after health or pleasure who repair here, but inexpressibly
comfortless to me. We were shown into an immense apartment,
lighted by two dim candles, called the drawing-room: from which
there was a descent by a flight of steps, to another vast desert,
called the dining-room: our bed-chambers were among certain long
rows of little white-washed cells, which opened from either side of
a dreary passage; and were so like rooms in a prison that I half
expected to be locked up when I went to bed, and listened
involuntarily for the turning of the key on the outside. There
need be baths somewhere in the neighbourhood, for the other washing
arrangements were on as limited a scale as I ever saw, even in
America: indeed, these bedrooms were so very bare of even such
common luxuries as chairs, that I should say they were not provided
with enough of anything, but that I bethink myself of our having
been most bountifully bitten all night.
The house is very pleasantly situated, however, and we had a good
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breakfast. That done, we went to visit our place of destination,
which was some two miles off, and the way to which was soon
indicated by a finger-post, whereon was painted, 'To the Shaker
Village.'
As we rode along, we passed a party of Shakers, who were at work
upon the road; who wore the broadest of all broad-brimmed hats; and
were in all visible respects such very wooden men, that I felt
about as much sympathy for them, and as much interest in them, as
if they had been so many figure-heads of ships. Presently we came
to the beginning of the village, and alighting at the door of a
house where the Shaker manufactures are sold, and which is the
headquarters of the elders, requested permission to see the Shaker
worship.
Pending the conveyance of this request to some person in authority,
we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on
grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock which
uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim
silence reluctantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall
were six or eight stiff, high-backed chairs, and they partook so
strongly of the general grimness that one would much rather have
sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of
them.
Presently, there stalked into this apartment, a grim old Shaker,
with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold, as the great round metal
buttons on his coat and waistcoat; a sort of calm goblin. Being
informed of our desire, he produced a newspaper wherein the body of
elders, whereof he was a member, had advertised but a few days
before, that in consequence of certain unseemly interruptions which
their worship had received from strangers, their chapel was closed
to the public for the space of one year.
As nothing was to be urged in opposition to this reasonable
arrangement, we requested leave to make some trifling purchases of
Shaker goods; which was grimly conceded. We accordingly repaired
to a store in the same house and on the opposite side of the
passage, where the stock was presided over by something alive in a
russet case, which the elder said was a woman; and which I suppose
WAS a woman, though I should not have suspected it.
On the opposite side of the road was their place of worship: a
cool, clean edifice of wood, with large windows and green blinds:
like a spacious summer-house. As there was no getting into this
place, and nothing was to be done but walk up and down, and look at
it and the other buildings in the village (which were chiefly of
wood, painted a dark red like English barns, and composed of many
stories like English factories), I have nothing to communicate to
the reader, beyond the scanty results I gleaned the while our
purchases were making,
These people are called Shakers from their peculiar form of
adoration, which consists of a dance, performed by the men and
women of all ages, who arrange themselves for that purpose in
and coats, which they gravely hang against the wall before they
begin; and tying a ribbon round their shirt-sleeves, as though they
were going to be bled. They accompany themselves with a droning,
humming noise, and dance until they are quite exhausted,
alternately advancing and retiring in a preposterous sort of trot.
The effect is said to be unspeakably absurd: and if I may judge
from a print of this ceremony which I have in my possession; and
which I am informed by those who have visited the chapel, is
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perfectly accurate; it must be infinitely grotesque.
They are governed by a woman, and her rule is understood to be
absolute, though she has the assistance of a council of elders.
She lives, it is said, in strict seclusion, in certain rooms above
the chapel, and is never shown to profane eyes. If she at all
resemble the lady who presided over the store, it is a great
charity to keep her as close as possible, and I cannot too strongly
express my perfect concurrence in this benevolent proceeding.
All the possessions and revenues of the settlement are thrown into
a common stock, which is managed by the elders. As they have made
converts among people who were well to do in the world, and are
frugal and thrifty, it is understood that this fund prospers: the
more especially as they have made large purchases of land. Nor is
this at Lebanon the only Shaker settlement: there are, I think, at
least, three others.
They are good farmers, and all their produce is eagerly purchased
and highly esteemed. 'Shaker seeds,' 'Shaker herbs,' and 'Shaker
distilled waters,' are commonly announced for sale in the shops of
towns and cities. They are good breeders of cattle, and are kind
and merciful to the brute creation. Consequently, Shaker beasts
seldom fail to find a ready market.
They eat and drink together, after the Spartan model, at a great
public table. There is no union of the sexes, and every Shaker,
male and female, is devoted to a life of celibacy. Rumour has been
busy upon this theme, but here again I must refer to the lady of
the store, and say, that if many of the sister Shakers resemble
her, I treat all such slander as bearing on its face the strongest
marks of wild improbability. But that they take as proselytes,
persons so young that they cannot know their own minds, and cannot
possess much strength of resolution in this or any other respect, I
can assert from my own observation of the extreme juvenility of
certain youthful Shakers whom I saw at work among the party on the
road.
They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to be honest and
just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist
those thievish tendencies which would seem, for some
undiscovered
reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In
all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their
gloomy, silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere
with other people.
This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline
towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards
them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul
detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be
entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob
youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their
pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path towards
the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full
scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren
the imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power
of raising up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet
unborn, no better than the beasts: that, in these very broadbrimmed
hats and very sombre coats - in stiff-necked, solemnvisaged
piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have
cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo
temple - I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and
Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor
world, not into wine, but gall. And if there must be people vowed
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to crush the harmless fancies and the love of innocent delights and
gaieties, which are a part of human nature: as much a part of it
as any other love or hope that is our common portion: let them,
for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious; the
very idiots know that THEY are not on the Immortal road, and will
despise them, and avoid them readily.
Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old
Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the
strong probability of their running away as they grow older and
wiser, which they not uncommonly do: we returned to Lebanon, and
so to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day. There,
we took the steamboat down the North River towards New York, but
stopped, some four hours' journey short of it, at West Point, where
we remained that night, and all next day, and next night too.
In this beautiful place: the fairest among the fair and lovely
Highlands of the North River: shut in by deep green heights and
ruined forts, and looking down upon the distant town of Newburgh,
along a glittering path of sunlit water, with here and there a
skiff, whose white sail often bends on some new tack as sudden
flaws of wind come down upon her from the gullies in the hills:
hemmed in, besides, all round with memories of Washington, and
events of the revolutionary war: is the Military School of
America.
It could not stand on more appropriate ground, and any ground more
beautiful can hardly be. The course of education is severe, but
well devised, and manly. Through June, July, and August, the young
men encamp upon the spacious plain whereon the college stands; and
all the year their military exercises are performed there, daily.
The term of study at this institution, which the State requires
from all cadets, is four years; but, whether it be from the rigid
nature of the discipline, or the national impatience of restraint,
or both causes combined, not more than half the number who begin
their studies here, ever remain to finish them.
The number of cadets being about equal to that of the members of
Congress, one is sent here from every Congressional district: its
member influencing the selection. Commissions in the service are
distributed on the same principle. The dwellings of the various
Professors are beautifully situated; and there is a most excellent
hotel for strangers, though it has the two drawbacks of being a
total abstinence house (wines and spirits being forbidden to the
students), and of serving the public meals at rather uncomfortable
hours: to wit, breakfast at seven, dinner at one, and supper at
sunset.
The beauty and freshness of this calm retreat, in the very dawn and
greenness of summer - it was then the beginning of June - were
exquisite indeed. Leaving it upon the sixth, and returning to New
York, to embark for England on the succeeding day, I was glad to
think that among the last memorable beauties which had glided past
us, and softened in the bright perspective, were those whose
pictures, traced by no common hand, are fresh in most men's minds;
not easily to grow old, or fade beneath the dust of Time: the
Kaatskill Mountains, Sleepy Hollow, and the Tappaan Zee.
CHAPTER XVI - THE PASSAGE HOME
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I NEVER had so much interest before, and very likely I shall never
have so much interest again, in the state of the wind, as on the
long-looked-for morning of Tuesday the Seventh of June. Some
nautical authority had told me a day or two previous, 'anything
with west in it, will do;' so when I darted out of bed at daylight,
and throwing up the window, was saluted by a lively breeze from the
north-west which had sprung up in the night, it came upon me so
freshly, rustling with so many happy associations, that I conceived
upon the spot a special regard for all airs blowing from that
quarter of the compass, which I shall cherish, I dare say, until my
own wind has breathed its last frail puff, and withdrawn itself for
ever from the mortal calendar.
The pilot had not been slow to take advantage of this favourable
weather, and the ship which yesterday had been in such a crowded
dock that she might have retired from trade for good and all, for
any chance she seemed to have of going to sea, was now full sixteen
miles away. A gallant sight she was, when we, fast gaining on her
in a steamboat, saw her in the distance riding at anchor: her tall
masts pointing up in graceful lines against the sky, and every rope
and spar expressed in delicate and thread-like outline: gallant,
too, when, we being all aboard, the anchor came up to the sturdy
chorus 'Cheerily men, oh cheerily!' and she followed proudly in the
towing steamboat's wake: but bravest and most gallant of all, when
the tow-rope being cast adrift, the canvas fluttered from her
masts, and spreading her white wings she soared away upon her free
and solitary course.
In the after cabin we were only fifteen passengers in all, and the
greater part were from Canada, where some of us had known each
other. The night was rough and squally, so were the next two days,
but they flew by quickly, and we were soon as cheerful and snug a
party, with an honest, manly-hearted captain at our head, as ever
came to the resolution of being mutually agreeable, on land or
water.
We breakfasted at eight, lunched at twelve, dined at three
, and
took our tea at half-past seven. We had abundance of amusements,
and dinner was not the least among them: firstly, for its own
sake; secondly, because of its extraordinary length: its duration,
inclusive of all the long pauses between the courses, being seldom
less than two hours and a half; which was a subject of neverfailing
entertainment. By way of beguiling the tediousness of
these banquets, a select association was formed at the lower end of
the table, below the mast, to whose distinguished president modesty
forbids me to make any further allusion, which, being a very
hilarious and jovial institution, was (prejudice apart) in high
favour with the rest of the community, and particularly with a
black steward, who lived for three weeks in a broad grin at the
marvellous humour of these incorporated worthies.
Then, we had chess for those who played it, whist, cribbage, books,
backgammon, and shovelboard. In all weathers, fair or foul, calm
or windy, we were every one on deck, walking up and down in pairs,
lying in the boats, leaning over the side, or chatting in a lazy
group together. We had no lack of music, for one played the
accordion, another the violin, and another (who usually began at
six o'clock A.M.) the key-bugle: the combined effect of which
instruments, when they all played different tunes in differents
parts of the ship, at the same time, and within hearing of each
other, as they sometimes did (everybody being intensely satisfied
with his own performance), was sublimely hideous.
When all these means of entertainment failed, a sail would heave in
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sight: looming, perhaps, the very spirit of a ship, in the misty
distance, or passing us so close that through our glasses we could
see the people on her decks, and easily make out her name, and
whither she was bound. For hours together we could watch the
dolphins and porpoises as they rolled and leaped and dived around
the vessel; or those small creatures ever on the wing, the Mother
Carey's chickens, which had borne us company from New York bay, and
for a whole fortnight fluttered about the vessel's stern. For some
days we had a dead calm, or very light winds, during which the crew
amused themselves with fishing, and hooked an unlucky dolphin, who
expired, in all his rainbow colours, on the deck: an event of such