FRAGMENTS Mr. Longfellow occasionally jotted down in his journal verses which reflected the mood of the hour or caught some passing thought or sentiment. The following are taken from their place in the published Life, with the dates of their entry. October 22, 1838. NEGLECTED record of a mind neglected, August 18, 1847. O faithful, indefatigable tides, That evermore upon God's errands go, Now seaward bearing tidings of the land, To reach your journey's end, which being done December 18, 1847. Soft through the silent air descend the feathery snow-flakes; White are the distant hills, white are the neighboring fields; Only the marshes are brown, and the river rolling among them Weareth the leaden hue seen in the eyes of the blind. August 4, 1856. A lovely morning, without the glare of the sun, the sea in great commotion, chafing and foaming. So from the bosom of darkness our days come roaring and gleaming, Chafe and break into foam, sink into darkness again. But on the shores of Time each leaves some trace of its passage, Though the succeeding wave washes it out from the sand. Page 20. NOTES That of our vices we can frame A ladder. The words of St. Augustine are, "De vitiis nostris scalam nobis facimus, si vitia ipsa calcamus.". Ascensione. Page 22. In Mather's Magnalia Christi. Sermon III. De [The passage in Mather upon which the poem is based is found in Book I. chapter vi., and is in the form of a letter to Mather from the Rev. James Pierpont, Pastor of New Haven, as follows: "In compliance with your desires, I now give you the relation of that apparition of a ship in the air, which I have received from the most credible, judicious and curious surviving observers of it. "In the year 1647, besides much other lading, a far more rich treasure of passengers, (five or six of which were persons of chief note and worth in New-Haven) put themselves on board a new ship, built at Rhode-Island, of about 150 tuns ; but so walty, that the master, (Lamberton) often said she would prove their grave. In the month of January, cutting their way through much ice, on which they were accompanied with the Reverend Mr. Davenport, besides many other friends, with many fears, as well as prayers and tears, they set sail. Mr. Davenport in prayer with an observable emphasis used these words, Lord, if it be thy pleasure to bury these our friends in the bottom of the sea, they are thine; save them! The spring following, no tidings of these friends arrived with the ships from England: New-Haven's heart began to fail her: this put the godly people on much prayer, both publick and private, that the Lord would (if it was his pleasure) let them hear what he had done with their dear friends, and prepare them with a suitable submission to his Holy Will. In June next ensuing, a great thunder-storm arose out of the north-west; after which (the hemisphere being serene) about an hour before sun-set a SHIP of like dimensions with the aforesaid, with her canvass and colours abroad (though the wind northernly) appeared in the air coming up from our harbour's mouth, which lyes southward from the town, seemingly with her sails filled under a fresh gale, holding her course north, and continuing under observation, sailing against the wind for the space of half an hour. 66 "Many were drawn to behold this great work of God; yea, the very children cryed out, There's a brave ship! At length, crouding up as far as there is usually water sufficient for such a vessel, and so near some of the spectators, as that they imagined a man might hurl a stone on board her, her main-top seemed to be blown off, but left hanging in the shrouds; then her missen-top; then all her masting seemed blown away by the board; quickly after the hulk brought unto a careen, she over set, and so vanished into a smoaky cloud, which in some time dissipated, leaving, as every where else, a clear air. The admiring spectators could distinguish the several colours of each part, the principal rigging, and such proportions, as caused not only the generality of persons to say, This was the mould of their ship, and thus was her tragick end: but Mr. Davenport also in publick declared to this effect, That God had condescended, for the quieting of their afflicted spirits, this extraordinary account of his sovereign disposal of those for whom so many fervent prayers were made continually." To which Cotton Mather adds: “Reader, there being yet living so many credible gentlemen, that were eye-witnesses of this wonderful thing, I venture to publish it for a thing undoubted, as 't is wonderful.”] Page 29. And the Emperor but a Macho. Macho, in Spanish, signifies a mule. Golondrina is the feminine form for Golondrino, a swallow, and also a cant name for a deserter. Page 36. OLIVER BASSELIN. Oliver Basselin, the "Père joyeux du Vaudeville," flour ished in the fifteenth century, and gave to his convivial songs the name of his native valleys, in which he sang them, Vaux-de-Vire. This name was afterwards corrupted into the modern Vaudeville. Page 42. And a verse of a Lapland song. [John Scheffer, in his The History of Lapland, published at Oxford, 1674, gives some specimens of Lapp lyric verse, with translations, in one of which are the lines :— Page 43. A youth's desire is the desire of wind, All his essaies Are long delaies, No issue can they find.] I remember the sea-fight far away. This was the engagement between the Enterprise and Boxer off the harbor of Portland, in' which both captains were slain. They were buried side by side in the cemetery on Mountjoy. [The fight took place in 1813. The Enterprise was an American brig, the Boxer an English one. The fight, which could be seen from the shore, lasted for three quarters of an hour, when the Enterprise came into the harbor, bringing her captive with her.] Page 53. The palm, the lily, and the spear. "At Pisa the church of San Francisco contains a chapel dedicated lately to Santa Filomena; over the altar is a picture, by Sabatelli, representing the Saint as a beautiful, nymph-like figure, floating down from heaven, attended by two angels bearing the lily, palm, and javelin, and beneath, in the foreground, the sick and maimed, who are healed by her intercession."- Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, II. 298. Page 62. Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer. ["Rabbi Eliezer hath said: "There is an Angel who standeth on earth and reacheth with his head to the door of Heaven. It is taught in the Mishna that he is called Sandalphon."" "There are three [angels] who weave or make garlands out of the prayers of the Israelites the third is Sandal phon." "There be Angels which are of Wind and there be Angels which are of Fire." |