Main Street: (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")Hawthorne, Nathaniel
General
Main Street: (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Historical fiction, American; New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories
Behind these two,—who help another along, and seem to be comforting and
encouraging each other, in a manner truly pitiful, if it were not a sin
to pity the old witch and wizard,—behind them comes a woman, with a
dark proud face that has been beautiful, and a figure that is still
majestic. Do you know her? It is Martha Carrier, whom the Devil found
in a humble cottage, and looked into her discontented heart, and saw
pride there, and tempted her with his promise that she should be Queen
of Hell. And now, with that lofty demeanor, she is passing to her
kingdom, and, by her unquenchable pride, transforms this escort of
shame into a triumphal procession, that shall attend her to the gates
of her infernal palace, and seat her upon the fiery throne. Within this
hour, she shall assume her royal dignity.
Last of the miserable train comes a man clad in black, of small stature
and a dark complexion, with a clerical band about his neck. Many a
time, in the years gone by, that face has been uplifted heavenward from
the pulpit of the East Meeting-House, when the Rev. Mr. Burroughs
seemed to worship God. What!—he? The holy man!—the learned!—the wise!
How has the Devil tempted him? His fellow-criminals, for the most part,
are obtuse, uncultivated creatures, some of them scarcely half-witted
by nature, and others greatly decayed in their intellects through age.
They were an easy prey for the destroyer. Not so with this George
Burroughs, as we judge by the inward light which glows through his dark
countenance, and, we might almost say, glorifies his figure, in spite
of the soil and haggardness of long imprisonment,—in spite of the heavy
shadow that must fall on him, while death is walking by his side. What
bribe could Satan offer, rich enough to tempt and overcome this mail?
Alas! it may have been in the very strength of his high and searching
intellect, that the Tempter found the weakness which betrayed him. He
yearned for knowledge he went groping onward into a world of mystery;
at first, as the witnesses have sworn, he summoned up the ghosts of his
two dead wives, and talked with them of matters beyond the grave; and,
when their responses failed to satisfy the intense and sinful craving
of his spirit, he called on Satan, and was heard. Yet—to look at
him—who, that had not known the proof, could believe him guilty? Who
would not say, while we see him offering comfort to the weak and aged
partners of his horrible crime,—while we hear his ejaculations of
prayer, that seem to bubble up out of the depths of his heart, and fly
heavenward, unawares,—while we behold a radiance brightening on his
features as from the other world, which is but a few steps off,—who
would not say, that, over the dusty track of the Main Street, a
Christian saint is now going to a martyr’s death? May not the
Arch-Fiend have been too subtle for the court and jury, and betrayed
them—laughing in his sleeve, the while—into the awful error of pouring
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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