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Addison's "Cato" was not only the most popular play of the time, but Addison was probably the most popular writer in his field of the time. Copies of The Spectator, The Guar- dian, and Addison's Evidences, were freely imported into this country and are found listed in public and private libraries, in inventories, and in the advertisements of book dealers. People with any pretentions to polite learning had to know Addison, whose writings were then fashionable. In the Augustan age, literature, as such, was as fashionable as bridge is to-day.
Now, I cannot present any direct proof to show that Hale was familiar with Addison's "Cato," but the evidence, apart from his Last Words, is very strong,-circumstantial evidence, I mean now. Hale was a great reader, he delighted in the classics, he had a boyish admiration for the great heroes of the early world, he was a speaker, and he took part in at least one play as an undergraduate. He seems to have been the chief-promoter and organizer, if not the actual founder, of the Linonia library, which played so large a part in the life of the students of his generation and of the generations following. The fading minutes of Linonia still preserved in the Uni- versity library, are partly in his own clear and even elegant handwriting. This first list of books in the Linonia library was written by him, and evidence is not wanting to show that he solicited subscriptions from members of the fraternity for the purchase of books selected by himself. Out of his small pocket money, and it must have been very small, he presented to the library the Travels of Cyrus, a moral romance dealing with the education of that surpassing prince. His name (written by himself) appears as one of the subscribers to the amount required for the purchase of The Spectator, to which Addison was the chief contributor. Addison's Evidences was
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another purchase, but the names of the subscribers are not filled in. Addison's "Cato" does not appear in Hale's list, and so I cannot, so to speak, place it in his hands, but it was in the College library as the Catalogue of 1753 shows. The con- clusion is irresistible against this background of fact, that Hale was familiar with the "Cato," and consciously or sub- consciously, quoted from it on the scaffold.
It will be noted that the two sentences are closely alike in content and in number, arrangement and choice of words. Cato says, "What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country"; Hale says, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Psychologically, it was far more natural for Hale at the supreme moment of his short life, to express his feeling in familiar words than to originate a new expression. In sup- port of this, I can but refer to perhaps the most striking example in all history-to Jesus of Nazareth. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter XV, we read in verses 33 and 34: "And when the sixth hour was come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabbathani, which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Now, although it is strictly a matter of inference, no one doubts that Jesus was perfectly familiar with the Psalms, and that in this hour of his agony, he was but quoting the opening words of the twenty-second psalm, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me."
Here, as it seems to me, we have a psychological parallel which may fairly be used to support the proposition that Hale, in the supreme hour of his agony, expressed his deepest feel- ing in language which, though not his own, had become a part of his consciousness, which in fact expressed his central feeling as no language of his own could.
I have no idea that Hale made any attempt to give the pas- sage in question from "Cato" exactly. Anything so aca-
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demic, under the circumstances, is inconceivable. The force of the sentiment would have been lost upon the few persons to whom the Last Words were addressed, if expressed as a quotation. Any quotation from any writer at such a time would have savored of timidity, and Hale's bearing was high and self-contained, as we know from Montresor, who says, as reported by Hull, "he was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity, the consciousness of rectitude and high inten- tions." The idea contained in the Last Words was an old one with Hale apart from its felicitous expression in "Cato." Thus, in the Travels of Cyrus by Allan Ramsay, a copy of which, Hale, as already stated, presented to the Linonia Library, we find at the very beginning of the book this striking paragraph :
"The Persians were hitherto rough, but virtuous. They were not vers'd in those Arts & Sciences which Polish the Minds and the Manners. But they were the great masters of the sublime science of being content with simple Nature, of despising death for the love of Country, and of flying all Pleasures which emasculate the Mind, & enervate the Body."
The Travels of Cyrus is the very kind of a book to have delighted the soul of Hale as we know him. Hale was not only interested in Cyrus of Persia, but also in Philip of Mace- don. He takes us into his confidence in his Diary, in which he records that he "Read the History of Philip." It is inter- esting in this connection to note that his boyhood teacher, Dr. Joseph Huntington of Coventry (Yale 1762), in an Election Sermon (1764), devotes a paragraph to Cyrus and the Persians, and the following paragraph to Philip and the Greeks. This warrants the inference, at least, that Hale's interest in two of the great figures of the ancient world, Cyrus the Great and Philip of Macedon, antedated his coming to college and began under Dr. Huntington, who was a man of more than ordinary culture for his time. This coincidence is of more than antiquarian interest, since it shows that Hale's imagination was fired at an early age by the heroes of an- tiquity.
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We get a glimpse of Hale as an eager reader of books and of his delight in them, in a letter to him by his classmate, Roger Alden, who writes, "This I am certain that your read- ing after that did not profit much-especially if you was in the middle of some diverting scene in either History, Plays, Novels, Romances, or whatever you please." (Johnston's "Life," p. 199). The very fact that Hale chose The Travels of Cyrus to give to the Linonia library is significant and shows his character and his interest. The passage quoted cannot have escaped him nor the sentiment attributed to the Persians of "despising Death for the love of Country." Later on in his career, Hale was actually to quote much the same sentiment.
I find an interesting Hale item in the first number of the American Historical Magazine and Literary Record, a pub- lication which ran its brief course of life at New Haven, between January and June 1836. The editor, Ebenezer Bald- win (Yale 1807), says in An Introduction prefacing the first number of the Magazine, "The leading object of the pub- lishers will be, to rescue from the present forgetfulness, and ultimate oblivion, into which they are rapidly passing, the memorials of our National history." This first number con- tained an article on Hale (then all but forgotten) and a note by Dr. Eneas Munson, Jr. (Yale 1780) of much more real historical value than the article. The editor in introducing Munson's note, says, "As connected with the same subject, we annex the following statement of an early acquaintance and friend of Hale's. The statement is drawn by a gentleman who was connected with the medical staff of the Revolutionary Army." The note of Eneas, Jr. is as follows :
"Nathan Hale I was acquainted with, from his frequent visits at my father's house, while an academic student. His own remarks, and the remarks of my father, left at that period an indelible impression on my mind. Hale remarked to my father, that he was offered a commission in the service of his country, and exclaimed, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." These were some of the last expressions I ever heard fall from his lips. The remarks of my father, after Hale left the house, were, 'That man is a diamond of the first water, calculated to excel in any station he assumes. He is a gentleman and a scholar, and last, though not least of his qualifications, a Christian.' Hale's urbanity and general deportment were
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peculiarly attracting, and for solid acquirements I am sure he would lose nothing on comparison with Andre. Cannot you rouse the dormant energies of an ungrateful republic, in the case of Capt. Hale, to mark the spot where so much virtue and patriotism moulder with his native dust? His name ought to be engraven with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, that future generations may bow at his shrine, and reverence the cenotaph, as containing the ashes of a paragon, while they deplore his untimely end."
Here, in "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," we find Hale actually quoting one of the patriotic odes of Horace .- (Carm. III, 2, 13. ) The sentiment was not new with Horace ; it had often been expressed before Horace took it up and cast it into a form which has survived. Thus we find Hale in a private conversation held the year of his death, not only voic- ing the sentiment of his Last Words, but actually quoting a very famous concrete phrasing of the sentiment. It was, moreover, customary in Hale's time to express unashamed, sentiments which in our day are expressed, if at all, in action. Hale did nothing more than what young men of his day and generation were doing. He partook of the custom of his time, as we all do.
It was natural enough, then, for Hale at the supreme mo- ment to express a sentiment which was a part of his very being. His "Last Words," from Cato, came from him that Sunday morning, September 1776, when he "resign'd his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty," as naturally as the words from Horace came to his lips when he took leave of his old friend, the elder Dr. Munson, a few months earlier. Hale's use of Cato's fine words over the dead body of his son Marcus, do not lessen our admiration of his conduct or his character. On the contrary, they make him a more natural figure and bring him closer to life-a high-spirited boy fired with high ideals, which belonged no doubt to his temperament, but which were fostered and enriched during his college course. We are thus prepared to find new meaning in the following quotation from the lines written to his memory not long after his death. The elder Munson was, I am now convinced, the writer of them :
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"His teachers' precept he obeyed with ease, The charms of science every hour could please ; Then he with rapture read those polished lines, Where Grecian wit and Roman genius shines,- Where the great worthies of the former age Live in the poet's and historian's page, Raised to a height which envy dares not blame, Crown'd with a glorious and immortal fame! Their bright example fired his gen'rous mind ; Like them, the friend and lover of mankind, He glowed with zeal for his dear country's cause."
Munson clearly traced Hale's lofty idealism to his books and his Yale training. Times and manners and curricula change, and too fast for many of us, but for such as despair, it is well to recall that after all, the fires have burned pretty steadily on the old altar since Hale's time. At the Linonia Centennial Anniversary in 1853, it was said of Hale that he "found in books the source of his zeal and pure devotion to human free- dom," and I recall that on Commencement Day, June 1916, Mr. Taft said to me that one of the outstanding facts about the war was that the idealism of the college boys had led the entire country.
The above considerations have their chief value in reassur- ing us that we have in fact Hale's "Last Words," since they open to us the doors of his mind and heart. We see that the words attributed to Hale ever since his martyrdom one hun- dred and forty-three years ago, did, in fact, proceed from him and do not represent anything framed by Montresor and com- municated to Hull, as an epitome of what Montresor heard Hale say. Neither Montresor nor Hull were the sort of men to recognize the quotation. Hale may, indeed, have said much more, and it is my belief that he did, but we may be sure, at least, that these "Last Words" descending upon us as a precious legacy from Hale, were actually spoken by him at the gallows.
G. D. S.
Sunday, January 19, 1919.
XXXVIII.
MR. PARDEE AND THE HALE STATUE.
William Scranton Pardee, Yale 1882, active throughout his life in promoting the welfare of the City, was a firm supporter of the compiler in his City Planning and Harbor Development enterprises. A student of early New Haven history, he bought and restored the old Morris House at Morris Cove and dying there June 19, 1918, in his 58th year, left the bulk of his fortune to the City and to the New Haven Colony Historical Society for public uses. He was "town-born," a descendant of George Pardee, "hired by the town in 1663 to teach Latin and Good Manners in the town school."
To the Editor of the Yale Alumni Weekly.
Sir-I am sure that "Billy" Pardee's classmates, as well as his friends in the Yale alumni body at large, will be interested to know that, quite unsoli- cited, he was the first contributor to the fund for the erection of Bela Pratt's statue to Hale on the Yale campus. The circumstances of his contribution are so characteristic of him that I hope I may be pardoned in rehearsing them.
Dining with me one evening (it was August 24, 1911), he took great interest in the small bronze statuette of Hale in my study, then recently cast from Pratt's original plaster sketch-model made in 1898. At the time I noticed, and afterward recalled, that as he came out of the study he made an unwonted gesture, as though brushing something away from his eyes. At the end of the evening, as he was leaving, we stood together a moment in the front porch of my house. Then he turned to me and said rather abruptly : "George, I will give a thousand dollars toward having that statue put on the campus on the condition that the design is not changed and that the commission is given to Bela Pratt within two years from to-day." The next morning I received from him by mail a little note in his own handwrit- ing, in which he formally offered the money under the same conditions. Thus was the fund started.
Personally, it gives me pleasure to record this generous act of "Billy" Pardee, and to pay even so slight a tribute as this to his memory.
G. D. SEYMOUR.
New Haven, June 21, 1918.
XXXIX.
NATHAN HALE, 1773-1923-THE 150TH ANNI- VERSARY OF HIS GRADUATION, AND TWO PROPOSED MEMORIALS.
"For God, for Country, and for Hale"
By GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR
(Reprinted from The Yale Alumni Weekly of June 15, 1923.)
"I wish to be useful," said Captain Nathan Hale during one of the darkest hours of the Revolutionary War, when a friend and comrade-in-arms tried by every argument to dis- suade him from reconnoitering the enemy's lines at the behest of Washington. No wonder that Hale's friend protested when he announced his intention of volunteering for a service which meant an almost certain and ignominious death. That a com- missioned officer-a Captain-should volunteer for spy-ser- vice was then almost unbelievable. "I wish to be useful," said Hale firmly and quietly; simplicity, decision, and self- reliance are great qualities; he had all of them. A few hours-or perhaps a few days-later Hale was put ashore at Huntington, Long Island. The doors of darkness there closed upon him and we see no more of him except a brief glimpse on that Sunday morning in September, 1776, when he "resign'd his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty," in the City of New York, almost within the sight of his friends. His precious dust lies somewhere there.
In those few words, spoken nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, Hale epitomized the ideal of service which runs like a bright thread through the entire Yale tradition. To Hale, more than to anyone else, Yale owes her ideal of service, which is the heart and core of the "Yale spirit." Where in all history, to say nothing of our own, can we find an outstanding figure whose fame rests on nobler sentiments than "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" and "I. wish to be useful" ?
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Yale carries upon her rolls names of great men who have lived and wrought for a full-rounded lifetime, but the book of her history presents no figure so gallant and inspiring as that of Hale, who has now become our national symbol of patriotism, so that to-day the mention of his name evokes an emotion akin to that aroused by the sight of our flag.
At Commencement time the lamps of memory are re-lighted ; the fires re-kindled on the old altars. It is fitting, therefore, that at this season, which will witness the celebration of so many anniversaries, Yale men gathering here should be re- minded that this is the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Hale's graduation from college with the Class of 1773. After graduation, we find him teaching for a few months at Moodus, from which he was called to take charge of the Union Latin School in New London. It is not without significance that this school was called a "Latin School."
Hale and the Old Library
It will not be claimed that Hale was a classical scholar in any modern sense, but the brief pages of his history make it clear that he found great enjoyment in the classical tradition, to which he was introduced, beyond any doubt, before he came to college, by the Rev. Joseph Huntington, Yale 1762, a classi- cal scholar, distinguished for his learning, as well as for the urbanity of his manners-two qualities rarely separated. In a little-known poem, probably written by Dr. Eneas Munson, Yale 1753, soon after Hale's death, Hale's lofty idealism is traced to his classical studies. Thus-
His teachers' precept he obeyed with ease, The charms of science every hour could please ; Then he with rapture read those polished lines, Where Grecian wit and Roman genius shines,- Where the great worthies of the former age Live in the poet's and historian's page, Raised to a height which envy does not blame, Crown'd with a glorious and immortal fame ! Their bright example fired his gen'rous mind ; Like them, the friend and lover of mankind, He glowed with zeal for his dear country's cause.
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At the Linonia Centennial Anniversary, in 1853, it was said of Hale that "he found in books the source of his zeal and pure devotion to human freedom."
But the best evidence of Hale's interest in books is found in the fading minutes, preserved in the College Library, of Linonia, largely in Hale's own handwriting. At the end of that precious manuscript is a list of the books bought evidently by Hale for the Linonia Library, which, if he did not originate, he re-founded. I am sure that it is not too much to say that the Linonia Library, which has played so large a part in the lives of the undergraduates, owes more to Hale than to any one individual. We think of Hale as an athlete, as an engag- ing companion, as fond of society, as a successful teacher, and, finally, as an ardent soldier and patriot, moving swiftly and nobly through the few remaining months of his life to his supreme sacrifice for his country. We do not realize, as we should, that his master-passion was books.
This thought induces me to suggest that at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Yale, steps should be taken to provide some more adequate memorial of him here than the inspiring statue erected a few years ago close to Connecticut Hall, where he roomed as an undergradu- ate. I could wish that some alumnus, or some group of the alumni, more interested in books than in buildings, or I would better say, in the use of books, would come forward and pro- vide the modest amount necessary to restore the Old Yale Library to its original exterior form, remove to it the books of the present Linonia and Brothers Libraries, and add enough more to fill it to overflowing,-preëminently with books to read and inwardly digest, books rich in the wisdom of the ages, books promoting knowledge of the art of life and manners. It would rebound greatly to the credit of Yale, if her graduates could be distinguished for their manners as well as for their enterprise. Hale belonged to the "Age of Homespun," but one of his characteristics was his good manners.
It has been proposed to tear down Dwight Hall and then remodel the Old Library to fit it for the purposes of the
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PLEA FOR NATIONAL RECOGNITION OF HALE
Y. M. C. A. It would serve the cause of Yale far better, in all educational and spiritual ways, to convert it into a Campus Library, overflowing with good books and standing as a memorial to Nathan Hale, who epitomizes-I cannot forbear to reiterate-the Yale spirit,-the ideal of service. We should then, in a real sense, have a living memorial to Hale, in which the undergraduates would be as free to use the books as in their rooms, apart from all of the restraints which must necessarily be imposed upon the books in the Sterling Library to-be.
It is one of the defects of modern undergraduate life, not only at Yale but at all kindred American institutions, that the students are so burdened by extra-curriculum activities that they find little or no time for reading; I believe that with the beautiful Old Library freely open to them as a Campus Library and overflowing with books, the habit (than which none is more profitable to a young man) of "browsing among books" would return. As the Hale Library, the students would love and use it. And in this collection, let books relat- ing to the Liberal Arts predominate. The American mind has concentrated too long upon the ledger, from which culture, the humanities, do not proceed.
A National Memorial
Hale long ago became enshrined in the American heart, but has had virtually no national recognition in all these years until within a few months, when the Federal Reservation on New Haven Harbor was ceded to the State of Connecticut, to be known hereafter as "Nathan Hale Park." Recently it occurred to me that the least the Federal Government could do was to place a head of Hale upon one of its postal issues. Accordingly I wrote the following letter to President Harding :
As June 6th, the birthday of Captain Nathan Hale, the "Martyr Spy of the Revolutionary War," approaches, I am reminded (and it seems incredi- ble) that no President of the United States has ever mentioned his name in a public way. This passed through my mind this morning, as I read your speech on the decline, since the World War, of American ideals, of which
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there is no more shining exemplar than Nathan Hale. The opportunity pre- sents itself for you, at this time, not only to pay a belated tribute to Hale, but also to promote the cause of Americanization by officially recommending to the Post Office Department the use of a head of Hale upon one of our stamps,-preferably a stamp of small denomination.
In carrying forward the above suggestion, I am enclosing herewith a photo- graph of a statue, erected in 1913, to Hale's memory, in the old Yale Col- lege Yard in front of Connecticut Hall, in which he roomed as an under- graduate of Yale, from which he was graduated one hundred and fifty years ago this present year.
Hale "resign'd his life a sacrifice to his country's liberty, Sept. 22nd, 1776, Etatis 22nd," at the behest of Washington, and I cannot resist the feeling that it is time for one of Washington's successors in the Presidency to do something to recognize the sacrifice of Hale, who has been adopted by our people as the national symbol of patriotism.
Since I had serious misgivings about writing to the Presi- dent and little idea that in the winnowing of the Presidential mail my letter would ever reach him, I was doubly pleased to receive such an appreciative reply as follows :
MY DEAR MR. SEYMOUR :-
May 31, 1923.
I feel genuinely obligated to you for reminding me of the anniversary of Nathan Hale's graduation from Yale. I wish it were possible that some really fitting and adequate testimonial to Hale, of a national character, could be provided. Your suggestion is appealing, but unfortunately it is not possible to provide for all the national heroes in this way. I hope an opportunity will be afforded when, either in compliance with this particular suggestion or in some other way, I may be able to contribute my bit toward reminding the American people of Captain Hale and his great services and sacrifice.
Most sincerely yours, WARREN G. HARDING.
President Harding did not, it is true, agree to make the desired recommendation to the Postmaster General, but I feel that the message of Hale, as an officially neglected patriot, has been delivered to the President. As Hale has now been on the "waiting list" of heroes for one hundred and fifty years, it would seem about time for him to receive attention. I propose to follow the matter up by writing to the Postmaster General, and if any reader of the Yale Alumni Weekly is moved to
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