As I passed up the wide staircase trod by so many feet now motionless, I could see through the open doors, as well as in all the halls, shelves upon shelves of closely-packed books, and long tables and racks in great numbers, laden with what seemed maps and charts of nothing in particular, or things in general. It was evident, however, that whatever archives these were, they were numerous, well arranged, and of great diversity of age and subject.
The fourth story reached, I found myself in a great loft-like apartment, covering nearly the entire floor, and filled, like those below it, with book-laden cases, and tables thickly strewn with charts and great portfolios.
My host received me with the grave sweet courtesy which sat so well upon him, and begged me to permit him for a few moments to put the finishing touches upon a piece of work, before entering upon the matter concerning which he had, as he put it, done himself the honor to ask me to confer with him.
“While I complete my work,” said he, “look about you. Note well my friends of all ages, in whose company I have passed many busy years. They are ‘the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time.’ Around them, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, my pastime and my happiness have grown. Milton said: ‘A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life,’ and I have found it so. Browning wrote—and mark well that a hidden import lies in his words:
“‘Books are men of higher stature,
And the only men who speak aloud for future times to hear.’”
I availed myself of the opportunity to look about me, and as the charts seemed but a meaningless tangle of long and short lines of black and the three primary colors, parallel and interlacing, I betook myself to an inspection of the book-shelves, each plainly lettered with the class of its contents. I could see that the works here were mainly historical, and arranged in divisions corresponding to periods and epochs in the world’s history.
Here for instance in the section of Modern History, and in that division devoted to the Formation of Distinct Nationalities were Longman’s “Lectures on English History,” Michelet’s “History of France,” Brougham’s “England and France Under the House of Lancaster,” Edgar’s “Wars of the Roses,” Kirk’s “Charles the Bold,” and scores of other histories proper, to say nothing of Botta’s “Dante,” Campbell’s “Life of Petrarch,” and similar works throwing light on men and manners between 1300 and 1490 A. D. The shelves belonging to “The Age of the Great Discoveries” were loaded with Major’s “Life of Prince Henry of Portugal,” Irving’s “Life and Voyages of Columbus,” and “Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus,” Prescott’s “Ferdinand and Isabella,” Ranke’s and D’Aubigné’s histories of the Reformation, Prescott’s “Conquests of Mexico and Peru,” and all those other standards which tell of men and events from 1490 to 1530. The system was perfect; the manner in which it was carried out, wonderful.
I had no time to observe more, for Brathwaite having completed some careful plotting upon a chart which covered a long table, rose and led me to a seat near his desk, where, his earnest eyes gleaming with a strange sense of power, his rich voice vibrant with magnetism, he thus addressed me:—
“The other evening you heard the comments of our brethren as to the great money value of a knowledge of the near future; but not one word was said as to what an incalculable boon to the human race would be the revelation of the general condition of men, morals, law, liberty, and all things great and small, at each decade yet to come. You may have heard me remark, almost unconsciously, that such knowledge of the future was not so impossible as one might think; and the exclamation may have impressed you, if at all, with an idea of the mental irresponsibility of the one who uttered it. But I think that I can convince you, who are the first to whom I have addressed myself on the subject save my dear wife—now gone before me—that my remark was not only compatible with the soundest mental powers, but warranted by a degree of special study and training, a duration of special application, far beyond the usual.