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 sea-shore, 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 mother's
enthusiasm of thought had something to wreak itself upon. Providence, in the
person of this little girl, had assigned to Hester's 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 child's own nature had
something wrong in it, which continually betokened that she had been born amiss,
- the effluence of her mother's 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