accept the witch as a fact, an actual being, and expend his art upon
developing the abnormal character; while other writers, who have
attempted to use the subject for romantic ends, have uniformly taken the
historical view, and sought to extract their pathos from the effect of
the delusion on innocent persons. The historical view is that of
intelligent criticism; but Hawthorne's effort was the harbinger and
token of an original imagination.

After the publication of "Fanshawe" and the destruction of his "Seven
Tales," Hawthorne found himself advanced not so much as by a single
footstep on the road to fame. "Fame!" he exclaims, in meditation; "some
very humble persons in a town may be said to possess it,--as the
penny-post, the town-crier, the constable,--and they are known to
everybody; while many richer, more intellectual, worthier persons are
unknown by the majority of their fellow-citizens." But the fame that he
desired was, I think, only that which is the recognition by the public
that a man is on the way to truth. An outside acknowledgment of this is
invaluable even to the least vain of authors, because it assures him
that, in following his own inner impulse through every doubt and
discouragement, he has not been pursuing a chimera, and gives him new
heart for the highest enterprises of which he is capable. To attain
this, amid the peculiar surroundings of his life, was difficult enough.
At that time, Salem society was more peculiarly constituted than it has
been in later years. A strong circle of wealthy families maintained
rigorously the distinctions of class; their entertainments were
splendid, their manners magnificent, and the fame of the beautiful women
born amongst them has been confirmed by a long succession reaching into
the present day. They prescribed certain fashions, customs, punctilios,
to disregard which was social exile for the offending party; and they
were divided even among themselves, I am told, by the most inveterate