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LIFE ANOP WRITINGS
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WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS

FROM A CRAYON PORTRAIT BY
MRS. RICHARD HILDRETH



THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS



COMPILED AND EDITED BY

WILLIAM WINTER



Peace, peace ! he is not dead, he does not sleep,
He has awakened from the dream of life.

SHELLEY



Privately printed for Joseph W. Symonds
1908










Copyright, 1908.

By Joseph W. Symonds.

All Rights Reserved.



PREFACE.

The design of publishing a book of the selected writings
of William Laiv Symonds was formed some time after his
death, in 1862; but the Civil War in our country was then
raging and the time was unpropitious for the execution of
any literary purpose involving public attention. An inti-
mate friend of the deceased author, — Mr. Robert Carter,
prominent among the writers who were at that time working
for the newspaper press and the booksellers of New York, —
undertook to collect his writings and to prepare a memoir
of the writer; but obstacles intervened to impede him in the
prosecution of the work and, ultimately, he felt constrained
to abandon it. As years passed, circumstances became less
and less auspicious for the publication as at first proposed.
Friends of Mr. Symonds were dispersed by fortune or re-
moved by death. The literary reputation that he had ac-
quired, — not at any time extensive, though, within a limited
circle, unquestionably brilliant, — was, practically, forgotten.
The project slept. Now, at the distance of forty-six years
since his death, the work he performed and the publicity
it obtained are unknown, and, to the general public, the men-
tion of his name would be mention of the name of a
stranger. By virtue of zvhat he ivrote he ought to be known

7



8 PREFACE

as a royal intellect; as an acute thinker, in an important
transition penod of religious thought; and, — if originality,
lucidity, and fen'ent emotion in a sympathetic display of
high themes possess any relative significance, — a man of
authentic, de. genius. He is not known, except to a

wy few surviving friends, and to those infrequent scholars
who dwell apart from the multitude and who habitually and
carefully observe the forces of thought, often obscure in
their origin and only indirectly influential in their effect, that
are liberated upon the passing hour. The memorial of him
that is now made, accordingly, a memorial inspired and ac-
complished by the life-long affection of a devoted brother,
makes no appeal to the community, but is privately offered
only to friends, who will deem it precious, — the reflex of a
noble mind; the record of a beautiful life; the souvenir of
genius that was suddenly blighted in its bloom.

The writings of Mr. Symonds are voluminous, and they
range over a large variety of themes. It would not be pos-
sible to include them in a single volume. He began to write
while yet a boy, and his pen was industrious to the last.
His earliest published writings were contributions to the
Portland Transcript. He never wrote verse. He wrote
many essays, while he was a student at Bowdoin College,
and he wrote numerous letters, — several of which, preserved
in this volume, possess the substantial value of subtle dis-
quisition on some of the most important subjects that can
engage the human mind. In 1857 he became a member of



PREFACE 9

the regular staff of contributors to Appleton's Cyclopaedia,
and, intermittently, he wrote for that publication during the
ensuing five years. The editors of that massive and valua-
ble compendium were George Ripley and Charles Anderson
Dana, — two of the most erudite scholars of their time.
Writing to Mr. Joseph W. Symonds, March 2, 1862, Dr.
Ripley said: "The articles published by your brother are, of
course, to a considerable extent, of the nature of a compila-
tion, and, accordingly, do not so fully reflect his genius and
culture as his more original compositions. Still, many of
them possess a striking interest and are certainly remark-
able productions, especially for so young a man. Among
the best of them are the papers on Esthetics, Beauty, Victor
Cousin, Thomas Jouffray, Latin Literature, John Locke,
Philosophy, Novels, Moral Philosophy, and Spinoza." Mr.
Symonds not only wrote hundreds of articles for the Cyclo-
paedia, but he revised and amended very many that were
furnished by other contributors. A list of his contributions,
nearly complete, has been obtained. He wrote exhaustively
on such varied topics as Junius, Leibnitz, Mysteries,
Nominalism and Realism, the Mythology of the Ancients,
and the philosophy of Hobbes. One of his fellow-workers
has recorded that the most abstruse and difficult themes were
customarily assigned to him, with absolute confidence that
he would discuss them thoroughly well, — a confidence that
was never disappointed. He furnished a considerable quan-
tity of literary criticism to the Knickerbocker Magazine,



io PREFACE

and during his occupancy of the pulpit, — for about six
months, in 1S61, at first in Boston and its vicinity, after-
ward at Chicopcc, near Springfield, Massachusetts, — he
wrote and delivered many sermons and lectures. The selec-
tion of his writings that has been made for this book, by
its editor, will, it is hoped, serve to exhibit the dignity of
character, the szveetness of temperament, the opulence of
learning, the discipline of mind, the penetrative lucidity of
thought, and the felicity of style for which Mr. Symonds
zvas remarkable, and, — above all, — will display that grand
desire, which was the absorbing passion of all his life and the
fervid impulse of all his conduct, to promote happiness by
the diffusion of religious enthusiasm; the celestial emotion
not resident in dogmas and ceremonies, but in the practical
living of the spiritual life which, as he believed, beginning
in time, is divinely ordained to continue in eternity.

W. W



THE TABLE OF CONTENTS.

William Law Symonds: Photogravure from a
Crayon Portrait by Mrs. Richard Hildreth.

Page

Preface 7

The Life of William Law Symonds 17

Selected Letters:

1850 42

1851 43

1852 45

A Bit of Philosophizing 47

1853 54

1854 68

Jean Jacques Rousseau 87

1855 I02

1856 I4 2

1857 *fi

1858 209

1859 240

i860 264

1861 280

1862 294

11



12 THE TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Journals : Page

1856 298

Essay on Style 299

1857 313

1859 3 2 2

Paul Pemberton : A Meditation 324

Selected Writings:

The Romantic and Classic Eras op Civiliza-
tion and Literature .. . 329

The Scholar — Mediaeval and Modern 335

Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith. 332

The Carnival op the Romantic 377

The Cadmean Madness 402

The French Ultramontanists 437

Buckle's Philosophy 450

Liberty 462

Victor Cousin 469

Coleridge 476

Philosophy 483

Beauty — . ... 519

History 527

Moral Philosophy 564

Deity 587

Religion 593

Faith 602

Humility . 609

Death 617

Memorials :

Posthumous Tributes: In Letters 625

Press Tributes:

In The New York Tribune, by George

Ripley 651

In the Portland Transcript, by Harrison

Gray 651



THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13

Page

In the New York Christian Inquirer, by

Rev. O. B. Frothingham 653

In the Chicopee Journal, by Rev. John

Albee 654

List of Bowdoin College Class of 1854 657

Cyclopaedia Labors and Partial List of Cyclo-
paedia Articles 660

Chronology 663

Conclusion 665

ERRORS.

On page 56 the date, 1853, has been accidentally omitted.
It should precede the letter of January .

On page 80, in footnote: "Mr. James Ripley Osgood,
Bowd. 1852," read 1854.



THE LIFE OF

WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS.



THE LIFE OF WILLIAM LAW SYMOXDS.

I.

This book tells the uneventful yet significant story of the
short career of a brilliant scholar, indicates the development
and charm of a lovely character, and assembles some of the
productions of an extraordinary mind, — productions valu-
able for what they contain of informing and guiding thought,
and perhaps more valuable for what they disclose of noble
intellect and inspiring example. The human being, however
short-lived and however inadequately revealed, whose per-
sonality and conduct stimulate other human beings to en-
dure and to aspire, to live "unspotted of the world."' and to
make themselves worthy of a spiritual immortality, has
achieved the best success that is possible in human life. The
scholar and the writer who is here commemorated lived only
till near the end of his twenty-ninth year ; passed the most of
his days and nights- in reading, study, and literary industry ;
contributed, intermittently, to the periodical literature of his
time ; toiled and strove a little while as a minister of the
Christian religion ; and, — partly because of mental conflict
and anguish incident to his endeavor to find and keep what
seemed to him the right spiritual course, and partly because
of incessant, conscientious, prodigious literary labor, — shat-
tered his constitution and sacrified his life, while yet only
on the threshold of a great career.

"A fiery soul, which, working out its way.

Fretted the pigmy body to decay,

And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.''

The life of a scholar is, usually, uneventful. He com-

17 2



18 WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS

monlv abides in one place; his companions are books; his
deeds are the records of processes of thought; his experi-
ences arc the emotions that move upon the theatre of his
mind. The biographer of a scholar, accordingly, has but
little to tell of art ions, incidents, and events. William Law
Symonds, whom I had the honour and the happiness to
know, as long ago as i860, impressed me then, — and the
impression has remained unchrmged, except that it has been
deepened by a careful study of his writings, — as a mystic,
a perfect type of the spiritualized intellect. He was then in
his twenty-seventh year, a slight, gentle person ; modest ;
reticent ; calmly observant ; not austere, and yet, even among
jovial companions, isolated and alone. He sometimes joined
a group of Bohemian comrades of which I was a member,
and his presence in our favorite resort was always a pleas-
ure : but, while kindly and sympathetic in demeanor, he
seldom spoke and he was never ostentatious. It was in i860
that he contributed to the New York Saturday Press, of
which Henry Clapp was editor, his essay on Buckle's Phi-
losophy, and among his friends and acquaintances at that
time were Edward Howland, in later years notable as a
socialist (he established a colony at Sinaloa, Mexico) ;
George Arnold, the poet ; the brilliant critic, John R. G.
Hassard ; Robert Carter, conspicuous in the journalism of
that period ; Charles A. Dana, and George Ripley. He was
then employed as a writer for Appleton's American Cyclo-
paedia, to which he contributed about 2,600 articles, and in
the exacting and poorly paid service of which he worked
himself to death. I did not know him intimately, but I knew
him well enough to know that he possessed more learning
than was possessed by any of our Bohemian acquaintances,
a more potent and subtle faculty of analytical thought, and a
more abstract, enthusiastic, ecstatic spirit. There was not
a particle of worldliness in his nature. He was a zealot in
his devotion to knowledge, and still more a zealot in his
pathetic aspiration for the spiritual life. If Pegasus impris-



WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS 19

oned in the Pound was ever typified by any human creature
it was typified by that wonderfully equipped young scholar,
that sweet, patient, self-sacrificing spirit, subdued to be a
drudge for a dictionary of popular information. Many
of his articles in the American Cyclopaedia are pearls of
learning and of style ; but most of such compositions, neces-
sarily, are characterized more by research than spontaneity,
— containing more of chronicle than of thought, and re-
vealing more of study and labor than of genius and art.
Happily, however, he found other avenues of expression ;
and his writings, — now, at last, after many years, collected,
— eloquently testify to the devotion with which he improved
them.

William Law Symonds, the fifth child of Joseph Symonds
and Isabella Jordan, his wife, both natives of New England,
was born at Raymond, in Cumberland County, Maine, on
April 29, 1833. The town of Raymond is noted for the
exceptional beauty of its situation ; noted also for associa-
tion with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who passed a portion of his
boyhood there, — dwelling in a large mansion then owned by
members of his mother's family, the Mannings, of Salem,
Massachusetts. In that town, and at Portland, Brunswick,
and Gardiner, — places practically adjacent to each other
and all pervaded by a kindred atmosphere of rural peace and
religious sentiment, — Mr. Symonds spent the greater part
of his life, not establishing his residence outside of that
region till 1855, when he became a student at the Divinity
School of Harvard University, and never separating himself,
for any considerable continuous length of time, from the
haunts of his youth. There he acquired his education ; there
his character was formed ; there his afTections were centred ;
there he gained the best of his experience, — absolute self-
control, — and there he found his grave. The story of his
life covers the period from 1833 till January 18, 1862, when,
after a sudden and brief illness, he passed away, — dying at
the Studio Building in West Tenth street, New York. It



20 WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS

is the story of a noble and beautiful soul that could not
reconcile itself with the hard conditions of this world; that
strove continually for emancipation from the trammels of

gma and the impediments of materialism: and that never
anywhere on earth found rest.

The earl) life of Mr. Symonds, involving the experiences
of his boyhood, the growth of his youthful mind, and the
rapid development of his remarkable character, could not be
better described than in the words of his immediate rela-
tives ; those who knew him best and loved him most, and
whom he cherished, all his days, with devoted affection. Let
this memoir, therefore, as far as possible, proceed in the lan-
guage of those who speak with the authority that is derived
from intimate observation and personal knowledge.

A NEW ENGLAND HOME.

The first speaker is his sister Rachel, who thus describes
the environment of their childhood :

"Our home (at Raymond) was a plain cottage, simple but
substantial, and, within and without, indicating competency,
thrift, and comfort. Nature had been lavish in her sur-
roundings. A fine, sloping, undulating plain stretched away
from the rear of the house to an immense forest, within
whose broad enclosure lay one of those charming little ponds
with which the New England landscape is studded, — a sheet
of the most transparent blue, pure and mirror-like, — its bor-
ders fringed with verdure. Far beyond, the eye is attracted
by another lake, Sebago, on whose silver surface white-
sailed vessels are gliding, and whose remoter shore is lost
in the blue of heaven. As the eye traces the shore along,
a narrow point of land slips in between the sky and the
lake. The land widens. Another point appears, with dim
mountains lying in quiet beauty against the far-off sky.
The water-line has become narrower, with its continued
range of hills and mountains in remote and shadowy per-
spective, above and beyond ; but again it widens, and again,



WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS 21

and we never lose sight of its shining surface, till in another
quarter of the hemisphere we see Mount Washington and
its satellites rising proudly and calmly to the heavens."

The next speaker is his sister Elisabeth, giving a com-
prehensive and particular description of their home life, such
as no biographer could supply :

"Into the part of the town of Raymond in which we lived
the mail penetrated but once a week. There were two
churches, a Methodist and a Free Will Baptist. There was
one store, which belonged to my father. It contained almost
everything that was wanted in such a place. Besides the
store my father had a farm and also business as justice of
the peace and land surveyor, so that lie was a man of various
affairs and had a good deal of money for such a place. The
people of Raymond were primitive in their manners and
rather limited in their ideas. My father and some of my
mother's brothers and cousins had been sent to a distant
academy to eke out the little schooling they got in the town,
but generally there was no great excess of book learning
among them. They read the Bible a good deal, which was
very necessary, as the atmosphere of the place was intensely
theological. Religion, besides its customary uses, served
also for entertainment and diversion. The meetings on
Sunday and the frequent prayer-meetings were the only
social gatherings, and the contentions of the rival societies,
the revivals, the new preachers, and the serious cases of
church difficulty, when, perhaps, some member would be
suspended for improper conduct, were the chief sources of
mental exhilaration.

"My mother was a woman of strong traits of character,
perhaps somewhat tending to extremes. When very young,
unlike the rest of her family, she joined the church, and
religion became her absorbing interest. I remember her as
a solemn and almost severe person during our childhood,
always reading the Bible and Law's "Serious Call," of which
last work it was her aim, I think, literally to exemplify the



WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS

teachings. As we grew up her character was modified by
the companionship of her children and by her removal into
the broader society of the city of Portland.

"It is not strange that my brother's mind was theological
in its tendencies. The quality was in the blood. His mother
has said, since his death: 'It is no wonder Willy was so
good ; I gave him to God, before he was born. I was a
woman who believed in prayer, and, I promised Him, if He
would give me a son, he should be trained for Him.'

"My mother had five brothers who were all equally inter-
ested in theology, but went to the other extreme. She was
orthodox, while they were full of all manner of heresies, and
when they came to our house both preachers and doctrines
usually suffered sharp criticism. My father was a man of
great persistency of purpose, but generally moderate in his
views, with but one positive abhorrence, — Calvinism. This
led him to adopt the peculiar doctrines upon election of
Adam Clarke, whose Commentaries were a great consolation
to him. So the case stood in this wise : My father believed
men would be punished for their sins in another world, but
that God did not know that man would sin when He created
him. My uncles believed God knew he would sin and there-
fore would not punish him beyond this world. My mother
believed both, and so, while they argued the case, she kept
silent, with an occasional groan for both. My uncles used to
call our house Tilgrim's Tavern,' and maintained that we
were being 'eaten out of house and home' because all preach-
ers, provided they did not disgust my mother, were welcome,
with their John Rogers families, to come and remain as
long as they liked, and, moreover, were pretty sure of not
going away empty-handed.

"As a child Willy never gave any one any trouble. When
wronged he was more grieved than passionate, but would
not yield his right and could never be frightened. We used
to learn our lessons at home, — our parents, both of whom
had taught the district schools in their day, overlooking



WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS 23

them. When Willy was seven years old one of my mother's
brothers, a handsome, intelligent young man, went into
partnership with my father and came to live with us. I do
not doubt that Willy's character was considerably influenced
by him. He drank only cold water and Willy immediately
abandoned tea and coffee, and never drank them afterwards,
while he remained at home. By the aid of this uncle and the
occasional assistance of one of his cousins, who was in col-
lege but who lived close by us, we were pretty well educated,
for such a place as Raymond.

"Another of our uncles about this time became enamored
of phrenology, and, as he was a man who always rode a
hobby to death, by dint of his talk and his books and casts
we all became amateur phrenologists. But I do not think
Willy, at this time, manifested any marked enthusiasm for
books. I remember his whistles and bow-guns, and pop-
guns, his balls and sleds and swings, and his romps and
leaps on the hay-mows, and his especial passion for the tak-
ing of bees' and hornets' nests.

"When we left Raymond he had nearly finished arith-
metic and had studied more or less grammar, geography,
and United States historv, and had learned to write verv
neatly, as he always did afterwards. I do not think he had
read much, except in the "Youth's Companion," a little paper
published in Boston, and, I think, edited by the father of
N. P. Willis. This paper was a source of great delight to
us, and I remember Willy kept the numbers packed away
with great care. Our library in Raymond consisted of the
'Evangelical Family Library,' in fourteen volumes, of which
we read 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and perhaps Willy read others.
We had, besides, 'Paradise Lost' ; Young's 'Night Thoughts' :
Thomson's 'Seasons' : Pope's 'Essay on Man' and 'Abelard
and Eloise' ; Dodd's 'Thoughts in Prison' ; Tytler's TJniver-
sal History' ; 'History of Greece' ; Williamson's 'History of
Maine' ; 'Letters from an Elder Brother to a Younger,' and
a few other didactic and religious books, the names of which



24 WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS

I forget. Willy, I suppose, read all of them. I believe we
also had Mother Goose and Kcd Riding Hood, but, gener-
ally, our g^ift books were Baxter's 'Call to the Unconverted,'
or Alleitl's 'Alarm,' or something similar. I doubt if Willy
ever read a novel before he went to college, except per-
haps 'The Scottish Chiefs,' which we borrowed and were
permitted to read, under protest. Our chief knowledge
of literature was derived from our school readers, which
we used to know nearly by heart, and from the news-
papers.

"In 1845, when Willy was nearly twelve years old, our
father removed, with his family, from Raymond to Portland.
He wished to have Willy constantly at school till he was old
enough to go into business, which was not possible while
we lived at Raymond, unless the boy was sent from home —
to which my mother objected; and he had assisted in pur-
chasing a meeting-house for the Free Will Baptists in Port-
land, and he wished to be where he could watch over the
interests of the new church. He did not become connected
with any church till after his marriage, but, when he did, it
became a leading purpose of his life to support it. He was
not a burning and shining light in the prayer meeting, but
his peculiar church office was always the building or buying
of meeting-houses, making up the deficits in ministers' sal-
aries, and looking after the other pecuniary interests of the
society. The Christian Baptists had built the church in
Portland which my father assisted in buying for the Free
Will Baptists, and its first possessors had quarrelled among
themselves to such an extent that it was a popular saying
about town that 'the devil was under that pulpit' ; and,
judging from my own experience, I do not doubt the truth
of the remark — to say nothing of his occasionally getting
into the pulpit. The Christian Baptists that remained after
the Free Will Baptists bought the house formed the larger
part of the congregation, and they offered a strong contrast,
as to views, customs, and personal characteristics, with the



WILLIAM LAW SYMONDS 25

reticent, quiescent, impurturbable farmers to whose society
we had been accustomed in the country.

"Willy was placed in the grammar school and afterwards
in the high school, where he was fitted for college. His
sisters went to the best private schools in town, — there being
then in Portland no high school for girls. Father became
incorporated into the interests of the Free Will Baptist
Church, and mother, true to her mystical faith, regarded all
worldly advantages as nothing in comparison with being a
Christian, and, if necessary, was ready to sacrifice them all
for that. To harmonize the discordant elements of the
church so that the worse should not expel the better part, —