Lines Written on Reading a Celebrated Infidel Book

The reprinting of this pseudonymous poem (taking "Melville" as a nom de plume) in the Boston Recorder enables me to improve my earlier transcription with the correct reading "stoic sage" in the third line of the first stanza. Whoever wrote it, the speaker's bout with unbelief presents the quintessential Melvillean quandary. The figure of the stoic as a model of cold philosophical comfort adds a favorite device of Melville's to the familiar theme. The stoic figure seems all the more Melvillean when contrasted, as here in these 1838 "Lines," with the consoling promise of heaven. In Melville's religious epic Clarel (1876), the Anglican priest Derwent will invoke "The Stoic" to argue the same point in dialogue with the divinity student Clarel:

What if some camp on crags austere
The Stoic held ere Gospel cheer ?
There may the common herd abide,
Having dreamed of heaven? Nay, and can you?
--Herman Melville, Clarel 3.21 - In Confidence

First published in the Christian Watchman on March 2, 1838, the poetic "Lines" signed "Melville" were reprinted in the Boston Recorder for March 9, 1838. "Melville" also contributed the six-part essay on Missions to the Western Indians that appeared in the Christian Watchman between November 10, 1837 and July 13, 1838.

POETRY.
For the Watchman. 

LINES
WRITTEN ON READING A CELEBRATED INFIDEL BOOK. 

Well, be it thus;— renounce the page
   Which tells of brighter worlds on high;
Then rest content, as stoic sage,
   In gloomy doubt, to grope and die.
Shut out the light which shines from heaven;
   To boastful creed of reason keep;
Say brutish life to men is given,
   And death is but eternal sleep.

But leave thy neighbor’s spirit free,
   Nor, with rash hand, the hope destroy,—
Blest hope of immortality,
   Which all dilates the heart with joy;
Nor wake the peaceful dreamer thou,
   The bitter dregs of life to taste:
If vain the hopes which bind us now,
   O, let the sweet delusion last! 

If life a false speck can be shown,
   The ocean of eternity
Up from its heaving depth has thrown;
   If hapless man may never see
Aught when this anxious being dies,
   But sink to nothingness again,
As on the earth he shuts his eyes,
   O, let him wish and hope till then!

Go to the mother, as she gives
   Her first-born to the arms of death;—
How sinks her heart, which anguish rives
   Its chords to mark the final breath!
And wilt thou soothe her frenzied thought,
   With words of cold philosophy;
Or say the infant soul is nought,
   As her’s, anon, shall surely be?

Away, away, a voice within
   Gives thy vain sophistry the lie;
It pleads for that which is,—hath been,—
   And, all divine, can never die.
Hope, reason, Scripture,—all proclaim,
   To virtue’s ear, a nobler rest:
‘Tis writ, in characters of flame,
   On ev’ry heart, in ev’ry breast.

The holy light of day; the sun,
   Bright image of the Lord Supreme;
The clouds, the viewless wind; in one,
   All things which vast or lovely seem;
The hoary earth, the deep blue sea,
   Each with ecstatic life replete;
The thin, free air, o'er land and sea,
   Where nature’s subtler wonders meet;—

The sombre majesty of night,
   As o’er the pensive mind it steals;
The calm, bright moon, whose silver light
   In vain the fleecy cloud conceals;
The stars, so eloquent, which seem
   Of silent consciousness possest,
Which active fancy well might deem
   Kind heralds of the heavenly rest. 

Speak to the soul, and wake its glow,
   While the far-vault of heaven on high
Wide echoes to the deep below
   Its soft and sacred minstrelsy.
All mind, the universe, where’er
   A thought has ranged, or science trod,
With voice united, all declare
   A Spirit, and that Spirit’s God.     

MELVILLE.

Another poem by "Melville" in the Christian Watchman

This is a verse tribute to the memory of James Davis Knowles (1798-1838), American Baptist clergyman and journalist. Knowles founded the Christian Review and published memoirs of Ann H. Judson and Roger Williams. In 1825-1832 Knowles served as minister of the Second Baptist Church in Boston. Later he taught at the Baptist seminary in Newton, Massachusetts.  He died of small pox after a visit to New York in late April 1838.

• Bio of J. D. Knowles in the New American Encyclopedia

The poem on Knowles appeared on page 6 of the Christian Watchman for July 13, 1838; the final installment of Missions to the Western Indians, also signed "Melville," appeared on the front page of the same issue. 

So now we have "Melville"--that is, the American Baptist poet and advocate for Indians Melville--in Newton, Massachusetts on June 26, 1838. Let's open our bibles and check, where do we find Herman Melville on or about June 26, 1838?

"Nothing is known of his activities in June and July, but on August 1 he set out for Pittsfield again."  --William H. Gilman, Melville's Early Life and Redburn

"What Herman was doing remains a mystery."  --Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography V1.129

For the Watchman.
Stanzas to the Memory of the Rev. Prof. J. D. Knowles.

The sun has gained his fervid prime;
    The vernal tide again is flown;
But one, whose eye would bless such time,
    Is gone,—for Heaven has claimed its own.

But Heaven to death shall never give
    A triumph o’er th’ immortal mind;
And dear his memory shall live,
    In true and faithful breasts enshrined.

Kind was his heart; his love sincere,
    Enfolding all the race of man;
While charity, a fountain clear,
    Through all his life unfailing ran.

More blest than who, from sanguine fields,
    In triumph wears the laurel crown,
He left a name which grateful yields
    Such meed as peace delights to own.

On rayless minds he joyed to ope
    The holy gospel’s heavenly light;
And eloquent display the hope
    Which gilds the gloom of death’s dark night.

His fame let other days declcare,
    Whom friends deplore, and Zion weeps;
While love bedews the green turf where
    The husband and the father sleeps.

Sweet be that sleep!—Above his tomb,
    The willow’s pensive bough shall bend;
The tender flowers in beauty bloom,
    And angel-guards his rest defend.

Then rest thee thus, till time shall die,
    And heaven, all earth and nature lost,
Shall lift her golden portals high,
    To welcome in the ransomed host. 

Newton, June 26, 1838.     MELVILLE.

Related melvilliana post:

• Two poems by "Melville" in the Christian Watchman

Two poems by "Melville" in the Christian Watchman

1. From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, March 2, 1838; found in the online newspaper archives at GenealogyBank.

POETRY.

For the Watchman.

LINES
WRITTEN ON READING A CELEBRATED INFIDEL BOOK.

Well, be it thus;— renounce the page
    Which tells of brighter worlds on high;
Then rest content, as stoic sage,
    In gloomy doubt, to grope and die.
Shut out the light which shines from heaven;
    To boastful creed of reason keep;
Say brutish life to me is given,
    And death is but eternal sleep.

But leave thy neighbor’s spirit free,
    Nor, with rash hand, the hope destroy,—
Blest hope of immortality,
    Which all dilates the heart with joy;
Nor wake the peaceful dreamer thou,
    The bitter dregs of life to taste:
If vain the hopes which bind us now,
    O, let the sweet delusion last!

If life a false speck can be shown,
    The ocean of eternity
Up from its heaving depth has thrown;
    If hapless man may never see
Aught when this anxious being dies,
    But sink to nothingness again,
As on the earth he shuts his eyes,
    O, let him wish and hope till then!

Go to the mother, as she gives
    Her first-born to the arms of death;—
How sinks her heart, which anguish rives
    Its chords to mark the final breath!
And wilt thou soothe her frenzied thought,
    With words of cold philosophy;
Or say the infant soul is nought,
    As her’s, anon, shall surely be?

Away, away, a voice within
    Gives thy vain sophistry the lie;
It pleads for that which is,—hath been,—
    And, all divine, can never die.
Hope, reason, Scripture,—all proclaim,
    To virtue’s ear, a nobler rest:
‘Tis writ, in characters of flame,
    On ev’ry heart, in ev’ry breast.

The holy light of day; the sun,
    Bright image of the Lord Supreme;
The clouds, the viewless wind; in one,
    All things which vast or lovely seem;
The hoary earth, the deep blue sea,
    Where nature’s subtler wonders meet;—

The sombre majesty of night,
    As o’er the pensive mind it steals;
The calm, bright moon, whose silver light
    In vain the fleecy cloud conceals;
The stars, so eloquent, which seem
    Of silent consciousness possest,
Which active fancy well might deem
    Kind heralds of the heavenly rest. 

Speak to the soul, and wake its glow,
    While the far-vault of heaven on high
Wide echoes to the deep below
    Its soft and sacred minstrelsy.
All mind, the universe, where’er
    A thought has ranged, or science trod,
With voice united, all declare
    A Spirit, and that Spirit’s God.

MELVILLE.

2.  From the Christian Watchman, Wednesday, November 28, 1838:

For the Christian Watchman.

THANKSGIVING HYMN.

Eternal Parent! through whose care,
   Mercy and truth illume our days,
‘Tis fit the teeming year should bear
    To Thee the tribute of our praise;
For ev’ry gift which crowns the land
   Is dealt from thine all bounteous hand.

The vernal hope, the summer’s bloom,
    When Sol his warm effulgence pours,
The sterner day of winter’s gloom,
   Made bright with autumn’s golden stores,
Spring from the fountain of thy grace,
    To bless Thy sons of earthly race.

Then, while to hallowed fane resort
    Thy saints, to raise the sacred lay,
Grant we, within Thy holy court,
   May give a voice to praise to-day;
Here let the contrite prayer be blent
   With rolling anthem heavenward sent.

When, ere the genial day’s decline,
   We glad surround the festal board,
While friends and home their joys combine,
    To bless the season’s grateful hoard;
Thy goodness let our spirits know,
    And all our brethren prove it too.

Thus, blest by Thee, Almighty Lord,
    Whate’er Thy hand withholds or gives,
The hope of glory, through the Word,
    Shall cast its sun-shine o’er our lives;
Till Thou remove our souls above,
    In nobler strains, to sing Thy love.

MELVILLE.

What if some camp on crags austere
The Stoic held ere Gospel cheer ?
There may the common herd abide,
Having dreamed of heaven? Nay, and can you? 

--Herman Melville, Clarel 3.21 - In Confidence

"Melville" defends his favorable view of "Indian character"

The deportment of the whole Cherokee people throughout the transactions which have ended in their expulsion, exhibits a magnanimity which we fear will scarcely find a counterpart in the proceedings of the nation which compelled their removal.

CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.

In the Watchman of October 19, appeared a letter from a ‘missionary among the Indians,’ in one paragraph of which it was said that ‘Melville, a writer in the Ch. Watchman of Nov. 10, 1837,’ had ‘formed mistaken ideas of the Indian character.’ He adds, ‘Nor is he alone; such I presume is the general impression among those who have not had an opportunity to be among them.’ In proof of this first statement, the missionary who signs himself J. G. P., presents a quotation from the article of ‘Melville,’ which, he avers, represents the Indian character in a too favorable view, and in one which is totally opposed by the experience of himself and brethren among the native tribes.

The writer of the article to which J. G. P. refers, begs leave to state that his description was founded on testimony which he had the very best reasons to consider authentic, from authors whose well known character commands implicit belief to their statements. He relied also on the accounts of some acquaintances who had enjoyed opportunities to observe the Indian character; and he had himself seen cases which answered most happily to these representations. Neither can he readily believe that a nation like our own of proverbial acuteness, which has been in contact with the Indians these two-hundred years, and at war with them no small part of the time, can have invariably ascribed to the Indian character virtues which never existed there.— The deportment of the whole Cherokee people throughout the transactions which have ended in their expulsion, exhibits a magnanimity which we fear will scarcely find a counterpart in the proceedings of the nation which compelled their removal.

That virtues frequently appear in the Indian character, according to the common use of the term, he thinks will hardly be disputed; but he regrets to learn, what he readily admits to be true, that the observation of J. G. P., and other missionaries had ascertained them to be more rarely discoverable than the friends of this unfortunate race could desire. After all it must probably be conceded that the Indian is commonly much like other men—virtuous and happy with the gospel, degraded and wretched without it.

‘Melville’ begs that J. G. P. will do him the justice to believe that his stricture is received with the most unfeigned candor, since it appears to have been made in that spirit, and since he certainly desires to entertain upon this subject only the simple truth. It is his candid wish and prayer to Almighty God, that br. J. G. P. may experience the divine blessing in his labors; and he trusts that no one who feels an obligation to devote himself to the eternal interests of the Indians will be deterred by the consideration that their condition is less happy, and their spiritual wants even more imperative than they have usually been supposed to be.

MELVILLE.

 --From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, November 23, 1838; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank.

 Related melvilliana posts:

• Missions to the Western Indians No. 1 - Friday, November 10, 1837
• "Melville" on Missions to the Western Indians No. 2 - March 23, 1838.
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

Missions to the Western Indians by "Melville" - No. 6 of 6

From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, July 13, 1838; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank. 

For the Watchman.
Missions to the Western Indians.— No. 6.

We have now taken a brief survey of the location and general condition of the principal tribes. We have also looked across the Mississippi to the country which has been assigned to the Indians as their future home, where it is proposed to collect the forlorn remnants of these once powerful bands, with the professed hope that under more auspicious circumstances they may not only preserve an existence, but advance in temporal and moral prosperity. Let the Christian church see to it that wherever shall be their location they shall be affectionately proffered the hopes and blessings of the gospel.

And now, my dear reader, suffer me to press home to your heart and conscience the inquiry, what can you do for the unfortunate Indians? Your red brethren are immortal creatures, subject to the same moral laws, and amenable to the same tribunal with yourself. You are bound to do all in your power to give the gospel to all men. The Indian is your neighbor and your brother. He has been expelled from this country to make room for you in common with others,—from that country which now seems to deny him a place in which to rest his weary head. Will you not, then, be entreated to do your utmost, in person, or through the assisted agency of others, to point the wronged and unhappy outcast to a heavenly home, purchased by the atonement of the divine Saviour, whither the wounded and weary spirit may remove from the storms and calamities of life, and enter to go no more out forever?

There is one way, at least, in which you can enjoy the satisfaction of laboring for this people. It is by supplicating the throne of divine grace in their behalf. The thought of calling down a blessing on them by praying to Him who controls all human destinies and events, and who has therefore complete ability to grant our requests, is one which should inspire joy and gratitude in every pious heart. When, therefore, you are knelt before the altar of devotion to pray for yourself and your friends, let the case of the poor Indian find a place in your remembrance and your supplications.

If you feel a genuine interest for the welfare of this people, and if the providence of God may have favored you with the necessary means, you will scarcely need to be reminded of the duty of contributing to sustain the missionary operations of this department. Your assistance, in this sort, is needed, and your donations, if made from a right motive, may be an occasion of the triple benefit of spiritual comfort to yourself, lasting good to those whose welfare you contemplate, and honor to the cause of the Redeemer. How much you are to bestow in this department of Christian benevolence is not for me to say. I have always thought it an extremely delicate business for a second person to pronounce a decision on a case of this character. If you remember that you are but the steward of God, and under an obligation to honor him with your substance, you will, perhaps, after prayerful consideration, be your own best judge respecting your duty upon this subject. Be sure, however, to do what you can; and never allow yourself to be deterred from this by a vain regret that you can do no more.

Your influence over others may also be made to tell for the spiritual good of the Indians. By conversation, and other means, you may awaken an interest in some minds which have heretofore been indifferent to the subject; and some persons, aroused by your influence may hereafter be missionaries to the aboriginal tribes, or may render efficient aid to the cause in some other way. Be discreet, but diligent, in the use of this influence. Do your utmost to form in the church a sentiment which shall say to the missionaries, “Be encouraged to persevere, and to press forward in your efforts. Be assured that whatever aid is in our power to bestow shall be promptly and cheerfully rendered.— Trust in an omnipotent and gracious Providence; and do not relax your benevolent exertions.” But perhaps the Spirit and providence of God are calling you to engage personally in the work of the evangelization of the native tribes. If so, I trust you will not disregard the divine admonitions. Manifest your gratitude to God, and your love of his creatures by implicit obedience to his evident will. If you can be the instrument of spiritual good to the neglected Indian, your destiny is more to be envied than if you were the recipient of all the wealth, the honor, and the pleasures, which this deceitful world has to bestow; and you may be sure of finding the path of duty to be the path of happiness. Seriously inquire whether you have not a duty to perform in relation to this subject; and then act in view of your high obligations to your heavenly Father, and of the awards of eternity.

MELVILLE.

 Related melvilliana posts:

• Missions to the Western Indians No. 1 - Friday, November 10, 1837
• "Melville" on Missions to the Western Indians No. 2 - March 23, 1838.
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

Missions to the Western Indians by "Melville" - No. 5 of 6

From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, June 22, 1838; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank.

For the Watchman.
Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5.

The tract called the Indian or Western Territory, and, more recently, Neosho, which has been assigned as a residence for such of the Indians as may be removed from the States under the direction of the government, is situated between the States of Missouri, and Arkansas, and the Rocky Mountains. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to settle its boundaries, but no efforts have yet produced a final adjustment of them.

The general location of the territory, however, has been definitively settled; and though a formal proposition has been submitted to Congress, during the present session, greatly to extend the limits originally proposed, yet it will probably be considered expedient to adhere to the former arrangement, which furnishes nearly the following boundaries.— A small river, called the Puncah, from a tribe of Indians, forms the northern boundary, from the twenty-third degree of longitude, eastwardly, to where that river discharges its waters into the Missouri. The latter river bounds the Territory on the northeast, and on the east until we meet the western boundaries of Missouri and Arkansas. These states complete the eastern boundary. Red River is the boundary on the southern side, and separates the country from Texas. On the west, it is proposed to make the twenty-third degree of longitude the boundary. These limits will be seen to include a tract about six hundred miles in length, with an average width of about two hundred miles.

The country presents an aspect of great uniformity. It is mostly an elevated prairie, or a tract naturally destitute of wood. In some parts the land is uneven; but by far the greater portion is a plain with only occasional undulations. The soil is extremely fertile; the climate pleasant and healthful. From the extent and position of the country, however, a considerable variety of temperature must be observable in different sections; the northern part of the Territory being in nearly the same latitude with Massachusetts, and the southern with the Carolinas.

The Territory is well watered; being intersected by numerous rivers, creeks, and rivulets. It also affords extensive facilities for the manufacture of salt; and has mines of iron, lead, and coal. A scarcity of wood, in many parts of the Territory, is an apparent deficiency; but the supply is calculated to be adequate to the wants of the present, and one or two future generations. It has also been proved by experiment that the settlement of the country conduces to the growth of wood in the vicinity of the settlements. This seeming paradox is explained in the following manner. The great obstacle to the growth of wood is the annual fires, which sweep across the prairies, and consume the tender shrubs. In the case of settlements, the cattle of the Indian colonists, by devouring the dry grass which supports the fires, proportionably diminish its ravages. In these spots, trees arise, and grow with astonishing rapidity. The united testimony of the most intelligent persons, who have enjoyed opportunities for observation upon this subject, goes to prove that the scarcity of wood in the Territory is owing, not to any natural unadaptedness of the soil to the production of that article, for nowhere do trees, if unmolested, ascend with richer luxuriance, but to the fact alluded to above. When this inconvenience shall be obviated by the population of the country, it is reasonable to suppose that the forest and the coal-mine will each furnish its stores in such abundance as to preclude all fears of a destitution of fuel.

The grass which covers the prairies is, in many places, suitable for the scythe. Some parts of the country abound with excellent game, and are thus fitted to afford a ready subsistence to those tribes who are unaccustomed to the labors of the field, and ignorant of the arts of agriculture.

In the occupation of the lands, each emigrant tribe is to have a distinct portion assigned to it, and each of these districts is to be sufficiently extensive to afford the most ample accommodations to its inhabitants, to render the close neighborhood of two tribes unnecessary, and thus to avoid the principal occasions of those bloody and interminable wars, which, under ordinary circumstances, are so apt to occur between proximate tribes of hostile savages.

The expenses incurred in the removal of the tribes are to be borne by the United States. The Indians are furnished with provisions and necessaries for their journey, and assisted to locate themselves in their new possessions. Each tribe is to receive more or less from the United States in the form of annuities, the appointment and support of teachers, agricultural implements, the preparation of land for planting and sowing, the erection of grist mills and saw mills, and, in short, in the supply of whatever may seem necessary to their comfortable subsistence and residence in the Territory assigned them.

It is proposed to tender to the tribes a simple and practicable system of confederative government for the Territory. The following are the outlines of the proposed organization. “Delegates are to be chosen by the several tribes, to represent them in general council, once a year, or oftener, if necessary. The character of this council will be similar to that of the legislative council of one of our Territories. It will be competent to enact laws of a general nature for the Territory. These laws will take effect after they have been approved by the President of the United States. Each tribe will enact laws which relate merely to its own internal concerns; similar to the action of townships or of city corporations. The tribes thus confederated will choose a delegate, who must be an Indian, to represent them at the seat of government of the United States, during each session of Congress. He will be paid by the United States, and his compensation will be equal to that of a member of Congress. All civil offices, excepting two, which shall be created in the Territory by this organization, will be filled by Indians, if such be found competent to discharge the duties.”

Such are some of the general features of the natural condition and proposed civil organization of Neosho, or the Indian Territory. Assigned by the general government as the future home of the Indians, it possesses an interest for their friends in the United States, and in other places, and especially for those self-consecrated individuals who propose to spend their lives in efforts to dispense the blessings of Christianity to this unfortunate people.

MELVILLE.

Source of the quoted section (highlighted above) and most of the factual information is the Periodical Account of Baptist Missions for 1836, published in 1837 by frontier Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy.

So then. Our professedly Baptist writer, call him "Melville," likes to re-write his sources, and in revision introduces bits of his own such as "proved by experiment." Proved by experiment?!

Herman Melville, re-writing one of his whaling sources, William Scoresby or Desmoulins via Beale:

But more surprising is it to know, as has been proved by experiment, that the blood of a Polar whale is warmer than that of a Borneo negro in summer.  --Moby-Dick, The Blanket

My spell-check automatically underscored "proportionably" and "unadaptedness," neither in Isaac McCoy's 1837 publication.

Related melvilliana posts:

• Missions to the Western Indians No. 1 - Friday, November 10, 1837
• "Melville" on Missions to the Western Indians No. 2 - March 23, 1838.
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

Missions to the Western Indians by "Melville" - No. 4 of 6

From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, April 27, 1838; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank.

For the Watchman.
Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4.

The Seminoles are about four thousand in number. They occupy a tract on the western coast of the peninsula of Florida. This tribe is descended from another who were named Yemassees. They have made but small advances in civilization, and are extremely warlike.— About twenty-five years since, they became engaged in a war with the United States. The contest proved most disastrous to the Seminoles. The American troops under Gen. Jackson, drove them into the then Spanish towns of St. Marks and Pensacola, then taking possession of those places, held the fugitives completely in their power. Under these circumstances, the disheartened Indians accepted a proffered treaty of peace.

In 1835, arose a second war with the Seminoles. Their country had previously been ceded to the United States; and stipulations had been made for their removal to the Indian territory. Discontent subsequently arose, however, between the parties to this treaty, and the sparks of disaffection were soon fanned into a flame. Slaves belonging to the Florida planters escaped from their masters, and sought a refuge among the Seminoles. When the agents of the United States, in the name of the government, claimed the occupancy of the country, and the removal of the Indians, a violent spirit of resistance was instantly manifested. One of the principal chiefs having advised to yield to the demands of the United States, a number of his fellow chiefs sought his hut, and despatched him, sending each an arrow through his body.

The Seminoles immediately fled to arms. Troops from the United States were sent against them; but from the nature of the country the latter could contend with the Indians only at a tremendous disadvantage. Florida abounds in treacherous swamps and stagnant pools, which are thickly infested with noxious serpents and most troublesome insects. The Indians possessing an intimate acquaintance with the country, would frequently sally forth against the invading foe, and then retire to those swamps which were inaccessible to the foot of civilized man.

The war is still raging without a prospect of a speedy conclusion though the principal chiefs have been captured, and the Indians defeated in several engagements. The issue can only be known from the developments of the future. Under the present circumstances, it would necessarily be idle to speak of the Seminoles in Florida as the subjects of missionary labor. The Christian can only beseech Him who performs his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, to hush the commotions of war into the stillness and security of peace. It will then be more rational to hope that the benign influences of the gospel may be borne to the hearts of the degraded and unfortunate Seminoles.

MELVILLE.

 Related melvilliana posts:

• Missions to the Western Indians No. 1 - Friday, November 10, 1837
• "Melville" on Missions to the Western Indians No. 2 - March 23, 1838.
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

Missions to the Western Indians by "Mellville" - 1 of 6

Herman Melville we know was baptized and brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church of his mother and the Gansevoort clan. Herman's father and the Boston Melvilles were Unitarians. The writer of this 1837-8 series on "Missions to the Western Indians" seems happily Baptist and writes for a Baptist newspaper over the pseudonym "Melville" (here spelled with an extra "L," "MELLVILLE, later corrected to "MELVILLE")" So I don't suppose evangelizing MELVILLE of the Christian Watchman can really be farmhand-schoolteacher Herman Melville at the age of 18. For the sake of my own inner peace, however, I would prefer that this "MELLVILLE" (whoever he is) had not wished anything from his "inmost soul." Or generalized so favorably about the "strong affection" of the native people he is trying to describe. sense of honor? Forget about it...

From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts] Friday, November 10, 1837; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank.

For the Watchman.

MISSIONS TO THE WESTERN INDIANS.

It is a very proper subject of gratulation for every disciple of the Saviour that the spirit of missions appears to be gaining a steady prevalence over the minds of the Christian community. The church evinces at least a disposition to act upon the conviction that [a responsibility], of which she cannot divest herself, invokes her immediate attention to the spiritual wants of the heathen. The communicative and benevolent nature of her creed inspires her with zeal to transmit to the poor idolater, wherever he may be found, a sweet hope of immortality and blessedness, founded on the precious faith of the gospel.

It is devoutly to be hoped that the church may continue to indulge this spirit, and to obey its impulses, till she shall behold the accomplishment of her glorious object in the evangelization of the world.

A laudable zeal is manifested for the conversion of the heathen in Burmah and other countries of Asia. This is precisely as it should be. Let not our interest in Eastern missions, however, cause us to forget the claims of our unfortunate brethren at the West. The Indians of our own country, I conceive, have peculiar claims on our Christian sympathy. We possess the inheritance of their ancestors. They have permitted our countrymen to advance step by step, while themselves have receded farther and farther towards the setting sun.

It is touching to consider how rapidly this brave and unfortunate people are dwindling and perishing before the encroachments of the whites. The pleasant hills of our own New-England, where the forest delights us with its calm and somber aspect, or a view of the golden harvest soothes us into tranquility and satisfaction; and our picturesque valleys, with their neat and modest villages, where the murmur of industry is constantly heard, are now the principal objects which meet the eye, in the survey of a country which was once the undisputed domain of the red man. The former inhabitants have mingled their dust with the earth which we tread or withdrawn beyond the pale of civilization, into the rude fastnesses of the West.

Rev. Isaac M’Coy, of the Shawanoe Baptist Mission, who has consecrated himself, with praiseworthy devotion, to the welfare of the Indians, estimated the whole number in North America, in 1836, at four and a half millions; and those within the United States at three hundred and thirty-one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-seven. He ascertained the number of missionaries and assistants in the Indian Territory, at that time, to be eighty-two, of whom but twenty-two were Baptists. This fact affords our friends little reason for complacency in view of their past and present efforts for the Indians. Can the Baptist church furnish and sustain but a score of missionaries to these destitute tribes? Our denomination in the United States numbers nearly half a million. A comparison of these statistics will disclose the humiliating fact that we supply but a single missionary to more than fifteen thousand Indians.

I wish from my inmost soul the number of our missionaries to the Eastward might be increased an hundred fold. But it is to be observed that candidates for missionary labor have generally discovered a greater readiness to go to Burmah, or to some other of the Asiatic provinces, than to the forlorn tribes of our own frontiers. A state of things like this ought manifestly no longer to exist. A far greater share of attention and effort should be directed to the hapless survivors of the once powerful, the brave and interesting, but unfortunate people to whom we have referred. They are near our homes, and means expended for their benefit will go much farther than the same means appropriated to the distant idolaters of Asia. I trust I shall not be misapprehended. I desire not to be understood as saying that we should exert ourselves more to establish and sustain missions to the Indians than to convert the Burmese. I only mean to intimate that we should bestow greater attention than heretofore on missions to the former. We ought to do this and not leave the other undone.

Together with the blessing of God, which should be constantly invoked in the prosecution of this sacred enterprise, we want the men and the means. A requisition for the former must be made on the great body of our pious middle-aged and young men whom the Spirit and Providence of God may seem to designate for the work of evangelization, and especially on the pious members of our literary and theological institutions, together with those who have already received the advantages of these disciplinary establishments. Nor let the pious female consider herself excluded from this labor of love. A young lady with whom I was acquainted, after encountering and overcoming almost every conceivable disadvantage, in the ultimately successful pursuit of a respectable education, set out for one of our South-western States, selected a place for labor among the Indian inhabitants, I believe, and located herself there. The last I heard of her, she had a flourishing school of a hundred or more. I would here mention for the encouragement of some who may be destined to encounter similar trials, that this devoted young female, in addition to her other discouragements, was frequently met by coldness and incredulity, sometimes expressed in words, but more frequently exhibited in the plainer language of action, by not a few of her professedly Christian friends. But she did not waver and retire on account of their indifference; and in this she acted rightly. If we are to wait till our own hearts, the church, the world, and the devil, shall unite to countenance our benevolent efforts, we may as well fold our arms for the rest of our lives, at least, so far as it relates to any thing we might do in the cause of religion.

In conclusion, let me be permitted to say that I hope my youthful Christian friends will give this subject a candid and prayerful consideration. Let them seriously reflect whether the voice of Providence and of duty does not invite them to this sacred work. For the means to sustain them, they must rely on the blessing of God, and on the benevolence of the church. The Lord will smile on every disinterested effort to do good; and the church has certainly ample means, if they could be commanded. The country abounds in natural and commercial wealth; and it is but a comfortable maintenance that the missionaries would desire. This, under ordinary circumstances, would require but a small sum annually for each individual, as each would find it indispensable to use simplicity, industry and strict frugality, in this mode of life. The hundred thousand dollars which Madame Celeste gained with her heels, in this country, would support, for a year, a host of missionaries to the Indians. Most thankful should we be, if a tithe of this wasted wealth could be put into the missionary fund. But let not the parsimony of the church discourage those who burn with the spirit of evangelization. With unwavering resolution, let them proceed to the work. The shall find in the natives of our western wilds, a race possessing some of the noblest qualities which the fall of man has left to the world,—hospitality, generosity, strong affection, and a delicate sense of honor. Let the missionary, then, endeavor to impart to these children of nature that blessed gospel, which shall refine and crown all these estimable qualities. He shall assuredly find an inexhaustible fountain of consolation, and a sweet reward of his labor, in the consciousness of doing good, and in the beneficence of the Divine Being, who has promised that they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.

MELLVILLE.

“two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale”
--Moby-Dick

Related melvilliana posts:

• "Melville" on Missions to the Western Indians and a celebrated infidel book this post has #2 of 6 in the series, transcribed from the Christian Watchman for March 23, 1838.

I will try to give the rest of these as I can, with links eventually:

• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838 
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

"Melville" on "Missions to the Western Indians" and "a celebrated infidel book"

Communications to the Boston Christian Watchman signed "MELVILLE" appeared as early as 1828 ("Profitable Pleasure," March 7, 1828, commending the Solar Microscope to families with children) and 1833 (promoting "Wayland's Discourses," July 26, 1833). The numbered "Western Indians" series is more substantial and elaborately argued than anything previously by "MELVILLE" in the Baptist newspaper published by William Nichols and at that time edited by Ebenezer Thresher, then William Crowell. From the Christian Watchman [Boston, Massachusetts], Friday, March 23, 1838; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank.

Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 2.

It will readily be conceded by every person disposed to reason upon Christian principles, that the church is bound to prosecute, with resolute and unremitting energy, those measures which appear best adapted to spread the gospel through every country on the globe. But it would certainly seem that the claims of the Indian tribes upon the American church, for the light of divine truth, partake more of the nature of strict and imperative justice than any which can be preferred in behalf of another people. The nation is under a deep obligation to the race of red men for the soil of this country. Disguise it as we will, it was hard, on the part of the Indians, to be dispossessed of the territory in the manner they were; and that, too, by a people, whom they had received, on their first landing, as a handful of feeble and forlorn adventurers; and to whom they had manifested that spirit of kind hospitality which may exist as truly in a savage breast as in that of the most enlightened European.

There is something painful in the contemplation of this subject; even after all the mitigating circumstances connected with it has been explained and acknowledged. It has been gravely adduced in justification of Anglo-American rapacity, that the country being capable of affording sustenance to a far more dense population, might permit the expulsion of the former to make room for their civilized neighbors. If this argument proves any thing, it proves too much for ourselves. On the same principle, a deputation from the swarming hordes of China might land on the Atlantic coast and take possession of New England itself. A body of Irish emigrants direct from their over-peopled native island, where a family must contrive to subsist on the produce of half an acre, and pay an enormous rent besides, might prefer a similar and far more urgent claim to the country.

What has been done, however, cannot be undone. It would probably be impossible, and certainly inexpedient to reinstate the Indians in the country of their ancestors. No eligible course remains, therefore, but to hasten forward with promptness and alacrity to the discharge of the duties growing out of our present relations to the Aborigines without consuming time in unavailing regret for the past. The country is wide enough for both races. Let them maintain a friendly neighborhood, and dwell together as brethren. Our people are called to this duty, on their part, by every consideration which should influence a magnanimous and powerful nation, and, above all, by the spirit of that divine gospel which is tacitly recognized as the national faith.

The Christian church, too, owe it to themselves, to the missionaries whom they have dispatched to this field of labor, and to whom they have pledged their zealous and constant co-operation; to their peculiar relations and locality in respect to the Indians as a nation; and above all to their assured obligations of fidelity to the interests of the divine Saviour, in humble reliance on the efficacy of the Spirit to be dispensed from on high, to make a more general and vigorous effort to give the gospel to the Indian tribes, within the jurisdiction and neighborhood of the United States. Here is a great moral and religious enterprise, worthy of the most strenuous exertions and the most ardent prayers of Christian philanthropy. It is a work, too, which circumstances appear to have devolved exclusively upon American Christians. On the Eastern continent and on the Pacific Islands, England and Denmark may very properly divide with ourselves the field of missionary labor. It is not so in respect to the North American Indians; especially as it relates to the tribes inhabiting the territorial lands of the United States, or dwelling in the vicarage [vicinage] of our Western or Southern border.

MELVILLE.

The editorial correction to vicinage (meaning "vicinity") appeared in the Christian Watchman on March 30, 1838. Articles in the series on "Missions to the Western Indians" appeared over the signature "Melville" during 1837-8 in the Christian Watchman as follows:

• Missions to the Western Indians [unnumbered]. Christian Watchman, Friday, November 10, 1837
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 2. - Friday, March 23, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 3 - Wednesday, April 4, 1838 
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 4 [on the Seminoles] - Friday, April 27, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 5 - Friday, June 22, 1838
• Missions to the Western Indians.—No. 6 - Friday, July 13, 1838

On October 19, 1838 a missionary signing himself "J. G. P." wrote to correct "Melville's" benign view of Indian character, as presented in the first installment of "Missions to the Western Indians" on November 10, 1837. "Melville" had written that missionaries to the Indians

“shall find in the natives of our western wilds, a race possessing some of the noblest qualities which the fall of man has left to the world—hospitality, generosity, strong affection, and a delicate sense of honor. Let the missionary, then, endeavor to impart to these children of nature that blessed gospel, which shall refine and crown all these estimable qualities.”  --"Melville" in the Christian Watchman, November 10, 1837

"Melville" defended this view in a reply to J. G. P.,  published in the Christian Watchman November 23, 1838. Coincidentally, in his unsigned 1849 review of The Oregon Trail, Herman Melville would tangle with Francis Parkman over the same issue of Indian character. Also employing biblical references and evangelical rhetoric, Melville rebutted Parkman's negative stereotypes as follows:

It is too often the case, that civilized beings sojourning among savages soon come to regard them with disdain and contempt. But though in many cases this feeling is almost natural, it is not defensible; and it is wholly wrong. Why should we contemn them? Because we are better than they? Assuredly not; for herein we are rebuked by the story of the Publican and the Pharisee. Because, then, that in many things we are happier? But this should be ground for commiseration, not disdain. Xavier and Elliot despised not the savages; and had Newton or Milton dwelt among them they would not have done so. When we affect to contemn savages, we should remember that by so doing we asperse our own progenitors; for they were savages also. Who can swear, that among the naked British barbarians sent to Rome to be stared at more than 1500 years ago, the ancestor of Bacon might not have been found? Why, among the very Thugs of India, or the bloody Dyaks of Borneo, exists the germ of all that is intellectually elevated and grand. We are all of us—Anglo-Saxons, Dyaks, and Indians—sprung from one head, and made in one image. And if we regret this brotherhood now, we shall be forced to join hands hereafter. A misfortune is not a fault; and good luck is not meritorious. The savage is born a savage; and the civilized being but inherits his civilization, nothing more. Let us not disdain, then, but pity. And wherever we recognise the image of God, let us reverence it, though it hung from the gallows.  

--The Literary World, Volume 4 - March 31, 1849.

In September 1838 "Melville" wrote the Watchman from Union, Connecticut after attending a Sabbath-School convention in Pomfret on September 26, 1838. The letter from "Melville" closes with a reference to Israel Putnam and his legendary killing of the last wolf in Connecticut:

"God speed to our Connecticut brethren in their spirited enterprize; and from the town where Putnam killed the wolf, which was mentioned as the place of the proposed seminary, may an efficient influence go forth to tame down the fierce dispositions of men to the bland and amiable spirit of Christian virtue."

Poems by "Melville" in the Christian Watchman

• "LINES / WRITTEN ON READING A CELEBRATED INFIDEL BOOK." Friday, March 2, 1838

Christian Watchman / March 2, 1838

This "celebrated infidel book" sounds kind of like the unnamed one that troubled young Nathan in Herman Melville's long poem of spiritual questing, Clarel--especially since "Melville" identifies his book with the "boastful creed of reason." Melville scholar William Schurr in The Mystery of Iniquity identifies Nathan's volume as most likely "Paine's Age of Reason, or possibly Ethan Allan's Reason the Only Oracle of Man." And how about that prayer of "Melville" to preserve illusory hopes in the face of doubt:

"O, let the sweet delusion last!"

 whew! there's nothing more Melvillean than that.

"When now—enlightened, undeceived—
What gain I, barrenly bereaved!"  --After the Pleasure Party

In the same vein, "Nor wake the peaceful dreamer thou" is basically what Vine instructs a monk in the first part of Clarel, telling him not to wake up the sleeping Nehemiah:

... Spare to molest
Let this poor dreamer take his rest.  --Clarel Part 1 - Canto 30

On the other hand, you wouldn't expect to find Herman Melville in late September 1838 at a Baptist Sunday-school convention in Pomfret, Connecticut. Eh? Let's see, where was the young scamp (just 19), anyway? Uh-oh:

"There is no evidence as to where he was from mid-September until early November."
--Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography - Volume 1 page 132

• "THANKSGIVING HYMN." November 28, 1838. This is the last item signed "Melville" that I have been able to find so far in the Christian Watchman.