The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 33, July, 1860: A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics

In Short

This volume of The Atlantic Monthly gathers mid-nineteenth-century essays, narrative verse, serial fiction, and literary reviews into a cohesive snapshot of American intellectual life. Broad-ranging contributions explore topics from the physics of atmospheric clouds and the evolutionary deep-time implications of flint tools to historical fugitive manhunts and theatrical campus melodramas. The collection captures a crucial transitional era in American thought, bridging romantic literary sensibilities with the emerging empirical sciences. It has endured as an invaluable historical window into the pre-Civil War cultural landscape, illustrating how the era's foremost thinkers grappled with natural phenomena, legal ethics, and social change.

The Story

The volume opens with a scientific inquiry into meteorology, demystifying the atmosphere by breaking down its chemical gases, cloud variations, and wind speeds. From the mechanics of air currents, the reader is carried into narrative verse, where a mock-heroic ballad tells of King Richard the Lionheart, a stubborn Count, and a dispute over buried gold that ends in a knightly skirmish.

Transitioning from legend to regional history, the text uncovers local Maryland lore surrounding a fugitive named Talbot. An author scrutinizes long-standing rumors of an outlaw hiding in a wilderness cave with trained hunting hawks, only to test the myth against a newly recovered colonial journal. The historic record reveals real administrative conflicts under Lord Baltimore, detail by detail replacing local fable with documented political history.

The prose then shifts southward into a vivid, often tense travelogue through Central America. Travelers navigate remote Honduran villages, dealing with language barriers, aloof local officials, and desperate attempts to secure grain for their exhausted mules. Observations on local customs bleed into literary criticism as the volume ponders the tragic life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, framing his poetic genius against his social exile and complicated personal history.

Fiction takes center stage in a dramatic story of artistic obsession. A frail, sickly art student named Clarian paints a haunting mural of Macbeth's doom directly onto his room wall, collapsing under the psychological weight of his creation before finding a path toward recovery. The commentary broadens into legal philosophy, examining the heavy duty of the trial lawyer, the public's misunderstanding of jury trials, and the delicate mechanics of seeking justice in a flawed society.

The narrative arc returns to early American history, documenting the evasive maneuvers of colonial New England magistrates who quietly sheltered regicide fugitives from King Charles II’s royal messengers. Science re-emerges near the conclusion as an essayist considers Charles Darwin’s new theories, weighing deep time, archaeological flint axes found alongside extinct mammoths, and the slow transformation of species. The issue concludes with sharp reviews of contemporary popular novels and a catalog of newly published American books.

How It Unfolds

Analyzing the atmosphere An overview of meteorology presents the earth's atmosphere as a elastic, life-sustaining fluid. The author classifies cloud formations—from delicate cirrus to towering cumulus—and outlines the physical mechanics driving evaporation, rain, and winds.

Trouble over buried treasure A narrative poem depicts King Richard demanding a hoard of gold found on a Count's land. When the Count refuses to relinquish the full amount, the king hurls a herald into a tree and leads an army to besiege the fortress.

Investigating the outlaw's cave A narrator explores the Susquehanna legend of Talbot, an outlaw who supposedly lived in a cave accompanied by trained English hawks. The discovery of an authentic seventeenth-century Council Journal brings documented history to bear on the old tradition.

Journeys through Honduras Travelers ride through Honduran towns like Goascoran, clashing with unresponsive local authorities in a search for mule feed. The journey produces humorously exaggerated observations on local measurements of time and distance.

The shadow of Shelley A critical essay examines the life and legacy of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The writer weighs the poet's gentle, lofty verse against his public reputation as an impetuous, misunderstood outcast.

Painting Macbeth's doom In a darkened room lit by blue alcoholic flame, a frail young artist named Clarian unveils a terrifying mural based on Macbeth. Overwhelmed by his own sensitive nature, the boy illness forces his companions to intervene and pull him back from the brink of nervous collapse.

The defense of the advocate An essay defends the legal profession, arguing that defense lawyers fulfill a vital public duty even when representing unpopular clients. The piece contends that jury trials, despite human flaws, remain the best system for uncovering truth.

Defying the Crown in New England Colonial documents reveal how Connecticut Governor Leete and local magistrates deliberately delayed royal officers seeking to arrest fugitives. By waiting for the Sabbath or calling prolonged council meetings, they allowed the suspects time to escape.

Deep time and ancient flints A scientific treatise evaluates evolutionary theory by looking at pre-historic human tools discovered alongside extinct animal fossils. The presence of flint axes buried with mammoths expands the known timeline of human existence.

The People

• King Richard Coeur de Lion: A tempestuous, powerful monarch who demands buried gold from a vassal. When opposed, he reacts with furious strength, hurling messengers and laying siege to his opponent's castle.
• Talbot: A seventeenth-century kinsman of Lord Baltimore who fled into the Susquehanna wilderness after committing a crime. Supported by local native tribes, he lived as an outlaw accompanied by a solitary pair of trained English hawks.
• Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore: The upright Lord Proprietary of Maryland whose governor terms were marked by religious friction and political interference from the English Crown.
• The Teniente: A short-tempered traveler riding through Honduras who loses patience with uncooperative local officials, going so far as to hold a bowie-knife to an alguazil's ear to obtain supplies.
• Clarian: A delicate, intensely devoted young artist whose obsession with painting a dramatic scene from Macbeth leads to a physical and emotional breakdown.
• Dr. Thorne: A sensible, stern physician who attends to Clarian, insisting on practical rest and warning the young man's companions against pushing the fragile boy into further psychological distress.
• Governor Leete: A prudent colonial magistrate of Connecticut who quietly thwarts royal messengers by manufacturing legal delays, protecting royal fugitives without openly declaring rebellion.

In Its Own Voice

"It is a curious fact, that, while there are six varieties of compounds of nitrogen and oxygen, but one of these is fitted to sustain life, and that is our atmosphere." An opening lesson in atmospheric chemistry highlights the rare physical balance that allows life to exist on Earth.

"He caught the herald,--'twas by the slack / Of garments below and behind his back,-- / Then twirled him round for a minute; / And when at last he let him free, / He shied him at a neighboring tree..." A comical stanza illustrates King Richard's summary punishment of an unhelpful messenger.

"In plain language, these workers in flint lived in the time of the mammoth, of a rhinoceros now extinct, and along with horses and cattle unlike any now existing..." An essayist reflects on how archaeological discoveries in Europe push human history back into prehistoric eras.

What It's Really About

Beneath its variety of topics, this issue of The Atlantic Monthly centers on the tension between accepted tradition and newly discovered facts. Whether analyzing atmospheric physics, unearthing colonial court journals to disprove local legends, or evaluating fossilized flint tools, the contributors share a deep commitment to empirical evidence. The writings ask how society ought to update its understanding of history, law, and nature when confronted with new observations. Across politics, art, and science, the text argues that progress requires looking past popular prejudice and unexamined myth in order to embrace a more rigorous, grounded view of the world.

Why Read It Today

This collection will appeal to readers who enjoy intellectual history, nineteenth-century literature, and the evolution of scientific thought. Reading it feels like stepping directly into a mid-nineteenth-century parlor conversation where the leading minds of the day bounce seamlessly between physical geography, Shakespearean theater, legal philosophy, and early evolutionary biology. The prose moves with a steady, unhurried confidence that respects the reader's intelligence.

The collection is not without its historical frictions. Readers must navigate period-specific racial and cultural attitudes—particularly in the travelogues—as well as the elevated, slightly Latinate prose style common to Victorian-era periodicals. Yet these friction points are part of what makes the collection so valuable: it offers an unfiltered, authentic look at how educated Americans in 1860 thought, argued, and viewed their rapidly changing world. The enduring pleasure of the volume lies in its curiosity, capturing an era when art and science were still viewed as part of a single, unified search for truth.