criticism is not yet, it may be questioned if\\nit ever will be, an exact science, and its methods will\\nalways take on a tinge of impressionism.\\nNevertheless, to one familiar with Dr. Holmes 1 s\\ngenius, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table must\\nseem not only a typical work but, on the whole, that\\nwhich contains in happiest union his fundamental\\ncharacteristics as an author. The incidents con-\\nnected with the writing of this masterpiece of Ameri-\\ncan letters may be recited here. In 1831, when\\nthe future Autocrat was unautocratically fresh from\\nHarvard, whence ho had been graduated two years\\nbefore, and altogether innocent of the prefix Doctor\\nwhich was to become an integral part of the name\\nwhereby his generation affectionately invoked him, he\\nwrote for the New England Magazine, of Boston, a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0013.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "IV INTRODUCTION.\\ncouple of essays under the title which was made so\\nfamiliar in subsequent years. They appeared respec-\\ntively in the issues for November, 1831, and February,\\n1832. Then, as Dr. Holmes has himself explained\\nit to us, a silence of a quarter-century intervened\\nfor it was in the Atlantic Monthly of November, 1857,\\nthat the series as we know it began. The author\\ntook the hint offered by himself when a green strip-\\nling how often in literature, as in life, maturity is but\\nthe more or less laborious working out of what comes\\nin youth by way of inspiration, in a happy flash It\\nis a true instinct in a writer which dictates the return.\\nSo long, says Amiel, as a man is capable of self-\\nrenewal he is a living being. 1 Dr. Holmes, then,\\ntook the suggestion, but not the form, of his early\\nwork, having gained, in the meantime, the firm hand\\nand the wide experience necessary to make it a\\nworthy performance. The situation in 1857, compar-\\ning it with that of 1831, was vastly changed. Then\\nhe was unknown to letters, untried in medicine, simply\\na clever young Cambridge man with the inevitable\\ninterrogation mark after his name at the later date,\\nhe had won distinction as scientist, wit, and poet.\\nThis mid-century date may be regarded as the point\\nmoving forward from which he was to do his solidest\\nprose work, the Breakfast Table Trilogy, the novels,\\nthe biographies, and the delightful final chats embodied\\nin such a book as Over the Tea-cups.\\nIt is no disparagement to his sprightly and graceful\\naccomplishment in verse, to say that Holmes was, first\\nand foremost, an essayist, past master in a rare and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0014.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "INTROD UCTION. V\\ndifficult kind of literature. A recent critic has held\\nthat the characteristic contribution of the United\\nStates to literature has been in prose. Without stop-\\nping to argue the question, it may be asserted roundly\\nthat no prose form counts more distinguished names\\nnames fit, though few than this of the essay.\\nHow may we define it? What are its definitive traits\\nThe essay, as it has been handed on from its great\\nFrench master, Montaigne, to Bacon, and moulded\\nby the deft manipulations of successive writers like\\nAddison and Steele, Johnson and Goldsmith, Leigh\\nHunt, Lamb, and Hazlitt, and in our own day further\\nilluminated by Stevenson and one or two others, has,\\nwith whatever personal variations, persisted in remain-\\ning primarily a vehicle for the conveyance of a per-\\nsonality. This, rather than the communication of\\nknowledge, has been its purpose and result. It has\\ntaken a desultory form, tending to the whimsical in\\nmanner, and the conversational in tone dispersed\\nmeditations, as Bacon called the notes which became\\nhis famous series of essays. This subjective quality,\\nthe disavowal of a serious aim, the confidential rela-\\ntion between w r riter and reader, has, I say, ever marked\\nthe true essay. The essayist to the manner born\\nthrows his wit and wisdom into a causerie his work\\nis the inspired chat of literature. It follows naturally\\nthat he is, in the flesh, a good talker as everybody\\nknows, Dr. Holmes was marvellous in this respect.\\nOne s sense of this idea of the essay is much obscured\\nby the giving of the name loosely to the imposing,\\nformal treatise, its object to impart information, its", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0015.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "Vi INTRODUCTION.\\nmanner impersonal and heavy. This is a very worthy\\ncreature, no doubt but different. The essayists we\\nremember and love to remember are of the other sort.\\nDr. Holmes, surely, belongs to the essayists, who\\nderive from this true line of succession. His is the\\npersonal touch, the tone of good society his, too, the\\ndisplay of wisdom, tempered by wit and so conveyed\\nthat there is neither heaviness nor slow motion. It\\nis uniquely true of the essay that it demands and is\\nadorned by the thought and expression of an author s\\nprime of power. Holmes was nearly fifty years of\\nage when the Autocrat was taken up and done at full\\nlength. Great lyric poetry can be, and perhaps most\\noften is, produced in the twenties or early thirties\\nwitness Keats and Shelley, or the French Musset.\\nBut with the essay, there is an appreciable advantage\\nin more of years. Montaigne, at thirty-seven, retired\\nto his country estate to write the rambling, inimitable\\ncauseries which are the sole basis of his fame. Lamb\\nwas forty-five when the Elia Papers in the London\\nMagazine gave the world present and to come of his\\nbest and what a best While a later example,\\nthat of Stevenson, bears the same testimony, since\\nthe finest of his essays were the work of a man\\nneighboring forty, an age limit sometimes referred\\nto as a sort of dead line for imaginative production in\\nliterature. In 1857, Dr. Holmes s natural spright-\\nliness and creative energy were in no wise abated\\nand to these qualities the five and twenty years herein-\\nbefore mentioned, had but ripened and enriched his\\nthought, so that art and intellect could enter into", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0016.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "INTRODUCTION. vil\\none of those chemical unions which mean great\\nthings for letters.\\nIt should be said, moreover, that while the easy\\ntone of good society (which in a sense has no local-\\nity) is struck by the Autocrat, no work is more\\nessentially of New England. It is sound criticism to\\nsay that every piece of genuine literature should savor\\nof the soil whence it springs. The Americanism here\\nis unobtrusive but deep, to be felt on every page\\nand thinking of the middle nineteenth century, it does\\nnot taste of the parochial to remark that, for literature,\\nAmericanism and New Englandism were practically\\nidentical. Our representative efforts in prose and\\npoetry were of this origin. Holmes s was enlightened\\nNew Englandism, the sort that made Boston of the\\nold days to be in vital connection with the great\\nthought-currents of the civilized world. Open the\\npages of the Autocrat almost at random and the\\nstatement is justified. The often homely idiom be-\\nspeaks the environment no less the thought, homely\\ntoo, perhaps, but sound and sweet. The canny\\nmother-sense, the shy ideality, the sensitiveness to the\\nhumorous, the underlying moral sturdiness, these\\ntraits all are recognizable as of the warp and woof\\nwherefrom our first typical literary goods were\\nwrought. One is tempted to say, more particularly,\\nthat the combination of humor and sublimated good\\nsense the wisdom offered with a shrewdly smiling\\nface stands for the prime quality of this chef\\nd^oeuvre of essay writing. This is not to overlook\\nthe charming description, the moments of lovely lyric", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0017.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "Vlll INTRODUCTION.\\nutterance embedded in the work. One can never\\nforget that, in grave or gay, the now so familiar tem-\\nperance poem, a homely masterpiece like The One-\\nHoss Shay, and such a little classic as The Chambered\\nNautilus, first got into print here. Yet the conviction\\nremains that it is for these twin qualities of wit and\\nwisdom in happy conjunction for these and the\\nurbane French manner of presentation that the\\nAutocrat will be longest cherished.\\nThe humor, too, is all pervasive and individual.\\nHow different it is from the fun of Lowell in the\\nBiglow Papers I And yet in its way it is as dis-\\ntinctive and enjoyable. It is removed as far as\\npossible from horse-play and the bluster of farce.\\nMuch has been made of American humor by critics\\n(generally transatlantic) who seem to feel that the\\ngrotesquerie of Artemus Ward or Bill Nye runs the\\nwhole diapason of a characteristic for which our\\nliterature is justly conspicuous. But the conclusion\\nis hasty. The humor of Lowell and of Holmes, of\\nWarner and of Curtis, of Chandler Harris and of\\nStockton yes, and of Mark Twain at his best, is\\nof another sort. Dr. Holmes is both witty and\\nhumorous but always there is breeding in his fun.\\nHe illustrates the idea that one can smile, even laugh,\\nand be not only a villain, but a gentleman that the\\ngrin and the guffaw are not of necessity national. His\\nhumor is atmospheric, as pure, wholesome humor ever\\nshould be there speaks in it a kindly and innocent\\nsoul. But his wit is a thing of thrust and parry, after\\nthe manner of your true intellectual duello and then", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0018.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "INTR OD UCTION. IX\\nWoe worth the day to all shams, and fads, and base-\\nnesses Holmes s epigrams have a nobler use than\\nmere mind-tickling. And how naturally, how easily\\nthe humor shades into sentiment, another sure test\\nof the former. The sentiment is infallibly safe from\\nsentimentality by this saving grace of humor, always\\nin the background; even verbal play a rock that\\nshatters reputations not a few seems legitimate in\\nhis hands he is one of those people who know how\\nto use it as a sauce piquante to the feast.\\nThe dramatic framework he chose for the AutocraVs\\nmonologues the typical group of New England board-\\ning-house folk gathered about the morning table is\\none that amply allows for the display of the essay\\nqualities I have already glanced at the rapid shift\\nof subject, the touch-and-go method by which the\\nmind alights upon a thought, sets it vibrating, and\\nleaves it for another, as a bird flits from bough to\\nbough. The speaker, veiling his own mind under the\\nguise of the idiosyncrasy of others, is thereby enabled\\nto see around a topic of conversation as he might not\\ndo if doomed continually to speak in proper person.\\nIt being of the genius of the essayist to approximate\\nin manner the easy vernacular of the conversazione, he\\ncan in this dramatized form take on its very accent.\\nSuch a use of the essay as Dr. Holmes gives us in the\\nAutocrat, is interesting in the evolution of this form,\\nfor it stands as a halfway stage of which the full develop-\\nment is seen in the character sketch of fiction. Care-\\nlessly viewed, the Autocrat might be so called yet\\nnot properly, for the reason that the interest is not", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0019.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "X INTR OD UCTION.\\nprimarily the interest of narrative, of invention, and\\naction not even in the main that of character but\\nthat of thought and manner and especially manner\\nthe way in which the thing is said. This distinc-\\ntion is quite sufficient to justify one in declaring that\\nthe work affords a delicious example of the free use\\nof the essay mood.\\nAnd where manner is so much, how well the\\ndemands are met The diction of the Autocrat is\\na perfect vehicle to carry the intention. It is flexi-\\nble, harmonious, unobtrusively elegant is never\\nslangy, forced, or precious. It is, nevertheless, idio-\\nmatic to the point of daring. The fresh in language\\nwas rarely more circumspect. The author knows just\\nwhen to admit the colloquial, when to exclude it and\\nadopt the more formal tone (stopping short of stiff-\\nness) of good society. Such a style is a rebuke to the\\nlinguistic gymnastics which pass for original writing,\\nand an incentive to the philologically pure in heart.\\nThere is in the fact that Dr. Holmes found a nat-\\nural vent of expression in a form so eminently social\\nin its kind, something revelatory of the man. Though,\\nas we have seen, so essentially of New England, his\\nliterary genius had affiliations with the French. The\\nliterature of that great people is, above that of all\\nother peoples, social and urbane it is a literature\\nthat looks to and considers man in his relations to his\\nfellow-men, and that does this with the manners of\\nthe grand world. It throws light upon the criss-\\ncross of the world s crowded ways. This enlightening\\ngift shines in Dr. Holmes the French word iclair-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0020.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "INTR OD UCTION. XI\\ncissement comes instinctively to the lips in thinking\\nof his effect. He is a torch-bearer dressed a la mode.\\nThe Autocrat, as he beams upon his friends about\\nthe board, and gallantly rallies his landlady upon her\\nbuxom appearance, is happy in his feeling of the soli-\\ndarity not only of the boarding-house circle, but of\\nthe human race. No other American author has had\\njust this talent for social expression, if I may so phrase\\nit possibly Dr. Holmes s acceptability abroad may\\nbe accounted for in part by a reference to this quality.\\nNor did this social instinct, which might seem to sug-\\ngest a certain cosmopolitanism, for a moment inter-\\nfere with that genuinely New England character of\\nthought and expression already touched upon and\\nwhich makes the Autocrat so dear, so understood by\\nhis fellow Americans. His setting affords him the\\nopportunity for sparkling, apposite, and suggestive\\nthought absolutely unrestricted as to range and he\\nmade the most of it. There is genius in the concep-\\ntion as well as in the execution vividness and vari-\\nety are gained by his use of characters.\\nThe modernness of the Autocrat s talk is noticeable\\nthat cheery, quick-witted professor is an courant with\\neverything intellectual. He is universally interested\\nhe has an effect of knowing everything. The author\\nwhen he came in 1882 to write a preface to a new\\nedition of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, de-\\nbated in his own mind, he tells us, the advisability of\\nrevision, thinking that his pages might be im-\\nproved by various corrections and changes. 1 But,\\nvery wisely, he concluded that it is dangerous to", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0021.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "Xll INTR OD UCTION.\\ntamper in cold blood and in after life with what was\\nwritten in the glow of an earlier period. It may be\\nadded that had he yielded to this momentary sugges-\\ntion and sought to bring those inimitable table-talks\\nup to date horrid idiom to match horrid thought\\nthey would have been not a jot more contemporane-\\nous than they are in the original form. To be sure,\\nas Dr. Holmes remarks himself, in the meanwhile we\\nread by the light the rocks of Pennsylvania have fur-\\nnished us, all that is most important in the morning\\npapers of the civilized world the lightning so swift\\nto run our errands, stands shining over us, white and\\nsteady as the moonbeams, burning, but unconsumed\\nwe talk with people in the neighboring cities as if\\nthey were at our elbow, and as our equipages flash\\nalong the highway, the silent bicycle glides by us and\\ndisappears in the distance. All these changes since\\n1857. And in a still later preface, dated 1891, he\\ncalls attention to that other discovery of science, the\\nelectric motor, as a common carrier. But, we repeat,\\nthe Autocrat of 1857 has no accent of the past he is\\npreeminently modern because Holmes, ever on the\\nmental qui vive with his day, has an attitude which is\\ntimeless the attitude of one who assimilates the best\\nin all kinds of current knowledge, the ardent seeker\\nafter truth in all its manifestations. He possessed to\\na marked degree the curious mind of the scientific in-\\nvestigator. The true humanist is denoted, not by the\\nfacts he knows (since that is an accident dependent\\nupon the age he lives in), but by this questing spirit\\nin respect of knowledge. It is a question of proper", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0022.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "INTRODUCTION. Xlll\\norientation. To say that a man has a sprightly habit\\nof mind points suspiciously to a qualification on the\\nside of breadth and robustness not so here this\\nsprightliness was Dr. Holmes s to such a degree that\\nit is a salient feature of his work yet with no such\\nreservation.\\nIn but one quality, it seems to me, does The Auto-\\ncrat of the Breakfast Table perhaps strike the reader\\nof to-day, who takes it up nearly a half-century after\\nit was penned, as belonging to an elder day. What\\nmight be called the author s sense of moral responsi-\\nbility is likely to appear old-fashioned. And I may\\nadd that nothing stamps it as more characteristic of\\nthe literature made by our great earlier writers. The\\nessayist of the present period may assume the mood\\nintimate with his reader, granted in fact, that sort\\nof confidential impressionism is distinctly fashionable\\nnow. But he is not inclined to state his feeling of\\nduty to that imaginary auditor (nor indeed to have\\nit) as does Dr. Holmes in good set terms when it\\nconies to farewell. I hope, he says, you all love\\nme none the less for anything I have told you.* It\\ncould not be more winningly put and the implica-\\ntion is clear. The desire is for a friendship deserved\\nbecause a trust has not been violated. Noblesse\\noblige is the motto of American literature before the\\nwar. Now, the maker of poem, story, or essay, if he\\naccept the current teaching (which, luckily for us, he\\ndoes not invariably do) tries to make of himself an\\nimpersonal force, with no duties to his readers, nor\\neven to the creations of his fancy. Holmes touches", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0023.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "XIV INTR OD UCTIOJV.\\nthe close of his charming chronicle with a pensive but\\nwholesome sadness: yet lights it up with a beautiful\\nlove as he leads the schoolmistress to the altar. We\\nhave changed all that our sadness must be bitter,\\nhopeless, our marriages come tardy off. The Auto-\\ncrat, in tone and teaching, I say, offers an instructive\\ncontrast to present-day methods. It is the frank ac-\\nceptance of this underlying moral obligation of the\\nauthor to his public which gives backbone to such a\\nwork, which is then clothed upon and decorated with\\nall the charms and graces of literary art. Any suspi-\\ncion of didacticism is removed by the delightful ease\\nof the manner and the unfailing, bubbling flow of good\\nspirits. Thus, sound in ethics, as it is flawless in art,\\nthe work to-day holds the allegiance of admirers whose\\nname is legion and deserves to hold it. Any piece\\nof literature that is good in this double sense may be\\nrelied upon to last.\\nRICHARD BURTON.\\nApril 14, 1900.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0024.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "THE AUTOCRAT S AUTOBIOG-\\nRAPHY.\\nThe interruption referred to in the first sentence\\nof the first of these papers was just a quarter of a\\ncentury in duration.\\nTwo articles entitled The Autocrat of the Break-\\nfast-Table will be found in the New England\\nMagazine, formerly published in Boston by J. T.\\nand E. Buckingham. The date of the first of these\\narticles is November 1831, and that of the second\\nFebruary 1832. When The Atlantic Monthly was\\nbegun, twenty-five years afterwards, and the author\\nwas asked to write for it, the recollection of these\\ncrude products of his uncombed literary boyhood\\nsuggested the thought that it would be a curious\\nexperiment to shake the same bough again, and see\\nif the ripe fruit were better or worse than the early\\nwindfalls.\\nSo began this series of papers, which naturally\\nbrings those earlier attempts to my own notice and\\nthat of some few friends who were idle enough to\\nread them at the time of their publication. The man\\nis father to the boy that was, and I am my own son,\\nas it seems to me, in those papers of the New Eng-\\nland Magazine. If I find it hard to pardon the boy s\\nfaults, others would find it harder. They will not,\\ntherefore, be reprinted here, nor as I hope, anywhere.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0025.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "XVI THE AUTOCRAT S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.\\nBut a sentence or two from them will perhaps bear\\nreproducing, and with these I trust the gentle reader,\\nif that kind being still breathes, will be contented.\\nIt is a capital plan to carry a tablet with you,\\nand, when you find yourself felicitous, take notes of\\nyour own conversation. 1\\nWhen I feel inclined to read poetry I take down\\nmy Dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beau-\\ntiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange\\nthe gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have\\nbeen given by the attrition of ages. Bring me the\\nfinest simile from the whole range of imaginative\\nwriting, and I will show you a single word which con-\\nveys a more profound, a more accurate, and a more\\neloquent analogy.\\nOnce on a time, a notion was started, that if all\\nthe people in the world would shout at once, it might\\nbe heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it\\nshould be done in just ten years. Some thousand\\nshiploads of chronometers were distributed to the\\nselectmen and other great folks of all the different\\nnations. For a year beforehand, nothing else was\\ntalked about but the awful noise that was to be made\\non the great occasion. When the time came, every-\\nbody had their ears so wide open, to hear the univer-\\nsal ejaculation of Boo, the word agreed upon,\\nthat nobody spoke except a deaf man in one of the\\nFejee Islands, and a woman in Pekin, so that the\\nworld was never so still since the creation.\\nThere was nothing better than these things and\\nthere was not a little that was much worse. A young\\nfellow of two or three and twenty has as good a right", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0026.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "THE AUTOCRAT S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, xvii\\nto spoil a magazine-full of essays in learning how to\\nwrite, as an oculist like Wenzel had to spoil his hat-\\nfull of eyes in learning how to operate for cataract, or\\nan elegant like Brummel to point to an armful of fail-\\nures in the attempt to achieve a perfect tie. This son\\nof mine, whom I have not seen for these twenty-five\\nyears, generously counted, was a self-willed youth,\\nalways too ready to utter his unchastised fancies. He,\\nlike too many American young people, got the spur\\nwhen he should have had the rein. He therefore\\nhelped to fill the market with that unripe fruit which\\nhis father says in one of these papers abounds in the\\nmarts of his native country. All these by-gone short-\\ncomings he would hope are forgiven, did he not feel\\nsure that very few of his readers know anything about\\nthem. In taking the old name for the new papers, he\\nfelt bound to say that he had uttered unwise things\\nunder that title, and if it shall appear that his unwis-\\ndom has not diminished by at least half while his\\nyears have doubled, he promises not to repeat the\\nexperiment if he should live to double them again and\\nbecome his own grandfather.\\nOLIVER WENDELL HOLMES\\nBoston, Nov. ist, 1858.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0027.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0028.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "THE AUTOCRAT OF THE\\nBREAKFAST-TABLE.\\nL\\nI was just going to say, when I was interrupted,\\nthat one of the many ways of classifying minds is\\nunder the heads of arithmetical and algebraical intel-\\nlects. All economical and practical wisdom is an\\nextension or variation of the following arithmetical\\nformula 2 2 4. Every philosophical proposition\\nhas the more general character of the expression\\na b c. We are mere operatives, empirics, and\\negotists, until we learn to think in letters instead of\\nfigures.\\nThey all stared. There is a divinity student lately\\ncome among us to whom I commonly address remarks\\nlike the above, allowing him to take a certain share\\nin the conversation, so far as assent or pertinent\\nquestions are involved. He abused his liberty on\\nthis occasion by presuming to say that Leibnitz had\\nthe same observation. No, sir, I replied, he has not.\\nBut he said a mighty good thing about mathematics,\\nthat sounds something like it, and you found it, not\\nin the original, but quoted by Dr. Thomas Reid. I\\n1", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0029.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "2 THE AUTOCRAT\\nwill tell the company what he did say, one of these\\ndays.\\nIf I belong to a Society of Mutual Admira-\\ntion I blush to say that I do not at this present\\nmoment. I once did, however. It was the first\\nassociation to which I ever heard the term applied\\na body of scientific young men in a great foreign city\\nwho admired their teacher, and to some extent each\\nother. Many of them deserved it they have become\\nfamous since. It amuses me to hear the talk of one\\nof those beings described by Thackeray\\nLetters four do form his name\\nabout a social development which belongs to the very\\nnoblest stage of civilization. All generous companies\\nof artists, authors, philanthropists, men of science,\\nare, or ought to be, Societies of Mutual Admiration.\\nA man of genius, or any kind of superiority, is not\\ndebarred from admiring the same quality in another,\\nnor the other from returning his admiration. They\\nmay even associate together and continue to think\\nhighly of each other. And so of a dozen such men,\\nif any one place is fortunate enough to hold so many.\\nThe being referred to above assumes several false\\npremises. First, that men of talent necessarily hate\\neach other. Secondly, that intimate knowledge or\\nhabitual association destroys our admiration of per-\\nsons whom we esteemed highly at a distance.\\nThirdly, that a circle of clever fellows, who meet\\ntogether to dine and have a good time, have signed\\na constitutional compact to glorify themselves and to\\nput down him and the fraction of the human race\\nnot belonging to their number. Fourthly, that it is\\nan outrage that he is not asked to join them.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0030.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 3\\nHere the company laughed a good deal, and the\\nold gentleman who sits opposite said, That s it!\\nthat s it\\nI continued, for I was in the talking vein. As to\\nclever people s hating each other, I think a little\\nextra talent does sometimes make people jealous.\\nThey become irritated by perpetual attempts and\\nfailures, and it hurts their tempers and dispositions.\\nUnpretending mediocrity is good, and genius is glori-\\nous but a weak flavor of genius in an essentially\\ncommon person is detestable. It spoils the grand\\nneutrality of a commonplace character, as the rins-\\nings of an unwashed wineglass spoil a draught of\\nfair water. No wonder the poor fellow we spoke of,\\nwho always belongs to this class of slightly flavored\\nmediocrities, is puzzled and vexed by the strange\\nsight of a dozen men of capacity working and play-\\ning together in harmony. He and his fellows are\\nalways fighting. With them familiarity naturally\\nbreeds contempt. If they ever praise each other s\\nbad drawings, or broken-winded novels, or spavined\\nverses, nobody ever supposed it was from admiration\\nit was simply a contract between themselves and a\\npublisher or dealer.\\nIf the Mutuals have really nothing among them\\nworth admiring, that alters the question. But if they\\nare men with noble powers and qualities, let me tell\\nyou, that, next to youthful love and family affections,\\nthere is no human sentiment better than that which\\nunites the Societies of Mutual Admiration. And what\\nwould literature or art be without such associations\\nWho can tell what we owe to the Mutual Admiration\\nSociety of which Shakspeare, and Ben Jonson, and\\nBeaumont and Fletcher were members? Or to that", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0031.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "4 THE AUTOCRAT\\nof which Addison and Steele formed the centre, and\\nwhich gave us the Spectator Or to that where\\nJohnson, and Goldsmith, and Burke, and Reynolds,\\nand Beauclerk, and Boswell, most admiring among\\nall admirers, met together? Was there any great\\nharm in the fact that the Irvings and Paulding wrote\\nin company or any unpardonable cabal in the liter-\\nary union of Verplanck and Bryant and Sands, and\\nas many more as they chose to associate with them\\nThe poor creature does not know what he is talk-\\ning about, when he abuses this noblest of institu-\\ntions. Let him inspect its mysteries through the\\nknot-hole he has secured, but not use that orifice as\\na medium for his popgun. Such a society is the\\ncrown of a literary metropolis if a town has not\\nmaterial for it, and spirit and good feeling enough to\\norganize it, it is a mere caravansary, fit for a man of\\ngenius to lodge in, but not to live in. Foolish people\\nhate and dread and envy such an association of men\\nof varied powers and influence, because it is lofty,\\nserene, impregnable, and, by the necessity of the\\ncase, exclusive. Wise ones are prouder of the title M.\\nS. M. A. than of all their other honors put together.\\nAll generous minds have a horror of what are\\ncommonly called facts. 1 They are the brute beasts\\nof the intellectual domain. Who does not know\\nfellows that always have an ill-conditioned fact or\\ntwo which they lead after them into decent company\\nlike so many bull-dogs, ready to let them slip at every\\ningenious suggestion, or convenient generalization,\\nor pleasant fancy? I allow no facts at this table.\\nWhat! Because bread is good and wholesome and\\nnecessary and nourishing, shall you thrust a crumb\\ninto my windpipe while I am talking? Do not these", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0032.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 5\\nmuscles of mine represent a hundred loaves of bread\\nand is not my thought the abstract of ten thousand\\nof these crumbs of truth with which you would choke\\noff my speech\\n[The above remark must be conditioned and quali-\\nfied for the vulgar mind. The reader will of course\\nunderstand the precise amount of seasoning which\\nmust be added to it before he adopts it as one of the\\naxioms of his life. The speaker disclaims all respon-\\nsibility for its abuse in incompetent hands.]\\nThis business of conversation is a very serious\\nmatter. There are men that it weakens one to talk\\nwith an hour more than a day s fasting would do.\\nMark this that I am going to say; for it is as good as\\na working professional man s advice, and costs you\\nnothing It is better to lose a pint of blood from\\nyour veins than to have a nerve tapped. Nobody\\nmeasures your nervous force as it runs away, nor\\nbandages your brain and marrow after the operation.\\nThere are men of esprit who are excessively ex-\\nhausting to some people. They are the talkers who\\nhave what may be calledy^r^y minds. Their thoughts\\ndo not run in the natural order of sequence. They\\nsay bright things on all possible subjects, but their\\nzigzags rack you to death. After a jolting half-hour\\nwith one of these jerky companions, talking with a\\ndull friend affords great relief. It is like taking the\\ncat in your lap after holding a squirrel.\\nWhat a comfort a dull but kindly person is, to be\\nsure, at times! A ground-glass shade over a gas-\\nlamp does not bring more solace to our dazzled eyes\\nthan such a one to our minds.\\nDo not dull people bore you said one of the\\nlady-boarders, the same that sent me her auto-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0033.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "6 THE AUTOCRAT\\ngraph-book last week with a request for a few origina.\\nstanzas, not remembering that The Pactolian pays\\nme five dollars a line for every thing I write in its\\ncolumns.\\nMadam, said I, (she and the century were in their\\nteens together,) all men are bores, except when we\\nwant them. There never was but one man whom I\\nwould trust with my latch-key.\\nWho might that favored person be\\nZimmermann.\\nThe men of genius that I fancy most have\\nerectile heads like the cobra-di-capello. You remem-\\nber what they tell of William Pinkney, the great\\npleader how in his eloquent paroxysms the veins of\\nhis neck would swell and his face flush and his eyes\\nglitter, until he seemed on the verge of apoplexy.\\nThe hydraulic arrangements for supplying the brain\\nwith blood are only second in importance to its own\\norganization. The bulbous-headed fellows that steam\\nwell when they are at work are the men that draw\\nbig audiences and give us marrowy books and pictures.\\nIt is a good sign to have one s feet grow cold when he\\nis writing. A great writer and speaker once told me\\nthat he often wrote with his feet in hot water but for\\nthis, all his blood would have run into his head, as the\\nmercury sometimes withdraws into the ball of a ther-\\nmometer.\\nYou don t suppose that my remarks made at\\nthis table are like so many postage-stamps, do you,\\neach to be only once uttered? If you do, you are\\nmistaken. He must be a poor creature that does not\\noften repeat himself. Imagine the author of the ex-\\ncellent piece of advice, Know thyself, never allud-\\ning to that sentiment again during the course of a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0034.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, J\\nprotracted existence! Why, the truths a man carries\\nabout with him are his tools and do you think a\\ncarpenter is bound to use the same plane but once to\\nsmooth a knotty board with, or to hang up his ham-\\nmer after it has driven its first nail? I shall never\\nrepeat a conversation, but an idea often. I shall use\\nthe same types when I like, but not commonly the\\nsame stereotypes. A thought is often original, though\\nyou have uttered it a hundred times. It has come to\\nyou over a new route, by a new and express train of\\nassociations.\\nSometimes, but rarely, one may be caught making\\nthe same speech twice over, and yet be held blameless.\\nThus, a certain lecturer, after performing in an inland\\ncity, where dwells a Litteratrice of note, was invited\\nto meet her and others over the social teacup. She\\npleasantly referred to his many wanderings in his new\\noccupation. Yes, he replied, I am like the Huma,\\nthe bird that never lights, being always in the cars,\\nas he is always on the wing. Years elapsed. The\\nlecturer visited the same place once more for the same\\npurpose. Another social cup after the lecture, and a\\nsecond meeting with the distinguished lady. You\\nare constantly going from place to place, she said.\\nYes, he answered, I am like the Huma, and\\nfinished the sentence as before.\\nWhat horrors, when it flashed over him that he had\\nmade this fine speech, word for word, twice over! Yet\\nit was not true, as the lady might perhaps have fairly\\ninferred, that he had embellished his conversation\\nwith the Huma daily during that whole interval of\\nyears. On the contrary, he had never once thought\\nof the odious fowl until the recurrence of precisely the\\nsame circumstances brought up precisely the same", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0035.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "8 THE AUTOCRAT\\nidea. He ought to have been proud of the accuracy\\nof his mental adjustments. Given certain factors, and\\na sound brain should always evolve the same fixed\\nproduct with the certainty of Babbage s calculating\\nmachine.\\nWhat a satire, by the way, is that machine on\\nthe mere mathematician A Frankenstein-monster,\\na thing without brains and without heart, too stupid to\\nmake a blunder; that turns out results like a corn-\\nsheller, and never grows any wiser or better, though\\nit grind a thousand bushels of them\\nI have an immense respect for a man of talents ///as 1\\nthe mathematics. 1 But the calculating power alone\\nshould seem to be the least human of qualities, and\\nto have the smallest amount of reason in it since a\\nmachine can be made to do the work of three or four\\ncalculators, and better than any one of them. Some-\\ntimes I have been troubled that I had not a deeper\\nintuitive apprehension of the relations of numbers.\\nBut the triumph of the ciphering hand-organ has con-\\nsoled me. I always fancy I can hear the wheels click-\\ning in a calculator s brain. The power of dealing with\\nnumbers is a kind of detached lever arrangement,\\nwhich may be put into a mighty poor watch. I sup-\\npose it is about as common as the power of moving\\nthe ears voluntarily, which is a moderately rare en-\\ndowment.\\nLittle localized powers, and little narrow streaks\\nof specialized knowledge, are things men are very\\napt to be conceited about. Nature is very wise\\nbut for this encouraging principle how many small\\ntalents and little accomplishments would be neg-\\nlected Talk about conceit as much as you like, it is\\nto human character what salt is to the ocean it keeps", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0036.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. g\\nit sweet, and renders it endurable. Say rather it is\\nlike the natural unguent of the sea-fowl s plumage,\\nwhich enables him to shed the rain that falls on him\\nand the wave in which he dips. When one has had\\nall his conceit taken out of him, when he has lost all\\nhis illusions, his feathers will soon soak through, and\\nhe will fly no more.\\nSo you admire conceited people, do you? 11 said\\nthe young lady who has come to the city to be fin-\\nished off for the duties of life.\\nI am afraid you do not study logic at your school,\\nmy dear. It does not follow that I wish to be pickled\\nin brine because I like a salt-water plunge at Nahant.\\nI say that conceit is just as natural a thing to human\\nminds as a centre is to a circle. But little-minded\\npeople s thoughts move in such small circles that five\\nminutes 1 conversation gives you an arc long enough\\nto determine their whole curve. An arc in the move-\\nment of a large intellect does not sensibly differ from\\na straight line. Even if it have the third vowel as its\\ncentre, it does not soon betray it. The highest\\nthought, that is, is the most seemingly impersonal it\\ndoes not obviously imply any individual centre.\\nAudacious self-esteem, with good ground for it, is\\nalways imposing. What resplendent beauty that must\\nhave been which could have authorized Phryne to\\npeel 11 in the way she did What fine speeches are\\nthose two Non omnis moriar and I have taken\\nall knowledge to be my province 11 Even in common\\npeople, conceit has the virtue of making them cheer-\\nful; the man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house,\\nhis horse, his dog, and himself severally unequalled, is\\nalmost sure to be a good-humored person, though\\nliable to be tedious at times.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0037.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "IO THE AUTOCRAT\\nWhat are the great faults of conversation Want\\nof ideas, want of words, want of manners, are the prin-\\ncipal ones, I suppose you think. I don t doubt it,\\nbut I will tell you what I have found spoil more good\\ntalks than anything else long arguments on special\\npoints between people who differ on the fundamental\\nprinciples upon which these points depend. No men\\ncan have satisfactory relations with each other until\\nthey have agreed on certain tdtiiiiata of belief not to\\nbe disturbed in ordinary conversation, and unless they\\nhave sense enough to trace the secondary questions\\ndepending upon these ultimate beliefs to their source.\\nIn short, just as a written constitution is essential to\\nthe best social order, so a code of finalities is a neces-\\nsary condition of profitable talk between two per-\\nsons. Talking is like playing on the harp there is as\\nmuch in laying the hand on the strings to stop their\\nvibrations as in twanging them to bring out their\\nmusic.\\nDo you mean to say the pun-question is not\\nclearly settled in your minds Let me lay down the\\nlaw upon the subject. Life and language are alike\\nsacred. Homicide and verbicide that is, violent\\ntreatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate\\nmeaning, which is its life are alike forbidden. Man-\\nslaughter, which is the meaning of the one, is the\\nsame as man s laughter, which is the end of the\\nother. A pun is prima facie an insult to the person\\nyou are talking with. It implies utter indifference to\\nor sublime contempt for his remarks, no matter how\\nserious. I speak of total depravity, and one says all\\nthat is written on the subject is deep raving. I have\\ncommitted my self-respect by talking with such a\\nperson. I should like to commit him, but cannot,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0038.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. II\\nbecause he is a nuisance. Or I speak of geological\\nconvulsions, and he asks me what was the cosine of\\nNoah s ark also, whether the Deluge was not a deal\\nhuger than any modern inundation.\\nA pun does not commonly justify a blow in return.\\nBut if a blow were given for such cause, and death\\nensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts\\nand of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an\\naggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable\\nhomicide. Thus, in a case lately decided before\\nMiller, J., Doe presented Roe a subscription paper,\\nand urged the claims of suffering humanity. Roe\\nreplied by asking, When charity was like a top? It\\nwas in evidence that Doe preserved a dignified si-\\nlence. Roe then said, When it begins to hum. 1\\nDoe then and not till then struck Roe, and his\\nhead happening to hit a bound volume of the Monthly\\nRag-bag and Stolen Miscellany, intense mortifica-\\ntion ensued, with a fatal result. The chief laid down\\nhis notions of the law to his brother justices, who\\nunanimously replied, Jest so. The chief rejoined,\\nthat no man should jest so without being punished\\nfor it, and charged for the prisoner, who was acquitted,\\nand the pun ordered to be burned by the sheriff. The\\nbound volume was forfeited as a deodand, but not\\nclaimed.\\nPeople that make puns are like wanton boys that\\nput coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse\\nthemselves and other children, but their little trick\\nmay upset a freight train of conversation for the sake\\nof a battered witticism.\\nI will thank you, B. F., to bring down two books,\\nof which I will mark the places on this slip of paper.\\n(While he is gone, I may say that this boy, our land-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0039.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "12 THE AUTOCRAT\\nlady s youngest, is called Benjamin Franklin, after\\nthe celebrated philosopher of that name. A highly\\nmerited compliment.)\\nI wished to refer to two eminent authorities. Now\\nbe so good as to listen. The great moralist says\\nTo trifle with the vocabulary which is the vehicle of\\nsocial intercourse is to tamper with the currency of\\nhuman intelligence. He who would violate the sancti-\\nties of his mother tongue would invade the recesses of\\nthe paternal till without remorse, and repeat the ban-\\nquet of Saturn without an indigestion.\\nAnd, once more listen to the historian. The\\nPuritans hated puns. The Bishops were notoriously\\naddicted to them. The Lords Temporal carried them\\nto the verge of license. Majesty itself must have its\\nRoyal quibble. Ye be burly, my Lord of Burleigh,\\nsaid Queen Elizabeth, but ye shall make less stir in\\nour realm than my Lord of Leicester. The gravest\\nwisdom and the highest breeding lent their sanction\\nto the practice. Lord Bacon playfully declared him-\\nself a descendant of Og, the King of Bashan. Sir\\nPhilip Sidney, with his last breath, reproached the\\nsoldier who brought him water, for wasting a casque\\nfull upon a dying man. A courtier, who saw Othello\\nperformed at the Globe Theatre, remarked, that the\\nblackamoor was a brute, and not a man. Thou hast\\nreason, replied a great Lord, according to Plato his\\nsaying for this be a two-legged animal with feathers.\\nThe fatal habit became universal. The language was\\ncorrupted. The infection spread to the national con-\\nscience. Political double-dealings naturally grew out\\nof verbal double meanings. The teeth of the new\\ndragon were sown by the Cadmus who introduced\\nthe alphabet of equivocation. What was levity in the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0040.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 3\\ntime of the Tudors grew to regicide and revolution in\\nthe age of the Stuarts.\\nWho was that boarder that just whispered some-\\nthing about the Macaulay-flowers of literature?\\nThere was a dead silence. I said calmly, I shall\\nhenceforth consider any interruption by a pun as a\\nhint to change my boarding-house. Do not plead\\nmy example. If /have used any such, it has been\\nonly as a Spartan father would show up a drunken\\nhelot. We have done with them.\\nIf a logical mind ever found out anything with\\nits logic I should say that its most frequent work\\nwas to build a pons asinorum over chasms which\\nshrewd people can bestride without such a structure.\\nYou can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove\\nanything that you want to prove. You can buy treat-\\nises to show that Napoleon never lived, and that no\\nbattle of Bunker-hill was ever fought. The great\\nminds are those with a wide span, which couple\\ntruths related to, but far removed from, each other.\\nLogicians carry the surveyor s chain over the track\\nof which these are the true explorers. I value a man\\nmainly for his primary relations with truth, as I under-\\nstand truth, not for any secondary artifice in hand-\\nling his ideas. Some of the sharpest men in argument\\nare notoriously unsound in judgment. I should not\\ntrust the counsel of a smart debater, any more than\\nthat of a good chess-player. Either may of course\\nadvise wisely, but not necessarily because he wrangles\\nor plays well.\\nThe old gentleman who sits opposite got his hand\\nup, as a pointer lifts his forefoot, at the expression,\\nhis relations with truth, as I understand truth, and\\nwhen I had done, sniffed audibly, and said I talked", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0041.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "14 THE AUTOCRAT\\nlike a transcendentalist. For his part, common sense\\nwas good enough for him.\\nPrecisely so. my dear sir, I replied common sense,\\nas you understand it. We all have to assume a stand-\\nard of judgment in our own minds, either of things\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0^1 or persons. A man who is willing to take another s\\nopinion has to exercise his judgment in the choice of\\nwhom to follow, which is often as nice a matter as to\\njudge of things for one s self. On the whole, I had\\nrather judge men s minds by comparing their thoughts\\nwith my own, than judge of thoughts by knowing who\\nutter them. I must do one or the other. It does\\nnot follow, of course, that I may not recognize an-\\nother man s thoughts as broader and deeper than my\\nown; but that does not necessarily change my opin-\\nion, otherwise this would be at the mercy of every\\nsuperior mind that held a different one. How many\\nof our most cherished beliefs are like those drinking-\\nglasses of the ancient pattern, that serve us well so\\nlong as we keep them in our hand, but spill all if we\\nattempt to set them down! I have sometimes com-\\npared conversation to the Italian game of mora, in\\nwhich one player lifts his hand with so many fingers\\nextended, and the other gives the number if he can.\\nI show my thought, another his if they agree, well\\nif they differ, we find the largest common factor, if\\nwe can, but at any rate avoid disputing about remain-\\nders and fractions, which is to real talk what tuning\\nan instrument is to playing on it.\\nWhat if, instead of talking this morning, I should\\nread you a copy of verses, with critical remarks by\\nthe author Any of the company can retire that\\nlike.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0042.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 5\\nALBUM VERSES.\\nWhen Eve had led her lord away,\\nAnd Cain had killed his brother,\\nThe stars and flowers, the poets say,\\nAgreed with one another\\nTo cheat the cunning tempter s art,\\nAnd teach the race its duty,\\nBy keeping on its wicked heart\\nTheir eyes of light and beauty.\\nA million sleepless lids, they say,\\nWill be at least a warning;\\nAnd so the flowers would watch by day,\\nThe stars from eve to morning.\\nOn hill and prairie, field and lawn,\\nTheir dewy eyes upturning,\\nThe flowers still watch from reddening dawn\\nTill western skies are burning.\\nAlas each hour of daylight tells\\nA tale of shame so crushing,\\nThat some turn white as sea-bleached shells,\\nAnd some are always blushing.\\nBut when the patient stars look down\\nOn all their light discovers,\\nThe traitor s smile, the murderer s fro wn,\\nThe lips of lying lovers,\\nThey try to shut their saddening eyes,\\nAnd in the vain endeavor\\nWe see them twinkling in the skies,\\nAnd so they wink forever.\\nWhat do you think of these verses, my friends?\\nIs that piece an impromptu? said my landlady s", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0043.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "1 6 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndaughter. (Aet. 19-f. Tender-eyed blonde. Long\\nringlets. Cameo pin. Gold pencil-case on a chain.\\nLocket. Bracelet. Album. Autograph -book. Accor-\\ndion. Reads Byron, Tupper, and Sylvanus Cobb,\\njunior, while her mother makes the puddings. Says,\\nYes? when you tell her anything.) Oui et non,\\nma petite, Yes and no, my child. Five of the seven\\nverses were written off-hand the other two took a\\nweek, that is, were hanging round the desk in a\\nragged, forlorn, unrhymed condition as long as that.\\nAll poets will tell you just such stories. Oest le der-\\nnier pas qui coute. Don t you know how hard it is\\nfor some people to get out of a room after their visit\\nis really over? They want to be off, and you want\\nto have them off, but they don t know how to manage\\nit. One would think they had been built in your\\nparlor or study, and were waiting to be launched.\\nI have contrived a sort of ceremonial inclined plane\\nfor such visitors, which being lubricated with certain\\nsmooth phrases, I back them down, metaphorically\\nspeaking, stern-foremost, into their native element,\\nthe great ocean of out-doors. Well, now, there are\\npoems as hard to get rid of as these rural visitors.\\nThey come in glibly, use up all the serviceable\\nrhymes, day, ray, beauty, duty, skies, eyes, other,\\nbrother, mountain, fountain, and the like and so\\nthey go on until you think it is time for the wind-up,\\nand the wind-up won t come on any terms. So they\\nlie about until you get sick of the sight of them, and\\nend by thrusting some cold scrap of a final couplet\\nupon them, and turning them out of doors. I suspect\\na good many impromptus could tell just such a\\nstory as the above. Here turning to our landlady, I\\nused an illustration which pleased the company much", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0044.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 7\\nat the time, and has since been highly commended.\\nMadam, I said, you can pour three gills and three\\nquarters of honey from that pint jug, if it is full, in\\nless than one minute but, Madam, you could not\\nempty that last quarter of a gill, though you were\\nturned into a marble Hebe, and held the vessel upside\\ndown for a thousand years.\\nOne gets tired to death of the old, old rhymes,\\nsuch as you see in that copy of verses, which I\\ndon t mean to abuse, or to praise either. I always\\nfeel as if I were a cobbler, putting new top-leathers\\nto an old pair of boot-soles and bodies, when I am\\nfitting sentiments to these venerable jingles.\\nyouth\\nmorning\\ntruth\\nwarning.\\nNine tenths of the Juvenile Poems written\\nspring out of the above musical and suggestive co-\\nincidences.\\nYes said our landlady s daughter.\\nI did not address the following remark to her, and\\nI trust, from her limited range of reading, she will\\nnever see it I said it softly to my next neighbor.\\nWhen a young female wears a flat circular side-\\ncurl, gummed on each temple, when she walks\\nwith a male, not arm in arm, but his arm against\\nthe back of hers, and when she says Yes with\\nthe note of interrogation, you are generally safe in\\nasking her what wages she gets, and who the feller\\nwas you saw her with.\\nWhat were you whispering said the daughter\\nof the house, moistening her lips, as she spoke, in a\\nvery engaging manner.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0045.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "1 8 THE AUTOCRAT\\nI was only laying down a principle of social\\ndiagnosis.\\nYes\\nIt is curious to see how the same wants and\\ntastes find the same implements and modes of ex-\\npression in all times and places. The young ladies\\nof Otaheite, as you may see in Cook s Voyages, had\\na sort of crinoline arrangement fully equal in radius\\nto the largest spread of our own lady-baskets. When\\nI fling a Bay-State shawl over my shoulders, I am\\nonly taking a lesson from the climate that the Indian\\nhad learned before me. A blanket-shawl we call it,\\nand not a plaid and we wear it like the aborigines,\\nand not like the Highlanders.\\nWe are the Romans of the modern world,\\nthe great assimilating people. Conflicts and con-\\nquests are of course necessary accidents with us, as\\nwith our prototypes. And so we come to their style\\nof weapon. Our army sword is the short, stiff,\\npointed gladius of the Romans and the American\\nbowie-knife is the same tool, modified to meet the\\ndaily wants of civil society. I announce at this table\\nan axiom not to be found in Montesquieu or the\\njournals of Congress\\nThe race that shortens its weapons lengthens its\\nboundaries.\\nCorollary. It was the Polish lance that left Poland\\nat last with nothing of her own to bound.\\nDropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear\\nWhat business had Sarmatia to be fighting for\\nliberty with a fifteen-foot pole between her and the\\nbreasts of her enemies If she had but clutched\\nthe old Roman and young American weapon, and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0046.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 9\\ncome to close quarters, there might have been a\\nchance for her but it would have spoiled the best\\npassage in The Pleasures of Hope.\\nSelf-made men Well, yes. Of course every-\\nbody likes and respects self-made men. It is a great\\ndeal better to be made in that way than not to be\\nmade at all. Are any of you younger people old\\nenough to remember that Irishman s house on the\\nmarsh at Cambridgeport, which house he built from\\ndrain to chimney-top with his own hands It took\\nhim a good many years to build it, and one could\\nsee that it was a little out of plumb, and a little wavy\\nin outline, and a little queer and uncertain in general\\naspect. A regular hand could certainly have built\\na better house but it was a very good house for a\\nself-made carpenter s house, and people praised it,\\nand said how remarkably well the Irishman had suc-\\nceeded. They never thought of praising the fine\\nblocks of houses a little farther on.\\nYour self-made man, whittled into shape with his\\nown jack-knife, deserves more credit, if that is all,\\nthan the regular engine-turned article, shaped by the\\nmost approved pattern, and French-polished by soci-\\nety and travel. But as to saying that one is every\\nway the equal of the other, that is another matter.\\nThe right of strict social discrimination of all things\\nand persons, according to their merits, native or ac-\\nquired, is one of the most precious republican privi-\\nleges. I take the liberty to exercise it, when I say,\\nthat, other things being equal, in most relations of life\\nI prefer a man of family.\\n*What do I mean by a man of family? O, I ll give\\nyou a general idea of what I mean. Let us give him\\na first-rate fit out it costs us nothing.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0047.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "20 THE AUTOCRAT\\nFour or five generations of gentlemen and gentle-\\nwomen among them a member of his Majesty s\\nCouncil for the Province, a Governor or so, one or\\ntwo Doctors of Divinity, a member of Congress, not\\nlater than the time of top-boots with tassels.\\nFamily portraits. The member of the Council, by\\nSmibert. The great merchant -uncle, by Copley, full\\nlength, sitting in his arm-chair, in a velvet cap and\\nflowered robe, with a globe by him, to show the\\nrange of his commercial transactions, and letters with\\nlarge red seals lying round, one directed conspic-\\nuously to The Honorable etc. etc. Great-grand-\\nmother, by the same artist brown satin, lace very\\nfine, hands superlative grand old lady, stiffish, but\\nimposing. Her mother, artist unknown flat, angular,\\nhanging sleeves parrot on fist. A pair of Stuarts,\\nviz., i. A superb full-blown, mediaeval gentleman,\\nwith a fiery dash of Tory blood in his veins, tem-\\npered down with that of a fine old rebel grandmother,\\nand warmed up with the best of old India Madeira\\nhis face is one flame of ruddy sunshine his ruffled\\nshirt rushes out of his bosom with an impetuous gen-\\nerosity, as if it would drag his heart after it and his\\nsmile is good for twenty thousand dollars to the Hos-\\npital, besides ample bequests to all relatives and de-\\npendants. 2. Lady of the same; remarkable cap;\\nhigh waist, as in time of Empire bust a la Josephine\\nwisps of curls, like celery-tips, at sides of forehead\\ncomplexion clear and warm, like rose-cordial. As\\nfor the miniatures by Malbone, we don t count them\\nin the gallery.\\nBooks, too, with the names of old college-students\\nin them, family names you will find them at the\\nhead of their respective classes in the days when stu-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0048.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 21\\ndents took rank on the catalogue from their parents 1\\ncondition. Elzevirs, with the Latinized appellations\\nof youthful progenitors, and Hie liber est metis on the\\ntitle-page. A set of Hogarth s original plates. Pope,\\noriginal edition, 15 volumes, London, 17 17. Barrow\\non the lower shelves, in folio. Tillotson on the\\nupper, in a little dark platoon of octo-decimos.\\nSome family silver a string of wedding and funeral\\nrings the arms of the family curiously blazoned\\nthe same in worsted, by a maiden aunt.\\nIf the man, of family has an old place to keep\\nthese things in, furnished with claw-footed chairs and\\nblack mahogany tables, and tall bevel-edged mirrors,\\nand stately upright cabinets, his outfit is complete.\\nNo, my friends, I go (always, other things being\\nequal) for the man who inherits family traditions and\\nthe cumulative humanities of at least four or five gen-\\nerations. Above all things, as a child, he should\\nhave tumbled about in a library. All men are afraid\\nof books, who have not handled them from infancy.\\nDo you suppose our dear didascalos over there ever\\nread Poli Synopsis, or consulted Castelli Lexicon,\\nwhile he was growing up to their stature Not he\\nbut virtue passed through the hem of their parch-\\nment and leather garments whenever he touched\\nthem, as the precious drugs sweated through the bat s\\nhandle in the Arabian story. I tell you he is at home\\nwherever he smells the invigorating fragrance of Rus-\\nsia leather. No self-made man feels so. One may,\\nit is true, have all the antecedents I have spoken of,\\nand yet be a boor or a shabby fellow. One may have\\nnone of them, and yet be fit for councils and courts.\\nThen let them change places. Our social arrange-\\nment has this great beauty, that its strata shift up and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0049.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "22 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndown as they change specific gravity, without being\\nclogged by layers of prescription. But I still insist\\non my democratic liberty of choice, and I go for the\\nman with the gallery of family portraits against the\\none with the twenty-five-cent daguerreotype, unless\\nI find out that the last is the better of the two.\\nI should have felt more nervous about the late\\ncomet, if I had thought the world was ripe. But it\\nis very green yet, if I am not mistaken and besides,\\nthere is a great deal of coal to use up, which I can-\\nnot bring myself to think was made for nothing. If\\ncertain things, which seem to me essential to a mil-\\nlennium, had come to pass, I should have been fright-\\nened but they haven t. Perhaps you would like to\\nhear my\\nLATTER-DAY WARNINGS.\\nWhen legislators keep the law,\\nWhen banks dispense with bolts and locks,\\nWhen berries, whortle rasp and straw\\nGrow bigger downwards through the box,\\nWhen he that selleth house or land\\nShows leak in roof or flaw in right,\\nWhen haberdashers choose the stand\\nWhose window hath the broadest light,\\nWhen preachers tell us all they think,\\nAnd party leaders all they mean,\\nWhen what we pay for, that we drink,\\nFrom real grape and coffee-bean,\\nWhen lawyers take what they would give,\\nAnd doctors give what they would take,\\nWhen city fathers eat to live,\\nSave when they fast for conscience sake,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0050.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 2$\\nWhen one that hath a horse on sale\\nShall bring his merit to the proof,\\nWithout a lie for every nail\\nThat holds the iron on the hoof,\\nWhen in the usual place for rips\\nOur gloves are stitched with special care,\\nAnd guarded well the whalebone tips\\nWhere first umbrellas need repair,\\nWhen Cuba s weeds have quite forgot\\nThe power of suction to resist,\\nAnd claret -bottles harbor not\\nSuch dimples as would hold your fist,\\nWhen publishers no longer steal,\\nAnd pay for what they stole before,\\nWhen the first locomotive s wheel\\nRolls through the Hoosac tunnel s bore\\nTill then let Cumming blaze away,\\nAnd Miller s saints blow up the globe\\nBut when you see that blessed day,\\nThen order your ascension robe.\\nThe company seemed to like the verses, and I\\npromised them to read others occasionally, if they\\nhad a mind to hear them. Of course they would not\\nexpect it every morning. Neither must the reader\\nsuppose that all these things I have reported were\\nsaid at any one breakfast-time. I have not taken the\\ntrouble to date them^ as Raspail, pere, used to date\\nevery proof he sent to the printer but they were\\nscattered over several breakfasts and I have said a\\ngood many more things since, which I shall very pos-\\nsibly print some time or other, if I am urged to do it\\nby judicious friends.\\nI finished off with reading some verses of my friend\\nthe Professor, of whom you may perhaps hear more", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0051.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "24 AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE,\\nby and by. The Professor read them, he told me, at\\na farewell meeting, where the youngest of our great\\nHistorians met a few of his many friends at their\\ninvitation.\\nYes, we knew we must lose him, though friendship may claim\\nTo blend her green leaves with the laurels of fame\\nThough fondly, at parting, we call him our own,\\nTis the whisper of love when the bugle has blown.\\nAs the rider that rests with the spur on his heel,\\nAs the guardsman that sleeps in his corselet of steel,\\nAs the archer that stands with his shaft on the string,\\nHe stoops from his toil to the garland we bring.\\nWhat pictures yet slumber unborn in his loom\\nTill their warriors shall breathe and their beauties shall bloom,\\nWhile the tapestry lengthens the life-glowing dyes\\nThat caught from our sunsets the stain of their skies\\nIn the alcoves of death, in the charnels of time,\\nWhere flit the gaunt spectres of passion and crime,\\nThere are triumphs untold, there are martyrs unsung,\\nThere are heroes yet silent to speak with his tongue\\nLet us hear the proud story which time has bequeathed\\nFrom lips that are warm with the freedom they breathed\\nLet him summon its tyrants, and tell us their doom,\\nThough he sweep the black past like Van Tromp with his\\nbroom\\nThe dream flashes by, for the west-winds awake\\nOn pampas, on prairie, o er mountain and lake,\\nTo bathe the swift bark, like a sea-girdled shrine,\\nWith incense they stole from the rose and the pine.\\nSo fill a bright cup with the sunlight that gushed\\nWhen the dead summer s jewels were trampled and crushed\\nThe true Knight of Learning, the world holds him\\ndear,\\nLove bless him, Joy crown him, God speed his career", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0052.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "II.\\nI really believe some people save their bright\\nthoughts, as being too precious for conversation.\\nWhat do you think an admiring friend said the\\nother day to one that was talking good things,\\ngood enough to print? Why, said he, you are\\nwasting merchantable literature, a cash article, at the\\nrate, as nearly as I can tell, of fifty dollars an hour. 11\\nThe talker took him to the window and asked him to\\nlook out and tell what he saw.\\nNothing but a very dusty street, 11 he said, u and\\na man driving a sprinkling-machine through it. 11\\nWhy don^ you tell the man he is wasting that\\nwater? What would be the state of the highways of\\nlife, if we did not drive our thought-sprinklers through\\nthem with the valves open, sometimes?\\nBesides, there is another thing about this talking,\\nwhich you forget. It shapes our thoughts for us\\nthe waves of conversation roll them as the surf rolls\\nthe pebbles on the shore. Let me modify the image\\na little. I rough out my thoughts in talk as an artist\\nmodels in clay. Spoken language is so plastic,\\nyou can pat and coax, and spread and shave, and\\nrub out, and fill up, and stick on so easily, when you\\nwork that soft material, that there is nothing like it\\nfor modelling. Out of it come the shapes which you\\nturn into marble or bronze in your immortal books,\\nif you happen to write such. Or, to use another\\nillustration, writing or printing is like shooting with a\\n25", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0053.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "26 THE AUTOCRAT\\nrifle you may hit your reader s mind, or miss it\\nbut talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe\\nof an engine if it is within reach, and you have time\\nenough, you can t help hitting it.\\nThe company agreed that this last illustration was\\nof superior excellence, or, in the phrase used by them,\\nFust-rate. I acknowledged the compliment, but\\ngently rebuked the expression. Fust-rate, prime,\\na prime article, a superior piece of goods, a\\nhandsome garment, a gent in a flowered vest,\\nall such expressions are final. They blast the lineage\\nof him or her who utters them, for generations up and\\ndown. There is one other phrase which will soon\\ncome to be decisive of a man s social status, if it is\\nnot already That tells the whole story. It is an\\nexpression which vulgar and conceited people par-\\nticularly affect, and which well-meaning ones, who\\nknow better, catch from them. It is intended to stop\\nall debate, like the previous question in the General\\nCourt. Only it doesn t simply because that does\\nnot usually tell the whole, nor one half of the whole\\nstory.\\nIt is an odd idea, that almost all our people have\\nhad a professional education. To become a doctor\\na man must study some three years and hear a thou-\\nsand lectures, more or less. Just how much study it\\ntakes to make a lawyer I cannot say, but probably\\nnot more than this. Now most decent people hear\\none hundred lectures or sermons (discourses) on the-\\nology every year, and this, twenty, thirty, fifty years\\ntogether. They read a great many religious books\\nbesides. The clergy, however, rarely hear any ser-\\nmons except what they preach themselves. A dull\\npreacher might be conceived, therefore, to lapse into", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0054.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 27\\na state of quasi heathenism, simply for want of reli-\\ngious instruction. And on the other hand, an atten-\\ntive and intelligent hearer, listening to a succession\\nof wise teachers, might become actually better edu-\\ncated in theology than any one of them. We are all\\ntheological students, and more of us qualified as doc-\\ntors of divinity than have received degrees at any of\\nthe universities.\\nIt is not strange, therefore, that very good people\\nshould often find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep\\ntheir attention fixed upon a sermon treating feebly a\\nsubject which they have thought vigorously about for\\nyears, and heard able men discuss scores of times. I\\nhave often noticed, however, that a hopelessly dull\\ndiscourse acts inductively, as electricians would say,\\nin developing strong mental currents. I am ashamed\\nto think with what accompaniments and variations\\nand fioriture I have sometimes followed the droning\\nof a heavy speaker, not willingly, for my habit is\\nreverential, but as a necessary result of a slight con-\\ntinuous impression on the senses and the mind, which\\nkept both in action without furnishing the food they\\nrequired to work upon. If you ever saw a crow with\\na king-bird after him, you will get an image of a dull\\nspeaker and a lively listener. The bird in sable plum-\\nage flaps heavily along his straight-forward course,\\nwhile the other sails round him, over him, under him,\\nleaves him, comes back again, tweaks out a black\\nfeather, shoots away once more, never losing sight\\nof him, and finally reaches the crow s perch at the\\nsame time the crow does, having cut a perfect laby-\\nrinth of loops and knots and spirals while the slow\\nfowl was painfully working from one end of his straight\\nline to the other.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0055.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "28 THE AUTOCRAT\\n[I think these remarks were received rather coolly.\\nA temporary boarder from the country, consisting of\\na somewhat more than middle-aged female, with a\\nparchment forehead and a dry little frisette shin-\\ngling it, a sallow neck with a necklace of gold beads,\\na black dress too rusty for recent grief and contours\\nin basso-rilievo, left the table prematurely, and was\\nreported to have been very virulent about what I said.\\nSo I went to my good old minister, and repeated the\\nremarks, as nearly as I could remember them, to him.\\nHe laughed good-naturedly, and said there was con-\\nsiderable truth in them. He thought he could tell\\nwhen people s minds were wandering, by their looks.\\nIn the earlier years of his ministry he had sometimes\\nnoticed this, when he was preaching very little of\\nlate years. Sometimes, when his colleague was preach-\\ning, he observed this kind of inattention but after\\nall, it was not so very unnatural. I will say, by the\\nway, that it is a rule I have long followed, to tell my\\nworst thoughts to my minister, and my best thoughts\\nto the young people I talk with.]\\nI want to make a literary confession now, which\\nI believe nobody has made before me. You know\\nvery well that I write verses sometimes, because I\\nhave read some of them at this table. (The com-\\npany assented, two or three of them in a resigned\\nsort of way, as I thought, as if they supposed I had\\nan epic in my pocket, and was going to read half\\na dozen books or so for their benefit.) I contin-\\nued. Of course I write some lines or passages which\\nare better than others some which, compared with\\nthe others, might be called relatively excellent. It\\nis in the nature of things that I should consider\\nthese relatively excellent lines or passages as abso-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0056.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 29\\nlutely good. So much must be pardoned to human-\\nity. Now I never wrote a good 1 line in my life,\\nbut the moment after it was written it seemed a hun-\\ndred years old. Very commonly I had a sudden con-\\nviction that I had seen it somewhere. Possibly I\\nmay have, sometimes unconsciously stolen it, but I\\ndo not remember that I ever once detected any his-\\ntorical truth in these sudden convictions of the an-\\ntiquity of my new thought or phrase. I have learned\\nutterly to distrust them, and never allow them to bully\\nme out of a thought or line.\\nThis is the philosophy of it. (Here the number\\nof the company was diminished by a small secession.)\\nAny new formula which suddenly emerges in our con-\\nsciousness has its roots in long trains of thought it\\nis virtually old when it first makes its appearance\\namong the recognized growths of our intellect. Any\\ncrystalline group of musical words has had a long\\nand still period to form in. Here is one theory.\\nBut there is a larger law which perhaps compre-\\nhends these facts. It is this. The rapidity with\\nwhich ideas grow old in our memories is in a direct\\nratio to the squares of their importance. Their ap-\\nparent age runs up miraculously, like the value of\\ndiamonds, as they increase in magnitude. A great\\ncalamity, for instance, is as old as the trilobites an\\nhour after it has happened. It stains backward\\nthrough all the leaves we have turned over in the\\nbook of life, before its blot of tears or of blood is dry\\non the page we are turning. For this we seem to\\nhave lived it was foreshadowed in dreams that we\\nleaped out of in the cold sweat of terror; in the\\ndissolving views of dark day-visions all omens\\npointed to it all paths led to it. After the tossing", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0057.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "30 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhalf-forgetfulness of the first sleep that follows such\\nan event, it comes upon us afresh, as a surprise, at\\nwaking in a few moments it is old again, old as\\neternity.\\n[I wish I had not said all this then and there. I\\nmight have known better. The pale schoolmistress,\\nin her mourning dress, was looking at me, as I noticed,\\nwith a wild sort of expression. All at once the blood\\ndropped out of her cheeks as the mercury drops from\\na broken barometer-tube, and she melted away from\\nher seat like an image of snow a slung-shot could\\nnot have brought her down better. God forgive me\\nAfter this little episode, I continued, to some few\\nthat remained balancing teaspoons on the edges of\\ncups, twirling knives, or tilting upon the hind legs of\\ntheir chairs until their heads reached the wall, where\\nthey left gratuitous advertisements of various popular\\ncosmetics.]\\nWhen a person is suddenly thrust into any strange,\\nnew position of trial, he finds the place fits him as\\nif he had been measured for it. He has committed\\na great crime, for instance, and is sent to the State\\nPrison. The traditions, prescriptions, limitations,\\nprivileges, all the sharp conditions of his new life,\\nstamp themselves upon his consciousness as the sig-\\nnet on soft wax a single pressure is enough. Let\\nme strengthen the image a little. Did you ever\\nhappen to see that most soft-spoken and velvet-\\nhanded steam-engine at the Mint? The smooth\\npiston slides backward and forward as a lady might\\nslip her delicate finger in and out of a ring. The\\nengine lays one of its fingers calmly, but firmly, upon\\na bit of metal it is a coin now, and will remember\\nthat touch, and tell a new race about it, when the date", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0058.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 31\\nupon it is crusted over with twenty centuries. So\\nit is that a great silent-moving misery puts a new stamp\\non us in an hour or a moment, as sharp an impres-\\nsion as if it had taken half a lifetime to engrave it.\\nIt is awful to be in the hands of the wholesale\\nprofessional dealers in misfortune: undertakers and\\njailers magnetize you in a moment, and you pass\\nout of the individual life you were living into the\\nrhythmical movements of their horrible machinery.\\nDo the worst thing you can, or suffer the worst that\\ncan be thought of, you find yourself in a category of\\nhumanity that stretches back as far as Cain, and with\\nan expert at your elbow who has studied your case all\\nout beforehand, and is waiting for you with his imple-\\nments of hemp or mahogany. I believe, if a man were\\nto be burned in any of our cities to-morrow for heresy,\\nthere would be found a master of ceremonies that\\nknew just how many fagots were necessary, and the\\nbest way of arranging the whole matter.\\nSo we have not won the Goodwood cup au con-\\ntraire, we were a bad fifth, if not worse than that\\nand trying it again, and the third time, has not yet\\nbettered the matter. Now I am as patriotic as any of my\\nfellow-citizens, too patriotic in fact, for I have got\\ninto hot water by loving too much of my country in\\nshort, if any man, whose fighting weight is not more\\nthan eight stone four pounds, disputes it, I am ready\\nto discuss the point with him. I should have gloried\\nto see the stars and stripes in front at the finish. I\\nlove my country, and I love horses. Stubbs s old\\nmezzotint of Eclipse hangs over my desk, and Her-\\nring^ portrait of Plenipotentiary, whom I saw run at\\nEpsom, over my fireplace. Did I not elope from\\nschool to see Revenge, and Prospect, and Little John,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0059.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "32 THE AUTOCRAT\\nand Peacemaker run over the race-course where now\\nyon suburban village flourishes, in the year eigh-\\nteen hundred and ever-so-few? Though I never\\nowned a horse, have I not been the proprietor of six\\nequine females, of which one was the prettiest little\\nMorgin 11 that ever stepped? Listen, then, to an\\nopinion I have often expressed long before this ven-\\nture of ours in England. Horse-racing is not a repub-\\nlican institution horse-trotting is. Only very rich\\npersons can keep race-horses, and everybody knows\\nthey are kept mainly as gambling implements. All\\nthat matter about blood and speed we wont discuss\\nwe understand all that useful, very, of course,\\ngreat obligations to the Godolphin Arabian, 11 and\\nthe rest. I say racing horses are essentially gambling\\nimplements, as much as roulette tables. Now I am\\nnot preaching at this moment I may read you one\\nof my sermons some other morning but I maintain\\nthat gambling, on the great scale, is not republican.\\nIt belongs to two phases of society, a cankered over-\\ncivilization, such as exists in rich aristocracies, and the\\nreckless life of borderers and adventurers, or the semi-\\nbarbarism of a civilization resolved into its primitive\\nelements. Real Republicanism is stern and severe;\\nits essence is not in forms of government, but in the\\nomnipotence of public opinion which grows out of it.\\nThis public opinion cannot prevent gambling with\\ndice or stocks, but it can and does compel it to keep\\ncomparatively quiet. But horse-racing is the most\\npublic way of gambling; and with all its immense\\nattractions to the sense and the feelings, to which\\nI plead very susceptible, the disguise is too thin\\nthat covers it, and everybody knows what it means.\\nIts supporters are the Southern gentry, fine fellows.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0060.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 33\\nno doubt, but not republicans exactly, as we under-\\nstand the term, a few Northern millionnaires more\\nor less thoroughly million ed, who do not represent\\nthe real people, and the mob of sporting men, the\\nbest of whom are commonly idlers, and the worst very\\nbad neighbors to have near one in a crowd, or to\\nmeet in a dark alley. In England, on the other hand,\\nwith its aristocratic institutions, racing is a natural\\ngrowth enough the passion for it spreads downwards\\nthrough all classes, from the Queen to the costermongen\\nLondon is like a shelled corn-cob on the Derby day,\\nand there is not a clerk who could raise the money to\\nhire a saddle with an old hack under it that can sit\\ndown on his office-stool the next day without wincing.\\nNow just compare the racer with the trotter for a\\nmoment. The racer is incidentally useful, but essen-\\ntially something to bet upon, as much as the thimble-\\nrigger s little joker. The trotter is essentially and\\ndaily useful, and only incidentally a tool for sporting\\nmen.\\nWhat better reason do you want for the fact that\\nthe racer is most cultivated and reaches his greatest\\nperfection in England, and that the trotting horses\\nof America beat the world And why should we\\nhave expected that the pick if it was the pick of\\nour few and far-between racing stables should beat\\nthe pick of England and France Throw over the\\nfallacious time-test, and there was nothing to show\\nfor it but a natural kind of patriotic feeling, which we\\nall have, with a thoroughly provincial conceit, which\\nsome of us must plead guilty to.\\nWe may beat yet. As an American, I hope we\\nshall. As a moralist and occasional sermonizer, I\\nam not so anxious about it. Wherever the trotting", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0061.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "34 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhorse goes, he carries in his train brisk omnibuses,\\nlively bakers carts, and therefore hot rolls, the jolly\\nbutcher s wagon, the cheerful gig, the wholesome\\nafternoon drive with wife and child, all the forms\\nof moral excellence, except truth, which does not\\nagree with any kind of horse-flesh. The racer brings\\nwith him gambling, cursing, swearing, drinking, the\\neating of oysters, and a distaste for mob-caps and the\\nmiddle-aged virtues.\\nAnd by the way, let me beg you not to call a trot-\\nting match a race, and not to speak of a thorough-\\nbred as a blooded horse, unless he has been\\nrecently phlebotomized. I consent to your saying\\nblood horse, if you like. Also, if, next year, we\\nsend out Posterior and Posterioress, the winners of\\nthe great national four-mile race in 7 18 J, and they\\nhappen to get beaten, pay your bets, and behave like\\nmen and gentlemen about it, if you know how.\\n[I felt a great deal better after blowing off the ill-\\ntemper condensed in the above paragraph. To brag\\nlittle, to show well, to crow gently, if in luck,\\nto pay up, to own up, and to shut up, if beaten, are\\nthe virtues of a sporting man, and I can t say that I\\nthink we have shown them in any great perfection of\\nlate.]\\nApropos of horses. Do you know how impor-\\ntant goocl jockeying is to authors Judicious man-\\nagement letting the public see your animal just\\nenough, and not too much holding him up hard\\nwhen the market is too full of him letting him out\\nat just the right buying intervals always gently feel-\\ning his mouth never slacking and never jerking the\\nrein this is what I mean by jockeying.\\nWhen an author has a number of books out, a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0062.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 35\\ncunning hand will keep them all spinning, as Signor\\nBlitz does his dinner-plates fetching each one up, as\\nit begins to wabble, by an advertisement, a puff, or\\na quotation.\\nWhenever the extracts from a living writer begin\\nto multiply fast in the papers, without obvious reason,\\nthere is a new book or a new edition coming. The\\nextracts are ground-bait.\\nLiterary life is full of curious phenomena. I\\ndon t know that there is anything more noticeable\\nthan what we may call conventional reputations.\\nThere is a tacit understanding in every community\\nof men of letters that they will not disturb the pop-\\nular fallacy respecting this or that electro-gilded\\ncelebrity. There are various reasons for this forbear-\\nance one is old one is rich one is good-natured\\none is such a favorite with the pit that it would not\\nbe safe to hiss him from the manager s box. The\\nvenerable augurs of the literary or scientific temple\\nmay smile faintly when one of the tribe is mentioned\\nbut the farce is in general kept up as well as the\\nChinese comic scene of entreating and imploring a\\nman to stay with you, with the implied compact\\nbetween you that he shall by no means think of\\ndoing it. A poor wretch he must be who would\\nwantonly sit down on one of these bandbox reputa-\\ntions. A Prince-RupertVdrop, which is a tear of\\nunannealed glass, lasts indefinitely, if you keep it\\nfrom meddling hands but break its tail off, and it\\nexplodes and resolves itself into powder. These\\ncelebrities I speak of are the Prince-Rupert s-drops\\nof the learned and polite world. See how the papers\\ntreat them What an array of pleasant kaleido-\\nscopic phrases, which can be arranged in ever so", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0063.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "36 THE AUTOCRAT\\nmany charming patterns, is at their service How\\nkind the Critical Notices where small author-\\nship comes to pick up chips of praise, fragrant,\\nsugary, and sappy always are to them Well,\\nlife would be nothing without paper-credit and other\\nfictions so let them pass current. Don t steal their\\nchips don t puncture their swimming-bladders don t\\ncome down on their pasteboard boxes don t break\\nthe ends of their brittle and unstable reputations, you\\nfellows who all feel sure that your names will be\\nhousehold words a thousand years from now.\\nA thousand years is a good while, said the old\\ngentleman who sits opposite, thoughtfully.\\nWhere have I been for the last three or four\\ndays? Down at the Island, deer-shooting. How\\nmany did I bag? I brought home one buck shot.\\nThe Island is where? No matter. It is the most\\nsplendid domain that any man looks upon in these\\nlatitudes. Blue sea around it, and running up into\\nits heart, so that the little boat slumbers like a baby\\nin lap, while the tall ships are stripping naked to\\nfight the hurricane outside, and storm-stay-sails bang-\\ning and flying in ribbons. Trees, in stretches of\\nmiles beeches, oaks, most numerous many of\\nthem hung with moss, looking like bearded Druids\\nsome coiled in the clasp of huge, dark-stemmed\\ngrape-vines. Open patches where the sun gets in\\nand goes to sleep, and the winds come so finely\\nsifted that they are as soft as swan s down. Rocks\\nscattered ab out, Stonehenge-like monoliths. Fresh-\\nwater lakes one of them, Mary s lake, crystal-clear,\\nfull of flashing pickerel lying under the lily-pads like\\ntigers in the jungle. Six pounds of ditto killed one\\nmorning for breakfast. Ego fecit.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0064.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 37\\nThe divinity-student looked as if he would like to\\nquestion my Latin. No, sir, I said, you need not\\ntrouble yourself. There is a higher law in grammar,\\nnot to be put down by Andrews and Stoddard. Then\\nI went on.\\nSuch hospitality as that island has seen there has\\nnot been the like of in these our New England sov-\\nereignties. There is nothing in the shape of kind-\\nness and courtesy that can make life beautiful, which\\nhas not found its home in that ocean-principality.\\nIt has welcomed all who were worthy of welcome,\\nfrom the pale clergyman who came to breathe the\\nsea-air with its medicinal salt and iodine, to the\\ngreat statesman who turned his back on the affairs\\nof empire, and smoothed his Olympian forehead,\\nand flashed his white teeth in merriment over the\\nlong table, where his wit was the keenest and his\\nstory the best.\\n[I don t believe any man ever talked like that in\\nthis world. I don t believe talked just so but the\\nfact is, in reporting one s conversation, one cannot\\nhelp Blair-mg it up more or less, ironing out crumpled\\nparagraphs, starching limp ones, and crimping and\\nplaiting a little sometimes it is as natural as prink-\\ning at the looking-glass.]\\nHow can a man help writing poetry in such a\\nplace? Everybody does write poetry that goes there.\\nIn the state archives, kept in the library of the Lord\\nof the Isle, are whole volumes of unpublished verse,\\nsome by well-known hands, and others, quite as\\ngood, by the last people you would think of as ver-\\nsifiers, men who could pension off all the genuine\\npoets in the country, and buy ten acres of Boston\\ncommon, if it was for sale, with what they had left.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0065.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "38 THE AUTOCRAT\\nOf course I had to write my little copy of verses\\nwith the rest here it is, if you will hear me read it.\\nWhen the sun is in the west, vessels sailing in an\\neasterly direction look bright or dark to one who\\nobserves them from the north or south, according to\\nthe tack they are sailing upon. Watching them\\nfrom one of the windows of the great mansion, I saw\\nthese perpetual changes, and moralized thus\\nSUN AND SHADOW.\\nAs I look from the isle, o er its billows of green,\\nTo the billows of foam-crested blue,\\nYon bark, that afar in the distance is seen,\\nHalf dreaming, my eyes will pursue\\nNow dark in the shadow, she scatters the spray\\nAs the chaff in the stroke of the flail\\nNow white as the sea-gull, she flies on her way,\\nThe sun gleaming bright on her sail.\\nYet her pilot is thinking of dangers to shun,\\nOf breakers that whiten and roar\\nHow little he cares, if in shadow or sun\\nThey see him that gaze from the shore\\nHe looks to the beacon that looms from the reef,\\nTo the rock that is under his lee,\\nAs he drifts on the blast, like a wind-wafted leaf,\\nO er the gulfs of the desolate sea.\\nThus drifting afar to the dim-vaulted caves\\nWhere life and its ventures are laid,\\nThe dreamers who gaze while we battle the waves\\nMay see us in sunshine or shade\\nYet true to our course, though our shadow grow dark,\\nWe 11 trim our broad sail as before,\\nAnd stand by the rudder that governs the bark,\\nNor ask how we look from the shore\\nInsanity is often the logic of an accurate mind\\novertasked. Good mental machinery ought to break", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0066.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE 39\\nits own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among\\nthem suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse\\ntheir motion. A weak mind does not accumulate\\nforce enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a\\nman from going mad. We frequently see persons\\nin insane hospitals, sent there in consequence of what\\nare called religions mental disturbances. I confess\\nthat I think better of them than of many who hold\\nthe same notions, and keep their wits and appear to\\nenjoy life very well, outside of the asylums. Any\\ndecent person ought to go mad, if he really holds\\nsuch or such opinions. It is very much to his dis-\\ncredit in every point of view, if he does not. What\\nis the use of my saying what some of these opinions\\nare? Perhaps more than one of you hold such as I\\nshould think ought to send you straight over to\\nSomerville, if you have any logic in your heads or\\nany human feeling in your hearts. Anything that is\\nbrutal, cruel, heathenish, that makes life hopeless for\\nthe most of mankind and perhaps for entire races,\\nanything that assumes the necessity of the extermi-\\nnation of instincts which were given to be regulated,\\nno matter by what name you call it, no matter\\nwhether a fakir, or a monk, or a deacon believes it,\\nif received, ought to produce insanity in every\\nwell-regulated mind. That condition becomes a\\nnormal one, under the circumstances. I am very\\nmuch ashamed of some people for retaining their\\nreason, when they know perfectly well that if they\\nwere not the most stupid or the most selfish of human\\nbeings, they would become non-compotes at once.\\n[Nobody understood this but the theological stu-\\ndent and the schoolmistress. They looked intelli-\\ngently at each other but whether they were thinking", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0067.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "40 THE AUTOCRAT\\nabout my paradox or not, I am not clear. It would\\nbe natural enough. Stranger things have happened.\\nLove and Death enter boarding-houses without ask-\\ning the price of board, or whether there is room for\\nthem. Alas, these young people are poor and pallid\\nLove should be both rich and rosy, but must be either\\nrich or rosy. Talk about military duty What is\\nthat to the warfare of a married maid-of-all-work,\\nwith the title of mistress, and an American female\\nconstitution, which collapses just in the middle third\\nof life, and comes out vulcanized India-rubber, if it\\nhappen to live through the period when health and\\nstrength are most wanted?]\\nHave I ever acted in private theatricals? Often.\\nI have played the part of the Poor Gentleman, be-\\nfore a great many audiences, more, I trust, than\\nI shall ever face again. I did not wear a stage-cos-\\ntume, nor a wig, nor moustaches of burnt cork but\\nI was placarded and announced as a public performer,\\nand at the proper hour I came forward with the ballet-\\ndancer s smile upon my countenance, and made my\\nbow and acted my part. I have seen my name stuck\\nup in letters so big that I was ashamed to show my-\\nself in the place by daylight. I have gone to a town\\nwith a sober literary essay in my pocket, and seen\\nmyself everywhere announced as the most desperate\\nof buffos, one who was obliged to restrain himself\\nin the full exercise of his powers, from prudential con-\\nsiderations. I have been through as many hardships\\nas Ulysses, in the pursuit of my histrionic vocation. I\\nhave travelled in cars until the conductors all knew\\nme like a brother. I have run off the rails, and stuck\\nall night in snow-drifts, and sat behind females that\\nwould have the window open when one could not wink", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0068.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 4 1\\nwithout his eyelids freezing together. Perhaps I shall\\ngive you some of my experiences one of these days\\nI will not now, for I have something else for you.\\nPrivate theatricals, as I have figured in them in\\ncountry lyceum-halls, are one thing, and private\\ntheatricals, as they may be seen in certain gilded and\\nfrescoed saloons of our metropolis, are another. Yes,\\nit is pleasant to see real gentlemen and ladies, who do\\nnot think it necessary to mouth, and rant, and stride,\\nlike most of our stage heroes and heroines, in the\\ncharacters which show off their graces and talents\\nmost of all to see a fresh, unrouged, unspoiled, high-\\nbred young maiden, with a lithe figure, and a pleasant\\nvoice, acting in those love-dramas which make us\\nyoung again to look upon, when real youth and\\nbeauty will play them for us.\\nOf course I wrote the prologue I was asked to\\nwrite. I did not see the play, though. I knew there\\nwas a young lady in it, and that somebody was in love\\nwith her, and she was in love with him, and somebody\\n(an old tutor, I believe) wanted to interfere, and, very\\nnaturally, the young lady was too sharp for him. The\\nplay of course ends charmingly there is a general\\nreconciliation, and all concerned form a line and take\\neach others hands, as people always do after they\\nhave made up their quarrels, and then the curtain\\nfalls, if it does not stick, as it commonly does at\\nprivate theatrical exhibitions, in which case a boy\\nis detailed to pull it down, which he does, blushing\\nviolently.\\nNow, then, for my prologue. I am not going to\\nchange my caesuras and cadences for anybody so if\\nyou do not like the heroic, or iambic trimeter brachy-\\ncatalectic, you had better not wait to hear it.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0069.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "42 THE AUTOCRAT\\nTHIS IS IT.\\nA Prologue Well, of course the ladies know\\nI have my doubts. No matter, here we go\\nWhat is a Prologue Let our Tutor teach\\nPro means beforehand logos stands for speech.\\nT is like the harper s prelude on the strings,\\nThe prima donna s courtesy ere she sings\\nPrologues in metre are to other pros\\nAs worsted stockings are to engine-hose.\\nThe world s a stage, as Shakspeare said, one day;\\nThe stage a world was what he meant to say.\\nThe outside world s a blunder, that is clear\\nThe real world that Nature meant is here.\\nHere every foundling finds its lost mamma;\\nEach rogue, repentant, melts his stern papa\\nMisers relent, the spendthrift s debts are paid,\\nThe cheats are taken in the traps they laid\\nOne after one the troubles all are past\\nTill the fifth act comes right side up at last,\\nWhen the young couple, old folks, rogues, and all,\\nJoin hands, so happy at the curtain s fall.\\nHere suffering virtue ever finds relief,\\nAnd black-browed ruffians always come to grief,\\nWhen the lorn damsel, with a frantic screech,\\nAnd cheeks as hueless as a brandy-peach,\\nCries, Help, kyind Heaven and drops upon her knees\\nOn the green baize, beneath the (canvas) trees,\\nSee to her side avenging Valor fly\\nHa Villain Draw Now, Terraitorr, yield or die\\nWhen the poor hero flounders in despair,\\nSome dear lost uncle turns up millionnaire,\\nClasps the young scapegrace with paternal joy,\\nSobs on his neck, My boy My BOY MY BOY\\nOurs, then, sweet friends, the real world to-night.\\nOf love that conquers in disaster s spite.\\nLadies, attend! While woful cares and doubt\\nWrong the soft passion in the world without,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0070.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 43\\nThough fortune scowl, though prudence interfere,\\nOne thing is certain Love will triumph here\\nLords of creation, whom your ladies rule,\\nThe world s great masters, when you re out of school,\\nLearn the brief moral of our evening s play\\nMan has his will, but woman has her way\\nWhile man s dull spirit toils in smoke and fire,\\nWoman s swift instinct threads the electric wire,\\nThe magic bracelet stretched beneath the waves\\nBeats the black giant with his score of slaves.\\nAll earthly powers confess your sovereign art\\nBut that one rebel, woman s wilful heart.\\nAll foes you master but a woman s wit\\nLets daylight through you ere you know you re hit.\\nSo, just to picture what her art can do,\\nHear an old story made as good as new.\\nRudolph, professor of the headsman s trade,\\nAlike was famous for his arm and blade.\\nOne day a prisoner Justice had to kill\\nKnelt at the block to test the artist s skill.\\nBare-armed, swart -visaged, gaunt, and shaggy-browed,\\nRudolph the headsman rose above the crowd.\\nHis falchion lightened with a sudden gleam,\\nAs the pike s* armor flashes in the stream.\\nHe sheathed his blade he turned as if to go\\nThe victim knelt, still waiting for the blow.\\nWhy strikest not Perform thy murderous act,\\nThe prisoner said. (His voice was slightly cracked.)\\nFriend, I have struck, the artist straight replied\\nWait but one moment, and yourself decide.\\nHe held his snuff-box, Now then, if you please\\nThe prisoner sniffed, and, with a crashing sneeze,\\nOff his head tumbled, bowled along the floor,\\nBounced down the steps the prisoner said no more\\nWoman thy falchion is a glittering eye\\nIf death lurks in it, oh, how sweet to die\\nThou takest hearts as Rudolph took the head\\nWe die with love, and never dream we re dead", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0071.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "44 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThe prologue went off very well, as I hear. No\\nalterations were suggested by the lady to whom it was\\nsent, so far as I know. Sometimes people criticize\\nthe poems one sends them, and suggest all sorts of\\nimprovement. Who was that silly body that wanted\\nBurns to alter Scots wha hae, so as to lengthen the\\nlast line, thus\\nEdward! Chains and slavery\\nHere is a little poem I sent a short time since to a\\ncommittee for a certain celebration. I understood\\nthat it was to be a festive and convivial occasion, and\\nordered myself accordingly. It seems the president\\nof the day was what is called a teetotaller. 1 I\\nreceived a note from him in the following words,\\ncontaining the copy subjoined, with the emendations\\nannexed to it.\\nDear Sir, your poem gives good satisfaction to\\nthe committee. The sentiments expressed with ref-\\nerence to liquor are not, however, those generally\\nentertained by this community. I have therefore\\nconsulted the clergyman of this place, who has made\\nsome slight changes, which he thinks will remove all\\nobjections, and keep the valuable portions of the poem.\\nPlease to inform me of your charge for said poem.\\nOur means are limited, etc., etc., etc.\\nYours with respect.\\nHERE IT IS, WITH THE SLIGHT ALTERATIONS/\\nCome fill a fresh bumper, for why should we go\\nlogwood\\nWhile the n e ctar still reddens our cups as they flow?", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0072.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLEx 45\\ntTecoction\\nPour out the rich juice s still Drightrwith the sun,\\ndye-stuff\\nTill o er the brimmed crystal the tttbies- shall run.\\nhalf-ripetted apples\\nThe purple globed cluster s their life-dews have bled;\\ntaste sugar of lead\\nHow sweet is the breath of the fragrance they ohod -4\\nrank poisons wines f/f\\nFor summer s last rosea lie hid in the wines\\nstable-boys smoking long-nines.\\nThat were garnered by maidens who laughed through the\\nscowl howl scoff sneer\\nThen a smil e, and a g lass, and a toast and a e hce r,\\nstrychnine and whiskey, and ratsbane and beer\\nFor all th e- good wine, and wo vc some of it here 4\\nIn cellar, in pantry, in attic, in hall,\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0Down, down, with the tyrant that masters us all I\\nLong liv e the gay servant that laughs fur us all! 1\\nThe company said I had been shabbily treated, and\\nadvised me to charge the committee double, which\\nI did. But as I never got my pay, I don t know that\\nit made much difference. I am a very particular\\nperson about having all I write printed as I write it.\\nI require to see a proof, a revise, a re-revise, and a\\ndouble re-revise, or fourth-proof rectified impression\\nof all my productions, especially verse. A misprint\\nkills a sensitive author. An intentional change of\\nhis text murders him. No wonder so many poets die\\nyoung\\nI have nothing more to report at this time, except\\ntwo pieces of advice I gave to the young women at", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0073.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "46 A UTOCRA T OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.\\ntable. One relates to a vulgarism of language, which\\nI grieve to say is sometimes heard even from female\\nlips. The other is of more serious purport, and\\napplies to such as contemplate a change of condition,\\nmatrimony, in fact.\\nThe woman who calc lates is lost.\\nPut not your trust in money, but put your money\\nin trust.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0074.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "III.\\n[The Atlantic obeys the moon, and its Luni-\\nversary has come round again. I have gathered up\\nsome hasty notes of my remarks made since the last\\nhigh tides, which I respectfully submit. Please to\\nremember this is talk just as easy and just as formal\\nas I choose to make it.]\\nI never saw an author in my life saving, per-\\nhaps, one that did not purr as audibly as a full-\\ngrown domestic cat, (jFelzs Catus, Linn.,) on having\\nhis fur smoothed in the right way by a skilful hand.\\nBut let me give you a caution. Be very careful how\\nyou tell an author he is droll. Ten to one he will hate\\nyou and if he does, be sure he can do you a mischief,\\nand very probably will. Say you cried over his\\nromance or his verses, and he will love you and send\\nyou a copy. You can laugh over that as much as you\\nlike in private.\\nWonder why authors and actors are ashamed of\\nbeing funny? Why, there are obvious reasons, and\\ndeep philosophical ones. The clown knows very well\\nthat the women are not in love with him, but with\\nHamlet, the fellow in the black cloak and plumed\\nhat. Passion never laughs. The wit knows that his\\nplace is at the tail of a procession.\\nIf you want the deep underlying reason, I must take\\nmore time to tell it. There is a perfect consciousness\\nin every form of wit using that term in its general\\n47", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0075.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "48 THE AUTOCRAT\\nsense that its essence consists in a partial and in-\\ncomplete view of whatever it touches. It throws a\\nsingle ray, separated from the rest, red, yellow,\\nblue, or any intermediate shade, upon an object;\\nnever white light that is the province of wisdom,,\\nWe get beautiful effects from wit, all the prismatic\\ncolors, but never the object as it is in fair daylight.\\nA pun, which is a kind of wit, is a different and much\\nshallower trick in mental optics throwing the shadows\\nof two objects so that one overlies the other. Poetry\\nuses the rainbow tints for special effects, but always\\nkeeps its essential object in the purest white light of\\ntruth. Will you allow me to pursue this subject a\\nlittle further?\\n[They didn t allow me at that time, for somebody\\nhappened to scrape the floor with his chair just then\\nwhich accidental sound, as all must have noticed, has\\nthe instantaneous effect that the cutting of the yellow\\nhair by Iris had upon infelix Dido. It broke the\\ncharm, and that breakfast was over.]\\nDon t flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes\\nyou to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On\\nthe contrary, the nearer you come into relation with\\na person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy\\nbecome. Except in cases of necessity, which are\\nrare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant truths from\\nhis enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.\\nGood-breeding never forgets that a,7nonr-propre is\\nuniversal. When you read the story of the Arch-\\nbishop and Gil Bias, you may laugh, if you will, at\\nthe poor old man s delusion; but don t forget that\\nthe youth was the greater fool of the two, and that\\nhis master served such a booby rightly in turning him\\nout of doors.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0076.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 49\\nYou need not get up a rebellion against what I\\nsay, if you find everything in my sayings is not exactly\\nnew. You can t possibly mistake a man who means\\nto be honest for a literary pickpocket. I once read an\\nintroductory lecture that looked to me too learned for\\nits latitude. On examination, I found all its erudition\\nwas taken ready-made from D Israeli. If I had been\\nill-natured, I should have shown up the little great\\nman, who had once belabored me in his feeble way.\\nBut one can generally tell these wholesale thieves\\neasily enough, and they are not worth the trouble of\\nputting them in the pillory. I doubt the entire nov-\\nelty of my remarks just made on telling unpleasant\\ntruths, yet I am not conscious of any larceny.\\nNeither make too much of flaws and occasional\\noverstatements. Some persons seem to think that\\nabsolute truth, in the form of rigidly stated proposi-\\ntions, is all that conversation admits. This is pre-\\ncisely as if a musician should insist on having nothing\\nbut perfect chords and simple melodies, no dimin-\\nished fifths, no flat sevenths, no flourishes, on any\\naccount. Now it is fair to say, that, just as music\\nmust have all these, so conversation must have its\\npartial truths, its embellished truths, its exaggerated\\ntruths. It is in its higher forms an artistic product,\\nand admits the ideal element as much as pictures\\nor statues. One man who is a little too literal can\\nspoil the talk of a whole tableful of men of esprit.\\nYes, you say, but who wants to hear fanciful\\npeople s nonsense? Put the facts to it, and then\\nsee where it is I Certainly, if a man is too\\nfond of paradox, if he is flighty and empty, if,\\ninstead of striking those fifths and sevenths, those\\nharmonious discords, often so much better than the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0077.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "50 THE AUTOCRAT\\ntwinned octaves in the music of thought, if, instead\\nof striking these, he jangles the chords, stick a fact\\ninto him like a stiletto. But remember that talking\\nis one of the fine arts, the noblest, the most impor-\\ntant, and the most difficult, and that its fluent har-\\nmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single\\nharsh note. Therefore conversation which is sug-\\ngestive rather than argumentative, which lets out the\\nmost of each talkers results of thought, is commonly\\nthe pleasantest and the most profitable. It is not\\neasy, at the best, for two persons talking together\\nto make the most of each other s thoughts, there are\\nso many of them.\\n[The company looked as if they wanted an expla-\\nnation.]\\nWhen John and Thomas, for instance, are talking\\ntogether, it is natural enough that among the six there\\nshould be more or less confusion and misapprehen-\\nsion.\\n[Our landlady turned pale no doubt she thought\\nthere was a screw loose in my intellects, and that\\ninvolved the probable loss of a boarder. A severe-\\nlooking person, who wears a Spanish cloak and a sad\\ncheek, fluted by the passions of the melodrama, whom\\nI understand to be the professional ruffian of the\\nneighboring theatre, alluded, with a certain lifting of\\nthe brow, drawing down of the corners of the mouth,\\nand somewhat rasping voce di petto, to FalstafFs nine\\nmen in buckram. Everybody looked up. I believe\\nthe old gentleman opposite was afraid I should seize\\nthe carving-knife at any rate, he slid it to one side,\\nas it were carelessly.]\\nI think, I said, I can make it plain to Benjamin\\nFranklin here, that there are at least six personalities", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0078.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 5 I\\ndistinctly to be recognized as taking part in that dia-\\nlogue between John and Thomas.\\n1. The real John; known only to his\\nMaker.\\nJohn s ideal John; never the real one,\\nThree Johns. and often very unlike him.\\nThomas s ideal John; never the real\\nJohn, nor John s John, but often very\\nunlike either,\\nr 1. The real Thomas.\\nThree Thomases. 2. Thomas s ideal Thomas.\\nI 3. John s ideal Thomas.\\nOnly one of the three Johns is taxed only one\\ncan be weighed on a platform-balance but the other\\ntwo are just as important in the conversation. Let\\nus suppose the real John to be old, dull, and ill-look-\\ning. But as the Higher Powers have not conferred\\non men the gift of seeing themselves in the true light,\\nJohn very possibly conceives himself to be youthful,\\nwitty, and fascinating, and talks from the point of view\\nof this ideal. Thomas, again, believes him to be an\\nartful rogue, we will say therefore he is, so far as\\nThomas s attitude in the conversation is concerned,\\nan artful rogue, though really simple and stupid. The\\nsame conditions apply to the three Thomases. It\\nfollows, that, until a man can be found who knows\\nhimself as his Maker knows him, or who sees himself\\nas others see him, there must be at least six persons\\nengaged in every dialogue between two. Of these,\\nthe least important, philosophically speaking, is the\\none that we have called the real person. No wonder\\ntwo disputants often get angry, when there are six of\\nthem talking and listening all at the same time.\\n[A very unphilosophical application of the above\\nremarks was made by a young fellow, answering to", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0079.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "52 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthe name of John, who sits near me at table. A cer-\\ntain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known\\nto boarding-houses, was on its way to me vid this\\nunlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that\\nremained in the basket, remarking that there was just\\none apiece for him. I convinced him that his practi-\\ncal inference was hasty and illogical, but in the mean\\ntime he had eaten the peaches.]\\nThe opinions of relatives as to a man s powers\\nare very commonly of little value not merely because\\nthey sometimes overrate their own flesh and blood,\\nas some may suppose on the contrary, they are quite\\nas likely to underrate those whom they have grown\\ninto the habit of considering like themselves. The\\nadvent of genius is like what florists style the break-\\ning of a seedling tulip into what we may call high-\\ncaste colors, ten thousand dingy flowers, then one\\nwith the divine streak or, if you prefer it, like the\\ncoming up in old Jacob s garden of that most gentle-\\nmanly little fruit, the seckel pear, which I have some-\\ntimes seen in shop-windows. It is a surprise, there\\nis nothing to account for it. All at once we find that\\ntwice two makeyz^. Nature is fond of what are called\\ngift-enterprises. This little book of life which she\\nhas given into the hands of its joint possessors is\\ncommonly one of the old story-books bound over\\nagain. Only once in a great while there is a stately\\npoem in it, or its leaves are illuminated with the glo-\\nries of art, or they enfold a draft for untold values\\nsigned by the million-fold millionnaire old mother\\nherself. But strangers are commonly the first to find\\nthe gift that came with the little book.\\nIt may be questioned whether anything can be con-\\nscious of its own flavor. Whether the musk-deer, or", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0080.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 53\\nthe civet-cat, or even a still more eloquently silent\\nanimal that might be mentioned, is aware of any per-\\nsonal peculiarity, may well be doubted. No man\\nknows his own voice many men do not know their\\nown profiles. Every one remembers Carlyle^ famous\\nCharacteristics article; allow for exaggerations,\\nand there is a great deal in his doctrine of the self-un-\\nconsciousness of genius It comes under the great law\\njust stated. This incapacity of knowing its own traits\\nis often found in the family as well as in the individual.\\nSo never mind what your cousins, brothers, sisters,\\nuncles, aunts, and the rest, say about that fine poem\\nyou have written, but send it (postage-paid) to the\\neditors, if there are any, of the u Atlantic, which,\\nby the way, is not so called because it is a notion,\\nas some dull wits wish they had said, but are too late.\\nScientific knowledge, even in the most modest\\npersons, has mingled with it a something which par-\\ntakes of insolence. Absolute, peremptory facts are\\nbullies, and those who keep company with them are\\napt to get a bullying habit of mind not of man-\\nners, perhaps they may be soft and smooth, but the\\nsmile they carry has a quiet assertion in it, such as\\nthe Champion of the Heavy Weights, commonly the\\nbest-natured, but not the most diffident of men, wears\\nupon what he very inelegantly calls his mug.\\nTake the man, for instance, who deals in the mathe-\\nmatical sciences. There is no elasticity in a mathe-\\nmatical fact if you bring up against it, it never\\nyields a hair^s breadth everything must go to pieces\\nthat comes in collision with it. What the mathema-\\ntician knows being absolute, unconditional, inca-\\npable of suffering question, it should tend, in the\\nnature of things, to breed a despotic way of thinking.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0081.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "54 THE AUTOCRAT\\nSo of those who deal with the palpable and often\\nunmistakable facts of external nature; only in a\\nless degree. Every probability and most of our\\ncommon, working beliefs are probabilities is pro-\\nvided with buffers at both ends, which break the\\nforce of opposite opinions clashing against it but\\nscientific certainty has no spring in it, no courtesy,\\nno possibility of yielding. All this must react on the\\nminds which handle these forms of truth.\\nOh, you need not tell me that Messrs. A. and B.\\nare the most gracious, unassuming people in the\\nworld, and yet preeminent in the ranges of science I\\nam referring to. I know that as well as you. But\\nmark this which I am going to say once for all If\\nI had not force enough to project a principle full in\\nthe face of the half dozen most obvious facts which\\nseem to contradict it, I would think only in single\\nfile from this day forward. A rash man, once visit-\\ning a certain noted institution at South Boston,\\nventured to express the sentiment, that man is a\\nrational being. An old woman who was an attendant\\nin the Idiot School contradicted the statement, and\\nappealed to the facts before the speaker to disprove\\nit. The rash man stuck to his hasty generalization,\\nnotwithstanding.\\nIt is my desire to be useful to those with whom\\nI am associated in my daily relations. I not unfre-\\nquently practise the divine art of music in company\\nwith our landlady s daughter, who, as I mentioned\\nbefore, is the owner of an accordion. Having myself\\na well-marked barytone voice of more than half an\\noctave in compass, I sometimes add my vocal powers\\nto her execution of\\nThou, thou reign st in this bosom,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0082.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 55\\nnot, however, unless her mother or some other dis-\\ncreet female is present, to prevent misinterpretation\\nor remark. I have also taken a good deal of interest\\nin Benjamin Franklin, before referred to, sometimes\\ncalled B. F., or more frequently Frank, in imitation\\nof that felicitous abbreviation, combining dignity and\\nconvenience, adopted by some of his betters. My\\nacquaintance with the French language is very imper-\\nfect, I having never studied it anywhere but in Paris,\\nwhich is awkward, as B. F. devotes himself to it with\\nthe peculiar advantage of an Alsacian teacher. The\\nboy, I think, is doing well, between us, notwithstand-\\ning. The following is an tmcorrected French exer-\\ncise, written by this young gentleman. His mother\\nthinks it very creditable to his abilities though, being\\nunacquainted with the French language, her judgment\\ncannot be considered final.\\nLe Rat des Salons a Lecture.\\nCe rat ci est un animal fort singulier. II a deux\\npattes de derriere sur lesquelles il marche, et deux\\npattes de devant dont il fait usage pour tenir les\\njournaux. Cet animal a la peau noire pour le plupart,\\net porte un cercle blanchatre autour de son cou. On\\nle trouve tous les jours aux dits salons, ou il demeure,\\ndigere, s il y a de quoi dans son interieur, respire,\\ntousse, eternue, dort, et ronfle quelquefois, ayant tou-\\njours le semblant de lire. On ne sait pas s il a une\\nautre gite que cela. II a Pair d une bete tres stupide,\\nmais il est d une sagacite et d une vitesse extraordi-\\nnaire quand il s^git de saisir un journal nouveau. On\\nne sait pas pourquoi il lit, parcequ il ne parait pas\\navoir des idees. II vocalise rarement, mais en re-\\nvanche, il fait des bruits nasaux divers. II porte un", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0083.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "56 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncrayon dans une de ses poches pectorales, avec lequel\\nil fait des marques sur les bords des journaux et des\\nlivres, semblable aux suivans Bah Pooh II\\nne faut pas cependant les prendre pour -des signes\\nd intelligence. II ne vole pas, ordinairement il fait\\nrarement meme des echanges de parapluie, et jamais\\nde chapeau, parceque son chapeau a toujours un car-\\nactere specifique. On ne sait pas au juste ce dont il\\nse nourrit. Feu Cuvier etait d avis que c etait de\\nTodeur du cuir des reliures ce qu on dit d etre une\\nnourriture animale fort saine, et peu chere. II vit\\nbien longtems. Enfin il meure, en laissant a. ses\\nheritiers une carte du Salon a. Lecture ou il avait\\nexiste pendant sa vie. On pretend qu il revient toutes\\nles nuits, apres la mort, visiter le Salon. On peut le\\nvoir, dit on, a minuit, dans sa place habituelle, tenant\\nle journal du soir, et ayant a sa main un crayon de\\ncharbon. Le lendemain on trouve des caracteres\\ninconnus sur les bords du journal. Ce qui prouve\\nque le spiritualisme est vrai, et que Messieurs les\\nProfesseurs de Cambridge sont des imbeciles qui ne\\nsavent rien du tout, du tout.\\nI think this exercise, which I have not corrected,\\nor allowed to be touched in any way, is not discredit-\\nable to B. F. You observe that he is acquiring a\\nknowledge of zoology at the same time that he is\\nlearning French. Fathers of families in moderate\\ncircumstances will find it profitable to their children,\\nand an economical mode of instruction, to set them\\nto revising and amending this boy s exercise. The\\npassage was originally taken from the Histoire\\nNaturelle des Betes Ruminans et Rongeurs, Bipedes\\net Autres, lately published in Paris. This was trans-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0084.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 57\\nlated into English and published in London. It was\\nrepublished at Great Pedlington, with notes and\\nadditions by the American editor. The notes con-\\nsist of an interrogation-mark on page 53d, and a\\nreference (p. 127th) to another book edited by the\\nsame hand. The additions consist of the editor s\\nname on the title-page and back, with a complete\\nand authentic list of said editor s honorary titles in\\nthe first of these localities. Our boy translated the\\ntranslation back into French. This may be compared\\nwith the original, to be found on Shelf 13, Division\\nX, of the Public Library of this metropolis.]\\nSome of you boarders ask me from time to time\\nwhy I don t write a story, or a novel, or something\\nof that kind. Instead of answering each one of you\\nseparately, I will thank you to step up into the whole-\\nsale department for a few moments, where I deal in\\nanswers by the piece and by the bale.\\nThat every articulately-speaking human being has\\nin him stuff for one novel in three volumes duodecimo\\nhas long been with me a cherished belief. It has\\nbeen maintained, on the other hand, that many per-\\nsons cannot write more than one novel, that all\\nafter that are likely to be failures. Life is so much\\nmore tremendous a thing in its heights and depths\\nthan any transcript of it can be, that all records of\\nhuman experience are as so many bound herbaria to\\nthe innumerable glowing, glistening, rustling, breath-\\ning, fragrance-laden, poison-sucking, life-giving, death-\\ndistilling leaves and flowers of the forest and the\\nprairies. All we can do with books of human experi-\\nence is to make them alive again with something\\nborrowed from our own lives. We can make a book\\nalive for us just in proportion to its resemblance in", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0085.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "58 THE AUTOCRAT\\nessence or in form to our own experience. Now an\\nauthor s first novel is naturally drawn, to a great\\nextent, from his personal experiences that is, is a\\nliteral copy of nature under various slight disguises.\\nBut the moment the author gets out of his personality,\\nhe must have the creative power, as well as the nar-\\nrative art and the sentiment, in order to tell a living\\nstory and this is rare.\\nBesides, there is great danger that a man s first\\nlife-story shall clean him out, so to speak, of his best\\nthoughts. Most lives, though their stream is loaded\\nwith sand and turbid with alluvial waste, drop a few\\ngolden grains of wisdom as they flow along. Often-\\ntimes a single cradling gets them all, and after that\\nthe poor man s labor is only rewarded by mud and\\nworn pebbles. All which proves that I, as an individ-\\nual of the human family, could write one novel or story\\nat any rate, if I would.\\nWhy don t I, then? Well, there are several\\nreasons against it. In the first place, I should tell all\\nmy secrets, and I maintain that verse is the proper\\nmedium for such revelations. Rhythm and rhyme and\\nthe harmonies of musical language, the play of fancy,\\nthe fire of imagination, the flashes of passion, so\\nhide the nakedness of a heart laid open, that hardly any\\nconfession, transfigured in the luminous halo of poetry,\\nis reproached as self-exposure. A beauty shows her-\\nself under the chandeliers, protected by the glitter of\\nher diamonds, with such a broad snowdrift of white\\narms and shoulders laid bare, that, were she una-\\ndorned and in plain calico, she would be unendurable\\nin the opinion of the ladies.\\nAgain, I am terribly afraid I should show up all my\\nfriends. I should like to know if all story-tellers do", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0086.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 59\\nnot do this Now I am afraid all my friends would\\nnot bear showing up very well for they have an aver-\\nage share of the common weakness of humanity, which\\nI am pretty certain would come out. Of all that have\\ntold stories among us there is hardly one I can recall\\nwho has not drawn too faithfully some living portrait\\nthat might better have been spared.\\nOnce more, I have sometimes thought it possible I\\nmight be too dull to write such a story as I should\\nwish to write.\\nAnd finally, I think it very likely I shall write a\\nstory one of these days. Don t be surprised at any\\ntime, if you see me coming out with The School-\\nmistress, 1 or The Old Gentleman Opposite. 1 \\\\_Our\\nschoolmistress and our old gentleman that sits oppo-\\nsite had left the table before I said this.] I want my\\nglory for writing the same discounted now, on the\\nspot, if you please. I will write when I get ready.\\nHow many people live on the reputation of the repu-\\ntation they might have made\\nI saw you smiled when I spoke about the possi-\\nbility of my being too dull to write a good story. I\\ndon 1 t pretend to know what you meant by it, but I\\ntake occasion to make a remark which may hereafter\\nprove of value to some among you. When one of us\\nwho has been led by native vanity or senseless flattery\\nto think himself or herself possessed of talent arrives\\nat the full and final conclusion that he or she is really\\ndull, it is one of the most tranquillizing and blessed\\nconvictions that can enter a mortal s mind. All our\\nfailures, our short-comings, our strange disappoint-\\nments in the effect of our efforts are lifted from our\\nbruised shoulders, and fall, like Christian s pack, at\\nthe feet of that Omnipotence which has seen fit to", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0087.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "60 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndeny us the pleasant gift of high intelligence, with\\nwhich one look may overflow us in some wider sphere\\nof being.\\nHow sweetly and honestly one said to me the\\nother day, I hate books A gentleman, singu-\\nlarly free from affectations, not learned, of course,\\nbut of perfect breeding, which is often so much better\\nthan learning, by no means dull, in the sense of\\nknowledge of the world and society, but certainly not\\nclever either in the arts or sciences, his company is\\npleasing to all who know him. I did not recognize\\nin him inferiority of literary taste half so distinctly as\\nI did simplicity of character and fearless acknowledg-\\nment of his inaptitude for scholarship. In fact, I\\nthink there are a great many gentlemen and others,\\nwho read with a mark to keep their place, that really\\nhate books, but never had the wit to find it out, or\\nthe manliness to own it. [Entre nous, I always read\\nwith a mark.]\\nWe get into a way of thinking as if what we call an\\nintellectual man was, as a matter of course, made\\nup of nine-tenths, or thereabouts, of book-learning,\\nand one-tenth himself. But even if he is actually so\\ncompounded, he need not read much. Society is a\\nstrong solution of books. It draws the virtue out of\\nwhat is best worth reading, as hot water draws the\\nstrength of tea-leaves. If I were a prince, I would\\nhire or buy a private literary tea-pot, in which I would\\nsteep all the leaves of new books that promised well.\\nThe infusion would do for me without the vegetable\\nfibre. You understand me; I would have a person\\nwhose sole business should be to read day and night,\\nand talk to me whenever I wanted him to. I know\\nthe man I would have a quick-witted, out-spoken^", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0088.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 6 1\\nincisive fellow knows history, or at any rate has a\\nshelf full of books about it, which he can use handily,\\nand the same of all useful arts and sciences knows\\nall the common plots of plays and novels, and the\\nstock company of characters that are continually com-\\ning on in new costume; can give you a criticism of\\nan octavo in an epithet and a wink, and you can de-\\npend on it cares for nobody except for the virtue\\nthere is in what he says delights in taking off big\\nwigs and professional gowns, and in the disembalm-\\ning and unbandaging of all literary mummies. Yet\\nhe is as tender and reverential to all that bears the\\nmark of genius, that is, of a new influx of truth or\\nbeauty, as a nun over her missal. In short, he is\\none of those men that know everything except how\\nto make a living. Him would I keep on the square\\nnext my own royal compartment on lifers chessboard.\\nTo him I would push up another pawn, in the shape\\nof a comely and wise young woman, whom he would\\nof course take to wife. For all contingencies I\\nwould liberally provide. In a word, I would, in the\\nplebeian, but expressive phrase, put him through\\nall the material part of life see him sheltered, warmed,\\nfed, button-mended, and all that, just to be able to lay\\non his talk when I liked, with the privilege of shut-\\nting it off at will.\\nA Club is the next best thing to this, strung like\\na harp, with about a dozen ringing intelligences, each\\nanswering to some chord of the macrocosm. They\\ndo well to dine together once in a while. A dinner-\\nparty made up of such elements is the last triumph of\\ncivilization over barbarism. Nature and art combine\\nto charm the senses the equatorial zone of the system\\nis soothed by well-studied artifices the faculties are", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0089.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "62 THE AUTOCRAT\\noff duty, and fall into their natural attitudes you see\\nwisdom in slippers and science in a short jacket.\\nThe whole force of conversation depends on how\\nmuch you can take for granted. Vulgar chess-players\\nhave to play their game out nothing short of the\\nbrutality of an actual checkmate satisfies their dull\\napprehensions. But look at two masters of that noble\\ngame White stands well enough, so far as you can\\nsee but Red says, Mate in six moves White\\nlooks, nods the game is over. Just so in talk-\\ning with first-rate men especially when they are\\ngood-natured and expansive, as they are apt to be at\\ntable. That blessed clairvoyance which sees into\\nthings without opening them, that glorious license,\\nwhich, having shut the door and driven the reporter\\nfrom its key-hole, calls upon Truth, majestic virgin\\nto get off from her pedestal and drop her academic\\nposes, and take a festive garland and the vacant place\\non the medius lectus, that carnival-shower of ques-\\ntions and replies and comments, large axioms bowled\\nover the mahogany like bomb-shells from professional\\nmortars, and explosive wit dropping its trains of many-\\ncolored fire, and the mischief-making rain of bon-bons\\npelting everybody that shows himself, the picture of a\\ntruly intellectual banquet is one which the old Divinities\\nmight well have attempted to reproduce in their\\nOh, oli, oh cried the young fellow whom\\nthey call John, that is from one of your lectures\\nI know it, I replied, I concede it, I confess it, I\\nproclaim it.\\nThe trail of the serpent is over them all 1\\nAll lecturers, all professors, all schoolmasters, have\\nruts and grooves in their minds into which their con-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0090.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 63\\nversation is perpetually sliding. Did you never, in\\nriding through the woods of a still June evening,\\nsuddenly feel that you had passed into a warm stra-\\ntum of air, and in a minute or two strike the chill\\nlayer of atmosphere beyond? Did you never, in\\ncleaving the green waters of the Back Bay, where\\nthe Provincial blue-noses are in the habit of beating\\nthe Metropolitan boat-clubs, find yourself in a\\ntepid streak, a narrow, local gulf-stream, a gratuitous\\nwarm-bath a little underdone, through which your\\nglistening shoulders soon flashed, to bring you back\\nto the cold realities of full-sea temperature? Just so,\\nin talking with any of the characters above referred\\nto, one not unfrequently finds a sudden change in the\\nstyle of the conversation. The lack-lustre eye, ray-\\nless as a Beacon-Street door-plate in August, all at\\nonce fills with light the face flings itself wide open\\nlike the church-portals when the bride and bride-\\ngroom enter the little man grows in stature before\\nyour eyes, like the small prisoner with hair on end,\\nbeloved yet dreaded of early childhood you were\\ntalking with a dwarf and an imbecile, you have\\na giant and a trum pet-to ngued angel before you\\nNothing but a streak out of a fifty-dollar lecture.\\nAs when, at some unlooked-for moment, the mighty\\nfountain-column springs into the air before the aston-\\nished passer-by, silver-footed, diamond-crowned,\\nrainbow-scarfed, from the bosom of that fair sheet,\\nsacred to the hymns of quiet batrachians at home,\\nand the epigrams of a less amiable and less elevated\\norder of reptilia in other latitudes.\\nWho was that person that was so abused some\\ntime since for saying that in the conflict of two races\\nour sympathies naturally go with the higher? No", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0091.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "64 THE AUTOCRAT\\nmatter who he was. Now look at what is going on in\\nIndia, a white, superior Caucasian race, against\\na dark-skinned, inferior, but still Caucasian race,\\nand where are English and American sympathies?\\nWe canH stop to settle all the doubtful questions all\\nwe know is that the brute nature is sure to come out\\nmost strongly in the lower race, and it is the general\\nlaw that the human side of humanity should treat the\\nbrutal side as it does the same nature in the inferior\\nanimals, tame it or crush it. The India mail brings\\nstories of women and children outraged and murdered\\nthe royal stronghold is in the hands of the babe-killers.\\nEngland takes dow r n the Map of the World, which she\\nhas girdled with empire, and makes a correction thus\\nDelhi Dele. The civilized world says, Amen.\\nDo not think, because I talk to you of many\\nsubjects briefly, that I should not find it much lazier\\nwork to take each one of them and dilute it down\\nto an essay. Borrow some of my old college themes\\nand water my remarks to suit yourselves, as the\\nHomeric heroes did with their melas oinos, that\\nblack, sweet, syrupy wine which they used to alloy\\nwith three parts or more of the flowing stream. [Could\\nit have been melas ses, as Webster and his provincials\\nspell it, or Molossa s, as dear old smattering, chat-\\ntering, would-be-College-President, Cotton Mather,\\nhas it in the Magnalia Ponder thereon, ye small\\nantiquaries who make barn-door-fowl flights of learn-\\ning in Notes and Queries ye Historical Socie-\\nties, in one of whose venerable triremes I, too, ascend\\nthe stream of time, while other hands tug at the\\noars ye Amines of parasitical literature, who pick\\nup your grains of native-grown food with a bodkin,\\nhaving gorged upon less honest fare, until, like the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0092.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 6$\\ngreat minds Goethe speaks of, you have made a\\nGolgotha of your pages ponder thereon\\nBefore you go, this morning, I want to read\\nyou a copy of verses. You will understand by the\\ntitle that they are written in an imaginary character.\\nI donH doubt they will fit some family-man well\\nenough. I send it forth as Oak Hall projects a\\ncoat, on a priori grounds of conviction that it will suit\\nsomebody. There is no loftier illustration of faith\\nthan this. It believes that a soul has been clad in\\nflesh that tender parents have fed and nurtured it\\nthat its mysterious compages or frame-work has sur-\\nvived its myriad exposures and reached the stature of\\nmaturity that the Man, now self-determining, has\\ngiven in his adhesion to the traditions and habits of\\nthe race in favor of artificial clothing that he will,\\nhaving all the world to choose from, select the very\\nlocality where this audacious generalization has been\\nacted upon. It builds a garment cut to the pattern\\nof an Idea, and trusts that Nature will model a ma-\\nterial shape to fit it. There is a prophecy in every\\nseam, and its pockets are full of inspiration. Now\\nhear the verses.\\nTHE OLD MAN DREAMS.\\nfor one hour of youthful joy\\nGive back my twentieth spring\\n1 d rather laugh a bright-haired boy\\nThan reign a gray-beard king\\nOff with the wrinkled spoils of age!\\nAway with learning s crown\\nTear out life s wisdom-written page,\\nAnd dash its trophies down", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0093.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "66 THE AUTOCRAT\\nOne moment let my life-blood stream\\nFrom boyhood s fount of flame\\nGive me one giddy, reeling dream\\nOf life all love and fame\\nMy listening angel heard the prayer.\\nAnd calmly smiling, said,\\nIf I but touch thy silvered hair,\\nThy hasty wish hath sped.\\nBut is there nothing in thy track\\nTo bid thee fondly stay,\\nWhile the swift seasons hurry back\\nTo find the wished-for day\\nAh, truest soul of womankind\\nWithout thee, what were life\\nOne bliss I cannot leave behind:\\nI 11 take my precious wife\\nThe angel took a sapphire pen\\nAnd wrote in rainbow dew,\\nThe man would be a boy again,\\nAnd be a husband too\\nAnd is there nothing yet unsaid\\nBefore the change appears\\nRemember, all their gifts have fled\\nWith those dissolving years\\nWhy, yes for memory would recall\\nMy fond paternal joys\\nI could not bear to leave them all\\nI 11 take my girl and boys\\nThe smiling angel dropped his pen,\\nII Why, this will never do\\nThe man would be a boy again,\\nAnd be a father too", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0094.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 67\\nAnd so I laughed, my laughter woke\\nThe household with its noise,\\nAnd wrote my dream, when morning broke,\\nTo please the gray-haired boys.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0095.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "IV.\\n[I am so well pleased with my boarding-house that\\nI intend to remain there, perhaps. for years. Of course\\nI shall have a great many conversations to report,\\nand they will necessarily be of different tone and on\\ndifferent subjects. The talks are like the breakfasts,\\nsometimes dipped toast, and sometimes dry. You\\nmust take them as they come. How can I do what\\nall these letters ask me to? No. i. wants serious and\\nearnest thought. No. 2. (letter smells of bad cigars)\\nmust have more jokes wants me to tell a good\\nstorey which he has copied out for me. (I suppose\\ntwo letters before the word good refer to some\\nDoctor of Divinity who told the story.) No. 3. (in\\nfemale hand) more poetry. No. 4. wants something\\nthat would be of use to a practical man. (Prahctical\\ntnahn he probably pronounces it.) No 5. (gilt-edged,\\nsweet-scented) more sentiment, heart s out-\\npourings. 1\\nMy dear friends, one and all, I can do nothing but\\nreport such remarks as I happen to have made at our\\nbreakfast-table. Their character will depend on many\\naccidents, a good deal on the particular persons in\\nthe company to whom they were addressed. It so\\nhappens that those which follow were mainly intended\\nfor the divinity-student and the schoolmistress\\nthough others, whom I need not mention, saw fit to\\ninterfere, with more or less propriety, in the conversa-\\ntion. This is one of my privileges as a talker and\\n68", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0096.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "A UTO CRA T OF THE BREAK FA S T- TABLE. 69\\nof course, if I was not talking for our whole company,\\nI don t expect all the readers of this periodical to be\\ninterested in my notes of what was said. Still, I\\nthink there may be a few that will rather like this vein,\\npossibly prefer it to a livelier one, serious young\\nmen, and young women generally, in life s roseate\\nparenthesis from years of age to inclusive.\\nAnother privilege of talking is to misquote. Of\\ncourse it wasn t Proserpina that actually cut the yel-\\nlow hair, but Iris. (As I have since told you) it\\nwas the former lady s regular business, but Dido had\\nused herself ungenteelly, and Madame d Enfer stood\\nfirm on the point of etiquette. So the bathycolpian\\nHere Juno, in Latin sent down Iris instead. But\\nI was mightily pleased to see that one of the gentle-\\nmen that do the heavy articles for the celebrated\\nOceanic Miscellany misquoted Campbell s line\\nwithout any excuse. Waft us home the message\\nof course it ought to be. Will he be duly grateful\\nfor the correction\\nThe more we study the body and the mind, the\\nmore we find both to be governed, not by, but accord-\\ning to laws, such as we observe in the larger uni-\\nverse. You think you know all about walking,\\ndon t you, now? Well, how do you suppose your\\nlower limbs are held to your body They are sucked\\nup by two cupping vessels, cotyloid cup-like\\ncavities,) and held there as long as you live, and\\nlonger. At any rate, you think you move them back-\\nward and forward at such a rate as your will determines,\\ndon t you On the contrary, they swing just as any\\nother pendulums swing, at a fixed rate, determined by\\ntheir length. You can alter this by muscular power,\\nas you can take hold of the pendulum of a clock and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0097.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "JO THE AUTOCRAT\\nmake it move faster or slower but your ordinary gait\\nis timed by the same mechanism as the movements\\nof the solar system.\\n[My friend, the Professor, told me all this, referring\\nme to certain German physiologists by the name of\\nWeber for proof of the facts, which, however, he said\\nhe had often verified. I appropriated it to my own use\\nwhat can one do better than this, when one has a friend\\nthat tells him anything worth remembering?\\nThe Professor seems to think that man and the\\ngeneral powers of the universe are in partnership.\\nSome one was saying that it had cost nearly half a\\nmillion to move the Leviathan only so far as they had\\ngot it already. Why, said the Professor, they\\nmight have hired an earthquake for less money.]\\nJust as we find a mathematical rule at the bottom\\nof many of the bodily movements, just so thought\\nmay be supposed to have its regular cycles. Such or\\nsuch a thought comes round periodically, in its turn.\\nAccidental suggestions, however, so far interfere with\\nthe regular cycles, that we may find them practically\\nbeyond our power of recognition. Take all this for\\nwhat it is worth, but at any rate you will agree that\\nthere are certain particular thoughts that do not come\\nup once a day, nor once a week, but that a year\\nwould hardly go round without your having them\\npass through your mind. Here is one which comes\\nup at intervals in this way. Some one speaks of it,\\nand there is an instant and eager smile of assent in the\\nlistener or listeners. Yes, indeed they have often\\nbeen struck by it.\\nAll at once a conviction flashes through us that we\\nhave been in the same precise circumstances as at the\\npresent instant, once or many times before.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0098.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. J I\\nO, dear, yes! said one of the company, every-\\nbody has had that feeling.\\nThe landlady didn t know anything about such no-\\ntions it was an idee in folks heads, she expected.\\nThe schoolmistress said, in a hesitating sort of way,\\nthat she knew the feeling well, and didn t like to\\nexperience it it made her think she was a ghost,\\nsometimes.\\nThe young fellow whom they call John said he\\nknew all about it he had just lighted a cheroot the\\nother day, when a tremendous conviction all at once\\ncame over him that he had done just that same thing\\never so many times before. I looked severely at him,\\nand his countenance immediately fell on the side\\ntoward me I cannot answer for the other, for he can\\nwink and laugh with either half of his face without\\nthe other half s knowing it.\\nI have noticed I went on to say the following\\ncircumstances connected with these sudden impres-\\nsions. First, that the condition which seems to be\\nthe duplicate of a former one is often very trivial,\\none that might have presented itself a hundred times.\\nSecondly, that the impression is very evanescent, and\\nthat it is rarely, if ever, recalled by any voluntary\\neffort, at least after any time has elapsed. Thirdly,\\nthat there is a disinclination to record the circum-\\nstances, and a sense of incapacity to reproduce the\\nstate of mind in words. Fourthly, I have often felt\\nthat the duplicate condition had not only occurred\\nonce before, but that it was familiar and, as it seemed,\\nhabitual. Lastly, I have had the same convictions in\\nmy dreams.\\nHow do I account for it? Why, there are several\\nways that I can mention, and you may take your", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0099.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "72 THE AUTOCRAT\\nchoice. The first is that which the young lady hinted\\nat; that these flashes are sudden recollections of\\na previous existence. I don t believe that for I\\nremember a poor student I used to know told me he\\nhad such a conviction one day when he was black-\\ning his boots, and I can t think he had ever lived in\\nanother world where they use Day and Martin.\\nSome think that Dr. Wigan s doctrine of the brain s\\nbeing a double organ, its hemispheres working to-\\ngether like the two eyes, accounts for it. One of the\\nhemispheres hangs fire, they suppose, and the small\\ninterval between the perceptions of the nimble and\\nthe sluggish half seems an indefinitely long period,\\nand therefore the second perception appears to be the\\ncopy of another, ever so old. But even allowing the\\ncentre of perception to be double, I can see no good\\nreason for supposing this indefinite lengthening of the\\ntime, nor any analogy that bears it out. It seems to\\nme most likely that the coincidence of circumstances is\\nvery partial, but that we take this partial resemblance\\nfor identity, as we occasionally do resemblances of\\npersons. A momentary posture of circumstances is\\nso far like some preceding one that we accept it as\\nexactly the same, just as we accost a stranger\\noccasionally, mistaking him for a friend. The\\napparent similarity may be owing perhaps, quite as\\nmuch to the mental state at the time, as to the out-\\nward circumstances.\\nHere is another of these curiously recurring\\nremarks. I have said it, and heard it many times,\\nand occasionally met with something like it in books,\\nsomewhere in Bulwer s novels, I think, and in one\\nof the works of Mr. Olmsted, I know.\\nMemory imagination, old sentiments and associa-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0100.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 73\\ntions, are more readily reached through the sense of\\nsmell tfyan by almost any other channel.\\nOf course the particular odors which act upon each\\nperson s susceptibilities differ. O, yes I will tell\\nyou some of mine. The smell of phosphorus is one\\nof them. During a year or two of adolescence I used\\nto be dabbling in chemistry a good deal, and as about\\nthat time I had my little aspirations and passions like\\nanother, some of these things got mixed up with each\\nother orange-colored fumes of nitrous acid, and\\nvisions as bright and transient reddening litmus-\\npaper, and blushing cheeks eheu\\nSoles occidere et redire possunt,\\nbut there is no reagent that will redden the faded\\nroses of eighteen hundred and spare them But,\\nas I was saying, phosphorus fires this train of associa-\\ntions in an instant its luminous vapors with their\\npenetrating odor throw me into a trance it comes\\nto me in a double sense trailing clouds of glory.\\nOnly the confounded Vienna matches, ohne phosphor-\\ngeruch, have worn my sensibilities a little.\\nThen there is the marigold. When I was of small-\\nest dimensions, and wont to ride impacted between\\nthe knees of fond parental pair, we would sometimes\\ncross the bridge to the next village-town and stop\\nopposite a low, brown, gambrel-roofed cottage.\\nOut of it would come one Sally, sister of its swarthy\\ntenant, swarthy herself, shady-lipped, sad-voiced, and,\\nbending over her flower-bed, would gather a posy,\\nas she called it, for the little boy. Sally lies in the\\nchurchyard with a slab of blue slate at her head, lichen-\\ncrusted, and leaning a little within the last few years.\\nCottage, garden-beds, posies, grenadier-like rows of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0101.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "74 THE AUTOCRAT\\nseedling onions, stateliest of vegetables, all are\\ngone, but the breath of a marigold brings them all\\nback to me.\\nPerhaps the herb everlasting, the fragrant immor-\\ntelle of our autumn fields, has the most suggestive\\nodor to me of all those that set me dreaming. I can\\nhardly describe the strange thoughts and emotions\\nthat come to me as I inhale the aroma of its pale,\\ndry, rustling flowers. A something it has of sepul-\\nchral spicery, as if it had been brought from the core\\nof some great pyramid, where it had lain on the\\nbreast of a mummied Pharaoh. Something, too, of\\nimmortality in the sad, faint sweetness lingering so\\nlong in its lifeless petals. Yet this does not tell why\\nit fills my eyes with tears and carries me in blissful\\nthought to the banks of asphodel that border the\\nRiver of Life.\\nI should not have talked so much about these\\npersonal susceptibilities, if I had not a remark to\\nmake about them which I believe is a new one. It is\\nthis. There may be a physical reason for the strange\\nconnection between the sense of smell and the mind.\\nThe olfactory nerve so my friend, the Professor,\\ntells me is the only one directly connected with the\\nhemispheres of the brain, the parts in which, as we\\nhave every reason to believe, the intellectual processes\\nare performed. To speak more truly, the olfactory\\nnerve is not a nerve at all, he says, but a part of\\nthe brain, in intimate connection with its anterior\\nlobes. Whether this anatomical arrangement is at\\nthe bottom of the facts I have mentioned, I will not\\ndecide, but it is curious enough to be worth remem-\\nbering. Contrast the sense of taste, as a source of\\nsuggestive impressions, with that of smell. Now the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0102.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAK FA S T- TA BLE. J 5\\nProfessor assures me that you will find the nerve of\\ntaste has no immediate connection with the brain\\nproper, but only with the prolongation of the spinal\\ncord.\\n[The old gentleman opposite did not pay much\\nattention, I think, to this hypothesis of mine. But\\nwhile I was speaking about the sense of smell he\\nnestled about in his seat and presently succeeded\\nin getting out a large red bandanna handkerchief.\\nThen he lurched a little to the other side, and after\\nmuch tribulation at last extricated an ample round\\nsnuff-box. I looked as he opened it and felt for the\\nwonted pugil. Moist rappee, and a tonka-bean lying\\ntherein. I made the manual sign understood of all\\nmankind that use the precious dust, and presently my\\nbrain, too, responded to the long unused stimulus.\\nO boys, that were, actual papas and possible\\ngrandpapas, some of you with crowns like billiard-\\nballs, some in locks of sable silvered, and some of\\nsilver sabled, do you remember, as you doze over\\nthis, those after-dinners at the Trois Freres, when\\nthe Scotch-plaided snuff-box went round, and the dry\\nLundy-Foot tickled its way along into our happy\\nsensoria Then it was that the Chambertin or the\\nClos Vougeot came in, slumbering in its straw cradle.\\nAnd one among you, do you remember how he\\nwould have a bit of ice always in his Burgundy, and\\nsit tinkling it against the sides of the bubble-like\\nglass,/saying that he was hearing the cow-bells as he\\nused to hear them, when the deep-breathing kine\\ncame home at twilight from the huckleberry pasture, in\\nthe old home a thousand leagues towards the sunset?]\\nAh me what strains and strophes of unwritten\\nverse pulsate through my soul when I open a certain", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0103.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "j6 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncloset in trie ancient house where I was born On\\nits shelves used to lie bundles of sweet-marjoram and\\npennyroyal and lavender and mint and catnip there\\napples were stored until their seeds should grow black,\\nwhich happy period there were sharp little milk-teeth\\nalways ready to anticipate there peaches lay in the\\ndark, thinking of the sunshine they had lost, until,\\nlike the hearts of saints that dream of heaven in their\\nsorrow, they grew fragrant as the breath of angels.\\nThe odorous echo of a score of dead summers lingers\\nyet in those dim recesses.\\nDo I remember Byron s line about striking the\\nelectric chain To be sure I do. I sometimes\\nthink the less the hint that stirs the automatic ma-\\nchinery of association, the more easily this moves us.\\nWhat can be more trivial than that old story of\\nopening the folio Shakspeare that used to lie in some\\nancient English hall and finding the flakes of Christ-\\nmas pastry between its leaves, shut up in them per-\\nhaps a hundred years ago And, lo as one looks\\non these poor relics of a bygone generation, the uni-\\nverse changes in the twinkling of an eye old George\\nthe Second is back again, and the elder Pitt is coming\\ninto power, and General Wolfe is a fine, promising\\nyoung man, and over the Channel they are pulling\\nthe Sieur Damiens to pieces with wild horses, and\\nacross the Atlantic the Indians are tomahawking\\nHirams and Jonathans and Jonases at Fort William\\nHenry all the dead people who have been in the\\ndust so long even to the stout-armed cook that\\nmade the pastry are alive again; the planet un-\\nwinds a hundred of its luminous coils, and the pre-\\ncession of the equinoxes is retraced on the dial of\\nheaven And all this for a bit of pie-crust", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0104.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 77\\nI will thank you for that pie, said the pro-\\nvoking young fellow whom I have named repeatedly.\\nHe looked at it for a moment, and put his hands to\\nhis eyes as if moved. I was thinking, he said in-\\ndistinctly\\nHow What is t said our landlady.\\nI was thinking said he who was king of\\nEngland when this old pie was baked, and it made\\nme feel bad to think how long he must have been\\ndead.\\n[Our landlady is a decent body, poor, and a widow,\\nof course cela va sans dire. She told me her story\\nonce it was as if a grain of corn that had been\\nground and bolted had tried to individualize itself by\\na special narrative. There was the wooing and the\\nwedding, the start in life, the disappointment,\\nthe children she had buried, the struggle against\\nfate, the dismantling of life, first of its small lux-\\nuries, and then of its comforts, the broken spirits,\\nthe altered character of the one on whom she leaned,\\nand at last the death that came and drew the black\\ncurtain between her and all her earthly hopes.\\nI never laughed at my landlady after she had told\\nme her story, but I often cried, not those pattering\\ntears that run off the eaves upon our neighbors\\ngrounds, the stillicidium of self-conscious sentiment,\\nbut those which steal noiselessly through their con-\\nduits until they reach the cisterns lying round about\\nthe heart those tears that we weep inwardly with\\nunchanging features such I did shed for her often\\nwhen the imps of the boarding-house Inferno tugged\\nat her soul with their red-hot pincers.]\\nYoung man, I said, the pasty you speak lightly\\nof is not old, but courtesy to those who labor to serve*", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0105.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "78 THE AUTOCRAT\\nus, especially if they are of the weaker sex, is very old,\\nand yet well worth retaining. May I recommend to\\nyou the following caution, as a guide, whenever you\\nare dealing with a woman, or an artist, or a poet if\\nyou are handling an editor or politician, it is super-\\nfluous advice. I take it from the back of one of those\\nlittle French toys which contain pasteboard figures\\nmoved by a small running stream of fine sand Ben-\\njamin Franklin will translate it for you QuoiqtSelle\\nsoit tres solidement ?nontee ilfaut ne pas brutaliser la\\nmachine. I will thank you for the pie, if you please.\\n[I took more of it than was good for me, as much\\nas 85 I should think, and had an indigestion in\\nconsequence. While I was suffering from it, I wrote\\nsome sadly desponding poems, and a theological essay\\nwhich took a very melancholy view of creation When\\nI got better I labelled them all Pie-crust, and laid\\nthem by as scarecrows and solemn warnings. I have\\na number of books on my shelves that I should like to\\nlabel with some such title but, as they have great\\nnames on their title-pages, Doctors of Divinity,\\nsome of them, it wouldn t do.]\\nMy friend, the Professor, whom I have mentioned\\nto you once or twice, told me yesterday that somebody\\nhad been abusing him in some of the journals of his\\ncalling. I told him that I didn t doubt he deserved it\\nthat I hoped he did deserve a little abuse occasionally,\\nand would for a number of years to come that no-\\nbody could do anything to make his neighbors wiser\\nor better without being liable to abuse for it espe-\\ncially that people hated to have their little mistakes\\nmade fun of, and perhaps he had been doing some-\\nthing of the kind. The Professor smiled. Now,\\nsaid I, hear what I am going to say. It will not take", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0106.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 79\\nmany years to bring you to the period of life when\\nmen, at least the majority of writing and talking men,\\ndo nothing but praise. Men, like peaches and pears,\\ngrow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.\\nI don t know what it is, whether a spontaneous\\nchange, mental or bodily, or whether it is thorough\\nexperience of the thanklessness of critical honesty,\\nbut it is a fact, that most writers, except sour and un-\\nsuccessful ones, get tired of finding fault at about the\\ntime when they are beginning to grow old. As a\\ngeneral thing, I would not give a great deal for the\\nfair words of a critic, if he is himself an author, over\\nfifty years of age. At thirty we are all trying to cut\\nour names in big letters upon the walls of this tene-\\nment of life twenty years later we have carved it, or\\nshut up our jack-knives. Then we are ready to help\\nothers, and care less to hinder any, because nobody s\\nelbows are in our way. So I am glad you have a\\nlittle life left you will be saccharine enough in a few\\nyears.\\nSome of the softening effects of advancing age\\nhave struck me very much in what I have heard or\\nseen here and elsewhere. I just now spoke of the\\nsweetening process that authors undergo. Do you\\nknow that in the gradual passage from maturity to\\nhelplessness the harshest characters sometimes have\\na period in which they are gentle and placid as young\\nchildren? I have heard it said, but I cannot be\\nsponsor for its truth, that the famous chieftain,\\nLochiel, was rocked in a cradle like a baby, in his\\nold age. An old man, whose studies had been of the\\nseverest scholastic kind, used to love to hear little\\nnursery-stories read over and over to him. One who\\nsaw the Duke of Wellington in his last years describes", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0107.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "80 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhim as very gentle in his aspect and demeanor. I\\nremember a person of singularly stern and lofty bear-\\ning who became remarkably gracious and easy in all\\nhis ways in the later period of his life.\\nAnd that leads me to say that men often remind\\nme of pears in their way of coming to maturity.\\nSome are ripe at twenty, like human Jargonelles, and\\nmust be made the most of, for their day is soon over.\\nSome come into their perfect condition late, like the\\nautumn kinds, and they last better than the summer\\nfruit. And some, that, like the Winter-Nelis, have\\nbeen hard and uninviting until all the rest have\\nhad their season, get their glow and perfume long\\nafter the frost and snow have done their worst with\\nthe orchards. Beware of rash criticisms the rough\\nand stringent fruit you condemn may be an autumn\\nor a winter pear, and that which you picked up be-\\nneath the same bough in August may have been only\\nits worm-eaten windfalls. Milton was a Saint-Germain\\nwith a graft of the roseate Early-Catherine. Rich,\\njuicy, lively, fragrant, russet skinned old Chaucer was\\nan Easter-Beurre the buds of a new summer were\\nswelling when he ripened.\\nThere is no power I envy so much said the\\ndivinity-student as that of seeing analogies and\\nmaking comparisons. I don t understand how it is\\nthat some minds are continually coupling thoughts\\nor objects that seem not in the least related to each\\nother, until all at once they are put in a certain\\nlight, and you wonder that you did not always see\\nthat they were as like as a pair of twins. It appears\\nto me a sort of miraculous gift.\\n[He is rather a nice young man, and I think has\\nan appreciation of the higher mental qualities re-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0108.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 8 1\\nmarkable for one of his years and training. I try\\nhis head occasionally as housewives try eggs, give\\nit an intellectual shake and hold it up to the light, so\\nto speak, to see if it has life in it, actual or potential,\\nor only contains lifeless albumen.\\nYou call it miraculous, I replied, tossing the\\nexpression with my facial eminence, a little smartly, I\\nfear. Two men are walking by the polyphlcesbcean\\nocean, one of them having a small tin cup with which\\nhe can scoop up a gill of sea-water when he will, and\\nthe other nothing but his hands, which will hardly\\nhold water at all, and you call the tin cup a mirac-\\nulous possession! It is the ocean that is the miracle,\\nmy infant apostle Nothing is clearer than that all\\nthings are in all things, and that just according to\\nthe intensity and extension of our mental being we\\nshall see the many in the one and the one in the\\nmany. Did Sir Isaac think what he was saying\\nwhen he made his speech about the ocean, the child\\nand the pebbles, you know? Did he mean to speak\\nslightingly of a pebble? Of a spherical solid which\\nstood sentinel over its compartment of space before\\nthe stone that became the pyramids had grown solid,\\nand has watched it until now A body which knows\\nall the currents of force that traverse the globe\\nwhich holds by invisible threads to the ring of Saturn\\nand the belt of Orion! A body from the contem-\\nplation of which an archangel could infer the entire\\ninorganic universe as the simplest of corollaries A\\nthrone of the all-pervading Deity, who has guided\\nits every atom since the rosary of heaven was strung\\nwith beaded stars\\nSo, to return to our walk by the ocean, if all\\nthat poetry has dreamed, all that insanity has raved,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0109.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "82 THE AUTOCRAT\\nall that maddening narcotics have driven through the\\nbrains of men, or smothered passion nursed in the\\nfancies of women, if the dreams of colleges and\\nconvents and boarding-schools, if every human feel-\\ning that sighs, or smiles, or curses, or shrieks, or\\ngroans, should bring all their innumerable images,\\nsuch as come with every hurried heart-beat, the\\nepic which held them all, though its letters filled the\\nzodiac, would be but a cupful from the infinite ocean\\nof similitudes and analogies that rolls through the\\nuniverse.\\n[The divinity-student honored himself by the way\\nin which he received this. He did not swallow it at\\nonce, neither did he reject it but he took it as a\\npickerel takes the bait, and carried it off with him to\\nhis hole (in the fourth story) to deal with at his\\nleisure.]\\nHere is another remark made for his especial\\nbenefit. There is a natural tendency in many per-\\nsons to run their adjectives together in triads, as I\\nhave heard them called, thus He was honorable,\\ncourteous, and brave she was graceful, pleasing,\\nand virtuous. Dr. Johnson is famous for this; I\\nthink it was Bulwer who said you could separate a\\npaper in the a Rambler into three distinct essays.\\nMany of our writers show the same tendency, my\\nfriend, the Professor, especially. Some think it is in\\nhumble imitation of Johnson, some that it is for the\\nsake of the stately sound only. I don t think they\\nget to the bottom of it. It is, I suspect, an instinctive\\nand involuntary effort of the mind to present a thought\\nor image with the three dimensions that belong to\\nevery solid, an unconscious handling of an idea as\\nif it had length, breadth, and thickness. It is a great", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0110.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 83\\ndeal easier to say this than to prove it, and a great\\ndeal easier to dispute it than to disprove it. But mind\\nthis the more we observe and study, the wider we\\nfind the range of the automatic and instinctive prin-\\nciples in body, mind, and morals, and the narrower\\nthe limits of the self-determining conscious move-\\nment.\\nI have often seen piano-forte players and singers\\nmake such strange motions over their instruments or\\nsong-books that I wanted to laugh at them. Where\\ndid our friends pick up all these fine ecstatic airs\\nI would say to myself. Then I would remember My\\nLady in Marriage a. la Mode, and amuse myself\\nwith thinking how affectation was the same thing in\\nHogarth s time and in our own. But one day I\\nbought me a Canary-bird and hung him up in a cage\\nat my window. By-and-by he found himself at home,\\nand began to pipe his little tunes and there he was,\\nsure enough, swimming and waving about, with all the\\ndroopings and liftings and languishing side-turnings\\nof the head that I had laughed at. And now I should\\nlike to ask, Who taught him all this and me, through\\nhim, that the foolish head was not the one swinging\\nitself from side to side and bowing and nodding over\\nthe music, but that other which was passing its shal-\\nlow and self-satisfied judgment on a creature made\\nof finer clay than the frame which carried that same\\nhead upon its shoulders\\nDo you want an image of the human will, or the\\nself-determining principle, as compared with its pre-\\narranged and impassable restrictions? A drop of\\nwater, imprisoned in a crystal; you may see such a\\none in any mineralogical collection. One little fluid\\nparticle in the crystalline prism of the solid universe", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0111.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "84 THE AUTOCRAT\\nWeaken moral obligations? No, not weaken,\\nbut define them. When I preach that sermon I\\nspoke of the other day, I shall have to lay down\\nsome principles not fully recognized in some of your\\ntext-books.\\nI should have to begin with one most formidable\\npreliminary. You saw an article the other day in\\none of the journals, perhaps, in which some old\\nDoctor or other said quietly that patients were very\\napt to be fools and cowards. But a great many of\\nthe clergyman s patients are not only fools and\\ncowards, but also liars.\\n[Immense sensation at the table. Sudden retire-\\nment of the angular female in oxydated bombazine.\\nMovement of adhesion as they say in the Chamber\\nof Deputies on the part of the young fellow they\\ncall John. Falling of the old-gentleman-opposite s\\nlower jaw (gravitation is beginning to get the\\nbetter of him) Our landlady to Benjamin Franklin,\\nbriskly, Go to school right off, there s a good boy\\nSchoolmistress curious, takes a quick glance at\\ndivinity-student. Divinity-student slightly flushed;\\ndraws his shoulders back a little, as if a big false-\\nhood or truth had hit him in the forehead. My-\\nself calm.]\\nI should not make such a speech as that, you\\nknow, without having pretty substantial indorsers to\\nfall back upon, in case my credit should be disputed.\\nWill you run up stairs, Benjamin Franklin, (for B.\\nF. had not gone right off, of course,) and bring down\\na small volume from the left upper corner of the\\nright-hand shelves?\\n[Look at the precious little black, ribbed-backed,\\nclean-typed, vellum-papered 32mo. Desiderii", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0112.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 85\\nErasmi Colloquia. Amstelodami. Typis Ludo-\\nvici Elzevirii. 1650. Various names written on\\ntitle-page. Most conspicuous this Gul. Cookeson\\nE. Coll. Omn. Anim. 1725. Oxon.\\nO William Cookeson, of All-Souls College, Ox-\\nford, then writing as I now write, now in the\\ndust, where I shall lie, is this line all that remains\\nto thee of earthly remembrance? Thy name is at\\nleast once more spoken by living men is it a pleas-\\nure to thee? Thou shalt share with me my little\\ndraught of immortality, its week, its month, its\\nyear, whatever it may be, and then we will go\\ntogether into the solemn archives of Oblivion s Un-\\ncatalogued Library!]\\nIf you think I have used .rather strong language,\\nI shall have to read something to you out of the book\\nof this keen and witty scholar, the great Erasmus,\\nwho laid the egg of the Reformation which Luther\\nhatched. Oh, you never read his Naufragium, or\\nShipwreck, 1 did you Of course not j for, if you\\nhad, I don t think you would have given me credit\\nor discredit for entire originality in that speech of\\nmine. That men are cowards in the contemplation\\nof futurity he illustrates by the extraordinary antics\\nof many on board the sinking vessel that they are\\nfools, by their praying to the sea, and making prom-\\nises to bits of wood from the true cross, and all man-\\nner of similar nonsense that they are fools, cowards,\\nand liars all at once, by this story I will put it into\\nrough English for you. I couldn t help laughing\\nto hear one fellow bawling out, so that he might be\\nsure to be heard, a promise to Saint Christopher\\nof Paris the monstrous statue in the great church\\nthere that he would give him a wax taper as big", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0113.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "86 THE AUTOCRAT\\nas himself. Mind what you promise! said an ac-\\nquaintance that stood near him, poking him with his\\nelbow you couldn t pay for it, if you sold all your\\nthings at auction. i Hold your tongue, you donkey!\\nsaid the fellow, but softly, so that Saint Christopher\\nshould not hear him, do you think I m in earnest?\\nIf I once get my foot on dry ground, catch me giving\\nhim so much as a tallow candle!\\nNow, therefore, remembering that those who have\\nbeen loudest in their talk about the great subject of\\nwhich we were speaking have not necessarily been\\nwise, brave, and true men, but, on the contrary, have\\nvery often been wanting in one or two or all of the\\nqualities these words imply, I should expect to find\\na good many doctrines current in the schools which I\\nshould be obliged to call foolish, cowardly, and false.\\nSo you would abuse other people s beliefs, Sir,\\nand yet not tell us your own creed said the divinity-\\nstudent, coloring up with a spirit for which I liked\\nhim all the better.\\nI have a creed, I replied none better, and\\nnone shorter. It is told in two words, the two first\\nof the Paternoster. And when I say these words I\\nmean them. And when I compared the human will\\nto a drop in a crystal, and said I meant to define\\nmoral obligations, and not weaken them, this was\\nwhat I intended to express that the fluent, self-\\ndetermining power of human beings is a very strictly\\nlimited agency in the universe. The chief planes\\nof its enclosing solid are, of course, organization,\\neducation, condition. Organization may reduce the\\npower of the will to nothing, as in some idiots and\\nfrom this zero the scale mounts upwards by slight\\ngradations. Education is only second to nature.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0114.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 87\\nImagine all the infants born this year in Boston and\\nTimbuctoo to change places! Condition does less,\\nbut Give me neither poverty nor riches was the\\nprayer of Agur, and with good reason. If there is\\nany improvement in modern theology, it is in getting\\nout of the region of pure abstractions and taking\\nthese every-day working forces into account. The\\ngreat theological question now heaving and throbbing\\nin the minds of Christian men is this\\nNo, I wont talk about these things now. My re-\\nmarks might be repeated, and it would give my\\nfriends pain to see with what personal incivilities I\\nshould be visited. Besides, what business has a\\nmere boarder to be talking about such things at a\\nbreakfast-table Let him make puns. To be sure,\\nhe was brought up among the Christian fathers, and\\nlearned his alphabet out of a quarto Concilium\\nTridentinum. He has also heard many thousand\\ntheological lectures by men of various denominations\\nand it is not at all to the credit of these teachers,\\nif he is not fit by this time to express an opinion on\\ntheological matters.\\nI know well enough that there are some of you\\nwho had a great deal rather see me stand on my head\\nthan use it for any purpose of thought. Does not\\nmy friend, the Professor, receive at least two letters\\na week, requesting him to\\non the strength of some youthful antic of his, which,\\nno doubt, authorizes the intelligent constituency of\\nautograph-hunters to address him as a harlequin\\nWell, I can t be savage with you for wanting to\\nlaugh, and I like to make you laugh, well enough,\\nwhen I can. But then observe this if the sense\\nof the ridiculous is one side of an impressible nature,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0115.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "88 THE AUTOCRAT\\nit is very well but if that is all there is in a man, he\\nhad better have been an ape at once, and so have\\nstood at the head of his profession. Laughter and\\ntears are meant to turn the wheels of the same ma-\\nchinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the\\nother water-power; that is all. I have often heard\\nthe Professor talk about hysterics as being Nature s\\ncleverest illustration of the reciprocal convertibility\\nof the two states of which these acts are the mani-\\nfestations but you may see it every day in chil-\\ndren and if you want to choke with stifled tears at\\nsight of the transition, as it shows itself in older years,\\ngo and see Mr. Blake play /esse Rural.\\nIt is a very dangerous thing for a literary man to\\nindulge his love for the ridiculous. People laugh\\nwith him just so long as he amuses them but if he\\nattempts to be serious, they must still have their\\nlaugh, and so they, laugh at him. There is in addi-\\ntion, however, a deeper reason for this than would\\nat first appear. Do you know that you feel a little\\nsuperior to every man who makes you laugh, whether\\nby making faces or verses Are you aware that you\\nhave a pleasant sense of patronizing him, when you\\ncondescend so far as to let him turn somersets, literal\\nor literary, for your royal delight? Now if a man can\\nonly be allowed to stand on a dais, or raised plat-\\nform, and look down on his neighbor who is exert-\\ning his talent for him, oh, it is all right! first-rate\\nperformance! and all the rest of the fine phrases.\\nBut if all at once the performer asks the gentleman\\nto come upon the floor, and, stepping upon the plat-\\nform, begins to talk down at him, ah, that wasn t\\nin the programme!\\nI have never forgotten what happened when Sydney", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0116.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 89\\nSmith who, as everybody knows, was an exceed-\\ningly sensible man, and a gentleman, every inch of\\nhim ventured to preach a sermon on the Duties\\nof Royalty. The Quarterly, so savage and tar-\\ntarly, came down upon him in the most contemptu-\\nous style, as a joker of jokes, a diner-out of the\\nfirst water, in one of his own phrases sneering at\\nhim, insulting him, as nothing but a toady of a court,\\nsneaking behind the anonymous, would ever have\\nbeen mean enough to do to a man of his position and\\ngenius, or to any decent person even. If I were\\ngiving advice to a young fellow of talent, with two\\nor three facets to his mind, I would tell him by all\\nmeans to keep his wit in the background until after\\nhe had made a reputation by his more solid qualities.\\nAnd so to an actor: Hamlet first, and Bob Logic\\nafterwards, if you like but don t think, as they say\\npoor Liston used to, that people will be ready to allow\\nthat you can do anything great with Macbeth 1 s dag-\\nger after flourishing about with Paul Pry^s umbrella.\\nDo you know, too, that the majority of men look upon\\nall who challenge their attention, for a while, at\\nleast, as beggars, and nuisances They always try\\nto get off as cheaply as they can and the cheapest\\nof all things they can give a literary man pardon\\nthe forlorn pleasantry! is the ////z/zy-bone. That\\nis all very well so far as it goes, but satisfies no man,\\nand makes a good many angry, as I told you on a\\nformer occasion.\\nOh, indeed, no! I am not ashamed to make\\nyou laugh, occasionally. I think I could read you\\nsomething I have in my desk which would probably\\nmake you smile. Perhaps I will read it one of these\\ndays, if you are patient with me when I am senti-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0117.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "90 THE AUTOCRAT\\nmental and reflective not just now. The ludicrous\\nhas its place in the universe it is not a human in-\\nvention, but one of the Divine ideas, illustrated in\\nthe practical jokes of kittens and monkeys long be-\\nfore Aristophanes or Shakspeare. How curious it is\\nthat we always consider solemnity and the absence\\nof all gay surprises and encounter of wits as essential\\nto the idea of the future life of those whom we thus\\ndeprive of half their faculties and then call blessed:\\nThere are not a few who, even in this life, seem to\\nbe preparing themselves for that smileless eternity\\nto which they look forward, by banishing all gayety\\nfrom their hearts and all joyousness from their coun-\\ntenances. I meet one such in the street not unfre-\\nquently, a person of intelligence and education, but\\nwho gives me (and all that he passes) such a ray-\\nless and chilling look of recognition, something as\\nif he were one of Heaven s assessors, come down to\\ndoom every acquaintance he met, that I have\\nsometimes begun to sneeze on the spot, and gone\\nhome with a violent cold, dating from that instant.\\nI don t doubt he would cut his kitten s tail off, if he\\ncaught her playing with it. Please tell me, who taught\\nher to play with it\\nNo, no! give me a chance to talk to you, my\\nfellow-boarders, and you need not be afraid that I\\nshall have any scruples about entertaining you, if I\\ncan do it, as well as giving you some of my serious\\nthoughts, and perhaps my sadder fancies. I know\\nnothing in English or any other literature more ad-\\nmirable than that sentiment of Sir Thomas Browne\\nEvery man truly lives, so long as he acts his\\nnature, or some way makes good the faculties\\nof himself.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0118.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 9 1\\nI find the great thing in this world is not so much\\nwhere we stand, as in what direction we are moving\\nTo reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes\\nwith the wind and sometimes against it, but we\\nmust sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. There is\\none very sad thing in old friendships, to every mind\\nthat is really moving onward. It is this that one\\ncannot help using his early friends as the seaman\\nuses the log, to mark his progress. Every now and\\nthen we throw an old schoolmate over the stern with\\na string of thought tied to him, and look I am\\nafraid with a kind of luxurious and sanctimonious\\ncompassion to see the rate at which the string reels\\noff, while he lies there bobbing up and down, poor\\nfellow! and we are dashing along with the white\\nfoam and bright sparkle at our bows the ruffled\\nbosom of prosperity and progress, with a sprig of\\ndiamonds stuck in it But this is only the senti-\\nmental side of the matter for grow we must, if we\\noutgrow all that we love.\\nDon t misunderstand that metaphor of heaving the\\nlog, I beg you. It is merely a smart way of saying\\nthat we cannot avoid measuring our rate of move-\\nment by those with whom we have long been in the\\nhabit of comparing ourselves and when they once\\nbecome stationary, we can get our reckoning from\\nthem with painful accuracy. We see just what we\\nwere when they were our peers, and can strike the\\nbalance between that and whatever we may feel our-\\nselves to be now. No doubt we may sometimes be\\nmistaken. If we change our last simile to that very\\nold and familiar one of a fleet leaving the harbor and\\nsailing in company for some distant region, we can\\nget what we want out of it. There is one of our", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0119.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "92 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncompanions her streamers were torn into rags be-\\nfore she had got into the open sea, then by-and-by\\nher sails blew out of the ropes one after another, the\\nwaves swept her deck, and as night came on we left\\nher a seeming wreck, as we flew under our pyramid\\nof canvas. But lo! at dawn she is still in sight, it\\nmay be in advance of us. Some deep ocean-current\\nhas been moving her on, strong, but silent, yes,\\nstronger than these noisy winds that puff our sails\\nuntil they are swollen as the cheeks of jubilant cher-\\nubim. And when at last the black steam-tug with the\\nskeleton arms, which comes out of the mist sooner or\\nlater and takes us all in tow, grapples her and goes\\noff panting and groaning with her, it is to that har-\\nbor where all wrecks are refitted, and where, alas we,\\ntowering in our pride, may never come.\\nSo you will not think I mean to speak lightly of old\\nfriendships, because we cannot help instituting com-\\nparisons between our present and former selves by\\nthe aid of those who were what we were, but are not\\nwhat we are. Nothing strikes one more, in the race\\nof life, than to see how many give out in the first\\nhalf of the course. Commencement day always\\nreminds me of the start for the Derby, when the\\nbeautiful high-bred three-year olds of the season are\\nbrought up for trial. That day is the start, and life\\nis the race. Here we are at Cambridge, and a class\\nis just graduating. Poor Harry! he was to have\\nbeen there too, but he has paid forfeit step out here\\ninto the grass back of the church ah there it is\\nHUNC LAPIDEM POSUERUNT\\nSOCII MOZRENTES.\\nBut this is the start, and here they are, coats bright\\nas silk, and manes as smooth as eau lustrale can", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0120.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 93\\nmake them. Some of the best of the colts are\\npranced round, a few minutes each, to show their\\npaces. What is that old gentleman crying about?\\nand the old lady by him, and the three girls, what are\\nthey all covering their eyes for? Oh, that is their\\ncolt which has just been trotted up on the stage.\\nDo they really think those little thin legs can do any-\\nthing in such a slashing sweepstakes as is coming\\noff in these next forty years? Oh, this terrible gift\\nof second-sight that comes to some of us when we\\nbegin to look through the silvered rings of the arcus\\nsenilis\\nTen years gone. First turn in the race. A few\\nbroken down two or three bolted. Several show in\\nadvance of the ruck. Cassock, a black colt, seems\\nto be ahead of the rest those black colts commonly\\nget the start, I have noticed, of the others, in the first\\nquarter. Meteor has pulled up.\\nTwenty years. Second corner turned. Cassock\\nhas dropped from the front, and Judex, an iron-gray,\\nhas the lead. But look! how they have thinned out\\nDown flat, five, six, how many They lie still\\nenough! they will not get up again in this race, be\\nvery sure And the rest of them, what a tailing\\noff Anybody can see who is going to win,\\nperhaps.\\nThirty years. Third corner turned. Dives, bright\\nsorrel, ridden by the fellow in a yellow jacket, begins\\nto make play fast is getting to be the favorite with\\nmany. But who is that other one that has been\\nlengthening his stride from the first, and now shows\\nclose up to the front Don t you remember the quiet\\nbrown colt Asteroid, with the star in his forehead?\\nThat is he he is one of the sort that lasts look out", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0121.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "94 THE AUTOCRAT\\nfor him The black colt, 1 as we used to call him,\\nis in the background, taking it easily in a gentle trot.\\nThere is one they used to call the Filly, on account\\nof a certain feminine air he had well up, you see\\nthe Filly is not to be despised, my boy!\\nForty years. More dropping off, but places much\\nas before.\\nFifty years. Race over. All that are on the course\\nare coming in at a walk no more running. Who\\nis ahead? Ahead? What! and the winning-post\\na slab of white or gray stone standing out from that\\nturf where there is no more jockeying or straining for\\nvictory Well, the world marks their places in its\\nbetting-book but be sure that these matter very little,\\nif they have run as well as they knew how\\nDid I not say to you a little while ago that the\\nuniverse swam in an ocean of similitudes and analo-\\ngies I will not quote Cowley, or Burns, or Words-\\nworth, just now, to show you what thoughts were\\nsuggested to them by the simplest natural objects,\\nsuch as a flower or a leaf; but I will read you a few\\nlines, if you do not object, suggested by looking at\\na section of one of those chambered shells to which\\nis given the name of Pearly Nautilus. We need not\\ntrouble ourselves about the distinction between this\\nand the Paper Nautilus, the Argonauta of the ancients.\\nThe name applied to both shows that each has long\\nbeen compared to a ship, as you may see more fully\\nin Webster s Dictionary, or the Encyclopedia, 11 to\\nwhich he refers. If you will look into Roget s\\nBridgewater Treatise, you will find a figure of one\\nof these shells, and a section of it. The last will\\nshow you the series of enlarging compartments suc-\\ncessively dwelt in by the animal that inhabits the shell,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0122.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 95\\nwhich is built in a widening spiral. Can you find no\\nlesson in this\\nTHE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.\\nThis is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,\\nSails the unshadowed main,\\nThe venturous bark that flings\\nOn the sweet summer wind its purpled wings\\nIn gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,\\nAnd coral reefs lie bare,\\nWhere the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.\\nIts webs of living gauze no more unfurl\\nWrecked is the ship of pearl\\nAnd every chambered cell,\\nWhere its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,\\nAs the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,\\nBefore thee lies revealed,\\nIts irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed\\nYear after year beheld the silent toil\\nThat spread his lustrous coil\\nStill, as the spiral grew,\\nHe left the past year s dwelling for the new,\\nStole with soft step its shining archway through,\\nBuilt up its idle door,\\nStretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.\\nThanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,\\nChild of the wandering sea,\\nCast from her lap forlorn\\nFrom thy dead lips a clearer note is born\\nThan ever Triton blew from wreathed horn\\nWhile on mine ear it rings,\\nThrough the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings\\nBuild thee more stately mansions, O my soul,\\nAs the swift seasons roll\\nLeave thy low-vaulted past 1", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0123.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "96 A UTOCRA T OF THE BREAKFAST- TABLE.\\nLet each new temple, nobler than the last,\\nShut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,\\nTill thou at length art free,\\nLeaving thine outgrown shell by life s unresting sea", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0124.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "A Lyric conception my friend, the Poet, said\\nhits me like a bullet in the forehead. I have often\\nhad the blood drop from my cheeks when it struck,\\nand felt that I turned as white as death. Then comes\\na creeping as of centipedes running down the spine,\\nthen a gasp and a great jump of the heart, then\\na sudden flush and a beating in the vessels of the\\nhead, then a long sigh, and the poem is written.\\nIt is an impromptu, I suppose, then, if you write\\nit so suddenly, I replied.\\nNo, said he, far from it. I said written, but I\\ndid not say copied. Every such poem has a soul and\\na body, and it is the body of it, or the copy, that men\\nread and publishers pay for. The soul of it is born\\nin an instant in the poet s soul. It comes to him a\\nthought, tangled in the meshes of a few sweet words,\\nwords that have loved each other from the cradle\\nof the language, but have never been wedded until\\nnow. Whether it will ever fully embody itself in a\\nbridal train of a dozen stanzas or not is uncertain\\nbut it exists potentially from the instant that the\\npoet turns pale with it. It is enough to stun and\\nscare anybody, to have a hot thought come crashing\\ninto his brain, and ploughing up those parallel ruts\\nwhere the wagon trains of common ideas were jog-\\nging along in their regular sequences of association.\\nNo wonder the ancients made the poetical impulse\\n97", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0125.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "98 THE AUTOCRAT\\nwholly external. Mrjnv aciSe \u00c2\u00a9ea Goddess, Muse,\\ndivine afflatus, something outside always.\\nnever wrote any verses worth reading. I can t. I\\nam too stupid. If I ever copied any that were worth\\nreading, I was only a medium.\\n[I was talking all this time to our boarders, you\\nunderstand, telling them what this poet told me.\\nThe company listened rather attentively, I thought,\\nconsidering the literary character of the remarks.]\\nThe old gentleman opposite all at once asked me\\nif I ever read anything better than Pope s Essay on\\nMan Had I ever perused McFingal He was\\nfond of poetry when he was a boy, his mother\\ntaught him to say many little pieces, he remem-\\nbered one beautiful hymn and the old gentleman\\nbegan, in a clear, loud voice, for his years,\\nThe spacious firmament on high,\\nWith all the blue ethereal sky,\\nAnd spangled heavens,\\nHe stopped, as if startled by our silence, and a faint\\nflush ran up beneath the thin white hairs that fell\\nupon his cheek. As I looked round, I was reminded\\nof a show I once saw at the Museum, the Sleeping\\nBeauty, I think they called- it. The old man s sud-\\nden breaking out in this way turned every face towards\\nhim, and each kept his posture as if changed to\\nstone. Our Celtic Bridget, or Biddy, is not a fool-\\nish fat scullion to burst out crying for a sentiment.\\nShe is of the serviceable, red-handed, broad-and-\\nhigh-shouldered type one of those imported female\\nservants who are known in public by their amorphous\\nstyle of person, their stoop forwards, and a headlong\\nand as it were precipitous walk, the waist plung-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0126.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 99\\ning downward into the rocking pelvis at every\\nheavy footfall. Bridget, constituted for action, not\\nfor emotion, was about to deposit a plate heaped with\\nsomething upon the table, when I saw the coarse\\narm stretched by my shoulder arrested, motionless\\nas the arm of a terra-cotta caryatid she couldn t set\\nthe plate down while the old gentleman was speak-\\ning!\\nHe was quite silent after this, still wearing the\\nslight flush on his cheek. Don t ever think the\\npoetry is dead in an old man because his forehead\\nis wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when\\nhis hand trembles If they ever were there, they\\nare there still\\nBy and by we got talking again. Does a poet\\nlove the verses written through him, do you think,\\nSir said the divinity-student.\\nSo long as they are warm from his mind, carry any\\nof his animal heat about them, I know he loves them,\\nI answered. When they have had time to cool,\\nhe is more indifferent.\\nA good deal as it is with buckwheat cakes, said\\nthe young fellow whom they call John.\\nThe last words, only, reached the ear of the eco-\\nnomically organized female in black bombazine.\\nBuckwheat is skerce and high, she remarked.\\n[Must be a poor relation sponging on our landlady,\\npays nothing, so she must stand by the guns\\nand be ready to repel boarders.]\\nI liked the turn the conversation had taken, for I\\nhad some things I wanted to say, and so, after wait-\\ning a minute, I began again. I don t think the\\npoems I read you sometimes can be fairly appreciated,\\ngiven to you as they are in the green state.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0127.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "100 THE AUTOCRAT\\nYou don t know what I mean by the green\\nstate? Well, then, I will tell you. Certain things\\nare good for nothing until they have been kept a\\nlong while and some are good for nothing until\\nthey have been long kept and used. Of the first,\\nwine is the illustrious and immortal example. Of\\nthose which must be kept and used I will name\\nthree, meerschaum pipes, violins, and poems. The\\nmeerschaum is but a poor affair until it has burned\\na thousand offerings to the cloud-compelling deities.\\nIt comes to us without complexion or flavor, born\\nof the sea-foam, like Aphrodite, but colorless as\\npallida Mors herself. The fire is lighted in its cen-\\ntral shrine, and gradually the juices which the broad\\nleaves of the Great Vegetable had sucked up from\\nan acre and curdled into a drachm are diffused\\nthrough its thirsting pores. First a discoloration,\\nthen a stain, and at last a rich, glowing, umber tint\\nspreading over the whole surface. Nature true to\\nher old brown autumnal hue, you see, as true in\\nthe fire of the meerschaum as in the sunshine of\\nOctober And then the cumulative wealth of its\\nfragrant reminiscences he who inhales its vapors\\ntakes a thousand whiffs in a single breath and one\\ncannot touch it without awakening the old joys that\\nhang around it as the smell of flowers clings to the\\ndresses of the daughters of the house of Farina\\n[Don t think I use a meerschaum myself, for do\\nnotj though I have owned a calumet since my child-\\nhood, which from a naked Pict (of the Mohawk\\nspecies) my grandsire won, together with a toma-\\nhawk and beaded knife-sheath paying for the lot\\nwith a bullet-mark on his right cheek. On the ma-\\nternal side I inherit the loveliest silver-mounted to-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0128.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 01\\nbacco-stopper you ever saw. It is a little box-wood\\nTriton, carved with charming liveliness and truth\\nI have often compared it to a figure in Raphael s\\nTriumph of Galatea. 1 It came to me in an ancient\\nshagreen case, how old it is I do not know, but\\nit must have been made since Sir Walter Raleigh s\\ntime. If you are curious, you shall see it any day.\\nNeither will I pretend that I am so unused to the\\nmore perishable smoking contrivance, that a few whiffs\\nwould make me feel as if I lay in a ground-swell on\\nthe Bay of Biscay. I am not unacquainted with that\\nfusiform, spiral-wound bundle of chopped sterns and\\nmiscellaneous incombustibles, the cigar so called, of\\nthe shops, which to draw asks the suction-power\\nof a nursling infant Hercules, and to relish, the leath-\\nery palate of an old Silenus. I do not advise you,\\nyoung man, even if my illustration strike your fancy,\\nto consecrate the flower of your life to painting the\\nbowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain of a\\nreverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you\\nthink for. I have seen the green leaf of early promise\\ngrow brown before its time under such Nicotian regi-\\nmen, and thought the umbered meerschaum was dearly\\nbought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will\\nenslaved.]\\nViolins, too, the sweet old Amati! the divine\\nStradivarius! Played on by ancient maestros until\\nthe bow-hand lost its power and the flying fingers\\nstiffened. Bequeathed to the passionate young en-\\nthusiast, who made it whisper his hidden love, and\\ncry his inarticulate longings, and scream his untold\\nagonies, and wail his monotonous despair. Passed\\nfrom his dying hand to the cold virtuoso, who let it\\nslumber in its case for a generation, till, when his", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0129.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "102 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhoard was broken up, it came forth once more and\\nrode the stormy symphonies of royal orchestras, be-\\nneath the rushing bow of their lord and leader. Into\\nlonely prisons with improvident artists into convents\\nfrom which arose, day and night, the holy hymns\\nwith which its tones were blended and back again\\nto orgies in which it learned to howl and laugh as\\nif a legion of devils were shut up in it then again\\nto the gentle dilettante who calmed it down with easy\\nmelodies until it answered him softly as in the days\\nof the old maestros. And so given into our hands,\\nits pores all full of music stained, like the meer-\\nschaum, through and through, with the concentrated\\nhue and sweetness of all the harmonies which have\\nkindled and faded on its strings.\\nNow 1 tell you a poem must be kept and tised,\\nlike a meerschaum, or a violin. A poem is just as\\nporous as the meerschaum; the more porous it is,\\nthe better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is\\ncapable of absorbing an indefinite amount of the\\nessence of our own humanity, its tenderness, its\\nheroism, its regrets, its aspirations, so as to be gradu-\\nally stained through with a divine secondary color\\nderived from ourselves. So you see it must take\\ntime to bring the sentiment of a poem into harmony\\nwith our nature, by staining ourselves through every\\nthought and image our being can penetrate.\\nThen again as to the mere music of a new poem\\nwhy, who can expect anything more from that than\\nfrom the music of a violin fresh from the maker s\\nhands? Now you know very well that there are no\\nless than fifty-eight different pieces in a violin. These\\npieces are strangers to each other, and it takes a\\ncentury, more or less, to make them thoroughly ac-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0130.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 103\\nquainted. At last they learn to vibrate in harmony,\\nand the instrument becomes an organic whole, as if\\nit were a great seed-capsule which had grown from\\na garden-bed in Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides,\\nthe wood is juicy and full of sap for fifty years or\\nso, but at the end of fifty or a hundred more gets\\ntolerably dry and comparatively resonant.\\nDon t you see that all this is just as true of a poem\\nCounting each word as a piece, there are more pieces\\nin an average copy of verses than in a violin. The\\npoet has forced all these words together, and fastened\\nthem, and they don t understand it at first. But let\\nthe poem be repeated aloud and murmured over in the\\nmind s muffled whisper often enough, and at length the\\nparts become knit together in such absolute solidarity\\nthat you could not change a syllable without the whole\\nworld s crying out against you for meddling with the\\nharmonious fabric. Observe, too, how the drying\\nprocess takes place in the stuff of a poem just as in\\nthat of a violin. Here is a Tyrolese fiddle that is just\\ncoming to its hundredth birthday, (Pedro Klauss,\\nTyroli, fecit, 1760,) the sap is pretty well out of it.\\nAnd here is the song of an old poet whom Neaera\\ncheated\\nNox erat, et coelo fulgebat Luna sereno\\nInter minora sidera,\\nCum tu magnorum numen laesura deorum\\nIn verba jurabas mea.\\nDon t you perceive the sonorousness of these old\\ndead Latin phrases Now I tell you that every word\\nfresh from the dictionary brings with it a certain suc-\\nculence and though I cannot expect the sheets of\\nthe Pactolian, in which, as I told you, I sometimes\\nprint my verses, to get so dry as the crisp papyrus", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0131.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "104 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthat held those words of Horatius Flaccus, yet you\\nmay be sure, that, while the sheets are damp, and\\nwhile the lines hold their sap, you can t fairly judge\\nof my performances, and that, if made of the true\\nstuff, they will ring better after a while.\\n[There was silence for a brief space, after my some-\\nwhat elaborate exposition of these self-evident analo-\\ngies. Presently a person turned towards me I do\\nnot choose to designate the individual and said that\\nhe rather expected my pieces had given pretty good\\nsahtisfahction I had, up to this moment, con-\\nsidered this complimentary phrase as sacred to the\\nuse of secretaries of lyceums, and, as it has been\\nusually accompanied by a small pecuniary testimonial,\\nhave acquired a certain relish for this moderately\\ntepid and unstimulating expression of enthusiasm.\\nBut as a reward for gratuitous services, I confess I\\nthought it a little below that blood-heat standard\\nwhich a man s breath ought to have, whether silent,\\nor vocal and articulate. I waited for a favorable\\nopportunity, however, before making the remarks\\nwhich follow.]\\nThere are single expressions, as I have told you\\nalready, that fix a man s position for you before you\\nhave done shaking hands with him. Allow me to\\nexpand a little. There are several things, very slight\\nin themselves, yet implying other things not so un-\\nimportant. Thus, your French servant has devalise\\nyour premises and got caught. Excusez, says the\\nsergent-de-ville, as he politely relieves him of his\\nupper garments and displays his bust in the full day-\\nlight. Good shoulders enough, a little marked,\\ntraces of smallpox, perhaps, but white.\\nCrac I from the sergent-de-ville^s broad palm on the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0132.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 105\\nwhite shoulder Now look Vogue la gaUrel Out\\ncomes the big red V mark of the hot iron he had\\nblistered it out pretty nearly, hadn t he the old\\nrascal VOLEUR, branded in the galleys at Marseilles\\n[Don t What if he has got something like this\\nnobody supposes I invented such a story.]\\nMy man John, who used to drive two of those six\\nequine females which I told you I had owned, for,\\nlook you, my friends, simple though I stand here, I\\nam one that has been driven in his kerridge,\\nnot using that term, as liberal shepherds do, for any\\nbattered old shabby-genteel go-cart which has more\\nthan one wheel, but meaning thereby a four-wheeled\\nvehicle with a pole, my man John, I say, was a re-\\ntired soldier. He retired unostentatiously, as many\\nof her Majesty s modest servants have done before\\nand since. John told me, that when an officer thinks\\nhe recognizes one of these retiring heroes, and would\\nknow if he has really been in the service, that he may\\nrestore him, if possible, to a grateful country, he\\ncomes suddenly upon him, and says, sharply, Strap!\\nIf he has ever worn the shoulder-strap, he has learned\\nthe reprimand for its ill adjustment. The old word of\\ncommand flashes through his muscles, and his hand\\ngoes up in an instant to the place where the strap\\nused to be.\\n[I was all the time preparing for my grand coup,\\nyou understand but I saw they were not quite ready\\nfor it, and so continued, always in illustration of\\nthe general principle I had laid down.]\\nYes, odd things come out in ways that nobody\\nthinks of. There was a legend, that, when the\\nDanish pirates made descents upon the English coast,\\nthey caught a few Tartars occasionally, in the shape", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0133.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "106 THE AUTOCRAT\\nof Saxons, who would not let them go, on the con-\\ntrary, insisted on their staying, and, to make sure of\\nit, treated them as Apollo treated Marsyas, or as\\nBartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in his title-\\npage, and, having divested them of the one essential\\nand perfectly fitting garment, indispensable in the\\nmildest climates, nailed the same on the church-door\\nas we do the banns of marriage, in terror em.\\n[There was a laugh at this among some of the\\nyoung folks but as I looked at our landlady, I saw\\nthat the water stood in her eyes, as it did in Chris-\\ntiana s when the interpreter asked her about the\\nspider, and I fancied, but wasn t quite sure that the\\nschoolmistress blushed, as Mercy did in the same\\nconversation, as you remember.]\\nThat sounds like a cock-and-bull story, said the\\nyoung fellow whom they call John. I abstained\\nfrom making Hamlefs remark to Horatio, and con-\\ntinued.\\nNot long since, the church-wardens were repairing\\nand beautifying an old Saxon church in a certain\\nEnglish village, and among other things thought the\\ndoors should be attended to. One of them particu-\\nlarly, the front-door, looked very badly, crusted, as it\\nwere, and as if it would be all the better for scraping.\\nThere happened to be a microscopist in the village\\nwho had heard the old pirate story, and he took it\\ninto his head to examine the crust on this door.\\nThere was no mistake about it it was a genuine\\nhistorical document, of the Ziska drum-head pattern,\\na real cutis huntana, stripped from some old Scandi-\\nnavian filibuster, and the legend was true.\\nMy friend, the Professor, settled an important his-\\ntorical and financial question once by the aid of an", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0134.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 107\\nexceedingly minute fragment of a similar document.\\nBehind the pane of plate-glass which bore his name\\nand title burned a modest lamp, signifying to the\\npassers-by that at all hours of the night the slightest\\nfavors (or fevers) were welcome. A youth who had\\nfreely partaken of the cup which cheers and likewise\\ninebriates, following a moth-like impulse very nat-\\nural under the circumstances, dashed his fist at the\\nlight and quenched the meek luminary, breaking\\nthrough the plate-glass, of course, to reach it. Now\\nI don t want to go into minutice at table, you know,\\nbut a naked hand can no more go through a pane of\\nthick glass without leaving some of its cuticle, to say\\nthe least, behind it, than a butterfly can go through\\na sausage-machine without looking the worse for it.\\nThe Professor gathered up the fragments of glass,\\nand with them certain very minute but entirely\\nsatisfactory documents which would have identified\\nand hanged any rogue in Christendom who had\\nparted with them. The historical question, Who\\ndid it f and the financial question, Who paid for it f\\nwere both settled before the new lamp was lighted\\nthe next evening.\\nYou see, my friends, what immense conclusions,\\ntouching our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred\\nhonor, may be reached by means of very insignifi-\\ncant premises. This is eminently true of manners\\nand forms of speech a movement or a phrase often\\ntells you all you want to know about a person.\\nThus, How s your health? (commonly pronounced\\nhaaltJi) instead of, How do you do? or, How are\\nyou Or calling your little dark entry a hall, and\\nyour old rickety one-horse wagon a kerridge.* Or\\ntelling a person who has been trying to please you", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0135.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "108 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthat he has given you pretty good (t sahtisfahction.\\nOr saying that you remember of such a thing, or\\nthat you have been stoppin at Deacon Some-\\nbody s, and other such expressions. One of my\\nfriends had a little marble statuette of Cupid in the\\nparlor of his country-house, bow, arrows, wings,\\nand all complete. A visitor, indigenous to the region,\\nlooking pensively at the figure, asked the lady of the\\nhouse if that was a statoo of her deceased infant?\\nWhat a delicious, though somewhat voluminous\\nbiography, social, educational, and aesthetic in that\\nbrief question\\n[Please observe with what Machiavellian astute-\\nness I smuggled in the particular offence which it\\nwas my object to hold up to my fellow-boarders,\\nwithout too personal an attack on the individual at\\nwhose door it lay.]\\nThat was an exceedingly dull person who made the\\nremark, Ex pede Hercule7n. He might as well have\\nsaid, u From a peck of apples you may judge of the\\nbarrel. Ex pede, to be sure Read, instead, Ex\\nungue mini?ni digiti pedis, Herculem, ejusque patrem,\\nmatrem, avos et proavos,ftlios, nepotes et pronepotes I\\nTalk to me about your 86? irov otco Tell me about\\nCuvier s getting up a megatherium from a tooth, or\\nAgassiz s drawing a portrait of an undiscovered fish\\nfrom a single scale As the O revealed Giotto,\\nas the one word moi betrayed the Stratford\\natte-Bowe-taught Anglais, so all a man s antece-\\ndents and possibilities are summed up in a single\\nutterance which gives at once the gauge of his edu-\\ncation and his mental organization.\\nPossibilities, Sir said the divinity-student can t\\na man who says Haow f arrive at distinction", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0136.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. IO9\\nSir, I replied, in a republic all things are pos-\\nsible. But the man with a future has almost of\\nnecessity sense enough to see that any odious trick\\nof speech or manners must be got rid of. Doesn t\\nSydney Smith say that a public man in England\\nnever gets over a false quantity uttered in early life\\nOur public men are in little danger of this fatal mis-\\nstep, as few of them are in the habit of introducing\\nLatin into their speeches, for good and sufficient\\nreasons. But they are bound to speak decent Eng-\\nlish, unless, indeed, they are rough old campaign-\\ners, like General Jackson or General Taylor in\\nwhich case, a few scars on Priscian s head are par-\\ndoned to old fellows who have quite as many on\\ntheir own, and a constituency of thirty empires is\\nnot at all particular, provided they do not swear in\\ntheir Presidential Messages.\\nHowever, it is not for me to talk. I have made\\nmistakes enough in conversation and print. I never\\nfind them out until they are stereotyped, and then I\\nthink they rarely escape me. I have no doubt I shall\\nmake half a dozen slips before this breakfast is over,\\nand remember them all before another. How one\\ndoes tremble with rage at his own intense momen-\\ntary stupidity about things he knows perfectly well,\\nand to think how he lays himself open to the imperti-\\nnences of the captatores verborum, those useful but\\nhumble scavengers of the language, whose business\\nit is to pick up what might offend or injure, and re-\\nmove it, hugging and feeding on it as they go I\\ndon t want to speak too slightingly of these verbal\\ncritics how can I, who am so fond of talking about\\nerrors and vulgarisms of speech Only there is a\\ndifference between those clerical blunders which", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0137.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "IIO THE AUTOCRAT\\nalmost every man commits, knowing better, and that\\nhabitual grossness or meanness of speech which is\\nunendurable to educated persons, from anybody that\\nwears silk or broadcloth.\\n[I write down the above remarks this morning,\\nJanuary 26th, making this record of the date that\\nnobody may think it was written in wrath, on account\\nof any particular grievance suffered from the invasion\\nof any individual scarabceus grainmaticus.~\\\\\\nI wonder if anybody ever finds fault with any-\\nthing Isay at this table when it is repeated I hope\\nthey do, I am sure. I should be very certain that I\\nhad said nothing of much significance, if they did\\nnot.\\nDid you never, in walking in the fields, come across\\na large flat stone, which had lain, nobody knows how\\nlong, just where you found it, with the grass form-\\ning a little hedge, as it were, all round it, close to its\\nedges, and have you not, in obedience to a kind\\nof feeling that told you it had been lying there long\\nenough, insinuated your stick or your foot or your\\nfingers under its edge and turned it over as a house-\\nwife turns a cake, when she says to herself, I^s\\ndone brown enough by this time 1 What an odd\\nrevelation, and what an unforeseen and unpleasant\\nsurprise to a small community, the very existence\\nof which you had not suspected, until the sudden dis-\\nmay and scattering among its members produced by\\nyour turning the old stone over! Blades of grass flat-\\ntened down, colorless, matted together, as if they had\\nbeen bleached and ironed hideous crawling creatures,\\nsome of them coleopterous or horny-shelled, turtle-\\nbugs one wants to call them some of them softer,\\nbut cunningly spread out and compressed like Lepine", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0138.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. Ill\\nwatches (Nature never loses a crack or a crevice,\\nmind you, or a joint in a tavern bedstead, but she\\nalways has one of her flat-pattern live timekeepers to\\nslide into it black, glossy crickets, with their long\\nfilaments sticking out like the whips of four-horse\\nstage-coaches motionless, slug-like creatures, young\\nlarvae, perhaps more horrible in their pulpy stillness\\nthan even in the infernal wriggle of maturity But\\nno sooner is the stone turned and the wholesome\\nlight of day let upon this compressed and blinded\\ncommunity of creeping things, than all of them which\\nenjoy the luxury of legs and some of them have a\\ngood many rush round wildly, butting each other\\nand everything in their way, and end in a general\\nstampede for underground retreats from the region\\npoisoned by sunshine. Next year you will find the\\ngrass growing tall and green where the stone lay\\nthe ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle had\\nhis hole the dandelion and the buttercup are grow-\\ning there, and the broad fans of insect-angels open\\nand shut over their golden disks, as the rhythmic\\nwaves of blissful consciousness pulsate through their\\nglorified being.\\nThe young fellow whom they call John saw fit\\nto say, in his very familiar way, at which I do not\\nchoose to take offence, but which I sometimes think\\nit necessary to repress, that I was coming it rather\\nstrong on the butterflies.\\nNo, I replied there is meaning in each of those\\nimages, the butterfly as well as the others. The\\nstone is ancient error. The grass is human nature\\nborne down and bleached of all its color by it. The\\nshapes which are found beneath are the crafty beings\\nthat thrive in darkness, and the weaker organisms", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0139.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "112 THE AUTOCRAT\\nkept helpless by it. He who turns the stone over is\\nwhosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying\\nincubus, no matter whether he do it with a serious\\nface or a laughing one. The next year stands for\\nthe coming time. Then shall the nature which had\\nlain blanched and broken rise in its full stature and\\nnative hues in the sunshine. Then shall God s min-\\nstrels build their nests in the hearts of a newborn\\nhumanity. Then shall beauty Divinity taking out-\\nlines and color light upon the souls of men as the\\nbutterfly, image of the beatified spirit rising from\\nthe dust, soars from the shell that held a poor grub,\\nwhich would never have found wings, had not the stone\\nbeen lifted.\\nYou never need think you can turn over any old\\nfalsehood without a terrible squirming and scattering\\nof the horrid little population that dwells under it.\\nEvery real thought on every real subject knocks\\nthe wind out of somebody or other. As soon as his\\nbreath comes back, he very probably begins to ex-\\npend it in hard words. These are the best evidence a\\nman can have that he has said something it was time to\\nsay. Dr. Johnson was disappointed in the effect of one\\nof his pamphlets. I think I have not been attacked\\nenough for it, he said attack is the reaction I\\nnever think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.\\nIf a fellow attacked my opinions in print, would\\nI reply? Not I. Do you think I don t understand\\nwhat my friend, the Professor, long ago called the\\nhydrostatic paradox of controversy f\\nDon t know what that means? Well, I will tell\\nyou. You know, that, if you had a bent tube, one\\narm of which was of the size of a pipe-stem, and the\\nother big enough to hold the ocean, water would stand", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0140.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "Did. you never, in walking across the Fields, come across a Large\\nFlat Stone?", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0141.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0142.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 113\\nat the same height in one as in the other. Contro-\\nversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way,\\nand the fools know it.\\nNo, but I often read what they say about other\\npeople. There are about a dozen phrases which all\\ncome tumbling along together, like the tongs, and\\nthe shovel, and the poker, and the brush, and the\\nbellows, in one of those domestic avalanches that\\neverybody knows. If you get one, you get the whole\\nlot.\\nWhat are they? Oh, that depends a good deal on\\nlatitude and longitude. Epithets follow the isother-\\nmal lines pretty accurately. Grouping them in two\\nfamilies, one finds himself a clever, genial, witty, wise,\\nbrilliant, sparkling, thoughtful, distinguished, cele-\\nbrated, illustrious scholar and perfect gentleman, and\\nfirst writer of the age or a dull, foolish, wicked, pert,\\nshallow, ignorant, insolent, traitorous, black-hearted\\noutcast, and disgrace to civilization.\\nWhat do I think determines the set of phrases a\\nman gets? Well, I should say a set of influences\\nsomething like these: 1st. Relationships, political,\\nreligious, social, domestic. 2d. Oysters in the form\\nof suppers given to gentlemen connected with criti-\\ncism. I believe in the school, the college, and the\\nclergy but my sovereign logic, for regulating pub-\\nlic opinion which means commonly the opinion\\nof half a dozen of the critical gentry is the follow-\\ning: Major proposition. Oysters au natur el. Minor\\nproposition. The same scalloped. Conclusion.\\nThat (here insert entertainer s name) is clever,\\nwitty, wise, brilliant, and the rest.\\nNo, it isn t exactly bribery. One man has\\noysters, and another epithets. It is an exchange of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0143.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "114 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhospitalities one gives a spread on linen, and the\\nother on paper, that is all. Don t you think you\\nand I should be apt to do just so, if we were in the\\ncritical line I am sure I could n t resist the soften-\\ning influences of hospitality. I don t like to dine out,\\nyou know, I dine so well at our own table, [our\\nlandlady looked radiant,] and the company is so\\npleasant [a rustling movement of satisfaction among\\nthe boarders] but if I did partake of a man s salt,\\nwith such additions as that article of food requires to\\nmake it palatable, I could never abuse him, and if I\\nhad to speak of him, I suppose I should hang my set\\nof jingling epithets round him like a string of sleigh-\\nbells.- Good feeling helps society to make liars of\\nmost of us, not absolute liars, but such careless\\nhandlers of truth that its sharp corners get terribly\\nrounded. I love truth as chiefest among the virtues\\nI trust it runs in my blood but I would never be a\\ncritic, because I know I could not always tell it. I\\nmight write a criticism of a book that happened to\\nplease me that is another matter.\\nListen, Benjamin Franklin This is for you,\\nand such others of tender age as you may tell it to.\\nWhen we are as yet small children, long before the\\ntime when those two grown ladies offer us the choice\\nof Hercules, there comes up to us a youthful angel,\\nholding in his right hand cubes like dice, and in his\\nleft spheres like marbles. The cubes are of stainless\\nivory, and on each is written in letters of gold\\nTruth. The spheres are veined and streaked and\\nspotted beneath, with a dark crimson flush above,\\nwhere the light falls on them, and in a certain aspect\\nyou can make out upon every one of them the three\\nletters L, I, E. The child to whom they are offered", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0144.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 1 1 5\\nvery probably clutches at both. The spheres are the\\nmost convenient things in the world they roll with\\nthe least possible impulse just where the child would\\nhave them. The cubes will not roll at all they have\\na great talent for standing still, and always keep right\\nside up. But very soon the young philosopher finds\\nthat things which roll so easily are very apt to roll\\ninto the wrong corner, and to get out of his way when\\nhe most wants them, while he always knows where to\\nfind the others, which stay where they are left. Thus\\nhe learns thus we learn to drop the streaked and\\nspeckled globes of falsehood and to hold fast the white\\nangular blocks of truth. But then comes Timidity,\\nand after her Good-nature, arid last of all Polite-\\nbehavior, all insisting that truth must roll, or nobody\\ncan do anything with it and so the first with her\\ncoarse rasp, and the second with her broad file, and\\nthe third with her silken sleeve, do so round off and\\nsmooth and polish the snow-white cubes of truth,\\nthat, when they have got a little dingy by use, it\\nbecomes hard to tell them from the rolling spheres\\nof falsehood. J\\nThe schoolmistress was polite enough to say that\\nshe was pleased with this, and that she would read it\\nto her little flock the next day. But she should tell\\nthe children, she said, that there were better reasons\\nfor truth than could be found in mere experience of\\nits convenience and the inconvenience of lying.\\nYes, I said, but education always begins through\\nthe senses, and works up to the idea of absolute right\\nand wrong. The first thing the child has to learn\\nabout this matter is, that lying is unprofitable, after-\\nwards, that it is against the peace and dignity of the\\nuniverse.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0145.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "Il6 THE AUTOCRAT\\nDo I think that the particular form of lying\\noften seen in newspapers, under the title, From our\\nForeign Correspondent/ does any harm Why, no,\\nI don t know that it does. I suppose it doesn t\\nreally deceive people any more than the Arabian\\nNights or Gulliver s Travels do. Sometimes the\\nwriters compile too carelessly, though, and mix up\\nfacts out of geographies, and stories out of the penny\\npapers, so as to mislead those who are desirous of\\ninformation. I cut a piece out of one of the papers,\\nthe other day, which contains a number of improba-\\nbilities, and, I suspect, misstatements. I will send\\nup and get it for you, if you would like to hear it.\\nAh, this is it it is headed\\nOur Sumatra Correspondence.\\nThis island is now the property of the Stamford\\nfamily, having been won, it is said, in a raffle, by\\nSir Stamford, during the stock-gambling mania\\nof the South-Sea Scheme. The history of this gentle-\\nman may be found in an interesting series of ques-\\ntions (unfortunately not yet answered) contained in\\nthe Notes and Queries. 1 This island is entirely sur-\\nrounded by the ocean, which here contains a large\\namount of saline substance, crystallizing in cubes re-\\nmarkable for their symmetry, and frequently displays\\non its surface, during calm weather, the rainbow tints\\nof the celebrated South-Sea bubbles. The summers\\nare oppressively hot, and the winters very probably\\ncold; but this fact cannot be ascertained precisely,\\nas, for some peculiar reason, the mercury in these\\nlatitudes never shrinks, as in more northern regions,\\nand thus the thermometer is rendered useless in\\nwinter.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0146.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 117\\nu The principal vegetable productions of the island\\nare the pepper tree and the bread-fruit tree. Pepper\\nbeing very abundantly produced, a benevolent society\\nwas organized in London during the last century for\\nsupplying the natives with vinegar and oysters, as an\\naddition to that delightful condiment. [Note received\\nfrom Dr. D. P.] It is said, however, that, as the oys-\\nters were of the kind called natives in England, the\\nnatives of Sumatra, in obedience to a natural instinct,\\nrefused to touch them, and confined themselves en-\\ntirely to the crew of the vessel in which they were\\nbrought over. This information was received from\\none of the oldest inhabitants, a native himself, and\\nexceedingly fond of missionaries. He is said also to\\nbe very skilful in the cuisine peculiar to the island.\\nDuring the season of gathering the pepper, the\\npersons employed are subject to various incom modi-\\nties, the chief of which is violent and long-continued\\nsternutation, or sneezing. Such is the vehemence\\nof these attacks, that the unfortunate subjects of them\\nare often driven backward for great distances at im-\\nmense speed, on the well-known principle of the\\naeolipile. Not being able to see where they are going,\\nthese poor creatures dash themselves to pieces against\\nthe rocks or are precipitated over the cliffs, and thus\\nmany valuable lives are lost annually. As, during\\nthe whole pepper-harvest, they feed exclusively on\\nthis stimulant, they become exceedingly irritable.\\nThe smallest injury is resented with ungovernable\\nrage. A young man suffering from the pepper-fever,\\nas it is called, cudgelled another most severely for\\nappropriating a superannuated relative of trifling\\nvalue, and was only pacified by having a present\\nmade him of a pig of that peculiar species of swine", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0147.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "Il8 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncalled the Peccavi by the Catholic Jews, who, it is\\nwell known, abstain from swine s flesh in imitation of\\nthe Mahometan Buddhists.\\nThe bread-tree grows abundantly. Its branches\\nare well known to Europe and America under the\\nfamiliar name of maccaroni. The smaller twigs are\\ncalled vermicelli. They have a decided animal flavor,\\nas may be observed in the soups containing them.\\nMaccaroni, being tubular, is the favorite habitat of a\\nvery dangerous insect, which is rendered peculiarly\\nferocious by being boiled. The government of the\\nisland, therefore, never allows a stick of it to be ex-\\nported without being accompanied by a piston with\\nwhich its cavity may at any time be thoroughly swept\\nout. These are commonly lost or stolen before the\\nmaccaroni arrives among us. It therefore always con-\\ntains many of these insects, which, however, generally\\ndie of old age in the shops, so that accidents from this\\nsource are comparatively rare.\\nThe fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of\\nhot rolls. The buttered muffin variety is supposed\\nto be a hybrid with the cocoa-nut palm, the cream\\nfound on the milk of the cocoa-nut exuding from the\\nhybrid in the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is\\nsplitting, so as to fit it for the tea-table, where it is\\ncommonly served up with cold\\nThere, I don t want to read any more of it.\\nYou see that many of these statements are highly im-\\nprobable. No, I shall not mention the paper. No,\\nneither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the\\nstyle of these popular writers. I think the fellow who\\nwrote it must have been reading some of their stories,\\nand got them mixed up with his history and geog-\\nraphy. I don t suppose he lies he sells it to the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0148.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE 119\\neditor, who knows how many squares off Sumatra\\nis. The editor, who sells it to the public By the\\nway, the papers have been very civil have n t they\\nto the the what d ye call it Northern\\nMagazine, is n t it got up by some of those\\nCome-outers, down East, as an organ for their local\\npeculiarities.\\nThe Professor has been to see me. Came in,\\nglorious, at about twelve o clock, last night. Said he\\nhad been with the boys. On inquiry, found that\\nthe boys were certain baldish and grayish old\\ngentlemen that one sees or hears of in various im-\\nportant stations of society. The Professor is one of\\nthe same set, but he always talks as if he had been\\nout of college about ten years, whereas\\n[Each of these dots was a little nod, which the\\ncompany understood, as the reader will, no doubt.]\\nHe calls them sometimes the boys, and sometimes\\nthe old fellows. Call him by the latter title, and see\\nhow he likes it. Well, he came in last night, glori-\\nous, as I was saying. Of course I don t mean vinously\\nexalted he drinks little wine on such occasions, and\\nis well known to all the Peters and Patricks as the\\ngentleman who always has indefinite quantities of\\nblack tea to kill any extra glass of red claret he may\\nhave swallowed. But the Professor says he always\\ngets tipsy on old memories at these gatherings. He\\nwas, I forget how many years old when he went to\\nthe meeting; just turned of twenty now, he said.\\nHe made various youthful proposals to me, including\\na duet under the landlady s daughter s window. He\\nhad just learned a trick, he said, of one of the\\nboys, of getting a splendid bass out of a door-panel\\nby rubbing it with the palm of his hand. Offered to", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0149.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "120 THE AUTOCRAT\\nsing The sky is bright, accompanying himself on\\nthe front-door, if I would go down and help in the\\nchorus. Said there never was such a set of fellows\\nas the old boys of the set he has been with. Judges,\\nmayors, Congress-men, Mr. Speakers, leaders in sci-\\nence, clergymen better than famous, and famous too,\\npoets by the half-dozen, singers with voices like angels,\\nfinanciers, wits, three of the best laughers in the Com-\\nmonwealth, engineers, agriculturists, all forms of\\ntalent and knowledge he pretended were represented\\nin that meeting. Then he began to quote Byron\\nabout Santa Croce, and maintained that he could\\nfurnish out creation in all its details from that set\\nof his. He would like to have the whole boodle of\\nthem, I remonstrated against this word, but the Pro-\\nfessor said it was a diabolish good word, and he would\\nhave no other,) with their wives and children, ship-\\nwrecked on a remote island, just to see how splendidly\\nthey would reorganize society. They could build a city,\\nthey have done it make constitutions and laws\\nestablish churches and lyceums teach and practise\\nthe healing art instruct in every department found\\nobservatories create commerce and manufactures\\nwrite songs and hymns, and sing em, and make\\ninstruments to accompany the songs with lastly,\\npublish a journal almost as good as the Northern\\nMagazine, edited by the Come-outers. There was\\nnothing they were not up to, from a christening to a\\nhanging the last, to be sure, could never be called\\nfor, unless some stranger got in among them.\\nI let the Professor talk as long as he liked it\\ndidn t make much difference to me whether it was all\\ntruth, or partly made up of pale Sherry and similar ele-\\nments. All at once he jumped up and said,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0150.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 121\\nDon t you want to hear what I just read to the boys\\nI have had questions of a similar character asked\\nme before, occasionally. A man of iron mould might\\nperhaps say. No I am not a man of iron mould, and\\nsaid that I should be delighted.\\nThe Professor then read with that slightly sing-\\nsong cadence which is observed to be common in\\npoets reading their own verses the following stan-\\nzas holding them at a focal distance of about two\\nfeet and a half, with an occasional movement back or\\nforward for better adjustment, the appearance of which\\nhas been likened by some impertinent young folks to\\nthat of the act of playing on the trombone. His eye-\\nsight was never better I have his word for it.\\nMARE RUBRUM.\\nFLASH out a stream of blood-red wine\\nFor I would drink to other days\\nAnd brighter shall their memory shine,\\nSeen flaming through its crimson blaze.\\nThe roses die, the summers fade;\\nBut every ghost of boyhood s dream\\nBy Nature s magic power is laid\\nTo sleep beneath this blood-red stream.\\nIt filled the purple grapes that lay\\nAnd drank the splendors of the sun\\nWhere the long summer s cloudless day\\nIs mirrored in the broad Garonne\\nIt pictures still the bacchant shapes\\nThat saw their hoarded sunlight shed,\\nThe maidens dancing on the grapes,\\nTheir milk-white ankles splashed with red.\\nBeneath these waves of crimson lie,\\nIn rosy fetters prisoned fast,\\nThose flitting shapes that never die,\\nThe swift-winged visions of the past.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0151.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "122 A UTOCRA T OF THE BREAKFAST- TABLE.\\nKiss but the crystal s mystic rim,\\nEach shadow rends its flowery chain,\\nSprings in a bubble from its brim\\nAnd walks the chambers of the brain.\\nPoor Beauty time and fortune s wrong\\nNo form nor feature may withstand,\\nThy wrecks are scattered all along,\\nLike emptied sea-shells on the sand\\nYet, sprinkled with this blushing rain,\\nThe dust restores each blooming girl,\\nAs if the sea-shells moved again\\nTheir glistening lips of pink and pearl.\\nHere lies the home of school-boy life,\\nWith creating stair and wind-swept hall,\\nAnd, scarred by many a truant knife,\\nOur old initials on the wall\\nHere rest their keen vibrations mute\\nThe shout of voices known so well,\\nThe ringing laugh, the wailing flute,\\nThe chiding of the sharp-tongued bell.\\nHere, clad in burning robes, are laid\\nLife s blossomed joys, untimely shed;\\nAnd here those cherished forms have strayed\\nWe miss awhile, and call them dead.\\nWhat wizard fills the maddening glass\\nWhat soil the enchanted clusters grew,\\nThat buried passions wake and pass\\nIn beaded drops of fiery dew\\nNay, take the cup of blood-red wine,\\nOur hearts can boast a warmer glow,\\nFilled from a vintage more divine,\\nCalmed, but not chilled by winter s snow\\nTo-night the palest wave we sip\\nRich as the priceless draught shall be\\nThat wet the bride of Cana s lip,\\nThe wedding wine of Galilee", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0152.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "VI.\\nSin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which\\nfits them all.\\nI think, Sir, said the divinity-student, you\\nmust intend that for one of the sayings of the Seven\\nWise Men of Boston you were speaking of the other\\nday.\\nI thank you, my young friend, was my reply,\\nbut I must say something better than that, before I\\ncould pretend to fill out the number.\\nThe schoolmistress wanted to know how many\\nof these sayings there were on record, and what, and\\nby whom said.\\nWhy, let us see, there is that one of Benjamin\\nFranklin, the great Bostonian, after whom this lad\\nwas named. To be sure, he said a great many wise\\nthings, and I don t feel sure he didn t borrow this,\\nhe speaks as if it were old. But then he applied it\\nso neatly\\nHe that has once done you a kindness will be\\nmore ready to do you another than he whom you\\nyourself have obliged.\\nThen there is that glorious Epicurean paradox, ut-\\ntered by my friend, the Historian, in one of his flash-\\ning moments\\nGive us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense\\nwith its necessaries. 1\\nTo these must certainly be added that other saying\\nof one of the wittiest of men\\n123", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0153.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "124 THE AUTOCRAT\\nGood Americans, when they die, go to Paris.\\nThe divinity-student looked grave at this, but\\nsaid nothing.\\nThe schoolmistress spoke out, and said she didn t\\nthink the wit meant any irreverence. It was only\\nanother way of saying, Paris is a heavenly place after\\nNew York or Boston.\\nA jaunty-looking person, who had come in with the\\nyoung fellow they call John, evidently a stranger,\\nsaid there was one more wise man s saying that he\\nhad heard it was about our place, but he didn t know\\nwho said it. A civil curiosity was manifested by\\nthe company to hear the fourth wise saying. I heard\\nhim distinctly whispering to the young fellow who\\nbrought him to dinner, Shall I tell it? To which\\nthe answer was, Go ahead I Well, he said, this\\nwas what I heard\\nBoston State-House is the hub of the solar system.\\nYou could n t pry that out of a Boston man, if you had\\nthe tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar.\\nSir, said I, I am gratified with your remark. It\\nexpresses with pleasing vivacity that which I have\\nsometimes heard uttered with malignant dulness. The\\nsatire of the remark is essentially true of Boston,\\nand of all other considerable and inconsiderable\\nplaces with which I have had the privilege of being\\nacquainted. Cockneys think London is the only place\\nin the world. Frenchmen you remember the line\\nabout Paris, the Court, the World, etc. I recollect\\nwell, by. the way, a sign in that city which ran thus\\nHotel de l Univers et des Etats Unis and as Paris\\nis the universe to a Frenchman, of course the United\\nStates are outside of it. See Naples and then die.\\nIt is quite as bad with smaller places. I have been", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0154.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 25\\nabout, lecturing, you know, and have found the follow-\\ning propositions to hold true of all of them.\\n1. The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through\\nthe centre of each and every town or city.\\n2. If more than fifty years have passed since its\\nfoundation, it is affectionately styled by the inhabit-\\nants the good old town of (whatever its name\\nmay happen to be).\\n3. Every collection of its inhabitants that comes\\ntogether to listen to a stranger is invariably declared\\nto be a remarkably intelligent audience.\\n4. The climate of the place is particularly favorable\\nto longevity.\\n5. It contains several persons of vast talent little\\nknown to the world. (One or two of them, you may\\nperhaps chance to remember, sent short pieces to the\\nPactolian some time since, which were respect-\\nfully declined.\\nBoston is just like other places of its size only\\nperhaps, considering its excellent fish -market, paid\\nfire-department, superior monthly publications, and\\ncorrect habit of spelling the English language, it has\\nsome right to look down on the mob of cities. 1 11\\ntell you, though, if you want to know it, what is the\\nreal offence of Boston. It drains a large water-shed\\nof its intellect, and will not itself be drained. If it\\nwould only send away its first-rate men, instead of its\\nsecond-rate ones, (no offence to the well-known ex-\\nceptions, of which we are always proud,) we should\\nbe spared such epigrammatic remarks as that which\\nthe gentleman has quoted. There can never be a\\nreal metropolis in this country, until the biggest centre\\ncan drain the lesser ones of their talent and wealth.\\nI have observed, by the way, that the people who", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0155.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "126 THE AUTOCRAT\\nreally live in two great cities are by no means so jeal-\\nous of each other, as are those of smaller cities situated\\nwithin the intellectual basin, or suction-range of one\\nlarge one, of the pretensions of any other. Don t you\\nsee why Because their promising young author and\\nrising lawyer and large capitalist have been drained\\noff to the neighboring big city, their prettiest girl\\nhas been exported to the same market all their am-\\nbition points there, and all their thin gilding of glory\\ncomes from there. I hate little toad-eating cities.\\nWould I be so good as to specify any particular\\nexample Oh, an example Did you ever see a\\nbear-trap Never Well, should n t you like to see\\nme put my foot into one With sentiments of the\\nhighest consideration I must beg leave to be excused.\\nBesides, some of the smaller cities are charming.\\nIf they have an old church or two, a few stately\\nmansions of former grandees, here and there an old\\ndwelling with the second story projecting, (for the\\nconvenience of shooting the Indians knocking at the\\nfront-door with their tomahawks,) if they have, scat-\\ntered about, those mighty square houses built some-\\nthing more than half a century ago, and standing like\\narchitectural boulders dropped by the former diluvium\\nof wealth, whose refluent wave has left them as its\\nmonument, if they have gardens with elbowed apple-\\ntrees that push their branches over the high board-\\nfence and drop their fruit on the side-walk, if they\\nhave a little grass in the side streets, enough to\\nbetoken quiet without proclaiming decay, I think\\nI could go to pieces, after my life s work were done,\\nin one of those tranquil places, as sweetly as in any\\ncradle that an old man may be rocked to sleep in.\\n1 visit such spots always with infinite delight. My", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0156.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. \\\\2J\\nfriend, the Poet, says, that rapidly growing towns are\\nmost unfavorable to the imaginative and reflective fac-\\nulties. Let a man live in one of these old quiet places,\\nhe says, and the wine of his soul, which is kept thick\\nand turbid by the rattle of busy streets, settles, and,\\nas you hold it up, you may see the sun through it by\\nday and the stars by night.\\nDo I think that the little villages have the\\nconceit of the great towns I don t believe there is\\nmuch difference. You know how they read Pope s\\nline in the smallest town in our State of Massa-\\nchusetts Well, they read it\\nAll are but parts of one stupendous HULL\\nEvery person s feelings have a front-door and\\na side-door by which they may be entered. The\\nfront-door is on the street. Some keep it always\\nopen some keep it latched some, locked some,\\nbolted, with a chain that will let you peep in, but\\nnot get in and some nail it up, so that nothing can\\npass its threshold. This front-door leads into a pas-\\nsage which opens into an ante-room, and this into\\nthe interior apartments. The side-door opens at\\nonce into the sacred chambers.\\nThere is almost always at least one key to this\\nside-door. This is carried for years hidden in a\\nmother s bosom. Fathers, brothers, sisters, and\\nfriends, often, but by no means so universally, have\\nduplicates of it. The wedding-ring conveys a right\\nto one alas, if none is given with it\\nIf nature or accident has put one of these keys\\ninto the hands of a person who has the torturing\\ninstinct, I can only solemnly pronounce the words\\nthat Justice utters over its doomed victim, The", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0157.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "128 THE AUTOCRAT\\nLord have mercy on your soul I You will probably\\ngo mad within a reasonable time, or, if you are a\\nman, run off and die with your head on a curb-stone,\\nin Melbourne or San Francisco, or, if you are a\\nwoman, quarrel and break your heart, or turn into\\na pale, jointed petrifaction that moves about as if it\\nwere alive, or play some real life-tragedy or other.\\nBe very careful to whom you trust one of these\\nkeys of the side-door. The fact of possessing one\\nrenders those even who are dear to you very terrible\\nat times. You can keep the world out from your\\nfront-door, or receive visitors only when you are\\nready for them; but those of your own flesh and\\nblood, or of certain grades of intimacy, can come in\\nat the side-door, if they will, at any hour and in any\\nmood. Some of them have a scale of your whole\\nnervous system, and can play all the gamut of your\\nsensibilities in semitones, touching the naked nerve-\\npulps as a pianist strikes the keys of his instrument.\\nI am satisfied that there are as great masters of this\\nnerve-playing as Vieuxtemps or Thalberg in their\\nlines of performance. Married life is the school in\\nwhich the most accomplished artists in this depart-\\nment are found. A delicate woman is the best\\ninstrument she has such a magnificent compass of\\nsensibilities From the deep inward moan which\\nfollows pressure on the great nerves of right, to the\\nsharp cry as the filaments of taste are struck with a\\ncrashing sweep, is a range which no other instrument\\npossesses. A few exercises on it daily at home fit a\\nman wonderfully for his habitual labors, and refresh\\nhim immensely as he returns from them. No stranger\\ncan get a great many notes of torture out of a human\\nsoul it takes one that knows it well, parent, child,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0158.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 29\\nbrother, sister, intimate. Be very careful to whom you\\ngive a side-door key too many have them already.\\nYou remember the old story of the tender-\\nhearted man, who placed a frozen viper in his bosom,\\nand was stung by it when it became thawed If we\\ntake a cold-blooded creature into our bosom, better\\nthat it should sting us and we should die than that\\nits chill should slowly steal into our hearts warm it\\nwe never can I have seen faces of women that\\nwere fair to look upon, yet one could see that the\\nicicles were forming round these women s hearts. I\\nknew what freezing image lay on the white breasts\\nbeneath the laces \\\\J\\nA very simple intellectual mechanism answers the\\nnecessities of friendship, and even of the most inti-\\nmate relations of life. If a watch tells us the hour\\nand the minute, we can be content to carry it about\\nwith us for a life-time, though it has no second-hand\\nand is not a repeater, nor a musical watch, though\\nit is not enamelled nor jewelled, in short, though it\\nhas little beyond the wheels required for a trust-\\nworthy instrument, added to a good face and a pair\\nof useful hands. The more wheels there are in a\\nwatch or a brain, the more trouble they are to take\\ncare of. The movements of exaltation which belong\\nto genius are egotistic by their very nature. A calm,\\nclear mind, not subject to the spasms and crises\\nwhich are so often met with in creative or intensely\\nperceptive natures, is the best basis for love or friend-\\nship. Observe, I am talking about minds. I won t\\nsay, the more intellect, the less capacity for loving\\nfor that would do wrong to the understanding and\\nreason but, on the other hand, that the brain often\\nruns away with the heart s best blood, which gives", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0159.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "I30 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthe world a few pages of wisdom or sentiment or\\npoetry, instead of making one other heart happy, I\\nhave no question.\\nIf one s intimate in love or friendship cannot or\\ndoes not share all one s intellectual tastes or pursuits,\\nthat is a small matter. Intellectual companions can\\nbe found easily in men and books. After all, if we\\nthink of it, most of the world s loves and friendships\\nhave been between people that could not read nor\\nspell.\\nBut to radiate the heat of the affections into a clod,\\nwhich absorbs all that is poured into it, but never\\nwarms beneath the sunshine of smiles or the pressure\\nof hand or lip, this is the great martyrdom of sen-\\nsitive beings, most of all in that perpetual auto da\\nfe where young womanhood is in sacrifice.\\nYou noticed, perhaps, what I just said about the\\nloves and friendships of illiterate persons, that is,\\nof the human race, with a few exceptions here and\\nthere. I like books, I was born and bred among\\nthem, and have the easy feeling, when I get into their\\npresence, that a stable-boy has among horses. I\\ndon t think I undervalue them either as companions\\nor as instructors. But I can t help remembering\\nthat the world s great men have not commonly been\\ngreat scholars, nor its great scholars great men. The\\nHebrew patriarchs had small libraries, I think, if\\nany yet they represent to our imaginations a very\\ncomplete idea of manhood, and, I think, if we could\\nask in Abraham to dine with us men of letters next\\nSaturday, we should feel honored by his company.\\nWhat I wanted to say about books is this that\\nthere are times in which every active mind feels itself\\nabove any and all human books.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0160.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 131\\nI think a man must have a good opinion of him-\\nself, Sir, said the divinity-student, who should\\nfeel himself above Shakspeare at any time.\\nMy young friend, I replied, the man who is\\nnever conscious of a state of feeling or of intellectual\\neffort entirely beyond expression by any form of words\\nwhatsoever is a mere creature of language. I can\\nhardly believe there are any such men. Why, think\\nfor a moment of the power of music. The nerves\\nthat make us alive to it spread out (so the Professor\\ntells me) in the most sensitive region of the marrow,\\njust where it is widening to run upwards into the\\nhemispheres. It has its seat in the region of sense\\nrather than of thought. Yet it produces a continuous\\nand, as it were, logical sequence of emotional and in-\\ntellectual changes but how different from trains of\\nthought proper how entirely beyond the reach of\\nsymbols Think of human passions as compared\\nwith all phrases Did you ever hear of a man s\\ngrowing lean by the reading of Romeo and Juliet,\\nor blowing his brains out because Desdemona was\\nmaligned? There are a good many symbols, even,\\nthat are more expressive than words. I remember\\na young wife who had to part with her husband for\\na time. She did not write a mournful poem indeed,\\nshe was a silent person, and perhaps hardly said a\\nword about it but she quietly turned of a deep\\norange color with jaundice. A great many people in\\nthis world have but one form of rhetoric for their\\nprofoundest experiences, namely, to waste away\\nand die. When a man can read, his paroxysm of\\nfeeling is passing. When he can read, his thought\\nhas slackened its hold. You talk about reading\\nShakspeare, using him as an expression for the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0161.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "132 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhighest intellect, and you wonder that any common\\nperson should be so presumptuous as to suppose his\\nthought can rise above the text which lies before\\nhim. But think a moment. A child s reading of\\nShakspeare is one thing, and Coleridge s or Schle-\\ngePs reading of him is another. The saturation-point\\nof each mind differs from that of every other. But\\nI think it is as true for the small mind which can\\nonly take up a little as for the great one which takes\\nup much, that the suggested trains of thought and\\nfeeling ought always to rise above not the author,\\nbut the reader s mental version of the author, whoever\\nhe may be.\\nI think most readers of Shakspeare sometimes find\\nthemselves thrown into exalted mental conditions\\nlike those produced by music. Then they may drop\\nthe book, to pass at once into the region of thought\\nwithout words. We may happen to be very dull\\nfolks, you and I, and probably are, unless there is\\nsome particular reason to suppose the contrary. But\\nwe get glimpses now and then of a sphere of spiritual\\npossibilities, where we, dull as we are now, may sail\\nin vast circles round the largest compass of earthly\\nintelligences.\\nI confess there are times when I feel like the\\nfriend I mentioned to you some time ago, I hate\\nthe very sight of a book. Sometimes it becomes\\nalmost a physical necessity to talk out what is in the\\nmind, before putting anything else into it. It is very\\nbad to have thoughts and feelings, which were meant\\nto come out in talk, strike in, as they say of some\\ncomplaints that ought to show outwardly.\\nI always believed in life rather than in books. I\\nsuppose every day of earth, with its hundred thou-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0162.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 33\\nsand deaths and something more of births, with its\\nloves and hates, its triumphs and defeats, its pangs\\nand blisses, has more of humanity in it than all the\\nbooks that were ever written, put together. I believe\\nthe flowers growing at this moment send up more\\nfragrance to heaven than was ever exhaled from all\\nthe essences ever distilled.\\nDon t I read up various matters to talk about at\\nthis table or elsewhere No, that is the last thing\\nI would do. I will tell you my rule. Talk about\\nthose subjects you have had long in your mind, and\\nlisten to what others say about subjects you have\\nstudied but recently. Knowledge and timber\\nshould n t be much used till they are seasoned.\\nPhysiologists and metaphysicians have had\\ntheir attention turned a good deal of late to the\\nautomatic and involuntary actions of the mind. Put\\nan idea into your intelligence and leave it there an\\nhour, a day, a year, without ever having occasion to\\nrefer to it. When, at last, you return to it, you do\\nnot find it as it was when acquired. It has domi-\\nciliated itself, so to speak, become at home,\\nentered into relations with your other thoughts, and\\nintegrated itself with the whole fabric of the mind.\\nOr take a simple and familiar example Dr. Car-\\npenter has adduced it. You forget a name, in con-\\nversation, go on talking, without making any effort\\nto recall it, and presently the mind evolves it by\\nits own involuntary and unconscious action, while\\nyou were pursuing another train of thought, and the\\nname rises of itself to your lips.\\nThere are some curious observations I should like\\nto make about the mental machinery, but I think we\\nare getting rather didactic.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0163.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "134 THE AUTOCRAT\\nI should be gratified, if Benjamin Franklin would\\nlet me know something of his progress in the French\\nlanguage. I rather liked that exercise he read us the\\nother day, though I must confess I should hardly dare\\nto translate it, for fear some people in a remote city\\nwhere I once lived might think I was drawing their\\nportraits.\\nYes, Paris is a famous place for societies. I don t\\nknow whether the piece I mentioned from the French\\nauthor was intended simply as Natural History, or\\nwhether there was not a little malice in his descrip-\\ntion. At any rate, when I gave my translation to\\nB. F. to turn back again into French, one reason was\\nthat I thought it would sound a little bald in English,\\nand some people might think it was meant to have\\nsome local bearing or other, 1 which the author, of\\ncourse, did n t mean, inasmuch as he could not be ac-\\nquainted with anything on this side of the water.\\n[The above remarks were addressed to the school-\\nmistress, to whom I handed the paper after looking\\nit over. The divinity-student came and read over\\nher shoulder, very curious, apparently, but his eyes\\nwandered, I thought. Fancying that her breathing\\nwas somewhat hurried and high, or thoracic, as my\\nfriend, the Professor, calls it, I watched her a little\\nmore closely. It is none of my business. After all,\\nit is the imponderables that move the world, heat,\\nelectricity, love. Habetf]\\nThis is the piece that Benjamin Franklin made into\\nboarding-school French, such as you see here don t\\nexpect too much; the mistakes give a relish to it,\\nI think.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0164.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 35\\nLES SOCIETES POLYPHYSIOPHILOSOPHIQUES.\\nCes Societes la sont une Institution pour suppleer\\naux besoins cTesprit et de cceur de ces individus qui\\nont survecu a leurs emotions a Pegard du beau sexe,\\net qui n ont pas la distraction de Phabitude de boire.\\nPour devenir membre d une de ces Societes, on doit\\navoir le moins de cheveux possible. S il y en reste\\nplusieurs qui resistent aux depilatoires naturelles et\\nautres, on doit avoir quelques connaissances, n im-\\nporte dans quel genre. Des le moment qu on ouvre\\nla porte de la Societe, on a un grand interet dans\\ntoutes les choses dont on ne sait rien. Ainsi, un mi-\\ncroscopiste de montre un nouveau flexor du tarse d un\\nmelolontha vulgaris. Douze savans improvises, por-\\ntans des besides, et qui ne connaissent rien des in-\\nsectes, si ce n est les morsures du culex, se pre cipitent\\nsur Pinstrument, et voient une grande bulle d air, dont\\nils s^emerveillent avec effusion. Ce qui est un spec-\\ntacle plein destruction pour ceux qui ne sont pas\\nde ladite Societe. Tous les membres regardent les\\nchimistes en particulier avec un air d intelligence par-\\nfaite pendant qu ils prouvent dans un discours d\\\\ine\\ndemiheure que O 6 N 3 H 5 C 6 etc. font quelque chose\\nqui n est bonne a rien, mais qui probablement a une\\nodeur tres desagreable, selon Phabitude des produits\\nchimiques. Apres cela vient un mathematicien qui\\nvous bourre avec des a b et vous rapporte enfin un\\nx+y, dont vous n avez pas besoin et qui ne change\\nnullement vos relations avec la vie. Un naturaliste\\nvous parle des formations speciales des animaux ex-\\ncessivement inconnus, dont vous n avez jamais soup-\\n9onne Pexistence. Ainsi il vous decrit les follicules\\nde V appendix vermiformis d un dzigguetai. Vous ne", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0165.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "136 THE AUTOCRAT\\nsavez pas ce que c 1 est qu un follicule. Vous ne savez\\npas ce que c est qu un appendix uer?niforfnis Vous\\nn avez jamais entendu parler du dzigguetai. Ainsi\\nvous gagnez toutes ces connaissances a la fois, qui s at-\\ntachent a votre esprit comme Peau adhere aux plumes\\nd un canard. On connait toutes les langues ex officio\\nen devenant membre d une de ces Societes. Ainsi\\nquand on entend lire un Essai sur les dialectes Tchu-\\ntchiens, on comprend tout cela de suite, et s instruit\\nemormement.\\nII y a deux especes d individus qu on trouve tou-\\njours a ces Societe s i\u00c2\u00b0 Le membre a questions\\n2 Le membre a Bylaws.\\nLa question est une speciality. Celui qui en fait\\nme tier ne fait jamais des reponses. La question est\\nune maniere tres commode de dire les choses sui-\\nvantes Me voila! Je ne suis pas fossil, moi, je\\nrespire encore! J ai des ide es, voyez mon intel-\\nligence! Vous ne croyiez pas, vous autres, que je\\nsavais quelque chose de cela! Ah, nous avons un\\npeu de sagacite, voyez vous Nous ne sommes nulle-\\nment la bete qu on pense! Le faiseur de ques-\\ntions donne pen d attention aux reponses qu on fait\\nce ri* est pas la dans sa speciality\\nLe membre a Bylaws est le bouchon de toutes\\nles emotions mousseuses et genereuses qui se\\nmontrent dans la Societe. C est un empereur\\nmanque un tyran a la troisieme trituration. Cest\\nun esprit dur, borne, exact, grand dans les petitesses,\\npetit dans les grandeurs, selon le mot du grand\\nJefferson. On ne Palme pas dans la Societe, mais\\non le respecte et on le craint. II n 7 y a qu un mot\\npour ce membre audessus de Bylaws. Ce mot\\nest pour lui ce que TOm est aux Hindous. Cest", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0166.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 37\\nsa religion il n y a rien audela. Ce mot la c est la\\nConstitution\\nLesdites Societes publient des feuilletons de terns\\nen terns. On les trouve abandonnes a sa porte, nus\\ncomme des enfans nouveaunes, faute de membrane\\ncutanee, ou meme papyracee. Si on aime la botan-\\nique, on y trouve une memoire sur les coquilles si on\\nfait des etudes zoologiques, on trouve un grand tas\\nde q V x ce \u00c2\u00b0i u i doit etre infiniment plus commode\\nque les encyclope dies. Ainsi il est clair comme la\\nmetaphysique qu on doit devenir membre d une So-\\nciete telle que nous decrivons.\\nRecette pour le Dipilatoire Physiophilosophique.\\nChaux vive lb. ss. Eau bouillante Oj.\\nDepilez avec. Polissez ensuite.\\nI told the boy that his translation into French\\nwas creditable to him and some of the company\\nwishing to hear what there was in the piece that\\nmade me smile, I turned it into English for them, as\\nwell as I could, on the spot.\\nThe landlady s daughter seemed to be much amused\\nby the idea that a depilatory could take the place of\\nliterary and scientific accomplishments she wanted\\nme to print the piece, so that she might send a copy\\nof it to her cousin in Mizzourah she didn t think\\nhe d have to do anything to the outside of his head\\nto get into any of the societies he had to wear a\\nwig once, when he played a part in a tabullo.\\nNo, said I, I shouldn t think of printing that\\nin English. I 11 tell you why. As soon as you get\\na few thousand people together in a town, there is\\nsomebody that every sharp thing you say is sure to\\nhit. What if a thing was written in Paris or in Pekin?", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0167.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "138 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthat makes no difference. Everybody in those\\ncities, or almost everybody, has his counterpart here,\\nand in all large places. You never studied averages\\nas I have had occasion to.\\nI 11 tell you how I came to know so much about\\naverages. There was one season when I was lectur-\\ning, commonly, five evenings in the week, through\\nmost of the lecturing period. I soon found, as most\\nspeakers do, that it was pleasanter to work one lecture\\nthan to keep several in hand.\\nDon t you get sick to death of one lecture?\\nsaid the landlady s daughter, who had a new dress\\non that day, and was in spirits for conversation.\\nI was going to talk about averages, I said, but\\nI have no objection to telling you about lectures, to\\nbegin with.\\nA new lecture always has a certain excitement con-\\nnected with its delivery. One thinks well of it, as\\nof most things fresh from his mind. After a few de-\\nliveries of it, one gets tired and then disgusted with\\nits repetition. Go on delivering it, and the disgust\\npasses off, until, after one has repeated it a hundred or\\na hundred and fifty times, he rather enjoys the hun-\\ndred and first or hundred and fifty-first time before\\na new audience. But this is on one condition, that\\nhe never lays the lecture down and lets it cool. If he\\ndoes, there comes on a loathing for it which is intense,\\nso that the sight of the old battered manuscript is as\\nbad as sea-sickness.\\nA new lecture is just like any other new tool. We\\nuse it for a while with pleasure. Then it blisters our\\nhands, and we hate to touch it. By and by our hands\\nget callous, and then we have no longer any sensi-\\ntiveness about it. But if we give it up, the calluses", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0168.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 39\\ndisappear and if we meddle with it again, we miss\\nthe novelty and get the blisters. The story is often\\nquoted of Whitefield, that he said a sermon was good\\nfor nothing until it had been preached forty times.\\nA lecture does n t begin to be old until it has passed its\\nhundredth delivery and some, I think, have doubled,\\nif not quadrupled, that number. These old lectures\\nare a man s best, commonly they improve by age,\\nalso, like the pipes, fiddles, and poems I told you\\nof the other day. One learns to make the most of\\ntheir strong points and to carry off their weak ones,\\nto take out the really good things which don t tell\\non the audience, and put in cheaper things that do.\\nAll this degrades him, of course, but it improves\\nthe lecture for general delivery. A thoroughly pop-\\nular lecture ought to have nothing in it which five\\nhundred people cannot all take in a flash, just as it is\\nuttered.\\nNo, indeed, I should be very sorry to say any-\\nthing disrespectful of audiences. I have been kindly\\ntreated by a great many, and may occasionally face\\none hereafter. But I tell you the average intellect\\nof five hundred persons, taken as they come, is not\\nvery high. It may be sound and safe, so far as it\\ngoes, but it is not very rapid or profound. A lecture\\nought to be something which all can understand,\\nabout something which interests everybody. I think,\\nthat, if any experienced lecturer gives you a different\\naccount from this, it will probably be one of those\\neloquent or forcible speakers who hold an audience\\nby the charm of their manner, whatever they talk\\nabout, even when they don t talk very well.\\nBut an average, which was what I meant to speak\\nabout, is one of the most extraordinary subjects of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0169.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "140 THE AUTOCRAT\\nobservation and study. It is awful in its uniformity,\\nin its automatic necessity of action. Two communi-\\nties of ants or bees are exactly alike in all their ac-\\ntions, so far as we can see. Two lyceum assemblies,\\nof five hundred each, are so nearly alike, that they are\\nabsolutely undistinguishable in many cases by any\\ndefinite mark, and there is nothing but the place and\\ntime by which one can tell the remarkably intelli-\\ngent audience of a town in New York or Ohio from\\none in any New England town of similar size. Of\\ncourse, if any principle of selection has come in, as in\\nthose special associations of young men which are\\ncommon in cities, it deranges the uniformity of the\\nassemblage. But let there be no such interfering cir-\\ncumstances, and one knows pretty well even the look\\nthe audience will have, before he goes in. Front\\nseats a few old folks, shiny-headed, slant up\\nbest ear towards the speaker, drop off asleep after\\na while, when the air begins to get a little narcotic\\nwith carbonic acid. Bright women s faces, young and\\nmiddle-aged, a little behind these, but towards the\\nfront (pick out the best, and lecture mainly to that).\\nHere and there a countenance, sharp and scholarlike,\\nand a dozen pretty female ones sprinkled about. An\\nindefinite number of pairs of young people, happy,\\nbut not always very attentive. Boys, in the back-\\nground, more or less quiet. Dull faces here, there,\\nin how many places I don t say dull people, but\\nfaces without a ray of sympathy or a movement of ex-\\npression. They are what kill the lecturer. These\\nnegative faces with their vacuous eyes and stony linea-\\nments pump and suck the warm soul out of him\\nthat. is the chief reason why lecturers grow so pale\\nbefore the season is over. They render latent any", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0170.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 141\\namount of vital caloric they act on our minds as\\nthose cold-blooded creatures I was talking about act\\non our heart.\\nOut of all these inevitable elements the audience is\\ngenerated, a great compound vertebrate, as much\\nlike fifty others you have seen as any two mammals\\nof the same species are like each other. Each audi-\\nence laughs, and each cries, in just the same places\\nof your lecture that is, if you make one laugh or cry,\\nyou make all. Even those little indescribable move-\\nments which a lecturer takes cognizance of, just as a\\ndriver notices his horse s cocking his ears, are sure to\\ncome in exactly the same place of your lecture always.\\nI declare to you, that, as the monk said about the\\npicture in the convent, that he sometimes thought\\nthe living tenants were the shadows, and the painted\\nfigures the realities, I have sometimes felt as if I\\nwere a wandering spirit, and this great unchanging\\nmultivertebrate which I faced night after night was\\none ever-listening animal, which writhed along after\\nme wherever I fled, and coiled at my feet every even-\\ning, turning up to me the same sleepless eyes which I\\nthought I had closed with my last drowsy incantation!\\nOh, yes! A thousand kindly and courteous acts,\\na thousand faces that melted individually out of\\nmy recollection as the April snow melts, but only to\\nsteal away and find the beds of flowers whose roots\\nare memory, but which blossom in poetry and dreams.\\nI am not ungrateful, nor unconscious of all the good\\nfeeling and intelligence everywhere to be met with\\nthrough the vast parish to which the lecturer minis-\\nters. But when I set forth, leading a string of my\\nmind s daughters to market, as the country-folk fetch\\nin their strings of horses Pardon me, that was a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0171.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "142 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncoarse fellow who sneered at the sympathy wasted on\\nan unhappy lecturer, as if, because he was decently\\npaid for his services, he had therefore sold his sensi-\\nbilities. Family men get dreadfully homesick. In\\nthe remote and bleak village the heart returns to the\\nred blaze of the logs in one s fireplace at home.\\nThere are his young barbarians all at play,\\nif he owns any youthful savages. No, the world has\\na million roosts for a man, but only one nest.\\nIt is a fine thing to be an oracle to which an\\nappeal is always made in all discussions. The men\\nof facts wait their turn in grim silence, with that slight\\ntension about the nostrils which the consciousness\\nof carrying a settler in the form of a fact or a re-\\nvolver gives the individual thus armed. When a per-\\nson is really full of information, and does not abuse it\\nto Crush conversation, his part is to that of the real\\ntalkers what the instrumental accompaniment is in a\\ntrio or quartette of vocalists.\\nWhat do I mean by the real talkers Why,\\nthe people with fresh ideas, of course, and plenty of\\ngood warm words to dress them in. Facts always\\nyield the place of honor, in conversation, to thoughts\\nabout facts but if a false note is uttered, down comes\\nthe finger on the key and the man of facts asserts his\\ntrue dignity. I have known three of these men of\\nfacts, at least, who were always formidable, and one\\nof them was tyrannical.\\nYes, a man sometimes makes a grand appear-\\nance on a particular occasion but these men knew\\nsomething about almost everything, and never made\\nmistakes. He? Veneers in first-rate style. The\\nmahogany scales off now and then in spots, and then", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0172.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 43\\nyou see the cheap light stuff. I found very fine\\nin conversational information, the other day when we\\nwere in company. The talk ran upon mountains.\\nHe was wonderfully well acquainted with the leading\\nfacts about the Andes, the Apennines, and the Ap-\\npalachians he had nothing in particular to say about\\nArarat, Ben Nevis, and various other mountains that\\nwere mentioned. By-and-by some Revolutionary\\nanecdote came up, and he showed singular familiarity\\nwith the lives of the Adamses, and gave many details\\nrelating to Major Andre. A point of Natural His-\\ntory being suggested, he gave an excellent account of\\nthe air-bladder of fishes. He was very full upon the\\nsubject of agriculture, but retired from the conversa-\\ntion when horticulture was introduced in the discus-\\nsion. So he seemed well acquainted with the geology\\nof anthracite, but did not pretend to know anything\\nof other kinds of coal. There was something so odd\\nabout the extent and limitations of his knowledge,\\nthat I suspected all at once what might be the mean-\\ning of it, and waited till I got an opportunity. Have\\nyou seen the New American Cyclopaedia said I.\\nI have, he replied I received an early copy.\\nHow far does it go He turned red, and answered,\\nTo Araguay. Oh, said I to myself, not quite\\nso far as Ararat that is the reason he knew nothing\\nabout it but he must have read all the rest straight\\nthrough, and, if he can remember what is in this vol-\\nume until he has read all those that are to come, he\\nwill know more than I ever thought he would.\\nSince I had this experience, I hear that somebody\\nelse has related a similar story. I did n t borrow it,\\nfor all that. I made a comparison at table some\\ntime since, which has often been quoted and received", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0173.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "144 THE AUTOCRAT\\nmany compliments. It was that of the mind of a\\nbigot to the pupil of the eye the more light you pour\\non it, the more it contracts. The simile is a very ob-\\nvious, and, I suppose I may now say, a happy one\\nfor it has just been shown me that it occurs in a Pref-\\nace to certain Political Poems of Thomas Moore s\\npublished long before my remark was repeated. When\\na person of fair character for literary honesty uses an\\nimage such as another has employed before him, the\\npresumption is, that he has struck upon it independ-\\nently, or unconsciously recalled it, supposing it his own.\\nIt is impossible to tell, in a great many cases,\\nwhether a comparison which suddenly suggests itself\\nis a new conception or a recollection. I told you the\\nother day that I never wrote a line of verse that\\nseemed to me comparatively good, but it appeared\\nold at once, and often as if it had been borrowed.\\nBut I confess I never suspected the above compari-\\nson of being old, except from the fact of its obvious-\\nness. It is proper, however, that I proceed by a\\nformal instrument to relinquish all claim to any prop-\\nerty in an idea given to the world at about the time\\nwhen I had just joined the class in which Master\\nThomas Moore was then a somewhat advanced\\nscholar.\\nI therefore, in full possession of my native honesty,\\nbut knowing the liability of all men to be elected to\\npublic office, and for that reason feeling uncertain\\nhow soon I may be in danger of losing it, do hereby\\nrenounce all claim to being considered the first per-\\nson who gave utterance to a certain simile or compari-\\nson referred to in the accompanying documents, and\\nrelating to the pupil of the eye on the one part and the\\nmind of the bigot on the other. I hereby relinquish", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0174.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 145\\nall glory and profit, and especially all claims to letters\\nfrom autograph collectors, founded upon my sup-\\nposed property in the above comparison, knowing\\nWell, that, according to the laws of literature, they\\nwho speak first hold the fee of the thing said. I do\\nalso agree that all Editors of Cyclopedias and Bio-\\ngraphical Dictionaries, all Publishers of Reviews and\\nPapers, and all Critics writing therein, shall be at\\nliberty to retract or qualify any opinion predicated on\\nthe supposition that I was the sole and undisputed\\nauthor of the above comparison. But. inasmuch as\\nI do affirm that the comparison aforesaid was uttered\\nby me in the firm belief that it was new and wholly\\nmy own, and as I have good reason to think that I had\\nnever seen or heard it when first expressed by me,\\nand as it is well known that different persons may in-\\ndependently utter the same idea, as is evinced by\\nthat familiar line from Donatus,\\nPereant illi qui ante nos nostra dixerunt,\\nnow, therefore, I do request by this instrument that\\nall well-disposed persons will abstain from asserting\\nor implying that I am open to any accusation what-\\nsoever touching the said comparison, and, if they\\nhave so asserted or implied, that they will have the\\nmanliness forthwith to retract the same assertion or\\ninsinuation.\\nI think few persons have a greater disgust for\\nplagiarism than myself. If I had even suspected that\\nthe idea in question was borrowed, I should have dis-\\nclaimed originality, or mentioned the coincidence as\\nI once did in a case where I had happened to hit on\\nan idea of Swift s. But what shall I do about these", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0175.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "I46 THE AUTOCRAT\\nverses I was going to read you I am afraid that\\nhalf mankind would accuse me of stealing their\\nthoughts, if I printed them. I am convinced that sev-\\neral of you, especially if you are getting a little on in\\nlife, will recognize some of these sentiments as having\\npassed through your consciousness at some time. I\\ncan t help it, it is too late now. The verses are\\nwritten, and you must have them. Listen, then, and\\nyou shall hear\\nWHAT WE ALL THINK.\\nThat age was older once than now,\\nIn spite of locks untimely shed,\\nOr silvered on the youthful brow;\\nThat babes make love and children wed.\\nThat sunshine had a heavenly glow,\\nWhich faded with those good old days,\\nWhen winters came with deeper snow,\\nAnd autumns with a softer haze.\\nThat mother, sister, wife, or child\\nThe best of women each has known.\\nWere schoolboys ever half so wild\\nHow young the grandpapas have grown,\\nThat but for this our souls were free,\\nAnd but for that our lives were blest\\nThat in some season yet to be\\nOur cares will leave us time to rest.\\nWhene er we groan with ache or pain,\\nSome common ailment of the race,\\nThough doctors think the matter plain,\\nThat ours is a peculiar case.\\nThat when like babes with fingers burned\\nWe count one bitter maxim more,\\nOur lesson all the world has learned,\\nAnd men are wiser than before.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0176.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 47\\nThat when we sob o er fancied woes,\\nThe angels hovering overhead\\nCount every pitying drop that flows\\nAnd love us for the tears we shed.\\nThat when we stand with tearless eye\\nAnd turn the beggar from our door,\\nThey still approve us when we sigh,\\nAh, had I but one thousand more!\\nThat weakness smoothed the path of sin,\\nIn half the slips our youth has known\\nAnd whatsoe er its blame has been,\\nThat Mercy flowers on faults outgrown.\\nThough temples crowd the crumbled brink\\nO erhanging truth s eternal flow,\\nTheir tablets bold with what we thifik,\\nTheir echoes dumb to what we know\\nThat one unquestioned text we read,\\nAll doubt beyond, all fear above,\\nNor crackling pile nor cursing creed\\nCan burn or blot it God IS Love", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0177.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "VII.\\n[This particular record is noteworthy principally\\nfor containing a paper by my friend, the Professor,\\nwith a poem or two annexed or intercalated. I\\nwould suggest to young persons that they should\\npass over it for the present, and read, instead of it,\\nthat story about the young man who was in love with\\nthe young lady, and in great trouble for something\\nlike nine pages, but happily married on the tenth\\npage or thereabouts, which, I take it for granted, will\\nbe contained in the periodical where this is found,\\nunless it differ from all other publications of the\\nkind. Perhaps, if such young people will lay the\\nnumber aside, and take it up ten years, or a little\\nmore, from the present time, they may find some-\\nthing in it for their advantage. They can t possibly\\nunderstand it all now.]\\nMy friend, the Professor, began talking with me\\none day in a dreary sort of way. I couldn t get at\\nthe difficulty for a good while, but at last it turned\\nout that somebody had been calling him an old man.\\nHe didn t mind his students calling him the old\\nman, he said. That was a technical expression, and\\nhe thought that he remembered hearing it applied to\\nhimself when he was about twenty-five. It may be\\nconsidered as a familiar and sometimes endearing\\nappellation. An Irishwoman calls her husband the\\nold man, and he returns the caressing expression by\\nspeaking of her as the old woman. But now, said\\n148", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0178.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "A UTOCRA T OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 149\\nhe, just suppose a case like one of these. A young\\nstranger is overheard talking of you as a very nice\\nold gentleman. A friendly and genial critic speaks\\nof your green old age as illustrating the truth of\\nsome axiom you had uttered with reference to that\\nperiod of life. What call an old man is a person\\nwith a smooth, shining crown and a fringe of scat-\\ntered white hairs, seen in the streets on sunshiny\\ndays, stooping as he walks, bearing a cane, moving\\ncautiously and slowly telling old stories, smiling at\\npresent follies, living in a narrow world of dry habits\\none that remains waking when others have dropped\\nasleep, and keeps a little night-lamp-flame of life\\nburning year after year, if the lamp is not upset, and\\nthere is only a careful hand held round it to pre-\\nvent the puffs of wind from blowing the flame out.\\nThat s what I call an old man.\\nNow, said the Professor, you don t mean to tell me\\nthat I have got to that yet Why, bless you, I am\\nseveral years short of the time when [I knew what\\nwas coming, and could hardly keep from laughing\\ntwenty years ago he used to quote it as one of those\\nabsurd speeches men of genius will make, and now\\nhe is going to argue from it] several years short of\\nthe time when Balzac says that men are most\\nyou know dangerous to the hearts of in short,\\nmost to be dreaded by duennas that have charge of\\nsusceptible females, What age is that? said I,\\nstatistically. Fifty-two years, answered the Profes-\\nsor. Balzac ought to know, said I, if it is true that\\nGoethe said of him that each of his stories must have\\nbeen dug out of a woman s heart. But fifty-two is\\na high figure.\\nStand in the light of the window, Professor, said I.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0179.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "150 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThe Professor took up the desired position.\\nYou have white hairs, I said. Had era any time\\nthese twenty years, said the Professor. And the\\ncrow s-foot, pes anserinus, rather. The Professor\\nsmiled, as I wanted him to, and the folds radiated\\nlike the ridges of a half-opened fan, from the outer\\ncorner of the eyes to the temples. And the calipers,\\nsaid I. What are the calipers? he asked, curiously\\nWhy, the parenthesis, said I. Parenthesis? said\\nthe Professor what s that Why, look in the glass\\nwhen you are disposed to laugh, and see if your mouth\\nis n t framed in a couple of crescent lines, so, my\\nboy It s all nonsense, said the Professor just\\nlook at my biceps and he began pulling off his coat\\nto show me his arm. Be careful, said I you can t\\nbear exposure to the air, at your time of life, as you\\ncould once. I will box with you, said the Professor,\\nrow with you, walk with you, ride with you, swim\\nwith you, or sit at table with you, for fifty dollars a\\nside. Pluck survives stamina, I answered.\\nThe Professor went off a little out of humor. A\\nfew weeks afterwards he came in, looking very good-\\nnatured, and brought me a paper, which I have here,\\nand from which I shall read you some portions, if\\nyou don t object. He had been thinking the matter\\nover, he said, had read Cicero De Senectute,\\nand made up his mind to meet old age half way.\\nThese were some of his reflections that he had written\\ndown so here you have\\nTHE PROFESSOR S PAPER.\\nThere is no doubt when old age begins. The\\nhuman body is a furnace which keeps in blast three-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0180.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 151\\nscore years and ten, more or less. It burns about\\nthree hundred pounds of carbon a year, (besides\\nother fuel,) when in fair working order, according\\nto a great chemist s estimate. When the fire slackens,\\nlife declines when it goes out, we are dead.\\nIt has been shown by some noted French experi-\\nmenters, that the amount of combustion increases up\\nto about the thirtieth year, remains stationary to\\nabout forty-five, and then diminishes. This last is\\nthe point where old age starts from. The great fact\\nof physical life is the perpetual commerce with the\\nelements, and the fire is the measure of it.\\nAbout this time of life, if food is plenty where you\\nlive, for that, you know, regulates matrimony,\\nyou may be expecting to find yourself a grandfather\\nsome fine morning a kind of domestic felicity that\\ngives one a cool shiver of delight to think of, as\\namong the not remotely possible events.\\nI don t mind much those slipshod lines Dr. John-\\nson wrote to Thrale, telling her about life s declining\\nfrom thirty-five the furnace is in full blast for ten\\nyears longer, as I have said. The Romans came very\\nnear the mark their age of enlistment reached from\\nseventeen to forty-six years.\\nWhat is the use of fighting against the seasons, or\\nthe tides, or the movements of the planetary bodies,\\nor this ebb in the wave of life that flows through us\\nWe are old fellows from the moment the fire begins\\nto go out. Let us always behave like gentlemen\\nwhen we are introduced to new acquaintance.\\nIncipit Allegoria Senectutis.\\nOld Age, this is Mr. Professor Mr. Professor, this\\nis Old Age.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0181.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "152 THE AUTOCRAT\\nOld Age. Mr. Professor, I hope to see you well.\\nI have known you for some time, though I think you\\ndid not know me. Shall we walk down the street\\ntogether?\\nProfessor (drawing back a little) We can talk\\nmore quietly, perhaps, in my study. Will you tell\\nme how it is you seem to be acquainted with every-\\nbody you are introduced to, though he evidently\\nconsiders you an entire stranger?\\nOld Age. I make it a rule never to force myself\\nupon a person s recognition until I have known him\\nat least Jive year s\\nProfessor. Do you mean to say that you have\\nknown me so long as that\\nOld Age. I do. I left my card on you longer\\nago than that, but I am afraid you never read it yet\\nI see you have it with you.\\nProfessor. Where\\nOld Age. There, between your eyebrows, three\\nstraight lines running up and down all the probate\\ncourts know that token, Old Age, his mark.\\nPut your forefinger on the inner end of one eyebrow,\\nand your middle finger on the inner end of the other\\neyebrow now separate the fingers, and you will\\nsmooth out my sign-manual that s the way you\\nused to look before I left my card on you.\\nProfessor. What message do people generally\\nsend back when you first call on them\\nOld Age. Not at home. Then I leave a card and\\ngo. Next year I call; get the same answer; leave\\nanother card. So for five or six, sometimes ten\\nyears or more. At last, if they don t let me in, I\\nbreak in through the front door or the windows.\\nWe talked together in this way some time. Then", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0182.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 153\\nOld Age said again, Come, let us walk down the\\nstreet together, and offered me a cane, an eye-\\nglass, a tippet, and a pair of over-shoes. No, much\\nobliged to you, said I. I don t want those things,\\nand I had a little rather talk with you here, privately,\\nin my study. So I dressed myself up in a jaunty way\\nand walked out alone got a fall, caught a cold, was\\nlaid up with a lumbago, and had time to think over\\nthis whole matter.\\nExplicit Allegoria Senectutis.\\nWe have settled when old age begins. Like all\\nNature s processes, it is gentle and gradual in its\\napproaches, strewed with illusions, and all its little\\ngriefs soothed by natural sedatives. But the iron\\nhand is not less irresistible because it wears the\\nvelvet glove. The button-wood throws off its bark\\nin large flakes, which one may find lying at its foot,\\npushed out, and at last pushed off, by that tranquil\\nmovement from beneath, which is too slow to be\\nseen, but too powerful to be arrested. One finds\\nthem always, but one rarely sees them fall. So it is\\nour youth drops from us, scales off, sapless and\\nlifeless, and lays bare the tender and immature fresh\\ngrowth of old age. Looked at collectively, the changes\\nof old age appear as a series of personal insults and\\nindignities, terminating at last in death, which Sir\\nThomas Browne has called the very disgrace and\\nignominy of our natures.\\nMy lady s cheek can boast no more\\nThe cranberry white and pink it wore\\nAnd where her shining locks divide,\\nThe parting line is all too wide", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0183.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "154 THE AUTOCRAT\\nNo, no, this will never do. Talk about men, if you\\nwill, but spare the poor women.\\nWe have a brief description of seven stages of life\\nby a remarkably good observer. It is very presump-\\ntuous to attempt to add to it, yet I have been struck\\nwith the fact that life admits of a natural analysis into\\nno less than fifteen distinct periods. Taking the five\\nprimary divisions, infancy, childhood, youth, man-\\nhood, old age, each of these has its own three periods\\nof immaturity, complete development, and decline.\\nI recognize an old baby at once, with its pipe and\\nmug, (a stick of candy and a porringer,) so does\\neverybody and an old child shedding its milk-teeth\\nis only a little prototype of the old man shedding his\\npermanent ones. Fifty or thereabouts is only the\\nchildhood, as it were, of old age the graybeard\\nyoungster must be weaned from his late suppers now.\\nSo you will see that you have to make fifteen stages\\nat any rate, and that it would not be hard to make\\ntwenty-five five primary, each with five secondary\\ndivisions.\\nThe infancy and childhood of commencing old age\\nhave the same ingenuous simplicity and delightful\\nunconsciousness about them as the first stage of the\\nearlier periods of life shows. The great delusion of\\nmankind is in supposing that to be individual and\\nexceptional which is universal and according to law.\\nA person is always startled when he hears himself\\nseriously called an old man for the first time.\\nNature gets us out of youth into manhood, as\\nsailors are hurried on board of vessels, in a state\\nof intoxication. We are hustled into maturity reeling\\nwith our passions and imaginations, and we have\\ndrifted far away from port before we awake out of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0184.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. I 55\\nour illusions. But to carry us out of maturity into\\nold age, without our knowing where we are going,\\nshe drugs us with strong opiates, and so we stagger\\nalong with wide open eyes that see nothing until snow\\nenough has fallen on our heads to rouse our comatose\\nbrains out of their stupid trances.\\nThere is one mark of age that strikes me more\\nthan any of the physical ones I mean the forma-\\ntion of Habits. An old man who shrinks into him-\\nself falls into ways that become as positive and as\\nmuch beyond the reach of outside influences as if\\nthey were governed by clock-work. The ani?nal\\nfunctions, as the physiologists call them, in distinc-\\ntion from the organic, tend, in the process of de-\\nterioration to which age and neglect united gradually\\nlead them, to assume the periodical or rhythmical\\ntype of movement. Every man s heart (this organ\\nbelongs, you know, to the organic system) has a\\nregular mode of action but I know a great many\\nmen whose brains, and all their voluntary existence\\nflowing from their brains, have a systole and diastole\\nas regular as that of the heart itself. Habit is the\\napproximation of the animal system to the organic.\\nIt is a confession of failure in the highest function of\\nbeing, which involves a perpetual self-determination,\\nin full view of all existing circumstances. But habit,\\nyou see, is an action in present circumstances from\\npast motives. It is substituting a vis a tergo for the\\nevolution of living force.\\nWhen a man, instead of burning up three hundred\\npounds of carbon a year, has got down to two hun-\\ndred and fifty, it is plain enough he must economize\\nforce somewhere. Now habit is a labor-saving inven-\\ntion which enables a man to get along with less fuel,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0185.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "156 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthat is all for fuel is force, you know, just as much\\nin the page I am writing for you as in the locomotive\\nor the legs that carry it to you. Carbon is the same\\nthing, whether you call it wood, or coal, or bread and\\ncheese. A reverend gentleman demurred to this\\nstatement, as if, because combustion is asserted to\\nbe the sine qua non of thought, therefore thought is\\nalleged to be a purely chemical process. Facts of\\nchemistry are one thing, I told him, and facts of con-\\nsciousness another. It can be proved to him, by a\\nvery simple analysis of some of his spare elements,\\nthat every Sunday, when he does his duty faithfully,\\nhe uses up more phosphorus out of his brain and\\nnerves than on ordinary days. But then he had his\\nchoice whether to do his duty, or to neglect it, and\\nsave his phosphorus and other combustibles.\\nIt follows from all this that the formation of habits\\nought naturally to be, as it is, the special character-\\nistic of age. As for the muscular powers, they pass\\ntheir maximum long before the time when the true\\ndecline of life begins, if we may judge by the expe-\\nrience of the ring. A man is stale, I think, in\\ntheir language, soon after thirty, often, no doubt,\\nmuch earlier, as gentlemen of the pugilistic profes-\\nsion are exceedingly apt to keep their vital fire burn-\\ning with the blower up.\\nSo far without Tully. But in the mean time I\\nhave been reading the treatise, De Senectute. It\\nis not long, but a leisurely performance. The old\\ngentleman was sixty-three years of age when he\\naddressed it to his friend T. Pomponius Atticus,\\nEq., a person of distinction, some two or three years\\nolder. We read it when we are schoolboys, forget\\nall about it for thirty years, and then take it up", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0186.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 57\\nagain by a natural instinct, provided always that\\nwe read Latin as we drink water, without stopping to\\ntaste it, as all of us who ever learned it at school or\\ncollege ought to do.\\nCato is the chief speaker in the dialogue. A good\\ndeal of it is what would be called in vulgar phrase\\nslow. It unpacks and unfolds incidental illustra-\\ntions which a modern writer would look at the back\\nof, and toss each to its pigeon-hole. I think ancient\\nclassics and ancient people are alike in the tendency\\nto this kind of expansion.\\nAn old doctor came to me once (this is literal fact)\\nwith some contrivance or other for people with broken\\nkneepans. As the patient would be confined for a\\ngood while, he might find it dull work to sit with his\\nhands in his lap. Reading, the ingenious inventor\\nsuggested, would be an agreeable mode of passing\\nthe time. He mentioned, in his written account of\\nhis contrivance, various works that might amuse the\\nweary hour. I remember only three, Don Quixote,\\nTom Jones, and Watts on the Mind.\\nIt is not generally understood that Cicero s essay\\nwas delivered as a lyceum lecture, (concio popularis^)\\nat the Temple of Mercury. The journals {papyri)\\nof the day Tempora Quotidiana, Tribunus\\nQuirinalis, Praeco Romanus, and the rest) gave\\nabstracts of it, one of which I have translated and\\nmodernized, as being a substitute for the analysis I\\nintended to make.\\nIV. Kal. Mart\\nThe lecture at the Temple of Mercury, last evening,\\nwas well attended by the elite of our great city. Two\\nhundred thousand sestertia were thought to have been\\nrepresented in the house. The doors were besieged", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0187.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "158 THE AUTOCRAT\\nby a mob of shabby fellows, {illotum vulgus^) who\\nwere at length quieted after two or three had been\\nsomewhat roughly handled {gladio jugulati) The\\nspeaker was the well-known Mark Tully, Eq., the\\nsubject Old Age. Mr. T. has a lean and scraggy\\nperson, with a very unpleasant excrescence upon his\\nnasal feature, from which his nickname of chick-pea\\n(Cicero) is said by some to be derived. As a lecturer\\nis public property, we may remark, that his outer gar-\\nment {toga) was of cheap stuff and somewhat worn,\\nand that his general style and appearance of dress\\nand manner {habitus, vestitusque) were somewhat\\nprovincial.\\nThe lecture consisted of an imaginary dialogue be-\\ntween Cato and Laelius. We found the first portion\\nrather heavy, and retired a few moments for refresh-\\nment {pocula qucedain vini) All want to reach old\\nage, says Cato, and grumble when they get it there-\\nfore they are donkeys. The lecturer will allow\\nus to say that he is the donkey we know we shall\\ngrumble at old age, but we want to live through\\nyouth and manhood, in spite of the troubles we shall\\ngroan over. There was considerable prosing as to\\nwhat old age can do and can t. True, but not new.\\nCertainly, old folks can t jump, break the necks of\\ntheir thigh-bones, {feinorum cervices^) if they do\\ncan t crack nuts with their teeth can t climb a greased\\npole {malum inunctum scandere non possunf) but\\nthey can tell old stories and give you good advice if\\nthey know what you have made up your mind to do\\nwhen you ask them. All this is well enough, but\\nwon t set the Tiber on fire {Tiberim accendere nequa-\\nquam potest)\\nThere were some clever things enough, {dicta haud", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0188.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. I 59\\ninepta^) a few of which are worth reporting. Old\\npeople are accused of being forgetful but they never\\nforget where they have put their money. Nobody is\\nso old he doesn t think he can live a year. The\\nlecturer quoted an ancient maxim, Grow old early,\\nif you would be old long, but disputed it. Author-\\nity, he thought, was the chief privilege of age It is\\nnot great to have money, but fine to govern those\\nthat have it. Old age begins at forty -six years, ac-\\ncording to the common opinion. It is not every\\nkind of old age or of wine that grows sour with time.\\nSome excellent remarks were made on immortality,\\nbut mainly borrowed from and credited to Plato.\\nSeveral pleasing anecdotes were told. Old Milo,\\nchampion of the heavy weights in his day, looked at\\nhis arms and whimpered, They are dead. 1 Not so\\ndead as you, you old fool, says Cato you never\\nwere good for anything but for your shoulders and\\nflanks. Pisistratus asked Solon what made him dare\\nto be so obstinate. Old age, said Solon.\\nThe lecture was on the whole acceptable, and a\\ncredit to our culture and civilization. The reporter\\ngoes on to state that there will be no lecture next\\nweek, on account of the expected combat between\\nthe bear and the barbarian. Betting (sponsio) two\\nto one {duo ad unum) on the bear.\\nAfter all, the most encouraging things I find in\\nthe treatise, De Senectute, are the stories of men\\nwho have found new occupations when growing old,\\nor kept up their common pursuits in the extreme\\nperiod of life. Cato learned Greek when he was old,\\nand speaks of wishing to learn the fiddle, or some\\nsuch instrument, {fidibus^) after the example of So-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0189.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "l6o THE AUTOCRAT\\ncrates. Solon learned something new, every day, in\\nhis old age, as he gloried to proclaim. Cyrus pointed\\nout with pride and pleasure the trees he had planted\\nwith his own hand. [I remember a pillar on the\\nDuke of Northumberland s estate at Alnwick, with an\\ninscription in similar words, if not the same. That,\\nlike other country pleasures, never wears out. None\\nis too rich, none too poor, none too young, none too\\nold to enjoy it.] There is a New England story I\\nhave heard more to the point, however, than any of\\nCicero s. A young farmer was urged to set out some\\napple-trees. No, said he, they are too long grow-\\ning, and I don t want to plant for other people. The\\nyoung farmer s father was spoken to about it, but he,\\nwith better reason, alleged that apple-trees were slow\\nand life was fleeting. At last some one mentioned it\\nto the old grandfather of the young farmer. He had\\nnothing else to do so he stuck in some trees. He\\nlived long enough to drink barrels of cider made from\\nthe apples that grew on those trees.\\nAs for myself, after visiting a friend lately, [Do\\nremember all the time that this is the Professor s paper.]\\nI satisfied myself that I had better concede the fact\\nthat my contemporaries are not so young as they\\nhave been, and that, awkward as it is, science\\nand history agree in telling me that I can claim the\\nimmunities and must own the humiliations of the\\nearly stage of senility. Ah but we have all gone\\ndown the hill together. The dandies of my time have\\nsplit their waistbands and taken to high-low shoes.\\nThe beauties of my recollections where are they\\nThey have run the gantlet of the years as well as I.\\nFirst the years pelted them with red roses till their\\ncheeks were all on fire. By-and-by they began throwing", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0190.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. l6l\\nwhite roses, and that morning flush passed away.\\nAt last one of the years threw a snow-ball, and after\\nthat no year let the poor girls pass without throwing\\nsnow-balls. And then came rougher missiles, ice\\nand stones and from time to time an arrow whistled,\\nand down went one of the poor girls. So there are\\nbut few left; and we don t call those few girls,\\nbut\\nAh, me here am I groaning just as the old Greek\\nsighed At at and the old Roman, Eheu I have no\\ndoubt we should die of shame and grief at the in-\\ndignities offered us by age, if it were not that we see\\nso many others as badly or worse off than ourselves.\\nWe always compare ourselves with our contempo-\\nraries.\\n[I was interrupted in my reading just here. Before\\nI began at the next breakfast, I read them these\\nverses I hope you will like them, and get a useful\\nlesson from them.]\\nTHE LAST BLOSSOM.\\nTHOUGH young no more, we still would dream\\nOf beauty s dear deluding wiles\\nThe leagues of life to graybeards seem\\nShorter than boyhood s lingering miles.\\nWho knows a woman s wild caprice\\nIt played with Goethe s silvered hair,\\nAnd many a Holy Father s niece\\nHas softly smoothed the papal chair.\\nWhen sixty bids us sigh in vain\\nTo melt the heart of sweet sixteen,\\nWe think upon those ladies twain\\nWho loved so well the tough old Dean.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0191.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "1 62 THE AUTOCRAT\\nWe see the Patriarch s wintry face,\\nThe maid of Egypt s dusky glow,\\nAnd dream that Youth and Age embrace,\\nAs April violets fill with snow.\\nTranced in her Lord s Olympian smile\\nHis lotus-loving Memphian lies,\\nThe musky daughter of the Nile\\nWith plaited hair and almond eyes.\\nMight we but share one wild caress\\nEre life s autumnal blossoms fall,\\nAnd Earth s brown, clinging lips impress\\nThe long cold kiss that waits us all\\nMy bosom heaves, remembering yet\\nThe morning of that blissful day\\nWhen Rose, the flower of spring, I met,\\nAnd gave my raptured soul away.\\nFlung from her eyes of purest blue,\\nA lasso, with its leaping chain\\nLight as a loop of larkspurs, flew\\nO er sense and spirit, heart and brain.\\nThou com st to cheer my waning age,\\nSweet vision, waited for so long\\nDove that would seek the poet s cage\\nLured by the magic breath of song\\nShe blushes Ah, reluctant maid,\\nLove s drapeau rouge the truth has told\\nO er girlhood s yielding barricade\\nFloats the great Leveller s crimson fold\\nCome to my arms love heeds not years\\nNo frost the bud of passion knows.\\nHa what is this my frenzy hears?\\nA voice behind me uttered, Rose", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0192.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 63\\nSweet was her smile, but not for me\\nAlas, when woman looks too kind,\\nJust turn your foolish head and see,\\nSome youth is walking close behind\\nAs to giving up, because the almanac or the Family\\nBible says that it is about time to do it, I have no\\nintention of doing any such thing. I grant you that\\nI burn less carbon than some years ago. I see peo-\\nple of my standing really good for nothing, decrepit,\\neffete, la levre infer ienre deja pendant e, with what\\nlittle life they have left mainly concentrated in their\\nepigastrium. But as the disease of old age is epi-\\ndemic, endemic, and sporadic, and everybody that\\nlives long enough is sure to catch it, I am going to\\nsay, for the encouragement of such as need it, how I\\ntreat the malady in my own case.\\nFirst. As I feel, that, when I have anything to do,\\nthere is less time for it than when I was younger, I\\nfind that I give my attention more thoroughly, and\\nuse my time more economically than ever before so\\nthat I can learn anything twice as easily as in my\\nearlier days. I am not, therefore, afraid to attack a\\nnew study. I took up a difficult language a very\\nfew years ago with good success, and think of mathe-\\nmatics and metaphysics by-and-by.\\nSecondly. I have opened my eyes to a good many\\nneglected privileges and pleasures within my reach,\\nand requiring only a little courage to enjoy them.\\nYou may well suppose it pleased me to find that old\\nCato was thinking of learning to play the fiddle, when\\nI had deliberately taken it up in my old age, and satis-\\nfied myself that I could get much comfort, if not much\\nmusic, out of it.\\nThirdly. I have found that some of those active", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0193.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "164 THE AUTOCRAT\\nexercises, which are commonly thought to belong to\\nyoung folks only, may be enjoyed at a much later\\nperiod.\\nA young friend has lately written an admirable\\narticle in one of the journals, entitled, Saints and\\ntheir Bodies. Approving of his general doctrines,\\nand grateful for his records of personal experience, I\\ncannot refuse to add my own experimental confirm-\\nation of his eulogy of one particular form of active\\nexercise and amusement, namely, boating. For the\\npast nine years, I have rowed about, during a good\\npart of the summer, on fresh or salt water. My\\npresent fleet on the river Charles consists of three\\nrow-boats. i. A small flat-bottomed skiff of the\\nshape of a flat-iron, kept mainly to lend to boys.\\n2. A fancy dory for two pairs of sculls, in which I\\nsometimes go out with my young folks. 3. My own\\nparticular water-sulky, a skeleton or shell race-\\nboat, twenty-two feet long, with huge outriggers,\\nwhich boat I pull with ten-foot sculls, alone, of\\ncourse, as it holds but one, and tips him out, if he\\ndoes n t mind what he is about. In this I glide\\naround the Back Bay, down the stream, up the\\nCharles to Cambridge and Watertown, up the Mys-\\ntic, round the wharves, in the wake of steamboats,\\nwhich leave a swell after them delightful to rock\\nupon I linger under the bridges, those caterpillar\\nbridges, as my brother professor so happily called\\nthem rub against the black sides of old wood-\\nschooners cool down under the overhanging stern\\nof some tall Indiaman stretch across to the Navy-\\nYard, where the sentinel warns me off from the\\nOhio, just as if I should hurt her by lying in her\\nshadow then strike out into the harbor, where the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0194.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 65\\nwater gets clear and the air smells of the ocean,\\ntill all at once I remember, that, if a west wind blows\\nup of a sudden, I shall drift along past the islands,\\nout of sight of the dear old State-house, plate,\\ntumbler, knife and fork all waiting at home, but no\\nchair drawn up at the table, all the dear people\\nwaiting, waiting, waiting, while the boat is sliding,\\nsliding, sliding into the great desert, where there is\\nno tree and no fountain. As I don t want my wreck\\nto be washed up on one of the beaches in company\\nwith deviPs-aprons, bladder-weeds, dead horse-shoes,\\nand bleached crab-shells, I turn about and flap my\\nlong, narrow wings for home. When the tide is run-\\nning out swiftly, I have a splendid fight to get through\\nthe bridges, but always make it a rule to beat,\\nthough I have been jammed up into pretty tight\\nplaces at times, and was caught once between a vessel\\nswinging round and the pier, until our bones (the\\nboat s, that is) cracked as if we had been in the jaws\\nof Behemoth. Then back to my moorings at the\\nfoot of the Common, off with the rowing-dress, dash\\nunder the green translucent wave, return to the garb of\\ncivilization, walk through my Garden, take a look at\\nmy elms on the Common, and, reaching my habitat,\\nin consideration of my advanced period of life, indulge\\nin the Elysian abandonment of a huge recumbent\\nchair.\\nWhen I have established a pair of well-pronounced\\nfeathering-calluses on my thumbs, when I am in\\ntraining so that I can do my fifteen miles at a stretch\\nwithout coming to grief in any way, when I can per-\\nform my mile in eight minutes or a little less, then I\\nfeel as if I had old Time s head in chancery, and\\ncould give it to him at my leisure.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0195.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "1 66 THE AUTOCRAT\\nI do not deny the attraction of walking. I have\\nbored this ancient city through and through in my\\ndaily travels, until I know it as an old inhabitant of a\\nCheshire knows his cheese. Why, it was I who, in\\nthe course of these rambles, discovered that remark-\\nable avenue called Myrtle Street, stretching in one\\nlong line from east of the Reservoir to a precipitous\\nand rudely paved cliff which looks down on the grim\\nabode of science, and beyond it to the far hills a\\npromenade so delicious in its repose, so cheerfully\\nvaried with glimpses down the northern slope into\\nbusy Cambridge Street with its iron river of the horse-\\nrailroad, and wheeled barges gliding back and forward\\nover it, so delightfully closing at its western ex-\\ntremity in sunny courts and passages where I know\\npeace, and beauty, and virtue, and serene old age\\nmust be perpetual tenants, so alluring to all who\\ndesire to take their daily stroll, in the words of Dr.\\nWatts,\\nAlike unknowing and unknown,\\nthat nothing but a sense of duty would have prompted\\nme to reveal the secret of its existence. I concede,\\ntherefore, that walking is an immeasurably fine inven-\\ntion, of which old age ought constantly to avail itself.\\nSaddle-leather is in some respects even preferable\\nto sole-leather. The principal objection to it is of a\\nfinancial character. But you may be sure that Bacon\\nand Sydenham did not recommend it for nothing.\\nOne s hepar, or, in vulgar language, liver, a pon-\\nderous organ, weighing some three or four pounds,\\ngoes up and down like the dasher of a churn in the\\nmidst of the other vital arrangements, at every step\\nof a trotting horse. The brains also are shaken up", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0196.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 67\\nlike coppers in a money-box. Riding is good, for\\nthose that are born with a silver-mounted bridle in\\ntheir hand, and can ride as much and as often as they\\nlike, without thinking all the time they hear that\\nsteady grinding sound as the horse s jaws triturate\\nwith calm lateral movement the bank-bills and prom-\\nises to pay upon which it is notorious that the profligate\\nanimal in question feeds day and night.\\nInstead, however, of considering these kinds of exer-\\ncise in this empirical way, I will devote a brief space to\\nan examination of them in a more scientific form.\\nThe pleasure of exercise is due first to a purely\\nphysical impression, and secondly to a sense of power\\nin action. The first source of pleasure varies of course\\nwith our condition and the state of the surrounding\\ncircumstances the second with the amount and kind\\nof power, and the extent and kind of action. In all\\nforms of active exercise there are three powers sim-\\nultaneously in action, the will, the muscles, and the\\nintellect. Each of these predominates in different\\nkinds of exercise. In walking, the will and muscles\\nare so accustomed to work together and perform their\\ntask with so little expenditure of force, that the intel-\\nlect is left comparatively free. The mental pleasure\\nin walking, as such, is in the sense of power over all\\nour moving machinery. But in riding, I have the\\nadditional pleasure of governing another will, and my\\nmuscles extend to the tips of the animal s ears and\\nto his four hoofs, instead of stopping at my hands\\nand feet. Now in this extension of my volition and\\nmy physical frame into another animal, my tyrannical\\ninstincts and my desire for heroic strength are at\\nonce gratified. When the horse ceases to have a will\\nof his own and his muscles require no special atten-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0197.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "1 68 THE AUTOCRAT\\ntion on your part, then you may live on horseback as\\nWesley did, and write sermons or take naps, as you\\nlike. But you will observe, that, in riding on horse-\\nback, you always have a feeling, that, after all, it is\\nnot you that do the work, but the animal, and this\\nprevents the satisfaction from being complete.\\nNow let us look at the conditions of rowing. I\\nwon t suppose you to be disgracing yourself in one\\nof those miserable tubs, tugging in which is to rowing\\nthe true boat what riding a cow is to bestriding an\\nArab. You know the Esquimaux kayak, (if that is\\nthe name of it,) don t you? Look at that model of one\\nover my door. Sharp, rather? On the contrary, it\\nis a lubber to the one you and I must haVe a Dutch\\nfish-wife to Psyche, contrasted with what I will tell\\nyou about. Our boat, then, is something of the\\nshape of a pickerel, as you look down upon his back,\\nhe lying in the sunshine just where the sharp edge\\nof the water cuts in among the lily-pads. It is a kind\\nof a giant pod, as one may say, tight everywhere,\\nexcept in a little place in the middle, where you sit.\\nIts length is from seven to ten yards, and as it is only\\nfrom sixteen to thirty inches wide in its widest part,\\nyou understand why you want those outriggers, or\\nprojecting iron frames with the rowlocks in which the\\noars play. My rowlocks are five feet apart double\\nthe greatest width of the boat.\\nHere you are, then, afloat with a body a rod and a\\nhalf long, with arms, or wings, as you may choose\\nto call them, stretching more than twenty feet from\\ntip to tip every volition of yours extending as per-\\nfectly into them as if your spinal cord ran down the\\ncentre strip of your boat, and the nerves of your arms\\ntingled as far as the broad blades of your oars,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0198.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 69\\noars of spruce, balanced, leathered, and ringed under\\nyour own special direction. This, in sober earnest,\\nis the nearest approach to flying that man has ever\\nmade or perhaps ever will make. As the hawk sails\\nwithout flapping his pinions, so you drift with the\\ntide when you will, in the most luxurious form of loco-\\nmotion indulged to an embodied spirit. But if your\\nblood wants rousing, turn round that stake in the\\nriver, which you see a mile from here and when you\\ncome in in sixteen minutes, (if you do, for we are\\nold boys, and not champion scullers, you remember,)\\nthen say if you begin to feel a little warmed up or\\nnot You can row easily and gently all day, and you\\ncan row yourself blind and black in the face in ten\\nminutes, just as you like. It has been long agreed\\nthat there is no way in which a man can accomplish\\nso much labor with his muscles as in rowing. It is\\nin the boat, then, that man finds the largest extension\\nof his volitional and muscular existence and yet he\\nmay tax both of them so slightly, in that most deli-\\ncious of exercises, that he shall mentally write his ser-\\nmon, or his poem, or recall the remarks he has made\\nin company and put them in form for the public, as\\nwell as in his easy-chair.\\nI dare not publicly name the rare joys, the infinite\\ndelights, that intoxicate me on some sweet June morn-\\ning, when the river and bay are smooth as a sheet\\nof beryl-green silk, and I run along ripping it up\\nwith my knife-edged shell of a boat, the rent closing\\nafter me like those wounds of angels which Milton\\ntells of, but the seam still shining for many a long\\nrood behind me. To lie still over the Flats, where\\nthe waters are shallow, and see the crabs crawling\\nand the sculpins gliding busily and silently beneath", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0199.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "170 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthe boat, to rustle in through the long harsh grass\\nthat leads up some tranquil creek, to take shelter\\nfrom the sunbeams under one of the thousand-footed\\nbridges, and look down its interminable colonnades,\\ncrusted with green and oozy growths, studded with\\nminute barnacles, and belted with rings of dark mus-\\ncles, while overhead streams and thunders that other\\nriver whose every wave is a human soul flowing to\\neternity as the river below flows to the ocean,\\nlying there moored unseen, in loneliness so profound\\nthat the columns of Tadmor in the Desert could not\\nseem more remote from life, the cool breeze on\\none s forehead, the stream whispering against the half-\\nsunken pillars, why should I tell of these things,\\nthat I should live to see my beloved haunts invaded\\nand the waves blackened with boats as with a swarm\\nof water-beetles What a city of idiots we must be\\nnot to have covered this glorious bay with gondolas\\nand wherries, as we have just learned to cover the ice\\nin winter with skaters\\nI am satisfied that such a set of black-coated, stiff-\\njointed, soft-muscled, paste-complexioned youth as\\nwe can boast in our Atlantic cities never before\\nsprang from loins of Anglo-Saxon lineage. Of the\\nfemales that are the mates of these males I do not\\nhere speak. I preached my sermon from the lay-\\npulpit on this matter a good while ago. Of course,\\nif you heard it, you know my belief is that the total\\nclimatic influences here are getting up a number of\\nnew patterns of humanity, some of which are not an\\nimprovement on the old model. Clipper-built, sharp\\nin the bows, long in the spars, slender to look at, and\\nfast to go, the ship, which is the great organ of our\\nnational life of relation, is but a reproduction of the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0200.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 171\\ntypical form which the elements impress upon its\\nbuilder. All this we cannot help but we can make\\nthe best of these influences, such as they are. We\\nhave a few good boatmen, no good horsemen that\\nI hear of, I cannot speak for cricketing, but\\nas for any great athletic feat performed by a gentle-\\nman in these latitudes, society would drop a man\\nwho should run round the Common in five minutes.\\nSome of our amateur fencers, single-stick players, and\\nboxers, we have no reason to be ashamed of. Box-\\ning is rough play, but not too rough for a hearty young\\nfellow. Anything is better than this white-blooded\\ndegeneration to which we all tend.\\nI dropped into a gentleman s sparring exhibition\\nonly last evening. It did my heart good to see that\\nthere were a few young and youngish youths left who\\ncould take care of their own heads in case of emer-\\ngency. It is a fine sight, that of a gentleman resolv-\\ning himself into the primitive constituents of his\\nhumanity. Here is a delicate young man now, with\\nan intellectual countenance, a slight figure, a sub-\\npallid complexion, a most unassuming deportment,\\na mild adolescent in fact, that any Hiram or Jonathan\\nfrom between the ploughtails would of course expect\\nto handle with perfect ease. Oh, he is taking off his\\ngold-bowed spectacles! Ah, he is divesting himself\\nof his cravat! Why, he is stripping off his coat!\\nWell, here he is, sure enough, in a tight silk shirt,\\nand with two things that look like batter puddings in\\nthe place of his fists. Now see that other fellow with\\nanother pair of batter puddings, the big one with\\nthe broad shoulders he will certainly knock the\\nlittle man s head off, if he strikes him. Feinting,\\ndodging, stopping, hitting, countering, little man s", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0201.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "172 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhead not off yet. You might as well try to jump\\nupon your own shadow as to hit the little man s in-\\ntellectual features. He needn t have taken off the\\ngold-bowed spectacles at all. Quick, cautious, shifty,\\nnimble, cool, he catches all the fierce lunges or gets\\nout of their reach, till his turn comes, and then, whack\\ngoes one of the batter puddings against the big one s\\nribs, and bang goes the other into the big one s face,\\nand, staggering, shuffling, slipping, tripping, collaps-\\ning, sprawling, down goes the big one in a miscella-\\nneous bundle. If my young friend, whose excellent\\narticle I have referred to, could only introduce the\\nmanly art of self-defence among the clergy, I am\\nsatisfied that we would have better sermons and an\\ninfinitely less quarrelsome church-militant. A bout\\nwith the gloves would let off the ill-nature, and cure\\nthe indigestion, which, united, have embroiled their\\nsubject in a bitter controversy. We should then often\\nhear that a point of difference between an infallible\\nand a heretic, instead of being vehemently discussed\\nin a series of newspaper articles, had been settled by\\na friendly contest in several rounds, at the close of\\nwhich the parties shook hands and appeared cordially\\nreconciled.\\nBut boxing you and I are too old for, I am afraid.\\nI was for a moment tempted, by the contagion of\\nmuscular electricity last evening, to try the gloves\\nwith the Benicia Boy, who looked in as a friend to\\nthe noble art; but remembering that he had twice\\nmy weight and half my age, besides the advantage of\\nhis training, I sat still and said nothing.\\nThere is one other delicate point I wish to speak\\nof with reference to old age. I refer to the use of\\ndioptric media which correct the diminished refracting", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0202.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 73\\npower of the humors of the eye, in other words,\\nspectacles. I don t use them. All I ask is a large,\\nfair type, a strong daylight or gas-light, and one yard\\nof focal distance, and my eyes are as good as ever.\\nBut if your eyes fail, I can tell you something en-\\ncouraging. There is now living in New York State\\nan old gentleman who, perceiving his sight to fail,\\nimmediately took to exercising it on the finest print,\\nand in this way fairly bullied Nature out of her foolish\\nhabit of taking liberties at flve-and-forty, or there-\\nabout. And now this old gentleman performs the\\nmost extraordinary feats with his pen, showing that\\nhis eyes must be a pair of microscopes. I should be\\nafraid to say to you how much he writes in the compass\\nof a half-dime, whether the Psalms or the Gospels,\\nor the Psalms and the Gospels, I won t be positive.\\nBut now let me tell you this. If the time comes\\nwhen you must lay down the fiddle and the bow,\\nbecause your fingers are too stiff, and drop the ten-\\nfoot sculls, because your arms are too weak, and, after\\ndallying awhile with eye-glasses, come at last to the\\nundisguised reality of spectacles, if the time comes\\nwhen that fire of life we spoke of has burned so low\\nthat where its flames reverberated there is only the\\nsombre stain of regret, and where its coals glowed,\\nonly the white ashes that cover the embers of memory,\\ndon t let your heart grow cold, and you may carry\\ncheerfulness and love with you into the teens of\\nyour second century, if you can last so long. As our\\nfriend, the Poet, once said, in some of those old-\\nfashioned heroics of his which he keeps for his\\nprivate reading,\\nCall him not old, whose visionary brain\\nHolds o er the past its undivided reign.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0203.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "174 THE AUTOCRAT\\nFor him in vain the envious seasons roll\\nWho bears eternal summer in his soul.\\nIf yet the minstrel s song, the poet s lay,\\nSpring with her birds, or children with their play,\\nOr maiden s smile, or heavenly dream of art\\nStir the few life-drops creeping round his heart,\\nTurn to the record where his years are told,\\nCount his gray hairs, they cannot make him old\\nEnd of the Professor s paper.\\n[The above essay was not read at one time, but in\\nseveral instalments, and accompanied by various com-\\nments from different persons at the table. The com-\\npany were in the main attentive, with the exception\\nof a little somnolence on the part of the old gentleman\\nopposite at times, and a few sly, malicious questions\\nabout the old boys on the part of that forward\\nyoung fellow who has figured occasionally, not always\\nto his advantage, in these reports.\\nOn Sunday mornings, in obedience to a feeling I\\nam not ashamed of, I have always tried to give a\\nmore appropriate character to our conversation. I\\nhave never read them my sermon yet, and I don t\\nknow that I shall, as some of them might take my\\nconvictions as a personal indignity to themselves.\\nBut having read our company so much of the Pro-\\nfessor s talk about age and other subjects connected\\nwith physical life, I took the next Sunday morning to\\nrepeat to them the following poem of his, which I\\nhave had by me some time. He calls it I suppose,\\nfor his professional friends The Anatomist s\\nHymn; but I shall name it\\nTHE LIVING TEMPLE.\\nNot in the world of light alone,\\nWhere God has built his blazing throne,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0204.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 75\\nNor yet alone in earth below,\\nWith belted seas that come and go,\\nAnd endless isles of sunlit green,\\nIs all thy Maker s glory seen\\nLook in upon thy wondrous frame,\\nEternal wisdom still the same\\nThe smooth, soft air with pulse-like waves\\nFlows murmuring through its hidden caves,\\nWhose streams of brightening purple rush\\nFired with a new and livelier blush,\\nWhile all their burden of decay\\nThe ebbing current steals away,\\nAnd red with Nature s flame they start\\nFrom the warm fountains of the heart.\\nNo rest that throbbing slave may ask,\\nForever quivering o er his task,\\nWhile far and wide a crimson jet\\nLeaps forth to fill the woven net\\nWhich in unnumbered crossing tides\\nThe flood of burning life divides,\\nThen kindling each decaying part\\nCreeps back to find the throbbing heart.\\nBut warmed with that unchanging flame\\nBehold the outward moving frame,\\nIts living marbles jointed strong\\nWith glistening band and silvery thong,\\nAnd linked to reason s guiding reins\\nBy myriad rings in trembling chains,\\nEach graven with the threaded zone\\nWhich claims it as the master s own.\\nSee how yon beam of seeming white\\nIs braided out of seven-hued light,\\nYet in those lucid globes no ray\\nBy any chance shall break astray.\\nHark how the rolling surge of sound,\\nArches and spirals circling round,\\nWakes the hushed spirit through thine ear\\nW T ith music it is heaven to hear.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0205.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "176 AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.\\nThen mark the cloven sphere that holds\\nAll thought in its mysterious folds,\\nThat feels sensation s faintest thrill\\nAnd flashes forth the sovereign will\\nThink on the stormy world that dwells\\nLocked in its dim and clustering cells\\nThe lightning gleams of power it sheds\\nAlong its hollow glassy threads\\nO Father grant thy love divine\\nTo make these mystic temples thine\\nWhen wasting age and wearying strife\\nHave sapped the leaning walls of life,\\nWhen darkness gathers over all,\\nAnd the last tottering pillars fall,\\nTake the poor dust thy mercy warms\\nAnd mould it into heavenly forms", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0206.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "VIII.\\n[Spring has come. You will find some verses to\\nthat effect at the end of these notes. If you are an\\nimpatient reader, skip to them at once. In reading\\naloud, omit, if you please, the sixth and seventh verses.\\nThese are parenthetical and digressive, and, unless\\nyour audience is of superior intelligence, will confuse\\nthem. Many people can ride on horseback who find\\nit hard to get on and to get off without assistance.\\nOne has to dismount from an idea, and get into the\\nsaddle again, at every parenthesis.]\\nThe old gentleman who sits opposite, finding\\nthat spring had fairly come, mounted a white hat one\\nday, and walked into the street. It seems to have\\nbeen a premature or otherwise exceptionable exhibi-\\ntion, not unlike that commemorated by the late Mr.\\nBayly. When the old gentleman came home, he\\nlooked very red in the face, and complained that he\\nhad been made sport of. By sympathizing ques-\\ntions, I learned from him that a boy had called him\\nold daddy, and asked him when he had his hat\\nwhitewashed.\\nThis incident led me to make some observations at\\ntable the next morning, which I here repeat for the\\nbenefit of the readers of this record.\\nThe hat is the vulnerable point of the artificial\\nintegument. I learned this in early boyhood. I was\\nonce equipped in a hat of Leghorn straw, having a\\n177", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0207.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "178 THE AUTOCRAT\\nbrim of much wider dimensions than were usual at\\nthat time, and sent to school in that portion of my\\nnative town which lies nearest to this metropolis.\\nOn my way I was met by a Port-chuck, as we used\\nto call the young gentlemen of that locality, and the\\nfollowing dialogue ensued.\\nThe Port-chuck. Hullo, You-sir, joo know th wuz\\ngon-to be a race to-morrah?\\nMyself. No. Who s gon-to run, V where s t\\ngon-to be\\nThe Port-chuck. Squire Mico V Doctor Williams,\\nround the brim o 1 your hat.\\nThese two much-respected gentlemen being the\\noldest inhabitants at that time, and the alleged race-\\ncourse being out of the question, the Port-chuck also\\nwinking and thrusting his tongue into his cheek, I\\nperceived that I had been trifled with, and the effect\\nhas been to make me sensitive and observant respect-\\ning this article of dress ever since. Here is an axiom\\nor two relating to it.\\nA hat which has been popped, or exploded by\\nbeing sat down upon, is never itself again after-\\nwards.\\nIt is a favorite illusion of sanguine natures to believe\\nthe contrary.\\nShabby gentility has nothing so characteristic as its\\nhat. There is always an unnatural calmness about\\nits nap, and an unwholesome gloss, suggestive of a\\nwet brush.\\nThe last effort of decayed fortune is expended in\\nsmoothing its dilapidated castor. The hat is the\\nultimum moriens of respectability.\\nThe old gentleman took all these remarks and\\nmaxims very pleasantly, saying, however, that he had", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0208.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 79\\nforgotten most of his French except the word for\\npotatoes, fiummies de tare. Ultimum moriens, I\\ntold him, is old Italian, and signifies last thing to die.\\nWith this explanation he was well contented, and\\nlooked quite calm when I saw him afterwards in the\\nentry with a black hat on his head and the white one\\nin his hand.\\nI think myself fortunate in having the Poet and\\nthe Professor for my intimates. We are so much\\ntogether, that we no doubt think and talk a good deal\\nalike yet our points of view are in many respects\\nindividual and peculiar. You know me well enough\\nby this time. I have not talked with you so long for\\nnothing, and therefore I don t think it necessary to\\ndraw my own portrait. But let me say a word or two\\nabout my friends.\\nThe Professor considers himself, and I consider\\nhim, a very useful and worthy kind of drudge. I think\\nhe has a pride in his small technicalities. I know\\nthat he has a great idea of fidelity and though I\\nsuspect he laughs a little inwardly at times at the\\ngrand airs Science puts on, as she stands marking\\ntime, but not getting on, while the trumpets are blow-\\ning and the big drums beating, yet I am sure he has\\na liking for his specialty, and a respect for its culti-\\nvators.\\nBut 1 11 tell you what the Professor said to the Poet\\nthe other day. My boy, said he, I can work a great\\ndeal cheaper than you, because I keep all my goods\\nin the lower story. You have to hoist yours into the\\nupper chambers of the brain, and let them down\\nagain to your customers. I take mine in at the level\\nof the ground, and send them off from my doorstep", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0209.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "l8o THE AUTOCRAT\\nalmost without lifting. I tell you, the higher a\\nman has to carry the raw material of thought\\nbefore he works it up, the more it costs him in\\nblood, nerve, and muscle. Coleridge knew all this\\nvery well when he advised every literary man to\\nhave a profession.\\nSometimes I like to talk with one of them, and\\nsometimes with the other. After a while I get tired\\nof both. When a fit of intellectual disgust comes\\nover me, I will tell you what I have found admirable\\nas a diversion, in addition to boating and other\\namusements which I have spoken of, that is, work-\\ning at my carpenter s-bench. Some mechanical\\nemployment is the greatest possible relief, after the\\npurely intellectual faculties begin to tire. When I\\nwas quarantined once at Marseilles, I got to work\\nimmediately at carving a wooden wonder of loose\\nrings on a stick, and got so interested in it, that, when\\nwe were set loose, I regained my freedom with a\\nsigh, because my toy was unfinished.\\nThere are long seasons when I talk only with the\\nProfessor, and others when I give myself wholly up\\nto the Poet. Now that my winter s work is over,\\nand spring is with us, I feel naturally drawn to the\\nPoet s company. I don t know anybody more alive\\nto life than he is. The passion of poetry seizes on\\nhim every spring, he says, yet oftentimes he com-\\nplains, that, when he feels most, he can sing least.\\nThen a fit of despondency comes over him. I\\nfeel ashamed, sometimes, said he, the other day,\\nto think how far my worst songs fall below my best.\\nIt sometimes seems to me, as I know it does to\\nothers who have told me so, that they ought to be\\nall best, if not in actual execution, at least in plan", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0210.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. l8l\\nand motive. I am grateful he continued for all\\nsuch criticisms. A man is always pleased to have\\nhis most serious efforts praised, and the highest\\naspect of his nature get the most sunshine.\\nYet I am sure, that, in the nature of things, many\\nminds must change their key now and then, on pen-\\nalty of getting out of tune or losing their voices.\\nYou know, I suppose, he said, what is meant by\\ncomplementary colors You know the effect, too,\\nwhich the prolonged impression of any one color has\\non the retina. If you close your eyes after looking\\nsteadily at a red object, you see a green image.\\nIt is so with many minds, I will not say with all.\\nAfter looking at one aspect of external nature, or of\\nany form of beauty or truth, when they turn away,\\nthe complement l ary aspect of the same object stamps\\nitself irresistibly and automatically upon the mind.\\nShall they give expression to this secondary mental\\nstate, or not\\nWhen I contemplate said my friend, the Poet\\nthe infinite largeness of comprehension belonging to\\nthe Central Intelligence, how remote the creative\\nconception is from all scholastic and ethical formulae,\\nI am led to think that a healthy mind ought to\\nchange its mood from time to time, and come down\\nfrom its noblest condition, never, of course, to\\ndegrade itself by dwelling upon what is itself debas-\\ning, but to let its lower faculties have a chance to air\\nand exercise themselves. After the first and second\\nfloor have been out in the bright street dressed in all\\ntheir splendors, shall not our humble friends in the\\nbasement have their holiday, and the cotton velvet\\nand the thin-skinned jewelry simple adornments,\\nbut befitting the station of those who wear them", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0211.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "1 82 THE AUTOCRAT\\nshow themselves to the crowd, who think them beau-\\ntiful, as they ought to, though the people up stairs\\nknow that they are cheap and perishable\\nI don t know that I may not bring the Poet\\nhere, some day or other, and let him speak for him-\\nself. Still I think I can tell you what he says quite\\nas well as he could do it. Oh, he said to me, one\\nday, I am but a hand-organ man, say rather, a\\nhand-organ. Life turns the winch, and fancy or\\naccident pulls out the stops. I come under your\\nwindows, some fine spring morning, and play you\\none of my adagio movements, and some of you say,\\nThis is good, play us so always. But, dear\\nfriends, if I did not change the stop sometimes, the\\nmachine would wear out in one part and rust in\\nanother. How easily this or that tune flows! you\\nsay, there must be no end of just such melodies in\\nhim. I will open the poor machine for you one mo-\\nment, and you shall look. Ah! Every note marks\\nwhere a spur of steel has been driven in. It is easy\\nto grind out the song, but to plant these bristling\\npoints which make it was the painful task of time.\\nI don t like to say it, he continued, but poets\\ncommonly have no larger stock of tunes than hand-\\norgans and when you hear them piping up under\\nyour window, you know pretty well what to expect.\\nThe more stops, the better. Do let them all be\\npulled out in their turn\\nSo spoke my friend, the Poet, and read me one of\\nhis stateliest songs, and after it a gay chanson, and\\nthen a string of epigrams. All true, he said, all\\nflowers of his soul only one with the corolla spread,\\nand another with its disk half opened, and the third\\nwith the heart-leaves covered up and only a petal or", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0212.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 83\\ntwo showing its tip through the calyx. The water-\\nlily is the type of the poet s soul, he told me.\\nWhat do you think, Sir, said the divinity-stu-\\ndent, opens the souls of poets most fully?\\nWhy, there must be the internal force and the ex-\\nternal stimulus. Neither is enough by itself. A rose\\nwill not flower in the dark, and a fern will not flower\\nanywhere.\\nWhat do I think is the true sunshine that opens the\\npoet s corolla? I don t like to say. They spoil a\\ngood many, I am afraid or at least they shine on a\\ngood many that never come to anything.\\nWho are they? said the schoolmistress.\\nWomen. Their love first inspires the poet, and\\ntheir praise is his best reward.\\nThe schoolmistress reddened a little, but looked\\npleased. Did I really think so? I do think so; I\\nnever feel safe until I have pleased them I don t\\nthink they are the first to see one s defects, but they\\nare the first to catch the color and fragrance of a true\\npoem. Fit the same intellect to a man and it is a\\nbow-string, to a woman and it is a harp-string. She\\nis vibratile and resonant all over, so she stirs with\\nslighter musical tremblings of the air about her. Ah,\\nme! said my friend, the Poet, to me, the other day,\\nwhat color would it not have given to my thoughts,\\nand what thrice-washed whiteness to my words, had\\nI been fed on women s praises! I should have grown\\nlike Mar veil s fawn,\\nLilies without roses within\\nBut then, he added, we all think, if so and so,\\nwe should have been this or that, as you were saying,\\nthe other day, in those rhymes of yours.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0213.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "1 84 THE AUTOCRAT\\nI don t think there are many poets in the sense\\nof creators but of those sensitive natures which reflect\\nthemselves naturally in soft and melodious words,\\npleading for sympathy with their joys and sorrows,\\nevery literature is full. Nature carves with her own\\nhands the brain which holds the creative imagination,\\nbut she casts the over-sensitive creatures in scores\\nfrom the same mould.\\nThere are two kinds of poets, just as there are two\\nkinds of blondes. [Movement of curiosity among\\nour ladies at table. Please to tell us about those\\nblondes, said the schoolmistress.] Why, there are\\nblondes who are such simply by deficiency of coloring\\nmatter, negative or washed blondes, arrested by\\nNature on the way to become albinesses. There are\\nothers that are shot through with golden light, with\\ntawny or fulvous tinges in various degree, positive\\nor stained blondes, dipped in yellow sunbeams, and\\nas unlike in their mode of being to the others as an\\norange is unlike a snowball. The albino-style carries\\nwith it a wide pupil and a sensitive retina. The other,\\nor the leonine blonde, has an opaline fire in her clear\\neye, which the brunette can hardly match with her\\nquick glittering glances.\\nJust so we have the great sun-kindled,, constructive\\nimaginations, and a far more numerous class of poets\\nwho have a certain kind of moonlight-genius given\\nthem to compensate for their imperfection of nature.\\nTheir want of mental coloring-matter makes them\\nsensitive to those impressions which stronger minds\\nneglect or never feel at all. Many of them die young,\\nand all of them are tinged with melancholy. There\\nis no more beautiful illustration of the principle of\\ncompensation which marks the Divine benevolence", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0214.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 85\\nthan the fact that some of the holiest lives and some\\nof the sweetest songs are the growth of the infirmity\\nwhich unfits its subject for the rougher duties of life.\\nWhen one reads the life of Cowper, or of Keats, or of\\nLucretia and Margaret Davidson, of so many gentle,\\nsweet natures, born to weakness, and mostly dying\\nbefore their time, one cannot help thinking that the\\nhuman race dies out singing, like the swan in the old\\nstory. The French poet, Gilbert, who died at the\\nHotel Dieu, at the age of twenty-nine, (killed by a\\nkey in his throat, which he had swallowed when\\ndelirious in consequence of a fall,) this poor fel-\\nlow was a very good example of the poet by excess of\\nsensibility. I found, the other day, that some of my\\nliterary friends had never heard of him, though I sup-\\npose few educated Frenchmen do not know the lines\\nwhich he wrote, a week before his death, upon a mean\\nbed in the great hospital of Paris.\\n11 Au banquet de la vie, infortune convive,\\nJ apparus un jour, et je meurs\\nJe meurs, et sur ma tombe, ou lentement j arrive,\\nNul ne viendra verser des pleurs.\\nAt life s gay banquet placed, a poor, unhappy guest,\\nOne day I pass, then disappear\\nI die, and on the tomb where I at length shall rest\\nNo friend shall come to shed a tear.\\nYou remember the same thing in other words some-\\nwhere in Kirke White s poems. It is the burden of\\nthe plaintive songs of all these sweet albino-poets.\\nI shall die and be forgotten, and the world will go\\non just as if I had never been and yet how I have\\nloved how I have longed how I have aspired\\nAnd so singing, their eyes grow brighter and brighter,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0215.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "1 86 THE AUTOCRAT\\nand their features thinner and thinner, until at last\\nthe veil of flesh is threadbare, and, still singing, they\\ndrop it and pass onward.\\nOur brains are seventy-year clocks. The Angel\\nof Life winds them up once for all, then closes the\\ncase, and gives the key into the hand of the Angel of\\nthe Resurrection.\\nTic-tac tic-tac go the wheels of thought our\\nwill cannot stop them they cannot stop themselves\\nsleep cannot still them madness only makes them\\ngo faster death alone can break into the case, and,\\nseizing the ever-swinging pendulum, which we call\\nthe heart, silence at last the clicking of the terrible\\nescapement we have carried so long beneath our\\nwrinkled foreheads.\\nIf we could only get at them, as we lie on our\\npillows and count the dead beats of thought after\\nthought and image after image jarring through the\\novertired organ Will nobody block those wheels,\\nuncouple that pinion, cut the string that holds those\\nweights, blow up the infernal machine with gun-\\npowder What a passion comes over us sometimes\\nfor silence and rest that this dreadful mechanism,\\nunwinding the endless tapestry of time, embroidered\\nwith spectral figures of life and death, could have\\nbut one brief holiday Who can wonder that men\\nswing themselves off from beams in hempen lassos\\nthat they jump off from parapets into the swift and\\ngurgling waters beneath that they take counsel of\\nthe grim friend who has but to utter his one peremp-\\ntory monosyllable and the restless machine is shiv-\\nered as a vase that is dashed upon a marble floor\\nUnder that building which we pass every day there", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0216.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 87\\nare strong dungeons, where neither hook, nor bar y\\nnor bed-cord, nor drinking-vessel from which a sharp\\nfragment may be shattered, shall by any chance be\\nseen. There is nothing for it, when the brain is on\\nfire with the whirling of its wheels, but to spring\\nagainst the stone wall and silence them with one\\ncrash. Ah, they remembered that, the kind city\\nfathers, and the walls are nicely padded, so that\\none can take such exercise as he likes without dam-\\naging himself on the very plain and serviceable up-\\nholstery. If anybody would only contrive some kind\\nof a lever that one could thrust in among the works\\nof this horrid automaton and check them, or alter\\ntheir rate of going, what would the world give for the\\ndiscovery Ik\\nFrom half a dime to a dime, according to the\\nstyle of the place and the quality of the liquor,\\nsaid the young fellow whom they call John.\\nYou speak trivially, but not unwisely, I said.\\nUnless the will maintain a certain control over these\\nmovements, which it cannot stop, but can to some\\nextent regulate, men are very apt to try to get at\\nthe machine by some indirect system of leverage or\\nother. They clap on the brakes by means of opium\\nthey change the maddening monotony of the rhythm\\nby means of fermented liquors. It is because the\\nbrain is locked up and we cannot touch its movement\\ndirectly, that we thrust these coarse tools in through\\nany crevice, by which they may reach the interior,\\nand so alter its rate of going for a while, and at last\\nspoil the machine.\\nMen who exercise chiefly those faculties of the\\nmind which work independently of the will, poets\\nand artists, for instance, who follow their imagination", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0217.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "1 88 THE AUTOCRAT\\nin their creative moments, instead of keeping it in\\nhand as your logicians and practical men do with\\ntheir reasoning faculty, such men are too apt to\\ncall in the mechanical appliances to help them govern\\ntheir intellects.\\nHe means they get drunk, said the young fel-\\nlow already alluded to by name.\\nDo you think men of true genius are apt to indulge\\nin the use of inebriating fluids? said the divinity-\\nstudent.\\nIf you think you are strong enough to bear what I am\\ngoing to say, I replied, I will talk to you about\\nthis. But mind, now, these are the things that some\\nfoolish people call dangerous subjects, as if these\\nvices which burrow into people s souls, as the\\nGuinea-worm burrows into the naked feet of West-\\nIndian slaves, would be more mischievous when seen\\nthan out of sight. Now the true way to deal with\\nthose obstinate animals, which are a dozen feet long,\\nsome of them, and no bigger than a horse hair, is to\\nget a piece of silk round their heads, and pull them\\nout very cautiously. If you only break them off, they\\ngrow worse than ever, and sometimes kill the person\\nwho has the misfortune to harbor one of them.\\nWhence it is plain that the first thing to do is to find\\nout where the head lies.\\nJust so of all the vices, and particularly of this vice\\nof intemperance. What is the head of it, and where\\ndoes it lie For you may depend upon it, there is\\nnot one of these vices that has not a head of its own,\\nan intelligence, a meaning, a certain virtue, I was\\ngoing to say, but that might, perhaps, sound para-\\ndoxical. I have heard an immense number of moral\\nphysicians lay down the treatment of moral Guinea-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0218.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 89\\nworms, and the vast majority of them would always\\ninsist that the creature had no head at all, but was all\\nbody and tail. So I have found a very common\\nresult of their method to be that the string slipped, or\\nthat a piece only of the creature was broken off, and\\nthe worm soon grew again, as bad as ever. The\\ntruth is, if the Devil could only appear in church by\\nattorney, and make the best statement that the facts\\nwould bear him out in doing on behalf of his special\\nvirtues, (what we commonly call vices,) the influence\\nof good teachers would be much greater than it is.\\nFor the arguments by which the Devil prevails are\\nprecisely the ones that the Devil-queller most rarely\\nanswers. The way to argue down a vice is not to\\ntell lies about it, to say that it has no attractions,\\nwhen everybody knows that it has, but rather to let\\nit make out its case just as it certainly will in the\\nmoment of temptation, and then meet it with the\\nweapons furnished by the Divine armory. Ithuriel\\ndid not spit the toad on his spear, you remember, but\\ntouched him with it, and the blasted angel took the\\nsad glories of his true shape. If he had shown fight\\nthen, the fair spirits would have known how to deal\\nwith him.\\nThat all spasmodic cerebral action is an evil is not\\nperfectly clear. Men get fairly intoxicated with music,\\nwith poetry, with religious excitement, oftenestwith\\nlove. Ninon de FEnclos said she was so easily ex-\\ncited that her soup intoxicated her, and convalescents\\nhave been made tipsy by a beef-steak.\\nThere are forms and stages of alcoholic exaltation\\nwhich, in themselves, and without regard to their\\nconsequences, might be considered as positive im-\\nprovements of the persons affected. When the slug-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0219.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "190 THE AUTOCRAT\\ngish intellect is roused, the slow speech quickened,\\nthe cold nature warmed, the latent sympathy devel-\\noped, the flagging spirit kindled,- before the trains\\nof thought become confused, or the will perverted, or\\nthe muscles relaxed, just at the moment when the\\nwhole human zoophyte flowers out like a full-blown\\nrose, and is ripe for the subscription-paper or the con-\\ntribution-box, it would be hard to say that a man\\nwas, at that very time, worse, or less to be loved, than\\nwhen driving a hard bargain with all his meaner wits\\nabout him. The difficulty is, that the alcoholic\\nvirtues don t wash but until the water takes their\\ncolors out, the tints are very much like those of the\\ntrue celestial stuff.\\n[Here I was interrupted by a question which I am\\nvery unwilling to report, but have confidence enough\\nin those friends who examine these records to commit\\nto their candor.\\nA person at table asked me whether I went in for\\nrum as a steady drink His manner made the\\nquestion highly offensive, but I restrained myself,\\nand answered thus\\nRum I take to be the name which unwashed moral-\\nists apply alike to the product distilled from molasses\\nand the noblest juices of the vineyard. Burgundy\\nin all its sunset glow is rum. Champagne, the\\nfoaming wine of Eastern France, 1 is rum. Hock,\\nwhich our friend, the Poet, speaks of as\\n11 The Rhine s breastmilk, gushing cold and bright,\\nPale as the moon, and maddening as her light,\\nis rum. Sir, I repudiate the loathsome vulgarism as\\nan insult to the first miracle wrought by the Founder\\nof our religion I address myself to the company.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0220.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 191\\nI believe in temperance, nay, almost in abstinence, as\\na rule for healthy people. I trust that I practise both.\\nBut let me tell you, there are companies of men of\\ngenius into which I sometimes go, where the atmos-\\nphere of intellect and sentiment is so much more\\nstimulating than alcohol, that, if I thought fit to take\\nwine, it would be to keep me sober.\\nAmong the gentlemen that I have known, few, if,\\nany, were ruined by drinking. My few drunken\\nacquaintances were generally ruined before they\\nbecame drunkards. The habit of drinking is often a\\nvice, no doubt, sometimes a misfortune, as when\\nan almost irresistible hereditary propensity exists to\\nindulge in it, but oftenest of all a punishment.\\nEmpty heads, heads without ideas in wholesome\\nvariety and sufficient number to furnish food for the\\nmental clockwork, ill-regulated heads, where the\\nfaculties are not under the control of the will, these\\nare the ones that hold the brains which their owners\\nare so apt to tamper with, by introducing the appli-\\nances we have been talking about. Now, when a\\ngentleman s brain is empty or ill-regulated, it is, to a\\ngreat extent, his own fault and so it is simple retri-\\nbution, that, while he lies slothfully sleeping or aim-\\nlessly dreaming, the fatal habit settles on him like a\\nvampyre, and sucks his blood, fanning him all the\\nwhile with its hot wings into deeper slumber or idler\\ndreams! I am not such a hard-souled being as to\\napply this to the neglected poor, who have had no\\nchance to fill their heads with wholesome ideas, and\\nto be taught the lesson of self-government. I trust\\nthe tariff of Heaven has an ad valorem scale for them,\\nand all of us.\\nBut to come back to poets and artists if they", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0221.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": "192 THE AUTOCRAT\\nreally are more prone to the abuse of stimulants,\\nand I fear that this is true, the reason of it is only\\ntoo clear. A man abandons himself to a fine frenzy,\\nand the power which flows through him, as I once\\nexplained to you, makes him the medium of a great\\npoem or a great picture. The creative action is not\\nvoluntary at all, but automatic we can only put the\\nmind into the proper attitude, and wait for the wind,\\nthat blows where it listeth, to breathe over it. Thus\\nthe true state of creative genius is allied to reverie, or\\ndreaming. If mind and body were both healthy, and\\nhad food enough and fair play, I doubt whether any\\nmen would be more temperate than the imaginative\\nclasses. But body and mind often flag, perhaps\\nthey are ill-made to begin with, underfed with bread\\nor ideas, overworked, or abused in some way. The\\nautomatic action, by which genius wrought its won-\\nders, fails. There is only one thing which can rouse\\nthe machine not will, that cannot reach it nothing\\nbut a ruinous agent, which hurries the wheels awhile\\nand soon eats out the heart of the mechanism. The\\ndreaming faculties are always the dangerous ones,\\nbecause their mode of action can be imitated by arti-\\nficial excitement the reasoning ones are safe, because\\nthey imply continued voluntary effort.\\nI think you will find it true, that, before any vice\\ncan fasten on a man, body, mind, or moral nature\\nmust be debilitated. The mosses and fungi gather\\non sickly trees, not thriving ones and the odious\\nparasites which fasten on the human frame choose\\nthat which is already enfeebled. Mr. Walker, the\\nhygeian humorist, declared that he had such a healthy\\nskin it was impossible for any impurity to stick to it,\\nand maintained that it was an absurdity to wash a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0222.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 93\\nface which was of necessity always clean. I donH\\nknow how much fancy there was in this but there\\nis no fancy in saying that the lassitude of tired-out\\noperatives, and the languor of imaginative natures in\\ntheir periods of collapse, and the vacuity of minds\\nuntrained to labor and discipline, fit the soul and\\nbody for the germination of the seeds of intemperance.\\nWhenever the wandering demon of Drunkenness\\nfinds a ship adrift, no steady wind in its sails, no\\nthoughtful pilot directing its course, he steps on\\nboard, takes the helm, and steers straight for the\\nmaelstrom.\\nI wonder if you know the terrible smile? [The\\nyoung fellow whom they call John winked very\\nhard, and made a jocular remark, the sense of which\\nseemed to depend on some double meaning of the\\nword smile. The company was curious to know what\\nI meant.]\\nThere are persons I said, who no sooner come\\nwithin sight of you than they begin to smile, with an\\nuncertain movement of the mouth, which conveys\\nthe idea that they are thinking about themselves, and\\nthinking, too, that you are thinking they are thinking\\nabout themselves, and so look at you with a wretched\\nmixture of self-consciousness, awkwardness, and at-\\ntempts to carry off both, which are betrayed by the\\ncowardly behavior of the eye and the tell-tale weak-\\nness of the lips that characterize these unfortunate\\nbeings.\\nWhy do you call them unfortunate, Sir asked\\nthe divinity-student.\\nBecause it is evident that the consciousness of some\\nimbecility or other is at the bottom of this extraor-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0223.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "194 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndinary expression. I don t think, however, that these\\npersons are commonly fools. I have known a number,\\nand all of them were intelligent. I think nothing\\nconveys the idea of under breeding more than this\\nself-betraying smile. Yet I think this peculiar habit\\nas well as that of meaningless blushing, may be fallen\\ninto by very good people who meet often, or sit oppo-\\nsite each other at table. A true gentleman s face is\\ninfinitely removed from all such paltriness, calm-\\neyed, firm-mouthed. I think Titian understood the\\nlook of a gentleman as well as anybody that ever lived.\\nThe portrait of a young man holding a glove in his\\nhand, in the Gallery of the Louvre, if any of you have\\nseen that collection, will remind you of what I mean.\\nDo I think these people know the peculiar look\\nthey have I cannot say I hope not I am afraid\\nthey would never forgive me if they did. The worst\\nof it is, the trick is catching when one meets one of\\nthese fellows, he feels a tendency to the same mani-\\nfestation. The Professor tells me there is a muscular\\nslip, a dependence of the platysma myoides, which is\\ncalled the risorius Santorini.\\nSay that once more, exclaimed the young fel-\\nlow mentioned above.\\nThe Professor says there is a little fleshy slip called\\nSantorini s laughing muscle. I would have it cut out\\nof my face, if I were born with one of those constitu-\\ntional grins upon it. Perhaps I am uncharitable in\\nmy judgment of those sour-looking people I told you\\nof the other day, and of these smiling folks. It may\\nbe that they are born with these looks, as other people\\nare with more generally recognized deformities. Both\\nare bad enough, but I had rather meet three of the\\nscowlers than one of the smilers.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0224.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 95\\nThere is another unfortunate way of looking,\\nwhich is peculiar to that amiable sex we do not like\\nto find fault with. There are some very pretty, but,\\nunhappily, very ill-bred women, who don t under-\\nstand the law of the road with regard to handsome\\nfaces. Nature and custom would, no doubt, agree in\\nconceding to all males the right of at least two dis-\\ntinct looks at every comely female countenance, with-\\nout any infraction of the rules of courtesy or the\\nsentiment of respect. The first look is necessary to\\ndefine the person of the individual one meets so as\\nto avoid it in passing. Any unusual attraction de-\\ntected in a first glance is a sufficient apology for a\\nsecond, not a prolonged and impertinent stare, but\\nan appreciating homage of the eyes, such as a stranger\\nmay inoffensively yield to a passing image. It is\\nastonishing how morbidly sensitive some vulgar\\nbeauties are to the slightest demonstration of this\\nkind. When a lady walks the streets, she leaves her\\nvirtuous-indignation countenance at home she knows\\nwell enough that the street is a picture-gallery, where\\npretty faces framed in pretty bonnets are meant to be\\nseen, and everybody has a right to see them.\\nWhen we observe how the same features and\\nstyle of person and character descend from gener-\\nation to generation, we can believe that some in-\\nherited weakness may account for these peculiarities.\\nLittle snapping-turtles snap so the great naturalist\\ntells us before they are out of the egg-shell. I am\\nsatisfied, that, much higher up in the scale of life,\\ncharacter is distinctly shown at the age of 2 or 3\\nmonths.\\nMy friend, the Professor, has been full of eggs\\nlately. [This remark excited a burst of hilarity,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0225.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "196 THE AUTOCRAT\\nwhich I did not allow to interrupt the course of my\\nobservations.] He has been reading the great book\\nwhere he found the fact about the little snapping-\\nturtles mentioned above. Some of the things he\\nhas told me have suggested several odd analogies\\nenough\\nThere are half a dozen men, or so, who carry in\\ntheir brains the ovarian eggs of the next generation s\\nor century s civilization. These eggs are not ready\\nto be laid in the form of books as yet some of them\\nare hardly ready to be put into the form of talk.\\nBut as rudimentary ideas or inchoate tendencies, there\\nthey are and these are what must form the future.\\nA man s general notions are not good for much,\\nunless he has a crop of these intellectual ovarian\\neggs in his own brain, or knows them as they exist\\nin the minds of others. One must be in the habit of\\ntalking with such persons to get at these rudimentary\\ngerms of thought for their development is neces-\\nsarily imperfect, and they are moulded on new\\npatterns, which must be long and closely studied.\\nBut these are the men to talk with. No fresh truth\\never gets into a book.\\nA good many fresh lies get in, anyhow, said\\none of the company.\\nI proceeded in spite of the interruption. All\\nuttered thought, my friend, the Professor, says, is of\\nthe nature of an excretion. Its materials have been\\ntaken in, and have acted upon the system, and been\\nreacted on by it it has circulated and done its office\\nin one mind before it is given out for the benefit of\\nothers. It may be milk or venom to other minds\\nbut, in either case, it is something which the producer\\nhas had the use of and can part with. A man instinc-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0226.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 1 97\\ntively tries to get rid of his thought in conversation or\\nin print so soon as it is matured but it is hard to get\\nat it as it lies imbedded, a mere potentiality, the germ\\nof a germ, in his intellect.\\nWhere are the brains that are fullest of these\\novarian eggs of thought I decline mentioning\\nindividuals. The producers of thought, who are\\nfew, the jobbers of thought, who are many, and\\nthe retailers of thought, who are numberless, are so\\nmixed up in the popular apprehension, that it would\\nbe hopeless to try to separate them before opinion\\nhas had time to settle. Follow the course of opinion\\non the great subjects of human interest for a few\\ngenerations or centuries, get its parallax, map out a\\nsmall arc of its movement, see where it tends, and\\nthen see who is in advance of it or even with it the\\nworld calls him hard names, probably but if you\\nwould find the ova of the future, you must look into\\nthe folds of his cerebral convolutions.\\n[The divinity-student looked a little puzzled at\\nthis suggestion, as if he did not see exactly where\\nhe was to come out, if he computed his arc too\\nnicely. I think it possible it might cut off a few\\ncorners of his present belief, as it has cut off martyr-\\nburning and witch-hanging but time will show,\\ntime will show, as the old gentleman opposite\\nsays.]\\nOh, here is that copy of verses I told you\\nabout.\\nSPRING HAS COME.\\nIntra Muros.\\nTHE sunbeams, lost for half a year,\\nSlant through my pane their morning rays;", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0227.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "198 THE AUTOCRAT\\nFor dry Northwesters, cold and clear,\\nThe East blows in its thin blue haze.\\nAnd first the snowdrop s bells are seen,\\nThen close against the sheltering wall\\nThe tulip s horn of dusky green,\\nThe peony s dark unfolding ball.\\nThe golden-chaliced crocus burns\\nThe long narcissus-blades appear\\nThe cone-beaked hyacinth returns,\\nAnd lights her blue-flamed chandelier.\\nThe willow s whistling lashes, wrung\\nBy the wild winds of gusty March,\\nWith sallow leaflets lightly strung,\\nAre swaying by the tufted larch.\\nThe elms have robed their slender spray\\nWith full-blown flower and embryo leaf;\\nWide o er the clasping arch of day\\nSoars like a cloud their hoary chief.\\n[See the proud tulip s flaunting cup,\\nThat flames in glory for an hour,\\nBehold it withering, then look up,\\nHow meek the forest-monarch s flower!\\nWhen wake the violets, Winter dies\\nWhen sprout the elm-buds, Spring is near;\\nWhen lilacs blossom, Summer cries,\\nBud, little roses Spring is here\\nThe windows blush with fresh bouquets,\\nCut with the May-dew on their lips\\nThe radish all its bloom displays,\\nPink as Aurora s finger-tips.\\nNor less the flood of light that showers\\nOn beauty s changed corolla-shades,\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nThe walks are gay as bridal bowers\\nWith rows of many-petalled maids.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0228.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 199\\nThe scarlet shell-fish click and clash\\nIn the blue barrow where they slide\\nThe horseman, proud of streak and splash,\\nCreeps homeward from his morning ride.\\nHere comes the dealer s awkward string,\\nWith neck in rope and tail in knot,\\nRough colts, with careless country-swing,\\nIn lazy walk or slouching trot.\\nWild filly from the mountain-side,\\nDoomed to the close and chafing thills,\\nLend me thy long, untiring stride\\nTo seek with thee thy western hills\\nI hear the whispering voice of Spring,\\nThe thrush s trill, the cat-bird s cry,\\nLike some poor bird with prisoned wing\\nThat sits and sings, but longs to fly.\\nOh for one spot of living green,\\nOne little spot where leaves can grow,\\nTo love unblamed, to walk unseen,\\nTo dream above, to sleep below", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0229.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "IX.\\n\\\\Aqid estd encerrada el alma del licenciado Pedro\\nGarcias.\\nIf I should ever make a little book out of these\\npapers, which I hope you are not getting tired of, I\\nsuppose I ought to save the above sentence for a\\nmotto on the title-page. But I want it now, and\\nmust use it. I need not say to you that the words\\nare Spanish, nor that they are to be found in the\\nshort Introduction to Gil Bias, 1 nor that they mean*\\nHere lies buried the soul of the licentiate Pedro\\nGarcias.\\nI warned all young people off the premises when\\nI began my notes referring to old age. I must be\\nequally fair with old people now. They are earnestly\\nrequested to leave this paper to young persons from\\nthe age of twelve to that of four-score years and ten,\\nat which latter period of life I am sure that I shall\\nhave at least one youthful reader. You know well\\nenough what I mean by youth and age something\\nin the soul, which has no more to do with the color\\nof the hair than the vein of gold in a rock has to do\\nwith the grass a thousand feet above it.\\nI am growing bolder as I write. I think it requires\\nnot only youth, but genius, to read this paper. I\\ndon t mean to imply that it required any whatsoever\\nto talk what I have here written down. It did de-\\nmand a certain amount of memory, and such com-\\n200", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0230.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 201\\nmand of the English tongue as is given by a common\\nschool education. So much I do claim. But here I\\nhave related, at length, a string of trivialities. You\\nmust have the imagination of a poet to transfigure\\nthem. These little colored patches are stains upon\\nthe windows of a human soul stand on the outside,\\nthey are but dull and meaningless spots of color\\nseen from within, they are glorified shapes with em-\\npurpled wings and sunbright aureoles.\\nMy hand trembles when I offer you this. Many\\ntimes I have come bearing flowers such as my garden\\ngrew but now I offer you this poor, brown, homely\\ngrowth, you may cast it away as worthless. And yet\\nand yet it is something better than flowers it is\\na seed-capsule. Many a gardener will cut you a bou-\\nquet of his choicest blossoms for small fee, but he\\ndoes not love to let the seeds of his rarest varieties\\ngo out of his own hands.\\nIt is by little things that we know ourselves a soul\\nwould very probably mistake itself for another, when\\nonce disembodied, were it not for individual experi-\\nences which differ from those of others only in details\\nseemingly trifling. All of us have been thirsty thou-\\nsands of times, and felt, with Pindar, that water was\\nthe best of things. I alone, as I think, of all man-\\nkind, remember one particular pailful of water, fla-\\nvored with the white-pine of which the pail was made,\\nand the brown mug out of which one Edmund, a red-\\nfaced and curly-haired boy, was averred to have bitten\\na fragment in his haste to drink it being then high\\nsummer, and little full-blooded boys feeling very warm\\nand porous in the low- studded school-room where\\nDame Prentiss, dead and gone, ruled over young\\nchildren, many of whom are old ghosts now, and have", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0231.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "202 THE AUTOCRAT\\nknown Abraham for twenty or thirty years of our\\nmortal time.\\nThirst belongs to humanity, everywhere, in all\\nages but that white-pine pail, and that brown mug\\nbelong to me in particular and just so of my special\\nrelationships with other things and with my race.\\nOne could never remember himself in eternity by the\\nmere fact of having loved or hated any more than by\\nthat of having thirsted love and hate have no more\\nindividuality in them than single waves in the ocean\\nbut the accidents or trivial marks which distin-\\nguished those whom we loved or hated make their\\nmemory our own forever, and with it that of our own\\npersonality also.\\nTherefore, my aged friend of five-and-twenty, or\\nthereabouts, pause at the threshold of this particular\\nrecord, and ask yourself seriously whether you are\\nfit to read such revelations as are to follow. For\\nobserve, you have here no splendid array of petals such\\nas poets offer you, nothing but a dry shell, contain-\\ning, if you will get out what is in it, a few small seeds\\nof poems. You may laugh at them, if you like. I\\nshall never tell you what I think of you for so doing.\\nBut if you can read into the heart of these things, in\\nthe light of other memories as slight, yet as dear to\\nyour soul, then you are neither more nor less than a\\nPoet, and can afford to write no more verses during\\nthe rest of your natural life, which abstinence I take\\nto be one of the surest marks of your meriting the\\ndivine name I have just bestowed upon you.\\nMay I beg of you who have begun this paper, nobly\\ntrusting to your own imagination and sensibilities to\\ngive it the significance which it does not lay claim to\\nwithout your kind assistance, may I beg of you, I", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0232.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 203\\nsay, to pay particular attention to the brackets which\\nenclose certain paragraphs I want my asides/ you\\nsee, to whisper loud to you who read my notes, and\\nsometimes I talk a page or two to you without pre-\\ntending that I said a word of it to our boarders. You\\nwill find a very long aside 1 to you almost as soon as\\nyou begin to read. And so, dear young friend, fall to\\nat once, taking such things as I have provided for\\nyou and if you turn them, by the aid of your power-\\nful imagination, into a fair banquet, why, then, peace\\nbe with you, and a summer by the still waters of some\\nquiet river, or by some yellow beach, where, as my\\nfriend the Professor, says, you can sit with Nature s\\nwrist in your hand and count her ocean pulses.]\\nI should like to make a few T intimate revelations\\nrelating especially to my early life, if I thought you\\nwould like to hear them.\\n[The schoolmistress turned a little in her chair, and\\nsat with her face directed partly towards me. Half-\\nmourning now purple ribbon. That breastpin she\\nwears has gray hair in it her mother s, no doubt\\nI remember our landlady s daughter telling me, soon\\nafter the schoolmistress came to board with us, that\\nshe had lately buried a payrent. That s what made\\nher look so pale, kept the poor dying thing alive\\nwith her own blood. Ah long illness is the real\\nvampyrism think of living a year or two after one is\\ndead, by sucking the life blood out of a frail young\\ncreature at one s bedside Well, souls grow white.\\nas well as cheeks, in these holy duties one that goes\\nin a nurse may come out an angel. God bless all\\ngood women to their soft hands and pitying hearts\\nwe must all come at last The schoolmistress has\\na better color than when she came. Too late It", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0233.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "204 THE AUTOCRAT\\nmight have been. Amen How many thoughts\\ngo to a dozen heartbeats, sometimes There was no\\nlong pause after my remark addressed to the company,\\nbut in that time I had the train of ideas and feelings\\nI have just given flash through my consciousness sud-\\nden and sharp as the crooked red streak that springs\\nout of its black sheath like the creese of a Malay in\\nhis death-race, and stabs the earth right and left in\\nits blind rage.\\nI don 1 t deny that there was a pang in it, yes, a\\nstab but there was a prayer, too, the Amen\\nbelonged to that. Also, a vision of a four-story brick\\nhouse, nicely furnished, I actually saw many specific\\narticles, curtains, sofas, tables, and others, and could\\ndraw the patterns of them at this moment, a brick\\nhouse, I say, looking out on the water, with a fair par-\\nlor, and books and busts and pots of flowers and bird-\\ncages, all complete and at the window, looking on\\nthe water, two of us. Male and female created He\\nthem. These two were standing at the window,\\nwhen a smaller shape that was playing near them\\nlooked up at me with such a look that I poured\\nout a glass of water, drank it all down, and then\\ncontinued.]\\nI said I should like to tell you some things, such as\\npeople commonly never tell, about my early recol-\\nlections. Should you like to hear them?\\nShould we like to hear them? said the school-\\nmistress no, but we should love to.\\n[The voice was a sweet one, naturally, and had\\nsomething very pleasant in its tone, just then. The\\nfour-story brick house, which had gone out like a\\ntransparency when the light behind it is quenched,\\nglimmered again for a moment parlor, books, busts,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0234.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 205\\nflower-pots, bird-cages, all complete, and the figures\\nas before.]\\nWe are waiting with eagerness, Sir, said the\\ndivinity student.\\n[The transparency went out as if a flash of black\\nlightning had struck it.]\\nIf you want to hear my confessions, the next thing\\nI said is to know whether I can trust you with\\nthem. It is only fair to say that there are a great\\nmany people in the world that laugh at such things.\\nthink they are fools, but perhaps you don t all\\nagree with me.\\nHere are children of tender age talked to as if they\\nwere capable of understanding Calvin s Institutes, 1\\nand nobody has honesty or sense enough to tell the\\nplain truth about the little wretches that they are as\\nsuperstitious as naked savages, and such miserable\\nspiritual cowards that is, if they have any imagina-\\ntion that they will believe anything which is taught\\nthem, and a great deal more which they teach them-\\nselves.\\nI was born and bred, as I have told you twenty\\ntimes, among books and those who knew what was\\nin books. I was carefully instructed in things tem-\\nporal and spiritual. But up to a considerable matu-\\nrity of childhood I believed Raphael and Michael\\nAngelo to have been superhuman beings. The cen-\\ntral doctrine of the prevalent religious faith of Chris-\\ntendom was utterly confused and neutralized in my\\nmind for years by one of those too common stories\\nof actual life, which I overheard repeated in a whis-\\nper. Why did I not ask? you will say. You don t\\nremember the rosy pudency of sensitive children.\\nThe first instinctive movement of the little creatures", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0235.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "206 THE AUTOCRAT\\nis to make a cache, and bury in it beliefs, doubts,\\ndreams, hopes, and terrors. I am uncovering one of\\nthese caches. Do you think I was necessarily a\\ngreater fool and coward than another\\nI was afraid of ships. Why, I could never tell.\\nThe masts looked frightfully tall, but they were\\nnot so tall as the steeple of our old yellow meeting-\\nhouse. At any rate I used to hide my eyes from the\\nsloops and schooners that were wont to lie at the end\\nof the bridge, and I confess that traces of this unde-\\nfined terror lasted very long. One other source of\\nalarm had a still more fearful significance. There\\nwas a great wooden hand, a glove-maker s sign,\\nwhich used to swing and creak in the blast, as it\\nhung from a pillar before a certain shop a mile or two\\noutside of the city. Oh, the dreadful hand Always\\nhanging there ready to catch up a little boy, who\\nwould come home to supper no more, nor yet to bed,\\nwhose porringer would be laid away empty thence-\\nforth, and his half-worn shoes wait until his small\\nbrother grew to fit them.\\nAs for all manner of superstitious observances, I\\nused once to think I must have been peculiar in\\nhaving such a list of them, but I now believe that\\nhalf the children of the same age go through the\\nsame experiences. No Roman soothsayer ever had\\nsuch a catalogue of omens as I found in the Sibyl-\\nline leaves of my childhood. That trick of throwing\\na stone at a tree and attaching some mighty issue to\\nhitting or missing, which you will find mentioned in\\none or more biographies, I well remember. Stepping\\non or over certain particular things or spots Dr.\\nJohnson s especial weakness I got the habit of at\\na very early age. I won t swear that I have not", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0236.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 207\\nsome tendency to these not wise practices even at\\nthis present date. [How many of you that read\\nthese notes can say the same thing\\nWith these follies mingled sweet delusions, which\\nI loved so well I would not outgrow them, even\\nwhen it required a voluntary effort to put a moment-\\nary trust in them. Here is one which I cannot help\\ntelling you.\\nThe firing of the great guns at the Navy-yard is\\neasily heard at the place where I was born and lived.\\nThere is a ship of war come in, they used to say,\\nwhen they heard them. Of course, I supposed that\\nsuch vessels came in unexpectedly, after indefinite\\nyears of absence, suddenly as falling stones and\\nthat the great guns roared in their astonishment and\\ndelight at the sight of the old war-ship splitting the\\nbay with her cutwater. Now, the sloop-of-war, the\\nWasp, Captain Blakely, after gloriously capturing\\nthe Reindeer and the Avon, had disappeared from the\\nface of the ocean, and was supposed to be lost. But\\nthere was no proof of it, and, of course, for a time,\\nhopes were entertained that she might be heard\\nfrom. Long after the last real chance had utterly\\nvanished, I pleased myself with the fond illusion that\\nsomewhere on the waste of waters she was still float-\\ning, and there were years during which I never heard\\nthe sound of the great guns booming inland from the\\nNavy-yard without saying to myself, The Wasp has\\ncome and almost thinking I could see her, as she\\nrolled in, crumpling the water before her, weather-\\nbeaten, barnacled, with shattered spars and thread-\\nbare canvas, welcomed by the shouts and tears of\\nthousands. This was one of those dreams that I\\nnursed and never told. Let me make a clean breast", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0237.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "208 THE AUTOCRAT\\nof it now, and say, that, so late as to have outgrown\\nchildhood, perhaps to have got far on towards man-\\nhood, when the roar of the cannon has struck sud-\\ndenly on my ear, I have started with a thrill of vague\\nexpectation and tremulous delight, and the long-un-\\nspoken words have articulated themselves in the\\nmind s dumb whisper, The Wasp has co?ne\\nYes, children believe plenty of queer things. I\\nsuppose all of you have had the pocket-book fever\\nwhen you were little? What do I mean? Why,\\nripping up old pocket-books in the firm belief that\\nbank-bills to an immense amount were hidden in\\nthem. So, too, you must all remember some splen-\\ndid unfulfilled promise of somebody or other, which\\nfed you with hopes perhaps for years, and which left\\na blank in your life which nothing has ever filled up.\\nO. T. quitted our household carrying with him\\nthe passionate regrets of the more youthful members.\\nHe was an ingenious youngster; wrote wonderful\\ncopies, and carved the two initials given above with\\ngreat skill on all available surfaces. I thought, by\\nthe way, they were all gone but the other day I\\nfound them on a certain door which I will show you\\nsome time. How it surprised me to find them so\\nnear the ground I had thought the boy of no trivial\\ndimensions. Well, O. T., when he went, made a\\nsolemn promise to two of us. I was to have a ship,\\nand the other a mar////-house (last syllable pro-\\nnounced as in the word tin) Neither ever came\\nbut, oh, how many and many a time I have stolen to\\nthe corner, the cars pass close by it at this time,\\nand looked up that long avenue, thinking that he\\nmust be coming now, almost sure, as I turned to look\\nnorthward, that there he would be, trudging towards", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0238.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 209\\nme, the ship in one hand and the mar/z/2-house in\\nthe other\\n[You must not suppose that all I am going to say, as\\nwell as all I have said, was told to the whole company.\\nThe young fellow whom they call John was in the\\nyard, sitting on a barrel and smoking a cheroot,\\nthe fumes of which came in, not ungrateful, through\\nthe open window. The divinity-student disappeared\\nin the midst of our talk. The poor relation in black\\nbombazine, who looked and moved as if all her\\narticulations were elbow-joints, had gone off to her\\nchamber, after waiting with a look of soul-subduing\\ndecorum at the foot of the stairs until one of the male\\nsort had passed her and ascended into the upper\\nregions. This is a famous point of etiquette in our\\nboarding-house in fact, between ourselves, they\\nmake such an aAvful fuss about it, that I, for one, had\\na great deal rather have them simple enough not to\\nthink of such matters at all. Our landlady s daughter\\nsaid, the other evening, that she was going to re-\\ntire whereupon the young fellow called John took\\nup a lamp and insisted on lighting her to the foot of\\nthe staircase. Nothing would induce her to pass by\\nhim, until the schoolmistress, saying in good plain\\nEnglish that it was her bed-time, walked straight by\\nthem both, not seeming to trouble herself about either\\nof them.\\nI have been led away from what I meant the por-\\ntion included in these brackets to inform my readers\\nabout. I say, then, most of the boarders had left the\\ntable about the time when I began telling some of\\nthese secrets of mine, all of them, in fact, but the\\nold gentleman opposite and the schoolmistress. I\\nunderstand why a young woman should like to hear", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0239.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "2IO THE AUTOCRAT\\nthese simple but genuine experiences of early life,\\nwhich are, as I have said, the little brown seeds of\\nwhat may yet grow to be poems with leaves of azure\\nand gold but when the old gentleman pushed up his\\nchair nearer to me, and slanted round his best ear,\\nand once, when I was speaking of some trifling, tender\\nreminiscence, drew a long breath, with such a tremor\\nin it that a little more and it would have been a sob,\\nwhy, then I felt there must be something of nature in\\nthem which redeemed their seeming insignificance.\\nTell me, man or woman with whom I am whispering,\\nhave you not a small store of recollections, such as\\nthese I am uncovering, buried beneath the dead\\nleaves of many summers, perhaps under the unmelt-\\ning snows of fast-returning winters, a few such\\nrecollections, which, if you should write them all out,\\nwould be swept into some careless editor s drawer,\\nand might cost a scanty half-hour s lazy reading to\\nhis subscribers, and yet, if Death should cheat\\nyou of them, you would not know, yourself in\\neternity.]\\nI made three acquaintances at a very early\\nperiod of life, my introduction to whom was never for-\\ngotten. The first unequivocal act of wrong that has\\nleft its trace in my memory was this refusing a\\nsmall favor asked of me, nothing more than telling\\nwhat had happened at school one morning. No\\nmatter who asked it but there were circumstances\\nwhich saddened and awed me. I had no heart to\\nspeak; I faltered some miserable, perhaps petulant\\nexcuse, stole away, and the first battle of life was lost.\\nWhat remorse followed I need not tell. Then and\\nthere, to the best of my knowledge, I first consciously\\ntook Sin by the hand and turned my back on Duty.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0240.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 211\\nTime has led me to look upon my offence more leni-\\nently I do not believe it or any other childish wrong\\nis infinite, as some have pretended, but infinitely\\nfinite. Yet, oh, if I had but won that battle\\nThe great Destroyer, whose awful shadow it was\\nthat had silenced me, came near me, but never, so\\nas to be distinctly seen and remembered, during my\\ntender years. There flits dimly before me the image\\nof a little girl, whose name even I have forgotten, a\\nschoolmate, whom we missed one day, and were told\\nthat she had died. But what death was I never had\\nany very distinct idea, until one day I climbed the\\nlow stone wall of the old burial-ground and mingled\\nwith a group that were looking into a very deep, long,\\nnarrow hole, dug down through the green sod, down\\nthrough the brown loam, down through the yellow\\ngravel, and there at the bottom was an oblong red\\nbox, and a still, sharp, white face of a young man\\nseen through an opening at one end of it. When\\nthe lid was closed and the gravel and stones rattled\\ndown pell-mell, and the woman in black, who was\\ncrying and wringing her hands, went off with the\\nother mourners, and left him, then I felt that I had\\nseen Death, and should never forget him.\\nOne other acquaintance I made at an earlier period\\nof life than the habit of romancers authorizes.\\nLove, of course. She was a famous beauty after-\\nwards. I am satisfied that many children rehearse\\ntheir parts in the drama of life before they have shed\\nall their milk teeth. I think I won t tell the story of\\nthe golden blonde. I suppose everybody has had his\\nchildish fancies but sometimes they are passionate\\nimpulses, which anticipate all the tremulous emotions\\nbelonging to a later period. Most children remem-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0241.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "212 THE AUTOCRAT\\nber seeing and adoring an angel before they were a\\ndozen years old.\\n[The old gentleman had left his chair opposite and\\ntaken a seat by the schoolmistress and myself, a little\\nway from the table. It s true, it s true, said the old\\ngentleman. He took hold of a steel watch-chain,\\nwhich carried a large, square gold key at one end and\\nwas supposed to have some kind of time-keeper at\\nthe other. With some trouble he dragged up an\\nancient-looking, thick, silver, bull s-eye watch. He\\nlooked at it for a moment, hesitated, touched the\\ninner corner of his right eye with the pulp of his mid-\\ndle finger, looked at the face of the watch, said it\\nwas getting into the forenoon, then opened-* the\\nwatch and handed me the loose outside case without\\na word. The watch-paper had been pink once, and\\nhad a faint tinge still, as if all its tender life had not\\nyet quite faded out. Two little birds, a flower, and, in\\nsmall school-girl letters, a date, 17 no matter.\\nBefore I was thirteen years old, said the old\\ngentleman. I don t know what was in that young\\nschoolmistress s head, nor why she should have\\ndone it but she took out the watch-paper and put it\\nsoftly to her lips, as if she were kissing the poor thing\\nthat made it so long ago. The old gentleman took\\nthe watch-paper carefully from her, replaced it, turned\\naway and walked out, holding the watch in his hand.\\nI saw him pass the window a moment after with that\\nfoolish white hat on his head he could n t have been\\nthinking of what he was about when he put it on. So\\nthe schoolmistress and I were left alone. I drew my\\nchair a shade nearer to her, and continued.]\\nAnd since I am talking of early recollections, I\\ndon t know why I should n t mention some others", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0242.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "The Old Gentleman turned away and waiked out, holding the Watch\\nin His Hand.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0243.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0244.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 213\\nthat still cling to me, not that you will attach any\\nvery particular meaning to these same images so full\\nof significance to me, but that you will find something\\nparallel to them in your own memory. You remem-\\nber, perhaps, what I said one day about smells.\\nThere were certain sounds also which had a mysteri-\\nous suggestiveness to me, not so intense, perhaps,\\nas that connected with the other sense, but yet pecul-\\niar, and never to be forgotten.\\nThe first was the creaking of the wood-sleds, bring-\\ning their loads of oak and walnut from the country,\\nas the slow-swinging oxen trailed them along over\\nthe complaining snow, in the cold, brown light of\\nearly morning. Lying in bed and listening to their\\ndreary music had a pleasure in it akin to the Lucre-\\ntian luxury, or that which Byron speaks of as to be\\nenjoyed in looking on at a battle by one who hath\\nno friend, no brother there.\\nThere was another sound, in itself so sweet, and\\nso connected with one of those simple and curious\\nsuperstitions of childhood of which I have spoken,\\nthat I can never cease to cherish a sad sort of love\\nfor it. Let me tell the superstitious fancy first.\\nThe Puritan Sabbath, as everybody knows, began\\nat sundown on Saturday evening. To such obser-\\nvance of it I was born and bred. As the large,\\nround disk of day declined, a stillness, a solemnity, a\\nsomewhat melancholy hush came over us all. It was\\ntime for work to cease, and for playthings to be put\\naway. The world of active life passed into the shadow\\nof an eclipse, not to emerge until the sun should sink\\nagain beneath the horizon.\\nIt was in this stillness of the world without and of\\nthe soul within that the pulsating lullaby of the even-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0245.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "214 THE AUTOCRAT\\ning crickets used to make itself most distinctly heard,\\nso that I well remember I used to think that the\\npurring of these little creatures, which mingled with\\nthe batrachian hymns from the neighboring swamp,\\nwas peculiar to Saturday evenings. I don t know\\nthat anything could give a clearer idea of the quieting\\nand subduing effect of the old habit of observance of\\nwhat was considered holy time, than this strange,\\nchildish fancy.\\nYes, and there was still another sound which\\nmingled its solemn cadences with the waking and\\nsleeping dreams of my boyhood. It was heard only\\nat times, a deep, muffled roar, which rose and fell,\\nnot loud, but vast, a whistling boy would have\\ndrowned it for his next neighbor, but it must have\\nbeen heard over the space of a hundred square miles.\\nI used to wonder what this might be. Could it be\\nthe roar of the thousand wheels and the ten thousand\\nfootsteps jarring and trampling along the stones of\\nthe neighboring city That w r ould be continuous\\nbut this, as I have said, rose and fell in regular\\nrhythm. I remember being told, and I suppose this\\nto have been the true solution, that it was the sound\\nof the waves, after a high wind, breaking on the long\\nbeaches many miles distant. I should really like to\\nknow whether any observing people living ten miles,\\nmore or less, inland from long beaches, in such\\na town, for instance, as Cantabridge, in the eastern\\npart of the Territory of the Massachusetts, have\\never observed any such sound, and whether it was\\nrightly accounted for as above.\\nMingling with these inarticulate sounds in the low\\nmurmur of memory, are the echoes of certain voices\\nI have heard at rare intervals. I grieve to say it, but", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0246.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 21 5\\nour people. I think, have not generally agreeable\\nvoices. The marrowy organisms, with skins that\\nshed water like the backs of ducks, with smooth sur-\\nfaces neatly padded beneath, and velvet linings to\\ntheir singing-pipes, are not so common among us as\\nthat other pattern of humanity with angular outlines\\nand plane surfaces, arid integuments, hair like the\\nfibrous covering of a cocoa-nut in gloss and supple-\\nness as well as color, and voices at once thin and\\nstrenuous, acidulous enough to produce efferves-\\ncence with alkalis, and stridulous enough to sing duets\\nwith the katydids. I think our conversational so-\\nprano, as sometimes overheard in the cars, arising\\nfrom a group of young persons, who may have taken\\nthe train at one of our great industrial centres, for\\ninstance, young persons of the female sex, we will\\nsay, who have bustled in, full dressed, engaged in\\nloud strident speech, and who, after free discussion,\\nhave fixed on two or more double seats, which hav-\\ning secured, they proceed to eat apples and hand round\\ndaguerreotypes, I say, I think the conversational\\nsoprano, heard under these circumstances, would not\\nbe among the allurements the old Enemy would put\\nin requisition, were he getting up a new temptation\\nof St. Anthony.\\nThere are sweet voices among us, we all know, and\\nvoices not musical, it may be, to those who hear them\\nfor the first time, yet sweeter to us than any we shall\\nhear until we listen to some warbling angel in the over-\\nture to that eternity of blissful harmonies we hope to\\nenjoy. But why should I tell lies If my friends love\\nme, it is because I try to tell the truth. I never heard\\nbut two voices in my life that frightened me by their\\nsweetness.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0247.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "2l6 THE AUTOCRAT\\nFrightened you? said the schoolmistress.\\nYes, frightened me. They made me feel as if there\\nmight be constituted a creature with such a chord in\\nher voice to some string in another s soul, that, if she\\nbut spoke, he would leave all and follow her, though\\nit were into the jaws of Erebus. Our only chance to\\nkeep our wits is, that there are so few natural chords\\nbetween others 1 voices and this string in our souls, and\\nthat those which at first may have jarred a little, by-\\nand-by come into harmony with it. But I tell you\\nthis is no fiction. You may call the story of Ulysses\\nand the Sirens a fable, but what will you say to\\nMario and the poor lady who followed him?\\nWhose were those two voices that bewitched me\\nso? They both belonged to German women. One\\nwas a chambermaid, not otherwise fascinating. The\\nkey of my room at a certain great hotel was missing,\\nand this Teutonic maiden was summoned to give in-\\nformation respecting it. The simple soul was evi-\\ndently not long from her mother-land, and spoke with\\nsweet uncertainty of dialect. But to hear her wonder\\nand lament and suggest, with soft, liquid inflexions,\\nand low, sad murmurs, in tones as full of serious ten-\\nderness for the fate of the lost key as if it had been a\\nchild that had strayed from its mother, w 7 as so winning,\\nthat, had her features and figure been as delicious\\nas her accents, if she had looked like the marble\\nClytie, for instance, why, all I can say is\\n[The schoolmistress opened her eyes so wide, that I\\nstopped short.]\\nI was only going to say that I should have drowned\\nmyself. For Lake Erie was close by, and it is so\\nmuch better to accept asphyxia, which takes only three\\nminutes by the watch, than a mesalliance, that lasts", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0248.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 217\\nfifty years to begin with, and then passes along down\\nthe line of descent (breaking out in all manner of\\nboorish manifestations of feature and manner, which,\\nif men were only as short-lived as horses, could be\\nreadily traced back through the square-roots and the\\ncube-roots of the family stem on which you have hung\\nthe armorial bearings of the De Champignons or the De\\nla Morues, until one came to beings that ate with knives\\nand said Haow? that no person of right feeling\\ncould have hesitated for a single moment.\\nThe second of the ravishing voices I have heard\\nwas, as I have said, that of another German woman.\\nI suppose I shall ruin myself by saying that such a\\nvoice could not have come from any Americanized\\nhuman being.\\nWhat was there in it? said the schoolmistress,\\nand, upon my word, her tones were so very musical,\\nthat I almost wished I had said three voices instead\\nof two, and not made the unpatriotic remark above\\nreported. Oh, I said, it had so much woman in it,\\nmuliebrity, as well as femineity no self-assertion,\\nsuch as free suffrage introduces into every word and\\nmovement large, vigorous nature, running back to\\nthose huge-limbed Germans of Tacitus, but subdued\\nby the reverential training and tuned by the kindly\\nculture of fifty generations. Sharp business habits, a\\nlean soil, independence, enterprise, and east winds, are\\nnot the best things for the larynx. Still, you hear\\nnoble voices among us, I have known families\\nfamous for them, but ask the first person you meet\\na question, and ten to one there is a hard, sharp,\\nmetallic, matter-of-business clink in the accents of the\\nanswer, that produces the effect of one of those bells\\nwhich small trades-people connect with their shop-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0249.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "2l8 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndoors, and which spring upon your ear with such\\nvivacity, as you enter, that your first impulse is to\\nretire at once from the precincts.\\nAh, but I must not forget that dear little child I\\nsaw and heard in a French hospital. Between two and\\nthree years old. Fell out of her chair and snapped\\nboth thigh-bones. Lying in bed, patient, gentle.\\nRough students round her, some in white aprons,\\nlooking fearfully business-like but the child placid,\\nperfectly still. I spoke to her, and the blessed little\\ncreature answered me in a voice of such heavenly\\nsweetness, with that reedy thrill in it which you have\\nheard in the thrush s even-song, that I hear it at this\\nmoment, while I am writing, so many, many years\\nafterwards. Cest tout comme tin serin, said the\\nFrench student at my side.\\nThese are the voices which struck the key-note of\\nmy conceptions as to what the sounds we are to hear\\nin heaven will be, if we shall enter through one of\\nthe twelve gates of pearl. There must be other things\\nbesides aerolites that wander from their own spheres\\nto ours and when we speak of celestial sweetness,\\nor beauty, we may be nearer the literal truth than we\\ndream. If mankind generally are the shipwrecked\\nsurvivors of some pre-Adamitic cataclysm, set adrift\\nin these little open boats of humanity to make one\\nmore trial to reach the shore, as some grave theolo-\\ngians have maintained, if, in plain English, men are\\nthe ghosts of dead devils, who have died into life,\\n(to borrow an expression from Keats,) and walk the\\nearth in a suit of living rags which lasts three or four\\nscore summers, why, there must have been a few\\ngood spirits sent to keep them company, and these\\nsweet voices I speak of must belong to them.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0250.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 219\\nI wish you could once hear my sister s voice\\nsaid the schoolmistress.\\nIf it is like yours, it must be a pleasant one,\\nsaid I.\\nI never thought mine was anything, said the\\nschoolmistress.\\nHow should you know? said I. People never\\nhear their own voices, any more than they see their\\nown faces. There is not even a looking-glass for the\\nvoice. Of course, there is something audible to us\\nwhen we speak but that something is not our own\\nvoice as it is known to all our acquaintances. I think,\\nif an image spoke to us in our own tones, we should\\nnot know them in the least. How pleasant it would\\nbe, if in another state of being we could have shapes\\nlike our former selves for playthings, we standing\\noutside or inside of them, as we liked, and they being\\nto us just what we used to be to others\\nI wonder if there will be nothing like what we\\ncall play, after our earthly toys are broken, said\\nthe schoolmistress.\\nHush, said I, what will the divinity-student\\nsay?\\nI thought she was hit, that time but the shot\\nmust have gone over her, or on one side of her she\\ndid not flinch.]\\nOh, said the schoolmistress, he must look out\\nfor my sister s heresies I am afraid he will be too\\nbusy with them to take care of mine.\\nDo you mean to say, said I, that it is your sis-\\nter whom that student\\n[The young fellow commonly known as John, who\\nhad been sitting on the barrel, smoking, jumped ofr\\njust then, kicked over the barrel, gave it a push with", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0251.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "220 THE AUTOCRAT\\nhis foot that set it rolling, and stuck his saucy-looking\\nface in at the window so as to cut my question off in\\nthe middle and the schoolmistress leaving the room\\na few minutes afterwards, I did not have a chance to\\nfinish it.\\nThe young fellow came in and sat down in a chair,\\nputting his heels on the top of another.\\nPooty girl, said he.\\nA fine young lady, I replied.\\nKeeps a fust-rate school, according to accounts,\\nsaid he, teaches all sorts of things, Latin and\\nItalian and music. Folks rich once, smashed up.\\nShe went right ahead as smart as if she d been born\\nto work. That s the kind o girl I go for. I d marry\\nher, only two or three other girls would drown them-\\nselves, if I did.\\nI think the above is the longest speech of this\\nyoung fellow s which I have put on record. I do not\\nlike to change his peculiar expressions, for this is one\\nof those cases in which the style is the man, as M. de\\nBuffon says. The fact is, the young fellow is a\\ngood-hearted creature enough, only too fond of his\\njokes, and if it were not for those heat-lightning\\nwinks on one side of his face, I should not mind his\\nfun much.]\\n[Some days after this, when the company were\\ntogether again, I talked a little.]\\nI don t think I have a genuine hatred for any-\\nbody. I am well aware that I differ herein from the\\nsturdy English moralist and the stout American tra-\\ngedian. I don t deny that I hate the sight of certain\\npeople but the qualities which make me tend to hate\\nthe man himself are such as I am so much disposed", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0252.jp2"}, "251": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 221\\nto pity, that, except under immediate aggravation, I\\nfeel kindly enough to the worst of them. It is such a\\nsad thing to be born a sneaking fellow, so much worse\\nthan to inherit a hump-back or a couple of club-feet,\\nthat I sometimes feel as if we ought to love the crip-\\npled souls, if I may use this expression, with a certain\\ntenderness which we need not waste on noble natures.\\nOne who is born with such congenital incapacity that\\nnothing can make a gentleman of him, is entitled, not\\nto our wrath, but to our profoundest sympathy. But\\nas we cannot help hating the sight of these people,\\njust as we do that of physical deformities, we gradu-\\nally eliminate them from our society, we love them,\\nbut open the window and let them go. By the time\\ndecent people reach middle age they have weeded\\ntheir circle pretty well of these unfortunates, unless\\nthey have a taste for such animals in which case, no\\nmatter what their position may be, there is some-\\nthing, you may be sure, in their natures akin to that\\nof their wretched parasites.\\nThe divinity-student wished to know what I\\nthought of affinities, as well as antipathies did I\\nbelieve in love at first sight\\nSir, said I, all men love all women. That is\\nthe ftrima-facie aspect of the case. The Court of\\nNature assumes the law to be, that all men do so\\nand the individual man is bound to show cause why\\nhe does not love any particular woman. A man, says\\none of my old black-letter law-books, may show\\ndivers good reasons, as thus He hath not seen the\\nperson named in the indictment she is of tender\\nage, or the reverse of that she hath certain personal\\ndisqualifications, as, for instance, she is a black-\\namoor, or hath an ill-favored countenance or, his", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0253.jp2"}, "252": {"fulltext": "222 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncapacity of loving being limited, his affections are\\nengrossed by a previous comer; and so of other condi-\\ntions. Not the less is it true that he is bound by duty\\nand inclined by nature to love each and every woman.\\nTherefore it is that each woman virtually summons\\nevery man to show cause why he doth not love her.\\nThis is not by written document, or direct speech, for\\nthe most part, but by certain signs of silk, gold, and\\nother materials, which say to all men, Look on me\\nand love, as in duty bound. Then the man pleadeth his\\nspecial incapacity, whatsoever that may be, as, for\\ninstance, impecuniosity, or that he hath one or many\\nwives in his household, or that he is of mean figure,\\nor small capacity of which reasons, it may be noted,\\nthat the first is, according to late decisions, of chiefest\\nauthority. So far the old law-book. But there is a\\nnote from an older authority, saying that every\\nwoman doth also love each and every man, except\\nthere be some good reason to the contrary and a\\nvery observing friend of mine, a young unmarried\\nclergyman, tells me, that, so far as his experience\\ngoes, he has reason to think the ancient author had\\nfact to justify his statement\\nI 11 tell you how it is with the pictures of women we\\nfall in love with at first sight.\\nWe aVt talking about pictures, said the land-\\nlady s daughter, we Ye talking about women.\\nI understood that we were speaking of love at\\nsight, I remarked, mildly. Now, as all a man\\nknows about a woman whom he looks at is just what\\na picture as big as a copper, or a nickel, rather, at\\nthe bottom of his eye can teach him, I think I am\\nright in saying we are talking about the pictures of\\nwomen. Well, now, the reason why a man is not", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0254.jp2"}, "253": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 223\\ndesperately in love with ten thousand women at once\\nis just that which prevents all our portraits being dis-\\ntinctly seen upon that wall. They all are painted\\nthere by reflection from our faces, but because all of\\nthem are painted on each spot, and each on the same\\nsurface, and many other objects at the same time, no\\none is seen as a picture. But darken a chamber and\\nlet a single pencil of rays in through a key-hole, then\\nyou have a picture on the wall. We never fall in\\nlove with a woman in distinction from women, until\\nwe can get an image of her through a pin-hole\\nand then we can see nothing else, and nobody but\\nourselves can see the image in our mental camera-\\nobscura.\\nMy friend, the Poet, tells me he has to leave\\ntown whenever the anniversaries come round.\\nWhat s the difficulty? Why, they all want him to\\nget up and make speeches, or songs, or toasts which\\nis just the very thing he does n t want to do. He is\\nan old story, he says, and hates to show on these\\noccasions. But they tease him, and coax him, and\\ncan t do without him, and feel all over his poor\\nweak head until they get their fingers on the fonta-\\nnelle, (the Professor will tell you what this means,\\nhe says the one at the top of the head always remains\\nopen in poets,) until, by gentle pressure on that soft,\\npulsating spot, they stupefy him to the point of\\nacquiescence.\\nThere are times, though, he says, when it is a\\npleasure, before going to some agreeable meeting, to\\nrush out into one s garden and clutch up a handful\\nof what grows there, weeds and violets together,\\nnot cutting them off, but pulling them up by the roots\\nwith the brown earth they grow in sticking to them.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0255.jp2"}, "254": {"fulltext": "224 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThat s his idea of a post-prandial performance. Look\\nhere, now. These verses I am going to read you, he\\ntells me, were pulled up by the roots just in that way,\\nthe other day. Beautiful entertainment, names\\nthere on the plates that flow from all English-speak-\\ning tongues as familiarly as and or the entertainers\\nknown wherever good poetry and fair title-pages\\nare held in esteem guest a kind-hearted, modest,\\ngenial, hopeful poet, who sings to the hearts of his\\ncountrymen, the British people, the songs of good\\ncheer which the better days to come, as all honest\\nsouls trust and believe, will turn into the prose\\nof common life. My friend, the Poet, says you must\\nnot read such a string of verses too literally. If he\\ntrimmed it nicely below, you would n^ see the roots,\\nhe says, and he likes to keep them, and a little of the\\nsoil clinging to them.\\nThis is the farewell my friend, the Poet, read to his\\nand our friend, the Poet\\nA GOOD TIME GOING!\\nBrave singer of the coming time,\\nSweet minstrel of the joyous present,\\nCrowned with the noblest wreath of rhyme,\\nThe holly-leaf of Ayrshire s peasant,\\nGood-bye Good-bye Our hearts and hands,\\nOur lips in honest Saxon phrases,\\nCry, God be with him, till he stands\\nHis feet among the English daisies\\nT is here we part for other eyes\\nThe busy deck, the fluttering streamer,\\nThe dripping arms that plunge and rise,\\nThe waves in foam, the ship in tremor,\\nThe kerchiefs waving from the pier,\\nThe cloudy pillar gliding o er him.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0256.jp2"}, "255": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 225\\nThe deep blue desert, lone and drear,\\nWith heaven above and home before him\\nHis home the Western giant smiles,\\nAnd twirls the spotty globe to find it\\nThis little speck the British Isles?\\nT is but a freckle, never mind it\\nHe laughs, and all his prairies roll,\\nEach gurgling cataract roars and chuckles,\\nAnd ridges stretched from pole to pole\\nHeave till they crack their iron knuckles\\nBut memory blushes at the sneer,\\nAnd Honor turns with frown defiant.\\nAnd Freedom leaning on her spear,\\nLaughs louder than the laughing giant\\nAn islet is a world, she said,\\n11 When glory with its dust has blended,\\nAnd Britain keeps her noble dead\\nTill earth and seas and skies are rended\\nBeneath each swinging forest -bough\\nSome arm as stout in death reposes,\\nFrom wave-washed foot to heaven-kissed brow\\nHer valor s life-blood runs in roses\\nNay, let our brothers of the West\\nWrite smiling in their florid pages,\\nOne-half her soil has walked the rest\\nIn poets, heroes, martyrs, sages\\nHugged in the clinging billow s clasp,\\nFrom sea-weed fringe to mountain heather,\\nThe British oak with rooted grasp\\nHer slender handful holds together\\nWith cliffs of white and bowers of green,\\nAnd Ocean narrowing to caress her,\\nAnd hills and threaded streams between,\\nOur little mother isle, God bless her\\nIn earth s broad temple where we stand,\\nFanned by the eastern gales that brought us,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0257.jp2"}, "256": {"fulltext": "226 THE AUTOCRAT\\nWe hold the missal in our hand,\\nBright with the lines our Mother taught us;\\nWhere er its blazoned page betrays\\nThe glistening links of gilded fetters,\\nBehold, the half-turned leaf displays\\nHer rubric stained in crimson letters\\nEnough To speed a parting friend\\nT is vain alike to speak and listen\\nYet stay, these feeble accents blend\\nWith rays of light from eyes that glisten.\\nGood-bye once more, and kindly tell\\nIn words of peace the young world s story,\\nAnd say, besides, we love too well\\nOur mother s soil, our father s glory\\nWhen my friend, the Professor, found that my\\nfriend, the Poet, had been coming out in this full-\\nblown style, he got a little excited, as you may have\\nseen a canary, sometimes, when another strikes up.\\nThe Professor says he knows he can lecture, and\\nthinks he can write verses. At any rate, he has\\noften tried, and now he was determined to try again.\\nSo when some professional friends of his called him\\nup, one day, after a feast of reason and a regular\\nfreshet of soul which had lasted two or three\\nhours, he read them these verses. He introduced\\nthem with a few remarks, he told me, of which the\\nonly one he remembered was this that he had rather\\nwrite a single line which one among them should\\nthink worth remembering than set them ali laughing\\nwith a string of epigrams. It was all right, I domt\\ndoubt at any rate, that was his fancy then, and per-\\nhaps another time he may be obstinately hilarious\\nhowever, it may be that he is growing graver, for time\\nis a fact so long as clocks and watches continue to", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0258.jp2"}, "257": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 227\\ngo, and a cat can t be a kitten always, as the old\\ngentleman opposite said the other day.\\nYou must listen to this seriously, for I think the\\nProfessor was very much in earnest when he wrote\\nit:\\nTHE TWO ARMIES.\\nAs Life s unending column pours,\\nTwo marshalled hosts are seen,\\nTwo armies on the trampled shores\\nThat Death flows black between.\\nOne marches to the drum-beat s roll,\\nThe wide-mouthed clarion s bray,\\nAnd bears upon a crimson scroll,\\nOur glory is to slay.\\nOne moves in silence by the stream,\\nWith sad, yet watchful eyes,\\nCalm as the patient planet s gleam\\nThat walks the clouded skies.\\nAlong its front no sabres shine,\\nNo blood-red pennons w r ave\\nIts banner bears the single line,\\nOur duty is to save.\\nFor those no death-bed s lingering shade\\nAt Honor s trumpet-call,\\nWith knitted brow and lifted blade\\nIn Glory s arms they fall.\\nFor these no clashing falchions bright,\\nNo stirring battle-cry\\nThe bloodless stabber calls by night,\\nEach answers, Here am I\\nFor those the sculptor s laurelled bust,\\nThe builder s marble piles,\\nThe anthems pealing o er their dust\\nThrough long cathedral aisles.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0259.jp2"}, "258": {"fulltext": "228 AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.\\nFor these the blossom-sprinkled turf\\nThat floods the lonely graves,\\nWhen Spring rolls in her sea-green surf\\nIn flowery-foaming waves.\\nTwo paths lead upward from below,\\nAnd angels wait above,\\nWho count each burning life-drop s flow,\\nEach falling tear of Love.\\nThough from the Hero s bleeding breast\\nHer pulses Freedom drew,\\nThough the white lilies in her crest\\nSprang from that scarlet dew,\\nWhile Valor s haughty champions wait\\nTill all their scars are shown,\\nLove walks unchallenged through the gate,\\nTo sit beside the Throne", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0260.jp2"}, "259": {"fulltext": "X.\\n[The schoolmistress came down with a rose in her\\nhair, a fresh June rose. She has been walking\\nearly she has brought back two others, one on\\neach cheek.\\nI told her so, in some such pretty phrase as I could\\nmuster for the occasion. Those two blush-roses I\\njust spoke of turned into a couple of damasks. I sup-\\npose all this went .through my mind, for this was\\nwhat I went on to say\\nI love the damask rose best of all. The flowers\\nour mothers and sisters used to love and cherish,\\nthose which grow beneath our eaves and by our\\ndoorstep, are the ones we always love best. If the\\nHouyhnhnms should ever catch me, and, finding me\\nparticularly vicious and unmanageable, send a man-\\ntamer to Rareyfy me, 1 11 tell you what drugs he would\\nhave to take and how he would have to use them.\\nImagine yourself reading a number of the Houyhnhnm\\nGazette, giving an account of such an experiment.\\nMAN-TAMING EXTRAORDINARY.\\na The soft-hoofed semi-quadruped recently cap-\\ntured was subjected to the art of our distinguished\\nman-tamer in presence of a numerous assembly.\\nThe animal was led in by two stout ponies, closely\\nconfined by straps to prevent his sudden and dan-\\ngerous tricks of shoulder-hitting and foot-striking.\\n229", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0261.jp2"}, "260": {"fulltext": "23O THE AUTOCRAT\\nHis countenance expressed the utmost degree of\\nferocity and cunning.\\nThe operator took a handful of budding lilac-\\nleaves, and crushing them slightly between his hoofs,\\nso as to bring out their peculiar fragrance, fastened\\nthem to the end of a long pole and held them\\ntowards the creature. Its expression changed in an\\ninstant, it drew in their fragrance eagerly, and\\nattempted to seize them with its soft split hoofs.\\nHaving thus quieted his suspicious subject, the opera-\\ntor proceeded to tie a blue hyacinth to the end of the\\npole and held it out towards the wild animal. The\\neffect was magical. Its eyes filled as if with rain-\\ndrops, and its lips trembled as it pressed them to the\\nflower. After this it was perfectly quiet, and brought\\na measure of corn to the man-tamer, without showing\\nthe least disposition to strike with the feet or hit\\nfrom the shoulder.\\nThat will do for the Houyhnhnm Gazette. Do\\nyou ever wonder why poets talk so much about\\nflowers? Did you ever hear of a poet who did not\\ntalk about them? Don t you think a poem, which,\\nfor the sake of being original, should leave them out,\\nwould be like those verses where the letter a or e or\\nsome other is omitted? No, they will bloom over\\nand over again in poems as in the summer fields, to\\nthe end of time, always old and always new. Why\\nshould we be more shy of repeating ourselves than\\nthe spring be tired of blossoms or the night of stars\\nLook at Nature. She never wearies of saying over\\nher floral pater-noster. In the crevices of Cyclopean\\nwalls, in the dust where men lie, dust also, on\\nthe mounds that bury huge cities, the wreck of Nin-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0262.jp2"}, "261": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 23 1\\neveh and the Babel-heap, still that same sweet\\nprayer and benediction. The Amen! of Nature is\\nalways a flower.\\nAre you tired of my trivial personalities, those\\nsplashes and streaks of sentiment, sometimes per-\\nhaps of sentimentality, which you may see when I\\nshow you my heart s corolla as if it were a tulip?\\nPray, do not give yourself the trouble to fancy me\\nan idiot whose conceit it is to treat himself as an\\nexceptional being. It is because you are just like\\nme that I talk and know that you will listen. We\\nare all splashed and streaked with sentiments, not\\nwith precisely the same tints, or in exactly the same\\npatterns, but by the same hand and from the same\\npalette.\\nI don t believe any of you happen to have just the\\nsame passion for the blue hyacinth which I have,\\nvery certainly not for the crushed lilac-leaf-buds\\nmany of you do not know how sweet they are. You\\nlove the smell of the sweet-fern and the bayberry\\nleaves, I don t doubt but I hardly think that the last\\nbewitches you with young memories as it does me.\\nFor the same reason I come back to damask roses\\nafter having raised a good many of the rarer varieties.\\nI like to go to operas and concerts, but there are queer\\nlittle old homely sounds that are better than music to\\nme. However, I suppose it s foolish to tell such things.\\nIt is pleasant to be foolish at the right time,\\nsaid the divinity-student saying it, however, in one\\nof the dead languages, which I think are unpopular\\nfor summer-reading, and therefore do not bear quota-\\ntion as such.\\nWell, now, said I, suppose a good, clean, whole-\\nsome-looking countryman s cart stops opposite my", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0263.jp2"}, "262": {"fulltext": "232 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndoor. Do I want any huckleberries? If I do not,\\nthere are those that do. Thereupon my soft -voiced\\nhandmaid bears out a large tin pan, and then the\\nwholesome countryman, heaping the peck-measure,\\nspreads his broad hands around its lower arc to confine\\nthe wild and frisky berries, and so they run nimbly along\\nthe narrowing channel until they tumble rustling down\\nin a black cascade and tinkle on the resounding metal\\nbeneath. I won t say that this rushing huckleberry\\nhail-storm has not more music for me than the Anvil\\nChorus.\\nI wonder how my great trees are coming on this\\nsummer?\\nWhere are your great trees, Sir? said the\\ndivinity-student.\\nOh, all round about New England. I call all trees\\nmine that I have put my wedding-ring on, and I have\\nas many tree-wives as Brigham Young has human\\nones.\\nOne set s as green as the other, exclaimed a\\nboarder, who has never been identified.\\nThey re all Bloomers, said the young fellow\\ncalled John.\\n[I should have rebuked this trifling with language,\\nif our landlady s daughter had not asked me just then\\nwhat I meant by putting my wedding-ring on a tree.]\\nWhy, measuring it with my thirty-foot tape, my\\ndear, said I, I have worn a tape almost out on the\\nrough barks of our old New England elms, and other\\nbig trees. Don t you want to hear me talk trees a\\nlittle now? That is one of my specialties.\\n[So they all agreed that they should like to hear me\\ntalk about trees.]\\nI want you to understand, in the first place, that I", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0264.jp2"}, "263": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 233\\nhave a most intense, passionate fondness for trees in\\ngeneral, and have had several romantic attachments\\nto certain trees in particular. Now, if you expect me\\nto hold forth in a scientific way about my tree-loves,\\nto talk, for instance, of the Ulmus Americana, and\\ndescribe the ciliated edges of its samara, and all that,\\nyou are an anserine individual, and I must refer you\\nto a dull friend who will discourse to you of such mat-\\nters. What should you think of a lover who should\\ndescribe the idol of his heart in the language of\\nscience, thus Class, Mammalia Order, Primate\\nGenus, Homo Species, Europeus Variety, Brown\\nIndividual, Ann Eliza Dental Formula,\\n.2\u00e2\u0080\u00942 1 1 2 2 3 3\\nz c m\\n2 2 I 1^2 2 3 3\\nand so on?\\nNo, my friends, I shall speak of trees as we see\\nthem, love them, adore them in the fields, where they\\nare alive, holding their green sun-shades over our\\nheads, talking to us with their hundred thousand\\nwhispering tongues, looking down on us with that\\nsweet meekness which belongs to huge, but limited\\norganisms, which one sees in the brown eyes of\\noxen, but most in the patient posture, the out-\\nstretched arms, and the heavy-drooping robes of these\\nvast beings endowed with life, but not with soul,\\nwhich outgrow us and outlive us, but stand help-\\nless, poor things while Nature dresses and un-\\ndresses them, like so many full-sized, but under-\\nwitted children.\\nDid you ever read old Daddy Gilpin? Slowest\\nof men, even of English men yet delicious in his\\nslowness, as is the light of a sleepy eye in woman.\\nI always supposed Dr. Syntax was written to make", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0265.jp2"}, "264": {"fulltext": "234 THE AUTOCRAT\\nfun of him. I have a whole set of his works, and am\\nvery proud of it, with its gray paper, and open type,\\nand long ff, and orange-juice landscapes. The Pere\\nGilpin had the kind of science I like in the study\\nof Nature, a little less observation than White of\\nSelborne, but a little more poetry. Just think of\\napplying the Linnaean system to an elm Who\\ncares how many stamens or pistils that little brown\\nflower, which comes out before the leaf, may have to\\nclassify it by? What we want is the meaning, the\\ncharacter, the expression of a tree, as a kind and as an\\nindividual.\\nThere is a mother-idea in each particular kind of\\ntree, which, if well marked, is probabJy embodied in\\nthe poetry of every language. Take the oak, for\\ninstance, and we find it always standing as a type\\nof strength and endurance. I wonder if you ever\\nthought of the single mark of supremacy which dis-\\ntinguishes this tree from all our other forest-trees?\\nAll the rest of them shirk the work of resisting grav-\\nity the oak alone defies it. It chooses the horizontal\\ndirection for its limbs, so that their whole w r eight may\\ntell, and then stretches them out fifty or sixty feet,\\nso that the strain may be mighty enough to be worth\\nresisting. You will find, that, in passing from the\\nextreme downward droop of the branches of the\\nweeping-willow to the extreme upward inclination of\\nthose of the poplar, they sweep nearly half a circle.\\nAt 90 the oak stops short to slant upward another\\ndegree would mark infirmity of purpose to bend\\ndownwards, weakness of organization. The American\\nelm betrays something of both yet sometimes, as we\\nshall see, puts on a certain resemblance to its sturdier\\nneighbor.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0266.jp2"}, "265": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 235\\nIt won t do to be exclusive in our taste about trees.\\nThere is hardly one of them which has not peculiar\\nbeauties in some fitting place for it. I remember a\\ntall poplar of monumental proportions and aspect,\\na vast pillar of glossy green, placed on the summit\\nof a lofty hill, and a beacon to all the country round.\\nA native of that region saw T fit to build his house very\\nnear it, and, having a fancy that it might blow down\\nsome time or other, and exterminate himself and any\\nincidental relatives who might be stopping 1 or\\ntarrying with him, also laboring under the de-\\nlusion that human life is under all circumstances to\\nbe preferred to vegetable existence, had the great\\npoplar cut down. It is so easy to say, It is only\\na poplar and so much harder to replace its living\\ncone than to build a granite obelisk!\\nI must tell you about some of my tree-wives. I\\nwas at one period of my life much devoted to the\\nyoung lady-population of Rhode Island, a small, but\\ndelightful State in the neighborhood of Pawtucket.\\nThe number of inhabitants being not very large, I had\\nleisure, during my visits to the Providence Plantations,\\nto inspect the face of the country in the intervals\\nof more fascinating studies of physiognomy. I heard\\nsome talk of a great elm a short distance from the\\nlocality just mentioned. Let us see the great elm, 1\\nI said, and proceeded to find it, knowing that it\\nwas on a certain farm in a place called Johnston, if I\\nremember rightly. I shall never forget my ride and\\nmy introduction to the great Johnston elm.\\nI always tremble for a celebrated tree when I ap-\\nproach it for the first time. Provincialism has no scale\\nof excellence in man or vegetable it never knows a\\nfirst-rate article of either kind when it has it, and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0267.jp2"}, "266": {"fulltext": "236 THE AUTOCRAT\\nis constantly taking second and third rate ones foi\\nNature s best. I have often fancied the tree was afraid\\nof me, and that a sort of shiver came over it as over\\na betrothed maiden when she first stands before the\\nunknown to whom she has been plighted. Before\\nthe measuring-tape the proudest tree of them all quails\\nand shrinks into itself. All those stories of four or five\\nmen stretching their arms around it and not touching\\neach other s fingers, of one s pacing the shadow at\\nnoon and making it so many hundred feet, die upon\\nits leafy lips in the presence of the awful ribbon which\\nhas strangled so many false pretensions.\\nAs I rode along the pleasant way, watching eagerly\\nfor the object of my journey, the rounded tops of\\nthe elms rose from time to time at the road-side.\\nWherever one looked taller and fuller than the rest,\\nI asked myself, Is this it? But as I drew\\nnearer, they grew smaller, or it proved, perhaps,\\nthat two standing in a line had looked like one, and\\nso deceived me. At last, all at once, when I was\\nnot thinking of it, I declare to you it makes my\\nflesh creep when I think of it now, all at once I\\nsaw a great, green cloud swelling in the horizon, so\\nvast, so symmetrical, of such Olympian majesty and\\nimperial supremacy among the lesser forest-growths,\\nthat my heart stopped short, then jumped at my ribs\\nas a hunter springs at a five-barred gate, and I felt\\nall through me, without need of uttering the words,\\nThis is it\\nYou will find this tree described, with many others,\\nin the excellent Report upon the Trees and Shrubs\\nof Massachusetts. The author has given my friend\\nthe Professor credit for some of his measurements,\\nbut measured this tree himself, carefully. It is a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0268.jp2"}, "267": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 237\\ngrand elm for size of trunk, spread of limbs, and\\nmuscular development, one of the first, perhaps the\\nfirst, of the first class of New England elms.\\nThe largest actual girth I have ever found at five\\nfeet from the ground is in the great elm lying a stone s\\nthrow or two north of the main road (if my points\\nof compass are right) in Springfield. But this has\\nmuch the appearance of having been formed by the\\nunion of two trunks growing side by side.\\nThe West-Springfield elm and one upon Northamp-\\nton meadows, belong also to the first class of trees.\\nThere is a noble old wreck of an elm at Hatfield,\\nwhich used to spread its claws out over a circumfer-\\nence of thirty-five feet or more before they covered the\\nfoot of its bole up with earth. This is the American\\nelm most like an oak of any I have ever seen.\\nThe Sheffield elm is equally remarkable for size and\\nperfection of form. I have seen nothing that comes\\nnear it in Berkshire County, and few to compare with\\nit anywhere. I am not sure that I remember any\\nother first-class elms in New England, but there may\\nbe many.\\nWhat makes a first-class elm? Why, size, in\\nthe first place, and chiefly. Anything over twenty\\nfeet of clear girth, five feet above the ground, and\\nwith a spread of branches a hundred feet across, may\\nclaim that title, according to my scale. All of them,\\nwith the questionable exception of the Springfield tree\\nabove referred to, stop, so far as my experience goes,\\nat about twenty-two or twenty-three feet of girth and\\na hundred and twenty of spread.\\nElms of the second class, generally ranging from\\nfourteen to eighteen feet, are comparatively common.\\nThe queen of them all is that glorious tree near one", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0269.jp2"}, "268": {"fulltext": "238 THE AUTOCRAT\\nof the churches in Springfield. Beautiful and stately\\nshe is beyond all praise. The great tree on Bos-\\nton Common comes in the second rank, as does the\\none at Cohasset, which used to have, and probably\\nhas still, a head as round as an apple-tree, and that\\nat Newburyport, with scores of others which might\\nbe mentioned. These last two have perhaps been\\nover-celebrated. Both, however, are pleasing vege-\\ntables. The poor old Pittsfield elm lives on its past\\nreputation. A wig of false leaves is indispensable to\\nmake it presentable.\\n[I don t doubt there may be some monster-elm or\\nother, vegetating green, but inglorious, in some re-\\nmote New England village, which only w r ants a sacred\\nsinger to make it celebrated. Send us your measure-\\nments, (certified by the postmaster, to avoid pos-\\nsible imposition,) circumference fLvt feet from soil,\\nlength of line from bough-end to bough-end, and we\\nwill see what can be done for you.]\\nI wish somebody would get us up the following\\nwork\\nSYLVA NOVANGLICA.\\nPhotographs of New England Elms and other\\nTrees, taken upon the Same Scale of Magnitude.\\nWith Letter-Press Descriptions, by a Distinguished\\nLiterary Gentleman. Boston: Co.\\n185..\\nThe same camera should be used, so far as pos-\\nsible, at a fixed distance. Our friend, w T ho has\\ngiven us so many interesting figures in his Trees of\\nAmerica, must not think this Prospectus invades his\\nprovince a dozen portraits, with lively descriptions,\\nwould be a pretty complement to his larger work,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0270.jp2"}, "269": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 239\\nwhich, so far as published, I find excellent. If my\\nplan were carried out, and another series of a dozen\\nEnglish trees photographed on the same scale, the\\ncomparison would be charming.\\nIt has always been a favorite idea of mine to bring\\nthe life of the Old and the New World face to face,\\nby an accurate comparison of their various types of\\norganization. We should begin with man, of course\\ninstitute a large and exact comparison between the\\ndevelopment of la pianta umana, as Alfieri called it,\\nin different sections of each country, in the different\\ncallings, at different ages, estimating height, weight,\\nforce by the dynamometer and the spirometer, and\\nfinishing off with a series of typical photographs,\\ngiving the principal national physiognomies. Mr.\\nHutchinson has given us some excellent English data\\nto begin with.\\nThen I would follow this up by contrasting the\\nvarious parallel forms of life in the two continents.\\nOur naturalists have often referred to this inciden-\\ntally or expressly but the animus of Nature in the\\ntwo half globes of the planet is so momentous a point\\nof interest to our race, that it should be made a sub-\\nject of express and elaborate study. Go out with me\\ninto that walk which we call the Mall, and look at the\\nEnglish and American elms. The American elm is\\ntall, graceful, slender-sprayed, and drooping as if from\\nlanguor. The English elm is compact, robust, holds\\nits branches up, and carries its leaves for weeks\\nlonger than our own native tree.\\nIs this typical of the creative force on the two\\nsides of the ocean, or not? Nothing but a care-\\nful comparison through the whole realm of life can\\nanswer this question.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0271.jp2"}, "270": {"fulltext": "240 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThere is a parallelism without identity in the animal\\nand vegetable life of the two continents, which favors\\nthe task of comparison in an extraordinary manner.\\nJust as we have two trees alike in many ways, yet\\nnot the same, both elms, yet easily distinguishable,\\njust so we have a complete flora and a fauna, which,\\nparting from the same ideal, embody it with various\\nmodifications. Inventive power is the only quality of\\nwhich the Creative Intelligence seems to be economi-\\ncal just as with our largest human minds, that is the\\ndivinest of faculties, and the one that most exhausts\\nthe mind which exercises it. As the same patterns\\nhave very commonly been followed, we can see which\\nis worked out in the largest spirit, and determine the\\nexact limitations under which the Creator places the\\nmovement of life in all its manifestations in either\\nlocality. We should find ourselves in a very false\\nposition, if it should prove that Anglo-Saxons can t\\nlive here, but die out, if not kept up by fresh supplies,\\nas Dr. Knox and other more or less wise persons have\\nmaintained. It may turn out the other way, as I\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2have heard one of our literary celebrities argue, and\\nthough I took the other side, I liked his best, that\\nthe American is the Englishman reinforced.\\nWill you walk out and look at those elms with\\nme after breakfast? I said to the schoolmistress.\\n[I am not going to tell lies about it, and say that\\nshe blushed, as I suppose she ought to have done,\\nat such a tremendous piece of gallantry as that was\\nfor our boarding-house. On the contrary, she turned\\na little pale, but smiled brightly and said, Yes,\\nwith pleasure, but she must walk towards her school.\\nShe went for her bonnet. The old gentleman oppo-\\nsite followed her with his eyes, and said he wished", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0272.jp2"}, "271": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 24 1\\nhe was a young fellow. Presently she came down,\\nlooking very pretty in her half-mourning bonnet, and\\ncarrying a school-book in her hand.]\\nMY FIRST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS.\\nThis is the shortest way, she said, as we came to\\na corner. Then we won t take it, said I. The\\nschoolmistress laughed a little, and said she was ten\\nminutes early, so she could go round.\\nWe walked under Mr. Paddock s row of English\\nelms. The gray squirrels were out looking for their\\nbreakfasts, and one of them came toward us in light,\\nsoft, intermittent leaps, until he was close to the rail\\nof the burial-ground. He was on a grave with a\\nbroad blue-slate-stone at its head, and a shrub grow-\\ning on it. The stone said this was the grave of a\\nyoung man who was the son of an Honorable gentle-\\nman, and who died a hundred years ago and more.\\nOh, yes, died, with a small triangular mark in one\\nbreast, and another smaller opposite, in his back,\\nwhere another young man s rapier had slid through his\\nbody and so he lay down out there on the Common,\\nand was found cold the next morning, with the night-\\ndews and the death-dews mingled on his forehead.\\nLet us have one look at poor Benjamin s grave,\\nsaid I. His bones lie where his body was laid so\\nlong ago, and where the stone says they lie, which\\nis more than can be said of most of the tenants of\\nthis and several other burial-grounds.\\n[The most accursed act of Vandalism ever com-\\nmitted within my knowledge was the uprooting of\\nthe ancient gravestones in three at least of our city\\nburial-grounds, and one at least just outside the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0273.jp2"}, "272": {"fulltext": "242 THE AUTOCRAT\\ncity, and planting them in rows to suit the taste for\\nsymmetry of the perpetrators. Many years ago, when\\nthis disgraceful process was going on under my eyes,\\nI addressed an indignant remonstrance to a leading\\njournal. I suppose it was deficient in literary ele-\\ngance, or too warm in its language for no notice\\nwas taken of it, and the hyena-horror was allowed\\nto complete itself in the face of daylight. I have\\nnever got over it. The bones of my own ancestors,\\nbeing entombed, lie beneath their own tablet but\\nthe upright stones have been shuffled about like chess-\\nmen, and nothing short of the Day of Judgment will\\ntell whose dust lies beneath any of those records,\\nmeant by affection to mark one small spot as sacred\\nto some cherished memory. Shame shame shame\\nthat is all I can say. It was on public thorough-\\nfares, under the eye of authority, that this infamy\\nwas enacted. The red Indians would have known\\nbetter; the selectmen of an African kraal-village\\nwould have had more respect for their ancestors. I\\nshould like to see the gravestones which have been\\ndisturbed all removed, and the ground levelled, leav-\\ning the flat tombstones epitaphs were never famous\\nfor truth, but the old reproach of u Here Hes n never\\nhad such a wholesale illustration as in these out-\\nraged burial-places, where the stone does lie above,\\nand the bones do not lie beneath.]\\nStop before we turn away, and breathe a woman s\\nsigh over poor Benjamin s dust. Love killed him, I\\nthink. Twenty years old, and out there fighting\\nanother young fellow on the Common, in the cool\\nof that old July evening yes, there must have been\\nlove at the bottom of it.\\nThe schoolmistress dropped a rosebud she had in", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0274.jp2"}, "273": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 243\\nher hand, through the rails, upon the grave of Benja-\\nmin Woodbridge. That was all her comment upon\\nwhat I told her. How women love Love said I\\nbut she did not speak.\\nWe came opposite the head of a place or court\\nrunning eastward from the main street. Look down\\nthere, I said, My friend the Professor lived in that\\nhouse at the left hand, next the further corner, for\\nyears and years. He died out of it, the other day.\\nDied said the schoolmistress. Certainly, said\\nI. We die out of houses, just as we die out of our\\nbodies. A commercial smash kills a hundred men s\\nhouses for them, as a railroad crash kills their mortal\\nframes and drives out the immortal tenants. Men\\nsicken of houses until at last they quit them, as the\\nsoul leaves its body when it is tired of its infirmities.\\nThe body has been called the house we live in\\nthe house is quite as much the body we live in.\\nShall I tell you some things the Professor said the\\nother day? Do! said the schoolmistress.\\nA man s body, said the Professor, is whatever\\nis occupied by his will and his sensibility. The small\\nroom down there, where I wrote those papers you\\nremember reading, was much more a portion of my\\nbody than a paralytic s senseless and motionless arm\\nor leg is of his.\\nThe soul of a man has a series of concentric en-\\nvelopes round it, like the core of an onion, or the inner-\\nmost of a nest of boxes. First, he has his natural\\ngarment of flesh and blood. Then, his artificial in-\\nteguments, with their true skin of solid stuffs, their\\ncuticle of lighter tissues, and their variously-tinted\\npigments. Thirdly, his domicile, be it a single cham-\\nber or a stately mansion. And then, the whole visible", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0275.jp2"}, "274": {"fulltext": "244 THE AUTOCRAT\\nworld, in which Time buttons him up as in a loose\\noutside wrapper.\\nYou shall observe, the Professor said, for, like\\nMr. John Hunter and other great men, he brings in\\nthat shall with great effect sometimes, you shall\\nobserve that a man s clothing or series of envelopes\\ndoes after a certain time mould itself upon his in-\\ndividual nature. We know this of our hats, and are\\nalways reminded of it when we happen to put them\\non wrong side foremost. We soon find that the\\nbeaver is a hollow cast of the skull, with all its\\nirregular bumps and depressions. Just so all that\\nclothes a man, even to the blue sky which caps his\\nhead, a little loosely, shapes itself to fit each par-\\nticular being beneath it. Farmers, sailors, astrono-\\nmers, poets, lovers, condemned criminals, all find it\\ndifferent, according to the eyes with which they\\nseverally look.\\nBut our houses shape themselves palpably on our\\ninner and outer natures. See a householder breaking\\nup and you will be sure of it. There is a shell-fish\\nwhich builds all manner of smaller shells into the\\nwalls of its own. A house is never a home until we\\nhave crusted it with the spoils of a hundred lives\\nbesides those of our own past. See what these are\\nand you can tell what the occupant is.\\nI had no idea, said the Professor, until I pulled\\nup my domestic establishment the other day, what\\nan enormous quantity of roots I had been making\\nduring the years I was planted there. Why, there\\nwas n t a nook or a corner that some fibre had not\\nworked its way into and when I gave the last\\nwrench, each of them seemed to shriek like a man-\\ndrake, as it broke its hold and came away.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0276.jp2"}, "275": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 245\\nThere is nothing that happens, you know, which\\nmust not inevitably, and which does not actually,\\nphotograph itself in every conceivable aspect and in\\nall dimensions. The infinite galleries of the Past\\nawait but one brief process and all their pictures will\\nbe called out and fixed forever. We had a curious\\nillustration of the great fact on a very humble scale.\\nWhen a certain bookcase, long standing in one place,\\nfor which it was built, was removed, there was the\\nexact image on the wall of the whole, and of many of\\nits portions. But in the midst of this picture was\\nanother, the precise outline of a map which had\\nhung on the wall before the bookcase was built. We\\nhad all forgotten everything about the map until we\\nsaw its photograph on the wall. Then we remem-\\nbered it, as some day or other we may remember a sin\\nwhich has been built over and covered up, when this\\nlower universe is pulled away from before the wall of\\nInfinity, where the wrong-doing stands self-recorded.\\nThe Professor lived in that house a long time,\\nnot twenty years, but pretty near it. When he en-\\ntered that door, two shadows glided over the thresh-\\nold five lingered in the doorway when he passed\\nthrough it for the last time, and one of the shadows\\nwas claimed by its owner to be longer than his own.\\nWhat changes we saw in that quiet place Death\\nrained through every roof but his children came into\\nlife, grew to maturity, wedded, faded away, threw them-\\nselves away the whole drama of life was played in\\nthat stock-company^ theatre of a dozen houses, one\\nof which was his, and no deep sorrow or severe\\ncalamity ever entered his dwelling. Peace be to those\\nwalls, forever, the Professor said, for the many\\npleasant years he has passed within them", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0277.jp2"}, "276": {"fulltext": "246 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThe Professor has a friend, now living at a dis-\\ntance, who has been with him in many of his\\nchanges of place, and who follows him in imagina-\\ntion with tender interest wherever he goes. In that\\nlittle court, where he lived in gay loneliness so long,\\nin his autumnal sojourn by the Connecticut,\\nwhere it comes loitering down from its mountain fast-\\nnesses like a great lord, swallowing up the small pro-\\nprietary rivulets very quietly as it goes, until it gets\\nproud and swollen and wantons in huge luxurious\\noxbows about the fair Northampton meadows, and at\\nlast overflows the oldest inhabitant s memory in prof-\\nligate freshets at Hartford and all along its lower\\nshores, up in that caravansary on the banks of the\\nstream where Ledyard launched his log canoe, and the\\njovial old Colonel used to lead the Commencement\\nprocessions, where blue Ascutney looked down from\\nthe far distance, and the hills of Beulah, as the Pro-\\nfessor always called them, rolled up the opposite hori-\\nzon in soft climbing masses, so suggestive of the\\nPilgrim s Heavenward Path that he used to look\\nthrough his old Dollond to see if the Shining\\nOnes were not within range of sight, sweet visions,\\nsweetest in those Sunday walks which carried them by\\nthe peaceful common, through the solemn village\\nlying in cataleptic stillness under the shadow of the\\nrod of Moses, to the terminus of their harmless stroll,\\nthe patulous fage, in the Professor s classic dialect,\\nthe spreading beech, in more familiar phrase,\\n[stop and breathe here a moment, for the sentence is\\nnot done yet, and we have another long journey\\nbefore us,]\\nand again once more up among those other hills\\nthat shut in the amber-flowing Housatonic, dark", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0278.jp2"}, "277": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 247\\nstream, but clear, like the lucid orbs that shine be-\\nneath the lids of auburn-haired, sherry-wine-eyed\\ndemi-blondes, in the home overlooking the winding\\nstream and the smooth, flat meadow; looked down\\nupon by wild hills, where the tracks of bears and cata-\\nmounts may yet sometimes be seen upon the winter\\nsnow facing the twin summits which rise in the far\\nNorth, the highest waves of the great land-storm\\nin all this billowy region, suggestive to mad fancies\\nof the breasts of a half-buried Titaness, stretched\\nout by a stray thunderbolt, and hastily hidden away\\nbeneath the leaves of the forest, in that home where\\nseven blessed summers were passed, which stand in\\nmemory like the seven golden candlesticks in the\\nbeatific vision of the holy dreamer,\\nin that modest dwelling we were just looking\\nat, not glorious, yet not unlovely in the youth of its\\ndrab and mahogany, full of great and little boys\\nplaythings from top to bottom, in all these summer\\nor winter nests he was always at home and always\\nwelcome.\\nThis long articulated sigh of reminiscences, this\\ncalenture which shows me the maple-shadowed plains\\nof Berkshire and the mountain-circled green of Graf-\\nton beneath the salt waves which come feeling their\\nway along the wall at my feet, restless and soft-touch-\\ning as blind men s busy fingers, is for that friend of\\nmine who looks into the waters of the Patapsco and\\nsees beneath them the same visions which paint them-\\nselves for me in the green depths of the Charles.\\nDid I talk all this off to the schoolmistress\\nWhy, no, of course not. I have been talking with\\nyou, the reader, for the last ten minutes. You don t\\nthink I should expect any woman to listen to such a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0279.jp2"}, "278": {"fulltext": "248 THE AUTOCRAT\\nsentence as that long one, without giving her a\\nchance to put in a word?\\nWhat did I say to the schoolmistress? Permit\\nme one moment. I don t doubt your delicacy and\\ngood-breeding but in this particular case, as I was\\nallowed the privilege of walking alone with a very\\ninteresting young woman, you must allow me to\\nremark, in the classic version of a familiar phrase,\\nused by our Master Benjamin Franklin, it is nullum\\ntui negotii.\\nWhen the schoolmistress and I reached the school-\\nroom door, the damask roses I spoke of were so much\\nheightened in color by exercise that I felt sure it\\nwould be useful to her to take a stroll like this every\\nmorning, and made up my mind I would ask her to\\nlet me join her again.\\nEXTRACT FROM MY PRIVATE JOURNAL.\\n(To be burned unread.*)\\nI am afraid I have been a fool for I have told as\\nmuch of myself to this young person as if she were\\nof that ripe and discreet age which invites confidence\\nand expansive utterance. I have been low-spirited\\nand listless, lately, it is coffee, I think, (I observe\\nthat which is bought ready-ground never affects the\\nhead,) and I notice that I tell my secrets too easily\\nwhen I am downhearted.\\nThere are inscriptions on our hearts, which, like\\nthat on Dighton Rock, are never to be seen except at\\ndead-low tide.\\nThere is a woman s footstep on the sand at the side\\nof my deepest ocean-buried inscription!", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0280.jp2"}, "279": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 249\\nOh, no, no, no! a thousand times, no! Yet what\\nis this which has been shaping itself in my soul?\\nIs it a thought? is it a dream? is it a passion?\\nThen I know what comes next.\\nThe Asylum stands on a bright and breezy hill\\nthose glazed corridors are pleasant to walk in, in bad\\nweather. But there are iron bars to all the windows.\\nWhen it is fair, some of us can stroll outside that\\nvery high fence. But I never see much life in those\\ngroups I sometimes meet and then the careful man\\nwatches them so closely! How I remember that sad\\ncompany I used to pass on fine mornings, when I\\nwas a schoolboy! B., with his arms full of yellow\\nweeds, ore from the gold mines which he discov-\\nered long before we heard of California, Y., born\\nto millions, crazed by too much plum-cake, (the boys\\nsaid,) dogged, explosive, made a Polyphemus of\\nmy weak-eyed schoolmaster, by a vicious flirt with a\\nstick, (the multi-millionnaires sent him a trifle, it\\nwas said, to buy another eye with but boys are jealous\\nof rich folks, and I don t doubt the good people made\\nhim easy for life,) how I remember them all\\nI recollect, as all do, the story of the Hall of Eblis,\\nin Vat/tele, and how each shape, as it lifted its\\nhand from its breast, showed its heart, a burning\\ncoal. The real Hall of Eblis stands on yonder sum-\\nmit. Go there on the next visiting-day, and ask that\\nfigure crouched in the corner, huddled up like those\\nIndian mummies and skeletons found buried in the\\nsitting posture, to lift its hand, look upon its heart,\\nand behold, not fire, but ashes. No, I must not\\nthink of such an ending! Dying would be a much\\nmore gentlemanly way of meeting the difficulty.\\nMake a will and leave her a house or two and some", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0281.jp2"}, "280": {"fulltext": "2 50 THE AUTOCRAT\\nstocks, and other little financial conveniences, to take\\naway her necessity for keeping school. I wonder\\nwhat nice young man s feet would be in my French\\nslippers before six months were over! Well, what\\nthen? If a man really loves a woman, of course he\\nwould n t marry her for the world, if he were not\\nquite sure that he was the best person she could by\\nany possibility marry.\\nIt is odd enough to read over what I have just\\nbeen writing. It is the merest fancy that ever was\\nin the world. I shall never be married. She will;\\nand if she is as pleasant as she has been so far, I will\\ngive her a silver tea-set, and go and take tea with\\nher and her husband, sometimes. No coffee, I hope,\\nthough, it depresses me sadly. I feel very miser-\\nably; they must have been grinding it at home.\\nAnother morning walk will be good for me, and I\\ndon t doubt the schoolmistress will be glad of a little\\nfresh air before school.\\nThe throbbing flushes of the poetical intermittent\\nhave been coming over me from time to time of late.\\nDid you ever see that electrical experiment which\\nconsists in passing a flash through letters of gold leaf\\nin a darkened room, whereupon some name or legend\\nsprings out of the darkness in characters of fire?\\nThere are songs all written out in my soul, which\\nI could read, if the flash might pass through them,\\nbut the fire must come down from heaven. Ah! but\\nwhat if the stormy nimbus of youthful passion has\\nblown by, and one asks for lightning from the ragged\\ncirrus of dissolving aspirations, or the silvered cumu-\\nlus of sluggish satiety I will call on her whom the\\ndead poets believed in, whom living ones no longer", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0282.jp2"}, "281": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 2$\\\\\\nworship, the immortal maid, who, name her what\\nyou will, Goddess, Muse, Spirit of Beauty, sits by\\nthe pillow of every youthful poet, and bends over his\\npale forehead until her tresses lie upon his cheek and\\nrain their gold into his dreams.\\nMUSA.\\nO MY lost Beauty hast thou folded quite\\nThy wings of morning light\\nBeyond those iron gates\\nWhere Life crowds hurrying to the haggard Fates,\\nAnd Age upon his mound of ashes waits\\nTo chill our fiery dreams,\\nHot from the heart of youth plunged in his icy streams\\nLeave me not fading in these weeds of care,\\nWhose flowers are silvered hair\\nHave I not loved thee long,\\nThough my young lips have often done thee wrong\\nAnd vexed thy heaven-tuned ear with careless song?\\nAh, wilt thou yet return,\\nBearing thy rose-hued torch, and bid thine altar burn\\nCome to me I will flood thy silent shrine\\nWith my soul s sacred wine,\\nAnd heap thy marble floors\\nAs the wild spice-trees waste their fragrant stores\\nIn leafy islands walled with madrepores\\nAnd lapped in Orient seas,\\nWhen all their feathery palms toss, plume-like, in the breeze.\\nCome to me! thou shalt feed on honied words,\\nSweeter than song of birds\\nNo wailing bulbul s throat,\\nNo melting dulcimer s melodious note,\\nWhen o er the midnight wave its murmurs float,\\nThy ravished sense might soothe\\nWith flow so liquid-soft, with strain so velvet-smooth.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0283.jp2"}, "282": {"fulltext": "2 5 2 .4 UTO CRA T OF THE BREAK FA S T- TABLE.\\nThou shalt be decked with jewels, like a queen,\\nSought in those bowers of green\\nWhere loop the clustered vines\\nAnd the close-clinging dulcamara twines,\\nPure pearls of Maydew where the moonlight shines,\\nAnd Summer s fruited gems,\\nAnd coral pendants shorn from Autumn s berried stems.\\nSit by me drifting on the sleepy waves,\\nOr stretched by grass-grown graves,\\nWhose gray, high-shouldered stones,\\nCarved with old names Life s time-worn roll disowns,\\nLean, lichen-spotted, o er the crumbled bones\\nStill slumbering where they lay\\nWhile the sad Pilgrim watched to scare the wolf away.\\nSpread o er my couch thy visionary wing\\nStill let me dream and sing,\\nDream of that winding shore\\nWhere scarlet cardinals bloom, for me no more,\\nThe stream with heaven beneath its liquid floor,\\nAnd clustering nenuphars\\nSprinkling its mirrored blue like golden-chaliced stars\\nCome while their balms the linden-blossoms shed\\nCome while the rose is red,\\nWhile blue-eyed Summer smiles\\nOn the green ripples round yon sunken piles\\nWashed by the moon-wave warm from Indian isles,\\nAnd on the sultry air\\nThe chestnuts spread their palms like holy men in prayer!\\nOh, for thy burning lips to fire my brain\\nWith thrills of wild sweet pain\\nOn life s autumnal blast,\\nLike shrivelled leaves, youth s passion-flowers are cast,\\nOnce loving thee, we love thee to the last\\nBehold thy new-decked shrine,\\nAnd hear once more the voice that breathed Forever thine 1", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0284.jp2"}, "283": {"fulltext": "XI.\\n[The company looked a little flustered one morn-\\ning when I came in, so much so, that I inquired of\\nmy neighbor, the divinity-student, what had been\\ngoing on. It appears that the young fellow whom\\nthey call John had taken advantage of my being a\\nlittle late (I having been rather longer than usual\\ndressing that morning) to circulate several questions\\ninvolving a quibble or play upon w r ords, in short,\\ncontaining that indignity to the human understand-\\ning, condemned in the passages from the distin-\\nguished moralist of the last century and the illustri-\\nous historian of the present, which I cited on a\\nformer occasion, and known as a pun. After break-\\nfast, one of the boarders handed me a small roll of\\npaper containing some of the questions and their\\nanswers. I subjoin two or three of them, to show\\nwhat a tendency there is to frivolity and meaningless\\ntalk in young persons of a certain sort, when not\\nrestrained by the presence of more reflective natures.\\nIt was asked, Why tertian and quartan fevers\\nwere like certain short-lived insects. Some interest-\\ning physiological relation would be naturally sug-\\ngested. The inquirer blushes to find that the answer\\nis in the paltry equivocation, that they skip a day or\\ntwo. Why an Englishman must go to the Conti-\\nnent to weaken his grog or punch The answer\\nproves to have no relation whatever to the temper-\\n2 53", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0285.jp2"}, "284": {"fulltext": "254 THE AUTOCRAT\\nance-movement, as no better reason is given than that\\nisland- (or, as it is absurdly written, He and) water\\nwon t mix. But when I came to the next question\\nand its answer, I felt that patience ceased to be a\\nvirtue. Why an onion is like a piano 1 is a query\\nthat a person of sensibility would be slow to pro-\\npose but that in an educated community an indi-\\nvidual could be found to answer it in these words,\\nBecause it smell odious, guasi) it s melodious, is\\nnot credible, but too true. I can show you the paper.\\nDear reader, I beg your pardon for repeating such\\nthings. I know most conversations reported in books\\nare altogether above such trivial details, but folly\\nwill come up at every table as surely as purslain and\\nchickweed and sorrel will come up in gardens. This\\nyoung fellow ought to have talked philosophy, I\\nknow perfectly well but he didn t, he made jokes.]\\nI am willing, I said, to exercise your ingenuity\\nin a rational and contemplative manner. No, I do\\nnot proscribe certain forms of philosophical specula-\\ntion which involve an approach to the absurd or the\\nludicrous, such as you may find, for example, in the\\nfolio of the Reverend Father Thomas Sanchez, in\\nhis famous Disputations, De Sancto Matrimonio.\\nI will therefore turn this levity of yours to profit by\\nreading you a rhymed problem, wrought out by my\\nfriend the Professor.\\nTHE DEACON S MASTERPIECE:\\nOR THE WONDERFUL ONE-HORSE-SHAY.\\nA LOGICAL STORY.\\nHave you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay,\\nThat was built in such a logical way", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0286.jp2"}, "285": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 2$$\\nIt ran a hundred years to a day,\\nAnd then, of a sudden, it ah, but stay,\\nI ll tell you what happened without delay,\\nScaring the parson into fits,\\nFrightening people out of their wits,\\nHave you ever heard of that, I say\\nSeventeen hundred and fifty-five.\\nGeorglus Secundus was then alive,\\nSnuffy old drone from the German hive\\nThat was the year when Lisbon-town\\nSaw the earth open and gulp her down,\\nAnd Braddock s army was done so brown,\\nLeft without a scalp to its crown.\\nIt was on the terrible Earthquake-day\\nThat the Deacon finished the one-hoss-shay.\\nNow in building of chaises, I tell you what,\\nThere is always somewhere a. weakest spot,\\nIn hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,\\nIn panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,\\nIn screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 lurking still\\nFind it somewhere you must and will,\\nAbove or below, or within or without,\\nAnd that s the reason, beyond a doubt,\\nA chaise breaks down, but does n t wear out.\\nBut the Deacon swore (as Deacons do,\\nWith an I dew vum, or an I teMyeou\\nHe would build one shay to beat the taown\\nn* the keounty n all the kentry raoun\\nIt should be so built that it couldn break daown\\nFur, said the Deacon, t s mighty plain\\nThut the weakes place mus stan the strain\\nn the way t fix it, uz I maintain\\nIs only jest\\nT make that place uz strong uz the rest.\\nSo the Deacon inquired of the village folk\\nWhere he could find the strongest oak,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0287.jp2"}, "286": {"fulltext": "256 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThat could n t be split nor bent nor broke,\\nThat was for spokes and floor and sills\\nHe sent for lancewood to make the thills;\\nThe crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees;\\nThe panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese,\\nBut lasts like iron for things like these\\nThe hubs of logs from the Settler s ellum,\\nLast of its timber, they couldn t sell em,\\nNever an axe had seen their chips,\\nAnd the wedges flew from between their lips,\\nTheir blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips\\nStep and prop-iron, bolt and screw,\\nSpring, tire, axle, and linchpin too,\\nSteel of the finest, bright and blue\\nThoroughbrace, bison-skin, thick and wide;\\nBoot, top, dasher, from tough old hide\\nFound in the pit when the tanner died.\\nThat was the way he put her through.\\nThere said the Deacon, naow she 11 dew!\\nDo I tell you, I rather guess\\nShe was a wonder, and nothing less\\nColts grew horses, beards turned gray,\\nDeacon and deaconess dropped away,\\nChildren and grand-children where were they\\nBut there stood the stout old one-hoss-shay\\nAs fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake-day\\nEighteen hundred it came and found\\nThe Deacon s Masterpiece strong and sound.\\nEighteen hundred increased by ten\\nHahnsum kerridge they called it then.\\nEighteen hundred and twenty came\\nRunning as usual; much the same.\\nThirty and forty at last arrive,\\nAnd then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE.\\nLittle of all we value here\\nWakes on the morn of its hundredth year\\nWithout both feeling and looking queer.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0288.jp2"}, "287": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0289.jp2"}, "288": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0290.jp2"}, "289": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 2^7\\nIn fact, there s nothing that keeps its youth,\\nSo far as I know, but a tree and truth.\\n(This is a moral that runs at large\\nTake it. You re welcome. No extra charge.)\\nFirst of November, the Earthquake-day.\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nThere are traces of age in the one-hoss-shay,\\nA general flavor of mild decay,\\nBut nothing local, as one may say.\\nThere could n t be, for the Deacon s art\\nHad made it so like in every part\\nThat there wasn t a chance for one to start.\\nFor the wheels were just as strong as the thills,\\nAnd the floor was just as strong as the sills,\\nAnd the panels just as strong as the floor,\\nAnd the whippletree neither less nor more,\\nAnd the back crossbar as strong as the fore,\\nAnd spring and axle and hub encore.\\nAnd yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt\\nIn another hour it will be worn out!\\nFirst of November, Fifty-five\\nThis morning the parson takes a drive.\\nNow, small boys, get out of the way\\nHere comes the wonderful one-horse-shay,\\nDrawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay.\\nHuddup! said the parson. Off went they.\\nThe parson was working his Sunday s text,\\nHad got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed\\nAt what the Moses was coming next.\\nAll at once the horse stood still,\\nClose by the meet n -house on the hill.\\nFirst a shiver, and then a thrill,\\nThen something decidedly like a spill,\\nAnd the parson was sitting upon a rock,\\nAt half-past nine by the meet n-house clock,\\nJust the hour of the Earthquake shock\\nWhat do you think the parson found,\\nWhen he got up and stared around", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0291.jp2"}, "290": {"fulltext": "258 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThe poor old chaise in a heap or mound,\\nAs if it had been to the mill and ground\\nYou see, of course, if you re not a dunce,\\nHow it went to pieces all at once,\\nAll at once and nothing first,\\nJust as bubbles do when they burst.\\nEnd of the wonderful one-hoss-shay.\\nLogic is logic. That s all I say.\\nI think there is one habit, I said to our com-\\npany a day or two afterwards worse than that of\\npunning. It is the gradual substitution of cant or\\nflash terms for words which truly characterize their\\nobjects. I have known several very genteel idiots\\nwhose whole vocabulary had deliquesced into some\\nhalf dozen expressions. All things fell into one of\\ntwo great categories, fast or slow. Man s chief end\\nwas to be a brick. When the great calamities of life\\novertook their friends, these last were spoken of as\\nbeing a good deal cut up. Nine-tenths of human\\nexistence were summed up in the single word, bore.\\nThese expressions come to be the algebraic symbols\\nof minds which have grown too weak or indolent to\\ndiscriminate. They are the blank checks of intel-\\nlectual bankruptcy you may fill them up with what\\nidea you like it makes no difference, for there are no\\nfunds in the treasury upon which they are drawn.\\nColleges and good-for-nothing smoking-clubs are the\\nplaces where these conversational fungi spring up\\nmost luxuriantly. Don t think I undervalue the\\nproper use and application of a cant word or phrase.\\nIt adds piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does\\nto a sauce. But it is no better than a toadstool, odious\\nto the sense and poisonous to the intellect, when it\\nspawns itself all over the talk of men and youths", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0292.jp2"}, "291": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 259\\ncapable of talking, as it sometimes does. As we hear\\nflash phraseology, it is commonly the dishwater from\\nthe washings of English dandyism, school-boy or\\nfull-grown, wrung out of a three-volume novel which\\nhad sopped it up, or decanted from the pictured urn\\nof Mr. Verdant Green, and diluted to suit the pro-\\nvincial climate.\\nThe young fellow called John spoke up sharply\\nand said, it was rum to hear me pitchin 1 into fel-\\nlers for goin it in the slang line, when I used all\\nthe flash words myself just when I pleased.\\nI replied with my usual forbearance. Certainly,\\nto give up the algebraic symbol, because a or b is\\noften a cover for ideal nihility, would be unwise. I\\nhave heard a child laboring to express a certain con-\\ndition, involving a hitherto undescribed sensation,\\n(as it supposed,) all of which could have been suffi-\\nciently explained by the participle bored. I have\\nseen a country-clergyman, with a one-story intellect\\nand a one-horse vocabulary, who has consumed his\\nvaluable time (and mine) freely in developing an\\nopinion of a brother minister s discourse which would\\nhave been abundantly characterized by a peach-\\ndown-lipped sophomore in the one word slow. Let\\nus discriminate, and be shy of absolute proscrip-\\ntion. I am omniverbivorous by nature and training.\\nPassing by such words as are poisonous, I can swal-\\nlow most others, and chew such as I cannot swallow.\\nDandies are not good for much, but they are good\\nfor something. They invent or keep in circulation\\nthose conversational blank checks or counters just\\nspoken of, which intellectual capitalists may some-\\ntimes find it worth their while to borrow of them.\\nThey are useful, too, in keeping up the standard of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0293.jp2"}, "292": {"fulltext": "260 THE AUTOCRAT\\ndress, which, but for them, would deteriorate, and\\nbecome, what some old fools would have it, a matter\\nof convenience, and not of taste and art. Yes, I like\\ndandies well enough, on one condition.\\nWhat is that, sir? said the divinity-student.\\nThat they have pluck. I find that lies at the\\nbottom of all true dandyism. A little boy dressed up\\nvery fine, who puts his finger in his mouth and takes\\nto crying, if other boys make fun of him, looks very\\nsilly. But if he turns red in the face and knotty in\\nthe fists, and makes an example of the biggest of his\\nassailants, throwing off his fine Leghorn and his\\nthickly-buttoned jacket, if necessary, to consummate\\nthe act of justice, his small toggery takes on the\\nsplendors of the crested helmet that frightened Asty-\\nanax. You remember that the Duke said his dandy\\nofficers were his best officers. The Sunday blood,\\nthe super-superb sartorial equestrian of our annual\\nFast-day, is not imposing or dangerous. But such\\nfellows as Brummel and D Orsay and Byron are not\\nto be snubbed quite so easily. Look out for la\\nmain de fer sous le gant de velours, 1 (which I printed\\nin English the other day without quotation marks,\\nthinking whether any scarabcEus criticus would add\\nthis to his globe and roll in glory with it into the\\nnewspapers, which he did n t do it, in the charming\\npleonasm of the London language, and therefore I\\nclaim the sole merit of exposing the same). A good\\nmany powerful and dangerous people have had a\\ndecided dash of dandyism about them. There was\\nAlcibiades, the curled son of Clinias, an accom-\\nplished young man, but what would be called a\\nswell in these days. There was Aristoteles, a very\\ndistinguished writer, of whom you have heard, a", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0294.jp2"}, "293": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 26 1\\ni\\nphilosopher, in short, whom it took centuries to\\nlearn, centuries to unlearn, and is now going to take\\na generation or more to learn over again. Regular\\ndandy, he was. So was Marcus Antonius and\\nthough he lost his game, he played for big stakes,\\nand it wasn t his dandyism that spoiled his chance.\\nPetrarca was not to be despised as a scholar or poet,\\nbut he was one of the same sort. So was Sir\\nHumphry Davy so was Lord Palmerston, formerly,\\nif I am not forgetful. Yes, a dandy is good for\\nsomething as such and dandies such as I was just\\nspeaking of have rocked this planet like a cradle,\\nay, and left it swinging to this day. Still, if I were\\nyou, I would n t go to the tailor s, on the strength of\\nthese remarks, and run up a long bill which will ren-\\nder pockets a superfluity in your next suit. Elegans\\nnascitur, non fit A man is born a dandy, as he is\\nborn a poet. There are heads that can t wear hats\\nthere are necks that can t fit cravats there are jaws\\nthat can t fill out collars (Willis touched this last\\npoint in one of his earlier ambrotypes, if I remember\\nrightly) there are tournures nothing can humanize,\\nand movements nothing can subdue to the gracious\\nsuavity or elegant languor or stately serenity which\\nbelong to different styles of dandyism.\\nWe are forming an aristocracy, as you may ob-\\nserve, in this country, not a gratia- Dei, nor a jure-\\ndivino one, but a de-facto upper stratum of being,\\nwhich floats over the turbid waves of common life\\nlike the iridescent film you may have seen spreading\\nover the water about our wharves, very splendid,\\nthough its origin may have been tar, tallow, train-oil,\\nor other such unctuous commodities. I say, then,\\nwe are forming an aristocracy and, transitory as its", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0295.jp2"}, "294": {"fulltext": "262 THE AUTOCRAT\\nindividual life often is, it maintains itself tolerably,\\nas a whole. Of course, money is its corner-stone.\\nBut now observe this. Money kept for two or three\\ngenerations transforms a race, I don t mean merely\\nin manners and hereditary culture, but in blood and\\nbone. Money buys air and sunshine, in which chil-\\ndren grow up more kindly, of course, than in close,\\nback streets it buys country-places to give them\\nhappy and healthy summers, good nursing, good\\ndoctoring, and the best cuts of beef and mutton.\\nWhen the spring chickens come to market I beg\\nyour pardon, that is not what I was going to speak\\nof. As the young females of each successive season\\ncome on, the finest specimens among them, other\\nthings being equal, are apt to attract those who can\\nafford the expensive luxury of beauty. The physical\\ncharacter of the next generation rises in consequence.\\nIt is plain that certain families have in this way ac-\\nquired an elevated type of face and figure, and that in\\na small circle of city-connections one may sometimes\\nfind models of both sexes which one of the rural\\ncounties would find it hard to match from all its town-\\nships put together. Because there is a good deal of\\nrunning down, of degeneration and waste of life,\\namong the richer classes, you must not overlook the\\nequally obvious fact I have just spoken of, which\\nin one or two generations more will be, I think, much\\nmore patent than just now.\\nThe weak point in our chryso-aristocracy is the\\nsame I have alluded to in connection with cheap\\ndandyism. Its thorough manhood, its high-caste\\ngallantry, are not so manifest as the plate-glass of its\\nwindows and the more or less legitimate heraldry of\\nits coach-panels. It is very curious to observe of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0296.jp2"}, "295": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 263\\nhow small account military folks are held among our\\nNorthern people. Our young men must gild their\\nspurs, but they need not win them. The equal\\ndivision of property keeps the younger sons of rich\\npeople above the necessity of military service. Thus\\nthe army loses an element of refinement, and the\\nmoneyed upper class forgets what it is to count hero-\\nism among its virtues. Still I don t believe in any\\naristocracy without pluck as its backbone. Ours\\nmay show it when the time comes, if it ever does\\ncome.\\nThese United States furnish the greatest market\\nfor intellectual green fruit of all the places in the\\nworld. I think so, at any rate. The demand for\\nintellectual labor is so enormous and the market so\\nfar from nice, that young talent is apt to fare like\\nunripe gooseberries, get plucked to make a fool of.\\nThink of a country which buys eighty thousand cop-\\nies of the Proverbial Philosophy, while the author s\\nadmiring countrymen have been buying twelve thou-\\nsand How can one let his fruit hang in the sun\\nuntil it gets fully ripe, while there are eighty thousand\\nsuch hungry mouths ready to swallow it and proclaim\\nits praises? Consequently, there never was such a\\ncollection of crude pippins and half-grown windfalls\\nas our native literature displays among its fruits.\\nThere are literary green-groceries at every corner,\\nwhich will buy anything, from a button-pear to a\\npine-apple. It takes a long apprenticeship to train a\\nwhole people to reading and writing. The tempta-\\ntion of money and fame is too great for young people.\\nDo I not remember that glorious moment when the\\nlate Mr. we won t say who, editor of the\\nwe won t say what, offered me the sum of fifty cents", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0297.jp2"}, "296": {"fulltext": "264 THE AUTOCRAT\\nper double-columned quarto page for shaking my\\nyoung boughs over his foolscap apron? Was it not\\nan intoxicating vision of gold and glory I should\\ndoubtless have revelled in its wealth and splendor,\\nbut for learning that the fifty cents was to be consid-\\nered a rhetorical embellishment, and by no means a\\nliteral expression of past fact or present intention.\\nBeware of making your moral staple consist\\nof the negative virtues. It is good to abstain, and\\nteach others to abstain, from all that is sinful or\\nhurtful. But making a business of it leads to ema-\\nciation of character, unless one feeds largely also on\\nthe more nutritious diet of active sympathetic benev-\\nolence.\\nI don^ believe one word of what you are\\nsaying, spoke up the angular female in black bom-\\nbazine.\\nI am sorry you disbelieve it, Madam, I said,\\nand added softly to my next neighbor, but you\\nprove it.\\nThe young fellow sitting near me winked and\\nthe divinity-student said, in an undertone, Optime\\ndictum.\\nYour talking Latin, said I, reminds me of an\\nodd trick of one of my old tutors. He read so much\\nof that language, that his English half turned into it.\\nHe got caught in town, one hot summer, in pretty\\nclose quarters, and wrote, or began to write, a series\\nof city pastorals. Eclogues he called them, and\\nmeant to have published them by subscription. I\\nremember some of his verses, if you want to hear\\nthem. You, sir, (addressing myself to the divinity-\\nstudent,) and all such as have been through college,\\nor, what is the same thing, received an honorary", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0298.jp2"}, "297": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 265\\ndegree, will understand them without a dictionary.\\nThe old man had a great deal to say about aestiva-\\ntion, as he called it, in opposition, as one might\\nsay, to hibernation. Intramural aestivation, or town-\\nlife in summer, he would say, is a peculiar form of\\nsuspended existence, or semi-asphyxia. One wakes\\nup from it about the beginning of the last week\\nin September. This is what I remember of his\\npoem\\nESTIVATION.\\nAn Unpublished Poem by my late Latin Tutor.\\nIN candent ire the solar splendor flames;\\nThe foles, languescent, pend from arid rames\\nHis humid front the cive, anheling, wipes,\\nAnd dreams of erring on ventiferous ripes.\\nHow dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes,\\nDorm on the herb with none to supervise,\\nCarp the suave berries from the crescent vine,\\nAnd bibe the flow from longicaudate kine\\nTo me, alas! no verdurous visions come,\\nSave yon exiguous pool s conferva-scum,\\nNo concave vast repeats the tender hue\\nThat laves my milk-jug with celestial blue\\nMe wretched Let me curr to quercine shades\\nEffund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids\\nOh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,\\nDepart, be off, excede, evade, erump\\nI have lived by the sea-shore and by the moun-\\ntains. No, I am not going to say which is best. The\\none where your place is is the best for you. But this\\ndifference there is you can domesticate mountains,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0299.jp2"}, "298": {"fulltext": "266 THE AUTOCRAT\\nbut the sea is ferce naturce. You may have a hut, ot\\nknow the owner of one, on the mountain-side you\\nsee a light half-way up its ascent in the evening, and\\nyou know there is a home, and you might share it.\\nYou have noted certain trees, perhaps you know the\\nparticular zone where the hemlocks look so black in\\nOctober, when the maples and beeches have faded.\\nAll its reliefs and intaglios have electrotyped them-\\nselves in the medallions that hang round the walls\\nof your memory s chamber. The sea remembers\\nnothing. It is feline. It licks your feet, its huge\\nflanks purr very pleasantly for you but it will crack\\nyour bones and eat you, for all that, and wipe the\\ncrimsoned foam from its jaws as if nothing had hap-\\npened. The mountains give their lost children berries\\nand water the sea mocks their thirst and lets them\\ndie. The mountains have a grand, stupid, lovable\\ntranquillity the sea has a fascinating, treacherous\\nintelligence. The mountains lie about like huge ru-\\nminants, their broad backs awful to look upon, but\\nsafe to handle. The sea smooths its silver scales\\nuntil you cannot see their joints, but their shining\\nis that of a snake s belly, after all. In deeper sug-\\ngestiveness I find as great a difference. The moun-\\ntains dwarf mankind and foreshorten the procession\\nof its long generations. The sea drowns out human-\\nity and time it has no sympathy with either for it\\nbelongs to eternity, and of that it sings its monotonous\\nsong for ever and ever.\\nYet I should love to have a little box by the sea-\\nshore. I should love to gaze out on the wild feline\\nelement from a front window of my own, just as I\\nshould love to look on a caged panther, and see it\\nstretch its shining length, and then curl over and lap", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0300.jp2"}, "299": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 267\\nits smooth sides, and by-and-by begin to lash itself\\ninto rage and show its white teeth and spring at its\\nbars, and howl the cry of its mad, but, to me, harmless\\nfury. And then, to look at it with that inward\\neye, who does not love to shuffle off time and its\\nconcerns, at intervals, to forget who is President\\nand who is Governor, what race he belongs to, what\\nlanguage he speaks, which golden-headed nail of the\\nfirmament his particular planetary system is hung\\nupon, and listen to the great liquid metronome as it\\nbeats its solemn measure, steadily swinging when the\\nsolo or duet of human life began, and to swing just\\nas steadily after the human chorus has died out and\\nman is a fossil on its shores\\nWhat should decide one, in choosing a summer\\nresidence? Constitution, first of all. How much\\nsnow could you melt in an hour, if you were planted\\nin a hogshead of it? Comfort is essential to enjoy-\\nment. All sensitive people should remember that\\npersons in easy circumstances suffer much more from\\ncold in summer that is, the warm half of the year\\nthan in winter, or the other half. You must cut your\\nclimate to your constitution, as much as your clothing\\nto your shape. After this, consult your taste and\\nconvenience. But if you would be happy in Berk-\\nshire, you must carry mountains in your brain and\\nif you would enjoy Nahant, you must have an ocean\\nin your soul. Nature plays at dominos with you\\nyou must match her piece, or she will never give it up\\nto you.\\nThe schoolmistress said, in a rather mischiev-\\nous way, that she was afraid some minds or souls\\nwould be a little crowded, if they took in the Rocky\\nMountains or the Atlantic.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0301.jp2"}, "300": {"fulltext": "268 THE AUTOCRAT\\nHave you ever read the little book called The\\nStars and the Earth f said I. Have you seen the\\nDeclaration of Independence photographed in a sur-\\nface that a fly s foot would cover? The forms or\\nconditions of Time and Space, as Kant will tell you,\\nare nothing in themselves, only our way of looking\\nat things. You are right, I think, however, in recog-\\nnizing the category of Space as being quite as appli-\\ncable to minds as to the outer world. Every man\\nof reflection is vaguely conscious of an imperfectly\\ndefined circle which is drawn about his intellect. He\\nhas a perfectly clear sense that the fragments of his\\nintellectual circle include the curves of many other\\nminds of which he is cognizant. He often recog-\\nnizes these as manifestly concentric with his own, but\\nof less radius. On the other hand, when we find a\\nportion of an arc on the outside of our own, we say\\nit intersects ours, but are very slow to confess or to\\nsee that it circumscribes it. Every now and then a\\nman s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation,\\nand never shrinks back to its former dimensions.\\nAfter looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had\\nbeen stretched beyond the limits of its elasticity, and\\nfitted so loosely on my old ideas of space that I had\\nto spread these to fit it.\\nIf I thought I should ever see the Alps said\\nthe schoolmistress.\\nPerhaps you will, some time or other, I said.\\nIt is not very likely, she answered. I have had\\none or two opportunities, but I had rather be any-\\nthing than governess in a rich family.\\n[Proud, too, you little soft-voiced woman Well,\\nI can t say I like you any the worse for it. How long\\nwill school-keeping take to kill you? Is it possible", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0302.jp2"}, "301": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 269\\nthe poor thing works with her needle, too I don t\\nlike those marks on the side of her forefinger.\\nTableau. Chamouni. Mont Blanc in full view.\\nFigures in the foreground two of them standing\\napart one of them a gentleman of oh, ah,\\nyes the other a lady in a white cashmere, leaning on\\nhis shoulder. The ingenuous reader will understand\\nthat this was an internal, private, personal, subjective\\ndiorama, seen for one instant on the back-ground\\nof my own consciousness, and abolished into black\\nnonentity by the first question which recalled me\\nto actual life, as suddenly as if one of those iron\\nshop-blinds (which I always pass at dusk with a\\nshiver, expecting to stumble over some poor but\\nhonest shop-boy s head, just taken off by its sudden\\nand unexpected descent, and left outside upon the\\nsidewalk) had come down in front of it by the\\nrun.\\nShould you like to hear what moderate wishes\\nlife brings one to at last I used to be very ambi-\\ntious, wasteful, extravagant, and luxurious in all my\\nfancies. Read too much in the Arabian Nights.\\nMust have the lamp, could n t do without the ring.\\nExercise every morning on the brazen horse. Plump\\ndown into castles as full of little milk-white princesses\\nas a nest is of young sparrows. All love me dearly\\nat once. Charming idea of life, but too high-colored\\nfor the reality. I have outgrown all this my tastes\\nhave become exceedingly primitive, almost, per-\\nhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our condi-\\ntion, but must not hope to find it there. I think you\\nwill be willing to hear some lines which embody the\\nsubdued and limited desires of my maturity.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0303.jp2"}, "302": {"fulltext": "27O THE AUTOCRAT\\nCONTENTMENT.\\nMan wants but little here below.\\nLittle I ask my wants are few\\nI only wish a hut of stone,\\n(A very plain brown stone will do,)\\nThat I may call my own\\nAnd close at hand is such a one,\\nIn yonder street that fronts the sun.\\nPlain food is quite enough for me\\nThree courses are as good as ten\\nIf Nature can subsist on three,\\nThank Heaven for three. Amen\\nI always thought cold victual nice\\nMy choice would be vanilla-ice.\\nI care not much for gold or land\\nGive me a mortgage here and there,\\nSome good bank-stock,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 some note of hand,\\nOr trifling railroad share\\nI only ask that Fortune send\\nA little more than I shall spend.\\nHonors are silly toys, I know,\\nAnd titles are but empty names\\nI would, perhaps, be Plenipo,\\nBut only near St. James\\nI m very sure I should not care\\nTo fill our Gubernator s chair.\\nJewels are baubles t is a sin\\nTo care for such unfruitful things\\nOne good-sized diamond in a pin,\\nSome, not so large, in rings,\\nA ruby, and a pearl, or so,\\nWill do for me I laugh at show.\\nMy dame should dress in cheap attire;\\n(Good, heavy silks are never dear", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0304.jp2"}, "303": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 27 1\\nI own perhaps I might desire\\nSome shawls of true cashmere,\\nSome marrowy crapes of China silk,\\nLike wrinkled skins on scalded milk.\\nI would not have the horse I drive\\nSo fast that folks must stop and stare\\nAn easy gait two, forty-five\\nSuits me I do not care\\nPerhaps, for just a single spurt,\\nSome seconds less would do no hurt.\\nOf pictures I should like to own\\nTitians and Raphaels three or four,\\nI love so much their style and tone,\\nOne Turner, and no more,\\n(A landscape, foreground golden dirt.\\nThe sunshine painted with a squirt.)\\nOf books but few, some fifty score\\nFor daily use, and bound for wear\\nThe rest upon an upper floor\\nSome little luxury there\\nOf red morocco s gilded gleam,\\nAnd vellum rich as country cream.\\nBusts, cameos, gems, such things as these,\\nWhich others often show for pride,\\nvalue for their power to please,\\nAnd selfish churls deride\\nOne Stradivarius, I confess,\\nTwo Meerschaums, I would fain possess.\\nWealth s wasteful tricks I will not learn,\\nNor ape the glittering upstart fool\\nShall not carved tables serve my turn,\\nBut all must be of buhl\\nGive grasping pomp its double share,\\nI ask but one recumbent chair.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0305.jp2"}, "304": {"fulltext": "2/2 THE AUTOCRAT\\nThus humble let me live and die,\\nNor long for Midas golden touch,\\nIf Heaven more generous gifts deny,\\nI shall not miss them much,\\nToo grateful for the blessing lent\\nOf simple tastes and mind content\\nMY LAST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS.\\n(A Parenthesis.}\\nI can t say just how many walks she and I had\\ntaken together before this one. I found the effect of\\ngoing out every morning was decidedly favorable on\\nher health. Two pleasing dimples, the places for\\nwhich were just marked when she came, played,\\nshadowy, in her freshening cheeks when she smiled\\nand nodded good-morning to me from the school-\\nhouse-steps.\\nI am afraid I did the greater part of the talking.\\nAt any rate, if I should try to report all that I said\\nduring the first half-dozen walks we took together, I\\nfear that I might receive a gentle hint from my\\nfriends the publishers, that a separate volume, at my\\nown risk and expense, would be the proper method\\nof bringing them before the public.\\nI would have a woman as true as Death. At the\\nfirst real lie which works from the heart outward, she\\nshould be tenderly chloroformed into a better world,\\nwhere she can have an angel for a governess, and\\nfeed on strange fruits which will make her all over\\nagain, even to her bones and marrow. Whether\\ngifted with the accident of beauty or not, she should\\nhave been moulded in the rose-red clay of Love,\\nbefore the breath of life made a moving mortal of\\nher. Love-capacity is a congenital endowment and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0306.jp2"}, "305": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 273\\nI think, after a while, one gets to know the warm-\\nhued natures it belongs to from the pretty pipe-clay\\ncounterfeits of them. Proud she may be, in the sense\\nof respecting herself; but pride, in the sense of con-\\ntemning others less gifted than herself, deserves the\\ntwo lowest circles of a vulgar woman s Inferno, where\\nthe punishments are Smallpox and Bankruptcy.\\nShe who nips off the end of a brittle courtesy, as one\\nbreaks the tip of an icicle, to bestow upon those whom\\nshe ought cordially and kindly to recognize, proclaims\\nthe fact that she comes not merely of low blood, but\\nof bad blood. Consciousness of unquestioned posi-\\ntion makes people gracious in proper measure to all\\nbut if a woman puts on airs with her real equals, she\\nhas something about herself or her family she is\\nashamed of, or ought to be. Middle, and more than\\nmiddle-aged people, who know family histories, gen-\\nerally see through it. An official of standing was\\nrude to me once. Oh, that is the maternal grand-\\nfather, said a wise old friend to me he was a\\nboor. Better too few words, from the woman we\\nlove, than too many while she is silent, Nature is\\nworking for her while she talks, she is working for\\nherself. Love is sparingly soluble in the words of\\nmen therefore they speak much of it but one syl-\\nlable of woman s speech can dissolve more of it than\\na man s heart can hold.\\nWhether I said any or all of these things to the\\nschoolmistress, or not, whether I stole them out of\\nLord Bacon, whether I cribbed them from Balzac,\\nwhether I dipped them from the ocean of Tupperian\\nwisdom, or whether I have just found them in my\\nhead, laid there by that solemn fowl, Experience,\\n(who, according to my observation, cackles oftener", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0307.jp2"}, "306": {"fulltext": "274 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthan she drops real live eggs,) I cannot say. Wise\\nmen have said more foolish things, and foolish\\nmen, I don t doubt, have said as wise things. Any-\\nhow, the schoolmistress and I had pleasant walks\\nand long talks, all of which I do not feel bound to\\nreport.\\nYou are a stranger to me, Ma am. I don t\\ndoubt you would like to know all I said to the\\nschoolmistress. I shan t do it I had rather get\\nthe publishers to return the money you have invested\\nin this. Besides, I have forgotten a good deal of it.\\nI shall only tell what I like of what I remember.\\nMy idea was, in the first place, to search out the\\npicturesque spots which the city affords a sight of, to\\nthose who have eyes. I know a good many, and it\\nwas a pleasure to look at them in company with my\\nyoung friend. There were the shrubs and flowers\\nin the Franklin-Place front-yards or borders Com-\\nmerce is just putting his granite foot upon them.\\nThen there are certain small seraglio-gardens, into\\nwhich one can get a peep through the crevices of\\nhigh fences, one in Myrtle Street, or backing on it,\\nhere and there one at the North and South Ends.\\nThen the great elms in Essex Street. Then the\\nstately horse-chestnuts in that vacant lot in Chambers\\nStreet, which hold their outspread hands over your\\nhead, (as I said in my poem the other day,) and look\\nas if they were whispering, May grace, mercy, and\\npeace be with you and the rest of that benedic-\\ntion. Nay, there are certain patches of ground,\\nwhich, having lain neglected for a time, Nature, who\\nalways has her pockets full of seeds, and holes in\\nall her pockets, has covered with hungry plebeian\\ngrowths, which fight for life with each other, until", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0308.jp2"}, "307": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 275\\nsome of them get broad-leaved and succulent, and\\nyou have a coarse vegetable tapestry which Raphael\\nwould not have disdained to spread over the fore-\\nground of his masterpiece. The Professor pretends\\nthat he found such a one in Charles Street, which,\\nin its dare-devil impudence of rough-and-tumble veg-\\netation, beat the pretty-behaved flower-beds of the\\nPublic Garden as ignominiously as a group of young\\ntatterdemalions playing pitch-and-toss beats a row of\\nSunday-school-boys with their teacher at their head.\\nBut then the Professor has one of his burrows in\\nthat region, and puts everything in high colors relat-\\ning to it. That is his way about everything I\\nhold any man cheap, he said, of whom nothing\\nstronger can be uttered than that all his geese are\\nswans. How is that, Professor? said I I should\\nhave set you down for one of that sort. Sir, said\\nhe, I am proud to say, that Nature has so far\\nenriched me, that I cannot own so much as a duck\\nwithout seeing in it as pretty a swan as ever swam\\nthe basin in the garden of the Luxembourg. And\\nthe Professor showed the whites of his eyes devoutly,\\nlike one returning thanks after a dinner of many\\ncourses.\\nI don t know anything sweeter than this leaking\\nin of Nature through all the cracks in the walls and\\nfloors of cities. You heap up a million tons of\\nhewn rocks on a square mile or two of earth which\\nwas green once. The trees look down from the hill-\\nsides and ask each other, as. they stand on tiptoe,\\nWhat are these people about? 1 And the small\\nherbs at their feet look up and whisper back, We\\nwill go and see. So the small herbs pack them-\\nselves up in the least possible bundles, and wait", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0309.jp2"}, "308": {"fulltext": "276 THE AUTOCRAT\\nuntil the wind steals to them at night and whispers,\\nCome with me. Then they go softly with it\\ninto the great city, one to a cleft in the pavement,\\none to a spout on the roof, one to a seam in the\\nmarbles over a rich gentleman s bones, and one to\\nthe grave without a stone where nothing but a man\\nis buried, and there they grow, looking down on\\nthe generations of men from mouldy roofs, looking\\nup from between the less-trodden pavements, looking\\nout through iron cemetery-railings. Listen to them,\\nwhen there is only a light breath stirring, and you\\nwill hear them saying to each other, Wait awhile\\nThe words run along the telegraph of those narrow\\ngreen lines that border the roads leading from the\\ncity, until they reach the slope of the hills, and the\\ntrees repeat in low murmurs to each other, Wait\\nawhile By-and-by the flow of life in the streets\\nebbs, and the old leafy inhabitants the smaller\\ntribes always in front saunter in, one by one, very\\ncareless seemingly, but very tenacious, until they\\nswarm so that the great stones gape from each other\\nwith the crowding of their roots, and the feldspar\\nbegins to be picked out of the granite to find them\\nfood. At last the trees take up their solemn line of\\nmarch, and never rest until they have encamped in\\nthe market-place. Wait long enough and you will\\nfind an old doting oak hugging a huge worn block\\nin its yellow underground arms that was the corner-\\nstone of the State-House. Oh, so patient she is, this\\nimperturbable Nature\\nLet us cry\\nBut all this has nothing to do with my walks and\\ntalks with the schoolmistress. I did not say that I\\nwould not tell you something about them. Let me", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0310.jp2"}, "309": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE 277\\nalone, and I shall talk to you more than I ought to,\\nprobably. We never tell our secrets to people that\\npump for them.\\nBooks we talked about, and education. It was her\\nduty to know something of these, and of course she\\ndid. Perhaps I was somewhat more learned than\\nshe, but I found that the difference between her read-\\ning and mine was like that of a man s and a woman s\\ndusting a library. The man flaps about with a bunch\\nof feathers the woman goes to work softly with a\\ncloth. She does not raise half the dust, nor fill her\\nown eyes and mouth with it, but she goes into all\\nthe corners, and attends to the leaves as much as the\\ncovers. Books are the negative pictures of thought,\\nand the more sensitive the mind that receives their\\nimages, the more nicely the finest lines are reproduced.\\nA woman, (of the right kind,) reading after a man,\\nfollows him as Ruth followed the reapers of Boaz, and\\nher gleanings are often the finest of the wheat.\\nBut it was in talking of Life that we came most\\nnearly together. I thought I knew something about\\nthat, that I could speak or write about it somewhat\\nto the purpose.\\nTo take up this fluid earthly being of ours as a\\nsponge sucks up water, to be steeped and soaked\\nin its realities as a hide fills its pores lying seven\\nyears in a tan-pit, to have winnowed every wave\\nof it as a mill-wheel works up the stream that runs\\nthrough the flume upon its float-boards, to have\\ncurled up in the keenest spasms and flattened out in\\nthe laxest languors of this breathing-sickness, which\\nkeeps certain parcels of matter uneasy for three or\\nfour score years, to have fought all the devils and\\nclasped all the angels of its delirium, and then, just", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0311.jp2"}, "310": {"fulltext": "278 THE AUTOCRAT\\nat the point when the white-hot passions have cooled\\ndown to cherry-red, plunge our experience into the\\nice-cold stream of some human language or other,\\none might think would end in a rhapsody with some-\\nthing of spring and temper in it. All this I thought\\nmy power and province.\\nThe schoolmistress had tried life, too. Once in a\\nwhile one meets with a single soul greater than all\\nthe living pageant which passes before it. As the pale\\nastronomer sits in his study with sunken eyes and\\nthin fingers, and weighs Uranus or Neptune as in a\\nbalance, so there are meek, slight women who have\\nweighed all which this planetary life can offer, and\\nhold it like a bauble in the palm of their slender\\nhands. This was one of them. Fortune had left\\nher, sorrow had baptized her; the routine of labor\\nand the loneliness of almost friendless city-life were\\nbefore her. Yet, as I looked upon her tranquil face,\\ngradually regaining a cheerfulness which was often\\nsprightly, as she became interested in the various\\nmatters we talked about and places we visited, I saw\\nthat eye and lip and every shifting lineament were\\nmade for love, unconscious of their sweet office as\\nyet, and meeting the cold aspect of Duty with the\\nnatural graces which were meant for the reward of\\nnothing less than the Great Passion.\\nI never addressed one word of love to the\\nschoolmistress in the course of these pleasant walks.\\nIt seemed to me that we talked of everything but\\nlove on that particular morning. There was, per-\\nhaps, a little more timidity and hesitancy on my\\npart than I have commonly shown among our people\\nat the boarding-house. In fact, I considered myself\\nthe master at the breakfast-table; but, somehow,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0312.jp2"}, "311": {"fulltext": "Good Morning, my Dears.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0313.jp2"}, "312": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0314.jp2"}, "313": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 2jq\\nI ^could not command myself just then so well\\nas usual. The truth is, I had secured a passage\\nto Liverpool in the steamer which was to leave\\nat noon, with the condition, however, of being\\nreleased in case circumstances occurred to detain\\nme. The schoolmistress knew nothing about all\\nthis, of course, as yet.\\nIt was on the Common that we were walking.\\nThe mall, or boulevard of our Common, you know,\\nhas various branches leading from it in different direc-\\ntions. One of these runs down from opposite Joy\\nStreet southward across the whole length of the Com-\\nmon to Boylston Street. We called it the long path,\\nand were fond of it.\\nI felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably ro-\\nbust habit) as we came opposite the head of this path\\non that morning. I think I tried to speak twice with-\\nout making myself distinctly audible. At last I got\\nout the question, Will you take the long path with\\nme Certainly, said the schoolmistress, with\\nmuch pleasure. Think, I said, before you\\nanswer if you take the long path with me now, I\\nshall interpret it that we are to part no more The\\nschoolmistress stepped back with a sudden move-\\nment, as if an arrow had struck her.\\nOne of the long granite blocks used as seats was\\nhard by, the one you may still see close by the\\nGingko-tree. Pray, sit down, I said. No, no,\\nshe answered, softly, I will walk the long path with\\nyou\\nThe old gentleman who sits opposite met us\\nwalking, arm in arm, about the middle of the long\\npath, and said, very charmingly, Good morning,\\nmy dears", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0315.jp2"}, "314": {"fulltext": "XII.\\n[I did not think it probable that I should have a\\ngreat many more talks with our company, and there-\\nfore I was anxious to get as much as I could into\\nevery conversation. That is the reason why you will\\nfind some odd, miscellaneous facts here, which I\\nwished to tell at least once, as I should not have a\\nchance to tell them habitually, at our breakfast-table.\\nWe re very free and easy, you know we don t\\nread what we don t like. Our parish is so large, one\\ncan t pretend to preach to all the pews at once. One\\ncan t be all the. time trying to do the best of one s\\nbest if a company works a steam fire-engine, the\\nfiremen need n t be straining themselves all day to\\nsquirt over the top of the flagstaff. Let them wash\\nsome of those lower-story windows a little. Besides,\\nthere is no use in our quarrelling now, as you will find\\nout when you get through this paper.]\\nTravel, according to my experience, does not\\nexactly correspond to the idea one gets of it out of\\nmost books of travels. I am thinking of travel as\\nit was when I made the Grand Tour, especially in\\nItaly. Memory is a net one finds it full of fish\\nwhen he takes it from the brook but a dozen miles\\nof water have run through it without sticking. I can\\nprove some facts about travelling by a story or two.\\nThere are certain principles to be assumed, such\\nas these He who is carried by horses must deal\\nwith rogues. To-day s dinner subtends a larger vis-\\n280", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0316.jp2"}, "315": {"fulltext": "AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 28 1\\nual angle than yesterday s revolution. A mote in my\\neye is bigger to me than the biggest of Dr. Gould s\\nprivate planets. Every traveller is a self-taught en-\\ntomologist. Old jokes are dynamometers of mental\\ntension an old joke tells better among friends trav-\\nelling than at home, which shows that their minds\\nare in a state of diminished, rather than increased\\nvitality. There was a story about strahps to your\\npahnts, which was vastly funny to us fellows on\\nthe road from Milan to Venice. Ccelum, non ani-\\nmunij travellers change their guineas, but not their\\ncharacters. The bore is the same, eating dates under\\nthe cedars of Lebanon, as over a plate of baked beans\\nin Beacon Street. Parties of travellers have a mor-\\nbid instinct for establishing raws upon each other.\\nA man shall sit down with his friend at the foot of\\nthe Great Pyramid and they will take up the question\\nthey had been talking about under the great elm,\\nand forget all about Egypt. When I was crossing\\nthe Po, we were all fighting about the propriety of\\none fellow s telling another that his argument was\\nabsurd one maintaining it to be a perfectly admis-\\nsible logical term, as proved by the phrase reductio\\nad absurdum the rest badgering him as a conver-\\nsational bully. Mighty little we troubled ourselves\\nfor Padus, the Po, a river broader and more rapid\\nthan the Rhone, and the times when Hannibal led\\nhis grim Africans to its banks, and his elephants\\nthrust their trunks into the yellow waters over which\\nthat pendulum ferry-boat was swinging back and for-\\nward every ten minutes\\nHere are some of those reminiscences, with\\nmorals prefixed, or annexed, or implied.\\nLively emotions very commonly do not strike us", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0317.jp2"}, "316": {"fulltext": "282 THE AUTOCRAT\\nfull in front, but obliquely from the side a scene or\\nincident in undress often affects us more than one in\\nfull costume.\\nIs this the mighty ocean is this all\\nsays the Princess in Gebir. The rush that should\\nhave flooded my soul in the Coliseum did not come.\\nBut walking one day in the fields about the city, I\\nstumbled over a fragment of broken masonry, and lo\\nthe World s Mistress in her stone girdle alta 7noenia\\nRojnce rose before me and whitened my cheek with\\nher pale shadow as never before or since.\\nI used very often, when coming home from my\\nmorning s work at one of the public institutions of\\nParis, to stop in at the dear old church of St. Etienne\\ndu Mont. The tomb of St. Genevieve, surrounded\\nby burning candles and votive tablets, was there the\\nmural tablet of Jacobus Benignus Winslow was there\\nthere was a noble organ with carved figures the pul-\\npit was borne on the oaken shoulders of a stooping\\nSamson and there was a marvellous staircase like a\\ncoil of lace. These things I mention from memory,\\nbut not all of them together impressed me so much as\\nan inscription on a small slab of marble fixed in one\\nof the walls. It told how this church of St. Stephen\\nwas repaired and beautified in the year 16**, and\\nhow, during the celebration of its reopening, two girls\\nof the parish (filles de la paroisse) fell from the gallery,\\ncarrying a part of the balustrade with them, to the\\npavement, but by a miracle escaped uninjured. Two\\nyoung girls, nameless, but real presences to my imagi-\\nnation, as much as when they came fluttering down\\non the tiles with a cry that outscreamed the sharpest\\ntreble in the Te Deum! (Look at-Carlyle s article on", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0318.jp2"}, "317": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 283\\nBoswell, and see how he speaks of the poor young\\nwoman Johnson talked with in the streets one even-\\ning.) All the crowd gone but these two filles de la\\nparoisse, gone as utterly as the dresses they wore,\\nas the shoes that were on their feet, as the bread and\\nmeat that were in the market on that day.\\nNot the great historical events, but the personal\\nincidents that call up single sharp pictures of some\\nhuman being in its pang or struggle, reach us most\\nnearly. I remember the platform at Berne, over the\\nparapet of which Theobald WeinzapfiTs restive horse\\nsprung with him and landed him more than a hundred\\nfeet beneath in the lower town, not dead, but sorely\\nbroken, and no longer a wild youth, but God s servant\\nfrom that day forward. I have forgotten the famous\\nbears, and all else. I remember the Percy lion on the\\nbridge over the little river at Alnwick, the leaden\\nlion with his tail stretched out straight like a pump-\\nhandle, and why? Because of the story of the\\nvillage boy who must fain bestride the leaden tail,\\nstanding out over the water, which breaking, he\\ndropped into the stream far below, and was taken out\\nan idiot for the rest of his life.\\nArrow-heads must be brought to a sharp point,\\nand the guillotine-axe must have a slanting edge.\\nSomething intensely human, narrow, and definite\\npierces to the seat of our sensibilities more readily\\nthan huge occurrences and catastrophes. A nail will\\npick a lock that defies hatchet and hammer. The\\nRoyal George went down with all her crew, and\\nCowper wrote an exquisitely simple poem about it\\nbut the leaf which holds it is smooth, while that which\\nbears the lines on his mother s portrait is blistered\\nwith tears.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0319.jp2"}, "318": {"fulltext": "284 THE AUTOCRAT\\nMy telling these recollections sets rne thinking of\\nothers of the same kind which strike the imagination,\\nespecially when one is still young. You remember\\nthe monument in Devizes market to the woman struck\\ndead with a lie in her mouth. I never saw that, but\\nit is in the books. Here is one I never heard men-\\ntioned if any of the Note and Query tribe can\\ntell the story, I hope they will. Where is this monu-\\nment? I was riding on an English stage-coach when\\nwe passed a handsome marble column (as I remember\\nit) of considerable size and pretensions. What is\\nthat? I said. That, answered the coachman,\\nis the hangman? s pillar. Then he told me how a man\\nwent out one night, many years ago, to steal sheep.\\nHe caught one, tied its legs together, passed the rope\\nover his head, and started for home. In climbing a\\nfence, the rope slipped, caught him by the neck, and\\nstrangled him. Next morning he was found hang-\\ning dead on one side of the fence and the sheep on\\nthe other in memory whereof the lord of the manor\\ncaused this monument to be erected as a warning to\\nall who love mutton better than virtue. I will send\\na copy of this record to him or her who shall first set\\nme right about this column and its locality.\\nAnd telling over these old stories reminds me that\\nI have something which may interest architects and\\nperhaps some other persons. I once ascended the\\nspire of Strasburg Cathedral, which is the highest,\\nI think, in Europe. It is a shaft of stone filigree-\\nwork, frightfully open, so that the guide puts his arms\\nbehind you to keep you from falling. To climb it is\\na noonday nightmare, and to think of having climbed\\nit crisps all the fifty-six joints of one s twenty digits.\\nWhile I was on it, u pinnacled dim in the intense", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0320.jp2"}, "319": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 285\\ninane, a strong wind was blowing, and I felt sure\\nthat the spire was rocking. It swayed back and for-\\nward like a stalk of rye or a cat-o -nine-tails (bulrush)\\nwith a bobolink on it. I mentioned it to the guide,\\nand he said that the spire did really swing back and\\nforward, I think he said some feet.\\nKeep any line of knowledge ten years and some\\nother line will intersect it. Long afterwards I was\\nhunting out a paper of DumeriPs in an old journal,\\nthe Magazin Encyclopedique for Tan troisibne,\\n(1795,) when I stumbled upon a brief article on the\\nvibrations of the spire of Strasburg Cathedral. A\\nman can shake it so that the movement shall be\\nshown in a vessel of water nearly seventy feet below\\nthe summit, and higher up the vibration is like that\\nof an earthquake. I have seen one of those wretched\\nwooden spires with which we very shabbily finish\\nsome of our stone churches (thinking that the lidless\\nblue eye of heaven cannot tell the counterfeit we try\\nto pass on it,) swinging like a reed, in a wind, but one\\nwould hardly think of such a thing^s happening in a\\nstone spire. Does the Bunker-Hill Monument bend\\nin the blast like a blade of grass? I suppose so.\\nYou see, of course, that I am talking in a cheap\\nway perhaps we will have some philosophy by\\nand by; let me work out this thin mechanical vein.\\nI have something more to say about trees. I have\\nbrought down this slice of hemlock to show you.\\nTree blew down in my woods (that were) in 1852.\\nTwelve feet and a half round, fair girth nine feet,\\nwhere I got my section, higher up. This is a wedge,\\ngoing to the centre, of the general shape of a slice\\nof apple-pie, in a large and not opulent family.\\nLength, about eighteen inches. I have studied the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0321.jp2"}, "320": {"fulltext": "286 THE AUTOCRAT\\ngrowth of this tree by its rings, and it is curious.\\nThree hundred and forty-two rings. Started, there-\\nfore, about 1 510. The thickness of the rings tells\\nthe rate at which it grew. For five or six years the\\nrate was slow, then rapid for twenty years. A\\nlittle before the year 1550 it began to grow very\\nslowly, and so continued for about seventy years. In\\n1620 it took a new start and grew fast until 1714;\\nthen for the most part slowly until 1786, when it\\nstarted again and grew pretty well and uniformly\\nuntil within the last dozen years, when it seems to\\nhave got on sluggishly.\\nLook here. Here are some human lives laid down\\nagainst the periods of its growth, to which they cor-\\nresponded. This is Shakspeare s. The tree was\\nseven inches in diameter when he was born ten\\ninches when he died. A little less than ten inches\\nwhen Milton was born seventeen when he died.\\nThen comes a long interval, and this thread marks\\nout Johnson s life, during which the tree increased\\nfrom twenty-two to twenty-nine inches in diameter.\\nHere is the span of Napoleon s career; the tree\\ndoes n t seem to have minded it.\\nI never saw the man yet who was not startled at\\nlooking on this section, I have seen many wooden\\npreachers never one like this. How much more\\nstriking would be the calendar counted on the rings\\nof one of those awful trees which were standing\\nwhen Christ was on earth, and where that brief mortal\\nlife is chronicled with the stolid apathy of vegetable\\nbeing, which remembers all human history as a thing\\nof yesterday in its own dateless existence\\nI have something more to say about elms. A\\nrelative tells me there is one of great glory in Ando-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0322.jp2"}, "321": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 287\\nver, near Bradford. I have some recollections of the\\nformer place, pleasant and other. [I wonder if the\\nold Seminary clock strikes as slowly as it used to.\\nMy room-mate thought, when he first came, it was\\nthe bell tolling deaths, and people s ages, as they do\\nin the country. He swore (ministers sons get so\\nfamiliar with good words that they are apt to handle\\nthem carelessly) that the children were dying by\\nthe dozen, of all ages, from one to twelve, and ran\\noff next day in recess, when it began to strike eleven,\\nbut was caught before the clock got through strik-\\ning.] At the foot of u the hill, down in town, is, or\\nwas, a tidy old elm, which was said to have been\\nhooped with iron to protect it from Indian toma-\\nhawks, {Credat Hahnemanniis) and to have grown\\nround its hoops and buried them in its wood. Of\\ncourse, this is not the tree my relative means.\\nAlso, I have a very pretty letter from Norwich, in\\nConnecticut, telling me of two noble elms which are\\nto be seen in that town. One hundred and twenty-\\nseven feet from bough-end to bough-end What do you\\nsay to that? And gentle ladies beneath it, that love\\nit and celebrate its praises And that in a town of\\nsuch supreme, audacious, Alpine loveliness as Nor-\\nwich Only the dear people there must learn to call\\nit Norridge, and not be misled by the mere accident\\nof spelling.\\nNorwich.\\nPor^mouth.\\nCincinnati.\\nWhat a sad picture of our civilization\\nI did not speak to you of the great tree on what\\nused to be the Colman farm in Deerfleld, simply\\nbecause I had not seen it for many years, and did", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0323.jp2"}, "322": {"fulltext": "288 THE AUTOCRAT\\nnot like to trust my recollection. But I had it in\\nmemory, and even noted down, as one of the finest\\ntrees in symmetry and beauty I had ever seen. I\\nhave received a document, signed by two citizens of\\na neighboring town, certified by the postmaster and\\na selectman, and these again corroborated, reinforced,\\nand sworn to by a member of that extraordinary col-\\nlege-class to which it is the good fortune of my friend\\nthe Professor to belong, who, though he has formerly\\nbeen a member of Congress, is, I believe, fully worthy\\nof confidence. The tree girts eighteen and a half\\nfeet, and spreads over a hundred, and is a real beauty.\\nI hope to meet my friend under its branches yet if\\nwe don t have youth at the prow, we will have\\npleasure at the elm.\\nAnd just now, again, I have got a letter about\\nsome grand willows in Maine, and another about an\\nelm in Wayland, but too late for anything but thanks.\\n[And this leads me to say, that I have received a\\ngreat many communications, in prose and verse since\\nI began printing these notes. The last came this\\nvery morning, in the shape of a neat and brief poem,\\nfrom New Orleans. I could not make any of them\\npublic, though sometimes requested to do so. Some\\nof them have given me great pleasure, and encouraged\\nme to believe I had friends whose faces I had never\\nseen. If you are pleased with anything a writer says,\\nand doubt whether to tell him of it, do not hesitate\\na pleasant word is a cordial to one, who perhaps\\nthinks he is tiring you, and so becomes tired himself.\\nI purr very loud over a good, honest letter that says\\npretty things to me.]\\nSometimes very young persons send communi-\\ncations which they want forwarded to editors and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0324.jp2"}, "323": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 289\\nthese young persons do not always seem to have\\nright conceptions of these same editors, and of the\\npublic, and of themselves. Here is a letter I wrote\\nto one of these young folks, but, on the whole, thought\\nit best not to send. It is not fair to single out one\\nfor such sharp advice, where there are hundreds that\\nare in need of it.\\nDear Sir, You seem to be somewhat, but not a\\ngreat deal, wiser than I was at your age. I don t\\nwish to be understood as saying too much, for I\\nthink, without committing myself to any opinion on\\nmy present state, that I was not a Solomon at that\\nstage of development.\\nYou long to leap at a single bound into celeb-\\nrity. Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be\\nremarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are\\nthinking about something else, very rarely to those\\nwho say to themselves, Go to, now, let us be a cele-\\nbrated individual! The struggle for fame, as such,\\ncommonly ends in notoriety; that ladder is easy\\nto climb, but it leads to the pillory which is crowded\\nwith fools who could not hold their tongues and\\nrogues who could not hide their tricks.\\nIf you have the consciousness of genius, do some-\\nthing to show it. The world is pretty quick, nowa-\\ndays, to catch the flavor of true originality if you\\nwrite anything remarkable, the magazines and news-\\npapers will find you out, as the school-boys find out\\nwhere the ripe apples and pears are. Produce any-\\nthing really good, and an intelligent editor will jump\\nat it. Don t flatter yourself that any article of yours\\nis rejected because you are unknown to fame. Noth-\\ning pleases an editor more than to get anything", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0325.jp2"}, "324": {"fulltext": "29O THE AUTOCRAT\\nworth having from a new hand. There is always a\\ndearth of really fine articles for a first-rate journal\\nfor, of a hundred pieces received, ninety are at or\\nbelow the sea-level some have water enough, but no\\nhead some head enough, but no water only two or\\nthree are from full reservoirs, high up that hill which\\nis so hard to climb.\\nYou may have genius. The contrary is of course\\nprobable, but it is not demonstrated. If you have,\\nthe world wants you more than you want it. It has\\nnot only a desire, but a passion, for every spark of\\ngenius that shows itself among us there is not a\\nbull-calf in our national pasture that can bleat a\\nrhyme but it is ten to one, among his friends, and no\\ntakers, that he is the real, genuine, no-mistake Osiris.\\nQiCest ce qtiil a fait? What has he done That\\nwas Napoleon s test. What have you done Turn\\nup the faces of your picture-cards, my boy! You\\nneed not make mouths at the public because it has\\nnot accepted you at your own fancy-valuation. Do\\nthe prettiest thing you can and wait your time.\\nFor the verses you send me, I will not say they\\nare hopeless, and I dare not affirm that they show\\npromise. I am not an editor, but I know the stand-\\nard of some editors. You must not expect to leap\\nwith a single bound into the society of those whom\\nit is not flattery to call your betters. When The\\nPactolian has paid you for a copy of verses, (I\\ncan furnish you a list of alliterative signatures, begin-\\nning with Annie Aureole and ending with Zoe Zenith,)\\nwhen The Rag-bag 1 has stolen your piece, after\\ncarefully scratching your name out, when The Nut-\\ncracker has thought you worth shelling, and strung\\nthe kernel of your cleverest poem, then, and not till", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0326.jp2"}, "325": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 291\\nthen, you may consider the presumption against you,\\nfrom the fact of your rhyming tendency, as called in\\nquestion, and let our friends hear from you, if you\\nthink it worth while. You may possibly think me too\\ncandid, and even accuse me of incivility but let me\\nassure you that I am not half so plain-spoken as\\nNature, nor half so rude as Time. If you prefer the\\nlong jolting of public opinion to the gentle touch\\nof friendship, try it like a man. Only remember this,\\nthat, if a bushel of potatoes is shaken in a market-\\ncart without springs to it, the small potatoes always\\nget to the bottom. Believe me, etc., etc.\\nI always think of verse-writers, when I am in this\\nvein for these are by far the most exacting, eager,\\nself-weighing, restless, querulous, unreasonable liter-\\nary persons one is like to meet with. Is a young\\nman in the habit of writing verses Then the pre-\\nsumption is that he is an inferior person. For, look\\nyou, there are at least nine chances in ten that he\\nwrites poor verses. Now the habit of chewing on\\nrhymes without sense and soul to match them is, like\\nthat of using any other narcotic, at once a proof of\\nfeebleness and a debilitating agent. A young man\\ncan get rid of the presumption against him afforded\\nby his writing verses only by convincing us that they\\nare verses worth writing.\\nAll this sounds hard and rough, but, observe, it is\\nnot addressed to any individual, and of course does\\nnot refer to any reader of these pages. I would\\nalways treat any given young person passing through\\nthe meteoric showers which rain down on the brief\\nperiod of adolescence with great tenderness. God\\nforgive us if we ever speak harshly to young ere a-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0327.jp2"}, "326": {"fulltext": "292 THE AUTOCRAT\\ntures on the strength of these ugly truths, and so,\\nsooner or later, smite some tender-souled poet or\\npoetess on the lips who might have sung the world\\ninto sweet trances, had we not silenced the matin-\\nsong in its first low breathings Just as my heart\\nyearns over .the unloved, just so it sorrows for the\\nungifted who are doomed to the pangs of an un-\\ndeceived self-estimate. I have always tried to be\\ngentle with the most hopeless cases. My experience,\\nhowever, has not been encouraging.\\nX. Y., aet. 1 8, a cheaply-got-up youth, with nar-\\nrow jaws, and broad, bony, cold, red hands, having\\nbeen laughed at by the girls in his village, and got\\nthe mitten n (pronounced mittz n) two or three times,\\nfalls to souling and controlling, and youthing and\\ntruthing, in the newspapers. Sends me some strings\\nof verses, candidates for the Orthopedic Infirmary, all\\nof them, in which I learn for the millionth time one\\nof the following facts either that something about a\\nchime is sublime, or that something about time is sub-\\nlime, or that something about a chime is concerned\\nwith time, or that something about a rhyme is sublime\\nor concerned with time or with a chime. Wishes\\nmy opinion of the same, with advice as to his future\\ncourse.\\nWhat shall I do about it? Tell him the whole\\ntruth, and send him a ticket of admission to the\\nInstitution for Idiots and Feeble-minded Youth?\\nOne does n 1 t like to be cruel, and yet one hates to\\nlie. Therefore one softens down the ugly central\\nfact of donkeyism, recommends study of good\\nmodels, that writing verse should be an incidental\\noccupation only, not interfering with the hoe, the\\nneedle, the lapstone, or the ledger, and, above all,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0328.jp2"}, "327": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 293\\nthat there should be no hurry in printing what is\\nwritten. Not the least use in all this. The poetaster\\nwho has tasted type is done for. He is like the man\\nwho has once been a candidate for the Presidency.\\nHe feeds on the madder of his delusion all his days,\\nand his very bones grow red with the glow of his\\nfoolish fancy. One of these young brains is like a\\nbunch of India crackers once touch fire to it and it\\nis best to keep hands off until it has done popping,\\nif it ever stops. I have two letters on file one is a\\npattern of adulation, the other of impertinence. My\\nreply to the first, containing the best advice I could\\ngive, conveyed in courteous language, had brought\\nout the second. There was some sport in this, but\\nDulness is not commonly a game fish, and only sulks\\nafter he is struck. You may set it down as a truth\\nwhich admits of few exceptions, that those who ask\\nyour opinion really want your praise, and will be con-\\ntented with nothing less.\\nThere is another kind of application to which edi-\\ntors, or those supposed to have access to them, are\\nliable, and which often proves trying and painful.\\nOne is appealed to in behalf of some person in needy\\ncircumstances who wishes to make a living by the\\npen. A manuscript accompanying the letter is offered\\nfor publication. It is not commonly brilliant, too\\noften lamentably deficient. If Rachel s saying is\\ntrue, that fortune is the measure of intelligence,\\nthen poverty is evidence of limited capacity, which it\\ntoo frequently proves to be, notwithstanding a noble\\nexception here and there. Now an editor is a person\\nunder a contract with the public to furnish them with\\nthe best things he can afford for his money. Charity\\nshown by the publication of an inferior article would", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0329.jp2"}, "328": {"fulltext": "294 THE AUTOCRAT\\nbe like the generosity of Claude Duval and the other\\ngentlemen highwaymen, who pitied the poor so much\\nthey robbed the rich to have the means of relieving\\nthem.\\nThough I am not and never was an editor, I know\\nsomething of the trials to which they are submitted.\\nThey have nothing to do but to develop enormous\\ncalluses at every point of contact with authorship.\\nTheir business is not a matter of sympathy, but of\\nintellect. They must reject the unfit productions of\\nthose whom they long to befriend, because it would\\nbe a profligate charity to accept them. One cannot\\nburn his house down to warm the hands even of the\\nfatherless and the widow.\\nTHE PROFESSOR UNDER CHLOROFORM.\\nYou have n t heard about my friend the Profes-\\nsor s first experiment in the use of anaesthetics, have\\nyou?\\nHe was mightily pleased with the reception of that\\npoem of his about the chaise. He spoke to me once\\nor twice about another poem of similar character he\\nwanted to read me, which I told him I would listen to\\nand criticize.\\nOne day, after dinner, he came in with his face tied\\nup, looking very red in the cheeks and heavy about\\nthe eyes. HyYye? he said, and made for an arm-\\nchair, in which he placed first his hat and then his\\nperson, going smack through the crown of the former\\nas neatly as they do the trick at the circus. The\\nProfessor jumped at the explosion as if he had sat\\ndown on one of those small calthrops our grand-\\nfathers used to sow round in the grass when there", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0330.jp2"}, "329": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 295\\nwere Indians about, iron stars, each ray a rusty\\nthorn an inch and a half long, stick through moc-\\ncasins into feet, cripple em on the spot, and give\\nem lockjaw in a day or two.\\nAt the same time he let off one of those big words\\nwhich lie at the bottom of the best man s vocabulary,\\nbut perhaps never turn up in his life, just as every\\nman s hair may stand on end, but in most men it\\nnever does.\\nAfter he had got calm, he pulled out a sheet or two\\nof manuscript, together with a smaller scrap, on which,\\nas he said, he had just been writing an introduction\\nor prelude to the main performance. A certain sus-\\npicion had come into my mind that the Professor was\\nnot quite right, which was confirmed by the way\\nhe talked but I let him begin. This is the way he\\nread it\\nI M the fellah that tole one day\\nThe tale of the won erful one-hoss-shay.\\nWan to hear another Say.\\nFunny, wasn it Made me laugh,\\nI am too modest, I am, by half,\\nMade me laugh \\\\r though I stid split,\\nCahn a fellah like fellah s own wit\\nFellahs keep sayin Well, now, that s nice;\\nDid it once, but cahn do it twice.\\nDon you b lieve the z no more fat\\nLots in the kitch n z good z that.\\nFus -rate throw, n no mistake,\\nHan us the props for another shake\\nKnow I 11 try, n guess I 11 win;\\nHere sh goes for hit m ag in\\nHere I thought it necessary to interpose. Pro-\\nfessor, I said, you are inebriated. The style of", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0331.jp2"}, "330": {"fulltext": "296 THE AUTOCRAT\\nwhat you call your Prelude shows that it was\\nwritten under cerebral excitement. Your articulation\\nis confused. You have told me three times in suc-\\ncession, in exactly the same words, that I was the\\nonly true friend you had in the world that you would\\nunbutton your heart to. You smell distinctly and\\ndecidedly of spirits. I spoke, and paused; tender,\\nbut firm.\\nTwo large tears orbed themselves beneath the Pro-\\nfessor s lids, in obedience to the principle of gravi-\\ntation celebrated in that delicious bit of bladdery\\nbathos, The very law that moulds a tear, with\\nwhich the Edinburgh Review attempted to put\\ndown Master George Gordon when that young man\\nwas foolishly trying to make himself conspicuous.\\nOne of these tears peeped over the edge of the lid\\nuntil it lost its balance, slid an inch and waited for\\nreinforcements, swelled again, rolled down a little\\nfurther, stopped, moved on, and at last fell on\\nthe back of the Professor s hand. He held it up for\\nme to look at, and lifted his eyes, brimful, till they\\nmet mine.\\nI could n t stand it, I always break down when\\nfolks cry in my face, so I hugged him, and said he\\nwas a dear old boy, and asked him kindly what was\\nthe matter with him, and what made him smell so\\ndreadfully strong of spirits.\\nUpset his alcohol lamp, he said, and spilt the\\nalcohol on his legs. That was it. But what had he\\nbeen doing to get his head into such a state? had\\nhe really committed an excess? What was the\\nmatter? Then it came out that he had been taking\\nchloroform to have a tooth out, which had left him\\nin a very queer state, in which he had written the", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0332.jp2"}, "331": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 297\\nPrelude given above, and under the influence of\\nwhich he evidently was still.\\nI took the manuscript from his hands and read\\nthe following continuation of the lines he had begun\\nto read me, while he made up for two or three nights\\nlost sleep as he best might.\\nPARSON TURELL S LEGACY:\\nOR, THE PRESIDENT S OLD ARM-CHAIR.\\nA MATHEMATICAL STORY.\\nFACTS respecting an old arm-chair.\\nAt Cambridge. Is kept in the College there.\\nSeems but little the worse for wear.\\nThat s remarkable when I say-\\nIt was old in President Holyoke s day*\\n(One of his boys, perhaps you know,\\nDied, at one hundred, years ago.)\\nHe took lodging for rain or shine\\nUnder green bed-clothes in 69.\\nKnow old Cambridge Hope you do.\\nBorn there Don t say so I was, too.\\n(Born in a house with a gambrel-roof,\\nStanding still, if you must have proof.\\nGambrel Gambrel Let me beg\\nYou 11 look at a horse s hinder leg,\\nFirst great angle above the hoof,\\nThat s the gambrel hence gambrel-roof.)\\nNicest place that ever was seen,\\nColleges red and Common green,\\nSidewalks brownish with trees between.\\nSweetest spot beneath the skies\\nWhen the canker-worms don t rise,\\nWhen the dust, that sometimes flies\\nInto your mouth and ears and eyes,\\nIn a quiet slumber lies,\\nNot in the shape of unbaked pies\\nSuch as barefoot children prize.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0333.jp2"}, "332": {"fulltext": "298 THE AUTOCRAT\\nA kind of harbor it seems to be,\\nFacing the flow of a boundless sea.\\nRows of gray old Tutors stand\\nRanged like rocks above the sand\\nRolling beneath them, soft and green,\\nBreaks the tide of bright sixteen,\\nOne wave, two waves, three waves, four,\\nSliding up the sparkling floor\\nThen it ebbs to flow no more,\\nWandering off from shore to shore\\nWith its freight of golden ore\\nPleasant place for boys to play\\nBetter keep your girls away\\nHearts get rolled as pebbles do\\nWhich countless fingering waves pursue,\\nAnd every classic beach is strown\\nWith heart-shijped pebbles of blood-red stone.\\nBut this is neither here nor there\\nI m talking about an old arm-chair.\\nYou ve heard, no doubt, of PARSON TURELL\\nOver at Medford he used to dwell\\nMarried one of the Mathers folk\\nGot with his wife a chair of oak,\\nFunny old chair, with seat like wedge,\\nSharp behind and broad front edge,\\nOne of the oddest of human things,\\nTurned all over with knobs and rings,\\nBut heavy and wide, and deep, and grand,\\nFit for the worthies of the land,\\nChief-Justice Sewall a cause to try in,\\nOr Cotton Mather to sit and lie in.\\nParson Turell bequeathed the same\\nTo a certain student, SMITH by name;\\nThese were the terms, as we are told\\nSaide Smith saide Chaire to have and holde\\nWhen he doth graduate, then to passe\\nTo y e oldest Youth in y Senior Classe.\\nOn Payment of (naming a certain sum)\\nu By him to whom y e Chaire shall come", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0334.jp2"}, "333": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 299\\nHe to y c oldest Senior next,\\nAnd soe forever, (thus runs the text,)\\nBut one Crown lesse then he gave to claime,\\nThat being his Debte for use of same.\\nSmith transferred it to one of the BROWNS,\\nAnd took his money, five silver crowns.\\nBrown delivered it up to MOORE,\\nWho paid, it is plain, not five, but four.\\nMoore made over the chair to Lee,\\nWho gave him crowns of silver three.\\nLee conveyed it unto Drew,\\nAnd now the payment, of course, was two.\\nDrew gave up the chair to DUNN,\\nAll he got, as you see, was one.\\nDunn released the chair to Hall,\\nAnd got by the bargain no crown at all.\\nAnd now it passed to a second Brown,\\nWho took it and likewise claimed a crown.\\nWhen Brown conveyed it unto Ware,\\nHaving had one crown, to make it fair,\\nHe paid him two crowns to take the chair;\\nAnd Ware being honest, (as all Wares be,)\\nHe paid one POTTER, who took it, three.\\nFour got Robinson five got Dix\\nJOHNSON primus demanded six;\\nAnd so the sum kept gathering still\\nTill after the battle of Bunker s Hill.\\nWhen paper money became so cheap,\\nFolks would n t count it, but said a heap,\\nA certain Richards, the books declare,\\n(A. M. in 90? I ve looked with care\\nThrough the Triennial, name not there.)\\nThis person, Richards, was offered then\\nEight score pounds, but would have ten;\\nNine, I think, was the sum he took,\\nNot quite certain, but see the book.\\nBy and by the wars were still,\\nBut nothing had altered the Parson s will.\\nThe old arm-chair was solid yet,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0335.jp2"}, "334": {"fulltext": "300 THE AUTOCRAT\\nBut saddled with such a monstrous debt!\\nThings grew quite too bad to bear,\\nPaying such sums to get rid of the chair!\\nBut dead men s fingers hold awful tight,\\nAnd there was the will in black and white,\\nPlain enough for a child to spell.\\nWhat should be done no man could tell,\\nFor the chair was a kind of nightmare curse,\\nAnd every season but made it worse.\\nAs a last resort, to clear the doubt,\\nThey got old Governor Hancock out.\\nThe Governor came, with his Light-horse Troop\\nAnd his mounted truckmen, all cock-a-hoop;\\nHalberds glittered and colors flew,\\nFrench horns whinnied and trumpets blew,\\nThe yellow fifes whistled between their teeth\\nAnd the bumble-bee bass-drums boomed beneath;\\nSo he rode with all his band,\\nTill the President met him, cap in hand.\\nThe Governor hefted the crowns, and said,\\nA will is a will, and the Parson s dead.\\nThe Governor hefted the crowns. Said he,\\nThere is your p int. And here s my fee.\\nThese are the terms you must fulfil,\\nOn such conditions I break the will!\\nThe Governor mentioned what these should be.\\n(Just wait a minute and then you 11 see.)\\nThe President prayed. Then all was still,\\nAnd the Governor rose and BROKE THE WILL!\\nAbout those conditions? Well, now, you go\\nAnd do as I tell you, and then you 11 know.\\nOnce a year, on Commencement-day,\\nIf you ll only take the pains to stay,\\nYou 11 see the President in the CHAIR,\\nLikewise the Governor sitting there.\\nThe President rises both old and young\\nMay hear his speech in a foreign tongue,\\nThe meaning whereof, as lawyers swear,\\nIs this Can I keep this old arm-chair?", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0336.jp2"}, "335": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 30I\\nAnd then his Excellency bows,\\nAs much as to say that he allows.\\nThe Vice-Gub. next is called by name\\nHe bows like t other, which means the same.\\nAnd all the officers round em bow,\\nAs much as to say that they allow.\\nAnd a lot of parchments about the chair\\nAre handed to witnesses then and there,\\nAnd then the lawyers hold it clear\\nThat the chair is safe for another year.\\nGod bless you, Gentlemen Learn to give\\nMoney to colleges while you live.\\nDon t be silly and think you 11 try\\nTo bother the colleges, when you die,\\nWith codicil this, and codicil that,\\nThat Knowledge may starve while Law grows fat;\\nFor there never was pitcher that would n t spill,\\nAnd there s always a flaw in a donkey s will\\nHospitality is a good deal a matter of latitude, I\\nsuspect. The shade of a palm-tree serves an Afri-\\ncan for a hut his dwelling is all door and no walls\\neverybody can come in. To make a morning call on\\nan Esquimaux acquaintance, one must creep through\\na long tunnel his house is all walls and no door, ex-\\ncept such a one as an apple with a worm-hole has.\\nOne might, very probably, trace a regular gradation\\nbetween these two extremes. In cities where the\\nevenings are generally hot, the people have porches\\nat their doors, where they sit, and this is of course, a\\nprovocative to the interchange of civilities. A good\\ndeal, which in colder regions is ascribed to mean dis-\\npositions, belongs really to mean temperature.\\nOnce in a while, even in our Northern cities, at\\nnoon, in a very hot summer s day, one may realize,\\nby a sudden extension in his sphere of conscious-\\nness, how closely he is shut up for the most part.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0337.jp2"}, "336": {"fulltext": "302 THE AUTOCRAT\\nDo you not remember something like this? July,\\nbetween i and 2, p.m., Fahrenheit 96 or there-\\nabout. Windows all gaping, like the mouths of pant-\\ning dogs. Long, stinging cry of a locust comes in\\nfrom a tree, half a mile off; had forgotten there was\\nsuch a tree. Baby s screams from a house several\\nblocks distant never knew there were any babies in\\nthe neighborhood before. Tinman pounding some-\\nthing that clatters dreadfully, very distinct, but\\ndon t remember any tinman s shop near by. Horses\\nstamping on pavement to get off flies. When you\\nhear these four sounds, you may set it down as a\\nwarm day. Then it is that one would like to imitate\\nthe mode of life of the native at Sierra Leone, as\\nsomebody has described it stroll into the market\\nin natural costume, buy a watermelon for a half-\\npenny, split it, and scoop out the middle, sit\\ndown in one half of the empty rind, clap the other\\non one s head, and feast upon the pulp.\\nI see some of the London journals have been\\nattacking some of their literary people for lecturing,\\non the ground of its being a public exhibition of\\nthemselves for money. A popular author can print\\nhis lecture if he deliver it, it is a case of qucestum\\ncor pore, or making profit of his person. None but\\nsnobs do that. Ergo, etc. To this I reply,\\nNegatur minor. Her Most Gracious Majesty, the\\nQueen, exhibits herself to the public as a part of the\\nservice for which she is paid. We do not consider\\nit low-bred in her to pronounce her own speech, and\\nshould prefer it so to hearing it from any other per-\\nson, or reading it. His Grace and his Lordship\\nexhibit themselves very often for popularity, and their\\nhouses every day for money. No, if a man shows", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0338.jp2"}, "337": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 303\\nhimself other than he is, if he belittles himself before\\nan audience for hire, then he acts unworthily. But a\\ntrue word, fresh from the lips of a true man, is worth\\npaying for, at the rate of eight dollars a day, or even\\nof fifty dollars a lecture. The taunt must be an out-\\nbreak of jealousy against the renowned authors who\\nhave the audacity to be also orators. The sub-lieu-\\ntenants (of the press) stick a too popular writer\\nand speaker with an epithet in England, instead of\\nwith a rapier, as in France. Poh All England is\\none great menagerie, and, all at once, the jackal, who\\nadmires the gilded cage of the royal beast, must pro-\\ntest against the vulgarity of the talking-bird s and the\\nnightingale s being willing to become a part of the\\nexhibition\\nTHE LONG PATH.\\n{Last of the Parentheses\\nYes, that was my last walk with the schoolmistress.\\nIt happened to be the end of a term and before the\\nnext began, a very nice young woman, who had been\\nher assistant, was announced as her successor, and\\nshe was provided for elsewhere. So it was no longer\\nthe schoolmistress that I walked with, but Let\\nus not be in unseemly haste. I shall call her the\\nschoolmistress still some of you love her under that\\nname.\\nWhen it became know T n among the boarders that\\ntwo of their number had joined hands to walk down\\nthe long path of life side by side, there was, as you\\nmay suppose, no small sensation. I confess I pitied\\nour landlady. It took her all of a suddin, she said.\\nHad not known that we was keepin company, and", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0339.jp2"}, "338": {"fulltext": "304 THE AUTOCRAT\\nnever mistrusted anything particular. Ma am was\\nright to better herself. Did n t look very rugged to\\ntake care of a femily, but could get hired haalp, she\\ncalc lated. The great maternal instinct came crowd-\\ning up in her soul, just then, and her eyes wandered\\nuntil they settled on her daughter.\\nNo, poor, dear woman, that could not have\\nbeen. But I am dropping one of my internal tears\\nfor you, with this pleasant smile on my face all the\\ntime.\\nThe great mystery of God s providence is the per-\\nmitted crushing out of flowering instincts. Life is\\nmaintained by the respiration of oxygen and of senti-\\nments. In the long catalogue of scientific cruelties\\nthere is hardly anything quite so painful to think of\\nas that experiment of putting an animal under the\\nbell of an air-pump and exhausting the air from it.\\n[I never saw the accursed trick performed. Laus\\nDeo!] There comes a time when the souls of human\\nbeings, women, perhaps, more even than men, begin\\nto faint for the atmosphere of the affections they\\nwere made to breathe. Then it is that Society places\\nits transparent bell-glass over the young woman who\\nis to be the subject of one of its fatal experiments.\\nThe element by which only the heart lives is sucked\\nout of her crystalline prison. Watch her through its\\ntransparent walls; her bosom is heaving; but it is\\nin a vacuum. Death is no. riddle, compared to this.\\nI remember a poor girl s story in the Book of Mar-\\ntyrs. The dry-pan and the gradual fire were the\\nimages that frightened her most. How many have\\nwithered and wasted under as slow a torment in the\\nwalls of that larger Inquisition which we call Civ-\\nilization", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0340.jp2"}, "339": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 305\\nYes, my surface-thought laughs at you, you foolish,\\nplain, over-dressed, mincing, cheaply-organized, self-\\nsaturated young person, whoever you may be, now\\nreading this, little thinking you are what I describe,\\nand in blissful unconsciousness that you are destined\\nto the lingering asphyxia of soul which is the lot of\\nsuch multitudes worthier than yourself. But it is\\nonly my surface-thought which laughs. For that\\ngreat procession of the unloved, who not only wear\\nthe crown of thorns, but must hide it under the locks\\nof brown or gray, under the snowy cap, under the\\nchilling turban, hide it even from themselves,\\nperhaps never know they wear it, though it kills\\nthem, there is no depth of tenderness in my nature\\nthat Pity has not sounded. Somewhere, some-\\nwhere, love is in store for them, the universe\\nmust not be allowed to fool them so cruelly. What\\ninfinite pathos in the small, half-unconscious artifices by\\nwhich unattractive young persons seek to recommend\\nthemselves to the favor of those towards whom our\\ndear sisters, the unloved, like the rest, are impelled\\nby their God-given instincts\\nRead what the singing-women one to ten thou-\\nsand of the suffering women tell us, and think of\\nthe griefs that die unspoken! Nature is in earnest\\nwhen she makes a woman and there are women\\nenough lying in the next churchyard with very com-\\nmonplace blue slate-stones at their head and feet, for\\nwhom it was just as true that all sounds of life\\nassumed one tone of love, as for Letitia Landon, of\\nwhom Elizabeth Browning said it but she could give\\nwords to her grief, and they could not. Will you\\nhear a few stanzas of mine", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0341.jp2"}, "340": {"fulltext": "306 THE AUTOCRAT\\nTHE VOICELESS.\\nWE count the broken lyres that rest\\nWhere the sweet wailing singers slumber,\\nBut o er their silent sister s breast\\nThe wild flowers who will stoop to number\\nA few can touch the magic string,\\nAnd noisy Fame is proud to win them\\nAlas for those that never sing,\\nBut die with all their music in them\\nNay, grieve not for the dead alone\\nWhose song has told their hearts sad story,\\nWeep for the voiceless, who have known\\nThe cross without the crown of glory\\nNot where Leucadian breezes sweep\\nO er Sappho s memory-haunted billow,\\nBut where the glistening night-dews weep\\nOn nameless sorrow s churchyard pillow.\\nO hearts that break and give no sign\\nSave whitening lip and fading tresses,\\nTill Death pours out his cordial wine\\nSlow-dropped from Misery s crushing presses,\\nIf singing breath or echoing chord\\nTo every hidden pang were given,\\nWhat endless melodies were poured,\\nAs sad as earth, as sweet as heaven\\nI hope that our landlady s daughter is not so badly\\noff, after all. That young man from another city,\\nwho made the remark which you remember about\\nBoston State-house and Boston folks, has appeared\\nat our table repeatedly of late, and has seemed to me\\nrather attentive to this young lady. Only last even-\\ning I saw him leaning over her while she was playing\\nthe accordion, indeed, I undertook to join them in\\na song, and got as far as Come rest in this boo-oo,\\nwhen, my voice getting tremulous, I turned off, as one", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0342.jp2"}, "341": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 307\\nsteps out of a procession, and left the basso and\\nsoprano to finish it. I see no reason why this young\\nwoman should not be a very proper match for a man\\nthat laughs about Boston State-house. He can t be\\nvery particular.\\nThe young fellow whom I have so often mentioned\\nwas a little free in his remarks, but very good-natured.\\nSorry to have you go, he said. Schoolma am\\nmade a mistake not to wait for me. Have n t taken\\nanything but mournm fruit at breakfast since I heard\\nof it. Mourning f ririt, said I, what s that\\nHuckleberries and blackberries, said he could n t\\neat in colors, raspberries, currants, and such, after\\na solemn thing like this happening. The conceit\\nseemed to please the young fellow. If you will\\nbelieve it, when we came dow r n to breakfast the next\\nmorning, he had carried it out as follows. You know\\nthose odious little saas-plates that figure so largely\\nat boarding-houses, and especially at taverns, into\\nwhich a strenuous attendant female trowels little\\ndabs, sombre of tint and heterogeneous of composi-\\ntion, which it makes you feel homesick to look at,\\nand into which you poke the elastic coppery teaspoon\\nwith the air of a cat dipping her foot into a wash-tub,\\n(not that I mean to say anything against them,\\nfor, when they are of tinted porcelain or starry many-\\nfaceted crystal, and hold clean bright berries, or pale\\nvirgin honey, or lucent syrups tinct with cinnamon, 1\\nand the teaspoon is of white silver, with the Tower-\\nstamp, solid, but not brutally heavy, as people in\\nthe green stage of millionism will have them, I can\\ndally with their amber semi-fluids or glossy spherules\\nwithout a shiver,) you know these small, deep\\ndishes, I say. When we came down the next morn-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0343.jp2"}, "342": {"fulltext": "308 THE AUTOCRAT\\ning, each of these (two only excepted) was covered\\nwith a broad leaf. On lifting this, each boarder found\\na small heap of solemn black huckleberries. But one\\nof those plates held red currants, and was covered\\nwith a red rose the other held white currants, and\\nwas covered with a white rose. There was a laugh\\nat this at first, and then a short silence, and I noticed\\nthat her lip trembled, and the old gentleman opposite\\nwas in trouble to get at his bandanna handkerchief.\\nWhat was the use in waiting We should\\nbe too late for Switzerland, that season, if we waited\\nmuch longer. The hand I held trembled in mine,\\nand the eyes fell meekly, as Esther bowed herself\\nbefore the feet of Ahasuerus. She had been reading\\nthat chapter, for she looked up, if there was a film\\nof moisture over her eyes there was also the faintest\\nshadow of a distant smile skirting her lips, but not\\nenough to accent the dimples, and said, in her\\npretty, still way, If it please the king, and if I\\nhave found favor in his sight, and the thing seem\\nright before the king, and I be pleasing in his\\neyes\\nI don t remember what King Ahasuerus did or said\\nwhen Esther got just to that point of her soft, humble\\nwords, but I know what I did. That quotation from\\nScripture was cut short, anyhow.- We came to a com-\\npromise on the great question, and the time was set-\\ntled for the last day of summer.\\nIn the mean time, I talked on with our boarders,\\nmuch as usual, as you may see by what I have reported.\\nI must say, I was pleased with a certain tenderness\\nthey all showed towards us, after the first excitement\\nof the news was over. It came out in trivial matters,\\nbut each one, in his or her way, manifested kind-", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0344.jp2"}, "343": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 309\\nness. Our landlady, for instance, when we had\\nchickens, sent the liver instead of the gizzard, with\\nthe wing, for the schoolmistress. This was not an\\naccident the two are never mistaken, though some\\nlandladies appear as if they did not know the differ-\\nence. The whole of the company were even more\\nrespectfully attentive to my remarks than usual.\\nThere was no idle punning, and very little winking\\non the part of that lively young gentleman who, as\\nthe reader may remember, occasionally interposed\\nsome playful question or remark, which could hardly\\nbe considered relevant, except when the least allu-\\nsion was made to matrimony, when he would look at\\nthe landlady s daughter, and wink with both sides of\\nhis face, until she would ask what he was pokin 1 his\\nfun at her for, and if he was n t ashamed of himself.\\nIn fact, they all behaved very handsomely, so that I\\nreally felt sorry at the thought of leaving my board-\\ning-house.\\nI suppose you think, that, because I lived at a plain\\nwidow-woman s plain table, I was of course more or\\nless infirm in point of worldly fortune. You may not\\nbe sorry to learn, that, though not what great mer-\\nchants call very rich, I was comfortable, comforta-\\nble, so that most of those moderate luxuries I\\ndescribed in my verses on Contentment most of\\nthem, I say were within our reach, if we chose to\\nhave them. But I found out that the schoolmistress\\nhad a vein of charity about her, which had hitherto\\nbeen worked on a small silver and copper basis,\\nwhich made her think less, perhaps, of luxuries than\\neven I did, modestly as I have expressed my\\nwishes.\\nIt is a rather pleasant thing to tell a poor young", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0345.jp2"}, "344": {"fulltext": "310 THE AUTOCRAT\\nwoman, whom one has contrived to win without\\nshowing his rent-roll, that she has found what the\\nworld values so highly, in following the lead of her\\naffections. That was an enjoyment I was now ready\\nfor.\\nI began abruptly Do you know that you are a\\nrich young person\\nI know that I am very rich, she said. Heaven\\nhas given me more than I ever asked for I had not\\nthought love was ever meant for me.\\nIt was a woman s confession, and her voice fell to\\na whisper as it threaded the last words.\\nI don t mean that, I said, you blessed little\\nsaint and seraph if there s an angel missing in\\nthe New Jerusalem, inquire for her at this boarding-\\nhouse I don t mean that I mean that I that\\nis, you am are confound it I mean that\\nyou 11 be what most people call a lady of fortune.\\nAnd I looked full in her eyes for the effect of the\\nannouncement.\\nThere was n t any. She said she was thankful\\nthat I had what would save me from drudgery, and\\nthat some other time I should tell her about it. I\\nnever made a greater failure in an attempt to produce\\na sensation.\\nSo the last day of summer came. It was our choice\\nto go to the church, but we had a kind of reception\\nat the boarding-house. The presents were all ar-\\nranged, and among them none gave more pleasure\\nthan the modest tributes of our fellow-boarders, for\\nthere was not one, I believe, who did not send some-\\nthing. The landlady would insist on making an.\\nelegant bride-cake, with her own hands to which\\nMaster Benjamin Franklin wished to add certain", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0346.jp2"}, "345": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 311\\nembellishments out of his private funds, namely, a\\nCupid in a mouse-trap, done in white sugar, and two\\nminiature flags with the stars and stripes, which had\\na very pleasing effect, I assure you. The landlady s\\ndaughter sent a richly bound copy of T upper s Poems.\\nOn a blank leaf was the following, written in a very\\ndelicate and careful hand\\nPresented to by\\nOn the eve ere her union in holy matrimony.\\nMay sunshine ever beam o er her.\\nEven the poor relative thought she must do some-\\nthing, and sent a copy of The Whole Duty of Man,\\nbound in very attractive variegated sheepskin, the\\nedges nicely marbled. From the divinity-student\\ncame the loveliest English edition of Keble^s Chris-\\ntian Year. I opened it, when it came, to the Fourth\\nSunday in Lent, 1 and read that angelic poem, sweeter\\nthan anything I can remember since Xavier s My\\nGod, I love thee. I am not a Churchman, I\\ndon t believe in planting oaks in flower-pots, but\\nsuch a poem as The Rosebud makes one s heart a\\nproselyte to the culture it grows from. Talk about it\\nas much as you like, one s breeding shows itself\\nnowhere more than in his religion. A man should\\nbe a gentleman in his hymns and prayers the fond-\\nness for scenes, among vulgar saints, contrasts so\\nmeanly with that\\nGod only and good angels look\\nBehind the blissful scene,\\nand that other,\\n11 He could not trust his melting soul\\nBut in his Maker s sight,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0347.jp2"}, "346": {"fulltext": "312 THE AUTOCRAT\\nthat I hope some of them will see this, and read the\\npoem, and profit by it.\\nMy laughing and winking young friend undertook\\nto procure and arrange the flowers for the table, and\\ndid it with immense zeal. I never saw him look hap-\\npier than when he came in, his hat saucily on one\\nside, and a cheroot in his mouth, with a huge bunch\\nof tea-roses, which he said were for Madam.\\nOne of the last things that came was an old square\\nbox, smelling of camphor, tied and sealed. It bore,\\nin faded ink, the marks, Calcutta, 1805. On open-\\ning it, we found a white Cashmere shawl, with a very\\nbrief note from the dear old gentleman opposite, say-\\ning that he had kept this some years, thinking he\\nmight want it, and many more, not knowing what to\\ndo with it, that he had never seen it unfolded since\\nhe was a young supercargo, and now, if she would\\nspread it on her shoulders, it would make him feel\\nyoung to look at it.\\nPoor Bridget, or Biddy our red-armed maid of all\\nwork What must she do but buy a small copper\\nbreast-pin and put it under Schoolma^nVs plate\\nthat morning, at breakfast And Schoolma am would\\nwear it, though I made her cover it, as well as I\\ncould, with a tea-rose.\\nIt was my last breakfast as a boarder, and I could\\nnot leave them in utter silence.\\nGood-by, I said, my dear friends, one and all of\\nyou I have been long with you, and I find it hard\\nparting. I have to thank you for a thousand courte-\\nsies, and above all for the patience and indulgence\\nwith which you have listened to me when I have tried\\nto instruct or amuse you. My friend the Professor,\\n(who, as well as my friend the Poet, is unavoidably", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0348.jp2"}, "347": {"fulltext": "OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 313\\nabsent on this interesting occasion) has given me\\nreason to suppose that he would occupy my empty\\nchair about the first of January next. If he comes\\namong you, be kind to him. as you have been to me.\\nMay the Lord bless you all And we shook hands\\nall round the table.\\nHalf an hour afterwards the breakfast things and the\\ncloth were gone. I looked up and down the length\\nof the bare boards over which I had so often uttered\\nmy sentiments and experiences and Yes, I am a\\nman, like another.\\nAll sadness vanished, as, in the midst of these old\\nfriends of mine, whom you know, and others a little\\nmore up in the world, perhaps, to whom I have not\\nintroduced you, I took the schoolmistress before the\\naltar from the hands of the old gentleman who used\\nto sit opposite, and who would insist on giving her\\naway.\\nAnd now we two are walking the long path in\\npeace together. The schoolmistress finds her skill\\nin teaching called for again, without going abroad to\\nseek little scholars. Those visions of mine have all\\ncome true.\\nI hope you all love me none the less for anything I\\nhave told you. Farewell", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0349.jp2"}, "348": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0350.jp2"}, "349": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\nAbuse, all good attempts get,\\n78.\\n^Estivation, 265.\\nAffinities and antipathies, 221.\\nAge, softening effects of, 79;\\nbegins when fire goes down,\\n150; Roman age of enlist-\\nment, 151 its changes a\\nstring of insults, 153.\\nA good time going, 224.\\nAir-pump, animal under, 304.\\nAlbum Verses, 15.\\nAlps, effect of looking at, 268.\\nAmerican, the Englishman re-\\ninforced (a noted person\\nthinks), 240.\\nAnalogies, power of seeing,\\n80.\\nAnatomist s Hymn, The, 174.\\nAnglo-Saxons die out in Amer-\\nica (Dr. Knox thinks), 240.\\nAnniversaries dreaded by the\\nProfessor, and why, 223.\\nArguments, what are those\\nwhich spoil conversation, 10.\\nAristocracy, the forming Amer-\\nican, 261; pluck the back-\\nbone of, 263.\\nArtists apt to act mechanically\\non their brains, 188.\\nAssessors, Heaven s, effect of\\nmeeting one of them, 90.\\nAsylum, the, 249.\\nAudience, average intellect of,\\n139 aspect of, 140 a com-\\npound vertebrate, 141.\\nAudiences, very nearly alike,\\n140 good feeling and intel-\\nligence of, 141.\\nAuthor does not hate anybody,\\n220.\\nAuthors, jockeying of, 34;\\npurr if skilfully handled, 47\\nashamed of being funny, 47\\nhate those who call them\\ndroll, 47 always praise after\\nfifty, 79.\\nAutomatic principles appear\\nmore prevalent the more we\\nstudy, 83 mental actions,\\n133-\\nAverages, their awful uniform-\\nity, 140.\\nB.\\nBabies, old, 154.\\nBacon, Lord, 273.\\nBalzac, 149, 273.\\nBeauties, vulgar, their virtuous\\nindignation on being looked\\nat, 195.\\n315", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0351.jp2"}, "350": {"fulltext": "3i6\\nINDEX.\\nBeliefs like ancient drinking-\\nglasses, 14.\\nBell-glass, young woman un-\\nder, 304.\\nBenicia Boy, not challenged\\nby the Professor, and why,\\n172.\\nBenjamin Franklin, the land-\\nlady s son, 12, 50, 55, 77, 84,\\n114, 134, 247, 310.\\nBerkshire, 237, 247, 267.\\nBerne, leap from the platform\\nat, 283.\\nBlake, Mr., his Jesse Rural, 88.\\nBlondes, two kinds of, 184.\\nBlooded horses, 34.\\nBoat, the Professor s own, de-\\nscription of, 168.\\nBoating, the Professor de-\\nscribes his, 164.\\nBoats, the Professor s fleet of,\\n164.\\nBooks, hating, 60; society a\\nstrong solution of, 60; the\\nmind sometimes feels above\\nthem, 130; a man s and a\\nwoman s reading, 277.\\nBores, all men are, except\\nwhen we want them, 6.\\nBoston, seven wise men of,\\ntheir sayings, 123.\\nBowie-knife, the Roman gla-\\ndius modified, 18.\\nBrain, upper and lower stories\\nof, 179; attempts to reach\\nmechanically, 187.\\nBrains, seventy-year clocks,\\n186 containing ovarian\\neggs, how to know them,\\n197.\\nBridget becomes a caryatid,\\n99; presents a breast-pin,\\n312.\\nBrowne, Sir Thomas, admira-\\nble sentiment of, 90.\\nBrowning, Elizabeth, 305.\\nBruce s Address, alteration of,\\n44.\\nBulbous-headed people, 5.\\nBunker-hill monument, rock-\\ning of, 285.\\nByron, his line about striking\\nthe electric chain, 76.\\nCache, children make instinct-\\nively, 206.\\nCalamities, grow old rapidly\\nin proportion to their mag-\\nnitude, 29; the recollection\\nof, returns after the first sleep\\nas if new, 30.\\nCalculating machine, 8 power,\\nleast human of qualities, 8.\\nCall him not old, 173.\\nCampbell, misquotation of,\\n69.\\nCanary-bird, swimming move-\\nments of, 83.\\nCant terms, use of, 258.\\nCarlyle, his article on Boswell,\\n282.\\nCarpenter s bench, Author\\nworks at, 180.\\nChambers Street, 274.\\nChamouni, 269.\\nCharacteristics, Carlyle s arti-\\ncle, 53.\\nCharles Street, 275.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0352.jp2"}, "351": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n317\\nChaucer compared to an\\nEaster-Beurre, 80.\\nChess-playing, conversation\\ncompared to, 62.\\nChildren, superstitious little\\nwretches and spiritual cow-\\nards, 205.\\nChloroform, Professor, the,\\nunder, 294.\\nChryso-aristocracy, our, the\\nweak point in, 262.\\nCicero de Senectute, Professor\\nreads, 150; his treatise de\\nSenectute, 156.\\nCincinnati, how not to pro-\\nnounce, 287.\\nCircles, intellectual, 268.\\nCities, some of the smaller\\nones charming, 126 leaking\\nof nature into, 275.\\nClergy rarely hear sermons,\\n26/\\nClergymen, their patients not\\nalways truthful, 84.\\nClock of the Andover Semi-\\nnary, 287.\\nCloset full of sweet smells, 76.\\nClubs, advantages of, 61.\\nCoat, constructed on a priori\\ngrounds, 65.\\nCobb, Sylvanus, Jr., 16.\\nCoffee, 248, 250.\\nCold-blooded creatures, 129.\\nColeridge, his remark on liter-\\nary men s needing a profes-\\nsion, 180.\\nColiseum, visit to, 282.\\nComet, the late, 22.\\nCommencement day, like the\\nstart for the Derby, 92.\\nCommon sense, as we under-\\nstand it, 14.\\nCommunications received by\\nthe Author, 288.\\nCompany, the sad, 249.\\nConceit bred by little localized\\npowers and narrow streaks\\nof knowledge, 8 natural to\\nthe mind as a centre to a\\ncircle, 9 uses of, 9 makes\\npeople cheerful, 9.\\nConstitution, American female,\\n40 in choice of summer res-\\nidence, 267.\\nContentment, 270.\\nControversy, hydrostatic para-\\ndox of, 112.\\nConundrums indulged in by\\nthe company, 253 rebuked\\nby the Author, 254.\\nConversation, very serious\\nmatter, 5; with some per-\\nsons weakening, 5; great\\nfaults of, 10; spoiled by cer-\\ntain kinds of argument, 10\\na code of finalities necessary\\nto, 10; compared to Italian\\ngame of mora, 14; shapes\\nour thoughts, 25 B/air-ing\\nof reported, 37 one of the\\nfine arts, 49; compared to\\nchess-playing, 62; depends\\non how much is taken for\\ngranted, 62; of Lecturers,\\n62.\\nCookeson, William, of All-\\nSouls College, 85.\\nCopley, his portrait of the mer-\\nchant-uncle, 20 of the great-\\ngrandmother, 20.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0353.jp2"}, "352": {"fulltext": "3i8\\nINDEX.\\n11 Correspondent, our For-\\neign, 116.\\nCounterparts of people in\\nmany different cities, 138.\\nCowper, 185 his lines on his\\nmother s portrait, 283; his\\nlines on the Royal George,\\n283.\\nCreed, the Author s, 86.\\nCrinoline, Otaheitan, 18.\\nCrow and king-bird, 27.\\nCurls, flat circular, on temples,\\n17.\\nD.\\nDandies, uses of, 259; illus-\\ntrious ones, 260, 261 men\\nare born, 261.\\nDavidson, Lucretia and Mar-\\ngaret, 185.\\nDeacon s Masterpiece, The,\\n254.\\nDeath as a form of rhetoric,\\n131 introduction to, 210.\\nDeerfield, elm in, 287.\\nDevizes, woman struck dead\\nat, 284.\\nDighton Rock, inscription on,\\n248.\\nDimensions, three, of solids,\\nhandling ideas as if they\\nhad, 82.\\nDivinity, doctors of, many\\npeople qualified to be, 26.\\nDivinity Student, the, 1, 39, 80,\\n82, 84, 86, 99, 108, 123, 124,\\n131, 134, 182, 188, 193, 197,\\n205, 221, 231, 253, 260, 263,\\n3\\nDoctor, old, his catalogue of\\nbooks for light reading,\\n157.\\nDrinking-glasses, ancient, be-\\nliefs like, 14.\\nDroll, authors dislike to be\\ncalled, 47.\\nDrunkenness often a punish-\\nment, 191.\\nDull persons great comforts at\\ntimes, 5 happiness of find-\\ning we are, 59.\\nE.\\nEars, voluntary movement of,\\n8.\\nEarth, not ripe yet, 22.\\nEarthquake, to launch Levia-\\nthan, 70.\\nEblis, hall of, 249.\\nEditors, appeals to their be-\\nnevolence, 293; must get\\ncalluses, 294.\\nEducation, professional, most\\nof our people have had, 26.\\nEggs, Ovarian, intellectual,\\n196.\\nElm, American, 234; the great\\nJohnston, 235 Hatfield, 236\\nSheffield, 237 West Spring-\\nfield, 236; Pittsfield, 238;\\nNewburyport, 238; Cohas-\\nset, 238 English and Amer-\\nican, comparison of, 239.\\nElms, Springfield, 236; first\\nclass, 236 second class, 237\\nMr. Paddock s row of, 241\\nin Andover, 286; in Nor-\\nwich, 287 in Deerfield, 287", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0354.jp2"}, "353": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n319\\nin Lancaster, two very large\\nones. See Lancaster.\\nEmotions strike us obliquely,\\n282.\\nEpithets follow isothermal\\nlines, 113.\\nErasmus, colloquies of, 85;\\nnaufragium or shipwreck of,\\n85-\\nErectile heads, men of genius\\nwith, 6.\\nEssays, diluted, 64.\\nEssex Street, 274.\\nEsther, Queen, and Ahasue-\\nrus, 308.\\nEternity, remembering one s\\nself in, 201.\\nEverlasting, the herb, its sug-\\ngestions, 74.\\nExercise, scientifically exam-\\nined, 167.\\nEx pede Herculem, 108.\\nExperience, a solemn fowl;\\nher eggs, 273.\\nExperts in crime and suffering,\\nF.\\nFaces, negative, 140.\\nFacts, horror of generous\\nminds for what are com-\\nmonly called, 4; the brute\\nbeasts of the intelligence, 4\\nmen of, 142.\\nFamily, man of, 19.\\nFancies, youthful, 269.\\nFarewell, the Author s, 313.\\nFault found with everything\\nworth saying, no.\\nFeeling that we have been in\\nthe same condition before,\\n70; modes of explaining it,\\n71, 72.\\nFeelings, every person s, have\\na front-door and a side-door,\\n127.\\nFifty cents, a figure of rhetoric,\\n264.\\nFlash phraseology, 259.\\nFlavor, nothing knows its own,\\n53-\\nFleet of our companions, 91.\\nFlowers, why poets talk so\\nmuch of, 230.\\nFranklin-place, front-yards in,\\n274.\\nFrench exercise, Benj. Frank-\\nlin s, 55, 135.\\nFriends, shown up by story-\\ntellers, 58.\\nFriendship does not authorize\\none to say disagreeable\\nthings, 59.\\nFront-door and side-door to\\nour feelings, 127.\\nFruit, green, intellectual, these\\nUnited States a great mar-\\nket for, 263 mourning, 307.\\nFuel, carbon and bread and\\ncheese are equally, 156.\\nFunny, authors ashamed of\\nbeing, 47.\\nFust-rate and other vulgar-\\nisms, 26.\\nG.\\nGeese for swans, 275.\\nGenius, a weak flavor of, 3\\nthe advent of, a surprise, 53.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0355.jp2"}, "354": {"fulltext": "320\\nINDEX.\\nGift-enterprises, Nature s, 52.\\nGilbert, the French poet, 185.\\nGil Bias, the archbishop served\\nhim right, 48; motto from,\\n200.\\nGilpin, Daddy, 233.\\nGirls story in Book of Mar-\\ntyrs, 304 two young, their\\nfall from gallery, 282.\\nGrzzard and Liver never con-\\nfounded, 309.\\nGood-by, the Author s, 312.\\nGrammar, higher law in, 37.\\nGravestones, transplanting of,\\n241.\\nGreen fruit, intellectual, 263.\\nGround-bait, literary, 35.\\nH.\\nHabit, what its essence is, 155.\\nHand, the great wooden, 206.\\nHaow whether final, 108.\\nHat, the old gentleman op-\\nposite s white, 177; the au-\\nthor s youthful Leghorn, 177.\\nHats, aphorisms concerning,\\n178.\\nHearts, inscriptions on, 248.\\nHeresy, burning for, experts in,\\nwould be found in any large\\ncity, 31.\\nHistorian, the quotation from,\\non punning, 12.\\nHoney, emptying the jug of,\\n17.\\nHorses, what they feed on, 167.\\nHospitality depends on lati-\\ntude, 301.\\nHot day, sounds of, 302.\\nHotel de I Univers et des Etats\\nUnis, 124.\\nHousatonic, the Professor s\\ndwelling by, 246.\\nHouses, dying out of, 243;\\nkilled by commercial\\nsmashes, 243; shape them-\\nselves upon our natures, 244.\\nHouse, the body we live in,\\n243; Irishman s at Cam-\\nbridgeport, 19.\\nHouynhnm Gazette, 229.\\nHuckleberries, hail-storm of,\\n231.\\nHull, how Pope s line is read\\nthere, 127.\\nHuma, story of, 7.\\nHumanities, cumulative, 21.\\nHyacinth, blue, 230, 231.\\nHysterics, 88.\\nI.\\nIce in wine-glass, tinkling like\\ncow-bells, 75.\\nIdeas, age of, in our memor-\\nies, 29 handling them as if\\nthey had the three dimen-\\nsions of solids, 82.\\nImponderables move the\\nworld, 134.\\nImpromptus, 15.\\nInherited traits show very\\nearly, 195.\\nInsanity, the logic of an ac-\\ncurate mind overtasked, 38\\nbecomes a duty under cer-\\ntain circumstances, 39.\\nInstincts, crushing out of, 304.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0356.jp2"}, "355": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n321\\nIntemperance, the Author dis-\\ncourses of, 188.\\nIntermittent, poetical, 250.\\nInventive Power, economically\\nused, 240.\\nIris, cut the yellow hair, 69.\\nIrishman s house at Cam-\\nbridgeport, 19.\\nIsland, the, 36.\\nJailers and undertakers mag-\\nnetize people, 31.\\nJaundice, as a token of affec-\\ntion, 131.\\nJohn and Thomas, their dia-\\nlogue of six persons, 51.\\nJohn, the young fellow- called,\\n52, 62, 71, jj, 99, no, 174,\\n188, 193, 194, 209, 219, 232,\\n253. 258, 264, 307, 312.\\nJohnson, Dr., his remark on\\nattacks, 112 lines to Thrale,\\nad-\\njudgment, standard of, how to\\nestablish, 14.\\nK.\\nKeats, 185.\\nKeble, his poem, 311.\\nKerridge, and other charac-\\nteristic expressions, 107.\\nKirke White, 185.\\nKnowledge, little streaks of\\nspecialized, breed conceit,\\n8.\\nKnuckles, marks of, on broken\\nglass, 107.\\nLady, the real, not sensitive if\\nlooked at, 195.\\nLady-boarder, the, with auto-\\ngraph book, 5.\\nLandlady, 50, jj y 105, 303,\\n310.\\nLandlady s daughter, 15, 17,\\n54, 137, 138, 222, 232, 306,\\n3\\nLatter-day Warnings, 22.\\nLaughter and tears, wind and\\nwater-power, 88.\\nLecturers, grooves in their\\nminds, 62 talking in streaks\\nout of their lectures, 63;\\nget homesick, 142; attacks\\nupon, 302.\\nLectures, feelings connected\\nwith their delivery, 138 pop-\\nular, what they should have,\\n139; old, 139; what they\\nought to be, 139.\\nLeibnitz, remark of, 1.\\nLes Societes Polyphysiophilo-\\nsophiques, 135.\\nLetter to an ambitious young\\nman, 289.\\nLetters with various requests,\\n68.\\nLeviathan, launch of, 70.\\nLife, experience of, 29; com-\\npared to transcript of it, 57\\ncompared to books, 132;\\ndivisible into fifteen periods,\\n154; early, revelations con-\\ncerning, 203 its experiences,\\n278.\\nLilac leaf buds, 230, 231.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0357.jp2"}, "356": {"fulltext": "322\\nINDEX.\\nLion, the leaden one at Aln-\\nwick, 283.\\nListon thought himself a tragic\\nactor, 89.\\nLiterary pickpockets, 49.\\nLiving Temple, The, 174.\\nLochiel rocked in cradle when\\nold, 79.\\nLog, using old schoolmates as,\\nto mark our rate of sailing,\\n91.\\nLogical minds, what they do,\\n13.\\nLong path, the, 303; walking\\ntogether, 313.\\nLandon, Letitia, 305.\\nLove-capacity, 272.\\nLove, introduction to, 211; its\\nrelative solubility in the\\nspeech of men and women,\\n273.\\nLudicrous, a divine idea, 90.\\nLuniversary, return of, 47.\\nLyric conception hits like a\\nbullet, 97.\\nM.\\nMacaulay-flowers of Litera-\\nture, 13.\\nMagazine, Northern, got\\nup by the Come-Outers,\\n119.\\nMaine, willows in, 288.\\nMan of family, 19.\\nMap, photograph of, on the\\nwall, 245.\\nMare Rubrum, 121.\\nMarigold, its suggestions, 73.\\nMather, Cotton, 64, 298.\\nMeerschaums and poems must\\nbe kept and used, ioo, 102.\\nMen, self-made, 19; all, love\\nall women, 222.\\nMesalliance, dreadful conse-\\nquences of, 216.\\nMiddle-aged female, takes of-\\nfence, 28.\\nMillionism, green stage of, 307.\\nMilton compared to a Saint\\nGermain pear, etc., 80.\\nMind, automatic actions of,\\n133.\\nMinds, classification of, 1;\\njerky ones fatiguing, 5 log-\\nical, what they do, 13; calm\\nand clear best basis for love\\nand friendship, 130 satura-\\ntion point of, 131.\\nMinister, my old, his remarks\\non want of attention, 28.\\nMisery, a great one puts a new\\nstamp on us, 31.\\nMisfortune, professional deal-\\ners in, 31.\\nMisprints, 45.\\nMolasses, Melasses, or Mo-\\nlossa s, 64.\\nMora, Italian game of, conver-\\nsation compared to, 14.\\nMoralist, the great, quotation\\nfrom, on punning, 12.\\nMountains and sea, 265.\\nMourning fruit, 307.\\nMug, the bitten, 201.\\nMuliebrity and femineity in\\nvoice, 217.\\nMusa, 251.\\nMuscular powers, when they\\ndecline, 156.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0358.jp2"}, "357": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n323\\nMuse, the, 251.\\nMusicians, odd movements of,\\nS3-\\nMusic, its effects different from\\nthought, 131.\\nMutual Admiration, Society\\nOf, 2.\\nMy Lady s Cheek (verse) 153.\\nMyrtle Street, discovered by\\nthe Professor, 166 descrip-\\ntion of, 166 garden in, 274.\\nN.\\nNahant, 267.\\nNature, Amen of, 231 leaking\\nof, into cities, 275.\\nNautilus, the Chambered, 95.\\nNerve-playing, masters of, 128.\\nNerve-tapping, 5.\\nNerve, olfactory, connection\\nof, with brain, 74.\\nNewton, his speech about the\\nchild and the pebbles, 81,\\nNorwich, elms in, 287 how\\nnot to pronounce, 287.\\nNovel, one, everybody has\\nstuff for, 57 why I do not\\nwrite, 57.\\nO.\\nOak, its one mark of suprem-\\nacy, 234.\\nOcean, the two men walking\\nby, 81.\\nOld age, starting point of, 151\\nallegory of, 151 approach\\nof, 152; habits the great\\nmark of, 155 how nature\\ncheats us into, 155 in the\\nProfessor s contemporaries,\\n160; remedies for, 163; ex-\\ncellent remedy for, 173.\\nOld Gentlemen opposite, the,\\n3, 5o, 59, 84, 98, 174,\\n177, 178, 197, 210, 212, 312,\\n313.\\nOld man, a person startled\\nwhen he first hears himself\\ncalled so, 154.\\nOld men, always poets if they\\never have been, 99.\\nOmens, of childhood, 206,\\nOne-hoss-shay, The Wonder-\\nful, 254.\\n11 Our Sumatra Correspond-\\nence, 116.\\nP.\\nPail, the white pine, of water,\\n202.\\nParallelism, without identity,\\nin oriental and occidental\\nnature, 240.\\nParentheses, dismount the\\nreader, 177.\\nParson Turell s Legacy, 297.\\nPath, the long, 279.\\nPears, men are like, in coming\\nto maturity, 80.\\nPhosphorus, its suggestions,\\n13-\\nPhotographs of the Past, 245.\\nPhrases, complimentary, ap-\\nplied to authors, what deter-\\nmines them, 113.\\nPie, the young fellow treats dis-\\nrespectfully, 77 the Author", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0359.jp2"}, "358": {"fulltext": "324\\nINDEX.\\ntakes too large a piece of,\\n78.\\nPie-crust, poems, etc., written\\nunder influence of, 78.\\nPillar, the Hangman s, 284.\\nPinkney, William, 6.\\nPirates, Danish, their skins on\\nchurch doors, 105.\\nPlagiarism, Author s virtuous\\ndisgust for, 145.\\nPocket-book fever, 208.\\nPoem with the slight altera-\\ntions, 44.\\nPoems, alterations of, 44 have\\na body and a soul, 97 green\\nstate of, 100; porous like\\nmeerschaums, 102 post-\\nprandial, the Professor s\\nidea of, 224.\\nPoet, my friend the, 97, 127,\\n173, 179, 183, 223, 224,\\n226.\\nPoets love verses while warm\\nfrom their minds, 99 two\\nkinds of, 184; apt to act\\nmechanically on their brains,\\n187.\\nPoets and artists, why like to\\nbe prone to abuse of stimu-\\nlants, 192.\\nPoetaster who has tasted type,\\n293-\\nPoetical impulse external, 98.\\nPoetry uses white light for its\\nmain object, 48.\\nPolish lance, 18.\\nPoor relation in black bomba-\\nzine, 28, 84, 99, 209, 264,\\nPoplar, murder of one, 235.\\nPort-chuck, his vivacious sally,\\n178.\\nPortsmouth, how not to pro-\\nnounce, 287.\\nPowers, little localized, breed\\nconceit, 8.\\nPreacher, dull, might lapse\\ninto quasi heathenism, 26.\\nPrelude, the Professor s,\\n296.\\nPrentiss, Dame, 201.\\nPride in a woman, 273.\\nPrince Rupert s drops of liter-\\nature, 35.\\nPrinciple, against obvious\\nfacts, 54.\\nPrivate Journal, extract from\\nmy, 248.\\nPrivate theatricals, 40.\\nProbabilities provided with\\nbuffers, 54.\\nProfession, literary men should\\nhave a, 180.\\nProfessor, my friend the, 23,\\n70, 78, 87, 106, 112, 119, 148,\\n149 et seq., 174, 179 et seq.,\\n194, 196, 226, 243 et seq.,\\n254, 341 etseq.\\nPrologue, 42.\\nPublic Garden, 275.\\nPugilists, when stale, 156.\\nPunning, quotations respect-\\ning, 12.\\nPuns, law respecting, 10 what\\nthey consist in, 48 surrep-\\ntitiously circulated among\\nthe company, 253.\\nPupil of the eye, simile con-\\ncerning, the Author dis-\\ngorges, 144.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0360.jp2"}, "359": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n325\\nQ.\\nQuantity, false, Sidney Smith s\\nremark on, 109.\\nRace of life, the, report of run-\\nning in, 92.\\nRaces, our sympathies go nat-\\nurally with higher, 64.\\nRacing, not republican, 32.\\nRaphael and Michael Angelo,\\n205.\\nRaspail s proof-sheets, 23.\\nRat des Salons a, Lecture, 55.\\nReading for the sake of talk-\\ning, 133; a man s and a\\nwoman s, 277.\\nRecollections, trivial, essential\\nto our identity, 210.\\nRelatives, opinions of, as to a\\nman s powers, 52.\\nRepeating one s self, 6.\\nReputation, living on contin-\\ngent, 59.\\nReputations, conventional, 35.\\nRetiring at night, etiquette\\nof, 209.\\nRhode-Island, near what place,\\n235-\\nRhymes, old, we get tired of,\\n17; bad to chew upon,\\n291.\\nRidiculous, love of, dangerous\\nto literary men, 88.\\nRoses, damask, 229, 231.\\nRowing, nearest approach to\\nflying, 169 its excellencies,\\n169 its joys, 169.\\nRoyal George, the, Cow-\\nper s poem on, 283.\\nRum, the term applied by low\\npeople to noble fluids, 191.\\nS.\\nSaas-plates, 307.\\nSaddle-leather compared to\\nsole-leather, 166.\\nSahtisfahction, a tepid ex-\\npression, 104.\\nSaint Genevieve, visit to\\nchurch of, 282.\\nSaints and their Bodies, an\\nadmirable Essay, 164.\\nSantorini s laughing-muscle,\\n194.\\nSaving one s thoughts, 25.\\nSchoolmistress, the, 30, 39, 59,\\n84, 106, 115, 123, 124, 134,\\n183, 184, 203 et seq., 209,\\n212, 229, 240, 247, 268, 309\\netseq., 313.\\nScience, the Professor s in-\\nward smile at her airs,\\n179.\\nScientific certainty has\\nspring in it, 53.\\nScientific knowledge partakes\\nof insolence, 53.\\nScraping the floor, effect of,\\n48.\\nSea and Mountains, 265.\\nSeed capsule (of poems), 201.\\nSelf-determining power, limi-\\ntation of, 86.\\nSelf-esteem, with good ground,\\nis imposing, 9.\\nSelf-made men, 19.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0361.jp2"}, "360": {"fulltext": "326\\nINDEX.\\nSermon, proposed, of the Au-\\nthor, 84.\\nSermons, feeble, hard to listen\\nto, but may act inductively,\\n27.\\nSentiments, all splashed and\\nstreaked with, 231.\\nSeven Wise Men of Boston,\\ntheir sayings, 123.\\nShakspeare, old copy, with\\nflakes of pie-crust between\\nits leaves, 76.\\nShawl, the Indian blanket, 18.\\nShortening weapons and\\nlengthening boundaries, 18.\\nShip, the, and martin-house,\\n208.\\nShips, afraid of, 206.\\nShop-blinds, iron, produce a\\nshiver, 269.\\nSierra Leone, native of, en-\\njoying himself, 302.\\nSight, pretended failure of, in\\nold persons, 173.\\nSimilitude and analogies,\\nocean of, 82.\\nSin, its tools and their handle,\\n123 introduction to, 210.\\nSmell, as connected with the\\nmemory, etc., 73.\\nSmile, the terrible, 193.\\nSmith, Sidney, abused by\\nLondon Quarterly Review,\\n89.\\nSneaking fellows to be re-\\ngarded tenderly, 221.\\nSocieties of Mutual Admira-\\ntion, 2.\\nSoul, its concentric envelopes,\\n243-\\nSounds, suggestive ones, 213,\\n214.\\nSparring, the Professor sees a\\nlittle, and describes it, 171.\\nSpoken language plastic, 25.\\nSporting men, virtues of, 34.\\nSpring has come, 197.\\nSquirming when old false-\\nhoods are turned over,\\n112.\\nStage-Ruffian, the, 50.\\nStars, the, and the earth,\\na little book, referred to,\\n268.\\nState House, Boston, the hub\\nof the solar system, 124.\\nStatoo of deceased infant,\\n108.\\nStillicidium, sentimental, 77.\\nStone, flat, turning over of,\\nno.\\nStranger who came with young\\nfellow called John, 124,\\n306.\\nStrap my man John s\\nstory, 105.\\nStrasburg Cathedral, rocking\\nof its spire, 285.\\nStriking in of thoughts and\\nfeelings, 132.\\nStuart, his two portraits, 20.\\nSummer residence, choice of,\\n267.\\nSun and Shadow, 38.\\nSunday mornings, how the\\nAuthor shows his respect for,\\n174.\\nSwans, taking his ducks for,\\n275-\\nSwift, property restored to, 145.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0362.jp2"}, "361": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n327\\nSwords, Roman and Ameri-\\ncan, 18.\\nSylva Novanglica, 238.\\nSyntax, Dr., 233.\\nT.\\nTalent, a little makes people\\njealous, 3.\\nTalkers, real, 142.\\nTalking like playing at a mark\\nwith an engine, 26 one of\\nthe fine arts, 50.\\nTeapot, literary, 60.\\nThe last Blossom, 161.\\nThe old Man Dreams, 65.\\nThe two Armies, 227.\\nThe Voiceless, 306.\\nTheological students, we all\\nare, 27.\\nThought revolves in cycles, 70\\nif uttered, is a kind of excre-\\ntion, 196.\\nThoughts may be original,\\nthough often before uttered,\\n7 saving, 25 shaped in con-\\nversation, 25 tell worst to\\nminister and best to young\\npeople, 28 my best seem\\nalways old, 29; real, knock\\nout somebody s wind, 112.\\nThought-sprinklers, 25.\\nTime and space, 268.\\nTobacco-stain may strike into\\ncharacter, 101.\\nTobacco-stopper, lovely one,\\n101.\\nTowns, small, not more mod-\\nest than cities, 126.\\nToy, author carves a wonder-\\nful, at Marseilles, 180.\\nToys moved by sand, caution\\nfrom one, 78.\\nTravel, maxims relating to,\\n280; recollections of, 281.\\nTree, growth of, as shown by\\nrings of wood, 286 slice of\\na hemlock, 285 its growth\\ncompared to human lives,\\n286.\\nTrees, great, 232 mother idea\\nin each kind of, 234 afraid\\nof measuring-tape, 236 Mr.\\nEmerson s report on, 236;\\nof America, our friend s in-\\nteresting work on, 238.\\nTree-wives, 232.\\nTriads, writing in, 82.\\nTrois Freres, dinners at the, 75.\\nTrotting, democratic and fa-\\nvorable to many virtues, 34\\nmatches not races, 34.\\nTruth, primary relations with,\\n13-\\nTruths and lies compared to\\ncubes and spheres, 114.\\nTupper, 16, 311.\\nTupperian wisdom, 273.\\nTutor, my late Latin, his\\nverses, 265.\\nU.\\nUnloved, the, 305.\\nV.\\nVeneering in conversation,\\n143.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0363.jp2"}, "362": {"fulltext": "328\\nINDEX.\\nVerse, proper medium for re-\\nvealing our secrets, 58.\\nVerses, album, 15 abstinence\\nfrom writing, the mark of a\\npoet, 202.\\nVerse-writers, their peculiari-\\nties, 291.\\nViolins, soaked in music, 102;\\ntake a century to dry, 103.\\nVirtues, negative, 264.\\nVisitors, getting rid of, when\\ntheir visit is over, 16.\\nVoice, the Teutonic maiden s,\\n216; the German woman s,\\n217 the little child s in the\\nhospital, 218.\\nVoices, certain female, 215;\\nfearfully sweet ones, 215\\nhard and sharp, 217 people\\ndo not know their own, 219;\\nsweet must belong to good\\nspirits, 218.\\nVoleur, brand of, on galley\\nrogues, 105.\\nVolume, man of one, 143.\\nW.\\nWalking arm against arm, 17\\nlaws of, 69; the Professor\\nsanctions, 166; riding and\\nrowing compared,. 167,\\n168.\\nWasp, sloop of war, 207.\\nWatch-paper, the old gentle-\\nman s, 212.\\nWater, the white-pine pail of,\\n201.\\nWedding, the, 313.\\nWedding-presents, the, 310.\\nWellington, gentle in his old\\nage, 79.\\nWhat we all think, 146.\\nWill, compared to a drop of\\nwater in a crystal, 83.\\nWillows in Maine, 288.\\nWine of ancients, 64.\\nWit takes imperfect views of\\nthings, 48.\\nWoman, an excellent instru-\\nment for a nerve-player, 128\\nto love a, must see her\\nthrough a pin-hole, 223;\\nmust be true as death,\\n272 marks of low and bad\\nblood in, 273 love-capacity\\nin, 273 pride in, 273 why\\nshe should not say too much,\\n273-\\nWomen, young, advice to, 46\\nfirst to detect a poet, 183 in-\\nspire poets, 183 their praise\\nthe poet s reward, 183 all,\\nlove all men, 222; all men\\nlove all, 222; pictures of,\\n222 who have weighed all\\nthat life can offer, 278.\\nWoodbridge, Benjamin, his\\ngrave, 241, 243.\\nWorld, old and new, compari-\\nson of their types of organi-\\nzation, 239.\\nWriting, with feet in hot water,\\n6 like shooting with a rifle,\\n25.\\nYes in conversation, 17.\\nYoung Fellow called John, 52,", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0364.jp2"}, "363": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n329\\n62, 71, jj t 99, no, 174, 187,\\n193, 194, 209, 219, 232, 253,\\n259, 264, 307, 312.\\nYoung lady come to be finished\\noff, 9.\\nYouth, flakes off like button-\\nwood bark, 153; American,\\nnot perfect type of physical\\nhumanity, 170 and age,\\nwhat Author means by, 200.\\nZimmerman, 6.", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0365.jp2"}, "364": {"fulltext": "OCT 17 1900", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0366.jp2"}, "365": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0367.jp2"}, "366": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0368.jp2"}, "367": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3780", "width": "2268", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0369.jp2"}, "368": {"fulltext": "", "height": "4184", "width": "2632", "jp2-path": "autocratofbreak00holm_0370.jp2"}}