Various

“ In Massachusetts alone are the delightful Nantasket and Revere beaches, elegant Nahant, and the myriad of charming nooks from Cape Ann to Provincetown. Then the Berkshire hills; Lenox and Stockbridge, and other equally beautiful towns, but with less pretensions to aristocracy; the lovely valley of the Connecticut, the romantic Deerfield and the pleasant Franklin hills. In Maine, beginning with Old Orchard, perhaps the finest beach on the Atlantic coast, what delightful harbors and islands there are. And in the Maine woods there is a wealth of health and sport. ”

“ The Constitution of the United States purports to be a perpetual form of government; it contains no limits for its duration, and suggests no means and no form of proceeding by which it can be dissolved, or its obligations dispensed with; it requires the personal allegiance of every citizen of the United States, and demands a solemn oath for its support from every man employed in any public trust, whether under the Government of the United States, or any State government. ”

“ And yet, in the words of one of their own writers,
"There was but one man living whom the country could so ill afford to lose as this strange, wayward, fitful, unreasonable poet and dreamer, who sneered at the war, and at the great nation that waged it, with the pettishness of a spoiled child."
But the charge that Hawthorne sneered at the righteous war, or, far worse, at his country, is full of an injustice which seems more bitter because it comes from one whose hearty admiration of the Author should have lifted him to a clearer appreciation of the Man in his purity and lofty patriotism. ”

“ The old men whom we see here have generally more marked faces than the young ones, and naturally enough; since it must be an extraordinary vigor and venerability of life that can overcome the rusty sloth of age, and keep the senior flexible enough to take an interest in new things; whereas, hundreds of commonplace young men come hither to stare with eyes of vacant wonder, and with vague hopes of finding out what they are fit for. ”

“ If the work of the college has been done quietly and unobtrusively, it has been done well. The faculty of Williams have not been ambitious to make a university amid the Berkshire Hills, nor to enter into a strife with other institutions for the purpose of swelling the number of its students. They have been content to do the work of a simple college, and to be judged by the quality rather than the quantity of their work. Faithful to the students who might be led to seek the benefits of such an institution, they have sought to make their pupils faithful to themselves and to their opportunities. ”

“ It was thus that men and women, full of the cheap patriotism of the time, and puffed up with a sort of loyal egotism that blinded them to the possibilities of honest purpose in any whose views on politics and public affairs varied never so slightly from their accepted standard of right, ventured to condemn what they were constitutionally incapable of judging with either coolness or fair appreciation. ”

“ To any one who knew the man, the mere fact that Hawthorne should have been able to make up his mind to the righteousness and expediency of the war at all, is evidence of the strength of that popular passion which drove the North and South into conflict."
But it was not Hawthorne's silence that provoked to fiercest expression the safe zeal of certain literary loyalists. This last sketch from that pen, the secret of whose magic was never communicated, and which, precious in itself, is invaluable because the last, was published in the summer of 1862—less than two years before its author's death. ”

“ Apollo succeeded to the early worship paid the sun and fire. He was the god of light and beauty. In his honor gold coins should originally have been struck, and they should bear his emblems. It will be of service to [Pg 541] see what some of these were. This god was, on the whole, beneficent, as the influences of the sun are kindly, but he inflicted plagues by shooting his poisoned arrows among the people, just as the heat of the sun engenders deadly fevers. We have retained a trace of the old feeling, as our language betrays where consciousness utterly fails. ”

“ Grandeur is found in the White Mountains, comfort and elegance at their great hotels. And here, as well as through the hundreds of rural towns on and among the Green Mountains, are the quiet farmhouses where one may abide, and see the New England character—sometimes, not always—at its very best. ”

“ Of course every one who knows anything of the college knows that the study of mental and moral science has had as prominent place as that of the natural sciences. It could not be otherwise with such a man as Ex-President Hopkins in the chair of instruction. Dr. Hopkins has had, in a remarkable degree, the faculty of making these studies, usually regarded as abstruse and repulsive to the majority of students, both intelligible and attractive. ”

“ Now that the wilderness is gone, and the college, long secluded from observation, has been made so accessible by the construction of one of our transcontinental lines of railway along the valley of the Hoosac, and the town to which Williams gave name has become noted far and wide for its beauty, one wonders whether those early founders were aware of the fair setting which Nature had provided for their school. Certainly the æsthetic sense can ask for nothing more in the way of natural scenery than is here presented to the eye in the combination of mountain, valley, and stream ”

“ The open manner in which disunion, secession, or a separation of the States, is suggested and recommended in some parts of the country, naturally calls on those to whom are confided the power and trust of maintaining the Constitution, and seeing that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed, to reflect upon the duties which events not yet indeed probable, but possible, may require them to perform. ”

“ Before examining any particular coin, it may be worth the while to notice a few of the more prominent features of our American types. The most striking of all is the absence of portrait heads. There is good reason for this. The theory of our government is, that it is but the collective will of the people. Again, since the invention of printing, there is longer reason in giving coins a medallic character. ”

“ But I magnanimously considered that there is a kind of treason in inoculating one's self from the universal fear and sorrow, and thinking one's idle thoughts in the dread time of civil war; and could a man be so cold and hard-hearted, he would better deserve to be sent to Fort Warren than many who have found their way thither on the score of violent but misdirected sympathies. ”

“ Fire was originally sacred, perhaps, only as the representative of the sun; and this luminary was later spiritualized in the idea of Apollo. Gold was sacred as far as this worship was spread, from India to the North of Europe, and the great demand for it for sacred uses gave the metal much of its preciousness in the markets of the world. It was worn by the living and was buried with the dead; so that if humanity had not refined its conception of the divine, it would have come to be the case at length that every particle of gold in the soil would have had mortal ashes sleeping beside it. ”

“ WEST COLLEGE.
That it was to be something more than an ordinary school was insured from the beginning by the character of the trustees who so patiently brooded over the work committed to them while the funds in their hands were gaining the needful increase. They were among the most distinguished and intelligent citizens of the Colony. Most of them were of collegiate training, and a large number graduates of Yale. They believed in the value of a liberal education, not only to the person immediately concerned, but to the community of which he might be a member. ”

“ Whether one sighs for the wildness of the primeval woods, the quiet of the rural farm, or the elegance of a luxurious villa or superb hotel, he need not, unless he desires to travel, look beyond the border lines of fair New England.
There is a growing tendency with our New England people to make rest and recreation matters of considerable importance in themselves. Business is driven at a greater speed than it used to be, and an annual relaxation from business or professional cares and toils has become a positive necessity. ”

“ The writer concludes the article from which I have quoted, and which, in keen analysis and generous, literary judgment, is rarely equalled by any of Hawthorne's reviewers, with these and like ill-considered words:—
"Wherever he turned his weary steps, there stood in his path the genius of the time, not beautiful, not romantic, to his eyes; not even grand—but stern enough and in grim earnest, demanding of him what he could not give,—the heart and voice of an American citizen in the hour of America's danger." ”

“ They only obey the will of editors and publishers. The one and the only conclusion is that the "great dailies,"—excepting those which do have a measure left of honor and dignity, of which, thank Heaven, a few are yet published—are on a grade far below many things which they would not themselves dare to sanction. As the "New York Evening Post" says, "If it be true that journalism is really a calling in which men must do or say anything which will [Pg 560] increase sales, it is the lowest occupation, not absolutely criminal, known to modern society." ”

“ The fact that the thunderbolt is found in the talons of the eagle so often, upon both Greek and Roman coins, makes the supposition a likely one.
Regarding the laurel and the olive, it need only be said that the branch of itself symbolizes the presence of the divinity, to which the tree is sacred, or it typifies some attribute or the exercise of some divine office. As an illustration, Apollo is often shown using the laurel-bough to sprinkle the people with purifying waters. But when boughs or leaves are twined into a wreath, it is commonly to denote worship paid to the divinity, or in its name ”

“ To his brief estimate of McClellan's character and qualifications for his post of vast responsibility, our author brought an admirable coolness of judgment, and that wonderful insight into men and motives so seldom at fault. Keenly alive to the ridiculousness of the attack on Manassas, and declaring that "no rebel artillery has played upon us with such overwhelming effect," he was capable, with a fairness sufficiently amazing in any critic of those days, of doing full justice to the general's indubitable ability and patriotism. ”

“ With such natural surroundings as the students of Williams have, such scenery appealing everywhere to the eye and soul, mountains close at hand to climb, and sequestered nooks to explore, it could hardly be otherwise than that they should combine with their studies the physical exercise necessary for the maintenance of health. They have been encouraged also by the college authorities to engage in athletic games among themselves, and to participate in friendly contests with the students of other colleges, and in these contests the students of Williams have held an honorable place. ”

“ With some such thought of his country would an old Greek have scanned this coin when he bartered his soul for its possession. In the coinage of 1838, this coin bears on its reverse an eagle with a shield—which, by the way, is Roman—on its breast, and having its wings uplifted. This eagle holds in its left talon three arrows, and in its right an olive-branch.
The double eagle of 1850 bears on its obverse a head of Liberty. The face is shown in profile, and the features are of pure Greek type. The fillet about the head is such as was worn by the ancient priests. ”

“ Other nations have employed the bow, the lyre, and the tripod, with many more equally familiar symbols.
The coinage of silver belonged peculiarly to Zeus, the god of the thunderbolt. The question arises at once, Was there fancied a resemblance between the whiteness of this metal and dazzling brightness of the flash of lightning? However that question may be answered, there remains the fact that the thunderbolt was a symbol of the power of Zeus, and its figure uniformly accompanied the effigy of the god. ”

“ It is most earnestly to be hoped that the returning good sense of the people in all the States, and an increase of harmony and brotherly good will everywhere, may prevent the necessity of resorting to the exercise of legal authority; it is to be hoped that all good citizens will be much more inclined to reflect on the value of the Union and the benefits which it has conferred upon all, than to speculate upon impracticable means for its severance or dissolution. ”

“ It shows, at any rate, how many remote, decaying villages and country neighborhoods of the North, and forest nooks of the West, and old mansion houses in cities, are shaken by the tremor of our native soil, so that men long hidden in retirement put on the garments of their youth and hurry out to inquire what is the matter. ”

“ But we keep young in our feelings. We are, in fact, like two old children; as much interested as ever in the birds and wild flowers, and with sympathies as lively as ever in all that concerns the welfare of the world. ”

“ Still other examples will show not only the harmony between obverse and reverse, but how coins were dedicated to more than one divinity. This practice was at first more common in the colonies than in the metropolitan cities. A coin of Crotona of about 479 b.c. has, obverse, eagle perched on the cornice of a temple; reverse, tripod and olive-spray. It would seem likely that this piece was first dedicated to Zeus, and next to Apollo. Zeus often holds the eagle on his hand as falcons were held in the days of hawking, and he is then called the eagle-holder (exetophoros) . ”

“ It speaks strongly for itself, and is all that will be needed, at this late day, to convince every dispassionate lover of justice and truth, of Webster's sincerity and singleheartedness of motive, and his unswerving loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. ”

“ When so represented, the god is commonly seated as at peace; but there is one coin of Messene which shows him holding the bird while he is standing and thundering. Later coins show combinations which are particularly interesting in connection with the symbolism of our own coins. One of the best of these is a Macedonian coin of the time of Perseus—obverse, head of Perseus; reverse, an eagle on a thunderbolt, within a wreath of oak. In connection with this example should be examined a Roman gold coin of about 269 b.c.—obverse, head of Mars; reverse, an eagle holding in its talons a thunderbolt. ”