Julia Ward Howe Part 31

Among the notabilities of Antwerp in those days was Charles Felu, the armless painter. He was to be seen every day in the Museum, copying the great masters with skill and fidelity. He interested the Doctor greatly, and the whole party made acquaintance with him. A letter from one of them describes the meeting with this singular man:--

"As we were looking round at the pictures, I noticed a curious painting arrangement. There was a platform raised about a foot above the floor, with two stools, one in front of the other, and an easel. Presently the artist entered. The first thing he did, on stepping on the platform, was to kick off his shoes. He then seated himself (Heaven knows how) on one stool and placed his feet in front of him on the other, close before the easel. I was surprised to see that his stockings had no toes to them.

But my surprise was much greater when I saw him take the palette in one foot and the brush in the other, and begin to paint. The nicety with which he picked out his brushes, rubbed the paints, erased with his great toe, etc., was a mystery to me.... In a few minutes he put his foot into his pocket, drew out a paper from which he took his card, and _footed_ it politely to papa.... He shaves himself, plays billiards (and well, too), cards, and dominoes, cuts up his meat and feeds himself, etc."

"_October 1._ By accident went to the same hotel [in Bruges] to which I went twenty-four years ago, a bride. I recognized a staircase with a bal.u.s.trade of swans each holding a stiff bulrush in its mouth.... Made a little verse thereupon."

From Belgium the way led to London; thence, after a brief and delightful visit to the Bracebridges at Atherstone, to Liverpool, where the China awaited her pa.s.sengers. The voyage was long and stormy, thirteen days: the Journal speaks chiefly of its discomforts; but on the second Sunday we read: "X. preached a horrible sermon--stood up and mocked at philosophy in good English and bad Christianity. He failed alike of satire and of sense, and talked like a small Pharisee of two thousand years ago. 'Not much like the Sermon on the Mount,' quoth I; not theology enough to stand examination at Andover. Bluejackets in a row, unedified, as were most of us."

On October 25 the travellers landed in Boston, thankful to be again on firm land, and to see the family unit once more complete.

"The dear children came on board to greet us--all well, and very happy at our return."

Thus ends the story, seven months of wonder and of delight.

At her Club, soon after, she gave the following epitome of the trip, singing the doggerel lines to an improvised tune which matched them in absurdity:--

Oh! who were the people you saw, Mrs. Howe, When you went where the Cretans were making a row?

Kalopathaki--Rodocanachi-- Paparipopoulos--Anagnostopoulos-- Nicolades--Paraskevades-- These were the people that saw Mrs. Howe When she went where the Cretans were making a row.

Oh! what were the projects you made, Mrs. Howe, When you went where the Cretans were making a row?

Emanc.i.p.ation--civilization--redintegration of a great nation, Paying no taxes, grinding no axes-- Flinging the Ministers over the banisters.

These were the projects of good Mrs. Howe When she went where the Cretans were making a row.

Oh! give us a specimen, dear Mrs. Howe, Of the Greek that you learned and are mistress of now.

Potichomania--Mesopotamia.

Tatterdemalion--episcopalian-- Megalotherium--monster inferium-- Scoulevon--auctrion--infant phenomenon.

Kyrie ticamete--what's your calamity?

Pallas Athenae Aun, Favors no Fenian.

Such is the language that learned Mrs. Howe, In the speech of the G.o.ds she is mistress of now.

CHAPTER XIII

CONCERNING CLUBS

1867-1871; _aet._ 48-52

"Behold," he said, "Life's great impersonate, Nourished by labor!

Thy G.o.ds are gone with old-time faith and fate; Here is thy Neighbor."

J. W. H., "A New Sculptor."

After such a rush of impression and emotion, the return to everyday life could not fail to bring about a corresponding drop in our mother's mental barometer. Vexations awaited her. The Boylston Place house had been let for a year, and--Green Peace being also let on a long lease--the reunited family took refuge for the winter in the "Doctor's Wing" of the Perkins Inst.i.tution.

Again, an extremely unfavorable critique of "Later Lyrics" in a prominent review distressed her greatly; her health was more or less disturbed; above all, the sudden death of John A. Andrew, the beloved and honored friend of many years, saddened both her and the Doctor deeply.

All these things affected her spirits to some extent, so that the Journal for the remainder of 1867 is in a minor key.

"... In despair about the house...."

On hearing of the separation of Charles Sumner from his wife:--

"For men and women to come together is nature--for them to live together is art--to live well, high art."

"_November 21._ Melancholy, thinking that I did but poorly last evening [at a reading from her 'Notes on Travel' at the Church of the Disciples].... At the afternoon concert felt a savage and tearful melancholy, a profound friendlessness. In the whole large a.s.sembly I saw no one who would help me to do anything worthy of my powers and life-ideal. I have so dreamed of high use that I cannot decline to a life of amus.e.m.e.nt or of small occupation."

"... I believe in G.o.d, but am utterly weary of man."

After a disappointment:--

"... To church, where my mental condition speedily improved. Sermon on the Good Samaritan. Hymns and prayers all congenial and consoling. Felt much consoled and uplifted out of all petty discords and disappointments. A disappointment should be digested in patience, not vomited in spleen. Bitter morsels nourish the soul, not less perhaps than sweet. Thought of the following: Moral philosophy begins with the fact of accepting human life."

In November came a new interest which was to mean much to her.

"Early in town to attend the Free Religious Club. Weiss's essay was well written, but enc.u.mbered with ill.u.s.trations rarely pertinent. It was neither religion, philosophy, nor cosmology, but a confusion of all three, showing the encyclopaedic aim of his culture. It advocated the natural to the exclusion of the supernatural. Being invited to speak, I suggested real and ideal as a better ant.i.thesis for thought than natural and supernatural. Weiss did all that his method would allow. He is a man of parts. I cannot determine how much, but the Parkerian standard, or a similar one, has deformed his reasoning powers. He seeks something better than Christianity without having half penetrated the inner significance of that religion.

"Alcott spoke in the idealistic direction. Also Wa.s.son very well.

Lucretia Mott exceptionally well, a little rambling, but with true womanly intuitions of taste and of morality."

This a.s.sociation of thinkers was afterwards known as the "Boston Radical Club." She has much to say about it in her "Reminiscences."

"I did, indeed," she says, "hear at these meetings much that pained and even irritated me. The disposition to seek outside the limits of Christianity for all that is n.o.ble and inspiring in religious culture, and to recognize especially within these limits the superst.i.tion and intolerance which have been the bane of all religions--this disposition, which was frequently manifested both in the essays presented and in their discussion, offended not only my affections, but also my sense of justice....

"Setting this one point aside, I can but speak of the Club as a high congress of souls, in which many n.o.ble thoughts were uttered. n.o.bler than any special view or presentation was the general sense of the dignity of human character and of its affinity with things divine, which always gave the master tone to the discussions."

She says elsewhere of the Radical Club:--

"The really radical feature in it was the fact that the thoughts presented at its meetings had a root; were in that sense radical....

Here I have heard Wendell Phillips, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Weiss and James Freeman Clarke, Athanase Coquerel, the n.o.ble French Protestant preacher; William Henry Channing, worthy nephew of his great uncle; Colonel Higginson, Doctor Bartol, and many others. Extravagant things were sometimes said, no doubt, and the equilibrium of ordinary persuasion was not infrequently disturbed for a time. But the satisfaction of those present when a sound basis of thought was vindicated and established is indeed pleasant in remembrance...."

"To d.i.c.kens's second reading, which I enjoyed very much. The 'wreck' in 'David Copperfield' was finely given. His appearance is against success; the face is rather commonplace, seen at a distance, and very red if seen through a gla.s.s: the voice worn and _blase_."

"... Club in the evening, at which my nonsense made people laugh, as I wished...."

"A little intoxicated with the pleasure of having made people laugh. A fool, however, can often do this better than a wise man. I look earnestly for a higher task. Yet innocent, intelligent laughter is not to be despised."

"Was taken with verses in church. They did not prove nearly as good as I had hoped...."

"Made three beds, to help Bridget, who had the was.h.i.+ng alone. Read a difficult chapter in Fichte."

"Studied and worried as usual,--Fichte and Greek...."

"Have not been strenuous enough about the Cretan Fair...."