Part 8 (1/2)

Now came a great temptation.--Should I imitate certain authors who, by means of cunning sentences, made the trifling appear to be events which were all-important, and so transformed ideas, that the mean became an object of admiration?

I recalled an instance when an historian found a record of a man whom he desired to clothe in all possibility of royal purple, and so to find fame with his sect, or to gain applause as a gorgeous writer. The true narrative declared, ”At this time he believed that he received from heaven a divine intimation, a light from above, a.s.suring him that a man might go through all the instruction of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and not be able to tell a man how to save his soul.”

Now, this plain statement, however translated into the dignity of an ambitious style, would not appear to advantage in a brilliant eulogy.

The man was fanatical, and crazy. But the design was to represent him as a philosophical reformer in the religious world.

And now behold the power of art. In the original doc.u.ment there is a sad poverty, and deformity of flesh and bones. The poor creature must appear on the stage in kingly robes. Hear our model!--Behold the transformation! ”At this time he was convinced that he received a divine illumination, infusing such thoughts as transcend the most elevated conceptions of mere human wisdom; and he was overwhelmed with the depth of the conviction, that a man might pa.s.s through all the extent of scholastic learning taught at Oxford and Cambridge, and not be able to solve the great problem of human existence.”

Was there ever such alchemy? If I could attain a moderate degree of efficiency, as the pupil of such a writer, the small items of information collected at the village, could become a grand biography.

Let me see, thought I, what I can make of my material. I do not know that I could dare to publish words which would make a false impression.

But let me try my skill in this essay to trans.m.u.te poor substances into gold. I take the note concerning the visit to Mrs. Rachel Peabody,--and the account she gave me of the sicknesses of Eliza Jane, Faith Kitty, and John Potts.

”One of the most impressive views of the doctor, was his appearance among the young, when the sickness which does not spare our race in the days of our early development, was bearing its distress to the languid frame, and sorrow to the affectionate relatives who watched by the bed-side. I do not mean to say that this ill.u.s.trious physician was less skilful in dealing with the maladies of middle life, or with those which we deplore in the aged,--whose sun we would have to sink in all the tranquillity of a serene sky. It is the consequence of maternal love, that in this village where his great talents were so unfortunately circ.u.mscribed, you may still hear the most touching descriptions of his skill and tenderness by the cradle, and by the couch of those children, the future promise of our country, who would attend on the instructions of the academy, were it not that their condition has become one, where obscure causes prove to us the limitation of our finite capacities.”

Let me now try my hand on the letter of Mr. Warren.

Note,--”The doctor was a solemn a.s.s.” Biographical representation.

”Suspicion might arise with respect to the extent of the intellectual power of the doctor, if the biographer led the reader to suppose that all who knew him, in his retreat from the great circles where the understanding is cultivated to its highest degree, regarded him as a man of transcendent genius. The slow process of thought, often observable in men whose deductions reach the greatest alt.i.tude, like the great tree slowly evolved from its incipient stem, is a contradiction to the conceptions, which the vulgar form of the intellectual power of men of acute minds. They antic.i.p.ate the sudden flas.h.i.+ng of the eagle eye, and the flight of thought as with the eagle wing. And when they are doomed to disappointment, and meet with that seemingly sluggish action of the mind, which has learned caution, lest elements that should enter into the decision that is sought, should not be observed, it is an error at which a philosophical mind can afford a smile, to find that their unauthorized disgust, will seek a similitude for the great man of such tardy conclusions, in some animal that is proverbial for the dulness of its perceptions.”

Note,--”Supposed to be wise, because he was solemn and stupid.”

Biographical representation. ”It is curious to observe that when contemporary testimony is elicited, concerning the powers of a superior man, you discover, amid unavoidable abuse and misrepresentation, unintentional testimony to his exalted qualities. While an attempt is made to undermine his claim to wisdom, it will incidentally appear that wisdom was ascribed to him. The endeavor of envy which would ostracise him, is a proof that it is excited by common admiration heaped upon its object.”

Note,--The old lady who intimated that there had been ”love pa.s.sages between herself and the Doctor”--Biographical representation.

”It is delightful to know that a man of such science, and constant observation, was not rude, or wanting in those gentle traits which allure the susceptibilities of the best portion of our race. I might narrate a romantic incident, which would prove how he had unintentionally inspired an affection in a lovely lady, which endured in the most singular extent, even to old age. I have witnessed her tears at the mention of his name. On the most ample scrutiny, I repose, when I say, that the Doctor had never trifled with this sincere love. The sense of devoted affection in this case, led the victim of a tender delusion to infer, that on his part, the regard was reciprocated. I can imagine the sorrow of his great heart, if he discovered the unfortunate error and misplaced pa.s.sion. In the case to which I now refer, I could only judge of the beauty and attractions of the early youth, by those remains of little arts and graceful att.i.tudes, which are the result, so generally, of a consciousness of a beauty that is confessed by all.”

Then too I could avail myself of the ingenious devices of praise, by a denial of infirmities.

”In him there was nothing for effect--nothing that was theatrical--nothing done to cause the vulgar to stare with astonishment.

No pompous equipage, no hurried drives, no sudden summons from the dwellings of his friends, as if patients required his sudden attendance--no turgid denomination of little objects by words of thundering sound--no ordering the simple placing of the feet in hot water, as Pediluvium,--none of those arts were employed by the subject of our Biography, to acquire or extend his practice, or build up his great fame.”

I also found some of the letters of the Doctor. Let me attempt the work of Alchemy again. Let me transform some pa.s.sage into the proper language of Modern Biography.

Thus I find this sentence in a letter to Colonel Tupp: ”Some of our negroes in New Jersey are very troublesome, and some wise plan should be devised lest they become a heavy burden----”

”It would appear”--thus should it be erected into Biographical effect--”that the Doctor, to be named always with so much veneration, was probably one of the first of our men of giant minds, to foresee the dangers of the problem involved in the existence of the African race, in the new world. I claim him--on the evidence of his familiar epistolary correspondence--as the originator of the great movements of statesmen and philosophers, for its solution. He gave, beyond all contradiction, that impulse to the energetic thought, which has led to all the plans for the elevation of those, who bear 'G.o.d's image cut in ebony.' As we trace the voice to the distant fountain--or the immense circle of fire on our prairies, to the sparks elicited by the careless traveler from the small flint, so as I recall the present innumerable discussions on this sable subject, I refer them all to the unpretending utterances of this great man. I recur to the small village where he dwelt. His study, his favorite retreat, is before me. There, at the table, illuminated as it were with his ma.n.u.script, I see his impressive form. Near him are the pestle and mortar; the various jars on which are labels in such unknown words, that the country people regard them as if they were the ingredients for the sorcerer,--his coat,--his books,--his minerals,--such are his surroundings.

”There in that study--he first in the unostentatious effusions of a private letter, suggests the seed of those convictions, which led to the formation of the Colonization Society. No fanaticism, however, has marked and disfigured the stately forms of his thoughts, on the subject of the extinction of slavery. Let not the readers of this Biography at the Sunny South, imagine that he designed an interference with their possessions. There is evidence of the perfect balance of his mind on this subject, in the fact, that he designates them, in another letter, written probably after this one, which contains the immortal sentence, in which he employs a word, which in printed syllables, with the exception of one repeated letter in the English, resembles the Roman adjective for Black,--but whose p.r.o.nunciation rejected the cla.s.sical usage.

”I am aware that those who love his memory will be compelled to do battle for the honors which they justly claim for these and other antic.i.p.ations of later movements in the world of wisdom and philanthropy. As Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, only to have his claim a subject of dispute, so our great Philosopher will find those to detract from his merits, and maintain that the great efforts to which we have alluded were of later origination.”

While I speak upon this subject of the African discussion, I may remark that there is a singular discovery which I have made, as I have searched his papers, and concerning which I am in doubt, whether it should be delegated to oblivion or made the subject of ingenuous confession. I am aware that obscurity throws its shadow over the topic. I am also aware that I may hereby cast a suspicion of the spirit of a wild projector, over the subject of this memoir. I think, however, and believe that I do not flatter myself unjustly, that I have guarded against such a wrong by the delineation I have given of his calm and reflecting character.

The circ.u.mstances which my pen is somewhat reluctant to trace for fear of misapprehension, are these: I find in a letter to a friend the remark, ”You would be no less startled by the a.s.sertion, that I could transform the African into a white man, than to learn from me that my Caesar has become sedulous in the discharge of his duties, and ceased to slumber by the kitchen fire when he should be at his work at the wood-shed.”

Now observe this ominous suggestion about the transformation of the physical characteristics of those who have been translated among us from the land of sandy deserts. Here is a hint of the physical transformation of a black man into a white. And then I must add that I find two small pieces of paper lying near the letter, which seem to corroborate my view, which papers, I candidly confess,--here is the ground of hesitation, the momentum which disturbs the mind seemingly on the eve of its rest, might indeed have been prescriptions saved by accident, or have been hints on the subject of the transformation of the race of darkened skins. One of these fragments contains the words, ”Elixir to remove the dark pigment which causes the surface discrimination”--on the other, ”For the removal of odorous accidentals.” I am willing to leave the subject to the consideration of my readers.

Then again I have known a man who had no brilliant or striking qualities, exalted into one of most honorable fame,--in this wise,--