Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Family; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
of the soul ceased to remember scenes of cruelty and agony. He swayed
from side to side, and raised himself on his toes, and creaked his
slippered heels jocosely, and smiled upon me, and lost himself in
agreeable musings. He was very courteous, entirely sincere, and quiet
with fixed principles as a great machine with consistent movement. He
treated children handsomely; harshness was not in him to be subdued,
and scorn of anything that was honestly developing would have seemed
to him blasphemy. He stooped to my intelligence, and rejoiced it. We
were usually a silent couple when off for a walk together, or when we
met by chance in the household. I suppose that we were seeing which
could outdo the other at "holding the tongue." But still, our
intercourse, as I remarked before, might be complete. I knew him very
well indeed,--' his power, his supremacy of honesty, his wealth of
refinement. And he, I was fully aware, could see through me as easily
as if I were a soul in one of his own books.
Even as a child, knowing that he could not think me a remunerative
companion, I realized how remarkable it was that in all his being
there was not an atom of the poison of contempt. If he did not love
stupidity, he forgave it. If he was strong with analysis and the
rejection of all sham and wrong, his hand was ready to grasp s any
hand, because it was a human creature's, whose destiny was a part of
every destiny--even Christ's. This sympathy, which caused the choice
he had made of his character-studies, and brought many confessions to
his judgment from bewildered men and women, was with him so entire
that it showed itself in the little things of existence, as a whole
garden-path is noble with the nature of the rose that stands blooming
there.
His aspect avoided, as did that of his art, which exactly reproduced
his character, anything like self-conscious picturesqueness. It is
pleasant to have the object of our regard unconscious of himself. He
had a way of ignoring, while observing automatically, all accessories,
which reminded us that his soul was ever awake, and waiting to be made
free of earthly things and common ideas.
During our European life he frequently wore a soft brown felt hat and
a brown talma of finest broadcloth, whose Greek-like folds and
double-decked effect were artistic, but did not tempt him to pose or
remember his material self. He was as forgetful of his appearance as
an Irishman of the true quality, who may have heard something about
his coat or his hair, but has let slip from his mind what it was, and
cares not, so long as the song of his comrades is tender and the
laughter generous. In some such downright way, I was convinced, my
father regarded the beauty and stateliness which were his, and for
which he had been praised all through his existence. He forgot himself
in high aims, which are greater than things seen, no matter how fine
soever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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