The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne

young man he did not permit this stroke of evil fortune, severe as it was, to oppress him heavily, and Hawthorne seems to have felt no shadow of it during his visit to Augusta the fol

ume, as well as "The Toll-Gatherer's Day," "Footprints on the Seashore," "Snow-Flakes," and "Chippings with a Chisel," which are to be found in it. {Footnote: J. Hawthorne, 176.} There is a long blank in Hawthorne's diary during the winter of 1837-38 which may be owing to his indifference to the outer world at that time, but more likely because its contents hav

ch he found to be pleasant enough in their narrow and limited way. Bridge returned with him to Boston, and they dined together at the Tremont House, drinking iced champagne and claret in pitchers,-which latter would s

ctorial studies, which not only remind one of Dürer's drawings but of Carlyle's local descriptions (when he uses simple English and does not fly off into recondite comparisons), is not clearly apparent; but the artist has instincts of his own, like a vine which s

illiams College, which then took place in the middle of August, in his customary accurate manner. He has given a full and connected account of his travels; so full that we wonder how he found time to write to Miss Sophia Peabod

art. When it abated the clouds in all parts of the visible heavens were tinged with glory from the west; some that hung low being purple and gold, whil

the Select-men, and gives this account of

nd while at work he had a sort of dignity in handling the hoe or crow-bar, which shows him to be the chief. In the evening he sits under the stoop, silent and observant from under the brim

d him for an idea in "The Blithedale Romance." After this there are no entries published from his diary till the following spring, so that the manner in which he occupie

er way. Six or seven hours of cheerful solitude! But I will not be alone. I invite your spirit to be with me,-at any hour and as many hours as you please, but especially at the twilight hour before I light my lamp. I bid you at that particular time, because I can see visions more vividly in the dusky glow of firelight than either by daylight or lamplight. Come, and let me renew my spell against headache and other direful effects of the east wind. How I wish I could gi

under two headings; and the last shall

rs. His letters to Miss Peabody were also dispassionate, but strongly subjective, and, like the one just quoted, mainly evolved from his imagination, like orchids living in the air. It was also ab

ecided opinions on political subjects and could defend them with a good deal of energy. On one occasion when Hawthorne was asked why he was a Democrat, he replied, "Because I live in a democratic country," which was, of course, simply an evasion; and such were the answers which he commonly gave to all interrogatories. His pro

Bancroft, though a rather narrow historian, was a gentleman and a scholar. He was the right man to appreciate Hawthorne, but whether he bestowed this place upon him of his own accord, or through the ulterior agency of Franklin Pierce, we are not informed. It is quite possible that Elizabeth Peabody had a hand in the case, for she was always an indef

account of all dutiable articles which were received there. He had to superintend personally the unloading of vessels, and although in some instances this was not unpleasant, he was constantly receiving shiploads of soft coal,-Sidney or Pictou coal,-which is the dirtiest stuff in the world; it cannot be touched without raising a dusty vapor whi

in his life brought down to hard-pan and the plain necessities of life. The juice of wormwood i

s only a night's sleep to remove it. But from henceforth forever I shall be entitled to call the sons of toil my brethren, and shall know how to sympathize with them, seeing that I likewise have risen at t

e noblest passage

ke that of a store clerk whose salary only suffices for his board and clothing. George Bancroft was kindly disposed toward him, and would have introduced Hawthorne into any society that he could have wished to enter; but Hawthorne, then and always, declined to be lionized. Hawthorne made but one friend in Boston during this time, and that one, George S. Hillard, a most faithful and serviceable friend,-not only to Hawthorne during his life, but afterwards as a trustee for his family, and equally kind and helpful to them in their bereavement, which is more than could be said of all his friends,-especially of Pierce. H

mer's heat and winter's cold. On Febru

e British schooner, in a dismal dock at the north end of the c

among biscuit barrels, pots and kettles, sea chests, and innumerable lumber of all sorts,-my olfactories, m

1840. IN THE POSSESSION OF MRS. RICHARD C. MANNING, SALEM, MASS

day,-"a real happiness to live; if he had been a mere vegetable, a hawthorn bush, he would have felt its influence." He goes to a picture gallery in the Athenaeum, but only mentions seeing two paintings by Sarah Clarke. He returns to Salem in October, and writes in his own chamber the passage already quoted, in which he mourns the lonely years of his youth, and the long, long waiting for appreciation, "while he felt the life chilling

I would you could have beheld the awful sternness of my visage and demeanor in the execution of this momentous duty. Well,-I have conquered the rebels, and proclaimed an amnesty; so to-morrow I

t with this ominous

ith Miss Margaret Fuller; but Providence had given m

asculine mind, and had he already conceived that aversion for her which is almost pai

least his particular share of it, any longer. One object he had in view in accepting the position was, to obtain practical experience, and this he certainly did in a rough and unpleasant manner. The experience of a routine office, however, is not like that of a broker who has goods to sell and who must dispose of them to

rne's casual and oft-repeated commentary

away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will stret

se, hardened adventurers, and it was such that Hawthorne chiefly came in contact with in his official business. Cleon, the brawling tanner of Athens, has reappeared in every representative government since his time, and plays his clownish part with multifarious variations; but it is to little purpose that we deride the men who govern us, for they are what we and our inst

ng men and things critically, that he closes the account of hi

t when I am imprisoned within the walls of the Custom-house. My breath

al of enjoyment, too, in the busy scene around me. It pleased me to think that I also had a part to act in the material and tangible busines

ld threadbare proverbs or Orphic generaliti