Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, no. 25, November 1859

Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25,
November, 1859

by Various (#25 in our series by Various)
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Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859
Author: Various
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9391] [This file was first
posted on September 28, 2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 ***

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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV.

E. FELICE FORESTI.
Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the
harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such
exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers
who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not
the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy
of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor
the fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new
country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees
of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and
breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and
self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the
bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud
consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and
being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when
first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of the
lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to watch
their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest thought
or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its
spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were
extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open.
Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple

facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and
cordial greeting.
Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose
high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man
of moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul.
Traces of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent;
but with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave
and ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE
FORESTI,--subsequently, and for years, the favorite professor of his
beautiful native language and literature in New York,--the favorite
guest and the cherished friend in her most cultivated homes and among
her best citizens,--the Italian patriot, which title he vindicated by
consistency, self-respect, and the most genial qualities. The vocation he
adopted, because of its availability, only served to make apparent
comprehensive endowments and an independent spirit; the lady with
whom he read Tasso, beside the chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem
Delivered," learned to appreciate modern knighthood; and the scholar
to whom he expounded Dante, from the political chart of the Middle
Ages, turned to an incarnation of existent patriotism. Not only by the
arguments of Gioberti, the graphic pictures of Manzoni, and the terse
pathos of Leopardi, did he illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius;
but through his own eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her
achievements and faith in her destiny. The savings of years of patient
toil were sacrificed to the subsistence of his poor countrymen who
came hither after bravely fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara,
to have their fruits of victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity,
consequent upon early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn
chains, laid the stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed
of pain. He uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which
no courage can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious
privilege of being