CAPTULO IX - Pag 31

In pursuance of this resolve, he took up his residence in the Puritan town as Roger Chillingworth, without other introduction than the learning and intelligence of which he possessed more than a common measure. As his studies, at a previous period of his life, had made him extensively acquainted with the medical science of the day, it was as a physician that he presented himself and as such was cordially received. Skilful men, of the medical and chirurgical profession, were of rare occurrence in the colony. They seldom, it would appear, partook of the religious zeal that brought other emigrants across the Atlantic. In their researches into the human frame, it may be that the higher and more subtle faculties of such men were materialised, and that they lost the spiritual view of existence amid the intricacies of that wondrous mechanism, which seemed to involve art enough to comprise all of life within itself. At all events, the health of the good town of Boston, so far as medicine had aught to do with it, had hitherto lain in the guardianship of an aged deacon and apothecary, whose piety and godly deportment were stronger testimonials in his favour than any that he could have produced in the shape of a diploma. The only surgeon was one who combined the occasional exercise of that noble art with the daily and habitual flourish of a razor. To such a professional body Roger Chillingworth was a brilliant acquisition. He soon manifested his familiarity with the ponderous and imposing machinery of antique physic; in which every remedy contained a multitude of far-fetched and heterogeneous ingredients, as elaborately compounded as if the proposed result had been the Elixir of Life. In his Indian captivity, moreover, he had gained much knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots; nor did he conceal from his patients that these simple medicines, Nature's boon to the untutored savage, had quite as large a share of his own confidence as the European Pharmacopoeia, which so many learned doctors had spent centuries in elaborating.
This learned stranger was exemplary as regarded at least the outward forms of a religious life; and early after his arrival, had chosen for his spiritual guide the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. The young divine, whose scholar-like renown still lived in Oxford, was considered by his more fervent irers as little less than a heavenly ordained apostle, destined, should he live and labour for the ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds, for the now feeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian faith. About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail. By those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was ed for by his too earnest devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and more than all, to the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp. Some declared, that if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet. He himself, on the other hand, with characteristic humility, avowed his belief that if Providence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth. With all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline, there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain.
Such was the young clergyman's condition, and so imminent the prospect that his dawning light would be extinguished, all untimely, when Roger Chillingworth made his advent to the town. His first entry on the scene, few people could tell whence, dropping down as it were out of the sky or starting from the nether earth, had an aspect of mystery, which was easily heightened to the miraculous. He was now known to be a man of skill; it was observed that he gathered herbs and the blossoms of wild-flowers, and dug up roots and plucked off twigs from the forest-trees like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless to common eyes. He was heard to speak of Sir Kenelm Digby and other famous men—whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural—as having been his correspondents or associates. Why, with such rank in the learned world, had he come hither? What, could he, whose sphere was in great cities, be seeking in the wilderness? In answer to this query, a rumour gained ground—and however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people—that Heaven had wrought an absolute miracle, by transporting an eminent Doctor of Physic from a German university bodily through the air and setting him down at the door of Mr. Dimmesdale's study! Individuals of wiser faith, indeed, who knew that Heaven promotes its purposes without aiming at the stage-effect of what is called miraculous interposition, were inclined to see a providential hand in Roger Chillingworth's so opportune arrival.

COMO el lector recordar, el nombre de Roger Chillingworth ocultaba otro nombre, cuyo antiguo poseedor haba resuelto que no se mencionara jams. Ya se ha referido que en medio de la muchedumbre que presenciaba el castigo ignominioso de Ester, un individuo de edad provecta, recin llegado de las tierras ocupadas por los indios, contempl de repente, expuesta a los ojos del pblico, como si fuera una imagen viviente del pecado, a la mujer en quien haba esperado hallar encarnados la alegra y el calor del hogar. La honra de su esposa la vea pisoteada por todos los circunstantes. Su infamia palpitaba all, en la plaza pblica. Si la noticia llegaba alguna vez a odos de los parientes y de las compaeras de infancia de aquella mujer, qu otra cosa les quedara sino el contagio de su deshonra, tanto mayor cuanto ms ntimas y sagradas hubieran sido sus relaciones de parentesco? Y en cuanto a l, cuyos lazos de unin con la mujer delincuente haban sido los ms estrechos y sagrados que puedan darse, por qu presentarse a reclamar una herencia tan poco apetecible? Resolvi, por lo tanto, no dejarse exponer en la picota de la infamia al lado de la que en un tiempo fue su esposa. Desconocido para todo el mundo, excepto para Ester, y poseyendo los medios de que sta guardara silencio, escogi borrar su nombre de la lista de los vivos, considerar completamente disueltos sus antiguos lazos e intereses, y, en una palabra, darse por segregado del mundo como si en realidad yaciera en el fondo del ocano, donde el rumor pblico hace mucho tiempo lo haba consignado. Una vez realizado este plan, surgiran inmediatamente nuevos intereses y a la vez un nuevo objeto a que consagrar su energa, tenebrosa, es verdad, y acaso criminal, pero de incentivo bastante absorbente para que dedicara a su realizacin toda la fuerza de sus facultades.
Para llevar a cabo este proyecto, fij su residencia en la ciudad puritana, bajo el nombre supuesto de Roger Chillingworth, sin otra recomendacin que sus conocimientos cientficos y su inteligencia, de que posea una suma no comn. Como los estudios que hizo en otros tiempos le haban familiarizado con la ciencia mdica del da, se present como fsico, y como tal fue cordialmente recibido. En la colonia eran muy raros los hombres hbiles en medicina o ciruga. La salud de los vecinos de la buena ciudad de Boston, por lo menos en lo que se refiere a la medicina, haba estado hasta entonces confiada a la tutela de un anciano dicono y farmacutico, cuya piedad y rectitud eran testimonios ms convincentes en favor suyo, que los que podra haber presentado bajo la forma de un diploma en regla. El nico cirujano era un individuo que una al ejercicio casual de esa noble profesin, el manejo diario y habitual de la navaja de afeitar.
Para semejante cuerpo facultativo fue Roger Chillingworth una adquisicin brillante. Pronto manifest su familiaridad con la ponderosa e imponente maquinaria de la antigua medicina, en la que cada remedio contena una multitud de extraordinarios y heterogneos ingredientes, compuestos con tanto trabajo y esmero como si se tratara de obtener el Elixir de Vida. Durante su cautiverio entre los indios, haba adquirido un notable conocimiento de las propiedades de las hierbas y races indgenas; ni ocult a sus pacientes que estas simples medicinas, que la sabia naturaleza haba dado a conocer al inculto salvaje, merecan su confianza en el mismo grado que la farmacopea de los europeos, en cuya formacin se haban empleado tantos siglos y tantos sabios doctores.
Era este erudito extranjero una persona ejemplar, por lo menos en cuanto a las formas externas de la religin, y poco despus de su llegada a la colonia escogi al Reverendo Sr. Dimmesdale como gua espiritual. El joven eclesistico, que haba hecho sus estudios en la Universidad de Oxford, donde se conservaba su memoria con respeto, era tenido por sus ms ardientes iradores casi como un apstol consagrado por el cielo y destinado, si poda trabajar y vivir el trmino ordinario de la existencia humana, a hacer mucho en beneficio de la Iglesia de la Nueva Inglaterra. En el perodo en que estamos de nuestra historia, su salud, sin embargo, haba empezado evidentemente a decaer. Aquellos que estaban ms familiarizados con los hbitos y costumbres de Dimmesdale, crean que la palidez de sus mejillas era el resultado de su celo intenso por el estudio, del escrupuloso cumplimiento de sus deberes religiosos, y ms que todo de los ayunos y vigilias que con tanta frecuencia practicaba para impedir que la materia terrenal obscureciera o disminuyese el brillo de su lmpara espiritual. Algunos declaraban que si el Sr. Dimmesdale estaba realmente a punto de morir tan joven, consista en que el mundo no era digno de ser hollado por sus pies. Por otra parte, l mismo, con caracterstica humildad, deca que si la Providencia juzgaba conveniente llevrselo de este mundo, sera a causa de su poco mrito para desempear la ms humilde misin en la tierra. Pero a pesar de la divergencia de opiniones en el particular, lo cierto era que su salud estaba muy quebrantada. Haba adelgazado mucho; su voz, aunque todava sonora y dulce, tena cierta melanclica expresin de decaimiento; con frecuencia se le vea, al menor ruido o accidente de poca importancia, llevarse la mano al corazn, con una sbita rubicundez del rostro, seguida de palidez, indicio de dolor.
Tal era el estado del joven Dimmesdale, y tan inminente el peligro de que se extinguiera esa naciente luz del mundo, antes de tiempo, cuando Roger Chillingworth lleg a la ciudad. Su primera entrada en escena, sin que se supiera de dnde vena, si era cado del cielo o si proceda de las regiones inferiores, le daba cierto aspecto de misterio, que fcilmente se convirti en algo casi milagroso. Se saba que era un hombre hbil e inteligente; se haba observado que recoga hierbas y flores silvestres, que arrancaba races, que cortaba ramas de los rboles del bosque, como persona familiarizada con las ocultas virtudes de lo que no tena ningn valor a los ojos del vulgo. Se le haba odo hablar de Sir Kenelm Digby y de otros hombres famosos, cuyos conocimientos en asuntos cientficos se consideraban casi sobrenaturales, con quienes se haba asociado o tenido correspondencia. Por qu, ocupando tan alto puesto en el mundo de la ciencia, haba venido a la colonia? Qu podra buscar en un pas semisalvaje este hombre cuya esfera de accin estaba en las grandes ciudades? En respuesta a esta pregunta, empez entonces a circular un rumor,—al que, por absurdo que fuera, hasta personas sensatas le daban crdito. Se deca que el cielo haba operado un verdadero milagro transportando por el aire, desde una Universidad de Alemania, a un eminente Doctor en Medicina, depositndolo a la puerta del estudio del Sr. Dimmesdale. Personas mucho ms sensatas en materias de fe, y que saban que el cielo alcanza sus fines sin lo que se llama intervencin milagrosa, se hallaban inclinadas a ver algo providencial en la llegada tan oportuna de Roger Chillingworth.