{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3100", "width": "2051", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "55 -^i- ^-v:- N*^^\\no\\nA\\n^0,\\nv-*\\nf\\n^A\\no\\nK^\\nO^\\nf^.\\n.0-\\nO\\n0^\\n^c\\nO\\n%-^X\\n7 V\\nnS -^i\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0^.c^\\n0-^^-\\n0. x-^\\ncj,\\\\ .ON\\niO\\n.0-^^\\nA^^\\nOO\\n,0^\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0i\\n,0^\\n-^C.\\nI i\\nV--\\n,0 o.\\n^Vvr^^\\n.7^\\no^\\n\\\\d^\\no\\n.0\\n.o\\nV I\\ns o ^0-\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0V\\n.0^\\nO\\nT\\n-v..\\nV- 3 a -f^.\\ncJ-.^. O 6 ^v o^\\n=.0^\\n-^c.^\\n,v\\n^0-\\nI.\\noo^\\n^y- V", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "\u00e2\u0096\u00a0s.\\n1\\n-f--\\n.0-\\nc-\\nV\\nO o V\\niX-\\nxV .A\\nK\u00c2\u00b0^X.\\nc. \\\\^i^^O- c.^\\no\\nV.\\n\\\\0\\ntX\\n.V -Si,\\n,.o-\\nv^-\\ni^\\n(1\\nr. .V,\\n.0 o^\\n.0-\\ns o\\nS So\\nS\\n,0 o\\no-^ \u00e2\u0080\u00a27-.\\n,0 o^\\njje c vx", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "THE SCARLET LETTER.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "THE\\nSCARLET LETTER\\nNATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.\\nJKUusttatcd.\\nBOSTON:\\nJAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,\\nLate Ticknor Fields, and Fields, Osgood, Co.\\n1878.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "Copyright, 1850 and 1877.\\nBy NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE and JAMES R. OSGOOD CO.\\nAll rights reserved.\\nOctober 22, 1874.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.\\n!|UCH to the author s surprise, and (if\\nhe may say so without additional\\noffence) considerably to his amusement,\\nhe finds that his sketch of official\\nlife, introductory to The Scarlet\\nLetter, has created an unprecedented excitement in\\nthe respectable community immediately around him.\\nIt could hardly have been more violent, indeed, had\\nhe burned down the Custom-House, and quenched its\\nlast smoking ember in the blood of a certain venerable\\npersonage, against whom he is supposed to cherish a\\npeculiar malevolence. As the public disapprobation\\nwould weigh very heavily on him, were he conscious\\nof deserving it, the author begs leave to say, that he\\nhas carefully read over the introductory pages, with a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "iv PREFACE.\\npurpose to alter or expunge whatever might be found\\namiss, and to make the best reparation in his power\\nfor the atrocities of which he has been adjudged guilty.\\nBut it appears to him, that the only remarkable fea-\\ntures of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-\\nhumor, and .the general accuracy with which he has\\nconveyed his sincere impressions of the characters\\ntherein described. As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any\\nkind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such\\nmotives. The sketch might, perhaps, have been wholly\\nomitted, without loss to the public, or detriment to\\nthe book but, having undertaken to write it, he con-\\nceives that it could not have been done in a better or\\na kindlier spirit, nor, so far as his abilities availed, with\\na livelier effect of truth.\\nThe author is constrained, therefore, to republish his\\nintroductory sketch without the change of a word.\\nSalem, March 30, 1850.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS.\\nPage\\nThe Custom-House. Introductory 1\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nI. The Prison-Door 51\\nIL The Market-Place 54\\nin. The Recognition 68\\nIV. The Interview 80\\nV. Hester at her Needle 90\\nVL Pearl 104\\nVII. The Governor s Hall 118\\nVIII. The Elf-Child and the Minister 129\\nIX. The Leech .142\\nX. The Leech and his Patient 155\\nXL The Interior of a Heart 168\\nXIL The Minister s Vigil 177\\nXIII. Another View of Hester 193\\nXIV. Hester and the Physician 204", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "vi CONTENTS.\\nXV. Hester and Peakl 212\\nXVI. A Forest Walk 223\\nXVII. The Pastor and his Parishioner 231\\nXVIII. A Flood of Sunshine 245\\nXIX. The Child at the Brook-side 253\\nXX. The Minister in a Maze 264\\nXXI. The New England Holiday 277\\nXXII. The Procession 288\\nXXIII. The Eevelation of the Scarlet Letter 302\\nXXIV. Conclusion 315", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\\nBrawn hy Mary Hallock Foote and Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony.\\nornamental head-pieces are bij L. S. Ipsen.\\nThe\\nPare\\nThe Custom-House 1\\nThe Prison Door 49\\nVignette, Wild Rose 51\\nThe Gossips 57\\nStanding on the Miserable Eminence 65\\nShe was led back to Prison 78\\nThe Eyes of the wrinkled Scholar glowed 87\\nThe Lonesome Dwelling 93\\nLonely Pootsteps 99\\nVignette 104\\nA touch of Pearl s baby-hand 113\\nVignette 118\\nThe Governor s Breastplate 125\\nLook thou to it I will not lose the child 135\\nThe Minister and Leech 148\\nThe Leech and his Patient 165", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\\nThe ViiiGiNS of the Chukch 172\\nThey stood in the noox or that strange splendor 185\\nHester in the House of Mourning 195\\nMandrake 211\\nHe gathered herbs here and there 213\\nPearl on the Sea-Shore 217\\nWilt thou yet forgive me 237\\nA Gleam of Sunshine 249\\nThe Child at the Brook-Side 257\\nChillingworth, Smile with a sinister meaning 287\\nNew England Worthies 289\\nShall we not meet again 311\\nHester s Return 320", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.\\nINTRODUCTORY TO THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nT is a little remarkable, that though disin-\\nV clined to talk overmuch of myself and my affairs\\ntl^ at the fireside, and to my personal friends an\\nautobiographical impulse should twice in my life\\nhave taken possession of me, in addressing the\\npublic. Tlie first time was three or four years\\nsince, when I favored the reader inexcusably, and for no\\nearthly reason, that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive\\nauthor could imagine with a description of my way of life in\\nthe deep quietude of an Old Manse. And now because, be-\\nyond my deserts, I was happy enough to find a listener or two\\non the former occasion I again seize the public by the button,\\nand talk of my three years experience in a Custom-House. The", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "2 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nexample of the famous P. P., Clerk of this Parish/- was never\\nmore faithfully followed. The truth seems to be, however, that,\\nwhen he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author ad-\\ndresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never\\ntake it up, but the few who will understand him, better than\\nmost of his schoolmates or liiVmates. Some authors, indeed, do\\nfar more than this, and indulge themselves in such confidential\\ndepths of revelation as could fittingly be addressed, only and\\nexclusively, to the one heart and mind of perfect sympathy; as\\nif the printed book, thrown at large on the Avide world, were\\ncertain to find out the divided segment of the writer s own\\nnature, and complete his circle of existence by bringing him\\ninto conmiunion with it. It is scarcely decorous, however, to\\nspeak all, even where we speak impersonally. But, as thoughts\\nare frozen and utterance benumbed, unless the speaker stand in\\nsome true relation Avith his audience, it may be pardonable to\\nimagine that a friend, a kind and ajiprehensive, though not the\\nclosest friend, is listening to our talk; and then, a native re-\\nserve being thawed by this genial consciousness, we may prate\\nof the circumstances that lie around us, and even of ourself,\\nbut still keep the inmost Me behind its veil. To this extent,\\nand within these limits, an author, mcthinks, may be autobio-\\ngraphical, without violating either the reader s rights or his\\nown.\\nIt will be seen, likewise, that this Custom-House sketch has\\na certain propriety, of a kind always recognized in literature, as\\nexplaining how a large portion of the following pages came into\\nmy possession, and as ofi ering proofs of the authenticity of a\\nnarrative therein contained. This, in fact, a desire to put\\nmyself in my true position as editor, or very little more, of the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 3\\nmost prolix among the tales that make up my volume, this,\\nand no other, is my true reason for assuming a personal relation\\nwith the public. In accoraplishhig the main purpose, it has\\nappeared allowable, by a few extra touches, to give a faint rep-\\nresentation of a mode of life not heretofore described, together\\nwitli some of the characters that move in it, among whom the\\nauthor happened to make one.\\nIn my native town of Salem, at the head of wluit, half a cen-\\ntury ago, in the days of old King Derby, was a bustluig wharf,\\nbut which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses,\\nand exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life except,\\nperhaps, a bark or brig, half-way down its melancholy length,\\ndischarging hides or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner,\\npitching out her cargo of firewood, at the head, I say, of this\\ndilapidated wharf, which the tide often overflows, and along\\nwhich, at the base and in the rear of the row of buildings, the\\ntrack of many languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty\\ngrass, here, with a view from its front windows adown this\\nnot very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbor, stands\\na spacious edifice of brick. From the loftiest point of its roof,\\nduring precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats\\nor droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but\\nwith the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally,\\nand thus indicating that a civil, and not a military post of Uncle\\nSam s government is here established. Its front is ornamented\\nwith a portico of half a dozen wooden pillars, supporting a bal-\\ncony, beneath which a flight of wide granite steps descends\\ntowards the street. Over the entrance hovers an enormous spe-\\ncimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "4 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nbefore her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of inter-\\nmingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With\\nthe customary infirmity of temjier that characterizes this unhappy\\nfowl, she appears, by the fierceness of her beak and eye, and the\\ngeneral truculency of her attitude, to threaten mischief to the\\ninoffensive community; and especially to warn all citizens, care-\\nful of their safety, against intruding on the premises which she\\novershadows with her wings. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks,\\nmany jjeople are seeking, at this very moment, to shelter them-\\nselves under the wing of the federal eagle imagining, I ]3re-\\nsume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an\\neider-down pillow. But she has no great tenderness, even in\\nher best of moods, and, sooner or later, oftener soon than\\nlate, is apt to flhig off her nestlings, with a scratch of her\\nclaw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed\\narrows.\\nThe pavement round about the above-described edifice which\\nwe may as well name at once as the Custom-House of the port\\nhas grass enough growing in its chinks to show that it has not,\\nof late days, been worn by any multitudinous resort of business.\\nIn some months of the year, however, there often chances a fore-\\nnoon when affairs move onward with a livelier tread. Such occa-\\nsions might remind the elderly citizen of that period before the\\nlast war with England, when Salem was a port by itself; not\\nscorned, as she is now, by her own merchants and ship-owners,\\nwho permit her Avharves to crumble to ruin, while their ventures\\ngo to swell, needlessly and imperceptibly, the mighty flood of\\ncommerce at New York or Boston. On some such morning,\\nwhen three or four vessels happen to have arrived at once,\\nusually from Africa or South America, or to be on the verge", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 5\\nof their departure thitherward, there is a sound of frequent feet,\\npassing briskly up and down the granite steps. Here, before his\\nown wife has greeted him, you may greet the sea-flushed ship-\\nmaster, just in port, witli his vessels papers under his arm, in\\na tarnished tin box. Here, too, comes his owner, cheerful or\\nsombre, gracious or in the sulks, accordingly as his scheme of\\nthe now accomplished voyage has been realized in merchandise\\nthat will readily be turned to gold, or has buried him under a\\nbulk of incommodities, such as nobody will care to rid him of.\\nHere, likewise, the genn of the wrinkle-browed, grizzly-bearded,\\ncare-worn merchant, we have the smart young clerk, who gets\\nthe taste of traffic as a wolf-cub does of blood, and already sends\\nadventures in his master^s ships, when he had better be sailing\\nmimic-boats upon a mill-pond. Another figure in the scene is\\nthe outward-bound sailor in quest of a protection; or the re-\\ncently arrived one, pale and feeble, seeking a passport to the\\nhospital. Nor must we forget the captains of the rusty little\\nschooners that bring firewood from the British provinces; a\\nrough-looking set of tarpaulins, without the alertness of the\\nYankee aspect, but contributing an item of no slight importance\\nto our decaying trade.\\nCluster all these individuals together, as they sometimes were,\\nwith other miscellaneous ones to diversify the group, and, for\\nthe time being, it made the Custom-House a stirring scene. More\\nfrequently, however, on ascending the steps, you would disfcern\\nin the entry, if it were summer time, or in their appropriate rooms,\\nif wintry or inclement weather a row of venerable figures, sit-\\nting in old-fashioned chairs, which were tipped on their hind\\nlegs back against the wall. Oftentimes they were asleep, but\\noccasionally might be heard talking together, in voices between", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "G THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nspeech and a snore, and with that lack of energy that distin-\\nguishes the occupants of ahnshouses, and all other human beings\\nwlio depend for subsistence on charity, on monopolized labor,\\nor anything else, but their own independent exertions. These\\nold gentlemen seated, like Matthew, at the receipt of customs,\\nbut not very liable to be summoned thence, like him, for apos-\\ntolic errands were Custom-House officers.\\nFurthermore, on the left hand as you enter the front door, is\\na certain room or office, about fifteen feet square, and of a lofty\\nheight; with two of its arched windows commanding a view of\\nthe aforesaid dilapidated wharf, and the third looking across a\\nnarrow lane, and along a portion of Derby Street. All three\\ngive glimpses of the shops of grocers, block-makers, slop-sellers,\\nand ship-chandlers; around the doors of Avhich are generally to\\nbe seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts, and such\\nother wharf-rats as haunt the Wapping of a seaport. The room\\nitself is cobwebbed, and dingy with old paint; its floor is strewn\\nwith gray sand, in a fashion that has elsewhere fallen into long\\ndisuse and it is easy to conclude, from the general slovenliness\\nof the place, that this is a sanctuary into which womankind,\\nwith her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very infre-\\nquent access. In the way of furniture, there is a stove with\\na voluminous funnel; an old pine desk, with a three-legged\\nstool beside it; two or three wooden-bottom chairs, exceedingly\\ndecrepit and inlirm and not to forget the library on some\\nshelves, a score or two of volumes of the Acts of Congress, and\\na bulky Digest of the Revenue LaMS. A tin pipe ascends through\\nthe ceiling, and forms a medium of vocal communication with\\nother parts of the edifice. And here, some six months ago,\\npacing from corner to corner, or lounging on the long-legged", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 7\\nstool, with his elbow on the desk, and his eyes wandering up\\nand down the columns of the morning newspaper, you might\\nhave recognized, honored reader, the same individual who wel-\\ncomed you into his cheery little study, where the sunshine glim-\\nmered so pleasantly through the willow branches, on the western\\nside of the Old Manse. But now, should you go tliither to seek\\nhim, you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco Surveyor. The\\nbesom of reform has swept him out of office; and a worthier\\nsuccessor wears his dignity, and pockets his emoluments.\\nThis old town of Salem my native place, though I have\\ndwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and maturer years\\npossesses, or did possess, a hold on my affections, the force\\nof which I have never realized during my seasons of actual resi-\\ndence here. Indeed, so far as its physical aspect is concerned,\\nwith its flat, unvaried surface, covered chiefly with wooden houses,\\nfew or none of which pretend to architectural beauty, its\\nirregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint, but only\\ntame, its long and lazy street, lounging wearisomely through\\nthe whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill and New\\nGuinea at one end, and a view of the almshouse at the other,\\nsuch being the features of my native town, it would be quite\\nas reasonable to form a sentimental attachment to a disarranged\\nchecker-board. And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere,\\nthere is within me a feeling for old Salem, which, in lack of a\\nbetter phrase, I must be content to call affection. The senti-\\nment is probably assignable to the deep and aged roots which\\nmy family has struck into the soil. It is now nearly two cen-\\nturies and a quarter since the original Briton, the earliest emi-\\ngrant of my name, made his appearance in the wild and forest-\\nbordered settlement, which has since become a city. And here", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "8 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nhis descendants have been born and died, and have mingled their\\nearthy substance with the soil; until no small portion of it must\\nnecessarily be akin to the mortal frame wherewith, for a little\\nwhile, I walk the streets. In part, therefore, the attachment\\nwhich I speak of is the mere sensuous sympathy of dust for\\ndust. Few of my countrymen can know what it is; nor, as\\nfrequent transplantation is perhaps better for the stock, need\\nthey consider it desirable to know.\\nBut the sentiment has likewise its moral quality. The figure\\nof that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim\\nand dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination, as\\nfar back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces\\na sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in\\nreference to the present phase of the town. I seem to liave a\\nstronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave,\\nbearded, sable-cloaked and steeple-crowned progenitor, Avho\\ncame so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the\\nunworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a\\nfigure, as a man of war and peace, a stronger claim than for\\nmyself, Avhose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known.\\nHe was a soldier, legislator, judge he was a ruler in the Church;\\nhe had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was\\nlikewise a bitter persecutor, as -wdtness the Quakers, who have\\nremembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his\\nhard severity towards a woman of their sect, which will last\\nlonger, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds,\\nalthough these were many. His son, too, inherited the perse-\\ncuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyr-\\ndom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have\\nleft a stam upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his old", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 9\\ndry bones, in the Charter Street burial-ground, must still retain\\nit, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust I know not\\nwhether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent,\\nand ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they\\nare now groaning under the heavy consequences of them, in\\nanother state of being. At all events, I, the present writer,\\nas their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their\\nsakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them as I have\\nheard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the\\nrace, for many a long year back, would argue to exist may\\nbe now and henceforth removed.\\nDoubtless, however, either of these stern and black-browed\\nPuritans Avould have tliought it quite a sufficient retribution for\\nhis sins, that, after so long a lapse of years, the old trunk of\\nthe family tree, with so much venerable moss upon it, should\\nhave borne, as its topmost bough, an idler like myself. No\\naim, that I have ever cherished, would they recognize as laud-\\nable; no success of mine if my life, beyond its domestic\\nscope, had ever been brightened by success would they deem\\notherwise than worthless, if not positively disgraceful. What\\nis he? murmurs one gray shadow of my forefathers to the\\nother. A writer of story-books What kind of a business\\nin hfe what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to\\nmankind in his day and generation may that be? Wliy, the\\ndegenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler! Such\\nare the compliments bandied between my great-grandsires and\\nmyself, across the gulf of time And yet, let tliem scorn me\\nas they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined them-\\nselves with mine.\\nPlanted deep, in the town s earliest infancy and childhood.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "10 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nbj these two earnest and energetic men, the race has ever since\\nsubsisted here; always, too, in respectability; never, so far as\\nI have known, disgraced by a single unworthy member; but\\nseldom or never, on the other hand, after the first two genera-\\ntions, performing any memorable deed, or so much as putting\\nforward a claim to public notice. Gradually, they have sunk\\nahnost out of sight; as old houses, here and there about the\\nstreets, get covered half-way to the eaves by the accumulation\\nof new soil. From father to son, for above a hundred years,\\nthey followed the sea; a gray-headed shipmaster, in each gen-\\neration, retiring from the quarter-deck to the homestead, while\\na boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast,\\nconfronting the salt spray and the gale, which had blustered\\nagainst his sire and grandsire. The boy, also, in due time,\\npassed from the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous\\nmanhood, and returned from his world-wanderings, to grow old,\\nand die, and mingle his dust with the natal earth. This long\\nconnection of a family with one spot, as its place of birth and\\nburial, creates a kindred between the human being and the\\nlocality, quite independent of any charm in the scenery or moral\\ncircumstances that surround him. It is not love, but instinct.\\nThe new inhabitant who came himself from a foreign land,\\nor whose father or grandfather came has little claim to be\\ncalled a Salemite; he has no conception of the oyster-like tena-\\ncity with which an old settler, over whom his third century is\\ncreeping, clings to the spot where his successive generations have\\nbeen imbedded. It is no matter that the place is joyless for\\nhim; that he is weary of the old wooden houses, the mud and\\ndust, the dead level of site and sentiment, the chill east wind,\\nand the chillest of social atmospheres all these, and what-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. H\\never faults besides he may see or imagine, are nothing to the\\nj)urpose. The spell survives, and just as powerfully as if the\\nnatal spot were an earthly paradise. So has it been hi my case.\\nI felt it almost as a destiny to make Salem my home; so that\\nthe mould of features and cast of character which had all along\\nbeen familiar here, ever, as one representative of the race lay\\ndown in his grave, another assuming, as it were, his sentry-\\nmarch along the main street, might still in my little day be\\nseen and recognized in the old town. Nevertheless, this very\\nsentiment is an evidence that the connection, which has become\\nan unhealthy one, should at last be severed. Human nature\\nM ill not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and\\nreplanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-\\nout soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far\\nas their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their\\nroots into unaccustomed earth.\\nOn emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange,\\nindolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town, that brought\\nme to fill a place in Uncle Sam s brick edifice, when I might\\nas well, or better, have gone somewhere else. My doom was\\non me. It M^as not the first time, nor the second, that I had\\ngone away, as it seemed, permanently, but yet returned,\\nlike the bad half-penny or as if Salem were for me the inevi-\\ntable centre of the universe. So, one fine morning, I ascended\\nthe flight of granite steps, with the President s commission in\\nmy pocket, and was introduced to the corps of gentlemen who\\nwere to aid me in my weighty responsibility, as chief executive\\nofficer of the Custom-House.\\nI doubt greatly or, rather, I do not doubt at all whether\\nany public functionary of the United States, either in the civil", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "12 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nor military line, has ever had such a patriarchal body of vet-\\nerans under his orders as myself. The vs hereabouts of the\\nOldest Inhabitant was at once settled, when I looked at them.\\nFor upwards of twenty years before this epoch, the independent\\nj)osition of the Collector had kept the Salem Custom-House\\nout of the whirlpool of political vicissitude, which makes the\\ntenure of office generally so fragile. A soldier, New England s\\nmost distinguished soldier, he stood firmly on the pedestal of\\nhis gallant services; and, himself secure in the wise liberality\\nof the successive administrations through which he had held\\noffice, he had been the safety of his subordinates in many an\\nhour of danger and heart-quake. General Miller was radically\\nconservative; a man over whose kindly nature habit had no\\nslight influence; attaching himself strongly to familiar faces, and\\nwith difficulty moved to change, even when change might have\\nbrought unquestionable improvement. Thus, on taking charge\\nof my department, I found few but aged men. They were an-\\ncient sea-captains, for the most part, who, after being tost on\\nevery sea, and standing up sturdily against life s tempestuous\\nblasts, had finally drifted into this quiet nook; where, Avith\\nlittle to disturb them, except the periodical terrors of a Presi-\\ndential election, they one and all acquired a new lease of exist-\\nence. Though by no means less liable than their fellow-men\\nto age and infirmity, they had evidently some talisman or other\\nthat kept death at bay. Two or three of their number, as I\\nwas assured, being gouty and rheumatic, or perhaps bedridden,\\nnever dreamed of making their appearance at the Custom-House,\\nduring a large part of the year but, after a torpid winter,\\nwould creep out into the warm sunshine of May or June, go\\nlazily about what they termed duty, and, at their own leisure", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 13\\nand convenience, betake themselves to bed again. I must plead\\nguilty to the charge of abbreviating the official breath of more\\nthan one of these venerable servants of the republic. They were\\nallowed, on my representation, to rest from their arduous labors,\\nand soon afterwards as if their sole principle of life had been\\nzeal for their country s service, as I verily believe it was\\nwithdrew to a better world. It is a pious consolation to me,\\nthat, through my interference, a sufficient space was allowed\\nthem for repentance of the evil and corrupt practices into which,\\nas a matter of course, every Custom-House officer must be sup-\\nposed to fall. Neither the front nor the back entrance of the\\nCustom-House opens on the road to Paradise.\\nThe greater part of my officers were Whigs. It was Avell for\\ntheir venerable brotherhood that the new Surveyor was not a\\npolitician, and though a faithful Democrat in principle, neither\\nreceived nor held his office with any reference to political services.\\nHad it been otherwise, had an active politician been put into\\nthis influential post, to assume the easy task of making head\\nagainst a Whig Collector, whose infirmities withheld him from\\nthe personal administration of his office, hardly a man of the\\nold corps would have drawn the breath of official life, within a\\nmonth after the exterminating angel had come up the Custom-\\nHouse steps. According to the received code in such matters,\\nit would have been nothing short of duty, in a politician, to\\nbring every one of those white heads under the axe of the guil-\\nlotine. It was plain enough to discern, that the old felloAvs\\ndreaded some such discourtesy at my hands. It pained, and at\\nthe same time amused me, to behold the terrors that attended\\nmy advent; to see a furrowed cheek, weather-beaten by half a\\ncentury of storm, turn ashy pale at the glance of so harmless an", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "U THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nindividual as myself; to detect, as one or another addressed me,\\nthe tremor of a voice, which, in long-past days, had been wont\\nto bellow through a speaking-trumpet, hoarsely enough to frighten\\nBoreas himself to silence. They knew, these excellent old persons,\\nthat, by all established rule, and, as regarded some of them,\\nweighed by their own lack of efficiency for business, they ought\\nto have given j)lace to younger men, more orthodox in politics,\\nand altogether fitter than themselves to serve our common Uncle.\\nI knew it too, but could never quite find in my heart to act\\nupon the knowledge. Much and deservedly to my own discredit,\\ntherefore, and considerably to the detriment of my official con-\\nscience, they continued, during my incumbency, to creep about\\nthe wharves, and loiter up and down the Custom-House steps.\\nThey spent a good deal of time, also, asleep in their accustomed\\ncorners, with their chairs tilted back against the waU; awaking,\\nhowever, once or twice in a forenoon, to bore one another -with\\nthe several thousandth repetition of old sea-stories, and mouldy\\njokes, that had grown to be passwords and countersigns among\\nthem.\\nThe discovery was soon made, I imagine, that the new Sur-\\nveyor had no great harm in him. So, with lightsome hearts,\\nand the happy consciousness of being usefully employed, in\\ntheir own behalf, at least, if not for our beloved country, these\\ngood old gentlemen went through the various formalities of\\noffice. Sagaciously, under their spectacles, did they peep into\\nthe holds of vessels Mighty was their fuss about little matters,\\nand marvellous, sometimes, the obtuseness that allowed greater\\nones to slip between their fingers Whenever such a miscliance\\noccurred, when a wagon-load of valuable merchandise had\\nbeen smuggled ashore, at noonday, perhaps, and directly beneath", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 15\\ntheir unsuspicious noses, nothing could exceed the vigilance\\nand alacrity with which they proceeded to lock, and double-lock,\\nand secure with tape and sealing-wax, all the avenues of the\\ndelinquent vessel. Instead of a reprimand for their previous\\nnegligence, the case seemed rather to require an eulogium on\\ntheir praiseworthy caution, after the mischief had happened; a\\ngrateful recognition of the promptitude of their zeal, the moment\\nthat there was no longer any remedy.\\nUnless people are more than commonly disagreeable, it is my\\nfoolish habit to contract a kindness for them. The better part\\nof my companion s character, if it have a better part, is that\\nwliich usually comes uppermost in my regard, and forms the\\ntype whereby I recognize the man. As most of these old Cus-\\ntom-House officers had good traits, and as my position in refer-\\nence to them, being paternal and protective, was favorable to\\nthe growth of friendly sentiments, I soon grew to like them\\nall. It Avas pleasant, in the summer forenoons, when the fer-\\nvent heat, that almost liquefied the rest of the human family,\\nmerely communicated a genial warmth to their half-torpid sys-\\ntems, it was pleasant to hear them chatting in the back entry,\\na row of them all tipped against the wall, as usual; while the\\nfrozen witticisms of past generations were thawed out, and came\\nbubbling with laughter from their lips. Externally, the jolHty\\nof aged men has much in common with the mirth of children;\\nthe intellect, any more than a deep sense of humor, has little\\nto do with the matter it is, with both, a gleam that plays upon\\nthe surface, and imparts a sunny and cheery aspect alike to the\\ngreen branch, and gray, mouldering trunk. In one case, how-\\never, it is real sunshine; in the other, it more resembles the\\nphosphorescent glow of decaying wood.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "16 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nIt would be sad injustice^ the reader must understand^ to rep-\\nresent all my excellent old friends as in their dotage. In the\\nfirst place, my coadjutors were not invariably old; there were\\nmen among them in their strength and prime, of marked ability\\nand energy, and altogether superior to the sluggish and depend-\\nent mode of life on which their evil stars had cast them. Then,\\nmoreover, the white locks of age were sometimes found to be\\nthe thatch of an intellectual tenement in good repair. But, as\\nrespects the majority of my corps of veterans, there will be no\\nwrong done, if I characterize them generally as a set of weari-\\nsome old souls, who had gathered nothing worth preservation\\nfrom their varied experience of life. They seemed to have flung\\naway all the golden grain of practical wisdom, which they had\\nenjoyed so many opportunities of harvesting, and most carefully\\nto have stored their memories with the husks. They spoke with\\nfar more interest and unction of their morning^s breakfast, or\\nyesterday^s, to-day^s, or to-morrow^s dinner, than of the ship-\\nwreck of forty or fifty years ago, and all the workVs wonders\\nwhich they had witnessed with their youthful eyes.\\nThe father of the Custom-House the patriarcli, not only of\\nthis little squad of officials, but, I am bold to say, of the re-\\nspectable body of tide-waiters all over the United States was a\\ncertain permanent Inspector. He might truly be termed a legiti-\\nmate son of the revenue system, dyed in the wool, or, rather,\\nborn in the purple; since his sire, a Revolutionary colonel, and\\nformerly collector of tlie port, had created an ofiice for him, and\\nappointed him to fill it, at a period of the early ages which few\\nliving men can now remember. This Inspector, when I first\\nknew him, was a man of fourscore years, or thereabouts, and\\ncertainly one of the most wonderful specimens of winter-green", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 17\\nthat you would be likely to discover in a lifetime s search. With\\nhis florid cheek, his compact figure, smartly arrayed in a bright-\\nbuttoned blue coat, his brisk and vigorous step, and his hale\\nand hearty aspect, altogether he seemed not young, indeed\\nbut a kind of new contrivance of Mother Nature in the shape\\nof man, whom age and infirmity had no business to touch. His\\nvoice and laugh, which perpetually re-echoed through the Cus-\\ntom- House, had nothing of the tremulous quaver and cackle of\\nan old man s utterance; they came strutting out of his lungs,\\nlike the crow of a cock, or the blast of a clarion. Looking at\\nhim merely as an animal, and there was very little else to\\nlook at, he was a most satisfactory object, from the thorough\\nhealthfulness and wholesomeness of his system, and his capacity,\\nat that extreme age, to enjoy all, or nearly all, the dehghts which\\nhe had ever aimed at, or conceived of. The careless security of\\nhis life in the Custom-House, on a regular income, and with but\\nslight and infrequent apprehensions of removal, had no doubt\\ncontributed to make time pass lightly over him. The original\\nand more potent causes, however, lay in the rare perfection of\\nhis animal nature, the moderate proportion of intellect, and the\\nvery trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients; these\\nlatter qualities, indeed, being in barely enough measure to keep\\nthe old gentleman from walking on all-fours. He possessed no\\npower of thought, no depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibil-\\nities nothing, in short, but a few commonplace instincts, which,\\naided by the cheerful temper that grew inevitably out of his\\nphysical well-being, did duty very respectably, and to general\\nacceptance, in lieu of a heart. He had been tlie husband of\\nthree wives, all long since dead; the father of twenty children,\\nmost of whom, at every age of childhood or maturity, had like-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "18 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwise returned to dust. Here, one would suppose, might have\\nbeen sorrow enough to imbue the sunniest disposition, through\\nand through, with a sable tinge. Not so with our old Inspector\\nOne brief sigh sufficed to carry off the entire burden of these\\ndismal reminiscences. The next moment, he was as ready for\\nsport as any unbreeched infant; far readier than the Collector s\\njunior clerk, who, at nineteen years, was much the elder and\\ngraver man of the two.\\nI used to watch and study this patriarchal personage with, I\\nthink, livelier curiosity, than any other form of humanity there\\npresented to my notice. He was, in truth, a rare phenomenon;\\nso perfect, in one point of view; so shallow, so delusive, so im-\\npalpable, such an absolute nonentity, in every other. My conclu-\\nsion was that he had no soul, no heart, no mind; nothing, as I\\nhave already said, but instincts and yet, withal, so cunningly\\nhad the few materials of his character been put together, that\\nthere was no painful perception of deficiency, but, on my part,\\nan entire contentment with what I found in him. It might\\nbe difficult and it was so to conceive how he should exist\\nhereafter, so earthly and sensuous did he seem; but surely his\\nexistence here, admitting that it was to terminate with his last\\nbreath, had been not unkindly given; with no higlier moral\\nresponsibilities than the beasts of the field, but with a larger\\nscope of enjoyment than theirs, and with all their blessed im-\\nmunity from the dreariness and duskiness of age.\\nOne point, in which he had vastly the advantage over his\\nfour-footed brethren, was his ability to recollect the good din-\\nners which it had made no small portion of the happiness of his\\nlife to eat. His gourmandism was a highly agreeable trait; and\\nto hear him talk of roast-meat was as appetizing as a pickle or", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 19\\nan oyster. As he possessed no higher attribute, and neither\\nsacrificed nor vitiated any spiritual endowment by devoting all\\nhis energies and ingenuities to subserve the delight and profit\\nof his maw_, it always pleased and satisfied me to hear him\\nexpatiate on fish, poultry, and butcher^s meat, and the most\\neligible methods of preparing them for the table. His reminis-\\ncences of good cheer, however ancient the date of the actual ban-\\nquet, seemed to bring the savor of pig or turkey luider one^s\\nvery nostrils. There were flavors on his palate that had lingered\\nthere not less than sixty or seventy years, and were still appar-\\nently as fresh as that of the mutton-chop which he had just\\ndevoured for his breakfast. I have heard him smack his lips\\nover dinners, every guest at which, except himself, had long been\\nfood for worms. It was marvellous to observe how the ghosts\\nof bygone meals Avere continually rising up before him; not in\\nanger or retribution, but as if grateful for his former apprecia-\\ntion and seeking to resuscitate an endless series of enjoyment, at\\nonce shadowy and sensual. A tender-loin of beef, a hind-quarter\\nof veal, a spare-rib of pork, a particular chicken, or a remark-\\nably praiseworthy turkey, which had perhaps adorned his board\\nin the days of the elder Adams, would be remembered; while\\nall the subsequent experience of our race, and all the events that\\nbrightened or darkened his individual career, had gone over him\\nwith as little permanent effect as the passing breeze. The chief\\ntragic event of the old man^s life, so far as I could judge, was\\nhis mishap with a certain goose which lived and died some\\ntwenty or forty years ago; a goose of most promising figure,\\nbut which, at table, proved so inveterately tough that the carv-\\ning-knife would make no impression on its carcass, and it could\\nonly be divided with an axe and handsaw.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "20 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nBut it is time to quit this sketch; on Avhich, however^ I\\nshould be glad to dwell at considerably more length because^ of\\nall men whom I have ever known, this individual was fittest to\\nbe a Custom- Ho use officer. Most persons, owing to causes which\\nI may not have space to hint at, suffer moral detriment from\\nthis peculiar mode of life. The old Inspector was incapable of\\nit, and, were he to continue in office to the end of time, would\\nbe just as good as he was then, and sit down to dinner with just\\nas good an aijpetite.\\nThere is one likeness, without which my gallery of Custom-\\nHouse portraits would be strangely incomplete; but which my\\ncomparatively few opportunities for observation enable me to\\nsketch only in the merest outline. It is that of the Collector,\\nour gallant old General, who, after his brilliant military service,\\nsubsequently to which he had ruled over a wild Western terri-\\ntory, had come hither, twenty years before, to spend the decline\\nof his varied and honorable life. The brave soldier had already\\nnumbered, nearly or quite, his threescore years and ten, and was\\npursuing the remainder of his earthly march, burdened Avith in-\\nfirmities which even the martial music of his own spirit-stirring\\nrecollections could do little towards lightening. The step Avas\\npalsied now that had been foremost in the charge. It was only\\nwith the assistance of a servant, and by leaning his hand heavily\\non the iron balustrade, that he could slowly and painfully ascend\\nthe Custom-House steps, and, with a toilsome progress across\\nthe floor, attain his customary chair beside the fireplace. There\\nhe used to sit, gazing with a somewhat dim serenity of aspect\\nat the figures that came and went; amid the rustle of pajjers,\\nthe administering of oaths, the discussion of business, and the\\ncasual talk of the office all which sounds and circumstances", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 21\\nseemed but indistinctly to impress his senses, and hardly to make\\ntheir way into his iimer sphere of contemplation. His counte-\\nnance, in this repose, was mild and kindly. If his notice was\\nsought, an expression of courtesy and interest gleamed out upon\\nhis features; proving that there was light within him, and that\\nit was only the outward medium of the intellectual lamp that\\nobstructed the rays in their passage. The closer you penetrated\\nto the substance of his mind, the sounder it appeared. When\\nno longer called upon to speak, or listen, either of which opera-\\ntions cost him an evident effort, his face would briefly subside\\ninto its former not uncheerful quietude. It was not painful to\\nbehold this look; for, though dim, it had not the imbecihty of\\ndecaying age. The framework of his nature, originally strong\\nand massive, was not yet crumbled into ruin.\\nTo observe and define his character, however, under such dis-\\nadvantages, was as difficult a task as to trace out and build up\\nanew, in imagination, an old fortress, like Ticonderoga, from\\na view of its gray and broken ruins. Here and there, per-\\nchance, the walls may remain almost complete, but elsewhere\\nmay be only a shapeless mound, cumbrous with its very strength,\\nand overgrown, through long years of peace and neglect, with\\ngrass and alien weeds.\\nNevertheless, looking at the old warrior with afPection, for,\\nslight as was the communication between us, my feeling towards\\nhim, like that of all bipeds and quadrupeds who knew him;\\nmight not improperly be termed so, I could discern the main\\npoints of his portrait. It was marked with the noble and he-\\nroic qualities which showed it to be not by a mere accident,\\nbut of good right, that he had won a distinguished name. His\\nspirit could never, I conceive, have been characterized by an", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "22 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nuneasy activity it must, at any period of his life, have required\\nan impulse to set him in motion; but, once stirred up, with\\nobstacles to overcome, and an adequate object to be attained,\\nit was not in the man to give out or fail. The heat that had\\nformerly pervaded his nature, and which was not yet extinct,\\nwas never of the kind that flashes and flickers in a blaze but,\\nrather, a deep, red glow, as of iron in a furnace. Weight,\\nsolidity, firmness; this was the expression of his repose, even\\nin such decay as had crept untimely over him, at the jjeriod\\nof which I speak. But I could imagine, even then, that, under\\nsome excitement which should go deeply into his consciousness,\\nroused by a trumpet- j)eal, loud enough to awaken all his\\nenergies that were not dead, but only slumbering, he was\\nyet capable of flinging off his infirmities like a sick man^s gown,\\ndropping the staff of age to seize a battle-sword, and starting\\nup once more a warrior. And, in so intense a moment, his\\ndemeanor would have still been calm. Such an exhibition, how-\\never, was but to be pictured in fancy; not to be anticipated,\\nnor desired. What I saw in him as evidently as the inde-\\nstructible ramparts of Old Ticonderoga already cited as the most\\nappropriate simile were the features of stubborn and ponder-\\nous endurance, which might well have amounted to obstinacy\\nin his earlier days; of integrity, that, like most of his other\\nendowments, lay in a somewhat heavy mass, and was just as\\nunmalleable and unmanageable as a ton of iron ore; and of\\nbenevolence, which, fiercely as he led the bayonets on at Chip-\\npewa or Fort Erie, I take to be of quite as genuine a stamp\\nas what actuates any or all the polemical philanthropists of the\\nage. He had slain men with his own hand, for aught I know,\\ncertainly, they had fallen, like blades of grass at the sweep", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 23\\nof the scythe, before the charge to which his spirit imparted its\\ntriumphant energy but, be that as it might, there was never\\nin his heart so much cruelty as would have brushed the down\\noff a butterfly^s wing. I have not known the man to whose\\ninnate kindliness I would more confidently make an appeal.\\nMany characteristics and those, too, which contribute not\\nthe least forcibly to impart resemblance in a sketch must have\\nvanished, or been obscured, before I met the General. All\\nmerely graceful attributes are usually the most evanescent; nor\\ndoes Nature adorn the human ruin with blossoms of new beauty,\\nthat have their roots and proper nutriment only in the chinks\\nand crevices of decay, as she sows wall-flowers over the ruined\\nfortress of Ticonderoga. Still, even in respect of grace and\\nbeauty, there were points well worth noting, A ray of humor,\\nnow and then, would make its way through the veil of dim\\nobstruction, and glimmer pleasantly upon our faces. A trait of\\nnative elegance, seldom seen in the masculine character after\\nchildhood or early youth, was shown in the General s fondness\\nfor the sight and fragrance of flowers. An old soldier might\\nbe supposed to prize gnly the bloody laurel on his brow; but\\nhere was one who seemed to have a young girl s appreciation\\nof the floral tribe.\\nThere, beside the fireplace, the brave old General used to sit;\\nwhile the Surveyor though seldom, when it could be avoided,\\ntaking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in con-\\nversation was fond of standing at a distance, and watching\\nhis quiet and almost slumberous countenance. He seemed away\\nfrom us, although we saw him but a few yards off; remote,\\nthough we passed close beside his chair; unattainable, though\\nwe might have stretched forth our hands and touched his own.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "24 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nIt might be that he lived a more real life within his thoughts,\\nthan amid the unappropriate environment of the Collector s office.\\nThe evolutions of the parade the tumult of the battle the flour-\\nish of old, heroic music, heard thirty years before such scenes\\nand sounds, perhaps, wer6 all alive before his intellectual sense.\\nMeanwhile, the merchants and shipmasters, the spruce clerks\\nand uncouth sailors, entered and departed; the bustle of this\\ncommercial and custom-house life kept up its little murmur\\nround about him; and neither with the men nor their affairs\\ndid the General appear to sustain the most distant relation. He\\nwas as much out of place as an old sword now rusty, but\\nwhich had flashed once in the battle s front, and showed still\\na bright gleam along its blade would have been, among the\\ninkstands, paper- folders, and mahogany rulers, on the Deputy\\nCollector s desk.\\nThere was one thing that much aided me in renewing and\\nre-creating the stalwart soldier of the Niagara frontier, the\\nman of true and simple energy. It was the recollection of those\\nmemorable Avords of his, I 11 try. Sir spoken on the\\nvery verge of a desperate and heroic enterprise, and breathing\\nthe soul and spirit of New England hardihood, comprehending\\nall perils, and encountering all. If, in our country, valor were\\nrewarded by heraldic honor, this phrase which it seems so\\neasy to speak, but which only he, with such a task of danger\\nand glory before him, has ever spoken would be the best and\\nfittest of all mottoes for the General s shield of arms.\\nIt contributes greatly towards a man s moral and intellectual\\nhealth, to be brought into habits of companionship with indi-\\nviduals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and Avhose\\nsphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 25\\nThe accidents of my life have often afforded me this advantage,\\nbut never with more fuhiess and variety than during my con-\\ntinuance in office. There was one man, especially, the observa-\\ntion of whose character gave me a new idea of talent. His\\ngifts were emphatically those of a man of business; prompt,\\nacute, clear-minded; with an eye that saw through all perplex-\\nities, and a faculty of arrangement that made them vanish, as\\nby the waving of an enchanter s wand. Bred up from boyhood\\nin the Custom-House, it was his proper field of activity; and\\nthe many intricacies of business, so harassing to the interloper,\\npresented themselves before him with the regularity of a per-\\nfectly comjsrehended system. In my contemplation, he stood\\nas the ideal of his class. He was, indeed, the Custom-House\\nin himself or, at all events, the main-spring that kept its vari-\\nously revolving wheels in motion; for, in an institution like\\nthis, where its officers are appointed to subserve their own profit\\nand convenience, and seldom with a leadhig reference to their\\nfitness for the duty to be performed, they must perforce seek\\nelsewhere the dexterity which is not in them. Thus, by an\\ninevitable necessity, as a magnet attracts steel-filings, so did our\\nman of business draw to himself the difficulties which everybody\\nmet with. With an easy condescension, and kind forbearance\\ntowards our stupidity, which, to his order of mind, must have\\nseemed little short of crime, Avould he forthwith, by the merest\\ntouch of his finger, make the incomprehensible as clear as day-\\nlight. The merchants valued him not less than we, his esoteric\\nfriends. His integrity was perfect it was a law of nature with\\nhim, rather than a choice or a principle; nor can it be other-\\nwise than the main condition of an intellect so remarkably\\nclear and accurate as his, to be honest and regular in the ad-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "26 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nmmistration of affairs. A stain on his conscience^ as to an}\\nthing that came within the range of his vocation, would trouble\\nsuch a man very much in the same way, though to a far\\ngreater degree, that an error in the balance of an account or\\nan ink-blot on the fair page of a book of record. Here, in a\\nword, and it is a rare instance in my life, I had met with\\na person thoroughly adapted to the situation which he held.\\nSuch were some of the people with whom I now found myself\\nconnected. I took it in good part, at the hands of Providence,\\nthat I was thrown into a position so little akin to my past\\nhabits, and set myself seriously to gather from it whatever profit\\nwas to be had. After my fellowship of toil and impracticable\\nschemes with the dreamy brethren of Brook Farm; after living\\nfor three years within the subtile influence of an intellect like\\nEmerson^s; after those wild, free days on the Assabeth, indulg-\\ning fantastic speculations, beside our fire of fallen boughs, with\\nEllery Channing after talking with Thoreau about pine-trees\\nand Indian relics, in his hermitage at Walden; after growing\\nfastidious by sympathy with the classic refinement of Hillard s\\nculture; after becoming imbued with poetic sentiment at Long-\\nfellow s hearthstone; it was time, at length, that I should\\nexercise other faculties of my nature, and nourish myself with\\nfood for which I had hitherto had little appetite. Even the old\\nInspector Avas desirable, as a change of diet, to a man who had\\nknown Alcott. I look upon it as an evidence, in some measure,\\nof a system naturally well balanced, and lacking no essential part of\\na thorough organization, that, with such associates to remember,\\nI could mingle at once with men of altogether difl erent qualities,\\nand never murmur at the change.\\nLiterature, its exertions and objects, were now of little mo-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 27\\nment in my regard. I cared not, at this period, for books\\nthey were apart from me. Nature, except it were human\\nnature, the nature that is developed in earth and sky, M as, in\\none sense, hidden from me; and all the imaginative delight,\\nwherewith it had been spiritualized, passed away out of my\\nmind. A gift, a faculty if it had not departed, was suspended\\nand inanimate within me. There would have been something\\nsad, unutterably dreary, in all this, had I not been conscious\\nthat it lay at my own option to recall whatever was valuable in\\nthe past. It might be true, indeed, that this was a life which\\ncould not with impunity be lived too long; else, it might have\\nmade me permanently other than I had been without transform-\\ning me into any shape which it would be worth my while to\\ntake. But I never considered it as other than a transitory life.\\nThere was always a prophetic instinct, a low whisjDer in my ear,\\nthat, within no long period, and Avhenever a new change of cus-\\ntom should be essential to my good, a change would come.\\nMeanwhile, there I was, a Surveyor of the Eevenue, and, so\\nfar as I have been able to understand, as good a Surveyor as\\nneed be. A man of thought, fancy, and sensibility (had he ten\\ntimes the Surveyor s proportion of those qualities) may, at any\\ntime, be a man of affairs, if he will only choose to give himself\\nthe trouble. My fellow-officers, and the merchants and sea-cap-\\ntains with whom my official duties brought me into any manner\\nof connection, viewed me in no other light, and probably knew\\nme in no other character. None of them, I presume, had ever\\nread a page of my inditing, or would have cared a fig the more\\nfor me, if they had read them all; nor would it have mended\\nthe matter, in the least, had those same unprofitable pages been\\nwritten with a pen like that of Burns or of Chaucer, each of", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "28 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwhom was a custom-house officer in his day, as well as I. It\\nis a good lesson though it may often be a hard one for a\\nman wlio has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for him-\\nself a rank among the world s dignitaries by such means, to\\nstep aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are rec-\\nognized, and to find how utterly devoid of significance, beyond\\nthat circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at. I know\\nnot that I especially needed the lesson, either in the way of\\nwarning or rebuke but, at any rate, I learned it thoroughly\\nnor, it gives me pleasure to reflect, did the truth, as it came\\nhome to my perception, ever cost me a pang, or require to be\\nthrown ott in a sigh. In the way of literary talk, it is true,\\nthe Naval Officer an excellent follow, who came into office\\nwith me and went out only a little later would often engage\\nme in a discussion about one or the other of his favorite topics.\\nNapoleon or Shakespeare. The Collector s junior clerk, too a\\nyoung gentleman who, it was whispered, occasionally covered\\na sheet of Uncle Sam s letter-paper with what (at the distance\\nof a fcAV yards) looked very much like poetry used now and\\nthen to speak to me of books, as matters with which I might\\npossibly be conversant. This was my all of lettered intercourse;\\nand it was quite sufficient for my necessities.\\nNo longer seeking nor caring that my name should be bla-\\nzoned abroad on title-pages, I smiled to think that it had now\\nanother kind of vogue. The Custom-House marker imprinted it,\\nwith a stencil and black paint, on pepper-bags, and baskets of\\nanatto, and cig;ir-boxes, and bales of all kinds of dutiable mer-\\nchandise, in testimony that these commodities had paid the im-\\npost, and gone regularly through the office. Borne on such\\nqueer vehicle of fame, a knowledge of ray existence, so far as a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 29\\nname conveys it, was carried where it had never been before,\\nand, I hope, will never go again.\\nBut the past was not dead. Once in a great while the\\nthoughts that had seemed so vital and so active, yet had been\\nput to rest so quietly, revived again. One of the most remark-\\nable occasions, when the habit of bygone days awoke in me,\\nwas that which brings it within the law of literary propriety to\\noft er the public the sketch which I am now writing.\\nIn the second story of the Custom-House there is a large\\nroom, in which the brick-work and naked rafters have never\\nbeen covered with panelling and plaster. The edifice origi-\\nnally projected on a scale adapted to the old commercial enter-\\nprise of the port, and with an idea of subsequent prosperity des-\\ntined never to be realized contains far more space than its\\noccupants know what to do with. This airy hall, therefore, over\\nthe Collector s apartments, remains unfinished to this day, and,\\nin spite of the aged cobwebs that festoon its dusky beams, ap-\\npears still to await the labor of the carpenter and mason. At\\none end of the room, in a recess, were a number of barrels, piled\\none upon another, containing bundles of official documents. Large\\nquantities of similar rubbish lay lumbering the floor. It was\\nsorrowful to think how many days and weeks and months and\\nyears of toil had been wasted on these musty papers, which were\\nnow only an encumbrance on earth, and were hidden away in\\nthis forgotten corner, never more to be glanced at by human eyes.\\nBut, then, Avhat reams of other manuscripts filled not with the\\ndulness of official formalities, but with the thought of inventive\\nbrains and the rich effusion of deep hearts had gone equally to\\noblivion and that, moreover, without serving a purpose in their\\nday, as these heaped-up papers had, and saddest of all with-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "30 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nout purchasing for their writers the comfortable livelihood which\\nthe clerks of the Custom-House had gained by these worthless\\nscratchings of the j)en Yet not altogether worthless, jDcrhaps,\\nas materials of local history. Here, no doubt, statistics of the\\nformer commerce of Salem might be discovered, and memorials\\nof her princely merchants, old King Derby, old Billy Gray,\\nold Simon Forrester, and many another magnate in his day;\\nwhose powdered head, however, was scarcely in the tomb, before\\nhis mountain pile of wealth began to dwindle. The founders of\\nthe greater part of the families which now compose the aristoc-\\nracy of Salem might here be traced, from the petty and obscure\\nbeginnings of their traffic, at periods generally much posterior to\\nthe Revolution, upward to what their children look upon as long-\\nestablished rank.\\nPrior to the Eevolution there is a dearth of records; the\\nearlier documents and archives of the Custom-House having,\\nprobably, been carried off to Halifax, when all the King s officials\\naccompanied the British army in its flight from Boston. It has\\noften been a matter of regret with me for, going back, perhaps,\\nto the days of the Protectorate, those papers must have con-\\ntained many references to forgotten or remembered men, and to\\nanticpie customs, which would have affected me with the same\\npleasure as when I used to pick up Indian arrow-heads in the\\nfield near the Old Manse.\\nBut, one idle and rainy day, it was my fortune to make a dis-\\ncovery of some little interest. Poking and burrowing into the\\nheaped-up rubbish in the corner unfolding one and another\\ndocument, and reading the names of vessels that had long ago\\nfoundered at sea or rotted at the wharves, and those of mer-\\nchants, never heard of now on ^Change, nor very readily decipher-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 31\\nable on their mossy tombstones; glancing at such matters with\\nthe saddened^ weary, half-reluctant interest which we bestow on\\nthe corpse of dead activity, and exerting my fancy, sluggish\\nwith little use, to raise up from these dry bones an image of\\nthe old town s brighter aspect, when India was a new region,\\nand only Salem knew the way thither, I chanced to lay my\\nhand on a small package, carefully done up in a piece of an-\\ncient yellow parchment. This envelope had the air of an official\\nrecord of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their\\nstiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than\\nat present. There was something about it that quickened an\\ninstinctive curiosity, and made me undo the faded red tape, that\\ntied up the package, with the sense that a treasure would here\\nbe brought to light. Unbending the rigid folds of the parch-\\nment cover, I found it to be a commission, under the hand and seal\\nof Governor Shirley, in favor of one Jonathan Pue, as Surveyor\\nof his Majesty s Customs for the port of Salem, in the Province\\nof Massachusetts Bay. I remember to have read (probably in\\nFelt s Annals) a notice of the decease of Mr. Surveyor Pue,\\nabout fourscore years ago; and likewise, in a newspaper of recent\\ntimes, an account of the digging up of his remains in the little\\ngraveyard of St. Peter s Cliurch, during the renewal of that\\nedifice. Nothing, if I rightly call to mind, Avas left of my\\nrespected predecessor, save an imperfect skeleton, and some frag-\\nments of apparel, and a wig of majestic frizzle; which, unlike\\nthe head that it once adorned, Avas in very satisfactory preserva-\\ntion. But, on examining the papers which the parchment com-\\nmission served to envelop, I found more traces of Mr. Pue s\\nmental part, and the internal operations of his head, than the\\nfrizzled Avig had contained of the venerable skull itself.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "33 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nTliey were documents, in short, not official, but of a private\\nnature, or at least written in his private capacity, and appar-\\nently with his own hand. I could account for their being in-\\ncluded in the heap of Custom-IIouse lumber only by the fact\\nthat Mr. Pue s death had ha])pened suddenly; and that these\\npapers, which he probably kept in his official desk, had never\\ncome to the knowledge of his heirs, or were supposed to relate\\nto the business of the revenue. On the transfer of the archives\\nto Halifax, this package, proving to be of no jniblic concern,\\nwas left behind, and had remained ever since unopened.\\nThe ancient Surveyor being Httlc molested, I suppose, at\\nthat early day, with business pertaining to his office seems\\nto have devoted some of his many leisure hours to researches\\nas a local antiquarian, and other inquisitions of a similar nature.\\nThese supplied material for petty activity to a mind that would\\notherwise have been eaten up with rust. A portion of his facts,\\nby the by, did me good service in the preparation of the article\\nentitled Main Street, included in the present volume. The\\nremainder may perhaps be api)lied to purposes equally valu-\\nable, hereafter; or not impossibly may be worked uj), so far as\\nthey go, into a regular history of Salem, should my veneration\\nfor the natal soil ever impel me to so pious a task. IMeanwhile,\\nthey shall be at the command of any gentleman, inclined, and\\ncompetent, to take the unprofitable labor off my hands. As a\\nfinal disposition, I contemplate depositing them with the Essex\\nHistorical Society.\\nBut the object that most drew my attention, in the mysterious\\npackage, was a certain affiiir of fine red cloth, much worn and\\nfaded. There were traces about it of gold embroidery, which,\\nhowever, was greatly frayed and defaced; so that none, or very", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, 33\\nlittlcj of the glitter was left. It had been wrought, as was easy\\nto perceive, with wonderful skill of needlework; and the stitch\\n(as I am assured by ladies conversant with such mysteries) gives\\nevidence of a now forgotten art, not to be recovered even by\\nthe process of picking out the threads. This rag of scarlet\\ncloth, for time and wear and a sacrilegious moth had reduced\\nit to little other than a rag, on careful examination, assumed\\nthe sliape of a letter. It was the capital letter A. By an accu-\\nrate measurement, each limb jjroved to be precisely three inches\\nand a quarter in length. It liad been intended, there could be\\nno doubt, as an ornamental article of dress; but how it was to\\nbe worn, or what rank, honor, and dignity, in by-past times,\\nwere signified by it, was a riddle which (so evanescent are the\\nfashions of the world in these particulars) I saw little hope of\\nsolving. And yet it strangely interested me. My eyes fastened\\nthemselves upon the old scarlet letter, and M ould not be turned\\naside. Certaiidy, there was some deep meaning in it, most worthy\\nof interpretation, and which, as it were, streamed forth from\\nthe mystic symbol, subtly communicating itself to my sensibili-\\nties, but evading the analysis of my mhid.\\nWhile thus perplexed, and cogitating, among other hypoth-\\neses, whether the letter might not have been one of those deco-\\nrations which the white men used to contrive, in order to take\\nthe eyes of Indians, I happened to place it on my breast.\\nIt seemed to me, the reader may smile, but must not doubt\\nmy word, it seemed to me, then, that I experienced a sensa-\\ntion not altogether physical, yet almost so, of burning heat\\nand as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron. I\\nshuddered, and involuntarily let it fall upon the floor.\\nIn the absorbing contemplation of the scarlet letter, I had", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "34 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nhitherto neglected to examine a small roll of dingy paper, around\\nwhich it had been twisted. This I now opened, and had the\\nsatisfaction to find, recorded by the old Surveyor s pen, a rea-\\nsonably comi)lete explanation of the whole afPair. Tliere were\\nseveral foolscap sheets containing many particulars respecting the\\nlife and conversation of one Hester Prynne, who appeared to have\\nbeen rather a noteworthy personage in the view of our ances-\\ntors. She had flourished during the period between the early\\ndays of Massachusetts and the close of the seventeenth century.\\nAged persons, alive in the time of Mr. Surveyor Pue, and from\\nwhose oral testimony he had made up his narrative, remembered\\nher, in their youth, as a very old, but not decrepit woman, of\\na stately and solemn aspect. It had been her habit, from an\\nalmost immemorial date, to go about the country as a kind of\\nvoluntary nurse, and doing whatever miscellaneous good she\\nmight; taking upon herself, likewise, to give advice in all mat-\\nters, especially those of the heart; by which means, as a person\\nof such propensities inevitably must, she gained from many peo-\\nple the reverence due to an angel, but, I should imagine, was\\nlooked upon by others as an intruder and a nuisance. Prying\\nfurther into the manuscript, I found the record of other doings\\nand sufferings of this singular woman, for most of which the\\nreader is referred to the story entitled The Scarlet Letter\\nand it should be borne carefully in mind, that the main facts\\nof that story are authorized and authenticated by the document\\nof Mr. Surveyor Pue. The original papers, together with the\\nscarlet letter itself, a most curious relic, are still in my pos-\\nsession, and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever, induced\\nby the great interest of the narrative, may desire a sight of\\nthem. I must not be understood as affirming, that, in the dress-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 35\\ning up of the tale, and imagining the motives and modes of\\npassion that influenced the characters who figure in it, I have\\ninvariably confined myself within the limits of the old Surveyor s\\nhalf a dozen sheets of foolscap. On the contrary, I have allowed\\nmyself, as to such points, nearly or altogether as much license\\nas if the facts had been entirely of my own invention. What\\nI contend for is the authenticity of the outline.\\nThis incident recalled my mind, in some degree, to its old\\ntrack. There seemed to be here the groundwork of a tale. It\\nimpressed me as if the ancient Surveyor, in his garb of a hun-\\ndred years gone by, and wearing his immortal wig, Avhich\\nwas buried with him, but did not perish in the grave, had\\nmet me in the deserted chamber of the Custom-House. In his\\nport was the dignity of one Avho had borne his Majesty s com-\\nmission, and Avho was therefore illuminated by a ray of the s])len-\\ndor that shone so dazzlingly about the throne. How unlike,\\nalas the hang-dog look of a republican official, who, as the\\nservant of the people, feels himself less than the least, and below\\nthe lowest, of his masters. With his own ghostly hand, the\\nobscurely seen but majestic figure had imparted to me the scar-\\nlet symbol, and the little roll of explanatory manuscript. With\\nhis own ghostly voice, he had exhorted me, on the sacred con-\\nsideration of my filial duty and reverence towards him, who\\nmight reasonably regard himself as my official ancestor, to\\nbring his mouldy and moth-eaten lucubrations before the public.\\nDo this, said the ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue, emphatically\\nnodding the head that looked so imposing within its memor-\\nable wig, do this, and the profit shall be all your own\\nYou M ill shortly need it; for it is not in your days as it was\\nin muie, when a man s office was a life-lease, and oftentimes", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "36 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nan heirloom. But^ I charge you, in this matter of old Mistress\\nPrynne, give to your predecessor s memory the credit which will\\nbe rightfully due And I said to the ghost of Mr. Surveyor\\nPue, I will!\\nOn Hester Prynne s story, therefore, I bestoAved much thought.\\nIt was the subject of my meditations for many an hour, while\\npacing to and fro across my room, or traversing, with a hun-\\ndred-fold repetition, the long extent from the front-door of the\\nCustom- House to the side-entrance, and back again. Great were\\nthe weariness and annoyance of the old Inspector and the Weigh-\\ners and Gangers, whose slumbers M^ere disturbed by the unmer-\\ncifully lengthened tramp of my passing and returning footsteps.\\nRemembering their own former habits, they used to say that\\nthe Surveyor was walking the quarter-deck. They probably\\nfancied that my sole object and, indeed, the sole object for\\nwhich a sane man could ever put himself into voluntary mo-\\ntion was, to get an appetite for dinner. And to say the\\ntruth, an appetite, sharpened by the east wind that generally\\nblew along the passage, was the only valuable result of so much\\nindefatigable exercise. So little adapted is the atmosphere of\\na custom-house to the dehcate harvest of fancy and sensibil-\\nity, that, had I remained there through ten Presidencies yet to\\ncome, I doubt whether the tale of The Scarlet Letter would\\never have been brought before the public eye. My imagination\\nwas a tarnished mirror. It would not reflect, or only with mis-\\nerable dimness, the figures with which I did my best to people\\nit. The characters of the narrative would not be warmed and\\nrendered malleable by any heat that I could kindle at my intel-\\nlectual forge. They would take neither the glow of passion nor\\nthe tenderness of sentiment, but retained all the rigidity of dead", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 37\\ncorpses^ and stared me in the face with a fixed and ghastly grin\\nof contemptuous defiance. What have you to do with us\\nthat expression seemed to say. The little power you might\\nonce have possessed over the tribe of unrealities is gone You\\nhave bartered it for a pittance of the public gold. Go, then,\\nand earn your v/ages In short, the almost torpid creatures\\nof my own fancy twitted me with imbecility, and not without\\nfair occasion.\\nIt was not merely during the three hours and a half which\\nUncle Sam claimed as his share of my daily life, that this\\nwretched numbness held possession of me. It went with me\\non my sea-shore walks, and rambles into the country, when-\\never which was seldom and reluctantly I bestirred myself\\nto seek that invigorating charm of Nature, which used to give\\nme such freshness and activity of thought the moment that I\\nstepped across the threshold of the Old Manse. The same tor-\\npor, as regarded the capacity for intellectual effort, accompanied\\nme home, and weighed upon me in the chamber which I most\\nabsurdly termed my study. Nor did it quit me, when, late\\nat night, I sat in the deserted parlor, lighted only by the\\nglimmering coal-fire and the moon, striving to picture forth\\nimaginary scenes, which, the next day, might flow out on the\\nbrightening page in many-hued description.\\nIf the imaginative faculty refused to act at such an hour, it\\nmight well be deemed a hopeless case. Moonlight, in a familiar\\nroom, falling so Avhite upon the carpet, and showing all its figures\\nso distinctly, making every object so minutely visible, yet so\\nunlike a morning or noontide visibility, is a medium the most\\nsuitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive\\nguests. There is the little domestic scenery of the well-known", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "38 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\napartment the chairs^ with each its separate individuality the\\ncentre-table, sustainhig a work-basket, a volume or two, and an\\nexthiguishcd lamp; the sofa; the bookcase; the picture on the\\nwall all these details, so completely seen, are so spiritualized\\nby the uimsual light, that they seem to lose their actual sub-\\nstance, and become things of intellect. Nothing is too small or\\ntoo trilling to undergo this change, and acquire dignity thereby.\\nA child s shoe; the doll, seated in her little wicker carriage;\\nthe hobby-horse whatever, in a word, has been used or played\\nwith, during the day, is now invested with a quality of strange-\\nness and remoteness, though still almost as vividly present as\\nby daylight. Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has\\nbecome a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world\\nand fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginaiy may meet,\\nand each imbue itself with the nature of the other. Ghosts might\\nenter here, without afi righting us. It would be too much in\\nkeeping with the scene to excite surprise, were we to look about\\nus and discover a form beloved, but gone hence, now sitting\\nquietly in a streak of this magic moonshine, with an aspect that\\nwouUl make us doubt whether it had returned from afar, or had\\nnever once stirred from our fireside.\\nThe somewhat dim coal-fire has an essential influence in pro-\\nducing the effect which I would describe. It throws its unob-\\ntrusive tinge throughout the room, Avith a faint ruddiness upon\\nthe walls and coiling, and a reflected gleam from the polish of the\\nfurniture. This warmer light mingles itself with the cold spirit-\\nuality of the moonbeams, and communicates, as it were, a heart\\nand sensibilities of human tenderness to the forms M hich fancy\\nsummons up. It converts them from snow-images into men and\\nwomen. Glancing at the looking-glass, we behold deep within", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 39\\nits liaunted verge the smouldering glow of tlie half-extinguished\\nanthracite, the white moonbeams on the floor, and a repetition\\nof all the gleam and shadow of the picture, with one remove\\nfurther from the actual, and nearer to the imaginative. Then,\\nat sucli an hour, and with this scene before him, if a man, sitting\\nall alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like\\ntruth, he need never try to write romances.\\nBut, for myself, during the whole of my Custom-House expe-\\nrience, moonlight and sunsliine, and the glow of firelight, were\\njust alike in my regard; and neither of them was of one whit\\nmore avail than the twinkle of a tallow-candle. An entire class\\nof susceptibilities, and a gift connected with them, of no great\\nrichness or value, but the best I had, was gone from me.\\nIt is my belief, however, that, had I attempted a different order\\nof composition, my faculties would not have been found so point-\\nless and inefficacious. I might, for instance, have contented my-\\nself M ith writing out the narratives of a veteran shipmaster, one\\nof the Inspectors, whom I should be most ungrateful not to men-\\ntion, since scarcely a day passed that he did not stir me to laugli-\\nter and admiration by his marvellous gifts as a story-teller.\\nCould I have preserved the picturesque force of his style, and\\nthe humorous coloring which nature taught liim liow to throw\\nover his descriptions, the result, I honestly believe, would have\\nbeen something new in literature. Or I might readily have found\\na more serious task. It was a folly, with the materiality of this\\ndaily life pressing so intrusively upon me, to attempt to fling\\nmyself back into another age; or to insist on creating the sem-\\nblance of a world out of airy matter, Avhen, at every moment,\\nthe impalpable beauty of my soap-bubble was broken by the\\nrude contact of some actual circumstance. The wiser effort would", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "40 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nhave been, to diffuse thought and imagination through the opaque\\nsubstance of to-day, and thus to make it a bright transparency;\\nto spiritualize the burden that began to weigh so heavily; to\\nseek, resolutely, the true and indestructible value that lay hidden\\nin the petty and wearisome incidents, and ordinary characters,\\nwith which I was now conversant. The fault was mine. Tlie\\npage of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and com-\\nmonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import.\\nA better book than I shall ever write was there; leaf after leaf\\npresenting itself to me, just as it was written out by the reality\\nof the flitthig liour, and vanishing as fast as written, only because\\nmy brain wanted the insight and my hand the cunning to tran-\\nscribe it. At some future day, it may be, I shall remember a\\nfew scattered fragments and broken paragraphs, and write them\\ndown, and find the letters turn to gold upon the page.\\nThese perceptions have come too late. At the instant, I was\\nonly conscious that what would have been a pleasure once was\\nnow a hopeless toil. There was no occasion to make much moan\\nabout this state of affairs. I had ceased to be a writer of toler-\\nably poor tales and essays, and had become a tolerably good\\nSurveyor of the Customs. That was all. But, nevertheless, it\\nis anything but agreeable to be haunted by a suspicion that\\none s intellect is dwindling away or exhaling, without your con-\\nsciousness, like ether out of a phial so that, at every glance, you\\nfind a smaller and less volatile residuum. Of the fact there\\ncould be no doubt; and, examining myself and others, I was\\nled to conclusions, in reference to the effect of public office on\\nthe character, not very favorable to the mode of life in question.\\nIn some other form, perhaps, I may hereafter develop these\\neffects. Suffice it here to say, that a Custom-House officer, of", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 41\\nlong continuance, can hardly be a very praiseworthy or respect-\\nable personage, for many reasons; one of them, the tenure by\\nwhich he holds his situation, and another, the very nature of his\\nbusiness, which though, I trust, an honest one is of such a\\nsort that he does not share in the united effort of mankind.\\nAn effect which I believe to be observable, more or less, in\\nevery individual who has occupied the position is, that, while\\nhe leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper\\nstrength departs from him. He loses, in an extent proportioned\\nto the weakness or force of his original nature, the capability of\\nself-support. If he possess an unusual share of native energy,\\nor the enervating magic of place do not operate too long upon\\nhim, his forfeited powers may be redeemable. The ejected officer\\nfortunate in the unkindly shove that sends him forth betimes,\\nto struggle amid a struggling world may return to himself,\\nand become all that he has ever been. But this seldom happens.\\nHe usually keeps his ground just long enough for his own ruin,\\nand is then thrust out, with sinews all unstrung, to totter along\\nthe difficult footpath of life as he best may. Conscious of his\\nown infirmity, that his tempered steel and elasticity are lost,\\nhe forever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of sup-\\nport external to himself. His pervading and continual hope\\na hallucination which, in the face of all discouragement, and\\nmaking light of impossibilities, haunts him while he lives, and,\\nI fancy, like the convulsive throes of the cholera, torments him\\nfor a brief space after death is, that finally, and in no long\\ntime, by some happy coincidence of circumstances, he shall be\\nrestored to office. This faith, more than anything else, steals\\nthe pith and availability out of whatever enterprise lie may dream\\nof undertaking. Why should he toil and moil, and be at so", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "42 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nmuch trouble to pick himself up out of the mud, when, in a\\nlittle while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and\\nsupport him Why should he work for his living here, or go\\nto dig gold in California, when he is so soon to be made happy,\\nat monthly intervals, with a little pile of glittering coin out of\\nhis Uncle^s pocket? It is sadly curious to observe how slight\\na taste of office suffices to infect a poor fellow with this singular\\ndisease. Uncle Sam s gold meaning no disrespect to the wor-\\nthy old gentleman has, in this respect, a quality of enchant-\\nment like that of the Devil s wages. Whoever touches it should\\nlook well to himself, or he may find the bargain to go hard\\nagainst him, involving, if not his soul, yet many of its better\\nattributes; its sturdy force, its courage and constancy, its truth,\\nits self-reliance, and all that gives the emphasis to manly char-\\nacter.\\nHere was a fine prospect in the distance Not that the Sur-\\nveyor brought the lesson home to himself, or admitted that he\\ncould be so utterly undone, either by continuance in office, or\\nejectment. Yet my reflections were not the most comfortable.\\nI began to grow melancholy and restless; continually prying\\ninto my mind, to discover which of its poor properties were\\ngone, and what degree of detriment had already accrued to the\\nremainder. I endeavored to calculate how much longer I could\\nstay in the Custom-House, and yet go forth a man. To confess\\nthe truth, it was my greatest apprehension, as it would never\\nbe a measure of policy to turn out so quiet an individual as\\nmyself, and it being hardly in the nature of a public officer to\\nresign, it Avas my chief trouble, therefore, that I was likely\\nto grow gray and decrepit in the Surveyorship, and become\\nmuch such another animal as the old Inspector. Might it not,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 43\\nin the tedious lapss of official life that lay before me, finally be\\nwith me as it was with this venerable friend, to make the\\ndinner-hour the nucleus of the day, and to spend the rest of\\nit, as an old dog spends it, asleep in the sunshine or in the\\nshade? A dreary look-forward this, for a man who felt it to\\nbe the best definition of happiness to live throughout the whole\\nrange of his faculties and sensibilities But, all this while, I\\nwas giving myself very unnecessary alarm. Providence had\\nmeditated better things for me than I could possibly imagine\\nfor myself.\\nA remarkable event of the third year of my Surveyorship\\nto adopt the tone of P. P. was the election of General\\nTaylor to the Presidency. It is essential, in order to a complete\\nestimate of the advantages of official life, to view the incumbent\\nat the incoming of a hostile administration. His position is then\\none of the most singularly irksome, and, in every contingency,\\ndisagreeable, that a wretched mortal can possibly occupy; with\\nseldom an alternative of good, on either hand, although what\\npresents itself to him as the worst event may very probably be\\nthe best. But it is a strange experience, to a man of pride\\nand sensibility, to know that his interests are within the control\\nof individuals who neither love nor understand him, and by\\nwhom, since one or the other must needs happen, he would\\nrather be injured than obliged. Strange, too, for one who has\\nkept his calmness throughout the contest, to observe the blood-\\nthirstiness that is developed in the hour of triumph, and to be\\nconscious that he is himself among its objects There are few\\nuglier traits of human nature than this tendency which I now\\nwitnessed in men no worse than their neighbors to grow cruel,\\nmerely because they possessed the power of inflicting harm. If", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "44 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthe guillotine^ as applied to office-holders^ were a literal fact\\ninstead of one of the most apt of metaphors^ it is my sincere\\nbelief that the active members of the victorious party were suf-\\nficiently excited to have chopped off all our lieads^ and have\\nthanked Heaven for the opportunity It appears to me who\\nhave been a calm and curious observer^ as well in victory as\\ndefeat that this fierce and bitter spirit of malice and revenge\\nhas never distinguished the many triumphs of my own party as\\nit now did that of the Whigs. The Democrats take the offices,\\nas a general rule, because they need them, and because the prac-\\ntice of many years has made it the law of political warfare,\\nwhich, unless a different system be proclaimed, it were weakness\\nand cowardice to murmur at. But the long habit of victory\\nhas made them generous. They know how to spare, when they\\nsee occasion and when they strike, the axe may be sharp, indeed,\\nbut its edge is seldom poisoned with ill-will; nor is it their\\ncustom ignominiously to kick the head which they have just\\nstruck off.\\nIn short, unpleasant as Avas my predicament, at best, I saw\\nmuch reason to congratulate myself that I was on the losing\\nside, rather than the triumphant one. If, heretofore, I had been\\nnone of the warmest of partisans, I began now, at this season\\nof peril and adversity, to be pretty acutely sensible with which\\nparty my predilections lay; nor was it without something like\\nregret and shame, that, according to a reasonable calculation of\\nchances, I saw my own prospect of retaining office to be better\\nthan those of my Democratic brethren. But who can see an\\ninch into futurity, beyond his nose? My own head was the\\nfirst that fell!\\nThe moment when a man s head drops off is seldom or never.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 45\\nI am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.\\nNevertheless, like the greater part of our misfortunes, even so\\nserious a contingency brings its remedy and consolation with it,\\nif the sufferer will but make the best, rather than the worst,\\nof the accident which has befallen him. In my particular case,\\nthe consolatory topics were close at hand, and, indeed, had sug-\\ngested themselves to my meditations a considerable time before\\nit was requisite to use them. In view of my previous weariness\\nof office, and vague thoughts of resignation, my fortune some-\\nwhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea\\nof committing suicide, and, although beyond his hopes, meet\\nwith the good hap to be murdered. In the Custom-House, as\\nbefore in the Old Manse, I had spent three years; a term long\\nenough to rest a weary brain; long enough to break off old\\nintellectual habits, and make room for new ones long enough,\\nand too long, to have lived in an unnatural state, doing what\\nwas really of no advantage nor delight to any human being, and\\nwithholding myself from toil that would, at least, have stilled\\nan unquiet impulse in me. Then, moreover, as regarded his\\nunceremonious ejectment, the late Surveyor was not altogether\\nill-pleased to be recognized by the Whigs as an enemy; since\\nhis inactivity in political affairs his tendency to roam, at will,\\nin that broad and quiet field where all mankind may meet, rather\\nthan confine himself to those narrow paths where brethren of the\\nsame household must diverge from one another had sometimes\\nmade it questionable with his brother Democrats whether he was\\na friend. Now, after he had won the crown of martyrdom (though\\nwith no longer a head to wear it on), the point might be looked\\nupon as settled. Finally, little heroic as he was, it seemed more\\ndecorous to be overthrown in the downfall of the party with", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "46 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwhich he had been content to stand, than to remain a forlorn\\nsurvivor, when so many worthier men were faUing; and, at last,\\nafter subsisting for four years on the mercy of a hostile admin-\\nistration, to be compelled then to define his position anew, and\\nclaim the yet more humiliating mercy of a friendly one.\\nMeanwhile the press had taken up my affair, and kept me,\\nfor a week or two, careering through the public prints, in my\\ndecapitated state, like Irving^s Headless Horseman; ghastly and\\ngrim, and longing to be buried, as a politically dead man ought.\\nSo much for my figurative self. The real human being, all this\\ntime, with his head safely on his shoulders, had brought himself\\nto the comfortable conclusion that everything was for the best;\\nand, making an investment in ink, paper, and steel-pens, had\\nopened his long-disused writing-desk, and was again a literary\\nman.\\nNow it was that the lucubrations of my ancient predecessor,\\nMr, Surveyor Pue, came into play. Eusty through long idle-\\nness, some little space was requisite before my intellectual ma-\\nchinery could be brought to work upon the tale, with an effect\\nin any degree satisfactory. Even yet, though my thoughts Avere\\nultimately much absorbed in the task, it wears, to my eye, a\\nstern and sombre aspect; too much ungladdened by genial sun-\\nshine too little relieved by the tender and familiar influences\\nwhich soften almost every scene of nature and real life, and,\\nundoubtedly, should soften every picture of them. This uncap-\\ntivating eff ect is perhaps due to the period of hardly accomplished\\nrevolution, and still seething turmoil, in Avhich the story shaped\\nitself. It is no indication, however, of a lack of cheerfulness\\nin the writer^s mind for he was happier, while straying through\\nthe gloom of these sunless fantasies, than at any time since he", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 47\\nhad quitted the Old Manse. Some of the briefer articles, which\\ncontribute to make up the volume, have likewise been written\\nsince my involuntary withdrawal from the toils and honors of\\npublic life, and the remainder are gleaned from annuals and mag-\\nazines of such antique date that they have gone round the circle,\\nand come back to novelty again.* Keeping up the metaphor of\\nthe political guillotine, the whole may be considered as the Post-\\nhumous Papers of a Decapitated Surveyor; and the sketcli\\nwhich I am now bringing to a close, if too autobiographical for\\na modest person to publish in his lifetime, M ill readily be ex-\\ncused in a gentleman who writes from beyond the grave. Peace\\nbe with all the world My blessing on my friends My for-\\ngiveness to my enemies For I am in the realm of quiet\\nThe life of the Custom-House lies like a dream behind me.\\nThe old Inspector, who, by the by, I regret to say, was over-\\nthrown and killed by a horse, some time ago; else he w^ould\\ncertainly have lived forever, he, and all those other venerable\\npersonages who sat with him at the receipt of custom, are but\\nshadows in my view; white-headed and wrinkled images, which\\nmy fancy used to sport with, and has now flung aside forever.\\nThe merchants, Pingree, Phillips, Shepard, Upton, Kimball,\\nBertram, Hunt, these, and many other names, which had such\\na classic fnmilinrity for my ear six months ago, these men of\\ntraffic, who seemed to occupy so important a position in the\\nworld, how little time has it required to disconnect me from\\nthem all, not merely in act, but recollection It is with an effort\\nthat I recall the figures and appellations of these few. Soon,\\nAt the time of writing this article the author intended to publish, along with\\nThe Scarlet Letter, several shorter talcs and sketches. These it has been thought\\nadvisable to defer.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "48\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nlikewise, my old native town will loom upon me through the\\nhaze of memory, a mist brooding over and around it; as if it\\nwere no portion of the real earth, but an overgrown village in\\ncloud-land, with only imaginary inhabitants to people its wooden\\nhouses, and walk its homely lanes, and the unpicturesque prolixity\\nof its main street. Henceforth it ceases to be a reality of my\\nlife. I am a citizen of somewhere else. My good towns-people\\nwill not much regret me; for though it has been as dear an\\nobject as any, in my literary efforts, to be of some importance\\nin their eyes, and to win myself a pleasant memory in this abode\\nand burial-place of so many of my forefathers there has never\\nbeen, for me, the genial atmosphere which a literary man requires,\\nin order to ripen the best harvest of his mind. I shall do better\\namongst other faces; and these familiar ones, it need hardly be\\nsaid, will do just as well without me.\\nIt may be, however, 0, transporting and triumphant thought\\nthat the great-grandchildren of the present race may sometimes\\nthink kindly of the scribbler of bygone days, when the antiquary\\nof days to come, among the sites memorable in the town s his-\\ntory, shall point out the locality of The Town Pump!", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0069.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0070.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "The Scarlet Letter\\nI.\\nTHE PRISON-DOOR.\\nA THRONG of hcin-dvd nuMi,\\nill sad-colored garments, and\\ngray, steeple-crowned hats, in-\\ntermixed with women, some\\nwearing hoods and others\\nbareheaded, was assembled in\\nfront of a wooden edifice, the\\ndoor of whicli was heavily\\ntimbered with oak, and stud-\\nded with iron spikes.\\nThe founders of a new col-\\nony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might\\noriginally project, have invariably recognized it among their earli-\\nest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a\\ncemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. In accord-\\nance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0071.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "52 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nof Boston had built the first prison-house somewhere in the vicinity\\nof Cornhill, almost as seasonably as they marked out the first burial-\\nground, on Isaac Johnson^s lot, and romid about his grave/ which\\nsubsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated sepul-\\nchres in the old churchyard of King s Chapel. Certain it is, that,\\nsome fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the\\nwooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other\\nindications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-\\nbrowed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work\\nof its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the\\nNew World. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to\\nhave known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and between\\nit and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much over-\\ngrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly\\nvegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil,\\nthat had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a\\nprison. But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the\\nthreshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June,\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2nath its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their\\nfragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to\\nthe condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token\\nthat the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.\\nThis rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in his-\\ntory; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old\\nwilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks\\nthat originally overshadowed it, or whether, as there is fair\\nauthority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps\\nof the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door,\\nwe shall not take upon us to determine. Finding it so di-\\nrectly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0072.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "THE PRISON-DOOR.\\n53\\nissue from that inauspicious portal^ we could hardly do other-\\nwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader.\\nIt may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blos-\\nsom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darken-\\ning close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0073.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "II.\\nTHE MARKET-PLACE.\\nHE grass-plot before the jail, in Prison Lane,\\non a certain summer morning, not less than\\ntwo centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty\\nlarge number of the inhabitants of Boston\\nall with their eyes intently fastened on the\\niron-clamped oaken door. Amongst any\\nother population, or at a later period in the history of New Eng-\\nland, the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies\\nof these good people would have augured some aAvful business\\nin hand. It could have betokened nothing short of the antici-\\npated execution of some noted culprit, on whom the sentence\\nof a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public senti-\\nme^nt. But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an\\ninference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It\\nmight be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child,\\nwhom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to\\nbe corrected at the whipping-post. It might be, that an Anti-\\nnomian, a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist was to be\\nscourged out of the toMii, or an idle and vagrant Indian, whom", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0074.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "THE MARKET-PLACE. 55\\nthe white man^s fire-water had made riotous about the streets,\\nwas to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest. It\\nmight be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the\\nbitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the\\ngallows. In either case, there was very much the same solem-\\nnity of demeanor on the part of the spectators; as befitted a\\npeople amongst whom religion and law were almost identical,\\nand in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that\\nthe mildest and the severest acts of jjublic discipline were alike\\nmade venerable and awful. Meagre, indeed, and cold was the\\nsympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders,\\nat the scaff old. On the other hand, a penalty, Avhich, in our\\ndays, would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might\\nthen be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punish-\\nment of death itself.\\nIt was a circumstance to be noted, on the summer morning\\nwhen our story begins its course, that the women, of whom\\nthere were several in the crowd, appeared to take a peculiar\\ninterest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue.\\nThe age had not so much refinement, that any sense of impro-\\npriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale from\\nstepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not\\nunsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng nearest to\\nthe scaffold at an execution. Morally, as well as materially, there\\nwas a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old English\\nbirth and breeding, than in their fair descendants, separated\\nfrom them by a series of six or seven generations for, through-\\nout that chain of ancestry, every successive mother has trans-\\nmitted to her child a fainter bloom, a more delicate and briefer\\nbeauty, and a slighter physical frame, if not a character of less", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0075.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "56 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nforce and solidity^ than her own. The Avomen who were now\\nstanding about the prison-door stood within less than half a\\ncentury of the 2)eriod when the man-like Elizabeth had been\\nthe not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex. Thev\\nwere her countrywomen; and the beef and ale of their native\\nland, with a moral diet not a whit more refined, entered largely\\ninto their composition. The bright morning sun, therefore, shone\\non broad shoulders and well-developed busts, and on round and\\nruddy cheeks, that had ripened in the far-off island, and had\\nhardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New\\nEngland. There was, moreover, a boldness and rotundity of\\nspeech among these matrons, as most of them seemed to be,\\nthat would startle us at tlie present day, whether in respect to\\nits jiurport or its volume of tone.\\nGoodwives, said a hard-featured dame of fifty, I 11 tell\\nye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public\\nbehoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members\\nin good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses\\nas this Hester Prynne. AYhat think ye, gossips If the hussy\\nstood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a\\nknot together, w^ould she come off with such a sentence as the\\nworshipful magistrates have awarded Marry, I trow not\\nPeople say, said another, that the Eeverend Master Dimmes-\\ndale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such\\na scandal should have come upon his congregation.\\nThe magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful\\novermuch, that is a truth, added a third autumnal matron.\\nAt the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot\\niron on Hester Prynne s forehead. Madam Hester would have\\nwinced at that, I warrant me. But she, the naughty baggage.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0076.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "THE MAllKET-PLACE,\\n57\\nlittle will she care what they put upon the bodice of her\\ngown Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or\\nsuch like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave\\nas ever\\nAh, but,-*^ interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding\\na child by the hand, let her cover\\nthe mark as she will, the pang of it\\nwill be always in her heart/\\nWhat do we talk of marks and\\nbrands, whether on the bodice of her\\ngown, or the flesh of her forehead cried another female, the\\nugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges.\\nThis woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.\\nIs there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scrip-\\nture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who liave\\nmade it of no eff ect, thank themselves if their own wives and\\ndaughters go astray\\nMercy on us, goodwife, exclaimed a man in the crowd,\\nis there no virtue in woman, save what springs from a whole-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0077.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "r ,s I ll I*; so A iM;K r lkttkh,.\\nsotiic. i f.w of IJk; giillovvs? Tli;it, is t.lit; liiirdnsl, word jct,\\nIlusli, now, jfossips for tlir lock is tuniinu; in tlic prison-\\ndoor, :ind linn; comes Mistress Prvnnc licrscll\\nThe door of l.lic. y,\\\\\\\\\\\\ hcinu; lliint^ open from williin, (here\\niip[)(;urcd, in llic lirsl, phicc, like ii hhick sliudow cincM giiij^ into\\nsunshine, l.lu; grim iind grimly presence of llie town-hciidlc, willi\\nii sword l)y his si(](!, and his stud of office in liis liund. This\\npersoiiiige preligured iiiid re|)r(;sent,ed in iiis iispccf I lie whole\\ndismid s(!verily of l.lie I ln iliuiic cod)- of l;iw, whi(^h i(. was his\\nbusiness to ;idminislcr in its fniid iind closest ;ippli( iil ion in the\\nolIen(h;r. Stretching forth iJie odiciid sliilf in liis left hiind, Ik;\\nlaid ids right n|)on tlu; shoidder of ;i young womjiri, wlioni lie\\nthus drew forward; until, on (he thrcisliold of tin; ])rison-(loor,\\nshe re|)elled him, hy an action ni;irked wilh nalnral dignity and\\nforce of character, and st,e])ped into the o|)en air, as if hy her\\nown fre(! will. SIk; hore in her arms a. child, a baby of soiiu;\\nthree montJis old, who wirdud and tiiriutd aside its little face\\nfrom the loo vivid light, of day; because its existence, hereto-\\nfore, had bronght it. at^qnainted only with tin; gray twilight of\\na dungeon, or other darksouK! apartment of the prison.\\nWhen the young woman the nu)ther of this r:hil(l stood\\nfidly r(!vealed before tlu; crowd, it seciined o be her first im-\\npidse to clasp the infant closely lo lusr bosom; not so much by\\nan im|)ulse of motherly aHeclion, as that she might thereby con-\\nceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her\\ndress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that on(t token of\\nher shame would but poorly serve to hide; another, she took the\\nbaby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty\\nsmile, and a glanct; that would not b(! abashed, looked around\\nat her towns-peo|)le and neighbors. On IIk; breast of her gown.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0078.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "THE MARKET-lMiACK. 51)\\nill lino red doth, surroiuKhHl with an cliibonili (\u00e2\u0080\u00a2inbr()i(hTy iiiid\\ni iuitiistic nourishes of ujold-ihroad, appeared (he lelter A. It was\\nso arlislieally (h)Me, and wilh so nnich IVrlility and _ii;ori^ eous\\nInxnriance, of fancy, (hat it had all the elleet of a, last and littinff\\ndecoration to the apparel wliieh she wore; and which was of\\na sj)lend()r in a(;eordan(H! with the taste of the ai^e, bnt greatly\\nbeyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the\\ncolony.\\nThe young woman was tall, with a (igure of |)erfect elegance\\non a. large scale. She had dark and abundant, hair, so glossy\\nthat it threw oil* the sunshine with a gleam, and a fac-e vvhi(!h,\\nbesides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness\\nof comj)lexi()n, had tlu^ impressiveness belonging to a marked\\nbrow and deep black vyvs. Slu^ was lady-like, too, after the\\nmaniUT of the feminine genlilily of those days; characleri/ed by\\na certain state and dignity, rather than by tlw^ delicate, evanes-\\ncent, and indeseribabh^ grace, whic^h is now reeogni/ed as its\\nindication. Aiul never had Hester I rynm^ appeared nu)r(! lady-\\nlike, in tJie an(i(|ne interpretation of the term, than as she issued\\nfrom the jjrison. Those who had before known her, and had\\nexpected to behold her dinuned and obsc-nred by a disastrons\\ncloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her\\nbeauty shone out, aiul made a halo of the misfortuiu; and igno-\\nminy in which she was (uiveloped. It may be true, that, to a\\nsensitive! observer, there was something e\\\\(piisilcly jjainful in it.\\nHer attire, which, indeed, she had wrought for the occasion, in\\nprison, and had modelled much after her own fancy, seemed to\\nexpress the attitude; of her spirit, the despc^rate recklessness of\\nher nu)od, by its wild and ])icturesque ])e(adia,rity. I Jut tin; ])oint\\nwhich drew all eyes, aiul, as it were, traiisligured (Ik^ wearer,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0079.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "60 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nso that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted\\nwith Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her\\nfor the first time, was that Scarlet Letter, so fantastically\\nembroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect\\nof a spell, talcing her out of the ordinary relations with human-\\nity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.\\nShe hath good skill at her needle, that s certain,^^ remarked\\none of her female spectators but did ever a woman, before\\nthis brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it Why,\\ngossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magis-\\ntrates, and make a pride out of what they, worthy gentlemen,\\nmeant for a punishment?\\nIt were well, muttered the most iron-visaged of the old\\ndames, if we stripped Madam Hester s rich gown off her\\ndainty shoulders; and as for the red letter, which she hath\\nstitched so curiously, I ll bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic\\nflannel, to make a fitter one\\n0, peace, neighbors, peace whispered their youngest com-\\npanion; do not let her hear yon! Not a stitch in that\\nembroidered letter but she has felt it in her heart.\\nThe grim beadle now made a gesture \u00e2\u0096\u00a0ndth his staff.\\nMake way, ggod people, make way, in the King s name\\ncried he. Open a passage and, I promise ye, Mistress Prynne\\nshall be set where man, woman, and child may have a fair sight\\nof her brave apparel, from this time till an hour past meridian.\\nA blessing on the righteous Colony of the Massachusetts, where\\niniquity is dragged out into the sunshine Come along, Madam\\nHester, and show your scarlet letter in the market-place\\nA lane was forthwith opened through the crowd of spectators.\\nPreceded by the beadle, and attended by an irregular procession", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0080.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "THE MARKET-PLACE. 61\\nof stern-browcd men and unkindly visaged women, Hester Prynne\\nset forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A\\ncrowd of eager and curious school-boys, understanding little of\\nthe matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran\\nbefore her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into\\nher face, and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the igno-\\nminious letter on her breast. It was no great distance, in those\\ndays, from the prison-door to the market-place. Measured by\\nthe prisoner s experience, however, it might be reckoned a jour-\\nney of some length for, haughty as her demeanor was, slie\\nperchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that\\nthronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the\\nstreet for them all to spurn and trample upon. In our nature,\\nhowever, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that\\nthe sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures\\nby its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after\\nit. With almost a serene deportment, therefore, Hester Prynne\\npassed through this portion of her ordeal, and came to a sort of\\nscaffold, at the western extremity of the market-place. It stood\\nnearly beneath the eaves of Boston s earliest church, and appeared\\nto be a fixture there.\\nIn fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine,\\nwhich now, for tAVo or three generations past, has been merely\\nhistorical and traditionary among us, but was held, in the old\\ntime, to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizen-\\nship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France.\\nIt Avas, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose\\nthe framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as\\nto confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it\\nup to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was em-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0081.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "62 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nbodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron.\\nThere can be no outrage^ methinks^ against our common\\nnature^ whatever be the delinquencies of the individual^ no\\noutrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face\\nfor shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In\\nHester Prynne^s instance, however, as not unfrequently in other\\ncases, her sentence bore, that she should stand a certain time\\nupon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the\\nneck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was\\nthe most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing\\nwell her part, she ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was\\nthus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height\\nof a man s shoulders above the street.\\nHad there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he\\nmight have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her\\nattire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to\\nremind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many\\nillustrious painters have vied with one another to represent;\\nsomething which should remind him, indeed, but only by con-\\ntrast, of tliat sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant\\nwas to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of deepest\\nsin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect,\\nthat the world was only the darker for this woman^s beauty,\\nand the more lost for the infant that she had borne.\\nThe scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must\\nalways invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-crea-\\nture, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile,\\ninstead of shuddering, at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne s\\ndisgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity. They were\\nstern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0082.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "THE MAEKET-PLACE. 63\\nwithout a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heart-\\nlessness of another social state, which would find oidy a theme\\nfor jest in an exhibition like the present. Even had there been\\na disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been\\nrepressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no\\nless dignified than the Governor, and several of his counsellors,\\na judge, a general, and the ministers of the town all of whom\\nsat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down\\nupon the platform. When such personages could constitute a\\npart of the spectacle, without risking the majesty or reverence\\nof rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the inflic-\\ntion of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual\\nmeaning. Accordingly, the crowd was sombre and grave. The\\nunliappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under\\nthe heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened\\nupon her, and concentrated at her bosom. It was almost intol-\\nerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she\\nhad fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs\\nof public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult;\\nbut there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn\\nmood of the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all\\nthose rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment, and\\nherself the object. Had a roar of laughter burst from the mul-\\ntitude, each man, each woman, each little shrill-voiced child,\\ncontributing their individual parts, Hester Prynne might have\\nrepaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But, under\\nthe leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt,\\nat moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power\\nof her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the\\nground, or else go mad at once.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0083.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "64 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nYet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she\\nwas the most conspicuous object, seemed to vanish from her\\nejes, or, at least, glimmered indistinctly before them, like a\\nmass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images. Her mind,\\nand especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept\\nbringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a\\nlittle town, on the edge of the Western wilderness; other faces\\nthan were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those\\nsteeple-crowned hats. Reminiscences the most trifling and im-\\nmaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sjiorts, childish\\nquarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came\\nswarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of what-\\never was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely\\nas vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all\\nalike a play. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit,\\nto relieve itself, by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms,\\nfrom the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.\\nBe that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point\\nof view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along\\nwhich she had been treading, since her happy infancy. Stand-\\ning on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village,\\nin Old England, and her paternal home; a decayed house of\\ngray stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half-\\nobliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique\\ngentility. Slie saw her father s face, with its bald brow, and\\nreverend white beard, that flowed over the old-fashioned Eliza-\\nbethan ruff; her mother s, too, with the look of heedful and\\nanxious love which it always wore in her remembrance, and which,\\neven since her death, had so often laid the impediment of a gen-\\ntle remonstrance in her daughter s pathway. She saw her own", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0084.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0087.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0088.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "THE MARKET-PLACE. 67\\nface, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior\\nof the dusky mirror in which she had been Avont to gaze at it.\\nThere she beheld another countenance, of a man well stricken\\nin years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and\\nbleared by the lamplight that had served them to pore over\\nmany ponderous books. Yet those same bleared optics had a\\nstrange, penetrating power, when it was their owner s purpose to\\nread the human soul. This figure of the study and the cloister,\\nas Hester Prynne s womanly fancy failed not to recall, was\\nslightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than\\nthe right. Next rose before her, in memory s picture-gallery,\\nthe intricate and narrow thorouglifares, the tall, gray houses,\\nthe huge cathedrals, and the public edifices, ancient in date and\\nquaint in architecture, of a Continental city where a new life\\nhad awaited lier, still in connection with the misshapen scholar;\\na new life, but feeding itself on time-worn materials, like a tuft\\nof green moss on a crumbling wall. Lastly, in lieu of these\\nshifting scenes, came back the rude market-place of the Puritan\\nsettlement, with all the towns-people assembled and levelling their\\nstern regards at Hester Prynne, yes, at herself, who stood\\non the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the let-\\nter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold-thread, upon\\nher bosom\\nCould it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her\\nbreast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward\\nat the scarlet letter, and even touched it Avith her finger, to assure\\nherself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes these\\nwere her realities, all else had vanished", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0089.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "III.\\nTHE RECOGNITION.\\n^^g^^^^^ROM this intense consciousness of being the\\nobject of severe and universal observation,\\nthe wearer of the scarlet letter was at length\\nrelieved; by discerning, on the outskirts of the\\ncrowd, a figure which irresistibly took posses-\\nsion of her thoughts. An Indian, in his native\\ngarb, was standing there but the red men were not so infrequent\\nvisitors of the English settlements, that one of them would have\\nattracted any notice from Hester Prynne, at such a time much\\nless would he have excluded all other objects and ideas from\\nher mind. By the Indian s side, and evidently sustaining a\\ncompanionship with him, stood a white man, clad in a strange\\ndisarray of civilized and savage costume.\\nHe was small in stature, with a furrowed visage, which, as yet,\\ncould hardly be termed aged. There was a remarkable intelligence\\nin his features, as of a person who had so cultivated his mental\\npart that it could not fail to mould the physical to itself, and\\nbecome manifest by unmistakable tokens. Although, by a seem-\\ningly careless arrangement of his heterogeneous garb, he had", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0090.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION. 69\\nendeavored to conceal or abate the peculiarity, it was sufficiently\\nevident to Hester Prynne, that one of this man s shoulders rose\\nhigher than the other. Again, at the first instant of perceiving\\nthat thin visage, and the slight deformity of the figure, she\\npressed her infant to her bosom with so convulsive a force that\\nthe poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did\\nnot seem to hear it.\\nAt his arrival in the market-place, and some time before she\\nsaw him, the stranger had bent his eyes on Hester Prynne. It\\nwas carelessly, at first, like a man chiefly accustomed to look\\ninward, and to whom external matters are of little value and\\nimport, unless they bear relation to something within his mind.\\nVery soon, however, his look became keen and penetrative. A\\nwrithing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake\\ngliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all\\nits wreathed intervolutions in open sight. His face darkened\\nwith some powerful emotion, which, nevertheless, he so instan-\\ntaneously controlled by an effort of his will, that, save at a\\nsingle moment, its expression might have passed for calmness.\\nAfter a brief space, the convulsion grew almost imperceptible,\\nand finally subsided into the depths of his nature. When he\\nfound the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw\\nthat she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised\\nhis finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his\\nlips.\\nThen, touching the shoulder of a townsman who stood next\\nto him, he addressed him, in a formal and courteous manner.\\nI pray you, good Sir, said he, who is this woman\\nand wherefore is she here set up to public shame\\nYou must needs be a stranger in this region, friend, an-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0091.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "70 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nswered the townsman, looking curiously at the questioner and\\nhis savage companion, else you would surely have heard of\\nMistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings. She hath raised\\na great scandal, I promise you, in godly Master Dimmesdale s\\nchurch.\\nYou say truly, replied the other. I am a stranger, and\\nhave been a wanderer, sorely against my will. I have met with\\ngrievous mishaps by sea and land, and have been long held in\\nbonds among the heathen-folk, to the southward; and am now\\nbrought hither by this Indian, to be redeemed out of my cap-\\ntivity. Will it please you, therefore, to tell me of Hester\\nPrynne s, have I her name rightly of this woman s offences,\\nand what has brought her to yonder scaffold?-\\nTruly, friend and methinks it must gladden your heart, after\\nyour troubles and sojourn in the wilderness, said the townsman,\\nto find yourself, at length, in a land where iniquity is searched\\nout, and punished in the sight of rulers and people; as here in\\nour godly New England. Yonder woman. Sir, you must know,\\nwas the wife of a certain learned man, English by birth, but who\\nhad long dwelt in Amsterdam, whence, some good time agone,\\nhe was minded to cross over and cast in his lot \\\\nth us of the\\nMassachusetts. To this purpose, he sent his wife before him,\\nremaining himself to look after some necessary affairs. Marry,\\ngood Sir, in some two years, or less, that the woman has been\\na dweller here in Boston, no tidings have come of this learned\\ngentleman, Master Prynne; and his young wife, look you, being\\nleft to her own misguidance\\nAh! aha! I conceive you, said the stranger, with a bitter\\nsmile. So learned a man as you speak of should have learned\\nthis too in his books. And who, by your favor. Sir, may be the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0092.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION. 71\\nfather of yonder babe it is some three or four months old, I\\nshould judge which Mistress Prynne is holding in her arms?\\nOf a truth, friend, that matter remaineth a riddle; and the\\nDaniel who shall expound it is yet a-wanting, answered the towns-\\nman. Madam Hester absolutely refuseth to speak, and the\\nmagistrates have laid their heads together in vain. Peradventure\\nthe guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown\\nof man, and forgetting that God sees him.\\nThe learned man, observed the stranger, with another smile,\\n^should come himself, to look into the mystery\\nIt behooves him well, if he be still in life, responded the\\ntownsman. Now, good Sir, our Massachusetts magistracy,\\nbethinking themselves that this woman is youthful and fair, and\\ndoubtless was strongly tempted to her fall, and that, moreover,\\nas is most likely, her husband may be at the bottom of the sea,\\nthey have not been bold to put in force the extremity of our\\nrighteous law against her. The penalty thereof is death. But\\nin their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed\\nMistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the\\nplatform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder\\nof her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.\\nA Avise sentence remarked the stranger, gravely bowing his\\nhead. Thus she will be a living sermon against sin, until the\\nignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone. It irks me,\\nnevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at least,\\nstand on the scaffold by her side. But he will be known\\nhe will be known he will be known\\nHe bowed courteously to the communicative townsman, and,\\nwhispering a few words to his Indian attendant, they both made\\ntheir way through the crowd.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0093.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "72 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nWhile this passed, Hester Prynne had been standing on her\\npedestal, still with a fixed gaze towards the stranger; so fixed a\\ngaze, that, at moments of intense absorption, all other objects\\nin the visible world seemed to vanish, leaving only him and her.\\nSuch an interview, perhaps, would have been more terrible than\\neven to meet him as she now did, with the hot, midday sun\\nburning down upon her face, and lighting up its shame with\\nthe scarlet token of infamy on her breast; with the sin-born\\ninfant in her arms with a whole people, drawn forth as to a\\nfestival, staring at the features that should have been seen only\\nin the quiet gleam of the fireside, in the happy shadow of a\\nhome, or beneath a matronly veil, at church. Dreadful as it\\nwas, she was conscious of a shelter in the presence of these\\nthousand witnesses. It was better to stand thus, Avith so many\\nbetwixt him and her, than to greet him, face to face, they two\\nalone. She fled for refuge, as it were, to the public exposure,\\nand dreaded the moment when its protection should be with-\\ndrawn from her. Involved in these thoughts, she scarcely heard\\na voice behind her, until it had repeated her name more than\\nonce, in a loud and solemn tone, audible to the whole multitude.\\nHearken unto me, Hester Prynne! said the voice.\\nIt has already been noticed, that directly over the platform\\non which Hester Prynne stood was a kind of balcony, or open\\ngallery, appended to the meeting-house. It was the place whence\\nproclamations were wont to be made, amidst an assemblage of\\nthe magistracy, with all the ceremonial that attended such pub-\\nlic observances in those days. Here, to witness the scene which\\nwe are describing, sat Governor Bellingham himself, Avith four\\nsergeants about his chair, bearing halberds, as a guard of honor.\\nHe wore a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0094.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION. 73\\nhis cloak, and a black velvet tunic beneath; a gentleman ad-\\nvanced in years, with a hard experience written in his wrinkles.\\nHe was not ill fitted to be the head and representative of a com-\\nmunity, which owed its origin and progress, and its present\\nstate of development^ not to the impulses of youth, but to the\\nstern and tempered energies of manhood, and the sombre sagacity\\nof age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined\\nand hoped so little. The other eminent characters, by whom\\nthe chief ruler was surrounded, were distinguished by a dignity\\nof mien, belonging to a period when the forms of authority were\\nfelt to possess the sacredness of Divine institutions. They M^ere,\\ndoubtless, good men, just and sage. But, out of the whole\\nhuman family, it would not have been easy to select the same\\nnumber of wise and virtuous persons, who should be less capable\\nof sitting in judgment on an erring woman s heart, and disen-\\ntangling its mesh of good and evil, than the sages of rigid aspect\\ntowards whom Hester Prynne now turned her face. She seemed\\nconscious, indeed, that whatever sympathy she might expect lay\\nin the larger and warmer heart of the multitude; for, as she\\nlifted her eyes towards the balcony, the unhappy woman grew\\npale and trembled.\\nThe voice which had called her attention was that of the\\nreverend and famous John Wilson, the eldest clergyman of Bos-\\nton, a great scholar, like most of his contemporaries in the pro-\\nfession, and withal a man of kind and genial spirit. This last\\nattribute, however, had been less carefully developed than his\\nintellectual gifts, and was, in truth, rather a matter of shame\\nthan self-congratulation with him. There he stood, with a border\\nof grizzled locks beneath his skull-cap; while his gray eyes,\\naccustomed to the shaded light of his study, were \\\\vinking, like", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0095.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "74 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthose of Hester^s infant^ in the unadulterated sunshine. He looked\\nlike the darkly engraved portraits whicfi we see prefixed to old\\nvolumes of sermons; and had no more right than one of those\\nportraits would have, to step forth, as he now did, and meddle\\nwith a question of human guilt, passion, and anguish.\\nHester Prynne,^ said the clergyman, I have striven with\\nmy young brother here, under whose preaching of the word you\\nhave been privileged to sit, here Mr. Wilson laid his hand\\non the shoulder of a pale young man beside him, I have\\nsought, I say, to persuade this godly youth, that he should deal\\nwith you, here in the face of Heaven, and before these wise\\nand upright rulers, and in hearing of all the people, as touching\\nthe vileness and blackness of your sin. Knowing your natural\\ntemper better than I, he could the better judge what arguments\\nto use, whether of tenderness or terror, such as might prevail\\nover your hardness and obstinacy; insomuch that you should\\nno longer liide the name of him who tempted you to this griev-\\nous fall. But he opposes to me (with a young man s over-soft-\\nness, albeit wise beyond his years), that it were wronging the\\nvery nature of woman to force her to lay open her heart s secrets\\nin such broad daylight, and in presence of so great a multitude.\\nTruly, as I sought to convince him, the shame lay in tlie com-\\nmission of the sin, and not in the showing of it forth. What\\nsay you to it, once again. Brother Dimmesdale? Must it be\\nthou, or I, that shall deal with this poor sinner s soul?\\nThere was a murmur among the dignified and reverend occu-\\npants of the balcony and Governor Bellingham gave expression\\nto its purport, speaking in an authoritative voice, although tem-\\npered M-ith respect towards the youthful clergyman whom he\\naddressed.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0096.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION.\\n75\\nGood Master Dimmesdale/\\nsaid he,\\nthe responsibility of\\nthis woman^s soul lies greatly w\\nith you.\\nIt behooves\\nyou, there-\\nfore, to exhort her to repentance, and to confession,\\nas a proof\\nand consequence thereof.\\nThe directness of this appeal\\ndrew the\\neyes of the\\nwhole crowd\\nupon the Eeverend Mr. Dimmesdale; a young clergyman, who\\nhad come from one of the great English universities, bringing\\nall the learning of the age into our wild forest-land. His elo-\\nquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of\\nhigh eminence in his profession. He was a person of very strik-\\ning aspect, with a white, lofty, and impending brow, large brown,\\nmelancholy eyes, and a mouth which, unless when he forcibly\\ncompressed it, was apt to be tremulous, expressing both nervous\\nsensibility and a vast power of self-restraint. Notwithstanding\\nhis high native gifts and scholar-like attainments, there Avas an\\nair about this young minister, an apprehensive, a startled, a\\nhalf -frightened look, as of a being who felt himself quite\\nastray and at a loss in the pathway of human existence, and\\ncould only be at ease in some seclusion of his own. Therefore,\\nso far as his duties would permit, he trod in the shadowy by-\\npaths, and thus kept himself simple and childlike coming forth,\\nwhen occasion Avas, with a freshness, and fragrance, and dewy\\npurity of thought, which, as many people said, affected them\\nlike the speech of an angel.\\nSuch was the young man whom the Eeverend Mr. Wilson\\nand the Governor had introduced so openly to the public notice,\\nbidding him speak, in the hearing of all men, to that mystery\\nof a woman^s soul, so sacred even in its pollution. The trying\\nnature of his position drove the blood from his cheek, and made\\nhis lips tremulous.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0097.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "76 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nSpeak to the woman, my brother/^ said Mr. Wilson. It\\nis of moment to her soul, and therefore, as the worshipful Gov-\\nernor says, momentous to thine own, in whose charge hers is.\\nExhort her to confess the truth\\nThe Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale bent his head, in silent prayer,\\nas it seemed, and then came forward.\\nHester Prynne,^ said he, leaning over the balcony and look-\\ning down steadfastly into her eyes, thou hearest what this good\\nman says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If\\nthou feelest it to be for thy souFs peace, and that thy earthly\\npunishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I\\ncharge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-\\nsufferer Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness\\nfor him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down\\nfrom a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal\\nof shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through\\nlife. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him\\nyea, compel him, as it were to add hypocrisy to sin Heaven\\nhath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest\\nwork out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the\\nsorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him who,\\nperchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself the\\nbitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips\\nThe young pastor^s voice was tremulously sweet, rich, deep,\\nand broken. The feeling that it so evidently manifested, rather\\nthan the direct purport of the words, caused it to vibrate within\\nall hearts, and brought the listeners into one accord of sym-\\npathy. Even the poor baby, at Hester s bosom, was affected by\\nthe same influence for it directed its hitherto vacant gaze\\ntowards Mr. Dimmesdale, and held up its little arms, with a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0098.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION. 77\\nhalf-pleased, half-jDlaiutive murmur. So powerful seemed the\\nminister s appeal, that the people could not believe but that\\nHester Prynne would speak out the guilty name; or else that\\nthe guilty one himself, in whatever high or lowly place he stood,\\nwould be drawn forth by an inward and inevitable necessity,\\nand compelled to ascend to the scaffold.\\nHester shook her head.\\nWoman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven s\\nmercy cried the Reverend Mr. Wilson, more harshly than\\nbefore. That little babe hath been gifted with a voice, to sec-\\nond and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard. Speak out\\nthe name That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the\\nscarlet letter off thy breast.\\nNever replied Hester Prynne, looking, not at Mr. Wil-\\nson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergy-\\nman. It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And\\nwould that I might endure his agony, as well as mine\\nSpeak, woman said another voice, coldly and sternly,\\nproceeding from the crowd about the scaffold. Speak; and\\ngive your child a father\\nI will not speak answered Hester, turning pale as death,\\nbut responding to this voice, which she too surely recognized.\\nAnd my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never\\nknow an earthly one\\nShe will not speak murmured Mr. Dimmesdale, who,\\nleaning over the balcony, with his hand upon his heart, had\\nawaited the result of his appeal. He now drew back, with a\\nlong respiration. Wondrous strength and generosity of a wo-\\nman s heart She will not speak\\nDiscerning the impracticable state of the poor culprit s mind.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0099.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "78\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthe elder clergyman^ who had carefully prepared himseK for the\\noccasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on siu, in all\\nits branches, but with continual reference to the ignominious\\nletter. So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol, for the hour\\nor more during which his periods were rolling over the people s\\nheads, that it\\nassumed new\\nterrors in\\ntheir imagi-\\nnation, and\\nseemed to de-\\nrive its scar-\\nlet hue from\\nthe flames of\\nthe infernal pit. Hes-\\nter Prynne, meanwhile,\\nkept her place upon the\\npedestal of shame, with\\nglazed eyes, and an air\\nof weary indifl erence.\\nShe had borne, that\\nmorning, all that nature\\ncould endure and as\\nher temperament was\\nnot of the order that\\nescapes from too intense suffering by a swoon, her spirit could\\nonly shelter itself beneath a stony crust of insensibility, while\\nthe faculties of animal life remained entire. In this state, the\\nvoice of the preacher thundered remorselessly, but unavailingly,\\nupon her ears. The infant, during the latter portion of her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0100.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "THE RECOGNITION,\\n79\\nordeal^ pierced the air with its wailings and screams; she strove\\nto hush itj mechanically^ but seemed scarcely to sympathize with\\nits trouble. With the same hard demeanor, she was led back to\\nprison, and vanished from the public gaze within its iron-clamped\\nportal. It was whispered, by those who peered after her, that\\nthe scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way\\nof the interior.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0101.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "IV.\\nTHE INTERVIEW.\\n!FTER her return to the prison, Hester Prynne\\nAvas found to be in a state of nervous excite-\\nment that demanded constant watchfulness,\\nlest she should perpetrate violence on herself,\\nor do some half-frenzied mischief to the poor\\nbabe. As night approached, it proving im-\\npossible to quell her insubordination by rebuke or threats of pun-\\nishment. Master Brackett, the jailer, thought fit to introduce a\\nphysician. He described him as a man of skill in all Christian\\nmodes of physical science, and like W ise familiar with whatever\\nthe savage people could teach, in respect to medicinal herbs and\\nroots that grew in the forest. To say the truth, there was much\\nneed of professional assistance, not merely for Hester herself,\\nbut still more urgently for the child who, drawing its suste-\\nnance from the maternal bosom, seemed to have drank in with it\\nall the turmoil, the anguish and despair, which pervaded the\\nmother s system. It now writhed in convulsions of pain, and\\nwas a forcible type, in its little frame, of the moral agony which\\nHester Prynne had borne throughout the day.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0102.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "THE INTERVIEW. 81\\nClosely following the jailer into the dismal apartment appeared\\nthat individual^ of singular asjject^ whose presence in the crowd\\nhad been of such deep interest to the wearer of the scarlet letter.\\nHe was lodged in the prison^ not as suspected of any offence,\\nbut as the most convenient and suitable mode of disposing of\\nhim, until the magistrates should have conferred with the Indian\\nsagamores respecting his ransom. His name was announced as\\nEoger Chillingworth. The jailer, after ushering him into the\\nroom, remained a moment, marvelling at the comparative quiet\\nthat followed his entrance; for Hester Prynne had immediately\\nbecome as still as death, although the child continued to moan.\\nPrithee, friend, leave me alone with my patient, said the\\npractitioner. Trust me, good jailer, you shall briefly have\\npeace in your house and, I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall\\nhereafter be more amenable to just authority than you may have\\nfound her heretofore.\\nNay, if your worshiji can accomplish that, answered Master\\nBrackett, I shall own you for a man of skill indeed Verily,\\nthe woman hath been like a j)ossessed one and there lacks little,\\nthat I should take in hand to drive Satan out of her Avith stripes.\\nThe stranger had entered the room with the characteristic\\nquietude of the profession to which he announced himself as\\nbelonging. Nor did his demeanor change, when the withdrawal\\nof the prison-keeper left him face to face with the woman, whose\\nabsorbed notice of him, in the crowd, had intimated so close a re-\\nlation between himself and her. His first care was given to the\\nchild whose cries, indeed, as she lay writhing on the trundle-bed,\\nmade it of peremptory necessity to postpone all other business\\nto the task of soothing her. He examined the infant carefully,\\nand then proceeded to unclasp a leathern case, which he took", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0103.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "82 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nfrom beneath his dress. It appeared to contain medical prepa-\\nrations^ one of which he mingled with a cup of water.\\nMy old studies in alchemy/^ observed he, and my sojourn,\\nfor above a year past, among a people well versed in the kindly\\nproperties of simples, have made a better physician of me than\\nmany that claim the medical degree. Here, woman The child\\nis yours, she is none of mine, neither will she recognize my\\nvoice or aspect as a father^s. Administer this draught, therefore,\\nwith thine own hand.\\nHester repelled the offered medicine, at the same time gazing\\nw^th strongly marked apprehension into his face.\\nWouldst thou avenge thyself on the mnoceut babe? whis-\\npered she.\\nEoolish woman responded the physician, half coldly, half\\nsoothingly. What should ail me, to harm this misbegotten\\nand miserable babe The medicine is potent for good and were\\nit my child, yea, mine OAvn, as well as thine I could do no\\nbetter for it.\\nAs she still hesitated, being, in fact, in no reasonable state of\\nmind, he took the infant in his arms, and himself administered\\nthe draught. It soon proved its efficacy, and redeemed the\\nleech s pledge. The moans of the little patient subsided; its\\nconvulsive tossings gradually ceased and, in a few moments, as\\nis the custom of young children after relief from pain, it sank into\\na profound and dewy slumber. The physician, as he had a fair\\nright to be termed, next bestowed his attention on the mother.\\nWith calm and intent scrutiny lie felt her pulse, looked into her\\neyes, a gaze that made her heart shrink and shudder, because\\nso familiar, and yet so strange and cold, and, finally, satisfied\\nwith his investigation, proceeded to mingle another draught.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0104.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "THE INTERVIEW. 83\\nI know not Lethe nor Nepenthe/ remarked he; but I\\nhave learned many new secrets in the wiklerness, and here is\\none of them, a recipe that an Indian taught me, in requital\\nof some lessons of my own, that were as old as Paracelsus. Drink\\nit It may be less soothing than a sinless conscience. That I\\ncannot give thee. But it will calm the swell and heaving of thy\\npassion, like oil thrown on the waves of a tempestuous sea.\\nHe presented the cup to Hester, who received it with a slow,\\nearnest look into his face; not precisely a look of fear, yet full\\nof doubt and questioning, as to what his purposes might be.\\nShe looked also at her slumbering child.\\nI have thought of death, said she, have wished for it,\\nwould even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I\\nshould pray for anything. Yet if death be in this cup, I bid\\nthee think again, ere thou beholdest me quaff it. See I It is\\neven now at my lips.\\nDrink, then, replied he, still with the same cold composure.\\nDost thou know me so little, Hester Prynne? Are my pur-\\nposes wont to be so shallow? Even if I imagine a scheme of\\nvengeance, what could I do better for my object than to let\\nthee live, than to give thee medicines against all harm and\\nperil of life, so that this burning shame may still blaze upon\\nthy bosom? As he spoke, he laid his long forefinger on the\\nscarlet letter, which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester s\\nbreast, as if it had been red-hot. He noticed her involuntary\\ngesture, and smiled. *^Live, therefore, and bear about thy doom\\nwith thee, in the eyes of men and women, in the eyes of him\\nwhom thou didst call thy husband, in the eyes of yonder\\nchild! And, that thou mayest live, take off this draught.\\nWithout further expostulation or delay, Hester Prynne drained", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0105.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "84 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthe cup, and, at the motion of the man of skill, seated herself\\non the bed where the child was sleeping while he drew the only\\nchair which the room afforded, and took his own seat beside her.\\nShe could not but tremble at these preparations; for she felt\\nthat having now done all that humanity or principle, or, if so\\nit were, a refined cruelty, impelled him to do, for the relief of\\nphysical suffering he was next to treat with her as the man\\nwhom she had most deeply and irreparably injured.\\nHester, said he, I ask not wherefore, nor how, thou hast\\nfallen into the pit, or say, rather, thou hast ascended to the\\npedestal of infamy, on which I found thee. The reason is not\\nfar to seek. It was my folly, and thy weakness. I, a man\\nof thought, the bookworm of great libraries, a man already\\nin decay, having given my best years to feed the hungry dream\\nof knowledge, what had I to do with youth and beauty like\\nthine own! Misshapen from my birth-hour, how could I delude\\nmyself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical\\ndeformity in a young girFs fantasy Men call me wise. If\\nsages were ever wise in their own behoof, I might have foreseen\\nall this. I might have known that, as I came out of the vast\\nand dismal forest, and entered this settlement of Christian men,\\nthe very first object to meet my eyes would be thyself, Hester\\nPrynne, standing up, a statue of ignominy, before the people.\\nNay, from the moment when we came down the old church steps\\ntogether, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of\\nthat scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path\\nThou knowest, said Hester, for, depressed as she was, she\\ncould not endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame,\\nthou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love,\\nnor feigned any.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0106.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "THE INTERVIEW. 85\\nTrue/^ replied he. It was ray folly I have said it. But,\\nup to that epoch of my life, I had lived in vain. The world\\nhad been so cheerless My heart was a habitation large enough\\nfor many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household\\nfire. I longed to kindle one It seemed not so wild a dream,\\nold as I was, and sombre as I was, and misshapen as I was,\\nthat the simple bliss, which is scattered far and wide, for all\\nmankind to gather up, might yet be mine. And so, Hester, I\\ndrew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought\\nto warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there\\n^^I have greatly wronged thee,^^ murmured Hester.\\nWe have wronged each other, answered he. Mine was\\nthe first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false\\nand unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore, as a man who\\nhas not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no vengeance,\\nplot no evil against thee. Between thee and me the scale hangs\\nfairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us\\nboth! Who is he?\\nAsk me not replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his\\nface. That thou shalt never know\\nNever, sayest thou? rejoined he, with a smile of dark and\\nself-relying intelligence. Never know him Believe me, Hes-\\nter, there are few things, whether in the outward world, or, to\\na certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought, few things\\nhidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unre-\\nservedly to the solution of a mystery. Thou raayest cover up\\nthy secret from the prying multitude. Thon mayest conceal it,\\ntoo, from the ministers and magistrates, even as thou didst this\\nday, when they sought to wrench the name out of thy heart, and\\ngive thee a partner on thy pedestal. But, as for nfe, I come to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0107.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "86\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthe inquest with other senses than they possess. I shall seek\\nthis man, as 1 have sought truth in books; as I have sought\\ngold in alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me con-\\nscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself\\nshudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs\\nbe mine\\nThe eyes of the wrinkled scholar glowed so intensely upon her,\\nthat Hester Prynne clasped her hands over her heart, dreading\\nlest he should read the secret there at once.\\nThou wilt not reveal his name Not the less he is mine,\\nresumed he, with a look of confidence, as if destiny were at one\\nwith him. He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his gar-\\nment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart. Yet fear\\nnot for him! Think not that I shall interfere with Heaven s\\nown method of retribution, or, to my own loss, betray him to the\\ngripe of human law. Neither do thou imagine that I shall con-\\ntrive aught against his life; no, nor against his fame, if, as I\\njudge, he be a man of fair repute. Let him live! Let him\\nhide himself in outward honor, if he may! Not the less he\\nshall be mine\\nThy acts are like mercy, said Hester, bewildered and appalled.\\nBut thy words interpret thee as a terror!\\nOne thing, thou that wast my wife, I would enjoin upon\\nthee, continued the scholar. Thou hast kept the secret of thy\\nparamour. Keep, likewise, mine There are none in this land\\nthat know me. Breathe not, to any human soul, that thou didst\\never caU me husband Here, on this wild outskirt of the earth,\\nI shall pitch my tent; for, elsewhere a wanderer, and isolated\\nfrom human interests, I find here a woman, a man, a child,\\namongst whom and myself there exist the closest ligaments. No", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0108.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0111.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0112.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "THE INTERVIEW. 89\\nmatter whether of love or hate; no matter whether of right or\\nwrong Thou and thine, Hester Prymie, belong to me. My\\nhome is where thou art, and where he is. But betray me\\nnot\\nWherefore dost thou desire it?^ inquired Hester, shrinking,\\nshe hardly knew why, from this secret bond. Why not an-\\nnounce thyself openly, and cast me off at once?\\nIt may be, he replied, because I will not encounter the\\ndishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman. It\\nmay be for other reasons. Enough, it is my purjDose to live\\nand die unknown. Let, therefore, thy husband be to the world\\nas one already dead, and of whom no tidings shall ever come.\\nEecognize me not, by word, by sign, by look Breathe not the\\nsecret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou\\nfail me in this, beware His fame, his position, his life, will be\\nin my hands. Beware\\nI will keep thy secret, as I have his, said Hester.\\nSwear it! rejoined he.\\nAnd she took the oath.\\nAnd now. Mistress Prynne, said old Eoger Chillingworth,\\nas he was hereafter to be named, I leave thee alone; alone\\nwith thy infant, and the scarlet letter! How is it, Hester?\\nDoth thy sentence bind thee to wear the token in thy sleep?\\nArt thou not afraid of nightmares and hideous dreams?\\nWhy dost thou smile so at me? inquired Hester, troubled\\nat the expression of his eyes. Art thou like the Black Man\\nthat haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me\\ninto a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul\\nNot thy soul, he answered, with another smile. No, not\\nthine", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0113.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "Y.\\nHESTER AT HER NEEDLE.\\n5^^14^^STER PRYNNE S term of confinement was\\nnow at an end. Her prison-door was thrown\\nopen, and she came forth into the sunshine,\\nwhich, falling on all alike, seemed, to her\\nsick and morbid heart, as if meant for no\\nother purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter\\non her breast. Perhaps there was a more real torture in her\\nfirst unattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison, than\\neven in the procession and spectacle that have been described,\\nwhere she Avas made the common infamy, at which all mankind\\nwas summoned to point its finger. Then, she was supported by\\nan unnatural tension of the nerves, and by all the combative\\nenergy of her character, which enabled her to convert the scene\\ninto a kind of lurid triumph. It was, moreover, a separate and\\ninsulated event, to occur but once in her lifetime, and to meet\\nwhich, therefore, reckless of economy, she might call up the vital\\nstrength that would have suificed for many quiet years. The\\nvery law that condemned her a giant of stern features, but\\nwith vigor to support, as well as to annihilate, in his iron arm", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0114.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 91\\nhad held her up, through the terrible ordeal of her ignominy.\\nBut now, with this unattended walk from her prison-door, began\\nthe daily custom; and she must either sustain and carry it\\nforward by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink beneath\\nit. She could no longer borrow from the future to help her\\nthrough the present grief. To-morrow would bring its own trial\\nwith it so would the next day, and so would the next each its\\nown trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably\\ngrievous to be borne. The days of the far-off future would toil\\nonward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear\\nalong with her, but never to fling down for the accumulating\\ndays, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap\\nof shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she\\nwould become the general symbol at which the preacher and\\nmoralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody\\ntheir images of woman s frailty and sinful passion. Thus the\\nyoung and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet\\nletter flaming on her breast, at her, the child of honorable\\nparents, at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be\\na woman, at her, who had once been innocent, as the figure,\\nthe body, the reality of sin. And over her grave, the infamy that\\nshe must carry thither would be her only monument.\\nIt may seem marvellous, that, with the world before her,\\nkept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the\\nlimits of the Puritan settlement, so remote and so obscure,\\nfree to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land,\\nand there hide her character and identity under a new exterior,\\nas completely as if emerging into another state of being, and\\nhaving also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to\\nher, where the wildness of her nature might assimilate itself with", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0115.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "92 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\na people whose customs and life were alien from the law that\\nhad condemned her^ it may seem marvellous, that this woman\\nshould still call that place her home, where, and where only^ she\\nmust needs be the type of shame. But there is a fatality, a feel-\\ning so irresistible and inevitable that it has the force of doom,\\nwhich almost invariably compels human beings to linger around\\nand haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked\\nevent has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more\\nirresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it. Her sin, her\\nignominy, Avere the roots which she had struck into the soil.\\nIt was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the\\nfirst, had converted the forest-land, still so uncongenial to every\\nother pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester Prynne^s wild and dreary,\\nbut life-long home. All other scenes of earth even that village\\nof rural England, Avhere happy infancy and stainless maidenhood\\nseemed yet to be in her mother^s keeping, like garments put\\noff long ago were foreign to her, in comparison. The chain\\nthat bound her here was of iron links, and galling to her inmost\\nsoul, but could never be broken.\\nIt might be, too, doubtless it was so, although she hid the\\nsecret from herself, and grew pale whenever it struggled out\\nof her heart, like a serpent from its hole, it might be that\\nanother feeling kept her within the scene and pathway that had\\nbeen so fatal. There dwelt, there trode the feet of one with\\nwhom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecog-\\nnized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of\\nfinal judgment, and make that their marriage-altar, for a joint\\nfuturity of endless retribution. Over and over again, the tempter\\nof souls had thrust this idea upon Hester s contemplation, and\\nlaughed at the passionate and desperate joy with which she", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0116.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 93\\nseized, and then strove to cast it from her. She barely looked\\nthe idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dungeon. What\\nshe compelled herself to believe what, finally, she reasoned\\nupon, as her motive for continuing a resident of New Eng-\\nland was half a truth, and half a self-delusion. Here, she\\nsaid to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should\\nbe the scene of her earthly punishment and so, perchance, the\\ntorture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and\\nwork out another purity than that which she had lost more\\nsaint-like, because the result of martyrdom.\\nHester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of the\\ntown, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity\\nto any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It\\nhad been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned because the\\nsoil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its compara-\\ntive remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity\\nwhich already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on\\nthe shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered\\nhills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0117.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "94 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ngrew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage\\nfrom view, as seem to denote that here was some object which\\nwould fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In\\nthis little, lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she\\npossessed, and by the license of the magistrates, who still kept\\nan inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with\\nher infant child. A m3^stic shadow of suspicion immediately\\nattached itself to the spot. Children, too young to compre-\\nhend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere\\nof human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her\\nplying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the\\ndoorway, or laboring in her little garden, or coming forth along\\nthe pathway that led townward; and, discerning the scarlet\\nletter on lier breast, would scamper off with a strange, conta-\\ngious fear.\\nLonely as was Hester s situation, and without a friend on\\nearth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk\\nof want. She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that\\nafforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food\\nfor her thriving infant and herself. It was the art then, as\\nnow, almost the only one within a woman s grasp of needle-\\nwork. She bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered\\nletter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which\\nthe dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves, to\\nadd the richer and more spiritual adornment of human ingenuity\\nto their fabrics of silk and gold. Here, indeed, in the sable\\nsimplicity that generally characterized the Puritanic modes of\\ndress, there might be an infrequent call for the finer productions\\nof her handiwork. Yet the taste of the age, demanding what-\\never was elaborate in compositions of this kind, did not fail to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0118.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 95\\nextend its influence over our stern progenitors, who had cast\\nbehind them so many fashions which it might seem harder to\\ndispense with. Public ceremonies, such as ordinations, the instal-\\nlation of magistrates, and all that could give majesty to the forms\\nin which a new government manifested itself to the people, were,\\nas a matter of policy, marked by a stately and well-conducted\\nceremonial, and a sombre, but yet a studied magnificence. Deep\\nrufFs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves,\\nwere all deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming\\nthe reins of power; and were readily allowed to individuals\\ndignified by rank or wealth, even while sumptuary laM^s forbade\\nthese and similar extravagances to the plebeian order. In the\\narray of funerals, too, whether for the apparel of the dead\\nbody, or to typify, by manifold emblematic devices of sable cloth\\nand snowy lawn, the sorrow of the survivors, there was a fre-\\nquent and characteristic demand for such labor as Hester Prynne\\ncould supply. Baby-linen for babies then wore robes of state\\naff orded still another possibility of toil and emolument.\\nBy degrees, nor very slowly, her handiwork became what would\\nnow be termed the fashion. Whether from commiseration for\\na woman of so miserable a destiny; or from the morbid curi-\\nosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or worthless\\nthings; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then,\\nas now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might\\nseek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must\\notherwise have remained vacant it is certain that she had ready\\nand fairly requited employment for as many hours as she saw\\nfit to occupy with her needle. Yanity, it may be, chose to\\nmortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state,\\nthe garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands. Her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0119.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "96 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nneedlework was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men\\nwore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked\\nthe baby^s little cap it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder\\naway, in the coffins of the dead. But it is not recorded that,\\nin a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider\\nthe white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride.\\nThe exception indicated the ever- relentless rigor with which society\\nfrowned upon her sin.\\nHester sought not to acquire anything beyond a subsistence,\\nof the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and\\na simple abundance for her child. Her own dress was of the\\ncoarsest materials and the most sombre hue; with only that one\\nornament, the scarlet letter, which it was her doom to wear.\\nThe child^s attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a\\nfanciful, or, we might rather say, a fantastic ingenuity, which\\nserved, indeed, to heighten the airy charm that early began to\\ndevelop itself in the little girl, but which appeared to have also\\na deeper meaning. We may speak further of it hereafter. Except\\nfor that small expenditure in the decoration of her infant, Hester\\nbestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less\\nmiserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the\\nhand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily\\nhave applied to the better eiforts of her art, she employed in\\nmaking coarse garments for the poor. It is probable that there\\nwas an idea of penance in this mode of occupation, and that she\\noffered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment, in devoting so many\\nhours to such rude handiwork. She had in her nature a rich,\\nvoluptuous. Oriental characteristic, a taste for the gorgeously\\nbeautiful, which, save in the exquisite productions of her needle,\\nfound nothing else, in all the possibilities of her life, to exer-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0120.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 97\\ncise itself upon. Women derive a pleasure, incomprehensible to\\nthe other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle. To Hester\\nPrynne it might have been a mode of expressing, and therefore\\nsoothing, the passion of her life. Like all other joys, she rejected\\nit as sin. This morbid meddling of conscience with an imma-\\nterial matter betokened, it is to be feared, no genuine and stead-\\nfast penitence, but something doubtful, something that might\\nbe deeply wrong, beneath.\\nIn this manner, Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform\\nin the world. With her native energy of character, and rare\\ncapacity, it could not entirely cast her off, although it had set\\na mark upon her, more intolerable to a woman s heart than that\\nwhich branded the brow of Cain. In all her intercourse with\\nsociety, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she\\nbelonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence\\nof those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often\\nexpressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as if she\\ninhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common\\nnature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind.\\nShe stood apart from moral interests, yet close beside them, like\\na ghost that revisits the familiar fireside, and can no longer make\\nitself seen or felt; no more smile with the household joy, nor\\nmourn with the kindred sorrow; or, should it succeed in mani-\\nfesting its forbidden sympathy, awakening only terror and horri-\\nble repugnance. These emotions, in fact, and its bitterest scorn\\nbesides, seemed to be the sole portion that she retained in the\\nuniversal heart. It was not an age of delicacy; and her posi-\\ntion, although she understood it well, and was in little danger\\nof forgetting it, was often brought before her vivid self-perception,\\nlike a new anguish, by the rudest touch upon the tcnderest spot.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0121.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "98 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nThe poor, as we have already said, whom she sought out to be\\nthe objects of her bounty, often revik^d the hand that was stretched\\nforth to succor them. Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose\\ndoors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed\\nto distil drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through\\nthat alchemy of quiet malice, by which women can concoct a\\nsubtle poison from ordinary trifles; and sometimes, also, by\\na coarser expression, that fell upon the sufFerer^s defenceless\\nbreast like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound. Hester had\\nschooled herself long and well; she never responded to these\\nattacks, save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressibly over\\nher pale cheek, and again subsided into the depths of her bosom.\\nShe was patient, a martyr, indeed, but she forbore to pray\\nfor her enemies lest, in spite of her forgiving aspirations, the\\nwords of the blessing should stubbornly twist themselves into\\na curse.\\nContinually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the\\ninnumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly con-\\ntrived for her by the undying, tlie ever-active sentence of the\\nPuritan tribunal. Clergymen paused in the street to address\\nwords of exhortation, that brought a crowd, with its mingled\\ngrin and frown, around the poor, sinful woman. If she entered\\na church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal\\nFather, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the\\ndiscourse. She grew to have a dread of children; for tliey had\\nimbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible\\nin this dreary woman, gliding silently through the town, with\\nnever any companion but one only child. Therefore, first allow-\\ning her to pass, they pursued her at a distance with shrill cries,\\nand the utterance of a word that had no distinct purport to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0122.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0125.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0126.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 101\\ntheir own minds^ but was none tlie less terrible to her, as pro-\\nceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously. It seemed to\\nargue so wide a diffusion of her shame^ that all nature knew\\nof it; it could have caused her no deeper pang, had the leaves\\nof the trees whispered the dark story among themselves, had\\nthe summer breeze murmured about it, had the wintry blast\\nshrieked it aloud Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze\\nof a new eye. When strangers looked curiously at the scarlet\\nletter, and none ever failed to do so, they branded it afresh\\ninto Hester s soul; so that, oftentimes, she could scarcely refrain,\\nyet always did refrain, from covering the symbol with her hand.\\nBut then, again, an accustomed eye had likewise its own anguish\\nto inflict. Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Trom\\nfirst to last, m short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful\\nagony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never\\ngrew callous it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive\\nwith daily torture.\\nBut sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many\\nmonths, she felt an eye a human eye upon the ignominious\\nbrand, that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her\\nagony were shared. The next instant, back it all rushed again,\\nwith still a deeper throb of pain; for, in that brief interval,\\nshe had sinned anew. Had Hester sinned alone?\\nHer imagination w^as somewhat affected, and, had she been\\nof a softer moral and intellectual fibre, would have been stiU\\nmore so, by the strange and solitary anguish of her life. Walk-\\ning to and fro, with those lonely footsteps, in the little world\\nwith which she was outwardly connected, it now and then appeared\\nto Hester, if altogether fancy, it was nevertheless too potent\\nto be resisted, she felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0127.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "102 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nhad endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to beheve,\\nyet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic\\nknowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. She was terror-\\nstricken by the revelations that were thus made. What were\\nthey? Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the\\nbad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman,\\nas yet only half his victim, that the outward guise of purity\\nwas but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown,\\na scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester\\nPrynne s Or, must she receive those intimations so obscure,\\nyet so distinct as truth In all her miserable experience, there\\nwas nothing else so awful and so loathsome as this sense. It\\nperplexed, as well as shocked her, by the irreverent inopportune-\\nness of the occasions that brought it into vivid action. Some-\\ntimes the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic\\nthrob, as she passed near a venerable minister or magistrate,\\nthe model of piety and justice, to whom that age of antique\\nreverence looked up, as to a mortal man in fellowship with angels.\\nWhat evil thing is at hand?^ would Hester say to herself.\\nLifting her reluctant eyes, there would be nothing human within\\nthe scope of view, save the form of this earthly saint Again,\\na mystic sisterhood would contumaciously assert itself, as she\\nmet the sanctified frown of some matron, who, according to the\\nrumor of all tongues, had kept cold suoav within her bosom\\nthroughout life. That unsunned snow in the matron^s bosom,\\nand the burning shame on Hester Prynne s, what had the two\\nin common? Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her\\nwarning, Behold, Hester, here is a companion and, look-\\ning up, she would detect the eyes of a young maiden glancing\\nat the scarlet letter, shyly and aside, and quickly averted with", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0128.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "HESTER AT HER NEEDLE. 103\\na faint, chill crimson in her cheeks; as if her purity were some-\\nwhat sullied by that momentary glance. O Fiend, whose talisman\\nwas that fatal symbol, wouldst thou leave nothing, whether in\\nyouth or age, for this poor simier to revere such loss of faith\\nis ever one of the saddest results of sin. Be it accepted as a proof\\nthat all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own frailty,\\nand man s hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe\\nthat no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself.\\nThe vulgar, who, in those dreary old times, were always con-\\ntributing a grotesque horror to what interested their imaginations,\\nhad a story about the scarlet letter which we might readily work\\nup uito a terrific legend. They averred, that the symbol was\\nnot mere scarlet cloth, tinged in an earthly dye-pot, but Avas\\nred-hot with infernal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight,\\nwhenever Hester Prynne Avalked abroad in the night-time. And\\nwe must needs say, it seared Hester s bosom so deeply, that\\nperhaps there was more truth in the rumor than our modem\\nincredulity may be inclined to admit.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0129.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "VI.\\nPEARL,\\nWE have as yet hardly spoken\\nof the infant that little crea-\\nture, whose innocent life had\\nsprung, by the inscrutable de-\\ncree of Providence, a lovely\\nand immortal flower, out of\\nthe rank luxuriance of a guilty\\npassion. How strange it seemed\\nto the sad woman, as she\\nwatched the growth, and the\\nbeauty that became every day\\nmore brilliant, and the intelli-\\ngence that threw its quivering\\nsunshine over the tiny features\\nof this child Her Pearl\\nPor so had Hester called her;\\nnot as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of\\nthe cahn, white, unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated\\nby the comparison. But she named the infant Pearly as being", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0130.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "PEARL. 105\\nof great price^ purchased with all she had^ her mother^s only\\ntreasure How strange, mdeed Man had marked this woman^s\\nsin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous\\nefficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were\\nsinful like herself. God, as a direct consequence of the sin which\\nman thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place\\nwas on that same dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever\\nwith the race and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed\\nsoul in heaven Yet these thoughts affected Hester Prynne less\\nwith hope than apprehension. She knew that her deed had been\\nevil; she could have no faith, therefore, that its result would\\nbe good. Day after day, she looked fearfully into the child^s\\nexpanding nature, ever dreading to detect some dark and wild\\npeculiarity, that should correspond with the guiltiness to which\\nshe owed her being.\\nCertainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape,\\nits vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried\\nlimbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden\\nworthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels,\\nafter the world s first parents were driven out. The child had a\\nnative grace which does not invariably coexist with faultless\\nbeauty; its attire, however simple, always impressed the beholder\\nas if it were the very garb that precisely became it best. But\\nlittle Pearl was not clad in rustic weeds. Her mother, with a\\nmorbid purpose that may be better understood hereafter, had\\nbought the richest tissues that could be procured, and allowed\\nher imaginative faculty its full play in the arrangement and deco-\\nration of the dresses which the child Avore, before the public eye.\\nSo magnificent was the small figure, when thus arrayed, and such\\nwas the splendor of Pearl s own proper beauty, shining through", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0131.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "106 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nthe gorgeous robes which might have extinguished a paler love-\\nliness,, tliat there was an absolute circle of radiance around her,\\non the darksome cottage floor. And yet a russet gown, torn\\nand soiled with the child s rude play, made a picture of her just\\nas perfect. PearPs aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite\\nvariety; in this one child there were many children^ compre-\\nhending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a\\npeasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess.\\nThroughout all, however, there was a trait of passion, a certain\\ndepth of hue, which she never lost and if, in any of her changes,\\nshe had grown fainter or paler, she would have ceased to be her-\\nself, it would have been no longer Pearl\\nThis outward mutability indicated, and did not more than fairly\\nexpress, the various properties of lier inner life. Her nature\\nappeared to possess depth, too, as well as variety; but or else\\nHester s fears deceived her it lacked reference and adaptation,\\nto the world into which she was born. The child could not be\\nmade amenable to rules. In giving her existence, a great law\\nhad been broken; and the result was a being whose elements\\nwere perhaps beautiful and briUiant, but all in disorder; or with\\nan order peculiar to themselves, amidst which the point of variety\\nand arrangement was difiicult or impossible to be discovered.\\nHester could only account for the child s character and even\\nthen most vaguely and imperfectly by recalling what she her-\\nself had been, during that momentous period while Pearl was\\nimbibing her soul from the spiritual world, and her bodily frame\\nfrom its material of earth. The mother s impassioned state had\\nbeen the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn\\ninfant the rays of its moral life; and, however white and clear\\noriginally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0132.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "PEARL. 107\\nthe fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the imtempered light of\\nthe intervening substance. Above all, the Avarfare of Hester^s\\nspirit, at that epoch, M^as perpetuated in Pearl. She could recog-\\nnize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her\\ntemper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and\\ndespondency that had brooded in her heart. They were now\\nilluminated by the morning radiance of a young child s disposi-\\ntion, but later in the day of earthly existence might be prolific\\nof the storm and whirlwind.\\nThe discipline of the family, in those days, was of a far more\\nrigid kind than now. The frown, the harsh rebuke, the frequent\\napplication of the rod, enjoined by Scriptural authority, were\\nused, not merely in tlie way of punishment for actual offences,\\nbut as a wholesome regimen for the growth and promotion of all\\nchildish virtues. Hester Prynne, nevertheless, the lonely mother\\nof this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue\\nseverity. Mindful, however, of her own errors and misfortunes,\\nshe early sought to impose a tender, but strict control over the\\ninfant immortality that was committed to her charge. But the\\ntask was beyond her skill. After testing both smiles and frowns,\\nand proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calcu-\\nlable inlluence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside,\\nand permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses. Phys-\\nical compulsion or restraint was effectual, of course, while it\\nlasted. As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed\\nto her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might not be within\\nits reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment.\\nHer mother, while Pearl was yet an infant, grew acquainted with\\na certain peculiar look, that warned her when it would be labor\\nthrown away to insist, persuade, or plead. It was a look so", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0133.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "108 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nintelligent, yet inexplicable, so perverse, sometimes so malicious,\\nbut generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits, that Hester\\ncould not help questioning, at such moments, Avhether Pearl were\\na human child. She seemed rather an airy sprite, which, after\\nplaying its fantastic sports for a little while upon the cottage\\nfloor, would flit away with a mocking smile. Whenever that\\nlook appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested\\nher with a strange remoteness and intangibility it was as if she\\nwere hovering in the air and might vanish, like a glimmering\\nlight, that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not\\nwhither. Beholding it, Hester was constrained to rush towards\\nthe child, to pursue the little elf in the flight which she inva-\\nriably began, to snatch her to her bosom, with a close pressure\\nand earnest kisses, not so much from overflowing love, as to\\nassure herself that Pearl was flesh and blood, and not utterly\\ndelusive. But PearVs laugh, when she was caught, though full of\\nmerriment and music, made her mother more doubtful than before.\\nHeart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so\\noften came between herself and her sole treasure, whom she had\\nbought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes\\nburst into passionate tears. Then, perhaps, for there was no\\nforeseeing how it might aff ect her, Pearl w^ould frown, and\\nclench her little fist, and harden her small features into a stern,\\nunsympathizing look of discontent. Not seldom, she would laugh\\nanew, and louder than before, like a thing incapable and unin-\\ntelligent of human sorrow. Or but this more rarely hap-\\npened she would be convulsed with a rage of grief, and sob\\nout her love for her mother, in broken words, and seem intent\\non proving that she had a heart, by breaking it. Yet Hester\\nwas hardly safe in confiding herself to that gusty tenderness;", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0134.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "PEARL. 109\\nit passed, as suddenly as it came. Brooding over all these\\nmatters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but,\\nby some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to\\nwin the master-word that should control this new and incompre-\\nhensible intelligence. Her only real comfort was when the child\\nlay in the placidity of sleep. Then she was sure of her, and\\ntasted hours of quiet, sad, delicious happiness; until perhaps\\nwith that perverse expression glimmering from beneath her open-\\ning lids little Pearl awoke\\nHow soon with what strange rapidity, indeed did Pearl\\narrive at an age that was capable of social intercourse, beyond\\nthe mother s ever-ready smile and nonsense-words And then\\nwhat a happiness would it have been, could Hester Prynne have\\nheard her clear, bird-like voice mingling with the uproar of\\nother childish voices, and have distinguished and unravelled her\\nown darling s tones, amid all the entangled outcry of a group of\\nsportive children But this could never be. Pearl was a bom\\noutcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and\\nproduct of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Noth-\\ning was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with\\nwhich the child comprehended her loneliness the destiny that\\nhad drawn an inviolable circle round about her; the whole pecu-\\nliarity, in short, of her position in respect to other children.\\nNever, since her release from prison, had Hester met the public\\ngaze without her. In all her Avalks about the town. Pearl, too,\\nwas there; first as the babe in arms, and afterwards as the little\\ngirl, small companion of her mother, holding a forefinger with\\nher whole grasp, and tripping along at the rate of three or four\\nfootsteps to one of Hester s. She saw the children of the settle-\\nment, on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0135.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "110 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthresholds^ disporting themselves in such grim fashion as the\\nPuritanic nurture would permit; playing at going to church,\\nperchance or at scourging Quakers or taking scalps in a\\nsham-fight with the Indians; or scaring one another with freaks\\nof imitative witchcraft. Pearl saw, and gazed intently, but never\\nsought to make acquaintance. If spoken to, she would not speak\\nagain. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did.\\nPearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching\\nup stones to iling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations,\\nthat made her mother tremble, because they had so much the\\nsound of a witches anathemas in some unknown tongue.\\nThe truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intol-\\nerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something\\noutlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in\\nthe mother and child and therefore scorned them in their hearts,\\nand not unfrequently reviled them with their tongues. Pearl felt\\nthe sentiment, and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can\\nbe supposed to rankle in a childish bosom. These outbreaks of\\na fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, for her\\nmother; because there was at least an intelligible earnestness\\nin the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted\\nher in the chikFs manifestations. It appalled her, nevertheless,\\nto discern here, again, a shadowy reflection of the evil that had\\nexisted in herself. All this enmity and passion had Pearl inher-\\nited, by inalienable right, out of Hester^s heart. Mother and\\ndaughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from\\nhuman society; and in the nature of the child seemed to be\\nperpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester\\nPrynne before Pearl s birth, but had since begun to be soothed\\naway by the softening influences of maternity.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0136.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "PEAKL. Ill\\nAt home, within and around her mother s cottage, Pearl wanted\\nnot a wide and various circle of acquaintance. The spell of life\\nwent forth from her ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself\\nto a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it\\nmay be applied. The unlikeliest materials a stick, a bunch\\nof rags, a flower were the puppets of PearFs witchcraft, and,\\nwithout undergoing any outward change, became spiritually\\nadapted to whatever drama occupied the stage of her inner\\nworld. Her one baby-voice served a multitude of imaginary\\npersonages, old and young, to talk withal. The pine-trees, aged,\\nblack and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy\\nutterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure\\nas Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their\\nchildren, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmerci-\\nfully. It was wonderful, the vast variety of forms into which\\nshe threw her intellect, with no continuity, indeed, but darting\\nup and dancing, always in a state of preternatural activity,\\nsoon sinking down, as if exhausted by so rapid and feverish a\\ntide of life, and succeeded by other shapes of a similar wild\\nenergy. It was like nothing so mucli as the phantasmagoric play\\nof the northern lights. In the mere exercise of the fancy, how-^\\never, and the sportiveness of a growing mind, there might be\\nlittle more than was observable in other children of bright facul-\\nties; except as Pearl, in the dearth of human playmates, was\\nthrown more upon the visionary throng Avhich she created. The\\nsingularity lay in the hostile feelings with which the child regarded\\nall these off spring of her own heart and mind. She never created\\na friend, but seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon s\\nteeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom\\nshe rushed to battle. It was inexpressibly sad then what", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0137.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "112 THE SCARLET LETTER,\\ndepth of sorrow to a mother^ who felt in her own heart the\\ncause to observe, in one so young, this constant recognition\\nof an adverse world, and so fierce a training of the energies that\\nwere to make good her cause, in the contest that must ensue.\\nGazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon\\nher knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain\\nhave hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech\\nand a groan, 0 Pather in Heaven, if Thou art still my\\nFather, what is this being which I have brought into the\\nworld And Pearl, overhearing the ejaculation, or aware, through\\nsome more subtile channel, of those throbs of anguish, would turn\\nher vivid and beautiful little face upon her mother, smile with\\nsprite-like intelligence, and resume her play.\\nOne peculiarity of the child^s deportment remains yet to be\\ntold. The very first thing which she had noticed in her life was\\nwhat not the mother s smile, responding to it, as other\\nbabies do, by that faint, embryo smile of the little mouth, remem-\\nbered so doubtfully afterwards, and with such fond discussion\\nwhether it were indeed a smile. By no means But that first\\nobject of which Pearl seemed to become aware was shall we\\nsay it the scarlet letter on Hester s bosom One day, as\\nher mother stooped over the cradle, the infant s eyes had been\\ncaught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter\\nand, putting up her little hand, she grasped at it, smiling, not\\ndoubtfully, but with a decided gleam, that gave her face the\\nlook of a much older child. Then, gasping for breath, did\\nHester Prynne clutch the fatal token, instinctively endeavoring\\nto tear it away; so infinite was the torture inflicted by the intel-\\nligent touch of Pearl s baby -hand. Again, as if her mother s ago-\\nnized gesture were meant only to make sport for her, did little", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0138.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0141.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0142.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "PEARL. 115\\nPearl look into her eyes, and smile Prom that epoch, except\\nwhen the child was asleep, Hester had never felt a moment s\\nsafety; not a moment s calm enjoyment of her. Weeks, it is\\ntrue, would sometimes elapse, during which PearFs gaze might\\nnever once be fixed upon the scarlet letter; but then, again, it\\nwould come at unawares, like the stroke of sudden death, and\\nalways with that peculiar smile, and odd expression of the eyes.\\nOnce, this freakish, elvish cast came into the child s eyes,\\nwhile Hester was looking at her own image in them, as mothers\\nare fond of doing and, suddenly, for women in solitude, and\\nwith troubled hearts, are pestered with unaccountable delusions,\\nshe fancied that she beheld, not her own miniature portrait, but\\nanother face, in the small black mirror of Pearl s eye. It was\\na face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice, yet bearing the semblance\\nof features that she had known full well, though seldom with a\\nsmile, and never with malice in them. It was as if an evil spirit\\npossessed the child, and had just then peeped forth in mockery.\\nMany a time afterwards had Hester been tortured, though less\\nvividly, by the same illusion.\\nIn the afternoon of a certain summer^s day, after Pearl grew\\nbig enough to run about, she amused herself with gathering\\nhandfuls of wild-flowers, and flinging them, one by one, at her\\nmother s bosom; dancing up and down, like a little elf, when-\\never she hit the scarlet letter. Hester s first motion had been\\nto cover her bosom vnth. her clasped hands. But, Avhether from\\npride or resignation, or a feeling that her penance might best\\nbe wrought out by this unutterable pain, she resisted the impulse,\\nand sat erect, pale as death, looking sadly into little Pearl s\\nwild eyes. Still came the battery of flowers, almost invariably\\nhitting the mark, and covering the mother s breast with hurts", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0143.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "116 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nfor which she could find no bahn in this worlds nor knew how\\nto seek it in another. At last, her shot being all expended, the\\nchild stood still and gazed at Hester, with that little, laughing\\nimage of a fiend peeping out or, Avhether it peeped or no,\\nher mother so imagined it from the unsearchable abyss of her\\nblack eyes.\\nChild, what art thou cried the mother.\\nO, I am your little Pearl answered the child.\\nBut, while she said it. Pearl laughed, and began to dance\\nup and down, with the humorsome gesticulation of a little imp,\\nwhose next freak might be to fly up the chimney.\\nArt thou my child, in very truth asked Hester.\\nNor did she put the question altogether idly, but, for the\\nmoment, with a portion of genuine earnestness; for, such was\\nPearPs wonderful intelligence, that her mother half doubted\\nwhether she were not acquainted with the secret spell of her\\nexistence, and might not now reveal herself.\\nYes I am little Pearl repeated the child, continuing\\nher antics.\\nThou art not my child Thou art no Pearl of mine\\nsaid the mother, half playfully; for it was often the case that\\na sportive impulse came over her, in the midst of her deepest\\nsuffering. Tell me, then, what thou art, and who sent thee\\nhither.\\nTell me, mother said the child, seriously, coming up to\\nHester, and pressing herself close to her knees. Do thou tell\\nme\\nThy Heavenly Father sent thee answered Hester Prynne.\\nBut she said it with a hesitation that did not escape the acute-\\nness of the child. Whether moved only by her ordinary freak-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0144.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "PEARL. 117\\nishness^ or because an evil spirit prompted iier, she put up her\\nsmall forefinger^ and touched the scarlet letter.\\nHe did not send me cried she^ positively. I have no\\nHeavenly Father!\\nHush, Pearl, hush Thou must not talk so answered\\nthe mother, suppressing a groan. He sent us all into this\\nworld. He sent even me, thy mother. Then, much more, thee\\nOr, if not, thou strange and elfish child, whence didst thou\\ncome\\nTell me Tell me repeated Pearl, no longer seriously,\\nbut laughing, and capering about the floor. It is thou that\\nmust tell me\\nBut Hester could not resolve the query, being herself in a dis-\\nmal labyrinth of doubt. She remembered betwixt a smile and\\na shudder the talk of the neighboring towns-people who, seek-\\ning vainly elsewhere for the child s paternity, and observing some\\nof her odd attributes, had given out that poor little Pearl was\\na demon offspring; such as, ever since old Catholic times, had\\noccasionally been seen on earth, through the agency of their\\nmother s sin, and to promote some foul and wicked purpose.\\nLuther, according to the scandal of his monkish enemies, was\\na brat of that hellish breed; nor was Pearl the only child to\\nwhom this inauspicious origin was assigned, among the New\\nEngland Puritans.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0145.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "VII.\\nTHE GOVERNOR S HALL.\\nHESTER PRYNNE\\nwent, one day, to the\\nmansion of Governor\\nBellingliam, with a\\npair of gloves, which\\nshe liad fringed and\\nembroidered to his or-\\ncUn-, and Avhich were\\nto be Avorn on some\\ngreat occasion of\\nstate for, though the\\nchances of a popular\\nelection had caused\\nthis former ruler to descend a step or two from the highest\\nrank, hi still held an honorable and intlnential place among the\\ncolonial magistracy.\\nAnother and far more important reason than the delivery of\\na pair of embroidered gloves impelled Hester, at this time, to\\nseek an interview Avith a personage of so much power and activity", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0146.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "THE GOVEllNOR S HALL. 119\\nin the affairs of the settlement. It had reached her earsj that\\nthere was a design on the part of some of the leading inhabitants,\\ncherishing the more rigid order of principles in religion and\\ngovernment, to deprive her of her child. On the supposition\\nthat Pearl, as already hinted, was of demon origin, these good\\npeople not unreasonably argued that a Christian interest in the\\nmother s soul required them to remove such a stumbling-block\\nfrom her path. If the child, on the other hand, were really\\ncapable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the ele-\\nments of ultimate salvation, then, surely, it would enjoy all the\\nfairer prospect of these advantages, by being transferred to wiser\\nand better guardianship than Hester Prynne s. Among those\\nwho promoted the design. Governor Bcllingham was said to be\\none of the most busy. It may appear singular, and indeed, not\\na little ludicrous, that an affair of this kind, which, in later\\ndays, would have been referred to no higher jurisdiction than\\nthat of the selectmen of the town, should then have been a ques-\\ntion publicly discussed, and on which statesmen of emhience took\\nsides. At that epoch of pristine simplicity, however, matters\\nof even slighter public interest, and of far less intrinsic weight,\\nthan the welfare of Hester and her child, were strangely mixed\\nup with the deliberations of legislators and acts of state. The\\nperiod was hardly, if at all, earlier than that of our story, when\\na dispute concerning the right of property in a pig not oidy\\ncaused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the\\ncolony, but resulted in an important modification of the frame-\\nwork itself of the legislature.\\nFull of concern, therefore, but so conscious of her own right\\nthat it seemed scarcely an unequal match between the public,\\non the one side, and a lonely woman, backed by the sympathies", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0147.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "120 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nof nature, on the other, Hester Prynne set forth from her soli-\\ntary cottage. Little Pearl, of course, was her companion. She\\nwas now of an age to run lightly along by her mother^s side,\\nand, constantly in motion, from morn till sunset, could have\\naccomplished a much longer journey than that before her. Often,\\nnevertheless, more from caprice than necessity, she demanded to\\nbe taken up in arms but was soon as imperious to be set down\\nagain, and frisked onward before Hester on the grassy pathway,\\nwith many a harmless trip and tumble. We have spoken of\\nPearFs rich and luxuriant beauty a beauty that shone with deep\\nand vivid tints; a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity\\nboth of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown,\\nand which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black. There\\nwas fire in her and throughout her; she seemed the unpremedi-\\ntated offshoot of a passionate moment. Her mother, in contriving\\nthe child^s garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her\\nimagination their full play arraying her in a crimson velvet\\ntunic, of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies\\nand flourishes of gold-thread. So much strength of coloring,\\nwhich must have given a wan and pallid aspect to cheeks of a\\nfainter bloom, was admirably adapted to PearFs beauty, and made\\nher the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon\\nthe earth.\\nBut it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed,\\nof the child s whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevi-\\ntably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne\\nwas doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter\\nin another form the scarlet letter endowed with life The\\nmother herself as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched\\ninto her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form had", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0148.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "THE GOVERNOR S HALL. 121\\ncarefully wrought out the similitude; lavishing many hours of\\nmorbid ingenuity^ to create an analogy between the object of her\\naffection and the emblem of her guilt and torture. But^ in\\ntruth, Pearl was the one, as well as the other; and only in con-\\nsequence of that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to\\nrepresent the scarlet letter in her appearance.\\nAs the two wayfarers came within the precincts of the town,\\nthe children of the Puritans looked up from their play, or\\nwhat passed for play with those sombre little urchins, and\\nspake gravely one to another\\nBehold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and,\\nof a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter\\nrunning along by her side Come, therefore, and let us fling\\nmud at them\\nBut Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamp-\\ning her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threat-\\nening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies,\\nand put them all to flight. She resembled, in her fierce pursuit\\nof them, an infant pestilence, the scarlet fever, or some such\\nhalf-fledged angel of judgment, whose mission was to punish\\nthe sins of the rising generation. She screamed and shouted,\\ntoo, with a terrific volume of sound, which, doubtless, caused\\nthe hearts of the fugitives to quake within them. The victory\\naccomplished. Pearl returned quietly to her mother, and looked\\nup, smiling, into her face.\\nWithout further adventure, they reached the dwelling of Gov-\\nernor Bellingham. This was a large wooden house, built in a\\nfashion of which there are specimens still extant in the streets\\nof our older towns now moss-grown, crumbling to decay, and\\nmelancholy at heart with the many sorrowful or joyful occur-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0149.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "122 THE SCAELET LETTEE.\\nrences, remembered or forgotten, that have happened, and passed\\naway, within their dusky chambers. Then, however, there was\\nthe freshness of the passing year on its exterior, and the cheer-\\nfulness, gleaming forth from the sunny windows, of a human\\nhabitation, into which death had never entered. It had, indeed,\\na very cheery aspect; the walls being overspread with a kind\\nof stucco, in which fragments of broken glass were plentifully\\nintermixed; so that, when the sunshine fell aslant- wise over the\\nfront of the edifice, it glittered and sparkled as if diamonds\\nhad been flung against it by the double handful. The brill-\\niancy might have befitted Aladdin^s palace, rather than the man-\\nsion of a grave old Puritan ruler. It was further decorated with\\nstrange and seemingly cabalistic figures and diagrams, suitable\\nto the quaint taste of the age, which had been drawn in the\\nstucco when newly laid on, and had now grown hard and dura-\\nble, for the admiration of after times.\\nPearl, looking at this bright wonder of a house, began to caper\\nand dance, and imperatively required that the wliole breadth\\nof sunshine should be stripped off its front, and given her to\\nplay with.\\nNo, my little Pearl said her mother. Thou must gather\\nthine own sunshine. I have none to give thee\\nThey approached the door; which was of an arched form,\\nand flanked on each side by a narrow tower or projection of\\nthe edifice, in both of which were lattice-windows, with wooden\\nshutters to close over them at need. Lifting the iron hammer\\nthat hung at the portal, Hester Prynne gave a summons, which\\nwas answered by one of the Governor s bond-servants; a free-\\nborn Englishman, but now a seven years slave. During that\\nterm he was to be the property of his master, and as much a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0150.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "THE GOVERNOR S HALL. 123\\ncommodity of bargain and sale as an ox, or a joint-stool. The\\nserf wore the blue coat, which was the customary garb of serving-\\nmen of that period, and long before, in the old hereditary halls\\nof England.\\nIs the worshipful Governor Bellingham within inquired\\nHester.\\nYea, forsooth,^^ replied the bond-servant, staring with wide-\\nopen eyes at the scarlet letter, which, being a new-comer in\\nthe country, he had never before seen. Yea, his honorable\\nworship is within. But he hath a godly minister or two with\\nhim, and likewise a leech. Ye may not see his worship now.^^\\nNevertheless, I will enter, answered Hester Prynne, and\\nthe bond-servant, perhaps judging from the decision of her air,\\nand the glittering symbol in her bosom, that she was a great\\nlady in the land, offered no opposition.\\nSo the mother and little Pearl Avere admitted into the hall of\\nentrance. With many variations, suggested by the nature of his\\nbuilding-materials, diversity of climate, and a different mode of\\nsocial life. Governor Bellingham had planned his new habitation\\nafter the residences of gentlemen of fair estate in his native land.\\nHere, then, was a wide and reasonably lofty hall, extending\\nthrough the whole depth of the house, and forming a medium\\nof general communication, more or less directly, with all the\\nother apartments. At one extremity, this spacious room was\\nlighted by the windows of the two towers, which formed a small\\nrecess on either side of the portal. At the other end, though\\npartly muffled by a curtain, it was more powerfully illuminated\\nby one of those embowed hall-windows which we read of in old\\nbooks, and which was provided with a deep and cushioned seat.\\nHere, on the cushion, lay a folio tome, probably of the Chronicles", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0151.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "124 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nof England^ or other such substantial literature; even as^ in our\\nown daysj we scatter gilded volumes on the centre-table, to be\\nturned o.ver by the casual guest. The furniture of the hall con-\\nsisted of some ponderous chairs, the backs of which were elabo-\\nrately carved with wreaths of oaken flowers and likewise a table\\nin the same taste; the whole being of the Elizabethan age, or\\nperhaps earlier, and heirlooms, transferred hither from the Gov-\\nernor s paternal home. On the table in token that the senti-\\nment of old English hospitality had not been left behind stood\\na large pewter tankard, at the bottom of which, had Hester or\\nPearl peeped into it, they might have seen the frothy remnant\\nof a recent draught of ale.\\nOn the wall hung a row of portraits, representing the fore-\\nfathers of the Bellingham lineage, some with armor on their\\nbreasts, and others with stately ruffs and robes of peace. All\\nwere characterized by the sternness and severity which old por-\\ntraits so invariably put on as if they were the ghosts, rather\\nthan the pictures, of departed worthies, and were gazing with\\nharsh and intolerant criticism at the pursuits and enjoyments of\\nliving men.\\nAt about the centre of the oaken panels, that lined the hall,\\nwas suspended a suit of mail, not, like the pictures, an ancestral\\nrelic, but of the most modern date; for it had been manufac-\\ntured by a skilful armorer in London, the same year in which\\nGovernor Bellingham came over to New England. There was a\\nsteel head-piece, a cuirass, a gorget, and greaves, with a pair of\\ngauntlets and a sword hanging beneath; all, and especially the\\nhelmet and breastplate, so highly burnished as to glow with\\nwhite radiance, and scatter an illumination everywhere about\\nupon the floor. This bright panoply was not meant for mere", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0152.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0155.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0156.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "THE GOVERNOR S HALL. 127\\nidle show, but had been worn by the Governor on many a solemn\\nmuster and training field, and had glittered, moreover, at the\\nhead of a regiment in the Pequod war. For, though bred a\\nlawyer, and accustomed to speak of Bacon, Coke, Noye, and\\nFinch as his professional associates, the exigencies of this new\\ncountry had transformed Governor Bellingham into a soldier, as\\nwell as a statesman and ruler.\\nLittle Pearl who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming\\narmor as she had been with the glittering frontispiece of the\\nhouse spent some time looking into the polished mirror of\\nthe breastplate.\\nMother,^^ cried she, I see you here. Look Look\\nHester looked, by way of humoring the child; and she saw\\nthat, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the\\nscarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic pro-\\nportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her\\nappearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it.\\nPearl pointed upward, also, at a similar picture in the head-\\npiece; smiling at her mother, with the elfish intelligence that\\nwas so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy. That\\nlook of naughty merriment was likewise reflected in the mirror,\\nwith so much breadth and intensity of efPect, that it made Hester\\nPrynne feel as if it could not be the image of her own child,\\nbut of an imp who was seeking to mould itself into PearPs\\nshape.\\nCome along, Pearl, said she, drawing her away. Come\\nand look into this fair garden. It may be we shall see flowers\\nthere; more beautiful ones than we find in the woods.\\nPearl, accordingly, ran to the bow-window, at the farther end\\nof the hall, and looked along the vista of a garden-walk, carpeted", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0157.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "128 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwith closely shaven grass, and bordered with some rude and\\nimmature attempt at shrubbery. But the proprietor appeared\\nalready to have relinquished, as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate\\non this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil and amid the close\\nstruggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental\\ngardening. Cabbages grew in plain sight; and a pumpkin-vine,\\nrooted at some distance, had run across the intervening space,\\nand deposited one of its gigantic products directly beneath the\\nhall- window as if to warn the Governor that this great lump\\nof vegetable gold was as rich an ornament as New England earth\\nwould offer him. There were a few rose-bushes, however, and a\\nnumber of apple-trees, probably the descendants of those planted\\nby the Eeverend Mr. Blackstone, the first settler of the penin-\\nsula; that half-mythological personage, who rides through our\\nearly annals, seated on the back of a bull.\\nPearl, seeing the rose-bushes, began to cry for a red rose,\\nand would not be pacified.\\nHush, child, hush said her mother, earnestly. Do not\\ncry, dear little Pearl I hear voices in the garden. The Gov-\\nernor is coming, and gentlemen along with him\\nIn fact, adown the vista of the garden avenue a number of\\npersons were seen approaching towards the house. Pearl, in utter\\nscorn of her mother^s attempt to quiet her, gave an eldritdi\\nscream, and then became silent; not from any notion of obedi-\\nence, but because the quick and mobile curiosity of her dispo-\\nsition was excited by the appearance of these new personages.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0158.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "VIII.\\nTHE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER.\\nOVERNOR BELLINGHAM, in a loose gown\\nand easy cap, such as elderly gentlemen\\nloved to endue themselves with, in their\\ndomestic privacy, walked foremost, and ap-\\npeared to be showing off his estate, and\\nexpatiating on his projected improvements.\\nThe wide circumference of an elaborate ruff, beneath his gray\\nbeard, in the antiquated fashion of King James s reign, caused\\nhis head to look not a little like that of John the Baptist in\\na charger. The impression made by his aspect, so rigid and\\nsevere, and frost-bitten with more than autumnal age, was hardly\\nin keeping with the appliances of worldly enjoyment wherewith\\nhe had evidently done his utmost to surround himself. But it\\nis an error to suppose that our grave forefathers though accus-\\ntomed to speak and think of human existence as a state merely\\nof trial and warfare, and thougli unfeignedly prepared to sacri-\\nfice goods and life at the behest of duty made it a matter\\nof conscience to reject such means of comfort, or even luxury,\\nas lay fairly within their grasp. This creed w^as never taught.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0159.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "130 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nfor instance, by the venerable pastor, John Wilson, whose beard,\\nwhite as a snow-drift, was seen over Governor Bellingham s\\nshoulder; while its wearer suggested that pears and peaches\\nmight yet be naturalized in the New England climate, and that\\npurple grapes might possibly be compelled to flourish, against\\nthe sunny garden- wall. The old clergyman, nurtured at the\\nrich bosom of the English Church, had a long-established and\\nlegitimate taste for all good and comfortable things and however\\nstern he might show himself in the pulpit, or in his public reproof\\nof such transgressions as that of Hester Prynne, still the genial\\nbenevolence of his private life had won him warmer affection\\nthan Avas accorded to any of his professional contemporaries.\\nBehind the Governor and Mr. Wilson came two other guests\\none the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, whom the reader may\\nremember as having taken a brief and reluctant part in the\\nscene of Hester Prynne s disgrace; and, in close companion-\\nship with him, old Koger Chillingworth, a person of great skill\\nin physic, who, for two or three years past, had been settled\\nin the town. It was understood that this learned man was the\\nphysician as well as friend of the young minister, whose health\\nhad severely suffered, of late, by his too unreserved self-sacrifice\\nto the labors and duties of the pastoral relation.\\nThe Governor, in advance of his visitors, ascended one or two\\nsteps, and, throwing open the leaves of the great hall-window,\\nfound himself close to little Pearl. The shadow of the curtain\\nfell on Hester Prynne, and partially concealed her.\\nWhat have we here? said Governor Bellingham, looking\\nwith surprise at the scarlet little figure before him. I pro-\\nfess, I have never seen the like, smce my days of vanity, in old\\nKing Jameses time, when I was wont to esteem it a high favor", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0160.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER. 131\\nto be admitted to a court mask There used to be a swarm\\nof these small apparitions, in holiday time; and we called them\\nchildren of the Lord of Misrule. But how gat such a guest\\ninto my hall?\\nAy, indeed! cried good old Mr. Wilson. What little\\nbird of scarlet plumage may this be Methinks I have seen\\njust such figures, when the sun has been shining through a richly\\npainted window, and tracing out the golden and crimson images\\nacross the floor. But that was in the old land. Prithee, young\\none, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen\\nthee in this strange fashion Art thou a Christian child,\\nha? Dost know thy catechism? Or art thou one of those\\nnaughty elfs or fairies, whom we thought to have left behind\\nus, with other relics of Papistry, in merry old England\\nI am mother s child, answered the scarlet vision, and\\nmy name is Pearl\\nPearl Buby, rather or Coral or Bed Bose, at the\\nvery least, judging from thy hue responded the old minister,\\nputting forth his hand in a vain attempt to pat little Pearl on\\nthe cheek. But where is this mother of thine Ah I see,\\nhe added; and, turning to Governor Bellingham, whispered,\\nThis is the selfsame child of whom we have held speech to-\\ngether; and behold here the unhappy woman, Hester Prynne,\\nher mother\\nSayest thou so cried the Governor. Nay, we might\\nhave judged that such a child s mother must needs be a scarlet\\nwoman, and a worthy type of her of Babylon But she comes\\nat a good time; and we will look into this matter forthwith.\\nGovernor Bellingham stepped through the window into the\\nhall, followed by his three guests.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0161.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "132 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nHester Prynnc, said lie, fixing his naturally stern regard\\non the wearer of tlie scarlet letter, there hath been much ques-\\ntion concerning thee, of late. V\\\\\\\\v point hath been weightily\\ndiscussed, whether Ave, that are of authority and intluenee, do\\nwell discharge our consciences by trusting an immortal soul,\\nsuch as there is in yonder child, to the guidance of one who\\nhath stumbled and fallen, amid the pitfalls of this world. Speak\\nthou, the chihFs own mother! Were it not, thinkest thou, for\\nthy little one^s temporal and eternal welfare that she be taken\\nout of thy charge, and clad soberly, and disciplined strictly,\\nand instructed in the truths of heaven and earth What canst\\nthou do for the child, in this kind?\\nI can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this\\nanswered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token.\\nWoman, it is thy badge of shame 1 re})lied the stern magis-\\ntrate. It is because of the stain which that letter indicates,\\nthat we would transfer thy child to other hands.\\nNevertheless, said the mother, calmly, tlu)ngli growing more\\npale, this badge hath taught me it daily teaches me it is\\nteaching me at this moment lessons whereof my child may\\nbe the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to my-\\nself.\\nWe will judge Avarily, said Bellingham, and look Avell\\nwhat we are about to do. Good Master Wilson, 1 ])ray you,\\nexamine this Pearl, since that is her name, and see whether\\nshe hath had such Christian nurture as befits a child of her age.\\nThe old minister seated himself in an arm-chair, and made\\nan eil ort to draw Pearl betwixt his knees. But the child, unac-\\ncustomed to the touch or familiarity of any but her mother,\\nescaped through the open window, and stood on the upper step,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0162.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER. 133\\nlooking like a wild tropical bird, of rich plumage, ready to take\\nflight into the upper air. Mr. Wilson, not a little astonished\\nat this outbreak, for he was a grandfatherly sort of person-\\nage, and usually a vast favorite with children, essayed, how-\\never, to proceed with the examination.\\nPearl, said he, with great solemnity, thou must take heed\\nto instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in tliy\\nbosom tlie pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child,\\nwho made thee\\nNow Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester\\nPrynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk\\nMith the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform\\nher of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of\\nimmaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore,\\nso large were the attainments of her three years lifetime, could\\nhave borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or\\nthe first column of the Westminster Catechisms, although unac-\\nquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated\\nworks. But that perversity which all children have more or less\\nof, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the\\nmost inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and\\nclosed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After\\nputting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals\\nto answer good Mr. Wilson s question, the child finally announced\\nthat she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her\\nmother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison-door.\\nThis fantasy was probably suggested by the near proximity\\nof the Governor s red roses, as Pearl stood outside of the window\\ntogether with her recollection of the prison rose-bush, which she\\nhad passed in coming hither.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0163.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "134 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nOld Roger Chillingworth, with a smile on his face, whispered\\nsomething in the young clergyman s ear. Hester Prynne looked\\nat the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging in the\\nbalance, was startled to perceive what a change had come over\\nhis features, how much uglier they were, how his dark com-\\nplexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more mis-\\nshapen, since the days when she had familiarly known him.\\nShe met his eyes for an instant, but was immediately constrained\\nto give all her attention to the scene now going forward.\\nThis is awful cried the Governor, slowly recovering from\\nthe astonishment into which Pearl s response had thrown him.\\nHere is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who\\nmade her Without question, she is equally in the dark as to\\nher soul, its present depravity, and future destiny Methinks,\\ngentlemen, we need uiquire no further.\\nHester caught hold of Pearl, and drew her forcibly into her\\narms, confronting the old Puritan magistrate with almost a fierce\\nexpression. Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with this\\nsole treasure to keep her heart alive, she felt that she possessed\\nindefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend\\nthem to the death.\\nGod gave me the child cried she. He gave her in\\nrequital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is\\nmy happiness she is my torture, none the less Pearl keeps\\nme here in life I Pearl punishes me too See ye not, she is\\nthe scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye\\nshall not take her I will die first\\nMy poor woman, said the not unkind old minister, the\\nchild shall be well cared for far better than thou canst do it", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0164.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0167.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0168.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER. 137\\nGod gave her into my keeping, repeated Hester Prynne,\\nraising her voice almost to a shriek. I will not give her\\nup And here, by a sudden impulse, she turned to the young\\nclergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she\\nhad seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes, Speak\\nthou for me cried she. Thou wast my pastor, and hadst\\ncharge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can.\\nI will not lose the child Speak for me Thou knowest,\\nfor thou hast sympathies which these men lack thou knowest\\nwhat is in my heart, and what are a mother s rights, and how\\nmuch the stronger they are, when that mother has but her child\\nand the scarlet letter Look thou to it I will not lose the\\nchild! Look to it!\\nAt this wild and singular appeal, which indicated that Hester\\nPrynne s situation had provoked her to little less than madness,\\nthe young minister at once came forward, pale, and holding his\\nhand over his heart, as was his custom whenever his peculiarly\\nnervous temperament was thrown into agitation. He looked now\\nmore careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the\\nscene of Hester s public ignominy; and whether it were his\\nfailing health, or whatever the cause might be, his large dark\\neyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy\\ndepth.\\nThere is truth in what she says, began the minister, with\\na voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful, insomuch that the hall\\nre-echoed, and the hollow armor rang with it, truth in what\\nHester says, and in the feeling which inspires her! God gave\\nher the child, and gave her, too, an instinctive knowledge of its\\nnature and requirements, both seemingly so peculiar, which\\nno other mortal being can possess. And, moreover, is there not", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0169.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "138 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\na quality of awful sacredness in the relation between this mother\\nand this child?\\nAy how is that, good Master Dimmesdale interrupted\\nthe Governor. Make that plain, I pray you\\nIt must be even so/^ resumed the minister. ^^For, if we\\ndeem it otherwise, do we not thereby say that the Heavenly\\nFather, the Creator of all flesh, hath lightly recognized a deed of\\nsin, and made of no account the distinction between unhallowed\\nlust and holy love? This child of its father s guilt and its\\nmother s shame hath come from the hand of God, to work in\\nmany ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with\\nsuch bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her. It Avas meant\\nfor a blessing for the one blessing of her life It was meant,\\ndoubtless, as the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution\\ntoo; a torture to be felt at many an unthought-of moment; a\\npang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony, in the midst of a troubled\\njoy Hath she not expressed this thought in the garb of the\\npoor child, so forcibly reminding us of that red symbol which\\nsears her bosom?\\nWell said, again! cried good Mr. Wilson. I feared the\\nwoman had no better thought than to make a mountebank of\\nher child\\nO, not so! not so! continued Mr. Dimmesdale. She\\nrecognizes, believe me, the solemn miracle which God hath\\nwrought, in the existence of that child. And may she feel,\\ntoo, what, methinks, is the very truth, that this boon was\\nmeant, above all things else, to keep the mother s soul alive,\\nand to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan\\nmight else have sought to plunge her Therefore it is good for\\nthis poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality, a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0170.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER. 139\\nbeing capable of eternal joy or sorrow, confided to her care,\\nto be trained up by her to righteousness, to remind her, at\\nevery moment, of her fall, but yet to teach her, as it were\\nby the Creator s sacred pledge, that, if she bring the child to\\nlieaven, the child also ^rill bring its parent thither! Herein is\\nthe sinful mother happier than the sinful father. For Hester\\nPryime s sake, then, and no less for the poor child s sake, let\\nus leave them as Providence hath seen fit to place them\\nYou speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness, said old\\nEoger Chillingworth, smiling at him.\\nAnd there is a weighty import in what my young brother\\nhath spoken, added the Eeverend Mr. Wilson. What say\\nyou, worshipful Master Bellingham? Hath he not pleaded well\\nfor the poor woman?\\nIndeed hath he, answered the magistrate, and hath adduced\\nsuch arguments, that we will even leave the matter as it now\\nstands; so long, at least, as there shall be no further scandal\\nin the woman. Care must be had, nevertheless, to put the child\\nto due and stated examination in the catechism, at thy hands\\nor Master Dimmesdale s. Moreover, at a proper season, the\\ntithing-men must take heed that she go both to school and to\\nmeeting.\\nThe young minister, on ceasing to speak, had withdrawn a\\nfew steps from the group, and stood with his face partially con-\\ncealed in the heavy folds of the window-curtain while the shadow\\nof his figure, which the sunlight cast upon the floor, was trem-\\nulous with the vehemence of his appeal. Pearl, that wild and\\nflighty little elf, stole softly toM ards him, and taking his hand in\\nthe grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it a caress so\\ntender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was look-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0171.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "140 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ning on^ asked herself^ Is that my Pearl Yet she knew that\\nthere was love in the child s heart, although it mostly revealed\\nitself in passion, and hardly twice in her lifetime had been softened\\nby such gentleness as now. The minister, for, save the long-\\nsought regards of woman, nothing is sweeter than these marks\\nof childish preference, accorded spontaneously by a spiritual\\ninstinct, and therefore seeming to imply in us something truly\\nworthy to be loved, the minister looked round, laid his hand\\non the child s head, hesitated an instant, and then kissed her\\nbrow. Little Pearl s unwonted mood of sentiment lasted no\\nlonger; she laughed, and went capering down the hall, so airily,\\nthat old Mr. Wilson raised a question whether even her tiptoes\\ntouched the floor.\\nThe little baggage hath witchcraft in her, I profess, said\\nhe to Mr. Dimmesdale. She needs no old woman s broomstick\\nto fly withal!\\nA strange child remarked old Eoger Chillingworth. It\\nis easy to see the mother s part in her. Would it be beyond\\na philosopher s research, think ye, gentlemen, to analyze that\\nchild s nature, and, from its make and mould, to give a slirewd\\nguess at the father\\nNay it would be sinful, in such a question, to follow the\\nclew of profane philosophy, said Mr. Wilson. Better to fast\\nand pray upon it; and still better, it may be, to leave the mys-\\ntery as we find it, unless Providence reveal it of its own accord.\\nThereby, every good Christian man hath a title to show a father s\\nkindness towards the poor, deserted babe.\\nThe affair being so satisfactorily concluded, Hester Prynne,\\nwith Pearl, departed from the house. As they descended the\\nsteps, it is averred that the lattice of a chamber-window was", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0172.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER. 141\\nthrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face\\nof Mistress Hibbins, Governor Belhngham^s bitter- tempered sis-\\nter, and the same who, a few years later, was executed as a\\nwitch.\\nHist, hist said she, while her ill-omened physiognomy\\nseemed to cast a shadow over the cheerful newness of the house.\\nWilt thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry com-\\npany in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man\\nthat comely Hester Prynne should make one.\\nMake my excuse to him, so please you answered Hester,\\nwith a triumphant smile. I must tarry at home, and keep\\nwatch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I\\nwould willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed\\nmy name in the Black Man^s book too, and that with mine own\\nblood!\\nWe shall have thee there anon said the witch-lady, frown-\\ning, as she drew back her head.\\nBut here if we sujjpose this interview betwixt Mistress Hib-\\nbins and Hester Prynne to be authentic, and not a parable\\nwas already an illustration of the young minister s argument\\nagainst sundering the relation of a fallen mother to the offspring\\nof her frailty. Even thus early had the child saved her from\\nSatan s snare.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0173.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "IX.\\nTHE LEECH.\\n^NDER the appellation of Roger Chillingworth,\\nthe reader will remember, was hidden another\\nname, which its former wearer had resolved\\nshould never more be spoken. It has been\\nrelated, how, in the crowd that witnessed\\nHester Prynne s ignominious exposure, stood\\na man, elderly, travel-worn, who, just emerging from the perilous\\nwilderness, beheld the woman, in whom he hoped to find embodied\\nthe warmth and cheerfulness of home, set up as a type of sin\\nbefore the people. Her matronly fame was trodden under all\\nmen s feet. Infamy was babbling around her in the public\\nmarket-place. For her kindred, should the tidings ever reach\\nthem, and for the companions of her unspotted life, there remained\\nnothing but the contagion of her dishonor; which would not\\nfail to be distributed in strict accordance and proportion with\\nthe intimacy and sacredness of their previous relationship. Then\\nwhy since the choice was with himself should the individual,\\nwhose connection with the fallen woman had been the most\\nintimate and sacred of them all, come forward to vindicate his", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0174.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. 143\\nclaim to an inheritance so little desirable He resolved not to\\nbe pilloried beside her on her pedestal of shame. Unknown to\\nall but Hester Prynne, and possessing the lock and key of her\\nsilence, he chose to withdraw his name from the roll of mankind,\\nand, as regarded his former ties and interests, to vanish out of\\nlife as completely as if he indeed lay at the bottom of the ocean,\\nwhither rumor had long ago consigned him. This purpose once\\neffected, new interests would immediately spring up, and like-\\nwise a new purpose; dark, it is true, if not guilty, but of force\\nenough to engage the full strength of his faculties.\\nIn pursuance of this resolve, he took ujJ his residence in the\\nPuritan town, as Roger Chilling worth, without other introduction\\nthan the learning and intelligence of which he possessed more\\nthan a common measure. As his studies, at a previous period\\nof his life, had made him extensively acquainted with the medical\\nscience of the day, it was as a physician that he presented him-\\nself, and as such was cordially received. Skilful men, of the\\nmedical and chirurgical profession, were of rare occurrence in the\\ncolony. They seldom, it would appear, partook of the religious\\nzeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic. In their\\nresearches into the human frame, it may be that the higher and\\nmore subtile faculties of such men were materialized, and that\\nthey lost the spiritual view of existence amid the intricacies of\\nthat wondrous mechanism, which seemed to involve art enough\\nto comprise all of life within itself. At all events, the health of\\nthe good town of Boston, so far as medicine had aught to do\\nwith it, had hitherto lain in the guardianship of an aged deacon\\nand apothecary, whose piety and godly deportment were stronger\\ntestimonials in his favor than any that he could have produced\\nin the shape of a diploma. The only surgeon was one who", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0175.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "144 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ncombined the occasional exercise of that noble art with the daily\\nand habitual flourish of a razor. To such a professional body\\nRoger Chillingworth was a brilliant acquisition. He soon mani-\\nfested his familiarity with the ponderous and imposing machinery\\nof antique physic; in which every remedy contained a multitude\\nof far-fetched and heterogeneous ingredients, as elaborately com-\\npounded as if the proposed result had been the Elixir of Life.\\nIn his Indian captivity, moreover, he had gained much knowl-\\nedge of the properties of native herbs and roots; nor did he\\nconceal from his patients, that these simple medicines, Nature^s\\nboon to the untutored savage, had quite as large a share of his\\nown confidence as the European pharmacopoeia, which so many\\nlearned doctors had spent centuries in elaborating.\\nThis learned stranger was exemplary, as regarded, at least,\\nthe outward forms of a religious life, and, early after liis arrival,\\nhad chosen for his spiritual guide the Eeverend Mr. Dimmesdale.\\nThe young divine, whose scholar-like renown still lived in Oxford,\\nwas considered by his more fervent admirers as little less than\\na heaven-ordained apostle, destined, should he live and labor for\\nthe ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds for the now\\nfeeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved\\nfor the infancy of the Christian faith. About this period, how-\\never, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail.\\nBy those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the\\nyoung minister s cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devo-\\ntion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and,\\nmore than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a fre-\\nquent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly\\nstate from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp. Some\\ndeclared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0176.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. 145\\nwas cause enough^ that the world was not worthy to be any\\nlonger trodden by his feet. He himself, on the other hand,\\nwith characteristic humility, avowed his belief, that, if Provi-\\ndence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his\\nown unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth.\\nWith all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline,\\nthere could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated\\nhis voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy\\nprophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight\\nalarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart,\\nwith first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain.\\nSuch was the young clergyman^s condition, and so imminent\\nthe prospect that his dawning light would be extinguished, all\\nuntimely, when Roger Chillingworth made his advent to the town.\\nHis first entry on the scene, few people could tell whence, drop-\\nping down, as it were, out of the sky, or starting from the nether\\nearth, had an aspect of mystery, which was easily heightened to\\nthe miraculous. He was now known to be a man of skill; it\\nwas observed that he gathered herbs, and the blossoms of wild-\\nflowers, and dug up roots, and plucked off twigs from the forest-\\ntrees, like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was\\nvalueless to common eyes. He was heard to speak of Sir\\nKenelm Digby, and other famous men, whose scientific attain-\\nments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural, as having\\nbeen his correspondents or associates. Why, with such rank in\\nthe learned Avorld, had he come hither? What could he, whose\\nsphere was in great cities, be seeking in the wilderness? In\\nanswer to this query, a rumor gained ground, and, however\\nabsurd, Avas entertained by some very sensible people, that\\nHeaven had wrought an absolute miracle, by transporting an", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0177.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "146 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\neminent Doctor of Physic, from a German university, bodily\\nthrough the air, and setting him down at the door of Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale s study Individuals of wiser faith, indeed, who knew that\\nHeaven promotes its purposes without aiming at the stage-effect\\nof what is called miraculous interposition, were inclined to\\nsee a providential hand in Eoger Chillingworth^s so opportune\\narrival.\\nThis idea was countenanced by the strong interest which the\\nphysician ever manifested in the young clergyman; he attached\\nhimself to him as a parishioner, and sought to win a friendly\\nregard and confidence from his naturally reserved sensibility. He\\nexpressed great alarm at his pastor^s state of health, but was\\nanxious to attempt the cure, and, if early undertaken, seemed\\nnot despondent of a favorable result. The elders, the deacons,\\nthe motherly dames, and the young and fair maidens, of Mr.\\nDimmesdale^s flock, were alike importunate that he should make\\ntrial of the physician^s frankly offered skill. Mr. Dimmesdale\\ngently repelled their entreaties.\\nI need no medicine,^ said he.\\nBut how could the young minister say so, when, with every\\nsuccessive Sabbath, his cheek was paler and thinner, and his\\nvoice more tremulous than before, when it had now become a\\nconstant habit, rather than a casual gesture, to press his hand\\nover his heart? Was he weary of his labors? Did he wish to\\ndie These questions were solemnly propounded to Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale by the elder ministers of Boston and the deacons of his\\nchurch, who, to use their own phrase, dealt with him^ on the\\nsin of rejecting the aid which Providence so manifestly held out.\\nHe listened in silence, and finally promised to confer with the\\nphysician.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0178.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. I47\\n^Were it God s will/ said tlie Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale,\\nwhen, in fulfilment of this pledge, he requested old Roger Chil-\\nlingworth s professional advice, I could be well content, that\\nmy labors, and my sorrows, and my sins, and my pains, should\\nshortly end with me, and what is earthly of them be buried in\\nmy grave, and the spiritual go with me to my eternal state,\\nrather than that you should put your skill to the proof in my\\nbehalf.\\nAh, replied Roger Chillingworth, with that quietness which,\\nwhether imposed or natural, marked all his deportment, it is\\nthus that a young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful men,\\nnot having taken a deep root, give up their hold of life so easily\\nAnd saintly men, who walk with God on earth, would fain be\\naway, to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New\\nJerusalem.\\nNay, rejoined the young minister, putting his hand to his\\nheart, with a flush of pain flitting over his brow, were I worthier\\nto walk there, I could be better content to toil here.\\nGood men ever interpret themselves too meanly, said the\\nphysician.\\nIn this manner, the mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became\\nthe medical adviser of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. As not\\nonly the disease interested the physican, but he was strongly moved\\nto look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two\\nmen, so difl erent in age, came gradually to spend much time\\ntogether. For the sake of the minister s health, and to enable\\nthe leech to gather plants with healing balm in them, they took\\nlong walks on the sea-shore, or in the forest; mingling various\\ntalk with the plash and murmur of the waves, and the solemn\\nwind-anthem among the tree-tops. Often, likewise, one was the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0179.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "148\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nguest of the other, in his place of study and retirement. There\\nwas a fascination for the minister in the company of the man\\nof science, in wdiom he recognized an intellectual cultivation\\nof no moderate depth or scope; together with a range and free-\\ndom of ideas, that he would have vainly looked for among the\\nmembers of his own profession. In truth, he was startled, if not\\nshocked, to find this attribute in the physician. Mr. Dimmesdale\\nwas a true priest, a true religionist, with the reverential senti-\\nment largely developed, and an order of mind that impelled itself\\npowerfully along the track of a creed, and wore its passage con-\\ntnually deeper with the lapse of time. In no state of society\\nwould he have been what is called a man of liberal views it\\nwould always be essential to his peace to feel the pressure of a\\nfaith about him, supporting, AAliile it confined him within its iron", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0180.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. 149\\nframework. Not the less, however, though with a tremulous\\nenjoyment, did he feel the occasional relief of looking at the\\nuniverse through the medium of another kind of intellect than\\nthose with wliich he habitually held converse. It was as if a\\nwindow were thrown open, admitting a freer atmosphere into\\nthe close and stifled study, where his life was wasting itself away,\\namid lamplight, or obstructed day-beams, and the musty fragrance,\\nbe it sensual or moral, that exhales from books. But the air\\nwas too fresh and chill to be long breathed with comfort. So\\nthe minister, and the physician with him, withdrew again within\\nthe limits of what their church defined as orthodox.\\nThus Eoger Chillingworth scrutinized his jDatient carefully, both\\nas he saw him in his ordinary life, keeping an accustomed path-\\nway in the range of thoughts familiar to him, and as he appeared\\nwhen thrown amidst other moral scenery, the novelty of which\\nmight call out something new to the surface of his character.\\nHe deemed it essential, it would seem, to know the man, before\\nattempting to do him good. Wherever there is a heart and an\\nintellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the\\npeculiarities of these. In Arthur Dimmesdale, thought and\\nimagination were so active, and sensibility so intense, that the\\nbodily infirmity would be likely to have its groundwork there.\\nSo Roger Chillingworth the man of skill, the kind and friendly\\nphysician strove to go deep into his patient^s bosom, delving\\namong his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing\\neverything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a\\ndark cavern. Few secrets can escajje an investigator, who has\\nopportunity and license to undertake such a quest, and skill to\\nfollow it up. A man burdened with a secret should especially\\navoid the intimacy of his physician. If the latter possess native", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0181.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "150 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nsagacity, and a nameless something more, let us call it intui-\\ntion if he show no intrusive egotism, nor disagreeably prominent\\ncharacteristics of his own; if he have the power, which must\\nbe born with him, to bring his mind into such affinity with his\\npatient s, that this last shall unawares have spoken what he\\nimagines himself only to have thought if such revelations\\nbe received without tumult, and acknowledged not so often by\\nan uttered sympathy as by silence, an inarticulate breath, and\\nhere and there a word, to indicate that all is understood; if to\\nthese qualifications of a confidant be joined the advantages afforded\\nby his recognized character as a physician then, at some inevi-\\ntable moment, will the soul of the sufferer be dissolved, and flow\\nforth in a dark, but transparent stream, bringing all its mysteries\\ninto the daylight.\\nEoger Chillingworth possessed all, or most, of the attributes\\nabove enumerated. Nevertheless, time went on; a kind of inti-\\nmacy, as we have said, grew up between these two cultivated\\nminds, which had as wide a field as the whole sphere of human\\nthought and study, to meet upon; they discussed every topic\\nof ethics and religion, of public affairs and private character;\\nthey talked much, on both sides, of matters that seemed personal\\nto themselves; and yet no secret, such as the physician fancied\\nmust exist there, ever stole out of the minister s consciousness\\ninto his companion s ear. The latter had his suspicions, indeed,\\nthat even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale s bodily disease had\\nnever fairly been revealed to him. It was a strange reserve\\nAfter a time, at a hint from Eoger Chillingworth, the friends\\nof Mr. Dimmesdale effected an arrangement by which the two\\nwere lodged in the same house; so that every ebb and flow of\\nthe minister s life-tide might pass under the eye of his anxious", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0182.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. 151\\nand attached physician. There was much joy throughout the\\ntown, when this greatly desirable object was attained. It was\\nheld to be the best possible measure for the young clergyman s\\nwelfare; unless, indeed, as often urged by such as felt authorized\\nto do so, he had selected some one of the many blooming dam-\\nsels, spiritually devoted to him, to become his devoted wife.\\nThis latter step, however, there was no present prospect that\\nArthur Dimmesdale would be prevailed upon to take he rejected\\nall suggestions of the kind, as if priestly celibacy were one of his\\narticles of church-discipline. Doomed by his own choice, there-\\nfore, as Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his unsavory\\nmorsel always at another s board, and endure the life-long chill\\nwhich must be his lot who seeks to warm himself only at another s\\nfireside, it truly seemed that this sagacious, experienced, benevo-\\nlent old physician, with his concord of paternal and reverential\\nlove for the young pastor, was the very man, of all mankind,\\nto be constantly within reach of his voice.\\nThe new abode of the two friends was with a pious widow,\\nof good social rank, who dwelt in a house covering pretty nearly\\nthe site on which the venerable structure of King s Chapel has\\nsince been built. It had the graveyard, originally Isaac John-\\nson s home-field, on one side, and so was well adapted to call\\nup serious reflections, suited to their respective employments, in\\nboth minister and man of physic. The motherly care of the\\ngood widow assigned to Mr. Dimmesdale a front apartment, with\\na sunny exposure, and heavy window-curtains, to create a noon-\\ntide shadow, when desirable. The walls were hung round with\\ntapestry, said to be from the Gobelin looms, and, at all events,\\nrepresenting the Scriptural story of David and Bathslieba, and\\nNathan the Prophet, in colors still unfaded, but which made the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0183.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "153 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nfair woman of the scene almost as grimly picturesque as the woe-\\ndenouncing seer. Here the pale clergyman piled up his library,\\nrich with parchment-bound folios of the Fathers^ and the lore\\nof Rabbis, and monkish erudition, of which the Protestant divines,\\neven while they vilified and decried that class of writers, were yet\\nconstrained often to avail themselves. On the other side of the\\nhouse old Eoger Chillingworth arranged his study and labora-\\ntory; not such as a modern man of science would reckon even\\ntolerably complete, but provided with a distilling apparatus, and\\nthe means of compounding drugs and chemicals, which the prac-\\ntised alchemist knew well how to turn to purpose. With such\\ncommodiousness of situation, these two learned persons sat them-\\nselves down, each in his own domain, yet familiarly passing from\\none apartment to the other, and bestowing a mutual and not\\nincurious inspection into one another s business.\\nAnd the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale s best discerning friends,\\nas we have intimated, very reasonably imagined that the hand\\nof Providence had done all this, for the purpose besought in\\nso many public, and domestic, and secret prayers of restoring\\nthe young minister to health. But it must now be said\\nanother portion of the community had latterly begun to take its\\nown view of the relation betwixt Mr. Dimmesdale and the myste-\\nrious old physician. When an uninstructed multitude attempts\\nto see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When,\\nhowever, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intui-\\ntions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained\\nare often so profound and so unerring, as to possess the char-\\nacter of truths supernaturally revealed. The people, in the case\\nof which we speak, could justify its prejudice against Roger Chil-\\nlingworth by no fact or argument worthy of serious refutation.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0184.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH. 153\\nThere was an aged handicraftsman, it is true, who had been a\\ncitizen of London at the period of Sir Thomas Overbury s mur-\\nder, now some thirty years agone; he testified to having seen\\nthe pliysician, under some other name, which the narrator of\\nthe story had now forgotten, in company with Doctor Forman, the\\nfamous old conjurer, who was implicated in the affair of Over-\\nbury. Two or three individuals hinted, that the man of skill,\\nduring his Indian captivity, had enlarged his medical attainments\\nby joining in the incantations of the savage priests who were\\nuniversally acknowledged to be powerful enchanters, often per-\\nforming seemingly miraculous cures by their skill in the black\\nart. A large number and many of these were persons of such\\nsober sense and practical observation that their opinions would\\nhave been valuable, in other matters affirmed that Eoger Chil-\\nlingworth^s aspect had undergone a remarkable change while he\\nhad dwelt in town, and especially since his abode with Mr.\\nDimmesdale. At first, his expression had been calm, meditative,\\nscholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and evil in his\\nface, Avhich they had not previously noticed, and which grew\\nstill the more obvious to sight, the oftener they looked upon\\nhim. According to the vulgar idea, the fire in his laboratory\\nhad been brought from the lower regions, and was fed with\\ninfernal fuel; and so, as might be expected, his visage was get-\\nting sooty with the smoke.\\nTo sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion,\\nthat the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other person-\\nages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was\\nhaunted either by Satan himself, or Satan s emissary, in the\\nguise of old Roger ChilHngworth. This diabolical agent had the\\nDivine permission, for a season, to burrow into the clergyman s", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0185.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "154 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nintimacy, and plot against his soul. No sensible man, it was\\nconfessed, could doubt on which side the victory would turn.\\nThe people looked, with an unshaken hope, to see the minister\\ncome forth out of the conflict, transfigured with the glory which\\nhe would unquestionably win. Meanwhile, nevertheless, it was\\nsad to think of the perchance mortal agony through which he\\nmust struggle towards his triumph.\\nAlas to judge from the gloom and terror in the depths of\\nthe poor minister s eyes, the battle was a sore one and the victory\\nanything but secure.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0186.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "X.\\nTHE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT.\\nLD Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had\\nbeen calm in temperament, kindly, though\\nnot of warm affections, but ever, and in all\\nhis relations with the world, a pure and\\nupright man. He had begun an investiga-\\ntion, as he imagined, with the severe and\\nequal integrity of a judge, desirous only of truth, even as if the\\nquestion involved no more than the air-drawn lines and figures\\nof a geometrical problem, instead of human passions, and wrongs\\ninflicted on himself. But, as he proceeded, a terrible fascination,\\na kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity, seized the old man\\nwithin its gripe, and never set him free again, until he had done\\nall its bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman^s heart,\\nlike a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving\\ninto a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried\\non the dead man^s bosom, but likely to find nothing save mor-\\ntality and corruption. Alas for his own soul, if these were\\nwhat he sought", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0187.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "156 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nSometimes, a light glimmered out of the physician^s eyes,\\nburning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or,\\nlet us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted\\nfrom Bunyan^s awful doorway in the hillside, and quivered on\\nthe pilgrim^s face. The soil Avliere this dark miner was working\\nhad perchance shown indications that encouraged him.\\nThis man,^^ said he, at one such moment, to himself, pure\\nas they deem him, all spiritual as he seems, hath inherited\\na strong animal nature from his father or his mother. Let us\\ndig a little further in the direction of this vein!^\\nThen, after long search into the minister s dim interior, and\\nturning over many precious materials, in the shaj)e of high aspi-\\nrations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sen-\\ntiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and\\nilluminated by revelation, all of which invaluable gold was\\nperhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker, he would turn,\\nback, discouraged, and begin his quest towards another point.\\nHe groped along as stealthily, with as cautious a tread, and as\\nwary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man\\nlies only half asleep, or, it may be, broad awake, with pur-\\npose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple\\nof his eye. In spite of his premeditated carefulness, the floor\\nwould now and then creak; his garments would rustle; the\\nshadow of his presence, in a forbidden proximity, would be thro^vn\\nacross his victim. In other words, Mr. Dimmesdale, whose sen-\\nsibility of nerve often produced the eflfect of spiritual intuition,\\nwould become vaguely aware that something inimical to his\\npeace had thrust itself into relation with him. But old Eoger\\nChillingworth, too, had perceptions that were almost intuitive\\nand when the minister threw his startled eyes towards him, there", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0188.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT. 157\\nthe physician sat; his kind, watchful, sympathizing, but never\\nintrusive friend.\\nYet Mr. Dimmesdale would perhaps have seen this individual s\\ncharacter more perfectly, if a certain morbidness, to which sick\\nhearts are liable, had not rendered him suspicious of all man-\\nkind. Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize\\nhis enemy when the latter actually appeared. He therefore still\\nkept up a familiar intercourse with him, daily receiving the old\\nphysician in his study; or visiting the laboratory, and, for rec-\\nreation s sake, watching the processes by which weeds were con-\\nverted into drugs of potency.\\nOne day, leaning his forehead on his hand, and his elbow on\\nthe sill of the open Avindow, that looked towards the graveyard,\\nhe talked with Roger Chillingworth, while the old man was\\nexamining a bundle of unsightly plants.\\nWhere, asked he, with a look askance at them, for it\\nwas the clergyman s peculiarity that he seldom, nowadays, looked\\nstraightforth at any object, whether human or inanimate,\\nwhere, my kind doctor, did you gather those herbs, Avith such\\na dark, flabby leaf?\\nEven in the graveyard here at hand, answered the physi-\\ncian, continuing his employment. They are new to me. I\\nfound them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor\\nother memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds, that\\nhave taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They\\ngrew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret\\nthat was buried with him, and which he had done better to\\nconfess during his lifetime.\\nPerchance, said Mr. Dimmesdale, he earnestly desired it,\\nbut could not.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0189.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "158 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nAnd wherefore rejoined the physician. Wlierefore not\\nsince all the powers of nature call so earnestly for the confes-\\nsion of sin, that these black Aveeds have sprung up out of a\\nburied heart, to make manifest an unspoken crime\\nThat, good Sir, is but a fantasy of yours, replied the min-\\nister. There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of\\nthe Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by\\ntype or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human\\nheart. The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must\\nperforce hold them, until the day when all hidden things shall\\nbe revealed. Nor have I so read or interpreted Holy Writ, as\\nto understand that the disclosure of human thoughts and deeds,\\nthen to be made, is intended as a part of the retribution. That,\\nsurely, were a shallow view of it. No these revelations, unless\\nI greatly err, are meant merely to promote the intellectual satis-\\nfaction of all intelligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that\\nday, to see the dark problem of this life made jjlain. A knowl-\\nedge of men^s hearts will be needful to the completest solution\\nof that problem. And I conceive, moreover, that the hearts\\nholding such miserable secrets as you speak of will yield them\\nup, at that last day, not with reluctance, but with a joy unutter-\\nable.\\nThen why not reveal them here asked Eoger Chilling-\\nworth, glancing quietly aside at the miiTister. Why should\\nnot the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of this uimtterable\\nsolace\\nThey mostly do, said the clergyman, griping hard at his\\nbreast as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain. Many,\\nmany a poor soul hath given its confidence to me, not only on\\nthe death-bed, but while strong in life, and fair in reputation.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0190.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT. 159\\nAnd ever, after such an outpouring, O, what a relief have I\\nwitnessed in those sinful brethren even as in one who at last\\ndraws free air, after long stilling with his own polluted breath.\\nHow can it be otherwise? Why should a wretched man, guilty,\\nwe will say, of murder, prefer to keep the dead corpse buried\\nin his own heart, rather than fling it forth at once, and let the\\nuniverse take care of it\\nYet some men bury their secrets thus, observed the calm\\nphysician.\\nTrue; there are such men, answered Mr. Dimmesdale.\\nBut, not to suggest more obvious reasons, it may be that they\\nare kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or,\\ncan we not suppose it? guilty as they may be, retaining,\\nnevertheless, a zeal for God s glory and man s welfare, they\\nshrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view\\nof men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by\\nthem no evil of the past be redeemed by better service. So, to\\ntheir own unutterable torment, they go about among their fellow-\\ncreatures, looking pure as new-fallen snow while their hearts\\nare all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they cannot\\nrid themselves.\\nThese men deceive themselves, said Eoger Chillingworth,\\nwith somewhat more emphasis than usual, and making a slight\\ngesture with his forefinger. They fear to take up the shame\\nthat rightfully belongs to them. Their love for man, their zeal\\nfor God s service, these holy impulses may or may not coexist\\nin their hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has\\nunbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish\\nbreed within them. But, if they seek to glorify God, let them\\nnot lift heavenward their unclean hands If they would serve", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0191.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "IGO THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ntheir fellow-men, let tliem do it by making manifest the power\\nand reality of conscience, in constraining them to penitential\\nself-abasement Wonldst thou have me to believe, O wise and\\npious friend, that a false show can be better can be more\\nfor God s glory, or man s welfare than God s own truth\\nTrust me, such men deceive themselves\\nIt may be so, said the young clergyman, indifferently, as\\nwaiving a discussion that lie considered irrelevant or unseason-\\nable. He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any\\ntopic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament,\\nBut, noAV, I would ask of my well-skilled physician, whether,\\nin good sooth, he deems me to have profited by his kindly care\\nof this weak frame of mine\\nBefore Roger Chillingworth could answer, they heard the clear,\\nwild laughter of a young child s voice, proceeding from the adja-\\ncent burial-ground. Looking instinctively from the open win-,\\ndow, for it was summer-time, the minister beheld Hester\\nPrynne and little Pearl passing along the footpath that traversed\\nthe enclosure. Pearl looked as beautiful as the day, but was\\nin one of those moods of perverse merriment which, whenever\\nthey occurred, seemed to remove her entirely out of the sphere\\nof sympathy or human contact. She now skijDped irreverently\\nfrom one grave to another; until, coming to the broad, flat,\\narmorial tombstone of a departed worthy, perhaps of Isaac\\nJohnson himself, she began to dance upon it. In reply to\\nher mother s command and entreaty that she would behave more\\ndecorously, little Pearl paused to gather the prickly burrs from\\na tall burdock Avhich grew beside the tomb. Taking a handful\\nof these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter\\nthat decorated the maternal bosom, to which the burrs, as", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0192.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT. 161\\ntheir nature was^ tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pkick\\nthem off.\\nEoger ChiUingworth had by this time approached the window,\\nand smiled grimly down.\\nThere is no law, nor reverence for authority, no regard for\\nhuman ordinances or opinions, right or wrong, mixed up with\\nthat child^s composition,^^ remarked he, as much to himself as\\nto his companion. I saw her, the other day, bespatter the\\nGovernor himself with water, at the cattle-trough in Spring\\nLane. What, in Heaven^s name, is she? Is the imp alto-\\ngether evil Hath she affections Hath she any discoverable\\nprinciple of being\\nNone, save the freedom of a broken law,^^ answered Mr.\\nDimmesdale, in a quiet way, as if he had been discussing the\\npoint within himself. Whether capable of good, I know\\nnot.^^\\nThe child probably overheard their voices; for, looking up\\nto the window, with a bright, but naughty smile of mirth and\\nintelligence, she threw one of the prickly burrs at the Reverend\\nMr. Dimmesdale. The sensitive clergyman shrunk, with ner-\\nvous dread, from the light missile. Detecting his emotion, Pearl\\nclapped her little hands, in the most extravagant ecstasy. Hester\\nPrynne, likewise, had involuntarily looked up and all these four\\npersons, old and young, regarded one another in silence, till\\nthe child laughed aloud, and shouted, Come away, mother\\nCome away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you He hath\\ngot hold of the minister already. Come away, mother, or he\\nwill catch you But he cannot catch little Pearl\\nSo she drew her mother away, skipping, dancing, and frisking\\nfantastically, among the hillocks of the dead people, like a crea-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0193.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "162 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nlure tliiit liad nothing in common with a bygone and buried\\ngeneration, nor ow)ied herself akin to it. It was as if she had\\nb(^(!n made afresh, out of new eh inents, and must perforce be\\n})ermitted to live; her own hfe, and be a law unto herself, with-\\nout lier eccentricities being reckoned to her for a crime.\\nThere goes a woman, r(!sumed lloger Chillingworth, after\\na pause, who, l)e lier d(;merits what they may, hath none of\\nthai myslcry of hidden sinlnhuiss whic^li you deem so grievous\\nto h(^ borne. Is Hestcir Prynne the less miserable, think you,\\nfor that scarlet leltcu on her bnsast?\\nI do verily believe it, answered the clergyman. Never-\\ntheless, I cannot answer for her. There was a look of pain in\\nher face, wliicli I would gladly have been s])ared the sight of.\\nIhit si ill, metliinks, it nnist needs be beiier for the sulferer to\\nbi! free to show liis pain, as this poor woman Hester is, tlian\\nto cover it all up in his heart.\\nThere was anotlier pause; and the ])hysieian began anew to\\nexamine and arrange ilie plaiils which he had gathered.\\nYou in(|uircd of me, a little; tinu; agone, said he, at length,\\nmy judgment as touching your health.\\nI did, answered the clergyman, and w^ould gladly learn\\nit. Speak frankly, I ])ray you, be it for life or death.\\nFreely, then, and plaiidy, said the ])liysiciaii, still busy\\nwith his plants, but kee])ing a Avary eye on Mr. Dimmesdale,\\nthe disorder is a strange one; not so nnu;h in itself, nor as\\noutwardly manifested, in so far, at least, as the symptoms\\nhave been laid o])en to my observation. Looking daily at you,\\nmy good Sir, ami watching the t(dvens of your aspect, now for\\nmonths gone by, I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be,\\ny(!t not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0194.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HiS i ATlENT. 163\\nmight well hope to cure you. But. I know not what to say\\nthe disease is what I seem to know, yet know it not.\\nYou speak in ri(hlles, ii anied Sir, said the pale mhiister,\\nglancing aside; out of the window.\\nThen, to speak inon^ ])laiuly, continued tlu ])liysiciaM, and\\nI crave pardon, Sir, should it seem to rt (]uir( pardon, for\\nthis needful plainness of my speech. Let me ask, as your\\nfriend, as one having charge, under Providence, of your life\\nand physical well-heiug, hath all the operation of (his disorder\\nbeen fairly laid open and recounted to me?\\nHow can you (juestiou it? asked th( minister. Surely,\\nit were child s play, to call in a ))hysicia-u, and I hen hide the\\nsore\\nYou would (ell nu then, that 1 know all? said Roger Chil-\\nlingworth, deliberately, and tixing an eye, bright- wi(h iu(( use\\nand concentrated intelligence, on (he minister s Wuv. Be it so!\\nBut, again I He to whom only the ou(ward and physical evil\\nis laid open, knoweth, oftentimes, but half (he evil wliic-h he is\\ncalled upon to cure. A bodily disease, which we look u])()u as\\nwhole and entire widiiu itscdf, may, after all, be but a sym])t()m\\nof some ailment in the spiritual part. Your pardon, oiu;e again,\\ngood Sir, if my speech give the shadow of offence. You, Sir,\\nof all men whom T have kiunvn, are he whose body is the closest\\nconjoined, and ind)ued, and identilied, so to speak, with the spirit\\nwhereof it is the instrument.\\nThen I need ask lU) further, said the clergyman, somewhat\\nhastily rising from his chair. You di^al not, I take it, in m( di-\\ncine for the soul\\nThus, a sickn( ss, continued Roger (liilliugworth, going on,\\nin an unaltered tone, without heeding the interruption, but", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0195.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "164 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nstanding up, and confronting the emaciated and white-cheeked\\nminister, with his low, dark, and misshapen figure, a sick-\\nness, a sore place, if we may so call it, in your spirit, hath imme-\\ndiately its appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame. Would\\nyou, therefore, that your physician heal the bodily evil? How\\nmay this be, unless you first lay open to him the wound or trouble\\nin your soul\\nNo not to thee not to an earthly physician cried\\nMr. Dimmesdale, passionately, and turning his eyes, full and\\nbright, and with a kind of fierceness, on old Eoger Chilling-\\nworth. Not to thee But if it be the soul s disease, then\\ndo I commit myself to the one Physician of the soul He,\\nif it stand with his good pleasure, can cure or he can kill\\nLet him do with me as, in his justice and wisdom, he\\nshall see good. But who art thou, that meddlest in this mat-\\nter? that dares thrust himself between the sufferer and his-\\nGod\\nWith a frantic gesture he rushed out of the room.\\nIt is as well to have made this step,^ said Roger Chilling-\\nworth to himself, looking after the minister with a grave smile.\\nThere is nothing lost. We shall be friends again anon. But\\nsee, now, how passion takes hold upon this man, and hurrieth\\nhim out of himself As with one passion, so with another\\nHe hath done a wild thing erenow, this pious Master Dimmes-\\ndale, in the hot passion of his heart\\nIt proved not difficult to re-establish the intimacy of the two\\ncompanions, on the same footmg and in the same degree as\\nheretofore. The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy,\\nwas sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him\\ninto an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0196.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT.\\n165\\nnothing in the physician s words to excuse or palliate. He\\nmarvelled, indeed, at the violence Avith which he had thrust\\nback the kind old man, when merely proffering the advice\\nwhich it Avas his duty to bestow, and which the minister him-\\nself had expressly sought. With these remorseful feelings, he\\nlost no time in making the amplest ajaologies, and besought his\\nfriend still to continue the care, which, if not successfid in\\nrestoring him to health, had, in all probability, been the means\\nof prolonging his feeble existence to that hour. Roger Chilling-\\nworth readily assented, and Avent on with his medical super-\\nvision of the minister doing his best for him, in all good\\nfaith, but always quitting the patient s apartment, at the close\\nof a professional interview, with a mysterious and puzzled smile\\nupon his lips. This expression was invisible in Mr. Dimmes-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0197.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "166 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ndale^ s presence, but grew strongly evident as the physician\\ncrossed the threshold.\\nA rare case he muttered. I must needs look deeper\\ninto it. A strange sympathy betwixt soul and body Were\\nit only for the art^s sake, I must search this matter to the\\nbottom\\nIt came to pass, not long after the scene above recorded,\\nthat the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, at noonday, and entirely\\nunawares, fell into a deep, deep slumber, sitting in his chair,\\nwith a large black-letter volume open before him on the table.\\nIt must have been a work of vast ability in the somniferous\\nschool of literature. The profound depth of the minister s\\nrepose was the more remarkable, inasmuch as he was one of\\nthose persons whose sleep, ordinarily, is as light, as fitful, and\\nas easily scared away, as a small bird hopping on a twig. To\\nsuch an unwonted remoteness, however, had his spirit now with-\\ndrawn into itself, that he stirred not in his chair, when old\\nEoger Chillingworth, without any extraordinary precaution, came\\nmto the room. The physician advanced directly in front of\\nhis patient, laid his hand upon his bosom, and thrust aside\\nthe vestment, that, hitherto, had always covered it even from\\nthe professional eye.\\nThen, indeed, Mr. Dimmesdale shuddered, and slightly stirred.\\nAfter a brief pause, the physician turned away.\\nBut, with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror With\\nwhat a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed\\nonly by the eye and features, and therefore bursting forth through\\nthe whole ugliness of his figure, and making itself even riotously\\nmanifest by the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his\\narms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0198.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT\\n167\\nHad a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his\\necstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports\\nhimself, when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won\\ninto his kingdom.\\nBut what distinguished the physician s ecstasy from Satan s\\nwas the trait of wonder hi it", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0199.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "XI.\\nTHE INTERIOR OP A HEART.\\n;^ETER the incident last described, the inter-\\ncourse between the clergyman and the phy-\\nsician_, though externally the same, was really\\nof another character than it had previously\\nbeen. The intellect of Eoger Chillingworth\\nhad now a sufficiently plain path before it.\\nIt was not, indeed, precisely that which lie had laid out for him-\\nself to tread. Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appeared, there\\nwas yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but\\nactive now, in this unfortunate old man, Avhich led him to imagine\\na more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon\\nan enemy. To make himself the one trusted friend, to whom\\nshould be confided all the fear, the remorse, the agony, the inef-\\nfectual repentance, the backward rush of sinful thoughts, expelled\\nin vain All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the Avorld, whose\\ngreat heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him,\\nthe Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving All that dark treasure\\nto be lavished on the very man, to whom nothing else could so\\nadequately pay the debt of vengeance", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0200.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "THE INTERIOE OF A HEART. 169\\nThe clergyman^s shy and sensitive reserve had balked this\\nscheme. Eoger Chillingworth, hoAvever, was inclined to be\\nhardly, if at all, less satisfied with the aspect of affairs, which\\nProvidence using the avenger and his victim for its own pur-\\nposes, and, perchance, pardoning where it seemed most to punish\\nhad substituted for his black devices. A revelation, he could\\nalmost say, had been granted to him. It mattered little, for his\\nobject, whether celestial, or from what other region. By its aid,\\nin all the subsequent relations betwixt him and Mr. Dimmesdale,\\nnot merely the external presence, but the very inmost soul, of the\\nlatter, seemed to be brought out before his eyes, so that he\\ncould see and comprehend its every movement. He became,\\nthenceforth, not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor\\nminister s interior Avorld. He could i)lay upon him as he chose.\\nWould he arouse him with a throb of agony? The victim was\\nforever on the rack; it needed only to know the spring that con-\\ntrolled the engine and the physician knew it well Would\\nhe startle him with sudden fear? As at the waving of a magi-\\ncian s wand, uprose a grisly phantom, uprose a thousand phan-\\ntoms, in many shapes, of death, or more awful shame, all\\nflocking round about the clergyman, and pointing with their\\nfingers at his breast\\nAll this was accomplished with a subtlety so perfect, that the\\nminister, though he had constantly a dim perception of some\\nevil influence watching over him, could never gain a knowledge\\nof its actual nature. True, he looked doubtfully, fearfully,\\neven, at times, with horror and the bitterness of hatred, at\\nthe deformed figure of the old physician. His gestures, his gait,\\nhis grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent acts, the\\nvery fashion of his garments, were odious in the clergyman s", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0201.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "170 THE SCARLET LETTER..\\nsight; a token iniiilicitlj to be relied on, of a deeper antipathy\\nin the breast of the latter than he was willing to acknowledge\\nto himself. For, as it was impossible to assign a reason for\\nsuch distrust and abhorrence, so Mr. Dimmesdale, conscious that\\nthe poison of one morbid spot was infecting his heart s entire\\nsubstance, attributed all his presentiments to no other cause.\\nHe took himself to task for his bad sympathies in reference to\\nRoger Chillingworth, disregarded the lesson that he should have\\ndrawn from them, and did his best to root them out. Unable\\nto accomplish this, he nevertheless, as a matter of principle,\\ncontinued his habits of social familiarity with the old man, and\\nthus gave him constant opportunities for perfecting the purpose\\nto which poor, forlorn creature that he was, and more wretched\\nthan his victim the avenger had devoted himself.\\nWhile thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and\\ntortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over\\nto the machinations of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr.\\nDimmesdale had achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred\\noffice. He Avon it, indeed, in great part, by his sorrows. His\\nintellectual gifts, his moral perceptions, his power of experi-\\nencing and communicating emotion, were kept in a state of\\npreternatural activity by the prick and anguish of his daily\\nlife. His fame, though still on its upward slope, already over-\\nshadowed the soberer reputations of his fellow-clergymen, eminent\\nas several of them were. There were scholars among them, who\\nhad spent more years in acquiring abstruse lore, connected with\\nthe divine profession, than Mr. Dimmesdale had lived; and who\\nmight well, therefore, be more profoundly versed in such solid\\nand valuable attainments than their youthful brother. There\\nwere men, too, of a sturdier texture of mind than his, and", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0202.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "THE INTERIOR OF A HEART. 17I\\nendowed with a far greater share of shrewd, hard, iron, or gran-\\nite understanding; which, duly mingled with a fair proportion\\nof doctrinal ingredient, constitutes a highly respectable, effica-\\ncious, and unamiable variety of the clerical species. There were\\nothers, again, true saintly fathers, whose faculties had been elabo-\\nrated by weary toil among their books, and by patient thought,\\nand etherealized, moreover, by spiritual communications with the\\nbetter world, into which their purity of life had almost intro-\\nduced these holy personages, with their garments of mortality\\nstill clinging to them. All that they lacked was the gift that\\ndescended upon the chosen disciples at Pentecost, in tongues\\nof flame symbolizing, it would seem, not the power of speech\\nin foreign and unknown languages, but that of addressing the\\nwhole human brotherhood hi the hearths native language. These\\nfathers, otherwise so apostolic, lacked Hcaven^s last and rarest\\nattestation of their office, the Tongue of Flame. They would\\nhave vainly sought had they ever dreamed of seeking to\\nexpress the highest truths through the humblest medium of\\nfamiliar words and images. Their vocies came down, afar and\\nindistinctly, from the upper heights where they habitually dwelt.\\nNot improbably, it was to this latter class of men that Mr.\\nDimmesdale, by many of his traits of character, naturally belonged.\\nTo the high mountain-peaks of faith and sanctity he would have\\nclimbed, had not the tendency been thwarted by the burden,\\nwhatever it might be, of crime or anguish, beneath which it was\\nhis doom to totter. It kept him down, on a level with the low-\\nest; him, the man of ethereal attributes, whose voice the angels\\nmight else have listened to and answered But this very bur-\\nden it was, that gave him sympathies so intimate with the sinful\\nbrotherhood of mankind; so that his heart vibrated in unison", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0203.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "172\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwith theirs, and received their pain into itself, and sent its own\\nthrob of pain through a thousand other hearts, in gushes of\\nsad, persuasive eloquence. Oftenest persuasive, but sometimes\\nterrible The people knew not the power that moved them\\nthus. They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness.\\nThey fancied him the mouthpiece of Heaven^s messages of wis^\\ndom, and rebuke, and love. In their eyes, the very ground on\\nwhich he trod Avas sanc-\\ntitled. The virgins of\\nhis church grew pale\\naround him, victims of\\na passion so imbued with\\nreligious sentiment that\\nthey imagined it to be\\nall I cligion,\\nand brought\\nit openly, in\\ntheir white\\nbosoms, as\\ntheir most\\n|i acceptable\\n111 j-\\nsacrifice be-\\nfore the altar.\\nThe aged\\nmembers of\\nhis flock, be-\\nholding Mr. Dimmesdal(!^s frame so feeble, Mdiile they were them-\\nselves so rugged in their infirmity, believed that he would go\\nheavenward before tliem, and enjoined it upon their children,\\ntliat their old bones should be buried close to their young pas-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0204.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "THE INTERIOR OF A HEART. 173\\ntor s holy grave. And, all this time, perchance, when poor Mr.\\nDimmesdale was thinking of his grave, he questioned with him-\\nself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed\\nthing must there be buried\\nIt is inconceivable, the agony with which this public venera-\\ntion tortured him It was his genuine impulse to adore the\\ntruth, and to reckon all things shadow-like, and utterly devoid\\nof weight or value, that had not its divine essence as the life\\nwithin their life. Then, what was he a substance or the\\ndimmest of all shadows? He longed to speak out, from his\\nown pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people\\nwhat he was. I, whom you behold in these black garments\\nof the priesthood, I, who ascend the sacred desk, and turn\\nmy pale face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold commun-\\nion, in your behalf, with the Most High Omniscience, I, in\\nwhose daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch, I, whose\\nfootsteps, as you suppose, leave a gleam along my earthly track,\\nwhereby the pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided\\nto the regions of the blest, I, who have laid the hand of\\nbaptism upon your children, I, who have breathed the part-\\ning prayer over your dying friends, to whom the Amen sounded\\nfaintly from a world which they had quitted, I, your pastor,\\nwhom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and\\na lie!\\nMore than once, Mr. Dimmesdale had gone into the pulpit,\\nwith a purpose never to come down its steps, until he should\\nhave spoken words like the above. More than once, he had\\ncleared his throat, and drawn in the long, deep, and tremulous\\nbreath, Avhich, when sent forth again, would come burdened\\nwith the black secret of his soul. More than once nay, more", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0205.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "174. THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthan a hundred times he had actually spoken Spoken\\nBut how? He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile,\\na viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abom-\\nination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity; and that the only\\nwonder was, that they did not see his wretched body shrivelled\\nup before their eyes, by the burning wrath of the Almighty\\nCould there be plainer speech than this Would not the people\\nstart up in their seats, by a simultaneous impulse, and tear liim\\ndown out of the pulpit which he defiled Not so, indeed\\nThey heard it all, and did but reverence him the more. They\\nlittle guessed what deadly purport lurked in those self-condemn-\\ning words. The godly youth said they among themselves.\\nThe saint on earth Alas, if he discern such sinfulness in his\\nown white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine\\nor mine The minister well knew subtle, but remorseful\\nhypocrite that he was the light in which his vague confes-\\nsion would be viewed. He had striven to put a cheat upon\\nhimself by making the avowal of a guilty conscience, but had\\ngained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame, with-\\nout the momentary relief of being self-deceived. He had spoken\\nthe very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood.\\nAnd yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth,\\nand loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above all\\nthings else, he loathed his miserable self\\nHis inward trouble drove him to practices more in accord-\\nance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better\\nlight of the church in which he had been born and bred. In\\nMr. Dimmesdale^s secret closet, under lock and key, there was\\na bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine\\nhad plied it on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0206.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "THE INTERIOR OP A HEART. 175\\nthe while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly because of\\nthat bitter laugh. It Avas his custom, too, as it has been that\\nof many other pious Puritans, to fast, not, however, like\\nthem, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter\\nmedium of celestial illumination, but rigorously, and until his\\nknees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance. He kept\\nvigils, likewise, night after night, sometimes in utter darkness\\nsometimes Avith a glimmering lamp and sometimes, viewing\\nhis own face in a looking-glass, by the most powerful light\\nwhich he could throw upon it. He thus typified the constant\\nintrospection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, him-\\nself. In these lengthened vigils, his brain often reeled, and\\nvisions seemed to flit before him; perhaps seen doubtfully,\\nand by a faint light of their OAvn, in the remote dimness of\\nthe chamber, or more vividly, and close beside him, within\\nthe looking-glass. Now it was a herd of diabolic shapes, that\\ngrinned and mocked at the pale minister, and beckoned him\\naway with them now a group of shining angels, who flew\\nupward heavily, as sorrow-laden, but grew more ethereal as they\\nrose. Now came the dead friends of his youth, and his white-\\nbearded father, with a saint-like frown, and his mother, turning\\nher face away as she passed by. Ghost of a mother, thinnest\\nfantasy of a mother, methinks she might yet have thrown a\\npitying glance towards her son And now, through the chamber\\nwhich these spectral thoughts had made so ghastly, glided Hester\\nPrynne, leading along little Pearl, in her scarlet garb, and\\npointing her forefinger, first at the scarlet letter on her bosom,\\nand then at the clergyman^s own breast.\\nNone of these visions ever quite deluded him. At any moment,\\nby an effort of his will, he could discern substances through their", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0207.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "176 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nmisty lack of substance^ and convince himself that they were not\\nsolid in their nature, like yonder table of carved oak, or that big,\\nsquare, leathern-bound and brazen-clasped volume of divinity.\\nBut, for all that, they were, in one sense, the truest and most\\nsubstantial things which the poor minister now dealt with. It\\nis the unspeakable misery of a life so false as his, that it steals\\nthe pith and substance out of whatever realities there are around\\nus, and which were meant by Heaven to be the spirit^s joy and\\nnutriment. To the untrue man, the whole universe is false, it\\nis impalpable, it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he\\nhimself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes\\na shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist. The only truth that con-\\ntinued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence on this earth,\\nwas the anguish in his inmost soul, and the undissembled expres-\\nsion of it in his aspect. Had he once found power to smile,\\nand wear a face of gayety, there would have been no such\\nman\\nOn one of those ugly nights, which we have faintly hinted at,\\nbut forborne to picture forth, the minister started from his chair.\\nA new thought had struck him. There might be a moment s\\npeace in it. Attiring himself with as much care as if it had\\nbeen for public worship, and precisely in the same manner, he\\nstole softly down the staircase, undid the door, and issued forth.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0208.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "XII.\\nTHE MINISTER S VIGIL.\\n^V2\u00c2\u00a3,^5.H^ ^^I^^I^Gr in the shadow of a dream, as it\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0W Cre, and perhaps actually under the influ-\\nence of a species of somnambulism, Mr.\\nDimmesdale reached the spot where, now\\nso long since, Hester Prynne had lived\\nthrough her first hours of public ignominy.\\nThe same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with\\nthe storm or sunshine of seven long years, and foot-worn, too,\\nwith the tread of many culprits who had since ascended it,\\nremained standing beneath the balcony of the meeting-house.\\nThe minister went up the steps.\\nIt was an obscure night of early May. An unvaried pall of\\ncloud muffled the whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon.\\nIf the same multitude which had stood as eye-witnesses while\\nHester Prynne sustained her punishment could now have been\\nsummoned forth, they would have discerned no face above the\\nplatform, nor hardly the outline of a human shape, in the dark\\ngray of the midnight. But the town was all asleep. There\\nwas no peril of discovery. The minister might stand there, if", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0209.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "178 THE SCAKLET LETTER.\\nit so pleased liim, until morning should redden in the east,\\nwithout other risk than that the dank and chill night-air would\\ncreep into his frame, and stiffen his joints with rheumatism, and\\nclog his throat with catarrh and cough thereby defrauding\\nthe expectant audience of to-morrow s prayer and sermon. No\\neye could see him, save that ever-wakeful one which had seen\\nhim in his closet, wielding the bloody scourge. Wliy, then,\\nhad he come hither Was it but the mockery of penitence\\nA mockery, indeed, but in which his soul trifled with itself A\\nmockery at which angels blushed and wept, while fiends rejoiced,\\nwith jeering laughter He had been driven hither by the\\nimpulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and\\nwhose own sister and closely linked companion was that\\nCowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous\\ngripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge\\nof a disclosure. Poor, miserable man what right had infirmity\\nlike his to burden itself with crime Crime is for the iron-\\nnerved, who have their choice either to endure it, or, if it press\\ntoo hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good\\npurpose, and fling it off at once This feeble and most sensi-\\ntive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing\\nor another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the\\nagony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance.\\nAnd thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show\\nof expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror\\nof mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on\\nhis naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very\\ntruth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and\\npoisonous tooth of bodily pain. Without any eff ort of his will,\\nor power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud; an outcry that", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0210.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 179\\nwent pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one\\nhouse to another, and reverberated from the hills in the back-\\nground as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery\\nand terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were\\nbandying it to and fro.\\nIt is done muttered the minister, covering his face with\\nhis hands. The whole town will awake, and hurry forth, and\\nfind me here\\nBut it was not so. The shriek had perhaps sounded with a\\nfar greater power, to his own startled ears, than it actually\\npossessed. The town did not awake or, if it did, the drowsy\\nslumberers mistook the cry either for something frightful in a\\ndream, or for the noise of witches whose voices, at that period,\\nwere often heard to pass over the settlements or lonely cottages,\\nas they rode with Satan through the air. The clergyman, there-\\nfore, hearing no symptoms of disturbance, uncovered his eyes\\nand looked about him. At one of the chamber-windows of\\nGovernor Bellingham s mansion, which stood at some distance,\\non the line of another street, he beheld the appearance of the\\nold magistrate himself, with a lamp in his hand, a white night-\\ncap on his head, and a long white gown enveloping his figure.\\nHe looked like a ghost, evoked unseasonably from the grave.\\nThe cry had evidently startled him. At another window of the\\nsame house, moreover, appeared old Mistress Hibbins, the Gov-\\nernor s sister, also with a lamp, which, even thus far off,\\nrevealed the expression of her sour and discontented face. She\\nthrust forth her head from the lattice, and looked anxiously\\nupward. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this venerable witch-\\nlady had heard Mr. Dimmesdale s outcry, and interpreted it,\\nwith its multitudinous echoes and reverberations, as the clamor", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0211.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "180 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nof the fiends and night-hags, with whom she was well known to\\nmake excursions into the forest.\\nDetecting the gleam of Governor Bellingham^s lamp, the old\\nlady quickly extinguished her own, and vanished. Possibly, she\\nwent up among the clouds. The minister saw nothing further\\nof her motions. The magistrate, after a wary observation of the\\ndarkness, into which, nevertheless, he could see but little further\\nthan he might into a mill-stone, retired from the window.\\nThe minister grew comparatively calm. His eyes, however,\\nwere soon greeted by a little, glimmering light, which, at first\\na long way off, was approaching up the street. It threw a\\ngleam of recognition on here a post, and there a garden-fence,\\nand here a latticed window-pane, and there a pump, with its\\nfull trough of water, and here, again, an arched door of oak,\\nwith an iron knocker, and a rough log for the doorstep. The\\nEeverend Mr. Dimmesdale noted all these minute particulars,\\neven while firmly convinced that the doom of his existence was\\nstealing onward, in the footsteps which he now heard and that\\nthe gleam of the lantern would fall upon him, in a few moments\\nmore, and reveal his long-hidden secret. As the light drew\\nnearer, he beheld, within its illuminated circle, his brother clergy-\\nman, or, to speak more accurately, his professional father, as\\nwell as highly valued friend, the Eeverend Mr. Wilson who,\\nas Mr. Dimmesdale now conjectured, had been praying at the\\nbedside of some dying man. And so he had. The good old\\nminister came freshly from the death-chamber of Governor\\nWinthrop, who had passed from earth to heaven within that\\nvery hour. And now, surrounded, like the saint- like personages\\nof olden times, with a radiant halo, that glorified him amid\\nthis gloomy night of sin, as if the departed Governor had", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0212.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 181\\nleft him an inheritance of his glory, or as if he had caught\\nupon himself the distant shine of the celestial city, while look-\\ning thitherward to see the triumphant pilgrim pass within its\\ngates, now, in short, good Father Wilson was moving home-\\nward, aiding his footsteps with a lighted lantern The glimmer\\nof this luminary suggested the above conceits to Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale, who smiled, nay, almost laughed at them, and then\\nwondered if he were going mad.\\nAs the Eeverend Mr. Wilson passed beside the scaffold, closely\\nmuffling his Geneva cloak about him with one arm, and holding\\nthe lantern before his breast with the other, the minister could\\nhardly restrain himself from speaking.\\nA good evemng to you, venerable Father Wilson Come\\nup hither, I pray you, and pass a pleasant hour with me\\nGood heavens Had Mr. Dimmesdale actually spoken For\\none instant, he believed that these words had passed his lips.\\nBut they were uttered only within his imagination. The venerable\\nFather Wilson continued to step slowly onward, looking carefully\\nat the muddy pathway before his feet, and never once turning\\nhis head towards the guilty platform. When the light of the glim-\\nmering lantern had faded quite away, the minister discovered, by\\nthe faintness which came over him, that the last few moments had\\nbeen a crisis of terrible anxiety although his mind had made an\\ninvoluntary effort to relieve itself by a kind of lurid playfulness.\\nShortly afterwards, the like grisly sense of the humorous again\\nstole in among the solemn phantoms of his thought. He felt\\nhis limbs growing stiff with the unaccustomed chilliness of the\\nnight, and doubted whether he should be able to descend the\\nsteps of the scaffold. Morning would break, and find him there.\\nThe neighborhood would begin to rouse itself. The earliest", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0213.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "183 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nriser, coming forth in the dim twilight, would perceive a vaguely\\ndefined figure aloft on the place of shame; and, half crazed\\nbetwixt alarm and curiosity, would go, knocking from door to\\ndoor, summoning all the people to behold the ghost as he\\nneeds must think it of some defunct transgressor. A dusky\\ntumult would fiap its wings from one house to another. Then\\nthe morning light still waxing stronger old patriarchs would\\nrise up in great haste, each in his flannel gown, and matronly\\ndames, without pausing to put off their night-gear. The whole\\ntribe of decorous personages, who had never heretofore been seen\\nwith a single hair of their heads awry, would start into public\\nview, with the disorder of a nightmare in their aspects. Old\\nGovernor Bellingham would come grimly forth, with liis King\\nJameses ruff fastened askew; and Mistress Hibbins, with some\\ntwigs of the forest clinging to her skirts, and looking sourer\\nthan ever, as having hardly got a wink of sleep after her night\\nride; and good Father Wilson, too, after spending half the\\nnight at a death-bed, and liking ill to be disturbed, thus early,\\nout of his dreams about the glorified saints. Hither, likewise,\\nwould come the elders and deacons of Mr. Dimmesdale s cliurch,\\nand the young virgins who so idolized their minister, and had\\nmade a shrine for him in their white bosoms Avhich now, by\\nthe by, in their hurry and confusion, they would scantly have\\ngiven themselves time to cover with tlieir kerchiefs. All people,\\nin a word, would come stumbling over their thresholds, and\\nturning up their amazed and horror-stricken visages around the\\nscaffold. ^Yliom would they discern there, with the red eastern\\nlight upon his brow Whom, but the Ecverend Arthur Dimmes-\\ndale, half frozen to death, overwhelmed with shame, and stand-\\ning where Hester Prynne had stood", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0214.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 183\\nCarried away by the grotesque horror of this picture^ the min-\\nister, unawares, and to his own infinite alarm, burst into a great\\npeal of laughter. It was immediately responded to by a light,\\nairy, childish laugh, in which, with a thrill of the heart, but\\nhe knew not whether of exquisite pain, or pleasure as acute, he\\nrecognized the tones of little Pearl.\\nPearl Little Pearl cried he after a moment^s pause\\nthen, suppressing his voice, Hester Hester Prymie Are\\nyou there\\nYes it is Hester Prynne she replied, in a tone of sur-\\nprise; and the minister heard her footsteps approaching from\\nthe sidewalk, along which she had been passing. It is I, and\\nmy little Pearl.\\nWhence come you, Hester asked the minister. What\\nsent you hither?\\nI have been watching at a death-bed, answered Hester\\nPrynne; at Governor Winthrop s death-bed, and have taken his\\nmeasure for a robe, and am now going homeward to my dwelling.\\nCome up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl, said the\\nUeverend Mr. Dimmesdale. Ye have both been here before,\\nbut I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we\\nwill stand all three together\\nShe silently ascended the steps, and stood on the platform,\\nholding little Pearl by the hand. The minister felt for the\\nchild s other hand, and took it. The moment that he did so,\\nthere came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other\\nlife than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and\\nhurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and the child\\nwere communicating their vital warmth to his half-torpid sys-\\ntem. The three formed an electric chain.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0215.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "184 THE SCARLET LETTEE.\\nMinister whispered little Pearl.\\nWhat wouldst thou say, child? asked Mr. Dimmesdale.\\nWilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noon-\\ntide? inquired Pearl.\\nNay; not so, my little Pearl, answered the muiister; for,\\nwith the new energy of the moment, all the dread of public expos-\\nure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, had returned\\nupon him and he was already trembling at the conjunction\\nin which with a strange joy, nevertheless he now found\\nhimself. Not so, my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy\\nmother and thee one other day, but not to-morrow.\\nPearl laughed, and attempted to pull away her hand. But\\nthe minister held it fast.\\nA moment longer, my child said he.\\nBut wilt thou promise, asked Pearl, to take my hand,\\nand mother s hand, to-morrow noontide?\\nNot then. Pearl, said the minister, but another time.\\nAnd what other time? persisted the child.\\nAt the great judgment day, whispered the minister, and,\\nstrangely enough, the sense that he was a professional teacher\\nof the truth impelled him to answer the child so. Then, and\\nthere, before the judgment-seat, thy mother, and thou, and I\\nmust stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not\\nsee our meeting\\nPearl laughed again.\\nBut, before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking, a light gleamed\\nfar and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused\\nby one of those meteors, Avliich the night-watcher may so often\\nobserve burning out to Avaste, in the vacant regions of the atmos-\\nphere. So powerful was its radiance, that it thoroughly illu-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0216.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0219.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0220.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 187\\nminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth.\\nThe great vault brightened, like the dome of an immense lamp.\\nIt showed the familiar scene of the street, with the distinctness\\nof mid-day, but also with the awfulness that is always imparted\\nto familiar objects by an unaccustomed light. The wooden\\nhouses, with their jutting stories and quaint gable-peaks; the\\ndoorsteps and thresholds, with the early grass springing up\\nabout them the garden-plots, black with freshly turned earth\\nthe wheel-track, little worn, and, even in the market-place, mar-\\ngined with green on either side all were visible, but with\\na singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral inter-\\npretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne\\nbefore. And there stood the minister, with his hand over his\\nheart and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glim-\\nmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and\\nthe connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon\\nof that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that\\nis to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all\\nwho belong to one another.\\nThere was witchcraft in little Pearl s eyes, and her face, as\\nshe glanced upward at the minister, wore that naughty smile\\nwhich made its expression frequently so elvish. She withdrew\\nher hand from Mr. Dimmesdale s, and pointed across the street.\\nBut he clasped both his hands over his breast, and cast his\\neyes towards the zenith.\\nNothhig was more common, in those days, than to interpret\\nall meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena, that\\noccurred with less regularity than the rise and set of sun and\\nmoon, as so many revelations from a supernatural source. Thus,\\na blazing spear, a sword of flame, a bow, or a sheaf of arrows.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0221.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "188 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nseen in the midnight sky, prefigured Indian warfare. Pestilence\\nwas known to have been foreboded by a shower of crimson\\nlight. We doubt whether any marked event, for good or evil,\\never befell New England, from its settlement down to Revolu-\\ntionary times, of which the inhabitants had not been previously\\nwarned by some spectacle of this nature. Not seldom, it had\\nbeen seen by multitudes. Oftener, however, its credibility rested\\non the faith of some lonely eye-witness, who beheld the wonder\\nthrough the colored, magnifying, and distorting medium of his\\nimagination, and shaped it more distinctly in his after-thought.\\nIt was, indeed, a majestic idea, that the destiny of nations\\nshould be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of\\nheaven. A scroll so wide might not be deemed too expansive\\nfor Providence to write a people^s doom upon. The belief was\\na favorite one with our forefathers, as betokening that their\\ninfant commonwealth was under a celestial guardianship of pecul-\\niar intimacy and strictness. But what shall we say, when an\\nindividual discovers a revelation addressed to himself alone, on\\nthe same vast sheet of record In such a case, it could only\\nbe the symptom of a highly disordered mental state, when a\\nman, rendered morbidly self-contemplative by long, intense, and\\nsecret pain, had extended his egotism over the whole expanse of\\nnature, until the firmament itself should appear no more than\\na fitting page for his soul s history and fate\\nWe impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye\\nand heart, that the minister, looking upward to the zenith,\\nbeheld there the appearance of an immense letter, the letter\\nA, marked out in lines of dull red light. Not but the\\nmeteor may have shown itself at that point, burning duskily\\nthrough a veil of cloud but with no such shape as his guilty", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0222.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 189\\nimagination gave it or, at least, with so little definiteness, that\\nanother s guilt might have seen another symbol in it.\\nThere was a singular circumstance that characterized Mr.\\nDimmesdale s psychological state, at this moment. All the time\\nthat he gazed upward to the zenith, he was, nevertheless, per-\\nfectly aware that little Pearl was pointing her finger towards\\nold Eoger Chillingworth, who stood at no great distance from\\nthe scaffold. The minister appeared to see him, with the same\\nglance that discerned the miraculous letter. To his features, as\\nto all other objects, the meteoric light imparted a new expres-\\nsion or it might well be that the physician was not careful\\nthen, as at all other times, to hide the malevolence with which\\nhe looked upon his victim. Certainly, if the meteor kindled up\\ntlie sky, and disclosed the earth, with an awfulness that admon-\\nished Hester Prynne and the clergyman of the day of judgment,\\nthen might Roger Chillingworth have passed with them for the\\narch-fiend, standing there with a smile and scowl, to claim his\\nown. So vivid was the expression, or so intense the minister s\\nperception of it, that it seemed still to remain painted on tlie\\ndarkness, after the meteor had vanished, with an effect as if\\nthe street and all things else were at once annihilated.\\nWho is that man, Hester gasped Mr. Dimmesdale, over-\\ncome with terror. I shiver at him Dost thou know the\\nman I liate him, Hester\\nShe remembered her oath, and was silent.\\nI tell thee, my sonl shivers at him muttered the minister\\nagain. Who is he Who is he Canst thou do nothing\\nfor me I have a nameless horror of the man\\nMinister, said little Pearl, I can tell thee who he is\\nQuickly, then, child said the minister, bending his ear", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0223.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "190 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nclose to her lijjs. Quickly and as low as thou canst\\nwhisper/^\\nPearl mumbled something into his ear, that sounded, indeed,\\nlike human language, but was oidy sucli gibberish as children\\nmay be heard amusing themselves with, by the hour together.\\nAt all events, if it involved any secret information in regard to\\nold Eoger Chillingworth, it w^as in a tongue unknown to the\\nerudite clergyman, and did but increase the bewilderment of his\\nmind. The elvish child then laughed aloud.\\nDost thou mock me now said the minister.\\nThou wast not bold! thou wast not true! answered\\nthe child. Thou wouldst not jiromise to take my hand, and\\nmother^s hand, to-morrow noontide\\nWorthy Sir, answered the physician, who had now advanced\\nto the foot of the platform. Pious Master Dimmesdale, can\\nthis be you Well, well, indeed We men of study, whose\\nheads are in our books, have need to be straitly looked after\\nWe dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep-\\nCome, good Sir, and my dear friend, I pray you, let me lead\\nyou home\\nHow knewest thou that I was here asked the minister,\\nfearfully.\\nVerily, and in good faith, answered Eoger Chillingworth,\\nI knew nothing of the matter. I had spent the better part\\nof the night at the bedside of the worshipful Governor Winthrop,\\ndoing what my poor skill might to give him ease. He going\\nhome to a better world, I, likewise, was on my way homeward,\\nwhen this strange light shone out. Come with me, I beseech\\nyou, Eeverend Sir else you will be poorly able to do Sabbath\\nduty to-morrow. Aha see now, how they trouble the brain,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0224.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER S VIGIL. 191\\nthese books these books You should study less^ good\\nSir, and take a little pastime or these night-whimseys will\\ngrow upon yon.\\nI will go home with you/^ said Mr. Dimmesdale.\\nWith a chill despondency^ like one awaking, all nerveless,\\nfrom an ugly dream, he yielded himself to the physician, and\\nwas led away.\\nThe next day, however, being the Sabbath, lie preached a\\ndiscourse Avhich was held to be the richest and most powerful,\\nand the most replete with heavenly influences, that had ever\\nproceeded from his lips. Souls, it is said more souls than one,\\nwere brought to the truth by the efficacy of that sermon, and\\nvowed within themselves to cherish a holy gratitude towards\\nMr. Dimmesdale throughout the long hereafter. But, as he\\ncame down the pulpit steps, the gray-bearded sexton met him,\\nholding up a black glove, which the minister recognized as his\\nown.\\nIt was found, said the sexton, this morning, on the\\nscaffold where evil-doers are set up to public shame. Satan\\ndropped it there, I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against\\nyour reverence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish, as he\\never and always is. A pure hand needs no glove to cover it\\nThank you, my good friend, said the minister, gravely,\\nbut startled at heart for, so confused was his remembrance,\\nthat he had almost brought himself to look at the events of\\nthe past night as visionary. Yes, it seems to be my glove,\\nindeed\\nAnd since Satan saw fit to steal it, your reverence must\\nneeds handle him without gloves, henceforward, remarked the\\nold sexton, grimly smiling. But did your reverence hear", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0225.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "192\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nof the portent that was seen last night a great red letter in\\nthe sky, the letter A, which we interpret to stand for Angel.\\nFor^ as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this\\npast night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some\\nnotice thereof\\nNo/ answered the minister, I had not heard of it.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0226.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "XIII.\\nANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER.\\n.nJ SCZ lier late singular interview with Mr. Diinmes-\\nJjCV dale, Hester Prynne was shocked at the con-\\nIjwCoi ditioii to which she found the clergyman reduced.\\nHis nerve seemed absolutely destroyed. His\\nmoral force was abased into more than childish\\nweakness. It grovelled helpless on the ground,\\neven while his intellectual faculties retained their pristine strength,\\nor had perhaps acquired a morbid energy, which disease only\\ncould have given them. With her knowledge of a train of\\ncircumstances hidden from all others, she could readily infer\\nthat, besides the legitimate action of his own conscience, a\\nterrible machinery had been brought to bear, and was still\\noperating, on Mr. Dimmesdale^s well-being and repose. Know-\\ning what this poor, fallen man had once been, her whole soul\\nwas moved by the shuddering terror with which he had appealed\\nto her, the outcast woman, for support against his instinc-\\ntively discovered enemy. She decided, moreover, that he had a\\nright to her utmost aid. Little accustomed, in her long seclusion", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0227.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "194 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nfrom society, to measure her ideas of right and wrong by any\\nstandard external to herself, Hester saw or seemed to see\\nthat there lay a responsibility upon her, in reference to the\\nclergyman, which she owed to no other, nor to the whole Avorld\\nbesides. The links that united her to the rest of human kind\\nlinks of flowers, or silk, or gold, or whatever the material\\nhad all been broken. Here was the iron link of mutual crime,\\nwhich neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it\\nbrought along with it its obligations.\\nHester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same posi-\\ntion in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her\\nignominy. Years had come and gone. Pearl was now seven\\nyears old. Her mother, with the scarlet letter on her breast,\\nglittering in its fantastic embroidery, had long been a familiar\\nobject to the towns-people. As is apt to be the case when a\\nperson stands out in any prominence before the community, and,\\nat the same time, interferes neither Avith public nor individual\\ninterests and convenience, a species of general regard had ulti-\\nmately grown up in reference to Hester Pryrme. It is to the\\ncredit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is\\nbrought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred,\\nby a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love,\\nunless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation\\nof the original feeling of hostility. In this matter of Hester\\nPrynne, there was neither irritation nor irksomeness. She never\\nbattled with the public, but submitted, uncomplainingly, to its\\nworst usage she made no claim upon it, in requital for what\\nshe suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies. Then,\\nalso, the blameless purity of her life during all these years in\\nwhich she had been set apart to infamy, was reckoned largely", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0228.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER.\\n195\\nin lier favor. With nothing now to lose, in the sight of man-\\nkind, and with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining any-\\nthing, it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that had\\nbrought back the poor wanderer to its paths.\\nIt was perceived, too, that while Hester never put forward\\neven the humblest title to share in the workFs privileges,\\nfurther than to breathe the common air, and earn daily bread\\nfor little Pearl and herself by the faithful labor of her hands,\\nshe was quick to acknowledge her sisterhood with the race of\\nman, whenever benefits were to be conferred. None so ready\\nas she to give of her little substance to every demand of pov-\\nerty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe\\nin requital of the food brought regularly to his door, or the\\ngarments wrought for him by the fingers that could have em-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0229.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "196 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nbroidered a monarches robe. None so self-devoted as Hester,\\nwhen pestilence stalked through the town. In all seasons of\\ncalamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals, the outcast\\nof society at once found her place. She came, not as a guest,\\nbut as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened\\nby trouble as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which\\nshe was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creatures.\\nThere glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its\\nunearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper\\nof the sick-chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the suf-\\nferer^s hard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown\\nhim where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast\\nbecoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him.\\nIn such emergencies, Hester^s nature showed itself warm and\\nrich; a well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real\\ndemand, and inexhaustible by the largest. Her breast, with its\\nbadge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that\\nneeded one. She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy; or, we\\nmay rather say, the world s heavy hand had so ordained her,\\nwhen neither the world nor she looked forward to this result.\\nThe letter w^as the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was\\nfound in her, so much power to do, and power to sympa-\\nthize, that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by\\nits original signification. They said that it meant Able so\\nstrong was Hester Prynne, with a woman s strength.\\nIt was only the darkened house that could contain her. When\\nsunshine came again, she was not there. Her shadow had faded\\nacross the threshold. The helpful inmate had departed, without\\none backward glance to gather up the meed of gratitude, if any\\nwere in the hearts of those whom she had served so zealously.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0230.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER. 197\\nMeeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive\\ntheir greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her\\nfinger on the scarlet letter, and passed on. This might be pride,\\nbut was so like humility, that it produced all the softening influ-\\nence of the latter quality on the public mind. The public is\\ndespotic in its temper; it is capable of denying common justice,\\nwhen too strenuously demanded as a right; but quite as fre-\\nquently it awards more than justice, when the appeal is made,\\nas despots love to have it made, entirely to its generosity. Inter-\\npreting Hester Prynne s deportment as an appeal of this nature,\\nsociety was inclined to show its former victim a more benign\\ncountenance than she cared to be favored with, or, perchance,\\nthan she deserved.\\nThe rulers, and the wise and learned men of the community,\\nwere longer in acknowledging the influence of Hester^s good\\nqualities than the people. The prejudices Avhich they shared in\\ncommon with the latter were fortified in themselves by an iron\\nframework of reasoning, that made it a far tougher labor to\\nexpel them. Day by day, nevertheless, their sour and rigid\\nwrinkles were relaxing into something which, in the due course\\nof years, might grow to be an expression of almost benevolence.\\nThus it was with the men of rank, on whom their eminent posi-\\ntion imposed the guardianship of the public morals. Individuals\\nin private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for\\nher frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet\\nletter as the token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne\\nso long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.\\nDo you see that woman with the embroidered badge they\\nwould say to strangers, It is our Hester, the town^s own\\nHester, Avho is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0231.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "198 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ncomfortable to the afflicted Tlien, it is true, the propensity\\nof human nature to tell the very worst of itself, when embodied\\nin the i)erson of another, would constrain them to Avhisjier the\\nblack scandal of bygone years. It was none the less a fact,\\nhowever, that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the\\nscarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun s bosom. It\\nimparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her\\nto Avalk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves,\\nit would have kept her safe. It was reported, and believed by\\nmany, that an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge,\\nand that the missile struck it, but fell hannless to the ground.\\nThe effect of the symbol or, rather, of the position in respect\\nto society that was indicated by it on the mind of Hester\\nPrynne herself, was powerful and peculiar. All the light and\\ngraceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this\\nred-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and\\nharsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she pos-\\nsessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the\\nattractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It\\nmight be partly owing to i\\\\\\\\e studied austerity of her dress, and\\npartly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. It was\\na sad transformation, too, that her rich and luxuriant hair\\nhad either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap,\\nthat not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sun-\\nshine. It was due in part to all these causes, but still more\\nto something (^Ise, that there seemed to be no longer anything\\nin Hester s face for Love to dwell upon; nothing in Hester s\\nform, though majestic and statue-like, that Passion would ever\\ndream of clasping in its embrace; nothing in Hester^s bosom,\\nto make it ever again the pillow of Afl ection. Some attribute", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0232.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER. 199\\n1i;k1 departed from her, llic permanence of which had been essen-\\ntial to keep her a woman. Such is frequently the late, and\\nsuch the stern development, of the feminine character and pt r-\\nson, when the woman has encountered, and lived through, an\\nexperience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she\\nwill die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed\\nout of her, or and the outward semblance is the same\\ncrushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself\\nmore. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. She who has\\nonce been woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment\\nbecome a woman again if there were only the magic touch to\\nelfect the transfiguration. We shall see whether Hester Prynne\\nwere ever afterwards so touched, and so transfigured.\\nMuch of the marble coldness of Hester s impression was to\\nbe attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in\\na great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought. Stand-\\ning alone in the world, alone, as to any dependence on society,\\nand with little Pearl to be guided and protected, alone, and\\nhopeless of retrieving her position, even had she not scorned to\\nconsider it desirable, she cast away the fragments of a broken\\nchain. The world s law Avas no law for her mind. It was an\\nage in which the human intellect, newly emancipated, had taken\\na more active and a wider range than for many centuries before.\\nMen of the sword had overthroAvn nobles and kings. Men\\nbolder than these had overthrown and rearranged not actually,\\nbut within the sphere of theory, which was their most real abode\\nthe whole system of ancient prejudice, wherewith Avas linked\\nmuch of ancient principle. Hester Prynne imbibed this spirit.\\nShe assumed a freedom of speculation, then common enough on\\nthe other side of the Atlantic, but which our forefathers, had", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0233.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "200 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ntliey known it, would have held to be a deadlier crime than\\nthat stigmatized by the scarlet letter. In her lonesome cottage,\\nby the sea-shore, thoughts visited her, such as dared to enter no\\nother dwelling in New England; shadowy guests, that would\\nhave been as perilous as demons to their entertainer, could they\\nhave been seen so much as knocking at her door.\\nIt is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly\\noften conform with the most perfect quietude to the external\\nregulations of society. The thought suffices them, without\\ninvesting itself in the flesh and blood of action. So it seemed\\nto be with Hester. Yet, had little Pearl never come to her\\nfrom the spiritual world, it might have been far otherwise.\\nThen, she might have come down to us in history, hand in\\nhand with Ann Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious\\nsect. She might, in one of her phases, have been a prophetess.\\nShe liiiglit, and not improbably would, have suffered death\\nfrom the stern tribunals of the period, for attempting to under-\\nmine the foundations of the Puritan establishment. But, in the\\neducation of her child, the mother s enthusiasm of thought had\\nsomething to wreak itself upon. Providence, in the person of\\nthis little girl, had assigned to Hester s charge the germ and\\nblossom of A?omanhood, to be cherished and developed amid a\\nhost of difficulties. Everything Avas against her. The w^orld\\nwas hostile. The child s own nature had something wrong in\\nit, which continually betokened that she had been born amiss,\\nthe effluence of her mother s lawless passion, and often impelled\\nHester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill\\nor good tliat the poor little creature had been born at all.\\nIndeed, the same dark question often rose into her mind,\\nwith reference to the whole race of womanhood. Was existence", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0234.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "ANOTHER VIEW OP HESTER. 201\\nworth accepting, even to the hapjiiest among them? As con-\\ncerned her own individual existence, she had long ago decided\\nin the negative, and dismissed the point as settled. A tendency\\nto speculation, though it may keep woman quiet, as it does\\nman, yet makes her sad. She discerns, it may be, such a hope-\\nless task before her. As a first step, the whole system of society\\nis to be torn down, and built up anew. Then, the very nature\\nof the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has\\nbecome like nature, is to be essentially modified, before woman\\ncan be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable posi-\\ntion. Finally, all other difficulties being obviated, woman cannot\\ntake advantage of these preliminary reforms, until she herself\\nshall have undergone a still mightier change in M hich, perhaps,\\nthe ethereal essence, wherein she has her truest life, will be\\nfound to have evaporated. A woman never overcomes these\\nproblems by any exercise of thought. They are not to be\\nsolved, or only in one way. If her heart chance to come upper-\\nmost, they vanish. Thus, Hester Prynne, whose heart had lost\\nits regular and healthy throb, wandered Avithout a clew in the\\ndark labyrinth of mind now turned aside by an insurmountable\\nprecipice now starting back from a deep chasm. There was\\nwild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and com-\\nfort nowhere. At times, a fearful doubt strove to possess her\\nsoul, whether it were not better to send Pearl at once to heaven,\\nand go herself to such futurity as Eternal Justice should provide.\\nThe scarlet letter had not done its office.\\nNow, however, her interview with the Eeverend Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale, on the night of his vigil, had given her a new theme of\\nreflection, and held up to her an object that appeared worthy\\nof any exertion and sacrifice for its attainment. She had wit-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0235.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": ":20:i TiiK sr.\\\\Ki.KT lkttki;.\\niu ss( il tilt inlcns( iiiis( rv licncalli wliii h the niiiiisliM stniijLjlcd,\\nor. to s| (-:ik more Mccunilrlv, li;ul crnsiHl lo slruu-gio. She s;nv\\nlh;it III siood on thr cri^c o\\\\ Iummcv. it hi h;til uo\\\\ iilri iuly\\nj^toppi il iUTos.s it. It M;if inipoj j il)li (o iloiibl. tli;it. wliMtrvcr\\n|);unl ul rtVii-ai V llu ro miuhl l)i in the srcrrt stinij ot ri inorso, a\\nili MilliiM viMioni liiiil lu iMi inl nsoil into il In thi- li;inil lli;il prof-\\nt l Vi il rolii A soiTrl iMUMnv h;ul hcvn i ontinn;illv hv his siili\\nnuilrr till srnihlanrr ot ;i t riruil ami hrlpiM anil hail availi il\\nInnisrlt o\\\\ {\\\\\\\\c opportunilios thns atVoriK-il tor laniprring with the\\nilclii-ato s[ rinu-8 of Mr. Diinnn silalo s natnro. llostor coulil not\\nhnt ask luM si ll*. whotlior thiMT hail not oriii inallv luvn a ilrtVrt\\not trnlh. i onrai;i\\\\ anil lovaltv. on hor own part, in allowing tho\\nniinisirr to ho thrown into a position whiMV so n\\\\ni h r\\\\ il was\\nto ho roii hoiloil. anil notiiin-Ji: anspioions to ho hopril. llor only\\njust itii at ion lay in thr I aot. that sho hail boon ahio to ilisoorn\\nno ntothoil o( ivsonins; him nun a blaokor rnin than hail ovoi*-\\nwhohnoil hoi si ir, oxivpt by aoquiosoini; in llouvr C hilliniiworth s\\nsohiMHo o( ilisi:;niso. rmlor that inipulso. shr hail mmlo hor\\nI hoioo. anil hail ohoson. as it now appoafoil, tho mofo wix-tohoil\\naltornativo of tho Iwo. 8ho ilotonninoil to iviKvin hor cvvor, so\\nt ar MS it might }ot bo possiblo. Strongthonoil by yoars of hanl\\nanil soliMun trial, sho iVlt horsolf no longor so inailoqnato to\\ncopo with Kogor (.liillingworth as on that night, abasoil by sin.\\nami halt n\\\\aihliMioil by tho ignominy that was still now. uhon\\nihoy hail lalkoil togothor in tho prisoii-ohambor. Sho hail olimbod\\nhor way. sinoo (hon. to a highor point. Tho old man. on tho\\nothor hand, had bronght himsolt noaivr to hor lovol. or jHM-haps\\nbolow it, by tho rovongo whioh ho had stoopod for.\\nIn tii\\\\o. llostor Pryimo rosolvod to moot hor formor husband,\\nand do what might bo in hor powor for tho rosouo o( tho victim", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0236.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "ANOTIIKH, VIKW OK IIKS I KK\\nMVA\\noil wliom lie liad so cvidciilly scl liis ripc. Tlu occasion was\\nliol lout; lo sccL )iic al lcniooii, ualkiiii; willi I cnii in a.\\nretired |)arl of llic |)(iiiiisnla, she hclicid (lie old plMsician, \\\\\\\\i|||\\na haskel on one arm, and a, slall in llie oilier hand, sloopinu,\\n;donti; Ihe n l dund, in (|iicsl ol rodls and herhs (o concoel his\\ninedieines wilhal.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0237.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "XIV.\\nHESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN.\\nSESTER bade little Pearl run down to the\\nmargin of the water, and play with the shells\\nand tangled sea-weed, until she should have\\ntalked awhile with yonder gatherer of herbs.\\nSo the child flew away like a bird, and,\\nmaking bare her small white feet, went pat-\\ntering along the moist margin of the sea. Here and there she\\ncame to a full stop, and peeped curiously into a pool, left by\\nthe retiring tide as a mirror for Pearl to see her face in. Eorth\\npeeped at her, out of tlie pool, with dark, glistening curls around\\nher head, and an elf-smile in her eyes, the image of a little\\nmaid, whom Pearl, having no other playmate, invited to take\\nher hand, and run a race Mith her. But the visionary little\\nmaid, on her part, beckoned likewise, as if to say, This is\\na better place Come thou hito the pool And Pearl, step-\\nping in, mid-leg deep, beheld her own white feet at the bottom;\\nwhile, out of a still lower depth, came the gleam of a kind of\\nfragmentary smile, floating to and fro in the agitated water.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0238.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN. 205\\nMeanwhile, her mother had accosted the physician.\\n1 would speak a word with you/^ said she, a word that\\nconcerns us much.^^\\nAha and is it Mistress Hester that has a word for old\\nEoger Chillingworth answered he, raising himself from his\\nstooping posture. With all my heart Why, Mistress, I hear\\ngood tidings of you on all hands No longer ago than yester-\\neve, a magistrate, a wise and godly man, was discoursing of\\nyour affairs. Mistress Hester, and wliisj)ered me that there had\\nbeen question concerning you in the council. It was debated\\nwhether or no, with safety to the common weal, yonder scarlet\\nletter might be taken off your bosom. On my life, Hester, I\\nmade my entreaty to the worshipful magistrate that it might\\nbe done forthwith\\nIt lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off\\nthis badge, calmly replied Hester. Were I worthy to be\\nquit of it, it would fall away of its o wn nature, or be trans-\\nformed into something that should speak a different purport.\\nNay, then, wear it, if it suit you better,^^ rejoined he. A\\nwoman must needs follow her own fancy, touching the adorn-\\nment of her person. The letter is gayly embroidered, and shows\\nright bravely on your bosom\\nAll this while, Hester had been looking steadily at the old\\nman, and was shocked, as well as wonder-smitten, to discern\\nwhat a change had been wrought upon him within the past\\nseven years. It was not so much that he had grown okler; for\\nthough the traces of advancing life were visible, he bore his age\\nwell, and seemed to retain a Aviry vigor and alertness. But\\nthe former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and\\nquiet, which was what she best remembered in hira, had alto-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0239.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "206 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ngether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching,\\nalmost fierce, yet carefully guarded look. It seemed to be his\\nwish and purpose to mask this exj)ression with a smile but\\nthe latter played him false, and flickered over his visage so deri-\\nsively, that the spectator could see his blackness all the better\\nfor it. Ever and anon, too, there came a glare of red light out\\nof his eyes as if the old man^s soul were on fire, and kept on\\nsmouldering duskily within his breast, until, by some casual\\npuff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame. This\\nhe repressed, as speedily as possible, and strove to look as if\\nnothing of the kind had happened.\\nIn a word, old Eogcr Chillingworth was a striking evidence\\nof man s faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will\\nonly, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a deviFs office.\\nThis unhappy person had effected such a transformation, by\\ndevoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a\\nheart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and\\nadding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated\\nover.\\nThe scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne s bosom. Here\\nwas another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home\\nto her.\\nWhat see you in my face, asked the physician, that you\\nlook at it so earnestly\\nSomething that would make me weep, if there were any\\ntears bitter enough for it, answered she. But let it pass\\nIt is of yonder miserable man that I would speak.\\nAnd what of him cried Eoger Chillingworth, eagerly,\\nas if he loved the topic, and were glad of an opportunity to\\ndiscuss it with the only person of whom he could make a con-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0240.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN. 207\\nfidant. Not to hide the truth, Mistress Hester, my thoughts\\nhappen just now to be busy with the gentleman. So speak\\nfreely and I will make answer.^^\\nWhen we last spake together, said Hester, now seven\\nyears ago, it was your pleasure to extort a promise of secrecy,\\nas touching the former relation betwixt yourself and me. As\\nthe life and good fame of yonder man were in your hands,\\nthere seemed no choice to me, save to be silent, in accordaiice\\nwith your behest. Yet it was not without heavy misgivings\\nthat I thus bound myself; for, having cast off all duty towards\\nother human behigs, there remained a duty towards him and\\nsomething whispered me that I was betraying it, in pledging\\nmyself to keep your counsel. Since that day, no man is so\\nnear to him as you. You tread behind his every footstep. You\\nare beside him, sleeping and waking. You search his thoughts.\\nYou burrow and rankle in his heart Your clutch is on his\\nlife, and you cause him to die daily a living death and still\\nhe knows you not. In permitting this, I have surely acted a\\nfalse part by the only man to whom the power was left me to\\nbe true\\nWhat choice had you? asked Roger Chilling worth. My\\nfinger, pointed at this man, would have hurled him from his\\npulpit into a dungeon, thence, peradventure, to the gallows\\nIt had been better so said Hester Prynne.\\nWhat evil have I done the man asked Roger Chilling-\\nworth again. I tell thee, Hester Prynne, the richest fee that\\never physician earned from monarch could not have bought\\nsuch care as I have wasted on this miserable priest But for\\nmy aid, his life would have burned away in torments, within\\nthe first two years after the perpetration of his crime and thine.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0241.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "208 THE SCAHLET LETTER.\\nFor, Hester, his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne\\nup, as thine has, beneath a burden hke thy scarlet letter. O,\\nI could reveal a goodly secret But enough What art can\\ndo, I have exhausted on him. That he now breathes, and\\ncreeps about on earth, is owing all to me\\nBetter he had died at once said Hester Prynne.\\nYea, woman, thou say est truly cried old Roger ChiUing-\\nworth, letting the lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her\\neyes. Better had he died at once Never did mortal suffer\\nwhat this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his\\nworst enemy He has been conscious of me. He has felt an\\ninfluence dwelling always upon him like a curse. He knew, by\\nsome spiritual sense, for the Creator never made another\\nbeing so sensitive as this, he knew that no friendly hand was\\npulling at his heart-strings, and that an eye was looking curi-\\nously into him, which sought only evil, and found it. But he\\nknew not that the eye and hand were mine I With the super-\\nstition common to his brotherhood, he fancied himself given\\nover to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams, and\\ndesperate thoughts, the sting of remorse, and despair of pardon\\nas a foretaste of what awaits him beyond the grave. But it\\nwas the constant shadow of my presence the closest propin-\\nquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged and\\nwho had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the\\ndirest revenge Yea, indeed he did not err there was a\\nfiend at his elbow A mortal man, with once a human heart,\\nhas become a fiend for his especial torment\\nThe unfortunate physician, while uttering these words, lifted\\nhis hands with a look of horror, as if he had beheld some\\nfrightful shape, which he could not recognize, usurping the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0242.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN. \u00c2\u00a309\\nplace of his own image in a glass. It was one of those moments\\nwhich sometimes occur only at the interval of years when\\na mane s moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind^s eye.\\nNot improbably, he had never before viewed himself as he did now.\\nHast thou not tortured him enough said Hester, noticing\\nthe old mane s look. Has he not paid thee all\\nNo no He has but increased the debt answered\\nthe physician; and as he proceeded his manner lost its fiercer\\ncharacteristics, and subsided into gloom. Dost thou remember\\nme, Hester, as I was nine years agone Even then, I was in\\nthe autumn of my days, nor was it the early autumn. But all\\nmy life had been made up of earnest, studious, thoughtful, quiet\\nyears, bestowed faithfully for the increase of mine own knowl-\\nedge, and faithfully, too, though this latter object was but\\ncasual to the other, faithfully for the advancement of human\\nwelfare. No life had been more peaceful and innocent than\\nmine few lives so rich with benefits conferred. Dost thou\\nremember me? Was I not, though you might deem me cold,\\nnevertheless a man thoughtful for others, craving little for him-\\nself, kind, true, just, and of constant, if not warm affections?\\nWas I not all this?\\nAll this, and more, said Hester.\\nAnd what am I now demanded he, looking into her face,\\nand permitting the whole evil within him to be written on his\\nfeatures. I have already told thee what I am A fiend Who\\nmade me so\\nIt was myself cried Hester, shuddering. It was I, not\\nless than he. Why hast thou not avenged thyself on me\\nI have left tliee to the scarlet letter, replied Roger Chilling-\\nworth. If that have not avenged me, I can do no more", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0243.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "210 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nHe laid his finger on it^ with a smile.\\nIt has avenged thee answered Hester Prynne.\\nI judged no less/ said the physician. And now, what\\nwouldst thou with me touching this man\\nI must reveal the secret, answered Hester, firmly. He\\nmust discern thee in thy true character. What may be the\\nresult, I know not. But this long debt of confidence, due from\\nme to hun, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be\\npaid. So far as concerns the overthrow or preservation of his\\nfair fame and his earthly state, and perchance his life, he is in\\nthy hands. Nor do I, whom the scarlet letter has disciplined\\nto truth, though it be the truth of red-hot iron, entering into\\nthe soul, nor do I perceive such advantage in his living any\\nlonger a life of ghastly emptiness, that I shall stoop to implore\\nthy mercy. Do with him as thou wilt There is no good for\\nhim, no good for me, no good for thee There is no good-\\nfor little Pearl There is no path to guide us out of this dismal\\nmaze\\nWoman, I could wellnigh j)ity thee said Roger Chilling-\\nworth, unable to restrain a thrill of admiration too; for there\\nwas a quality almost majestic in the despair which she expressed.\\nThou hadst great elements. Peradventure, hadst thou met\\nearlier with a better love than mine, this evil had not been. I\\npity thee, for the good that has been wasted in thy nature\\nAnd I thee, answered Hester Prynne, for the hatred that\\nhas transformed a wise and just man to a fiend Wilt thou\\nyet purge it out of thee, and be once more human If not\\nfor his sake, then doubly for thine own Forgive, and leave\\nhis further retribution to the Power that claims it I said, but\\nnow, that there could be no good event for him, or thee, or", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0244.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN.\\n211\\nme, who are liere wandering together in this gloomy maze of\\nevil, and stumbling, at every steji, over the guilt wherewith we\\nhave strewn our path. It is not so There might be good for\\nthee, and thee alone, since thou hast been deej)ly wronged, and\\nhast it at thy will to pardon. Wilt thou give up that only\\nprivilege Wilt thou reject that priceless benefit\\nPeace, Hester, peace replied the old man, with gloomy\\nsternness. It is not granted me to pardon. I have no such\\npower as thou tellest me of. My old faith, long forgotten,\\ncomes back to me, and explains all that we do, and all we\\nsuffer. By thy first step awry thou didst plant the germ of\\nevil but since that moment, it has all been a dark necessity.\\nYe that have wronged me are not sinful, save in a kind of\\ntypical illusion neither am I fiend-like, who have snatched a\\nfiend s office from his hands. It is our fate. Let the black\\nflower blossom as it may Now go thy ways, and deal as thou\\nwilt with yonder man.^^\\nHe waved his hand, and betook himself again to his employ-\\nment of gathering herbs.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0245.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "XV.\\nHESTER AND PEARL.\\nO Roger Cliilliiigwortli\\n-a deformed old figure^\\nAvitli a face tliat haunted men^s memories\\nlonger than they liked took leave of Hester\\nPrjnne, and Avent stooping away along the\\nearth. He gathered here and there an herb,\\nor grubbed up a root, and put it into the\\nbasket on his arm. His gray beard almost touched the ground,\\nas he crept onward. Hester gazed after him a little while, look-\\ning with a half-fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass\\nof early spring would not be bhghted beneath him, and show\\nthe wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its\\ncheerful verdure. She wondered what sfort of herbs they were,\\nwhich the old man Avas so sedulous to gather. Would not the\\nearth, quickened to an evil purpose by the sympathy of his eye,\\ngreet him with poisonous shrubs, of species hitherto unknown,\\nthat Avould start up under his fingers Or might it suffice\\nhim, that every wholesome growth should be converted into\\nsomething deleterious and malignant at his touch Did the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0246.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "I inr i|\u00c2\u00ab imiiiiiiniu;! ;T iri ipi \u00c2\u00bbiimtiiiiiiiiimii!Mii[i|]\\nPit. I, I It", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0249.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0250.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND PEARL. 215\\nsun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon\\nhim Or was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous\\nshadow moving along with his deformity, whichever way he\\nturned himself? And whither was he now going? Would he\\nnot suddenly sink into the earth, leaving a barren and blasted\\nspot, where, in due course of time, would be seen deadly night-\\nshade, dogwood, henbane, and whatever else of vegetable wick-\\nedness the climate could produce, all flourishing with hideous\\nluxuriance Or would he spread bat s wings and flee away,\\nlooking so much the uglier, the higher he rose towards heaven\\nBe it sin or no, said Hester Prynne, bitterly, as she still\\ngazed after him, I hate the man\\nShe upbraided herself for the sentiment, but could not over-\\ncome or lessen it. Attempting to do so, she thought of those\\nlong-past days, in a distant land, when he used to emerge at\\neventide from the seclusion of his study, and sit down in the\\nfirelight of their home, and in the light of her nuptial smile.\\nHe needed to bask himself in that smile, he said, in order that\\nthe chill of so many lonely hours among his books might be\\ntaken off the scholar s heart. Such scenes had once appeared\\nnot otherwise than happy, but now, as viewed through the dis-\\nmal medium of her subsequent life, they classed themselves among\\nher ugliest remembrances. She marvelled how such scenes could\\nhave been She marvelled how she could ever have been wrought\\nupon to marry him She deemed it her crime most to be\\nrepented of, that she had ever endured, and reciprocated, the\\nlukewarm grasp of his hand, and had suffered the smile of her\\nlips and eyes to mingle and melt into his own. And it seemed\\na fouler offence committed by Roger Chillingworth, than any\\nwhich had since been done him, that, in the time when her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0251.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "216 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nheart knew no better^ he had persuaded her to fancy herself\\nhappy by his side.\\nYes, I hate him repeated Hester, more bitterly than\\nbefore. He betrayed me He has done me worse wrong\\nthan I did him!\\nLet men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win\\nalong with it the utmost passion of her heart Else it may be\\ntheir miserable fortune, as it was Roger Chillingworth s, when\\nsome mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her\\nsensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the\\nmarble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon\\nher as the Avarm reality. But Hester ought long ago to have\\ndone with this injustice. What did it betoken? Had seven\\nlong years, nnder the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so\\nmuch of misery, and wrought out no repentance?\\nThe emotions of that brief space, while she stood gazing after,\\nthe crooked figure of old Eoger Chillingworth, threw a dark\\nlight on Hester s state of mind, revealing much that she might\\nnot otherA\\\\dse have acknowledged to herself.\\nHe being gone, she summoned back her child.\\nPearl Little Pearl Where are you\\nPearl, whose activity of spirit never flagged, had been at no\\nloss for amusement while her mother talked with the old gatherer\\nof herbs. At first, as already told, she had flirted fancifully\\nwith her own image in a pool of water, beckoning the phantom\\nforth, and as it declined to venture seeking a passage for\\nherself into its sphere of impalpable earth and unattainable sky.\\nSoon finding, however, that either she or the image was unreal,\\nshe turned elsewhere for better pastime. She made little boats\\nout of birch-bark, and freighted them with snail-shells, and sent", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0252.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND PEAllL.\\n217\\nout more ventures on the mighty deep than any merchant in\\nNew England; but the larger part of them foundered near the\\nshore. She seized a live horseshoe by the tail, and made prize\\nof several five-fingers, and laid out a jelly-fish to melt in the\\nwarm sun. Then she took up the white foam, that streaked\\nthe line of the advancing tide, and threw it upon the breeze,\\nscampering after it, with winged footsteps, to catch the great\\nsnow-flakes ere they fell. Perceiving a flock of beach-birds,\\nthat fed and fluttered along the shore, the naughty child picked\\nup her apron full of pebbles, and, creeping from rock to rock\\nafter these small sea-fowl, displayed remarkable dexterity in pelt-\\ning them. One little gray bird, with a white breast. Pearl was\\nalmost sure, had been hit by a pebble, and fluttered away with\\na broken wing. But then the elf-child sighed, and gave up her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0253.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "218 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nsport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being\\nthat was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself.\\nHer final employment was to gather sea- weed, of various\\nkinds, and make herself a scarf, or mantle, and a head-dress,\\nand thus assume the aspect of a little mermaid. She inherited\\nher mother s gift for devising drapery and costume. As the last\\ntouch to her mermaid s garb. Pearl took some eel-grass, and\\nimitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration\\nwith which she was so familiar on her mother s. A letter,\\nthe letter A, but freshly green, instead of scarlet The child\\nbent her chin upon her breast, and contemplated this device with\\nstrange interest even as if the one only thing for which she\\nhad been sent into the world was to make out its liidden import.\\nI wonder if mother will ask me what it means thought\\nPearl.\\nJust then, she heard her mother s voice, and flitting along as.\\nlightly as one of the little sea-birds, appeared before Hester\\nPrynne, dancing, laughing, and pointing her finger to the orna-\\nment upon her bosom.\\nMy little Pearl, said Hester, after a moment s silence, the\\ngreen letter, and on thy childish bosom, has no purport. But\\ndost thou know, my child, what this letter means which thy\\nmother is doomed to wear\\nYes, mother, said the child. It is the great letter A.\\nTiiou hast taught me in the horn-book.\\nHester looked steadily into her httle face; but, though there\\nwas that singular expression which she had so often remarked\\nin her black eyes, she could not satisfy herself whether Pearl\\nreally attached any meaning to the symbol. She felt a morbid\\ndesire to ascertain the point.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0254.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND PEARL. 219\\nDost thou know, child, wherefore thy mother wears this\\nletter\\nTruly do I answered Pearl, looking brightly into her\\nmother s face. It is for the same reason that the minister\\nkeeps his hand over his heart\\nAnd what reason is that asked Hester, half smiling at\\nthe absurd incongruity of the child s observation; but, on second\\nthoughts, turning pale. What has the letter to do with any\\nheart, save mine\\nNay, mother, I have told all I know, said Pearl, more\\nseriously than she was wont to speak. Ask yonder old man\\nwhom thou hast been talking with It may be he can tell.\\nBut in good earnest now, mother dear, what does this scarlet\\nletter mean and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom\\nand why does the minister keep his hand over his heart\\nShe took her mother s hand in both her own, and gazed into\\nher eyes with an earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild\\nand capricious character. The thought occurred to Hester, that\\nthe child might really be seeking to approach her with childlike\\nconfidence, and doing what she could, and as intelligently as she\\nknew how, to establish a meeting-point of sympathy. It showed\\nPearl in an unwonted aspect. Heretofore, the mother, while\\nloving her child with the intensity of a sole affection, had schooled\\nherself to hope for little other return than the waywardness of\\nan April breeze; which spends its time in airy sport, and has\\nits gusts of inexplicable passion, and is petulant in its best of\\nmoods, and chills oftener than caresses you, when you take it\\nto your bosom in requital of which misdemeanors, it will some-\\ntimes, of its own vague purpose, kiss your cheek with a kind of\\ndoubtful tenderness, and play gently with your hair, and then", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0255.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "220 THE SCARLET LETTER,\\nbe gone about its other idle business, leaving a dreamy pleasure\\nat your heart. And this, moreover, was a mother^s estimate of\\nthe chikrs disposition. Any other observer might have seen\\nfew but unamiable traits, and have given them a far darker\\ncoloring. But now the idea came strongly into Hester^s mind,\\nthat Pearl, with her remarkable precocity and acuteness, might\\nalready have approached the age when she could be made a\\nfriend, and intrusted with as much of her mother^s sorrows as\\ncould be imparted, without irreverence either to the parent or\\nthe child. In the little chaos of Pearls character there might\\nbe seen emerging and could have been, from the very first\\nthe steadfast principles of an unflinching courage, an uncon-\\ntrollable will, a sturdy pride, which might be disciplined into\\nself-respect, and a bitter scorn of many things, which, when\\nexamined, might be found to have the taint of falsehood in them.\\nShe possessed affections, too, though hitherto acrid and disagree-\\nable, as are the richest flavors of unripe fruit. With all these\\nsterling attributes, thought Hester, the evil which she inherited\\nfrom her mother must be great indeed, if a noble woman do\\nnot grow out of this elfish child.\\nPearl s inevitable tendency to hover about the enigma of the\\nscarlet letter seemed an innate quality of her being. Prom the\\nearliest epoch of her conscious life, she had entered upon this\\nas her appointed mission. Hester had often fancied that Provi-\\ndence had a design of justice and retribution, in endowing the\\nchild with this marked propensity but never, until now, had\\nshe bethought herself to ask, whether, linked with that design,\\nthere might not likewise be a purj)ose of mercy and beneficence.\\nIf little Pearl were entertained with faith and trust, as a spirit\\nmessenger no less than an earthly child, might it not be her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0256.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "HESTER AND PEARL. 221\\nerrand to soothe away the sorrow that lay cold in her mother s\\nheart, and converted it into a tomb and to help her to over-\\ncome the passion, once so wild, and even yet neither dead nor\\nasleep, but only imprisoned within the same tomb-like heart?\\nSuch were some of the thoughts that now stirred in Hester s\\nmind, with as much vivacity of impression as if they had actually\\nbeen whispered into her ear. And there was little Pearl, all\\nthis while, holding her mother s hand in both her own, and\\nturning her face upward, while she put these searching ques-\\ntions, once, and again, and still a third time.\\nWhat does the letter mean, mother? and why dost thou\\nwear it and why does the minister keep his hand over his\\nheart?\\nWhat shall I say? thought Hester to herself. No! If\\nthis be the j)rice of the child s sympathy, I cannot pay it.\\nThen she spoke aloud.\\nSilly Pearl, said she, what questions are these There\\nare many things in this world that a child must not ask about.\\nWhat knoAv I of the minister s heart? And as for the scarlet\\nletter, I wear it for the sake of its gold-thread.\\nIn all the seven bygone years, Hester Prynne had never\\nbefore been false to the symbol on her bosom. It may be that\\nit was the talisman of a stern and severe, but yet a guardian\\nspirit, who now forsook her; as recognizing that, in spite of\\nhis strict watch over her heart, some new evil had crept into\\nit, or some old one had never been expelled. As for little\\nPearl, the earnestness soon passed out of her face.\\nBut the child did not see fit to let the matter drop. Tw o\\nor three times, as her mother and she went homeward, and as\\noften at supper-time, and while Hester was putting her to bed,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0257.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "222\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nand once after she seemed to be fairly asleep, Pearl looked up,\\nwith mischief gleaming in her black eyes.\\nMother/ said she, what does the scarlet letter mean\\nAnd the next morning, the first indication the child gave of\\nbeing awake was by popping up her head from the pillow, and\\nmaking that other inquiry, which she had so unaccountably\\nconnected with her investigations about the scarlet letter\\nMother Mother Why does the minister keep his hand\\nover his heart\\nHold thy tongue, naughty child answered her mother,\\nwith an asperity that she had never permitted to herseK be-\\nfore. Do not tease me else I shall shut thee into the dark\\ncloset", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0258.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "XYI.\\nA FOREST WALK.\\nlESTER PRYNNE remained constant in her\\nresolve to make known to Mr, Dimmesclale,\\nat whatever risk of present pain or ulterior\\nconsequences, the true character of the man\\nwho had crept into his intimacy. For several\\ndays, however, she vainly sought an oppor-\\ntunity of addressing him in some of the meditative Avalks which\\nshe knew him to be in the habit of taking, along the shores of\\nthe peninsula, or on the wooded hills of the neighboring coun-\\ntry. There would have been no scandal, indeed, nor peril to\\nthe holy whiteness of the clergyman^s good fame, had she\\nvisited him in his o\\\\^^l study where many a penitent, ere now,\\nhad confessed sins of perhajDS as deep a dye as the one be-\\ntokened by the scarlet letter. But, partly that she dreaded the\\nsecret or undisguised interference of old Roger Chillingworth,\\nand partly that her conscious heart imputed suspicion where\\nnone could have been felt, and partly that both the minister\\nand she would need the whole wide w^orld to breathe in, while", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0259.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "224 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthey talked together, for all these reasons, Hester never thought\\nof meeting him in any narrower privacy than beneath the open\\nsky.\\nAt last, while attending in a sick-chamber, whither the Eever-\\nend Mr. Dimmesdale had been summoned to make a prayer, she\\nlearnt that he had gone, the day before, to visit the Apostle\\nEliot, among his Indian converts. He w^ould probably return,\\nby a certain hour, in the afternoon of the morrow. Betimes,\\ntherefore, the next day, Hester took little Pearl, who was\\nnecessarily the companion of all her mother^s expeditions, how-\\never inconvenient her presence, and set forth.\\nThe road, after the two wayfarers had crossed from the penin-\\nsula to the mainland, was no other than a footpath. It straggled\\nonward into the mystery of the primeval forest. This hemmed\\nit in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side,\\nand disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above, that,\\nto Hester^s mind, it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in\\nwhich she had so long been wandering. The day was chill and\\nsombre. Overhead was a gray expanse of cloud, slightly stirred,\\nhowever, by a breeze so that a gleam of flickering sunshine\\nmight now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path.\\nThis flitting cheerfulness was always at the farther extremity of\\nsome long vista through the forest. The sportive sunlight\\nfeebly sportive, at best, in the predominant pensiveness of the\\nday and scene withdrew itself as they came nigh, and left the\\nspots where it had danced the drearier, because they liad hoped\\nto find them bright.\\nMother, said little Pearl, the sunshine does not love you.\\nIt runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something\\non your bosom. Now, see There it is, playing, a good way", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0260.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "A FOREST WALK. 225\\noff. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but\\na child. It will not flee from me; for I wear nothing on my\\nbosom yet\\nNor ever will, my child, I hope, said Hester.\\nAnd why not, mother asked Pearl, stopping short, just\\nat the beginning of her race. Will not it come of its own\\naccord, when I am a woman grown\\nRun away, child, answered her mother, and catch the\\nsunshine It will soon be gone.\\nPearl set forth, at a great pace, and, as Hester smiled to per-\\nceive, did actually catch the sunshine, and stood laughing in the\\nmidst of it, all brightened by its splendor, and scintillating with\\nthe vivacity excited by rapid motion. The light lingered about\\nthe lonely cliikl, as if glad of such a playmate, until her mother\\nhad drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic circle too.\\nIt will go now, said Pearl, shaking her head.\\nSee answered Hester, smiling. Now I can stretch out\\nmy hand, and grasp some of it.\\nAs she attempted to do so, the sunshine vanished; or, to\\njudge from the bright expression that was dancing on Pearl s\\nfeatures, her mother could have fancied that the child had\\nabsorbed it into herself, and would give it forth again, with a\\ngleam about her path, as they should plunge into some gloomier\\nshade. There was no other attribute that so much impressed\\nher with a sense of new and untransmitted vigor in Pearl s\\nnature, as this never-failing vivacity of spirits she had not the\\ndisease of sadness, which almost all children, in these latter days,\\ninherit, with the scrofula, from the troubles of their ancestors.\\nPerhaps this too was a disease, and but the reflex of the wild\\nenergy with which Hester had fought against her sorrows, before", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0261.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "226 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nPearl^s birth. It was certainly a doubtful cliarm, imparting a\\nhard, metallic lustre to the chikVs character. She wanted\\nwhat some people want throughout life a grief tliat should\\ndeeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of\\nsympathy. But there was time enough yet for little Pearl.\\nCome, my child said Hester, looking about her from the\\nspot where Pearl had stood still in the sunshine. We will sit\\ndown a little way within the wood, and rest ourselves.^\\nI am not aweary, mother, replied the little girl. But\\nyou may sit down, if you will tell me a story meanwhile.\\nA story, child! said Hester. And about what?\\n0, a story about the Black Man, answered Pearl, taking\\nhold of her mother^s ^o\\\\\\\\t\\\\, and looking up, half earnestly, half\\nmischievously, into her face. How he haunts this forest, and\\ncarries a book with him, a big, heavy book, wvi\\\\\\\\ iron clasps\\nand how this ugly Black Man offers his book and an iron pen.\\nto everybody that meets him here among the trees and they\\nare to write their names with their own blood. And then he\\nsets his mark on their bosoms Didst thou ever meet the\\nBlack Man, mother?\\nAnd who told you this story, Pearl? asked her mother,\\nrecognizing a common superstition of the period.\\nIt Avas the old dame in the chimney-corner, at the house\\nwhere you watched last night, said the child. But she fancied\\nme asleep while she was talking of it. She said that a thousand\\nand a thousand people had met him here, and had written in\\nhis book, and have his mark on them. And that ugly-tempered\\nlady, old Mistress Hibbins, was one. And, mother, the old\\ndame said that this scarlet letter was the Black Man s mark on\\nthee, and that it glows like a red flame when thou meetest him", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0262.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "A FOREST WALK. 227\\nat midnight, here in the dark wood. Is it true, mother? And\\ndost thou go to meet him in the night-time?\\nDidst thou ever awake, and find thy mother gone asked\\nHester.\\nNot that I remember/ said the child. If thou fearest to\\nleave me in our cottage, thou mightest take me along with thee.\\nI would very gladly go But, mother, tell me now Is there\\nsuch a Black Man And didst thou ever meet him And is\\nthis his mark\\nWilt thou let me be at peace, if I once tell thee asked\\nher mother.\\nYes, if thou tellest me all, answered Pearl.\\nOnce in my life I met the Black Man I said her mother.\\nThis scarlet letter is his mark\\nThus conversing, they entered sufficiently deep into the wood\\nto secure themselves from the observation of any casual pas-\\nsenger along the forest track. Here they sat down on a lux-\\nuriant heap of moss which, at some epoch of the preceding\\ncentury, had been a gigantic pine, with its roots and trunk in\\nthe darksome shade, and its head aloft in the upper atmosphere.\\nIt was a little dell where they had seated themselves, with a\\nleaf-strewn bank rising gently on either side, and a brook flow-\\ning through the midst, over a bed of fallen and drowned leaves.\\nThe trees impending over it had flung down great branches,\\nfrom time to time, which choked up the current and compelled\\nit to form eddies and black depths at some points while, in its\\nswifter and livelier passages, there appeared a chamiel-way of\\npebbles, and brown, sparkling sand. Letting the eyes follow\\nalong the course of the stream, they could catch the reflected\\nlight from its water, at some short distance within the forest,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0263.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "228 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nbut soon lost all traces of it amid the bewilderment of tree-\\ntrunks and underbrush, and here and there a huge rock covered\\nover with gray lichens. All these giant trees and bowlders of\\ngranite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this\\nsmall brook fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loqua-\\ncity, it should wdiisper tales out of the heart of the old forest\\nwhence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface\\nof a pool. Continually, indeed, as it stole onward, the streamlet\\nkept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like\\nthe voice of a young child that was spending its infancy wdth-\\nout playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad\\nacquaintance and events of sombre hue.\\nbrook foolish and tiresome little brook cried\\nPearl, after listening awhile to its talk. Why art thou so\\nsad? Pluck up a spirit, and do not be all the time sighing\\nand murmuring\\nBut the brook, in the course of its little lifetime among the\\nforest-trees, had gone through so solemn an experience that it\\ncould not help talking about it, and seemed to have nothing\\nelse to say. Pearl resembled the brook, inasmuch as the cur-\\nrent of her life gushed from a well-spring as mysterious, and\\nhad flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom.\\nBut, unlike the little stream, she danced and sparkled, and prat-\\ntled airily along her course.\\nWhat does this sad little brook say, mother inquired she.\\nIf thou hadst a sorrow of thine own, the brook might tell thee\\nof it,^ answered her mother, even as it is telling me of mine\\nBut now. Pearl, I hear a footstep along the path, and the noise of\\none putting aside the branches. I would have thee betake thyself\\nto play, and leave me to speak with him that comes yonder.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0264.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "A rOREST WALK. 229\\nIs it the Black Man? asked Pearl.\\nWilt thou go and play, child repeated her mother.\\nBut do not stray far into the M^ood. And take heed that\\nthou come at my first call.\\nYes, mother/ answered Pearl. But if it be the Black\\nMan, wilt thou not let me stay a moment, atid look at him,\\nwith his big book under his arm\\nGo, silly child said her mother, impatiently. It is no\\nBlack Man Thou canst see him now, through the trees. It\\nis the minister\\nAnd so it is said the child. And, mother, he has his\\nhand over his heart Is it because, when the minister wrote\\nhis name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place\\nBut why does he not wear it outside his bosom, as thou dost,\\nmother\\nGo now, child, and thou shalt tease me as thou wilt another\\ntime, cried Hester Prynne. But do not stray far. Keep\\nwhere thou canst hear the babble of the brook.\\nThe child went singing away, following up the current of the\\nbrook, and striving to mingle a more lightsome cadence with\\nits melancholy voice. But the little stream would not be com-\\nforted, and still kept telling its unintelligible secret of some\\nvery mournful mystery that had happened or making a pro-\\nphetic lamentation about something that was yet to happen\\nwithin the verge of the dismal forest. So Pearl, who had enough\\nof shadow in her own little life, chose to break off all acquaint-\\nance with this repining brook. She set herself, therefore, to\\ngathering violets and wood-anemones, and some scarlet colum-\\nbines that she found growing in the crevices of a high rock.\\nWhen her elf-child had departed, Hester Prynne made a step", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0265.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "230 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nor two towards the track that led through the forest, but still\\nremained under the deep shadow of the trees. She beheld the\\nminister advancing along the path, entirely alone, and leaning\\non a staff which he had cut by the Avayside. He looked haggard\\nand feeble, and betrayed a nerveless despondency in his air,\\nwhich had never so remarkably characterized him in his walks\\nabout the settlement, nor in any other situation where he deemed\\nhimself liable to notice. Here it Avas wofully visible, in this\\nintense seclusion of the forest, which of itself would have been\\na heavy trial to the spirits. There Avas a listlessness in his\\ngait; as if he saAv no reason for taking one step farther, nor\\nfelt any desire to do so, but A^ ould have been glad, could he\\nbe glad of anything, to fling himself doAvn at the root of the\\nnearest tree, and lie there passive, forevermore. The leaves might\\nbestrew him, and the soil gradually accumulate and form a little\\nhillock over his frame, no matter whether there Avere life in\\nit or no. Death Avas too definite an object to be Avishcd for,\\nor avoided.\\nTo Hester s eye, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale exhibited no\\nsymptom of positive and vivacious suffering, except that, as little\\nPearl had remarked, he kept his hand over his heart.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0266.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "XYII.\\nTHE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER.\\nLOWLY as the minister walked, he had almost\\ngone hj, before Hester Prynne could gather\\nvoice enough to attract his observation. At\\nlength, she succeeded.\\nArthur Dimmesdale she said, faintly\\nat first; then louder, but hoarsely. Ar-\\nthur Dimmesdale\\nWho speaks answered the minister.\\nGathering himself quickly up, he stood more erect, like a man\\ntaken by surprise in a mood to which he was reluctant to have\\nwitnesses. Throwing his eyes anxiously in the direction of the\\nvoice, he indistinctly beheld a form under the trees, clad in\\ngarments so sombre, and so little relieved from the gray twilight\\ninto which the clouded sky and the heavy foliage had darkened\\nthe noontide, that he knew not whether it were a woman or a\\nshadow. It may be, that his pathway through life was haunted\\nthus, by a spectre that had stolen out from among his thoughts.\\nHe made a step nigher, and discovered the scarlet lettei?.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0267.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "233 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nHester! Hester Prynne said he, Is it thou Art thou\\nin life?^^\\nEven so she answered. In such life as has been mine\\nthese seven years past And thou^ Arthur Dimmesdale, dost\\nthou yet live\\nIt was no wonder that they thus questioned one another s\\nactual and bodily existence, and even doubted of their own. So\\nstrangely did they meet, in the dim wood, that it was like the\\nfirst encounter, in the world beyond the grave, of two spirits\\nwho had been intimately connected in their former life, but now\\nstood coldly shuddering, in mutual dread; as not yet familiar\\nwith their state, nor wonted to the companionship of disembodied\\nbeings. Each a ghost, and awe-stricken at the other ghost\\nThey were awe-stricken likewise at themselves; because the crisis\\nflung back to them their consciousness, and revealed to each\\nheart its history and experience, as life never does, except at\\nsuch breathless epochs. The soul beheld its features in the\\nmirror of the passing moment. It was with fear, and tremu-\\nlously, and, as it were, by a slow, reluctant necessity, that\\nArthur Dimmesdale put fortli his hand, chill as deatli, and\\ntouched the chill hand of Hester Prynne. The grasp, cold as\\nit was, took away what was dreariest in the interview. They\\nnow felt themselves, at least, inhabitants of the same sphere.\\nWithout a word more spoken, neither he nor she assuming\\nthe guidance, but witli an unexpressed consent, they glided\\nback into the shadow of the woods, whence Hester had emerged,\\nand sat down on the heap of moss where she and Pearl had\\nbefore been sitting. When they foimd voice to speak, it was,\\nat first, only to utter remarks and iucpiiries such as any two\\nacquaintance might have made, about the gloomy sky, the threat-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0268.jp2"}, "251": {"fulltext": "THE PASTOE AND HIS PARISHIONER. 233\\nening storm, and, next, the health of each. Thus they went\\nonward, not boldly, but step by step, into the themes that were\\nbrooding deepest in their hearts. So long estranged by fate and\\ncircumstances, they needed something slight and casual to run\\nbefore, and throw open the doors of intercourse, so that their\\nreal thoughts might be led across the threshold.\\nAfter a while, the minister fixed his eyes on Hester Prynne^s.\\nHester,^^ said he, hast thou found peace\\nShe smiled drearily, looking down upon her bosom.\\nHast thou she asked.\\nNone nothing but despair he answered. What else\\ncould I look for, being what I am, and leading such a life as\\nmine Were I an atheist, a man devoid of conscience,\\na wretch with coarse and brutal instincts, I might have found\\npeace, long ere now. Nay, I never should have lost it But,\\nas matters stand with my soul, whatever of good capacity there\\noriginally was in me, all of God^s gifts that were the choicest\\nhave become the ministers of spiritual torment. Hester, I am\\nmost miserable\\nThe people reverence thee, said Hester. And surely thou\\nworkest good among them Doth this bring thee no comfort\\nMore misery, Hester only the more misery I answered\\nthe clergyman, with a bitter smile. As concerns the good which I\\nmay appear to do, I have no faith in it. It must needs be a\\ndelusion. What can a ruined soul, like mine, effect towards the\\nredemption of other souls or a polluted soul towards their\\npurification And as for the people s reverence, would that\\nit were turned to scorn and hatred Canst thou deem it,\\nHester, a consolation, that I must stand up in my pulpit, and\\nmeet so many eyes turned upward to my face, as if the light", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0269.jp2"}, "252": {"fulltext": "234 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nof heaven were beaming from it must see my flock hungry\\nfor the truth, and listening to my words as if a tongue of\\nPentecost were speaking and then look inward, and discern\\nthe black reality of Avhat they idolize? I have laughed, in bit-\\nterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem\\nand Avliat I am And Satan laughs at it\\nYou wrong yourself in this, said Hester, gently. You\\nhave deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you,\\nin the days long past. Your present life is not less holy, in\\nvery truth, than it seems in people s eyes. Is there no reality\\nin the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works And\\nwherefore should it not bring you peace?\\nNo, Hester, no! replied the clergyman. There is no\\nsubstance in it It is cold and dead, and can do nothing for\\nme Of penance, I have had enough Of penitence, there has\\nbeen none Else, I should long ago have thrown olF these\\ngarments of mock holiness, and have shown myself to mankind\\nas they will see me at the judgment-seat. Happy are you,\\nHester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom\\n]\\\\Iine burns in secret Thou little knowest what a relief it is,\\nafter the torment of a seven years cheat, to look into an eye\\nthat recognizes me for Avhat I am Had I one friend, or\\nwere it my Avorst enemy to whom, when sickened with the\\npraises of all other men, I could daily betake myself, and be\\nknown as the vilest of all sinners, methinks my soul might keep\\nitself alive thereby. Even thus much of truth would save me\\nBut, now, it is all falsehood all emptiness all death\\nHester Prynne looked into his face, but hesitated to speak.\\nYet, uttering his long-restrained emotions so vehemently as he\\ndid, his words here offered her the very point of circumstances", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0270.jp2"}, "253": {"fulltext": "THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER. 235\\nin which to interpose what she came to say. She conquered\\nher fears, and spoke.\\nSuch a friend as thou hast even now wished for/ said she,\\nwith whom to weep over thy sin, thou hast in me, the partner\\nof it Again she hesitated, but brought out the words with\\nan effort. Thou hast long had such an enemy, and dwellest\\nwith him, under tlie same roof\\nThe minister started to his feet, gasping for breath, and clutch-\\ning at his heart, as if he would have torn it out of his bosom.\\nHa What sayest thou cried he. An enemy And\\nunder mine own roof! What mean you?\\nHester Prynne was now fully sensible of the deep injury for\\nwhich she was responsible to this unhappy man, in permitting\\nhim to lie for so many years, or, indeed, for a single moment,\\nat the mercy of one whose purposes could not be other than\\nmalevolent. The very contiguity of his enemy, beneath what-\\never mask the latter might conceal himself, was enough to dis-\\nturb the magnetic sphere of a being so sensitive as Arthur\\nDimmesdale. There had been a period when Hester was less\\nalive to this consideration; or, perhaps, in the misanthropy of\\nher own trouble, she left the minister to bear what she might\\npicture to herself as a more tolerable doom. But of late, since\\nthe night of his vigil, all her sympathies towards him had been\\nboth softened and invigorated. She now read his heart more\\naccurately. She doubted not, that the continual presence of Roger\\nChillingworth, the secret poison of his malignity, infecting all\\nthe air about him, and liis authorized interference, as a physi-\\ncian, with tlie minister s physical and spiritual infirmities,\\ntliat these bad opportunities had been turned to a cruel pur-\\npose. By means of them, the sufferer s conscience had been", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0271.jp2"}, "254": {"fulltext": "236 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nkept ill ail irritated state, the tendency of wliicli was, not to\\ncure by wholesome pain, but to disorganize and corrupt his\\nspiritual being. Its result, on earth, could hardly fail to be\\ninsanity, and hereafter, that eternal alienation from the Good\\nand True, of which madness is perhaps the earthly tvpe.\\nSuch was the ruin to which she had brought the man, once,\\nnay, why should we not speak it still so passionately loved\\nHester felt that the sacrifice of the clergyman s good name, and\\ndeath itself, as she had already told Roger Chillingworth,\\nwould have been infinitely ])referable to the alternative which\\nshe had taken upon herself to choose. And now, rather than have\\nhad this grievous wrong to confess, she would gladly have lain\\ndown on the forest-leaves, and died there, at Arthur Dimmes-\\ndale s feet.\\nArthur, cried she, forgive me In all things else,\\nI have striven to be true Truth was the one virtue which I\\nmight have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity;\\nsave when thy good, thy life, thy fame, were put in ques-\\ntion Then I consented to a deception. But a lie is never\\ngood, even though death threaten on the other side Dost thou\\nnot see M-hat I would say That old man tlie physician\\nhe whom they call Roger Chillingworth! he was my hus-\\nband\\nThe minister looked at her, for an instant, with all that vio-\\nlence of passion, which intermixed, in more shapes than one,\\nwith his higher, purer, softer qualities was, in fact, the portion\\nof him Avhich the Devil claimed, and through which he soiiglit\\nto Avin the rest. Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown\\nthan Hester now encountered. For the brief space that it lasted,\\nit was a dark transfiguration. But his character had been so", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0272.jp2"}, "255": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0275.jp2"}, "256": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0276.jp2"}, "257": {"fulltext": "THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER. 239\\nmuch enfeebled by suffering, that even its lower energies were\\nincapable of more than a temporary struggle. He sank down\\non the ground, and buried his face in his hands.\\nI might have known it, murmured he. I did know it\\nWas not the secret told me, in the natural recoil of my heart,\\nat the first sight of him, and as often as I have seen him since?\\nWhy did I not understand? O Hester Prynne, thou little,\\nlittle knowest all the horror of this thing And the shame\\nthe indelicacy the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick\\nand guilty heart to the very eye that would gloat over it\\nWoman, woman, thou art accountable for this I cannot for-\\ngive thee\\nThou shalt forgive me cried Plester, flinging herself on\\nthe fallen leaves beside him. Let God punish Thou shalt\\nforgive\\nWith sudden and desperate tenderness, she threw her arms\\naround him, and pressed his head against her bosom; little\\ncaring though his cheek rested on the scarlet letter. He would\\nhave released himself, but strove in vain to do so. Hester would\\nnot set him free, lest he should look her sternly in the face.\\nAll the world had frowned on her, for seven long years had\\nit frowned upon this lonely woman, and still she bore it all,\\nnor ever once turned away her firm, sad eyes. Heaven, likewise,\\nhad frowned upon her, and she had not died. But the frown\\nof tliis pale, weak, sinful, and sorrow-stricken man was what\\nHester could not bear and live\\nWilt thou yet forgive me? she repeated, over and over\\nagain. Wilt thou not frown? Wilt thou forgive?\\nI do forgive you, Hester, replied the minister, at length,\\nwith a deep utterance, out of an abyss of sadness, but no anger.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0277.jp2"}, "258": {"fulltext": "240 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nI freely forgive you now. May God forgive us both! We\\nare uot, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one\\nworse than even the polluted priest That old man s revenge has\\nbeen blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the\\nsanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so\\nNever, never whispered she. What Ave did had a\\nconsecration of its own. We felt it so We said so to each\\nother Hast thou forgotten it\\nHush, Hester said Arthur Dimmesdale, rising from the\\nground. No I have not forgotten\\nThey sat down again, side by side, and hand clasped in hand,\\non the mossy trunk of the fallen tree. Life had never brought\\nthem a gloomier hour; it was the point whither their pathway\\nhad so long been tending, and darkening ever, as it stole along\\nand yet it enclosed a charm that made them linger upon it,\\nand claim another, and another, and, after all, another moment.\\nThe forest was obscure around them, and creaked witli a blast\\nthat was passing through it. The boughs were tossing heavily\\nabove their heads while one solemn old tree groaned dolefully\\nto another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat\\nbeneath, or constrained to forebode evil to come.\\nAnd yet they lingered. How dreary looked the forest-track\\nthat led backward to the settlement, where Hester Prynne must\\ntake up again the burden of her ignominy, and the minister the\\nhollow mockery of his good name So they lingered an instant\\nlonger. No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom\\nof this dark forest. Here, seen only by his eyes, the scarlet\\nletter need not burn uito the bosom of the fallen woman\\nHere, seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God\\nand man, might be, for one moment, true", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0278.jp2"}, "259": {"fulltext": "THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER. 241\\nHe started at a thought that suddenly occurred to him.\\nHester, cried he, here is a new horror Eoger Chilling-\\nworth knows your purpose to reveal his true character. Will\\nhe continue, then, to keep our secret What will now be the\\ncourse of his revenge?\\nThere is a strange secrecy in his nature, replied Hester,\\nthoughtfully and it has grown upon him by the hidden prac-\\ntices of his revenge. I deem it not likely that he will betray\\nthe secret. He will doubtless seek other means of satiating his\\ndark passion.\\nAnd I how am I to live longer, breathing the same\\nair with this deadly enemy? exclaimed Arthur Dimmesdale,\\nshrinking within himself, and pressing his hand nervously against\\nhis heart, a gesture that had grown involuntary with him.\\nThink for me, Hester Thou art strong. Eesolve for me\\nThou must dwell no longer with this man, said Hester,\\nslowly and firmly. Thy heart must be no longer under his\\nevil eye\\nIt were far worse than death replied the minister. But\\nhow to avoid it What choice remains to me Shall I lie\\ndown again on these withered leaves, where I cast myself when\\nthou didst tell me what he was Must I sink down there, and\\ndie at once\\nAlas, what a ruin has befallen thee said Hester, with the\\ntears gushing into her eyes. Wilt thou die for very weak-\\nness There is no other cause\\nThe judgment of God is on me, answered the conscience-\\nstricken priest. It is too mighty for me to struggle with\\nHeaven would show mercy, rejoined Hester, hadst thou\\nbut the strength to take advantage of it.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0279.jp2"}, "260": {"fulltext": "242 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nBe thou strong for ine answered he. Advise me Avhat\\nto do/^\\nIs tlie world, then, so narrow exclaimed Hester Prynne,\\nfixing her deep eyes on the minister s, and instinctively exer-\\ncising a magnetic power over a spirit so shattered and subdued\\nthat it could hardly hold itself erect. Doth the universe lie\\nwithin the compass of yonder town, vA hich only a little time\\nago was but a leaf-strewn desert, as lonely as this around us\\nWhither leads yonder forest-track Backward to the settlement,\\nthou sayest Yes but onward, too. Deeper it goes, and\\ndeeper, into the wilderness, less plainly to be seen at every step;\\nuntil, some few miles hence, the yelloAv leaves will show no\\nvestige of the white man s tread. There thou art free So\\nbrief a journey would bring thee from a world where thou hast\\nbeen most wretched, to one where thou mayest still be happy\\nIs there not shade enough in all this boundless forest to hide\\nthy heart from the gaze of Roger Chillingwortli\\nYes, Hester but only under the fallen leaves replied the\\nminister, Avith a sad smile.\\nThen there is the broad pathway of the sea continued\\nHester. It brought thee hither. If thou so choose, it will\\nbear thee back again. In our native land, Avhether in some\\nremote rural village or in vast London, or, surely, in Germany,\\nin France, in pleasant Italy, thou wouldst be beyond his power\\nand knowledge And what hast thou to do with all these iron\\nmen, and their opinions They have kept thy better part in\\nbondage too long already\\nIt cannot be answered the minister, listening as if he\\nwere called upon to realize a dream. I am powerless to go\\nWretched and sinful as I am, I have had no other thought", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0280.jp2"}, "261": {"fulltext": "THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER. 243\\nthan to drag on my earthly existence in the sphere where Provi-\\ndence hath placed me. Lost as my own soul is^ I would still\\ndo what I may for other human souls I dare not quit my\\npost, though an unfaithful sentinel, whose sure reward is death\\nand dishonor, when his dreary watch shall come to an end\\nThou art crushed under this seven years weight of misery,\\nreplied Hester, fervently resolved to buoy him up with her own\\nenergy. But thou shalt leave it all behind thee It shall not\\ncumber thy steps, as thou treadest along the forest-path neither\\nshalt thou freight the ship with it, if thou prefer to cross the\\nsea. Leave this wreck and ruin here where it hath happened.\\nMeddle no more with it Begin all anew Hast thou exhausted\\npossibility in the failure of this one trial Not so The future\\nis yet full of trial and success. There is happiness to be enjoyed\\nThere is good to be done Exchange this false life of thine for\\na true one. Be, if thy spirit summon thee to such a mission,\\nthe teacher and apostle of the red men. Or, as is more tliy\\nnature, be a scholar and a sage among the wisest and the\\nmost renowned of the cultivated world. Preach Write Act\\nDo anything, save to lie down and die Give up this name of\\nArthur Dimmesdale, and make thyself another, and a high one,\\nsuch as thou canst wear without fear or shame. AYhy shouldst\\nthou tarry so much as one other day in the torments that have\\nso gnawed into thy life that have made thee feeble to will\\nand to do that Avill leave thee powerless even to repent\\nUp, and away\\nO Hester cried Arthur Dimmesdale, in whose eyes a fit-\\nful light, kindled by her enthusiasm, flashed up and died away,\\nthou tellest of running a race to a man whose knees are tot-\\ntering beneath him I must die here There is not the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0281.jp2"}, "262": {"fulltext": "244\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nstrcngtli or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange,\\ndifficult world, alone\\nIt was the last expression of the despondency of a broken\\nspirit. He lacked energy to grasp the better fortune that seemed\\nwithin his reach.\\nHe I epcatcd the word.\\nAlone, Hester!\\nThou shalt not go alone answered she, in a deep whisper.\\nThen, all was spoken", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0282.jp2"}, "263": {"fulltext": "XVIII.\\nA FLOOD OF SUNSHINE.\\nIRTHUR DIMMESDALE gazed into Hester s\\nfiice with a look in which hope and joy\\nshone out, indeed, but with fear betwixt\\nthem, and a kind of horror at her boldness,\\nAvho had spoken what he vaguely hinted at,\\nbut dared not speak.\\nBut Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity,\\nand for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed,\\nfrom society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation\\nas was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered,\\nwithout rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as in-\\ntricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of\\nwhich they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide\\ntheir fate. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were,\\nin desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian\\nin his woods. For years past she had looked from this estranged\\npoint of view at human histitutions, and whatever priests or legis-\\nlators had established criticising all with hardly more reverence", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0283.jp2"}, "264": {"fulltext": "216 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ntliim the Indian wonld fe?l for the clerical band, the judicial\\nrobe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the churcli. Tlie\\ntendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The\\nscarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women\\ndared not tread. Shame, Desjjair, Solitude These had been\\nlier teachers, stern and wild ones, and they liad made her\\nstrong, but taught her much amiss.\\nThe minister, on the other hand, had never gone through an\\nexperience calculated to lead him beyond the scope of generally\\nreceived laws; although, in a single instance, he had so fear-\\nfully transgressed one of the most sacred of them. But this\\nhad been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose.\\nSince that wretched e})och, he had watched, with morbid zeal\\nand minuteness, not his acts, for those it was easy to arrange,\\nbut each breath of emotion, and his every thought. At the\\nhead of the social system, as the clergymen of that day stood,\\nhe was only the more trammelled by its regulations, its prin-\\nciples, and even its prejudices. As a priest, the framework of\\nhis order inevitably hemmed him in. As a man Avho had once\\nsinned, but who kept his conscience all alive and painfully sensi-\\ntive by the fretting of an unhealed wound, he might have been\\nsupposed safer within the line of virtue than if he had never\\nsinned at all.\\nThus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the\\nwhole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other\\nthan a preparation for this very hour. But Arthur Dimmes-\\ndale Were such a man once more to fall, what plea could\\nbe urged in extenuation of his crime? None; unless it avail\\nhim somewhat, that he was broken down by long and exquisite\\nsulfering that his mind was darkened and confused by the very", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0284.jp2"}, "265": {"fulltext": "A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE. 24-7\\nremorse whicli liarrowed it tliat, between fleeing as an avowed\\ncriminal, and remaining as a hypocrite, conscience might find\\nit liard to strike the balance; that it was human to avoid the\\nperil of death and infamy, and the inscrutable machinations of\\nan enemy; that, finally, to this poor pilgrim, on his dreary and\\ndesert path, faint, sick, miserable, there appeared a glimpse of\\nhuman affection and sympathy, a new life, and a true one, in\\nexchange for the heavy (U)om which he was now expiating. And\\nbe the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt\\nhas once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal\\nstate, repaired. It may be watched and guarded so that the\\nenemy shall not force his way again into the citadel, and might\\neven, in his subsequent assaults, select some otlier avenue, in\\npreference to that where he had formerly succeeded, But there\\nis still the ruined wall, and, near it, the stealthy tread of the\\nfoe that wou-ld win over again his unforgotten triumph.\\nThe struggle, if there Avere one, need not be described. Let\\nit suffice, tliat the clergyman resolved to flee, and not alone.\\nIf, in all these past seven years,^^ thought he, I could\\nrecall one instant of peace or hope, I would yet endure, for the\\nsake of tiiat earnest of Heaven s mercy. But now, since I\\nam irrevocably doomed, Avherefore should I not snatch the\\nsolace allowed to the condemned culprit before his execution?\\nOr, if this be the path to a better life, as Hester would per-\\nsuade me, I surely give up no fairer prospect by pursuing it\\nNeither can I any longer live Avithout her companionship; so\\npowerful is she to sustain, so tender to soothe O Thou to\\nwhom I dare not lift mine eyes, wilt Thou yet pardon me\\nThou wilt go! said Hester, calmly, as he met her glance.\\nThe decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0285.jp2"}, "266": {"fulltext": "us THE SCARLET LETTEll.\\nits ilickoring brightness over tlic trouble of his breast. It was\\nthe exhilarating effect upon a prisoner just escaped from the\\ndungeon of his own heart of breathing the Avild, free atmos-\\nphere of an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region. His\\nspirit rose, as it were, with a bound, and attained a nearer pros-\\npect of the slcy, than throughout all the misery which had kept\\nhim grovelling on the earth. Of a deeply religious tempera-\\nment, there was inevitably a tinge of the devotional in his\\nmood.\\nDo I feel joy again? cried he, wondering at himself.\\nMethought the germ of it was dead in me O Hester, thou\\nart my better angel! I seem to have flung myself sick, sin-\\nstained, and sorrow -blackened down upon these forest-leaves,\\nand to have risen up all made anew, and with new powers to\\nglorify Him that hath been merciful This is already the better\\nlife AVhy did we not find it sooner\\nLet us not look back, answered Hester Prynne. The\\npast is gone ^Therefore should we linger upon it now See\\nWith this symbol, I undo it all, and make it as it had never\\nbeen!\\nSo speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter,\\nand, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the\\nwithered leaves. The mvstic token alighted on the hither venre\\nof the stream. With a hand^s breadth farther flight it would\\nhave fallen into the water, and have given the little brook\\nanother woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which\\nit still kept murmuring about. But there lay the embroidered\\nletter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fiited wanderer\\nmight pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms\\nof guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0286.jp2"}, "267": {"fulltext": "A FLOOD OY SUNSHINE.\\n249\\nThe stigma gone, Hester lieavcd a long, deep sigh, in which\\nthe burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit, O\\nexquisite relief! She had not known the weight, until she felt\\nthe freedom J3y another impulse, she took off the formal cap\\nthat confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulders,\\ndark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance,\\nand imparting the charm of softness to her features. There\\nplayed around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant\\nand tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0287.jp2"}, "268": {"fulltext": "250 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nwomanhood. A criinsou Hush uas glowing on her check, that\\nhad been k)ng so pah\\\\ Her sex, her youth, and the whok rich-\\nness of her beauty, came back from wluit men call the irrevocable\\npast, and clustered themselves, with her maiden hope, and a\\nhappiness before unknown, within the magic circle of this hour.\\nx Vnd, as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the\\neffluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished Avith their sorrow.\\nAll at once, as with a sudden smiU^ of lu aven, forth burst the\\nsunshine, pouring a very Wood into the obscure forest, gladdening\\n(\\\\K h green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and\\ngleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees. The objects\\nthat had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now.\\nThe course of the little brook might be traced by its merry gleam\\nafar into the wood s heart of mystery, which had become a mys-\\ntery of joy.\\nSuch was the sympathy of Nature that wild, heathen Nature\\nof the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by\\nhigher truth with the bliss of these two spirits Love, whether\\nnewlv born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always\\ncreate a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it\\noverflows upon the outward world. Had the forest still kept\\nits gloom, it would have been bright in Hester s eyes, and\\nbright in Arthur Dimmesdale s\\nHester looked at him with the thrill of another j(W-\\nThou must know Pearl! said she. Our little Pearl!\\nThou hast seen her, yes, I know it! but thou wilt see her\\nnow with other eyes. She is a strange child I hardly comi)r(\\nhend her I But thou wilt love her dearly, as I do, and wilt\\nadvise me how to deal with her.\\nDost thou think the child will be ^lad to know me?", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0288.jp2"}, "269": {"fulltext": "A FLOOD OF SUNSJI.INE. 251\\nasked the minister, somewliat uneasily. 1 have long shrunk\\nfrom children, because they often show a distrust, a back-\\nwardness to be familiar with me. I have even been afraid of\\nlittle Pearl!\\nAh, that was sad answered the mother. But she will\\nlove thee dearly, and thou her. She is not far off. I will call\\nher Pearl Pearl\\nI see the child, observed the minister. Yonder she is,\\nstanding in a streak of sunshine, a good way off, on tlie other\\nside of the brook. So thou thinkest the cliild will love me\\nHester smiled, and again called to Pearl, who was visible, at\\nsome distance, as the minister had described her, like a bright-\\napparelled vision, in a sunbeam, which fell down upon her\\nthrough an arch of boughs. The ray quivered to and fro, mak-\\ning her figure dim or distinct, now like a real cliild, now like\\na child s spirit, as the splendor went and came again. She\\nheard her mother s voice, and approached slowly through the\\nforest.\\nPearl had not found the hour pass wearisomely, while her\\nmother sat talking with the clergyman. The great black forest\\nstern as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and\\ntroubles of the world into its bosom became the playmate of\\nthe lonely infant, as well as it knew how. Sombre as it was,\\nit put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her. It offered\\nher the partridge-berries, the growth of the preceding autumn,\\nbut ripening only in the spring, and now red as drops of blood\\nupon the withered leaves. These Pearl gathered, and was pleased\\nwith their wild flavor. The small denizens of the wilderness\\nhardly took pains to move out of her path. A partridge, indeed,\\nwith a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0289.jp2"}, "270": {"fulltext": "252 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nooou repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones\\nUot to be afraid. A pigeon, alone on a low branch, allowed\\nPearl to come beneath, and uttered a sound as much of greeting\\nas alarm. A squirrel, from the lofty depths of his domestic\\ntree, chattered either in anger or merriment, for a squirrel is\\nsuch a choleric and humorous little personage, that it is hard to\\ndistinguish between his moods, so he chattered at the child, and\\nflung down a nut upon her head. It was a last year s nnt,\\nand already gnawed by his sharp tooth. A fox, startled from\\nhis sleep by her light footstep on the leaves, looked inquisitively\\nat Pearl, as doubting whether it were better to steal ofl or\\nrenew his nap on the same spot. A wolf, it is said, but here\\nthe tale has surely lapsed into the improbable, came uj), and\\nsmelt of PearFs robe, and ofiered his savage head to be patted\\nby her hand. The truth seems to be, however, that the mother-\\nforest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized\\na kindred wildness in the human child.\\nAnd she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined streets\\nof the settlement, or in her mother s cottage. The flowers\\nappeared to know it and one and another whispered as she\\npassed, Adorn thyself mth me, thou beautiful child, adorn\\nthyself Avith me and, to please them, Pearl gathered the\\nviolets, and anemones, and columbines, and some twigs of the\\nfreshest green, Avliich the old trees held down before her eyes.\\nWith these she decorated her hair, and her young waist, and\\nbecame a nymph-child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was\\nin closest sympathy with the antique wood. In such guise had\\nPearl adorned herself, when she heard her mother s voice, and\\ncame slowly back.\\nSlowly; for she saw the clergyman.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0290.jp2"}, "271": {"fulltext": "XIX.\\nTHE CHILD AT THE BBOOK-SIDB.\\n4^^^^g^\\\\gH0U wilt love her dearly/ repeated Hester\\nPrjnne, as she and the minister sat watch-\\ning little Pearl. Dost thou not think her\\nbeautiful? And see with Avhat natural\\nskill she has made those simple flowers\\nadorn her Had she gathered pearls^ and\\ndiamonds, and rubies, in the wood, they could not have become\\nher better. She is a splendid child But I know whose brow\\nshe has\\nDost thou know, Hester,^ said Arthur Dimmesdale, with\\nan unquiet smile, that this dear child, tripping about always\\nat thy side, hath caused me many an alarm? Methought O\\nHester, what a thought is that, and how terrible to dread it\\nthat my OAvn features were partly repeated in her face, and so\\nstrikingly that the world might see them But she is mostly\\nthine\\nNo, no Not mostly answered the mother, with a ten-\\nder smile. A little longer, and thou needest not to be afraid\\nto trace whose child she is. But how strangely beautiful she", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0291.jp2"}, "272": {"fulltext": "254 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nloots, with those wild-tlowers in her hair It is as if one of\\nthe fairies, whom we left in our dear old England, had decked\\nher out to meet us.\\nIt was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before\\nexperienced, that they sat and watched PearPs slow advance.\\nIn her was visible the tie that united them. She had been\\noffered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hiero-\\nglyphic, in Avhicli was revealed the secret they so darkly sought\\nto hide, all written in this symbol, all plainly manifest,\\nhad there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the char-\\nacter of flame And Pearl was the oneness of their being. Be\\nthe foregone evil what it might, how could they doubt that\\ntheir earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined, when\\nthey beheld at once the material union, and the spiritual idea,\\nin whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together?\\nThoughts like these and perhaps other thoughts, which they\\ndid not acknowledge or define threw an awe about the child,\\nas she came onward.\\nLet her see nothing strange no passion nor eagerness\\nin thy way of accosting her,^^ whispered Hester. Our Pearl\\nis a fitful and fantastic little elf, sometimes. Especially, she is\\nseldom tolerant of emotion, when she does not fully comprehend\\nthe why and wherefore. But the child hath strong aff ections\\nShe loves me, and Avill love thee\\nThou canst not think, said the minister, glancing aside\\nat Hester Prynne, how my heart dreads this interview, and\\nyearns for it But, in truth, as I already told thee, children\\nare not readily won to be familiar with me. They will not\\nclimb my knee, nor prattle in my ear, nor answer to my smile\\nbut stand apart, and eye me strangely. Even little babes, when", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0292.jp2"}, "273": {"fulltext": "THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE. 255\\nI take tliein in my arms^ weep bitterly. Yet Pearl, twice in\\nher little lifetime, hath been kind to me The first time,\\nthou knowest it well The last was when thou ledst her Avith\\nthee to the house of yonder stern old Governor.^^\\nAnd thou didst plead so bravely in her behalf and mine\\nanswered the mother. I remember it; and so shall little\\nPearl. Pear nothing She may be strange and shy at first,\\nbut will soon learn to love thee\\nBy this time Pearl had reached the margin of the brook, and\\nstood on the farther side, gazing silently at Hester and the\\nclergyman, who still sat together on the mossy tree-trunk, wait-\\ning to receive her. Just where she had paused, the brook\\nchanced to form a pool, so smooth and quiet that it reflected\\na perfect image of her little figure, with all the brilliant pictu-\\nresqueness of her beauty, in its adornment of flowers and wreathed\\nfoliage, but more refined and spiritualized than the reality. This\\nimage, so nearly identical with the living Pearl, seemed to com-\\nmunicate somewhat of its own shadowy and intangible quality\\nto the child herself. It was strange, the way in which Pearl\\nstood, looking so steadfastly at them tlirough the dim medium\\nof the forest-gloom herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray\\nof sunshine, that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sym-\\npathy. In the brook beneath stood another child, another\\nand the same, Avith likewise its ray of golden light. Hester\\nfelt herself, in some indistinct and tantalizing manner, estranged\\nfrom Pearl; as if the child, in her lonely ramble through the\\nforest, had strayed out of the sphere in which she and her\\nmother dwelt together, and was now vainly seeking to return\\nto it.\\nThere was both truth and error in the impression; the child", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0293.jp2"}, "274": {"fulltext": "256 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nand mollior were estranged, but llirongh ITcster s fault, not\\nPeail s, Since the latter rambled from her side, another inmate\\nhad been admitted within tlie circle of the mother s feelings,\\nand so moditied the aspect of them all, that Pearl, the returning\\nwanderer, could not find her wonted place, and hardly knew\\nwhere she was.\\nI have a strange fancy, observed the sensitive minister,\\nthat this brook is the boundary between two worlds, and that\\nthou canst never meet thy Pearl again. Or is she an elHsh\\nspirit, who, as the legends of our childhood taught us, is for-\\nbidden to cross a running stream Pray hasten her for this\\ndelay has already imparted a tremor to my nerves.\\nCome, dearest child said Hester, encouragingly, and stretch-\\ning out both her arms. How slow thou art AYhen hast\\nthou been so sluggish before now Here is a frieiul of mine,\\nwho must be thy friend also. Thou wilt have twice as much\\nlove, henceforward, as thy mother alone could give thee Leap\\nacross the brook, and come to us. Thou canst leap like a\\nyoung deer\\nPearl, witliout responding in any manner to these honey-sweet\\nexpressions, remained on the other side of the brook. Now she\\nfixed her bright, Mild eyes on lier mother, now on the minister,\\nand now included tliem both in tlie same glance; as if to detect\\nand explain to herself the relation which they bore to one\\nanother. For some unaccountable reason, as Artliur Dimmes-\\ndale felt the child s eyes upon himself, his hand witli that\\ngesture so habitual as to have become involuntary stole over\\nhis heart. At length, assuming a singular air of autliority.\\nPearl stretched out her hand, Avith the small forefinger extended,\\nand pointing evidently towards her mother s breast. And", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0294.jp2"}, "275": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0297.jp2"}, "276": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0298.jp2"}, "277": {"fulltext": "THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE. 259\\nbeneath, in the mirror of the brook, there was the flower-\\ngirdled and sunny image of little Pearl, pointing her small fore-\\nfinger too.\\nThou strange child, why dost thou not come to me ex-\\nclaimed Hester.\\nPearl still pointed with her forefinger; and a frown gathered\\non her brow the more impressive from the childish, the almost\\nbaby-like aspect of the features that conveyed it. As her mother\\nstill kept beckoning to her, and arraying her face in a holiday\\nsuit of unaccustomed smiles, the child stamped her foot with a\\nyet more imperious look and gesture. In the brook, again, was\\nthe fantastic beauty of the image, with its reflected frown, its\\npointed finger, and imperious gesture, giving emphasis to the\\naspect of little Pearl.\\nHasten, Pearl or I shall be angry with thee cried\\nHester Prynne, who, however inured to such behavior on\\nthe elf-child s part at other seasons, was naturally anxious\\nfor a more seemly deportment now. Leap across the\\nbrook, naughty child, and run hither Else I must come to\\nthee\\nBut Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother s threats, any\\nmore than mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into\\na fit of passion, gesticulating violently, and throwing her small\\nfigure into the most extravagant contortions. She accompanied\\nthis wild outbreak with piercing shrieks, which the woods rever-\\nberated on all sides; so that, alone as she was in her childish\\nand unreasonable wrath, it seemed as if a hidden multitude were\\nlending her their sympathy and encouragement. Seen in the\\nbrook, once more, was the shadowy wrath of Pearl s image,\\ncrowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0299.jp2"}, "278": {"fulltext": "2G0 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ngesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small\\nforefinger at Hester^s bosom\\nI see what ails the child, whispered Hester to the clergy-\\nman, and turning pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her\\ntrouble and annoyance. Children will not abide any, the\\nslightest, change in the accustomed aspect of things that are\\ndaily before their eyes. Pearl misses something which she has\\nalways seen me wear\\nI pray you, answered the minister, if thou hast any\\nmeans of pacifying the child, do it fortliwith Save it were the\\ncankered wrath of an old witch, like Mistress Hibbins, added\\nhe, attempting to smile, I know nothing that I would not\\nsooner encounter than this passion in a child. In PearFs young\\nbeauty, as in the wrinkled Avitch, it has a preternatural effect.\\nPacify her, if thou lovest me\\nHester turned again towards Pearl, with a crimson blusli upon\\nher cheek, a conscious glance aside at the clergyman, and then a\\nheavy sigh Avhile, even before she had time to speak, the blush\\nyielded to a deadly pallor.\\nPearl, said she, sadly, look down at thy feet There\\nbefore thee on the hither side of the brook\\nThe child turned her eyes to the point indicated and there\\nlay the scarlet letter, so close upon the margin of the stream,\\nthat the gold embroidery was reflected in it.\\nBring it hither said Hester.\\nCome thou and take it up answered Pearl.\\nWas ever such a child observed Hester, aside to the\\nminister. 0, I have much to tell thee about her But, in\\nvery truth, she is right as regards this hateful token. I must\\nbear its torture yet a litde longer, only a few days longer,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0300.jp2"}, "279": {"fulltext": "THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE. 261\\nuntil we shall have left this region, and look back hither as\\nto a land which we have dreamed of. The forest cannot hide\\nit! The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand, and swallow it\\nup forever\\nWith these words, she advanced to the margin of the brook,\\ntook up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom.\\nHopefully, but a moment ago, as Hester had spoken of drown-\\ning it in the deep sea, there was a sense of inevitable doom\\nupon her, as she thus received back this deadly symbol from\\nthe hand of fate. She had flung it into infinite space she\\nhad drawn an hour s free breath and here again was the\\nscarlet misery, glittering on the old spot So it ever is, whether\\nthus typified or no, that an evil deed invests itself with the\\ncharacter of doom. Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses\\nof her hair, and confined them beneath her cap. As if there\\nwere a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth\\nand richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine;\\nand a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.\\nWhen the dreary change was wrought, she extended her hand\\nto Pearl.\\nDost thou know thy mother now, child? asked she, re-\\nproachfully, but with a subdued tone. Wilt thou come across\\nthe brook, and own thy mother, now that she has her shame\\nupon her, now that she is sad?\\nYes now I will answered the child, bounding across\\nthe brook, and clasping Hester in her arms. Now thou art\\nmy mother indeed And I am thy little Pearl\\nIn a mood of tenderness that was not usual with her, she\\ndrew down her mother s head, and kissed her brow and both\\nher cheeks. But then by a kind of necessity that always im-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0301.jp2"}, "280": {"fulltext": "262 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\npelled this child to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to\\ngive with a throb of anguish Pearl put up her mouth, and\\nkissed the scarlet letter too\\nThat was not kind said Hester. When tliou hast shown\\nme a little love, thou mockest me\\nWhy doth the minister sit yonder? asked Pearl.\\nHe waits to welcome thee/ replied her mother. Come\\nthou, and entreat his blessing He loves thee, my little Pearl,\\nand loves thy mother too. Wilt thou not love him Come\\nhe longs to greet thee\\nDoth he love us said Pearl, looking up, with acute\\nintelligence, into her mother s face. Will he go back with\\nus, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?\\nNot now, dear child, answered Hester. But in days to\\ncome he will walk hand in hand with us. We will have a\\nhome and fireside of our own and thou shalt sit upon his\\nknee and he will teach thee many things, and love thee dearly.\\nThou wilt love him; wilt thou not?\\nAnd will he always keep his hand over his heart in-\\nquired Pearl.\\nFoolish child, what a question is that exclaimed her\\nmother, Come and ask his blessing\\nBut, whether influenced by the jealousy that seems instinctive\\nwith every petted child towards a dangerous rival, or from what-\\never caprice of her freakish nature. Pearl would show no favor\\nto the clergyman. It was only by an exertion of force that\\nher mother brought her up to him, hanging back, and manifest-\\ning her reluctance by odd grimaces of which, ever since her\\nbabyhood, she had possessed a singular variety, and could trans-\\nform her mobile physiognomy into a series of different aspects.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0302.jp2"}, "281": {"fulltext": "THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE. 263\\nwith a new mischief in them, each and all. The minister\\npainfully embarrassed, but hoping that a kiss might prove a\\ntalisman to admit him into the child^s kindlier regards bent\\nforward, and impressed one on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl\\nbroke away from her mother, and, running to the brook, stooped\\nover it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was\\nquite washed off, and diffused through a long lapse of the glid-\\ning water. She then remained aj)art, silently watching Hester\\nand the clergyman while they talked together, and made such\\narrangements as were suggested by their new position, and the\\npurposes soon to be fulfilled.\\nAnd now this fateful interview had come to a close. The\\ndell was to be left a solitude among its dark, old trees, which,\\nwith their multitudinous tongues, would whisper long of what\\nhad passed there, and no mortal be the wiser. And the melan-\\ncholy brook would add this other tale to the mystery with\\nwhich its little heart was already overburdened, and whereof it\\nstill kept up a murmuring babble, with not a whit more cheer-\\nfulness of tone than for ages heretofore.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0303.jp2"}, "282": {"fulltext": "XX.\\nTHE MINISTER IN A MAZE.\\nftJ^M^^^^^ the minister departed, in advance of Hester\\n;t7^^.\\nPryime and little Pearl, he threw a back-\\nM^ ward glance; half expecting that he should\\n^W-i discover only some faintly traced features or\\ni^; outline of the mother and the child, slowly\\nfading into the twilight of the woods. So\\ngreat a vicissitude in his life could not at once be received as\\nreal. But there was Hester, clad in her gray robe, still standing\\nbeside the tree-trunk, whicli some blast had overthrown a long\\nantiquity ago, and which time had ever since been covering\\nwith moss, so that these two fated ones, with earth s heaviest\\nburden on them, might there sit down together, and find a single\\nhour s rest and solace. And there was Pearl, too, lightly dancing\\nfrom the margin of the brook, now that the intrusive third\\nperson was gone, and taking her old place by her mother s\\nside. So the minister had not fallen asleep and dreamed\\nIn order to free his mind from this indistinctness and duplicity\\nof impression, which vexed it with a strange disquietude, he\\nrecalled and more thoroughly defined tlie plans which Hester", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0304.jp2"}, "283": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 265\\nand himself had sketched for their departure. It had been deter-\\nmined between them^ that the Old Worlds with its crowds and\\ncities, offered them a more eligible shelter and concealment than\\nthe wilds of New England, or all America, with its alternatives\\nof an Indian wigwam, or the few settlements of Europeans,\\nscattered thinly along the seaboard. Not to speak of the clergy-\\nman s health, so inadequate to sustain the hardships of a forest\\nlife, his native gifts, his culture, and his entire development,\\nwould secure him a home only in the midst of civilization and\\nrefinement; the higher the state, the more delicately adapted\\nto it the man. In furtherance of this choice, it so happened\\nthat a ship lay in the harbor; one of those questionable cruis-\\ners, frequent at that day, which, without being absolutely outlaws\\nof the deep, yet roamed over its surface with a remarkable irre-\\nsponsibility of character. This vessel had recently arrived from\\nthe Spanish Main, and, within three days time, would sail for\\nBristol. Hester Prynne whose vocation, as a self-enlisted\\nSister of Charity, had brought her acquainted with the captain\\nand crew could take upon herself to secure the passage of\\ntwo individuals and a child, with all the secrecy which circum-\\nstances rendered more than desirable.\\nThe minister had inquired of Hester, with no little interest,\\nthe precise time at which the vessel might be expected to\\ndepart. It would probably be on the fourth day from the pres-\\nent. That is most fortunate he had then said to himself.\\nNow, Avhy the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale considered it so very\\nfortunate, M e hesitate to reveal. Nevertheless, to hold noth-\\ning back from the render, it was because, on the third dny\\nfrom the present, he was to preach the Election Sermon and,\\nas such an occasion formed an honorable epoch in the life of", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0305.jp2"}, "284": {"fulltext": "2G6 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\na New England clergyman^ lie could not have chanced upon a\\nmore suitable mode and time of terminating liis professional\\ncareer. At least, they shall say of me/ thought this exem-\\nplary man, that I leave no public duty miperformed, nor ill\\njierformed Sad, indeed, that an introspection so profound\\nand acute as this poor mhiister s should be so miserably deceived\\nWe have had, and may still have, worse things to tell of him;\\nbut none, we apprehend, so pitiably weak; no evidence, at once\\nso slight and irrefragable, of a subtle disease, that had long\\nsince begun to eat into the real substance of his character. No\\nman, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself,\\nand another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered\\nas to which may be the true.\\nThe excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale^s feelings, as he returned\\nfrom his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical\\nenergy, and hurried him townward at a rapid pace. Tlie path-\\nway among the woods seemed wilder, more uncouth with its\\nrude natural obstacles, and less trodden by the foot of man,\\nthan he remembered it on his outward journey. But he leaped\\nacross the plashy places, thrust himself through the clinging\\nunderbrush, climbed the ascent, plunged into the hollow, and\\novercame, in short, all the difficulties of the track, with an\\nunweai-iable activity that astonished him. He could not but\\nrecall how feebW, and with Avhat frequent pauses for breath, he\\nhad toiled over the same ground, only two days before. As he\\ndrew near the town, he took an impression of change from the\\nseries of familiar objects that presented themselves. It seemed\\nnot yesterday, not one, nor two, but many days, or even years\\nago, since he had cpiitted them. There, indeed, was each former\\ntrace of the street, as he remembered it, and all the peculiarities", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0306.jp2"}, "285": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 267\\nof the houses, wath the due multitude of gable-peaks, and a\\nweathercock at every point Avhere his memory suggested one.\\nNot the less, however, came this importunately obtrusive sense\\nof change. The same was true as regarded the acquaintances\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0w4iom he met, and all the well-known shapes of human life,\\nabout the little town. They looked neither older nor younger\\nnow the beards of the aged were no whiter, nor could the\\ncreeping babe of yesterday walk on his feet to-day it was\\nimpossible to describe in what respect they differed from the\\nindividuals on whom he had so recently bestowed a parting\\nglance and yet the minister s deepest sense seemed to inform\\nhim of their mutability, A similar impression struck him most\\nremarkably, as he jmssed under the walls of his own church.\\nThe edifice had so very strange, and yet so familiar, an aspect,\\nthat Mr. Dimmesdale s mind vibrated between two ideas either\\nthat he had seen it only in a dream hitherto, or that he was\\nmerely dreaming about it now.\\nThis phenomenon, in the various shapes which it assumed,\\nindicated no external change, but so sudden and important a\\nchange in the spectator of the familiar scene, that the interven-\\ning space of a single day had operated on his consciousness like\\nthe lapse of years. The minister s own will, and Hester s will,\\nand the fate that grew between them, had wrought this trans-\\nformation. It was the same town as heretofore but the same\\nminister returned not from the forest. He might have said to\\nthe friends who greeted him, I am not the man for whom\\nyou take me I left him yonder in the forest, -snthdrawn into\\na secret dell, by a mossy tree-trunk, and near a melancholy\\nbrook Go, seek your minister, and see if his emaciated figure,\\nhis thin cheek, his white, heavy, pain-wrinkled brow, be not", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0307.jp2"}, "286": {"fulltext": "268 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nflung clown there, like a cast-ofF garment His friends, no\\ndoubt, would still have insisted with him, Thou art thyself\\nthe man! but the error would have been their own, not his.\\nBefore Mr. Dimmesdale reached home, his inner man gave\\nhim other evidences of a revolution in the sphere of thought\\nand feeling. In truth, nothing short of a total change of\\ndynasty and moral code, in that interior kingdom, was adequate\\nto account for the impulses now communicated to the unfortu-\\nnate and startled minister. At every step he was incited to do\\nsome strange, wild, wicked thing or other, with a sense that it\\nwould be at once involuntary and intentional in spite of him-\\nself, yet growing out of a profounder self than that which\\nopposed the impulse. For instance, he met one of his own\\ndeacons. The good old man addressed him with the paternal\\naffection and patriarchal privilege, which his venerable age, his\\nupright and holy character, and his station in the Church,\\nentitled him to use and, conjoined with this, the deep, almost\\nworshipping respect, which the minister s professional and private\\nclaims alike demanded. Never was there a more beautiful\\nexample of how the majesty of age and wisdom may comport\\nwith the obeisance and respect enjoined upon it, as from a\\nlower social rank, and inferior order of endowment, towards\\na higher. Now, during a conversation of some two or three\\nmoments between the Eeverend Mr. Dimmesdale and this excel-\\nlent and hoary-bearded deacon, it was only by the most careful\\nself-control that the former could refrain from uttering certain\\nblasphemous suggestions that rose into his mind, respecting the\\ncommunion supper. Pie absolutely trembled and turned pale as\\nashes, lest his tongue should wag itself, in utterance of these\\nhorrible matters, and plead his own consent for so doing, with-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0308.jp2"}, "287": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 269\\nout his having fairlv given it. And^ even with this terror in\\nhis heart, he could hardly avoid laughing, to imagine how the\\nsanctified old patriarchal deacon would have been petrified by\\nhis minister s impiety\\nAgain, another incident of the same nature. Hurrying along\\nthe street, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale encountered the eldest\\nfemale member of his church a most pious and exemplary old\\ndame poor, widowed, lonely, and with a heart as full of\\nreminiscences about her dead husband and children, and her\\ndead friends of long ago, as a burial-ground is full of storied\\ngravestones. Yet all this, which would else have been such\\nheavy sorrow, was made almost a solemn joy to her devout old\\nsoul, by religious consolations and the truths of Scripture,\\nwherewith she had fed herself continually for more than thirty\\nyears. And, since Mr. Dimmesdale had taken her in charge,\\nthe good grandam s chief earthly comfort which, unless it had\\nbeen likewise a heavenly comfort, could have been none at all\\nwas to meet her pastor, whether casually, or of set purpose,\\nand be refreshed with a word of warm, fragrant, heaven-breath-\\ning Gospel truth, from his beloved lips, into her dulled, but\\nrapturously attentive ear. But, on this occasion, up to the\\nmoment of putting his lips to the old woman s ear, Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale, as the great enemy of souls would have it, could recall no\\ntext of Scripture, nor aught else, except a brief, pithy, and, as\\nit then appeared to him, unanswerable argument against the\\nimmortality of the human soul. The instilment thereof into her\\nmind would probably have caused this aged sister to drop doAvn\\ndead, at once, as by the eff ect of an intensely poisonous infusion.\\nWhat he really did whisper, the minister could never afterwards\\nrecollect. There was, perhaps, a fortunate disorder in his utter-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0309.jp2"}, "288": {"fulltext": "270 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nance, which failed to impart any distinct idea to the good\\nwidow^s comprehension, or wliich Providence interpreted after a\\nmethod of its own. Assuredly, as the minister looked back, he\\nbeheld an expression of divine gratitude and ecstasy that seemed\\nlike the shine of the celestial city on her face, so wrinkled and\\nashy pale.\\nAgain, a third instance. After parting from the old church-\\nmember, he met the youngest sister of them all. It was a\\nmaiden newly Avon and won by the Keverend Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale s own sermon, on the Sabbath after his vigil to barter\\nthe transitory pleasures of the world for the heavenly hope, that\\nwas to assume brighter substance as life grew dark around her,\\nand which would gild the utter gloom with final glory. She\\nwas fair and pure as a lily that had bloomed in Paradise. The\\nminister knew well that he was himself enshrined within the\\nstainless sanctity of her heart, which hung its snowy curtains,\\nabout his image, imparting to religion the warmth of love, and\\nto love a religious purity. Satan, that afternoon, had surely led\\nthe poor young girl away from her mother s side, and thrown\\nher into the patliway of this sorely tempted, or shall we not\\nrather say this lost and desperate man. As she drew nigh,\\nthe arch-fiend whispered him to condense into small compass\\nand drop into her tender bosom a germ of evil that would be\\nsure to blossom darkly soon, and bear black fruit betimes. Such\\nwas his sense of power over this virgin soul, trusting him as\\nshe did, that the minister felt potent to blight all the field of\\ninnocence with but one wicked look, and develop all its opposite\\nwith but a word. So with a mightier struggle than he had\\nyet sustained he held his Geneva cloak before his face, and\\nhurried onward, making no sign of recognition, and leaving the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0310.jp2"}, "289": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 271\\nyoung sister to digest his rudeness as she might. She ransacked\\nher conscience^ which was full of harmless little matters, like\\nher pocket or her work-bag, and took herself to task, poor\\nthing for a thousand imaginary faults and went about her\\nhousehold duties with swollen eyelids the next morning.\\nBefore the minister had time to celebrate his victory over this\\nlast temptation, he was conscious of another impulse, more ludi-\\ncrous, and almost as horrible. It was, we blush to tell it,\\nit was to stop short in the road, and teach some very wicked\\nwords to a knot of little Puritan children who were playing\\nthere, and had but just begun to talk. Denying himself this\\nfreak, as unworthy of his cloth, he met a drunken seaman, one\\nof the ship s crew from the Spanish Main. And, here, since\\nhe had so valiantly forborne all other wickedness, poor Mr.\\nDimmesdale longed, at least, to shake hands with the tarry\\nblackguard, and recreate himself with a few improper jests, such\\nas dissolute sailors so abound with, and a volley of good, round,\\nsolid, satisfactory, and heaven-defying oaths It was not so\\nmuch a better principle as partly his natural good taste, and\\nstill more his buckramed habit of clerical decorum, that carried\\nhim safely through the latter crisis.\\nWhat is it that haunts and tempts me thus cried the\\nminister to himself, at length, pausing in the street, and strik-\\ning his hand against his forehead. Am I mad? or am I given\\nover utterly to the fiend? Did I make a contract with him\\nin the forest, and sign it with my blood? And does he now\\nsummon me to its fulfilment, by suggesting the performance\\nof every wickedness which his most foul imagination can con-\\nceive\\nAt the moment when the Eeverend Mr. Dimmesdale thus", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0311.jp2"}, "290": {"fulltext": "272 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ncommuned with himself, and struck his forehead with his hand,\\nold Mistress Hibbins, the reputed witch-lady, is said to have\\nbeen passing by. She made a very grand appearance having\\non a high head-dress, a rich gown of velvet, and a ruff done up\\nwith the famous yellow starch, of which Ann Turner, her espe-\\ncial friend, had taught her the secret, before this last good lady\\nhad been hanged for Sir Thomas Overbury s murder. Whether\\nthe witch had read the minister s thoughts, or no, she came to\\na full stop, ^looked shrewdly into his face, smiled craftily, and\\nthough little given to converse with clergymen began a con-\\nversation.\\nSo, reverend Sir, you have made a visit into the forest,\\nobserved the witch-lady, nodding her high head-dress at him.\\nThe next time, I pray you to allow me only a fair warning,\\nand I shall be proud to bear you company. Without taking\\novermuch upon myself, my good word will go far towards gain-\\ning any strange gentleman a fair reception from yonder potentate\\nyou wot of\\nI profess, madam, answered the clergyman, with a grave\\nobeisance, such as the lady s rank demanded, and his own good-\\nbreeding made imperative, I profess, on my conscience and\\ncharacter, that I am utterly bewildered as touching the purport\\nof your words I went not into the forest to seek a potentate\\nneither do I, at any future time, design a visit thither, with a\\nview to gaining the favor of such a personage. My one suffi-\\ncient object was to greet that pious friend of mine, the A])ostle\\nEliot, and rejoice with him over the many precious souls he\\nhath won from heathendom\\nHa, ha, ha cackled the old witch-lady, still nodding her\\nhigh head-dress at the minister. Well, well, we must needs", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0312.jp2"}, "291": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 273\\ntalk thus in the daytime You carry it off like an old hand\\nBut at midnight, and in the forest, we shall have other talk\\ntogether\\nShe passed on with her aged stateliness, but often turning\\nback her head and smihng at him, like one willing to recognize\\na secret intimacy of connection.\\nHave I then sold myself, thought the minister, to the\\nfiend whom, if men say true, this yelloAv-starched and velveted\\nold hag has chosen for her prince and master\\nThe wretched minister He had made a bargain very like\\nit Tempted by a dream of happiness, he had yielded himself,\\nwith deliberate choice, as he had never done before, to what he\\nknew was deadly sin. And the infectious poison of that sin\\nhad been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system. It\\nhad stupefied all blessed impulses, and awakened into vivid life\\nthe whole brotherhood of bad ones. Scorn, bitterness, unj)ro-\\nvoked malignity, gratuitous desire of ill, ridicule of whatever\\nwas good and holy, all awoke, to tempt, even while they fright-\\nened him. And his encounter with old Mistress Hibbins, if it\\nwere a real incident, did but show his sympathy and fellowship\\nwith wicked mortals, and the world of perverted spirits.\\nHe had, by this time, reached his dwelling, on the edge of\\nthe burial-ground, and, hastening up the stairs, took refuge in\\nhis study. The minister was glad to have reached this shelter,\\nwithout first betraying himself to the world by any of those\\nstrange and wicked eccentricities to which he had been con-\\ntinually impelled Avhile passing through the streets. He entered\\nthe accustomed room, and looked around him on its books, its\\nwandows, its fireplace, and the tapestried comfort of the walls,\\nwith the same perception of strangeness that had haunted him", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0313.jp2"}, "292": {"fulltext": "27-i THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthroughout his walk from the forest-dell into the town, and\\nthitherward. Here he had studied and written; here, gone\\nthrougli fast and vigil, and come forth half alive; here, striven\\nto pray here, borne a hundred thousand agonies There was\\nthe Bible, in its rich old Hebrew, with Moses and the Prophets\\nspeaking to him, and God s voice through all There, on the\\ntable, with the inky pen beside it, was an unfinished sermon,\\nwith a sentence broken in the midst, where his thoughts had\\nceased to gush out upon the page, two days before. He knew\\nthat it was himself, the thin and white-cheeked minister, who\\nhad done and suffered these things, and written thus far into\\nthe Election Sermon But he seemed to stand apart, and eye\\nthis former self with scornful, pitying, but half-envious curiosity.\\nThat self was gone. Another man had returned out of the forest\\na Aviser one; with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the\\nsimplicity of the former never could have reached. A bitter\\nkind of knowledge that\\nWhile occupied with these reflections, a knock came at the\\ndoor of the study, and the minister said, Come in not\\nwholly devoid of an idea that he might behold an evil spirit.\\nAnd so he did It was old Eoger Chillingworth that entered.\\nThe minister stood, Avhite and speechless, with one hand on the\\nHebrew Scriptures, and the other spread upon his breast.\\nWelcome home, reverend Sir, said the physician. And how\\nfound you that godly man, the Apostle Eliot? But methinks,\\ndear Sir, you look pale as if the travel through the wilderness had\\nbeen too sore for you. Will not my aid be requisite to put\\nyou in heart and strength to preach your Election Sermon\\nNay, I think not so, rejoined the Eeverend Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale. My journey, and the sight of the holy Apostle yonder.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0314.jp2"}, "293": {"fulltext": "THE MINISTER IN A MAZE. 275\\nand the free air which I have breathed, have done me good,\\nafter so long confinement in my study. I think to need no\\nmore of your drugs, my kind physician, good though they be,\\nand administered by a friendly hand/\\nAll this time, Eoger Chillingworth was looking at the min-\\nister with the grave and intent regard of a physician towards\\nhis patient. But, in spite of this outward show, the latter was\\nalmost convinced of the old man s knowledge, or, at least, his\\nconfident suspicion, with respect to his own interview with Hester\\nPrynne. The physician knew then, that, in the minister s regard,\\nhe was no longer a trusted friend, but his bitterest enemy. So\\nmuch being known, it would appear natural that a part of it\\nshould be expressed. It is singular, however, how long a time\\noften passes before words embody things; and with what security\\ntwo persons, who choose to avoid a certain subject, may approach\\nits very verge, and retire without disturbing it. Thus, the\\nminister felt no apprehension that Roger Chillingworth would\\ntouch, in express words, upon the real position which they sus-\\ntained towards one another. Yet did the physician, in his dark\\nway, creep frightfully near the secret.\\nWere it not better, said he, ^that you use my poor skill\\nto-night? Verily, dear Sir, we must take pains to make you\\nstrong and vigorous for this occasion of the Election discourse.\\nThe people look for great things from you; apprehending that\\nanother year may come about, and find their pastor gone.\\nYea, to another Avorld, replied the minister, with pious\\nresignation. Heaven grant it be a better one for, in good\\nsooth, I hardly think to tarry with my flock through the flitting\\nseasons of another year But, touching your medicine, kind\\nSir, in my present frame of body, I need it not.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0315.jp2"}, "294": {"fulltext": "276 THE SCAULET LETTER.\\nI joy to hear it/^ answered the physician. It may be\\nthat my remedies^ so long administered in vain, begin now to\\ntake due etfect. Happy man were I, and well deserving of New\\nEngland s gratitude, could I achieve this cure\\nI thank you from my heart, most watchful friend/ said the\\nEeverend Mr. Dimmesdale, with a solemn smile. I thank you,\\nand can but requite your good deeds with my prayers.\\nA good man s prayers are golden recompense rejoined\\nold Eoger Chillingworth, as he took his leave. Yea, they are\\nthe current gold coin of the New Jerusalem, with the King s\\nown mint-mark on them\\nLeft alone, the minister summoned a servant of the house,\\nand requested food, which, being set before him, he ate with\\nravenous ajipetite. Then, flinging the already Avritten pages of\\nthe Election Sermon into the fire, he forthwith began another,\\nwhich he wrote with such an impulsive flow of thought and\\nemotion, that he fancied himself inspired; and only wondered\\nthat Heaven should see fit to transmit the grand and solemn\\nmusic of its oracles through so foul an organ-pipe as he. How-\\never, leaving that mystery to solve itself, or go unsolved forever,\\nhe drove his task onward, with earnest haste and ecstasy. Thus\\nthe night fled away, as if it were a winged steed, and he career-\\ning on it; morning came, and peeped, blushing, through the\\ncurtains and at last sunrise threw a golden beam into the\\nstudy and laid it right across the minister s bedazzled eyes.\\nThere he was, with the pen still between his fingers, and a vast,\\nimmeasurable tract of written space behind him", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0316.jp2"}, "295": {"fulltext": "XXI.\\nTHE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY.\\n*ETIMES in the morning of the day on which\\nthe new Governor was to receive his office at\\nthe hands of the people^ Hester Pryune and\\nlittle Pearl came into the market-place. It\\nwas already thronged with the craftsmen and\\nother plebeian inhabitants of the town, in\\nconsiderable numbers among whom, likewise, were many rough\\nfigures, whose attire of deer-skins marked them as belonging to\\nsome of the forest settlements, which surrounded the little metrop-\\nolis of the colony.\\nOn this pablic holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven\\nyears past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth.\\nNot more by its hue than by some indescribable peculiarity in\\nits fashion, it had the effect of making her fade personally out\\nof sight and outline while, again, the scarlet letter brought\\nher back from this twilight indistinctness, and revealed her\\nunder the moral aspect of its own illumination. Her face, so\\nlong familiar to the towns-people, showed the marble quietude\\nwhich they were accustomed to behold there. It was like a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0317.jp2"}, "296": {"fulltext": "278 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nmask or, rather, like the frozen calmness of a dead woman s\\nfeatures owing this dreary resemblance to the fact that Hester\\nwas actually dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy, and\\nhad departed out of the world with which she still seemed to\\nmingle.\\nIt might be, on this one day, that there was an expression\\nunseen before, nor, indeed, vivid enough to be detected now\\nuidess some preternaturally gifted observer should have first read\\nthe heart, and have afterwards sought a corresponding develop-\\nment in the countenance and mien. Such a spiritual seer might\\nhave conceived, that, after sustaining the gaze of the multitude\\nthrough seven miserable years as a necessity, a penance, and\\nsomething which it was a stern religion to endure, she now, for\\none last time more, encountered it freely and voluntarily, in\\norder to convert what had so long been agony into a kind of\\ntriumph. Look your last on the scarlet letter and its wearer!\\nthe people s victim and life-long bond-slave, as they fancied\\nher, might say to them. Yet a little while, and she will be\\nbeyond your reach A few hours longer, and the deep, mys-\\nterious ocean will quench and hide forever the symbol which ye\\nhave caused to burn upon her bo?om Nor were it an incon-\\nsistency too improbable to be assigned to human nature, should\\nwe suppose a feeling of regret in Hester s mind, at the moment\\nwhen she was about to win her freedom from the pain which\\nhad been thus deeply incorporated with her being. Might there\\nnot be an irresistible desire to quaff a last, long, breathless\\ndraught of the cup of wormwood and aloes, with which nearly\\nall her years of womanhood had been perpetually flavored? The\\nwine of life, henceforth to be presented to her lips, must be\\nindeed rich, delicious, and exhilarating, in its chased and golden", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0318.jp2"}, "297": {"fulltext": "THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY. 279\\nbeaker or else leave an inevitable and weary languor, after the\\nlees of bitterness wherewith she had been drugged, as with a\\ncordial of intensest potency.\\nPearl was decked out with airy gayety. It would have been\\nimpossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed\\nits existence to the shape of gloomy gray; or that a fancy, at\\nonce so gorgeous and so delicate as must have been requisite to\\ncontrive the child^s apparel, was the same that had achieved a\\ntask perhaps more difficult, in imparting so distinct a peculiarity\\nto Hester^s simple robe. The dress, so proper was it to little\\nPearl, seemed an effluence, or inevitable development and out-\\nward manifestation of her character, no more to be separated\\nfrom her than the many-hued brilliancy from a butterfly s wing,\\nor the painted glory from the leaf of a bright flower. As with\\nthese, so with the child; her garb was all of one idea with her\\nnature. On this eventful day, moreover, there was a certain\\nsingular inquietude and excitement in her mood, resembling\\nnothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond, that sparkles\\nand flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on which\\nit is displayed. Children have always a sympathy in the agita-\\ntions of tlio?e connected with them always, especially, a sense\\nof any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in\\ndomestic circumstances and therefore Pearl, who was the gem\\non her mother s unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of\\nher spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble\\npassiveness of Hester s brow.\\nThis efl^ervescence made her flit with a birdlike movement,\\nrather than walk by her mother s side. She brbke continually\\ninto shouts of a wild, inarticulate, and sometimes piercing music.\\nWhen they reached the market-place, she became still more rest-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0319.jp2"}, "298": {"fulltext": "280 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nlessj on perceiving the stir and bustle that enlivened the spot;\\nfor it was usually more like the broad and lonesome green\\nbefore a village meeting-house^ than the centre of a town s\\nbusiness.\\nWhjj what is this, mother? cried she. Wherefore have\\nall the people left their work to-day? Is it a play-day for the\\nwhole world See, there is the blacksmith He has washed\\nhis sooty face, and put on his Sabbath-day clothes, and looks\\nas if he would gladly be merry, if any kind body would only\\nteach him how! And there is Master Brackett, the old jailer,\\nnodding and smiling at me. Why does he do so, mother\\nHe remembers thee a little babe, my child, answered\\nHester,\\nHe should not nod and smile at me, for all that, the\\nblack, grim, ugly-eyed old man said Pearl. He may nod\\nat thee, if he will; for thou art clad in gray, and wearest the\\nscarlet letter. But see, mother, how many faces of strange\\npeople, and Indians among them, and sailors What have they\\nall come to do, here in the market-place?\\nThey wait to see the procession pass, said Hester. For\\nthe Governor and the magistrates are to go by, and the minis-\\nters, and all the great people and good people, with the music\\nand the soldiers marching before them.\\nAnd will the minister be there asked Pearl. And\\nwill he hold out both his hands to me, as when thou ledst me\\nto him from the brook-side\\nHe will be there, child, answered her mother. But he\\nwill not greet thee to-day; nor must thou greet him.\\nWhat a strange, sad man is he said the child, as if speak-\\ning partly to herself. In the dark night-time he calls us to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0320.jp2"}, "299": {"fulltext": "THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY. 281\\nliim, and holds thy hand and mine, as when we stood with him\\non the scaffold yonder. And in the deep forest, where only the\\nold trees can hear, and the strip of sky see it, he talks with\\nthee, sitting on a heap of moss And he kisses my forehead,\\ntoo, so that the little brook would hardly wash it off But\\nhere, in the sunny day, and among all the people, he knows\\nus not nor must we know him A strange, sad man is he,\\nwith his hand always over his heart\\nBe quiet. Pearl Thou understandest not these things,\\nsaid her mother. Think not now of the minister, but look\\nabout thee, and see how cheery is everybody s face to-day. The\\nchildren have come from their schools, and the grown people\\nfrom their workshops and their fields, on purpose to be happy.\\nFor, to-day, a new man is beginning to rule over them; and\\nso as has been the custom of mankind ever shice a nation\\nwas first gathered they make merry and rejoice; as if a good\\nand golden year were at length to pass over the poor old\\nworld\\nIt was as Hester said, in regard to the unwonted jollity that\\nbrightened the faces of the people. Into this festal season of\\nthe year as it already was, and continued to be during the\\ngreater part of two centuries the Puritans compressed what-\\never mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human\\ninfirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that,\\nfor the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more\\ngrave than most other commmiities at a period of general\\naffliction.\\nBut we perhaps exaggerate the gray or sable tinge, which\\nundoubtedly characterized the mood and manners of the age.\\nThe persons now in the market-place of Boston had not been", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0321.jp2"}, "300": {"fulltext": "282 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nborn to an inheritance of Puritanic gloom. They were native\\nEnglishmen, whose fathers had lived in the sunny richness of the\\nElizabethan epoch a time when the Hie of England, viewed as\\none great mass, would appear to have been as stately, magniii-\\ncent, and joyous, as the world has ever Avitnessed. Had they\\nfollowed their hereditary taste, the New England settlers would\\nhave illustrated all events of public importance by bonfires, ban-\\nquets, pageantries, and processions. Nor would it have been\\nimpracticable, in the observance of majestic ceremonies, to com-\\nbine mirthful recreation with solemnity, and give, as it were,\\na grotesque and brilliant embroidery to the great robe of\\nstate, Avhich a nation, at such festivals, puts on. There Avas\\nsome shadow of an attempt of this kind in the mode of cele-\\nbrating the day on which the political year of the colony\\ncommenced. The dim reflection of a remembered splendor, a\\ncolorless and manifold diluted repetition of what they had beheld\\nin proud old London, we will not say at a royal coronation,\\nbut at a Lord Mayor s show, might be traced in the cus-\\ntoms which our forefathers instituted, with reference to the\\nannual installation of magistrates. The fathers and founders\\nof the commonwealth the statesman, the priest, and the sol-\\ndier deemed it a duty then to assume the outward state and\\nmajesty, which, in accordance with antique style, Avas looked\\nupon as the proper garb of public or social eminence. All came\\nforth, to move in procession before the people s eye, and thus\\nimpart a needed dignity to the simple framework of a govern-\\nment so newly constructed.\\nThen, too, the people were countenanced, if not encouraged,\\nin relaxing tlie severe and close application to their various\\nmodes of rugged industry, Avhich, at all other times, seemed of", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0322.jp2"}, "301": {"fulltext": "THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY. 283\\nthe same piece and material with their religion. Here, it is\\ntrue, were none of the applicances which popular merriment\\nM ould so readily have found in the England of Elizabeth s\\ntime, or that of James no rude shows of a theatrical kind\\nno minstrel, with his harp and legendary ballad, nor gleeman,\\nwith an ape dancing to his music no juggler, mth his tricks\\nof mimic witchcraft; no Merry Andrew, to stir up the multi-\\ntude with jests, perhaps hundreds of years old, but still effective,\\nby their appeals to the very broadest sources of mirthful sym-\\npathy. All such professors of the several branches of jocularity\\nwould have been sternly repressed, not only by the rigid disci-\\npline of law, but by the general sentiment which gives law its\\nvitality. Not the less, however, the great, honest face of the\\npeople smiled, grimly, perhaps, but widely too. Nor were sports\\nwanting, such as the colonists had witnessed, and shared in, long\\nago, at the country fairs and on the village-greens of England\\nand which it was thought well to keep alive on this new soil,\\nfor the sake of the courage and manliness that were essential\\nin them. Wrestling-matches, in the different fashions of Cornwall\\nand Devonshire, were seen here and there about the market-\\nplace; in one corner, there was a friendly bout at quarterstaff;\\nand what attracted most interest of all on the platform of\\nthe pillory, already so noted in our pages, two masters of defence\\nwere commencing an exhibition with the buckler and broadsword.\\nBut, much to the disappointment of the crowd, this latter busi-\\nness was broken off by the interposition of the town beadle,\\nwho had no idea of permitting the majesty of the law to be\\nviolated by such an abuse of one of its consecrated places.\\nIt may not be too much to affirm, on the whole, (the people\\nbeing then in the first stages of joyless deportment, and the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0323.jp2"}, "302": {"fulltext": "284 THE SCAULET LETTER.\\noffspring of sires who had known how to be merry, in their\\nclay,) that they would compare favorably, in point of holiday\\nkeeping, with their descendants, even at so long an interval as\\nourselves. Their immediate posterity, the generation next to the\\nearly emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so\\ndarkened the national visage with it, that all the subsequent\\nyears have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn\\nagain the forgotten art of gayety.\\nThe picture of human life in the market-place, though its\\ngeneral tint was the sad gray, brown, or black of the English\\nemigrants, was yet enlivened by some diversity of hue. A party\\nof Indians in their savage finery of curiously embroidered\\ndeer-skin robes, wampum-belts, red and yellow ochre, and\\nfeathers, and armed with the bow and arrow and stone-headed\\nspear stood apart, with countenances of inflexible gravity,\\nbeyond what even the Puritan aspect could attain. Nor, wild\\nas were these painted barbarians, were they the wildest feature\\nof the scene. This distinction could more justly be claimed by\\nsome mariners, a part of the crew of the vessel from the\\nSpanish Main, who had come ashore to see the humors of\\nElection Day. They were rough-looking desperadoes, with sun-\\nblackened faces, and an immensity of beard their wide, short\\ntrousers AA ere confined about the waist by belts, often clasped\\nAvith a rough plate of gold, and sustaining always a long knife,\\nand, in some instances, a sword. From beneath their broad-\\nbrimmed hats of palm-leaf gleamed eyes which, even in good-\\nnature and merriment, had a kind of animal ferocity. Tliey\\ntransgressed, without fear or scruple, the rules of behavior that\\nwere binding on all others smoking tobacco under the headless\\nvery nose, although each whiff would have cost a townsman a", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0324.jp2"}, "303": {"fulltext": "THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY. 285\\nshilling; and quaffing, at tlieir pleasure_, draughts of wine or\\naqua-vitae from pocket-flasks, which they freelj tendered to the\\ngaping crowd around them. It remarkably characterized the\\nincomplete morality of the age, rigid as we call it, that a license\\nwas allowed the seafaring class, not merely for their freaks on\\nshore, but for far more desperate deeds on their proper element.\\nThe sailor of that day would go near to be arraigned as a\\npirate in our own. There could be little doubt, for instance,\\nthat this very ship s crew, though no unfavorable specimens of\\nthe nautical brotherhood, had been guilty, as we should phrase\\nit, of depredations on the Spanish commerce, such as would\\nhave perilled all their necks in a modem court of justice.\\nBut the sea, in those old times, heaved, swelled, and foamed,\\nvery much at its own will, or subject only to the tempestuous\\nwind, with hardly any attempts at regulation by human law.\\nThe buccaneer on the wave might relinquish his calling, and\\nbecome at once, if he chose, a man of probity and piety on\\nland nor, even in the full career of his reckless life, was he\\nregarded as a personage with whom it was disreputable to traffic,\\nor casually associate. Thus, the Puritan elders, in their black\\ncloaks, starched bands, and steeple-crowned hats, smiled not\\nunbenignantly at the clamor and rude deportment of these jolly\\nseafaring men and it excited neither surprise nor animadversion,\\nwhen so reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingworth, the\\nphysician, was seen to enter the market-place, in close and\\nfamiliar talk with the commander of the questionable vessel.\\nThe latter was by far the most showy and gallant figure, so\\nfar as apparel went, anywhere to be seen among the multitude.\\nHe wore a profusion of ribbons on his garment, and gold-lace\\non his hat, v/hich was also encircled by a gold chain, and sur-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0325.jp2"}, "304": {"fulltext": "286 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nmounted witli a feather. There svas a sword at liis side, and a\\nsword-cut on his forehead, which, by the arrangement of his\\nhair, he seemed anxious rather to display than hide. A lands-\\nman could hardly have worn this garb and shown this face, and\\nworn and shown them both with such a galliard air, without\\nundergoing stern question before a magistrate, and probably\\nincurring fine or imprisonment, or perhaps an exhibition in the\\nstocks. As regarded the shipmaster, however, all was looked\\nupon as pertaining to the character, as to a fish his glistening\\nscales.\\nAfter parting from the physician, the commander of tlie Bristol\\nship strolled idly througli the market-place; until, happening to\\napproach the spot where Hester Prynne was standing, he appeared\\nto recognize, and did not hesitate to address her. As was usually\\ntlie case wherever Hester stood, a small vacant area a sort of\\nmagic circle had formed itself about her, into which, though\\nthe people were elbowing one another at a little distance, none\\nventured, or felt disposed to intrude. It was a forcible type of\\nthe moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated\\nwearer; partly by her own reserve, and partly by the instinc-\\ntive, though no longer so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-\\ncreatures. Now, if never before, it answered a good purpose,\\nby enabling Hester and the seaman to speak together without\\nrisk of being overheard; and so changed was Hester Prynne s\\nrepute before the public, that the matron in town most eminent\\nfor rigid morality could not have held such intercourse with less\\nresult of scandal than herself.\\nSo, mistress,* said the mariner, I must bid the steward\\nmake ready one more berth than you bargained for No fear\\nof scurvy or ship-fever, this voyage What with the ship s", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0326.jp2"}, "305": {"fulltext": "THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY.\\n287\\nsurgeon and this other doctor, our only danger will be from\\ndrug or pill; more by token, as there is a lot of apothecary s\\nstuff aboard, which I traded for with a Spanish vessel.\\nWhat mean you inquired Hester, startled more tlian she\\npermitted to appear. Have you another passenger\\nWhy, know you not, cried the shipmaster, that this j)]iy-\\nsician here Chillingworth, he calls himself is minded to try\\nmy cabin-fare with you\\nAy, ay, you must have\\nkno^vn it; for he tells\\nme he is of your party,\\nand a close friend to the\\ngentleman you spoke of,\\nhe that is in peril\\nfrom these sour old Pu-\\nritan rulers\\nThey know each\\nother well, indeed, re-\\nplied Hester, with a\\nmien of calmness, though\\nin the utmost conster-\\nnation. They have long dwelt together.\\nNothing further passed between the mariner and Hester Prynne.\\nBut, at that instant, she beheld old Eoger Chillingworth himself,\\nstanding in the remotest corner of the market-place, and smiling\\non her; a smile which across the wide and bustling square,\\nand through all the talk and laughter, and various thoughts,\\nmoods, and interests of the crowd conveyed secret and fearful\\nmeaning.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0327.jp2"}, "306": {"fulltext": "XXII.\\nTHE PROCESSION.\\n^u^jfps^EEOEE Hester Prvnne could call together her\\nthoughts, aud consider what was practicable\\nto be done in this new and startling aspect\\nof afFairS; the sound of military music was\\nheard approaching along a contiguous street.\\nIt denoted the advance of the procession of\\nmagistrates and citizens^, on its way towards the meeting-house\\nwhere, in compliance with a custom thus early established, and\\never since observed, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was to deliver\\nan Election Sermon.\\nSoon the head of the procession showed itself, with a slow\\nand stately march, turning a corner, and making its way across\\nthe market-place. First came the music. It comprised a variety\\nof intruments, perhaps imperfectly adapted to one another, and\\nplayed with no great skill but yet attaining the great object\\nfor which the harmony of drum and clarion addresses itself to\\nthe multitude, that of imparting a higher and more heroic air\\nto the scene of life that passes before the eye. Little Pearl at\\nfirst clapped her hands, but then lost, for an instant, the rest-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0328.jp2"}, "307": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION.\\n289\\nless agitation that had kept her in a continual effervescence\\nthroughout the morning; she gazed silently, and seemed to be\\nborne upward, like a floating sea-bird, on the long heaves and\\nswells of sound. But she was brought back to her former\\nmood by the shimmer of the sunshine on the weapons and bright\\narmor of the military company, which followed after the music,\\nand formed the honorary escort of the procession. This body\\nof soldiery which still sustains a corporate existence, and\\nmarches down from past ages with an ancient and honorable\\nfame was composed of no mercenary materials. Its ranks\\nwere filled with\\ngentlemen, who\\nfelt the stirrings\\nof martial im-\\npulse, and sought\\nto establish a\\nkind of College of Arms, where, as in an association of Knights\\nTemplars, they might learn the science, and, so far as peaceful\\nexercise Avould teach them, the practices of war. The high\\nestimation then placed upon the military character might be", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0329.jp2"}, "308": {"fulltext": "290 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nseen in the lofty port of each individual member of the company.\\nSome of them^ indeed, by their services in the Low Countries\\nand on other fields of European warfare, had fairly won their\\ntitle to assume the name and pomp of soldiership. The entire\\narray, moreover, clad in burnished steel, and with plumage nod-\\nding over their bright morions, had a brilliancy of eflject which\\nno modern display can aspire to equal.\\nAnd yet the men of civil eminence, Avho came immediately\\nbehind the military escort, were better worth a thoughtful\\nobserver s eye. Even in outward demeanor, they showed a stamp\\nof majesty that made the warrior s haughty stride look vulgar,\\nif not absurd. It was an age when what we call talent had\\nfar less consideration tlian now, but the massive materials which\\nproduce stability and dignity of character a great deal more.\\nThe people possessed, by hereditary right, the quality of rever-\\nence; which, in their descendants, if it survive at all, exists in\\nsmaller proportion, and with a vastly diminished force, in the\\nselection and estimate of public men. The change may be for\\ngood or ill, and is partly, perhaps, for both. In that old day,\\nthe English settler on these rude shores having left king,\\nnobles, and all degrees of awful rank behind, while still the\\nfaculty and necessity of reverence were strong in him bestowed\\nit on the white hair and venerable brow of age on long-tried\\nintegrity on solid wisdom and sad-colored experience on\\nendowments of that grave and weighty order which gives the\\nidea of permanence, and comes under the general definition of\\nrespectability. These primitive statesmen, therefore, Bradstreet,\\nEndicott, Dudley, Bellingham, and their compeers, who were\\nelevated to power by the early choice of the people, seem to\\nhave been not often briUiant, but distinguished by a ponderous", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0330.jp2"}, "309": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION. 291\\nsobriety, rather than activity of intellect. They had fortitude\\nand self-reliance, and, in time of difficulty or peril, stood up\\nfor the welfare of the state like a line of cliffs against a tem-\\npestuous tide. The traits of character here indicated were well\\nrepresented in the square cast of countenance and large physical\\ndevelopment of the new colonial magistrates. So far as a\\ndemeanor of natural authority was concerned, the mother country\\nneed not have been ashamed to see these foremost men of an\\nactual democracy adopted into the House of Peers, or made\\nthe Privy Council of the sovereign.\\nNext in order to the magistrates came the young and emi-\\nnently distinguished divine, from whose lips the rehgious dis-\\ncourse of the anniversary was expected. His was the profession,\\nat that era, in which intellectual ability displayed itself far more\\nthan in political life; for leaving a higher motive out of the\\nquestion it offered inducements powerful enough, in the almost\\nworshipping respect of the community, to win the most aspiring\\nambition into its service. Even political power as in the case\\nof Increase Mather was within the grasp of a successful priest.\\nIt was the observation of those who beheld him now, that\\nnever, since Mr. Dimmesdale first set his foot on the New\\nEngland shore, had he exhibited such energy as was seen in the\\ngait and air with which he kept his pace in the procession.\\nThere was no feebleness of step, as at other times his frame\\nwas not bent; nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart.\\nYet, if the clergyman were rightly viewed, his strength seemed\\nnot of the body. It might be spiritual, and imjjarted to him\\nby angelic ministrations. It might be the exhilaration of that\\npotent cordial, which is distilled only in the furnace-glow of\\nearnest and long-continued thought. Or, perchance, his sensitive", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0331.jp2"}, "310": {"fulltext": "292 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\ntemperament was invigorated by the loud and piercing music,\\nthat swelled heavenward, and uplifted him on its ascending wave.\\nNevertheless^ so abstracted was his look, it might be questioned\\nwhether Mr. Dimmesdale even heard the music. There was his\\nbody^ moving onward^ and with an unaccustomed force. But\\nwhere was his mind Far and deep in its own region, busying\\nitself, with preternatural activity, to marshal a procession of\\nstately thoughts that were soon to issue thence and so he saw\\nnothing, heard nothing, knew nothing, of what was around him;\\nbut the spiritual element took up the feeble frame, and carried\\nit along, unconscious of the burden, and converting it to spirit\\nlike itself. Men of uncommon intellect, who have grown morbid,\\npossess this occasional power of mighty effort, into which they\\nthrow the life of many days, and then are lifeless for as many\\nmore.\\nHester Prynne, gazing steadfastly at the clergyman, felt a\\ndreary influence come over her, but wherefore or whence she\\nknew not unless that he seemed so remote from her own\\nsphere, and utterly beyond her reach. One glance of recogni-\\ntion, she had imagined, must needs pass between them. She\\nthought of the dim forest, with its little dell of solitude, and\\nlove, and anguish, and the mossy tree-trunk, where, sitting hand\\nin hand, they had mingled their sad and passionate talk with\\nthe melancholy murmur of the brook. How deeply had they\\nknown each other then And was this the man She hardly\\nknew him now He, moving proudly past, enveloped, as it\\nwere, in the rich music, with the procession of majestic and\\nvenerable fathers he, so unattainable in his worldly position,\\nand still more so in that far vista of his unsympathizing\\nthoughts, through which she now beheld him Her spirit sank", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0332.jp2"}, "311": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION. 293\\nwith the idea that all must have been a delusion, and that,\\nvividly as she had dreamed it, there could be no real bond\\nbetwixt the clergyman and herself. And thus much of woman\\nwas there in Hester, that she could scarcely forgive him^\\nleast of all now, wdien the heavy footstep of their approaching\\nFate might be heard, nearer, nearer, nearer for behig able\\nso completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world;\\nwhile she groped darkly, and stretched forth her cold hands,\\nand found him not.\\nPearl either saw and responded to her mother s feelings, or\\nherself felt the remoteness and intangibility that had fallen\\naround the minister. While the procession passed, the child\\nwas uneasy, fluttering up and down, like a bird on the point\\nof taking flight. When the whole had gone by, she looked up\\ninto Hester s face.\\nMother, said she, was that the same minister that kissed\\nme by the brook\\nHold thy peace, dear little Pearl Avhispered her mother.\\nWe must not always talk in the market-place of what hap-\\npens to us in the forest.\\n^I could not be sure that it was he; so strange he looked,\\ncontinued the child. Else I would have run to him, and bid\\nhim kiss me now, before all the jjeople even as he did yonder\\namong the dark old trees. What would the minister have said,\\nmother? Would he have clapped his hand over his heart, and\\nscowled on me, and bid me be gone\\nWhat should he say, Pearl, answered Hester, save that\\nit was no time to kiss, and that kisses are not to be given in\\nthe market-place? Well for thee, foolish child, that thou didst\\nnot speak to him", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0333.jp2"}, "312": {"fulltext": "294 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nAnother shade of the same sentiment, in reference to Mr.\\nDimmesdale, was expressed by a person whose eccentricities\\nor insanity, as we should term it led her to do what few of\\nthe towns-people would have ventured on; to begin a conversa-\\ntion with the wearer of the scarlet letter, in public. It was\\nMistress Hibbins, who, arrayed in great magnificence, with a\\ntriple ruff, a broidered stomacher, a gown of rich velvet, and\\na gold-headed cane, had come forth to see the procession. As\\nthis ancient lady had the renown (which subsequently cost her\\nno less a price than her life) of being a principal actor in all\\nthe works of necromancy that were continually going forward,\\nthe crowd gave way before her, and seemed to fear the touch\\nof her garment, as if it carried the plague among its gorgeous\\nfolds. Seen in conjunction with Hester Prynne, kindly as so\\nmany now felt towards the latter, the dread inspired by Mis-\\ntress Hibbins was doubled, and caused a general movement\\nfrom that part of the market-place in which the two women\\nstood.\\nNow, what mortal imagination could conceive it whis-\\npered the old lady, confidentially, to Hester. Yonder divine\\nman! That saint on earth, as the people uphold him to be,\\nand as I must needs say he really looks Who, now, that\\nsaw him pass in the procession, would think how little while it\\nis since he went forth out of his study, chewing a Hebrew\\ntext of Scripture in his mouth, I warrant, to take an airing\\nin the forest Aha we know what that means, Hester Prynne\\nBut, truly, forsooth, I find it hard to believe him the same\\nman. Many a church-member saw I, walking behind the music,\\nthat has danced in the same measure with me, when Somebody\\nwas fiddler, and, it might be, an Indian powwow or a Lapland", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0334.jp2"}, "313": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION. 295\\nwizard changing hands with us! That is but a trifle, when a\\nwoman knows the world. But this minister! Couldst thou\\nsurely tell, Hester, whether he was the same man that encoun-\\ntered thee on the forest-path?\\nMadam, I know not of what you speak, answered Hester\\nPrynne, feeling Mistress Hibbins to be of infirm mind; yet-\\nstrangely startled and awe-stricken by the confidence with which\\nshe affirmed a personal connection between so many persons (her-\\nself among them) and the Evil One. It is not for me to\\ntalk lightly of a learned and pious minister of the Word, like\\nthe Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale\\nFie, woman, fie cried the old lady, shaking her finger at\\nHester. Dost thou think I have been to the forest so many\\ntimes, and have yet no skill to judge who else has been there\\nYea; though no leaf of the wild garlands, which they wore\\nwhile they danced, be left in their hair! I know thee, Hester;\\nfor I behold the token. We may all see it in the sunshine;\\nand it glows like a red flame in the dark. Thou wearest it\\nopenly; so there need be no question about that. But this\\nminister Let me tell thee, in thine ear When the Black\\nMan sees one of his own servants, signed and sealed, so shy\\nof owning to the bond as is the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, he\\nhath a way of ordering matters so that the mark shall be dis-\\nclosed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world! What is\\nit that the minister seeks to hide, with his hand always over\\nhis heart Ha, Hester Prynne\\nWhat is it, good Mistress Hibbins?- eagerly asked little\\nPearl. Hast thou seen it\\nNo matter, darling responded Mistress Hibbins, making\\nPearl a profound reverence. Thou thyself wilt see it, one time", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0335.jp2"}, "314": {"fulltext": "296 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nor another. Tliey say, child, thou art of the lineage of the\\nPrince of the Air Wilt thou ride with me, some fine night,\\nto see thy father? Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister\\nkeeps his hand over his heart\\nLaughing so shrilly that all the market-place could hear her,\\nthe weird old gentlewoman took her departure.\\nBy this time the preliminary prayer had been offered in the\\nmeeting-house, and the accents of the Reverend Mr. Dirames-\\ndale were heard commencing his discourse. An irresistible feel-\\ning kept Hester near the spot. As the sacred edifice was too\\nmuch thronged to admit another auditor, she took up her posi-\\ntion close beside the scaffold of the pillory. It was in sufficient\\nproximity to bring the whole sermon to her ears, in the shape\\nof an indistinct, but varied, murmur and flow of the minister s\\nvery peculiar voice.\\nThis vocal organ was in itself a rich endowment; insomuch\\nthat a listener, comprehending nothing of the language in which\\nthe preacher spoke, might still have been swayed to and fro by\\nthe mere tone and cadence. Like all other music, it breathed\\npassion and pathos, and emotions high or tender, in a tongue\\nnative to the human heart, wherever educated. Muffled as the\\nsound was by its passage through the church-walls, Hester\\nPrynne listened Avith such intentness, and sympathized so inti-\\nmately, that the sermon had throughout a meaning for her,\\nentirely apart from its indistinguishable words. These, perhaps,\\nif more distinctly heard, might have been only a grosser medium,\\nand have clogged the spiritual sense. Now she caught the low\\nundertone, as of the wind sinking down to repose itself; then\\nascended with it, as it rose through progressive gradations of\\nsweetness and power, until its volume seemed to envelop her", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0336.jp2"}, "315": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION. 297\\nwith an atmosphere of awe and solemn grandeur. And yet,\\nmajestic as the voice sometimes became, there was forever in it\\nan essential character of plaintiveness. A loud or low expres-\\nsion of anguish, the whisper, or the shriek, as it might be\\nconceived, of suffering humanity, that touched a sensibility in\\nevery bosom At times this deep strain of pathos was all that\\ncould be heard, and scarcely heard, sighing amid a desolate\\nsilence. But even when the minister s voice grew high and\\ncommanding, when it gushed irrepressibly upward, when it\\nassumed its utmost breadth and power, so overfilling the church\\nas to burst its way through the sohd walls, and diffuse itself in\\nthe open air, still, if tlie auditor listened intently, and for the\\npurpose, he could detect the same cry of pain. What was it?\\nThe complaint of a human heart, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty,\\ntelling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow, to the great heart\\nof mankind beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness, at every\\nmoment, in each accent, and never in vain It was this\\nprofound and continual undertone that gave the clergyman his\\nmost appropriate power.\\nDuring all this time, Hester stood, statue-like, at the foot of\\nthe scaffold. If the minister s voice had not kept her there,\\nthere would nevertheless have been an inevitable magnetism in\\nthat spot, whence she dated the first hour of her life of ignominy.\\nThere was a sense within her, too ill-defined to be made a\\nthought, but weigliing heavily on her mind, that her whole\\norb of life, both before and after, was connected with this spot,\\nas with the one point that gave it unity.\\nLittle Pearl, meanwhile, had quitted her mother s side, and\\nwas playing at her own will about the market-place. She made\\nthe sombre crowd cheerful by her erratic and glistening ray;", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0337.jp2"}, "316": {"fulltext": "298 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\neven as a bird of bright plumage illuminates a whole tree of\\ndusky foliage, by darting to and fro, half seen and half con-\\ncealed amid the twilight of the clustering leaves. She had an\\nundulating, but, oftentimes, a sharp and irregular movement. It\\nindicated the restless vivacity of her spirit, which to-day was\\ndoubly indefatigable in its tiptoe dance, because it was played\\nupon and vibrated Avith her mother^s disquietude. Whenever\\nPearl saw anything to excite her ever-active and wandering\\ncuriosity, she flew thitherward and, as we might say, seized\\nupon tliat man or thing as her own property, so far as she\\ndesired it but without yielding the minutest degree of control\\nover her motions in requital. The Puritans looked on, and, if\\nthey smiled, were none the less inclined to pronounce the child\\na demon offspring, from the indescribable charm of beauty and\\neccentricity that slione through her little figure, and sparkled\\nwith its activity. She ran and looked the wild Indian in the\\nface; and he grew conscious of a nature wilder than his own.\\nThence, with native audacity, but still with a reserve as charac-\\nteristic, she flew into the midst of a group of mariners, the\\nswarthy-cheeked wild men of the ocean, as the Indians were of\\nthe land and they gazed wonderingly and admiringly at Pearl,\\nas if a flake of the sea-foam had taken the shape of a little\\nmaid, and were gifted with a soul of the sea-fire, that flashes\\nbeneath the prow in the night-time.\\nOne of these seafaring men the shipmaster, indeed, who had\\nspoken to Hester Prynne was so smitten with Pearl s aspect,\\nthat he attempted to lay hands upon her, with purpose to snatch\\na kiss. Finding it as impossible to touch her as to catch a\\nhumming-bird in the air, he took from his hat the gold chain\\nthat was twisted about it, and threw it to the child. Pearl", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0338.jp2"}, "317": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION. 299\\nimmediately twined it around her neck and waist, with such\\nhappy skill, that, once seen there, it became a part of her, and\\nit was difficult to imagine her without it.\\nThy mother is yonder woman with the scarlet letter, said\\nthe seaman. Wilt thou carry her a message from me\\nIf the message pleases me, I will, answered Pearl.\\nThen tell her, rejoined he, that I spake again with the\\nblack-a-visaged, hump-shouldered old doctor, and he engages to\\nbring his friend, the gentleman she wots of, aboard with him.\\nSo let thy mother take no thought, save for herself and thee.\\nWilt thou tell her this, thou witch-baby\\nMistress Hibbins says my father is the Prince of the Air\\ncried Pearl, with a naughty smile. If thou callest me that\\nill name, I shall tell him of thee and he will chase thy ship\\nwith a tempest i\\nPursuing a zigzag course across the market-place, the child\\nreturned to her mother, and communicated what the mariner\\nhad said. Hester s strong, calm, steadfastly enduring spirit\\nalmost sank, at last, on beholding this dark and grim counte-\\nnance of an inevitable doom, which at the moment Avhen a\\npassage seemed to open for the minister and herself out of\\ntheir labyrinth of misery shoAved itself, Avitli an unrelenting\\nsmile, right in the midst of their path.\\nWith her mind harassed by the terrible perplexity in which\\nthe shipmaster s intelligence involved her, she was also subjected\\nto another trial. There were many people present, from the\\ncountry round about, who had often heard of the scarlet letter,\\nand to whom it had been made terrific by a hundred false or\\nexaggerated rumors, but who had never beheld it with their\\nown bodily eyes. These, after exhausting other modes of amuse-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0339.jp2"}, "318": {"fulltext": "300 THE SCAELET LETTER.\\nmerit, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorish\\nintrusiveuess. Unscrupulous as it Avas, however, it could not\\nbring them nearer than a circuit of several yards. At that dis-\\ntance they accordingly stood, fixed there by the centrifugal force\\nof the repugnance which the mystic symbol inspired. The whole\\ngang of sailors, likewise, observing the press of spectators, and\\nlearning the purport of the scarlet letter, came and thrust their\\nsunburnt and desperado-looking faces into the ring. Even the\\nIndians were affected by a sort of cold shadow of the white\\nman^s curiosity, and, gliding through the crowd, fastened their\\nsnake-like black eyes on Hester^s bosom; conceiving, perhaps,\\nthat the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered badge must needs\\nbe a personage of high dignity among her people. Lastly\\nthe inhabitants of the town (their own interest in this worn-\\nout subject languidly reviving itself, by sympathy -with what\\nthey saw others feel) lounged idly to the same quarter,\\nand tormented Hester Prynne, perhaps more than all the rest,\\nwith their cool, well-acquainted gaze at her familiar shame.\\nHester saw and recognized the selfsame faces of that group\\nof matrons, who had awaited her forthcoming from the prison-\\ndoor, seven years ago all save one, the youngest and only\\ncompassionate among them, whose burial-robe she had since\\nmade. At the final hour, when she was so soon to fling aside\\nthe burning letter, it liad strangely become the centre of more\\nremark and excitement, and was thus made to sear her breast\\nmore painfully, than at any time since the first day she put\\nit on.\\nWhile Hester stood in that magic circle of ignominy, where\\nthe cunning cruelty of her sentence seemed to have fixed her\\nforever, the admirable preacher was looking down from the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0340.jp2"}, "319": {"fulltext": "THE PROCESSION.\\n301\\nsacred pulpit upon an audience whose very inmost spirits had\\nyielded to his control. The sainted minister in the church\\nThe woman of the scarlet letter in the market-place What\\nimagination would have been irreverent enough to surmise that\\nthe same scorching stigma was on them both", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0341.jp2"}, "320": {"fulltext": "XXIII.\\nTHE REVELATION OP THE SCARLET LETTER.\\njiHE eloquent voice, on wliicli the souls of\\nthe listening audience had been borne aloft\\nas on the swelling waves of the sea, at\\nlength came to a pause. There was a\\nmomentary silence, profound as what should\\nfollow the utterance of oracles. Then en-\\nsued a murmur and half-hushed tumult; as if the auditors,\\nreleased from the high spell that had transported them into the\\nregion of another s mind, were returning into themselves, with\\nall their awe and wonder still heavy on them. In a moment\\nmore, the crowd began to gush forth from the doors of the\\nchurch. Now that there was an end, they needed other breath,\\nmore fit to support the gross and earthly life into which they\\nrelapsed, than that atmosphere which the preacher had con-\\nverted into words of flame, and had burdened with the rich\\nfragrance of his thought.\\nIn the open air their rapture broke into speech. The street\\nand the market-place absolutely babbled, from side to side, with", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0342.jp2"}, "321": {"fulltext": "THE REVELATION OE THE SCARLET LETTER. 303\\napplauses of the minister. His hearers could not rest until they\\nhad told one another of what each knew better than he could\\ntell or hear. According to their united testimony^ never had\\nman spoken in so wise^ so high, and so holy a spirit, as he\\nthat spake this day; nor had inspiration ever breathed through\\nmortal lips more evidently than it did through his. Its influ-\\nence could be seen, as it were, descending upon him, and\\npossessing him, and continually lifting him out of the written\\ndiscourse that lay before him, and filling him with ideas that\\nmust have been as marvellous to himself as to his audience.\\nHis subject, it appeared, had been the relation between the Deity\\nand the communities of mankind, with a special reference to the\\nNew England which they M^ere here planting in the wilderness.\\nAnd, as he drew towards the close, a spirit as of prophecy\\nhad come upon him, constraining him to its purpose as mightily\\nas the old prophets of Israel were constrained; only with this\\ndifference, that, whereas the Jewish seers had denounced judg-\\nments and ruin on their country, it was his mission to foretell\\na high and glorious destiny for the newly gathered people of\\nthe liord. But, throughout it all, and through the whole dis-\\ncourse, there had been a certain deep, sad undertone of pathos,\\nwhich could not be interpreted otherwise than as the natural\\nregret of one soon to pass away. Yes their minister whom\\nthey so loved and who so loved them all, that he could not\\ndepart heavenward without a sigh had the foreboding of\\nuntimely death upon him, and would soon leave them in their\\ntears This idea of his transitory stay on earth gave the last\\nemphasis to the efl ect which the preacher had produced; it was\\nas if an angel, in his passage to the skies, had shaken his\\nbright wings over the people for an instant, at once a shadow", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0343.jp2"}, "322": {"fulltext": "304 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nand a splendor, and had shed down a shower of golden truths\\nupon them.\\nThus, there had come to the Eeverend Mr. Dimraesdale\\nas to most men, in their various spheres, though seldom recog-\\nnized until they see it far behind them an epoch of life more\\nbrilliant and full of triumph than any previous one, or than\\nany which could hereafter be. He stood, at this moment, on\\nthe very proudest eminence of superiority, to which the gifts\\nof intellect, rich lore, prevailing eloquence, and a reputation of\\nwhitest sanctity, could exalt a clergyman in New England^s ear-\\nliest days, when the professional character was of itself a lofty\\npedestal. Such was the position which the minister occupied,\\nas he bowed his head forward on the cushions of the pulpit, at\\nthe close of his Election Sermon. Meanwhile Hester Prynne\\nwas standing beside the scaffold of the pillory, with the scarlet\\nletter still burning on her breast\\nNow was heard again the clangor of the music, and the\\nmeasured tramp of the military escort, issuing from the church-\\ndoor. The procession was to be marshalled thence to the town-\\nhall, where a solemn banquet would complete the ceremonies of\\nthe day.\\nOnce more, therefore, the train of venerable and majestic\\nfathers was seen moving through a broad pathway of the peo-\\nple, who drew back reverently, on either side, as the Governor\\nand magistrates, the old and wise men, the holy ministers, and\\nall that were eminent and renowned, advanced into the midst\\nof them. When they were fairly in the market-place, their\\npresence was greeted by a shout. This though doubtless it\\nmight acquire additional force and volume from the childlike\\nloyalty which the age awarded to its rulers was felt to be an", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0344.jp2"}, "323": {"fulltext": "THE REVELATION OF THE SCAELET LETTER. 305\\nirrepressible outburst of enthusiasm kindled in the auditors by\\nthat high strain of eloquence which was yet reverberating in their\\nears. Each felt the impulse in himself, and, in the same breath,\\ncaught it from his neighbor. Within the church, it had hardly\\nbeen kept down; beneath the sky, it pealed upward to the\\nzenith. There were human beings enough, and enough of\\nhighly wrought and symphonious feeling, to produce that more\\nimpressive sound than the organ tones of the blast, or the\\nthunder, or the roar of the sea; even that mighty swell of\\nmany voices, blended into one great voice by the universal\\nimpulse which makes likewise one vast heart out of the many.\\nNever, from the soil of New England, had gone up such a\\nshout Never, on New England soil, had stood the man so\\nhonored by his mortal brethren as the preacher!\\nHow fared it with him then Were there not the brilliant\\nparticles of a halo in the air about his head So etherealized by\\nspirit as he was, and so apotheosized by worshipping admirers,\\ndid his footsteps, in the procession, really tread upon the dust\\nof earth\\nAs the ranks of military men and civil fathers moved onward,\\nall eyes were turned towards the point where the minister was\\nseen to approach among them. The shout died into a murmur,\\nas one portion of the crowd after another obtained a glimpse\\nof him. How feeble and pale he looked, amid all his triumph!\\nThe energy or say, rather, the inspiration which had held\\nhim up, until he should have delivered the sacred message that\\nbrought its own strength along with it from heaven was\\nwithdrawn, now that it had so faithfully performed its office.\\nThe glow, which they had just before beheld burning on his\\ncheek, was extinguished, like a flame that sinks down hope-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0345.jp2"}, "324": {"fulltext": "306 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nlessly among the late-decaying embers. It seemed hardly the\\nface of a man alive^ with such a deathlike hue it was hardly\\na man with life in him^ that tottered on his path so nervelessly,\\nyet tottered, and did not fall\\nOne of his clerical brethren, it was the venerable John\\nWilson, observing the state in which Mr. Dimmesdale was\\nleft by the retiring wave of intellect and sensibility, stepped\\nforward hastily to offer his support. The minister tremulously,\\nbut decidedly, rej^elled the old man^s arm. He still walked\\nonward, if that movement could be so described, which rather\\nresembled the wavering effort of an infant, with its mother s\\narms in view, outstretched to tempt him forward. And now,\\nalmost imperceptible as were the latter steps of his progress,\\nhe had come opposite the well-remembered and weather-darkened\\nscaffold, where, long since, with all that dreary lapse of time\\nbetween, Hester Prynne had encountered the world s ignominious\\nstare. There stood Hester, holding little Pearl by the hand\\nAnd there was the scarlet letter on her breast The minister\\nhere made a pause; although the music still played the stately\\nand rejoicing march to which the procession moved. It sum-\\nmoned him onward, onward to the festival but here he\\nmade a pause.\\nBellingham, for the last few moments, had kept an anxious\\neye upon him. He now left his own place in the procession,\\nand advanced to give assistance judging, from Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale s aspect, that he must otherwise inevitably fall. But there\\nwas something in the latter s expression that warned back the\\nmagistrate, although a man not readily obeying the vague inti-\\nmations that pass from one spirit to another. The crowd, mean-\\nwhile, looked on with awe and wonder. This earthly faintness", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0346.jp2"}, "325": {"fulltext": "THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER. 307\\nwas, in their view, only another phase of the minister s celestial\\nstrength; nor would it have seemed a miracle too high to be\\nwrought for one so holy, had he ascended before their eyes,\\nwaxing dimmer and brighter, and fading at last into the light\\nof heaven.\\nHe turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms.\\nHester, said he, come hither Come, my little Pearl\\nIt was a ghastly look with which he regarded them but\\nthere was something at once tender and strangely triumphant in\\nit. The child, with the bird-like motion which was one of her\\ncharacteristics, flew to him, and clasped her arms about his\\nknees. Hester Prynne slowly, as if impelled by inevitable\\nfate, and against her strongest will likewise drew near, but\\npaused before she reached him. At this instant, old Roger\\nChillingworth thrust himself through the crowd, or, perhaps,\\nso dark, disturbed, and evil, was his look, he rose up out of\\nsome nether region, to snatch back his victim from what he\\nsought to do Be that as it might, the old man rushed for-\\nward, and caught the minister by the arm.\\nMadman, hold what is your purpose whispered he.\\nWave back that woman Cast off this child All shall be\\nwell Do not blacken your fame, and perish in dishonor I\\ncan yet save you! Would you bring infamy on your sacred\\nprofession\\nHa, tempter Methinks thou art too late answered the\\nminister, encountering his eye, fearfully, but firmly. Thy\\npower is not what it was With God s help, I shall escape\\nthee now\\nHe again extended his hand to the woman of the scarlet letter.\\nHester Prynne, cried he, with a piercing earnestness, in", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0347.jp2"}, "326": {"fulltext": "308 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nthe name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me\\ngrace, at this last moment, to do what for my own heavy\\nsin and miserable agony I withheld myself from doing seven\\nyears ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me\\nThy strength, Hester; but let it be guided by the will which\\nGod hath granted me This wretched and wronged old man is\\nopposing it with all his might with all his own might, and the\\nfiend^s Come, Hester, come Support me up yonder scaffold\\nThe crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity,\\nwho stood more immediately around the clergyman, were so\\ntaken by surprise, and so perplexed as to the purport of what\\nthey saw, unable to receive the explanation which most readily\\npresented itself, or to imagine any other, that they remained\\nsilent and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence\\nseemed about to work. They beheld the minister, leaning on\\nHester^s shoulder, and supported by her arm around him,\\napproach the scaflbld, and ascend its steps while still the little\\nhand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Eoger\\nChillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the\\ndrama of guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors,\\nand well entitled, therefore, to be present at its closing scene.\\nHadst thou sought the whole earth over, said he, looking\\ndarkly at the clergyman, there was no one place so secret,\\nno high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped\\nme, save on this very scaffold\\nThanks be to Him who hath led me hither answered the\\nminister.\\nYet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an expression of\\ndoubt and anxiety in his eyes, not the less evidently betrayed,\\nthat there was a feeble smile upon his lips.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0348.jp2"}, "327": {"fulltext": "THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER. 309\\nIs not this better/^ murmured he, than what we dreamed\\nof in the forest\\nI know not I know not she hurriedly replied. Bet-\\nter Yea so we may both die, and little Pearl die with us\\nPor thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order/ said the\\nminister and God is merciful Let me now do the will\\nwhich he hath made plain before my sight. For, Hester, I am a\\ndying man. So let me make haste to take my shame upon me\\nPartly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding one hand of\\nlittle PearFs, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale turned to the dig-\\nnified and venerable rulers to the holy ministers, who were his\\nbrethren; to the people, whose great heart was thoroughly\\nappalled, yet overflowing with tearful sympathy, as knowing that\\nsome deep life-matter which, if full of sin, was full of anguish\\nand repentance likewise was now to be laid open to them.\\nThe sun, but little past its meridian, shone down upon the clergy-\\nman, and gave a distinctness to his figure, as he stood out from\\nall the earth, to put in his plea of guilty at the bar of Eternal\\nJustice.\\nPeople of New England cried he, with a voice that rose\\nover them, high, solemn, and majestic, yet had always a tremor\\nthrough it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a\\nfathomless depth of remorse and woe, ye, that have loved\\nme! ye, that have deemed me holy! behold me here, the\\none sinner of the world At last at last I stand upon the\\nspot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with\\nthis woman, whose arm, more than the little strength where-\\nwith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful\\nmoment, from grovelling down upon my face I Lo, the scarlet\\nletter which Hester wears Ye have all shuddered at it Wher-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0349.jp2"}, "328": {"fulltext": "310 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\never her walk hath been, wherever, so miserably burdened, she\\nmay have hoped to find repose, it hath cast a lurid gleam of\\nawe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there stood\\none in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye\\nhave not shuddered\\nIt seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the\\nremainder of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the\\nbodily weakness, and, still more, the faintness of heart, that\\nwas striving for the mastery with him. He threw off all assist-\\nance, and stepped passionately forward a pace before the woman\\nand the child.\\nIt was on him he continued, with a kind of fierceness\\nso determined was he to speak out the whole. God s eye\\nbeheld it The angels were forever pointing at it The Devil\\nknew it well, and fretted it continually with the touch of his\\nburning finger! But he hid it cmmingly from men, and walked\\namong you with the mien of a spirit, mournful, because so pure\\nin a sinful world and sad, because he missed his heavenly\\nkindred Now, at the death-hour, he stands up before you\\nHe bids you look again at Hester s scarlet letter He tells\\nyou, that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow\\nof what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own\\nred stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his\\ninmost heart Stand any here that question God s judgment on\\na sinner Behold Behold a dreadful witness of it\\nWith a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band\\nfrom before his breast. It was revealed But it were irrev-\\nerent to describe that revelation. For an instant, the gaze of\\nthe horror-stricken multitude was concentred on the ghastly mir-\\nacle; while the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0350.jp2"}, "329": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0353.jp2"}, "330": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0354.jp2"}, "331": {"fulltext": "THE REVELATION OP THE SCARLET LETTER. 313\\nface, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory.\\nThen, down he sank upon the scaffold Hester partly raised\\nhim, and supported his head against her bosom. Old Roger\\nChillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull counte-\\nnance, out of which the life seemed to have dejjarted.\\nThou hast escaped me he repeated more than once.\\nThou hast escaped me\\nMay God forgive thee said the minister. Thou, too,\\nhast deeply sinned\\nHe withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixed\\nthem on the woman and the child.\\nMy little VqqxX, said he, feebly, and there was a sweet\\nand gentle smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep\\nrepose nay, now that the burden was removed, it seemed\\nalmost as if he would be sportive with the child, dear little\\nPearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thou wouldst not, yonder, in\\nthe forest But now thou wilt\\nPearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene\\nof grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all\\nher sympathies and as her tears fell upon her father^s cheek,\\nthey were the pledge that she would grow up amid human\\njoy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be\\na womrn in it. Towards her mother, too, PearFs errand as a\\nmessenger of anguish was all fulfilled.\\nHester, said the clergyman, farewell\\nShall we not meet again whispered she, bending her face\\ndown close to his. Shall we not spend our immortal life\\ntogether? Surely, surelj^, we have ransomed one another, with\\nall this woe Thou lookest far into eternity, with those bright\\ndying eyes Then tell me what thou seest", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0355.jp2"}, "332": {"fulltext": "314\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\nHush, Hester, hush said he, with tremulous solemnity.\\nThe law we broke the sin here so awfully revealed let\\nthese alone be in thy thoughts I fear I fear It may be,\\nthat, when we forgot our God, when we violated our rever-\\nence each for the other s soul, it was thenceforth vain to\\nhope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure\\nreunion. God knows and He is merciful He hath proved\\nhis mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this\\nburning torture to bear upon my breast By sending yonder\\ndark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-\\nheat By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant\\nignominy before the people Had either of these agonies been\\nwanting, I had been lost forever Praised be his name His\\nwill be done Farewell\\nThat final word came forth with the minister s expiring breath.\\nThe multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice\\nof awe and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance, save\\nin this murmur that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0356.jp2"}, "333": {"fulltext": "XXIV.\\nCONCLUSION.\\n[FTER many days, when time sufficed for the\\npeople to arrange their thoughts in refer-\\nence to the foregoing scene, there was more\\nthan one account of what had been wit-\\nnessed on the scaffold.\\nMost of the spectators testified to having\\nseen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a scarlet letter\\nthe very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne imprinted\\nin the flesh. As regarded its origin, there were various expla-\\nnations, all of which must necessarily have been conjectural.\\nSome affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very\\nday when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge,\\nhad begun a course of penance, which he afterwards, in\\nso many futile methods, followed oat, by inflicting a hideous\\ntorture on himself. Others contended that the stigma had\\nnot been produced until a long time subsequent, when old\\nRoger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it\\nto appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0357.jp2"}, "334": {"fulltext": "316 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nOthers, again, and those best able to appreciate the minister s\\npeculiar sensibility, and the M onderful operation of his spirit\\nupon the body, whispered their belief, that the awful symbol\\nwas the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from\\nthe inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven s\\ndreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The\\nreader may choose among these theories. We have thrown all\\nthe light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly,\\nnow that it has done its office, erase its deep print out of our\\nown brain; where long meditation has fixed it in very undesir-\\nable distinctness.\\nIt is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were\\nspectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have\\nremoved their eyes from the Eeverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied\\nthat there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on\\na new-born infant s. Neither, by their report, had his dying\\nwords acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any, the slight-\\nest connection, on his part, with the guilt for which Hester\\nPrynne had so long worn the scarlet letter. According to these\\nhighly respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was\\ndying, conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude\\nplaced him already among saints and angels, had desired,\\nby yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen woman, to\\nexpress to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of\\nman s own righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts\\nfor mankind s spiritual good, he had made the manner of his\\ndeath a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty\\nand mournful lesson, that, in the view of Infinite Purity, we\\nare sinners all alike. It was to teach them, that the holiest\\namong us has but attained so far above his feUows as to dis-", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0358.jp2"}, "335": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION. 317\\ncern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate\\nmore utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look\\naspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentous,\\nwe must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmes-\\ndale^s story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with\\nwhich a man^s friends and especially a clergyman^s will some-\\ntimes uphold his character, when proofs, clear as the mid-day\\nsunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-\\nstained creature of the dust.\\nThe authority which we have chiefly followed, a manuscript\\nof old date, drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals,\\nsome of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had\\nheard the tale from contemporary witnesses, fully confirms the\\nview taken in the foregoing pages. Among many morals which\\npress upon us from the poor minister s miserable experience, we\\nput only this into a sentence Be true Be true Be true\\nShow freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait\\nwhereby the worst may be inferred\\nNothing was more remarkable than the change which took\\nplace, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale s death, in the\\nappearance and demeanor of the old man known as Roger Chil-\\nlingworth. All his strength and energy all his vital and\\nintellectual force seemed at once to desert him insomuch\\nthat he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost\\nvanished from mortal siglit, like an uprooted weed that lies\\nwilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very\\nprinciple of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic\\nexercise of revenge and when, by its completest triumph and\\nconsummation, that evil principle was left with no further material\\nto support it, when, in short, there was no more DeviFs work", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0359.jp2"}, "336": {"fulltext": "318 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\non earth for him to do^ it only remained for the unhumanized\\nmortal to betake himself whither his Master would find him\\ntasks enough^ and pay him his wages duly. But^ to all these\\nshadowy bemgs, so long our near acquaintances, as well Roger\\nChillingworth as his companions, we would fain be merci-\\nful. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether\\nhatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in\\nits utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy\\nand heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent\\nfor the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another;\\neach leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate\\nhater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject.\\nPhilosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem\\nessentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a\\ncelestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow.\\nIn the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister\\nmutual victims as they have been may, unawares, have found\\ntheir earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden\\nlove.\\nLeaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business\\nto communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth^s\\ndecease, (which took place within the year,) and by his last\\nwiU and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the\\nReverend Mr. Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very\\nconsiderable amount of property, both here and in England,\\nto little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.\\nSo Pearl the elf-child, the demon offspring, as some\\npeople, up to that epoch, persisted in considering her, became\\nthe richest heiress of her day, in the New World, Not improb-\\nably, this circumstance Avrought a very material change in the", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0360.jp2"}, "337": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION. 319\\npublic estimation and, had the mother and child remained\\nhere, little Pearl, at a marriageable period of life, might have\\nmingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan\\namong them all. But, in no long time after the physician s\\ndeath, the wearer of the scarlet letter disappeared, and Pearl\\nalong with her. For many years, though a vague report would\\nnow and then find its way across the sea, hke a shapeless\\npiece of drift-wood tost ashore, with the initials of a name upon\\nit, yet no tidings of them unquestionably authentic were\\nreceived. The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend.\\nIts spell, however, was still potent, and kept the scaffold awful\\nAvhere the poor mmister had died, and likewise the cottage by\\nthe sea-shore, where Hester Prynne had dwelt. Near this latter\\nspot, one afternoon, some children were at play, when they\\nbeheld a tall woman, in a gray robe, approach the cottage-\\ndoor. In all those years it had never once been opened but\\neither she unlocked it, or the decaying wood and iron yielded\\nto her hand, or she glided shadow-like through these impedi-\\nments, and, at all events, went in.\\nOn the threshold she paused, tnrned partly round, for,\\nperchance, the idea of entering all alone, and all so changed,\\nthe home of so intense a former life, was more dreary and deso-\\nlate than even she could bear. But her hesitation was only for\\nan instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her\\nbreast.\\nAnd Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-\\nforsaken shame But where was little Pearl If still alive, she\\nmust now have been in the flush and bloom of early woman-\\nhood. None knew nor ever learned, with the fulness of per-\\nfect certainty whether the elf-child had gone thus untimely to", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0361.jp2"}, "338": {"fulltext": "320\\nTHE SCARLET LETTER.\\na maiden grave or whether her wild, rich nature had been\\nsoftened and subdued, and made capable of a woman^s gentle\\nhappiness. But, through the remainder of Hester^s life, there\\nwere indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the\\n.iJii|Jyr:!J;:i iliii:ii!;5|i;l!lll!!l i!;Si\\nobject of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land.\\nLetters came, with armorial seals upon them, though of bearings\\nunknown to English heraldry. In the cottage there were articles\\nof comfort and luxury such as Hester never cared to use, but\\nwhich only wealth could have purchased, and affection have", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0362.jp2"}, "339": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION. 321\\nimagined for her. There were trifles, too, little ornaments,\\nbeautiful tokens of a continual remembrance, that must have\\nbeen wrought by delicate fingers, at the impulse of a fond heart.\\nAnd, once, Hester was seen embroidering a baby-garment, with\\nsuch a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a\\npublic tumult, had any infant, thus apparelled, been shown to\\nour sober-hued community.\\nIn fine, the gossips of that day believed, and Mr. Sur-\\nveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, believed,\\nand one of his recent successors in office, moreover, faith-\\nfully believes, that Pearl was not only alive, but married, and\\nhappy, and mindful of her mother, and that she would most\\njoyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fire-\\nside.\\nBut there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here, in\\nNew England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had\\nfound a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and\\nhere was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore,\\nand resumed, of her own free will, for not the sternest magis-\\ntrate of that iron period would have imposed it, resumed the\\nsymbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never after-\\nwards did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome,\\nthoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester^s life,\\nthe scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the\\nworld^s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something\\nto be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with rever-\\nence too. And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived\\nin any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought\\nall their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as\\none who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women,", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0363.jp2"}, "340": {"fulltext": "322 THE SCARLET LETTER.\\nmore especially, in the continually recurring trials of wounded,\\nwasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion, or\\nwith the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued\\nand unsought, came to Hester^s cottage, demanding why they\\nwere so wretched, and what the remedy Hester comforted and\\ncounselled them as best she might. She assured them, too, of\\nher firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world\\nshould have grown ripe for it, in Heaven s own time, a new\\ntruth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation\\nbetween man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happi-\\nness. Earlier in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she\\nherself might be the destined prophetess, but had long since\\nrecognized the impossibility that any mission of divine and\\nmysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with\\nsin, bowed down with shame, or even burdened with a life-\\nlong sorrow. The angel and apostle of the coming reve-\\nlation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beau-\\ntiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the\\nethereal medium of joy and showing how sacred love should\\nmake us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such\\nan end\\nSo said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward\\nat the scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new\\ngrave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial-\\nground beside which King s Chapel has since been built. It\\nwas near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between,\\nas if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet\\none tombstone served for both. All around, there were monu-\\nments carved Avith armorial bearings; and on this simple slab\\nof slate as the curious investigator may still discern, and", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0364.jp2"}, "341": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\n323\\nperplex himself with the purport there appeared the semblance\\nof an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald^s word-\\ning of which might serve for a motto and brief description of\\nour now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only\\nby one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow\\nOn a field,, sable, the letter A, gules.\\nCambridge Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, Co.", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0365.jp2"}, "342": {"fulltext": "91\\n716", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0366.jp2"}, "343": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0367.jp2"}, "344": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0368.jp2"}, "345": {"fulltext": "", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0369.jp2"}, "346": {"fulltext": "r^^\\nH\\nS\\no\\n\\\\0\\n.0", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0370.jp2"}, "347": {"fulltext": "v^\\n^O O^\\nA-^^\\n,-0\\nov", "height": "2935", "width": "1827", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0371.jp2"}, "348": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3111", "width": "2118", "jp2-path": "scarletletter00hawt_0372.jp2"}}