"For myself, I cannot sleep," said he. "I have matters that itconcerns me to meditate upon. I will watch the fire, as I used to doin the old time.""And call the devil out of the furnace to keep you company, Isuppose," muttered Bartram, who had been making intimateacquaintance with the black bottle above-mentioned. "But watch, if youlike, and call as many devils as you like! For my part, I shall be allthe better for a snooze. Come, Joe!"As the boy followed his father into the hut, he looked back atthe wayfarer, and the tears came into his eyes, for his tenderspirit had an intuition of the bleak and terrible loneliness inwhich this man had enveloped himself.
When they had gone, Ethan Brand sat listening to the crackling ofthe kindled wood, and looking at the little spirts of fire that issuedthrough the chinks of the door. These trifles, however, once sofamiliar, had but the slightest hold of his attention, while deepwithin his mind he was reviewing the gradual but marvellous changethat had been wrought upon him by the search to which he had devotedhimself. He remembered how the night dew had fallen upon him- howthe dark forest had whispered to him- how the stars had gleamed uponhim- a simple and loving man, watching his fire in the years goneby, and ever musing as it burned. He remembered with whattenderness, with what love and sympathy for mankind, and what pity forhuman guilt and woe, he had first begun to contemplate those ideaswhich afterwards became the inspiration of his life; with whatreverence he had then looked into the heart of man, viewing it as atemple originally divine, and, however desecrated, still to be heldsacred by a brother; with what awful fear he had deprecated thesuccess of his pursuit, and prayed that the Unpardonable Sin mightnever be revealed to him. Then ensued that vast intellectualdevelopment, which, in its progress, disturbed the counterpoisebetween his mind and heart. The Idea that possessed his life hadoperated as a means of education; it had gone on cultivating hispowers to the highest point of which they were susceptible; it hadraised him from the level of an unlettered laborer to stand on astar-lit eminence, whither the philosophers of the earth, laden withthe lore of universities, might vainly strive to clamber after him. Somuch for the intellect! But where was the heart? That, indeed, hadwithered- had contracted- had hardened- had perished! It had ceased topartake of the universal throb. He had lost his hold of the magneticchain of humanity. He was no longer a brother-man, opening thechambers or the dungeons of our common nature by the key of holysympathy, which gave him a right to share in all its secrets; he wasnow a cold observer, looking on mankind as the subject of hisexperiment, and, at length, converting man and woman to be hispuppets, and pulling the wires that moved them to such degrees ofcrime as were demanded for his study.
Thus Ethan Brand became a fiend. He began to be so from themoment that his moral nature had ceased to keep the pace ofimprovement with his intellect. And now, as his highest effort andinevitable development- as the bright and gorgeous flower, and rich,delicious fruit of his life's labor- he had produced theUnpardonable Sin!
What more have I to seek? What more to achieve?" said Ethan Brandto himself. "My task is done, and well done!"Starting from the log with a certain alacrity in his gait, andascending the hillock of earth that was raised against the stonecircumference of the lime-kiln, he thus reached the top of thestructure. It was a space of perhaps ten feet across, from edge toedge, presenting a view of the upper surface of the immense mass ofbroken marble with which the kiln was heaped. All these innumerableblocks and fragments of marble were red-hot and vividly on fire,sending up great spouts of blue flame, which quivered aloft and dancedmadly, as within a magic circle, and sank and rose again, withcontinual and multitudinous activity. As the lonely man bent forwardover this terrible body of fire, the blasting heat smote up againsthis person with a breath that, it might be scorched and shrivelled himup in a moment.
Ethan Brand stood erect, and raised his arms on high. The blueflames played upon his face, and imparted the wild and ghastly lightwhich alone could have suited its expression; it was that of a fiendon the verge of plunging into his gulf of intensest torment.
"O Mother Earth," cried he, "who art no more my Mother, and intowhose bosom this frame shall never be resolved! O mankind, whosebrotherhood I have cast off, and trampled thy great heart beneath myfeet! O stars of heaven, that shone on me of old, as if to light meonward and upward!- farewell all, and forever. Come, deadly element ofFire- henceforth my familiar friend! Embrace me, as I do thee!"That night the sound of a fearful peal of laughter rolled heavilythrough the sleep of the lime-burner and his little son; dim shapes ofhorror and anguish haunted their dreams, and seemed still present inthe rude hovel, when they opened their eyes to the daylight.
