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 minister's 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 clergyman's 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 wild-flowers, and dug up roots and plucked off twigs from
the forest-trees, 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