Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 by Various

V >> Various >> Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863

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On the first of March, 1856, the day of the inauguration of Beethoven's
statue, a subscription-paper was started, headed by Dr. Upham, for
raising the sum of ten thousand dollars. At a meeting in June the plan
was brought before the stockholders of the Music Hall, who unanimously
voted to appropriate ten thousand dollars and the proceeds of the old
organ, on condition that fifteen thousand dollars should be raised by
private subscription. In October it was reported to the Directors that
ten thousand dollars of this sum were already subscribed, and Dr. Upham,
President of the Board, pledged himself to raise the remainder on
certain conditions, which were accepted. He was then authorized to go
abroad to investigate the whole subject, with full powers to select the
builder and to make the necessary contracts.

Dr. Upham had already made an examination of the best organs and
organ-factories in New England, New York, and elsewhere in this country,
and received several specifications and plans from builders. He
proceeded at once, therefore, to Europe, examined the great English
instruments, made the acquaintance of Mr. Hopkins, the well-known
organist and recognized authority on all matters pertaining to the
instrument, and took lessons of him in order to know better the handling
of the keys and the resources of the instrument. In his company, Dr.
Upham examined some of the best instruments in London. He made many
excursions among the old churches of Sir Christopher Wren's building,
where are to be found the fine organs of "Father Smith," John Snetzler,
and other famous builders of the past. He visited the workshops of Hill,
Gray and Davidson, Willis, Robson, and others. He made a visit to Oxford
to examine the beautiful organ in Trinity College. He found his way into
the organ-lofts of St. Paul's, of Westminster Abbey, and the Temple
Church, during the playing at morning and evening service. He inspected
Thompson's _enharmonic_ organ, and obtained models of various portions
of organ-structure.

From London Dr. Upham went to Holland, where he visited the famous
instruments at Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, and the organ-factory
at Utrecht, the largest and best in Holland. Thence to Cologne, where,
as well as at Utrecht, he obtained plans and schemes of instruments; to
Hamburg, where are fine old organs, some of them built two or three
centuries ago; to Lubeck, Dresden, Breslau, Leipsic, Halle, Merseburg.
Here he found a splendid organ, built by Ladergast, whose instruments
excel especially in their tone-effects. A letter from Liszt, the
renowned pianist, recommended this builder particularly to Dr. Upham's
choice. At Frankfort and at Stuttgart he found two magnificent
instruments, built by Walcker of Ludwigsburg, to which place he repaired
in order to examine his factories carefully, for the second time. Thence
the musical tourist proceeded to Ulm, where is the sumptuous organ, the
work of the same builder, ranking, we believe, first in point of
dimensions of all in the world. Onward still, to Munich, Bamberg,
Augsburg, Nuremberg, along the Lake of Constance to Weingarten, where is
that great organ claiming to have sixty-six stops and six thousand six
hundred and sixty-six pipes; to Freyburg, in Switzerland, where is
another great organ, noted for the rare beauty of its _vox-humana_ stop,
the mechanism of which had been specially studied by Mr. Walcker, who
explained it to Dr. Upham.

Returning to Ludwigsburg, Dr. Upham received another specification from
Mr. Walcker. He then passed some time at Frankfort examining the
specifications already received and the additional ones which came to
him while there.

At last, by the process of exclusion, the choice was narrowed down to
three names, Schultze, Ladergast, and Walcker, then to the two last.
There was still a difficulty in deciding between these. Dr. Upham called
in Mr. Walcker's partner and son, who explained every point on which he
questioned them with the utmost minuteness. Still undecided, he
revisited Merseburg and Weissenfels, to give Ladergast's instruments
another trial. The result was that he asked Mr. Walcker for a third
specification, with certain additions and alterations which he named.
This he received, and finally decided in his favor,--but with the
condition that Mr. Walcker should meet him in Paris for the purpose of
examining the French organs with reference to any excellences of which
he might avail himself, and afterwards proceed to London and inspect the
English instruments with the same object.

The details of this joint tour are very interesting, but we have not
space for them. The frank enthusiasm with which the great German
organ-builder was received in France contrasted forcibly with the
quiet, not to say cool, way in which the insular craftsmen received him,
gradually, however, warming, and at last, with a certain degree of
effort, admitting him to their confidence.

A fortnight was spent by Dr. Upham in company with Walcker and Mr.
Hopkins in studying and perfecting the specification, which was at last
signed in German and English, and stamped with the notarial seal, and
thus the contract made binding.

A long correspondence relating to the instrument followed between Dr.
Upham, the builder, and Mr. Hopkins, ending only with the shipment of
the instrument. A most interesting part of this was Dr. Upham's account
of his numerous original experiments with the natural larynx, made with
reference to determining the conditions requisite for the successful
imitation of the human voice in the arrangement called _vox humana_. Mr.
Walcker has availed himself of the results of these experiments in the
stop as made for this organ, but with what success we are unable to say,
as the pipes have not been set in place at the time of our writing. As
there is always great curiosity to hear this particular stop, we will
guard our readers against disappointment by quoting a few remarks about
that of the Haarlem organ, made by the liveliest of musical writers, Dr.
Burney.

"As to the _vox humana_, which is so celebrated, it does not at all
resemble a human voice, though a very good stop of the kind; but the
world is very apt to be imposed upon by names; the instant a common
hearer is told that an organist is playing upon a stop which resembles
the human voice, he supposes it to be very fine, and never inquires into
the propriety of the name, or exactness of the imitation. However, with
respect to our own feelings, we must confess, that, of all the stops
which we have yet heard, that have been honored with the appellation of
_vox humana_, no one in the treble part has ever reminded us of anything
human, so much as the cracked voice of an old woman of ninety, or, in
the lower parts, of Punch singing through a comb." Let us hope that this
most irreverent description will not apply to the _vox humana_ of our
instrument, after all the science and skill that have been expended upon
it. Should it prove a success like that of the Freyburg organ, there
will be pilgrimages from the shores of the Pacific and the other side of
the Atlantic to listen to the organ that can _sing_: and what can be a
more miraculous triumph of art than to cheat the ear with such an
enchanting delusion?

Before the organ could be accepted, it was required by the terms of the
contract to be set up at the factory, and tested by three persons: one
to be selected by the Organ Committee of the Music-Hall Association, one
by the builder, and a third to be chosen by them. Having been approved
by these judges, and also by the State-Commissioner of Wuertemberg,
according to the State ordinance, the result of the trial was
transmitted to the President and Directors of the Music-Hall
Association, and the organ was accepted.

The war broke out in the mean time, and there were fears lest the vessel
in which the instrument might be shipped should fall a victim to some of
the British corsairs sailing under Confederate colors. But the Dutch
brig "Presto," though slow, was safe from the licensed pirates, unless
an organ could be shown to be contraband of war. She was out so long,
however,--nearly three months from Rotterdam,--that the insurance-office
presidents shook their heads over her, fearing that she had gone down
with all her precious freight.

"At length," to borrow Dr. Upham's words, "one stormy Sunday in March
she was telegraphed from the marine station down in the bay, and the
next morning, among the marine intelligence, in the smallest possible
type, might be read the invoice of her cargo thus:--

"'Sunday Mar. 22

"'Arr. Dutch brig Presto, Van Wyngarten, Rotterdam, Jan. 1.
Helvoet, 10th Had terrific gales from SW the greater part of the
passage. 40 casks gin JD & M Williams 8 sheep Chenery & Co 200
bags coffee 2 casks herrings 1 case cheese W. Winsel 1 organ JB
Upham 20 pipes 6 casks gin JD Richards 6 casks nutmegs J Schumaker
20 do gin 500 bags chickory root Order,' etc., etc.

"And this was the heralding of this greatest marvel of a high and noble
art, after the labor of seven years bestowed upon it, having been tried
and pronounced complete by the most fastidious and competent of critics,
the wonder and admiration of music-loving Germany, the pride of
Wuertemberg, bringing a new phase of civilization to our shores in the
darkest hour of our country's trouble."

It remains to give a brief history of the construction of the grand and
imposing architectural frame which we have already attempted to
describe. Many organ-fronts were examined with reference to their
effects, during Dr. Upham's visits of which we have traced the course,
and photographs and sketches obtained for the same purpose. On
returning, the task of procuring a fitting plan was immediately
undertaken. We need not detail the long series of trials which were
necessary before the requirements of the President and Directors of the
Music-Hall Association were fully satisfied. As the result of these, it
was decided that the work should be committed to the brothers Herter, of
New York, European artists, educated at the Royal Academy of Art in
Stuttgart. The general outline of the _facade_ followed a design made by
Mr. Hammatt Billings, to whom also are due the drawings from which the
Saint Cecilia and the two groups of cherubs upon the round towers were
modelled. These figures were executed at Stuttgart; the other carvings
were all done in New York, under Mr. Herter's direction, by Italian and
German artists, one of whom had trained his powers particularly to the
shaping of colossal figures. In the course of the work, one of the
brothers Herter visited Ludwigsburg for the special purpose of comparing
his plans with the structure to which they were to be adapted, and was
received with enthusiasm, the design for the front being greatly
admired.

The contract was made with Mr. Herter in April, 1860, and the work,
having been accepted, was sent to Boston during the last winter, and
safely stored in the lecture-room beneath the Music Hall. In March the
_Great Work_ arrived from Germany, and was stored in the hall above.

"The seven-years' task is done,--the danger from flood and fire so far
escaped,--the gantlet of the pirates safely run,--the perils of the sea
and the rail surmounted by _the good Providence of God_."

The devout gratitude of the President of the Association, under whose
auspices this great undertaking has been successfully carried through,
will be shared by all lovers of Art and all the friends of American
civilization and culture. We cannot naturalize the Old-World cathedrals,
for they were the architectural embodiment of a form of worship
belonging to other ages and differently educated races. But the organ
was only lent to human priesthoods for their masses and requiems; it
belongs to Art, a religion of which God himself appoints the
high-priests. At first it appears almost a violence to transplant it
from those awful sanctuaries, out of whose arches its forms seemed to
grow, and whose echoes seemed to hold converse with it, into our gay and
gilded halls, to utter its majestic voice before the promiscuous
multitude. Our hasty impression is a wrong one. We have undertaken, for
the first time in the world's history, to educate a nation. To teach a
people to know the Creator in His glorious manifestations through the
wondrous living organs is a task for which no implement of human
fabrication is too sacred; for all true culture is a form of worship,
and to every rightly ordered mind a setting forth of the Divine glory.

This consummate work of science and skill reaches us in the midst of the
discordant sounds of war, the prelude of that blessed harmony which will
come whenever the jarring organ of the State has learned once more to
obey its keys.

God grant that the _Miserere_ of a people in its anguish may soon be
followed by the _Te Deum_ of a redeemed Nation!

* * * * *

THE KING'S WINE.

The small green grapes in countless clusters grew,
Feeding on mystic moonlight and white dew
And mellow sunshine, the long summer through:

Till, with blind motion in her veins, the Vine
Felt the delicious pulses of the wine,
And the grapes ripened in the year's decline.

And day by day the Virgins watched their charge;
And when, at last, beyond the horizon's marge
The harvest-moon dropt beautiful and large,

The subtile spirit in the grape was caught,
And to the slowly dying Monarch brought
In a great cup fantastically wrought,

Whereof he drank; then straightway from his brain
Went the weird malady, and once again
He walked the Palace free of scar or pain,--

But strangely changed, for somehow he had lost
Body and voice: the courtiers, as he crost
The royal chambers, whispered,--"_The King's Ghost_!"

* * * * *

MONOGRAPH FROM AN OLD NOTE-BOOK; WITH A POSTSCRIPT.

"ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN, SCEPTRUMQUE TYRANNIS."

In a famous speech, made in the House of Lords, March 16, 1838, against
the Eastern slave-trade, Lord Brougham arrests the current of his
eloquence by the following illustrative diversion:--

"I have often heard it disputed among critics, which of all quotations
was the most appropriate, the most closely applicable to the
subject-matter illustrated; _and the palm in generally awarded to that
which applied to Dr. Franklin the line in Claudian_,--

'Eripuit fulmen coelo, mox sceptra tyrannis';

yet still there is a difference of opinion, and even that citation,
admirably close as it is, has rivals."

The British orator errs in attributing this remarkable verse to
Claudian; and he errs also in the language of the verse itself, which he
fails to quote with entire accuracy. And this double mistake becomes
more noticeable, when it appears not merely in the contemporary report,
but in the carefully prepared collection of speeches, revised at
leisure, and preserved in permanent volumes.[6]

The beauty of this verse, even in its least accurate form, will not be
questioned, especially as applied to Franklin, who, before the American
Revolution, in which it was his fortune to perform so illustrious a
part, had already awakened the world's admiration by drawing the
lightning from the skies. But beyond its acknowledged beauty, this verse
has an historic interest which has never been adequately appreciated.
Appearing at the moment it did, it is closely associated with the
acknowledgment of American Independence. Plainly interpreted, it calls
George III. "tyrant," and announces that the sceptre has been snatched
from his hands. It was a happy ally to Franklin in France, and has ever
since been an inspiring voice. Latterly it has been adopted by the city
of Boston, and engraved on granite in letters of gold,--in honor of its
greatest child and citizen. It may not be entirely superfluous to
recount the history of a verse which has justly attracted so much
attention, and which, in the history of civilization, has been of more
value than the whole State of South Carolina.

From its first application to Franklin, this verse has excited something
more than curiosity. Lord Brougham tells us that it is often discussed
in private circles. There is other evidence of the interest it has
created. For instance, in an early number of "Notes and Queries"[7]
there is the following inquiry:--

"Can you tell me who wrote the line on Franklin, '_Eripuit_,'etc.?

"HENRY H. BREEN.

"_St. Lucia_."

A subsequent writer in this same work, after calling the verse "a
parody" of a certain line of antiquity, says,--"I am unable to say who
adapted these words to Franklin's career. Was it Condorcet?"[8] Another
writer in the same work says,--"The inscription was written by
Mirabeau."[9]

I remember well a social entertainment in Boston, where a most
distinguished scholar of our country, in reply to an inquiry made at the
table, said that the verse was founded on the following line from the
"Astronomicon"[10] of Manilius,--

"Eripuit Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi."

John Quincy Adams, who was present, seemed to concur. Mr. Sparks, in his
notes to the correspondence of Franklin, attributes it to the same
origin.[11] But there are other places where its origin is traced with
more precision. One of the correspondents of "Notes and Queries" says
that he has read, but does not remember where, "that this line was
_immediately_ taken from one in the 'Anti-Lucretius' of Cardinal
Polignac."[12] Another correspondent shows the intermediate
authority.[13] My own notes were originally made without any knowledge
of these studies, which, while fixing its literary origin, fail to
exhibit the true character of the verse, both in its meaning and in the
time when it was uttered.

The verse cannot be found in any ancient writer,--not Claudian or
anybody else. It is clear that it does not come from antiquity, unless
indirectly; nor does it appear that at the time of its first production
it was in any way referred to any ancient writer. Manilius was not
mentioned. The verse is of modern invention, and was composed after the
arrival of Franklin in Paris on his eventful mission. At first it was
anonymous; but it was attributed sometimes to D'Alembert and sometimes
to Turgot. Beyond question, it was not the production of D'Alembert,
while it will be found in the Works of Turgot,[14] published after his
death, in the following form:--

"Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."

There is no explanation by the editor of the circumstances under which
the verse was written; but it is given among poetical miscellanies of
the author, immediately after a translation into French of Pope's "Essay
on Man," and is entitled "Inscription for a Portrait of Benjamin
Franklin." It appears that Turgot also tried his hand in these French
verses, having the same idea:--

"Le voila ce mortel dont l'heureuse industrie
Sut enchainer la Foudre et lui donner des loix,
Dont la sagesse active et l'eloquente voix
D'un pouvoir oppresseur affranchit sa Patrie,
Qui desarma les Dieux, qui reprime les Rois."

The single Latin verse is a marvellous substitute for these diffuse and
feeble lines.

If there were any doubt upon its authorship, it would be removed by the
positive statement of Condorcet, who, in his Life of Turgot, written
shortly after the death of this great man, says, "There is known from
Turgot but one Latin verse, designed for a portrait of Franklin";[15]
and he gives the verse in this form:--

"Eripuit coelo fulmen, mox sceptra tyrannis."

But Sparks and Mignet, in their biographies,[16] and so also both the
biographical dictionaries of France,--that of Michaud and that of
Didot,--while ascribing the verse to Turgot, concur in the form already
quoted from Turgot's Works, which was likewise adopted by Ginguene, the
scholar who has done so much to illustrate Italian literature, on the
title-page of his "Science du Bon-Homme Richard," with an abridged Life
of Franklin, in 1794, and by Cabanis, who lived in such intimacy with
Franklin.[17] It cannot be doubted that it was the final form which this
verse assumed,--as it is unquestionably the best.

To appreciate the importance of this verse, as marking and helping a
great epoch, there are certain dates which must not be forgotten.
Franklin reached Paris on his mission towards the close of 1776. He had
already signed the Declaration of Independence, and his present duty was
to obtain the recognition of France for the new power. The very clever
Madame Du Deffant, in her amusing correspondence with Horace Walpole,
describes him in a visit to her "with his fur cap on his head and his
spectacles on his nose," in the same small circle with Madame de
Luxembourg, a great lady of the time, and the Duke de Choiseul, late
Prime-Minister. This was on the thirty-first of December, 1776.[18] A
pretty good beginning. More than a year of effort and anxiety ensued,
brightened at last by the news that Burgoyne had surrendered at
Saratoga. On the sixth of February, 1778, the work of the American
Plenipotentiary was crowned by the signature of the two Treaties of
Alliance and Commerce by which France acknowledged our Independence and
pledged her belligerent support. On the fifteenth of March, one of these
treaties, with a diplomatic note announcing that the Colonies were free
and independent States, was communicated to the British Government, at
London, which was promptly encountered by a declaration of war from
Great Britain. On the twenty-second of March, Franklin was received by
the King at Versailles, and this remarkable scene is described by the
same feminine pen to which we are indebted for the early glimpse of him
on his arrival in Paris.[19] But throughout this intervening period he
had not lived unknown. Indeed, he had become at once a celebrity.
Lacretelle, the eminent French historian, says, "By the effect which
Franklin produced, he appears to have fulfilled his mission, not with a
court, but with a free people. His virtues and renown negotiated for
him."[20]

Condorcet, who was a part of that intellectual society which welcomed
the new Plenipotentiary, has left a record of his reception. "The
celebrity of Franklin in the sciences," he says, "gave him the
friendship of all who love or cultivate them, that is, of all who exert
a real and durable influence upon public opinion. At his arrival he
became an object of veneration to all enlightened men, and of curiosity
to others. He submitted to this curiosity with the natural facility of
his character, and with the conviction that in this way he served the
cause of his country. It was an honor to have seen him. People repeated
what they had heard him say. Every _fete_ which he consented to receive,
every house where he consented to go, spread in society new admirers,
_who became so many partisans of the American Revolution_.... Men whom
the works of philosophy had disposed secretly to the love of liberty
were impassioned for that of a strange people. A general cry was soon
raised in favor of the American War, and the friends of peace dared not
even complain that peace was sacrificed to the cause of liberty."[21]
This is an animated picture by an eye-witness. But all authorities
concur in its truthfulness. Even Capefigue--whose business is to
belittle all that is truly great, and especially to efface those names
which are associated with human liberty, while, like another Old
Mortality, he furbishes the tombstones of royal mistresses--is yet
constrained to bear witness to the popularity and influence which
Franklin achieved. The critic dwells on what he styles his "Quaker
garb," "his linen so white under clothes so brown," and also the
elaborate art of the philosopher, who understood France and knew well
"that a popular man became soon more powerful than power itself"; but he
cannot deny that the philosopher "fulfilled his duties with great
superiority," or that he became at once famous.[22]

The arrival of Franklin was followed very soon by the departure of the
youthful Lafayette, who crossed the sea to offer his generous sword to
the service of American liberty. Our cause was now widely known. In the
thronged _cafes_ and the places of public resort it was discussed with
sympathy and admiration.[23] And so completely was Franklin recognized
as the representative of new ideas, that the Emperor Joseph II. of
Austria,--professed reformer as he was,--on one of his visits to France
under the travelling-name of Count Falkenstein, is reported to have
firmly avoided all temptation to see him, saying, "My business is to be
a Royalist,"--thus doing homage to the real character of Franklin, in
whom the Republic was personified.

Franklin was at once, by natural attraction, the welcome guest of that
brilliant company of philosophers who exercised such influence over the
eighteenth century. The "Encyclopedie" was their work, and they were
masters at the Academy. He was received into their guild. At the famous
table of the Baron D'Holbach, where twice a week, Sunday and Thursday,
at dinner, lasting from two till seven o'clock, the wits of that time
were gathered, he found a hospitable chair. But he was most at home with
Madame Helvetius, the widow of the rich and handsome philosopher, whose
name, derived from Holland, is now almost unknown. At her house he met
in social familiarity D'Alembert, Diderot, D'Holbach, Morellet, Cabanis,
and Condorcet, with their compeers. There, also, was Turgot, the
greatest of all. There was another person in some respects as famous as
any of these, but leading a very different life, whom Franklin saw
often,--I refer to Caron de Beaumarchais, the author already of the
"Barbier de Seville," as he was afterwards of the "Mariage de Figaro,"
who, turning aside from an unsurpassed success at the theatre, exerted
his peculiar genius to enlist the French Government on the side of the
struggling Colonies, predicted their triumph, and at last, under the
assumed name of a mercantile house, became the agent of the Comte de
Vergennes in furnishing clandestine supplies of arms even before the
recognition of Independence. It is supposed that through this popular
dramatist Franklin maintained communications with the French Government
until the mask was thrown aside.[24]

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