BD 581
W2
Copy I
A BOOK
l'
TYPE AND TYPES,
u;ly discoursed of in a
SERIES OF LETTERS.
BY
ROBERT BRUCE WARDEN,
| | ■ . : | '
ZEZRHSTIEST INSTITUTE,
1885.
i
A BOOK
<> 1
TYPE AND TYPES,
FAMILIARLY DISCOURSED OF IN A
SERIES OF LETTERS.
P> V
ROBERT BRUCE WARDEN,
OF THE BAB A'l WASHINGTON.
"JAN ^T|886 &■'
D BY I HI
ERNEST INSTITUTE,
•
W 2 -
Copyright 1885.
A BOOK OF
Familiarly Discoursed of In a Series of Open
Letters.
I.
Till ( LADfS AND YIELD OF TYrONOMIC DOCTRINE.
TYPONOMIC, in effect, though not in name, dear
Charlie, is much of the matter in a multitude of
□9 and minor writings.
For the benefit of Readers, who have not learned what
the term. 7 r#, was coined by me to denominate, let
me at once declare the sense in which I have long used
I happy term. And, to that end, permit me to draw
tion to this language of my Open Letter, ad-
dressed to Doctor (Mixer Wendell Holmes, some years
■
u 1 had the metal plate, from which the picture is
printed, made from a card-picture, issued on a box of the
Between-the-Acts. Below the picture on the
'1 appear the words, * Mrs. Langl ree.' *
" I consider likely thai the picture intimates at least
the type of beauty that appears in the world-famous per-
med. ll<>w far is she a type of I >ld World
Wbmanh od I
"Allow me to remind yon that you said In the Autocrat
. in 1858 :
■■ ■ [1 has always been s favorite idea erf mine to bring
i lid and the New World face to fece, bv
an accurate comparison of their various type.- of organi-
Lon. We should begin with man, of cousse; in
ire.
2 1 and Tyi<
a large and exacl comparison between tlio development
of * Altieri called it, in different sec-
insor each country, in the different callings, at differ-
imating height, weight, force by the dyna-
mometer and the spirometer, and finishing oil' with a
>f typical photographs, giving t he principal national
1 » 1 1 •inies.'
"No doubt, you hav< mbled quite a gallery of
mil e pictures, not a few of which arc typical <>f the
Old World. 1 have,myself. I had, indeed, when, about
i >f years ago, 1 wrote to you about Typonomy, the
of the haw of Type. My gallery has had a large
in. then. My Typonomic studies are in pail
rd work, iii part tine play: and I have so delighted in
them, that they have at no time been neglected, since
hodical.
" Fou answered very kindly the just mentioned letter,
1 you wisely cautioned me against extreme ideas and
what 1 distinguish as the province of Typo-
I true r counsel has been faithfully re-
gard
■■ Aj9 for you, you seemed to think that you were not the
rson to perform the work I would have had you und<
Perhaps, your judgment was correct in that partic-
ular. I > ut I have often doubted whether you ought not
ipted to work out elaborately what you
blined in the passage from which I have drawn
ae sent<
•• Sou Baid in the already-quoted chapter of your.4ttfo-
B Tabk :
• \ would follow this up by contrasting the various
par, j of life in the two continents. Our natur-
Ften referred to this incidentally or cx-
t the animus of Nature in the two half-glol
7 h<- pi;.: lomentoufl a poinl oi intei i >ur
•,,it it should be made a Bubjecl of express and elab-
Gto out with me into that walk which we
fcfott, and i ' he English and A merica.i eh,
- tall, graceful, slender-sprayed, and
from languor. The English elm is compact,
Type and Types. 3
robust, holds its branches op, and carries its leaves for
onger than our own native tree.
« ■ [e this typical of the creative force on the two sides-
lie ocean, or nol V
"A rtion Beldom has been raised.
You say, yourself , that it can be answered by nothing but
• n through the whole realm of li
• \ : , id, in 18
4 IjffM ami '!)/{
•"There is a parallelism without identity in the ani-
mal and vegetable life of the two continents which fav-
ore tin- task of comparison in an extraordinary manner.
9 we have two trees alike in many ways yet not
me, both elms. yet easily distinguishable , just so we
hav- mplete flora and a fauna which, parting from
the Bame ideal, embody it with various modifications.
Invent ive power is the only quality of which the Creative
Intelligence Beems to be economical; just as with our
largest human minds, that is t he
t' characteristics, and has
en defined as - that which exemplifies certain char-
: a model; a pattern; a specimen; as/ the cat
of the genus Fi lis.* "
u W r. having defined character as ' the assemblage
of qualities which distinguish one person from another;
particular constitution of the mind;' puts forward this
translation of words written by Lavater: c Actions, looks,
ds, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell
dial
••The lexicographer then cites the words of Paley:
• Eealth and sickness, enjoyment and suffering, riches and
poverty, knowledge and ignorance, power and subjection,
liberty and bondage, civilization and barbarity, have all
their offices and duties; all serve for the formation of
char
11 see me, in the composition of these Letters, freely
ttol originally written for. the present work.
\ my pen-work has, however, had much publica-
tion: why, I need not say. just now. Xor need 1, now,
_rn any other reason for the use here made, or to be
transfers from other 1 ks of mine, than that
I have the right to make the transfers, and that to do so
xpedienl .
ling, lei me call attention to this language of
!nhe. in his extremely interesting volume on
T ( f Man, considered in Relation to External
■■ Mental talents and dispositions are determined
T]fpe and Types. 7
by the size and constitution of the brain. The brain is a
portion of our organized system, and, as such, is BuUe
the organic laws, by one of which its qualities are
transmitted by hereditary descent. This law, however
taint or obscure it may appear in individual eases, be-
con aolutely undeniable in nations. When we place
the collection of Hindoo, Carib, Negro, New Holland,
\ >rth American, and European skulls, possessed by the
Phrenological Society, in juxtaposition, we perceive a na-
tional form and combination of organs in each, actually
• ruding itself upon our not ice, and corresponding with
the mental characters of the respective tribes; the cerebral
development of one tribe is seen to differ as widely from
that of another as the European mind does from that of the
New Hollander. Here, then, each I Iindoo,(/hinesc, Xew
Hollander, Negro, and Carib obviously inherits from his
par< neral type of head ; and so does each Eu-
If. then, the general forms and proportions are
thus so palpably transmitted, can we doubt that the indi-
vidual varieties follow the saine rule, modified slightly
by i liar to the parents of the individual
This y, r< Bpectable as it must be allowed to be,
makes quite too much of that which Agassiz and others
ha ed to call Heredity. The theory, however, is
entitled t<» a v.-ry thorough study.
Si idy it right thoroughly, especially in view of your
dfe. Again I counsel you to give full,
2 ilar, methodic study to the various ideas and philoso-
phies relal I liysique.
Ph\ allow me to remind you, has been distin-
rporeal part of that which we call ani-
mal. The animal, in tla- most comprehensive sense, is
that which lives in an organized, material body, gifted
with the p and Of voluntary mol ion.
One i talk of the physique thai ba to be dis-
cerned in I and Vill But the physique
I in Animala and Man is I hat with
which T my is most concern*
that I wrote to you, in 1880, used
this lan_
8 / ' . ■ ■' Ti/pes.
w I desire to put you on your guard against attributing
too much to the oorporeal bart of our humanity.
a Tou ;uv a student of Nomology, and you expect to
I to the practice of the Law, next year.
•• homology, according to my view, cognizes legal prin-
ciples and legal facts. It comprehends both Polity and
risprudence. It must have great interest in all the
the elating to physique, and it must teach one to*
be on his guard against all theories which are not truly
scientific.
• 1 endeavor to assist you to become a Nomologian of
the first clasa But you cannot become a Nomologian of
first <>rder If you tail to study thoroughly the learn-
ing in relation to the human body.
u What should I, your sole instructor, say to you about
Phrenology? What ought I to advance, for your instruc-
tion, touching Physiognomy? The answers to these ques-
tions will be worked out in the course of the letter,
which is here well on its way. But I desire at once to
take all the Responsibility involved in owning that, in
my opinion, neither Physiognomy nor Phrenology has
»ut its case:' and that the theory, of the Phreno-
nal, touching the propensities and capabilities
of Garfield, seems to be hut little better than sheer
nonsense.
M I have studied both the Metaphysics and the Logic of
Sir William Hamilton. I have not felt at liberty to dis-
card his doctrine in relation to Phrenology. You have
id from inc. by way of gift, the far from perfect
edia, in which appears the article that says: 'At
tnis time f 1 821 J phrenology was excil Ing special interest
in Edinburgh. For the purpose of testing its pretensions,
Sir William went through a laborious course of compar-
isecting with his own hands several
hundred different brains: Be sawed open a series of
ills of different nations, of both sexes and all ages, to
ascertain the facts in regard to the frontal sinus on which
phrenologists had founded so much, lie also insti-
tuted a series of experiments for ascertaining the relative
size and weight of brains. The results of these investi-
l)/pe and l)/pes. 9
tkmfl wore embodied in two papers which he read
before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1826, main-
taining that the assertions of tact by the phrenologists
6 utterly false.'
u This man was not betrayed by the consciousness that
he had not a fine physique. The article just quoted
furnishes the following description oi' the man of whom
•lie entered upon his professorship with every
qualification. His personal appearance was the very
finest. Above the middle height, of B sinewy and well
I frame, with a massive head, decisive and
finely cut features, a dark, calm, piercing eye. perfect
self-possession and reliance, finished courtesy of manners,
and a voice remarkably distinct, silvery and melodious,
In* stood before his hearers the perfection of a man in
liy physical adornment. w Whatever,' says Mr. Haynes,
his clas wistant, 'the previous expectations of Sir
William's appearance might he, they were certainly real-
id it' not surpassed; and,however familiar one might
come with the play of thought and feeling
on that noble countenance, the first impression remained
aid the last ^ that it was perhaps altogether
the finest head and face you had ever seen, strikingly
me, and full of intelligence and power. When I"
to read. Sir William's voice confirmed the impres-
i his appearance and manner had produced. It was
full, cl( lute, with a swell of intellectual
ardor in the more measured cadences, and a tone that
ami resonant in reading any striking extra
ma t'a\ .1 hoi-, whether iii prose or poel vy from
.;. Lucrel lus or Virgil, Scaliger or sir John
quainl and nervous lines Sir William \'
fon<
•• Bear in mind that 1 am n<»l attempting 1<» make out
thai f physique what Sir ( !hai 'id-
am. in the pi; i f l lie Vesuvian crater ' 1 h<
lothing in it. 1 On atrary, you know, I hold thai
i a little in physique, in many ways, to indi-
ability and tei
•• U( )i do I ( >ffer, a ntoovei am hor-
10 'J)/pe and Types.
ity of Hamilton 1 ! opinion on the subject of Phrenology.
That the opinion is important, no one will deny; but I
admit that it is not an end of question, and that you
will not vi time it' you examine for yourself the
ins and reasoning of the Phrenologists.
u My own opinion has boon formed with care. It has
been neatly mfhtenfied } and yet it has been freely and
quite independently made up. But I would have you
form % opinion, on the subject under notice, and
ing Physiognomy.
M I have no doubt that, even while Sir William Ham-
ilton was working on his anti-phrenologic showing, he
was rather proud of his tine physical endowments. I
have never known a man of line physique who did not,
in sonic way. evince a high appreciation of the same.
Moreover, men and women who are not endowed with
fine physique, make much of it in other persons, and
• pact ly.
• Hawthorne had a fine physique. Here is a not ex-
travagant description of him : 'He was a man as peculiar
in character as he was unique in genius. In him oppo-
qualitiea met, and were happily and harmoniously
blended ; and this was true of him physically as well as
intellectually. Be was tall and strongly built, with broad
deep chest, a massive head, black hair, and
large dark eyes. Wherever he was, he attracted atten-
tion by his imposing presence. He looked like a man
who might have hold the stroke-oar in a university boat.
enius, as all the world knows, was of masculine
ep. But, on the other hand, no man had
; ' the feminine element than lie. He was femi-
nine in his quick perceptions, his fine insight, his sensi-
bility to beauty, his delicate reserve, his purity of feeling.
man comprehended woman more perfectly ; none has
painted woman with a more exquisite and ethereal pencil.
ice was as mohile and rapid in its changes of
expression as in the face of a young girl. His lip and
aided the word before it was spoken. His eyes
rid darken visibly under the touch of a passing erao-
.. like the waters of a fountain ruffled by the "breeze
Type and Types. 11
of summer. So, too, he was the shyest of men. The
claims and courtesies of social Life were terrible to him.
The thought of making a call would keep him awake in
hed. At breakfast, he could not lay a piece of butter
upon a lady's plate without a trembling of the hand —
this isa fact and not a phrase. Be was so shy that in
the presence of two intimate friends he would be lees
\ and free-Spoken than in that o\' only one/
"Turn now to Thackeray's physique and manner. lie
is thus described: { He was tall and powerfully built,
with a massive head and silvery white hair. His geni-
ality, even temper, and kindly disposition toward every-
body with whom he came into personal relations, were
curiously at variance with the charge of cynicism 80
.'ii brought against his works. Bis domestic life was
cloud. -.I for several years by the insanity of his wife. 1
"John Forster says of Dickens: c very different was
his face in those days from that which photography has
made familiar to the present generation. A look of
youthfulness first attracted you, and then a candor and
of expression which made you sure of the
vithin. The features were very good. lie had
a capital forehead, a firm nose with full wide nostrils,
wonderfully beaming with intellect and running
er with humor and cheerfulness, and a rather promi-
nent mouth strongly marked with Bensibility. The head
wac ^ether well formed and symmetrical, and the
air and carriage of it were extremely spirited. The
hai n1 and grizzled in later days was then of a
rich brown and m<>st luxuriant abundance; and the
rded face of his last two decades had hardly a vefltlge
.»t' hair or whisker ; hut there was that in the face as I
it which no time could change, and which
remained implanted on it unalterably to the last. This
was the quickness, keenness, and practical power, the
t ie out look <»n each several feal ore,
that seemed to teu so little of a studenl or writer oi
i much of ;i man of act I m and business in
world. Light and motion Bashed from every pari of
/ -.iid of it . f'>ur <>r
12 Type and Types.
yean after the time to which I am referring, by a most
original and delicate observer, the late Mrs. Carlyle.
• What a fare is his to meet in a drawing-room !' wrote
Leigh Hunt to me, the morning after I made them
known to each other. ' It has the life and Soul of it of
fifty human beings.' In such sayings are expressed, not
alone the restless and resistless vivacity and force of
which 1 have spoken, hut that also which lay beneath
them of steadiness and hard endurance.'
•• In short, the evidence that there prevails a disposi-
tion to make much of that which is included in physique,
amounts to perfect proof."
One instance of Physique and Soul so perfectly harmo-
nious in their relation to each other, I shall never cease
to see, " in my mind's eye, Horatio," while I live. You
know, at once, the instance that I mean. The Person I
behold, however, is much younger, to my mental seeing,
than She is to yours. You never even saw her until She
had reached the age of four-and-thirty years. When
She became my Wife, She had but seventeen years, and
was full of the high charm of Health, and Grace, and
Beauty, both in Body and in Soul.
This is her Death-Day Anniversary.
Dear Charlie, bear with me yet for a time — no long
time, certainly, in any case.
You must see, for yourself, that it must be impossible
for me to grieve so, greatly longer. Life or Death — I
know not which, hut, surely, either Death, the end of
earthly Sorrow, or quick Life, that must go on its for-
ward march with steps which Sorrowing can never take,
must soon bring this, as yet, ungoverned Grieving to an
end.
Trust me. dear Sou, this day, in the respect just recog-
nized. Your Work, and Play, and Rest, shall not be
troubled L r iv ;t t]y Longer with my need of Sympathy in
What a lustrous day this is! The place, moreover,
where I write, is one of the choice places for the joys of
ht. Perhaps, there is not, on this earth, a set of views,.
Type and r J]>/j>< i 18
the Type of which is finer than the Type of what is
under view where \ am writing.
Let me make the passing record, that I write, hot in
my bo dearly charming dwelling-house, at the corner
of Washington Circle and New Hampshire Avenue, in
what my typonomic Btndies amply warrant me in calling
matchless Washington, hut in the dwelling of my highly
friendly and as highly valued friends, the Sherwoods, on
tlie Beights of Anaeostia. The spot is, I am certain,
unsurpassed in the line wealth of landscape-views, in-
cluding Objects and Phenomena. The water-views are
wondrously in harmony with land-views, and Nature
here in association with some of the very noblest tonus
\rt.
In | of such scenery, how can I tail to strive,
with good effect, for a new hold of Life?
In passing vessels steamers and sailers — and in rail-
way phenomena, there is an animation never rushing into
she- as, and always free from too long pauses. Is
it possible to make too much of it, Lover of the irlo-
- in landscape !
In I e of these views, I once more find my-
self — I often find myself — repeating Moore's fine lines:
" Thou art, 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 ! "
Bow, think and feeling so, on this devoted day,
could my remembrance fail to call up the peculiar lus-
osnessof your sweet Mother's loveliness,as il delighted
me in the day.- of her transcendent beauty of Physiq
When one You rather intimately know was youi
b at present .1 ed an essay, proving
from the poets, thai cold marble cannot well exj
Woman's I I [e a >no< d< d, that I iptor may
expresfi . and / . and he V
even willing to admit that theoi sented
in the pure white marhle. But M warmly Mgued for a.
14 Type, and Types.
wanner, brighter, sunnier substance than the sculptor
works in. when a woman's beauty is to be portrayed. I
do not know that lie lias even yet repented of his folly
in composing Buch an essay ; but I do know that he now
* k insists as he insisted/'
And the t'aney may not be entirely baseless. When
we l«>ok into the question in the light of Science, we
discover many reasons for adopting something like the
theory of the aforesaid essay. And the poets will not
Buffer us to think of any other theory.
1 might amuse you with the proofs of this assertion
by quotations from the leading poets.
And I mil refer to several instances.
The instance found in Shakspeare's Tempest is of a
uliarlv Shakespearian character.
The " < ) you wonder !" with which Ferdinand encoun-
- Miranda, and his willingness to lie in prison, if "but
through" his < k prison once a day/' he might "behold this
maid/* prepare us for the scene in which the lover quite
directly likens his beloved to the source of light.
Miranda pities Ferdinand, exclaiming,
" You look wearily."
The tender and suggestive answer is :
M No, noble mistress ; 'tis fresh morning with me,
When you are by at night."
Like pictures are to he discovered in many other plays.
Bui all the wantonness of the conceit appears in Romeo
and Juliet. Romeo speaks:
" But, soft ! what light through yonder window breaks ?
It is rhe east, and Juliet is the sun !
********
Her eye discourses ; I will answer it.
1 am too bold ; 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairc-i -tars in all the heaven,
ng iome lo entreat her eyes
twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyee were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
Aj daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night I"
Type and Types. 15
This "taking on" of tender, foolish Romeo is quite
suggestive of a more modern poet's fancy:
" And see ! the matin lark mistakes !
He quits the tufted green :
Fond bird ! 'tis not the morning breaks ! —
'Tis Kate of Abcrd>>
The "breaking' 1 — that is to Bay the dawning — of the
beauteous Kitty also brings to mind a ballad, which
begins, 1 think,
11 Up rose the Bun, and up rose Emily !"
Indeed, all through the poets we can find the like
conceit. We find it well expressed by Burns:
M She, the fair sun of all her sex,
Hast blest my glorious day ;
And shall a glimmering planet fix
My worship to its ray?"
Though the poets he extravagant, we must acknowledge
that their portraitures* of woman have presented her in a
most lovely light. And we can better understand the
love of Woman in mature and sober Manhood, when we
tind how warmly colored are all poetical pen-paintings of
her beauty.
An enthusiast of sighl lias painted the physique of
woman, not precisely as a Shakspeare would have painted
it, hut yet in a sufficiently striking light :
" Like to the clear in highest sphere,
Where all imperial glory shines,
Of self-same color is her hair,
Whether unfolded or in twines.
Il> r ftyee are sapphires set in snow,
Refining heaven by every wink ;
The god- vlien as they glow,
And I do tremble when l thu
Jler cheeks ire like the blushing cloii'l,
urora's face ;
t crimson shrow
That Phoebo* 1 smiling looks f the very beautiful development of "Womanhood
that was your Mother and my Wife. 'But many of the
Venus-haired Isabella's intellectual and moral traits and
tendencies, as we, in typonomic studies, have discerned
them, came to my almost too blessed home in her whom
it almost adored.
To her, for me, imperishable memory, I solemnly and
tenderly inscribe this book (a).
: not overlook thai vrbat I have distinguished as the Memorial Number of my
sine, il already dedicated to the memory of the same very lovely glory of her Sex.
But • ration does not seem to me at all opposed to what is here done in the way
Of tribute to the noble memory Of a Woman, never more than equalled as a Type of
Womanhod.
edition of my F<>ren. X tr and a Half of Liberty ; and under these lines
appeared this paragraph: "The case of Capt. John I\
Walker. Third Cavalry regiment, committed to the Gov-
lueiit insane asylum by order of the Secretary of War,
January 17, 1879, and brought before Justice dames of
the District Supreme Court on a writ of habeas can
!• 14. 1879, was yesterday decided by the Judge.
Be held the proof showed a certain degree of insanity
to exist in the subject of the proceeding, and that he
must be remanded back to the custody of Dr. W, W.
Godding, the superintendent of the asylum. The ques-
tion of the power of the court to go behind the order of
tary of Warwi 1 by ex-Governor Wells,
who v cially retained to defend Dr. Godding.
Judge James decided that he had jurisdiction to re-
!i officer committed under such an order . if the
stimony showed him to be sane. But he believed a
less degree of insanity was required to be shown
:nmittal than if the Secretary «»f | he
r made a similar order in the case i i s civili
This extra latitude. I. ight, was necessary, in or4er
that the men might be ted to treatment. '!
pt. Walker Mas I I \'^v two
18 Type and Types.
weeks to give Ins counsel, Mr. R. B. Warden, time to
decide whether he will take an appeal to the Court in
General Term or to the War Department. Judge James
added thai if hie opinion was asked, he would say that
from all the evidence before him, and especially the
later testimony of Dr. Godding, that Capt. Walker had
improved in tne year he had been at liberty in the care
of his counsel, hie continued confinement was not desir-
able. But he thought that the matter was so much one
of doubt that the discretion of the Secretary of War
the only Bafe and legal means of determining it."
I do not here set forth my judgment as to the true
( laptain Walker, mentally. But I feel bound to
. that never was the Jurisdiction to inquire respecting
Sanity or Insanity more alarmingly exercised than it was
in the case here under passing notice.
Be this as it may, the case caused me to thoroughly
review the very comprehensive studies of Insanity that
I went through before I was connected with that sad
Affair.
Among the studies just referred to, is a very careful
of the frequently alleged insanity of John Brown,
of Harper's Ferry fame.
In that case, there was what is generally deemed ex-
jive Philanthropical and Civic Sentiment. But was
there an essentially insane devotion to that sentiment ?
Let me relate an anecdote that seems to me adapted
to the forwarding of what I have, just here, in view.
In 1866, Ywn, Junior, son of the John Brown whoso over-
toil] noble heroism was exhibited at Earp<
Ty, in 1 s -V». A patriotic utterance [made whilst so
y, caused the Captain to start to his feet, and
. in an exceedingly marked way. I natu-
rally ii" him ; and he at once appeared to me an
tly studyable Typ<
He came to me when I had closed the Lecture, and was
made known to me by "mine host." He earnestly re*
. if possible, the purpose I had
utioned in my Lecture of departing, for the mainland
I >hio, the next day. and very cordially invited me to
le with him, at Ins expense, whilst
ild make me better acquainted with the archipel-
He Baid, in substance : "Yon already know m<
than any other person who has merely visited it,
within my knowledge; but I" am not only a Wine-
grower — I am also 8 Bui and \ can acquaint you
h these islands as no other can, I have no doubt \
1 T would greatly like to have that privilege
I changed my plans and purposes, and was the Cap-
talK was full of intei
1 added not a little to my typonomic informal ion,
I nothing loth, I
' him much a work on which I w, ged, —
a literary monume len, and. at the same
tin,- ibution to American Nomolo
lly in the division of it which I called T ay.
He always ap] >atly more than willing er,
.- when I ' it what I>r. Bu< banai
20 Type and Types.
Anthropology distinguishes as Sarcogonomy, and when I
made American Geology, which I had studied rather
thoroughly, the subject of our conversation, which con-
it ly grew more and more of typonomic drift and
daily grew more interesting to both talkers.
[ pronounce him now as tine a Type as I have broken
bread with ranee the death of him in special memory of
whom T nearly always use my literary pen. To Captain
John Brown, Junior, I shall always feel obliged and
grateful; and, on his account as well as on many other
' units. I shall not fail to give due honor to his father's
memory.
Was John Brown insane when he resolved to take the
hazards of his Harper's Ferry Enterprise?
To this extremely interesting and, at one time, greatly
mooted question, I had given not a little study when I
found myself engaged in daily talk with Capt. John
Brown, Junior, nineteen years ago. I have devoted not
a little study to the matter since that time. And now I
venture to declare, that, in my judgment, John Brown's
Harper's Ferry Enterprise was not devised by a Madman,
though, if I err not respecting it, it had its origin in an
excessive sense of Duty.
You and your dear Mother were with me at Put-In-
Bay Island, at the time just spoken of; and you have
\vn me that your mind retains a measure of remem-
brance of the place and of Capt. John Brown, our re-
spected and beloved host. Your Mother had a great re-
gard for him and for his honored wife.
In my Discourse, at Howard University, on Jural In-
tiSy while I was in the Walker Case, I said: "With
objects which I cannot think my hearers will consider
selfish or immodest, I record the fact, that, on the 19th
day of October, 1879, (that is to say, of a Sunday,) The
ubUe, edited by Mr. Kamsdell and put forth at Wash-
ington, had the temerity — nay, the audacity — to call me
a Philosopher! Good Heavens! what is to befall me
next? Why, Mr. Kamsdell, being evidently -on the
rampage/ and intending to destroy me wholly, not in
politics alone, but likewise in the line of my profession —
Type and T>/pes. 21
called me other names of heavy hurting force, lie said
of me: - The Judge is an hones! man, a very able lawyer,
strong writer; 1 deny all that, and call for perfect
pro< But now it seems to me thai 1 may venture to
admit :
That if] am not at least "indifferent honest/ 1 [
have a considerable inclination to be upright ;
- >nd: That it' I am not k *a very able Lawyer," I am
fain to own that 1 have tried, with might and main, for
m<>re than tive-and-fort v wars to be a Lawyer ^i' that
T .v
Third: That I have much written with intent to write
with force; and
irth: That, it" not a Philosopher in point of knowU
. I am a Philosopher in point of character^ at least to'
the extent that 1 am not w * a pipe for Fortune's finger to
nd what stop she pleases.'' If my "blood and judg-
ments' 1 are, sometimes, not just so " well commingled "
gjhl to be,] feel a reasonable certainty, that,
for the in >Sl part, I am ready to hear calmly, and right
Uy, all that comes to me because of my devotion to
what seems to me I), voir.
I do not like, indeed, to be subjected to the ridicule
n of mere Fools, like most of my Maligners, or of
nits like Murat Ealstead, or like White-
lav, but I cannot, in general, be very much dis-
hy any turn of my experience experience, in
very singular, down to this day of
mory.
I h. 3t now, great need of all my Strength and
all my Standing, my dear Son.
I n liieji mani
themselves in Faith and Morals, in this country and
In l iid. in an ( >pen Let ter to Senator Than
which, i r. never has been published i
■ l ■ rong blendii 1 pride rn-
arch of ( liuu It -till appe
I ol l I trdcr of
22 Type and Types.
Poor, and to the Suffering, whether rich or poor, or neither
indigent nor opulent.
-The ever too rhetorical and generally oratorical Macaulay
cheaply glorified the historicalness of the Church that joins
together the two great ages of human civilization — the only
institution left standing which carries the mind back to the
times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and
when eamelopards and tigers bounded in the Slavian amphi-
theatre. No such melo-dramatic effects as those designed as
well as produced by the sentences referred to, can be necessary
to arouse or to exalt the reverential pride and love with which
a Catholic, who is at home in history, may contemplate the
triumphs and the sorrows of the oldest and yet youngest of
the Christian Churches. As for me, it never was because the
proudest royal houses are hut of yesterday when compared
with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs, that T found myself
almost as much in wonder as in love with that historic Church.
The fact that that line is, even by Protestants, traced back, in
an unbroken series, from the present Pope to the Pope that
crowned the first Napoleon, and from that unhappy Pope to
him who put the crown on the head of Pepin, never had for
me half so nmch interest as the facts which come into dis-
tinction, when one traces the long history of Practical Philan-
thropy, as devoted to the honor and glory of God by the
Church of which I have been speaking so sincerely but so un-
satisfactorily."
Not long ago, I put into an Open Letter to yourself,
dear Son, the words :
"You are aware, that I have often said, that if it were a
possibility that one should be a Catholic without the Creed,
J would be such a Catholic. I feel, now, very deep and
rent affection for the Church that gave your Mother to my
arm- in Marriage, and has blessed her way down to the
Grave."
Almost to my amazement, very soon after 1 addressed
to You those words, I found, — one memorable morning,
— that what Carpenter has called ''unconscious cerebra-
."' bad, during the night just turned to day, shown me
a wav back to the essential parts of Catholic American
Belief!
How I rejoiced — and how some of my Relatives re-
T\/pe and ZJqx I 28
joiced — at tliat great, wholly unexpected change in me!
Bu1 I am deeply grieved by clearest indication^, that,
when I feel ready to apply for Rgadmiesion to what I
sincerely call "the Church of my affections," I may
(mock, at least at firsl , in vain,
II<»w 1 deplore the indications, (which have variously
come to me,) that, when I shall regard myself as not un-
ready to apply for Ueadniission to the Church, 1 shall be
told that I am not entitled to the Restoration that I seek,
1 need not try to even dimly intimate. But, my be-
loved and respected Son, / shall insist; and, mark my
words, this day!. 1 may begin a Battle more resolved,
and not less energetical, thai] any of the many battles I
haw fought in Church or in State. in the last forty j-ears.
shall not daunt me. then, if f find the old nonsense
on the subject of my modes of Thought and Feeling
drawn into the work againsl my eftbrt to secure my
rights, in things Politico-Religious, and in things belong-
to 1 he sphere of Faith.
In thai die of mine on Jural Interests,! used this'
Lang
•• Possibly, some of my hearers have to learn that Erskine
3 much ridiculed because of free and frequent talk about
himself and his performances. The very egoistic Cohbett
- among the many writers who made sport of the great
Ad\ large use of the decent, serviceable, but not always
used pronouns of the first person. Cicero, who was un-
questionably a pure patriot and true philanthropist, lias also
lered a g \ like remark is applicable
John Adams. Wa$ qo! franklin a philanthropist ami
briot, and was he nut an autobiographic person, if he was
at over-modes! people ••all an egotist? The poet
undeniably loved man ami Kngland ; but he talked
it himself q !v.
impbell says thai Krskine tntry.
J would no 1 any man that ever lived. I do,
for Erskine that in- labors tor the intcre
whi alls jural have not been surpassed by
tdern tim<
•• And 3 . this man was //"/'/
— y< ly mad* — not simply mad nor'-nor'-wvst. ami
24 Type and Types.
as yet to know a hearnshaw (or a handsaw) from a hawk ; — but
simply, sheerly mad.
- Scott added :
"*] have heard him tell a cock-and-a-bull story of having
D the ghost of his father's servant, John Barnett, with as
much gravity as if he believed every word that he was saying/
"Quotha?! How unworthy of a mind like that of Scott a
) BO mean and poor at Erskine's memory ! If Erskine was
a madman, what was Scott himself? But neither of them was,
in any sense, a madman, save as all of us, the sagest and the
most sagacious not excepted, have, God help us! more or less
nonsanity mixed with the simple nonsense that we ' wreak upon
expression' in our daily lives. I never — 'that is 1 , hardly ever'
— had mueh talk with any cultured man without discovering,
somewhere about his bonnet, a big bee of some description ;
and if, now and then, I think I hear a buzzing in my own, or
find some loving and discerning relative or friend concerned
about my bee, I don't on that account consider that my time
has come to leave the Law. For it is very firmly that I hold
with Dr. Haslam, where that rarely able and exceptionally
interesting writer teaches that all men are subject, more or less,
to veritable madness.
*• That there was a bee in Erskine's bonnet is not, then,
according to my view, to be denied. But Scott, in saying that
the orator was 'positively mad,' may have been influenced at
least a little by the fact thus rather grossly stated by Lord
Campbell, not with the design I have in view: 'When Sir
Walter Scott, with a view to profit rather than fame, published
Paul's 'Letters to his Kinsfolk,' with some very indifferent
verses to celebrate the battle of Waterloo, Erskine, sitting at
table, came out with the following impromptu:
" *0n Waterloo's ensanguined plain
Lie tens of thousands of the slain ;
But none, by sabre or by shot,
Fell half so flat as Walter Scott.' "
How much I think of Scott, I need not say; but he (as
I expect to show hereafter, in this book,) had no more
solid sanity than Erskine had.
Returning, for a moment, to my own case, let rue put
to you the question, whether, in your judgment, I have
manifested an unsound opinion, touching the importance
of my place and part in life? I own, I do not think that
Type and Types. 25
jrotff tlOW almost <*ag6d P." is, on that point, of unsound
mind.
Judge Alfred George Washington Carter, who, with
Mr. Justice Matthews, (mm of the Supreme Court of the
United States,*) was with me in the Courl of Common
Pleas, at Cincinnati, quite "a-many years ago," wrote a
not vcvy happy book, entitled The Ola Court House. In it
he badly spoiled a really good Btory, ('/) of which a t rue re-
lation may he given thus:
I was the President Judge of the Courl of Common
Pleas, at the time of the real facts. My friend, Tom
Powell, brother <>t' the Painter, had earnestly advocated
my election by the Legislature. When lie seemed about
to he appointed Judge of the Superior Court, some Lead-
ing members of the Bat*, who knew that I had influence
with Tom, almost implored me, notwithstanding my quite
natural reluctance, to persuade him not to allow himself
to he made a Judge. I finally consented, and performed
my trying task as well as I could. When I spoke of his
. he said:
•■ 1 believe, Mr. Warden, I am somewhat older than you
were when you were made President Judge of the Com-
rather clumsy fashion :
Thomas (General Thomas) Powell was a curious example and specimen of
unrewarded ambition. He was but a very young lawyer of the old com t house, having rome
vs. But he came to the bar with the ambition Of a Napoleon Bona-
. and expected to COnqner or die. He was tolerably able, as well an ambitious, and by
appointment, be made once od assistant proeecuting attorney, for ■ single term
of court. Be wai el direr! timee a candidate for the legislature, and at all times acandi*
date f rernoi Benben Wood did appoint him once hie Adin-
the milit ;i of the State — and thin was how he became, and was called
Qeneiml Tpm rhumb, and much mightier with the
I, than frith the pen, andnoi mighty In either, or all. Lawyet Warden
was talking witli I iy wh--n the latter, then QUlte B fOnng man. wan .
-•• would do 11 1 "I
expostulated with Powell, and told him, he was too \ I the
•■ • v.
Didn't I, t):
Why. I heli.. .
the A ms a stnm]
-t let the Almighty make the rail— I will at once respond— see if I
26 Type and Types.
moo Pleaa T wont for vou with all my might. I didn't
toll you that you wore too young to be a Judge."
- Thai is entirely true," responded I, "but it is not the
wholi truth. / considered that I was too young, and said
and 1 felt just what I said. You must remember this.
1 yielded only when it was pointed out to me by such
men as Vachel Worthington, so much my seniors, that
my service afl a Deputy Clerk, at the Court-House Desk,
while I was studying the Law, and after I had studied it
for BOme time, might be regarded as making up, in a
large measure, practically, for the lack of age. But, Tom,
why should I not be fair with you? Your brethren of
the Bar do not regard you as of a judicial turn of mind.
They think, as I do, that you are a man of talents, and
that if you desire to figure finely at the Bar and in Poli-
tics, you can do so, and they are sincerely desirous, as you
must know that I am, that you should succeed quite bril-
liantly in all your reasonable enterprises. Let me show
you clearly what I mean.
" Suppose, now, — leaving out of view all questions of
a constitutional cast, you could at once be President, with-
out an instant's preparation. Take into consideration
the high character and tremendous difficulty of the vari-
ous responsibilities with which you would be charged at
once."
And then I rapidly set forth what I conceived to be
the irUernational along with the simply national relations,
rights, and duties, appertaining to the Presidency. There-
upon I asked: "What would you do if you had to ac-
cepl or to decline at once?"
The answer ran: " I would accept the office, Sir."
1 thus reported to the gentlemen at whose request I
had appealed to him: "If the Almighty, being tired of
governing the Universe, should give the slightest intima-
tion of that fact, Tom would prepare to vault lightly into
the vacated seat, and set the suspended worlds again
a-whirling."
At a reunion of residents of Washington who had
been members of a Cincinnati Literary Society, I told
that anecdote. Among the most attentive listeners, the
Vypt and 7}//- . 27
while, was Rutherford Burchard Haves. Did he suspect
that I intended to offend him by the narrative ? 1 do
not think he did; and certainly there was no malice in
my purposes. I did, however, hope that the bit^story
might assist some other things to set the President to
thinking deeply of the light use he was making of his
Presidential opportunities and powers,
That 1 purposed no offense, I need no1 say to You, dear
Sou.
The President of whom I have just spoken, took from
my own hands, and never chided me for handing to him,
though I dare not swear he ready my Sketches of American
■ — a very little book, indeed. Therein he might have
d — perhaps, indeed, he did — r am inclined to think he
ally read — the sentences:
" I I<»\v is ir with the President?
"He has hut little vanity. lie is, indeed, an over-modest
Would tha* he might discover that it is his public
duty to assert himself, in the full height and depth and breadth
of lii- ability, which. I am sure, is great enough to make him
an entirely admirable President ! If lie would do but that, he
bainlj would he his own best successor.
'•I have criticised him freely, and I feel that he has treated
but ill; hut when I carefully review nil I have known of
him. I find that I have still high hopes of his career.
11 Bui can he be expected to give much attention to Diploma-
cy time?
The poet [a) who composed the motto of this booklet also
11 ' Wise he must be who is Chief Magistrate
By Fortune's favor or the will of Fate !
\\c in u-r be Uv.rnc 1, to a huge extent,
i.v virtue of his being President. 1
This \s not strictly true, perhaps; but, certainly ,* by vir-
tue oi I President, 5 the 'author and finisher of treaties 1
jht to take a very lively interest in the diplomatic honor of
intry whose First ( iitizen he is.
• !'.•. doing m>, ht would discover many opportunities for
-* important to his country and likewise to other
count ri<
(a) My fictitious ntttti
l!S Type and Types.
What T have endeavored to address to our present Chief
Magistrate, has probably not readied his eyes at all. I
have pxid reason to believe that the composition of it
was. \ irtually. writing for the Presidential waste-basket.
But I am not in the least ashamed of what I have
*ed to address to the Chief Magistrate. It has
en, "all and singular," well meant; and it has not
■u in the least presumptuous.
I must go back 3 with brevity, to Capt. Walker's case.
The sheer forgetfulness of Mr. Justice James, in that
Be, led him to regard the matter as all before him,
when the truth was, that he had stopped me in the pro-
duction of testimony, so that I supposed, and could but
suppose, that he had been perfectly satisfied that the
decision was to be to discharge the relator ! I was thus-
prevented from delivering an argument which would
have been among the most important if not the best
arguments of my whole life.
For reasons quite above the level of competition for
Business in my Profession, I may fitly say, that I had
-on to believe in my preparedness to make a rather
interesting and important argument in Capt. Walker's.
( !ase ; and that Mr. Justice James had also ample reason
to participate in that belief. Yet I do not forget at all
the sometimes dastardly and generally vile attempts,
which have been made, from time to time, since I be-
came, perhaps, the " best abused " American not holding
office, to break down my Professional Repute at Wash-
ington. Hut, had I not too much indulged a certain
sentiment respecting the Juridic Life which I discerned
here, when I came to practice my Profession, and to
h Nbmology, at this grand Capital, in 1873,1 could
not have been injured as I have been since that time,
ae my Profession is concerned.
Oil all accounts, 1 now exceedingly regret the error
Bed.
Bn1 h>r that error, 1 would have been in the active
Practice of the Law, not only in some directions hut in
aff'directioi be Seat of Government, as I designed
to be, when I came hither; and tin; silly stuff that has.
/ pe <>u 29
been ottered here, insinuating rather than fesserting thai
I am, or may be, touched, if not more than touched,
with the I><< in t?u Bonnet, would nol have been brdathed.
Dear Son. the view of TVpe and Types here opened,
naturally finds itself regarding Stab as well as Type. I
think, the view, as it unfolds itself regarding Type-
Production ami Type-Relations, as well as pointing oul a
\ at diversity of TVpes — must make whatever showing
:\- be needed on the subject ^\' my Mental Soundn*
1 ilar infirmity made You long listen to my reading,
when, but \'^v thai trouble, You would have been reading
tor yourself. Yet, even thou, your eyes wore not so out
Of order that You could not turn them somewhat to the
rvice of your Art-Love. Ocular infirmity no Longer
hinders You. Delight your love of Art, without re-
ve that set by your so well settled tastes and
hahits in the Practice of the Law. Despise the stand-
ards <>f the Lawyers who disparage, <>r defame, your
ther on account ^\' the lanxe compass of his Legal
.dies and the Studies lie associates therewith. The
Types of Lawyerhood and General Enlightenment I have
held up to You will be completely justified as we
ward in the way this Letter opens.
Types of Place, with special reference to the Type
g and Animals, including Man, must make no incon-
siderable figure in this work. That pari of the va.-t sub-
ore aware, exceedingly important Legal As-
ts, which] have at least nol insufficiently attended
ruction.
Second shall set out with Plaa and Pi turns attention on these words of Eluskin's Modi rn
: ' k You shall know a man not to be a gentleman by the
perfect and neat pronunciation of his words: but he does not j>r<-
to pronounce accurately ; he does pronounce accurately; the
krity is in the real (not assumed) scrupulousness.' '
Let me state for general Headers of my present offering, thai Ai
yras designed to form a part of Ernest's amusement,
blended with instruction, of a mainly typonomic character, while
he was a Soldier, but while he continued to prepare himself for the
life of an Advocate.
The story was intended, after Ernest's death, to make part of
the volume, I md the Flag he Followed, This is the same
on which 1 worked at Put-ln-Ihiy Island, in li
It yet remains unfinished; and I simply can not bring it to a
close, for reasons which You can appreciate. But, you will be
delighted to be told, that one of our most valued and respected
Friends — one of the Friend- your Mother greatly loved and prized —
has, at D vn way,
supplied by me— a full history of Erne
ions, using,
for that pur] a to her advisable, some extracts from
the |
me a very blessed one, d<
hen I tell Fou that the Friend
her than Mrs. Emily Lee Shervi >m-
j Writer, irho ined, I : to very high
literary position.