Only an eddying silence! And yet the air seems even now alive with his
last words.
XI.
PERSONALITY.
What has thus far been developed in this essay, concerning Hawthorne's
personality, though incidental, has, I hope, served the end in
view,--that of suggesting a large, healthy nature, capable of the most
profound thought and the most graceful and humorous mental play. The
details of his early life already given show how soon the inborn honor
of his nature began to shine. The small irregularities in his college
course have seemed to me to bring him nearer and to endear him, without
in any way impairing the dignity and beauty of character which prevailed
in him from the beginning. It is good to know that he shared the average
human history in these harmless peccadilloes; for they never hurt his
integrity, and they are reminders of that old but welcome truth, that
the greatest men do not need a constant diet of great circumstances. He
had many difficulties to deal with, as unpicturesque and harassing as
any we have to encounter in our daily courses,--a thing which people are
curiously prone to forget in the case of eminent authors. The way in
which he dealt with these throws back light on himself. We discover how
well the high qualities of genius were matched by those of character.
Fragmentary anecdotes have a value, but so relative that to attempt to
construct the subject's character out of them is hazardous. Conceptions
of a man derived only from such matter remind one of Charles Lamb's
ghosts, formed of the particles which, every seven years, are replaced
throughout the body by new ones.
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