"I now hasten
to the more moving part of
my story. I shall relate
events that impressed me with
feelings which, from what I had
been, have made me what I am.
"Spring advanced
rapidly; the weather became
fine, and the
skies cloudless. It surprised
me that what before was desert
and gloomy should now bloom with
the most beautiful flowers and
verdure. My senses were gratified
and refreshed by a thousand scents
of delight, and a thousand sights
of beauty.
"It was on
one of these days, when my
cottagers periodically
rested from labour--the old man
played on his guitar, and the
children listened to him--that
I observed the countenance of
Felix was melancholy beyond expression;
he sighed frequently; and once
his father paused in his music,
and I conjectured by his manner
that he inquired the cause of
his son's sorrow. Felix replied
in a cheerful accent, and the
old man was recommencing his
music when some one tapped at
the door.
"It was a lady
on horseback, accompanied by
a countryman as
a guide. The lady was dressed
in a dark suit, and covered with
a thick black veil. Agatha asked
a question; to which the stranger
only replied by pronouncing,
in a sweet accent, the name of
Felix. Her voice was musical,
but unlike that of either of
my friends. On hearing this word,
Felix came up hastily to the
lady; who, when she saw him,
threw up her veil, and I beheld
a countenance of angelic beauty
and expression. Her hair of a
shining raven black, and curiously
braided; her eyes were dark,
but gentle, although animated;
her features of a regular proportion,
and her complexion wondrously
fair, each cheek tinged with
a lovely pink.
"Felix seemed
ravished with delight when
he saw her, every
trait of sorrow vanished from
his face, and it instantly expressed
a degree of ecstatic joy, of
which I could hardly have believed
it capable; his eyes sparkled
as his cheek flushed with pleasure;
and at that moment I thought
him as beautiful as the stranger.
She appeared affected by different
feelings; wiping a few tears
from her lovely eyes, she held
out her hand to Felix, who kissed
it rapturously, and called her,
as well as I could distinguish,
his sweet Arabian. She did not
appear to understand him, but
smiled. He assisted her to dismount,
and dismissing her guide, conducted
her into the cottage. Some conversation
took place between him and his
father; and the young stranger
knelt at the old man's feet,
and would have kissed his hand,
but he raised her, and embraced
her affectionately.
"I soon perceived
that, although the stranger
uttered articulate
sounds, and appeared to have
a language of her own, she was
neither understood by, not herself
understood, the cottagers. They
made many signs which I did not
comprehend; but I saw that her
presence diffused gladness through
the cottage, dispelling their
sorrow as the sun dissipates
the morning mists. Felix seemed
peculiarly happy, and with smiles
of delight welcomed his Arabian.
Agatha, the ever-gentle Agatha,
kissed the hands of the lovely
stranger; and, pointing to her
brother, made signs which appeared
to me to mean that he had been
sorrowful until she came. Some
hours passed thus, while they,
by their countenances, expressed
joy, the cause of which I did
not comprehend. Presently I found,
by the frequent recurrence of
some sound which the stranger
repeated after them, that she
was endeavouring to learn their
language; and the idea instantly
occurred to me that I should
make use of the same instructions
to the same end. The stranger
learned about twenty words at
the first lesson, most of them,
indeed, were those which I had
before understood, but I profited
by the others.
"As night came
on, Agatha and the Arabian
retired early. When
they separated, Felix kissed
the hand of the stranger, and
said, `Good night, sweet Safie.'
He sat up much longer, conversing
with his father; and, by the
frequent repetition of her name,
I conjectured that their lovely
guest was the subject of their
conversation. I ardently desired
to understand them, and bent
every faculty towards that purpose,
but found it utterly impossible.
"The next morning
Felix went out to his work;
and, after the
usual occupations of Agatha were
finished, the Arabian sat at
the feet of the old man, and,
taking his guitar, played some
airs so entrancingly beautiful
that they at once drew tears
of sorrow and delight from my
eyes. She sang, and her voice
flowed in a rich cadence, swelling
or dying away, like a nightingale
of the woods.
"When she had
finished, she gave the guitar
to Agatha, who
at first declined it. She played
a simple air, and her voice accompanied
it in sweet accents, but unlike
the wondrous strain of the stranger.
The old man appeared enraptured,
and said some words, which Agatha
endeavoured to explain to Safie,
and by which he appeared to wish
to express that she bestowed
on him the greatest delight by
her music.
"The days now
passed as peaceably as before,
with the sole alteration
that joy had taken place of sadness
in the countenances of my friends.
Safie was always gay and happy;
she and I improved rapidly in
the knowledge of language, so
that in two months I began to
comprehend most of the words
uttered by my protectors.
"In the meanwhile
also the black ground was covered
with
herbage, and the green banks
interspersed with innumerable
flowers, sweet to the scent and
the eyes, stars of pale radiance
among the moonlight woods; the
sun became warmer, the nights
clear and balmy; and my nocturnal
rambles were an extreme pleasure
to me, although they were considerably
shortened by the late setting
and early rising of the sun;
for I never ventured abroad during
daylight, fearful of meeting
with the same treatment I had
formerly endured in the first
village which I entered.
"My days were
spent in close attention, that
I might more
speedily master the language;
and I may boast that I improved
more rapidly than the Arabian,
who understood very little, and
conversed in broken accents,
whilst I comprehended and could
imitate almost every word that
was spoken.
"While I improved
in speech, I also learned the
science of
letters, as it was taught to
the stranger; and this opened
before me a wide field for wonder
and delight.
"The book from
which Felix instructed Safie
was Volney's
_Ruins of Empires_. I should
not have understood the purport
of this book, had not Felix,
in reading it, given very minute
explanations. He had chosen this
work, he said, because the declamatory
style was framed in imitation
of the eastern authors. Through
this work I obtained a cursory
knowledge of history, and a view
of the several empires at present
existing in the world; it gave
me an insight into the manners,
governments, and religions of
the different nations of the
earth. I heard of the slothful
Asiatics; of the stupendous genius
and mental activity of the Grecians;
of the wars and wonderful virtue
of the early Romans--of their
subsequent degenerating--of the
decline of that mighty empire;
of chivalry, Christianity, and
kings. I heard of the discovery
of the American hemisphere, and
wept with Safie over the hapless
fate of its original inhabitants.
"These wonderful
narrations inspired me with
strange feelings.
Was man, indeed, at once so powerful,
so virtuous and magnificent,
yet so vicious and base? He appeared
at one time a mere scion of the
evil principle, and at another
as all that can be conceived
of noble and godlike. To be a
great and virtuous man appeared
the highest honour that can befall
a sensitive being; to be base
and vicious, as many on record
have been, appeared the lowest
degradation, a condition more
abject than that of the blind
mole or harmless worm. For a
long time I could not conceive
how one man could go forth to
murder his fellow, or even why
there were laws and governments;
but when I heard details of vice
and bloodshed, my wonder ceased,
and I turned away with disgust
and loathing.
"Every conversation
of the cottagers now opened
new wonders
to me. While I listened to the
instructions which Felix bestowed
upon the Arabian, the strange
system of human society was explained
to me. I heard of the division
of property, of immense wealth
and squalid poverty; of rank,
descent, and noble blood.
"The words
induced me to turn towards
myself. I learned that
the possessions most esteemed
by your fellow-creatures were
high and unsullied descent united
with riches. A man might be respected
with only one of these advantages;
but, without either, he was considered,
except in very rare instances,
as a vagabond and a slave, doomed
to waste his powers for the profits
of the chosen few! And what was
I? Of my creation and creator
I was absolutely ignorant; but
I knew that I possessed no money,
no friends, no kind of property.
I was, besides, endued with a
figure hideously deformed and
loathsome; I was not even of
the same nature as man. I was
more agile than they, and could
subsist upon coarser diet; I
bore the extremes of heat and
cold with less injury to my frame;
my stature far exceeded theirs.
When I looked around, I saw and
heard of none like me. Was I
then a monster, a blot upon the
earth, from which all men fled,
and whom all men disowned?
"I cannot describe
to you the agony that these
reflections
inflicted upon me: I tried to
dispel them, but sorrow only
increased with knowledge. Oh,
that I had for ever remained
in my native wood, nor known
nor felt beyond the sensations
of hunger, thirst, and heat!
"Of what a
strange nature is knowledge!
It clings to the mind,
when it has once seized on it,
like a lichen on the rock. I
wished sometimes to shake off
all thought and feeling; but
I learned that there was but
one means to overcome the sensation
of pain, and that was death--a
state which I feared yet did
not understand. I admired virtue
and good feelings, and loved
the gentle manners and amiable
qualities of my cottagers; but
I was shut out from intercourse
with them, except through means
which I obtained by stealth,
when I was unseen and unknown,
and which rather increased than
satisfied the desire I had of
becoming one among my fellows.
The gentle words of Agatha, and
the animated smiles of the charming
Arabian, were not for me. The
mild exhortations of the old
man, and the lively conversation
of the loved Felix, were not
for me. Miserable, unhappy wretch!
"Other lessons
were impressed upon me even
more deeply. I heard
of the difference of sexes; and
the birth and growth of children;
how the father doated on the
smiles of the infant, and the
lively sallies of the older child;
how all the life and cares of
the mother were wrapped up in
the precious charge; how the
mind of youth expanded and gained
knowledge; of brother, sister,
and all the various relationships
which bind one human being to
another in mutual bonds.
"But where
were my friends and relations?
No father had
watched my infant days, no mother
had blessed me with smiles and
caresses; or if they had, all
my past life was now a blot,
a blind vacancy in which I distinguished
nothing. From my earliest remembrance
I had been as I then was in height
and proportion. I had never yet
seen a being resembling me, or
who claimed any intercourse with
me. What was I? The question
again recurred, to be answered
only with groans.
"I will soon
explain to what these feelings
tended; but allow
me now to return to the cottagers,
whose story excited in me such
various feelings of indignation,
delight, and wonder, but which
all terminated in additional
love and reverence for my protectors
(for so I loved, in an innocent,
half painful self-deceit, to
call them). |