Tales and Sketches, Part Four. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Concluded.

Tales and Sketches, Part Four
Nathaniel Hawthorne
New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1982
[1830-1852]

"Earth's Holocaust." "Once upon a time--but whether in time past or time to come, is a matter of little or no moment--this wide world had become so overburdened with an accumulation of worn-out trumpery, the the inhabitants determined to rid themselves of it by a general bonfire. An American author, whose works were neglected by the public, threw his pen and paper into the bonfire, and betook himself to some less discouraging occupation.

"How can human law inculcate benevolence and love while it persists in setting up the gallows as its chief symbol? See!--See!--what heaps of books and pamphlets...now we shall have a glorious blaze...now we shall get rid of dead men's thoughts, which have hitherto pressed so heavily on the living intellect. Thick, heavy folios, containing the labors of lexicographers, commentators, and encyclopedists, were flung in, and, falling among the embers with a leaden thump, smoldered away to ashes, like rotten wood.

"A book worm--one of those men who are born to gnaw dead thoughts--has no inward fountain of ideas. Is not nature better than a book? Is not the human heart deeper than any system of philosophy? Is not life replete with more instruction than past observers have found it possible to write down in maxims? Unless we set fire to the earth itself, and then leap boldly off into infinite space, I know not that we can carry reform to any further point."

"The Artist of the Beautiful." "For...I strive to put the very spirit of beauty into form, and give it motion.... Thus it is, that ideas which grow up within the imagination, and appear so lovely to it, and of value beyond whatever men call valuable, are exposed to be shattered and annihilated by contact with the practical; he must keep his faith in himself, while the incredulous world assails him with its utter disbelief; he must stand up against mankind and be his own sole disciple, both as respects his genius, and the objects to which it is directed.

"Only get rid altogether of your nonsensical trash about the beautiful--which I or nobody else, nor yourself to boot, could never understand--only free yourself of that, and your success in life is as sure as daylight. But, side by side with this sense of insecurity [about living long enough to accomplish an object], there is a vital faith in our invulnerability to the shaft of death, while engaged in any task that seems assigned by Providence as our proper thing to do, and which the world would have cause to mourn for, should we leave it unaccomplished.

"The little child of strength, with his grandsire's sharp and shrewd expression in his face, made a snatch at the marvelous insect, and compressed it in his hand; Annie screamed; old Peter Hovenden burst into a cold and scornful laugh; the blacksmith, by main force, unclasped the infant's hand, and found within the palm a small heap of glittering fragments, whence the mystery of beauty had fled forever."