Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses From An
Old Manse"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org


Title: Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Posting Date: December 8, 2010 [EBook #9224]
Release Date: November, 2005
First Posted: September 6, 2003
Last Updated: February 6, 2007

Language: English


*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDS AND BIRD VOICES ***




Produced by David Widger.  HTML version by Al Haines.









                     MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE

                      By Nathaniel Hawthorne

                       BUDS AND BIRD VOICES



Balmy Spring--weeks later than we expected and months later than we
longed for her--comes at last to revive the moss on the roof and
walls of our old mansion.  She peeps brightly into my study-window,
inviting me to throw it open and create a summer atmosphere by the
intermixture of her genial breath with the black and cheerless
comfort of the stove.  As the casement ascends, forth into infinite
space fly the innumerable forms of thought or fancy that have kept me
company in the retirement of this little chamber during the sluggish
lapse of wintry weather; visions, gay, grotesque, and sad; pictures
of real life, tinted with nature's homely gray and russet; scenes in
dreamland, bedizened with rainbow hues which faded before they were
well laid on,--all these may vanish now, and leave me to mould a
fresh existence out of sunshine, Brooding Meditation may flap her
dusky wings and take her owl-like Right, blinking amid the
cheerfulness of noontide.  Such companions befit the season of
frosted window-panes and crackling fires, when the blast howls
through the black-ash trees of our avenue and the drifting snow-storm
chokes up the wood-paths and fills the highway from stone wall
to stone wall.  In the spring and summer time all sombre thoughts
should follow the winter northward with the sombre and thoughtful
crows. The old paradisiacal economy of life is again in force; we
live, not to think or to labor, but for the simple end of being
happy. Nothing for the present hour is worthy of man's infinite
capacity save to imbibe the warm smile of heaven and sympathize with
the reviving earth.

The present Spring comes onward with fleeter footsteps, because
Winter lingered so unconscionably long that with her best diligence
she can hardly retrieve half the allotted period of her reign.  It
is but a fortnight since I stood on the brink of our swollen river
and beheld the accumulated ice of four frozen months go down the
stream.  Except in streaks here and there upon the hillsides, the
whole visible universe was then covered with deep snow, the
nethermost layer of which had been deposited by an early December
storm.  It was a sight to make the beholder torpid, in the
impossibility of imagining how this vast white napkin was to be
removed from the face of the corpse-like world in less time than had
been required to spread it there.  But who can estimate the power of
gentle influences, whether amid material desolation or the moral
winter of man's heart?  There have been no tempestuous rains, even
no sultry days, but a constant breath of southern winds, with now a
day of kindly sunshine, and now a no less kindly mist or a soft
descent of showers, in which a smile and a blessing seemed to have
been steeped.  The snow has vanished as if by magic; whatever heaps
may be hidden in the woods and deep gorges of the hills, only two
solitary specks remain in the landscape; and those I shall almost
regret to miss when to-morrow I look for them in vain.  Never
before, methinks, has spring pressed so closely on the footsteps of
retreating winter.  Along the roadside the green blades of grass
have sprouted on the very edge of the snow-drifts.  The pastures and
mowing-fields have not vet assumed a general aspect of verdure; but
neither have they the cheerless-brown tint which they wear in latter
autumn when vegetation has entirely ceased; there is now a faint
shadow of life, gradually brightening into the warm reality.  Some
tracts in a happy exposure,--as, for instance, yonder southwestern
slope of an orchard, in front of that old red farm-house beyond the
river,--such patches of land already wear a beautiful and tender
green, to which no future luxuriance can add a charm.  It looks
unreal; a prophecy, a hope, a transitory effect of sonic peculiar
light, which will vanish with the slightest motion of the eye.  But
beauty is never a delusion; not these verdant tracts, but the dark
and barren landscape all around them, is a shadow and a dream.  Each
moment wins seine portion of the earth from death to life; a sudden
gleam of verdure brightens along the sunny slope of a bank which an
instant ago was brown and bare.  You look again, and behold an
apparition of green grass!

The trees in our orchard and elsewhere are as yet naked, but already
appear full of life and vegetable blood.  It seems as if by one
magic touch they might instantaneously burst into full foliage, and
that the wind which now sighs through their naked branches might
make sudden music amid innumerable leaves.  The mossgrown
willow-tree which for forty years past has overshadowed these western
windows will be among the first to put on its green attire.  There
are some objections to the willow; it is not a dry and cleanly tree,
and impresses the beholder with an association of sliminess.  No
trees, I think, are perfectly agreeable as companions unless they
have glossy leaves, dry bark, and a firm and hard texture of trunk
and branches.  But the willow is almost the earliest to gladden us
with the promise and reality of beauty in its graceful and delicate
foliage, and the last to scatter its yellow yet scarcely withered
leaves upon the ground.  All through the winter, too, its yellow
twigs give it a sunny aspect, which is not without a cheering
influence even in the grayest and gloomiest day.  Beneath a clouded
sky it faithfully remembers the sunshine.  Our old house would lose
a charm were the willow to be cut down, with its golden crown over
the snow-covered roof and its heap of summer verdure.

The lilac-shrubs under my study-windows are likewise almost in leaf:
in two or three days more I may put forth my hand and pluck the
topmost bough in its freshest green.  These lilacs are very aged,
and have lost the luxuriant foliage of their prime.  The heart, or
the judgment, or the moral sense, or the taste is dissatisfied with
their present aspect.  Old age is not venerable when it embodies
itself in lilacs, rose-bushes, or any other ornamental shrub; it
seems as if such plants, as they grow only for beauty, ought to
flourish always in immortal youth, or, at least, to die before their
sad decrepitude.  Trees of beauty are trees of paradise, and
therefore not subject to decay by their original nature, though they
have lost that precious birthright by being transplanted to an
earthly soil.  There is a kind of ludicrous unfitness in the idea of
a time-stricken and grandfatherly lilac-bush.  The analogy holds
good in human life. Persons who can only be graceful and ornamental--who
can give the world nothing but flowers--should die young, and
never be seen with gray hair and wrinkles, any more than the
flower-shrubs with mossy bark and blighted foliage, like the lilacs under
my window. Not that beauty is worthy of less than immortality; no,
the beautiful should live forever,--and thence, perhaps, the sense
of impropriety when we see it triumphed over by time.  Apple-trees,
on the other hand, grow old without reproach.  Let them live as long
as they may, and contort themselves into whatever perversity of
shape they please, and deck their withered limbs with a springtime
gaudiness of pink blossoms; still they are respectable, even if they
afford us only an apple or two in a season.  Those few apples--or,
at all events, the remembrance of apples in bygone years--are the
atonement which utilitarianism inexorably demands for the privilege
of lengthened life.  Human flower-shrubs, if they will grow old on
earth, should, besides their lovely blossoms, bear some kind of
fruit that will satisfy earthly appetites, else neither man nor the
decorum of nature will deem it fit that the moss should gather on
them.

One of the first things that strikes the attention when the white
sheet of winter is withdrawn is the neglect and disarray that lay
hidden beneath it.  Nature is not cleanly according to our
prejudices.  The beauty of preceding years, now transformed to brown
and blighted deformity, obstructs the brightening loveliness of the
present hour.  Our avenue is strewn with the whole crop of autumn's
withered leaves.  There are quantities of decayed branches which one
tempest after another has flung down, black and rotten, and one or
two with the ruin of a bird's-nest clinging to them.  In the garden
are the dried bean-vines, the brown stalks of the asparagus-bed, and
melancholy old cabbages which were frozen into the soil before their
unthrifty cultivator could find time to gather them.  How
invariably, throughout all the forms of life, do we find these
intermingled memorials of death!  On the soil of thought and in the
garden of the heart, as well as in the sensual world, he withered
leaves,--the ideas and feelings that we have done with.  There is no
wind strong enough to sweep them away; infinite space will not
garner then from our sight.  What mean they?  Why may we not be
permitted to live and enjoy, as if this were the first life and our
own the primal enjoyment, instead of treading always on these dry
hones and mouldering relics, from the aged accumulation of which
springs all that now appears so young and new?  Sweet must have been
the springtime of Eden, when no earlier year had strewn its decay
upon the virgin turf and no former experience had ripened into
summer and faded into autumn in the hearts of its inhabitants! That
was a world worth living in.  O then murmurer, it is out of the very
wantonness of such a life that then feignest these idle
lamentations.  There is no decay.  Each human soul is the first-created
inhabitant of its own Eden.  We dwell in an old moss-covered
mansion, and tread in the worn footprints of the past, and have a
gray clergyman's ghost for our daily and nightly inmate; yet all
these outward circumstances are made less than visionary by the
renewing power of the spirit.  Should the spirit ever lose this
power,--should the withered leaves, and the rotten branches, and the
moss-covered house, and the ghost of the gray past ever become its
realities, and the verdure and the freshness merely its faint
dream,--then let it pray to be released from earth.  It will need
the air of heaven to revive its pristine energies.

What an unlooked-for flight was this from our shadowy avenue of
black-ash and balm of Gilead trees into the infinite!  Now we have
our feet again upon the turf.  Nowhere does the grass spring up so
industriously as in this homely yard, along the base of the stone
wall, and in the sheltered nooks of the buildings, and especially
around the southern doorstep,--a locality which seems particularly
favorable to its growth, for it is already tall enough to bend over
and wave in the wind.  I observe that several weeds--and most
frequently a plant that stains the fingers with its yellow juice--have
survived and retained their freshness and sap throughout the
winter.  One knows not how they have deserved such an exception from
the common lot of their race.  They are now the patriarchs of the
departed year, and may preach mortality to the present generation of
flowers and weeds.

Among the delights of spring, how is it possible to forget the
birds?  Even the crows were welcome as the sable harbingers of a
brighter and livelier race.  They visited us before the snow was
off, but seem mostly to have betaken themselves to remote depths of
the woods, which they haunt all summer long.  Many a time shall I
disturb them there, and feel as if I had intruded among a company of
silent worshippers, as they sit in Sabbath stillness among the
tree-tops.  Their voices, when they speak, are in admirable accordance
with the tranquil solitude of a summer afternoon; and resounding so
far above the head, their loud clamor increases the religious quiet
of the scene instead of breaking it.  A crow, however, has no real
pretensions to religion, in spite of his gravity of mien and black
attire; he is certainly a thief, and probably an infidel.  The gulls
are far more respectable, in a moral point of view.  These denizens
of seabeaten rocks and haunters of the lonely beach come up our
inland river at this season, and soar high overhead, flapping their
broad wings in the upper sunshine.  They are among the most
picturesque of birds, because they so float and rest upon the air as
to become almost stationary parts of the landscape.  The imagination
has time to grow acquainted with them; they have not flitted away in
a moment.  You go up among the clouds and greet these lofty-flighted
gulls, and repose confidently with them upon the sustaining
atmosphere.  Duck's have their haunts along the solitary places of
the river, and alight in flocks upon the broad bosom of the
overflowed meadows.  Their flight is too rapid and determined for
the eye to catch enjoyment from it, although it never fails to stir
up the heart with the sportsman's ineradicable instinct.  They have
now gone farther northward, but will visit us again in autumn.

The smaller birds,--the little songsters of the woods, and those
that haunt man's dwellings and claim human friendship by building
their nests under the sheltering eaves or among the orchard trees,--these
require a touch more delicate and a gentler heart than mine to
do them justice.  Their outburst of melody is like a brook let loose
from wintry chains.  We need not deem it a too high and solemn word
to call it a hymn of praise to the Creator; since Nature, who
pictures the reviving year in so many sights of beauty, has
expressed the sentiment of renewed life in no other sound save the
notes of these blessed birds.  Their music, however, just now, seems
to be incidental, and not the result of a set purpose.  They are
discussing the economy of life and love and the site and
architecture of their summer residences, and have no time to sit on
a twig and pour forth solemn hymns, or overtures, operas,
symphonies, and waltzes.  Anxious questions are asked; grave
subjects are settled in quick and animated debate; and only by
occasional accident, as from pure ecstasy, does a rich warble roll
its tiny waves of golden sound through the atmosphere.  Their little
bodies are as busy as their voices; they are all a constant flutter
and restlessness.  Even when two or three retreat to a tree-top to
hold council, they wag their tails and heads all the time with the
irrepressible activity of their nature, which perhaps renders their
brief span of life in reality as long as the patriarchal age of
sluggish man.  The blackbirds, three species of which consort
together, are the noisiest of all our feathered citizens.  Great
companies of them--more than the famous "four-and-twenty" whom
Mother Goose has immortalized--congregate in contiguous treetops and
vociferate with all the clamor and confusion of a turbulent
political meeting.  Politics, certainly, must be the occasion of
such tumultuous debates; but still, unlike all other politicians,
they instil melody into their individual utterances and produce
harmony as a general effect.  Of all bird voices, none are more
sweet and cheerful to my ear than those of swallows, in the dim,
sunstreaked interior of a lofty barn; they address the heart with
even a closer sympathy than robin-redbreast.  But, indeed, all these
winged people, that dwell in the vicinity of homesteads, seem to
partake of human nature, and possess the germ, if not the
development, of immortal souls.  We hear them saying their melodious
prayers at morning's blush and eventide.  A little while ago, in the
deep of night, there came the lively thrill of a bird's note from a
neighboring tree,--a real song, such as greets the purple dawn or
mingles with the yellow sunshine.  What could the little bird mean
by pouring it forth at midnight? Probably the music gushed out of
the midst of a dream in which he fancied himself in paradise with
his mate, but suddenly awoke on a cold leafless bough, with a New
England mist penetrating through his feathers.  That was a sad
exchange of imagination for reality.

Insects are among the earliest births of sprung.  Multitudes of I
know not what species appeared long ago on the surface of the snow.
Clouds of them, almost too minute for sight, hover in a beam of
sunshine, and vanish, as if annihilated, when they pass into the
shade.  A mosquito has already been heard to sound the small horror
of his bugle-horn.  Wasps infest the sunny windows of the house.  A
bee entered one of the chambers with a prophecy of flowers.  Rare
butterflies came before the snow was off, flaunting in the chill
breeze, and looking forlorn and all astray, in spite of the
magnificence of their dark velvet cloaks, with golden borders.

The fields and wood-paths have as yet few charms to entice the
wanderer.  In a walk, the other day, I found no violets, nor
anemones, nor anything in the likeness of a flower.  It was worth
while, however, to ascend our opposite hill for the sake of gaining
a general idea of the advance of spring, which I had hitherto been
studying in its minute developments.  The river lay around me in a
semicircle, overflowing all the meadows which give it its Indian
name, and offering a noble breadth to sparkle in the sunbeams.
Along the hither shore a row of trees stood up to their knees in
water; and afar off, on the surface of the stream, tufts of bushes
thrust up their heads, as it were, to breathe. The most striking
objects were great solitary trees here and there, with a mile-wide
waste of water all around them.  The curtailment of the trunk, by
its immersion in the river, quite destroys the fair proportions of
the tree, and thus makes us sensible of a regularity and propriety
in the usual forms of nature.  The flood of the present
season--though it never amounts to a freshet on our quiet stream--has
encroached farther upon the land than any previous one for at least
a score of years.  It has overflowed stone fences, and even rendered
a portion of the highway navigable for boats.

The waters, however, are now gradually subsiding; islands become
annexed to the mainland; and other islands emerge, like new
creations, from the watery waste.  The scene supplies an admirable
image of the receding of the Nile, except that there is no deposit
of black slime; or of Noah's flood, only that there is a freshness
and novelty in these recovered portions of the continent which give
the impression of a world just made rather than of one so polluted
that a deluge had been requisite to purify it.  These upspringing
islands are the greenest spots in the landscape; the first gleam of
sunlight suffices to cover them with verdure.

Thank Providence for spring!  The earth--and man himself, by
sympathy with his birthplace would be far other than we find them if
life toiled wearily onward without this periodical infusion of the
primal spirit.  Will the world ever be so decayed that spring may
not renew its greenness?  Can man be so dismally age stricken that
no faintest sunshine of his youth may revisit him once a year?  It
is impossible.  The moss on our time-worn mansion brightens into
beauty; the good old pastor who once dwelt here renewed his prime,
regained his boyhood, in the genial breezes of his ninetieth spring.
Alas for the worn and heavy soul if, whether in youth or age, it
have outlived its privilege of springtime sprightliness!  From such
a soul the world must hope no reformation of its evil, no sympathy
with the lofty faith and gallant struggles of those who contend in
its behalf.  Summer works in the present, and thinks not of the
future; autumn is a rich conservative; winter has utterly lost its
faith, and clings tremulously to the remembrance of what has been;
but spring, with its outgushing life, is the true type of the
movement.









End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses
From An Old Manse"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDS AND BIRD VOICES ***

***** This file should be named 9224.txt or 9224.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
        https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/2/9224/

Produced by David Widger.  HTML version by Al Haines.

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.



*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
https://gutenberg.org/license).


Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works

1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.  See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.

1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.

1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.

1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.

1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that

- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."

- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
     License.  You must require such a user to return or
     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
     Project Gutenberg-tm works.

- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
     of receipt of the work.

- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.

1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.

1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.


Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm

Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.


Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.

The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected].  Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at https://pglaf.org

For additional contact information:
     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
     Chief Executive and Director
     [email protected]


Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit https://pglaf.org

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate


Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.

Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.


Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.


Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:

     https://www.gutenberg.org

This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.