MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST(卡尔维恩)

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MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

MEMOIRS OF

CARWIN THE

BILOQUIST [A fragment]

Charles Brockden Brown

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

Chapter I.

I was the second son of a farmer, whose place of residence was a

western district of Pennsylvania. My eldest brother seemed fitted by

nature for the employment to which he was destined. His wishes never

led him astray from the hay-stack and the furrow. His ideas never ranged

beyond the sphere of his vision, or suggested the possibility that to-

morrow could differ from to-day. He could read and write, because he

had no alternative between learning the lesson prescribed to him, and

punishment. He was diligent, as long as fear urged him forward, but his

exertions ceased with the cessation of this motive. The limits of his

acquirements consisted in signing his name, and spelling out a chapter in

the bible.

My character was the reverse of his. My thirst of knowledge was

augmented in proportion as it was supplied with gratification. The more I

heard or read, the more restless and unconquerable my curiosity became.

My senses were perpetually alive to novelty, my fancy teemed with

visions of the future, and my attention fastened upon every thing

mysterious or unknown.

My father intended that my knowledge should keep pace with that of

my brother, but conceived that all beyond the mere capacity to write and

read was useless or pernicious. He took as much pains to keep me within

these limits, as to make the acquisitions of my brother come up to them,

but his efforts were not equally successful in both cases. The most

vigilant and jealous scrutiny was exerted in vain: Reproaches and blows,

painful privations and ignominious penances had no power to slacken my

zeal and abate my perseverance. He might enjoin upon me the most

laborious tasks, set the envy of my brother to watch me during the

performance, make the most diligent search after my books, and destroy

them without mercy, when they were found; but he could not outroot my

darling propensity. I exerted all my powers to elude his watchfulness.

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

Censures and stripes were sufficiently unpleasing to make me strive to

avoid them. To effect this desirable end, I was incessantly employed in

the invention of stratagems and the execution of expedients.

My passion was surely not deserving of blame, and I have frequently

lamented the hardships to which it subjected me; yet, perhaps, the claims

which were made upon my ingenuity and fortitude were not without

beneficial effects upon my character.

This contention lasted from the sixth to the fourteenth year of my age.

My father's opposition to my schemes was incited by a sincere though

unenlightened desire for my happiness. That all his efforts were secretly

eluded or obstinately repelled, was a source of the bitterest regret. He

has often lamented, with tears, what he called my incorrigible depravity,

and encouraged himself to perseverance by the notion of the ruin that

would inevitably overtake me if I were allowed to persist in my present

career. Perhaps the sufferings which arose to him from the disappointment,

were equal to those which he inflicted on me.

In my fourteenth year, events happened which ascertained my future

destiny. One evening I had been sent to bring cows from a meadow,

some miles distant from my father's mansion. My time was limited, and

I was menaced with severe chastisement if, according to my custom, I

should stay beyond the period assigned.

For some time these menaces rung in my ears, and I went on my way

with speed. I arrived at the meadow, but the cattle had broken the fence

and escaped. It was my duty to carry home the earliest tidings of this

accident, but the first suggestion was to examine the cause and manner of

this escape. The field was bounded by cedar railing. Five of these rails

were laid horizontally from post to post. The upper one had been broken

in the middle, but the rest had merely been drawn out of the holes on one

side, and rested with their ends on the ground. The means which had

been used for this end, the reason why one only was broken, and that one

the uppermost, how a pair of horns could be so managed as to effect that

which the hands of man would have found difficult, supplied a theme of

meditation.

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

Some accident recalled me from this reverie, and reminded me how

much time had thus been consumed. I was terrified at the consequences

of my delay, and sought with eagerness how they might be obviated. I

asked myself if there were not a way back shorter than that by which I had

come. The beaten road was rendered circuitous by a precipice that

projected into a neighbouring stream, and closed up a passage by which

the length of the way would have been diminished one half: at the foot

of the cliff the water was of considerable depth, and agitated by an eddy.

I could not estimate the danger which I should incur by plunging into it,

but I was resolved to make the attempt. I have reason to think, that this

experiment, if it had been tried, would have proved fatal, and my father,

while he lamented my untimely fate, would have been wholly unconscious

that his own unreasonable demands had occasioned it.

I turned my steps towards the spot. To reach the edge of the stream

was by no means an easy undertaking, so many abrupt points and gloomy

hollows were interposed. I had frequently skirted and penetrated this

tract, but had never been so completely entangled in the maze as now:

hence I had remained unacquainted with a narrow pass, which, at the

distance of an hundred yards from the river, would conduct me, though not

without danger and toil, to the opposite side of the ridge.

This glen was now discovered, and this discovery induced me to

change my plan. If a passage could be here effected, it would be shorter

and safer than that which led through the stream, and its practicability was

to be known only by experiment. The path was narrow, steep, and

overshadowed by rocks. The sun was nearly set, and the shadow of the

cliff above, obscured the passage almost as much as midnight would have

done: I was accustomed to despise danger when it presented itself in a

sensible form, but, by a defect common in every one's education, goblins

and spectres were to me the objects of the most violent apprehensions.

These were unavoidably connected with solitude and darkness, and were

present to my fears when I entered this gloomy recess.

These terrors are always lessened by calling the attention away to

some indifferent object. I now made use of this expedient, and began to

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

amuse myself by hallowing as loud as organs of unusual compass and

vigour would enable me. I utterred the words which chanced to occur to

me, and repeated in the shrill tones of a Mohock savage . . . "Cow! cow!

come home! home!" . . . These notes were of course reverberated from

the rocks which on either side towered aloft, but the echo was confused

and indistinct.

I continued, for some time, thus to beguile the way, till I reached a

space more than commonly abrupt, and which required all my attention.

My rude ditty was suspended till I had surmounted this impediment. In a

few minutes I was at leisure to renew it. After finishing the strain, I paused.

In a few seconds a voice as I then imagined, uttered the same cry from the

point of a rock some hundred feet behind me; the same words, with equal

distinctness and deliberation, and in the same tone, appeared to be spoken.

I was startled by this incident, and cast a fearful glance behind, to discover

by whom it was uttered. The spot where I stood was buried in dusk, but

the eminences were still invested with a luminous and vivid twilight.

The speaker, however, was concealed from my view.

I had scarcely begun to wonder at this occurrence, when a new

occasion for wonder, was afforded me. A few seconds, in like manner,

elapsed, when my ditty was again rehearsed, with a no less perfect

imitation, in a different quarter. . . . . To this quarter I eagerly turned my

eyes, but no one was visible. . . . The station, indeed, which this new

speaker seemed to occupy, was inaccessible to man or beast.

If I were surprized at this second repetition of my words, judge how

much my surprise must have been augmented, when the same calls were a

third time repeated, and coming still in a new direction. Five times was

this ditty successively resounded, at intervals nearly equal, always from a

new quarter, and with little abatement of its original distinctness and force.

A little reflection was sufficient to shew that this was no more than an

echo of an extraordinary kind. My terrors were quickly supplanted by

delight. The motives to dispatch were forgotten, and I amused myself for

an hour, with talking to these cliffs: I placed myself in new positions,

and exhausted my lungs and my invention in new clamours.

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

The pleasures of this new discovery were an ample compensation for

the ill treatment which I expected on my return. By some caprice in my

father I escaped merely with a few reproaches. I seized the first

opportunity of again visiting this recess, and repeating my amusement;

time, and incessant repetition, could scarcely lessen its charms or exhaust

the variety produced by new tones and new positions.

The hours in which I was most free from interruption and restraint

were those of moonlight. My brother and I occupied a small room above

the kitchen, disconnected, in some degree, with the rest of the house. It

was the rural custom to retire early to bed and to anticipate the rising of

the sun. When the moonlight was strong enough to permit me to read, it

was my custom to escape from bed, and hie with my book to some

neighbouring eminence, where I would remain stretched on the mossy

rock, till the sinking or beclouded moon, forbade me to continue my

employment. I was indebted for books to a friendly person in the

neighbourhood, whose compliance with my solicitations was prompted

partly by benevolence and partly by enmity to my father, whom he could

not more egregiously offend than by gratifying my perverse and

pernicious curiosity.

In leaving my chamber I was obliged to use the utmost caution to

avoid rousing my brother, whose temper disposed him to thwart me in the

least of my gratifications. My purpose was surely laudable, and yet on

leaving the house and returning to it, I was obliged to use the vigilance

and circumspection of a thief.

One night I left my bed with this view. I posted first to my vocal glen,

and thence scrambling up a neighbouring steep, which overlooked a wide

extent of this romantic country, gave myself up to contemplation, and the

perusal of Milton's Comus.

My reflections were naturally suggested by the singularity of this echo.

To hear my own voice speak at a distance would have been formerly

regarded as prodigious. To hear too, that voice, not uttered by another,

by whom it might easily be mimicked, but by myself! I cannot now

recollect the transition which led me to the notion of sounds, similar to

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

these, but produced by other means than reverberation. Could I not so

dispose my organs as to make my voice appear at a distance?

From speculation I proceeded to experiment. The idea of a distant

voice, like my own, was intimately present to my fancy. I exerted myself

with a most ardent desire, and with something like a persuasion that I

should succeed. I started with surprise, for it seemed as if success had

crowned my attempts. I repeated the effort, but failed. A certain

position of the organs took place on the first attempt, altogether new,

unexampled and as it were, by accident, for I could not attain it on the

second experiment.

You will not wonder that I exerted myself with indefatigable zeal to

regain what had once, though for so short a space, been in my power.

Your own ears have witnessed the success of these efforts. By perpetual

exertion I gained it a second time, and now was a diligent observer of the

circumstances attending it. Gradually I subjected these finer and more

subtle motions to the command of my will. What was at first difficult, by

exercise and habit, was rendered easy. I learned to accommodate my

voice to all the varieties of distance and direction.

It cannot be denied that this faculty is wonderful and rare, but when

we consider the possible modifications of muscular motion, how few of

these are usually exerted, how imperfectly they are subjected to the will,

and yet that the will is capable of being rendered unlimited and absolute,

will not our wonder cease?

We have seen men who could hide their tongues so perfectly that even

an Anatomist, after the most accurate inspection that a living subject could

admit, has affirmed the organ to be wanting, but this was effected by the

exertion of muscles unknown and incredible to the greater part of

mankind.

The concurrence of teeth, palate and tongue, in the formation of

speech should seem to be indispensable, and yet men have spoken

distinctly though wanting a tongue, and to whom, therefore, teeth and

palate were superfluous. The tribe of motions requisite to this end, are

wholly latent and unknown, to those who possess that organ.

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

I mean not to be more explicit. I have no reason to suppose a

peculiar conformation or activity in my own organs, or that the power

which I possess may not, with suitable directions and by steady efforts, be

obtained by others, but I will do nothing to facilitate the acquisition. It is

by far, too liable to perversion for a good man to desire to possess it, or to

teach it to another.

There remained but one thing to render this instrument as powerful in

my hands as it was capable of being. From my childhood, I was

remarkably skilful at imitation. There were few voices whether of men

or birds or beasts which I could not imitate with success. To add my

ancient, to my newly acquired skill, to talk from a distance, and at the

same time, in the accents of another, was the object of my endeavours, and

this object, after a certain number of trials, I finally obtained.

In my present situation every thing that denoted intellectual exertion

was a crime, and exposed me to invectives if not to stripes. This

circumstance induced me to be silent to all others, on the subject of my

discovery. But, added to this, was a confused belief, that it might be

made, in some way instrumental to my relief from the hardships and

restraints of my present condition. For some time I was not aware of the

mode in which it might be rendered subservient to this end.

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

Chapter II.

My father's sister was an ancient lady, resident in Philadelphia, the

relict of a merchant, whose decease left her the enjoyment of a frugal

competence. She was without children, and had often expressed her

desire that her nephew Frank, whom she always considered as a sprightly

and promising lad, should be put under her care. She offered to be at the

expense of my education, and to bequeath to me at her death her slender

patrimony.

This arrangement was obstinately rejected by my father, because it was

merely fostering and giving scope to propensities, which he considered as

hurtful, and because his avarice desired that this inheritance should fall to

no one but himself. To me, it was a scheme of ravishing felicity, and to

be debarred from it was a source of anguish known to few. I had too

much experience of my father's pertinaciousness ever to hope for a change

in his views; yet the bliss of living with my aunt, in a new and busy scene,

and in the unbounded indulgence of my literary passion, continually

occupied my thoughts: for a long time these thoughts were productive

only of despondency and tears.

Time only enchanced the desirableness of this scheme; my new faculty

would naturally connect itself with these wishes, and the question could

not fail to occur whether it might not aid me in the execution of my

favourite plan.

A thousand superstitious tales were current in the family. Apparitions

had been seen, and voices had been heard on a multitude of occasions.

My father was a confident believer in supernatural tokens. The voice of

his wife, who had been many years dead, had been twice heard at

midnight whispering at his pillow. I frequently asked myself whether a

scheme favourable to my views might not be built upon these foundations.

Suppose (thought I) my mother should be made to enjoin upon him

compliance with my wishes?

MEMOIRS OF CARWIN THE BILOQUIST [A fragment]

This idea bred in me a temporary consternation. To imitate the voice

of the dead, to counterfeit a commission from heaven, bore the aspect of

presumption and impiety. It seemed an offence which could not fail to

draw after it the vengeance of the deity. My wishes for a time yielded to

my fears, but this scheme in proportion as I meditated on it, became more

plausible; no other occurred to me so easy and so efficacious. I

endeavoured to persuade myself that the end proposed, was, in the highest

degree praiseworthy, and that the excellence of my purpose would justify

the means employed to attain it.

My resolutions were, for a time, attended with fluctuations and

misgivings. These gradually disappeared, and my purpose became firm;

I was next to devise the means of effecting my views, this did not demand

any tedious deliberation. It was easy to gain access to my father's

chamber without notice or detection, cautious footsteps and the

suppression of breath would place me, unsuspected and unthought of, by

his bed side. The words I should use, and the mode of utterance were not

easily settled, but having at length selected these, I made myself by much

previous repetition, perfectly familiar with the use of them.

I selected a blustering and inclement night, in which the darkness was

augmented by a veil of the blackest clouds. The building we inhabited

was slight in its structure, and full of crevices through which the gale

found easy way, and whistled in a thousand cadences. On this night the

elemental music was remarkably sonorous, and was mingled not

unfrequently with ~~thunder heard remote~~.

I could not divest myself of secret dread. My heart faultered with a

consciousness of wrong. Heaven seemed to be present and to disapprove

my work; I listened to the thunder and the wind, as to the stern voice of

this disapprobation. Big drops stood on my forehead, and my tremors

almost incapacitated me from proceeding.

These impediments however I surmounted; I crept up stairs at

midnight, and entered my father's chamber. The darkness was intense

and I sought with outstretched hands for his bed. The darkness, added to

the trepidation of my thoughts, disabled me from making a right estimate

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MEMOIRSOFCARWINTHEBILOQUIST[Afragment]1MEMOIRSOFCARWINTHEBILOQUIST[Afragment]CharlesBrockdenBrownMEMOIRSOFCARWINTHEBILOQUIST[Afragment]2ChapterI.Iwasthesecondsonofafarmer,whoseplaceofresidencewasawesterndistrictofPennsylvania.Myeldestbrotherseemedfittedbynaturefortheemploymenttowhichhewasdestined.Hi...

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