At AND Near THE CAPITAL: 
 
 FAMILIAR LETTERS 
 
 YOUNG AMERICAN 
 
 I 
 
 AMERICAN WHO IS NO LONGER YOUNG 
 
 A SERIAL.— NUMBER ONE 
 
Class. 
 
 F \^^ 
 
 Book /YV_^L^ 
 
At and Near the Capital: 
 
 FAMILIAR letters 
 
 YOUNG AMERICAN 
 
 AMERICAN WHO IS NO LONGER YOUNG. 
 
 (^(rUjt /j^rhcLt, 
 
 u:^v^^ 
 
 A SERIAL.— NUMBER ONE. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 ERNEST INSTITUTE. 
 
 1886. 
 
Copyright 1S86, 
 
FOREWORDS. 
 
 Some Foreshowing, in addition to that effected in the opening Let- 
 ter seems to me dictated by entirely sound considerations. 
 
 I was at the National Museum , this afternoon. The new mspection 
 that I made of it at once enhanced my interest in what is undertaken 
 in the Serial here opened, and gave greater depth and force to my de- 
 termination not to fail for want of thoroughness in scrutiny in any way. 
 
 It may be well to add, that the character and compass of the work 
 are desi^^ned to be such that the largest as well as the minutest mat- 
 ters are to be jiresented with at least uncommon effort to advance 
 good objects. . 
 
 Let me nu>k« a statement that I own to be quite perilous. 
 
 The book is to do what it can for a correct conception of the Capi- 
 tal and the crmecled Land. The paramountness of the Nationality 
 that is— whatever Washingtonians in general may think (or think they 
 think) about ihe matter— in all parts and particles— in every jot 
 and tittle— of the District of Columbia— is to be carefully set forth 
 and earnestly insisted on, when I shall reach the subject m the 
 body of this offering. , ,, . i • 
 
 The settled residents of Washington do not consult their real in- 
 terests— they become hinderers of their own advancement— when 
 they claim the Offices on a ground completely at discord with the Con- 
 stitution and with the nature of things, as, quite demonstrably, is the 
 ground, that the alleged '• Home-liulers" rather noisily assume. 
 
 All talk or print about " Home Rule" at the Seat of Government of 
 the United States is. I am very sure, much worse than waste ot words. 
 Another perilous but proper addition to the Foreshowing in Letter 
 First, is this : , ^ 
 
 Whether as to the Senate of the United States ; the Congress as an 
 entirety; the Judiciary; the AccouiKing Officers; or other Official 
 Beings; I shall in this book maintain, that the President is sacredly 
 obliged to defend against diminution the discrdion oHui^ Public Trust. 
 This means, of course, among other things, that 1 shall say, in sub- 
 stance, and try to prove, that as between the President of the 
 United States, on the one hand, and tl>e party of Senator Edmunds, 
 on the other, the President is in the right. J3ut it means more than 
 this. It means that, accor«iing to the views to be here advocated, the 
 President is, in all respects, obliged to stand for all the powers and 
 
 discretions of his Place. This volume takes in t^iis particular, the 
 
ground taken by me, as to Martial Matters, in the case of Capt. 
 Robert II. Montgomery, in the Court of Claims. 
 
 But, on the other hand, being an Independent, holding the Political 
 Principles of a Jeffersonian (not Jacksonian) Democrat, I advocate no 
 exaggeration of the Presidential Power and Discretion. 
 
 If the Government would give me what it wrongly holds of mine — 
 my money — just as clearly mine as is my house — I would, in the sum 
 of above six thousand dollars, be readier than I am for the pecuniary 
 outlay involved in the publication, through The Ernest Institute, of this 
 work and of two other Serials; one, A Forensic View of Man and Laio ; 
 the other, A Book of Type and Types; both just to go, for the first time, 
 into Market. 
 
 Robert Bruce Warden. 
 
 Marcli 13, 188G. '^X 
 
AT AND NEAR THE CAPITAL: 
 
 FAMILIAR LETTERS 
 
 TO A 
 
 YOUNG AMERICAN 
 
 FROM AN 
 
 AMERICAN WHO IS NO LONGER YOUNG. 
 
 I. 
 
 THESE LEXTERS.— FEATURES OF THEIR SUBJECTS. 
 
 AT AND NEAR THE CAPITAL, dear Charlie, You and I 
 have made some studies most important to us both, but, tak- 
 ing into view tlie difference between your age and my age, prob- 
 ably of larger practical momentousness to You than to me. Your 
 age comprises only flve-and-twenty years, while mine comprises 
 two-and-sixty. 
 
 Years have passed since I commenced to write a book like this. 
 I have been variously hindered in the composition of that volume, 
 and I substitute for it, (for reasons which need not be stated,) what 
 is offered here. It is au offering of Open Letters, meant for pub- 
 lication. It may be regarded as, in no slight measure, due to the 
 joint studies which I have just spoken of, although it also represents 
 investigations made without your help. 
 
 Before proceeding farther, let me make an explanation, which 
 I deem not unimportant, in relation to the farther composition of 
 these Letters — namely, that tht're is to be free reproduction, in this 
 book, of matter which has been in print before, though it was writ- 
 ten by mj^self. The repetition seems to me decidedly advisable, 
 for several quite thoroughly considered reasons which, it seems to 
 me, need be explained, minutely, to yourself alone. Something 
 about them must, however, manifest itself as I proceed. 
 
 Because of what, perhaps, may be regarded as a set of accidents, 
 this book, dear Son. is to be one of tliose "greatest efforts" which 
 are very often talked of now-adays. Receive it with a fitly sym- 
 pathetical consideration, but with no undue indulgence. 
 
2 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 A defender of my works and ways when they were worse than 
 savagelj^ assailed — m 1874 — placed at ray disposal an elaborate 
 paper, in the course of which, after setting forth some letters I 
 received from Salmon Portland Chase, he said : 
 
 " The man to whom these letters were written had been an intimate 
 acquaintance of Mr. Chase for years and years, and if ever one man 
 had an opportunity to know another fully, surely Mr. Chase ought to 
 have known Robert B. Warden. They had both been prominent in 
 Ohio. Sometimes they were together, and sometimes opposed, in 
 politics ; but, no matter whether co-operating with each other or fight- 
 ing on opposite sides, there never was a time during the acquaintance 
 of these two men when they did not respect and admire each other. 
 There never was a time when either of them attributed to the other 
 anything but honor and ability. But suppose, for the sake of the ar- 
 gument, that Mr. Chase during the last few months of his life was not 
 possessed of the power of discrimination necessary to select a biog- 
 rapher ; suppose he might have been deceived by some newcomer ; 
 what explanation is there to the high regard and affection he enter- 
 tained for Judge Warden, far back in the past? In 1857, Mr. Chase 
 invited Judge Warden, as one of several distinguished speakers, to 
 address the citizens of Ohio in his behalf." 
 
 In the same paper are the sentences : 
 
 "Enough has been shown above to clearly indicate how shallow 
 have been the pretences urged against Warden, and how miserable 
 and contemptible it has been for the press, especially that portion of 
 the Ohio press which took sides against him, to turn their backs upon 
 one who claims not perfection for himself, but who, nevertheless, is 
 an able and an honorable man, whose own unaided efforts, when he 
 was yet a young man, secured for him a seat upon the Supreme Bench 
 of Ohio. His decisions while a Judge of that Court are also ' accessi- 
 ble' to Mr. Schuckers or any one else who desires to see whether he 
 was fit to fill the same seat that had been filled by Xathauiel C. Read, 
 John A. Corwin, Allen G. Thurman, William B. Caldwell, and Rufus 
 P. Ranney." 
 
 When I was a Member of that Court, I had but thirty j^ears of 
 age ; but having, now, more than double than age, 1 point to what 
 1 uttered as a Judge in that tribunal, and also to what I judicially 
 uttered in the Court of Common Pleas, at Cincinnati, before 1 was 
 a Judge of the Supreme Court, as establishing, for me, at least that 
 I need not seek indulgence here. I ma}^ — I do — need sympathy, 
 dear Son, ])ut not indulgence, I believe. 
 
 The work is not to be, in any sense, a law book, though it is to 
 freely offer matter of a legal cast, on fit occasion. 
 
 Near the Capital of the United States, dear Son, there is a spot 
 that has, one says, great wealth in point of " air and view." It is 
 
At and Near the Ca'pital. 3 
 
 3iot far from the grounds of St. Elizabeth's ; but it is not within 
 them. Nay, it. is not really on their part of the Anacostia Heights 
 sX all. The situation of it is on a fine ridge on which are several 
 residences. One is that of Mr. Mandeville Girard Lee, well known 
 to journalists, and formerly a journalist himself. Another of the 
 residences clustered here belongs to worthy Dr. Grant, also quite 
 -generally known in Washington, and it is occupied by him. An- 
 other dwelling place belonging to the cluster, at the extremity op- 
 posite to that held by the site of Dr. Grant's house, is owned by 
 Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood, known to fame, but is not occupied by 
 her, but by a family named Clarke. The house in which I write 
 is owned by Mrs. Emily Lee Sherwood, widely, but not widely 
 enough, in reputation as a ready and a charming writer, and is oc- 
 cupied by her husband and herself. As guest here, I have passed 
 the time since the 28th of July last, this blessedly bright morning 
 being of the twenty-first day of February, 1886. I came on the 
 day first named to pay a visit of an hour or two. But, my dear 
 Dau<Thter— your beloved Sister— Mrs. Clifford Warden, and her 
 charming Ethel,— my bewitching "boss" of a Grand-daughter— 
 were then here as guests, and I was asked to stay with them over- 
 night, I more than willingly complied; and I have ever since 
 dwelt here, unceasingly becoming more and more delighted with 
 the spot. 
 
 It was while seated just where I am seated now, that, on the 
 24th day of last September, I composd for A Book of Type and 
 Types the sentences ensuing : 
 
 " What a lustrious day this is ! The place, moreover, where I write, 
 is one of the choice places for the joys of Sight. Perhaps, there is not, 
 on tJiis earth, a set of views, the type of which is finer than the type ot 
 what is under view where I am writing. 
 
 " Let me make the passing record, that I write, not m my own so 
 dearly charming house at the corner of Washington Circle and New 
 Hampshu-e avenue, in what my typonomic studies (a) amply warrant 
 me in calling matchless Washington, but in the dwelling of my . . . . 
 friends the Sherwoods, on the Heights of Anacostia. The spot is, 1 
 am certain, unsurpassed in the fine wealth of landscape-views, in- 
 cluding' objects and phenomena. The water-views arc wondrously in 
 harmony with land-views, and Nature is here in association with some 
 of the very noblest forms-of Art. 
 
 (a) Elsewhere, I make this explanation, not to You : '; Tlie term, ^'Z'/'f*"™^' ^ """f .f^^J:""^- 
 edW is of n.y ovvn coinage; but it seems to me an obviously fit name ior the exceed ngly.m- 
 po?Unt scieac, that cogni.es Type, organical or inorgan ical, t»^™"g'-"' >'V:Z tt^'^Vvfois v 
 and reach " To this it may be well to add right here : " Toponmii/ appears to me tlio obviously 
 proper d^'ignation of the cognate science that cognizes local inlluenco on life and character 
 throughout the world. To both the sciences referred to, much attention has been, and is to be, 
 devoted by the Ernest Institute." 
 
4 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 "In presence of such scenery, how can I fail to strive, with goodt 
 efi"ect, for a new hold of life ? 
 
 " In passing vessels — steamers and sailers — and in railway phenom- 
 ena, there is an animation never rushing into sheer excess, and always 
 free from too long pauses. Is it possible to make too much of it, O 
 lover of the glorious in landscape ? 
 
 " In the presence of these views, I once more find myself— I often 
 find myself— repeating Moore's fine lines : 
 
 " ' Thou art, O God ! the life and light 
 
 Of all this wondrous world we see ! 
 Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
 
 Are but reflections, caught from Thee ! 
 Where'er we turn Thy glories shine, 
 And all things fair and bright are thine !' 
 
 "How, thinking so, and feeling so, on this devoted day, could my 
 remembrance fail to call up the peculiar lustrousness of your sweet 
 Mother's loveliness, as it delighted me in the days of her transcendent 
 beauty of physique ? " 
 
 That sentiment is fully reproduced, this day, all wintry as it is.. 
 I see, again, your "Mothers loveliness, as it delighted me in the 
 days of her transcendent beauty of physique." 1 trace her through 
 the joys and sorrows of her changeful life, even unto the close. 
 How proudly and how thankfully I remember her example to her 
 Children and her Husband, though she was so little satisfied, her- 
 self, with her demeanor, nothing I could say could serve to even 
 intimate. 
 
 Her last eleven years of life were passed in Washington or near- 
 it, save the ever brief times of her resort to other places for the 
 sake of the good health that she somewhat too anxiously endeav- 
 ored to make hers, but that so tryingly eluded her, as if in malice, 
 Washington, which pleased her from the first, became endeared to 
 her most deeply ere she passed out of this life, at eight-and-fifty 
 years of age. 
 
 Here is a Record, which must always have for me a special, ten- 
 der, holy interest, although I drew it up : 
 
 " This Open Letter will go to You, at Washington City, where we 
 have our simple — I will not say humble — Home, and from New Wind- 
 sor College, Maryland, where I have been "almost half a month. I 
 lectured here last" Friday evening. I shall hereafter criticise the Speech. 
 somewhat, if not the Speaker, also. I can do so, fairly, can't I, now? 
 
 " Can not there be here passing mention of the presence of your 
 ever suffering yet never wholly unenjoying Mother, my dear Mother- 
 loving Son ? 
 
 " My Better Self was one of the decidedly attentive Gentlewomen^ 
 
At and Near the Capital. 5 
 
 who made up, in numbers, say, a half of the audience that heard that 
 utterance of mine. I shan't deny, if I be charged with having very 
 much desired to find her pleased with my Discourse : and I at once 
 acknowledge that the praise she actually gave my eftbrt, was extremely 
 sweet to the Discourser. I insist, love of one's Wife has not yet come 
 to be a downright Shame. 
 
 "An incidental tribute to our Home came out, off-tongue, in that 
 discourse of mine. Next day, Somebody was heard saying words im- 
 porting an intent to have ' the brightest Home in Washington ;' and 
 I believe she can and tcill, triumphing over both Disease and Medi- 
 cine. 
 
 " Your Mother has no wish to join the ' Carriage-People' as a class 
 
 of Kank-and-Riches-Idolizing Followers of Fashion ; but she does 
 wish to be soon supplied with the long-talked of Restoration, in the 
 way of modest Carriage and good Horse : and she must soon have 
 both. 
 " Her Horse-Love is profound. All Hail to it say / /" 
 
 How your sweet Mother's plans respecting " the brightest home 
 in Washington" were rendered null, it would be very painful and 
 it is unnecessary to relate. Enough to be enabled, somehow, to 
 survive her loss, at such a time, when she, herself, had so much 
 hope and even expectation. 
 
 I remind You of my words : - Do justice to the Alma Mater of 
 your education, if You can. I question whether there has ever 
 been a happier Home-Institute than it has generally been, although, 
 perhaps, no Home was ever more severel}^ tried than ours has^ often 
 been. The School I have so long kept up in it, is largely occupied 
 with Laws, but hardly less with Manners and, therefore, with Char- 
 acter." Your Mother's part in keeping up that School at Home, 
 may have been more important than it seemed to You. To me 
 the great momentousness of her cooperation with me in the educa- 
 tive life of Home, grows clearer everj' day. 
 
 I see beyond all question that, without expending much in a 
 pecuniary way, she could, indeed, have made the house we had so 
 lately made our own, if not " the brightest Home in Washington," 
 at least as bright as any other Home in this or any other Capital, in 
 this or any other land . 
 
6 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 And yet it would have been no little thing to do, dear Son ! 
 Consider what a thing "the brightest Home in Washington" 
 would be. 
 
 You have been living at the Capital, except for a few months, in 
 1874, ever since August, 1873. You have been studying the Capi- 
 tal, and its vicinity, with me, from the time of your coming here to 
 dwell, unto this day. You know the Capital, quite thoroughly, if 
 anybody knows it thoroughly. 
 
 You have made topo-typonomical examinations of this place and 
 places near it ; and your capability for making such examinations 
 is a rare one, in that You both draw and paint, with excellence, and 
 yet have a mechanical facility, combined with an uncommon taste 
 and faculty for business. 
 
 You needn't blush, dear Charlie. Everj'^ one Avho knows You, 
 would give You such praise as that I have jusf given, and would 
 even largely add thereto. 
 
 Your knowledge of the Capital, perhaps, is on the whole, about 
 the equal of my own, although I know more of it, in some respects, 
 than You do, and, on the other hand, You know more of it, in some 
 respects, than is yet known to me. But You need not be told that 
 I. myself, have (mainly by the topo-typonomic method,) made quite 
 careful and continued studies of the City and of places near it, in- 
 cluding Georgetown, Alexandria,' Bladensburg, and Mount Vernon. 
 I sliall tell, somewh;it, the story of the studies just alluded to. 
 
 About the Homes of Washington I have, in various ways, in- 
 formed myself with an almost excessive care, in spite of — or it may 
 be, not a little aided by — my habits as a •• Stay-at-Home." Afiso- 
 ciation has much favored me in this respect. Among my close asso- 
 ciates have been Ladies and Gentlemen, both, who ai*e decidedly 
 "Society People;" and, though I, myself,, have never been con- 
 nected with the Press at Washington, I have had not a little inter- 
 course with the " Press Tribe," because of my relations and con- 
 ditions. I have very much desired to comprehend completely the 
 Home Life of Washington — no easy thing to comprehend. You 
 need not be assured. 
 
 My hygienic, economic, and aesthetic studies, in due combination 
 with considerations which belong to ethical research, have not, it 
 seems to me, been unrewarded by at least a fair success. There- 
 fore, I purpose, in this book, to treat, with none but fitly delicate 
 restraint, of the Home-Life that is to be discerned in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 Particular attention is to be devoted to the Home-Life of the 
 amiable, admirable Wirt. It will appear to have been an absolutely 
 charming Home. 
 
At and Near the Cajntal 
 
 In treating of Home-Life at Washington, I shall take notice of 
 these words of President Cleveland, in his Inaugural : 
 
 " It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to 
 closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the govern- 
 ment, economically administered ; because this bounds the right of 
 the government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor, or the 
 property of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets 
 extravagance among the people." 
 
8 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 How full application of this doctrine would affect Official Salary, 
 in Civil Life and Martial Life, it will be found of interest to care- 
 fully inquire. But I am ready, now to say, that I expect to justify 
 these words of mine addressed to You last year : 
 
 " We very naturally take a lively and large Interest in the high 
 Cause of Arms and Law. 
 
 '' I cannot think I make too much of War and Warriors, although I 
 deeply feel that they are often (as in Grant's case) most ridiculously 
 while most dangerously overprized. 
 
 "Unending peace has not arrived. The Warrior, as well as ' the 
 Schoolmaster,' can be seen ' abroad.' There was a great extravagance 
 in Brougham's often-cited spouting : 
 
 " ' Let the soldier be abroad if he will ; he can do nothing in this age. 
 The schoolmaster is abroad ; and I trust to him, armed with his primer,, 
 against the soldier, in full military array.' 
 
 " Just think of what the Soldier has been set to do, or to attempt, 
 since Brougham spouted the just-quoted words ! 
 
 "According to clear nomologic principles, the State is interested in 
 good Type-Production and in Health, wherever life appears, be it of 
 Plant, of Animal, or of Man. 
 
 " The State, moreover, is, quite demonstrably, obliged by Natural 
 Organic Law to strongly use whatever Force may clearly seem re- 
 quired to make that interest more than a name. However conscious 
 of its Fallibility, the Government is bound to carry into full eflect its 
 Laws, and Judgments, and Decrees. 
 
 "Law needs the more or less direct support of Arms. — Arms can 
 be near or far ; but they must be, and must be known to be available. 
 
 " The Government is bound to do all that it reasonably can, for 
 International Good- Will ; but it should not seek ' Peace at any Price.' 
 The Nation must, at any cost, perform its International Devoir, em- 
 bracing rational concern for Honor, Health, and Wealth. 
 
 "A Government conditioned and related as is ours, must have an 
 Army and a Navy, worthy to be so called, which should be neither 
 underpaid nor overpaid. 
 
 "They are not, and they never have been, overpaid. 
 
 "But are not Martial Officers, on Land and Sea alike, deplorably in 
 love with Social Rank?" 
 
 My views and sentiments, in this respect, are far from likcl}^ to 
 be changed. They have been very carefully and thoroughly de- 
 liberated. 
 
 At Fortress Monroe I wrote to You a letter that contained the 
 words : 
 
 " Where I am writing, on the eighteenth of November, 1884, at 
 about nine o'clock, A. M., after a quite hygienically light breaking of 
 a sanitary Fast, I may well think much of the Social Rank, accorded, 
 or at least aft'orded, by our customs, to our Martial Officers. These 
 
At and Near the Capital. 
 
 -Gentlemen are either of the Army or of the Navy. Types of both 
 the Services were at the tables in the Breakfast Room, a little while 
 ago ; and from the window of my private room I see a Naval Vessel 
 with three fluttering Flags, kept active by the breezy morning ; and I 
 also see the Rip Raps. 
 
 " I am in resort at The Hi/geia Hotel, at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, 
 near Fortress Monroe — an invalid quite seriously indisposed, though 
 wholly unalarmed. My hygienic cue is to be just as cheerful as I can, 
 and I shall ' mind my cue ' in that behalf. 
 
 "According to the dramatic Colonel Damas, the trade of Soldiers is 
 to make Widows, not Wives ; and yet what favorites the Soldiers 
 generally are with the dear Sex ! According to the Sex, in general, 
 high Social Rank is an unquestionably proper attribute of Martial 
 Officers. 
 
 " I have delivered many proofs, in my Profession and beyond it, of 
 a practical appreciation, warmed by an aft'ectionate regard, where 
 Martial Men and Measures are involved. I may not live to work out 
 much of what I am engaged in trying to efiect for Better Arms and Law, 
 in their relation to each other and to other objects of high Public Interest; 
 but You have been instructed in my views and sentiments in this re- 
 spect, and, heartily accepting them, will carry on whatever proper 
 work for them, on my part, may be left unfinished when I follow your 
 sweet Mother to the Tomb. 
 
 "Among the services I very much desire to render to our Arms, is 
 contribution toward solid Rectification, Purification, and Elevation of 
 the views and sentiments of Martial Officers, whether in the Army or 
 in the Navy, touching Social Rank. 
 
10 
 
 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 " I put much study on some aspects of the subject, when I gave the 
 necessary leave to your so early-fated Brother, Ernest, when he volun- 
 teered for what he deemed, as I did, the high cause of Social Order 
 and of Law. 
 
 " I could not go with him. I was prevented by a fit devotion to his 
 Mother and by other things, which have been very carefully as well 
 as candidlv explained to You— among them, my condition, physically ; 
 but no hart ever panted for the fountains of water more than I desired 
 to be with Ernest in the Army of the Union. The regret I felt, on 
 finding to go with him was made, by my stern Fate, a clear impossi- 
 bility, was never lessened while he lived, and has not been diminished 
 since, and must remain with me forever. 
 
 " Ernest, volunteering as a Private, fairly won the moral right to a 
 Commission, and was promised one. The promise was, quite culpa- 
 bly, broken. When he fell, at Champion Hills, with what proved 
 mortal hurt, he was a Non-Commissioned Officer, although performing 
 the Devoir of a commissioned one." 
 
 While Mr. Arthur was Chief Magistrate I said to You : 
 
 '''Official Social Rank, in all its modes, is very 
 bad for all concerned, although, I am aware, our 
 ton-led President appears almost to fancy that he 
 represents American ' Society,' at his grand Emi- 
 nence, as President of the United States ! 
 
 '' The Governmental and especially the Diplo- 
 matic Influence of Riches and of what assumes to 
 be the Best Society, has, for a long time, fre- 
 quently engaged my thoughts; and now I very 
 clearly see that no Official ought to be encouraged 
 to live Snobbishly. 
 
 " Must Diplomatic People be excepted ? 
 
 *' Ever since I first saw The Irish Ambassador, 
 some of the chief functions of Diplo- 
 macy have oft engaged my thoughts. 
 Not long ago, I hazarded the prop- 
 osition that Diplomacy is not tbe 
 Art of Dining: I go farther, now: I 
 venture, now, to represent Diplomacy 
 as not the Art of Shining. 
 
 "Legal Youngster! If we must 
 have highly dressed Diplomacy, why 
 might n't it be well to change the 
 Gender of Diplomacy, henceforth ?— 
 Does not THE SEX outshine the 
 Other Sex in all the modes of lustrous 
 and luxurious Life ?— But, seriously, 
 all our Public Life ought to be disin- 
 fected of all Snobbery." 
 
At and Near the Capital. 11 
 
 But I have also said to You, and I expect to have the right to 
 say to You again, and in this book : 
 
 " There is here no appeal to nonsense. Not a word — not one — is 
 here, or has been elsewhere, said by me, against Improved Society 
 that Custom rather serves than sways, and that is undelightful to the 
 Snob alone." 
 
 That Life at "Washington, and that much of the Life in its vici- 
 nity, ma}^ be at least as enjoyable as any other life within our 
 knowledge, has been made by my experience and observation both 
 completely clear to me. Of this I cannot doubt at all ; and I have 
 reason to suppose that You and I agree in this respect, right heart- 
 
 A portion of this volume will be found to be made up of Sketches 
 and of Anecdotes, especially of Presidents. 
 
 In coming to our Office from my present dwelling-place on Ana- 
 costia Ridge, I pass, by car, the Botanical Garden, at the foot of 
 the Capitol. Thus I am very frequently reminded of all the Plant- 
 Studies of my life, but more particular!}' those which T have made 
 at Washington. I lately formed an arrangement, in the nature of 
 a Club-Formatiou, contemplating very frequent visits to that Gar- 
 den, when the greatest leisure comes to Washingtonians — less fre- 
 quent, meantime. I would like to have You and your Sister, Lucy, 
 {a) join the Semi-Club. The time that You may find yourself able 
 and inclined to give to study of Plant-Life, will not be wasted, my 
 dear Son. 
 
 The grounds and building of the Agricultural Department are to 
 be included in the visits of the Semi-Club aforesaid. You and I 
 made much of them in our botanic studies of some years ago. I 
 had, indeed, a special liking for the place ; and so apparently had 
 You. 
 
 The place and what it helps to teach possesses, in one point of 
 view, a quite decided nomological concern. 
 
 What do I mean by nomologic interest ? With reference to gen- 
 eral Readers, let me carefully explain. 
 
 I said to You, some j^ears ago, and now I sa}^ again to You with 
 emphasis : "A Law3^er ought to be a Thinker. He ought not to be 
 a mere machine. He ougiit not to owe more to his hands and feet 
 than to his brains. He ought, in general, to make haste very slowly, 
 and to look right well before he leaps, and to take care not to leap 
 until he comes to the stile, and then to leap, with the proper vigor, 
 neither backward nor sideward, but just forward, as Juridic Art re- 
 
 (a) Mrs. Clifford Warden. 
 
12 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 quires. He ought to be completely master of that Art and of the 
 Science, out of which that Art proceeds. Consider, for a moment, 
 the grand compass of the Science, comprehending, not alone the 
 actual provisions of the Law, but the Philosophy of Law and so of 
 Life, itself, as it is manifest in the diversities of Type and State. 
 That very compreliensive Science has been, happily indeed, distin- 
 guished as homology." 
 
 My not 3^et finished little book, A Legal Catechism^ teaches in 
 this fashion : 
 
 '■''Question. Is the word Nomology in use ? 
 
 '■^Ansioer. It stands in Worcester as follows : ' Nomology, n. [Gr. 
 {nomos'\ a law, and [logos] a discourse:] The science or knowledge 
 of law, legislation, and goverument.' It seems, the word Nomography 
 is older than the word homology. Nomography has been used 
 to designate a treatise on the law. Xomology is an equally good 
 word. It is, indeed, more comprehensive in natural signification. It 
 designates all that is denoted by the term Polity, considered as the 
 name of a science, and by the term Jurisprudence. One may say it 
 embraces the entire contents of Jural Science, and even goes beyond 
 those contents. 
 
 ''''Question. But why introduce the term iSTomology? 
 
 '■'■Ansioer. For one answer, because it is a word of the cosmopolitan 
 order, like Philology, Etymology, Physiology, etc. It belongs to the 
 class of words understood at first sight by students of all the idioms in 
 use throughout the most civilized countries of Europe and America. 
 
 "^ Question. You have used the word jural; is one free to use that 
 word ? 
 
 ^'•Answer. Undoubtedly. That term, though newly coined, has 
 already gained considerable currency. It quite felicitously corres- 
 ponds to moral, having been derived from Jh5, as moral was from mos. 
 One may say that a section of jSTomology surveys the Jural Order, as 
 contradistiuguislied, on the one hand, from theMoral Order, and on 
 the other hand from the Religious Order." 
 
 My dear Charlie, there is reason to regret tliat the endeavors I 
 have variously made to bring into free use the singularly happy 
 term, Nomology, have not had more success. I did not coin the 
 term ; and all I have advanced in favor of it has been free from 
 partiality for it, as well as free from prejudice against any other 
 word whatever. It is undeniably a term that was well introduced ; 
 and my adoption of it was completiily warranted, in all respects. 
 
 The Lecture I delivered at New Windsor College, Carroll County, 
 Maryland, contained this language : " Dictionaries have not yet 
 presented the term Nomologian ; but some of them have used the 
 term, Nomology. I know not why Sir William Flamilton limited 
 the term, Nomology, to the science of the laws of the Mind — to 
 
At and Near the Capital. 13 
 
 Rational Psychology ; and I was quite surprised to find the limita- 
 tion followed by Webster. Worcester accurately indicates that 
 Nomology is the fit name of the most comprehensive doctrine in 
 respect to Legislation, Law, and Government. I have, myself, de- 
 fined it to my Legal Pupils, and to many other persons, as the doc- 
 trine that relates to Legal Principles and Legal Facts alike." 
 These words were put to press by me, some years ago : 
 
 ' ' The Ernest Institute discriminates a Popular Nomology from a 
 Professional Nomology. The former has been treated as comprising 
 so much of Jurisprudence and State Science as may well be a part of 
 general teaching, especially of academic teaching. In the Ernest In- 
 stitute, it has been taught in combination with Professional homology. 
 This is Nomology reduced to system for the special benefit of Lawyers. 
 
 " Why Nomology, in the familiar form, should not be interesting to 
 all educated persons, I can not conceive. It ought to have, at once, 
 great forward movement. 
 
 "Neither it, however, nor Professional Nomology, is in a credita- 
 ble state. The prospects of the science, generally speaking, are, just 
 now, not at all of the character called booming. 
 
 " I have tried to give some notion of the nature and the compass of 
 Nomology. But I do not imagine that the exposition is complete. I 
 «an not even hope to make it ample in this little book. Enough, 
 however, has already been set forth to warrant the suggestion, that 
 every College ought to have a chair of Popular Nomology , and all the minor 
 Schools should teach its principles. ^^ 
 
 The present work, (which will be found to furnish as complete a 
 picture of the Capital, and some near places, as is to be found in 
 any book within my knowledge.) is, of course, not to be merely a 
 contribution to a Popular American Nomology ; it is, in many ways, 
 to be much more than such a contribution ; but it is intended to effect 
 no narrow yielding to the just-mentioned form of inculcation. It 
 is to describe the Legal System that has its chief seat at Washing- 
 ton, and it is also to describe the local Legal System of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. 
 
 I have, in one of my many far from perfect expositions of No- 
 mology, remarked : 
 
 " The science is unquestionably deep as well as wide. 
 
 "Among the things belonging to it is a very large division of 
 Biology. 
 
 "Biology, at large, is nothing but the science of life. My studies 
 have induced me to mark out a Nomological Biology, cognizing not 
 alone the phenomena which are considered normal, but also the phe- 
 nomena which are considered as within the range of abnormality. 
 My judgment is that Legists generally ought to pay to Nomological 
 
14 
 
 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 Biology no slight attention. But I do not think that they alone shoultf 
 study that Biology. It is of universal interest to educated persons, 
 and it has a special interest for Medical Men. It comprehends For- 
 ensic Medicine and Medical Police. 
 
 •' How much of Medicine does it include? I am not ready with an 
 answer satisfactory to the respondent. 
 
 " The peculiar exigencies of ray life have led me to explore the whole 
 extent of H^'giene, considered as including Medicine rather than as 
 .merely forming part of the science that gives precepts to the Healing 
 Art. Perhaps, I put too much uuder the head of nomological cog- 
 nitions. Public Hygiene, however, certainly is comprehended by 
 Nomology. 
 
 " Nomology cognizes all the forms of Public Welfare. 
 
 "As must be apparent, its cognitions are not limited to human life. 
 The welfare of the Animals and that of Plants are objects of a very 
 lively nomologic interest." 
 
 My nomologic studies have, in very many ways, augmented my 
 at all times far from slight concern in Plants. 
 But I must take the subject over to Next Letter, 
 
 Suffer me, however, to go back so far as to explain that I design to 
 work into what is offered here somewhat progressively related views- 
 of Life, from Plants up to the highest human Types. 
 
 The Politics in my Philosophy of Life are wholly Independent. 
 
 n. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL CONCEPTIONS. 
 
 ON the twenty-second of February, 1886, let me remind You, 
 my dear Charlie, that in February, 1884, 1 said to You : 
 
 " Let me here offer outlines of a theory I recently thought 
 medicine the illness that still 
 so much hinders me. 
 
 " I thiuk,there is in Klippart 
 on The W/ical-l'laut, at the 
 outset, quite enough to justify 
 all the glory I here give to our 
 Chief Cereal. I need not say ^ 
 a word, to such a lover of our 
 noblest animal as You are, to 
 
 out, to 
 
At and Near the Capital 
 
 15 
 
 defend the typic glory here accord- 
 ed to the Horse; and your regard for 
 Washington appears to be just like 
 my owia. Indeed, your studies of 
 the Type discernible in him, have, 
 in general, been shared and assisted 
 by mine — which have been very 
 like my studies of Chief Justice^ 
 Chase. These, perhaps, have"" 
 ' hardly ever' been quite equalled 
 in researching, toilsome, con- 
 scientious thoroughness. — I 
 have now no doubt that there 
 has never been a nobler man 
 than Washington, in body and 
 ia mind. He was of the com- 
 manding and the ablest Race of 
 Man, the fittest to have the 
 strong leadership it holds. His 
 nature and his culture, with his 
 habits and associations, made 
 him a full Nobleman without a 
 Koble's Rank, a very Prince 
 unpropped by Princedom. Clear- 
 ly, he deserves all that this the- 
 ory of mine ascribes to him. 
 
 " 'Tis true, what Herbert 
 Spencer calls the Bias of Patriot- 
 ism must be here considered ; 
 but I feel quite sure I am not 
 wrong." 
 
 Wheat is not growing in the Capital; but within the Seat of Gov 
 ernment— the District of Columbia— are many fields of Wheat ; 
 and, clearly, to the life of Washington, Wheat-Flour is capitally in- 
 teresting. Now add the consideration, that the Agricultural Depart- 
 ment, here, devotes particular attention to our Primate Cereal. 
 You cannot fail to see the pertinency of the special notice taken m 
 this place of Wheat. . i.. ^ i 
 
 The Wheat-Plant and the Vine, respectively, I have investigated 
 very carefully. 
 
 Let me remind you of the trip— perhaps I ought to say the tour- 
 on which I took your Mother and yourself in 1866. 
 
 While at Detroit, Michigan, accompanied as just indicated, I 
 picked up and purchased, at a book-stall, the decidedly good book 
 of my acquaintance, Klippart, on The Wheat Plant, its Origin, 
 Culture, Growth, Development, Composition, Varieties, Diseases^ 
 
16 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 etc., etc., together with a few remarks on Indian Corn, its Culture, 
 etc. Professor Klippart, when he wrote that truly valuable volume, 
 (in 18G0,) was the Correspouding Secretary of the Ohio State Board 
 of Agriculture ; a Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences ; 
 an Honorary Member of the Western Academy of Natural Sciences, 
 at Cincinnati ; and the Corresponding Secretary of the Columbus 
 Scientific Association, He was known to me, by means of conver- 
 sation and by other means, as a true Scientist. I read his book 
 with very lively interest ; and I have often looked into it since, 
 always with a new and heightenmg regard. I now derive from it 
 the paragraphs ensuing : 
 
 " It has frequently been asserted that the enactment of laws and 
 the institution of schools were unmistakable evidences of civilization. 
 True it is that these can exist only in societies that are not only civil- 
 ized, but are also in a greater or less degree enlightened and refined ; 
 but even many of the barbarous nations and savage hordes have laws 
 of their own making, and many civilized communities were innocent 
 of schools. 
 
 " But there is an evidence of civilization other than social institu- 
 tions and mental development, an evidence grasped from Nature, and 
 with her kind assistance, and fostering care, perpetuated by civilized 
 man only. 
 
 " The true and unequivocal symbol of civilization, and consequent 
 enlightenment and refinement is, the wheat plant. As truly as did 
 flocks of sheep in the primitive ages lead the shepherds to the thresh- 
 old, of that truly magnificent science, Astronomy, just so certainly did 
 the wheat plant in yet earlier ages induce man to forget his savageism, 
 abandon his nomadic life, to invent and cultivate peaceful arts, and 
 lead a rural and, consequently, peaceful life. There is not on the vast 
 expanse of the face of the globe a savage, barbarous, or semi-civilized 
 nation that cultivates the wheat plant. In the settlement of New 
 England, the Indians called the plantain the ' Englishman's foot,' and 
 in the infancy of society wheat may have been similarly regarded as 
 springing from the footsteps of the Persians or Egyptians. Our Ab- 
 origines fully appreciated the influence of the wheat plant on society, 
 if the following anecdote, related by Crevecceur, the old French travel- 
 er, has any foundation in fact : The chief of the tribe of the Mississais 
 said to his people, ' Do you not see the whites living upon seeds, while 
 we eat flesh ? That flesh requires more than thirty moons to grow up, 
 and is then often scarce. That each of the wonderful seeds they sow 
 in the earth returns them an hundred fold. The flesh on which we 
 subsist has four legs to escape from us, while we have but two to pur- 
 sue and capture it. The grain remains where the white men sow it, 
 and grows.' With them, winter is a period of rest, while with us it is 
 ^he time of laborious hunting. For these reasons they have so many 
 children, and live longer than we do. I say, therefore, unto every one 
 
At and Near the Capital 17 
 
 that will hear me, that before the cedars of our village shall have died 
 down with age, and the maple trees of the valley shall have ceased to 
 crive us sugar, the race of the little corn (wheat) sowers will have ex- 
 terminated the race of the flesh-eaters, provided their huntsmen do 
 not resolve to become sowers. ' " 
 
 Nicholas Longworth would have given no Amen ! to that enthu- 
 siastically worded theory. I knew him well enough— quite pain- 
 fully in one particular — to be quite sure of what I have just said 
 of him. But did he not err on the other side ? Did he not make 
 too much of the Wine-Yielding- Grape ? 
 
 My own concern in a cheap Wine of Native American produc- 
 tion was, beyond the pocket, very large, when I first read the last- 
 quoted words of Klippart, I had come to think, undoubtmgly, 
 that such a Wine could very greatly serve the cause of Social Bet- 
 termbnt— including a Reform in the domain of Law and Order, in 
 America. I was almost disposed to quarrel with Professor Klip- 
 part's glorification of the Wheat Plant. On reflection I had to 
 concede, however, that it offered a substantially sound theory. 
 
 In this connection, read an extract from Ruskin's chapter on 
 The Angel of the Sea. (a) That chapter— an exceedingly charac- 
 aoteristic one— affords these paragraphs : 
 
 " The climates or lands into which our globe is divided may, with 
 respect to their fitness for Art, be perhaps conveniently ranged under 
 
 five heads : — ^ ^, -a *■ 
 
 " 1. Eorest lands, sustaining the great mass of the magnihcent 
 ve<^etation of the tropics, for the most part characterized by moist and 
 unhealthy heat, and watered by enormous rivers, or periodical rans. 
 This country cannot, I believe, develop the mind or art of man. He 
 may reach great subtlety of intellect, as the Indian, but not become 
 learned, nor produce any noble art, only a savage or grotesque form 
 of it. Even supposing the evil influences of cUmate could be van- 
 quished, the scenery is on too large a scale. It would be difficult to 
 conceive of groves less fit for academic purposes than those mentioned 
 by Humboldt, into which no one can enter except under a stout wooden 
 shield, to avoid the chance of being killed by the fall of a nut. 
 
 '' 2. Sand-lands, including the desert and dry rock-plams ot the 
 earth inhabited generally by a nomade population, capable of high 
 mental cultivation and of solemn monumental or religious art, but not 
 of art in which pleasureableness forms a large element, their life being 
 essentially one of hardship. 
 
 " 3. Grape and wheat lands, namely, rocks and hills, such as are 
 good for the vine, associated with arable ground forming the noblest 
 and best ground given to man. In these districts only art of the 
 
 (a) iloda-ii PainUrs, V, ch. iv. 
 
18 At and Near the Cajntal. 
 
 highest kind seems possible, the religious art of the sand-lands being 
 here joined with that of pleasure or sense. 
 
 " 4. Meadow-lands, including the great pastoral and agricultural dis- 
 tricts of the north, capable only of an inferior art: apt to lose its 
 spirituality and become wholly material, 
 
 " 5. Moss-lands, including the rude forest-mountain and ground of 
 the North, inhabited by a healthy race, capable of high mental culti- 
 vation and moral energy, but wholly incapable of art, except savage, 
 like that of the forest-lands, or as in Scandinavia. 
 
 •'We might carry out these divisions into others, but these are I 
 think essential, and easily remembered in a tabular form; saying 
 ' wood ' instead of ' forest,' and ' field ' for ' meadow,' we can get such 
 a form shortly worded : — 
 
 " Wood-lands Shrewd intellect No art. 
 
 " Sand-lands High intellect Religious art. 
 
 "Vine lands Highest intellect Perfect art. 
 
 "Field-lands High intellect Material art. 
 
 " Moss-lands Shrewd intellect No art. 
 
 " In this table the moss-lands appear symmetrically opposed to the 
 wood-lands, which in a sort they are ; the too diminutive vegetation 
 under bleakest heaven, opposed to the too colossal under sultriest 
 heaven, while the perfect ministry of the elements, represented by 
 bread and wine, produces the perfect soul of man." 
 
 If I may venture here to borrow a slang-phrase, "what is the 
 matter " with that theory ? I own that it appears to me not incor- 
 rect, and that it seems to me to have no little uomologic interest. 
 
 I do not ask the leave of any person, whether Scientist, or merely 
 Sciolist, or neither Scientist nor Sciolist, to say such things. I can, 
 thank Heaven, stand up for mj^ own conceptions in the sphere of 
 Science, though I feel quite certain that the independence and orig- 
 inality that 1 have cultivated are the independence and originality 
 to which excess must alwaj's be repugnant. In like words to words 
 of the Tourists, I would not be too original and independent, but 
 just independent and original enough. 
 
 Discoursing in the spirit that I have just intimated, I proceed to 
 say, that both the typonomic and the toponomic sections of No- 
 mology take lively interest in Kuskin's theory, respecting the pre- 
 eminence of Grape-and- Wheat-Lands. 
 
 That theory, remember, classes Lands by their Produce, and by 
 corresponding kinds of Art. It finds the noblest Art in Grape- 
 and-W heat-Lands. Is this conception to be treated with contempt 
 by Scientists, because it came forth in a book on Modern Painters, 
 or because it was thought out by a Writer who was not regarded as 
 belonging tlie tribe of Scientists? Assuredly, from You at least I 
 can expect an answer in the negative, and that with emphasis. 
 
At and Near the Capital. 19 
 
 This is not meant to intimate that You have been instructed to 
 make little, either of the truly Scientifical or of the Scientists. Not 
 in the least. For real Science and for real Scientists, we both, I 
 am entirely sure, have ever had, and now have, all the due regard. 
 But Science can not bear to be fenced in, even by Scientists of 
 perfect genuineness ; and it laughs to scorn the fencing-tricks of 
 Sciolists, assuming to be Scientists. 
 
 One afternoon, at Washington, when Chief-Justice Chase and I 
 had just had a most interesting talk, with a most pleasant walk, 
 with one of the best men I have met here— I mean none other than 
 Professor Henry, then of the Smithsonian Institution — I remarked 
 to him, that I had had occasion to remark, at Washington, but not 
 in Prof. Henry, a great want of truly scientific liberality. I had 
 seen this in persons who at least accepted, if they did not just as- 
 sume, the rank of Scientists. I told him some of the quite various 
 as well as many considerations, which had led me to induce my 
 family— yourself included, though You were so young— to join with 
 me in the formation of the Ernest Institute, and afterwards to trans- 
 late it hither from the Cincinnati Valley. He evinced a lively in- 
 terest in the communication. Doubtless, had he lived a little longer, 
 he would have done more than countenance my scientific enterprise. 
 However this may be, my judgment is, dear Charlie, that we have 
 too many simple Sciolists, who try to play the part of Scientists, 
 at Washington. I speak not without feeling on the subject, partly 
 on account of heavy hindrances which I have experienced since I 
 came on to Washington, in January, 1873. 
 
 No scientific doctrine that I have advanced has ever been denied. 
 There has been no attack, in any place, on any scientific theory of 
 mine. Oh, no! Attack can be attacked in turn. A thing attacked 
 can be defended. But how can indifference and silence of the sort 
 to which my meaning points, on this occasion, be attacked, without 
 at least the danger of appearing to lack modesty? 
 
 Wherever I have found a seeming Scientist at Washington whom 
 I did not at once perceive to be merely a Sciolist, I have presumed 
 him to be a true votary of Science, and have honored him accord- 
 ingly, as long as possible, and very cordially. I have, myself, (to 
 some extent), been treated in quite other style, I need not say to 
 You, dear Son. 
 
 There is not, I am sure, because there simply can not be, at Wash- 
 ington, (or elsewhere, for that matter,) any person more devoted 
 than I have been, from my Boyhood to this hour, to the true cause 
 of real Science and of real Scientists. If I am ignorant of aught 
 that ought to be within my knowledge, this is not because I have 
 
20 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 not wished and tried to learn, according to ability and opportunity. 
 I cannot charge myself with any negligence in study. 
 
 After some reflection, I determine to make an Exhibit from mat- 
 ter which I sent to press some months ago. I mean an extract 
 from my little book entitled Letters, which, for the present, I with- 
 draw from publication. The Exhibit commences on page 19 of that 
 book, and runs to and includes page 34 thereof. 
 
 Quite prominent among the matter I have studied in the spirit 
 of a Searcher is the matter, running through John Ruskin's works, 
 relating to Man's habitat. I have compared it with the matter, 
 running through the Kosmos and the other works of Humboldt, in 
 relation to the same concern of Life-Philosophy. To-morrow I 
 shall take up Euskin's theory, and bring it into fit comparison with 
 other theories of cognate character. 
 
 I have devoted to the subject an attention that I can not think 
 has been of little practical account. My aim throughout, 1ms been 
 to give the due regard to truly practical considerations. I cannot 
 afford to waste my time. Nor can I in the least afford to lead you 
 into fruitless or but slightly fruitful studies, ray dear Charlie. 
 
 III. 
 
 LANDS CLASSED BY KINDS OF ART AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 FORTUNATELY, my dear Charlie, Euskin's theory, which classes 
 Lands by Products and by corresponding kinds of Art, requires no 
 wide excursion in the realm of Climatology. But it assumes the known 
 existence of some Climes. It speaks of '' the Climates or lands into 
 which our Globe is divided." Climate is here treated as equivalent to 
 Land. And, certainly, there is a sense in which the word, Land, may 
 be deemed a synonym of Climate. 
 
 Euskin says that the Climates or Lands into which our Globe is di- 
 vided, may be, perhaps, conveniently ranged under five heads, " wiik 
 respect to their fulness for Aii." He evidently has in main considera- 
 tion Eiiropeem Lands or Climes. What character of Art has he in 
 contemplation ? Is it not what he defines as Noble Art ? 
 
 But what is that? What is the Noble in the sphere of Art, accord- 
 ing to the views and sentiments of Euskin ? 
 
 Let me make this clear to every Eeader. 
 
 I must quote quite freely here. I must make use of Euskin's very 
 words. — He says in an extremely interesting chapter of the Modern 
 Painters : 
 
 " In the entire range of art principles, none perhaps present a diffi- 
 culty so great to the student, or require from the teacher expression 
 so cautious, and yet so strong, as those which concern the nature and 
 influence of magnitude. 
 
At and Near the Capital. 21 
 
 " In one sense, and that deep, there is no such thing as magnitude. 
 The least thing is as the greatest, and one day as a thousand years, 
 in the eyes of the Maker of great and small things . In another sense, 
 and that close to us and necessary, there exist both magnitude and 
 value. Thouf^h not a sparrow falls to the ground unnoted, there are 
 yet creatures who are of more value than many ; and the same Spirit 
 which weighs the dust of the earth in a balance, counts the isles as a 
 
 little thing. , . , ^ i^« 
 
 " The just temper of humamnind in this matter may, nevertheless, 
 be told shortly. Greatness can only be rightly estimated when min- 
 uteness is iustly reverenced. Greatness is the aggregation of minute- 
 ness ; nor can its sublimity be felt truthfully by any mind unaccus- 
 tomed to the affectionate watching of what is least. 
 
 " But if this affection for the least be unaccompanied by the powers 
 of comparison and reflection ; if it be intemperate in its thirst, restless 
 in curiosity, and incapable of the patient and self-commandant pause 
 which is wise to arrange, and submissive to refuse, it will close the 
 paths of noble art to the student as effectually, and hopelessly, as eveu 
 the blindness of pride, or impatience of ambition. 
 
 " I say the paths of noble art, not of useful art. All accurate in- 
 vestigation will have its reward ; the morbid curiosity will at least 
 slake the thirst of others, if not its own ; and the diffused and petty 
 affections will distribute, in serviceable measure, their minute delights 
 and narrow discoveries. The opposite error, the desire of greatness 
 as such, or rather of what appears great to indolence and vanity ;— 
 the instinct which I have described in the 'Seven Lamps,' noting it, 
 among the Renaissance builders, to be an especial and unfailing sign 
 of baseness of mind, is as fruitless as it is vile , no way profatable— 
 every wav harmful : the widest and most corrupting expression ot vul- 
 c'arity. the microscopic drawing of an insect may be precious ; but 
 nothing except disgrace and misguidance will ever be gathered trom 
 such work as that of Haydon or Barry." 
 
 This may not do wrong to Haydon or to Barry ; but I think it 
 does; and I can not allow it to pass as if adopted here. Ruskm 
 proceeds to say : 
 
 " The work I have mostly had to do, since this essay was begun, has 
 been that of contention against such debased issues of swollen inso- 
 lence and windy conceit ; but I have noticed lately, that some lightly- 
 buddin^r philosophers have depreciated true greatness ; contusing the 
 relations of scale, as they bear upon human instinct and morality; 
 reasoning as if a mountain were no nobler than a grain of sand or as 
 if many souls were not of mightier interest than one. To whom it 
 must be shortly answered that the Lord of power and life knew which 
 were his noblest works, when He bade His servant watch the play ot 
 the Leviathan, rather than dissect the spawn of the minnow ; and that 
 when it comes to practical question whether a single soul is to be jeop- 
 arded for many, and this Leonidas, or Curtius, or Winkelried shall 
 
22 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 abolish — so far as abolishable — his own spirit, that he raay save more 
 numerous spirits, such question is to be solved by the simple human 
 instinct respecting number and magnitude, not by reasonings on in- 
 finity : — 
 
 *' ' Le navigateur, qui, la nuit, voit I'ocean etinceler de lumiere, danser en 
 guirlandes dc feu, s"egaye d'abord de ce spcctaele. II fait dix lieues ; la guir- 
 lande s' allonge iudufiniment, elle s'agite, se tord, se noue, aux mouvements de 
 la lame; c'est un serpent monstrueux qui va toujours s'allongeant, jusqu'a 
 trente lieues, quarante lieues. Et tout cela n'est qu'une danse d' animalcules 
 imperceptibles. En quel nombre? A cette question I'imagLnation s'eflFraye; 
 elle sent \k une nature de puissance immense, de richesse epouvantable. 
 . . . . Que sont ces petits des petita? Ilien moins que les constructeurs 
 du globe ou nous sommes. De leurs corps, de leurs debris, ils ont prepare le 
 
 sol qui est sous nos pas Et ce sont les plus petits qui ont fait les 
 
 plus grandes choses. L'imperceptible rhizopode s'est bati un monument bien 
 autre que les pyramides, pas moins que I'ltalie centrale, une notable partie de 
 la chaine des Apennins. Mais c'etait trop peu encore ; les masses eaormes 
 du Chili, les prodigieuses Cordilleres, qui regardent le monde h leurs pieds, 
 sont le monument funeraire on cet etre insaisissable, et pour ainsi dire, invisi- 
 ble, a enseveli les debris de son espece disparue.' — (Michelet: U Insecte.) 
 
 ''In these passages, and those connected with them in the cliapter 
 from which they are talcen, itself so vast in scope, and therefore so 
 sublime, we may perhaps fiud the true relations of minuteness, mul- 
 titude and magnitude. We shall not feel that there is no such thing 
 as littleness, or no such thing as magnitude. Nor shall we be disposed 
 to confuse a Volvox with the Cordilleras ; but we may learn that they 
 both are bound together by linlis of eternal life and toil ; we shall see 
 the vastest thing noble, chiefly for what it includes ; and the meanest 
 for what it accomplishes. Thence we might gather — and the conclu- 
 sion will be found in experience true — that the sense of largeness 
 would be most grateful to minds capable of comprehendiuQr, balanc- 
 ing, and comparing ; but capable also of great patience and expecta- 
 tion ; while the sense of minute wonderfuluess would be attractive to 
 minds acted upon by sharp, small, penetrative sympathies, and apt to 
 be impatient, irregular, and partial. This fact is curiously shown in 
 the relations between the temper of the great composers and the mod- 
 ern pathetic school. I was surprised at the first rise of that school, 
 now some years ago, by observing how they restrained themselves to 
 subjects which in other hands would have been wholly uninteresting 
 (compare Vol. IV., p. 19) ; and in their succeeding efl'orts, I saw with 
 increasing wonder, that they were almost destitute of the power of 
 feeling vastness, or enjoying the forms which expressed it. A moun- 
 tain or great building onlj' appeared to them as a piece of color of a 
 certain shape. The powers it represented, or included, were invisible 
 to them. In general, they avoided subjects expressing space or mass, 
 and fastened on confined, broken, and sharp forms ; lilting furze, fern, 
 reeds, straw, stubble, dead leaves, and such like, better than strong 
 stones, broadflowing leaves, or rounded hills : iu all such greater 
 
 / 
 
At and Near the Capital. 23 
 
 things, when forced to paint them, they missed the main and mighty 
 lines ; and this no less in what they loved than in what they disliked ; 
 for though fond of foliage, their trees always had a tendency to con- 
 geal into little acicular thorn-hedges, and never tossed free. Which 
 modes of choice proceed naturally from a petulant sympathy with lo- 
 cal and immediately visible interests or sorrows, not regarding their 
 large consequences, nor capable of understanding more massive view 
 or more deeply deliberate mercifulness ; — but peevish and horror- 
 struck, and often incapacle of self-control, though not of self-sacrifice. 
 There are more people who can forget themselves than govern them- 
 selves." 
 
 It may be so, dear Son. But how many self-forgetting persons 
 have you come to know ? Ruskin subjoins : 
 
 " This narrowly pungent and bitter virtue has, however, its beauti- 
 ful uses, and is of special value in the present day, when surface-work, 
 shallow generalization, and cold arithmetical estimates of things, are 
 among the chief dangers and causes of misery which men have to deal 
 with. 
 
 " On the other hand, and in clear distinction from all such workers, 
 it is to be remembered that the great composers, not less deep in 
 feeling, are in the fixed habit of regarding as much the relations and 
 positions, as the separate nature, of things ; that they reap and thrash 
 in the sheaf, never pluck ears to rub in the hand ; fish with net, not 
 line, and sweep their prey together witliin great cords of errorless 
 curve ; — that nothing ever bears to them a separate or isolated aspect, 
 but leads or links a chain of aspects — that to them it is not merely the 
 surface, nor the substance, of anything that is of import ; but its cir- 
 cumference and continence ; that they are pre-eminently patient and 
 reserved; observant, not curious; — comprehensive, not conjectural; 
 calm exceedingly ; unerring, constant, terrible in stedfastness of in- 
 tent ; unconquerable : incomprehensible : always suggesting, imply- 
 ing, including, more than can be told. 
 
 "And this maybe seen down to their treatment of the smallest 
 things. 
 
 " For there is nothing so small but we may, as we choose, see it in 
 the whole, or in part, and in subdued connection with other things, or 
 in individual and petty prominence. The greatest treatment is always 
 that which gives conception the widest range, and most harmonious 
 guidance ; — it being permitted us to employ a certain quantity of time, 
 and certain number of touches of pencil — lie who with these embraces 
 the largest sphere of thought, and suggests within that sphere the most 
 perfect order of thought, has wrought the most wisely, and therefore 
 most nobly. 
 
 " I do not, however, purpose here to examine or illustrate the nature 
 of great treatment — to do so efl'ectually would need many examples 
 from the figure composers ; and it will be better (if I have time to 
 work out the subject carefully) that I should do so in a form which 
 
24 -^i dnd Near the Capital. 
 
 maybe easily accessible to young students. Here, I will only state ia 
 conclusion what it is chiefly important for all students to be convinced 
 of, that all the technical qualities by which greatness of treatment is 
 known, such as reserve in color, tranquillity and largeness of line, and 
 refusal of unnecessary objects of interest, are, when they are real, the 
 exponents of an habitually noble temper of mind, never the observ- 
 ances of a precept supposed to be useful. The refusal or reserve of a 
 mighty painter cannot be imitated ; it is only by reaching the same 
 intellectual strength that you will be able to give an equal dignity to 
 your self-denial. No one can tell you beforehand what to accept, or 
 what to ignore ; only remember always, in painting as in eloquence* 
 the greater your strength, the quieter will be your manner, and the 
 fewer your words ; and in painting, as in all the arts and acts of life, 
 the secret of high success will be found, not in a fretful, and various 
 excellence, but in a quiet singleness of justly chosen aim." 
 
 Lo! I have quoted a whole chapter ; yet I offer no apology. The 
 lesson taught in the just-quoted paragra])hs, is full of practical 
 although poetical concern to all that is to follow in this volume. 
 
 My dear Charlie, what we have just seen distinguishes two kinds of 
 Art,' which are both represented in what is best in our grand Capitol. 
 The kinds of Art discriminated are the Xoble and the Useful. 
 
 Somewhat hacknied as has come to be the phrase, " the Good, the 
 True, and the Beautiful," it ought not to be altogether laid aside. 
 The Good which takes the first place in the phrase, includes much of 
 the Useful ; and so does the True. But we must not stop even here 
 — We must acknowledge, likewise, that much of the Beautiful is Use- 
 ful, too. 
 
 The Capitol at Washington has never seemed to me a work to 
 which no sound exception can be taken. Not at all. I shall hereafter 
 point out what appears to me exceptionable in that edifice. But, 
 surely, in its presence one may thoroughly appreciate the distinction 
 made by lluskin between the merely Useful and the Noble, in the 
 realm of Art. 
 
 According to Ruskin, Architecture, on account of the dominancy of 
 the Useful in it, must be deemed lower than either Painting or Sculp- 
 ture ; but I am not quite prepared to take that doctrine, unrestrained. 
 
 I like, however, very much, these words of the same teacher. 
 
 " In these books of mine, their distinctive chai-acter, as essays on 
 Art, is their bringing everything to a root in human passion or human 
 hopes. Arising first, not in any desire to explain the principles of 
 Art, but in the endeavor to defend an individual painter from injustice, 
 they have been colored tliroughout— nay, continually, altered in shape, 
 and ever warped and broken, by digressions respecting social questions, 
 which had for mean interest tenfold greater than the work I had been 
 forced into undertaking. Every principle of Painting which I have 
 stated, is traced to some vital or spiritual fact ; and in my works on 
 Architecture the preference accorded finally to one school over 
 another, ia founded on a comparison of their influences on the life of 
 
At and Near the Capital. 25 
 
 the workman— a question by all other writers on the subject of Archi- 
 tecture wholly forgotten or despised." 
 
 Without perceiving here a comprehensive caiion in respect to Archi- 
 tecture, Painting, and Sculpture, I regard the doctrine as most credit- 
 able to the Teacher, whom, indeed, I can not choose but love as well 
 as admire. 
 
 His theory, that Lands may be classed by then- Products and by 
 corresponding kinds of Art, refers, it is quite obvious, at least in 
 chief, to Noble Art. But is it not substantially correct in reference 
 to Art in general ? 
 
 Let us begin with Agriculture. 
 
 There is in the Encyclopcedia Britannica a highly valuable article on 
 Agriculture, which remarks : " The soil constituting the subject-matter 
 on which its Husbandman operates, its character necessarily regulates 
 to a large extent the nature of his proceedings. The soil or surface- 
 covering of the earth, in which plants are produced is exceedingly 
 varied in its qualities. Being derived from the disintegration and de- 
 composition of the rocks which constitute the solid surface of the globe, 
 with a mixture of vegetable and animal remains, soils take their char- 
 acter from that of the rocks from which they have chiefly been de- 
 rived. There is thus a generally prevailing resemblance between the 
 soils of a district and the rocks over which they lie, so that a knowl- 
 edge of the composition of the one aftbrds a key to the character of 
 the other. But this connection is modified by so many circumstances 
 that it is altogether impossible by the mere study of geology to acquire 
 an easy and certain rule for determining the agricultural character of 
 the soil of any particular district or field, as it has been the fashion 
 with some writers of late years to assert. ' When, indeed, we regard 
 a considerable tract of land, we can, for the most part, trace a con- 
 nection between the subjacent deposits and the subsoil, and, conse- 
 quently, the-soil. Thus, in a country of sandstone and arenaceous (a) 
 beds, we shall find the soil sandy ; in one of limestone, more or less 
 calcareous ; in one of schistose rocks, more or less clayey. But even 
 in tracts of the same geological formation there exist great diflerences 
 in the upper stratum, arising from the prevalence of one or other 
 member of the series, or from the greater or less inclination of the 
 strata, by which the debris of the different beds are more or less mixed 
 together on the surface. The action of water, too, in denuding the 
 surface of one part, and carrying the debris in greater or smaller quan- 
 tity to another, exercises everywhere an important influence on the 
 character of soils. Thus the fertility of a soil on the higher ground, 
 from which the earthy particles are washed, is found to be very difler- 
 ent from that of the valley to which these particles are carried. It is 
 seen, accordingly, that, within the limits of the same geological for- 
 mation, soils are greatly varied, and that the mere knowledge of the 
 formation will not enable us to predicate the character of the soil of 
 
 (a) Ilaving the quality of sand— sandy. 
 
26 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 any given tract, either with respect to its texture, its composition, or 
 its productiveness.' (a) Even a very limited acquaintance with the 
 geology of Great Britain serves, however, to account for the exceed- 
 fngly diversified character of its soils. The popular definitions of soils 
 —and to these it is safest for practical farmers to adhere— have respect 
 to their most obvious qualities. Thus they are designated from their 
 composition, as days, loams, sands, gravels, chalks, or jwafs; or from 
 their texture, in which respect those in which clay predominates are 
 called heavij, stif, or impervious; and the others light, friable, or porous. 
 From the tendency of the former to retain moisture, they are spoken 
 of as tvet and cold, and the latter, for the opposite reason, as dry and 
 warm. According to their measure of fertility, they are also described 
 as rich or poor. The particular crops for the production of which they 
 are respectively considered to be best adapted, have also led to clays 
 being spoken of as ivheat or bean soils and the friable ones as barletj 
 and turnip soils. This latter mode of discriminating soils is, however, 
 becoming every day less appropriate ; as those of the lighter class, - 
 when sufficiently enriched by suitable manuring, are found the most 
 suitable of all for the growth of wheat ; while the efforts of agricul- 
 turists are now successfully directed to the production of root crops on 
 soils so strong as heretofore to have been reckoned unfit for the pur- 
 pose. But still, such extreme diversities as we everywhere meet with 
 in our soils must necessarily lead to a corresponding diversity in their 
 asricultural treatment ; and hence the necessity for keeping this fact 
 prominently in view, in every reference to British agriculture as a 
 whole." 
 
 The Agricultural Department at Washington affords much printed 
 matter in respect to the diversities of Soil. That matter is inclusive 
 of passages in a deplorably hurried Report on Forestry by Dr. Hough. 
 There are in Dr. Hough's Report, in spite of its hot-hastiness, good 
 things. Among them is this passage : 
 
 " Writers upon forestry adopt the following as a proper definition of 
 inclined surfaces : 
 
 "A gentle slope is from level to 10° of elevation. 
 
 "A somewhat steep slope from 10° to 20°. 
 
 "A steep slope from 20° to 34°. 
 
 *'A very steep slojje from 35° to 45°. 
 
 'M« escarpment 45° and upwards. 
 
 "As a general rule, the climate of plains is more uniform than that 
 of mountains, but this depends upon elevation, prevailing winds, and 
 proximity to large bodies of water. The latter have an equalizing 
 tendency, and the choicest fruit-regions of the country owe this excel- 
 lence to the protections thus alforded against premature blossoming. 
 
 " Of such, we have examples in the fruit-belt along the eastern shore 
 of Lake Michigan, the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and 
 
 (a) Citing Low'e IVaclical Agriculture, p. i2. 
 
At and Near the Capital. 27 
 
 the region around the southern end of the interior lakes of central and 
 western ITew York." 
 
 This vividly reminds me of a very thorough topo-typonomic survey 
 that (your Mother, and yourself being part of the time with me) I 
 made in 1866, of the Wine-Islands making up the Erie Archipelago. 
 
 In Dr. Hough's Report was also said to the Commissioner of Agri- 
 culture, (Le i)uc), in 1877: 
 
 " It is convenient to have a definition of degrees, in speaking of the 
 character of a climate in its reference to sylviculture, and to this end 
 the following terms are specified, by an approved writer upon for- 
 estry, {a) : 
 
 " ' Warm climates are those in which the olive, the fig, and cork tree 
 will grow spontaneously. 
 
 " ' Mild climates produce the vine, the almond, and the peach in the 
 open air, with full success, as also all kinds of fruit-trees and culinary 
 vegetables. Acorns and beech-nuts grow in great abundance every 
 two or three years. 
 
 " ' In temperate climates fruit-trees and garden vegetables generally 
 thrive well. In the forest we see all forest trees growing, except such 
 as are limited to warm climates. Acorns and beech-nuts abound once 
 in six or eight years. 
 
 " " In rude climates the culture of fruit-trees and delicate garden 
 vegetables is difficult. In the forests, resinous trees more abound, 
 and years of fruitful growth of acorns, &c., are rare. 
 
 '"In very rude climates buckwheat, oats, and potatoes are the prin- 
 cipal harvests that come to maturity. The prevailing kinds of timber 
 are the firs, the larch, the birch, and the beech, but the latter is almost 
 always poorly developed. In plains, these designations sufficiently 
 characterize the general climate, as respects forests, and we shall but 
 rarely have occasion to mention exceptions of temperature in certain 
 districts. Upon mountains, however, everything depends upon eleva- 
 tion and exposure, on account of the modifications which they produce, 
 and we may pass through every degree in rising a few thousand feet.' " 
 
 I wrote originally for a (never finished) Primer of the Law distinc 
 tivelij American, this language, the result of very careful, long-continued 
 study : 
 
 " I am neither a native nor a resident of Ohio ; but it has long 
 seemed to me that there is something wonderfully typical in the 
 whole tract of territory comprehended in the Cincinnati Valley and its 
 environs, and that Ohio is, in many aspects, the most representative 
 of all the States. Ohio notably represents the land which, through its 
 ample boundaries enclose much less than half of the New Continent, 
 is generally called America. New York and California are also very 
 typical. They represent, howevei-, not so much the country as some 
 
 (a) Cours d' Amenagement des Foreis, by H. Nanquette (1866), p. 12. 
 
28 At and Near the Capital. 
 
 districts of the country. So it is with the ' Palmetto State,' and with 
 Louisiana. But Ohio, never equalling, in some respects, the States 
 named with her, much surpasses each of them in typicalness. You 
 behold no ' Golden Gate,' no stately Hudson, no great spread of 
 waters, where Ohio built her most characteristic city. California has 
 mountains, and the Empire State has mountainous expanses ; a ' new 
 Switzerland ' delights the tourist in New Hampshire ; through the 
 Keystone State, the Old Dominion, the two Carolinas, Georgia, Ala- 
 bama, Tennessee, Kentucky, pass the Alleghanies or their cognate 
 elevations; in Missouri, there appear forerunners of the Rocky 
 Mountains ; in the heights last named are aspirations and depressions, 
 illustrating the majestic force of contrast in the mountains, — while 
 the territory of Ohio, generally level, is but hilly even where it 
 borders the two terraces of Cincinnati. Once, the Cincinnatian could 
 anticipate the flourishing of a new Rheingau in the lands about these 
 terraces; but California has surpassed Ohio as the Vineyard of 
 America. Then, in important points. New England is more repre- 
 sentative than any other portion of the country , and a like remark is 
 applicable to the South. But, on the whole, Ohio, in her land, her 
 people, and her polity and jurisprudence, is more representative than 
 any of her sisters, wayward or demure." 
 
 While I resided, and supposed that I was settled, in your native 
 State, I studed Viticulture with a view to some practice of the Art, 
 and therefore in a fully scientific spirit ; and I sorrowed when I felt 
 obliged to assign to California precedence in that particular. 
 
 Some of my viticultural research. You are aware, was carried on in 
 the delightful region of the Erie Archipelago. A part of the research 
 referred to was assisted, far from slightly, in the manner indicated in 
 a passage of my Book of Ti/pe and Types, in the first chapter. 
 
 What I had observed of Agriculture ere we came to the District of 
 Columbia was, first, in the " Blue Grass Region" of my native State, 
 and, after that, mainly in your native State. I must speak of those 
 trans- Alleghany observations very carefully. 
 
 But I am interrrupted here by a professional affair which presses, 
 and the subject must go over to next Letter. 
 
About an Institute. 19 
 
 EXHIBIT. 
 
 Elsewhere, I make this explanation, not to You: 
 
 The term, Typonomy, I must acknowledge, is of my own coinage ; but it 
 seems to me an obviously fit name for the exceedingly important science, 
 that cognizes Type, organical or inorganical, throughout its wonderful vari- 
 ety and reach. 
 
 Toponomy appears to me the obviously proper designation of the cog- 
 nate science that cognizes local influence on life and character throughout 
 the world. 
 
 To both the Sciences referred to, much attention has 
 been, and is to be, devoted by the Ernest Institute. 
 
 Let me remind you that my piece, called At the Doc- 
 tor's, teaches in this manner : 
 
 " When the lover, thus rehearsing to his own troubled heart the reasons 
 that were to destroy his hopes, once more referred to Bertha's art, he re- 
 membered Bernard's language: 'I have given my daughter to the art of 
 painting.' He remembered Dr. Frisch's half insane devotion to Typon- 
 omy, th'e science of the law of type. A vision of the type room as it was, 
 on Sunday afternoon, three weeks ago. produced itself. 
 
 "Bertha was at work on a head, designed to represent a well-known 
 type of what the doctor called ' the city Savagery.' The doctor was dis- 
 coursing. . . _ 
 
 " ' Ruskin,' said the doctor, 'makes an unintended contribution to Ty- 
 ponomy. He says : ' The climates or lands into which our globe is divided, 
 may. with respect to their fitness for Art, be perhaps conveniently ranged 
 under five heads.' And he makes ' a form shortly worded of his view of 
 (1) 'forest lands (2) sand lands, (3) grape and wheat lands, (4) meadow 
 lands, (5) moss lands, in which shortly worded form we have ' wood in- 
 stead of 'forest,' 'vine' instead of ' grape and wheat,' and 'field' instead of 
 meadow,' thus : 
 
 "Wood-lands Shrewd intellect No art. 
 
 Sand-lands High intellect Religious art. 
 
 Vine-lands Highest intellect Perfect art. 
 
 Field-lands High intellect Material art. 
 
 Moss-lands Shrewd intellect No art. 
 
 " ' Here ' continued Frisch, ' are types of land and types of art, supposed 
 to be correlated by a law of type. What Ruskin writes in explanation of 
 his system, is a contribution to Typonomy, well worth attention. But it is 
 in works like those of Montesquieu and in those of the Ethnographers— 
 not to mention Humboldt and Herder— that we find the great body of ma- 
 terials for our system. Montesquieu was, in an especial manner, a pre- 
 cursor of me.' 
 
20 About an InstUute. 
 
 " Dr. Frisch uttered this last sentence quite unblushingly, and Bertha^ 
 turning from her easel, listened, and did not seem to be disturbed by the 
 quiet and apparently unconscious egotism of the doctor's language. She 
 was evidently quite accustomed to that form of language, and she seemed 
 to have fully caught the enthusiasm out of which it issued. 
 
 " 'Montesquieu, like me,' proceeded Dr. Frisch, 'attributes great influ. 
 ence in th« formation of a type of man through the type of law to be applied 
 to it, as well as in the formation of law itself, to the type of what is now 
 called habitat, in which the type of man happens to be placed. But Mon- 
 tesquieu has been misrepresented by those (among them, Voltaire,) who 
 have stated the case against him, in respect of the influence he attributed 
 to the habitat — in other words, to the 'local habitation' — of a nation, in 
 determining its type of religion, laws, and manners. I shall prove that he 
 asserted the great principle of my Typonomy. The very distinctive doc- 
 trine of Typonomy is this : That mind is mightier than matter, and that 
 man can master his conditions.' ' 
 
 Mark, dear Charlie, that the learned Doctor is directly 
 represented as enthusiastical. 
 
 The same piece has the following paragraphs : 
 
 "The looks of Bertha answered well the looks of the Typonomer, as he 
 proceeded to explain the method and application of Typonomy. 
 
 "Proceeding, ho explained, 'through a view of the types of habitat 
 their modes and modifiers, to a view of the types of habits, it examines how 
 a type of man may be modified by a type of place of living, or, in other 
 words, a type of habitat, and how — sublime consideration! — how a type of 
 man may, by means of Art, generally, and, particularly, by the Art of Law, 
 alter alike itself and the type of habitat, with which it happens to be in 
 contact, and which, unresisted, must become its master. Had Typonomy 
 been well studied, the country would have understood, from the beginning, 
 the great formidableness of the rebellion. In Typonomy we learn how a 
 dominant idea may arm a tropic type with a substitute for northern courage 
 and endurance. Ah ! a lifetime would be well devoted to the assemblage 
 of materials for my design. Were I but as young as I was when I applied 
 
 to Humboldt' 
 
 " '/am young,' said Bertha, rising, and with flashing eyes, 
 
 " ' I know, 1 know, America,' exclaimed the doctor, ' but' 
 
 " The doctor paused. Bertha turned back, blushing, to the easel. Fel- 
 ton fancied, that the doctor's look was one most auspicious for him, however 
 ill it boded for the doctor's great discovery in science. It appeared to 
 mean : ' There is Felton, who adores you. When you shall have married 
 Felton, how much time will you devote to the new science? ' " 
 
 Over two-and-twenty years have passed since I com- 
 posed those words. They vividly recall to me the studies 
 I had made of Humboldt's Kosmos. 
 
 One of its most valuable typonomic contributions is 
 effected in these weighty words : 
 
About an Institute. 21 
 
 " Est wiirde das allgemeine Naturbild, das ich zu entwerfen strebe, un- 
 vollstiindig bleiben, wenn ich hier nicht auch den Muth hatte das Men- 
 schengeschlecht in seinen physichen Abstufnngen, in der geographischen 
 Verbreitung seiner gleichzeitig vorhandenen Typen ; in dem Einfluss 
 welchen es von den Kriiften dcr Erde empfangen und wechselsetig, wenn 
 gleich schwiicher, auf sie ausgeiibt hat; mit wenigen Ziigen zu schildern. 
 Abhangig wenn gleich in minderem Grade als Pflanzen und Thiere, von 
 dem Boden und den meteorologischen Processen des Luftkreises ; den 
 Naturgewalteu durch Geistestbiitigkeit und stufenweise erhohte Intelligenz, 
 wie durch eine wunderbare, sich alien Klioiaten aneignede Biegsamkeit 
 des Organismus leichter eutgehend ; nimmt das Geschlecht wesentlich Theil 
 an dem ganzen Erdenleben." 
 
 I have thus transUited them : 
 
 "The universal picture of nature which I try to throw off, would be im- 
 perfect, had I not also the courage, here, to describe, by means of a few 
 strokes, the Human Race in its physical gradations; in the geographical 
 propagation of its contemporaneous types ; in the influence which it receives 
 from the forces of the earth, and reciprocally and, though more weakly, 
 exerts over them. Dependent, although in less degree than Plants and 
 Animals, on the soil, and on the meteorological processes of the atmos- 
 phere : more easily escaping from the powers of nature through spiritual 
 activity and step-by-step elevnted intelligence, as well as by a wonderful 
 flexibility of the organism, adapting it to all climates ; the Race essentially 
 takes part in all the life of earth." 
 
 The Ernest Institute has, in its teaching, carefully 
 avoided errors in respect to the unquestionably very great 
 part Language plays in Life throughout the world. That 
 teaching does not iiud in a People's Idiom a perfect mir- 
 ror of its Character. The Ernest Institute has always 
 taught that all a People does, as well as all it says, is 
 needed to afford a perfect glass of its distinctions. 
 
 I can not accept, but I acknowledge much good intima- 
 tion in, this language of Prof Dr. Hermann Adelbert 
 Daniel in his DeutsMond vach seinen j^hysischen und poli- 
 iischen Verhdlt nissen geschildert: 
 
 "Deutsches Nationalbewusztsein musz sich vor AUem im begeisterten 
 Werthhalten der Deutschen Sprache bethiiiigen. Fiir jedes Volk ist seine 
 Sprache ein kustliches Gut, in dem sich der Volkt^geist, die Nationalitat am 
 treuesten abspiegelt; fur das Deutsche urn so mehr, als es neben dem Christ- 
 enthum ihr sein engeres Zusammeuschlicsi-n, ihr allein seinen Gesatnmtna- 
 men verdankt." 
 
 Naturally, Conversation and some kinds of Public Ut- 
 terance are much discoursed of in the Ernest Institute. 
 
22 About an Institute. 
 
 An Open Letter of mine includes these paragraphs: 
 
 In helping You to fit yourself for creditable Practice of the 
 Law, I have not limited my view to Usefulness alone. In this 
 respect, I have been not a little influenced by Wirt's peculiari- 
 ties in Word-Work and by his fine oratorio theories — which, let 
 me passingly remark, our highly self-sutHcient though unques- 
 tionably higiily oratorio Ingersoll — I told You how I heard him 
 speak of Wirt, so very uppily ! — might have well have studied 
 more than superficially. 
 
 AVirt would have readily agreed, that considerations, very 
 similar to those which ought to govern Building, viewed as com- 
 prehending Architecture, are quite evidently applicable to me- 
 thodic Speech and, so, to all Forensic Speech. 
 
 In his alreadj'-quoted letter to Judge Randall, are these 
 words : "The natural beauties of your place, and those httle 
 embellishments of your grounds which will cost you nothing, 
 will give full cmplo3'ment to your taste and 3'our leisure-time, 
 for some years to come." Supposed Embellishment, in quite 
 too many cases, hurts Discourse or Place ; but true Embellish- 
 ment is always good for all of which it can form part. 
 
 A Building meant to express or to delight a Noble Sentiment, 
 apart from mere Utilitj-, may have, in greater or in less degree, 
 a title to the rank, accorded to the Architectural, in the just- 
 intimated sense. This doctrine, You need not be told, results 
 from at least much certainly not immethodic and not inexpens- 
 ive study of the Art and Science of Fine Building. Architecture 
 is, indeed, among the things which I have had even juridical oc- 
 casion to explore; and, quite apart from its juridical concern, it 
 has long much engaged my thoughts. According to my views, 
 it makes large figure in a full Philosophy of Life. 
 
 No full Philosophy of Life could overlook the proper Hous- 
 ing of the Family : nor could it overlook the proper Housing of 
 the Government : in short, none of the forms of Building could 
 be unregarded by a full Philosophy of Life. Both Houses and 
 their Furniture have therefore well, not seldom, occupied our 
 thoughts ; and we do not concern ourselves too much about the 
 House I bought, to serve us as a Home in Washington. 
 
 Typonomy gives very great attention to such matters. 
 
About an Institute. 23 
 
 II. 
 
 ■ 'N the Nomological Department of the Ernest Institute 
 _ _ is inculcated, that Life, Law, and Language are the 
 things which Legists ought to study more than other 
 things. 
 
 My little-published little book, entitled Laiv for Ally 
 presents this language, in a foot-note : 
 
 It appears to me that not a little utility as well as much congenial en- 
 tertainment might be found by Legists in the use of a method such as that 
 I shall here try to outline. 
 
 Rogron's Les Cinq Codes has an introduction that contains the words: 
 "La loi, en general, est une r^gle de conduite, prescrite par une autorit^a. 
 laquelle on est tenu d'obeir." These words are almost English themselves^ 
 
 Vocabulary 1. 
 La, the. loi, (f.) law. est, is. 
 
 une, (f. ) 07ie. rSgle, (f.) rule. de, of. 
 
 conduite, (f.) conduct. prescrite, (from prescrire,) par, by. 
 
 prescribed. 
 autorit6, (f.) authority. k, to, from. laquelle, (f.) which. 
 
 (tenir), tenu, bound, held, obeir, to obey. 
 
 yet, for reasons to be shown hereafter, we translate them formally, as fol- 
 lows : The law (or say, law) in general is a rule of conduct, prescribed by 
 an authority which one is bound to obey. In like manner, one may say 
 that language, treated as a system, is, in general, a rule of expression. 
 Language is not lawless. In a certain sense, a rule of syntax is a law of 
 grammar. But the laws of conduct have a sanction somewhat different from, 
 that applied by the laws of language. 
 
 Rogron, whom we have already quoted, thus defines the legal sanction:. 
 " La sanction de la loi -est la peine ou la recompense, le biene ou le mal, at- 
 tache h. I'observation ou a la violation de ses pr^ceptes et de ses defenses : 
 ainsi la peine de mort est la sanction de la loi qui defend rassa8sinat.'> 
 
 Vocabulary 2. 
 
 sanction, (f.) sancfiow. ^cine,{t) penalty. recompense, (f.) recom- 
 pense, 
 
 bien, (m.) good, advan- mal, (m.) evil, pain, disad- attach^, (from attacher,) 
 
 tagc, benefit. vantage. attached. 
 
 observatiou, (f.) observ violation, (f) flotation. ses, (from son,) i7s. 
 
 ance. 
 
 pr^eptes, (m.) precepts. defenses, (m.) lyrohibitions. ainsi, thus, so. 
 
 moTt, {(.) death. qai, which. defend, (from defender,) 
 
 assassinat, (m.) murder. forbids. 
 
 In English: "The sanction of the law is the penalty or the reward, the 
 good or the evil, attached to the observance or to the violation of its precepts 
 and its prohibitions ; thus, the penalty of death is the sanction of the law 
 which forbids murder." No such enforcement sanctions rules of expres- 
 sion, though the sense of cultivated men and women, with the taste of per- 
 sons constantly familiar with good lingual usage, may have the full force of 
 " une autorite a laquelle on est tenu d'obeir." 
 
24 " About an Institute. 
 
 But such considerations take us not far toward a thorough comprehen- 
 sion of the intimate relations, binding Law and Language. 
 
 Let us go back to the word prescribed (prescrUe) in Rogron's definition of 
 law in general. That word, if literally taken, is not quite in place. One 
 may say, perhaps, that all rules of law are somehow, in effect, laid down; 
 but certainly they are not all, strictly speaking, prescribed. Justinian's In- 
 stitutes contain these words: "Sine scripto jus venit, quod usus approba- 
 vit; nam diuturni mores, consensu utentium comprobati, legem imitanlur.'' 
 
 Vocabulary 3. 
 Sine, without. scripto, (n.) (from scriptum.) jus, (n.) law. 
 
 writing. 
 venit, (from venire.) quod, that which. usus, (m.) usage, custom. 
 
 came. 
 approbavit, (from appro- nam, for. diuturnus, lasting, of lony 
 
 bare,) has approved. duration or continuance ; 
 
 of long life. 
 mores, (m.) (from mos.) consensu, with the consent. utentium, (from utens,) 
 (m.)iuay, manner, faslir those using, 
 
 ion, custom. 
 comprobati, (from com- legem, (f.) (from lex,) stat- imitantur, resemble, imi- 
 probare,) approved, al- utelaw, ordinance. tate, (from imitari.) 
 
 lowed. 
 
 Here are several translations, each of which, perhaps, is open to some cri- 
 tical exception, and one of which may even be considered ludicrously 
 wrong: Harris Englishes as follows: "The unwritten law is that, which 
 usage has approved ; for all customs, which are established by the consent 
 of those who use them, obtain the force of a law." And Cooper thus en- 
 deavors to improve the Harris version : " The unwritten law is that, which 
 usage has approved; for daily (!) customs, established by the consent of 
 those who use them, put on the character of law." 
 
 For some time I often had at hand a book, printed in 1889 at Leipzig, in 
 the Roman character but in the German language. On the title-page we 
 find displayed these words and abbreviations: "Das Corpus Juris Civilis 
 in's Deutsche iibersetzt von einem Vereine Rechtsgelehrter und heraus- 
 gegeben von Dr. Carl Edward Otto, Kaiserl. Russischem Hofrathe undor- 
 dentl. Professor der Rechte an der Universitat Dorpat, Dr. Bruno Schil- 
 ling, Koniglich. Sachsischem Consistorial-Assessor und Professor der 
 Rechte an der Universitat Leipzig, und Dr. Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Sin- 
 tenis offentl. ordentlichem Professor der Rechte und Beisitzer des Spruch- 
 coUegiums an der Universitat Giessen, als Redactoren." No translation of 
 this long title-page seems necessary, and we may at once proceed to take 
 from the body of the book the following doing into German of the Latin we 
 have seen twice done into English. Our German legal savants translate 
 after this characteristic fashion: " Ungeschrieben kam dasjenige Recht 
 auf, welches der Gebrauch billigte; denn das Langhergebrachte, mit allge- 
 meiner Uebereinstemmung Gebilligte, steht dem Gesetze gleich." 
 
 VOCADULAUT 4. 
 
 nngeschriebeo, unwrit- kam, came. daajemge, (n.) that. 
 
 ten. 
 das, (n.) the, that. Recht, (n.) law, legal system, auf, up, forth, etc. 
 
 welches, (n.) which. auf kommen, to arise. Gebrauch, (m.) usage, cus- 
 
 tom. 
 
About an Institute. 25 
 
 der, (m.)die, (f.) das, (n.) h'Mi^Xe, approved. billigen, to opproee. 
 
 the. 
 denn, /or. Langhergebrachte, long customary, long usual, anciently 
 
 customary, (eine hergebrachte Gewohnheit, (f.) being an 
 
 ancient custom.) 
 
 Those German jurists had found out, that, while daily, or belonging to the 
 day, 01', rather, the equivalent in German of those English terms, translates 
 very well the Latin adjective diurnus, words equivalent to or identical with 
 lasting, of long duration, or continuance, of long life, are necessary to render 
 diuturnus. Had the learned American translator of the Institutes discov- 
 ered that ? His " daily customs, established by the consent of those who 
 use them," are not, by any means, identical with the " diuturni mores,^' the 
 long continued, lasting customs, contemplated by Tribonian and his fel- 
 lows, in composing for Justinian the great legal document now under 
 notice. 
 
 Let us now return to the bare fact which the original of the translations 
 throws into clear light. That fact is that parts of law arise without writing 
 even where there is a written legal system — that there are in perhaps 
 every legal system unenacted, unprescribed rules of conduct, evolved in 
 usage merely. We must hereai'ier give renewed consideration to the fact ; 
 but now our objects call for the remark, that, notwithstanding the existence 
 and the numerousness of unwritten laws, the indebtedness of law in general 
 and in particular to language and linguistic art and science are incal- 
 culable. 
 
 Law may exist in legal contemplation, in juridical idea, merely. It may 
 be not only unwritten, but entirely unworded. You may suppose a rule of 
 life without supposing the reduction of that rule to verbal form. But 
 the use of language in the written parts of law is very great, and beyond 
 that use the obligations of the legal system, comprehending adjective and 
 substantive provisions as we shall distinguish them hereafter, and involving 
 the whole action of the legal forces, are so great and various as to defy all 
 definition and description. 
 
 Very proud is the account of jurisprudence given by Justinian's jurists 
 in the Institutes. " Jurisprudentia," it assures us, "est divinarum atque 
 humanarum rerum notitia, justi atque injusti scicntia." Our aforesaid 
 
 Vocabulary 5. 
 
 jurisprudentia, (t.) juris- est, is. divinarum, o/ dmnc, (pi.) 
 
 prudence. 
 atque, ani2. humanarum, of /iMman, (pi.) r&Tam, of things, {^\.) 
 
 notitia, (f.) knowledge, no- jueti, of what is just. injusti, of what is unjust. 
 
 Hon, science. 
 scientia, (f.) science,know- 
 
 ledge. 
 
 German legists put this into German thus: " Rechtsgelahrthedt ist die 
 Kenntniss der gottlichen und menschlichen Dinge, die Wissenschaft des 
 Rechten und des Unrechten." 
 
 Vocabulary 6. 
 
 Rechtsgolahrtheit, (f.)jw- ist, ts. Kenutmss, {t.) knowledge. 
 
 risprudence. 
 der, of the, (plural.) gSttlichen, of the divine, und, and. 
 
 godly. 
 
26 
 
 About an Institute. 
 
 m»nscbUcli«n, of the hit- Dingo, (n.) things. Wissenschaft, (f.) tcience. 
 
 man. 
 
 des, c/ We, (singular.) Rechten, (n.) of the right, TJnrechten, of the wrong, 
 
 just. unjust. 
 
 Harris gives the following as a translation of the Latin : " Jurisprudence 
 is the knowledge of things divine and human, and the exact discernment 
 of what is just and unjust." Cooper's little better version sounds : "Juris- 
 prudence is the knowledge of things divine and human ; the science of 
 what is just and unjust." Is the German the best language for transla- 
 tion ? Certainly, the Germans often seem the best translators. The ex- 
 pression " what is just and unjust" is but a clumsy rendering of the pre- 
 cise, felicitous original. Far better is the German, " des Rechten und des 
 Unrechten." We should say, "of what is just and what is unjust," or 
 " of the just and the unjust." But, whatever may be thought of the trans- 
 lations here in question, the original of them assuredly ascribes too much 
 to the science it characterizes. There are many things in heaven and earth, 
 not dreamed of in the law or in the science known as jurisprudence. There 
 are things above and things below the jurist's cognizance. Hooker's cele- 
 brated rhapsody about law is not a definition. 
 
 Thus it runs: " Her seat is the bosom of God, and her voice the har- 
 mony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage ; the 
 very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her 
 power." 
 
 True, in order to do justice to this language, it is necessary to remember 
 what is taught by jurists, touching what they call the Law of Nature. 
 
 Here, again, Tribonian and his fellows may be our instructors. In the 
 Institutes we read: '"Jus naturale est, quod natura omnia animalia do- 
 cuit: nam jus istud non humani generis proprium est, sed omnium ani- 
 malium, qua) in coelo, qua? in terra, quaj in mari, nascuntur. Hinc de- 
 scendit maris atque feminaj conjunctio, quom nos matrimonium appellamus. 
 Hinc liberorum procreatio, hinc educatio. Videmus enim, caetera quoque 
 animalia istius juris peritia censeri." The Englishing which Harris givea 
 
 Vocabulary 7. 
 
 naturale, (n.) natural. 
 animalia, to animals. 
 non, not. 
 
 proprium, proper. 
 animalinm, of animals. 
 coelo, in lieaven. 
 nascuntur, are bom. 
 
 omnia, to all, (plural.) 
 
 istud, this. 
 
 generis, the race, of the 
 
 hind. 
 omnium, of all, (pi.) 
 in, in, on. 
 mari, in Hie sea. 
 dcscondit, descends. 
 maris, of the man, of the feminaj, of the wife, of the conjunctio, (f.) conjunction. 
 
 natura, (f. nature. 
 docuit, 7ia.s- taught. 
 humani, (f.) the human. 
 
 sed, but. 
 
 qua;, which, (pi.) 
 terra, on earUi. 
 hinc, hence. 
 
 husband. 
 quam, which. 
 
 woman. 
 nos, wc. 
 
 union. 
 
 matrimonium, (n.) matri- 
 mony. 
 
 procreatio, (i.) procreation. 
 
 enim, /or. 
 
 istius, of this. 
 
 ceaBeii, jtidged, esteemed. 
 
 appellamus, we call. libtrorum, (m.) of children. 
 
 educatio, (f.) education. videmus, we perceive. 
 csetera, the rest. quoque, also. 
 
 juris, of law. peritia, skilled, having knowl- 
 
 edge of. 
 
 US of this rather fanciful doctrine reads : " The law of nature is not a law^ 
 to man only, but likewise to all other animals, whether they are produced 
 on the earth, in the air, or in the waters. From hence proceeds the con- 
 junction of male and female, which we among our own species style matri- 
 
About an Institute. 
 
 27 
 
 mony ; from whence arises the procreation of children, and our care in 
 bringing them up. We perceive also, that the rest of the animal creatures 
 are regarded as having a knowledge of this law, by which they are at- 
 tracted." Cooper does not mend this version much. His rendering reads 
 thus : " The law of nature is a law not only to man, but likewise to all 
 other animals, whether produced on the earth, in the air, or the waters. 
 From hence proceeds that conjunction of male and female, which we de- 
 nominate matrimony ; hence the procreation and education of children. 
 We perceive also, that other animals are considered as having some knowl- 
 edge of this law." 
 
 Infinitely better is the German reading for which we are indebted to the 
 associated jurists, who, as already noticed, translated into their modern- 
 tongue the whole body of the Civil Law, connected with the name of Justin- 
 ian. Here is that superior version : "Naturrecht heist dasjenige, welches 
 die Natur alien Gescohpfe lehrte ; denn dieses Recht ist nicht allein den 
 Menschen eigenthiimlich, sondern alien Thieren, die in der Luft, auf Erde, 
 und im Meere entstehen. Hieraus entspringt die Verbindung des Mannes 
 mit dem Weibe, die wir Ebe nennen, die Erzeugung der Kinder und deren 
 Erziehung ; denn wir wissen, dass man die iibrigen Gescophfe dieses Recht 
 auch fiir kiindig halt." Without now dwelling on this doctrine, so far as 
 
 Naturrecht, (n.) natural 
 
 law. 
 alie, all, (pi.) 
 dieses, (n.) this. 
 den MenscheD, to men, to 
 
 human beings. 
 alien, to all, (pi.) 
 in, in. 
 
 auf, upon, in, on. 
 Meere, (Meer, n.) sea, 
 
 ocean. 
 entspringt, springs. 
 
 Weibe. (Weib, n.) wife, 
 woman. 
 
 nennen, ■name,'>call. 
 
 der Kinder, of tlie chil- 
 dren. 
 
 man, one. 
 
 aucb, also, too. 
 
 bSIt, holds. 
 
 Vocabulary 8. 
 heist, is called. 
 
 Geschopfe, (n.) creatures. 
 nicht, not. 
 eigenthtlmlicb, peculiar, 
 
 proper. 
 Thieren, (n.) to animals. 
 der, in the, (sing.) 
 Erde, earth. 
 entstehen, arise, are bom. 
 
 Verbindung, connection, 
 union, con junction, binding. 
 wir, we. 
 
 Erziehung, education. 
 wissen, know. 
 
 Ubrigen, rest, other, (pi.) 
 ftir, for. 
 
 Natur, (f.) nature. 
 
 lehrte, taught. 
 allein, only, merdy. 
 Bondern, but. 
 
 die, the, (pi.) 
 
 Luft, (f.) air. 
 
 im, in the. 
 
 hieraus, out of this, hence. 
 
 des Mannes, of the man, of 
 
 the husband. 
 Ehe, marriage. 
 
 Erzeugung, procreation. 
 dass, that. 
 
 Geschopf, creature. 
 KUndig, acquainted with, 
 skilled in. 
 
 it ascribes to the animals below our zoologic rank a knowledge of the so- 
 called law of nature, let us, returning to the rhapsody of Hooker, take into 
 consideration, that the whole universe is often said to be law-governed, in 
 matter as in mind. 
 
 A long-ago commenced but still unfinished Legal Cate- 
 chism yields the following explanation, made by the com- 
 poser of the present offering to Readers : 
 
 •^Question. Law in general has been called a rule of action, prescribed 
 
28 ■ About an Institute. 
 
 by an authority which one is compelled to obey. Is that definition satis- 
 factory ? 
 
 '^Answer. The word prescribed seems exceptionable, that which is pre- 
 scribed being, according to the strictest reading, a thing foTe-wrilten, while 
 we know that there are laws without writing. 
 
 " Question. Are words essential to the form of a law? 
 
 "Answer. They are not. SuflBcient is it that a law be laid down, as in- 
 deed the etymology of its name imports; and it may be laid down in idea 
 merely. Much of what we call the common law exists in contemplation 
 only. 
 
 " Question. Can you give a short description of the common law? 
 
 '■'Ansiccr. The common law arose in England. It was brought to the 
 colonies, which were destined to become known as the United States, by 
 the first English settlers in this country, and it has been modified in the 
 United States by the habits, manners, ideas, institutions and laws of our 
 people. It is chiefly evidenced by the reports of cases decided by the 
 courts. 
 
 " Question. Has it not been called judicial legislation ? 
 
 "Ansu'cr. Yes, but not correctly. Courts do not make law; they only 
 ascertain it, and, in applying, declare its requirements. The decisions of 
 the courts are merely evidence of law." 
 
 To this I have elsewhere subjoined : 
 
 " Perhaps, it is allowable to say that even acts of Legislation are no more 
 than evidence of Law. It is the sense, the meaning of the language in a 
 legislative act, that is to have the force of law. The well known rules of 
 constitutional and statutory construction might be here appealed to; but 
 no reference to them is necessary. Every legist comprehends that when 
 the meaning of the legislature evidently varies from its language, not the 
 language but the meaning, is to have the force of law. 
 
 "Nevertheless, the legal interest of Law in Language is extremely great 
 and various ; and it is remarkable that Legists generally do not take greater 
 interest than they actually take in certain portions of Linguistics." 
 
About an Institute. 29 
 
 III. 
 
 THE FRENCH has been examined very carefully by 
 typonomic studies 1 have lately made with You; and 
 You, as Pupil of the Ernest Institute, learned, long ago, 
 the special interest which Nomologians may find in many 
 aspects of that Language, of its Literature, and of the re- 
 markable People, to whom they belong. But, now, my 
 special objects lead me to discourse a little of the Langu- 
 age You have heard me call "my other Tongue," when I 
 have made comparison and contrast of it with our well- 
 beloved Mother-Tongue. 
 
 The German language has been very much considered 
 in the Ernest Institute, because of certain long-ago quite 
 settled views and sentiments of mine. I deem that Idiom 
 of special interest to all Americans. 
 
 The Cincinnati Volhsblatt said — I think in 1868 or in 
 1869 — in noticing a contribution of mine : 
 
 " Der Verfasser ist in der Deutschen Literatur voUstandig bewandert, und 
 hat von jeher der geistigen Grosse der Deutschen Nation die verdiente Ge- 
 rechtigkeit wiederflihren lassen. Der Ton der Geringschatzung und Ve- 
 rachtung, mit welchen so viele, verhaKnissmassig gebildete Deutsche von 
 ihren eingeborenenen Mitbiirgerh sprechen, hat ihn daher schmerzlich 
 beriihrt und zu dem von uns angetheilten Aufsatz veranlasst, welcher so 
 manches Wahre entbalt." 
 
 The Illinois Staatszeiiung followed in these terms : 
 
 "Im Cincinnati Volksblatt klagt sich ein geborener Amerikaner, R. B. 
 "Warden, (wenn wir nicht irren, friiher Mitglied des obersten Staatsge- 
 richtshofes von Ohio,) der ein sehr gutes und kraftiges Deutsch schreibt 
 im komischernsten Ton iiber das Gegenstiick zum Knownothingthum — die 
 Verachtung, welche Deutsch gegen die Eingeborenen Amerikaner zeigen.', 
 
 I have never flattered any element of our composite 
 Nationality. I never was a skillful or a practised flat- 
 terer in any way. I shall not now attempt to flatter 
 either Germans or Non-Germans, here or abroad. But I 
 insist on all that I have ever said, betokening apprecia- 
 tion of the German Peoples and their Idioms. At the 
 same time, I once more say, with emphasis : 
 
 '♦ The German language does not perfectly reflect the German charao- 
 
30 About an Institute. 
 
 ter. Too many savants go too far in what they say about the mirror to be 
 found in speech. No language perfectly expresses the characteristics of 
 the people whom it ordinarily serves as an indicator of thought and feel- 
 ing — none can be regarded as a faultless mirror of ethnical propensity and 
 faculty." 
 
 I have invited your attention to the fact, that Theodore 
 Poesche and Charles Goepp composed, in literary part- 
 nership, more than thirty years ago, a largely named 
 small book, (a) of an extremely interesting character. I 
 read it very carefully, devoting not the least of my con- 
 sideration to the following expressions : 
 
 " Rome has left a legacy of her power, in her language, to all the nations 
 that once owned her sway. The new Rome will universalize the tongue 
 which ' proclaimed liberty to the nations, and to the people thereof.' The 
 English language is manifestly destined for all mankind. At this day it is 
 spoken in England by twenty-seven millions of people ; the Celtic idioms^ 
 of Wales, the Scotch Highlanders, and Ireland, are dead or dying. The 
 English colonies unite in adopting the parent tongue, not even excepting 
 Canada, which, in its origin, was exclusively French. In India, one hun- 
 dred and twenty millions of souls are learning it. A new England i» 
 grown up in Australia. In the United States, however, the process is 
 most interesting ; here the English is the received organ of intercourse 
 among twenty-five millions of people, of the most heterogeneous extrac- 
 tion. Spanish, French, Dutch, and German are compelled to give way 
 before it. Its onward progress is, of course, as rapid as that of the Ameri- 
 can people. It leads the way in the Sandwich Islands, and the Chinese 
 are learning it in California, to carry it to the Celestial Empire. No lan- 
 guage on earth receives so much attention from foreigners as the English ; 
 some millions of emigrants in the United States are bent upon acquiring 
 it. In Germany, the study of English, until within the last five years, was 
 limited, and bore no proportion to that of the French. At present it re- 
 ceives close attention from all the friends of freedom, and from all who 
 desire to emigrate, the French having been cast into the shade. The num- 
 ber of those who converse in this idiom is now estimated at seventy mill- 
 ions, while a hundred years ago it was just seven millions, a progress surely 
 without a parallel. None of the languages of civilized Europe is used by sa 
 many individuals as this. The English literature already exerts an over- 
 powering influence over all the other literatures of the world. Nothing is 
 more certain than that the English language will extend over all the earth, and' 
 will very shortly become the common medium of thought — the language of the 
 world." 
 
 Subjoined to this prophetic inculcation is what.purports- 
 to be a translation of language used by Jacob Grimm in 
 
 (a) The New Rome ; or, The United States of the World. 
 
About an Institute. 31 
 
 his famous essay Ueher den Ursprung der Sprache. Thus it 
 runs : 
 
 " Of all the modern idioms, none has derived from the very surrender 
 and demolition of the old laws of tone, from the almost entire disuse of in- 
 flection, a greater force and power than the English ; and the unconfined 
 fullness of its medium tones gives it on essential command of expression, 
 such as never yet fell to the lot of a human tongue. Its entire highly in- 
 tellectual and happy design and finish are the product of a marvellous 
 alliance of the two finest languages of later Europe, the Romanic and the 
 Germanic, which, as is well known, have divided the field in such a man- 
 ner that the sensuous foundation is taken from the latter, while the former 
 has furnished the superstructure of intellectual abstractions. In point of 
 •wealth, balance, and sinewy knitness, no living language will bear c om- 
 parison with it. Yes, the English, not accidentally the mother and the 
 nurse of the greatest poetical genius of modern times, in contradistinction 
 to ancient classic art— 1 of course refer to none other than Shakespeare- 
 is fully entitled to the dignity of a World's language, and seems destined, 
 like the people who call it theirs, to govern, even in a greater degree than 
 at present, at every corner of the earth." 
 
 Commenting on this passage, I have elsewhere said, and 
 I may properly repeat : 
 
 "As far as it goes, the foregoing paragraph faithfully presents the 
 thoughts of Grimm, although it transposes somewhat. But for ample rea- 
 sons, I desire to place in juxtaposition with it the passage it purports to 
 translate, and to give some added words of Grimm. I use the sixth Berlin 
 edition, which I sent for in 1 8G9, if I remember rightly. Grimm, then, says : 
 
 " ' Keine unter alien ncueren sprachen hat gerade durch das aufgeben 
 und zerriitten alter lautgesetze, durch den wcgfall beinahe sammtlicher 
 flexionen eine grSszere kraft und stiirke empfangen als die englische und 
 von ihrer nicht einmal lehrbaren, nur lernbaren fiille freier mittletone ist 
 eine wesentliche gewalt des ausdrucks abhangig geworden, wie sie vielle- 
 icht noch nie einer andern menschlichen zunge zu gebote stand, ihre ganze 
 iiberaus geistige, wunderbar gegliickte anlage und durchbildung war her- 
 vorgegangen aus einer iiberraschenden vermahlung der beiden edelsten 
 sprachen des spatern Europas, der germanischen und romauischen, und be- 
 kannt ist wie im englischen sich beide zu einander verhalten, indem jene 
 bei weitem die sinnliche grundlage hergab, dese die geistige begrifle zu- 
 fuhrte. ja die englische sprache, von der nicht umsonst auch der groste 
 und iiberlegenste dichter der neueu zeit im gegensatz zur classichen alten 
 poesie, ich kann naturlich nur Shakspeare meinen, gezeugt und getragen 
 worden ist, sie darf mil vollem recht eine weltsprache hciszen und scheint 
 gleich dem englischen volk ausersehen kunftig noch in holierem masze an 
 alien enden der erde zu walten. denn an reichthum, vernunft und ge- 
 drangter fuge laszt sich keine aller noch lebenden sprachen ihr an die seite 
 setzen, auch unsre Deutsche nicht, die zerrissen ist wie wir selbst zerrissen 
 Bind, und erst manche gebrechen yon sich abschutteln miiste ehe sie kiihn 
 
32 About an Institute. 
 
 mit in die laufbahn trate; doch einige wohlthuende erinnerungen wird sie 
 darbieten und wer mochte ihr die hofnung abschneiden? die schonheit 
 menschlioher sprache bliihte nicht im amfang, sondern im ihrer mitte; ihre 
 reichste frucht wird sie erst einmal in der zukunft darreichen.' 
 
 "The German reader, on comparing Poesche and Goepp's translation 
 with the extract I have made directly from the text of Grimm, will notice, 
 first, an apparent transposition, second, an apparent omission. Was there 
 really a transposition on the part of the translator? Did the latter really 
 omit an important passage ? Possibly, changes made by Grimm himself, 
 and a consequent difference between the first edition and the last, would be 
 ascertained by full investigation. 
 
 "This, indeed, seems highly probable. The apparently omitted pas- 
 sage is one which seems to me a new proof that, even when the head is per- 
 fectly convinced, the heart may be entirely unpersuaded. The conclusion 
 of the passage I have quoted from Grimm's famous Essay, in the original, 
 indicates that he has not yet quite convinced his heart that his mother- 
 tongue is inferior to the mother-tongue of Shakspeare." 
 
 Some of his compatriot dissentients have called him 
 * ' British-gesinnt. ' ' 
 
 The German fondness for the German tongue has had 
 some very thorough-going expressions. 
 
 Luther, for example, said : 
 
 " Die Deutschen allzumahl haben Einfalt and Wahrheit lieber denn Fran- 
 zosen, Italiiiner und Spanier, welches auch die Sprache und das Ausre- 
 den genugsam anzeigt ; da diese lappisch und zischeud die Worte auspre- 
 chen. Darum sagt man von den Franzosen ; sie schreiben anders denn sie 
 reden, und reden anders denn sie es meinen. Aber die Deutsche Sprache 
 ist die allervoUkommenste, hat viel Aehnlichkeit mit der Griechischen." 
 
 And not long ago, a German writer let himself off with 
 the pen as follows: 
 
 «« Welche Sprache darf sich mit der Deutschen messen, welche ist so reich 
 und machlig, so muthig und anmuthig, so schon und mild als unsere ? Sie 
 hat tausend Fsirben und warme Schatten. Sie hat ein Wort fur das 
 kleinste Bediirfnisz der Minute und ein Wort fur das bodenlose Gefuhl, das 
 keine Ewigkeit ausschopft. Sie ist stark in der Noth, geschmeidig in Ge- 
 fahren, schrecklich wenn sie ziirnt, weich in ihrem Mitleid und beweglich 
 zu jedem Unternehmen. Sie ist die treue Dolmetscherin aller Sprachen, 
 die Himmel und Erde, Luft und Wasser sprechen." 
 
 Unto this the Beutscher-Sprachwart, in January, 1867, 
 added : 
 
 " Was der rollende Donner groUt, was die kosende Liebe tandelt, was der 
 larmende Tag schwatzt und die fleiszige Nacht briitet ; was das Morgenroth 
 
About an Institute. 33 
 
 purpurfarben, gold und silbern malt ; was der ernste Herrscher auf deui 
 Throne des Gedankens sinnt ; was das Madchen plaudert die stiUe Quelle 
 murmelt und die geifernde Schlange pfeift ; wann der muntere Knabe hupft 
 undjauchztundderalte Philosoph sein schweres Ich setzt und spricht: 
 Ich bin Ich— : alles, alles ubersetzt und erklart sie una verstandlich ; jedes 
 anvertraute Wort Uberbringt sie uns reicher und geschmiickter, als es Jhr 
 iiberliefert worden ist." 
 
 Now, let US try to do full justice to the German tongue. 
 Says Henry Thomas Buckle, in his way : 
 
 •» As to the Germans, it is undoubtedly true that since the middle of the 
 eighteenth century they have produced a greater number of profound 
 thinkers than any other country ; I might perhaps say, than all other 
 countries put together." 
 
 Good enough ! But our never-altogether-to-be-trusted 
 Author adds to that good language : 
 
 "Their great authors address themselves, not to the country, but to each 
 other. They are sure of a select and learned audience, and they use what, 
 in reality, is a learned language ; they turn their mother-tongue into a dia- 
 lect, eloquent, indeed, and very powerful, but so difficult, so subtle, and so 
 full' of complicated inversions, that to their own lower classes it is utterly 
 incomprehensible." 
 
 Commenting on the last-cited sentences, I have, else- 
 where, presumed to say : 
 
 " Could nothing but ray observations during intercourse with Cincinnati 
 and Columbus Germans, cultivated and uncultivated, furnish reasons for 
 rejecting this fine specimen of Buckleism, I would still feel bold to say: 
 For all his learning, this man failed to find the typical distinctions of Ger- 
 man literary labor. But I find his error quite suggestive. 
 
 '< Charles FoUen observes : 
 
 " ' Luther cannot be regarded as the father of the general language of 
 his country ; no more than he can be regarded as the father of the Reforma- 
 tion. He says himself: 
 
 <" " I have not a distinct, peculiar kind of German, but I use the common 
 German language, in order that the upper and lower countries may under- 
 stand me." ' 
 
 " There have been German authors, as well as other authors, who were 
 less desirous to be understood. There was a time when to deny all appli- 
 cation to those words of Buckle would have been barely less absurd than it 
 would be to follow Buckle generally. But, before that time, as we have 
 seen, there was a period when the German writer strove to reach as many 
 minds as possible, and now his efforts to popularize all the varieties of 
 learning which may interest the people are remarkable. That the evil pointed 
 out by Buckle never was so great as it appeared to him, the culture I have 
 
84 About an Institute. 
 
 found distributed to Ohio Germans and to others will not suffer me to ques- 
 tion. I might notice here the wide circulation in this country of German 
 literary and scientific publications and of German-American printed matter. 
 
 "Buckle follows Laing's Notes of a Traveler. The foot-note quotations 
 from that work, indeed, apparently sustain the text of Buckle ; but such 
 study of the subject as its great importance obviously orders, must convict 
 both writers of exaggeration. 
 
 " I do not forget the undeniable difficulty of the German tongue. Some 
 years ago, I thought of addressing to my fellow-citizens of German birth, a 
 bilingual letter, containing among other things, these words: 'Leaving 
 pronunication out of view, it was easier for you to learn English than for 
 me to learn German; and this is not wholly chargeable to my inferior 
 ability to learn.' I add : Even after learning German, the Englishman finds 
 that even in writing your fine medium of thought, the practice that makes 
 perfect will not even yield grammatical correctness as he hoped it would to 
 a learner of the English. 
 
 "But. admitting all that ought to be admitted as to the great diflSculty of 
 the German language, we must still acknowledge its wonderful achieve- 
 ments in the way of what has been called popularization, and its ever deep- 
 ening disposition to perfect its work in the same direction. 
 
 "Buckle adds to his already-quoted words the following: 
 
 " ' From this there have arisen some of the most marked peculiarities of 
 German literature. For, being deprived of ordinary readers, it is cut off 
 from the influence of ordinary prejudice, and hence it has displayed a bold- 
 ness of inquiry, a recklessness in the pursuit of truth, and a disregard of 
 traditional opinions, which entitle it to the highest praise. But on the 
 other hand, this same circumstance has produced that absence of practical 
 knowledge, and that indifference to material and physical interests, for 
 which the German literature is justly censured. As a matter of course, all 
 this has widened the original breach, and increased the distance which 
 separates the great German thinkers from that dull and plodding class, 
 which, though it lies immediately beneath them, still remains uninfluenced 
 by their knowledge, and uncheered by the glow and fire of their genius. 
 
 " ' In America, on the other hand, we see a civilization precisely the re- 
 verse of this. We see a country, of which it has been truly said, that in 
 no other are there so few men of great learning, and so few men of great 
 ignorance. In Germany, the speculative classes and the practical classes 
 are altogether disunited; iu America, they are altogether fused.' 
 
 "This is not true. The speculative and practical classes are wo< alto- 
 gether fused in the United States; and certainly, in Germany those classes 
 are not altogether disunited. 
 
 " I have had three German partners in the practice of the Law, in each 
 of whom there was incarnate a complete contradiction to the eminently 
 Buckleian theory now under view." 
 
 The Ernest Institute does not devote too much con- 
 sideration to the German Language. 
 
OF CONQR^S®. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS |Vj 
 
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