The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories, by
Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Title: Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Posting Date: September 13, 2008 [EBook #512]
Release Date: April, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines.

MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE AND OTHER STORIES

by

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Contents

The Birthmark
Young Goodman Brown
Rappaccini's Daughter
Mrs. Bullfrog
The Celestial Railroad
The Procession of Life
Feathertop: A Moralized Legend
Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent
Drowne's Wooden Image
Roger Malvin's Burial
The Artist of the Beautiful

FROM MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE

THE BIRTHMARK

In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, an
eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who not long
before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual affinity more
attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the
care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace
smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded a
beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when the
comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindred
mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it
was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in
its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination,
the spirit, and even the heart might all find their congenial aliment
in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would
ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the
philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force and
perhaps make new worlds for himself. We know not whether Aylmer
possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over Nature.
He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies
ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his
young wife