Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, 1863, No. LXXI.

my fellow-citizens, I had previously enjoyed the pleasure of responding to circulars petitioning for money to buy books for interment in this choice literary catacomb; nay, I was eve

compense me for what I had done for him. The Librarian, who valued books as things capable of being locked up in cells like criminals, there to figure numerically to the confusion of rival institutions, was manifestly disturbed when I present

thors I had selected, in a certain retired alcove devoted to the metaphysicians. This comfortable nook opens just behind Crawford's bust of the late President T--, and is nearly opposite the famous Mather Safe. As

a bachelor, and had the reputation of being enormously rich, the College authorities of his day were accustomed to treat him with distinguished consideration, and went so far, I believe, as to vote him some minor degree. What effect these academic blandishments may have had upon their object cannot at present

ence of the other. Moreover, he required that the Safe should be used only as a receptacle for packages which the depositors desired to keep from the world for at least fifty years. Of course no right-minded corporation would have endured this posthumous fussiness, were it not for the mysterious papers left in the Safe,-these being considered instruments whereby immense possessions would finally come to the College. But, as their worthy friend, however niggardly in other respects, had taken care to save nothing in lawyers, there were really no means of disregarding his wishes, except by relinquishin

, which their perpetrators lacked the courage to confess before their fellows, but which, in the bitterness of remorse, they had recorded in the Mather Safe, to blacken their fame to future times,-thus taking a ghastly satisfaction from the knowledge that they should not always appear as whited sepulchres before men. There was vague talk, also, of funds which had been deposited to found some professorship in the College, to furnish some instruction which the age was not advanced enough to accept. Then, too, there were intimations of endowments to establish s

t comparison of existing authorities-would suggest a household economy of great practical importance. Certain facts, which must have been noted by all the great voyagers of the world, might give me data from which to establish the suspected conclusion. I accordingly repaired to the library at a very early hour, and labored through the day in collecting and committing to writing what had been observed by many eminent navigators upon the point in question. Four o'clock in the afternoon found me too tir

surer were to have been

he Librarian. "I am sure that the Pr

a deposit of great importance in the Mather Safe. I had the assurance that the Safe should be

letter which Clifton held out to

Library on the afternoon of Thursday, the twenty-fo

of startled despair. "Pardon my disturbance. I have be

the library. He blenched at hearing my voice, an

him into my alcove. "Is it true that Dr. Dastick ha

tone of curt authority very foreign to the mild

the book: it was the "M

he inner world of man, not conforming themselves to the nece

he original and powerful thinker, whose apologies are

of D'Holbach, Utilitarianism Systematized by Auguste Comte! D

n his speech, which warned me to avoid discussion, and endeavor to soothe his agita

. Soon we are miles from shore, and throw the anchor. What auspicious expansion of soul and body! How we slide up and down the backs of great billows, and cast our lines with ever-varying success! But the night comes, and with it the necessity of rowing

phical speculation; and so far we doubtless agree. Yet I ought to say, that, in cases where personal investigation is possible, I would take neither popular clamor nor learned dogmatism as conclusive evidence against

to appear to me in that character of instructor which he desired some competent person to assume to him. Now, the re

inds may bear into the world a light, a knowledge too fine for

als which the past and present could address only to the future,-signs meaningless, no doubt, to yo

-should such as we, I say, receive this world as a pageant before which we must sit down and evolve a doctrine? The conceit of external education is at present too strong to acknowledge a divine element radiating from the depths of the soul, and finding in the mind only an awkward and imperfe

said of Clifton's connection with that topsy-turvy sodality popularly known as "The Transcendentalists." But this was many years ago; and the world always supposed that he had outgrown his early errors, and found, in the liberal theology of New England, a more genuine inspiration. In meeting him in his pastoral relation, I had only remarked that he was one of those men who find it very difficult to resist the social influ

ounger in years, you may scarcely advise; but, at least, you may give sympathy that shall confirm my decision. I have engaged rooms at the neighboring hotel.

nation to see out the adventure upon which I had stumbled? Let me credit myself also with a worthier motive: I saw that my companion was in no state to be left

eded to employ a stray bit of carpet in stopping a ventilator which communicated with the entry. Having satisfied himself that this passage was rendered impervious to

f Herbert Vannelle?"

y that a substitute is here plac

tive, and asked where

on earth; he is

end of

solute.'" (Here Clifton drew from a curiously contrived case of parchment a cluster of pages.) "It has now twenty-two

e are few ways in which I am so little ready to oblige my fellow-men. I had, indeed, at times, been induced to inspect sundry romances in blotted embryo; but, as yet, nobody had called upon me with a system of philosophy. Printed philosophy is none too ea

"Also some refreshment. You take tea, I suppose? You shall read the first ten pages of Vannelle's writing. I

as something to be guarantied against the opposite infirmity. The tea, accompanied by a few thin shavings of toast, presently arrived. The means of procuring light were also furnished us. Clifton's hand lay heavily upon the

ear-cut summits whither the reader was invited to ascend. There was an interpretation of Revelation far more removed from the apparent letter than that of Swedenborg. Here was reaffirmed (though for a widely different purpose) what the Romish Church has ever declared,-that the Scriptures, recording spiritual truth, cannot be comprehensible to the natural understanding,-that, while the Sacred Writings contain a natural letter, it can be translated into spiritual verity only by a few exceptional men. If this scheme of philosophy was an idealism, it nevertheless manifested itself through the plainest realities. The solution of the problem seemed to come not from one point, but from all points. Certainly there was a tendency towards the supersensible; but this direction was taken through stern grappling with the actual. At one time I struggled against the august spirit that was borne in upon me; at another, I was utterly subdued by the lofty enthusiasm of the writer,-someth

the frailties of average men as to receive in purity and innocence the license which acceptance of this strange scheme would surely give? Dim-sighted as I was, it was necessary to rise and dispel this splendid phantasm. I shuddered in sudden alarm at the da

med the candles, as was necessary, but had never broken silence. And now there came from him the deep sigh of relief from an

man?" I deman

at all. What he was is not for me nor for you to know. It is possible that he

e manuscript. It was to remain for eighty years in the Mather Safe, and was then

f the actual winner of that comfortable possession will feel disposed to abandon the marke

th the suggestion, and made t

ething to which what he had caused me to read was to serve as a prelude. I suspected how powerless must have been this sensitive man in the presence of the Idea which he had carried. Doubtless, in one of his peculiar tendencies, it might prevent all

etic earnestness of the speaker imprinted on my memory the very phrases th