Home scenes and heart studies

Front matter

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Preface

(Camilla Toulmin) ; to these kind and considerate friends my daughter had opportunities during life of expressing her grateful thanks.

The Works of Grace Aguilar are now before the public — the present volume being the conclusion of a series in which the delineation of the Character of AYoman has been the chief design. The wishes of the author of “The Women of Israel” will be fulfilled, should the unceasing labours of a life, too early closed, awaken sentiments of pure affection, and illustrate by example the delights of Home.

SARAH AGUILAR.

October ^ 1852

Contents

The Stone-cutter’s Boy of Possagno .

A METE AND YaFEII

’’"^^The Edict: a Tale of 1492

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HOME SCENES AND HEAHT STUDIES.

Chapter I

Leading out of one of those close, melancholy alleys in the environs of Liverpool was a small cottage, possessing little of comfort or beauty in outward appearance, but much in the interior in favour of its inhabitants ; cleanliness and neatness were clearly visible, greatly in contradistinction to the neighbouring dwellings. There were no heaps of dirt and halfburnt ashes, no broken or even cracked panes in the brightly shining windows, not a grain of unseemly dust or stains either on door or ledge, — so that even poverty itself looked respectable. The cottage stood apart from the others, with a good piece of ground for a garden, which, stretching from the back, led through a narrow lane, to the banks of the Mersey, and thus permitted a fresher current of air. The garden was carefully and prettily laid out, and planted with the sweetest flowers ; the small parlour and kitchen of the cottage opened into it, and so, greatly to the disappointment and vexation of the gossips of the alley, nothing could be gleaned of the sayings and doings of its inmates. Within the cottage the same refinement was visible ; the furniture, though old and poor, was always clean and neatly arranged. The Mezzuzot (Deut. vi. 9, 20) were carefully secured to every doorpost, and altogether there was an indescribable something pervading the dwelling, that in the very midst of present poverty seemed to tell of former and more prosperous days.

Simeon and Rachel Perez had married with every prospect of getting on well in the world. Neither were very young ; for though they had been many years truly devoted to each other, they were prudent, and had waited till mutual

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industry had removed many of the difficulties and obstaclei to their union. All which might have been irksome was persevered in through the strength of this honest, unchanging affection ; and when the goal was gained, and they were married, all the period of their mutual labour seemed but as a watch in the night, compared to the happiness they then enjoyed.

Simeon aad been for several years foreman to a watch* maker, and was remarkably skilful in the business. Rachel had been principal assistant to a mantua-maker, and all her leisure hours were employed in plaiting straw and various fancy works, which greatly increased her little store. Never forgetting the end they had in view, their mutual savings had so accumulated, that on their marriage, Perez was enabled to set up a small shop, which, conducted with honesty and economy, soon flourished, and every year brought in something to lay aside, besides amply providing for their fastincreasing family. ^ * v.

The precepts of their God were obeyed by this worthy couple, not only in word but in deed. They proved their love for their heavenly Father, not only in their social and domestic conduct, but in such acts of charity and kindness, that many wondered how they could do so much for others without wronging their own. Perez and his wife were, however, if possible, yet more industrious and economical after their marriage than before, and many a time preferred to sacrifice a personal indulgence for the purer pleasure of doing good to others; and never did they do so without feeling that God blessed them in the deed.

A painful event calling Perez to London was the first alloy to their happiness. A younger sister of his wife, less prudent because, perhaps,- possessed of somewhat more personal attraction, had won the attentions of a young man who had come down to Liverpool, he said, for a week’s pleasure. No one knew any thing about Isaac Levison. As a companion, Perez himself owned he was very entertaining, but that was not quite sufficient to make him a good husband. Assurances that he was well able to support a wife and family, witli Perez and Rachel (they were not then married), went for nothing ; they wanted proofs, and these he either could not or would not bring ; but in vain they remonstrated. Leah had never liked their authority or good example, and in this point determined to have her own way.

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They were married, and left Liverpool to reside in London, and Leah’s communications were too few and far between to betray much concerning their circumstances. At length came a letter, stating that Leah was a mother, but telling also that poverty and privation had stolen upon them. Their substance in a few troubled years had made itself wings, and flown away when most needed ; and Leah now applied for assistance to those very friends whose kindness and virtue she had so often treated with contempt. The fact was, Levison had embarked all his li'..tle capital (collected no one knew how) in an establishment dashing in appearance, but wanting the basis of honesty and religion. After seeming to flourish for a few years, it. of course, failed at last, exposing its proprietors to deserved odium and distrust, and their families to irretrievable distress.

For seven years Perez and his wife almost supported Leah and her child (secretly indeed, for no one in Liverpool imagined they had need to do so). Leah was still too dear, for the faults and follies of her husband, and perhaps her own imprudences, to form any subject of conversation with her relatives.

At length Leah wrote that she was ill, very ill. She thought tlie hand of death was cn her ; and she feared it for her child, her darling Sarah, whom she had striven to preserve pure amidst the scenes of misery and sin which she now confessed but too often neared her dwelling. What would become of her ? Who would protect her? How dared she appeal to the God of the orphan, when her earthly father yet lived, seeming to forget there was a God? Perez and his wife perused that sad letter together ; but ere it was completed, Rachel had sunk in bitter tears upon his bosom, seeking to speak the boon vhich was in her heart ; but, though it found no words, Perez answered —

“ You are right, dear wife ; one more will make little difference in our household. Providence blessed us with four children, and has been pleased to deprive us of one. Sarah shall take her place: and in snatching her from the infection of vice and shame, may we not ask and hope a blessing? Do not weep then, my Rachel ; Leah may not be so ill as she thinks. I will go and bring her and her child ; and there may be happy days in store for them yet.”

Perez departed that same night by the mail to London ; but prompt as he was. poor Leah’s sufferings were terminated

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before his arrival. Her death, though in itself a painful shock, was less a subject of misery and depression, to a mind almost rigid in its notions of integrity and honour as that Perez, than the fearful state of wretchedness and shame into which Isaac Levison had fallen. Perez soon perceived that all hope of effecting a reformation was absolute folly. His poor child had been so repeatedly prevented attending school, by his intemperate or violent conduct, that she was at length excluded. Levison could give no good reason for depriving his little girl of these advantages, except that he hated the elders who were in office ; that he did not see why some should be rich and some should be poor, and why the former should lord it over the latter. He was as good as they were any day, and his daughter should not be browbeaten or governed by any one, however she might call herself a lady. To reason with folly Perez felt was foolishness, and so he contented himself with entreating Levison to permit his taking the little Sarah, at least for a time, into his family. Levison imagined Perez was the same rank as himself, and, therefore, that his pride could not be injured by his consenting. Equal in hiriJi perhaps they were, but as far removed in their present ranks as vice from virtue, dishonesty from truth.

Perez, however, glad and grateful for having gained his point, made no comment on the many muttered remarks of his brother-in-law, as to his conferring^ not receiving an obligation, by giving his child to the care of her aunt, but hastened home, longing to offer the best comfort to his wife’s sorrow by placing the rescued Sarah in her arms. And it was a comfort, for gradually Rachel traced a hand of love even in this affliction ; the loss of her mother under such circum* stances, proving perhaps, in the end, a blessing to the child, if her father' would but leave her with them. She feared that he would not at first j but Perez smiled at the fear as foolishness, and it gradually dwindled away ; for years passed, and the little Sarah grew from childhood into womanhood, still an inmate of her uncle’s family, almost forgetting she had any father but himself.

But it is not to the unrighteous or the irreligious only that misfortunes come. Nay, they may flourish for a time, and give no evidence that there is a just and merciful God, who ruleth. But even those who have loved and served Him through long years of probity and justice, and who, according to frail human perceptions, would look for nothing

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but favour at His hand, are yet afflicted with many sorrows; and our feeble and insufficient wisdom would complain that such things are. If this world were all, then indeed we might murmur and rebel ; but our God himself has assured us, •• There will come a day when He will discern between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.” And it is our part to wait patiently for that day, and that better world where that word will be fulfilled.

Perez had now five children. Reuben, his eldest son, was full five years older than the rest, a circumstance cf rejoicing to Perez, as he hoped his son would supply his place to his family, should he be called away before the threescore and ten years allotted as the age of man.

To do all he could towards obtaining this end, Perez early associated his son with him in his own business ot watchmaking; but too soon, unhappily, the parents discovered that a heavy grief awaited them, from him to whom they had most fondly looked for joy. They had indeed striven and prayed to train up their child in the way he should go, but it seemed as if his after years would not confirm the sage monarch’s concluding words. Wild, thoughtless, and headstrong, Reuben, after a very brief trial, determined that his father’s business was not according to his taste, and he could not follow it. His father’s authority indeed kept him steady for a few years, but it was continued rebellion and reproof ; and often and often the father’s hardearned savings were sacrificed for the wild freaks and extravagance of the son. Perez trembled lest the other members of his family, equally dear, should suffer eventual loss ; but there is something in the hearts of Jewish parents towards an eldest son, which calls imperatively for indulgence towards, and concealment of his failings. Again and again Perez expended sums much larger than he could conveniently afford, in endeavouring to fix his son in business according to his inclinations ; but no sooner was he apparently settled and comfortable, and his really excellent abilities fairly drawn forth, than, by negligence or inattention, or some graver misdemeanour, he disgusted his employers, and, after a lit.le longer trial, was returned on his father’s hands.

Deeply and bitterly hi.s parents grieved, using every affectionate argument to convince him of the evil of his ways, and bring him back again to the paths of joy. They did

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not desist, however their efforts and prayers seemed alike unanswered ; they did not fail in faith, though often it was trembling and faint within them. One hope they had ; Reuben was not hardened. Often he would repent in tears and agony of spirit, and deplore his own ill fate, that he was destined to bring misery to parents he so dearly loved. Rut be refused to believe that it only needed energy to rouse himself from his folly, for as yet it was scarcely more. He said he could not help himself, could not effect any change, and therefore made no effort to do so. But hat which grieved his parents far more than all else, was his total indifference to the religion of his forefathers. His ears, even as his heart and mind, were closed to those divine truths his parents had so carefully inculcated. He knew his duty too well to betray infidelity and indifference in their presence, but they loved him too well to be blind to their existence.

“ What is it to be a Jew,” they heard him once say to a companion, “but to be cut off from every honourable and manly employment? To be bound, fettered to an obsolete belief, which does but cramp our energies, and bind us to detestable trade. No wonder we are looked upon with contempt, believed to be bowed, crushed to the very earth, as void of all spirit or energy, only because we have no opportunity of showing them.”

Little did he know the bitter tears these words wrung from his poor mother, that no sleep visited his father’s eyes that night. Was this an answer to their anxious prayer? Yet they trusted still.

Anxiety and grief did not prevent Perez attending to his business ; but either from the many drains upon his little capital, or that trade was just at that time in a very low state, his prosperity had begun visibly to decrease. And not long afterwards a misfortune occurred productive of much more painful affliction than even the loss of property which it so seriously involved. A dreadful fire broke out in the neighbourhood, gaining such an alarming height ere it was discovered, that assistance was almost useless. Amongst the greatest sufferers were Perez and his family. Their happy home was entirely consumed, and all the little valuables it had contained completely destroyed. Perez gazed on ruin. For one brief moment he stood as thunderstricken, but then A terrible shriek aroused him. He looked around. He thought he Lad seen all whom he loved in safety, but at one

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glance he saw his little Euth was not there His wife had caught a glimpse of the child in a part of the building which the flames had not yet i cached, and with that wdld shriek had flown to save her. He saw her as she made her way through falling rafters and blazing walls ; he made a rush forward to join and rescue, or die with her ; but his children clung round him in speechless terror ; his friends and neighbours seconded them, and before he could effectually break from them, a loud congratulatory shout proclaimed that the daring mother had reached her child. A dozen ladders were hurried forward, their bearers all eager to be the first to plant the means of effectual escape ; and clasping her Ruth closely to her breast, regardless of her increasing weight (for terror had rendered the poor child utterly powerless), the mother’s step was on the ladder, and a hush fell upon the assembled hundreds. There was no sound save the roar of the devouring element and the play of the engines. The flames were just nearing the beam on which the ladder leaned, but hope was strong that Rachel would reach the ground ere this frail support gave w'ay ; and numbers pressed round, regardless of the suffocating smoke and heat, in the vain hope of ipeeding her descent.

Perez had ceased his struggles the moment his wife appeared. With chasped hands, and cheeks and lips so blanched, as even in that luiid light to startle by their ghastliness, he remained, his eyes starting from their sockets in their intense and agonized gaze. He saw only his wife and child ; but his children, with horror which froze their very blood, could look only on the fast-approaching flames. A wild cry of terror was bursting from young Joseph, Ruth’s twin brother, but Sarah, with instinctive feeling, dreading lest that cry should reach his mother’s ears, and awaken her to her danger, caught him in her arms, and soothed him into silence.

Carefully and slowly Rachel descended. She gave no look around her. No one knew if she were conscious of her danger, which was becoming more and more imminent. Then came a smothered groan from all, all save the husband and the father. The flame had reached the beam, — it cracked — caught — the top of the ladder was wreathed with smoke and fire. W as there faltering in her step, or did the frail support totter beneath her weight? The half was j>ast, but onethird to the ground remained ; fiercer and fiercer the flames ►oared and rose above her, but yet there was hope. It failed

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^he b^am gave way, the ladder fell, and Rachel and her chilti wore precipitated to the ground. A heavy groan mingled with the wild shriek of horror which burst around. Perea rushed like a maniac forward ; but louder, shriller above it all a cry resounded, “ Mother ! mother ! oh God, my mother ! why was not I beside yon, to save Ruth in your stead? Mother, speak ; oh, speak to me again !” And the father and son, each unconscious of the other’s presence, met beside what seemed the lifeless body of one to both so dear.

Rut Rachel was not dead, though fearfully injured ; and it was in the long serious illness that followed, Reuben proved that, despite his many faults and follies, affection was not all extinguished ; love for his mother remained in its full force, and in his devotion to her, his almost woman’s tenderness, not only towards her but towards his little sister Ruth, whose eyes had been so injured by the heat and smoke as to occasion total blindness, he demonstrated qualities only too likely so to gain a woman’s heart, as to shut her eyes to all other points of his character save them.

A subscription had indeed been made for the sufferers by the fire, but they were so numerous, that the portion of individuals was of course but small ; and even this Perez’s honest nature shrunk in suffering from accepting. Religious and energetic as he was, determined not to evince by word or sign how completely his spirit was crushed, and thus give the prejudiced of other faiths room to say, “the Jew has no resource, no comfort,” he yet felt that he himself would never be enabled to hold up his head again ; felt it at the very moment friends and neighbours were congratulating him on the equanimity, the cheerfulness with which he met and bore up against affliction.

Yet even now, when the skeptic and unbeliever would have said, surely the God he so faithfully served had deserted him, Perez felt he was not deserted, — that he had not laboured honestly and religiously so long in vain. The wild and wayward conduct of the son could not, in candid and liberal minds, tarnish the character of the father ; and thus he was enabled easily and pleasantly to obtain advantageous situations for his two elder children.

The dwelling to which we originally introduced our reader was then to let ; and from its miserably dilapidated condition (for when Perez first saw it, it was not as we described), at a •emarkably low rent. An influential friend made it habita-

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ble, and tliither some three months after the fire, the family removed.

And where was Sarah Levison, in the midst of these changes and afflictions? In their heavy trial, did Rachel and Perez never regret they had made her as their own? nor permit the murmuring thought to enter, that, as the girl had a father, they had surely no need to support an additional burden ? To such questions we think our readers will scarcely need an answer. As their own daughter Leah, they loved and cherished their niece, whose affection and gratitude towards them was yet stronger and more devoted than that of their own child, affectionate as she was. Leah had never known other than kind, untiring parents ; never, even in dreams, imagined the misery in which her cousin’s early years had passed. To Sarah, life had been a strange dark stream of grief and wrath, until she became an inmate of her uncle’s house. Though only just seventeen when these heavy sorrows took place, her peculiarly quiet and reflective character and strong affections endowed her with the experience of more advanced age. She not only felt, but acted. Entering into the feelings alike of her uncle and aunt, she unconsciously soothed and strengthened both. She taught Leah’s young, and, from its high and joyous temperament, somewhat rebellious spirit, submission and self-control. She strengthened in the young Simeon the ardent desire to work, and not only assist his father now, but to raise him again to his former station in life. She found time to impart to the little Joseph such instruction as she thought might aid in gaining him employment. Untiringly, caressingly, she nursed both her aunt and the poor little patient sufferer Ruth, telling such sweet tales of heaven, and its beautiful angels, and earth, and it pleasant places, and kind deeds, that the child would forget her sorrow as she listened, and fancy the sweet music of that gentle voice had never seemed so sweet before ; and while it spoke, she could not forget to wish to look once more on the flowers, and trees, and sky. And Reuben, what was his cousin Sarah not to him in these months of remorseful agony, when he felt as if he could never more displease or grieve his parents ; when again and again he cursed himself as the real cause of his father’s ruin ; for bad not such large sums been wasted upon him, there might have been still capital enough to have set him afloat again. For several days and nights Sarah and Reuben had been joint watchers beside the beds oi

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Buffering; and the gentle voice of the former consoled, even while to the divine comfort and hope wliich she proffered, lleuben felt his heart was closed. He bade her speak on ; he seemed, in those still, silent hours to feel that, without hergentle influence, his very senses must have wandered ; and that heatt must have been colder and harsher than Sarah’s, which could have done other than believe she was not indifferent to him. Sarah did not think of many little proofs of affection at the time; she was only conscious that, at the very period heavy affliction had entered her uncle’s family, a new feeling, a new energy had awakened within her heart, and she w’as happy — oh, so happy !

It was to Sarah’s exertions their new dwelling owed the comfort, cleanliness, and almost luxury of its interior arrangements ; her example inspired Leah to throw aside the proud disdain with which she at first regarded their new home — to conquer the rebellious feeling which prompted her to entreat her father to apprentice her anywhere, so she need not live so differently at home ; and not only to conquer that sinful pride, but use her every energy to rouse her natural spirits, and make her parents forget how tlieir lot was changed : and the girl did so; for, in spite of youthful follies, there was good solid sense and warm feelings on which to work.

Sarah and Leah, then, worked in the interior, and Perez and Simeon improved the exterior of the house, so that when the little family assembled, there was comfort and peace around them, and thus their song of praise and thanksgiving mingled with and hallowed the customary prayer, with which the son of Israel ever sanctifies his newly-appointed dwelling.

Ilachel could no longer work as she had done ; her right arm had been so severely injured as to be nearly useless ; but Sarah supplied her place so actively, so happily, that Rachel f«dt she had no right to murmur at her own uselessness : the poor motherless girl she had taken to her heart and home, returned tenfold all that had been bestowed. She could have entered into more than one lucrative situation, but she would not hear of leaving that home which she knew needed her presence and her services ; and this was not the mere impulse of the moment : week after week, month after Dioiith, found her active, affectionate, persevering, as at first.

The most painful circumstance in their present dwelling was its low neighbourhood ; and partially to remedy this evil, Rarah prevailed on her uncle to employ his Itisure in culti

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vating the little garden behind the house, making their sitting-room and kitchen open into it, and contriving an entrance through them, so as scarcely to use the front, except for ingress and egress which necessity compelled. This arrangement was productive of a twofold good ; it prevented all gossiping intercourse, which their neighbours had done all they could to introduce, and gave Perez an occupation which interested him, although he might never have thought of it himself. Both local and national disadvantages often unite to debar the Jews from agriculture, and therefore it is a branch in which they are seldom, if eveT, employed. Their scattered state among the nations, the occupations which misery and persecution compel them to adopt, are alone to blame for those peculiar characteristics which cause them to herd i i the most miserable alleys of crowded cities, rather than the pure air and cheaper living of the country. Perez found pleasure and a degree of health in his new employment: the delight which it was to his poor little blind Ruth to sit by his side while he worked, and inhale the reviving scent of the newly-turned earth or budding flowers, would of itself have inspired him, but his wife too shared the enjoyment. It was a pleasure to her to take the twins by her side, and teach them their God was a God of love, alike through his inspired Word, and through his works; and Joseph and Ruth learned to love their new hou?e better than their last, because it had a garden and flowers, and they learned from that much more than they had ever learned before.

For nine months all was cheerfulness and joy in that lowly dwelling. The heavy sorrow and disquiet had partially subsided. Reuben was more often at home, and seemed more steadily and honourably employed. Twice in six months ho had poiR-ed nis earnings in his mother’s lap ; and while he lingered caressingly by her side, how might she doubt or fear for him ? though when absent, his non-attendance at the synagogue, his too evident indiff’erence to his faith, his visible impatience at all its enjoinments, caused many an anxious hour. Simeon and Leah gave satisfaction to their emplo^'ers, and Sarah earned sufficient to make her aunt’s compelled idleness of little consequence. Perez himself had been gladly received by his former master, as his principal journeyman, at excel lent wages; and could he have felt less painfully the bitter ^shange in his lot, all might have been well. Pride, however, was unhappily his heirloom, as well as that of Levison. With

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Porez it had always acted as a good spirit— -with Levison as a bad ; inciting the former to all honourable deeds and thoughts, and acting as religion’s best agent in guarding him from wrong. Now, however,, it was to enact a different part. In vain his solid good sense argued misfortune was no shame, and that he was as high, in a moral point of view, as he had ever been. Equally vain was the milder, more consoling voice of religion, in assuring him a Father’s hand had sent the affliction, and therefore it was love ; that he failed in submission if he could not bear up against it. In vain conscience told him, while she was at rest and glad, all outward things ^ould be the same ; that while his wife ana children had been so mercifully preserved, thankfulness, not grief, should be his portion. Pride, that dark failing which will chng to Judaism, bore all other argument away, and crushed him. Had he complained, or given way to temper, his health perhaps would not have been injured ; but he was silent on his own griefs, even to his wife, for he knew their encouragement was wrong. There was no outward change in his appearance or physical power, and had he not been attacked by a cold and fever, occasioned by a very inclement winter, the wreck of his constitution might never have been discovered. But trifling as his ailments at first appeared, it was but too soon evident that he had no strength to rally from them. Grradually, yet surely, he sunk, and with a grief which, demonstrating itself in each according to their different characters, was equally violent in all, his afflicted family felt they dared not hope ; the husband and the father was passing to his home above, and they would soon indeed be desolate.