Linguistics

Language is the primary thing in human life. Human and language can not separate because language use as communication tool than can help human to interact each other. According to Chomsky, language is one characteristic that is unique to humans among all other living beings. Philosophy of language are the collection of results of philosophers’ minds about basic concepts of language that systematically arranged to be studied by using a particular method and also methods of thinking deeply, logical, and universal about the nature of language. Philosophy of language can be seen from two points of view. First, the philosophy of language is seen as a science and second, the philosophy of language is seen as a method. If viewed as a science, philosophy of language refers to the collection of the results of the minds of philosophers of language systematically arranged to be studied by using a particular method. If viewed as a method of thinking, philosophy of language refers to the method of thinking in depth, logical, and universal about the nature of language (Hidayat, 2009: 13). Philosophy of language is the combination of linguistic and philosophy.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. This could solve the complicatedness of language such as form, function, meaning, value and ideology. According to Robin, there are four point of view of linguistics:

·         Descriptive Linguistics

Descriptive linguistics considered with the description and analysis of the ways in which a language operates and used by a given a set of speakers at a given time.

·         Historical Linguistics

Historical linguistics is the study of the developments in language in the course of time of the ways in which language change from period to period, and the course and result of such changes, both outside the language and within them.

·         Comparative Linguistics

Comparative linguistics is concerned with comparing from one or more point of view two or more different languages and more generally with the theory and techniques applicable to such comparisons.

·         Prescriptive Linguistics

Prescriptive linguistics is a grammar which states rules for what is considered the best or most correct usage.

There are three subdivision of linguistics which are microlinguistics, macrolinguitics, and applied linguistics. Microlinguistics deals with the internal structure of language like the structure of phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. Meanwhile Macrolinguistics deals with the relation of the language with all the aspects beyond of the language itself. For example: social factors, psychology, anthropology, and neurology. Applied linguistics is the application of the concepts and findings of linguistics to a variety of practical tasks, including language-teaching.

There are some linguistics objects that include in microlingutics such as:

1.       Phonology. Phonology is the study of the sound systems of languages, and of the general or universal properties displayed by these systems. In phonology, there are concept like phonetics which is the study of the physical and physiological aspects of human sound production and perception; generally divided into articulatory, acoustic, and auditory branches.

2.      Morphology. Morphology is the branch of grammar that studies how words are formed from morphemes. In morphology, there are concepts like free and bound morpheme. Free morpheme is a morpheme which can stand alone to make a word by itself. Contrasts with bound morpheme which is a morpheme which cannot stand alone to make a word, but must be combined with something else within a word.

3.      Syntax. Syntax is the study of the rules governing the way words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and sentences. In syntax, there is concept like adjunct which is an optional element of a grammatical construction, whose removal does not affect the structural identity of the construction.

4.      Semantics. Semantics is the study of meaning in language; in generative grammar: how the meanings of words combine to form complex meanings of phrases and sentences. In semantics, there are concept like synonymy, hyponymy and opposites. Synonymy is the relationship between two expressions that have the same sense. Hyponymy is the relationship between expressions such that the meaning of one expression is included in the meaning of the other. Opposites is the relationship of being "opposite in meaning".

Contrast with microlingutics, macrolingutics also have object such as:

1.      Pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of the use of language in context. In pragmatics, there is ethnography of communication concept proposed by Dell Hymes (1974) often used for describing context consist of setting (scene), participants, ends, act sequence, key, instruments, norms, genre.

2.      Sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society. In sociolinguistics study, there are concept like dialect and variety. Dialect is a variety of a language used recognizably in a specific region or social by a specific social class. Variety is a term used to denote any identifiable kind of language.

3.      Psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics is a branch of study which combines the disciplines of psychology and linguistics. It has been heavily influenced by the work of Noam Chomsky, and it mostly concerns with the encoding and decoding of meaning in speech. The concept is like language acquisition which is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

In applied linguistics, there are object like translation and language-teaching in order of practical tasks. Translation is the process of transferring text from one language into another. In translation, the concept is like borrowing which is a translation procedure whereby the translator uses a word or expression from the source text in the target text unmodified.

References:

Hidayat, Asep Ahmad. 2009. Filsafat Bahasa, Mengungkap Hakikat Bahasa, Makna dan Tanda. Cetekan kedua. Bandung : Remaja Rosdakarya.

Hymes, Dell. 1974. Foundations of Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P.

Introduction to General Linguistics, Winter term 2011/12.

http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~sam/teach/IntroGenLing/terms.html

Robins, RH. 1990. General Linguistics: An Introduction Survey. London: Longman.

Some Semantic Terminology. http://public.wsu.edu/~gordonl/S04/256/semantic_terms.htm

Animal Farm

 Secara umum, tokoh Napoleon melambangkan pemerintah yang akhirnya menjadi diktaktor, bisa jadi Soeharto, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein , Augusto Pinochet,Slobodan Milošević dll. Peternakan Hewan juga dapat melambangkan negara-negara yang mereka perintah, baik Indonesia, RRC, Kuba,Uganda, Irak, Chili, Yugoslavia, dll.

George Orwell adalah salah seorang dari kelompok radikal itu. Ia mengarang Animal Farm sebagai sebuah aksi protesnya terhadap keresahan politik yang terjadi pada masanya. Animal Farm memiliki kelebihan satu dimensi dibandingkan karya lain sastra pada umumnya. Dimensi pertama, yang dimiliki semua jenis karya sastra, adalah nilai olahan imajinasi manusia terhadap lingkungannya, sedangkan yang kedua adalah nilai fungsional yang terkandung di dalamnya, yaitu unsur kritik.

        Animal Farm adalah sebuah karya yang benar-benar unik. Sebagai sebuah cerita fabel, ia mampu menghadirkan drama kehidupan sebuah kerajaan binatang yang dipenuhi dengan khayalan yang menyakinkan dan hampir nyata; satu-satunya hal yang mustahil adalah kemampuan para binatang itu untuk berpikir, sementara tindak-tanduk mereka dalam cerita itu merupakan perilaku normal binatang yang diolah sedemikian rupa sehingga mengangkat permasalahan moral antara  baik dan buruk yang biasa muncul dalam cerita-cerita fabel dikalangan anak-anak. Contohnya Orwell dapat saja mengutarakan tentang bahayanya sikap mementingkan kepentingan sendiri yang terjadi pada diri Mr. Jones yang diusir dari peternakannya sendiri atau mungkin memakai ilustrasi diri Old Major sebagai teladan pemimpin yang baik untuk ditiru. 

        Sedangkan bila dilihat melalui kacamata pihak lain, di tangan pembaca yang sedikit lebih dewasa, cerita ini adalah sebuah karya sastra luar biasa yang mengkritik habis-habisan terhadap ide sosialisme yang dipercayai dapat mengatasi masalah ketidakadilan yang terjadi pada masa itu. Para tokoh binatang dalam cerita sebenarnya dapat menjadi perwakilan dari tokoh manusia yang benar-benar hidup di dunia nyata. Tokoh yang paling jelas mewakili seseorang di kehidupan nyata adalah Napoleon, yang secara kebetulan (?) mirip dengan tokoh Napoleon Bonaparte dari Perancis yang telah melakukan banyak perubahan sistem dalam Reformasi Perancis. Walaupun begitu, penafsiran ini tidak hanya berhenti pada Bonaparte saja, melainkan dapat dikembangkan pada tokoh-tokoh sejarah lainnya yang akan dibahas pada beberapa bagian di depan.

        Kisah yang terjadi pada suatu masa di sebuah peternakan di Inggris itu memakai metode penceritaan melalui sudut pandang orang ketiga. Orwell membatasi dirinya pada deskripsi badaniah, tanpa menyentuh alam pikiran para tokoh dalam ceritanya. Pemilihan sudut pandang orang ketiga ini memberikan efek yang cukup bagus karena membuat pembaca dapat mengalir perlahan bersama-sama dengan para binatang yang ada di dalam cerita itu. Sebagaimana para binatang tidak mengetahui perubahan yang terjadi pada kehidupan kaum babi, begitupula pembaca tidak memiliki perkiraan sedikitpun bahwa babi-babi itu dikemudian hari akan menjadi agen pengacau dalam cerita tersebut. Pada bab ketiga, dengan metode ini, Orwell menuliskan seperti ini:

        The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. [halaman 25]

        Pembaca pada umumnya akan menaruh simpati yang cukup besar, apalagi bila mengingat bahwa Old Major juga seekor babi, pada kaum babi yang memiliki sikap kepemimpinan tersebut, sama seperti para binatang lainnya yang pada awalnya sungguh menghormati kaum babi itu di Animal Farm. Kemudian   Orwell melanjutkannya  dengan narasi “the pigs with their cleverness and boxer with his tremendous muscles always pulled them through.” [halaman 26], lalu “It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions.”  Secara tidak sadar, pembaca dibawa kepada suatu fakta bahwa babi-babi itu berhati mulia, sampai akhirnya pembaca sampai pada kalimat berikut:

        Snowball and Napoleon were far most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted on to oppose it. Even when it was resolved – a thing no one could object to in itself – to set aside a small paddock behind the orchard as a home of rest for animals who were past work, there was a stormy debate over the correct retiring age for each class of animal. [halaman 28]

        Masyarakat Rusia dan dunia pada saat itu juga telah melalui beberapa tingkatan yang mirip dengan penguraian Orwell dalam Animal Farm. Sewaktu pertama kali muncul, faham sosialis itu merupakan sebuah balsam sejuk bagi ‘luka-luka’ yang dialami oleh kelas menengah ke bawah. Social gap yang disebabkan oleh prinsip kapitalisme telah membuat kepahitan yang besar, dan ketika seorang yang berlatar belakang agamawan muncul dengan membawakan dunia ideal yang terjamin kesamaan hak, maka orang tersebut beserta dengan faham yang ia bawa akan segera disambut dengan loyalitas yang tinggi. 

        Sampai pada suatu titik, beberapa orang dari kelas bawah itu mulai menyadari bahwa telah terjadi beberapa penyimpangan dan semakin lama justru politik yang dijalankan semakin jauh dari jalan sosialisme yang telah dijanjikan sebelumnya. Orwell adalah salah seorang dari mereka yang memiliki keberanian, kesempatan, dan kemampuan untuk menyuarakan fakta yang sebenarnya terjadi kepada sisa rakyat yang belum tersadarkan.  Animal Farm pertama kali diterbitkan pada tahun 1945. Sebagai sebuah karya satir, Orwell mengalami kesulitan untuk menerbitkannya di Inggris, karena saat itu Rusia masih merupakan negara partner dengan Inggris.

        Dalam novelnya, jika Orwell memakai sudut pandang orang pertama, pasti ia sudah harus menuliskan pikiran dan rencana tokoh utamanya sejak semula dan dengan demikian ia tidak dapat mengadakan sebuah turning point yang mengejutkan bahwa babi-babi itu adalah kaum yang bermasalah; disinilah letak kejelian Orwell dalam memilih sudut pandang orang ketiga tersebut. Lagipula, bila Orwell memakai sudut pandang orang pertama dan memilih untuk berbicara melalui Napoleon (karena dialah yang menjadi tokoh paling sentral dalam cerita), maka Orwell akan mau tidak mau harus menceritakan jalan pikiran Napoleon dan ini membuat pembaca tidak bersimpati pada tokoh ini.

        Selain itu, Orwell juga lebih banyak menggunakan narasi daripada menyajikan kutipan pembicaraan antara para tokoh dalam ceritanya. Kutipan dialog-dialog yang panjang hanya terdapat pada awal dari cerita saja, yaitu bab pertama. Selanjutnya mulai dari bab kedua, Orwell kembali pada metode narasi murni, sambil sesekali mengadakan kutipan pembicaraan demi menjaga jalan cerita tidak terlalu membosankan dan terasa hidup.

        Pengutipan langsung dari dialog biasanya dipakai untuk menunjukkan bahwa suatu pembicaraan itu dapat dianggap penting. Bila diperhatikan lebih lanjut, ternyata kutipan dialog-dialog yang sedikit tersebut pun memiliki tujuan khusus. Orwell berusaha menunjukkan bahwa dalam kehidupan sosialisme pun, dimana keadilan dan kesamaan hak dijanjikan dengan penuh semangat, kebebasan berbicara tidak mendapat porsi yang adil. Orwell mengatur agar sebagian besar kutipan langsung dari dialog yang ada dalam novelnya berasal dari ucapan kaum pemimpin (babi). Secara tidak langsung hal ini menggambarkan bahwa kemampuan untuk mengeluarkan pendapat hanya berada pada pihak pemerintah. Lebih lanjut lagi, bila terdapat kutipan dialog dari seekor (atau seorang) binatang yang tidak termasuk kaum babi, maka pembaca dapat menemukan bahwa sang pembicara itu akan segera mendapat sanggahan dari pemerintah yang tidak setuju terhadap ucapannya yang vokal itu. Perhatikan 2 contoh berikut ini:

        ‘He fought bravely at the Battle of Cowshed,’ said somebody.
        ‘Bravery is not enough,’ said Squealer. ‘Loyalty and obedience are more important. And as to the Battle of Cowshed, I believe that the time will come when we shall find that Snowball’s part in it was much exaggerated.’ [halaman 50]

        ‘What victory?’ said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe and split his hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged themselves in his hindleg.
        ‘What victory comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil – the sacred soil of Animal Farm?’ cried Squealer. [halaman 90]

        Bila pembaca berpikir sejenak, sebenarnya pemakaian sudut pandang orang ketiga itu juga merupakan metode yang baik sekali bagi sebuah karya yang mengandung unsur kritik sosial. Hal ini membuat pembaca merasa bahwa deskripsi alur dan penokohan  di sana  dapat sepenuhnya dipercaya karena si pembicara (speaker) bukan berasal dari golongan manusia (pemerintahan pertama), babi (pemerintahan kedua), ataupun dari binatang lainnya yang tinggal di Animal Farm (rakyat). Orwell dengan mudah memanipulasi karakter-karakter binatang di sana untuk memenuhi kriteria seorang pemimpin atau pemerintah (dalam kehidupan nyata).   

        Cara Orwell mengasosiasikan karakter binatang itu dengan manusia di kehidupan nyata sangatlah unik. Novel itu dapat dikatakan sebagai sebuah cara Orwell untuk mengeluarkan pendapatnya mengenai faham Stalin dan Revolusi Rusia pada tahun 1945.  Oleh sebab itu ia memilih seekor babi bernama Napoleon sebagai major character dalam ceritanya. Sebagaimana telah disebutkan di atas, selain memiliki kemiripan dengan Napoleon Bonaparte dari Perancis, sebenarnya Napoleon dalam fabel Animal Farm merupakan sebuah perbandingan langsung terhadap Joseph Stalin.

        Orwell percaya bahwa sekalipun sosialisme merupakan sebuah pemikiran ideal yang baik, hal itu tidak mungkin dapat tercapai karena keadaan moral manusia yang sudah jatuh dan tak dapat terkendali. Keadaan Napoleon yang berakhir dengan kehausan akan kekuasaan sebenarnya juga dapat terjadi pada diri Snowball yang pada sepertinya memiliki program yang lebih baik. Sebelum menjadi seorang yang bergerak di dunia politik, Stalin adalah seorang anak muda yang menjalani pendidikan di sebuah sekolah teologi. Sampai pada suatu saat ia membaca sebuah buku terlarang yang berjudul Das Kapital, maka ia mulai terjun dalam paham Marxisme Rusia dan terlibat dalam kegerakan-kegerakan revolusioner di masa itu. Tetapi setelah berhasil berjaya, perlahan-lahan ia mulai meninggalkan ideologi sosialis itu dan memfokuskan diri pada ambisi dan kepentingan pribadi, sama seperti yang terjadi pada novel Animal Farm:

        Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer--except, of course for the pigs and the dogs.  

        Orwell juga tidak tanggung-tanggung dalam usahanya untuk menyempitkan penafsiran fabelnya pada pribadi Stalin. Dalam Animal Farm,Napoleon selalu di kawal oleh sejumlah anjing-anjing yang tidak pernah berbicara selain menggeram dan membungkam lawan. Ini merupakan  suatu hal yang menarik karena semua binatang di Animal Farm dapat berbicara, kecuali anjing-anjing tersebut. Padahal anjing itu sudah sedari kecil dipisahkan oleh Napoleon untuk dididik secara khusus, lalu mengapa mereka tidak dapat berbicara?

        It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to nine sturdy puppies. As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education. [halaman 31]

        Alasan Orwell adalah karena ia ingin mengidentifikasikan mereka dengan agen-agen KGB yang bergerak sebagai pasukan khusus yang ‘mengurusi’ lawan-lawan politik dari Stalin. Kata ‘education’ yang dimaksudkan oleh Napoleon sebenarnya adalah proses indoktrinasi. Napoleon tidak pernah berniat untuk memiliki rakyat yang pintar karena hal itu dapat membahayakan posisinya sebagai penguasa. Bagi para rakyatnya, indoktrinasi diberikan agar mereka tidak percaya dan tunduk terhadap Napoleon, sedangkan bagi anjing-anjing, indoktrinasi dilakukan sedini mungkin agar mereka dibesarkan dengan nilai loyalitas yang tinggi kepada kekuasaan pemimpin. Dalam sejarah, salah seorang lawan politik Stalin, Trotsky, di’bungkam’ dengan bantuan kekuatan pasukan khusus ini. Hal yang sama dilakukan oleh Orwell dalam ceritanya, yaitu Napoleon menyingkirkan keberadaan Snowball melalui pasukan anjingnya.

        Di sisi Napoleon, terdapat seekor tokoh yang sangat berkharisma dalam Animal Farm. Pengaruhnya adalah faktor yang paling menentukan dalam keberhasilan Napoleon untuk tetap berkuasa hingga akhir cerita:

        The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer.... He was a briliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very pesuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white. [halaman 16]

        Kekuatan pengaruh perkataan Squealer sangat mengagumkan dan dapat disejajarkan dengan kekuatan media massa di kehidupan nyata. Satu-satunya media massa yang sudah berkembang saat Stalin berkuasa adalah media cetak. Koran menjadi penghubung antara pemerintah dengan rakyat dan melaluinya propanda-propaganda yang mengubah ‘black into white’ ditebarkan ke pikiran masyarakat. Dengan bantuan Squealer, setiap rancangan jahat yang dibangun oleh Napoleon dapat ditutupi dengan perkataan manis sehingga tidak tercium sama sekali. 

        Pekerjaan yang dilakukan oleh Squealer ini merupakan sebuah cara indoktrinasi untuk mendukung politik Napoleon. Sepanjang alur maju yang digunakannya, Orwell terus-menerus menyisipkan proses indoktrinasi tersebut. Pada awalnya ia memakai bahasa yang cukup lembut, yaitu pendidikan. Seiring dengan berkembangnya konflik dan bertambah suramnya kehidupan di Animal Farm (menuju akhir yang antiklimaks), perlahan Orwell mulai menyingkapkan bahwa pendidikan yang dirancang tidaklah lain dari rancangan propaganda semata. Para binatang itu, selain babi, diajari membaca hanya untuk dapat membaca The Seven Commandments, yang dikemudian hari akan diubah menjadi dalil yang menguntungkan para babi.

        Dalam Animal Farm, faktor setting juga memiliki hubungan pararel dengan kehidupan manusia yang sebenarnya. Orwell tampaknya benar-benar berusaha mendekatkan novel kepada kehidupan nyata yang berusaha ia kritik. Bangunan rumah di peternakan yang menjadi tempat dimana para babi tidur, adalah sebuah penyamaran dari Kremlin yang merupakan tempat tinggal Stalin sewaktu berkuasa. Bangunan itu menjadi sebuah markas besar bagi dua buah kekuatan politik yang berusaha saling menjatuhkan satu sama lainnya, Kapitalisme (Mr. Jones) dan Sosialisme (Napoleon). Lalu kincir angin (windmill) adalah sebuah simbol dari kegerakan industri Rusia yang didominasi oleh kelas pekerja. Clover dan Benjamin adalah dua tokoh yangs sangat jelas mewakili kehidupan kelas pekerja. Sedangkan kehancuran yang dialami oleh kincir itu adalah metafor dari kegagalan sebuah program yang bernama Five Year Plan. Five Year Plan adalah sebuah program yang bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kehidupan ekonomi dan kebudayaan rakyat Rusia; hal ini sejalan dengan rancangan Squealer atas konsep kincirnya. Hampir setiap unsur di ceritanya merupakan hasil pengolahan yang sempurna demi mencapai maksud kritisismenya.

        Seumur hidupnya, Orwell terkenal dengan karya-karyanya yang sarat dengan muatan pararel antara pengalaman dan politik. Bukunya yang pertama, Down and Out in Paris and London, adalah sebuah kisah tentang kemiskinan dan tunawisma yang merupakan hasil observasi yang dilakukannya sendiri. Selanjutnya, Burmese Days bercerita tentang imperialisme Inggris yang ia alami saat di Birma. Buku-buku karangannya terbitannya kerap kali bernada tajam terhadap pemerintah dan gejolak yang terjadi dimasanya. Mungkin itulah sebabnya ia tidak memakai nama aslinya, Eric Arthur Blair. Dalam Animal Farm, ia menyatakan kepesimisannya terhadap gerakan revolusi. Ide atau tema  yang berusaha ia nyatakan adalah bahwa semua bentuk revolusi cenderung gagal karena akan selalu ada seseorang yang terlalu vokal dalam memimpin dan pada akhirnya tidak mampu mengendalikan dirinya sendiri.

Cerita di atas adalah ringkasan dari satire Animal Farm (Ladang Binatang) yang ditulis Eric Blair alias George Orwell, dan diterbitkan pada tahun yang sama dengan kelahiran Ladang Binatang yang bernama Indonesia, pada 1945. Meskipun cerita tersebut adalah refleksi dari revolusi Bolshevik yang melahirkan kuasa tirani atau totalitarian baru, Uni Soviet, serta kritikan Orwell terhadap Joseph Stalin yang menyingkirkan Leon Trotsky--lawan politik beraliran social democrat itu, akan tetapi tak dapat disanggah bahwa alur cerita tersebut sesungguhnya melukiskan perjalanan sejarah bangsa Acheh. Suatu bangsa yang terlibat dalam setidaknya tiga kali revolusi dengan maksud membangun Ladang Binatang yang merdeka, makmur dan sejahtera, yang kesemuanya berakhir dengan penderitaan. Akibat dari penjajahan baru oleh sekelompok binatang yang berlagak menjadi tuan baru ke atas bangsa kita.   

                 Pada revolusi pertama, para pemimpin kita telah diperdaya oleh sekelompok para chauvanis jawa-majapahit agar bersatu mendirikan Ladang Binatang Indonesia. Setelah penjajah lari--seumpama Napoleon dan kerabat babinya yang mengkhianati amanat bersama para binatang lain--maka Soekarno dan nasionalis jawa-nya telah membuat bermacam deal politik dan ekonomi dengan Belanda untuk kemewahan pribadi dan kemakmuran kaumnya sendiri, dan mempertahankan basis ekonomi penjajah di Nusantara terutama di Sumatra. Sementara itu, pasukan anjingnya Soekarno di kirim ke Acheh dan wilayah lain di Sumatra untuk menakutkan rakyat di sana. Pada saat yang sama ia menghamburkan uang untuk berbagai projek besar di pulau Jawa, di samping mengawini sejumlah perempuan serta memelihara para gundik.

                 Sikap licik dan gaya babi hitam Napoleon juga tercermin dalam diri dan rejim Soeharto. Ketika seluruh sanak keluarga, kerabat dan bangsa jawanya menikmati kekayaan dari hasil alam Nusantara, yang seharusnya digunakan bagi kesejahteraan seluruh rakyat. Seperti bangsa babi yang menikmati hasil perjuangan dan kerja keras binatang lain, maka kaum jawa telah menikmati pelbagai kemudahan mulai dari jabatan di sektor pemerintahan sivil dan militer sampai kepada transmigrasi yang rumah, lahan dan makanan disediakan. Sebaliknya, sebagai hadiah untuk Acheh, si koruptor mengirimkan pasukan anjing untuk membunuh mereka yang berusaha menyuarakan keadilan, terutama di masa DOM. Para pemimpin serdadu anjing, yang mampu membunuh banyak nyawa, akan mendapat kenaikan pangkat, jabatan, dan limpahan kekayaan. Begitu pula kemudahan yang didapat oleh para penurut dan kolobrator dari jenis bangsa Acheh sendiri.

                 Jika kisah para binatang yang menghuni Ladang Binatang hanya menghadapi sekali pengkhianatan, bangsa kita telah mengalami serangkaian pengkhianatan. Mulai dari zaman Soekarno sampai ke Yudhoyono. Pasukan anjing telah berkali-kali dikirim untuk memangsa rakyat kita. Lalu bangsa kita sendiri bangkit dan mengajak untuk kembali berjuang, dan setelah itu rakyat kembali dikhianati. Bukti itu terpampang mulai dari revolusi Tgk Daud sampai ke Tgk Hasan,  di mana pengkhianatan terus berjalan.Masih terekam di setiap benak rakyat Acheh ketika aktivis seperti M. Nazar berkoar dengan air ludah yang berbuih sewaktu berlakon tentang perjuangan demi keadilan, kebebasan, demokrasi dan bersumpah memperjuangkan semua hak bangsa Acheh. Namun hanya beberapa tahun berselang, ketika kuasa berada di tangannya, maka dari mulut yang sama telah terdengar kata-kata yang begitu mudah menjadikan bangsanya sebagai pelaku kriminal tanpa keinginan untuk meneliti penyebab di balik aksi tersebut.

                 Di lain pihak, para petinggi GAM oligarkhi yang hidup dari darah dan keringat rakyat di masa perjuangan, kini persis seperti babi hitam Napoleon yang ditulis Orwell, bermewah dan berfoya-foya dan bekerja sama dengan golongan penindas. Sementara rakyat biasa dan bekas rekan seperjuangan hanya memakan angin dan mimpi. Malah tiada pembelaan yang didapat sekiranya mereka diterkam oleh pasukan anjing dan milisi, seperti apa yang terjadi di Atu Lintang.  Ketika mereka (bekas gerilyawan) mengambil jalan pintas akibat kecewa dan putus asa, para petinggi GAM oligarkhi telah menuduh mereka sebagai anti perdamaian, perampok dan penjahat. Sedangkan kesalahan atas kebijakan yang dibuat oleh para petinggi Oligarkhi, seperti takluk di Helsinki dan perkara dana reintegrasi yang sumbat, dengan mudah terlupakan. Lantas Squealer, atau Harmoko-Harmoko yang bekerja untuk Pimpinan GAM oligarkhi, masih terus menipu tanpa rasa malu, bahkan mereka masih mengaku memperjuangkan rakyat banyak dan kemerdekaan Acheh, sekalipun mereka telah 

menjadi budak penjajah.

***           

Hikmah lain dari kisah Ladang Binatang ini menjelaskan bahwa pada hakikatnya kekuasaan itu sangat berbahaya, apatah lagi jika ianya tidak terkawal. Hukum dan pelaksana hukum tidak berarti jika ia tidak diawasi. Kita memerlukan hukum, pelaksana, pengawal serta rakyat yang memantau hukum dan keseluruhan dari sistem kekuasaan. Unsur-unsur itulah yang alpa dalam kehidupan di Ladang Binatang maupun di ladang perjuang kita. Akibatnya, seperti apa yang terjadi terhadap penubuhan Ladang Indonesia, atau ketika Gerakan Acheh Merdeka mempunyai kuasa di Acheh, semuanya menjadi tidak terkontrol. Kesempatan itu telah dimanfaatkan oleh para tokoh licik seperti babi hitam Napoleon, untuk merebut kekuasaan dan menyingkirkan lawan politiknya, terutama yang jujur dan berpihak rakyat. Demikian pula yang terjadi ketika kudeta sunyi di puncak organisasi GAM. Semasa para tokoh yang telah bersama Dr. Hasan Tiro sejak awal gerakan itu, harus tersingkir oleh konspirasi ala babi hitam Napoleon, yang melibatkan Zaini dan Malik sebagai otak konspirator. Lalu kepemimpinan beralih pada kebijakan yang mengutamakan perkauman di atas kebersamaan. Dari perjuangan rakyat menjadi perjuangan kelompok dan keturunan. Mengambil gaya klasik Napoleon, dan Soeharto di masa kudeta 1965, para konspirator itu telah menuduh pengikut setia Dr. Hasan sebagai pengkhianat-MP. Langkah itu diikuti pada tingkat yang lebih 

rendah di Malaysia, dan di Acheh, yang membuat beratus nyawa bangsa kita melayang. Di bunuh oleh bangsanya sendiri secara menyedihkan akibat propaganda para konspirator dan pengikutnya.                           

                 Begitulah…Suatu perjuangan akan berakhir tragik apabila tidak diperkuat dengan ketulusan dan pengawasan bersama. Perjuangan memang senantiasa susah dan berat, tetapi bagi kita yang berhasrat untuk memberi yang terbaik kepada kehidupan kita sendiri dan generasi nanti, roda perjuangan tak boleh terhenti. Hanya ada dua patah kata untuk penindasan dan penjajahan: lawan dan lawan!

Pemanfaatan karakter hewan dalam sastra mendapat perhatian besar dalam novel terkenal, Animal Farm, karya George Orwell. Novel terbaik Orwell ini menceritakan kebrengsekan, kelicikan, keserakahan, kesombongan, dan kekejaman manusia dalam meraih kekuasaan dan kekayaan. Animal Farm merupakan bentuk modern dari cerita rakyat, sebab mencerminkan kondisi zaman modern pada abad ke-20 yang diwarnai dengan perang dan dekandensi moral manusia. Orwell memotret itu semua dalam bentuk novel yang kritis, penuh satir, dan menuntut kita untuk sadar diri. Dunia binatang dijadikan cerminan yang pasa untuk merekam situasi zaman, yang membutuhkan imajinasi dan kecerdasan tak sembarangan.
Konon, naskah Animal Farm itu sering ditolak oleh banyak penerbit. Akhirnya, ada sebuah penerbit mau menerbitkan naskah tersebut, tetapi digolongkan sebagai cerita dongeng, bukan novel. Masyarakat Eropa membacanya, kemudian tersentak, ternyata Animal Farm merupakan novel jenius tentang gambaran dunia Eropa. Orwell berhasil mengungkapkan ejekan-ejekan halus dan tajam pada sistem pemerintahan totaliter di Eropa. Masyarakat disadarkan oleh novel tersebut, yang sering dikatakan sebagai buku satir modern. Orwell sudah membuktikan, cerita hewan pada zaman modern masih laku, dan tetap memiliki relevansi dengan banyak masalah kehidupan kita.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown.

"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year."

"My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?"

"Then God bless youe!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons; "and may you find all well whn you come back."

"Amen!" cried Goodman Brown. "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee."

So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.

"Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 't would kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven."

With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose. He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

"There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree," said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!"

His head being turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and, looking forward again, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.

"You are late, Goodman Brown," said he. "The clock of the Old South was striking as I came through Boston, and that is full fifteen minutes agone."

"Faith kept me back a while," replied the young man, with a tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his companion, though not wholly unexpected.

It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveller was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither. But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light.

"Come, Goodman Brown," cried his fellow-traveller, "this is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary."

"Friend," said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full stop, "having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot'st of."

"Sayest thou so?" replied he of the serpent, smiling apart. "Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back. We are but a little way in the forest yet."

"Too far! too far!" exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk. "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept"

"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person, interpreting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake."

"If it be as thou sayest," replied Goodman Brown, "I marvel they never spoke of these matters; or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England. We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness."

"Wickedness or not," said the traveller with the twisted staff, "I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest. The governor and I, too--But these are state secrets."

"Can this be so?" cried Goodman Brown, with a stare of amazement at his undisturbed companion. "Howbeit, I have nothing to do with the governor and council; they have their own ways, and are no rule for a simple husbandman like me. But, were I to go on with thee, how should I meet the eye of that good old man, our minister, at Salem village? Oh, his voice would make me tremble both Sabbath day and lecture day."

Thus far the elder traveller had listened with due gravity; but now burst into a fit of irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violently that his snake-like staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy.

"Ha! ha! ha!" shouted he again and again; then composing himself, "Well, go on, Goodman Brown, go on; but, prithee, don't kill me with laughing."

"Well, then, to end the matter at once," said Goodman Brown, considerably nettled, "there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart; and I'd rather break my own."

"Nay, if that be the case," answered the other, "e'en go thy ways, Goodman Brown. I would not for twenty old women like the one hobbling before us that Faith should come to any harm."

As he spoke he pointed his staff at a female figure on the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin.

"A marvel, truly, that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at nightfall," said he. "But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have left this Christian woman behind. Being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going."

"Be it so," said his fellow-traveller. "Betake you to the woods, and let me keep the path."

Accordingly the young man turned aside, but took care to watch his companion, who advanced softly along the road until he had come within a staff's length of the old dame. She, meanwhile, was making the best of her way, with singular speed for so aged a woman, and mumbling some indistinct words--a prayer, doubtless--as she went. The traveller put forth his staff and touched her withered neck with what seemed the serpent's tail.

"The devil!" screamed the pious old lady.

"Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?" observed the traveller, confronting her and leaning on his writhing stick.

"Ah, forsooth, and is it your worship indeed?" cried the good dame. "Yea, truly is it, and in the very image of my old gossip, Goodman Brown, the grandfather of the silly fellow that now is. But--would your worship believe it?--my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage, and cinquefoil, and wolf's bane"

"Mingled with fine wheat and the fat of a new-born babe," said the shape of old Goodman Brown.

"Ah, your worship knows the recipe," cried the old lady, cackling aloud. "So, as I was saying, being all ready for the meeting, and no horse to ride on, I made up my mind to foot it; for they tell me there is a nice young man to be taken into communion to-night. But now your good worship will lend me your arm, and we shall be there in a twinkling."

"That can hardly be," answered her friend. "I may not spare you my arm, Goody Cloyse; but here is my staff, if you will."

So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi. Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveller alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.

"That old woman taught me my catechism," said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.

They continued to walk onward, while the elder traveller exhorted his companion to make good speed and persevere in the path, discoursing so aptly that his arguments seemed rather to spring up in the bosom of his auditor than to be suggested by himself. As they went, he plucked a branch of maple to serve for a walking stick, and began to strip it of the twigs and little boughs, which were wet with evening dew. The moment his fingers touched them they became strangely withered and dried up as with a week's sunshine. Thus the pair proceeded, at a good free pace, until suddenly, in a gloomy hollow of the road, Goodman Brown sat himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any farther.

"Friend," said he, stubbornly, "my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?"

"You will think better of this by and by," said his acquaintance, composedly. "Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along."

Without more words, he threw his companion the maple stick, and was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside, applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith! Amidst these pleasant and praiseworthy meditations, Goodman Brown heard the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable to conceal himself within the verge of the forest, conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so happily turned from it.

On came the hoof tramps and the voices of the riders, two grave old voices, conversing soberly as they drew near. These mingled sounds appeared to pass along the road, within a few yards of the young man's hiding-place; but, owing doubtless to the depth of the gloom at that particular spot, neither the travellers nor their steeds were visible. Though their figures brushed the small boughs by the wayside, it could not be seen that they intercepted, even for a moment, the faint gleam from the strip of bright sky athwart which they must have passed. Goodman Brown alternately crouched and stood on tiptoe, pulling aside the branches and thrusting forth his head as far as he durst without discerning so much as a shadow. It vexed him the more, because he could have sworn, were such a thing possible, that he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin, jogging along quietly, as they were wont to do, when bound to some ordination or ecclesiastical council. While yet within hearing, one of the riders stopped to pluck a switch.

"Of the two, reverend sir," said the voice like the deacon's, "I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night's meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwows, who, after their fashion, know almost as much deviltry as the best of us. Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion."

"Mighty well, Deacon Gookin!" replied the solemn old tones of the minister. "Spur up, or we shall be late. Nothing can be done, you know, until I get on the ground."

The hoofs clattered again; and the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed. Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him. Yet there was the blue arch, and the stars brightening in it.

"With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!" cried Goodman Brown.

While he still gazed upward into the deep arch of the firmament and had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward. Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a confused and doubtful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but never until now from a cloud of night There was one voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.

"Faith!" shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him, crying, "Faith! Faith!" as if bewildered wretches were seeking her all through the wilderness.

The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above Goodman Brown. But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.

"My Faith is gone!" cried he, after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given."

And, maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again, at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run. The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds--the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveller, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors.

"Ha! ha! ha!" roared Goodman Brown when the wind laughed at him.

"Let us hear which will laugh loudest. Think not to frighten me with your deviltry. Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself, and here comes Goodman Brown. You may as well fear him as he fear you."

In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown. On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him. The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of man. Thus sped the demoniac on his course, until, quivering among the trees, he saw a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of a clearing have been set on fire, and throw up their lurid blaze against the sky, at the hour of midnight. He paused, in a lull of the tempest that had driven him onward, and heard the swell of what seemed a hymn, rolling solemnly from a distance with the weight of many voices. He knew the tune; it was a familiar one in the choir of the village meeting-house. The verse died heavily away, and was lengthened by a chorus, not of human voices, but of all the sounds of the benighted wilderness pealing in awful harmony together. Goodman Brown cried out, and his cry was lost to his own ear by its unison with the cry of the desert.

In the interval of silence he stole forward until the light glared full upon his eyes. At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an alter or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze. As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once.

"A grave and dark-clad company," quoth Goodman Brown.

In truth they were such. Among them, quivering to and fro between gloom and splendor, appeared faces that would be seen next day at the council board of the province, and others which, Sabbath after Sabbath, looked devoutly heavenward, and benignantly over the crowded pews, from the holiest pulpits in the land. Some affirm that the lady of the governor was there. At least there were high dames well known to her, and wives of honored husbands, and widows, a great multitude, and ancient maidens, all of excellent repute, and fair young girls, who trembled lest their mothers should espy them. Either the sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscure field bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem village famous for their especial sanctity. Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived, and waited at the skirts of that venerable saint, his revered pastor. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints. Scattered also among their pale-faced enemies were the Indian priests, or powwows, who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft.

"But where is Faith?" thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came into his heart, he trembled.

Another verse of the hymn arose, a slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more. Unfathomable to mere mortals is the lore of fiends. Verse after verse was sung; and still the chorus of the desert swelled between like the deepest tone of a mighty organ; and with the final peal of that dreadful anthem there came a sound, as if the roaring wind, the rushing streams, the howling beasts, and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all. The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths above the impious assembly. At the same moment the fire on the rock shot redly forth and formed a glowing arch above its base, where now appeared a figure. With reverence be it spoken, the figure bore no slight similitude, both in garb and manner, to some grave divine of the New England churches.

"Bring forth the converts!" cried a voice that echoed through the field and rolled into the forest.

At the word, Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. He could have well-nigh sworn that the shape of his own dead father beckoned him to advance, looking downward from a smoke wreath, while a woman, with dim features of despair, threw out her hand to warn him back. Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the blazing rock. Thither came also the slender form of a veiled female, led between Goody Cloyse, that pious teacher of the catechism, and Martha Carrier, who had received the devil's promise to be queen of hell. A rampant hag was she. And there stood the proselytes beneath the canopy of fire.

"Welcome, my children," said the dark figure, "to the communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny. My children, look behind you!"

They turned; and flashing forth, as it were, in a sheet of flame, the fiend worshippers were seen; the smile of welcome gleamed darkly on every visage.

"There," resumed the sable form, "are all whom ye have reverenced from youth. Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshipping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households; how many a woman, eager for widows' weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her bosom; how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their fathers' wealth; and how fair damsels--blush not, sweet ones--have dug little graves in the garden, and bidden me, the sole guest to an infant's funeral. By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places--whether in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest--where crime has been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than this. It shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of sin, the fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly supplies more evil impulses than human power--than my power at its utmost--can make manifest in deeds. And now, my children, look upon each other."

They did so; and, by the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar.

"Lo, there ye stand, my children," said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race."

"Welcome," repeated the fiend worshippers, in one cry of despair and triumph.

And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in this dark world. A basin was hollowed, naturally, in the rock. Did it contain water, reddened by the lurid light? or was it blood? or, perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own. The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!

"Faith! Faith!" cried the husband, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one."

Whether Faith obeyed he knew not. Hardly had he spoken when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp; while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.

The next morning young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village, staring around him like a bewildered man. The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on Goodman Brown. He shrank from the venerable saint as if to avoid an anathema. Old Deacon Gookin was at domestic worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window. "What God doth the wizard pray to?" quoth Goodman Brown. Goody Cloyse, that excellent old Christian, stood in the early sunshine at her own lattice, catechizing a little girl who had brought her a pint of morning's milk. Goodman Brown snatched away the child as from the grasp of the fiend himself. Turning the corner by the meeting-house, he spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.

Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?

Be it so if you will; but, alas! it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. When the minister spoke from the pulpit with power and fervid eloquence, and, with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.