Delia's Doctors

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5. Hypatian



"Higher, higher will we climb
Up to the mount of glory,
That our names may live through time
In our country's story."

"Minds are of celestial birth,
Make we then a heaven of earth." - James Montgomery.

At last, the mild south wind blew ; the gentle rain fell in copious showers. The frost-bound earth gradually moistened; the snow melted and disappeared. Now the clouds dispersed, the trees waved lightly in the breeze, the leaf-buds began to expand, and the birds sang in the branches. "The windflower and the violet" raised their modest heads and greeted the field-rover. The cruciform houstonia, tinged with cerulean, looked heavenward, as if there to seek its kindred. The columbine towered proudly from the rock-summit, and raised its golden nectaries as if to receive celestial manna. The New England spring had come, with its visions of unrivaled beauty.

Ella had been Queen of the May. After the festivities, she walked home as she had been arrayed in the woods, her bright curls surmounted by a chaplet of flowers, and her hand bearing a scepter wreathed with moss of a vivid green hue. Had her mother been in the room, the child would have received a severe reprimand for coming through the street in such a guise. Charles rose with delight.

" Why, my little sister," he almost involuntarily exclaimed, " you are really beautiful !"

" Much obliged to you, brother," answered the triumphant girl ; "I have received the same compliment a thousand times today. But why did your school not have a May party?"

" Oh, because," replied Charles, with mock gravity, " my school has the misfortune to be taught by a gentleman. A lady is required to design any thing so beautiful as your celebration. As I was strolling along the edge of the woods, I casually had a view of Miss Adams and her pupils. I began to wonder whether I had not caught a glimpse of the Mohammedan Paradise. I should have believed that such was the case had more of your houris been dark-eyed."

" If you had been Mohammed, should you have represented the women of Heaven with dark eyes ?"

"Had I been Mohammed, an Arabian sensualist, my imagination would doubtless have reveled in visions of the same order. As, however, I am an individual of entirely different character, belonging to quite another race of human beings, the dreams with which I am favored are the reverse of those that delighted tlie eyes of the impostor. But, of course, I like variety. It is far more agreeable to look at you, and then at Carrie, than it would be if you both possessed the same style of beauty."

Ella laughed. " What a flatterer is my usually wise brother, telling his young sister of her personal attractions !"

" If, my dear Ella, you were a worshiper of your fine face and figure, I should be silent upon the subject. But I know that although you gratefully acknowledge your beauty as a good gift of God, you also view it as the least of the benefactions with which He has endowed you."

For a moment Ella was silent and thoughtful. A tear trembled in her eye. With an effort she soon banished all serious thought, and said sportively, " I know your reason for preferring bright blue eyes."

" Are you quite sure that you do ?"

" Adelaide is a blue-eyed maiden."

For a moment Charles looked at Ella with a comic smile wreathing his features. He then said : "You are wrong, my dear. My taste was the same before I saw Adelaide. I have two reasons. First, the expression of the light eye is more easily read than that of the dark one. Second, and chief, the same reason that I should give for choosing hair with a bright tinge. It is the characteristic of the Saxon - 'the race that came upon the earth to conquer it.' "

" That is not your reason, Charles. I have seen it in some book."

" Yon have a deal of acumen, Ella, for so young a head. In mercy to the unfortunate race of authors, refrain from engaging in the occupation of a reviewer. Do you know, however, that Sir Walter Scott thought it impossible for a person who had read and written a great deal not to be occasionally guilty of unintentional plagiarism. But I intended to tell you that the reason was mine only by adoption. Can you mention the real author of the sentiment ?"

" I have forgotten."

" Ah ! know, then, that Charles F. Briggs has the credit of the idea. Now, I have a question to ask. I did not see Julia Mansfield in your ranks. Is not she a young lady of great taste and of fine scholarship ? No disparagement to you, Miss Ella, but Julia would have been a very beautiful queen."

Ella raised her mirthful eyes.

" I will explain. Julia and I were the only candidates. The balloting took place a week before the festival. "We two have always been rivals. We are almost exactly matched. Last term I gained the prizes in Latin, history, and arithmetic ; Julia, in French, chemistry, and geography. We are both close students this term. Julia avers that she will gain all the prizes. I am equally determined that I will have every one of them. I am almost confident of success."

" But what has all this to do with the May Queen?" asked Charles, with a slightly troubled countenance.

" I am explaining as fast as I can. When the votes were counted, each of us had sixteen. Was it not singular ? We agreed that Miss Adams should decide. Instead of voting for either of us, she said that the one who had recited the greater number of perfect lessons this term should be queen. The record-books were examined. My merits exceeded Julia's by three. It was thus that I gained the crown. Julia was so unhappy that she refused to join in the festival. I told the girls that she resembled Themistocles, who could not sleep on account of the victories of Miltiades."

With disapproval on every lineament of his countenance, Charles replied: " That was very unkind. How should you like to have such comparisons drawn?"

" Not very well, brother."

"In future, my dear, remember the golden rule. Now, I have a suggestion to make. Why can not you two, instead of being almost at variance, follow the example of Theseus and Pirithous ?"

Ella colored, and was silent a few minutes. She then frankly said, "I do not understand the allusion, brother. You remember that I am only fourteen, and that my historical studies have not yet extended so far as yours."

" My dear child, ignorance is very excusable at your age. I should be sorry if you were like the little boy of whom Miss Edgeworth says, ' all history was clear in his head.' How many times I have laughed at the pretensions of Master Lewis ! I will not stop to tell you the whole story of the heroes to whom I have adverted. You shall read it for yourself. But I will say enough to explain my meaning. Theseus and Pirithous had met, expecting to fight ; but, being strongly impressed with each other's noble qualities, they were mutually inspired with admiration. From this, love arose, and they became noted for their friendship."

" Oh, they joined the 'Mutual Admiration Society !' Is that your plan for Julia and myself?"

Charles faintly smiled.

" Do not flatter each other, but let your regard be proportionate to your merit. Then, every new excellence developed, instead of exciting envy, will only augment affection."

Before Ella could reply, a carriage stopped. Delia alighted, and walked slowly up the avenue, leaning upon her father's arm. They passed the window at which the preceptor'was sitting with his light-hearted sister. The young man sighed. After a pause, he asked, " Ella, shall you ever be like Delia ?"

"Like Delia!" exclaimed the indignant little girl, " I hope not. Delia merely exists, she does not live."

"How will you avoid such a fate?"

" By being an actor, instead of a spectator, in the great drama of life. Delia lias no object of interest. She is the most indifferent person that I ever saw. She cares neither for study nor amusement."

" You are right. "When you leave school, continue your studies at home, but spend several hours every day in some occupation that shall directly benefit the world. All young men in this country have some art or profession. I see not why young women should be exempt from a similar rule. I truly believe that Delia would be well if she were obliged to work for her maintenance."

"What can I do, Charles ?"

" In consequence of the erroneous views entertained by many men, there are now but very few employments accessible by your sex. Your education will be a very fine one. You ought not, therefore, to engage in any occupation merely requiring mechanical skill. Mind must be the material for your labor. Teaching is a dignified and honorable profession. The greatest philosophers have been schoolmasters. Both sexes, at the present day, engage largely in this work. Would this agree with your views ?"

" By no means ; unless, like Aspasia, I could have such pupils as Socrates and Pericles ; unless, like her, I could have grown men and women for the recipients of my instructions."

Suppressing his inclination to smile, Charles answered, " The career of Aspasia was, in many respects, most admirable. You may be the fortunate woman to follow her example in modern America. But you do not sufficiently estimate the influence of even a common-school teacher. In some parts of our country, young women may be the ministers of religion as well as the teachers of secular knowledge. I have been reading a remarkable little book, entitled ' The Duty of American AVomen to their Country.' I suspect that Miss Beecher, a woman of large heart and active brain, has the chief merit of the authorship. I will read one or two extracts to show what you might do. In one of those destitute villages found in all parts of the West, ' a young lady from New England, who came out under the care of a clergyman, stationed herself to rear up a school. She agreed to teach for a small sum, and to hoard around with the parents of her pupils.

" ' Most of these parents were from the South, where they were unaccustomed to the notions of comfort and thrift which the young lady possessed.

" ' She not only taught the children at school, but, in each family where she boarded, taught the housekeeper how to make good yeast and good oread. She also taught the young women how to cut dresses and how to braid straw for bonnets.

" 'Her instructions in the day school and in the Sunday school, and her influence in the families, were unbounded. No minister, however well qualified, could have wrought such favorable changes in so short a time.

" ' In another case, known to the writer, a young lady went into such a destitute village. There was no church, and no minister of any sect. She taught the children through the week, and also instituted a Sabbath school. In this she conducted religious worship herself. Gradually the mothers came to attend, then the fathers, until at last she found herself in the office both of teacher and clergyman. The last portion of her duties she resigned to a minister, whho, by her instrumentality, was settled there.'

" Could you, Ella, desire more power than these teachers possessed ? My only wish, on reading the last anecdote, was, that the noble young woman had retained her pastoral office. It would have been a good precedent. By such methods, women must evince their ability. Let no favorable opportunity be neglected."

" I agree with you, brother Charles, but I thought that men w r ere unwilling to allow women to occupy stations of consequence, and that we must consequently seize every privilege that seemed desirable."

" All wise men believe that whenever God bestow r s a good gift, He designs that the donee should exercise it for the benefit of the human race. Bigoted and narrow-minded men fear that they shall be eclipsed, if women come upon the stage of action. These will discuss the different spheres of the sexes, their unequal powers, etc. They know that although woman has an inferior domestic position, not being the head of the family, she possesses mental power equal to that of their own sex ; but they will not acknowledge this, while they have any plea for retaining their low and' degrading views. Women must, by their own acts, convince men that they have the same endowments. If the universities of the land are not open for their admission, they should pursue an extended course of study at home."

" Oh, Charles, ought not Adelaide to have a part in the reform ? She is highly gifted, and she has studied so much that she must now possess great erudition."

"Adelaide," exclaimed Charles, with deep feeling, " is qualified for any position. But she hesitates with regard to taking what is not yet allowed by public opinion. Knowing that the press is regarded by many as more effective than the pulpit, she is well content thus to give utterance to her thoughts. Her success in the literary world now gives promise of eminence."

" But Adelaide writes only prose. I should wish to be a poet."

"Why, Ella, some of the most distinguished authors have been prose writers."

" Yes ; but I always think of Sappho and her poetry. How delighted I was when I learned that the great Solon thought one of her poems so beautiful that he should be unwilling to die till he had learned it by heart."

" That was certainly a very great honor to her who was so deservedly styled the 'Tenth Muse.' But the thoughts, if not the words, of many prose writers, are deeply graven upon the hearts of their readers. You appear to think, Ella, that poetry is mere rhyme and meter. It has been well said that poetry consists in the thought, not in the expression. Some of the finest prose compositions in our language are true poems, and the more glorious as they are devoid of metrical and rhythmical trammels. The record of thought, in whatever style, is the noblest form of usefulness. The successful author is like the renowned Pharos of antiquity, shedding far and wide pure and beautiful rays to illumine the path of the wanderer. Now, after repeating a few lines by Lowell, who would be deemed a true poet, even if he did not clothe his ideas in so attractive a garb, I must leave you to your own reflections.

'It may be glorious to write
Thoughts that shall glad the two or three
High souls, like those far stars that come in sight
Once in a century ;

'But better far it is to speak
One simple word, which now and then
Shall waken their free nature in the weak
And friendless sons of men;

'To write some earnest verse or line,
Which, seeking not the praise of art,
Shall make a clearer faith and manhood shine
In the untutored heart

'He who doth this, in verse or prose,
May be forgotten in his day,
But surely shall be crowned at last with those
Who live and speak for aye.' "