Delia's Doctors

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14. Sympathy



"God-written thoughts are in my heart,
And deep within my being lie,
Eternal truths and glorious hopes,
Which I must speak before I die."- Grace Gbsenwood.

That night brought no refreshing sleep for the excited Ella. She was disturbed by one feverish dream after another, till, fairly exhausted, she rejoiced to see the first faint streaks which announced the dawn. She rose, bathed, and dressed with unwonted languor, and then stood dizzily before the open window, looking into the fair face of the sky, as the stars gently vanished, and the clear summer air kissed her throbbing brow.

" ' I laid me down and slept ; I awaked ; for the Lord sustained me.' No calm slumber have I had, but I am grateful for life and for the sunrise," whispered the child, as she reverently knelt to offer her morning prayer. She arose, and again looked out upon the beautiful earth, repeating, as she did so, Longfellow's exquisite "Hymn to the Night." She had often risen with it upon her lips, and sought to imbibe the tranquil radiance infused through the poem. Now, when she came to the lines,

"From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;"

she murmured, "I must rather say, with the wretched Clarence,

" 'I have passed a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happier days;
So full-of dismal terror was the time.' "

She descended to the parlor, opened her writingdesk, and began a theme required for the next day. She had been directed to note the points of resemblance and of discrepancy in the characters of Cleopatra and Elizabeth. She sat a few moments, trying to picture to herself, the " serpent of old Nile," and " the high and mighty princess of England." Before she had written a single paragraph, she was compelled by a violent headache, an unusual symptom in her, to lay aside her task. She put on her sun-bonnet, and sauntered, for she was too ill to walk with her habitual brisk step, to the little brown cottage of the Wilmots. She found Adelaide pacing the garden, evidently absorbed in thought.

"Ella!" exclaimed the astonished girl, "what has happened ? Is Delia worse ?"

" She was quite well last evening. Oh, Adelaide, if you had only been at our house !"

"You are mysterious this morning. Should I have been glad or sorry, if I had been present? What wonderful events occurred ?"

" I fought a duel with Mr. Stanson, and another with Dr. Leland."

"Now, Ella, tell me the whole story without any hyperbole."

The two girls, despite the ten years of difference in their ages, encircled each other's waists with their arms, and walked lovingly through the garden. Between them existed that peculiar kind of friendship which is sometimes developed under favorable influences. A fair young girl, a child, as it were, warmly attaches herself to one whose years exceed hers by a decade or more. She looks up to her elder friend with that beautiful, confiding spirit, which would be incompatible toward one of the same age. She seeks aid and advice from her more extensive experience. The elder is yet young, so that no want of sympathy is felt by the child. Nor is the conferring of benefits all on one side. The elder, possessing almost unbounded power over lier more youthful friend, carefully leads her in the path which she has chosen for herself, and receives in return, not only a love as pure and fervent as any that she may hereafter enjoy, but also, a longer acquaintance with the thoughts and emotions exclusively belonging to the spring time of life, than she would have had if her connection had been wholly with those who had reached her own period of advancement.

As Adelaide looked down upon the sparkling but now saddened face which was upturned to hers, an indescribable emotion pervaded her breast, while she asked an explanation of what had evidently so wrought upon the frame of the impulsive girl.

With great candor, Ella detailed all the incidents of the previous evening, and then waited for Adelaide's comments.

" Did that conversation inflict upon you fearful dreams, give you the headache, and send you to me before five o'clock in the morning ?"

" Even so ; I became greatly excited."

" Now, Ella, dear, I must give you one caution. You have resolved to do all in your power for the promotion of good?"

"Yes, I hope to be very useful in some high station."

"You intend to do all that you can for the removal of the wrong which exists in the world, and for the development of the right. My dear child, the first lesson that you must learn is the fundamental principle of the Friends. You must acquire the power to control your passions. Unless you are cool and collected, you can not have perfect command of your resources. "Without this command, it will be impossible for you to speak or write with due effect. You will forget half your arguments, check the flight of your imagination, and decidedly mar the beauty of that in which you appear to succeed. According to the account which you have given me, your efforts last evening were partially successful, but their consequences are most deplorable. You are quite ill. In fact, you became intoxicated last evening."

" Intoxicated !"

"Yes. What is the primary phenomenon attendant upon the drinking of ardent spirit? The brain is disordered by the liquor. Hence, the curious indications which betray the indulgence. A similar state of the brain may be induced without a single drop of fermented beverage. If the excitement were productive of any real good, we might find some apology for its gratification."

" But, can not we labor with more effect, when under the influence of excitement? Do we not need stimulus ?"

" I grant that we do need stimulus, but I maintain that we should not procure it by any derangement of the system. If both body and mind are in a true normal state, they will act well without the aid of any other incentives, than those afforded by a good knowledge of the subject under discussion, and a thorough conviction of its importance. Devoid of these auxiliaries, a person may as well be silent. Why should Coleridge, with his genius, have sought the aid of opium ! AVhy should Mrs. Radcliffe, with her exuberant fancy, have induced frightful dreams, by eating indigestible substances ! They bad mental power sufficient for the accomplishment of the tasks which they had assigned to themselves. The genuine orator can plead without the excitement produced by a glass of wine. You and I can labor in any department for which we are qualified, without inflaming our passions in order to attain to a certain measure of mental agitation. Intense cerebral excitement, by whatever means caused, is indisputably ruinous."

" Should not speakers and writers be in earnest?"

" Certainly, my dear Ella. Let them be, like the actor of whom we read the other day, ' terribly in earnest.' It is thus that they will achieve great exploits. But, let them beware of the least approach to any thing like delirium. They need the entire control of all their resources. Even Mrs. Ilemans acknowledged that she could write better when her mind was calm and composed. Then it was that she had full dominion over her power of thought and fancy."

" But, should not you have been angry with Stanson ?"

" No, nor should I have argued with him. Logic, upon that man, is equivalent to 'pearls before swine.' lie is firmly imbedded in the dull flint of ignorance and stupidity. He did receive a common school education. With that as a basis, he might have raised a good superstructure. But his mind, never capacious, has been allowed to dwindle, without one addition to its original stock, so that it is now almost incapacitated for the reception of a new idea."

" Would you have sat quietly, and allowed him to talk in that style?"

Adelaide laughed. "I doubt whether I should, Ella, dear. But, instead of being angry, as you were, I should have been amused. In lieu of arguing, to convince him of his errors, I might have harangued, to show him that I could make statements which, to him, would be absolutely incontrovertible. Perfect self-control, however, would have characterized my demeanor. Most assuredly do I like an expressive countenance, and firmly do I believe that mine is of that description. But I wish also to obtain that power which was possessed by Pythagoras. We learn that he was so completely master of his face, that on it was never seen, joy, grief, or anger. I would occasionally use this power, not for deception, but for concealment - a distinction very wisely made by one of those sage Abbotts. It is sometimes very impolitic to let every thought be read by the beholder."

" But I should be sorry to look like a statue."

" So should I, at all times. But there are occasions when it is very undesirable to yield the key of our thoughts. Now, we will return to Stanson. It would be a fruitless task to attempt to convince him of any truth, unless it were advocated by the pastor. Let such people be engulfed in the whirlpool of their own insignificance. Besides, had you succeeded in your attempts to proselyte him, what good would have been effected ? So contemptible an individual advocating woman's rights ! I prefer that he should remain on the other side. The sentiments of a man like him are, comparatively speaking, nothing worth. He is a clog upon the movements of every party with which he chances to be connected. Shame it is that the vote of a man so ignorant and imbecile should have as much nominal value as that of the greatest statesman or scholar of the republic ! Shame it is that such a man should be allowed the elective franchise ; when a woman, even if her genius were equal to Shakspeare's, her learning to Sir William Jones', her political knowledge to Brougham's, or her diplomatic skill to Talleyrand's, would be sternly denied the privilege."

"Adelaide, Adelaide, now you are excited!" exclaimed Ella.

"Earnest, not excited, Ella," replied Adelaide, with a gay smile.

" Adelaide, you think that it is quite right for a woman to speak in public."

"Certainly. Every one who has the gift of eloquence, should receive an opportunity for its exercise. Dismiss all the tedious male speakers from their stations. Suffer only those to remain, who can instruct and entertain an audience. Substitute for the discharged bores, those women, whose talents, naturally good, have been improved by education. Society would then take an impetus, which would speed it onward and onward, till perfection were the result."

" If those are your opinions, why do you not enter our pulpit some day, and deliver an oration?"

"The perspective would be vastly pleasant, Ella! Before I should have finished my exordium, to be attacked by the four deacons, rushing upon me in a body, and then to be forcibly dragged from the house !"

Ella laughed, but Adelaide, although she faintly smiled, revealed upon her lofty countenance so keenly bitter an expression, that her young companion involuntarily retreated.

" If," resumed Adelaide, " a woman wishes to speak, she must, at present, beware of the pulpit, and choose a common lecture-room. Many have done this, and have shown, without dispute, that they could speak in public, and accomplish good, with no deserved reproach upon their delicacy. But I am not yet willing to make the attempt. I may do so in the course of a few years."

"What will Dr. Leland say?" asked Ella.

"I shall not consult him," answered Adelaide, with a haughty smile.

"Don't you like him?" inquired Ella, with all simplicity.

" I more than like him. I regard him as one of my best friends. Like every other educated person, of good natural endowments, and a proper degree of confidence, he is a very agreeable companion. I am indebted to liim for much valuable instruction, and for many very pleasant hours of social intercourse. But I look upon no man as my oracle. His judgment is no better than mine. In a few years my mental acquirements will exceed his, both in extent and in value. I should not consult him on any topic of the kind, because I am already acquainted with his opinions, and with the fact that they are irrevocably formed. He is, too, a strict conservative, hating every kind of innovation. Again, he never argues with a woman. I doubt, indeed, whether he ever does with a man." "Never argues with a woman!" repeated Ella, m a tone of surprise.

" Never. He dictates, and expects her to yield."

Ella thought of the previous evening, and smiled, as she remembered how magisterially he had announced his opinions, and checked the free utterance of hers.

"Dr. Leland, however," pursued Adelaide, "is more generous than a great many. He almost acknowledges that 'mind has no sex.' But he contends that the sphere of woman is exclusively private. He would have all the public business of life transacted by men, and would confine the women to a wretchedly contracted circle. He is proud of his wife's superior education, of her wellknown colloquial power ; but lie will have all the happiness that she can confer restricted to himself, his children, and a small number of friends. Should she attempt to entertain an audience, I truly believe that he would sue for a divorce. This civilized refinement is only a whit nobler than the barbarian. He resembles many an Eastern sultan, who imprisons his wife in the seraglio, that none but himself may listen to the music of her voice, or behold the beauty of her countenance. The civilized husband monopolizes his wife's mind, and the demi-savage does her face.

" I think that I have discovered the true reason for all this. If women were allowed to exercise their talents in public, the men would often be defeated, and compelled to take quite an humble position. Do not Fanny Kemble's Shaksperian readings incomparably surpass those of any man? Is it not acknowledged that no young men are better qualified for college than those educated by our own Mrs. Ripley, of Concord? Did not Corinna so excel Pindar, in the poetic art, that she gained the prize five times ? "Who can compare with the learned Maria Gaetana Agnesi, in her ninth year delivering a Latin oration, and, in her eleventh, speaking Greek with fluency ? Was she not, by reason of her skill in the languages, called a ' living polyglot?' Did she not also so excel in studies of another class, that, in her thirty-second year, she was appointed professor of mathematics, in the University of Bologna ? Did not the fame of Anna Maria Schurman extend over Europe, on account of her proficiency in music, painting, sculpture, and engraving ; her knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and the modern languages ? Was not the eloquence of Mrs. Fry such that all ranks bowed before her wondrous power ? Does not Therese Robinson rank well with our most learned men ?

"Thus I might proceed to mention instance after instance of female greatness, despite the obstructions interposed by men to deprive women of that thorough education which they grant to youth of their own sex. The truth is, dear Ella, women must press forward, and demand that their educational privileges shall be equal to those of the men. Now, in consequence of the small share of favor yielded to the prosecution of liberal studies, women must acquire erudition by their own exertions. Like Constantia Grierson, the celebrated Irish scholar in Greek and Roman literature, they must be almost entirely self-educated. Well, a better time is approaching. Meanwhile, let women do, as some of both sexes have done, acquire, by their own efforts, the learning which so enriches the mind."

"I will be a learned woman!" exclaimed Ella. " I will study with all my might !"

" Then, my dear, you must be careful to avoid every species of intoxication. Be very temperate. If you lose your health, although you may live many years, you will be obliged to study with great modoration, and will be prevented from ever making any remarkable attainments."

" I now feel quite well," answered Ella, merrily bounding forward. " I am sure that I can study." Suddenly changing her tone, she cried, " Alas ! it is my day for music. I never shall excel in that branch. I wish that papa would allow me to abandon the piano. How much time I should have for other studies! Adelaide, why have you never learned music?"

" In my early youth, I should have replied that I could not afford the expense. Now, I prefer to spend what time I have for study upon subjects for which I have greater talent. Besides, music, however beautiful, is not so congenial to my taste, as conversation with those who have depth of thought, and ability of expression. Many young ladies and gentlemen of the present age are good pianists, but how few have that power to which "Wilkes alluded, when he said that he could, at any time, ' talk away his ugly face in five minutes.' "

" I would rather listen to your conversation than to Delia's singing and playing," observed Ella.

" Delia ought to sing and play much more than she is in the habit of doing, but I doubt whether it is your duty or mine ever to make the attempt. She has decided musical talent. "Were it properly cultivated, she might, in a few years, gain distinction, equal, perhaps, to that of 'the sweet singer from Sweden.' "

" Oh, how I wish that I could hear Jenny Lind ! If Delia should become a good musician, ought she to sing in public?"

"Answer your own question, Ella. Would it be right to restrict the enjoyment of so much pure happiness to a few individuals? If I could sing like Jenny Lind, I would go through the world, charming people with my voice. If I could read like Fanny Kemble, I would also employ my power for the benefit of the human race. While entranced by her performances, I yet retained sufficient selfpossession, not only to notice the effect upon my own mind, but also upon that of the other auditors. In truth, Ella, I should prefer her sphere to Jenny's. I rank such reading as hers far higher than any singing which the world can produce. Ah ! here is Rose, calling me to breakfast. Stay with us this morning, dear Ella."

While Ella was deliberating whether she could thus indulge herself, Dora's pretty face appeared over the garden gate, and her melodious, Hibernian voice was heard, " Sure, Miss Ella, I've been a looking for you this half hour. Your ma says you must come home."

" Must, must," repeated Ella, with a sigh. "Must is the most hateful word in the English language. It is fit to be pronounced only by the ' skinny lips' of Macbeth's witches, and not by yours of beautiful carnation, Dora. Good-bye, Adelaide. Oh, wait a moment, I must tell you something."

"Not now, my love, your mother has sent for you."

"Nay, but you must hear me. Dr. Leland said - "

" You have told me all that he said."

" All that he said last evening, but, this is something which I heard from another person. It closely concerns yourself."

" What is it?" asked Adelaide, without any manifestation of curiosity.

"That he intended soon to find time to call and remind you of certain verses in the writings of St. Paul."

" Oh," replied Adelaide, gravely, "if his time is very much occupied, he need not subject himself to any inconvenience on my account. I am very well acquainted with the ' Apostle to the Gentiles.' I frequently converse with him."

" Come, come, Miss Ella," called Dora, with a little of her lady's impatience.

"Adieu, dear Adelaide," said Ella, running to overtake the domestic, whose feet were in the direction of Mr. Thornton's, but whose face was almost fronting Captain Wilmot's, to the great danger of dislocating her neck.