But Now At Length We Heard This Staid And Primitive River Rushing
To Her Fall, Like Any Rill.
We here left its channel, just above
the Billerica Falls, and entered the canal, which runs, or rather
is
Conducted, six miles through the woods to the Merrimack, at
Middlesex, and as we did not care to loiter in this part of our
voyage, while one ran along the tow-path drawing the boat by a
cord, the other kept it off the shore with a pole, so that we
accomplished the whole distance in little more than an hour.
This canal, which is the oldest in the country, and has even an
antique look beside the more modern railroads, is fed by the
Concord, so that we were still floating on its familiar waters.
It is so much water which the river _lets_ for the advantage of
commerce. There appeared some want of harmony in its scenery,
since it was not of equal date with the woods and meadows through
which it is led, and we missed the conciliatory influence of time
on land and water; but in the lapse of ages, Nature will recover
and indemnify herself, and gradually plant fit shrubs and flowers
along its borders. Already the kingfisher sat upon a pine over
the water, and the bream and pickerel swam below. Thus all works
pass directly out of the hands of the architect into the hands of
Nature, to be perfected.
It was a retired and pleasant route, without houses or
travellers, except some young men who were lounging upon a bridge
in Chelmsford, who leaned impudently over the rails to pry into
our concerns, but we caught the eye of the most forward, and
looked at him till he was visibly discomfited. Not that there
was any peculiar efficacy in our look, but rather a sense of
shame left in him which disarmed him.
It is a very true and expressive phrase, "He looked daggers at
me," for the first pattern and prototype of all daggers must have
been a glance of the eye. First, there was the glance of Jove's
eye, then his fiery bolt, then, the material gradually hardening,
tridents, spears, javelins, and finally, for the convenience of
private men, daggers, krisses, and so forth, were invented. It
is wonderful how we get about the streets without being wounded
by these delicate and glancing weapons, a man can so nimbly whip
out his rapier, or without being noticed carry it unsheathed.
Yet it is rare that one gets seriously looked at.
As we passed under the last bridge over the canal, just before
reaching the Merrimack, the people coming out of church paused to
look at us from above, and apparently, so strong is custom,
indulged in some heathenish comparisons; but we were the truest
observers of this sunny day. According to Hesiod,
"The seventh is a holy day,
For then Latona brought forth golden-rayed Apollo,"
and by our reckoning this was the seventh day of the week, and
not the first. I find among the papers of an old Justice of the
Peace and Deacon of the town of Concord, this singular
memorandum, which is worth preserving as a relic of an ancient
custom. After reforming the spelling and grammar, it runs as
follows: "Men that travelled with teams on the Sabbath,
Dec. 18th, 1803, were Jeremiah Richardson and Jonas Parker, both
of Shirley. They had teams with rigging such as is used to carry
barrels, and they were travelling westward. Richardson was
questioned by the Hon. Ephraim Wood, Esq., and he said that Jonas
Parker was his fellow-traveller, and he further said that a
Mr. Longley was his employer, who promised to bear him out." We
were the men that were gliding northward, this Sept. 1st, 1839,
with still team, and rigging not the most convenient to carry
barrels, unquestioned by any Squire or Church Deacon and ready to
bear ourselves out if need were. In the latter part of the
seventeenth century, according to the historian of Dunstable,
"Towns were directed to erect '_a cage_' near the meeting-house,
and in this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath
were confined." Society has relaxed a little from its
strictness, one would say, but I presume that there is not less
_religion_ than formerly. If the _ligature_ is found to be
loosened in one part, it is only drawn the tighter in another.
You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must
content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science
is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The
geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that
fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more, to prove
that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge. I am
not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal
divinities of Greece, rather than to my country's God. Jehovah,
though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute
and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not
so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not
exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a
god of the Greeks. I should fear the infinite power and
inflexible justice of the almighty mortal, hardly as yet
apotheosized, so wholly masculine, with no Sister Juno, no
Apollo, no Venus, nor Minerva, to intercede for me, . The Grecian are youthful and
erring and fallen gods, with the vices of men, but in many
important respects essentially of the divine race. In my
Pantheon, Pan still reigns in his pristine glory, with his ruddy
face, his flowing beard, and his shaggy body, his pipe and his
crook, his nymph Echo, and his chosen daughter Iambe; for the
great god Pan is not dead, as was rumored.
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