Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/90



to it the educated American's reverence, without the educated American's secret distrust of himself and his own country; and the independent American's thought, without the independent American's intolerance of other people's thought. A child of the English Puritans, he moved about among the homes of his ancestors with much of his ancestorssympathy and appreciation, and perhaps much of that feeling and instinct which made his ancestors exiles. It might shock the sensitive shade of Mr. Justice Hathorne to know that Cathedrals are almost the only things that have quite filled out his descendant's ideal here in this old world;" but Nathaniel Hawthorne's ideal"' of a cathedral was purely poetical, and by no means dangerous to his Puritan equanimity. He enjoyed the repose of English rural scenery. Among the lakes and mountains of Wales he felt, after the fashion of his countrymen, the superior measurements of his own native land; but, unlike many of his own countrymen, the comparison did not prejudice his gesthetic sense. If in fancy he heard the

American Eagle scream contemptuously over

Snowdon, Skiddaw, and Ben Lomond, his ears were not closed against  the sweeter music of the hills. He seems to have been at home in English society, perhaps more so than he would have been in the same level of American society; but the most violent democrat would, we hardly think, accuse him of toadyism. Like Irving, his romantic taste took unaffected delight in the half-feudal breadth and easy opulence of the social surroundings of the English higher classes; but he does not describe them with Irving's English and wholly material unctuousness. If in one instance he records that he walked away from an American who put his hat on his head in St. Paul's, and on another occasion he felt— perhaps more fastidiously than was becoming a guest—the smallness/of the entrance-hall, and the humble surroundings of a house to which he had been invited, we find an explanation rather in the man's sensitive organization than in the effect of any ulterior influences; and the simplicity with which he tells the incident is charming. It was quite impossible for such a nature as Hawthorne's to have had a genuine snobbish impulse; but it was not impossible for such a nature to mor bidly examine itself for any evidence of that quality. It was this fastidiousness which caused him to anxiously compare the representative Americans whom he met with the average Englishmen, although his judgment almost always leaned toward his countrymen. Most of his comments and criticisms, whether exhaustive or superficial, are all characterized by that simplicity which seems to be an unfailing indication of a great nature.

The record of his interviews with some of his famous literary contemporaries has a peculiar value now that most of these men have passed away, to say nothing of the frequent felicity of his comments. He managed to get a very clear idea'of Douglas Jerrold's susceptibility to criticism, albeit in a way that must have been embarrassing to both parties. He also met Reade, Taylor, Lever, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Howitt, and Mr. Tupper. The meeting with the latter was, however, more characteristic of Hawthorne than Tupper. Soonentered Mr. Tupper,' says the Note-Book, and without seeing me, exchanged warm greetings with thé whitehaired gentleman. 'I suppose,' began Mr. Tupper, 'you have come to meet ——.Now, conscious that my name was going to be spoken, and not knowing but the excellent Mr. Tupper might say something which he would not quite like me to overhear, I advanced at once with outstretched hand and saluted him.'' It may be remarked herethat Mr. Hawthorne was quite a lion in London, and that he records the fact with a simplicity and unaffectedness that is utterly free from even the suspicion of egotism.

The office that Mr. Hawthorne held at Liverpool was then one of no inconsiderable profit and emolument. In offering it to his life-long friend, President Pierce undoubtedly had in view the advantage which a handsome income that was quite independent of literary effort had upon the purely literary character. It placed Mr. Hawthorne independent of that immediate popularity which is often so fatal to literary excellence. It surrounded him with the conditions most favorable to the development of his genius. But that the practical duties of the Consulate were of a nature that was unsympathetic, there can be little doubt. There is something pathetically amusing in his account of