Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
Preface to the Second Edition
Much to the authors surprise and if he may say so without additional offence
considerably to his amusement he finds that his sketch of official life
introductory to THE SCARLET LETTER has created an unprecedented excitement in
the respectable community immediately around him It could hardly have been more
violent indeed had he burned down the CustomHouse and quenched its last
smoking ember in the blood of a certain venerable personage against whom he is
supposed to cherish a peculiar malevolence As the public disapprobation would
weigh very heavily on him were he conscious of deserving it the author begs
leave to say that he has carefully read over the introductory pages with a
purpose to alter or expunge whatever might be found amiss and to make the best
reparation in his power for the atrocities of which he has been adjudged guilty
But it appears to him that the only remarkable features of the sketch are its
frank and genuine goodhumor and the general accuracy with which he has
conveyed his sincere impressions of the characters therein described As to
enmity or illfeeling of any kind personal or political he utterly disclaims
such motives The sketch might perhaps have been wholly omitted without loss
to the public or detriment to the book but having undertaken to write it he
conceives that it could not have been done in a better or a kindlier spirit
nor so far as his abilities availed with a livelier effect of truth
The author is constrained therefore to republish his introductory sketch
without the change of a word
SALEM March 30 1850
The CustomHouse
Introductory to »The Scarlet Letter«
It is a little remarkable that though disinclined to talk overmuch of myself
and my affairs at the fireside and to my personal friends an autobiographical
impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me in addressing the
public The first time was three or four years since when I favored the reader
inexcusably and for no earthly reason that either the indulgent reader or
the intrusive author could imagine with a description of my way of life in the
deep quietude of an Old Manse And now because beyond my deserts I was happy
enough to find a listener or two on the former occasion I again seize the
public by the button and talk of my three years experience in a CustomHouse
The example of the famous P P Clerk of this Parish was never more faithfully
followed The truth seems to be however that when he casts his leaves forth
upon the wind the author addresses not the many who will fling aside his
volume or never take it up but the few who will understand him better than
most of his schoolmates and lifemates Some authors indeed do far more than
this and indulge themselves in such confidential depths of revelation as could
fittingly be addressed only and exclusively to the one heart and mind of
perfect sympathy as if the printed book thrown at large on the wide world
were certain to find out the divided segment of the writers own nature and
complete his circle of existence by bringing him into communion with it It is
scarcely decorous however to speak all even where we speak impersonally But
as thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed unless the speaker stand in
some true relation with his audience it may be pardonable to imagine that a
friend a kind and apprehensive though not the closest friend is listening to
our talk and then a native reserve being thawed by this genial consciousness
we may prate of the circumstances that lie around us and even of ourself but
still keep the inmost Me behind its veil To this extent and within these
limits an author methinks may be autobiographical without violating either
the readers rights or his own
It will be seen likewise that this CustomHouse sketch has a certain
propriety of a kind always recognized in literature as explaining how a large
portion of the following pages came into my possession and as offering proofs
of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained This in fact a desire
to put myself in my true position as editor or very little more of the most
prolix among the tales that make up my volume this and no other is my true
reason for assuming a personal relation with the public In accomplishing the
main purpose it has appeared allowable by a few extra touches to give a faint
representation of a mode of life not heretofore described together with some of
the characters that move in it among whom the author happened to make one
In my native town of Salem at the head of what half a century ago in the days
of old King Derby was a bustling wharf but which is now burdened with
decayed wooden warehouses and exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life
except perhaps a bark or brig halfway down its melancholy length
discharging hides or nearer at hand a Nova Scotia schooner pitching out her
cargo of firewood at the head I say of this dilapidated wharf which the
tide often overflows and along which at the base and in the rear of the row of
buildings the track of many languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty
grass here with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening
prospect and thence across the harbour stands a spacious edifice of brick
From the loftiest point of its roof during precisely three and a half hours of
each forenoon floats or droops in breeze or calm the banner of the republic
but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically instead of horizontally and
thus indicating that a civil and not a military post of Uncle Sams government
is here established Its front is ornamented with a portico of half a dozen
wooden pillars supporting a balcony beneath which a flight of wide granite
steps descends towards the street Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen
of the American eagle with outspread wings a shield before her breast and if
I recollect aright a bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in
each claw With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this
unhappy fowl she appears by the fierceness of her beak and eye and the general
truculency of her attitude to threaten mischief to the inoffensive community
and especially to warn all citizens careful of their safety against intruding
on the premises which she overshadows with her wings Nevertheless vixenly as
she looks many people are seeking at this very moment to shelter themselves
under the wing of the federal eagle imagining I presume that her bosom has
all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow But she has no great
tenderness even in her best of moods and sooner or later oftener soon than
late is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw a dab of
her beak or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows
The pavement round about the abovedescribed edifice which we may as well
name at once as the CustomHouse of the port has grass enough growing in its
chinks to show that it has not of late days been worn by any multitudinous
resort of business In some months of the year however there often chances a
forenoon when affairs move onward with a livelier tread Such occasions might
remind the elderly citizen of that period before the last war with England
when Salem was a port by itself not scorned as she is now by her own
merchants and shipowners who permit her wharves to crumble to ruin while
their ventures go to swell needlessly and imperceptibly the mighty flood of
commerce at New York or Boston On some such morning when three or four vessels
happen to have arrived at once usually from Africa or South America or to
be on the verge of their departure thitherward there is a sound of frequent
feet passing briskly up and down the granite steps Here before his own wife
has greeted him you may greet the seaflushed shipmaster just in port with
his vessels papers under his arm in a tarnished tin box Here too comes his
owner cheerful or sombre gracious or in the sulks accordingly as his scheme
of the now accomplished voyage has been realized in merchandise that will
readily be turned to gold or has buried him under a bulk of incommodities such
as nobody will care to rid him of Here likewise the germ of the
wrinklebrowed grizzlybearded careworn merchant we have the smart young
clerk who gets the taste of traffic as a wolfcub does of blood and already
sends adventures in his masters ships when he had better be sailing mimic
boats upon a millpond Another figure in the scene is the outwardbound sailor
in quest of a protection or the recently arrived one pale and feeble seeking
a passport to the hospital Nor must we forget the captains of the rusty little
schooners that bring firewood from the British provinces a roughlooking set of
tarpaulins without the alertness of the Yankee aspect but contributing an item
of no slight importance to our decaying trade
Cluster all these individuals together as they sometimes were with other
miscellaneous ones to diversify the group and for the time being it made the
CustomHouse a stirring scene More frequently however on ascending the steps
you would discern in the entry if it were summer time or in their
appropriate rooms if wintry or inclement weather a row of venerable figures
sitting in oldfashioned chairs which were tipped on their hind legs back
against the wall Oftentimes they were asleep but occasionally might be heard
talking together in voices between speech and a snore and with that lack of
energy that distinguishes the occupants of almshouses and all other human
beings who depend for subsistence on charity on monopolized labor or any thing
else but their own independent exertions These old gentlemenseated like
Matthew at the receipt of custom but not very liable to be summoned thence
like him for apostolic errands were CustomHouse officers
Furthermore on the left hand as you enter the front door is a certain room
or office about fifteen feet square and of a lofty height with two of its
arched windows commanding a view of the aforesaid dilapidated wharf and the
third looking across a narrow lane and along a portion of Derby Street All
three give glimpses of the shops of grocers blockmakers slopsellers and
shipchandlers around the doors of which are generally to be seen laughing and
gossiping clusters of old salts and such other wharfrats as haunt the Wapping
of a seaport The room itself is cobwebbed and dingy with old paint its floor
is strewn with gray sand in a fashion that has elsewhere fallen into long
disuse and it is easy to conclude from the general slovenliness of the place
that this is a sanctuary into which womankind with her tools of magic the
broom and mop has very infrequent access In the way of furniture there is a
stove with a voluminous funnel an old pine desk with a threelegged stool
beside it two or three woodenbottom chairs exceedingly decrepit and infirm
and not to forget the library on some shelves a score or two of volumes
of the Acts of Congress and a bulky Digest of the Revenue Laws A tin pipe
ascends through the ceiling and forms a medium of vocal communication with
other parts of the edifice And here some six months ago pacing from corner
to corner or lounging on the longlegged stool with his elbow on the desk and
his eyes wandering up and down the columns of the morning newspaper you might
have recognized honored reader the same individual who welcomed you into his
cheery little study where the sunshine glimmered so pleasantly through the
willow branches on the western side of the Old Manse But now should you go
thither to seek him you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco Surveyor The
besom of reform has swept him out of office and a worthier successor wears his
dignity and pockets his emoluments
This old town of Salem my native place though I have dwelt much away from
it both in boyhood and maturer years possesses or did possess a hold on my
affections the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual
residence here Indeed so far as its physical aspect is concerned with its
flat unvaried surface covered chiefly with wooden houses few or none of which
pretend to architectural beauty its irregularity which is neither
picturesque nor quaint but only tame its long and lazy street lounging
wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula with Gallows Hill and New
Guinea at one end and a view of the almshouse at the other such being the
features of my native town it would be quite as reasonable to form a
sentimental attachment to a disarranged checkerboard And yet though invariably
happiest elsewhere there is within me a feeling for old Salem which in lack
of a better phrase I must be content to call affection The sentiment is
probably assignable to the deep and aged roots which my family has struck into
the soil It is now nearly two centuries and a quarter since the original
Briton the earliest emigrant of my name made his appearance in the wild and
forestbordered settlement which has since become a city And here his
descendants have been born and died and have mingled their earthy substance
with the soil until no small portion of it must necessarily be akin to the
mortal frame wherewith for a little while I walk the streets In part
therefore the attachment which I speak of is the mere sensuous sympathy of dust
for dust Few of my countrymen can know what it is nor as frequent
transplantation is perhaps better for the stock need they consider it desirable
to know
But the sentiment has likewise its moral quality The figure of that first
ancestor invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur was
present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember It still haunts
me and induces a sort of homefeeling with the past which I scarcely claim in
reference to the present phase of the town I seem to have a stronger claim to a
residence here on account of this grave bearded sablecloaked and
steeplecrowned progenitor who came so early with his Bible and his sword
and trode the unworn street with such a stately port and made so large a
figure as a man of war and peace a stronger claim than for myself whose
name is seldom heard and my face hardly known He was a soldier legislator
judge he was a ruler in the Church he had all the Puritanic traits both good
and evil He was likewise a bitter persecutor as witness the Quakers who have
remembered him in their histories and relate an incident of his hard severity
towards a woman of their sect which will last longer it is to be feared than
any record of his better deeds although these were many His son too
inherited the persecuting spirit and made himself so conspicuous in the
martyrdom of the witches that their blood may fairly be said to have left a
stain upon him So deep a stain indeed that his old dry bones in the Charter
Street burialground must still retain it if they have not crumbled utterly to
dust I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent
and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties or whether they are now groaning
under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being At all events
I the present writer as their representative hereby take shame upon myself
for their sakes and pray that any curse incurred by them as I have heard and
as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race for many a long year back
would argue to exist may be now and henceforth removed
Doubtless however either of these stern and blackbrowed Puritans would
have thought it quite a sufficient retribution for his sins that after so long
a lapse of years the old trunk of the family tree with so much venerable moss
upon it should have borne as its topmost bough an idler like myself No aim
that I have ever cherished would they recognize as laudable no success of mine
if my life beyond its domestic scope had ever been brightened by success
would they deem otherwise than worthless if not positively disgraceful »What
is he« murmurs one gray shadow of my forefathers to the other »A writer of
storybooks What kind of a business in life what mode of glorifying God or
being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation may that be Why the
degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler« Such are the compliments
bandied between my greatgrandsires and myself across the gulf of time And
yet let them scorn me as they will strong traits of their nature have
intertwined themselves with mine
Planted deep in the towns earliest infancy and childhood by these two
earnest and energetic men the race has ever since subsisted here always too
in respectability never so far as I have known disgraced by a single unworthy
member but seldom or never on the other hand after the first two generations
performing any memorable deed or so much as putting forward a claim to public
notice Gradually they have sunk almost out of sight as old houses here and
there about the streets get covered halfway to the eaves by the accumulation
of new soil From father to son for above a hundred years they followed the
sea a grayheaded shipmaster in each generation retiring from the
quarterdeck to the homestead while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place
before the mast confronting the salt spray and the gale which had blustered
against his sire and grandsire The boy also in due time passed from the
forecastle to the cabin spent a tempestuous manhood and returned from his
worldwanderings to grow old and die and mingle his dust with the natal
earth This long connection of a family with one spot as its place of birth and
burial creates a kindred between the human being and the locality quite
independent of any charm in the scenery or moral circumstances that surround
him It is not love but instinct The new inhabitant who came himself from a
foreign land or whose father or grandfather came has little claim to be
called a Salemite he has no conception of the oysterlike tenacity with which
an old settler over whom his third century is creeping clings to the spot
where his successive generations have been imbedded It is no matter that the
place is joyless for him that he is weary of the old wooden houses the mud and
dust the dead level of site and sentiment the chill east wind and the
chillest of social atmospheres all these and whatever faults besides he may
see or imagine are nothing to the purpose The spell survives and just as
powerfully as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise So has it been in my
case I felt it almost as a destiny to make Salem my home so that the mould of
features and cast of character which had all along been familiar here ever as
one representative of the race lay down in his grave another assuming as it
were his sentrymarch along the Main Street might still in my little day be
seen and recognized in the old town Nevertheless this very sentiment is an
evidence that the connection which has become an unhealthy one should at last
be severed Human nature will not flourish any more than a potato if it be
planted and replanted for too long a series of generations in the same
wornout soil My children have had other birthplaces and so far as their
fortunes may be within my control shall strike their roots into unaccustomed
earth
On emerging from the Old Manse it was chiefly this strange indolent
unjoyous attachment for my native town that brought me to fill a place in Uncle
Sams brick edifice when I might as well or better have gone somewhere else
My doom was on me It was not the first time nor the second that I had gone
away as it seemed permanently but yet returned like the bad halfpenny
or as if Salem were for me the inevitable centre of the universe So one fine
morning I ascended the flight of granite steps with the Presidents commission
in my pocket and was introduced to the corps of gentlemen who were to aid me in
my weighty responsibility as chief executive officer of the CustomHouse
I doubt greatly or rather I do not doubt at all whether any public
functionary of the United States either in the civil or military line has ever
had such a patriarchal body of veterans under his orders as myself The
whereabouts of the Oldest Inhabitant was at once settled when I looked at them
For upwards of twenty years before this epoch the independent position of the
Collector had kept the Salem CustomHouse out of the whirlpool of political
vicissitude which makes the tenure of office generally so fragile A soldier
New Englands most distinguished soldier he stood firmly on the pedestal of
his gallant services and himself secure in the wise liberality of the
successive administrations through which he had held office he had been the
safety of his subordinates in many an hour of danger and heartquake General
Miller was radically conservative a man over whose kindly nature habit had no
slight influence attaching himself strongly to familiar faces and with
difficulty moved to change even when change might have brought unquestionable
improvement Thus on taking charge of my department I found few but aged men
They were ancient seacaptains for the most part who after being tost on
every sea and standing up sturdily against lifes tempestuous blast had
finally drifted into this quiet nook where with little to disturb them except
the periodical terrors of a Presidential election they one and all acquired a
new lease of existence Though by no means less liable than their fellowmen to
age and infirmity they had evidently some talisman or other that kept death at
bay Two or three of their number as I was assured being gouty and rheumatic
or perhaps bedridden never dreamed of making their appearance at the
CustomHouse during a large part of the year but after a torpid winter would
creep out into the warm sunshine of May or June go lazily about what they
termed duty and at their own leisure and convenience betake themselves to bed
again I must plead guilty to the charge of abbreviating the official breath of
more than one of these venerable servants of the republic They were allowed on
my representation to rest from their arduous labors and soon afterwards as
if their sole principle of life had been zeal for their countrys service as I
verily believe it was withdrew to a better world It is a pious consolation to
me that through my interference a sufficient space was allowed them for
repentance of the evil and corrupt practices into which as a matter of course
every CustomHouse officer must be supposed to fall Neither the front nor the
back entrance of the CustomHouse opens on the road to Paradise
The greater part of my officers were Whigs It was well for their venerable
brotherhood that the new Surveyor was not a politician and though a faithful
Democrat in principle neither received nor held his office with any reference
to political services Had it been otherwise had an active politician been
put into this influential post to assume the easy task of making head against a
Whig Collector whose infirmities withheld him from the personal administration
of his office hardly a man of the old corps would have drawn the breath of
official life within a month after the exterminating angel had come up the
CustomHouse steps According to the received code in such matters it would
have been nothing short of duty in a politician to bring every one of those
white heads under the axe of the guillotine It was plain enough to discern
that the old fellows dreaded some such discourtesy at my hands It pained and
at the same time amused me to behold the terrors that attended my advent to
see a furrowed cheek weatherbeaten by half a century of storm turn ashy pale
at the glance of so harmless an individual as myself to detect as one or
another addressed me the tremor of a voice which in longpast days had been
wont to bellow through a speakingtrumpet hoarsely enough to frighten Boreas
himself to silence They knew these excellent old persons that by all
established rule and as regarded some of them weighed by their own lack of
efficiency for business they ought to have given place to younger men more
orthodox in politics and altogether fitter than themselves to serve our common
Uncle I knew it too but could never quite find in my heart to act upon the
knowledge Much and deservedly to my own discredit therefore and considerably
to the detriment of my official conscience they continued during my
incumbency to creep about the wharves and loiter up and down the CustomHouse
steps They spent a good deal of time also asleep in their accustomed corners
with their chairs tilted back against the wall awaking however once or twice
in a forenoon to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old
seastories and mouldy jokes that had grown to be passwords and countersigns
among them
The discovery was soon made I imagine that the new Surveyor had no great
harm in him So with lightsome hearts and the happy consciousness of being
usefully employed in their own behalf at least if not for our beloved
country these good old gentlemen went through the various formalities of
office Sagaciously under their spectacles did they peep into the holds of
vessels Mighty was their fuss about little matters and marvellous sometimes
the obtuseness that allowed greater ones to slip between their fingers Whenever
such a mischance occurred when a wagonload of valuable merchandise had been
smuggled ashore at noonday perhaps and directly beneath their unsuspicious
noses nothing could exceed the vigilance and alacrity with which they
proceeded to lock and doublelock and secure with tape and sealingwax all
the avenues of the delinquent vessel Instead of a reprimand for their previous
negligence the case seemed rather to require an eulogium on their praiseworthy
caution after the mischief had happened a grateful recognition of the
promptitude of their zeal the moment that there was no longer any remedy
Unless people are more than commonly disagreeable it is my foolish habit to
contract a kindness for them The better part of my companions character if it
have a better part is that which usually comes uppermost in my regard and
forms the type whereby I recognize the man As most of these old CustomHouse
officers had good traits and as my position in reference to them being
paternal and protective was favorable to the growth of friendly sentiments I
soon grew to like them all It was pleasant in the summer forenoons when the
fervent heat that almost liquefied the rest of the human family merely
communicated a genial warmth to their halftorpid systems it was pleasant to
hear them chatting in the back entry a row of them all tipped against the wall
as usual while the frozen witticisms of past generations were thawed out and
came bubbling with laughter from their lips Externally the jollity of aged men
has much in common with the mirth of children the intellect any more than a
deep sense of humor has little to do with the matter it is with both a gleam
that plays upon the surface and imparts a sunny and cheery aspect alike to the
green branch and gray mouldering trunk In one case however it is real
sunshine in the other it more resembles the phosphorescent glow of decaying
wood
It would be sad injustice the reader must understand to represent all my
excellent old friends as in their dotage In the first place my coadjutors were
not invariably old there were men among them in their strength and prime of
marked ability and energy and altogether superior to the sluggish and dependent
mode of life on which their evil stars had cast them Then moreover the white
locks of age were sometimes found to be the thatch of an intellectual tenement
in good repair But as respects the majority of my corps of veterans there
will be no wrong done if I characterize them generally as a set of wearisome
old souls who had gathered nothing worth preservation from their varied
experience of life They seemed to have flung away all the golden grain of
practical wisdom which they had enjoyed so many opportunities of harvesting
and most carefully to have stored their memories with the husks They spoke with
far more interest and unction of their mornings breakfast or yesterdays
todays or tomorrows dinner than of the shipwreck of forty or fifty years
ago and all the worlds wonders which they had witnessed with their youthful
eyes
The father of the CustomHouse the patriarch not only of this little
squad of officials but I am bold to say of the respectable body of
tidewaiters all over the United States was a certain permanent Inspector He
might truly be termed a legitimate son of the revenue system dyed in the wool
or rather born in the purple since his sire a Revolutionary colonel and
formerly collector of the port had created an office for him and appointed him
to fill it at a period of the early ages which few living men can now remember
This Inspector when I first knew him was a man of fourscore years or
thereabouts and certainly one of the most wonderful specimens of wintergreen
that you would be likely to discover in a lifetimes search With his florid
cheek his compact figure smartly arrayed in a brightbuttoned blue coat his
brisk and vigorous step and his hale and hearty aspect altogether he seemed
not young indeed but a kind of new contrivance of Mother Nature in the shape
of man whom age and infirmity had no business to touch His voice and laugh
which perpetually reëchoed through the CustomHouse had nothing of the
tremulous quaver and cackle of an old mans utterance they came strutting out
of his lungs like the crow of a cock or the blast of a clarion Looking at him
merely as an animal and there was very little else to look at he was a
most satisfactory object from the thorough healthfulness and wholesomeness of
his system and his capacity at that extreme age to enjoy all or nearly all
the delights which he had ever aimed at or conceived of The careless security
of his life in the CustomHouse on a regular income and with but slight and
infrequent apprehensions of removal had no doubt contributed to make time pass
lightly over him The original and more potent causes however lay in the rare
perfection of his animal nature the moderate proportion of intellect and the
very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients these latter
qualities indeed being in barely enough measure to keep the old gentleman from
walking on allfours He possessed no power of thought no depth of feeling no
troublesome sensibilities nothing in short but a few commonplace instincts
which aided by the cheerful temper that grew inevitably out of his physical
wellbeing did duty very respectably and to general acceptance in lieu of a
heart He had been the husband of three wives all long since dead the father
of twenty children most of whom at every age of childhood or maturity had
likewise returned to dust Here one would suppose might have been sorrow
enough to imbue the sunniest disposition through and through with a sable
tinge Not so with our old Inspector One brief sigh sufficed to carry off the
entire burden of these dismal reminiscences The next moment he was as ready
for sport as any unbreeched infant far readier than the Collectors junior
clerk who at nineteen years was much the elder and graver man of the two
I used to watch and study this patriarchal personage with I think livelier
curiosity than any other form of humanity there presented to my notice He was
in truth a rare phenomenon so perfect in one point of view so shallow so
delusive so impalpable such an absolute nonentity in every other My
conclusion was that he had no soul no heart no mind nothing as I have
already said but instincts and yet withal so cunningly had the few materials
of his character been put together that there was no painful perception of
deficiency but on my part an entire contentment with what I found in him It
might be difficult and it was so to conceive how he should exist hereafter
so earthy and sensuous did he seem but surely his existence here admitting
that it was to terminate with his last breath had been not unkindly given with
no higher moral responsibilities than the beasts of the field but with a larger
scope of enjoyment than theirs and with all their blessed immunity from the
dreariness and duskiness of age
One point in which he had vastly the advantage over his fourfooted
brethren was his ability to recollect the good dinners which it had made no
small portion of the happiness of his life to eat His gourmandism was a highly
agreeable trait and to hear him talk of roastmeat was as appetizing as a
pickle or an oyster As he possessed no higher attribute and neither sacrificed
nor vitiated any spiritual endowment by devoting all his energies and
ingenuities to subserve the delight and profit of his maw it always pleased and
satisfied me to hear him expatiate on fish poultry and butchers meat and the
most eligible methods of preparing them for the table His reminiscences of good
cheer however ancient the date of the actual banquet seemed to bring the savor
of pig or turkey under ones very nostrils There were flavors on his palate
that had lingered there not less than sixty or seventy years and were still
apparently as fresh as that of the muttonchop which he had just devoured for
his breakfast I have heard him smack his lips over dinners every guest at
which except himself had long been food for worms It was marvellous to
observe how the ghosts of bygone meals were continually rising up before him
not in anger or retribution but as if grateful for his former appreciation and
seeking to reduplicate an endless series of enjoyment at once shadowy and
sensual A tenderloin of beef a hindquarter of veal a sparerib of pork a
particular chicken or a remarkably praiseworthy turkey which had perhaps
adorned his board in the days of the elder Adams would be remembered while all
the subsequent experience of our race and all the events that brightened or
darkened his individual career had gone over him with as little permanent
effect as the passing breeze The chief tragic event of the old mans life so
far as I could judge was his mishap with a certain goose which lived and died
some twenty or forty years ago a goose of most promising figure but which at
table proved so inveterately tough that the carvingknife would make no
impression on its carcass and it could only be divided with an axe and handsaw
But it is time to quit this sketch on which however I should be glad to
dwell at considerably more length because of all men whom I have ever known
this individual was fittest to be a CustomHouse officer Most persons owing to
causes which I may not have space to hint at suffer moral detriment from this
peculiar mode of life The old Inspector was incapable of it and were he to
continue in office to the end of time would be just as good as he was then and
sit down to dinner with just as good an appetite
There is one likeness without which my gallery of CustomHouse portraits
would be strangely incomplete but which my comparatively few opportunities for
observation enable me to sketch only in the merest outline It is that of the
Collector our gallant old General who after his brilliant military service
subsequently to which he had ruled over a wild Western territory had come
hither twenty years before to spend the decline of his varied and honorable
life The brave soldier had already numbered nearly or quite his threescore
years and ten and was pursuing the remainder of his earthly march burdened
with infirmities which even the martial music of his own spiritstirring
recollections could do little towards lightening The step was palsied now that
had been foremost in the charge It was only with the assistance of a servant
and by leaning his hand heavily on the iron balustrade that he could slowly and
painfully ascend the CustomHouse steps and with a toilsome progress across
the floor attain his customary chair beside the fireplace There he used to
sit gazing with a somewhat dim serenity of aspect at the figures that came and
went amid the rustle of papers the administering of oaths the discussion of
business and the casual talk of the office all which sounds and circumstances
seemed but indistinctly to impress his senses and hardly to make their way into
his inner sphere of contemplation His countenance in this repose was mild and
kindly If his notice was sought an expression of courtesy and interest gleamed
out upon his features proving that there was light within him and that it was
only the outward medium of the intellectual lamp that obstructed the rays in
their passage The closer you penetrated to the substance of his mind the
sounder it appeared When no longer called upon to speak or listen either of
which operations cost him an evident effort his face would briefly subside into
its former not uncheerful quietude It was not painful to behold this look for
though dim it had not the imbecility of decaying age The framework of his
nature originally strong and massive was not yet crumbled into ruin
To observe and define his character however under such disadvantages was
as difficult a task as to trace out and build up anew in imagination an old
fortress like Ticonderoga from a view of its gray and broken ruins Here and
there perchance the walls may remain almost complete but elsewhere may be
only a shapeless mound cumbrous with its very strength and overgrown through
long years of peace and neglect with grass and alien weeds
Nevertheless looking at the old warrior with affection for slight as
was the communication between us my feeling towards him like that of all
bipeds and quadrupeds who knew him might not improperly be termed so I could
discern the main points of his portrait It was marked with the noble and heroic
qualities which showed it to be not by a mere accident but of good right that
he had won a distinguished name His spirit could never I conceive have been
characterized by an uneasy activity it must at any period of his life have
required an impulse to set him in motion but once stirred up with obstacles
to overcome and an adequate object to be attained it was not in the man to
give out or fail The heat that had formerly pervaded his nature and which was
not yet extinct was never of the kind that flashes and flickers in a blaze
but rather a deep red glow as of iron in a furnace Weight solidity
firmness this was the expression of his repose even in such decay as had crept
untimely over him at the period of which I speak But I could imagine even
then that under some excitement which should go deeply into his consciousness
roused by a trumpetpeal loud enough to awaken all of his energies that were
not dead but only slumbering he was yet capable of flinging off his
infirmities like a sick mans gown dropping the staff of age to seize a
battlesword and starting up once more a warrior And in so intense a moment
his demeanour would have still been calm Such an exhibition however was but
to be pictured in fancy not to be anticipated nor desired What I saw in him
as evidently as the indestructible ramparts of Old Ticonderoga already cited as
the most appropriate simile were the features of stubborn and ponderous
endurance which might well have amounted to obstinacy in his earlier days of
integrity that like most of his other endowments lay in a somewhat heavy
mass and was just as unmalleable and unmanageable as a ton of iron ore and of
benevolence which fiercely as he led the bayonets on at Chippewa or Fort Erie
I take to be of quite as genuine a stamp as what actuates any or all the
polemical philanthropists of the age He had slain men with his own hand for
aught I know certainly they had fallen like blades of grass at the sweep of
the scythe before the charge to which his spirit imparted its triumphant
energy but be that as it might there was never in his heart so much cruelty
as would have brushed the down off a butterflys wing I have not known the man
to whose innate kindliness I would more confidently make an appeal
Many characteristics and those too which contribute not the least
forcibly to impart resemblance in a sketch must have vanished or been
obscured before I met the General All merely graceful attributes are usually
the most evanescent nor does Nature adorn the human ruin with blossoms of new
beauty that have their roots and proper nutriment only in the chinks and
crevices of decay as she sows wallflowers over the ruined fortress of
Ticonderoga Still even in respect of grace and beauty there were points well
worth noting A ray of humor now and then would make its way through the veil
of dim obstruction and glimmer pleasantly upon our faces A trait of native
elegance seldom seen in the masculine character after childhood or early youth
was shown in the Generals fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers An
old soldier might be supposed to prize only the bloody laurel on his brow but
here was one who seemed to have a young girls appreciation of the floral
tribe
There beside the fireplace the brave old General used to sit while the
Surveyor though seldom when it could be avoided taking upon himself the
difficult task of engaging him in conversation was fond of standing at a
distance and watching his quiet and almost slumberous countenance He seemed
away from us although we saw him but a few yards off remote though we passed
close beside his chair unattainable though we might have stretched forth our
hands and touched his own It might be that he lived a more real life within
his thoughts than amid the unappropriate environment of the Collectors office
The evolutions of the parade the tumult of the battle the flourish of old
heroic music heard thirty years before such scenes and sounds perhaps were
all alive before his intellectual sense Meanwhile the merchants and
shipmasters the spruce clerks and uncouth sailors entered and departed the
bustle of this commercial and CustomHouse life kept up its little murmur
roundabout him and neither with the men nor their affairs did the General
appear to sustain the most distant relation He was as much out of place as an
old sword now rusty but which had flashed once in the battles front and
showed still a bright gleam along its blade would have been among the
inkstands paperfolders and mahogany rulers on the Deputy Collectors desk
There was one thing that much aided me in renewing and recreating the
stalwart soldier of the Niagara frontier the man of true and simple energy
It was the recollection of those memorable words of his »Ill try Sir«
spoken on the very verge of a desperate and heroic enterprise and breathing the
soul and spirit of New England hardihood comprehending all perils and
encountering all If in our country valor were rewarded by heraldic honor
this phrase which it seems so easy to speak but which only he with such a
task of danger and glory before him has ever spoken would be the best and
fittest of all mottoes for the Generals shield of arms
It contributes greatly towards a mans moral and intellectual health to be
brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself who care
little for his pursuits and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of
himself to appreciate The accidents of my life have often afforded me this
advantage but never with more fulness and variety than during my continuance in
office There was one man especially the observation of whose character gave
me a new idea of talent His gifts were emphatically those of a man of business
prompt acute clearminded with an eye that saw through all perplexities and
a faculty of arrangement that made them vanish as by the waving of an
enchanters wand Bred up from boyhood in the CustomHouse it was his proper
field of activity and the many intricacies of business so harassing to the
interloper presented themselves before him with the regularity of a perfectly
comprehended system In my contemplation he stood as the ideal of his class He
was indeed the CustomHouse in himself or at all events the mainspring
that kept its variously revolving wheels in motion for in an institution like
this where its officers are appointed to subserve their own profit and
convenience and seldom with a leading reference to their fitness for the duty
to be performed they must perforce seek elsewhere the dexterity which is not in
them Thus by an inevitable necessity as a magnet attracts steelfilings so
did our man of business draw to himself the difficulties which everybody met
with With an easy condescension and kind forbearance towards our stupidity
which to his order of mind must have seemed little short of crime would he
forthwith by the merest touch of his finger make the incomprehensible as clear
as daylight The merchants valued him not less than we his esoteric friends
His integrity was perfect it was a law of nature with him rather than a choice
or a principle nor can it be otherwise than the main condition of an intellect
so remarkably clear and accurate as his to be honest and regular in the
administration of affairs A stain on his conscience as to any thing that came
within the range of his vocation would trouble such a man very much in the same
way though to a far greater degree than an error in the balance of an account
or an inkblot on the fair page of a book of record Here in a word and it
is a rare instance in my life I had met with a person thoroughly adapted to
the situation which he held
Such were some of the people with whom I now found myself connected I took
it in good part at the hands of Providence that I was thrown into a position so
little akin to my past habits and set myself seriously to gather from it
whatever profit was to be had After my fellowship of toil and impracticable
schemes with the dreamy brethren of Brook Farm after living for three years
within the subtile influence of an intellect like Emersons after those wild
free days on the Assabeth indulging fantastic speculations beside our fire of
fallen boughs with Ellery Channing after talking with Thoreau about pinetrees
and Indian relics in his hermitage at Walden after growing fastidious by
sympathy with the classic refinement of Hillards culture after becoming imbued
with poetic sentiment at Longfellows hearthstone it was time at length
that I should exercise other faculties of my nature and nourish myself with
food for which I had hitherto had little appetite Even the old Inspector was
desirable as a change of diet to a man who had known Alcott I looked upon it
as an evidence in some measure of a system naturally well balanced and
lacking no essential part of a thorough organization that with such associates
to remember I could mingle at once with men of altogether different qualities
and never murmur at the change
Literature its exertions and objects were now of little moment in my
regard I cared not at this period for books they were apart from me Nature
except it were human nature the nature that is developed in earth and sky
was in one sense hidden from me and all the imaginative delight wherewith it
had been spiritualized passed away out of my mind A gift a faculty if it had
not departed was suspended and inanimate within me There would have been
something sad unutterably dreary in all this had I not been conscious that it
lay at my own option to recall whatever was valuable in the past It might be
true indeed that this was a life which could not with impunity be lived too
long else it might make me permanently other than I had been without
transforming me into any shape which it would be worth my while to take But I
never considered it as other than a transitory life There was always a
prophetic instinct a low whisper in my ear that within no long period and
whenever a new change of custom should be essential to my good a change would
come
Meanwhile there I was a Surveyor of the Revenue and so far as I have
been able to understand as good a Surveyor as need be A man of thought fancy
and sensibility had he ten times the Surveyors proportion of those
qualities may at any time be a man of affairs if he will only choose to
give himself the trouble My fellowofficers and the merchants and seacaptains
with whom my official duties brought me into any manner of connection viewed me
in no other light and probably knew me in no other character None of them I
presume had ever read a page of my inditing or would have cared a fig the more
for me if they had read them all nor would it have mended the matter in the
least had those same unprofitable pages been written with a pen like that of
Burns or of Chaucer each of whom was a CustomHouse officer in his day as well
as I It is a good lesson though it may often be a hard one for a man who
has dreamed of literary fame and of making for himself a rank among the worlds
dignitaries by such means to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his
claims are recognized and to find how utterly devoid of significance beyond
that circle is all that he achieves and all he aims at I know not that I
especially needed the lesson either in the way of warning or rebuke but at
any rate I learned it thoroughly nor it gives me pleasure to reflect did the
truth as it came home to my perception ever cost me a pang or require to be
thrown off in a sigh In the way of literary talk it is true the Naval Officer
an excellent fellow who came into office with me and went out only a little
later would often engage me in a discussion about one or the other of his
favorite topics Napoleon or Shakspeare The Collectors junior clerk too a
young gentleman who it was whispered occasionally covered a sheet of Uncle
Sams letterpaper with what at the distance of a few yards looked very much
like poetry used now and then to speak to me of books as matters with which
I might possibly be conversant This was my all of lettered intercourse and it
was quite sufficient for my necessities
No longer seeking nor caring that my name should be blazoned abroad on
titlepages I smiled to think that it had now another kind of vogue The
CustomHouse marker imprinted it with a stencil and black paint on
pepperbags and baskets of anatto and cigarboxes and bales of all kinds of
dutiable merchandise in testimony that these commodities had paid the impost
and gone regularly through the office Borne on such queer vehicle of fame a
knowledge of my existence so far as a name conveys it was carried where it had
never been before and I hope will never go again
But the past was not dead Once in a great while the thoughts that had
seemed so vital and so active yet had been put to rest so quietly revived
again One of the most remarkable occasions when the habit of bygone days awoke
in me was that which brings it within the law of literary propriety to offer
the public the sketch which I am now writing
In the second story of the CustomHouse there is a large room in which the
brickwork and naked rafters have never been covered with panelling and plaster
The edifice originally projected on a scale adapted to the old commercial
enterprise of the port and with an idea of subsequent prosperity destined never
to be realized contains far more space than its occupants know what to do
with This airy hall therefore over the Collectors apartments remains
unfinished to this day and in spite of the aged cobwebs that festoon its dusky
beams appears still to await the labor of the carpenter and mason At one end
of the room in a recess were a number of barrels piled one upon another
containing bundles of official documents Large quantities of similar rubbish
lay lumbering the floor It was sorrowful to think how many days and weeks and
months and years of toil had been wasted on these musty papers which were now
only an encumbrance on earth and were hidden away in this forgotten corner
never more to be glanced at by human eyes But then what reams of other
manuscripts filled not with the dulness of official formalities but with the
thought of inventive brains and the rich effusion of deep hearts had gone
equally to oblivion and that moreover without serving a purpose in their day
as these heapedup papers had andsaddest of all without purchasing for their
writers the comfortable livelihood which the clerks of the CustomHouse had
gained by these worthless scratchings of the pen Yet not altogether worthless
perhaps as materials of local history Here no doubt statistics of the former
commerce of Salem might be discovered and memorials of her princely merchants
old King Derby old Billy Gray old Simon Forrester and many another
magnate in his day whose powdered head however was scarcely in the tomb
before his mountainpile of wealth began to dwindle The founders of the greater
part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be
traced from the petty and obscure beginnings of their traffic at periods
generally much posterior to the Revolution upward to what their children look
upon as longestablished rank
Prior to the Revolution there is a dearth of records the earlier documents
and archives of the CustomHouse having probably been carried off to Halifax
when all the Kings officials accompanied the British army in its flight from
Boston It has often been a matter of regret with me for going back perhaps
to the days of the Protectorate those papers must have contained many
references to forgotten or remembered men and to antique customs which would
have affected me with the same pleasure as when I used to pick up Indian
arrowheads in the field near the Old Manse
But one idle and rainy day it was my fortune to make a discovery of some
little interest Poking and burrowing into the heapedup rubbish in the corner
unfolding one and another document and reading the names of vessels that had
long ago foundered at sea or rotted at the wharves and those of merchants
never heard of now on Change nor very readily decipherable on their mossy
tombstones glancing at such matters with the saddened weary halfreluctant
interest which we bestow on the corpse of dead activity and exerting my
fancy sluggish with little use to raise up from these dry bones an image of
the old towns brighter aspect when India was a new region and only Salem knew
the way thither I chanced to lay my hand on a small package carefully done
up in a piece of ancient yellow parchment This envelope had the air of an
official record of some period long past when clerks engrossed their stiff and
formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present There was
something about it that quickened an instinctive curiosity and made me undo the
faded red tape that tied up the package with the sense that a treasure would
here be brought to light Unbending the rigid folds of the parchment cover I
found it to be a commission under the hand and seal of Governor Shirley in
favor of one Jonathan Pue as Surveyor of his Majestys Customs for the port of
Salem in the Province of Massachusetts Bay I remembered to have read probably
in Felts Annals a notice of the decease of Mr Surveyor Pue about fourscore
years ago and likewise in a newspaper of recent times an account of the
digging up of his remains in the little graveyard of St Peters Church during
the renewal of that edifice Nothing if I rightly call to mind was left of my
respected predecessor save an imperfect skeleton and some fragments of
apparel and a wig of majestic frizzle which unlike the head that it once
adorned was in very satisfactory preservation But on examining the papers
which the parchment commission served to envelop I found more traces of Mr
Pues mental part and the internal operations of his head than the frizzled
wig had contained of the venerable skull itself
They were documents in short not official but of a private nature or at
least written in his private capacity and apparently with his own hand I
could account for their being included in the heap of CustomHouse lumber only
by the fact, that Mr Pues death had happened suddenly and that these papers
which he probably kept in his official desk had never come to the knowledge of
his heirs or were supposed to relate to the business of the revenue On the
transfer of the archives to Halifax this package proving to be of no public
concern was left behind and had remained ever since unopened
The ancient Surveyor being little molested I suppose at that early day
with business pertaining to his office seems to have devoted some of his many
leisure hours to researches as a local antiquarian and other inquisitions of a
similar nature These supplied material for petty activity to a mind that would
otherwise have been eaten up with rust A portion of his facts by the by did
me good service in the preparation of the article entitled »MAIN STREET«
included in the present volume The remainder may perhaps be applied to purposes
equally valuable hereafter or not impossibly may be worked up so far as they
go into a regular history of Salem should my veneration for the natal soil
ever impel me to so pious a task Meanwhile they shall be at the command of any
gentleman inclined and competent to take the unprofitable labor off my hands
As a final disposition I contemplate depositing them with the Essex Historical
Society
But the object that most drew my attention in the mysterious package was a
certain affair of fine red cloth much worn and faded There were traces about
it of gold embroidery which however was greatly frayed and defaced so that
none or very little of the glitter was left It had been wrought as was easy
to perceive with wonderful skill of needlework and the stitch as I am assured
by ladies conversant with such mysteries gives evidence of a now forgotten art
not to be recovered even by the process of picking out the threads This rag of
scarlet cloth for time and wear and a sacrilegious moth had reduced it to
little other than a rag on careful examination assumed the shape of a
letter It was the capital letter A By an accurate measurement each limb
proved to be precisely three inches and a quarter in length It had been
intended there could be no doubt as an ornamental article of dress but how it
was to be worn or what rank honor and dignity in bypast times were
signified by it was a riddle which so evanescent are the fashions of the world
in these particulars I saw little hope of solving And yet it strangely
interested me My eyes fastened themselves upon the old scarlet letter and
would not be turned aside Certainly there was some deep meaning in it most
worthy of interpretation and which as it were streamed forth from the mystic
symbol subtly communicating itself to my sensibilities but evading the
analysis of my mind
While thus perplexed and cogitating among other hypotheses whether the
letter might not have been one of those decorations which the white men used to
contrive in order to take the eyes of Indians I happened to place it on my
breast It seemed to me the reader may smile but must not doubt my word
it seemed to me then that I experienced a sensation not altogether physical
yet almost so as of burning heat and as if the letter were not of red cloth
but redhot iron I shuddered and involuntarily let it fall upon the floor
In the absorbing contemplation of the scarlet letter I had hitherto
neglected to examine a small roll of dingy paper around which it had been
twisted This I now opened and had the satisfaction to find recorded by the
old Surveyors pen a reasonably complete explanation of the whole affair There
were several foolscap sheets containing many particulars respecting the life
and conversation of one Hester Prynne who appeared to have been rather a
noteworthy personage in the view of our ancestors She had flourished during a
period between the early days of Massachusetts and the close of the seventeenth
century Aged persons alive in the time of Mr Surveyor Pue and from whose
oral testimony he had made up his narrative remembered her in their youth as
a very old but not decrepit woman of a stately and solemn aspect It had been
her habit from an almost immemorial date to go about the country as a kind of
voluntary nurse and doing whatever miscellaneous good she might taking upon
herself likewise to give advice in all matters especially those of the heart
by which means as a person of such propensities inevitably must she gained
from many people the reverence due to an angel but I should imagine was
looked upon by others as an intruder and a nuisance Prying farther into the
manuscript I found the record of other doings and sufferings of this singular
woman for most of which the reader is referred to the story entitled »THE
SCARLET LETTER« and it should be borne carefully in mind that the main facts
of that story are authorized and authenticated by the document of Mr Surveyor
Pue The original papers together with the scarlet letter itself a most
curious relic are still in my possession and shall be freely exhibited to
whomsoever induced by the great interest of the narrative may desire a sight
of them I must not be understood as affirming that in the dressing up of the
tale and imagining the motives and modes of passion that influenced the
characters who figure in it I have invariably confined myself within the limits
of the old Surveyors half a dozen sheets of foolscap On the contrary I have
allowed myself as to such points nearly or altogether as much license as if
the facts had been entirely of my own invention What I contend for is the
authenticity of the outline
This incident recalled my mind in some degree to its old track There
seemed to be here the groundwork of a tale It impressed me as if the ancient
Surveyor in his garb of a hundred years gone by and wearing his immortal wig
which was buried with him but did not perish in the grave had met me in
the deserted chamber of the CustomHouse In his port was the dignity of one who
had borne his Majestys commission and who was therefore illuminated by a ray
of the splendor that shone so dazzlingly about the throne How unlike alas the
hangdog look of a republican official who as the servant of the people feels
himself less than the least and below the lowest of his masters With his own
ghostly hand the obscurely seen but majestic figure had imparted to me the
scarlet symbol and the little roll of explanatory manuscript With his own
ghostly voice he had exhorted me on the sacred consideration of my filial duty
and reverence towards him who might reasonably regard himself as my official
ancestor to bring his mouldy and motheaten lucubrations before the public
»Do this« said the ghost of Mr Surveyor Pue emphatically nodding the head
that looked so imposing within its memorable wig »do this and the profit shall
be all your own You will shortly need it for it is not in your days as it was
in mine when a mans office was a lifelease and oftentimes an heirloom But
I charge you in this matter of old Mistress Prynne give to your predecessors
memory the credit which will be rightfully its due« And I said to the ghost of
Mr Surveyor Pue »I will«
On Hester Prynnes story therefore I bestowed much thought It was the
subject of my meditations for many an hour while pacing to and fro across my
room or traversing with a hundredfold repetition the long extent from the
frontdoor of the CustomHouse to the sideentrance and back again Great were
the weariness and annoyance of the old Inspector and the Weighers and Gaugers
whose slumbers were disturbed by the unmercifully lengthened tramp of my passing
and returning footsteps Remembering their own former habits they used to say
that the Surveyor was walking the quarterdeck They probably fancied that my
sole object and indeed the sole object for which a sane man could ever put
himself into voluntary motion was to get an appetite for dinner And to say
the truth an appetite sharpened by the eastwind that generally blew along the
passage was the only valuable result of so much indefatigable exercise So
little adapted is the atmosphere of a CustomHouse to the delicate harvest of
fancy and sensibility that had I remained there through ten Presidencies yet
to come I doubt whether the tale of »The Scarlet Letter« would ever have been
brought before the public eye My imagination was a tarnished mirror It would
not reflect or only with miserable dimness the figures with which I did my
best to people it The characters of the narrative would not be warmed and
rendered malleable by any heat that I could kindle at my intellectual forge
They would take neither the glow of passion nor the tenderness of sentiment but
retained all the rigidity of dead corpses and stared me in the face with a
fixed and ghastly grin of contemptuous defiance »What have you to do with us«
that expression seemed to say »The little power you might once have possessed
over the tribe of unrealities is gone You have bartered it for a pittance of
the public gold Go then and earn your wages« In short the almost torpid
creatures of my own fancy twitted me with imbecility and not without fair
occasion
It was not merely during the three hours and a half which Uncle Sam claimed
as his share of my daily life that this wretched numbness held possession of
me It went with me on my seashore walks and rambles into the country whenever
which was seldom and reluctantly I bestirred myself to seek that
invigorating charm of Nature which used to give me such freshness and activity
of thought the moment that I stepped across the threshold of the Old Manse The
same torpor as regarded the capacity for intellectual effort accompanied me
home and weighed upon me in the chamber which I most absurdly termed my study
Nor did it quit me when late at night I sat in the deserted parlour lighted
only by the glimmering coalfire and the moon striving to picture forth
imaginary scenes which the next day might flow out on the brightening page in
manyhued description
If the imaginative faculty refused to act at such an hour it might well be
deemed a hopeless case Moonlight in a familiar room falling so white upon the
carpet and showing all its figures so distinctly making every object so
minutely visible yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility is a medium
the most suitable for a romancewriter to get acquainted with his illusive
guests There is the little domestic scenery of the wellknown apartment the
chairs with each its separate individuality the centretable sustaining a
workbasket a volume or two and an extinguished lamp the sofa the bookcase
the picture on the wall all these details so completely seen are so
spiritualized by the unusual light that they seem to lose their actual
substance and become things of intellect Nothing is too small or too trifling
to undergo this change and acquire dignity thereby A childs shoe the doll
seated in her little wicker carriage the hobbyhorse whatever in a word
has been used or played with during the day is now invested with a quality of
strangeness and remoteness though still almost as vividly present as by
daylight Thus therefore the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral
territory somewhere between the real world and fairyland where the Actual and
the Imaginary may meet and each imbue itself with the nature of the other
Ghosts might enter here without affrighting us It would be too much in keeping
with the scene to excite surprise were we to look about us and discover a form
beloved but gone hence now sitting quietly in a streak of this magic
moonshine with an aspect that would make us doubt whether it had returned from
afar or had never once stirred from our fireside
The somewhat dim coalfire has an essential influence in producing the
effect which I would describe It throws its unobtrusive tinge throughout the
room with a faint ruddiness upon the walls and ceiling and a reflected gleam
from the polish of the furniture This warmer light mingles itself with the cold
spirituality of the moonbeams and communicates as it were a heart and
sensibilities of human tenderness to the forms which fancy summons up It
converts them from snowimages into men and women Glancing at the
lookingglass we behold deep within its haunted verge the smouldering glow
of the halfextinguished anthracite the white moonbeams on the floor and a
repetition of all the gleam and shadow of the picture with one remove farther
from the actual and nearer to the imaginative Then at such an hour and with
this scene before him if a man sitting all alone cannot dream strange things
and make them look like truth he need never try to write romances
But for myself during the whole of my CustomHouse experience moonlight
and sunshine and the glow of firelight were just alike in my regard and
neither of them was of one whit more avail than the twinkle of a tallowcandle
An entire class of susceptibilities and a gift connected with them of no
great richness or value but the best I had was gone from me
It is my belief however that had I attempted a different order of
composition my faculties would not have been found so pointless and
inefficacious I might for instance have contented myself with writing out the
narratives of a veteran shipmaster one of the Inspectors whom I should be most
ungrateful not to mention since scarcely a day passed that he did not stir me
to laughter and admiration by his marvellous gifts as a storyteller Could I
have preserved the picturesque force of his style and the humorous coloring
which nature taught him how to throw over his descriptions the result I
honestly believe would have been something new in literature Or I might
readily have found a more serious task It was a folly with the materiality of
this daily life pressing so intrusively upon me to attempt to fling myself back
into another age or to insist on creating the semblance of a world out of airy
matter when at every moment the impalpable beauty of my soapbubble was
broken by the rude contact of some actual circumstance The wiser effort would
have been to diffuse thought and imagination through the opaque substance of
today and thus to make it a bright transparency to spiritualize the burden
that began to weigh so heavily to seek resolutely the true and indestructible
value that lay hidden in the petty and wearisome incidents and ordinary
characters with which I was now conversant The fault was mine The page of
life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace only because I
had not fathomed its deeper import A better book than I shall ever write was
there leaf after leaf presenting itself to me just as it was written out by
the reality of the flitting hour and vanishing as fast as written only because
my brain wanted the insight and my hand the cunning to transcribe it At some
future day it may be I shall remember a few scattered fragments and broken
paragraphs and write them down and find the letters turn to gold upon the
page
These perceptions have come too late At the instant I was only conscious
that what would have been a pleasure once was now a hopeless toil There was no
occasion to make much moan about this state of affairs I had ceased to be a
writer of tolerably poor tales and essays and had become a tolerably good
Surveyor of the Customs That was all But nevertheless it is any thing but
agreeable to be haunted by a suspicion that ones intellect is dwindling away
or exhaling without your consciousness like ether out of a phial so that at
every glance you find a smaller and less volatile residuum Of the fact there
could be no doubt and examining myself and others I was led to conclusions in
reference to the effect of public office on the character not very favorable to
the mode of life in question In some other form perhaps I may hereafter
develop these effects Suffice it here to say that a CustomHouse officer of
long continuance can hardly be a very praiseworthy or respectable personage
for many reasons one of them the tenure by which he holds his situation and
another the very nature of his business which though I trust an honest one
is of such a sort that he does not share in the united effort of mankind
An effect which I believe to be observable more or less in every
individual who has occupied the position is that while he leans on the
mighty arm of the Republic his own proper strength departs from him He loses
in an extent proportioned to the weakness or force of his original nature the
capability of selfsupport If he possess an unusual share of native energy or
the enervating magic of place do not operate too long upon him his forfeited
powers may be redeemable The ejected officer fortunate in the unkindly shove
that sends him forth betimes to struggle amid a struggling world may return
to himself and become all that he has ever been But this seldom happens He
usually keeps his ground just long enough for his own ruin and is then thrust
out with sinews all unstrung to totter along the difficult footpath of life as
he best may Conscious of his own infirmity that his tempered steel and
elasticity are lost he for ever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest
of support external to himself His pervading and continual hope a
hallucination which in the face of all discouragement and making light of
impossibilities haunts him while he lives and I fancy like the convulsive
throes of the cholera torments him for a brief space after death is that
finally and in no long time by some happy coincidence of circumstances he
shall be restored to office This faith more than any thing else steals the
pith and availability out of whatever enterprise he may dream of undertaking
Why should he toil and moil and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out of
the mud when in a little while hence the strong arm of his Uncle will raise
and support him Why should he work for his living here or go to dig gold in
California when he is so soon to be made happy at monthly intervals with a
little pile of glittering coin out of his Uncles pocket It is sadly curious to
observe how slight a taste of office suffices to infect a poor fellow with this
singular disease Uncle Sams gold meaning no disrespect to the worthy old
gentleman has in this respect a quality of enchantment like that of the
Devils wages Whoever touches it should look well to himself or he may find
the bargain to go hard against him involving if not his soul yet many of its
better attributes its sturdy force its courage and constancy its truth its
selfreliance and all that gives the emphasis to manly character
Here was a fine prospect in the distance Not that the Surveyor brought the
lesson home to himself or admitted that he could be so utterly undone either
by continuance in office or ejectment Yet my reflections were not the most
comfortable I began to grow melancholy and restless continually prying into my
mind to discover which of its poor properties were gone and what degree of
detriment had already accrued to the remainder I endeavoured to calculate how
much longer I could stay in the CustomHouse and yet go forth a man To confess
the truth it was my greatest apprehension as it would never be a measure of
policy to turn out so quiet an individual as myself and it being hardly in the
nature of a public officer to resign it was my chief trouble therefore that
I was likely to grow gray and decrepit in the Surveyorship and become much
such another animal as the old Inspector Might it not in the tedious lapse of
official life that lay before me finally be with me as it was with this
venerable friend to make the dinnerhour the nucleus of the day and to spend
the rest of it as an old dog spends it asleep in the sunshine or the shade A
dreary lookforward this for a man who felt it to be the best definition of
happiness to live throughout the whole range of his faculties and sensibilities
But all this while I was giving myself very unnecessary alarm Providence had
meditated better things for me than I could possibly imagine for myself
A remarkable event of the third year of my Surveyorship to adopt the tone
of P P was the election of General Taylor to the Presidency It is
essential in order to form a complete estimate of the advantages of official
life to view the incumbent at the incoming of a hostile administration His
position is then one of the most singularly irksome and in every contingency
disagreeable that a wretched mortal can possibly occupy with seldom an
alternative of good on either hand although what presents itself to him as the
worst event may very probably be the best But it is a strange experience to a
man of pride and sensibility to know that his interests are within the control
of individuals who neither love nor understand him and by whom since one or
the other must needs happen he would rather be injured than obliged Strange
too for one who has kept his calmness throughout the contest to observe the
bloodthirstiness that is developed in the hour of triumph and to be conscious
that he is himself among its objects There are few uglier traits of human
nature than this tendencywhich I now witnessed in men no worse than their
neighbours to grow cruel merely because they possessed the power of
inflicting harm If the guillotine as applied to officeholders were a literal
fact instead of one of the most apt of metaphors it is my sincere belief that
the active members of the victorious party were sufficiently excited to have
chopped off all our heads and have thanked Heaven for the opportunity It
appears to me who have been a calm and curious observer as well in victory as
defeat that this fierce and bitter spirit of malice and revenge has never
distinguished the many triumphs of my own party as it now did that of the Whigs
The Democrats take the offices as a general rule because they need them and
because the practice of many years has made it the law of political warfare
which unless a different system be proclaimed it were weakness and cowardice
to murmur at But the long habit of victory has made them generous They know
how to spare when they see occasion and when they strike the axe may be
sharp indeed but its edge is seldom poisoned with illwill nor is it their
custom ignominiously to kick the head which they have just struck off
In short unpleasant as was my predicament at best I saw much reason to
congratulate myself that I was on the losing side rather than the triumphant
one If heretofore I had been none of the warmest of partisans I began now
at this season of peril and adversity to be pretty acutely sensible with which
party my predilections lay nor was it without something like regret and shame
that according to a reasonable calculation of chances I saw my own prospect of
retaining office to be better than those of my Democratic brethren But who can
see an inch into futurity beyond his nose My own head was the first that fell
The moment when a mans head drops off is seldom or never I am inclined to
think precisely the most agreeable of his life Nevertheless like the greater
part of our misfortunes even so serious a contingency brings its remedy and
consolation with it if the sufferer will but make the best rather than the
worst of the accident which has befallen him In my particular case the
consolatory topics were close at hand and indeed had suggested themselves to
my meditations a considerable time before it was requisite to use them In view
of my previous weariness of office and vague thoughts of resignation my
fortune somewhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea of
committing suicide and altogether beyond his hopes meet with the good hap to
be murdered In the CustomHouse as before in the Old Manse I had spent three
years a term long enough to rest a weary brain long enough to break off old
intellectual habits and make room for new ones long enough and too long to
have lived in an unnatural state doing what was really of no advantage nor
delight to any human being and withholding myself from toil that would at
least have stilled an unquiet impulse in me Then moreover as regarded his
unceremonious ejectment the late Surveyor was not altogether illpleased to be
recognized by the Whigs as an enemy since his inactivity in political affairs
his tendency to roam at will in that broad and quiet field where all mankind
may meet rather than confine himself to those narrow paths where brethren of
the same household must diverge from one another, had sometimes made it
questionable with his brother Democrats whether he was a friend Now after he
had won the crown of martyrdom though with no longer a head to wear it on
the point might be looked upon as settled Finally little heroic as he was it
seemed more decorous to be overthrown in the downfall of the party with which he
had been content to stand than to remain a forlorn survivor when so many
worthier men were falling and at last after subsisting for four years on the
mercy of a hostile administration to be compelled then to define his position
anew and claim the yet more humiliating mercy of a friendly one
Meanwhile the press had taken up my affair and kept me for a week or two
careering through the public prints in my decapitated state like Irvings
Headless Horseman ghastly and grim and longing to be buried as a politically
dead man ought So much for my figurative self The real human being all this
time with his head safely on his shoulders had brought himself to the
comfortable conclusion that every thing was for the best and making an
investment in ink paper and steelpens had opened his longdisused
writingdesk and was again a literary man
Now it was that the lucubrations of my ancient predecessor Mr Surveyor
Pue came into play Rusty through long idleness some little space was
requisite before my intellectual machinery could be brought to work upon the
tale with an effect in any degree satisfactory Even yet though my thoughts
were ultimately much absorbed in the task it wears to my eye a stern and
sombre aspect too much ungladdened by genial sunshine too little relieved by
the tender and familiar influences which soften almost every scene of nature and
real life and undoubtedly should soften every picture of them This
uncaptivating effect is perhaps due to the period of hardly accomplished
revolution and still seething turmoil in which the story shaped itself. It is
no indication however of a lack of cheerfulness in the writers mind for he
was happier while straying through the gloom of these sunless fantasies than
at any time since he had quitted the Old Manse Some of the briefer articles
which contribute to make up the volume have likewise been written since my
involuntary withdrawal from the toils and honors of public life and the
remainder are gleaned from annuals and magazines of such antique date that they
have gone round the circle and come back to novelty again1 Keeping up the
metaphor of the political guillotine the whole may be considered as the
POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF A DECAPITATED SURVEYOR and the sketch which I am now
bringing to a close if too autobiographical for a modest person to publish in
his lifetime will readily be excused in a gentleman who writes from beyond the
grave Peace be with all the world My blessing on my friends My forgiveness to
my enemies For I am in the realm of quiet
The life of the CustomHouse lies like a dream behind me The old Inspector
who by the by I regret to say was overthrown and killed by a horse some
time ago else he would certainly have lived for ever he and all those other
venerable personages who sat with him at the receipt of custom are but shadows
in my view whiteheaded and wrinkled images which my fancy used to sport with
and has now flung aside for ever The merchants Pingree Phillips Shepard
Upton Kimball Bertram Hunt these and many other names which had such a
classic familiarity for my ear six months ago these men of traffic who
seemed to occupy so important a position in the world how little time has it
required to disconnect me from them all not merely in act but recollection It
is with an effort that I recall the figures and appellations of these few Soon
likewise my old native town will loom upon me through the haze of memory a
mist brooding over and around it as if it were no portion of the real earth
but an overgrown village in cloudland with only imaginary inhabitants to
people its wooden houses and walk its homely lanes and the unpicturesque
prolixity of its main street Henceforth it ceases to be a reality of my life
I am a citizen of somewhere else My good townspeople will not much regret me
for though it has been as dear an object as any in my literary efforts to be
of some importance in their eyes and to win myself a pleasant memory in this
abode and burialplace of so many of my forefathers there has never been for
me the genial atmosphere which a literary man requires in order to ripen the
best harvest of his mind I shall do better amongst other faces and these
familiar ones it need hardly be said will do just as well without me
It may be however O transporting and triumphant thought that the
greatgrandchildren of the present race may sometimes think kindly of the
scribbler of bygone days when the antiquary of days to come among the sites
memorable in the towns history shall point out the locality of THE TOWNPUMP
I The PrisonDoor
A throng of bearded men in sadcolored garments and gray steeplecrowned hats
intermixed with women some wearing hoods and others bareheaded was assembled
in front of a wooden edifice the door of which was heavily timbered with oak
and studded with iron spikes
The founders of a new colony whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness
they might originally project have invariably recognized it among their
earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a
cemetery and another portion as the site of a prison In accordance with this
rule it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the
first prisonhouse somewhere in the vicinity of Cornhill almost as seasonably
as they marked out the first burialground on Isaac Johnsons lot and round
about his grave which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated
sepulchres in the old churchyard of Kings Chapel Certain it is that some
fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town the wooden jail was
already marked with weatherstains and other indications of age which gave a
yet darker aspect to its beetlebrowed and gloomy front The rust on the
ponderous ironwork of its oaken door looked more antique than any thing else in
the new world Like all that pertains to crime it seemed never to have known a
youthful era Before this ugly edifice and between it and the wheeltrack of
the street was a grassplot much overgrown with burdock pigweed appleperu
and such unsightly vegetation which evidently found something congenial in the
soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society a prison
But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild
rosebush covered in this month of June with its delicate gems which might
be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he
went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token
that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him
This rosebush by a strange chance has been kept alive in history but
whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness so long after
the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it or
whether as there is fair authority for believing it had sprung up under the
footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson as she entered the prisondoor we
shall not take upon us to determine Finding it so directly on the threshold of
our narrative which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal we
could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the
reader It may serve let us hope to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that
may be found along the track or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human
frailty and sorrow
II The MarketPlace
The grassplot before the jail in Prison Lane on a certain summer morning not
less than two centuries ago was occupied by a pretty large number of the
inhabitants of Boston all with their eyes intently fastened on the ironclamped
oaken door Amongst any other population or at a later period in the history of
New England the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these
good people would have augured some awful business in hand It could have
betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit on
whom the sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public
sentiment But in that early severity of the Puritan character an inference of
this kind could not so indubitably be drawn It might be that a sluggish
bondservant or an undutiful child whom his parents had given over to the
civil authority was to be corrected at the whippingpost It might be that an
Antinomian a Quaker or other heterodox religionist was to be scourged out of
the town or an idle and vagrant Indian whom the white mans firewater had
made riotous about the streets was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of
the forest It might be too that a witch like old Mistress Hibbins the
bittertempered widow of the magistrate was to die upon the gallows In either
case there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the
spectators as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost
identical and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused that the
mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and
awful Meagre indeed and cold was the sympathy that a transgressor might look
for from such bystanders at the scaffold On the other hand a penalty which
in our days would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule might then be
invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself
It was a circumstance to be noted on the summer morning when our story
begins its course that the women of whom there were several in the crowd
appeared to take a peculiar interest in whatever penal infliction might be
expected to ensue The age had not so much refinement that any sense of
impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale from stepping
forth into the public ways and wedging their not unsubstantial persons if
occasion were into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution Morally
as well as materially there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of
old English birth and breeding than in their fair descendants separated from
them by a series of six or seven generations for throughout that chain of
ancestry every successive mother has transmitted to her child a fainter bloom
a more delicate and briefer beauty and a slighter physical frame if not a
character of less force and solidity than her own The women who were now
standing about the prisondoor stood within less than half a century of the
period when the manlike Elizabeth had been the not altogether unsuitable
representative of the sex They were her countrywomen and the beef and ale of
their native land with a moral diet not a whit more refined entered largely
into their composition The bright morning sun therefore shone on broad
shoulders and welldeveloped busts and on round and ruddy cheeks that had
ripened in the faroff island and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the
atmosphere of New England There was moreover a boldness and rotundity of
speech among these matrons as most of them seemed to be that would startle us
at the present day whether in respect to its purport or its volume of tone
»Goodwives« said a hardfeatured dame of fifty »Ill tell ye a piece of my
mind It would be greatly for the public behoof if we women being of mature
age and churchmembers in good repute should have the handling of such
malefactresses as this Hester Prynne What think ye gossips If the hussy stood
up for judgment before us five that are now here in a knot together would she
come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded Marry
I trow not«
»People say« said another »that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale her godly
pastor takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come
upon his congregation«
»The magistrates are Godfearing gentlemen but merciful overmuch that is
a truth« added a third autumnal matron »At the very least they should have
put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynnes forehead Madam Hester would have
winced at that I warrant me But she the naughty baggage little will she
care what they put upon the bodice of her gown Why look you she may cover it
with a brooch or such like heathenish adornment and so walk the streets as
brave as ever«
»Ah but« interposed more softly a young wife holding a child by the
hand »let her cover the mark as she will the pang of it will be always in her
heart«
»What do we talk of marks and brands whether on the bodice of her gown or
the flesh of her forehead« cried another female the ugliest as well as the
most pitiless of these selfconstituted judges »This woman has brought shame
upon us all and ought to die Is there not law for it Truly there is both in
the Scripture and the statutebook Then let the magistrates who have made it
of no effect thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray«
»Mercy on us goodwife« exclaimed a man in the crowd »is there no virtue
in woman save what springs from a wholesome fear of the gallows That is the
hardest word yet Hush now gossips for the lock is turning in the
prisondoor and here comes Mistress Prynne herself«
The door of the jail being flung open from within there appeared in the
first place like a black shadow emerging into the sunshine the grim and grisly
presence of the townbeadle with a sword by his side and his staff of office in
his hand This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole
dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law which it was his business to
administer in its final and closest application to the offender Stretching
forth the official staff in his left hand he laid his right upon the shoulder
of a young woman whom he thus drew forward until on the threshold of the
prisondoor she repelled him by an action marked with natural dignity and
force of character and stepped into the open air as if by her own freewill
She bore in her arms a child a baby of some three months old who winked and
turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day because its
existence heretofore had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of
a dungeon or other darksome apartment of the prison
When the young woman the mother of this child stood fully revealed
before the crowd it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely
to her bosom not so much by an impulse of motherly affection as that she might
thereby conceal a certain token which was wrought or fastened into her dress
In a moment however wisely judging that one token of her shame would but
poorly serve to hide another she took the baby on her arm and with a burning
blush and yet a haughty smile and a glance that would not be abashed looked
around at her townspeople and neighbours On the breast of her gown in fine red
cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold
thread appeared the letter A It was so artistically done and with so much
fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy that it had all the effect of a last
and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore and which was of a
splendor in accordance with the taste of the age but greatly beyond what was
allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony
The young woman was tall with a figure of perfect elegance on a large
scale She had dark and abundant hair so glossy that it threw off the sunshine
with a gleam and a face which besides being beautiful from regularity of
feature and richness of complexion had the impressiveness belonging to a marked
brow and deep black eyes She was ladylike too after the manner of the
feminine gentility of those days characterized by a certain state and dignity
rather than by the delicate evanescent and indescribable grace which is now
recognized as its indication And never had Hester Prynne appeared more
ladylike in the antique interpretation of the term than as she issued from
the prison Those who had before known her and had expected to behold her
dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud were astonished and even startled
to perceive how her beauty shone out and made a halo of the misfortune and
ignominy in which she was enveloped It may be true that to a sensitive
observer there was something exquisitely painful in it Her attire which
indeed she had wrought for the occasion in prison and had modelled much after
her own fancy seemed to express the attitude of her spirit the desperate
recklessness of her mood by its wild and picturesque peculiarity But the point
which drew all eyes and as it were transfigured the wearer so that both
men and women who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne were now
impressed as if they beheld her for the first time was that SCARLET LETTER
so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom It had the effect
of a spell taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and
inclosing her in a sphere by herself
»She hath good skill at her needle thats certain« remarked one of the
female spectators »but did ever a woman before this brazen hussy contrive
such a way of showing it Why gossips what is it but to laugh in the faces of
our godly magistrates and make a pride out of what they worthy gentlemen
meant for a punishment«
»It were well« muttered the most ironvisaged of the old dames »if we
stripped Madam Hesters rich gown off her dainty shoulders and as for the red
letter which she hath stitched so curiously Ill bestow a rag of mine own
rheumatic flannel to make a fitter one«
»O peace neighbours peace« whispered their youngest companion »Do not
let her hear you Not a stitch in that embroidered letter but she has felt it
in her heart«
The grim beadle now made a gesture with his staff
»Make way good people make way in the Kings name« cried he »Open a
passage and I promise ye Mistress Prynne shall be set where man woman and
child may have a fair sight of her brave apparel from this time till an hour
past meridian A blessing on the righteous Colony of the Massachusetts where
iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine Come along Madam Hester and show
your scarlet letter in the marketplace«
A lane was forthwith opened through the crowd of spectators Preceded by the
beadle and attended by an irregular procession of sternbrowed men and
unkindlyvisaged women Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for
her punishment A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys understanding little of
the matter in hand except that it gave them a halfholiday ran before her
progress turning their heads continually to stare into her face and at the
winking baby in her arms and at the ignominious letter on her breast It was no
great distance in those days from the prisondoor to the marketplace
Measured by the prisoners experience however it might be reckoned a journey
of some length for haughty as her demeanour was she perchance underwent an
agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her as if her heart had
been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon In our
nature however there is a provision alike marvellous and merciful that the
sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present
torture but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it With almost a serene
deportment therefore Hester Prynne passed through this portion of her ordeal
and came to a sort of scaffold at the western extremity of the marketplace It
stood nearly beneath the eaves of Bostons earliest church and appeared to be a
fixture there
In fact this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine which now
for two or three generations past has been merely historical and traditionary
among us but was held in the old time to be as effectual an agent in the
promotion of good citizenship as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists
of France It was in short the platform of the pillory and above it rose the
framework of that instrument of discipline so fashioned as to confine the human
head in its tight grasp and thus hold it up to the public gaze The very ideal
of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron
There can be no outrage methinks against our common nature whatever be the
delinquencies of the individual, no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the
culprit to hide his face for shame as it was the essence of this punishment to
do In Hester Prynnes instance however as not unfrequently in other cases
her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform but
without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head the
proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine
Knowing well her part she ascended a flight of wooden steps and was thus
displayed to the surrounding multitude at about the height of a mans shoulders
above the street
Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans he might have seen in
this beautiful woman so picturesque in her attire and mien and with the infant
at her bosom an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity which so
many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent something
which should remind him indeed but only by contrast of that sacred image of
sinless motherhood whose infant was to redeem the world Here there was the
taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life working such
effect that the world was only the darker for this womans beauty and the more
lost for the infant that she had borne
The scene was not without a mixture of awe such as must always invest the
spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellowcreature before society shall have
grown corrupt enough to smile instead of shuddering at it The witnesses of
Hester Prynnes disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity They were
stern enough to look upon her death had that been the sentence without a
murmur at its severity but had none of the heartlessness of another social
state which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present
Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule it must have
been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified
than the Governor and several of his counsellors a judge a general and the
ministers of the town all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the
meetinghouse looking down upon the platform When such personages could
constitute a part of the spectacle without risking the majesty or reverence of
rank and office it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal
sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning Accordingly the crowd was
sombre and grave The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might
under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes all fastened upon her
and concentred at her bosom It was almost intolerable to be borne Of an
impulsive and passionate nature she had fortified herself to encounter the
stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself in every variety
of insult but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of
the popular mind that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances
contorted with scornful merriment and herself the object Had a roar of
laughter burst from the multitude each man each woman each little
shrillvoiced child contributing their individual parts Hester Prynne might
have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile But under the leaden
infliction which it was her doom to endure she felt at moments as if she must
needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs and cast herself from the
scaffold down upon the ground or else go mad at once
Yet there were intervals when the whole scene in which she was the most
conspicuous object seemed to vanish from her eyes or at least glimmered
indistinctly before them like a mass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images
Her mind and especially her memory was preternaturally active and kept
bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town on the
edge of the Western wilderness other faces than were lowering upon her from
beneath the brims of those steeplecrowned hats Reminiscences the most
trifling and immaterial passages of infancy and schooldays sports childish
quarrels and the little domestic traits of her maiden years came swarming back
upon her intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her
subsequent life one picture precisely as vivid as another as if all were of
similar importance or all alike a play Possibly it was an instinctive device
of her spirit to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric
forms from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality
Be that as it might the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that
revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading
since her happy infancy Standing on that miserable eminence she saw again her
native village in Old England and her paternal home a decayed house of gray
stone with a povertystricken aspect but retaining a halfobliterated shield
of arms over the portal in token of antique gentility She saw her fathers
face with its bald brow and reverend white beard that flowed over the
oldfashioned Elizabethan ruff her mothers too with the look of heedful and
anxious love which it always wore in her remembrance and which even since her
death had so often laid the impediment of a gentle remonstrance in her
daughters pathway She saw her own face glowing with girlish beauty and
illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to
gaze at it There she beheld another countenance of a man well stricken in
years a pale thin scholarlike visage with eyes dim and bleared by the
lamplight that had served them to pore over many ponderous books Yet those
same bleared optics had a strange penetrating power when it was their owners
purpose to read the human soul This figure of the study and the cloister as
Hester Prynnes womanly fancy failed not to recall was slightly deformed with
the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right Next rose before her in
memorys picturegallery the intricate and narrow thoroughfares the tall gray
houses the huge cathedrals and the public edifices ancient in date and quaint
in architecture of a Continental city where a new life had awaited her still
in connection with the misshapen scholar a new life but feeding itself on
timeworn materials like a tuft of green moss on a crumbling wall Lastly in
lieu of these shifting scenes came back the rude marketplace of the Puritan
settlement with all the townspeople assembled and levelling their stern regards
at Hester Prynne yes at herself who stood on the scaffold of the pillory
an infant on her arm and the letter A in scarlet fantastically embroidered
with gold thread upon her bosom
Could it be true She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it
sent forth a cry she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter and even
touched it with her finger to assure herself that the infant and the shame were
real Yes these were her realities all else had vanished
III The Recognition
From this intense consciousness of being the object of severe and universal
observation the wearer of the scarlet letter was at length relieved by
discerning on the outskirts of the crowd a figure which irresistibly took
possession of her thoughts An Indian in his native garb was standing there
but the red men were not so infrequent visitors of the English settlements that
one of them would have attracted any notice from Hester Prynne at such a time
much less would he have excluded all other objects and ideas from her mind By
the Indians side and evidently sustaining a companionship with him stood a
white man clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume
He was small in stature with a furrowed visage which as yet could hardly
be termed aged There was a remarkable intelligence in his features as of a
person who had so cultivated his mental part that it could not fail to mould the
physical to itself and become manifest by unmistakable tokens Although by a
seemingly careless arrangement of his heterogeneous garb he had endeavoured to
conceal or abate the peculiarity it was sufficiently evident to Hester Prynne
that one of this mans shoulders rose higher than the other Again at the first
instant of perceiving that thin visage and the slight deformity of the figure
she pressed her infant to her bosom with so convulsive a force that the poor
babe uttered another cry of pain But the mother did not seem to hear it
At his arrival in the marketplace and some time before she saw him the
stranger had bent his eyes on Hester Prynne It was carelessly at first like a
man chiefly accustomed to look inward and to whom external matters are of
little value and import unless they bear relation to something within his mind
Very soon however his look became keen and penetrative A writhing horror
twisted itself across his features like a snake gliding swiftly over them and
making one little pause with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight His
face darkened with some powerful emotion which nevertheless he so
instantaneously controlled by an effort of his will that save at a single
moment its expression might have passed for calmness After a brief space the
convulsion grew almost imperceptible and finally subsided into the depths of
his nature When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own and saw
that she appeared to recognize him he slowly and calmly raised his finger made
a gesture with it in the air and laid it on his lips
Then touching the shoulder of a townsman who stood next to him he
addressed him in a formal and courteous manner
»I pray you good Sir« said he »who is this woman and wherefore is she
here set up to public shame«
»You must needs be a stranger in this region friend« answered the
townsman looking curiously at the questioner and his savage companion »else
you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne and her evil doings She
hath raised a great scandal I promise you in godly Master Dimmesdales
church«
»You say truly« replied the other »I am a stranger and have been a
wanderer sorely against my will I have met with grievous mishaps by sea and
land and have been long held in bonds among the heathenfolk to the southward
and am now brought hither by this Indian to be redeemed out of my captivity
Will it please you therefore to tell me of Hester Prynnes have I her name
rightly of this womans offences and what has brought her to yonder
scaffold«
»Truly friend and methinks it must gladden your heart after your troubles
and sojourn in the wilderness« said the townsman »to find yourself at length
in a land where iniquity is searched out and punished in the sight of rulers
and people as here in our godly New England Yonder woman Sir you must know
was the wife of a certain learned man English by birth but who had long dwelt
in Amsterdam whence some good time agone he was minded to cross over and cast
in his lot with us of the Massachusetts To this purpose he sent his wife
before him remaining himself to look after some necessary affairs Marry good
Sir in some two years or less that the woman has been a dweller here in
Boston no tidings have come of this learned gentleman Master Prynne and his
young wife look you being left to her own misguidance «
»Ah aha I conceive you« said the stranger with a bitter smile »So
learned a man as you speak of should have learned this too in his books And
who by your favor Sir may be the father of yonder babe it is some three or
four months old I should judge which Mistress Prynne is holding in her arms«
»Of a truth friend that matter remaineth a riddle and the Daniel who
shall expound it is yet awanting« answered the townsman »Madam Hester
absolutely refuseth to speak and the magistrates have laid their heads together
in vain Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle
unknown of man and forgetting that God sees him«
»The learned man« observed the stranger with another smile »should come
himself to look into the mystery«
»It behooves him well if he be still in life« responded the townsman
»Now good Sir our Massachusetts magistracy bethinking themselves that this
woman is youthful and fair and doubtless was strongly tempted to her fall
and that moreover as is most likely her husband may be at the bottom of the
sea they have not been bold to put in force the extremity of our righteous
law against her The penalty thereof is death But in their great mercy and
tenderness of heart they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of
three hours on the platform of the pillory and then and thereafter for the
remainder of her natural life to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom«
»A wise sentence« remarked the stranger gravely bowing his head »Thus she
will be a living sermon against sin until the ignominious letter be engraved
upon her tombstone It irks me nevertheless that the partner of her iniquity
should not at least stand on the scaffold by her side But he will be known
he will be known he will be known«
He bowed courteously to the communicative townsman and whispering a few
words to his Indian attendant they both made their way through the crowd
While this passed Hester Prynne had been standing on her pedestal still
with a fixed gaze towards the stranger so fixed a gaze that at moments of
intense absorption all other objects in the visible world seemed to vanish
leaving only him and her Such an interview perhaps would have been more
terrible than even to meet him as she now did with the hot midday sun burning
down upon her face and lighting up its shame with the scarlet token of infamy
on her breast with the sinborn infant in her arms with a whole people drawn
forth as to a festival staring at the features that should have been seen only
in the quiet gleam of the fireside in the happy shadow of a home or beneath a
matronly veil at church Dreadful as it was she was conscious of a shelter in
the presence of these thousand witnesses It was better to stand thus with so
many betwixt him and her than to greet him face to face they two alone She
fled for refuge as it were to the public exposure and dreaded the moment when
its protection should be withdrawn from her Involved in these thoughts she
scarcely heard a voice behind her until it had repeated her name more than
once in a loud and solemn tone audible to the whole multitude
»Hearken unto me Hester Prynne« said the voice
It has already been noticed that directly over the platform on which Hester
Prynne stood was a kind of balcony or open gallery appended to the
meetinghouse It was the place whence proclamations were wont to be made
amidst an assemblage of the magistracy with all the ceremonial that attended
such public observances in those days Here to witness the scene which we are
describing sat Governor Bellingham himself with four sergeants about his
chair bearing halberds as a guard of honor He wore a dark feather in his hat
a border of embroidery on his cloak and a black velvet tunic beneath a
gentleman advanced in years and with a hard experience written in his wrinkles
He was not ill fitted to be the head and representative of a community which
owed its origin and progress and its present state of development not to the
impulses of youth but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the
sombre sagacity of age accomplishing so much precisely because it imagined and
hoped so little The other eminent characters by whom the chief ruler was
surrounded were distinguished by a dignity of mien belonging to a period when
the forms of authority were felt to possess the sacredness of divine
institutions They were doubtless good men just and sage But out of the
whole human family it would not have been easy to select the same number of
wise and virtuous persons who should be less capable of sitting in judgment on
an erring womans heart and disentangling its mesh of good and evil than the
sages of rigid aspect towards whom Hester Prynne now turned her face She seemed
conscious indeed that whatever sympathy she might expect lay in the larger and
warmer heart of the multitude for as she lifted her eyes towards the balcony
the unhappy woman grew pale and trembled
The voice which had called her attention was that of the reverend and famous
John Wilson the eldest clergyman of Boston a great scholar like most of his
contemporaries in the profession and withal a man of kind and genial spirit
This last attribute however had been less carefully developed than his
intellectual gifts and was in truth rather a matter of shame than
selfcongratulation with him There he stood with a border of grizzled locks
beneath his skullcap while his gray eyes accustomed to the shaded light of
his study were winking like those of Hesters infant in the unadulterated
sunshine He looked like the darkly engraved portraits which we see prefixed to
old volumes of sermons and had no more right than one of those portraits would
have to step forth as he now did and meddle with a question of human guilt
passion and anguish
»Hester Prynne« said the clergyman »I have striven with my young brother
here under whose preaching of the word you have been privileged to sit« here
Mr Wilson laid his hand on the shoulder of a pale young man beside him »I
have sought I say to persuade this godly youth that he should deal with you
here in the face of Heaven and before these wise and upright rulers and in
hearing of all the people as touching the vileness and blackness of your sin
Knowing your natural temper better than I he could the better judge what
arguments to use whether of tenderness or terror such as might prevail over
your hardness and obstinacy insomuch that you should no longer hide the name of
him who tempted you to this grievous fall But he opposes to me with a young
mans oversoftness albeit wise beyond his years that it were wronging the
very nature of woman to force her to lay open her hearts secrets in such broad
daylight and in presence of so great a multitude Truly as I sought to
convince him the shame lay in the commission of the sin and not in the showing
of it forth What say you to it once again brother Dimmesdale Must it be thou
or I that shall deal with this poor sinners soul«
There was a murmur among the dignified and reverend occupants of the
balcony and Governor Bellingham gave expression to its purport speaking in an
authoritative voice although tempered with respect towards the youthful
clergyman whom he addressed
»Good Master Dimmesdale« said he »the responsibility of this womans soul
lies greatly with you It behooves you therefore to exhort her to repentance
and to confession as a proof and consequence thereof«
The directness of this appeal drew the eyes of the whole crowd upon the
Reverend Mr Dimmesdale a young clergyman who had come from one of the great
English universities bringing all the learning of the age into our wild
forestland His eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of
high eminence in his profession He was a person of very striking aspect with a
white lofty and impending brow large brown melancholy eyes and a mouth
which unless when he forcibly compressed it was apt to be tremulous
expressing both nervous sensibility and a vast power of selfrestraint
Notwithstanding his high native gifts and scholarlike attainments there was an
air about this young minister an apprehensive a startled a halffrightened
look as of a being who felt himself quite astray and at a loss in the pathway
of human existence and could only be at ease in some seclusion of his own
Therefore so far as his duties would permit he trode in the shadowy bypaths
and thus kept himself simple and childlike coming forth when occasion was
with a freshness and fragrance and dewy purity of thought which as many
people said affected them like the speech of an angel
Such was the young man whom the Reverend Mr Wilson and the Governor had
introduced so openly to the public notice bidding him speak in the hearing of
all men to that mystery of a womans soul so sacred even in its pollution The
trying nature of his position drove the blood from his cheek and made his lips
tremulous
»Speak to the woman my brother« said Mr Wilson »It is of moment to her
soul and therefore as the worshipful Governor says momentous to thine own in
whose charge hers is Exhort her to confess the truth«
The Reverend Mr Dimmesdale bent his head in silent prayer as it seemed
and then came forward
»Hester Prynne« said he leaning over the balcony and looking down
stedfastly into her eyes »thou hearest what this good man says and seest the
accountability under which I labor If thou feelest it to be for thy souls
peace and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to
salvation I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellowsinner and
fellowsufferer Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him
for believe me Hester though he were to step down from a high place and
stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame yet better were it so than
to hide a guilty heart through life What can thy silence do for him except it
tempt him yea compel him as it were to add hypocrisy to sin Heaven hath
granted thee an open ignominy that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph
over the evil within thee and the sorrow without Take heed how thou deniest to
him who perchance hath not the courage to grasp it for himself the bitter
but wholesome cup that is now presented to thy lips«
The young pastors voice was tremulously sweet rich deep and broken The
feeling that it so evidently manifested rather than the direct purport of the
words caused it to vibrate within all hearts and brought the listeners into
one accord of sympathy Even the poor baby at Hesters bosom was affected by
the same influence for it directed its hitherto vacant gaze towards Mr
Dimmesdale and held up its little arms with a half pleased half plaintive
murmur So powerful seemed the ministers appeal that the people could not
believe but that Hester Prynne would speak out the guilty name or else that the
guilty one himself in whatever high or lowly place he stood would be drawn
forth by an inward and inevitable necessity and compelled to ascend the
scaffold
Hester shook her head
»Woman transgress not beyond the limits of Heavens mercy« cried the
Reverend Mr Wilson more harshly than before »That little babe hath been
gifted with a voice to second and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard
Speak out the name That and thy repentance may avail to take the scarlet
letter off thy breast«
»Never« replied Hester Prynne looking not at Mr Wilson but into the
deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergyman »It is too deeply branded Ye
cannot take it off And would that I might endure his agony as well as mine«
»Speak woman« said another voice coldly and sternly proceeding from the
crowd about the scaffold »Speak and give your child a father«
»I will not speak« answered Hester turning pale as death but responding
to this voice which she too surely recognized »And my child must seek a
heavenly Father she shall never know an earthly one«
»She will not speak« murmured Mr Dimmesdale who leaning over the
balcony with his hand upon his heart had awaited the result of his appeal He
now drew back with a long respiration »Wondrous strength and generosity of a
womans heart She will not speak«
Discerning the impracticable state of the poor culprits mind the elder
clergyman who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion addressed to the
multitude a discourse on sin in all its branches but with continual reference
to the ignominious letter So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol for the
hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the peoples heads that
it assumed new terrors in their imagination and seemed to derive its scarlet
hue from the flames of the infernal pit Hester Prynne meanwhile kept her
place upon the pedestal of shame with glazed eyes and an air of weary
indifference She had borne that morning all that nature could endure and as
her temperament was not of the order that escapes from too intense suffering by
a swoon her spirit could only shelter itself beneath a stony crust of
insensibility while the faculties of animal life remained entire In this
state the voice of the preacher thundered remorselessly but unavailingly upon
her ears The infant during the latter portion of her ordeal pierced the air
with its wailings and screams she strove to hush it mechanically but seemed
scarcely to sympathize with its trouble With the same hard demeanour she was
led back to prison and vanished from the public gaze within its ironclamped
portal It was whispered by those who peered after her that the scarlet letter
threw a lurid gleam along the dark passageway of the interior
IV The Interview
After her return to the prison Hester Prynne was found to be in a state of
nervous excitement that demanded constant watchfulness lest she should
perpetrate violence on herself or do some halffrenzied mischief to the poor
babe As night approached it proving impossible to quell her insubordination by
rebuke or threats of punishment Master Brackett the jailer thought fit to
introduce a physician He described him as a man of skill in all Christian modes
of physical science and likewise familiar with whatever the savage people could
teach in respect to medicinal herbs and roots that grew in the forest To say
the truth there was much need of professional assistance not merely for Hester
herself but still more urgently for the child who drawing its sustenance from
the maternal bosom seemed to have drank in with it all the turmoil the
anguish and despair which pervaded the mothers system It now writhed in
convulsions of pain and was a forcible type in its little frame of the moral
agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day
Closely following the jailer into the dismal apartment appeared that
individual of singular aspect whose presence in the crowd had been of such
deep interest to the wearer of the scarlet letter He was lodged in the prison
not as suspected of any offence but as the most convenient and suitable mode of
disposing of him until the magistrates should have conferred with the Indian
sagamores respecting his ransom His name was announced as Roger Chillingworth
The jailer after ushering him into the room remained a moment marvelling at
the comparative quiet that followed his entrance for Hester Prynne had
immediately become as still as death although the child continued to moan
»Prithee friend leave me alone with my patient« said the practitioner
»Trust me good jailer you shall briefly have peace in your house and I
promise you Mistress Prynne shall hereafter be more amenable to just authority
than you may have found her heretofore«
»Nay if your worship can accomplish that« answered Master Brackett »I
shall own you for a man of skill indeed Verily the woman hath been like a
possessed one and there lacks little that I should take in hand to drive Satan
out of her with stripes«
The stranger had entered the room with the characteristic quietude of the
profession to which he announced himself as belonging Nor did his demeanour
change when the withdrawal of the prisonkeeper left him face to face with the
woman whose absorbed notice of him in the crowd had intimated so close a
relation between himself and her His first care was given to the child whose
cries indeed as she lay writhing on the trundlebed made it of peremptory
necessity to postpone all other business to the task of soothing her He
examined the infant carefully and then proceeded to unclasp a leathern case
which he took from beneath his dress It appeared to contain certain medical
preparations one of which he mingled with a cup of water
»My old studies in alchemy« observed he »and my sojourn for above a year
past among a people well versed in the kindly properties of simples have made
a better physician of me than many that claim the medical degree Here woman
The child is yours she is none of mine neither will she recognize my voice
or aspect as a fathers Administer this draught therefore with thine own
hand«
Hester repelled the offered medicine at the same time gazing with strongly
marked apprehension into his face
»Wouldst thou avenge thyself on the innocent babe« whispered she
»Foolish woman« responded the physician half coldly half soothingly
»What should ail me to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe The medicine is
potent for good and were it my child yea mine own as well as thine I
could do no better for it«
As she still hesitated being in fact in no reasonable state of mind he
took the infant in his arms and himself administered the draught It soon
proved its efficacy and redeemed the leechs pledge The moans of the little
patient subsided its convulsive tossings gradually ceased and in a few
moments as is the custom of young children after relief from pain it sank into
a profound and dewy slumber The physician as he had a fair right to be termed
next bestowed his attention on the mother With calm and intent scrutiny he
felt her pulse looked into her eyes a gaze that made her heart shrink and
shudder because so familiar and yet so strange and cold and finally
satisfied with his investigation proceeded to mingle another draught
»I know not Lethe nor Nepenthe« remarked he »but I have learned many new
secrets in the wilderness and here is one of them a recipe that an Indian
taught me in requital of some lessons of my own that were as old as
Paracelsus Drink it It may be less soothing than a sinless conscience That I
cannot give thee But it will calm the swell and heaving of thy passion like
oil thrown on the waves of a tempestuous sea«
He presented the cup to Hester who received it with a slow earnest look
into his face not precisely a look of fear yet full of doubt and questioning
as to what his purposes might be She looked also at her slumbering child
»I have thought of death« said she »have wished for it would even
have prayed for it were it fit that such as I should pray for any thing Yet
if death be in this cup I bid thee think again ere thou beholdest me quaff it
See It is even now at my lips«
»Drink then« replied he still with the same cold composure »Dost thou
know me so little Hester Prynne Are my purposes wont to be so shallow Even if
I imagine a scheme of vengeance what could I do better for my object than to
let thee live than to give thee medicines against all harm and peril of life
so that this burning shame may still blaze upon thy bosom« As he spoke he
laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter which forthwith seemed to scorch
into Hesters breast as if it had been redhot He noticed her involuntary
gesture and smiled »Live therefore and bear about thy doom with thee in
the eyes of men and women in the eyes of him whom thou didst call thy
husband in the eyes of yonder child And that thou mayest live take off
this draught«
Without further expostulation or delay Hester Prynne drained the cup and
at the motion of the man of skill seated herself on the bed where the child was
sleeping while he drew the only chair which the room afforded and took his own
seat beside her She could not but tremble at these preparations for she felt
that having now done all that humanity or principle or if so it were a
refined cruelty impelled him to do for the relief of physical suffering he
was next to treat with her as the man whom she had most deeply and irreparably
injured
»Hester« said he »I ask not wherefore nor how thou hast fallen into the
pit or say rather thou hast ascended to the pedestal of infamy on which I
found thee The reason is not far to seek It was my folly and thy weakness I
a man of thought the bookworm of great libraries a man already in
decay having given my best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge what
had I to do with youth and beauty like thine own Misshapen from my birthhour
how could I delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil
physical deformity in a young girls fantasy Men call me wise If sages were
ever wise in their own behoof I might have foreseen all this I might have
known that as I came out of the vast and dismal forest and entered this
settlement of Christian men the very first object to meet my eyes would be
thyself Hester Prynne standing up a statue of ignominy before the people
Nay from the moment when we came down the old churchsteps together a married
pair I might have beheld the balefire of that scarlet letter blazing at the
end of our path«
»Thou knowest« said Hester for depressed as she was she could not
endure this last quiet stab at the token of her shame »thou knowest that I
was frank with thee I felt no love nor feigned any«
»True« replied he »It was my folly I have said it But up to that epoch
of my life I had lived in vain The world had been so cheerless My heart was a
habitation large enough for many guests but lonely and chill and without a
household fire I longed to kindle one It seemed not so wild a dream old as
I was and sombre as I was and misshapen as I was that the simple bliss
which is scattered far and wide for all mankind to gather up might yet be
mine And so Hester I drew thee into my heart into its innermost chamber and
sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there«
»I have greatly wronged thee« murmured Hester
»We have wronged each other« answered he »Mine was the first wrong when I
betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay
Therefore as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain I seek no
vengeance plot no evil against thee Between thee and me the scale hangs
fairly balanced But Hester the man lives who has wronged us both Who is he«
»Ask me not« replied Hester Prynne looking firmly into his face »That
thou shalt never know«
»Never sayest thou« rejoined he with a smile of dark and selfrelying
intelligence »Never know him Believe me Hester there are few things
whether in the outward world or to a certain depth in the invisible sphere of
thought few things hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and
unreservedly to the solution of a mystery Thou mayest cover up thy secret from
the prying multitude Thou mayest conceal it too from the ministers and
magistrates even as thou didst this day when they sought to wrench the name
out of thy heart and give thee a partner on thy pedestal But as for me I
come to the inquest with other senses than they possess I shall seek this man
as I have sought truth in books as I have sought gold in alchemy There is a
sympathy that will make me conscious of him I shall see him tremble I shall
feel myself shudder suddenly and unawares Sooner or later he must needs be
mine«
The eyes of the wrinkled scholar glowed so intensely upon her that Hester
Prynne clasped her hands over her heart dreading lest he should read the secret
there at once
»Thou wilt not reveal his name Not the less he is mine« resumed he with a
look of confidence as if destiny were at one with him »He bears no letter of
infamy wrought into his garment as thou dost but I shall read it on his heart
Yet fear not for him Think not that I shall interfere with Heavens own method
of retribution or to my own loss betray him to the gripe of human law
Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life no nor
against his fame if as I judge he be a man of fair repute Let him live Let
him hide himself in outward honor if he may Not the less he shall be mine«
»Thy acts are like mercy« said Hester bewildered and appalled »But thy
words interpret thee as a terror«
»One thing thou that wast my wife I would enjoin upon thee« continued the
scholar »Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour Keep likewise mine There
are none in this land that know me Breathe not to any human soul that thou
didst ever call me husband Here on this wild outskirt of the earth I shall
pitch my tent for elsewhere a wanderer and isolated from human interests I
find here a woman a man a child amongst whom and myself there exist the
closest ligaments No matter whether of love or hate no matter whether of right
or wrong Thou and thine Hester Prynne belong to me My home is where thou
art and where he is But betray me not«
»Wherefore dost thou desire it« inquired Hester shrinking she hardly knew
why from this secret bond »Why not announce thyself openly and cast me off at
once«
»It may be« he replied »because I will not encounter the dishonor that
besmirches the husband of a faithless woman It may be for other reasons
Enough it is my purpose to live and die unknown Let therefore thy husband be
to the world as one already dead and of whom no tidings shall ever come
Recognize me not by word by sign by look Breathe not the secret above all
to the man thou wottest of Shouldst thou fail me in this beware His fame his
position his life will be in my hands Beware«
»I will keep thy secret as I have his« said Hester
»Swear it« rejoined he
And she took the oath
»And now Mistress Prynne« said old Roger Chillingworth as he was
hereafter to be named »I leave thee alone alone with thy infant and the
scarlet letter How is it Hester Doth thy sentence bind thee to wear the token
in thy sleep Art thou not afraid of nightmares and hideous dreams«
»Why dost thou smile so at me« inquired Hester troubled at the expression
of his eyes »Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us
Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul«
»Not thy soul« he answered with another smile »No not thine«
V Hester at Her Needle
Hester Prynnes term of confinement was now at an end Her prisondoor was
thrown open and she came forth into the sunshine which falling on all alike
seemed to her sick and morbid heart as if meant for no other purpose than to
reveal the scarlet letter on her breast Perhaps there was a more real torture
in her first unattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison than even in
the procession and spectacle that have been described where she was made the
common infamy at which all mankind was summoned to point its finger Then she
was supported by an unnatural tension of the nerves and by all the combative
energy of her character which enabled her to convert the scene into a kind of
lurid triumph It was moreover a separate and insulated event to occur but
once in her lifetime and to meet which therefore reckless of economy she
might call up the vital strength that would have sufficed for many quiet years
The very law that condemned her a giant of stern features but with vigor to
support as well as to annihilate in his iron arm had held her up through
the terrible ordeal of her ignominy But now with this unattended walk from her
prisondoor began the daily custom and she must either sustain and carry it
forward by the ordinary resources of her nature or sink beneath it She could
no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present grief
Tomorrow would bring its own trial with it so would the next day and so would
the next each its own trial and yet the very same that was now so unutterably
grievous to be borne The days of the faroff future would toil onward still
with the same burden for her to take up and bear along with her but never to
fling down for the accumulating days and added years would pile up their
misery upon the heap of shame Throughout them all giving up her individuality
she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might
point and in which they might vivify and embody their images of womans frailty
and sinful passion Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her with
the scarlet letter flaming on her breast at her the child of honorable
parents at her the mother of a babe that would hereafter be a woman at
her who had once been innocent as the figure the body the reality of sin
And over her grave the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only
monument
It may seem marvellous that with the world before her kept by no
restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan
settlement so remote and so obscure free to return to her birthplace or to
any other European land and there hide her character and identity under a new
exterior as completely as if emerging into another state of being and having
also the passes of the dark inscrutable forest open to her where the wildness
of her nature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and life were
alien from the law that had condemned her it may seem marvellous that this
woman should still call that place her home where and where only she must
needs be the type of shame But there is a fatality a feeling so irresistible
and inevitable that it has the force of doom which almost invariably compels
human beings to linger around and haunt ghostlike the spot where some great
and marked event has given the color to their lifetime and still the more
irresistibly the darker the tinge that saddens it Her sin her ignominy were
the roots which she had struck into the soil It was as if a new birth with
stronger assimilations than the first had converted the forestland still so
uncongenial to every other pilgrim and wanderer into Hester Prynnes wild and
dreary but lifelong home All other scenes of earth even that village of
rural England where happy infancy and stainless maidenhood seemed yet to be in
her mothers keeping like garments put off long ago were foreign to her in
comparison The chain that bound her here was of iron links and galling to her
inmost soul but never could be broken
It might be too doubtless it was so although she hid the secret from
herself and grew pale whenever it struggled out of her heart like a serpent
from its hole it might be that another feeling kept her within the scene and
pathway that had been so fatal There dwelt there trode the feet of one with
whom she deemed herself connected in a union that unrecognized on earth would
bring them together before the bar of final judgment and make that their
marriagealtar for a joint futurity of endless retribution Over and over
again the tempter of souls had thrust this idea upon Hesters contemplation
and laughed at the passionate and desperate joy with which she seized and then
strove to cast it from her She barely looked the idea in the face and hastened
to bar it in its dungeon What she compelled herself to believe what
finally she reasoned upon as her motive for continuing a resident of New
England was half a truth and half a selfdelusion Here she said to
herself had been the scene of her guilt and here should be the scene of her
earthly punishment and so perchance the torture of her daily shame would at
length purge her soul and work out another purity than that which she had lost
more saintlike because the result of martyrdom
Hester Prynne therefore did not flee On the outskirts of the town within
the verge of the peninsula but not in close vicinity to any other habitation
there was a small thatched cottage It had been built by an earlier settler and
abandoned because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation while its
comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which
already marked the habits of the emigrants It stood on the shore looking
across a basin of the sea at the forestcovered hills towards the west A clump
of scrubby trees such as alone grew on the peninsula did not so much conceal
the cottage from view as seem to denote that here was some object which would
fain have been or at least ought to be concealed In this little lonesome
dwelling with some slender means that she possessed and by the license of the
magistrates who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her Hester established
herself with her infant child A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately
attached itself to the spot Children too young to comprehend wherefore this
woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities would creep nigh
enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottagewindow or standing in the
doorway or laboring in her little garden or coming forth along the pathway
that led townward and discerning the scarlet letter on her breast would
scamper off with a strange contagious fear
Lonely as was Hesters situation and without a friend on earth who dared to
show himself she however incurred no risk of want She possessed an art that
sufficed even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its
exercise to supply food for her thriving infant and herself It was the art
then as now almost the only one within a womans grasp of needlework She
bore on her breast in the curiously embroidered letter a specimen of her
delicate and imaginative skill of which the dames of a court might gladly have
availed themselves to add the richer and more spiritual adornment of human
ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold Here indeed in the sable
simplicity that generally characterized the Puritanic modes of dress there
might be an infrequent call for the finer productions of her handiwork Yet the
taste of the age demanding whatever was elaborate in compositions of this kind
did not fail to extend its influence over our stern progenitors who had cast
behind them so many fashions which it might seem harder to dispense with Public
ceremonies such as ordinations the installation of magistrates and all that
could give majesty to the forms in which a new government manifested itself to
the people were as a matter of policy marked by a stately and wellconducted
ceremonial and a sombre but yet a studied magnificence Deep ruffs painfully
wrought bands and gorgeously embroidered gloves were all deemed necessary to
the official state of men assuming the reins of power and were readily allowed
to individuals dignified by rank or wealth even while sumptuary laws forbade
these and similar extravagances to the plebeian order In the array of funerals
too whether for the apparel of the dead body or to typify by manifold
emblematic devices of sable cloth and snowy lawn the sorrow of the survivors
there was a frequent and characteristic demand for such labor as Hester Prynne
could supply Babylinen for babies then wore robes of state afforded still
another possibility of toil and emolument
By degrees nor very slowly her handiwork became what would now be termed
the fashion Whether from commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny
or from the morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or
worthless things or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then as now
sufficient to bestow on some persons what others might seek in vain or
because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant it
is certain that she had ready and fairly requited employment for as many hours
as she saw fit to occupy with her needle Vanity it may be chose to mortify
itself by putting on for ceremonials of pomp and state the garments that had
been wrought by her sinful hands Her needlework was seen on the ruff of the
Governor military men wore it on their scarfs and the minister on his band it
decked the babys little cap it was shut up to be mildewed and moulder away
in the coffins of the dead But it is not recorded that in a single instance
her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the
pure blushes of a bride The exception indicated the ever relentless vigor with
which society frowned upon her sin
Hester sought not to acquire any thing beyond a subsistence of the plainest
and most ascetic description for herself and a simple abundance for her child
Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most sombre hue with only
that one ornament the scarlet letter which it was her doom to wear The
childs attire on the other hand was distinguished by a fanciful or we might
rather say a fantastic ingenuity which served indeed to heighten the airy
charm that early began to develop itself in the little girl but which appeared
to have also a deeper meaning We may speak further of it hereafter Except for
that small expenditure in the decoration of her infant Hester bestowed all her
superfluous means in charity on wretches less miserable than herself and who
not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them Much of the time which she
might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art she employed in
making coarse garments for the poor It is probable that there was an idea of
penance in this mode of occupation and that she offered up a real sacrifice of
enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork She had in her
nature a rich voluptuous Oriental characteristic a taste for the gorgeously
beautiful which save in the exquisite productions of her needle found nothing
else in all the possibilities of her life to exercise itself upon Women
derive a pleasure incomprehensible to the other sex from the delicate toil of
the needle To Hester Prynne it might have been a mode of expressing and
therefore soothing the passion of her life Like all other joys she rejected
it as sin This morbid meddling of conscience with an immaterial matter
betokened it is to be feared no genuine and stedfast penitence but something
doubtful something that might be deeply wrong beneath
In this manner Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform in the world
With her native energy of character and rare capacity it could not entirely
cast her off although it had set a mark upon her more intolerable to a womans
heart than that which branded the brow of Cain In all her intercourse with
society however there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it
Every gesture every word and even the silence of those with whom she came in
contact implied and often expressed that she was banished and as much alone
as if she inhabited another sphere or communicated with the common nature by
other organs and senses than the rest of human kind She stood apart from mortal
interests yet close beside them like a ghost that revisits the familiar
fireside and can no longer make itself seen or felt no more smile with the
household joy nor mourn with the kindred sorrow or should it succeed in
manifesting its forbidden sympathy awakening only terror and horrible
repugnance These emotions in fact and its bitterest scorn besides seemed to
be the sole portion that she retained in the universal heart It was not an age
of delicacy and her position although she understood it well and was in
little danger of forgetting it was often brought before her vivid
selfperception like a new anguish by the rudest touch upon the tenderest
spot The poor as we have already said whom she sought out to be the objects
of her bounty often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them
Dames of elevated rank likewise whose doors she entered in the way of her
occupation were accustomed to distil drops of bitterness into her heart
sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice by which women can concoct a
subtile poison from ordinary trifles and sometimes also by a coarser
expression that fell upon the sufferers defenceless breast like a rough blow
upon an ulcerated wound Hester had schooled herself long and well she never
responded to these attacks save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressibly
over her pale cheek and again subsided into the depths of her bosom She was
patient a martyr indeed but she forbore to pray for her enemies lest in
spite of her forgiving aspirations the words of the blessing should stubbornly
twist themselves into a curse
Continually and in a thousand other ways did she feel the innumerable
throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying
the everactive sentence of the Puritan tribunal Clergymen paused in the street
to address words of exhortation that brought a crowd with its mingled grin and
frown around the poor sinful woman If she entered a church trusting to share
the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father it was often her mishap to find
herself the text of the discourse She grew to have a dread of children for
they had imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this
dreary woman gliding silently through the town with never any companion but
one only child Therefore first allowing her to pass they pursued her at a
distance with shrill cries and the utterance of a word that had no distinct
purport to their own minds but was none the less terrible to her as proceeding
from lips that babbled it unconsciously It seemed to argue so wide a diffusion
of her shame that all nature knew of it it could have caused her no deeper
pang had the leaves of the trees whispered the dark story among themselves
had the summer breeze murmured about it had the wintry blast shrieked it
aloud Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze of a new eye When
strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter and none ever failed to do
so they branded it afresh into Hesters soul so that oftentimes she could
scarcely refrain yet always did refrain from covering the symbol with her
hand But then again an accustomed eye had likewise its own anguish to
inflict Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable From first to last in
short Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon
the token the spot never grew callous it seemed on the contrary to grow more
sensitive with daily torture
But sometimes once in many days or perchance in many months she felt an
eye a human eye upon the ignominious brand that seemed to give a momentary
relief as if half of her agony were shared The next instant back it all
rushed again with still a deeper throb of pain for in that brief interval
she had sinned anew Had Hester sinned alone
Her imagination was somewhat affected and had she been of a softer moral
and intellectual fibre would have been still more so by the strange and
solitary anguish of her life Walking to and fro with those lonely footsteps
in the little world with which she was outwardly connected it now and then
appeared to Hester if altogether fancy it was nevertheless too potent to be
resisted she felt or fancied then that the scarlet letter had endowed her
with a new sense She shuddered to believe yet could not help believing that
it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts She was
terrorstricken by the revelations that were thus made What were they Could
they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel who would fain have
persuaded the struggling woman as yet only half his victim that the outward
guise of purity was but a lie and that if truth were everywhere to be shown a
scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynnes Or
must she receive those intimations so obscure yet so distinct as truth In
all her miserable experience there was nothing else so awful and so loathsome
as this sense It perplexed as well as shocked her by the irreverent
inopportuneness of the occasions that brought it into vivid action Sometimes
the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic throb as she passed
near a venerable minister or magistrate the model of piety and justice to whom
that age of antique reverence looked up as to a mortal man in fellowship with
angels »What evil thing is at hand« would Hester say to herself Lifting her
reluctant eyes there would be nothing human within the scope of view save the
form of this earthly saint Again a mystic sisterhood would contumaciously
assert itself as she met the sanctified frown of some matron who according to
the rumor of all tongues had kept cold snow within her bosom throughout life
That unsunned snow in the matrons bosom and the burning shame on Hester
Prynnes what had the two in common Or once more the electric thrill would
give her warning »Behold Hester here is a companion« and looking up
she would detect the eyes of a young maiden glancing at the scarlet letter
shyly and aside and quickly averted with a faint chill crimson in her cheeks
as if her purity were somewhat sullied by that momentary glance O Fiend whose
talisman was that fatal symbol wouldst thou leave nothing whether in youth or
age for this poor sinner to revere Such loss of faith is ever one of the
saddest results of sin Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in
this poor victim of her own frailty and mans hard law that Hester Prynne yet
struggled to believe that no fellowmortal was guilty like herself
The vulgar who in those dreary old times were always contributing a
grotesque horror to what interested their imaginations had a story about the
scarlet letter which we might readily work up into a terrific legend They
averred that the symbol was not mere scarlet cloth tinged in an earthly
dyepot but was redhot with infernal fire and could be seen glowing all
alight whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the nighttime And we must
needs say it seared Hesters bosom so deeply that perhaps there was more truth
in the rumor than our modern incredulity may be inclined to admit
VI Pearl
We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant that little creature whose innocent
life had sprung by the inscrutable decree of Providence a lovely and immortal
flower out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion How strange it seemed to
the sad woman as she watched the growth and the beauty that became every day
more brilliant and the intelligence that threw its quivering sunshine over the
tiny features of this child Her Pearl For so had Hester called her not as a
name expressive of her aspect which had nothing of the calm white
unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison But she named
the infant Pearl as being of great price purchased with all she had her
mothers only treasure How strange indeed Man had marked this womans sin by
a scarlet letter which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human
sympathy could reach her save it were sinful like herself God as a direct
consequence of the sin which man thus punished had given her a lovely child
whose place was on that same dishonored bosom to connect her parent for ever
with the race and descent of mortals and to be finally a blessed soul in
heaven Yet these thoughts affected Hester Prynne less with hope than
apprehension She knew that her deed had been evil she could have no faith
therefore that its result would be for good Day after day she looked
fearfully into the childs expanding nature ever dreading to detect some dark
and wild peculiarity that should correspond with the guiltiness to which she
owed her being
Certainly there was no physical defect By its perfect shape its vigor
and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs the infant was
worthy to have been brought forth in Eden worthy to have been left there to be
the plaything of the angels after the worlds first parents were driven out
The child had a native grace which does not invariably coexist with faultless
beauty its attire however simple always impressed the beholder as if it were
the very garb that precisely became it best But little Pearl was not clad in
rustic weeds Her mother with a morbid purpose that may be better understood
hereafter had bought the richest tissues that could be procured and allowed
her imaginative faculty its full play in the arrangement and decoration of the
dresses which the child wore before the public eye So magnificent was the
small figure when thus arrayed and such was the splendor of Pearls own proper
beauty shining through the gorgeous robes which might have extinguished a paler
loveliness that there was an absolute circle of radiance around her on the
darksome cottagefloor And yet a russet gown torn and soiled with the childs
rude play made a picture of her just as perfect Pearls aspect was imbued with
a spell of infinite variety in this one child there were many children
comprehending the full scope between the wildflower prettiness of a
peasantbaby and the pomp in little of an infant princess Throughout all
however there was a trait of passion a certain depth of hue which she never
lost and if in any of her changes she had grown fainter or paler she would
have ceased to be herself it would have been no longer Pearl
This outward mutability indicated and did not more than fairly express the
various properties of her inner life Her nature appeared to possess depth too
as well as variety but or else Hesters fears deceived her it lacked
reference and adaptation to the world into which she was born The child could
not be made amenable to rules In giving her existence a great law had been
broken and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and
brilliant but all in disorder or with an order peculiar to themselves amidst
which the point of variety and arrangement was difficult or impossible to be
discovered Hester could only account for the childs character and even then
most vaguely and imperfectly by recalling what she herself had been during
that momentous period while Pearl was imbibing her soul from the spiritual
world and her bodily frame from its material of earth The mothers impassioned
state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant
the rays of its moral life and however white and clear originally they had
taken the deep stains of crimson and gold the fiery lustre the black shadow
and the untempered light of the intervening substance Above all the warfare
of Hesters spirit at that epoch was perpetuated in Pearl She could recognize
her wild desperate defiant mood the flightiness of her temper and even some
of the very cloudshapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart
They were now illuminated by the morning radiance of a young childs
disposition but later in the day of earthly existence might be prolific of
the storm and whirlwind
The discipline of the family in those days was of a far more rigid kind
than now The frown the harsh rebuke the frequent application of the rod
enjoined by Scriptural authority were used not merely in the way of punishment
for actual offences but as a wholesome regimen for the growth and promotion of
all childish virtues Hester Prynne nevertheless the lonely mother of this one
child ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity Mindful
however of her own errors and misfortunes she early sought to impose a tender
but strict control over the infant immortality that was committed to her
charge But the task was beyond her skill After testing both smiles and frowns
and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence
Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside and permit the child to be
swayed by her own impulses Physical compulsion or restraint was effectual of
course while it lasted As to any other kind of discipline whether addressed
to her mind or heart little Pearl might or might not be within its reach in
accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment Her mother while Pearl was
yet an infant grew acquainted with a certain peculiar look that warned her
when it would be labor thrown away to insist persuade or plead It was a look
so intelligent yet inexplicable so perverse sometimes so malicious but
generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits that Hester could not help
questioning at such moments whether Pearl was a human child She seemed rather
an airy sprite which after playing its fantastic sports for a little while
upon the cottagefloor would flit away with a mocking smile Whenever that look
appeared in her wild bright deeply black eyes it invested her with a strange
remoteness and intangibility it was as if she were hovering in the air and
might vanish like a glimmering light that comes we know not whence and goes we
know not whither Beholding it Hester was constrained to rush towards the
child to pursue the little elf in the flight which she invariably began to
snatch her to her bosom with a close pressure and earnest kisses not so much
from overflowing love as to assure herself that Pearl was flesh and blood and
not utterly delusive But Pearls laugh when she was caught though full of
merriment and music made her mother more doubtful than before
Heartsmitten at this bewildering and baffling spell that so often came
between herself and her sole treasure whom she had bought so dear and who was
all her world Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears Then perhaps
for there was no foreseeing how it might affect her Pearl would frown and
clench her little fist and harden her small features into a stern
unsympathizing look of discontent Not seldom she would laugh anew and louder
than before like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow Or but
this more rarely happened she would be convulsed with a rage of grief and sob
out her love for her mother in broken words and seem intent on proving that
she had a heart by breaking it Yet Hester was hardly safe in confiding herself
to that gusty tenderness it passed as suddenly as it came Brooding over all
these matters the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit but by some
irregularity in the process of conjuration has failed to win the masterword
that should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence Her only real
comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep Then she was sure of
her and tasted hours of quiet sad delicious happiness until perhaps with
that perverse expression glimmering from beneath her opening lids little Pearl
awoke
How soon with what strange rapidity indeed did Pearl arrive at an age
that was capable of social intercourse beyond the mothers everready smile and
nonsensewords And then what a happiness would it have been could Hester
Prynne have heard her clear birdlike voice mingling with the uproar of other
childish voices and have distinguished and unravelled her own darlings tones
amid all the entangled outcry of a group of sportive children But this could
never be Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world An imp of evil
emblem and product of sin she had no right among christened infants Nothing
was more remarkable than the instinct as it seemed with which the child
comprehended her loneliness the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle
round about her the whole peculiarity in short of her position in respect to
other children Never since her release from prison had Hester met the public
gaze without her In all her walks about the town Pearl too was there first
as the babe in arms and afterwards as the little girl small companion of her
mother holding a forefinger with her whole grasp and tripping along at the
rate of three or four footsteps to one of Hesters She saw the children of the
settlement on the grassy margin of the street or at the domestic thresholds
disporting themselves in such grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would
permit playing at going to church perchance or at scourging Quakers or
taking scalps in a shamfight with the Indians or scaring one another with
freaks of imitative witchcraft Pearl saw and gazed intently but never sought
to make acquaintance If spoken to she would not speak again If the children
gathered about her as they sometimes did Pearl would grow positively terrible
in her puny wrath snatching up stones to fling at them with shrill incoherent
exclamations that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of
a witchs anathemas in some unknown tongue
The truth was that the little Puritans being of the most intolerant brood
that ever lived had got a vague idea of something outlandish unearthly or at
variance with ordinary fashions in the mother and child and therefore scorned
them in their hearts and not unfrequently reviled them with their tongues
Pearl felt the sentiment and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can be
supposed to rankle in a childish bosom These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a
kind of value and even comfort for her mother because there was at least an
intelligible earnestness in the mood instead of the fitful caprice that so
often thwarted her in the childs manifestations It appalled her nevertheless
to discern here again a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in
herself All this enmity and passion had Pearl inherited by inalienable right
out of Hesters heart Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of
seclusion from human society and in the nature of the child seemed to be
perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before
Pearls birth but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening
influences of maternity
At home within and around her mothers cottage Pearl wanted not a wide and
various circle of acquaintance The spell of life went forth from her ever
creative spirit and communicated itself to a thousand objects as a torch
kindles a flame wherever it may be applied The unlikeliest materials a stick
a bunch of rags a flower were the puppets of Pearls witchcraft and without
undergoing any outward change became spiritually adapted to whatever drama
occupied the stage of her inner world Her one babyvoice served a multitude of
imaginary personages old and young to talk withal The pinetrees aged
black and solemn and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the
breeze needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders the ugliest
weeds of the garden were their children whom Pearl smote down and uprooted
most unmercifully It was wonderful the vast variety of forms into which she
threw her intellect with no continuity indeed but darting up and dancing
always in a state of preternatural activity soon sinking down as if
exhausted by so rapid and feverish a tide of life and succeeded by other
shapes of a similar wild energy It was like nothing so much as the
phantasmagoric play of the northern lights In the mere exercise of the fancy
however and the sportiveness of a growing mind there might be little more than
was observable in other children of bright faculties except as Pearl in the
dearth of human playmates was thrown more upon the visionary throng which she
created The singularity lay in the hostile feelings with which the child
regarded all these offspring of her own heart and mind She never created a
friend but seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragons teeth whence
sprung a harvest of armed enemies against whom she rushed to battle It was
inexpressibly sad then what depth of sorrow to a mother who felt in her own
heart the cause to observe in one so young this constant recognition of an
adverse world and so fierce a training of the energies that were to make good
her cause in the contest that must ensue
Gazing at Pearl Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees and
cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden but which made
utterance for itself betwixt speech and a groan »O Father in Heaven if
Thou art still my Father what is this being which I have brought into the
world« And Pearl overhearing the ejaculation or aware through some more
subtile channel of those throbs of anguish would turn her vivid and beautiful
little face upon her mother smile with spritelike intelligence and resume her
play
One peculiarity of the childs deportment remains yet to be told The very
first thing which she had noticed in her life was what not the mothers
smile responding to it as other babies do by that faint embryo smile of the
little mouth remembered so doubtfully afterwards and with such fond discussion
whether it were indeed a smile By no means But that first object of which
Pearl seemed to become aware was shall we say it the scarlet letter on
Hesters bosom One day as her mother stooped over the cradle the infants
eyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter
and putting up her little hand she grasped at it smiling not doubtfully but
with a decided gleam that gave her face the look of a much older child Then
gasping for breath did Hester Prynne clutch the fatal token instinctively
endeavouring to tear it away so infinite was the torture inflicted by the
intelligent touch of Pearls babyhand Again as if her mothers agonized
gesture were meant only to make sport for her did little Pearl look into her
eyes and smile From that epoch except when the child was asleep Hester had
never felt a moments safety not a moments calm enjoyment of her Weeks it is
true would sometimes elapse during which Pearls gaze might never once be
fixed upon the scarlet letter but then again it would come at unawares like
the stroke of sudden death and always with that peculiar smile and odd
expression of the eyes
Once this freakish elfish cast came into the childs eyes while Hester
was looking at her own image in them as mothers are fond of doing and
suddenly for women in solitude and with troubled hearts are pestered with
unaccountable delusions she fancied that she beheld not her own miniature
portrait but another face in the small black mirror of Pearls eye It was a
face fiendlike full of smiling malice yet bearing the semblance of features
that she had known full well though seldom with a smile and never with malice
in them It was as if an evil spirit possessed the child and had just then
peeped forth in mockery Many a time afterwards had Hester been tortured though
less vividly by the same illusion
In the afternoon of a certain summers day after Pearl grew big enough to
run about she amused herself with gathering handfuls of wildflowers and
flinging them one by one at her mothers bosom dancing up and down like a
little elf whenever she hit the scarlet letter Hesters first motion had been
to cover her bosom with her clasped hands But whether from pride or
resignation or a feeling that her penance might best be wrought out by this
unutterable pain she resisted the impulse and sat erect pale as death
looking sadly into little Pearls wild eyes Still came the battery of flowers
almost invariably hitting the mark and covering the mothers breast with hurts
for which she could find no balm in this world nor knew how to seek it in
another At last her shot being all expended the child stood still and gazed
at Hester with that little laughing image of a fiend peeping out or whether
it peeped or no her mother so imagined it from the unsearchable abyss of her
black eyes
»Child what art thou« cried the mother
»O I am your little Pearl« answered the child
But while she said it Pearl laughed and began to dance up and down with
the humorsome gesticulation of a little imp whose next freak might be to fly up
the chimney
»Art thou my child in very truth« asked Hester
Nor did she put the question altogether idly but for the moment with a
portion of genuine earnestness for such was Pearls wonderful intelligence
that her mother half doubted whether she were not acquainted with the secret
spell of her existence and might not now reveal herself
»Yes I am little Pearl« repeated the child continuing her antics
»Thou art not my child Thou art no Pearl of mine« said the mother half
playfully for it was often the case that a sportive impulse came over her in
the midst of her deepest suffering »Tell me then what thou art and who sent
thee hither«
»Tell me mother« said the child seriously coming up to Hester and
pressing herself close to her knees »Do thou tell me«
»Thy Heavenly Father sent thee« answered Hester Prynne
But she said it with a hesitation that did not escape the acuteness of the
child Whether moved only by her ordinary freakishness or because an evil
spirit prompted her she put up her small forefinger and touched the scarlet
letter
»He did not send me« cried she positively »I have no Heavenly Father«
»Hush Pearl hush Thou must not talk so« answered the mother suppressing
a groan »He sent us all into this world He sent even me thy mother Then
much more thee Or if not thou strange and elfish child whence didst thou
come«
»Tell me Tell me« repeated Pearl no longer seriously but laughing and
capering about the floor »It is thou that must tell me«
But Hester could not resolve the query being herself in a dismal labyrinth
of doubt She remembered betwixt a smile and a shudder the talk of the
neighbouring townspeople who seeking vainly elsewhere for the childs
paternity and observing some of her odd attributes had given out that poor
little Pearl was a demon offspring such as ever since old Catholic times had
occasionally been seen on earth through the agency of their mothers sin and
to promote some foul and wicked purpose Luther according to the scandal of his
monkish enemies was a brat of that hellish breed nor was Pearl the only child
to whom this inauspicious origin was assigned among the New England Puritans
VII The Governors Hall
Hester Prynne went one day to the mansion of Governor Bellingham with a pair
of gloves which she had fringed and embroidered to his order and which were to
be worn on some great occasion of state for though the chances of a popular
election had caused this former ruler to descend a step or two from the highest
rank he still held an honorable and influential place among the colonial
magistracy
Another and far more important reason than the delivery of a pair of
embroidered gloves impelled Hester at this time to seek an interview with a
personage of so much power and activity in the affairs of the settlement It had
reached her ears that there was a design on the part of some of the leading
inhabitants cherishing the more rigid order of principles in religion and
government to deprive her of her child On the supposition that Pearl as
already hinted was of demon origin these good people not unreasonably argued
that a Christian interest in the mothers soul required them to remove such a
stumblingblock from her path If the child on the other hand were really
capable of moral and religious growth and possessed the elements of ultimate
salvation then surely it would enjoy all the fairer prospect of these
advantages by being transferred to wiser and better guardianship than Hester
Prynnes Among those who promoted the design Governor Bellingham was said to
be one of the most busy It may appear singular and indeed not a little
ludicrous that an affair of this kind which in later days would have been
referred to no higher jurisdiction than that of the selectmen of the town
should then have been a question publicly discussed and on which statesmen of
eminence took sides At that epoch of pristine simplicity however matters of
even slighter public interest and of far less intrinsic weight than the welfare
of Hester and her child were strangely mixed up with the deliberations of
legislators and acts of state The period was hardly if at all earlier than
that of our story when a dispute concerning the right of property in a pig not
only caused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the colony
but resulted in an important modification of the framework itself of the
legislature
Full of concern therefore but so conscious of her own right that it
seemed scarcely an unequal match between the public on the one side and a
lonely woman backed by the sympathies of nature on the other Hester Prynne
set forth from her solitary cottage Little Pearl of course was her companion
She was now of an age to run lightly along by her mothers side and constantly
in motion from morn till sunset could have accomplished a much longer journey
than that before her Often nevertheless more from caprice than necessity she
demanded to be taken up in arms but was soon as imperious to be set down again
and frisked onward before Hester on the grassy pathway with many a harmless
trip and tumble We have spoken of Pearls rich and luxuriant beauty a beauty
that shone with deep and vivid tints a bright complexion eyes possessing
intensity both of depth and glow and hair already of a deep glossy brown and
which in after years would be nearly akin to black There was fire in her and
throughout her she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment
Her mother in contriving the childs garb had allowed the gorgeous tendencies
of her imagination their full play arraying her in a crimson velvet tunic of a
peculiar cut abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold
thread So much strength of coloring which must have given a wan and pallid
aspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom was admirably adapted to Pearls beauty
and made her the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the
earth
But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb and indeed of the childs
whole appearance that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of
the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom It was the
scarlet letter in another form the scarlet letter endowed with life The mother
herself as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that
all her conceptions assumed its form had carefully wrought out the similitude
lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the
object of her affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture But in truth
Pearl was the one as well as the other and only in consequence of that
identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in
her appearance
As the two wayfarers came within the precincts of the town the children of
the Puritans looked up from their play or what passed for play with those
sombre little urchins and spake gravely one to another
»Behold verily there is the woman of the scarlet letter and of a truth
moreover there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side
Come therefore and let us fling mud at them«
But Pearl who was a dauntless child after frowning stamping her foot and
shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures suddenly made a
rush at the knot of her enemies and put them all to flight She resembled in
her fierce pursuit of them an infant pestilence the scarlet fever or some
such halffledged angel of judgment whose mission was to punish the sins of
the rising generation She screamed and shouted too with a terrific volume of
sound which doubtless caused the hearts of the fugitives to quake within them
The victory accomplished Pearl returned quietly to her mother and looked up
smiling into her face
Without further adventure they reached the dwelling of Governor Bellingham
This was a large wooden house built in a fashion of which there are specimens
still extant in the streets of our elder towns now mossgrown crumbling to
decay and melancholy at heart with the many sorrowful or joyful occurrences
remembered or forgotten that have happened and passed away within their dusky
chambers Then however there was the freshness of the passing year on its
exterior and the cheerfulness gleaming forth from the sunny windows of a
human habitation into which death had never entered It had indeed a very cheery
aspect the walls being overspread with a kind of stucco in which fragments of
broken glass were plentifully intermixed so that when the sunshine fell
aslantwise over the front of the edifice it glittered and sparkled as if
diamonds had been flung against it by the double handful The brilliancy might
have befitted Aladdins palace rather than the mansion of a grave old Puritan
ruler It was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabalistic figures
and diagrams suitable to the quaint taste of the age which had been drawn in
the stucco when newly laid on and had now grown hard and durable for the
admiration of after times
Pearl looking at this bright wonder of a house began to caper and dance
and imperatively required that the whole breadth of sunshine should be stripped
off its front and given her to play with
»No my little Pearl« said her mother »Thou must gather thine own
sunshine I have none to give thee«
They approached the door which was of an arched form and flanked on each
side by a narrow tower or projection of the edifice in both of which were
latticewindows with wooden shutters to close over them at need Lifting the
iron hammer that hung at the portal Hester Prynne gave a summons which was
answered by one of the Governors bondservants a freeborn Englishman but now
a seven years slave During that term he was to be the property of his master
and as much a commodity of bargain and sale as an ox or a jointstool The serf
wore the blue coat which was the customary garb of servingmen at that period
and long before in the old hereditary halls of England
»Is the worshipful Governor Bellingham within« inquired Hester
»Yea forsooth« replied the bondservant staring with wideopen eyes at
the scarlet letter which being a newcomer in the country he had never before
seen »Yea his honorable worship is within But he hath a godly minister or two
with him and likewise a leech Ye may not see his worship now«
»Nevertheless I will enter« answered Hester Prynne and the bondservant
perhaps judging from the decision of her air and the glittering symbol in her
bosom that she was a great lady in the land offered no opposition
So the mother and little Pearl were admitted into the hall of entrance With
many variations suggested by the nature of his buildingmaterials diversity of
climate and a different mode of social life Governor Bellingham had planned
his new habitation after the residences of gentlemen of fair estate in his
native land Here then was a wide and reasonably lofty hall extending through
the whole depth of the house and forming a medium of general communication
more or less directly with all the other apartments At one extremity this
spacious room was lighted by the windows of the two towers which formed a small
recess on either side of the portal At the other end though partly muffled by
a curtain it was more powerfully illuminated by one of those embowed
hallwindows which we read of in old books and which was provided with a deep
and cushioned seat Here on the cushion lay a folio tome probably of the
Chronicles of England or other such substantial literature even as in our own
days we scatter gilded volumes on the centretable to be turned over by the
casual guest The furniture of the hall consisted of some ponderous chairs the
backs of which were elaborately carved with wreaths of oaken flowers and
likewise a table in the same taste the whole being of the Elizabethan age or
perhaps earlier and heirlooms transferred hither from the Governors paternal
home On the table in token that the sentiment of old English hospitality had
not been left behind stood a large pewter tankard at the bottom of which had
Hester or Pearl peeped into it they might have seen the frothy remnant of a
recent draught of ale
On the wall hung a row of portraits representing the forefathers of the
Bellingham lineage some with armour on their breasts and others with stately
ruffs and robes of peace All were characterized by the sternness and severity
which old portraits so invariably put on as if they were the ghosts rather
than the pictures of departed worthies and were gazing with harsh and
intolerant criticism at the pursuits and enjoyments of living men
At about the centre of the oaken panels that lined the hall was suspended
a suit of mail not like the pictures an ancestral relic but of the most
modern date for it had been manufactured by a skilful armorer in London the
same year in which Governor Bellingham came over to New England There was a
steel headpiece a cuirass a gorget and greaves with a pair of gauntlets and
a sword hanging beneath all and especially the helmet and breastplate so
highly burnished as to glow with white radiance and scatter an illumination
everywhere about upon the floor This bright panoply was not meant for mere idle
show but had been worn by the Governor on many a solemn muster and training
field and had glittered moreover at the head of a regiment in the Pequod war
For though bred a lawyer and accustomed to speak of Bacon Coke Noye and
Finch as his professional associates the exigencies of this new country had
transformed Governor Bellingham into a soldier as well as a statesman and
ruler
Little Pearl who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armour as she
had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house spent some time looking
into the polished mirror of the breastplate
»Mother« cried she »I see you here Look Look«
Hester looked by way of humoring the child and she saw that owing to the
peculiar effect of this convex mirror the scarlet letter was represented in
exaggerated and gigantic proportions so as to be greatly the most prominent
feature of her appearance In truth she seemed absolutely hidden behind it
Pearl pointed upward also at a similar picture in the headpiece smiling at
her mother with the elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on
her small physiognomy That look of naughty merriment was likewise reflected in
the mirror with so much breadth and intensity of effect that it made Hester
Prynne feel as if it could not be the image of her own child but of an imp who
was seeking to mould itself into Pearls shape
»Come along Pearl« said she drawing her away »Come and look into this
fair garden It may be we shall see flowers there more beautiful ones than we
find in the woods«
Pearl accordingly ran to the bowwindow at the farther end of the hall
and looked along the vista of a gardenwalk carpeted with closely shaven grass
and bordered with some rude and immature attempt at shrubbery But the
proprietor appeared already to have relinquished as hopeless the effort to
perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic in a hard soil and amid the close
struggle for subsistence the native English taste for ornamental gardening
Cabbages grew in plain sight and a pumpkin vine rooted at some distance had
run across the intervening space and deposited one of its gigantic products
directly beneath the hallwindow as if to warn the Governor that this great
lump of vegetable gold was as rich an ornament as New England earth would offer
him There were a few rosebushes however and a number of appletrees
probably the descendants of those planted by the Reverend Mr Blackstone the
first settler of the peninsula that half mythological personage who rides
through our early annals seated on the back of a bull
Pearl seeing the rosebushes began to cry for a red rose and would not be
pacified
»Hush child hush« said her mother earnestly »Do not cry dear little
Pearl I hear voices in the garden The Governor is coming and gentlemen along
with him«
In fact adown the vista of the gardenavenue a number of persons were seen
approaching towards the house Pearl in utter scorn of her mothers attempt to
quiet her gave an eldritch scream and then became silent not from any notion
of obedience but because the quick and mobile curiosity of her disposition was
excited by the appearance of these new personages
VIII The ElfChild and the Minister
Governor Bellingham in a loose gown and easy cap such as elderly gentlemen
loved to indue themselves with in their domestic privacy walked foremost
and appeared to be showing off his estate and expatiating on his projected
improvements The wide circumference of an elaborate ruff beneath his gray
beard in the antiquated fashion of King Jamess reign caused his head to look
not a little like that of John the Baptist in a charger The impression made by
his aspect so rigid and severe and frostbitten with more than autumnal age
was hardly in keeping with the appliances of worldly enjoyment wherewith he had
evidently done his utmost to surround himself But it is an error to suppose
that our grave forefathers though accustomed to speak and think of human
existence as a state merely of trial and warfare and though unfeignedly
prepared to sacrifice goods and life at the behest of duty made it a matter of
conscience to reject such means of comfort or even luxury as lay fairly within
their grasp This creed was never taught for instance by the venerable pastor
John Wilson whose beard white as a snowdrift was seen over Governor
Bellinghams shoulder while its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might
yet be naturalized in the New England climate and that purple grapes might
possibly be compelled to flourish against the sunny gardenwall The old
clergyman nurtured at the rich bosom of the English Church had a long
established and legitimate taste for all good and comfortable things and
however stern he might show himself in the pulpit or in his public reproof of
such transgressions as that of Hester Prynne still the genial benevolence of
his private life had won him warmer affection than was accorded to any of his
professional contemporaries
Behind the Governor and Mr Wilson came two other guests one the Reverend
Arthur Dimmesdale whom the reader may remember as having taken a brief and
reluctant part in the scene of Hester Prynnes disgrace and in close
companionship with him old Roger Chillingworth a person of great skill in
physic who for two or three years past had been settled in the town It was
understood that this learned man was the physician as well as friend of the
young minister whose health had severely suffered of late by his too
unreserved selfsacrifice to the labors and duties of the pastoral relation
The Governor in advance of his visitors ascended one or two steps and
throwing open the leaves of the great hall window found himself close to little
Pearl The shadow of the curtain fell on Hester Prynne and partially concealed
her
»What have we here« said Governor Bellingham looking with surprise at the
scarlet little figure before him »I profess I have never seen the like since
my days of vanity in old King Jamess time when I was wont to esteem it a high
favor to be admitted to a court mask There used to be a swarm of these small
apparitions in holidaytime and we called them children of the Lord of
Misrule But how gat such a guest into my hall«
»Ay indeed« cried good old Mr Wilson »What little bird of scarlet
plumage may this be Methinks I have seen just such figures when the sun has
been shining through a richly painted window and tracing out the golden and
crimson images across the floor But that was in the old land Prithee young
one who art thou and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange
fashion Art thou a Christian child ha Dost know thy catechism Or art thou
one of those naughty elfs or fairies whom we thought to have left behind us
with other relics of Papistry in merry old England«
»I am mothers child« answered the scarlet vision »and my name is Pearl«
»Pearl Ruby rather or Coral or Red Rose at the very least
judging from thy hue« responded the old minister putting forth his hand in a
vain attempt to pat little Pearl on the cheek »But where is this mother of
thine Ah I see« he added and turning to Governor Bellingham whispered
»This is the selfsame child of whom we have held speech together and behold
here the unhappy woman Hester Prynne her mother«
»Sayest thou so« cried the Governor »Nay we might have judged that such a
childs mother must needs be a scarlet woman and a worthy type of her of
Babylon But she comes at a good time and we will look into this matter
forthwith«
Governor Bellingham stepped through the window into the hall followed by
his three guests
»Hester Prynne« said he fixing his naturally stern regard on the wearer of
the scarlet letter »there hath been much question concerning thee of late The
point hath been weightily discussed whether we that are of authority and
influence do well discharge our consciences by trusting an immortal soul such
as there is in yonder child to the guidance of one who hath stumbled and
fallen amid the pitfalls of this world Speak thou the childs own mother
Were it not thinkest thou for thy little ones temporal and eternal welfare
that she be taken out of thy charge and clad soberly and disciplined strictly
and instructed in the truths of heaven and earth What canst thou do for the
child in this kind«
»I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this« answered Hester
Prynne laying her finger on the red token
»Woman it is thy badge of shame« replied the stern magistrate »It is
because of the stain which that letter indicates that we would transfer thy
child to other hands«
»Nevertheless« said the mother calmly though growing more pale »this
badge hath taught me it daily teaches me it is teaching me at this moment
lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better albeit they can profit
nothing to myself«
»We will judge warily« said Bellingham »and look well what we are about to
do Good Master Wilson I pray you examine this Pearl since that is her
name and see whether she hath had such Christian nurture as befits a child of
her age«
The old minister seated himself in an armchair and made an effort to draw
Pearl betwixt his knees But the child unaccustomed to the touch or familiarity
of any but her mother escaped through the open window and stood on the upper
step looking like a wild tropical bird of rich plumage ready to take flight
into the upper air Mr Wilson not a little astonished at this outbreak for
he was a grandfatherly sort of personage and usually a vast favorite with
children essayed however to proceed with the examination
»Pearl« said he with great solemnity »thou must take heed to instruction
that so in due season thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price
Canst thou tell me my child who made thee«
Now Pearl knew well enough who made her for Hester Prynne the daughter of
a pious home very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father
had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit at whatever
stage of immaturity imbibes with such eager interest Pearl therefore so
large were the attainments of her three years lifetime could have borne a fair
examination in the New England Primer or the first column of the Westminster
Catechism although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those
celebrated works But that perversity which all children have more or less of
and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion now at the most inopportune
moment took thorough possession of her and closed her lips or impelled her to
speak words amiss After putting her finger in her mouth with many ungracious
refusals to answer good Mr Wilsons question the child finally announced that
she had not been made at all but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of
wild roses that grew by the prisondoor
This fantasy was probably suggested by the near proximity of the Governors
red roses as Pearl stood outside of the window together with her recollection
of the prison rosebush which she had passed in coming hither
Old Roger Chillingworth with a smile on his face whispered something in
the young clergymans ear Hester Prynne looked at the man of skill and even
then with her fate hanging in the balance was startled to perceive what a
change had come over his features how much uglier they were how his dark
complexion seemed to have grown duskier and his figure more misshapen since
the days when she had familiarly known him She met his eyes for an instant but
was immediately constrained to give all her attention to the scene now going
forward
»This is awful« cried the Governor slowly recovering from the astonishment
into which Pearls response had thrown him »Here is a child of three years old
and she cannot tell who made her Without question she is equally in the dark
as to her soul its present depravity and future destiny Methinks gentlemen
we need inquire no further«
Hester caught hold of Pearl and drew her forcibly into her arms
confronting the old Puritan magistrate with almost a fierce expression Alone in
the world cast off by it and with this sole treasure to keep her heart alive
she felt that she possessed indefeasible rights against the world and was ready
to defend them to the death
»God gave me the child« cried she »He gave her in requital of all things
else which ye had taken from me She is my happiness she is my torture none
the less Pearl keeps me here in life Pearl punishes me too See ye not she is
the scarlet letter only capable of being loved and so endowed with a
millionfold the power of retribution for my sin Ye shall not take her I will
die first«
»My poor woman« said the not unkind old minister »the child shall be well
cared for far better than thou canst do it«
»God gave her into my keeping« repeated Hester Prynne raising her voice
almost to a shriek »I will not give her up« And here by a sudden impulse
she turned to the young clergyman Mr Dimmesdale at whom up to this moment
she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes »Speak thou for me«
cried she »Thou wast my pastor and hadst charge of my soul and knowest me
better than these men can I will not lose the child Speak for me Thou
knowest for thou hast sympathies which these men lack thou knowest what is
in my heart and what are a mothers rights and how much the stronger they are
when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter Look thou to it I
will not lose the child Look to it«
At this wild and singular appeal which indicated that Hester Prynnes
situation had provoked her to little less than madness the young minister at
once came forward pale and holding his hand over his heart as was his custom
whenever his peculiarly nervous temperament was thrown into agitation He looked
now more careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the scene of
Hesters public ignominy and whether it were his failing health or whatever
the cause might be his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled
and melancholy depth
»There is truth in what she says« began the minister with a voice sweet
tremulous but powerful insomuch that the hall reëchoed and the hollow armour
rang with it »truth in what Hester says and in the feeling which inspires
her God gave her the child and gave her too an instinctive knowledge of its
nature and requirements both seemingly so peculiar which no other mortal
being can possess And moreover is there not a quality of awful sacredness in
the relation between this mother and this child«
»Ay how is that good Master Dimmesdale« interrupted the Governor »Make
that plain I pray you«
»It must be even so« resumed the minister »For if we deem it otherwise
do we not thereby say that the Heavenly Father the Creator of all flesh hath
lightly recognized a deed of sin and made of no account the distinction between
unhallowed lust and holy love This child of its fathers guilt and its mothers
shame hath come from the hand of God to work in many ways upon her heart who
pleads so earnestly and with such bitterness of spirit the right to keep her
It was meant for a blessing for the one blessing of her life It was meant
doubtless as the mother herself hath told us for a retribution too a torture
to be felt at many an unthought of moment a pang a sting an everrecurring
agony in the midst of a troubled joy Hath she not expressed this thought in
the garb of the poor child so forcibly reminding us of that red symbol which
sears her bosom«
»Well said again« cried good Mr Wilson »I feared the woman had no better
thought than to make a mountebank of her child«
»O not so not so« continued Mr Dimmesdale »She recognizes believe
me the solemn miracle which God hath wrought in the existence of that child
And may she feel too what methinks is the very truth that this boon was
meant above all things else to keep the mothers soul alive and to preserve
her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge
her Therefore it is good for this poor sinful woman that she hath an infant
immortality a being capable of eternal joy or sorrow confided to her care
to be trained up by her to righteousness to remind her at every moment of
her fall but yet to teach her as it were by the Creators sacred pledge
that if she bring the child to heaven the child also will bring its parent
thither Herein is the sinful mother happier than the sinful father For Hester
Prynnes sake then and no less for the poor childs sake let us leave them as
Providence hath seen fit to place them«
»You speak my friend with a strange earnestness« said old Roger
Chillingworth smiling at him
»And there is weighty import in what my young brother hath spoken« added
the Reverend Mr Wilson »What say you worshipful Master Bellingham Hath he
not pleaded well for the poor woman«
»Indeed hath he« answered the magistrate »and hath adduced such arguments
that we will even leave the matter as it now stands so long at least as there
shall be no further scandal in the woman Care must be had nevertheless to put
the child to due and stated examination in the catechism at thy hands or Master
Dimmesdales Moreover at a proper season the tithingmen must take heed that
she go both to school and to meeting«
The young minister on ceasing to speak had withdrawn a few steps from the
group and stood with his face partially concealed in the heavy folds of the
windowcurtain while the shadow of his figure which the sunlight cast upon the
floor was tremulous with the vehemence of his appeal Pearl that wild and
flighty little elf stole softly towards him and taking his hand in the grasp
of both her own laid her cheek against it a caress so tender and withal so
unobtrusive that her mother who was looking on asked herself »Is that my
Pearl« Yet she knew that there was love in the childs heart although it
mostly revealed itself in passion and hardly twice in her lifetime had been
softened by such gentleness as now The minister for save the longsought
regards of woman nothing is sweeter than these marks of childish preference
accorded spontaneously by a spiritual instinct and therefore seeming to imply
in us something truly worthy to be loved the minister looked round laid his
hand on the childs head hesitated an instant and then kissed her brow Little
Pearls unwonted mood of sentiment lasted no longer she laughed and went
capering down the hall so airily that old Mr Wilson raised a question whether
even her tiptoes touched the floor
»The little baggage hath witchcraft in her I profess« said he to Mr
Dimmesdale »She needs no old womans broomstick to fly withal«
»A strange child« remarked old Roger Chillingworth »It is easy to see the
mothers part in her Would it be beyond a philosophers research think ye
gentlemen to analyze that childs nature and from its make and mould to give
a shrewd guess at the father«
»Nay it would be sinful in such a question to follow the clew of profane
philosophy« said Mr Wilson »Better to fast and pray upon it and still
better it may be to leave the mystery as we find it unless Providence reveal
it of its own accord Thereby every good Christian man hath a title to show a
fathers kindness towards the poor deserted babe«
The affair being so satisfactorily concluded Hester Prynne with Pearl
departed from the house As they descended the steps it is averred that the
lattice of a chamberwindow was thrown open and forth into the sunny day was
thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins Governor Bellinghams bittertempered
sister and the same who a few years later was executed as a witch
»Hist hist« said she while her illomened physiognomy seemed to cast a
shadow over the cheerful newness of the house »Wilt thou go with us tonight
There will be a merry company in the forest and I wellnigh promised the Black
Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one«
»Make my excuse to him so please you« answered Hester with a triumphant
smile »I must tarry at home and keep watch over my little Pearl Had they
taken her from me I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest and
signed my name in the Black Mans book too and that with mine own blood«
»We shall have thee there anon« said the witchlady frowning as she drew
back her head
But here if we suppose this interview betwixt Mistress Hibbins and Hester
Prynne to be authentic and not a parable was already an illustration of the
young ministers argument against sundering the relation of a fallen mother to
the offspring of her frailty Even thus early had the child saved her from
Satans snare
IX The Leech
Under the appellation of Roger Chillingworth the reader will remember was
hidden another name which its former wearer had resolved should never more be
spoken It has been related how in the crowd that witnessed Hester Prynnes
ignominious exposure stood a man elderly travelworn who just emerging from
the perilous wilderness beheld the woman in whom he hoped to find embodied the
warmth and cheerfulness of home set up as a type of sin before the people Her
matronly fame was trodden under all mens feet Infamy was babbling around her
in the public marketplace For her kindred should the tidings ever reach them
and for the companions of her unspotted life there remained nothing but the
contagion of her dishonor which would not fail to be distributed in strict
accordance and proportion with the intimacy and sacredness of their previous
relationship Then why since the choice was with himself should the
individual whose connection with the fallen woman had been the most intimate
and sacred of them all come forward to vindicate his claim to an inheritance so
little desirable He resolved not to be pilloried beside her on her pedestal of
shame Unknown to all but Hester Prynne and possessing the lock and key of her
silence he chose to withdraw his name from the roll of mankind and as
regarded his former ties and interests to vanish out of life as completely as
if he indeed lay at the bottom of the ocean whither rumor had long ago
consigned him This purpose once effected new interests would immediately
spring up and likewise a new purpose dark it is true if not guilty but of
force enough to engage the full strength of his faculties
In pursuance of this resolve he took up his residence in the Puritan town
as Roger Chillingworth without other introduction than the learning and
intelligence of which he possessed more than a common measure As his studies
at a previous period of his life had made him extensively acquainted with the
medical science of the day it was as a physician that he presented himself and
as such was cordially received Skilful men of the medical and chirurgical
profession were of rare occurrence in the colony They seldom it would appear
partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic
In their researches into the human frame it may be that the higher and more
subtile faculties of such men were materialized and that they lost the
spiritual view of existence amid the intricacies of that wondrous mechanism
which seemed to involve art enough to comprise all of life within itself At all
events the health of the good town of Boston so far as medicine had aught to
do with it had hitherto lain in the guardianship of an aged deacon and
apothecary whose piety and godly deportment were stronger testimonials in his
favor than any that he could have produced in the shape of a diploma The only
surgeon was one who combined the occasional exercise of that noble art with the
daily and habitual flourish of a razor To such a professional body Roger
Chillingworth was a brilliant acquisition He soon manifested his familiarity
with the ponderous and imposing machinery of antique physic in which every
remedy contained a multitude of farfetched and heterogeneous ingredients as
elaborately compounded as if the proposed result had been the Elixir of Life In
his Indian captivity moreover he had gained much knowledge of the properties
of native herbs and roots nor did he conceal from his patients that these
simple medicines Natures boon to the untutored savage had quite as large a
share of his own confidence as the European pharmacopoeia which so many learned
doctors had spent centuries in elaborating
This learned stranger was exemplary as regarded at least the outward forms
of a religious life and early after his arrival had chosen for his spiritual
guide the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale The young divine whose scholarlike renown
still lived in Oxford was considered by his more fervent admirers as little
less than a heavenordained apostle destined should he live and labor for the
ordinary term of life to do as great deeds for the now feeble New England
Church as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian
faith About this period however the health of Mr Dimmesdale had evidently
begun to fail By those best acquainted with his habits the paleness of the
young ministers cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotion to study
his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty and more than all by the fasts
and vigils of which he made a frequent practice in order to keep the grossness
of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp Some
declared that if Mr Dimmesdale were really going to die it was cause enough
that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet He himself
on the other hand with characteristic humility avowed his belief that if
Providence should see fit to remove him it would be because of his own
unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth With all this
difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline there could be no question
of the fact His form grew emaciated his voice though still rich and sweet
had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it he was often observed on any
slight alarm or other sudden accident to put his hand over his heart with
first a flush and then a paleness indicative of pain
Such was the young clergymans condition and so imminent the prospect that
his dawning light would be extinguished all untimely when Roger Chillingworth
made his advent to the town His first entry on the scene few people could tell
whence dropping down as it were out of the sky or starting from the nether
earth had an aspect of mystery which was easily heightened to the miraculous
He was now known to be a man of skill it was observed that he gathered herbs
and the blossoms of wildflowers and dug up roots and plucked off twigs from
the foresttrees like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless
to common eyes He was heard to speak of Sir Kenelm Digby and other famous men
whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural as
having been his correspondents or associates Why with such rank in the learned
world had he come hither What could he whose sphere was in great cities be
seeking in the wilderness In answer to this query a rumor gained ground
and however absurd was entertained by some very sensible people that Heaven
had wrought an absolute miracle by transporting an eminent Doctor of Physic
from a German university bodily through the air and setting him down at the
door of Mr Dimmesdales study Individuals of wiser faith indeed who knew
that Heaven promotes its purposes without aiming at the stageeffect of what is
called miraculous interposition were inclined to see a providential hand in
Roger Chillingworths so opportune arrival
This idea was countenanced by the strong interest which the physician ever
manifested in the young clergyman he attached himself to him as a parishioner
and sought to win a friendly regard and confidence from his naturally reserved
sensibility He expressed great alarm at his pastors state of health but was
anxious to attempt the cure and if early undertaken seemed not despondent of
a favorable result The elders the deacons the motherly dames and the young
and fair maidens of Mr Dimmesdales flock were alike importunate that he
should make trial of the physicians frankly offered skill Mr Dimmesdale
gently repelled their entreaties
»I need no medicine« said he
But how could the young minister say so when with every successive
Sabbath his cheek was paler and thinner and his voice more tremulous than
before when it had now become a constant habit rather than a casual gesture
to press his hand over his heart Was he weary of his labors Did he wish to
die These questions were solemnly propounded to Mr Dimmesdale by the elder
ministers of Boston and the deacons of his church who to use their own phrase
dealt with him on the sin of rejecting the aid which Providence so manifestly
held out He listened in silence and finally promised to confer with the
physician
»Were it Gods will« said the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale when in fulfilment
of this pledge he requested old Roger Chillingworths professional advice »I
could be well content that my labors and my sorrows and my sins and my
pains should shortly end with me and what is earthly of them be buried in my
grave and the spiritual go with me to my eternal state rather than that you
should put your skill to the proof in my behalf«
»Ah« replied Roger Chillingworth with that quietness which whether
imposed or natural marked all his deportment »it is thus that a young
clergyman is apt to speak Youthful men not having taken a deep root give up
their hold of life so easily And saintly men who walk with God on earth would
fain be away to walk with him on the golden pavements of the New Jerusalem«
»Nay« rejoined the young minister putting his hand to his heart with a
flush of pain flitting over his brow »were I worthier to walk there I could be
better content to toil here«
»Good men ever interpret themselves too meanly« said the physician
In this manner the mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became the medical
adviser of the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale As not only the disease interested the
physician but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of
the patient these two men so different in age came gradually to spend much
time together For the sake of the ministers health and to enable the leech to
gather plants with healing balm in them they took long walks on the seashore
or in the forest mingling various talk with the plash and murmur of the waves
and the solemn windanthem among the treetops Often likewise one was the
guest of the other in his place of study and retirement There was a
fascination for the minister in the company of the man of science in whom he
recognized an intellectual cultivation of no moderate depth or scope together
with a range and freedom of ideas that he would have vainly looked for among
the members of his own profession In truth he was startled if not shocked to
find this attribute in the physician Mr Dimmesdale was a true priest a true
religionist with the reverential sentiment largely developed and an order of
mind that impelled itself powerfully along the track of a creed and wore its
passage continually deeper with the lapse of time In no state of society would
he have been what is called a man of liberal views it would always be essential
to his peace to feel the pressure of a faith about him supporting while it
confined him within its iron framework Not the less however though with a
tremulous enjoyment did he feel the occasional relief of looking at the
universe through the medium of another kind of intellect than those with which
he habitually held converse It was as if a window were thrown open admitting a
freer atmosphere into the close and stifled study where his life was wasting
itself away amid lamplight or obstructed daybeams and the musty fragrance
be it sensual or moral that exhales from books But the air was too fresh and
chill to be long breathed with comfort So the minister and the physician with
him withdrew again within the limits of what their church defined as orthodox
Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinized his patient carefully both as he saw
him in his ordinary life keeping an accustomed pathway in the range of thoughts
familiar to him and as he appeared when thrown amidst other moral scenery the
novelty of which might call out something new to the surface of his character
He deemed it essential it would seem to know the man before attempting to do
him good Wherever there is a heart and an intellect the diseases of the
physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these In Arthur Dimmesdale
thought and imagination were so active and sensibility so intense that the
bodily infirmity would be likely to have its groundwork there So Roger
Chillingworth the man of skill the kind and friendly physician strove to go
deep into his patients bosom delving among his principles prying into his
recollections and probing every thing with a cautious touch like a
treasureseeker in a dark cavern Few secrets can escape an investigator who
has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest and skill to follow it
up A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his
physician If the latter possess native sagacity and a nameless something more
let us call it intuition if he show no intrusive egotism nor disagreeably
prominent characteristics of his own if he have the power which must be born
with him to bring his mind into such affinity with his patients that this
last shall unawares have spoken what he imagines himself only to have thought
if such revelations be received without tumult and acknowledged not so often by
an uttered sympathy as by silence an inarticulate breath and here and there a
word to indicate that all is understood if to these qualifications of a
confidant be joined the advantages afforded by his recognized character as a
physician then at some inevitable moment will the soul of the sufferer be
dissolved and flow forth in a dark but transparent stream bringing all its
mysteries into the daylight
Roger Chillingworth possessed all or most of the attributes above
enumerated Nevertheless time went on a kind of intimacy as we have said
grew up between these two cultivated minds which had as wide a field as the
whole sphere of human thought and study to meet upon they discussed every
topic of ethics and religion of public affairs and private character they
talked much on both sides of matters that seemed personal to themselves and
yet no secret such as the physician fancied must exist there ever stole out of
the ministers consciousness into his companions ear The latter had his
suspicions indeed that even the nature of Mr Dimmesdales bodily disease had
never fairly been revealed to him It was a strange reserve
After a time at a hint from Roger Chillingworth the friends of Mr
Dimmesdale effected an arrangement by which the two were lodged in the same
house so that every ebb and flow of the ministers lifetide might pass under
the eye of his anxious and attached physician There was much joy throughout the
town when this greatly desirable object was attained It was held to be the
best possible measure for the young clergymans welfare unless indeed as
often urged by such as felt authorized to do so he had selected some one of the
many blooming damsels spiritually devoted to him to become his devoted wife
This latter step however there was no present prospect that Arthur Dimmesdale
would be prevailed upon to take he rejected all suggestions of the kind as if
priestly celibacy were one of his articles of churchdiscipline Doomed by his
own choice therefore as Mr Dimmesdale so evidently was to eat his unsavory
morsel always at anothers board and endure the lifelong chill which must be
his lot who seeks to warm himself only at anothers fireside it truly seemed
that this sagacious experienced benevolent old physician with his concord of
paternal and reverential love for the young pastor was the very man of all
mankind to be constantly within reach of his voice
The new abode of the two friends was with a pious widow of good social
rank who dwelt in a house covering pretty nearly the site on which the
venerable structure of Kings Chapel has since been built It had the
graveyard originally Isaac Johnsons homefield on one side and so was well
adapted to call up serious reflections suited to their respective employments
in both minister and man of physic The motherly care of the good widow assigned
to Mr Dimmesdale a front apartment with a sunny exposure and heavy
windowcurtains to create a noontide shadow when desirable The walls were hung
round with tapestry said to be from the Gobelin looms and at all events
representing the Scriptural story of David and Bathsheba and Nathan the
Prophet in colors still unfaded but which made the fair woman of the scene
almost as grimly picturesque as the woedenouncing seer Here the pale
clergyman piled up his library rich with parchmentbound folios of the Fathers
and the lore of Rabbis and monkish erudition of which the Protestant divines
even while they vilified and decried that class of writers were yet constrained
often to avail themselves On the other side of the house old Roger
Chillingworth arranged his study and laboratory not such as a modern man of
science would reckon even tolerably complete but provided with a distilling
apparatus and the means of compounding drugs and chemicals which the practised
alchemist knew well how to turn to purpose With such commodiousness of
situation these two learned persons sat themselves down each in his own
domain yet familiarly passing from one apartment to the other and bestowing a
mutual and not incurious inspection into one anothers business
And the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdales best discerning friends as we have
intimated very reasonably imagined that the hand of Providence had done all
this for the purpose besought in so many public and domestic and secret
prayers of restoring the young minister to health But it must now be said
another portion of the community had latterly begun to take its own view of the
relation betwixt Mr Dimmesdale and the mysterious old physician When an
uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes it is exceedingly apt to
be deceived When however it forms its judgment as it usually does on the
intuitions of its great and warm heart the conclusions thus attained are often
so profound and so unerring as to possess the character of truths
supernaturally revealed The people in the case of which we speak could
justify its prejudice against Roger Chillingworth by no fact or argument worthy
of serious refutation There was an aged handicraftsman it is true who had
been a citizen of London at the period of Sir Thomas Overburys murder now some
thirty years agone he testified to having seen the physician under some other
name which the narrator of the story had now forgotten in company with Doctor
Forman the famous old conjurer who was implicated in the affair of Overbury
Two or three individuals hinted that the man of skill during his Indian
captivity had enlarged his medical attainments by joining in the incantations
of the savage priests who were universally acknowledged to be powerful
enchanters often performing seemingly miraculous cures by their skill in the
black art A large number and many of these were persons of such sober sense
and practical observation that their opinions would have been valuable in
other matters affirmed that Roger Chillingworths aspect had undergone a
remarkable change while he had dwelt in town and especially since his abode
with Mr Dimmesdale At first his expression had been calm meditative
scholarlike Now there was something ugly and evil in his face which they had
not previously noticed and which grew still the more obvious to sight the
oftener they looked upon him According to the vulgar idea the fire in his
laboratory had been brought from the lower regions and was fed with infernal
fuel and so as might be expected his visage was getting sooty with the smoke
To sum up the matter it grew to be a widely diffused opinion that the
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale like many other personages of especial sanctity in
all ages of the Christian world was haunted either by Satan himself or Satans
emissary in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth This diabolical agent had the
Divine permission for a season to burrow into the clergymans intimacy and
plot against his soul No sensible man it was confessed could doubt on which
side the victory would turn The people looked with an unshaken hope to see
the minister come forth out of the conflict transfigured with the glory which
he would unquestionably win Meanwhile nevertheless it was sad to think of the
perchance mortal agony through which he must struggle towards his triumph
Alas to judge from the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor
ministers eyes the battle was a sore one and the victory any thing but
secure
X The Leech and His Patient
Old Roger Chillingworth throughout life had been calm in temperament kindly
though not of warm affections but ever and in all his relations with the
world a pure and upright man He had begun an investigation as he imagined
with the severe and equal integrity of a judge desirous only of truth even as
if the question involved no more than the airdrawn lines and figures of a
geometrical problem instead of human passions and wrongs inflicted on himself
But as he proceeded a terrible fascination a kind of fierce though still
calm necessity seized the old man within its gripe and never set him free
again until he had done all its bidding He now dug into the poor clergymans
heart like a miner searching for gold or rather like a sexton delving into a
grave possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead mans
bosom but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption Alas for his
own soul if these were what he sought
Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physicians eyes burning blue and
ominous like the reflection of a furnace or let us say like one of those
gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyans awful doorway in the
hillside and quivered on the pilgrims face The soil where this dark miner
was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him
»This man« said he at one such moment to himself »pure as they deem him
all spiritual as he seems hath inherited a strong animal nature from his
father or his mother Let us dig a little farther in the direction of this
vein«
Then after long search into the ministers dim interior and turning over
many precious materials in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his
race warm love of souls pure sentiments natural piety strengthened by
thought and study and illuminated by revelation all of which invaluable gold
was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker he would turn back
discouraged and begin his quest towards another point He groped along as
stealthily with as cautious a tread and as wary an outlook as a thief
entering a chamber where a man lies only half asleep or it may be broad
awake with purpose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the
apple of his eye In spite of his premeditated carefulness the floor would now
and then creak his garments would rustle the shadow of his presence in a
forbidden proximity would be thrown across his victim In other words, Mr
Dimmesdale whose sensibility of nerve often produced the effect of spiritual
intuition would become vaguely aware that something inimical to his peace had
thrust itself into relation with him But old Roger Chillingworth too had
perceptions that were almost intuitive and when the minister threw his startled
eyes towards him there the physician sat his kind watchful sympathizing but
never intrusive friend
Yet Mr Dimmesdale would perhaps have seen this individuals character more
perfectly if a certain morbidness to which sick hearts are liable had not
rendered him suspicious of all mankind Trusting no man as his friend he could
not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared He therefore still
kept up a familiar intercourse with him daily receiving the old physician in
his study or visiting the laboratory and for recreations sake watching the
processes by which weeds were converted into drugs of potency
One day leaning his forehead on his hand and his elbow on the sill of the
open window that looked towards the graveyard he talked with Roger
Chillingworth while the old man was examining a bundle of unsightly plants
»Where« asked he with a look askance at them for it was the clergymans
peculiarity that he seldom nowadays looked straightforth at any object
whether human or inanimate »where my kind doctor did you gather those
herbs with such a dark flabby leaf«
»Even in the graveyard here at hand« answered the physician continuing
his employment »They are new to me I found them growing on a grave which bore
no tombstone nor other memorial of the dead man save these ugly weeds that
have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance They grew out of his
heart and typify it may be some hideous secret that was buried with him and
which he had done better to confess during his lifetime«
»Perchance« said Mr Dimmesdale »he earnestly desired it but could not«
»And wherefore« rejoined the physician »Wherefore not since all the
powers of nature call so earnestly for the confession of sin that these black
weeds have sprung up out of a buried heart to make manifest an unspoken crime«
»That good Sir is but a fantasy of yours« replied the minister »There
can be if I forebode aright no power short of the Divine mercy to disclose
whether by uttered words or by type or emblem the secrets that may be buried
with a human heart The heart making itself guilty of such secrets must
perforce hold them until the day when all hidden things shall be revealed Nor
have I so read or interpreted Holy Writ as to understand that the disclosure of
human thoughts and deeds then to be made is intended as a part of the
retribution That surely were a shallow view of it No these revelations
unless I greatly err are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction
of all intelligent beings who will stand waiting on that day to see the dark
problem of this life made plain A knowledge of mens hearts will be needful to
the completest solution of that problem And I conceive moreover that the
hearts holding such miserable secrets as you speak of will yield them up at
that last day not with reluctance but with a joy unutterable«
»Then why not reveal them here« asked Roger Chillingworth glancing quietly
aside at the minister »Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves
of this unutterable solace«
»They mostly do« said the clergyman griping hard at his breast as if
afflicted with an importunate throb of pain »Many many a poor soul hath given
its confidence to me not only on the deathbed but while strong in life and
fair in reputation And ever after such an outpouring O what a relief have I
witnessed in those sinful brethren even as in one who at last draws free air
after long stifling with his own polluted breath How can it be otherwise Why
should a wretched man guilty we will say of murder prefer to keep the dead
corpse buried in his own heart rather than fling it forth at once and let the
universe take care of it«
»Yet some men bury their secrets thus« observed the calm physician
»True there are such men« answered Mr Dimmesdale »But not to suggest
more obvious reasons it may be that they are kept silent by the very
constitution of their nature Or can we not suppose it guilty as they may
be retaining nevertheless a zeal for Gods glory and mans welfare they
shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men because
thenceforward no good can be achieved by them no evil of the past be redeemed
by better service So to their own unutterable torment they go about among
their fellowcreatures looking pure as newfallen snow while their hearts are
all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they cannot rid themselves«
»These men deceive themselves« said Roger Chillingworth with somewhat more
emphasis than usual and making a slight gesture with his forefinger »They fear
to take up the shame that rightfully belongs to them Their love for man their
zeal for Gods service these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their
hearts with the evil inmates to which their guilt has unbarred the door and
which must needs propagate a hellish breed within them But if they seek to
glorify God let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands If they would
serve their fellowmen let them do it by making manifest the power and reality
of conscience in constraining them to penitential selfabasement Wouldst thou
have me to believe O wise and pious friend that a false show can be better
can be more for Gods glory or mans welfare than Gods own truth Trust me
such men deceive themselves«
»It may be so« said the young clergyman indifferently as waiving a
discussion that he considered irrelevant or unseasonable He had a ready
faculty indeed of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and
nervous temperament »But now I would ask of my wellskilled physician
whether in good sooth he deems me to have profited by his kindly care of this
weak frame of mine«
Before Roger Chillingworth could answer they heard the clear wild laughter
of a young childs voice proceeding from the adjacent burialground Looking
instinctively from the open window for it was summertime the minister
beheld Hester Prynne and little Pearl passing along the footpath that traversed
the inclosure Pearl looked as beautiful as the day but was in one of those
moods of perverse merriment which whenever they occurred seemed to remove her
entirely out of the sphere of sympathy or human contact She now skipped
irreverently from one grave to another until coming to the broad flat
armorial tombstone of a departed worthy perhaps of Isaac Johnson himself
she began to dance upon it In reply to her mothers command and entreaty that
she would behave more decorously little Pearl paused to gather the prickly
burrs from a tall burdock which grew beside the tomb Taking a handful of
these she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated
the maternal bosom to which the burrs as their nature was tenaciously
adhered Hester did not pluck them off
Roger Chillingworth had by this time approached the window and smiled
grimly down
»There is no law nor reverence for authority no regard for human
ordinances or opinions right or wrong mixed up with that childs composition«
remarked he as much to himself as to his companion »I saw her the other day
bespatter the Governor himself with water at the cattletrough in Spring Lane
What in Heavens name is she Is the imp altogether evil Hath she affections
Hath she any discoverable principle of being«
»None save the freedom of a broken law« answered Mr Dimmesdale in a
quiet way as if he had been discussing the point within himself »Whether
capable of good I know not«
The child probably overheard their voices for looking up to the window
with a bright but naughty smile of mirth and intelligence she threw one of the
prickly burrs at the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale The sensitive clergyman shrunk
with nervous dread from the light missile Detecting his emotion Pearl clapped
her little hands in the most extravagant ecstasy Hester Prynne likewise had
involuntarily looked up and all these four persons old and young regarded one
another in silence till the child laughed aloud and shouted »Come away
mother Come away or yonder old Black Man will catch you He hath got hold of
the minister already Come away mother or he will catch you But he cannot
catch little Pearl«
So she drew her mother away skipping dancing and frisking fantastically
among the hillocks of the dead people like a creature that had nothing in
common with a bygone and buried generation nor owned herself akin to it It was
as if she had been made afresh out of new elements and must perforce be
permitted to live her own life and be a law unto herself without her
eccentricities being reckoned to her for a crime
»There goes a woman« resumed Roger Chillingworth after a pause »who be
her demerits what they may hath none of that mystery of hidden sinfulness which
you deem so grievous to be borne Is Hester Prynne the less miserable think
you for that scarlet letter on her breast«
»I do verily believe it« answered the clergyman »Nevertheless I cannot
answer for her There was a look of pain in her face which I would gladly have
been spared the sight of But still methinks it must needs be better for the
sufferer to be free to show his pain as this poor woman Hester is than to
cover it all up in his heart«
There was another pause and the physician began anew to examine and arrange
the plants which he had gathered
»You inquired of me a little time agone« said he at length »my judgment
as touching your health«
»I did« answered the clergyman »and would gladly learn it Speak frankly
I pray you be it for life or death«
»Freely then and plainly« said the physician still busy with his plants
but keeping a wary eye on Mr Dimmesdale »the disorder is a strange one not so
much in itself nor as outwardly manifested in so far, at least as the
symptoms have been laid open to my observation Looking daily at you my good
Sir and watching the tokens of your aspect now for months gone by I should
deem you a man sore sick it may be yet not so sick but that an instructed and
watchful physician might well hope to cure you But I know not what to say
the disease is what I seem to know yet know it not«
»You speak in riddles learned Sir« said the pale minister glancing aside
out of the window
»Then to speak more plainly« continued the physician »and I crave pardon
Sir should it seem to require pardon for this needful plainness of my
speech Let me ask as your friend as one having charge under Providence
of your life and physical wellbeing hath all the operation of this disorder
been fairly laid open and recounted to me«
»How can you question it« asked the minister »Surely it were childs play
to call in a physician and then hide the sore«
»You would tell me then that I know all« said Roger Chillingworth
deliberately and fixing an eye bright with intense and concentrated
intelligence on the ministers face »Be it so But again He to whom only the
outward and physical evil is laid open knoweth oftentimes but half the evil
which he is called upon to cure A bodily disease which we look upon as whole
and entire within itself may after all be but a symptom of some ailment in
the spiritual part Your pardon once again good Sir if my speech give the
shadow of offence You Sir of all men whom I have known are he whose body is
the closest conjoined and imbued and identified so to speak with the spirit
whereof it is the instrument«
»Then I need ask no further« said the clergyman somewhat hastily rising
from his chair »You deal not I take it in medicine for the soul«
»Thus a sickness« continued Roger Chillingworth going on in an unaltered
tone without heeding the interruption but standing up and confronting the
emaciated and whitecheeked minister with his low dark and misshapen figure
»a sickness a sore place if we may so call it in your spirit hath
immediately its appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame Would you
therefore that your physician heal the bodily evil How may this be unless you
first lay open to him the wound or trouble in your soul«
»No not to thee not to an earthly physician« cried Mr Dimmesdale
passionately and turning his eyes full and bright and with a kind of
fierceness on old Roger Chillingworth »Not to thee But if it be the souls
disease then do I commit myself to the one Physician of the soul He if it
stand with his good pleasure can cure or he can kill Let him do with me as
in his justice and wisdom he shall see good But who art thou that meddlest in
this matter that dares thrust himself between the sufferer and his God«
With a frantic gesture he rushed out of the room
»It is as well to have made this step« said Roger Chillingworth to himself
looking after the minister with a grave smile »There is nothing lost We shall
be friends again anon But see now how passion takes hold upon this man and
hurrieth him out of himself As with one passion so with another He hath done
a wild thing ere now this pious Master Dimmesdale in the hot passion of his
heart«
It proved not difficult to reëstablish the intimacy of the two companions
on the same footing and in the same degree as heretofore The young clergyman
after a few hours of privacy was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had
hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper which there had been nothing in
the physicians words to excuse or palliate He marvelled indeed at the
violence with which he had thrust back the kind old man when merely proffering
the advice which it was his duty to bestow and which the minister himself had
expressly sought With these remorseful feelings he lost no time in making the
amplest apologies and besought his friend still to continue the care which if
not successful in restoring him to health had in all probability been the
means of prolonging his feeble existence to that hour Roger Chillingworth
readily assented and went on with his medical supervision of the minister
doing his best for him in all good faith but always quitting the patients
apartment at the close of a professional interview with a mysterious and
puzzled smile upon his lips This expression was invisible in Mr Dimmesdales
presence but grew strongly evident as the physician crossed the threshold
»A rare case« he muttered »I must needs look deeper into it A strange
sympathy betwixt soul and body Were it only for the arts sake I must search
this matter to the bottom«
It came to pass not long after the scene above recorded that the Reverend
Mr Dimmesdale at noonday and entirely unawares fell into a deep deep
slumber sitting in his chair with a large blackletter volume open before him
on the table It must have been a work of vast ability in the somniferous school
of literature The profound depth of the ministers repose was the more
remarkable inasmuch as he was one of those persons whose sleep ordinarily is
as light as fitful and as easily scared away as a small bird hopping on a
twig To such an unwonted remoteness however had his spirit now withdrawn into
itself that he stirred not in his chair when old Roger Chillingworth without
any extraordinary precaution came into the room The physician advanced
directly in front of his patient laid his hand upon his bosom and thrust aside
the vestment that hitherto had always covered it even from the professional
eye
Then indeed Mr Dimmesdale shuddered and slightly stirred
After a brief pause the physician turned away
But with what a wild look of wonder joy and horror With what a ghastly
rapture as it were too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features
and therefore bursting forth through the whole ugliness of his figure and
making itself even riotously manifest by the extravagant gestures with which he
threw up his arms towards the ceiling and stamped his foot upon the floor Had
a man seen old Roger Chillingworth at that moment of his ecstasy he would have
had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is
lost to heaven and won into his kingdom
But what distinguished the physicians ecstasy from Satans was the trait of
wonder in it
XI The Interior of a Heart
After the incident last described the intercourse between the clergyman and the
physician though externally the same was really of another character than it
had previously been The intellect of Roger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently
plain path before it It was not indeed precisely that which he had laid out
for himself to tread Calm gentle passionless as he appeared there was yet
we fear a quiet depth of malice hitherto latent but active now in this
unfortunate old man which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any
mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy To make himself the one trusted friend
to whom should be confided all the fear the remorse the agony the ineffectual
repentance the backward rush of sinful thoughts expelled in vain All that
guilty sorrow hidden from the world whose great heart would have pitied and
forgiven to be revealed to him the Pitiless to him the Unforgiving All that
dark treasure to be lavished on the very man to whom nothing else could so
adequately pay the debt of vengeance
The clergymans shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme Roger
Chillingworth however was inclined to be hardly if at all less satisfied
with the aspect of affairs which Providence using the avenger and his victim
for its own purposes and perchance pardoning where it seemed most to punish
had substituted for his black devices A revelation he could almost say had
been granted to him It mattered little for his object whether celestial or
from what other region By its aid in all the subsequent relations betwixt him
and Mr Dimmesdale not merely the external presence but the very inmost soul
of the latter seemed to be brought out before his eyes so that he could see and
comprehend its every movement He became thenceforth not a spectator only but
a chief actor in the poor ministers interior world He could play upon him as
he chose Would he arouse him with a throb of agony The victim was for ever on
the rack it needed only to know the spring that controlled the engine and
the physician knew it well Would he startle him with sudden fear As at the
waving of a magicians wand uprose a grisly phantom uprose a thousand
phantoms in many shapes of death or more awful shame all flocking
roundabout the clergyman and pointing with their fingers at his breast
All this was accomplished with a subtlety so perfect that the minister
though he had constantly a dim perception of some evil influence watching over
him could never gain a knowledge of its actual nature True he looked
doubtfully fearfully even at times with horror and the bitterness of
hatred at the deformed figure of the old physician His gestures his gait
his grizzled beard his slightest and most indifferent acts the very fashion of
his garments were odious in the clergymans sight a token implicitly to be
relied on of a deeper antipathy in the breast of the latter than he was willing
to acknowledge to himself For as it was impossible to assign a reason for such
distrust and abhorrence so Mr Dimmesdale conscious that the poison of one
morbid spot was infecting his hearts entire substance attributed all his
presentiments to no other cause He took himself to task for his bad sympathies
in reference to Roger Chillingworth disregarded the lesson that he should have
drawn from them and did his best to root them out Unable to accomplish this
he nevertheless as a matter of principle continued his habits of social
familiarity with the old man and thus gave him constant opportunities for
perfecting the purpose to which poor forlorn creature that he was and more
wretched than his victim the avenger had devoted himself
While thus suffering under bodily disease and gnawed and tortured by some
black trouble of the soul and given over to the machinations of his deadliest
enemy the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale had achieved a brilliant popularity in his
sacred office He won it indeed in great part by his sorrows His
intellectual gifts his moral perceptions his power of experiencing and
communicating emotion were kept in a state of preternatural activity by the
prick and anguish of his daily life His fame though still on its upward slope
already overshadowed the soberer reputations of his fellowclergymen eminent as
several of them were There were scholars among them who had spent more years
in acquiring abstruse lore connected with the divine profession than Mr
Dimmesdale had lived and who might well therefore be more profoundly versed
in such solid and valuable attainments than their youthful brother There were
men too of a sturdier texture of mind than his and endowed with a far greater
share of shrewd hard iron or granite understanding which duly mingled with a
fair proportion of doctrinal ingredient constitutes a highly respectable
efficacious and unamiable variety of the clerical species There were others
again true saintly fathers whose faculties had been elaborated by weary toil
among their books and by patient thought and etherealized moreover by
spiritual communications with the better world into which their purity of life
had almost introduced these holy personages with their garments of mortality
still clinging to them All that they lacked was the gift that descended upon
the chosen disciples at Pentecost in tongues of flame symbolizing it would
seem not the power of speech in foreign and unknown languages but that of
addressing the whole human brotherhood in the hearts native language These
fathers otherwise so apostolic lacked Heavens last and rarest attestation of
their office the Tongue of Flame They would have vainly sought had they ever
dreamed of seeking to express the highest truths through the humblest medium
of familiar words and images Their voices came down afar and indistinctly
from the upper heights where they habitually dwelt
Not improbably it was to this latter class of men that Mr Dimmesdale by
many of his traits of character naturally belonged To their high
mountainpeaks of faith and sanctity he would have climbed had not the tendency
been thwarted by the burden whatever it might be of crime or anguish beneath
which it was his doom to totter It kept him down on a level with the lowest
him the man of ethereal attributes whose voice the angels might else have
listened to and answered But this very burden it was that gave him sympathies
so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind so that his heart vibrated
in unison with theirs and received their pain into itself and sent its own
throb of pain through a thousand other hearts in gushes of sad persuasive
eloquence Oftenest persuasive but sometimes terrible The people knew not the
power that moved them thus They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of
holiness They fancied him the mouthpiece of Heavens messages of wisdom and
rebuke and love In their eyes the very ground on which he trod was
sanctified The virgins of his church grew pale around him victims of a passion
so imbued with religious sentiment that they imagined it to be all religion and
brought it openly in their white bosoms as their most acceptable sacrifice
before the altar The aged members of his flock beholding Mr Dimmesdales
frame so feeble while they were themselves so rugged in their infirmity
believed that he would go heavenward before them and enjoined it upon their
children that their old bones should be buried close to their young pastors
holy grave And all this time perchance when poor Mr Dimmesdale was thinking
of his grave he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on
it because an accursed thing must there be buried
It is inconceivable the agony with which this public veneration tortured
him It was his genuine impulse to adore the truth and to reckon all things
shadowlike and utterly devoid of weight or value that had not its divine
essence as the life within their life Then what was he a substance or
the dimmest of all shadows He longed to speak out from his own pulpit at the
full height of his voice and tell the people what he was »I whom you behold
in these black garments of the priesthood I who ascend the sacred desk and
turn my pale face heavenward taking upon myself to hold communion in your
behalf with the Most High Omniscience I in whose daily life you discern the
sanctity of Enoch I whose footsteps as you suppose leave a gleam along my
earthly track whereby the pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided to
the regions of the blest I who have laid the hand of baptism upon your
children I who have breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends to
whom the Amen sounded faintly from a world which they had quitted I your
pastor whom you so reverence and trust am utterly a pollution and a lie«
More than once Mr Dimmesdale had gone into the pulpit with a purpose
never to come down its steps until he should have spoken words like the above
More than once he had cleared his throat and drawn in the long deep and
tremulous breath which when sent forth again would come burdened with the
black secret of his soul More than once nay more than a hundred times he
had actually spoken Spoken But how He had told his hearers that he was
altogether vile a viler companion of the vilest the worst of sinners an
abomination a thing of unimaginable iniquity and that the only wonder was
that they did not see his wretched body shrivelled up before their eyes by the
burning wrath of the Almighty Could there be plainer speech than this Would
not the people start up in their seats by a simultaneous impulse and tear him
down out of the pulpit which he defiled Not so indeed They heard it all and
did but reverence him the more They little guessed what deadly purport lurked
in those selfcondemning words »The godly youth« said they among themselves
»The saint on earth Alas if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul
what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine« The minister well knew
subtle but remorseful hypocrite that he was the light in which his vague
confession would be viewed He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making
the avowal of a guilty conscience but had gained only one other sin and a
selfacknowledged shame without the momentary relief of being selfdeceived He
had spoken the very truth and transformed it into the veriest falsehood And
yet by the constitution of his nature he loved the truth and loathed the lie
as few men ever did Therefore above all things else he loathed his miserable
self
His inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance with the old
corrupted faith of Rome than with the better light of the church in which he
had been born and bred In Mr Dimmesdales secret closet under lock and key
there was a bloody scourge Oftentimes this Protestant and Puritan divine had
plied it on his own shoulders laughing bitterly at himself the while and
smiting so much the more pitilessly because of that bitter laugh It was his
custom too as it has been that of many other pious Puritans to fast not
however like them in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium
of celestial illumination but rigorously and until his knees trembled
beneath him as an act of penance He kept vigils likewise night after night
sometimes in utter darkness sometimes with a glimmering lamp and sometimes
viewing his own face in a lookingglass by the most powerful light which he
could throw upon it He thus typified the constant introspection wherewith he
tortured but could not purify himself In these lengthened vigils his brain
often reeled and visions seemed to flit before him perhaps seen doubtfully
and by a faint light of their own in the remote dimness of the chamber or more
vividly and close beside him within the lookingglass Now it was a herd of
diabolic shapes that grinned and mocked at the pale minister and beckoned him
away with them now a group of shining angels who flew upward heavily as
sorrowladen but grew more ethereal as they rose Now came the dead friends of
his youth and his whitebearded father with a saintlike frown and his
mother turning her face away as she passed by Ghost of a mother thinnest
fantasy of a mother methinks she might yet have thrown a pitying glance
towards her son And now through the chamber which these spectral thoughts had
made so ghastly glided Hester Prynne leading along little Pearl in her
scarlet garb and pointing her forefinger first at the scarlet letter on her
bosom and then at the clergymans own breast
None of these visions ever quite deluded him At any moment by an effort of
his will he could discern substances through their misty lack of substance and
convince himself that they were not solid in their nature like yonder table of
carved oak or that big square leathernbound and brazenclasped volume of
divinity But for all that they were in one sense the truest and most
substantial things which the poor minister now dealt with It is the unspeakable
misery of a life so false as his that it steals the pith and substance out of
whatever realities there are around us and which were meant by Heaven to be the
spirits joy and nutriment To the untrue man the whole universe is false it
is impalpable it shrinks to nothing within his grasp And he himself in so
far as he shows himself in a false light becomes a shadow or indeed ceases
to exist The only truth that continued to give Mr Dimmesdale a real existence
on this earth was the anguish in his inmost soul and the undissembled
expression of it in his aspect Had he once found power to smile and wear a
face of gayety there would have been no such man
On one of those ugly nights which we have faintly hinted at but forborne
to picture forth the minister started from his chair A new thought had struck
him There might be a moments peace in it Attiring himself with as much care
as if it had been for public worship and precisely in the same manner he stole
softly down the staircase undid the door and issued forth
XII The Ministers Vigil
Walking in the shadow of a dream as it were and perhaps actually under the
influence of a species of somnambulism Mr Dimmesdale reached the spot where
now so long since Hester Prynne had lived through her first hour of public
ignominy The same platform or scaffold black and weatherstained with the
storm or sunshine of seven long years and footworn too with the tread of
many culprits who had since ascended it remained standing beneath the balcony
of the meetinghouse The minister went up the steps
It was an obscure night of early May An unvaried pall of cloud muffled the
whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon If the same multitude which had
stood as eyewitnesses while Hester Prynne sustained her punishment could now
have been summoned forth they would have discerned no face above the platform
nor hardly the outline of a human shape in the dark gray of the midnight But
the town was all asleep There was no peril of discovery The minister might
stand there if it so pleased him until morning should redden in the east
without other risk than that the dank and chill nightair would creep into his
frame and stiffen his joints with rheumatism and clog his throat with catarrh
and cough thereby defrauding the expectant audience of tomorrows prayer and
sermon No eye could see him save that everwakeful one which had seen him in
his closet wielding the bloody scourge Why then had he come hither Was it
but the mockery of penitence A mockery indeed but in which his soul trifled
with itself A mockery at which angels blushed and wept while fiends rejoiced
with jeering laughter He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse
which dogged him everywhere and whose own sister and closely linked companion
was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back with her tremulous gripe
just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure Poor
miserable man what right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime
Crime is for the ironnerved who have their choice either to endure it or if
it press too hard to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good purpose
and fling it off at once This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do
neither yet continually did one thing or another which intertwined in the
same inextricable knot the agony of heavendefying guilt and vain repentance
And thus while standing on the scaffold in this vain show of expiation
Mr Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind as if the universe were
gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast right over his heart On that
spot in very truth there was and there had long been the gnawing and
poisonous tooth of bodily pain Without any effort of his will or power to
restrain himself he shrieked aloud an outcry that went pealing through the
night and was beaten back from one house to another and reverberated from the
hills in the background as if a company of devils detecting so much misery and
terror in it had made a plaything of the sound and were bandying it to and
fro
»It is done« muttered the minister covering his face with his hands »The
whole town will awake and hurry forth and find me here«
But it was not so The shriek had perhaps sounded with a far greater power
to his own startled ears than it actually possessed The town did not awake
or if it did the drowsy slumberers mistook the cry either for something
frightful in a dream or for the noise of witches whose voices at that period
were often heard to pass over the settlements or lonely cottages as they rode
with Satan through the air The clergyman therefore hearing no symptoms of
disturbance uncovered his eyes and looked about him At one of the
chamberwindows of Governor Bellinghams mansion which stood at some distance
on the line of another street he beheld the appearance of the old magistrate
himself with a lamp in his hand a white nightcap on his head and a long
white gown enveloping his figure He looked like a ghost evoked unseasonably
from the grave The cry had evidently startled him At another window of the
same house moreover appeared old Mistress Hibbins the Governors sister also
with a lamp which even thus far off revealed the expression of her sour and
discontented face She thrust forth her head from the lattice and looked
anxiously upward Beyond the shadow of a doubt this venerable witchlady had
heard Mr Dimmesdales outcry and interpreted it with its multitudinous echoes
and reverberations as the clamor of the fiends and nighthags with whom she
was well known to make excursions into the forest
Detecting the gleam of Governor Bellinghams lamp the old lady quickly
extinguished her own and vanished Possibly she went up among the clouds The
minister saw nothing further of her motions The magistrate after a wary
observation of the darkness into which nevertheless he could see but little
farther than he might into a millstone retired from the window
The minister grew comparatively calm His eyes however were soon greeted
by a little glimmering light which at first a long way off was approaching
up the street It threw a gleam of recognition on here a post and there a
gardenfence and here a latticed windowpane and there a pump with its full
trough of water and here again an arched door of oak with an iron knocker
and a rough log for the doorstep The Reverend Mr Dimmesdale noted all these
minute particulars even while firmly convinced that the doom of his existence
was stealing onward in the footsteps which he now heard and that the gleam of
the lantern would fall upon him in a few moments more and reveal his
longhidden secret As the light drew nearer he beheld within its illuminated
circle his brother clergyman or to speak more accurately his professional
father as well as highly valued friend the Reverend Mr Wilson who as Mr
Dimmesdale now conjectured had been praying at the bedside of some dying man
And so he had The good old minister came freshly from the deathchamber of
Governor Winthrop who had passed from earth to heaven within that very hour
And now surrounded like the saintlike personages of olden times with a
radiant halo that glorified him amid this gloomy night of sin as if the
departed Governor had left him an inheritance of his glory or as if he had
caught upon himself the distant shine of the celestial city while looking
thitherward to see the triumphant pilgrim pass within its gates now in
short good Father Wilson was moving homeward aiding his footsteps with a
lighted lantern The glimmer of this luminary suggested the above conceits to
Mr Dimmesdale who smiled nay almost laughed at them and then wondered
if he were going mad
As the Reverend Mr Wilson passed beside the scaffold closely muffling his
Geneva cloak about him with one arm and holding the lantern before his breast
with the other the minister could hardly restrain himself from speaking
»A good evening to you venerable Father Wilson Come up hither I pray you
and pass a pleasant hour with me«
Good heavens Had Mr Dimmesdale actually spoken For one instant he
believed that these words had passed his lips But they were uttered only within
his imagination The venerable Father Wilson continued to step slowly onward
looking carefully at the muddy pathway before his feet and never once turning
his head towards the guilty platform When the light of the glimmering lantern
had faded quite away the minister discovered by the faintness which came over
him that the last few moments had been a crisis of terrible anxiety although
his mind had made an involuntary effort to relieve itself by a kind of lurid
playfulness
Shortly afterwards the like grisly sense of the humorous again stole in
among the solemn phantoms of his thought He felt his limbs growing stiff with
the unaccustomed chilliness of the night and doubted whether he should be able
to descend the steps of the scaffold Morning would break and find him there
The neighbourhood would begin to rouse itself The earliest riser coming forth
in the dim twilight would perceive a vaguely defined figure aloft on the place
of shame and half crazed betwixt alarm and curiosity would go knocking from
door to door summoning all the people to behold the ghost as he needs must
think it of some defunct transgressor A dusky tumult would flap its wings
from one house to another Then the morning light still waxing stronger old
patriarchs would rise up in great haste each in his flannel gown and matronly
dames without pausing to put off their nightgear The whole tribe of decorous
personages who had never heretofore been seen with a single hair of their heads
awry would start into public view with the disorder of a nightmare in their
aspects Old Governor Bellingham would come grimly forth with his King Jamess
ruff fastened askew and Mistress Hibbins with some twigs of the forest
clinging to her skirts and looking sourer than ever as having hardly got a
wink of sleep after her night ride and good Father Wilson too after spending
half the night at a death and liking ill to be disturbed thus early out of
his dreams about the glorified saints Hither likewise would come the elders
and deacons of Mr Dimmesdales church and the young virgins who so idolized
their minister and had made a shrine for him in their white bosoms which now
by the by in their hurry and confusion they would scantly have given
themselves time to cover with their kerchiefs All people in a word would come
stumbling over their thresholds and turning up their amazed and horrorstricken
visages around the scaffold Whom would they discern there with the red eastern
light upon his brow Whom but the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale half frozen to
death overwhelmed with shame and standing where Hester Prynne had stood
Carried away by the grotesque horror of this picture the minister
unawares and to his own infinite alarm burst into a great peal of laughter It
was immediately responded to by a light airy childish laugh in which with a
thrill of the heart but he knew not whether of exquisite pain or pleasure as
acute he recognized the tones of little Pearl
»Pearl Little Pearl« cried he after a moments pause then suppressing
his voice »Hester Hester Prynne Are you there«
»Yes it is Hester Prynne« she replied in a tone of surprise and the
minister heard her footsteps approaching from the sidewalk along which she had
been passing »It is I and my little Pearl«
»Whence come you Hester« asked the minister »What sent you hither«
»I have been watching at a deathbed« answered Hester Prynne »at
Governor Winthrops deathbed and have taken his measure for a robe and am now
going homeward to my dwelling«
»Come up hither Hester thou and little Pearl« said the Reverend Mr
Dimmesdale »Ye have both been here before but I was not with you Come up
hither once again and we will stand all three together«
She silently ascended the steps and stood on the platform holding little
Pearl by the hand The minister felt for the childs other hand and took it
The moment that he did so there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life
other life than his own pouring like a torrent into his heart and hurrying
through all his veins as if the mother and the child were communicating their
vital warmth to his halftorpid system The three formed an electric chain
»Minister« whispered little Pearl
»What wouldst thou say child« asked Mr Dimmesdale
»Wilt thou stand here with mother and me tomorrow noontide« inquired
Pearl
»Nay not so my little Pearl« answered the minister for with the new
energy of the moment all the dread of public exposure that had so long been
the anguish of his life had returned upon him and he was already trembling at
the conjunction in which with a strange joy nevertheless he now found
himself »Not so my child I shall indeed stand with thy mother and thee one
other day but not tomorrow«
Pearl laughed and attempted to pull away her hand But the minister held it
fast
»A moment longer my child« said he
»But wilt thou promise« asked Pearl »to take my hand and mothers hand
tomorrow noontide«
»Not then Pearl« said the minister »but another time«
»And what other time« persisted the child
»At the great judgment day« whispered the minister and strangely
enough the sense that he was a professional teacher of the truth impelled him
to answer the child so »Then and there before the judgmentseat thy mother
and thou and I must stand together But the daylight of this world shall not
see our meeting«
Pearl laughed again
But before Mr Dimmesdale had done speaking a light gleamed far and wide
over all the muffled sky It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors which
the nightwatcher may so often observe burning out to waste in the vacant
regions of the atmosphere So powerful was its radiance that it thoroughly
illuminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth The great vault
brightened like the dome of an immense lamp It showed the familiar scene of
the street with the distinctness of midday but also with the awfulness that
is always imparted to familiar objects by an unaccustomed light The wooden
houses with their jutting stories and quaint gablepeaks the doorsteps and
thresholds with the early grass springing up about them the gardenplots
black with freshly turned earth the wheeltrack little worn and even in the
marketplace margined with green on either side all were visible but with a
singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the
things of this world than they had ever borne before And there stood the
minister with his hand over his heart and Hester Prynne with the embroidered
letter glimmering on her bosom and little Pearl herself a symbol and the
connecting link between those two They stood in the noon of that strange and
solemn splendor as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets and the
daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another
There was witchcraft in little Pearls eyes and her face as she glanced
upward at the minister wore that naughty smile which made its expression
frequently so elfish She withdrew her hand from Mr Dimmesdales and pointed
across the street But he clasped both his hands over his breast and cast his
eyes towards the zenith
Nothing was more common in those days than to interpret all meteoric
appearances and other natural phenomena that occurred with less regularity
than the rise and set of sun and moon as so many revelations from a
supernatural source Thus a blazing spear a sword of flame a bow or a sheaf
of arrows seen in the midnight sky prefigured Indian warfare Pestilence was
known to have been foreboded by a shower of crimson light We doubt whether any
marked event for good or evil ever befell New England from its settlement
down to Revolutionary times of which the inhabitants had not been previously
warned by some spectacle of this nature Not seldom it had been seen by
multitudes Oftener however its credibility rested on the faith of some lonely
eyewitness who beheld the wonder through the colored magnifying and
distorting medium of his imagination and shaped it more distinctly in his
afterthought It was indeed a majestic idea that the destiny of nations
should be revealed in these awful hieroglyphics on the cope of heaven A
scroll so wide might not be deemed too expansive for Providence to write a
peoples doom upon The belief was a favorite one with our forefathers as
betokening that their infant commonwealth was under a celestial guardianship of
peculiar intimacy and strictness But what shall we say when an individual
discovers a revelation addressed to himself alone on the same vast sheet of
record In such a case it could only be the symptom of a highly disordered
mental state when a man rendered morbidly selfcontemplative by long intense
and secret pain had extended his egotism over the whole expanse of nature
until the firmament itself should appear no more than a fitting page for his
souls history and fate
We impute it therefore solely to the disease in his own eye and heart
that the minister looking upward to the zenith beheld there the appearance of
an immense letter the letter A marked out in lines of dull red light Not
but the meteor may have shown itself at that point burning duskily through a
veil of cloud but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it or at
least with so little definiteness that anothers guilt might have seen another
symbol in it
There was a singular circumstance that characterized Mr Dimmesdales
psychological state at this moment All the time that he gazed upward to the
zenith he was nevertheless perfectly aware that little Pearl was pointing her
finger towards old Roger Chillingworth who stood at no great distance from the
scaffold The minister appeared to see him with the same glance that discerned
the miraculous letter To his features as to all other objects the meteoric
light imparted a new expression or it might well be that the physician was not
careful then as at all other times to hide the malevolence with which he
looked upon his victim Certainly if the meteor kindled up the sky and
disclosed the earth with an awfulness that admonished Hester Prynne and the
clergyman of the day of judgment then might Roger Chillingworth have passed
with them for the archfiend standing there with a smile and scowl to claim
his own So vivid was the expression or so intense the ministers perception of
it that it seemed still to remain painted on the darkness after the meteor had
vanished with an effect as if the street and all things else were at once
annihilated
»Who is that man Hester« gasped Mr Dimmesdale overcome with terror »I
shiver at him Dost thou know the man I hate him Hester«
She remembered her oath and was silent
»I tell thee my soul shivers at him« muttered the minister again »Who is
he Who is he Canst thou do nothing for me I have a nameless horror of the
man«
»Minister« said little Pearl »I can tell thee who he is«
»Quickly then child« said the minister bending his ear close to her
lips »Quickly and as low as thou canst whisper«
Pearl mumbled something into his ear that sounded indeed like human
language but was only such gibberish as children may be heard amusing
themselves with by the hour together At all events if it involved any secret
information in regard to old Roger Chillingworth it was in a tongue unknown to
the erudite clergyman and did but increase the bewilderment of his mind The
elfish child then laughed aloud
»Dost thou mock me now« said the minister
»Thou wast not bold thou wast not true« answered the child »Thou
wouldst not promise to take my hand and mothers hand tomorrow noontide«
»Worthy Sir« said the physician who had now advanced to the foot of the
platform »Pious Master Dimmesdale can this be you Well well indeed We men
of study whose heads are in our books have need to be straitly looked after
We dream in our waking moments and walk in our sleep Come good Sir and my
dear friend I pray you let me lead you home«
»How knewest thou that I was here« asked the minister fearfully
»Verily and in good faith« answered Roger Chillingworth »I knew nothing
of the matter I had spent the better part of the night at the bedside of the
worshipful Governor Winthrop doing what my poor skill might to give him ease
He going home to a better world I likewise was on my way homeward when this
strange light shone out Come with me I beseech you Reverend Sir else you
will be poorly able to do Sabbath duty tomorrow Aha see now how they trouble
the brain these books these books You should study less good Sir and
take a little pastime or these nightwhimseys will grow upon you«
»I will go home with you« said Mr Dimmesdale
With a chill despondency like one awaking all nerveless from an ugly
dream he yielded himself to the physician and was led away
The next day however being the Sabbath he preached a discourse which was
held to be the richest and most powerful and the most replete with heavenly
influences that had ever proceeded from his lips Souls it is said more souls
than one were brought to the truth by the efficacy of that sermon and vowed
within themselves to cherish a holy gratitude towards Mr Dimmesdale throughout
the long hereafter But as he came down the pulpitsteps the graybearded
sexton met him holding up a black glove which the minister recognized as his
own
»It was found« said the sexton »this morning on the scaffold where
evildoers are set up to public shame Satan dropped it there I take it
intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence But indeed he was blind
and foolish as he ever and always is A pure hand needs no glove to cover it«
»Thank you my good friend« said the minister gravely but startled at
heart for so confused was his remembrance that he had almost brought himself
to look at the events of the past night as visionary »Yes it seems to be my
glove indeed«
»And since Satan saw fit to steal it your reverence must needs handle him
without gloves henceforward« remarked the old sexton grimly smiling »But did
your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night A great red letter
in the sky the letter A which we interpret to stand for Angel For as our
good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night it was doubtless held
fit that there should be some notice thereof«
»No« answered the minister »I had not heard of it«
XIII Another View of Hester
In her late singular interview with Mr Dimmesdale Hester Prynne was shocked at
the condition to which she found the clergyman reduced His nerve seemed
absolutely destroyed His moral force was abased into more than childish
weakness It grovelled helpless on the ground even while his intellectual
faculties retained their pristine strength or had perhaps acquired a morbid
energy which disease only could have given them With her knowledge of a train
of circumstances hidden from all others she could readily infer that besides
the legitimate action of his own conscience a terrible machinery had been
brought to bear and was still operating on Mr Dimmesdales wellbeing and
repose Knowing what this poor fallen man had once been her whole soul was
moved by the shuddering terror with which he had appealed to her the outcast
woman for support against his instinctively discovered enemy She decided
moreover that he had a right to her utmost aid Little accustomed in her long
seclusion from society to measure her ideas of right and wrong by any standard
external to herself Hester saw or seemed to see that there lay a
responsibility upon her in reference to the clergyman which she owed to no
other nor to the whole world besides The links that united her to the rest of
human kind links of flowers or silk or gold or whatever the material had
all been broken Here was the iron link of mutual crime which neither he nor
she could break Like all other ties it brought along with it its obligations
Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we
beheld her during the earlier periods of her ignominy Years had come and gone
Pearl was now seven years old Her mother with the scarlet letter on her
breast glittering in its fantastic embroidery had long been a familiar object
to the townspeople As is apt to be the case when a person stands out in any
prominence before the community and at the same time interferes neither with
public nor individual interests and convenience a species of general regard had
ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne It is to the credit of human
nature that except where its selfishness is brought into play it loves more
readily than it hates Hatred by a gradual and quiet process will even be
transformed to love unless the change be impeded by a continually new
irritation of the original feeling of hostility In this matter of Hester
Prynne there was neither irritation nor irksomeness She never battled with the
public but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage she made no claim upon
it in requital for what she suffered she did not weigh upon its sympathies
Then also the blameless purity of her life during all these years in which
she had been set apart to infamy was reckoned largely in her favor With
nothing now to lose in the sight of mankind and with no hope and seemingly no
wish of gaining any thing it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that
had brought back the poor wanderer to its paths
It was perceived too that while Hester never put forward even the
humblest title to share in the worlds privileges farther than to breathe the
common air and earn daily bread for little Pearl and herself by the faithful
labor of her hands she was quick to acknowledge her sisterhood with the race
of man whenever benefits were to be conferred None so ready as she to give of
her little substance to every demand of poverty even though the bitterhearted
pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door
or the garments wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a
monarchs robe None so selfdevoted as Hester when pestilence stalked through
the town In all seasons of calamity indeed whether general or of individuals
the outcast of society at once found her place She came not as a guest but as
a rightful inmate into the household that was darkened by trouble as if its
gloomy twilight were a medium in which she was entitled to hold intercourse with
her fellowcreatures There glimmered the embroidered letter with comfort in
its unearthly ray Elsewhere the token of sin it was the taper of the
sickchamber It had even thrown its gleam in the sufferers hard extremity
across the verge of time It had shown him where to set his foot while the
light of earth was fast becoming dim and ere the light of futurity could reach
him In such emergencies Hesters nature showed itself warm and rich a
wellspring of human tenderness unfailing to every real demand and
inexhaustible by the largest Her breast with its badge of shame was but the
softer pillow for the head that needed one She was selfordained a Sister of
Mercy or we may rather say the worlds heavy hand had so ordained her when
neither the world nor she looked forward to this result The letter was the
symbol of her calling Such helpfulness was found in her so much power to do
and power to sympathize that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A
by its original signification They said that it meant Able so strong was
Hester Prynne with a womans strength
It was only the darkened house that could contain her When sunshine came
again she was not there Her shadow had faded across the threshold The helpful
inmate had departed without one backward glance to gather up the meed of
gratitude if any were in the hearts of those whom she had served so zealously
Meeting them in the street she never raised her head to receive their greeting
If they were resolute to accost her she laid her finger on the scarlet letter
and passed on This might be pride but was so like humility that it produced
all the softening influence of the latter quality on the public mind The public
is despotic in its temper it is capable of denying common justice when too
strenuously demanded as a right but quite as frequently it awards more than
justice when the appeal is made as despots love to have it made entirely to
its generosity Interpreting Hester Prynnes deportment as an appeal of this
nature society was inclined to show its former victim a more benign countenance
than she cared to be favored with or perchance than she deserved
The rulers and the wise and learned men of the community were longer in
acknowledging the influence of Hesters good qualities than the people The
prejudices which they shared in common with the latter were fortified in
themselves by an iron framework of reasoning that made it a far tougher labor
to expel them Day by day nevertheless their sour and rigid wrinkles were
relaxing into something which in the due course of years might grow to be an
expression of almost benevolence Thus it was with the men of rank on whom
their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals
Individuals in private life meanwhile had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her
frailty nay more they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token
not of that one sin for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance but
of her many good deeds since »Do you see that woman with the embroidered
badge« they would say to strangers »It is our Hester the towns own Hester
who is so kind to the poor so helpful to the sick so comfortable to the
afflicted« Then it is true the propensity of human nature to tell the very
worst of itself when embodied in the person of another would constrain them to
whisper the black scandal of bygone years It was none the less a fact however
that in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus the scarlet letter had the
effect of the cross on a nuns bosom It imparted to the wearer a kind of
sacredness which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril Had she fallen
among thieves it would have kept her safe It was reported and believed by
many that an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge and that the missile
struck it but fell harmless to the ground
The effect of the symbol or rather of the position in respect to society
that was indicated by it on the mind of Hester Prynne herself was powerful
and peculiar All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been
withered up by this redhot brand and had long ago fallen away leaving a bare
and harsh outline which might have been repulsive had she possessed friends or
companions to be repelled by it Even the attractiveness of her person had
undergone a similar change It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of
her dress and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners It was a sad
transformation too that her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off
or was so completely hidden by a cap that not a shining lock of it ever once
gushed into the sunshine It was due in part to all these causes but still more
to something else that there seemed to be no longer any thing in Hesters face
for Love to dwell upon nothing in Hesters form though majestic and
statuelike that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace nothing
in Hesters bosom to make it ever again the pillow of Affection Some attribute
had departed from her the permanence of which had been essential to keep her a
woman Such is frequently the fate and such the stern development of the
feminine character and person when the woman has encountered and lived
through an experience of peculiar severity If she be all tenderness she will
die If she survive the tenderness will either be crushed out of her or and
the outward semblance is the same crushed so deeply into her heart that it can
never show itself more The latter is perhaps the truest theory She who has
once been woman and ceased to be so might at any moment become a woman again
if there were only the magic touch to effect the transfiguration We shall see
whether Hester Prynne were ever afterwards so touched and so transfigured
Much of the marble coldness of Hesters impression was to be attributed to
the circumstance that her life had turned in a great measure from passion and
feeling to thought Standing alone in the world alone as to any dependence
on society and with little Pearl to be guided and protected alone and
hopeless of retrieving her position even had she not scorned to consider it
desirable she cast away the fragments of a broken chain The worlds law was
no law for her mind It was an age in which the human intellect newly
emancipated had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries
before Men of the sword had overthrown nobles and kings Men bolder than these
had overthrown and rearranged not actually but within the sphere of theory
which was their most real abode the whole system of ancient prejudice
wherewith was linked much of ancient principle Hester Prynne imbibed this
spirit She assumed a freedom of speculation then common enough on the other
side of the Atlantic but which our forefathers had they known of it would
have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the scarlet letter In
her lonesome cottage by the seashore thoughts visited her such as dared to
enter no other dwelling in New England shadowy guests that would have been as
perilous as demons to their entertainer could they have been seen so much as
knocking at her door
It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform
with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society The
thought suffices them without investing itself in the flesh and blood of
action So it seemed to be with Hester Yet had little Pearl never come to her
from the spiritual world it might have been far otherwise Then she might have
come down to us in history hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson as the foundress
of a religious sect She might in one of her phases have been a prophetess
She might and not improbably would have suffered death from the stern
tribunals of the period for attempting to undermine the foundations of the
Puritan establishment But in the education of her child the mothers
enthusiasm of thought had something to wreak itself upon Providence in the
person of this little girl had assigned to Hesters charge the germ and blossom
of womanhood to be cherished and developed amid a host of difficulties Every
thing was against her The world was hostile The childs own nature had
something wrong in it which continually betokened that she had been born amiss
the effluence of her mothers lawless passion and often impelled Hester to
ask in bitterness of heart whether it were for ill or good that the poor
little creature had been born at all
Indeed the same dark question often rose into her mind with reference to
the whole race of womanhood Was existence worth accepting even to the happiest
among them As concerned her own individual existence she had long ago decided
in the negative and dismissed the point as settled A tendency to speculation
though it may keep woman quiet as it does man yet makes her sad She discerns
it may be such a hopeless task before her As a first step the whole system of
society is to be torn down and built up anew Then the very nature of the
opposite sex or its long hereditary habit which has become like nature is to
be essentially modified before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair
and suitable position Finally all other difficulties being obviated woman
cannot take advantage of these preliminary reforms until she herself shall have
undergone a still mightier change in which perhaps the ethereal essence
wherein she has her truest life will be found to have evaporated A woman never
overcomes these problems by any exercise of thought They are not to be solved
or only in one way If her heart chance to come uppermost they vanish Thus
Hester Prynne whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb wandered
without a clew in the dark labyrinth of mind now turned aside by an
insurmountable precipice now starting back from a deep chasm There was wild
and ghastly scenery all around her and a home and comfort nowhere At times a
fearful doubt strove to possess her soul whether it were not better to send
Pearl at once to heaven and go herself to such futurity as Eternal Justice
should provide
The scarlet letter had not done its office
Now however her interview with the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale on the night
of his vigil had given her a new theme of reflection and held up to her an
object that appeared worthy of any exertion and sacrifice for its attainment
She had witnessed the intense misery beneath which the minister struggled or
to speak more accurately had ceased to struggle She saw that he stood on the
verge of lunacy if he had not already stepped across it It was impossible to
doubt that whatever painful efficacy there might be in the secret sting of
remorse a deadlier venom had been infused into it by the hand that proffered
relief A secret enemy had been continually by his side under the semblance of
a friend and helper and had availed himself of the opportunities thus afforded
for tampering with the delicate springs of Mr Dimmesdales nature Hester could
not but ask herself whether there had not originally been a defect of truth
courage and loyalty on her own part in allowing the minister to be thrown
into a position where so much evil was to be foreboded and nothing auspicious
to be hoped Her only justification lay in the fact, that she had been able to
discern no method of rescuing him from a blacker ruin than had overwhelmed
herself except by acquiescing in Roger Chillingworths scheme of disguise
Under that impulse she had made her choice and had chosen as it now appeared
the more wretched alternative of the two She determined to redeem her error so
far as it might yet be possible Strengthened by years of hard and solemn trial
she felt herself no longer so inadequate to cope with Roger Chillingworth as on
that night abased by sin and half maddened by the ignominy that was still new
when they had talked together in the prisonchamber She had climbed her way
since then to a higher point The old man on the other hand had brought
himself nearer to her level or perhaps below it by the revenge which he had
stooped for
In fine Hester Prynne resolved to meet her former husband and do what
might be in her power for the rescue of the victim on whom he had so evidently
set his gripe The occasion was not long to seek One afternoon walking with
Pearl in a retired part of the peninsula she beheld the old physician with a
basket on one arm and a staff in the other hand stooping along the ground in
quest of roots and herbs to concoct his medicines withal
XIV Hester and the Physician
Hester bade little Pearl run down to the margin of the water and play with the
shells and tangled seaweed until she should have talked awhile with yonder
gatherer of herbs So the child flew away like a bird and making bare her
small white feet went pattering along the moist margin of the sea Here and
there she came to a full stop and peeped curiously into a pool left by the
retiring tide as a mirror for Pearl to see her face in Forth peeped at her out
of the pool with dark glistening curls around her head and an elfsmile in
her eyes the image of a little maid whom Pearl having no other playmate
invited to take her hand and run a race with her But the visionary little maid
on her part beckoned likewise as if to say »This is a better place Come
thou into the pool« And Pearl stepping in midleg deep beheld her own white
feet at the bottom while out of a still lower depth came the gleam of a kind
of fragmentary smile floating to and fro in the agitated water
Meanwhile her mother had accosted the physician
»I would speak a word with you« said she »a word that concerns us much«
»Aha And is it Mistress Hester that has a word for old Roger
Chillingworth« answered he raising himself from his stooping posture »With
all my heart Why Mistress I hear good tidings of you on all hands No longer
ago than yestereve a magistrate a wise and godly man was discoursing of your
affairs Mistress Hester and whispered me that there had been question
concerning you in the council It was debated whether or no with safety to the
common weal yonder scarlet letter might be taken off your bosom On my life
Hester I made my entreaty to the worshipful magistrate that it might be done
forthwith«
»It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge«
calmly replied Hester »Were I worthy to be quit of it it would fall away of
its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different
purport«
»Nay then wear it if it suit you better« rejoined he »A woman must
needs follow her own fancy touching the adornment of her person The letter is
gayly embroidered and shows right bravely on your bosom«
All this while Hester had been looking steadily at the old man and was
shocked as well as wondersmitten to discern what a change had been wrought
upon him within the past seven years It was not so much that he had grown
older for though the traces of advancing life were visible he bore his age
well and seemed to retain a wiry vigor and alertness But the former aspect of
an intellectual and studious man calm and quiet which was what she best
remembered in him had altogether vanished and been succeeded by an eager
searching almost fierce yet carefully guarded look It seemed to be his wish
and purpose to mask this expression with a smile but the latter played him
false and flickered over his visage so derisively that the spectator could see
his blackness all the better for it Ever and anon too there came a glare of
red light out of his eyes as if the old mans soul were on fire and kept on
smouldering duskily within his breast until by some casual puff of passion it
was blown into a momentary flame This he repressed as speedily as possible and
strove to look as if nothing of the kind had happened
In a word old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of mans faculty
of transforming himself into a devil if he will only for a reasonable space of
time undertake a devils office This unhappy person had effected such a
transformation by devoting himself for seven years to the constant analysis of
a heart full of torture and deriving his enjoyment thence and adding fuel to
those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over
The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynnes bosom Here was another ruin
the responsibility of which came partly home to her
»What see you in my face« asked the physician »that you look at it so
earnestly«
»Something that would make me weep if there were any tears bitter enough
for it« answered she »But let it pass It is of yonder miserable man that I
would speak«
»And what of him« cried Roger Chillingworth eagerly as if he loved the
topic and were glad of an opportunity to discuss it with the only person of
whom he could make a confidant »Not to hide the truth Mistress Hester my
thoughts happen just now to be busy with the gentleman So speak freely and I
will make answer«
»When we last spake together« said Hester »now seven years ago it was
your pleasure to extort a promise of secrecy as touching the former relation
betwixt yourself and me As the life and good fame of yonder man were in your
hands there seemed no choice to me save to be silent in accordance with your
behest Yet it was not without heavy misgivings that I thus bound myself for
having cast off all duty towards other human beings there remained a duty
towards him and something whispered me that I was betraying it in pledging
myself to keep your counsel Since that day no man is so near to him as you
You tread behind his every footstep You are beside him sleeping and waking
You search his thoughts You burrow and rankle in his heart Your clutch is on
his life and you cause him to die daily a living death and still he knows you
not In permitting this I have surely acted a false part by the only man to
whom the power was left me to be true«
»What choice had you« asked Roger Chillingworth »My finger pointed at
this man would have hurled him from his pulpit into a dungeon thence
peradventure to the gallows«
»It had been better so« said Hester Prynne
»What evil have I done the man« asked Roger Chillingworth again »I tell
thee Hester Prynne the richest fee that ever physician earned from monarch
could not have bought such care as I have wasted on this miserable priest But
for my aid his life would have burned away in torments within the first two
years after the perpetration of his crime and thine For Hester his spirit
lacked the strength that could have borne up as thine has beneath a burden
like thy scarlet letter O I could reveal a goodly secret But enough What art
can do I have exhausted on him That he now breathes and creeps about on
earth is owing all to me«
»Better he had died at once« said Hester Prynne
»Yea woman thou sayest truly« cried old Roger Chillingworth letting the
lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her eyes »Better had he died at once
Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered And all all in the sight
of his worst enemy He has been conscious of me He has felt an influence
dwelling always upon him like a curse He knew by some spiritual sense for
the Creator never made another being so sensitive as this he knew that no
friendly hand was pulling at his heartstrings and that an eye was looking
curiously into him which sought only evil and found it But he knew not that
the eye and hand were mine With the superstition common to his brotherhood he
fancied himself given over to a fiend to be tortured with frightful dreams and
desperate thoughts the sting of remorse and despair of pardon as a foretaste
of what awaits him beyond the grave But it was the constant shadow of my
presence the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged
and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst
revenge Yea indeed he did not err there was a fiend at his elbow A
mortal man with once a human heart has become a fiend for his especial
torment«
The unfortunate physician while uttering these words lifted his hands with
a look of horror as if he had beheld some frightful shape which he could not
recognize usurping the place of his own image in a glass It was one of those
moments which sometimes occur only at the interval of years when a mans
moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his minds eye Not improbably he had
never before viewed himself as he did now
»Hast thou not tortured him enough« said Hester noticing the old mans
look »Has he not paid thee all«
»No no He has but increased the debt« answered the physician and as
he proceeded his manner lost its fiercer characteristics and subsided into
gloom »Dost thou remember me Hester as I was nine years agone Even then I
was in the autumn of my days nor was it the early autumn But all my life had
been made up of earnest studious thoughtful quiet years bestowed faithfully
for the increase of mine own knowledge and faithfully too though this latter
object was but casual to the other faithfully for the advancement of human
welfare No life had been more peaceful and innocent than mine few lives so
rich with benefits conferred Dost thou remember me Was I not though you might
deem me cold nevertheless a man thoughtful for others craving little for
himself kind true just and of constant if not warm affections Was I not
all this«
»All this and more« said Hester
»And what am I now« demanded he looking into her face and permitting the
whole evil within him to be written on his features »I have already told thee
what I am A fiend Who made me so«
»It was myself« cried Hester shuddering »It was I not less than he Why
hast thou not avenged thyself on me«
»I have left thee to the scarlet letter« replied Roger Chillingworth »If
that have not avenged me I can do no more«
He laid his finger on it with a smile
»It has avenged thee« answered Hester Prynne
»I judged no less« said the physician »And now what wouldst thou with me
touching this man«
»I must reveal the secret« answered Hester firmly »He must discern thee
in thy true character What may be the result I know not But this long debt of
confidence due from me to him whose bane and ruin I have been shall at length
be paid So far as concerns the overthrow or preservation of his fair fame and
his earthly state and perchance his life he is in thy hands Nor do I whom
the scarlet letter has disciplined to truth though it be the truth of redhot
iron entering into the soul nor do I perceive such advantage in his living
any longer a life of ghastly emptiness that I shall stoop to implore thy mercy
Do with him as thou wilt There is no good for him no good for me no good
for thee There is no good for little Pearl There is no path to guide us out of
this dismal maze«
»Woman I could wellnigh pity thee« said Roger Chillingworth unable to
restrain a thrill of admiration too for there was a quality almost majestic in
the despair which she expressed »Thou hadst great elements Peradventure hadst
thou met earlier with a better love than mine this evil had not been I pity
thee for the good that has been wasted in thy nature«
»And I thee« answered Hester Prynne »for the hatred that has transformed a
wise and just man to a fiend Wilt thou yet purge it out of thee and be once
more human If not for his sake then doubly for thine own Forgive and leave
his further retribution to the Power that claims it I said but now that there
could be no good event for him or thee or me who are here wandering together
in this gloomy maze of evil and stumbling at every step over the guilt
wherewith we have strewn our path It is not so There might be good for thee
and thee alone since thou hast been deeply wronged and hast it at thy will to
pardon Wilt thou give up that only privilege Wilt thou reject that priceless
benefit«
»Peace Hester peace« replied the old man with gloomy sternness »It is
not granted me to pardon I have no such power as thou tellest me of My old
faith long forgotten comes back to me and explains all that we do and all we
suffer By thy first step awry thou didst plant the germ of evil but since
that moment it has all been a dark necessity Ye that have wronged me are not
sinful save in a kind of typical illusion neither am I fiendlike who have
snatched a fiends office from his hands It is our fate Let the black flower
blossom as it may Now go thy ways and deal as thou wilt with yonder man«
He waved his hand and betook himself again to his employment of gathering
herbs
XV Hester and Pearl
So Roger Chillingworth a deformed old figure with a face that haunted mens
memories longer than they liked took leave of Hester Prynne and went stooping
away along the earth He gathered here and there an herb or grubbed up a root
and put it into the basket on his arm His gray beard almost touched the ground
as he crept onward Hester gazed after him a little while looking with a
halffantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would
not be blighted beneath him and show the wavering track of his footsteps sere
and brown across its cheerful verdure She wondered what sort of herbs they
were which the old man was so sedulous to gather Would not the earth
quickened to an evil purpose by the sympathy of his eye greet him with
poisonous shrubs of species hitherto unknown that would start up under his
fingers Or might it suffice him that every wholesome growth should be
converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch Did the sun
which shone so brightly everywhere else really fall upon him Or was there as
it rather seemed a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity
whichever way he turned himself And whither was he now going Would he not
suddenly sink into the earth leaving a barren and blasted spot where in due
course of time would be seen deadly nightshade dogwood henbane and whatever
else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce all flourishing with
hideous luxuriance Or would he spread bats wings and flee away looking so
much the uglier the higher he rose towards heaven
»Be it sin or no« said Hester Prynne bitterly as she still gazed after
him »I hate the man«
She upbraided herself for the sentiment but could not overcome or lessen
it Attempting to do so she thought of those longpast days in a distant land
when he used to emerge at eventide from the seclusion of his study and sit down
in the firelight of their home and in the light of her nuptial smile He
needed to bask himself in that smile he said in order that the chill of so
many lonely hours among his books might be taken off the scholars heart Such
scenes had once appeared not otherwise than happy but now as viewed through
the dismal medium of her subsequent life they classed themselves among her
ugliest remembrances She marvelled how such scenes could have been She
marvelled how she could ever have been wrought upon to marry him She deemed it
her crime most to be repented of that she had ever endured and reciprocated
the lukewarm grasp of his hand and had suffered the smile of her lips and eyes
to mingle and melt into his own And it seemed a fouler offence committed by
Roger Chillingworth than any which had since been done him that in the time
when her heart knew no better he had persuaded her to fancy herself happy by
his side
»Yes I hate him« repeated Hester more bitterly than before »He betrayed
me He has done me worse wrong than I did him«
Let men tremble to win the hand of woman unless they win along with it the
utmost passion of her heart Else it may be their miserable fortune as it was
Roger Chillingworths when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened
all her sensibilities to be reproached even for the calm content the marble
image of happiness which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality
But Hester ought long ago to have done with this injustice What did it betoken
Had seven long years under the torture of the scarlet letter inflicted so much
of misery and wrought out no repentance
The emotions of that brief space while she stood gazing after the crooked
figure of old Roger Chillingworth threw a dark light on Hesters state of mind
revealing much that she might not otherwise have acknowledged to herself
He being gone she summoned back her child
»Pearl Little Pearl Where are you«
Pearl whose activity of spirit never flagged had been at no loss for
amusement while her mother talked with the old gatherer of herbs At first as
already told she had flirted fancifully with her own image in a pool of water
beckoning the phantom forth and as it declined to venture seeking a passage
for herself into its sphere of impalpable earth and unattainable sky Soon
finding however that either she or the image was unreal she turned elsewhere
for better pastime She made little boats out of birchbark and freighted them
with snailshells and sent out more ventures on the mighty deep than any
merchant in New England but the larger part of them foundered near the shore
She seized a live horseshoe by the tail and made prize of several fivefingers
and laid out a jellyfish to melt in the warm sun Then she took up the white
foam that streaked the line of the advancing tide and threw it upon the
breeze scampering after it with winged footsteps to catch the great
snowflakes ere they fell Perceiving a flock of beachbirds that fed and
fluttered along the shore the naughty child picked up her apron full of
pebbles and creeping from rock to rock after these small seafowl displayed
remarkable dexterity in pelting them One little gray bird with a white breast
Pearl was almost sure had been hit by a pebble and fluttered away with a
broken wing But then the elfchild sighed and gave up her sport because it
grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the
seabreeze or as wild as Pearl herself
Her final employment was to gather seaweed of various kinds and make
herself a scarf or mantle and a headdress and thus assume the aspect of a
little mermaid She inherited her mothers gift for devising drapery and
costume As the last touch to her mermaids garb Pearl took some eelgrass and
imitated as best she could on her own bosom the decoration with which she was
so familiar on her mothers A letter the letter A but freshly green
instead of scarlet The child bent her chin upon her breast and contemplated
this device with strange interest even as if the one only thing for which she
had been sent into the world was to make out its hidden import
»I wonder if mother will ask me what it means« thought Pearl
Just then she heard her mothers voice and flitting along as lightly as
one of the little seabirds appeared before Hester Prynne dancing laughing
and pointing her finger to the ornament upon her bosom
»My little Pearl« said Hester after a moments silence »the green letter
and on thy childish bosom has no purport But dost thou know my child what
this letter means which thy mother is doomed to wear«
»Yes mother« said the child »It is the great letter A Thou hast taught
it me in the hornbook«
Hester looked steadily into her little face but though there was that
singular expression which she had so often remarked in her black eyes she could
not satisfy herself whether Pearl really attached any meaning to the symbol She
felt a morbid desire to ascertain the point
»Dost thou know child wherefore thy mother wears this letter«
»Truly do I« answered Pearl looking brightly into her mothers face »It
is for the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart«
»And what reason is that« asked Hester half smiling at the absurd
incongruity of the childs observation but on second thoughts turning pale
»What has the letter to do with any heart save mine«
»Nay mother I have told all I know« said Pearl more seriously than she
was wont to speak »Ask yonder old man whom thou hast been talking with It may
be he can tell But in good earnest now mother dear what does this scarlet
letter mean and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom and why does the
minister keep his hand over his heart«
She took her mothers hand in both her own and gazed into her eyes with an
earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild and capricious character The
thought occurred to Hester that the child might really be seeking to approach
her with childlike confidence and doing what she could and as intelligently as
she knew how to establish a meetingpoint of sympathy It showed Pearl in an
unwonted aspect Heretofore the mother while loving her child with the
intensity of a sole affection had schooled herself to hope for little other
return than the waywardness of an April breeze which spends its time in airy
sport and has its gusts of inexplicable passion and is petulant in its best of
moods and chills oftener than caresses you when you take it to your bosom in
requital of which misdemeanours it will sometimes of its own vague purpose
kiss your cheek with a kind of doubtful tenderness and play gently with your
hair and then begone about its other idle business leaving a dreamy pleasure
at your heart And this moreover was a mothers estimate of the childs
disposition Any other observer might have seen few but unamiable traits and
have given them a far darker coloring But now the idea came strongly into
Hesters mind that Pearl with her remarkable precocity and acuteness might
already have approached the age when she could be made a friend and intrusted
with as much of her mothers sorrows as could be imparted without irreverence
either to the parent or the child In the little chaos of Pearls character
there might be seen emerging and could have been from the very first the
stedfast principles of an unflinching courage an uncontrollable will a
sturdy pride which might be disciplined into selfrespect and a bitter scorn
of many things which when examined might be found to have the taint of
falsehood in them She possessed affections too though hitherto acrid and
disagreeable as are the richest flavors of unripe fruit With all these
sterling attributes thought Hester the evil which she inherited from her
mother must be great indeed if a noble woman do not grow out of this elfish
child
Pearls inevitable tendency to hover about the enigma of the scarlet letter
seemed an innate quality of her being From the earliest epoch of her conscious
life she had entered upon this as her appointed mission Hester had often
fancied that Providence had a design of justice and retribution in endowing the
child with this marked propensity but never until now had she bethought
herself to ask whether linked with that design there might not likewise be a
purpose of mercy and beneficence If little Pearl were entertained with faith
and trust as a spiritmessenger no less than an earthly child might it not be
her errand to soothe away the sorrow that lay cold in her mothers heart and
converted it into a tomb and to help her to overcome the passion once so
wild and even yet neither dead nor asleep but only imprisoned within the same
tomblike heart
Such were some of the thoughts that now stirred in Hesters mind with as
much vivacity of impression as if they had actually been whispered into her ear
And there was little Pearl all this while holding her mothers hand in both
her own and turning her face upward while she put these searching questions
once and again and still a third time
»What does the letter mean mother and why dost thou wear it and why
does the minister keep his hand over his heart«
»What shall I say« thought Hester to herself »No If this be the price
of the childs sympathy I cannot pay it«
Then she spoke aloud
»Silly Pearl« said she »what questions are these There are many things in
this world that a child must not ask about What know I of the ministers heart
And as for the scarlet letter I wear it for the sake of its gold thread«
In all the seven bygone years Hester Prynne had never before been false to
the symbol on her bosom It may be that it was the talisman of a stern and
severe but yet a guardian spirit who now forsook her as recognizing that in
spite of his strict watch over her heart some new evil had crept into it or
some old one had never been expelled As for little Pearl the earnestness soon
passed out of her face
But the child did not see fit to let the matter drop Two or three times as
her mother and she went homeward and as often at suppertime and while Hester
was putting her to bed and once after she seemed to be fairly asleep Pearl
looked up with mischief gleaming in her black eyes
»Mother« said she »what does the scarlet letter mean«
And the next morning the first indication the child gave of being awake was
by popping up her head from the pillow and making that other inquiry which she
had so unaccountably connected with her investigations about the scarlet letter
»Mother Mother Why does the minister keep his hand over his heart«
»Hold thy tongue naughty child« answered her mother with an asperity that
she had never permitted to herself before »Do not tease me else I shall shut
thee into the dark closet«
XVI A Forest Walk
Hester Prynne remained constant in her resolve to make known to Mr Dimmesdale
at whatever risk of present pain or ulterior consequences the true character of
the man who had crept into his intimacy For several days however she vainly
sought an opportunity of addressing him in some of the meditative walks which
she knew him to be in the habit of taking along the shores of the peninsula or
on the wooded hills of the neighbouring country There would have been no
scandal indeed nor peril to the holy whiteness of the clergymans good fame
had she visited him in his own study where many a penitent ere now had
confessed sins of perhaps as deep a dye as the one betokened by the scarlet
letter But partly that she dreaded the secret or undisguised interference of
old Roger Chillingworth and partly that her conscious heart imputed suspicion
where none could have been felt and partly that both the minister and she would
need the whole wide world to breathe in while they talked together for all
these reasons Hester never thought of meeting him in any narrower privacy than
beneath the open sky
At last while attending in a sickchamber whither the Reverend Mr
Dimmesdale had been summoned to make a prayer she learnt that he had gone the
day before to visit the Apostle Eliot among his Indian converts He would
probably return by a certain hour in the afternoon of the morrow Betimes
therefore the next day Hester took little Pearl who was necessarily the
companion of all her mothers expeditions however inconvenient her presence
and set forth
The road after the two wayfarers had crossed from the peninsula to the
mainland was no other than a footpath It straggled onward into the mystery of
the primeval forest This hemmed it in so narrowly and stood so black and dense
on either side and disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above that to
Hesters mind it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in which she had so long
been wandering The day was chill and sombre Overhead was a gray expanse of
cloud slightly stirred however by a breeze so that a gleam of flickering
sunshine might now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path This
flitting cheerfulness was always at the farther extremity of some long vista
through the forest The sportive sunlight feebly sportive at best in the
predominant pensiveness of the day and scene withdrew itself as they came
nigh and left the spots where it had danced the drearier because they had
hoped to find them bright
»Mother« said little Pearl »the sunshine does not love you It runs away
and hides itself because it is afraid of something on your bosom Now see
There it is playing a good way off Stand you here and let me run and catch
it I am but a child It will not flee from me for I wear nothing on my bosom
yet«
»Nor ever will my child I hope« said Hester
»And why not mother« asked Pearl stopping short just at the beginning of
her race »Will not it come of its own accord when I am a woman grown«
»Run away child« answered her mother »and catch the sunshine It will
soon be gone«
Pearl set forth at a great pace and as Hester smiled to perceive did
actually catch the sunshine and stood laughing in the midst of it all
brightened by its splendor and scintillating with the vivacity excited by rapid
motion The light lingered about the lonely child as if glad of such a
playmate until her mother had drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic
circle too
»It will go now« said Pearl shaking her head
»See« answered Hester smiling »Now I can stretch out my hand and grasp
some of it«
As she attempted to do so the sunshine vanished or to judge from the
bright expression that was dancing on Pearls features her mother could have
fancied that the child had absorbed it into herself and would give it forth
again with a gleam about her path as they should plunge into some gloomier
shade There was no other attribute that so much impressed her with a sense of
new and untransmitted vigor in Pearls nature as this neverfailing vivacity of
spirits she had not the disease of sadness which almost all children in these
latter days inherit with the scrofula from the troubles of their ancestors
Perhaps this too was a disease and but the reflex of the wild energy with which
Hester had fought against her sorrows before Pearls birth It was certainly a
doubtful charm imparting a hard metallic lustre to the childs character She
wanted what some people want throughout life a grief that should deeply
touch her and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy But there was
time enough yet for little Pearl
»Come my child« said Hester looking about her from the spot where Pearl
had stood still in the sunshine »We will sit down a little way within the wood
and rest ourselves«
»I am not aweary mother« replied the little girl »But you may sit down
if you will tell me a story meanwhile«
»A story child« said Hester »And about what«
»O a story about the Black Man« answered Pearl taking hold of her
mothers gown and looking up half earnestly half mischievously into her
face »How he haunts this forest and carries a book with him a big heavy
book with iron clasps and how this ugly Black Man offers his book and an iron
pen to every body that meets him here among the trees and they are to write
their names with their own blood And then he sets his mark on their bosoms
Didst thou ever meet the Black Man mother«
»And who told you this story Pearl« asked her mother recognizing a common
superstition of the period
»It was the old dame in the chimneycorner at the house where you watched
last night« said the child »But she fancied me asleep while she was talking of
it She said that a thousand and a thousand people had met him here and had
written in his book and have his mark on them And that uglytempered lady old
Mistress Hibbins was one And mother the old dame said that this scarlet
letter was the Black Mans mark on thee and that it glows like a red flame when
thou meetest him at midnight here in the dark wood Is it true mother And
dost thou go to meet him in the nighttime«
»Didst thou ever awake and find thy mother gone« asked Hester
»Not that I remember« said the child »If thou fearest to leave me in our
cottage thou mightest take me along with thee I would very gladly go But
mother tell me now Is there such a Black Man And didst thou ever meet him
And is this his mark«
»Wilt thou let me be at peace if I once tell thee« asked her mother
»Yes if thou tellest me all« answered Pearl
»Once in my life I met the Black Man« said her mother »This scarlet letter
is his mark«
Thus conversing they entered sufficiently deep into the wood to secure
themselves from the observation of any casual passenger along the foresttrack
Here they sat down on a luxuriant heap of moss which at some epoch of the
preceding century had been a gigantic pine with its roots and trunk in the
darksome shade and its head aloft in the upper atmosphere It was a little dell
where they had seated themselves with a leafstrewn bank rising gently on
either side and a brook flowing through the midst over a bed of fallen and
drowned leaves The trees impending over it had flung down great branches from
time to time which choked up the current and compelled it to form eddies and
black depths at some points while in its swifter and livelier passages there
appeared a channelway of pebbles and brown sparkling sand Letting the eyes
follow along the course of the stream they could catch the reflected light from
its water at some short distance within the forest but soon lost all traces of
it amid the bewilderment of treetrunks and underbrush and here and there a
huge rock covered over with gray lichens All these giant trees and boulders of
granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this small brook
fearing perhaps that with its neverceasing loquacity it should whisper
tales out of the heart of the old forest whence it flowed or mirror its
revelations on the smooth surface of a pool Continually indeed as it stole
onward the streamlet kept up a babble kind quiet soothing but melancholy
like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without
playfulness and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintance and events of
sombre hue
»O brook O foolish and tiresome little brook« cried Pearl after listening
awhile to its talk »Why art thou so sad Pluck up a spirit and do not be all
the time sighing and murmuring«
But the brook in the course of its little lifetime among the foresttrees
had gone through so solemn an experience that it could not help talking about
it and seemed to have nothing else to say Pearl resembled the brook inasmuch
as the current of her life gushed from a wellspring as mysterious and had
flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom But unlike the little
stream she danced and sparkled and prattled airily along her course
»What does this sad little brook say mother« inquired she
»If thou hadst a sorrow of thine own the brook might tell thee of it«
answered her mother »even as it is telling me of mine But now Pearl I hear a
footstep along the path and the noise of one putting aside the branches I
would have thee betake thyself to play and leave me to speak with him that
comes yonder«
»Is it the Black Man« asked Pearl
»Wilt thou go and play child« repeated her mother »But do not stray far
into the wood And take heed that thou come at my first call«
»Yes mother« answered Pearl »But if it be the Black Man wilt thou not
let me stay a moment and look at him with his big book under his arm«
»Go silly child« said her mother impatiently »It is no Black Man Thou
canst see him now through the trees It is the minister«
»And so it is« said the child »And mother he has his hand over his
heart Is it because when the minister wrote his name in the book the Black
Man set his mark in that place But why does he not wear it outside his bosom
as thou dost mother«
»Go now child and thou shalt tease me as thou wilt another time« cried
Hester Prynne »But do not stray far Keep where thou canst hear the babble of
the brook«
The child went singing away following up the current of the brook and
striving to mingle a more lightsome cadence with its melancholy voice But the
little stream would not be comforted and still kept telling its unintelligible
secret of some very mournful mystery that had happened or making a prophetic
lamentation about something that was yet to happen within the verge of the
dismal forest So Pearl who had enough of shadow in her own little life chose
to break off all acquaintance with this repining brook She set herself
therefore to gathering violets and woodanemones and some scarlet columbines
that she found growing in the crevices of a high rock
When her elfchild had departed Hester Prynne made a step or two towards
the track that led through the forest but still remained under the deep shadow
of the trees She beheld the minister advancing along the path entirely alone
and leaning on a staff which he had cut by the wayside He looked haggard and
feeble and betrayed a nerveless despondency in his air which had never so
remarkably characterized him in his walks about the settlement nor in any other
situation where he deemed himself liable to notice Here it was wofully visible
in this intense seclusion of the forest which of itself would have been a heavy
trial to the spirits There was a listlessness in his gait as if he saw no
reason for taking one step farther nor felt any desire to do so but would have
been glad could he be glad of any thing to fling himself down at the root of
the nearest tree and lie there passive for evermore The leaves might bestrew
him and the soil gradually accumulate and form a little hillock over his frame
no matter whether there were life in it or no Death was too definite an object
to be wished for or avoided
To Hesters eye the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale exhibited no symptom of
positive and vivacious suffering except that as little Pearl had remarked he
kept his hand over his heart
XVII The Pastor and his Parishioner
Slowly as the minister walked he had almost gone by before Hester Prynne could
gather voice enough to attract his observation At length she succeeded
»Arthur Dimmesdale« she said faintly at first then louder but hoarsely
»Arthur Dimmesdale«
»Who speaks« answered the minister
Gathering himself quickly up he stood more erect like a man taken by
surprise in a mood to which he was reluctant to have witnesses Throwing his
eyes anxiously in the direction of the voice he indistinctly beheld a form
under the trees clad in garments so sombre and so little relieved from the
gray twilight into which the clouded sky and the heavy foliage had darkened the
noontide that he knew not whether it were a woman or a shadow It may be that
his pathway through life was haunted thus by a spectre that had stolen out from
among his thoughts
He made a step nigher and discovered the scarlet letter
»Hester Hester Prynne« said he »Is it thou Art thou in life«
»Even so« she answered »In such life as has been mine these seven years
past And thou Arthur Dimmesdale dost thou yet live«
It was no wonder that they thus questioned one anothers actual and bodily
existence and even doubted of their own So strangely did they meet in the dim
wood that it was like the first encounter in the world beyond the grave of
two spirits who had been intimately connected in their former life but now
stood coldly shuddering in mutual dread as not yet familiar with their state
nor wonted to the companionship of disembodied beings Each a ghost and
awestricken at the other ghost They were awestricken likewise at themselves
because the crisis flung back to them their consciousness and revealed to each
heart its history and experience as life never does except at such breathless
epochs The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment It was
with fear and tremulously and as it were by a slow reluctant necessity
that Arthur Dimmesdale put forth his hand chill as death and touched the chill
hand of Hester Prynne The grasp cold as it was took away what was dreariest
in the interview They now felt themselves at least inhabitants of the same
sphere
Without a word more spoken neither he nor she assuming the guidance but
with an unexpressed consent they glided back into the shadow of the woods
whence Hester had emerged and sat down on the heap of moss where she and Pearl
had before been sitting When they found voice to speak it was at first only
to utter remarks and inquiries such as any two acquaintance might have made
about the gloomy sky the threatening storm and next the health of each Thus
they went onward not boldly but step by step into the themes that were
brooding deepest in their hearts So long estranged by fate and circumstances
they needed something slight and casual to run before and throw open the doors
of intercourse so that their real thoughts might be led across the threshold
After a while the minister fixed his eyes on Hester Prynnes
»Hester« said he »hast thou found peace«
She smiled drearily looking down upon her bosom
»Hast thou« she asked
»None nothing but despair« he answered »What else could I look for
being what I am and leading such a life as mine Were I an atheist a man
devoid of conscience a wretch with coarse and brutal instincts I might
have found peace long ere now Nay I never should have lost it But as
matters stand with my soul whatever of good capacity there originally was in
me all of Gods gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of
spiritual torment Hester I am most miserable«
»The people reverence thee« said Hester »And surely thou workest good
among them Doth this bring thee no comfort«
»More misery Hester only the more misery« answered the clergyman with
a bitter smile »As concerns the good which I may appear to do I have no faith
in it It must needs be a delusion What can a ruined soul like mine effect
towards the redemption of other souls or a polluted soul towards their
purification And as for the peoples reverence would that it were turned to
scorn and hatred Canst thou deem it Hester a consolation that I must stand
up in my pulpit and meet so many eyes turned upward to my face as if the light
of heaven were beaming from it must see my flock hungry for the truth and
listening to my words as if a tongue of Pentecost were speaking and then look
inward and discern the black reality of what they idolize I have laughed in
bitterness and agony of heart at the contrast between what I seem and what I
am And Satan laughs at it«
»You wrong yourself in this« said Hester gently »You have deeply and
sorely repented Your sin is left behind you in the days long past Your
present life is not less holy in very truth than it seems in peoples eyes Is
there no reality in the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works And
wherefore should it not bring you peace«
»No Hester no« replied the clergyman »There is no substance in it It is
cold and dead and can do nothing for me Of penance I have had enough Of
penitence there has been none Else I should long ago have thrown off these
garments of mock holiness and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me
at the judgmentseat Happy are you Hester that wear the scarlet letter openly
upon your bosom Mine burns in secret Thou little knowest what a relief it is
after the torment of a seven years cheat to look into an eye that recognizes
me for what I am Had I one friend or were it my worst enemy to whom when
sickened with the praises of all other men I could daily betake myself and be
known as the vilest of all sinners methinks my soul might keep itself alive
thereby Even thus much of truth would save me But now it is all falsehood
all emptiness all death«
Hester Prynne looked into his face but hesitated to speak Yet uttering
his longrestrained emotions so vehemently as he did his words here offered her
the very point of circumstances in which to interpose what she came to say She
conquered her fears and spoke
»Such a friend as thou hast even now wished for« said she »with whom to
weep over thy sin thou hast in me the partner of it« Again she hesitated
but brought out the words with an effort »Thou hast long had such an enemy
and dwellest with him under the same roof«
The minister started to his feet gasping for breath and clutching at his
heart as if he would have torn it out of his bosom
»Ha What sayest thou« cried he »An enemy And under mine own roof What
mean you«
Hester Prynne was now fully sensible of the deep injury for which she was
responsible to this unhappy man in permitting him to lie for so many years or
indeed for a single moment at the mercy of one whose purposes could not be
other than malevolent The very contiguity of his enemy beneath whatever mask
the latter might conceal himself was enough to disturb the magnetic sphere of a
being so sensitive as Arthur Dimmesdale There had been a period when Hester was
less alive to this consideration or perhaps in the misanthropy of her own
trouble she left the minister to bear what she might picture to herself as a
more tolerable doom But of late since the night of his vigil all her
sympathies towards him had been both softened and invigorated She now read his
heart more accurately She doubted not that the continual presence of Roger
Chillingworth the secret poison of his malignity infecting all the air about
him and his authorized interference as a physician with the ministers
physical and spiritual infirmities that these bad opportunities had been
turned to a cruel purpose By means of them the sufferers conscience had been
kept in an irritated state the tendency of which was not to cure by wholesome
pain but to disorganize and corrupt his spiritual being Its result on earth
could hardly fail to be insanity and hereafter that eternal alienation from
the Good and True of which madness is perhaps the earthly type
Such was the ruin to which she had brought the man once nay why should
we not speak it still so passionately loved Hester felt that the sacrifice
of the clergymans good name and death itself as she had already told Roger
Chillingworth would have been infinitely preferable to the alternative which
she had taken upon herself to choose And now rather than have had this
grievous wrong to confess she would gladly have lain down on the forestleaves
and died there at Arthur Dimmesdales feet
»O Arthur« cried she »forgive me In all things else I have striven to be
true Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast and did hold fast
through all extremity save when thy good thy life thy fame were put in
question Then I consented to a deception But a lie is never good even though
death threaten on the other side Dost thou not see what I would say That old
man the physician he whom they call Roger Chillingworth he was my
husband«
The minister looked at her for an instant with all that violence of
passion which intermixed in more shapes than one with his higher purer
softer qualities was in fact the portion of him which the Devil claimed and
through which he sought to win the rest Never was there a blacker or a fiercer
frown than Hester now encountered For the brief space that it lasted it was a
dark transfiguration But his character had been so much enfeebled by suffering
that even its lower energies were incapable of more than a temporary struggle
He sank down on the ground and buried his face in his hands
»I might have known it« murmured he »I did know it Was not the secret
told me in the natural recoil of my heart at the first sight of him and as
often as I have seen him since Why did I not understand O Hester Prynne thou
little little knowest all the horror of this thing And the shame the
indelicacy the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick and guilty heart
to the very eye that would gloat over it Woman woman thou art accountable for
this I cannot forgive thee«
»Thou shalt forgive me« cried Hester flinging herself on the fallen leaves
beside him »Let God punish Thou shalt forgive«
With sudden and desperate tenderness she threw her arms around him and
pressed his head against her bosom little caring though his cheek rested on the
scarlet letter He would have released himself but strove in vain to do so
Hester would not set him free lest he should look her sternly in the face All
the world had frowned on her for seven long years had it frowned upon this
lonely woman and still she bore it all nor ever once turned away her firm
sad eyes Heaven likewise had frowned upon her and she had not died But the
frown of this pale weak sinful and sorrowstricken man was what Hester could
not bear and live
»Wilt thou yet forgive me« she repeated over and over again »Wilt thou
not frown Wilt thou forgive«
»I do forgive you Hester« replied the minister at length with a deep
utterance out of an abyss of sadness but no anger »I freely forgive you now
May God forgive us both We are not Hester the worst sinners in the world
There is one worse than even the polluted priest That old mans revenge has
been blacker than my sin He has violated in cold blood the sanctity of a
human heart Thou and I Hester never did so«
»Never never« whispered she »What we did had a consecration of its own.
We felt it so We said so to each other Hast thou forgotten it«
»Hush Hester« said Arthur Dimmesdale rising from the ground »No I have
not forgotten«
They sat down again side by side and hand clasped in hand on the mossy
trunk of the fallen tree Life had never brought them a gloomier hour it was
the point whither their pathway had so long been tending and darkening ever as
it stole along and yet it inclosed a charm that made them linger upon it and
claim another and another and after all another moment The forest was
obscure around them and creaked with a blast that was passing through it The
boughs were tossing heavily above their heads while one solemn old tree groaned
dolefully to another as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath
or constrained to forebode evil to come
And yet they lingered How dreary looked the foresttrack that led backward
to the settlement where Hester Prynne must take up again the burden of her
ignominy and the minister the hollow mockery of his good name So they lingered
an instant longer No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of
this dark forest Here seen only by his eyes the scarlet letter need not burn
into the bosom of the fallen woman Here seen only by her eyes Arthur
Dimmesdale false to God and man might be for one moment true
He started at a thought that suddenly occurred to him
»Hester« cried he »here is a new horror Roger Chillingworth knows your
purpose to reveal his true character Will he continue then to keep our
secret What will now be the course of his revenge«
»There is a strange secrecy in his nature« replied Hester thoughtfully
»and it has grown upon him by the hidden practices of his revenge I deem it not
likely that he will betray the secret He will doubtless seek other means of
satiating his dark passion«
»And I how am I to live longer breathing the same air with this deadly
enemy« exclaimed Arthur Dimmesdale shrinking within himself and pressing his
hand nervously against his heart a gesture that had grown involuntary with
him »Think for me Hester Thou art strong Resolve for me«
»Thou must dwell no longer with this man« said Hester slowly and firmly
»Thy heart must be no longer under his evil eye«
»It were far worse than death« replied the minister »But how to avoid it
What choice remains to me Shall I lie down again on these withered leaves
where I cast myself when thou didst tell me what he was Must I sink down there
and die at once«
»Alas what a ruin has befallen thee« said Hester with the tears gushing
into her eyes »Wilt thou die for very weakness There is no other cause«
»The judgment of God is on me« answered the consciencestricken priest »It
is too mighty for me to struggle with«
»Heaven would show mercy« rejoined Hester »hadst thou but the strength to
take advantage of it«
»Be thou strong for me« answered he »Advise me what to do«
»Is the world then so narrow« exclaimed Hester Prynne fixing her deep eyes
on the ministers and instinctively exercising a magnetic power over a spirit
so shattered and subdued that it could hardly hold itself erect »Doth the
universe lie within the compass of yonder town which only a little time ago was
but a leafstrewn desert as lonely as this around us Whither leads yonder
foresttrack Backward to the settlement thou sayest Yes but onward too
Deeper it goes and deeper into the wilderness less plainly to be seen at
every step until some few miles hence the yellow leaves will show no vestige
of the white mans tread There thou art free So brief a journey would bring
thee from a world where thou hast been most wretched to one where thou mayest
still be happy Is there not shade enough in all this boundless forest to hide
thy heart from the gaze of Roger Chillingworth«
»Yes Hester but only under the fallen leaves« replied the minister with
a sad smile
»Then there is the broad pathway of the sea« continued Hester »It brought
thee hither If thou so choose it will bear thee back again In our native
land whether in some remote rural village or in vast London or surely in
Germany in France in pleasant Italy thou wouldst be beyond his power and
knowledge And what hast thou to do with all these iron men and their opinions
They have kept thy better part in bondage too long already«
»It cannot be« answered the minister listening as if he were called upon
to realize a dream »I am powerless to go Wretched and sinful as I am I have
had no other thought than to drag on my earthly existence in the sphere where
Providence hath placed me Lost as my own soul is I would still do what I may
for other human souls I dare not quit my post though an unfaithful sentinel
whose sure reward is death and dishonor when his dreary watch shall come to an
end«
»Thou art crushed under this seven years weight of misery« replied Hester
fervently resolved to buoy him up with her own energy »But thou shalt leave it
all behind thee It shall not cumber thy steps as thou treadest along the
forestpath neither shalt thou freight the ship with it if thou prefer to
cross the sea Leave this wreck and ruin here where it hath happened Meddle no
more with it Begin all anew Hast thou exhausted possibility in the failure of
this one trial Not so The future is yet full of trial and success There is
happiness to be enjoyed There is good to be done Exchange this false life of
thine for a true one Be if thy spirit summon thee to such a mission the
teacher and apostle of the red men Or as is more thy nature be a scholar
and a sage among the wisest and the most renowned of the cultivated world
Preach Write Act Do any thing save to lie down and die Give up this name of
Arthur Dimmesdale and make thyself another and a high one such as thou canst
wear without fear or shame Why shouldst thou tarry so much as one other day in
the torments that have so gnawed into thy life that have made thee feeble to
will and to do that will leave thee powerless even to repent Up and away«
»O Hester« cried Arthur Dimmesdale in whose eyes a fitful light kindled
by her enthusiasm flashed up and died away »thou tellest of running a race to
a man whose knees are tottering beneath him I must die here There is not the
strength or courage left me to venture into the wide strange difficult world
alone«
It was the last expression of the despondency of a broken spirit He lacked
energy to grasp the better fortune that seemed within his reach
He repeated the word
»Alone Hester«
»Thou shalt not go alone« answered she in a deep whisper
Then all was spoken
XVIII A Flood of Sunshine
Arthur Dimmesdale gazed into Hesters face with a look in which hope and joy
shone out indeed but with fear betwixt them and a kind of horror at her
boldness who had spoken what he vaguely hinted at but dared not speak
But Hester Prynne with a mind of native courage and activity and for so
long a period not merely estranged but outlawed from society had habituated
herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the
clergyman She had wandered without rule or guidance in a moral wilderness as
vast as intricate and shadowy as the untamed forest amid the gloom of which
they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate Her intellect
and heart had their home as it were in desert places where she roamed as
freely as the wild Indian in his woods For years past she had looked from this
estranged point of view at human institutions and whatever priests or
legislators had established criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the
Indian would feel for the clerical band the judicial robe the pillory the
gallows the fireside or the church The tendency of her fate and fortunes had
been to set her free The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where
other women dared not tread Shame Despair Solitude These had been her
teachers stern and wild ones and they had made her strong but taught her
much amiss
The minister on the other hand had never gone through an experience
calculated to lead him beyond the scope of generally received laws although in
a single instance he had so fearfully transgressed one of the most sacred of
them But this had been a sin of passion not of principle nor even purpose
Since that wretched epoch he had watched with morbid zeal and minuteness not
his acts for those it was easy to arrange but each breath of emotion and
his every thought At the head of the social system as the clergymen of that
day stood he was only the more trammelled by its regulations its principles
and even its prejudices As a priest the framework of his order inevitably
hemmed him in As a man who had once sinned but who kept his conscience all
alive and painfully sensitive by the fretting of an unhealed wound he might
have been supposed safer within the line of virtue than if he had never sinned
at all
Thus we seem to see that as regarded Hester Prynne the whole seven years
of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very
hour But Arthur Dimmesdale Were such a man once more to fall what plea could
be urged in extenuation of his crime None unless it avail him somewhat that
he was broken down by long and exquisite suffering that his mind was darkened
and confused by the very remorse which harrowed it that between fleeing as an
avowed criminal and remaining as a hypocrite conscience might find it hard to
strike the balance that it was human to avoid the peril of death and infamy
and the inscrutable machinations of an enemy that finally to this poor
pilgrim on his dreary and desert path faint sick miserable there appeared a
glimpse of human affection and sympathy a new life and a true one in exchange
for the heavy doom which he was now expiating And be the stern and sad truth
spoken that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never
in this mortal state repaired It may be watched and guarded so that the enemy
shall not force his way again into the citadel and might even in his
subsequent assaults select some other avenue in preference to that where he
had formerly succeeded But there is still the ruined wall and near it the
stealthy tread of the foe that would win over again his unforgotten triumph
The struggle if there were one need not be described Let it suffice that
the clergyman resolved to flee and not alone
»If in all these past seven years« thought he »I could recall one instant
of peace or hope I would yet endure for the sake of that earnest of Heavens
mercy But now since I am irrevocably doomed wherefore should I not snatch
the solace allowed to the condemned culprit before his execution Or if this be
the path to a better life as Hester would persuade me I surely give up no
fairer prospect by pursuing it Neither can I any longer live without her
companionship so powerful is she to sustain so tender to soothe O Thou to
whom I dare not lift mine eyes wilt Thou yet pardon me«
»Thou wilt go« said Hester calmly as he met her glance
The decision once made a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering
brightness over the trouble of his breast It was the exhilarating effect upon
a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart of breathing the
wild free atmosphere of an unredeemed unchristianized lawless region His
spirit rose as it were with a bound and attained a nearer prospect of the
sky than throughout all the misery which had kept him grovelling on the earth
Of a deeply religious temperament there was inevitably a tinge of the
devotional in his mood
»Do I feel joy again« cried he wondering at himself »Methought the germ
of it was dead in me O Hester thou art my better angel I seem to have flung
myself sick sinstained and sorrowblackened down upon these
forestleaves and to have risen up all made anew and with new powers to
glorify Him that hath been merciful This is already the better life Why did we
not find it sooner«
»Let us not look back« answered Hester Prynne »The past is gone Wherefore
should we linger upon it now See With this symbol I undo it all and make it
as it had never been«
So speaking she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and
taking it from her bosom threw it to a distance among the withered leaves The
mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream With a hands breadth
farther flight it would have fallen into the water and have given the little
brook another woe to carry onward besides the unintelligible tale which it
still kept murmuring about But there lay the embroidered letter glittering
like a lost jewel which some illfated wanderer might pick up and thenceforth
be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt sinkings of the heart and
unaccountable misfortune
The stigma gone Hester heaved a long deep sigh in which the burden of
shame and anguish departed from her spirit O exquisite relief She had not
known the weight until she felt the freedom By another impulse she took off
the formal cap that confined her hair and down it fell upon her shoulders dark
and rich with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance and imparting the
charm of softness to her features There played around her mouth and beamed out
of her eyes a radiant and tender smile that seemed gushing from the very heart
of womanhood A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek that had been long so
pale Her sex her youth and the whole richness of her beauty came back from
what men call the irrevocable past and clustered themselves with her maiden
hope and a happiness before unknown within the magic circle of this hour And
as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these two
mortal hearts it vanished with their sorrow All at once as with a sudden
smile of heaven forth burst the sunshine pouring a very flood into the obscure
forest gladdening each green leaf transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold
and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees The objects that had
made a shadow hitherto embodied the brightness now The course of the little
brook might be traced by its merry gleam afar into the woods heart of mystery
which had become a mystery of joy
Such was the sympathy of Nature that wild heathen Nature of the forest
never subjugated by human law nor illumined by higher truth with the bliss of
these two spirits Love whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike
slumber must always create a sunshine filling the heart so full of radiance
that it overflows upon the outward world Had the forest still kept its gloom
it would have been bright in Hesters eyes and bright in Arthur Dimmesdales
Hester looked at him with the thrill of another joy
»Thou must know Pearl« said she »Our little Pearl Thou hast seen her
yes I know it but thou wilt see her now with other eyes She is a strange
child I hardly comprehend her But thou wilt love her dearly as I do and wilt
advise me how to deal with her«
»Dost thou think the child will be glad to know me« asked the minister
somewhat uneasily »I have long shrunk from children because they often show a
distrust a backwardness to be familiar with me I have even been afraid of
little Pearl«
»Ah that was sad« answered the mother »But she will love thee dearly and
thou her She is not far off I will call her Pearl Pearl«
»I see the child« observed the minister »Yonder she is standing in a
streak of sunshine a good way off on the other side of the brook So thou
thinkest the child will love me«
Hester smiled and again called to Pearl who was visible at some distance
as the minister had described her like a brightapparelled vision in a
sunbeam which fell down upon her through an arch of boughs The ray quivered to
and fro making her figure dim or distinct now like a real child now like a
childs spirit as the splendor went and came again She heard her mothers
voice and approached slowly through the forest
Pearl had not found the hour pass wearisomely while her mother sat talking
with the clergyman The great black forest stern as it showed itself to those
who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom became the
playmate of the lonely infant as well as it knew how Sombre as it was it put
on the kindest of its moods to welcome her It offered her the
partridgeberries the growth of the preceding autumn but ripening only in the
spring and now red as drops of blood upon the withered leaves These Pearl
gathered and was pleased with their wild flavor The small denizens of the
wilderness hardly took pains to move out of her path A partridge indeed with
a brood of ten behind her ran forward threateningly but soon repented of her
fierceness and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid A pigeon alone on a
low branch allowed Pearl to come beneath and uttered a sound as much of
greeting as alarm A squirrel from the lofty depths of his domestic tree
chattered either in anger or merriment for a squirrel is such a choleric and
humorous little personage that it is hard to distinguish between his moods so
he chattered at the child and flung down a nut upon her head It was a last
years nut and already gnawed by his sharp tooth A fox startled from his
sleep by her light footstep on the leaves looked inquisitively at Pearl as
doubting whether it were better to steal off or renew his nap on the same spot
A wolf it is said but here the tale has surely lapsed into the improbable
came up and smelt of Pearls robe and offered his savage head to be patted by
her hand The truth seems to be however that the motherforest and these wild
things which it nourished all recognized a kindred wildness in the human child
And she was gentler here than in the grassymargined streets of the
settlement or in her mothers cottage The flowers appeared to know it and one
and another whispered as she passed »Adorn thyself with me thou beautiful
child adorn thyself with me« and to please them Pearl gathered the
violets and anemones and columbines and some twigs of the freshest green
which the old trees held down before her eyes With these she decorated her
hair and her young waist and became a nymphchild or an infant dryad or
whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood In such guise had
Pearl adorned herself when she heard her mothers voice and came slowly back
Slowly for she saw the clergyman
XIX The Child at the BrookSide
»Thou wilt love her dearly« repeated Hester Prynne as she and the minister sat
watching little Pearl »Dost thou not think her beautiful And see with what
natural skill she has made those simple flowers adorn her Had she gathered
pearls and diamonds and rubies in the wood they could not have become her
better She is a splendid child But I know whose brow she has«
»Dost thou know Hester« said Arthur Dimmesdale with an unquiet smile
»that this dear child tripping about always at thy side hath caused me many an
alarm Methought O Hester what a thought is that and how terrible to dread
it that my own features were partly repeated in her face and so strikingly
that the world might see them But she is mostly thine«
»No no Not mostly« answered the mother with a tender smile »A little
longer and thou needest not to be afraid to trace whose child she is But how
strangely beautiful she looks with those wild flowers in her hair It is as if
one of the fairies whom we left in our dear old England had decked her out to
meet us«
It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before experienced
that they sat and watched Pearls slow advance In her was visible the tie that
united them She had been offered to the world these seven years past as the
living hieroglyphic in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to
hide all written in this symbol all plainly manifest had there been a
prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame And Pearl was the
oneness of their being Be the foregone evil what it might how could they doubt
that their earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined when they beheld
at once the material union and the spiritual idea in whom they met and were
to dwell immortally together Thoughts like these and perhaps other thoughts
which they did not acknowledge or define threw an awe about the child as she
came onward
»Let her see nothing strange no passion nor eagerness in thy way of
accosting her« whispered Hester »Our Pearl is a fitful and fantastic little
elf sometimes Especially she is seldom tolerant of emotion when she does not
fully comprehend the why and wherefore But the child hath strong affections
She loves me and will love thee«
»Thou canst not think« said the minister glancing aside at Hester Prynne
»how my heart dreads this interview and yearns for it But in truth as I
already told thee children are not readily won to be familiar with me They
will not climb my knee nor prattle in my ear nor answer to my smile but stand
apart and eye me strangely Even little babes when I take them in my arms
weep bitterly Yet Pearl twice in her little lifetime hath been kind to me
The first time thou knowest it well The last was when thou ledst her with
thee to the house of yonder stern old Governor«
»And thou didst plead so bravely in her behalf and mine« answered the
mother »I remember it and so shall little Pearl Fear nothing She may be
strange and shy at first but will soon learn to love thee«
By this time Pearl had reached the margin of the brook and stood on the
farther side gazing silently at Hester and the clergyman who still sat
together on the mossy treetrunk waiting to receive her Just where she had
paused the brook chanced to form a pool so smooth and quiet that it reflected a
perfect image of her little figure with all the brilliant picturesqueness of
her beauty in its adornment of flowers and wreathed foliage but more refined
and spiritualized than the reality This image so nearly identical with the
living Pearl seemed to communicate somewhat of its own shadowy and intangible
quality to the child herself It was strange the way in which Pearl stood
looking so stedfastly at them through the dim medium of the forestgloom
herself meanwhile all glorified with a ray of sunshine that was attracted
thitherward as by a certain sympathy In the brook beneath stood another child
another and the same with likewise its ray of golden light Hester felt
herself in some indistinct and tantalizing manner estranged from Pearl as if
the child in her lonely ramble through the forest had strayed out of the
sphere in which she and her mother dwelt together and was now vainly seeking to
return to it
There was both truth and error in the impression the child and mother were
estranged but through Hesters fault not Pearls Since the latter rambled
from her side another inmate had been admitted within the circle of the
mothers feelings and so modified the aspect of them all that Pearl the
returning wanderer could not find her wonted place and hardly knew where she
was
»I have a strange fancy« observed the sensitive minister »that this brook
is the boundary between two worlds and that thou canst never meet thy Pearl
again Or is she an elfish spirit who as the legends of our childhood taught
us is forbidden to cross a running stream Pray hasten her for this delay has
already imparted a tremor to my nerves«
»Come dearest child« said Hester encouragingly and stretching out both
her arms »How slow thou art When hast thou been so sluggish before now Here
is a friend of mine who must be thy friend also Thou wilt have twice as much
love henceforward as thy mother alone could give thee Leap across the brook
and come to us Thou canst leap like a young deer«
Pearl without responding in any manner to these honeysweet expressions
remained on the other side of the brook Now she fixed her bright wild eyes on
her mother now on the minister and now included them both in the same glance
as if to detect and explain to herself the relation which they bore to one
another For some unaccountable reason as Arthur Dimmesdale felt the childs
eyes upon himself his hand with that gesture so habitual as to have become
involuntary stole over his heart At length assuming a singular air of
authority Pearl stretched out her hand with the small forefinger extended and
pointing evidently towards her mothers breast And beneath in the mirror of
the brook there was the flowergirdled and sunny image of little Pearl
pointing her small forefinger too
»Thou strange child why dost thou not come to me« exclaimed Hester
Pearl still pointed with her forefinger and a frown gathered on her brow
the more impressive from the childish the almost babylike aspect of the
features that conveyed it As her mother still kept beckoning to her and
arraying her face in a holiday suit of unaccustomed smiles the child stamped
her foot with a yet more imperious look and gesture In the brook again was
the fantastic beauty of the image with its reflected frown its pointed finger
and imperious gesture giving emphasis to the aspect of little Pearl
»Hasten Pearl or I shall be angry with thee« cried Hester Prynne who
however inured to such behaviour on the elfchilds part at other seasons was
naturally anxious for a more seemly deportment now »Leap across the brook
naughty child and run hither Else I must come to thee«
But Pearl not a whit startled at her mothers threats any more than
mollified by her entreaties now suddenly burst into a fit of passion
gesticulating violently and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant
contortions She accompanied this wild outbreak with piercing shrieks which the
woods reverberated on all sides so that alone as she was in her childish and
unreasonable wrath it seemed as if a hidden multitude were lending her their
sympathy and encouragement Seen in the brook once more was the shadowy wrath
of Pearls image crowned and girdled with flowers but stamping its foot
wildly gesticulating and in the midst of all still pointing its small
forefinger at Hesters bosom
»I see what ails the child« whispered Hester to the clergyman and turning
pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her trouble and annoyance »Children
will not abide any the slightest change in the accustomed aspect of things
that are daily before their eyes Pearl misses something which she has always
seen me wear«
»I pray you« answered the minister »if thou hast any means of pacifying
the child do it forthwith Save it were the cankered wrath of an old witch
like Mistress Hibbins« added he attempting to smile »I know nothing that I
would not sooner encounter than this passion in a child In Pearls young
beauty as in the wrinkled witch it has a preternatural effect Pacify her if
thou lovest me«
Hester turned again towards Pearl with a crimson blush upon her cheek a
conscious glance aside at the clergyman and then a heavy sigh while even
before she had time to speak the blush yielded to a deadly pallor
»Pearl« said she sadly »look down at thy feet There before thee on
the hither side of the brook«
The child turned her eyes to the point indicated and there lay the scarlet
letter so close upon the margin of the stream that the gold embroidery was
reflected in it
»Bring it hither« said Hester
»Come thou and take it up« answered Pearl
»Was ever such a child« observed Hester aside to the minister »O I have
much to tell thee about her But in very truth she is right as regards this
hateful token I must bear its torture yet a little longer only a few days
longer until we shall have left this region and look back hither as to a
land which we have dreamed of The forest cannot hide it The midocean shall
take it from my hand and swallow it up for ever«
With these words she advanced to the margin of the brook took up the
scarlet letter and fastened it again into her bosom Hopefully but a moment
ago as Hester had spoken of drowning it in the deep sea there was a sense of
inevitable doom upon her as she thus received back this deadly symbol from the
hand of fate She had flung it into infinite space she had drawn an hours
free breath and here again was the scarlet misery glittering on the old
spot So it ever is whether thus typified or no that an evil deed invests
itself with the character of doom Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of
her hair and confined them beneath her cap As if there were a withering spell
in the sad letter her beauty the warmth and richness of her womanhood
departed like fading sunshine and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her
When the dreary change was wrought she extended her hand to Pearl
»Dost thou know thy mother now child« asked she reproachfully but with a
subdued tone »Wilt thou come across the brook and own thy mother now that she
has her shame upon her now that she is sad«
»Yes now I will« answered the child bounding across the brook and
clasping Hester in her arms »Now thou art my mother indeed And I am thy little
Pearl«
In a mood of tenderness that was not usual with her she drew down her
mothers head and kissed her brow and both her cheeks But then by a kind of
necessity that always impelled this child to alloy whatever comfort she might
chance to give with a throb of anguish Pearl put up her mouth and kissed the
scarlet letter too
»That was not kind« said Hester »When thou hast shown me a little love
thou mockest me«
»Why doth the minister sit yonder« asked Pearl
»He waits to welcome thee« replied her mother »Come thou and entreat his
blessing He loves thee my little Pearl and loves thy mother too Wilt thou
not love him Come he longs to greet thee«
»Doth he love us« said Pearl looking up with acute intelligence into her
mothers face »Will he go back with us hand in hand we three together into
the town«
»Not now dear child« answered Hester »But in days to come he will walk
hand in hand with us We will have a home and fireside of our own and thou
shalt sit upon his knee and he will teach thee many things and love thee
dearly Thou wilt love him wilt thou not«
»And will he always keep his hand over his heart« inquired Pearl
»Foolish child what a question is that« exclaimed her mother »Come and
ask his blessing«
But whether influenced by the jealousy that seems instinctive with every
petted child towards a dangerous rival or from whatever caprice of her freakish
nature Pearl would show no favor to the clergyman It was only by an exertion
of force that her mother brought her up to him hanging back and manifesting
her reluctance by odd grimaces of which ever since her babyhood she had
possessed a singular variety and could transform her mobile physiognomy into a
series of different aspects with a new mischief in them each and all The
minister painfully embarrassed but hoping that a kiss might prove a talisman
to admit him into the childs kindlier regards bent forward and impressed one
on her brow Hereupon Pearl broke away from her mother and running to the
brook stooped over it and bathed her forehead until the unwelcome kiss was
quite washed off and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water She
then remained apart silently watching Hester and the clergyman while they
talked together and made such arrangements as were suggested by their new
position and the purposes soon to be fulfilled
And now this fateful interview had come to a close The dell was to be left
a solitude among its dark old trees which with their multitudinous tongues
would whisper long of what had passed there and no mortal be the wiser And the
melancholy brook would add this other tale to the mystery with which its little
heart was already overburdened and whereof it still kept up a murmuring babble
with not a whit more cheerfulness of tone than for ages heretofore
XX The Minister in a Maze
As the minister departed in advance of Hester Prynne and little Pearl he threw
a backward glance half expecting that he should discover only some faintly
traced features or outline of the mother and the child slowly fading into the
twilight of the woods So great a vicissitude in his life could not at once be
received as real But there was Hester clad in her gray robe still standing
beside the treetrunk which some blast had overthrown a long antiquity ago and
which time had ever since been covering with moss so that these two fated ones
with earths heaviest burden on them might there sit down together and find a
single hours rest and solace And there was Pearl too lightly dancing from
the margin of the brook now that the intrusive third person was gone and
taking her old place by her mothers side So the minister had not fallen
asleep and dreamed
In order to free his mind from this indistinctness and duplicity of
impression which vexed it with a strange disquietude he recalled and more
thoroughly defined the plans which Hester and himself had sketched for their
departure It had been determined between them that the Old World with its
crowds and cities offered them a more eligible shelter and concealment than the
wilds of New England or all America with its alternatives of an Indian wigwam
or the few settlements of Europeans scattered thinly along the seaboard Not to
speak of the clergymans health so inadequate to sustain the hardships of a
forest life his native gifts his culture and his entire development would
secure him a home only in the midst of civilization and refinement the higher
the state the more delicately adapted to it the man In furtherance of this
choice it so happened that a ship lay in the harbour one of those questionable
cruisers frequent at that day which without being absolutely outlaws of the
deep yet roamed over its surface with a remarkable irresponsibility of
character This vessel had recently arrived from the Spanish Main and within
three days time would sail for Bristol Hester Prynne whose vocation as a
selfenlisted Sister of Charity had brought her acquainted with the captain and
crew could take upon herself to secure the passage of two individuals and a
child with all the secrecy which circumstances rendered more than desirable
The minister had inquired of Hester with no little interest the precise
time at which the vessel might be expected to depart It would probably be on
the fourth day from the present »That is most fortunate« he had then said to
himself Now why the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale considered it so very fortunate
we hesitate to reveal Nevertheless to hold nothing back from the reader
it was because on the third day from the present he was to preach the Election
Sermon and as such an occasion formed an honorable epoch in the life of a New
England clergyman he could not have chanced upon a more suitable mode and time
of terminating his professional career »At least they shall say of me«
thought this exemplary man »that I leave no public duty unperformed nor ill
performed« Sad indeed that an introspection so profound and acute as this
poor ministers should be so miserably deceived We have had and may still
have worse things to tell of him but none we apprehend so pitiably weak no
evidence at once so slight and irrefragable of a subtle disease that had long
since begun to eat into the real substance of his character No man for any
considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude
without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true
The excitement of Mr Dimmesdales feelings as he returned from his
interview with Hester lent him unaccustomed physical energy and hurried him
townward at a rapid pace The pathway among the woods seemed wilder more
uncouth with its rude natural obstacles and less trodden by the foot of man
than he remembered it on his outward journey But he leaped across the plashy
places thrust himself through the clinging underbrush climbed the ascent
plunged into the hollow and overcame in short all the difficulties of the
track with an unweariable activity that astonished him He could not but recall
how feebly and with what frequent pauses for breath he had toiled over the
same ground only two days before As he drew near the town he took an
impression of change from the series of familiar objects that presented
themselves It seemed not yesterday not one nor two but many days or even
years ago since he had quitted them There indeed was each former trace of
the street as he remembered it and all the peculiarities of the houses with
the due multitude of gablepeaks and a weathercock at every point where his
memory suggested one Not the less however came this importunately obtrusive
sense of change The same was true as regarded the acquaintances whom he met
and all the wellknown shapes of human life about the little town They looked
neither older nor younger now the beards of the aged were no whiter nor could
the creeping babe of yesterday walk on his feet today it was impossible to
describe in what respect they differed from the individuals on whom he had so
recently bestowed a parting glance and yet the ministers deepest sense seemed
to inform him of their mutability A similar impression struck him most
remarkably as he passed under the walls of his own church The edifice had so
very strange and yet so familiar an aspect that Mr Dimmesdales mind
vibrated between two ideas either that he had seen it only in a dream hitherto
or that he was merely dreaming about it now
This phenomenon in the various shapes which it assumed indicated no
external change but so sudden and important a change in the spectator of the
familiar scene that the intervening space of a single day had operated on his
consciousness like the lapse of years The ministers own will and Hesters
will and the fate that grew between them had wrought this transformation It
was the same town as heretofore but the same minister returned not from the
forest He might have said to the friends who greeted him »I am not the man
for whom you take me I left him yonder in the forest withdrawn into a secret
dell by a mossy treetrunk and near a melancholy brook Go seek your
minister and see if his emaciated figure his thin cheek his white heavy
painwrinkled brow be not flung down there like a castoff garment« His
friends no doubt would still have insisted with him »Thou art thyself the
man« but the error would have been their own not his
Before Mr Dimmesdale reached home his inner man gave him other evidences
of a revolution in the sphere of thought and feeling In truth nothing short of
a total change of dynasty and moral code in that interior kingdom was adequate
to account for the impulses now communicated to the unfortunate and startled
minister At every step he was incited to do some strange wild wicked thing or
other with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional in
spite of himself yet growing out of a profounder self than that which opposed
the impulse For instance he met one of his own deacons The good old man
addressed him with the paternal affection and patriarchal privilege which his
venerable age his upright and holy character and his station in the Church
entitled him to use and conjoined with this the deep almost worshipping
respect which the ministers professional and private claims alike demanded
Never was there a more beautiful example of how the majesty of age and wisdom
may comport with the obeisance and respect enjoined upon it as from a lower
social rank and inferior order of endowment towards a higher Now during a
conversation of some two or three moments between the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale
and this excellent and hoarybearded deacon it was only by the most careful
selfcontrol that the former could refrain from uttering certain blasphemous
suggestions that rose into his mind respecting the communionsupper He
absolutely trembled and turned pale as ashes lest his tongue should wag itself
in utterance of these horrible matters and plead his own consent for so doing
without his having fairly given it And even with this terror in his heart he
could hardly avoid laughing to imagine how the sanctified old patriarchal deacon
would have been petrified by his ministers impiety
Again another incident of the same nature Hurrying along the street the
Reverend Mr Dimmesdale encountered the eldest female member of his church a
most pious and exemplary old dame poor widowed lonely and with a heart as
full of reminiscences about her dead husband and children and her dead friends
of long ago as a burialground is full of storied gravestones Yet all this
which would else have been such heavy sorrow was made almost a solemn joy to
her devout old soul by religious consolations and the truths of Scripture
wherewith she had fed herself continually for more than thirty years And since
Mr Dimmesdale had taken her in charge the good grandams chief earthly comfort
which unless it had been likewise a heavenly comfort could have been none at
all was to meet her pastor whether casually or of set purpose and be
refreshed with a word of warm fragrant heavenbreathing Gospel truth from his
beloved lips into her dulled but rapturously attentive ear But on this
occasion up to the moment of putting his lips to the old womans ear Mr
Dimmesdale as the great enemy of souls would have it could recall no text of
Scripture nor aught else except a brief pithy and as it then appeared to
him unanswerable argument against the immortality of the human soul The
instilment thereof into her mind would probably have caused this aged sister to
drop down dead at once as by the effect of an intensely poisonous infusion
What he really did whisper the minister could never afterwards recollect There
was perhaps a fortunate disorder in his utterance which failed to impart any
distinct idea to the good widows comprehension or which Providence interpreted
after a method of its own. Assuredly as the minister looked back he beheld an
expression of divine gratitude and ecstasy that seemed like the shine of the
celestial city on her face so wrinkled and ashy pale
Again a third instance After parting from the old churchmember he met
the youngest sister of them all It was a maiden newly won and won by the
Reverend Mr Dimmesdales own sermon on the Sabbath after his vigil to barter
the transitory pleasures of the world for the heavenly hope that was to assume
brighter substance as life grew dark around her and which would gild the utter
gloom with final glory She was fair and pure as a lily that had bloomed in
Paradise The minister knew well that he was himself enshrined within the
stainless sanctity of her heart which hung its snowy curtains about his image
imparting to religion the warmth of love and to love a religious purity Satan
that afternoon had surely led the poor young girl away from her mothers side
and thrown her into the pathway of this sorely tempted or shall we not rather
say this lost and desperate man As she drew nigh the archfiend whispered
him to condense into small compass and drop into her tender bosom a germ of evil
that would be sure to blossom darkly soon and bear black fruit betimes Such
was his sense of power over this virgin soul trusting him as she did that the
minister felt potent to blight all the field of innocence with but one wicked
look and develop all its opposite with but a word So with a mightier
struggle than he had yet sustained he held his Geneva cloak before his face
and hurried onward making no sign of recognition and leaving the young sister
to digest his rudeness as she might She ransacked her conscience which was
full of harmless little matters like her pocket or her workbag and took
herself to task poor thing for a thousand imaginary faults and went about her
household duties with swollen eyelids the next morning
Before the minister had time to celebrate his victory over this last
temptation he was conscious of another impulse more ludicrous and almost as
horrible It was we blush to tell it it was to stop short in the road and
teach some very wicked words to a knot of little Puritan children who were
playing there and had but just begun to talk Denying himself this freak as
unworthy of his cloth he met a drunken seaman one of the ships crew from the
Spanish Main And here since he had so valiantly forborne all other
wickedness poor Mr Dimmesdale longed at least to shake hands with the tarry
blackguard and recreate himself with a few improper jests such as dissolute
sailors so abound with and a volley of good round solid satisfactory and
heavendefying oaths It was not so much a better principle as partly his
natural good taste and still more his buckramed habit of clerical decorum that
carried him safely through the latter crisis
»What is it that haunts and tempts me thus« cried the minister to himself
at length pausing in the street and striking his hand against his forehead
»Am I mad or am I given over utterly to the fiend Did I make a contract with
him in the forest and sign it with my blood And does he now summon me to its
fulfilment by suggesting the performance of every wickedness which his most
foul imagination can conceive«
At the moment when the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale thus communed with himself
and struck his forehead with his hand old Mistress Hibbins the reputed
witchlady is said to have been passing by She made a very grand appearance
having on a high headdress a rich gown of velvet and a ruff done up with the
famous yellow starch of which Ann Turner her especial friend had taught her
the secret before this last good lady had been hanged for Sir Thomas Overburys
murder Whether the witch had read the ministers thoughts or no she came to a
full stop looked shrewdly into his face smiled craftily and though little
given to converse with clergymen began a conversation
»So reverend Sir you have made a visit into the forest« observed the
witchlady nodding her high headdress at him »The next time I pray you to
allow me only a fair warning and I shall be proud to bear you company Without
taking overmuch upon myself my good word will go far towards gaining any
strange gentleman a fair reception from yonder potentate you wot of«
»I profess madam« answered the clergyman with a grave obeisance such as
the ladys rank demanded and his own goodbreeding made imperative »I
profess on my conscience and character that I am utterly bewildered as
touching the purport of your words I went not into the forest to seek a
potentate neither do I at any future time design a visit thither with a view
to gaining the favor of such personage My one sufficient object was to greet
that pious friend of mine the Apostle Eliot and rejoice with him over the many
precious souls he hath won from heathendom«
»Ha ha ha« cackled the old witchlady still nodding her high headdress
at the minister »Well well we must needs talk thus in the daytime You carry
it off like an old hand But at midnight and in the forest we shall have other
talk together«
She passed on with her aged stateliness but often turning back her head and
smiling at him like one willing to recognize a secret intimacy of connection
»Have I then sold myself« thought the minister »to the fiend whom if men
say true this yellowstarched and velveted old hag has chosen for her prince
and master«
The wretched minister He had made a bargain very like it Tempted by a
dream of happiness he had yielded himself with deliberate choice as he had
never done before to what he knew was deadly sin And the infectious poison of
that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system It had
stupefied all blessed impulses and awakened into vivid life the whole
brotherhood of bad ones Scorn bitterness unprovoked malignity gratuitous
desire of ill ridicule of whatever was good and holy all awoke to tempt even
while they frightened him And his encounter with old Mistress Hibbins if it
were a real incident did but show his sympathy and fellowship with wicked
mortals and the world of perverted spirits
He had by this time reached his dwelling on the edge of the burialground
and hastening up the stairs took refuge in his study The minister was glad to
have reached this shelter without first betraying himself to the world by any
of those strange and wicked eccentricities to which he had been continually
impelled while passing through the streets He entered the accustomed room and
looked around him on its books its windows its fireplace and the tapestried
comfort of the walls with the same perception of strangeness that had haunted
him throughout his walk from the forestdell into the town and thitherward
Here he had studied and written here gone through fast and vigil and come
forth half alive here striven to pray here borne a hundred thousand agonies
There was the Bible in its rich old Hebrew with Moses and the Prophets
speaking to him and Gods voice through all There on the table with the inky
pen beside it was an unfinished sermon with a sentence broken in the midst
where his thoughts had ceased to gush out upon the page two days before He knew
that it was himself the thin and whitecheeked minister who had done and
suffered these things and written thus far into the Election Sermon But he
seemed to stand apart and eye this former self with scornful pitying but
halfenvious curiosity That self was gone Another man had returned out of the
forest a wiser one with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the simplicity
of the former never could have reached A bitter kind of knowledge that
While occupied with these reflections a knock came at the door of the
study and the minister said »Come in« not wholly devoid of an idea that he
might behold an evil spirit And so he did It was old Roger Chillingworth that
entered The minister stood white and speechless with one hand on the Hebrew
Scriptures and the other spread upon his breast
»Welcome home reverend Sir« said the physician »And how found you that
godly man the Apostle Eliot But methinks dear Sir you look pale as if the
travel through the wilderness had been too sore for you Will not my aid be
requisite to put you in heart and strength to preach your Election Sermon«
»Nay I think not so« rejoined the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale »My journey
and the sight of the holy Apostle yonder and the free air which I have
breathed have done me good after so long confinement in my study I think to
need no more of your drugs my kind physician good though they be and
administered by a friendly hand«
All this time Roger Chillingworth was looking at the minister with the
grave and intent regard of a physician towards his patient But in spite of
this outward show the latter was almost convinced of the old mans knowledge
or at least his confident suspicion with respect to his own interview with
Hester Prynne The physician knew then that in the ministers regard he was
no longer a trusted friend but his bitterest enemy So much being known it
would appear natural that a part of it should be expressed It is singular
however how long a time often passes before words embody things and with what
security two persons who choose to avoid a certain subject may approach its
very verge and retire without disturbing it Thus the minister felt no
apprehension that Roger Chillingworth would touch in express words upon the
real position which they sustained towards one another Yet did the physician
in his dark way creep frightfully near the secret
»Were it not better« said he »that you use my poor skill tonight Verily
dear Sir we must take pains to make you strong and vigorous for this occasion
of the Election discourse The people look for great things from you
apprehending that another year may come about and find their pastor gone«
»Yea to another world« replied the minister with pious resignation
»Heaven grant it be a better one for in good sooth I hardly think to tarry
with my flock through the flitting seasons of another year But touching your
medicine kind Sir in my present frame of body I need it not«
»I joy to hear it« answered the physician »It may be that my remedies so
long administered in vain begin now to take due effect Happy man were I and
well deserving of New Englands gratitude could I achieve this cure«
»I thank you from my heart most watchful friend« said the Reverend Mr
Dimmesdale with a solemn smile »I thank you and can but requite your good
deeds with my prayers«
»A good mans prayers are golden recompense« rejoined old Roger
Chillingworth as he took his leave »Yea they are the current gold coin of the
New Jerusalem with the Kings own mintmark on them«
Left alone the minister summoned a servant of the house and requested
food which being set before him he ate with ravenous appetite Then flinging
the already written pages of the Election Sermon into the fire he forthwith
began another which he wrote with such an impulsive flow of thought and
emotion that he fancied himself inspired and only wondered that Heaven should
see fit to transmit the grand and solemn music of its oracles through so foul an
organpipe as he However leaving that mystery to solve itself or go unsolved
for ever he drove his task onward with earnest haste and ecstasy Thus the
night fled away as if it were a winged steed and he careering on it morning
came and peeped blushing through the curtains and at last sunrise threw a
golden beam into the study and laid it right across the ministers bedazzled
eyes There he was with the pen still between his fingers and a vast
immeasurable tract of written space behind him
XXI The New England Holiday
Betimes in the morning of the day on which the new Governor was to receive his
office at the hands of the people Hester Prynne and little Pearl came into the
marketplace It was already thronged with the craftsmen and other plebeian
inhabitants of the town in considerable numbers among whom likewise were
many rough figures whose attire of deerskins marked them as belonging to some
of the forest settlements which surrounded the little metropolis of the colony
On this public holiday as on all other occasions for seven years past
Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth Not more by its hue than by
some indescribable peculiarity in its fashion it had the effect of making her
fade personally out of sight and outline while again the scarlet letter
brought her back from this twilight indistinctness and revealed her under the
moral aspect of its own illumination Her face so long familiar to the
townspeople showed the marble quietude which they were accustomed to behold
there It was like a mask or rather like the frozen calmness of a dead womans
features owing this dreary resemblance to the fact that Hester was actually
dead in respect to any claim of sympathy and had departed out of the world
with which she still seemed to mingle
It might be on this one day that there was an expression unseen before
nor indeed vivid enough to be detected now unless some preternaturally gifted
observer should have first read the heart and have afterwards sought a
corresponding development in the countenance and mien Such a spiritual seer
might have conceived that after sustaining the gaze of the multitude through
seven miserable years as a necessity a penance and something which it was a
stern religion to endure she now for one last time more encountered it freely
and voluntarily in order to convert what had so long been agony into a kind of
triumph »Look your last on the scarlet letter and its wearer« the peoples
victim and lifelong bondslave as they fancied her might say to them »Yet a
little while and she will be beyond your reach A few hours longer and the
deep mysterious ocean will quench and hide for ever the symbol which ye have
caused to burn upon her bosom« Nor were it an inconsistency too improbable to
be assigned to human nature should we suppose a feeling of regret in Hesters
mind at the moment when she was about to win her freedom from the pain which
had been thus deeply incorporated with her being Might there not be an
irresistible desire to quaff a last long breathless draught of the cup of
wormwood and aloes with which nearly all her years of womanhood had been
perpetually flavored The wine of life henceforth to be presented to her lips
must be indeed rich delicious and exhilarating in its chased and golden
beaker or else leave an inevitable and weary languor after the lees of
bitterness wherewith she had been drugged as with a cordial of intensest
potency
Pearl was decked out with airy gayety It would have been impossible to
guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed its existence to the shape of
gloomy gray or that a fancy at once so gorgeous and so delicate as must have
been requisite to contrive the childs apparel was the same that had achieved a
task perhaps more difficult in imparting so distinct a peculiarity to Hesters
simple robe The dress so proper was it to little Pearl seemed an effluence
or inevitable development and outward manifestation of her character no more to
be separated from her than the manyhued brilliancy from a butterflys wing or
the painted glory from the leaf of a bright flower As with these so with the
child her garb was all of one idea with her nature On this eventful day
moreover there was a certain singular inquietude and excitement in her mood
resembling nothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond that sparkles and
flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on which it is displayed
Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them
always especially a sense of any trouble or impending revolution of whatever
kind in domestic circumstances and therefore Pearl who was the gem on her
mothers unquiet bosom betrayed by the very dance of her spirits the emotions
which none could detect in the marble passiveness of Hesters brow
This effervescence made her flit with a birdlike movement rather than walk
by her mothers side She broke continually into shouts of a wild inarticulate
and sometimes piercing music When they reached the marketplace she became
still more restless on perceiving the stir and bustle that enlivened the spot
for it was usually more like the broad and lonesome green before a village
meetinghouse than the centre of a towns business
»Why what is this mother« cried she »Wherefore have all the people left
their work today Is it a playday for the whole world See there is the
blacksmith He has washed his sooty face and put on his Sabbathday clothes
and looks as if he would gladly be merry if any kind body would only teach him
how And there is Master Brackett the old jailer nodding and smiling at me
Why does he do so mother«
»He remembers thee a little babe my child« answered Hester
»He should not nod and smile at me for all that the black grim
uglyeyed old man« said Pearl »He may nod at thee if he will for thou art
clad in gray and wearest the scarlet letter But see mother how many faces
of strange people and Indians among them and sailors What have they all come
to do here in the marketplace«
»They wait to see the procession pass« said Hester »For the Governor and
the magistrates are to go by and the ministers and all the great people and
good people with the music and the soldiers marching before them«
»And will the minister be there« asked Pearl »And will he hold out both
his hands to me as when thou ledst me to him from the brookside«
»He will be there child« answered her mother »But he will not greet thee
today nor must thou greet him«
»What a strange sad man is he« said the child as if speaking partly to
herself »In the dark nighttime he calls us to him and holds thy hand and
mine as when we stood with him on the scaffold yonder And in the deep forest
where only the old trees can hear and the strip of sky see it he talks with
thee sitting on a heap of moss And he kisses my forehead too so that the
little brook would hardly wash it off But here in the sunny day and among all
the people he knows us not nor must we know him A strange sad man is he
with his hand always over his heart«
»Be quiet Pearl Thou understandest not these things« said her mother
»Think not now of the minister but look about thee and see how cheery is every
bodys face today The children have come from their schools and the grown
people from their workshops and their fields on purpose to be happy For
today a new man is beginning to rule over them and so as has been the
custom of mankind ever since a nation was first gathered they make merry and
rejoice as if a good and golden year were at length to pass over the poor old
world«
It was as Hester said in regard to the unwonted jollity that brightened the
faces of the people Into this festal season of the year as it already was
and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries the Puritans
compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human
infirmity thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud that for the space of
a single holiday they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities
at a period of general affliction
But we perhaps exaggerate the gray or sable tinge which undoubtedly
characterized the mood and manners of the age The persons now in the market of
Boston had not been born to an inheritance of Puritanic gloom They were native
Englishmen whose fathers had lived in the sunny richness of the Elizabethan
epoch a time when the life of England viewed as one great mass would appear
to have been as stately magnificent and joyous as the world has ever
witnessed Had they followed their hereditary taste the New England settlers
would have illustrated all events of public importance by bonfires banquets
pageantries and processions Nor would it have been impracticable in the
observance of majestic ceremonies to combine mirthful recreation with
solemnity and give as it were a grotesque and brilliant embroidery to the
great robe of state which a nation at such festivals puts on There was some
shadow of an attempt of this kind in the mode of celebrating the day on which
the political year of the colony commenced The dim reflection of a remembered
splendor a colorless and manifold diluted repetition of what they had beheld in
proud old London we will not say at a royal coronation but at a Lord Mayors
show might be traced in the customs which our forefathers instituted with
reference to the annual installation of magistrates The fathers and founders of
the commonwealth the statesman the priest and the soldier deemed it a duty
then to assume the outward state and majesty which in accordance with antique
style was looked upon as the proper garb of public or social eminence All came
forth to move in procession before the peoples eye and thus impart a needed
dignity to the simple framework of a government so newly constructed
Then too the people were countenanced if not encouraged in relaxing the
severe and close application to their various modes of rugged industry which
at all other times seemed of the same piece and material with their religion
Here it is true were none of the appliances which popular merriment would so
readily have found in the England of Elizabeths time or that of James no
rude shows of a theatrical kind no minstrel with his harp and legendary ballad
nor gleeman with an ape dancing to his music no juggler with his tricks of
mimic witchcraft no Merry Andrew to stir up the multitude with jests perhaps
hundreds of years old but still effective by their appeals to the very
broadest sources of mirthful sympathy All such professors of the several
branches of jocularity would have been sternly repressed not only by the rigid
discipline of law but by the general sentiment which gives law its vitality
Not the less however the great honest face of the people smiled grimly
perhaps but widely too Nor were sports wanting such as the colonists had
witnessed and shared in long ago at the country fairs and on the
villagegreens of England and which it was thought well to keep alive on this
new soil for the sake of the courage and manliness that were essential in them
Wrestlingmatches in the differing fashions of Cornwall and Devonshire were
seen here and there about the marketplace in one corner there was a friendly
bout at quarterstaff and what attracted most interest of all on the
platform of the pillory already so noted in our pages two masters of defence
were commencing an exhibition with the buckler and broadsword But much to the
disappointment of the crowd this latter business was broken off by the
interposition of the town beadle who had no idea of permitting the majesty of
the law to be violated by such an abuse of one of its consecrated places
It may not be too much to affirm on the whole the people being then in
the first stages of joyless deportment and the offspring of sires who had known
how to be merry in their day that they would compare favorably in point of
holiday keeping with their descendants even at so long an interval as
ourselves Their immediate posterity the generation next to the early
emigrants wore the blackest shade of Puritanism and so darkened the national
visage with it that all the subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up
We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gayety
The picture of human life in the marketplace though its general tint was
the sad gray brown or black of the English emigrants was yet enlivened by
some diversity of hue A party of Indians in their savage finery of curiously
embroidered deerskin robes wampumbelts red and yellow ochre and feathers
and armed with the bow and arrow and stoneheaded spear stood apart with
countenances of inflexible gravity beyond what even the Puritan aspect could
attain Nor wild as were these painted barbarians were they the wildest
feature of the scene This distinction could more justly be claimed by some
mariners a part of the crew of the vessel from the Spanish Main who had
come ashore to see the humors of Election Day They were roughlooking
desperadoes with sunblackened faces and an immensity of beard their wide
short trousers were confined about the waist by belts often clasped with a
rough plate of gold and sustaining always a long knife and in some instances
a sword From beneath their broadbrimmed hats of palmleaf gleamed eyes which
even in good nature and merriment had a kind of animal ferocity They
transgressed without fear or scruple the rules of behaviour that were binding
on all others smoking tobacco under the beadles very nose although each whiff
would have cost a townsman a shilling and quaffing at their pleasure draughts
of wine or aquavitæ from pocketflasks which they freely tendered to the
gaping crowd around them It remarkably characterized the incomplete morality of
the age rigid as we call it that a license was allowed the seafaring class
not merely for their freaks on shore but for far more desperate deeds on their
proper element The sailor of that day would go near to be arraigned as a pirate
in our own There could be little doubt for instance that this very ships
crew though no unfavorable specimens of the nautical brotherhood had been
guilty as we should phrase it of depredations on the Spanish commerce such as
would have perilled all their necks in a modern court of justice
But the sea in those old times heaved swelled and foamed very much at
its own will or subject only to the tempestuous wind with hardly any attempts
at regulation by human law The buccaneer on the wave might relinquish his
calling and become at once if he chose a man of probity and piety on land
nor even in the full career of his reckless life was he regarded as a
personage with whom it was disreputable to traffic or casually associate Thus
the Puritan elders in their black cloaks starched bands and steeplecrowned
hats smiled not unbenignantly at the clamor and rude deportment of these jolly
seafaring men and it excited neither surprise nor animadversion when so
reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingworth the physician was seen to enter
the marketplace in close and familiar talk with the commander of the
questionable vessel
The latter was by far the most showy and gallant figure so far as apparel
went anywhere to be seen among the multitude He wore a profusion of ribbons on
his garment and gold lace on his hat which was also encircled by a gold chain
and surmounted with a feather There was a sword at his side and a swordcut on
his forehead which by the arrangement of his hair he seemed anxious rather to
display than hide A landsman could hardly have worn this garb and shown this
face and worn and shown them both with such a galliard air without undergoing
stern question before a magistrate and probably incurring fine or imprisonment
or perhaps an exhibition in the stocks As regarded the shipmaster however all
was looked upon as pertaining to the character as to a fish his glistening
scales
After parting from the physician the commander of the Bristol ship strolled
idly through the marketplace until happening to approach the spot where
Hester Prynne was standing he appeared to recognize and did not hesitate to
address her As was usually the case wherever Hester stood a small vacant area
a sort of magic circle had formed itself about her into which though the
people were elbowing one another at a little distance none ventured or felt
disposed to intrude It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the
scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer partly by her own reserve and partly
by the instinctive though no longer so unkindly withdrawal of her
fellowcreatures Now if never before it answered a good purpose by enabling
Hester and the seaman to speak together without risk of being overheard and so
changed was Hester Prynnes repute before the public that the matron in town
most eminent for rigid morality could not have held such intercourse with less
result of scandal than herself
»So mistress« said the mariner »I must bid the steward make ready one
more berth than you bargained for No fear of scurvy or shipfever this voyage
What with the ships surgeon and this other doctor our only danger will be from
drug or pill more by token as there is a lot of apothecarys stuff aboard
which I traded for with a Spanish vessel«
»What mean you« inquired Hester startled more than she permitted to
appear »Have you another passenger«
»Why know you not« cried the shipmaster »that this physician here
Chillingworth he calls himself is minded to try my cabinfare with you Ay
ay you must have known it for he tells me he is of your party and a close
friend to the gentleman you spoke of he that is in peril from these sour old
Puritan rulers«
»They know each other well indeed« replied Hester with a mien of
calmness though in the utmost consternation »They have long dwelt together«
Nothing further passed between the mariner and Hester Prynne But at that
instant she beheld old Roger Chillingworth himself standing in the remotest
corner of the marketplace and smiling on her a smile which across the wide
and bustling square and through all the talk and laughter and various
thoughts moods and interests of the crowd conveyed secret and fearful
meaning
XXII The Procession
Before Hester Prynne could call together her thoughts and consider what was
practicable to be done in this new and startling aspect of affairs the sound of
military music was heard approaching along a contiguous street It denoted the
advance of the procession of magistrates and citizens on its way towards the
meetinghouse where in compliance with a custom thus early established and
ever since observed the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale was to deliver an Election
Sermon
Soon the head of the procession showed itself with a slow and stately
march turning a corner and making its way across the marketplace First came
the music It comprised a variety of instruments perhaps imperfectly adapted to
one another and played with no great skill but yet attaining the great object
for which the harmony of drum and clarion addresses itself to the multitude
that of imparting a higher and more heroic air to the scene of life that passes
before the eye Little Pearl at first clapped her hands but then lost for an
instant the restless agitation that had kept her in a continual effervescence
throughout the morning she gazed silently and seemed to be borne upward like
a floating seabird on the long heaves and swells of sound But she was brought
back to her former mood by the shimmer of the sunshine on the weapons and bright
armour of the military company which followed after the music and formed the
honorary escort of the procession This body of soldiery which still sustains
a corporate existence and marches down from past ages with an ancient and
honorable fame was composed of no mercenary materials Its ranks were filled
with gentlemen who felt the stirrings of martial impulse and sought to
establish a kind of College of Arms where as in an association of Knights
Templars they might learn the science and so far as peaceful exercise would
teach them the practices of war The high estimation then placed upon the
military character might be seen in the lofty port of each individual member of
the company Some of them indeed by their services in the Low Countries and on
other fields of European warfare had fairly won their title to assume the name
and pomp of soldiership The entire array moreover clad in burnished steel
and with plumage nodding over their bright morions had a brilliancy of effect
which no modern display can aspire to equal
And yet the men of civil eminence who came immediately behind the military
escort were better worth a thoughtful observers eye Even in outward demeanour
they showed a stamp of majesty that made the warriors haughty stride look
vulgar if not absurd It was an age when what we call talent had far less
consideration than now but the massive materials which produce stability and
dignity of character a great deal more The people possessed by hereditary
right the quality of reverence which in their descendants if it survive at
all exists in smaller proportion and with a vastly diminished force in the
selection and estimate of public men The change may be for good or ill and is
partly perhaps for both In that old day the English settler on these rude
shores having left king nobles and all degrees of awful rank behind while
still the faculty and necessity of reverence were strong in him bestowed it
on the white hair and venerable brow of age on longtried integrity on solid
wisdom and sadcolored experience on endowments of that grave and weighty
order which gives the idea of permanence and comes under the general
definition of respectability These primitive statesmen therefore
Bradstreet Endicott Dudley Bellingham and their compeers who were
elevated to power by the early choice of the people seem to have been not often
brilliant but distinguished by a ponderous sobriety rather than activity of
intellect They had fortitude and selfreliance and in time of difficulty or
peril stood up for the welfare of the state like a line of cliffs against a
tempestuous tide The traits of character here indicated were well represented
in the square cast of countenance and large physical development of the new
colonial magistrates So far as a demeanour of natural authority was concerned
the mother country need not have been ashamed to see these foremost men of an
actual democracy adopted into the House of Peers or made the Privy Council of
the sovereign
Next in order to the magistrates came the young and eminently distinguished
divine from whose lips the religious discourse of the anniversary was expected
His was the profession at that era in which intellectual ability displayed
itself far more than in political life for leaving a higher motive out of the
question it offered inducements powerful enough in the almost worshipping
respect of the community to win the most aspiring ambition into its service
Even political power as in the case of Increase Mather was within the grasp
of a successful priest
It was the observation of those who beheld him now that never since Mr
Dimmesdale first set his foot on the New England shore had he exhibited such
energy as was seen in the gait and air with which he kept his pace in the
procession There was no feebleness of step as at other times his frame was
not bent nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart Yet if the clergyman
were rightly viewed his strength seemed not of the body It might be spiritual
and imparted to him by angelic ministrations It might be the exhilaration of
that potent cordial which is distilled only in the furnaceglow of earnest and
longcontinued thought Or perchance his sensitive temperament was invigorated
by the loud and piercing music that swelled heavenward and uplifted him on its
ascending wave Nevertheless so abstracted was his look it might be questioned
whether Mr Dimmesdale even heard the music There was his body moving onward
and with an unaccustomed force But where was his mind Far and deep in its own
region busying itself with preternatural activity to marshal a procession of
stately thoughts that were soon to issue thence and so he saw nothing heard
nothing knew nothing of what was around him but the spiritual element took up
the feeble frame and carried it along unconscious of the burden and
converting it to spirit like itself Men of uncommon intellect who have grown
morbid possess this occasional power of mighty effort into which they throw
the life of many days and then are lifeless for as many more
Hester Prynne gazing stedfastly at the clergyman felt a dreary influence
come over her but wherefore or whence she knew not unless that he seemed so
remote from her own sphere and utterly beyond her reach One glance of
recognition she had imagined must needs pass between them She thought of the
dim forest with its little dell of solitude and love and anguish and the
mossy treetrunk where sitting hand in hand they had mingled their sad and
passionate talk with the melancholy murmur of the brook How deeply had they
known each other then And was this the man She hardly knew him now He moving
proudly past enveloped as it were in the rich music with the procession of
majestic and venerable fathers he so unattainable in his worldly position and
still more so in that far vista of his unsympathizing thoughts through which
she now beheld him Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a
delusion and that vividly as she had dreamed it there could be no real bond
betwixt the clergyman and herself And thus much of woman was there in Hester
that she could scarcely forgive him least of all now when the heavy footstep
of their approaching Fate might be heard nearer nearer nearer for being
able so completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world while she groped
darkly and stretched forth her cold hands and found him not
Pearl either saw and responded to her mothers feelings or herself felt the
remoteness and intangibility that had fallen around the minister While the
procession passed the child was uneasy fluttering up and down like a bird on
the point of taking flight When the whole had gone by she looked up into
Hesters face
»Mother« said she »was that the same minister that kissed me by the
brook«
»Hold thy peace dear little Pearl« whispered her mother »We must not
always talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest«
»I could not be sure that it was he so strange he looked« continued the
child »Else I would have run to him and bid him kiss me now before all the
people even as he did yonder among the dark old trees What would the minister
have said mother Would he have clapped his hand over his heart and scowled on
me and bid me begone«
»What should he say Pearl« answered Hester »save that it was no time to
kiss and that kisses are not to be given in the marketplace Well for thee
foolish child that thou didst not speak to him«
Another shade of the same sentiment in reference to Mr Dimmesdale was
expressed by a person whose eccentricities or insanity as we should term it
led her to do what few of the townspeople would have ventured on to begin a
conversation with the wearer of the scarlet letter in public It was Mistress
Hibbins who arrayed in great magnificence with a triple ruff a broidered
stomacher a gown of rich velvet and a goldheaded cane had come forth to see
the procession As this ancient lady had the renown which subsequently cost her
no less a price than her life of being a principal actor in all the works of
necromancy that were continually going forward the crowd gave way before her
and seemed to fear the touch of her garment as if it carried the plague among
its gorgeous folds Seen in conjunction with Hester Prynne kindly as so many
now felt towards the latter the dread inspired by Mistress Hibbins was
doubled and caused a general movement from that part of the marketplace in
which the two women stood
»Now what mortal imagination could conceive it« whispered the old lady
confidentially to Hester »Yonder divine man That saint on earth as the people
uphold him to be and as I must needs say he really looks Who now that
saw him pass in the procession would think how little while it is since he went
forth out of his study chewing a Hebrew text of Scripture in his mouth I
warrant to take an airing in the forest Aha we know what that means Hester
Prynne But truly forsooth I find it hard to believe him the same man Many a
churchmember saw I walking behind the music that has danced in the same
measure with me when Somebody was fiddler and it might be an Indian powwow
or a Lapland wizard changing hands with us That is but a trifle when a woman
knows the world But this minister Couldst thou surely tell Hester whether he
was the same man that encountered thee on the forestpath«
»Madam I know not of what you speak« answered Hester Prynne feeling
Mistress Hibbins to be of infirm mind yet strangely startled and awestricken
by the confidence with which she affirmed a personal connection between so many
persons herself among them and the Evil One »It is not for me to talk lightly
of a learned and pious minister of the Word like the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale«
»Fie woman fie« cried the old lady shaking her finger at Hester »Dost
thou think I have been to the forest so many times and have yet no skill to
judge who else has been there Yea though no leaf of the wild garlands which
they wore while they danced be left in their hair I know thee Hester for I
behold the token We may all see it in the sunshine and it glows like a red
flame in the dark Thou wearest it openly so there need be no question about
that But this minister Let me tell thee in thine ear When the Black Man sees
one of his own servants signed and sealed so shy of owning to the bond as is
the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale he hath a way of ordering matters so that the mark
shall be disclosed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world What is it
that the minister seeks to hide with his hand always over his heart Ha Hester
Prynne«
»What is it good Mistress Hibbins« eagerly asked little Pearl »Hast thou
seen it«
»No matter darling« responded Mistress Hibbins making Pearl a profound
reverence »Thou thyself wilt see it one time or another They say child thou
art of the lineage of the Prince of the Air Wilt thou ride with me some fine
night to see thy father Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister keeps his
hand over his heart«
Laughing so shrilly that all the marketplace could hear her the weird old
gentlewoman took her departure
By this time the preliminary prayer had been offered in the meetinghouse
and the accents of the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale were heard commencing his
discourse An irresistible feeling kept Hester near the spot As the sacred
edifice was too much thronged to admit another auditor she took up her position
close beside the scaffold of the pillory It was in sufficient proximity to
bring the whole sermon to her ears in the shape of an indistinct but varied
murmur and flow of the ministers very peculiar voice
This vocal organ was in itself a rich endowment insomuch that a listener
comprehending nothing of the language in which the preacher spoke might still
have been swayed to and fro by the mere tone and cadence Like all other music
it breathed passion and pathos and emotions high or tender in a tongue native
to the human heart wherever educated Muffled as the sound was by its passage
through the churchwalls Hester Prynne listened with such intentness and
sympathized so intimately that the sermon had throughout a meaning for her
entirely apart from its indistinguishable words These perhaps if more
distinctly heard might have been only a grosser medium and have clogged the
spiritual sense Now she caught the low undertone as of the wind sinking down
to repose itself then ascended with it as it rose through progressive
gradations of sweetness and power until its volume seemed to envelop her with
an atmosphere of awe and solemn grandeur And yet majestic as the voice
sometimes became there was for ever in it an essential character of
plaintiveness A loud or low expression of anguish the whisper or the
shriek as it might be conceived of suffering humanity that touched a
sensibility in every bosom At times this deep strain of pathos was all that
could be heard and scarcely heard sighing amid a desolate silence But even
when the ministers voice grew high and commanding when it gushed
irrepressibly upward when it assumed its utmost breadth and power so
overfilling the church as to burst its way through the solid walls and diffuse
itself in the open air still if the auditor listened intently and for the
purpose he could detect the same cry of pain What was it The complaint of a
human heart sorrowladen perchance guilty telling its secret whether of
guilt or sorrow to the great heart of mankind beseeching its sympathy or
forgiveness at every moment in each accent and never in vain It was
this profound and continual undertone that gave the clergyman his most
appropriate power
During all this time Hester stood statuelike at the foot of the scaffold
If the ministers voice had not kept her there there would nevertheless have
been an inevitable magnetism in that spot whence she dated the first hour of
her life of ignominy There was a sense within her too illdefined to be made
a thought but weighing heavily on her mind that her whole orb of life both
before and after was connected with this spot as with the one point that gave
it unity
Little Pearl meanwhile had quitted her mothers side and was playing at
her own will about the marketplace She made the sombre crowd cheerful by her
erratic and glistening ray even as a bird of bright plumage illuminates a whole
tree of dusky foliage by darting to and fro half seen and half concealed amid
the twilight of the clustering leaves She had an undulating but oftentimes a
sharp and irregular movement It indicated the restless vivacity of her spirit
which today was doubly indefatigable in its tiptoe dance because it was played
upon and vibrated with her mothers disquietude Whenever Pearl saw any thing to
excite her ever active and wandering curiosity she flew thitherward and as we
might say seized upon that man or thing as her own property so far as she
desired it but without yielding the minutest degree of control over her motions
in requital The Puritans looked on and if they smiled were none the less
inclined to pronounce the child a demon offspring from the indescribable charm
of beauty and eccentricity that shone through her little figure and sparkled
with its activity She ran and looked the wild Indian in the face and he grew
conscious of a nature wilder than his own Thence with native audacity but
still with a reserve as characteristic she flew into the midst of a group of
mariners the swarthycheeked wild men of the ocean as the Indians were of the
land and they gazed wonderingly and admiringly at Pearl as if a flake of the
seafoam had taken the shape of a little maid and were gifted with a soul of
the seafire that flashes beneath the prow in the nighttime
One of these seafaring men the shipmaster indeed who had spoken to
Hester Prynne was so smitten with Pearls aspect that he attempted to lay
hands upon her with purpose to snatch a kiss Finding it as impossible to touch
her as to catch a hummingbird in the air he took from his hat the gold chain
that was twisted about it and threw it to the child Pearl immediately twined
it around her neck and waist with such happy skill that once seen there it
became a part of her and it was difficult to imagine her without it
»Thy mother is yonder woman with the scarlet letter« said the seaman »Wilt
thou carry her a message from me«
»If the message pleases me I will« answered Pearl
»Then tell her« rejoined he »that I spake again with the blackavisaged
humpshouldered old doctor and he engages to bring his friend the gentleman
she wots of aboard with him So let thy mother take no thought save for
herself and thee Wilt thou tell her this thou witchbaby«
»Mistress Hibbins says my father is the Prince of the Air« cried Pearl
with her naughty smile »If thou callest me that ill name I shall tell him of
thee and he will chase thy ship with a tempest«
Pursuing a zigzag course across the marketplace the child returned to her
mother and communicated what the mariner had said Hesters strong calm
stedfastly enduring spirit almost sank at last on beholding this dark and grim
countenance of an inevitable doom which at the moment when a passage seemed
to open for the minister and herself out of their labyrinth of misery showed
itself with an unrelenting smile right in the midst of their path
With her mind harassed by the terrible perplexity in which the shipmasters
intelligence involved her she was also subjected to another trial There were
many people present from the country roundabout who had often heard of the
scarlet letter and to whom it had been made terrific by a hundred false or
exaggerated rumors but who had never beheld it with their own bodily eyes
These after exhausting other modes of amusement now thronged about Hester
Prynne with rude and boorish intrusiveness Unscrupulous as it was however it
could not bring them nearer than a circuit of several yards At that distance
they accordingly stood fixed there by the centrifugal force of the repugnance
which the mystic symbol inspired The whole gang of sailors likewise observing
the press of spectators and learning the purport of the scarlet letter came
and thrust their sunburnt and desperadolooking faces into the ring Even the
Indians were affected by a sort of cold shadow of the white mans curiosity
and gliding through the crowd fastened their snakelike black eyes on Hesters
bosom conceiving perhaps that the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered
badge must needs be a personage of high dignity among her people Lastly the
inhabitants of the town their own interest in this wornout subject languidly
reviving itself by sympathy with what they saw others feel lounged idly to the
same quarter and tormented Hester Prynne perhaps more than all the rest with
their cool wellacquainted gaze at her familiar shame Hester saw and
recognized the selfsame faces of that group of matrons who had awaited her
forthcoming from the prisondoor seven years ago all save one the youngest
and only compassionate among them whose burialrobe she had since made At the
final hour when she was so soon to fling aside the burning letter it had
strangely become the centre of more remark and excitement and was thus made to
sear her breast more painfully than at any time since the first day she put it
on
While Hester stood in that magic circle of ignominy where the cunning
cruelty of her sentence seemed to have fixed her for ever the admirable
preacher was looking down from the sacred pulpit upon an audience whose very
inmost spirits had yielded to his control The sainted minister in the church
The woman of the scarlet letter in the marketplace What imagination would have
been irreverent enough to surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them
both
XXIII The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter
The eloquent voice on which the souls of the listening audience had been borne
aloft as on the swelling waves of the sea at length came to a pause There was
a momentary silence profound as what should follow the utterance of oracles
Then ensued a murmur and halfhushed tumult as if the auditors released from
the high spell that had transported them into the region of anothers mind were
returning into themselves with all their awe and wonder still heavy on them In
a moment more the crowd began to gush forth from the doors of the church Now
that there was an end they needed other breath more fit to support the gross
and earthly life into which they relapsed than that atmosphere which the
preacher had converted into words of flame and had burdened with the rich
fragrance of his thought
In the open air their rapture broke into speech The street and the
marketplace absolutely babbled from side to side with applauses of the
minister His hearers could not rest until they had told one another of what
each knew better than he could tell or hear According to their united
testimony never had man spoken in so wise so high and so holy a spirit as he
that spake this day nor had inspiration ever breathed through mortal lips more
evidently than it did through his Its influence could be seen as it were
descending upon him and possessing him and continually lifting him out of the
written discourse that lay before him and filling him with ideas that must have
been as marvellous to himself as to his audience His subject it appeared had
been the relation between the Deity and the communities of mankind with a
special reference to the New England which they were here planting in the
wilderness And as he drew towards the close a spirit as of prophecy had come
upon him constraining him to its purpose as mightily as the old prophets of
Israel were constrained only with this difference that whereas the Jewish
seers had denounced judgments and ruin on their country it was his mission to
foretell a high and glorious destiny for the newly gathered people of the Lord
But throughout it all and through the whole discourse there had been a
certain deep sad undertone of pathos which could not be interpreted otherwise
than as the natural regret of one soon to pass away Yes their minister whom
they so loved and who so loved them all that he could not depart heavenward
without a sigh had the foreboding of untimely death upon him and would soon
leave them in their tears This idea of his transitory stay on earth gave the
last emphasis to the effect which the preacher had produced it was as if an
angel in his passage to the skies had shaken his bright wings over the people
for an instant at once a shadow and a splendor and had shed down a shower
of golden truths upon them
Thus there had come to the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale as to most men in
their various spheres though seldom recognized until they see it far behind
them an epoch of life more brilliant and full of triumph than any previous
one or than any which could hereafter be He stood at this moment on the very
proudest eminence of superiority to which the gifts of intellect rich lore
prevailing eloquence and a reputation of whitest sanctity could exalt a
clergyman in New Englands earliest days when the professional character was of
itself a lofty pedestal Such was the position which the minister occupied as
he bowed his head forward on the cushions of the pulpit at the close of his
Election Sermon Meanwhile Hester Prynne was standing beside the scaffold of
the pillory with the scarlet letter still burning on her breast
Now was heard again the clangor of the music and the measured tramp of the
military escort issuing from the churchdoor The procession was to be
marshalled thence to the townhall where a solemn banquet would complete the
ceremonies of the day
Once more therefore the train of venerable and majestic fathers was seen
moving through a broad pathway of the people who drew back reverently on
either side as the Governor and magistrates the old and wise men the holy
ministers and all that were eminent and renowned advanced into the midst of
them When they were fairly in the marketplace their presence was greeted by a
shout This though doubtless it might acquire additional force and volume from
the childlike loyalty which the age awarded to its rulers was felt to be an
irrepressible outburst of the enthusiasm kindled in the auditors by that high
strain of eloquence which was yet reverberating in their ears Each felt the
impulse in himself and in the same breath caught it from his neighbour
Within the church it had hardly been kept down beneath the sky it pealed
upward to the zenith There were human beings enough and enough of highly
wrought and symphonious feeling to produce that more impressive sound than the
organtones of the blast or the thunder or the roar of the sea even that
mighty swell of many voices blended into one great voice by the universal
impulse which makes likewise one vast heart out of the many Never from the
soil of New England had gone up such a shout Never on New England soil had
stood the man so honored by his mortal brethren as the preacher
How fared it with him then Were there not the brilliant particles of a halo
in the air about his head So etherealized by spirit as he was and so
apotheosized by worshipping admirers did his footsteps in the procession really
tread upon the dust of earth
As the ranks of military men and civil fathers moved onward all eyes were
turned towards the point where the minister was seen to approach among them The
shout died into a murmur as one portion of the crowd after another obtained a
glimpse of him How feeble and pale he looked amid all his triumph The energy
or say rather the inspiration which had held him up until he should have
delivered the sacred message that brought its own strength along with it from
heaven was withdrawn now that it had so faithfully performed its office The
glow which they had just before beheld burning on his cheek was extinguished
like a flame that sinks down hopelessly among the latedecaying embers It
seemed hardly the face of a man alive with such a deathlike hue it was hardly
a man with life in him that tottered on his path so nervelessly yet tottered
and did not fall
One of his clerical brethren it was the venerable John Wilson
observing the state in which Mr Dimmesdale was left by the retiring wave of
intellect and sensibility stepped forward hastily to offer his support The
minister tremulously but decidedly repelled the old mans arm He still walked
onward if that movement could be so described which rather resembled the
wavering effort of an infant with its mothers arms in view outstretched to
tempt him forward And now almost imperceptible as were the latter steps of his
progress he had come opposite the wellremembered and weatherdarkened
scaffold where long since with all that dreary lapse of time between Hester
Prynne had encountered the worlds ignominious stare There stood Hester
holding little Pearl by the hand And there was the scarlet letter on her
breast The minister here made a pause although the music still played the
stately and rejoicing march to which the procession moved It summoned him
onward onward to the festival but here he made a pause
Bellingham for the last few moments had kept an anxious eye upon him He
now left his own place in the procession and advanced to give assistance
judging from Mr Dimmesdales aspect that he must otherwise inevitably fall But
there was something in the latters expression that warned back the magistrate
although a man not readily obeying the vague intimations that pass from one
spirit to another The crowd meanwhile looked on with awe and wonder This
earthly faintness was in their view only another phase of the ministers
celestial strength nor would it have seemed a miracle too high to be wrought
for one so holy had he ascended before their eyes waxing dimmer and brighter
and fading at last into the light of heaven
He turned towards the scaffold and stretched forth his arms
»Hester« said he »come hither Come my little Pearl«
It was a ghastly look with which he regarded them but there was something
at once tender and strangely triumphant in it The child with the birdlike
motion which was one of her characteristics flew to him and clasped her arms
about his knees Hester Prynne slowly as if impelled by inevitable fate and
against her strongest will likewise drew near but paused before she reached
him At this instant old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd
or perhaps so dark disturbed and evil was his look he rose up out of some
nether region to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do Be that as
it might the old man rushed forward and caught the minister by the arm
»Madman hold What is your purpose« whispered he »Wave back that woman
Cast off this child All shall be well Do not blacken your fame and perish in
dishonor I can yet save you Would you bring infamy on your sacred profession«
»Ha tempter Methinks thou art too late« answered the minister
encountering his eye fearfully but firmly »Thy power is not what it was With
Gods help I shall escape thee now«
He again extended his hand to the woman of the scarlet letter
»Hester Prynne« cried he with a piercing earnestness »in the name of Him
so terrible and so merciful who gives me grace at this last moment to do what
for my own heavy sin and miserable agony I withheld myself from doing seven
years ago come hither now and twine thy strength about me Thy strength
Hester but let it be guided by the will which God hath granted me This
wretched and wronged old man is opposing it with all his might with all his
own might and the fiends Come Hester come Support me up yonder scaffold«
The crowd was in a tumult The men of rank and dignity who stood more
immediately around the clergyman were so taken by surprise and so perplexed as
to the purport of what they saw unable to receive the explanation which most
readily presented itself or to imagine any other that they remained silent
and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence seemed about to work
They beheld the minister leaning on Hesters shoulder and supported by her arm
around him approach the scaffold and ascend its steps while still the little
hand of the sinborn child was clasped in his Old Roger Chillingworth followed
as one intimately connected with the drama of guilt and sorrow in which they had
all been actors and well entitled therefore to be present at its closing
scene
»Hadst thou sought the whole earth over« said he looking darkly at the
clergyman »there was no one place so secret no high place nor lowly place
where thou couldst have escaped me save on this very scaffold«
»Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither« answered the minister
Yet he trembled and turned to Hester with an expression of doubt and
anxiety in his eyes not the less evidently betrayed that there was a feeble
smile upon his lips
»Is not this better« murmured he »than what we dreamed of in the forest«
»I know not I know not« she hurriedly replied »Better Yea so we may
both die and little Pearl die with us«
»For thee and Pearl be it as God shall order« said the minister »and God
is merciful Let me now do the will which he hath made plain before my sight
For Hester I am a dying man So let me make haste to take my shame upon me«
Partly supported by Hester Prynne and holding one hand of little Pearls
the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and venerable rulers to the
holy ministers who were his brethren to the people whose great heart was
thoroughly appalled yet overflowing with tearful sympathy as knowing that some
deep lifematter which if full of sin was full of anguish and repentance
likewise was now to be laid open to them The sun but little past its
meridian shone down upon the clergyman and gave a distinctness to his figure
as he stood out from all the earth to put in his plea of guilty at the bar of
Eternal Justice
»People of New England« cried he with a voice that rose over them high
solemn and majestic yet had always a tremor through it and sometimes a
shriek struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe »ye that
have loved me ye that have deemed me holy behold me here the one sinner
of the world At last at last I stand upon the spot where seven years
since I should have stood here with this woman whose arm more than the
little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward sustains me at this dreadful
moment from grovelling down upon my face Lo the scarlet letter which Hester
wears Ye have all shuddered at it Wherever her walk hath been wherever so
miserably burdened she may have hoped to find repose it hath cast a lurid
gleam of awe and horrible repugnance roundabout her But there stood one in the
midst of you at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered«
It seemed at this point as if the minister must leave the remainder of his
secret undisclosed But he fought back the bodily weakness and still more
the faintness of heart that was striving for the mastery with him He threw
off all assistance and stepped passionately forward a pace before the woman and
the child
»It was on him« he continued with a kind of fierceness so determined was
he to speak out the whole »Gods eye beheld it The angels were for ever
pointing at it The Devil knew it well and fretted it continually with the
touch of his burning finger But he hid it cunningly from men and walked among
you with the mien of a spirit mournful because so pure in a sinful world
and sad because he missed his heavenly kindred Now at the deathhour he
stands up before you He bids you look again at Hesters scarlet letter He
tells you that with all its mysterious horror it is but the shadow of what he
bears on his own breast and that even this his own red stigma is no more than
the type of what has seared his inmost heart Stand any here that question Gods
judgment on a sinner Behold Behold a dreadful witness of it«
With a convulsive motion he tore away the ministerial band from before his
breast It was revealed But it were irreverent to describe that revelation For
an instant the gaze of the horrorstricken multitude was concentred on the
ghastly miracle while the minister stood with a flush of triumph in his face
as one who in the crisis of acutest pain had won a victory Then down he sank
upon the scaffold Hester partly raised him and supported his head against her
bosom Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him with a blank dull
countenance out of which the life seemed to have departed
»Thou hast escaped me« he repeated more than once »Thou hast escaped me«
»May God forgive thee« said the minister »Thou too hast deeply sinned«
He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man and fixed them on the woman and
the child
»My little Pearl« said he feebly and there was a sweet and gentle smile
over his face as of a spirit sinking into deep repose nay now that the burden
was removed it seemed almost as if he would be sportive with the child »dear
little Pearl wilt thou kiss me now Thou wouldst not yonder in the forest But
now thou wilt«
Pearl kissed his lips A spell was broken The great scene of grief in
which the wild infant bore a part had developed all her sympathies and as her
tears fell upon her fathers cheek they were the pledge that she would grow up
amid human joy and sorrow nor for ever do battle with the world but be a woman
in it Towards her mother too Pearls errand as a messenger of anguish was all
fulfilled
»Hester« said the clergyman »farewell«
»Shall we not meet again« whispered she bending her face down close to
his »Shall we not spend our immortal life together Surely surely we have
ransomed one another with all this woe Thou lookest far into eternity with
those bright dying eyes Then tell me what thou seest«
»Hush Hester hush« said he with tremulous solemnity »The law we broke
the sin here so awfully revealed let these alone be in thy thoughts I
fear I fear It may be that when we forgot our God when we violated our
reverence each for the others soul it was thenceforth vain to hope that we
could meet hereafter in an everlasting and pure reunion God knows and He is
merciful He hath proved his mercy most of all in my afflictions By giving me
this burning torture to bear upon my breast By sending yonder dark and terrible
old man to keep the torture always at redheat By bringing me hither to die
this death of triumphant ignominy before the people Had either of these agonies
been wanting I had been lost for ever Praised be his name His will be done
Farewell«
That final word came forth with the ministers expiring breath The
multitude silent till then broke out in a strange deep voice of awe and
wonder which could not as yet find utterance save in this murmur that rolled
so heavily after the departed spirit
XXIV Conclusion
After many days when time sufficed for the people to arrange their thoughts in
reference to the foregoing scene there was more than one account of what had
been witnessed on the scaffold
Most of the spectators testified to having seen on the breast of the
unhappy minister a SCARLET LETTER the very semblance of that worn by Hester
Prynne imprinted in the flesh As regarded its origin there were various
explanations all of which must necessarily have been conjectural Some affirmed
that the Reverend Mr Dimmesdale on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore
her ignominious badge had begun a course of penance which he afterwards in
so many futile methods followed out by inflicting a hideous torture on
himself Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long
time subsequent when old Roger Chillingworth being a potent necromancer had
caused it to appear through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs Others
again and those best able to appreciate the ministers peculiar sensibility
and the wonderful operation of his spirit upon the body whispered their
belief that the awful symbol was the effect of the ever active tooth of
remorse gnawing from the inmost heart outwardly and at last manifesting
Heavens dreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter The reader may
choose among these theories We have thrown all the light we could acquire upon
the portent and would gladly now that it has done its office erase its deep
print out of our own brain where long meditation has fixed it in very
undesirable distinctness
It is singular nevertheless that certain persons who were spectators of
the whole scene and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the
Reverend Mr Dimmesdale denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast
more than on a newborn infants Neither by their report had his dying words
acknowledged nor even remotely implied any the slightest connection on his
part with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet
letter According to these highly respectable witnesses the minister conscious
that he was dying conscious also that the reverence of the multitude placed
him already among saints and angels had desired by yielding up his breath in
the arms of that fallen woman to express to the world how utterly nugatory is
the choicest of mans own righteousness After exhausting life in his efforts
for mankinds spiritual good he had made the manner of his death a parable in
order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson that in the
view of Infinite Purity we are sinners all alike It was to teach them that
the holiest among us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern
more clearly the Mercy which looks down and repudiate more utterly the phantom
of human merit which would look aspiringly upward Without disputing a truth so
momentous we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr Dimmesdales story
as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a mans friends and
especially a clergymans will sometimes uphold his character when proofs
clear as the midday sunshine on the scarlet letter establish him a false and
sinstained creature of the dust
The authority which we have chiefly followed a manuscript of old date
drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals some of whom had known Hester
Prynne while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnesses fully
confirms the view taken in the foregoing pages Among many morals which press
upon us from the poor ministers miserable experience we put only this into a
sentence »Be true Be true Be true Show freely to the world if not your
worst yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred«
Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place almost
immediately after Mr Dimmesdales death in the appearance and demeanour of the
old man known as Roger Chillingworth All his strength and energy all his
vital and intellectual force seemed at once to desert him insomuch that he
positively withered up shrivelled away and almost vanished from mortal sight
like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun This unhappy man had made
the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise
of revenge and when by its completest triumph and consummation that evil
principle was left with no further material to support it when in short
there was no more devils work on earth for him to do it only remained for the
unhumanized mortal to betake himself whither his Master would find him tasks
enough and pay him his wages duly But to all these shadowy beings so long
our near acquaintances as well Roger Chillingworth as his companions we
would fain be merciful It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry
whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom Each in its utmost
development supposes a high degree of intimacy and heartknowledge each
renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual
life upon another each leaves the passionate lover or the no less passionate
hater forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object Philosophically
considered therefore the two passions seem essentially the same except that
one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance and the other in a dusky and
lurid glow In the spiritual world the old physician and the minister mutual
victims as they have been may unawares have found their earthly stock of
hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love
Leaving this discussion apart we have a matter of business to communicate
to the reader At old Roger Chillingworths decease which took place within the
year and by his last will and testament of which Governor Bellingham and the
Reverend Mr Wilson were executors he bequeathed a very considerable amount of
property both here and in England to little Pearl the daughter of Hester
Prynne
So Pearl the elfchild the demon offspring as some people up to that
epoch persisted in considering her became the richest heiress of her day in
the New World Not improbably this circumstance wrought a very material change
in the public estimation and had the mother and child remained here little
Pearl at a marriageable period of life might have mingled her wild blood with
the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all But in no long time after
the physicians death the wearer of the scarlet letter disappeared and Pearl
along with her For many years though a vague report would now and then find
its way across the sea like a shapeless piece of driftwood tost ashore with
the initials of a name upon it yet no tidings of them unquestionably
authentic were received The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend Its
spell however was still potent and kept the scaffold awful where the poor
minister had died and likewise the cottage by the seashore where Hester
Prynne had dwelt Near this latter spot one afternoon some children were at
play when they beheld a tall woman in a gray robe approach the cottagedoor
In all those years it had never once been opened but either she unlocked it or
the decaying wood and iron yielded to her hand or she glided shadowlike
through these impediments and at all events went in
On the threshold she paused turned partly round for perchance the
idea of entering all alone and all so changed the home of so intense a former
life was more dreary and desolate than even she could bear But her hesitation
was only for an instant though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her
breast
And Hester Prynne had returned and taken up her longforsaken shame But
where was little Pearl If still alive she must now have been in the flush and
bloom of early womanhood None knew nor ever learned with the fulness of
perfect certainty whether the elfchild had gone thus untimely to a maiden
grave or whether her wild rich nature had been softened and subdued and made
capable of a womans gentle happiness But through the remainder of Hesters
life there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the
object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land Letters came
with armorial seals upon them though of bearings unknown to English heraldry
In the cottage there were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never
cared to use but which only wealth could have purchased and affection have
imagined for her There were trifles too little ornaments beautiful tokens of
a continual remembrance that must have been wrought by delicate fingers at the
impulse of a fond heart And once Hester was seen embroidering a babygarment
with such a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a public
tumult had any infant thus apparelled been shown to our sombrehued
community
In fine the gossips of that day believed and Mr Surveyor Pue who made
investigations a century later believed and one of his recent successors in
office moreover faithfully believes that Pearl was not only alive but
married and happy and mindful of her mother and that she would most joyfully
have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside
But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here in New England than
in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home Here had been her sin
here her sorrow and here was yet to be her penitence She had returned
therefore and resumed of her own free will for not the sternest magistrate
of that iron period would have imposed it resumed the symbol of which we have
related so dark a tale Never afterwards did it quit her bosom But in the
lapse of the toilsome thoughtful and selfdevoted years that made up Hesters
life the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the worlds scorn
and bitterness and became a type of something to be sorrowed over and looked
upon with awe yet with reverence too And as Hester Prynne had no selfish
ends nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment people brought
all their sorrows and perplexities and besought her counsel as one who had
herself gone through a mighty trouble Women more especially in the
continually recurring trials of wounded wasted wronged misplaced or erring
and sinful passion or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded because
unvalued and unsought came to Hesters cottage demanding why they were so
wretched and what the remedy Hester comforted and counselled them as best she
might She assured them too of her firm belief that at some brighter period
when the world should have grown ripe for it in Heavens own time a new truth
would be revealed in order to establish the whole relation between man and
woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness Earlier in life Hester had vainly
imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess but had long since
recognized the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth
should be confided to a woman stained with sin bowed down with shame or even
burdened with a lifelong sorrow The angel and apostle of the coming revelation
must be a woman indeed but lofty pure and beautiful and wise moreover not
through dusky grief but the ethereal medium of joy and showing how sacred love
should make us happy by the truest test of a life successful to such an end
So said Hester Prynne and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet
letter And after many many years a new grave was delved near an old and
sunken one in that burialground beside which Kings Chapel has since been
built It was near that old and sunken grave yet with a space between as if
the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle Yet one tombstone served
for both All around there were monuments carved with armorial bearings and on
this simple slab of slate as the curious investigator may still discern and
perplex himself with the purport there appeared the semblance of an engraved
escutcheon It bore a device a heralds wording of which might serve for a
motto and brief description of our now concluded legend so sombre is it and
relieved only by one everglowing point of light gloomier than the shadow
»ON A FIELD SABLE THE LETTER A GULES«
Note
1 At the time of writing this article the author intended to publish along
with »The Scarlet Letter« several shorter tales and sketches These it has been
thought advisable to defer