Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Family; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
I have referred to his large hand. I shall never see a more reassuring
one than his. It was broad, generous, supple. It had the little
depressions and the smoothness to be noticed in the hands of truest
charity; yet it had the ample outlines of the vigorously imaginative
temperament, so different from the hard plumpness of coarseness or
brutality. At the point where the fingers joined the back of the hand
were the roundings-in that are reminiscent of childhood's simplicity,
and are to be found in many philanthropic persons. His way of using
his fingers was slow, well thought out, and gentle, though never
lagging, that most unpleasant fault indicative of self-absorbed
natures. When he did anything with his hands he seemed very active,
because thoroughly in earnest. He delighted me by the way in which he
took hold of any material thing, for it proved his self-mastery.
Strength of will joined to self-restraint is a combination always
enjoyable to the onlooker; but it is also evidence of discomfort and
effort enough in the heroic character that has won the state which we
contemplate with so much approval. I remember his standing once by
the fire, leaning upon the mantelpiece, when a vase on the shelf
toppled over in some way. It was a cheap, lodging-house article, and
yet my father tried to save it from falling to the floor as earnestly
as he did anything which he set out to do. His hand almost seized the
vase, but it rebounded; and three times he half caught it. The fourth
time he rescued it as it was near the floor, having become flushed and
sparkling with the effort of will and deftness. For years that moment
came back to me, because his determination had been so valiantly
intense, and I was led to carry out determinations of all sorts from
witnessing his self-respect and his success in so small a matter.
People of power care all the time. It is their life-blood to succeed;
they must encourage their precision of eye and thought by repeated
triumphs, which so soothe and rejoice the nerves.
He was very kind in amusing me by aid of my slate. That sort of
pastime suited my hours of silence, which became less and less broken
by the talkative vein. His forefinger rubbed away defects in the
aspect of faces or animals with a lion-like suppleness of sweep that
seemed to me to wipe out the world. We also had a delicious game of a
labyrinth of lines, which it was necessary to traverse with the pencil
without touching the hedges, as I called the winding marks. We
wandered in and around without a murmur, and I reveled in delight
because he was near.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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