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The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Why Hawthorne should have entered Bowdoin College instead of Harvard
has not been explained, nor is it easily explained. The standard of
scholarship maintained at Harvard and Yale has always been higher than
that at what Doctor Holmes designated as the "freshwater colleges," and
this may have proved an unfavorable difference to the mind of a young
man who was not greatly inclined to his studies; but Harvard College is
only eighteen miles from Salem, and he could have returned to his home
once a week if he had chosen to do so, and this is a decided moral and
social advantage to a young man in those risky years. If Hawthorne had
entered Harvard in the next class to Emerson, he could not well have
escaped the latter's attention, and would have come in contact with
other vigorous and stimulating minds; but it is of little use to
speculate on what might have been.

Boys are encouraged to study for college by accounts of the rare
enjoyment of university life, but they commonly find the first term of
Freshman year both dismal and discouraging. Their class is a medley of
strangers, their studies are a dry routine, and if they are not hazed
by the Sophomores, they are at least treated by them with haughtiness
and contempt. It is still summer when they arrive, but the leaves soon
fall from the trees, and their spirits fall with them.

Hawthorne may have felt this more acutely than any other member of his
class, and in addition to the prevailing sense of discomfort he was
seized early in November with that disgusting malady, the measles,
which boys usually go through with before they are old enough to
realize how disagreeable it is. It appears to have been a light attack,
however, and in three weeks he was able to attend recitations again. He
made no complaint of it, only writing to his uncle for ten dollars with
which to pay the doctor. He likes his chum, Mason, of Portsmouth, and
does not find his studies so arduous as at Salem before entering.
Neither are the college laws so strict as he anticipated.

In the following May he received the present of his first watch,
presumably from Uncle Robert, and he writes to his mother, who is still
at Sebago, that he is mightily pleased with it, and that it enables him
"to cut a great dash" at college. His letters to his relatives are not
brilliant, but they indicate a healthful and contented mind.

We will now consider some of the distinguished personages who were
Hawthorne's friends and associates during these four years of his
apprenticeship to actual life; and there were rare characters among
them.

In the same coach in which Hawthorne left Portland for Brunswick, in
the summer of 1821, were Franklin Pierce and Jonathan Cilley.
[Footnote: Bridge's Memoir of Hawthorne, 3.] Two men seated together in
a modern railway-carriage will often become better acquainted in three
hours than they might as next-door neighbors in three years; and this
was still more likely to happen in the old days of coach journeys, when
the very tedium of the occasion served as an inducement to frank and
friendly conversation. Pierce was the right man to bring Hawthorne out
of his hard shell of Sebago seclusion. He had already been one year at
Bowdoin, and at that time there was not the same caste feeling between
Sophomores and Freshmen--or at least very little of it--that has since
arisen in American colleges. He was amiable and kindly, and possessed
the rare gift of personal magnetism. Nature sometimes endows men and
women with this quality in lieu of all other advantages, and such would
seem to have been the case with Franklin Pierce. He was not much above
the average in intellect, and, as Hawthorne afterward confessed, not
particularly attractive in appearance; with a stiff military neck,
features strong but small, and opaque gray eyes,--a rather unimpressive
face, and one hardly capable of a decided expression. Yet with such
abilities as he had, aided by personal magnetism and the lack of
conspicuous faults, he became United States Senator at the age of
thirty-five, and President fifteen years later. The best we can say of
him is, that he was always Hawthorne's friend. From the first day that
they met he became Hawthorne's patron and protector--so far as he may
have required the latter. There must have been some fine quality in the
man which is not easily discernible from his outward acts; a narrow-
minded man, but of a refined nature.

Jonathan Cilley was an abler man than Pierce, and a bold party-leader,
but not so attractive personally. He always remained Hawthorne's
friend, but the latter saw little of him and rarely heard from him
after they had graduated. The one letter of his which has been
published gives the impression of an impulsive, rough-and-tumble sort
of person, always ready to take a hand in whatever might turn up.

On the same day, Horatio Bridge, who lived at Augusta, was coming down
the Kennebec River to Brunswick. Hawthorne did not make his
acquaintance until some weeks later, but he proved to be the best
friend of them all, and Hawthorne's most constant companion during the
four years they remained together. Pierce, Cilley and Bridge were all
born politicians, and it was this class of men with whom it would seem
that Hawthorne naturally assimilated.

On the same day, or the one previous, another boy set out from Portland
for Brunswick, only fourteen years old, named Henry W. Longfellow,--a
name that is now known to thousands who never heard of Franklin Pierce.
Would it have made a difference in the warp and woof of Hawthorne's
life, if he had happened to ride that day in the same coach with
Longfellow? Who can tell? Was there any one in the breadth of the land
with whom he might have felt an equal sympathy, with whom he could have
matured a more enduring fellowship? It might have been a friendship
like that of Beaumont and Fletcher, or, better still, like that of
Goethe and Schiller,--but it was not written in the book of Fate.
Longfellow also had tried his hand on the Sebago region, and was fond
of the woods and of a gun; but he was too precocious to adapt himself
easily to persons of his own age, or even somewhat older. He had no
sooner arrived at Bowdoin than he became the associate and favorite of
the professors. In this way he missed altogether the storm-and-stress
period of youthful life, which is a useful experience of its kind; and
if we notice in his poetry a certain lack, the absence of a close
contact with reality,--as if he looked at his subject through a glass
casement,--this may be assigned as the reason for it.

[Illustration: HORATIO BRIDGE. FROM THE PORTRAIT BY EASTMAN JOHNSON]

During the four years they went back and forth to their instruction
together, Hawthorne and Longfellow never became cordially acquainted.
They also belonged to rival societies. There were only two principal
societies at Bowdoin, which continued through the college course--the
Peucinian and the Athenæan, and the difference between them might be
described by the words "citified" and "countrified," without taking
either of those terms in an objectionable sense. Pierce was already a
leading character in the Athenæan, and was soon followed by Cilley,
Bridge and Hawthorne. The Peucinian suffered from the disadvantage of
having members of the college faculty on its active list, and this must
have given a rather constrained and academic character to its meetings.
There was much more of the true college spirit and classmate feeling in
the Athenæan.

Horatio Bridge is our single authority in regard to Bowdoin College at
this time, and his off-hand sketches of Hawthorne, Pierce and
Longfellow are invaluable. Never has such a group of distinguished
young men been gathered together at an American college. He says of
Hawthorne:

"Hawthorne was a slender lad, having a massive head, with dark,
brilliant, and most expressive eyes, heavy eyebrows, and a profusion of
dark hair. For his appearance at that time the inquirers must rely
wholly upon the testimony of friends; for, I think, no portrait of him
as a lad is extant. On one occasion, in our senior years, the class
wished to have their profiles cut in silhouette by a wandering artist
of the scissors, and interchanged by all the thirty-eight. Hawthorne
disapproved the proposed plan, and steadily refused to go into the
Class Golgotha, as he styled the dismal collection. I joined him in
this freak, and so our places were left vacant. I now regret the whim,
since even a moderately correct outline of his features as a youth
would, at this day, be interesting.

"Hawthorne's figure was somewhat singular, owing to his carrying his
head a little on one side; but his walk was square and firm, and his
manner self-respecting and reserved. A fashionable boy of the present
day might have seen something to amuse him in the new student's
appearance; but had he indicated this he would have rued it, for
Hawthorne's clear appreciation of the social proprieties and his great
physical courage would have made it as unsafe to treat him with
discourtesy then as at any later time.

"Though quiet and most amiable, he had great pluck and determination. I
remember that in one of our convivial meetings we had the laugh upon
him for some cause, an occurrence so rare that the bantering was
carried too far. After bearing it awhile, Hawthorne singled out the one
among us who had the reputation of being the best pugilist, and in a
few words quietly told him that he would not permit the rallying to go
farther. His bearing was so resolute, and there was so much of danger
in his eye, that no one afterward alluded to the offensive subject in
his presence." [Footnote: Horatio Bridge, 5.]

Horatio Bridge is a veracious witness, but we have to consider that he
was nearly ninety years of age at the time his memoirs were given to
the public. It is difficult to imagine Hawthorne as a slender youth,
for his whole figure was in keeping with the structure of his head. It
is more likely that he had a spare figure. Persons of a lively
imagination have always been apt to hold their heads on one side, but
not commonly while they are walking. It is for this reason that
phrenologists have supposed that the organ of ideality is located on
the side of the head,--if there really is any such organ.

Bridge says of Longfellow precisely what one might expect:

"He had decided personal beauty and most attractive manners. He was
frank, courteous, and affable, while morally he was proof against the
temptations that beset lads on first leaving the salutary restraints of
home. He was diligent, conscientious, and most attentive to all his
college duties, whether in the recitation-room, the lecture-hall, or
the chapel. The word 'student' best expresses his literary habit, and
in his intercourse with all he was conspicuously the gentleman."

In addition to those already mentioned, James W. Bradbury of Portland,
afterwards United States Senator, and the Reverend Dr. George B.
Cheever, the vigorous anti-slavery preacher, were members of this
class. Three others, Cilley, Benson and Sawtelle, were afterward
members of the United States House of Representatives. Surely there
must have been quite a fermentation of youthful intellect at Bowdoin
between 1821 and 1825.

Franklin Pierce was so deeply interested in military affairs that it
was a pity he should not have had a West Point cadetship. He was
captain of the college militia company, in which Hawthorne and Bridge
drilled and marched; a healthy and profitable exercise, and better than
a gymnasium, if rather monotonous. Pierce was the popular hero and
_magnus Apollo_ of his class, as distinguished foot-ball players
are now; but just at this time he was neglecting his studies so badly
that at the close of his second year he found himself at the very foot
of the rank list. The fact became known through the college, and Pierce
was so chagrined that he concluded to withdraw from Bowdoin altogether,
and it was only by the urgent persuasion of his friends that he was
induced to continue his course. "If I remain, however," he said, "you
will witness a change in me." For months together he burned midnight
oil in order to recover lost ground. During his last two years at
college, he only missed two recitations, both for sufficient reasons.
His conduct was unexceptionable, he incurred no deductions, and finally
graduated third in his class. It is an uncommon character that can play
fast-and-loose with itself in this manner. The boy Franklin had
departed, and Pierce the man had taken his place. [Footnote: Professor
Packard's "History of Bowdoin College."] Horatio Bridge gives a rather
more idealized portrait of him than he does of Hawthorne. He says:

"In person Pierce was slender, of medium height, with fair complexion
and light hair, erect, with a military bearing, active, and always
bright and cheerful. In character he was impulsive, not rash; generous,
not lavish; chivalric, courteous, manly, and warm-hearted,--and he was
one of the most popular students in the whole college."

The instruction in American colleges during the first half of the
nineteenth century was excellent for Greek, Latin and mathematics,--
always the groundwork of a good education,--but the modern languages
were indifferently taught by French and German exiles, and other
subjects were treated still more indifferently. The two noble studies
of history and philosophy were presented to the young aspiring soul in
narrow, prejudiced text-books, which have long since been consigned to
that bourn from which no literary work ever returns. As already stated,
Hawthorne's best study was Latin, and in that he acquired good
proficiency; but he was slow in mathematics, as artistic minds usually
are, and in his other studies he only exerted himself sufficiently to
pass his examinations in a creditable manner. We may presume that he
took the juice and left the rind; which was the sensible thing to do.
As might be expected, his themes and forensics were beautifully
written, although the arguments in them were not always logical; but it
is significant that he never could be prevailed upon to make a
declamation. There have been sensitive men, like Sumner and George W.
Curtis, who were not at all afraid of the platform, but they were not,
like Hawthorne, bashful men. The college faculty would seem to have
realized the true difficulty in his case, and treated him in a kindly
and lenient manner. No doubt he suffered enough in his own mind on
account of this deficiency, and it may have occurred to him what
difficulties he might have to encounter in after-life by reason of it.
If a student at college cannot bring himself to make a declamation, how
can the mature man face an audience in a lecture-room, command a ship,
or administer any important office? Such thoughts must have caused
Hawthorne no slight anxiety, at that sensitive age.

The out-door sports of the students did not attract Hawthorne greatly.
He was a fast runner and a good leaper, but seemed to dislike violent
exercise. He much preferred walking in the woods with a single
companion, or by the banks of the great river on which Brunswick is
situated. There were fine trout-brooks in the neighborhood, and
formerly the woods of Maine were traversed by vast flocks of passenger
pigeons, which with the large gray squirrels afforded excellent
shooting. How skilful Hawthorne became with his fowling-piece we have
not been informed, but it is evident from passages in "Fanshawe" that
he learned something of trout-fishing; and on the whole he enjoyed
advantages at Bowdoin which the present student at Harvard or Oxford
might well envy, him. The fish we catch in the streams and lakes of
Maine only represent a portion of our enjoyment there. Horatio Bridge
says:

"There was one favorite spot in a little ravine, where a copious spring
of clear, cold water gushed out from the sandy bank, and joined the
larger stream. This was the Paradise Spring, which deserves much more
than its present celebrity for the absolute purity of its waters. Of
late years the brook has been better known as a favorite haunt of the
great romance writer, and it is now often called the Hawthorne Brook.

"Another locality, above the bridge, afforded an occasional stroll
through the fields and by the river. There, in spring, we used to
linger for hours to watch the giant pine-logs (for there were giants in
those days) from the far-off forests, floating by hundreds in the
stream until they came to the falls; then, balancing for a moment on
the brink, they plunged into the foamy pool below."

At the lower end of the town there was an old weather-beaten cot, where
the railroad track now runs, inhabited by a lone woman nearly as old
and time-worn as the dwelling itself. She pretended to be a fortune-
teller, and to her Hawthorne and Bridge sometimes had recourse, to lift
the veil of their future prospects; which she always succeeded in doing
to their good entertainment. The old crone knew her business well,
especially the art of giving sufficient variety of detail to the same
old story. For a nine-pence she would predict a beautiful blond wife
for Hawthorne, and an equally handsome dark-complexioned one for
Bridge. Riches were of course thrown in by the handful; and Bridge
remarks that although these never came to pass they both happened to be
blessed with excellent wives. It is not surprising that the handsome
Hawthorne and his tall, elegant-looking companion should have
stimulated the old woman's imagination in a favorable manner. The small
coin they gave her may have been the least happiness that their visits
brought into her life.

Close by the college grounds there was a miserable little inn, which
went by the name of Ward's Tavern, and thither the more uproarious
class of students consorted at intervals for the purpose of keeping
care at a distance, and singing, "Landlord, fill your flowing bowls."
Strange to say, the reserved, thoughtful Hawthorne was often to be
found among them. It does not seem quite consistent with the gravity of
his customary demeanor, but youth has its period of reckless
ebullition. Punch-bowl societies exist in all our colleges, and many
who disapprove of them join them for the sake of popularity. Hawthorne
may have been as grave and well-behaved on these occasions as he was
customarily. We have Bridge's word for this; and the matter would
hardly be worth mentioning if it had not led to more serious
proceedings. May 29, 1822, President Allen wrote to Mrs. Hathorne at
Salem that her son had been fined fifty cents for gaming at cards.
[Footnote: In 1864 a Harvard student was fined three dollars for
writing on the woodwork with a lead-pencil--erased with a sponge.]
Certainly this was not very severe treatment; and if the Bowdoin
faculty, being on the spot, concluded that young Hawthorne had only
injured his moral nature fifty cents' worth, I think we shall do well
to agree with their decision. At the same time Nathaniel wrote his
mother the following manly letter:


"BRUNSWICK, May 30th, 1822.

"MY DEAR MOTHER:--I hope you have safely arrived in Salem. I have
nothing particular to inform you of, except that all the card-players
in college have been found out, and my unfortunate self among the
number. One has been dismissed from college, two suspended, and the
rest, with myself, have been fined fifty cents each. I believe the
President intends to write to the friends of all the delinquents.
Should that be the case, you must show the letter to nobody. If I am
again detected, I shall have the honor of being suspended. When the
President asked what we played for, I thought it proper to inform him
it was fifty cents, although it happened to be a quart of wine; but if
I had told him of that, he would probably have fined me for having a
blow. There was no untruth in the case, as the wine cost fifty cents. I
have not played at all this term. I have not drank any kind of spirits
or wine this term, and shall not till the last week." [Footnote:
Horatio Bridge, 118.]


The clemency with which the college authorities treated Bridge and
Hawthorne is a plain indication of the confidence which they felt in
them, and speaks more highly for their respective characters than if
they had been patterns of good behavior. Some of the others were not so
fortunate. One young man, whose name is properly withheld from us, was
expelled from the institution. He was supposed to have been the
ringleader in this dubious business, but Hawthorne manfully resented
the supposition that any one could have influenced him, or did
influence him, in this matter. It is more likely that he was influenced
by the spirit of investigation, and wished to know what the sensation
was like from personal experience.

"Letters home" from college are not commonly interesting to the general
public, and those which Hawthorne wrote to his mother and sisters do
not differ essentially from such as other young men write under similar
conditions. At the age when it is so difficult to decide whether we
have become men or are still boys, all our actions partake of a similar
uncertainty, and the result of what we do and say is likely to be a
rather confused impression. Though college students appear different
enough to one another, they all seem alike to the outside world.

University towns always contain more or less cultivated society, and
young Hawthorne might have been welcome to the best of it if he had
felt so inclined; but he was as shy of the fair sex as Goldsmith's
bashful lover. M. D. Conway, who knew him, doubts if he ever became
well acquainted with a young lady until his engagement to Miss Peabody.
Considering this, it seems as if Jonathan Cilley made rather a
hazardous wager with Hawthorne, before leaving Bowdoin,--a wager of a
cask of Madeira, that Hawthorne would become a married man within the
next twelve years. Papers to that effect were duly signed by the
respective parties, sealed, and delivered for safe-keeping to Horatio
Bridge, who preserved them faithfully until the appointed time arrived.
Under ordinary conditions the chances of this bet were in Cilley's
favor, for in those primitive days it was much easier for educated
young men to obtain a start in life than it is at present, and early
marriages were in consequence much more common.[Footnote: Horatio
Bridge, 47. The contract was dated November 14, 1824.]

The year 1824 was a serious one in American politics. The Republican-
Democratic party, having become omnipotent, broke to pieces of its own
weight. The eastern interest nominated John Quincy Adams for the
Presidency; the western interest nominated Henry Clay; and the frontier
interest nominated Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately the frontier interest
included all the unsettled and continually shifting elements in the
country, so that Jackson had nearly as strong a support in the East as
in the West. Bridge says, "We were all enthusiastic supporters of old
Hickory." It was evidently Pierce who led them into this, and although
it proved in a material sense for Hawthorne's benefit, it separated him
permanently from the class to which he properly belonged--the
enlightened men of culture of his time; and Cilley's tragical fate can
be directly traced to it. The Jackson movement was in its essence a
revolt against _civility_,--and it seems as if Hawthorne and
Bridge might have recognized this.

Hawthorne was well liked in his class in spite of his reserved manners,
but he held no class offices that we hear of, except a place on a
committee of the Athenæan Society with Franklin Pierce. Class days and
class suppers, so prolific of small honors, were not introduced at
Bowdoin until some years later. He graduated eighteenth in a class of
thirty-eight, but this was not sufficient to give him a part in the
commencement exercises. [Footnote: The President informed him that his
rank in the class would have entitled him to a part if it had not been
for his neglect of declamations; and Hawthorne wrote to his mother that
he was perfectly satisfied with this, for it saved him the
mortification of appearing in public.] Accordingly Hawthorne, Bridge,
and others who were in a like predicament, organized a mock
Commencement celebration at Ward's Tavern, where they elected officers
of a comical sort, such as boatswain and sea-cook, and concluded their
celebration in a manner suitable to the occasion.

Hawthorne was commonly known among his classmates, as "Hath," and his
friends addressed him in this manner long after he had graduated. His
degree was made out in the name of Nathaniel Hathorne, above which he
subsequently wrote "Hawthorne," in bold letters.

The question may well be raised here, how it happened that America
produced so many men of remarkable intellect with such slight
opportunities for education in former times, while our greatly improved
universities have not graduated an orator like Webster, a poet like
Longfellow, or a prose-writer equal to Hawthorne during the past forty
years. There have been few enough who have risen above mediocrity.

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