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    The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
    The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
    The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
    Ebook44 pages36 minutes

    The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")

    By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
    Author

    Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Born in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his historical tales and novels about American colonial society. After publishing The Scarlet Letter in 1850, its status as an instant bestseller allowed him to earn a living as a novelist. Full of dark romanticism, psychological complexity, symbolism, and cautionary tales, his work is still popular today. He has earned a place in history as one of the most distinguished American writers of the nineteenth century.

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      The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") - Nathaniel Hawthorne

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Banquet (From Mosses From An Old Manse), by Nathaniel Hawthorne

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Christmas Banquet (From Mosses From An Old Manse)

      Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

      Posting Date: December 8, 2010 [EBook #9228] Release Date: November, 2005 First Posted: September 6, 2003 Last Updated: February 6, 2007

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS BANQUET ***

      Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines.

      MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE

      By Nathaniel Hawthorne

      THE CHRISTMAS BANQUET

      [FROM THE UNPUBLISHED "ALLEGORIES OF THE HEART."]

      I have here attempted, said Roderick, unfolding a few sheets of manuscript, as he sat with Rosina and the sculptor in the summer-house,—I have attempted to seize hold of a personage who glides past me, occasionally, in my walk through life. My former sad experience, as you know, has gifted me with some degree of insight into the gloomy mysteries of the human heart, through which I have wandered like one astray in a dark cavern, with his torch fast flickering to extinction. But this man, this class of men, is a hopeless puzzle.

      Well, but propound him, said the sculptor. Let us have an idea of hint, to begin with.

      Why, indeed, replied Roderick, he is such a being as I could conceive you to carve out of marble, and some yet unrealized perfection of human science to endow with an exquisite mockery of intellect; but still there lacks the last inestimable touch of a divine Creator. He looks like a man; and, perchance, like a better specimen of man than you ordinarily meet. You might esteem him wise; he is capable of cultivation and refinement, and has at least an external conscience; but the demands that spirit makes upon spirit are precisely those to which he cannot respond. When at last you come close to him you find him chill and unsubstantial,—a mere vapor.

      I believe, said Rosina, I have a glimmering idea of what you mean.

      Then be thankful, answered her husband, smiling; but do not anticipate any further illumination from what I am about to read. I have here imagined such a man to be—what, probably, he never is—conscious of the deficiency in his spiritual organization. Methinks the result would be a sense of cold unreality wherewith he would go shivering through the world, longing to exchange his load of ice for any burden of real grief that fate could fling upon a human being.

      Contenting himself with this preface, Roderick began to read.

      In a certain old gentleman's last will and testament there appeared a bequest, which, as his final thought and deed, was singularly in keeping with a long life of melancholy eccentricity. He devised a considerable sum for establishing a fund, the interest

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