book; and whether he finally succeed or fail, no philanthropist need blush to stand on the same footing with O'Sullivan. "In the midst of these lights of the age, it gladdened me to greet my old friends of Brook Farm, with whom, though a recreant now, I had borne the heat of many a summer's day, while we labored together towards the perfect life. They seem so far advanced, however, in the realization of their idea, that their sun-burnt faces and toil-hardened frames may soon be denied admittance into the Hall of Fantasy. Mr. Emerson was likewise there, leaning against one of the pillars, and surrounded by an admiring crowd of writers and readers of the Dial, and all manner of Transcendentalists and disciples of the Newness, most of whom betrayed the power of his intellect by its modifying influence upon their own. He had come into the hall, in search, I suppose, either of a fact or a real man; both of which he was as likely to find there as elsewhere. No more earnest seeker after truth than he, and few more successful finders of it; although, sometimes, the truth assumes a mystic unreality and shadowiness in his grasp. In the same part of the hall, Jones Very stood alone, within a circle which no other of mortal race could enter, nor himself escape from. "Here, also, was Mr. Alcott, with two or three friends, whom his spirit had assimilated to itself and drawn to his New England home, though an ocean rolled between. There was no man in the enchanted hall whose mere presence, the language of whose look and manner, wrought such an impression as that of this great mystic innovator. So calm and gentle was he, so holy in aspect, so quiet in the utterance of what his soul brooded upon, that one might readily conceive his Orphic Sayings to well upward from a fountain in his breast which communicated with the infinite abyss of Thought. "Here is a prophet,' cried my friend, with enthusiasm — ' a dreamer, a bodiless idea amid our actual existence. Another age may recognize him as a man; or perhaps his misty apparition will vanish into the sunshine. It matters little; for his influence will have impregnated the atmosphere, and be imbibed by generations that know not the original apostle of the ideas, which they shall shape into earthly business. Such a spirit cannot pass through human life, yet leave mankind entirely as he found them!' "At all events, he may count you as a disciple,' said I, smiling; and doubtless there is the spirit of a system in him, but not the body of it. I love to contrast him with that acute and powerful Intellect, who stands not far off.' "Ah, you mean Mr. Brownson!' replied my companion. Pray Heaven he do not stamp his foot or raise his voice; for if he should, the whole fabric of the Hall of Fantasy will dissolve like a smoke wreath! I wonder how he came here? The introductory essay to the Mosses may have been written not actually at Concord, though it purports so to have been. At any rate after they had left the Old Manse and had gone to Salem to live, Mrs. Hawthorne wrote, February 22, 1846, to her mother: "My husband has found The Christmas Banquet,' and he has made up the second volume, which I send with this, for dear father to transmit to New York. The second volume must be printed first, because he has not long enough dreamed over the new tale or essay which is to commence the first volFrom all question as to what this precious web may be, last woven in the loom of his genius, I sacredly abstain till the fulness of time. 0, I am so glad that these scattered jewels are now to be set together!" ume. xxii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE THE first edition of the Mosses bore the following title-page, being published in two parts: Mosses from an Old Manse | by | Nathaniel Hawthorne in Two Parts | New York, Wiley & Putman | 1846. It formed a part of Wiley & Putman's Library of American Books. The First Part agrees in contents with our first volume, except that it did not contain " Feathertop," which was added to a subsequent edition. Our second volume agrees in contents with the Second Part of the original edition, except that " Passages from a Relinquished Work" and "Sketches from Memory" were inserted after "Earth's Holocaust" in a later reissue. The following is a record of the first appearance of the several contents, in chronological order, the date and place of two only," Drowne's Wooden Image," and "The Old Apple Dealer," being unascertained. 1. Roger Malvin's Burial. Published anonymously in The Token, 1832. 2. Passages from a Relinquished Work. Originally a group under the heading "The Story Teller" in The New England Magazine, for November and December, 1834. 3. Young Goodman Brown. Published in The New England Magazine, 4. Sketches from Memory. Published in The New England Magazine, 5. Mrs. Bullfrog. Published in The Token, 1837, and there entered as "By the Author of 'The Wives of the Dead."" 6. Monsieur du Miroir. Published in The Token, 1837, and entered there as "By the Author of Sights from a Steeple." 7. A Virtuoso's Collection. Published, with the author's name, in The 8. The Hall of Fantasy. Published, with the author's name, in The 9. The New Adam and Eve. Published, with the author's name, in The 10. Egotism; or, the Bosom Serpent. Published, with the author's name, in The X11. The Birth-Mark. Published, with the author's name, in The |