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32 X

SCARLET LETTER^

1 VJL he set wbe

•i?jd ehild r,

sight of her brave apparel ' '

5 Prynne shall

re man, woman,

and ehild may have a fair

)^e5CARLLT

By^Naihaniel

Serawio-GEORGE-N-MORANG
6'COMPANYZ.wmiferfMDCCCC

i9oo

/a3o $177 0, S7

Copyripht MDCCCC by

DODD-MEADG-COMPANY

QArranpecl'Desipned and
Ph'niedb/mt UNIVERSITY
PRESS-CAMBRIDGE-U-SA

'•' '*

Intrc

The ]

The 1

[the I

Heste

Pearl

[The C

[The E

'The I

I The L

[The I;

The N

Anoth

(Hestei

i i Contents

|Introdi;ctory~The Custom-House . ''T
THE SCARLET LETTER

|The Prison-Door ,,

[The Market-Place ...... g

The Recognition

fTHE Interview ......

'Hester at her Needle ,,

Pearl . .

IT r> '26

[iHE Governor's Hall

The Elk-Child and the Minister . . iu

The Leech ^

I The Leech and his Patient . ..." ,85

I The Interior of a Heart. . . . .' 201
The Minister's Vigil

Another View of Hester . . .' ' * 33^
Hester and the Physician . «.,

Contents

Hester and Pearl arj

A Forest Walk 264

V The Pastor and his Parishioner . . 274 j

A Flood of Sunshine 289

The Child at the Brook-side . . . 299

The Minister in a Maze . . . . . 310

The New England Holiday .... 327

The Procession 341

The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter 358

Conclusion 372

zm^l^e Scarlet Letter

UntroductoryWfie^stomllmSi

kT is a little remarkable,
that — though disinclined
'to talk overmuch of myself
land my Tairs at the fire-
'side, and to my personal
[friends — an autobiograph-
ical impulse should twice
'in my life have taken pos-
session 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 indulp^nt reader
or the intrusive author could imagine — with a
description of my way of life in the deep quie-
tude 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 Custom-House.
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

a "^ he Scarlet Letter

understand him, better than most of his school-
mates or 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 seg-
ment of the writer's 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 auto-
biographical, without violating either the reader's
rights or his own.

It will be seen, likewise, that this Custom-
House sketch has a certain propriety, of a kind
always recognized in literature, as explaining
how a large portion of the following pages came

•^

Letter vsAe Sea rlet Letter

of his school-
s, indeed, do
themselves in
tion as could
xclusively, to
sympathy; as
e on the wide
; divided seg-
and complete
ng him inlo
;ly decorous,
re we speak
e frozen and
aker stand in
ce, it may be
1, a kind and
est friend, is
lative reserve
ciousness, we
at lie around
;p the inmost
It, and within
nay be auto-
r the reader's

:his Custom-
:y, of a kind
s explaining
\ pages came

into my possession, and as offering proofs of
the authenticity of a narrative therein contained.
Ihis, m fact, -a desire to put myself in mv
true position as editor, or very little more, of the
most prolix among the tales that make up mv
volume, -this, and no other, is my true reason
for assuming a personal relation with the public
In accomplishing the main purpose, it has ap^
peared allowable, by a few extra touches, to give
a faint representation of a mode of life not here-
tofore described, together with some of the char-
acters 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
fe; except, perhaps, a bark or brig, half-way down

at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out
h r cargo of firewood,-at the head, I say, of this
dilapidated wharf, which the tide often ov;rflor
and along which at the base and in the rear o/
the row of buildings, the track of many languid
years ,s seen in a border of unthrifty grass _
W, with a view from its front window! adown
this not very enlivening prospect, and thence

4 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

i!M

across the harbor, 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 indi-
cating that a civil, and not a military post of
Uncle Sam's government is here es*-ablished.
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 inter-
mingled 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 pre-
sume, that her bosom has all the softness and
snugness of an eider-down pillow. But she has

¥'

letter

edifice of
roof, during
h forenoon,
e banner of
ripes turned
1 thus indi-
iry post of
established.
ico of half

a balcony,
ranite steps
he entrance
e American

before her
ich of inter-
OV.S in each
' of temper
she appears,
ye, and the
to threaten
unity ; and
ful of their
nises which
fevertheless,
! seeking, at
elves under
ling, I pre-
toftness and
But she has

*S/ic Scarlet Letter

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 above-de-
scribed edifice — which we may as well name at
once as the Custom-House of the port— has
grass enough growing in its chinks to show that
it has not, of late days, been worn by anv multi-
tudinous 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 ship-
owners, 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 morn-
ing, 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 depar-
ture 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 sea-flushed shipmaster
just m port, with his vessel's papers under his

6 "TS/ie Scarlet Letter % ]S

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 mer-
chandise that will readily be turned to gold, or has
buried him under a bulk of incommodities, such
as nobouy will care to rid him of. Here, like-
wise, — the germ of the wrinkle-browed, grizzly-
bearded, care-worn merchant, — we have the smart
young clerk, who gets the taste of traffic as a wolf-
cub does of blood, and already sends adventures
in his master's ships, when he had better be
sailing mimic-boats upon a mill-pond. Another
figure in the scene is the outward-bound 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 rough-looking 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 be-
ing, it made the Custom-House a stirring scene.
More frequently, however, on ascending the steps,
you would discern — in the entry, if it were sum-
mer time, or in their appropriate rooms, if win-

Ji :

?ffer

50, comes

or in the

the now

i in mer-

>ld, or has

ities, such

ere, Hke-

l, grizzly-

the smart

as a wolf-

dventures

better be

Another

md sailor

ly arrived

>rt to the

ptains of

firewood

loking set

le Yankee

no slight

r, as they
eous ones
time be-
ing scene,
the steps,
ivere sum-
is, if win-

^Ae Scarlet Lette r 7

try or inclement weather — a row of venerable
figures, sitting in old-fashioned 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 be-
tween speech and a snore, and with that lack
of energy that distinguishes the occupants of
almshouses, and all other human beings who de-
pend for subsistence on charity, on monopolized
labor, or anything else, but their own independ-
ent exertions. These old gentlemen — seated,
like Matthew, at the receipt of customs, but not
very liable to be summoned thence, like him,
for apostolic errands — were Custom -House
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, block-makers, slop-sellers, and
ship-chandlers ; around the doors of which are
generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping
clusters of old salts, and such other wharf-rats as
haunt the Wapping of a seaport. The room it-
self IS cobwebbed, and dingy with old paint; its
floor IS strewn with gray sand, in a fashion that

8 'Is Ae Scarlet Lette r

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 three-legged
stool beside it; two or three wooden-bottom
chairs, exceedingly decrepit and infirm; and —
not to forget the library — on some shelves,
a score or two of volumes of the Acts of Con-
gress, 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 long-legged stool, with his
elbow on the desk, and his eyes wandering up
and down the columns of the morning news-
paper,— 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 dig-
nity, and pockets his emoluments.

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

his

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 sea-
sons 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 weari-
somely through the whole extent of the penin-
sula, 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 sen-
timental attachment to a disarranged checker-
board. 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 afl^ection. 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
forest-bordered settlement, which has since be-
come a city. And here his descendants have

xo *g/ic Scarlet Lett er

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 con-
sider it desirable to know.

But the sentiment has likewise its moral qual-
ity. The figure of that first ancestor, invested
by family tradition with a dim and dusky
grandeur, was present to my boyish imagina-
tion, as far back as I can remember. It still
haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling
with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference
to the present phase of the town. 1 seem to
have a stronger claim to a residence here on
account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked and
steeple-crowned progenitor, — who came so early,
with his Bible and his sword, and trode the un-
worn 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 per-

gtfgf ; 'e/ie Scarlet Letter

■■■■■■■■■■I 'M, ... ^

gled their
no small
cin to the
ile, I walk
ittachment
sympathy
ymen can
plantation
they con-
oral qual-
, invested
d dusky
imagina-
It still
ne-feeling
reference
seem to
here on
aked and
so early,
2 the un-
made so
peace, —
name is
vn. He
ruler in
its, both
:ter per-

secutor, as witness the Quakers, who have re-
membered 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, al-
though these were many. His son, too, inher-
ited 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 burial-
ground, must still ret:iin it, if they have not
crumbled utterly to dust ! I know not whether
these ancestors of mine bethought themselvts to
repent, and ask pardon of heaven for their cruel-
ties ; or whether they are now groaning under
the heavy consequences of them, in another state
of being. At a!I 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 1 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
black-browed 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

xa "Is/i e Sea rlef Letter

It, should have borne, as its topmost bough, an
idler like myself. No aim, that I have ever
cherished, would they recogni/e 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 story-books ! What kind of a
business in life, — what mode of glorifying God,
or being serviceable to mankind in his clay and
generation, — may that be? Why, the degen-
erate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!"
Such are the compliments bandied between my
great-grandsires and myself, across the gulf of
time ! And yet, let them scorn me as they will,
strong traits of their njrture have intertwined
themselves with mine.

Planted deep, in the town's earliest infancy
and childhood, by these two earnest and ener-
getic men, the race has ever since subsisted here ;
always, too, in respectability ; never, so far as I
have known, disgraced by a single u.-wcrthy
member; but seldom or never, on '■lie i ther
hand, after the first two generations, performing
any memorable deed, or so much as putting for-
ward a claim to public notice. Gradually, they
have sunk almost out of sight; as old houses,
h<Te ind there about the streets, get covered

Letter <iSAe Scarlet Letter «3

>st bough, an
I have ever
laudable ; no
I its domestic
")y success —
•thless, if not
? " murmurs
to the other,
t kind of a
irifying God,

his clay and
, the degen-
i a fiddler!"
between my
the gulf of
as they will,

intertwined

liest infancy
!t and ener-
bsisted here ;
, so far as I
e unwcrthy
1 *he ther
, performing
putting for-
dually, they
old houses,
get covered

half-way to the eaves by the accumulation of new
soil. From father to son, for above a hundred
years, they ff'lowed the sea; a gray-headed ship-
master, in each generation, retiring from the
quarter- ieclc to the homestead, while a boy of
' lurteen took the hereditary place before the
mast, confronting the salt spray and the gale,
which had blustered against his sire and grand-
sire. The boy, also, in due time, passed from
the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous
manhood, and returned from his world-wander-
ings, 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 for-
eign land, or whose father or grandfather came
— has little claim to be called a Salemite ; he
has no conception of the oyster-like tenacity with
which an old settler, over whom his third century
is creeping, clings to the spot where his succes-
sive 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 sight and sentiment, the
chill e.;st wind, and the chillest of social atmos-

{

^4 "JSAe Scarlet Letter

pheres ; — all these, and whatever faults besides
he may see or imagine, are nothing to the pur-
pose. The spell survives, and just as powerfUlly
as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise. So
has It been m my case. I felt it almost as a
destmy 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 rep-
resentative of the race lay down in his grave
another assuming, as it were, his sentry-march
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 un-
healthy one, should at last be severed. Human
nature will not flourish, any more than a potato
It It be planted and replanted, for too long a

// rr\°f ^'"''''''°"'' ^" '^^ same worn-out soil.
My children have had other birthplaces, and, so
iar as their fortunes may be within my con-
trol shall strike their roots into unaccustomed
earth.

On emerging from the Old Manse, it was
chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attach-
ment for my native town, that brought me to fill
a place in Uncle Sam's 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

*'*$

f letter "^Ae Scarlet Letter 15

r faults besides
ing to the pur-
st as powerftjlly
y paradise. So

it almost as a
2; so that the
icter which had
'Ty as one rep-

in his grave,
5 sentry-march
ill in my little
:he old town,
is an evidence
2come an un-
red. Human
than a potato,
)r too long a
^orn-out soil.
)laces, and, so
bin my con-
unaccustomed

lanse, it was
yous attach-
ght me to fill
ice, when I
i somewhere
was not the
1 gone away,

— as it seemed, permanently, — but yet returned,
like the bad half-penny ; 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 President's 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
Custom-House.

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 Custom-House
out of the whirlpool of political vicissitude, which
makes the tenure of office generally so fragile. A
soldier., — New England's most distinguished sol-
dier, — 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 heart-quake. General Miller was radically
conservative; a man over whose kindly nature
habit had no slight influence ; attaching himself

16 "TSAe Scarlet Letter

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 sea-captains,
for the most part, who, after being tost on every
sea, and standing up sturdily against life's tem-
pestuous 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 exist-
ence. Though by no means less liable than
their fellow-men 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 ap-
pearance at the Custom-House, 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 represen-
tation, to rest from their arduous labors, and
soon afterwards — as if their sole principle of
life had been zeal for their country's service, as

Letter

'^he Scarlet Letter '?

ith difficulty
; might have
ent. Thus,
, I found few

sea-captains,
tost on every
3t life's tem-
ito this quiet
them, except
tial election,
ase of exist-

liable than
ty, they had
t kept death
ber, as I was
, or perhaps
ig their ap-
ing a large
rpid winter,
ine of May
:ermed duty,
ence, betake
jad guilty to
al breath of
vants of the
ly represen-
labors, and
principle of
J 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 cor-
rupt practices into which, as a matter of course,
every Custom-House officer must be supposed to
fall. Neither the front nor the back entrance of
the Custom-House 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 Custom-
House 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 be-
hold the terrors that attended my advent ; to see

i8 "ISA eSca rlef Letter

a furrowed cheek, weather-beaten by half a cen-
tury 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 long-past days, had been wont
to bellow through a speaking-trumpet, 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, there-
fore, and considerably to the detriment of my
official conscience, they continued, during my in-
cumbency, to creep about the wharves, and loiter
up and down the Custom-House steps. They
spent a good deal ot dme, 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 sea-stories,
and mouldy jokes, that had grown to be pass-
words and countersigns among them.

The discovery was soon made, I imagine, that
the new Surveyor had no great harm in him.

.etter

"WA e Scarlet Letter 19

half a cen-
;lance of so
' detect, as
emor of a
been wont
t, hoarsely
to silence.
IS, that, by
d some of
' efficiency
;iven place
olitics, and
serve our
ould never
knowledge,
sdit, there-
nt of my
ing my in-
and loiter
3s. They
p in their
ilted back
:e or twice
with the
;ea-stories,
) be pass-

igine, that
n in him.

So, with lightsome hearts, and the happy con-
sciousness of being usefully employed, — in their
own behalf, at least, if not for our beloved coun-
try, — 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 ob-
tuseness that allowed greater ones to slip between
their fingers ! Whenever such a mischance oc-
curred, — when a wagon-load of valuable mer-
chandise 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
double-lock, and secure with tape and sealing-
wax, all the avenues of the delinquent vessel. In-
stead 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 prompti-
tude of their zeal, the moment that there was no
longer any remedy.

Unless people are more than commonly dis-
agreeable, it is my foolish habit to contract a
kindness for them. The better part of my com-
panion's 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.

ttSjfo

'fl

ao "^Ae Scarlet Letter

As most of these old Custom-House officers had
good traits, and as my position in reference to
them, being paternal and protective, was favor-
able 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
half- torpid 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
hps Externally, the jollity of aged men has
much m common with the mirth of children •
the mtellect, 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 cheerv 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

iSAe Scarlet Letter

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 intel-
lectual tenement in good repair. But, as respects
the majority of my corps of veterans, there will
be no wrong done, if I characterize them gener-
ally 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 wis-
dom, which they had enjoyed so many opportu-
nities of harvesting, and most carefully to have
stored their memories with the husks. They
spoke with far more interest and unction of their
morning's breakfast, or yesterday's, to-day's, or
to-morrow's dinner, than of the shipwreck of
forty or fifty years ago, and all the world's won-
ders which they had witnessed with their youthful
eyes.

The father of the Custom-House — the patri-
arch, not only of this little squad of officials, but,
I am bold to say, of the respectable body of tide-
waiters 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

nvi

a» *g4 eSca rlef Letter

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 there-
abouts, and certainly one of the most wonderful
specimens of winter-green that you would be
likely to discover in a lifetime's search. With
his florid cheek, his compact figure, smartly
arrayed in a bright-buttoned 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 re-echoed through the Cus-
tom-House, had nothing of the tremulous quaver
and cackle of an old man's utterance ; they came
strutting out of his lungs, like the crow of a cock,
or the blast of a clarion. Looking at him r.jrely
as an animal, — and there was very little else to
look at, — he was a most satisfactory object,
from the thorough healthfulness and wholesome-
ness of his system, and his capacity, at that ex-
treme 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 Custom-
House, on a regular income, and with but slight
and infrequent apprehensions of removal, had
no doubt contributed to make time pass lightly

^Ae Scarlet Letter ^3

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 gentle-
man from vialking on all-fours. 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 well-being, 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 Col-
lector's 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

^ ^Ae Scarlet Letter

my notice. He was, in truth, a rare phenome-
non ; so perfect, in one point of view; so shal-
low, so delusive, so impalpable, such an absolute
nonenity, 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 hi?
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 con-
ceive how he should exist hereafter, so earthly
and sensuous did he seem; but surely his exist-
ence here, admitting that it was to tt.^'.ninate 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 advan-
tage over his four-footed 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 agree-
able trait; and to hear him talk of roast-meat
was as appetizing as a pickle or an oyster. As
he possessed no higher attribute, and neither sac-
rificed nor vitiated any spiritual endowment by

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

devoting all his energies and ingenuities to sub-
serve the delight and profit of his maw, it always
pleased and satisfied me to hear him expatiate
on fish, poultry, and butcher's meat, and the
most eligible methods of preparing them for the
table. His reminiscences of good c! >er, however
ancient the date of the actual banquet, seemed
to bring the savor of pig or turkey under one's
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 mutton-chop which he had just
devoured foi his breakf^'.st. 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 grate-
ful for his former appreciation and seeking to
reduplicate an endless series of enjoyment, at
once shadowy and sensual. A tender-loin of
beef, a hind-quarter of veal, a spare-rib of pork,
a particular chicken, or a remarkably praise-
worthy 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 efl^ect as the passing

^ "^Ae Scarlet Letter

breeze. The chief tragic event of the old man's
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 carving-knifb 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 consider-
ably more length because, of all men whom I
have ever known, this individual was fittest to be
a Custom-House 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 Custom-House portraits would be
strangely incomplete; but which my compara-
tively 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, subse-
quently to which he had ruled over a wild West-
ern territory, had come hither, twenty years before,

etter

old man's
lishap with
me twenty

promising
iveterately

make no
d only be

on which,

consider-

vvhom I

ttest to be

ns, owing

o hint at,

liar mode

ble of it,

the end

was then,

good an

hich my
'ould be
compara-
n enable
e. It is
General,
;, subse-
Id West-
rs before.

^Ae Scarlet Letter 27

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 pur.uu.g the remainder of his earthly march,
burdened with infirmities which even the mar-
tial n^Ms.c of his own spirit-stirring recollections
could do httle towards lightening. The step
was palsied now, that had been foremost in the
charge, ft was only with the assistance of a
servant and by leaning his hand heavily on the
iron balustrade, that he could slowly and pain-
fully ascend the Custom-House 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 circum-
stances seemed but indistinctly to impress his
senses, and hardly to make their way into his
inner sphere of contemplation. His counte-
nance, 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 intel-
lectual lamp that obstructed the rays in their
passage. The closer you penetrated to the sub-

itl

28 7g/ie Scarlet Letter

stance 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 com-
plete, but elsewhere may be only a shapeless
mound, cumbrous with its very strength, and
overgrown, through long years of peace and neg-
lect, 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

\etter

appeared,
c, or listen,
an evident
e into its
t was not
gh dim, it
tge. The
trong and
uin.

however,
:ult a task
lagination,
n a view
md there,
lost com-

shapeless
igth, and

and neg-

rrior with
unication
e that of
m, might
i discern
marked
1 showed
of good
d name,
ive been

'^A e Scarlet Letter ao

characterized by an uneasy activity; it must a.

any penod of his ,ite. have required an T:':.
to set h,m m mot.on; but, once stirred up, with
obstacfo ,o overcome, and an adequate oW ct to
be attamed, ,t was not in the man to g,ve iut or
*a.l. The heat that had formerly pervaded his

nature, and which was not yet extinct »,?„
_r ^L 1 • J , ^ y^^ cxnnct, was never

of the kmd that flashes and flickers in a blaze-
but, mher a deep, red glow, as of iron in a fur-'

nace. Weight, solidity, firmness ; this wa the
express-on of his repose, even in such decay a!
had crept unt,mely over him, at the period of

that h'"'' ^"^ ' ""'" '"-^8'-' -- "-e"
that, under some excitement which should go

deeply mto h,s consciousness, - roused by a

trumpet-peal, loud enough to awaken all his

energies that were not dead, but only slumber-

;ng,-he v.as yet capable of flinging ofl^ his

.nfirm,t,es hke a sick man's gown, Lpping the

stair of age to seize a battle-sword, and starting

up once more a warrior. And, in so intense a

moment his demeanor would have still been

calm. Such an exhibition, however, was but to

be Fctured m fancy; not to be anticipated, nor

desired What I saw in him -as e^entiy as

the indestructible ramparts of old Ticonderoga

already cited as the most appropriate simile!

were the feamres of stubborn and ponderous

endurance, which might well have amounted to

30 "IS he Scarlet Letter

I h

obstinacy in his earlier days ; of integrity, that,
like most of his other endowments, lay in a some-
what heavy mass, and was just as unmalleable
and unmanageable as a ton of iron ore ; and of
benevolence, which, fiercely as he led the bayo-
nets 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 trium-
phant energy ; — but, be that as it might, there
was never in his heart so much cruelty as would
have brushed the down off a butterfly's 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 resem-
blance 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 wall-flowers
over the ruined fortress of Ticonderoga. Still,
even in respect of grace and beauty, there were

"g^e Scarlet Letter

lere 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 General's fond-
ness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. An
old soldier might be supposed to prize only the
bloody laurel on his brow; but here vas one
who seemed to have a young girl's appreciation
of the floral tribe.

There, beside the fireplace, the brave old Gen-
eral 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 dis-
tance, and watching his quiet and almost slum-
berous countenance. He seemed away from us,
although we saw him but a few yards ofl^; re-
mote, 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 environ-
ment of the Collector's 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. Mean-

3a "^Ae Scarlet Letter

1 iiii

while, the merchants and shipmasters, the spruce
clerks and uncouth sailors, entered and departed ;
the bustle of this commercial and Custom-House
life kept up its little murmur round about him ;
und neither with the men nor their affairs did the
General appear to sustain the most distant rela-
tion. He was as much out of place as an old
sword — now rusty, but which had flashed once
in the battle's front, and showed still a bright
gleam along its blade— would have been, among
the inkstands, paper-folders, and mahogany rulers,
on the Deputy Collector's desk.

There was one thing that much aided me in
renewing and re-creating the stalwart soldier of
the Niagara frontier, — the man of true and
simple energy. It was the recollection of those

memorable words of his, — "I'll try. Sir!"

spoken on the very verge of a desperate and
heroic enterprise, and breathing the soul and
spirit of New England hardihood, comprehend-
ing 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 Gen-
eral's shield of arms.

It contributes greatly towards a man's moral
and intellectual health, to be brought into habits

'g/ic Scarlet Letter 33

of companionship with individuals unlike himself

tl Vr, " ' '" ''^ P"""''^' -^ "f'"- sphere
and ab.ht,es he must go out of himself to appre-

Z\ H u''"*'"' °f "^y "f^ '>='ve often

afforded me th.s advantage, but never with more

,n offi« Tk""^ "''" '"""g "^ continuance
m office. There was one man, especially, the
observation of whose character gave me a new

minnT -u """'' P™-"?'' ^™t^. clear,
mmded ; w,th an eye that saw through dl per-

plex,t,es, and a faculty of arrangement%hat mide

wand ™K ;; " ? ""^ "^""S °^ =" -chanter's
wand. Bred up from boyhood in the Custom-

House, .t was h,s proper field of activity, and

he many mtncaces of business, so harassi.;g to

the mterloper, presented themselves before him

w.th the regularity of a perfectly comprehende"

Tr, b r "■"'•"?'«-". h^ stood as the
.deal of h.s class. He was, indeed, the Custom-
stir t'h" r r""' "' " '" ^^-'»' 'I'' "--

ts off ' ' ■" "" '"""""°" ''"^^ "'^. "here
■ts officers are appointed to subserve , eir own

profit and convenience, and seldom with a lead-
ing reference to their fitness for the duty to be

fh r • ''7 """^^ P^^''-« -ek els'ewhere
mevtable necessity, as a magnet attracts steel-

34 "WA eSca rlef Letter

filings, so did our man of business draw to him-
self the difficulties which everybody met with.
With an easy condescension, and kind forbear-
ance 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 other-
wise 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 anything 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 ink-blot 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 per-
son 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

2tfer

w to him-
net with.
1 forbear-

his order
of crime,
touch of
IS clear as

not less
Jgrity was
m, rather
be other-
tellect so
be honest
Tairs. A
hat came
J trouble
:hough to
B balance
page of a
id it is a
ith a per-
which he

whom I

in good

It I was

my past

her from

Lfter my

°g/ie Scarlet Letter

fellowsh.p of to,l and impracticable schemes with
the dreamy brethren of Broolc Farm ; after living

fnenT,rr'"'""'= ^"""''^ influence of af
■ntellect I.lce Emerson's ; after those wild, free

bt L?" ^.^^'l'"''. -d"lging fantastic specu
b ons, bes,de our fire of fallen boughs.'with
Eilery Chann.ng; after talking with Thoreau

age at Walden ; after growing fastidious by sym-

culture; after becoming imbued with poetic sen-
timent at Longfellow's hearthstone f- it was
t,me at length, that I should exercise other Tc!

fold f 7.7T"' '"^ """"»'' "y^elf with
food for wh,ch I had hitherto had little appetite

Even he old Inspector was desirable, as aTa ^^
of d,et. to a man who had known Alcott I
look upon n as an evidence, in some measure
of a system naturally well balanced, and lacklg
no essen .al part of a thorough organization, tha.^
w.th such associates to remember, I could mingle
at once w,th men of altogether diiferent qualiti!
and never murmur at the change "l""""".

of Met''' "' ''""°"' ""^ °''>«^' -=« "ow
of l.ttle moment m my regard. I cared not at

^h.sper.od. for books; they were apart from m

Nature, -except ,t were human nature -the

nature that is developed in earth and k'y was

m one sense, hidden from me; and all the im!^N

36 T5/ic Scarlet Letter

riii

native delight, wherewith it had been spiritual-
ized, 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 have made 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 nev/ change of cus-
tom 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 un-
derstand, as good a Surveyor as need be. A
man of thought, fancy, and sensibility (had he
ten times the Surveyor's proportion of those
qualities) may, at any time, be a man of affairs,
if he will only choose to give himself the trouble.
My fellow-officers, and the merchants and sea-
captains with whom my official duties brought
me into any manner of connection, viewed me
in no other light, and probably knew me in no

rtter

spiritual-
A gift, a
uspended
uld have
•y, in all
lay at my
t)le in the
his was a
lived too
manently
ming me
my while
ther than
prophetic
ivithin no
2 of cus-
a change

r of the
le to un-
be. A
(had he
of those
)f affairs,
: trouble,
and sea-
brought
ewed me
ne in no

^Ae Scarlet Letter 37

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 Custom-House
officer m his day, as well as I. It is a good les-
son—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 world's
dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of
the narrow circle in which his claims are recog-
nized, and to find how utterly devoid of signifi-
cance, 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 thor-
oughly : 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 ofiice 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 Shakespeare. The Collector's
junior clerk, too,— a young gentleman who, it
was whispered, occasionally covered a sheet of

38 'nsAe Sc arlet Letter

Uncle Sam's letter-paper with what (at the dis-
tance of a few yards) looked very much lil-e
poetry, — used now and then to speak to me
of books, as matters with which I might pos-
sibly be conversant. This was my all of lettered
intercourse; and it was quite sufficient for mv
necessities.

No longer seeking nor caring that my name
should be blazoned abroad on title-pages, J
smiled to think that it had now another kind
of vogue. The Custom-House marker im-
printed it, with a stencil and black paint, on
pepper-bags, and baskets of anatto, and cigar-
boxes, and bales of all kinds of dutiable mer-
chandise, 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, re-
vived agam. One of the most remarkable occa-
sions, 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 Custom-House

)

the dis-
uch lil-e
k to me
ght pos-
f lettered

for mv

iiy name
pages, J
ler kind
ker im-
taint, on
id cigar-
ale mer-
modities
through
of fame,
a name
'^er been

•

a great
ntal and
etly, re-
)le occa-
ivoke in

law of
: sketch

-House

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 3q

there is a large room, in which the brick-work
and naked rafters have never been covered with
panellmg and plaster. The edifice-originallv
projected on a scale adapted to the old commercial
enterprise of the port, and with an idea of subse-
quent prosperity destined never to be realized —
contams far more space than its occupants know
what to do with. This airy hall, therefore, over
th. Collector s 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 bar-
rels, piled one upon another, containing bundles
of official documents. Large quantities of simi-
lar 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
encumberance 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
ot 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 heaped-up papers had, and - saddest
of all -without purchasing for their writers

40 ISA e Scarlet Letter

the comfortable livelihood which the clerks of
the Custom-House had gained by these worth-
less scratchings of the pen ! Yet not altogether
worthless, perhaps, as materials of local history.
Here, no doubt, statistics of the former com-
merce of Salem might be discovered, and me-
morials 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 mou.itain pile 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, up-
ward to what their children look upon as long-
established rank.

Prior to the Revolution, there is a dearth of
records; the earlier documents and archives of
the Custom-House having, probably, been car-
ried off to Halifax, when all the King's 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 con-
tained many references to forgotten or remem-
bered men, and to antique customs, which would
have affected me with the same pleasure as when

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 4z

I used to pick up Indian arrow-heads 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. Pok-
ing and burrowing into tht- hcaped-up rubbish in
the corner; unfolding one and another document
and readmg .ne 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, half-reluctant interest which i
we bestow on the corpse of dead activity,- and
exertmg my fancy, sluggish with little use, to
raise up from these d- ,o„,, an image of the
old town's 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 chiroc^ •
raphy on more substantial materials than at
present. There was something about it thi t
quiCKened an instinctive curiosity, and made me
undo the faded red tape, that tied up the pack-
age, 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 com-

4» '^Ae S carl ef Letter

mmn

mission, under the hand and seal of Governor
Shirley, in favor of one Jonathan Pue, as Sur-
veyor of his Majesty's Customs for the port of
Salem, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. I
remembered to have read (probably in Felt's
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. Peter's Church, during the renewal of that
edifice. Nothing, if I rightly call to mind, was
left of my respected predecessor, save an imper-
fect 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 en-
velop, I found more traces of Mr. Pue's 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 Custom-House lumber only by
the fact that Mr. Pue's death had happened sud-
denly ; and that these papers, which he probably
kept in his official desk, had never come to the

; t

etter

Governor
le, as Sur-
he port of
:s Bay. I

in Felt's
Surveyor
kewise, in
nt of the
graveyard
'al of that
mind, was
an imper-
parel, and
the head
itisfactory
le papers
id to en-
's mental
lead, than
venerable

t official,
i^ritten in
his own
included
only by
ined sud-
probably
e to the

"g^ e Scarlef Letter a^

knowledge of his heirs, or were supposed to re-
late to the business of the revenue. On the
transfer or the archives to Halifax, this package
proving to be of no public concern, was left be-
hmd and had remained ever since unopened.

The ancent Surveyor -being little molested,
I suppose, at that early day, with business per-
tammg to his office-seems to have devoted
ome of his many leisure hours to researches as a
local antiquarian, and other inquisitions of a sim-
ilar 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 prepara-
tion of the article entitled « Main Street," in-
cluded 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 sc 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

44 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 mys-
teries) 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 re-
duced 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 meas-
urement, each limb proved to be precisely three
inches and a quarter in length. It had been
intended, there could be no doubt, as an or-
namental article of dress ; but how it was to be
worn, or what rank, honor, and dignity, in by-
past 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 scar-
let letter, and would not be turned aside. Cer-
tainly, 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.

"S/ic Scarlet Letter

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 tlie
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 red-hot
iron. J '■ iddered, and involuntarily let it fall
upon Ih ; rloor.

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 satis-
faction to find, recorded by the old Surveyor's
pen, a reasonably complete explanation of the
whole afiuir. 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 per-
sonage in the view of our ancestors. She had
flourished during the period between the early
days of Massachusetts and the close of the sev-
enteenth century. Aged persons, alive in the
time of Mr. Surveyor Pue, and from whose oral
testimony he had made up his narrative, remem-
bered her, in their youth, as a very old, but not

46 ISA e Scarlet Letter

|( r

dec epit 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 volun-
tary nurse, and doing whatever miscellaneous good
she might; taking upon herself, likewise, to give
advice in all matters, especially those of the heart ;
by wh.jh 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 further 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 reiic, — are still in my possession,
and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever, in-
duced by the great interest of the narrative, may
desire a sight of them. I must not be under-
stood 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 Surveyor's half a dozen sheets
of foolscap. On the contrary, I have allowed

tter

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 47

I aspect,
lemorial
f volun-
>us good
, to give
le heart ;
Densities
ople the
magine,
:r and a
script^ I
ifferings
lich the

"The
: borne
of that
by the
original
slf, — a
session,
ver, in-
'^e, may
under-
> of the
)des of
) figure
hin the

sheets
illowed

myself, as to such pomts, 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 de-
gree, 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 cham-
ber of the Custom-House. In his port was the
dignity of one who had borne his Majesty's com-
mission, and who was therefore illuminated by a
ray of the splendor that shone so dazzlingly about
the throne. How unlike, alus ! the hang-dog
look of a republican official, who, as the servant
of the people, feels himself less than the kast,
and below the lowest, of his masters. With his^
own ghostly hand, the obscurely seen but majes-
tic 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 reason-
ably regard himself as my official ancestor, — to
bring his mouldy and moth-eaten lucubrations
before the public. "Do this," said the ghost
of Mr. Surveyor Pue, emphatically nodding the

48 "^he Scarlet Le tter

head that looked so imposing within its memor-
able 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 man's
office was a life-lease, and oftentimes an heirloom.
But, I charge you, in this matter of old Mis-
tress Prynne, give to your predecessor's memory
the credit which will be rightfully due ! " And
I said to the ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue, " I
will ! "

On Hester Prynne's story, therefore, I be-
stowed 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
hundred-fold repetition, the long extent from the
front-door of the Custom- House to the side-
entrance, and back again. Great were the weari-
ness and annoyance of the old Inspector and the
Weighers and Gaugers, whose slumbers were dis-
turbed by the unmercifully lengthened tramp of
my passing and returning footsteps. Remeh;
bering their own former habits, they used to say
that the Surveyor was walking the quarter-deck.

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 east wind
that generally blew along the passage, was the

etfer

s memor-
lall be all
; for it is
n a man's
heirloom,
old Mis-
s memory
!" And
Pue, « I

re, I be-
;ct of my
racing to
[, with a

from the
the side-
he weari-

and the
were dis-
:ramp of
Remeu:
d to say
ter-deck.
abject —
ane man
lotion —
d to say
ast wind
was the

^Ae Scarlet Letter 49

only valuable result of so much indefatigable
exercse. So little adapted is the atmosphere
oi a Custom-House 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 imagmation was a tarnished mirror It
would not reflect, or only with miserable dim-
ness, 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 contemptu-
ous defiance. « What have you to do with us? "
that exprtission seemed to say. « The little power
you might once have possessed over the tribe of
unrealities is gone I You have bartered it for a
pittance of the public gold. Go, then, and earn
your wages : " In short, the almost torpid crea-
tures 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 sea-

50 '^A e Scarlet Letter

ii'i

;.);ii;

r^'!!

shore walks, and rambles into the country, when-
ever — which was seldom and reluctaiitly — 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 tliC capacity for intellec-
tual 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 parlor, lighted
only by the glimmering coal-fire and the moon,
striving to picture forth imaginary scenes, which,
the next day, might flow out on the brightening
page in many-hued 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
distincdy, — making every object so minutely
visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visi-
bility, — is a medium the most suitable for a ro-
mance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive
guests. There is the little domestic scenery of
the well-known apartment ; the chairs, with each
its separate individuality ; the centre-table, sus-
taining a work-basket, a volume or two, and an
extinguishes lamp ; the sofa ; the bookcase ; the
picture on the wall ; — all these details, so com-

rtter

V, when,
mtly — I
ig charm
freshness
[ stepped
ie. The
intellec-
weighed
absurdly
le, when,
■, lighted
le moon,
s, which,
ghtening

t at such
less case,
so white
gures so
ninutely
:ide visi-
for a ro-
j illusive
;nery of
ith each
lie, sus-
and an
ise ; the
so com-

'g/ie Scarlet Letter

pletely seen, are so spiritualized by the unusual
light, that they seem to lose their actual sub-
stance, and become things of intellect. Nothing
is too small or too trifling to undergo this change,
and acquire dignity thereby. A child's shoe ; the
doll, seated in her little wicker carriage; the
hobby-horse; — whatever, in a word, has been
used or played with, during the day, is now in-
vested with a quality of strangeness and remote-
ness, though still almost as vividly present as by
daylight. Thus, therefore, the floor of our famil-
iar room has become a neutral territory, some-
where between the real world and fairy-land,
where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet,
and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.
Ghosts might enter here, without aflrighting 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 sit-
ting 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 coal-fire has an essential
influence in producing the efl^ect 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

sa '^A eSca rlet Letter

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 snow-imagt::. into men and women.
Glancing at the looking-glass, we behold — deep
within its haunted verge - - the smouldering glow
of the half-extinguished anthracite, the white
moonbeams on the floor, and a repetition of all
the gleam and shadow of the picture, with one
remove further 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 Cus-
tom-House 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 tallow-candle.
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 in-
efficacious. I might, for instance, have contented
myself with writing out the narratives of a veteran

^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 story-
teller. 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, 1 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 thu daily
life pressing so intrusively upon me, to att ;mpt
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 soap-bubble was broken by the
rude contact of some actual circumstance. The
wiser effort would have been, to diflfiise thought
and imagination through the opaque substance of
to-day, and thus to make it a bright transpar-
ency; 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

54 'g/i e Scarlet Lett er

leaf presenting; itself to me, just as it was written
out by the reality of the flitting hour, and vanish-
ing as fast as written, only because my biain
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 anything but
agreeable to be haunted by a suspicion that one's
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 efl=ect
of public office on the character, not very favor-
able to the mode of life in question. In some
other form, perhaps, I may hereafter develop
these effects. Suflice It here to say, that a
Custom-House officer, of long continuance, can
hardly be a very praiseworthy or respectable per-

'^Ae Scarlet Letter 55

sonage, 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 Relieve o be observable,
more or less, in every in iiridual v \o has occupied
the position — is, that, .'l.iie ]■. , leans on the
mighty arm of the RepuL.ic, 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 self-support.
It 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 keec.s 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 tem-
pered steel and elasticity are lost, — he forever
afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of
support external to himself His pervading and
continual hope — a hallucination which, in the

56 ^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 —■ ij
that finally, and in no long time, by some happy
comcidence of circumstances, he shall be restored
to office. This faith, more than anything 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 httle while hence, the strong arm of hij
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 glitter-
ing coin out of his Uncle's pocket .? It is sadly
curious to observe how slight a taste of office
suffices to infect a poor fellow with this singular
disease. Uncle Sam's gold -meaning no dis-
respect to the worthy old gentleman - has, in
this respect, a quality of enchantment like that of
the Devil's wages. Whoever touches it should
look well to himself, or he may find the bargain
to go hard againn him, involving, if not his
soul, yet many of its better attributes ; its sturdy
force, its courage and constancy, its truth, its
self-reh-^nce, and all that gives the emphasis to
manly character.

2f(er

J light of
es, and, I
~ cholera,
eath — is
le happy
restored
ling else,
whatever
r. Why
so much
d, when,
1 of his
f should
■ gold in
; happy,
' glitter-
is sadly
)f office
singular
no dis~
has, in
that of
should
bargain
lot his
sturdy
Jth, its
asis to

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 eject-
ment. Yet my reflections were not the r ost
comfortable. I began to grow melancholy and I
restless; continually prying into my mind, to '
discover which of its poor properties were gone,
and what degree of detriment had already - crued
to the remainder. I endeavored to calculate how
much longer I could stay in the Custom-House,
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 dinner-
hour the nucleus of the day, and to spend the
rest of it, as an old dog spends it, asleep in the
sunshine or in the shade ? A dreary look-forward
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

58 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

alarm. Providence had meditated better things
for me than I could possibly imagine for my-
self.

A remarkable event of the third year of my

Surveyorship — to adopt the tone of " P. P."

I was the election of General Taylor to the Presi-
' dency. It is essential, in order to a complete esti-
mate of the advantages of official life, to view the
incumbent at the incoming of a hostile adminis-
tration. 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 himseii among its objects! There are few
uglier traits of human nature than this tendency
— which I now witnessed in men no worse than
their neighbors — to grow cruel, merely because
they possessed the power of inflicting harm. If

rffer

sr things
for my-

ar of my

3 p »»

le Presi-
)Iete esti-
view the
adminis-
:he most
ingency,
possibly
jood, on
' to him
the best.
of pride
ests are
her love

one or
ather be
)ne who
ntest, to
oped in

that he
are few
endency
se than
because
■m. If

l§/ie Scarlet Letter

the guillotine, as applied to office-holders, 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 curi-
ous observer, as well in victory as defeat — that
this fierce and bitter spirit of malice and revenge
has never distinguished the many triumphs of mv
own party as it now did that of the Whigs. The
Democrats take the offices, as a general rule, be-
cause 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 occa-
sion ; and when they strike, the axe may be sharp,
indeed, but its edge is seldom poisoned with ill-
will ; 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

60 "IS Ac Scarlet Letter

lay ; nor was it without something like regret and
shame, that, according to a reasonable calculation
of chances, I s, v 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 ovn head was the first
that fell !

The moment when a man's 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 con-
solation 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 con-
solatory 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 n^v previous weariness of office,
and vague thoughts oi resignation, my fortune
somewhat resembled that of a person who should
entertain an idea of committing suicide, and,
although beyond his hopes, meet with the good
hap to be n urdered. In the Custom-House, 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

'g/ic Scarlet Letter 6i

what was really of no advantage nor delight to any
human being, and withholding myself from toil
that v/ould, at least, have stilled an unquiet im-
pulse in me. Then, moreover, as regarded his
unceremonious ejectment, the kte Surveyor was
not altogether ill-pleased to be recognized by
the Wh:gs 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 house-
hold must diverge from one another — had some-
times 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 adminis-
tration, to be compelled then to define his posi-
tion 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

6a T§/ie Scarlet Letter

muMm

tkv:-.fmi.%i.)^m2

gnin,

Irving's Headless Horseman ; ghrwtly an.
and longing to be buried, as a politicall/ dead
man ought. So much for ray figurative self.
The real human being, ali this time, with his
head safely on his shoulders, had b' .ugh: himself
to the comfortable conclusion that vverythliig was
for the best, and, making an invescment in ink,
pa[«<'r, and steel-pens, had opened his long-disused
writi!?g-desk, and was again a literary man.

Now i 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 ab-
sorbed 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 un-
captivating effect is perhaps due to the period of
hardly accomplished revolution, and still seeth-
ing turmoil, in which the story shaped itself. It
is no indication, however, of a lack of cheerfulness
in the writer's mind ; for he was hap^ if r, while
straying through the gloom of the unless
fantasies, 'in at any time since '■'e h u quitted

TS^e Scarlet Letter 63

the Old Manse. Some of the briefer articles,
which contribute to make up the volume, have
likewise been written since my involuntary with-
drawal 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
again.* Keeping up the metaphor of the political
guillotine, the whole may be considered as the
Posthumous Papers of a Decapitated Sur-
veyor ; 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 1 My forgiveness to my
enemies ! For I am in the realm of quiet !

The life of the Custom-House lies like a dream
behind me. The old Inspector, — who, by the
by, I regret to say, was overthrown and killed by
ahorse, some time ago; else he would certainly
have lived forever, — he, and all those other ven-
erable personages who sat with him at the receipt
of custom, are but shadows in my view ; white-
headed and wrinkled images, which my fancy
used to sport with, and has now flung aside

* 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.

g4 Is Ae Scarlet Letter

I ^Zih2

forever. 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 im-
portant 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 r.iist brooding over and around it;
as if it were no portion of the real earth, but an
overgrown village in cloud-land, with only imag-
mary inhabitants to people its wooden houses, and
walk its homely lanes, and the unpicturesque pro-
lixity of its main street. Henceforth it ceases to
be a reality of my life. I am a citizen of some-
where 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 burial-place
of so many of my forefathers — M,?r^ 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.

?ffer

Phillips,
Hunt, —
d such a
s ago,—
py so im-
ittle time
them all,
t is with
jellations
i native

haze of
ound it;
, but an
ly imag-
ises, and
que pro-
:eases to
>f some-
ot much
dear an
of some
nyself a
ial-place
s never
vhich a
he best
mongst
it need
)ut me.

"^^e Scarlet Letter 65

It may be however, _ O, transporting and
tnumphant thought !_ that the greatirand-
ch,ldren of the present race may somftimes^rnk
kmdly of the scribbler of by-gone days, when the
ant,quary of days to come, among the sites mem-
orable m the town's history, shall point out the
locality of The Town Pump!

^^e (Scarlei Letter

WSe ^rison-^oor

THRONG of bearded men, in
sad-colored garments, and gray,
steeple-crowned hats, intermixed
with women, some wearing hoods
and rtheis bareheaded, was assem-
bled 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 happmess they
might originally project, have invariably recog-
nized it griong their ea iest practical necessities
to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery,
and another portion as the site of a prison. In
accordance witii this rule, it may safely be as-
sumed that the forefathers of Boston hcd built
the first prison-house sonu -vhere in the vicinity
of Cornhill, almost " easonably as thev marked
out the first burial our on Isaac Johnson's
lot, and round about his grave, which subse-
quently became the nucleus of all the confre-
gated sepulchres in the old churchyard of King's

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 67

Chapel. Certain it is, that, some fifteen or
twenty years after the settlement of the town, the
wooden jail was already marked with weather-
stains and other indications of age, which gave a
yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy
front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of
its oaken door looked lore antique than any-
thing else in the New World. Like all that per-
tains to crime, it seemed never to have known a
youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and be-
tween it and the wheel-track of the street, was a
grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-
weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation,
which evidently found something congenial in
he soil that had so early borne the black flower
of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side
oftl ortal, and rooted almost at the threshold,
was a wild rose-bush, 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 tc he
condemned criminal as he came forth to hisdoorn,
in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity
and be kind to him.

This^ose-bush, 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 girantic pines and oaks that
originally overshadowed it, — or whether, as there

68 '^he Scarlet Lett er

is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up
under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchin-
son, as she entered the prison-door, — 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.

tter

■ung up
iutchin-
^e shall
ig it so
;, which
spicious
1 pluck
reader,
e some
[ along
F a tale

tants of
fastened

WSe aS^arket-Tlace

jHE grass-plot before the jail, in
'Prison Lane, on a certain summer
I morning, not leps than two cen-
fturies ago, was occupied by a
/pretty large number of the inhabi-
Boston ; all with their eyes intently
on the iron-clamped 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 bond-servant, or an undutiful
child, whom his pan:n's had given over to the
civil authority, was to be corrected at the whip-
ping-post. It might be, that an Antinomian, a
Quaker, or other heterodox religionist was to be

70 ^ifte Scarlet Letter

scourged out of the town, or an idle and vagrant
Indian, whom the white man's fire-water 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 bitter-tempered widow of the magis-
trate, was to die upon the gallows. In either case,
there was very much the same solemnity of de-
meanor on the part of the spectators ; as befitted

//a people amongst whom jreiigion andJaw were al-
most 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 ridi-
cule, 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 w omen , of whom there were
several in the crowd, appeared to take a peculiar

^ interest in whatever penal infliction might be ex-
pected to ensue. The age had not so much refine-
ment, that any sense of impropriety restrained
the wearers of petticoat and farthingale from
stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging

"^A e Scarlet Letter 71

their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were,
into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an exe-
cution. Morally, as well as materratiy, 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 2 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 stand-
ing about the prison-door stood within less than
half a century of the period when the man-like
Elizabeth had been the not altogether unsuit-
able 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 well-developed busts, and
on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in
the far-off 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.

72 "IS/ie Scarlet Letter

j-t-j

" Goodwives," said a hard-featured dame of fifty^
,J! I 'Jl tell ye a piece of my mind^ It would be'
greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of
mature age and church-members in good repute,
should have the handling of such malefactresses as
this-JHester Prjnne.j 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 Rev^
erend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes"
it very grievously to heart that such a scandal
should have come upon his congregation."

" The magistrates are God-fearing 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 Prynne's 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, Jkolding a child by the hand, j^ let her cover
the^ark^s she will, the pang of it will be always
in HVriffeart.'f

fter

lemen,

added

least,

•t iron

Fi ester

But

II she

3;own !

rooch,

I walk

yroung

cover

ilways

^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 self-
constituted 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
bcnpture and the statute-book. Then let the
magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank
themselves if their own wives and daughters go
astray ! " 05

" Mercy on us, goodwife," exclaimed a man in
the crowd, "is there no virtue in woman, save
what spnngs from a wholesome fear of the gal-
lows? That is the hardest word yet! Hush
now, gossips! for the lock is turning in the
prison-door, and here comes Mistress Prvnne
herself" ^

The door of the jail being flung open from
within, there appeared, in the first place, like a
black shadow emerging into sunshine, the grim
and grisly presence of the town-beadle, with a
sword by his side, and his staff of office in his
hand. This personage prefigured and repre-'
sented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of
the Puritanic code of law, which it was his busi-
ness to administer in its final and closest appli-
cation to the offender. Stretching forth the
ofiicial staff in his left hand, he laid his right

74 '^A e Scarlet Letter

upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom
he thus drew forward ; until, on the threshold of
the prison-door, she repelled him, by an action
marked with natural dignity and force of charac-
ter, and stepped into the open air, as if by her
own free will. 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 twi-
light 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 mo-
ment, 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 neighbors. On the
breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded
with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flour-
ishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A.J It was
so artistically done, and with so much fertility

^Ae Scarlet Letter

and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all
the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the
apparel wnich she wore ; and which was of a
splendor in accordance with the taste of the aee
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 glossv that it threw off the
sunshme with a gleam, and a face which, besides
bemg oeautiful from regularity of feature and
richness of complexion, had the impressiveness
belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.
She was lady-like, too, after the mannei 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 lady-
like, in the antique interpretation of the term
than as she issued from the prison. Those who'
had before known her, and had expected to be-
hold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous
cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to per-
ceive 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 painfol
m It. Her attire, which, indeed, she had w.nn.ht

76 'IS Ae Scarlet Letter

for the occasion, in prison, and had modelled much
after her own fancy, seemed to express the at-
titude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of
her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculi-
arity. 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 im-
pressed as if they beheld her for the first time,
— was that Scarlet Letter, so fantastically
embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom.
It had the efirect of a spell, taking her out of
the ordinary relations with humanity, and en-
closing her in a sphere by herself.

"She hath good skill at her needle, that's
certain," remarked one of her 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 iron-visaged
of the old dames, " if we stripped Madam Hester's
rich gown oflF her dainty shoulders ; and as for
the red letter, which she hath stitched so curi-
ously, I '11 bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic
flannel, to make a fitter one ! "

" O, peace, neighbors, peace ! " whispered their
youngest companion ; " do not let her hear you I

'^he Scarlet Letter 77

, that's
;ctators ;
n hussy,
gossips,
iir godly
at they,
nt?"
i-visaged
Hester's
id as for
so curi-
leumatic

red their
ear you I

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
King's 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 market-place ! "

A lane was forthwith opened through the
crowd of spectators. Preceded by the beadle,
and attended by an irregular procession of stern-
browed men and unkindly visaged women, Hester
Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for
her punishment. A cowd of eager and curious
school-boys, understanding little of the matter in
hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, 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 prison-door to the market-place. Meas-
ured by the prisoner's experience, however. It
misht be reckoned a iourney of some length • for.

78 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

~->

— \

haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance un-
derwent 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 market-place. It stood nearly beneath the
eaves of Boston's 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 pillorv ;. and above it rose the
framework of that mstrument 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,

itter

^Ae Scarlet Letter

lance un-

of those

had been

mm and

•, there is

iful, that

ensity of

ut chiefly

almost a

Prynne

deal, and

extremity

leath the

appeared

rtion of

or three

rical and

1 the old

•omotion

ruillotine

in short,

rose the

Dline, so

id in its

e public

mbodied

of wood

lethinks,

against our common nature, — whatever be the
delmquencies 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 Prynne's 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 dev-
ilish 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 man's shoul-
ders above the street.

I Had there been a Papist among the crowd of
IPuritans, 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 re-
mind 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 eflTect, that the world
was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and
the more lost for the infant that she had borne.

80 "iSAe Scarlet Letter

The scene was not without a mixture of awe,
such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt
and shame in a fellow-creature, before society
shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead
of shuddering, at it. The witnesses of Hester
Prynne's 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 dis-
position 10 turn the matter into ridicule, it must
have l»':. n repressed and overpowered by the
solenui presence of men no less dignified than
the Governor, and several of his counsellors, a
judgeTageneral, and the ministers of the town ;
all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the
meeting-house, 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 thou-
sand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her,
and concentrated at her bosom. It was almost

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and
passionate nature/she had fortified herself to en-
counter the stings and venomous stabs of public
contumely, wreaking itself in every v ' ;ty of
insult; but there was a quality so n , 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 shrill-voiced child, contributing
their individual parts,— Hester Prynne might
have repaid them all with a bitte" 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 e pecially her memory, was preter-
naturally 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 thin were lowering upon her from*
beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats.

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Sciences

Corporation

33 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 873-4503

)

■>\^

8a 'g^ eSca rlet Letter

Reminiscences the most trifling and immaterial,
passages of infancy and school-days, sports, child-
ish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her
maiden years, came swarming back upon her, inter-
mingled with recollections of whatever was gravest
in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as
vivid as another; as if all were of similar impor-
tance, 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 whicli 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 poverty-
stricken aspect, but retaining a half-obliterated
shield of arms over th^ pprtal/ln token of antique
gentility. She saw her father's face, with its bald
brow, and reverend white beard, that flowed over
the old-fashioned Elizabethan ruff; her mother's,
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 daughter's pathway. She saw her own hcty
glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all

etter

immaterial,
orts, child-
aits of her
I her, inter-
/as gravest
recisely as
lar impor-

it was an
I itself, by
)rms, from
ility.

he pillory
o Hester

had been
Lnding on
lier native
lal home ;

poverty-
bliterated
>f antique
h its bald
wed over
mother's,
ious love
mce, and
•ften laid
ranee in
>wn hcty
lating all

"^A e Sea rlef Letter 83

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, scholar-like 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 owner's
purpose to read the human soul. This figure
of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's
womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly
deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher
than the right. Next rose before her, in mem-
ory's picture-gallery, 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 connec-
tion with the misshapen scholar ; a new life, but
feeding itself on time-worn materials, like a tufi
of green moss on a crumbling wall. Lastly, in
lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude
market-place of the Puritan settlement, with all
the townspeople assembled and levelling their
stern regards at Hester Prynne, — yes, at herself,
— who stood on the scafl=bld of the pillory, an
infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scariet,
fantastically embroidered with gold-thread, upon
her bosom !

84 ^Ae Scarlet L etter

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 !

letter

the child so
1 a cry ; she
:iarlet letter,
r, to assure
i were real,
ill else had

WSe TK^cq^nitwix^

'ROM this intense consciousness

lof 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
hii- native garb, was standing there ; but the red
men were not so infrequent visitors of the Eng-
lish settlements, rhat 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
Indian's side, and evidently sustaining a compan-
ionship 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 unmis-
takable tokens. Although, by a seemingly care-

86 'Ish e Scarlet Letter

less arrangement of his heterogeneous garb, he
had endeavored to conceal or abate the peculi-
arity, it was sufficiently evident to Hester Prynne,
that one of this man's shoulders rose higher than
the other. Again, at the first instant of perceiv-
ing 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 market-place, 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 some-
thing 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 makin^ one
little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in
open sight. His face darkened with some power-
ful emotion, which, nevertheless, he so instanta-
neously controlled by an efibrt 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

etter

s garb, he
:he peculi-
er Prynne,
ligher than
of perceiv-
formity of
ler bosom
poor babe
ie mother

and some
had bent
relessly, at
dIc inward,
ittle value
to some-
wever, his
L writhing
es, like a
akin^ one
jlutions in
ne power-
• instanta-
wiil, that,
light have
space, the
md finally
i. When
Lstened on

'^A e Scarlet Letter 8?

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
..Heater.. Prynne, and her evil doings. She hath
raised a great scandal, I promise you, in godly
Master Dimmesdale's 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 mis-
haps by sea and land, and have been long held
in bonds among the heathen-folk, to the south-
ward ; and am now brought hither by this In-
dian, to be redeemed out of my captivity. Will
it please you, therefore, to tell me of Hester
Prynne's, — have I her name rightly ? — of this
woman's 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

88 ISAe Scarlet Letter

wilderness," said the townsman, " to find your-
self, 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 knew, 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 haxe 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 a-wanting," answered the townsman. " Madam
Hester absolutely refuseth to speak, and the mag-
istrates have laid their heads together in vain.
Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at

u.'

•si

I lHWUAlWtflW/

^he Scarlet Letter ^

^>.

' /

this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forget-
ting 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 them-
selves that this woman is youthful and fair, and

^pubtless was strongly tempted to her fall,

,^nd that, moreover, as is most likely, her hus-
band 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 there-
after, for the remainder of her natural life, o
wear a mark of shame upon her bosom."

"A wise sentence!" remarked the stranger,
gravely bowing his head. " Thus she will be a
livmg sermon against sin, until the ignominious
letter be engraved upon her tombstone. It irks
me, nevertheless, that the. partner .pf her iniquity
should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her ~

si«ie. But he will be known r— he will be

known ! — he wiirbe known ! " ' "^

He bowed courteously to the communicative

90 'ISA eSca rlef Letter

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 sin-born 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 con-
scious of a shelter in the presence of these thou-
sand 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 refiige,
as it were, to the public exposure, and dreaded
the moment when its protection should be with-
drawn 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.

» a B W!t ! i,uaaii^Ji;y!)^.-v'^^.

}. ■^-V-&-i^'--a-'^.>.t..v,-»;.^wiiigJpqffnsa

^Ae Scarlet Letter

"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 meeting-house. It was the place whence
proclamations were wont to be made, amidst an
assemblage of the magistracy, with all the cere-
monial that attended such public observances in
those days. Here,^wttTress the scene ;yhich we
are describing, sat Governor Bellingham hirasdf,
with four sergeants about his chair, bearing hal-
berds, 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 gentle-
man advanced in years, 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 pres-
ent state of development, not to the impulses
of youth, but to the c..rn and tempu-ed^nergies
of manhood, and .the sombre sagacity of age; ;
accomplishing so much, precisely because it imag-"
ined and hoped so little. The other eminent
characters, by whom the ^hief ruler wa^-«ttP-^
rounded, were distinguished by a dignity of mien, )
belonging to a period when the forms of authority^^
were felt to possess the sacredness of Divine
^"i?^.'^®"^' They were, doubtless, good menf

9a '^A eSca rlef Letter

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 woman's 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 waimer 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 Bostonja_ 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 le'.s carefully
developed than his intellectual gifts, and was, in
truth, rather a matter of shame than self-con-
gratulation with him. There he stood, with a
border of grizzled locks beneath his skull-cap ;
while his gray eyes, accustomed to the shaded
light of his study, were winking, like those of
Hester's infant, in thd? unadulterated sunshine.
He looked like the darkly engraved portraits
which we see prefixed to old volumes of ser-
mons ; and had no more right than one of those
portraits would have, to step forth, as he now

^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 uf him who
tempted you to this grievous fall. But he op-
poses to me (with a young man's over-softness,
albeit wise beyond his years), that it were wrong-
ing the very nature of woman to force her to lay
open her heart's 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 show-
ing of it forth. What say you to it, once again.
Brother Dimmesdale .? Must it be thou, or I,
that shall deal with this poor sinner's soul ? "
There was a murmur among the dignified and

X''

94 *SA eSca rief Letter

*^^ ,— *

reverend occupants of the balcony ; and Gov-
ernor Bellingham gave expression to its purport,
speaking in an authoritative voice, although tem-
pered with respect towards the youthful clergy-
man whom he addressed.

" Good Master Dimmesdale," said he, " the
responsibility of this woman's 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, bring-
ing all the learning of the age into our wil^
forest-land. 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 self-restraint.
Notwithstanding his high native gifts and schol-
ar-like attainments, there was an air about this
young minister, — an apprehensive, a startled, a
half-frightened 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

id Gov-

purport,

ugh tem-

I clergy-

le, " the
s greatly
o exhort
a proof

the eyes
:nd Mr.
ad come
s, bring-
3ur wiJ4
IS fervor
nence in

striking

ig brow,

mouth

£ssed it,

nervous
•estraint.
d schol-
out this
artled, a
vho felt
pathway
t ease in

"^he Scarlet Letter

some seclusion of his own. Therefore, so far as
his duties would permit, he trod in the shadowy
by-paths, and thus kept himself simple and child-
like ; 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 Gove- ^r had introduced so
openly to the public notice, bidding him speak,
in the hearing of all men, to that mystery of
a woman's 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 steadfastly 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 soul's peace, and that
thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more
effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out

\ '

-'*i

lii

1!';

96 "TSAe Scarlet L etter

.the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer !
/'Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tender-
ness for him ; for, believe me, Hester , though he -
' werejQ step. dowD-froma hi^h 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, peVchance, hath
not the courage to grasp it for himself— the bit-
ter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented
to thy lips ! "

The young pastor's 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
Hester's bosom, was affected by the same influ-
ence ; for it directed its hitherto vacant gaze
towards Mr. Dimmesdale, and held up its little
arms, with a half-please'^, half-plaintive murmur.
So powerful seemed the minister's appeal, that
the people could not believe but that Hester
Prynne would speak out the guilty name ; or else

.etfer

>w-sufFerer !
and tender-
t though he --
, and stand
shame, yet
uilty heart
lo for him,
him, as it
eaven hath
ereby thou
'•er the evil
rake heed
lance, hath
— the bit-
presented

emulously
:eiing that

the direct
ate within

into one

baby, at
ime influ-
cant gaze
) its little

murmur,
peal, that
Lt Hester
e ; or else

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 Heaven's 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. Dim-
mesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with

98 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

his hand upon his heart, had awaited the result
of his appeal. He now drew back, with a long
respiration. " Wondrous strength and genero-
.•|/ sity of a woman's heart ! She will not speak ! "

Discerning the impracticable state of the poor
culprit's mind, the elder clergyman, who had
^ carefully prepared himself for the occasion, ad-
., dressed 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 people's
heads, that it assumed new terrors in their imagi-
nation, and seemed to derive its scariet hue from
the flames of the infernal pit. Hester Prynne,
meanwhile, kept her place upon the pedeftal of
shame, with glazed eyes, and an air of weary
indifference. She had borne, that morning, all
that nature could endure; and as her tempera-
ment 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 or-
deal, pierced the air with its wailings and screams ;
>he strove to hush it, mechanically, but seemed
scarcely to sympathize with its trouble. Wkh

:fii

.etfer

the result
with a long
nd genero-
speak ! "
)f the poor
, who had
casion, ad-

on sin, in
eference to
d he dwell
ore during
e people's
heir imagi-
t hue from
;r Prynne,
)edeFtal of

of weary
)rmng, all
r tempera-
5 from too
:ould only
sensibility,
led entire,
thundered

her ears,
af her or-
1 screams ;
It seemed
le:" Wkh

"g/ie Scarlet Letter 99

the same hard demeanor, she was led back to
prison, and vanished from the public gaze within
its iron-clamped portal. It was whispered, by
those who peered after her, that the scarlet letter
threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way
of the interior.

■Mi

^Be InievHew

FTER her return to the prison,

.Hester Prynne was found to be in

a state of nervous excitement that

/demanded constant watchfulness,

^ J lest she should perpetrate violence

on herself, or do some half-frenzied 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 ma-
ternal bosom, seemed to have drank in with it
all the turmoil, the anguish and despair, which
pervaded the mother's 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.

^''.V;l^f>i9.UjL<Jb n i.At^l.lSj-.i

'^Ae Scarlet Letter loi

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 sus-
pected 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 respectyig-4ii» ransom. His name was
announced as^Rbger Chillingworth. The jailer,
after ushering him into the room, remained a
moment, marvelling at the comparative quiet that
followed his entrance ; for Hester Prvnne 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 here-
after 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

10^ "ISAe Scarlet Letter

he announced himself as belonging. Nor did
his demeanor change, when the withdrawal of
the prison-keeper 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 trundle-bed, made it of peremptory necessity
to postpone all other business to the task of
sooth:ig her. He examined the infant carefiilly,
and then proceeded to unclasp a leathern case,'
which he took from beneath his dress. It ap-
peared to contain 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 father's. Administer this draught,
therefore, with thine own hand."

Hester repelled the offered medicine, at the
same time gazing with strongly marked appre-
hension into his face.

Wouldst thou avenge thyself on the innocent
babe .? " whispered she.

"Foolish woman!" responded the physician,

\effer

"^he Scarlet Letter 103

Nor did
idrawal of
:e with the
im, in the
n between
ven to the
'rithing on
r necessity
e task of
carefully,
hern case,
s. It ap-
is, one of
r.

erved he,

St, among

)erties of

n of me

:. Here,

none of

voice or

draught,

i, at the
1 app re-
innocent
^ysician,

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
leech's pledge. The moans of the little pa-
tient 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 physi-
cian, 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 lessohs of my own, that were as old as

Paracelsus. Drink it • It may be less soothing

^-•--than..,.a.-siflless conscience. That I cannot give

X04 'g/ic Sca rlet Letter

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 ine 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 medi-
cines 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 fore-
finger on the scarlet letter, which forthwith
seemed to scorch into Hester's breast, as if it
had been red-hot. He noticed her involuntary
1 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

■'•'**>»«.

etfer

eaving of
'aves of a

3 received
face ; not
oubt and
night be.
id.

— * have
ed for it,
for any-
bid thee
quaff it.

the same
so little,
nt to be
leme of
ly object
je medi-
-so that
pon thy
ng fore-
brthwith
as if it
oluntary
md bear
of men
im thou

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

105

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 book-worm of great
libraries, — a man already in decay, having given
niy best years to feed the hungry dream of knowl-
edge,— what had I to do with youth and beauty
like thine own ! Misshapen from my birth-hour,
how could I delude myself with the idea that in-
tellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a
young girl's fantasy! Men call me wise. If
sages were ever wise in their own behoof, I might

io« ISA e Sea rlef Letter

i'l!

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 church steps together, a
married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of
that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our
path!"

" Thou knowest," said Hester, — for, de-
pressed 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 cheer-
less ! My heart was a habitation large enough
for many guests, but lonely and chill, and with-
out a household fire. I longed to kindle one !
It seemed not so wild a dream, — c! .is I was,
and sombre as I was, and misshap*^ , x v >■?, —
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
' eart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to
"^.-t^-.tl thee by the warmth which thy presence
^nade ther^; : "

{

eiter

nown that,
forest, and
1, the very
)e thyself,
ignominy,
nent when
ogether, a
•ale-fire of
d of our

- for, de-
e this last

— " thou
I felt no

folly! I
my life, I
I so cheer-
[e enough
and with-
idle one !

-is T was,

Ts^e Scarlet Letter

107

i V,

i far and
ht yet be

into my
sought to

presence

"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 ind 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, look-
ing firmly into his face. " That thou shalt never
know ! "

"Never, sayest thou?" rejoined he, with a
smile of dark and self-relying 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 tht 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 f-nn as I

io8 ^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 scnolar 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 con-
fidence, as if destiny were at one with him. "He
bears no letter of infamy wrought into his gar-
ment, as thou dost ; but I shall read it on his
heart. Yet fear not for him ! Think not that I
shall interfere with^tieaven's own method of ret-
ribution, 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 in-
. terpret thee as a terror ! "

" One thing, thou that wast my wife, I would
enjoin upon thee," continued the scholar.

°g/ic Scarlet Letter

log

^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 I
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 my-
self 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 ofFat once? " K-

« It may be," he replied, « because ^will' iiot
encounter the dishonor that besmirches the hus-
band 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 ! "

^Ae Scarlet Letter

" I will keep thy secret, as 1 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 thv
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 mv
soul?"

"Not thy soul," he answered, with another
smile. " No, not thine ! "

letter

^e his," said

i old Roger
' be named,
' infant, and
ter ? Doth
>ken in thy
tmares and

' " inquired
tf his eyes,
haunts the
enticed me
uin of my

th another

&f ester at BerciNeedle

ESTER PRYNNE'S term of
confinement was now at an end.
Her prison-door was thrown open,
and she came forth into the sun-

shine, 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 pro-
cession 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 unnat-
ural tension of the nerves, and by all the combat-
ive 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 con-
demned her— a giant of stern features, but with

XM ^/ie Scarlet Letter

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 unat-
tended walk from her prison- door, 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. To-morrow 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 far-off future would toil onward,
still with the same burden for her to take up, and
bear along with her, but never to fiing down ; for
the accumulating days, and added years, would
,pile up their misery upon the heap of shame.
//Throughout them all, giving up her individu-
ality, 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 woman's 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 re-
alty of sin.^ And over her grave, the infamy

effer

ate, in his
he terrible
this unat-
I the daily
id carry it
er nature,
ir borrow
e present
trial with
ould the
'ery same
be borne.
I onward,
e up, and
own; for
s, would
f shame,
individu-
^mbol at
oint, and
dy their
passion,
aught to
g on her
parents,
t would
ad once
, the re-
infamy

"^/ie Scarlet Letter

113

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 emerg-
ing 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 h u 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, ghost-like, 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 forest-land, still so uncongenial to
every other pilgrim and wanderer, into Hester

"4 ^iftc Scarlet Letter

Prynne's wild and dreary, but life-long home.
All other scenes of earth — even that village of
rural England, where happy infancy and stainless
maidenhood seemed yet to be in her mother's
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 could never 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 to-
gether before the bar of final judgment, and
make that their marriage-altar, for a joint futur-
ity of endless retribution. Over and over again,
the tempter of souls had thrust this idea upon
Hester's contemplation, and laughed at the pas-
sionate 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

etter

•ng home,
village of
d stainless

mother's
TO — were
:hain that
galling to
broken.

was so,
rself, and
her heart,
t be that
cene and
re dwelt,
horn she
on, that,
hem to-
ent, and
nt futur-
'^er again,
lea upon
the pas-
e seized,
le barely
:ened to
impelled
reasoned
resident
d half a

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

self-delusion. Here, she said to herself, had
been the scene of her guilt, and here should be
the scene of her earthly punishment; and so,
perchancci' the torture of her daily shame would
at length purge her soul, and work out another
purity than that which she had lost ; more saint-
like, because the result of martydom. ^

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 aban-
doned, 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 emi-
grants. It stood on the shore, looking across
a basin of the sea at the forest-covered 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, con-
cealed. In this little, lonesome dwelling, with
some slender means that she possessed, and by
the license of the magistrates, who still kept an
mquisitorial watch over her, Hester established
herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow
of suspicion immediately attached itself to the

\ -

"6 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

•^^:l

spot. Children, too young to comprehend where-
fore this woman should be shut out from the
sphere of human charities, would creep nigh
enough to behold her plying her needle at the
cottage window, or standing in the doorway, or
laboring in her little garden, or coming forth
along the pathway that led townward ; and, dis-
cerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would
scamper off with a strange, contagious fear.

Lonely as was Hester's situation, and without
a friend on earth who dared to show himself,
she, however, incurred no risk of want. She pos-
sessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that af-
forded comparatively little scope for its exercise,
to supply food for her thriving infant and her-
self. It was the art — then, as now, almost the
only one within a woman's grasp — ■ ' *" needle-
work. 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 gener-
ally 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

Qtter

:nd where-

from the

reep nigh

lie at the

)onvay, or

ling forth

and, dis-

ist, would

i fear.

d without

V himself.

She pos-

id that af-

5 exercise,

and her-

Imost the

** .leedie-

curiously

r delicate

imes of a

selves, to

nment of

and gold.

lat gener-

of dress,

the finer

the taste

elaborate

»t fail to

"S/ic Scarlet Letter

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 in-
stallation 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 well-conducted
ceremonial, and a sombre, but yet a studied mag-
nificence. Deep rufl="s, 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 mani-
fold 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. Baby-linen

for babies then wore robes of state — aflforded
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
'Hat gives a fictitious value even to common or

"8 IsAe Scarlet Letter

worthless things ; or by whatever other intangible
circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to be-
stow, on some pe-sons, 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 re?jUited
employment for as many hours as she siw iit to
occupy with her needle. Vanity, it may be, chose
to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials
of pomp and state, the garments thaf had been
wrought by her sinful hands. Her needlework
was seen on the ruff of the Governor ; military
men wore it on their scarfs, anvl the minister on
his band ; it decked the baby's 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 excep-
tion indicated the ever-relentless rigor with which
society frowned upon her sin.

Hester sought not to acquire anything 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 child's attire, on
the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful.

ztter

ntangible
nt to he-
ight seek
;d a gap
vacant ; it

requited
s^w iit to
he, chose
remonials
bad been
edlework

military
nister on
p ; it was
away, in
recorded
as called
h was to
le excep-
ith which

heyond
It ascetic
)undance

coarsest

ith only

— which

ittire, on

fanciful,

"^fie Scarlet Let ter ng

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 ft ther of it hereafter
Except for that small expend.cure in the decora-
tion of her infant, Hester bestowed all her super-
fluous 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
efl^brts 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 occupa-
tion, and that she ofl=ered 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 ex-
quisite productions of her needle, found nothing
else, in all the possibilities of her life, to exercise
Itself upon. Women derive a pleasure, incom-
prehensible 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 med-
dling of conscience with an immaterial matter
betokened, it is to be feared, no genuine and

lao 'IShe Scarlet Letter

steadfast penitence, but something doubtful, some-
thing 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 woman's
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 in-
habited another sphere, or communicated with
the common nature by other organs and senses
than the rest of human kind. She stood apart
from moral 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 mani-
festing 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

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

121

often brought before her vivid self-perception,
Ike a new anguish, by the rudest touch upon
the tenderest spot. The poor, as we have al-
ready said, whom she sought out to be the ob-
jects 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 ; some-
times through that alchemy of quiet malice, by
which women can concoct a subtle poison from
ordinary trifles ; and sometimes, also, by a coarser
expression, that fell upon the sufferer's defence-
less 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
tor her enemies; lest, in spite of her forgiving
aspirations, tlie 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 ever-active sentence of the Puritan
tribunal. // Clergymen paused in the street to
address words of exhortation, that brought a )

J|^

laa "TSAe Scarlet Letter

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 Uni-
versal 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 sum-
mer breeze murmured about it, — had the wintry
blast shrieked it aloud! Another peculiar tor-
ture was felt in the gaze of a new eye. When

strangers looked curiously at the scariet letter,

and none ever failed to do so, — they branded
it afresh into Hester's soul ; so that, oftenrimes,
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 famil-

"tSAe Scarlet Letter

123

■arity was intolerable. From first to last :„
short, Hester Pry„„e had always th! d^

gony ■„ feehng a human eye upon the token
the spot never grew callous ; it seemed, on he
contr^y, to grow more sensitive with daily

But sometimes, once in many days, or per-
chance ,n many months, she felt an eye -a

seemed 7^-"?°" "'^ ignominious brand, that
seemed to g,ve a momentary relief, as if half

back h T\l'' '^"'^- ""^^ "«' -«-t.
back .t all rushed agam, with still a deeper throb

a° r" H°H h"'" ''"^f '""-^l.'h^ had sinned
ati.w. Had Hester smned alone ?

h^H^'h '"T^'"^'i°" "-^ somewhat affected, and,
fibre ' ''f?" °^- -fter moral and intell ctua
fibre, would have been still more so, by .he
strange and solitary anguish of her life. Walk-
jng to and fro with those lonely footsteps, in the
I. de world w,th which she was outwardly con-
nected, .t now and then appeared to Hester,-
f altogether fancy, it was nevertheless too potent

sea letT: 'h": ''?" °' ''''"^- ">»> 'h« the )
scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense J

She shuddered to believe, yet could not help ^
edge of the hidden sm in other hearts. She was

^drc r .^. '-^^^ '^« - '^"

)

they ? Could they be other

124 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

„iS,

than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who
would fain have persuaded the struggling woman,
as yet only half his victim, tha^/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
Prynne's ? / Or, must she receive those intima-
tions — so obscure, yet so distinct — as truth ?
In all her miserable experience, there was noth-
ing else so awful and so loathsome as this sense.
It perplexed, as well as shocked her, by the ir-
reverent 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 keptfcold snow, within her bosom
throughout life. That unsunned snow in the
matron's bosom, and the burning shame on Hes-
ter Prynne's, — what had the two in common ?

letter

I angel, who
ling woman,
itward guise

truth were
etter would
ides Hester
lose intima-
— as truth ?
e was noth-
i this sense.
", by the ir-
:asions that
mes the red
sympathetic
)le minister
d justice, to
looked up,
^'ith angels,
uld Hester

eyes, there
e scope of
It! Again,
ously assert
I'n of some
tnor of all

her bosom
now in the
ne on Hes-
i common ?

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

125

Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her
warning, — « Behold, Hester, here is a compan-
ion ! " — 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
man's hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled
to believe that no fellow-mortal was guilty like
hv^rself.

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 dye-pot, but was red-hot with infer-
nal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight,
whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the
night-time. And we must needs say, it seared
Hester's bosom so deeply, that perhaps there
was more truth in the rumor than our modern
incredulity may be inclined to admit.

"Pearl

E have us yet hardly spoken of
Ithe infant; that little creature,
.whose innocent life had sprung,
|by the inscrutable decree of Prov-
idence, 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 th£ comparison. But she named
the infant " Pearl," as being of great price, —
purchased with all she had, — a mother's pnly
treasure ! How strange, indeed ! Man had
marked this woman's sin by a scariet 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

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

spoken of
e creature,
ad sprung,
26 of Prov-
immortal
)f a guilty
;o the sad
I, and the
■illiant, and
g sunshine
^er Pearl !

as a name
lothing of
that would
she iiamed
t price, —
her's pnly
Man had
tter, which
y that no
^e it were
nsequence
had given

127

he> a lovely child, whose place was on that same
d^honored bosom, to connect her parent for-
ever w.th 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 ev,l; she could have no faith, therefore,
that .ts result would be good. Day after day
he looked fearfully into the child's' expanding
nature, ever dreading to detect some dark and
wild pecuhanty, that should correspond with the
guhcjness to which she owed her being

Certainly, there was no physical defect.' Bv its
perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity
m the use of all ,ts untried limbs, the infant was
worthy to have been brought forth in Eden
worthy to have been left there, to be the play-
thmg of the angels, after the worid's first parents
werednven out. The child had a native grace
which does not invariably coexist with faultless
beauty ; ,ts attire, however simple, always im-
pressed the beholder as if it were the ve^ ga7b
that precisely became it best. But little Pearl

a'mo^'d'''" '" ™f ^ ""'=• ^" --"". -"h
a morbid puijose that may be better understood

hereafter, had bought the richest tissues that

could be procured, and allowed her imaginative

feculty Its full play i„ the arrangement and dec"

ration of the dresses which the child wore, before

128 Ts/ie Scarlet Letter

iii

i;i'

the public eye. So magnificent was the smail
figure, when thus arrayed, and such was the
splendor of Pearl's 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 cottage floor. And yet a russet gown,
torn and soiled with the child's rude play, made
a picture of her just as perfect . Pearl's aspect
was imbued with a spell of infinite variety ; in
this one child there were many children, compre-
hending the full scope between the wild-flower
prettiness of a peasant-baby, 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
Hester's 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

inr

*^/ic Scarlet Letter

129

a I m 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
ch.lds character -and even then most vaguely
and >mperfectly_by recalling what she herself
had been, dunng that momentous period while
Pearl was .mbibrng her soul from the spiritual
wor d, d her bodily frame from its material of
earth. The mothers impassioned state had been
he medmm through which were transmitted to
the unborn mfant the rays of its moral life ; and
however white and clear originally, the; had'
aken the deep stams of crimson and gold, the
fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untem-
pered light of the intervening substance, ^bove
all, the warfare of Hester's 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 cloud- '
tZL t°"l '"''/ 'l^PO'-dency that had

nated by the morning radiance of a young child's
disposition, but later in the day of earthly
existent might be prolific of the storm and^

The discipline of the family. i„ those days,
was of a far more rigid kind than now. The
frown, the harsh rebuke, the frequent application

130 ISA e Scarlet Letter

}'':

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 prov-
ing that neither mode of treatment possessed
any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately
compelled to stand aside, and permit the child to
Vbe swayed by her own impulses. Physical com-
I pulsion 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 mo-
ment. 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 p!ead. 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

r-\

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

131

moments, whether Pearl were a human child.
She seemed rather an airy sprite, which, afte
playmg ,ts fantastic sport, for a little while upon
^cottage floor, would flit away with a mocking
sm.le Whenever that look appeared in hef
w. d. bnght, deeply black eyes, Z invested h
with a strange remoteness and intangibility: it
was as , she were hovering i„ the air and migh
van,sh, l,ke a gli„,„,ering light, that comes le
know not whence, and goes we know not

To rusTt ^'';"'i,"^ t' "'"^^ "- ----"d

elf r^her 1' "'?.'^'''''-'° P-»« the little

elf m the flight which she invariably began, _

o snatch her to her bosom, with a close pL „re

and earnest kisses. -not so much from over-

flesh and blood, and not utterly delusive. But
1 Pearl s laugh, when she was caught, though fu"

^"^doubtful than before.

spell, that so often came between herself and her

who '''"'"f',"''""" 'h^ '■"d bought so dear, and

who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst

nto passionate tears. Then, perhaps, - for

-TeaT "°,^r^''"g ''-i' "ight affect her,

,JT A . ™*"' ^"^ '='™''' her little fist,
and harden her small features into a stern un-
sympathizing look of discontent. Not seldom

«3« 'gAc Scarlet Letter

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 hurdly
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
master-word 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 glimmer-
ing from beneath her opening lids — little Pearl
awoke I

How soon — with what strange rapidity, in-
deed ! — did Pearl arrive at an age that was
capable of social intercourse, beyond the moth-
er's ever-ready smile and nonsense- words ! And
then what a happiness would it have been, could
Hester Prynne have heard her clear, bird-like
voice mingling with the uproar of other childish
voices, and have distinguished and unravel 'ed
her own dariing's tones, amid all the entangled

!^/ie Scarlet Letter

133

outcry of a group of sportive children ! But
th.s could never be. Pearl was a born outcas
of the .nfantile world. An imp of evil, emblem
«nd product of sin. she had no righ *

able than the ,„stmct, as it seemed, with which

tiny th hTf '"'^^'^ 1" '•>""■"-= thedes
nny that had drawn an inviolable circle round
about her; the whole peculiarity, i„ short, Jher
position .n respect to other children. Never
Z^ her release from prison, had Hester me the

t'^owfrf """'"• '""'">" wallcs bu
. fown. Pearl, too, was there; first as the babe

'" ""''.' '"d/fterwards as the little girl sm^

She saw the children of the settlement oTtl,!;

thresholds, disportmg themselves in such srim
fash,o„ as the Puritanic nurture would per^t
firi/o'^r " '""''''' P^^l-onceror t"

fight with ?^:rj "' "''"^ ^"'p^ '" " ''■—

wfth frll 'f^""?'^"' ' " ^^^""g o« another
with freaks of imitative witchcraft. Pearl saw
and ga^ed intently, but never sought omaZ*
acquaintance. IfsDoken,„ S""^ to make

sneak »„,;„ ir u Pf"'" ^°> she would not
speak ag„„. jf ^^^ ^^.,^_.^_^

»s they sometimes did. Pearl would grow posi-

134 T5/i c Sea rlet Letter

»>•

^■

tively 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 witch's
^, ..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, un-
earthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in
the mother and child ; and therefore scorned
them in their hearts, and not unfrequently re-
viled 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 child's manifestations. It appalled her, nev-
ertheless, to discern here, ngain, a shadowy re-
flection of the evil that had existed in herself.
All this enmity and passion had Pearl inher-
ited, by inalienable right, out of Hester's 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 Pearl's birth, but had since begun

'^^g Scarlet letter

'35

to be sooehed away by the softening influence,
of maternity. ^ "cuces

cottaL''°r', ""'"""/"'* """""^ 1^" '""''^"■^

6 Tof •™"'''' ""' ^ *'''^ '"'^ ™"°-

forth f "2""""""- ^'" 'P'" «'" "'■'= ««"t
forth from er ever-creative spirit, and commu-

kmdies a flame wherever it may be applied.
The unhkehest materials -a stick, a bun'^^h of

ch nt h ' ■"' ""^"g°i"8 ="'y outward

change, became sp.ntually adapted to whatever

Her one baby-vo.ce served a multitude of imag.
";ary personage, old ,„d ,„ ^^ «

The p,„e-tre.., aged, black and solemn, and
on the breeze, needed little transformation to
th'e "Jh ""''" "'"'= ">^ "g"=- "«d"of

' ^ot: Tnd : :\i"'^^"' "'"•"' ^-'

aown and uprooted, most unmercifully

;nd«dB„.darHngupt*rda:-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
down a P/"?'^"' ""'"'y. - -on Lking

r simi, ' '•u'"'^ '""«''^'' ''y o"'" shapes of
a sm.larw.ld energy. It was like nothing so
much as the phantasmagoric play of the northern

f, ill

|!ili:iL

lii''i 1.

^36 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

lights. In the mere exercise of the fancy, how-
ever, 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 dragon's 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

\.y

^he Scarlet Letter w

beautiful little face upon her mother, smile with
spr.te-l,ke intelligence, and resume her play
One peculiarity of the child's deportment re-

Tl I" t° ■" "'''• '^^^ ^"y ««t thins
which she had noticed in her life was -what?
-not the mother's smile, responding to it as
other ,b.es do. by that faint, embryo' smile of
the httle mouth, remembered so doubtfUlly after-
wards, and with such fond discussion whether it
were mdeed a smile. By np. means! But th
first object of which Pear^ seemed to become
awar. was -shall we say it? -the scarlet let".
«f Hesters bosom! One day. as her mother
(stooped over the cradle, the infant's eyes had
beer, caught by the glimmering of the gold
embroidery about the letter; and, putting up
her httle hand, she grasped at it, smiling,^ot
doubtfully, but with a decided gleam, thaf gave
her face th. look of a much older child. The„

rZ 1 '""'• ''' ""'" ''^-"^ clutch
the fatal token mstmctively endeavoring to tear

■t away ; so mfinite was the torture'inflicTed
by the .ntelhgent touch of Pearl's baby-hatd
Agam, as .f her mother's agoni^ed gestuL w^-

Pe^rioTk^inr H™'' '""' '"' '"' "'^ "^^ '
l-earl look mto her eyes, and smile ! From that

epoch, except when the child was asleep, Het"
had never felt a moment's safety; Zt a mo-
ment s calm enjoyment of her. Weeks, it i.

//•

■ - ■ i

»w

138 ISAe Scarle t Letter

true, would sometimes elapse, during which
Pearl's 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 expres-
sion of the eyes.

Once, this freakish, elvish cast came into the
child's 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 un-
accountable delusions, — she fancied that she
beheld, not her own miniature portrait, but
another face, in the small black mirror of Pearl's
eye. It was a face, fiend-like, 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
i afterwards had Hester been tortured, though less
' vividly, by the same illusion.

In the afternoon of a certain summer's day,
after Pearl grew big enough to run about, she
amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-
flowers, and flinging them, one by one, at her
mother's bosom; dancing up and down, like a
little elf, whenever she hit the scarlet letter.
Hester's first motion had be m to cover her

m !;!

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

139

bosom with her clasped hands. But, whether
trom pride or resignation, or a feeling that her
penance might best be wrought out by this un-
utterable pain, she resisted the impulse, and sat
erect,^ pale as death, looking sadly into little
Pearls w,ld eyes. Still came the battery of
flowers, almost invariably hitting the mark, and
covermg the mother's 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 .11 expended, the child stood still and
^"ea at Hester, with that little, laughing image
of a hend peeping out -or, whether it peeped
or no, her mother so imagined it -from the
unsearchable abyss of her black eyes.
^'1 Child, what art thou .? " cried the mother.

O, 1 am your little Pearl !" answered the child.
But, while she said it. Pearl laughed, and be-
gan 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
rl ester.

Nor did she put the question altogether idly,
but, tor the moment, with a portion of genuine
earnestness ; for, such was Pearl's wonderful in-
tehigence, that her mother half doubted whether
she were not acquainted with the secret spell of
her existence, and might not now reveal herself.

MUMMamai-w^

140 l§Ae Scarlet Letter

ateiMi

"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 spordve 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.
^Vj" I have no Heavenly Father I "

" Hush, Pearl, hush I 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

Letter

:d the child,

art no Pearl
fully ; for it
ipulse came
St suffering,
d who sent

d, seriously,
lerself close

!" answered

hat did not
Whether
ishness, or
she put up
the scarlet

, positively.

!t not talk
ig a groan,
sent even
thee ! Or,
bence didst

'^Ae Scarlet Letter 141

about the floor. " It is thou that must tell

But Hester could not resolve the query, being
herself ,„ , dismal labyrinth of doubt Shf

Tm./ 7 ''""'" '^ ^'"'''= -'' " shudder -
the talk of the neighboring townspeople; who

«ek,ng vamly elsewhere for the child/pa;rnity:

and observ,ng some of her odd attributes, had '

given out that poor little Pearl was a demo^ off- i

^pnng; such a, ever since old Catholic times, i

had occasionally been seen on earth, through the

agency of their mother's sin, and to promote

some foul and wicked purpose. Luther, accord-

mg to the scandal of his monkish enemies, was a

brat of that hellish breed; nor was Pe^ri the

only child to whom this inauspicious origin was

assigned, an.ong the New England Pur,' ans.

Pearl, no
1 capering

.-" ..«!..!!,

^^e^oVerrxprs oHall

JESTER PRYNNE went, one
(day, to the mansion of Governor
Bellingham, with a pair of gloves,
[which she had fringed and em-
ibroidered 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 honora-
ble and influential place among the colonial
magistracy.

Another and far more important reason than
the delivery of a pair of embroidered gloves im-
pelled Hester, at this time, to seek an "nterview
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 un-
reasonably argued that a Christian interest in the

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

143

mother's soul required them to remove such a
stumblmg-block 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
ail the fairer prospect of these advantages, by
being transferred to wiser and better guardianship
than Hester Prynne's. Among those who pro-
moted the design, Governor Bellingham was said
to be one of the most busy. It may appear sin-
gular, 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 in-
trinsic 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, „ot 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

t^'Hft,

144 *SA eSca rlef Letter

unequal match between the public, on the on-
side, and a lonely woman, backea by the sym-
pathies 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 mother's side,
and, constantly in mcaon, 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
Pearl's rich and luxuriant beauty ; a beauty that
shone with deep and vivid tints ; a bright com-
plexion, 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 child's garb, had allowed the gorgeous tenden-
cies of her imagination their full play ; arraying
her in a crimson velvet tunic, of a peculiar cut,
abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flour-
ishes of gold-thread. So much strength of color-
ing, which must have given a wan and palid aspect
to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was admirably adapted

^Ae Scarlet Letter .45

lu 1 ..,1 , beauty, and made her the very brighte" /
l.«^ J« of flame that evet danced upon the el

But ,t was a remarkable attribute of this earb '
and mdeed, of the child's whole appe rf: e'

behold 'T'f ""^ ""^ '"'^""'''y reminded "he
beholder of the token which Hester Pry„„e was

doomed to wear upon her bosom. It'^wL Z
Tdl" 1"'" '"/-"'- fo™ ; the scarleHett
the rid':::'' '"^ ' "^"^ ■"-"^ herself- as "

form h,d f „ " ""«P'i°"« assumed its
form -had carefully wrought out the similitude- \
lavshmg many hours of morbid ingenu T to ^
create ,n analogy between the obie« 7'h"

other and tl ™' "'' °"=' ^' "^" =" '^e

had H.,. ^ '" ~"''1"^n« of that identity
naa Hester contrived so oerf^rfl,, , '

the scarlet letter in I P"'^"'^ "> represent
wriet letter m her appearance. /

As the two wayfarers came within the precincts '

up tmT- ''^''"""" °' "^' Puritans loked
up from their play, -or what passed for plav

w.th those sombre little urchins, _ and spake
gravely one to another : — ^^

let'Ie«t°'i7"'^' '^"' '" '^' "'""''" °f 'he scar-

Keness of the scarlet letter running along by her

-Je! Come, therefore, and let us fling'mud at

146 l§/ie Scarlet Letter

film

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 half-fledged
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 vic-
tory 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 older towns ; now moss-grown, 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 frag-

efter

hild, after
alcing her
I gestures,
r enemies,
mbled, in
pestilence,
ilf-fledged
1 was to
ion. She
ic volume

hearts of

The vic-
tly to her
;r face,
iched the
his was a

of which
le streets
rrumbling
the many
nbered or
sed away,

however,
; year on
ling forth
labitation.
It had,
ills being
hich frag-

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

147

ments of broken glass were plentifully inter-
m,«d; so that, when the sunshine fell aslLt-wise

sparkled as ,f diamonds had been flung against

h, 'k /°f' ' handful. //The bHllianfyLgh
have befitted Aladdin's palace, rather than fhe
mansion of a grave old Puritan ruler. It was
furt er decorated with strange and seemingly
cabal,st,c figures and diagrams, suitable to fhe
quamt taste of the age, which had been drawn
m the stucco when newly laid on, .nd had now

at: tir '"' ''"''-' '- '^= ^-■-'^-^

Pearl, looking at this bright wonder of a house
began to caper and dance, and imperatively re-
qmred that the whole breadth of sunshine sh'ould
be^ «npped ofl^ ,ts front, and given her to play

"No, my little Pearl!" said her mother.
Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I
nave none to give thee ! "

,2^7 /^^'"^'^'^ the door; which was of an
arched form, and flanked on each side by a nar-
row tower or projection of the edifice, in both
of wh,ch were lattice-windows, with wooden shut-
ters 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/^Govern^r:s_ bond-servants ; a free-bom Eng-

■

148 T5^e Scarlet Letter

V«fi"iiiit

lishman, but now a seven years' slave. During
that term he was to be the property of his mas-
ter, and as much a commodity of bargain and
sale as an ox, or a joint-stool. The serf wore
the blue coat, which was the customary garb of
serving-men of that period, and long before, in
the old hereditary halls of England.

" Is the worshipful Governor Rellingham with-
in ? " inquired Hester.

" Yea, forsooth," replied the bond-servant, star-
ing with wide-open eyes at the scarlet letter,
which, being a new-comer in the country, he
had never before seen. " Yea, his honorable wor-
ship 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 bond-servant, 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 varia-
tions, suggested by the nature of his building-
materials, 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.

iter

During
his mas-
ra'n and
erf wore
garb of
jfore, in

im with-

int, star-
t letter,
itry, he
.ble wor-
lister or
may not

[ Hester
judging
[littering
sat lady

idmitted
y varia-
luilding-
difFerent
am had
sidences
'■e land,
fty hall,

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

149

extending through the whole Jepth of the house
•nd fonmng a medium of general comm
more or less directly, with aT ,hc orer"'""'
Zsth,e1,\°"',"""'"'"^' "'■^ 'p°cious Tom"

porta Ttl" '"■'" '■"»' °" ^"h" -J^ of the
portal. At the , ther env , though partly muffled

; VnroT't' ^'' r ^°^"'""' '"-^"-^

wereadofin M^'i"*"' '"'"-'"dows which
we read of m old books, and which was provided
w.th a deep and cushioned seat. Here on the

cles of tngland, or other such substantial litera-
ture , even as m our own days, we scatter gilded
volumes on the centre-table, to be turned^ver
by the casual guest. The furniture of the ha
cons,sted of some ponderous chairs, the back
of which were elaborately carved wi,h u

ofoakenflowers:andlLrea: eilt:

hither from he Governor's paternal home. On
the table- m token that the sentiment of o^d
En^,sh hospaahty had not been left behind-

which h d^H*^--^^' " "■' '"'«°" of
wh.ch had Hester or Pearl peeped into it, they

d^SghtXr*^""''"^ -•""-' »^^--^

On the wall hung a row of portraits, repre-

150 *^/i eSca rlef Letter

V'<«i4lj((i^

senting the forefathers of the Bellingham lineage,
some with armor 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 de-
parted worthies, and were gazing with harsh and
intolerant criticism at the pursuits and enjoy-
ments 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 head-piece,
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 sh'-w, 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 asso-
ciates, the exigencies of this new country had

tfer

. lineage,
i others
All were
ty which
if they
3, of de-
irsh and
[ enjoy-

lels, that
lail, not,
: of the
factured
me year
over to
id-piece,
pair of

all, and
) highly
ice, and
It upon
t meant

by the
training
tie head

though
f Bacon,
lal asso-
try had

yAe Scarlet Letter 151

transformed Governor Bellingham into a soldier,
as well as a statesman and ruler

witt'','Jr ^'''^-''^° ^^ '^' greatly pleased
w.th he gleammg armor as she had been with
the glittermg frontispiece of the hou-_snent
some time looking into the polished mirror of
the breastplate.

Look^"'''"'" """^ '*"' " ' '"' ''°" ''"=• Look!

.h,-M°'"^ 'T''"'' ^^ "^y "f ''"'""ring the
child; and she saw that, owing to the peculiar '
effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was
epresented m exaggerated and gigantic propor-

alslT . J" fPP^"an«. In truth, she seemed
absolutely h.dden behind it. Pearl pointed up-
ward, also, at a similar picture in the head-piece •
smtlmg at her mother, with the elfish intelligence
that was so familiar an expression on her fmall
physiognomy. That look of naughty merriment

much h""';.''"'""'' '" ">' '"'^™^. "i'h so
11 ^"'"^"'/"d '"""-ty of effect, that it

th •„f;"7K'^'^""= '"'' ^ '^ '' ~"'d not be
the .mage of her own child, but of an imp who

was seekmg to mould itself into Pearl's shape.

away. Come and look into this fair garden.
It may be we shall see flowers there; mor^
beautiful ones than we find in the woods "

■)

HiMMViMMUtuxawii

•»>^m^\

H i

152 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

Pearl, accordingly, ran to the bow-window, at
the farther end of the hall, and looked along
the vista of a garden-walk, carpeted with closely
shaven grass, and bordered with some rude and
immature attempt at shrubbery. But the pro-
prietor appeared already to have relinquished, as
hopeless, the efForc 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 hall-window ; 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 rose-
bushes, however, and a number of apple-trees,
probably the descendants of those planted by the
Reverend Mr. Blackstone, the first settler of the
peninsula ; thaFlialf-mythological personage, who
rides through our early annals, seated on the
back of a bull.

Pearl, seeing the rose-bushes, began to cry for
a red r- se, and would not be pacified.

" Hush, child, hush ! " said her mother, ear-
nestly. " Do not cry, dear little Pearl ! I hear
voices in the garden. The Governor is coming,
and gentlemen along with him ! "

itfer

indow, at
ed along
h closely
rude and
the pro-
lished, as
is side of
the close
lish taste

grew in

[ at some

ig space,

products

to warn
vegetable
England
few rose-
ple-trees,
;d by the
er of the
age, who
I on the

^Ae Scarlet Letter 153

In fact, adown the vista of the garden avenue
a number of persons were seen approaching
towards the house. Pearl, in utter scorn of her
mother s attempt to quiec her, gave an eldritch
scream, and then became silent; not from any
notion ot obedience, but because the qu'ck and
mobile curiosity of her disposition was excited
by the appearance of these new personages. '

-7

:o cry for

her, ear-

I hear

; coming.

»>^«

f'^'1\l

OVERNOR BELLINGHAM,

[in a loose gown and easy cap, —
isuch ds elderly gentlemen loved
to endue themselves with, in their
^domestic privacy, — walked fore-
most, 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 James's 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 sev -re, and frost-bitten with more
than aut'.imnal aqre, was hardly in keeping with
the appliances of ..u.^dly 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 pre-
pared to sacrifice goods and life at the behest
of duty — made it a matter of conscience to re-
ject such means of comfort, or even luxury, as

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

inister

FGHAM,

sy cap, —
len loved
fi, in their
ked fore-
his estate,
avements.
rate rufF,
id fashion
to look
Dtist in a
is aspect,
ath more
3ing with
(therewith
surround
that our
to speak
:e merely
edly pre-
le behest
ce to re-
ixury, as

155

lay fa,rly w.thm their grasp. This creed was
never taught, for instance, by the veneral e
pastor John Wilson, whose beard, white "a
snow drift, was seen over Governor Bellingham's
s oulder; while its wearer suggested that'pel
and peaches m,ght yet be naturalized in the New
l^ngland climate, and that purple grapes might
poss.bly be compelled to flourish againsrfhe

at the nch 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 hi
pub c reproof of such transgressiL; as that of
Hester Prynne, still, the genial benevolence of
his private life had won him warmer affection
than was accorded to anv nf h\o ^"''^"°';
contemporaries. ^ ^'" Professional

Behind the Governor and Mr. Wilson came
^o other guests : one the Reverend Arth"
Dimmesdale, whom the reader may .-emember a

stro/nL: "^^t'"-' '-'' - '''

n AACbcer rrynne s disgrace : and in rin«!P

|lcompa„,o„3hip with him, ofd R^ger Chilli

two or th'"°" "^ ^'''' ^''"' '" ^^y^^' -ho, for
own t ''"? P'"' ^''^ "^"^ ^""^d h the-
town It was understood that this learned man "■
was the physician as well as friend of the youn^
minister, whose health had severely suffered of

,>'i.

156 "^he Scarlet Le'tfer

late, by hts too unreserved self-sacrifice to the
labors and duties of the pastoral relatio 1.

The Governor, in advance of his visitors,
ascended one or two steps, and, throwing open
the leaves of -he grea^ hall-window, found him-
self close to little Pearh The rhadow oi the
curtain fell on Hester Prynne, and partially
concealed her.

" W!)at have we here ? " said Governor Bell-
ingham, looking with surprise at the scarlet little
f^g.ie before him. "I profess, I have never
sv;en the like, since my days of vanity, in old
King James's 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 Bmall appari-
tions, in holiday time; 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 catechi^ O Or art
thou one of those naughty elves o> u. ies, whom

Letfer

m^Kiv!',!

layii'

rifice to the

llstio:!.

his visitors,
•owing open
fonnd him-
dow oi the
nd piaj-'ially

c^ernor Bell-
scarlet little
have never
nity, in old
t to esteem
:ourt mask 1
nail appari-
alled them
Jut how gat

Ir. Wilson,
tiay this be ?
jures, when
:hly painted
nd crimson
s in the old-
thou, and
;en thee in
istian child,
' Or art
.. ies, whom

^Ae Scarlet Letfer

157

we thought to have left behind us, with other
rehcs of Papistry, in merry old England ? "

" I am mother's child," answered the scarlet
vision, "and my name is Pearl!" S" 'a r; I v"
"Pearl? -Ruby, rather !- or C^^i:^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
Be hngham, 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 child's
mother must needs be V scarlet woman, and a
worthy type of her of Babylon ! But she comes
at a good time; and we wiU 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,
oMate. The point hath been weightily discussed,
whether we, that are of authority and influence,
do well discharge our consciences by trusting an

loi\J

158 '^A eSca rlef Letter

:»M(.iti|.(,.

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 child's own mother! Were it not,
thinkest thou, for thy little one's 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."

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

159

The old minister seated himself in an arm-
chair, 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
o^ g^eat jpricfi. Canst thou tell me, my chiia'
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 'inlhe New Eng-
land Primer, or the first column of the West-
minster Catechisms, although unacquainted with
the ouf.r ,rd form of either of those celebrated

i6o ^/i eSca rlef Letter

^*.,

works. But that perveroity which all children
have more or less of, and of which little Pearl
had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inoppor-
tune moment, took thorough possession of her,
and closed her li' , „. .iipelled her to speak
words amiss. After putting her. finger in her
mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer
good Mr. Wilson's 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 prison-
door.

This fantasy was probably suggested by the
near proximity f the Governor's red m ^s, as
Pearl stood outside of the window ; together with
her recollection of the prison rose-bush, which
she had passed in coming hither.

Old Roger Chillingworth, with a smile on his-
face, whisperer! something in the young clergy-
man's ear. Hester "rynne looked at the man
of ski and ^iven len, with her fate hanging
in the balance, was startled to perceive what a
change h^d come over his features, — how much
uglier they were, — how his dark complexion
seemed to have grown ^"'uskier, and his ^igure
more misshapen, --since the days when she had
familiarly known a She met his eyes for an
instant, but was mt itely constrained to give
all her attention to the scene now goir^ forward.

itter

children
:tle Pearl
inoppor-
n of her,
to spealc
ir in her

answer
d finally
ie at all,
■ off the
; prison-

1 by the
m »s, as
:her with
ti, which

e on his

r clergy-

the man

hanging

what a
)w much
nplexion
is figure
she had
s for an

to give
brward.

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

i6i

This IS awful ! •• cried the Governor, slowly
recovenng from the astonishment into which
Pearl's response had thrown him. «« Here is a
child of three years old, and she cannot tell who
made her I Without question, she is equally in
the dark as to her soul, its present depravity, and
future destmy ! Methinks, gentlemen, we need
inquire no further."

Hester caught .Id of Pearl, and drew her
forcibly into her arms, confronting the old Puri-
tan magistrate with almost a fierce expression.
Alone m 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

I taken from me. She is my happiness ! —
she IS my torture, none the less 1 Pearl keeps
me here in life ! Pearl punishes me too ! See
ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of
bemg loved, and so endowed with a m .on-fold
the power of retribution for my sin? Y-: .Hali
not take her! I will die first! "

"My poor woman," said the not unkind
old mmister, "the child shall be well cared for!
— far better than thou canst do it."

" God gave her into my keeping," repeated

A-

i6a 'g^c Scarl et Letter

Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a
shriek. " 1 will not give her up ! " — And here,
by a sii Iden 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 bet- "
ter 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 a e
a mother's 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 indi-
cated that Hester Prynne's situation had pro-
voked her to little less than madness, the young
minister at once came forward, pale, and hold-
ing 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 de-
scribed him at the scene of Hester's public igno-
miny; 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 re-echoed, and
the hollow armor 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 mstinctive 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 sacred-

T' u-^!.l ''^'''''" ^"^''" '^'« "^ofJ^er and
this child ?

. rf.r'~^°'^ '' ^^^^' S°°^ ^^^f^'- Dimmes-
dale? mterrupted the Governor. « Make that
plain, I pray you ! "

^^ " It must be even so," resumed the minister,
l^or, If we deem it otherwise, do we not there-
of 7 /^u' l\^''^'''^^ ^''^''' '^' Creator
of all flesh, hath lightly recognized a deed of

sm and made of no account the distinction
between unhallowed lust and holy love? This
child of its father's guilt and its mother's shame
hath come from the hand of God, to work in
many ways upon her heart, who pleads so

right to keep her. It was meant for a bless-
ing.; for the one bJessing of her life ! It was
meant, doubtless, as the mother herself hath
told us, for a retribution too ; a torture to be

(■

fflUxiJ

164 'fsA eSca rlef Letter

felt at many an unthought-of moment ; a pang,
a sting, an ever-recurring 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, believre me, the
solemn miracle which God hath wrought, in the
existence of that child. And may she feel, too,
— what, methinks, is the very tmth, — that this
/ boon was meant, above all things else, to keep
the mother's soul alive, and to preserve her
j from blacker depths of sir Into which Satari'^N
\ might else have sought to plunge her ! There-^'
fore 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 Creator's
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 Prynne's
sake, then, and no less for the poor child's sake,

etter

:; a pang,
the midst
expressed
• child, so
bol which

•. Wilson,
ught than

ned Mr.

e me, the
ht, in the

feel, too,
•that this
, to keep
lerve her
ch Sa|an "~^
there-^^''
man that
J capable
r care, —
ess, — to
.11,— but
Creator's
child to
s parent

happier
Prynne's
d's sake,

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

165

let us leave them as Providence hath seen fit to
place them!" '— ...

" You speak, my friend, with a strange earn-
aThim '^'^ '^"^ ^°^'' Chillingworth, smiling

" And there is a weighty import in what my
young brother hath spoken," added the Rev-

Hm r;;'°"- " What say you, worship-

fti Master Belhngham ? Hath he not pleaded
well tor the poor woman?"

"Indeed hath he." answered the magistrate,
and hath adduced such arguments, that we
W.11 even leave the matter as it now stands ; so
long, at least, as there shall be no further scan-
dal m the woman. Care must be had, never-
theless, to put the child to due and stated
exammatjon m the catechism, at thy hands or
Master D.mmesdale's. Moreover, at a proper
season the fthmg-men must take heed that she
go both to school and to meeting."

The young minister, on ceasing to speak,
had w,thdraw„ a few steps from%he gfoup
and stood w„h his face partially concealed t
the heavy folds of the window-curtain; while the
shadow of h,s figure, which the sunlight cast
upon the floor, was tremulous with the vehe-
r"" °f his appeal. Pearl, that wild and
%hty httle elf, stole softly towards him, and
takmg h.s hand in the grasp of both her own.

166 <7sAe Scarlet Letter

^«ii

HErill:

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 child's 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 long-sought re-
gards of woman, nothing is sweeter than these
marks of childish preference, accorded sponta-
neously 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 child's head, hesitated an in-
stant, and then kissed her brow. Little Pearl's
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 woman's broomstick to fly
withal ! "

"A strange child!" remarked old Roger
Chilllngworth. " It is easy to see the mother's
part in her. Would It be beyond a philoso-
pher's research, think ye, gentlemen, to analyze
that child's natur;, and, from Its make and
mould, to give a shrewd guess at the father?"

etter

so tender,
)ther, who

that my
IS love in

revealed
jr lifetime
J as now.
ought re-
han these
1 sponta-
therefore
ly worthy
)und, laid
d an in-
le Pearl's
3 longer;
the hall,

question
lor.

in her,
2. " She

to fly

d Roger
mother's
philoso-
» analyze
ake and
father?"

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 167

/f Nay ; it would be sinful, ii. 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 father's
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 chamber-window
was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day
was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins, Gov-
ernor Bellingham's bitter-tempered sister, and
the same who, a few years later, was executed
as a witch.

" Hist, hist ! " said she, while her ill-omened
physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow over the
cheerful newness of the house. - Wilt thou go
with us to-night? There will be a merry com-
pany 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

168 Tg^c Sc arlet Letter

forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's
book too, and that with mine own blood ! "

"We shall have thee there anon!" said the
witch-lady, frowning, as she drew back her head.

But here — if we suppose this interview be-
twixt Mistress Hibbins ^nd Hester Prynne to
be authentic, and not a parable — was already
an illustration of the young minister's argument
against sundering the relation of a fallen mother
to the offspring of her frailty. Even thus early
had the child saved her from Satan's snare.

f/*^^'

2ffer

ck Man's
d!"

said the
ler head,
rview be-
'rynne to
3 already
argument
1 mother
lus early
re.

^^e jL>eec^

.NDER the appellation of Roger
Chillingworth, the reader will
'remember, was hidden another
jname, which its former wearer
^— ^— ^^-J^ad resolved should never more
be spoken. It has been related, how, in the
crowd that witnessed Hester Prynne's ignomini-
ous exposure, stood a man, elderly, travel-worn,
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 men's feet
Infamy was babbling around her in the public
market-place. For her kindred, should the tid-
ings 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 indi-
vidual, whose connection with the fallen woman

^Ht'

170 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 Chill-
ingworth, 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 ex-
tensively acquainted with the medical science of
the day, it was as a physician that he presented
himself, and as such was cordially received. Skil-
ful 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

2tfer

i of them
im to an
alved not
destal of
ynne, and
ilence, he
i roll of
ties and
iletely as
le ocean,
led him.
5ts would
a new
, but of
:h of his

c up his
er Chill-
than the
)ossessed
! studies,
him ex-
ience of
resented
I. Skil-
afession,
They
religious
"OSS the

^Ae Scarlet Letter m

Atlantic. In their researches into the human
frame, ,t 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
-J 'tfe 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 occa-
sional exercise of that noble art with the daily and
habitual flourish of a razor. To such a profes-
sional 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 far-fetched and heterogeneous in-
gredients, 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. Nature's
boon to the untutored savage, had quite as large
a share of his own confidence as the European

172 "^A eSca rlef Letter

JititX

pharmacopceia, which so many learned doctors
had spent centuries in elaborating.

This learned stranger was exemplary, as re-
garded, at least, the outward forms of a religious
life, and, early after his arrival, had chosen for
his spiritual guide the Reverend Mr. Dimmes-
dale. The young divine, whose scholar-like
renown still lived in Oxford, was considered by
his more fervent admirers as little less than a
heaven-ordained 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 x>f 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 fre-
quent 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 hre feet. He himself,
on the other hand, with characteristic humility,
avowed his belief, that, if Providence should see

"^/ie Scarlet Letter 173

fit to remove him, it would be bee se of his
own unworthiness to perform its hu«. ,st mis-
sion 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 forni
grew emaciated ; his voice, though still rich and
sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of de-
cay 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 th^n a pale-
ness, indicative of pain. ..-- '

Such was the young clergyman's condition, and
so imminent the prospect that his dawning light
wou d 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 as-
pect 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 hav-
ing been his correspondents or associates. Why,

ing

^•v-

174 ''IS A c Scarlet Letter

with such rank in the learned world, had he come
hither ? What could he, whose sphere was in
great cities, be seeking in :he 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. Dimmesdale's study ! Individ-
uals of wiser faith, indeed, who knew that Heaven
promotes its purposes without aiming at the
stage-effect of what is called miraculous inter-
position, were inclined to see a providential hand
in Roger Chillingworth's so opportune arrival.

This idea was countenanced by the strong
iniiimut 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
pastor's state of health, but was anxious to at-
tempt 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. Dimmesdale's flock,
were alike importunate that he should make trial
of the physician's frankly offered skill. Mr.
Dimmesdale gently repelled their entreaties.

^Ae Scarlet Letter

175

'\^ " 1 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 trem-
ulous than before, -when it had now become
a constant habit, rather than a casu-' rgsture to
press his hand over his heart? he wearv

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 God's will," said the Reverend Mr
Dimmesdale, when, in fulfilment of this pledge he
requested old Roger Chillingworth's professional
advice, « I could be well content, that my labors
and rny 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 .vhich, whether imposed or natural
marked all his deportment, « it is thus that 1
young clergyman is apt to speak. Youthful
men, not having taken a deep root, give up their

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176 '^h eSca rlef Letter

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,
"W 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 lo jk into the character and
qualities of the patient, these two men, so differ-
ent in age, came gradually to spend much time
together. For the sake of the minister's health,
and to enable the leech to gather plants with
healing balm in them, they took long walks on
the sea-shore, or in the forest ; mingling various
talk with the plash and murmur of the waves,
and the solemn wind-anthem among the tree-
tops. 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 rec-
ognized an intellectual cultivation of no moderate
depth or scope ; together with a range and free-

'g/ic Scarlet Letter

177

dom of ideas that he would have vainly looked

In truth he was startled, if not shocked, ,0 find
ebsatmbute ,n the physician. Mr. Di^^dal
was a rue pnest. a true religionist, with the rev-
erential senfment largely developed, and an

contmually deeper with the lapse of time. ^ lT!l
a man of hberal v.ews ; it would always be essen-

bourhi':''""'°'"'""p^'=^"-°f'f-*

about h,m supportmg, while it confined him

r: thoVr'r'""^'- ^ot the less, ho™

ever though w,th a tremulous enjoyment, did he
feel the occasional relief of looking at the t^nive,.'
hrough the medium of another kind of intellect
han those „,th which he habitually held co"v
t was as .f a w.ndow were thrown open, adm tJ
t mg a freer atmosphere into the close and stifled

amid lamplight, or obstructed day -beams and
the musty f,.g„nce, be it sensual or ZZ' that

and ch,., .0 be long breathed with comfort. So
the minister and the physician with him, with-
drew again within the limits of what their hurch
defined as orthodox.

Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutlnued his n,.

.2 ^~

178 "nSAe Scarlet Letter

^ff!*

tient 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 in-
tense, that the bodily infirmity would be likely to
have its groundwork there. So Roger Chilling-
worth — the man of skill, the kind and friendly
physician — strove to go deep into his patient's
bosom, delving among his principles, prying into
his recollections, and Ing everything with a

cautious touch, like a i.oasure-seeker 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 some-
thing 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

etter

is ordinary
I the range
: appeared
enery, the
ithing new
deemed it
nan, before
ever there
Lses of the
eculiarities
ought and
lility so in-
>e likely to
r Chilling-
id friendly
s patient's
)rying into
ing with a
in a dark
vestigator,
undertake
A man
ally avoid
the latter
ess some-
if he show
prominent
the power,
[ his mind

^Ae Scarlet Letter m

into such affinity with his patient's, that this last
shall unawares have spoken what he imagines
hmiself only to have thought; if such revelations
be received without tumult, and acknowledged
not so often by an uttered sympathy as by si-
lence, an inarticulate breath, and nere and there
a word, to mdicate 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 mo-
ment, 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. Neverthe-
less, 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 minister's consciousness intJ
his companion's ear. The latter had his suspi-
cions, indeed, that even the nature of Mr. Dim-
mesdale's bodily disease had never fairly been
revealed to him. It was a strange reserve 1

i8o "nshe Scarlet Letter

After a time, at a hint from Roger Chilling-
worth, the friends of Mr. Dimmesdale effected
an arrangement by which the two were lodged
in the same house ; so that every ebb and flf" •
of the minister's life-tide 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 clergyman's 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 Dim-
mesdale would be prevailed upon to take; he
rejected all suggestions of the kind, as if priestly
celibacy were one of his articles of church-disci-
pline. Doomed by his own choice, therefore, as
Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his
unsavory morsel always at another's board, and
endure the life-long chill which must be his lot
who seeks to warm himself only at another's
fireside, it truly seemed that this sagacious, ex-
perienced, 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

"^Ae Scarlet Letter isi

pious widow, of good social rank, who dwelt in a
house covering pretty nearly the site on which
the venerable structure of King's Chapel has
since been built. It had the graveyard, origi-
nally Isaac Johnson's home-field, on one side,
and so was well adapted to call up serious reflec-
tions, suited to their respective employments, in
both minister and man of physic. The motherly
care of the good widow assigned to Mr. Dimmes-
dale a front apartment, with a sunny exposure,
and heavy window-curtains, to create a noontide
shadow, when desirable. The walls were hung
round with tapestry, said to be from the Gobelin I
looms, and, at all events, representing the Scrip- /
tural 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 woe-denouncing seer.
Here, the pale clergyman piled up his library,
rich with parchment-bound 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 tol-
erably complete, but provided with a distilling
apparatus, and the means of compounding drugs

jf0*

I i

i8a "WAe Scarlet Letter

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 apart-
ment to the other, and bestowing a mutual
and not incurious inspection into one another's
business.

And the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale's 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. Dimmes-
dale 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 refuta-
tion. There was an aged handicraftsman, it is

"g^c Scarlet Let ter 183

true, who had been a citizen of London at the
period of Sir Thomas Overbury's 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 cap-
tivity, had enlarged his medical attainments by
joining in the incantations of the savage priests •
who were universally acknowledged to be power-
ful enchanters, often performing seemingly mi-
raculous 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 Chillingworth's
aspect had undergone a remarkable change while
he had dwelt in town, and especiallv .vice his
abode with Mr. Dimmesdale. At first, his ex-
pression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like.
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

'84 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

|ff^

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 Dim-
mesdale, like many other personages of espe-
I cial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world,
was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan's
emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.
This diabolical agent had the Divine permission,
for a season, to burrow into the clergyman's
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 minister's eyes, the battle
was a sore one and the victory anything but
secure.

■I
1

jLD Roger Chillingworth, through-
fout life, had been calm in tempera-
fment, kindly, though not of warm
raffections, but ever, and in all his

^ freiations with the world, a pure

and upright man. He had begun an investiga-
tion, 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
air-drawn lines and figures of a geometrical prob-
lem, 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 . dding. He now dug into the poor
clergyman's 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 man's bosom, but likely
to find nothing save mortality and corruption.
Alas for his own soul, if these were what he
sought !

186 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

Sometimes, a light glimmered out of the phy-
sician's 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
Bunyan's awful doorway in the hillside, and
quivered on the pilgrim's 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 further in the direction of this
vein ! "

Then, after long search into the minister's
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 sen-
timents, 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

ministers

^/ie Scarlet Letter 187

of his premeditated carefulness, the floor would
now and then creak ; his garments would rustle •
the shadow of his presence, in a forbidden prox-
imity, 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 it-
self into relation with him. But old Roger
ChiUingworth, 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
mtrusive friend.

Yet Mr. Dimmesdale would perhaps have seen
this individual's character more perfectly, if a
certain morbidness, to wh.h 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 recreation's 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

188 "iSAe Scarlet Letter

with Roger ChilHngworth, while the old man was
examining a bundle of unsightly plants.

"Where," asked he, with a look askance at
them, — for it was the clergyman's 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," an-
swered 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 fore-
bode aright, no power, short of the Divine

"S/ie Scarlet Letter 189

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,
I is intended as a ^art of the retribution. That,
' surely, were a t,. .Jow view of it. No ; these
revelations, unless I greatly err, are meant merely
to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all in-
telligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that
day, to see the dark problem of this life made
plain. A knowledge of men's hearts will be
needful to the completest solution of that prob-
lem. And I conceive, moreover, that the hearts
holding such miserable --crets 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, grip-
ing hard at his breast as if afflicted with an im-.^.
portunate throb of pain. " Many, many a poor
soul hath given its confidence to me, not onlv

190 "^he Scarlet Letter

^M^

the death-bed, but while strong in life, and fair
in reputation. And ever, after such an out-
pouring, 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 ob-
vious 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 God's glory and
man's welfare, they shrink from displaying them-
selves 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 fellow-
creatures, looking pure as new-fallen snow while
their hearts are all speckled and spotted with
iniquity of ^hkh they cannot rid themselves."

" These men deceive themselves," said Roger
Chillingworth, with somewhat more emphasis

Letter

life, and fair
ach an out-
witnessed in
; who at last
ith his own

otherwise ?
we will say,
arpse buried

it forth at
: of it ! "
:rets thus,"

swered Mr.
t more ob-
: kept silent
re. Or, '■ —
ley may be,
s glory and
lying them-
V of men ;
3e achieved
deemed by
unutterable
eir fellow-
snow while
•otted with
selves."
said Roger
emphasis

^Ae Scarlet Letter

191

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 God's service, ~ these holv
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 propa-
gate a hellish breed within them. But, if thev
seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward
their unclean hands ! If they would serve their
fellow-men, let them do it by making manifest
the power and reality of conscience, in constrain-
mg them to penitential self-abasement ! Wouldst
thou have me to believe, O wise and pious
triend, that a false show can be better — can be
more for God's glory, or man's welfare - than
God s own truth ? Trust me, such men deceive
themselves ! "

"It may be so," said the young clergvman,
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
well-skilled 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

19a "^he Scarlet Letter

child's voice, proceeding from the adjacent
burial-ground. Looking instinctively from the
open window, — for it was summer-time, — the
minister beheld Hester Prynne and little Pearl
passing along the footpath that traversed the
enclosure. Pearl looked as beautiful as the
day, but was in one of those moods of per-
verse 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 tomb-
stone of a departed worthy,— perhaps of Isaac
Johnson himself, —she began to dance upon
it. In reply to her mother's command and en-
treaty 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 ap-
proached 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 child's com-
position," remarked he, as much to himself as to

Letter

:he adjacent
ly from the
•-time, — the
. little Pearl
raversed the
:iflil as the
ods of per-
ey occurred,
f the sphere
She now
to another;
lorial tomb-
ips of Isaac
dance upon
nd and en-
decorously,
ickly burrs
e the tomb,
mged them
It decorated
rrs, as their
3ter did not

5 time ap-
mly down.
r authority,
■ opinions,
lild's com-
mself as to

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 19 3

his companion. « I saw her, the other day, be-
spatter the Governor himself with water, at the
cattle-trough in Spring Lane. What, in Heaven's
name, s she? Is the imp altogether evil ? Hath
she affections ? Hath she any discoverable prin-
ciple of being? " ^

« None,— save the freedom of a broken law "
answered Mr. Dimmesdale, in a quiet way, as
ir « wu''!" ^'^^"^^'"g '^^ point within him-
L ^^'''"■ ''P'^'^ °^g°°d, I know not."
Ihe child probably overheard their voices-
for, lookmg up to the window, with a bright'
but naughty smile of mirth and intelligence,'
she threw one of the prickly burrs at the Rev-
erend Mr. Dimmesdale. The sensitive clergy-
man shrunk, with nervous dread, from the light
missile. Detecting his emotion. Pearl clapped
h^r httle hands, in the most extravagant ec-
stasy.- Hester Prynne, likewise, had involun-
tarily foofced up; and all these four persons, old
and young, regarded one another in silence, till
the child laughed aloud, and shouted, -I « Come
away, ^mother! Come away, or yonder old
Bkek 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, danc-
ing, and frisking fantastically, among the hillocks

, .:.

194 ISA e Scarlet Let ter

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 Chil-
lingworth, 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 miser-
able, think you, for that scarlet letter on her
breast ? "

" I do verily believe it," answered the clergy-

/man. "Nevertheless, I cannot answer for her.

i There was a look of pain in her face, which I

I would gladly have been spared the sight of.

\ k " ^"' ^^*'^' methinks, it must needs be better for

v^the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this

^ poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up

'■^^iii 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."

'^Ae Scarlet Letter r^

.bHl' 1^" '"'"'""' '^' '^krgyman, « and would
gladly learn ,t. Speak frankly, I p„y vou, be
■t for life or death."

" P'-«'y> *^n. and plainly," said the physi-
aan st,ll busy with his plants, but keeping a
wary eye on Mr. Dimmesdale, " the disorder
■3 a strange one ; not so much in itself, „or
as outwardly manifested, - in so far, at least
as the symptoms have been laid open to my'
observafon. Looking daily at you, my good
S.r, and watchmg the tokens of your aspect.
now for months gone by, I should deem you
a man sore s,ck, it may be, yet not so sick

m.gl't 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 mm.ster, glancing aside out of the window.

Then, to speak more plainly," continued
the physician, "and I crave pardon. Sir, -
should ,t seem to require pardon, -for this
needful plamness of my speech. Let me ask
-as your friend, -as one having charge
under Prov.dence, of your life and physifai
well-being hath ail the operation of' th '
disorder _ been fairly laid open and recounted

"How can you question it?" asked the

^ y ^ ftc Scarlet Letter

minister. " Surely, it were child's 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 fix-
ing an eye, bright with intense and concentrated
intelligence, on the minister's face. " Be it so !
But, again ! He to whom only the outward |

and physical evil is laid open, knoweth, often- |

times, 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 spir-
itual 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 cler-
gyman, somewhat hastily rising from his chair.
" You deal not, I take it, in medicine for the
soul ! "

"Thus, a sickness," continued Roger Chil-
lingworth, going on, in an unaltered tone, with-
out heeding the interruption, — but standing
up, and confronting the emaciated and white-
cheeked minister, with his low. dark, and mis-
shapen figure, — "a sickness, a sore place, if |
we may so call it, in your spirit, hath imme- p|

^^e Scarlet Letter 197

diately its appropriate manifestation in your
bod.ly 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 soul's disease,
then do I commit myself to the one Physician
of the soul ! He, if it stand with his good plea-
sure, can cure ; or he can kill I Let him do with
me as, m 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.

R " ^'rl-n- ""'" '° ^""^^ "^^^^ '^'' «^^P'" said
Roger Chilhngworth 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
hurneth him out of himself! As with one pas-
sion, 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 re-establish the inti-

»98 "tSAe Scarlet Letter

macy of the two companions, on the same foot-
ing 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 tem-
per, which there had been nothing in the physi-
cian's 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 Chil-
lingworth readily assented, and went on with his
medical supervision of the minister ; doing his
best for hixii, in all good faith, but always quit-
ting the patient's apartment, at the close of a
professional interview, with a mysterious and
puzzled smile upon his lips. This expression
was invisible in Mr. Dimmesdale's 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 sym-
pathy betwixt soul and body ! Were it only

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

this matter to

for the art's sake, 1 must search
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
black-letter 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 minister's 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 re-
moteness, however, had his spirit now withdrawn
into itself, that he stirred not in his chair, when
old Roger Chillingworth, without any extraordi-
nary precaution, came into the room. The phy-
sician 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 shghdy 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

'~)

^0° "^Ae Scarlet Le tter

whole ugliness of his figure, and making itself
even riotously manifest by the extravagant ges-
tures with which he threw up his arms towards
the ceihng, and stamped his foot upon the floor '
Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, ai
that moment of his ecstasy, he would h;iv- 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 physician's ecstasy
fro.-n Satan's was the trait of wonder in it !

^Bdjnierior of a ^eart

,IFTER the incident last described,
pthe intercourse between thj clergy-
man and the physician, liough
jexternally the same, was naliy of
^^^.^^ another character than it ha.l nre-
vously been. The intellect of Roger Ch, xZ-
worth had now a sufficiently plain path before ft.
it was no , mdeed, precisely that which he had aid

less as he appeared, there was yet, we fear, a qu:et
depth of „,,,„, |,i,he„o latent, but actiie l,v
.'" "!'' ""fortunate old man, which led him to
.mag,ne a more intimate revenge than any mor
Ul had ever wreaked upon an enemy. To make
himself the one trusted friend, to whom shouU be
confided all the fear, the remorse, the agony, the
neffectual repentance, the backward rusi, of s n-
ful thoughts, expelled in vain 1 All that guilty
sorrow, hiaden from the world, whose great hrt

t? Wm tr T^ '"' '""S'™"' '" '' -sealed
Ailth;. I "''''' '" ''™' "•' Unforgiving!
All that dark treasure to be lavished on the vet
man, to whom nothing else could so adequate^
pay the debt of vengeance ! ^ ^

202 ^/ie Scarlet Letter

\ The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had

^ balked this scheme. Roger Chillingworth, how-
ever, was inclined to be hardly, if at all, less
satisfied with the aspect of affairs, which Provi-
dence — using the avenger and his victim for its
own purposes, and, perchance, pardoning where
it seemed most ^^ punish — had substituted for
his black devices. A revelation, he could almost
say, had been granted to him. It mattered litde,
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 com-
prehend its every movement. He became,
thenceforth, not a spectator only, but a chief
actor, in the poor minister's interior world. He
could play upon him as he chose. Would he
arouse him with a throb of agony ? The victim
was forever 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 magi-
cian's wand, uprose a grisly phantom, — uprose
a thousand phantoms, — in many shapes, of
death, or more awful shame, all flocking round
about the clergyman, and pointing with their
fingers at his breast!

Letter

'e reserve had
igworth, how-
if at all, less
which Provi-

victim for its
doning where
ubstituted for

could almost
lattered little,
r from what
e subsequent
imesdale, not
e very inmost

brought out
lee and corn-
He became,
but a chief

world. He
Would he
The victim
)nly to know
I ; — and the
e startle him
g of a magi-
m, — uprose

shapes, of
eking round
[ with their

^^e Scarlet Letter

203

All this was accomplished with a subtlety so
perfect, that the minister, though he had con-
stantly a dim perception of some evil influence
watchmg over him, could never gain a knowledge
of Its actual nature. True, he looked doubtfully,
tearfully,— even, at times, with horror and the
bitterness of hatred, -at the deformed figure of
the old physician. His gesture, his gait, his
grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent
acts, the very fashion of his garments, were odious
in the clergyman's 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
L>immesdale, conscious that the poison of one
morbid spot was infecting his heart's entire
substance, attributed all his presentiments to no
other cause. He took himself to task for his
bad sympathies in reference to Roger Chilling-
worth, disregarded the lesson that he should have
drawn from them, and did his best to root them
out. Unable to accomplish this, he neverthe-
less, 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.

204 "IS/ie Scarlet Letter

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. Dim-
mesdale 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 r «tate 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 fellow-clergymen, eminent as
several of them were. There were scholars
among them, who had spent more years in ac-
quiring 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 min-
gled with a fair proportion of doctrinal ingre-
dient, 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.

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

205

and ethereal.zed, moreover, by spiritual commu-
n.cat:ons^w,th the better world, into which their
punty oi life had almost introduced these holy
personages, with their garments of mortality still
clmg,ng to them. All that they lacked was the
gift that descended upon the chosen disciples at
lentecost, m tongues of flame; symbolizing.
It would seem, not the power of speech in fof-
e.gn and unknown languages, but that of address-
ing the whole human brotherhood in the heart's
native language. These fathers, otherwise so
apostohc lacked Heaven's last and rarest attesta-
tion of their office, the Tongue of Flame. They
would have vainly sought - had thev ever
dreamed of seeking - to express the highest
truths through the humblest medium of familiar
words and images. Their voices came down,
afar and mdistinctly, 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 the high
mountain-peaks of faith aud sanctity he would
have chmbed, had not the tendency been thwarted
by the burden, whatever it might be, of crime or
anguish, beneath which it was his doom to tot.er.
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 an-

ao6 ^^ e Sea rlef Letter

swered ! But this very burden it was, that gave
him sympathies so intimate with the sinful
brotherhood of mankind ; so that his heart vi-
brated 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 Heaven's
messages of wisdom, and rebuke, and love. In
/-their eyes, the very ground on which he trod was
sanctified. The virgins of his chuich 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, be-
holding Mr. Dimmesdale's 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 pastor's 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 !

Lett er

was, that gave
h the sinful

his heart vi-
received their
throb of pain

in gushes of
St persuasive,
pie knew not
They deemed

of holiness.

of Heaven's
nd love. In
K he trod was
ch grew pale

imbued with
ned it to be
in their white
crifice before
lis flock, be-

feeble, while
-eir infirmity,
iward before
hildren, that
lose to their
.11 this time,
nesdale was
vith himself
n it, because
id!

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

inconceivabl
public veneration tortured

agony with which this
^Jm ! It was his

genuine impulse to adore the truth, and to reckon
aJl things shadow-like, and utterly devoid of

weight or value, that had

not its divine essence

oo <■», IT • 1 • . . 'Jiviiic essence

as the life within their life. Then, what was he ?

-a substance? -or the dimmest of all shad-
ows ? He longed to speak out, from his own
pulp.t, at the full height of his voice, and tell
the people what he was. "I, whom you behold
in these black garments of the priesfhoc^d - I
who ascend the sacred desk, and turn m^ pale
face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold
communion, in your behalf, with the Most
High Ommscience-I, in whose daily life you
discern the sanctity of Enoch, -I, whose foot-
steps 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 bap-
tism 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
y^ -.r-frence and trust, am utterly a pollution |

More than once, Mr. Dimmesdale had gone
into the pulpit, with a purpose never to come
down Its steps, until he should have spoken

"jtV

'.-..-X

208 "^he Scarlet Letter

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 abomina-
tion, 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, in-
deed ! They heard it all, and did but reverence
him the more. They little guessed what deadly
purport lurked in those self-condemning words.
" The godly youth ! " said they among them-
selves. « The saint on earth ! Alas, if he dis-
cern 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

' Letter

1 once, he had
he long, deep,
len sent forth
ith the black
e — nay, more
tually spoken !
Id his hearers
er companion
i, an abomina-
lity; and that
d not see his
re their eyes,
?hty ! Could

"^^g Scarlet Letter

^is ? Would
r seats, by a
im down out
Not so, in-
but reverence

what deadly
nning words,
mong them-
las, if he dis-
te soul, what
in thine or
-• subtle, but
- the light in

be viewed.
1 himself by
iscience, but

aog

had gamed only one other sin, and a self-
acknowledged shame, without the momentary
relief of bemg self-deceived. 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 he, as few men ever did. Therefore, above
all things else, he Ipathed 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. Dimmesdale's secret closet, under lock
and key /there was a bloody scourge. Often-
times, 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 hisjaistom, 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 illumina-
tion, but ngorously, and until his knees trem-
bled beneath him, .a^ an act of penance. He
„^„vjglls. likewise, night after night, some-
times in utter darkness ; sometimes with a glim-
mering lamp; and sometimes, viewing his own

light which he could throw upon it. Ke thus

aio "ISAe Scarlet Let ter

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
looking-glass. 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 sorrow-laden, but grew more ethereal
as they rose. Now came the dead friends of his
youth, and his white-bearded father, with a saint-
like 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, throu^ . 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 clergyman's 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

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

311

r„ / T. ""'■ °' ""^ '''e- ^l""'-^. leathern-
bound and braze„-cla.ped volume of divinity.
But, for all that, they were, in one sense, the
•niest and most substantial things which the
poor minister now dealt with. It is the un-
speakable m,sery of a life so false as his, that

al S t "■ '"' "''='^"" °"' °f "'^""er
meant by Heaven to be the spirit's joy and
nutr,me„t To the untrue man, the whole uni

TLZ 'Z''.'' impalpable, -it shrinks

to „oth.ag w,thm h,s grasp. And he himself,
m 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
D,mmesdale a real existence on this earth, was'

iLTf '" ^'' '"""°'' '°'''' ^"d "-= ""dis-
sembled 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 1

On one of those ugly nights, which we have

famtly hmted at, but forborne to picture forth

he m,n,ster 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 .f ,t had been for public worship,

and preasely m the same manner, he stole

^^'

^S^ <^M>imster''s Vipil

'ALKING in the shadow of a
I dream, as it vv;:re, and perhaps
actually under the influence of
'a species of somnambulisni, Mr.
jDimmesdale reached the spot
where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had
lived through her first hours of public ignominy.
The same platform of scaffold, black and weather-
stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long
years, and foot-worn, too, with the tread of many
culprits who had since ascended it, remained
standing beneath the balcony of the meeting-
house. 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 eye-witnesses 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

"^/ie Scarlet Letter

213

might stand there, if it so pleased him, until
morning should redden in the east, without other
risk than that the dank and chill night-air would
creep into his frame, and stiffen his joints with
rheumatism, and clog his throat with catarrh and
cough ; thereby d. Vauding the expectant audi-
ence of to-morrows prayer and sermon. No
eye could see him, save that ever-wakeful 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 Hends 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
Jinked companion was that Cowardice which in-
variably 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 iron-nerved,
who have their choice either to endure it, or, if
>t press too hard, to exert their fierce and savlge
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 in-

"4 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

extricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying
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
raked breast, right over his heart. On that spot
in very truth, there was, and there had long been'
the gnawmg 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 thexry either for something
frightfl:! in a. dream, or^or. 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

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 215

clergyman, therefore, hearing no symptoms of
disturbance, uncovered his eyes and looked about
h.m. At one of the chamber-windows of Gov-
ernor Bellingham's mansion, which stood at some
distance, on the line of another street, he beheld
the appearance of the old magistrate himself, with
a lamp m h,s hand, a white nightcap on his head,
and a long white gown enveloping his figure.
He looked hke 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 latHce, and looked anxiously upward.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this venerable
witch-lady had heard Mr. Dimmesdale's out-
cry, and interpreted it. with its multitudinous
echoes and reverberations, as the clamor of the
fiends and night-hags, with whom she was well
known to make excursions into the forest

Detecting the gleam of Governor Belling-
hams lamp the old lady quickly extinguished
her own and vanished. Possibly, she went up
among ,h ,ouds. The minister saw nothing
further of her motions. The magistrate, after f
wary observation of the darkness,- into wh ch
nevertheless, he could see but little further than

^^6 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

he^might into a milJ-stone, ^ retired from the

The minister grew comparatively calm. His
eyes, however, were soon greeted by a little
ghmmermg 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 garden-
fence, and here a latticed window-pane, and there
a pump, with its m trough of water, and here
agam 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 on-
ward in the footsteps which he now heardj and
that the gleam of the lantern would fall upon
him in a few moments more, and reveal his long-
hidden 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
ivir. 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 death-chamber of Governor Winthrop,
who had passed from earth to heaven within
that very hour. And now, surrounded, like
the samt-like personages of olden times, with a

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

217

radiant halo, that glorified him amid this gloomy
mght of sm, ... as if the departed Governor had
left h,m an mhentance 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
m short, good Father Wilson was moving home-
ward, 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

^^'^' t'li^'?''"^ ^'' ^''^°" P«««ed beside
the scaffold, closely muffling his Geneva cloak
about him with one arm, and holding the lantern

could hardly restrain himself from speaking

A good evening to you, venerable Father

a iTa t h ^' "E '''^^' ' P"^ y°"> -^ P-
a pleasant hour with me ! "

Good heaven. ! Had Mr. Dimmesdale actu-
% spoken ? For one instant, l,e believed that
these words had passed his lips. But thev were
uttered only within his imagination. T IZ
erable Father Wilson conrinued to step slowly
onw„d loolcng carefully at the muddy pathway
before h,s feet, and never once turning his head
owards the guilty platform. When the light of
the ghmmering lantern had faded quite away,

S^S^Si-?*?*!

218 ^/le Sca rlet Letter

the minister discovered, by tiie 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 phan-
toms of his thought. He felt his limbs growing
stiff with the unaccustomed chilliness of the night,
and doubted whether he should be able to de-
scend the steps of the scaffold. Morning would
break, and find him there. The neighborhood
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 curi-
osity, 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 patri-
archs would rise up in great haste, each in his
flannel gown, and matronly dames, wirhout paus-
ing to put off their night-gear. 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

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 219

Bellingham would come grimly forth, with his
Kmg James's ruff fastened askew ; and Mistress
Hibbms, 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 nicrht-
nde; and good Father Wilson, too, after spelid-
ing half the night at a death-bed, 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 Dim-
mesdale's church, aud 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 horror-stricken
visages around the scaffold. Whom would they
discern there, with the red eastern light upon his
brow? Whom, but the Reverend Arthur Dim-
mesdale, 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
infimte alarm, burst into a great peal of laughter.
It was immediately responded to by a light, airy,
childish ^^""^ — -L- ' • • • -^ ' *"/»

V X

laugh, in which, with a thrill

if th.>

220

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 mo-
ment's 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 death-bed," an-
swered Hester Prynne ; — "at Governor Win-
throp's death-bed, 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 child's 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 tor-

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

221

rent into his heart, and hurrying through all his
veins, as if the mother and the child were com-
municating their vital warmth to his half-torpid
system. The three formed an electric chain

" Minister ! " whispered little Pearl.

" What wouldst thou say, child ? " asked Mr
Dimmesdale.

"Wilt thou stand herewith mother and me
to-morrow noontide ? " inquired Pearl.

"Nay ; not so, my little Pearl," answered the
mimster ; for, with the new energy of the moment,
all the dread of public exposure, that had so lone
been the anguish of his life, had returned upon
him ; and he was already trembling at the con-
junction m which - with a strange joy, neverthe-
less—he now found himself "Not so, my
child I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother
and thee, one other day, but not to-morrow "

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 mother's hand, tomorrow
noontide ?

"Not then, Pearl," saia the minister, "but
another time."

"And what other time ? " persisted the child.
----At the great judgment day," whispered the
mmister,- and: strangely enough, the sense that

^^^ "tSAe Scarlet Letter

he was a professional teacher of th^ truth im-
pelled him to answer the child so. "Then -^nd
there, before the judgment-seat, thy mother,' and
thou, and I must stand together. But the dav-
iight of this world shall not see our meeting ' "'
Pearl laughed again.

But, before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speak-
ing, a light gleamed far and wide over all the
muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of
those meteors, y;hkh the night-watcher may so
often obscrve'ljurning 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 im-
mense lamp. It showed the familiar scene of the
street, with the distinctness of mid-day, but also
with the awfulness that is always imparted to fa-
miliar objects by an unaccustomed light The
wooden houses, with their jutting stories and
quaint gable-peaks ; the doorsteps and thresholds
with the early grass springing up about them •
the garden-plots, black with freshly turned earth '
the wheel-track, little worn, and, even in the
market-place, margined with green on either
side ; — all were visible, but with a singularity of
aspect that seemed to give another moral inter-
pretation to the things of this world than they
had ever borne before. And there stood the

Letter

:h3 truth im-
" Then, and
' mother, and
But the dav-
meeting ! "

done speak-
over all the
d by one of
cher may so
n the vacant
i^erful was its
ed the dense
earth. The
le of an im-
scene of the
ay, but also
Darted to fa-
light. The
stories and

thresholds,
)out them ;
rned earth ;
^en in the

on either
gularity of
loral inter-

than they

stood the

^Ae Scarlet Letter 223

minister, with his hand over his heart; and
Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter
ghmmenng on her bosom ; and little Pearl her
self 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
iight that IS to reveal all secrets, and the day-
break that shall unite all who belong to one
another.

There was witchcraft in little Pearl's eyes, and
her face, as she glanced upward at the minister
wore that naughty smile which made its ex-
pression frequently so elfish. She withdrew her
hand from Mr. Dimmesdale's, 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 supernat-
ural source. Thus, a blazing spear, a sword of •
«ame, a bow, or a sheaf of arrows, seen in the
midnight sky, prefigured Indian warfare. Pesti-
lence was known to have been foreboded bv a'
shower of crimson light. We doubt whether
any marked event, for good or evil, ever befell
New England, from its settlement down to Rev-

^^4 "ISAe Scarlet L etter

olutionary 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 eye-witness,
who beheld the wonder through the colored
magnifying, and distorting medium of his imagi-
nation, and shaped it more distinctly in his after-
thought. 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 ex-
pansive for Providence to write a people's doom
upon. The belief was a favorite one with our
forefathers, as betokening that their infant com-
monwealth 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 self-con-
templative 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 soul's history
and fate!

We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease
m his own eye and heart, that the minister, look-

Letter

labitants had
'me spectacle
id been seen
ts credibility

eye-witness,
the colored,
jf his imagi-

in his after-
c idea, that
revealed, in
2 of heaven,
ned too ex-
jple's doom
le with our
infant com-
dianship of
t what shall
a revelation

same vast
could only
red mental
y self-con-
; pain, had
expanse of
uld appear
il's history

:he disease
ster, look-

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

225

ing upward ,o the zenith, beheld there the ap-
pearance of an immense letter, — the letter A 1
marted out in lines of dull red light. t^J^'^ '
the meteor may have shown itself at that point
burmng duskily through a veil of cloud .'Tul
w h no such .hape as his guilty imagi-latL"

that T'." ""■ "'"■ '° ""'"= d'finitenesa,

that^another s guilt might have seen another'

There was a singular circumstance that charac
actenzed Mr. Dimmesdale's psycholog cal smt
at th„ moment. All the time thatT^gaz d "p."
ward to the zenith, he was, nevertheLs per-
fectly aware that little Pearl was pointing her '

stood at no great distance from the scaffold- '

Ince^hrd"''''":^."' '" ^™' -* "■= --
glance that discerned the miraculous letter To

%httr:'H" '° "' o^"- °^i«'». the meteoH
be th 7r .' "'™ "P^'^^'o" • - '' -ight well
at a I 1 ,!* '"™" "" "°' '"'f-^ 'hen, a
vwiich he looked upon his victim. Certainlv if

i-rynne and the clergyman of the day of judff
ment then might Roger Chillingworth \ave

there with a smile and scowl, to claim his own

Ni'

226

'"\

"^Ae Scarlet Leffer

So vivid was the expression, or so intense the
minister s perception of it, that iv seemed stiJl to
remain pa.nted on the darkness, after the meteor
had vanished, with an effect as if the street and
aJJ things else were at once annihilated.

Who IS that man, Hester? ' gasped Mr
Dimmesdale, overcome with terror. " I shiver

L h' r^T' '^°" ^"°^ '^' '"^"•^ J hate
Jymi._H ester ! ' , ,

She remembered her oath, and was silent.
1 tell thee, my soul shivers at him ! " nwt-
tered 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 I " 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
nt all events, if it involved any secret information
in regard to old Roger Chillingworth, it was in a
^ngue 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

Letter

intense the
:emed still to
er the meteor
he street and
lated.

gasped Mr.
• " I shiver
an? I hate

5 silent,
him ! " niut-
! he? Who
le? I have

:an tell thee

le minister,
Quickly ! —

is ear, that
g:e, but was
y be heard
ir together,
information

it was in a
^man, and

his mind.

e minister.

yAe Scarlet Letter

227

to-morrow noontide ' " *

" Pious Master ni^ ! , ^ ""' pl«form.

heads are in our books^avTneed Tj' "'T
looked after ! We dream i ' '"'"^y

n>e„ts,a„d„alkTn ouTXd 7 ™''"^ "°-

-d my dear friend, I p^Tou l^^eTl ^'''
home!" ^ ^ ' " "^^ ^^ad you

" How knewest thou that I was her^? " i ^
the minister, fearfUlIy. ^' ^'^^^

ChHlIgw^^^^^^^^ ^::' '^'t'." --red Roger

I i^ad fpent^he betterpantrl^' ''t ""'''''-
bedside of the wor hToful r "'^^' "' ^^^

doing what my po ^st jtrh?" '^"^'^'^P^
ease. He goina hT , ^^^ ^° S^^^ ^'"^

■ne going home to a better worlH T ru
wise, was on m,r . worjd, J, like-

-nge r.,.:\z zi 'Tor- r^" ""-^

beseeci vou R.„. To- "' ""'' "'. I

poorly a le ' .cZTLtrl !.'" ^°" *"' ""^
Aha ! see now !,„ u *■ ^"'^ '""""'"•ow.

these boolT:: the": bti: rt'^ "■' ''™"'-
'«». good Sir, and tk ° hI , °" '*"""' """^
"ight-whimse;s will 1,. "' P'"™*'' ^ ">ese

"eys will grow upon you,

aa8 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

With a chill despondency, like one awaking

himself to the phys.can, and was led away
1 he next day, however, being the Sabbath

ri hS " '^■^"•'-7'^i^'' »- l-'M to be the
nchest and most powerful, and the most replete
with heavenly mfluences, that had ever proceeded
from h,s l,ps. Souls, it is said more souls han
one were brought to the truth by the efficacy of
that sermon and vowed within themselve; to
cherish a holy gratitude towards Mr. Dimmes-
dale throughout the long hereafter. But a^ he
came down the pulpit steps, the gray-beaded
sexton met him, holding up a black 'glove, which
the mmister recognized as his own

"It was found," said the sexton, « this morn-
mg, on the scaffold where evil-doers are sTup
to public shame. Satan dropped it there, I take
.t mtendmg a scurril,™ jest against vou'r re^'r! --
ence. But, indeed, he was blind and foolish as
he ever and always is. A pure hand ne da',^-^
glove to cover it ! "

"Thank you, my good friend," said the minis-

to-, gravely, but startled at heart ; for, so confosed
was h.» remembrance, that he had almost brought
Mmself to look at the events of the past night as
v,s.onary. •■Yes,itseems tobemyglo've.in'fed!"

Letter

said Mr.

ane awaking,
» he yielded
led away.
:he Sabbath,
:ld to be the
^ost replete
Jr proceecied
' souls than

2 efficacy of
emselves to
r. Dimmes-

But, as he
ray-bearded
love, which

this morn-
are set up ^
ere, I take
our rever-"'^
foolish, as
needs no

the minis-

3 confused
t brought
t night as

, indeed.'"

sm,l,„g. .. B.t did your rever T"' S""''^

Governor Winthrop wiv-L^ '' "' °"'' Kood _
"ighf, it was doubtLriewt ^h "T^fnaTf
he some notice tliereof • " " """' '''""W

^o answered the minister <n U a
heard of it." '"^ccr, i had not

^not^er Viewofciffester

N her late singular interview with
'Mr. Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne
[was shocked at the condition to
[which she found the clergyman
[reduced. His nerve seemed ab-
solutely destroyed. His moral force was abased
into more than childish weakness. It grovelled
helpless on the ground, even while his intellec-
tual 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, be-
sides the legitimate action of his own conscience,
a terrible machinery had been brought to bear,
and was still operating, on Mr. Dimmesdale's
well-being 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 se-

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 231

elusion from society, to measure her ideas of right
and wrong by any standard external to hersdf
Hester saw -or seemed to see -that there lav
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 mu-
tual crime, which neither he nor she could break
Like ail other ties, it brought along with it its
obhgations.

Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely
the same position in which we beheld her during
the eariier periods of her ignominy. Years had
come and gone. Peari was now seven years old.
Her mother, with the scarlet letter on her breast
glitter-ng 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 pub-
lic nor individual interests and convenience, a
species of general regard had ultimately grown
up m 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

^32 "^Ae Scarlet Lett er

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, uncom-
plainingly, 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 noth-
ing now to lose, in the sight of mankind, and
with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining
anything, 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 world's privileges,— further than to breathe
the common air, and earn daily bread for little
Peari and herself by the faithful labor of her
hands, — she was quick to acknowledge her
sisterhood with the race of man, whenever bene-
fits were to be conferred. None so ready as she
to give of her little substance to everv demand
of poverty ; even though the bitter-hearted pau-
per 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

y^e Scarlef Letter ^

embroidered a monarch's robe. None so self
devoeed as Hester, when pestilence Ttalk'd

™t»; ?""" S'"="' " "f individuals, hi'

came „:, ""''^ " """ ^o""" ^er place. She
came, not as a guest, but as a riehtfiil i„
m«e .nto the household .hat was dartned by'

- wh h she was en.tled to hold intercourse wi.h
ler fellow-creatures. There elimmered ,h.
broide.d letter, with comfoft 7 ru^lr;
ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was thi
«per of the sick-chamber. It had even thrown
ts g^eam, .„ the sufferer's hard extremity, a ^ss
et h :'foot "T; u ""^ ^"o"" '>™ "her ;

breast, with its badge of shame wfsbut^h"
softer pillow for the head that needed on Sh!
was self-ordained a Sister of Mercv or
rather say. the worlH'. h l^^ ^' "^^ ""^^

dained /j/''^ ^^'^^^^ , ^^avy hand had so or-
aained her, when ne ther the worM
looked forward to this resu k Th . "°' ''''
the symbol of her calling Su'ch li% !"'' "^
found in her o« u ^"^^ ^^^P^^lness was
her, -~ so much power to do, and dow..

^^ J^Ae ScurUf Letter

to sympathize, -that many people refused to
' interpret the scarlet A by its original significa-
tion. They said that it meant Able; so strong
was Hester Prynne, with a woman*^ strength

It was only the darkened house that could
contam her. When sunshine came again, she

Zr^\T^^'l ^'^'^^' ^^^ '^^^ -OSS
the threshold. The helpful inmate had departed

without one backward glance to gather up thJ
meed of gratitude, if any were in the hearts of
those whom she had served so zealously. Meet-
ing them in the street, she never raised her head
to receive their greeting. If they were resolute
o 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 tem-
per; ,t 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

HerefCnrJ'? '"' '"""^'^- '^^^^^^
Hester Prynne s deportment as an appeal of this

nature, society was inclined to show its for-
mer 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

etter

refused to
I significa-

so strong
•ength.
hat could
again, she
led across

departed,
r up the
hearts of
. Meet-

her head
: resolute
le scarlet
>ride, but
1 all th«
' on the

its tem-
i justice,
fht; but
i justice,

to have
rpreiing
1 of this
its for-
han she
lian she

men of

'g/te Scarlet Letter

»35

he community were longer in acknowledging

people. The prejudices which they shared in
common with the latter were fortified in them-
selves by an ,ron framework of reasoning, that
made ,t a far tougher labor to expel them.® Dav
by day nevertheless, their sour and rigid wrinkte
were relaxmg mto 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
mposed the guardianship of the public mora"
Ind„.,duals m private life, meanwhile, had quite
forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty • nay

^Z'l:i '1 '''"" '° '"""^ "P°» '"'-"«
she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but
of her many good deeds since. "Do you s^e
that woman with the embroidered badge?" thev
would say to strangers, « It is our Hester, !!
the towns own Hester, who is so kind to the

of human natureTi'^;:^rtH:;:^tsroTi:iT

when embodied in the person of'another. :! d
constrain them to whisper the black scandal of
bygon years. It was none ehe less a fact, how-

SDoke th \ '^'' "^ *^ ^"y ">=" "ho
spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of

^36 *g^ eSca rlef Letter

the cross on a nun's 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 with-
ered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago
fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline,
which might have been repulsive, had she pos-
sessed friends or companions to be repelled by it.
Even the attractiveness of her person had under-
gone a similar change. It might be partly owing
to the studied austerity of her dres; ind 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 anything in Hester's face for Love to dwell
upon ; nothing in Hester's form, though majes-

\efter

irted to the
jnabled her

I she fallen
er safe. It
ly, that an

the badge,

II harmless

her, of the
s indicated
me herself,
light and
been with-
d long ago
sh outline,
i she pos-
slled by it.
lad under-
rtly owing
ind partly
nners. It
• rich and
or was so
a shining
shine. It
still more
to be no
e to dwell
yh majes-

"^iic Scarlet Letter

237

tic and statue-like, that Passion would ever dream
of clasping in its embrace ; nothing in Hester's
bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affec-
tion. 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 en-
countered, 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 out-
ward 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
■here 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 Hester's im-"''
pression 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 con-

'38 "^Ae Scar lefLet^r-

sider i, desirable.- she east away the fragment,
of a broken cha>n. The worJd's law was no law

■I'Jrr , ' "'' '" '8^ '" "'■'^l' 'he human
intellect newly emancipated, had taken a more

active and a wider range than for many centuries
before. Men of the sword had overthrown
"Obles and kmgs. Men bolder than these had
overthrown and rearranged - not actually, but
w, hm ,h. Here of theory, which was' their
mo t real abode- the whole system of ancient
prejudice, wherewith was linked much of ancient
pnncple, Hester Prynne imbibed this spirit.
She assumed a freedom of speculation, then com-
mon enough on the other side of the Atlantic,
but which our forefathers, had they known it
would have held to be a deadlier crime than tha
stigmatized by the scarlet letter. In her lone
some cottage by the sea-shore, thoughts visited
her, such as dared to enter „„ other dwelling in
New England; shadowy guests, that would have
been as perilous as demons to their entertainer,
could the^y have been seen so much as knocking

It is remarkable, that persons who speculate
the most boldly often conform with the most
perfect qu^tude to the external regulations of
society. The thought suffices them, without
investing itself m the flesh and blood of action.
So It seemed to be with Hester. Yet, had little

Letter

he fragments
V was no law
h the human
iken a more
my centuries

overthrown
n these had
ctually, but
^ was their
1 of ancient
^ of ancient

this spirit.
, then com-
le Atlantic,

known it,
le than that
I her lone-
jhts visited
dwelling in
t'ould have
mtertainer,

knocking

' speculate
the most

lations of

, without

of action,
had little

^Ae Scarlet Letter

239

Pearl never come to her from the spiritual world,
It mjght have been far otherwise. Then she
m.ght have come down to us in history, hand
in hand wath 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
th. person of this little girl, had assigned to
Hester s charge the germ and blossom of woman-
hood, to be cherished and developed amid a
host of difficulties. Everything 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 acceptina
even to the happiest among them? As con-
cerned her own individual existence, she had long
ago decided in the negative, and dismissed the

^4° '^Ae Scarlet Letter

"gn ic may keep woman quiet a, it j„
">»", yet makes her sad. She disL, l
be, such a hopeless task before he^ A T''
fP. the whole system of ,oc L s to K ' "
down, and built up ,new Th.^ I '""

turf nf .t ' "'"' 'be very na-

5"'"= ^ stiJi mightier change: in whirh
perhaps, the ethereal essence, wher;in shlht'
her truest life, wi„ b, f,,„, ^ haveTvaJrated
A woman never overcomes these nrohC t
»«iy exercise of thought Th P™'''""' by

solved, or only i„ o„/wlv If 'h "I ""' ? '''

letter

speculation,

as it does

'•■"s, it may

As a first

to be torn

»e very na-

hereditary

', is to be

be allowed

table posi-

eing obvi-

of these
shall have
in which,
» she has
i^aporated.
blems by
lot to be
irt chance
s, Hester
ular and
^ in the
aside by
ing back
I ghastly
id com-
t strove
t better
go her-

'^Ae Scarlet Letter ^i

provide.""'' ^"""'"^ " ^'""'' J""'« ^''""W
The scarlet letter had not done its office
Now, however, her interview with the Rever-
end Mr. Dimme«i.le. on the night of his vigil,
had g,ven her a new theme of reflection, and hfid
up to her an object that appeared worthy of any
m,on and sacrifice for its attainment. She
had „,t„essed the intense misery Seneath Vh"Sr
he m,„,ster struggled, or. to speak more acS-'
rately. had ceased to struggle. She ,aw that^e
sood on the v,rge „f ,u„,cy. if he had not
already stepped across it. It was impossible to
doubt, that, whatever painful efficacy there might
be m the secret sting of remorse, a deadlier venom
had been mfUsed mto it by the hand that prof-

Ilv bt • -f ''"'' '"'"^y ^^ l'^^" continu-
ally by h,s s,de, under the semblance of a friend

and helper, and had availed himself of the oppor-

tumt,es thus afforded for tampering witT^he

dehcate sprmgs of Mr. Dimmesdale's nature

Hester could not but ask herself, whether there

had not or,g,nally been a defect of truth, cou^^e

and loyalty, on her own part, in allowing The'

much ev.l was to be foreboded, and nothi^

no'^ method ; " '''' ^'^ ^''" """'^ "> discern
no method of rescumg him from a blacker ruin

^ "^Ae Scarlet Letfpr^

than had overwhelmed herself, rxcept by ac-
quiesang in Roger Chillingworth's 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
determmed to redeem her error, so far as it might
yet be possible. Strengthen 1 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 prison-chamber. She had
climbed her way, since then, to a higher point,
rhe 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 ong to seek. One afternoon, walking with

KrL'"u^ y'''''^ P"'' °^ ^^^ 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 con-
coct his medicines withal.

letter

ept by ac-
scheme of
had made

v appeared,

two. She

as it might

ars of hard
longer so

tigworth as
maddened

sn they had
She had

fher point.

id brought

5 below it,

or.

meet her
be in her
whom he
casion was
king with
isula, she
:t on one
ling along
>s to con-

^fester tnd f6e7>S^sician

ESTM< ',ade little Pearl run

dcwr. .o the margin of the water,

land play with the shells and tan-

[gled sea-weed, until she should

--^ '^ave 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 bv the retiring
tide as a mirror for Pearl to see her face in
Forth peeped at her, out of the pool, with dark
glistenmg curls around her head, ?; d an elf-
sm.le 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
hkewise, as if to say, — « This is a better place •
Come thou into the pool !" And Pearl, step-
ping m, mid-leg 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.

*** "^Ae Scarlet Letter

her mother had accosted the

Meanwhile,
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 I No longer
ago than yester-eve, a magistrate, a wise and
godly man, was discoursing of your affairs, Mis-
tress 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," cakniy 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."
"Nsy, then, wear it, if it suit you better,"
rejoined he. «A woman must needs follow her
own fancy, touching the adornment of her per-
son The letter is gayly embroidered, and shows
right bravely on your bosom ! "

All this while, Hester had been looking stead-

((

Letter

accosted the

u," said she,

r that has a
? " answered
ing posture,
ress, I hear

No longer
a wise and
afFairs, Mis-
t there had
council. It
ifety to the
• might be
, Hester, I

magistrate

magistrates
ed Hester,
would fall
armed into
t purport."
)u better,"
follow her
f her per-
and shows

:ing stead-

"^^g Scarlet Letter

'ly at the old man, and was shocked, as well as
wonder-smitten, to discern what a change had
been wrought upon him within the nast 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 for-
mer aspect of an intellectual and studious man,
calm and quiet, which was what she best remem-
bered 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 man's
soul were on fire, and kept on smouldering dusk-
ily within his breast, until, by some casual pufF
of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame
Ihis he- repressed, as speedily as possible, and

Z7;:i ^°°' '- ' "°^^^"^ °^ ^'^ '■-' '^^

In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a
s riking evidence of man's faculty of transforming
^mself into a devil, if he will only, for a reason
able space of time, undertake a devil's office
This unhappy person had effected such a trans^

^6 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

formation, by devoting himself, for seven years
to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture'
and dermng Ws enjoyment thence, and adding

and^Ltd^e^'^^^^^^^^^^^r-^^^^^^
The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's

bihty of which came partly home to her.

What see you in my face," asked the physi-
cian, that you look at it so earnestly ? "

" Something that would make me weep, if
there were any tears bitter enough for it," an-
swered she. "But let it pass! It is of yonder
miserable man that I would speak "
::i^-" And what of him .? » cried Roger Chilling-
worth, eagerly, as if he loved the topic, and wefe
glad of an opportunity to discuss it with the only

« Not". V^"l ^" '°"^^ "^'^^ ' ^^'^fidant.

Not to hide the truth, Mistress Hester, my

thoughts happen just now to be busy with the

fnster"^'"' ^° "^'"^ ^'''^^' '"^ ^ ^^^' "^^^e

^ " When we last spake together," said Hester,
now seven years ago, it was your pleasure to
extort a promise of secrecy, as touching the for-
mer 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, m accordance with your behest. Yet it

Letter

seven years,

II of torture,

and adding

he analyzed

;er Prynne's

^e responsi-
ler.

I the physi-
r ?"

le weep, if
for it," an-
s of yonder

r Chilling-
:, and were
'h the only
confidant,
fester, my
' with the
will make

d Hester,
leasure to
g the for-
As the
; in your
ive to be
. Yet it

^Ae Scarlet Letter

247

T' T '^''"°"' ''""^y misgivings that I th;-.s
bound myself; for, having cast off all duty to^
wards other human beings, there remained a
duty owards h,m; an . something whispered me
that I ,,3 betraymg it, in pledging myself to
keep your counsel. Since that day, no man is
so near to h.m as you. You tread behind his
every tootstep. You are beside him, sleeping
and wakmg. You search his thoughts. You
burrow and rankle in his heart I Your clutch is
on his hfe and you cause him to die daily a
hvmg death ; and still he knows you not. Jn
perrmttmg this, I have surely acted a false par"

to'be .rue f' "" '' "'°" ^'^ ^^^'^^ "^^ '^''^^

"What choice had you ?" asked Roger Chil-

hngworth. "My finger, pointed at this man

would have hurled him from his pulpit Tnto

gallo::^'""-^'^""' peradventure', 'to the

"It had been better so ! " said Hester Prynne.

Roger Lhilhngworth again. <'I tell thee, Hes-
ter Prynne, the richest fee that ever physician
earned from monarch could not have' bough

pnt ."b ? I ''" ""^^' ^'^ '""^ ---ble

burn d "' "^' ^'^ ^^' -°"ld have •

burned away m torments, within the first two

years after the perpe^tration of his crime and thine

>■■

fllj

'^J '^/ie Scarief letter

burHe 1,-Ir^ I, 1 , '' ^^^' beneath a

...burc^e. hke .hy scarlet letter. O, I could reveal

a goody secret! But enough ! What art Tn
do, I have exhausted on him Thaf I,

Prynt!'" -l'!'.^.,'""' " °"«-'" -<< Hester
"Yea, woman, thou sayest trulv F " crieH oM
Roge. Chillingworth, let/ng .he iu'rid fire of h^
heart blaze out before her eves « R«,., k . J
died a. once ! Never did ^'tai suC^I th t
man has suffered. And all, all. i„ .height f

m X h'"T,-' "' "-^^ •'«" "-cious :
me. He has felt an influenee dwelling alwavs
upon h,„, like a curse. He knew, by sZe

ano her bemc, so sensitive as this, _ he knew

strilr TV '""' "" P""'"8 ^^ h" he""
stnngs, and that an eye was looking curiously

mne' Wirt"hr'""'-'-^^^^"'"''"'*-«
ri u J , =*«P"«'tion common to his

b other ood, he fancied himself given ov. to a

despe'rat^ tl "7"' T"^ '"^htful dreams, and
aesperate thoughts, the sting of remorse „„A
despair of pardon ; as a foretfsce of XTaw"^
'"" """>"" '"^ g-e. But it was the conC:

Letter

strength that
5> beneath a
could reveal
^hat art can
^lat he now
is owing alJ

iaid Hestfer

cried old
1 fire of his
tter had he
r what this
e sight of
iscious of
ng always

by some
ver made

he knew
bis heart-
curiously
found it.
and were
n to his
)ver to a
ams, and
>rse, and
at awaits
constant

'!^Ae Scarlef Lpffa ^ ^,

sl-aaow of my presence ' _ ,1,. , —

l-'y of the Zn when, h hat'°" ''™'""-
wrongedl — and whn iZ ^ ""■" ^''^'X

Yea, indeed!_he dd not , "" '"'"g"
««d at his elbow' A molT"""' *^' '

'"""an heart, has becomeTfieldT' t^ °"" '
torment ! " "^ '°'' ^'s especial

The unfortunate physician ,„r,.i
"ords lifted his ha„V:r:To i 7h""' "'"
^f he had beheld some tri„l„f i ^ ^°"°''' »»
could not recognize t,!^ f "P^' "''"'ch he
°™ image in fls's T'"^ *' P'«= "^ <>-
ments -which som., ""' ""' °^ ">ose mo-

val of yrarr-;r„T"T°"'^^' '»■---
faithfully revealed to h,^ 2".- """"' "P=" «
P^bably, he had never L^ ' '^'^ ^°' ™-
he did now. ''^"'^ "'»'«d himself as

Hl^r^olXThVoT"'' ."'T ^-g"?"^-.-

not paid thee a! /" ™" ' '°°'^- " "as 1.=

••No!-_nor__H, i, l
debt !" answered the nh.,' "'""'''=<' 'he

-ded,hismaner,osfn:r"^''"^^'''P™- '
-d subsided into glol "S"tt"""™''"'
''«■■ me, Hester as I , "'°'' ''"«m-

Even then. I Ja^ i^^be auTumT'f'"" "^""^•'
-as it the early autumn Tu "1 iTTi
^- -de up of earnest, stu iol.lo 'ht^Y

«5o ISAe Scarlet letter

quiet years, bestowed faitisfully iTor the increase
of mine own k^iowledge, and faithfully, too,
though thts latter object was hut casual to ihe
other, — fkithfully for ?:he advancement of human
welfare. No life had been more peaceful and
innocent than mine ; few lives so rkti with bene-
fits conferred. Dost thou remember me ? Was
I not, though you might deem me cold, never-
theless a man thoughtful for others, craving little
for himself, — kind, true, just, and of constant,
if not warm affections .? Was 1 not all this ? "
" All thisj^od more," said J:^ ester. ^
''And what am I now? " demanded he, look-
ing 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 ? " x ^

" 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 Chiilingworth. « 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 } cian. " And
now, what wouldst thou -ith c touching this

Letter

the increase
ithfully, too,
asual to Lhe
:nt of human
peaceful and
ii with bene-

me? Was

cold, never-

:raving little

of constant,

ill this ? "

;d he, look-
: whole evil

aturea^ " I

A fiend!

\.. ^_ _.-^'

shuddering.
' hast thou

er," replied
lot avenged

:d Hester

n. "And
iching this

!^^f^arlef Letter

_ '51

But this long debt o/co„fide„cTdt ^0"^ "°'-

««e, and perchance his /he l u '"""^

Nor do I, -whom ,f" , '" ""y ''»"''»•

p«nedtot;uth:XhVhet:ro^dr

Ton entering !„„ ,he soul,l„o?do f "^-''°'
such advantage in his living f perceive

gl>-tly emptLss, th t Ish'al "It "'" ' ''''' "'
"•y -nercy. Do ^ith hilts Cwi,:° 'Tk°"
IS no good for hJm ^ ' ^^ere

good I l:: ''™'-'>° g-d for „e,-„o

Pearl! There is no „ If "° ^°°'^ ^°' "«'=
dismal maze r " P"'' '° ^'^' "» out of this

Csirritft^'^'''"'"^''^

of admiration too for !h ''""'" ' ">""

■nost maiestic in ,t' a "'^ ^ l^^lity al-

" Thou 'wst" tit ir'^ "'•'''' "•= «P--d.
hadst thou met Ik "!""'• P'^^dventure,

™ne, this"e","haT' ttTet; T" 'T "-'"
'He^ocdth.hasBeen:a^:,^J,^7,^-/or

-wit:^rtror«:ra-r:i-°'

man to a fiend. Wilt thou y« ;:^: rottC;

I'm
•4'i

asa "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 price-
less 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 fiend-like, who
have snatched a fiend's 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.

?ffer

ot for his
•give, and
jwer that
could be
, who are
maze of
the guilt
It is not
and thee
raged, and
u give up
hat price-
old man,
inted me
lou tellest
n, comes
3, and all
lou didst
moment,
that have
kind of
ike, who
ands. It
jom as it
thdu^wilt

self again

X) Roger Chillingworth — a de-

rformed old figure, with a face that

[haunted men's memories longer

than they liked — took leave of

^-^^-J 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 half-fantastic 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 '.light it suffice him, that every wholesome
grc^ • I should be converted into something
deleterious and malignant at his touch ? Did the

a54 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else,
really fall upc . wim i 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 vegeta-
ble wickedness the climate could produce, all
flourishing v ith hideous luxuriance ? Or would
he spread bat's wings, and flee away, looking so
much the uglier, the higher he rose towards
heaven ?

//' Be it sin or no," said Hester Prynne, bit-
terly, as she still gazed after him, "I nnte the
man ! "

She upbraided herself for the sentiment, but
cv Jd nut overcome or lessen it. Attempting to
do so, she thought of those long-past days, in a
disfTfif, land, when he used to emerge at even-
tide from the seclusion of his study, and sit
down in the fireliph of their home, nnd in the
light of her nvptiai smile. He needed to bask
himself in in sr 'e, he said, in order that the
chill of so i; ny ely hours among his books
might be taken ofl^ the scholar's heart. Such
scenes had once appeared not other ,ise than
happy, but now, as viewed through the dismal

etfer

here else,
s it rather
nng along
le turned
w going ?
he earth,
re, in due
ghtshade,
)f vegeta-
)duce, all
'^r would
)oking so
: towards

nne, bit-
hate the

nent, but

npting to

iays, in a

at even-

anci sit

d in the

to bask

that the

is books

t. Such

ise than

e dismal

'g^e Scarlet Letter

ass

medium of her subsequent life, ,hey classed
themselves among her ugliest remembrance.
She marvel ed how such scenes could have been J
She marvelled how she could ever have been
wrought upon to marry hin, ! She deemed it

etrTd^urT^ '^-^'^ "f. that she had
ever endured, and reciprocated, the lukewarm
grasp of h.s hand, and had suffered theTm ^
of her hps and eyes to mingle and melt it

by Roger Ch,llmgworth, than any which had
smce been done him, that, in the time when her
heart knew no better, he had persuaded her to
fancy herself happy by his side.

^ Sfly than before.. "He betrayed me! He
h. done me worse wrong than I did him 1 -
Let men tremble to win the hand of woman
unless they win along with it the utmost Tas-*
on of her heart! Else it may be the^ „'"
«Me fo.tune, as .t was Roger Chillingworth's,
when some m.ghfer touch than their „w„
may have av.kened all her sensibilities, to be

b n" T: '"' "■= ^^'"^ '°-''-'' '^e mar.
iml T '',W"«». Which they will have
miposed upon her as the warm reality. But
Hester ought long ago to have done with this
jnjusfce. Whatdi it betoken ? Had seten
long years, under the torture of the scarlet let-

856 "ISAe Scarlet Letter

ter, 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 Hes-
ter's state of mind, revealing much that she might
not otherwise have acknowledged to herself.

He being gone, she summoned bac'c hrr
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 ven-
ture — 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 birch-bark,
and freighted them with snail-shells, and sent out
more ventures on the mighty deep than any mer-
chant 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 five-fingers, and laid out a jelly-fish to
melt in the warm sun. Then she took up the
white foam, that streaked the line of the advanc-

letter

wrought out

5, while she
jure of old
fht on Hes-
it she might
lerseif.
bac'c hrr

e you ? "
ver flagged,
t while her
r of herbs.
:d fancifully
, beckoning
ned to ven-
If into its
linable sky.
she or the
e for better
birch-bark,
id sent out
in any mer-
;er part of
e seized a
e prize of
jlly-fish to
lok up the
he advanc-

'g/ie Scarlet Letter n?

ing tide, and threw it upon the breeze, scamper-
.ng after .t, w.th w.nged footstep,, to catch the
great ^now-flake, ere they fell. p„„i,i ,
flock of beach-b,rds, that fed and fluttered along

foil tr'lt^ "'"^J"^ ''•"'' P'^''"^ "P ^" >P™»
full of pebbles, and, creeping from rock to rock

after these small ,ea-fowl, displayed remarkable

dextenty ,n pelt.ng them. One little gray bird

w,.h a „h,te breast, Pearl was almost tr', had

been h,t by a pebble, and fluttered away with a

broken w,ng. But then the elf-child sighed, and

gave up her sport; because it grieved her to

have done harm to a little being that was as wild

"S the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself

Her final employment was to gather sea-weed,

of various k.nds, and make herself a scarf, o.^

mant e, and a head-dress, and thus assume the

aspect of a httle mermaid. She inherited her

mothers g,ft for devising drapery and costume.

As the last touch to her mermaid's garb. Pearl

took some eel-grass, and imitated, as best she

could on her own bosom, the decoration with

which she was so familiar on her mother's. A

ot scarlet! The child bent her chin upon her
breast, and conten.plated this device with strange

out it hinr • "' '"'° "" ""■'' "« 'o ""*«

out ita hidden import.

S.i^^

'58 'giftc Scarlet Letter

will ask me what it

" I wonder if mother
means ! " thought Pearl.

Just then, she heard her mother's voice, and
flitting along as lightly as one of the little sea-
birds, appeared before Hester Prynne, dancing,
laughing, and pointing her finger to the ornament
upon her bosom.

" My little Pearl," said Hester, after a mo-
ment's 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 me in the
horn-book."

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 mother's 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

\etter

le what it

voice, and
little sea-

:, dancing,
ornament

ter a mo-
d on thy
dost thou
ins which

It is the
le in the

"ace; but,
ion which
eyes, she
irl really
She felt a

y mother

looking
5 for the
lis hand

Hester,
' of the

'^Ae Scarlet Letter .5 9

child's observation; but, on second thoughts
ummg pale. " What has the letter to dolith
any heart, save mine ? "

"Nay, mother, I have told ail I know,- said

"Ask "°^V'"7''^ ">=» ^he was wont to speak.
Ask yonder old man whom thou hast been
talfang w,th ! It may be he can tell. But i^
good earnest now, mother dear, what does this
sc^let letter mean .^_ and why dost thou wt

keen WsLT" T'"'' "''^ ''"^^ *' ™"i"'=^
Keep his hand over his heart ? "

She took her mother's hand in both her own
and gazed into her eyes with an earnestness tha;
was seldom seen in her wild and capricious char-

.T u-J .'. "^''' ^''"'''■"'^ *° Hester, that
the child might really be seeking to approach
her with childlike confidence, and doing what st
could, and as intelligently as she knew how,
to establish a meeting-point of sympathy. It
showed Pearl in an unwonted aspect. Hereto-
fore, the niother, while loving her child with the
intensity of a sole affection, had schooled herself
to hope for little other return than the wayward-
ness of an April breeze ; which spends its time
in airy sport, and has its gust, 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 mis-
demeanors, it will sometimes, of its own vague

260 ^Ae Scarlet letter

purpose, kiss your cheek with a kind of doubtful
tenderness, and play gently with your hair, and
then be gone about its other idle business, leav-
ing a dreamy pleasure at your heart. And this,
moreover, was a mother's estimate of the child's
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 Hester's 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 mother's sorrows as could be im-
parted, without irreverence either to the parent
Of the child. In the little chaos of Pearl's char-
acter there might be seen emerging — and could
have been, from the very first — the steadfrst
pnnciples of an unflinching courage, — an uncon-
trollable will, -a sturdy pride, which might be
disciplined into self-respect, -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 attri-
butes, thought Hester, the evil which she in-
herited from her mother must be great indeed, if
a noble woman do not grow out of this elfish
child.

Letter

I of doubtful
>ur hair, and
asiness, leav-
. And this,
f the child's
might have

have given
ow the idea

that Pearl,
I acuteness,
je when she
ted with as
•uld be im-

the parent
'earl's char-
-and could
le steadfast
-an uncon-
i might be
bitter scorn
[j might be
I in them,
h hitherto
lest flavors
•ling attri-
h she in-
indeed, if
this elfish

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

26z

Pearl , mevtable tendency ,o hover about the
".gma of the scarlet letter seemeH ,„ ,„ '„
quahty of her being. From the earliest epochtf
her conscous life, she had entered upon this as her
appomted n, ssion. Hester had ofte"^ fancied rh
Provdence had a design of justice and ZZ

pen" itv h r'"' "■' ''"'' ""'' "^'^ "-ked pro-

Ce If 'to a rT' r"' "°"' '"''* '^' ''"'-ought
herself to^ask, whether, linked with that design

there m,ght not likewise be a purpose of mefcv
and beneficence If lirrl, p [ *^ "= "' mercy
with fp.Vl, A ^'^ '""^ entertained

with faith and trust, as a spirit messenger no less
han an earthly child, might it not be\er err nd
to o„ he away the sorrow that lay cold in her
mother s heart, and converted it into a tomb ?-l
and to help her to overcome the passion, once so
w. d, and even yet neither dead nor asle™ but
only imprisoned within the same tomb-lik.'Lr"

stirred m Hesters mind, with as much vivacity
of impression as if they had actually been whiZ
pered mto her ear. And there was little Pearl,
all this while, holding her mother's hand ,n both
her own, and turning her face upward, while she
put these searching questions, once, and again
and still a third time. ^ '

whvT? 1°"' "" '"'" ■"'*"• "Other? -and
why dost thou wear it? -and why does the
minister keep his hand over his heart ' ■•

^g^ "^Ae Scarlet Letter

"What shall I say ? " thought Hester to her-
self. -No! If this be the price of the child's
sympathy, I cannot pay it."

Then she spoke aloud.

.k"^!"^/u'""^'" '^'^ '^'^ "^'^^^ q^^tions are
these? There are many things in this world
that a child must not ask about. What know I
of the mmister's 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 earnest-
ness 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 supper-time,
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

Letter

ester to her-
?" the child's

aestions are
this world
hat know I
the scarlet
[-thread."
ter Prynne
ibol on her
lisman of a
spirit, who
in spite of
5 new evil
had never
le earnest-

the matter
other and
pper-time,
bed, and
eep. Pearl
her black

iie scarlet

'^A^ Scarlet Letter .63

lett^l- " -est,gati„„s about thcLrlet

" Mother ! — Mother ! — Why doe, .1,. ■
-er keep his hand over his ZnT^ ''' """-

her moler w'ith"^'' ""^'^^ ^''"'^ '' " --=«d
el-lsha„sh.ttheei„tlda°k,:r'^'"^^

:atJon the
pping up

c57 Toresi "mik^

I^ESTER PRYNNE remained

^^w^m.

I?
Ik'-

[constant in her resolve to make
^known to Mr. Dimmesdale, at
rwhatever risk of present pain or
r — ^^^^^"Jterior 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 neighboring country. There would have
been no scandal, indeed, nor peril to the holy
whiteness of the clergyman's good fame, had
she visited him in his own study ; where many
a penitent, ere now, had confessed sins of per-
haps 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 con-
scious heart imputed suspicion where none could
have been felt, and partly that both the minister
and she would need the whole wide world to

1
y
c
s

'^Ae

Scarlef Leffer

remained
e to make
nesdale, at
nt pain or

the true
t into his

she vainly
ig him in
she knew
along the
oded hills
ould have

the holy
ame, had
ere many
s of per-
cened by
J dreaded
; of old

her con-
>ne could

minister
world to

265

vpen sky. ^ ^ ^^*" beneath the

At last, while attending ;« • . .
whither the Reverend M?) ' 'J'^'^^^^^^^r,
summoned to mak. ^''""^esdale had been

Eliot a.ong his^ndtn%o:ver ^He^'^t
probably return, by a certain ho • f '"""^'^
noon of the morrow B.. \'" '^' ^^''''

next day, HesTer Tnl ,'""''' '^'''^''''' the
y* nester took little Peai-l l

necessarily .he companion of aT I,"" .""

expeditions, however"^ i„o„venien h """'"'^
— and set forth '"""nient her presence,

other than a footnath I '"^- ^'' "<>

into the mysterv of h ""^^led onward

hemmed it in „ 1 iP"'"^™' ^°''''- This

»"<< dense ireieh^I'^dr? -'''-''
'mperfect glimpses of ,h , ,'^"^^°^^ such

Hester's mindT ;! ^' ""^ '^^'' «•■«, to
wilderness in „Wch ITT V", ""'" "■= ™<'«'

«" a gray exoar „f ^'' f"'"'"*- °™'-''e»d
ever, by i JC 1 h " ''"f ''^ ''''''^' '«'«-
sunshine migT. „<;;:„d''" * ^"" °' "'-^^ering

tary play along the p "h rl T'" " "' '"''■
B tne path. This fl.ttmg cheerfti-

;:^

'« '^Ae Scarlet Letter

ness was alv/ays at the farther extremity of some
ong vsta through the forest. The sportive sun-
light -feebly sportive, at best, in the predomi-
nant pe„s,ve„ess of the day and scene - withdrew
tself as they came nigh, and left the spots where
■t 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
uself, because ,t is afraid of something on your

way off Stand you here, and let me run and
catch .t. 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, stop-

" Will no?!.'"' " ^ '"^""'"S "^ •>" "«•
Will not It come of its own accord, when I am

a woman grown ? "

"Run away child," answered her mother, " and
catch the sunshme! It will soon be gone."

s J^H /" "!"' " ' ^''^ P"^'' -d, as Hester
smded to perceive, did actually catch the sun-

shme, and stood laughing in the midst of it all

bnghtened by its splendor, and scintillating ;ith

he wacty excited by rapid motion. The light

Imgered about the lonely child, as if glad of such a

Playmate, untd her mother had drawn almost nigh

enough to step mto the magic circle too.

Letter

mity of some
sportive sun-
the predomi-
' — withdrew
: spots where
56 they had

he sunshine
'■ and hides
ing on your
y^ing, a good
tne run and
lot flee from
1 yet ! "
said Hester.
Pearl, stop-
f her race,
when I am

Jther, « and
one."

, as Hester
I the sun-
t of it, all
lating with
The light
i of such a
Imost nigh

!g^e Scarlet Letter

267
head" "" 8" "-." -id Pearl, ,h,ki„g Tr

of it." ^ ''^"''' '"'l g«sp some

ishfd^ t rsf ;° '" ?■ '"= ^""''"- -"-.

that w'as da ,„f f ^r,,^ ^"-"ght expression
could have fancfed 1?!I ?,']"""'' ''" ""«''"
-o herse,,tr„ 'g t/ t'l^^'," ""-'^'^ ''

a gleam about her rJh I ^^'"^ "''''•

■•-o some gloom er^htr T^' ^'°"''' P'""^'
attribute that so Z.h ' ""' "° ""•«■•

or new andt: arlXSrintat^ ^ -""
as this never-failing vivacilv"/ ^'"' \"«"«'
not the disease „f fj '^, . '?'"''= ^^^ had

-fuia. frort,i"t;„ r oflh™' "'"' '-^

Perhaps this too wa, T^ '"■ ^"««ora.

ofthe';i,den:r;;:it;tS'»l^;Ldr''r
-uiii/ lusttrif Sd.rs,; "^^f-

^Hushum^LV^rdtrhri^^^^^^^^

%;, But there .as time enouy^/jSe"

■> i

Come, my child!" said H.stt.,looIcin,

g about

^es "^Ae Scarlet lett er

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 r

" O, a story about the Black Man," answered
Pearl, taking hold of her mother's gown, and
iooking up, half earnestly, half mischievously
nito her face. « How he haunts this forest, and
'^^rries a book with him, -a big, heavy book,
*^ith iron clasps ; and how this ugly Black Man
offers his book and an iron pen to everybody
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 chimney-corner,
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.

■mi

Letter

stood still in

a little way
>•

ied the little
you will tell

* And about

1," answered
gown, and
ischievously
s fo! .'St, and
leavy book,
Black Man
everybody
trees; and
their own
k on their
Jlack Man,

rl ? " asked
luperstition

ley-corner,
ight," said
> while she
usand and
, and had
; on them.

"^SAe Scarlet Letter

269

And that ugly-tempered lady, old Mistre.. hT
bms, was one. And, mother th T

that this scarlet letter was i'bL. Mar ^t
on thee, and thit \t cr\ ^^ **" ^ ^^^^

wood. Is it tni^ «,^*u f . *"^ ^^^^

"■igHeese eake .e alo„7 :;r;erT '" M
very g adlv ao ' R,,^ . ^ ^ou^d

;;re, .fthou tallest me all." answered Pearl
Once .„ my I,fe I met the Black Man . " -a
her mother «Ti,:„ . . ""*^'^ ^^lan ! said ^—
ocner. This scarlet letter is his mark 1 " ^^^

=n're":rt?s:^rrds„«cienTdeep^-

observation of aL clsual naT' " 'T '"=

forest track. Here thev s /r'"^'' ''°"S the

heap of moss- whT.I, r """ ™ ' '"»■•'»«

J- moss, which, at some epoch of th.

cedmg century, had been a gigantic n,-nl v^'
roots and trunk in .k. j f S*"™ P'^e, with its

head aloft Til *"""' ^''"''«' »'«i '^^

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Hiotographic

Sciences
Corporation

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WEBSTER, NY. 14580

(716) 872-4503

^70 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

a leaf-strewn 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 channel- way 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 tree-trunks
and underbrush, and here and there a huge rock
covered over with gray lichens. All these giant
trees and bowlders of granite seemed intent on
making a mystery of the course of this small
brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-
ceasing 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 with-
out 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.

Lette r

n. either side,
midst, over a
8. The trees
reat branches,
3 the current
black depths
r and livelier
^y of pebbles,
ng the eyes
n, they could
Iter, at some
soon lost all
f" tree-trunks
a huge rock

these giant
!d intent on
f this small

its never-
:ales out of
t flowed, or
surface of a
ole onward,
^ind, quiet,
voice of a
Fancy with-
) be merry
ombre hue.
tie brook!"
3 its talk.

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

^^^-^-^— ^^^ 271

" Why art thou so sad :• Pluck „n o • • "T
do not be all the Hm. v. ^ * ^P""'^> *"d

But the hrll r^^'"^ ""^ murmuring ! "
isut tht brook, in the course of its little IJf.

have thee be^kc S eoplv "dT ' """"'
^peajc with him that'co„e:Se .' '"^^ "' '"
.:^.t the Blade Manr-'askedPeati.

And take he!d th " T "™^ ''" '■"" ""^ ""od-
" Yes m!^er " "■"' " ""y «"' «"•"

-.ent/:fd wk\Tir;°' '« r r '

under his arm?" ' *"' ''« hook

^72 ^^e Scarlet Letter

" 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 mournfiil 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
wood-anemones, and some scarlet columbines that
she found growing in the crevices of a high rock.
When her elf-child had departed, Hecter
Prynne made a step or two towards the track

Letter

'» impatiently,
see him now,

And, mother,
ts it because,
in the book,
place ? But
is bosom, as

tease me as
Jter Prynne.
e thou canst

'wing up the
to mingle a
icholy voice.
Tiforted, and
:ret of some
>pened — or
t something
'■erge of the
enough of
break off
•rook. She
violets and
mbines that
L high rock,
jd, Hecter
s the track

^Ae Scarlet Letter

273

under the deep shadow of the trees. She beheld
the mmister 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 situ-
ation where he deemed himself liable to notice
Here it was wofully visible, in this intense seclu^
sion 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, uor felt any desire to do
so, but would have been glad, could he be glad
of anything, to fling himself down at the root of
the nearest tree, and lie there passive, forevermore.
1 he leaves might bestrew him, and the soil gradu-
ally 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 Hester's eye, the Reverend Mr. Dimmes-
dale exhibited no symptom of positive and viva-
cious suffering, except that, as little Pearl had
remarked, he kept his hand over his heart.

l^e Tastov and fits "PavisRioner

j LOWLY as the minister walked,
jhe 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 Dim-
mesdale ! "

"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. Throw-
ing his eyes anxiously in the direcrion 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 path-
way 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.

sdioner

ster walked,
by, before
gather voice
jbservation.
led.

, faintly at
rthur Dim-

ister.

tood more
a mood to
s. Throw-
ion of the
under the
»d so little
which the
I darkened
r it were a
his path-
f a spectre
ughts.
vered the

^he Scarlet L etter

.u " ^""T ' t^^'^' ^^y""^ •' " '^'^ he- " Is Tt

thou? Art thou in life?"

"Even so ! " she answered. « In such life as
has been mme these seygn years past ! And thou,
Arthur Dimmesdale, dost thou yet live ? "

It was no wonder that they thus questioned
one another s actual and bodily existence, and
even doubted of their own. So strangei; did
they meet, in the dim wood, that it was like the
first encounter, in the world beyond the grave, of
wo sp,nts who had been intimately connected in
their former life, but now stood coldly shudder-
ing, in mutual dread ; as not yet familiar with
their state, nor wonted to the companionship of
disembodied beings. Each a ghost, and aw.-
sricjcen at the other ghost! They were awe-
stricken likewise at themselves ; because the crisis

tZlr ': l^'"" '^''' consciousness, and re-
velled to each heart its history and experience, as
hfe never does except at such breathless epochs.
The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the
passing moment. It was with fear, and tremu-
ously and, as it were, by a slow, reluctant neces-
sity that Arthur Dimmesdale put forth his hand,
chill as death, and touched the chill hand of Hes-
ter Frynne The grasp, cold as it was, took away
what was dreariest in the interview. They now
telt themselves, at least, inhabitants of the same
sphere.

^76 ^Ae Scarlet Letter

Without a word more spoken, - neither he
nor she assuming the guidance, but with an un-
expressed 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 re-
marks and mquiries such as any two acquaintance
might have made, about the gloomy sky, the
^reatenmg storm, and, next, the health of each.
Ihus 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 Prynne's.
"Hester," said he, « hast thou found peace ? "

bosom '"""'"^ '^'''"^^^ ^°°'''"^ "^^^^ "P°" '^^'

"Hast thou?" she asked.
^^ " None ! - nothing but despair ! " he answered.

and leading such a life as mine ? Were I an athe-
ist,— a man devoid of conscience, — a wretch
with coarse and brutal instincts, -I might have
tound peace, long ere now. Nay, I never should

'^Ae Scarlet Letter V7

have lost it I But, as matters stand with my soul,
whatever of good capacity there originally was in
me, all of God's g,fc, that were the cho.cest have
become the ministers of spiritual torment. Hes-
ter, J am most miserable ! "

•< A V"^ '^T^^t '■'''''''"" *••"'" ^^id Hester.

Doth rhrt^.. ""'''" ^°°-^ ^-"""g 'hem!
Uoth this brmg thee no comfort'"

"More misery Hester! -only the more mis-

ery ! answered the clergyman, with a bitter smile.

As concerns the good which I may appear to

lu°si ^w": "'^ '" "• '' """" "^'dsTe a de!
us,on /'What can a ruined soul, like mine, effect
towards the redemption of other souls? lor a
polluted soul towards their purification ? And as
or the people's reverence, would that it were
urned to scorn and hatred! Canst thou deem
: «, Hester, a consolation, that I must stand up in
my pulp.t, and meet so many eyes turned upward
17 -^r' " ■' "■' "Sht of heaven were be^Zg

' III lllTT- "' "^ """^ ^""S'V for thf
truth, and listening to my words as if a tongue of

Pentecost were speaking ! -and then look i^ard
and discern the black reality of what they ido"';
I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of Cn
« he contrast between what I sefm Tnd whTtl
am ! And Satan laughs at it ' "

«Z°" "y "^''""T"" '" ">''>•■ »y Hester.
gently. "You have deeply and sorely repented.

-.:5:>

»78 '^Ae Scarlet Letf^f-

Your, in i, left behind you. in the day, long pa,e
Your present I.fe i, „ot |e„ holy, in very truth

reJity m the penitence thus sealed and witnessed
by good works ? And wherefore should it Tot
bnng you peace?" *"

"No. Hester no!" replied the clergyman.

deL ." "°;"'«''"« i" it! It is COM and
dead, and can do nothing for me ! Of penance
1 have had enough! Of penitence, there W
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
^e judgment-seat. U^sS^^r^ou, Hester, that
wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom !
Mine burns m secret ! Thou little knowest what
a rehef .t ,s after the torment of a seven years-
cheat to look mto 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
p«.ses of all other men. I could daily betake mv-
aelf, and be known as the vilest of all sinned,
methmks my soul might keep itself alive thereby
Even thus much of truth would save me ! But
now..t.s all falsehood! -all emptiness! -all

Hester Prynne looked into his 6ce, but hesi-
tated to speak. Yet. uttering hi, long-restrained
emotions so vehemendy as he did. hi, words here

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

979

offered her the very point of circumstance, in
wh.ch to mterpose what she came to say. She
conquered her fears, and spoke. ^

"Such a friend as thou hast even now wished
for. sa,d she, <■ with whom to weep over thy sin
thou hast m me, the partner of it ! "-Again sh "

hes^ted but brought out the words f::ht
Ta~„ °" ''"" '°"8 had such an enemy

and dwellest with him, under the same rooTr'
The minister started to his feet, gasping for

IT' ""' ''"''''"S " ""'^ ''-«- - ' he would
have torn It out of his bosom.

" "* •' y^^^ "y«t thou ! •• cried he. " An
«nemy! And under mine own roof! What
mean you?"

Hester Prynne was now fully sensible of the
deep mjury for which she was responsible to twi
unhappy man. in permitting him to lie for so
many years, or, indeed, for a single mome.t, at
Ae mercy of one whose purposes could n ,t be
o her than malevo'ent. The very contiguity of
h.s enemy, beneath whatever mask the Utter
might conceal himself, was enough to distur the
magnetic sphere of a being so sensitive as Arthur
Dimmesdale. There had been a period when
Hester was less alive to this consid'erationror!
she irtL" "' ."■'^='""'™Py of her own trouble

I~ f\ T"'" '° ^" «''" »>« might pic-
ture to herself as a more tolerable doom. But of

(

^80 "tSAe Scarlet Letter

late, since the night of his vigil, all her sympa-
thies towards him had been both softened and
invigorated. She now read his heart more accu-
rately She doubted not, that the continual pres-
ence of Roger Chillingworth, - the secret poison
of his mahgmty, infecting all the air about him.~
and his authorized interference, as a physician,
with the minister's physical and spiritual infirmi-
ties, —that these bad opportunities had been
turned to a cruel purpose. By means of them,
the sufferer's 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 here-
after, 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 clergyman's good name
and death itself, as she had already told Roger
Chilhngworth, would have been infinitelv prefer-
able 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 forest-leaves, and
died there, at Arthur Dimmesdale's feet.

^^e Scarlet Letter

a8i

things else, I have striven to be tru: » Truth

IZ H hT'm'?' ""^'^ ' ""'^^^ ^^'^ h-Jd fast,
and d,d hold fast, through all extremity ; save

when thy good, ~ thy life, - thy fame, -I were
put ,n question ! Then 1 consented to a decep-
tion 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 physican t^he whom they call Roger Chil-
Imgworth I — he was my husband ' "

„,-.?'.. "'k""'^/°°*''^ *' ^^^' ^°»- «" instant,

with all that violence of passion, which ^ inter-

mixed, 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 suffer

mg, 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 ?

^8« "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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

.. - r^*". !^ • ^°"^an' woman, thou art accountable
, tor this ! I cannot forgive thee ! "

"Thou Shalt forgive me!' cried Hester,
j flinging herself on the fallen leaves beside him
I " 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 sorrow-~"~
stricken man was what Hester could not bear and
live I

"Wilt thou yet forgive me!" she repeated,
over and over again. « Wilt thou not frown >
Wilt thou forgive?"

" I do forgive yru, Hester," replied the min-

((

^/ic Scarlet Letter

283

world. The e is ot' u' """'" '" '^^

luted prieser Th;"!,7''"^"'^" "» ">= pol-

Wood, the sanSl If h *l ""'"«'• '" '"'d
, me sanctity of a human heart. Thou ar

i, Hester, never did so ' "

di/h'^r"'' "'''" ' " '"'"Vred she. " What we
d'd had a consecration of its own. We felr i. ,
We said so to each other ' Ha r mT 7 '

it > " ■ "*st thou forgotten

forgotten" ^"""'- " ^° ^ ^ ^-e not

They sat down again, side bv side nnH u j
clasped in hand nt. X " * ^"° "^"^

tree L ife h.H '''\"^°^«y ^runk of the fallen
tree. L,te had never brought them a «i
hour : it wa« fho • , . . * gloomier

boughs w^re t" '"J'^T^ '^'""^^ '"■ The

-o--^^^Xit::d~?tr;Sh::

''84 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

sat beneath, or constrained to forebode evil to
come.

And yet they lingered. How dreary looked
the forest-track that led backward to the settle-
ment, 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 mean- of
satiating his dark passion."

"And I !— -how am I to live longer, breathing
the same air with this deadly enemy .? " exclaimed

ebode evil to

er mean:: of

^Ae Scarlet Letter

285

and pre, ,„g h,s hand nervously against his heart

him. Think for me, Hester! Thou art
strong. Resolve for me ! ■•

said Hrt""'VT" "° '°"g"*ith 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
"..mster. " But how to avoid it ? What choice
rcmams ,0 me? Shall I lie down again on th se

d.dst tell me what he was ? Must I sink down
there, and die at once .' "

"Alas, what a ruin has befallen thee!" said
"wiT'th": ; /"" «"'''"S into her eyes,
no^hertu^el"'"^'^"^"'"^^'^ ^"^ "

the conscience-stricken priest. « It is too mighty
tor me to struggle with ! " ^

ter".^l,T."r"l^ ''"'" ™"=y." ^joined Hes-

ta^ of it >■ ' '^' "'""S"' '° '^•'^ '«'™"-

"Be thou strong for me ! '• answered he.
Advise me what to do."

Hester Pry„„e, fi„„g her deep eyes on the min-
'sters, and instinctively exercising a magnetic

^ "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 leaf-strewn
desert, as lonely as this around us? Whither
leads yonder forest-track? Backward to the
settlement, thou sayest ! Yes ; but onward, too.
Deeper ,t goes, and deeper, into the wilderness,
less plamly to be seen at every step ; until, some
few miles hence, the yellow leaves will show no
vestige of the white man's tread. There thou
art free 1 So brief a journey would bring thee
from a world where thou hast been most wretched
to one where thou mayest still be happy • ll
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 knowl-
edge! 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 ! "

' Letter

i subdued that
"Doth the

yonder town,
It a leaf-strewn
as ? Whither
:ward to the
: onward, too.
he wilderness,
• ; until, some
will show no

There thou
d bring thee
lost wretched,

■ happy! I&
lis boundless
tze of Roger

■ the fallen
a sad smile,
iway of the
rought thee
ar thee back
er in some
mdon, — or,
easant Italy,

and knowl-
th all these
7 have kept
ready ! "

"^Ae Scarlet LGtfpy^ ^

« r «n, T ^^ "P°" ^o realize a dream

i am powerless to go! Wretrh.^ aaream.
as I am. I have h.A ^^^^^^hed and sinftil

am, 1 nave had no other thought than f^
drag on my earthly existence in fh l °

Providence hath place7m l;;'^"' "^^^^
-ul is, I would s'tilldo what I ma"r"' T
human souls ! I dare L ^ ^""^ °'^^^

to an endir.-.. .. ^ ^" ^^^"'e

wei2'""oV"'"''!l"' ""''" "•'' ««" years'

" B«e .Hou s it :if irrrt

shall not cumber thv sten. .. .u f ^^

wiib wrecK and rum here wherp ;^ k .l
happened. Meddle no more wi h l"n ■ 'u

« yet foil of trial and succer xt . '""=

ness to be enjoyed ' V. "' " ^'PP''

Exchang=thii]^:ke,,-f:"3°'' '•''''''-•'

Be, if thy spirit summL th c o sth\'™' °""
the teacher jin^ i "^^ ^° such a mission,

- is more thy iTr' t "■' 'f,"""- °'' "

amon- the wiL?^ 7 * '''"''" *"<1 a sage

" "' ™''" »"<' ">e most renowned of the

^88 "TSAe Scarlet Let ter

cultivated world. Preach ! Write ! Act ! Do
anything, save to lie down and die! Give up
this name of Arthur Dimmesdale, and make thy-
self 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 enthusi-
asm, flashed up and died away, "thou tellest of
runmng a race to a man whose knees are totter-
ing 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 !

Letter

! Act ! Do
ie! Give up
nd make thy-
as thou canst
shouldst thou
the torments
— that have
! — that will
t! Up, and

nmesdale, in
her enthusi-
ou tellest of
s are totter-
There is not
venture into
ane!"

iespondencjr
rgy to grasp
his reach.

sred she, in

'""'''^^RTHUR DIMMESDALE

/out, indeed, but with fear betwixt

«. but dared not'peak ' "'^""^ '""''"

But Hester Prynne, with a mi„^ r •

r?e:i;::fr\^--'--p"°^-

•.aBituUir,vt"r,-i':7/-^«>;.H^^

as was altogether foreign J Tt Jr™'"'""
had wandered, without rule or f T
a moral wilderness; as v^ a, ^ "' '"
shadowy, as the unta'n^ed forest am.'d th"^ """
of which they were now h!,M , 6'°°™

was to decide thdr fate H "^ T"""''"^ ">«
had their home aLfw^e t d'" ? '"^ """^

and whatever priestlTr I T" '"""«'°"^.

'ished.- criticising aTwi°hS"''" ''' "'^''-
S with hardly more reverence
19

- /

^90 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

than the Indian would feel for the clerical band
the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fire-'
side or the church. The tendency of her fate
and fortunes had been to set her free. The scar-
let letter was her passport into regions where
other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair,
Solitude ! These had been her teachers, - stern
and wi|d 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,
iiut this had been a sin of passion, not of prin-
ciple 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^dergymenof that day stood, he was only
I the more trammelled by its regulations, its princi-
pies, and even its prcjti'dices. As a priest, the
framework of his order inevitably hemmed him
m. As a man who had once sinned, but who
kept his conscience all alive and painfully sensi-
tive 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

"•*t>.,..

Letter

clerical band,
Hows, the fire-
■y of her fate
e. The scar-
■egions where
ame, Despair,
:hers, — stern
le her strong,

J> had never
ated to lead
Bceived laws;
i so fearfully
ed of them,
not of prin-
lat wretched
id zeal and
t was easy to
ion, and his
icial system,
he was only
s, its princi-
■ priest, the
:mmed him
d, but who
ifully sensi-
wound, he
in the line
d at all.

"^Ae Scarlet I ph=.^ ,

Ignominy had been little oZ 1 "'" »"''

for this very hour. B« A ' iP"''""'°''
Were such a man on.. Dimmesdale!

could be uLdIn e ' ""• '° ^^"' "I'" P'"
None, unlLTfa aiUr"'°\°""' "™^?
broken down y ' Tn "T "' """ *"= ""
that his mind was darken.^ T"''! '"'^"'"ei
very remorse .h" h t^otTt^Thtnet^ '"'
fleeing as an avowed criminal ,„h' • ""

^hypocrite, conscience miXl'j'rr'"^ " '
the balance; that it was human t^aS he""'t
of death and infamv ,„j .u • ° '"' PenI

n=.tions of an enemy -tha* '"n"'""'''' ""''^'^

pilgrim, on his dr,;; 5it:'''th°/.'''' p°°'

™«erable, there appeared a "limn ' 7^ ''''''
affection and sym'p^thy Vnef ^ \°nd ,7"
one. m exchange for the heavy doom which T'
was now expiatinff AnH k ' """^ ™ich he
^ttuth spoken', that thf breth th^r "f T"
^once made into the human Toul I tefi" th"

'" bis subsecuent as^lt s et 7^1 Zt"'

avenue i„ preference to hat where L^;

formerly succeeded. But there Ts m the

ined wa , and, near it fh. . ■ t ^ ™-

. a, near jt, the stealthy tread of the

«9' "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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.

"Jf, in all these past seven years," thought
he, 1 could recall one instant of peace or hope
I woula yet endure, for the sake of that earnest
of Heaven's 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 pur-
suing It ! Neither can I any longer live ithout
her compamonship ; so powerful is she to sus-
tain, -so tender to soothe! O Thou to whom
I^ dare „ot hft ^ine eyes, wilt Thou yet pardon

"Thou wilt go!" said Hester, calmly, as he
met her glance.

The decision once made, a glow of strange
enjoyment threw its flickering brightness ovfr
the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating
eftect-upon a prisoner just escaped from the
dungeon of his own heart-of breathing the
wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchris-
tianized, lawless region. His spirit rose, as it
were, with a bound, and attained a nearer pros-

Letter

J un forgotten

need not be
le clergyman

irs," thought
eace or hope,

that earnest

since I am

lould I not

condemned
* this be the
lid persuade
>ect by pur-
live without
she to sus-
)u to whom
yet pardon

fmly, as he

of strange
tness over
:xhilarating
from the
ithing the
J, unchris-
rose, as it
arer pros-

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

393

wh h had tV^" ""^""ehout all the mi«ry
Of T ^'','^'P','!"" 6™^'"i"g on the earth
Of a deeply rel,g,ous temperament, there Z

atH,„.,, ..i,;,t;;thTer:'7ftta!
dead m me O Hesfpt- ,k.

angel! I seem to hf \ "' '">' ''"'"

s I seem to have flung myself— ,irt

sm-stamed, and sorrow-blackenfd - down uTo„'
these forest-ieaves. and to have risen up"] Zde
anew and w.th new powers to glorify HmTh«
hath been merciful ! This is aJre-irfv T \.
lifr I W7k jj already the better

lite! Why did we not find it sooner?"

Let us not look back," answered Hr -er

we linger upon It now? See! With this sym-

tt lr^° " '"• '"" "»''« " a^ it had never

So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened

«;rew ,t to a distance among the withered leaves
The mystic token alighted on the hither verge
of the stream. With a hand's breadth farthS
flight It would have fallen into the water, and
have given the little brook another woe to carry

still kept murmuring about. But there lay the
embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel
which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, ^^

«»♦ '^AeSca rlef LctfttT

thencefcu. b. h««„«d by strange phantom, of
gu^-^-ng, ot the heart, and unaccountable

/The stigma gone, Hester heaved a lone deen
s.gh, .n which the burden of shame and anguish
departed from her spirit. O exquisite f^^s
She had not known the weight, until she felt
the freedom ! By another impulse, she took off
he 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
"rnartmg the charm of softness to her features.
Tnere played around her mouth, and beamed
out of her eyes, a radiant and tender sm?'-. that
seemed gushing from the very heart of woman-
hood. A cnmson 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 b- ^ the
effluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished
with their sorrow. All at once, as wuh a sudden
smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pour-
;ng a very flood r -o the obscure forest, gladden-
ing each green le;.t, . .>,t -luting the yellow fkllen
ones to gold, and gk:,;. ,. ,,^^ ^he gray trunks

Letter

phantoms of
unaccountable

1 a long, deep

and anguish
uisite relief!
ntil she felt
she took off
r ; and down
rich, with at
indance, and
her features,
tnd beamed
r smv'y, that

of woman-
fig on her

'Her sex,
her beauty,
irrevocable
ler maiden
wn, within

as if the
!n hnt the
t vanished
I a sudden
ine, pour-
, gladden-
low fallen
•ay trunks

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 295

of the solemn trees. The objects that had made
a shadow huherto. embodied the brightness now.
The course of the li.le brook might be traced
by .ts merry plearr afar into the wood's heart of
mystery, .hich had become a mystery of joy.

h. r m' 'yj^^^'^Y of Nature -that wild,
heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by
human law, nor dlumined by higher truth -with
the bl,ss of these two spirits! Love, whether
newly born, or aroused from a death-like slumber

sTfi'lI T'T'"' ''>""«hine, filling the heart'
so full ot radiance, that k overflows upon the
outward world. had the forest still kept its
gloom, ,t would have been bright in Hester's
eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale's '
^ Hester looked at him with the thrill of another

joy*

" Thou must know Pearl ! " said she. « Our
MePearll Thou hast seen her, _ yes, I know
It . -- but thou wilt see her now with other eyes.
She ,s a strange child! I hardly comprehend
^or ! Bu' thou wilt love her dearly, as I do, and
It advisv me how to deal with her."
" Dost thou think the child will be glad to
know me.?" asked the minister, somewhat un-
easily. "I have long shrunk from children,
because they often show a distrust, -a back-
wardness to be familiar with me. I have even
been afraid of little Pearl ! "

«9g "^Ae Scarlet Letter

''BufV'"nT ""^■" ""™"«^ 'he mother.
But she W.11 love thee dearly, and thou her
She^_.s not far off. I „i„ ,„, ,„, p^^^^';

Yonder she ,s, standing in a streak of sunshine
I g»°d way off, on the other side of the broTfc
So thou thinkest the child will love me^"

Hester smiled, and again called to Pearl who

described her, l,ke a bright-apparelled vision in

aV-arlTf-btS/^r: "'"" 'V''^^^
K making hXJl^''2i:^-;;^d

•k. a real child, now like a child's sprit,-,:
ie ^'J:lT. "^"' ='"" -- 'g-- She heard

Pearl had not found the hour pass wearisomely
wh.le her mother sat talking with the clemyman
The great black forest -stern as it showed iS
to those who brought the guilt and troubles of

sLL '' ' '"'■ ^' "^" ^' " knew how

Sombre as .t was, .t put on the kindest of Tj

2°t 'I "^'^'"^ her. It offered her the

autlftr'"' ''' '"'^''^ "' 'he pre d „g

red a?droo "rbTl""'^ '" "■■= '^""^'^"^ "°-
red as drops of blood upon the withered leaves.

!^Ae Scarlet Lpffo^ ,„

- ha.d„ took;r otreif/,^ '^"<'"-

A partridge, indeed, with a TZh / ^^ P"'*"'
her ran forward thrJe 1;, 'Tut 1'" '='■""'
of her fierceness, and cluclced to h '"^"""^

not to be afraid A ! , >'°""g °"«

branch, aiiowedVti TcrjT °\^ '"-^
uttered a sound as much „f '"''■ ^"''

A squirrel, fro. the Z";\fj:TS !! "'"■"•
tree, chattered either in'ange ^ ^ "'^

for a squirrel is surh , T , """ment, —

•ittiep:rsonage,M"ati ttaMrd'"""""
between his moods,_so h.u distinguish

child, and flung do™ , "'""* " the

-as a last yeaKs nuland"" "T ''" ''^^<'- '^
»harp tooth. 1 Z starts f' ^"'^'^ ''^ <"'
benight footstep t tt ttetTook V'"^ -"^
fvely at Pearl, as doubting whether it 'T'"
to steal ofF, or renew his Lp on Th" ' ''"'"
A wolf, it is said, -but he e the ale T' 'P""

'"^"oftritoC-r^'T'eX:"::^^

- be patted by^'ht^d^'Thtttrr "^^"^
oe, however that tU^ i !. " ^^^"^s to

wiid things uth fnorhT/r:' ^'"'. "-"^ ^

And she was gentler here than in fh„ ' -

margined streets of the settlel":: or^ VZ

^98 ^Ae Scarlet Letter

mother'.; 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*
I'earl 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 nymph-child, 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 mother's
voice, and came slowly back.

Slowly ; for she saw the clergyman.

[Letter

)eared to know
as she passed,
)eautirul child,
please them,
inemones, and
freshest green,
fore her eyes,
ind her young
, or an infant
jest sympathy
aise had Pearl
her mother's

HOU wilt ,„^^ ^^^ .,

I jjost thou not think

- -tjM net beautiful > A„^ • ,

adorn her! Had ,L I T '""P'^ """'"s
">onds, and rub es t\T ""^ P^"''' -^ "ia-
have b;col7er ; t /"^Sh":"'' '"? '""''^ ""
BuUi^now whose Cwie'U.V'''^"'"'''''"^'

cHiM.t;ippi„v:boTXa;:':;';^',^\''-

■caused me many an ala™ Vl '"''' ''«''
Hester, what a th^ght i Th L ^"^"g'>'- O
to dread it!_that S r ' '"'' ''°"' '""ble
Peated in her fece and 'r^" "'^^ P""^ «"

"ight see th m? B„t sh! ' '"^'l """ "'^ ^^'-^

mother, with a t^n^.. ,^ answered the
. "iLii a tender smi e " A i;t.i i

and thou needest not t„ k. V •/ ^ '""S"'

^hild she is. But h„ ""' '° '"« «'''«e

'ook. with thos!", :: "rr'z _''f «'f"' ^Hc

wild-flowers in her hair

300 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

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 Pearl's slow advance. In her was visi-
_ble 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 syinbol, — 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
aw^ about the child, as she came onward.

" Let her see nothing strange — no passion nor
eagerness — in thy way of accosting her," whis-
pered Hester. « Our Peari is a fitful and fantas-
tic little elf, sometimes. Especially, she is seldom
tolerant of emotion, when she does not fully com-
prehend the why and wherefore. But the child
hath strong affections ! She loves me, and will
love thee!"

Letter

eft in our dear

meet us."
lither of them

they sat and

her was visi-
ihe had been
years past, as

was revealed
;o hide, — all
y manifest, —
ian skilled to
Pearl was the
foregone evil
bt that their
re conjoined,
iteriai union,
ey met, and
* Thoughts
ughts, which

— threw an

nward.

) passion nor

her," whis-

1 and fantas-
he is seldom
•t fully corn-
It the child
ne, and will

y/ie Scarlet Letter

301

" Thou canst not think " saiH fko • •
glancing aside at Hester Pr ,„„e . t„ "'T'"'
dreads tl,is interview, and y;ar„; for in "'I ^""^
truth, as I already told thee chL I "'' '"
-adily „on to be familiar w"k t'Th"' "°n
not climb my knee, nor prat le Tn ^ "" '

answer to my smile but md part I'd"'' ""'
"rangely. E.en little babes, whe„ ', .ate'r'
.n my arms, weep bitterly. Yet Pear t'
her little lifetime, hath blen ki dt iT Th^
first time, _ thou knowest it well i Th i'
when thou ledst her with Zlto the h " ™.'
yonder stern old Governor!" """^ °^

"And thou didst plead so bravely in her h^h^if
and mme ! " answered the mother <U "5
■t: and so shall little Pearl P ['^"'^"'^^•^

«,o L '"-uc rearj. l^ear nothmr? Sh*.

s t: rir,^/^-' «-. But w^i sot
tHe'iooir;::^t:^-th:^:ir--°^

silently at Hester and th. I ^^' ^^^'"^^

together onthT '^^'SVman, who stil! sat

ogetner on the mossy tree-trunk, waitme to re

cTa^ceJ to /"" ^''V'' '-' «' ^^' ^ o k
itrefleld fr/ '°°^' " ^"°°^^ '^^ ^^-^ that

allthetrilla^^^^^^^^^
i tne brilliant picturesqueness of her beautv in

Th,? i^ ""'* ^P-ntualized than the rea ity

Th.s ,n,age, so nearly identical with the living

<tf£

302 ^Ae Scarlet Letter

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, lookmg so steadfastly at them through the
dim medmm of the forest-gloom ; herself, mean-
while, all glorified with a ray of sunshine, that
was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympa-
thy. In the brook beneath stood another child
--another and the same, — with likewise its ray
of golden light. Hester felt herself, in some in-
distinct 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 impres-
sion ; the child and mother were estranged, but
through Hester's fault, not Pearl's. Since the
latter rambled from her side, another inmate had
been admitted within the circle of the mother's
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.
1 have a strange fancy," observed the sensi-
tive 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 has-

Letter

mewhat of its
y to the child
n which Pearl
n through the
herself, mean-
sunshine, that
ertain sympa-
another child,
kewise its ray
f, in some in-
tranged from
mble through
here in which
and was now

1 the impres-
stranged, but
Since the
r inmate had
the mother's
of them all,
»uld not find
lere she was.
d the sensi-
e boundary
canst never
elfish spirit,
'aught us, is
Pray has-

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

303

ten her; for this delay has already imparted a
tremor to my nerves." j- " «

." Come, dearest child ! " said Hester, encour-
^•ngly, and stretching out both her arms. « How
slow thou art! When hast thou been so slugKisI
before now Here is a friend of mine, who S

love, henceforward, as thy mother alone could
g ve thee ! Leap across the brook, and come to
us. Thou canst leap like a young deer 1 "

Pearl, without responding in any manner to
these honey-sweet expressions, remained on the
other s,de of the brook. Now she fixed her
bnght, w,ld eyes on her mother, now on the min-
ister, and now included them both in the same
glance; as ,f to detect and explain to herself the re-
lation which they bore to one another. For some
unaccountable reason, as Arthur Dimmesdale felt
the child s eyes upon himself, his hand —with that
gesture so habitual as to have become involuntary
--stole over his heart. At length, assuming a
singular a,r of authority. Pearl stretched out her
hand with the small forefinger extended, and ,
pointing evidently towards her mother's breast.
And beneath, m the miVi-^.. ^f ^l_ l . . i

An^ k .L • . "iuuicrs oreast.

And beneath, m the mirror of the brook, there
was the flower-girdled and sunny image o\ little
i'earl, pomtmg Her small forefinger too

to Z?"" ^^;-g^;^iJd> why dost thou not come
to me ? exclaimed Hester.

304 ^Ae Scarlet Leffev

Pearl still pointed with her forefinger; and a
frown gathered on her brow ; the more impress-
ive from the childish, the almost baby-like aspect
of the features that conveyed it. As her mother
still kept beckoning to her, and arraying her face
m 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 behavior on the elf-child's 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 mother's
threats, any more than molified by her entreaties
now suddenly burst into a fit of passion, gesticu-
lating violently, and throwing her small figure
into the most extravagant contortions. She ac-
companied 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

Letter

finger; and a
nore impress-
by-lilce aspect
i.s her mother
lying her face
1 smiles, the
3re imperious
gain, was the

its reflected
•ious gesture,
ttle Pearl.

angry wifh
wever inured
3art at other
more seemly

the brook,
i^lse I must

ler mother's
5r entreaties,
ion, gesticu-
tmall figure
IS. She ac-
ting shrieks,
les ; so that,
nreasonable
titude were
•uragement.
le shadowy

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

305

wrath of Pearl's image, crowned and girdled with
-«tSwet-S, but stampiiig its foot, wildly gesticulating

and ,n the midst of all, still pointing its small

forefinger at Hester's bosom !

"I see what ails the child," whispered Hester

to the clergyman, and turning pale in spite of a

strong efl^brt to conceal her trouble and annoy-
ance. « Children will not abide any, the slightest,
change m the accustomed aspect of things that
are daily before their eyes. Pearl misses some-
thing which she has always seen me wear ! "

" I pray you," answered the minister, "if thou
hast any means of pacifying the child, do it forth-
with ! Save it were the cankered wrath of an old
witch, like Mistress Hibbins," added he, attempt-
ing to smile, " I know nothing that I would not
sooner encounter than this passion in a child,
^^n Pearl's young beauty, as in the wrinkled witch'
It has a preternatural efl^ect. 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

f J!^^'-^ '- before thee! -on the hither
side of the brook ! "

The child turned her eyes to the point indi-

306 '^Ae Scarlet Letter

cated ; 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
mid-ocean shall take i: from my hand, and swal-
low it up forever ! "

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
dro>yning it in the deep sea, there was a sense of
mevitable 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 hour's 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

Letter

tter, so close
hat the gold

swered Pearl.
srved Hester,
ve much to
truth, she is
I must bear
y a few days
s region, and
ich we have
de it! The
id, and swal-

D the margin
: letter, and
Hopefully,
spoken of
s a sense of
us received
md of fate.
— she had
here again
e old spot !
no, that an
laracter of
the heavy
m beneath

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

307

her cap. As if there were a withering spell in
the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and rich-
ness 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. «W,lt 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, bound-
ing across the brook, and clasping Hester in
her arms. « Now thou art my mother indeed !
And 1 am thy little Pearl!"

In a mood of tenderness that was not usual
with her, she drew down her mother's 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 i"' asked
Pearl.

aSM M W.

303 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

"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 I
he longs to greet thee ? "

"Doth he love us.?" said Pearl, looking up.
with acute intelligence, into her mother's face.
Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we
three together, into the town ? "
^ **Not now, dear child," answered Hester.
Hut m days to come he will walk hand in
hanu 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 handover his
heart.? mquired 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

' Letter

replied her
t his blessing !
md loves thy
him ? Come I

I, looking up,

Tiother's face.

in hand, we

ered Hester.
valk hand in
e and fireside
on his knee ;
gs, and love
i; wilt thou

and over his

n is that!"
md ask his

ealousy that
hild towards
r caprice of
'w no favor
an exertion
* up to him,
iluctance by
r babyhood.

"g^g Scarlet Letter

309

she had possessed a sinm,lar varietv ' .n^ ,T

of d.fftrene aspects, with a new mischief in T
each and all. The minister _ pai„f 'it >, '

mother, and, running to the brookl 7

it and bathed her forehe d untir r'h '"'', °""

remained apart silenHv . u ^^ ^^^'^

rtpdru, silently watching Hester 5,n^

the c,.,g „^i,^ talked together anH

made such arrangements as were su™ "'
their new pos t on anH tU^ "Bgescea by

fulfilled. """'J^^ ''^^ P^'-Poses soon to be

clo^' S ^^:^e>terview had come to a
Close, ihe dell was to be left a cr.l,v j

i-dark. old trees, which i^rthir 13
nous tongues, would whisper long of wh ht
passed there, and no mortal be th^e wisl A„rf /
the melancholy brook would add thT o hertle/
to the mystery with which its little heart wi
already overburdened, and whereof it still klJ
a murmuring babble, with not a wh m 1 C
folness of tone than for ages heretofor?

'^ffe t^inister ir\a <^€azg

'S the minister departed, in ad-
[vance of Hester Prynne and little
I 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 Hes-
ter, clad in her gray robe, still standing beside
the tree-trunk, 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 earth's heaviest burden on them,
might there sit down together, and find a single
hour's 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 mother's
side. So the minister had not fallen asleep and
dreamed !

In order to free his mind from this indistinct-
ness and duplicity of impression, which vexed it

•ted, in ad-
ine and little
ivard glance;

he should
lintly traced
id the child,

the woods,
ould not at
e was Hes-
iding beside

overthrown
ne had ever
lat these two
en on them,
find a single
IS Pearl, too,

the brook,
•n was gone,
er mother's
I asleep and

s indistinct-
ich vexed it

"^Ae Scarlet Letter an

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 clergyman's
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 harbor ; 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 self-enlisted 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.

\ /

312 Is he Scarlet Letter

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 con-
sidered 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 Ser-
mon ; and, as such an occasion formed an hon-
orable 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 per-
formed ! " Sad, indeed, that an introspection
so profound and acute as this poor minister's
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.

Letter

5ter, with no
ch the vessel
aid probably
:nt. « That
i to himself,
lesdale con-
ite to reveal.
ck from the
'd day from
Election Ser-
led an hon-
:w England
ced upon a
ninating his
y shall say
m, "that I
nor ill per-
itrospection
r minister's
We have
s to tell of
iably weak ;
Irrefragable,
:e begun to
-acter. No
1 wear one
multitude,
J to which

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

313

The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale's 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 them-
selves. 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 gable-peaks, 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 well-known shapes of human life, about

314 "g/ic Scarlet Letter

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 to-day; 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 minister's deepest
sense seemed to inform him of their mutability.
A similar impression struck him most remark-
ably, as he passed under the walls of his own
church. The edifice had so very strange, and
yet so familiar, an aspect, that Mr. Dimmesdale's
mind vibrated between two ideas ; either that he
had seen it only in a dream hitherto, or that he
was mert.y 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 minister's own will,
and Hester's will, and the fate that grew between
them, had wrought this cransformation. It was
the same town as heretofore ; but the same min-
ister returned not from the forest. He might

Have said to the friends who greeted him, "I

am not the man for vhom you take me ! I left
him yonder in the forest, withdrawn into a secret
dell, by a mossy tree-trunk, and near a melan-

'Letter

ither older nor
aged were no
)e of yesterday
impossible to
'ered from the
ently bestowed
lister's deepest
eir mutability,
most remark-
Is of his own
• strange, and
Dimmesdale's
either that he
to, or that he

1 shapes which
:hange, but so
the spectator
rvening space
consciousness
er's own will,
grew between
tion. It was
ic same min-
He might
I him, — "I
me! I left
into a secret
ear a melan-

^Ae Scarlet Letter

315

choly brook ! Go, seek your minister and see
if his emaciated figure, his thin cheek, his white,
heavy, pain-wrinkled brow, be not flung down
there, like a cast-ofF 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 revolu-
tion 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 com-
municated to the unfortunate and startled minis-
ter. 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 inten-
tional ; in spite of himself, yet growing out of a
profounder self than that which opposed the im-
pulse. For instance, he met one of his own dea-
cons. 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 wor-
shipping respect, which the minister's professional
and private claims alike demanded. Never was
there a more beautiful example of how the ma-
jesty of age and wisdom may comport with the

316 ISAe Scarlet Lett er

obeisance and respect enjoined upon it, as from a
lower social rank, and inferior order of endow-
ment, towards a higher. Now, during a conver-
sation of some two or three moments between the
Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale and this excellent and
hoary-bearded deacon, it was only by the most
careful self-control that the former could refrain
from uttering certain blasphemous suggestions
that rose into his mind, respecting the communion
supper. He absolutely trembled and turned pale
as ashes, lest his tongue should wag itself, in ut-
terance 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 deacoA would
have been petrified by his minister's impiety !

Again, another incident of the same nature.
Hurrying along the street, the Reverend Mr.*
Dimmesdale encountered the eldest female mem-
ber 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 burial-ground 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 her-

Lett er

n it, as from a
ier of endow-
ring a conver-
:s between the
i excellent and

by the most
could refrain
J suggestions
e communion
d turned pale
; itself, in ut-
nd plead his
t his having

terror in his
J, to imagine
eacon would
s impiety !
lame nature,
verend Mr.
emale mem-
i exemplary
with a heart
ad husband
long ago, as
gravestones.

been such
emn joy to
>lations and
lad fed her-

^Ae Scarlet Letter

317

self continually for more than thirty years. And
since Mr. Dimmesdale had taken her in charge'
the good grandam's chief earthly comfort J
which, unless it had been likewise a heavenly com-
fort, 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'
heaven-breathing Gospel truth, from his beloved
hps, into her dulled, but rapturously attentive ear.
But, on this occasion, up to the moment of put-
ting his hps to the old woman's ear, Mr. Dim-
mesdale, 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 im- I
mortality 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 widow's
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.

318 'IS Ae Scarlet Letter

, j Again, a third instance. After parting from the
j old church-member, he met the youngest sister of
.y them all. It was a maiden newly won — and won
by the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale's 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, impart-
ing 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 mother's
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
arch-fiend 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

Letter

rting from the
ngest sister of
on — and won
I own sermon,
to barter the

■ the heavenly
bstance as life
'ould gild the

was fair and
aradise. The
self enshrined

■ heart, which
nage, impart-
and to love a
)n, had surely
her mother's
hway of this
ather say ? —
Irew nigh, the
se into small
osom a germ
darkly soon,

was his sense
g him as she
blight all the
;d look, and
^ord. So —
ytt sustained
his face, and

^Ae Scarlet Letter

319

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 work-bag, — 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 V
to talk. Denying himself this freak, as unworthy
of his cloth, he met a drunken seaman, one of the
ship's crew from the Spanish Main. And, here,
since he had so valiantly forborne all other wicked-
ness, poor Mr. Dimmesdale longed, at least, to ,
shake hands with the tarry blackguard, and re-
create himself with a few improper jests, such as
dissolute sailors so abound with, and a volley of
good, round, solid, satisfactory, and heaven-defying
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 ? "

-^iia^'^j

320 <^^c Scarlef Letter

cried the minister to himself, at length, pausing in
the street, and striking his hand against his fore-
head. " Am 1 mad ? or am 1 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 suggest-
ing the performance of every wickedness which
his most foul imagination can conceive ? "

At the moment when the Reverend Mr. Dim-
mesdale thus communed with himself, and struck
his forehead with his hand, old Mistress Hibbins
the reputed witch-lady, is said to have been pass-
ing by. She made a very grand appearance;
having on a high head-dress, a rich gown of vel-
vet, 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 Overbury's

riurder. Whether tKe witch had read the minis:

ter's 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, yoa have made a visit into
the forest," observed the witch-lady, nodding her
high head-dress 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

f Letter

igth, pausing in
igainst his fore-
en over utterly
act with him in
od :* And does
!nt, by suggest-
ckedness which
nceive ? "
end Mr. Dim-
self, and struck
stress Hibbins,
lave been pass-
d appearance;
1 gown of vel-
famous yellow
^special friend,
this last good
las Overbury's
cad the mfhis-
a full stop,
d craftily, and
ith clergymen

ie a visit into
, nodding her
t time, I pray
J, and I shall
ithout taking
word will go

"^Ae Scarlet letter 3»

fer towards gaming any strange gentleman a "
reception from yonder potentate you wot ofl"

I profess, madam." answered the clersyman
w,th a grave obeisance, such as the ladyf rank
demanded, and his own good-breeding made
mperat,ve,-..I profess, on my conscience and

:t?h ' " ' r """'^ ^'^'"^"^^ - 'ouch-
ng the purport of your words ! I went not into
the forest to seek a potentate; neither do I „
any foture t.me, design a visit thither, witL a
view to gam,ng the favor of .uch a personage

w,-,K I, L ^P°"''^ El<ot. and rejoice

r„ f TV^' """"y P^"'°"» ^""'^ he hath
won from heathendom ! "

,ri» "l-''^' u^'r '"'''"'* '^^ "'d witch-lady,

timlf Y ' "' ■""" ""''' ''"^ """= i» the day-
t me ! You carry ,t off like an old hand ! But

a m,dmght. and in the forest, we shall have
other talk together!"

She passed on with her aged stateliness, but
t n mm b,,. Her head and smiling at him
l.ke one w.lhng to recognize a secret intimacy
or connection. ^

mer"ri"'r fi'-y^'^^" "-ought the min- /
■ster, to the fiend whom, if men say true this /

ve W hed and velveted old hag las chol '

*or her pnnce and master!"

322 "TSAe Scarlet Letter

The wretched minister ! He had made a bar-
gain very like it ! /i'empted by a dream of hap-
piness, 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, bit-
terness, unprovoked malignity, gratuitous desire
of ill, ridicule of whatever was good f.nd 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 sym-
pathy and fellowship with wicked mortals, and
the world of perverted spirits.

He had, by this time, reached his dwelling, on
the edge of the burial-ground, and, hastening up
the stairs, took refuge in his study. The minis-
ter 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 strange-
ness that had haunted him throughout his walk
from the forest-deli into the town, and thitherward.

r Letter

lad made a bar-
dream of hap-
vith deliberate
)re, to what he
fectious poison
pidly diffused

had stupefied
[ into vivid life
s. Scorn, bit-
atuitous desire
d f.nd holy, all
rightened him.
ss Hibbins, if
ihow his sym-

mortals, and

;s dwelling, on
, hastening up
. The minis-
lelter, without
id by any of
ities to which
while passing
ie accustomed
its books, its
stried comfort
jn of strange-
hout his walk
d thitherward.

^Ae Scarlet Letter

323

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
nch old Hebrew, with Moses and the Prophets
speakmg to him, and God's 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 fb^n and white-
cheeked minister, who had done and suffered
these things, and written thus far into the Elec-
tion Sermon ! But he seemed to stand apart,
and eye this former self with scornful, " ,,„g
but half-envious curiosity. That self was gone
Another man had returned out of the forest • a
wiser one; with a knowledge of hidden mysteries
which thesimplicity 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 speech-
less, with one hand on the Hebrew Scriptures,
and the other spread upon his breast.

" Welcome home, reverend Sir," said the phy-

.,* .

324 "TSAe Scarlet Letter

sician. " And how found you that godly man,
the Apostle.Eliati 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 con-
vinced of the old man's knowledge, or, at least,
his confident suspicion, with respect to his own
interview with Hester Prynne. The physician
knew then, that, in the minister's 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 cer-
tain subject, may approach its very verge, and

' Letter

lat godly man,

s, dear Sir, you

the wilderness

not my aid be

id strength to

the Reverend
, and the sight
; free air which
good, after so

think to need
'hysician, good

by a friendly

th was looking
intent regard

But, in spite
IS almost con-
e, or, at least,
ct to his own
"he physician
's regard, he

his bitterest
would appear
xpressed. It
I time often
ind with what
3 avoid a cer-
y verge, and

"g^c Scarlet Letter

325

retire without disturbing it. Thus, the minister
felt no apprehension that Roger Chillingworth
would touch, in express words, upon the real posi-
tion which they sustained towards one another,
ret did the physician, in his dark wav, creep
tnghtfully near the secret. '

" Were it not better," said he, " that you use
my poor skill to-night? Verily, dear Sir, we
must take pains to make you strong and vigor-
ous for this occasion of the Election discourse
The people look for great things from you ; ap-
prehending 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,
kmd 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 adminis-
tered in vain, begin now to take due efl^ect. Happy
man were I, and well deserving of New England's
gratitude, could I achieve this cure ! "

"I thank you from my heart, most watchful
*nend, said the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale,
with a solemn smile. " I thank you, and can
but requite your good deeds with my prayers."

3^g '^Ae Scarlet Letter

"A good man's prayers are golden recom-
pense!" rejoined old Roger Chillingworth, as
he took his leave. " Yea, they are the current
gold coin of the New Jerusalem, with the King's
own mint-mark 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 him-
self inspired; and only wondered that Heaven
should see fit to transmit the grand and solemn
music of its oracles through so foul an organ-
pipe as he. However, leaving that mystery to
solve itself, or go unsolved forever, 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 minister's
bedazzled eyes. There he was, with the pen
still between his fingers, and a vast, immeasur-
able tract of written space behind him !

' Letter

golden recom-
illingworth, as
re the current
ath the King's

»ned a servant
, which, being
nous 'appetite.

pages of the
rthwith began

an impulsive
e fancied him-

that Heaven
d and solemn
3ul an organ-
It mystery to

he drove his

and ecstasy,
ivere a winged
orning came,
curtains; and
:am into the
he minister's
/ith the pen
it, immeasur-
him !

ETIMES in the morning of the
day on which the new Governor
was to receive his office at the
hands of the people, Hester

,^ ; ^Prynneand little Pearl came into

he market-place. It was ,'. .ady thronged with
the craftsmen and oth^ ..beian in^bitants
of the town, m considerable numbers; among
whom, hkewise, were many rough figures, whose
attire of deer-skms 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 occa-
sions, 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
personal y out of sight and outline; while, again
he scarlet letter brought her back from this'
twilight indistinctness, and revealed her under
the moral aspect of its own illumination. Her
ace, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed
the marble quietude which they were accustomed

328 ^/ie Scarlet Letter

to behold there.- It was like a mask ; or, rather,
like the frozen c Jmness of a dead woman's*
features ; owing this dreary resemblance to the
fact that tester 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 preter-
natural 'y 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, encoun-
tered 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 people's victim and life-
long bond-slave, 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
forever 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 Hester's

f Letter

ask ; or, rather,
dead woman's
nblance to the
1, in respect to
leparted out of
ned to mingle,
that there was
, indeed, vivid
is some preter-
e first read the
corresponding
i mien. Such
i^ed, that after
tude through
ty, a penance,
'n religion to
nore, encoun-
ter to convert
o a kind of
scarlet letter
:tim and life-
ir, might say
she will be
longer, and
tich and hide
iused to burn
inconsistency
Jman nature,
t in Hester's

"^Ae Scarlet Letter aao

mind, at the moment when she was about to win
her freedom from the pain which had been thus
deeply mcorporated with her being. M\Z
here not be an irresistible desire to quaff T last
long, breathless draught of the cup of wormwood
and aloes w,.h which nearly all her yemof
womanhood had been perpetually 'CZ.Z
The wme of life, henceforth to be presented to
her hps must be indeed rich, delicious and
exh,laratmg, i„ its chafed and golden b aker or
^se leave an inevitable and weary languor after
the lees of bitterness wherewith'she 1,ad'bee„
drugged, as w.th a cordial of intensest potency
Pearl was decked out with airy gayety \
wou d have been impossible to guests tha'^^' th s
bngh 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 hive
been requisite to contrive the child's apparel
was the same that had achieved a task oeE
more difficult, in imparting so distin" a' ^
Lanty to Hester's simple robe. The dress so
proper was it to little Pearl, seemed an efflue;ce
or inevitable development and outward man
from r 1''" t-«"' "° -o- to be separated
butterfly s wing, or the painted glory from the
the child; her garb was all of one idea with he^

330 "ISAe Scarlet Letter

nature. On this centful 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 sym-
pathy 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 mother's unquiet bosom,
betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the
emotions which none could detect in the marble
passiveness of Hester's brow.

This effervescence made her flit with a bird-
like movement, rather than walk by her mother's
side. She broke continually into shouts of a
wild, inarticulate, and sometimes piercing music.
When they reached the market-place, 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 meeting-house, than the centre of a town's
business.

"Why, what is this, mother?" cried she.
" Wherefore have all the people left their work
to-day ? Is it a play-day for the whole world ?
See, there is the blacksmith! He has washed
his sooty face, and put on his Sabbath-day

"g^e Scarlet Letter

331

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
ne 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, ugly-eyed 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 market-place?"

"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
brook-side ? "

"He will be there, child," answered her
mother. « But he will not greet thee to-day •
nor must thou greet him." '

"What a strange, sad man is he!" said the
Child, as if speaking partly to herself. « I,, the

\ -l-

„..4-

332 ^/ie Scarlet Letter

dark night-time 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 everybody's face to-day. The chil-
dren have come from their schools, and the
grown people from their workshops and their
fields, on purpose to be happy. For, to-day, 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 un-
wonted 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
great er part of two centuries - ,74he Puritans com-
prise 3 whatever mirth and public joy they

Letter

m, and holds
3od with him
e deep forest,
and the strip
ing on a heap
bead, too, so
wash ic off!
mong all the
ist we know
ith his hand

standest not
' Think not
thee, and see
\ The chil-
lis, and the
•s and their
or, to-day, a
em ; and so
id ever since
make merry
m year were
I world!"

to the un-
faces of the
e year — as

during the
jritans com-
; joy they

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

333

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 L
tmge, which undoubtedly characterized the mood \
and manners of the age. The persons now in
the market-place 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 o'ne
great mass, would appear to have been as stately,
magnificent, and joyous, as the worid 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 celebrat-
mg the day on which the political year of the
colony commenced. The dim reflection of a
remembered splendor, a colorless and manifold

334 "^A e Scarlet Lette r

<^iluted repetition of what they had beheld in
proud old London, — we will not say at a royal
coronation, but at a Lord Mayor's show, — might
be traced m the customs which our forefathers in-
stituted, 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
people's 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 Elizabeth's 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

' Letter

had beheld in
t say at a royal
show, — might

forefathers in-
aal installation
''unders of the
^e priest, and

to assume the
in accordance
upon as the
ninence. All
n before the
eeded dignity
)vernment so

titenanced, if
ere and close
5 of rugged
eemed of the
leir religion,
e appliances
readily have
time, or that
atrical kind ;
idary ballad,
) his music ;
: witchcraft;
iltitude with
id, but still

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 335

effective, by their appeals to the very broadest
sources of mirthful sympathy. All such profes-
sors of the several branches of jocularity would
have been sternly repressed, not only by the
ng.d discipline of law, but by the general senti-
ment 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 village-greens of England; and
which ,t was thought well to keep alive on this
new soil, for the sake of the courage and manli-
ness that were essential in them. Wrestling-
matches, in the different fashions of Cornwall
and Devonshire, were seen here and there about
the market-place; in one corner, there was a
friendly bout at quarterstaff; and — what at-
tracted most interest of all -- on the platform of
the pillory, already so noted in our pages, two
masters of defence were commencing an exhibi-
tion 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

33fl '^he Scarlet Letter

of joyless deportment, and the offspring of sires
who had • iiown 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 immedi-
ate posterity, the generation next to the early
^^emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism,
land 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 market-place,
though its general tint was the sad gray, brown'
or black of the English emigrants, was yet en-
livened by some diversity of hue. A party of
Indians — in their savage finery of curiously em-
broidered deer-skin robes, wampum-belts, red and
yellow ochre, and feathers, and armed with the
bow and arrow and stone-headed spear— stood
apart, with countenances of inflexible gravity be-
yond what eve. the Puritan aspect could atiain.
Nor, wild as were these painted barbarians, were
they the wildest feature of the scene. This dis-
tinction could more justly be claimed by some
manners, — a part of the crew of the vessel from
the S^n«hJ^-_who had come ashore to see
the ^umoM^TEI^ction Day. They were rough-
looking desperadoes, wfth- sun-blackened faces,
and an immensity of beard ; their wide, short

Letter

pring of sires
in their day,)
, in point of
ants, even at
heir immedi-
to the early
f Puritanism,
with it, that
iiced to clear
:he forgotten

larket-place,
gray, brown,
was yet en-
A party of
iriously em-
el ts, red and
id with the
ear — stood
gravity, be-
auld attain,
arians, were
This dis-
d by some
v^essel from
hore to see
^ere rough-
ined faces,
/ide, short

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

337

trousers were confined about the waist by belts
often clasped with a rough plate of gold, and sus-
tammg always a long knife, and. in some instances
. a sword. From beneath their broad-brimmed
hats of palm-leaf gleamed eyes which, even in
good-nature and merriment, had a kind of arV-l
ferocity. //They transgressed, without ^.ar or
scruple, the rules of behavior that were .it^fing
on all others ; smoking tobacco under the be. *',',
very nose, although each whiff would have cct a
townsman a shilling ; and quaffing, at their plea-
sure, draughts of wine pr aqua-vita from pocket-
flasks which they freely tendered to the gaping
crowd around them. It remarkably character
ized the incomplete morality of the age, rigid as
we £allit,..that. a license was allowed the seafaring
class, not merely for their freaks on shore, but for
hv more desperate deeds on their proper element.
The sailor of that day would go near to be ar-
raigned as a pirate in our own. There could be
httle doubt, for instance, that this very ship's 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 at-

>K:

338 "ISAe Scarlet Letter

tempts at regulation by human law. The bucca-
neer on the wave might reUnquish 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 as-
sociate. Thus, the Puritan elders, in their black
cloaks, starched bands, and steeple-crowned 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 Chilli ngworth,
the physician, was seen to enter the market-place,
in close and familiar talk with the commander of
the questionable vessel.

The latter was by far the most showy and gal-
lant 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 sword-cut on his forehead, which,
by the arrangement of his hair, he seemed anx-
ious 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 un "ergoing stern question be-
fore a magistrate, and probably incurring fine or
imprisonment, or perf.ips an exhibition in the

Letter

The bucca-
ls calling, and
f probity and
career of his
jrsonage with
>r casually as-
n their black
rowned hats,
nor and rude
men; and it
ersion, when
hillingworth,
narket-place,
mmander of

)wy and gal-
(Twhere to be
: a profusion
-lace on his
!d chain, and
was a sword
head, which,
leemed anx-
^ landsman
I shown this
with such a
question be-
ring fine or
tlon in the

"^Ae Scarlet Letter m

stocks. As regarded the shipmaster, however, all
was looked upon as pertaining to the character, as
to a hsh his glistening scales.

After parting from the physician, the com-
mander of the Bristol ship strolled idly through
he market-place; until, happening to approach
he spot where Hester Prynne was standing, he
appeared to recognize, and did not hesitate to ad-
dress 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
moml solitude in which the scarlet letter envel-
oped Its fated wearer; partly by her own reserve,
and partly by the instinctive, though no longer
so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-creaturts.
Now, if never before, it answered a good purpose,
by enabling Hester and the seaman to speak to-
gether without risk of being overheard ; and so
changed was Hester Prynne's repute before the
public, that the matron in town most eminent
for rigid morality could not have held such inter-
course 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 ship-fever,
this voyage ! What with the ship's surgeon and

this

340 IS Ac Scarlet Letter

•'V> ?

this other doctor, our only danger will be from
drug or pill ; more by token, as there is a lot of
apothecary's 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 cabin-fare
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 market-place, and smiling
on her ; a smile which — ac-oss the wide and bus-
tling square, and through all the talk and laughter,
and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the
crowd — ■ conveyed secret and fearful meaning.

Letter

I'ill be from
e is a lot of
ded for with

ster, startled
" Have you

shipmaster,
ngworth, he
y cabin-fare
: known it;
and a close
f, — he that
1 rulers ! "
;ed," replied
ough in the

long dwelt

mariner and
:, she beheld
nding in the
and smiling
ide and bus-
ind laughter,
erests of the
meaning.

Process ior\^

>EFORE Hester Prynne could
I call together her thoughts, and
consider what was practicable to
be done in this new a.id startling
J aspect of affairs, the sound of mili-
tary music was heard approaching along a con-
tiguous street. It denoted the advance of the
procession of magistrates and citizens, on its way
towards the meeting-house ; 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 market-place.
First came the music. It comprised a variety of
mstruments, 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 mul-
titude, — 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.

"*"*■ '■^■ -.aji fl*''"

34a ISA eSca rlet Lett er

but then lost, for an instant, the restless agitation
that had kept her in a - ^ntinual effervescence
throughout the morning; she gai.jd silently, and
seemed to be borne upvard, like a floating sea-
bird, 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 armor of the military company, which
followed after the music, and formed the hon-
orary escort of the procession. This body of
soldiery — which s^U sustains a corporate exist-
ence, 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 '■ — , the
practices of war. The high estimation then
placed upon the military character might be
seen in the lofty port of each individual mem-
ber 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 nod-
ding over their bright morions, had a brilliancy

Letter

tless agitation

effervescence
[ silently, and

floating sea-
11s of sound,
former mood

the weapons
ipany, which
ed the hon-
his body of
rporate exist-
ages with an
omposed of
s were filled
js of martial
d of College
I of Knights
;nce, and, so
1 -•^, the
nation then
r might be
-^idual mem-
em, indeed,
untries and
, had fairly

and pomp

moreover,

image nod-

a brilliancy

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

343

rf effect wluch no modern display can aspire"

. ^"i y" ">= "=" of civil eminence, who came
.mmed,ately behind the military escor , were b^t
ter worth a thoughtfUl observer's eve IvL i„
outward demeanor, they .howed a s mp of m "

vulgar ,f not absurd. It was an age when wh,r
«e ca 1 ,,„„, ,,, ,^^ ,^^^ consideratiL^hn no"

and dign.ty of character a great deal nfore. The
people possessed, by hereditary right, the qu.Uty
of reverence; which, in their defce^dants f t
^umve at all, exists in smaller proportion and
w.th a vastly diminished force, in the de'ct on
and esfmate of public men. The chang m™
be for good or ill, and is partly, perhaps for

these rude shores -- havine lefr Hn^ ui
and all degrees of awfUl ral btint'^irelrin'

nh,t Vf "T"''^"'''™''""*-- S
er ble brow of age; on long-tried integrity; "„

::l:ets^fta:i:::ir^^^^^^^^^^^

wMchg^stheidear-mltn:et7c:t'
-eet, Endicott, Dudley, Belli„gham,'and1lt

■--'— ^V^J(E"lt^--

k>j>0.^

344 "IsAe Scarl et Letter

compeers, — who were elevated to power by the
early choice of the people, seem to hive been not
often brilliant, but distinguished by a ponderous
sobriety, rather than activity of intellect. They
had fortitude and self-reliance, 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 chjim ;ter here indicated were
well represented in the square cast of counte-
nance and large physical development of the
new colonial magistrates. So far as a demeanor
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 anniver-
sary was expected. His was the profession, at
that era, in which intellectual ability displayed
itself far more than in political life; for — leav-
ing 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 ,\e case of Increase
Matb**^ — was within the £ p of a successful
priest.

Letter

t-wm

■ power by the
have been not
y a ponderoiis
tellers They
d, in time of
welfi^re of the

1 tempestuous
indicated were
LSt of counte-
)ment of the
s a demeanor
I, the mother
:d to see these
:racy adopted
de the Privy

tes came the
divine, from
" the anniver-
profession, at
ity displayed
; for — leav-
question — it
>ugh, in the
community,
to its service.

2 of Increase
a successful

'^Aii Scarlet letter ms

Ij It was the observation of those who beheld

h.m now, that never, since Mr. Dimmesdale first

exhibited such energy as was seen in the gait and
- w,th which he kept his pace in the profession
'2^-'^-'>^^l^n^ of step, as at other
t.n.^; h.8 frame was not bent; nor did his '
hand rest ominously upon his heart. Yet if
the clergyman were rightly viewed, his strength
eemed not of the body. It might be spiritual,
and imparted to h.m by angelic ministrations. I
n^ght be the exhilaration of that potent cordial
wh>ch .s distilled only in the farnace-gW of
earnest and long-continued thought. Or. per-
chance. h,s sensitive temperament was invigorated
by the loud and piercing music, that swelled
h avenward, and uplifted him on its ascending
wave. Nevertheless, so abstracted was his look
■t might be questioned whether Mr. Dimmesdale
even heard the music. There was his body
movmg onward and with an unaccustomed force
But where was h.s mind.' Far and deep in its

aXitv^r"' ^"Tf "''"■' "'"• P'«ernatural
activi^, 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 ele-
ment took up fhe feeble frame, and carried it
along, unconscious of the burden, and converting

/ \

346 "TSAe Scarlet Let ter

it to spirit like itself. Men of uncommon intel-
lect, who have grown morbid, possess this occa-
sional power of mighty effort, into which they
throw the life of many days, and then are lifeless
for as many more.

Hester Prynne, gazing steadfastly at the cler-
gyman, 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 recog-
nition, she had imagined, muct needs pass be-
tween them. She thought of the dim forest,
with Its little dell of solitude, and love, and
anguish, and the mossy tree-trunk, 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 posi-
tion, 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

Letter

ommon intel-
ess this occa-
3 which they
en are lifeless

y at the cler-
over her, but
; unless that
I sphere, and
tice of recog-
eds pass be-
dim forest,
d love, and
/here, sitting
leir sad and
murmur of
known each
man ? She
ing proudly
rich music,
d venerable
orldly posi-
vista of his
which she
ith the idea
, and that,
:ould be no
nd herself,
in Hester,

^Ae Scarlet Letter m?

that she could scarcely forgive him, - least of all
now, when the heavy footstep of their approach-
ing Fate might be heard, nearer, nearer, nearer '
- tor bemg 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 mother's
feelings, or herself felt the remoteness and in-
tangibility that had fallen around the minister.
While the procession passed, the child was un-
easy, fluttering up and down, like a bird on the
point of taking flight. When the whole had
gone by, she looked up into Hester's face.
^ " Mother," said she, "was that the same min-
ister that kissed me by the brook.?"

" Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!" whispered
her mother. "We must not always talk in the
. market-place 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 min-
ister have said, mother .? Would he have clapped
his hand over his heart, and scowled on me, and
bid me be gone ? "

"What should he say, Peari/ answered Hes-
ter, " save that it was no time to kiss, and that

j^^'i

348 ^Ae Scarict Letter

kisses are not to be given in the market-place?
Well for thee, foolish child, that thou didst not
speak to him ! "

Another shade of the same sentiment, in ref-
erence to Mr. Dimmesdale, was expressed by a
person whose ;ccentricities — 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, j It was Mistress, Hi bbins, who,
arrayed in great magnificence, with"rtrTple ruff,
a broidered stomacher, a gown of rich vel/et, and
a gold-headed 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 for-
ward, the crowd gave way before her, and -^eemed
to fear the touch of her g- -nent, r,s if it ^arried
the plague among its gorgeous folds. Seen in con-
junction with Hester Prynne, — kindly as so
many now felt towards the iatcer,~the dread
inspired by Mistress Hibbins was doubled, and
caused a general movement from that part c. the
market-place in which the two women od j

"Now, what mortal imagination cor co Vive
it!" whispered the old lady, confidentially, to
Hester. - Yonder divine man ! That saint on
earth, as the people uphold him to be, and as —

Letter

""^■■■■■■■■■^

market-place ?
thou didst not

timent, in ref-
expressed by a
nsanity, as we
lat few of the

on ; to begin
of the scarlet
Hibbins, who,
I a triple ruff,
ich vel/et, and
rth to see the
id the renown
s a price than

all the works
ly going for-
:r, and "^eemed
s if it '^arried
Seen in con-
kindly as so
— the dread
doubled, and
It part c; the
m od \
oiT CO nve
Sdeiitially, to
rhat saint on
be, and as —

^Ae Scarlet Letter 349

I must needs say — he really looks! Who
now that saw him pass in the procession, would
think how litde 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 finu it
hard to believe him the same man. Many a
church-member saw I, walking behind the music,
that has danced in the same measure with me
when Somebody was fiddler, and, it might be, an
Ir.iian powwow or a Lapland wizard changing
hands with us ! -hat is but a trifle, when a
woman knows the world. But this minister'
Couldst thou surelv rell, Hester, whether he
was the same man that en ountered thee on the
forest-path .? "

" Madam, I know not of what you speak "
answered Hester Prynne, feeling Mistress Hib-
bins to be of infirm mind ; yet strangely startled
and awe-stricken by the confidence with which
she affirmed a personal connection between so
many persons (herself among them) anH the Evil I
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
ht, finger at Hester. "Dost thou think I have
been to the fores so many times, and have yet

350 '^h eSca rlef Lette r

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 ser-
vants, 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 I "
" 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 .'3 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 market-place

could hear her, the weird old gentlewoman took

her departure.

' Letter

I there? Yea;
is, which they
their hair! I
le token. We
it glows like
irest it openly ;
ut that. But
in thine ear !
f his own ser-
owning to the
mmesdale, he
that the mark
:o the eyes of
minister seeks
s heart.? Ha,

ins ? " eagerly
n it?"

ded Mistress
id reverence,
le or another,
ineage of the
de with me,
Then thou
;r keeps his

market-place
woman took

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

35 »

offered ,n the meetmg-house, and the accent, of
the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale were heard com-
mcncng h,3 discourse. An irresistible feeHng
kept Hester near the spot. As the sacred edifice
was too much thronged to admit another auditor
she ook up her position close beside the scaffold'

of an md stmct, but varied, murmur and flow of
the mmister's very peculiar voice.
This vocal organ was in itself a rich endow-

nTh^ "'T:'\ "•" " ""'""> comprehending
nothing of the language in which the preachef
spoke, m,ght still have been swayed toLd f™
by the mere tone and cadence. Like all other
mus.c,t breathed passion and pathos, and emo
t,ons h,gh or tender, in a tongue native to the
human heart, wherever educated. Muffled as

walls" hIZ p'' "' ^^v^" "^™"g'' "^^ cho'ch-
walls, Hester Prynne listened with such intent-

ness, and sympathized so intimately, that the

sermon had throughout a meaning for her en!

nrely apart from its indistinguishable wUs

These perhaps, if more distinctly heard, n.igh

cC H K °"'^ " ^'°"" ■»''«""■. -d hfve
clogged the spintual sense. Now she caught the

Z^ TT\'' "^ "'^ "'""^ ''"^'"e down to
repose itself; then ascended with it, as it rose

mtmifi'^'

35a '^/i e Scarlet Letter

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 forever 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 minister's 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, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty,
telling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow, to
the great heart of mankind ; beseeching its sym-
pathy 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, statue-like,
at the foot of the scaffold. If the minister's voice
had not kept her there, there would neverthe-

Letter

sweetness and
) envelop her
:mn grandeur,
times became,
tial character
expression of
:k, as it might
, that touched
mes this deep
)e heard, and
iolate silence.
:e grew high

irrepressibly
nost breadth
1 as to burst
diffuse itself
litor listened
lid detect the
he complaint
hance guilty,
r sorrow, to
ing its sym-
loment, — in

It was this
liat gave the
i^er.

, statue-like,
lister's voice
Id neverthe-

'^Ae Scarlet letter 353

less have been an inevitable magnetism in that
spot, whence she dated the first hour of Ler life

■ till hT'-. '^''r "^' ' ="^' »"''- h". -
00 11-defined to be made a thought, but weigh-

l.fe, both before and after, was connected with this
spot as w,th the one point that gave it unity.

mo.h ' r ' ™'^"«''>"«. had quitted her
mothers s.de, and was playing at her own will
about the market-place. She made the sombre
crowd cheerfu by her erratic and glistening ray;
JZ 7 ' f. 1 ''"^^' plumage iUuminftes'^a

Tal? A":^' '^'"S^' ^y '^'"'"B to and fro.

half een and half concealed amid the twilight of
the clustenng leaves. She had an undulating, but,
oftentimes a sharp and irregular movement h
mdjcated the restless vivacity of her spirit, which
to-day was douW.. indefatigable in its tiptoe dance
because .t was played upon and vibrated with her
mother s d.squietude. Whenever Pearl saw any-
thing to excite her ever-active and wandering
cunos.ty, she flew thitherward and, as we might
say, se,zed upon that man or thing as her own
property, so far as she desired it; but without
yKldmg 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
■ndescnbable charm of beauty and eccentricity

354 '^ he Scarlet Letter

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 swarthy-cheeked wild men of the ocean, as the
Indians were of the land; and they gazed won-
deringly and admiringly at Pearl, as if a flake of
the sea-foam had taken the shape of a little maid,
and were gifted with a soul of the sea-fire, that
flashes beneath the prow in the night-time.

One of these seafaring men — the shipmaster,
indeed, who had spoken to Hester Prynne — was
so smitten with Pearl's 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 humming-bird 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

Letter

, and sparkled

)ked the wild

onscious of a

:e, with native

characteristic,

) of mariners,

; ocean, as the

y gazed won-

if a flake of

a little maid,

sea-fire, that

t-time.

I shipmaster,
*rynne — was
be attempted
5 to snatch a
uch her as to
ook from his
ibout it, and
lately twined
such happy
1 part of her,
:hout it.
th the scarlet
ou carry her

1," answered

hat I spake

'^Ae Scarlet Letter

355

agam wth the black-a-visaged, hump-shouldered
old doctor, and he engages to bring his friend, the
gentleman she wots of, aboard with him. So let

hL'"°w'l' '\^' no thought, save for herself and

thee W,lt thou tell her this, thou witch-baby' "

Mistress Hibbins says my father is the Prince

of the A,rr cried Pearl, with a 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 market-
place, the child returned to her mother, and com-
municated what the mariner had said. Hester's
strong, calm, steadfastly 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 per-
plexity m which the shipmaster's intelligence in-
volved her, she was also subjected to another trial
There were many people present, from the coun-
try round about, who had often heard of the scar-
let 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

356 <7§Ae Scarlet Letter

amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne
with rude and boorish intrusiveness. Unscrupu-
lous 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 sail-
ors, likewise, observing the press of spectators,
and learning the purport of the scarlet letter, came
and thrust their sunburnt and desperado-looking
faces into the ring. Even the Indians were af-
fected by a sort of cold shadow of the white man's
curiosity, and, gliding through the crowd, fastened
their snake-like black eyes on Hester's bosom;
conceiving, perhaps, that the wearer of this bril-
liantly embroidered badge must needs be a per-
sonage of high dignity among her people. Lastly
the inhabitants of the town (their own interest in
this worn-out 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, well-acquainted gaze at her familiar shame.
Hester saw and recognized the self-same faces of
that group of matrons, who had awaited her
forthcoming from the prison-door, seven years
ago ; all save one, the youngest and only com-
passionate among them, whose burial-robe she had
since made. At the final hour, when she was so

Letter

lester Prynnc
Unscrupu-
ot bring them
rds. At that
d there by the
ce which the
i gang of sail-
of spectators,
2t letter, came
srado-looking
iians were af-
e white man's
owd, fastened
ster's bosom ;
• of this bril-
:ds be a per-
ople. Lastly
vn interest in
'ing itself, by
feel) lounged
mted Hester
St, with their
nillar shame,
ame faces of
awaited her
seven years
d only com-
robe she had
n she was so

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

357

soon to flmg 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.

W' le Hester stood in that magic circle of ig-
nominy, where the cunning cruelty of her sentence
seemed to have fixed her forever, the admirable
preacher was looking down from the sacred pul-
pit 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 market-place ! What imagination would
have been irreverent enough to surmise that the
same scorching stigma was on them both!

X§<i'ik!^la^ngf§eScarktLeUer

'HE eloquent voice, on which the
|souls of the listening audience had
been borne aloft as on the swell-
jing waves of the sea, at length came
^ ^o a pause. There was a momen-
tary silence, profound as what should follow the
utter..nce of oracles. Then ensued a murmur
and half-hushed tumult ; as if the auditors, re-
leased from the high spell that had transported
them mto the region of another's mind, were
returning into themselves, with all their awe
and wonder still heavy on them. In a mo-
ment 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 market-place abso-
lutely babbled, from side to side, with applauses

^Ae Scarlet Letter

359

ktLetter

on which the
audience had
)n the swell-
t length came
as a momen-
!d follow the
a murmur
auditors, re-
transported
mind, were
I their awe
In a mo-
i forth from
t there was
more fit to
into which
■ which the
of flame,
ranee of his

broke into
place abso"
I 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, ar ' -o 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, I
a spirit as of prophecy had come upon him,' j
constraining him to its purpose as mightily as '
the old prophets of Israel were constrained;
only with this difl^'erence, 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 other-

36° 'g/ic Scarlet Letter

wise than as the natural regret of
pass away. Yes; their minister wh

one soon to

they

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 foil 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 reputarion of whitest sanctity, could exalt
a clergyman in New England's eariiest days,
when the professional character was of itself
a lofty pedestal. Such was the position which
the minister occupied, as he bowed his head for-
ward on the cushions of the pulpit, at the close
of his Election Sermon. Meanwhile Hester

Letter

one soon to
om they so
all, that he
ut a sigh —
li upon him,
ears ! This
;ave the last
reach er had
his passage
wings over
2 a shadow
/n a shower

'■erend Mr.
leir various
until they
f life more
y previous
r be. He
^ proudest
e gifts of
ence, and
3uld exalt
liest days,
• of itself
ion which
head for-
the close
ie Hester

"J^Ae Scarlet Letter

361

Prynne was standing beside the scaffold of the
p-nory, wth the scarlet letter still burning on her

Now was heard again the clangor of the music,
and the measured tramp of the military escort

was to be marshalled thence to the town-hall
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 ba!k
reverently, on either side, as the Governor and
magistrates, the old and wise men, the holy
ministers, and all that were eminent and r -
nowned advanced into the midst of them.
When they were fairly i„ the market-place
their presence was greeted by a shout. This J

torce and volume from the childlike loyaltv
which the age awarded to its rulers _ was' felt

kindled'" T'"'''!-"''' °"'^"" °^ enthusiasm
kmdied in the auditors by that high strain of

ets'^th ;f r.^" reverberating in their
ears Each felt the impulse in himself, and, in

witr^e'ThtchThyrdi'-'b-^'^^-

'c tnurcn, It had hardly been kept
eemth. There were human beings enough, and

3fa 'Tg/l eSca rlef Letter

enough of highly wrought and symphonious
feeling, to produce that more impressive sound
than the organ tones 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 •. halo in the air about his
head ? So etherealized by spirit as he was, and so
apotheosized by wor»!:ippmg admirers, did his
footsteps, in the proctsston, 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

/ . /I glimpse of him. How feeble and pale he looked,

/^s4/,^ amid all his triumph! The energy — or say,

'^'l-.:^^.-,^.^ 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

Letter

symphonious
•ressive sound
r the thunder,

mighty swell
jreat voice by
1 likewise one
v^er, from the
such a shout !
id stood the
ethren as the

'^ere there not
air about his
e was, and so
rers, did his
ead upon the

I civil fathers
i towards the

to approach
a murmur, as
er obtained a
le he looked,
ry — or say,
eld him up,
cred message
with it from
t it had so

glow, which

363

they had just before beheld burning on his cheek
wa,, ext,„gui,hed. like a flame thae sinTs down'
hopeless y among the late-decaving embers It
seemed hardly the face of a man ahve. with such
a dea hhke hue; it was hardly a man with life in
h.m, that tottered on his path so nervelessly, yet
tottered, and did not fail ! ' ^

One of his clerical brethren, -it was the ven-
whi h Jf''".^"-".- ""serving the state in
wh,.h Mr. D,mmesdale was left bv the retiring

h«tilv o'off v"' '™^"'i'i'y. «=PPed forward
hast ly to offer h,s support. The minister tremu-

He still walked onward, if that movement could
be so descnbed, which rather resembled the waver-
■ng effort of an infant, with its mother's arms in
v.ew, outstretched to tempt him forward. And
now almost imperceptible as were the latter steps
of h,s progress, he had come opposite the well-
remembered and weather-darkened scaffold, where
ong smce, with all that dreary lapse of time be-
tween, Hester Prynne had encountered the world's
.gnom,„,ous stare. There stood Hester, holding
htt le Pearl by the hand I And there was the scar-
let letter on her breast ! The minister here made

stately and rejoicmg march to which the proces-
sion moved. It summoned him onward,-on-
ward to the festival !_ but here he made a pause.

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WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4S03

364 ISA e Scarlet Letter

Bellingham, for the last few moments, had
Icept an anxious eye upon him. He now left his
own place in the procession, and advanced to give
assistance ; judging, from Mr. Dimmesdaie's as-
pect, that he must otherwise inevitably fall. But
there was something in the latter's expression that
warned back the magistrate, although a man not
readily obeying the vague intimations that pass
from one spirit to another. The crowd, mean-
while, looked on with awe and wonder. This
earthly faintness was, in their view, only another
phase of the minister's 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 fad-
ing at last into the light of heaven.

He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched
forth his arms.

" Hester," said he, " come hither ! Come, my
Jittle Pearlf*

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 bird-like 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

Letter

moments, had
[e now left his
vanced to give
imesdale's as-
bly fall. But
xpression that
gh a man not
ons that pass
crowd, mean-
'onder. This
, only another
itrength ; nor

high to be
cended before
liter, and fad-
n.

and stretched

1 Come, my

he regarded

once tender

The child,

IS one of her

ped her arms

— slowly, as

against her

', but paused

instant, old

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 365

Roger Chiilingworth 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?"
^isperedhe. " Wave back that woman ! Cast
off this child ! AH 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, fear-
fully, but firmly. "Thy power is not what it

Tow- " ^''P' ^ '^^^^ ^^"P^ '^^«

He again extended his hand to the woman of
the scarlet letter.

" "'"" ^T""^." cried he, with a piercino
earnestness "in the name of Him, so terrib e nd

ment,to do what-for my own heavy sin and

miserab e aeonv I wli-kk u ,,• ,

sev,.n „.. 5°"y— ' withheld myself from doing I

et? be H Tl T''^ "^^"eth, Hester; bul

Iran ed ^",1''^ ""^ "'" ^^''^^ ^od hath
granted me ! This wretched and wronged old

4...

366 "^Ae Scarlet Letter

man is opposing it with all his might ! — with all
his own might, and the fiend's ! 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 m'ost
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 sin-born
child was clasped in his. Old Roger Chilling-
worth followed, as one intimately connected with
the drama of guilt and sorrow in which they he
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 I "
answered the minister.

Yet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an
expression of doubt and anxiety in his eyes, not

' Letter

jht! — with all
Come, Hester,
cafFold ! "
»e men of rank
diately around
Jrprise, and so
It they saw, —

1 which most

2 any other, —
ive spectators
seemed about

er, leaning on
by her arm
and ascend its
the sin-born
>ger Chilling-
annected with
hich they hs
erefore, to be

earth over,"
i^aian, " there
gh place nor
: escaped me,

me hither I "

pster with an
lis eyes, not

^Ae Scarlet Letter 367

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' Ut
me now do the will which he hath made plain be-
fore my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man.
bo let me make haste to take my shame upon
me I *

^ Partly supported by Hester Prynne, and hold-
ing one hand of little Pearl's, th^ Reverend Mr
Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and ven-
erable 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
life-matter -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

368 ^/ie Scarlet Letter

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 i^r-hfihold-me-here, iU one sinner of the
•JiSd^l^ ^^ l^st ! — 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 I Lo, the
scarlet Icccer 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 iurid gleam of
awe and horrible repugnance round about her.
~!> >^ But tfiere stood one in the midst of you, at whose
^V^ 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. « God's eye beheld It ! The angels
were forever pointing at it ! The Devil knew it

' Letter

lor through it,
ig up out of
d woe, — "ye,
ve deemed me

sinner of the

tand upon the

should have

3se arm, more

I have crept

idful moment,

ace! Lo, the

Ye have all

alk hath been,

she may have
lurid gleam of
Jd about her.
you, at whose
shuddered I "
minister must
undisclosed,
kness, — and,
t, — that was
He threw off
:ely forward a
1.
I, with a kind

to speak out

The angels

)evil knew it

^Ae Scarlet Le tter 369

well and fretted it continually with the touch of
his burnmg finger! But he hid it cunningly/
from men, and walked among you with the mien ,
of a .^:nt, mournful, because so pure in a sinful/

I A 77 ^If '''^' ^''""'^ ^^ "^'^^^^ his heavenly
kmdred ! Now, at the death-hour, he stands up
before you ! He bids you look again at Hester's
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 I Stand anv

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
horror-stricken multitude was concentrated on
the ghastly, n^racle^ while the minister stood,
with a flush of tri^1:,ph in his face, as one who
in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory
1 hen, down he sank upon the scaflxjJd ! 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 ! "

»4

370 T5^e Scarlet Letter

" 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 I 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 father's cheek, they
were the pledge that she would grow up amid
human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with
the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her
mother, too. Pearl's errand as a messenger of
anguish was all fulfilled.

" Hester," said the clergyman, " farewell ! "

'S^hall 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? "

Letter

the minister.

:he old man,
e child.
— and there
s face, as of
ay, now that
almost as if
ild,--"dear
)w ? Thou
I But now

>vas broken.
; wild infant
sympathies ;
cheek, they
ow up amid
3 battle with
Powards her
essenger of

rewell !
ispered she,
"Shall we
:r ? Surely,
ter, with all
ternity, with
11 me what

^Ae Scarlet Letter

371

Hush, Hester, hush ! " said he, with trcmu-
lous solemnity. « The law we broke ! - the sin
here so awfully revealed ! — let these alone be
m thy thoughts ! I fear ! I fear ! It n,ay be,
hat wh.n w(; forgot our God, - when we vio-
lated our reverence each for the other's soul -
It was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet
hereafter, m an everlasting and pure reunion.
Ood knows; and he is merciful! He hath
proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions.
^y giving me this burning torture to bear upon
my breast ! By sending yonder dark and terrible
old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat '
By bringing me hither, to die this death of tri-
.Jimphant %nomiax.iiefQfi£ „tJifi,,^eople ! Had
either of these agonies been wanting, I had been I
lost forever! Praised be his name ! His will be
done ! Farewell I "

That final word came forth with the minister's
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.

(£>onclusior\€)

FTER 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 explana-
tions, 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 after-
wards, 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, —

, when time
le to arrange
ference to the
re was more
/hat had been

having seen,
er, a scarlet
hat worn by
e flesh. As
ous explana-
f have been
ie Reverend
vhen Hester

badge, had
:h he after-
bllowed out,

on himself,
ad not been
tit, when old
lecromancer,
e agency of
rs, again, —

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 373

and thos= b«t able to appreciate the minister',
peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation
of h,s sp,rit upon the body, _ whispered their
behef, that the awful symbol was the effect of the -.
ever-act,ve tooth of remorse, gnawing from the '^
.nmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting
Heaven s dreadful judgment by the visible pres-
ence of the letter. The reader may choose
among these theories. We have thrown all the

would gladly, now that it has done its office
erase ,ts deep print out of our own brain ; where
long meditation has fixed it in very undesirable

distinctness.

It is singular, nevertheless, that certain per-
sons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and
professed never once to have removed their eyes
from the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied that
here was any mark whatever on his breast, more
than on a new-born infant's. Neither, by their
report, had his dying words acknr ledged nor
even remotely implied, any, the slightest connec-
tion, 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, — con-
scious, abo, that the reverence of the multitude
placed him already among saints and angels, - ^ vx W^
had desired, by yielding up his breath in the arms

•

374 *^/te S carlet Letter

of that fallen woman, to express to the world how
utterly nugatory is the choicest of man's own
righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts
for mankind's 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 sin-
\ ners 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 n.erit, which would look
aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth
so momentous, M^e must be allowed to consider
this version of Mr. Dimmesdale's story as only
an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a
man's friends — and especially a clergyman's —
will sometimes uphold his character, when proofs,
clear as the mid-day sunshine on the scarlet let-
ter, establish him a false and sin-stained 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 mprals which press upon
us from the poor minister's miserable experience,

Letter

he world hoW
f man's own
in his efforts
ad made the
lerto impress
arnful lesson,
, we are sin-
em, that the
so far above
y the Mercy
more utterly
\ would look
ting a truth
1 to consider
itory as only
with which a
:rgyman's —
when proofs,
e scarlet let-
ned creature

:fly followed,
up from the
ne of whom

others had
witnesses, —
le foregoing

press upon
I experience,

'^Ae Scarlet Letter m

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.
Dimmesdale's death, in the appearance and de-
meanor of the old man known as Roger Chilling-
worth. All his strength and energy — all his
vital and intellectual force — seemed at once to
desert him; insomuch that ho positively withered
.\p, 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 ofjcyiyjge;
and when, by its completest triumph and con-
summation, that evil principle was left with no
further material to support it, when, in short
there was no more Devil's 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 Chilling-
worth 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^ E.ach^ in its utmost de-

W'St^fmm.

376 '^/i eSca rlet Letter

velopment, supposes a high degree of intimacy
and heart-knowledge ; each renders one individ-
ual dependent for the food of his affections and
spiritual life upon another ; each leaves the pas-
sionate lover, or the no less passionate hater,
forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his
subject. Philosophically considered, therefore,
the two passions seem essentially the same, ex-
cept 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 mat-
ter of business to communicate to the reader.
At old Roger Chillingworth's 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 1elf-chiki, — the demon off-
spring, as some people, up to that epoch, per-
sisted in considering her, — became the rjchest
heiress of her day, in the New World^:^"^ Not
improbably, this circumstance wrought a very
material change in the public estimation; and.

Letter

of intimacy
one individ-
ifections and
ves the pas-
anate hater,
awal of his
1, therefore,
le same, ex-
n a celestial
i lurid glow.
:ian and the
ave been —
hly stock of
golden love,
have a mat-
the reader,
lase, (which
his last will
Bellinghara
; executors,
amount of
id, to little
ne.

demon ofF-

epoch, per-

the rjqhest

orldv^'Not

jht

very

ation ; andj

"^Ae Scarlet Letter yn

had the mother and child remained here, little
mrl 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 physician's 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 drift-wood
tost ashore, with the initials of a name upon it,—
yet no tidings of them unquestionab' 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 sea-shore, where Hester Prynne had dwelt.
Near this latter spot, one afternoon, some chil-
dren were at play, when they beheld a tall woman,
in a gray robe, approach the cottage-door. 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
shadow-like 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 s^"^ ^^..u i t> . . .

could bear. But her hesitatio

n was

378 vSAe Scarlet Letter

only for an instant, though long enough to dis-

Jl» play a scarlet letter on her breast.

•* And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken

._"M up her long-forsaken 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 elf-child had gone
thus untimely to a maiden grave ; or whether
her wild, rich nature had been softened and sub-
dued, and made capable of a woman's gentle
happiness. But, through the remainder of Hes-
ter's 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 cam", with armorial seals upon them,
though of bearings unknown to English heraldry.
In the cottage there vyere 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 em-
broidering a baby-garment, with such a lavish
richness of golden fancy as would have raised a
public tumult, had any infant, thuj apparelled,
been shown to, our sober-hued community.

"^Ae Scarlet Letter

379

In fine, the gossips of that day believed, —
and Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations
a century Tatei^rbelleved,- 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 un-
known 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 magfstrate 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.
«ut, m the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and
self-devoted years that made up Hester's life
the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which
attracted the world's 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

380 Tg/i c Sea rlef Letter

trouble. Women, more especially, — in the con-
tinually recurring trials of wounded, wasted,
wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,
— or with the dreary burden of a heart un-
yielded, because unvalued and unsought, — came
to Hester's cottage, demanding why they were so
wretched, and what the remedy ! Hester com-
forted and counselled them as best she might.
She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at
Isome brighter period, when the world should

'^ Ihave grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a
jnew truth would be revealed, in order to estab-
lish the whole relation between man and woman

_ on a surer ground of mutual happiness. Earlier
in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she her-
self 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 life-
long 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 suc-
cessful to such an end !

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad
eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And, after

• Letter

, — in the con-
inded, wasted,
sinful passion,
f a heart un-
ought, — came
y they were so

Hester com-
est she might.

belief, that, at
world should
I's own time, a
rder to estab-
m and woman
Iness. Earlier
[ that she her-
3tess, but had
bility that any

truth should
ith sin, bowed
id with a life-
postle of the
m, indeed, but
ise, moreover,
lereal medium
I love should
: of a life suc-

anced her sad
r. And, after

"^Ae Scarlet Letter 381

many, many years, a new grave was delved, near
an old and sunken one, in that burial-ground
beside which King's 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 monu-
ments carved with armorial bearings; and on
this simple slab of slate - as the curious investi-
gator may still discern, and perplex himself with
the purport— th^xe appeared the semblance of
an engraved escutcheon.- It bore a device, a
herald s 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 ever-glowing point of light gloomier than
th^ shadow : —

^ FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES.'

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